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23, August 2016

Nigeria: 30 gunboats, patrol vessel commissioned by the Navy ⁰

The Nigerian Navy has commissioned 30 locally made and nine Sri Lankan gunboats into service, and unveiled an indigenous 38 metre long patrol vessel. The vessels were commissioned in Lagos on 17 August in a ceremony attended by Ministry of Defence Permanent Secretary Danjuma Sheni and Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ete-Ibas, amongst others. The 30 gunboats, which are 8.2 metres long, were built by the Epenal Boat Yard in Port Harcourt. Officials said they would be used to patrol the Niger Delta. The vessels displayed last Wednesday appear to be armed with ST Kinetics 40AGL automatic grenade launchers.

Sheni said another 20 of the locally built gunboats would be delivered to the Nigerian Navy. Ete-Ibas was reported by local media as saying that said the Epenal-built boats were an improvement on 30 others unveiled in Port Harcourt in February and featured modifications that improved sea-keeping, amongst others. He said the vessels contribute to Nigeria’s national security and prosperity and come at half the cost of acquiring vessels from overseas, something that is important as “mounting operational challenges in the face of [the] progressively dwindling economy necessitated the navy to explore more cost saving options through local construction of these patrol boats.”

Nine of the boats were earlier acquired second hand from Sri Lanka for $4.2 million. They were handed over on 6 May in a ceremony in Sri Lanka. According to the Sri Lankan Navy, six Arrow class boats and three Wave Rider class boats were handed over in what the Navy said was its first international defence sale. The 14.5 metre long and 3.5 metre wide inshore patrol craft are powered by two 350 HP engines. They are equipped with a radar system, GPS and electronic compass. The contract included training for Nigerian personnel in Sri Lanka.

In addition to the smaller gunboats, the Nigerian Navy will receive a locally built patrol boat, which was apparently also commissioned last week. NNS Karaduwa is the second Seaward Defence Boat to be built in Nigeria and is 38.9 metres long. In June 2012 the Nigerian Navy commissioned the NNS Andoni, Nigeria’s first locally built warship, into service, and laid the keel for the second Seaward Defence Boat. The 33 metre NNS Andoni had its keel laid at the Naval Dockyard in December 2007, with full construction beginning in January the following year.

Also seen at the Nigerian Naval Dockyard last week was the Ekpe-class patrol boat NNS Damisa and two of the three Combattante IIIB vessels, which were having work carried out at the dry dock. Several other vessels were also seen in Channels Television footage at the yard, including a Yola-class patrol boat.

Senate Committee Chairman on the Navy, Isa Aman-Isa, was reported by Nigeria’s National Daily Newspaper as saying “our plan is to increase the [naval] platforms with the hope that the force would get more from the loan from China-African relations of about $60 billion. In the 2017 budget, we have started making adequate provision for the navy to get more funding. By next year, the issue of Niger Delta Avengers would be a thing of the past.”

Last week the Nigerian government contracted Almarine, a division of John Holt Plc, to manufacture naval vessels, reports This Day. The company said it would manufacture gunboats, as well as ambulance boats, patrol boats and transport boats that may be needed by the Nigerian Navy.

Defenceweb

23, August 2016

Camair-Co: Ernest Dikum takes command ⁰

After stagger-a-staggering with Jean Nana Sandjo, the Biya Francophone Beti-Ewondo regime finally decided to move away from their man. At the end of the extraordinary board meeting of Camair-Co that held on Monday, August 22, 2016, Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o, the head of the transport sector in Cameroon announced that 49 years old Ernest Dikum was the new general manager of the company.

Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o reportedly profiled the new GM of Camair-Co at the end of the Douala session and assigned new objectives. Said the Transport Minister “Ernest Dikum is a great specialist in air transport. He is also an experienced man whose skills and qualifications in the field of air transport are proven and universally recognized.”

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that after graduating from the Higher Institute of Tourism and Economy in Rabat, Morocco, Ernest Dikum in 1992, got an additional qualification in the management of database systems from a Computer Institute in the United States in 1996. This was followed by an MBA at Usa College in partnership with Coventry University in Britain in 2013.

