20, January 2023

Yaoundé: Journalist Martinez Zogo abducted by unidentified men ⁰

In response to news reports that unidentified individuals kidnapped Cameroonian journalist Martinez Zogo Tuesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement calling for a fast and thorough investigation into his whereabouts:

“The recent abduction of Cameroonian journalist Martinez Zogo is deeply concerning, and authorities must do everything in their power to find him at once,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “Authorities must take this case very seriously given Zogo’s recent investigative reporting, and ensure that those responsible for his disappearance are brought to justice.”

At about 8 p.m. on Tuesday, January 17, unidentified men abducted Zogo, editor-in-chief of the privately owned radio broadcaster Amplitude FM, near his home in the capital city of Yaoundé, according to those reports and Aristide Ekambi, the secretary-general of the National Union of Cameroonian Journalists, who spoke to CPJ by phone. Zogo’s car was found ransacked and abandoned, according to those sources.

Neighbors had seen unidentified men outside Zogo’s home several nights before his abduction, and the brakes on the journalist’s wife’s vehicle were recently tampered with, according to those reports, which said she was in an accident two days before her husband’s disappearance.

Zogo hosts a popular daily show on Amplitude FM, where he recently commented on alleged embezzlement in public-sector procurement that benefitted a prominent businessman. He also sent a dossier to several institutions and media outlets about those allegations, according to those sources.

Zogo served a two-month prison sentence for criminal defamation in 2020, as CPJ documented at the time.

Culled from CPJ

20, January 2023

Factors that will continue to shape the Cameroonian remittance market in 2023 ⁰

In the last decade, the cross-border remittance market has undergone tremendous changes evolving from traditional offerings to much faster, easier and safer payment methods, thanks to digital disruptors.

With the rise of globalization and migration, followed by the demand for cross-border payments solutions, fintech organizations’ have changed the landscape by developing digitally enabled solutions for their consumers.

The shift is positively impacting the financial industry and improving the lives of millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the first-half 2022, remittance inflows in Cameroon, via WorldRemit, totaled £75 million GBP, boosted by the rapid need for digital remittances worldwide following the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2023, it is projected the remittance industry will continue to evolve with innovation in the fintech sector at a quick pace. This will take place amidst an increasingly challenging economic environment with a continued increase in the cost of living and inflation across the globe.

With these factors in mind, remittance expert Imane Charioui, Director of Francophone Africa and Middle East, WorldRemit, shares some insights on what to expect in the Cameroonian remittance market in 2023.

Cashless transactions and mobile money

Mobile technology is a global game changer for remittances because it removes the need for costly brick-and-mortar branches. In Cameroon, digital infrastructure has evolved considerably with mobile acting as a key enabler and the primary channel for connectivity. For instance, the mobile population coverage rate for 2G is 96%, 85% for 3G and 53% for 4G.

In 2020 the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) revealed that Cameroon alone held 64.8% of all active accounts of The Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC). This accounted for almost three times the number of mobile money accounts held by the Congolese (7.1 million) and almost ten times the number of accounts held by the Gabonese (2.7 million).

Additionally, Cameroon also confirmed its leadership over CEMAC’s electronic payment market by recording the highest number of transactions at 73.13%.

The increased public engagement with technology, and uptake of digital tools, are positive steps for Cameroon’s growing digital economy and the future of its fintech ecosystem in 2023.

Increased use of Money Transfer Operators (MTOs)

As online money transfer tools become more and more a part of people’s lifestyles, online money transfers will continue to grow steadily in 2023. However, the likelihood of further adverse international developments persisting into 2023 is high and the pace of remittance flows to Sub-Saharan Africa may ease to 3.9% from the 16.4% advance of 2021.

This is due to the economic outlook dimming and real wages expected to contract in the United States, and Europe where higher inflation is expected to impact areas that Cameroonian migrants reside. However, food affordability and the deterioration of real incomes across African states still indicate the need for financial support from diaspora.

