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27, December 2019

African Football: CAF reschedules AFCON start date to January from June ⁰

The president of CAF Ahmad Ahmad is said to have confirmed that the starting date of the 2021 AFCON to be hosted by Cameroon will see a major back track from June to January.

CAF had before this year shifted the date to mid year, reason why this year’s competition in Egypt was played in June.

CAF has sited unfavorable climatic conditions in Cameroon to buttress the decision which many pundits believe could pin the host nation once again to the wall.

Remember Cameroon was to host the 2019 edition of the AFCON but was stripped off their rights owing to lateness in completing the host facilities among others.

As things stand Cameroon has just about 12 months to completely be ready and host the competition in January 2021.

Source: Africa News

27, December 2019

At least 30 killed in clashes between militia, traders in Central African Republic ⁰

At least 30 people were killed in fighting between militiamen and traders in a restive district of Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, a security official and a local imam said Thursday.

“Thirty bodies have been brought to the mosque,” said Awad Al Karim, the imam of the Ali Babolo mosque in a district called PK5 that became a haven for many Bangui Muslims at the peak of Christian-Muslim clashes in the country.

A security official, who asked to remain anonymous, also put the number of dead at at least 30, without providing any further details.

The fighting began after traders in the district took up arms to oppose taxes levied by militia groups, the imam said.

Bursts of automatic fire and explosions were heard on Wednesday evening and on Thursday morning, according to an AFP journalist who was in a neighbouring district.

The head of the African Red Cross, Antoine Mbaobogo, said the toll “stood at 23 at 4:00 pm (3:00pm GMT) but could now be 33,” adding that there were still bodies near the market.

Neither the UN peacekeeping force MINUSCA nor the CAR authorities have been able to assert control over the PK5 district.

And MINUSCA did not provide any exact toll from the fighting, saying only there had been “dozens of victims”.

MINUSCA spokesman, Bili Aminou Alao, said a rapid response force had been sent to the area.

“Part of the market and some vehicles have been burned,” he said.

“Between 40 and 50 shops have been burned down, as well as four or five houses,” said Patrick Bidilou Niabode, head of the CAR’s civil protection service.

Voluntary firefighters put out two fires which had been spreading in the market but were unable to tackle a blaze at two houses because of heavy gunfire, he added.

Powder keg

The CAR is one of the world’s poorest and most volatile countries.

It has been gripped by sporadic violence since 2014, after then-president Francois Bozize was ousted in a coup.

Fierce fighting then erupted between predominantly Christian and Muslim militia, prompting the intervention of former colonial power France, under a UN mandate.

Attempts to broker a lasting peace have repeatedly broken down and most of the country lies in the hands of armed groups, who often fight over the country’s mineral resources.

The PK5 district is a powder keg. In April 2018, MINUSCA, responding to appeals by local traders, launched an anti-militia operation named Sukula (“Clean-up” in the CAR language of Sango).

The operation ended bloodily with the death of about 30 people and a hundred wounded, sparking a wave of anger among local people.

The CAR’s long conflict has forced nearly a quarter of the country’s 4.7 million people to flee their homes.

The United Nations estimated in September that two thirds of the population depends on humanitarian aid to survive.

The country is ranked next-to-last after Niger on the 2018 UNDP’s Human Development Index, which compares longevity, education, and income per capita. Life expectancy is just 52.9 years.

(AFP)

27, December 2019

Israel: Netanyahu wins Likud vote, set to helm party into next general election ⁰

Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a “huge” victory Friday, after winning a leadership primary that ensures he will lead his right-wing Likud party into March elections.

Israel’s longest-serving premier, who faces a corruption indictment and a third general election in twelve months, was expected to beat rival Gideon Saar but the convincing margin of victory strengthened his position in the party he has dominated for 20 years.

With all votes counted, Likud announced early Friday that Netanyahu had secured 72.5 percent, with Saar winning 27.5 percent.

“A huge win! Thank you to Likud members for their trust, support and love,” Netanyahu tweeted.

