Politics

The Minister of Youth and Civic Education has reiterated the ban on the use of "Anglophone regions" to designate the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon.
Instead, he recommends the
'better' expression "North-West Region and South-West Region".
The ban was issued to the top officials of the ministry on July 28.  

In the order, Mounouna Foutsou noted that officials of his ministry continued to use the 'pejorative' expression in spite of instructions from the hierarchy.

He added that there was a prize for the strict respect of the order.

This is another desperate attempt by La Republique to curb the unrest in West Cameroon.
West Cameroon took to the street in November last year to denounce their marginalization by East Cameroon.

This move suggests that "Anglophone regions" is a discriminatory expression that makes the English-speaking part of the nation different from the French-speaking part.
"Anglophone regions" also gives  West Cameroon the same status as the eight French-speaking regions of Cameroon.
But "North-West and South-West regions" reduces West Cameroon to the status of two simple administrative units, like every other region of the nation.
Even if the ministry were to respect the order, would it stop the name calling on the street?
Most English-speaking Cameroonians are still being identified as "Les Bamenda" by their French-speaking compatriots.

Discrimination cannot be controlled by ministerial orders.
We fight discrimination like this with concrete actions.
The president and his ministers ought to speak fluent English and French so that everyone can feel home.
When the president continues to address his people in French after more than several decades of 'unity' , what else can we expect?
He may say he 'spoke English' in Bamenda a couple of years back.  

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Rita Akana

31.Jul.2017

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Social Democratic Front (SDF) National Chairman, Ni John FruNdi, has lambasted the Biya Government for what he termed gross marginalisation of Anglophones, especially the aborigines of the North West Region in Cameroon’s military.

According to the SDF Chieftain, the population of the North West Region deserves more than one General in the elite force of Cameroon.

He was speaking in Bamenda recently, during the commissioning ceremony of General Agah Robinson into his function.

Fru Ndi saw the elevation of Agah Robinson to the rank of a General as Biya appeasement offering to the population of the North West Region to replace the late General Tumenta, who passed away in tragic circumstances.

“General Agha alone is insignificant because the North West by the strength of its population deserves more than four Generals.

 However, if you ask for many and you are given one, take and keep and ask for more because we deserve more than just one General,” Fru Ndi said.

Meanwhile, the Government of Cameroon through the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence in charge of the National Gendarmerie, Jean Baptiste Bokam, ordered General Agha Robinson to halt the manufacture of war arms in the North West Regional capital Bamenda.

 With the present violent state of affairs in the North West and South West Regions, Government is disturbed that the irate Anglophones may lay hands on locally fabricated fire arms and use them to further resist Government.

The proliferation of locally made weapons in the North West Region has further compounded Government fears.

In his installation address, Bokam said the war against terrorism and other forms of insecurity must be tackled vigorously, as such; no locally manufacture arms should be tolerated in the volatile North West Region.

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Abeh Valery

31.Jul.2017

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An erstwhile Catholic Monk of the Mbengwi Monastery, Thomas Tangem Nganyu, who operates a metal transformation training centre in Buea, was arrested from his Bolifamba workshop and ferried into detention in Yaounde.

Nganyu was picked up without the knowledge of his trainees, relatives and friends.

For weeks his relatives, trainees and friends searched for his whereabouts in vain.

The former monk became so vocal in his criticisms on Government decision to drag Catholic prelates and other Anglophone Church leaders to court for supporting the ‘no school’ campaign in the two English-speaking Regions of Cameroon.

He is said to have been a member of a discussion group comprising lawyers, teachers, technicians, businessmen, drivers, commercial motorbike riders and others.

Nganyu reportedly got a hunch, but refused to heed advice to escape, when co-members of the discussion group were hounded with arrest warrants between the Southwest, Littoral and West Regions, since May 2017, having been betrayed by a Government agent who had infiltrated the group.

While some members like lawyers and teachers heeded the advice and went underground, others continued crusading for school boycott. One of the teachers, Abraham Lekengu, a member of Teachers Association of Cameroon, TAC, who claimed to be a victim of punitive transfer, spearheaded the ‘no school’ and civil disobedience campaign. According to Lekengu, he was trained in ENS to teach the English Language and Literature in English, but was sent to teach purely French-speaking children in Babou, Bangante, West Region, besides low pay.

Meanwhile, the authorities suspect that they are behind the burning of Government structures around.

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Abeh Valery

31.Jul.2017

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A delegation of some Southern Cameroons human rights advocates led by the law firm, Foley Hoag LLP, met with the office of the United Nations Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide on July 27, 2017.

  

If appropriate preventative measures are not taken by the UN, there is a significant risk that the Government of the Republic of Cameroon will engaged in further widespread and systematic attacks on the Southern Cameroonian minority.  There is concern that the Government may use force to crack down on peaceful demonstrators advocating for Southern Cameroonian rights.  Demonstrations are expected to take place in September 2017, when French only schools and courts reopen.  The government has continued to bring troops into the Southern Cameroons Territory to intimidate those who oppose the government’s discriminatory policies.   

