Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yaoundé says kidnapped Divisional Delegates may still be alive

30, November 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yaoundé says kidnapped Divisional Delegates may still be alive 0

Five months after the abduction of some divisional delegates in Ndian Division, Cameroon’s Ministry of Defence has rolled out a communique that suggests that they may still be alive.

In a communique on last Wednesday’s attack on a school in Ekondo Titi by militiamen, Navy Captain Atonfack Guemo Cyrille Serge, Head of Communication Division at Cameroon’s Ministry of Defence said the civil servants are being held incommunicado by a separatist group led by pseudo-General Ten Kobo.

Reacting to the killing of four students and a teacher of Government Bilingual High School (GBHS) Ekondo Titi by gunmen, Navy Captain Atonfack said inter alia: “…Combing operations are ongoing on the ground to track the  assailants who, according to initial findings, would belong to a terrorist group headed by the so-called general ‘ten kobo’, who is equally responsible for the kidnapping and incommunicado holding of some divisional delegates of Ndian on June 15, and the murder of the divisional delegate in the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development.”

Cameroon-Info.Net recalls that this is the first time the Ministry of Defence is making allusion to the abducted divisional delegates whose whereabouts remain uncertain.

The only time a senior state official came close to commenting on the issue was on November 3, 2021, during the installation of Gilbert Guibai Baldena as the new Senior Divisional Officer for Ndian Division.

In his address, South-West Governor, Okalia Bilai Bernard asked for the observance of a moment of silence in memory of Mabia Johnson, the Ndian Divisional Delegate for Economy, Planning and Regional Development who was abducted on June 15 and killed on June 18 by separatist fighters.

The Governor continued his speech without mentioning the fate of the remaining kidnapped delegates.

Cameroon-Info.Net remembers that at around 9 am on Tuesday, June 15, 2021, armed separatist fighters abducted six divisional delegates in Misore-Balue village in Ekondo-Titi Subdivision, near Mundemba.

On Friday, June 18, 2021, three days after he was kidnapped by armed separatist fighters along with five other Divisional Delegates, 42-year-old Mabia Johnson Mudika, Divisional Delegate of Economy, Planning, and Regional Development, was killed by his abductors.

Those held incommunicado by militiamen are:

Mambe Elvis Ebaku, Ndian Divisional Delegate of State Property, Surveys, and Land Tenure

Felicia Ndong, Ndian Divisional Delegate of Housing and Urban Development

Elad Emmanuel, Ndian Divisional Delegate of Water and Energy Resources

Mbida Armand Christian, Ndian Divisional Delegate of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicraft

Agbor Stephen Nyenty, Divisional Chief of Service for Surveys, Ndian Division.

Back in June, Cameroon Tribune reported that the officials had left Mundemba, headquarters of Ndian Division, traveling by land to Ekondo Titi (one of the nine subdivisions of Ndian) on an official assignment to demarcate land for the construction of an electricity plant to enhance power distribution in Ndian Division.

“Between 9 and 10 am at two kilometers to Ekondo Titi, precisely Misore Road Junction, armed men erupted and forced them into the bush. Early hints spoke of some ransom being asked by the assailants but later on, conflicting notes from the social media refused any such ransom. It is not clear yet which amounts were requested,” state-run newspaper, Cameroon Tribune reported on June 23.

Source: Cameroon Info.Net

30 South African white rhino relocated to Rwanda in a Boeing 747

29, November 2021

30 South African white rhino relocated to Rwanda in a Boeing 747 0

Thirty endangered white rhinos arrived in Rwanda on Monday after a long journey from South Africa in a Boeing 747, conservationists said, hailing it as the largest single transfer of the species ever undertaken.

The majestic animals, which can weigh up to two tonnes, travelled some 3,400 kilometres (2,100 miles) from South Africa’s Phinda Private Game Reserve as part of a programme to replenish the species’ population, decimated by poaching since the 1970s.

Once plentiful across sub-Saharan Africa, white rhino suffered first from hunting by European settlers, and later a poaching epidemic which largely wiped them out.

