Politics

GAROUA, Cameroon - US Soldiers from 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, in partnership with the Cameroon Air Force, held a school supply donation ceremony at the Ecole Maternelle Base Aerienne 301 Garoua (government nursery school) Capital of the Northen region of Cameroon on April 8.2016.

Spirit of America, U.S. non-profit organization, arranged for the donation of the supplies in coordination with US Maj. Perry White, commander of 2nd IBCT troops in Cameroon, Cameroon Air Force Col. Barthelemy T'Silla, commander of Base Aerienne 301 De Garoua, and Capt. James Turk, civil affairs team leader from Company B, 82nd Civil Affairs Battalion.

Through Spirit of America's continued support of civil-military activities, the organization provided funding to purchase the school supplies. As a result, 2nd IBCT and Cameroon troops delivered these supplies to the students and teachers of the nursery school and shared in the special event.

Sgt. Eunice Tahsoh, a supply technician assigned to 2nd IBCT, spoke to the children from a unique perspective as a Cameroonian-born U.S. Army Soldier. "Education is fundamental to the development of the country," she explained in French. "We are here today to support the government's actions towards education."

The supplies donated will be used to continue the education and preparation of the young children for primary school.

The children of Ecole Maternelle, with the help of their teachers, put on a program of cultural song and dance for the U.S. and Cameroonian troops to show their appreciation and thanks.

T'Silla addressed the group and explained that education is a crucial effort in the fight against Boko Haram.

"Education is the most important thing and through education of our children we will be able to defeat Boko Haram," said T'Silla.

Soldiers from 2nd IBCT, provide non-lethal support to their Cameroonian hosts as part of U.S. Africa Command. At the request of the government of Cameroon, U.S. troops are providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assistance via unmanned aerial systems to assist Cameroon in defeating violent extremists.

usaraf.army/US Embassy-Yaounde

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Trevor Barnes for U.S. Army

18.Apr.2016

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At least CFA 2.5 billion has been made available to Cameroon’s military from donations by citizens and the government in the campaign against the militant Islamist sect Boko Haram in the  Far North region,
Rene Emmanuel Sadi the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralization (MINATD) revealed. He was speaking at the end of a meeting held in Yaounde on Saturday by the ad hoc inter-ministerial committee for the management of donations made to the people and defence forces.

According to Mr. Sadi, who also doubles as Chairman of the committee, out of the monies collected, which includes a special contribution by President Paul Biya amounting to CFA 160 million, CFA 1.5 billion will go to the defense and security forces.

The remainder will go to the victims of abuse by the jihadist movement.

In addition to the contributions in cash, other Cameroonians have made tons of in-kind donations to the army and civilians living in that part of the country.

However, according to MINATD, the delivery of these contributions has been marred by serious logistical problems.

The ad hoc management committee for donations to the people and defense forces was set up by President Paul Biya in April 2015 to monitor, collect and centralize assistances from within Cameroon, abroad and from various humanitarian organizations working elsewhere in the country.

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Elangwe Pauline

18.Apr.2016

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FAR NORTH REGION, Cameroon, April 14 (UNHCR) – Paul and his younger brother Adam resisted with all their strength when several armed men from the Boko Haram sect burst into their house in their village, located in Nigeria's Borno State, and dragged them outside.

"They ended up lifting us up and threw us in a car. They handcuffed us, and we remained like that for a day," remembers Paul from the Minawao camp, in Cameroon's Far North region, where he is now a refugee with his brother and mother. "Our abduction happened almost three years ago but it feels as if it happened yesterday," he added.

With the two boys handcuffed on the back seat, the car drove towards the Sambisa forest, one of Boko Haram's strongholds bordering Cameroon. The abductors quickly asked the family for a ransom of 20 million nairas (or US$100,000) for the release of Adam and Paul, then 12 and 14, or they would be killed.

In the forest, the brothers, who are Christians, were forced to convert to Islam. Paul remembers that his kidnappers kept screaming: "We will cut your throat if you don't convert."