As such, MTOs such as WorldRemit will continue to provide essential services to many Cameroonian families in need. ”At WorldRemit, 90 percent of money transferred to Cameroon is sent within minutes. This eliminates long wait times and complexities of traditional remittance processes. The recipients secure their money through WorldRemit’s suite of options designed for different services such as via trusted banks, mobile money, and cash pick-up locations,” said Imane.

MTOs will continue to help communities in different countries connect with their loved ones through financial support. Remittances are the backbone of many developing nations’ economies, and MTOs will keep playing their part in increasing the remittance flow.

Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) for WorldRemit

20, January 2023

Menchum Division: Yaoundé deploys troops after Amba fighters, herders clash ⁰

Cameroon’s government deployed at least 100 troops Wednesday to Gayama, a village on the border with Nigeria, after clashes between Cameroonian separatists and Nigerian herders left at least 12 people dead.

Cameroonian officials say the fighting broke out six days ago, after herders who crossed the border in search of food for their cattle refused to pay taxes the rebels demanded.

Abdoulahi Aliou, the highest-ranking government official in Menchum, the administrative unit in charge of Gayama, said the rebels killed two herders immediately upon their refusal to pay. The surviving herders, who are ethnic Fulani from Taraba and Benue states, returned home and organized a counterattack.

Aliou said the herders came back in huge numbers, attacked separatist camps, and killed at least four fighters. Six civilians, including the traditional ruler of Munkep village and his son, were also killed in the clashes.

Authorities say at least 20 civilians were injured, scores of cattle were killed, and homes were torched.

The Roman Catholic Church in Menchum says many civilians fled Gayama and neighboring villages to avoid getting caught in clashes between separatists and the arriving troops.

The governor of Cameroon’s Northwest region, Deben Tchoffo, said civilians should not fear the military. Speaking by telephone from the region’s capital, Bamenda, he said villagers should help the troops by denouncing rebels hiding in their communities.

“The future is bright, provided we are united against the agents of chaos that are trying to hijack our youths,” Tchoffo said. “The armed forces are bringing themselves close to the population. That is the reason why, compared to last year, things are becoming more and more normal in the Northwest region, even if we still have some hotspots.”

Tchoffo said Cameroon’s military would protect civilians in all border villages.

Separatists on social media, including WhatsApp and Facebook, acknowledged they have been battling Nigerian herders, who they say should respect their orders.

This is not the first time Cameroon’s anglophone separatists have attacked Nigerians along the border.

Last June, villagers in western Akwaya town said armed men believed to be rebels carried out a series of attacks that killed at least 30 people, including five Nigerian merchants.

The separatists have been fighting since 2017 to carve out an English-speaking state from French-speaking majority Cameroon.

The U.N. says the conflict has left more than 3,500 people dead and 750,000 displaced.

Source: VOA

19, January 2023

For Nigerian priest burned to death, it wasn’t his first brush with terror ⁰

For a Nigerian priest who was shot and burned to death Jan. 15 by Islamic terrorists inside his own rectory, it was hardly his first brush with violent anti-Christian persecution in Africa’s most populous nation.

Father Isaac Achi, who was murdered at 3:00 a.m. at Ss. Peter and Paul Parish in Niger State, had previously been the pastor at another parish outside the capital city of Abuja which was the site of a Christmas Day bombing in 2011, which left 44 people dead and at least 60 injured.

Responsibility for that attack was claimed by Boko Haram, Nigeria’s home-grown Islamic insurgency which is believed to be responsible for 35,000 deaths since it began its violent campaign aimed at establishing an Islamic caliphate in the country.

In response to the threats, Achi continuously preached a non-violent message.

In a homily delivered during a memorial service for victims of the attack at St. Teresa’s Church in Madalla, an Abuja suburb, Achi urged Christians “to learn to forgive those who deliberately hurt them.”

“Those who perpetrate evil against the state and innocent citizens require prayers from Christian faithful,” he said that day.

Two years later, Achi was kidnapped by a militant group operating in the Madalla area, but released later the same day.

In that context, Achi’s violent death a decade later seems a tragically predictable end to a life spent on the front lines of Nigeria’s increasingly perilous environment for Christians and their clergy.

