Politics

In Southwest and Northwest regions, security forces continued to clash with Anglophone separatists and attack civilians; separatists could intensify attacks around senatorial elections planned for 25 March. Security forces killed civilians and burnt houses in Bole Bakundu, Southwest 1 Feb.

In clashes and attacks in Northwest 1-8 Feb three security personnel and nine others killed. Separatists killed three gendarmes in Kembong, Southwest and abducted local official in Batibo, Northwest 11 Feb. Incidents involving security forces left three people dead: one in Banga Bakundu, Southwest 14 Feb, one in Angie, Northwest 14 Feb and one in Ndongo, Southwest 17 Feb. Separatist armed group Tigers of Ambazonia 16 Feb killed one gendarme in Kumba and another in Bebensi 18 Feb, both Southwest. Marines killed four armed men in Mundemba, Southwest 20 Feb.  

One gendarme killed in Munyengue, Southwest 24 Feb. Security forces killed armed separatist and several civilians in Ebonji, Southwest 25 Feb. Separatist armed group Ambazonia Defence Forces abducted local official in Batibo, Northwest 25 Feb. Soldiers in pursuit of separatists crossed into Cross River state, Nigeria 26 Feb, reportedly killing at least one civilian there. New separatist armed groups formed: Banso Resistance Army and Donga Mantung Liberation Force. Separatist Interim Govt of Ambazonia Governing Council 19 Feb warned against holding senatorial elections, planned for 25 March, in Northwest and Southwest.

EU, U.S., France and Equatorial Guinea called for dialogue to end violence and UK minister visited 13-14 Feb urging de-escalation. In Far North, Boko Haram (BH) continued attacks: militants killed military officer in Limani 1 Feb and 25 other people in multiple places 3-24 Feb. Security forces killed BH suicide bomber, while another detonated explosives killing only himself in Kordo, near Kolofata 11 Feb. President Biya 7 Feb scheduled senatorial elections for 25 March; opposition Mouvement pour la Renaissance du Cameroun (MRC) 19 Feb decided to boycott on grounds that most councillors and mayors who will vote belong to ruling party. Main opposition party Social Democratic Front 24 Feb elected MP Joshua Osih as candidate for presidential elections later in 2018.  

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Rita Akana

03.Mar.2018

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Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, likes to travel abroad. As a result, he’s missed some far-reaching events in the country he rules from afar. In October 2016, when an overloaded train derailed in the small town of Eseka, killing over 75 people, Biya was on a “brief private visit to Europe” which is how his office refers to his regular jaunts to Geneva. The president only returned from Switzerland two days after the catastrophe, finally voicing his condolences on the airport tarmac.

A year later, Biya was away on another “private” visit to Switzerland when protests broke out in western Cameroon over marginalization of the English-speaking minority population. He didn’t return for another three weeks. While he was away, his security forces violently repressed demonstrators, setting off what has since become a simmering guerilla war.

The 85-year-old Biya has led his West African nation since 1982, winning four elections by sometimes improbably huge margins (while being accused by the opposition and observers of massive fraud). His country’s citizens have become increasingly frustrated with his repeated absences.

An investigation supported by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) gathered information about the president’s travels from 35 years of editions of the daily government paper, the Cameroon Tribune. They show that, over that time, Biya has spent at least four-and-a-half years on his “brief private visits.” This total excludes official trips, which add up to an additional year. In some years, like 2006 and 2009, Biya has spent a third of the year out of the country.

These calculations are conservative because some editions of the Tribune are hard to find, and archives in Cameroon, France, and the United States have gaps in their collections that span several years.

The president is not in 
Cameroon is a low income country: A quarter of its 23 million citizens earn less than US$ 2 a day farming or hustling small jobs. The average life expectancy is under 60. In hopes of a better life, many of the country’s youths set off for Europe illegally in precarious vessels. Some are among the over 3,000 migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean in 2017.  

Like them, the president seems to prefer a life in Europe. But the similarities stop there. Biya’s official salary is modest (reportedly just $271 per month, plus bonuses), but he travels and lives abroad in luxury -- thanks, at least in part, to his country’s taxpayers. According to Cameroonian political scientist Achille Mbembe, nobody really knows what he does on his frequent trips to Geneva, although speculation ranges from hospital treatments to shopping sprees.

