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29, May 2017

Southern Cameroons Crisis: SDF announces the creation of a Special Committee to investigate abuses and extra judicial killings ⁰

The Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Front, SDF decided over the weekend to set up a special committee to investigate the abuses and extra judicial killings in Southern Cameroons. Following the SDF National Executive Committee meeting of Saturday the 28^th in Bamenda, the SDF announced its decision to set up a special committee to investigate the rapes, arbitrary arrests and detention of Southern Cameroonians in Francophone jails attributed to the forces of law and order.

Southern Cameroon has recorded several cases of rape, disappearances, kidnappings and deaths, attributed to the police and the Francophone dominated elite force known as BIR. A video highlighting abuses against students was widely circulated on social media. The said exactions are attributed to the forces of law and order from La Republique du Cameroun.

Several leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium banned by the Biya Francophone government were arrested and detained at the Kondengui central prison in Yaoundé. The English-speaking leaders are currently being prosecuted by the Yaounde military court.

The creation of a special commission of inquiry comes after the SDF’s criticism against the 84 year old dictator Paul Biya and his government, for their silence on the demands made by the Cameroon Common Law Layers and teachers trade unions which plunged the country into a deep crisis.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Cameroon Concord News

29, May 2017

Yaounde: Soldiers attack sports journalist ⁰

The general manager of Afrik 2 Radio, Polycarpe Essomba has announced that he will sue the Biya regime following a violent act perpetrated against one of his collaborators, Bertrand Mvondo. According to the management of the Yaounde based radio station, Bertrand Mvondo, a sports columnist “was the object of a wild aggression on the afternoon of May 26, 2017.

The journalist was attacked by dozen of soldiers as he was covering a Division 2 football encounter at the Yaoundé Military Stadium. Cameroon Concord News learnt that he took pictures when an altercation involving a civilian, a club president and a soldier broke out and was spotted by another soldier who summoned and ordered him to destroy the said images.

The reporter objected to these injunctions which eventually prompted the soldier to call on his colleagues in reinforcement. Bertrand Mvondo was seriously beaten and forcefully dragged to the ground and taken to a nearby army camp with life threatening injuries. We of this publication aggressively condemn the aggression and we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Afrik 2 Radio and its collaborator.

By Rita Akana

Cameroon Concord News

28, May 2017

Congo Kinshasa: Frenchman, 3 Congolese hostages freed ⁰

Militiamen have freed a French national and three Congolese who were kidnapped in March in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Interior Ministry says. They were among five workers, including a Tanzanian, who had been kidnapped from Banro, a Canadian gold mining corporation that runs two mines in DR Congo and is exploring for the mineral elsewhere in the vast, resource-rich country.

The Tanzanian had already been freed. The remaining four hostages were all freed on Saturday, the Congolese Interior Ministry said in a statement. French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated those involved in the release, “in particular Congo authorities for their mobilization and the effectiveness of their action,” according to a brief statement from his office. The French foreign ministry said it had no information on the identity of the attackers.

New York and Toronto-listed Banro’s four gold mines in eastern Congo have faced hazards both from illegal miners squatting on site and by armed groups that are a legacy of a regional conflict which officially ended in 2003. Armed robbers attacked Banro’s Twangiza gold mine in neighboring South Kivu province in February, killing three police officers.

Kidnappings are frequent in DR Congo’s east, which has suffered nearly two decades of brutal conflict, with neighboring states backing rebel groups in a civil war against Kinshasa’s authority, and roaming armed militia triggering the mass flight of terrorized civilians. The United Nations has 19,000 soldiers, police and military observers deployed in the DR Congo, its biggest and costliest peacekeeping mission, with an annual budget of $1.2 billion.

28, May 2017

Special Criminal Court: 3 facing trial on corruption charges ⁰

Three civil servants in the Ministry of Public Service and Administrative Reform (MINFOPRA) will stand trial on June the 1^st 2017 at the Special Criminal Court in Yaoundé. The Court recently revealed that it now has evidence of corruption and embezzlement of public funds against the trio.

