French Cameroun army getting words of encouragement from Francophones

15/10/2017

With over 500 killed, more than two thousand Southern Cameroonians arrested and a thousand more wounded from gun shots fired from helicopters, the French Cameroun military personnel and armour vehicles are still roaming the streets in Southern Cameroons causing carnage.

The diatribe is being supported by the state owned radio and television, CRTV, Vision 4, Repere, Afrique Media including thousands of Francophone Cameroonians both at home and in the Diaspora. All this is going on because the perpetrators know they will get away with it. Will they? Attached here are some of the “motions of support” from Francophone Cameroonians to the French Cameroun army.

By Sama Ernest, CIR

Polls open in Austria’s general elections

15/10/2017

Austrians are taking to the polls in general elections dominated by the issue of refugees and likely to see the rise of a very young leader.

Polling stations opened at 7 am local time (0500 GMT) on Sunday. A total of 6.4 million people are eligible to vote throughout Austria.

Three parties are vying for first place in the national elections, namely the People’s Party (OVP), the Social Democratic Party, and the Freedom Party (FPO).

Opinion polls have consistently shown the OVP in the lead. And incumbent Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, 31, of the OVP, is tipped to become the leader of the next Austrian government. However, his party is not expected to win an absolute parliamentary majority and a coalition government is most probable.

This combination photo shows Austria’s Foreign Minister and leader of the People’s Party (OVP) Sebastian Kurz (L) and the chairman of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPO) Heinz-Christian Strache (by AFP)

Kurz has pledged to take a hard line on refugees.

The Social Democrats and the FPO are battling it out for second place, according to opinion polls.

The FPO, like the OVP, has campaigned against refugees, calling for tightening Austria’s borders and quickly deporting the asylum-seekers whose requests are denied.

The center-left Social Democrats have campaigned for social justice and reducing social inequality.

The country’s political leaders’ anti-refugee stance has in the past years been causing outrage among other European Union (EU) states, Germany and France, in particular.

Source: Presstv

Biya regime under-counted army killings in Southern Cameroons

15/10/2017

French Cameroun army killed 255 people during and a day after the October 1 celebration, more than 6 every 50 minutes, but an official Biya regime count misclassified over three quarters of the deaths, according to our cream of senior intelligence officers operating in Southern Cameroons . More than 150 of all killings carried out by elements of the Rapid Intervention Batallion, BIR in Mamfe, Bamenda, Ekona, Kumba, Kumbo, Eyumojock, Ndop and Wum were deliberately incorrectly classified as not having been Biya regime-related.

Our intel officers and military informants counted 255 of the Francophone army-related deaths, while the Yaounde government’s Ministry of Territorial Administration counted only 10. The bad and unacceptable data is currently being traded at the UN and the African Union with the support of the French ambassador in Yaounde.

The Francophone governor of the Bamenda State in Southern Cameroons, Lele Afrique reportedly ordered his kinsmen and women from Mbouda in the West region to leave Bamenda County before troops from La Republique du Cameroun were deployed to carry out the genocide. A recent study by a sister publication, Cameroon Concord News found that Francophone soldiers are more likely to kill Southern Cameroonians in their communities than Boko Haram militants in the Far North region.

The Francophone Minister of Defense, Joseph Beti Assomo including one of the prominent April 6^th Coup plotters, Issa Tchiroma Bakary who now moonlight as Minister of Communication and Cameroon government spokesman have long been suspected of significant underreporting of the killings in Southern Cameroons. Cameroon Intelligence Report correspondents who are currently doing the counting have been using crowd-sourced information from the various counties and villages including social media news stories.

Deaths of Southern Cameroonian children and people in villages in Akwaya, Lebialem, Bangem, Tombel, Jakiri, Oku, Bali, Batibo, Ekok, were completely left out of the French Cameroun government tally.Some Francophone civil administrators failed to report any of the deaths at the hands of the army in order not to attract Francophone solidarity with Anglophone Cameroonians. The army in the Manyu State killed 30 civilians after Ocotber 1 celebrations in the Eyumojock County, but none of those deaths was included in the official French Cameroun government count.

