Military Killings in Santa Sub Division: One of the Victims narrowly escapes

• Family members flee as military intensify Manhunts
• Security forces storm hospital, arrest and kill suspects 
• Fru Ndi Reacts bitterly to the military brutality  

      Two victims of the Menka Pinyin massacre incident perpetrated by Cameroonian military are reported to have escape and are alive but their where about remained unknown as security forces intensify manhunt on them. The victims TCR learn are Ndiforwah Joseph Alloh and Alondi Moses Senwune all children from the subdivision.

It should be recalled that on Friday may 22^nd 2018, forces of law and order carried  an operation in a motel in Menka a village in Santa Subdivision and 32 people mostly young people were killed.

TCR gather from sources in the village that 3 men alleged to be leading a defense wing of the Anglophone struggle came to the village and told the Fon that they were there to recruit young people in the village to protect the village against military attack since the military has been burning villages and looting properties as they search for separatist fighters. “We never knew that it was a trapped to kill all young people in this village” the source told TCR

Anglophone Crisis: Foreigners Again Warned against Travelling to NW/SW Regions

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has advised all foreign citizens against traveling to Cameroon’s English speaking and Far North regions due to persistent clashes between military and armed Anglophone separatist fighters.

In the warning alert made public July 6, the FCO said armed Anglophone separatist groups had in mid June, erected barricades on several spots along the Buea – Muyuka – Kumba road in the South West Region for several days. During which, travelers were stranded and spontaneous clashes ensued which left several casualties.

This follows violent and deadly clashes between demonstrators and the Cameroonian security forces in the North West and South West regions in September and October 2017.

FCO also revealed there have been numerous suicide attacks since 2016 which have resulted in over 200 dead in the Far North region. “Key targets have been large open markets, hotels, parks and sporting venues. There have also been hostages taken and heavy gunfights reported in Babouang and Mbarang in Adamawa region (Cameroon)”.

In the end, the FCO urge nationals to avoid all travels to these regions and contact the UK government in need of emergency help.

In Spite of Anglophone Crisis: President Biya Announces Date for Presidential Elections

Cameroon will hold presidential elections on October 7, head of state Paul Biya said in a decree issued on Monday.

Elected in 1982, the 85-year-old is Africa's oldest and longest-serving president, but has yet to say whether he will bid for another term, although his supporters are already urging him to put his name forward.

The vote will take place in a context of mounting problems in the oil-rich state, which faces an insurgency by Anglophone separatists in the west and bloody incursions by Boko Haram jihadists in the north.

The main opposition, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), has already designated its candidate, Joshua Osih.

 Other declared candidates include Akere Muna, a lawyer and former vice president of Transparency International, and Maurice Kamto, head of the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC).

Earlier Monday, residents in Buea, the main city in the predominantly Anglophone Southwest Region, said gunfire broke out in the administrative district and lasted several hours, marking a further escalation in the separatist crisis.

Anglophone Crisis: Ghost Town Battle Completely Locks Down Buea

Þ Separatist Fighters Faceoff with Military after Blocking

      Entry Point into Buea

Þ Mayor Ekema’s War against Ghost Town Allegedly Sparks Unrest

Þ Buea Witnesses Worst Paralysis Ever

      The topsy-turvy resulting from the struggle by Anglophone separatists to restore the independence of the so-called state of Ambazonia, might have gripped Buea recently, but there are reports that, the situation in the chief town of the Southwest region on Monday July 9, 2018, was unprecedentedly scary.

According to locals, there was no sign of life  

TCR gathered that there was totally no business in the city as every shop remained permanently shut down in most parts of the Southwest region and in Buea, in particular.

Even the circulation of commercial as well as private motorbikes and taxis, was at near zero as every resident of the city feared for their lives and thus remained indoors.

Everyone was stunned that the ghost town in Buea was even the most intense ever, despite threats issued against advocates of ghost town operations by the Mayor of the Buea council, Ekema Patrick.

Reports said that the complete paralysis of the city of Buea was further instigated by clashes between defense and security forces and suspected separatist fighters in Mile 17 and Muea, as the latter blocked the entrance into the city of Buea.

