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26, April 2019

Anti Ambazonia Policy: Biya regime’s new petroleum code to boost output ⁰

Cameroon’s new petroleum code is seeking to improve upstream production and revenues amid greater regional competition and major political troubles.

The national assembly has approved a new and expanded petroleum code. It must now be ratified by President Paul Biya in the next 15 days in order for it to enter into law.

Although Cameroon’s new petroleum code has not been made public yet, Interfax Natural Gas Insight understands it contains several provisions aimed principally at boosting hydrocarbon production, government revenues and local content. The majority of the changes appears geared towards rekindling investor interest and is being introduced against…

Source: Interfax Global Energy

26, April 2019

UK commits to help Biya regime tackle terrorism and Anglophone crisis ⁰

The UK is determined to help Cameroon overcome the challenges it has been facing,” in terms of terrorism and troubles in the northwest and southwest regions. This is, according to the Presidency of the Republic, an outcome of an audience granted April 24 by President Paul Biya to the British High Commissioner to the Republic of Cameroon, Rowan James Laxton.

According to the related statement, the African country has already benefited from UK support to fight against Boko haram and handle refugees. Cameroon welcomed the British government’s peace keeping actions in the face of separatist violence in the southwest and northwest.

According to the British diplomat, his country is also willing to contribute in big development projects in Cameroon. Focus is on key sectors that impact people’s lives energy, trade, social housing.

Source: Business in Cameroon

26, April 2019

Cameroon’s Biya Tunes Out Foreign Critics ⁰

Authorities in Cameroon are jailing opposition politicians and barring their supporters from holding rallies. Security forces and separatist groups continue to carry out atrocities in the country’s restive Anglophone regions. More and more civilians are being forced from their homes, adding to a tally of displaced people that already exceeds half a million.

These problems and more were cited in a speech delivered last week to the European Parliament by Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s top foreign policy official. Her words painted a picture of an increasingly volatile country, just six months after 86-year-old President Paul Biya coasted to reelection following a campaign in which he pitched himself as the only conceivable guarantor of stability.

Brussels isn’t alone in sounding the alarm. African and Western diplomats and human rights groups, to say nothing of observers within Cameroon, have become more vocal in denouncing conditions under Biya, who appears to have interpreted his reelection as an invitation to become even more aggressive in targeting his opponents.

The external scrutiny is the latest indication of Cameroon’s deteriorating international image, which is perhaps inevitable for a country that’s had the same autocratic leader for more than three decades and is battling multiple insurgencies. Yet it’s unclear, at this stage, whether diplomats are interested merely in signaling concern or if they’ll push for real change.

Moreover, there’s no guarantee that, with a leader as entrenched as Biya, the latter is even possible. Hans De Marie Heungoup, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, notes in an interview that while Biya once put more effort into guarding Cameroon’s reputation, these days he is playing a kind of political “survival game,” making it more difficult for outsiders to influence his behavior. If critical statements aren’t accompanied by steps that could undermine his security apparatus and patronage networks, Biya might be willing to simply ignore them.

“Nowadays he has prepared himself psychologically to withstand this kind of pressure,” Heungoup says. “If that pressure moves from simple, powerful statements to meaningful concrete action, then I suspect that Biya could step back and try to show a more democratic face.”

Cameroon’s security woes, which fuel many of the human rights violations taking place there, are complex. It’s been more than five years since fighters from Boko Haram, the Nigeria-based extremist group, first infiltrated northern Cameroon, drawing the country into a regional counterterrorism campaign. These days, however, instability stems primarily from the “Anglophone crisis,” which has been on the world’s radar for more than two years now. What began in late 2016 with anti-government protests in regions of western Cameroon dominated by the country’s English-speaking minority has turned into an all-out insurgency, with rebel fighters working toward the establishment of an independent nation called Ambazonia.

The separatist violence has triggered a brutal state crackdown. Human Rights Watch reported in late March that security forces, including the elite Rapid Intervention Battalion, have engaged in a spate of violent activity in the months since Biya’s reelection, shooting and killing civilians, sexually assaulting women and burning and looting homes. Human Rights Watch said security forces had “killed scores of civilians,” while warning that “the number of civilian deaths is most likely higher.”

It’s unclear, at this stage, whether diplomats are interested merely in signaling concern or if they’ll push for real change.

Separatists, for their part, have continued their campaign of kidnappings and assault. One witness told Human Rights Watch that two people were beaten to death by separatists on suspicion of having voted in the presidential election, which the separatists considered an illegitimate exercise.