There is mounting pressure for the creation of a Southern Cameroons Deefense Force and one necessary component to that is selling to the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora an accurate count of the number of people killed by the Francophone military. The Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Governing Council have been under heightened scrutiny in recent days for the disproportionate number of French Cameroun army killings of Southern Cameroonians.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, CIR

Kenya: Gunmen attack school, kill six children

14/10/2017

Seven people, six of them children, were killed in northern Kenya on Saturday when unknown assailants attacked a school, officials said.

Cattle rustling and clashes over grazing and farming land are relatively common between communities in the East African country’s north, and often escalate into revenge attacks.

The region also borders war-torn South Sudan, and arms smuggling is common, with Kenyan police having little control over weaponry crossing the border.

In a report, Kenya’s KTN television channel said four boys, two girls and a guard were killed during the attack on Lokichogio School, which it said was carried out by assailants whose identities were yet to be determined.

“The attack … is a painful reminder of the state of insecurity along the border,” Josphat Nanok, Turkana county’s governor, said on Twitter.

The region is awash with guns due to its proximity to unstable neighbors including Somalia, where al Qaeda-linked militants have been fighting to topple the government.

(Source: Reuters)

Southern Cameroons: Externalising the souls of our heroes

14/10/2017

The Cameroon Concord News Group applauds the decision by the Catholic Church in the Southern Cameroons to set aside today as a day of prayers for the repose of the soul of the fallen heroes of the Southern Cameroons struggle for freedom. A similar move by the Presbyterian Church and the Baptist Mission are equally applauded. By taking these moves, our Christian Church leaders have fulfilled a divine mandate ordained or commander by Jesus Christ himself, the body of the Church and supreme Guarantor of our Christian faith. As we pray for the soul of the departed and meditate about the cause for which their lives were cut short, let us not forget that with them, part of every Southern Cameroonian’s life was cut short. They died exercising a fundamental search for justice; justice to be recognised and treated as human beings created in the image of God in their ancestral homelands and justice for our individual and collective existence in dignity, peace and progress.

Like most Southern Cameroonians, they were waving peace plants in the mistaken believe that, that symbol of peace was going to be accorded its deserved recognition. Not with the angel of death that colonized Southern Cameroons baying on the blood of its citizens and the rape of its natural resources for self and neo-colonial gratification. Lest French Cameroun and its genocidal leaders rejoice yet. They will know no peace until the blood of these armless Southern Cameroonians is accounted for. They will know no peace by pursuing a scourge earth policy of genocide and systemic criminality intended to subdue the living soul of freedom and liberty of the Southern Cameroons. For French Cameroun to know peace, it must vacate the territory of the Southern Cameroons which deserves to be free and independent pursuant to United Nations Charter, the UN General Assembly Resolutions, the independence on October 1, 1961. French Cameroun was put on notice by the Buea Declaration (1993) and the Bamenda Proclamation (1994) more than twenty years ago, that the Southern Cameroons intended to reassert its independence and sovereignty over its territory and to terminate all forms of colonial rule as such. The patriotic march by the martyrs whose senseless slaughter we celebrate in these religious ceremonies therefore a legitimate forensic justification. We therefore salute their courage, their priceless supreme sacrifice that cements and eternalizes our freedom, forever and ever. Amen.

An ongoing outpouring of administrative, Ministerial and cross-Ministerial Communiques for the prosecution of the ongoing preplanned genocide in which these heroes were slaughtered on the account of their Southern Cameroons cultural and national identity cogently established different layers of criminal responsibility for these crimes. It is significant to note that each of the genocidal communiques states that its source of authority was the Head of State of French Cameroun Paul Biya. The lack of governmental cohesion and discipline is obvious from the fact that Biya is quoted in the communiques as giving orders directly to certain Ministers and Administrators on whom he is relying to prosecute and execute the preplanned genocide of the Southern Cameroons.

