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Gambia: Yahya Jammeh relinquish the mantle of leadership under increasing international pressure

22, January 2017

Gambia: Yahya Jammeh relinquish the mantle of leadership under increasing international pressure 0

The Gambia’s former leader, Yahya Jammeh, has left the country after finally conceding defeat in an election under increasing international pressure. Jammeh lost the presidential election in December last year to Adama Barrow but said he would not relinquish power, claiming that there had been irregularities in the vote and pushing the country to the edge of war.

West African nations, which had been peacefully trying to convince him to leave, gradually turned to the idea of removing him militarily and put a regional force on standby as the official end of Jammeh’s mandate approached. On Saturday, some two days after the expiration of his mandate, Jammeh finally announced a decision “to relinquish the mantle of leadership” and, now with his exit from The Gambia, the way was paved for President Adama Barrow to return home from neighboring Senegal, where he was inaugurated on Thursday.

Jammeh, who had taken power in a 1994 coup, demanded from the negotiators that he be given amnesty and safe passage out of The Gambia and that his political party be recognized. But no deal on amnesty was finalized with the negotiators and Jammeh was forced to go into exile.

Regional leaders did escort him into a plane, however, seeing him off into exile in Equatorial Guinea. His family and aides were to depart on a separate plane. The fate of his party was not immediately clear. During Jammeh’s reign, his government was accused of harsh treatment of opponents.

Presstv

Southern Cameroons ghost town to target schools and internet companies

22, January 2017

Southern Cameroons ghost town to target schools and internet companies 1

Southern Cameroonians will begin a campaign of civil disobedience against the government of La Republique du Cameroun and direct action against internet companies and mobile telephone providers on Monday, to demand an end to the epidemic of rapes, extra judicial killings and the release of all prominent Anglophone leaders arrested in Buea and Bamenda.

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society, a group formed in the wake of serious marginalization of Anglophones said they would “no longer stand by and watch Francophone political elites treat Southern Cameroonians like slaves.” The leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium which has more than 3000 operation managers in West Cameroon said all academic institutions in Southern Cameroons will remain closed until all Anglophone demands are met by the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime. The ghost town operation will be staged for a one month period.

The Anglophone leaders say they are prepared to get arrested in their fight against injustice, discrimination and destruction of the Anglo-Saxon heritage including the Common Law and the educational system. Mark Bara and Ivo Tapang who are helping to lead the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society ’s direct action campaign, which kicks off on Monday, said CACSC would go much further by paralyzing  not only school activities, but other sectors such as transport and business.

As well as directly targeting Francophone administrative power in Southern Cameroons, the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium will also go after any Anglophone so-called political elite who attempts to work against the interest of West Cameroonians in the struggle. “We are going to be targeting people who are working to sabotage the Southern Cameroons revolution”, noted an operations manager in Ekok at the borders with Nigeria.

On Monday, the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has asked Southern Cameroonians to stay at home for a kind of “die-in” and avoid any confrontation with troops that have been deployed from French Cameroun.  Both the Ministers of Secondary Education and Telecommunication have opined that shutting down internet services  in British Southern Cameroons comes right and has worked to the CPDM government’s advantage. However, new findings have revealed that the government action on internet services has recruited more followers for the Consortium and many Southern Cameroonians now believe in secession.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Rita Akana, Sama Ernest

President Donald Trump’s son-in-law to be White House adviser

22, January 2017

President Donald Trump’s son-in-law to be White House adviser 0

US President Donald Trump’s hiring of his son-in-law Jared Kushner will not violate any anti-nepotism laws and can go forward, says an official with the US Justice Department (DOJ). “In choosing his personal staff, the president enjoys an unusual degree of freedom, which Congress found suitable to the demands of his office,” said deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), Daniel Koffsky, as reported by CNN. He made the statement amid concerns that hiring Ivanka Trump’s husband could violate federal anti-nepotism laws or make the situation harder for Palestinians, given the close ties Kushner maintains with the Israeli ruling Likud party.

