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A message to the world on the crisis in Southern Cameroons from Ambassador Mahmoud Adam Jama

30, July 2018

A message to the world on the crisis in Southern Cameroons from Ambassador Mahmoud Adam Jama 0

It is painfully obvious African leaders and humanitarian organizations have failed to respond to the unraveling crisis in Southern Cameroon.

What makes this even more alarming is the fact [that] unspeakable crimes continue to be committed against the civilian population there.

The repression and brutality are targeted at a specific region. Nobody is immune. Nobody is off limits.

The recent footage of the extrajudicial executions of civilian—including women and children—is sickening. The images are horrific and heart wrenching. We can see exactly where this is going!

Yet world leaders ignore this impending catastrophe.

Leaders who vowed to never again stand by and allow such crimes to happen, are ironically African leaders who fought oppression in their lifetime; but who [now] seem eerily silent at this particular moment in history.

The situation is dire and [quickly] deteriorating.

An estimated 160,000 people have been displaced, and are in urgent need of relief and humanitarian assistance. International peacekeeping troops are needed there to stop the killing and safeguard civilians, and there must be a United Nations investigation into the human rights abuses.

A sad and tragic chapter in Africa’s history is unfolding. We must remember the mistakes of the past!

We must remember Somaliland! We must remember Rwanda!

WE MUST STOP THE KILLING

AMB Mahmoud Adam Jama

SOMALILAND’S FORMER AMBASSADOR TO ETHIOPIA


Ghanaian Pastor Killed In Southern Cameroons: President Nana Akufo-Addo admin to help return body

29, July 2018

Ghanaian Pastor Killed In Southern Cameroons: President Nana Akufo-Addo admin to help return body 0

The Government of Ghana has promised to help return the body of the late Ghanaian missionary who was gruesomely killed in Cameroon .

This follows complaints by the family of the 28-year old missionary to the effect that the government had ignored their calls for help.

The deceased, Apostle Isaac Attoh, who is survived by a young widow and a two-month old baby boy was shot dead in the troubled town of Batibo in Cameroon.

The deceased was dressed with his clerical when he was killed.

Observers have condemned the death of the pastor, but the church in Cameroon is yet to make an official intervention.

Unconfirmed reports say Attoh was killed alongside two other Ghanaians who are yet to be identified.

Efforts by some stranded Ghanaian pastors and friends in Cameroon to retrieve the body of the deceased had proven futile, as the military was unwilling to release the body to anyone.

The late Isaac Attoh, the third of four siblings is survived by his wife and a 2-month-old baby boy.

His family had earlier urged the Ghanaian government and the International community to intervene and get his remains ferried to Ghana for burial.

It is unclear why the pastor will be shot, but there is currently a fast-escalating chaos in Cameroon after some activists began peaceful protests to request that English language be used in the courtrooms and public schools of the country’s two anglophone regions including Bamenda.

Dozens of people have so far died, with hundreds imprisoned, and thousands escaping across the border to Nigeria as a result of the situation.

If the situation is not defused through dialogue, the entire country could be destabilised ahead of elections in the autumn, according to the International Crisis Group.

Source: Modern Ghana


Relief workers in Nigeria are struggling to cope with a new wave of fleeing Southern Cameroons refugees

29, July 2018

Relief workers in Nigeria are struggling to cope with a new wave of fleeing Southern Cameroons refugees 0

Ever since Acting President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe declared an independent ‘Ambazonia’ state in southern Cameroon, tens of thousands have fled violence into Nigeria and relief workers are struggling to keep up.

Relief workers in southern Nigeria are struggling to cope with a new wave of refugees fleeing Cameroon.

Fighting began in October when Southern Cameroonians declared an independent state they call “Ambazonia” which was formerly known as British Southern Cameroons.

Since the fighting started, an estimated 30,000 have been crossing the border into Nigeria and more arriving as the violence continues.

Culled from Aljazeera


Ambazoniagate: Wife of Interim President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe writes to the UN Secretary General

29, July 2018

Ambazoniagate: Wife of Interim President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe writes to the UN Secretary General 0

His Excellency Mr António Guterres

Secretary-General

United Nations

One United Nations Plaza

New York, NY  10017

 

Open Letter

 

ABDUCTION, ILLEGAL DETENTION AND DEPORTATION OF MY HUSBAND (JULIUS AYUK TABE) AND 46 OTHER CAMEROONIAN ASYLUM SEEKERS AND REFUGEES BY THE AUTHORITIES OF CAMEROON AND NIGERIA.