The rhinos began their 40-hour journey to the new home in Akagera National Park in eastern Rwanda following months of preparation, said African Parks, a charity headed by Britain’s Prince Harry which is involved in the exercise.

“We had to tranquillize them to reduce their stress, which is itself risky, and monitor them,” said African Parks’ CEO Peter Fearnhead, calling the project a success.

The animals were transported in a chartered Boeing 747 and were placed in two grassy enclosures — each the size of a football stadium — after arriving in the park.

Later they will be allowed to roam the expansive park, authorities said.

“This will provide an opportunity for them to grow in a safe environment from South Africa where three are killed per day by poachers,” said the park’s regional manager Jes Gruner.

Wildlife transfers are not without risks. In 2018, four out of six relocated black rhinos died a few months after arriving in Chad.

The southern white rhino, one of two subspecies of white rhino, is now considered endangered with about 20,000 individuals remaining, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

It is classified as near-threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Breeding programme

The northern white rhino has all but vanished, with only two females left alive.

Scientists are attempting to save the species from extinction by harvesting eggs from the younger of the two animals, Fatu, and using sperm from two deceased males to create embryos in an unprecedented breeding programme, which is their last chance at survival.

Rwanda, which is positioning itself as a top Big Five safari destination, received five eastern black rhinos in 2019 from the Czech Republic and 17 from South Africa in 2017.

Not a single eastern black rhino has been poached at the Akagera park since their re-introduction in 2017, according to its regional manager Gruner.

Rhinos have few predators in the wild due to their size but have been devastated by poaching for their horns — used in traditional Chinese medicine.

According to the IUCN, there are around 5,000 black rhinos left in the wild, compared to more than a million in the mid-19th century.

Source: AFP

Yerima to Amba Fighters: Listen to your legitimate Interim Gov’t or surrender to the enemy

29, November 2021

Yerima to Amba Fighters: Listen to your legitimate Interim Gov’t or surrender to the enemy 0

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government (IG) Dabney Yerima sent a strong message late on Sunday to Ambazonia fighters in Ground Zero: Listen to your legitimate Ambazonia Interim Government or surrender to the French Cameroun enemy.

“I say to you all Ground Zero commanders and brave fighters: Listen to your Interim Government or surrender to the enemy. It is the hard choice you have to make now if we as a people must get to Buea,” Vice President Dabney Yerima said during a hard-hitting address to the Southern Cameroons exiled war cabinet meeting that held late on Sunday.

Dabney Yerima said the Department of Foreign Affairs has tried to establish unity to the divisive crisis that has rocked the Southern Cameroons front line leaders in the diaspora but blamed many of the groups for failing to respond to the overtures.

“As your Vice President, I have no other option but to turn to you fighters in Ground Zero and to inform you that our job in the diaspora now is to help in providing you with the support needed as our struggle is a war with only one outcome: Our victory and the recognition of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia,” Yerima said.

The war in Southern Cameroons has created a business empire for top military officers in Yaounde. About forty thousand Southern Cameroons civilians have lost their lives in this war. More than a million persons have fled to Nigeria and other countries as refugees, and millions have been made IDPs. More than 600 towns and villages and countless homes have been burnt down by French Cameroun troops. Hundreds of females have been raped (a good number deliberately infected with HIV and other STDs), scores of children killed in targeted killings, food and food crops and livestock destroyed to impose conditions of famine, water sources defiled and polluted to provoke a pestilence, and mass graves punctuate the landscape.

Genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed in the Southern Cameroons by French Cameroun military which systematically continues to kill women, teenagers, and even babies, the elderly, the infirm. Presidents Emmanuel Macron, Paul Biya and Buhari bears direct responsibility for these heinous crimes.

