About soter

Posts by :

11, August 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Bishop Bushu says Rev. Father Sob was assassinated ⁰

The Bishop of Buea says a priest who died in the July 2018 in the restive South-West region of the country was assassinated disputing claims that the death was as a result of a stray bullet.

His Lordship Immanuel Bushu is reported by local press to have said Rev. Fr. Nougi Alexander Sob was assassinated. “Father Sob was with two other people in his car when he was shot at close range with a silencer gun.”

The Cameroon Catholic church reported the death of the parish priest of Bomaka, a district of Buea, at the time the report said by “unidentified individuals.”

“We have received photographs of the body of the deceased priest, Alexander Sob Nougi,’‘ an official communication by the church issued in Yaoundé read, specifying that the perpetrators of the murder remain unknown and that the body is mutilated.

Security in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions, the north-west and south-west, has deteriorated considerably.

Fighting became daily between the security forces and armed separatists demanding the creation of an independent English-speaking state.

Catholic Church as conflict mediator

The Catholic Church is the only actor capable of “promoting dialogue” between the insurgents and the government, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG) research centre in April.

It represents almost a third of the Cameroonian population, according to the ICG, which deplored the Catholic Church’s “divergent positions” on the Anglophone question and invited it to “overcome its divisions and display its neutrality”.

This increasingly violent armed conflict in the English-speaking zone, as well as that against the jihadist group Boko Haram in the north of the country, could disrupt the presidential elections scheduled for 7 October, according to analysts.

President Paul Biya, 85, declared his candidature last week for a seventh consecutive term.

His supporters believe that he is best able to respond to the English-speaking crisis, his opponents accusing him of being responsible for the crisis.

Source: Africa News

11, August 2018

CNN says North Korea has rejected all US proposals on denuclearization ⁰

North Korea has rejected “repeated” US proposals on denuclearization, considering them “gangster-like”, CNN has reported, citing senior diplomatic sources.

The US has made, and continues to make, “specific proposals for starting and proceeding to the end point of fully verified denuclearization,” including a timeline, the broadcaster reported.

It said the “vague promises” that emerged from the meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in June have resulted in a diplomatic disconnect.

The brief document produced at the summit included no time frame, no specific promises or milestones to meet, allowing both sides to interpret it as they wished, CNN added.

Washington has linked the lifting of sanctions on Pyongyang to full and verifiable denuclearization by North Korea which insists sanctions be removed first before it takes any further steps.

CNN cited an official with close knowledge of North Korea’s position on the matter as saying that continued negotiations between the US and North Korea hinge on Washington’s willingness to make a bold move and agree to a peace treaty with Pyongyang.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (L) talks with North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho at the ASEAN Regional Forum Retreat during the 51st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in Singapore on August 4, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

The North says the US is back-pedaling on its promises. North Korea issued a statement at the United Nations on Thursday, insisting that elements of the US government are not adhering to the spirit of the dialogue established during Kim-Trump Singapore summit.

According to the statement, while Pyongyang had taken “such practical denuclearization steps as discontinuing nuclear test and ICBM test fire” and “broadminded measures” such as the repatriation of US Korean War remains, “the US responded to our expectation by inciting international sanctions and pressure against (North Korea).”

The statement did not blame the US president, but singled out some high-level officials within the US administration, who it alleged were going against Trump’s will.

North Korea on Thursday denounced US calls for enforcing international sanctions and said progress on denuclearization promises could not be expected if Washington followed an “outdated acting script”.

Pyongyang has urged Washington to take reciprocal measures for its goodwill gestures, saying the US had responded to its expectation by inciting international sanctions and pressure.

Source: Presstv

11, August 2018

On top of the World: 5 Anambra State School girls win gold at World Technovation Challenge in US ⁰

Five Anambra girls from Regina Pacies Secondary School Onitsha, Amanbra state, Nigeria who represented Nigeria and Africa at the World Technovation Challenge in the Silicon Valley in San Francisco, US have won the Gold Medal in the contest.

The Governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano had personally sent them off to the US in a brief ceremony at the last Executive Council Meeting, where he charged the girls to put Nigeria and Africa on the global technological map with their rare talent.

The team, led by Uchenna Onwuamaegbu Ugwu defeated representatives of other technological giants including the USA, Spain, Turkey, Uzbekistan and China to clinch the gold medal.

The girls, who have now become Africa’s Golden Girls is made up of five brilliant girls including Promise Nnalue, Jessica Osita, Nwabuaku Ossai, Adaeze Onuigbo and Vivian Okoye.

The world champions who are reported to be attracting a lot of attention in the world’s greatest technological hub won the Challenge with a mobile application called the FD-Detector which they developed to help tackle the Challenge of fake pharmaceutical products in Nigeria.

Under the tutelage of Uchenna Onwuamaegbu-Ugwu the CEO of Edufun Technik STEM, the Golden Girls spent five months researching and developing FD-Detector which swept through over 2000 competing applications to get to the finals in San Francisco.

Technovation is a programme that offers girls around the world the opportunity to learn the programming skills they need to emerge as tech-entrepreneurs and leaders.

Every year, girls are invited to identify a problem in their communities and then are challenged to solve them by developing Andriod applications that would address those problems. 115 countries participated in the qualifiers but only 12 teams from all over the world were selected as finalists for the pitch in Silicon Valley.

Source: Africa News

11, August 2018

Footage shows Cameroon forces executing unarmed people ⁰

For the second time in about a month, Cameroon is investigating video footage that Amnesty International said shows Cameroon security forces executing unarmed people in the country’s Far North region.

On Friday, the human rights group said its experts have analyzed footage that appears to show “Cameroonian security forces shooting at least a dozen unarmed people” in the village of Achigaya sometime before May 2016.

A Cameroon government spokesperson told reporters that the video was “fake news” but promised an investigation. They also told Reuters there is an ongoing “denigration” campaign attempting to tarnish President Paul Biya’s reputation ahead of October elections. (LINTAO ZHANG / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

The shaky, grainy video, which Amnesty provided to the Washington Post, shows armed men in camouflage fatigues wandering through a village, with some structures burning around them. The camera pans to a group of people who are sitting and lying on the ground by a wall. They are then shot at repeatedly, first from a distance, and then up close.

“This shocking video shows armed men lining people up face down or sitting against a wall and shooting them with automatic weapons. A second round of shooting ensures no survivors,” Ilaria Allegrozzi, the Lake Chad researcher for Amnesty, said in a statement. “Here is yet more credible evidence to support the allegations that Cameroon’s armed forces have committed grave crimes against civilians.”

The Amnesty analysis said that in the video, soldiers “describe themselves as carrying out a ‘kamikaze’ operation.” The Washington Post was unable to verify the video, including who filmed it and who appears in it.

Henri Etoundi Essomba, Cameroon’s ambassador in Washington, D.C., told The Post that he was unaware of the latest video so could not comment directly, but said that some people are “willing to portray the country as hell on earth.”

“No one can condemn Cameroon on video without making sure that what [they are seeing] is supporting reality,” Essomba told the Post. “This shouldn’t be surprising to anyone in the sense that people are willing to portray the country in the darkest way possible.”

Last month, Amnesty released analysis of another video that had circulated on social media, in which armed men execute two women, a young girl and an infant. The group said the men’s outfits, accents and weapons signal that they belong to the Cameroon military, and that the terrain is consistent with Cameroon’s Far North region, where troops have been trying to push back against Boko Haram extremists for a number of years.

In an interview with the Post in July, Allegrozzi said it was “one of the worst videos I’ve ever watched, and I’ve watched many videos coming from perpetrators in the Boko Haram conflict.”

At the time, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, a government spokesperson, told reporters that the video was “fake news,” but Cameroon’s government promised to investigate. Bakary also denied that the outfits were consistent with Cameroon’s armed forces.

