BOKO HARAM TARGETS ARABS

 Boko Haram is carrying out ethnic reprisals against Arabic speakers in northern Nigeria, accusing them of aiding Chad's army fighting against the Islamist group, military officers and residents say.

Cameroonian military authorities say these attacks against Shuwa Arabs, an ethnic group speaking the form of Arabic common in Chad, have forced some 10,000 refugees from Nigeria across the border into Cameroon in recent weeks.

Chad has deployed some 2,500 troops to Nigeria's border regions with Cameroon and Niger as part of a regional effort to tackle Boko Haram's six-year insurgency, which is threatening the stability of the impoverished region.

Chad's battle-hardened troops have won a series of clashes, seizing towns and pushing back Boko Haram's fighters from the border region with Niger and Cameroon.

But in border villages near Cameroon, Boko Haram militants have singled out many Shuwa Arabs for reprisals, a Cameroon military officer said.

"Boko Haram has branched into a sort of massacre strategy against the Arab population that are suspected to be collaborators with the Chadian forces," Cameroon Special Forces Major Belthus Kwene told Reuters.

Chadian Arabic, also known as Shuwa Arabic, is spoken by over a million people spread across southern Chad, northern Nigeria, Cameroon, Central Africa Republic and Sudan.

Most of the refugees who settled in the Cameroonian villages of Amchoukouli, Wangara, Djabrari and Nigue were women and children. They said Boko Haram militants had massacred the men in their villages.

"They killed 25 men," Fanne, a Nigerian refugee in Djabrari, told Reuters television. Boko Haram fighters forced the whole village to assemble before embarking on a killing spree, she added.

"Nobody escaped. They shot some and slaughtered others with machetes and axes," she said.

Boko Haram, whose translates roughly as 'Western Education is Forbidden', has killed thousands of people in a bloody campaign to carve out an Islamic caliphate in the north of Africa's largest oil producer.

Fanne, like the hundred others who managed to escape the group's reprisals, sleeps under a tree with the few possessions and domestic animals she brought when she fled to Cameroon.

Most refugees have declined to be moved further south to the main refugee camp in Minawao, already overcrowded with over 33,000 people.

"These people are hoping that peace will return soon so that they can go back to their communities. They prefer to wait here," said Hayatou Oumarou, administrative head of the border town of Fotokol.

February 28- Reviving Citizenship

At the beginning we just wanted to pay tribute and demonstrate solidarity. It started at an after work drink in one of Yaoundé’s pubs, a group of professional friends observed with regret how distant (emotionally and geographically) the rest of the country was from the horrific realities of the war on terrorism in the country’s northernmost tip. As journalists a  few of us had been to the battlefront and still heard the ringing sound of gunshots, and shared the tension felt by the soldiers each day and night. But this anxiety is nothing compared to the deep pain of actually losing a loved one in the fighting.

 Guibai Gatama had felt this pain so many times. As a northerner some of his family members had been slaughtered by Boko Haram terrorists, as a journalist he had shared the anxiety of the soldiers and could measure the sacrifice they are making protecting our homeland.

 

We didn’t expect five to ten thousand Cameroonians to show up on the May 20 Avenue in the heart of Yaounde on a fine February 28 morning, two hours before the Great Patriotic March most desperate for the event’s t-shirt. The day before had been frantic. The communication of the United for Cameroon Coalition on its support march for the population of the Far North and the Cameroon army had been extensive. News magazines, tabloids, broadcast, online and even social media was awash with the call for an apolitical demonstration of patriotism and solidarity. Producing gadgets, t-shirts, flags, banners, and hats for the event became more difficult as the enthusiasm grew and we raced against the clock.

In a context of war, suspicion, and politicking it was a bold move, that a rainbow of journalists from public and private media and various regions of Cameroon take the challenge of uniting the country over a very divisive and opaque conflict. To say loud and clear that the war against terrorism, is not a war opposing Christianity to Islam, nor a war of the northerners by the northerners, but a war all of Cameroon is waging against a threat to its civil liberties and freedoms, and paying a heavy price for it.

For Guibai and his friends the spark that started the fire, were everyday comments of ordinary Cameroonians, and often controversial comments made by government officials that sometimes sounded like warnings and at other times like accusations. But while Yaounde and Douala talked, children in the Far North stopped learning because 1,700 schools had been closed or destroyed, 150.000 internally displaced persons had lost their homes, in an area where deserts rise into stony foothills and  then into mountains 132.000 tonnes of cereals had not been grown this year, and       o

  

Military Honours to the fallen

 
 

ver 200.000 Nigerian refugees were pouring in.

