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1, August 2018

Nigeria: Buhari elected new chairman of ECOWAS ⁰

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has been elected the new chairperson of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Togo’s capital Lome.

He takes over the yearly rotational role from Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe who faced a tough task in his 12-month tenure. Togolese opposition parties protested his continued stay in power over the entire period.

Buhari’s election was announced at the end of the 53rd Ordinary Summit of ECOWAS Heads of State which ended on Monday evening.

Preceding the Heads of State summit was a joint summit between ECOWAS and the Central African bloc, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).

A communique issued at the close of the summit said its aim “was to create conditions for sustainable peace and a secured environment in the common area of the two regions.”

At the heart of deliberations were: security, peace and stability and the fight against terrorism and violent extremism. The African Union chief, Moussa Faki Mahamat was also in attendance.

Heads of State or representatives from ECOWAS

Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.

Heads of State or representatives from ECCAS

Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe and Chad.

Source: Africa News

31, July 2018

Clarence Seedorf and Patrick Kluivert linked with Cameroon hotseat after Sven-Goran Eriksson talks ⁰

African champions Cameroon are reportedly considering a sensational coaching duo of two Dutch legends while confirming that former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has met for talks over the vacancy.

The Indomitable Lions have been without a leader since sacking AFCON-winning coach Hugo Broos after his failure to guide the nation to the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Iconic Netherlands duo Patrick Kluivert and Clarence Seedorf have now emerged as serious contenders for the job, according to Foot Mercato.

After enjoying illustrious playing careers in Europe and with The Oranje, both are relatively inexperienced in comparison to the other contender Seven Goran Eriksson.

Kluivert’s most high profile job after professional football came in the form of an assistant coach role with the Dutch national team, while more recently he served as a technical director at Paris Saint-Germain.

Seedorf, meanwhile, held a caretaker coaching tole at former club AC Milan before brief stints in China and with LaLiga outfit Deportivo La Coruna.

While the Cameroon Football Federation confirmed Eriksson has held talks, his excessive wage demands could be the stumbling block as he too holds another offer from the Iraq national team.

“After spending 72 hours, Sven-Goran Eriksson left Yaoundé on Saturday 28 July 2018,” Fecafootannounced on Twitter.

“The Swedish manager was invited to Cameroon for a discussion in connection with the recruitment of a head coach for the senior national side – the Indomitable Lions.

“After the interview with Sven-Goran Eriksson and taking into account the other existing offers, Fecafoot will reveal in the next few days its choice of permanent coach for our national team.”

Source: KickOff

31, July 2018

Chief Barrister Charles Taku speaks of the genocide in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Chief Charles Achaleke Taku who was recently elected president of the International Criminal Court Bar Association has broken his silence on the Southern Cameroons crisis. In a conversation he shared with the Gideon, the Southern Cameroon royal and Man of Law revealed that the world with the help of the French Cameroun government has documented crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

PAV: What is your reading of the political situation in your native Cameroon especially on the fighting and gross human rights abuses in the North West and South West regions of the country?

Chief Taku: On the basis of statements made by Cameroon government officials themselves which are well documented, the scale of the crimes committed by government soldiers and operatives are crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide. I have come to this conclusion based on statements and evidence made public by civilian and military government officials and commanders. Of course, there is a lot more evidence out there from credible reports filed by Amnesty International and other human rights organizations, diplomatic missions accredited to Cameroon and the physical perpetrators themselves. I have examined the declaration of war statement made by President Paul Biya on his arrival from a conference in Abidjan Cote D’Ivoire in November 2017. He clearly defined the enemy he deployed the army to take out as Southern Cameroons civilians whom he called terrorists. Although he in subsequent speeches attempted to nuance his definition, that was insignificant and did not affect the orders to exterminate and commit crimes on a massive scale under the pretext of waging war against terrorism. He was aware of the definition of terrorists in the war against terrorism against Boko Haram carried out by an international alliance in which Cameroon is a party. Characterizing Southern Cameroonians freedom seekers as terrorists placed the direct responsibility for the crimes perpetrated on the President and his subsidiary civilian and military commanders.

PAV: Is the ICC aware of the situation in those regions and would you say some of the excesses there fall in the category of cases the ICC could entertain?