His professional experience and expertise are particularly eloquent which explains why President Paul Biya decided to entrust the General Directorate of Camair-Co to him. Ernest Dikum has an outstanding career with Emirates airline, which is considered one of the best in the world. Within this renowned company, Mr. Ndikum has held since 2004, many strategic positions in relation to the African markets including the position of Regional Director for the West Africa region and Sahelian Senegal.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

22, August 2016

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy announces ambition to reconquer Élysée ⁰

Nicolas Sarkozy has announced he will seek his party’s nomination to stand in next year’s French presidential election. The rightwinger, who was nicknamed “the hyper-president” for his frenetic term in power from 2007 to 2012, had made no secret of his ambition to reconquer the Élysée palace and avenge his 2012 defeat by the Socialist François Hollande

After weeks of suspense in which he grabbed media headlines by presenting an increasingly hardline stance on national identity and the place of Islam in France, Sarkozy launched his campaign with an announcement on social media and a link to the first chapter of a book, Everything for France, which he will publish this week.

“The next five years will be filled with danger but also with hope,” he wrote. He listed what he said were the five major challenges facing France, including defending French identity, restoring lost competitiveness and enforcing state authority.

Sarkozy said France’s “top battle” was over how “to defend our lifestyle without being tempted to cut ourselves off from the rest of the world”.

In his fight to win his party’s nomination, the 61-year-old candidate is putting forward a platform of policies that veer even further to the far right than in 2012, when he set out to win over voters from Marine Le Pen’s Front National.

He wants to ban the Muslim headscarf from universities and public companies, limit the French nationality rights of children born to foreign parents, and Alain Juppé meaning Muslim and Jewish children would no longer be offered a substitute meal.

He has also scoffed at what he called “legal niceties” in the fight against terrorism, prompting the left to warn that his treatment of suspected jihadis could be akin to that of Guantánamo Bay.

For the first time, the French right and centre is holding an open contest to choose its presidential candidate. Anyone on the electoral register can vote if they pay €2 (£1.72) and sign a pledge saying they adhere to “the values of the right and centre”. Up to three or four million people could turn out to vote in the two-round ballot on 20 and 27 November.

Sarkozy is the challenger and not the favourite in the right’s primary race. The leader in the polls and currently France’s favourite politician is Alain Juppé the mayor of Bordeaux and a former prime minister, who served as Sarkozy’s foreign minister.

Juppé, 71, has undergone a staggering image transformation. Twenty years ago he was the most loathed prime minister in modern times after his pension changes brought 2 million people on to the streets in protest. Now he is seen as a calm, elder statesman and a moderate, pushing pro-business structural reform and less divisive on identity issues.

Sarkozy believes that the climate of fear and anxiety in France after the deaths of more than 230 people in terrorist attack claimed by Islamists in the past 19 months means the nation needs a man of authority such as himself.

One hurdle for Sarkozy beyond winning over right and centre-right sympathisers is his lasting unpopularity among the wider French population who still dislike his abrasive personality and his hard-to-shake-off label of “president of the rich”.

He must also get around his lacklustre economic record in office – he promised to restore the values of work and reward, yet left France with many more unemployed – as well as judicial investigations into party financing relating to his 2012 presidential campaign, in which he denies any wrongdoing.

The Guardian

22, August 2016

Cameroon Airlines-Camair-Co: From Boom to Bust ⁰

Some 34 years ago, Cameroon Airline Company was flying high. The Ahmadou Ahidjo responsible leadership led to a booming economy and made Cameroon Airline Company the fastest growing and the city of Douala the most competitive aviation market in West and Central Africa. The company acquired new carriers and bought new jets. To be sure, Cameroon Airlines ordered Boeing and Airbus jetliners worth millions of dollars.

On November the 6^th 1982, the office of the president of the republic changed hands from Ahmadou Ahidjo to Biya Paul in a peaceful atmosphere. There was no global recession but a sharp increase in passenger numbers (top CPDM government officials, their wives, children, mistresses and housemaids) traveling to and from Europe without paying a dime to the airlines company. This was bad news for Cameroon Airlines, sad for the Cameroonian people but joy to the new comers in government. It was the beginning of rigor and moralization of the Cameroon airlines company.

Cameroon Airlines was plagued by financial difficulties, which came along with a poor safety and maintenance record. On 16 September 2005, the airline was indefinitely banned by the French Civil Aviation Authority from operating its prestigious Paris route due to safety concerns that had arisen following aircraft check-ups that had revealed failures to meet international norms in the loading, transport of dangerous materials, navigation documentation and tire maintenance.

In an effort to save the airline from bankruptcy, the Biya regime signed an agreement with SN Air holding, the parent company of Brussels Airlines to ensure the future funding. The plans did not materialize, though. Instead, on 11 September 2006, the launch of Camair-Co as new national airline was announced. Cameroon Airlines stayed operational until March 2008, though flight operations had only taken place during irregular intervals over these last years. Things have taken a dramatic u turn and we of this publication can now reveal that the so-called Camair-Co has only two planes. The small flight which runs the Douala-Baffoussam route and the 114 seater that goes to the Northern regions.

