Paul Biya’s succession on life support, Africa Intelligence
Not only is the Cameroonian president’s own health failing but so too that of his constitutionally designated replacements. Culled from Africa Intelligence
Not only is the Cameroonian president’s own health failing but so too that of his constitutionally designated replacements. Culled from Africa Intelligence
As Cameroon witnesses the dying embers of the embattled Biya regime, questions abound about what the future holds for the Central African country. Beset by a violent separatist conflict in the Anglophone regions and the omnipresent scourge, Boko Haram, in the North, that Cameroon faces significant challenges ahead is an understatement. Yet slowly and very carefully, the potential for a more democratic future is emerging from conversations between leading Cameroonians.
President Paul Biya has effectively ruled Cameroon since 1982, with questionable elections returning him as President as recently as 2018. Biya, now a sprightly 87, will be a venerable 92 when his seventh term ends, and his health remains a popular topic amongst Cameroonians both at home and in the diaspora. Extended stays in Geneva and regular disappearances from the public eye have only furthered these discussions. Biya’s absence was particularly conspicuous this year at the start of the Coronavirus pandemic- even his reappearance at a meeting with French Ambassador Christophe Guilhou did little to stop them. Biya is apparently back at the helm now, but questions about his health abound. There is now a growing inevitability about the end of the Biya regime. Nobody lives forever, and Cameroonian eyes are starting to turn toward the future. Who will succeed Biya? What does the Cameroon of the future look like? More simply- what comes next?
Whilst Biya’s Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM) party may retain an overwhelming majority (139/180 seats) in the National Assembly, there is a degree of inescapability about the instability and potential power vacuum to come. This is the price any highly centralized country must pay for being ruled by a strongman with an iron fist for so long. Out of this change, however, arises an opportunity never truly granted the people of Cameroon since its formation in 1960, as the only previous president, Ahidjo, was also widely regarded to be dictatorial figure. It is remarkable that since 1960, Cameroon has had just two presidents. After sixty years of the rule of the Strongman and ultimately the cult of Biya, the people of Cameroon are approaching the greatest crossroads since federation in 1972, or perhaps in the country’s history. The people of Cameroon can allow the nation to continue down its current path, settling on a new ‘chosen’ leader in the mold of Biya, but they will also have the chance to effect the lasting political change that many desire. Leader of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement opposition party, Maurice Kamto, is the most prominent proponent of this view, publicly opposing an apparent transfer of power to one of Biya’s acolytes, as if the CPDM party itself had the divine right to rule.
On social media, he stated ‘We will not accept the mutual agreement succession in our country, nor new popular elections without consensual reform of the electoral system. Only the Cameroonian people will have to choose their legitimate leaders, in freedom and democratic transparency’. Kamto has paid and continues to pay the price for his opposition to the regime. He and his supporters were imprisoned from January to October 2019 in the notorious Kondengui Prison in Yaoundé. A rumored assassination attempt followed, and only this week was his compound attacked and death threats reportedly made against him. He recently also proposed a wide-ranging, representative committee to help resolve the Anglophone Crisis. It is somewhat symptomatic of the Biya regime’s extremities and decline that Kamto’s efforts to fundraise for the Coronavirus response were heavily suppressed- and even outlawed- by the government.
Yet whilst Kamto is indeed a key player, a drive for change is coming from some of Cameroon’s most revered figures. Politician and entrepreneur Kah Walla’s ‘20th of May Dialogues’, livestreamed simultaneously on Twitter [CS1] and Zoom, has brought some of the nation’s brightest minds together to discuss the future of their country. Speakers including journalist Mimi Mefo, once imprisoned by the Biya regime, the indomitable technology entrepreneur Rebecca Enonchong, surgeon Dr. Dennis Foretia and others have all voiced their thoughts on issues including the Anglophone Crisis, Coronavirus and political transitions. The value of these dialogues should not be underestimated, as they are introducing and highlighting new, exciting Cameroonian options for the country’s future, from some of the nation’s finest minds. The reaction to these dialogues on social media illustrates both the richness of Cameroon’s political sphere and the yearning for change- or at the very least, more discussions.
