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15, February 2017

Senator George Weah meets President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana ⁰

Senator and former world and European best footballer, George Oppong Weah made a courtesy visit on Tuesday in Accra to President Nana Akufo-Addo to congratulate him on his election as President of Ghana. Weah took advantage of his meeting with Akufo-Addo to invite him not only to strengthen the bilateral relations between Liberia and Ghana but also to support a credible election in Liberia on October 10, 2017.

The new occupant of Flagstaff House in Accra thanked Weah for his visit and promised that the links between Ghana and Liberia will be strengthened and that Ghana will continue to support and defends democracy in the countries of the region.

The Liberian senator also saluted the endurance of Akufo-Addo, who got elected president after running for the third time. The visit of George Oppong Weah comes after the one made last week in Accra by Didier Drogba, the Ivorian football legend.

By Chi Prudence Asong

15, February 2017

Biya celebrates his 84th birthday privately at Unity Palace ²

The Cameroonian dictator has celebrated his 84th birthday at the presidential palace in the Etoudi district of Yaoundé. Paul Biya, the Head of State, held his closed family celebration on Monday the 13^th of February 2017.

A photo that immortalizes this extraordinary day was posted on the front page of the official website of the Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon. Biya who replaced the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo and has been in power for 35 years, blew his 84th candle at the Unity Palace in the strictest family intimacy.

Dressed in funny attire as against his normal gandoura, Paul Biya had beside him his well-known son, Franck Biya and the first lady, Chantal Biya.

By Sama Ernest

14, February 2017

Southern Cameroons: Highlights of the Road map for Independence Restoration ¹

A detailed road-map showing several steps, strategic actions and campaigns expected to culminate on Sunday, 1 October 2017 in Buea, South West Region, with the restoration by an Interim Congress of the independence of Southern Cameroons was released Sunday at a townhall meeting in Maryland, USA. The road-map has been put together by the Movement for the Restoration of the Independence of Southern Cameroons (MoRISC) whose objective is to use all non-violent ways to enthrone a government based on popular consent, deriving authority and legitimacy from the people of Southern Cameroons, not from decrees or the might of the Government of La Republique which, since 1961, has been injurious to citizens’ rights to life, freedom, independence, equality and dignity.

Here are a few highlights from the road map:

Effective 1 January 2017 and lasting until 30 September 2017 – Ghost Towns, once a week (every Monday); a Prayer for the Peaceful Restoration of Independence to be said in all churches on Sundays and all mosques on Fridays across Southern Cameroons; Governors, SDOs, Dos, to be de-legitimized as colonial officers to be replaced by elected officials such as councilors, mayors, MPs and Senators. The House of Chiefs and Fons to be reconstituted as the Upper Chamber of the New Interim Congress whose Lower Chamber will include elected officials and leaders of other organizations (trade unions of lawyers, teachers, student unions, Okada taxi bike riders, women’s groups, etc.)

Once every month until September 2017 – Southern Cameroonians to hold a monthly day of shaming colonialism in street protests outside the homes of residents.

Boycott Campaigns – A series of boycotts are included in the road map. Under the plan, Southern Cameroonian citizens are invited to boycott all events called, organized or presided by Governors, SDOs, and/or DOs seen as colonial officers sent by Yaounde to lord it over the people. Also to be boycotted are celebrations to mark the so-called Youth Day – really Plebiscite Day for Southern Cameroons (11 Feb. 2017); Women’s Day Celebrations (8 March 2017); and the so-called Reunification (20 May 2017).

Ambassadors, Governors, SDOs & DOs in Waiting – The road map envisages the election by Southern Cameroonians in the Diaspora of Ambassadors-in-Waiting who will begin lobbying on behalf of the Restoring Independence and Recognition of the New State; the election by elected councilors, mayors, MPs, Senators and Chiefs/Fons of Governors-in-Waiting and of a Government-in-Waiting.

Worldwide Diaspora Conventions – Southern Cameroonian Diaspora worldwide are convened for 11 February 2017, according to the road map, to hold a major conference to, among others, agree ways of raising funds for the struggle.

