7, February 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Government continues to use child soldiers ⁰

The Yaoundé government has continued to use child soldiers to prosecute its war against Southern Cameroonians who simply complained about marginalization

Over the last years, the government has been organizing army recruitments in the South and it has been using money and fake promises to lure children, most of who are from poor families in the South region.

Though being a signatory to many conventions against the use child soldiers in wars, the Yaounde government has continued to violate these conventions by recruiting underaged boys and girls into the military with the objective of sending them to the two English-speaking regions of the country where a violent insurgency is playing out.

This is a violation of international law.

This is a 14-year-old soldier “Gaston from the South”, a child soldier recruited by the military because he was unemployed. The older boys are refusing to join the military for fear of being killed in Southern Cameroons.

According to a source at the ministry of defense, some 2,100 soldiers have lost their lives in Southern Cameroons and this number does not include police officers and warders.

By Rita Akana

7, February 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: B.I.R oblige Ambazonians to take voter’s card ⁰

Cameroon’s military is obliging civilians in the two English-speaking regions of the country to take voter’s card which are not even in their names.

In Kumba a young man was shot in the hand in on Friday, February 7, 2020, by a B.I.R officer, as government forces scramble to get more people to vote for the failed ruling party.

There are desperate efforts to to get the young man to Douala for treatment, as nothing is working in Kumba due to the lockdown.

Across the two English-speaking regions of the country, there are massive arrests by the military.

Thousands of people have been arrested in Buea, most of who are university students and their whereabouts are not known.

It is believed that they will be released at the end of voting on Sunday, as they will be made to wear the famous CPDM attire to demonstrate that many people in the region are in support of the party that has been in power for 37 years and has nothing to show for its long stay in power.

In Mamfe, the story is the same. The government’s intimidation is on display. In Ossing, a town some 5 km from Mamfe, all the able-bodied young men and women has now taken up residence in the jungle as army soldiers move from house to house looking for young people to arrest for election purposes.

In Bamenda, the military has been poisoning the environment with its music and noise, calling on civilians to see the sex-starved, alcohol-inflamed and trigger-happy military as a friend and not a foe.

After having killed thousands since 2016 when the crisis started, the government is just realizing now that its military approach has been counterproductive.

More than 5,000 Southern Cameroonians have been killed and more than 200 villages have been razed by the military as a strategy to end the insurgency in the two English-speaking regions of the country. But the results of the strategy leave much to be desired.

More than 90% of Southern Cameroonians have been radicalized, and even the moderates have had to walk back on their decision, as government bullets bring down their families and friends.

Besides, the human cost, the economic cost is also staggering. The country’s economy has taken a nosedive due to the conflict.

State-owned Corporation such as SONARA, PAMOL and CDC, all located in the country’s southwest region, has taken a hit and this has robbed the government of vital financial resources.

Thousands of people have been laid off following the collapse of these major state-owned corporations and the future is still bleak, as the end of the crisis is not in sight.

Over the last two years, the international community has been calling for an inclusive dialogue that the Yaounde government has dismissed.

The Swiss initiative supported by Canada and the United States has also been rejected by the government, although Southern Cameroonian groups fighting for the total liberation of their territory have welcomed the initiative and have agreed to meet with Yaounde government officials in a neutral place.

Instead of accepting the international community’s proposal, the Yaounde government hastily organized its own initiative in October 2019 which it branded as the Major National Dialogue.

The government limited the issues to be discussed and it manufactured its own Diaspora that participated in the pseudo-dialogue.

From the dialogue, it emerged that a special status would be granted to the country’s two English-speaking regions, but the contents of the special status remain a mystery.

Since October 2019, following the Major National Dialogue, the government has unleashed the full spectrum of its military strength on the people of Southern Cameroons, killing thousands and burning hundreds of villages.

It would appear part of the special status is to reduce the population of the two English-speaking regions of the country.

But from every indication, the people of Southern Cameroons have turned their backs on the government. The majority want a clean disconnection from a country that has brought them death and destruction.

For now, no government initiative can change the mentality of a people who have experienced marginalization for half a century.