Chief Taku: Cameroon signed unto the Rome Statute establishing the court but did not ratify it. Cameroon is therefore not a state party to the Rome Statute. Does this preclude the ICC from intervening in the situation in Cameroon? The answer is no. The Security Council may refer the situation to the ICC. If crimes against citizens of Cameroon are committed by Cameroon in the territory of a state party, the ICC may intervene. The abduction of Seseku Ayuk Tabe and others who were under the protection of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and their deportation to Cameroon are criminalized by the Rome Statute. The massive deportation of Southern Cameroons civilians from their ancestral homes in Manyu division towards Nigeria and the cross-border abductions and targeted killing of many of them in the territory of Nigeria falls within the jurisdiction of the Rome Statute. A senior member of the Nigeria intelligence service Babagana Mungano a national security adviser to President Buhari confessed his involvement and that of his government to these crimes, suggesting a coordinated inter-government policy of criminality. These crimes occurred at a time the ICC Prosecutor is conducting a preliminary examination in the crimes committed by Nigerian soldiers and security operatives against civilians in the war against Boko Haram. The crimes of the multinational forces in which Cameroonian forces are participants are surely under the radar of the preliminary investigation which has been on since 2010. The recent execution of a woman of Nigerian nationality and her child by Cameroon soldiers deployed to the multinational force against Boko Haram and its outcry must surely have attracted the attention of ICC investigators. The unsuccessful denial by Issa Tchiroma whose key role
in inciting genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes are well documented against provides an official character to the crimes.
The magnitude of the crimes committed and its progression towards a wider escalation in the Gulf of Guinea, and the entire region may irresistibly end in the United Nations establishing a Special Court for Cameroon. I do not see an alternative to the creation of this court if the international community genuinely wants to abate this genocide and the international crimes that will sooner or later engulf the entire sub-region. The magnitude of the crimes and the resolve of the Southern Cameroons to fight on may already have made any form of dispute settlement that will retain Cameroon as one nation impossible.

PAV: Thanks for granting this interview Chief
Chief Taku: You most welcome.

Extract from the Gideon No O36/July 30th/18 pages 6 and 7
FAR

31, July 2018

Anglophonizing the Anglophone Crisis: SW Provincialists &the Graffi Derangement Syndrome ⁰

In what unfortunately, has become the unedifying trademark of their favorite pastime, there is a surge of Graffi-bashing on social media platforms by self-elected guardians of the SW estate who are engaged in a well-orchestrated campaign to divide and break the Anglophones resolve and resistance in the face of the genocidal war of attrition being waged by the vampire regime of the 85-year-old president Biya, now tottering on the borders of senile decay.These self-aggrandising buccaneers and CPDM hacks masquerading as SW opinion leaders have been gas lighting the dead horse of NW/SW divide,with a revanchist, xenophobic narrative that Northwesterners are the straw man of the ongoing Anglophone crisis. They are shamelessly vilifying Northwesterners for Biya’s genocide, even as the carnage continues unabated as soldiers struggle to contain a crisis that has escalated from a low-intensity conflict to full-blown military insurgency. We have seen this movie before, hence no one is fooled. The vast majority of Southwesterners know the Graffi man is not their enemy: it is the successive Francophone-dominated regimes from Ahidjo to Biya that have pillaged the SW region of its natural resources to finance a gangster kleptocracy in Yaoundé, leaving Southwesterners in abject poverty and misery. One million hate speeches and xenophobic attacks on Northwesterners will not change this reality; it is a fact!

Whilst it is true that the inflammatory postings by these CPDM cheerleaders are irritating, despicable and dishonourable; and although it may be annoying that this demented cast of sycophants, wallowing in such demeaning drama of adulation, can even pretend to speak on behalf of Southwesterners, their actions reflect the abysmal level of ignorance, misguidedness and mischief being communicated to gullible Anglophones, who might be tempted to believe their hallucinations. This would be a sad mistake. If anything, these ranting SW Provincialists are sick are demented and need help to get out of their impertinent self-flagellation. They suffer from Graffi Derangement Syndrome (GDS): a personality disorder which manifests as obsessive, compulsive and visceral hatred for anything graffi. GDS symptoms include inferiority complex, self-defeatism, impulsivity and self-denial and prognosis range from acute, chronic to critical, where patients have to be confined to the ICU –intensive care unit of xenophobia.

