23, January 2020
Southern Cameroons War: Muyuka CPDM councillor bows to Interim Gov’t pressure, pulls out of February elections 0
Barrister Ndille Ngwese Joseph, a prominent councilor in the Muyuka municipality has reportedly pulled out of the February 9, 2020 elections citing threats from Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces.
The ruling CPDM militant made his decision not to participate in the so-called twin poll during a conversation with the Buea based HiTV, Cameroon Info.Net reported.
The Ambazonia Interim Government banned all French Cameroun teleguided elections in the Southern Cameroons territory and Vice President Dabney Yerima ordered a lockdown in a televise address to the people of Ambazonia.
Councillor Ndille Ngwese said: “I think the benefits of becoming a councillor and the benefits of what I have acquired throughout my life – my family and my property far outweighs. I think I prefer staying, not being a councillor, than to lose my properties. Because the amount of threats I have, I can’t bear them.
“And I think it is good and time enough for me to say I cannot continue to allow my name to be on that list as a councillor. So, I better drop. I think if I want to be a politician anymore, might be I will give some time. Not now, at this time when my life and my properties are at stake.”
Ndille Ngwese revealed that his letter of resignation has been sent to the Minister of Decentralisation and Local Development. Ndille Ngwese is former YCPDM Section President for Fako II, Muyuka.
By Rita Akana with files from CIN
23, January 2020
Mali: At least six soldiers killed in overnight ambush 0
At least six soldiers have been killed and several wounded in an overnight attack in central Mali, the army says, in fresh violence in the war-torn West African state.
The troops came under fire late Wednesday from “unidentified armed men” in Dioungani, an area in central Mali’s volatile Mopti region near the border with Burkina Faso, the army said on Twitter.
A security official who declined to be named said that, in an assault lasting several hours, the attackers overwhelmed the soldiers’ position before reinforcements took it back.
Local authorities and inhabitants have blamed the attack on militants.
The army gave a “provisional toll” of six dead and several wounded, without giving further details.
The security official, however, said seven soldiers had been killed.
Mali has been struggling to contain a militant insurgency that erupted in the north in 2012 and has claimed thousands of military and civilian lives since.
Despite some 4,500 French troops in the Sahel region, plus a 13,000-strong UN peacekeeping force in Mali, the conflict has engulfed the center of the country and spread to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Local Malian troops are frequently attacked. On Tuesday, two soldiers were killed in the Mopti region when their convoy hit a roadside bomb.
On January 13, French President Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of Sahel states agreed to focus their military efforts on the border region between Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
(Source: AFP)