 

Dear Mr Secretary-General,

 

From the opening moments of your tenure, you were determined to make the promotion of human dignity the core of your work, and pledged to help alleviate the sufferings of the most vulnerable people on earth, especially those forcefully displaced from their homes and communities. At your direction, the UN has adopted a “new approach” that recognizes the institution’s past failures and calls for a “victim-centered strategy rooted in transparency, accountability and justice.”You have spoken movingly of the plight of victims and described how their accounts will haunt you forever. On 26 June 2018, marking the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, you stated that “torture in any form is absolutely unacceptable and can never be justified,”in all circumstances including periods of emergencies, political unrest and even war. This is inspiring and comforting, and gives me and families of victims worldwide some hope.

 

However,my husband Mr Julius Ayuk Tabe(leader of the people of the Southern Cameroons)and scores of other prominent Southern Cameroonian exiles living in Nigeria, who were abducted in Abuja on 5 January 2018, unlawfully deported to Cameroon and detained incommunicado for six months, are still languishing in illegal detention in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Prior to their abductions, many of them were working in Nigeria as university professors, engineers, businessmen and legal practitioners. Others were refugees who recently fled Cameroon Government-sponsored violence and incipient genocide in the Southern Cameroons.These abductions and extraditions were in flagrant violation of the United Nations Declarations of Human Rights, and the apparent continued silence of the United Nations on this issue calls into question the seriousness with which the United Nations takes its commitment to protect the fundamental rights of peoples everywhere.

Mr Secretary General, I plead with you to use your good offices to compel the government of Cameroon to release my husband and all other Southern Cameroonians being held illegally in detention centers in Cameroon, and for that government to end the genocide it is carrying out in the Southern Cameroons. My husband and fellow detained Southern Cameroonian leaders have suffered untold hardship, torture, cruelty, inhumane and degrading treatment in detention. Mr Secretary General, at the time of writing this Appeal, the Government of Cameroon announced that it had commenced the process of final interrogation of these detainees, after which they will be arraigned before the Military Tribunal in Yaoundé. If your office continues to be silent, the outcome of the trial by the Military Tribunal in Cameroon is predicted to parallel the unlawful hanging of Ken Saro Wiwa and his 9 Ogoni compatriots in Nigeria in 1995 after a similar trial by that nation’s Military Tribunal.

The inaction of the United Nations to compel the Government of Cameroon to respect its commitments under relevant international agreements and conventions it has ratified will send the wrong message to nations of the world that fundamental international regulatory instruments can be violated and eroded with impunity and without penalty. The weeks of street protests around the globe (including in front of the UN Headquarters in New York) led by the peace-loving people of the Southern Cameroons, which greeting the sad news of my husband’s illegal abduction and detention in Nigeria, bear testament to the weight of the responsibility Mr Ayuk Tabe bears as leader of the people of the Southern Cameroons. My husband and his lieutenants in the Southern Cameroons revolution are freedom fighters and men of peace, who are seeking to free our people from the determined clutches of the villainous vampiric political mess that is Cameroon. My husband and his colleagues are striving to restore dignity to the people of the Southern Cameroons by restoring their fundamental rights and freedoms as human beings.

I thank you for your time and hopefully look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Lilian Ayuk Tabe

 

 


Nigerian academic union to embark on action over detained Southern Cameroons academics

29, July 2018

Nigerian academic union to embark on action over detained Southern Cameroons academics 0

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Nigeria is to embark upon a campaign on various campuses in Nigeria calling for the immediate release of the six academics deported by the Nigerian government to Cameroon in January.

Since their deportation by military aircraft to Yaoundé on 24 January together with 47 others, followed quickly by news reports announcing they were to appear in court in Cameroon on charges of terrorism, there has been no sign of the detainees. Attempts in May by their legal representative Abdul Oroh to find them in Yaounde also produced nothing.

