Politics

The just ended failed Philemon Yang’s Peace Tour has attracted a lot of criticisms from critics and politicians in Cameroon and the diaspora. This is the third time the PM is failing to restore peace in the Anglophone region of Cameroon. In his messages he ceaselessly stressed the fact that parents should send their children to school, a plea that failed before his own very eyes.

 “I thought the struggle shifted from a teacher/lawyer issue to the entire southern Cameroon people's struggle. He is still making it sound like it’s still the teachers’/lawyers’ affair” says a Bamenda critic.
"I learned that the Prime Minister was in the city. He did not invite me it is not by force that teachers and students will return to classrooms. They expected the head of the government to come and talk to them and ask for what they wanted. He did not do that. He came to tell them what to do.This is not the way to go. He should stop ridiculing himself. The Government must engage in frank dialogue" says Ni John Fru Ndi, SDF party Chairman.

This overnight headstrong behaviour of his countrymen seems to reveal that a wrong “medication” was administered to remedy the “ailment”. It also suggests that the government has not been a government for the people and as a result, they are now demanding for the Anglophone problem as a whole to be solved and sending their children to school will not help in solving this.

This may just be an opportunity for the government to re-strategize and organize an open dialogue with Anglophones in a bid to come up with lasting solutions to the Anglophone problem or else it may just be another dawn for a new Anglophone Revolution in Cameroon.

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Rita Akana

13.Mar.2017

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The government of Cameroon, through the Minister of Secondary Education, has prescribed measures for catch-up classes in order to enable students meet up with lessons lost as a result of the Anglophone Teachers’ Trade Unions strike action that started on November 21 last year and has paralysed schools in the Northwest and Southwest Regions.

The measures are contained in press release No 13/17/PR/MINESEC/CAB of March 3, 2017 signed by the Minister of Secondary Education, Jean Ernest Masséna Ngallé Bibehé. Copies were dispatched to the Secretaries General at the Presidency and the Prime Minister’s Office for information, the DECC, GCE Board, OBC, National Secretaries and Education Secretaries.

According to the release, the Minister “informs the National Education Community that following the strike action of teachers in the Northwest and Southwest Regions which, up to 3 February 2017, disrupted the smooth implementation of activities provided for by Order No 6384/B1/1464/MINEDUB/MINESEC of 24 June 2016 fixing the calendar of the 2016/2017 school year in the Republic of Cameroon, notably those relating to pedagogic planning, measures have been taken to make up for lost teaching hours.”

The measures as spelt out by the Minister include: “the continuation of catch-up classes that have been ongoing for some time now in the Francophone section; the increase of 17 hour of teaching per week in the Anglophone section to run from 6 March to 13 May 2017 (and divided as follows: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 2 hours per day; Wednesday: 3 hours; Saturday: 6 hours); two weeks of classes for examination classes and one week for other classes during Easter holidays scheduled from Friday, 31 March to Monday, 17 April 2017.”

The Minister called on all members of the education community to put all hands on deck, in their different spheres of competence, for the full implementation of the measures outlined above.

Cameroonpost

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Rita Akana

12.Mar.2017

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President Biya and the British High Commissioner to Cameroon, H.E John Brian Olley, have discussed the Anglophone crisis for the first time since the conflict erupted in November 2016.

The Anglophone crisis, The Post learnt, is one of the main topics the duo harped on during a tete-a-tete at the Unity Palace on Tuesday March 7.

Nothing has filtered out so far as to what the President and the British diplomat said specifically about the crisis. But, observers hold that Biya and Olley must have bowed their minds on seeking a peaceful solution to the conflict.

The crisis has kept children out of school and lawyers out of court in the two English-speaking regions of the country. The situation has provoked a deepening socio-economic and political crisis in the country. Sweeping arrest and detention of Anglophones have been one of the worst fall-outs of the crisis.

There has been deepening national acrimony as citizens have been warned not to discuss federalism or any idea that has to do with changing the form of the state. To Government, the unitary state remains sacrosanct and is not open to any discussion.

For one thing, the crisis has sparked an upsurge of human rights violations according to human rights watch dog, Amnesty International.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, has also raised an alarm about seven journalists currently being detained in connection to the crisis.

Given the UK’s attachment to the culture of human rights and respect of fundamental freedoms, the British diplomat could not have been indifferent to such a situation. The meeting between the President and the High Commissioner was even more compelling because both Cameroon and the UK are members of the Commonwealth of Nations.

The Commonwealth, also known as the club of gentlemen, usually recommends the strict application of the rule of law and the respect of human rights in crisis situations.

Some observers hold that the UK government has a moral obligation to wade in and help the Government of Cameroon to arrest the conflict because the crisis is in the former British Southern Cameroons.

Britain occupied the territory after the Anglo-French forces defeated Germany in the battle of Nsanakang near Mamfe during the First World War. This historic affiliation with Cameroon alone could have motivated the UK diplomat to see how to contribute his own quota in brokering peace on the issue.

