Politics
Tongues are still waging as to why Dr. Peter Alange Abety took that decision to rename a street without informing the council. Yet, some critics suspect that even President Paul Biya may also think the decision is contradictory given that he (Biya) had warned that "Let politics be for politicians and schools for students". What is unclear is whether UBa authorities will implement the decision given the varied interpretations. To the mayor of Tubah, Dr. Abety always like to get people in projects that are illegal. He is quoted to have said that even the law naming streets was not respected and the procedure not followed. Besides, the mayor Tanjong Martin also added that his office received no application to that effect and threatened to pull down the billboard. He further explains that even the Fon of Bambili was not aware and did not even understand where the street Abety was naming was.
The Mayor of Tubah Council, Tanjong Martin has frowned at Dr. Abety's decision to rename one of the streets at the University of Bamenda as "Paul Biya Avenue". This was the outcome of the joint CPDM Section conference that took place in Bambili last August 27, 2016, presided by Dr. Abety, Section President for Mezam V, Tubah.
The Anglo-Saxon University of Bamenda is the fruit of the collective effort of North Westerners and Cameroonians who believe in quality education. It is neither the property of Bambili people, nor Tubah nor CPDM. But Peter Abety thinks it belongs to Bambili people with him as custodian.
The Eye Newspaper
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Authorities in the Far North Region have shut down the biggest cattle market in the region because suspected Boko Haram militants are seen trading stolen livestock to finance weapons and food.
The closing of Meme in Mayo-Sava, where a double bombing in February killed 24 people, came as authorities believe the Islamist group is poised to resume attacks in the region, Governor Midjiyawa Bakari said by phone on Monday. Four people were killed and two seriously injured on Aug. 21 after a suspected militant detonated explosives outside the main market in the town of Mora.
“They have established a cattle-theft and sales network in the area which we must urgently dismantle,” Bakari said. “It’s obvious that the money generated from such sales is helping Boko Haram to buy food at the same market, and also guns from elsewhere.”
The Far North region witnessed at least 200 attacks, including nearly 40 bombings that killed at least 480 people since July 2015, Amnesty International said last month. The insurgents carried out the first such attack in Cameroon on July 12, 2015, in Fotokol, killing 13 civilians and two soldiers.
Cameroon’s defense force arrested 63 people during an overnight raid in Mora on Saturday, Bakari said. Most of those arrested were displaced persons without identification papers or people in possession of dangerous weapons, he said.
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Authorities in Cameroon must provide answers about the whereabouts of 130 men and boys still unaccounted for 20 months after they were arrested in a crackdown on suspected Boko Haram members, Amnesty International said today on the International Day of the Disappeared.
“The Cameroonian authorities must come clean about the fate of these 130 missing men and boys. The government’s continued failure to reveal their whereabouts adds insult to injury to the families who have already waited a long time for news of their loved ones,” said Alioune Tine, Amnesty International West and Central Africa Regional Director.
The missing people were among more than 200 arrested during a cordon-and-search operation in the villages of Magdeme and Doublé – Far North region - on 27 December 2014. Of those arrested, at least 25 died in custody on the night of the arrests, with another 45 transferred to Maroua prison the day after. Three have died since due to dire conditions in detention.
In the same operation, the security forces also unlawfully killed at least nine civilians, including a child, and destroyed more than 70 homes and other buildings.
Amnesty International considers the 130 people who were arrested and are still missing to be victims of enforced disappearance, a crime under international law. The organization is calling on Cameroon to immediately disclose their whereabouts, ensure independent, thorough and effective investigations into these disappearances and bring those responsible to justice in fair trials without recourse to the death penalty.
Amnesty International has communicated a complete list of the names of all those who disappeared to Cameroon’s Minister of Defense, Minister of Justice and the Head of military operations in the north. However, their families have still received no information from officials.
One woman whose husband and two sons are missing told Amnesty International:
“We really don’t know what to do… I have been to Maroua prison eight times… we are asking for help. We want the authorities to tell us where our loved ones are.”
Another man described the security forces’ operation that led to the arrests:
“We heard shots being fired all around… Everyone wondered what was happening. There were soldiers everywhere. Then, they [soldiers] took some of the men, stripped them and beat them before going to look for those who were hiding in their houses. Then they [soldiers] rounded them up and loaded them into their trucks. We searched for them everywhere after that but couldn’t find them.”
According to the authorities, the 25 men and boys who died in detention were held in a makeshift cell at the Gendarmerie’s headquarters of Maroua, the main city in the Far North region. They have never revealed the identity of the victims, the cause and circumstances of their deaths, or their place of burial to their families.
In March 2015, the authorities announced that an internal inquiry within the Ministry of Defense was being undertaken to investigate the deaths. The results of this inquiry were not communicated publicly and only one person -- Colonel Zé Onguéné Charles, Head of the Gendarmerie in the Far North region when the incident occurred -- is facing trial. The charges against him, however, are limited to “negligence and breach of custody rules”.
Amnesty International has also documented an additional 17 cases of suspected enforced disappearances of people accused of supporting Boko Haram in the Far North region between June 2014 and June 2016.
“The authorities must conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into what happened in Magdeme and Doublé, and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice. They must also provide full and effective reparation to the families of the victims,” said Alioune Tine.
Background
The Far North region of Cameroon has suffered repeated attacks from Boko Haram since late 2013. Between July 2015 and August 2016 Boko Haram conducted more than 200 attacks, including nearly 40 suicide bombings in the Far North region, killing at least 500 people.
In order to combat Boko Haram, Cameroon has deployed at least 2000 troops of the BIR (Rapid Intervention Battalion) alongside forces from the BIM (Mobile Intervention Battalion) in the Far North region.
