Tiko has recorded a 100% success rate after it observed a complete school lock down and ghost town
Tiko has recorded a 100% success rate after it observed a complete school lock down and ghost town.
Headline News
From Ghost town to Ghost town: The essence of a new Anglophone nationalism
Since 2016 Southern Cameroons has been experiencing a wave of anti-government protests unleashed by hatred for the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime. Anglophone Cameroonians say Francophones have taken over their country and were systematically destroying their Anglo-Saxon heritage. Many people have been killed in Kumba, Bamenda, Buea and Kumbo.
Anti-government demonstrations rocked the Universities of Buea and Bamenda. It was followed by an industrial action staged by Common Law Lawyers and the Anglophone Teachers Trade Unions. Thousands of demonstrators went on to the streets calling on the Yaounde regime to embrace political reform and to stop killing protesters. Southern Cameroonians also demanded the release of all those arrested and respect for justice and the rule of law. However, the response from the Francophone dominated security forces, which used live ammunition against protesters, led to the death of many unarmed people.
Although the government security apparatus reported that the demonstrations had been contained and the 83 year Head of State described the protesters as “extremist and manipulators”, the current political situation in British Southern Cameroons has become volatile. Our intelligence officers have all reported that things are fast changing and developments have become increasingly unpredictable. The leaders of the various trade unions have metamorphosed into a consortium and are said to be busy devising alternative methods of protest that range from weakening the Francophone government institutions through staying at home and not operating businesses to organizing a Diaspora-based grand solidarity rally. The ghost town being observe today in Southern Cameroons has so far been a huge success.
Some conclusions could be drawn following the failure on the part of the Francophone government to halt the ghost town operation. Firstly, these new generations of Anglophones have lost faith in the ONE Cameroun concept. Secondly, the so-called Anglophone political elites militating with the ruling CPDM party no longer have legitimate authority in Southern Cameroons. And thirdly, Cameroon as a nation has entered its last journey of many dangers.
In Mamfe, a town that hosted the 1953 Conference after the Eastern Regional Crisis at Enugu which eventually paved the way for reunification, Southern Cameroonians refused to sing the national anthem. To be sure, Manyu Division has shut down completely today Monday the 9th of January in support of the Anglophone nationalism. In Mundemba, even the lame and the blind joined in anti La Republique protest. In Kumba, Buea, Bamenda and Kumbo where the first demonstrations took place, residents have resorted to a new mode of protest – staying at home. The streets of all major towns and cities in Southern Cameroons are now deserted and workers are staying at home and business remained closed.
We of the Cameroon Concord News Group understand that Southern Cameroonians have opted for this type of protest because their leaders demanded an answer from the Francophone government, but the response was one of bullets in return. This peaceful ghost town method of protest demonstrates a complete rejection of the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime by Southern Cameroonians. The ghost town protest is an indication of the increasing maturity of the leaders of the Consortium.
The Yaounde regime is planning to blocked internet connection and access to social media tools. But some experts have argued that this may attract the use of proxy servers. Cameroun’s Minister of Communications and government spokesman has repeatedly claimed that that social media had been used to churn out false information, mostly seditious remarks, trying to agitate people against security forces. There are growing numbers of Anglophone news websites all supporting the creation of a Southern Cameroons state.
Cameroon government receives billions of dollars annually from international donors and has remained a key strategic partner of the West, particularly the US and the French, in the ‘war against Boko Haram terror. This financial support has been toughening the regime’s resolve to silence Anglophone dissenting voices. The French and the US approach of tiptoeing around human right violations in Cameroun and its continued support for the Biya regime has been stirring up anger among even Francophone sections of the country. The US, the EU including the Roman Catholic Church are supporting a regime – which they know is clearly undemocratic and is the very cause of the state terrorism we now observe in Southern Cameroons.
Ever since the police atrocities in Bamenda, Buea Kumba and Kumbo, no pressure has been put on the regime to allow for credible investigation into the rapes and killings. Not a single UN official has demanded access to visit the affected areas to establish what really happened in Southern Cameroons. Minister Issa Tchiroma is always ready to inform international public opinion that the government has its own system of checks and balances and that Cameroun’s own Human Rights Commission was doing its job in investigating and publicizing the human rights situation in the country.
The regime supported by Anglophones such as Ghogomu Paul Minglo is still in denial of the injustice its policies have resulted in. With the success of today’s ghost town, President Biya now has the opportunity to change La Republique’s approach – otherwise if the situation is left to fester, there will be more outbursts, more unrest, more protests and perhaps more violence.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
Editor-in-Chief
Cameroon Concord News Group
Ndop: Minister of Secondary Education jeered and ordered to sit down for delivering speech in French
The people of Ndop in Ngoketunjia Division, North West region have reportedly jeered at the Minister of Secondary Education, Jean Ernest Massena Ngale Bibehe yesterday Sunday January 8, 2017 during a working visit to the region as part of measures to lure teachers, students and pupils get back to school this Monday.
