For the second time in about a month, Cameroon is investigating video footage that Amnesty International said shows Cameroon security forces executing unarmed people in the country’s Far North region.
On Friday, the human rights group said its experts have analyzed footage that appears to show “Cameroonian security forces shooting at least a dozen unarmed people” in the village of Achigaya sometime before May 2016.
Regional violence in Cameroon has stretched on for 18 months, and the United Nations is saying ‘enough’. UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein recently demanded the Cameroonian government launch an independent investigation on human rights abuses by State forces.
English-speakers in western Cameroon are vying for autonomy, since they feel underrepresented by the government. But when separatists started protesting, French-speaking State forces lashed out with brutal force.
Since then, people in Anglophone regions have suffered attacks, random shootings, and rape. Soldiers have burned down entire villages — sometimes with family members still inside their homes.
Efi Tembon, the Executive Director of the Cameroon Association for Bible Translation and Literacy (CABTAL), a partner of Wycliffe Associates, shares, “More than 2,000 people have been killed so far since this started, and more than 170 villages have been burned, and more than 200,000 people are displaced, and more than 100,000 people are refugees in Nigeria.”
Along with condemnation from the UN, Tembon is hoping for United States involvement and enforced accountability for the Cameroonian government.
“We started a campaign here with the US Congress. The US government has been supporting the Cameroon military, providing training, providing material support. This provision was for the fight against Boko Haram. It was well-intentioned, but you know with good intentions, sometimes they have unintended consequences. These are being used now to fight against the…people,” says Tembon.
“We think the US has leverage, has some influence to be able to help…. We are calling on others to write to their senators, to write to their representatives to be aware of this situation so something can be done [and] mediation can take place so peace can return.”
We previously shared how violence in western Cameroon is also causing problems for CABTAL’s Bible translators. The impact on their ministry is still growing.
“In the area where these atrocities are going on, we have 38 language projects where we are doing translation or helping communities in the area of Scripture impact. All of them have been affected right now and more than 400 translation personnel in these communities are affected — many of them [are] displaced, many [are] hiding in the bushes, and in some communities, translation has stopped.”
Tembon says churches have also been caught in the crosshairs. “Some pastors have been killed and churches have been taken over by the military, [who is] using some churches as a military base.”
In some villages, CABTAL lost touch with Bible translators who fled. They are still trying to make contact and help, especially because every day in the bush presents new risks.
“There are more people dying in the bushes than [who] are even being killed by bullets because they have no access to medical care. They are sick with malaria,…children are dying of malnutrition, [and] they don’t have any food.”
What’s worse “Some of them have nothing to go back to,” Tembon says. “Their homes have been burned, family members killed, they are living in bushes without food, no clothing, no basic needs, [and] exposed to all kinds of danger.”
Currently, Wycliffe Associates is raising funds to provide emergency protection for displaced Bible translators from western Cameroon and replace translation equipment. Even though the raging violence is a severe challenge, Wycliffe Associates, CABTAL, and their local volunteers are determined to get God’s Word to those who need Christ’s truth and hope — especially now.
Tembon says Cameroonians and our Christian brothers and sisters urgently need your prayer support as well.
“Some have turned to God, praying to God; others have turned to African Traditional Religion and [are] looking…to find a solution, to find help. [Pray] that this will cause people to turn to the Lord and cry out to Him.
“Pray for the Church in Cameroon. God knows what is going on. All of this doesn’t take Him by surprise. [Pray] that we would be able to come back to the Lord and repent as a Church in that country.”
“Also, pray that the root causes of this problem will be solved. These people need freedom…. They have been like second-class citizens for 57 years and it reached a breaking point where it just boiled out of control. [Pray] that that root problem will be solved so that we will not see a recurrence of violence.”
Source: Mission Network News
PRESS RELEASE.
Fellow SCNC Members, Dear Southern Cameroonians,
Following the convening of an SCNC International Convention in Geneva, Switzerland on the 20/04/2018,
Bearing in mind the re-enforcement ban on the SCNC and its activities by the colonial regime of La Republique du Cameroun on 17/01/2017,
Following the heavy crack down on SCNC members and subsequent abductions of the National Chairman Dr.Nfor Ngalla Nfor and the National Secretary Mr.Divine Yuyun,
And on the recommendations of SCNC Local County Heads and SCNC World leaders, the activities and functioning of the SCNC is hereby moved overseas to the management of an Interim Executive Team elected and voted by the different countries National Chairman’s representatives.
