4, May 2020

Yaounde: Journalists Protest Harassment, Abusive Arrests ⁰

Cameroonian journalists are marking World Press Freedom Day with protests against abuse from the government as well as from rebels fighting for an independent English-speaking state. Reporters Without Borders, in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index, ranks Cameroon 134th out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index. Some Cameroonian journalists have been detained for their reporting or are on the run from the military or separatists.

This message from the Cameroon Association of English Speaking Journalists, that journalism has rules, regulations and professional ethics, is broadcast on television and radio, and shared on social media platforms by journalists in Cameroon as a sign of protest against the abuses they face. The message insists that journalists be allowed freedom to practice.

“We say no to the constant harassment and haphazard arrest of journalists in their line of duties,” the message said.

Journalists did not organize popular celebrations and public protests as in the previous years because of the more than 2,000 cases of COVID-19 in Cameroon.

They said, however, they shared the pain of peers who have been in detention, such as Mancho Bibixy and Tsi Conrad, arrested and charged with insurrection against the state of Cameroon and who have been in detention since 2017, Samuel Wazizi arrested late last year and jailed for alleged collaboration with separatist fighters, and Wawa Jackson, who was arrested in 2019 and accused of propagating the secessionists’ agenda in the English-speaking regions where separatists are fighting to break away from the majority French-speaking country.

Ngah Christian Mbipgo, publisher of Cameroon’s lone English-language daily newspaper, the Guardian Post, said his news organ has been the victim of press abuses while covering the separatist crisis that has killed 3,000 people in Cameroon in the past three years. He said 15 of his reporters, newspaper vendors and their family members have fled from hostile areas in the English-speaking North-West and South-West regions.

“The separatists think that we have not been doing much to project their independence ideology, and that is why our reporters in the field are targeted. I have not gone out of Yaoundé [to the English-speaking North-West and South-West regions] since 2017 that [when] the crisis metamorphosed into an armed conflict because they have openly called to tell me that I am a target. We receive calls from top government officials who say we are a newspaper that is working for the separatists,” he said.

Cameroon’s government did not issue a statement on for World Press Freedom Day, as there were no public ceremonies due to COVID-19. However, the government has always maintained that there is press freedom in Cameroon and journalists are only arrested when they act unprofessionally.

Jude Viban, president of the Cameroon Association of English Speaking Journalists said the government should decriminalize media offenses and make sure abuses against the rights of journalists by government officials and separatist fighters are stopped.

“What we are doing is to inform, and we do so for the interest of the population, so a handful of people should not attack the press. When stories are not told because journalists are under attack, the population would not be informed, which, of course, is their right to be informed in a democracy like ours,” said Viban.

Reporters Without Borders says press freedom continues its long decline in Cameroon, and reporters continue to be subjected to threats, attacks, intimidation and arrests after President Paul Biya’s reelection for a seventh term in October 2018.

Source: VOA

3, May 2020

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is not believed to have had surgery ⁰

South Korea’s assessment is that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not have surgery, local news outlet Yonhap said, citing an unidentified senior official at presidential Blue House.

“There were speculative reports that Chairman Kim underwent a surgery citing some difference to his walk,” the official was cited as saying.

“We have reasons to believe that there was no surgery, but cannot disclose such details.”

Rumours about Kim’s health have been swirling since his conspicuous no-show at April 15 celebrations for the birthday of his grandfather, the North’s founder — the most important day in the country’s political calendar.

His absence triggered a series of fevered rumours and unconfirmed reports over his condition, while the United States and South Korea insisted they had no information to believe any of the conjecture was true.

