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13, July 2018

Southern Cameroons Forgotten Refugees in Nigeria ⁰

More than 21,000 people from Cameroon’s Anglophone region have fled to Nigeria in recent months. Not only do they struggle to find enough to eat but also have to come to terms with their traumatic experiences.

Pauline Agba knows many residents of the Adikpo refugee camp. They keep stopping her on her rounds to talk about their situation. Agba works for the Caritas Justice, Development and Peace Committee (JDPC). Together with 20 colleagues and other help organizations she tries to provide for the refugees’ needs. “A couple of days ago the water pumps stopped working,” she said. Now the water supply is functioning again. On this particular day, 34-year-old Napoleon Egumu stops her to ask for building material. “We need doors, to build our houses,” he said, pointing at the unfinished structures.

Nearly 1,100 people, most of them Cameroonians, live in the camp in Nigeria’s Benue state. It doesn’t look like other refugee camps. Small houses are being built everywhere. The children go to schools nearby. The refugees and the local authorities, as well as international organizations, do not expect the conflict in Cameroon to stop anytime soon. They believe the number of refugees will increase.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says that more than 21,000 people have left Cameroon since October 2017. The majority fled to Nigeria’s Cross River State, followed by Benue and Taraba. “New people are arriving every day,” said Remigius Ihyula, a priest and JDPC coordinator.

Dreams of independence

The refugees fled Cameroon due to the ongoing conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions. The population there speaks English and not French which is widely spoken in the rest of the country. But Anglophones make up only 20 percent of the 25 million Cameroonians. They have been complaining of discrimination for years. “We suffer. Our children do not get any jobs. We do not have roads, only villages,” said Dorothy Offum, who fled with seven of her own children, two grandsons and two other children.

Horror stories

35-year-old Offum finally feels safe in Adikpo. The fact that the refugee camp is three hours away from the Cameroonian border helps. “We discussed this with the government. Keeping them closer to the border would have increased a sense of uncertainty. The Cameroonian government might have come looking for them,” said UNHCR representative in Nigeria, Antonio Jose Canhandula. However, there is a logistical challenge. New refugees have to be picked up in places like Abande. Due to the bad state of the roads, this can take several weeks.

The refugees’ flight is fraught with danger. Dorothy Offum took a whole week to reach the border. She kept having to hide in the forest until she finally reached Adikpo months later. What she saw still haunts her. “The day we fled they shot at people. Some managed to hide in the bush. Others died.” A woman sitting next to her nodded silently. Later she told us that one of her children was killed on the way to Nigeria.

More than one conflict

It takes the refugees a while to be able to talk about what they’ve experienced. “Many people are traumatized. We haven’t had a chance to deal with this yet,” Remigius Ihyula told DW. The conflict has attracted little attention worldwide, he added. One reason is that Nigeria’s Middle Belt, where the state of Benue is situated, is itself in a deep crisis. Hundreds have died in a conflict between farmers and herdsmen since the beginning of the year. Thousands have left their homes.

When visiting Benue, Antonio Jose Canhandula was made aware of the situation. The Nigerians who have been displaced are now also receiving aid. Canhandula expects the number of Cameroonian refugees to go up. “According to our information, the situation in Cameroon is not improving; it is getting worse,” he said.Separatist violence grips anglophone western Cameroon.

Source: Deutsche Welle

13, July 2018

Yaounde: Biya regime accuses U.S. Ambassador of election meddling ⁰

When the American ambassador took up his post in Cameroon late last year, he stepped into an increasingly troubled nation, locked in battle against Islamist militants in one part of the country and armed separatists in another.

And then there is the matter of its leader.

Cameroon has not had a new president since Michael Jackson released “Thriller” in 1982.

Under the 36-year leadership of President Paul Biya, the nation has been accused of numerous human rights abuses, including killing unarmed protesters, torturing detainees, shutting off the internet and locking up journalists.

Last month, Washington’s ambassador, Peter Henry Barlerin, met with the 85-year-old president, who has taken initial steps to seek re-election in October. He told Mr. Biya that he “should be thinking about his legacy and how he wants to be remembered in the history books,” saying that George Washington and Nelson Mandela were excellent role models.

The remarks caused an uproar among officials in Cameroon and in the local media, which accused him of trying to influence a foreign election. The minister of foreign affairs summoned the ambassador for a scolding. Mr. Barlerin even received death threats.