Given the difficulty of reporting in the Anglophone regions, it’s unclear whether the overall level of violence there has increased since the vote. But Heungoup, with the International Crisis Group, says the conflict is expanding into areas that had previously been relatively untouched. And Human Rights Watch noted that violence on the part of the government risked making the situation even worse. “Cameroon’s authorities have an obligation to respond lawfully and to protect people’s rights during periods of violence,” Lewis Mudge, the organization’s Central Africa director, said last month. “The government’s heavy-handed response targeting civilians is counterproductive and risks igniting more violence.”

The political space is similarly troubling. Those looking to mount any kind of challenge to Biya are operating under mounting restrictions. Official results from the October election showed Biya winning reelection with 71 percent of the vote; his closest challenger, Maurice Kamto, officially earned 14 percent. Yet elections in Cameroon are neither free nor fair, and Kamto has insisted that he was the real winner.

In late January, supporters of Kamto’s political party, the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, participated in protests in multiple regions of the country, including its two main cities, Yaounde and Douala. In response, security forces used live ammunition to disperse crowds and arrested hundreds of protesters, according to Amnesty International. The following week, Kamto himself was arrested, and he has remained in custody ever since. His request for provisional release was rejected, a decision that was upheld on appeal earlier this month.

Kamto’s fate seems to be of particular interest to Western officials. In addition to Mogherini, Tibor Nagy, the top U.S. diplomat for African affairs, has raised it publicly, including on a visit last month to Cameroon. This prompted a quick rebuke from a government spokesman. “The Cameroonian government deeply regrets these words which denote a lack of knowledge of the issues, realities and facts,” the spokesman wrote in a press release that accused Nagy of interfering in the government’s internal affairs.

As Emmanuel Freudenthal pointed out in an in-depth report for WPR last year, Washington has recently been more inclined to criticize Cameroon than has France, a former colonial power with deep ties to Biya. Yet Heungoup says that, across the board, there are signs diplomats are recalibrating their approach to Biya’s government.

“They have started to realize the true nature of the regime,” he says. “When I discuss with some diplomats, they are less defensive of Biya. We now see statements at the highest level—statements that we used to not see.”

But will these same diplomats do anything to back up their words? Perhaps Biya’s greatest vulnerability is the security forces. In February, the U.S. announced that it was reducing military aid to the country, citing human rights concerns related to the fight against Boko Haram and Anglophone separatists. “The bottom line is right now in Cameroon, they have been a good partner with us counterterrorism-wise, but you can’t neglect the fact that they have—there are alleged atrocities in what’s gone on there,” Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, the head of U.S. Africa Command, said at the time.

Similar measures from the U.S., France and Israel, all of which have been involved in military training and security assistance, could ramp up pressure on Biya. Targeted sanctions could also get the Biya government’s attention, though Washington might want to avoid the kind of standoff they would produce.

In the absence of such steps, it will likely fall to Cameroonians to spur change, perhaps via large-scale protests like those that have threatened the government in the past, most recently in 2008. This would be the messiest kind of upheaval, further giving the lie to the notion that Biya, and only Biya, can keep the country stable.

Reported by World Politics Review

26, April 2019

Southern Cameroons War: Aid group says Ambazonians need more help ⁰

Tens of thousands of people are living in the bush without humanitarian aid in Cameroon after two years of fighting between separatists and government forces that has failed to attract widespread international support, an international aid agency said Thursday.

More than half a million people have fled their homes but the crisis has yet to generate the humanitarian response that is needed, according to Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, who visited the restive Southwest region this week.

“They are not able to return to their torched villages nor do they have confidence that they can go to the towns,” he said.

The English-speaking separatists in the Northwest and Southwest regions allege years of marginalization by the government of largely French-speaking Cameroon. President Paul Biya, in power since 1982, has branded the separatists as terrorists.

Hundreds have been killed as fighters from a number of armed groups battle government forces and attempt to economically paralyze the regions.

Egeland met with women who had sought refuge in the capital of Southwest region, Buea. “They told harrowing stories of how villages have been attacked at night. Often they wouldn’t know whether it was one side or the other,” he said. “Some said they thought it was government. Others said they thought it was rebels. What they have in common is that they fled with nothing.”

Civilians also have been targeted by the separatists, who have kidnapped students from schools. They also have amputated the hands of those still working on rubber plantations after a boycott was called to halt the local economy.

Egeland called on all sides to allow humanitarian organizations access to the volatile regions, and on other aid groups and European governments to step up assistance.

The Central African nation is divided along lines created during colonialism by European powers. The country now known as Cameroon was first ruled by the Germans then divided among the French and British. As a result, there are English- and French-speaking regions. English speakers are estimated at about 20% of the population.

