Legendary local football Club, Union Sportive de Douala has been relegated to inferior Elite two football, after 63 years of their existence. The six times Cup of Cameroon winners and 1979 CAF Champions League winners were defeated 1-0 Sunday August 29 by defending champions PWD in Bamenda.
The last set of games in the Elite 1 Championship were played over the weekend and the front pages carry a very touching story. Union Sportive of Douala has been relegated as per the league standings.
The club’s hopes were shattered by a 77th minute goal from PWD of Bamenda’s Ze Abessolo after their match on Sunday August 29 at the Yong Sport Center in Bamenda.
The defeat left the six times Cup of Cameroon champions with 18 only points after 22 games –four victories, six draw games, ten defeats to occupy the 10th position in pool A out of an 11 team standing.
The 1979 CAF Champions League winners whose last silverware came in 2012 are the fourth team to be sent to the second tier this season after the likes of New Stars of Douala, Yaounde II FC and Panthere of Nde.
Union Sportive of Douala is the only first division football team that had never known relegation since its creation in 1955 in Newbell. Since 1958, the club has been playing first division football and has within this period won the league five times. It has also won the Cup of Cameroon six times and also have a history on the continent. Sunday’s twist has thus been considered as the first biggest casualty in this decade.
Their relegation into Division two has left thousands of the club’s supporters very disgruntled and frustrated. Many are pointing accusing fingers to club management for what they term inadequacies in the running of the club.
In recent years, other emblematic clubs such as Canon and Tonnerre of Yaounde as well as PWD of Bamenda tasted the furry of the Elite 2 competition in Cameroon.
Ariane Foguem
The reconstruction of the regions badly hit by crisis especially the North West and South West with the Anglophone crisis and the Far North with Boko Haram insurgencies will be given special attention during the preparation of the 2022 State Budget.
The information was disclosed by the President of the Republic, Paul Biya in a circular outlining the general budget policy guidelines as well as practical measures for preparing the State budget for the 2022 financial year, signed Monday August 30.
The reconstruction of the North West, South West and Far North regions of Cameroon are projects that feature in the country’s economic, social and cultural development policy, underpinned by the 2020-2030 National Development Strategy (NDS30) which operationalizes the second phase of Vision 2035.
As such, the preparation of the State budget for the 2022 financial year appears as a continuation of the implementation of the nation’s development policy.
Boko Haram insurgency and its consequences
As far as reconstructing the Far North – Cameroon’s poorest region is concerned, the biggest challenge remains the persistent and recurrent deadly attacks from the Boko Haram Islamic sect. Cameroon has been officially at war with Boko Haram since May 2014. The fight has exacerbated the already-delicate economic situation and placed under strain traditional socio-economic roles.
More than 3,000 civilians and soldiers have been killed, in addition to the more than 1,000 people kidnapped in the region and huge sums of money demanded as ransoms to secure their release. Houses, schools and other important infrastructures have equally been destroyed in the course of the crisis.
The Anglophone crisis
As for the North West and South West regions, the Anglophone crisis has wreaked havoc in these two regions for over four years. Starting as a low-scale insurgency, the conflict spread to most parts of the Anglophone regions within a year. By the summer of 2019, the government controlled the major cities and parts of the countryside, while the Ambazonian nationalists held parts of the countryside and regularly appeared in the major cities. A year later, clearly-defined frontlines had emerged, sometimes with a tacit mutual understanding between the belligerents on who controls which areas; while Cameroon would raid separatist-controlled towns and villages, it would not seek to outright recapture them, focusing instead on securing the major urban areas.
Over 4,000 people have been killed and 765,000 displaced, of whom 60,000 are refugees in Nigeria. According to the UN, three of the Anglophone regions’ four million people are affected by the humanitarian crisis while about 800,000 children are out of school as a good number of school infrastructures have been reduced to nothing.
The crisis has equally dealt with the country’s local economy. In June 2018, Cameroon Development Corporation, the State-owned company with 22,000 employees, declared the conflict could lead to the loss of 5,000 jobs on the short term. In July 2018, Cameroonian NGO Human Is Right reported that the war had caused a 70 percent increase in unemployment in the agricultural sector. The palm oil and cocoa sectors in South West region had taken a severe blow, with State-owned company Pamol abandoning plantations in some areas. The private company Telcar Cocoa reported that the cocoa production had fallen 80 percent. The NGO suggested that companies make deals with the separatists in order to safeguard their facilities. By 2019, annual tax revenues in the Anglophone regions had dropped from US$800,000 to US$1,000, and by 2020 almost all tax officials had fled their crossing posts on the Nigerian border.