The ambassador, a career diplomat, noted that his comments were made following a discussion with the president about the need to stop the violence in areas where the military is battling a bloody separatist uprising. “We do not have a preferred outcome for the election,” Mr. Barlerin said in a recent interview, emphasizing that he has stressed that to government officials. “We want a strong and stable Cameroon.”

The matter seemed to quiet down, temporarily, until late last month when Mr. Barlerin’s photo was plastered across the covers of at least three local newspapers, which accused him of paying nearly $5 million to opposition candidates in the presidential race.

Peter Barlerin, the United States ambassador to Cameroon

The United States Embassy strongly disputed the claim, releasing a statement that described the story as “entirely false.” Opposition members also denied the reports and speculated they had been planted by the president’s supporters, who know that the population would be appalled at any foreign attempt to influence elections.

“All this agitation is simply that the officials are looking for the sympathy of the people,” said Hilaire Kamga, one of the candidates running against Mr. Biya.

The controversy stirred by the American ambassador is a sign of just how deeply entrenched Cameroon’s current government is. Critics say his loyalists operate with impunity, creating nothing more than a charade of a democracy.

Cameroon has been accused of abusing human rights as it fights the militant group Boko Haram and tries to stop a secession movement being fought by an estimated 1,000 armed rebels who want to create a new, English-speaking nation they call Ambazonia. That conflict, which some analysts fear could spiral into civil war, already has claimed at least 425 lives, according to Unicef, and is spilling into new territories.

Amnesty International said on Thursday it had gathered “credible evidence” that an assault depicted in a horrifying video, showing the shooting deaths of several women and infants by men in camouflaged uniforms, appears to have been carried out by Cameroonian soldiers battling Boko Haram in the country’s Far North. Cameroon’s military and government officials called it “fake news.”

The storm caused by Mr. Barlerin’s remarks about Mr. Biya’s legacy is not the first time American diplomats have become entangled in election controversy on the continent.

In Kenya during the Obama era, Johnnie Carson, then the top American official for Africa, repeatedly warned during the 2013 presidential election that “choices have consequences.” His remarks were interpreted as taking sides against one of the candidates, Uhuru Kenyatta, who had been accused of crimes against humanity. Mr. Carson’s words seemed to backfire, energizing an electorate that voted Mr. Kenyatta into office.

President Paul Biya, 85, has led Cameroon since 1982.CreditLintao Zhang/Getty Images

Cameroon’s opposition is fractured, and, like in past elections, no candidate with a mass following has emerged. Analysts fear that many voters who most likely would cast a ballot for someone other than the incumbent probably will not be able to vote because of violence that will keep polls from opening.

Some Cameroonians are so fed up with the government that they may withhold their vote in protest, said Hans De Marie Heungoup, a Central Africa senior analyst for the International Crisis Group. Some protests could turn violent, he said, and the military has a record of firing on unarmed protesters.

Past elections won by Mr. Biya have been called flawed and full of irregularities.

Even though victory for Mr. Biya seems likely if he formally joins the race, his supporters were still miffed at what they interpreted as an attempt at a foreign government to urge him to step down.

“The American ambassador is not an enemy of Cameroon,” said Saint-Eloi Bidoung, a first deputy mayor in Yaoundé, the capital, and a member of the governing party. “But he should know that the departure of President Biya from power depends solely on the will of Cameroonians, and not from a foreign power, even the United States of America.”

Emmanuel Simh, a founding member of the opposition Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon, called the ambassador’s remarks “normal diplomacy” and said they caused a stir only because Mr. Biya’s supporters are panicked about losing power.

For most of the past few months, Mr. Biya has been present in Cameroon, a notable fact for a president who spends considerable time in a hotel in Switzerland. An investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project found that Mr. Biya has spent a total of four and a half years abroad on private trips. During 2006 and 2009 he spent a third of his time out of the country.

Mr. Biya was absent in 2016 when a train overloaded with passengers derailed, killing dozens. And last year when protests by separatists turned violent, the president was in Switzerland.

Critics call him the President of the Hotel Intercontinental, for his preferred accommodation in Geneva.

Mr. Biya has been criticized for being absent during crises, including a deadly train derailment in 2016.CreditAgence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Corruption Reporting Project estimated that Mr. Biya has spent $182 million of public money on his private travel. Nearly half of the nation’s population lives below the poverty line.

That Mr. Biya can spend so much time abroad with few implications at home demonstrates his grasp on power.

Government officials have benefited from Mr. Biya’s long tenure. Like many nations in the region, Cameroon is a place of haves and have-nots. Outside Yaoundé, golden painted homes sit atop lush hillsides while beaten-down shacks line the roads at the bottom.