Culled from The Washington Post

25, April 2019

US: Trump mocks Biden after his bid for Democratic pres. nomination ⁰

US President Donald Trump has attacked former Vice President Joe Biden on social media, mocking the veteran Democratic politician for his physical and mental abilities.

Trump insulted Biden on Thursday questioning the septuagenarian’s capacity in his first reaction shortly after Biden’s official announcement that he will run for the Democratic nomination for the 2020 presidential election.

“Welcome to the race Sleepy Joe. I only hope you have the intelligence, long in doubt, to wage a successful primary campaign,” Trump tweeted in the morning.

Trump tried to dissuade Biden from pursuing the Democratic nomination, saying the upcoming political competition would “be nasty” and he would be forced to confront “people who truly have some very sick & demented ideas,” an apparent reference to other Democratic primary candidates.

“But if you make it, I will see you at the Starting Gate!” Trump tweeted.

Welcome to the race Sleepy Joe. I only hope you have the intelligence, long in doubt, to wage a successful primary campaign. It will be nasty – you will be dealing with people who truly have some very sick & demented ideas. But if you make it, I will see you at the Starting Gate!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2019

Election pundits regard Biden as the front-runner of the Democratic Party candidates seeking to challenge Trump in the upcoming election.

Biden officially announced his intention to seek the Democratic Party nomination to challenge Republican Trump in their quest for the White House on Thursday.

‘I asked president Obama not to endorse’

Biden said that he asked his old boss Barack Obama not to endorse him because wanted to win the nomination on his own merits.

“I asked president Obama not to endorse,” Biden told reporters, adding: “Whoever wins this nomination should win it on its own merits.”

Asked whether he believed that he was the Democratic party’s best choice to compete against Trump in the upcoming race for the presidency, Biden answered: “That’ll be for the Democrats to decide.”

A source close to Obama said the former president was “excited” by the extraordinary and diverse talent in the Democratic lineup and believed it would be best “to let the candidates make their cases directly to the voters.”

However, an Obama spokesperson, Katie Hill, noted that Obama and Biden had “forged a special bond” during their eight-year work in the White House and still remained close.

This photo taken on January 10, 2017, shows then US President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden hugging after the President delivered his farewell address in Chicago, Illinois. ( by AFP)

In January 2017, days before the end of Obama’s presidency, Obama presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the US, to Biden.

Meanwhile, Biden is one among twenty candidates seeking the Democratic nomination.

Other nominees include senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris, several current and former members of the House of Representatives and Obama’s former cabinet member Julian Castro.

Source: Presstv

25, April 2019

US: If impeached, Trump to ‘head to Supreme Court’ ⁰

US President Donald Trump has warned Democrats that he would turn to the Supreme Court if he is impeached.

Trump made the comment in a tweet Wednesday, claiming he was not guilty to be impeached.

“I DID NOTHING WRONG,” Trump said. “If the partisan Dems ever tried to Impeach, I would first head to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

PressTV-There is ‘ample evidence’ of Trump collusion

After a report by special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that there was no collusion between Trump and Russia, Democrats are taking steps that could lead to the impeachment of the president.

Mueller did not take a stance on obstruction of justice, but detailed 10 instances, in which Trump tried to interfere with the investigation into Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election, which yielded President Trump.

According to the president, Mueller’s report was written by a team biased against him with “unlimited money,” yet “didn’t lay a glove on me.”

PressTV-Impeach Trump or no 2020 support: US billionaire

Trump has also been attacking at his 2016 presidential rival, Hillary Clinton.

“Not only are there no ‘High Crimes and Misdemeanors,’ there are no Crimes by me at all,” the president said on Twitter. “All of the Crimes were committed by Crooked Hillary, the Dems, the DNC and Dirty Cops – and we caught them in the act! We waited for Mueller and WON, so now the Dems look to Congress as last hope!”

According to a 1993 ruling by the Supreme Court authority for impeachment trials resides in Congress and” nowhere else.”

Source: Presstv

25, April 2019

South Africa: 60 killed, over 1,000 displaced in flood ⁰

At least 60 people have been killed and more than 1,000 have fled their homes after heavy rains caused flooding and mudslides along South Africa’s eastern coast, authorities said on Wednesday.

Most of the deaths were in KwaZulu-Natal province. Flooding also killed at least three people in neighboring Eastern Cape province, state broadcaster SABC said.

The rains mainly hit areas around the port city of Durban. Multiple dwellings collapsed in mudslides, said Robert McKenzie, a KwaZulu-Natal Emergency Medical Services spokesman.

Rescue workers were digging through collapsed buildings on Wednesday. Victor da Silva, a resident of the coastal town of Amanzimtoti, said his family managed to evacuate before the floods destroyed their home and cars.

