Obituary: NCC President is Dead!

Yaounde, Cameroon—Monsignor Joseph Befe Ateba, Bishop of Kribi, and chairman (president) of the National Communication Council (NCC); Cameroon’s media watchdog, is dead.

Mgr Joseph Befe Ateba

The clergy man died yesterday in South Africa, family sources say.

Sosthen Fouda, Befe’s nephew announced the death on his facebook wall this morning.

In the post, Fouda described the Bishop as “a man who knew every day of his life how to use his own knowledge to better convey to others, a deeply humanistic funny man who put his qualities at the service of men”.

The news was later confirmed by the apostolic nuncio to Cameroon and the Equatorial Guinea, Pierro Piopo who explained that Bishop Befe has been ill and was receiving treatment in a hospital in South Africa.

Befe Ateba was appointed to head Cameroon’s media regulatory body on July 7, 2011 by President Paul Biya following the demise of the first Chairman of the organ, Felix Sabal Lecco.

The media expert was not only a journalist for the Roman Catholic owned national newspaper “L’effort camerounais,” but he also worked as a press agent for the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM/SCEAM), and as the president of the Media Commission of the Episcopal Conference of Cameroon.

He was the second Catholic bishop in a month to be appointed to an official office by President Biya. The first was Bishop Dieudonné Watio, Bishop of Bafoussam, who at the beginning of same month was appointed to Cameroon’s Electoral Commission (ELECAM).

Journalists in Cameroon have described his demise as shocking.

The NCC president was lastly seen in public during the conference of Presidents of Francophone media regulators from Central and West Africa that took place in Yaounde from May 12 to 13 under the theme “the harmonization of complaint handling procedures and regulation of Central African Media Regulators”

Bishop Joseph Befe Ateba was born on April 25, 1962. He is a professional journalist who graduated from the Yaounde Advanced School of Mass Communication (ASMAC) in 1994 after having been ordained priest on June 20, 1987.

The Communication Council is a consultative body placed under the authority of the Prime Minister, Head of Government, with the mission to assist the authorities in the elaboration, implementation and follow up of the national policy on communication.

By Ndi Eugene Ndi in Yaounde

Forestry Minister, Herakles Farms Caught in Illegal Logging Web

Yaounde, Cameroon-- Greenpeace, an international global campaigning organization that acts to change attitudes and behavior, to protect and conserve the environment and promote peace, has called on the Cameroon government to cancel a logging permit it granted a little-known timber firm; Uniprovince.

“Uniprovince’s 11-02-10 permit was illegally awarded and must be cancelled”, Brendan Schwartz, Greenpeace forest campaigner said at the launch of a report dubbed “licence to launder” in Yaounde on May 27.

Philip Ngole Ngwese, Forestry Minister

In the report, Greenpeace Africa reveals how the American company; Herakles Farms (using Uniprovince), may have colluded with Cameroon’s Minister of Forestry and Wildlife to illegally obtain a logging permit (vente de coupe) inside the land concession the US agro-industrial was granted in 2013 for its palm oil project.

The report reveals that the permit was granted in flagrant violation of Cameroon’s forestry legislation.

“The law provides that vente de coupe permits be granted solely by public auction, which was not the case for Uniprovince”, Schwartz said.

Vente de coupe N° 11-02-10 granted to Uniprovince has proven to be illegal as it does not feature on the ‘valid’ logging permits published by the Ministry of Forestry on March 10, 2014 whereas it was granted on January 28 and signed on February 6 prior to the publication of the list about a month after, same year.

“This was a deliberate attempt to hide an illegal decision taken in favour of Herakles Farms”, explained Irene Wabiwa, head of Greenpeace Africa’s forest campaign.

Greenpeace has accused Cameroonian authorities and Herakles farms of collaborating to foster illegal logging at the expense of Cameroon’s treasury, the Nguti local council and local communities which are supposed to receive a forestry royalty.

