Swiss police fire water cannon, stun grenades at Cameroon protesters

Cameroon, a former French colony, has faced a succession of crises and is wracked by a deadly conflict between separatists and government forces in its English-speaking west./Photo:Frabrice Coffrini

Swiss police fired water cannon, tear gas and stun grenades at Cameroonian protesters outside UN headquarters in Geneva Saturday as the crowd surged towards a luxury hotel hosting Cameroon's president.

About 250 demonstrators demanding an end to President Paul Biya's rule squared off with dozens of police, many in riot gear, backed up by armoured vehicles.

The standoff turned violent when the crowd, many draped in Cameroon flags, started making its way towards Biya's hotel, about 500 metres (1,600 feet) from a square outside the UN where they had gathered.

An AFP reporter witnessed police beating and kicking a protester on the ground.

Biya, 86, "has run his dictatorship for nearly half a century," said rally co-organiser Robert Wanto, a Cameroonian national who has lived in exile for three decades.

"We are here to demand that Cameroon be allowed to enter the modern democratic era," he told AFP outside of the UN's European headquarters ahead of the protest.

Several hours before the rally started, about 30 protestors set up a stage with banners and graphic pictures of dead bodies apparently mangled by torture, with the message: "The people say no to Paul Biya".

Cameroon's embassy in Bern warned earlier this week that Cameroonian nationals living in various European countries were planning a "violent" protest against Biya on Saturday.

Geneva police told AFP it was expecting a "large" demonstration. Authorisation was granted but limited to the square outside the UN.

- 'Ultimatum' -

They were not granted permission to march to the five-star Intercontinental Hotel where Biya is believed to have been staying since Sunday.

But Wanto told AFP the demonstrators had given Biya an "ultimatum" to leave and if he remained at the hotel when the protest began, "we will march there".

He pointed out that Biya had made it a habit to stay at the pricy Intercontinental during long visits to Switzerland, where he reportedly comes for medical treatment.

"He thinks it is OK to come here and spend billions of our money when our country is economically sick," Wanto said.

Early Saturday, dozens of suit-clad men believed to be part of the president's security detail stood around the hotel.

Several police vans were also parked outside the hotel and groups of officers had been stationed at regular intervals between the tall glass building and the UN square.

Over the past week, there have already been several scuffles with small numbers of demonstrators outside the hotel and even inside the lobby.

An attack on a Swiss journalist covering the events by men believed to be Biya's security staff sparked a diplomatic incident, prompting the Swiss government to summon Cameroon's ambassador in Bern on Thursday.

"The dictator must be senile to want to transport the violence he unleashes on his country on a daily basis to the soil of a democratic country," Wanto said.

Cameroon, a former French colony, has faced a succession of crises and is wracked by a deadly conflict between separatists and government forces in its English-speaking west.

Opposition leaders have faced mass arrests, and rights groups claim detainees are tortured and many disappear.

Source:AFP

Cameroon opposition leader kidnapped again

Ni John Fru Ndi's SDF party is the main opposition to Cameroon President Paul Biya, who has ruled since 1982 (AFP Photo/SEYLLOU)

Yaoundé (AFP) - The chairman of Cameroon's main opposition party, Ni John Fru Ndi, was kidnapped again in the English speaking Northwest Region two months after an initial abduction, his party said Friday.

Kidnappers "entered his home in Ntarikon with weapons and shot his bodyguard point-blank" late in the day, a statement issued by Social Democratic Front (SDF) leader Jean Robert Wafo said.

Fru Ndi was seized when he went to investigate the intrusion, and was taken away, Wafo added.

On April 27, Fru Ndi, 77, was briefly detained in the restive region but was freed a few hours later.

He and the SDF have steadfastly opposed a division of Cameroon, but the party did not immediately blame English-speaking separatists for the abduction.

Kidnappings have multiplied in the region, and often target local political leaders, soldiers, police officers and civilians.

Conflict in Cameroon, a majority French-speaking nation, broke out in October 2017 when anglophone militants declared an independent state in the Northwest and Southwest Regions.

The separatists have targeted DRC officials and other SDF members in similar attacks.

In October 2018, Fru Ndi's home was attacked by arsonists and his sister kidnapped and later released.

Switzerland mediating in Cameroon's anglophone crisis

Map of Cameroon locating English-speaking regions and their capitals, Bamenda and Buea.

 (AFP Photo/Valentina BRESCHI)

Geneva (AFP) - Switzerland on Thursday announced it was mediating in the crisis in two Cameroon regions where anglophones have launched an armed campaign for a separate state from the French-speaking majority.

