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Yaoundé - At least 80 inmates in Cameroon's restive English-speaking northwest escaped after gunmen stormed their prison overnight, an informed source told AFP Wednesday. "There were about a hundred people in the prison and at least 80 have gone," said a source close to security forces in the town of Wum, more than 70 kilometres (45 miles) north of the regional centre Bamenda.

"The gunmen attacked under cover of darkness," the source said, using a ladder to scale the rear wall before battering down the prisoners' cell doors.

English-speaking separatists want to create an independent state, Ambazonia and vow that a presidential election slated for October 7 will not go ahead in their regions.

Eight candidates are running against 85-year-old incumbent Paul Biya, who has ruled the country for 35 years and is seeking a seventh straight term in office.

Separatists say they have suffered years of discrimination at the hands of the French-speaking majority in Cameroon, and two years of violence in western English-speaking regions have killed hundreds of people and displaced about 200,000.

According to International Crisis Group, 170 members of the security forces and "at least 400 civilians" have died in the conflict. Separatists have not issued a reliable toll.

AFP</s>YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Separatist militants raided a prison in northwestern Cameroon and freed about 100 inmates, the government and separatists said on Thursday, as the rebels vowed to block next month’s presidential election in English-speaking regions.

President Paul Biya is expected to easily extend his 36-year rule in the Oct. 7 vote but the insurgency by Anglophone rebels has emerged as his government’s most serious challenge in years.

The separatists complain of discrimination against English speakers in the predominantly Francophone country and want to create an independent state called Ambazonia in the oil and cocoa-producing northwest and southwest regions.

Their hit-and-run raids have killed more than 160 members of Cameroon’s security forces in the past year, Amnesty International has said. State forces have also shot at civilians from helicopters, burned villages and killed residents, forcing thousands to flee.

Nchia Martin Achuo, the head of the Tigers of Ambazonia, a separatist group that says it has around 2,000 fighters, said his men had attacked the prison in the northwest town of Wum around 4 a.m. on Wednesday and freed 106 “innocent people”.

“There was a shootout between our boys and the prison guards,” he said. “I heard that they (government soldiers) have been arresting innocent people on the street. They are not criminals in that prison.”

Government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary confirmed the separatists had freed about 100 prisoners but did not provide additional details.

Martin and the leader of another separatist group, Cho Ayaba, both vowed to prevent the presidential election from going ahead in Anglophone Cameroon. Separatists have set up check points blocking traffic on major roads, helping to paralyze activity across the region.

“There will be no election in Ambazonia,” Ayaba told Reuters. “We want to make sure there is no movement from Cameroon into Ambazonia, including election materials.”

The governments in the Anglophone regions have imposed curfews and other security restrictions in recent weeks in order to contain the violence and ensure the vote can take place.

Cameroon’s linguistic divide harks back to the end of World War One, when the League of Nations divided the former German colony of Kamerun between the allied French and British victors.

Biya has ruled virtually by decree since taking office in 1982. Of Africa’s living leaders, only Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has ruled uninterrupted for longer.</s>ITWeb Africa | ” target=”_blank”>*** | Hendrik Kasteel is the new Chief Executive Officer of MTN Cameroon, as announced by Colin E. Mukete, President of the company’s Board of Directors.

 

 Kasteel, whose nomination is believed to have taken effect from 17 September 2018, replaces Saim Yaksan who has served the multinational mobile network service provider since February 2018.

Yaksan became MTN Cameroon’s Interim CEO following the resignation of South African-born Philisiwe Sibiya.

The new boss of MTN Cameroon has been tasked by the Board to keep the company on the track of economic growth.

Kasteel will also have the responsibility of reinforcing the position of MTN Cameroon as leader of Cameroon’s telecoms market where competition is increasingly intense with Orange, Nexttel and Camtel competing for market share.

The newly appointed CEO takes over the helm of MTN Cameroon when the company is in a legal battle with Express Union over mobile money transfer services.

The company will also have to up its game in mobile money operations as two operators – Nexttel and YUP Cameroun – were granted licences for mobile money services earlier this year.

Other operators, including YooMee, are gearing up to take over mobile internet service provision in the country.

Statistics from the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications show that MTN Cameroon invested FCFA 39.5 billion in 2016 and had a total of 651 staff in the country same year.

Prior to his appointment Kasteel was Chief Executive Officer of Ooredoo Algeria.

He has also served as Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer for Euronet Communications; a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom.

The executive has over 25 years of experience in the telecoms, media and online sectors and holds an MBA from the International Institute for Management Development, Lausanne, Switzerland, and a Bachelors Degree in Economics from Utrecht University.</s>Separatists in Cameroon’s restive English speaking regions staged a prison break leading to the escape of about 70 prisoners, the BBC reported on Wednesday.

The incident took place in Wum, a town located north of the regional capital Bamenda. Witnesses say the preceding the prison break was exchange of gunfire at the town’s prison lasting several hours.

They added that the mastermind of the attack sustained gunshot wounds but was but was carried away by members of his team.

This becomes the second such incident in under two months. In late July 2018, over 160 inmates in the Ndop prisons were released after an attack by separatists.

At the time, William Benedict Emvoutu Mbita, head of the department of Ngoketunjia where Ndop is located confirmed that some escapees had voluntarily returned and were due to be transferred to the regional capital, Bamenda.

The attackers who “fired from everywhere”, were able to “break the gates of the prison” before “setting fire to all the buildings,“he added, stressing that they had brought fuel to cause the fire.

Armed separatists since October last year have faced off with state security forces in an increasingly deteriorating security situation in the Anglophone regions – the North-West and South-West.
Gunmen storm a prison in Cameroon, releasing up to 80 prisoners.