This perceptible indiscipline should not obfuscate the fact that the genocide was carefully planned and the structures of its execution put in place long ago. This plan included, the co-opting of genocidal media organs such as television 4, genocide apologists and propagandists such as Eric Owona Nguini, one Obama and Isa Tchiroma among others to popularize, justify and rally support for the genocide. He also directed Laurent Esso his Minister of Justice and a principal ideologue of the genocide, Fame Ndongo, Atanga Nji and his Senior Military Commanders, essentially of Beti origin, local governors and divisional administrators of French Cameroun origin to execute the genocide. To succeed in their plans, they required and obtained the support of Southern Cameroonian Iscariots like Achidi Achu, Julius Achu, Tabetando, Mafany Musonge, Patrick Esunge and a host of others to help to identify targets for the slaughter and others to be abducted, tortured and detained.

Paul Biya bypassed the exercise of constitutional power and ministerial/administrative hierarchy because that might have alerted and triggered universal genocide alarm mechanisms that might have intervened in time to slow his diabolic actions. He therefore provided direct superintendence of the extermination of Southern Cameroons armless civilians by these his selected field executors. To facilitate the expeditious execution of the plan of genocide in a scale that will have Southern Cameroonians subdued in humiliating and capitulating blood bath, Paul Biya breached all norms of International Law by ordering his administrative governors to close international borders to allow deployed military units to rape, loot, torture, abduct, exterminate, and torch human settlements and property of Southern Cameroonians.

Considering the reign of terror and bestiality that is ongoing even in Churches and places of worship which are protected by International law. The Christian Church services that have been organized today, have finally confirmed our Church leaders that they can on occasion stand for the cross of justice, human dignity, and freedom. The French Cameroun clergy have elected their camp with Iscariot sagacity. That is their choice. But Iscariot thought humanity that money may meet temporal human needs but will never ever control the soul of humanity which our Lord Jesus Christ purchased with His precious blood.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, CCN/CIR

Boko Haram fighters surrender in northern Cameroon

14/10/2017

Nearly 60 men who said they were captured by the Boko Haram Islamist group and forced to fight for them in Nigeria have surrendered to authorities in northern Cameroon. After spending two years with Boko Haram, the men decided to flee with their families and hand themselves in, according to several men who had surrendered and spoke to journalists at a ceremony in the town of Mozogo on Friday.

A total of nearly 400 people originally from Cameroon — 58 men, 86 women and 244 children — said they had been taken hostage by Boko Haram fighters during attacks on their villages and taken to Nigeria, where they were forced to join the jihadist group. The men told reporters they had fought for Boko Haram and were laying down their arms of their own will.

They surrendered at the border with Nigeria to a village vigilante group formed to combat the jihadists. The vigilantes then handed them over to the authorities. Ousmane Kouila, head of the group, said they had been out on patrol in the border area when they met the fleeing Boko Haram fighters. “They said they were returning, and that they were surrendering,” he said.

The local governor went to meet them and ordered them to be moved away from the border to avoid any reprisals by Boko Haram. “We are counting on them to also convince others who are hesitating (to surrender) and there are a lot of them they tell us,” said Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of the Far North region.

Authorities would provide the escapees with psychological help, he said. “They have been through brainwashing, perhaps also having taken an oath on the Koran or made a blood pact,” the governor said, adding they needed help with “all they must have endured” in the hands of Boko Haram.

Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency began in 2009 and has claimed at least 20,000 lives and forced more than 2.6 million from their homes. The violence has largely been concentrated in northeast Nigeria but there have also been repeated attacks in Cameroon, as well as Chad and Niger.

Source: Daily Nation

Biya and Philemon Yang fighting for political survival after October 1 blow

14/10/2017

The French Cameroun Prime Minister, Philemon Yang who hails from West Cameroon is fighting for his political survival after Southern Cameroonians abandoned the 56 years old marriage with La Republique du Cameroun in a general uprising that has left the country facing a prolonged period of uncertainty.

President Biya’s outgoing government saw its support slump and eventually disappeared as Southern Cameroonians flocked to Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Governing Council, the Anglophone Cameroons new version of the SCNC which has staged a remarkable recovery to become the decisive political grouping in the new Republic of Southern Cameroons.