Achi was one of two priests inside Ss. Peter and Paul Church when a band of roughly 15 armed men arrived Sunday. The other, Father Collins Omeh, sustained gunshot wounds while making his escape, and later recounted what happened.

According to Omeh, the gunmen arrived shouting “Allahu Akbar” and confronted him in his living quarters, demanding that he lead them through a hole in roof to Achi. Eventually, he said, they gained access to Achi’s quarters and held both priests at gunpoint.

During that time, Omeh said, the two priests prayed together and heard one another’s confessions. Afterwards Achi urged Omeh to try to escape, taking a gunshot wound to his chest while Omeh was shot in the shoulder while successfully getting away. This angered gunmen then set the rectory on fire, leaving Achi to die from his wounds, the flames, or both.

Omeh said it took local police hours to arrive on the scene, despite being called several times. Christian leaders in Muslim-dominated northern Nigeria say such delays are routine in responding to their reports of violent attacks.

Achi’s death comes amid a spate of violence in Nigeria, in which hundreds of Christians have been killed or kidnapped by Boko Haram and other Islamist sects. For many Nigerian Christians, the incident once again raises the question of why are the country’s security agencies are seemingly unable to successful combat the terrorists.

Some claim that security agencies are actually complicit in the violence, because they are profiting from it and that the “Islamization agenda” suits them because the agencies are dominated and run by the same Hausa and Fulani ethnic groups which dominate Boko Haram and other Islamist movements.

Just before Achi’s murder, representatives of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria visited President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.

During the meeting, the bishops told Buhari, a Muslim and former army colonel who ran on anti-corruption platform and pledges of law and order, that “our church personnel have been frequent victims in terms of kidnapping or outright murder.”

“The Owo – Ondo State Catholic Church massacre on Pentecost Sunday, June 5, 2022, [which claimed 40 lives], is still very fresh in our hearts,” the bishops said.

Nigeria is scheduled to hold elections for the national Presidency, Vice Presidency, Senate, and House of Representatives on Feb. 23, with state-level voting to follow on March 11. Security is expected to be a major issue in all these races.

Source: Crux

19, January 2023

Archbishop Nkea says Anglophones are weary of war ⁰

After more than six years of war pitting his country’s English-speaking minority against its French-speaking majority, Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Bamenda in Cameroon says the Anglophones are weary of the conflict.

“Our people are tired of the war, and our people need peace,” Nkea said January 14.

“In the northwest and southwest regions of our country, we have seen Cameroonians exhibit wickedness against fellow Cameroonians: Homes burned, schools shut down, the destruction of goods and obstruction of the circulation of people and goods…we have seen Cameroonians torture other Cameroonians,” he said.

Nkea was speaking in the St. Anne and Joachim Cathedral in Abang, Ebolowa, in Cameroon’s southern region, during a closing Mass of the 46th annual seminar of Cameroon Catholic Bishops.

In the presence of some thirty bishops from all five ecclesiastical provinces in Cameroon, as well as representatives of bishops from neighboring Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, along with several government Ministers, Nkea spoke at length about the conflict that has so far left at least 6,000 people dead.

Over a million others have been forced to flee from their homes, and more than 70,000 others have sought refuge in Nigeria, according to the International Crisis Group.

Conflict erupted in 2016 when English-speaking teachers and lawyers took to the streets to protest, amid perceptions that the educational and legal systems in the two Anglophone regions were being overwhelmed by French-speakers with scant knowledge of local realities.

The government took a hard line, and what was initially a peaceful protest mutated into a political crisis. A separatist movement developed and took up arms demanding independence for Cameroon’s English speakers, and the formation of a new state to be called “Ambazonia.”

According to many analysts, the current conflict is a consequence of Cameroon’s colonial legacy. Initially colonized by Germany following the Berlin Conference of 1884, the country would be divided between Britain and France following World War 1.

France claimed four-fifths of the country in the post-war settlement, while Britain was given one-fifth which it administered as part of Nigeria. The two colonial powers would administer the two parts of the country, first as a League of Nations Mandate and then as an United Nations Trust Territory.