The UN Security Council has so far failed to assume its responsibility under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations to deal with French Cameroun’s colonial war in the Southern Cameroons. In the circumstances, it is not inconceivable that the Southern Cameroons abandons the self-defence posture to which it has so far restrained itself, in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter. It may eventually go on the offensive and broaden its offensive posture by targeting economic and social infrastructure in French Cameroun that support that country’s war effort, in the same way social and economic infrastructure in the Southern Cameroons continues to be targeted by the French Cameroun army. The objective of this new offensive would be to bring it home to Macron and Biya that their fanciful claim that “l’Ambazonieestcamerounaise” (Ambazonia belongs to Cameroun) is a pipe dream and that pursuing it will be very painful for French Cameroun in 2022 in the same way as the French claim that “l’Algerieestfranaise” (Algeria belongs to France) was for France in 1962.  The people of the Southern Cameroons strongly reject any idea or suggestion, explicit or implicit, that the Southern Cameroons is an area under French influence given that the Southern Cameroons does not have and has never had any ties, colonial or otherwise, with France. 

By Isong Asu and Chi Prudence Asong

French Cameroun: Boko Haram kills three Cameroon gov’t army soldiers in the Far North

29, November 2021

French Cameroun: Boko Haram kills three Cameroon gov’t army soldiers in the Far North 0

Three  Cameroon government army soldiers were killed and several others wounded in separate attacks staged by the Islamic sect Boko Haram in the Far North region bordering the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Sunday.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered from security sources that the Nigerian militants ambushed the Cameroon military convoy in Zelevet locality in the Mayo-Moskota district in Mayo-Tsanaga Division late on Sunday.

A well-placed source deep within the Cameroon army revealed that  Lieutenant Djika Koulagna was one of the two soldiers killed following the attack  by the terrorist sect.

At press time, we learnt that another Cameroon soldier was killed in an attack on a military camp in Fotokol in the Logone-et-Chari Division.

For more than six years, several localities in the Far North region have been under attack by the Nigerian Islamist sect with support from anti President Biya groups in the Far North region.

According to United Nations, nearly 40,000 people have been killed in 7 years in the Lake Chad Basin and 3 million have fled their homes.

By Rita Akana

S.African president wants ‘urgent’ lifting of travel bans

28, November 2021

S.African president wants ‘urgent’ lifting of travel bans 0

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday called on countries to “immediately and urgently” reverse scientifically “unjustified” travel bans linked to the discovery of the new coronavirus variant Omicron.

Dozens of nations from Europe to Asia have blacklisted South Africa and its neighbours since South African scientists flagged Omicron on November 25.

The flight bans have angered several African leaders.

“We call upon all those countries that have imposed travel bans on our country and our southern African sister countries to immediately and urgently reverse their decisions,” Ramaphosa said in his first address to the nation following last week’s detection of the new variant.

The World Health Organization has labelled Omicron a variant of concern, while scientists are still assessing its virulence.

A “deeply disappointed” Ramaphosa argued that the ban was “not informed by science”.

The countries that have already imposed travel restrictions on southern Africa include key travel hub Qatar, the United States, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Netherlands.

‘Afrophobia’

Earlier Sunday, Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera accused Western countries of “Afrophobia” for shutting their borders.

And in Botswana, the other southern African country to detect the strain — among a group of foreign diplomatic visitors in the first instance — two ministers cautioned against “geo-politicising this virus”.

“We are concerned that there seem to have been attempts to stigmatise the country where it was detected,” Health Minister Edwin Dikoloti, said on Sunday.

The head of the WHO in Africa was equally worried.

“With the Omicron variant now detected in several regions of the world, putting in place travel bans that target Africa attacks global solidarity,” said WHO regional director general Matshidiso Moeti in a statement.

Ramaphosa warned that the travel ban would “further damage the economies (and) undermine their ability to respond to and recover from the pandemic”.

South Africa, the continent’s most industrialised country, is struggling with slow economic growth and a more than 34 percent unemployment rate.

The travel curbs are another major blow to its key tourism industry, which had set high hopes on the upcoming southern hemisphere summer.

‘Unjustified restrictions’

Ramaphosa blasted the G20 countries for abandoning commitments made at a meeting in Rome last month to support the recovery of the tourism sector in developing countries.

On Sunday, he added: “Instead of prohibiting travel, the rich countries of the world need to support the efforts of developing economies to access and to manufacture enough vaccine doses for their people without delay.

“These restrictions are unjustified.”

Ramaphosa called on rich countries to stop fuelling vaccine inequality, describing jabs as the “most powerful tool” to limit Omicron’s transmission.