SGSOC, Herakles Farms’ local subsidiary in Cameroon purchased Uniprovince in March 2013 with the intention of generating substantial revenue through its controversial vente de coupe permit.

Licence to Launder

Uniprovince is not amongst the 83 licensed timber exploitation companies with vente de coupe permits published by the ministry of Forestry on March 10, 2014. Granting Uniprovince’s logging permit without an auction as provided for by the law will cost the government millions, campaigners have argued.

“Uniprovince will pay 17 times less tax than the average paid by logging companies with similar permits in 2014”, Schwartz said.

The average tax paid by companies that were legally awarded vente de coupe permits (through competitive auction) in January 2014 is CFA 43,000F per hectare yearly. Thus, a company with the same concession (2,500 hectares), like Herakles Farms should pay CFA 108,635,833F into the state treasury.

Yet, the company will exploit greater volumes at a miserable CFA 2,500F per hectare annually totaling just 6,250,000F.

“Contrary to the declarations made by Herakles Farms, the company has no intention to develop Cameroon. In reality, Cameroon is losing enormous revenue because of the illegalities and corruption surrounding the company’s activities”, Wabiwa said.

Dr. Blessed Okole, Senior Vice President for Strategic Planning and Field Operations at SG Sustainable Oils Cameroon Ltd declined to comment on the claims and instead referred this reporter to a certain Chris, probably his colleague who is authorized to speak on behalf of the company. All attempts to reach Chris by phone proved futile.

The head of the communication unit of the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, Jean Robert Onana denied claims that Uniprovince’s logging permit is illegal.

Mr. Onana said the claims were shocking adding that he was surprised that Greenpeace which congratulated the Minister of Forestry last year for suspending Herakles Farms due to non-respect of the law, turned around to accuse the same minister of engaging in a shady deal with the same company.

Threat to VPA credibility

By signing the Voluntary Partnership Accord (VPA) with the European Union (EU), on October 6, 2010, Cameroon committed not only to consult local forest communities, but also to fight illegal logging and illicit timber trade.

The permit granted Uniprovince and the illegal trimming of Herakles Farms’ wood into Uniprovince has put to question the credibility of the VPA implementation in Cameroon both by the government and the EU.

Article 9(3) of the VPA states that “Cameroon shall verify the legality of the timber and derived products exported to markets outside the Union and sold on the internal markets and of imported timber and derived products”.

Experts say Herakles Farms’ timber, stocked at the Douala ports being prepared for export is not only illegal under the law, but constitutes a blatant violation of the above article.

Timber that was 'HF' now trimmed and marked UP (Greenpeace)

Mr. Onana argues that Uniprovince’s logging permit cannot jeopardize the implementation of the VPA in Cameroon.

“It cannot as we are in the VPA implementation process since March 3 this year, we have entered the period of due diligence which means that it is a transitional period. This means that it is up to the enterprise to prove that the wood it exports is legal”, Onana said.

The spokesman of the forestry ministry explained that in granting a logging permit to an enterprise, the ministry does not consider the owner but the latter’s legality.

In an open letter responding to a report by Oakland Institute in September 2012 titled “Understanding Land Investment Deals in Africa…The Deceit of Herakles Farms in Cameroon”, Bruce Wrobel, then CEO of Herakles Farms said, given that they (Herakles Farms) are not commercial loggers, they are not going to sell the timber on their concession.

 “….we surrendered the timber to the government and took a lower lease rate, as we are not commercial loggers. We will cut it and stack it for the government. This will cost us more than $75Million dollars and will add huge value to the government’s timber income. They will sell it in an auction, which we estimate will generate many millions of dollars of revenue”, Mr. Wrobel wrote.

Yet, it appears this statement has not been respected by Herakles Farms. The timber it felled earlier in her Talangye nursery between 2010 and 2013 and marked ‘HF’ (Herakles Farms) is now being trimmed and marked with ‘UP’ (Uniprovince) N° 11-02-10 and carrying dates of March 2014.

