Authorities in Cameroon say schools in rebel areas that reopened for the first time in four years are again being abandoned due to lack of security. Separatist forces are blamed for recent attacks that killed at least six teachers and seven schoolchildren.

In a video shared on Cameroon social media, seven armed rebels order teachers at the Kulu Memorial College in the southwestern town of Limbe to strip naked.

Teachers and students are shown crying for help as the teachers are humiliated then ordered to close the school and to leave.

Cameroon authorities confirmed the school on Wednesday was attacked.

Limbe teacher Lesslie Tabot refuses to instruct class until the government fulfils its promise to protect schools.

“The government assured parents and stakeholders of education that this time around maximum security has been put in place to ensure the smooth functioning of schools in the Northwest and Southwest regions. But what do we get every day? Students being attacked left and right, teachers also being victims.”

Cameroon’s Anglophone rebels have been fighting since 2017 to create an independent state for English-speakers, separate from French-speaking-majority Cameroon.

Last month, 140 schools in the troubled Northwest and Southwest regions reopened for the first time in four years after Cameroon’s government said those areas were secure.

But the military acknowledges that in the past three weeks, rebels have killed at least six teachers and seven children, abducted 23 teachers, and set three schools on fire.

The governor of Cameroon’s Northwest region, Deben Tchoffo, says about 20 of the schools that reopened in October have closed once again. And he admits several thousand students and teachers at other schools in the region are too scared to attend, despite added troops, which the governor called a “special security device.”

“It is not possible for security men to be behind every student.  We are asking them to continue going for classes because after the sad incidents, a special security device has been set up by the generals in charge of security at the level of the headquarters of the region and in the other divisions to accompany the students.”

Separatist groups have demanded that schools in the Northwest and Southwest remain closed until the government withdraws troops from what the rebels call their territory.

Despite the threats, president of the Cameroon Union of Parents and Teachers Peter Ndikum urged students and teachers to brave the attacks.

“We want to encourage our kids, despite their ages, they have a responsibility to write their own history. They are living within a period of consternation within the Anglophone sub system. The only way for them to make history is not to abandon the classroom. The first element is that of courage. To the parents, they should be able to realize that this call for independence is a sterile struggle.”

But the risk for teachers, parents, and students was underscored Thursday as a funeral was held for the seven schoolchildren killed October 24 by suspected rebels.

The attack on a private school in the Southwest town of Kumba was condemned internationally as a massacre and a grim reminder of the conflict’s toll on children.

Source: VOA

Prime Minister Dion Ngute Joseph represented his French Cameroun paymaster President Paul Biya at the funeral of the school children killed in Kumba Thursday, November 5, 2020.

The so-called head of government took part in the inter-faith prayers in honour of the kids at the Amusement Park in Kumba which was also attended by members of government, the French Cameroun SDO for Meme and Bafaw traditional rulers.

Mr Ngute laid a wreath reportedly from Mr. Biya who four years ago declared a war against the people of Southern Cameroons.

A Biya kinsman who also moonlights as the French Cameroun governor of the South West, Okalia Bilai Bernard read a Cameroon government condolence message.

For his administrative part, PM Dion Ngute conveyed Biya’s condolence message to the bereaved families and handed over a brown envelop from the butcher in Yaounde to the families of the children brutally murdered on that fateful day.

It is vital to include in this report that on Saturday, October 24, 2020, gunmen attacked Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy Fiango, Kumba and killed at least seven (six girls and a boy). The Southern Cameroons Interim Government blamed the attack on French Cameroun army soldiers stationed in the Meme County.

The students killed included Nzakame Rhema (10 years), Nguemene Princess (11 years), Anangim Jenifer (11 years), Ngwane Renny Munge (12 years), Victory Ngamenyi Camibon (12 years), Scheygnia Cindi (14 years), and Che Thellma Nchangwi (15 years).

