Diaspora Cameroonians demonstrate against Biya in Washington

 By Sylvanus Ezieh Acha’ana in Yaounde with agency reports

Diaspora Cameroonians stage strike against Biya

At least 100 Cameroonians living over-seas seized the streets of United States political headquarters, Washington DC Wednesday to demonstrate against President Biya over what they described as his ruthless regime.

Biya was in US to take part in the US – Africa leaders’ summit which brought together some 50 African leaders to discuss the economy of the continent with President Obama and some US top dignitaries.

The demonstrators besieged US’ White House, carrying tracks and flyers bearing varied messages like “Paul Biya is a cancer to Cameroon”, “Paul Biya is a criminal...” They accused Biya of violation of the constitution and the rights of Cameroonian citizens, corruption and embezzlement of public funds. 

The manifestations, co-organised by the Cameroonian United Diaspora Front for Alternation and Conscience of Cameroon, CODE were intended to draw the attention of Americans and other African leaders attending the summit to the unstable socio-political situation in Cameroon which has been prevailing for decades.

According to the president of Conscience of Cameroon and coordinator of the United Front in US, the manifestations were also partly intended to denounce the « hypocrisy » of the summit which according to them is aimed at transferring African raw materials to US after China and France had initiated similar summits.

Agency reports quote an anonymous official at the Cameroon embassy in Washington who disclosed that Cameroonian officials had organised and paid some 20 Cameroonians living in the US to chant praises for the presidential couple and counteract the anti- Biya demonstration.

In another vein, the demonstrators claimed that Cameroon has become a state where violation of human rights multiply on a daily bases, thereby generating conflicts which compromise rapid development in the country. Such was the view held by the president of Cameroon Action Movement, CAM, Essoh Aristide.

Apparently convinced that the Cameroonian demonstrators had a case, the American media reportedly gave blackout on Biya and his participation at the summit. Only the state-run CRTV, critics are sustaining, was trailing President Biya and projecting images of him and his spouse.

Sources say another grand manifestation to be led by CODE has been announced in Geneva, at the Continental Hotel should Biya set foot there after the US summit.

It should be recalled that the demonstration in Washington against President Biya is not the first to be staged by Diaspora Cameroonians against their leader. Biya was last year assailed by Diaspora Cameroonians during the summit of African leaders with French president, Francois Hollande in France. The protesters tagged him a human rights violator and charged him to quit power with immediate effect.

Earlier this year, Biya was saved from a similar situation in Belgium by the Belgian police who cordoned-off a group of some Cameroonian protesters belonging to the same “le CODE” pressure group who had turned up at the Continental Hotel where Biya was lodging to demonstrate their anger against what they considered his tyrannical regime.