Government Hires American Firm to Spy on ICT Communications in Southern Cameroons

The government of Cameroon that has been under sustained international pressure to re-instate internet signals in the North West and South West regions of the country has, according to reports been working on a strategy to control conversations and be able to spy on the people before taking any steps to restore such communications.

A highly trusted source at the Cabinet of the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Mme Libom Li Likeng nee Mendomo Minette revealed to The Times Journal that senior officials of a US-based firm known as- Spirit Ventures LLC, led by its President, Dr. Gareth E. Murray were received in audience by the Minister on the 28th of March, 2017 in the meeting room of that Ministry. He pointed out that the audience was negotiated by the US Embassy in Yaounde in a mail dated the 27th of March, 2017 (a copy of which was handed to us) and addressed to the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications.

Our informant that generally talks on basis of anonymity, noted that the Spirit Ventures LLC Delegation was made up of Dr. Gareth E. Murray, Mr. Preston D. McGee Senior- Managing Director of iQ-iA, Mr. Thierry Wandji- Senior Solution Engineer- ART Cyber, Mme Madeleine Belomb- Director, Sales and Marketing at ART Cyber and Mr. Christopher Ekom- Commercial Specialist at the American Embassy in Yaounde. The Minister of Posts and Telecommunications took part at the meeting with two of her close aides, The Times Journal gathered: Dr. Wilfred Mfuh- Technical Adviser N0.2 and Dr. Banga Mbom Calvin- Director of Network Infrastructure Security.
The Ventures LLC Delegations is said to have made a presentation on how communications on the social media could be monitored in real time within the geo space of the North West and South West regions of Cameroon. They expounded on ways of spying on conversations on networks such as facebook, Twitter and Instagram without anyone involved taking note that their chats were under serious surveillance at all times.

Our source read from his notes that the monitoring solutions proposed to government turned around; “Full monitoring of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram conversations and chats within a given “Geo-Space”, notably the North West and South West regions, with the monitoring team sometimes participating in the conversations to influence discussions, the collection and analysis of data from the chat rooms using complex algorithms to establish intelligence such as the full cyber-profile of those emitting or forwarding data as well as their view points within the given geo-space and finally enabling government to pick up intelligence on any criminal activities in planning or unfolding within the given geo-space and even enabling knowledge of the meeting points of key actors”.

These proposed solutions seemed acceptable and enticing enough to the Minister and her close aides because they had the potential to make the people of the North West and South West regions stay in perpetual bondage for years without ever being able to “surprise” the government with an uprising of this magnitude ever again, our informant cried out, adding that; “it makes Anglophones in Cameroon all criminals until they demonstrate that they are not offensive. It also punishes all Southern Cameroonians equally, both those in government who think they are seen as part of the system and those who are currently determined to ensure the restoration of the independence of the former British colony”.

Although the American visitors took off time to explain how workable their proposed solutions could be, making references to earlier live demonstrations of the said solutions to the Prime Minister, Head of Government and some security agencies; General Delegation for National Security, Ministry of Defence and the General Directorate in Charge of External Research, our source said the Minister still identified some weaknesses of concern.

Mme Libom Li Likeng is said to have expressed concern that the solutions did not include WhatsApp, considered the most used social media in Cameroon. Again, it was revealed that she did not like the fact that the proposed solutions did not require the collaboration of local network operators, insisting their non-involvement could make it difficult for government to physically identify and probably arrest those producing and distributing unacceptable cyber literatures or engaging in criminal activities.

As could have been expected, our source intimated that the Minister regretted the fact that the proposed solutions would operate on a centralized architecture whereas “interested stakeholders in Cameroon, mainly the police, gendarmes, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and well others functioned each in their own fief with little or no information sharing, necessitating a hierarchical structure.

The Minister’s recommendations, our informant noted, insisted on the need to include WhatsApp with all data processing conducted in Cameroon to safeguard national sovereignty, the importance of government having to use cyber evidence- technically known as cyber forensics to indict or convict offenders in the North West and South West regions and much more.

Although the US-based company promised that in no distant time they could be able to crack into WhatsApp, the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, our source specified, paid greater attention to a proposal by one of the members of the delegation, Dr. Murray identified as a former and first Black Senator of Maryland in the United States of America who revealed that they had developed a rich legal framework in Maryland which takes into consideration cyber evidence, promising to share the framework with Yaounde to assist the Ministry of Justice and other interested local agencies.

While the two parties agreed to meet once more at the end of the month of April, 2017, the Minister reportedly settled down to dispatch memos to the Prime Minister’s Office for onward transmission to the Presidency of the Republic. At the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, one of our regular informants confirmed that a write-up from the Star Building in that regard was received on Thursday the 13th of April, 2017.