31, January 2019

RSF Calls for Release of Two Cameroonian Newspaper Reporters ⁰

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the immediate and unconditional release of two newspaper reporters who were arrested while covering a meeting of members of Cameroon’s opposition at a home in Douala, the economic capital, on the evening of 28 January.

Théodore Tchopa and David Eyengue, who work for one of the leading Cameroonian dailies Le Jour and are members of the National Union of Cameroonian Journalists (SNJC), were arrested at a meeting in the home of a close supporter of Maurice Kamto, runner-up to President Paul Biya in last October’s election, in which Biya won a seventh term. The police also arrested Kamto and several of his supporters during their raid on the home.

“Covering opposition activities is not a crime – it is the duty of political reporters,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa desk. “By arbitrarily arresting journalists who are just doing their job, the Cameroonian authorities are not providing any answer. Instead they are just helping to deepen the country’s current political crisis. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of these two journalists.”

In a communiqué calling for their release that was sent to RSF , the SNJC said the two journalists were at the meeting as reporters and that the police had “confused” them with the opposition leaders and supporters they arrested. The journalists were transferred to judicial police headquarters in Yaoundé, the political capital, the SNJC added.

Journalists are often arrested in Cameroon. RSF is currently also fighting for the release of Amadou Vamoulké, a former head of state-owned Cameroon Radio & Television (CRTV), who has been held for more than two and a half years and is due to appear before a Special Criminal Court for the 17th time on 1 March. Cameroon is ranked 129th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2018 World Press Freedom Index.

31, January 2019

Biya Francophone regime accused of ‘decapitating’ opposition party ⁰

Cameroon’s main opposition MRC on Tuesday accused authorities of trying to “decapitate” the party after its leader Maurice Kamto was arrested in the country’s economic capital Douala.

Mr Kamto, who came second in last year’s presidential election which he claims was fixed, was detained on Monday at the home of another politician, prompting some 300 people to protest outside.

The Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC) “strongly condemns these unjustified and announced political arrests, whose hidden aim is to decapitate the MRC and Maurice Kamto’s winning coalition,” the party’s vice president Emmanuel Simh said in a statement.

MRC’s treasurer Alain Fogue was arrested in the capital Yaounde on Monday night, according to the statement.

DISPUTE

Cameroon’s veteran leader Paul Biya, in power for 36 years, won a seventh consecutive term in last October’s presidential election but Mr Kamto has repeatedly claimed he was the rightful winner.

President Biya, 85, has ruled the West African country with support from the army, government administrations and the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (RDPC) party that he created in 1985.

He was declared winner of last year’s election with 71 percent of the vote, which repeatedly faced allegations of fraud.

Mr Kamto received 14 percent in the election, according to the official figures, but his party has held sporadic protests since to dispute the result.

DESTABILISATION

Communication Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi has accused Mr Kamto and his supporters of “attempted destabilisation” of the government. On Saturday 117 people were arrested during protest marches in several towns.

Mr Kamto’s former election campaign head Paul-Eric Kingue and rapper Valsero were among those detained over the weekend. The MRC on Tuesday called on its supporters to remain “calm” and affirmed its commitment to respect the law.

AFP

31, January 2019

Nigeria to Commence Repatriation of Refugees from Cameroon ⁰

The Honourable Minister of Interior Lt Gen (rtd) Abdulrahman Bello Dambazau has said that Nigeria is collaborating with UNHCR through the Technical Working Group to actualize the voluntary repatriation of the refugees in safety and dignity. Gen. Dambazau disclosed this during the opening ceremony of the Technical Session of the Second Regional Protection Dialogue on the Lake Chad Basin holding in Abuja.

Represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr Mohammed Bello Umar, the Minister said, in line with international best practices, biometric capturing of IDPs/Nigerian returnees from Chad, Cameroon and Niger was conducted before resettling them. While enumerating the Federal Government’s achievements on the 2016 action statement, Gen. Dambazau stated that government has ensured ongoing capacity building workshops on strengthening state actors’ response to sexual and gender based violence, sexual agencies in four states which are: “Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno and Gombe”.

He said further that a tripartite agreement for voluntary repatriation of Nigerian refugees in Cameroon was signed in March 2017. Adding that Nigerian military and para-military agencies have collaborated in providing escorts to and during relief material distribution in the affected areas. Gen. Dambazau emphasized that a lot was being done to provide care, maintenance and livelihoods support to refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in different parts of the country.