Elisabeth Abogda, deputy director of the budget, as well as her two collaborators, Serge Mbang Zogo and Mvogo Mvogo have been sued before the Special Criminal Court for an alleged misappropriation of 100 million CFA francs relating to an operation launched in 2011 for the recruitment of 25,000 contractors in the civil service.

Prosecutors at the court hinted that the amount indicated represents the damage suffered by the State of Cameroon following the mysterious disappearance of 1213 cash vouchers during the operation of recruitment. The said vouchers were kept inside Room 607 of MINFOPRA where the three officials involved were working during that period.

To substantiate the accusation, the Ministry has reportedly produced 26 exhibits that were admitted into the procedural file and the testimony of the witnesses of the accusation received in court during the proceedings. Cameroon Concord News understands the exhibits include inter alia, the various notes appointing the members of the various teams responsible for the distribution of cash certificates, the coordinator, the persons in charge of distribution, requests for explanations addressed to certain agents.

Depicting the Special Criminal Court established to prosecute alleged corrupt government officials and the several Alibabas responsible for pilfering from the public treasury as the President’s court is no misnomer. We call it the President’s court because it is one instrument of power through which the President is reining in on perceived opponents from within his CPDM power conduit. An attribute of a genuine court is the fairness of the trial proceedings in cases which are brought before the court for trial. It is not the number of convictions entered against accused. A court is legitimate and recognized as such because of its exercise of judicial, executive, legislative and administrative independence. A court that is independent must be accessible to all citizens after all, is equality before the law, not a constitutionally protected value? The Special Criminal Court is lacking in these attributes of impartiality, judicial independence and accessibility. It is perceived more as the President’s Court than a Court of Justice.

Establishing this court was President Biya’s way of saving himself the embarrassment of being humiliated during his perennial trips abroad as the President of the most corrupt countries in the world. This ranking of the country as the most corrupt or one of the most corrupt countries had a potential to hamper President Biya’s personal pecuniary interests far from the borders of Cameroon. There was therefore a personal interest need to establish the court. Another personal interest need was to avail himself of a legal tool under his direct control to consolidate absolute power, blackmail potential rebels and competitors within the system and to stifle any form of institutional opposition. He perceived the court as a tool with which to whitewash his more than thirty years of corrupt governance and the rape of the economy.

By Rita Akana and Soter Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group

28, May 2017

US: Trump considers major staff shakeup over Russia controversy ⁰

US President Donald Trump and his advisers are considering a major shakeup of senior White House staff in an attempt to contain the growing political and legal threat from the escalating Russia controversy.

Trump returned home on Saturday from a nine-day foreign trip that provided a respite from the crisis in Washington. As the president met with leaders and diplomats in the Middle East and Europe, senior aides met in the White House to discuss damage control.

The White House now plans to more aggressively combat the revelations about contacts between people involved in the Trump presidential campaign and Russia, including his senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, The Washington Post reported.

Kushner has recently become the focus of federal investigations into possible collusion between Moscow and Trump’s campaign and transition teams.

The 36-year-old has reportedly played an active role in the effort to reshape the president’s communications team and develop an internal group to respond to the flurry of negative stories over the Russia inquiry.

Led by New York attorney, Marc E. Kasowitz, the president’s private legal team is preparing to meet in Washington to discuss new revelations about contacts between Kushner and representatives of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Washington Post reported separately that Kushner tried to establish secret and secure communications with the Kremlin during Trump’s transition.

According to The New York Times, the channel was meant to allow then-national security adviser Michael Flynn to communicate with Moscow directly about Syria and other security issues.

This file photo taken on February 13, 2017 shows Michael Flynn (L) and Jared Kushner before a joint press conference.

Trump might personally meet with Kasowitz as early as Sunday, and his aides have recruited a number of prominent lawyers for the president to interview in hopes that they could join the legal team.

White House ‘war room’

Aides are also considering creating a White House “war room” to more aggressively push back against the Russia controversy as well as the fallout of Trump’s abrupt firing of FBI director James Comey earlier this month. Comey has authored a memo that suggested Trump asked him to drop an inquiry about Flynn’s ties to Moscow.

The damage-control plan also includes the return of some of Trump’s more combative campaign advisers, including Corey Lewandowski, who was fired as campaign manager nearly a year ago, and David N. Bossie, a former deputy campaign manager.