By Kingsley Betek

Biya is ill and is being treated at his private presidential palace in Mvomeka’a, Cameroon Intelligence Report can authoritatively reveal.

The 87 year old French Cameroun monarchical president has a life threatening infection which has drastically reduced his outings in Yaoundé.

With age telling on him, Biya is avoiding senior members of his spy network and tribal governing council due to the Covid-19 pandemic and routinely complains of severe pains.

Mr. Biya had on two recent occasions cancelled trips to Yaoundé due to poor health and he is now represented at every event by his kinsman and Minister Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.

Last week Ngoh Ngoh again received Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister who had reportedly booked a meeting long before his arrival in Cameroon with Biya.

Prime Minister Dion Ngute like his other Southern Cameroons predecessors is now a simple errand boy within the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government.  

Multiple sources in the so-called Unity Palace told Cameroon Intelligence Report this week that the French Cameroun dictator already smells his last days on earth.

CIR sources also said apart from his family, no other high profile government officials are aware of Biya’s deteriorating health situation.

By Isong Asu with files from Rita Akana in Yaounde

Members of the pro Yaounde armed militia popularly known as the Atanga Nji Boys have kidnapped 90-year-old Cardinal Christian Tumi and Fon Sehm Mbinglo II, the Fon of Nso.

Our correspondent in the Bui County reported that the Atanga Nji Boys backed by members of the Rapid Intervention Battalion were ferried from Baba, Babessi subdivision in Ngoketunji County today Thursday, November 5, 2020 and ordered to stage the action against the two Southern Cameroons prominent figures in order to sabotage the Ambazonia struggle.

There has been conflicting reports from pro French Cameroun media houses on the incident with some claiming that the Cardinal and the Fon disappeared at Cane Chair, in Baba, on the Bamenda-Kumbo main road in the company of the Queen mother and some Nso notables.

The giant of the Roman Catholic Church Cardinal Tumi and Fon Sehm Mbinglo were en route to Nso two years after the Fon was airlifted from his palace for medical reasons.

Cardinal Tumi has for more than two decades been in the bad books of the regime in Yaoundé. A decision to name the Douala International airport in his honour that was reached in 1997 has till this day not been implemented.

French Cameroun media houses have openly accused an Ambazonian fighter known by the name ‘General’ Shao Mao of being behind the crime. However, Southern Cameroons Interim Government sources in Ground Zero are all pointing fingers at Minister Paul Atanga Nji and his criminal gang.

By Fon Lawrence

Cameroon’s Minister of Communication Rene Emmanuel Sadi says “separatist terrorists” attacked three schools on November 3 and 4 in Bamenda, Kumbo, and Limbe.

The Minister said four “separatist rebels” aboard motorcycles, armed with AK47 rifles, broke into Longla Comprehensive College, LCC, Mankon in Bamenda around 9:00 am on Tuesday, November 3.

“The outlaws opened fire at the school premises, before fleeing away from the scene after seeing a patrol team of the ‘Bamenda Clean’ Operation, which was alerted and promptly arrives at the scene,” Sadi said in a statement. “This resulted in a wave of panic among students and teachers, as well as parents living in the vicinity who came to the rescue of their children. Face with this situation, the intervention of the head of the said college and the reassuring presence of elements of the Defence and Security Forces made it possible for classes to resume.”

The Spokesman of Government said a few students and teachers got minor injuries as they rushed to safety in panic.

The same day, Sadi said, “Several hooded terrorists” broke into the Presbyterian Nursery and Primary School Complex (P.S.) Kumbo at about 9:00 a.m. abducting six teachers and ten pupils.

“Thanks to the timely intervention of Rev. Pastor Kwanyuy Venansius, the head of this school, a spontaneous mobilization of about fifty faithful and parents of students allowed them to storm the “Mbeluf” site, one of the strongholds of separatist rebels, located six kilometers away from the Kumbo downtown and to free the ten students that had been abducted,” Sadi wrote.