North Korean state television showed Kim walking, smiling broadly and smoking a cigarette at what it said was the opening of a fertiliser factory on Friday.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP)

3, May 2020

Of Dr Fontem, PLO Lumumba and the Ambazonia Town Hall ⁰

FELLOW AMBAZONIANS,

I was in a Town Hall Meeting with Prof. Lumumba and more than 200 Ambazonians today, in which Prof gave a lot of good questions and answers for the revolution and Dr. Fontem presented the goals of SCUF, the Southern Cameroons United Front and another one presented the proceedings for the establishment of an Ambazonian National Bank. These are all very good developments into the right direction: more unity among us, more funds and power for the homeland defense & relief, and more chances to win allies or points on global political stage. I hope the moderators of the town hall meeting can publish Prof’s questions and answers and the modalities for SCUF and ANB for everybody soon! Yet let me add something I have on my heart concerning more unity among ourselves and more steady funds for our defense on GZ:

We need to ensure that it is a bottom-up-revolution and not a top-down-revolution, because top-down is easily infiltratable by the enemy. Top-down would mean that some “important” people would, like Paul Biya, just appoint people other people into power positions and that’s it. No, we have to give the people and commanders on GZ the power to vote other people into power and representation positions! That is bottom-up and the blossom of real democracy and freedom!

So, funding and uniting our defense groups is far more important than governing, especially not governing in the wrong way, like appointing people according to tribal or political party affiliation. We all need and want the strongest Ambazonian Forces possible and for that the politicking and personal cult of party leaders has to stop and the humble serving and funding for the homeland has to start. That means that the commanders and LGA-leaders from GZ shall hold Zoom Meetings among themselves in which they vote who the board members of the SCUF and ANB shall be. Also, all existing groups and IGs shall swear a public oath to the common Ambazonian rules and that their foot soldiers have to swear an oath to never attack any other Amba soldier from any group but focus on fighting the occupier altogether. What we really need most is the subordination of all leaders and activists under a common Ambazonian agreement, which says that the people and commanders on GZ have the charge over power and funds, and that political diaspora parties, which keep fighting other Amba groups shall be expelled from the funding and decision-making.

Prof. Lumumba said that we have to bury all factionalism and start speaking in one voice before the EU, AU, UN and ECOWAS, and as long as we don’t have this one voice we shan’t go to the Swiss table. I agree, although I recently recommended going to the Swiss table, but I have to confess that Prof. Lumumba is more right than me. I just wanted to pronounce that we should not run away from the task and walk proud and not fearless. And I think, the way to create this one-voice-representation goes through the united funding process for all commanders on ground zero and letting them vote who our leaders are and whom they shall vote as the supreme leader who tells the EU, AU, UN, US, ECOWAS and so on Ambazonia’s nonnegotiable position.

Of course, the more united we are, the more our enemy will try to corrupt our leadership. That’s why it is so important that we give the power to the people and the commanders, because they know best who can be trusted to lead because he/she is unbribable.

LONG LIVE AMBAZONIA!

By Christoph Messner

3, May 2020

2,000 Chadian students return home after COVID-19 spreads to Cameroon ⁰

Nearly 2000 students from Chad have returned home from neighbouring Cameroon after COVID-19 spread there.

Many reached the border on foot, crossing into the Chadian provinces of Logone Occidental and Mayo-Kebbi Ouest.

Joint initiative

They were supported in their journey home after a joint initiative from the European Union (EU) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) was launched to help them return.

The EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration is the first comprehensive mechanism to protect migrants in West and Central Africa.

The fund made a special allocation of 50,000 Euros through the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa that allows these students to return home.

Quarantined

Upon their arrival, the students were quarantined for 14 days along the border.

None tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. Nonetheless, most now find themselves without resources to continue their journeys to the capital N’Djamena, 450 kilometres from the quarantine centres.

IOM, at the request of the government of Chad, supported the students with transportation, chartering special buses headed back to their communities of origin.

With 46 cases of COVID-19 — yet no fatality- confirmed as of 27 April — Chad, too, has closed its land and air borders, schools, universities, religious buildings and non-essential businesses.

Enforcing curfews

Public transport is strictly limited and several provinces are enforcing curfews.

IOM said it is working closely with Chad’s government and other partners to ensure that the most vulnerable population groups are protected and assisted.