On Friday, Bakary told Reuters that the latest video would be investigated but that there is an ongoing “denigration” campaign attempting to tarnish President Paul Biya ahead of October elections. Biya, who has led the country since 1982, is running for reelection. “We are in an electoral period and it’s conducive to this kind of thing,” he told Reuters. “People want to discredit the army and president.”

Source: The Star

11, August 2018

Amnesty International says new video shows more brutal killings by Biya regime forces ⁰

A horrifying video obtained by Amnesty International shows Cameroonian security forces shooting at least a dozen unarmed people during a military operation in the village of Achigaya in the Far North region of the country, the organization said today.

Using advanced digital analysis tools, Amnesty International experts were able to confirm that the video, shot at an unknown date but prior to May 2016, corroborates previous accounts of extrajudicial executions which the Cameroonian authorities have denied.

“This shocking video shows armed men lining people up face down or sitting against a wall and shooting them with automatic weapons. A second round of shooting ensures no survivors. Here is yet more credible evidence to support the allegations that Cameroon’s armed forces have committed grave crimes against civilians, and we are calling for an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation. Those suspected to be responsible for these abhorrent acts must be brought to justice,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, Amnesty International’s Lake Chad Researcher.

“Last month we analyzed footage from another location which showed two women and two young children being killed by soldiers who were clearly members of Cameroon’s armed forces. What further evidence do they need before they act on these atrocities?”

Amnesty International has documented multiple extrajudicial killings, as well as the widespread use of torture by Cameroonian security forces who are fighting against the armed group Boko Haram in the Far North region of the country.

Amnesty International researchers analyzed the weapons, dialogue and uniforms visible in the latest video, as well as testimony and satellite imagery, to conclude the approximate timing and exact location of the executions, and determined the suspected perpetrators to be members of the Cameroonian security forces.

The footage shows a group of soldiers in their distinctive “lizard stripe” camouflage uniforms, patrolling the village of Achigachiya. Some are armed with Zastava M21 rifles, and others are mounted on a pick-up truck with a ZPU-2 anti-aircraft gun.

The video, apparently recorded by a member of the security forces, shows soldiers burning structures which are likely to be homes, and then focuses on a group of 12 people lined against a wall, all sitting or lying down. At 01:40 minute into the video, numerous soldiers using automatic weapons fire into the group for an extended period, from several meters away. A soldier then walks forward and fires again at close range at several persons in the group, presumably to ensure there are no survivors.

Speaking in French, the soldiers describe themselves as carrying out a “kamikaze” operation.

The footage supports evidence of extrajudicial executions previously documented by Amnesty International in a July 2016 report. The report documented the unlawful killings and extrajudicial executions of over 30 people, including several elderly, in Achigachiya following an operation by the security forces seeking to recover the bodies of the soldiers killed by Boko Haram on 28 December 2014, which were abandoned in front of the military base destroyed by the insurgents. This operation by the army was also done as a collective punishment against the population perceived as supporting Boko Haram.

The Cameroonian government announced an investigation following the release of the video in July, but their rapid dismissal of the video as “fake news” casts serious doubt on whether this investigation would be genuinely impartial and effective.

In failing to hold suspected perpetrators to account for the horrific crimes documented by Amnesty International and others, the Cameroonian authorities have created a climate of impunity in which the armed forces have free reign to kill and torture

Source: Amnesty International

11, August 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Community radio destroyed in alleged arson attack ⁰

Cameroonian authorities should speedily investigate an alleged arson attack on community radio station Sky FM in the volatile Northwest region and ensure those responsible are prosecuted, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Unknown persons on August 3 set fire to the station, destroying the building and equipment, according to the station owner Abdou Borno, an article on Sky FM’s official Facebook page, Cameroonian journalist Ndi Eugene Ndi, and two local website reports. The equipment included two transmitters, computers, four recorders, a video camera, a mixer, decoder, television set, and office furniture, according to Borno.