“On Monday, the water was just crazy. And yesterday morning I got here, everything was fine, my garage was still here, the other part of the house was still here, and it just couldn’t stop raining,” Da Silva said.

“And then an hour and a half later, everything poof (vanished) because the rain just hasn’t stopped. Authorities in southern Tanzania ordered evacuations of residents from low-lying areas and the closure of schools and offices ahead of landfall of Tropical Cyclone Kenneth on neighboring Mozambique’s coast on Thursday.

“We’ve decided to evacuate all residents of valleys and other low-lying areas and we advise them to seek refuge at public spaces,” Mtwara regional commissioner Gelasius Byakanwa, told reporters.

Johan Fourie said he fled his home in Amanzimtoti, Kwazulu-Natal, just before part of it collapsed. “I nearly lost my life, and my neighbor, I believe, is in hospital,” Fourie told eNCA television.

The region had been hit by heavy rains for days, but authorities did not foresee the extent of the downpour late on Monday, said Lennox Mabaso, a spokesman for the provincial Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs department.

“As a result, there was flooding and some structures were undermined and collapsed on people,” Mabaso said.

Some people were swept away by the water, he added.

President Cyril Ramaphosa visited affected communities in KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday and was expected in the Eastern Cape in the next few days.

“This is partly what climate change is about, that it just hits when we least expect it,” he said.

Last week, 13 people were killed during an Easter service in KwaZulu-Natal when a church wall collapsed after days of heavy rains and strong winds.

(Source: Reuters)

25, April 2019

Battle for Ambazonia: Francophone gendarme killed in Muyuka ⁰

A Cameroonian gendarmerie officer was kidnapped and beheaded on Wednesday by an unknown Southern Cameroons Liberation Force in the Muyuka Sub Constituency in Fako County.

The young officer deployed to Southern Cameroons by the regime in Yaounde had been reportedly kidnapped. Cameroon Concord News gathered that he was then beheaded by the Ambazonian fighters, who eviscerated him.

The viscera of the Francophone officer were scattered in pieces in some few corners of Muyuka. The gendarme’s head was abandoned on the main road linking Muyuka to Buea. It is difficult to establish the group behind the act.

However, the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime announced recently that several secessionist camps were dismantled on Tuesday night and 6 Ambazonian fighters killed in fighting in Kwakwa and Bafut.

Ever since the English speaking people of Southern Cameroons declared the independence of their own state, clashes between Ambazonian Restoration Forces and troops loyal to the regime in Yaounde have been reported all over the Ambazonian territory.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than half a million Southern Cameroonians have been displaced and several hundred killed by Francophone soldiers.

By Sama Ernest in Buea

25, April 2019

There are reasons why Yaounde is at war with the International Crisis Group ⁰

Crisis Group’s work in Cameroon put under reported risks in this country on the policy making radar years before the outbreaks of the Boko Haram insurgency in the Far North and a separatist revolt in Anglophone regions.

Crisis Group’s story in Cameroon began in 2009, when we consulted a broad range of ordinary Cameroonians, from teachers to activists, about emerging dangers in their country. Our first two reports, published in May and June 2010, aimed to focus diplomats’ thinking on worsening problems of governance, over-centralised politics and insecurity. At the time, we were still a lonely voice raising these issues. “Our reports were widely admired, but largely ignored”, recalls the lead contributor, our Central Africa expert and current Project Director Richard Moncrieff. “It’s a classic problem with early warning”.

In 2013, Crisis Group hired Hans de Marie Heungoup to analyse Cameroon full time. A young postgraduate from Cameroon with several years of research experience and expertise in conflict prevention, he soon concluded that the jihadist group Boko Haram posed a significant threat in the Far North. “Because of the way Cameroon is governed, it was clear that dealing with the insurgency would be a challenge”, Heungoup explains.

In 2016, a travelogue about a three-week trip to the Far North by Hans de Marie Heungoup, including photos and videos, brought the reality of the Boko Haram conflict to the outside world. After publication, the U.S. State Department asked him for a detailed briefing about his findings.

Our November 2016 report, Cameroon: Confronting Boko Haram, provided a ground-breaking assessment of the emergence of the insurgency in the country’s Far North, the government’s response to it and the political and economic consequences of its counter-insurgency efforts. It provoked extensive debate in Cameroon, where Hengoup and Moncrieff briefed officials from the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of External Relations and diplomats.

“We were the first NGO to engage on Boko Haram in Cameroon and we are the only NGO that has consistently produced ideas for a comprehensive approach to stemming the violence in the country’s Far North”, notes Moncrieff. “Officials say we help them think through their response. A reliable source told us that the president’s office would usually take an hour to talk through our reports on Boko Haram with senior officials from the defence, foreign affairs and communication ministries”.

