Police in Yaoundé have arrested several people who held up Franck Biya posters during President Emmanuel Macron visit on Wednesday July 27.

A senior Cameroon government official contacted by Cameroon Concord News but who sued for anonymity said that holding up the Franck Biya posters demonstrated absolute disrespect for the 89-year-old head of state President Biya.

Our source added that the posters had nothing to do with right to freedom of expression which is guaranteed by the Constitution and the law on freedom to express an opinion in public.

The so-called Franck Biya supporters now in police dragnet include Tchouta Marthe Marguerite, Mengan Même Marc Aurélien, Anyouzoa Mbida Éric Arcene- an Accountant at the Central Regional Office, Belinga Obama, Ayissi Robert- a Divisional Delegate at the Centre Region, Nkoumou Jean Chanel, Atangana Assembe Norbert Hermann-Divisional Delegate from Nyon & Foumou, Abafack Marc Berthol, Akoa Marie Christelle, Ntsama Mpega Christian and Sandjock Yves.

A police officer leading the investigation was quoted as saying “political thuggery has no place on the streets of Yaoundé”  but he refused to confirm if Franck Biya, the president’s eldest son will be summoned for questioning on the matter after he was seen sharing a conversation with visiting French President Emmanuel Macron.

Many Francophone opposition figures have described the Franck Biya posters as “utterly shameful“.

By Rita Akana

The Chairman of the Cameroon Concord News Group has said that the 89-year-old President Biya and his Beti Ewondo kinsmen will be thrown into the dustbin of history if they do not change course and hand over power to a moderate Southern Cameroonian.

The Right Hon. Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai made the remarks on Tuesday while watching the Biya-Macron presser in Yaoundé.

“Biya’s muscles are all gone and the dream of portraying the 89-year-old as a strong and healthy person is fast turning into a nightmare” he said.

“Biya cannot walk, he cannot hear, he struggles to even talk and has lost control of himself. He is at the mercy of the kleptocrats and his young and foolish wife who are putting up a façade of happiness and satisfaction with the old man’s dismal performance”  Agbaw-Ebai said, adding, “If Biya and his gang persist with their behavior, abject failure awaits them all and they will be thrown into the dustbin of history.”

The Chairman who also moonlights as Editor-In-Chief of the Concord Group warned Yaoundé to be mindful of their mistakes and errors, saying, “If they continue with the war in Southern Cameroons for just one more year, it will cut off their hands.”

Biya’s collaborators have always projected him as the strong man, ordained by God to be eternal not only on earth but also on the throne, but the last years have proven that eternity here on earth is simply a mirage and that no man, including Paul Biya, born of a woman, will ever be physically eternal in a world nobody really understands. Biya’s end is near and there is nothing anybody can do.

For more than five years now, Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, has seen his energy waning. Though he seems to believe his own lies that he is still energetic, many events have continued to remind him that time is running out for him.

Cameroonians have seen him struggle to walk, talk and when he dares to walk; he trembles like a 7-month baby who wants to try his luck at walking.

As his energy levels decline, so too do his muscles fall apart and that makes it hard for his clothes to fit him.

Not long ago, his own trouser sought to take French leave of him during an event where there were thousands of guests at the Unity Palace.

The humiliation was huge. His wife, Chantal Biya, who doubles as a live-in care-giver, is permanently on the watch when she is in public with the aging and ailing Biya. She knows something bizarre might happen anytime as the tired 89-year-old president is gradually losing his mind and his physique, which once gave him the looks of an Adonis.

The Unity Palace event wherein his trousers dropped to the floor left Mrs Biya with a pink face. It was a day Chantal Biya wanted to demonstrate that her husband was still alive and strong, but nature had an unpleasant surprise for her and it came in a way she least expected.

By Chi Prudence Asong

When the French president, Emmanuel Macron, landed in Yaoundé, Cameroon, on Monday for a two-day visit, France’s puppet leaders across Africa were assured of one thing: Françafrique is back. The question is what this means for the future of millions.

The answer – and Macron’s legacy – is more repression, more coups, more corruption, more violence, more suffering and, ultimately, more refugees and migrants making dangerous journeys to Europe in search of safety. It will also mean the further incursion of Russia and China, which highlight European colonial crimes even as they ramp up their own influence.

Born after the independence of France’s former colonies in Africa, Macron presents himself as the antithesis to Françafrique – the doctrine that dictates the terms of governance in former French colonies, by military force if necessary – or, as I see it, Colonisation 2.0.

Rather than abolish it, Macron reformed the colonial CFA franc – originally franc des colonies françaises d’Afrique – a currency still printed in France and used by 14 African countries. It will be renamed the Eco by 2027, sparking accusations of neo-colonisation, including by Italy’s then-deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio.

To regain credibility, Macron agreed to return some of the African artefacts looted under colonialism in French museums, and to declassify secret files on the assassination in 1987 of Burkina Faso’s anti-colonial leader Thomas Sankara. He commissioned a report that criticised the former French president François Mitterrand over actions around the Rwandan genocide, agreed to return the skulls of 24 Algerian resistance fighters taken to France in the 19th century as trophies, and – as the diplomatic lead for all things related to French-speaking Africa at the UN security council – Macron also pledged to stand up for democracy and protect human rights.