While his palace in Yaoundé is rumored to be luxurious, Biya prefers to spend a large portion of his “private trips” at the five-star Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva, which offers a swimming pool and striking views of Lake Geneva and Mont Blanc. He does not travel alone. His wife Chantal, renowned for her gravity-defying hairdos, accompanies him on nearly every trip, as does an entourage of up to 50 people that includes ministers, bodyguards, butlers, and various other staff.

One of Biya’s closest confidants, Joseph Fouda, a military officer and special advisor, has accompanied him on at least 86 trips, amounting to more than three years of travel since 1993. He prefers a room on a top floor of the Intercontinental. Another close confidant, Martin Belinga Eboutou, 78, has spent nearly three years travelling with the president starting in 1987, when he was Cameroon’s ambassador to Morocco. Eboutou soon became a fixture on Biya’s journeys as his chief of protocol, and later as director of the president’s Civil Cabinet.

According to reporters’ conservative calculations -- based on publically available hotel room prices and a compilation of entourage lists -- the total hotel bill of Biya and his colleagues for one stay at Intercontinental, adds up to around $40,000 per day. At that rate, the cost of all of the president’s private trips (1,645 days in total) would add up to about $65 million since he came to power -- and that’s not counting food, entertainment, and the rental of a private plane. The president’s office did not comment on this issue.

The president attempted to buy a brand new private jet in 2004, but his staff reportedly cut corners on the deal, buying a defective plane covered by a fresh coat of paint that nearly crashed on its first flight. Since then, the president has chartered at least several private aircraft, including a luxury jet formerly owned by the government of Kazakhstan. Used for regular journeys, such a plane would be large enough to carry some 300 passengers, but for an elite clientele it has been fitted with amenities such as full-size beds and an office, and seats about 60 people.

Travel by chartered plane isn’t cheap. Invoices from 2010 apparently sent by a company called CS Aviation to Director of the President’s Biya Civil Cabinet, and reviewed by OCCRP, bill the Civil Cabinet nearly $855,000 for one round trip for 50 passengers from Yaoundé to Geneva and back. Other invoices show that, in 2013, the plane was kept on standby for two weeks at a daily cost of nearly $157,000. The company did not reply to reporters’ requests for comment.

At these rates, the cost of Biya’s flights since he came to power could add up to at least $117 million. It is not clear how much of the president’s travel money comes from the part of the national budget allocated to his office, which totaled $104 million in 2018.

According to the International Monetary Fund, more than $300 million of the revenue of Cameroon’s national oil company in 2017 was not accounted for. The president has oversight over the company, whose oil sales, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks, have historically been used as a slush fund.

According to Transparency International, Cameroon is one of the world’s most corrupt countries, ranking 145th out of 176 countries on its Corruption Perception Index.

Who pays, who plays
Cameroonians pay in other ways for the president’s jaunts abroad. Every time he returns to Yaoundé, his motorcade crosses the whole capital from Nsimalen International Airport to his home, the Unity Palace. A dozen gleaming cars, including an ambulance, whizz through the streets. To ensure a smooth journey, traffic is blocked on the main roads, at times for the whole day.

Snipers are positioned on top of buildings. Taciturn soldiers in green camouflage stand at every corner with assault rifles slung over their bulletproof vests. Cars, motorbikes and pedestrians are forbidden from crossing, and so huge traffic jams pile up against both sides of blocked avenues. The city’s yellow taxis must spend the day parked, earning no revenue.

Urban legends circulate about these grand displays, like the one about a bride and groom who ended up stuck, separated by the president’s motorcade, on opposite sides of an avenue. When the president passes, the city stops breathing.

President Biya’s party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, arranges for crowds to line the closed streets and cheer for the president. But Florian Ngimbis, a Cameroonian blogger, says that Biya’s trips are seen not just as lavish outlays, “but very much also as a kind of contempt for the Cameroonian people.”

Those few Cameroonians who have the most reason to cheer Biya’s return are the dancers and musicians paid to perform on the tarmac when his plane lands. One drummer, afraid to have his name appear in this article, remembers earning $60 a few years ago: “We didn’t complain… we could drink beers for three days.” Nonetheless, says the drummer, security concerns have trumped the thirst for pomp and ceremony lately, and fewer musicians are being invited.