GDS patients blame Northwesterners for everything that is wrong with the SW and refuse to take responsibility for their own actions and self-inflicted disasters. Just read or listen to their garrulous banter and rationalizations for their Graffi-phobia and you will notice the illogical absurdities in their apposite attacks on Northwesterners, is matched by a penchant for finger-pointing, actuated by a primitive vendetta of self-abnegation and a certain blind, narrow-minded hate, borne of an unseemly grievance prejudice against the Graffi man. For example, nihilistic soldiers have burnt down villages in the SW, raped, tortured, murdered and arrested thousands and forced thousands of other Southwesterners to flee their villages into the bushes. Anyone who claims to be a defender of SW interests would be calling the regime out for these crimes against humanity and gross human rights violations. But these sycophants want us to blame the Graffi man. If this is not the climax of hypocrisy that stinks to the high Heavens, one wonders what else is.

Externalizing the problems bedevilling the SW and trying to make Northwesterners as the bogeyman will, in no way alter the calculations on the ground where the guns are now doing the talking. Whatever moral equivalency these self-elected defenders of the SW estate try to establish, the fact remains that they do not speak for the majority of Southwesterners. Their bile and vitriol, ornamented with bellicose and provocative grandiloquence against Northwesterners, advertises in spectacular fashion, the fact that the so-called one, united and indivisible Cameroon is a hoax!These self-seeking opportunists, lack the intellectual capacity to understand the explosive danger and futility of divisive micro-nationalism. Else, how can Southwest CPDM elite and their Graffi-hating bigots be preaching national unity, while at the same time declaring Northwesterners as persona non grata in the SW; in violation of the Constitution which gives every Cameroonian the right to settle in any part of the country?

It is a pity that we must witness the circus of this pathetic skull duggery unfolding on social media.Indolent Southwesterners will always play the victim and pander to the regime for political crumbs by increasing their nuisance value to seek for public notice. Unfortunately, it is a waste of time trying to use facts, logic and reason to cure GDS. Now that we know these ranting SW Provincialists are afflicted by Graffi Derangement Syndrome; now that the flatulence of their fibs and their shameless attempt to distort and muffle our history has been exposed, we should not condemn them; rather we should pity them. Obviously, they are vexatious to the spirit, but our collective memory can filter whatever narrative they want to foist on us.They believe they are winning when other well-meaning Anglophones engage them on social media. We should therefore ignore them, and instead pray for the remission of their sins against Ambazonia.

Anglophones cannot afford to be distracted by people who speak the language of yesterday with such profound recklessness without any due consideration of the consequences of projecting such a narrow political agenda. That anyone not blinded by prejudice or self-interest would champion hypocrisy and double-speak as the war cry for SW nationalism is clearly beyond commonsense.How can anyone really believe that because he had an unsavory experience with one Northwesterner, all Northwesterners are bad people?How can anyone argue that a mistake made in 1961 was a life sentence that Anglophones cannot correct? Southwesterners must not allow themselves to be stampeded by an eccentric minority of Graffi-haters and detractors. The regime is desperate to break the momentum of the resistance because it cannot win the war on the battlefield.We must unite with our NW brothers and sisters because together we cannot fail. We must keep faith with the sacred covenant signed with the blood of those who have paid the ultimate price, so that we should be free.This struggle is no less our struggle;than it is that of the Ambazonia fighters on ground zero or the Anglophone Diaspora.

The challenge for Southwesterners is to rise above narrow ethno-tribal geo-political considerations that undermine our struggle for freedom.The fury of the enemy continues to be unleashed on our people, many of whom have been killed. Why should we give up now when nothing has changed? Think about those who have paid the ultimate price for this struggle. And then ask yourself: was it a Graffi man who burned my village? Was it a Graffi man who raped my daughter or sister? Was it a Graffi man who arrested, tortured and killed my father, mother and brother? Granted that the NW/SW relationship has many challenges, there is more that unites us than divides us. If we as one people remain resolute and defiant in the face of genocide; if we recognize that this struggle is not about us individually and focus on the big picture; then, Southwesterners should not continue in coward servility because it is folly to listen to the advocates of the enemy’s cause, and to fancy that if we castigate Northwesterners, Southwesterners will henceforth cease to be second-class citizens and the SW region will no longer suffer marginalization and discrimination.

