Inside Cameroon

The state Police and the French foreign legion detonated a hand grenade in another show piece of drama this morning at the Azire New Church Junction,where the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon is running two Schools,viz,The Presbyterian Comprehensive High School and the Presbyterian Primary School. It happened in the early hours of the morning when Police had condoned the area and the suspects are the state propaganda and smearing campaign in their futile struggle to tag the Southern Cameroon's struggle as a terrorist group. 

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Rita Akana

20.Oct.2017

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UNITED NATIONS — 

The United Nations Secretary-General said Wednesday that the Central African Republic is at a critical moment and everything must be done to ease growing communal tensions and preserve gains to keep the fragile nation on the right path.

Antonio Guterres will travel to the Central African Republic next week, to meet with the country’s leaders and visit the nearly 12,000-member U.N. peacekeeping mission.

The country has been struggling with sometimes deadly inter-communal tensions for the past five years between two armed groups -- the mostly Muslim Seleka and largely Christian anti-Balaka.

Another serious outbreak of violence between the two groups erupted in May, and Guterres warned that the situation remains very troubling.

“Across the country, communal tensions are growing, violence is spreading, and the humanitarian situation is deteriorating," he said.

The numbers of people in need of humanitarian aid is surging, with almost 600,000 internally displaced and more than half-a-million driven to seek refuge in neighboring countries. The violence has been deadly for peacekeepers and aid workers, as well as civilians.

Guterres said he has asked the Security Council for an increase in peacekeepers to calm the situation.

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in the C.A.R. has been the epicenter of sexual abuse and exploitation allegations against the United Nations. One mission chief has been fired and peacekeepers from accused countries have been repatriated.

Guterres will be accompanied on his visit by his recently appointed victims’ rights advocate.

“We are determined to ensure that the voices of victims are heard – I will myself be ready to meet with victims and their families – in and beyond the Central African Republic. Victims must be at the center of our response if we want our zero-tolerance policy to be successful,” he said.

Guterres said despite challenges, fragile gains such as the election of a president and government and the establishment of a special criminal court must be preserved and strengthened.

VOA

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Rita Akana

19.Oct.2017

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LOME (Reuters) - Four people were killed in Togo on Wednesday in clashes between security forces and demonstrators calling for an end to a half century of Gnassingbe family rule, the security minister said.

Opposition activists have been demonstrating since August against Gnassingbe’s administration and say a constitutional reform he has proposed would allow him to rule the West African country until 2030.

Colonel Damehame Yark, the security and civil protection minister, told a news conference that one person was shot dead and around sixty others arrested in the capital, Lome. Another three died of gunshot wounds in the second-biggest city, Sokode.

“These are too many deaths. We’d be wise to preserve the peace,” he said.

The latest bout of protests followed the arrest in Sokode on Monday of a Muslim imam accused of urging his followers to murder soldiers.

Clashes erupted after the arrest. A crowd killed two soldiers and one other person died in unspecified circumstances, the government said in a statement. About 20 other people were injured, it added.

The deaths reignited a mass protest movement against President Faure Gnassingbe, who succeeded his late father Gnassingbe Eyadema in 2005.

The protesters are calling for his resignation.

“We deplore this toll and we say that backing down is out of the question. Despite what we have suffered, we will maintain our call for protests tomorrow,” said Brigitte Adjamagbo, one of the leaders of the opposition movement.

She said the coalition was aware of two people killed, including an 11-year-old child, as well as twenty others who were seriously injured and dozens of arrests.

In a bid to curb demonstrations, the government has banned marches and mass protests on weekdays.

But young protesters in Be, a working-class neighbourhood in eastern Lome, defied the ban on Wednesday. They erected barricades with bricks and burning tyres and threw stones at security forces, who responded with volleys of tear gas.

“This is our last bastion,” shouted one demonstrator, Ayi Koffi. “We have no arms, no gas. We do not have cars to pick up people. We have come out barehanded to say, enough!”

In a statement, the International Organisation of La Francophonie, a group comprised mainly of French-speaking countries including Paris’s former colonies, said that nothing justified the violence.

“Dialogue must be prioritised in all circumstances,” it said.