TCR learnt from concordant sources that on Friday, Mayor Patrick Ekema, threatened to close all businesses that would remain closed during Monday’s ghost town. He even promised to go round the council buildings that are housing shops and businesses, just to ensure compliance with his instructions.

Reports said that at least two police officers were killed in Monday's violence in the cities of Buea and Kumba.

They are the Police Commissioner of Kumba City and a police inspector on duty in Buea.

At press time Tuesday, TCR had not had a balanced sheet of casualties from last Monday’s standoffs, but unofficial sources talked of a dozen deaths among the fighters and security and defence forces.

Residents said that over the preceding weekend end, calls for intensive ghost town in the cities of Buea, Limbe and Kumba were made by Anglophone separatists. There was heavy mobilization of the military to perhaps, squash attempts by anyone to enforce the call for ghost town in the said cities.

A fracas between the military and alleged separatist fighters therefore erupted in Buea for example, where the suspected fighters blocked the entrance into Mile 16. Vehicles were also burnt therein.

Anglophone Crisis: Defense Minister Reacts to Allegations of Presence of French Troops in Troubled Regions

In front of Members of Parliament at the Ngoa-Ekelle glasshouse in Yaoundé on Thursday, July 5, 2018, Minister Joseph Beti Assomo answered pertinent questions in relation to the crisis in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon.

According to reports, this was triggered by a video posted on social networks July 2018 by the Paul Ayah Abine Foundation, which offers humanitarian aid to refugees and displaced persons from the crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

In the video, a woman in a hospital ward with her left leg bandaged says she was shot by a white man at her home in Ekona, Southwest Region. This testimony had spread like wildfire causing many people to assert bluntly that the French military is fighting alongside the Cameroonian defense and security forces against the struggle for independence by separatists in the English speaking regions.

During a session of oral questions to members of the Cameroonian government on Thursday, July 5, 2018 at the National Assembly in Yaoundé, an MP asked the Minister of Defense if the information on the presence of French soldiers in the South West region is true.

“There is no French force either in the Southwest or in the North West. The crisis in these two regions is a Cameroonian crisis, so nothing can authorize or justify such a presence” replied Joseph Beti Assomo. He took the opportunity to denounce images on social media that he said are aimed at conveying misinformation around the crisis.

According to our source, the former governor of the littoral region refused to answer a question about the alleged use of chemical weapons in the struggle to contain separatists’ activities.

It should be recalled that he French government has in several occasions, tipped dialogue as the ultimate means of dealing with the perennial crisis in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon.

Meanwhile, there are some opinion holders who think that France has a strategic role to play in ending the crisis given that it was one of the colonial powers of Cameroon.

By LVV

Bamenda: Taxis, Motorbikes Burnt as Punishment to Violators of Ghost Town

Tensions also abounded in some parts of the Northwest region where separatist fighters were reportedly in action.

According to sources, the fighters confiscated and burnt motorbikes and taxis that were in circulation while Bamenda and some other parts of the Northwest region, were observing a ghost town declared by Anglophone separatists.

TCR learnt that at least two taxis were burnt somewhere at Mile 6 Nkwen, Bamenda, and that the intervention of security operatives led to a standoff with the fighters.

Reports said the fighters later escaped into the bushes after causing untold economic damage to properties of violators of ghost town operations that are perpetrated by them (Separatists).

Ghost town operations have lately become very intense in most parts of the Northwest region and especially in Bamenda that is the economic hub of the region.

TCR learnt that even locals that resorted to serious farming on ghost town days, have shied away from that habit as reports said that some of them have been warned by separatist fighters, perpetrators of ghost town operations.

There was very little circulation of motorbikes and taxis in the early hours of the morning in Bamenda, and the circulation even grew more timid in the later hours of the morning after news had spread that some taxis had been set ablaze in Nkwen.

These incidents have caused untold panic in denizens of the troubled regions and there are even more fears that this could eventually lead to more intense ghost towns in the future, if the situation is not adequately handled by competent authorities.

Despite the tensions in both regions, the emergency humanitarian assistance plan announced by the government of Cameroon is expected to enter into force this week on the special orders of the head of state, Paul Biya.