On the second day of their captivity, the boys were forced to stand against a mud wall. Boko Haram militants trained their Kalashnikovs on their backs and threatened again to kill them. "Then they dragged us to a well and I thought they would throw us in, but they just wanted to scare us …They finally brought us back under the tree where we had been sleeping the past night," Paul recalls.

With no blankets to keep warm at night, little food to eat for several days and the constant threats of execution, the two boys kept thinking they would die. "We were often crying. We were cold. We were thinking how much we missed home and our mother," Paul said.

The two boys were told they would be trained to become fighters – a fate that they would in fact escape. Unknown to them, negotiations were underway between the boys' uncle and one of the leaders of Boko Haram in Borno State, and they were finally released after seven terrifying days.

Hundreds and possibly thousands of children have been abducted in Nigeria since 2013, when Boko Haram stepped up their insurgency. The spectacular kidnapping of 276 girls in Chibok, in Borno State, on April 14 two years ago made headlines all over the world and generated unprecedented social media engagement (see #BringBackOurGirls). Some 50 of the girls managed to escape in the following hours and days of the brutal kidnapping, although the fate of the others remains unknown.

Abductions of girls and boys had been happening long before that high-profile incident and still occur on a regular basis. Schools and dormitories have been raided regularly in north-eastern Nigeria by armed men. Boys are kidnapped for recruitment into the sect's ranks while abducted girls will be exposed to forced marriage, sexual exploitation and abuse.

Some families have escaped to neighbouring countries for more safety and as a preventive measure, although kidnappings of children have also been reported in Cameroon, Chad and Niger. In the past year, girls have also been used more and more to carry out suicide bombing attacks.

"Being kidnapped or being a victim of violence are life-threatening events that trigger huge anxiety and distress. It will impact enormously on the emotional world of any child," says Caroline Schmidt, UNHCR Regional Education Officer for West Africa and the Nigeria situation, based in Dakar.

In refugee camps in West and Central Africa, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and its partners have implemented activities that support boys and girls who have experienced violence or abuse, and have suffered during their flight or have been separated from their families.

They receive special assistance, including psycho-social support and access to child-friendly spaces. UNHCR also trains and supports teachers to ensure that schools are safe and protective spaces where they can regain a sense of normalcy.

It is hoped that a safe environment such as the ones provided through schools in refugee camps and host communities will enable children and youths to have a positive outlook on the future.

"We are refugees now in Cameroon, and we feel safer. I miss my home in Nigeria, my village and my friends," Paul said, noting the ongoing insecurity in his homeland. "But I am still afraid of going back there and possibly meet with the men who abducted me."

Helene Caux in the Far North Region of Cameroon

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Elangwe Pauline

17.Apr.2016

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The President of the Republic of Cameroon did not attend the inauguration ceremony of Denis Sassou Nguesso.He sent his chief of staff , Martin Belinga Eboutou to represent him.

He made the announcement public through a statement signed by the Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh and read yesterday Friday, April 15, 2016 on CRTV.

Last Sunday, Congolese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation , Jean -Marie Gakosso , had come personally and received in audience by the PM to hand Paul Biya's invitation.He specifically said that Congolese President attached great importance to the presence of the president of Cameroon . "This is why President Sassou think if he has only three guests ,then his brother and friend Paul Biya should be among those three to witness his inauguration " according to the envoy .

Denis Sassou-Nguesso who has been in power for 26 years, was re-elected by over 60 percent of the vote for a disputed third term after the first round of elections on March 20.

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Njoh Walters

16.Apr.2016

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West Africa has been on high alert following recent terror attacks on hotels in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.  And now in Ghana, a leaked security document says Ghana and Togo are the next targets of the al-Qaida affiliate that claimed responsibility for the previous attacks.  Ghanaian President John Mahama has told the nation not to panic.  

The leaked memo says the threat of a terror attack in Ghana is “real,” citing intelligence from the National Security Council Secretariat.  It is addressed to Ghana’s immigration service.