In an exclusive interview with University World News, barrister Oroh, who is representing the detainees at the bequest of their families, confirmed that those forcefully deported from Nigeria were members of a political organisation demanding reform of Cameroon’s Constitution with a view to returning the country to genuine federalism.

Such an arrangement would give Francophone and Anglophone components equal status. It would also give equal recognition to French and English Languages.

“This liberal reform is what the central government of Cameroun is equating to terrorism. My clients are peace-loving gentle men and women. We would do everything legally possible to secure their immediate release so that they can go back to their campuses and resume their teaching and research work,” he said.

‘Fearless scholars’

Dr Baiyah Quodus, an academic in the Economics Department of Ado Bayero University, Kano, said he knew some of the expelled academics and described them as “fearless scholars and sound intellectuals who have contributed to the academic development of Nigeria”.

Professor Akintan Onileara of the Philosophy Department at Obafemi Awolowo University said he knew two of the expelled lecturers. “They are hard-working teachers, Pan-Africanist and unrepentant promoters of African Development. At conferences and seminars, they kept reminding all of us about the need for Africa to invest in education and vocational training.

They never hid their sadness over the poor human rights records in Cameroon and elsewhere on the African continent.”

Dr Ekong Akpan of the Philosophy Department at the University of Uyo said he knew three of those detained and some of them had been married to Nigerians and living in Nigeria for more than 29 years. “So, Nigeria has committed a crime against her own citizens,” he said. “More worrisome is the fact that Nigeria has no extradition treaty with Cameroon. This has added another dimension to the injustice and disrespect for international law.”

Seeking to travel to Yaounde in search of the academics and out of concern for their health and safety, Orah and his colleague Femi Falana approached the Cameroonian High Commission in Abuja earlier this year.

“We were armed with a letter for such visit. We met with the High Commissioner, Ambassador Ibrahim Salaudeen, who received us warmly and promised that he would transmit our request to Yaoundé and that we would surely get a reply,” Oroh said.

After waiting for four weeks without a reply from the Ambassador, Oroh flew to Cameroon on 14 May 2018 accompanied by a bilingual Nigerian journalist who had previously worked in Yaoundé.

“We spent five days in Yaounde visiting the ministries of justice, foreign affairs and the headquarters of Cameroon’s Human Rights Commission. Those we talked to could not confirm or indicate the whereabouts of our clients,” he said.

Safety concerns

The two men left the country without meeting the detainees and without establishing their safety. Oroh said if the detained lecturers were not sent for trial, their safety could not be guaranteed. “I sincerely hope that they would be released as soon as possible,” he said.

According to diplomatic sources in Abuja, the United Nations High Commission in Charge of Refugees and Amnesty international is pressuring leaders of Western democracies to ensure that these detained university teachers are released as soon as possible and sent on voluntary exile to countries of their choice.

According to Dr Adewale Suenu, Accademic Staff Union of Universities secretary based at Lagos State University, the union is shortly to commence a campaign on various campuses in Nigeria appealing to both the Nigerian and Cameroonian government to effect the immediate release of the university teachers.

Meanwhile, university teachers on various campuses, including Professor Bissong Harstrop of the Law Faculty at the University of Calabar, say the deportation is a clear violation of human rights. “The unlawful repatriation of lawful persons is a clear case of rights violation,” said Harstrop.

Dr Abdullahi Ango from the Psychology Department at Ado Bayero University, Kano compared the expulsion of the academics to the similar treatment of Professor Patrick Wilmot in the 1980s. Wilmot was a sociologist working at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

“He was expelled for reasons we are yet to be told. We should note that the sudden arrest and illegal repatriation of these university teachers of Cameroonian nationality is against the fundamental human rights to which Nigeria is a signatory,” said Ango.

Unclear rationale

Professor Richard Anselm of the Sociology Department in Umaru Musa Yar Adua University, Katsina, noted that the rationale behind the repatriation of the academics was unclear and called on civil rights organisations and movements in both Nigeria and Cameroun “to rise up and defend these university teachers”.

Dr Schwarnang Ankhol Law Faculty, University of Jos accused the Nigerian government of contravening the basic tenets of ECOWAS, which supports free movement of citizens to work and reside anywhere within West Africa. “The Nigerian government must be made to realise that she has a duty to protect the rights of all foreign residents working and residing in Nigeria,” he said.