At the time of this report, we had not received any response to a mail on the subject sent to the European Union delegation in Cameroon through its information and communication officer, David Atemkeng.

Legal Action

Herakles Farms previously claimed that it did not intend to benefit from the sale of any wood cut on its concession. It is evident today the sale of timber from the concession is an integral part of its business following its purchase of Uniprovince.

Greenpeace has called on Cameroonian authorities to seize the entire stock of Herakles Farms timber at the Douala Ports immediately.

They have also called on the authorities to investigate and prosecute Herakles Farms, Uniprovince and government officials responsible for the illegal logging permit granted Uniprovince.

“Greenpeace has also introduced a complaint to the state prosecutor in Douala, we have provided proof of all the resulting irregularities and financial losses to the state of Cameroon”, Schwartz said.

Local Communities in tears

Impoverished local communities in Nguti sud division have expressed anger over the activities of Herakles Farms.

Afue Divine Ejabi, a youth of Talangye faulted the government for allowing the US agro industrial company to destroy their land.

“Our forest that you see is our only source of income. It has been destroyed by Herakles Farms. Our cocoa farms and non timber forest products that we gather and sale for a living are all destroyed, this is not correct”, Afue said.

Local communities protesting against SGSOC in Nguti

Nonagenarian Agnes Ejuba of the same village sounded a note of warning over the fate of their children should Herakles Farms continue its activities in the area. The woman thinks allowing Herakles Farms to continue it activities; felling down the forest and destroying non timber forest products is a way of “killing” the local community whose livelihood depends on the forest.

John Ebenki another indigene of the area did not only regret the felling of the trees by Herakles Farms, but the fact that the local community does not have direct benefits from the company in terms of royalties.

According to the World Bank, an estimated $10-15 billion dollars is lost annually worldwide due to illegal logging, with close to $5 billion lost to corruption resulting from the failure to collect taxes and royalties on legally sanctioned timber harvest.

Officials of the financial institution say such losses of state revenue prevent the timber-rich Congo Basin government (Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea) from meeting development goals.

 Poor and disadvantaged communities suffer the most from poor governance of the forest sector, especially as they are denied active participation in decision-making-processes concerning their land resources.

By Ndi Eugene Ndi in Yaounde

Land Rights: Bagyeli Pymies Decry Dispossession

(NewsWatch Cameroon)--Evicted from their ancestral land and consigned to a resettlement camp, the Bagyeli Pygmies of Bissiang situated some 30km south of Kribi in the Ocean division of the South region of Cameroon are decrying mistreatment.

A typical Bagyeli home in the forest of Bissiang

They blame agro industrial giant HEVECAM which they claim has been illegally operating on their ancestral land for the past two years for their plight.

The forest they lived in before was given to a timber firm forcing them to migrate to their current site.

After 30 years in the Bissiang forest, the land was leased to rubber producer HEVECAM which began operations activities in 2012.

Access to the Bagyeli community has since become difficult because entrance has to be authorized by the concession holder.

The community mainly hunts unprotected animal species and harvests non timber forest products which they sell to neighbouring Bantu communities, says Albert, the community head.

Getting alternative sources of living is almost impossible, he adds.

Their lives, they say, are in danger as the forest phases out because the rubber production company is keeps felling trees.

On the sidelines of a recent land rights reporting training workshop in Kribi, organized by US-based Rights and Resources Institute (RRI) together with a coalition of its Cameroon partners, this reporter and some colleagues visited the Bagyeli community in their forest habitat.

Some Journalists from Cameroon, DRC, Mali and USA
attending a workshop on land rights reporting in Kribi

“We lived in the forest there, when the government handed the forest to a timber firm, we were forced to move into this area. The government again gave the land to HEVECAM and we were forced to move again but to where?”questions the community head.

The head of the Bagyelis of Bissiang lamented that they can’t earn any income as their activities have been disrupted with their settlement.

Ngo Bell Elise, HEVECAM Hygiene, Security and Environment official argued that HEVECAM does not own the land.