“Tsunami” was the word used by several Southern Cameroons newspapers recently to describe the outcome of the October 1 Independence Day celebrations that President Biya and Mr Philemon Yang looked certain to dominate just a year ago. But both men’s inability to persuade Southern Cameroonians that Cameroon remains one and indivisible has cost Yang and President Biya their majority following — and perhaps their jobs.

Even with growing calls for Prime Minister Philemon Yang to severe links with Ghogomu Paul Mingo and to open genuine dialogue with the leadership of the Governing Council to either form a federated structure, the unpopular head of government from Oku has kept his man and they are heading to Southern Cameroons to stage a repeat of the one year old comedy and tragedy with the moderate leader of the Consortium and some Bamileke lawyers based in the territory. But this current arrangement would require them to overcome almost a 56 years old Francophone/Anglophone divisions dating from a French teleguided coup against Southern Cameroons in Foumban in the 1960s.

Cameroon Concord News Group and the Cameroon Intelligence Report are focusing instead on a new Cameroon after Biya and the terms of separation no matter how long the process will take. It is time for this new generation of Southern Cameroonians to live up to the greatness and to prove themselves renewed and worthy of a future by staging a massive ghost town operation against Philemon Yang and his gang.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group

Trump refuses to certify Iran nuclear deal

13/10/2017

US President Donald Trump has refused to certify the international nuclear agreement with Iran and warned he might ultimately terminate it, in defiance of other world powers and undermining a landmark victory of multilateral diplomacy.

Speaking from the White House on Friday, Trump said he will choose not to certify that Tehran is complying with the 2015 nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Trump’s speech signaled a major shift in US policy and detailed a more confrontational stance toward Iran over its civilian nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Trump also said his goal is to ensure Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon.

“We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror and the very real threat of Iran’s nuclear breakout,” Trump said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has recently reported that Iran is complying with the agreement.

Trump is required by law to certify every 90 days whether or not Iran is complying with the nuclear deal. If he argues that Iran is not in compliance, that could cause an American withdrawal from the international pact.

While Trump did not pull Washington out of the nuclear deal, he gave the US Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions against Tehran that were lifted under the pact.

Reimposing sanctions would put the US at odds with other signatories of the accord such as the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany, as well as the European Union.

Trump also announced sanctions on the IRGC, which he accused of destabilizing the Middle East and threatening American interests in the region.

“I am authorizing the Treasury Department to further sanction the entire Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for its support for terrorism and to apply sanctions to its officials, agents and affiliates,” he said.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement earlier Friday that the Iranian Armed Forces, including the IRGC, are the symbol of power and defenders of security and are supported by the Iranian government and nation.

The statement, which came a few hours before Trump’s speech, emphasized that Iran’s core policy is to support regional peace and stability and confront any destabilizing and divisive measures aimed at creating tensions and conflicts in the region.

According to the statement, the US support for Israel and other “repressive” regimes in the region over the recent decades has caused war and conflicts on one hand and created “the ominous phenomenon of terrorism” on the other.

In his remarks, the US president also accused Iran of supporting the “atrocities” of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and said Tehran “condoned” Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his own people.

Assad has previously stated that a recent suspected chemical attack in Syria’s Khan Shaykhun town was part of a Western scenario to demonize the incumbent Damascus government.

Iran has been providing military advisers on the request of the Syrian government, helping turn around the battle which has been going on for more than six years now.

Trump’s threat to terminate the nuclear deal comes as the US has a history of quitting international pacts and organizations.

This is not the first time that the international community witnesses efforts by the Trump administration to renege on a multilateral agreement.

Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Agreement in June and has ordered the US to withdraw from UNESCO next year.

The US decisions to abandon multilateral agreements is not limited to the Trump administration. In 2002, the administration of former US President George W. Bush withdrew from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty (ABM), which it had signed with the Soviet Union in 1972.

