The Anglophone crisis and innocent victims

 Buea, August 2018: Protesting women  urge  return to peace in  restive Anglophone Cameroon{archives photo] 

By Che Nformuluh

It is  difficult to identify who the separatist fighters in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon are, especially when they are not carrying weapons. 

Many of these fighters have no uniform unlike Cameroon’s military and security forces that can easily be identified by their special wears, weapons and vehicles. When the fighters mingle with unsuspicious people, the lives of the later are in danger.

The story is told of a certain Lumnui Didler, a restaurant owner in Bamenda, who was on March 9, 2019 reportedly arrested and detained because separatist fighters, disguising as normal customers, regularly ate in her local restaurant. She was arrested with several customers.

Lumnui, born on June 23, 1986 and mother of one, was accused by security agents of feeding separatist fighters instead of informing the Cameroon government of their whereabouts.

 Even though she denied knowing any separatist fighters, she was still whisked away by the security agents. Exactly where she was detained  is not yet known.

Stories of innocent victims of the Anglophone crisis abound.

As deadly clashes between separatists and government forces continue in the two restive English-speaking regions of Cameroon, many of the separatist fighters in civilian attire mingle with the populations making it difficult for the regular forces to sort them out.

 As such just so many innocent people have been victims of military/police brutality. Some supposed non-separatist fighters have even been killed in the mistaken belief that they were separatist fighters; many others have been arrested and detained awaiting prosecution; even if at the end their lawyers would defend them to freedom, they must have suffered in one form or the other, without compensation. Pathetic, Indeed!

Many people are living in fear as anybody could be arrested on suspicion of being collaborators of the separatists, especially as Government is determined to crush the rebels.

Cameroon security forces often carry out raids in localities suspected to be hide-outs for separatists and a lot of casualties have been reported.

The separatist fighters are reportedly gaining grounds in spite of sustained despite efforts by the Cameroon Government to defeat them

Cameroon government reiterates that the country is “one and indivisible.” 

The Biya administration has accused Anglophone separatist leaders in the Diaspora such as Cho Ayaba ,Akwanga Ebenezer ,Eric Tataw, Tapang Ivo, and Chris Anu of attempting to divide Cameroon by fuelling  calls for the independence of Anglophones.

Common law lawyers’ and Anglophone teachers’ strikes sparked off, late 2016, what is today known as the Anglophone crisis. 

Hundreds of people have died following regular clashes between government forces and separatist fighters. 

In May 2018, US Ambassador to Cameroon, Peter Henry Barlerin,  in a press statement on the Anglophone crisis, accused Cameroon Government of ”targeted killings, detentions without access to legal support, family or the Red Cross and burning and looting of villages”

The US diplomat also blamed separatist fighters for “murders of gendarmes, kidnappings of government officials and burning of schools”

Since the eruption of the crisis in 2016, property worth billions of Fcfa has been vandalized; more than 30 thousand Cameroonians are seeking asylum in Nigeria, while hundreds of thousands of citizens  are internally displaced People(IDPs), giving birth a serious humanitarian crisis in Cameroon.

Cameroon: PCC Webmaster told: “Please help us. We are in crisis!”

Rev.Numfor Godwin and wife during the induction

By Christopher Ambe

The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC) Webmaster, Synod Office Chaplain and (pioneer) Parish Pastor of Synod Office Congregation was, Sunday March 24, instituted and inducted, in Buea with a call to rescue Christians from social media misinformation and disinformation.

Rev.Numfor Godwin, assigned to perform the three functions of webmaster, chaplain and parish pastor, was inducted in a crowd-pulling but solemn ceremony in the PCC Synod Hall by Rev Besong Johnson Tabe, Secretary of Committee of the Ministry

The ceremony was attended, among other PCC top officials, by the Church’s Chief Shepherd & Moderator, Rt.Rev Fonki Samuel Forba, and the Synod Clerk, Rev.Babila George Fochang.

In his sermon, titled “Crisis Can Provide an opportunity to teach spiritual lessons” inspired by Mark 3:20-27, Rev. Tabe urged the inductee to use the power of God in him to stifle gossips within the PCC and fight social media misinformation and disinformation about the church, especially now with the ongoing Anglophone crisis.

Urging the inductee to brave the odds when carrying out his multiple tasks, Rev.Tabe noted  that “one thing in history is that God’s servants are always misunderstood by their contemporaries”, adding that even Jesus Christ was misunderstood but the latter rather used any crisis he faced to “ teach spiritual lesions”

“The PCC is passing through a crisis period and as Webmaster, you (Rev Numfor) have the power to change mindsets in the church and Ministry,” the officiating pastor remarked. “The Social Media has complicated the crisis situation, making it difficult to manage.”