She said the land had been leased to the multinational for a given period which may be renewed or terminated at the end of the project period.

Ngo who had earlier denied reporters access into the concession said she was not authorized to state the specific number of hectares and the lease period in the agreement.

She explained that according to the agreement, the indigenous people had to be resettled.

A resettlement camp was thus chosen by a follow up committee of the of the terms of reference binding the indigenous people of Bissiang and HEVECAM. The follow up committee comprised representatives of the indigenous people, HEVECAM and the government of Cameroon, she said.

Though still in the forest, the Bagyelis think the resettlement camp does not suit their initial forest home.

In their environmental impact assessment, Ngo said HEVECAM pledged to protect the forest, provide social amenities to the indigenous people and “today we are building the resettlement camp, we will provide bore holes and farms and teach them how to practice agriculture” she said.

After threatening, Madam Ngo Elise explains to journalists what
HEVECAM has done to better lives of Bagyelis

Relationship with other communities

The closest community to the Bagyelis is the Bantus-another group of indigenous people. But the relationship between the Bagyelis and the Bantus has not been always cordial.

“Bantus force us to sell our hunted animals to them at very cheap rates whereas food they sell to us is very expensive.”

The head of the Bagyeli Pygmy community explained that it is common for Bantus to buy a big animal from a Bagyeli for just CFA 250 Frs but when a Bagyeli wants to buy ‘batong’ (a cassava derivative) they ask him to pay 1000Frs.

However, given that Bagyelis are few in Bissiang, they get married to Bantus. Agnes aka Mapouka, a Bagyeli mother of one says “we don’t marry within our community as were are all blood relations, our husbands are Bantus.”

Though a forest people, the Bagyelis know there are politicians from that area as well as the government. “We know the senator, but other people we don’t know.”

New Lifestyle, Brighter Future

With a new settlement camp under construction, the Bagyelis will have to adopt a new lifestyle when they finally settle.

The community head who looked edgy said their way of life is now very different.

Albert said they have lost their values but was optimistic that it would not continue when they finally settle on the resettlement camp.

“We will still be going to the forest for our customary activities before coming back to the camp when we finally settle here,” he said.

The Bagyelis have very little knowledge about land titles and land ownership.

“Our parents did not teach us anything about land titles, so we just own the land; women and men own land here,” says the village head.

HEVECAM has however promised to give them land ownership permits when construction of the resettlement camp is completed.

The land grab problem faced by the Bagyeli community is just one of many that local communities in Cameroon and around Africa face due to land leases to either agro industrials or forest exploitation companies.

In the Southwest region of Cameroon for example, the population of Nguti is still seething with rage after 73 hectares of their land was leased to American agro industrial company Herakles Farms through its Cameroon subsidiary, Seith Global Sustainable Oils Cameroon (SG SOC) Ltd.

Experts say the sufferings these indigenous communities go through is as a result of the weak land and forestry laws that fail to protect indigenous communities.

Resettlement camp of the Bagyelis, constructed by HEVECAM

Samuel Nguiffo, secretary general of the Centre for Environment and Development (CED) Cameroon thinks that “rather than giving away land and resources to companies to the detriment of their citizens, African governments -Cameroon included- must respect the rights of citizens and let them negotiate with investors on their own terms. And the companies themselves should be asking who owns the land they obtain on such good terms”.

Indigenous people who live and depend on the forest could in the nearer future enjoy their rights.

The government has announced that forestry reforms will be produced by the end of the year to replace the obsolete two-decade old forestry law currently in use.

The Minister of Forestry and wildlife, Ngole Philip Ngwesse announced during an international workshop recently in Buea that the new forest law will better preserve Cameroon’s rich forests and the communities that depend on them.

The Buea meeting that was organized by the Rights and Resources Institute, focused on forest tenure, governance, policy and regulation.

It is hoped that when the new law is eventually put in place, indigenous forest people will heave sighs of relief.

