The Embassy of the United States in Cameroon is seeking highly qualified Cameroonian secondary school teachers to participate in the 2020-21 Fulbright Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (Fulbright TEA), sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Program Components
Teachers who are selected to participate in the Fulbright TEA Program will:
1) Participate in advanced undergraduate or graduate level classes at a U.S. host university;
2) Observe classes, co-teach, and share their expertise with U.S. colleagues in U.S. secondary schools;
3) Participate in an online professional learning community with other participants to share best practices and other elements of host and home country educational systems; and
4) Take part in other educational and cultural activities while in the United States.
Upon returning home, teachers will be expected to share the knowledge and experience gained on the program with teachers and students in their home schools and within their communities.
University Coursework
Weekly Seminars: Teachers will participate in weekly seminars at their host university featuring presentations and discussions led by university staff, faculty members, and invited educational experts. The academic seminars will focus on new teaching methodologies, content-based instruction, project-based learning, infusing thematic topics into curriculum, lesson planning, and instructional technology training for teachers.
U.S. School Placements: Teachers will be placed in a U.S. secondary school during the program, where they will observe classes, co-teach, and share information about their home countries and schools. Each Fulbright teacher will be paired with a U.S. partner educator at his/her assigned school to facilitate sharing of best practices between the teachers. Host university staff will identify schools and partner teachers near the university campus that are appropriate to each grantee’s teaching discipline(s).
Online Professional Learning Community: Each Fulbright teacher will participate in a virtual community with other international educators to collaborate and share best practices about education and leadership in the participating countries.
Eligibility Criteria
1) Current secondary-level, full-time teachers of English, English as a Foreign Language (EFL), math, science, or social studies, including special education teachers in those subjects at institutions serving primarily a local population are eligible for the program.
2) Applicants must hold at least a Bachelor’s degree or the equivalent and have completed at least five years of full-time teaching by the start of the program.
3) Secondary-level teachers include both middle and high school teachers serving students between approximately 12 and 18 years of age.
4) Applicants must reside in the country of citizenship at the time of application and of program participation.
Please note that this is an upper level university or graduate level academic program for practicing teachers. Educational administrators (such as representatives or officials of the Ministry of Education) and school administrators who do not teach at least fifty percent of their time, full-time teacher trainers, university faculty, private English Language tutors, and teachers from schools primarily serving expatriates are not eligible.
Applicants who have in the past five to eight years traveled to the U.S. for exchange programs such as Study of the United States Institutes (SUSI) or International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) or to other Western countries for professional development must provide strong justification as to why they should be selected to go to the U.S. for the Fulbright TEA program.
There are two types of beings in Cameroon. Humans and Monsters. A monster shot a 4 months-old baby.
On May 20th, while the Cameroon state was busy trying to put up a show called ‘national day celebration’, a four month-old baby was shot death while asleep in herparent’s house in Muyuka, a town in the South West Region of Cameroon.
I just watched a news report from Equinox in which it is reported that the parents of the baby turned down a convocation to go to the police and give a statement.
I would have thought the police should have been the ones to come to the house and treat it as a crime scene, carry out investigations and bring whoever is responsible to justice.
Could it be because they are worried about what such an investigation, if carried out, would reveal?
I see people trying to apportion blame on who might be responsible. Some including the parents and eyewitnesses have blamed the Cameroon military, while the Cameroon state has blamed Ambazonia Separatist fighters. But it is just a simple case here.
Who is responsible for the security of people and property? Who is paid to protect babies such as Martha? Who is responsible for the current carnage and escalation of the crisis in the NW and SW Region of Cameroon? Who is responsible for calling for dialogue to end the conflict?
Whoever is responsible for any of the these, is fully responsible for the killing of that baby, irrespective of who pulled the trigger. The State of Cameroon failed to deal with the ongoing crisis, when it was a simple demand from Lawyers and teachers. It is responsible for militarising the regions and sat back while young boys carried arms in what they classed as ‘self defence’. The government of Paul Biya failed to take care of the minor wound, and now it has developed pus. He and his Regime are responsible for the death of every citizen.
