Cameroon Families Search for Repatriated Migrants

FILE - Cameroonian migrants receive registration forms upon their arrival after spending several months in Libya, at the Yaounde International Airport in Cameroon, Nov.r 22, 2017.

By Moki Kindzeka

YAOUNDE — Families are in search of loved ones among the more than 2,000 Cameroonian migrants who were rescued in Libya and brought back to the central African state by the International Organization for Migration.

    More than 100 Cameroonians cheered and sang the central African country's national anthem upon arrival at the Yaounde-Nsimalen international airport from Libya this week as they were met by family members, curious onlookers and government authorities.

     Children were among the returnees, said social worker Prisca Ndemaya.

 "I have a case of two children, aged between six months and two years old. Their mothers were shot in Libya, and so these children were lucky to come back home safely. After all the preliminary health examinations done on the children, we are going to secure the children at the center for distress children," she said.

     Olive Mboze, a 32-year-old breastfeeding mother, also arrived in Yaounde. She says her husband stayed behind in Algeria, where they had flown from Cameroon with the hope of finding a way to Italy. She discovered she was one month pregnant when she got to the Libyan city of Bayda, so she worked as a housekeeper and reported herself to the police when the pregnancy reached seven months. She says she was charged with illegal immigration and taken to a prison in Bayda, where she delivered her child.

FILE - A Cameroonian nurse gives an injection to a girl arriving with her familly after spending several months in Libya, at the Yaounde International Airport in Cameroon, Nov. 22, 2017.

     Some women who delivered had neither sanitary papers for themselves nor napkins for their babies, Mboze said, and had to cut their dresses into pieces to clean themselves and their newborn babies.

      The migrants looked exhausted. They told stories of torture and murder, and said some people went missing and others were trapped in the desert or at sea.

The International Organization for Migration gives $150 to each of the migrants who return to buy food and gifts for their families.

       A year ago, brothers Henri and Pierre Bekolge returned from Libya and opened a poultry farm in Ahala, on the outskirts of Cameroon's capital, Yaounde, benefiting from $4,000 given to them by the Cameroon government to socially integrate returning migrants.

FILE - A Cameroonian police officer registers the arrival from Libya of a Cameroonian woman and her son at the Yaounde International Airport in Cameroon, Nov. 22, 2017.

     Pierre says his brother, Henri, sold the first chickens and a portion of land they inherited from their parents and left again for Europe through north Africa. Pierre says he is also determined to go to Europe, and is working hard to raise funds to leave Cameroon.

     He says he was unlucky when he arrived in Libya a year ago, and fell in the hands of people who duped him and took his money. Some of his friends, however, say they have found success in Europe and tell him their living conditions have improved. He says he has seen so many people who braved the difficulties, traveled to Europe are now investing back at home, unlike his friends who graduated from university, remained in Cameroon and now share rooms, food and clothing with their family members because they do not have jobs.

     Pierre refused to say when he would leave, but said it was imminent. He said he cannot remain in the poultry business because he is a law graduate from the University of Yaounde.

     Cameroon says families are in search of scores of relatives who have again left the country. Officials say they have been warning citizens about the dangers of irregular travel to Europe and are encouraging Cameroonians to obtain official travel documents and visas.

    Cameroon estimates 120,000 of its citizens are illegal migrants, with most trapped by trafficking rings, or held in Libyan prisons or Italian refugee camps.

Courtesy:VOA

Cameroon: In Defence of the American Ambassador

Rather than castigate the US Ambassador for advising Biya to step down after 36 years in power, Cameroonians should hail Ambassador Barlerin for speaking truth to power. It’s time for Biya to go.