In 1960, the French part of Cameroon got its independence to become “La Republique du Cameroun.” The English-speaking part of Cameroon, otherwise known as the British Cameroons, got theirs in 1961, but both sides decided to reunite following a February 11, 1961, plebiscite.

The political elites of the two territories agreed on the formation of a federal State, with considerable autonomy for the English-speaking regions.

In 1972, however, then-President Ahmadou Ahidjo organized a controversial referendum, dissolving the federal structure of the state and replacing it with a united republic. In 1984, President Paul Biya removed the word “united” from the name of the state and Cameroon became known simply as “The Republic of Cameroon,” the name the French-speaking part of the country had adopted at independence.

Cameroon’s English-speakers saw this as an act of assimilation, and the 2016 uprising was therefore the culmination of decades of pent-up frustrations.

While the country’s Catholic bishops, especially from Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, have long called for a revision of what they see as these historical injustices, Nkea believes that everything should be done for peace to return.

“We are inspired by what we have seen in the last six years in some regions of our country,” Nkea said.

“One of the greatest negative effects of war among us is that we lose the fear of the Lord and respect for authority,” the cleric said. He said once people don’t have the fear of the Most High in them, “it is difficult to live in peace.”

The archbishop said the country’s bishops will never rest until hostilities are brought to an end.

“As we leave Ebolowa, we are determined, as individuals and as a conference, to continue working for peace, reconciliation and justice, convinced that these will bring sustainable harmony to our country.”

He then warned against efforts at political manipulation of the church.

“The Catholic Church isn’t a political party where anyone can militate according to its political manifesto,” the cleric said.

“The Catholic Church is the mystical body of Christ,” he noted and explained that both clergy and laity “must make Christ present in our world and in different societies.”

It is only when Christ is present in the different communities and in each individual, the archbishop argued, that there can be peace in the world.

“We have prayed for peace in our entire country, hoping that all the problems we are having will be resolved, and our people will once again live in peace.”

Source: Crux

19, January 2023

Peace Corps Celebrates 60th Anniversary of Service in Cameroon ⁰

On Friday, January 13, Peace Corps celebrated 60 years of service in Cameroon in a ceremony at the Palais des Congrès in Yaoundé with the U.S. Ambassador to Cameroon Christopher J. Lamora, and the Peace Corps Country Director Kristina Nicole Séne. As part of the 60th anniversary commemoration, the Ministers of Public Service and Administrative Reform Joseph Le, Secondary Education Pauline Nalova Lyonga, and the Minister Delegate to the Minister of External Relations in charge of relations with Commonwealth Felix Mbayu launched a photograph exhibition of Peace Corps’ 60 years of partnership with the Government of Cameroon.

The event also marked the return of Volunteers to Cameroon after nearly two and a half years of absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ambassador Lamora administered the oath of service to nine new Peace Corps Volunteers, stating that “Peace Corps embodies the best of America: Service to others in the pursuit of peace and development. The work you do is so very important and demonstrates the ongoing spirit of cooperation between the Cameroonian and American peoples.” Since arriving in late October, the new volunteers have attended an intensive eleven-week cultural, language, and vocational training before being sworn in. Volunteers will work in health centers and with agricultural groups in the Center, Littoral, and South regions of Cameroon.

Distributed by APO Group

19, January 2023

Yaoundé: Biya Govt plans major road investments in 2023 ⁰

The Cameroonian government plans to spend CFA2 billion on 57 technical studies for roads, freeways, expressways, and engineering works throughout FY2023. The information was reported in a recent statement by the Ministry of Public Works.

In detail, 11 studies concern the control of works and the remaining 46 are construction and rehabilitation studies. The Ministry specified that 24 studies are underway, 20 others involving contracts are in the process of being closed or terminated, and 2 others are force account works.

For the specific case of studies whose contracts are in the process of being closed or terminated, we learned, there are four studies of freeways and expressways, six road construction studies, four studies of the construction of engineering infrastructures, and six studies of rehabilitation of roads and engineering infrastructures.