“Ministers,” locals sigh and shrug when asked who lives on the hilltops.

Any plans for a post-Biya nation are murky. If he wins the presidency again, Mr. Biya would be in his 90s by the end of his seven-year term. If he were to die in office, the Senate president would take over until an election is held two months later. But analysts question whether Mr. Biya’s powerful loyalists would stand by idly.

“The institutions there are so weak,” Mr. De Marie Heungoup said.

Unlike other countries in the region that rely on oil revenues to finance most of their budgets, Cameroon has a more diverse economy that includes agriculture and manufacturing, which allowed it to weather a drop in oil prices better than neighboring Nigeria.

Cameroon is in the middle of an unstable region. Conflicts abound in nearby Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the region’s war with Boko Haram has spilled across borders. Cameroon has welcomed tens of thousands of refugees from those conflicts and has been a key partner with foreign militaries in fighting Boko Haram.

Mr. Barlerin said his office recently had emphasized, as a precaution, to the Cameroon government that the military equipment Americans have provided for the fight against Boko Haram must not be used to fight separatists.

“It’s a wonderful country and we’ve had a lot of good cooperation from the government,” Mr. Barlerin said. “I don’t want to see it go up in smoke.”

He added: “The only thing we want is for elections to be free, fair and credible and that the will of the Cameroonian people be heard.”

Culled from The New York Times

13, July 2018

Snarling orange ‘Trump baby’ blimp flies outside British parliament ⁰

A blimp depicting Donald Trump as an orange, snarling nappy-wearing baby flew outside the British parliament in London on Friday, launched by critics of the U.S. president who are demonstrating throughout his visit to the country.

Trump, who arrived on Thursday, said he would avoid London as much as possible to avoid the protests.

“I guess when they put out blimps to make me feel unwelcome, no reason for me to go to London,” he told the Sun newspaper. “I used to love London as a city. I haven’t been there in a long time. But when they make you feel unwelcome, why would I stay there?”

Many British politicians regard close ties with the United States, which they call “the special relationship”, as a pillar of foreign policy and Prime Minister Theresa May has courted Trump before the country’s departure from the European Union.

But some Britons see Trump as crude, volatile and opposed to their values on a range of issues. More than 64,000 people have signed up to demonstrate in London against the visit while other protests are expected around the country.

Around 1,000 people gathered to watch the blimp launch in Parliament Square, with organizers of the stunt wearing red boiler suits and baseball caps emblazoned with “TRUMP BABYSITTER”.

Nicola Tanner, a 33-year-old public official from the southwestern city of Bristol, took the day off work to demonstrate. Wearing a t-shirt with the word “RESIST” on it, she said it was great that the blimp had “touched a nerve” with Trump.

“It’s embarrassing how much our government is falling over themselves to try to appease someone who has no interest in any sort of give-and-take in the UK-U.S. relationship at all, and is so capricious he can change his mind between the end of one tweet and the start of the next one,” she told Reuters.

Pedestrians walk past as a giant balloon depicting US President Donald Trump as an orange baby floats next to the towers of Westminster Abbey during a demonstration against Trump’s visit to the UK in Parliament Square in London on July 13, 2018. (AFP photo)

After a countdown from 10, a cheer went up as the six-meter (20 foot) high balloon rose up. It hovered around 10 meters off the ground, next to the Westminster parliament building and near the River Thames.

Organizer Daniel Jones, 26, a charity communications officer, said they were trying to make people laugh as well as making a serious point. “It’s also about giving a boost to those in America resisting his policies,” he said.

One man dressed as a gorilla and wearing a plastic Trump mask, stood inside a large metal cage.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who was criticized by Trump in the Sun interview for failing to control crime and prevent militant attacks, gave his blessing for the blimp to be flown.

Khan rejected suggestions this showed a lack of respect for the U.S. president. “The idea that we restrict freedom of speech, the right to assemble, the right to protest because somebody might be offended is a slippery slope,” he told BBC radio. “We have a rich history in this country of having a sense of humor as well.”

(Source: Reuters)

13, July 2018

Paul Biya to contest in October polls to extend reign till 2025 ⁰

President of Cameroon, Paul Biya, has confirmed his candidacy for presidential polls slated for October 7 this year.

This will be his seventh consecutive mandate which will also extend his reign till 2025. It will, however, be the fifth universal suffrage with multiple candidates.