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai, Boston, USA

US Ambassador, Peter Henry Barlerin

    If there ever was any doubt about the abysmal level to which governance or leadership in Cameroon has fallen and how small the minds are in very high places, the utterly reckless and bizarre response to the US Ambassador, Peter Henry Barlerin, for advising President Biya to think about his legacy; a move interpreted by Yaoundé as a call for Biya to step down, is a melodrama which speaks to the intemperate desperation of Cameroon’s vampire elite in their quest for Biya to remain in power, and provide cannon fodder for their bare-face corruption and pillage of the nation’s wealth.
   In a readout after an audience with President Biya at Unity Palace last May 17, the US envoy said: “…the President and I discussed upcoming elections. ‎I suggested to the President that he should be thinking about his legacy and how he wants to be remembered in the history books to be read by generations to come, and proposed that George Washington and Nelson Mandela‎ were excellent models.” While lamenting the absence of dialogue which has escalated the Anglophone crisis, Ambassador Barlerin indicted security forces for “targeted killings, detentions without access to legal support, family, or the Red Cross, and burning and looting of villages.” 
    Jolted by self-righteous indignation and a mundane craving to ingratiate themselves to the corridors of power, gaffing, goofing, dilatory goons, masquerading as intellectuals and opinion leaders; including fifth columnists and sundry regime apologists, took to the airwaves to castigate the Ambassador; casting banal, vituperative aspersions on his person and declaring him, persona non-grata. The bile and vitriol, including the obnoxious threat by one Banda Kani; who on live TV, said Ambassador Barlerin will return to America in a coffin, is a diplomatic sacrilege that does not edify Cameroon as a nation. Cameroon deserves better.
   The impropriety of inflaming primordial sentiments against a resident ambassador is simply mind-boggling and inexcusable. And never again should it happen! The attacks, like the sycophants behind them, are not only pathetic; they are cheap and only reinforce Cameroon’s image as a banana republic with highly dysfunctional institutions where bizarre things can happen. In the event, the civic callousness by self-seeking morons who plumbed the abyss of diplomatic rascality and drag the nation to a hitherto unprecedented low; did a great disservice to the nation. This is a shame and Cameroonians deserve full explanation for this embarrassment.
    On the face of it, there is nothing the Ambassador said that has not been in the domain of public discourse. Images of arrests, torture, executions and burning of Anglophone villages have gone viral on social media. It also does not require a rocket scientist to figure out that Biya is tired. At 85, Biya is far on the left side of the average age of African Presidents which is 63; that’s pension time, or nearing it, in most countries. Put in context, the European equivalent is 55; which is also the average age of American presidents at their inauguration. Since taking office in 1982, Biya has seen five French presidents - Francois Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy, Francois Hollande and Emmanuel Macron. In the same period, Americans have elected six different presidents – Ronald Reagan, George H Bush, Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Biya is also Africa’s oldest president and the second longest- serving ruler; behind Equatorial Guinea’s Obiang Nguema, in power for 38 years.
    The president’s frequent trips abroad for medical tourism continue to fuel speculations about his failing health. Keen observers can determine Biya is showing more wear and tear mostly in the wrinkles on his face; the deterioration in his husky voice; the alleged diapers, uncontrollable flatulence, protracted anal blasts and the declining swagger of his gait as witnessed during official outings when he can barely walk. Biya now cuts the picture of an isolated man, frail, distraught, distracted and completely out of touch. Honestly speaking, to vilify the US Ambassador for advising an 85-year-old president to step down, after 36 years, is a travesty that insults and diminishes even Biya’s own person.
    Beyond the specifics of avuncular admonition and verbal castigation, the assault on Barlerin is nothing more than self-seeking, ignominious, whimsical and disdainful diplomatic brigandage; more so as it transcends the fine line between free speech and hate speech. Those sycophants, who saw Barlerin’s statement as an attack on their power and unearned privileges, must be told in whatever language they understand that Biya, like every mortal, will eventually die but Cameroon will continue to exist! They should therefore critically examine the issue of presidential succession raised rather than waste time venting needless ad hominems in the public space.
