Cameroon: Anglophone secessionists to ratchet up tension in oil-rich South West Region

There are risks of a clash between government troops and supporters of the Anglophone secessionist Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) in the oil-rich South-West Region. The SCNC plans to hoist its flag to show its territorial autonomy and hold a national assembly on the side-lines of burying its late former chairman Ayamba Ette Ottun.

Under Ayamba the SCNC has witnessed an unprecedented split into several factions, mainly based on age, between the council’s older leaders and the more militant younger generation. The latter blame the former for having lost the thrust of the mission for outright independence of the Cameroon's two Anglophone regions: South-West and North-West. Their quest for Anglophone autonomy is based on claims that the country’s Francophone majority government and people marginalise them and treat them as second class citizens.

Ayamba's funeral will, however, be used as a reconciliatory platform for the SCNC's various domestic and expatriate factions A new and vibrant leader is expected to be elected by about 5,000 SCNC activists attending the national assembly in Mamfe. Menas Associates learnt during a visit to the South-West Region that the tussle for the leadership has been heating up but that Paul Abine Ayah is the name on most lips.

For more news and expert analysis about Cameroon, please see Cameroon Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Cameroon: GE to build new thermal electricity plant in Limbe

The Deputy Manager of Finagestion, GE’s French partner, signed an agreement on Wednesday 23 April in Yaoundé with Minister of Energy and Water Resources Basile Atangana Kouna. The deal authorises Finagestion to build a 314 MW thermal electricity plant in the Atlantic coastal town of Limbe in South-West Region. The plant will be run by gas-fired generators fuelled by Cameroon’s large gas reserves in and around the South-West oil and gas basins.

According to the terms of the accord, Finagestion will conduct a detailed study within 24 months dealing with, among other matters, the cost of the project and the compensation for the affected population. Through Kouna, the government has promised that it will facilitate the smooth functioning of the feasibility studies.

The project falls in line with the government’s plan to lift the country’s electricity production by 3,000 MW by 2020. Many heavy industries have been laden by low electricity supply despite President Biya’s ambition to take the country from a developing nation to an emerging economy by 2035. Observers have repeatedly warned that despite endemic corruption and administrative red-tape, Cameroon could still make great industrial strides with sufficient energy supplies, especially because the country has huge gas reserves and the plants to complement hydroelectricity with thermal power supply from gas-fired generators.

For more news and expert analysis about Cameroon, please see Cameroon Politics & Security.

© 2014 Menas Associates

Cameroon: Military surveillance increased around oil-rich basins

Military officials in the South-West Region have told Cameroon Politics & Security that newly-graduated recruits will be used in the fight against the growing national insecurity and especially possible terrorists on the country's Atlantic coast.

The new security structure at Kribi commenced on 19 September and is reportedly equipped with cutting-edge surveillance technology and other military communications gear. It is aimed at reinforcing security around the Douala/Campo Kribi oil basin, as well as in the adjacent Rio del Rey basin in South-West Cameroon. The latter is particularly sensitive because of its proximity to the disputed Bakassi peninsula.

Cameroon hopes that new oil exploitation at the end of 2012 and the start of 2013 will increase its daily oil production from around 63,000 b/d to 100,000 b/d with the new output from Rio del Rey.

The state-run National Hydrocarbons Corporation invested over CFA17 billion in November 2011 for the construction of an ultra-modern building on the shores of Rio del Rey to contain piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.

Cameroon Politics & Security' s military sources have told us that the BIR's expansion to other parts of the coastal waters is to ensure that the troublemakers do not disguise themselves among the locals in order to cause any form of insecurity or jeopardise peace in the areas.

The Kribi BIR's key mission is to protect the gigantic Kribi seaport, ensure the security of the Kribi Gas plant which is under construction along with other investments, as well as the 216MW thermal electricity power station being built by AES-Sonel.

For more news and expert analysis about Cameroon, please see Cameroon Politics & Security.

© 2012 Menas Associates