Cameroon Press Review

Sunday 30 August – Wednesday 3 September

DIPLOMACY

Three Diplomats at MINREX

In its 1 September edition, the government-owned Cameroon Tribune reported that the audiences were granted on Sunday 27 August at the Ministry of External Relations, or MINREX. External Relations Minister, Henri Eyebe Ayissi received the Chargé d’ Affaires in the British High Commission in Yaounde, Timothy Fisher, the Chargés d’Affaires in the Embassy of the Central African Republic, Mbetibanga Flore and that of Equatorial Guinea, Jesus Obama Nzang.

Cameroon Tribune only tersely mentioned ongoing plans by the UK to deport a number of Cameroonians residing there in irregular circumstances during the discussions between Henri Eyebe Ayissi and Timothy Fisher. That not withstanding, it was the first time the issue was spoken off at such a high level. Rumors of the planned repatriation from the UK of several hundred Cameroonians residing there illegally have spread on the Internet like bushfire.

Cameroon Tribune rather focused more on the ongoing preparations in view of the arrival in the country of the new British Ambassador to Cameroon. Sydney David Maddicott ended his three-year diplomatic sojourn in Cameroon last month and was granted a farewell audience by Paul Biya at Unity Palace on 7 August Maddicott’s successor was not announced, but the outgoing diplomat told Le Jour in its 7 August edition that Cameroon, a former British colony was too important to be left without a high commissioner for too long.

Relations between Cameroon and Britain considerably improved in 1995 when the country became a member of the Commonwealth. Ever since, the UK and the Commonwealth have been instrumental in dictating the pace of democratic reforms in the country especially regarding the creation of an independent elections management body to replace the interior ministry [of territorial administration and decentralization]. However, ELECAM, which was flagged off earlier this year has been greeted by widespread criticism as it comprises barons of Biya’s ruling CPDM party.

Elsewhere, Mr Eyebe Ayissi and the Chargé d’Affaires in the Embassy of the Central African Republic in Cameroon, Mbetibanga Flore discussed preparations for the upcoming Cameroon –Central African Republic joint commission meeting to take place in October 2009, in the East Regional capital, Bertoua. The two officials used the audience to discuss the agenda of the joint commission meeting which will include cross border security, the fight against cross border crime, as well as other consular matters.

The Chargé d’ Affaires in the embassy of Equatorial Guinea in Cameroon, Jesus Obama Nzang came to discuss with the External Relations Minister, preparations for the arrival of the new ambassador of his country to Cameroon and also preparations for the joint commission meeting between their two countries.


BAKASSI

Development At Crux Of Regional Security, Administrative Summit

The Governor of the SW Region, Eyeya Zanga Louis now has a feel of the factors blighting development in the Ndian Division in general and the Bakassi peninsula in particular. According to a CRTV report [1 September], the governor and his entourage spent 14 hours on the road from the SW regional headquarters Buea, to Mundemba, the administrative seat of the Ndian where a regional administrative and security conclave is taking place. The governor chose to avoid the perilous road from Kumba to Mundemba which normally spans about five hours and rather chose to pass through Idenau, Mbonge and Ekondo Titi to reach Mundemba. Reports say even so, the travelers got stuck in mud in several areas along the way.

And so, it was with knowing nods that the governor listened to complaints from Mundemba dwellers. The town mayor, Elizabeth Issele disclosed that economic activity in the division in general and the Bakassi peninsula in particular was on a steady downturn. According to her, a considerable number of business people have been obliged to ground their operations from slumps in revenue.

Eyeya Zanga, who said the complaints had been noted, nonetheless divulged assurances that that feasibility studies have been concluded for the tarring of the Kumba-Ekondo Titi-Mundemba-Bakassi road. He went on to heap condemnation at contractors whose maintenance works on the road in question had severally fallen below expectation. Zanga announced that draconian sanctions were being prepared against such “economic delinquents.” He nonetheless noted that the complete handover of the long-disputed Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon by Nigeria in August 2008 in keeping with recommendations of the Greentree Agreement had finally set the pace for better prospects of maintaining peace and security in the peninsula and the South West Region as a whole.