      Of course, the reckless behavior of Cameroon’s ruling elite which caused the US envoy to speak truth to power as he did, are well known. A gang of tired old kleptocrats tottering on the borders of senile decay have captured and taken the nation hostage and are stealing the people blind. Cameroon is about the only country in the world where noble minds are ruled by ignoble characters; where thieves get national honors, public servants get paid to steal, and law enforcement officials are venerated for breaking the law. Despite its potential for greatness, Cameroon has aimlessly drifted to become a nation of unimaginable depravity: a forsaken nation ridden with corruption and institutionalized banditry, a people dehumanized by widespread poverty and decrepit infrastructure; and one bedeviled by tribalism, thriving opportunism and heightened insecurity. At the head of the crime syndicate called CPDM, is Paul Biya who cares not one whit about the future of the country; he only wants to be president. Biya has denigrated the presidency, transforming it into a clannish swindle and so far as one can tell, his only visible strategy is just power without a purpose.
 It will take a man and half to end the nation’s drift and Biya’s inability to lead illustrates a poor dimension of presidential stature and the amplification of the absence of leadership example, from a president who has nothing more to offer Cameroonians.
    The point must however be made with emphasis that every nation that respects international law has a duty as well, in its very own interest, to seek the socio-economic and political stability of its host nation. Unlike Franco-Cameroon relations with a parasitic reverse umbilical cord, in which the mother (France) feeds fat on the fetus (Cameroon), US assistance to Cameroon is a one-way traffic. The US is Cameroon’s leading investor, through the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline project. US food assistance since 2016 stands at over $80 million. From 2015 to present, US military aid to Cameroon is $192,417,258; (FCFA 110 bn), according to data from Security Assistance Monitor. Presently, there are over 300 American military personnel and civilian contractors in the Salak military base near Garoua helping the government fight Boko Haram. Through the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the US provides millions of dollars for free anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS patients. American Peace Corps volunteers leave the comfort of their home country to work in the most remote hinterlands, where even Cameroonians refuse to go and work. Cameroon also enjoys preferential trade benefits under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA); exporting goods, tariffs free to the US market. Certainly, antagonizing the USA is a strategic mistake that cannot be in the national interest.
    While some will dismiss the odious, desultory and even comical hubris from the president’s men, the deafening silence of the presidency in the face of the brazen callousness, audacity and debauchment of the US diplomat is an affront to the nation and all Cameroonians must hide their heads in shame, even as they wonder how their government can be so imprudent. 
      If Yaoundé saw anything wrong with the threats to kill the US ambassador, it has taken them too long to make this known! The animus and intemperate verbiage reeking of self-righteous indignation, directed at Ambassador Barlerin, who spoke the minds of a majority of Cameroonians is not the most ideal way to promote friendly relations, which is one of the functions of adroit diplomacy.
     It has also been reasonably argued that Barlerin should not have made public his private discussions with Biya, for doing so suggests bad faith and risked inciting the public against the regime. But even if Barlerin’s statement amounted to interference, contrary to Article 41(1) of the Vienna Convention, a more dignified and mature response would be to resolve the issues diplomatically through the Ministry of External Relations. That is statesmanship.
     If Biya had any sense of patriotism and respect for democracy; if Biya was not so bereft of integrity as to change the constitution to engender his life presidency; if Biya had not gone cap in hand begging for handouts from America and other nations; if Cameroon wasn’t embroiled in governance anomie, surely there would be no reason for foreigners to define terms on which Cameroon should be governed. The fact that Biya has reduced the Anglophone regions to killing fields challenges our common humanity and it would have been a dereliction of duty if Ambassador Barlerin had not called out the Biya regime for the genocide and crimes against humanity.
     Therefore, rather than waste time hurling insults at the US diplomat for speaking truth to power, all patriotic Cameroonians should hail Ambassador Barlerin for acting as a self-imposed moral ombudsman and conscience of a drifting nation. 
      However ill-conceived the Ambassador’s statement might be in content and delivery, it is once again another reminder that history is beckoning on Paul Biya and giving him a chance at winning the battle for both self-redemption and national rebirth. The choice is patently Biya’s to make.