Decrees upon departure
When Biya lands in Yaoundé, he also meets his government -- at the airport. Formal ministerial councils are organized infrequently, every year or two at the most. But while Biya has used public funds to sustain a bureaucracy of 65 ministers and state secretaries, he mostly governs by decree or through a handful of laws sped through a rubber-stamp parliament.

Biya signs a flurry of acts between each of his trips. For example, in 2017, he signed a dozen laws -- the entire legal output for that year – in a couple of days. It took him just three days to sign the entire year’s decrees. According to Mbembe, the Cameroonian political scientist, Biya’s decrees mostly nominate civil servants to certain positions rather than directing any substantial course in policy.

“His way of exercising power is to not decide,” Mbembe said in a phone interview, “nobody knows what Biya thinks, or what he’ll do… everything can be changed from one day to the next”. He has become a “ghostly figure” leaving civil servants without direction. According to Mbembe, the unpredictability allows Biya to instil a fear of retribution in his ruling apparatus, as well as hopes of nominations to positions rendered lucrative by corruption.

It’s a system that has kept everyone in check for 35 years -- including those with ambition to take over power. But it could lead to a chaotic vacuum when the 85-year old president passes – whether he’s in his West African homeland or in a luxury hotel room far overseas.  

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Ekenneh Agbaw Ebai

03.Mar.2018

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Joshua Osih" It's scandalous that only two or three persons could come and kidnap a Sub Divisional Officer on the 11th of February 2018. According to the Social Democratic Front Presidential candidate for the 2018, the state security agents in the affected regions of the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon aren't assured or secured. Since the 11 of February 2018, the date of the kidnap of the Sub Divisional by unknown assailants, who had stormed the 11,February 2018 took away the Sub Divisional officer. The Sub Divisional Marcel Namata Diteng hasn't been released from captivity ever since he was kidnapped.

On the spectacular kidnapping of the Sub Divisional Officer, that of the Regional Delegate of Social Affairs for the North West Region, Animbom Aaron Ankiambom, kidnapped on the 24th on February in Batibo. Coronated as the Presidential flag bearer of the Social Democratic Front for the 2018 elections, last week end in Bamenda. Osih Joshua sees this situation very disturbing and scandalous. " we are in a situation where there is the declaration of war against against separatist fighters whose mode of warfare is asymmetric and no military can win in such warfare and the security agents are unable to provide security to state officials within these localities.  

It's scandalous that only two or three persons could cause such panic within the military that could only watch the Sub Divisional officer being kidnapped. This therefore means that if a war declaration is made against such a resilient group, the Military should be given adequate material and finances that could sustain the war" He was saying this on Monday night during the 8pm political program on Equinox television.

The extreme vulnerability of state agents within these localities having turbulent crisis isn't at all reassuring to the citizens of the Anglophone regions, according to the Social Democratic Front Member of Parliament. " When the population is wrongfully accused and when the people are collectively punished for the crimes that weren't committed by them, it's just because the population is simply saying" Have you even succeeded in providing security for yourselves" How can the military bring that security much trumpeted about in such a very tense sociopolitical climate"? This is the root cause of the problem . "The main challenge is that the problems aren't logically synchronized and given the desired push to resolve permanently this problem.

It's for this reason that we are convinced that the procedure taken to resolve this crisis isn't the right solution . We can't prosper using this procedure and dream of ushering in that much cherished peace. The situation is only inflamed and fanned" decried the native of Kumba.It's never late to make amends and call for that inclusive dialogue which remains as the only means through which peace can be reestablished, within the regions its been disrupted for two years. " The Government of Cameroon has the responsibility of maintaining law and order as well as peace. Then it's an obligation for the Government to reestablish peace withing these regions.

It should be taken into account that since two years ago, schools haven't reopened and that there have been ghost towns as well for these two years Insecurity has always been in the increase and lots of state employees as well as state Administrative staff have absconded their jobs in these affected regions. It can then be observed that the military approach in seeking for a sociopolitical crisis wasn't the most appropriate solution to this crisis.