Source: Presstv

Biya returning home will only be to bid farewell to his friends and family

13/10/2017

The Anglophone crisis that has rocked Cameroon over the last twelve months seems to be heralding the end of an era that has brought pain and suffering to citizens of this country. The government’s reaction to demonstrations on October 1, 2017, has left the world, especially the international community, in great shock. It is alleged that more than one hundred people have been killed across the Anglophone region, with over three hundred missing and some two hundred injured. Today, the entire region has been militarized and the citizens are not allowed to move from one location to the other. Anglophones seem to have been rolled back into the dark ages against their wish. It also seems the government is helping to enforce the ghost towns that have been going on in the Anglophone region for one year.

In Manyu Division, in particular, it is extremely hard for the population to venture out. Many young men have been arrested and taken to unknown destinations and thousands have fled their homes and are now sharing space with dangerous snakes and tigers in the Manyu jungle. Some have headed to Nigeria where they are seeking refuge and waiting for the day they will run into arms to come back to liberate their fatherland from the control of those they consider as an army of occupation. Traveling to Nigeria has become very challenging. Residents of Manyu Division are being compelled to buy a pass just to get to the border with Nigeria and they are being obliged by government troops to pay all types of fees, with the most ridiculous being a development fee that goes into the pockets of the army soldiers who since October 1 have been running amok in that part of the country. It is like Cameroon has gone back to the dark days of apartheid when black South Africans had to obtain passes in order to move from one city to the next.

In border villages and towns like Ekok, Otu, Agborkem German and Nsanarakati, army soldiers are abusing the people, especially women. Many young girls are being abused and raped on a daily bases and the population does not know who to turn to for protection and services that are supposed to be provided by a responsible government. For those who have escaped, the unfortunate thing is that many of them may never return home, especially those who are hiding in the jungle as the conditions out there are not the best, especially with the heavy rains that are making the jungle inhabitable.

Today, Nigeria is home to about half a million Anglophones who are seeking refugee status. With the anger and frustration of having been marginalized and chased out of the country, these young men will surely constitute a strong pool of angry fighters if they lay their hands on weapons. Instead of fighting secession which is an idea with appeasement, the government has decided to kill an idea with bullets and guns and this is unfortunately not producing the desired results. The government has failed to understand that sometimes it is better to catch flies with honey. Using vinegar all the time may not be the best way to approach something that only exists in the mind.

In an environment of tension, it is always advisable to use the right words in order not to cause the situation to further deteriorate. But government actions over the last months leave much to be desired. Even declarations from the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma, are not helping, as his language and choice of words are designed to further upset and alienate Anglophones.

Many Anglophones have been calling for his dismissal for months now. Mr. Tchiroma himself is an ex-convict, as he was among the coup plotters who almost took down Mr. Biya in 1984 in a coup that resulted in the deaths of more than one thousand northerners. Many Cameroonians hold that if the president could pardon Mr. Tchiroma and other coup plotter who almost killed him, why would he not come down his ivory tower to dialogue with Anglophones who are simply expressing their anger and frustration with a system that has robbed them of their dignity? They point out that Mr. Tchiroma has no moral standing to call on soldiers to kill other Cameroonians. They argue that a coup d’etat is more dangerous than a peaceful protest, adding that if the president could give Mr. Tchiroma a second chance to the extent of appointing him a minister, why does he think he has to rejoice when Cameroonians of English expression are being mowed down by soldiers who get paid with taxpayers’ money?

Anglophones have clearly stated their problems. A strike that started with lawyers and teachers was allowed to quickly degenerate into calls for federalism that waspromptly rejected by the government, with the country’s president, Paul Biya, stating that the form of the state could not be discussed. This has put him in a tight spot and, today, he does not know how to eat the giant humble pie he had made for himself. Anglophones are not backing down. The deployment of troops across the region is not synonymous with a return to the old days. While the country has been caught up in unprecedented turbulence, Mr. Biya is in Switzerland battling with cancer that is more dangerous than Anglophones who have robbed him of a good night’s sleep over the last year.