The radio station is based in the town of Ndu, about 124 km (77 miles) from Bamenda, the capital of the Northwest region–one of two regions where Anglophone separatists have been waging an armed struggle for an independent state called Ambazonia against the predominately French-speaking government of President Paul Biya, according to news reports. A recent Human Rights Watch report blamed both sides for grave abuses against civilians, including killings.

“All parties to the conflict in Cameroon, whether government forces or Ambazonians, should stop targeting journalists and media organizations and allow them to operate safely and without fear of reprisal,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ Africa Program Coordinator. “The media is not the enemy. Journalists are simply trying to do their jobs by ensuring that citizens are armed with useful information in what has become an increasingly bloody phase in Cameroon’s history.”

Borno told CPJ that he learned of the fire the morning of August 4 when the manager of the nearby Summit Hotel, Nformi Victor, called him to tell him that the radio station had burned down. According to Borno, Victor told him that a hotel receptionist heard a noise at about 11 p.m. the night before; she did not investigate further since she did not hear the noise again and because it was windy.

Sky FM’s station manager, Bernard Tata Gibip, found a cutlass, gasoline container, and a box of matches near the radio station after he too was alerted by Victor, Borno told CPJ.

The station broadcasts in English and “all other local languages including Limbum and Mbororo,” on topics including culture, health, and the economy, according to Borno, who is a local official of Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement party. The station also broadcasts BBC programs and national broadcasts in French.

Borno told CPJ on August 7 that he believed his radio station was targeted because of its “Back to School” campaign, which began last year encouraging students to return to school. The new school year starts in September, and a school boycott has been in place since November 2016 when lawyers and teachers in both the Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions began protesting the alleged marginalization of English by Biya’s central government in Yaounde, according to news reports. The grassroots protest was then taken over by separatist factions as the conflict escalated with Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch accusing them of violently enforcing the boycott, according to the independent humanitarian news website, IRIN.

The station has been off air since May 19 after its two transmitters were damaged in a lightening strike; they were planning to relaunch the week of August 8, according to Borno.

Borno told CPJ that because the new school year starts next month, the “separatist activists know very well our stand so they decided to burn the entire radio house with all equipment.”

In a detailed emailed statement to CPJ, a spokesperson for the separatists’ Self Defense Council of the Ambazonian Interim Government (ASC), A.J.N. Mbiydzenyuy, said it controlled about 98 percent of the “restoration forces”– who are the self-defense units of the separatist Ambazonia movement– in the Northwest and Southwest regions and that there was no evidence that they were responsible for the arson attack.

“The ASC leadership has never approved [an] arson attack, the restoration forces council in Nkambe is unaware of any involvement of their forces…and the field commanders of our forces in Ndu declined responsibility of the FM radio station arson attack,” he said.

CPJ could not verify independently the alleged motive or whether separatists were responsible for the alleged arson.

Ndi, the publisher and editor-in-chief of the weekly NewsWatch, told CPJ that both the government and separatists were targeting journalists. “Separatists are threatening us with messages that we are siding with government in our reports as we try to stay neutral or objective in the crisis. On the other hand, any report that seems to be propagating the agenda of the separatists is tantamount to the crime of ‘apologies de terrorisme’ punishable under the anti-terrorism law by the government,” he said.

Borno said he employed four staff members to report and produce programs. He said that the station, which he established in 2013, was not a profit-making enterprise, nor was it subsidized by the government.

Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who also serves as a government spokesperson, did not respond to CPJ’s request via Whatsapp for comment. The Northwest Governor Adolphe Lele Lafrique had not replied to CPJ’s request for comment at the time of publication.

In a Cameroon special report about the abuse of anti-terror laws against journalists published last year, CPJ spoke to journalists who said they were increasingly caught between the Cameroonian government and separatists.
Source:CPJ

10, August 2018

Zimbabwe opposition leader charged over post-election violence ⁰

Zimbabwe’s former finance minister and opposition leader Tendai Biti appeared in court on Thursday to be charged with stoking post-election violence in a case watched around the world as a test of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s treatment of opponents.

