In what has been described as Southern Cameroons day of shame, Cameroon government troops deployed to Mbonge-a sub constituency in Meme Division have shot and killed at least 20 civilians including women and children.

Witnesses said the Francophone soldiers raided the area and spoke to the population in the French language making sure that those who responded were allowed to move out of Mbonge and those who could only reply in pidgin English were summarily executed.

Mbonge, the chief town in the Sub Division has been a hotbed of the Southern Cameroons resistance.

The Francophone army soldiers reportedly opened fire on the English speaking civilians who had returned from their daily routine including a child playing football.

There were also deaths reported around the Palace of the local traditional leader.

The government of Cameroon has no pity for anybody. The death of children and pregnant women during this fighting does not arouse any pity in government officials. The Biya Francophone regime has one objective – proving that it can win a war – and the generals leading the troops clearly hold that the insurgency is an opportunity for them to enrich themselves.

In an audio message aired by a Francophone soldier, a commander is heard instructing Cameroon government troops to shot in the head or back during the Mbonge raids.

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Dabney Yerima said it was “a Southern Cameroons day of shame for the French Cameroun armed forces.”

The roasting of vulnerable people is also nothing new during this conflict that has already sent more than 7,000 English speaking Cameroonians to an early grave. 

Kwakwa and Ngarbuh are still fresh in many minds. In Kwakwa, an old woman and a sick old man were roasted alive by army soldiers who are supposed to protect innocent civilians.

In Ngarbuh, government troops gunned down scores of people and set homes ablaze, leaving many calcinated in their homes. These were young children and pregnant women who had nothing to do with the insurgency that has been playing out in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon for over four years.

The government clearly holds that burning the homes of the poor and innocent people will cause the population to discontinue its support to the insurgents even when it has not been really proven that the population is supporting the fighters.

From every indication, it is also clear that the population has been caught between the devil and deep blue sea. The same population is being threatened by the Southern Cameroonian fighters when the fighters feel that they have been betrayed by somebody. The population is confused and does not know who to turn to.

At the heart of the crisis, which started in 2016, was a strike by teachers and lawyers, in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. The professionals, supported by citizens of their areas, protested the unfair use of the French language and unjustified appointments of French speakers in their territories. Cameroon has been passing for a bilingual country. By 2017, the situation had spiralled out of control and developed into a fully-fledged separatist war. Both government forces and separatists are now bogged down in a conflict that observers say, can only be resolved through dialogue.

The international community has repeatedly called for genuine and inclusive dialogue but the Biya regime remains intransigent in the face of global outcry.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files

Cameroon’s soldiers are currently facing new challenges in Southern Cameroons and some of these challenges could be life-threatening.

The war that has been a nightmare to young army soldiers is gradually morphing into the end of the road for young army soldiers sent to the English-speaking regions without proper training.

From every indication, it is not only the ferocious Amba fighters who have struck fear in the minds of army soldiers that are a problem to Cameroon’s army, the poor state of the roads in that region and poorly maintained military trucks have become the new challenge that might cause more problems to the already stretched military.

Each time the country’s soldiers are sent to Southern Cameroons, many of them head to the jungles of Southern Cameroons with tons of butterflies in their stomach.

Amba fighters have killed thousands of soldiers and the fear of these hastily recruited soldiers can be read on their faces when they cross into former West Cameroons. They want to earn the salary, but are scared of doing their job in a region that has been the graveyard of many of their colleagues.

Yesterday, the bad roads in Manyu delivered bad news to the government. These roads have been impracticable for years and the government’s negligence seems to be catching up with it.

Cameroon government army soldiers on board a military vehicle were seriously injured in a crash late on Friday near Mamfe, the capital of Manyu Division, where the insurgency has always remained a tough challenge to the government.

The Cameroon Concord News Group gathered that the military vehicle slipped off the muddy road and overturned, resulting in 8 soldiers sustaining life-threatening injuries. They are currently in the ill-equipped Mamfe General Hospital which may become their mortuary if they don’t get evacuated.

Though the bad roads could be to blame, many locals told our correspondent in Mamfe that the vehicle was driving at lightning speed going through an area that is still under the control of the dangerous Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

The Francophone Senior Divisional Officer for Manyu whose presence in the Division is very disturbing has been quoted as saying that the Manyu population should remain calm and wait for the outcome of an investigation by the military.