This is to ensure the continuous and smooth functioning of the SCNC.
SCNC NATIONAL INTERIM EXECUTIVE TEAM.
NATIONAL CORDINATORS IN HOMELAND.
Done in Switzerland, This 01st Day of August 2018.
Prosper N.Tabong
Chairperson for Switzerland.
National Acting Comm. Secretary
Directorate of Criminal Investigations director George Kinoti has ignored a court order and rearrested a Cameroonian national who was deported from the country last year but managed to find his way back.
Doctta Peter Longa, who was deported last year and declared persona non grata in Kenya was arrested two weeks ago in Nairobi and released on a Ksh.50,000 cash bail by a Nairobi court.
Mr. Kinoti, who says Longa is linked to a spate of criminal activities including; gun running, human trafficking and money laundering ordered for his re-arrest and deportation.
“We are not going to allow criminals to operate in Kenya, Longa has been involved in a series of criminal activities in various countries,” Kinoti said.
The spy boss says Longa was arrested two weeks ago after detectives intercepted him on Enterprise Road in Nairobi.
“We got information that the suspect had sneaked into Kenya through panya routes and immediately began tracking him down. On July 20, 2018, my undercover detectives intercepted Longa in Nairobi,” Kinoti added.
Longa was taken to court and charged with being in Kenya illegally and engaging in criminal activities. He denied the charges and was released on a cash bail of Ksh.50,000.
Last year, Longa was arrested in his Karen home where police seized fake US dollars worth over Ksh.1 billion. “How can court release such a dangerous character with Ksh.50,000 cash bail? This person was declared persona non grata in 2017 and deported to Duala, Cameroon. We will not allow him to commit crimes in Kenya,” added Kinoti.
The DCI boss insists Longa will remain in police custody as preparations to deport him are concluded.
Source: Citizentv
WOMEN under the auspices of Women Advancement for Economic and Leadership Empowerment in Africa, WAELE, plan to assist 160, 000 families affected by crisis in English speaking part of Cameroon. This was disclosed by the Coordinator, WAELE Cameroon, Beatrice Fonkem, while speaking on a three year strategic plan by the organization to add value on the lives of women in Cameroon. Fonkem told Vanguard that there was cholera outbreak in Northern Cameroon, where the crisis has been on as a result of lack of access to safe drinking water and other pollutions the people are facing including malnourishment.
She said: “Over 160, 000 families are displaced in English speaking Cameroon due to the crisis in that part of the country according to the media. The human rights commission in the country has also confirmed the number. There is also cholera outbreak now in the affected part of the country. “We are planning first of all to meet those women and children who have ran out of their houses either because their villages were burnt or because they are afraid of guns or afraid being shot by guns and they have ran to the forest and they don’t have medical help and food as they now live in the forest for refuge.
“Some of them have built huts with barks of trees and grasses they live in. This is also raining season which most of them are under the cold and are not finding it easy. They eat what is available like wild fruits and others because food is difficult to get to them. “We are planning to locate most of these women and their families that have been displaced. Our intention is to look for medications and food items in order to give them where they are. It is because most of them cannot return to their villages and this is part of our strategic plan for three years to come. “We are going to send out our officials to locate them at the different places they have run to for safety, and then we will deploy men and materials to reach them.”
She further stated that WAELE will partner other relevant humanitarian organizations in Cameroon to reach out to internally displaced persons and those who have fled the country to neighbouring Nigeria to assist them with relief materials. “We will reach international humanitarian organizations including the Red Cross and other organizations to partner with them to reach the internally displaced persons”, she said.
www.vanguardngr.com
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Nigeria, has expressed sadness over the death of eight Cameroonian refugees in Ikom, Cross River.
Elizabeth Mpimbiza, Senior External Relations Officer, UNHCR, Nigeria, made this known in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.
She said that the information communicated to UNCHR in Ikom showed that the refugees died of fumes from a generator in their room.
Ms Mpimbiza quoted Boubacar Bamba, UNHCR Assistant Representative, Operations in Nigeria, as describing the incidence as a “tragedy.”
Mr Bamba said that the UNHCR was saddened by the loss of lives.