If the government wants to win hearts and minds those regions, then it must embrace the Swiss initiative and order its forces to stop maiming and killing innocent civilians.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in the Uk

7, February 2020

Manyu County: Military and fake Amba enforce lockdown in Ossing ⁰

The citizens of the town of Ossing have all escaped into the bushes surrounding the town, as the military and fake Amba continue to sow chaos and panic in the town.

Currently, the town is empty, as all the young men and women have skipped town following a raid by the military on Tuesday that targeted all the able-bodied men and women.

The military, which is frustrated after failing to mobilize enough resources for its reckless social activities, showed up in the town and arrested a young man from late General James Tataw’s neighbourhood and took him around the town, obliging him to take them to the bushes where the honest and hardworking citizens of Ossing were hiding.

There is panic all over the place. The young man does not know all the Ossing jungle. Ossing has millions of hectares of forest, some of it being sacred, and it will be preposterous to think that an individual can have sound knowledge of the forest.

Speaking to a resident of the city, Cameroon Concord News Group gathered that the military in Mamfe has the nasty habit of raiding villages and towns when the soldiers are broke.

The military has transformed innocent citizens into its ATM and each time the soldiers are broke, they show up and arrest innocent people who must pay before they are released.

“We have all fled to our farms and bushes. They cannot find us once we melt into our jungle. We don’t have any money to give these crooks in uniform. We are tired of being arrested for crimes we have not committed. They can own the houses. We will only return after the elections. They want to oblige us to vote. We have nothing to do with their elections,” the Ossing resident told the Cameroon Concord News Group correspondent in Mamfe.

He added that “we are really suffering here. Many people who escaped military violence in their own towns now live with us and this has made us a target. The military is always showing up to ensure that there are no fighters in the village and there are none living here with us.”

“They better go into the jungle to arrest the real fighters who are armed to the teeth and are prepared to take on the military. Our people are suffering because the military is not playing its role as the people’s protector. Instead, it is harassing us every day for money,” he said.

Meanwhile, the criminals who killed the regent chief of Ossing returned a few days ago to capture one of the councilors. The councilor and the wife have skipped town, conscious of the fate that the fake Amba fighters have reserved for them.

Cameroon Concord News Group has been trying to get in touch with the councilor, but to no avail. Many people suspect he might have switched off his phone, as he knows that the criminals might call his number.

The lockdown in Ossing is the worst, as residents of the town are stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea. The military and the fake Amba seem to be in an unholy alliance.

According to another resident, the military and the fake fighters seem to have agreed on a schedule. If the military is not around, the fake fighters show up to make life hard for the residents, he said.

“Now that we are all in the jungle, the lockdown will be total. Ossing is now officially a ghost town. No young man will show up there. The military are walking the streets and they will stop at nothing when it comes to arresting our people. We are better off living in our jungle than in the city. From time to time, we only show up to see if our old parents are still alive. That’s how we now live. That’s the Hell the government has created for us,” he regretted.

By Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap in Glasgow with files from Kingsley Betek

7, February 2020

Cameroon elections overshadowed by boycott and violence ⁰

Voters in Cameroon will cast their ballots Sunday in a country where the mood has been darkened by separatist violence and calls for an election boycott.

Elections to renew the central African country’s legislature and local councils are taking place for the first time in seven years, after two postponements.

Despite the delays, the campaigning has been low key.

In the capital Yaounde, the few banners put up by the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (RDPC in its French initials) are barely more numerous than posters calling on people to pick up their litter.

The RDPC supports President Paul Biya, one of the world’s oldest and longest-serving leaders, who has ruled with a steely fist for 37 of his 86 years.

The main opposition party, the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC) is refusing to field a single candidate.

Its leader, Maurice Kamto, spent nine months in jail after his defeat in 2018 presidential elections and is now abroad.

“We could have had a few seats in parliament and some town councillors, but how would that enable us to influence events in Cameroon?” Kamto said in an interview with AFP in Paris last month.

“I would have voted for the MRC but on Sunday I’m going to stay at home,” a young Yaounde voter, who gave his name as Xavier, told AFP.

