CRM allies told to continue demonstrations until Biya gov’t is toppled

The Cameroon Renaissance Movement, CRM, has said its allies, including some political parties and civil society organisations, should continue “periodical peaceful demonstrations” against President Paul Biya and his Government until the system is toppled.

This was through a September 25 release addressed to pro-CRM political parties and civil society organisations few days after CRM’s September 22 demonstrations.

“… periodic peaceful demonstrations calling for the departure of Mr Paul Biya and his regime from power would be organised until their effective departure, followed by the establishment of a political transition,” the release partly reads.

Amid increasing violence in the English-speaking part of Cameroon and a raging war against Boko Haram in the Far North Region, the CRM says the “… nation has entered a decisive phase, marked by the crossing of a new level of barbarism and the repression of the people and the fundamental freedoms of the citizen by the current regime”.

After its government-banned September 22 outing in Douala and Yaounde, CRM militants say dozens of their supporters were arrested, and media reports have featured pictures of purported CRM supporters in crammed prison cells in Yaounde.

Before carrying out the recent protests, the CRM party had gained the support of at least six political parties, among them PAP, MODECNA, FRD, AGIR / ACT, CPP, COACIC, and FDN, alongside civil society organisations among them MDI, MP3, Stand Up for Cameroon, the Offre Orange, and Dynamique Citoyenne.

“… a broad consultation has been initiated between various political formations, organisations and personalities of civil society in order to mobilise all segments of the population, in order to give the Cameroonian people a structured orientation to help them be heard by those in power,” states the CRM.

It is, however, not clear whether these political parties and civil society organisations joined CRM militants in Tuesday’s protests, as one of Cameronon’s prominent parties, SDF, said its militants were not going to the streets.

During last Tuesday’s protests, CRM Chairman, Prof Maurice Kamto, was reportedly absent as security officers surrounded his home, preventing his eventual outing.

“Indeed, faced with the usual arrogance of the regime, its persistence in contempt of the sovereign people in a context marked by the humanitarian disaster in the North-West and South-West regions and by the deadly attacks by Boko Haram in the Far North, the CRM and its allies, standing, as usual, alongside the Cameroonian people whose socio-economic distress has become unbearable, have confronted this regime with its responsibilities before history,” said the Cameroon Renaissance Movement.

As Cameroon prepares for its first ever Regional Elections on December 6, the country’s two main political parties and other smaller parties have boycotted the elections.
They are demanding for the restoration of peace in the two English-speaking regions, and a review of the country’s Electoral Code.

Unlike the opposition Social Democratic Front, the CRM is also demanding for the immediate departure from power of 87-year-old President Paul Biya, who has ruled the central African nation since 1982.

Mimi Mefo Info