Regional Updates

Cameroon military have neutralised a suspected female suicide bomber early today in the city of Kolofata in the Far North region of Cameroon as reported by French Newspaper L'Oeil du Sahel.

Boko Haram, one of the world’s deadliest extremist groups, has used at least 130 women and girls in suicide attacks since June 2014, when a woman set off a bomb at an army barracks in Nigeria, according to The Long War Journal, which tracks terrorist activity.

Since then, women and girls, often with bombs hidden in baskets or under their clothes, have killed hundreds of people in attacks on fish and vegetable markets, schools, a river dock and even camps for people who fled their homes to escape the violence.

Boko Haram’s abuse of women first shocked the world three years ago, when it stormed a school in Nigeria and fled with about 300 girls, many of whom were never found. Hundreds of other women and girls have been abducted, imprisoned, raped and sometimes intentionally impregnated, perhaps with the goal of creating a new generation of fighters.

 

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Rita Akana

23.Jun.2017

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A village head in Nigeria and his son were on Wednesday morning killed by Boko Haram in Cameroon’s far north where they had found refuge, authoritative Cameroonian newspaper, L’Oeil du Sahel, has reported.

Identified only as Musa, the head of Doglo village in Nigeria, along with his son, were killed by Boko Haram terrorists at Fadje Fota, a locality in Cameroon’s far north, not very far from the Nigerian border.

They had arrived there exactly to avoid being caught in the Boko Haram atrocities, but ended up being killed anyway, as the terrorists continue to expand their quest to establish a caliphate in the Lake Chad Basin.

Boko Haram has wreaked havoc in Cameroon and Nigeria in recent weeks and months, killing many people in suicide bombings and gun attacks and putting a lie to claims by Nigerian leader Muhammadu Buhari that the ISIS’ partners in death in West and Central Africa had been defeated.

A landmine on Tuesday killed a Cameroonian soldier. Several bomb blasts have occurred in recent days and weeks in Nigeria and Cameroon.

In all, Boko Haram has massacred over 25, 000 people in Nigeria since 2009 and more than two million people displaced there are still in IDPs’ camps. Thousands of people have also been kidnapped and many remain missing till date, including more than100 Chibok girls abducted from their school dormitory in Chibok in 2014.

In Cameroon, more than 2000 civilians and hundreds of soldiers and policemen have been killed by Boko Haram since 2014 in over 500 suicide bombings and gun attacks.

Despite reassurances by longtime President of Cameroon, Paul Biya, that the terrorists who pledged allegiance of the Islamic State in 2015 would soon be wiped out, killings and displacements of civilians have continued.

Mr. Biya, who has been in power for 35 years and spends months on vacation abroad, has not set foot in Cameroon’s far north even though his countrymen have been experiencing hell brought to them by Boko Haram.

Worse, when over 30 Cameroonian soldiers were killed by Boko Haram, and their bodies brought close to the Presidential palace in Cameroon, Mr. Biya did not even attend an event organised to honour them.

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Simon Ateba

22.Jun.2017

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Consternations gripped inhabitations of Kumba when the police rescue unit invaded the home of a Common Lawyer, Verine Ekole, to chase away a mysterious swarm of bees, which had taken over the residence of the advocate.
Before seeking the intervention of the police, the legal counsel tried unsuccessful to cause the bees to leave his domicile.

At one moment, the man of law vacated his house, hoping to return after the bees would have left to no avail.

He then decided to alert the police rescue unit as the bees engulfed his compound.

As the vehicle of the fire fighters arrived the lawyer’s Sonangfang residence, scores of commercial bike riders watched in awe from a distance how the soldiers battled the bees.
The scene has provoked public discussions as to the origin of the mysterious bees.
Rumours are already making the rounds that the appearance of the bees is not unconnected with the  ongoing Anglophone crisis and what has become known today as the ‘Amba Bees.’
Barrister Verine Ekole is one of the lawyers defending the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, PCC, Rt. Rev. Samuel Fonki Forba and Catholic Bishops in court.
In the last Court appearance relating to a suit at the instance of a Consortium of Parents, the man of law was one of those who accompanied the Lead Counsel for the clergy, Barrister Eta Bissong Jr in praying the Court to dismiss the case following the absence of the complainants during the hearing. 

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Abeh Valery

12.Jun.2017

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Cameroon's all time best Sports commentator is no more. Zachary Nkwo passed away in the early hours of Sunday June 4 at the Mount Mary Hospital in Buea. His brother, Prof Victor Julius Ngoh confirmed Uncle Zach had been sick and hospitalized for 10 before his demise.

News of his death has shocked the Cameroon media landscape owing to the fact that he was considered a legendary professional. Uncle is Zach is remembered for his undying passion for the profession. He thrilled his audience of the then Radio Cameroon with impeccable sports commentaries spanning a decade. Even at his age, 69 he could remember the exact timing of each goal scored in big games.  He would paint a picture in the minds of listeners  to the extent they could see themselves in the game though away from the pitch.