“With God’s and your help, I will lead Likud to a big victory in the upcoming elections and we will continue to lead the State of Israel to unprecedented achievements,” he added.

Around 57,000 Likud members cast their ballots across the country throughout Thursday a little less than 50 percent of those eligible.

Saar, a former minister seen as to the right of Netanyahu, campaigned on the basis that the leader was no longer able to win elections after deadlocked polls in April and September.

“I am content with my decision to have stood. Those who are unwilling to take a risk for what they believe in will never succeed,” Saar tweeted.

“My colleagues and I will stand behind (Netanyahu) in campaigning for the Likud’s success,” he added.

He announced his leadership challenge last month after Israel’s attorney general indicted the prime minister for fraud, bribery and breach of trust.

Netanyahu, 70, denies the allegations, accusing the police, prosecutors and the media of a witch hunt.

Stephan Miller, a pollster who has worked on multiple Israeli campaigns, said Netanyahu had campaigned harder than ever before to defeat Saar.

Netanyahu held multiple campaign events a day in different parts of the country, while on Thursday his Facebook page broadcast live video of him phoning supporters.

In the campaign’s most dramatic moment on Wednesday, Netanyahu was rushed off stage at a rally in Ashkelon in southern Israel after a rocket was fired from the nearby Palestinian enclave of Gaza.

“His job was on the line and he fought to keep it successfully,” Miller said.

Immunity focus

Netanyahu’s downfall has been predicted multiple times since he was elected for a second term in 2009, but he has defied expectations and beaten off multiple potential rivals.

He will likely remain prime minister at least until new elections on March 2.

Likud and the centrist Blue and White were near neck-and-neck after polls in March and September, with neither able to form a coalition under the country’s proportional system.

Early polls indicate that the third round could again be a stalemate.

In the short term, attention will now turn to Netanyahu’s legal woes.

Netanyahu is accused of corruption in three separate cases, ranging from receiving illegal gifts worth thousands of dollars to offering to change regulatory framework in exchange for positive media coverage.

On Tuesday the country’s supreme court is expected to hold a hearing on whether a prime minister that has been indicted can form a government.

Under current understanding of the law, a prime minister is only forced to step down once convicted with all appeals exhausted.

Netanyahu also has until January 1 to decide if he will ask parliament for immunity.

Gayil Talshir, a professor of politics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said the result could embolden Netanyahu in his campaign against the charges.

“He is going to argue that the people chose him and not the mechanisms and the judiciary,” Talshir said.

“The big game for Netanyahu is immunity and for that he needs 61 votes (in the 120-seat parliament),” she said.

(AFP)

27, December 2019

Football: Liverpool crushes Leicester City to go 13 points clear ⁰

Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool have extended their lead at the top of the English Premier League to 13 points with a game in hand, after outclassing their second-placed hosts Leicester City 4-0 on Boxing Day.

Liverpool dominated the first half, and went ahead in the 31st minute, when Brazilian Roberto Firmino nodded home a cross at the back post.

Leicester kept the score-line respectable only until the 71st minute, as James Milner set in motion a 3-goal blitz from the penalty spot after a handball in the area.

Firmino then bagged his second of the night, after firing into the top corner, to finish off a beautiful team effort in the 74th minute.

Trent Alexander-Arnold, who had helped set-up all of his side’s first 3 goals, rounded off the rout by drilling home the 4th from outside the box.

Liverpool now have 52 points from 18 matches, while Leicester are on 39 from 19.

27, December 2019

US: Public support for President Trump conviction at all-time high ⁰

Public support for Donald Trump’s removal from office is the highest it has ever been, according to a new poll.

Fifty-five percent of those asked said they were in favor of the US president’s conviction by the Senate, a figure which has shot up from 48 percent the week before.

Meanwhile, the number of people against Mr. Trump’s removal has dropped to an all-time low, according to the MSN poll.

On Christmas Day, 40 percent were opposed to the Senate voting to convict the president, who has been impeached over his dealings with Ukraine and an alleged subsequent attempt to obstruct congress.