Cameroonpost

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Rita Akana

12.Mar.2017

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"It is 4a.m. in Houston (Texas) and I have just made it into my hotel room after the meeting with the consortium followed by the meeting with MoRISC Houston Members & Sympathizers. If I'm posting late or so early it is because I want to make sure you, Members of the MoRISC Steering Committee, are the first to have the most accurate information on our meetings.

1. Despite MoRISC's show of good faith at the meeting with the Consortium this evening, the Facebook page of Mr. Ivo Tapang is full of spin and misrepresentation this dawn. For example, his totally false headline reads "MoRISC merges with the Consortium". Very sad to see the Consortium trying its hand at some of CRTV's dirtiest distortions of the truth.

2. The Facebook posting by Mr. Tapang this dawn is clearly meant to mislead MoRISC members and the public by suggesting that the MoRISC event is no longer holding. He is suggesting, falsely, that MoRISC invited everyone to converge at the venue of the event by the Consortium. Not true. The Consortium hopes that pulling such a last minute trick it would empty the event MoRISC had scheduled in favor of their event.

3. MoRISC told participants at the closed door event that it was too late to cancel any of the two events so late at night (in effect barely hours before both are to open). MoRISC regretted that the Consortium refused the offer which MoRISC made many days earlier for the Consortium to use the same venue as MoRISC especially given that at the time the Consortium still had not secured a venue.

4. Let it also be known that we rose from the meeting inviting the Consortium officials present to check back with their "commanders" and counsel and on the level of their comfort to speak openly about the restoration of independence agenda or even the level of their comfort to be with MoRISC. This was requested because a high level of discomfort had been shown by the Consortium in the past in failing to join MoRISC at rallies such as the one last week at the United Nations.

5. Contrary to the claim that MoRISC will be assisting the Consortium in raising funds, MoRISC reiterated the fact that it has repeatedly offered financial support to the Consortium from MoRISC's existing funds only to see the Consortium refuse such financial support in the past. MoRISC even pointed out a specific recent item (printers) the Consortium had funded that MoRISC would have financed.

6. In short, while MoRISC and the Consortium agreed to work together more smoothly going forward, MoRISC stressed the need for the Consortium to realize that the Houston meeting did not constitute bringing leaders or organizations together. Only 12 individuals reported present for the meeting; only one of them (yours truly) was from MoRISC while the rest were overwhelmingly Consortium sympathizers. MoRISC underlined the need to bring the other movements (SCNC, SCAPO, Ambazonia, SCYL, AGC, etc.)

7. MoRISC also made clear that it would not dignify with a reply the many anti-MoRISC propaganda pieces produced and disseminated by some of the same Consortium sympathizers who attended the meeting. MoRISC, however, insisted that it believes urgent attention needs to be paid to what it considers the troubling nature of power play and/or change of guard at the helm of the Consortium, including a change announced during the meeting granting yet another interim role for someone else.

8. In closing, therefore, please note that the two events are going ahead on Saturday at the two different venues although both MoRISC and the Consortium recognize the need to work more closely together going forward. MoRISC offered four principles that it hopes can be adopted to guide any partnership going forward: Frank collaboration; Division of Labor; Complementarity; and Teamwork.

9. Prof. Carlson Anyangwe and Dr. Atang who also attended this meeting can testify to the accuracy of the above account. In addition, Dr. Atang can testify that when the Spokesperson presented even this outcome as "work in progress" pending a decision later, Houston-based supporters of the restoration of independence agenda went up in arms, angered by what they consider a high level of sabotage by some of the Houston-based sympathizers of the Consortium."

Now, you know!

Ntumfoyn Boh Herbert (Yindo Toh)
Spokesperson, MoRISC

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Rita Akana

12.Mar.2017

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The MP for Bafut, (Tubah-Bafut Constituency), Hon. Fusi Naamukong, has written an emotionally charged letter to the Northwest Governor, Adolf Lele L’Afrique invoking the administrator’s swift intervention to stop what the MP describes as gross violation of the rights of Anglophone citizens.

He cites torture, kidnapping, victimisation, persecution and extortion as some of the human rights abuses being perpetrated by the military in the Northwest.

Read the full petition on page…

It is with a heavy heart that I write to your high office in respect of the continuous and gross violation of the rights of the people within the constituency which I represent.

As Member of Parliament for Mezam North (Tubah-Bafut Constituency), I owe a duty not only to ensure that members of my constituency are law abiding and peace loving but also to promote development and social justice in the Constituency.

It is acknowledged that since the commencement of this crisis in the Northwest and Southwest Region, I have ensured that my people do not indulge in actions that will compromise the peace and unity of our dear fatherland. It is against this backdrop that I expect our military officers and the rank and file, to conduct them in such a manner as to maintain peace, order and social justice in the community but this has not been the case.

Our military has transformed themselves into forces of torture, kidnapping, victimization, persecution, extortion of funds from helpless inhabitants, which action denies our people of their fundamental rights. Most often than not my people have been arrested without any warrant, subject under investigations by military regiment not charged with investigation of crimes in the community. Many are in the hospital suffering after being brutalized and left helpless by the presumed forces of law and order. These violations can only be seen in times of war.