Biti, whose People’s Democratic Party had formed an election alliance with Nelson Chamisa’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), sought asylum in neighboring Zambia on Wednesday but was deported back to Zimbabwe in a move condemned by the United States.

He was also charged with falsely and unlawfully announcing results of the July 30 election, which Chamisa rejected as fraudulent and is set to challenge in the Constitutional Court on Friday.

If found guilty, Biti could face up to 10 years in jail, a cash fine or both. He was released on bail and will appear in court again on Friday.

“It’s been an ordeal, but we survive. We live to fight another day, I am glad to be home,” Biti told reporters soon after his release.

The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, said it would be a serious violation of international law if Zambian authorities had handed Biti over despite a court order to the contrary, which his lawyer said had indeed been issued by the Zambian High Court.

The European Union, Australia and Canada also said they were “deeply disturbed by continuing reports that opposition supporters are being targeted by members of the Zimbabwean security forces”.

Biti had been in hiding since last week, when six people were killed in a widely condemned army crackdown on protests over the declaration of victory by Mnangagwa’s ruling ZANU-PF party.

State prosecutors did not oppose bail for Biti, which was set at $5,000. He was ordered to surrender his passport and title deeds to his house, and banned from addressing political rallies or news conferences until the case is over.

Mnangagwa said he had intervened to ensure Biti was released, but also said that Biti faced serious charges and that the legal process should be allowed to take its course.

“At such a crucial time in the history of the new Zimbabwe, nothing is more important than unity, peace and dialogue. I call on all parties to immediately cease from all forms of incitement to violence,” Mnangagwa wrote on his official Twitter page.

Some fear the post-election turmoil will derail the chances of mending an economy facing acute shortages of cash and desperate for foreign investment.

(Source: Reuters)

10, August 2018

Cameroonians sceptical as elections approach ⁰

Elections in Cameroon, scheduled for October 7, will be held against a backdrop of uncertainty in the English-speaking regions and amid accusations that the government is planning to rig the polls.

In exactly two months, Cameroonians will be going to the polls to elect their president. Twenty-eight candidates are in the running, including 86-year-old incumbent Paul Biya, who has been in power for 36 years. He is Africa’s second longest serving leader after his neighbour Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea.

But there are doubts inside and outside Cameroon that this election will be free and fair, especially in the Anglophone regions in the west, bordering Nigeria, which have been in turmoil for the past two years, when residents started to press their claims for more autonomy or even independence. According to the United Nations, 200 000 people have been internally displaced and 40 000 have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

Polls amid the mayhem

Among those who fled violence is 8-year-old Kum Vitalis who cried when media asked him about his life now: “They didn’t pay my father and there was no money for school fees or food in the house. That is why they brought us to safety here. When it gets better, they will take us back. They have been shooting people inside their houses and they are just dying like that.”

The government denies having any role in the atrocities taking place in the region. But both the UN and non-governmental organisations such as Human Rights Watch have filed reports on crimes against humanity by armed rebels and government troops. Fifty-four-year-old teacher Ngum Julius, who fled the English-speaking town of Njinikom, believes elections cannot be held there.

“All businesses are shut down. All government services are shut down, except the military. Many people have gone away. Too many people are dying, too many people are being displaced. We need to sit at the same table as Cameroonians and talk it out and find a solution,” Julius said.

Cameroon is also dealing with attacks by Boko Haram militants in the north, and a spillover of violence from the Central African Republic.

Voter apathy

Scepticism about the elections is not limited to the Anglophone regions in the country. In Bonamoussadi, a student residential area of the capital Yaounde, young people say that they should be discussing football instead of wasting time with elections, because the process is not working anyway. Tatah Hans is one of them. “I am a Cameroonian. It is normal to vote. I have to vote. But I am facing so many difficulties because very soon they will start voting and I don’t have a voter’s card. I don’t know what to do,” he told media.

