The Anglophone crisis in Cameroon is one of Africa’s newest struggles for liberation. The crisis emerged from legal and education grievances in 2016 and rapidly escalated into a secessionist political conflict that is threatening the unity of the country, with the potential to degenerate into a complex emergency. The crisis has been intensifying and has raised concerns about the potential for it to evolve into a “Complex Disaster Emergency” (CDE) in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon.

In an exploratory, qualitative, analytical, and descriptive case study research tradition involving document/content analysis, the Robert Strauss Centre’s complex emergency framework was applied to investigate the potential of the Anglophone crisis. The research found that 72.5% of the variables in all the complex emergencies fall within the relevant to extremely relevant ranking criteria. Furthermore, the establishment of a nexus between the Anglophone crisis and a natural hazard-induced disaster suggest an escalation of the crisis to an unbearable level.

The Anglophone crisis has been compounded by the high probability of a novel eruption at Mt. Cameroon coupled with the eminent threat of the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This further heightens the potential for the crisis to cumulatively evolve into a CDE in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon. The existential challenges in providing humanitarian assistance in the conflict region are immense, and by applying the Robert Strauss Centre’s complex emergency framework, this article concludes with an early warning for an impending CDE that could heighten humanitarian challenges unless there is foresight and goodwill by relevant actors to immediately commence a process of adequate contingency planning.

In conclusion, the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon is a complex and rapidly evolving situation that has the potential to degenerate into a “Complex Disaster Emergency” (CDE) in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon. The crisis has been intensifying and has raised concerns about the potential for it to evolve into a CDE. It is important for relevant actors to take immediate action and begin adequate contingency planning to mitigate the potential humanitarian challenges that may arise.

UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo have uncovered mass graves containing the bodies of 49 civilians following a series of attacks blamed on a local armed group, Cooperative for the Development of Congo (CODECO). The graves were found in two villages in northeastern Ituri province, about 30km (19 miles) east of the town of Bunia.

Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for the United Nations, told reporters in New York on Wednesday that 42 victims, including six children, were discovered in a mass grave in the village of Nyamamba, while the bodies of seven other men were found in another village, Mbogi.

“Peacekeepers launched a patrol to the area immediately after receiving reports of attacks on civilians by the CODECO militias over the weekend. This is when they made the gruesome discoveries,” he said. The UN is calling for an investigation to establish if the mass graves and the attacks are linked. The UN regional peacekeeping operation, MONUSCO, is also supporting the Congolese judicial system to investigate the attacks and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.

Ituri, a restive province bordering Uganda, has seen a spate of violence in recent weeks, after the killing of a teacher belonging to the Lendu community triggered reprisal attacks from CODECO, which claims to represent the ethnic group. The Lendu and Hema communities have a longstanding feud, which led to thousands of deaths between 1999 and 2003 before an intervention by a European peacekeeping force.

Haq also warned of a “significant deterioration of the security situation” in Ituri, saying that at least 195 civilians have been killed, 68 wounded and 84 people abducted since December during attacks attributed to the CODECO and Zaire militias. More than 1.5 million people in Ituri province have also been displaced by the fighting. The UN is urging for the protection of civilians and for all parties to respect human rights.

Police have fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern city of Goma. Protesters on Wednesday were calling for authorities to enforce an agreed withdrawal of M23 rebels from occupied territory in the region. Regional leaders brokered a ceasefire in November, under which the Tutsi-led M23 group – which launched a fresh offensive last year – was meant to pull out of recently captured positions. The deadline for this was January 15, according to the DRC’s presidency.

But M23 has been accused of flouting the deal and occupying territory elsewhere to compensate for withdrawals that critics have argued were mainly ceremonial. President Felix Tshisekedi made similar accusations on Tuesday. The M23 has denied the claims and in turn, accused DRC authorities of breaching of the agreement.

Civil society groups called protests in Goma on Wednesday to denounce delays in implementing the M23 withdrawal. City authorities had banned the march, but hundreds still took part, chanting and holding signs denouncing the East African Community (EAC), which set up a regional military force last year to end the unrest. Police fired tear gas at the demonstrators and arrested about a dozen people, including three journalists, according to a Reuters reporter on the scene.