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, has contacted people from Trump’s campaign team, asking them to be more involved in supporting the president.

The US intelligence community concluded in January that Russia tried to influence the presidential election in favor of Trump, including through an aggressive hacking campaign against senior Democrats.

The Kremlin has categorically denied the allegation. Trump has also rejected the accusation as “baseless” and has called the FBI probe a “witch hunt.”

Culled from Presstv

28, May 2017

French Cameroun: CPDM Muslims belief in the Quran is very superficial ⁰

It can truly be said that incompetent Muslims political elites from the Far North and North regions believe in the Quran only in appearance but act in contravention of its teachings. The situation is the same unfortunately today with many secular Islamic societies including Christian communities all over the world.

Part of the numerous problems faced by Cameroonians under the Biya regime is that a large segment of the population in the Far North and North regions rely on incompetent individuals like [those] in the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government.

These highly placed government officials such as the Vice Prime Minister, Amadou Ali, House Speaker, Cavaye Djibril, Ayang Luc, Issa Tchiroma, Amadou Mustapha and the Hayatou family in Garoua believe in the Quran in appearance and even distribute thousands of copies of the Quran to their fellow Muslim brothers and sisters but they are in practice intimate with infidels like Paul Biya and Martin Belinga Eboutou contrary to Quran’s stipulations.

Amadou Ali is directly responsible for the ongoing anti-religious acts in Southern Cameroons and it is important to state here that those Muslim soldiers serving with the Rapid Intervention Battalion, BIR who are carrying out such measures against Southern Cameroon Muslims and non Muslims communities will certainly face failure and doom.

One of the main recommendations of the Quran that these CPDM Muslims follow strictly is that of having many wives. Some of them even fly first class to Mecca with their mistresses pretending to be going for pilgrimage. The time of their collapse depends on the actions of genuine Muslims throughout La Republique du Cameroun. If the Muslims in the Far North and in the North act correctly, the collapse of these CPDM infidels would be accelerated.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group

28, May 2017

Ramadan 2017: Cameroonian Muslims begin 30 days of fasting ⁰

Muslims in Cameroon have started the 30 day period of fasting Cameroon state radio and television reported that the 30 days fast observed each year in accordance with the Islam calendar in preparation for the spiritual journey has been very visible.

At the Briqueterie neighborhood which is predominantly Muslim, provision stores have been stocked with food items consumed during the period of fasting such as rice, sugar flour, milk, date fruits, Corn and Groundnut.

Also, items to facilitate the retreat such as prayer beats, copies of the Koran, kettles and mats have also been displayed. Ramadan is one of the holiest periods in the Islam calendar- a period when Muslims are expected to humble themselves in prayer to Alah. It is a period of spiritual cleansing, abstinence and solidarity.

Camcordnews Desk

27, May 2017

German Chancellor says climate talks at G7 summit ‘very unsatisfactory’ ⁰

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says talks on climate change in a summit in Italy of the seven wealthy nations, known as the G7, were not successful as US President Donald Trump calls for more time to announce his position on the issue and whether Washington would remain committed to the landmark Paris Accord.

Merkel said on Saturday that Washington’s partners in the G7 all remained in the dark about Trump’s intention on climate change, adding that the debate at the summit in Sicily was “very unsatisfactory.” “Here we have a situation of six against one, meaning there is still no sign of whether the US will remain in the Paris accord or not,” Merkel said, adding, “The whole discussion on the topic of climate was very difficult, not to say very unsatisfactory.”

The German chancellor, who spoke to reporters in Sicily after the summit, said the discussion on climate change was quite different than the one that happened on trade. She said the G7 member states clearly articulated that they would reject protectionism in trade policies. However, Merkel said the climate debate could not yield similar results as six governments agreed to endorse the Paris Agreement but Trump tweeted that he will decide next week.

“I will make my final decision on the Paris Accord next week!” Trump tweeted. The final declaration of the G7 summit also reflected the differences between the United States and other members on the issue. “The United States of America is in the process of reviewing its policies on climate change and on the Paris Agreement and thus is not in a position to join the consensus on these topics,” said the statement, adding that other members would “swiftly” begin to implement the Paris Agreement, which they said would be to the benefit of developing countries.

