Politics

Boko Haram has dramatically scaled back attacks in Cameroon in recent months, analysts said on Wednesday, suggesting a regional security force is gaining ground against the militants.

The Islamist movement - which controlled an area the size of Belgium in northeast Nigeria last year and raided Cameroon and other neighbours to expand its "caliphate" - had since suffered a string of defeats, International Crisis Group (ICG) said.

The report came days after security and U.N. sources said hundreds of Boko Haram fighters and their families had surrendered on another frontline in Chad.

There was no comment from any of the factions of Boko Haram which is still seen as one of the main security threats in West Africa. 

"We've seen a dizzying downwards spiral in the number of attacks and suicide bombings," said Hans De Marie Heungoup, one of the report's authors.

Two years ago, attacks were happening on an almost daily basis, he said. But the number had fallen to between six and eight a month since September.

"[Boko Haram] has suffered heavy losses and seen its conventional capacities reduced," the study said, partly thanks to last year's formation of a 10,000-strong regional force with troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin.

Up to 1,000 fighters with heavy weaponry and armoured vehicles joined strikes in Cameroon's Far North Region in 2014-15, the report said.

But attacks were now focused on the northernmost tip of the region where fighters continued to control part of the fishing industry of Lake Chad amid a labyrinth of waterways.

Recruitment is also faltering in Cameroon although forced enlistment remains a risk, ICG said.

Up to 4,000 Cameroonians are thought to have joined the group and some were given sign-on bonuses of up to $2000 and a motorbike, according to the study, citing interviews with locals.

Those who proved their loyalty by killing their parents often enjoyed quick promotion, it added.

Analysts say the faction around the Lake Chad Basin represents the stronger branch of the group, loyal to Islamic State (IS) and led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi. Another faction led by Abubaker Shekau is based further south in Nigeria's Sambisa forest.

Reuters

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Rita Akana

17.Nov.2016

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Member states of the International Criminal Court are beginning their annual meeting in The Hague. Three African states are leaving the court, but it is still needed writes Tanzanian analyst Anaclet Rwegayura.

Under the flag of the United Nations all member states believe in equality and justice. But inequality of nations persists. And, yet every nation is expected to play its fair role in this game of inequality!

I am raising these points in the wake of dissatisfaction expressed by some African countries with regard to the performance of the International Criminal Court (ICC). They charge that there has been no fair play with regard to Africa.

Last month Burundi, South Africa and Gambia, began the formal process to withdraw from the founding treaty of the ICC, the Rome Statute. Was their decision based on domestic politics or on international legal grounds?

In the view of other signatories to the statute, this is a disturbing signal which could open the way to withdrawal by other African states from an institution that has existed for just 14 years.  

Ratification and accession to the Rome Statute by many nations around the world showed they understood the need for global justice, within and outside their own boundaries. That affirmed their trust in this organization.

Can the same nations today afford to slacken the pace and the work of the ICC which is to ensure justice for lasting peace?  Of course not. All people need guarantee for survival and development in peace.

The ICC carries out its mandate on the principle that international justice can contribute to long-term peace, stability and equitable development in post-conflict societies.

'Putting its finger on miscreants'

African people don't need a heavenly voice to tell them what is necessary for building a future free of violence. Unfortunately, prejudiced groups of people who commit harmful actions against others still exist around the continent.

Africa needs peace in order to keep pace with the changing world, but without the ICC putting its finger on miscreants who wish that atrocities witnessed in recent years in a number of countries happen again, that cannot be a good recipe for peace.

Situations presently under investigation by the court in Africa include Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Central African Republic, Darfur in Sudan, Kenya, Libya, Ivory Coast and Mali. This list does not mean situations in other African countries are like paradise. Not at all.

The decision taken by the three African countries to sever relations with the ICC may not draw much attention at the United Nations because the court is not part of the world body, but it should at the January 2017 summit of the African Union (AU) leaders.

AU member countries need to work together and, more so, with the international community in the fight against impunity, which often causes massive violations of human rights in Africa and other parts of the world.

While it still enjoys support from many African countries, the ICC should undertake a thorough examination of its administration of justice to ensure it does not undermine its own legitimacy and credibility, more importantly it must succeed in enforcing accountability at the highest levels in governments and society in general.

Africa's fears and concerns should not be ignored, especially the argument that the court is biased against Africans. They must be addressed and explained so that the ICC can bring a greater influence to the course of justice in the continent.

From its short experience, the ICC should have drawn a lesson that it requires a practical and well-timed strategy to prosecute a sitting head of state, because that's where its strained relations with Africa originated.

The most notable argument is that, while in power, heads of state have immunity from prosecution at the ICC.