Anne Kathrin Schaefer, IOM Chief of Mission in Chad said: “Since the borders closed, we have been informed of regular arrivals of Chadian nationals in the country.”

She continued: “This worries us as most here have no opportunities to safely return to their families after having used their meagre resources to purchase food, water and other essentials during their quarantine period.”

Source: Voice-online

3, May 2020

Senior Ambazonia commander killed in Bafut ⁰

A separatist commander known simply as General Alhaji was among some insurgents who were killed on Friday in Bafut, a locality in Northwest, one of the two troubled Anglophone regions of Cameroon, the Cameroon army said Saturday.

The death of Alhaji was confirmed by Kingsley Ashu, a separatist leader, in a Facebook post.

He was killed after a week-long military offensive in the locality that also witnessed the seizure of war weapons and dismantling of several separatist camps, local authorities said.

Alhaji was commanding one of the “largest and fiercest” armed separatist groups known as “Seven Katta Bafut Defence forces” in the region, according to security reports.

He became “notorious” in 2018 after kidnapping over 80 school children and teachers and a driver of a secondary school in Bamenda, Cameroon Anglophone’s largest city, security sources said, adding that his physical elimination could prove a major blow to the rebels in that region.

Since 2017, government forces have been clashing with armed separatist forces who want the two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest to secede from the majority French-speaking nation and form a new country which they call “Ambazonia.”

Source: Xinhuanet

3, May 2020

French Cameroun: Hundreds Rush for Archbishop Kleda’s herbal COVID-19 ‘cure’ ⁰

Cameroonians have been flooding into the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Douala, where Archbishop Samuel Kleda claims he has found an herbal cure for COVID-19.

The popularity of the archbishop’s alleged cure has prompted some authorities to try to make the treatment more widely available, even though medical experts have urged extreme caution about its use.

Paul Nyaga, curate of St. Paul’s Parish of the Douala Archdiocese, said through a messaging application that since information circulated a week ago that Kleda could treat COVID-19, many have been rushing to his parish for help.

He said the parish had been overwhelmed by the number of people coming from Yaounde, Bafoussam and Douala with test results showing that they were COVID-19-positive and saying they did not have access to treatment. He said he told them to go to Catholic hospitals in the archdiocese, where they would be treated when there were additional supplies of the archbishop’s herbal remedy.

Among the hundreds asking for help was hairdresser Clementine Eya, 27, who also spoke via a messaging application from Douala.

She said she had no money to pay for the hospital treatment of her elder sister, who tested COVID-19-positive in Douala and wanted to see the archbishop because she had been told his treatment was efficient and free.

Several dozen treated

Kleda told state media CRTV on April 25 that he had treated several dozen people, including eight medical staff members, for conditions affecting their respiratory systems, just like the coronavirus does.

Kleda, speaking via a messaging application from Douala, said he could confirm that his 30 years of medicinal plant research experience, especially on herbal treatment, had enabled him to find a cure for COVID-19.

He said he was very happy because everyone who had taken the herbal remedy had been cured of COVID-19. He added that that his goal as a servant of God was to help poor and suffering people, and that was why he gave away the cure, which he named Essential Oils, free of charge.

Last week, the Cameroonian government sent a team of researchers and doctors to determine the validity of Kleda’s claimed cure. Public Health Minister Malachie Manaouda said the government’s support would be determined by the outcome of the investigation. He said if Kleda was proven to be right, the government would make it more widely available for COVID-19 patients.

The Cameroon Medical Council and the Cameroon Academy of Sciences have both called for research to determine the efficiency of Essential Oils.

Advice: Rely on hospitals

Dieudonne Kameni of the Cameroon Medical Council said that for now, COVID-19 patients should count only on treatment at authorized government hospitals.

He said by telephone from Douala that medical practice has rules, regulations and professional ethics that must be observed before drugs can be used in patients, but that the archbishop’s collection of herbs was still at a preclinical testing stage and could not be scientifically called a cure for COVID-19. He said he was asking patients to go to hospitals, which for now were the only sure places COVID-19 could be treated.