Trump had on several occasions during his presidential campaign criticized the accord, saying it could harm jobs inside the United States while being to the favor of countries such as China. The US president had even branded the agreement, which obliges parties to cut back on carbon emissions, a Chinese hoax. Like many other agreements signed under the administration of former US President Barack Obama, Trump has vowed that he would revise Washington’s commitments under the deals to ensure US interests are protected.

Source: Presstv

27, May 2017

Africa: New Media Technologies and Citizen Participation in the Public Sphere ⁰

New media technologies have, for a long time, been considered as communication tools par excellence because they are believed to enhance citizen participation in the public sphere. These technologies of freedom are also beloved because of their interactivity and the independence they grant citizens across the world. Because of this, many communication scholars have posited that new media technologies will radically change the African continent in terms of citizen participation in the public sphere. However, Africa has always proven to be a different continent, especially regarding these trans formative technologies. The following article by our Contributing Editor Dr. Joachim Arrey sheds more light on the role these technologies can play to transform political participation in African countries. He also highlights how these challenges are actually militating against the democratization of these technologies.

The emergence of new media technologies in the twentieth Century has not only raised enthusiasm about citizen political participation in the public sphere in the digital era, it has also given the voiceless a chance to express their views and hold their leaders accountable. The enthusiasm is based on the popularity of new media technologies and the fact that they enjoy relative autonomy from state and commercial control and influence. New media technologies are not only considered as extremely effective means to record, store and distribute information, they are believed to allow for asynchronous as well as synchronous two-way information flow while at the same time being independent of spatial constraints. They are exceptional tools when it comes to helping individuals and groups promote their causes to public officials and interested members of the public.

The use of new media technologies for participatory communication in the public sphere is viewed as a significant path to the advancement of deliberative and participatory democracy across Africa. As pointed out by communications scholars such as Wasserman, Nyamnjoh and Hurwitz, research on new media technologies has underscored the relationship between new media technologies and greater citizen participation in the democratic process in both Western and non-Western cultures and these new technologies are serving as engines that are galvanizing public interest and participation in modern democracies such as those on the African continent. Currently, across the continent, many people view the Internet, in particular, as the new communication tool par excellence and the venue for political groups of all stripes to propagate their political messages and win sympathy and new members to their political agenda. Compared with the Platonic ideal of individual citizen action and participation, new media technologies constitute new phenomena that are facilitating mass communication in technologically-equipped societies. Unlike old media, new media technologies are facilitating new forms of two-way communication and political participation, encouraging interaction among citizens and public officials and providing a rich forum for the discussion of contentious political issues.

In recent years, these tools of freedom are being employed by advocacy and interest groups to organize their supporters for online lobbying of local, national and foreign officials. Youtube, Twitter and Facebook are making it a lot easier for citizens to share their perspectives and expose crimes committed by dictatorial or democratic governments that engage in undemocratic and abusive practices. These new technologies have been instrumental in significant political changes in Africa. Across the continent, social media have reduced the cost and complexity of organizing mass numbers of individuals into a single, cohesive, political force and they have, in the process, redefined social activism, attracting and enabling the young and the old to make common cause where necessary and such actions have resulted in the downfall of brutal dictators such as Gadhafi of Libya, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Ben Ali of Tunisia. What is more interesting is that new media continue to evolve, creating new opportunities for political expression that becomes increasingly difficult for others to suppress like the recent demonstration in Egypt following the military’s overthrow of Egypt’s democratically elected President, Mohammed Morsi. Thanks to new media technologies, platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are redefining the way political participation in the public sphere is occurring. Given its growing membership, Facebook is now the third largest country on earth and it is now among the electronic platforms of choice for many political organizations and people across the world, including Africa, for them to share their political views and participate in their countries’ political activities.

These technologies are all the more appealing due to their interactivity, universality and the freedom they provide to citizens to choose the information that meets their needs. They are popular means of communication because they are free from control by political authorities and market forces. This implies that with new media, the gate-keeping role of journalists in traditional media has been diminished.

