Southern Cameroons

In the face of a well orchestrated campaign targeting the six Anglophone Catholic Bishops, who have been receiving threats and hate mails, accusing them of supporting the teachers strike, the men of God deflated the attacks.

After given them 48 hours to close down the mission and private schools, the Bishops were forced to sign a communique saying that their schools have never been closed.

"We therefore declare that in the current situation, all Catholic Educational Institutions have never closed down and their doors remain always open to receive the pupils and students,

noted a communique issued by the six Anglophone Catholic Bishops on Wednesday.After signing the communique, the Education Secretary of Buea Diocese in the sw region of Cameroon was calling on schools to resume on Friday 10th February and he also was pleading with students to participate in the 11th February national youth day celebration.

After news of the communique went out, the Anglophone consortium reacted with a counter statement.The consortium leaders issued the following statement below:

Considering the fact that this strike becomes officially the people\'s strike after the so-called teachers union failed to call it off, considering the fact that our leaders are still in jail and on the run; we are calling on all West Cameroon parents to not risk sending their kids to school.

This strike rest in your hands. Friday 10th and Saturday 11th are ghost towns. It will be a provocative move for Buea diocese and/or Bishops to force start school reopening. We hope each and every West Cameroonian takes his/her responsibilities to ensure that the strike continues.

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Rita Akana

09.Feb.2017

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Cameroonpostnewsline reports that calls for schools to resume after nearly two months of shut-down seem to be headed for a collision with calls for the boycott of February 11 (Youth Day) celebrations.

On Sunday, February 5 tracts circulated in public places, including churches in Buea and its environs advocating for ghost towns to be observed on Monday, Friday and Saturday.

The tracts also advocated for total boycott of February11.

The anonymous authors of the message also called for a boycott of “Youth Day activities in West Cameroon, as well as debunk messages calling off the strike action.”

According to the message, purportedly from the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, only the arrested members of the Consortium can call off the strike action because they initiated it.

On the other hand, there are calls for school resumption, and the University of Buea had announced that its doors were  opened as from yesterday, February 6 and that its academic year has been extended by six months.

Meanwhile, those circulating the tracts noted that “members of the British House of Commons have listened to [their] case with a promise, and “the UN is paying great attention to our petitions and UN member countries are promising to take our matter to the UN Security Council and powerful Western Media is coming on board.”

In a public debate organised by the National Human rights Commission in the Southwest Region, some education stakeholders noted that the issues raised by the teachers and the lawyers are pertinent and concern every strata of the society, reason why it should be tackled from the base and not only targeting teachers.They said that parents also want societal issues to be solved.

One of the stakeholders told the National Human Rights Commission that whether communication is cut off, the people know that Mondays and Tuesdays are days for ghost town campaigns, so the internet cut plays no role.

Most speakers at the conference noted that the people are still listening and responding positively to the now outlawed Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, which shows how deeply rooted the issue is and as such, efforts should be made only towards reasonable dialogue with the real people and not “bribing chiefs”  to call off a strike they didn’t start.

The Post learnt that the administration is making efforts to mobilise youth groups, taxi drivers, CPDM youths as well as hiring other people to march on February 11.

In Buea, marching in small centres has been cancelled, and arrangements have been made only for a grand march to take place at the Independence Square.

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Rita Akana

07.Feb.2017

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Camerounian soldiers are reported to have been using intimidation tactics to steal smartphones, other valuables and extort huge sums of money from detained West Cameroonians, according to several sources including insiders in the Cameroun military. "When we arrest you arbitrarily, we demand for FCFA 100,000 (about $170 USD) for your release," a top security official guarding a maximum security prison in Kondengui, Cameroun, told Tapang Ivo, Interim Concortium leader on phone.

"We do this to get rich faster. This is our time." "Calculate for yourself how much a soldier could make when 10 of your innocent citizens are arrested." The security official spoke to Tapang in a joint telephone conversation with another French-speaking colleague working in his department. This is an open secret here, he confessed. "We also seize their smartphones and sell without notifying them."

In recent weeks, the Cameroun authorities had shut down internet across all of West Cameroon, falsely citing "national security concerns" initiated by millions of English-speaking citizens who use the social media to freely express their dissatisfaction with the 34-year regime of president Paul Biya. Hundreds of arbitrary and silent arrests are being made daily.

Impromptu searches in citizens' smartphones are carried out by soldiers in a bid to read or watch contents related to the winning West Cameroon struggle for their freedom. "Because of fear, citizens do not ask their phones back. So we take them away and sell to make a fortune that goes into our private pockets," the soldiers confirmed.

Even a released citizen Tapang spoke to, claimed his phone was not handed to him after he paid the bribe. "Don't I have the right to receive messages anymore," he asked while holding back tears. The identities of hundreds of arrested citizens are not known by the public. Families wake up every day and discover that at least a member has either been missing, arrested or taken to the Yaounde, the capital of the Cameroun.

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Tapang Ivo

06.Feb.2017

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Anglophone consortium interim leader Mark Bareta has just confirmed that the ghost town action imposed by the consortium in THE ENTIRE anglophone regions of Cameroon is 100% effective.

Schools are shutdown and few individuals could be seen on the streets.On his Facebook wall , he just posted the following: 

SITUATIONAL REPORT:

Despite the provocation and political statement (Forever Cameroon) from the Cameroun football team and a country who never stood when our people were maimed and killed by their own forces; despite the release from the few teachers who called off the strike action; despite the shameful xenophobic attack from Musonge and Co; Our people in West Cameroon from Limbe, Buea, Tiko, Kumba, Kumbo, Nkambe, Ndop, Bangem, Mamfe, Bamenda, Ekondo Titi etc got up this morning with the reality and send a strong waves to the regime that even though they might have stayed glued to their screen to watch a team who never stood for them, they did not forget their struggle and the struggle continues as usual. We can now report that ghost towns are very ghostly in all cities, towns, and communities in West Cameroon. Schools have failed to resume. The people are in charge. Yes, the people are in charge. 

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Rita Akana

06.Feb.2017

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