Headline News

Macron-Biya Warning: Paris is generally supportive of the regime, while Washington is believed to want to apply sanctions

26, February 2020

Macron-Biya Warning: Paris is generally supportive of the regime, while Washington is believed to want to apply sanctions 0

Emmanuel Macron has warned Cameroon President Paul Biya that he will “put pressure” on him following what he called “intolerable human rights violations”. 

The French President was speaking after the massacre of 23 people on 14 February.

“I will call next week President (of Cameroon) Paul Biya and we will put maximum pressure on him to stop the situation. There are human rights violations in Cameroon which are intolerable, I am doing my utmost,” said Macron, answering an activist who had called out to him during the Paris Agricultural Salon.

The massacre at Ngarbuh — in the anglophone northwest of Cameroon — was carried out by some 50 men in army uniforms, according to aid workers who spoke to survivors. The UN says that 15 children, nine under the age of five, were among the 23 dead.

The Cameroon army says the deaths were the result of the explosion of fuel containers during a fire-fight with secessionist rebels, and claims just five people died.

Difficult diplomacy

“France has a complicated role in Africa, when France says: such and such a leader has not been democratically elected, the Africans tell us what are you meddling in? I put pressure on everyone; I work with the African Union to put pressure,” said Emmanuel Macron, arguing that “it is not France that can make democracy in Cameroon, it is the Cameroonians”.

France and the US are currently at loggerheads at how to deal with the situation in Cameroon.

Paris is generally supportive of the regime, while Washington is believed to want to apply sanctions.

Culled from The Africa Report

Ambazonia Crisis: Biya 1, Macron 0

26, February 2020

Ambazonia Crisis: Biya 1, Macron 0 0

Cameroon on Monday opposed French President Emmanuel Macron’s remarks over a separatist crisis in the country’s English-speaking regions.

Cameroonian President Paul Biya “is accountable for his actions to the sole sovereign Cameroonian people and not to a foreign leader, even from a friendly country,” Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, secretary general of the Cameroon presidency, said in a statement released Monday evening.

On Saturday, Macron, while speaking to a Cameroonian activist at a farm show in Paris, promised to put “maximum pressure” on Biya over a humanitarian crisis in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions where armed separatists are clashing with government forces.

Biya is fully engaged to accomplish his mandate “and does not need external pressure to do so,” commented Ngoh.

He also urged Cameroonians to remain calm and open to strengthen the “historic relations” between France and Cameroon.

Early on Monday, hundreds of demonstrators, brandishing placards and chanting slogans, gathered in front of the French embassy in Cameroon to protest against what they described as Paris’ intervention in their internal affairs.

According to the UN, there have been over 700,000 refugees and internally displaced persons since separatists began clashing with government forces in 2017 to establish an independent nation they call “Ambazonia” in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon.

Source: Xinhuanet

Tensions surround post-Brexit trade negotiations

26, February 2020

Tensions surround post-Brexit trade negotiations 0

As they rubber-stamped the bloc’s 46-page negotiating document, general affairs ministers from the 27-nation EU used words such as complicated, difficult, and tough with respect to the forthcoming talks aimed at trying to reach a free trade deal with the UK.

Michel Barnier was referring to a claim made on a number of occasions by London-appointed Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis that there would not be a border on the Irish sea.

However, this is a key component of the Brexit withdrawal agreement that the British Government has fully endorsed. It is crucial to preventing highly contentious border checks on land between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

When trade talks start next week, major challenges are also likely to emerge relating to fishing rights, employment standards, climate change, and a whole range of other issues.

Outside the venue of the ministers’ meeting in Brussels, workers’ unions held a demonstration. They highlighted the fact that poverty and youth unemployment levels remain very high in the EU. It is time, they said, for the remaining 27 countries to take action.

Right now, everything remains the same. It is as though the UK is still in the EU. But when the Brexit transition period ends on December 31, there will be wide-ranging consequences if a trade deal has not been reached. That is the outcome many experts are predicting. It’s anticipated Boris Johnson is set to prioritize UK-US relations above ties between London and Brussels.