The gap between the two views has become much wider since last week, when there was little to divide them (48 percent in favor of Mr. Trump’s removal, 47 percent against).

David Rothschild✔@DavMicRot

MSN Poll matches all-time high for support of conviction 55%, and opposition plummets to all-time low: Many people moving from “opposition” to “don’t know”, big moment will be if they reach support for conviction.

The percentage of respondents who neither supported nor opposed conviction also grew.

David Rothschild, an economist at Microsoft Research, said the numbers of people shifting from opposition to removal to “don’t know” was significant. “When you follow polling daily, you learn people rarely make big jumps from Opposition to Support,” he said.

“This polling is a clear sign that [the] Republican policy of complete obstruction is not selling well to [the] voting public.”

Republicans and Democrats have disagreed over how the Senate should conduct the trial into the US president. Mr. Trump is accused of asking a political favor from Ukraine – to investigate his 2020 rival Joe Biden – in return for aid and a state visit to the White House.

Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, has not yet sent the impeachment case to the Republican-controlled Senate given the strong likelihood that the upper house would find in Mr. Trump’s favor.

The party leaders of the Senate have clashed over the trial’s witnesses, after Republican Mitch McConnell said he would not allow top White House officials to testify in line with Democrat requests.

(Source: The Independent)

26, December 2019

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe is Cameroon Concord News Person of the Year ⁰

The Cameroon Concord News Person of the Year award goes to the leader of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, His Excellency President Sisiku AyukTabe. The list of candidates was long and impressive with popular figures like President Paul Biya of French Cameroun, French Cameroun Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji, renowned Muslim Scholar Abdul Karim, Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima , Archbishop Samuel Kleda of the Douala Archdiocese, His Lordship Bishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya of Mamfe, Hon. Joseph Wirba and many others.

Despite the impressive list, one man set himself apart, not by his stature and wealth, but by his discipline, love of compromise and dialogue, as well as his steadfastness to a cause that is so close to his heart. The choice of Sisiku Julius AyukTabe, the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, who has been in the dungeons of La Republique du Cameroun for close to two years, is justified.

A sound and committed academic who was plying his trade with the American University of Nigeria, President Sisiku AyukTabe was elected as the Chairman of the Ambazonia Governing Council during the third conclave in Nigeria. Due to his great leadership skills and commitment to the Southern Cameroons cause, President Sisiku AyukTabe was subsequently elected as the President of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, a position that took him to many parts of the world.

His tours drew attention to the sorry plight of the suffering masses of Southern Cameroonians that started 58 years ago and his charisma triggered a sense of identity among Southern Cameroonians who saw a dedicated and selfless leader in President Sisiku AyukTabe.

Fifty-eight years ago, the British Southern Cameroons, a United Nations Trust territory under British administration, was betrayed and sold off to France through its vassal state of French Cameroun. Great Britain and France were among the key actors on whom humanity relied to create the United Nations on the 26 of June 1945 in San Francisco.

Pursuant to this multilateral treaty obligation, the United Nations oversaw the grant of independence to French Cameroun on 1st of January 1960 although it remains a vassal state of France. When the time came for the realization of the UN multilateral treaty obligation towards the Southern Cameroons on 1st October 1961, Great Britain handed the articles of sovereignty over the territory to French vassal state of French Cameroun and France’s proxy army of occupation in the night of 30th September 1961. Ever since, the genocidal onslaught and ferocious intensity with which it is executed qualifies the Southern Cameroons as a cancer on the conscience of the international community.

President Sisiku AyukTabe was abducted in Abuja, Nigeria, and extradited to French Cameroun where he is serving a life term. Though abducted for declaring the restoration of the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia in NERA Hotel Abuja, the Ambazonia leader has remained unfazed and committed to the total independence of Southern Cameroons. It should be noted that the abduction of President Sisiku AyukTabe and his top aides was declared illegal by the Abuja High court on the 1st March 2019. The court verdict demanded the Nigerian government to take all the abductees from La Repubique du Cameroun back to Nigeria and freed. Each of Nera10 was also awarded 5million Naira. The court judgment is yet to be executed by the Nigerian government.