News of every new casualty on the war front hurt even more in the face of stinging criticism from colleagues, politicians and activists, who seemed scared to see a united and strong Cameroon chanting “Boko Haram you cannot dare us!” We had called the nation’s attention, not only to the war, but on its victims, and had revived a dormant national conversation on citizenship and solidarity.

THE MAKING OF A MARCH

February 28 has become a legacy in the war against terrorism in Cameroon. The day the communion between the army and the people was caught in image, video, selfies. Posted, tweeted, blogged and broadcast across the world. The day Cameroon sent out a strong message of unity to the world

 

Seven years ago, on the same date violent clashes had erupted in the major towns, what has become known as the 2008 Riots, over the high cost of living. Young Cameroonians were killed, maimed, forgotten. We owe them tribute, and forever remember their sacrifice. In 2015 we picked a random date February 28 to honour other deaths, civilian and military. A date that scared even the state, infuriated our critics, but for us was simply a coincidence, and we did not make only friends holding on adamantly to the Great Patriotic March on that day.

While we met for about a month planning it, we agreed on some core values, no profit-making, no political messages, just a united for Cameroon support and solidarity message to the population of the Far North and our soldiers.

With youth leaders we hammered down our convictions. With government members we persuaded on our purpose, with the media we raised awareness on the horrors of the violent war on terrorism. In social media, we popularized the hashtag #U4CMR, on Facebook we pushed our likes up to 3,514, on WhatsApp we invited friends and contacts to save the date, and two days to the March we sent out 3000 smses in the Centre region.

People who doubted the purpose, though obvious, of our march went beyond promising to attend, but frantically seeking for t-shirts, many asked how to join the coalition, others travelled from around Yaounde and even Douala to attend.

THE REBIRTH OF CITIZENSHIP

As I shared the first shots of the emblematic May 20 Avenue on social media that morning, some wondered where were the participants, each passing minute Cameroonians of all walks of life from around the seven hills of Ongola poured into the city-centre.

Within an hour, music icons, politicians, business leaders, scholars, and above all the people, young, aged, rich, poor marched into the Central Post office roundabout happy to march for Cameroon, and Cameroon alone!

This can only happen after a messy fight to make enemies into allies. Will the solidarity fizzle as fast as it flared?

We hope for a maturity in our citizenship, a revolution in the way we relate to our country and our issues, and a collective purpose and spirit, depicted in the words of the February 28, 2015 declaration “the symbol of our unity, the heartbeat of a nation that refuses to bow down and which is determined to forge on.”

 

 

 

THE FOTOKOL BORDER CRISIS

The security situation in the Cameroonian border town of Fotokol, in the Logone et Chari division remains tense, since Boko Haram militants stormed the town of Gambaru in Nigeria last August 25.

Gunshots are exchanged daily between Boko Haram fighters and the Cameroon Army, as the Islamist group attempts to seize the Elbeid Bridge, on the border between Cameroon and Nigeria.

Wednesday afternoon a Boko Haram militant was shot dead, just as our reporter fonka muta beau-bernard arrived Fotokol. He updates us on the security situation at that border post.

 

The once buzzing city of Fotokol has slowed down, as people stay clear of the Elbeid Bridge, which Boko Haram has tried over five times in the past month to seize.

The bridge which connects the border towns of Gambaru in Nigeria and Fotokol in Cameroon, is the area’s main trading route.

Businesses are closed, schools as well as the customs office, following the closure of borders. fonka mutta beau-bernard reports on the socio-economic impact of the tensions.

 

Fighting Boko Haram Terrorism

If you missed my exclusive reporting on the Cameroon army taking on Boko Haram on the border with Nigeria, here is an online version.

The Cameroon Army and Boko Haram fighters are caught in a face-off in the towns of Limani, Am chide and Kidi-Makari near Kolofata over the last couple of days.

These localities all in the Mayo-Sava division of the Far North region are amongst the new frontlines in the conflict opposing the army to the Islamic militant group.

Limani and Am chide came under attack over the weekend, and gunshots are fired almost on a daily basis. fonka mutta beau-bernard reports on the latest in the conflict theatre.

The security concerns of the last couple of months is being felt in most spheres of society, notably in business. The closure of the borders, and night time transport restrictions are all affecting life in the region.

However the seizure of weapons from a Boko Haram operative in Kousseri one of Cameroon’s northernmost towns this week again demonstrates Cameroon’s determination to smoke out Boko Haram militants from the country.

As fonka mutta beau-bernard reports customs revenue collection and tourism are some of the worst affected sectors.

Cameroon Fastfood Rising

A couple of months back, the pilot show of Talkbusiness 237 dwelled on the Rise of Fastfood in Cameroon.
For a pilot, our team was partly satisfied with the overall direction the show was taking. If you have watched our show on fruit farming and processing you can certainly see the progress in the packaging and depth of the show.