Some 20 recently appointed officials of operational units of the national police force were formally commissioned into office at the start of the deliberations.

Dubbed the “Grand Bakassi Development Forum,” the regional concave held from 30 August to 2 September, 2009 and convened the six divisional officers and top brass administrative officials of the region. On the sidelines, was the holding of a capacity-building workshop for administrative officers entirely focusing on the management of the Bakassi peninsula. It emerged from the deliberations that the Ndian division alone has been earmarked for high-gear development in the 2009 investment budget of the Republic of Cameroon. In Isangele alone construction projects averaging CFA 700 million are afoot this year.

However, the population of the area have continued to complain that they do not feel Cameroonian with the absence of CRTV Radio and TV signals as well as CAMTEL phone network especially in the entire Bakassi zone.


SECURITY

MEND Says Militants Submitted Arms Seized from Cameroonians

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger-Delta alleged on 31 August that a considerable fraction of the weapons surrendered by militants in Bayelsa State on September 22 were those seized in a November 12, 2007 raid on Cameroon gendarmes after 21 of them were killed by Nigerian soldiers.

Reporting from Warri, the Nigerian daily, the Vanguard quoted the spokesman of the militant group, Jomo Gbomo, stating that: "We are hearing that the heavy browning machine guns displayed on September 22 in Yenagoa by the Bayelsa government may have come from those seized in a November 12, 2007 raid on Cameroon gendarmes where 21 of them were killed".

He recalled that when the incident occurred, MEND blamed the Nigerian Army while the military blamed militants for the attack, saying, "since the weapons have not yet been destroyed, we want the media to stimulate awareness for an independent armament expert to verify the origin of the weapons which is simple to do".

MEND spokesman, nevertheless, said the group was monitoring the development. But when Vanguard contacted the coordinator of the Disarmament sub-committee of the Presidential Committee on Amnesty, Air-Vice Marshal Lucky Ararile, he said, "I don't know what they are talking about".

He said all he knows was that weapons were surrendered to the committee at Yenoga and they were in its custody, adding that he does not know the source of their weapons but it was their erstwhile fighters that surrendered the guns to the government.

Air-Vice Marshal Ararile said MEND should come out with proof if any the guns were not surrendered by repentant militants, pointing out that it was probably after the exercise that the committee may decide to probe the sources of arms to militants


Nigerians Accused Of North Cameroon Hostage-taking

A group of hostages freed recently in the north of Cameroon have hinted that the armed men who kidnapped them were Nigerian nationals. According to Mutations of 2 September, the only traces of proof used in laying the blame is based on testimonies furnished by the freed hostages who said the armed men who abducted them from several villages in the area spoke Haussa and Houda, dialects used in the north east of Nigeria.

Mutations has noted that the northern parts of the country are fast becoming a sort of “Far West,” following an upsurge in the number of hostages taken in the past few weeks. On 24 August alone, kidnappers combed several villagers in the North Region around the locality of Figuil. They seized a number of adults and children demanding ransom for their release in each case. Local authorities said the kidnappers demanded 3 million for four children taken in the village of Djabili-Kaska; 9 million FCFA for five children seized in another village called Indjode; 2 million for cattle shepherds and 2 million for others seized in Dondei.

In all, 12 persons were taken hostage. Local authorities say no day goes by without news of several persons abducted. Reports say they were bundled up and held at a hideout along the Chad-Cameroon border and then freed after their families and relatives collectively disbursed 16 million FCFA to foot the ransom bill.

Local inhabitants say security forces are not helping them enough as gendarmes and the rapid intervention battalion only make sporadic raids and more so when hostages have been taken. The population is also scared of alerting the forces on time, or do not alert them at all because they say whenever they have done so, their kidnapped relatives are killed. On their part, security forces complain they lack enough means to ensure greater coverage of the areas in question and have called for a beefing up of their ranks.