\"At the request of the parties, Switzerland is acting as a facilitator in the crisis in north-western and south-western Cameroon," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Swiss facilitators met with "various Cameroonian opposition groups" from Tuesday to Thursday in the aim of preparing "future peace negotiations," the statement said.

The communique revealed that this had been the second such "preparatory meeting".

It did not say where this round of talks had taken place, who had taken part or the issues that were discussed.

Separately, a spokesman said the first meeting had taken place in May in Geneva.

Cameroon's Northwest and Southwest Regions are in the grip of an armed campaign by English-speaking militants seeking independence from the francophone-majority country.

On October 1 2017, they declared the creation of the "Republic of Ambazonia," covering the two English-speaking regions incorporated into post-independence Cameroon in 1961.

The declaration went largely unnoticed outside Cameroon, and "Ambazonia" -- named after a bay at the mouth of the Douala River -- has been recognised by no-one.

The government responded with a brutal crackdown, and the separatists in turn have mounted a campaign of attacks on state buildings, shooting and kidnappings.

According to the International Crisis Group think tank, 1,850 people have been killed, while more than 530,000 people have been forced from their homes, according to UN figures.

The violence "is taking a heavy toll on the civilian population," the Swiss foreign ministry said.

"Switzerland has long been committed, both at bilateral and multilateral level, to finding a peaceful solution to the crisis and to promoting respect for human rights in Cameroon," it said.

"Switzerland is also committed to providing humanitarian aid to the affected local population and has supported Cameroon in dealing with multilingualism."

Around a fifth of Cameroon's population of 24 million are English-speakers.

Most of them live in the Northwest and Southwest Regions, which were previously ruled by Britain as the Southern Cameroons.

They were folded into Cameroon in October 1961, 22 months after France granted the country independence.

Anger at perceived discrimination by francophones in justice, education and the economy built for years.

This coalesced into demands for a greater autonomy or a return to Cameroon's federal structure -- demands that 86-year-old President Paul Biya, in power since 1982, has persistently rejected.

Over 80 per cent of schools in anglophone Cameroon shut down, as conflict worsens

UNHCR/Gaelle Massack

A school for refugees in Cameroon. Conflict has led to the closure of 80 per cent of schools in the anglophone regions of the country

More than 80 per cent of schools in the English-speaking North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon are closed, as the security situation and living conditions continue to deteriorate due to the three-year conflict between the Government and armed groups, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, reported on Friday.

Speaking to journalists at the UN offices in Geneva, UNICEF Spokesperson Toby Fricker said that some 1.3 million people, including around 650,000 children, are now in need of some form of humanitarian assistance. Around 450,000 of these people, half of whom are children, are internally displaced. 

Thousands of people do not have access to essential basic services, such as healthcare and safe drinking water, and livelihoods have been destroyed, the spokesperson told reporters. The ability of humanitarian organizations such as UNICEF to deliver aid, is being hamstrung by the conflict, he added.

Children and their families are suffering from the effects of armed violence; attacks on their homes and schools; abduction, sexual violence and recruitment into armed groups; and imposed lockdowns, or “ghost-town” days, set in place by non-State armed groups. 

Future of an ‘entire generation’ at risk

The school closures are the result of a ban on education imposed by militia groups, which has affected more than 600,000 children, seen at least 74 schools destroyed, and exposed students, teachers and school personnel to violence, abduction and intimidation.

Mr. Fricker said that targeting education is “putting the future of an entire generation of children at risk, children who with the right support and opportunities can build a more stable and prosperous future.”

He pointed out that, when children are out of school, they face a higher risk of recruitment by armed groups and are more likely to be exposed to child marriage, early pregnancy, and the accompanying trauma and long-lasting emotional distress that these experiences bring.

UNICEF has helped some 15,000 displaced children attend formal schools in host communities outside the affected region, and trained teachers to provide psychosocial support for children dealing with the effects of conflict and displacement, said Mr. Fricker, adding that UNICEF is working with religious and community leaders to attempt to re-open schools

The three-year crisis in Cameroon escalated out of protests in the Anglophone region, calling for greater autonomy. Following a visit to the country in May, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet warned that the situation risks spiralling “completely out of control, if measures are not taken to reduce tension and restore trust”.

UNICEF has called on the parties to the conflict to protect all children and their families; allow humanitarian access to all people in need, according to international humanitarian law; and to protect and re-open schools, and ensure safe learning spaces for children, without conditions. 

-UN News ( Published on 21 June 2019)

CAMEROON:THE INTENTION OF PARLIAMENT

By Barrister Ayah Paul Abine

 Did the legislature grant the President of the Republic the prerogative to secure the prorogation of parliament more times than once? Can it be construed that more extensions of parliament than one were intended by the legislature? 

