Members of the United Nations Security Council should focus on the deteriorating humanitarian and human rights situation in Cameroon at the June 4, 2019 briefing by the UN Regional Office for Central Africa, nine human rights organizations said today in an open letter to Security Council members.

While UN Regional Office for Central Africa briefings are an opportunity to formally raise the situation in Cameroon at the Security Council, the groups also urged the Security Council to formally add Cameroon to its agenda as a regular stand-alone item. “The UN Security Council has largely kept silent on the crisis,” the organizations said.

“Without expeditious action, the situation is likely to worsen.” Cameroon’s Anglophone regions have been engulfed in crisis since late 2016, when English-speaking lawyers, students, and teachers began protesting against what they saw as their under-representation in, and cultural marginalization by, the central government. In response, government security forces have killed civilians, torched villages, and used torture and incommunicado detention, while armed separatists have also killed, tortured, and kidnapped dozens of people. This violence, especially abuse by state security forces, occurs in an atmosphere of near total impunity.

This week’s Central Africa briefing should serve as opportunity to urge the Cameroon authorities to investigate and prosecute members of the security forces alleged to have carried out human rights abuses. It should also publicly assert to armed separatist groups that their leaders will be held responsible for serious crimes committed by their fighters, the groups said.

The lack of access to Cameroon and its affected regions is hindering efforts by international human rights and humanitarian organizations to report on abuses and to deliver life-saving assistance to those in need. The Cameroon government should allow unhindered access to international and national human rights organizations, the groups said.

The groups that signed the letter are Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture, Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Nouveaux Droits de l’Homme Cameroun (NDH – Cameroon), World Organisation Against Torture, Presbyterian Church (USA), and Réseau des Défenseurs des Droits Humains en Afrique Centrale (Central Africa Human Rights Defenders Network).

Source: Human Rights Watch

The Committee to Protect Journalists and eight other civil society organizations sent a letter to members of the United Nations Security Council about the deteriorating humanitarian and human rights situation in Cameroon. The letter was sent ahead of the U.N. Regional Office for Central Africa briefing to the Security Council, due to take place on June 4.

The letter highlighted the increasing violence across the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions, where schools and hospitals, teachers and medical staff are under attack. The letter noted that journalists have been detained and at least four are behind bars in relation to their reporting of the crisis, while member of the media face regular threats of arrest and attacks.

To all UN Security Council Members

Your Excellency, Ahead of the upcoming briefing of the United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA) in the UN Security Council in June, we, the undersigned organizations, would urge you to please pay particular attention to the deteriorating humanitarian and human rights situation in Cameroon. Political conflict over cultural rights and identity, as well as long-standing socio-economic grievances have escalated in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions since 2016 when English-speaking lawyers, students and teachers began protesting against what they saw as their under representation in, and cultural marginalization by, the central government. Since then, a crisis in the Anglophone North-West and South-West regions has pit government security forces and armed separatists against each other and has driven more than 560,000 Cameroonians from their homes, including 32,000 refugees into Nigeria.

Civil society organizations and national and international human rights and humanitarian groups report that government forces have killed civilians, torched villages, and used torture and incommunicado detention with near total impunity. Meanwhile, armed separatists have killed, tortured, assaulted and kidnapped dozens of people, including students, teachers, administrative and traditional authorities amid increasing violence across the North-West and South-West regions. Schools and hospitals, teachers and medical staff, are increasingly under attack. Journalists have also been detained and at least four are behind bars in relation to their reporting of the crisis, while members of the media face regular threats of arrest and attacks.

These abuses are fomenting severe instability across the regions and show that the government of Cameroon is failing to uphold its Responsibility to Protect the Anglophone population. Without expeditious action, the situation is likely to worsen. The UN Security Council has largely kept silent on the crisis. Even getting the Council to discuss

Cameroon has proven difficult. A recent informal Security Council meeting almost did not take place due to a lack of support from African member States. As you prepare your remarks for the UNOCA briefing, we respectfully urge you to consider the following recommendations:

 The UN Security Council should hold regular formal briefings and discussions on the situation in Cameroon and formally add it to its agenda. It should request the UN Secretary-General and key senior UN officials – especially the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights – to report regularly on developments in Cameroon.

 While we should not wait for the region to mobilize before taking action in New York, the African Union and Economic Community of Central African States should engage with Cameroon’s government and armed separatists in order to prevent any further deterioration of the crisis in the Anglophone regions. In this context, the African countries on the Council have a crucial role to play in facilitating mediation efforts.

