Politics

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium is calling on both National and International opinion to witness an ongoing practice in the North West and South West regions whereby scores of people are arrested daily for no just cause and then forced to pay sums ranging between 500,000 and 1000,000  F CFA in order not to be carted to Yaounde for detention at the Kondengui Prison.
The situation has gotten so bad to the point that militants of the ruling CPDM Party are exploiting the open terror to settle scores with people who do not share their ideologies. These militants under the guise of working for government call the police and denounce innocent people for arrest.
As if that were not enough, some regime barons of French expression are now sending out provocative messages to the two regions saying
 "You people can cry and shout to the top of your voices, the UN, the British who offered you to us through France and the United States that has interests we are protecting will never come to your aid; but France will fight for us".
In the face of this escalating reign of terror, marked by a suspicious kind of silence from the International Community, the desperate people may soon be pushed by government's excessive terror, extortion and all other forms of provocation to defend themselves.
Right from its inception, the Consortium has preached and promoted non violent approaches to civil disobedience, believing strongly that peace has no price.

Our position has not changed, but circumstances on the ground may soon make our persistent calls for restraint hollow. We also hold this truth to be self evident, that the international community will not be in a position to claim ignorance on the ongoing genocide being perpetrated by Yaounde on anglophones in the Southern Cameroons.

Details

Rita Akana

07.Mar.2017

Hits: 2996

BaretaNews reports that the meeting which held today at the Cathedral in Bamenda has come to an end. Southern Cameroons Parents who were invited by the Catholic Hierarchy to persuade them send their children to schools have VEHEMENTLY REFUSED.Parents say they will not send any kids to school unless ALL Southern Cameroonians abducted are released. As the Church hierarchy keeps begging, telling the parents that Baptist and PCC will do same, the parents in anger walked out of the hall and the meeting ended. Some of the parents could be heard shouting that it seems the Catholic hierarchy has been infiltrated- as reported by BaretaNews reporter in Bamenda.

Details

Rita Akana

06.Mar.2017

Hits: 3498

UNITED NATIONS, March 5 – While UN Security Council members visiting Niger, 188th out of 188 on the UN Development Index, is certainly welcome, it is noteworthy has is not being addressed or even mentioned on this trip.

  Beyond the omission, which some called shameful, of the plight of Anglophones in Cameroon -- the Internet has been turned off in their regions -- the common denominator of France's historical power relations with, say, Chad and Niger was omitted even from reporting from inside the Council's bubble.

  It was complained to the Free UN Coalition for Access that the UN didn't even inform the News Agency of Nigeria that it could go on the trip (but did inform, for example, Voice of America). Might NAN have been more critical of aspects of the trip? How will this omission be addressed? 

   Inner City Press in the past was informed of such trips, and went on some, for example to Chad where then French Ambassador Jean Maurice Ripert dissembled about President Deby's non-appearance, then confronted Inner City Press about its reporting, in the airport in Kigali, Rwanda. Now, following a retaliatory eviction and continuing restriction at the UN by Department of Public Information chief Cristina Gallach and spokesman Stephane Dujarric for seeking to cover the Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe UN bribery case in the UN Press Briefing Room on January 29, 2016, Inner City Press is no longer informed or invited. DPI under Gallach churns out assemblages of canned quotes and tweets as "stories," as from within the bubble. We'll have more on this.

  On a previous Security Council trip that included Sudan, Council members spoke to the Press about standing up to the Sudanese government about abuses. So what happened in Cameroon?

   As Security Council members portrayed themselves meeting with Cameroon's Paul Biya, apparently without a word about the protests by and incarceration of Anglophones in the country, Inner City Press asked the UN about the problem, video here, UN Transcript here:

Inner City Press: yesterday, I'd asked you about this letter from the former Senate President of Nigeria.  The press in Nigeria picked up on your answer and said that no letter has been received at all.  So, you said you hadn't seen it.  Does that just mean that you personally hadn't seen it, or have you checked to see whether the letter…?

Spokesman:  We have not… I have the not received any confirmation that a letter has been received.  I can't speak to whether or not a letter was sent since we were, apparently, if this letter exists, the recipients.  As far as the recipients, as of today, nothing has been received.

Inner City Press: Since the Security Council is in Cameroon, I wanted to know whether DPA [the Department of Political Affairs] has taken any notice of this protest in the Anglophone areas of Cameroon?  Many people have been arrested.  Eight journalists have been detained in Cameroon.  It seems like the Security Council's focus is entirely on the Boko Haram aspect, but is anyone in the UN system concerned and trying to get some answers?

Spokesman:  We're obviously following it, and I'll see if I can get you something further.

  Eight hours later, nothing. Nothing at all. The UN's reflexive evasion of Press question reverberated on the Council's next stop.

  Nigeria's former Senate President Ameh Ebute wrote to the UN to urge sanctions against Cameroon and Chad. Inner City Press at the March 2 UN noon briefing asked the UN's holdover spokeman Stephane Dujarric to comment on Ebute's letter. Dujarric said he hadn't seen it.

  Now The Guardian in Nigeria picks up on Dujarric's knee-jerk denial to Inner City Press: "Mr Stephane Dujarric, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General, denied knowledge of the letter... 'I have not seen the letter.'"

  For eight billion U.S. dollars a year, you'd think they could at least read their mail. Watch this site.

  During the Paris stopover, Council members met with France's replacement for Herve Ladsous atop UN Peacekeeping, Jean-Pierre Lacroix. Will Lacroix addressed the disparities in protection for European and African peacekeepers serving ostensibly together in the UN's Mali mission?

  And in Cameroon, will the dispute between the French and English speaking communities, and harsh prison conditions for the latter, be noted by the Council? Watch this site.

