Washington Image Upgrade Worth $100,000 a Month for Cameroon
By Megan Wilson | August 13, 2018 12:46PM ET
Bloomberg Government
https://about.bgov.com/blog/washington-image-upgrade/
Cameroon, an African country where the government has been accused of torture and murder, has inked a seven-figure contract with Mercury Public Affairs.The Washington, D.C.-based firm will be paid $100,000 a month for “strategic consulting and management services, government relations/lobbying, and media issues management” until the end of July 2019, according to a disclosure report required under the Foreign Agent Registration Act.The firm was hired about a month after a House subcommittee held a hearing to examine human rights abuses and what the panel’s chairman, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), described as “an emerging crisis.”The contract is vague about exactly what the firm will be doing. It is also unclear who at Mercury is working on the account; the firm has until Friday to submit those forms. Foreign lobbying disclosures related to new clients are due within 10 days of a contract being signed.The U.S. has roughly 100 troops in Cameroon to train and advise its military on combating Boko Haram and other extremist groups.According to the State Department’s most recent human rights report, child labor is rampant in Cameroon; rape is rarely prosecuted; and government agents have attacked journalists for their reporting.Both civilians and armed separatist militias have been clashing with government security forces in French and English-speaking parts of the country. Organizations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have obtained videos showing government forces firing into crowds of demonstrators.
Bloomberg Government
https://about.bgov.com/blog/washington-image-upgrade/
Cameroon, an African country where the government has been accused of torture and murder, has inked a seven-figure contract with Mercury Public Affairs.The Washington, D.C.-based firm will be paid $100,000 a month for “strategic consulting and management services, government relations/lobbying, and media issues management” until the end of July 2019, according to a disclosure report required under the Foreign Agent Registration Act.The firm was hired about a month after a House subcommittee held a hearing to examine human rights abuses and what the panel’s chairman, Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), described as “an emerging crisis.”The contract is vague about exactly what the firm will be doing. It is also unclear who at Mercury is working on the account; the firm has until Friday to submit those forms. Foreign lobbying disclosures related to new clients are due within 10 days of a contract being signed.The U.S. has roughly 100 troops in Cameroon to train and advise its military on combating Boko Haram and other extremist groups.According to the State Department’s most recent human rights report, child labor is rampant in Cameroon; rape is rarely prosecuted; and government agents have attacked journalists for their reporting.Both civilians and armed separatist militias have been clashing with government security forces in French and English-speaking parts of the country. Organizations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have obtained videos showing government forces firing into crowds of demonstrators.
After Amnesty International posted a video of security forces killing a woman and two children, the State Department issued a statement July 16 calling on Cameroon’s government “to investigate thoroughly and transparently the events depicted in the video, make its findings public, and if Cameroonian military personnel were involved in this atrocity, hold them accountable.”
Despite the cooperation with the U.S. over combating Boko Haram, “they have a much bigger image problem” because of the crackdown on what’s known as Cameroon’s Anglophone region, said Ed Hogendoorn, the Crisis Group’s Africa deputy program director.
Potentially at stake, he said, are “the stability of the country” and the entire region.
“That’s the unfortunate thing, you have a U.S. government with a couple of different competing objectives in Cameroon,” said Adotei Akwei, the Africa advocacy director for Amnesty International USA.
WHAT’S AT STAKE
The Senate spending bill that covers the State Department in fiscal 2019 (S. 3108) would set aside $5 million in aid for Cameroon.
Senators tied that cash to a demand that Cameroon investigate and punish government personnel “who are credibly alleged to have committed, ordered, or covered up gross violations of human rights, including against Cameroonian citizens and refugees in the Far North and Anglophone regions of Cameroon,” according to the committee report.
The bill would require Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to meet with Congress a month after enactment of the appropriation to update lawmakers on the investigations before deciding whether aid should be given. The House, however, has no Cameroon-specific language in its companion legislation (H.R. 6385) and instead lumps foreign aid to a group of countries in the region.
“Cameroon is now on everybody’s radar,” said Akwei. “Alarm bells are ringing.”
In addition to Mercury, Cameroon had Squire Patton Boggs on retainer since 2004, Justice Department disclosures show. That contract also has been for $100,000 per month, though recent reports show the bills have been only partially paid.
Squire Patton Boggs disclosed that, over the last six months, it has advised Cameroon on activity in Congress plus “administration nominations and appointments.”
In January, its lobbyists met with Navarro Moore, the special assistant in the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, according to disclosures. There are no details about what was discussed beyond “U.S.-Cameroon bilateral relations.”
A presidential election is set for Oct. 7, and President Paul Biya — who has led the country for 35 years — is running for another term.
With assistance from Jack Fitzpatrick