Anaclet Rwegayura is a Tanzanian analyst

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Anaclet Rwegayura

16.Nov.2016

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Cameroon’s Parliament opened last November 10 with Members of Parliament for the leading opposition Social Democratic Front, SDF party jumping down the throat of the House Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon Cavaye Djribil for not mentioning ‘the most burning issue in the country at the moment which is the peaceful street demonstration by Common Law Lawyers.’
According to the legal adviser of the SDF, Hon Joseph Mbah Ndam who is also Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, ‘we are disappointed that the House Speaker cited only important issues such as the Eseka train derailment, social media influence without mentioning the most striking event at this moment which is the peaceful demonstration of Common Law Lawyers.”
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the November 2016 Ordinary Session of Parliament, Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril said the National Assembly wants to see fairness and transparency in the piloting of the national youth emergency plan as well as a successful organization of the Women African Nations Cup in Yaoundé and Limbe.  
Saluting a drop in activities of terrorists in the Far Region, the House Speaker decried that the social media has become as dangerous as a missile. Referring to it as a new form of terrorism affecting the cyberspace, Hon Cavaye regretted that initially perceived as a medium for online communication and information sharing, the social media is now being used for misinformation and even intoxication and manipulation of consciences thereby instilling fear in the general public.
By urging ‘appropriate authorities to see the pressing need to track down and neutralize the culprits of cybercrimes,’ the House Speaker is believed to have given a green card for the government to table an anti social media law in Parliament.
Reactions
I want budget to meet needs of the people
Hon Etombi Gladys, CPDM MP
My expectations are high during this budgetary session because I want to see a budget that will meet the needs of Cameroonians though it may be difficult to meet all the needs. I want to see improvement in the areas of education, opportunities that government gives to communities for improvement of livelihoods. I am confident that even with challenges faced by our country, things will be improving for the better. I support the House Speaker’s condemnation of the bad use of the social media in Cameroon.
How on earth can the Speaker fail to mention the Common Law Lawyers strike?
Hon Mbanya Bolevie Petnga, SDF MP
One could have expected that the Speaker addresses burning issues now in the country such as the putting in place of a Parliamentary Inquiry to probe into the Eseka train accident. More to that, I am still to believe that Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril claimed to have cited all the important issues affecting Cameroon in his speech when he did not even say a word on the Common Law Lawyers’ peaceful demonstration in the two Anglophone regions of our country. This is a very sensitive issue as it touches on the security of our country given that lawyers are being teargased in the process.’

The Sun

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Rita Akana

16.Nov.2016

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The fight for secession or the right to self determination for Southern Cameroon is logically dubious and empirically flawed. Along ethic fractionalized lines, unity is hardly guaranteed in Africa in particular, especially for countries that have inherently strong cultures. The Anglophone problem face two major challenges with one being most dominant:

1. Marginalization by French-speaking Cameroon (external problem)
2. Masked unsolved grievances or tense "unity" between Southwest and Northwest citizens (internal problem).

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Tapang Ivo

14.Nov.2016

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Former SDF communications Secretary Elimby Lobe, was  physically assaulted after a TV appearance at the premises of Canal 2 TV headquarters in Douala by a militant of the SDF party.

Abel Elimby Lobé, who recently resigned from the SDF, was physically assaulted by SDF activist Carlos Ngoualem, who also participated in the discussion forum on Canal 2 as an opponent of the guest Elimby Lobé, a politician much appreciated by his compatriots for the quality of his Media interviews. 

"At the end of the show, Ngoualem approached me and gave me a blow in the face, specifically to my nose, causing me to bleed. This is how one day an activist of the SDF in Yaoundé was killed in the premises of the SDF, a certain DIBOULE.

While awaiting the outcome of this criminal act which further degrades the image of our politicians, this aggression also raises the problem of the lack of measures taken to ensure the safety of guests in certain television channels in Cameroon.

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Mbi James

14.Nov.2016

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The Teachers Trade Union leaders have cancelled their talks in Yaoundé, which were billed for 18th day of November 2016 on grounds that the treatment meted on lawyers, which from every indication was ordered by highly placed government officials, leaves them with a heightened sense of insecurity; after all they are just common teachers as our society prefers to see them, not power- broking members of the judiciary, like the lawyers, whom the petty gov't law enforcers battered without qualms! 

If that could be done to lawyers who were protesting peacefully, then worse will certainly befall us - to feed or slake that diabolical taste that appears to be asking for and getting its pounds of flesh and litres if blood almost every other day. We think that all talks must be in Bamenda and the minister of higher education cannot chair a meeting with issues many of which he deliberately created and whose resolutions he has fudged many times in the past.

We think that if there must be a meeting, it will be with our parents, legal counsels, religious leaders, etc. Also, we think it paramount to assert that there is no particular leader who is focal point, but all six signatories of the PM's memo/fliers are leaders in equal capacity, this because we must take away any heat that might be in the offing from that one person and diffuse it on all of us and also to forestall any attempts at suborning individuals in order to destroy the anglophone steam.

We hope to stay focused and rational and pray that all comrades should do same.

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Valentine Nfon Tameh

14.Nov.2016

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