Category: Key Issues

Central African Republic refugees in Cameroon have started returning home after fleeing political and sectarian violence there since 2014. There are around 300,000 C.A.R. refugees in Cameroon, most of them women and children. Hundreds have agreed to return home after Bangui promised peace has returned to their towns and villages.

Cameroonian officials handed out food and blankets at a camp in Gado Badzere Wednesday to about 300 Central African refugees who agreed to return home.

Gado Badzere hosts more than 30,000 C.A.R. refugees out of 300,000 who fled conflict.

Thirty-five-year-old farmer Robert Bissa is one of the refugees who is returning this week to the Central African Republic.

He left the C.A.R. in 2017 after a rebel attack on a military base killed civilians and destroyed the shop where he sold his produce.

Bissa said he received assurances from his family back home that peace has returned to his village in the south of the C.A.R. He said he intends to go back to his farm and grow beans and groundnuts.

Cameroon authorities and the U.N.’s refugee agency (the UNHCR) say 2,500 refugees, most of them women and children, have agreed to return home before the end of this year.

But UNHCR Cameroon representative Olivier Beer said most of the refugees in Cameroon are still reluctant.

Beer said a majority of the refugees have not accepted to voluntarily return because security is unstable in the C.A.R. But he said there are some towns and villages that have been pacified by the C.A.R.’s military.

A C.A.R. official receiving the refugees on the border said they would be socially and economically re-integrated and that their safety and security would be assured.

Cameroon’s territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, said militaries on both sides will protect refugees as they were returning home.

Nji said there are still problems of C.A.R. rebels crossing into Cameroon to steal supplies and abduct civilians for ransom.

“It is important to reiterate the instruction of President Paul Biya that the departure [of refugees] must be voluntary and the convoy must have all the necessary security measures. We have asked the security forces [military] in Cameroon to accompany the convoy and by the time we get to the boundary (border) the security forces military from the neighboring country [C.A.R.] will continue with the convoy,” he said.

Violence erupted among armed groups in the C.A.R. in 2013, when then-President Francoise Bozize was ousted by the Séléka, a Muslim minority rebel coalition.

In January 2021, hundreds of C.A.R. civilians fled sporadic clashes after the presidential election, many of them to Cameroon.

The U.N. says since 2013, close to a million Central Africans have fled conflict to neighboring Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria.

The voluntary repatriation of C.A.R. refugees began in 2016 but was suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: Voice of America

A new app is helping Zimbabwe’s journalists stay safe in environments in which they are at risk.

Set up by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), the tool acts as a panic button. It is seen as an important resource leading up to the country’s 2023 elections.

Nompilo Simanje, from MISA Zimbabwe, said the media watchdog set up the app after documenting a trend of unlawful detentions and assaults against journalists.

“So in light of those trends, which have seen to actually increase during election periods, MISA Zimbabwe launched this alert button,” Simanje said. “It is very timely and it will be very useful with the general election coming up next year and also for the purposes of reporting any media violence and calling for assistance in the event of any media violation.”

Journalists in distress can press a ‘Trigger” icon on the app, which immediately alerts MISA and key contacts to the emergency and the person’s location.

Blessed Mhlanga, a journalist with the Alpha Media Holdings news group, has already signed up for the app. Mhlanga, who was arrested in early May, said he could see the value of being able to seek help quickly.

“I was arrested just a few weeks ago while covering elections in Chitungwiza,” he said. “There was an amazing response from MISA Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, chiefly because when we were arrested, there were some journalists who then made calls and we managed to get quick responses. But imagine if there was no one around.”

When President Emmerson Mnangagwa took over in 2017, he promised to improve the media landscape in Zimbabwe. But Reporters Without Borders said levels of violence against journalists “remain alarmingly high” in Zimbabwe, and harsh laws are still in effect.

On Monday, Nick Mangwana, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information, told reporters the government was promoting “development” journalism – stories focused on the economy, climate change and infrastructure. He said authorities were not standing in the way of journalists’ work.

“It is very important and paramount that the welfare of journalists should be elevated to a level where it becomes an integral [part] of the developmental project that is being rolled by government,” he said, “because the media are a key component of creating the critical mass buy-in from the public to the national development goals.”