If you make a community unfit for humans to live in, monsters will thrive!
Kah Walla has taken to social media to defend her statements made recently in the USA about the situation in Cameroon’s English-Speaking Regions.
Despite the threats made to her life, the one time presidential candidate, has, in a statement, not only set the records straight but also made it clear to those threatening her that they cannot stop her from standing for the truth.
In this well written statement, Kah Walla blames the Biya Regime for its poor handling of the crisis and also attributes blame to Ambazonian leaders and activists who through lies, manipulation and intimidation, have made a bad situation worse.
There are few politicians and activists in Cameroon who are willing to defend their convictions, even when this puts their lives at risk.
Kah Walla has been one of the consistent advocates of freedom of expression and the rights of all Cameroonians to live in a country free from oppression. From the start of the current crisis in the English Speaking regions of Cameroon, she has not spared a moment to challenge the regime in Yaounde for its high handed and irrational approach to solving the problems.
When journalists and activists have been arbitrarily arrested, Kah Walla has not only spoken up, but also gone out on the streets to demand their release
This brave woman has been attacked, arrested and threatened countless times by the Biya regime. She has shown that she is willing to sacrifice her political ambitions for the sake of peace and prosperity in Cameroon, her recent action being her refusal to stand as a candidate during the 2018 sham presidential election.
Why then is Kah Walla not the people’s favourite? Why is it that Ambazonians are now threatening her for speaking the truth, even when that truth is liberating? Why is it that people who claim to be fighting against oppression, and who should appreciate Kah Walla as a credible ally, rather chose to vilify her?
While I cannot claim to know the answer to all these questions, one thing is clear, Kah Walla is just another victim of a misogynistic society. She is a victim of a society that is still scared of strong, powerful and independent women in positions of leadership.
Had rhe statements made by Kah Walla been made by any other male politician, the vitriolic attacks and threats would have been minimal or nonexistent.
All in all, I cannot fail to express my profound admiration for this woman and all she stands for. She is not only a symbol of liberation for the oppressed people of Cameroon, she represents a symbol of liberation for all women across the world who are still held down by patriarchal and misogynistic norms.
Below is her full statement as posted on her Facebook Page.
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Fellow Cameroonians,
First I want to wish a Happy Easter to all our Christian Brothers and Sisters. Secondly, I wish to extend particular greetings to all who live in the South West and North West regions of Cameroon.
It would seem in the last 72 hours there has been quite a frenzy about a video snippet from the conference I spoke at, at the George Washington University Institute for African Studies. This frenzy has resulted in some persons in the Diaspora calling me an “enabler and declaring me an enemy of Anglophones and demanding that I should be arrested and tried”.
Thank you to all of you who have reached out to me out of concern for my safety and well-being. You are right to be concerned and I thank you for your love and affection.
Please be assured, I am serene and focused on the fight for change for Cameroon, as I have been for decades. There is absolutely no fear in my heart. No fear of visiting the South West and North West regions, which I will do upon return to Cameroon. No fear for my life.
Let me confirm some of the statements made at GWU, once again.
• There is an Anglophone problem in Cameroon which is over 60 years old.
• In the current phase of the Anglophone Crisis which erupted in October 2016, the Biya Regime holds 100% of the blame for the instigation and the escalation of the crisis. The Biya Regime refused to dialogue, refused to address fundamental problems and responded to non-violent protests with violence and killing. The Biya Regime cut off the internet for 3 months to the North West and South West. The Biya Regime radicalized the population and led to the taking up of arms by some groups.
Now let me get to the part of my comments at George Washington University which some have found controversial.
The fact that the Biya Regime is absolutely culpable, does not negate the fact that those who decided to take up arms to fight for independence misled and lied to the population from Day 1 and have continued to do so for the past 3 years.
The Biya Regime has killed Anglophones indiscriminately and committed all sorts of abomination on the population. This does not negate the fact that those who decided to take up arms have also used intimidation and violence from Day 1. It does not negate the fact that their choice to take up arms has created a situation in the North West and South West regions which is catastrophic and untenable for the population.
