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11, April 2018

Battle for Ambazonia: Bodies of French Cameroun soldiers secretly dumped in the River Manyu ⁰

Some of the bodies of French Cameroun troops killed in the Manyu County were unceremoniously dumped into the Manyu River by their colleagues deployed to Southern Cameroons. This has prompted outrage from some Christian communities in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. New recruits sent to Manyu by the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime to ferry back the remains of fallen soldiers hinted Cameroon Intelligence Report that the dumping sites were at Agborkem German and some 100 kilometers from the Satom Bridge in Mamfe. Villagers residing along the banks of the Manyu River have found human bodies in military attire floating all the way to Nigeria.

A pro Yaoundé political elite contacted by our correspondent in Mamfe to comment on the issue observed that the nasty and sad situation raise new questions and a feeling of great indignation. An estimated 240 French Cameroun soldiers have died in battles in Mamfe Central, Akwaya and Eyumojock. Approximately 75 of the Francophone troops lost their lives when their military boats came under attack.

Meanwhile, family members in far away French Cameroun are becoming impatient with the lack of information about their loved ones deployed to Manyu and Lebialem. A very reliable but flippant source in Yaoundé revealed that families were currently questioning the hierarchy of the Francophone dominated army. A senior official in the military was heard murmuring privately that Yaoundé has not officially tasked any legion with protecting the remains of soldiers killed in the Ambazonia war.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Judith Fon in Mamfe

11, April 2018

At least 257 dead after military plane crash in Algeria ⁰

At least 257 people have died after a military plane crashed in northern Algeria, the defence ministry says.

The incident happened shortly after the aircraft took off from Boufarik military airport near the capital Algiers in the morning.

Most of the dead are army personnel and their families, according to the defence ministry. Ten crew members were also killed.

It is not yet clear what caused the crash.

The army’s chief of staff has ordered an investigation into the crash and will visit the scene.

It is the deadliest plane crash since July 2014, when all 298 people on board Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 died when it was shot down over eastern Ukraine.

It is also the second-deadliest plane crash since 2003.

Country profile

The authorities are working to identify remains of those killed. Footage from the scene shows smoke coming off wreckage in a field.

The plane, an Ilyushin Il-76, was travelling to Bechar in the south-west of the country.

Among the dead are said to be 26 members of the Polisario Front, seeking independence from Morocco for Western Sahara and supported by Algeria.

Four years ago a plane carrying military personnel and family members crashed in Algeria, killing 77 people.

Source: BBC

11, April 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Justice Martin Mbeng freed ⁰

Retired Justice Martin Mbeng has reportedly been freed and we understand the judge is presently in Mamfe, the chief town in the Manyu County

11, April 2018

Ambazonia Crisis: Justice Mbeng whereabouts remain unknown ⁰

The whereabouts of a former appeal court judge in Cameroon remain unknown, a day after he was kidnapped by separatist fighters in the South West region of the English-speaking part of the country on Monday.

Martin Mbeng’s kidmap marks fresh escalation of the crisis in the troubled region. He had retired last year as vice president of the court of appeal in the Southwest Region, which with the neighboring Northwest Region, is in the grip of violent unrest.

“Mbeng is in the hands of the supporters of secession,” lawyer Agbor Nkongho, a friend of the judge and head of a campaign group called the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, said. He was abducted on Sunday morning, Nkongho said, confirming information on social media.

“We condemned this act and ask for him to be released, especially as Mr. Mbeng does not engage in any political activity and he is not a supporter of the government,” Nkongho said.

There was no claim for the kidnapping, and the authorities have made no reference to it. Cameroon’s North West and South West Regions are home to most of the country’s Anglophones – a minority of about 20% in the predominantly French-speaking country of 23.4 million.

Resentment among Anglophones has steadily built over the years, fuelled by the perception that they suffer discrimination at the hands of the francophone majority.

Matters came to a head last year when President Paul Biya rejected demands for greater autonomy, prompting a shift towards radicalism that culminated in the declaration of an independent state that was met by a crackdown.

Since then, scores of civilians and members of the security forces have been killed in attacks on both sides, and tens of thousands of civilians have fled to neighboring Nigeria. Kidnapping has swiftly become a weapon of the separatists.

However, French speaking Cameroonians have reacted with dismay at allegations that they were better off. Thousands of French speaking Cameroonians have been massacred by Boko Haram in the country’s far north and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. Thousands of schools remain shut.

But even as bombs have continued to explode and many people continued to be beheaded, President Biya has not deemed it fit to visit the area since the insurgency spread to Cameroon from Nigeria in 2014.

Culled from Today News Africa

11, April 2018

CPDM gov’t threatens to close churches ⁰

Rwanda has closed thousands of churches in recent months, for alleged ‘noise pollution’ and non-compliance of building regulations. Now another predominantly Christian country is considering following suit.

World Watch Monitor reports, Cameroon has previously enacted similar measures – like the order to close dozens of “noisy” churches in 2013.

The government said it was mainly targeting unofficial Pentecostal churches, engaged in ‘indecent’ practices. The latest call to close some Pentecostal churches follows reports of gross misconduct by Cameroon pastors.

Phil Clark from the University of London said Pentecostalism is growing in Rwanda – and church closures there are much more politically influenced than the government says. He said it signals that they’re under observation.

Source: Vision Christian Radio

11, April 2018

5 French Cameroonian athletes missing at Commonwealth Games ⁰

Five Cameroonian athletes competing at the Commonwealth Games in Australia have gone missing, the country’s Team Manager, Victor Agbor Nso, said on Tuesday. Nso told Cameroon state broadcaster CRTV that Weightlifter Olivier Matam and boxers Ndzie Tchoyi and Simplice Fotsala were due to compete on Tuesday but could not be found. He added that two other weightlifters — Aka Angeline Filji and Mikoumba Petit David, had earlier gone missing from the games at the Gold Coast, but did not specify when.