The UK delegation led by negotiator David Frost is due to arrive here next Monday to begin formal talks with the EU’s team, headed up by Michel Barnier. According to analysts, the two biggest obstacles standing in the way of a possible deal are the unrealistic time frame and the influence of eurosceptic Donald Trump.

Source: Presstv

France confirms two new cases of coronavirus, one returning from Italy

26, February 2020

France confirms two new cases of coronavirus, one returning from Italy 0

France’s top health official on Tuesday confirmed two new cases of coronavirus, adding that neither patient was in serious condition.

The first new case is a young Chinese woman who recently returned from China and is now hospitalised in Paris, said Jérôme Salomon, the head of France’s national health agency.

The other patient, a male, had recently travelled to northern Italy’s Lombardy region, the centre of a rapidly growing outbreak that has infected more than 300 people in the country, Europe’s worst-hit by the virus.

The two new cases bring to 14 the number of infections detected in France since the start of the outbreak. One of those 14 people has died and 11 have recovered.

At a meeting in Rome earlier on Tuesday, health ministers from Italy and six neighbouring countries, including France, decided not to close their borders over the outbreak, saying it would be a disproportionate measure.

“We have decided it is unthinkable and ineffective to consider closing the borders,” French Health Minister Olivier Véran told FRANCE 24 as he left the talks, calling instead for close cooperation between health officials in Europe.

Switzerland, Austria and Romania each reported their first cases on Tuesday, all in people who had been to Italy.

Spain also reported its first case on the mainland, a woman from Barcelona who had also visited northern Italy, while a four-star hotel on Tenerife was in lockdown after a couple tested positive there.

France’s government has warned French nationals against travelling to the Italian regions affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

Source: France 24

The Cameroonian author who was imprisoned for his e-book “The Banana Republic’s Natural beauty: Chantal Biya, from the street to the palace”

25, February 2020

The Cameroonian author who was imprisoned for his e-book “The Banana Republic’s Natural beauty: Chantal Biya, from the street to the palace” 0

When an Amnesty International delegation visited Cameroon in August 2010, they identified that circumstances at prisons were appalling. At New Bell prison where Cameroonian creator Bertrand Zepherin Teyou was held, the scenario was not distinct. Officially intended to accommodate 700 persons, the New Bell prison in Douala experienced more than 2,453 detainees in August

2010.

“The detainees are in an overcrowded and everyday living-threatening setting – some have irons on their feet – and there is a dire absence of satisfactory foodstuff and professional medical treatment,” Tawanda Hondora, deputy director of the Africa plan at Amnesty Worldwide, claimed at the time.

“The guards are not adequately qualified and are ill-outfitted to deal with this kind of a significant quantity of detainees, a problem which often gives increase to unrest and attempted escape, some of which are lethal,” Hondora included.

For months, Teyou had to survive within the 4 walls of New Bell prison, even suffering from heavy bleeding triggered by acute hemorrhoids, a ailment built even worse by his weak prison eating plan.

And this was all simply because he could not fork out the court good just after he was arrested for creating a guide about the country’s very first lady.

Teyou was arrested in a lodge in November 2010 though making an attempt to launch a e-book he experienced prepared about Chantal Biya, the spouse of Cameroon’s President Paul Biya.

Teyou experienced hired a room at the Somatel Lodge for the signing of his e book, La Belle de la République bananière: Chantal Biya, de la rue au palais (The Banana Republic’s Natural beauty: Chantal Biya, from the street to the palace).

The ebook is about Chantal’s modest beginnings to her increase as Cameroon’s first lady. But just before the guide was about to be launched in the existence of the media, management of the resort reported they would no lengthier allow for him to use the venue.

Protection forces quickly arrived, arrested him and whisked him to a police station in Douala. There, he was detained and charged with contempt of a persona (outrage à personnalité) and illegal assembly (manifestation illégale).