In fighting the Biya Regime, we are fighting a regime which has lied to us, manipulated us, intimidated us and used corruption and violence on us for the past 37 years. It is inconceivable to me that those who want change would use the same tactics of lies, manipulation, intimidation, corruption and violence on the population while trying to bring about change.
Whether it was the intention of those who fight for the independence of the South West and North West regions or not, that is what has happened and continues to happen on the ground. We can no longer keep silent about it.
A wide variety of political opinions exist among Anglophones. At the very least, there are:
• Those who believe in an armed fight for independence
• Those who believe in independence, but not in an armed fight
• Those who believe in regional autonomy of various types = Federation
• Those who still believe in the unitary state (Yes, Anglophones who are part of the regime are still Anglophones).
Personally, I believe in regional autonomy or what some call federation. However, I qlso believe, all the different opinions have a right to exist and to be expressed. We cannot build change, if we intimidate and are violent with those who have a different opinion from our own.
I strongly and openly disagree with the maintenance of the status quo of a unitary state.
I also strongly and openly disagree with the strategy of an armed fight and have stated clearly since 2016 that I believe this strategy will endanger the lives of Anglophones and will do little to advance their rights. The facts on the ground today, have confirmed that belief.
I will not allow anyone to intimidate me or stop me from expressing my opinion. No threat of violence or arrest will affect me. I have fought one oppressor in the person of Mr. Biya and his regime for decades, I will certainly not be afraid of Facebook oppressors living thousands of miles from the people they say they are fighting for, or any other oppressors in whatever form they may come.
From October 2016 to September 2017 the fight for Anglophone rights was largely non-violent. During that period, we counted less than 100 deaths (all these deaths could be attributed to government forces), ZERO refugees, ZERO internally displaced persons, ZERO villages burned.
The choice to take up arms gave the Biya Regime, which we all know to be violent and repressive, the foreseeable opportunity to intensify its violence.
From September 2017 to date the fight for Anglophone rights has included armed groups. During this period, we are counting at the very least 1000 dead (attributed to government, but also to armed groups), about 50,000 refugees and close to 500,000 displaced persons and thousands kidnapped. The education of an estimated 2,500,000 children is in jeopardy. The economies of the North West and South West are in shambles and fertile ground has been created for extreme violence and criminal behavior. The population lives in poverty, fear and confusion.
In my opinion, it is time to reassess the armed strategy and define new ways of fighting the Biya Regime that do not put Anglophones in the midst of violence, kidnappings, murder and general mayhem. You can agree or disagree with my opinion. What you cannot do is intimidate or threaten me.
Some have issued veiled threats to my life. I am amused. At the very least 1,000 people have died in the North West & South West. My life is not so special. If I lose it, and Cameroonians who remain behind gain freedom and better lives, you can imagine I made my peace with that many years ago.
The Biya Regime has its soldiers, those who are fighting for independence have their armed groups. I am part of that majority of Cameroonians who have no guns and no army. We will however not be intimidated or silenced by those who have arms on either side. We will speak our minds and fight for our freedom without violence.
You have killed many, and you may still kill many, including me. Know that however many you kill, there will still be others to rise up and fight for their rights, without violence and without guns.
We believe in our country, Cameroon. We believe in our future, we are on the ground fighting for our rights.
“On April 4, 2019 as the new ‘Lockdown’ imposed on the people of Fako was just beginning, the impact was being felt across the affected areas, especially by the most vulnerable of the population.
Time and again, many of us have questioned the rationale behind the ‘lockdowns’ or ‘shutdowns’ which basically call for all activities to stop for a period of time, usually 10 days. The last lockdown in February resulted to a hospital being burnt in Kumba and till date, no one has been held to account.
It is therefor not surprising that Justice Ayah Paul Abine took to Facebook to condemn the lockdown, indicating that the actions of those calling for such actions have the exact same effects on the people as the actions of the Regime they claim to be fighting against.