Encouraged by the reactions on the second episode (which came online earlier) we now reward your comments with the first, which was a little bit rough around the edges, but equally enriching.

Here below is the rise of fastfood in Cameroon, a niche many entrepreneurs are getting into.

Fruits Can Create Jobs

In the September episode of Talkbusiness 237, the team focuses on fruit farming and processing. A theme inspired by the incredible amount of fruit wastage observable in Cameroonian towns. The sector so in need of industrialisation, holds the potential of creating jobs for young unemployed.

In this edition we examine the problem of fruit wastage, while highlighting the efforts of some entrepreneurs who are pioneering in the domain in Cameroon.

Watch the entire show in the video below.

Bakassi a year after

Tomorrow August 14, marks a year after the complete ceding of the once disputed Bakassi Peninsula by Nigeria to Cameroon, after a 2002 ICJ court ruling, and the Green Tree Accord. I am currently in the area shooting a documentary film.

I blog tonight from somewhere on the Atlantic Ocean. Bobbing and swaying like a baby on a rocking chair (Latitude 4.22/ Longitude 8.81). Yes, I am on the military support vessel, the Rio Del Rey, anchored in the middle of the oilfield that also bears the same name.

But the comfort of the vessel, has not wiped off the terrifying sensations of this week’s boat trips from Idenau to Jabane, Jabane to Akwa, and Jabane to the Rio Del Rey oilfield (tomorrow I head out to Idabato).



Waterways are the solution, highways almost impossible in marshes
 

Before looking at the complex issue of administering Bakassi, let’s look at the highlights of my trip so far.

Nigerian-built bunker at Akwa

Apart from meeting the former hostage and Mayor of Kombo Abedimo, I saw this bunker and a metal helmet worthy of the Second World War, next to the site where the official hand-over of Bakassi was staged in 2008. The bunker was constructed by the Nigerian troops stationed there during the conflict, as shelter for their senior officers.

war relic at hand-over site, Akwa

I also stood before this post-colonial building,

Full Gospel Church exhibit at ICJ

constructed in the president Ahidjo era today a Full Gospel Church, used by advocate Maurice Kamto as evidence during the ICJ hearings at The Hague of Cameroonian presence in the area.

I walked the beach of Jabane with ‘Quatorze’, the oldest dog at the military base. The first soldiers met the dog at the base on August 14, 2008 when they arrived. It has had many siblings with just 7 surviving.

Quartoze
 

Quatorze accompanies almost each of the special ops soldiers now in the area on patrol, he even patrolled when soldiers felt the small village was too risky and stayed in camp. Quatorze is in his own right part of the Bakassi story.

Certainly there is always a human side to the story, as I watched young boys of Ibiobio and Ijaw descent, either taking their fish to the drier or weaving their nets, I wondered if they have birth certificates, a teacher, and feel Nigerian or Cameroonian?



Bakassi boy takes fish to drier

 

My malicious side has also had a good laugh at both my colleagues, and military staff hanging their phones to cables, near rooftops, or pacing in patches of land in search of the rare mobile network, to call their loved ones!

press and army search for mobile network

 

 

Bakassi What next?

“We do not want to regret our decision to stay in Bakassi and accept Cameroonian rule" a Jabane reverend confided in me this afternoon, expressing the deep desire of the mainly Nigerian inhabitants not to be ‘forgotten’. He however recognizes that the random visits of senior Cameroonian administrators, is proof that this is not yet the case.

While the local community chiefs recognize their obligation to eventually contribute by way of taxes, to the government they now look up to for basic amenities, and someday participation in governance, they are aware that they must first be identified (National Identity cards or residence permits).

The men like the women are willing to get their new-born babies registered in the civil status registry (for birth certificates). This will naturally be the next testing phase as Cameroon wields full control over the Bakassi Peninsula. Telling who gets the Cameroonian nationality, who doesn’t. And most of the people I spoke to, do own Nigerian nationality and passports (dual nationality is not accepted by Cameroonian Law).

Bakassi boy weaves fishing net

Folks here still prefer to trade mainly in Naira, and are only just accepting the Franc, five years after the hand-over. Government is frantically trying to install its offices in the area, and bring vital infrastructure, (with a measure of success in some parts and less in others).

So far the biggest let-down has been failure to complete the Mundemba-Isangele to Akwa stretch, the main road link to the peninsula. On the seafront, it is practically impossible to build any roads in the marshlands, but giving councils the resources to buy boats will improve civilian transport on the many waterways. As for the Cultural Revolution, it requires more time and greater tact, books, functional schools, radio and television signals, not forgetting mobile network.