In her speech at the occasion, the Federal Commissioner for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, Hajiya Sadiya Farouq said that the Commission have increased the pace of registration, documentation and addressing of nationality issues of affected persons, adding “especially the new arrivals from Cameroon”. Hajiya Farouq said “We have equally developed the Convention Travel Document for Refugees to take the routine refugees status determination to a higher level. We have established new field offices and expanded existing ones in the six geopolitical zones of the country in order to enhance our capacity to provide protection and support services to persons of concern wherever they may be in Nigeria,” she said. Mrs Farouq noted that significant progress has been made in ending the Boko Haram insurgency.

According to her, Nigeria had demonstrated its commitment to implementing the Abuja Action Summit. The Abuja Action Statement on Protection was declared and adopted in June 2016 Four nations in the Lake Chad Basin region namely: Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon Republics, under the technical facilitation of the UNHCR jointly agreed to address the needs of refugees. The four nations agreed to proactively enhance protection and respond to the urgent needs of refugees, IDPs and other affected populations in the region.

31, January 2019

Africa Cup of Nations: Comoros lodge Cameroon complaint ⁰

The Comoros Football Federation (FFC) has lodged a case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) over Cameroon’s participation at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

A post on social media from the general manager of the Comoros team, Ben Amir Saadi, confirmed the move. The Comoros believe that Cameroon should be excluded from the 2019 finals after having the hosting rights for the tournament withdrawn from them.

Comoros are in the same qualifying group as Cameroon, whom they face in March. The FFC claims that Caf has failed to implement its own regulations concerning the action to be taken.

Caf rules (Article 92.3) state that if a nation withdraws from hosting or has the rights taken away one year before the finals, ‘a fine of five hundred thousand (500,000) U.S. dollars and a suspension of the next edition of AFCON of it’s A national team, without considering the concerned edition.’

The latter words would suggest that Cameroon’s participation in the 2019 finals should not be affected.

However, it remains to be seen how the FFC’s claim will impact, if at all, upon Cameroon’s hosting of the 2021 Nations Cup, which it is now set to stage.

As things stand, the Nations Cup qualifier in March between Cameroon and the Comoros will decide who joins already-qualified Morocco in reaching the finals in Egypt, with the fourth team in Group B – Malawi – no long able to go through.

With Morocco on 10 points, Cameroon 8 and the Comoros 5, a draw in Cameroon will be enough for the Indomitable Lions to advance – while the Comoros must win to advance.

BBC

31, January 2019

Amnesty International calls for ‘immediate’ release of Maurice Kamto ⁰

Amnesty International on Tuesday called for the “immediate and unconditional” release of Maurice Kamto, leader of Cameroon’s opposition MRC, after he was arrested in the country’s economic capital Douala.

Kamto, who came second in October’s presidential election which he claims was rigged, was detained on Monday at the home of another politician, prompting some 300 people to protest outside.

Party treasurer Alain Fogue was also arrested on Monday and over the weekend, Paul-Eric Kingue, who ran Kamto’s election campaign, and rapper Valsero were also detained alongside 115 others for attending opposition protest marches in several towns.

Amnesty International warned that the arrest of Kamto and his staff “signals an escalating crackdown on opposition leaders, human rights defenders and activists in Cameroon”.

“The authorities must immediately and unconditionally release them, as well as peaceful protesters detained at the weekend simply for exercising their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly,” said Amnesty’s West and Central Africa director Samira Daoud.

“Instead of taking steps towards improving the country’s human rights record, we are witnessing the authorities becoming less and less tolerant of criticism. This must stop.”

Kamto’s Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon, denounced his detention as an “unjustified” political arrest and accused the government of trying to “decapitate” the party.

“(The party) strongly condemns these unjustified… political arrests whose hidden aim is to decapitate the MRC and Maurice Kamto’s winning coalition,” party vice president Emmanuel Simh said in a statement.

REDHAC, an NGO representing human rights defenders in Central Africa, also denounced Kamto’s arrest as a “flagrant violation” of the law, demanding his “immediate and unconditional” release along with the others detained at the weekend.

President Paul Biya, who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years, won a seventh consecutive term in October’s presidential election but Kamto has insisted he was the rightful winner.