He once again appealed to South Africans to get their shots, and said the government was considering making vaccines mandatory for certain activities and locations in a bid to increase uptake.

“Vaccines do work,” he said. “Vaccines are saving lives.”

The country is Africa’s worst hit by Covid, with around 2.9 million cases and 89,797 deaths reported to date.

Omicron is believed to be fuelling a rise in infections, with 1,600 new cases recorded on average in the past seven days compared to 500 the previous week.

Source: AFP

Southern Cameroons Crisis caused a cumulated XAF412 bln loss in GDP in 2017-2020

28, November 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis caused a cumulated XAF412 bln loss in GDP in 2017-2020 0

The anglophone crisis dragged growth down by  0.8 and 0.3 points of GDP respectively in 2019 and 2020 in Cameroon. This represents a cumulated loss in GDP estimated at XAF421.3 billion between 2017 and 2020.

The figures were presented on November 23, 2021, by Paul Tasong, Minister Delegate to the Minister of Economy Planning and Regional Development, while presenting the presidential plan for the reconstruction of the anglophone regions.

For Paul Tasong, the poor performance was due to decline in business in several sectors, the most affected being the agricultural sector.

For instance, the paddy rice segment recorded an average of 14.5% drop in activities yearly between 2017 and 2019 before rising by about 10% in 2020. Meanwhile, crude palm oil production dropped by about 90% over the period, going from 37,400 tons in 2016 to about  4 300 tons in 2019. “In 2020, however, there was a reverse in the downtrend with a 131% rise in the production of palm oil to reach  9 900 tons,” Paul Tasong explained.

Regarding the banana sector, production dropped from  125,019 tons in 2016 to 16,897 tons in 2019 in the South West because state firm Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) stopped operations in 2018.

“However, production recovered in 2020 to 21,132 tons. In the first half of 2021, the company produced nearly 16,272 tons of bananas,” the delegated Minister added. 

As far as consumer products are concerned, fish supplies dipped significantly in the regions in 2019 before stabilizing in 2020 that saw a 14.6% rise in the Northwest and 25.3% in the Southwest,  we learn.

Industry

The poor performance of manufacturing industries in the anglophone regions caused a decline in medium-voltage energy consumption in the order of 19.5%, 6%, and 25%, respectively in 2017, 2018, and 2019. The resumption in activities recorded in the manufacturing industries 2020 resulted in a 7% rise in the consumption of that type of energy, Paul Tasong continued.

He further explained that the cocoa and tourism sectors were impacted as well. Also, due to the crisis,  a significant number of public projects worth XAF16.4 billion were not executed during the 2017-2019 period despite the increase in budgets allocated. In that context, the public investment budget implementation rate remained relatively low in the North-West and South-West regions (the estimated average is  64.4% and 68.2 respectively) between 2017 and 2019.  In 2020, that rate improved notably to 83.7% in the North-west and  89.9% in the South-west.

According to the GICAM, the largest employers’ grouping in Cameroon, from 2016 to date, companies have lost an estimated XAF800 billion.

Source: Business in Cameroon

France on the ropes: Two killed as Africans confront military convoy

28, November 2021

France on the ropes: Two killed as Africans confront military convoy 0

At least two people have been killed and 18 others wounded after French forces fired shots to disperse angry protesters blocking a French military convoy in western Niger.

The armored vehicles and logistics trucks had crossed the border on Friday after being blocked in Burkina Faso for a week by demonstrations there against French forces’ failure to stop mounting violence by Takfiri militants.

Anger has been rising against the French military presence in Niger, Burkina Faso and other countries in West Africa’s Sahel region. 

Last weekend, hundreds of people in the Burkinabe city of Kaya blocked the French convoy, which is on its way from Ivory Coast to Mali.

It was able to leave Burkina Faso on Friday but ran into new protests on Saturday morning less than 30 km across the border in the western Niger town of Tera, where it was confronted by protesters.

Video shared by a local official showed the protesters chanting “Down with France,” as black smoke rose from a burning barricade.