Rev. Numfor was advised to work in collaboration PCC National Communication Secretary, to re-orientate the mindsets of Christians in the face of social media lies-telling and fake news.

The Chief Celebrant implored the inductee: “Bring up spiritual lessons that should preoccupy our mindsets” other than the social media lies,

Concluding his attention-catching sermon, Rev. Tabe cried out to the inductee, “Webmaster, help us .We are in crisis!”

Numfor Godwin graduated from the Presbyterian Theological Seminary (PTS) Kumba in 2006 and was ordained in 2008.

He holds a Master’s of Science degree in Clinical Counseling (Cameroon Christian University) and another Master’s degree in Theology (Presbyterian Theological Seminary Kumba).

Rev Numfor & wife pose for the Camera with some PCC officials after the induction

Also certified as an ICT specialist, Rev.Numfor before his recent appointment, had served as computer coordinator at PTS Kumba.He would now run the church’s main website www.pcc.cm and other related sites

He had also served as Parish Pastor of PC Baba I in Ndop Presbytery, Chaplain of PCHS Kumbo, Parish Pastor of Tobin, Chaplain of PHS Wum,and Parish Pastor of Kesu.

A native of Mbelili-Bafut, Rev. Numfor is married to Rose Manka’a Mukong,a civil servant and they are blessed with several children.

The PCC now has a million or so Christians, and exists in all the ten regions of Cameroon.PCC was out of the Basel Mission in November 1957 and in 1958,Rev Abraham Ngole became pioneer Moderator(1958-69) .

(This article also appears in The HORIZON Newspaper, Cameroon, of March 26, 2019)

Reckless Destruction of Propriety as Anglophone Crisis Escalates

Partial view of burnt  Beauty Salon in Buea owned by  Mr.  Mboe Ekoko 

By Acha Smart

The Anglophone Crisis, which erupted in 2016, has  not only resulted in the deaths of over 2000 people, but  over 200 villages have reportedly  been burnt down and property worth hundreds of billions of Fcfa  destroyed in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon, leaving their owners in desperation.

But who is actually burning public and private propriety?

It has become a blame game between the separatists and Cameroon regular forces whenever some propriety-whether state-owned or private   is burnt down, as both protagonists trade accusations and counter accusations.

 It would be recalled that, on 11 February 2019, the state-owned Kumba General Hospital was burnt down reportedly by the military that are said to have accused the health facility of treating wounded separatist fighters but the military blamed the separatists for the arson.

Cases of burnt propriety are more common during ghost towns called by separatists or during military raids on neighborhoods suspected to be hide-outs for separatists.

Separatists fighting for an independent state for Anglophones have reportedly burnt down enormous propriety in towns like Buea, Muea,Ekona,Kumbo Muyuka ,Kumba and Bamenda  as  crude method of enforcing the respect of  civil disobedience by citizens.

As the Anglophone crisis deepened, Cameroon government in 2017 outlawed Southern Cameroons National Council, (SCNC), which was created in 1994 to ensure the independence of Southern Cameroons, a former UN British trust territory, which gained independence on October 1, 1961 by joining La Republique of Cameroun, a former French colony.

 The former Minister of Territorial Administration, René Sadi, had noted in his January 17, 2017 banning order:

“Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) and the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC) are declared null and void for their purpose and activities, which are contrary to the Constitution and liable to jeopardize the security of the state, territorial integrity, national unity and national integration,”

The ban of the separatist movement and the arrest of Barrister Agbor Balla and co, who called for and coordinated wide-spread civil disobedience, rather radicalized activists across Anglophone Cameroon.

According to recent reports, on March 20, 2019, a young Bafaw businessman, William Mboe Ekoko,born on 10^th June  1990,in Kumba Town got his beauty salon burnt down in  Great Soppo Buea allegedly by separatists who had tagged him a blackleg for publicly condemning their activities. The saloon was burnt after three unidentified men, believed to be SCNC activists, had stormed the Buea family residence of   Ekoko looking for him in vain.

Mboe Ekoko was said to have gone into hiding after his car was burnt on February 18, 2019 where it was parked and he continued receiving anonymous death threats.

The crisis has forced Anglophone activists as well as the other victims of   crisis to flee the country

More than 40 thousand Cameroonians have fled the crisis, in search of   asylum in Nigeria.

Radical Anglophone activists, described by Cameroon Government as secessionists are based in the USA, South Africa and Europe where they  have been faulting  the Biya regime for failing to quickly resolve the Anglophone crisis, which is an urgent request  for the granting of Anglophone  minority rights.