Below is the full text which has generated diverse opinions on Facebook.”
Mrs. Ayah returned from CONGELCAM, Buea, yesterday, after two hours of unsuccessful effort to buy fish. The husband visited the scene in the late evening to appraise the situation. WHAT A CHAOTIC SCENE! Some elderly women had been there all day without as much as entering the building. There was no queue. Entry was by the fittest. Even then, those behind the counter decided whose money to take when…
Anglophones abroad at room temperature often do grossly fail to appreciate what patriots in the war zone go through daily. While they have sound sleep with the police pacing up and down, assuring their security, those back home are under constant apprehension of being killed by direct or stray bullets.
While they enjoy good earnings, coupled, at times, with windfalls, the ‘dogs of war’ back home have lost everything: ascendants/descendants, shelter, access to medical facilities, foodstuffs preserved for the rainy day
While their own children are going to school, excellent schools quite often, the children back home suffer educational privation as the price of war.
Their catch clause is ‘WE ARE AT WAR’. So what? What is the difference between us? You run away from the war. Then, from your safe sanctuary, you seek to induce others to volunteer into all kinds of battlefields. How more valuable are your own lives? And are there any relative values in human lives?
WE ARE AT WAR, YES! Why are you at war if there is no difference between your conduct and the conduct of the other party you are at war with: if the end justifies the means either way?
If, for instance, the other party kills directly and you kill slowly, is the latter killing not more painful – dying after suffering? To put it otherwise, if the one party destroys food preserved for future use, and you prevent the planting of crops for future use, what difference does it make?
The wise teach that leadership is constant introspection so as to avoid repeating mistakes. And that is the mainstay of credibility. Empty boasting (bluff) leads to contempt. After the previous lock-down; after the ban on food leaving or entering the land; did credibility not require proper introspection before venturing into another lock-down: all the worse, such a sudden lock-down? What is the intended objective? What if the festival holds after all? Would the privation of movement and food not have been in vain? Even if the festival did not hold, would the price paid by the people be commensurate to the failure of the festival?
Those questions are of immense importance and relevance. Fighting against someone for doing what you too do is self-infliction. There’s little difference between someone killing a patient on board an ambulance and you preventing the desperately sick, including women under labour, from being taken to the hospital in the name of LOCKDOWN. There is little difference between the one who forces people into the bushes/forests to die from want of food/medicines and you preventing people from planting food crops during the planting season like now.
It is absolutely facetious to shout out that people should ‘STOCK FOOD AND WATER’! There are families here hosting as many as 25 refugees (some prefer to call them ‘internally displaced persons’). The minimum wage in Camerouoon is 38.000 francs. Would any intelligent person call on any such family to ‘STOCK FOOD AND WATER’ to last them 10 days? If such a family bought a bag of rice for 25.000 and some trog-canda, would they eat the rice raw? How much water would the family store for, maybe, 30 persons for bathing, laundry, cooking and drinking for 10 days?
LET US BE MORE SERIOUS – MORE HUMANE!!!
We beg to opine that it is self-defeating to fight against the very people one claims to be fighting for. May we add that true leadership is more than copying and pasting – far more than safeguarding one’s own life while pushing others into self-destruction. Whoever advises, let alone, urges unlimited sacrificing should do so by examples: joining us back home, if only OCCASIONALLY!
The decision by Cho Ayaba to start a military rebellion in the village of Dadi was one of the worse decisions in recent memory. It was not informed as his sycophants tell us everyday on facebook by any strategic thinking, preparation or backing. It was grandstanding for one purpose only: a desperate attempt to remain relevant in the struggle in the face of the emergence of a new crop of anglophone leaders led by Sissiku Ayuk Tabe.
This seems to have been a trend throughout the struggle. After fleeing to Nigeria and finding himself isolated and the centre of gravity shifted to the young men Mark Bara and Ivo Tapang, in desperation Tassang joined the southern Cameroon movement in exile in Nigeria not because he was a fervent believer in separation but because he was isolated and alone.