Although the Anglophone Crisis is oft ignored by the international community, it threatens the stability of the entire state of Cameroon and thus must form (and has formed) a key part of these discussions. The dialogues have hinted at how a solution to the Anglophone Crisis could be found, but longer-term thinking is required in order to produce a lasting peace – be it through a true federation or another mechanism. A weakness of previous dialogue efforts has been a lack of unity among Anglophone groups, with views varying widely. With a stronger coalition of Anglophone voices, a meaningful dialogue has more chance of success. The concept of a future Cameroonian state beyond the Biya regime offers a genuine opportunity for change, and for Cameroon to better reflect the demands of the Anglophone population. Of course, this will not satisfy everybody, particularly the most ardent Ambazonian separatists, but it would represent a significant improvement on the current situation. The Anglophone regions remain of vital economic importance to Cameroon, and so they would invariably be a major point of discussion, even if the crisis had never occurred.
Looking across Central and Francophone Africa, change is coming. Even Burundi’s Nkurunziza has handed power over to a successor, and more nations are supportive of Presidential term limits. France’s controversial and neocolonial CFA Franc is being replaced in West Africa by an exciting though arguably imperfect successor, the ECO. Central Africa’s CFA Franc, used in Cameroon, will surely follow, reducing the country’s dependency on its former colonial master. Coronavirus itself has also upset the world order, and what that fully means for Cameroon and Central Africa remains to be fully understood. The end of the Biya regime, then, may coincide with a changing of the guard on multiple fronts.
Whilst the Biya regime will invariably trundle on for a while to come, it feels more finite than ever before. Cameroonians have the rarest of opportunities to reform their state and to mold it to be ready for the next 100 years. That process starts with conversations like the ‘May 20th Dialogues’, led by so many brilliant Cameroonians. This progress will likely be contested fiercely by those in power by way of the Biya regime, and so there are tough political challenges ahead. Somehow though, in the unlikeliest of times amidst a terrible pandemic, there is an indelible source of hope in Cameroon.
Culled from Anglophone crisis.org
The Southern Cameroons Interim Government has received the English version of the Yaoundé Military Tribunal verdict on the NERA 10. The document revealed in details how the Biya Francophone regime changed the Nigerian government’s dossier on the Southern Cameroons jailed leaders to make it sexier for the French Cameroun administration.
Sisiku Ayuk Tabe NERA Hotel Weapon
The Yaoundé Military Tribunal observed that the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia was arrested at the Abuja Nera Hotel in possession of “96 war munitions of type 7.60; 151 calibre-12 munitions, 03 barrels; 18 ammunition boxes, 03 detonating cords, 02 grenades, tear gas grenades, 06 Ambazonian flags; 04 American camouflage uniforms, one ARA helmet; camouflaged uniforms and sergeant grades, 03 artisan crafted mobile units; 02 army green pants; one army green vest; 02 packets of Naira; USB flash drives; on mini-taptop (tablet).”
Sisiku Ayuk Tabe NERA Hotel Weapon
The Military Tribunal revelation that necessitated the life sentence undermined the credibility of well documented Nigerian police information provided by the country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs to the UN Assistant Secretary General that the Southern Cameroons leaders were arrested inside the conference hall of NERA Hotel in Abuja.
The Yaoundé Military Tribunal verdict also raised a host of tough questions and has greatly altered the narrative around the fairness of the Francophone justice system including strengthening the case for independence or resistance forever. The trial process itself was marred by loose use of the French language and lack of judgment. To be sure, Yaoundé simply gave a dog a bad name and hang him with concocted evidence to make a case for continues detention of the Ambazonian leaders.
Sisiku Ayuk Tabe NERA Hotel Weapon
A senior French Cameroun intelligence officer was quoted as saying that President Biya personally participated in fabricating the dodgy dossier against the Southern Cameroons leaders and during the tail end of the trial process Biya wrote to the presiding judge and those involved and gave them directives.
The Yaoundé Military Tribunal’s demonstration of how the French Cameroun judiciary spun intelligence to fit the case for a life sentence has now finally been released to the people of Southern Cameroons. The Ngarbuh Massacre and the journalist Samuel Wazizi affair signals a continuation of a well teleguided French Cameroun criminal policy designed to deceive the international community.
President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe said the military tribunal decision remains very dodgy and was deliberately designed to stifle the Ambazonian revolution based on false pretences. The fraudulent court decision is the single most serious salvo fired against the people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.
French Cameroun judges are appointed to make the toughest calls in favour of the Biya regime. But in this case the Southern Cameroons leaders are indeed men sinned against than sinning.
By Chi Prudence Asong
The Biya regime has disbursed more than 5 billion FCFA to the so-called newly elected members of the one and indivisible Cameroon national assembly in Yaounde.