The document calls for stronger border surveillance, including “thorough profiling” of people from Mali, Niger and Libya. 

The memo was shared on social media and picked up by local press.

President Mahama sought to reassure the nation on state-run radio Thursday.

“We have trained our own special forces. Currently a significant number of them [are] on standby. We are preparing for any such eventually but we need the alertness of the public," said Mahama.
 
Ghana's government put the nation on high alert in March after al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) attacked a beach resort outside Abidjan, killing 19 people.

The leaked document says information from Ivory Coast, including confessions obtained from the mastermind of the attack there, indicates that the attackers entered that country in a 4x4 vehicle registered in Niger.  The memo says the attackers concealed their explosives and weapons in the spare tire compartment.

Mahama said the leak was unfortunate.

"They didn’t need to put the intel in there. You just to send a directive asking for alertness and asking them to search more thoroughly vehicles and all that.  Every country in West Africa is at risk and we are at risk not only from external forces but even from internal forces. We have evidence of radicalization of our own citizens who have gone out to join some of these terrorist groups," he said.

The head of the West African Center for Counter Terrorism in Accra, Mutharu Muqthar Mumuni, says panic must be avoided.

“We need to ensure vigilance and reporting of suspicious activities; however, we’ve got to be very careful in order not to condone acts that have the proclivity to lead to gross basic human rights violations relating to lynching of innocent people," said Mumuni.

The AQIM attacks in Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast marked an alarming expansion for the group whose operations until then had been confined to North Africa and parts of the Sahel region.  

VOA

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Rita Akana

15.Apr.2016

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Representative Frederica Wilson of Florida is easy to spot in a crowd. Dressed all in red from her cowboy hat to her boots, she stood on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol on Thursday to mark the somber two-year anniversary of the abduction of more than 200 girls from the northern Nigerian village of Chibok by the militant group Boko Haram. 

Wilson leads a weekly gathering of members of Congress to call for the release of the girls. The attending lawmakers dress in red, too, just as demonstrators in Nigeria do.

The Chibok girls represent hundreds or thousands of girls and women who have been kidnapped and raped by Boko Haram, and hundreds of men and boys who have been hurt or killed, Wilson said Thursday. More than 2.6 million people have been displaced by the group's violence.  

Wilson said she has visited Nigeria, and heard shocking firsthand accounts of the group's unspeakable atrocities, including beheadings. She and other members of Congress strongly condemned the fact that Boko Haram is forcing girls as young as eight years old to act as suicide bombers in terrorist attacks.

Wilson was joined on the Capitol steps by Democratic minority leader Nancy Pelosi, a number of other lawmakers and some Nigerian girls who escaped from Boko Haram and now have safe haven in the United States.

Bipartisan fight

Republican Representative Chris Smith made clear that Congress' efforts to keep the issue alive is a bipartisan one. Smith pointed out that Boko Haram wages war on girls and women, often singling out Christians, but that most of its victims are fellow Muslims.

Democratic Representative Barbara Lee agreed that the terrible ordeal of the Chibok girls is a symbol of a much broader war on women by Boko Haram, saying that what their fighters are doing amounts to modern-day slavery. Some terrorism experts believe that the Chibok girls, and other Nigerian girls kidnapped later, are alive and that they are being held as a potentially valuable ransom tool. 

A video that has emerged recently shows some 15 girls, alleged to be Chibok girls, dressed in black.

Terrorism expert Malcolm Nance told VOA that he believes the video is legitimate, and he believes Boko Haram is trying to extort money from the Nigerian government. He also said the girls may be forced to cook, clean and bear children for Boko Haram fighters.

Democratic Representative Sheila Jackson Lee is calling for Congress to allocate funds for the families of victims who were abducted, and also vowed to keep advocating for the girls’ release.

Wilson is ready to "hop on a plane" at a moment's notice to welcome the Chibok girls upon their release, and promised to keep pushing for it until it happens.

VOA

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Elangwe Pauline

15.Apr.2016

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