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15, January 2020

Yaounde Clears Security Checks after Truckers Protests ⁰

Cameroon has bowed to pressure from truckers and is dismantling illegal roadblocks and check points from the country’s port city of Douala to the Chadian capital of N’Djamena. For more than a week, truckers refused to drive the route because of extortion at the checkpoints. Drivers have resumed full activity now that officials are listening to their complaints.

Cameroonian truck driver Ngaibai Bassirou drives his semi-trailer carrying building material out of the Ngaoundere truck stop in northern Cameroon on his way to the Chadian capital.

Ngaibai said after grounding his truck for 10 days he and 90 other truck drivers decided to resume deliveries because authorities in Cameroon are dismantling some of the illegal check points that extort money from him and his peers.

He said what made them very angry and stop transporting only basic goods like food and medication to Ndjamena was that they were spending up to $500 to pay their way through the many Illegal check points between Douala and Ndjamena and a similar amount on their way back.

Bassirou said truckers were surprised that after complaining to the government several times last year, the number of check points increased, and the money collected from truckers skyrocketed.

The truckers began their protest on January 2.

Aashir Issa, vice president of Chad’s National Trade Union of Truck Drivers, said Cameroon should not only dismantle the illegal check posts but should also make sure people who create such posts are punished.

FILE - A picture taken on March 15, 2018 shows a general view of the port of Douala, Cameroon. — FILE – A picture taken on March 15, 2018 shows a gneral view of the port of Douala, Cameroon.

He said the government should make sure the police, gendarmes and customs officers who mounted the illegal check points answer charges in courts of law. He said the dismantling of 15 unauthorized control posts in a distance of 70 kilometers within 12 hours indicates how truck drivers were severely exploited and that they are ready to indicate to the governor so many other illegal check points where transporters are harassed to give money without receipts.

Kildadi Tagueke Boukar, governor of Cameroon’s Adamawa region, where Ngaoundere is found, supervised the clearing of the check points. He said some of them were created by Cameroon security services for what they described as strategic reasons, but that such reasons cannot undermine a decision taken by Cameroon and Chad to regulate transport between the two countries.

In January of last year, Chad and the Central African Republic dispatched senior customs officials to Cameroon to look into the problem of the illegal checkpoints.

Chad and C.A.R. businesses threatened to start importing and exporting goods through Cotonou in Benin, although Douala is the nearest ocean gateway for the landlocked countries.

In March 2019, the transport ministers of Cameroon and Chad signed an agreement recognizing only one security check point on the road between Douala and Ndjamena.

Cameroon’s ministry of transport said it has reduced the number of check points along the road by 75 percent, and officials have promised to dismantle the rest.

Source: VOA

15, January 2020

African Bar Association weighs in on the Ambazonia Crisis ⁰

The President of the African Bar Association, AFBA, Hannibal Uwaifo, has, in a correspondence to the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Boris Johnson, suggested that an imposed solution to the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon, either through conquest or from a third party, will only mean more wars.

The AFBA President, thus, suggested a United Nations organised and supervised referendum for Southern Cameroonians to decide their fate. In the letter dated January 10, Hannibal Uwaifo bemoaned that the indifference of the international community and silence of major powers, has encouraged untold suffering and human rights violations to go on unabated in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon.

“Trenches have been dug and the Government of Cameroun has been encouraged to kill and imprison more as the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations and great countries like Great Britain, which handed the Southern Cameroon to Francophone Cameroun, have refused to speak decisively and hold the Cameroun Government accountable for crimes committed against defenceless citizens of Southern Cameroon,” the letter stated.

Asserting that there is no end in sight to the violence in the affected Regions, the African Bar President outlined that the Swiss-led dialogue process, encouraged by the international community, has, so far, been embraced only, by the “so-called Separatists.”

He went further to remark that the Cameroun Government has, so far, not made known its stance on the Swiss-led mediation process. In his correspondence to the British Prime Minister, AFBA’s Hannibal Uwaifo also detailed the historical background of the conflict. He cited various highpoints in the history of the two Cameroons, the decolonisation process, the referendums, the terms of the proposed union between the two States and other relevant high points.

On the way forward, the African Bar President, speaking on behalf of the Executive Councils of the African Bar Association, proposed a referendum for Southern Cameroonians to decide their fate. He wrote: “Given all these considerations, the African Bar Association is of the strong opinion that, rather than third party suggesting solutions for a problem which they are not suffering, the best and most transparent and democratic solution would be a UN-organised referendum in the British Southern Cameroons, for its people to pronounce themselves on whether they wish to continue to live under Cameroon; to form some kind of association with Cameroon, documented by treaty, or to govern themselves within their own internationally defined territory.

