Mass kidnapping overshadows Cameroon President Biya’s inauguration

[88m3]

Mass kidnapping overshadows Cameroon President Biya’s inauguration

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© Lintao Zhang, AFP | Cameroonian President Paul Biya

Text by FRANCE 24

Latest update : 2018-11-06

Cameroonian President Paul Biya was sworn in for a seventh term amid heightened tensions on Tuesday, a day after 79 students were kidnapped from a school in the country’s restive English-speaking northwest region.
Biya won an emphatic victory in the October 7 presidential election with 71 percent of the vote, extending his 36-year rule and cementing his place as one of Africa’s longest-standing leaders.

His inauguration was held in the capital Yaoundé under tightened security, amid fears of possible unrest.

The 85-year-old’s re-election has been contested by opposition candidates, who alleged widespread irregularities, including ballot stuffing and voter intimidation. The Constitutional Court, however, upheld the result late last month, dismissing 18 claims of voter fraud.

Anglophone separatists have also protested against Biya’s French-speaking government and its perceived marginalisation of the country’s English-speaking minority.

Biya acknowledged “frustrations and aspirations” among Cameroon’s English speakers during his swearing-in ceremony, pledging to pursue a policy of decentralisation.

But he dismissed the possibility of secession, declaring "the future of our compatriots in the northwest and southwest lies in the framework of our Republic."

Kidnapping

In a sign of the heightened tensions, armed men abducted 79 students, their principal and a driver from the city of Bamenda in the English-speaking northwest region on Monday. The army was combing the area in search of the kidnapping victims, who were believed to have been taken into the bush.

In his inauguration speech, Biya did not mention the Bamenda kidnappings, but he attacked Anglophone separatists.

"They need to know that they will face the rigour of the law and the determination of our defence and security forces," Biya said in the national assembly. "I appeal to them to lay down their arms."

An army spokesman said separatists were most likely responsible for the abduction. Yet a spokesman for the movement denied any involvement in the incident.



'STRONG, POWERFUL REACTION' TO KIDNAPPING
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Fighting between the military and separatists surged in 2017 after a government crackdown on peaceful demonstrations by English speakers. Among the issues they were protesting was the placement of French-speaking teachers in English-speaking schools in the northwest and southwest regions.

Violence intensified in 2018, including during an army crackdown in which civilians were killed. Many people have fled Bamenda and other centres to seek refuge in more peaceful Francophone regions.

The separatists have vowed to destabilise the regions as part of the strategy for creating a breakaway state. They have imposed curfews and closed schools, attacking civilians who do not support their cause, including teachers who were killed for disobeying orders to halt lessons.

There have been kidnappings at other schools, but the group taken Monday was the largest number abducted at one time in Cameroon's English-speaking regions. The separatists also have set fire to at least 100 schools and driven out students and teachers from buildings taken over as training grounds.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and REUTERS)

Date created : 2018-11-06

Mass kidnapping overshadows Cameroon President Biya’s inauguration - France 24

 

[88m3]

Maybe time for Biya to step down?

 

[Swirv]

Maybe time for Biya to step down?

Possibly would've help last year before the army started slaughtering civilians.I don't know if that will help now. Sounds like the rebels want their own country and they seem to have a leader in mind. I wonder who is funding the rebels.

 

[88m3]

@mbewane @Liu Kang

 

[mastermind]

I talked to a Cameroonian about this today. The conflict is not over English speakers vs. French speakers. Its regional and oppression and that president has to go.

 

[Strapped]

Religion is really keeping us stagnant

 

[TTT]

This dude spends as much time in a hotel in Switzerland as he does running the country

For weeks, several former hotel employees recalled, the five-star hotel had been locked in a secret routine serving its best two customers, the first couple of an impoverished oil-exporting Central African country. Paul Biya, president of Cameroon since 1982, and his wife, Chantal, clock so much time on private visits to Switzerland that staff in the Intercontinental’s gilded corridors refer to them by simple code names: Him and Her.

“It’s like they are at home. They live there,” said one of three former senior employees who regularly witnessed the bill-payment ritual.

As with other employees, this person recalled signing a nondisclosure agreement concerning the details of Mr. Biya’s monthlong stays: “If the Cameroonians are not coming, the hotel will close.”

The Intercontinental Hotel said it wouldn’t comment on guests for confidentiality reasons. “Our employees are fully trained not to disclose any information,” a representative said.

In Geneva, the president reserves the entire Intercontinental’s 16th floor, with some 20 rooms and two corner suites overlooking the United Nations’ Europe headquarters and Mont Blanc, said ex-employees, former Cameroon officials, and hotel reservation records reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The staff haul armfuls of white flowers for his wife and fresh fruit platters—never cut, per presidential orders—for Mr. Biya, according to former hotel staff.

Mr. Biya’s trips cost millions of dollars apiece, said Christian Penda Ekoka, a longtime chief adviser to the president, turned opposition activist.

A hotel reservation receipt seen by the Journal shows the size of the president’s entourage. In one September 2017 stay, he booked at least 48 rooms. Other Cameroonians stayed in less expensive hotels, former employees said, depending on their standing with the president.

To the U.S. and Europe, Mr. Biya is a valuable if awkward ally against terrorism and migration. The U.S. keeps 200 troops and several predator drones at a base in north Cameroon. American and Israeli special forces train Mr. Biya’s troops.

The European Union has pledged 282 million euros in aid for Cameroon. The hope is the country will grow wealthier, creating jobs to lure Cameroonians back to Cameroon.

The first protests, violently repressed by the Cameroonian armed forces, broke out two years ago. Mr. Biya was at the Intercontinental. He stayed another three weeks after, according to publicly available flight data and Cameroonian state press.

In Geneva, Mr. Biya seldom leaves his corner suite, former hotel staff said. For privacy, the Cameroonian delegation installs its own internet connection and phone switchboard. He enters and exits through the service exit for daily jogs, according to former hotel employees.

Can’t Find Cameroon’s President? Try Geneva’s Intercontinental Hotel

 

[88m3]

reports the students were released thankfully