President Sisiku AyukTabe’s abduction in the Nigerian capital via a joint operation that involved the French, Nigerian and French Cameroun Secret Service agents explained to the world the complicit silence or inaction of the UN, the EU and the AU to the consequences in terms of Southern Cameroonian lives lost, legal and cultural identity destroyed, economy raped and culture of terror, and international criminality imposed on the Southern Cameroons on the watch of the UN and its ancillary institutions.

Despite being held incommunicado for close to a year both in Nigeria and in French Cameroun, the leader emerged against all French Cameroun obstacles and the seemingly insurmountable odds and appointed a Vice President in the person of Comrade Dabney Yerima who ever since has been championing the resistance against the fifty-eight years of excruciating life under genocide, terror, economic terrorism, and all forms of international criminality.

On the 22nd September 2017, and ultimately on 1st October 2017 President Sisiku AyukTabe led the people of Southern Cameroons to reclaim their freedom and independence. The deployment by French Cameroun of helicopter gunships and other ordinance supplied by France and other international actors to fight Boko Haram to kill and maim in large and systematic scale hundreds of thousands of armless Southern Cameroonians failed to abate the resolve of a determined independence seeking people of the Southern Cameroons.

Among his achievements is his successful rallying of the Southern Cameroons diaspora which is about 4 million and which has played a significant role in the revolution playing out in Southern Cameroons and above all, expressing to the international community the genocidal intent of French Cameroun leaders in the prosecution of the genocide and crimes against humanity against the people of Southern Cameroons.

Under his stewardship, President Sisiku AyukTabe for the first time in the history of the Southern Cameroons struggle formed the Ambazonia Interim Government whose modus operandi compelled the French Cameroun regime under the 86 year old President Biya, its planners, commanders and executioners of the genocide of the Southern Cameroons to publicly take credit for their brazen acts of criminality.

Prior to his abduction in Abuja, Nigeria, President Sisiku AyukTabe and the Ambazonia Interim Government handed over to the international community an unexhaustive list of French Cameroun criminals and persons who bear the greatest responsibility for the international crimes committed against the Southern Cameroons. They included Paul Biya, President of French Cameroun, President of the National Assembly of French Cameroun, Cavaye Yegui Djibril, President of the Senate of French Cameroun, Marcel Niat, former French Cameroun’s government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary, French Cameroun Minister of Justice, Laurent Esso, French Cameroun Minister of Higher Education, Fame Ndongo, French Cameroun Minister of Defence, Joseph Beti Assomo, French Cameroun Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, French Cameroun Minister of Post and Telecommunications, Minette Libom Li Likeng, French Cameroun Governor of the South West-Ambazonia, Bernard Okalia Bilai, French Cameroun Governor of the North West-Ambazonia, Adolphe Lele Lafrique, former French Cameroun Minister of State in charge of the Gendarmerie, Jean Baptiste Bonkam, French Cameroun Delegate General in charge of National Security, Mbarga Nguele Martin, Army Chiefs of French Cameroun and all their proconsuls so-called senior SDO.s , the late Mayor Ekema Patrick Esunge, CRTV, Vision 4 television, Cameroon Tribune, French Cameroun Military Court, and the CPDM party.

President Sisiku AyukTabe’s revolutionary spirit and his unparalleled mobilization of Southern Cameroonians around the world to condemn and urge intervention to abate the ongoing crimes and for the perpetrators to be brought to book, sent a loud and clear message to French Cameroun and the world at large that prompted the regime in Yaoundé to come out with the so-called Special Status for the people of Ambazonia. But the independence of the Ambazonia fatherland is non-negotiable and sacrosanct will be defended at all costs and President Sisiku AyukTabe is demonstrating to the world that anything short of this will be a betrayal of the martyrs who died, peace plants leaves in hand, singing the songs of liberation, freedom and independence.