Kleda said he would continue administering the treatment to patients who sought help from him while waiting for scientists to complete their findings. Many patients have, however, complained of the difficulty of obtaining Essential Oils because of high demand.

Cameroon has been hit harder by the coronavirus than any other country in Central Africa. As of Saturday afternoon EDT, the country had recorded 2,077 confirmed cases, with 64 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics.

Source: VOA

2, May 2020

Spain eases strict lockdown as US approves virus drug ⁰

Spaniards were allowed out of their homes to exercise and walk freely after 48 days of confinement on Saturday as some European nations began cautiously easing virus lockdowns while others like Russia faced a spike in new infections.

As governments across the globe balance lifting restrictions to restart economies against the risk of new infections, US authorities brought some hope by approving an experimental drug for emergency use on coronavirus patients.

The measure was the latest step in a global push to find viable treatments and a vaccine for the coronavirus, which has left half of humanity under some form of lockdown, hammered the world economy and caused more than 3.3 million confirmed infections.

The virus has killed nearly 239,000 people since it emerged in China late last year.

With signs the pandemic in their hardest-hit nations is slowing, European countries and some parts of the US have begun to lift restrictions and to try to inject life into economies battered by weeks of closure.

In Madrid and Barcelona, Spaniards took to the streets to exercise and walk freely as the government eased seven weeks of strict lockdown in a country with one of the highest number of fatalities at nearly 25,000.

“After so many weeks in confinement, I badly wanted to go out, run, see the world,” said financial advisor Marcos Abeytua in Madrid’s Chueca district who got up a 7am to enjoy some time outside. “Yesterday, I was like a child on Christmas Eve.”

In the city’s Retiro park, many residents were out to running, sometimes in groups, as a policeman used a loudspeaker to urge them to keep out of deserted avenue and on the pavement.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez however said masks would be obligatory on public transport from Monday.

Spain, Germany, Austria and Scandinavian nations are all slowly easing lockdowns as the virus cases slow though they will keep in place social distancing measures, demand the use of masks or increase testing to try to track infections.

France on Saturday decided it would extend a health emergency, in place since March 24, by two months until July 24, Health Minister Olivier Veran announced after a cabinet meeting.

Italy is preparing to ease restrictions in coming days while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who spent time in intensive care with the virus, said Britain had past the peak of its outbreak.

Ireland extended its lockdown by two weeks to May 18, with Prime Minister Leo Varadkar saying the nation will reopen “in a slow, phased, staged way” after that.

In Russia, though, authorities reported the largest increase in coronavirus cases with the new infections rising by nearly 10,000 in a single day.

In Moscow, the epicentre of Russia’s outbreak, around 2 percent of the population is infected by COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus, officials said.

“The threat is apparently on the rise,” Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, said on his blog earlier Saturday.

– Treatment hopes –

More than 3.3 million cases of infection have been officially diagnosed in 195 countries, including 1.5 million in Europe alone. That number is likely only a fraction of true cases as testing is still limited.

The United States has the most deaths with more than 65,000, followed by Italy with 28,236, the United Kingdom with 27,510, Spain with 25,100 deaths and France with 24,594 fatalities.

US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that Remdesivir, an antiviral drug initially developed to treat Ebola, was given the green light for use after a major trial found that it boosted recovery in serious COVID-19 patients.

“It’s really a very promising situation,” Trump said on Friday at the White House.

The drug incorporates itself into the virus’s genome, short-circuiting its replication process.

Its approval came as the US leaders struggled with growing pressure from citizens wearying of stay-at-home orders.

Trump is keen for a turnaround as the world’s largest economy reels with tens of millions left jobless.

Texas became the largest US state yet to ease curbs, while anti-lockdown demonstrations were held in several states — including California, where officials had re-closed beaches beginning Friday to avoid a repeat of last weekend when crowds flocked to the shoreline.

