Prime Minister Philemon Yang has reportedly held a meeting following the events in Bamenda, capital of the North West region. The Head of Government met in a close session on Sunday the 4^th of December 2016 with a segment of some prominent leaders from the North West Region.

The meeting which grouped some elites, Senators, Parliamentarians and other top government officials from the region, was organized following the recent street protests.

The end of discussion was sanctioned by a communiqué calling for peace and resumption of classes. The signatories assured the population that government has taken note of the problems raised by the protesters and that appropriate measures shall be put in place incessantly.

CRTV

From All Anglophone Teacher Trade Unions

To

All Anglophone Cameroon Parents &Guardians

Dear all,

We have once more noted that the authorities in Yaoundé care very little about native NW/SW children.

While we are crying and denouncing the destruction of our children for close to fifty years, Yaoundé is scheming and hatching plots and plans to complete the destruction.

What does the Head of State mean by bilingual science and technical teachers?

Where and when were they trained?

Where did they do secondary education?

Our people, this is not the sign we asked government to show us as evidence of its commitment to solve the education issues we tabled. We see this as a wicked attempt at piercing an ulcer. A man does not solve a problem that he does not recognize. Yaoundé has failed to acknowledge the problem. The unions and teachers who suffer the most when our learners are turned into slaves have unanimously rejected Yaoundé’s bilingual teachers offer.

We have requested that the 2billions should cease from being an announcement to a solution and that recruitment of bilingual teachers be corrected to read “recruitment of indigenes of NW/SW regions to be trained in the higher teacher training colleges of Bambili and Kumba”. Note that 1000 is an insignificant number. How many of them will be French teachers to enable our colleges to have just 1 per school? Ndian division has only 07 French teachers for 25 colleges. How many will be physics teachers etc?

Dear people, we have come this far.  If we retreat now without government’s commitment to solve the problem, then we have auctioned our children. Mine are not for sale. Am sure yours are not. I love my children. Am sure you love yours too and perhaps even more. Together therefore, let us stand up for them.

The teachers and students strike enters week three on Monday Dec 5th. Let us make it work. We are very close to the solution. God bless and prosper our children.

Bamenda, Dec 3rd 2016.

For the unions,

Tassang Wilfred,

NESG CATTU.

Anglophone teachers have kicked against the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government’s recent move to end the lingering strike by the teachers, saying that no amount of coercion will make them return to work unless the contentious issue of the bi-cultural nature of the country’s education system is satisfactorily resolved.

Speaking on the so-called Prime Minister Yang Philemon’s proposal to end the strike, the teachers trade unions have issued a statement saying  that the government was making moves to engage those they described as thugs to masquerade  themselves as 1000 bilingual teachers in order to open schools in British Southern Cameroons.

Describing the move as an exercise in futility, the teacher’s trade unions have rejected the proposal from the Prime Minister because the proposal was not time structured and many issues were not specific. BBC’s Randy Joe who had a conversation with one of our intelligence officers in Yaoundé today opined that the Biya proposal did not offer anything to the Anglophones.

The Anglophone teacher’s communique observe with dismay, the CPDM government’s unwillingness to address the Anglophone problem but rather chose to indulge in blackmail, propaganda and looking for scapegoats. The press release stressed that the Anglophone teachers union’s stand still remains the same.

One of the teachers who spoke to CIR but sued for anonymity regretted the Biya regime’s constant refusal of the Anglophone problem.  Contrary to announcement made over state radio and television, the Anglophone teachers have made it abundantly clear that their strike action continues unabated.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Martin Belinga Eboutou, the Director of the Civil Cabinet at the presidency of the republic has made public President Biya’s decision to preside over the closing ceremony of the 10th edition of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations that has been marred by violent demonstrations in the Anglophone section of the country. The Lionesses of Cameroon will clash with the Falcons of Nigeria in the final game of the competition.

Talks between the Anglophone Teachers Trade Unions and the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government have broken off. A statement from the Prime Minister says President Biya has decided on two measures aimed at improving the working conditions in public and private schools. The Biya decision read on state radio and television made a mockery of Prime Minister Philemon Yang who met the Anglophone teachers as a conciliator but could not reach an agreement.

Biya has announced the disbursement of a special subvention of two billion FCFA to lay private and denominational schools and a special recruitment of one thousand young Francophone bilingual teachers who are holders of Higher Education Diplomas to take over the schools in British Southern Cameroons.