Having been made interim head of the movement, Sissiku Ayuk Tabe declared independence on 1’st October 2017 not because it was the right thing to do and the right time to do it, nor could he pretend to have any kind of control over the territory or democratic legitimacy but because he was goaded into that declaration by the group around Boh Herbert and Morisc who would have gone ahead and declared independence from the U. S before him.
And in other to counteract the emergence of Cho Ayaba as a warlord in Southern Cameroon with influence in the field and fundraising powers abroad, some members of the IG and old activists like Akwanga declared their military presence in Southern Cameroon which finally became a free for all as they realised the power of the gun in mapping out spheres of influence on the ground by holding the people, the institutions both traditional, civil society and business as well as the government agencies to ransom.
As I have said before citing the case of Algeria, the level of violence in a revolution is related to the emergence of factions within the revolutionary bodies and the competition for attention between them. Southern Cameroon groups in the struggle seem to have worked themselves into a dilemma of their own making as they sort to thwart each other’s advance and name recognition by out-staging one another.
The idea that there was a grand strategy behind it all is one of the biggest jokes that has caused the lives of thousands of people in the last 2 years. Unfortunately, nobody is laughing. But I laugh each time Tapang Ivo reminds us that he has come up with more than 200 strategies for a successful revolution. Although he boasts of having presented 200 strategies, you might have noticed that nobody has ever seen them. Each time the revolution enters a new phase he announces that it was number so and so of his 200 strategies.
Ambazonia Defence Force Fighters
Take Tapang’s recent claim that he has a winning strategy for the war in one year. He points out that Cameroon has an army of 15.000 soldiers and that Ambazonia is divided into 13 counties. According to our world-class strategist, it is simple. If you divide 15.000 by 13 and ask every county in so-called Ambazonia to provide 1150 recruits to amba (And he means the ADF of Cho Ayaba) then you can win the war in one year. for such a brilliant strategist, it does not occur to him that Cameroon too can do the same and put four times as many soldiers in the field as Ambazonia. It has not occurred to him that soldiers from Cameroon will be better led as their officers have access to training in the best military schools all over the world while illiterates run amba camps in villages of Southern Cameroon.
It has not occurred to our ‘strategist’ that Cameroon goes into the field with the backing of the entire budget of the country No matter how much of it is embezzled). while amba has to make do with the ransom they get from kidnapping teachers and businessmen and their children.
The tragedy unfolding at present in the NW and SW regions is because 17 to 20-year-old boys who should be in school accept this childish pronouncement as truth and then go out and get themselves killed for nothing. The idea that the militant uprising was meant to prevent the army of Cameroon from killing innocent civilians is the biggest lie that has been told to our people. Amba has not stopped one house from being burnt or one person from being killed. Right now the greatest revolutionary achievements of amba in the NW and the SW region is that they have succeeded through terror to close the schools, to destroy business activities, to mastermind more than 10.000 kidnappings and ransom payments and to usher in a general state of lawlessness.
We are now reaching a stage where people long for the second class citizenship of LRP than the lawlessness of amba and the fancy of kids playing at revolutionaries. But I don’t think so. I think people now hate both especially when they see the incompetence of the government and the behaviour of the army around them.
There is no doubt that the Biya Regime receives a lot of military support and training from Israel and the United States. One would have therefore thought that the Regime will show some appreciation for the support they were receiving from Israel.
That happens not to be the case as the Cameroon Minister of justice, Jean De Dieu Momo, has openly expressed antisemitic views over National Television.
Comparing the Bamileke ethnic group to the Jews and describing them in derogqtory terms, such as “arrogant people”, the minister went on to gloat over how Jews were put in gas chambers by “a certain Hitler”.
The Minister then goes on to warn Professor Kamto to be careful where he is leading his people – the Bamilekes. This could only imply that as the Bamilekes are the Jews of Cameroon, Paul Biya was the Hitler who was likely to ‘gas them in the same manner as Hitler did with the Jews.