In Huntington Beach, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) south of Los Angeles, several thousand people rallied to denounce Governor Gavin Newsom’s beach shutdown order.

“Open California!” chanted protesters near the closed beaches, carrying signs that read “All jobs are essential” or “Freedom is essential”.

– Hong Kong shops opening –

In Asia, India announced that the lockdown on its 1.3 billion people — the world’s biggest — would continue for two more weeks from May 4.

And in Singapore, the government said Saturday that pet food stores and hair salons will be allowed to reopen on May 12.

Most of the city-state’s infections have been detected at dormitories housing migrant workers, and their confinement was extended to June 1.

Hong Kong recorded zero confirmed case of coronavirus on Saturday, the sixth day within a week.

The city’s social distancing regulations including limits on gathering of more than four people are due to expire on May 7, but authorities have not decided whether to extend them.

The city’s chief executive has said that civil servants will return to work in the office starting from May 4.

During the long weekend with public holidays to celebrate Buddha’s birthday and Labour Day, residents flocked to country parks and the city’s outlying islands to get some fresh air.

Shops and restaurants started to resume business in normal opening hours with more consumers going out to streets and shopping malls.

The virus restrictions put a damper on May Day celebrations worldwide on Friday as many labour unions delayed their rallies and some held online events, while a determined few hit the streets in face masks.

May Day carried extra significance this year because of the staggering number of people put out of work by the pandemic, with the global economy in a tailspin and facing its worst downturn since the Great Depression.

Stock markets tumbled again on Friday after Trump’s unproven allegation that the virus may have come from a lab in Wuhan — the central Chinese city where the disease first emerged.

Source: AFP

2, May 2020

Number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Europe top 1.5 million ⁰

Over 1.5 million cases of coronavirus have been recorded in Europe, just under half the worldwide total, according to an AFP tally at 0850 GMT on Saturday.

With at least 1,506,853 infections, including 140,260 deaths, Europe is the hardest-hit continent. Across the world, 3,350,224 cases and 238,334 deaths have been recorded.

Spain, with 215,216 cases and 24,824 deaths, Italy with 207,428 cases and 28,236 deaths, Britain (177,454 and 27,510), France (167,346 and 24,594) and Germany (161,703 and 6,575) are the five European countries with official tolls over 150,000.

The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections. Many countries are testing only the most serious cases.

(AFP)

2, May 2020

No room for debate in S. Cameroons UNIs as Education Minister censors discussion of Ambazonia Crisis ⁰

The suspension of a university professor’s classes in Cameroon has raised fears that the government wants to silence those who dare raise the subject of the country’s Anglophone crisis.

Since late 2016, Anglophone regions of Cameroon have been gripped in violence between government forces and armed groups seeking a separate state. The crisis has claimed thousands of lives.

The government has repeatedly denied that its security forces have committed abuses during the crisis, but now it seems to be taking matters even further.

On April 20, the minister of higher education sent a letter to Buea University alleging that law professor Felix Agbor Nkongho, also known as Agbor-Balla, breached “the university’s code of ethics and conduct” and called on the head of the university to take measures. Agbor-Balla’s classes were then suspended.

Agbor-Balla told Human Rights Watch that he believes the suspension of his classes was because of an assignment in which he asked students to explore the reasons behind the Anglophone crisis. He added that it was only meant to get the law students to think critically and put the crisis into a legal context.

“I don’t discuss politics in the classroom,” he said.

A Ministry of Higher Education representative told Radio France International that Agbor-Balla had “turned a classroom into a political space.”

It is not the first time teachers got into trouble for discussing current events in Cameroon. On September 13, 2019, a teacher at the high school in Avebe-Esse, a village in the South region, was arrested after mentioning in class that the government was considering allowing jailed opposition leader Maurice Kamto to participate in a national dialogue. The teacher was released five days later.

Agbor-Balla had been arrested in January 2017 for leading peaceful protests in Buea along with other Anglophone activists. Charged by a military court under the anti-terrorism law, he was eventually released in August 2017 and all charges were dropped.