Of recent, there has been increasing calls towards self defence for Ambaland.
Coincidentally, its 50 years anniversary since the Southern Part of Nigeria thought they could defend Biafraland.

Climate change is feeding poverty, instability, hunger and violence in the Lake Chad basin
Poverty, hunger, suffering. These terms seem inadequate to describe what I witnessed in the Lake Chad Basin, the West African region that is host to the one of the world’s worst – and certainly its most neglected – humanitarian crisis since 1945.

The crisis in the West African region, which includes parts of Nigeria, Chad, Niger, and Cameroon, has left approximately 10.7 million people in need of immediate humanitarian assistance.
INSIDE STORY: What’s behind world’s recent extreme weather events? (25:16)

The human face of this crisis is devastating. When I visited the region as part of a mission with the World Food Programme in May this year, I saw desperate hunger, displacement, and shocking levels of violence and insecurity facing civilians, especially women and girls. Civilians live with the daily threat of rape, kidnappings, killings and terrorist attacks.

Over 2.4 million people have been displaced by the crisis, but there are simply aren’t the resources to meet the most basic needs of these people in the refugee or displaced peoples camps or urban centres where they end up.

With little or nothing left to trade for vital resources like food, sexual exploitation (sex-for-food as it is known) has become the norm, even within the camps.

A report released this week by the UN Secretary-General affirms all I witnessed on the ground in the Lake Chad Basin. It underscores the overwhelming scale of the crisis, and the need for urgent and immediate humanitarian responses.

But it doesn’t quite go as far as thinking about a long-term solution. In my view, the short-term and long-term responses simply cannot be separated, without being detrimental to both.

In order to tackle this crisis with any kind of sustainability – even in the short-run – there needs to be a thorough understanding of what caused it to spiral in the first place.

While the current crisis was triggered by violence linked to armed groups such as Boko Haram, discussions I had with people in the region, and expert consultations convened by my organisation on the issue, agree on some root causes.

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Top Southern Cameroonian Non Violence Freedom Figher, Dr Akwanga Talks on Will to win, the desire to be free and the urge to change our fate. In this video Dr Akwanga speaks on the way forward for the freedom of southern Cameroon.

Angolan Opposition parties declares the results of the just concluded August 23rd Presidential polls illegitimate. Angola’s long serving President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has been the president of the oil rich African country for 40 years will soon hand over to a successor. However, 4 opposition parties has declared the results of the election illegal and unconstitutional. MPLA and 3 other political parties rejected the results declared by the National Electoral Commission, (CNE)

Something has happened with the Angolan elections of August 23 that may well be a first in Africa, if not universally. The spokesperson of the National Electoral Commission (CNE) yesterday announced “preliminary results” of the general elections when votes had not been tallied at municipal, provincial, or national levels.

The CNE official simply read a statement saying that the ruling MPLA, in power for the last 42 years, had won the elections by 64.57%, a landslide. According to the official, the main opposition UNITA trailed behind with 24.04%, the coalition CASA-CE came in third with 8.56%, while three other parties split the remainder of the votes.

With the 63% of the votes the CNE claims to have been counted, it has already gone ahead to allocate the 220 parliamentary seats, giving the ruling MPLA a two-thirds majority with 154 seats. After the public’s disbelief, CNE lowered MPLA’s majority to 61.10% and 150 seats.

The election results are: “False,” “fabricated,” “invented,” and “made up” are some of the words that various watchers and monitors of the electoral process have used to describe the results and numbers announced by CNE. Nowhere in Angola’s 18 provinces were votes tallied beyond the polling station.

Members of the National Electoral Commission who were on duty at the local, provincial and national level have confirmed that they did not observe or undertake any collation or tallying of results. Seven members of the National Electoral Commission board held a night press conference yesterday to distance themselves from the announced results.

They stated in no uncertain terms that there had been no official tallying of results anywhere beyond the polling stations. Furthermore, they explained that, by law, they must certify the tallying at the national level with all of their signatures for any official results to be valid.

That, however, did not happen. The situation was the same at the municipal and provincial levels. There was no tallying and, therefore, no certification of results took place at either of those levels.

But it does not matter anymore. Prior to the announcement by the spokesperson of CNE, Júlia Ferreira, the head of political and electoral affairs of MPLA, João Martins had already rallied the national and international media to claim victory by a landslide.