It was outrightly stupid and cynical. Therefore let's try talking with those with dissenting voices, listen to them , ask from them what they really want. Dialogue doesn't mean that you concede to everything brought forth on the negotiation table" as proposed by Osih Joshua. This dialogue appears on his eyes more important than the forth coming Presidential Elections that the Country wants to organize this year, 2018.  

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Rita Akana

03.Mar.2018

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" I didn't choose my parents, I am a Cameroonian and I am a Cameroonian and I am proud of my roots. I have always loved being a Cameroonian The Vice President of the Social Democratic Front recently elected as the Social Democratic Front flag bearer for the 2018 Presidential elections.

He was recently voted in Bamenda and has a father, a Cameroonian from the South West Region and Mother from Switzerland. He declared that he has never asked for a Swiss nationality as can be confirmed on the newspapers stand on the 26 of February, 2018. According to him the debate should be based on ideas and not on the nationality of persons. " I am more legitimate than those who were born in Bepanda, a quarter in Douala. This illustration are made in comparison with Professor Nganang Patrice, who is has an American Nationality and was recently expulsed from Cameroon.

As concerns the contracts that Osih Joshua wins from the Presidency of the Republic in the domain of hiring of planes for the President , Osih Joshua makes things clear, that as an expert,,he is paid for his expertise. "Joshua declared that he has an enterprise that deals with plane dealers and not with passengers,including head of states" "According to the Social Democratic Front Parliamentarian, who is an aeronautic engineer expert,the Presidency hasn't got a excellent Public Relations Officer, capable of giving adequate information. This is because they often don't accept footing all of their bills".

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Rita Akana

01.Mar.2018

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 After a return from Garoua, capital of the Northern Region over the weekend, Cameroon's controversial minister of the communication was the victim of a collapse at his home in Yaounde. The incident happened on  Saturday, February 24, 2018. According to sources, the Minister of Communication, and Biya's spokesman for the Government suffered a severe malaise at his home in Yaounde. He was quickly ferried to the Yaounde Emergency Center." from where he was transferred to the Yaounde Central Hospital. He is currently receiving medical helpas narrated by a relative of the minister.

As in such circumstances, the state of unconsciousness of a famous politician at one time, gives rise to a rumor announcing his death. "He is alive and well and the government is evaluating the eventuality of a medical evacuation to Europe" confides a source in the entourage of the minister to Cameroonin-fo.net. A year ago, in July  of 2017, Minister Issa Tchiroma had spent several weeks in Europe for health reasons.

Did Issa Tchiroma a victim of over exhaustion after his trip campaigning in the North?There is alot of activities going on right now nationwide as parties are getting set for the senatorial elections scheduled for Sunday, March 25, 2018.

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Rita Akana

26.Feb.2018

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The genesis of the exodus of the people of Southern Cameroon's or British Cameroon's began when the youths discovered that they were excluded from jobs and thus economic and social welfare, they had no other alternative but to seek solace in other countries where the platform for job availability is based on performance and not on relationship or occult conditions. A platform where genuine intellectual prowess is tested and given the latitude to operate freely. Unfortunately in the Francophone modeled Centralized system which does not give room to checks and balances, indirect rule and independent judiciary.

These factors and the rigid militarization of Southern Cameroon's by a French speaking militia that heightens the policy of apartheid that has been openly used against the people of Southern Cameroon's by the francophones. Take a look at the check points in the Southern Cameroon's and the shabby treatment meted on people as compared to the Police Check points in the French Cameroon.

The demonstrations of the 22 of September and 1st of October 2017 were only an eruption of bad feelings that had been corked up as pain for more than fifty six long years. Francophone Professors must admit that if the initial phase of this nation, the Federal Structure had remained in changed,these grievances won't have come into light.

They must admit that without the Francophones elite in Policy making boards, attempting to Francophonize the people of Southern Cameroon's through their vicious plan d'adoption, the crisis won't have ever occurred.

Have Francophones asked themselves why a nation should live in deceit and falsehood?

Why is the independence day of LA Republique Du Cameroun, which is the 1,1,1960 not celebrated as a national day?

The 20 th May Coup d'etat orchestrated against the people of Southern Cameroon's is today celebrated as national day. How can this fake event become a national event when Francophones voted illegally in 1972,in the criminal agenda referendum of 1972?

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Rita Akana

26.Feb.2018

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