On November 10, 2010, Teyou was attempted by the Superior Courtroom (Tribunal de première instance) in Douala, which uncovered him responsible of the costs.

He was sentenced to a fine of two,030,150 CFA francs (4,425 US pounds) or two years’ imprisonment if he was unable to pay the good. Not in a position to fork out the great, he had to keep on being in prison.

Then his wellbeing circumstances deteriorated because of to the lifetime-threatening ailments at the jail. Alongside the way, he could only receive professional medical treatment outdoors, only when and if he could find the money for it.

In the meantime, human legal rights companies these as Amnesty Worldwide and Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN had begun demanding his release.

Amnesty International argued that the charges against him “are unfounded at best and he really should be launched immediately and unconditionally.”

According to Articles or blog posts 152 to 156 of the Cameroonian Penal code, the offense of contempt is only applicable to senior govt and legislative officials, as very well as foreign dignitaries. It does not mention their spouses or users of their households, a report by africultures claimed in April 2011.

It extra that Teyou was not sued by the first girl, nor was she a witness in the circumstance immediately after he was arrested, detained and through his demo.

His charge of unlawful assembly was also stunning for quite a few, taking into consideration the Cameroonian creator experienced notified authorities of the start ahead of time.

About two months in prison, on February 15, 2011, Teyou went on a hunger strike to protest the ailments at the prison but his spouse and children persuaded him to back down due to his health and fitness which continued to deteriorate.

The good news is, that same 12 months, on May two, Teyou was unveiled when the London chapter of Global PEN agreed to spend his high-quality and to also go for health-related procedure.

Rejoining his family members and mates, it was later on documented that his overall health experienced improved. The chair of African literature at the University of Bayreuth also available to shell out the charges for his e book to be reprinted in Germany.

At the time of his arrest, Amnesty Global mentioned it considered Teyou was held as a prisoner of conscience, “detained entirely for the tranquil exercising of his ideal to freedom of expression and affiliation.”

In an interview in March 2011, Teyou disclosed his motives for producing his e book. “We are entitled to increase in opposition to the injustice that is crippling our region. We can’t enable evil go unquestioned… This reserve is the expression of my dissatisfaction with what is going on in Cameroon, especially the macabre process that gives Chantal Biya the leeway to treat people today about her with serious cruelty.”

Paul Biya

Chantal’s husband, 87-12 months-outdated Biya, is just one of Africa’s longest-serving presidents who gained one more seven-calendar year expression in 2018. Right after serving for 36 a long time, he is not ready to move down even nevertheless the nation continues to tumble apart.

Latest situations in the region comprise all the telltale indications of a regime in decline and a failing setting.

For a prolonged time, Biya has relied on the common dictatorial techniques to maintain his stranglehold on the place ethnic divisions, a brutal military crackdown on dissenters, arrest and imprisonment of opposition leaders, preserving a shut school of cronies, most of whom are from his area of origin and have remained blind loyalists. These that have proven indicators of wavering have been swiftly thrown in prison.

Source: gotech daily.com

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Nigeria’s Cross River State hosting 36,000 Ambazonian refugees

25, February 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Nigeria’s Cross River State hosting 36,000 Ambazonian refugees 0

The Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) on Monday said that the state was currently hosting 36,044 Cameroonian refugees in its settlements across the state.

Mr Princewill Ayim, Director General of SEMA in Cross River, disclosed this in an Interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Calabar.

Ayim said the refugees were currently in three settlements in Adagom 1, Adagom 3 and Ukende, all in Ogoja Local Government Area of the state.

Ayim told NAN that with the increasing number of refugees been registered by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the number has risen from 35,965 in 2019 to 36,044 in January 2020.

According to him, the figure represents 69.5 per cent of the total number of Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria, adding that the new figure was released by the UNHCR in January 2020.

The DG said that since the crisis broke out in October 2017 in Cameroon over the demand for Ambazonia Republic by the Anglophone Cameroonians, the settlement had continued to witness an increase of Cameroonian refugees into the state through land borders.

