New violence has wracked northwestern Cameroon, where the military said it killed some 40 separatist fighters over the past two weeks. The Catholic Church said some of those killed were civilians, and witnesses said many houses were burned to the ground.

Cameroon’s government is expressing frustration with the separatists but vows it will not allow the breakup of the country.

External Relations Minister Lejeune Mbella Mbella summoned ambassadors to a meeting Thursday where he laid out the government’s position on the separatist crisis.

Mbella Mbella said the separatists are again causing untold suffering in the English-speaking western towns and villages of the majority French-speaking nation.

He said Cameroon is surprised fighters continue to commit atrocities when much has been done to satisfy the needs of the minority English speakers who feel marginalized.

“The government of Cameroon has undertaken the most expensive and extensive structural and administrative reforms in its recent history,” Mbella Mbella said. “As a key recommendation of the major national dialogue, the government tabled the bill to institute the special status. His excellency Paul Biya has also granted a general full amnesty to combatants who voluntarily drop their weapons.”

None of the heads of diplomatic missions invited to the meeting would comment when contacted by VOA.

By “special status,” the minister is referring to political reforms that gave the largely English-speaking northwest and southwestern regions greater autonomy. The reforms were passed after Cameroon organized what it called a major national dialogue to solve the separatist crisis in 2019.

Mbella Mbella also declared the government will not allow any part of the country to secede.

The separatists have a different point of view. This week, an official from what the separatists call the Ambazonia Interim Government said on Facebook that their forces will never surrender, and that the English speakers will fight until freedom is achieved.

They also accuse government forces of being responsible for many killings and much of the destruction in the western regions.

Separatists blame the government for torching houses during recent operations in the northwestern town of Kumbo and areas nearby. The government said separatist forces were to blame.

The military also said about 40 fighters have been killed in raids on separatist camps in the past two weeks.

However, the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon’s Catholic Bishops — a neutral party in the conflict — said some of those killed were civilians.

Kumbo Mayor Venatius Mborong said several hundred civilians had fled the renewed fighting.

“They left Kumbo because they have been kidnapped a couple of times and they have paid ransom and now they are frankless [poor],” Mborong said. “People have sold houses, they have sold their lands, and so they cannot continue staying there.”

The United Nations says the separatist war has forced more than 500,000 people to flee their homes since the conflict erupted in late 2017.

Source: VOA

In a bit to find common ground through dialogue, Southern Cameroonian leaders are meeting in Toronto, Canada, to work out the details of such collaboration.

The event, which effectively went underway yesterday October 30, brought together, leaders of various Southern Cameroonian factions, including Barrister Felix Nkongho Agbor-Balla, Prof. Carson Ayangwe, Vice President  Dabney Yerima and others who are determined to bring about peace in Southern Cameroons.

Southern Cameroonian leaders must talk with each other irrespective of their political views if peace and security must return to Southern Cameroons.

Sharing perspectives with different factions is at the core of collaboration and genuine peace will remain illusory if various factions do not engage with each other.

The Cameroon Concord News Group’s cream of reporters including the Group’s editorial chair Dr Joachim Arrey are in Toronto, and they will be filing reports on this important meeting that might help change things on Ground Zero.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé has been torturing Southern Cameroons detainees in a methodical and systemic way since it jailed the leader of the Ambazonia Interim Government President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and other senior Southern Cameroons leaders following their abduction in Abuja, Nigeria.

Based on interviews with several Southern Cameroons prisoners of conscience, Barrister Amungwa Tanyi leading advocate for the NERA 10 recently described grim conditions and abuse. His revelations have been backed with testimony from four Cameroon government army soldiers who recently defected and fled the country to Dubai.

The Barrister Amungwa Tanyi Nicodemus investigation provides the most comprehensive look ever since the 88-year-old President Biya declared a war against the English speaking minority in Southern Cameroons.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that Barrister Amungwa has withheld the names of most of the Southern Cameroons detainees to protect them from retaliation by members of the Francophone dominated Cameroonian Secret Service.

Some of the Southern Cameroons prisoners contacted in Buea and in Douala-New Bell, said the torture often begins immediately they were arrested on the street or in their houses, and some die even before reaching a detention facility.

The Cameroon government army soldiers from the ruling Beti-Ewondo tribes torture Southern Cameroons detainees, first for revenge and then for information, a spokesperson for Barrister Amungwa Tanyi hinted Cameroon Intelligence Report adding that the Cameroon government military has become even more brutal against Southern Cameroonians.

 “They would torture Southern Cameroonians until they got the answers they wanted. They speak in French, abuse us, saying we are slaves from Nigeria and in most of the times they tell us here at the New Bell, we do not have any laws. We have guns, and we can just kill you and make you disappear if we want to,” an Ambazonian detainee in Douala told this reporter.

 A former army captain confirmed to Cameroon Intelligence Report that Cameroon government military’s use of torture against English speaking Cameroonians has been rampant since the war started.

“In Cameroon today, after arresting an Anglophone unfairly, there is torture, violence and sexual assaults happening constantly against them,” he said. “Even a war captive needs to be treated and taken care of by law. All of that is gone with this Biya regime.”

An aide to a high-ranking army official in the South West region also told our undercover reporter in Buea that Francophone soldiers covered up the deaths of two tortured Southern Cameroons journalists, forcing a military doctor to falsify their autopsy reports.

The Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime has a long history of torture against English speaking Cameroonians and the methods include deprivation of sleep, food, water and relentless beatings with batons.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began training Cameroonian security personnel on Monday to respond to any radiological attack during the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).

“This workshop supports prescription to provide the upcoming AFCON competition with maximum security conditions. Nuclear security is recommended by CAF and FIFA within the respective safety regulations,” said Augustin Simo, director-general of Cameroon’s National Radiation Protection Agency which is organizing the training in partnership with IAEA.

“So our country by implementing nuclear security measures during the AFCON is respectful of the safety regulations. Cameroon uses radioactive sources in medical applications, industrial applications, research activities and so on,” Simo said at the start of the workshop in the capital, Yaounde.

He said there was no specific intelligence pointing to a threat to AFCON and stressed that it was incumbent on the Central African nation “to be ready in case of any mishaps” during the game.

The AFCON will take place in Cameroon from January 9 to February 6 next year. The biennial competition has been moved twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: Xinhuanet