Presidential Plan for the Reconstruction and Development of the North West and South West regions
In an attempt to appease the anger of some English-speaking Cameroonians, the Head of State put in place a plan to rebuild the two crisis-hit regions in what was coined as the Presidential Plan for the Reconstruction and Development of the North West and South regions.
The initiative that is spearheaded by Minister Paul Tasong seeks to rebuild houses, villages, infrastructures, bridges, farmlands amongst others destroyed in the course of the Anglophone crisis.
The plan was highly acclaimed but owing to the persistent climate of insecurity that reigns parts of both regions, its fruits are yet to be seen.
Ariane Foguem
Twenty-three internally displaced school-going children from the crisis-hit North West and South West regions have received didactic material donated to them by the Cameroon Association of English-speaking journalists, CAMASEJ Douala branch.
The handing over of the material including books, bags, pens and pencils took place Saturday August 28 at the Kuwait neighbourhood in Douala II subdivision, where the beneficiaries reside since their migration to the country's economic capital.
According to Maureen Ndi, current president of CAMASEJ Douala, the initiative falls within the association’s outreach programme dubbed CAMASEJ D education promotion drive- a humanitarian touch of the Douala-based English-speaking journalists to carter for the less privileged. The books and other school related material offered the children was partly provided by the CEO and founder of the United Action for the Underprivileged Foundation, former Member of Parliament Fritz Etoke.
After receiving the donation, the children thanked the Douala-based branch association for the material support. Some of them explained the extent to which it will be of help to them. "The money I was supposed to use in buying books, I will use it to purchase other school needs like sandals and more…” Nesla Ngong, one of the beneficiaries who recently passed the GCE ordinary level exams told CAMASEJ Douala members present.
The IDPs took the opportunity to voice some of the difficulties they face in their host city. Some mentioned constraints in affording school needs, high rents, lack of food items and shelter.
CAMASEJ Douala team on the ground through its president, Maureen Ndi used the occasion to school the female children on sex with focus on early pregnancies and the males on how to desist from becoming a delinquent or drug addict, societal ills that are very common with school-going children.
Maureen Ndi equally disclosed that the initiative will last. She and the members plan to extend similar help not only to distress internally displaced children in Douala but also to families who cannot meet up financially with the needs of their children and to orphans of a fallen former colleague, Jack Ekwe Kingue who died following an illness.
Many, especially colleagues have described the CAMASEJ Douala branch education promotion drive as one that is worthy of being applauded, given that it will in one way or the other reduce the burden of the parents and guardians of the first set of beneficiaries, few days to school reopening.
Ariane Foguem
A Catholic priest at the Mamfe diocese in Manyu Division, restive South West region of Cameroon has been kidnapped by a group of young men who 'identified themselves as separatists'. According to officials of the diocese, the boys are asking for a ransom of over 20 million FCFA.
The Vicar General of the Mamfe diocese, Mgr Julius Agbortoko Agbor is the latest victim of the ongoing over four-year long Anglophone crisis rocking the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon.
According to a statement issued by Fr Sebastian Sinju, Chancellor of the Mamfe diocese, the prelate was abducted Sunday August 29 while on a pastoral visitation to Kokobuma, a locality in the Meme Division, South West region by young men who 'identified themselves as separatist fighters'.
The said men are asking over 20 million FCFA to release the priest. Describing how his abduction happened, Fr Sebastian Sinju says in his statement that Mgr Julius Agbortoko was taken away 30 minutes upon his arrival at the Major Seminary compound.
He indicates that the fighters bumped into the said compound and made their way straight to the residence of the Bishop where they noticed the presence of the Vicar General. Considering him as much younger and stronger than the ‘frail’ Bishop Emeritus Lysinge, they took him away.
“I call on all of you to invoke the One Family Spirit and pray unanimously for his safety and his subsequent release…” Fr Sebastian wrote.