Sadi’s account of the Kumbo Schook Attack is at variance with the version of Rt. Rev. Fonki Samuel Forba, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, PCC.

Rt. Rev. Fonki said the gunmen “carted a total of 11 teachers and dispersed the children to go home unhurt.”

The government says, “The six abducted teachers are still in the hands of the separatist rebels…the Defence and Security Forces, as working relentlessly in collaboration with the populations of Kumbo for their release.”

The Minister of Communication said a group of about ten “hooded individuals, armed with knives and charms broke into the premises of the ‘Kulu Memorial College’ at around 12:00 noon.”

After firmly ordering the students and teachers to strip naked, and having subjected them to physical abuse and other physical violence, the assailants ransacked the premises and set a large part of the establishment on fire.

“Apart from the consternation that was generated, no loss of human life or injury was recorded,” Sadi said.

The government condemned the attacks, describing them as “odious and cowardly” and aimed at dissuading parents from sending their children to school and creating psychosis within the educational community.

Sadi, however, failed to explain the absence of promised security in schools across the restive North West and South West Regions, especially following the October 24 bloody attack on Mother Francisca Memorial Academy Kumba.

Source: Cameroon Info.Net

Heavy fighting raged in the Eyumojock Local Government Area in Manyu County last Thursday 29 October 2020.Ambazonia restoration forces under the command of Manyu Liberation Ghost Warriors launched a counterattack that dealt a severe blow to French Cameroun forces. The Ambazonian forces ramped up the deadly raid with artillery fire and homemade explosives.

We gathered that the Manyu Liberation Ghost Warriors have recently been launching a series of dry-season operations heading towards Mamfe, the chief town of the county. Last Thursday’s attack left six French Cameroun soldiers dead and over a dozen injured. Cameroon Concord News Group learnt that one Amba fighter was killed during the anti French Cameroun operation.

Thursdays’ offensive by the Manyu Liberation Ghost Warriors against the French Cameroun occupying forces in Manyu County follows a series of French Cameroun military advances in recent weeks. The four years’ war of independence has been fierce and particularly bloody. The latest move by the restoration forces to launch coordinated attacks from all four corners of Manyu leading into Mamfe are bold but one that they are confident will yield considerable success.

Talking to Cameroon Concord News Group correspondent in Ekok, the commander of the operation said “it was a successful operation despite the loss of one of my brave warriors. Our goal is to win this war and make Ambazonia a free nation”. He went on “we are launching counter-attacks to take over Mamfe in a few months and are making strategic advances”.

He showed Cameroon Concord News Group videos of scores of weapons seized during the mission to Eyumojock and video clips that showed the fallen French Cameroun soldiers.

Some terrified and traumatized locals confirmed that self-defense fighters ambushed and exchanged fierce fire last Thursday night.

Rights groups and residents say the French Cameroun forces have attacked and killed over 700 civilians and burned over 45 villages and infrastructure in Manyu County over the last four years since the Southern Cameroons reaffirmed its independence from Cameroun Republic.

A resident said “they are burning everything and raping our daughters. They aim to stop all services because we seek freedom from the occupying forces of French Cameroun but attacks of this nature from our self-defense forces give us confidence that we shall succeed.”

Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes and villages, many of them seeking refuge in neighbouring Nigeria since the war started in 2016. The French Cameroun government has deployed its forces in the Southern Cameroons to kill anything that moves but they sadly underestimated the determination of the Ambazonia restoration forces.

Striking the local population with impunity has been a sad characteristic of the bloody four-year war of independence that it rarely even raises international outrage anymore.

The audacious claim by the Manyu Liberation Ghost Warriors to attack and take over Mamfe in a few months would certainly raise temperatures and blood pressures in Yaoundé. Guerrilla tactics of ambush like last Thursday’s attack are now frequent and are proving extremely successful for the self-defence forces but only time will tell if such tactics will be enough to take the city of Mamfe or eventually win the independence war.

By Kingsley Betek in Ekok