Camair-Co’s Boeing 767-300 code named (The Dja), which recently returned to Cameroon after six months of inactivity following a routine technical control with the Ethiopian Airline hangar in Addis Abba, is now stagger-a-staggering. After very intensive and productive investigation following a leak published by Alafnet.com,Cameroon Intelligence Report wishes to sound a note of caution that air passengers should avoid using Camair-Co’s Boeing 767-300.

The aircraft cockpit of the Dja completely destroyed by water which entered through a window that was deliberately left open will cost the company billions of FCFA. We understand that there is a war currently going on between the Minister Edgar Alain Mebo Ngo’o faction and the Akame Mfoumou gang. There are reports that Camair-Co plans to put the Dja back on the skies without proper technical checks. President Biya is aware of the situation through one of his relatives serving with the company in Douala. Camair-Co’s unofficial debt stands at 74 billion FCFA, though Transport Minister Alain Mebo Ngo’o keeps incessantly flashing out signals to the Cameroonian people that it is below 40billions FCFA.

Our intelligence officers who have been working on this Camair-Co saga hinted that the “Dja Window Rain Water” incident remains a diabolic harsh in-house ploy to enable the general manager, Jean Nana Sandjo lease an aircraft through AJW leasing company for the Hajj pilgrimage.

At the time of the window neglect accident in Douala, Jean Nana Sandjo was already in France negotiating with the AJW Group for a plane. Curiously, Nana Sandjo is the representative of the said leasing company and banks a 6 %commission on every deal with Camair-co. Jean Nana Sandjo’s list of financial crimes is long involving too many dodgy deals.

This is more bad news for Cameroon as Jean Nana Sandjo, an acolyte of Eduard Akame Mfoumou-a behind the scene baron of the CPDM regime has pushed Camair-Co to be weighed down by overcapacity, debt and the CPDM government’s willingness to provide bailouts running to the tune of 200 billion FCFA. With just 2 carriers, Camair-Co has been forced to slash their operations and reduce ticket prices. Cameroon aviation is badly in need of a regime change-a decent Anglophone citizen to run the affairs of this company.

The Southern Cameroons change will include deferring aircraft deliveries, cancelling orders, rationalizing routes and trimming staff to stave off financial collapse. Our chief economic correspondent noted that it’s going to be tough, but it can be done if Biya mean business. Our nation is at the mercy of Biya, his family and his appointees. Every aspect of Cameroon’s economic life has been hardest hit by the consortium of CPDM crime syndicates.

CPDM officials say Camair-Co may smile again and resume normal operations once another bailout package is made available by the ministry of transport. But Alfred Bate Bawak former CPDM UK Section Vice President say that it may be difficult because the industry has yet to solve a basic problem: too many airlines such as Air France, Air Brussels, Ethiopian Air Lines flying too many flights in a country that, despite its economic growth, is relatively poor.

Lowering fares may attract more African travellers but it may not improve the overall financial health of the industry controlled by corrupt officials. To make profits, Camair-Co needs an Anglophone marketer at the head to shift business models. Above all, Camair-Co has to think, act, breathe and be low cost. That doesn’t happen overnight with an 84 years old man as chief executive.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

22, August 2016

Nigeria: Boko Haram down but far from over ⁰

The Takfiri Boko Haram terrorist group has invaded a village in Nigeria, killing at least ten people and abducting 13 others before burning down the entire village. The terrorists riding on motorcycles opened fire on residents in Kubrrivu village near the northeast town of Chibok at dawn on Saturday, locals said on Sunday.

Residents said the militants attacked the village as residents slept, adding they burnt down the whole village after looting food supplies and livestock and taking away women and children. A community elder said seven women, five boys and a girl were abducted by the violent group which has pledged allegiance to Daesh terrorists in the Middle East.

The terrorist group first raided the village in 2014, during which the villagers were forced to flee. The residents returned and reconstructed their homes one year later after Nigerian troops retook swathes of territory from the terrorists. Boko Haram has been active in Nigeria since 2002, but its attacks had not been significant until 2010, when the gunmen managed to free 700 inmates from a prison in Bauchi and raid a mosque in Maiduguri.

This file photo taken on March 25, 2016 shows Nigerian soldiers in Damboa, Borno State northeast Nigeria. ©AFP

Boko Haram in Nigeria: A timeline of events

September 2010: In a prison break in Bauchi, militants free 700 inmates.