The boycott will all but guarantee a crushing victory for the RDPC, which in the outgoing legislature had 148 out of 180 seats.

“Where’s the opposition?” was the whimsical question aired by a local RDPC chief, Augustin Tsafack, on the sidelines of a party rally in Yaounde.

The other large opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), which currently has 18 seats, will take part in Sunday’s vote, going back on a threat to snub it.

– Violence –

In parallel with the leaden political mood, Cameroon is struggling with two conflicts.

In two English-speaking regions in the west, the armed forces are battling separatists who want to secede from the majority French-speaking country.

The 28-month conflict has claimed more than 3,000 lives and caused more than 700,000 people to flee, according to tolls compiled by NGOs.

“How can the state guarantee security for elections in the anglophone regions, given that some towns are now inaccessible by road?” an independent observer from one of these regions asked at a meeting of the electoral commission in Yaounde on Wednesday.

The SDF traditionally draws much of its support from the anglophone regions but now fears that it has been outflanked by the radicals — and says its candidates there have come under attack.

Similar worries are being voiced for the safety of polling stations in Cameroon’s Far North region, which has been battered by Boko Haram jihadists crossing from Nigeria.

– City power –

Municipal elections will also take place on polling day, something that has excited most media interest given the seemingly inevitable outcome of legislative vote.

Some cities, including Douala, the country’s economic hub, could swing to the opposition, according to some forecasts.

City chiefs are to gain powers under measures taken in December to decentralise some of the authorities out of Yaounde.

The reforms have been triggered by the anglophone crisis although they fall far short of meeting the separatists’ demands.

“The stakes (on Sunday) are local,” said Stephane Akoa, a researcher at the Paul Ango Ela think tank in Yaounde.

“Things are going to change,” he said. “Mayors who aren’t ready will pay the price.”

Source: AFP

7, February 2020

UEFA reveal plan to help Cameroon capitalise on ‘surreal passion’ for women’s football ⁰

UEFA have outlined a plan to progress women’s football in Cameroon in an attempt to build on the ‘surreal passion’ for the sport in the country.

Former Dutch international Hesterine De Reus, who recently flew out to the African country as part of a Uefa-Assist, has called for radical changes to be made to their footballing set-up.

Despite reaching the last 16 of the 2019 Women’s World Cup, Reus insists Cameroon has a great deal more potential it can unlock.

She said: “We’ve (UEFA) analysed the situation and spoken with Fecafoot about the next steps.

“We’re going to help with coaching education, the youth league and talent development plan by providing technical support in all these areas.

“The passion for women’s football in Cameroon is surreal. Football is in the genes of Cameroonians and they play everywhere but I feel at youth level it has to be better organised.

“There are a lot of young talented players here but there is a need for more investment. If it is well organised, we can easily identify the young talented players and create more opportunities for them to further develop.

“Women’s football is developing very fast on an international level and if Cameroon have the ambition to continuously qualify for the world cup, we need to start building the structures.”

Source: News Chain.UK

7, February 2020

Coronavirus: ‘Fragile’ Africa prepares for high risk spread to its borders ⁰

An isolation ward stands ready at a hospital in Khartoum, Sudan. Laboratories in Senegal and Madagascar have the testing equipment they need. Passengers arriving at airports in Gambia, Cameroon and Guinea are being screened for fever and other viral symptoms.

Africa’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says it has activated its emergency operation centre in the face of what global health officials say is a high risk the coronavirus disease epidemic that began in China will spread to its borders.

On a poor continent where healthcare capacity is limited, early detection of any outbreak will be crucial.

The fear is great that a spreading epidemic of coronavirus infections will be hard to contain in countries where health systems are already overburdened with cases of Ebola, measles, malaria and other deadly infectious diseases.

“The key point is to limit transmission from affected countries and the second point is to ensure that we have the capacity to isolate and also to provide appropriate treatment to people that may be infected,” said Michel Yao, emergency operations program manager at the World Health Organization’s regional office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is barring its citizens from flying to China. Burkina Faso has asked Chinese citizens to delay travelling to Burkina, and is warning that they face quarantine if they do. Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda have all suspended flights to China.