Voter apathy is evident; only seven million of a total of 13 million voters have actually registered to cast their ballot. But supporters of Paul Biya, like Jacques Fame Ndongo, say elections will go ahead despite the rebels’ attempts. “We know that their mad dream is to stop the organization of the presidential election in those two regions, but that mad dream will never come to fruition because the population of the Northwest and the Southwest regions is determined to express its total support to the head of state and his party, the CPDM (Cameroon’s People Democratic Movement),” he said.

Fighting fraud

Meanwhile, the main opposition political party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), cautions the government against fraud. Denise Nkemlemo, the SDF’s communication secretary, says the election management body has already started to break the law, for instance by setting up voting stations where they shouldn’t: “We are not supposed to have voting stations inside the presidency; military camps are also out of the question,” she said. According to Nkemlemo, at polling stations in those places in previous elections, CPDM’s votes outnumbered those for the SDF by a wide margin. “When our representatives wanted to raise questions, the military came with guns and told them “we don’t make noise here.” The SDF will not tolerate the lack of respect of the electoral law,” she added.

These claims are rejected by Enow Abrams Egbe, the electoral body’s board chair, who says critics have ulterior motives. “It is normal that detractors play their game, but we are playing our role with serenity and everything is moving on smoothly,” he said.

Source: DW

9, August 2018

MTN Cameroon subscriber bases falls 6% in H1, service revenue drops by 7% ⁰

MTN Cameroon’s subscriber base declined by 5.9 percent from December 2017 to 6.6 million on 30 June in a difficult operating environment, hit by a data shutdown and weak economic activity. Service revenue decreased by 7.0 percent, affected by the lower subscriber base, and despite 15.0 percent growth in data and 71.2 percent growth in digital revenue.

The number of active MoMo customers increased by 10.5 percent from December 2017 to 1.2 million, with revenue up by 404 percent year on year. EBITDA declined by 44.1 percent and the EBITDA margin narrowed 11.8 percentage points to 19.2 percent.

Source: Telecompaper

9, August 2018

SOBA UK President Issues Statement On Upcoming Residential Convention ⁰

Dear Guest,

We are delighted to announce the SOBA UK Residential Convention which will take place from 21st to 23rd September 2018. The Gala night will be on Saturday 22nd September 2018 at The Hilton, St George’s Park in Burton Upon Trent. Last year, we had a very successful Convention at Dunchurch Park, Rugby, Warwickshire which continued to set high standards for SOBA UK.

This year we are going to the splendid venue at The Hilton, St George’s Park, Burton Upon Trend. This is the Home of England National Teams befitting of a World Cup year, which saw the England National Football Team make it to the last 4 teams in the World Cup football tournament. We believe that Sobans, their families and guests will have a fantastic time in such a wonderful venue.

The theme of this year’s Convention is “Together We Succeed“, reflecting on the difficult year our association and people have had both in the UK and Cameroon. Our focus will also be on the crisis in the Northwest and Southwest regions in Cameroon which has led to thousands of people being displaced and significant loss of lives. We will be looking to assist where possible and we look forward to your generous support.

Our tickets have been priced very competitively at £70 for a standard ticket, but there is an early bird discount of £10 which reduces the price to £60 provided, if you purchase your ticket by 23rd August, 2018. There are also limited VIP tickets on a first come first serve basis. Please contact our sales agents for more details from the attached flyer. You can purchase your hotel room directly using the dedicated SOBA UK link attached below at discounted prices up to 23rd August 2018.

On behalf of all Sobans in the UK, we say a big thank you in advance for your continued support and to this end, I commend the 2018 Convention to you and encourage you to buy your tickets and start making plans for this esteemed SOBA UK event. We look forward to welcoming you and your families at The Hilton at St George’s Park.

SOBA:UK Secretariat soba@sobaintheuk.org

Yours sincerely,

Ayuk Akoh-Arrey President SOBA UK

Email: soba@sobaintheuk.org