“A President wanting a relative’s advice on governmental matters therefore has a choice: to seek that advice on an unofficial, ad hoc basis without conferring the status and imposing the responsibilities that accompany formal White House positions; or to appoint his relative to the White House under title 3 and subject him to substantial restrictions against conflicts of interest,” Koffsky stated. “We believe that the president’s special hiring authority in 3 U.S.C. § 105(a) permits him to make appointments to the White House Office that the anti-nepotism statute might otherwise forbid.”

Since his victory on November 8, Trump has insisted that Kushner should be present during daily presidential briefings, despite not having security clearances necessary. The presence of Ksuhner and his wife at a meeting of Trump with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe drew criticism from political experts as they both lack the security clearance needed to attend a meeting with a world official.

His appointment could potentially violate the 1967 anti-nepotism law, which bans federal authorities from giving government positions to civilian relatives in agencies under their control. Kushner was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family in New Jersey and studied as an honors student in a private yeshiva high school in 1999. According to Tampa-based investigative journalist Wayne Madsen, Ivanka’s husband “has very close links with the Likud party of Israel.”

Presstv

Why President Paul Biya MUST not underestimate the people of the former British Southern Cameroons: A lesson from our history

21, January 2017

Why President Paul Biya MUST not underestimate the people of the former British Southern Cameroons: A lesson from our history 2

After forty five years of enslavement, second-class citizenship and forceful administrative integration of Southern Cameroons with Nigeria, the General Assembly of the United Nations came face to face with the reality that the people of Southern Cameroons were capable of terminating their marriage with Nigeria – against the wish of the mighty British Empire.

In May 1953, there was a serious leadership crisis within the National Council for Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), resulting from the limitations of the Macpherson Constitution. The Constitution gave Legislative Supremacy to the Central Government of Nigeria and made Regional Assemblies powerless.

During the height of the crisis, 13 Southern Cameroons Members of Parliament elected into the Eastern House of Assembly on the NCNC ticket understandably adopted a neutral position on the grounds that they were not Nigerians. The dismissal of Southern Cameroons Government Minister Hon Solomon T. Muna, by Prime Minister Michael Okpara, who rejected all calls to have Muna reinstated aggravated matters.

Dr. Emmanuel Mbela Lifafa Endeley, the leader of the Southern Cameroons Parliamentary Group in the Eastern House came to the conclusion that separation from Nigeria was the only appropriate answer to the crisis. Angered by discrimination and the domineering behavior of Nigerian politicians, the Southern Cameroons representatives, declared “benevolent neutrality” and withdrew from the Assembly.

Southern Cameroons’ withdrawal from the Eastern Nigerian House of Assembly in Enugu generated a new spirit of nationalism amongst Southern Cameroonians – who resisted all forms of Nigerian intimidation and committed themselves to the achievement of self-government for Southern Cameroons.

In May 1953, Dr. Endeley convened a broad based meeting of all native authorities and political organizations in Southern Cameroons in Mamfe. During the meeting, Southern Cameroons leaders decided to bury their differences and fight for a separate region for the Southern Cameroons. In June 1953, Kamerun National Congress (KNC) – the first indigenous political party in Southern Cameroons was created with Endeley as President.

Following the bold, courageous and daring actions of Southern Cameroonians leaders, Colonial Secretary Oliver Lyttleton agreed that the Nigerian Constitution be redrawn to provide for greater Regional Autonomy. He summoned a constitutional review conference of all Nigeria parties in London. Dr. Endeley led the Southern Cameroons delegation to the London Constitutional Conference from 30, July to 22 August 1953. The Lyttleton Constitution which emerged from the Lancaster Conference had one significant difference from the Macpherson Constitution that it replaced.

Residual powers were transferred from the Central Government to the Regions, areas of exclusive and concurrent legislative competence defined, and Regions endowed with a Premier and a Cabinet. On his return from London, Dr. Endeley received a warrior’s welcome. He went on to win the 1953 General Elections, become Leader of Government Business, and negotiated for the creation of the autonomous Region (Statehood) of Southern Cameroons in 1954.