 The lack of access for international human rights and humanitarian organizations to Cameroon and its affected regions remains disturbing. The government of Cameroon should allow unhindered access to international and national human rights organizations.

 Cameroon’s partners should ensure that any support to Cameroonian security forces does not contribute to or facilitate human rights violations. The UN Security Council, with the support of the OHCHR, should urge the Cameroon authorities to investigate members of the security forces alleged to have carried out human rights abuses and prosecute those responsible. It should also publicly announce to armed separatist groups that their leaders will be held responsible for serious crimes committed by their fighters.

 The international community should encourage mediation between Anglophone communities and the government, as well as an inclusive national dialogue in order to find a lasting and sustainable solution to the crisis, which addresses root causes and underlying grievances.

Signed,

1. Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT-France)
2. Amnesty International
3. Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
4. Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
5. Human Rights Watch
6. Nouveaux Droits de l’Homme Cameroun
7. Presbyterian Church (USA)
8. Réseau des Défenseurs des Droits Humains en Afrique Centrale (REDHAC)
9. World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)

The government of Cameroon has been going through a rough patch over the last three years. Southern Cameroonians in their majority had had enough of the government’s injustice and in 2016, they felt it was time to let the world know about their sorry plight.

Since then the country has been caught in a military conflict which, if not well managed, could result in the splitting of the country. Peaceful protests by the country’s English-speaking minority were met with the government’s violent reaction and the situation has declined to the point where it has become a cause for concern for the international community.

Thousands have lost their lives in a conflict many consider as unnecessary and the orgy of killing has continued unchecked. Government forces have been accused by rights groups of committing the worst forms of atrocities and the international community is talking of dragging some of those responsible for the organized killings to the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

The country’s allies are all jumping ship and allying with the U.S.A which urges that a robust action on the part of the international community is necessary to restrain the government’s killing machine. Hundreds of villages have been burnt down by government forces, with many old and helpless losing their lives in the fires.

The images are at best gruesome and the world holds that while silence could be golden, in Cameroon’s case, silence will certainly not produce the results and peace the world needs in that part of the continent. That is why the U.S.A is mounting enormous pressure on the crumbling government to put an end to the killings and embrace the inclusive dialogue that the international community is calling for.    

The conflict has spiraled out of control and the country’s government has taken a blow to the liver. State-owned corporations in the regions have been shut down due to the fighting and thousands have been rendered jobless. The Yaounde government, noted for its reckless spending, has seen its revenue streams drying up due to the disruption caused by the brave Southern Cameroonian fighters.

The Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) and PAMOL, once the  government’s “great geese”, have stopped laying the golden eggs that the Yaounde government has been feasting on.

The loss of these revenue streams has put the government on a diet. Its spending ability has declined in three years. Corporate and income taxes have diminished and there is fear that civil servants might soon go without salaries. This fear has been hanging over the country like the Sword of Damocles for some time now.  

If that fear was a few days ago imaginary, it is today real. Just when the government thought it was successfully putting a handle on the chaos that is playing out in the two English-speaking regions, a massive explosion decided to turn off one of its major revenue streams.

The country’s lone oil refinery (SONARA) located in the Southwest port city of Limbe went up in flames on Friday, May 31, 2019, leaving the beleaguered government totally helpless and desperate.  It is heartbreaking to see such a massive investment go up in smoke.

But for many Southern Cameroonians who want total independence from the Yaounde government that has treated them like second-class citizens, the massive explosion that brought the refinery down like a pack of cards is great music to their ears.

 They claim they have never benefited from the oil that is located in their own part of the country, adding that the devastation is a severe blow that will weaken the government both psychologically and financially.

The explosion has hit the government like a ton of bricks. The scale of the destruction is staggering and experts hold that it will require more than USD 300 million to get things together in SONARA.

The atmospheric distillation unit has simply been blown away and that is where the business of refining oil starts. Overwhelmed by the devastation, the government has simply ordered that the refinery be closed and production suspended indefinitely.

They hope that with the government still reeling from the disappointment, it is now time to step up attacks on soldiers and make the regions ungovernable. The beleaguered and desperate government has lost most of its international allies due to its penchant for violence and this has pushed it further down the bottom of the abyss of desperation.

What could have caused the SONARA Explosion?

