In the wake of controversial independence votes in both Kurdistan and Catalonia, religious leaders in Cameroon are expressing concerns that similar calls for secession by some Southern Cameroonians could degenerate into violence that would shake the very foundations of the country’s much-hyped peace.

The Southern Cameroonians have regained their independence from what’s officially known, in French, as the La République du Cameroun (“The Republic of Cameroon”.) to the 1st of October.

The Southern Cameroons is the part of the country initially administered as a UN Trust territory before independence in 1961. It reunited with French-speaking Cameroon that same year, following a UN-brokered plebiscite. The two parts formed a Federal Republic which was, however, scraped in 1972 after a controversial referendum that gave rise to a United Republic.

Even that formula was abolished in 1974 with the establishment of a Republic of Cameroon.

These mutations have been seen by many Anglophone Cameroonians as a calculated attempt to destroy everything they brought into the union, including their educational and legal systems.

Those feelings boiled over last October, when teachers and lawyers took to the streets in protest over the use of French in Anglophone schools and courts. But what started as simple strike actions soon coalesced into popular demands for the independence of “Ambazonia” – the putative name given to what could potentially be Africa’s newest country.

On September 22, 2017, tens of thousands of “Ambazonians” took to the streets in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon in peaceful demonstrations. Armed with green leaves, they chanted freedom songs and what they have crafted as their National Anthem – an anthem that “Hails this land of Glory” to which “We the Ambazonians pledge our loyalty.”

At least eight people were killed that day. But the secessionists have said they will brave police brutality and declare their independence October 1. The chairman of the governing Council of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, has issued a timetable for the independence celebration.

“From Sunday, Oct.1, to Tuesday, Oct. 3, we will celebrate the restoration of our statehood,” he said in a YouTube message.

He said the Southern Cameroons was on “the last bend to home. Buea is calling, and we are going to get to Buea.”

Buea (pronounced “boy-ah”) was the capital of the then British Southern Cameroons-the part of Cameroon administered as a UN Trust Territory under Britain. The secessionists say it is going to be the capital of Ambazonia.

“They have fought us, they have threatened us, but like one person, we have stood firm, because we are going to win,” Tabe declared.

Tabe said if President Paul Biya doesn’t start solving the problems between “Ambazonia” and The Republic of Cameroon, he will be forced to have a “very hostile relationship with the new nation. The choice is his today, the choice tomorrow will be ours.”

Describing the military forces that have been deployed to the two regions as a force of occupation, he said such use of force will not deter Southern Cameroonians from “reclaiming what is rightfully theirs.”

He said the right to self-defense is a basic human right, and Southern Cameroonians will have to use it to good effect.

The threat to carry out its independence declaration despite the enormous military deployment in the two English-speaking regions is raising concerns amongst the clergy that Cameroon’s legendary peace could at last be shattered.

“From the start of this Crisis, we in the Catholic Church said the best option was dialogue,” the President of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, Archbishop Samuel Kleda told Crux.

“Let the parties come together on the dialogue table. Let them clearly identify the problems and seek solutions to those problems.”

The cleric said the problems in Cameroon are a result of injustice that’s not limited to the English-speaking parts of the country.

“Our first enemy is injustice,” Kleda said. “That is why we demanded that the decentralization process for the development of our regions be really applied. If decentralization was really applied, the Anglophone problem wouldn’t have cropped up.”

Rev. Dimitri Téné, the Vicar General of the Orthodox Church, said it’s foolhardy to try to divide a country that has been reunited for over 50 years today, while Imam Adamou Mana of a Yaounde-based mosque said, “Cameroon is stronger as a united people.”

Even as he advocates peace, the emeritus Catholic Archbishop of Douala, Cardinal Christian Tumi, said the over-concentration of power at the center in Cameroon forms the heart of the problem.

Taking a swipe at the decision to scrap the Federal Republic in favor of a united republic in 1972, Tumi said that with federalism, “Cameroon was well-managed, development was on. There was a prime minister in the two parts of the country.”

As the two sides continue to bicker, the United Nations Secretary General has expressed concerns “about the situation in Cameroon, including with regard to the recent security incidents in Bamenda and in Douala, and mounting tensions in the South-West and North-West regions related to planned events on 1 October.”

Meanwhile, the UN Secretary General has expressed concerns about what is going on in Cameroon, and has called on the government to tackle “the root causes” of the crisis.

He said the UN upholds “the unity and territorial integrity of Cameroon and urges all parties to refrain from acts that could lead to an escalation of tension and violence.”

He called for dialogue between the government and the communities in the South-West and North-West regions as the best way of preserving peace in Cameroon.

But the Governing Council of the Southern Cameroons now say they have gone past the level of dialogue, and the only thing left is “the restoration of the statehood of the Southern Cameroons.”