Following Southern Cameroons’ reunification with La Republique du Cameroun, their leaders Prime Minister John Ngu Foncha and President Amadou Ahidjo respectively agreed in Foumban that the Federal Constitution of 1961 would preserve the statehood of Southern Cameroons which became West Cameroon and La Republique du Cameroun which became East Cameroon within the Federal structure.

That was the spirit of Article 47 of the Federal Constitution. President Ahidjo however used Article 2 of the Federal Constitution to super cede Article 47 and call for the 1972 referendum. The violation of Article 47 dismantled the Federal Structure of West Cameroon and East Cameroon. The autonomy of West Cameroon under a Prime Minister was reduced from Statehood to a Minority-hood referred as provinces (North West and South West). Today, the provinces are referred as regions. This is the root cause of the Anglophone Problem which has led to the submergence of the Anglophone Educational, Legal, Economic and Socio Cultural Systems (not exclusively).

After fifty five years of union with La Republique du Cameroun, the current political crisis in Cameroon is reminiscent of events that prompted Southern Cameroons to end its forty five years of marriage with Nigeria.

NCNC

By Emmanuel Nebafuh.

Permanent Representative

African Parliamentary Alliance for UN Reforms – Geneva

Crimes against humanity and genocide in Southern Cameroons: Mechanisms for redress

21, January 2017

Crimes against humanity and genocide in Southern Cameroons: Mechanisms for redress 0

Very urgent complaints should be filed against the telephone operators jointly with La Republique du Cameroun for conspiracy and complicity in the crimes against humanity and genocide in the Southern Cameroons to the International Telecommunication Union in Geneva for the breach of the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITRs) Treaty which La Republique ratified 18/4/95. La Republique is a state party of the International Communications Union since 1960. The same complaints must also be filed as criminal complaints in the respective countries where the telephone operators are domiciled and at all international criminal and human rights courts or commissions. Class actions should be contemplated in the USA Courts against these telephone operators and La Republique and potentially in the countries in which they are domiciled.

The crimes are: 1) Crimes against humanity of murder and complicity and /or conspiracy to murder, torture, complicity and /or conspiracy in torture, collective punishment and conspiracy and or complicity in collective punishment, acts of terror, complicity and or conspiracy in the perpetration of the acts of terror, rape as a crime against humanity, indignities and other inhumane acts against a civilian population on discriminatory grounds due to their Southern Cameroons nationality,

2) Genocide and violation of article 9 of the genocide convention 1949.

3) The use of the military tribunal process to try civilians in violation international law.

4) The massive arrest, abductions and deportation of Southern Cameroonians to concentration camps, military and paramilitary institutions in la Republique du Cameroun.

5) Cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.

The telephone operators with the exception of CAMTEL have willingly and substantially contributed to the perpetration of these crimes by the Republique du Cameroun by facilitating the collective punishment and the perpetration of the underlying crimes against the population of the Southern Cameroons and in the absence of military necessity in times of war duly declared pursuant to the laws and customs of war, a civilian population clamoring for respect of international law, an end of military occupation and the respect of international protected civil and political rights and civil liberties, human dignity and security of persons and sanctity of human life within their territory.

All Ambazonians worldwide should extend our protest actions to filing complaints well supported by evidence.

Chief Charles A.Taku

Anglophone Crisis: Justice Ayah Paul of the Supreme Court of Cameroon arrested in Yaounde

21, January 2017

Anglophone Crisis: Justice Ayah Paul of the Supreme Court of Cameroon arrested in Yaounde 1

President Paul Biya backed by the French embassy has ordered the arrest of Justice Ayah Paul Abine of the Supreme Court of Cameroon. Justice Ayah was forcefully arrested from his residence by 6 heavily armed men from the Secretariat for Defense,  SED. They had no arrest warrant. Ayah was not permitted to make any calls nor answer any. He was told by them that in case of any resistance he would be brutalized and that he had no choice than to comply.