Yet Macron’s first foreign trip outside Europe since re-election in April will see him meet Paul Biya, an 89-year-old despot who has been in power since Macron was five years old.

Over the weekend the Élysée Palace said Macron was meeting Biya not to find a solution to Cameroon’s anglophone crisis, which has seen separatist militias and government forces committing human rights abuses with impunity for the past five years, but to discuss the food crisis caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, agriculture and security issues.

Notably absent from the Élysée’s reasons for the visit are Biya’s human rights abuses, including the persecution of LGBT people.

No justification for Macron’s visit can erase the fact that Paris is still the bedrock for Françafrique and its puppets – such as Alassane Ouattara, in Ivory Coast; Ali Bongo Ondimba, in Gabon; Faure Gnassingbé, in Togo; Gen Mahamat Déby, in Chad; Denis Sassou Nguesso, in Congo-Brazzaville; as well as Biya – that France shelters under its security and diplomatic umbrella despite their gross abuses of human rights, corruption and electoral fraud that have impoverished their countries.

As violence in the Congo escalates, thousands are in effect being held hostage

Take Chad, where one in three – or 6.1 million people – need humanitarian assistance, according to the UN. When Idriss Déby, in power for 30 years, died from wounds sustained in combat last year, Macron said France had “lost a brave friend,” and endorsed his 37-year-old son, Mahamat, who dissolved the government and declared himself president, in violation of Chad’s constitution, before his father was even buried.

In Cameroon, the situation is dire. As Africa’s largest timber producer and the world’s fifth-largest cocoa producer, the country should be prosperous. Instead, Biya’s ruthlessly authoritarian regime has made it one of the world’s poorest, ranking 153 out of 189 countries in the 2020 Human Development Index. More than half of the 26 million population were “food insecure” long before soaring global commodity prices made it harder for families to put food on the table.

Add to this the codification of violence against women under Biya. According to Cameroon’s civil code, only men can be the heads of households, only men can choose the place of residence, and men and women do not have equal property rights.

In the penal code, adultery is always punishable if committed by a woman, but is only punishable when committed by a man if it is “habitual” or takes place in the matrimonial home. Abortion is criminalised, unless the mother’s life is in danger or if pregnancy is the result of rape – and rape is not a crime within marriage.

Macron, of course, knows all of this, but it seems what matters most is still Françafrique.

Culled from The Guardian

French Head of State begins an African tour in Yaoundé on Tuesday. Despite their differences on the subject of human rights, the two leaders will meet to discuss in particular the economic partnership between the two countries.

Two years ago, Emmanuel Macron severely criticized the Cameroonian head of state Paul Biya. He said he wanted to put her “maximum pressure” to liberate opponents. The French president had also denounced human rights violations in Cameroon, in the English-speaking separatist north. According to a source at the Elysée Palace, this time again, during his trip to Youndé on Tuesday July 26, Emmanuel Macron should not avoid angry subjects… even if he will not meet opposition figures directly. Cameroonian.

Despite the differences and tensions, France had to reconnect with Paul Biya, 89, 40 of whom are in power, says Antoine Glaser, journalist specializing in Africa. If only because Cameroon has just signed a defense agreement with Russia: “We see that the presidents of the former French colonies [le Cameroun oriental a été sous administration française entre 1916 et 1960] especially from Central Africa, are increasingly turning to Russia and therefore there is a kind of re-engagement of Emmanuel Macron in these countries in the name of realpolitik.”

On the menu of discussions between Emmanuel Macron and Paul Biya: agricultural cooperation between Cameroon, the leading economy in Central Africa, and France. The two leaders will notably discuss the threat of food shortages in the context of the war in Ukraine. For his first State visit to Africa since his re-election, Emmanuel Macron is accompanied by the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, but also by the Minister for Foreign Trade, Olivier Becht, and by a large economic delegation.

Paul Biya and Emmanuel Macron should also talk about security and terrorism. Cameroon is indeed shaken by attacks attributed to Boko Haram in the north of the country. A subject that concerns Paris as much as Yaoundé. France could therefore opt for discreet aid via equipment deliveries or air support.

The French president will then visit Benin on Wednesday and Guinea Bissau on Thursday.

Source: California 18

Emmanuel Macron is visiting Cameroon on Monday, the first leg of a four-day visit to Central Africa dedicated to food security, French investment and governance. There he will meet Paul Biya, the world’s oldest head of state in power for forty years, in the context of political uncertainty about his succession.

His first official tour begins with Emmanuel Macron, on Monday, 25 July, visiting Cameroon in Central Africa, three months after his re-election, then in Benin and finally in Guinea-Bissau.

A visit that marks a new phase in the French president’s African policy, after a first five-year term that dominated the fight against terrorism in the Sahel and the development of relations with English-speaking Africa.

The tour will therefore begin in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, where Emmanuel Macron is scheduled to meet 89-year-old Paul Biya on Tuesday, who has become one of the oldest presidents on the African continent after forty years of undivided power.