Today, both Cameroon Intelligence Report and Cameroon Concord News recognizes for honour the Southern Cameroons leader presently in detention for his determination in securing and defending the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia even at the supreme price. President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe has evinced an irrevocable determination to defend the goals of the Southern Cameroons revolution. To be sure, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe Julius has demonstrated to the people of Southern Cameroons and the international community that he understands the universal tenets of peace, justice and freedom.

In arresting him and his top aides in Abuja, Nigeria and cowardly extradited to French Cameroon, the French government of President Emmanuel Macron, the Buhari administration in Nigeria and the consortium of CPDM crime syndicates in Yaoundé, helped President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe conveyed the message of freedom to the Ambazonian people.

The French Cameroun regime is now feeling the full weight of Ambazonia’s collective resolve and Biya and his Francophone Beti Ewondo regime are paying the price for the unprovoked aggression and consequential costs in Ambazonian lives, economy and cultural heritage.

Your Excellency President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, for your resolve and personal sacrifice in the defense of the people of Southern Cameroons, you deserve Cameroon Concord News Person Of The Year Award.

Congratulation

To this I put my name

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

26, December 2019

US: Bernie Sanders overtakes Joe Biden among Democrats in presidential race ⁰

US Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has overtaken former Vice President Joe Biden in head to head matchup with President Donald Trump, a new poll shows.

The survey, conducted between December 18 and 19 by Ipsos/Reuters, found that 39 percent of US voters favored Sanders over Trump, compared to 37 percent who preferred Biden over the Republican president.

Biden has maintained a steady lead in national polls over other top candidates for several weeks, but primary voters have far from made up their minds.

Recent surveys have determined that Sanders enjoys more support among Hispanic voters and young people between 18 and 29 years old, demographics likely fueling his late-stage surge to the top of the Democratic field.

Biden, Sanders lead 2020 Democratic field in Iowa

In the past, Sanders has criticized Biden for his views on domestic issues and foreign policies towards other countries.

Sanders began to eclipse Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts after the fourth Democratic debate, when multiple candidates attacked Warren on how she would fund her health care plan.

In the Ipsos/Reuters poll, Sanders is supported by more independents (21 percent) and Democrats (74 percent) than both Biden and Warren in matchups against Trump.

Sanders, 78, would become America’s first Jewish president if elected. Nonetheless, he has called on the US government to withhold military aid to Israel if it continues to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank in Palestine.

“I would use the leverage, $3.8 billion is a lot of money, and we cannot give it carte blanche to Israel,” Sanders said in November at the annual convention of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel advocacy group.

“I would say that some of the $3.8 billion should go right now to humanitarian aid in Gaza,” Sanders added, referring to the annual amount of military aid that the United States currently gives to Israel.

Source: Presstv

25, December 2019

Algeria starts funeral of army chief Gaid Salah ⁰

The funeral of Algeria’s powerful army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah got underway Wednesday as his remains arrived at the People’s Palace, images broadcast by state TV show.

The wooden coffin containing the body of Gaid Salah, who died of a heart attack on Monday aged 79, arrived at 0630 GMT, covered in a national flag and carried by officers.

Surrounded by large numbers of motorcycle outriders, the funeral procession converged on the palace, which was built in the 18th century for Ottoman governors.

Gaid Salah became the country’s de facto strongman after longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika was forced to step down in the face of huge street protests in April.

Interim military chief of staff Said Chengriha was in attendance, while President Abdelmadjid Tebboune arrived a little after the procession.

Tebboune won a December 12 presidential election with 58.1 percent of the vote on a turnout of less than 40 percent, according to official results, in a poll dismissed by protesters as a ploy by Gaid Salah and other establishment figures to consolidate their power.

Algerians protest in thousands to reject talks with new president

After his win, Tebboune awarded Gaid Salah the National Order of Merit, Algeria’s highest honor. After the general’s death he announced three days of national mourning.