Dr Ahmed Akwanga of the Political Science Department at Benue State University, Makurdi, urged ASUU to take up the matter urgently, while a number of other academics canvassed noted the fact that the deportations were in in violation of human rights.

Professor Ishaq Bawwana from Afe Balola University’s Criminology Department, for example, said both Nigeria and Cameroon should be reported to ECOWAS and the African Union’s Human Rights Commissions for violation of the individuals’ rights.

Professor Sheriff Ikhman, based at the Law Faculty at the University of Maiduguri, called on Amnesty International to intervene.

Source: University World News


Former England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson spotted in Yaounde

29, July 2018

Former England boss Sven-Goran Eriksson spotted in Yaounde 0

Former England and Manchester City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson has reportedly been lined up to coach Cameroon national team after being spotted in the central African country on Thursday.

Eriksson, who has also been strongly linked with the Iraq job, is said to have demanded an annual salary of €1.9 million, while the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) is negotiating for a lesser amount.

The reigning African champions are with no substantive coach since last December when Belgian Hugo Broos was sacked following the team’s failure to qualify for the 2018 Fifa World Cup.

Source: Goal.com


African Union, CEMAC intentionally ignores Biya’s despotic actions against Southern Cameroonians

28, July 2018

African Union, CEMAC intentionally ignores Biya’s despotic actions against Southern Cameroonians 0

The African Union and CEMAC are maintaining a kind of deliberate silence on the genocide currently going on in Southern Cameroons and the chairman of the pan African organization is not going to criticize the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime for its despotic acts because the French government need their economic and military presence in the Sub Saharan country.

The African Union is under very strong French government influence and the French are pushing the AU to neglect counter-democratic activities and human rights abuses conducted by the Biya Francophone regime in Yaounde against its own citizens.  Yaounde is also hosting several French military service men and women who are participating in maintaining French surrogates in power in countries such as Gabon, Chad, the Central African Republic and Congo-Brazzaville.

There is simply no way that this current Francophone dominated African Union certainly under Chad’s Moussa Faki is going to complain at all about the despotic actions by the Biya regime. The Francophone CEMAC nations have turned a blind eye on the Yaoundé regime’s actions against human rights and violations of international law in Southern Cameroons.

According to the UN, some 161,000 Southern Cameroonians have been displaced by the war declared against the English speaking people by the 85 year-old leader President Paul Biya. Some 50,000 Ambazonians have also fled the conflict into neighboring Nigeria. With attacks on Southern Cameroonians increasing in French Cameroun, the Yaoundé regime is slowly but surely rendering most of Southern Cameroons citizens stateless.

Biya and his gang have gone to great lengths to clamp down on any sign of dissent. Troops from France and Chad were deployed to assist the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) in its crackdown. Scores of Southern Cameroonians have lost their lives and hundreds of others sustained injuries or arrested as a result of the Biya regime’s crackdown.

By Chi Prudence Asong


US tells President Kabila ‘Time for posturing is over’

28, July 2018

US tells President Kabila ‘Time for posturing is over’ 0

The United States of America has called out Congolese president Joseph Kabila for failing to publicly state that he will not run for re-election in a planned December election, warning him that “the time for posturing is over.”

Kabila said in a speech a week ago that a presidential election in December would go ahead, but he declined to say whether he would defy term limits to stand for re-election. Some of his allies have in recent weeks advanced a legal argument they say would justify his candidacy.

“He is not eligible under Congolese law to seek a third term. The United States regrets that President Kabila did not use his July 19th address to parliament to resolve the uncertainty regarding his intentions,” U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Jonathan Cohen told the United Nations Security Council.

International pressure on Kabila, who succeeded his assassinated father in 2001, to leave office has grown since a November 2016 election was postponed. That sparked violent protests in which security forces have killed dozens of people.

DR Congo’s allies express concern

The United States and European Union have sanctioned several close Kabila allies accused of overseeing the crackdowns and obstructing the electoral process, moves Kabila denounced.

The U.N. Security Council and the African Union Peace and Security Council last week jointly “called upon all political parties, their supporters, and other political actors to remain committed to the 31 December 2016 Agreement, which is the only viable path out of the current political situation.”