But the population is not buying the administrative officer’s message seriously, especially as the government has been caught on many occasions performing a mincing dance around the truth.

Manyu has remained a hotspot since the fighting started 4 years ago, especially as the Southern Cameroonian President, Julius Ayuk Tabe, hails from this natural resources-rich Division.

The natives of this Division are not going to throw one of theirs under the boss anytime soon and the Amba fighters who have been keeping law and order in the Division have vowed that they will not be downing their tools until Mr. Julius Ayuk Tabe gets released from the East Cameroons dungeons where he has been locked up for more than 2 years.

While Amba fighters are not inflicting more pain on the soldiers, the bad roads are gradually wearing down the war-weary soldiers who have begun questioning the rationale behind this war that could have been avoided.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Over the last couple of weeks, Professor Gervais  Mendo  Ze, the former CRTV General Manager, has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

A video of the former pot-belly supporter of the Yaoundé-based crime syndicate has been trending, portraying him as a bag of bones that is a victim of a vile system he served and propped whole-heartedly for many years.

Mendo Ze has been brought down by the system in which he had unwavering faith and trust.

The most painful part of it is that the “God of Etoudi” that he served and applauded for decades is the one who orchestrated his downfall and possible demise.

Though Mendo Ze had been accused of embezzlement and sentenced to 20 years in the Yaoundé Maximum Security Prison, many actually wonder if his destruction is not the outcome of personal issues he had with his “god”. Could Mendo Ze have challenged his god after he had eaten to his fill?

This question will never be answered as nobody who is in the know of the truth really wants to talk. Many of those who know the truth have eaten, drunk and danced with the evil “God of Etoudi” who is known to be vindictive and they simply want to stay away from trouble. Cameroonians might only know the truth of all the arrests and killings in Cameroon when the “God of Etoudi” bows out.

But while it is appropriate to sympathise, Cameroonians should learn to keep things in their right context. This regime was never bad to Mendo Ze when he enjoyed all the fame and perks that came with the high offices he occupied. This regime was like his oxygen and anybody who held contrary views automatically became Mendo Ze’s enemy.

Today, he has been made to have a taste of the medication he helped the ruling crime syndicate to manufacture for Cameroonians. The best thing would have been to let him stew in his own juice, but human beings will always be human beings and their minds will always be full of human kindness. It is therefore normal to show sympathy even to a man who clearly deserves his unfortunate fate.

After the outrage expressed by Cameroonians across the world and human rights groups after videos of a dying Professor Mendo Ze emerged, his “God of Evil”, Paul Biya, finally accepted to grant him clemency.

The fat and bulky Mendo Ze has been reduced to a bag of bones and he has been let off the hook just for him to go and die at home.

The country’s president, Paul Biya, does not want him to soil the Yaoundé Maximum Security Prison if he dies there. He is not even worth the prison’s jumpsuit in which he will be wrapped if he dies in jail.

He does not want him to extend the list of people who have died because of his cruelty. Biya, a man who was thought to be the savior of Cameroon, has become an ill wind that blows no good to anybody.

Many Cameroonians have died in Cameroon’s jails because of their political beliefs and many are still very sick because of their conditions in jail. Mr. Biya, the Cameroon monarch, seems to enjoy seeing his own people die just because they have political views that do not tie in well with his.

Mendo Ze has been spared because of his illness, but he has very limited time to live. He has been sent home to die surrounded by his loved ones who have seen him melt like snow under very high temperatures.

Mendo Ze was a huge and fat person. Today, he is simply a shadow of his former self. His case simply points to the fact that anybody can lose weight. Those who claim weight runs in their family should hurry up to check with Mendo Ze whose days on earth are numbered.

For those who still trust the ruling crime syndicate and hold that they can only prosper by joining this devilish party, they must know that if a crocodile can eat its own eggs, then it will surely relish the flesh of a frog.

There are huge lessons to be learned here and only those blinded by greed will still not see anything bad in the story of Mendo Ze; a man who had risen to the top, but came down crashing because of the vindictiveness of his own architect.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The former General Manager of the Cameroon Radio and Television, CRTV, extremely weakened by stress and illness has been told to go home from the notorious Yaoundé Central Prison in Kondengui.