The 180 representatives of the 10th legislature, who have only been in office for two months, to be more accurate between the election in February and May 31, 2020 have received more than 28.5 million CFA francs.
Here is breakdown of what the ruling CPDM crime syndicate paid to the MPs:
– Transport for the full session: 86 000 FCFA
– Telephone and fuel for the full session: 1 075 000 FCFA
-Participation Fee: 2 250 000 FCFA.
– Transport for the March session: 86 000 FCFA
– Telephone + fuel for March: 1 075 000 FCFA
– March session participation fee: 2 250 000 FCFA
– March salary: 1 225 000 FCFA
– April salary: 1 225 000 FCFA
– May salary 1 225 000 FCFA
– Microprojects: 8 000 000 FCFA
– Vehicle purchase premium: 10 000 000 FCFA (not yet paid, but budgeted).
The total sum amounts to more than 5.1 billion FCFA already paid to the representatives in a country that is seeking help from international donors to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
Cameroon Concord News Group understands the MPs will be voting soonest on a diabolic project to prepare the stage for Franck Biya to succeed the father as head of state.
By Rita Akana in Yaounde with files Cameroon Info.Net
Biya will not die in peace. That’s what many in his entourage and extended family are now saying! A handful of his Beti Ewondo supporters are now clamouring for his son, Franck Biya to take over leadership. This position is not going down well in all the gangs that constitute the consortium of CPDM crime syndicates.
Biya is looking frailer and the Cameroon political wind continues to bat him from side to side as he walks towards a shameful and disgusting exit.
Biya stubbornly insisted upon walking unaided inside the presidency and has been struggling lately to stay upright on his own. He now tells his political story even to cleaners in Etoudi as his children are all deserting him and revealing sensitive information on the running of the family on social media.
He recently ordered the Cameroon embassy in Dakar, Senegal to issue a passport to the wife of the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo. Madam Ahidjo had her passport confiscated immediately after the April 6th coup in 1984.
The issuing of a Cameroonian passport to the late president’s wife has indeed signalled the closing of a circle for Biya and hints of a man who wants to die in peace.
But as our London Bureau Chief, Asu Isong will reveal to us today, Biya has been caught in the pangs of a monster he (himself) created.
Stay with Cameroon Intelligence Report and Cameroon Concord News and be the first to know!
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
The Covid-19 pandemic, has opened doors to most selfish dictators to exhibit and fulfil their undercover business and political agendas.
Many nations worldwide are under lockdown and curfew, leaving people in a more precarious situation and diminishing hope.
Many leaders across the globe have taken advantage of the corona pandemic.
For instance, countries like Burundi, in a Machiavellian way, have declared many international agencies and independent observers, persona non grata ahead of the just concluded presidential elections.
President Pierre Nkurunziza’s hand-picked successor Evariste Ndayishimiye was declared the winner of the highly controversial election with 69 per cent, leaving his major opponents Agatha Rwasa of CNL party with 24 per cent and vice president Gaston Sindimwo of the Nationalist UPRONA party with 1 pre cent.
Recently, President Janos Ader of Hungary, a landlock country in Central Europe, abolished democracy and instituted emergency laws to favour his party. South Sudan is currently under unforeseen transition with President Salva Kiir and his vice Riek Machar under isolation over coronavirus infection.
Cameroon’s Paul Biya has been president since November 6, 1982. Passes tougher laws in favour of his government.
The disparaging power strategies by many State machineries is unfathomable and highly erratic to the voters.
The approach by President Museveni’s government in curbing the Covid-19 pandemic should be appreciated by Ugandans. However, more efforts is still needed, especially in controlling the porous borders and apprehending the corrupt government officials.
Otherwise, the despondent citizens will not stop their thirst and advocacy for change. It appears undeniable that the current corona pandemic is a blessing to greedy despotic leaders and a tool for suppressing their political opponents.
Source: Daily Monitor
The Southern Cameroons chief executive President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe displayed emotion from his cell at the Kondengui High Security prison in French Cameroun when news got to him that the veteran patriotic Ambazonian soldier Mola Njoh Litumbe had passed to eternity.
Cameroon Intelligence Report Yaoundé city reporter who met the jailed Ambazonian leaders in Kondengui revealed that Sisiku Ayuk Tabe described Mola Njoh Litumbe as his most important Ambazonia leader and commander with whom he shared a deep bond.
Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s voice cracked as he said a prayer and chanted the Ambazonian national anthem to honour the late Southern Cameroons veteran. President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s display of intense grief also signaled deep respect for the great Mola Njoh Litumbe.
Mola Njoh Litumbe the Southern Cameroons leader who passionately sought a free Ambazonia homeland for the people of British Southern Cameroons died on Tuesday 26th of May 2020 at Muna’s clinic in Douala, French Cameroun.
In a statement to the people of Southern Cameroons, exiled Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima noted that “Mola Njoh Litumbe will be engraved in the consciousness of our nation as one of its true intellectual and revolutionary giants. On this solemn day, his courage and purpose will be celebrated with all Ambazonian flags at home and abroad flying at half-mast.”
The late Mola Njoh Litumbe will be lionized as an Ambazonian figure that embodied Southern Cameroons’s lethal reach in the face of a vicious French Cameroun genocidal campaign against the people of Southern Cameroons.
Mola Litumbe was a committed leader who conferred with President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe often and cemented the dream of getting to Buea soonest and helped to preserve and advance the principles of the Southern Cameroons four years revolution.
The relationship between the great Mola Njoh Litumbe and President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe was so close that during a trip to the USA, Mola Njoh Litumbe was photographed thrice embracing Sisiku Ayuk Tabe in ways that are customary in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia for dads and their beloved sons.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
Kim Jong Un, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, Wednesday sent a message of greeting to Paul Biya, president of the Republic of Cameroon, on the occasion of its national day.
In the message he extended warm greetings to the president and the friendly government and people of Cameroon on behalf of the DPRK government and people.
The people of Cameroon are making great successes in defending the country’s sovereignty and achieving peace and stability and unity of the nation under the leadership of the president, the message said.
Kim Jong Un in the message said that, availing himself of the opportunity, he expressed the belief that the good relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries would grow stronger in the future, sincerely wishing the president and people of Cameron greater progress in their work for the prosperity of the country.
Source: KCNA Watch
As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world, many national leaders have become more present in their citizens’ lives. They announce new emergency measures, hold regular press briefings and attempt to reassure the population. Not so in Cameroon.
President Paul Biya only addressed the public since the first confirmed coronavirus case in early March yesterday the 19th of May in a speech described by many commentators as “empty”. The outbreak is spreading, lockdown restrictions have been announced and then eased but the 87-year-old leader has only been notable for his absence. Amid rumours of his death, Cameroonians have taken to twitter with hashtags such as #WhereisBiya and #LetsFindBiya.
The president has revealed some of his movements. On 16 April, he posted a picture of his meeting with the French Ambassador to Cameroon at the presidential palace in Yaoundé. A month later, he tweeted similar photos with UN Special Representative François Louncény Fall.
Despite speculation they were photoshopped, these images and yesterday’s televised address seem to confirm that Biya is well and in the capital. Nonetheless, they have done little to allay frustrations at his lack of public presence.
“If Biya can receive the French Ambassador why can’t he address the people?” asked Cameroon’s main opposition leader Maurice Kamto, speaking to African Arguments. “Why can’t he say a few words to Cameroonians?”
Containing the coronavirus
The government has taken various measures to reduce the spread of the virus, with most official messages coming from Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute and Health Minister Malachie Manaouda. On 18 March, Cameroon closed its borders, shut down schools, and ordered restaurants and bars to cease operations after 6pm. It increased testing, banned large gatherings and non-essential travel, and required people to wear face masks in public.
While these measures may have helped reduce the disease’s spread, Cameroon has become one of the worst affected countries in Africa. To date, it has recorded 3,529 cases and 140 deaths. Moreover, a Reuters survey found that Cameroon has just 40 ventilators, a tiny fraction of the 2,422 that might be needed if the virus peaks according to estimates by Imperial College of London.
Despite the worsening crisis, however, the government eased some restrictions in early May, including allowing eateries to remain open past 6pm. This may have reduced the economic impact on many Cameroonians, some eight million of whom live in poverty, but has drawn criticism from the opposition.
“It’s extremely confusing,” says Kah Walla, President of the Cameroon People’s Party. “What is the government strategy? What are they trying to achieve with this and why would they expose the population to that degree?”
Neither the Minister of Health nor the Prime Minister’s Office responded to African Argument’s request for comment.
Meanwhile, a coronavirus fundraising initiative led by Kamto has been blocked by authorities, with its bank account shuttered and funds frozen. Last week, six of its activists were arrested for distributing face masks and sanitiser. They face charges of rebellion and could spend four years in prison if convicted.