Ever since SONARA came apart like a pack of cards, there have been many explanations for the disaster that will haunt the government for a long time. On the same day the explosion occurred, Southern Cameroonian separatists immediately claimed responsibility.

For over two years, they have been targeting the oil refinery, holding that it has been providing the government with the revenue it needs to run its affairs or even purchase weapons to kill innocent Southern Cameroonians. But the separatists are yet to explain how they pulled off such a feat.  

Due to lack of evidence, many people have dismissed their claim as a bluff, arguing that they lack the means to deliver such a blow to a government that has the military and financial resources to protect such a massive investment.

But some experts argue that while separatists might not have the military capacity to send the country’s refinery into a tailspin, it could as well use inside sources to increase the government’s economic and financial woes. 

They point to the scale of the destruction, arguing that if it was just an electrical failure as government agents have been swift to explain, SONARA systems could have simply switched off to protect the refinery.

They add that modern technology provides for such possibilities and if that explanation can be given credence, then SONARA has not upgraded its systems to world-class standards.

SONARA has been calling this incident a case of “force majeure” and like the Yaounde government, it has carefully avoided making mention of sabotage. But its explanation is still questionable and many are asking more questions, especially as another fire broke out at the refinery on Monday, June 3, 2019.

To gain a better understanding of the situation, the Cameroon Concord News Group’s investigative journalist, Kingsley Betek, travelled to Limbe to have first-hand information on what actually happened on Friday, May 31 in Limbe.

He has used the opportunity to speak with a skilled and experienced SONARA engineer who explained that the refinery had been going through a lot of power outages in recent times.

The engineer who elected anonymity said that each time there was power failure in the facility, they had to reboot the entire system and each outage implied that there could be some gas leakage.

With many of such outages in recent times, it is obvious that there might have been a gas built-up which had resulted in Friday’s explosion.

The engineer stressed that SONARA was on its knees, adding that if foreign companies did not intervene, it would take more than three years for the refinery to be up and running again. He advised that if Americans were to be brought in, the refinery could be rebuilt in a year, as they are noted for their hard work and effectiveness.

He explained that though the government had built two other facilities in recent times, the atmospheric distillation unit remained a key component of the refinery and now that it had gone up in smoke, there could not be any real production at the facility.

He regretted that the cost of rebuilding the refinery might discourage the Yaounde government, adding that government officials had floated the idea of building a refinery in Kribi, but they project was blocked by the World Bank which insisted that the Limbe refinery had more than enough capacity to serve Cameroon and neighboring countries.

What Next?

The beleaguered government is in total confusion. It is at its wit’s end. It is completely overwhelmed. It is cash-strapped and its poor standing at the international level makes it hard for it to raise the resources necessary for the reconstruction of the burnt facility.

Our inside source said that government officials had been talking about Cameroon’s sovereignty for too long and that the current sticky situation was indeed a true test of the country’s sovereignty.

Money is tight. The country has lost its allies abroad. The country’s president has made many enemies around the world. Corruption, which has become the country’s hallmark, makes it hard for the government to be credible abroad.

It has spent the last few days scratching its head. The country’s Prime Minister, Dion Ngute, has been holding emergency meetings to figure out ways of mobilizing resources in order to rebuild SONARA that has always stood the government in good stead. It has always primed the pump each time the economy gets caught in a downward spiral.

The Yaounde “crime syndicate” is simply overwhelmed. As the government continues to find a solution, many families are already lost in thoughts. SONARA has gone down, taking with it thousands of direct and indirect jobs.

 The mourning period has begun for many families. The Yaounde government has no employment insurance for people who lose their jobs. For many workers of this oil refinery, their fate is worse than death. Limbe, the bustling Southern Cameroons port city, is gradually losing its shine. Life will never be the same again.

If Southern Cameroonian separatists blew up the refinery, then they have sent the government into a long tailspin that might see it crash sooner rather than later, especially as fuel and fuel products will soon witness a spike in prices. Prices at the pump will be sliding up as reserves get pushed into the country’s distribution channels.

The days ahead are only going to get bleaker. Cameroonians might just start thinking of smuggling fuel from Nigeria to make up for the shortages that will soon become a reality in the country. But Nigerian fuel, popularly known in Cameroon as “federal”, spells danger for many people.