ENERGY

Chinese Consortium Takes Over Memve’ele Hydro Power Plant Project

Le Messager, Cameroon Tribune and www.cameroononoline.org announced in their 31 August publications that stakeholders have selected SINOHYDRO Corporation Limited to undertake the hydroelectricity plant project at Memve’ele in the south east of the country. The Chinese consortium will replace Globeleq/Sud Energie, the initially retained company which withdrew from the project in May this year.

According to the reports, the Chinese have already penned an agreement with Cameroon stakeholders for the execution of the project. The agreement is the outcome of week-long negotiations between officials of the group and members of the steering committee of the project, which rounded off in Yaounde at the end of August. The reports indicated that the discussions centered among others on the technical contours of the project.

Both parties discussed modalities for execution to render it less time-consuming, less-costly, and also examined ways of reducing the environmental and social hazards to the barest minimum as well as ease future maintenance. They also equally agreed on the need to carry on studies on the environmental and social impact of the project as well as the need to put up a 225/90 KV supply post in Ebolowa to feed the entire South Region from the project.

Everything being equal, Cameroon, through the Support Group of the project, the project’s Director Dr. Dieudonné Bisso said, will follow-up and control the technical execution of the project, put in place a social and environmental management plan as well as a plan to resettle the population that would either be displaced or whose property would be destroyed and a plan through which local companies and population would be recruited when construction work begins.

Dr. Bisso told Cameroon Tribune that with the negotiations concluded, an official contract between Cameroon and the executing firm will be signed in the days ahead following the agreements already reached in principle. The contract will permit SINOHYDRO to solicit funds from the Chinese financier, EXIMBANK of CHINA. This will be done before the seven-man SINOHYDRO team for the Yaounde negotiations, led by Tian Haichua, returns to China. Works on the routes, certain infrastructure and final studies are expected by March 2010 and the project is expected to be completed in December 2014.

Globeleq/Sud Energie, a British firm backed out of the project in May, 2009. According to the Communication Expert of the project, Gerard-Paul Onji’I Esono, the British firm was to execute the project on what he termed “BOOT condition”. This means, they were to build, own, operate and transfer to Cameroon. A condition, which he said, the British gave over 20 years to do. This was time-consuming and little beneficial to Cameroon and arguably a point of divergence between the company and Cameroon. Reason why, Mr. Onji’I Esono said they withdrew on the grounds that Cameroon did not respect certain clauses of the engagement.

The Memve'ele hydropower station at completion will generate some 200 MW in southern Cameroon. It is the latest deal in Africa signed by Sinohydro, which earlier this year announced a road project in Gabon and which has been rebuilding infrastructure in Angola since the end of its civil war in 2002. The Memve'ele project involves building a dam on the Ntem river, a road to the project site, a power plant and electricity transmission lines to link it to the national grid. The northern parts of Congo Republic, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea are also due to benefit with electricity.

Cameroon depends on hydropower for 95 percent of its energy supply. Only 5 percent of the country's rural population and 65 percent of urban dwellers have access to electricity. The country's sole power utility AES-Sonel, a subsidiary of US-based AES Corp has raised energy output to about 936 Megawatts over the last five years but that is still short of demand, which is growing at an annual 8 percent


ECONOMY

Cameroon Cocoa Production Surpasses Objectives

Cameroon’s cocoa production has beaten a set target of 200.000 tons a year before the set deadline in 2010. Officials attribute the newfound buoyant health of the sector on ongoing reforms as well as better world market price trends.

The good news, according to La Nouvelle Expression in its 1 September edition, follows long years marked by drastic quantity and quality slumps that culminated in the relegation of Cameroonian cocoa to the world market backstage. The paper also notes that the liberalization of the sector in 1990 ushered in unhealthy competition and unscrupulous middlemen whose activities simply devastated production.

According to figures published by Cocoa and Coffee Inter-professional Board, from the season just ending, production stood at 205.032 tons indicating an 8 percent increase in comparison to the 2007/2008 season. The figures are the best in two decades owing to increased assistance and more training offered growers nationwide. Officials say the results have already beaten the set objectives which previewed a production of at least 200.000 tons by 2010.

