CAMEROUN :: BAMENDA- Cameroon : HARASSMENT OF A HUMAN RIGHTS' DEFENDERS

Frontline Fighters for Citizen’s Interests (FFCI) would like the world to know that on December 4th, 2017, the staff of the organization was shocked when they arrived at the Bamenda regional office to work as usual and found the office sealed without any prior official notice.

In the same vein, the permanent secretary who was managing the daily administrative duties at the office has gone missing. We hope that she is fine in terms of her life and safety, given the situation and we
hope that she has taken refuge somewhere.

It is worth noting that since October 1, 2017, the organization and staff has been a target of serious threats by unknown individuals who do not appreciate the standpoint of the organization regarding certain issues of the socio-political crisis in the Anglophone regions.

Threats on staff are abundant and recently the notice board of the regional office was vandalized.

Since the beginning of the socio-political crisis in the Northwest and Southwest Regions, FFCI has been very active as a human rights defense organization, fighting to protect the interests of the population. In this process, the organization has been involved in the following:

•        FFCI has secured the release of many persons who were arrested in Bamenda and detained in Yaoundé, and much more who were detained in the Northwest Region.
•        FFCI has been campaigning for the reopening of schools in the two Anglophone regions following a strike action, called the Anglophone Teachers in the Northwest and Southwest Regions. The organization strongly believes that the education of the youth is priceless and therefore preventing children from going to school constitutes a serious violation of their right to education—a right
enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which has been ratified by Cameroon. Today, schools have resumed at the rate of 95% thanks to the campaign carried out by FFCI.
•        FFCI has from the outset vehemently condemned violence, vandalism on the private and public property, arson, and killings during this period and called for a peaceful and democratic resolution
of the crisis, which the Cameroon Government has failed to engage in a dialogue with all the protagonists and the situation has intensified in an armed conflict, promoting violence and vandalism. Cameroon is
now witnessing a dirty period of it history since independence with radicalization on a daily basis.

As a matter of fact, FFCI’s standpoint on the socio-political crisis in the Anglophone regions has been saluted and lauded by a vast majority of the population, but naturally, as in all human endeavors, it has been contested and condemned by some. The organization strongly believes that the vandalism of the notice board in Bamenda, the sealing of the regional office, the arrest of the National President
Franklin Mowha on November 27th, 2017, threats on staff and intimidation come from individuals who do not encounter eye to eye with the organization’s position.

The National President of FFCI has been fined 842,000 CFA frs by the Military Tribunal in Bamenda for inciting public rebellion against the State of Cameroon with regard to the organization’s position on the
poor conditions of the Bamenda-Babadjou road.

On September 13th, 2017, the Military Tribunal issued a verdict imposing a fine of 842000 CFA frs to be paid to the tribunal.

Mr. MOWHA Franklin was then arrested on November 27th, 2017 in Bamenda in the execution of the court’s decision and was given only 10 days from the date of his arrest to pay this huge sum of money for a crime he did not commit. Having failed to pay the above-mentioned amount, Mr. MOWHA Franklin shall be imprisoned for a period of one year.

MBUI CHU AFOR
ffcicameroon@gmail.com
December 5th, 2017

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