“Any loss of life is a tragedy, and it is heart-breaking when it happens to those who are fleeing for safety,” Mr Bamba said.
Ms Mpimbiza said that UNHCR, through its office in Ikom, was working with the authorities to assist those who survived the incident.
The refugees were those fleeing Cameroon in the wake of violence in September 2017 and sought refuge in Nigeria’s Cross River, Taraba, Benue and Akwa-Ibom states.
Ms Mpimbiza said that 21,291 refugees had so far been registered in the four states, adding that women and children accounted for 80 per cent of the refugees.
(NAN)
The Governor of Nigeria’s Cross River State Ben Ayade has said that the crisis in Southern Cameroons is threatening the internal security of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as both parties in the war have been smuggling arms through his state.
Speaking during an emergency security meeting in the Cross River State, Governor Ayade accused both the Ambazonia separatist fighters and the government of Cameroon of smuggling goods and arms through 27 illegal routes in Nigeria.
“Let me bring to the knowledge of the people of Cross River and indeed Nigerians that 80 percent of security issues we are dealing with is a as result of the war just by our borders,” Ben Ayade said.
There is an “influx of persons into Nigeria through over 27 illegal routes, who smuggle in goods of different kinds, sell them and use the money to acquire arms, recruit our young men and women and use them as machineries,” Governor Ayade added.
He appealed to the Nigerian government to assist Cross River State in confronting the security challenges facing Nigeria that came with the influx of Southern Cameroonian refugees.
“I will not hesitate to cry out that Cross River State has been left hanging and crying in this crisis. Aside from the humanitarian effort in addressing the issues in food security in the refugee camps and the communal skirmishes, the state has not received any special incentives knowing that a war at your backyard is a war in your house’.
Culled from Journal du Cameroun with additions by Sama Ernest
Over 160 prisoners have escaped from jail in Cameroon’s north-west region following an attack on the facility by armed men suspected to be separatists.
According to state media CRTV, the overnight attack on the Ndop prisons was two-pronged. The attackers are said to have lit a fire amid the use of gun fire.
“More than 160 prisoners from Ndop prison (North West) fled” after the attack on the penitentiary where they were burnt by an armed group, a source close to the regional authorities said.
William Benedict Emvoutu Mbita, head of the department of Ngoketunjia where Ndop is located confirmed that some escapees had voluntarily returned and were due to be transferred to the regional capital, Bamenda.The attackers who “fired from everywhere”, were able to “break the gates of the prison” before “setting fire to all the buildings,“he added, stressing that they had brought fuel to cause the fire.
He further disclosed that operations were underway to find the other escapees. This is the first time since the outbreak of the Anglophone crisis in late 2016 that such a large number of prisoners manage to escape following the attack on a prison.
Source: Africa News
Ever since Acting President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe declared an independent ‘Ambazonia’ state in southern Cameroon, tens of thousands have fled violence into Nigeria and relief workers are struggling to keep up.
Relief workers in southern Nigeria are struggling to cope with a new wave of refugees fleeing Cameroon.
Fighting began in October when Southern Cameroonians declared an independent state they call “Ambazonia” which was formerly known as British Southern Cameroons.
Since the fighting started, an estimated 30,000 have been crossing the border into Nigeria and more arriving as the violence continues.
Culled from Aljazeera
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Nigeria is to embark upon a campaign on various campuses in Nigeria calling for the immediate release of the six academics deported by the Nigerian government to Cameroon in January.
Since their deportation by military aircraft to Yaoundé on 24 January together with 47 others, followed quickly by news reports announcing they were to appear in court in Cameroon on charges of terrorism, there has been no sign of the detainees. Attempts in May by their legal representative Abdul Oroh to find them in Yaounde also produced nothing.
In an exclusive interview with University World News, barrister Oroh, who is representing the detainees at the bequest of their families, confirmed that those forcefully deported from Nigeria were members of a political organisation demanding reform of Cameroon’s Constitution with a view to returning the country to genuine federalism.
Such an arrangement would give Francophone and Anglophone components equal status. It would also give equal recognition to French and English Languages.
“This liberal reform is what the central government of Cameroun is equating to terrorism. My clients are peace-loving gentle men and women. We would do everything legally possible to secure their immediate release so that they can go back to their campuses and resume their teaching and research work,” he said.