One may take the liberty to begin by decrying that the constitutional revision of 1996 was littered with such incredible loopholes that seem not to match the personality of the author of the revision who is often paraded as an authority in the constitutional law. Quite apart from being skeletal, the constitution is devoid of the usual inevitable provisos. The maker of the revision either overlooked the elementary traditional canons of drafting or he deliberately insidiously accommodated loopholes for subsequent self-serving manoeuvres. One is even tempted to contemplate his letting loose a certain degree of conceited deceit.

If we limit ourselves just to the realm of the prorogation of parliament, not only is the Constitution mute as to how many times the prerogative of prorogation can be exercised in one parliament, but it stopped short of providing for the next line of conduct where, at the end of the prorogation, the ‘serious crisis’ have not come to an end. Nor did the author draw any distinction between crisis and war. It is common knowledge that CRISIS fall below the magnitude of WAR. In the event of the latter, does prorogation, limited in time, apply; or does the President have to call in aid emergency powers to confront election with the war situation?

Some of the foregoing questions are more of a digression from our present purpose. They could well be of prospective utility. The relevant issue at hand is whether the President of the Republic was within the law (constitution) in calling on the Parliament to enact a law, proroguing parliament a second time in one parliament. The answer to that indirect question seems to lie in the interpretation of the intention of the legislature in enacting the provision relative to the prerogative in question within the conspectus of the general principles of interpretation; particularly the principal of general import and application that the law does not intend an absurdity.

It is highly unlikely that Parliament would grant the President such prerogatives as a blank cheque. We do not think our Parliament so crude as not to contemplate that a certain president tomorrow, with a comfortable majority, could, under such circumstance, keep proroguing parliament indefinitely for the fear of losing the comfortable majority in the event of election.

Such apprehension is discernable for a society like Cameroun where SERIOUS CRISIS can be purposefully wrongly qualified or even invented by the President. And the exercise of the present prorogation is seemingly a case in point. Quite outside of the definition of ‘serious crisis’, SEROIUS CRISIS, must objectively be brought about by events extraneous to the conduct of the President: events not of his doing. Another essential ingredient is that the crisis must be ungovernable in nature with an uncertain denouement. In contemporary Cameroun, the war in the Far North and the war against Ambazonia could be so qualified.

BUT the President rather invoked as serious crisis the need for a smooth November budgetary session of parliament, and the harmonization of the dates relative to the twin general and municipal elections. From what has already been stated, the events the President qualifies as SERIOUS CRISIS here are the consequences of the absence of or inadequate foresight; and/or the absence of planning. Such a situation being the consequence of his own conduct, the President cannot invoke both or either to justify prorogation on the ground of SERIOUS CRISIS. That would be absolutely self-serving.

Again, at the time of proroguing parliament and the terms of municipal councils last year, the President knew or was presumed to know the laws applicable. The one law provided that general election would hold after the expiry of the prorogation. The other law provided that municipal election would hold not less than twenty days BEFORE the expiry of the prorogation. By making each prorogation last for an identical period of time of one year, and virtually parallel as to the commencement and the ending, the President was both without sufficient thought or foresight. Taking undue advantage of his own wrongful conduct today to secure the second prorogation in the name of serious crisis is, therefore, anything but consistency.

And if even wars do not as much as amount to SERIOUS CRISIS, how can the President be heard to invoke the ever facetious examination of the finance Bill and the correction of his error in the previous prorogation as SERIOUS CRISIS that warrant the second prorogation? The answer to that rhetorical question superfluously buttresses our holding that the second prorogation is not within the spirit of the constitutional prerogative granted to the President of the Republic to obtain the prorogation of parliament where SERIOUS CRISIS do so warrant.

Except, as usual in Cameroun, the law is treated, even in the context of the Constitution, as discretionary!

NA SO ARH SEE’AM OH!

WITHOUT PRJUDICE!

AND OBJECTIVELY!

Cameroon:SDF IS INCONSISTENT

By Barrister Ayah Paul Abine

PA Ayah was one of the earliest persons to argue against SDF(Social Democratic Front) offering to mediate in the current Anglophone War on the ground of conflict of interests. If any doubts anyone entertained then, those doubts have now been amply cleared by recent events. Although SDF has been inconsistent over the decades, we wish to limit ourselves to just two recent events.

There are three broad groups of Ambazonians with conflicting stances. Some desire the restoration of their independence as a distinct entity from the de facto arrangement with the Republic of Cameroun in 1961. The second group is willing to accommodate a federation with the Republic of Cameroun. While the third finds nothing fundamentally wrong with the unitary state.