The discussion will focus on the new agricultural partnership to tackle the food crisis, the fight against terrorism, but also governance and the rule of law. A sensitive subject, which has already been the subject of difficult talks between the two leaders.

Negotiation and diplomatic hurdles

On October 7, 2018, Paul Biya was reappointed for a seventh term, scoring a landslide victory over his rival Maurice Kamto. To fight these results on the street, the opposition candidate, as well as many of his supporters, were arrested in January 2019, then finally released after nine months in custody. Underhand, the matter had been the subject of several exchanges between Emmanuel Macron and Paul Biya.

The amnesty involving a total of a hundred prisoners was announced five days before a meeting between French and Cameroonian leaders at a summit in Lyon.

A few months after the episode, on February 22, 2020, on the agricultural show, a Cameroonian activist Emmanuel Macron questioned the situation in the English-speaking region, where officials are fighting a separatist insurgency, accusing power . There massacre. The French president promised to put “maximum pressure” on Paul Biya to end human rights violations.

An exit was praised by the Cameroonian government, which confirmed it intended to “remain the master of your destiny”. At the same time, several hundred people demonstrated in front of the French embassy in Yaounde, demanding an “apology” from France.

“If they both reflect the authoritarianism of the Cameroonian regime, then the question of political prisoners and the management of the separatist conflict are two very different issues”, underlines associate researcher Thierry Virkoulon at the Africa Center of IFRI (French Institute for International).

“Maurice Kamto is not the first political prisoner to be released by France; François Hollande had already managed to oust Michel Thierry Atangana, an engineer who had spent seventeen years in prison. But on the question of the separatists, It’s another story; Emmanuel Macron has hit the wall. Because in the age of Paul Biya, you don’t change the software: he has experienced a centralization of power and has no intention of changing. Part of this is to English speakers. hand over”.

strengthen strategic partnership

Elysee confirms that Emmanuel Macron’s visit will be an opportunity to take a fresh look at this ongoing conflict and in particular the commitments made by the government. But “it is by no means a question of positioning oneself as a teacher or promoting a model”, we say.

The stated aim of the visit is above all to forge a new agricultural partnership with Cameroon, the leading economy in Central Africa, while the food crisis caused by the war in Ukraine threatens the continent.

Investments by French companies will also be on the agenda in the context of stronger competition, as the country continues to strengthen its ties with China, its main supplier, and recently signed a military agreement with Russia.

“Through this visit, Paris seeks to ensure the loyalty of Cameroon’s partner in the context of the loss of influence in its East African backyard, as demonstrated by the examples of Mali, Central Africa and to a lesser extent Guinea and Burkina Faso” , analyzes Nicanor Tachim, doctor in political communication at the University of Paris-Est Creteille. Cameroonian experts recall that a partnership with the country is essential for Paris, due to its strategic role in supplying the sub-region, and especially Chad, where France has a military base.

For Cameroonian researcher Larissa Kojoue, there is no doubt that the visit marks a change in the tone of Cameroonian power.

“Upon his arrival in the elysée, Emmanuel Macron wanted to adopt a form of breakdown in the African policy of France, especially in comparison to its former colonies”, analyzes the teacher of political science at the University of Buea, in the Southwest of the Country. “He took a fairly critical position with the Cameroonian authorities, but since then we have a feeling he has softened his speech, getting caught up in the systemic relationship between Paris and the continent, which puts economic interests at the fore than the rule of law’.

Shadow of Paul Biya’s Succession

Larissa Kojoue also wonders about the message of the visit, while the country is plunged into a period of political uncertainty as the country approaches succession.

“Paul Biya’s greatest political victory has been in convincing the people that there was nothing after him, to stay in power all these years. He duly dismissed all those who had anythe political project. , including his own camp. Today, the name of his son, Franck Biya, is aired as a possible successor. Like it or not, Emmanuel Macron, visiting Cameroon on an official visit , certainly strengthens the President in his position.”

“The arrival of the French president concerns the expatriate as part of the population in Cameroon, with respect to time”, underlines Nicanor Tachim. “A presidential election will be held in 2025. As the regime nears the end of its reign, some see the arrival of Emmanuel Macron as a desire to prepare for the post-Biya period”.

As the visit drew near, opposition MP Jean-Michel Nintecheu issued a statement reflecting this concern. Criticizing France’s role in maintaining “the dictatorial and sometimes dynastic rule at the head of African states”, he affirmed that the people of Cameroon “will not accept anything imposed on them as supreme magistrate”. freely and democratically elected”.

“France is not organizing any transitions neither in Cameroon nor anywhere else, but in these political circumstances, our role is to maintain close relations with our negotiators,” Emmanuel’s Africa adviser Franck Paris said.

While Maurice Kamto, leader of the Movement for the Renaissance (MRC) of Cameroon, called on the French leader to meet with Cameroon’s opposition during his visit, Elysee said such talks were “not in use”.

Emmanuel Macron’s advisor nevertheless specified that upstream or downstream contacts were possible with these movements.

Following his interview with Paul Biya, Emmanuel Macron will meet with youth representatives, as well as members of civil society, to address “all aspects of Cameroonian society”.

Culled from News84media