On a personal note,I would ordinarily not join issues with these Graffi Derangement Syndrome victims,because they are mentally challenged and their arguments are neither grounded in historical facts nor logic, reason or commonsense; but on subjective personal emotions. But I feel constrained to speak out, particularly now, because there is a misdirected campaign by revisionist bigots to re-write Southern Cameroons history, while acting out the divide-and-conquer script written by the CPDM regime. It was Ayukogem Stephen Ojong; Publisher of The Median Newspaper who remarked in exasperation that Southwesterners held the Prime Minister’s job for 12 years and nothing substantial came out of it for the region. Achidi Achu held it for four years and created an expansive business and middle class in the NW region. And when push came to shove during the fundraising for Biya’s humanitarian genocide relief for Anglophones, just four Northwesterners – Baba Danpullo, Shey Jones Yembe, Eric Njong and Goddy Talla contributed about FCFA 100 million; more than the total amount raised by the entire Southwest region. Of course, the Graffi man is responsible for the inability of Southwesterners to rise up to the challenge of personal example, which is the hallmark of true leadership!

Those ranting SW provincialists and their paymasters must understand that Graffi-bashing as a national pastime and favored political sport by SW CPDM elite has had its day and must now end in the interest of the collective Anglophone struggle for freedom.The ridiculous assertion that the Graffi man is responsible for everything that is wrong with the Southwest is laughable and should attract no further comment. Let me assure our Northwest brothers and sisters that the silent majority of Southwesterners are not afflicted by Graffi Derangement Syndrome.

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai, Boston, USA

31, July 2018

Thousands flee their homes as fire spreads in California ⁰

More than ten thousand people fled their homes in Mendocino County, California, as wildfires quickly spread on Sunday, July 29, local media reported.

An antique car, part of a collection, lays in rubble in a devastated neighborhood July 29, 2018 near Redding, California, where firefighters say only 5 percent of a nearly 90,000 acre fire has been contained. (AFP)

The so-called Mendocino Complex fire spread to more than 30,500 acres (12,300-hectares) on Sunday, they said.

Meanwhile, firefighters struggled to contain a brush fire in Nevada overnight. The so-called Perry fire started on Friday (July 27)and burned through more than 25,000 acres (10,100-hectares) over the weekend.

A deer stands on a road painted with fire retardant during the Carr fire near the town of Igo, California on July 28, 2018. (AFP)

Wildfires have scorched almost 4.3 million acres (1.7 million hectares) across the country so far this year, less than last year but more than the 3.7 million-acre (1.5 million-hectares) average for the same period over the last decade.

31, July 2018

Biya regime could lose AFCON 2019 hosting rights ⁰

Former Egypt goalkeeper Ahmed Shobeir has said Cameroon would be stripped of the hosting rights for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations with Morocco already lined up as replacement.

Widespread media reports in Egypt on Monday suggested that severe delays in the progress of work has resulted in the decision to strip Cameroon of the right to host the competition.

According to reports in Egypt, a final decision is expected to by taken during the CAF Congress in September with an inspection mission in Cameroon in the month of August unlikely to take place.

Ahmad refused to answer questions on the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon on Monday on Egyptian television, saying it would be discussed at CAF’s extraordinary congress in September to be held in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt.

Authorities in Cameroon have maintained the country is ready to host the tournament which has been expanded to 24 teams for the first time.

The Prime Minister and Head of Government Philemon Yang was in one of the host cities, Douala to assess the level of works. He has also been to other construction sites around the country.

Source: Journal du Cameroun

31, July 2018

MH370 disappearance remains mystery after release of detailed report ⁰

The real cause for the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 cannot be determined, said a detailed report on the incident released by a safety investigation team on Monday.

Investigator of the Malaysian ICAO ANNEX 13 Safety Investigation team for MH370 Kok Soo Chon speaks during a media briefing in Putrajaya, outside Kuala Lumpur, on July 30, 2018. (AFP)

During a press conference held by the Malaysian government, the investigator-in-charge said that the report was a result of joint cooperation by eight countries, but said it is not the final report into the mysterious case which has gripped the world.

The 1,100-page report will be submitted to the Malaysian House of Representatives on Tuesday for consideration.

The doomed MH370, carrying 239 on board, went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014.