“What we are emphasising to all countries is that they should at least have early detection,” Yao said.

“We know how fragile the health system is on the African continent and these systems are already overwhelmed by many ongoing disease outbreaks, so for us it is critical to detect earlier to that we can prevent the spread.”

John Nkengasong, Africa’s CDC director, told a briefing in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa this week that the activation of the emergency operation centre would create a single incident system to manage the outbreak across the continent.

The Africa CDC will also hold a training workshop in Senegal for 15 African countries on laboratory diagnosis, he said.

The continent has more than doubled the number of laboratories now equipped to diagnose the viral infection, this week adding facilities in Ghana, Madagascar and Nigeria and to established testing labs in South Africa and Sierra Leone.

“By the end of the week we expect that an additional 24 countries (in Africa) will receive the reagents needed to conduct the tests and will have the test running,” a spokeswoman for the WHO’s Africa Region told Reuters.

Source: Reuters

7, February 2020

Southern Cameroons intensifying conflict and what it means for civilians ⁰

Cameroonian government forces and rival anglophone separatists have stepped up arrests, abductions, and deadly attacks in the two months leading up to Sunday’s parliamentary and municipal elections, causing a devastating fallout for civilians that looks set to worsen.

Perceived marginalisation by the francophone majority of the minority English-speaking community – some 20 percent of the population, concentrated in the Northwest and Southwest regions – saw a separatist insurgency erupt in Cameroon in October 2016.

But what has until recently been a low-intensity conflict – albeit one that has left an estimated 3,000 civilians dead, and nearly 730,000 people displaced at home and abroad – now risks entering a new and more dangerous phase, according to aid workers, residents, and experts.

Why has violence spiked?

In November 2019, President Paul Biya set a date for the elections, sparking unprecedented violence, destruction, and human rights abuses across the two western regions – referred to collectively by the separatists as the Southern Cameroons or the Republic of Ambazonia.

“This is the first time since the anglophone crisis began that I have seen this level of violence,” Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, told The New Humanitarian. “I have never seen so many incidences, attacks, and reports [of violence] as I am seeing now.”

Previously, the conflict had been marked by periodic peaks in violence coinciding with public holidays and court proceedings for arrested separatist leaders. “This has now been taken to another level,” Allegrozzi said.

Shortly after Biya’s election announcement, on 1 December, separatists attempted to shoot down a commercial plane landing in Bamenda, the capital of the Northwest region. A separatist leader, Cho Ayaba, claimed it was a legitimate target as commercial planes were used to transport soldiers and weapons.

“We are bent on doing anything, anything that it takes for this election, this sham election, this colonial election, not [to be held] in Ambazonia.”

The separatists have declared Sunday’s polls illegal and stepped up operations, reportedly abducting 40 candidates in December and burning down a government election office in January.

“In Ambazonia, we do not have elections, because we do not have a government,” Fombat Forbah Dieudonné, a spokesperson for the Ambazonia Restoration Forces – the defence arm of the self-declared interim government of Ambazonia – told TNH.

“Our government is still an interim government that operates from the diaspora,” Dieudonné said. “We are still fighting to restore our independence.”

Separatists have called for a “lockdown” between 7 and 12 February in the two western regions, with restrictions on movement, and closures of schools, markets, and businesses.

They have issued threats of violence and death to those who do not observe the lockdown via social media, WhatsApp, and separatist-run television and radio stations. Separatists have also called for humanitarian organisations to suspend activities during the lockdown.

“We are bent on doing anything, anything that it takes for this election, this sham election, this colonial election, not [to be held] in Ambazonia,” Dieudonné said. “Our restoration forces have openly declared that there are going to be no elections taking place in their territory.”

The UN has recorded “a significant increase in incidents against civilians since December, including killings and burning of houses and villages with consequent displacement of civilians”, James Nunan, head of the UN’s aid coordination body, OCHA, in the two regions, told TNH.

How are humanitarian needs growing?

As the crisis escalates, civilians are increasingly caught in the crossfire, and assistance is harder for them to attain.