Interim Government of Southern Cameroons – The House of Chiefs and Fons along with the Lower Chamber of the New Interim Congress of Southern Cameroons will elect the interim government of Southern Cameroons on 21 April 2017, the anniversary of the adoption of the resolution by the United Nations General Assembly granting Southern Cameroons independence.

Sunday, 1 October 2017 – The Interim Government, the New Interim Congress of Southern Cameroons, Ambassadors-in-Waiting, and Delegations from all across Southern Cameroons and the Diaspora convene in Buea, South West Region for the Declaration of the Restoration of Independence.

14, February 2017

The trial of the Consortium leaders: Profiling the man heading the defense ⁰

Karim Ahmad Khan is a British lawyer and specialist in international criminal law and international human rights law. He was called to the bar in 1992 at London’s Lincoln’s Inn and later attended Wolfson College at Oxford University for doctoral studies in law. He presently carries on an international practice before courts in Britain and abroad.

He worked as a Senior Crown Prosecutor at the British Law Commission and from 1997-2000 served as a legal adviser to the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and later as defence counsel before Special Courts in East Timor, Sierra Leone and Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He is the lead counsel in the defense team of William Ruto at the International Criminal Court. In addition to international criminal and human rights law, he has in-depth experience and expertise in immigration and asylum law and is an approved counsel to act for Britain’s Attorney General. His international standing and expertise was further recognized by the offer of the post of international legal adviser to the Appeals Chamber of the Iraqi Special Tribunal (IST) in 2005.[1] He was also made a member of the Queens Council.

Karim Ahmad Khan was appointed to lead the Defence team of President Charles Taylor of Liberia at the Special Tribunal.He was recently the head of incumbent Kenyan Deputy-President, His Excellency Mr. William Ruto’s defense team at the Hague before the latter’s case was dismissed on 5 April 2016

Career

Honorary lecturer, School of Law, University of Utrecht, Netherlands (2010-11; 2011-to date); former senior research fellow, Dept of War Studies, Kings College, London; director, Peace and Justice Initiative; director of Global Victims Initiative; former member Executive Board of ICTY, current member (with ICTY judiciary) of ICTY Disciplinary Appeals Board and election to Disciplinary Appeals Board of ICC (along with ICC judiciary); former legal adviser, Office of the Prosecutor, International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda (International Law Appeals); grade 7 lawyer, Law Commission of England and Wales (1996-97); former senior crown prosecutor (1993-96). Publications: co-author, ‘Archbold International Criminal Courts’ (Sweet & Maxwell; 1st, 2nd and 3rd edition); co-editor and contributing author, ‘Principles of Evidence in International Criminal Justice’ (OUP 2010); co-editor, ‘International Criminal Law Reports’ (ICLR, 2006 to date); contributing author, ‘A Commentary to the Rome Statue on the ICC’ (Baden-Baden 2000; 2008); contributor, ‘Human Rights Practice’ (Sweet & Maxwell, 2002 to date); author, Oxford Transitional Justice Research -Working Papers Series (2010); co-author, ‘Enlargement and human rights law, norms and realities’ (Manchester University Press, 2007).

Member

Association of Defence Counsel; International Legal Assistance Consortium; International Criminal Defence Bar; International Bar Association.

Education

Silcoates School, West Yorkshire; Kings College, University of London (LLB Hons); King’s College London, (AKC); Inns of Court School of Law; member of Lincoln’s Inn; CIFE (Distinction, diploma international relations); Abo Akedemi, Turku Law School, Finland (advanced diploma in protection of Human Rights); Wolfson College, Oxford (P Phil, candidate); University College, Pristina, Kosovo (doctorate, honoris causa). Awarded 1999 John D & Catherine MacArthur Foundation Fellowship on International Peace and Security; Alexander Maxwell Law Scholarship Trust Award winner 2001

14, February 2017

Consortium announces a major diplomatic victory ³

Dear people of Southern Cameroons,

Within the past weeks, the Consortium and other parties involved in this struggle have engaged in robust diplomatic moves. We are happy to inform you that on all fronts we are scoring resounding successes.