Ayim told NAN that the official number of refugees in Nigeria has risen from 51,723 in December 2019 to 51,864 in the latest data obtained by UNHCR.

He added that from the latest figure, 45.9 per cent of the refugees are male, while the female represents 54.1 per cent.

“As we speak, the number of Cameroonian refugees in Cross River has increased from 35,965 in December 2019 to 36,044 in January 2020.

“This is so because the number keeps increasing due to the crisis that is yet to be addressed in Southern Cameroon.

“These refugees are being registered by the UNHCR as they come in. As we speak, the facilities in the camps are been overstretched because of the increasing numbers.

“We wish to call on the international bodies and the federal government to come in and assist the state government in providing certain facilities like water, education, social support and others,” he said.

He told NAN that the host communities have been very hospitable and cooperative with the refugees, adding that most refugees have integrated themselves with the way of life of the people in the area.

“On security, Gov. Ben Ayade has done a lot in ensuring that the refugees are protected and allowed to move freely with their identity cards like any other resident in the state.

“Ayade is a humanitarian by nature, he does not joke with cases of refugees in the state; he is intervening in healthcare, social and security support among many others,” he said.

Ayim added that plans were on to expand the camps with a view to prevent any disease outbreak.

Source: The Guardian

Southern Cameroons: President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, top aides urges separation solution to French Cameroun-Ambazonia conflict

25, February 2020

Southern Cameroons: President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, top aides urges separation solution to French Cameroun-Ambazonia conflict 0

The leader of the people of Southern Cameroons, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides have renewed the call for an independent state of Ambazonia some few days after one of the Southern Cameroons frontline figures, Wilfred Tassang attempted to drag the Federal Republic of Ambazonia into the internal affairs of French Cameroun by addressing a letter to Prof Maurice Kamto that runs counter to the demands of the Interim Government.

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and 8 of his senior advisers approved a Kondengui-drafted statement last week that urged all French Cameroun political parties and institutions to adhere to the Southern Cameroons independence bid.

President Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, Nfor Ngala Nfor, Barrister Shufai Blaise Sevidzem Berinyuy, Barrister Eyambe Elias Ebai, Dr. Fidelis Ndeh Che, Dr Egbe Ntui Ogork, Dr. Cornelius Njikimbi Kwanga, Dr. Kimeng Henry Tata and Prof. Cheh Augustine Awasum noted that: “We remain committed to an independent and sovereign Southern Cameroons recognized under international laws based on UN resolutions 1514 and 1608. We add our voice to growing calls from the international community for a mediated dialogue between La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroons in a neutral territory.”

Elsewhere in the Ambazonia government statement, the jailed leaders observed that “We, members of the Ambazonian leadership in detention write to distance ourselves from that write up. The views expressed by Mr. Tassang are in no way a reflection of what we stand for. We have the utmost respect for Prof Kamto as a person and as a leader of the main opposition party in La Republique du Cameroun.”

The statement followed days of intense killing of innocent Southern Cameroons civilians by Cameroon government army soldiers in Ngarbuh.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian president ousted during Arab Spring, dies at 91

25, February 2020

Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian president ousted during Arab Spring, dies at 91 0

Egypt’s ousted former president Hosni Mubarak has died at the age of 91, state television said on Tuesday, weeks after undergoing surgery.

The former Egyptian strongman was under house arrest since he was ousted on February 11, 2011 after three decades in power. Mubarak suffered from health problems following his ouster and arrest, and his medical state was the cause of several often contradictory reports. Earlier this week, his son, Alaa Mubarak tweeted that his father was still in an intensive care unit, weeks after undergoing surgery.

Until the day he stepped down, Mubarak kept an absolute grip on power with routine security crackdowns and human rights violations against opposition members, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood movement.

The last years of his presidential term were marked by growing opposition to his rule among Egyptians. In 30 years, conditions for Egypt’s working class failed to improve; in 2010, 44 percent of the population lived on less than two dollars a day. Accusations of fraud in the November 2010 legislative election further damaged Mubarak’s public image.