He explained that Australian police were informed about the situation. He said “we have officially informed our hierarchy back home: the Ministry of Sports and the president of the National Olympic Committee of Cameroon. “We have also laid formal complaint to the Australian police.” It is not the first time Cameroonian athletes disappeared at major sporting event. In 2012, five male boxers, a female footballer and a male swimmer absconded from the London Olympic village.

Source: www.vanguardngr.com

11, April 2018

US: White House says Trump ‘has the power’ to fire Mueller ⁰

US President Donald Trump “has the power” to fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the so-called Russia probe, the White House says as Republicans warn him not to do so.

“He certainly believes that he has the power to do so,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Tuesday. “I know a number of individuals in the legal community, and including at the Department of Justice say he has the power to do so.”

This is while Republicans in US Senate are taking measures to insulate Mueller from being dismissed.

Republican Senator Thom Tillis is pushing the Senate Judiciary Committee to take up his legislation aimed at protecting Mueller.

“It’s a good bill that’s going to have enduring value beyond this presidency. I think the president’s frustrated, I may be if I were in the same position,” Tillis said. “But I do think it’s a bill that’s worthy of a mark-up in Judiciary and sending it to the floor.”

Legal experts believe that the president cannot directly fire him Mueller.

Republicans lawmakers are trying to keep Mueller’s probe going after the FBI raided the offices of Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen.

Firing Mueller could end Trump’s presidency, Republicans have warned.

Justice Department Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is the only one who has the authority as the department is in charge of the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion between Trump’s aides in Russia.

The investigation seeks to find out whether the Russian government coordinated with Trump’s aides after the intelligence community’s conclusion that the Kremlin helped with the New York billionaire’s campaign effort ahead of winning the White House, an allegation dismissed both by Moscow and the president.

Source: Presstv

10, April 2018

Cameroon and Nigeria back ICC president ⁰

Nigeria, Cameroon and other states have renewed their support for the International Criminal Court (ICC) following the March election of Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji as president.

In a letter of congratulations to the Nigerian judge, the Nigerian government pledged its “continued backing and unflinching support,” according to a press release from the ICC.

Similar expressions of support have come in from countries worldwide and from the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Mr Eboe-Osuji presided over the trial of Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto, although the case was eventually dropped.

Source: BusinessGhana

10, April 2018

The Truth about the Justice Mbeng Martin Abduction Affair ⁰

Justice Martin Mbeng, a onetime senior Southern Cameroons judge was kidnapped when gunmen stormed the funeral service of his late mother in Ewelle village in Eyumojock Sub constituency in the Manyu County. Cameroon Intelligence Report has been reliably informed that the armed men fired bullets in the air and at the vehicle that the retired justice ferried to the village.

Our senior intelligence officer revealed that retired justice Mbeng Martin made a dramatic u-turn in his long held position of benevolent neutrality and launched a negative campaign against President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, when the regime in Yaoundé informed him that President Biya had plans to appoint his younger brother Martin Mbeng Jr, French Cameroun’s current ambassador to Brazil as Prime Minister and Head of Government but that the Sisiku Ayuk Tabe issue was serving as a stone wall.

We understand the retired judge started a campaign of personal destruction that was aimed at President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe. A source in Ewelle hinted that the elders sounded a note of caution to him to stay clear of the Southern Cameroons revolution and to bear in mind that many people have been killed in Ewelle village by troops loyal to the regime in Yaoundé. His anti-revolution stance including actions against his own kinsman, the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia attracted the abduction action from the revolutionary guards protecting Ewelle village.

The former chairman of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, Barrister Agbor Balla in a statement that sparked outrage strongly condemned the targeting of prominent Southern Cameroonians by the Ambazonian freedom fighters and demanded that those responsible for these acts be brought to justice.

Nearly 240 French Cameroun soldiers have been killed in the Manyu County that includes Akwaya, Eyumojock, Upper Banyang and Mamfe Central ever since the Ambazonia revolution started a year ago and spiraled into an armed conflict following the abduction of the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe in Abuja, Nigeria.

Thousands of Southern Cameroons have been killed in the war initially fought between troops loyal to President Biya, against Ambazonia forces in Manyu known as the “Odeshi Boys.” Violence has spread throughout Southern Cameroons and now involves most of the nation’s English speaking groups.The United Nations has not commented on the deteriorating situation in West Cameroon.

The French Cameroun government forces stand accused of targeting Southern Cameroons population including women and children and sometimes deliberately shooting at innocent civilians. Cameroon Concord News Group Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai has called for the release of Justice Martin Mbeng and any other Southern Cameroonian detained by the Ambazonian freedom fighters.

A prominent figure of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate from Kendem village, Rose Arongagbor was detained recently but later on released.

By Chi Prudence Asong with files from Rita Akana and Sama Ernest

10, April 2018

Bundes: Hundreds of flights cancelled due to public sector strike ⁰

Thousands of passengers at four German airports, including the biggest hub Frankfurt, were stranded on Tuesday as ground staff and other public sector workers staged walkouts across the country to increase the pressure in a pay dispute.

Lufthansa said on Monday it was cancelling more than 800 of its planned 1,600 flights on Tuesday and Frankfurt airport operator Fraport has warned of disruption.

As well as Frankfurt, airports in Munich, Cologne and Bremen were hit. The industrial action also affected nurseries, rubbish collection services and swimming pools in several German states.

He said the union would escalate the dispute if employers did not present an offer next week. The third round of talks start on April 15.

(Source: Reuters)