In a crisis meeting held in Ndop, the people threatened to walk out of the gathering as soon as the minister started delivering his speech in French. The Secondary education boss was compelled to speak in English for close to thirty minutes after the people pressed on him to do so. After addressing the people in English Jean Ernest Bibehe begged for permission and read his speech in French which was interpreted in English by the Regional Delegate for secondary Education Mombakuet Victor.
The minister who has a one week mission to the North West region has been moving from one town to the other trying to lure stakeholders to give go ahead with school resumption activities today Monday. The minister met with leaders of trade unions in Bamenda in which he is said to have been on bended knees for them to call off the strike action. The Bamenda meeting did not yield fruits.
Culled from Cameroon Concord News
Manyu shuts down as Southern Cameroons begins massive civil disobedience campaign
In one of the largest civil disobedience campaign launched by the Consortium, hundreds of thousands of parents, students and Southern Cameroons business community are taken part in an Anglophone boycott of all public and private school system reopening activity to demonstrate their support for the full integration of the Anglo-Saxon educational and political values inherited from our British colonial master.
The idea for a boycott began in the early 1990s, when leaders in the Union for Change attempted to oust the 83 year old Cameroonian dictator. Today ghost town operations have return, this time around only in Southern Cameroons. Cameroon Common Law Lawyers and Anglophone Teachers Trade Unions have brought parents, teachers, local civil rights activists including the business community together in a coalition called the Consortium.
The organization’s sole objective is to restore the Anglophone political and educational structure as was stated in the 1961 federal structure and to render the English speaking imbalance of Anglophone Cameroonians in schools and universities in Cameroun. After years of unsuccessful lobbying and deliberate silence, the new generation Anglophone leaders decided to take direct action against the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime.
Southern Cameroonians have been called to organize a one-day protest and boycott of schools all over the Anglophone territory, but it is now evident, the strikes will continue indefinitely. With the boycott already achieving great success contrary to what Francophone surrogates like the Senior Divisional Officer for Manyu Division announced earlier this morning over state radio and television, the response from parents and students in Mamfe communities has been overwhelming as thousands of students have refused to attend their respective schools today. (Picture of GHS Mamfe taken some 15 minutes ago)
By Sonne Peter with files from Tabe Carvalho Ako
Apostolic Nuncio turns a blind eye to human rights in the name of Church politics
Ambassadors, High Commissioners, Representatives of International Organizations and other foreign dignitaries accredited to Yaounde have presented best wishes of the New Year 2017 to the Cameroonian dictator, President Paul Biya. The ceremony that took place at the Unity Palace started with a speech delivered by the Apostolic Nuncio, Mgr Piorro Piopo in his capacity as Dean of the Diplomatic Corps. The Dean made an analysis of the just ended year which he revealed was rich in activities.
The Vatican ambassador to Yaoundé and Malabo cited the visits of a number of world leaders to Cameroon, including the Head of States of Italy in May 2016, that of Chad in October, the leaders of Senegal, Nigeria and those of Central African Sub region. Mentioned was also made of the Director General of the International Monetary Fund who visited Cameroon twice last year.
The Dean ignored the rapes and ritual killings and the numerous human rights violations going on in the country and instead saluted the dubious approach of dialogue and concerted action to tackle major issues incarnated by President Biya.
Culled from Cameroon Concord News
Biya secretly orders the release of all Anglophone detainees
Biya has secretly requested the release of all Southern Cameroon detainees in order to facilitate the work of the so-called Ad Hoc Committee. The dictator has reportedly given standing orders to the judges at the military tribunal to free the protesters latest tomorrow Monday. CIR has learnt from reliable sources that the process will begin late today in Yaounde . Anglophone teachers and lawyers whose strike is at the origin of the troubles that rocked the Anglophone part of Cameroon had laid down conditions for dialogue with the Francophone regime in Yaounde.
Among these conditions is the release of all protesters arrested during the riots of 9 December 2016 in Bamenda and 15 December 2016 in Kumba. Of the 54 people (including 3 minors) arrested, Cameroon government spokesman and minister of communication, Issa Tchiroma observed that 13 had been released.
After a Francophone led investigations, the Yaounde military tribunal decided to keep 41 suspects in Yaoundé in preventive detention. In order to save the school year in the South West and North-West Regions, and to allow a resumption of negotiations with the Anglophone leaders, the Francophone Government has decided to release the protesters arrested and transferred to Yaoundé.
Our senior political analyst opined that the Anglophone leaders have reached a point of no return and will not make any concession to the Biya administration as the figures put forward by Minister Issa Tchiroma were not complete because there were other children like some students from the University of Buea who are missing. However, since the minister’s statement, there have been meetings that have resulted in disagreements.
At the time of filing this report, the Consortium confirmed that the ghost town operation including the closure of all schools in Southern Cameroons will go on as announced tomorrow the 9th of January.
By Sama Ernest
Father of Yannich Noah dies in Yaounde
It’s no longer a hoax! Zacharie Noah is dead. He left this world around 4 am this Sunday, January 8, 2017 from the aftermath of an illness age 79 years. His remains have been kept in the Yaounde General Hospital mortuary. Last month, state radio and television had reported falsely about the death of the former defender of the Stade Saint-Germain football team in France.