Archbishop Sosthène Léopold Bayemi, Bishop of the Diocese of Obala in the Centre region of La Republqiue Du Cameroun has fired a priest for having contracted a marriage with a woman, contrary to the practices of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.

Rev. Father Abbé Léon Magloire Foe, reportedly got married to Ngono Alice Solange at the Ezezang Civil Status registry. His Lordship, Bishop Bayemi has therefore forbidden him to exercise the priestly ministry.

The priest, Léon Magloire Foe, is the father of several children some of whom a court in Yaoundé recently accorded him custody.

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Intelligence Report

Ever since the body of Bishop Jean Marie Benoit Bala of Bafia, Cameroon, was discovered in a local river about four miles from where his car had been abandoned, questions have abounded about his death – was it suicide, as the police allege, or a “brutal assassination,” as the country’s bishops insist?

If it was indeed murder, who killed the 58-year-old prelate? In response, the current apostolic administrator of Bala’s diocese, Monsignor Joseph Akonga Essomba, delivered a blunt answer on Thursday during a homily at a memorial Mass: The bishop was killed, he said, because he stood up against homosexuals in the Church and the priesthood.

Pointing to the front rows of the Church where most government ministers and other important personalities sat, and casting a sweeping look at fellow priests and bishops, Essomba charged: “Shame to all those people in black suits and black spectacles always sitting in the front rows of the Church,” he said.

“Shame to all those priests who have come here, pretending to sympathize. These are the people who killed our bishop, because he said ‘no’ to the homosexuality perpetrated by those priests,” Akonga said. He said those who actually killed the bishop were people in positions of power, but it was homosexual priests who betrayed him.

Akonga doubled down on what Cameroon’s bishops have been saying all along – that, contrary to forensic reports purporting that the bishop died by drowning, he was “brutally murdered.” He said Bala was a very good swimmer, and couldn’t have died by drowning. Akonga said the “Catholic Church has come under attack.”

He recalled the line of Cameroon prelates murdered in the past, at least 14 of them, with no one ever giving satisfying accounts of the murders. “They [the Bishop’s killers] are right there in church, and know that this message is for them,” said Jean Pierre Fouman, a Catholic layman based in Bafia, in response to Akonga’s homily. “They are assassins lurking in the dark,” he added.

While Bishop Andrew Nkea of the Mamfe diocese, in Cameroon’s southwest region, said the real reasons for the murder can only be explained by the assassins, his colleague from Kumbo in the northwest region, Bishop George Nkuo, offered a more spiritual explanation.

“The same reasons for which Christ was crucified apply to the killing of the bishop,” he told Crux. “He was killed because he stood for the truth. Any pastor, any bishop, any priest who stands for the truth should be ready to face the sword. It’s a beautiful way to die.”

The Bishop of Obala, Sosthéne Léopold Bayemi, said Bala’s death has strengthened his own faith in Christ, and gives him the “certitude that the rock on which Christ founded his Church will always resist the forces of evil.”
Bala’s nephew, Alexis Bala, stated that his uncle was the “pillar” of the family, and his parting has completely “shattered” their dream. “We pray that God should give us the strength to live through the pain,” he said, before insisting that Bala’s “killers need to be brought to justice.”

The Archbishop of Douala and President of the National Episcopal Conference, Archbishop Samuel Kleda, added a fervent appeal for public authorities to “tell the truth about His Lordship’s death. That’s all we ask for. We need to know who assassinated him.”

Kleda raised concerns that the course of justice was being obstructed, without elaborating on who was doing so. “We denounce all those dark forces obstructing the investigation,” he said, claiming that judges, medical experts and lawyers are under “enormous pressure.”

Around the country and across denominational lines, there has been an outpouring of grief for the late bishop. “We have lost a great pastor, who gave himself to the service of others,” said Jean Paul Ahanda, a resident of Bafia. The Imam of the Bafia Central Mosque, El Hadj Dang Amadou, said that the “the religious community has lost a great prelate, and the Muslim community in Bafia has lost a great friend.”

He recalled several instances when Bala united all denominations to drive home the message that society’s ills can best be resolved if all religions understand there’s more that unites than divides them.

Bala disappeared from his residence on the night of May 31. His car later was found parked on the Sanaga Bridge, a few miles from his residence. A note purportedly written by the bishop saying, “I am in the water,” was found inside the car along with his personal documents.

His corpse was found floating in the river by a Malian fisherman near Monatele on June 2, twelve and a half miles from the bridge. The Cameroon government ordered investigations to determine the cause of the death. Two autopsies were carried out by Cameroonian doctors, but the results were never made public.

Instead, recourse was made to foreign experts. A forensic diagnosis commissioned by INTERPOL and carried out by Professor Michael Tsokos, Director of the Berlin Institute of Forensic Medicine in Germany, and Doctor Mark Mulder, Coordinator of the Disaster Victim Identification Unit of INTERPOL, who arrived in Cameroon on June 29, 2017, came up with the conclusion that the bishop drowned. The bishops, however, have since rejected the report, insisting that they have evidence Bala was “brutally assassinated.”