“The closure of over 40 percent of the health centres and the escalation of the crisis because of the elections is likely to intensify the deteriorating health conditions for the over four million people living in the English-speaking regions,” noted independent humanitarian analysts ACAPS on 21 January.

The International Crisis Group estimates that at least 3,000 civilians have been killed since 2016. Across the Northwest and Southwest regions, an estimated 600,000-700,000 children have been out of school since 2016, as 80 percent of schools there remain closed.

As of 31 December, OCHA estimated that 679,393 people had been internally displaced by the conflict, and another 51,000 people have crossed the border into neighbouring Nigeria.

Between 9 and 15 December, 5,475 people were displaced in the Northwest region alone, fleeing military raids and clashes between separatist groups and government security forces. As of 20 December, no humanitarian assistance had been delivered to those newly displaced, OCHA said.

“The humanitarian situation is increasingly worrying.”

Most of the internally displaced people are sheltering in the bush with little access to shelter, food, or healthcare. Providing humanitarian assistance has proved challenging.

The national government has “tough procedures that must be cleared, and passages need to be negotiated with non-state armed groups”, explained Fon Nsoh, a coordinator for the Community Initiative for Sustainable Development (COMINSUD), a local aid NGO based in Bamenda.

“The humanitarian situation is increasingly worrying,” OCHA’s Nunan said. And it is likely to get worse, especially as displacement figures for the recent uptick of violence in January and early February are yet to be properly recorded and needs assessed.

Are civilian abuses being committed?

Whereas during the conflict’s first two years, violence against civilians and human rights abuses were perpetrated largely by government security forces, HRW’s Allegrozzi said such actions have more recently been “coming from both sides”.

“Abuses are being committed, I would say now, in an almost equal manner both by the separatists and the security forces,” she explained. “If, at the beginning, we observed more abuses from the government side, I would say that now, especially with these elections upcoming, that the frequency, the scale, and depravity of abuses committed by the separatists is really serious.”

According to Allegrozzi, armed separatist groups have targeted and assaulted civilians willing to participate in the elections. They have assaulted, threatened and tortured members and supporters of political parties, including the ruling party and Social Democratic Front, the main opposition party.

Human Rights Watch documented at least 25 cases of kidnapping of candidates to the elections since mid-November 2019, and heard reliable reports of over 100 people kidnapped by the separatists over the same period. Separatist groups have also used intimidation and violence to keep children and teachers out of schools.

Most recently, on 1 February, separatists attacked a military convoy in the Northwest region carrying a minister travelling to Mbengwi – the main town in Momo district – for election campaign activities.

“People are afraid. Not so much because they don’t want to vote, but for fear of being abused.”

Civilians have condemned the separatists’ increasingly brutal tactics.

“We all agree that the governance system is not the best,” said Magdaline Agbor Tarkang, Southwest regional president of the Cameroon Women’s Peace Movement, a local NGO. “But again, I can attest to the fact that more than 90 percent of our population don’t agree with that violence, [the] maiming of the same people you are trying to protect, killing them, abducting.”

In this climate of violence and intimidation, “people are afraid”, Tarkang told TNH. “Not so much because they don’t want to vote, but for fear of being abused. The situation is not very convenient for very free and fair elections to take place.”

Government security forces – including military personnel, gendarmes, and police – have also killed civilians, burned hundreds of houses and dozens of villages, and arbitrarily arrested and tortured hundreds of people suspected of having links to the various separatist groups.

They have “failed to adequately address the threats posed by the armed separatists”, and “conducted abusive security operations resulting in an excessive use of force, unlawful killings and destruction of property,” said Allegrozzi.

Are aid workers being targeted?

On the morning of 30 January, separatists kidnapped four staff from COMINSUD.

According to an incident report provided by the local aid NGO, abductors accused the organisation of “working with the government in registering people for elections” and “harbouring a staff of French expression serving as a spy under the pretext of doing humanitarian assistance”.

Three of the four staff members who were abducted were beaten and “subjected to different forms of psychological torture and threats”, the report said. The organisation, working alongside other humanitarian actors, negotiated the successful release of the staff the following day.