Official results gave 85-year-old Biya 71% of the vote, compared with 14 percent for Kamto, and the party has since staged a series of sporadic protests. 0

Communications Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi accusing Kamto and the MRC of trying to “destabilise” the government, and following Saturday’s demonstrations, Paul Atanga Nji, minister for territorial administration, said the party had “crossed the red line”.

News24

30, January 2019

Francophone Crisis: Whereabouts of Maurice Kamto remain unkown ⁰

The whereabouts of Cameroon’s opposition leader Maurice Kamto remain unknown. This follows his arrest on Monday night in Douala alongside several other members of his party, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement.

He was arrested at another politician’s home in the country’s economic capital Douala following weekend protests against President Paul Biya.

The opposition leader still claims to have won last October’s election, which saw 85-year-old Paul Biya secure a seventh consecutive term in office.

A press release from the party on Tuesday called on members and sympathisers to remain calm and attentive to instructions the party national directorate would give.

Source: Africa News

30, January 2019

Yellow Vests: Are France’s working poor being left behind? ⁰

France enjoys a reputation for having a generous social safety net that provides well for the least fortunate. But weeks of Yellow Vest unrest have highlighted that many French citizens live in lingering economic uncertainty.

France ranks among the countries that most generously redistribute resources from rich to poor, and yet great disparities in wealth persist. In many ways the working poor – embodied by the Yellow Vests – feel they are being left behind.

Since the start of the 2008 economic crisis, the median living standard has stagnated in France overall. In 2015 this amounted to €20,300 per year, slightly lower than it was in 2008.

Wages also remain relatively low compared to other Western industrialised nations. The median annual wage of the top 10 percent was €56,640 in 2015 versus the paltry €8,280 earned by the bottom 10 percent. Individuals in the highest income bracket account for only 1 percent of the population (defined as those earning at least €106,210 annually or €8,850 a month).

Disparities between those at the top and those at the bottom also remain stark. In 2014, the top 10 percent took in 33 percent of pre-tax income compared to just 23 percent received by the lowest 50 percent, according to the 2018 World Inequality Report. The top 1 percent received 11 percent of total income.

A little more than 14 percent of France’s population – one of the lowest levels in the EU – lives below the poverty line of €1,015 per month.

Unsurprisingly, the unemployed are most likely to find themselves living in poverty (at 37.3 percent). France’s unemployment rate has hovered above 9 percent for the past decade. By contrast, the unemployment for the 28 EU members averaged 6.7 percent in November, the lowest rate since before the 2008 financial crisis, according to Eurostat.

Single-parent households and young people are also among the most at-risk portions of the French population.

The ‘myth’ of French equality

French economist Thomas Piketty says the image of France as a bastion of relative economic equality is its “great national myth”.

Per capita income grew an impressive 3.7 percent on average from 1945 to 1980, known in France as the “Thirty Glorious Years” (Les Trente Glorieuses). A major trend during the “glorious” period was an increase in the income share going to the bottom 50 and middle 40 percent, with a subsequent decline in the portion going to the top 10 percent.

But the annual rise in average national income then fell to around 1 percent over the next three decades (1980-2014), with inequality increasing acutely starting around 1983.

“The fact remains that France has also experienced a sharp rise in inequality,” Piketty wrote in a blog post for Le Monde. “Between 1983 and 2015, the average income of the richest 1% has risen by 100% (above inflation) and that of the 0.1% richest by 150%, as compared with barely 25% for the rest of the population (or less than 1% per annum).”

“The richest 1% alone has siphoned off 21% of total growth, as compared with 20% for the poorest 50%.” The disparity between rich and poor in France was less extreme than that seen in the United States but was still “fairly spectacular”, he said.

And the gains show no signs of slowing for those at the very top. “[T]he higher we go at the top of the distribution, the higher the rise in top income shares.” The World Inequality Report found that, between 1983 and 2014, 21 percent of France’s total growth went to the bottom 50 percent and the same share of growth went to the top 1 percent.

Nevertheless, France ranks as one of the European nations that most generously redistributes wealth, surpassed on this score by only five other EU countries (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland and Slovenia).

France boosted its redistribution efforts in the wake of the 2008 crisis with an increase in the top income tax rate and a revalorisation of social benefits. Universal healthcare and state-funded education also help ensure that French citizens are provided with some key basic needs.