The octogenarian who is considered one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders made the announcement vis his social media handles on early Friday morning.

Dear Compatriots in Cameroon & the Diaspora, Aware of the challenges we must take up together to ensure a more united, stable & prosperous Cameroon, I am willing to respond positively to your overwhelming calls. I will stand as Your Candidate in the upcoming presidential election, his post read.

Paul Biya of Cameroon

Full Name/Age: Paul Biya, 85 years
Profession: Technocrat/Politician
Became President: November 1982, having served as Prime Minister since June 1975
Predecessor: Ahmadou Ahidjo
Presidential reign: 36 years. 43 years (PM and presidential era)

Source: Africa News

13, July 2018

Cameroon is facing a growing danger of economic collapse and a civil war ⁰

Cameroon is facing a growing danger of economic collapse and a civil war, provoked in large part by French government support for the 85 year President Paul Biya. This week Biya tweeted his intention to run for the October presidential elections amid worsening security situation in the country. The Biya move came after the United States ambassador Peter Barlerin sounded a note of caution to the CPDM Chairman to step aside. The Biya action has failed to win wide support in the entire nation.

In announcing his decision, Biya is responding to intensifying pressure from the Western powers particularly the US. The US Senate recently held a hearing on the crisis in Southern Cameroons which will eventually commit Washington to use its influence to block all international aid and financial assistance for Cameroon. This comes on top of sanctions already implemented by the Federal Republic of Germany.

The UK, meanwhile, has decided to maintain a kind of deliberate silence on the crisis in Ambazonia but has however up the African activities of its foreign intelligence service MI6 in the Gulf of Guinea. Britain had long established a new ministerial committee, ostensibly to give advanced warning of coup attempts and threats of civil war in sub-Saharan Africa.

The ruling CPDM crime syndicate which is mainly based in the cities of Douala, Yaounde and Maroua including some towns and villages in the Center and South regions has alienated not only Southern Cameroonians but also the Bamilekes, the Bassas and the Sawas. The widening political division between Southern Cameroons and the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime and the long standing grievance of the Ahmadou Ahidjo following contains the potential for civil war.

The sharp decline in living standards, 95 percent unemployment and the increasingly repressive character of Biya’s rule provoked popular opposition deep within Southern Cameroons and created conditions for violent social conflict. Aware of the extent of social and political tensions, Biya declared war against his own people-the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. The 85 year old dictator has never accepted measures that would undermine his rule and as I write, his kinsmen and women in the army are moving like a train with no brakes crushing anyone on Biya’s way.

The US through the voice of its ambassador Peter Barlerin has decided that it was time to move against Biya. But the world’s strongest nation is yet to cut off funds and investment to Yaoundé and have failed to encourage the formation of an alternative political leadership that is more responsive to US and EU demands.

Biya offers no progressive response to Western demands and meddling. Instead, he is seeking to hold onto power by whipping up anger of the Francophones not only against Southern Cameroonians but also against the Bamilekes. For nearly four decades, Biya did little to make Ambazonians feel Cameroonian, resulting in an erosion of popular support in Southern Cameroons for his regime. In an attempt to reverse Biya’s decline and counter calls for an Anglophone head of state, Biya declared war on Southern Cameroons.

For the last two years, the Francophone dominated army has been patrolling Southern Cameroons towns and villages, killing innocent civilians and beating up people suspected of supporting the quest for an independent state.

By Rita Akana

13, July 2018

Southern Cameroons War: Defense Minister Beti Assomo convoy comes under attack ⁰

At least five persons were injured on Thursday following an attack by separatist fighters on the convoy of Cameroon’s Defense Minister along the Kumba-Ekondo-Titi road in the South West Region of the country, sources have confirmed.

According to credible reports, four soldiers and a journalist working for state -run newspaper Cameroun Tribune who were all part of the Minister’s convoy heading to a military camp in Small Ekombe along the Kumba-Ekondo Titi road were all injured in a shoot out that ensued between the military and separatist fighters.

Army spokesperson Colonel Didier Badjeck who was also part of the convoy said six “secessionists were neutralised” in the course of the shootout.

According Grégoire Djarmaila, the journalist, one of the embedded journalists who sustained an injury, their convoy met stiff resistance from the fighters who were stationed on both sides of the road after erecting barricades.

The convoy succeeded to reach its destination but once again under fierce attack on their way back with the attackers targeting the armored car in which the Defence Minister Joseph Beti Assomo was found.