Citing practical examples, AFBA’s President further stated: “Scotland, Quebec, New Caledonia, Bougainville, the UK itself within the European Union, South Sudan and many other countries, have resorted to referenda to settle such supreme matters of interest to their people. There is no reason to deny the people of Southern Cameroons a similar opportunity for this supreme matter. We firmly believe that the people should be given a chance to speak for themselves. This will automatically lead to a ceasefire. The conditions for such a referendum can be worked out to ensure transparency and fairness.”

On the second option, Hannibal Uwaifo, on behalf of African lawyers, suggested that, if any of the parties to the conflict is uncomfortable with the referendum option, the second best option will be for the matter to be settled at the International Court of Justice, ICJ. Here, he said, the ICJ will decide on; “… whether the territory of the Southern Cameroons belongs to the Republic of Cameroon or the people of the British Southern Cameroons.”

Source: Cameroon Info.Net

15, January 2020

French Cameroun surrogate insists elections must hold in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Barely 25 days to the February 9 Legislative and Municipal elections, the Board Chair of Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, Enow Abrams Egbe, says almost all the materials required for the polls are in place.

The ELECAM boss was speaking in Yaoundé Friday, January 10, during a working visit to the National Printing Press, the Military Air Base N° 101, and other institutions involved in the production of electoral materials. He was there to assess the progress of work done by the Commission in place.

The Chairperson of ELE- CAM was accompanied by the Director General of ELECAM, Board Members and other officials. “We are on a tour to evaluate the performance of the Director General and his team in terms of material preparations and we are very pleased that, at this moment, the work is well done. We have less than 28 days to go for elections and we can comfortably say now loud and clear that Elections will effectively take place on February 9 and all the polling stations will be furnished with all their electoral materials,” he said.

He equally lauded the Director General of ELECAM, Erik Essousse and his team, for a great job, while urging them to remain vigilant and concentrated to make sure that everything moves in the right direction. Talking about the electoral materials already in place and the various units, during the tour, the ELECAM Board Chair cited transparent ballot boxes, voters’ cards, polling materials, among other things.

The groups concerned are work throughout the day to ensure that all the electoral materials are de- livered to ELECAM latest January 25. SOPECAM has the contract to produce all the electoral materials for the Legislative and Council elections of five political parties. The materials include ballot papers and campaign materials.

The political parties include: the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM; Social Democratic Front, SDF; National Union for Democracy and Progress, NUDP; Alliance for Democracy and Development, ADD; and Cameroon National Salvation Front, CNSF.

The Director of the Production Department of SOPECAM said all the materials for the election of Members of the National Assembly have been produced and delivered to Elections Cameroon. The department, he said, was finalising those of the Municipal Councillors.

At the National Printing Press, work is almost done and sealed. The Director of the institution disclosed that, for the moment, they have the contract with ELECAM to produce envelopes for the election of Municipal Councillors. The different units are lodged in canopies that have been set up for the purpose of the elections. When each of the institutions finish producing the electoral materials, they are immediately handed to ELECAM teams that carry out controls to ascertain quality and quantity before the materials are transported to the Yaoundé 101 Airbase for deployment to the field.

Despite the progress made in the production of electoral materials, uncertainty still looms in the Northwest and Southwest Regions as kidnappings of opposition political party officials in recent week has been surging. There have been repeated threats from separatist fighters that elections will not hold in the Anglophone Regions in the heat of a war. But Government has insisted that the security of the electorates in guaranteed with the deployment of over 700 gendarmerie officers in the two Regions.

Source: Cameroon Info.Net

15, January 2020

US: Delta flight dumps fuel on Los Angeles school, 26 treated for minor injuries ⁰

A Delta Airlines jet making an emergency landing at Los Angeles International Airport dumped fuel on the playground of an elementary school in the flight path on Tuesday, inflicting minor injuries on 17 children and nine adults, local and federal authorities said.

All of the injuries at Park Avenue Elementary School in suburban Cudahy were said to be minor and none of the victims needed hospitalization, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said on Twitter.

“Shortly after takeoff, Flight 89 from LAX to Shanghai experienced an engine issue requiring the aircraft to return quickly to LAX. The aircraft landed safely after a release of fuel, which was required as part of normal procedure to reach a safe landing weight,” Delta said in a written statement.