Also on 30 January, three staff from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Foundation were abducted in Bambili, a town east of Bamenda, after separatists mistook their suggestion box for a government election box. All were later released without ransom.

What are the latest conflict dynamics?

Armed separatist groups are becoming more organised, mobilising resources from abroad, and carrying out more sophisticated attacks against government security forces.

It is estimated that between 800 and 1,000 government security forces have been killed since the conflict began in 2016. Some 300 separatist fighters have been killed, according to Dieudonné, the separatist spokesperson.

“Our life is no longer safe.”

Since early January, the military has reinforced the Northwest and Southwest regions, deploying some 700 additional gendarmes, carrying out deadly military raids and clashing with separatist groups, according to a recent report by the International Crisis Group.

According to several witnesses, government security forces carried out military raids on Sunday in Owe and Ikata villages, both in Fako district in the Southwest region, killing three civilians in Ikata. Military raids carried out since the new year have resulted in at least 28 deaths, including six in Donga Mantung, three in Babessi-Ndop, and nine in Mbiame Kumbo.

On 3 and 4 February, government security forces descended on the town of Muyuka, killing three civilians, burning down at least 45 houses, detaining some 300 people, and displacing an estimated 3,000, many of whom fled into the bush, according to eyewitness accounts.

“Our life is no longer safe,” one Muyuka resident displaced by the recent raid told TNH.

What caused the conflict?

Anglophone discord with the majority francophones has roots in the colonial era when once German Kamerun was handed over to Britain and France after World War I. The territories were granted independence in the 1960s, and anglophone Southern Cameroons voted to join francophone Cameroon to form one united country. Since then, anglophone Cameroonians have felt economically, politically, and socially marginalised.

The crisis escalated in October 2016 when peaceful protests, led by anglophone teachers and lawyers, were met with deadly force. Separatist groups took up arms, initially demanding for a return to the pre-1971 federal system that would give the anglophone regions more autonomy from an increasingly centralised government.

Through 2017, government security forces arrested and detained separatist leaders and continued a deadly crackdown on protesters and civilians.

Calls for autonomy increasingly turned to calls for outright secession and the formation of a country called Ambazonia. Separatist groups proliferated and retaliated. Tensions heightened. President Biya labelled the Ambazonia Defense Forces and other separatist groups “terrorists” and declared war against them in late 2017.

No serious attempt at mediation or exploration of greater autonomy for the western regions has yet been undertaken. Biya announced a “major national dialogue” last year, but it sidelined the separatist leaders and lacked any participation from the international players seen as key to resolving the crisis, namely the African Union and former colonial powers Britain and France.

Culled from The New Humanitarian.org

6, February 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yaounde shocked by the lockdown ⁰

The Yaounde government is terribly shaken by the success of the lockdown declared by various Southern Cameroonian group as a measure to prove that the two English-speaking regions of the country are still being controlled by Southern Cameroonians living abroad.

Over the last couple of months, the beleaguered and cash-strapped Yaounde government has been selling and spreading the illusion that peace was returning to the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Images emerging from many parts of the two English-speaking regions of the country speak to the seriousness of the lockdown, with army soldiers even scared of venturing outside.

In Kumba and Bamenda, the two largest cities in the English-speaking regions of the country, businesses and schools were completely shut down.

Cars and motor bikes were completely out of business and even animals and insects could not be spotted in the towns. The sound of a dropping pin could be heard as both cities had become ghost towns.

In Buea, the capital of Southern Cameroons, not much could be seen on the streets. The city’s three universities have been closed down and despite the arrival of the country’s Prime Minister, Dion Ngute, to the city, not many people showed up to cheer up the disappointed and depressed prime minister who is a native of the Southwest region and has the obligation of proving that the region is solidly behind the bed-ridden president, Paul Biya, who has been in power for 37 years and has nothing to show for his long stay in power.

Under him, Cameroon has made giant strides backwards, with unemployment reaching unprecedented levels.