Conflict in Cameroon
So far, most confirmed cases have been in urban areas, but many fear that the coronavirus could be particularly devastating if it spreads to areas facing insecurity. In the Far North, Boko Haram continues to operate. Meanwhile, in the country’s two Anglophone regions, a conflict between English-speaking separatists and government soldiers has claimed at least 3,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people since 2017.
Only one of the warring parties – which includes about fifteen separatist groups and government forces – has heeded the UN’s call for a global ceasefire. And while there was a brief lull in early March, fighting has resumed with abuses recorded in recent weeks on both sides. Some 115 hospitals in the two regions have been demolished in the conflict, while all humanitarian flights were grounded in March.
“How can you prepare a pandemic response in an area where violence is rife?” asks Ilaria Allegrozi, a senior central Africa researcher for Human Rights Watch. The organisation has urged Cameroonian officials to allow aid missions to continue unimpeded. According to Allegrozzi, some flights to the Far North have resumed, but not to the two Anglophone regions.
“[The pandemic] adds another layer of complexity to an already intractable civil war,” says Billy Burton from the Anglophone Crisis Monitoring Project. “It has increased the risk to vulnerable, displaced populations – both outside and inside the Anglophone regions – and it makes it even harder for humanitarians trying to get aid in.”
A lack of accountable leadership
As Cameroon faces this set of complex crises, the president remains out of sight. This is keeping with his usual patterns of governance. A 2018 investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project found that Biya, who came to office in 1982, spends as much as a third of his time abroad some years, much of it at the five-star Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva.
“It’s long been part of Biya’s playbook not to get down in the mud or the daily details of governing,” says Yonatan Morse, author of How Autocrats Compete: Parties, Patrons, and Unfair Elections in Africa.
According to Jeffrey Smith, founding director of the pro-democracy non-profit Vanguard Africa, this ruling style is indicative of a much deeper problem in Cameroon’s governance.
“The coronavirus pandemic is only the most recent example of Biya’s absence and lack of accountability,” he says. “We have the tendency to highlight the symptoms of these crises, be they public health or humanitarian, rather than the cause, which is a lack of accountable and democratic leadership.”
Wherever he is, cases of COVID-19 in Cameroon continue to rise.
Culled from The African Arguments with additional editing from Camcordnews
Tibor Peter Nagy Jr., the United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs says as the situation in Cameroon’s restive North West and South West Regions deepens, the belligerents must now “stop [the] violence and start talking.”
Taking to Twitter Monday, May 18, 2020, Ambassador Nagy says the killing of civilians is inexcusable, citing the killings in Ngarbuh attributed to state forces and the killing of the Mayor of Mamfe by armed separatists.
His words: “Government killing of civilians in Cameroon is inexcusable. I urge follow-through on Ngarbuh investigation and many other incidents of this nature. I also condemn separatist attacks on local officials such as the murder of Mamfe’s mayor. Stop violence, start talking. ”
On February 14, 2020, at least ten children and three women were among those killed when soldiers carried out an operation in Ngarbuh, a village in the country’s North West Region.
Government initially blamed the deaths on the separatists. But on April 21, 2020, the report of the commission of inquiry into the incident faulted Major Nyiangono Ze Charles Eric, Commander of the 52nd Motorized Infantry Battalion (BIM) in Nkambe and all the servicemen who took part in the Ngarbuh operation.
It emerged that Major Nyiangono authorized the “reconnaissance mission” which was led by Sergeant Baba Guida commander of the Ntumbaw joint regiment. The detachment comprising three servicemen and two gendarmes enlisted seventeen members of a local vigilante committee.
In faulting the state forces, the inquiry said: “Following an exchange of gunfire, during which five terrorists were killed, and many weapons seized, the detachment discovered that three women and ten children had died because of its action. Panic-stricken, the three servicemen with the help of some members of the vigilante committee, tried to conceal the facts by causing fires. On his return to Ntumbaw, Sergeant Baba Guida who led the operation, submitted a deliberately biased report to his superiors, a report on which the Government initially based its statement. ”
We also recall that on May 10, 2020, armed separatists ambushed and killed Ashu Prisley Ojong, Mayor of Mamfe in Manyu Division. Two service men were wounded in the attack according to authorities. These are only isolated cases of the violence and abuses taking place in the restive area.
Many are those who have proposed a US led mediation to end the crisis.
Source: Cameroon Info.Net
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