Source: Cruxnow.com

Cameroon’s bishops have filed a lawsuit challenging the results of a government-ordered autopsy for a fellow bishop they claim was “brutally murdered.”

Bishop Jean Marie Benoit Bala was laid to rest Thursday in the Bafia Cathedral in the diocese where he served for 14 years. The ceremony was officiated by a large number of bishops and by Abp. Jean Mbarga, the metropolitan archbishop of Yaounde, who described Bp. Bala as a man of God whose death has traumatized the Catholic community in Cameroon.

Two weeks earlier, the Bishops’ Conference of Cameroon filed a private lawsuit against government officials for “mishandling the case.” They are working with lawyers and proving evidence to act on their behalf to “ensure truth is established.” This comes after the government’s autopsy claimed Bala died from drowning, contradicting a previous report showing evidence of torture and murder.
Bishop Bala went missing on May 31, and his car was found parked on a bridge over a river with his personal identification and a note that read “I am in the water.” If he’d died from drowning, there would have been water in his body, but there was nothing. Tweet

Initial speculation was that he committed suicide, but when his body was found floating in the river a few days later, an autopsy was ordered. A copy of the report was obtained by a Cameroon media outfit L’Anecdote, revealing that there was evidence of broken bones, bruises and even electrocution but no water in his lungs. These findings indicate he had been brutally beaten, tortured and died before being thrown into the river.

The latest autopsy ordered by Interpol and conducted by a forensics team from Germany directly contradict this and another autopsy conducted on June 22. Cameroon’s attorney general said on July 4 after the Interpol autopsy was completed, that no traces of violence were found and that drowning was the most likely cause of death.

But Abp. Samuel Kleda of Douala, president of the conference, said, “If he’d died from drowning, there would have been water in his body, but there was nothing. Instead, it was clear there were many marks of violence.”

A number of suspicious deaths of Catholic clergy have occurred in Cameroon dating as far back as the 1980s. According to media, at the time of his death, Bp. Bala was about to expose the government’s alleged involvement in the death of Abbé Armel Djama, rector of the Minor Seminary in Bala’s diocese of Bafia, who was found dead in his room at the end of May.

This was the second Mass for the bishop, the first held at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Victories in Yaounde. Since the bishop’s untimely death, continuous Masses and special prayer sessions for the repose of his soul have been offered.

Source: Churchmilitant.com

Tension is reportedly mounting in the Eglise Evangelique du Cameroon, EEC as Christians are currently at daggers-drawn positions. Different ethnic groups are challenging the legitimacy of the Church’s Executive Council.

The leadership tussle has plunged the church in to a legal battle fueled by conflicting newspaper reports. The crisis has ignited a Bamileke – Sawa rivalry; two ethnic groups that hitherto dominated the EEC leadership.

When the church became self supportive and autonomous in 1957 the dominant and populous communities the Bamouns, Bamiliekes and Sawas through the church board alternated leadership roles. The end of an election that marked fifteen years of Bamileke supremacy, paved the way for the Sawas to develop high expectation to gain power.

Rev. Pastor Richard Priso Moungole was tipped to replace Pastor Isaac Batomen Henga as President of the Church. Apparently the outgoing Rev Henga from the Bamileke community violated the tacit agreement in favour of Rev Pastor Jean Samuel Toya another Bamilieke. Correspondingly, the elections organized in Ngaoundere were teleguided in favour of Rev Toya against the Sawa candidate, Rev Moungele.

By some strange happenstance, Rev Moungele took legal action against his opponent in a Douala court on charges of electoral fraud and embezzlement. The church is presently divided and Christians are gradually boycotting their places of worship.

The Secretary General of the EEC however remains optimistic that a solution could be reached. The argument which was initially religious is gradually turning to a socio-political crisis between ethnic entities that earlier lived in peace and harmony.

Source: CRTV

The Roman Catholic Bishops of Cameroon have again stressed that the body they saw and recognized on the banks of the river Sanaga and in the mortuary at the Yaoundé General Hospital, which was the remains of Bishop Jean Marie Benoit Bala had evidence of violence. The Bishops made the declaration via a press release on Tuesday, the 11th of July 2017.

The National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon out rightly disputed the version made public by Center Region’s Attorney General which said in a statement last week that the three autopsies performed on the body, including one from Interpol, found no trace of violence. And that “drowning” was the “most likely” cause of the death of the prelate.

The leadership of the Roman Catholic Church in Cameroon maintained its position that, Bishop Jean Marie Benoît Bala, Bishop of Bafia was assassinated. Moreover, the authorities of the Catholic Church have not received the body of the Bishop of Bafia as announced by the Yaoundé state prosecutor that the body had been handed over to the church.

By Fru James
Cameroon Intelligence Report