The figures also imply that Cameroon keeps its fifth place on the classification table for the world’s biggest cocoa producing countries. Already, a new objective has been set to reach 300.000 tons in 2015. Officials say the positive signs of growth in the sector were already perceptible last year with encouraging sales to local transformation companies. During the first six months of the 2008/2009 season, SIC Cacao, a Douala-based cocoa beans transformation outfit bought 24.425 tons, making for a 31 percent increase in its purchase compared to the previous season.

At the same time, exports considerably increased from 133.071 tons to147.966 tons between August and January compared to the same period in the 2007/2008 season.

Experts say the current production mark of 200.000 tons per year is where the country stood in 1980 and was ranked the world’s fourth producer. But a severe economic crisis and abandoned prudence caused production to hugely fall to 120.000 tons.

The Inter-profession has attributed the improved sector health to a number of reasons. They include among others greater implication and reforms by the government sector organizations with the regular deployment of technical experts to assist farmers, the free allotment of improved seeds, the relaunch of cocoa development organizations, facilities accorded fertilizer suppliers, the de-taxing of farm inputs to render them more affordable, reinforced control of the commercialization chain with middlemen coming under increased check, the creation of a development fund financed via curtailments from exports, the encouragement of youth to create new plantations and the distribution of plants that yield a ton per hectare as well as the fight against pests.

And the prospects are only bright. Farmers are increasingly motivated by higher world market prices with a kilogram selling at 850 FCFA per Kg, up from 740 FCFA a year before. Between August 2008 and July 2009 prices have hit an all-time high of 1050 FCFA per Kg, a 10 percent average rise in the last five years.

Meantime, quality has also seen improvement. But the Inter-profession still has its worries. It has decried the continuous buying and selling of non-humid and non-fermented cocoa beans which does considerable disservice to the Cameroonian brand, drying on tar along road sides, the inexistence in some growing regions of periodic and community markets, the absence of structures guiding farmers at the local hinterland level and the weak implication of the administration in some areas in the supervision of trading operations.

Other highlighted flaws include the high costs of inputs, the lack of mastery by farmers of best growing methods, lack of information on world market price trends, the absence of financing systems, weak level of local transformation and difficult access to land.

Meantime, the state is pursuing efforts to boost production. It is setting up markets in the hinterlands and installing storage and evacuation infrastructure, developing nurseries for improved planting material with the goal of renewing ageing plantations, plans to pre-finance cocoa seasons, etc.


INFRASTRUCTURE

CAMRAIL Resumes Activities
Several newspapers announced on 31 September that railway transportation activities had finally returned to normal nationwide following the tragic incidents of previous weekend when the capital city, Yaounde witnessed two accidents in two days the first occurring on 29 August.
According to Cameroon Tribune, inhabitants of Yaounde and its environs are yet to forget the tragic incidents after the two separate train accidents in two major entrances of the town and a fire disaster at the extension of the Yaounde Central market popularly known as “Kosovo”. Amid conflicting reports, other papers like Mutations claimed that in all 12 people died in the two train accidents and over 600 were wounded.
Other sources say the situation has left many people worried as many continue to doubt the future of the railway system in Cameroon. This notwithstanding, life has gone back to normal and movement has begun effectively along the railway. At the Yaounde train station in the Elig Essono neighborhood work is going on normally. Cameroon Tribune reporters said when they visited the railway station on 1 September, they found that the area was exceptionally busy. This was quite normal as it was the arrival of the train from the northern part of the country, precisely Ngaoundéré. People were seen carrying their luggage on their heads, others with children, coming out of the train and looking tired.
But independent papers like Mutations and La Nouvelle Expression indicated that the railway transporter still had serious problems perfecting its ticket sales system as many ended up unable to buy tickets for their trips. Meantime, Jean Michel Nitcheu, the vice president of the SDF parliamentary group has called for a government probe into the circumstances that led to both accidents. Alongside another MP, Regine Tsoungui Obama they have questioned why strategic sectors concerning the country’s national security are left in the hands of foreign and private investors. Many say CAMRAIL, owned by French tycoon Vincent Bollore is more concerned with making profit than caring about the development of the sector. CAMRAIL is a joint venture between the Bollore Group and the Cameroon government.