Mangwana promised a Media Practitioners’ Bill in parliament “soon” as part of efforts by the government to allow journalists like Mhlanga to work freely in Zimbabwe.

The ability of media to work unhindered is vital as Zimbabwe prepares for elections next year. During that time, Mhlanga said, the MISA app will be an asset.

“It is going to be very useful,” he said. “And it comes as a relief and guarantee to me as a journalist.”

Reporters Without Borders recently ranked Zimbabwe 137th out of 180 countries on its annual index, where 1 is the most free.

Source: Voice of America

PARIS— The world is paying too little attention to a slew of mass displacements of people across Africa, risking starvation deaths and prolonging conflicts, the Norwegian Refugee Council warned in a report

published Wednesday.

“With the all-absorbing war in Europe’s Ukraine, I fear African suffering will be pushed further into the shadows,” the aid group’s chief Jan Egeland said in a statement.

The countries with the most neglected crises according to the NRC are, in order: the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burkina Faso, Cameroon, South Sudan, Chad, Mali, Sudan, Nigeria, Burundi and Ethiopia.

It is the first time that all 10 crises on the Council’s annual list — based on shortfalls in the international political response, media coverage, and the amount of aid pledged — are on the African continent.

In the DRC, the most-neglected country on the list for the second year running, around 27 million people went hungry last year, or one-third of the population.

Meanwhile 5.5 million people were internally displaced, the aid group said, with a further one million fleeing abroad.

But there were no high-level meetings or donor conferences about the DRC’s hunger crisis or the conflict in the country’s east, and only 44 percent of the $2.0 billion requested by the UN for humanitarian aid was received.

By contrast, the NRC highlighted that it took just one day this March for a humanitarian appeal for Ukraine to be almost fully funded.

“The war in Ukraine has demonstrated the immense gap between what is possible when the international community rallies behind a crisis, and the daily reality for millions of people suffering in silence within these crises on the African continent that the world has chosen to ignore,” NRC head Egeland said.

In other countries on the Council’s list, climate shocks such as droughts and floods have exacerbated food crises, while conflicts or endemic violence both put civilians to flight and made it harder for aid groups to reach them.

And lack of press freedom in many affected nations raises the hurdle to media coverage even higher.

The NRC noted that seven of the 10 countries on its list had made repeated appearances in recent years.

“This points to a vicious cycle of international political neglect, limited media coverage, donor fatigue, and ever-deepening humanitarian needs,” the report said.

The aid group called for “adequate attention” from the UN Security Council and other international bodies, with measures like assigning one or more members to “champion” specific displacement crises and support for NGOs

working on the ground.

It also suggested steps to address donor fatigue, such as governments committing steady funding flows rather than one-off pledges.

And it called on members of the public to continue pressuring their governments to help countries in crisis and support media that cover “forgotten conflicts”.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Cameroon’s military says it has freed a senator who was held captive by separatists for a month along with other hostages.

Cameroon’s military on Tuesday said it managed to rescue Senator Regina Mundi, after what a spokesman called two days of heavy battles with rebels who had taken her hostage.

Military spokesman Serge Cyrille Atongfack said in a press release that the clashes took place in Batibo district in Cameroon’s Northwest region.

Atongfack said separatists tried to escape advancing government troops on Sunday with six hostages, including Senator Mundi.

But he said the troops stopped the rebels, killing ten of them and capturing three, without any harm to the captives.

The military did not identify the other hostages but said they were receiving medical treatment after the ordeal.

Rights groups in Cameroon welcomed Senator Mundi’s release after a month in captivity.

Mumah Bih Yvonne of the Women’s Peace Movement led church prayers for Mundi’s release after her April abduction.

“I hope she is sound health wise. For those who took Mundi and kept her for this long, I pray you have a change of mindset. You are perpetuating pain and suffering on people. I congratulate those who succeeded in getting her out,” she said.

A separatist spokesman confirmed that government troops freed Mundi and other hostages but denied the military’s claim that fighters were killed and captured.