 

During the 1.5 hours long meeting, the delegations requested that the UN conduct a fact-finding mission and take steps to prevent further human rights violations in Cameroon

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Rita Akana

29.Jul.2017

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A Boko Haram ambush on an oil survey team and an ensuing battle with Nigerian security forces has left more than 50 people dead. Details are still emerging about exactly what happened.

More than 50 people have been killed in northern Nigeria in an ambush by 'IS' militant group, Boko Haram. The victims were part of an oil exploration team, and included soldiers, civilians and staff from the University of Maiduguri. With strict military control over access to rural Borno, details of the attack have been slow to emerge.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has been surveying, for more than a year, for what it says could be vast oil reserves in the Lake Chad Basin, where Boko Haram is active. On Tuesday, militants are reported to have kidnapped members of the survey team.This was followed by a rescue attempt that has allegedly left scores of people dead.

Nigeria's oil minister said he was still waiting for official confirmation from military authorities on the kidnapping and attempted rescue of people, including NNPC staff. He declined to comment on the death toll.

Rising death toll

According to AFP, a source on the ground said on Thursday: "The death toll keeps mounting. Now we have more than 50... and more bodies are coming in. It's clear that the attack wasn't for abduction. They (Boko Haram) attacked just to kill."

In Magumeri, 50 kilometres (32 miles) northwest of Maiduguri, an aid agency worker has said that 47 bodies were recovered from the bush as of Wednesday evening.

"Eleven of them were badly burned in the attack. They were burned alive in their vehicle, which was stuck in a trench. We buried them here because they couldn't be taken to Maiduguri."

Dani Mamman, from the University of Maiduguri, confirmed they had received four staff member's bodies, and said two of them were academics. 

"We got the impression our staff on the team were rescued, because that was what the military spokesman said yesterday. But we were shocked when we were given four dead bodies. This means it wasn't a rescue. We still have other staff that are yet to be accounted for."

Williams Attah, a resident of Maiduguri, described the situation to DW: "From recent happenings nobody is safe, some people were kidnapped, some people were ambushed, even the University of Maiduguri is not safe now. The government needs to come out, put politics aside, and face things squarely."

Setback for Nigeria

The deadly ambush is a blow to the Nigerian government after it claimed success against Boko Haram militants in recent months.

In December, the Islamist group appeared to be permanently in decline after President Muhammadu Buhari announced its last stronghold in the Sambisa forest had been destroyed.

However, insurgents from the outfit continue to carry out attacks and terrorize the population.

Local Maiduguri resident, Daniel Nyam Gwash, told DW: "Going by the full force of their re-emergence nobody believes what the military has been preaching all this while. We have not seen any changes that back-up the claim of the military that they have subdued Boko Haram insurgence. Look at the killing all over the place."  

Nigerian political analyst, Umar Baba Kumo, also spoke with DW: "They (Boko Haram) want to show the military that they can still operate, despite the huge security and the strategies that were introduced. Nonetheless the attacks have continued. People are becoming very apprehensive. They are becoming disturbed that despite the gains that were recorded in the past, these people are trying to revert to the situation we were facing earlier. It is very disturbing."

At least 20,000 people have been killed and some 2.7 million more forced to leave their homes during Boko Haram's eight-year insurgency to create an Islamic state across parts of Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon. 

Boko Haram is also known for kidnapping civilians, especially young women and boys, for recruitment purposes.

The most prominent of these cases was the abduction of 276 girls from a government school in Chibok, northeastern Nigeria. Since then, at least 100 of the girls have been rescued.

Two-thirds of Nigerian revenue comes from oil. But constant attacks on energy facilities in its southern Niger Delta oil heartland last year cut production by more than a third, deepening the recession in Africa's biggest economy.

cw, cl/bk (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

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Rita Akana

29.Jul.2017

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Militants of the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM), traded fisticuffs over the fate of Anglophone pupils and students, who have not been to school since the escalation of the Anglophone Teachers’ strike.

The CPDM militants exchanged blows during a recent joint party section conference that was summoned to deliberate on the re-opening of schools for the 2017/2018 academic year.

Militants split into two warring factions when the question of whether the untutored children should be promoted to the next class or not. 

While one group supported that the pupils and students should be promoted, another group said the students should be repeat because they did not learn anything to warrant their promotion.

In the course of the argument, a bitter quarrel erupted that led to a few skirmishes before the party bigwigs could bring the situation under control.

At the end the party barons who convened the conference said the decision rest on the parents of the pupils and students.

A CPDM militant who is a teacher, said as a tutor, she would not allow any of her children to move to the new class.

“There is nothing wrong with having a child repeat a class,” she said.

Another parent enthused “when the powers-that-be called for schools resumption, some parents did not send their children back to school. Now that official examinations were written, there is no way children should repeat.”

The parents are now waiting to see what Government is going to do to resolve this problem. 

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Rita Akana

29.Jul.2017

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