 It almost got violent as Ayah Paul Abine stated to them what the law provides. The armed men prevented anyone from neither making nor taking calls. They get into Ayah’s privacy with no restraint. Even Ayah’s wife wasn’t permitted to change clothes as the men in question accompanied her even into her privacy. No one can tell what Biya’s men are up to but as Ayah left the house he told his administrator to say this to you all: THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES TILL THE END!!!

Amnesty International calls for urgent access and release of detained Consortium leaders

21, January 2017

Amnesty International calls for urgent access and release of detained Consortium leaders 0

CAMEROON: ARRESTS AND CIVIL SOCIETY BANS RISK INFLAMING TENSIONS IN ENGLISH-SPEAKING REGIONS

20 January 2017, 15:56 UTC

The Cameroonian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release two civil society leaders arrested in the English-speaking part of the country, and lift the ban imposed on their organization, Amnesty International said today.

On 17 January the Minister of Territorial Administration banned the activities of the Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC) and the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC). The president of the CACSC, Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor-Balla, and its Secretary General, Dr. Fontem Aforteka’a Neba, were arrested, sparking protests in the southwest city of Buea.

On the same day both Agbor-Balla and Dr. Fontem Neba had signed a statement calling for protest activities to be carried out without violence.

“These two men have been arrested solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression. This flagrant disregard for basic rights risks inflaming an already tense situation in the English-speaking region of the country and is clearly an attempt to muzzle dissent,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, Amnesty International Central Africa Researcher.

According to the Minister of Territorial Administration, “all activities, meetings and demonstrations initiated or promoted by the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC), any other related groups with similar objectives or by anyone partisan to these groups, are hereby prohibited all over the national territory”.

The government has accused the two groups of supporting a series of demonstrations that began in late October 2016 across several cities in the English-speaking region of Cameroon. The protesters are calling, among other things, for an end to the use of French in courts and schools. This week a “ghost town” strike – where citizens are asked to remain at home – was called in the regions’ main cities.

“This worrying pattern of arbitrary arrests, detention and harassment of civil society members is entirely at odds with the international human rights law and standards that Cameroon has committed to uphold,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi.

In December, at least two unarmed protesters were killed in Bamenda, the largest city in the English-speaking region, when security forces used live ammunition to disperse a protest.

For more information please call Amnesty International’s press office in Dakar, Senegal, +221 77 658 62 27 or +221 33 869 82 31; Email: sadibou.marong@amnesty.org

Bamenda: Consortium declares secret Ad Hoc Committee meeting with CATTU null and void

21, January 2017

Bamenda: Consortium declares secret Ad Hoc Committee meeting with CATTU null and void 0

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has sounded a note of caution to some members of the teachers trade union known as CATTU currently holding a meeting in Bamenda with the defunct Ad Hoc Committee who entered the North West regional capital like a thief in the night. The Consortium leaders have stated that the meeting is null and void and only aims at marginalizing Southern Cameroonians.

Cameroon Concord News understand the Ad Hoc Committee was dissolved and a public announcement to that effect was made by its Chairman Paul Ghogomu Mingo. Events took  a dramatic U-turn when the leaders of the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government pulled out of dialogue, banned the Consortium and arrested its leaders.

The Minister of Higher Education, Jacques Fame Ndongo who attempted bribing the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium leaders, signed a ministerial order immediately after the government’s crackdown and extended the mandate of the Ad Hoc Committee.

A lot of under-the-table talks have been going on ever since the Fame Ndongo decision on the Ad Hoc Committee that was created by the Prime Minister and Head of Government, Philemon Yang. With age telling on Biya, it is hard to say who is really in charge in Yaounde.

Today’s Bamenda meeting is in line with what the ministerial order signed by the anti Anglophone Minister of Higher Education, Jacques Fama Ndongo that the Ad Hoc Committee will begin dialogue with legalized teachers trade unions. The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has warned that West Cameroonians will not tolerate any betrayals coming from the much respected CATTU leadership.