“In its attempt to extricate itself, it (the French forces) used force. Sadly, we deplore the death of two people and 18 injuries, 11 of them serious,” Niger’s interior ministry said in a statement.

French military spokesperson Pascal Ianni admitted that soldiers had “fired warning shots” and tear gas at protesters, but dismissed as “false information” reports on social media that French forces had killed civilians in Tera.

Ianni said the convoy eventually crossed the town and continued toward the capital, Niamey.

France intervened in Mali in 2013 to purportedly beat back militants who had seized the desert north, before deploying soldiers across the Sahel. While it has deployed more troops, violence has continued to intensify and spread in the region.

In the demonstrations in Burkina Faso and elsewhere, protesters have cited widespread belief that France is secretly supporting the militants to justify its continued military presence in its former colonies.

Rise of anti-colonial sentiments

France has been one of the world’s colonizing countries that after many years of slavery still controls countries spread over more than 12 territories and treats their people as second-class citizens.

The Caribbean territory of Guadeloupe and nearby Martinique have recently been wracked by rioting and strikes that reflect long-running frustrations over inequality with the French mainland.

France’s minister for overseas affairs, Sebastien Lecornu, on Friday said Paris was ready to discuss some autonomy for Guadeloupe, but the overnight offer drew sharp criticism Saturday from conservative and far right candidates for France’s April presidential election.

Guadeloupe uses the euro currency and has close political ties with the mainland. But high unemployment in Guadeloupe and Martinique, high costs of living and lingering anger over historical abuses have prompted some local officials to demand change.

A third of the Guadeloupe population lives below the poverty line, and unemployment rate is 17%. The cost of living, meanwhile, is high because the island relies heavily on imports from the mainland. Water supplies have been a major problem in recent years because of obsolete pipes.

Some residents denounce a relationship with Paris reminiscent of colonial times, and note an ongoing scandal over the use of a dangerous pesticide on islands in the Antilles for years after it was banned on the mainland.

Many people were systematically exposed to toxic pesticides used in banana plantations in the 1970s in Martinique and Guadeloupe.

The product was banned in the US in 1976 and in France in 1990, but special provisions were made for its continued use in the Caribbean territories until 1993.

There have been numerous attempts at autonomy since the Second World War, though none have been successful. The anger of people living in Guadeloupe is because a country 7,000 kilometers away is governing them, constantly treating them as second-class citizens.

Guadeloupe receives 972 million euros from the EU each year, but its youth-unemployment rate has hovered around 50 percent for decades.

Source: Presstv

FECAFOOT: Eto’0 cleared to stand in elections

27, November 2021

FECAFOOT: Eto’0 cleared to stand in elections 0

Former Barcelona striker Samuel Eto’o has been cleared to stand in elections to be the next president of the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot).

A total of six candidates, including incumbent Seidou Mbombo Njoya, have been approved by Fecafoot’s electoral committee to stand in the polls on 11 December.

Another former international Jules Denis Onana is also eligible for the elections, however his 1990 World Cup team-mate Emmanuel Maboang Kessack was ruled out as he owes Fecafoot $7,600.

The other three names on the list of eligible candidates for president are Crepin Soter Nyamsi, Justin Tagouh and Zacharie Wandja.

One other person, Manuel Boyomo, has also been prevented from taking part in the polls because he failed to provide the required number of endorsement letters.

When Eto’o, 40, first announced his intentions in September it was amid controversy in Cameroon after candidates with dual nationality had been told they could not stand in the elections.

Eto’o, who also had spells with Inter Milan and Chelsea, was granted dual Spanish nationality during his time at Barcelona.

Source: BBC

Netherlands tightens Covid health measures to stem record surge in cases

26, November 2021

Netherlands tightens Covid health measures to stem record surge in cases 0

The Dutch government on Friday ordered further restrictions including a nighttime closure of bars, restaurants and most stores to stem a record-breaking wave of COVID-19 cases that is threatening to overwhelm the country’s healthcare system.

The surge in the Netherlands, the worst in Western Europe, came even though 85% of the adult population have been vaccinated, with infections now rising most quickly among schoolchildren, who are not vaccinated.