Yellow Vest unrest

Despite France’s relatively generous social safety net, economic uncertainty is acutely felt by many. This feeling has boiled over into nearly three months of weekly Yellow Vest protests, the worst unrest France has seen in decades. Initially sparked by a proposed rise in the fuel tax that critics said would hit the poorest the hardest, the movement has since broadened to include many who feel the Macron government is out of touch with the needs of the working poor.

The man critiqued as “president of the rich” has not helped dispel this image with his dismissive comments to those looking for work or by saying many of the poor are just “screwing around”. Moreover, an announced €5 per month cut to a housing benefit would affect millions of people, including many below the poverty line and hundreds of thousands of students.

At a recent town hall meeting, held as part of the “National Debate” Macron launched in January to assuage Yellow Vest anger, attendees said the poor were being squeezed while the rich safely stash their money in tax havens.

“We’re under record fiscal pressure, with the value-added tax, income tax, social charges… yet public services are disappearing, hospitals and police stations are closing, and maternity clinics are moving away,” said one attendee at a recent meeting in Trouville-sur-Mer.

“We have to go get money from the big guys…” said another woman. “Every year, we lose €60 to 80 billion to tax havens.” A report from the main union for French tax authorities actually found this number to be much higher, concluding that tax evasion cost the government between €80 and €100 billion in 2017.

As the protests continued each Saturday, Macron eventually agreed to abandon plans for raising the fuel tax and promised extra funding for minimum wage earners and tax cuts for pensioners. But the president’s reputation for being out of touch with the concerns of the people has persisted. One Yellow Vest protester told CNews he thinks Macron has failed to recognise the “urgency” of the financial troubles that low-income workers are facing.

Others have criticised Macron for standing firm on plans to end a wealth tax on households with assets above €1.3 million. Inheritance remains a major factor in wealth disparity, one that can persist from generation to generation. In 2015, the richest 1 percent received 6.8 percent of the income but 30 percent of inherited wealth, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE).

“Beyond inequalities in resources, there is also an inequality of opportunity in France, exemplified by insufficient social mobility,” Michael Förster, an economist specialising in inequality at the OECD, told Le Parisien.

And France’s tax practices are exacerbating the economic divide, the World Inequality Report found, noting that “effective tax rates are lower for the very rich than for the middle class, and new tax legislations will further decrease these rates for the richest”.

Given the circumstances,it is “difficult to understand” why some “think it opportune to abolish the wealth tax on financial assets, or to impose a lower tax on financial incomes than on income from employment”, Piketty wrote. “To promote mobility, it would be more judicious to lower the property tax… for the households who have borrowed to buy property.”

France leads its EU counterparts in the amount of money it collects in taxes, which accounted for48.4 percent of GDP in 2017, the highest percentage in the European Union. The average in Europe is 40.2 percent.

Another potential problem with the French taxation system is that those earning a modest €27,500 a year are taxed at the same rate – 30 percent – as those making around €73,800, a sum that goes quite far in France.

Moreover, the top income tax bracket is defined as anyone making more than €156,244, meaning those high earners are taxed at a similar rate as the ultra-rich – those making €1 million or more per year.

Piketty said it was “urgent” that France address its problems with income inequality. When populations feel resentment at being left behind economically, they become increasingly attracted to far-right politicians who offer convenient scapegoats for their ills, such as immigrants or other marginalised populations.

The “most vulnerable social groups have the impression they have been abandoned”, Piketty said, rendering them “increasingly attracted by the sirens of xenophobia”.

France 24

30, January 2019

Electricity-hungry Cameroon boosts solar energy in push for rural power ⁰

Adrienne Ngonou’s 25-seat restaurant used to open from 8 am to 5 pm, shutting it doors as the sun began to go down. But these days it’s open until 11 pm – and her profits have tripled. “We now sell both during the day and late in the night because of the constant electricity supply,” she said. “Two years ago, this was not possible.”

Ngonou’s new power source is a government-provided solar array that supplies power to about 300 homes, businesses and other institutions in Mfou, a town of about 10,000 people east of Yaounde, Cameroon’s capital.

Earlier the area relied in part on grid power, which has been unreliable as more erratic rainfall and droughts linked to climate change hit the county’s hydropower dams, which supply the majority of its energy.