Once you identify yourself with any of the three groups as SDF has identified itself with a federation, you have vested interest and are thereby automatically disqualified from being a mediator on the ground of conflict of interests. One wonders how a well structured party like SDF with some of the best Ambazonian brains would, outside of pecuniary avidity, hold itself out as a mediator in this case!

In the second place, SDF declared not so long ago that election was not possible under the prevailing circumstances; and that it would not take part in any election if the situation remained unchanged. Reasonably, the implication was that the situation would change for the better.

But every reasonable, normal person knows that, since the Prime Minister’s visit to the war zones, the indiscriminate killing of unarmed Ambazonians and the burning of their homes, hospitals, economic structures and crops have grown dramatically – threefold, fourfold. As a matter of fact, hardly does a day go by these days without reports that, at least, ten persons have been killed!!!

What does prompt the SDF to proclaim its stance for a ten-state federation; and its willingness to go in for elections now? Is not it another mercenary project in the like manner of going in for senatorial election in the Adamawa Region some six years ago when SDF knew full well that only municipal councilors would vote and that SDF did not have any councilors in that Region?

INCONSISTENT, UNRELIABLE OR UNTRUSTWORTHY?

COULD WE, PLEASE, STOP TOYING WITH HUMN LIVES???

IT’S BLOODCURDLING!

Mass Arrests of Opposition Members in Cameroon

Hundreds Detained After Defying Ban on Demonstrations

By Ilaria Allegrozzi

Senior, Central Africa Researcher,Human  Rights Watch 

Cameroonian opposition leader Maurice Kamto was arrested in Douala on January 28, 2019 for what appears to be politically motivated reasons. © 2018 PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/Getty Image

At least 350 members and supporters of Cameroon’s main opposition party, including its vice president, were arrested across the country this weekend after they tried to hold demonstrations.

The arrests, targeting the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) party, appear to mark yet another step in the government’s attempt to limit political dissent.

Cameroon security forces have used excessive and indiscriminate force to snuff out other MRC demonstrations. And in late January, MRC leader Maurice Kamto and some of his closest allies were arrested alongside another 200 MRC members and supporters after they held country-wide protests. They remain in detention on politically motivated charges.

Over the past few weeks, the MRC submitted several requests for authorization to protest Kamto’s arrest and call for his release. The requests were rejected by administrative authorities, citing security reasons. But last weekend, MRC leaders and supporters decided to disregard the ban, marching in several cities across the country.

One MRC’s lawyer, Emmanuel Simh, told Human Rights Watch: “We filed dozens of requests to hold peaceful marches and as usual authorities refused them all. But we think the constitutional right to peaceful assembly cannot be taken arbitrarily away from us.”

Government authorities clearly did not agree.

MRC demonstrators in the city of Douala were dispersed with water cannons, while in the capital Yaoundé at least three demonstrators were injured during their arrest and another was beaten upon arrival at the city’s police headquarters.

MRC members and supporters remain in detention. At least 75 protestors have been released, some of whom say they were held without access to lawyers at the Secretariat d’Etat à la Defense in Yaoundé, a prison where Human Rights Watch has documented the use of torture.

MRC lawyers showed us photos of injuries to one of their supporters released from SED.A recent UN Security Council meeting flagged the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Cameroon’s restive anglophone regions, and these arrests are likely to provoke further international concern. The government should know that the world is watching closely. 

Cameroon:Specialist Cardiac Centre Now Operational in Buea

*110 diagnosed with cardiac diseases on Day one

Partial view of Fako Heart Center,Buea-Cameroon, which became operational  on June 1,2019.The proprietor of the specialist cardiac facility is Cameroonian-born Dr.Fred Perry Kemah, consultant cardiologist, based in UK 

By Christopher Ambe

A privately-owned, close to one billion Fcfa worth cardiac centre, christened Fako Heart Centre or Perry’s Specialist Cardiac Centre, situated beside Buea Mountain Hotel, is now fully operational, following its official launch on Saturday, June 1, 2019. 

Of one hundred and Ninety-four(194) persons who were screened for cardiovascular diseases during the centre’s inaugural, “One hundred and ten(110) were diagnosed with cardiovascular conditions, giving a percentage of 56.7”, according to Mbua Emmanuel Mbua, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Fako Heart Centre

Mr. Mbua described the day-one consultation results   as “quite alarming.”

According to the World Health Organization, Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) are the number one cause of death  in the world.

Fako Heart Centre whose proprietor is renowned Cameroonian-born but London-based Consultant Cardiologist, Dr. Fred Perry kemah is also an accredited university college of cardiology, according to official sources.