May-December 2011: The group intensifies terror attacks by raiding government officials, police officers, students and religious leaders.

January, 20, 2012: Terrorists carry out a series of coordinated attacks in Nigeria’s largest city of Kano, killing almost 200 people

April 2012: They attack a church in in Kaduna, killing at least 38 people.

June 2012: Militants attack three churches in Kaduna, killing at least 19 people.

August 2012: Gunmen raid a church in Kogi State, killing 19 people.

December, 2012: More than 40 people are killed in separate attacks in the country.

April 2013: Boko Haram insurgency kills more than 200 people in the city of Baga in the northeastern state of Borno.

May 2013: At least 200 heavily armed militants raid the northeastern town of Bama, killing dozens of people and freeing 100 militants from a prison. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan declares a state of emergency in the northeast.

May 2013: Nigeria announces a military offensive in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe against the terrorists.

June 2013: In a series of attacks, Boko Harm raids several churches in different states and kills more than 50 people.

September 17, 2013: Gunmen kill 143 people by dressing in military uniforms and staging a fake checkpoint near Benisheik in Borno.

November 13, 2013: The US State Department announces Boko Haram as a terrorist organization.

January 2014: Gunmen kill at least 45 people in a raid on a market in Kawuri in Borno.

April 14, 2014: Militants abduct more than 250 teenage girls from a boarding school in Chibok. Some of the girls, however, manage to escape.

May 13, 2014: Terrorists raid three villages in Borno. Villagers fight and kill more than 200 militants.

May 20, 2014: Twin bomb blasts kill 118 people at a market in the city of Jos.

May 21, 2014: The US declares that it has sent 80 troops to Chad to help search for the kidnapped schoolgirls.

May 2014: The United Nations Security Council imposes sanctions against Boko Haram.

June 3,4, 2014: Boko Haram militants kill hundreds of people in Borno. Some sources put the death toll at 500.

June 2014: Militants hold a village in Borno hostage for four days. They kidnap over 60 women and children and kill 30 men.

October 16, 2014: The Nigerian government says it has reached a ceasefire agreement with Boko Haram under which the militants pledged to release schoolgirls.

November 1, 2014: In a video, Boko Haram’s leader denies the government’s claim of a ceasefire.

March 7, 2015: Boko Haram pledges allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

April 2015: Mass graves of at least 400 men and women are found in northeastern Nigeria.

April 28-30, 2015: Nigerian forces destroy Boko Haram camps and rescue some 450 women and girls in an operation in Sambisa Forest.

July 1, 2015: Gunmen storm three villages in Borno, killing at least 145 people.

September 3, 2015: At least 30 people are killed and 145 wounded after Boko Haram attacks a crowded market in Kerawa, Cameroon and a hospital near a Cameroonian military camp.

February 2016: Mlitants raid two villages in northeast Nigeria, killing at least 30 people. In another attack, two female bombers kill 58 people at a Nigerian refugee camp for villagers fleeing the insurgency.

April 14, 2016: Boko Haram releases a video purportedly showing the girls abducted from Chibok in 2014.

This image taken from a video released on August 14, 2016 shows a Boko Haram militant standing in front of teenage girls kidnapped from Chibok in April 2014. ©AFP

In the April footage, one of the militants claimed that some of the girls were still alive and the others had been killed in airstrikes by the Nigerian air force. He said a number of the girls, “about 40 of them”, had also been married to the militants.

Last year, Amnesty International said at least 2,000 women and girls had been kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria since the beginning of 2014, and many of them forced into sexual slavery or combat.

Presstv

21, August 2016

Nigeria: Niger Delta Avengers announces ceasefire, says it supports holding talks with Abuja ⁰

The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), known for its attacks on Nigeria’s oil installations, has announced a ceasefire, saying it will support the notion of holding talks with the government in Abuja. The group said in a message on its website late Saturday that it would support efforts to negotiate with “the federal government of Nigeria, representatives from the home countries of all multinational oil corporations and neutral international mediators.” It said NDA would “observe a cessation of hostilities” and will honor its pledge “unless the ruling political APC (All Progressives Congress party) continues … to arrest, intimidate, invade and harass innocent citizens and invade especially Ijaw communities.”

The Ijaw ethnic people are the dominant militant group in the southern Niger Delta region. They have vowed to resume fighting if the current window for talks expires and the government fails to address their demands. “We promise to fight more for the Niger Delta, if this opportunity fails,” the NDA said in its message. Attacks on Nigeria’s oil pipeline and facilities have left a devastating impact on the African country’s economy. Reports say Abuja has lost a third of its oil income as a result of the militancy affecting its oil facilities.