Capo Daniel is deputy defense chief of the Ambazonia Defense Forces, one of Cameroon’s rebel groups. The separatists have been fighting since 2017 to break away from Cameroon and its French-speaking majority to create an English-speaking state called Ambazonia.

Daniel says the military abused civilians during the weekend raids to free Senator Mundi.

“Hundreds of Cameroon military brutalized our civilian population, rounded them up, tied their hands behind their backs, women were tortured, houses were searched, occupants were tied up and forced to sit in city squares where they were not allowed to have access to communication. None of our soldiers were killed or captured, We have regrouped and we will make sure that those areas remain under strong Ambazonia control,” he said.

None of Daniel’s claims could be immediately or independently confirmed.

One local, who did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation, told VOA both sides committed abuses and detained civilians during the clashes.

Cameroon’s military denies any abuses.

Armed separatists abducted Senator Mundi with her driver in Bamenda, capital of the English-speaking North West region, on April 30.

The rebels accused Mundi of collaborating with Cameroon’s central government and demanded 47 of their arrested leaders be freed in return for her release. The government refused.

Esther Njomo Omam is executive director of Reach Out Cameroon, a group calling for a cease-fire to end the separatist conflict.

“Parties to the conflict, this is the time to talk more among ourselves and resolve our differences in a peaceful way,” she said.

Unrest in Cameroon’s English-speaking western regions broke out in 2016 after teachers and lawyers protested the dominance of French in the officially bilingual country.

The military’s harsh response led separatists to take up arms, saying they had to defend the minority English speakers.

The U.N. says clashes between the two sides have since left at least 3,300 people dead and more than 750,000 internally displaced.

Source: Voice of America

Officials from Gabon and Cameroon have agreed to retrace their nearly 300-kilometer border and to stop frequent clashes between border communities. At a meeting in Cameroon’s capital Thursday night, the two sides also agreed to jointly deploy their militaries to stop arms trafficking across the border.

Officials from Cameroon and its southern neighbor Gabon ended a three-day meeting Thursday agreeing to better demarcate their border and improve border security.

The meeting, which included delegates from France, Germany, the UN, and other global groups, advised a three-year plan to define the border.

Aime Roger Mouloungui Maganga is secretary general of Gabon’s National Border Commission.

He says people along the border between Cameroon and Gabon have willfully or unknowingly removed or damaged border markers built by German and French colonial powers in the 19th century. Maganga says erosion and floods have also destroyed some of the markers. He says Gabon and Cameroon must retrace their border in a way that will satisfy both states.

While the two countries have never fought over their border, border security has been an issue.

Border communities have clashed over natural resources including minerals and sand, water, wood, and wildlife.

Cameroon says in March, villagers on its side blocked a bridge to Gabon in protest of Gabonese troops demanding customs duties, a charge Gabon denies.

Cameroon’s Territorial Administration minister Paul Atanga Nji says militaries from the two countries agreed to carry out joint border controls to stop arms trafficking.

Nji, who headed Cameroon’s delegation at the meeting, said Cameroon’s military has seized weapons along the border.

“We have terrorism, arms trafficking, illegal exploitation of our resources, and that is why it is important to increase surveillance and intelligence because we need information,” said Nji. “So, when we identify challenges and the security forces{military} are put in place, we can anticipate any danger.”

Majority French-speaking Cameroon has been fighting English-speaking separatists in its western regions since 2017.

Cameroon’s government last year said some fleeing separatist fighters disguised as displaced persons were arrested on its southern borders with Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

Gabon in 2019 closed crossings to Cameroon after an attempted coup against President Ali Bongo, claiming coup leaders were hiding across the border.

At this week’s meeting, both sides agreed to use the border map drawn by former colonial powers as a guiding document.

The Gabonese delegation was led by Gabon’s senior minister of Interior, Lambert Noël Matha.

He says the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), has agreed to provide funding, technical assistance and equipment needed by Cameroon and Gabon for the demarcation of the border. Matha says experts who attended the meeting have agreed on a road map and that joint delegations from Cameroon and Gabon will soon visit hard to access areas of the border.

The boundary was established by German and French colonial powers in the late 19th century and finalized in 1908.

It has not changed after both states gained their independence in 1960.

Source: Voice of America