Cameroon Anglophone Crisis: Minister Tasong urges return to normalcy in Lebialem

By Christopher Ambe

The Minister-Delegate in the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Paul Tasong and first ever native of Lebialem to serve as Cabinet minister in President Paul Biya’s 36 -year old rulership, has pleaded with natives of the Division to ignore calls from instigators (an indirect reference to separatists fighting for the Independence of Southern Cameroons) for the division of Cameroon.

   Minister Tasong’s fervent appeal was made ,last Saturday at Buea Mountain Hotel ,during a conclave with Lebialem elites , to examine the current socio-political crisis (Anglophone Crisis)rocking the Southwest Region ,with emphasis on Lebialem.

Minister Paul Tasong speaking to the press

Lebialem is one of the most vocal localities for the restoration of the independence of Anglophones.  Persistent clashes between government’s forces and armed separatists in Lebialem have resulted in several deaths, the burning of houses including that of Minister Paul Tasong and the culturally-rich Azi Palace, as well as kidnappings of government officials.

   Minister Tasong told reporters after the meeting that they met to strategize on how to defuse the tension in the Division, provoked by self-determination rights activists.

    He expressed “our wish to continue to extend the olive branch to the actors of the other side (the separatists), to the youth of Lebialem who in their vulnerability have decided to join the forces of backwardness.

   “We are encouraging the people of our Division who still have faith in the institutions of the republic, who still trust in Republican values to continue in that line because this crisis, like any other, will come to and end. And where shall we be when that day comes?”

    The Minister disclosed that several other meetings will regularly be held, all in a bid to cause life return to normal in Lebialem in particular and Anglophone Cameroon as a whole.

    “We have agreed to carry out specific actions and we already have a roadmap which will guide our actions to look for lasting solutions to the crisis”, the minister said.

    The on-going Anglophone crisis, which now seems to be fast turning into armed conflicts, started in 2016, when Common law lawyers’ and Anglophone teachers’ trade unions were protesting against perceived marginalization and the “Frenchification” of the English way of life.

    What is today called the Northwest and Southwest Regions of Cameroon, used to be UN -British Southern Cameroons, which would gain  its independence on October 11961 by Joining  La Republique Du Cameroun, which had on January 1,1960  got its independence from France.

    The union of the states was supposed to function on the basis of equality of status.

 (This report also appears in The Horizon Newspaper,Cameroon,of June 12,2018)

                                                                                                                                        

Cameroon launches the physical counting of civil servants

Finance Minister Louis Paul Motazé

(Business in Cameroon) - From April to June 2018, Cameroon will proceed to the physical counting of civil servants. According to the finance minister Louis Paul Motazé, this operation will help rationalize the country’s salary expenses.

Indeed, during the operation, all the civil servants who are irregular in the signing of the pay slip because of either an unjustified absence, a resignation or unreported death will be identified and removed from the state’s payroll.

The minister also informs that the operation will be carried out on the whole territory by teams deployed by the ministry at banks, microfinance institutions and the accredited accounting firms. He also reminds that this physical counting is mandatory and every civil servant should participate or lose their salary.  

For the record, this operation has been prescribed by Paul Biya in his circular of June 20, 2017. In that circular, he instructed the physical counting of Cameroon’s civil servants during the 2018 fiscal year because the payroll was about CFA1,000 billion and the exact number of the country’s civil servants could not be determined. Also, in 2017, during an administrative investigation on 14,134 presumed fictitious civil servants, the ministry of public work found that the pay of 2,817 of them had been suspended since January 2016.

Sylvain Andzongo

Nigerian students killed by tree on Cameroon school trip

A falling tree at a wildlife park in northern Cameroon killed three students on a school trip, an official told the country's state radio.

"Following a tornado, a tree fell on to a group" of Nigerian students staying in Bouba Ndjida national park, regional governor Jean Abate Edi'i said.

Sixteen students were also injured and taken to Garoua, the capital of the Northern Region.

The group of 50 students and six staff were on a school trip, according to Cameroon state radio.

The park is known for its elephant population.

In February, six troops and two guides were killed at the park during a clash with heavily-armed poachers on horseback.