Under an accord struck on Dec. 31 between Kabila’s representatives and opposition leaders, Kabila is barred from trying to change the constitution to seek a third term.

“President Kabila has committed repeatedly to respect the constitution and implement the December 2016 agreement. We’re a mere five months away from election day. The time for posturing is over,” Cohen said.

France and the United States questioned Congolese plans to use untested electronic voting machines and pushed authorities to state what assistance they need from the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the country, known as MONUSCO, to organize the polls.

“MONUSCO cannot afford to wait until the last moment to put a plan into action,” Cohen said.

Kabila put off a planned visit earlier this month by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and refused to see U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who diplomats said had also separately planned to visit Kinshasa.

U.N. Security Council envoys are planning to visit Congo in October, diplomats said.

REUTERS


BRICS nations pledge enhanced economic cooperation in face of US tariff threats

27, July 2018

BRICS nations pledge enhanced economic cooperation in face of US tariff threats 0

The member states of BRICS, the association of five major emerging economies, have pledged to strengthen their economic cooperation as the US continues to beat the drum for trade war and unilateralism.

“We express concern at the spill-over effects of macro-economic policy measures in some major advanced economies,” the heads of the BRICS group — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – said in a joint statement on Thursday after meeting in Johannesburg for an annual summit.

They added that the multilateral trading system is facing unprecedented challenges, stressing the importance of an open world economy.

Addressing the 10th BRICS summit in South Africa on the second day of the talks, Chinese President Xi Jinping said, “We should stay committed to multilateralism”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) meets with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the 10th BRICS summit on July 26, 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by AFP)

 

He further called on BRICS members states to deepen strategic partnership and open up the second “golden decade”.

The session, hosted by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, was also attended by Brazilian President Michel Temer, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Putin also addressed the summit, saying, “BRICS has a unique place in the global economy — this is the largest market in the world, the joint GDP is 42 percent of the global GDP and it keeps growing”.

“In 2017, the trade with our BRICS countries has grown 30 percent, and we are aiming at further developing this kind of partnership,” he said.

US President Donald Trump has said he is ready to impose tariffs on all $500 billion (428 billion euros) of Chinese imports, complaining that China’s trade surplus with the US is due to unfair currency manipulation.

Trump has slapped levies on goods from China worth tens of billions of dollars, as well as tariffs on steel and aluminum from the EU, Canada and Mexico.

The BRICS summit is taking place in Johannesburg between July 25 and 27. Heads of state or government from the five member states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are discussing areas of possible cooperation.

Source: Presstv


Cameroon’s Escalating Conflict Triggers Alarm at UN

27, July 2018

Cameroon’s Escalating Conflict Triggers Alarm at UN 0

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, is seeking access to Cameroon to verify what he says are alarming reports of horrific abuse by separatist and government forces in the country’s English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions.

The U.N. human rights office said the situation in Cameroon’s English-speaking communities has worsened considerably since protests against what the English-speakers see as structural discrimination started two years ago.

The Anglophones are demanding an end to what they allege is their economic and political marginalization by the country’s Francophone majority.

The High Commissioner’s spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani, told VOA what began as protests for greater access to jobs and linguistic equality has gotten out of hand. She said violence by both armed separatists and the government has spiraled out of control.

“The violent separatists, these armed groups are killing people, torching schools, carrying out kidnappings and extortion and all sorts of horrible human rights abuses to try to disrupt the situation,” she said. “The government’s role should be to protect people in such a horrible environment. Instead, the government is employing a heavy-handed response, which is not helping the situation. It is further causing human rights violations.”

United Nations figures show more than 21,000 refugees have fled to neighboring countries, while some 160,000 people are internally displaced by the violence, with many reportedly hiding in forests.

An army spokesman has rejected charges of abuses by the security forces as “rumors.”

Shamdasani said there is a lot of misinformation and propaganda on both sides. She added that the High Commissioner has asked that monitors be allowed to verify allegations of abuse against both security forces and armed separatists.

The government has rejected this request, she said. Consequently, she added that the U.N. human rights office will have to consider other options to keep tabs on the situation, including remote monitoring.

Source: VOA


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