“We are in touch with Los Angeles World Airports and the L.A. County Fire Department and share concerns regarding reported minor injuries to adults and children at a school in the area,” the airline said.

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a separate statement that it was “thoroughly investigating the circumstances” behind the incident and suggested the flight may not have followed fuel-dumping rules.

“There are special fuel-dumping procedures for aircraft operating into and out of any major US airport,” the agency said. “These procedures call for fuel to be dumped over designated unpopulated areas, typically at higher altitudes so the fuel atomizes and disperses before it reaches the ground.”

An unidentified girl covers her mouth as she leaves with a relative the Park Avenue Elementary school in Cudahy, California, on Tuesday, January 14, 2020. (Photo via AP)

The fire department said it had confirmed that jet fuel was the substance dropped on the school’s playground while students were at recess and that 70 firefighters were on the scene treating the injured.Other students had been evacuated from the elementary school following the incident, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s spokeswoman said.

Parents were notified to pick up their children near the school, which is about 16 miles east of the airport. Two streets were closed during the emergency response.

The mayor of Cudahy, Elizabeth Alcantar, said on Twitter the city had opened an emergency response center following the incident and would conduct a “townhall” meeting to provide more information.

(Source: Reuters)

15, January 2020

Sudan quells revolt of former agents after hours of gunfire in Khartoum ⁰

Sudan says it has quelled a revolt after hours of heavy gunfire between the government forces and former agents of president Omar al-Bashir in the capital Khartoum.

Gunfire erupted and some explosions were heard at some bases of the Directorate of General Intelligence Service, formerly known as the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) — the security arm of Bashir — early Tuesday afternoon, in what the government said was a violent mutiny over pay by members of the intelligence services.

Troops from operating centers of the intelligence started a rebellion in some parts of the capital, said government spokesman Faisal Mohamed Saleh.

He said a number of NISS troops had come out on the streets, set up barricades and opened fire in the air.

“This happened because those troops rejected the amount of money they got for their retirement,” Saleh said, adding that negotiations were being held.

Reuters quoted residents as saying that a security building was seized by gunmen near the airport.

A civilian walks past Sudan’s soldiers in the capital Khartoum, January 14, 2020. (Photo by Reuters)

The army said two soldiers were killed and five people injured in the gunfire. Medics said a 15-year-old boy and a soldier were among those wounded.

On Wednesday, the head of the sovereign council announced that it had reopened the airspace and that the army was in control of all intelligence buildings.

Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan also said he will never allow any coup to take place in the country.

Sudan’s prosecutor general called for removing the immunity of NISS troops involved in the revolt.

“Those members of the intelligence involved in what happened today have committed a crime … I call for their immunity to be removed so they can face justice,” the prosecutor general said.

The Forces of Freedom and Change — a key part of the transitional government — also said in a statement earlier on Tuesday that it was “assessing the situation.”

“We are calling on our people to be calm and not give a chance for those who want to drag our homeland into bloodshed,” it added.

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said in a Twitter message that the situation was under control and that “this will not stop us from achieving the goals of our revolution.”

People gather near the area where a gunfire erupted in the capital Khartoum, January 14, 2020. (Photo by Reuters)

A senior member of the ruling council, General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemeti, accused former intelligence chief Salah Gosh of being behind the rebellion.

He said he did not consider the unrest as a coup attempt, but such action would never be tolerated.

The former agents, who started the rebellion, were at the forefront of a bloody crackdown against demonstrations, which eventually led to the ouster of Bashir in April last year — 30 years after he took power in a coup.

At least 170 people were killed during the crackdown on demonstrations.

Late last year, a court sentenced Bashir to two years in prison for corruption and the illicit possession of sizable amounts of foreign currency.

The African country is now run by a transitional government, composed of military rulers as well as members of the protest movement.

Source: Presstv

14, January 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: The knife has turned inwards ⁰

When you dine and wine with the Yaoundé government, you must be very careful, as the government is a crime syndicate made out of the same mould as the Sicilian Mafia that sometimes carries out some internal cleansing.

For many years, the Yaoundé government has been conducting some purges and those purges have resulted in the imprisonment of many members of the ruling CPDM.

Prime Ministers, ministers and directors are all languishing in jail, proof that the Yaoundé crime syndicate does not spare anybody.

Today, it is the turn of the Fon of Balikumbat, a respected traditional ruler whose word is usually law to his people.