Source: Business in Cameroon

19, January 2023

The West, debt and other takeaways from Chinese Foreign Minister’s Africa trip ⁰

China’s new Foreign Minister Qin Gang wrapped up his first international tour to Africa this week, during which he visited five diverse countries — Ethiopia, Gabon, Benin, Angola and Egypt — and stressed that China does not see the continent as an arena for a power struggle between the West and Beijing.

“Africa should be a big stage for the international cooperation, not an arena for major-force rivalry,” Qin, who was previously ambassador to the United States, said at a press conference on his first stop, in Addis Ababa.

“The China-United States relationship should not be about a competitive one or a zero-sum game that enlarges one’s own gain at the expense of the other,” he said. “Otherwise, it will only hurt both sides and even the world.”

For more than three decades it’s been a tradition that the top Chinese diplomat’s first foreign trip is to Africa. President Xi Jinping, who’s entering his second decade in power, has invested heavily in the continent through his Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, which has expanded since its initial inception and includes Chinese investments in projects that build land and sea trade routes to continents around the world.

Some analysts say the U.S. is now playing catch-up with China in Africa, a resource-rich region with a growing population. In December, U.S. President Joe Biden hosted a summit of African leaders in Washington, and the past year has seen a flurry of visits to the continent by top U.S. officials.

“I think America has politically prioritized Africa at a later stage in the contemporary game than what China has. … Is America late to the game? It’s certainly later than China,” said Lauren Johnston, a China-Africa researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs.

Ethiopia

In Addis Ababa, the seat of the African Union, Qin opened the new Chinese-built $80 million African Centers for Disease Control — part of China’s “health silk road” — to great fanfare.

It was originally envisioned as a collaboration between the U.S., China and Africa. But relations between Washington and Beijing soured under the Trump administration, with the U.S. voicing concerns about the risk of China spying and stealing genomic data. Beijing called the allegations “ridiculous.”

The Trump administration also pulled the U.S. out of the World Health Organization. The three-country partnership for the African CDC collapsed and the agreement was recrafted as one between China and the African Union.

Paul Nantulya, research associate at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, told VOA the inauguration of the building was “a very important message that China was sending about China’s commitment to infectious-disease control on the continent — so a big diplomatic win there.”

Ethiopia was also an important stop for the ambassador, Nantulya noted, because the two-year war in Tigray has been detrimental to Chinese business interests and hundreds of Chinese workers had to be evacuated. Beijing had even tried its hand at a peacemaker role, though it was the African Union that eventually secured a cease-fire late last year. During his trip, Qin pledged support for reconstruction efforts now underway in the region.

Ethiopia is highly indebted to China, owing $13.7 billion, and it was reported during the visit that Qin announced a partial forgiveness of the debt. The amount of forgiven debt was undisclosed.

“There was no publication of what was agreed in terms of debt relief. There was just talk of debt relief, and China has a tradition of having only offered debt relief for non-interest-paying loans, which are very small,” Johnston said. “If it’s something much more than just interest-free loans, then it could be much bigger and important.”

The West has frequently accused China of practicing “debt trap diplomacy” by trying to gain leverage over indebted developing countries. Qin rejected that in Addis Ababa, asserting that “China has always been committed to helping Africa ease its debt burden.”

He said China actively participated in the Group of 20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative, signed agreements or reached agreements with 19 African countries on debt relief and suspended the most debt service payments among G-20 members.

Increasing engagement

Qin’s visit to Gabon and Benin surprised some China watchers, but Nantulya said it was part of China’s increasing engagement with Francophone West Africa.

He noted that China is currently building — as it did for the African Union in Addis Ababa — the new Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) headquarters.

In Benin, Qin said, “My proposal is that we work together to promote synergy between Benin’s strategic development plan and the Belt and Road Initiative … in order to identify more fields of action and growth rates for our cooperation. I am thinking for example of infrastructure, agriculture, human resources training, manufacturing, and peace and security.”

In Luanda, Qin marked the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Angola.