But the $13,000 battery-backed solar grid, installed in 2017, has given the area it serves 24-hour reliable power – and is now being replicated in other power-hungry parts of Cameroon, as the government tries to plug a stubborn energy gap and shore up its energy system against climate change, officials say.

Mfou’s solar system was part of a deal between Cameroon’s government and China’s Huawei telecommunications company, which also installs solar installations, to supply solar energy to more than 160 villages, largely in rural areas, they say.

So far solar power – much of it small-scale and often installed by non-governmental organizations – provides only about 1 percent of Cameroon’s energy needs, according to 2017 government figures. Energy expansion plans for Cameroon have focused largely on fossil fuel plants and hydropower expansion, mostly funded by China.

But now Cameroon’s President Paul Biya “has thrown his hefty political weight in support of renewable energy and this has brought a new stimulating perspective,” Martine Akame Mesumbe, director of gas exploitation at the Ministry of Water and Energy, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The government hopes to boost Cameroon’s electricity access in rural areas as part of its “Vision 2035” development plan, aimed at expanding the economy and slashing poverty to 10 percent.

So far that expansion has been hampered by a lack of power, experts say. According to a 2018 World Bank report, just half of Cameroon’s people have access to electricity, with 80 percent of the supply concentrated in urban areas. Rural electrification is just 17 percent, it said.

As part of its push to change that, the government now aims to reach 1,000 communities – about 250,000 people in total – with solar power by the end of 2020, according to Mesumbe. Altogether it hopes to get electricity, from a variety of sources, to 40 percent of rural Cameroonians by 2020.

“This could drive significant economic change in rural Cameroon,” Mesumbe said. More than $120 million in funding for the push is coming from a Bank of China loan for renewable energy projects, he said.

MAINTENANCE?

Communities now hooked up to solar panels – like those in Mfou – say they are happy to have a cleaner and less costly source of energy. “It is a cheaper alternative to diesel generators and wood energy … used in the past to power small businesses,” said Roger Belinga, the mayor of Mfou.

Jarome Angwi, a beer vendor in the town, said solar energy to power his refrigerator and premises costs just a fifth of what he used to pay for diesel.

Local officials say they hope access to electricity will help keep young people from deserting rural areas for jobs in Cameroon’s cities.

In Mfou, “even some of those who left are already coming back” since the solar panels were installed, Belinga said.

Whether the new solar systems will be maintained, however, remains a question. Local authorities in some towns said they lack the funds to train local solar technicians.

“Many local councils do not have the financial resources to sustain these projects. They need financial support from government,” Rose Ngassa, the mayor of Tombel, in southwest Cameroon, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview in Yaounde.

But national government officials say an ongoing political decentralization push in Cameroon – including an expected 70 percent boost in cash transferred to local authorities in 2019 – should give local councils more money to invest in and maintain solar energy systems.

Greater use of solar power could also help cut worrying deforestation rates in Cameroon, home to part of Africa’s Congo Basin forests, environmentalist say.

“The cutting of trees for wood and charcoal used for cooking and heating will now reduce in many villages with the coming of solar energy,” said Augustine Njamnshi, the Cameroon-based coordinator of the African Coalition for Sustainable Energy.

Reuters

30, January 2019

Francophone Crisis: Two Journalists Detained While Covering Opposition Gathering ⁰

Authorities in Cameroon should immediately release journalists Théodore Tchopa and David Eyengue Nzima, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. The two journalists, from privately owned daily newspaper Le Jour, were arrested yesterday while covering an opposition gathering in Douala, Denis Nkwebo, their deputy editor in chief and the president of the Cameroonian journalists’ trade union, told CPJ. Their arrest was also reported by local outlets and journalists on social media.

The journalists were detained at a house where opposition leader Maurice Kamto, who claims to have won the 2018 presidential election, and opposition activists were also arrested, Nkwebo told CPJ. They were mistaken for activists who were gathered at the house, said Nkwebo, adding that the journalists have since been transferred to the judicial police headquarters in the capital, Yaounde, 230 km (143 miles) away. Kamto and the activists are also still in custody, according to Nkwebo.