But all hopes are not lost. Mr. Biya’s era is gradually petering out and this is the time for those in leadership positions to start thinking of a new republic; a republic that will be predicated on justice and human rights. Many people have lost their lives in this struggle that will surely continue once the numerous troops in the Anglophone region get withdrawn. The school year has been ruined by the government’s action, but things can be dealt with in a different manner. Brute force will never cause the Anglophone problem to vanish. Anglophones have proven that they can stay the course.

Anglophone lawyers have gone without a salary for one year and the population has suffered a lot of abuse, but their determination to bring about change is still intact. The government has a few more opportunities to spare Cameroon the agony and death that other countries have gone through. The solution to the Anglophone problem is at the negotiating table. The government has to swallow its pride and accept that there is no return to the status quo ante. Cameroon will never be the same again and instead of killing and maiming ordinary citizens, it is time to meet Anglophones halfway so that the new republic’s future can be discussed.

Mr. Biya clearly belongs to the past. If he will be returning home, it will only be to bid farewell to his friends and family. Time and health issues have cut him down to normal human proportions. No matter how hard he tries, he will never reinstate the attractive aura he once had. He has wasted the goodwill Cameroonians had granted him when he came to power in 1982. He has succeeded to transform Cameroon into a vast open air landfill. Cameroon ranks among the most underdeveloped countries on the face of the earth despite its natural and human resources.

Cameroon is bereft of infrastructure. Its hospitals have been reduced to consultation clinics. Its roads have consumed more lives than HIV and malaria put together. Cameroonians have lost faith in the government. Years of unemployment have reduced them to sorry spectators of events in their own country. Many have died of preventable illnesses and for many, the shadow of uncertainty is permanently looming large on the horizon. With Boko Haram ruining lives in the North, Central African rebels staging sporadic attacks in the East and Anglophones determined to pick up arms against the Yaounde regime, the government cannot afford to be blind to the importance of dialogue. Dialogue holds a lot of hope. It will prevent bloodshed and it will keep the country together. It will be wrong to miss an historic moment again. This crisis has gone on for one year. One year is too long. Mr. Biya’s men must be courageous enough to kiss him goodbye. His days are over. Like every mortal, he belongs to the ash heap of history. It will be wrong for those around him to spend time trying to save him. It is better to save Cameroon, as each and every Cameroonian will pass away, but Cameroon will be there forever.

The editorial Desk

Cameroon Concord News/ Cameroon Intelligence Report Inc

Saturday the 14th: Southern Cameroons Day of Mourning and Resistance

13/10/2017

Many of Southern Cameroonians were culled as children, under the pressures of a 56 years old hostile culture. Hundreds of Southern Cameroonian lives have been destroyed by an army from a country- La Republique du Cameroun that tells us we don’t belong. Many of our youth never survived October 1, 2017.

The ones who did have fled with life threatening wounds into the forest hiding from the Francophone colonial military hoping for when the Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Governing Council finds enough international support or when Southern Cameroonians will feel strong enough to go forward without fear to proclaim themselves to the world.

Every one from Southern Cameroons including the so-called CPDM federalist Anglophones, walks around being terrified at the possibility of being murdered for who we are. Obviously this fear has grown more intense since the October 1 independence day celebration; to the point where some of us are turning to trivial issues such as who controls funds or which direction Barrister Agbor Balla or Dr Fontem Neba are heading to rather than face the new wave of hostility that has been rolling forward by the young and inexperience Francophone political elites such Joseph Beti Assomo, Governor Bernard Okalia and Rene Sadi who are killing our people. We recognize this.

Tomorrow Saturday the 14^th of October is a day that the members of our Governing Council have said we should honor all those killed during our October 1 protest including the Ancestors of our land, who were taken from us forcefully for daring to be who they are- Ambazonians and whose lives were ended by a Francophone regime that rejected their existence. This is Southern Cameroons Day of Mourning and Resistance.

We are call upon to hold eucharistic celebrations in all the Roman Catholic Churches in Southern Cameroons including every other denomination. Be there and be a part of the Resistance.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

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