Petition Tag - land rights

For the past 25 years thousands of poor Cameroonians have been subjected to serious human rights abuses by Baba Ahmadou Danpullo a powerful multi-millionaire commercial rancher and a member of the Central Committee of the ruling CPDM Party, who travels on a Cameroon Diplomatic Passport!

As the biggest landowner after the state in the NW Region, he uses police, gendarmes, courts and government officials to persecute defenceless subsistence farmers, cattle herders, opposition activists and human rights defenders.

In 2003, the Office of the President of Cameroon ordered an investigation into these exactions. Hundreds of victims gave testimonies to the Jani Commission but since then the recommendations of the Commission have not been implemented by the Prime Minister’s Office.

The exactions include the following:

1. Illegal displacement of small-scale Kom, Kedjum and Esu farmers and Mbororo cattle herders from Ndawara area without compensation.

2. Illegal expropriation of small-scale farming and grazing lands; confiscation of properties in parts of North-West Region and systematic violation of all administrative and judicial decisions to resolve these conflicts.

3. Contested acquisition of Bakweri lands in Fako Division, South-West Region for his CTE tea plantations.

4. Use of his private TV station, Danpullo Broadcasting System (DBS) TV broadcasting across Cameroon and some African countries to attack indigenous groups he considers a threat to his land grab agendas. For example, in recent TV broadcasts his agents savagely attacked ‘Pygmies’ in an unprecedented xenophobic and racist outburst of its kind on TV in Cameroon.

5. Illegal interference and imposition of Ardos (Mbororo community leaders) across Cameroon creating community tensions e.g.in Sabga, North-West and Bertoua in the East Regions.

6. Systematic harassment, slander, arbitrary arrests, illegal detentions, trumped up charges and imprisonment of human rights activists and campaigners.

7. Forced marriages of Mbororo girls including those under 15 years, the legal minimum age for marriage for girls, harassment of any eventual partners and families of his ‘ex-partners’.

8. Systematic and sustained efforts to undermine Mbororo identity, dignity and self-organisation e.g. continuous effort to erase the name ‘Mbororo’ and to get the Mbororo organisation MBOSCUDA banned or dissolved.

9. Illegal establishment and operation of a Sharia Court in his private premises (Ndawara Alkali Court) – use of the ‘court’ to ‘try’ Mbororo herders including justification for illegal confiscation of their cattle.

10. Use of the Societe de Developpement d'Elevage et du Commerce (SODELCO) which is falsely portrayed as a ‘socio-cultural association’ to perpetrate xenophobia, oppress indigenous activists, advance his political and economic hegemony, as well as extorting money and cattle from Mbororo people by way of ‘shares’.

11. Destruction and obstruction of communal water resources and environmental pollution from pesticides and chemicals drained into water sources from ELBA Ranches.

Further information:

Justice and Dignity Page: https://www.facebook.com/JusticenDignity?sk=wall

Commission des droits de l'homme - Le Rapporteur spécial conjointement avec le Rapporteur Spécial sur l’indépendance des juges et des avocats et la Représentante spéciale du Secrétaire Général concernant la situation des défenseurs des droits de l’homme, a attiré l’attention du Gouvernement du Cameroun sur la situation des éleveurs Mbororos du Cameroun. Pages 24-28 (119-139): http://tinyurl.com/bmtvrw8

CAMEROON: Millionaire rancher probed for seizing land and cattle from tribesmen: http://tinyurl.com/cb6rm5d

Anti 'Pygmy' and Mbororo Hate Propaganda on DBS TV: http://tinyurl.com/dyvtdoh

UN Human Rights Council Denounces Ill-treatment Of Mbororos:http://tinyurl.com/d4ga6ey

L'ONU - Commission des droits de l'homme - Rapport soumis par le Rapporteur Spécial en application de la résolution 1998/38. Cf: Annexe II, (11) (17) & (53) Ardo Duni, Adamu Dohma, Mallam Dewa, Sarli Sardou Nana: http://tinyurl.com/cg374ou

The Rey Bouba of Ndawara: http://tinyurl.com/cugba6b

Cameroon: L'Onu interpelle le gouvernement sur les exactions dont seraient victimes la communauté Mbororo: http://tinyurl.com/c7qs2e7

Submission of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative for the Universal Periodic Review of Cameroon. See C(6) Minority rights: http://tinyurl.com/c4eaw7h

"Terror campaign" against Cameroonian herders: http://tinyurl.com/cnxhyay

Amnesty Internation: Detention without charge/Fear of Torture or ill-treatment: http://tinyurl.com/cwehf7v

Survival International: Cameroon: Mbororo Land Campaigners Freed: http://tinyurl.com/d5ak2b3

Bakweri Lands Claims Committee Documents: http://tinyurl.com/ce24n9w

Survival - Cameroon: four men arrested and tortured: http://tinyurl.com/bo9qz8w

Cultural Survival - Mbororo Appeal Acquittal in Torture Case: http://tinyurl.com/czk4ypg

CAMEROON: Amnesty International, Survival protest Mbororo arrests: http://tinyurl.com/cxzkz9j

Statement, 9th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples: http://tinyurl.com/d7thwvv

U.S. Embassy Cable on Sabga Lamidat: http://tinyurl.com/d6kbexw

Controversy surrounds BAD's acquisition of CDC Tea Estates:http://tinyurl.com/cgy4whe

Danpullo at the Origin of Babanki Fondom Crisis leading to the murder of Fon Vugah
The crisis started when the Fon sold land to Danpullo. The matter went to court and the verdict was in favour of the Babanki farmers. The then Governor of the NW Province created a Commission that granted the farmers circa FCFA 50 million, which Danpullo was asked to pay and leave the farmlands. He snubbed the decision. Details here:
http://tinyurl.com/cfl4nar

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For many years the RSPCA has been a voice for animals and hundreds of dedicated volunteers have worked tirelessly under its banner to save and re-home orphaned domestic pets and horses.

In recent years the organization has spent massive amounts of money on anti-farmer propaganda and other politically motivated activities that take away from the RSPCA's core mission.

The RSPCA is still accepting donations from the community and state government that are given on the basis that they will be spent on caring for orphaned domestic pets and not political lobbying.

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Achimota School’s antiquated sewerage system, never upgraded since it was installed decades ago, has finally collapsed. It is spilling sewage, including human waste, into some of the gutters, streets and open areas of the campus. This has created a public health crisis that could easily spread deadly communicable diseases throughout the Achimota community of more than 4,500 students and staff, not counting others.

On January 19, 2010, Government health inspectors ordered the school to resolve the problem or shut down. The problem is that Achimota, once Ghana’s leading secondary school and a pacesetter in West African education, is cash-strapped. The school is in a state of general decay and has no money to fix what has now become a huge and expensive sanitation problem.

The clogging and bursting of the sewer pipes has been accelerated by aggressive encroachment by private individuals, who have built homes illegally on school land, often almost directly on top of the sewer system's main lines.

Despite the risks to health caused by the ongoing spillage, there has been no discernible movement toward resolving the crisis. A sense of outrage and frustration is beginning to build among parents, students and alumni, especially since Achimota is a fully government-owned school. As such, it cannot decide, on its own, to raise school fees to expand its maintenance budget. Its hands are tied.

We believe that the Ghana Government has a clear duty to undertake major repair projects such as sewer system replacement at government-owned schools, especially when the school has been ordered by the Government itself to contain an ongoing and escalating public health crisis.

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