By Ndi Eugene Ndi, back from Bissiang

Cameroon Determined to Maintain EITI ‘Compliant Country’ Status

Clare Short and Ousmane Mey

(NewsWatch Cameroon)—The Minister of Finance, Alamine Ousmane Mey, chairman of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) Cameroon has reaffirmed the government’s determination to transparently manage revenues from extractive industries.

Since gaining the status of compliance, the country is determined to maintained its status and remain a reference in transparency in the extractive industries sector, stakeholders say.

According to Mr. Ousmane Mey, the ‘compliant country’ status makes Cameroon's business climate more attractive to foreign investors.

The chairman of the EITI committee in Cameroon was speaking in Yaounde at a ceremony to celebrate the EITI ‘compliant country’ status of Cameroon last May 23, 2014.

The country adhered into the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative in 2005 and was designated ‘compliant country’ on October 17, 2013 during a board of Director’s meeting in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast.

The initiative seeks to encourage countries with rich natural resources to manage these resources in a transparent manner so the populations rip full benefits.

“Cameroon took some time to achieve compliance. This means, they were not reporting according to the principles agreed internationally. But I have been impressed by the quality……it’s an impressive achievement”, Hon. Clare Short, president of the Board of Directors of EITI said.

By attaining the compliant country status of the EITI, the Board Chair said has opened up the sector.

“All over the world this sector tends to be closed the revenue from the extractive industries is not clear, the contracts are not clear, who gets the licenses is not clear”, Hon. Short said.

“The purpose of compliance is to have that openness so that the citizens of the country can know how much comes in from the extractive sector, how the revenue is being spent and whether it is well managed”, Hon. Short added.

According to Ndi Richard Tantoh, member of the national committee of EITI Cameroon, it took the country long to become compliant because some of the sectors were not included in their reports.

“We entered into the initiative it was new. The initiative itself is evolving, so we were learning by doing. Secondly we started with the petroleum sector alone, the EITI felt that the petroleum sector alone did not permit us to trace revenue from the extractive sector in an exhaustive manner”, Mr. Tantoh said.

Some of the issues according to the Mr. Tantoh are that EITI Cameroon had not communicated enough to a point where the population could already feel they are part of the discussions around issues of the extractive sector.

“The population should be able to organise themselves, so that they can call on the government to be more accountable with those resources-because that is the responsibility of each patriotic Cameroonian; to make sure that government is working in the interest of its people”.

The celebration of the EITI ‘compliant country’ status was an opportunity for Cameroon to demonstrate the quality of the commitment of the highest authorities of the state as well as of all stakeholders in the implementation of the EITI.

Prior to the celebration, Hon. Clare Short was received in audience by Prime Minister Philemon Yang on behalf of the Head of State Paul Biya.

By Ndi Eugene Ndi in Yaounde

National Day: SDF Reeked of Immature Political Antics in Nkambe

(NewsWatch Cameroon)--The ruling Cameroon Peoples’ Democratic Movement (CPDM) and frontline opposition party the Social Democratic Front (SDF) clashed in Nkambe on May 20 over which party was to conclude the National Day parade there. The CPDM now runs the municipality which the SDF had steered since the return to multiparty politics in the early 90s.

The conflict peeled off scars of an October 1, 2013 upheaval between the rivals following the twin elections the month before. It is tradition in Nkambe it is understood for the party that runs the municipality to march last.

A local National Day march past committee with representatives from all political parties in the zone had agreed as in previous years that the party in control of the municipality will end the march past of political parties. The Senior Divisional Officer for Donga Mantung , Ngone Ndode Messappe Bernard also gave his nod to the agreement. The five political parties in area had to march in the following order; SDF, UNDP, UPC, FSNC, and CPDM, the SDO ordered.

But the SDF vehemently refused to commence the parade they have concluded for almost the last two decades halting the commemoration for about an hour.

SDF supporters insisted that by asking them to begin the march past, the SDO was colluding with the CPDM so that people who had already paraded could be talked into swelling the latter’s ranks.