Source:AFP

Cameroon’s economy is showing early signs of slowdown, AfDB reveals

(Business in Cameroon) - The African Development Bank reveals that Cameroon, the strongest and most diversified economy in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), has long been resilient to shocks, but its economy is showing early signs of a slowdown.

According to the bank, this is due to the negative impacts of the economic recession in Nigeria, the crude oil crisis which hits CEMAC and the security crisis in the Anglophone region. It is also due to the decline in extractive activities (because of the postponement of investments in extraction and production) as the consequence of lagging oil prices.

Despite this slowdown, AfDB forecasts that the country’s growth will stand at 4.1% and 4.8% in 2018 and in 2019 respectively (a bit behind the average recorded between 2013 and 2015 which is 5.8%).

The bank further reveals that this improvement should be mainly “spurred by higher exports to the European Union following an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and increased energy supply due to new hydroelectric dams. Other tailwinds affecting growth include the development of forestry and agro-industrial value chains, as well as a reduction in imports in favor of local products”.

Brice R. Mbodiam

Anglophone Crisis: Targeting Suspects

By Peter Tacheo

 The Anglophone crisis, which erupted in October 2016, was not intended to be xenophobic attacks by English-minority Cameroonians against their French-majority compatriots.  Both Francophones and Anglophones have co-existed for as long as the Republic of Cameroon has existed.

In fact, the Anglophone crisis is an outburst of decades of pent-up anger by the English-speaking regions (Northwest and Southwest) of Cameroon, against the majority Francophone-led Administration.

 But the battle field is Anglophone Cameroon where deadly clashes between Government forces and armed separatists have been taking place as separatists seek the independence of their supposed country called Ambazonia.

Although not a xenophobic fight per se, some Francophones resident in Anglophone Cameroon have reportedly been threatened with deaths and asked to leave for their safety.

Tangwo Ngueffe G.T

 They are accused- rightly or wrongly- of contributing money to support the Government in its crackdown of Anglophones or of leaking information about the hideouts of the separatists

 A recent case is that of Tangwo Ngueffe Garcial Toscani, who was born in Loum in September 30, 1996, but later moved to Muyuka Subdivision where he was living with relations. Unfortunately for Tangwo, he was accused of leaking information to government forces about separatist fighters in Munyenge, where deadly clashes between government forces and separatists have been recurrent.

 Hinted  of a plan by some unknown men to abduct him, Tangwo and relations escaped. But their residence was reportedly later burnt down. It was not clear who committed the arson.

But the military has been accused of burning houses and villages, suspected to be hideouts for armed separatists while unknown men ,believed to be separatists have attacked and or kidnapped those their consider as the enemy to their struggle for independence.

Many other Francophones especially in Meme and Fako Division, who reportedly received anonymous threats, have also relocated to Francophone Cameroon.

Cameroon’s  Northwest & Southwest regions o were formerly known as UN British Southern Cameroons, which had gained independence from the British on October 1, 1961, by joining with La Republique du Cameroun, for both states to become a federation.

But the federation was abolished in 1972 against the spirit of the federal constitution, which in its 47(1) stated: “Any proposal for the revision of the present constitution which impairs the unity and integrity of the federation shall be inadmissible”.

The country then became United Republic of Cameroun and in 1984 it was renamed   La Republique du Cameroun, the name by which French Cameroon was called when it got independence on January 1, 1960.

 Since the union  of Francophones and Anglophones, the latter have  persistently  complained of  their gross  marginalization, resulting in  the formation of  the  Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC) in 1994 as  a pressure group fighting for  the restoration of Southern Cameroons independence.

But the Cameroon Government has outlawed the SCNC, labeling it as a terrorist group and thus prosecuting members.

The current crisis started when Anglophone teachers and lawyers staged public protests in late 2016 against perceived injustices by the Biya government but the latter rather resorted to repression after a failed dialogue.

Many fear that if the crisis, which has led to the deaths of many-both civilian and solidiers,is not quickly resolved as recommended by international organizations including the UN,it may sooner or later turn into a civil war between Francophones and Anlophones.