He has equally used the opportunity to denounce recurrent attacks on the Church in general and that of the Mamfe priest in particular and pleaded with stakeholders in the ongoing Anglophone crisis to ‘kindly’ exclude the church in their affairs ‘for God’s sake’.
This abduction is the latest in a series of abductions and attacks suffered by the Church in the course of the ongoing-armed conflict in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon that has displaced more than 700,000 civilians and forced more than 60,000 across the border to Nigeria, according to a United Nations report of April 2021.
Ariane Foguem
The body of a 12-year-old girl was found hanging from a tree under mysterious circumstances in the premises of the St Theresa of the Child Jesus Cathedral in Garoua, North region of Cameroon Friday August 27.
Shock and consternation has gripped the family members and acquaintances of a teenager identified as Jessica whose body was discovered hanging on a tree in the courtyard of a cathedral in Garoua.
If the discovery has shocked more than one, the fact that the house of God is involved in it has left many speechless. The little girl’s lifeless body was discovered around 2pm Friday August 27 by security guards at the Cathedral.
According to a report aired on Canal 2 International, the girl and the mother used to sell at the market and few hours before the discovery, she and her mother had shared a meal.
The circumstances that led to the sudden and early death of little Jessica is the puzzle security elements will have to solve. After a lab test was conducted on the child’s body, it was established that her neck had been squeezed.
TFY news reported that the teenager was raped and hung on a tree to fake a suicide. At the end of Investigations opened, it will be duly established whether her death was due to suicide or not.
Ariane Foguem
The Government of Cameroon has announced plans to improve the process of producing a National ID card in the country. The announcement was made by the Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh while inaugurating the ultramodern center for the production of Passports in the city capital, Yaounde.
Getting a National ID card in Cameroon, whether new or in case of loss, theft or damage will soon seize from being a nightmare. This comes after the Government, through the Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngo Ngo hinted on the speeding up of the production process of this important document.
Ferdinand Ngo Ngo was speaking during the official launch of the country’s ultramodern National Center for the production of Biometric Passports in Yaounde earlier this week. The member of Government said that after the speeding up of the passport production process –now available in not more than 48 hours, the National ID card is next in line.
To a Cameroonian, a national identity card is like the password to an e-mail account. They are valid for 10 years and without one, the person is in for big trouble – especially when travelling around the country and moving at night.
Law No. 90-42 of 19 December 1990 says “whoever does not possess a national identity card shall be punished with imprisonment for from three months to one year or with a fine of 50,000 to 100,000 francs CFA or with both such imprisonment and fine”. Ironically, the process of getting this indispensable document has been one of the most frustrating and stressful experiences for Cameroonians.
After spending the whole day at a Police station due to the long queue, the applicant is not sure to get a temporal document. It is common to spend days waiting for public officials to sign and issue the document which is valid only for three months. The temporary document can be used until the permanent ID is printed. But it has limitations. For instance, a holder cannot use it to do international bank transactions or even for hefty national transactions. As if that was not enough, files often go missing, forcing many to start the tedious bureaucratic process all over.
In a bit to fight against identity theft and document fraud, the Government digitized the identification system in the country in 2016. Many thought this could equally help in reducing the strenuous process of getting the document- but it was never so. Nothing in the long process really changed. They are usually printed after three months, though some may take up to six months and even a year, and are collected from the police station where they were applied for.
One Yaounde resident who chose to remain anonymous told Agence Cameroun Presse she almost celebrated when she finally got her ‘laissé passer’. The news of the improvement of the production of ID cards has thus been received with much relief and great expectancy.
Ariane Foguem
Cameroonian and Nigerian authorities have announced efforts to jointly fight armed separatists operating in both countries. The commitment was taken at the end of the eighth session of the Cameroon-Nigeria trans-border security meeting in Abuja, Nigeria.
The meeting was convened after Anglophone separatists in Cameroon and the Indigenous People of Biafra in Nigeria said they would join forces to fight for independence.
Speaking at the start of the three-day come together, retired Major General Babagana Monguno, National Security Adviser to Nigerian President Mohammadu Buhari, said secessionist groups are uniting to destabilize both nations.