The game he is used to playing has finally become too dangerous even for his Yaoundé financiers who are now questioning his role in the ongoing armed conflict in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

The current Fon of Balikimbat in the Ngoketunjia Division of the North West Region was arrested on Tuesday, January 13, 2020 in Yaoundé.

He is being charged with many crimes and sins which could leave him in the dungeons of East Cameroon for a long time.

It is alleged that when the present Fon succeeded his father, he acquired a lot of arms under the watchful eyes of the Yaoundé government.

The newly minted Fon kept some of the sophisticated and dangerous arms for his personal security.

At the onset of the present crisis, the current Fon of Balikumbat selectively furnished some of his disgruntled youths with sophisticated weapons which are being used today to wreak havoc on army soldiers deployed to the North West Region.

Recently, the Minister of Territorial Administration and ex-convict, Paul Atanga Nji, forced the Fon to declare his allegiance to the Yaoundé crime syndicate.

This led to the Fon denouncing some of the the Amba fighters. The Fon sheepishly embarked on this mission which led to the arrest of some Amba fighters in the Ngoketunjia Division.

Under arrest and severe torture by the poorly trained armed forces, the Amba boys (brave Southern Cameroonian fighters) decided to provide proof of the Fon’s role in the struggle.

The boys revealed that most of the weapons had been handed to them during the early days of the struggle by the present Fon of Balikumbat.

The Yaoundé government conducted a so-called independent investigation, at the end of which, there was probable cause to arrest the Fon of Balikumbat.

He was arrested in Yaoundé on Tuesday and he is being accused of sponsoring and abetting armed groups in Southern Cameroons with the objective of destabilizing the country.

Sources close to the Fon have indicated that they do not know where the Fon is being held.

He has not yet been visited by a lawyer or human rights groups, but what is certain is that the Fon will not be going home anytime soon.

The Yaoundé government, which he flirted with for a long time, has suddenly become a millstone around his neck.

In trying to give up well trained Southern Cameroonian fighters to his Yaoundé master, he has ended up being hoisted with his own petals.

The knife has turned inwards and it is clear that the people of Balikumbat will have to look for a new Fon, as the current one will be with the thousands of Southern Cameroonian fighters languishing in the notorious Yaoundé maximum prison known by the population as Kondengui.

By Kingsley Betek in Cameroon

14, January 2020

‘Surviving was a miracle’: Iran’s missile attack on Iraq base ⁰

Waves of ballistic missiles, soldiers hunkered down in bunkers for hours, intense shock waves — a top US commander said he reacted to Iran’s unprecedented attack against an Iraqi base with “disbelief”.

In an exclusive interview with AFP at the Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq, Lt. Colonel Tim Garland said his superiors had given him “a couple hours of advance warning” last Tuesday night that an attack by Iran was coming.

“My first reaction was shock, initial disbelief,” he said, sceptical that Iran would be capable, and willing, to conduct a bold attack on Ain al-Asad.

The airbase was targeted in retaliation for the US killing top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad on January 3.

The base is one of the largest in Iraq, with 1,500 US troops making up the bulk of a coalition presence directly adjacent to thousands of Iraqi forces.

Getting those forces to safety was an act of quick thinking and coordination across the army and air force commanders at Ain al-Asad, Garland said.

By 11:00pm (2000 GMT), US and coalition forces had evacuated from their sleeping quarters and offices, and were hiding out either in fortified bunkers or dispersed across the base.

They waited, tense, for over two hours.

But not even their commander expected the strength of the blasts that came next.

“When the first round came in, it was the loudest, most powerful noise I’ve ever heard,” Garland told AFP.

– Shockwave ‘bowed door’ –

“There’s something unnatural about the air. The way it moved, the way it heated up; the shock wave that came in and bowed the door in and bowed it back out,” he said.

Starting at 1:35am and for the next three hours, around five volleys of ballistic missiles slammed into the base at varying intervals.

“I have not been that scared for a long time. It’s been a while,” said Garland, who has served multiple tours in Iraq.

“We didn’t know what it was going to look like — if there was going to be a carpet bombing effect,” he added.

When the strikes quietened around 4:00am, commanders and soldiers emerged from their bunkers to fires burning across the base, more than a dozen impact sites but — miraculously — no casualties.

Two soldiers who had been in guard towers were blown out of their positions but only suffered concussion, the commander said.

“How they survived was a miracle of God,” Garland remarked.

He said the volleys that hit the base were timed in such a way as to trick soldiers into thinking the bombing was over.