“Angola is a critically important security partner of China, but at the same time also highly indebted. About 40% of Angola’s debt is owed to China, so the source of discussions that Ambassador Qin must have had in Ethiopia, he must have had the same discussions with the Angolan government,” surmised Nantulya.

Egypt is strategically important to China because of the Suez Canal and its numerous investments there, including in the new administrative capital being built outside Cairo. Besides meeting with Egyptian government officials, Qin held meetings with the Arab League.

At a press conference afterward, he addressed the Israel-Palestinian conflict, saying Israel should “stop all incitements and provocations, and should refrain from any unilateral action that may lead to the deterioration of the situation.”

Johnston said the hard tone of Qin’s comments was somewhat surprising and may signal that he’ll be a different kind of foreign minister than his predecessors.

“When he was ambassador to the U.S., he was known for being somewhat strident in some of his statements,” said Johnston. “Maybe’s he’s come away from the U.S. with his own perspective from engaging in those policy circles … maybe he has some quite different angles and views on global diplomacy based even on that.”

Source: VOA

17, January 2023

Agbor Clarisse Death: Studying in Ghana can be deadly ⁰

When Agbor Clarisse Enoetie left her University hostel in Kumasi to Accra to attend a music concert, her mates knew it was business as usual. She reportedly disappeared on her way back to Kumasi.

Her family in Cameroon placed their faith in the Ghanaian police to find her. An investigation was opened and later it became a recovery mission!

It is extremely difficult to describe the pain Clarisse Enoetie’s family is suffering after the ex-Saker Baptist College jewel was murdered four academic years after arriving in Ghana to study medicine.

Students like Agbor Clarisse and her family aren’t being properly informed on the potential dangers they face before setting out on what should be life-enhancing journeys.

Clarisse Enoetie is known to always make good decisions! The trip to Accra wasn’t her’s! To be more accurate, it was unlike her.

Cameroon Concord News Group gathered that in Ghana, foreign students are regularly being targeted, drugged, kidnapped, killed, raped, taken to unsafe places, placed in unsafe homes, and placed in unsafe vehicles on unsafe roads.

We of the Concord Group have also discovered that there is no Cameroon government agency, credentialing organization, or institution attached to the Ministry of Higher Education that keeps track of deaths or injuries during study abroad.

With the number of Cameroonian students studying abroad growing every year, safeguards are now essential.

Cameroonian students are new to travel particularly to other African countries and they need to know that it’s a different world out there.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

17, January 2023

Zangaléwa: Founder and lead singer, dies at 71 ⁰

Jean Paul Zé Bella from the Zangalewa group passed away on Sunday, January 15, 2023.

According to reports, Zangalewa’s group’s founder and leader, who is well known for the hit song “Zamina Mina Mina,” passed away from lung cancer. He was 71 years old.

Zé Bella died in the military hospital in Yaoundé, the nation’s capital.

Artist-musician Johnny Tezano claimed that Zé Bella had been battling lung cancer for several years. The news was also confirmed by various other artists online.

Who was Jean Paul Zé Bella

Ze Bella was the music artist of the band of the famous song Zamina mina (Zangaléwa)”. It is a 1986 hit song, sung by a Makossa group from Cameroon.

He was the famous author of Waka Waka. It was remixed by Shakira, the Waka Waka, the Official 2010 FIFA World Cup Song.

Ze Bella was the leader of the defunct group. He declared that while they were proud that a “world music icon” Shakira had remixed their song as the World Cup anthem, they nonetheless expected to be properly credited and adequately compensated.

Ze Bella Cause of Death

Ze Bella cause of death was lung cancer. Singer and drummer, Ze Bella who was born on 23 July 1952 in Sangmélima, Cameroon sadly passed away. He was a member of the Golden Sounds group.

Zamina mina (Zangaléwa) was the famous song released by Golden Sounds group. Following the widespread success, the group changed its name to Zangaléwa as a result of the song’s popularity.

During World War II, the majority of the band members served in the Cameroonian Army.

Source: Ngnews247