A multitude of people including patients- mostly elderly people, last Saturday, converged on the health facility not only to catch a glimpse of the ultra-modern heart center, but also to get free consultations, allowing them to save tens of thousands of Fcfa required for such services. 

 Dr. Fred Perry kemah said he was pleased with the massive turnout at the launch.

The cardiologist and his specialist nurses worked all day consulting the multitude of people who had come from within the national territory to know their heart condition. 

The heart center diagnoses and treats diseases such as: resistant hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, chest pain, heart attack, Palpitations,heart failure,pneumonia,HiV/heart diseases, asthma, chronic obstructive lung disease, deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and pericarditis.

Mrs.Kemah Irene is the CEO of  Fako Heart Centre, which provides services viz:Electrocardiogram (ECG), Echocardiogram/Echo Doppler Studies,Echotress test, DC Cardioversion,Stress test, Tilt table test,Holter 24hr BP Blood Pressure Monitor,Holter 24hr ECG monitor and Transesophageal echocardiogram. According to a handout distributed during the crowd-pulling launch,“Fako Heart Centre [delivers] very high standards of care to people suffering with cardiovascular diseases, which care is first-class [but has been made] affordable to the entire Cameroonian community and neighboring countries”

According to same document, “Fako Heart Centre will also serve as University College of Cardiology and will liaise with the University of Manchester as part of an exchange programme for undergraduates”

Dr. Kemah told reporters: “Our mission is basically to educate the public about the major risk factors of cardiovascular diseases, enable them have direct access to first-class care and finally offer them necessary treatment, with the view to prolonging lives from a cardiovascular perspective”

Dr.Kemah, who qualified as a cardiologist since 2002 and in 2005 gained the status of Consultant Cardiologist, said the huge turnout for consultation on the center’s inaugural, was indicative of inadequate specialist centers in Cameroon.

The  cardiologist said while in London he was bombarded with calls from Cameroonians complaining of cardiovascular diseases, (whose endpoint, of course, is heart failure), prompting him to establish  Fako Heart Centre.

He added that the facility was put up for humanitarian reasons, since treating cardiovascular diseases abroad is quite expensive.

“The same services I provide in London, France or elsewhere abroad are the same here.The only difference is that to see me in London  you pay about 250 pounds; in France ,to see me you pay about 200 Euros ,but here in Buea people don’t pay to see me..Consultation is absolutely free,” he revealed.

Dr Kemah, who is also a senior university lecturer in cardiac medicine, revealed that, he was appointed to teach at the University of Buea but the Anglophone crisis disrupted his plans.

“This Centre would serve as a platform for medical students with special interest in cardiology, and for general medical students to have basic knowledge in cardiology”, he said.
The cardiologist appealed to the general public to be very health- conscious. 

“That means if you have your  very first chest pain,rush to Fako Heart Center for us to examine you and establish whether it is cardiac or not; whenever you feel palpitations ,rush to the hospital; those are the pre-warning signs of cardiac issues; you also have breathlessness, swollen legs etc.”, he pointed out

A day before the clinical launching of the Centre, the Bishop of Buea,Mgr Bushu Immanuel(pictured)  was at the health facility and blessed it. The inaugural proper was graced by cultural dances. 

                        More About Dr Fred Perry Kemah

Dr. Kemah was born in Buea- Cameroon.  He did his primary school education in Catholic School Buea,.Then he attended  Bilingual Grammar School, Molyko and Saint Joseph’s College (SJC), Sasse, obtaining the GCE O & A levels. He proceeded  to Italy where he read medicine in Rome Catholic University, obtaining MD & PhD. 

He’s   on the Specialist Register of the General Medical Council, London, UK as a Consultant Cardiologist with Full License to Practice. He has been a consultant-cardiologist since 2005. He has extensive international experience and reputation as he is currently operating in the UK and France. He is fluent in English, French, Lingala & Italian.

Dr.Kemah developed an Advanced Echo cardiology service in South London Hospitals at the Royal Bolton Hospital, and was awarded the title of Honorary Senior Lecturer in Cardiac Medicine by the University of Manchester in 2011 in recognition of his teaching activities at the Royal Bolton Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

He is a Fellow of Royal College of Physicians (FRCP), UK and of European Society of Cardiology (FESC).

Dr. Kemah is trained in both invasive and non-invasive diagnostic techniques. 

He also runs specialist clinics including Heart Disease in Pregnancy Clinic, Atrial Fibrillation and Stroke Prevention Clinic, Heart Failure Clinic, Screening and Preventive Cardiology Clinic.

(This article  will also  appear in The Horizon Newspaper, Cameroon, of  Tuesday,June 4,2019)