In the course of the shootout, a shattered glass particle caught me on the jaw and I started bleeding,” Grégoire Djarmaila, the injured Cameroun Tribune journalist said.

However, they succeeded to get to Kumba safely before being air-lifted to Douala where the other injured four soldiers were given medical attention.

Thursday’s events followed days of fierce fighting in Kumba, Buea and other parts of the North West and South West Regions in Cameroon with several casualties recorded on both sides.

Culled from Journal du Cameroun

13, July 2018

Fighting in Southern Cameroons claims more lives ⁰

Clashes between army and anglophone separatists have claimed several lives in the town of Kumba in Cameroon’s troubled Southwest Region, sources said Thursday. “Several people, including civilians, have been killed in Kumba since Monday,” a source close to the town’s medical services told AFP, confirming witness accounts. “These people died during various army operations” after Kumba’s police superintendent was killed on Sunday, the source said.

The murder has been blamed on separatists who want secession from the French-speaking bulk of Cameroon. “There were exchanges of gunfire for much of (Wednesday) night,” one witness said. “I heard gunshots all night long. Things have quietened down, but people are beginning to leave town,” said a teacher who asked not be named.

The security situation has been tense for days in Southwest Region, which along with the Northwest Region was once under British rule before joining francophone Cameroon in 1961 after independence. At least three police officers have been killed since Sunday, at Kumba and in the regional capital Buea. For the first time since anglophone protest over perceived neglect by the central government erupted at the end of 2016, fighting took place on Monday in Buea, a city of more than 100,000 people patrolled by a large military force.

Defence Minister Joseph Beti Assomo was paying an official visit on Thursday to the Southwest Region, where the separatist crisis became an armed struggle by radical foes of President Paul Biya’s regime late in 2017. In addition to targeting police and troops, the separatists have carried out arson attacks on perceived symbols of the state such as schools. They have also kidnapped civil servants, police officers, businessmen and sometimes foreigners. At the beginning of 2018, most of the conflict took place in the Northwest Region, but the epicentre of violence has gradually shifted south to a rural area between the towns of Kumba, Mamfe and the border with Nigeria. Clashes take place almost every day in both regions.

www.vanguardngr.com

13, July 2018

Credible evidence that French Cameroun army responsible for shocking extrajudicial executions caught on video ⁰

An investigation by Amnesty International experts has gathered credible evidence that it was Cameroonian soldiers depicted in a video carrying out the horrific extrajudicial executions of two women and two young children. While an investigation has now been announced, the Ministry of Communication earlier dismissed video footage of the killings as “fake news”.

Extensive analysis of the weapons, dialogue and uniforms that feature in the video, paired with digital verification techniques and testimonies taken from the ground, all strongly suggest that the perpetrators of the executions are Cameroonian soldiers.

The Cameroonian authorities’ initial claim that this shocking video is fake simply doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.

Samira Daoud, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s West Africa office

“The Cameroonian authorities’ initial claim that this shocking video is fake simply doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. We can provide credible evidence to the contrary. Given the gravity of these horrific acts – the cold blooded and calculated slaughter of women and young children – these hasty and dismissive denials cast serious doubt over whether any investigation will be genuine,” said Samira Daoud, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s West Africa office.

“It is imperative that a proper, impartial investigation is undertaken and those responsible for these abhorrent acts are brought to justice.”

While all the elements analyzed so far by Amnesty International strongly suggest the authenticity of the video, the date at which it was taken remains unclear.

The video shows the soldiers using either a Galil or a Zastava M21, in addition to Kalashnikov-style rifles. While AK-type weapons are common, the weapon we strongly believe was used in the execution – either a Galil or the very similar Zastava M21 – is comparatively rare. The Small Arms Survey lists the Galil as only “occasional” in sub-Saharan Africa among governments, and as unknown among non-state actors. The only force in the area carrying Galil’s are a small subset of the Cameroon Army. The Zastava M21 is not specifically reported in the Small Arms Survey online database.

Both the weapons and uniforms of the soldiers in the video are indicative of the Cameroon army, and display patterns consistent with a number of possible units, including regular infantry and the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), the special forces of the Cameroonian army.

The person filming the video specifically identifies two members of the group as soldiers. The first is a second-rank soldier (soldat de deuxième grade) who he names as “Cobra”, the second a Master Corporal (caporal chef) who is named as “Tchotcho”. These names mean that the group can be identified.