However, at the heart of this debate is the issue of access. If citizens must participate in the political and democratic process, they must have access to information which plays a key role in how citizens participate in the political process and how they make judgments about the performance of their political leaders. The extent to which new forms of democratic participation in Africa can be developed using new media technologies will also depend on how these new communications technologies are regulated. It will also depend on who has access. Despite their relative autonomy, more than two decades after their introduction, there are questions about access, inequality, power and quality of information. Though online communities are emerging across Africa, they are mostly among the elite. Discussions about new media have often disregarded the unusual African terrain which defies many of the technological innovations said to be re-configuring the structures and processes of communications globally. This includes poor telecommunication networks in most parts of Africa, resulting in low levels of Internet usage. While new media technologies have a role to play in enhancing citizen participation in the public sphere, their potential and effectiveness in Africa must be viewed in light of the continent’s economic, political and cultural realities.

For new media technologies to actually enable African citizens to participate in their countries’ political and democratic processes, these citizens must have unfettered access to these tools of modern communication which have resulted in greater citizen political participation in other parts of the world. In Africa, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, there is a huge gap between those who have access to new media technologies and those who don’t have. Many people in rural parts of the continent are not technology savvy and do not have the resources and requisite telecommunications infrastructure that can enable them be part of the new information age. This therefore calls into question the notion that new media technologies can radically enhance citizen participation in the public sphere in Africa. With media censorship in the era of new media a reality on the continent, citizen participation in the public sphere is unlikely to increase.

The new media environment is still the bastion of society’s more privileged members, and has done little to encourage participation among the traditionally unengaged. Even as the Internet user base increases and becomes more ordinary on the continent, it still is not available to millions of citizens who do not have the resources and skills to participate in the new feast of ideas. In some ways, the Internet has widened the political information and participation gap between societal ‘haves and ‘have-nots’ on the continent and this is gradually eroding the initial hope and excitement about the Internet being a public sphere of unmediated discourse.

NB This article was first published on May 2014

27, May 2017

President Trump will be impeached ⁰

Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says President Donald Trump’s decision to fire FBI chief James Comey amounts to “obstruction of justice” and will lead to his “impeachment.”

Speaking to graduates at her alma mater of Wellesely College on Friday, Clinton, Trump’s major rival in the 2016 presidential election, said Comey’s dismissal was a step towards authoritarianism.

“When people in power invent their own facts and attack those who question them, it can mark the beginning of the end of a free society,” she warned. “That is not hyperbole; it is what authoritarian regimes throughout history have done.”

She then drew a parallel between Trump and former US President Richard Nixon, wrongly claiming that the latter was impeached over the Watergate scandal. This is while Nixon resigned from office after firing a special prosecutor overseeing the case.

“We were furious about the past presidential election, of a man whose presidency would eventually end in disgrace with his impeachment for obstruction of justice, after firing the person running the investigation into him at the department of justice,” she said during the commencement speech. Trump fired Comey earlier this month, plunging the White House into chaos.

US President Donald Trump attends a working lunch during the Summit of the Heads of State and of Government of the G7, the group of most industrialized economies, plus the European Union, in Taormina, Sicily, May 26, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The former FBI director has been blamed for Hillary’s loss. He has also been accused of plotting against President Trump. Prior to the November 8 vote, Comey led a controversial probe into Clinton’s use of a personal server to exchange government emails while she was secretary of state.

After the election, he began investigating Trump’s alleged ties to Russia as well as a series of cyber attacks against Clinton’s campaign, which Democrats claimed were conducted by Russian hackers. Various administration officials like Vice President Mike Pence have tried to downplay the decision and deny its ties with the Russia probe.

However, Trump himself admitted that the “Russian thing” was indeed one of the reasons he took the decision.

Bill Clinton’s impeachment

Ironically, Hillary’s own husband, former US President Bill Clinton, is one of the only two US heads of state to have ever been impeached.

Former US President Bill Clinton (Photo by AFP)

In fact, Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment was based on two charges of perjury and “obstruction of justice,” the very same reason Hillary thinks Trump will be impeached for.

The charges against the then-president stemmed from his extramarital affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Culled from Presstv