Take note that we have engaged four heavy weights both in Africa and elsewhere directly, and secured their firm support.

Because this information is too sensitive, given the nature of diplomatic negotiations, we are concealing the names of the partners concerned until the big day God has appointed for us to sing and dance in the new country.

We now have as duty to continue shutting down schools, refuse paying taxes, boycott camtel, Crtv, police/gendarme offices and take your case to Fons/Chiefs or Quarter heads and most importantly observing ghost towns on Mondays and Tuesdays until February ending when we would review our ghost town days.

We call on you reading us to pass this information in a text message through SMS back home. We are winning.

For the Consortium

Tassang, Bareta and Tapang

14, February 2017

Germany: Chancellor Merkel could be voted out ⁰

A new opinion survey in Germany suggests the country’s left-wing political parties can now gather enough votes to oust the ruling government of Chancellor Angela Merkel in September’s polls. The survey, conducted by the INSA institute and due to be published in the Bild newspaper on Tuesday, found that for the first instance “in a long time” a left-of-center coalition would gain sufficient support to force Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) out of office.

According to a report by the German daily prior to the release of the survey results, the country’s three left-leaning parties are now shown to have enough votes since the last election in 2013 to defeat rightist CDU and its sister Bavarian sister party in the next election.

In the 2013 electoral race, the leftist parties failed to form a coalition to defeat Merkel’s CDU party due to lingering opposition by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) to alliances with the hard-left Linke Party. Support for all three leftist parties then dropped drastically following the 2013 poll and never recovered until this new survey.

The poll found that the SPD would win 31 percent of the vote, along with 10 percent support for the far-left Linke Party as well as seven percent of votes for the pro-environment Greens Party, adding up to a total of 48 percent and giving the edge to a leftist coalition in the September poll.

The right-wing parties, led by CDU’s 30-percent support, would then be left with 47 percent of the vote, the survey of 2,028 voters found. The remaining five percent would represent much smaller parties. Merkel, however, remains optimistic for a revival of support for her party before the fall election later in the year.

Presstv

14, February 2017

Biya Francophone government announces reforms urging Southern Cameroonians to shun the Consortium ¹

Francophone government officials are multiplying their promises in order to ease the tensions in Southern Cameroons where for more than 8 weeks trade union demands have turned into a political crisis and paralyzed socio-economic activities in the two English speaking regions of the country.

The Francophone authorities are pretending that the socio-political crisis in the North West and South West are problems that affect the education sector in all regions in the country. As a result, the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government has decided to give impetus to the education sector. The CPDM government has proposed new methods of examination into technical and scientific schools.

Yaoundé has also announced the creation of a new technical teacher training school (ENSET), – French-speaking, after that of Douala in order to reduce the presence of Francophones in the ENSET of Bambili (North- West) and Kumba (South-West). The government hinted of the establishment of new specialties in the technical education of the Anglophone sub-system and the creation of a polytechnic in Bamenda or Buea to reduce the deficit of Anglophone engineers.

The Francophone regime further announced that 2970 teachers will be contracted during the year 2017, with the objective of reducing the teacher deficit decried in rural areas. However, the interim leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium have dismissed the Yaoundé gesture saying is too little too late. Ghost town operations have resumed all over Southern Cameroons today, Tuesday the 14^th of February 2017.

By Sonne Peter

14, February 2017

11 killed in series of violent clashed in Congo-Kinshasa ⁰

At least 11 people have been killed in a series of violent clashes between the army and fighters loyal to a slain militia chief in central Democratic Republic of the Congo, a local activist says.

Jean Rene Tshimanga, a local activist, said that the clashes took place between the DR Congo soldiers and the militia loyal to a traditional chief killed in fighting with security forces last year. He added that the violence occurred near the town of Tshimbulu in Kasai-Central Province on Monday.

“This morning, we learned again that (the militia) attacked the men in uniform [who] repelled them,” Tshimanga, the president of the Civil Society of Kasai-Central Province, said. The activist did not specify how many of the dead were militia members and how many army soldiers.