This should not be surprising, coming from a Cameroon Minister of Justice, given that for over Two years, English-speaking Cameroonians have been systematically slaughtered by government forces, creating a security situation where vandals and armed thugs now run around killing anyone who makes a wrong move.
The paradox of the situation is that Israel has been providing support to the regime, Training the elite Battalion D’Intenvention Rapide (BIR) which has been involved in most of the extra judicial killing of Cameroonian.
While one ought to condemn the Holocaust and denounce anyone who seeks to downplay that dark period of history, it must be said that Jean Dr Dieu Momo, is effectively an ally of Israel and hence, the memory of the Holocaust can be said to have been insulted by someone form in-house.
The Israeli Embassy in Yaounde has written a letter condemning the utterances, but there are doubts it would go beyond those words. It is therefore a shame thar someone in such a position of authority can make such derogatory remarks about some thing so sinister as the Holocaust and go away free.
Should Israel not come forth with a serious response to such an insult to the memory of its people killed by Hitler, they will effectively be telling the rest of the world that antisemitism is not a problem if it comes from certain people.
Mr. Momo’s remarks are also considered to be in bad taste given that one of the worst genocides in Cameroon history was carried out by the French and the Ahidjo government against the Bamilekes and the UPC party.
Any govrnrment with some sense of decency would have called for the resignation of the Minister, but given that it is the Biya Regime of Cameroon, anyone can expect that even the almighty Israel will not do anything about the situation.
I can remember vividly the day I first saw a corpse. I was about 8 or 9 years old at the time, and heard that someone had died. I left, ran with my friends and went in to see. It was a police officer and he was dressed in his official uniform. When we got back, we were told to wash our faces with water to avoid seeing the corpse in our dreams. It was a rare occurence to learn that someone had died, but over the years all that has changed drastically.
Watching the above video, I was shocked at how casually, the young persons therein, were carrying corpses, some of which were their friends. This video is a clear depiction of how far Cameroon has degenerated during the reign of 86 year-old Dictator Paul Biya.
Over the last couple of years, English-Speaking Cameroon has seem so much death, that it is no surprise that kids now carry corpses around in the back of a pick-up truck as if they were some sort of fancy toys.
My heart bleeds for my country. My heart bleeds for the country that was once known as “Africa in Miniature” because of its amazing riches. My heart bleeds as I watch helplessly and see my country slump into the morass of conflict that has engulfed most of Africa.
Death has been normalised in Cameroon, in the same way corruption, nepotism and lack of governance and development. I fear for the future of these children, I fear for the future of Cameroon.
The Cameroon High Commission has announced it is shutting down for three days, beginning with Monday 28 January 2019 to Wednesday 30 January 2019 inclusive. This forceful observation of what is known in Cameroon as ‘Ghost towns’, – a mandatory situation where businesses and government institutions shut down as a non-violent response to the degenerating crisis in the North West and South West Regions.
In a communique signed by the High Commissioner and posted on the doors of the High Commission, they acknowledge that their closure is in response to “acts of aggression and malicious damage to property”. This aptly describes what the Regime has been doing in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon over the last two years, and recently in other parts of the country. It is therefore a great think that the High Commision of Cameroon in London has shut down its building to show solidarity.
It is however, to be noted that the said building situated in the prestigious Holland Park Road in London, but there is nothing prestigious about it. The Cameroon High Commission in London happens to be not only the dirtiest and most dilapidated building on the street, it is one that houses people who support criminals of all sorts – rapists, murderers, arsonists etc.
As activists from CODE, Brigade Anti-Sardinard, West Cameroon Movement for Change and the Southern Cameroons Community UK gathered on Saturday 26 January, 2019, there to protest in answer to the call for a worldwide demonstration by President-Elect of Cameroon, Professor Maurice Kamto, they were certain that a message had to be passed on to the High Commission.
Tempers were already frayed by the news arriving that protesters had been shot in Cameroon. A week ago, Combattant Emmanuel Kemta had told the Biya Regime that there will be a reaction from activists across the world, should they attack protesters in Cameroon.