Since then, he has advocated for upholding human rights during the crisis, denouncing abuses by both the military and the armed separatists.

University students should be encouraged to debate the most pressing issues of the day. The suspension of Agbor-Balla’s courses shows the government wants to stifle that debate.

Culled from Human Rights Watch

2, May 2020

Southern Cameroons War: Does shame have a place in the UN hierarchy? ⁰

As more and more civilians have been killed by the Cameroon government of Paul Biya, absentee president for 37 years, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has been silent. He had made a deal with Biya’s UN Ambassador Tommo Monthe as chair of the UN Budget Committee for administrative favors in exchange for silence on the slaughter or “subduing” of the Anglophone minority.

Now on May 1 amid the Coronavirus pandemic, the US State Department as part of a larger statement bragged of “Cameroon: Nearly $8 million for health and humanitarian assistance will help provide infection-control in key health facilities, strengthen laboratories and surveillance, prepare communities, and bolster local messaging. This includes $6.1 million for health and IDA humanitarian assistance from USAID, in addition to nearly $1.9 million in MRA humanitarian assistance to support refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and their host communities. This assistance builds upon more than $960 million in total U.S. investment in the country over the past 20 years, $390 million of which was for health.”

But where did all this money go? Correspondingly, the World Health Organization recently gave Biya’s government 14 luxury vehicles to Biya’s cronies and this was followed by a UN endorsement of Biya’s genocidal campaign in Southern Cameroons “we acknowledge the commitment of the President of Cameroon to resolve the conflict in the North‑West and South‑West regions through peaceful means.”

In the UN’s call to release Southern Cameroons political prisoners, Guterres and his Nigerian Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed have ignored or been complicity in imprisoning: “Most of the Anglophones who are currently in detention were sentenced on terrorism charges, among which is President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe Julius, and Nine others who were sentenced to life imprisonment. Other inmates have not been convicted yet, and about 75 percent are currently held in pre-trial detention. These people could not be released under Article 8 of the constitution because that falls under the prerogative of the judiciary, whereas those to be freed under the COVID-19 response fall under a presidential decree. The Cameroonian judiciary can release Anglophone prisoners using ‘nolle prosequi’ meaning ‘will no longer prosecute.'”

Now after Guterres ghoulishly took credit for a voluntary ceasefire declared by one opposition group in the Southern Cameroon without making any comment about Paul Biya’s army ceasing fire, the absurdity has become clear. A list of nation states tipping their hat to a ceasefire does NOT include the Cameroon of Paul Biya.

With support from the UN, Biya tried to jam through a vote even amid the Coronavirus crisis. Cameroon is the genocide of Guterres. We’ll have more on this. Guterres has been denouncing some few attacks in Cameroon NOT by Paul Biya’s forces, in Bamenda on Women’s Day.

Meanwhile Guterres and Dujarric have had no comment on, and have refused to answer on, Biya’s expulsion and now public trashing of their own UN OCHA officials in Bamenda, Andrew Jack Pendleton. Biya’s minister Atanga Nji has publicly denounced this UN official for his mild comments on the government’s slaughter of civilians at Ngarbuh. But Guterres has said nothing. The most basic thing a UN Secretary General is expected to do is speak for UN officials being chased out. But no – Guterres is too corrupt.

On February we reported on the killing of more than two dozen civilians including children in Ngarbuh in Southern Cameroons. Since then Guterres, Dujarric and Melissa Fleming have refused to answer daily questions on what has become their genocide in Cameroon.

Now there’s widely circulated video of a toddler whose mother was killed in Babanki (Kedjom Ketinguh) in Mezam, in the North West region of Cameroon. Soldiers are responsible, and 10 other civilians have been killed. One of the witnesses who exposed the Biya government’s mass killing at Ngarbuh, Mallam Danjuma has been killed and dumped in Bui by government forces in Kikaikelaki. And from the UN of Guterres? Nothing. This is Guterres’ genocide.

Reported by Inner City Press