Its importation is usually done using crude means. In the 1980s when it was popular, it left a trail of death and destruction, as the illegal importers were not equipped to handle such business. Cameroon is in for tough times and if care is not taken, many citizens of the country will be sent to an early grave because of the massive explosion that has put SONARA out of business, at least for the next two years.

The investigations are ongoing and Cameroon Concord News Group has been trying to get in touch with the SONARA General Manager. Our calls to him have not yet been returned, but our journalists on the ground will continue to dig further in order to get to the bottom of things so as to bring out the truth about this disaster that has created a nightmare for Cameroon and its citizens.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai at the Global Headquarters in the UK, with contributions from Kingsley Betek in Limbe

Fourteen-year-old Landa wakes up at 4 a.m. every day to wash dishes and scrub floors before feeding and dressing her boss’s children for school, which she is not allowed to attend.

She has worked as a live-in servant, unpaid, for a year in Cameroon’s commercial capital Douala since a separatist conflict forced her family to flee their hometown in the southwest.

Out of work and living with a cousin, Landa’s mother entrusted her to a wealthier couple who promised to send her to school in exchange for babysitting.

Like many, she was deceived.

“I do everything. I do the dishes, the laundry. I wash the floors. I don’t sleep until everyone else is in bed,” said Landa, whose name has been changed for her protection.

It is a world away from flying planes or delivering babies – the jobs Landa had dreamt would be hers after finishing school.

She is one of thousands of children uprooted by fighting in Cameroon’s two western Anglophone regions, where a movement for independence from the majority Francophone country turned violent in 2017.

It was already common for girls from the English-speaking regions, whose population has long felt marginalised, to work as maids in the country’s two main cities, Douala and Yaounde.

But the conflict has forced more children into work and left them vulnerable to slave-like conditions as thousands of schools shut and families fight poverty, said local human rights groups.

The government denied this, saying many displaced children had been welcomed by host families and enrolled in school in Douala, Yaounde and other cities, and that mistreatment of domestic workers was not a problem in Cameroon.

“Cameroon is a country of rights where this type of practice, if it existed, would be severely punished under our law,” said the communications ministry in a statement.

One activist estimated that hundreds of girls from the conflict zone, at the very least, were trapped in domestic servitude in the major cities.

“Most often they promise the parents to educate their daughters, to take care of them and give them a better future,” said Thomas Ngoh Mudoh, president of the Human Rights Defence Club, a national non-governmental organisation.

“But 95% of the time, this is not the case. These young girls, innocent and manipulable, become domestic slaves,” he said.

The girls often work without rest and some are raped or beaten, he said. If they are paid, it is often with rice, salt or oil that is sent to their families in the conflict zone.

Young boys who have fled the conflict also work, sometimes on construction sites or collecting plastic bottles; others are left to fend for themselves on the streets, locals said.

BETTER THAN WAR

The crisis has forced half a million people to flee their homes and left 1.3 million in need of aid, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Security forces have used heavy-handed tactics to quash the rebellion, including destroying schools, medical facilities and entire villages, said a U.N. rights committee.

The separatists have also closed schools as part of their protests and been accused of kidnapping dozens of children.

Landa attended school in the department of Manyu until two years ago, when clashes between separatists and the army reached her town. She fled with her family as houses burned.

They were barely getting by, living seven to a room, when Landa’s mother fell sick and their desperation grew.

The job offer meant one less child to feed.

“My mother accepted. I wasn’t going to school anyway and my boss promised to send me later,” Landa said.

Landa’s boss, who owns two clothing shops, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that she would send her to school next year.  “This year I couldn’t because the children were very sick and there was no money,” she said.

But the family recently bought a new car and repainted their apartment, said Landa, who wants to finish her studies. Before the conflict, she had dreamed of becoming a pilot or a midwife.

Other girls and parents of girls who had left home considered servitude an acceptable price to pay for safety.

“Being employed in a house is better than anything. I don’t hear shooting and cries anymore,” said Katia, 18, who fled the northwest region for Yaounde last year.

She is scolded and humiliated at work and earns just 5,000 CFA francs ($8.60) a month, she said, but her boss also feeds her and gives her old clothes.

“At least there, they are in houses,” said a beautician with relatives who had gone to the cities to work as maids.

“Even if they are mistreated, it’s not serious. It’s the school of life,” she said from her home town of Buea, in the southwest region.

“WE ARE THE SLAVES” For many girls, the alternative to housework is prostitution, said victims, families and activists. The government said these reports were unfounded. At nightfall, in the Bonaberi quarter of Douala, the bars are full of girls, many with childlike faces.

