I ran for president in Cameroon. This is what I learned.

I ran for president in Cameroon. This is what I learned.

By Akere Muna On November 6, Paul Biya was inaugurated for the seventh time. The 85-year-old has already been in power for the last 36 years and will now serve another seven-year term. President Biya won disputed elections on October 7 amid rising unrest in Cameroon. The country is divided…

UNICEF calls for release of abducted students in Cameroon

UNICEF calls for release of abducted students in Cameroon

The United Nations agency for children is calling for the immediate release of more than 80 people, including students, abducted from a school in one of Cameroon’s Anglophone regions late Sunday. The overnight attack at a Presbyterian school in the Nkwen district of Bamenda was confirmed by government spokesman Issa…

U.S. officials confirm death of missionary in Cameroon

U.S. officials confirm death of missionary in Cameroon

The fighting in Cameroon’s northwest region claimed the life of an American missionary on Tuesday, just two weeks after he arrived with his family in the West Africa conflict zone. Charles Trumann Wesco, 44, was rushed to a hospital in Bamenda after he was shot in the head near Bambui….

Crackdown in Cameroon ahead of Monday election announcement

Tensions ran high in troubled Cameroon on Sunday as the national election commission, ELECAM, prepared to announce on Monday the final result of the October 7 presidential election. ELECAM has 15 days from the poll closing to report final results according to Cameroon law, and the last of 18 legal challenges…

Cameroon awaits election results with Biya win rumored

Cameroon’s national election commission, ELECAM, submitted its final report Monday on the October 7 presidential election vote to the country’s constitutional council, but there are still no official results released. ELECAM has 15 days from the poll closing to report final results according to Cameroon law. That’s leaving a window to…

There’s still no word on election results in tense Cameroon

There are still no official results in Cameroon’s presidential election, with the latest word from ELECAM — the West African nation’s electoral commission — reiterating that under the country’s constitution they have 15 days from the closing of Sunday’s polls to report the results. That’s kept tensions high in a nation that, for…

Cameroon’s two-year crisis approaches a critical threshold

Amnesty International says its experts have verified two videos from Cameroon’s Anglophone regions that, two years after peaceful protests were met by military force under President Paul Biya, now demonstrate escalating violence in the West African nation. The first video shows the decapitation and mutilation of a gendarme, presented by…

At least 160 inmates free after Cameroon prison attack

In Cameroon, more than 160 prisoners escaped early Sunday after a group of armed men attacked the Ndop prison, released its inmates and set fire to the facility in the country’s troubled northwest Anglophone region. The national media agency in Cameroon said that a group they identified as armed secessionists…

France appeals for dialogue to resolve Cameroon crisis

The French government on Thursday said it remains concerned about the political crisis in Cameroon, but did not announce any specific initiatives to engage in mediating the conflict between President Paul Biya’s government, and the opposition activists and separatists from its Anglophone regions. “We are closely monitoring the situation in…

Cameroon bans weapon sales in Anglophone regions

Cameroon’s government has banned the sale of weapons in six of the country’s regions, including the troubled Anglophone areas and those adjacent to them. Paul Atanga Nji, the Permanent Secretary of the National Security Council and Minister of Territorial Administration, said the sale of weapons for hunting and self-defense, as…

UNHCR expresses concern over forcible returns to Cameroon

The UN Refugee Agency on Thursday expressed “great concern” over the forced return to Cameroon of 47 people who sought refuge in Nigeria, most of whom had submitted asylum claims. “Their forcible return is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement, which constitutes the cornerstone of international refugee law,” the…