Despite huge amounts of aid and budget support from international development finance institutions like the World Bank and the African Development Bank, the country’s poorly managed economy has been caught in a downward spiral and the regime’s legendary inefficiency and corruption are pushing the economy down the bottom of the abyss.

Dion Ngute might be in Buea, but his presence will not be swaying the Southwest population that has made up its mind to head in the opposite direction.

The population knows what Dion Ngute is selling, but nobody wants to have anything to do with him. His products are poisonous and nobody needs them.

He is in Buea to campaign for his party, the CPDM that has been ruling the country for 37 years, but the population is fleeing from the party that is being equated to the Coronavirus in China that has claimed close to a thousand lives.

The CPDM is a code name for corruption. It is a crime syndicate chaired by a man whose notoriety is compared to that of Al Capone, a one-time Mafia boss whose corruption and cruelty were unparalleled.

There is not much the CPDM can say that will convince the people of Southern Cameroons. This crime syndicate has presided over the killing of thousands of Southern Cameroonians.

Currently, the party is considered as a terrorist organization in the two English-speaking regions of the country and anybody found to associate with it will face the death penalty.

The people of Southern Cameroons are a dignified people. Despite the intimidation and killings that have become the government’s hallmark, they have continued to support their leaders, especially those who are in the dungeons of East Cameroon.

The Yaounde government has exhausted all the tricks in its book and the weapons in its arsenal just to hoodwink the people, but the results have been unfortunately dismal.

Dignity is a currency that is not designed for everybody, but the people of Southern Cameroons are blessed with it.

They prefer to die of starvation than to change their minds. They have been victims of the Yaounde government’s well orchestrated marginalization and they understand that the time to reverse the evils of the past is now and they have made up their minds to stand with their leaders and to walk the distance with them until they achieve their independence.

Southern Cameroonians do not want to waste their time with worthless projects. They know the elections results are already out. They don’t want the world to think that they will be there next Sunday to rubberstamp the CPDM- manufactured results.

Southern Cameroonians have survived the impossible. Their families and friends have been killed by Mr. Biya’s army. Their businesses have been ruined and their homes have been torched. They are sure they will survive the challenging days ahead.

Mr. Dion Ngute and his fellow senior southwest CPDM officials have never condemned government atrocities in the two English-speaking regions of the country. How does he think the brave people of the rich Southwest will be rushing to welcome him in Buea after the atrocities of his government?

If he had consulted any soothsayer in East Cameroon who had informed him that there would be large crowds to welcome him, then he should know that he was mistaken. The people have made up their minds and the Yaounde regime can just go ahead and validate its own election results like it did in the 2018 presidential elections. The people’s minds have been made up.

Dion Ngute should understand that there is a limit to what the human mind can accept. The human mind sometimes rejects scripts written for it by others and that is what Southern Cameroonians have done. No support for the killer party – the CPDM.

By Rita Akana in Buea

6, February 2020

Two train drivers killed in Italy high-speed rail crash ⁰

Two rail workers are killed and about 30 people injured on Thursday when a high-speed train derailed before dawn near Milan in northern Italy, authorities say.

The crash occurred just after 5:30 a.m. (4:30 GMT) near the town of Lodi, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Milan.

“It was a serious accident that had a tragic end with the death of two rail workers” aboard the train, Lodi Prefect Marcello Cardona told reporters, who added that an investigation was underway.

Cardona said none of the injuries suffered were life-threatening and all casualties had been taken to hospital. The Lombardy region’s health department put the number of injured at 31.

“It could have been a lot worse,” Cardona said, adding that there were only 33 people on board the train. Only one person was in the first car and two people in the second when the accident occurred, he said.

“I thought I was dead,” a survivor told local newspaper Liberta from hospital in Piacenza where he was being treated for minor injuries. “I closed my eyes and prayed.”

“The train was going very fast, perhaps 300 kilometers per hour (around 200 miles per hour),” said the unnamed man in his 20s.

“Suddenly, I felt a violent blow. A really loud roar,” said the man who was traveling with a friend in the second carriage.

“We held hands tightly to avoid falling. The wagon overturned and while waiting for help we went out through a hole to save ourselves,” he said, adding that they were stuck on the crashed train for 15 minutes.