‘Fearless scholars’
Dr Baiyah Quodus, an academic in the Economics Department of Ado Bayero University, Kano, said he knew some of the expelled academics and described them as “fearless scholars and sound intellectuals who have contributed to the academic development of Nigeria”.
Professor Akintan Onileara of the Philosophy Department at Obafemi Awolowo University said he knew two of the expelled lecturers. “They are hard-working teachers, Pan-Africanist and unrepentant promoters of African Development. At conferences and seminars, they kept reminding all of us about the need for Africa to invest in education and vocational training.
They never hid their sadness over the poor human rights records in Cameroon and elsewhere on the African continent.”
Dr Ekong Akpan of the Philosophy Department at the University of Uyo said he knew three of those detained and some of them had been married to Nigerians and living in Nigeria for more than 29 years. “So, Nigeria has committed a crime against her own citizens,” he said. “More worrisome is the fact that Nigeria has no extradition treaty with Cameroon. This has added another dimension to the injustice and disrespect for international law.”
Seeking to travel to Yaounde in search of the academics and out of concern for their health and safety, Orah and his colleague Femi Falana approached the Cameroonian High Commission in Abuja earlier this year.
“We were armed with a letter for such visit. We met with the High Commissioner, Ambassador Ibrahim Salaudeen, who received us warmly and promised that he would transmit our request to Yaoundé and that we would surely get a reply,” Oroh said.
After waiting for four weeks without a reply from the Ambassador, Oroh flew to Cameroon on 14 May 2018 accompanied by a bilingual Nigerian journalist who had previously worked in Yaoundé.
“We spent five days in Yaounde visiting the ministries of justice, foreign affairs and the headquarters of Cameroon’s Human Rights Commission. Those we talked to could not confirm or indicate the whereabouts of our clients,” he said.
Safety concerns
The two men left the country without meeting the detainees and without establishing their safety. Oroh said if the detained lecturers were not sent for trial, their safety could not be guaranteed. “I sincerely hope that they would be released as soon as possible,” he said.
According to diplomatic sources in Abuja, the United Nations High Commission in Charge of Refugees and Amnesty international is pressuring leaders of Western democracies to ensure that these detained university teachers are released as soon as possible and sent on voluntary exile to countries of their choice.
According to Dr Adewale Suenu, Accademic Staff Union of Universities secretary based at Lagos State University, the union is shortly to commence a campaign on various campuses in Nigeria appealing to both the Nigerian and Cameroonian government to effect the immediate release of the university teachers.
Meanwhile, university teachers on various campuses, including Professor Bissong Harstrop of the Law Faculty at the University of Calabar, say the deportation is a clear violation of human rights. “The unlawful repatriation of lawful persons is a clear case of rights violation,” said Harstrop.
Dr Abdullahi Ango from the Psychology Department at Ado Bayero University, Kano compared the expulsion of the academics to the similar treatment of Professor Patrick Wilmot in the 1980s. Wilmot was a sociologist working at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
“He was expelled for reasons we are yet to be told. We should note that the sudden arrest and illegal repatriation of these university teachers of Cameroonian nationality is against the fundamental human rights to which Nigeria is a signatory,” said Ango.
Unclear rationale
Professor Richard Anselm of the Sociology Department in Umaru Musa Yar Adua University, Katsina, noted that the rationale behind the repatriation of the academics was unclear and called on civil rights organisations and movements in both Nigeria and Cameroun “to rise up and defend these university teachers”.
Dr Schwarnang Ankhol Law Faculty, University of Jos accused the Nigerian government of contravening the basic tenets of ECOWAS, which supports free movement of citizens to work and reside anywhere within West Africa. “The Nigerian government must be made to realise that she has a duty to protect the rights of all foreign residents working and residing in Nigeria,” he said.
Dr Ahmed Akwanga of the Political Science Department at Benue State University, Makurdi, urged ASUU to take up the matter urgently, while a number of other academics canvassed noted the fact that the deportations were in in violation of human rights.
Professor Ishaq Bawwana from Afe Balola University’s Criminology Department, for example, said both Nigeria and Cameroon should be reported to ECOWAS and the African Union’s Human Rights Commissions for violation of the individuals’ rights.
Professor Sheriff Ikhman, based at the Law Faculty at the University of Maiduguri, called on Amnesty International to intervene.
Source: University World News
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