Responding to Atanga Nji:

Tibor Nagy Castigates Y’de for Scapegoating NGOs

Hon. Tibor Nagy

Ambassador Tibor Peter Nagy Jr., the United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs has expressed reservations with the recent declarations of Cameroon’s Minister of Territorial Administration, Atanga Nji Paul regarding the role of Nongovernmental Organisations in the country’s North West and South West Regions.

Atanga Nji in a media outing on 9 March 2020 said Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, International Crisis Group, OCHA, REDHAC and other human rights associations and NGOs are being teleguided to destabilise Cameroon.

                The US diplomat took to twitter Friday, 13 March to state that NGOs are out to help feed and care for the people in need, calling on government to let them do their work according to established humanitarian principals.

                The US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs was apparently taken aback when Minister Atanga Nji said that NGOs have received over FCFA 5 billion from dubious networks within and out of the country to destabilise Cameroon through regularly publishing fabricated information to discredit the efficient management of the crisis in the North West and South West Regions by the government.

                “NGOs help feed and care for people in need, if governments let them do their work according to humanitarian principles. Sad to see Cameroon use NGOs as scapegoats, as recently done by the Minister of Territorial Administration and the Cameroon Rep to Human Rights Council in Geneva,” Nagy said.

This newspaper recalls that Minister Atanga Nji called on these Rights NGOs to change their ways or they face the music. He gave them 60 days within which time they should submit copies of their 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 reports detailing the funds received and how they were spent.

                “It could be difficult to imagine that most of these NGOs based in Africa, especially those operating in conflict zones, have hidden agendas which often have the tendency to destabilize sovereign States and their institutions,” Atanga Nji said, pointing to the recurrent manipulations by some NGOs and Human Rights Associations in Cameroon.

                “In the past, we have discovered humanitarian convoys of some NGOs carrying weapons destined for terrorists in the North West and South West Regions. This is irrefutable evidence of connivance,” said Atanga Nji before thundering: “This is simply unacceptable! These teleguided NGOs and Human Rights Associations must readjust before it becomes too late. The government of Cameroon vehemently condemns this irresponsible behaviour of teleguided NGOs, who deliberately minimise the numerous atrocities committed by terrorists in the North West and South West Regions.”

                Cameroon’s defence and security forces have since 2017 been fighting to dislodge armed separatists who seek to make the North West and South West regions an independent country christened Ambazonia.

                According to United Nations agencies, nearly 600,000 children have been prevented by armed separatists from going to school since late 2016, and only 19 percent of primary and secondary schools are open across the aforementioned regions.

                Open sources say thousands have been killed, hundreds of thousands displaced internally with others as refugees in neighbouring Nigeria. According to Human Rights Watch, separatists have been specialised in kidnappings, arsons, maiming, and killings among other atrocities. Government forces have also been blamed for excesses.