The town, where the army killed more than 60 militia members in fighting last Friday, has been the scene of constant clashes between the soldiers and armed groups over the past few months. Similar clashes in recent months have killed hundreds and uprooted thousands across the troubled region.

Presstv

14, February 2017

Southern Cameroons unrest: Mamfe gov’t building torched as arrest protests rage ²

Violent reactions are reportedly increasing in Manyu Division over the arrest and continued detention of Lord Justice Ayah Paul of the Supreme Court of Cameroon and the Chairman of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, Barrister Agbor Felix Nkongho.

The people of Manyu have declared their unflinching support for the interim leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium and have vowed to counter violence with violence. On the 11^th of February, some angry youths burnt down two vehicles belonging to the mayor of Mamfe and on Monday the 13^th of February, the Divisional Delegation of Basic Education for Manyu was set ablaze following what the people termed provocation from the Divisional Delegate, Mr. Arreyngang Haman.

Tracks had been distributed in Mamfe town calling on every Manyu citizen to follow the instructions of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium and boycott Youth Day celebrations. Arreyngang Haman who defied the 11th Feb boycott and marched alone in front of the colonial SDO for Manyu was targeted by an angry mop. The said delegate has been quoted as saying that he did not march alone. However, Consortium sources in Mamfe say, Mr. Arreyngang is not a youth and will remain a target until the struggle is won.

Manyu Division has had a long history of romance with the Biya Francophone regime and has always ended up with nothing. Ever since independence, the people of Akwaya the home constituency of Lord Justice Ayah Abine have never been linked by road to the rest of Manyu. All what Manyu political elites claimed to have done for their area ranges from plain fiction to the most absurd.

By Eyong Johnson

13, February 2017

Biya Francophone Politics: One year after, Still No Laptops ⁰

Laptops were not promised only to Anglophone students!! It was a gift from the Head of State Paul Biya to all university students in Cameroon. The Biya gesture was made public on the 10^th of February 2016 following his address to the youths of the nation last year. Students now say they are disappointed that they are not yet in possession of these machines.

On the 10^th of February 2017 and in the presence of 5 members of government, students from the University of Yaoundé 1 asked for the computers that the Head of State promised to offer them. The students had assembled at the Amphi 700 to listen to the Youth Day address of the Head of State and they expressed their disappointment and disapproval of the 84 year-old leader.

In front of the cabinet ministers, the predominantly Francophone student audience shouted immediately the broadcast of the speech came to an end “What about the computers he promised on this same day last year? No no ! He still forgot about our computers. We are disappointed; all students were waiting for these computers.”

The Minister of Communication made matters worse when he noted to the angry student community that “I want to reassure you that you will be in possession of the computers. It is a question of preparing them. The Government was not obliged to make this offer to you. It’s because you’re an android generation, you’ll have them. “

Yves Emvudu Wono, head of the IT department of the Ministry of Higher Education, recently said that the computers would be distributed during the academic year. A leading opposition figure in Yaounde was quoted as saying that even a small business center in Douala is capable of supplying Cameroon will a million laptop computers.

However, Speaking of the state of progress of this project, Mr Emvudu Wono said: “the first part including all the administrative procedures has been finalized. Cameroon has already fulfilled all its specifications. All those involved, namely the Ministry of Higher Education, the Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, the Caisse Autonome d’Amortissement and the Prime Minister’s office have already fulfilled their part in this long procedure. The other stage concerns universities. It was necessary for the Ministry of Higher Education to develop the modus operandi and discuss it with the heads of these academic institutions. Now these institutions are working to produce the list of beneficiary students. As for our third step, the Chinese designer started manufacturing these machines. We must speed up the preparation of the lists. We should not be late when the computers are available. “

As a reminder, it was during his speech on the 10^th of February 2016 that the Head of State made the announcement of the donation of computers to students of state universities. Jacques Fame Ndongo, the Minister of Higher Education, added that the objective of the project was to provide 500,000 Cameroonian students with computer tools to link them to the digital university economy.

By Chi Prudence Asong