The evidence we have provided forms a firm basis for strongly suggesting that the individuals committing these atrocities are members of Cameroon’s armed forces

Samira Daoud, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s West Africa office

The Master Corporal’s uniform is a tiger stripe pattern that is standard among Cameroon regular army. The other soldiers are wearing black shirts and green-and-black woodland pants. While the Ministry of Communication claims that the mixed and casual nature of the uniforms indicates a lack of authenticity, Amnesty investigators have found the opposite. Mixed and partial uniforms are common among army personnel, especially in remote areas where this incident took place. Soldiers in the Far North region wearing casual flip flops and T-shirts, as well as a mix of tiger stripe print and woodland print, can be clearly seen in videos previously verified by Amnesty International.

The soldiers are followed by about 10 people whom the sources consulted said are most likely members of the local vigilantes’ committee (because they carry light weapons such as clubs and machetes) from the nearby village.

According to Amnesty International’s analysts, the video was likely filmed in the Mayo Tsanaga area in the Far North region of Cameroon. The vegetation is generally consistent and matches other footage from the area. Terrace cultivations, as visible in the video, are found in Mayo Tsanaga. The rocks, the mountains and the low-growing shrubs (locally known as “tchaski”) can also be found in Mayo Tsanaga. There is a military base located in Mozogo in this region.

“The evidence we have provided forms a firm basis for strongly suggesting that the individuals committing these atrocities are members of Cameroon’s armed forces. Some individuals are clearly identifiable and cannot be allowed to get away with such a heinous act with impunity,” said Samira Daoud.

“While the crimes under international law, including war crimes, and human rights violations committed by Boko Haram in Cameroon are despicable, absolutely nothing can justify the crimes being committed by some members of the armed forces.”

Amnesty International is calling for those suspected of criminal responsibility for these crimes under international law, including superiors who knew or should have known that subordinates were committing the extrajudicial executions, to be brought to justice in fair trials before ordinary civilian courts.

Background

Amnesty International has documented crimes under international law, some amounting to war crimes, as well as human rights violations by members of the Cameroonian security forces in their fight against the armed group Boko Haram in the Far North region of the country.

This includes the widespread use of torture to extract ‘confessions’ from hundreds of people accused – often with little or no evidence – of being affiliated with Boko Haram.

Source: Amnesty International

12, July 2018

US President saddened by Africa’s vicious and violent conflicts ⁰

President of the United States, Donald Trump, says he is on a mission to achieve global peace especially peace on the African continent.

In comments made to journalists on the sidelines of a North America Treaty Organization (Nato) summit in Brussels, Trump stressed that Africa’s problems were so complicated that only few people could understand it.

Trump said in part: “Africa right now has got problems like few people would understand. They have got things going on there that nobody could believe in this room.

“If you saw some of the things that I see through intelligence – what’s going on in Africa – it is so sad, it is so vicious and violent – and we want peace. We want peace for Africa. We want peace all over the world.

The U.S. is a strong partner to governments across Africa in several areas of cooperation. Washington’s diplomacy is by far the strongest on the continent. It also has strong ties in the area of economic, anti-terrorism and humanitarian endeavours.

“That’s my number one goal – peace all over the world and we are building up a tremendous military because I really believe through strength you get peace. We are going to have a military like we never had before,” he added.

The U.S. is estimated to have thousands of troops and over thirty military bases across Africa. Security watchers have also averred that it has other facilities that remain secret. The most recent loss the army suffered was when four special forces were killed in an ambush in Niger last year.

Source: Africa News

12, July 2018

ELECAM says Southern Cameroons to partake in presidential polls ⁰

Cameroon’s Anglophone regions will participate in presidential polls slated for October 7, 2018. This is according to the country’s electoral organizing body, Elections Cameroon (ELECAM).

The said regions – North West and South West – have been restive for months now amid armed exchanges between government forces and secessionists under the banner of the so-called Ambazonia Republic.

The elections organizer assured that elections will take place in the regions stressing that the issue of security for all stakeholders in the process was the responsibility of the government.

ELECAM’s Assistant Director, Abdoul Karimou is quoted as saying, “Elections will hold in the North West and South West regions but ensuring security is the responsibility of the State.”

The government recently announced an October 7 date for the presidential elections. Political and security watchers have expressed worry over the worsening situation in the region and averred that peaceful polls could not hold in the affected areas.

The presidential poll is the biggest contest for a busy election year. Voters have already elected other legislative representatives earlier this year.

There were security challenges in the Anglophone regions during some of the polls. These challenges were also present during a national examination – there was heavy security presence at exam centers but some centers were burnt down by suspected separatists.

Source: Africa News