By early 2011, Mubarak was unable to withstand 18 days of unprecedented protests in the Arab nation, during which hundreds of thousands of Egyptians took to the streets in the capital, Cairo, calling for his departure. Despite the violent crackdown on the demonstration, the protesters took over Cairo’s Tahrir Square – which became the centre of the anti-regime movement – until Mubarak stepped down.

A rapid political rise

Mubarak had studied to be a fighter pilot and after earning his degree in 1950, he rose through the military ranks until he was named Egypt’s Air Force’s commander in 1972. Under his leadership, the air force contributed significantly to the country’s early victories over Israel during the Kippur War in 1973. Mubarak was promoted to general shortly thereafter.

Mubarak was eyeing a diplomatic post as his next professional step when then president Anwar el Sadat decided otherwise, naming him vice president in 1975. “Mubarak was the ideal right-hand man: disciplined, hardworking, loyal, and without great ambition or charisma,” journalist Hicham Kassem wrote for French daily newspaper Le Monde in 2005. “Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who met him around that time, thought he had a minor staff job because he was so low-profile.”

For six years, Mubarak accompanied Sadat to meetings with foreign heads of state, both Arab and Western. Often, when Sadat was away, it was Mubarak who presided over cabinet meetings. One week after Sadat was assassinated by radical Islamists in 1981, Mubarak became president. He was 53 years old.

Giving Egypt a diplomatic voice

In terms of diplomacy, Mubarak was considered by many to be an accomplished head of state, as he was able to increase Egypt’s presence on the international stage. “One of Mubarak’s fundamental manoeuvres was succeeding in rallying Arab countries to the Americans in 1990 during the first Gulf war,” said Jean-Noel Ferrié, a political scientist and author of a book on Egypt. “It was a masterful move.”

Though Egypt did not recover the status of leader of the Arab world that it enjoyed under Gamal Abdel Nasser (who was president from 1952 to 1970), under Mubarak it nevertheless regained a role as a key player in the region. Most notably, Egypt began playing a crucial role in issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; Mubarak took on the role of mediator in indirect negotiations between the two sides as of 2005.

But the trust that Arab countries once placed in Mubarak ultimately faded. During Israel’s raid of the Gaza Strip between December 27, 2008, and January 18, 2009, Egypt refused to completely open the Rafah Crossing, which lies along the Egypt-Gaza border. Some 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the operation. “Mubarak continued Sadat’s policies of deferring to the US and Israel,” noted Ferrié. “Today, Egypt no longer has the aura it had before. On the regional stage, it has let Iran and Turkey take its place.”

Moving towards authoritarian rule

At the beginning of his term, Mubarak’s domestic policies seemed to be more flexible than those of his predecessor. He notably ordered the release of 1,500 members of the Muslim Brotherhood who had been imprisoned under Sadat. The move backfired when the Islamic organisation, allied with the Wafd opposition party, won four parliamentary seats in 1984. Fearing the emergence of a widespread Islamist movement in Egypt, Mubarak tightened his grip, imposing a repressive crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood from 1990 to 1997. During this period, 68 Islamists were executed and 15,000 imprisoned.

Over the course of his term, Mubarak’s power was bolstered by an extensive police force and a political system dominated by his own party. The result was an opposition that was all but silenced. Mubarak was the only candidate in the presidential elections of 1987, 1993, and 1999, in which he got more than 95 percent of the votes. In 2005, however, faced with the growing dissatisfaction of the Egyptian people, he ordered the modification of the constitution so that multi-party elections could be held. The overture proved to be a façade – for the election of that year, Mubarak’s party handpicked the candidates to go up against Mubarak, who, unsurprisingly, came away with 88 percent of the votes.

Mubarak’s authoritarian tendencies ultimately provoked his fall from power. In June 2012, the former Egyptian strongman was judged complicit in fatal acts of violence committed against protesters in Tahrir Square, which resulted in the deaths of around 846 civilians in January and February 2011. He was sentenced to life in prison for failing to prevent the killings. His lawyers appealed the verdict and a higher court later cleared him in 2014.