“It was just enough time to make you feel safe. It was my opinion that it was intended to inflict casualties,” said Garland.

Hossein Salami, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said on Sunday the missiles it fired in the early hours of Wednesday were not aimed at killing American personnel.

By Monday, most of the impact sites had been cleared.

A bulldozer was piling up the last of the twisted metal and debris from the last site, located by the base’s airfield.

A soldiers’ living quarters had been totally pulverised and still smelt of charred metal.

Soldiers who lived there told AFP they had lost all their personal belongings — clothes, books, pictures of their families and mementos they had carried through more than a decade in the military.

But given the intensity of the strikes, Garland said, they were lucky.

“Theatre ballistic missile strikes. That’s unprecedented,” he said.

Source: AFP

14, January 2020

Football: Barca sacks Valverde, appoints Setien ⁰

Spanish champions Barcelona has sacked its coach Ernesto Valverde and appointed Quique Setien, the club announced Monday.

The decision to remove Valverde was confirmed following a board meeting that last over 4 hours.

Barca top the La Liga, but have only won one of their last five matches. Valverde is the first coach the club has sacked mid-season since Louis van Gall in 2003.

Setien was presented at a press conference at Camp Nou on Tuesday afternoon. In a statement, the club said ‘‘Barcelona and Setien have reached an agreement for the latter to become first team coach until 30 June 2022’‘, it said.

‘‘Setien is one of the most experienced coaches in Spanish football. Throughout his career, he has been a proponent of possession based, attacking football that has been attractive to the fans”, it added.

Setien’s first game will be at home to Granada on Sunday.

Barcelona will play Napoli in the last 16 of the Champions League next month and Real Madrid in the league at the start of March.

AFP

14, January 2020

7 Christians killed as Boko Haram strikes villages in French Cameroun ⁰

At least seven Christians were killed as gangs of around 300 Boko Haram militants raided five Christian villages in Far North Cameroon, reports a Barnabas contact.

In the first attacks, which began late at night on 6 January, two men were killed and two children kidnapped when heavily armed militants invaded the village of Hitere, Tourou district. Hitawa village, in the same district, was also raided and looted.

In Moudokou village, Moskota district, three Christians were killed in a raid and a ten-year-old boy was kidnapped. Another Christian man was murdered by the Islamists in an attack on Guitsenad village.

A survivor of the recent brutal Boko Haram attacks sits in a church in one of the villages in Far North Cameroon

On 7 January, a seventh Christian was murdered in a Boko Haram assault on a fifth village, Guedjelé in Koza district.

The two church buildings used by the affected communities were sabotaged and burnt.

Eyewitness reports described heavily armed militants encircling villages and shouting and chanting menacingly throughout the night. In the prolonged attacks, the militants swept through the communities breaking into homes to kill, loot, burn and destroy.

A local pastor pleaded for prayer, “We don’t know what to do. Pray for those who lost their beloved. Pray also for little children left without even clothes.”

At least ten Christians were murdered in an intense wave of Boko Haram attacks late in 2019. Seven were killed and 21 children and young adults were kidnapped in Mayo Sava district in December. In November, a 12-year old Christian schoolboy was hacked to death when he resisted militants’ attempt to abduct him as a “child soldier” during a raid on Tourou district. Earlier the same month pioneering pastor, David Mokoni, and a hearing-impaired Christian boy were killed when militants attacked their church in Moskota village.

Source: Barnabas Fund

14, January 2020

Bundes: Berlin to invest 62 bn euros by 2030 to modernise rail network ⁰

The German government on Tuesday agreed to pump 62 billion euros into modernising its rail network system, as part of a wider plan to incite commuters to opt for greener public transport options.

“We’ve just signed the most important programme of modernisation ever in Germany,” said Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer, adding that “this is the decade for railway”.

Besides the massive sum stumped up by the state, equivalent to $69 billion, German rail operator Deutsche Bahn will also plow an additional 24 billion euros into the renewal programme.

The investments will go towards “replacing obsolete installations”, improving access to disabled passengers as well as renovating rail bridges, said Scheuer.

Deutsche Bahn chief Richard Lutz also vowed to improve punctuality of trains — a key turn-off for commuters, even though he also called for patience in view of the disruptions that rail upgrading will undoubtedly bring.

Getting more people to switch to trains instead of the more polluting cars or planes is a central plank of a government climate package aimed at helping Germany lower its emissions by 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.

As part of the package, train fares are going down while air travel prices are set to rise with higher taxes to be imposed.

Source: AFP