CONSORTIUM DOKI

By Sonne Peter

Southern Cameroons Problem: Anglophone University Lecturers are for the deprived and marginalized

21, January 2017

Southern Cameroons Problem: Anglophone University Lecturers are for the deprived and marginalized 1

THE POSITION OF THE NATIONAL UNION OF TEACHERS OF HIGHER EDUCATION (SYNES) UNIVERSITY OF BUEA

Dear Anglophone University Teachers,

It is typically Anglophone for intellectuals to stand up or speak for the deprived or marginalized. Their role as torch bearer is even more urgent when we witness the scale of injustice that has pervaded our society and pushed Anglophones to the fringes of our society. How can we sit quiet when the students who go through our educational system have no place in a country they rightly think is theirs too. They are not fit to enter even the professional schools they think were created to serve their interest because everything requires that they know someone or have money. The fact that students who go through our system with 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 or even 25 points in the GCE A/L cannot enter Medical School in UB or UBa is inexcusable. This, and a long list of other grievances pushed ALL Anglophone teachers to go on strike after they had been ignored for 10 months.

I will like to thank ALL Anglophone teachers and parents for saying “ENOUGH” to a system which insults us and our children and makes us to feel like strangers in our own home. We would also like to thank our Francophone counterparts who have stood by us and believed in the need for justice for children who go through our system of education. May I also thank our students for understanding that our goal is no less than to give them equal chances in a bi-cultural, bilingual and bi-jural Cameroon. They have well behaved so far; they stayed at home and have not yielded to any provocation.

It is, however, shameful that some intellectuals, at this critical moment in history, some of them retired professors, can still afford the shameful option of thinking that they can continue to protect their “garri” at the expense of the people’s aspirations. The press is not surprising, but it is a needless distraction and shameless expression of their appetite for impunity.

May I reiterate that the strike continues until we are given a definite solution to this beggarly life that has been imposed on us and our children. We are working in synergy with other Anglophone teacher unions and will stop at nothing to obtain fair treatment for Anglophones in Cameroon. The teachers are still on strike and we will inform students when the issues have been resolved satisfactorily.

Once again, we salute your massive support and determination to make a date with history.

PROF. JAMES ARREY ABANGMA

PRESIDENT, SYNES-UB

Southern Cameroons unprecedented ghost town protest begins on Monday

21, January 2017

Southern Cameroons unprecedented ghost town protest begins on Monday 0

Paul Biya has reportedly ordered the so-called Anglophone CPDM political elites to brave the bad roads to Southern Cameroons and lure parents to send their children to school.  The Francophone government recently changed its track and arrested the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium in a move that was aimed at sending the revolution underground.

Francophone schools in both the South West and the North West regions have been accorded military surveillance and security guarantees to open their doors this coming Monday.  The Biya Francophone regime has shut down internet services in Southern Cameroons as a strategy to stifle the communication department of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium.

Senior Anglophone leaders including the Roman Catholic Bishops of Southern Cameroons are currently being bullied by the secret service. Southern Cameroons’s economy that revolves around farming and remittance from the Diaspora is completely grounded following the closure of all internet services in British Southern Cameroons.

Anglophone lawmakers many of whom were handpicked by the political elites at the time are presently helpless in the face of the killings, rape and torture going on in West Cameroon. The militarization of the entire Southern Cameroons territory by troops from La Republique du Cameroun has prompted West Cameroonians to be more anxious about security and the outlook for a transitioning economy.

 In a sign of change, one of the Southern Cameroon’s most powerful religious figures, the Synod Clerk of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon has called for the resistance to continue. Some traditional leaders have backed the Consortium and are calling for foreign intervention.

“There’s a line in the sand that has to be drawn,” revealed a prominent Anglophone elite based in Buea in the South West region.  The Consortium is urging Southern Cameroonians not to send their children to school and to respect the civil disobedience campaign which begins on Monday the 23rd of January.

The African Union has expressed concerns through its human rights commission on the situation in Southern Cameroons.  In a statement released late last night, the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium called on those in the Diaspora to make at least a phone call to their family members back home not to allow their kids to go to school.

By Rita Akana in Buea

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