The acquittal stunned many Egyptians, thousands of whom poured into central Cairo to show their anger against the court. In March 2017, the ailing former military chief and president was released from prison.

Along with sons Alaa and Gamal, Mubarak was placed in temporary detention on April 13 of that year. He was also being investigated for corruption charges.

Source: France 24

Southern Cameroons Massacre: Yaounde says Biya is accountable to the people of Cameroon not French President Macron

25, February 2020

Southern Cameroons Massacre: Yaounde says Biya is accountable to the people of Cameroon not French President Macron 0

The Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic has issued a statement to protest against the claims of a Cameroonian activist Calibri Calibro and against the revelations of French President, Emmanuel Macron.

In the empty communique, the Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, rejected the statements of the activist and President Emmanuel Macron.

Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh who is a blood relation to first lady Chantal Biya asserted that the President of Cameroon is accountable only to the Cameroonian people and not to a leader of a foreign country.

Ngoh Ngoh who is reportedly teleguiding the genocide campaign going on in Southern Cameroons also observed in the press release that ever since the beginning of the crisis in Southern Cameroons, President Paul Biya has spared no effort to resolve it.

The whole world has been holding France responsible for the killings in Southern Cameroons, but the Macron government is sick and tired of supporting an uncompromising, corrupt and inefficient Yaounde government that is hell bent on killing its own people.

French President, Emmanuel Macron is tired of being accused of aiding and abetting dictators in Africa.

In a public discussion with a Cameroonian activist, Calibri Calibro, last week in Paris following the brutal killing of more than 30 people in Ngarbur in the country’s northwest region, Mr. Macron said he had put a lot of pressure on the beleaguered Cameroon leader, Paul Biya, for him to seek a peaceful and long-lasting solution to the crisis in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.

“I have been putting pressure on President Paul Biya to deal with the issue of the English-speaking regions of Cameroon and his opponents.  I told him that I would not receive him in Lyon until Maurice KAMTO was released.  And he was released because we put pressure on the government.  But the situation continues to deteriorate,” Macron said.

“I will call President Biya next week and I will put maximum pressure on him to end this situation.  I am fully aware of the violence in Cameroon which is intolerable.  I am doing my maximum best,” he stressed.

“France is still caught in a complicated game in Africa.  We are a state of law and we defend the rule of law everywhere.  But when in Africa, a French president says that this leader is not democratically elected, Africans always say, why are you getting into our affairs? You have no lessons to give us,” he pointed out.

By Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap in Glasgow with files from Rita Akana in Yaounde

US presidential candidate questions $750 billion US military budget and $1 trillion tax cut for the rich

25, February 2020

US presidential candidate questions $750 billion US military budget and $1 trillion tax cut for the rich 0

US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has criticized the US government for its massive military spending and tax breaks for wealthy individuals and corporations while eliminating social benefits for low-income and middle class families.

Sanders on Monday proposed spending $1.5 trillion over 10 years to create a universal child care and early education system, to be funded by taxing the wealthiest Americans.

The proposal is the latest by the frontrunner Democratic candidate that would vastly expand America’s social welfare system as he seeks the nomination to challenge Republican President Donald Trump in the November election.

Sanders is proposing massive overhauls of the US economy, including taxing the wealthiest Americans to provide free colleges and ban private health insurance in favor of a government-funded system that guarantees universal health coverage, a system already carried out by many developed countries.

“We have a moral responsibility as a nation to guarantee high-quality care and education for every single child, regardless of background or family income,” the Sanders campaign said in a proposal posted on his website.

During an interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” Sunday night, he was asked how much those programs would cost and how his administration would pay for them.

“I get a little bit tired of hearing my opponents saying how you going to pay for that impacts and helps children or middle class families, and yet where are people saying how you going to pay for over $750 billion on military spending,” Sanders told Anderson Cooper.

Source: Presstv

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