The MP for Nkambe, Hon. Awudu Mbaya pleaded with the SDF militants headed by the party’s District Secretary to respect the march past order established by the committee. But they stood their ground once Mbaya returned to the grandstand.

The altercation between the CPDM and the SDF was followed by Issa Tchiroma’s FSNC’s march not in their official place; the latter’s first in that part of the country.

Yet getting a second political party to follow suit proved tough the SDF and the CPDM insisted on occupying the last position.

CPDM supporter Tamfu Jude called the SDF’s action a trick to foil his party’s demonstration of its political clout.

Stunned, the interim Section President of the CPDM for Donga Mantung I-Nkambe, Ngala Gerard described the situation as unfortunate and cautioned his militants to march before the SDF for peace to reign.

“You know I have always advocated against violent politics and politicians, for peace to reign, I asked my militants to march peacefully and happily too; irrespective of whether they are in the first or last position”, Ngala told this reporter.

The SDO for Donga Mantung ordered that security officers stop all other political parties from parading after the CPDM after the dispute persisted.

After a 58-minute parade by the CPDM which observers termed a show of political strength, security personnel stepped in to stop the march past as instructed. This resulted in another ‘war’ between the security forces and SDF supporters. Hon. Awudu then decided to lead the SDF in its march past. The MP was granted permission to do so but not with all the SDF’s militants. Some students from Christ the King Teachers’ Training College (CKTTC) Nkambe and bike riders suspected to have been recruited to march for the SDF were barred from doing so.

Political pundits have described the latest clash between the two political parties in Nkambe as a show of political immaturity, while condemning the action of the leading opposition party which claims it is a crusader for improved democracy.

Observers have since been questioning why the SDF’s representative in the local National Day parade committee reneged on an agreement he had endorsed.

By refusing to respect the SDO’s edict, the SDF showed gross disrespect for itself and the authorities, observers say.

Some blamed the MP for earlier asking the SDF militants to respect the march past edict and later leading the march in disobedience to the Head of State’s representative in Donga Mantung.

Some analysts say in arguing that the CPDM was planning to cause people to parade more than once only revealed what the SDF could have been doing when for the nearly two decades that it concluded National Day march pasts in Nkambe.

By Abanda Marcel in Nkambe and Ndi Eugene Ndi in Yaounde

Who should regulate the press in Cameroon?

Charly Ndi Chia--Archives

(NewsWatch Cameroon)--In Cameroon, most media owners consider the regulation by the National Communication Council (NCC) as censorship. Most of them liken the watchdog to a remote controlled government drone aimed at decimating freedom of the press.

Some media owners in Cameroon have argued that the press can only be regulated by pressmen and not a statutory regulatory organ whose members are appointed by the head of state.

On the sidelines of a conference of Presidents of Francophone media regulators from Central and West Africa in Yaounde from May 12 to 13 under the theme “the harmonization of complaint handling procedures and regulation of Central African Media Regulators”, NCC member Charly Ndi Chia stated his case against clamours for self-regulation by his colleagues.

“At one time all of us of the media, the so-called ‘big publishers’ we were in the trentches fighting to regulate the media in our own way ; fighting bad press, poor journalism,” Mr Ndi Chia said.

The NCC member who is also a co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of the country’s leading English language newspaper, The Post, revealed that the publishers retreated when the Council was given sharper teeth to bite.

These ‘big publishers’ Mr Ndi Chia said further participated in their installation as NCC members.

“We were very happy about it but when we started working, they were the first to cry like babies. I don’t know why they want free license. They disgrace themselves by going on the air, by writing in the papers that the NCC is a government contraption.”

“If it is a contraption, why did you come taking our biographies/biodata, writing and congratulating us?”

 Comparing the journalism profession to a football match, the Editor-in-chief of The Post said “… do you think that you can go to play football and instead of playing football, you start playing rugby, kicking people and the referee allows you? There is always a referee in every match, if not it will be an all comers game in which somewhere along the line somebody will pick the ball with the hand and score and say I have scored since the ball has kissed the net.”