“The (infection) numbers per day are high, higher, highest,” caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte said at a televised press conference. “That means that we can’t get there with just a few small adjustments.”

The current wave of Dutch cases, running above 20,000 infections per day for the past week, has continued despite restrictions including the reintroduction of face masks and closure of bars and restaurants after 8 p.m. imposed by Rutte’s government earlier this month.

Rutte said on Friday non-essential stores would be closed from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m., and masks would be required in secondary schools.

His government urged everyone who can to work from home, and if they cannot, to follow social distancing guidelines.

The new measures go into effect from Nov. 28.

Some experts had argued that a short, near-total lockdown, including school closures, would be needed to push infections down.

Law enforcement officials were preparing for possible unrest after a demonstration in The Hague on Friday to protest against the new measures.

A government proposal – which is not yet policy – to bar unvaccinated people from public places prompted three nights of rioting last weekend.

Dutch hospitals were instructed on Friday to postpone all non-emergency operations to free up beds in intensive care units. Some patients have been transferred to neighbouring Germany.

Source: REUTERS

Several Southern Cameroonians injured by Cameroon gov’t forces in Kendem, Batibo and Bali

26, November 2021

Several Southern Cameroonians injured by Cameroon gov’t forces in Kendem, Batibo and Bali 0

At least 45 Southern Cameroonians including women and children have been injured by soldiers loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaounde on the Mamfe-Bamenda highway.

A Roman Catholic cleric cited sources in Kendem, Batibo and Bali as saying that 45 Southern Cameroonians were hit by bullets fired by Cameroon government troops fighting against Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards who recently blocked the main road linking Bamenda to Mamfe.

The prelate said that the 45 Southern Cameroonians had also suffered breathing difficulties due to inhaling French made tear gas used by the Cameroon government army soldiers against the Amba fighters in Kendem, Batibo and Bali.

Since the killing of two primary school pupils by Francophone army soldiers in Buea and Bamenda, Southern Cameroons has seen intensified clashes between Cameroon government troops and Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces.

Also in Ekondo Titi, Cameroon government troops used live ammunition and bullets against students in Government Bilingual High School and blamed the attack on Amba fighters.

The war in Southern Cameroons has created a business empire for top military officers in Yaounde. About forty thousand Southern Cameroons civilians have lost their lives in this war. More than a million persons have fled to Nigeria and other countries as refugees, and millions have been made IDPs. More than 600 towns and villages and countless homes have been burnt down by French Cameroun troops. Hundreds of females have been raped (a good number deliberately infected with HIV and other STDs), scores of children killed in targeted killings, food and food crops and livestock destroyed to impose conditions of famine, water sources defiled and polluted to provoke a pestilence, and mass graves punctuate the landscape.

Genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed in the Southern Cameroons by French Cameroun military which systematically continues to kill women, teenagers, and even babies, the elderly, the infirm. Presidents Emmanuel Macron, Paul Biya and Buhari bears direct responsibility for these heinous crimes.

The UN Security Council has so far failed to assume its responsibility under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations to deal with French Cameroun’s colonial war in the Southern Cameroons. In the circumstances, it is not inconceivable that the Southern Cameroons abandons the self-defence posture to which it has so far restrained itself, in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter. It may eventually go on the offensive and broaden its offensive posture by targeting economic and social infrastructure in French Cameroun that support that country’s war effort, in the same way social and economic infrastructure in the Southern Cameroons continues to be targeted by the French Cameroun army. The objective of this new offensive would be to bring it home to Macron and Biya that their fanciful claim that “l’Ambazonieestcamerounaise” (Ambazonia belongs to Cameroun) is a pipe dream and that pursuing it will be very painful for French Cameroun in 2022 in the same way as the French claim that “l’Algerieestfranaise” (Algeria belongs to France) was for France in 1962.  The people of the Southern Cameroons strongly reject any idea or suggestion, explicit or implicit, that the Southern Cameroons is an area under French influence given that the Southern Cameroons does not have and has never had any ties, colonial or otherwise, with France.  

By Fon Lawrence with additional reporting from the Camcordnews desk

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