Cameroon:Anglophone Activists More at Ease abroad

By Elvis Bichuh

Many English-speaking Cameroonians are now scared of returning home because of what is now known as the Anglophone crisis, which started in November 2016 with lawyers’ and teachers’ protests against perceived marginalization of minority Anglophones by the Majority Francophone-led Government.

   Late last year many Anglophones abroad staged peaceful protests across several countries especially in USA, Britain, South Africa and Belgium to draw attention to the plight of English-speaking minority, who have, for decades, complained of their marginalization in development and appointments in the public service of Cameroon.

   So angry were Anglophones to the extent that those abroad formed an Interim Government (IG) of Ambazonia, a putative country. 

The IG led by Sisiku Julius Ayuk,a computer engineer, had on September 22,2017 mobilized mass protests of English-speaking Cameroonians across the globe to embarrass President Paul Biya who  was addressing  the UN General Assembly same day President Biya was actually giving his speech at the UN,the protest marches were going on simultaneously.

    Undaunted, the IG pushed further by declaring on October1, 2017, the symbolic independence of Southern Cameroons, what today are the Northwest and Southwest Regions(the two English-speaking communities) of Cameroon.    

    The declaration of independence was followed by what was supposed to be peaceful demonstrations in the Northwest and Southwest Regions, but the protests rather turned violent, as there were bloody and deadly confrontations between government forces and the civilian populations. Several civilians were shot dead

   Then on January 5, 2018 came the news of the abduction of Southern Cameroons leading separatists among whom, Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, President of the Interim Government of of Ambazonia.

   Their abduction reportedly by Nigerian state Security and detention in Nigeria instead provoked more protests by pro- Anglophone activists, and attracted condemnation from international rights protection organizations.

   At the moment in Cameroon, there are clashes between Government forces and ‘Ambazonian militia in several communities in Anglophone Cameroon, further fueled by the controversial deportation last January 29 of the arrested Ambazonia ministers to Cameroon. The Cameroon government confirmed the activists were now in judicial custody and considers many Anglophones abroad are discreetly or publicly backing the call for a divided Cameroon.

   The continued fighting between the Ambazonia fighters and government forces has caused not only the deaths of both civilians and soldiers in their numbers, but has forced many civilians to flee to safer localities and to neighboring Nigeria.

   According to the UNHCR, thousands of English-speaking Cameroonians are now in Nigeria for asylum; many others have been internally displaced.

Stories abound of Anglophone Cameroonians in the Diaspora who have visited Cameroon during this crisis passing through difficulty and torturing moments.

Franklin Forbinake Aroke

    Consider the case of Franklin Forbinake Aroke, now a fleeing SCNC activist, who had suffered in the hands of security agents in Buea, capital of Southwest Region of Cameroon, which town is also claimed by Anglophone activists to be the headquarters of Ambazonia.

    The activist told this reporter in a telephone chat, how he has gone through hell but vowed: “We shall continue fighting for the independence of Southern Cameroons aka Ambazonia no matter the torture inflicted on us and no matter where we find ourselves until self-determination is ours”

    Now an ex-student of NASPW Buea, Forbinake Aroke is said to have encouraged minority rights activism while as a student, thus having problems with the local administration.

    He  travelled abroad in 2017 ,but returned to Cameroon early January this year and on January 13  he was confronted by police in Fako over videos of Ambazonia’ protests discovered in his android phone.

“I must thank God that I was smuggled out of detention. I see this as a miracle especially as many others are languishing in jail” he said. “Now that I am out of danger, I can only keep thanking God. My family does not yet know my whereabouts”

   The SCNC, together with the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society consortium(CACSC), was outlawed in Cameroon by the Minister of Territorial Administration on January 17,2017,on grounds that it was instigating calls for the independence of Southern Cameroons even when President Paul Biya has been  insisting  that Cameroon is “one and indivisible”

   With the ban on SCNC and similar groups their supporters are at risk of  being molested, tortured and prosecuted in Cameroon, especially as the Anglophone crisis persists.