The interior minister has been informed and the prosecutor was already at the scene of the accident, the cause of which was unknown, he said.

Two helicopters, hundreds of firemen, police and other authorities descended on the open farmland area outside of Lodi.

“We are greatly saddened by the two deaths, the two rail workers, and we express our solidarity with the families,” said Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte.

“We can’t yet say anything” about the cause of the crash, he told journalists in Rome.

Italian firefighters remove rubbles from the wreckage of a derailed train, outside the city of Lodi, near Milan, northern Italy, on February 6, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

Ripped metal

The Milan-Salerno train was en route to Bologna when it came off the tracks before dawn.

Video images showed ripped metal at the front of the first car, where the engine separated from the train. The first car was flipped on its side and appeared to be still attached to the rest of the train.

The engine car could be seen resting on its side on the other side of a nearby railway building several dozen meters away.

According to initial findings reported by the media, the engine went off the rails and struck a freight wagon on a parallel track before hitting the building.

Italian media reported that work had been done on the track on Wednesday night, but Cardona said it was premature to jump to conclusions on a link between that work and the accident.

“Line maintenance is done continually and it’s much too early to associate the accident to maintenance,” he said.

Dozens of high-speed trains on the north-south route were canceled following the derailment, while other trains were rerouted, adding an hour to the journey, operator Trenitalia said.

Italy’s last serious train accident occurred in January 2018, when three women died and about 100 passengers were injured when a packed train derailed near Milan due to poor track maintenance.

Managers and employees of Italy’s state railway, RFI, as well as two former members of the national railway safety agency were charged with negligent homicide and other crimes.

(Source: AFP)

6, February 2020

Cameroon: PM Ngute Campaigns in Buea ⁰

Cameroon’s Prime Minister, Dion Ngute, arrived in Buea on Thursday, February 6, 2020, where he campaigned for his party, the Cameroon Peoples Dictatorship Movement (CPDM) that has been in power for 37 years with nothing to show for.

The low-energy Prime Minister came to the Southwest regional headquarters in an attempt to demonstrate that there is security in the region.

Before reaching Bongo Square where the long and empty campaign speeches were read, there was gunfire in Muea, some 2 km from where he read his long boring speech. The gunfire was a reminded that the residents of that land were still unhappy with the government he is serving.

As a native of the Southwest region, Dion Ngute is expected to drum up support for his disintegrating party in his region.

But there is nothing that can really make the people of this rich land to admire a government that has killed many of its citizens. Selling the CPDM in the Southwest is like trying to sell a pig to Americans, claiming that it is a beautiful girl.

The people of the Southwest have resoundingly rejected a party they consider as a crime syndicate presided over by a conman they consider to be worse than Al Capone, the once upon a time Mafia boss.

Before visiting the region, some 700 prisoners from the Yaounde Maximum Prison had been shipped to the region to welcome him and to hoodwink the population into believing that Mr. Ngute and his party are popular.

The 700 criminals will be voting in the upcoming twin elections whose results are already known. However, despite PM Ngute’s presence in Buea, it has been reported that the region is in total lockdown.

In Kumba, not even flies could visit some of the corpses that litter the streets after the military went on a killing spree a few days ago.

The same is reported of Ekona, Mamfe, Tiko, and Muyuka where soldiers rounded up all young men on Monday. The young men are being asked to pay CFAF 50,000 if they want to be free.

For those who do not have the money, they are being threatened with death, and many of them have already been taken to Buea and other towns in the region with larger prison facilities.

This year’s election will be taking place in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation, as the government seeks to prove that there is peace across the country.

But there is no peace in the two English-speaking regions of the country. Many soldiers were killed on Wednesday in Manyu Division as Southern Cameroonian fighters threw a grenade into their truck.

Many were wounded and they have been rushed to hospitals in East Cameroon.

Cameroon Concord News Group correspondents on the ground are gathering more information on the slaughtering of army soldiers who had been sent to the region to intimidate the population into submission.

More will be yours as the information becomes available.

By Rita Akana in Buea