   The day after UK Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said while the UK supports Martin Kobler as long as he is UN envoy in Libya, if he's to be replaced it should be quickly given momentum, Inner City Press asked Dujarric to describe the UN process and timelines. No details were provided. Again, typical.

Details

Rita Akana

06.Mar.2017

Hits: 3161

The delegation of UN diplomats have given a pass mark to CAMEROON's role in the war against boko haram and management of refugees .

The first lap of their  2 day tour took the 15 UN Security Council Ambassadors in the Lake Chad Basin area and later at the Unity Palace. Announced as an audience, the meeting turned into a working session with the Cameroonian head of state. The unprecedented nature of the visit to the area, the purpose of the meeting, the size of the delegation and the quality of the hosts led to the choice of the Council of Ministers' room as a framework.

It was at 10:50 am that the delegation of the UN envoys arrives at the unity palace. Under the joint leadership of Britain's ambassadors (whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council for the month of March), France and Senegal. In the room chosen for the occasion, the Head of State himself welcomed each of the 15 UN ambassadors personally. After this welcome ritual, the doors closed, the meeting was held in camera. The head of state is surrounded by three members of the government, the minister delegated to the presidency in charge of defense, Joseph Beti Assomo, the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization, René-Emmanuel Sadi, The Minister delegate at the president in charge of Commonwealth Relations, Joseph Dion Ngute, and Ambassador Michel Tommo Monthe, Permanent Representative of Cameroon to the United Nations.

Speaking to the press after the consultation, which lasted nearly an hour, the co-presidents of the UN mission unanimously praised Cameroon for its exemplary commitment to the fight against the terrorist sect Boko Haram, For its hospitality to refugees and for its efforts in terms of resilience to sustainable development. Britain's Ambassador Mathew Rycroft stressed that their discussions with the Cameroonian Head of State focused on the factors that constitute the breeding ground for terrorism in the Lake Chad area, including poverty and lack of Basic social services. The United Nations, he said, advised the States in the area to adopt a comprehensive approach to address the root causes of terrorism, including governance and development. The visit is thus in line with the prospect of a co-operation orientation towards the challenges of security, humanitarian emergency and socio-economic development. The French ambassador to the UN calls the war against the terror group in the Lake Chad Basin silent.

François Delattre proposed to radically reverse the gaze on this area. "The Lake Chad region has not received the attention it deserves from the international community and this mission is there to remedy this mistake, " notes the head of the French mission to United Nations. "We have come to listen, accompany and encourage Cameroon and other countries to meet all these challenges with the contribution of the international community," he concludes. For the Senegalese ambassador Fode Seck, "this war has been imposed on Cameroon which remains a haven of peace in the sub region". He expressed concern about Cameroon's heavy burden of refugees.

Before leaving the Unity Palace, each ambassador received the medal of the fiftieth anniversary of the independence and reunification of Cameroon from the hands of the Cameroonian head of state.

Details

Mbi James

06.Mar.2017

Hits: 1648

Anglophone Consortium calls for a boycott of International Women's Day Activities In Southern Cameroons:

Giving up is not an option. The Consortium maintains that schools remain closed. Consortium Calls for Ghost Town from Monday 6th through Wednesday 8th of March 2017 to Protest Against the Continuous Arrest, Abduction and Shooting of West Cameroonians.

On its Twitter page, the consortium issued the following statement; 

Schools and courts remain closed.Ghost towns continue every Mondays.This week Southern Cameroons Women shall boycott women's day on 8 march 2017.Our women are mourning.  The people of former British Southern Cameroons shall determine their faith through a referendum.We continue to call for the release of all Southern Cameroonians abducted by the Biya's regime .It's the only starting point for dialogue.The Consortium shall work to restore the lost Southern Cameroons State which had been occupied through annexation.

As posted by Cameroonian social blogger Maybelle Boma on her Facebook wall

Details

Rita Akana

06.Mar.2017

Hits: 2434

Profiling Ayaba Cho:
.."To the students who continue to struggle for democracy, freedom of assembly, speech, and the protection of human dignity, you are not on your own - the struggle has just started, let's keep walking" Dr. Ayaba Cho Lucas. (SAIH Norway, Sep 2013).
Following his historic speech at the march in New York, I have had tons of questions about Ayaba Cho?
Truth is he did not just pop up from somewhere, here is a synopsis.
------
In 1993 the first batch of the university of Buea was immatriculated, though the university had no class rooms, laboratories, library, restaurants or even lavatories, the government of Cameroun decided to increase the tuition to 550 thousand Franc CFA.
Following this raise, parents and students of Southern Cameroons resisted and under the student union leadership the stratagem was stalled. The regime of Paul Barthelemy Biya responded with the dismissal of the Student Union President – Ebenezer Derek Mbongo Akwanga, Jr., and dissolved the Student Union.
Ayaba Cho in his early days of activism as a student of chemistry in the university of Buea, led a one man demonstration that took the university by surprise. He was expelled from the university and banned from attending any higher institution of learning in Cameroun.
He later took flight to Europe after escaping jail sentence in Cameroun. In Germany and the UK, he sought refuge and pursued higher education under very difficult circumstances. Cho Lucas changed his path of learning from chemistry to Public law with concentration in Human rights law in which he earned his Phd. His journey in education, activism, and protection of human rights has continued since then.

Dr. Ayaba Lucas, is currently the Secretary General of the Southern Cameroons Youth League (SCYL) & also a leader in the Ambazonia Governing Council. He likes to see himself as a foot soldier. Recently he has been seen forging a united platform with various actors in this struggle. He believes in working together collectively. Eventhough as a foot soldier his personality is something that makes him a leader in the struggle. "A warm hearted person who speaks eloquently his points, take action and argues with facts" as described by an observer.

Details

Ian Kiku

06.Mar.2017

Hits: 6501