What numbers he put out were the very same ones read out later by CNE’s spokesperson.

It does not seem to matter anymore because the international media, whose opinion or verdict is, for better or worse, often important to lend credibility to elections in places like Angola, had already concluded even before a single vote was cast, that the MPLA would win comfortably.

Whether that win would be procured by fair or foul means was of no moment to them. The only thing they seemed interested in was to know a little bit more about Dos Santos’s sucessor – General João Lourenço.

A number of international observers, particularly Portuguese politicians, predictably praised the elections as “perfect”.

What now? As a critical Angolan citizen it is my duty to question the whole process. There is already an international narrative established by the international media and political pundits about the comfortable win of MPLA.

Why couldn’t the National Electoral Commission abide by the law, and have the votes tallied? In the past three elections (1992, 2008, 2012), there was no shame in stuffing ballots, and other tricks in the book to ensure predetermined “landslide victories”. But at least the Electoral Law was observed as far the tallying of the results.

This time there was a major difference.

The opposition organized itself to undertake parallel tallying of the votes. They had battled hard for the electoral law to be observed as far as the monitoring of the polling stations and access of the official and signed copies of local results.

Also, the broader use of smartphones helped. Within minutes copies of the certified polling station results were being disseminated in the social media, as citizens took a keen interest in monitoring the elections.

By law, the results of each polling station must be posted locally for the public to see, immediately after they have been certified by the local members of the Electoral Commision and agents of the competing political parties.

As the evening progressed on August 23, it became clear from the certified results at polling stations across the country that the ruling MPLA would not coast comfortably to victory. In fact, it was well on the way to losing in the capital Luanda. That was when the official tallying of the votes at local, provincial and national levels was suspended.

Ordinary Angolans have long been fed up with the kleptocratic regime of the MPLA and the accompanying neglect by the government of its social responsibilities, a severe economic crisis, widespread joblessness, and decades of misrule and sheer incompetence.

What happened in these elections is that the Angolan people came to understand the value of the secrecy of the vote. MPLA could no longer control the hearts and minds of people through fear mongering, outright repression and corruption.

Yet, MPLA has proven to be a master manipulator of the international media by getting it to buy into its narratives that serve to perpetuate and legitimize its power. This time it has managed yet again to procure international acceptance of the outright stealing of elections in the most crude and unbelievable manner: No tallying of the results.

Angolan voters have been robbed. These elections have cost over half a billion dollars. Recently, the National Electoral Commission received an additional US $250 million from the presidency, from a slush fund, according to some sources. What for?

For the international community it might be just business as usual with the Angolan regime. All that conversation about democracy and rule of law has never been meant sincerely. The Southern Africa Development Community Observation Mission has already declared the Angolan elections free and fair.

Angolans must learn how to overcome the fractures of its social fabric to band together in ending this state of affairs and this regime of bandits.

Via Maka Angola!

Hugo Broos admitted that Cameroon’s 2018 World Cup qualification hopes are all but over following their 4-0 defeat to Nigeria on Friday in Uyo.

The Super Eagles are top of Group B on nine points after three matches, seven ahead of African champions Cameroon.

They meet again in Yaounde on Monday, with Broos admitting there is nothing but pride at stake.

“There is no pressure anymore on Monday, Nigeria have nine points, we have two points,” Broos said.

“But there is only an honour to defend, there is no importance to this. I just hope my players will have the same mentality that I have – that they will fight on Monday till the last minute – to beat Nigeria.

“If we had won this game, we would have a chance, but we lost it and I hope everyone will learn from this.”

Goals from Odion Ighalo, John Mikel Obi, Victor Moses and Kelechi Iheanacho sealed the win, with Broos refusing to hold any hopes of a ‘miraculous’ route to Russia.

“Why should we have a chance to the World Cup? We need to win all three games and Nigeria have to lose all three games, I don’t think that will happen,” said the Cameroon boss.

Cameroon are the reigning champions of Africa after their triumph over Egypt in the Nations Cup final in Gabon earlier this year.

The Indomitable Lions have played at seven Fifa World Cups and their best outing was at the 1990 World Cup where they reached the quarterfinals.