Zacharie Noah was the father of tennis player Yannick Noah, champion of Roland Garros in 1983, made his last public appearance less than three weeks ago when he took part in the ceremony of giving the first-trimester school reports to students Of the La Marfée school in Yaoundé.
CIN
Ivory Coast: Defense Minister released by a group of mutinous troops
Ivory Coast’s Defense Minister Alain Richard Donwahi has been released after being held hostage by a group of mutinous troops in Bouake. According to an AFP photographer on Sunday, Donwahi and his team left the city where they had been negotiating a deal aimed at halting a two-day mutiny sparked by soldiers demanding bonuses, pay rises, housing, and swifter promotion.
Before the hostage taking situation, President Alassane Ouattara announced that a deal had been made between both sides after Donwahi met with a group of the soldiers. Ouattara refrained from giving the exact details of the deal but said it took into account “the demands relating to bonuses and improving the living conditions of soldiers.” “Having given my agreement, I ask all soldiers to go back to their barracks to allow decisions to be carried out calmly,” he added.
But near the end of the meeting the troops rejected the deal and started to fire their guns outside the offices where the talks were being held to stop the minister and his team from leaving. Heavy fighting and gunfire exchanges broke out early on Saturday near the key military camp in the city of nearly half a million inhabitants, where angry soldiers and military officers started a revolt a day earlier. Most of those involved in the armed revolt are reportedly former rebels who were later integrated into the nation’s army.
The United Nations has dispatched soldiers to Bouake in a bid to defuse the situation, but they were forced to wait in a line along with hundreds of stranded vehicles and trucks whose passage to the city was blocked by the mutinous soldiers.
Bouake was the stronghold of another uprising that began in Ivory Coast in 2002. The rebel forces controlled the northern half of the country until Bouake was reunited following the second Ivorian civil war in 2011.
Presstv
Ghana: New president sworn in after defeating incumbent
Ghana’s new president, Nana Akufo-Addo, has been sworn in after defeating incumbent John Dramani Mahama in last month’s peaceful elections. On January 7, thousands of officials and guests from across Africa watched Akufo-Addo taking the oath of office at the Independence Square in central Accra, Ghana’s capital. He won the December 7 election on his third run for office.
International dignitaries, including Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Chadian President Idris Deby, and former UN chief Kofi Annan attended the swearing-in ceremony. During the ceremony, Akufo-Addo, 72, a former human rights lawyer vowed to revive Ghana’s economy by reducing taxes and opening new businesses and factories.
He has also promised to “protect and defend” the Constitution of Ghana and to never disappoint his people. “I will not let you, the people of Ghana, down,” Akufo-Addo, 72, wrote on his Twitter feed just after taking office. The latest transition of power took place in the wake of Ghanaians’ deep frustration with the country’s economic management.
In the run-up to the election, Akufo-Addo had blamed Mahama for the economic slump which led to an International Monetary Fund bailout. Mahama, however, denied the charges and declared that the government was facing “strong headwinds” at the time which entailed slow growth, rise of public sector debt and the sinking currency.
In a farewell address, however, Mahama encouraged Ghanaians to support Akufo-Addo as his successor. Akufo-Addo is forced to stick to the International Monetary Fund’s two-year austerity plan introduced in 2015 for a bailout as the country faced inflation and high debt. Akufo-Addo is a major exporter of cocoa and gold. Ghana is the world’s second-largest producer of cocoa and Africa’s second biggest gold producer after South Africa. Ghana’s economic growth is expected to return to above eight percent in 2017.
Presstv
School closures and ghost town to go ahead in Southern Cameroons
The ghost town operation and the industrial action by the Consortium of Southern Cameroons teachers and lawyers will go ahead after last ditch talks with the Professor Ghogomu Paul Minglo so-called Ad hoc Committee end without agreement.
Consortium leaders have called on Southern Cameroonians to massively observe a ghost town for tomorrow Monday the 9th of January 2017. The leaders have also promised to extend the strike action indefinitely if their demands are not met by the Francophone government. Schools around the Southern Cameroons nation will be closed tomorrow.
Cameroon Concord News gathered that both sides have agreed that talks will continue and further contacts will take place with a view to arranging more talks next week. Speaking after yesterday’s discussions, the Anglophone leaders said that large differences remain and progress has been slow, “almost static I would say” hinted Barrister Agbor Balla.
He added that the shutting of schools is the Consortium’s decision. The Gogomu Paul Committee earlier issued a circular to school principals dealing with the implications of the ghost town operation scheduled by the Consortium calling on schools to reopen on Monday the 9th.
The Anglophone leaders described the move as very provocative and reiterated that the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime no longer has legitimate authority in Southern Cameroons. Roman Catholic Education Secretaries including those of the Baptist and Presbyterian churches have all described it as a normal approach if teachers withdraw from core duties until the Anglophone issues are resolve. Wilfred Tassang noted that the action is going ahead because there is no offer on the table from the Yaounde regime.
Culled from Cameroon Concord News