“Théodore Tchopa and David Eyengue Nzima are journalists who were arrested for simply covering a newsworthy event, and must be freed immediately without condition,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ’s Africa program coordinator, in New York. “Cameroonian authorities should stop trying to intimidate and censor journalists who have a duty to keep citizens informed about the political and economic situation.”

In a statement sent to CPJ, Charles Ngah Nforgang, the union’s spokesman, said first-hand reporting from the ground remained the main source of information for journalists and their presence at such gatherings could not be considered a crime.

CPJ’s calls and text messages to the offices of Cameroon’s deputy justice minister, Jean De Dieu Momo, and the newly appointed communications minister, René Sadi, went unanswered. The police’s national communications chief, Joyce Ndjem, said she does not give comment over the phone and CPJ should come to her office.

Cameroon was the third worst jailer of journalists in Africa, after Egypt and Eritrea respectively, with at least seven journalists behind bars for their work as of December 1, 2018, according to CPJ’s annual prison census.

Source: CPJ

30, January 2019

French Cameroun Crisis: Opposition Vows to Defy Paul Biya’s Government ⁰

Cameroonians are taking their grievances against the regime of President Paul Biya to the world. Over the weekend, Cameroonians occupied the embassies of their country in Berlin and Paris, to support protests back home.

Protests continued on Monday in the capital, Yaounde, outside a police station, after at least six people – including opposition municipal council member and lawyer Michele Ndoki – were wounded and 117 people were arrested over the weekend in anti-government demonstrations. The government denied allegations that shots had been fired by security forces. But Ndoki and another opposition member, Celestin Djamen, suffered bullet wounds to the leg.

The government has reacted by accusing the opposition led by Maurice Kamto of wanting to destabilize the country. Territorial administration minister Paul Atanga Nji, responsible for licensing political parties, threatened to suspend Maurice Kamto’s Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC), for failing to respect Cameroon laws. “The MRC political party and its leadership have been very notorious in the disruption of public order since presidential elections were held in Cameroon,” he said.

The opposition won’t give up

Paul Biya, who has been in power for more than 36 years, won a seventh consecutive term in elections on October 7. But the poll was marred by fraud allegations, low turnout, and violence. Kamto’s party has held sporadic protests since then to dispute the result. The party leader himself, whom the government has refrained from arresting as yet, told his followers: “I am out to fight injustice. I am a son of the country who has decided to fight for and with his people until victory is achieved.”

Biya’s government has banned demonstrations and the security forces have not been shy in using force to disperse protesters. Human rights activist Ateba Bruno of the Cameroon Centre for Democracy says that not allowing peaceful protests is another way used by the government to stifle freedom of expression. “They refer to opposition parties as those who want to tarnish Cameroon’s image to the outside world. But after all that we have seen, I ask if it isn’t the opposition or the government who truly want to tarnish the image of Cameroon. We know exactly what is happening and we should stop such acts which do not honor our country,” he told DW.

Calling on the world to pay attention

The protests gained a new dimension over the weekend when Cameroonians briefly invaded andoccupied their country’s embassies in Paris and Berlin. In a video published on social platforms online, Daniel Essissima, one of around 50 protesters in the French capital, said that “Cameroonians are fed up with being taken for idiots.” About ten Cameroonians followed suit in Berlin, without inflicting as much damage to their embassy there as was the case in Paris. A large police squad removed the people from the Berlin premises in the early hours of Sunday.

The action taken by Cameroonians in France and Germany is a sign of growing resistance against Biya. The president is fighting on several fronts at once, including a revolt in the Southwest and Northwest Anglophone regions against what they perceive as discrimination by the Francophone majority. Armed separatists have been clashing with the Cameroonian military almost daily in the country’s equatorial forest.

A slew of problems for Biya

Attacks by Nigerian Boko Haram jihadists expanding into neighboring countries is another conflict Yaounde has to contend with. In the east, armed groups from the Central African Republic are an additional source of instability. All of this is putting a severe strain on Cameroon’s economy, further stoking grievances. And the loss, in November, of the right to host this year’s African Cup of Nations as a result of delays and concerns over violence was another serious blow to Cameroon’s prestige.

The ongoing conflicts have caused a drastic increase in the need for humanitarian assistance. United Nations Development & Humanitarian Coordinator Allegra Baiocchi recently said that the organization estimates that some 4.3 million Cameroonians, or one in six of the population, require lifesaving assistance.

Source: DeutschWelle