Such was the case involving Mr.Ambe Joseph Nkwah, popularly known (Joe and Bros), a businessman of high integrity who left Bafut on Sunday 5 of February 2017 en route to Bamenda after watching the half of the African Nations Cup finals, between Cameroon and Egypt. Somewhere at Mile SixMankon, he noticed that he was being trailed by a pick-up at a very high speed with double trafficators and this was about 9:30 pm.

While suspecting that the driver must have been drunk or it was an emergency, he cleared a few meters away from Star Hotel Mankon, to allow the said vehicle to drive past. He was astonished that the occupants of the vehicle, whom he identified as BIR elements armed with guns blocked his vehicle, alighted from their pick-up and reaped him out of his vehicle and started brutalizing him until he defecated and urinated in his pair of trousers. He was blindfolded to block his visibility, handcuffed and drop behind the BIR pick-up van with the forces using his entire body as a foot mat. The more he cried, the more he was tortured. He could only follow the sound of the vehicle as it drove off while lying helplessly on the floor of the pick-up.

They drove with high speed and he later discovered himself at the BIR camp in Bafut when they took off the black mask covering his face. He was masked again on the second part of the journey to Up-Station. While at Up-Station they asked him to which trade union he belonged and he told them that he was not a teacher, that he was a businessman and that they should verify from his documents which they had in their possession. As they kept on torturing him, he would not stop asking them what he had done to warrant this inhuman treatment.

They threatened him, saying that if he continues to ask these questions, they will kill him. While at Up-Station, he discovered that they took along his vehicle; there was a standby vehicle waiting to transport him to Yaounde. He was taken in the cell at the Gendarmerie Legion Up-Station Bamenda, where he was interrogated and when they realized that they had arrested the wrong person, they simply transferred him to Gendarmerie Groupement Up-Station where he was detained in the cell.

The elements in this unit also accused him of distributing tracts, a charge which he refuted by saying that he was not a teacher and could not write tracts. Then after finding it difficult to hang any charge on him, he was unconditionally released on Tuesday without any apology.

Mr.Ambe Joseph Nkwah consulted at the hospital, where he was treated and is still on drugs. The panic and fear brought to the family throughout the night of the arrest cannot be overemphasized as the entire family was placed under trauma as the wife, the children and his friends went for a man hunt till the next day at 12 midday when he was discovered at the cell.

Your Excellency, Cameroon is certainly a state of law and it is difficult to view such flagrant violations of the fundamental rights of citizens without corresponding redress to such criminal actions. Mr.Ambe Joseph Nkwa practically did nothing to warrant this inhuman treatment. He has never been convoked to appear on a complaint and he failed to do so. Why would such measure of brutality be unleashed on a law abiding citizen?

It is my considered belief that as the Chief Executive Officer of the Region and the Operational Commanding Officer of the various military units within this Region, it behoves on you not only to call this elements of BIR to order but also to cause disciplinary actions and criminal sanctions to be meted out on them.

Our Governor, help us by ending this undeclared state of emergency. Stop this continuous arrest of teachers and civilians for peace to reign. A good society does not flourish on injustice and it is my humble belief that until justice is done or seen to have been done, those officers will remain haunted by our prayers.

Accept your Excellency our highest regards while waiting for your interventions and prompt action.

Yours Sincerely Hon. Fusi Naamukong W.

Cc: *National Commission For Human Rights and Freedoms Bamenda *The Honourable Procureur General PG Northwest *The SDO Mezam

Cameroonpost

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Rita Akana

10.Mar.2017

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Nigerian and Cameroonian troops have carried out a joint military operation against Boko Haram, the Nigerian Army said in a statement on Wednesday.

“In order to clear fleeing Boko Haram terrorists hibernating within remote and border areas, Nigerian and Cameroonian troops have carried out another joint operation to weed out Boko Haram terrorists along Nigeria and Cameroon border,” said Brigadier General Sani Kukasheka Usman, Director of Public Relations of the Nigerian Army.

The two day joint operation was led by Col Dourai and Lt Col  Mohaman of the Cameroonian Defence Forces had troops drawn from the Cameroon’s Battalion Rapid Intervention and 151 Task Force Battalion of  21 Brigade,  Nigerian Army.

“During the operation which ended yesterday Tuesday, troops of the two countries cleared Siyara, Kote, Sigawa and proceeded to Bulabundibe towns. Other areas cleared include AdeleKe, Tchatike and Lamukura villages,” he said.

General Usman said while conducting the operation the troops came in contact with Boko Haram terrorists and “neutralised many of them, apprehended two others, while many other terrorists escaped with gunshot wounds”.

“The Troops further recovered an unserviceable Toyota Canter,  7 Dane Guns and 5 Boko Haram terrorists flags, 4 vehicle tyres, 2 Motorcycles and vehicle spare parts,” he added.

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Simon Ateba

09.Mar.2017

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