However, credible sources have hinted Cameroon Intelligence Report that the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, ordered the release of the man who headed Cameroon Radio and Television for seventeen years, to allow him travel abroad for treatment.

Gervais Mendo Ze former general manager of the Cameroon Radio and Television (Crtv) from 1988 to 2005), was sentenced by the Special Criminal Court to 20 years in prison.

Arrested in November 2014 after he was sacked from the cabinet as Minister Delegate to the Minister of Communication), Gervais Mendo Ze  was prosecuted for several issues which inter alia included fraudulent transport allowances amounting to 39 million FCFA and television tax money.

The Beti Ewondo French Cameroun political elite was also accused of having received a monthly representation bonus of more than 15 million FCFA,  116 million FCFA as home maintenance allowance, 205 million FCFA  as car allowance and 20 million from Cameroon’s audiovisual fee.

Justice also reproached him for misappropriation of 360 million FCFA, constituting part of the GM’s running cost of the state owned radio and television.

Gervais Mendo Ze was prosecuted with fourteen other people (some fleeing and others dead in custody), among them Crtv’s financial service staff and Cameroon’s treasury administration represented by the renowned former Minister of Finance Polycarpe Abah Abah, former mayor Akono Ze Jean Marie and Jean Paul Amang Bitegni all implicated in the 15 billion FCFA television tax scandal

The Mendo Ze acolytes were all sentenced to 18 years in prison and must also pay 15 billion FCFA representing the damage caused to the state and pay a fine of 962 million FCFA.

The Special Criminal Court: President Biya’s Court

Depicting the Special Criminal Court established to prosecute alleged corrupt government officials and the several Alibabas responsible for pilfering from the public treasury as the President’s court is no misnomer.  Cameroon Concord News Group calls it President Biya’s court because it is one instrument of power through which the President is reining in on perceived opponents from within his CPDM power conduit.

 An attribute of a genuine court is the fairness of the trial proceedings in cases which are brought before the court for trial. It is not the number of convictions entered against accused.  A court is legitimate and recognized as such because of its exercise of judicial, executive, legislative and administrative independence.  A court that is independent must be accessible to all citizens after all, is equality before the law, not a constitutionally protected value? The Special Criminal Court is lacking in these attributes of impartiality, judicial independence and accessibility.  It is perceived more as the President’s Court than a Court of Justice.

Establishing this court was President Biya’s way of saving himself the embarrassment of being humiliated during his perennial trips abroad as the President of the most corrupt countries in the world.  This ranking of the country as the most corrupt or one of the most corrupt countries had a potential to hamper President Biya’s personal pecuniary interests far from the borders of Cameroon.  There was therefore a personal interest need to establish the court.  Another personal interest need was to avail himself of a legal tool under his direct control to consolidate absolute power, blackmail potential rebels and competitors within the system and to stifle any form of institutional opposition. He perceived the court as a tool with which to whitewash his more than thirty years of corrupt governance and the rape of the economy.

With the war against Boko Haram, the fight against corruption using the Special Criminal Court has afforded Paul Biya justification contest in the next institutionally flawed elections in order to eternalize power purportedly to direct the war against terror and the war against corruption.  True to the name the President’s Court, the President has exclusive preserve in referring cases to the Special Court and the power to terminate them. He decides who will be arrested, who will be investigated and who will serve time and who will not.

In one instance, he ordered a detained late Minister Bapes Bapes released from remand custody at Kondengui when a warrant was issued for his arrest without the presidential fiat.  Prof Titus Edzoa a former Secretary-General at the Presidency of the Republic benefitted from a purported Presidential pardon whose primary purpose was the release of a French citizen Thiery Atangana from jail.

The fear of a presidential referral to the Special Criminal Court on additional charges of corruption under a practice devolved under the supervision of Paul Biya called “rouleur compresseur” pushed Titus Edzoa   to rejoin the CPDM Party without a public resignation or repudiation of his membership of the party on which he intended to contest presidential elections prior to his incarceration.  Edzoa was a victim of this system of presidential justice when new charges were brought against him when his first imprisonment was about to end in order to maintain him in prison.

Cameroonians want the rule of law to be the guarding principle on which justice is administered in the name of the people.

By Rita Akana, Isong Asu and Soter Agbaw-Ebai