He described the demand for self-regulation by the journalists as strange and stupid.  The veteran journalist said those who are demanding the model today are the same individuals who have compromised the very ethics of the media.

“How many of them like Cesar’s wife can come out in public and say they are clean and that they can go to equity?”

 Many of them, according to Mr. Ndi Chia, are not even members of guilds where self-regulation can be upheld, he argued.

“They are bedroom critics, if they want auto regulation, let them come out. You call a meeting they don’t come. But if there is a meeting where there is going to be soya and where the minister will be handing over brown envelops, you find them coming and sitting on front views and saying that they are big journalists and they are publishers.”

On the appointment of members of the media watchdog by the president of the republic, he said: “I have always said that good journalists should be undertakers of journalism, why not come out. If you don’t want the NCC for example, what did you do when it was not there?”

You stayed in your office, you played hide and seek with the same regime, the same government, took money from them, the government comes out, puts an apple of discord.”

“But if you do your work and do it honestly, professionally and ethically, the NCC will have no business with you.” Mr. Ndi Chia concluded.

By Ndi Eugene Ndi in Yaounde

Kidnapped Nigerian Students are Not in Cameroon- Gov’t Says

(NewsWatch Cameroon)--The Cameroon government has dismissed as unfounded, allegations that part of the 234 abducted female students of the Government Girls Secondary School recently in the North-East of the country would have been transferred to Cameroon, to be forced into marriage to members of the Islamist sect, “Boko Haram”.

Issa Tchiroma Bakary-Communication Minister

At a plenary at the Nigerian Senate on April 29, 2014, while debating on a motion by Senate Leader, Victor Noma-Egba, and 108 others on the abduction of the school girls, senators accused neighboring countries of Cameroon, Niger and Chad of aiding and abetting the current insurgency in Nigeria.

Cameroon’s Communication Minister and government’s official spokesperson, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, in a press declaration in Yaoounde on Monday May 5, 2014 reiterated that Cameroon will never ever serve as support base for destabilization activities towards other countries.

“On the contrary, our country suffers because of the ongoing instable security situation in neighboring countries”, the Minister said. “Cameroon is subject to attacks perpetrated from neighboring countries and by nationals of those countries”.

Minister Tchiroma reiterated the Cameroon government’s willingness to cooperate in good faith with governments of neighboring countries to fight against trans-border criminality in the respect of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of each country.

He reassured Cameroonians that the president of the republic has given firm instructions and has urged to take all necessary measures for Cameroon to remain a peaceful and stable country.

“Our defense and security forces are working hard and watching out, so that Cameroonians and those living in the country can quietly go on with their daily business”.

Internal attacks

In the same declaration, the communication minister revealed that the 18 people taken hostage by unknown individuals on the night of May 1 to 2, 2014 in the locality of Yokofiré of the border town of Garoua Boulai in the East region, border with the Central African Republic have been freed.

“The 18 hostages were freed in two stages; first, two of them were freed on May 3 and the remaining 16 were freed on May 4”, the Minister revealed.

In another attack, the Minister said suspected members of the Islamist sect; Boko Haram attacked the Gendarmerie brigade of Kousseri in the Far North Region in the night of May 4-5, 2014.

The attack according to the Communication Minister was aimed at freeing a suspect of the sect arrested on May 3, 2014 by elements of the Cameroon defense forces during a control in the locality of Zigue, near Kousseri.

During the attack by about 30 yet to be identified men, two deaths were recorded ; a senior warrant officer of the gendarmerie on duty-Dapsia Denis and the suspect ; Ibrahim Bouba of Cameroonian nationality, while three other detainees at the same brigade were wounded.

However, the government official spokesman said Cameroon defense forces have been alerted and are now raking the surface in Kousseri and its neighborhood.

By Ndi Eugene Ndi in Yaounde