Sarah Nor, the mother of Norliakmar Hamid, a passenger on missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, cries as she arrives for the final investigation report on missing flight MH370 in Putrajaya, outside Kuala Lumpur on July 30, 2018. (AFP)

The report said the team had reached the conclusion that the plane did deviate from its flight path and that its change in direction over the Indian Ocean was made under manual control, but said there was not enough evidence to confirm if there was any unlawful interference by a third party.

Source: Presstv

30, July 2018

Pope accepts resignation of Australian archbishop convicted of sex abuse cover-up ⁰

An Australian archbishop convicted of concealing abuse by a notorious pedophile priest in the 1970s says he hopes his stepping down would be a “catalyst to heal pain and distress” after his resignation was accepted by Pope Francis.

The Vatican announced on Monday the departure of Philip Wilson, sentenced to a year in detention earlier this month, after becoming one of the highest-ranking church officials to be convicted on the charge in May.

Wilson was found guilty in an Australian court of failing to report allegations against pedophile priest Jim Fletcher.

He submitted his resignation, which he says was not requested by the Vatican, on July 20, a day after Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called on the Pope to sack the 67-year-old.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull listens to a question during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at Kirribilli House in Sydney on May 2, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

In a statement released by the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide on Monday, Wilson said, “I made this decision because I have become increasingly worried at the growing level of hurt that my recent conviction has caused within the community.”

Turnbull welcomed the resignation in a statement to Fairfax Media on Monday, adding that “there is no more important responsibility for community and church leaders than the protection of children.”

Wilson had long denied the charges and initially resisted calls to resign pending an appeal against his conviction.

His legal team made four attempts to have the case thrown out, arguing that their client suffered from Alzheimer’s and should therefore avoid trial.

But a magistrate in Australia found Wilson guilty of concealing a serious indictable offence of another person, concluding that his primary motive was to protect the church.

He said when sentencing him Wilson had showed “no remorse or contrition.”

The court has adjourned the matter until August 14 to assess whether Wilson can serve his sentence under home detention.

Wilson’s conviction comes amid a host of accusations that the Catholic Church ignored and covered up child abuse in Australia, charges that have also plagued other countries.

Over five years of investigations, the royal commission spoke to thousands of victims and heard claims of abuse, involving churches, orphanages, sporting clubs, youth groups and schools.

Wilson’s departure comes just two days after the Pope accepted the resignation of US cardinal Theodore McCarrick, 88, accused of sexually abusing a teenager while working as a priest in New York in the early 1970s.

McCarrick is just the second cardinal ever to lose his status. He remains a priest pending the Vatican investigative process.

Last month, Francis accepted the resignation of five Chilean bishops amid accusations of abuse and related cover-ups.

(Source: AFP)

30, July 2018

FIFA World Cup: Turks in Berlin protest ‘unfair’ media coverage in Ozil case ⁰

Turkish community representatives gathered outside Europe’s largest publishing house in Berlin on Sunday to protest against alleged unfair media coverage.

Around 100 people protested outside the Axel Springer HQ – home of Bild, Die Welt, and Fakt – under the motto “I am Ozil” in reference to scandal over German footballer of Turkish origin Mesut Ozil.

Many demonstrators held Turkish flags and wore jerseys with Ozil’s name on them as well as T-shirts depicting the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Earlier in the month, Ozil retired from international football at the age of 29, citing ‘disrespect, insults and pressure’. He and teammate Ilkay Gundogan were widely criticized for posing in a photograph alongside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with many questioning their loyalty to Germany’s values.

(Source: Ruptly)

30, July 2018

Battle for Southern Cameroons: Ndop prison overrun by armed men, 163 inmates escape ⁰

Over 160 prisoners have escaped from jail in Cameroon’s north-west region following an attack on the facility by armed men suspected to be separatists.

According to state media CRTV, the overnight attack on the Ndop prisons was two-pronged. The attackers are said to have lit a fire amid the use of gun fire.

“More than 160 prisoners from Ndop prison (North West) fled” after the attack on the penitentiary where they were burnt by an armed group, a source close to the regional authorities said.

The attackers who “fired from everywhere”, were able to “break the gates of the prison” before “setting fire to all the buildings,“he added, stressing that they had brought fuel to cause the fire.

He further disclosed that operations were underway to find the other escapees. This is the first time since the outbreak of the Anglophone crisis in late 2016 that such a large number of prisoners manage to escape following the attack on a prison.

Source: Africa News