Anglophones claimed their rights have been trampled upon by the majority French-speakers of Cameroon, who have produced the two presidents the country has had. The minority English-speaking regions were formerly UN-trust territory, called Southern Cameroons and administered by Britain.

 Southern Cameroons later gained independence on October 1, 1961 by joining La Republique du Cameroun, which had on January 1, 1960 been granted   independence by France.

Since both entities became one, Anglophones have been complaining of marginalization and discrimination against them by the majority French speakers.

The Crisis actually sparked off in 2016 when lawyers and Anglophone teachers protested against the imposition of French-speaking workers in schools and law courts in the two English-speaking Regions of Cameroon.

 Rights groups report that over half a million people are internally displaced, with many women and children hiding in bushes under deplorable conditions, as separatists  and Government forces continue to  engage in deadly clashes.

  Families not only complain of the disappearance of loved ones, but molestations, torture, kidnappings, arrests and detention have marked the crisis.

Cameroon accuses the Diaspora citizens   especially in the USA and Europe of bankrolling separatist fighters seeking the independence of minority-speaking Anglophones. It has also accused them of using the social media to mobilize protests against President Biya, 87, who assumed office in 1982.

The Biya government has maintained that Cameroon is one and indivisible, a stance that separatists challenge.

 

 

 

 

Cameroon: Former senior official abducted in troubled Anglophone region

YAOUNDE, March 20 (Xinhua) -- A former senior government official was kidnapped early Wednesday in Camroon's troubled English-speaking region of Northwest, local authorities said.

Emmanuel Ngafeson Bantar, who served as secretary of state in the Ministry of Justice in charge of the penitentiary administration, was kidnapped in Bamenda, a major city of Cameroon's Anglophone zone ravaged by war between separatists and government forces.

"He was at home with his family when gunmen arrived and ordered him to enter into his own vehicle. They then drove him away to an unknown destination," a local official who preferred not to be named told Xinhua.

"The government is putting all measures in place to secure his safe release," he said.

Family members interviewed by Xinhua said the kidnappers were "well armed" and "did not ask for ransom."

Bantar is the first member of government who "worked closely" with President Paul Biya to be kidnapped in the Northwest, one of the two troubled English-speaking regions, since armed conflict started in November 2017.

Kidnapping has become rampant in the two war-torn Anglophone regions where armed separatists want to create a new nation they called "Ambazonia."

Also on Wednesday morning, 15 players of University of Buea's football team were kidnapped in Buea, capital of the English-speaking region of Southwest, according to university authorities.

The United Nations estimates that at least 430,000 people in Cameroon have been displaced internally by the conflict.

Cameroon Protests US Criticism During Nagy Visit

Most Cameroon newspapers March 15, 2019, reported that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy will focus on human rights abuses, restricted freedoms and the war in the English-speaking regions during his visit to Cameroon.

By Moki Edwin Kindzeka

YAOUNDE-As the top U.S. diplomat for Africa visits Cameroon, pro-government groups are protesting what they call Tibor Nagy's interference in Cameroon's internal affairs.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Nagy and the European Union representative Federica Mogherini recently called on Cameroon to free opposition leader Maurice Kamto and 150 of his supporters.

They also urged Cameroon authorities to work harder to stop the violence in its western, anglophone separatist regions.

The coordinator for Monday's protest, Lilian Koulou Engoulou, said the demonstrators want Nagy to hear them and take their message back to Washington.

FILE - Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Nov. 30, 2018.

America should stop interfering in Cameroon's internal issues, Engoulou said, and should help end the crisis in the English-speaking northwest and southwest regions by stopping Cameroonians based in the U.S. from funding what he calls terrorists and destabilizing Cameroon.

The last comment refers to separatist leaders based in the U.S. who have appealed on social media for contributions to help the fighters back home.

Communications Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi, who has previously accused the U.S. of harboring separatist leaders, said last week that Cameroon was outraged by Nagy's statements.

Aime Manga of Cameroon Rights Watch, a local group, said officials should take Nagy's comments as helpful suggestions rather than criticism.

It is public knowledge that Cameroon has a serious political and social crisis, he said, and Nagy's comments bring hope to many who want democracy.

Cameroon has detained Kamto and his supporters since January for taking part in anti-government demonstrations. They are being tried in military courts for charges that include rebellion and could face the death penalty.

In comments made days before his arrival Sunday in Yaounde, Nagy said it's not always positive to arrest opposition members during times of crisis.

He also called the death and suffering in Cameroon's rebellion heartbreaking and urged authorities to do more to end the fighting.

 Courtesy:VOA News