Zachary Nkwo's love for the game and commentaries would make him continue on a private basis even after his retirement from state media in 2003. One of those he inspired, Ignatius Fon Echikiye wrote a book, " Zachary Nkwo: The Ultimate Commentary"  to honour the man whose works still stand the test of time.

He is missed by his family, friends and the entire media and Sports corps

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05.Jun.2017

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South Africa grabbed international attention earlier this year with images of angry demonstrators attacking foreign residents and their businesses. This type of xenophobic violence, analysts say, is largely driven by high unemployment, inequality and frustration with the government’s failure to provide everyone with basic services.

But like those enduring challenges, xenophobic attacks are also proving hard to wipe out. The nation has seen eruptions of major anti-foreigner violence in 2008, 2014, 2015, 2016, and earlier this year. Members of immigrant communities and watchdog groups say xenophobic violence is a daily occurrence.

Sharon Ekambaram leads the refugee and migrant rights program for Lawyers for Human Rights. She said her rights group hears daily accounts of crimes against immigrants, and South African authorities are often reluctant to intervene when foreign nationals are targeted.

“It’s not only my opinion, but it is well documented,” she said. “... And these acts of violence are a combination of very, very reckless statements that have been made by politicians, unsubstantiated statements using foreign nationals as scapegoats for their failure to implement policies and deliver services that they are constitutionally obliged to do.”

In central Johannesburg, Abdirizak Ali Osman, secretary-general of the Somali Community Board, agrees.

“Xenophobia in South Africa has never ended, and I think for me it is never going to end,” he said, rattling off a number of recent reports his office in central Johannesburg has received of lootings, robberies, and threats.

“It happens on a daily basis, on a very small scale, in different parts of the country.”

Scared and silent

Foreign shopkeepers say they are regularly targeted because of their nationality. One, Fatuma Hassan, said she has taken to wearing a face-covering niqab so that she can speak freely about the threats she faces.

“Xenophobia not one time, two times, three times - several times” she said. “Up to now, they came to me, took $300 from my shop. Now my brother came through to here, he told me that they looted, even today in my shop.”

Another Somali businessman, Soweto shopowner Mustafa Omar Caddow, said he recently stood by helplessly as a rampaging mob took at least $30,000 worth of appliances from his shop and then trashed the place.

“This month, in the evening around eight, the people who was destructing, they came, and they looted the shop,” he said. “They break, and they took everything. There is nothing left.”

Safety in numbers

Here in the predominantly Somali suburb of Mayfair, residents say they feel safety in numbers. They need it, they say, because they do not feel the government has listened to their suggestions on how to improve safety.

“I was expecting that at least they will say, we are going to take care of you from now on, so this will not happen,” said Caddow. “They do not say.They say, “Actually, we can do nothing.”

South African police did not answer repeated calls from VOA seeking comment.

Caddow, whose wife and children still live in war-torn, unstable Somalia, said he longs to be reunited with his loved ones after nearly eight years apart.
But, he said, it just isn’t safe.

voa

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Rita Akana

25.May.2017

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The U.N. refugee agency is calling on Cameroon to stop forcibly deporting refugees to Nigeria in violation of international refugee law and a tripartite agreement recently signed by UNHCR, Nigeria, and Cameroon to ensure voluntary returns.

UNHCR says Cameroon is not living up to neither the spirit nor the letter of its agreements to protect refugees. So far this year the agency says Cameroon has forcefully returned more than 2,600 refugees to Nigerian border villages against their will.

UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch says in one incident on March 17, more than 955 refugees were pushed across the border into Nigeria where their safety cannot be guaranteed.

“Inside Nigeria, UNHCR teams have heard and documented accounts about Cameroonian troops returning refugees against their will, without allowing them time to collect their belongings.... In Nigeria’s Borno State some refugees were rounded up during a military offensive against Boko Haram insurgents in the Mandara Mountains on the Cameroonian side of the border and were taken in trucks to a camp for displaced people in Banki ... in Nigeria,” Baloch said.

Balloch told VOA the Cameroonian military has been forcibly returning Nigerian refugees sporadically since last June.

“Some of the reasons being cited is security. But, those who become the target of these forced returns are refugees who are fleeing Boko Haram inside Nigeria … who are fleeing war and persecution.… It is not the right time for them to return,” Baloch said.

The UNHCR praises the generosity of the government of Cameroon and local communities that are hosting more than 85,000 Nigerian refugees. But it urges the government to honor its obligations under international, regional, and Cameroonian law not to forcibly deport refugees to a country where their lives may be at risk.

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Rita Akana

21.Mar.2017

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