Abdelkader Bensalah, interim president after Bouteflika’s fall, and other senior personalities also gathered in front of the coffin.

Images broadcast by several TV stations showed a crowd massed at the gates of the palace to pay their final respects to Gaid Salah, who served as army chief for 15 years.

State TV later played images of small groups of civilians entering the palace complex and briefly stopping in front of the coffin to pay their respects.

The religious affairs ministry asked imams to lead prayers in Gaid Salah’s memory on Wednesday.

He was due to be buried shortly after 1200 GMT in Martyrs’ Square in Al-Alia cemetery, where former presidents and other major Algerian figures are laid to rest.

(Source: AFP)

25, December 2019

Pirates attack ship in Gabonese waters; one killed, four kidnapped ⁰

A crew member was killed and four others were taken hostage by pirates in waters off the capital of Gabon, a government spokesperson confirmed on Sunday, December 22.

Government spokesperson Edgard Anicet Mboumbou Miyakou said four vessels were targeted in the overnight attack in the bay of Libreville by unidentified pirates travelling in speedboats.

Miyakou said: “These attacks unfortunately led to the death of Mr. Mboumba Mbina Aymar, of Gabonese nationality, commander of the ship of the Satram company and the abduction of four employees of the company Sigapêche, of Chinese nationality.

The spokesperson added that defence and security forces continued to search for the attackers, in collaboration with Interpol and sub-regional organisations.

He stressed that the government of Gabon had taken measures to guarantee the safety of maritime traffic.

Source: Africa News

25, December 2019

Typhoon hits Philippines, bringing misery on Christmas Day ⁰

Typhoon Phanfone pummeled the central Philippines on Christmas Day, bringing a wet and miserable holiday season to millions in the mainly Catholic nation.

Thousands were stranded at shuttered ports or evacuation centers at the height of the festive season on Wednesday, and residents cowered in rain-soaked homes as Phanfone leapt from one small island to another for the second day.

The typhoon toppled houses and trees and blacked out cities in the Philippines’ most storm-prone region, but no deaths were reported.

Though weaker, Phanfone was tracking a similar path as Super Typhoon Haiyan — the country’s deadliest cyclone on record which left more than 7,300 people dead or missing in 2013.

More than 10,000 people spent the night in schools, gyms and government buildings hastily converted into evacuation centers as the typhoon made landfall Tuesday, civil defense officials said.

“It was frightening. The glass windows shattered and we took cover by the stairs,” Ailyn Metran told AFP after she and her four-year-old child spent the night at the local state weather service office where her husband worked.

A metal window frame flew off and fell onto a car parked outside the building, she said.

With just two hours’ sleep, the family returned to their home in the central city of Tacloban early Wednesday to find their two dogs safe, but the floor was covered in mud and a felled tree rested atop a nearby house.

Fallen power lines dangle over buildings after Typhoon Phanfone swept through Tanauan, Leyte, in the Philippines December 25, 2019, in this photo obtained from social media. (Photo by Reuters)

The weather office said the typhoon strengthened slightly overnight Tuesday and was gusting at 195 kilometers (121 miles) an hour, velocities that can knock down small trees and destroy houses made of light materials.

More islands along its projected path are expected to be hit with destructive winds and intense rainfall before blowing out into the South China Sea early Thursday, it added.

More than 25,000 people trying to get home for the traditional Christmas Eve midnight dinner with their families remained stranded at ports on Christmas Day with ferry services still shut down, the coast guard said.

Scores of flights to the region also remained cancelled, though the populous capital Manila, on the northern edge has so far been spared.

The Philippines is the first major landmass facing the Pacific cyclone belt.

As such, the archipelago gets hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, killing scores of people and wiping out harvests, homes and other infrastructure and keeping millions perennially poor.

A July 2019 study by the Manila-based Asian Development Bank said the most frequent storms lop one percent off the Philippine economic output, with the stronger ones cutting output by nearly three percent.

(Source: AFP)