Anglophone Teachers have been crystal clear. They want real, concrete improvements to the bilingual structure and nature of the country.  They want to teach, not more empty promises and rhetoric. The Anglophone teachers trade union statement published recently stated that children in boarding schools will be sent home on Friday December the 2^nd 2016. The statement also said schools in Anglophone Cameroon will be close for a year if negotiations with the Francophone regime fail.

The President Biya decision via a prime ministerial order signed by Philemon Yang is an indication that Yaoundé will never listen, noted a teacher from Government High School Mamfe who sued for anonymity. Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered from a source close to the Minister of Higher Education that the Anglophone teachers and lawyers tabled an unrealistic proposal that Francophones can never accept.

Prime Minister Philemon Yang declined interviews in Gabon over the issue where he recently represented the Cameroonian dictator during a security and political crises meeting grouping member states of ECCAS on Wednesday in Libreville.

The Anglophone teachers’ trade union and the Biya Francophone government have been engaged in an ongoing dispute for the last week. The Anglophone Prime Minister and the Anglophone trade union leaders reached tentative agreements and now Biya and his pro Yaounde comedians have voted against those deals.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai (Editor-in-Chief) Cameroon Concord News Group

The so-called judiciary services have opened a formal process against innocent university students who staged a peaceful demonstration within the University of Buea campus recently. Those arrested are now being put on trial for their alleged role during the strike action. The Cameroon government high court judges who are all seeking for promotion will sentence hundreds of students from the University of Buea over lame and ridiculous reasons concocted by the Francophone dominated gendarmerie forces.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the CPDM court proceedings started today Thursday the 1^st of December 2016. The students were transported like sardines in terrible conditions, looked dirty and shaken by the brutality of their Francophone tormentors to the court aboard the trucks of the national gendarmerie. A CPDM judge is expected to read the charges against them.

By Rita Akana in Buea

JOINT EXECUTIVE MEETING OF ALL ANGLOPHONE TEACHER TRADE UNIONS

HELD IN BAMENDA ON TUESDAY NOVEMBER 29, 2016

PRESS RELEASE

Meeting today November 29, 2016 in Bamenda, all the Anglophone teacher trade unions of the Basic, Secondary and Vocational Education sectors, CATTU, TAC, PEATTU, CEWOTU and BATTUC, in a joint extraordinary executive bureau meeting, assessed the industrial action embarked on since November 21, 2016, discussed and took a stance on the recent happenings in Buea and Bamenda, examined the gentlemanly agreement struck with the Prime Minister, Head of Government, among other things.

While expressing immense appreciation to the Prime Minister, Head of Government for his openness to dialogue and his resolve to address the issues tabled to Government by all Anglophone teacher trade unions as evidenced in the consultative talks of the 25th-26th November, 2016, they nevertheless expressed total stupefaction and condemnation of the parallel press conference granted by the Ministers of Basic and Secondary Education, Communication, Justice and Higher Education on CRTV on 25th November 2016 aimed at undermining efforts initiated by the Prime Minister to amicably solve the issues at stake. The above conference was clearly meant to undermine the position of the Prime Minister, Head of Government, himself an Anglophone.

After open, frank and heated but often focused debates, the unions came up with the following resolutions in a bid to chart a way forward in the on-going negotiations and strike action:

1. The unions address a vote of thanks to the leaders of all Anglophone teacher trade unions for their steadfast actions and level-headedness in the manner in which they have been carrying on negotiations with government and managing the strike action. Equally, parents are commended for keeping their children safe at home and off the streets. They should understand that the stakes are high and even if it means sacrificing a whole academic year by keeping their children out of school, it is for their own supreme interest. They should prepare themselves for this eventuality. Furthermore, the unions appreciate the Governor of the North West Region in the way he has handled the crises in the region and the Head of State, President of the Republic for sending an emissary in the person of the Prime Minister, Head of Government to find lasting solutions to the problems tabled to Government.
2. The unions firmly stand by the resolutions arrived at by the Executive Council of SYNES-UB of 29 November 2016, and in the most unequivocal terms, demand insistently that all the students arrested be released forthwith and accounted for. That the perpetrators of the heinous and repugnant acts of human rights abuse and mayhem on innocent peaceful children be indicted and sanctioned accordingly, while students’ hostels destroyed by security forces on high instructions of the state be repaired and all health bills paid by state.
3. The unions look forward in eager anticipation that the Prime Minister, Head of government will respect the terms of the gentlemanly agreement arrived at on the 26th November 2016. In the event where the government fails to honour her own part of the gentlemanly bargain, the unions will be left with only the option of inviting parents to withdraw their children from boarding schools by Friday December 2, 2016 for the strike to continue unabated.
4. The unions assert that in the eventuality of a positive response from Government on the grievances put forward, the brutish treatment of university students by the military and some university administrators should be redressed before they can make any positive pronouncements on the conditional bargain that was reached with the government.
5. The unions perceive the massive deployment of Anglophone elite to the North West and South West Regions as a calculated attempt by government to disrupt the strike and continue to stifle the people. This, to us, is clear proof of government’s unwillingness to address and solve the problems presented.