Recall that Minister Paul Atanga Nji, heads the committee that is charged with the implementation of the plan in the crisis hit regions.

By Landzeh Verla

Alleged Separatist Fighters Abduct Retired Police Officer

TCR has gathered that separatist fighters have abducted a retired police officer at his home in the Southwest region of Cameroon.

According to reports, the abduction happened on the night of Saturday, July 07, 2018 at about 9pm at the Fiango district in Kumba, capital of Meme division, South West Region.

Under the threat of firearms, Christophe Yankep, the retired police officer was taken under the helpless gaze of his wife and children.

“Dad was thrown into a car by people who came to arrest him. They left a number indicating that they can be reached through it. They also forbade us to contact the police. They threatened to burn us and set the house on fire if we tried to cooperate with the police,” said a member of the abducted man’s family.

He was then driven by his captors to an unknown destination.

In recent times, Kidnapping has reportedly been adopted as one of the modes of operation of separatists operating in the South West and North West, two regions of Cameroon plagued by a socio-political crisis for close to two years now.

There are reports that some hostages are released after payment of ransoms, and that others are simply murdered even without demand for a ransom.

Crise sociopolitique: Plan d’assistance humanitaire d’urgence pour la zone anglophone

· Près de 800 millions mobilisés en deux semaines

· Des réfugiés anglophones au Nigéria émettent des conditions pour accepter l’aide de Paul Biya

   Les réfugiés et demandeurs d’asile du Southern Cameroon basés au Nigéria se veulent formels : « nous n’accepterons aucun don ni de visite d’aucun membre du Gouvernement de la République du Cameroun », font-ils savoir dans une lettre signée le 29 juin dernier. Pour ces hommes et femmes forcés à quitter leur territoire, ce don du gouvernement de la République du Cameroun est un cadeau empoisonné.

Dans leur correspondance, les réfugiés du Southern Cameroon expliquent le refus de l’aide gouvernementale par des massacres d’une centaine de civils, les tortures, les viols, les arrestations, les assassinats ciblés perpétrés par l’armée du « French Cameroon », comme ils appellent. Ils accusent également cette armée d’avoir brûlé une soixantaine de villages.

Aussi exigent-ils du gouvernement camerounais comme garantie d’un retour au Southern Cameroon de déclarer la fin de la guerre qu’il a engagé contre le peuple du Southern Cameroon, de démilitariser le Southern Cameroon, d’engager des négociations en vue de la fin des conflits en présence de l’Union africaine, des Nations Unies et d’autres parties sur un territoire neutre, d’accorder l’amnistie à tous les exilés.

Anglophone Crisis: Police declare Chenwi Bertrand wanted over school disruption

Police in Bamenda the chief town of  North West Region  are currently searching for Chenwi Bertrand  a Physics teacher at St Albert comprehensive high school Bafut for allegedly preventing students from attending classes in protest for the  release of colleagues held under detention since the outbreak of the Anglophone crisis in October 2016.

TCR gathered that Chenwi Bertrand has been an underground advocate for the reforms of the English speaking subsystem of education in Cameroon and was at the forefront of the teacher strike that started in 2016.  

Police are accusing Bertrand for refusing to teach and calling on students to boycott classes until his colleagues and other Anglophones arrested and held under detention as a result of the ongoing Anglophone crisis are released a crime if caught, he could be charge with terrorism and public disorder.    

TCR contacted the commissioner of the Bamenda Judicial police, commissioner Ade Francis but he refuse commenting on the story claiming the situation was still under investigation and not yet a subject for public consumption or debate.

TCR Visited St Albert comprehensive college to get details from the principal but the principal referred us to the vice principal who said Bertrand obtained permission from school on the  29th of March and was supposed to be back on the 23rd of April but since then he has not resume teaching. The VP described him as a committed activist of the Anglophone cause. “He has been refusing to teach since some teachers decided to call off the strike in 2017, he is saying that it is unfair for them to go on with classes when some of their colleagues are under detention and very little reforms have also been done concerning the English system of education by the Government” the VP said. Ask if he is aware of the whereabouts of Bertrand, the VP said “No” but added that he has gotten information from family members that police have been coming to their house in search for him but family members themselves are not aware of his whereabouts.