It, therefore, came as no surprise that after rousing speeches from many of the person’s present, including from a 9-year-old girl, the protesters unanimously agreed that it was necessary to leave a message for the Biya Regime Via its High Commission.
On cue, protesters began plastering the walls of the High Commission with eggs, tomatoes and other substances such as ketchup. The Met Police who have made it a duty to constantly protect the building while protests are going on there, looked helplessly as the building was given a ‘face-lift’. A call for back-up saw the arrival of many other officers dressed in black. The new arrivals were unable to stop the havoc until the anger of the protesters subsided.
The message to the Biya Regime was simple – keep on attacking the people, and you might have to clean not only the outside of your embassies but also the inside. A sneak-peak of what lies in ahead was provided by the Brigade Anti-Sardinard of France, who took over the Embassy in Paris and burnt the effigy of Dictator Paul Biya. Similar messages were passed in Germany and Belgium where the embassies were also taken over, effigies of the dictator Biya taken down and in one case, urinated upon.
Cameroonians in the UK made it clear that the ‘gentle stride of a tiger is not a symbol of cowardice’ and that the Biya regime should either leave power peacefully or expect to be forced out.
Talking to Brice Nintcheu, the leader of BAS, UK, he confirmed that the general idea was to force the High Commission to shut its doors. He, however, expressed pleasant surprise at the wording of the High Commissioner, which aptly describes the actions of the Regime in Cameroon. It is therefore fair to conclude that the High Commission closed its doors, not only because activists threw eggs at its dirty building, but also in solidarity with all those in Cameroon who are suffering from ‘acts of aggression and malicious damage to property’ at the hands of the Biya Regime.
The adage that a dog doomed to die loses the sense of smell, finds its best expression with the Biya Regime of Cameroon. The embattled regime seems unable to learn from its mistakes as it continues to carry out actions that can only lead to one outcome – its collapse.
It was a situation of Deja Vu when the news started pouring from Cameroon that peaceful protesters where being shot at in what was meant to be a day of international action against Electoral Hold Up and the Ongoing Conflict in the North West and South West Regions of the Country. Tempers flared across Cameroon and its diaspora when it emerged that Barrister Michelle Ndoki and activist Celestine Djamen were among those who had been shot.
If the regime had any iota of discernment, they would have known that Ndoki was the wrong person to have targeted. She won the hearts of the entire nation during her outing at the Constitutional Council following the botched elections on October 7th, 2018.
Barrister Ndoki, after being shot, went on to show just why she was the people’s ‘sweetheart’. In what must have been a difficult moment, and in pains, Ndoki encouraged people to shun fear and come out in their numbers. She asked that people should understand what they are trying to do, which according to her, they are merely trying to save their lives.
Commenting on the incident on Twitter and Facebook, Barrister Agbor Balla Nkongho stated that he had just spoken to Michelle Ndoki who confirmed that she was specifically targetted by the police officer who shot her.
I just spoke to Michele Ndoki who confirmed that she was shot 4 times by a police officer in Douala. She states further that, the police officer was clearly targeting her as he ran a long distant just to shoot her. She is Currently undergoing treatment at a hospital in Douala pic.twitter.com/mZ5BuUoyzD
It should be recalled that when English-speaking lawyers began peaceful protests in 2016, the Biya regime reacted by attacking them, shooting at peaceful protesters, confiscating the gowns and wigs of the lawyers. Three years on, the situation has turned into a full-blown conflict, with heavy civilian casualties, and hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons.
One would have thought that the regime would understand that violence against protesters was never going to be a solution. The shooting of Ndoki and other protesters merely served in escalating the ire of protesters across the world. Members of the Brigade Anti-Sardinard expressed their anger by plastering the walls of the Cameroon High Commission in the UK with eggs and tomatoes, while those in Paris took over the embassy and burned the effigy of Dictator Paul Biya.
More actions are planned in the days ahead, and it is worrying times for Cameroon as nothing short of Biya’s resignation will satisfy the protesters whose only demand is that he leaves power and end the conflict in the North West and South West Regions.