The controversial constitutional reform will be decided by popular referendum after the bill failed to win approval from parliament following a boycott by opposition lawmakers last month.

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Rita Akana

19.Oct.2017

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Cletus, the co-host of a Canal 2 program Jambo, has been asked to be seen no where near any of the media organs's TV sets or studios. This is because he announced on 9 October, Akere Muna's candidature for the 2018 elections, something the President Director General of Canal 2, Emmanuel Chatue, was not in accordance with.

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Emergency Admin

17.Oct.2017

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Congress of the The United States
Washington, DC 20515
October 17. 2017

The Honorable Nikki Haley
United States Representative to United Nations
United States Permanent Mission io the United Nations
799 United Nations Plaza
New York. New York 10017

Dear Ambassador Haley.

On behalf of the Camcroon American Council (CAC) and the Cameroon diaspora of New York, we are troubled with the deteriorating conditions for the English-Speaking (Anglophones) minority in the Northwest and South-west regions of Cameroon.
The concerns of the CAC arc serious: mass arrests. black out of Internet services for 94 days in the Western region of Anglophone-only communities, using live ammunition to disperse protests, and diminishing freedoms of the press. These beliefs arc strengthened by the U.S. State Department's 2016 Human Rights Report on Cameroon, which makes clear that the government of Cameroon has taken actions to undermine the equality of all citizens before the law.
In addition to the concerns arising in the Western, Anglophone region, Cameroon faces humanitarian crises in other regions. In the North, Cameroon is combating famine and Boko Haram, and in the east. there is a flow of refugees fleeing the Central African Republic. The confluence of these events poses unique threats to the stability of Cameroon and to United States interests in Cameroon.
We respectfully request that the US Mission to the United Nations hold a briefing for the Cameroon Diaspora and their allies in the coming weeks. We believe a briefing will enable this very active community to better understand the situation from the perspective of the United Nation's Security Council, and will help the community communicate better with their family members, business partners and friends back in Cameroon.
Thank you.
Sincerely,

Daniel M. Donovan. Jr.

Member of Congress Member of Congress

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Rita Akana

17.Oct.2017

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The Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province has announced the creation of a fund to support those affected by the violence during demonstrations in the Anglophone regions of the country.
The announcement was made by the Auxiliary Archbishop of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province, Michael Miabesue Bibi on Saturday October 14, 2017 during a mass to pray for those who have lost their lives during the Anglophone crisis.
The Auxiliary Bishop asked Christians to pray for all those who shot others to death and those who ordered for their shooting. Without stating clearly the angle of this prayer request, the prelate emphasized that, “Only God gives life and only God should take lives”.

The church which is the moral pillar in every society has continually played her role since the start of the Anglophone crisis as a mediator and the broker of peace for all, by looking at the evolution of Cameroon history objectively and making pertinent suggestions to government on the way forward.
It is based on this fall out that the Archbishop of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province, His Grace Cornelius Fontem Eshua chose Saturday October 14, 2017 for all churches under his command to pray for the repose of scores of people who lost their lives during recent demonstrations in the NW and SW regions and to pray for the country as a whole.
In a solemn homily at the Bamenda Metropolitan Cathedral where hundreds of Christians answered present, officiated by the Auxiliary Archbishop, Michael Miabesue Bibi, the church unanimously prayed for the peaceful repose of the lives of those who died since October 2016 in connection with the Anglophone crisis. Prayed as well for those who have been arrested and tortured, both known and unknown and for the families of all those affected.
During his homily, the Auxiliary Archbishop called on Christians to pray for this nation like never before at a time when uncertainty is the next certainty in the Northwest and Southwest regions.
He cautioned all, Christians like non-Christians to keep away from trouble, calling on them not to provoke the military or give room for the military to provoke them while warning that “life is sacred”.
The man of God did not fail to re-echo the stance of the church with regards to the Anglophone crisis. He condemned strongly the abduction of Anglophones to unknown destinations and called on government to put an immediate stop to the arrests.
He equally urged government to push fast for a genuine and inclusive dialogue so as to find lasting solutions to issues affecting national peace.
Finally, the prelate appealed with the population to continue offering masses to pray for the lives of those who were killed during the Anglophone crisis.

thesuncameroon

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Rita Akana

17.Oct.2017

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