“Another emerging concern is the attempt by secessionist groups in Nigeria to form alliances with secessionist groups in Cameroon in order to destabilize both countries…” The retired General indicated adding that Nigeria will never serve as a staging ground by any of such secessionist groups for whatsoever purpose including the destabilization of a friendly and sovereign country like Cameroon.
“In addition, we would work closely together to ensure that any real or perceived attempt to form any alliances between secessionist groups in Nigeria and Cameroon are decisively dealt with," Monguno further said.
Cameroon’s Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji who led the delegation to Nigeria said militaries of the two countries are already at work to map out ways of stopping separatists operating in Cameroon and in Nigeria. He added that jobs will be provided to people living around the border areas to improve on their livelihoods as it is advanced that poverty has forced many of them to join separatist groups.
"To eradicate trans-border insecurity in all its forms or, I believe, to reduce it to minimum, our security forces must intensify intelligence gathering and information sharing. It must include measures to check religious radicalism, foster education and promote economic and social development projects along our common border," Minister Paul Atanga said.
Cameroon shares a 1,975-kilometer-yet-to-be-demarcated-border with Nigeria. Militaries of the two countries have been jointly fighting violent crises since 2010. Nigeria’s northeastern states of Borno and Adamawa and Cameroon's Far North region on Nigeria’s border report regular Boko Haram terrorist attacks.
Cameroon says separatists use porous borders to import weapons through Nigeria and collaboration between the Ambazonia Defense Forces and Indigenous People of Biafra is making the security situation very uncertain.
Few days ago, the Intelligent Bureau of the Nigerian Police in Abuja presented some armed dealers, among them, an Ambazonia agent identified as Ntui Lambert who was arrested in Ikom, Crossriver state in Nigeria. The Nigerian Police said his mother is from Cameroon while his father hails from Nigeria. The Police are exploiting his phone to track down his associates.
Looking at this recent news, the Cameroon-Nigeria Trans border Security Committee created in 2012 in Nigeria to strengthen security in both countries thus appears more than relevant and the implementation of the resolutions arrived at the end of this year’s session a matter of urgency.
Ariane Foguem
The corpse of a young man alleged to be suffering from epilepsy was retrieved from a stream around the Presbyterian Church Bomaka, a locality in the Boua sub-division, South West region of Cameroon early this Wednesday August 25.
The family of a young man whose corpse was retrieved from a stream in the Bomaka locality in Buea Wednesday August 25 is still in shock following the sudden and tragic death of their child.
According to Cameroon News Agency, the corpse of the victim whose only name Agence Cameroon Presse got as Armstrong was discovered by a young girl who went to the stream for laundry.
The mother of Armstrong disclosed that her boy came to help her at the farm the previous day. After working, they returned to her house in Bomaka in the evening. She is said to have asked him not to visit the stream to bathe as usual because he is an epilepsy patient.
Unfortunately for her, due to tiredness from the farm and cooking, she slept off. Armstrong’s mother added that though she did not hear from him again, she thought he must have returned to his house in Molyko. Only to wake up with the news of his death.
The number of corpses retrieved from rivers, lakes and streams in the country’s big cities have been on the rise in the past months. Most of them are reported to be criminal acts while others are either intentional or accidental.
Ariane Foguem
The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Muhammadu Buhari has re-echoed his commitment to barring secessionist groups from using his country as a staging ground to destabilize Cameroon.
The pledge was emphasized by the National Security Adviser to Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, retired Major General Mohammed Babagana Monguno at the start of the eight session of the Cameroon-Nigeria trans-border security committee that ends this Wednesday in Abuja.
Prior to the close of the session, the Nigerian Government through Major General Mohammed Babagana reiterated its stands to combat separatist activities aiming to destabilize Cameroon. Speaking to delegates at the session, the retired General disclosed there was an attempt by secessionist groups in Nigeria to form alliances with those in Cameroon in a bit to destabilize both territories, a situation he said will never be allowed to happen on the Nigerian soil.
“Another emerging concern is the attempt by secessionist groups in Nigeria to form alliances with secessionist groups in Cameroon in order to destabilize both countries. Let me reemphasize during the 6th session in 2019, his Excellency President Buhari reassures you that Nigeria’s territory will never be used as a heaven or staging area by any group of secessionist to destabilize another friendly and sovereign country.”