The government blamed two such attacks on Friday on the DNA while a second group, identifying itself as the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate (NDGJM), carried out another attack on the state-owned pipeline on the same day. The DNA has yet to comment on reports that it has been holding talks with government representatives in Abuja over the past weeks. The group has also refused to publicly support efforts by community figures from the Niger Delta region to resolve the conflict.

Presstv

21, August 2016

Breaking: Horror in Mora as Boko Haram strikes again ⁰

Boko Haram militants have struck Cameroon again. The suicide attack took place today Sunday, August 21, 2016, in the town of Mora, capital of Mayo-Sava Division, located just over 80 km from Maroua, the chief city in the Far North region.

Our chief correspondent in the Far North say at least 5 people including the bomber have been pronounced dead. We also gathered that 25 people have life threatening injuries from the blast and a dozen more were seriously affected.

The death toll is expected to rise in the coming hours as first aid did not arrive on time. The kamikaze attack took place not far from the entrance of the main market of the city, where traders had gathered to buy cargoes of onions. The suicide bomber detonated his device near a group of traders.

The attack comes at a time when the Cameroon army recently announced the weakening of Boko Haram, which has pledged allegiance to the organization of the Islamic state and is now called Islamic state in Africa.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai with files from Sama Ernest

21, August 2016

Former US navy officer who published book on the killing of Osama Bin Laden forced to give up all profits ¹

A former Navy Seal who penned a bestselling book about his role in the killing of Osama Bin Laden has to pay $7m to the US government. Matt Bissonette violated a non-disclosure agreement by failing to get clearance from the Pentagon for his book No Day Easy, which was published in 2012. Mr Bissonette has now agreed to give up all profits and royalties as well as any film rights or speaking fees.

The government has agreed to dismiss other liability claims as part of the agreement, in which he has to pay the equivalent of £5m. Bin Laden – the leader of terror group al-Qaeda – was killed in a raid on his compound in Pakistan in 2011 and buried at sea.

The school wine built: Boozing Brits help children in Argentina through Fairtrade range Navy Seals traditionally abide by a code of silence and do not speak publicly about their actions. Mr Bissonette accepted he had failed to enter his book for review by the Pentagon at a district court in the state of Virginia.

In a statement, he apologised and said he had been acting on the incorrect advice of his lawyer. “It was a serious error that I urge others not to repeat,” he said. “Although I never intended to endanger my former colleagues, I now recognise that failing to seek pre-publication review could place them and their families at greater risk, for which I especially apologise.” The Mirror

20, August 2016

Race for the White House: New Poll shows 8-percentage point lead by Clinton over Trump ⁰

US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has taken an 8-percentage point lead over her Republican rival, Donald Trump, in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential race, according to a new poll. The Reuters/Ipsos poll, released on Friday evening, shows the former secretary of state has 42 percent of the votes as compared to the New York billionaire having only a 34-percent support. Another 23 percent wouldn’t pick either candidate.

However, Clinton’s lead over Trump slimmed slightly in a four-way match-up that included Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein. She received 41 percent to his 34 percent. In that scenario, Johnson earned 7 percent, while Stein bagged 2 percent. The poll was conducted from August 14 to 18 among a national sample of 1,118 of adults and 1,119 likely voters. The margin of error for both samples is 3 points. Reuters noted that at this point of the race four years ago, President Barack Obama was leading his Republican challenger Mitt Romney by less than 2 points.

According to Pew Research Center poll, released on Thursday, a majority of Americans hold an unfavorable view of Trump, with 55 percent saying he would make a poor or terrible president, while 45 percent saying the same about Clinton. Thirty-one percent say Clinton would make a good or great president, while 27 percent say the same of Trump. Those who back Trump say, 81 percent to 11 percent, that life is worse now for US citizens than it was 50 years ago. However, Clinton supporters — 59 percent — say life is better than five decades ago and 19 percent say it is worse.

Presstv

20, August 2016

Maroua: Fire consumes Red Cross ware house ⁰

A fire has consumed the Maroua Red Cross ware house. All the medical stocks of the international Red Cross society in a warehouse situated in the Kosseyel beiy neighborhood in Maroua have been reduced to ashes by fire.

The rest of the humanitarian support items estimated at tens of thousands of tons would have also gone on flames were it not for the intervention of the Maroua rescue and firefighting brigade.

CRTV