“The prostitution rate has risen. We find many young Anglophone girls having fled the crisis who were left to themselves with no money, no resources,” said Bibiana Mbuh Taku, co-founder of a women’s empowerment association called Otabong.

Taku tries to source donations for the girls’ schooling, but said it is difficult; even in her educated circle, she said, friends were regularly seeking young girls to do housework.

“I explain to them that it’s slavery. They must understand a child’s place is in school, not in the home,” she said.

Felicity, 15, earns 10,000 CFA francs a month working as a housekeeper which she sends to her mother and younger brothers taking refuge in Douala. Her sister, 17, works the streets.

“It’s hard. They threaten me and I work a lot. One time I even passed out because I didn’t have time to eat,” she said, on a rare Sunday break when she was given four hours off to visit her mother in the outskirts of Douala. Her mother, 53 and divorced, said she never wanted this outcome for her daughters but that they had fled their home in the southwest with nothing and had no other means to eat.

“Because of the Anglophone crisis, I am a ‘maid’ and my big sister sells herself,” said Felicity. “We are the slaves of this dirty war.”

Culled from Reuters

At least 300 people were arrested in demonstrations in several cities across Cameroon on Saturday.

Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) party said its members and supporters were arrested while calling for the release of party leader Maurice Kamto and 150 of their supporters, who were imprisoned late January during protests against October 2018 elections.

Kamto and his supportes have been charged with hostility against the homeland, insurrection among others.The EU, UN, US and France have questioned the arrest of the political leader.

At least 300 people were arrested in demonstrations in several cities across Cameroon on Saturday.

The MRC party has been protesting the elections calling it an electoral hold up since their party leader was announced second to President Biya’s re-election.

Source: Africa News

At least 73 people have been arrested in demonstrations in Cameroon as thousands of supporters of Maurice Kamto, the man who says he won the October 7 presidential election, have defied a heavy police presence and are staging protests in several towns of the central African state. They are seeking the immediate release of their party leader, among other things, and scores of his supporters have been jailed since January.

During a protest on Saturday in Yaounde, businessman Moustapha Ali, 27, said he will continue protesting until they find justice, which he said is being denied to them by Cameroon President Paul Biya, his government and the institutions he has created.

He said no one will stop them from pressing for freedom for Kamto and those supporters arrested at the beginning of the year. He said even though Kamto has not been inaugurated, he nonetheless is legitimately the president of Cameroon.

At least a dozen people, including Kamto’s first vice president, Mamadou Mota of the MRC party, have been arrested and detained in Yaounde and Douala.

The strong police presence and their anti-riot equipment did not deter demonstrators in several towns, including Douala, Banjoun, Bafoussam and Bouda. Cameroon had banned protests in most of its cities, saying it was a threat to peace.

Lejeune Mbella Mbella, Cameroon’s minister of External Relations, warned last week during a meeting with diplomats, United Nations staff and international NGO’s that the planned protests would not be tolerated.

Mbella Mbella said any political action or initiative that questions the legitimacy and legality of Paul Biya as president of Cameroon is tantamount to undermining Cameroon state sovereignty and is intended to disrupt public peace. He says the country’s constitutional council examined and threw out as baseless all petitions filed by those who contested the election and Cameroon’s institutions.

Fidel Djoumessi, an official of Kamto’s MRC party, said the protests will continue until Kamto and his supporters are freed, the government opens up dialogue to resolve the crisis that has claimed close to 2,000 lives, and investigations are opened into why the Confederation of African Football seized hosting rights of the 2019 Africa Football Cup of Nations from Cameroon.

He said it is a scandal the government of Cameroon would decide to prohibit peaceful protests, which are a constitutional right. He said he does not understand why simple demonstrations to ask for electoral reforms and talks to return to the restive English-speaking regions should be described by the government as a threat to national security.

Police arrested Kamto, nine of his party officials and close to 200 of their supporters last January after days of peaceful protests in cities, including the political capital Yaounde and the economic capital Douala.

Similar protests took place in various Cameroon embassies around the world, including Paris and Berlin, where the pictures of president Biya were shattered.

Kamto and his colleagues were accused of inciting the protesters and now are facing eight charges, including treason, inciting violence, and disruption of public peace.

Rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have been calling on Cameroon to release all peaceful protesters, including Kamto.

Source: VOA