He proceeded by indicating that plans to put up such alliances will be duly frustrated. “In addition, we will work closely together to ensure that any perceived challenge to form any alliances between secessionist groups in Nigeria and Cameroon are decisively dealt with.”
As to what concerns the close to five years Anglophone crisis rocking the North West and South West regions of Cameroon, the retried General said Nigeria will continue supporting moves by the Government of Cameroon and encourage a ceasefire for peace to reign.
“Furthermore, we will continue to support the efforts of the Cameroonian authorities by engaging all agreed parties to deescalate security concerns in the North West and South West regions of the country.”
As indicated above, the session ends this Wednesday with both parties expected to come up with a blue print that outlines new ways of reinforcing security on their border and empowering neighbouring communities.
The Cameroonian delegation is led by Camerooon’s Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji.
Persistent threats of terrorism at Cameroon/Nigeria border
Speaking to delegations at the 8th session, the National Security Adviser to Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari disclosed that since the 7th Session took place in Yaounde, Cameroon from the 3rd to the 6th July 2019, series of transnational security issues have either morphed or emerged across common borders that need to be addressed.
According to him, the most dominant transnational security issue remains the threat of terrorism perpetrated by the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs).
According to him, these terrorist groups continue to exploit the porous border areas to disrupt the livelihoods of innocent citizens in their communities.
“At this point, I am glad to acknowledge that the close counterterrorism collaboration between our two countries has significantly curtailed the activities of these terrorists as well as other forms of criminality,” he added and thus charged the 8th Session of the Cameroon-Nigeria Trans border Security Committee meeting to produce a comprehensive communique that would provide workable solutions to the current and future trans-border security challenges.
Ariane Foguem
A Red Cross worker identified as Diomede Nzobambona in his early sixties has succumbed to injuries sustained during an attack in Bamenda, chief town of the restive North West region of Cameroon, the aid international organization has said.
In a statement, the body says the Canadian delegate died on Monday August 23, following injuries he sustained the day before, during an attack in Bamenda.
“It is with great sadness that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirms that one of its staff died on August 23 following injuries he sustained the day before during an attack in Bamenda.” The statement partly reads.
“Words are not enough to express our immense sadness nor to soothe the grief of his family and loved ones. We send them our sincere condolences and the expression of our deepest sympathy.” Markus Brudermann, head of the delegation for the ICRC in Cameroon said in the statement.
The late Diomede Nzobambona was a Canadian delegate working in the fields of water and sanitation. He had worked for the ICRC since 2003 and had been under contract with the Canadian Red Cross between 2007 to 2012.
He was in Bamenda, chief town of Cameroon crisis-hit North West region to provide humanitarian assistance to communities affected by the over four years long Anglophone crisis rocking the region.
According to the statement from the International Committee of the Red Cross, the circumstances of his death have not been clarified and they cannot give any information. The aid organization maintained that its priority is to support those who have been affected by Diomede’s sudden death, especially his family, relatives and colleagues.
Diomede is not the first aid worker to die in Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis-hit regions. Few days ago, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Cameroon said four workers have been killed since 2019, meanwhile in the last 16 months, over 19 incidents of abductions involving humanitarians were reported in the said regions.
Unending insurgency in Anglophone regions
Ambazonia separatist militia groups have been waging an armed insurgency in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon to get the independence of both regions for close to five years now.
The latter have been battling with Government forces in attacks that have displaced more than 700,000 civilians and forced another 63,800 across the border to Nigeria, according to a United Nations report dated April 2021. Thousands have been reportedly killed in these attacks.
The latest killing was perpetrated in a church in Bali, in the Bui Division, North West region at the Presbyterian Church Ntafoang on Sunday August 22 during service. A female worshipper was shot dead and the Pastor on duty seriously injured when men dressed in military uniform fired bullets at the church.
An ambush by armed separatists in the same locality last month killed five police officers.
Last Friday August 20, a seven-year-old primary school pupil was killed in Kumbo during a cross fire between Government forces and separatists while she was attending a holiday class at the St. Theresa’s Catholic Primary School. One of her mates was equally injured.
Many Cameroonians seek to see an end to the bloody hostilities and have appealed to both camps for a ceasefire that could lead to a genuine dialogue.
Ariane Foguem