While the security forces play a crucial role in protecting the population from Boko Haram’s attacks, they have also committed human rights violations on a significant scale including arbitrary arrest, excessive use of force, extra-judicial executions, illegal and incommunicado detention, torture and enforced disappearances.
Amnesty International’s Protect Our Rights campaign will run from 30 August 2016 until December 2017. The campaign will seek to protect the human rights of those caught between abuses committed by Boko Haram and human rights violations committed by the Cameroonian authorities and security forces in their fight against Boko Haram.
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Just two million signatures are needed for Southern Cameroons to gain independence, says Mola Njoh Litumbe, veteran Anglophone independence activist.
According to Njoh Litumbe, their journey to the UN is yielding fruits as they have been asked to provide “just two million signatures of Southern Cameroonians” in support of their independence from La Republique for the UN to dance to the music.
Mola Njoh recounted that when he went to the UN and narrated the independence issue, as he has often done, he was asked whether it is because he has not been made a minister that he is complaining.
“Everyone else in Cameroon is happy, we have no news,” Mola Njoh said he was told.
“Do you want us to start killing ourselves before you come?” Litumbe said he retorted, and “that’s how the idea of a signature referendum came about.”
Litumbe said he was asked to provide two million signatures of Southern Cameroonians and the rest will be done.
“Locally, we have started,” Litumbe said, adding, “You don’t need to march or hold a meeting and be arrested. The pen is mightier than the sword. I wouldn’t tolerate you going to the bush to fight.”
After sitting through a court session in Buea on Thursday, August 25, Litumbe said La Republique has tended to divide the people of Southern Cameroons in order to rule them.
He showed pressmen the sheets on which signatures are to be collected as well as those already signed by die-heart Ambazonians.
Litumbe said he is part of the fourteen Southern Cameroonian activists detained at Buea Central Prison.
“I am part of those accused because I believe in the same principles as they do,” Litumbe said as he listened to his fourteen comrades being arraigned for what was termed as holding an unauthorised meeting in a restaurant in Buea recently.
To him, the relationship between the two Cameroons is illegal because there has never been a legal union between the duo.
“I have been saying all along that we never really joined La Republique….they just came to colonise us the night the British Army left at midnight on 30th of September 1961 and disregarded the fact that the UN had on 21st of April passed a resolution granting Southern Cameroons independence as from 1st of October 1961,” Litumbe said.
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In advance societies like USA, UK, Germany, China, Japan, etc, you will see a lot of industries and less number of religious worships centres. In poor societies like Nigeria, Haiti, Jamaica, Liberia, Cameroon, etc, you will see a lot of religious centres and very few industries.
Any country that has more religious worship centres than industries will automatically go poor.
To savage Nigeria economic problem we need more of industries that can go into more exportations and less importations. This will bring more dollar into circulation and strengthen the naira value against the dollar. Unfortunately, while India is exporting technology, Nigeria is exporting religion - Africa is doom.
We as a nation need to look inward because change have to start within.
It is very clear that religion is not helping Africa it is only destroying what we are paying taxes for. We should start discouraging our able body men and women from becoming clerics let them start industries or put their brains into other profitable things. We have had religious centres enough. Let the rest go start industries. Why will our good brains be diverted?
Poor mentalities is affecting us seriously; the more the religious centres the more evil the society is becoming. Sometimes we thought Africa is serving God more than others but we are actually serving the devil if we really search inward. God have mercy!
I think Karl Marx is right when he said religion is the opium of the masses.
It is poverty and bad leadership in Africa that is oppressing us making us flocking religious centres for help.
This is a time to plan. We do not have to continue doing the same thing over and over and expect a change, that is insanity. If we fail to plan for the future, the future can disappoint us.
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N'DJAMENA A landmine planted by Islamist group Boko Haram killed four Chadian soldiers on patrol near Chad's border with Niger on Saturday, two security sources said.
They were traveling in a vehicle that rode over the mine at Kaiga Kindji, in the Lake Chad region, which has been plagued by the militants since 2009.
The Nigerian-based Boko Haram wants to create a breakaway Islamic state in the region and once occupied an area the size of Belgium.
But a regional offensive led by Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger - the four countries most affected by Boko Haram - has chased it out of much of that territory.
The group has in response retreated to Nigeria's Sambisa forest, from where it has fought a guerrilla campaign against civilians and security forces.
Boko Haram is thought to have killed as many as 15,000 people since the launch of its insurgency seven years ago.
Its insurrection has strangled economic and farming activity around Lake Chad, leaving tens of thousands hungry.
Nearly half a million children around the lake face "severe acute malnutrition" due to drought and the insurgency by Boko Haram, UNICEF said on Thursday.
Reuters
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Subcategories
Biya Article Count: 73
# Paul Biya and his regime
Explore the political landscape of Cameroon under the rule of Paul Biya, the longest-serving president in Africa who has been in power since 1982. Our Paul Biya and his regime section examines the policies, actions, and controversies of his government, as well as the opposition movements, civil society groups, and international actors that challenge or support his leadership. You'll also find profiles, interviews, and opinions on the key figures and events that shape the political dynamics of Cameroon.
Southern Cameroons Article Count: 549
.# Southern Cameroons, Ambazonia
Learn more about the history, culture, and politics of Ambazonia, the Anglophone regions of Cameroon that have been seeking self-determination and independence from the Francophone-dominated central government. Our Southern Cameroons section covers the ongoing conflict, the humanitarian crisis, the human rights violations, and the peace efforts in the region. You'll also find stories that highlight the rich and diverse heritage, traditions, and aspirations of the Southern Cameroonian people.
Editorial Article Count: 885
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