Done in Bamenda this 29th day of November 2016

Anglophone lawyers and teachers have refused to lift their call to strike. The representatives of the English-speaking teachers unions recently stated that parents are called upon to keep their children at home until the call to strike is lifted. The Anglophone leaders have set up an agenda of 8 points among which is the creation of a new institutional framework to examine their problems.

Anglophone lawyers have also renewed their strike movement for an unlimited period. The situation has become more intractable following police brutality on a peaceful demonstration organized by students of the University of Buea.  The Buea campus is now dead and the students are calling for the “de-francophonisation” of their university. 28 acts of violence perpetrated by the forces of law and order have been documented dated November 28^th 2016.

Prime Minister Philemon Yang who himself had been a Francophone spy ever since his Yaounde University days is expected to issue a statement today. These strikes have once again dug up the “anglophone problem”. But this time, the piece is hard to swallow. Philemon Yang spent two days of negotiations (25-26 November) with the leaders in Bamenda. Unfortunately, he came back empty-handed.

More than once in the history of Cameroon, the Anglophone community have experienced eddies related to claims. However, after negotiations with the Government, Anglophones have often had to retreat without any change. The new Anglophone leadership of teachers and lawyers intend to put a stop to this marginalization forever.

Thus, the problem is deeper than a question of the provisions of the texts of the Organization for the Harmonization in Africa of Business Law (OHADA) in English, or the Francophonisation of the English-speaking education system. It is a matter of giving the Anglo-Saxon culture its place in Cameroon. On 28 November 2016, the Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic (SGPR) received the Secretary General of OHADA. And on the antennas of the state radio and television, it was announced that the OHADA texts is now available in English.

Some French speaking political elites have recently opined that Cameroonians are one people, but Yaoundé must take into account the specificities of each. They have also joined the call for a round table where the different belligerents will debate on an equal footing.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

President of Cameroon==francophone

President of Senate= francophone

President of National Assembly==francophone

President of Economic and Social Council====francophone

Minister of Defense====francophone

Delegate General for National Security======francophone

Minister Delegate for Gendarmes=francophone

Minister of Primary Education====francophone

Minister of Secondary Education====francophone

Minister of Higher Education==francophone

Minister of Territorial Administration==francophone

Minister of Finances===francophone

Minister of Foreign Affairs=====francophone

Minister of Public Health=====francophone

Minister of Public Works=====francophone

Minister of Agriculture=francophone

Minister of Tourism: Francophone

Minister of Labour and Social Insurance: Francophone

Minister of Sports: Francophone

President of the Cameroon Football Federation: Francophone

Minister of Town Planning and Housing: Francophone

Minister of Justice; Francophone

Minister in-charge of relations with the assemblies; Francophone

Minister Secretary General at the Presidency: Francophone

Minister of Transport: Francophone

Minister of Water and Energy Resources: Francophone

Ambassadors to all leading countries= francophone

ALL THOSE WHO TAKE DECISIONS AFFECTING THE DAILY LIVES OF CAMEROONIANS=FRANCOPHONES

When Anglophones ask for their fair say of Cameroon National life, the francophones say, “NE T’EN FAIT PAS.

LE CHIEN ABBOIE ET LA CARAVANE PASSE”

Videos of students staging a strike from the University of Buea and are violently beaten by policemen are circling the web and arousing anger among Cameroonians. In some of the very disturbing videos we can see the barbarity of the police against unarmed civilians who were demonstrating peacefully.

Student rooms ransacked and many of them struck to blood and dragged to the ground. Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that 50 of them were arrested after the protest. On Tuesday evening, the administration retreated on the demand of the students, precisely, the cancellation of the 10 000 FCFA of penalties on the failure to respect the deadlines prescribed for the payment of the university fees. The government also made a promise that the premium of excellence will be paid. The strike in Bamenda has continued for a second week.

Lawyers and teachers of the Anglophone section of the country have renewed on Monday, their strike action that started several days ago and which resulted in clashes with the security forces with three deaths in Bamenda. Several schools remained closed in the South West and North West regions. The continuation of the mood movement continues due to the failure of negotiations between Prime Minister Philemon Yang and the Anglophone protesters who now claim federalism.

By Rita Akana