” ‘Crisis Group plays an indispensable role in understanding Cameroon, particularly during these difficult moments for the country.’ – Peter Henry Barlerin, U.S. Ambassador to Cameroon, October 2018″

Follow-up reports in 2017 tackled the economic and humanitarian fallout of the conflict, and explored options for rebuilding the troubled region. Cameroon’s international partners have frequently adopted our recommendations, for example on demobilising vigilante groups and dealing with Boko Haram members. The World Bank and several development agencies, including USAID and France’s AFD, told us that our analysis guided their projects in the Far North, while some European and U.S. diplomats have used it to develop their policy engagement in Cameroon.

We have had impact with Cameroonian officials as well. In late 2018, the government took a new approach to the northern insurgency. It created a committee to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate former Boko Haram combatants, as we had advised in our August 2018 report Cameroon’s Far North: A New Chapter in the Fight against Boko Haram. Officials in Yaoundé tell us that the government is now far more aware of the need to tackle socio-economic and humanitarian issues in areas where Boko Haram operates. It has started acting tentatively to promote development there, and is considering the incorporation of some vigilante groups into local municipal police forces, as we have recommended.

Another central focus for Crisis Group in Cameroon has been the crisis in the country’s Anglophone regions. We sometimes faced strong resistance in doing this work. Cameroonian authorities publicly criticised and even rejected our findings after we reported on how government troops committed widespread abuses against separatists and civilians in the Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions, warned this could trigger a broader crisis, and made suggestions for preventing it.

” ‘Your organisation has done a crucial work in the Far North. My colleagues and I definitely use your analysis and usually comment it.’ – Cameroonian senior official at the Ministry of External Relations, March 2017″

But our timely, unique research and our August and October 2017 early warning reports about violence in the Anglophone regions were prescient. Our worst fears came to pass. Tellingly, those two publications are among Crisis Group’s most-read publications since its inception.

Our work on the Anglophone crisis is beginning to have an impact, even if a sustainable peace is still a long way off. Following Crisis Group’s 21 December 2017 statement calling for the government to engage in dialogue with Anglophone leaders to discuss the country’s decentralisation and governance, President Paul Biya changed tack.

In a 31 December speech of the same year, he promised decentralisation. And in 2018, he created a ministry of decentralisation, allocated it $90 million and released 289 Anglophone detainees.

This progress notwithstanding, the insurgency spread and nearly 1,000 Anglophone activists remained behind bars in early 2019. The government was still rejecting dialogue with Anglophone leaders on governance and institutional reforms, and failing to stem abuses committed by security forces. In response, the U.S. announced in January 2019 a reduction of its military assistance to Cameroon. This was a measure we had recommended it take if the government continued its crackdown in Anglophone areas.

Crisis Group played a catalytic role in persuading the Catholic Church to mediate the Anglophone crisis. A group of senior Western diplomats in Yaoundé used our April 2018 briefing, Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis: How the Catholic Church Can Promote Dialogue, as a starting point in its outreach to Catholic bishops, Anglophone federalist leaders and the government to push for mediation. The Church continues to play this role.

” ‘ICG’s reports on Cameroon are the most solid. I recommend them to all new diplomats. Now, why don’t things move? Pushing for recommendations is not an easy job.’ – Senior German diplomat in Yaoundé, March 2018″

The personal credibility of our analysts and senior staff in diplomatic circles is crucial to Crisis Group’s impact. They have testified on Cameroon in the UK parliament, at EU seminars and twice in the U.S. Congress, and briefed senior officials from the UN, the African Union, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and Cameroon. The Ambassador of a European country in Cameroon told us: “Crisis Group reports have had a very great impact and influence [and] are read by Western ambassadors and other policymakers in Yaoundé”. In September 2017, four U.S. congressmen quoted our report as they asked then-U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to intervene for the release of Anglophone detainees. Then on 7 December of the same year, ten U.S. senators quoted Richard Moncrieff in their letter to Tillerson requesting that the U.S. pressure the Cameroonian government to solve the Anglophone conflict and advocating for individual sanctions against senior Cameroonian officials involved in human rights abuses.

Cameroonians are living through tough times. While war rages in the Anglophone areas and the Far North, the political scene is riven with bad faith and dishonesty and public debate on social media is full of manipulation and propaganda. Many of Cameroon’s citizens are nervous about what will happen when President Biya’s long rule finally comes to an end.

In this tense environment, Crisis Group is a trusted voice in the conversation that Cameroonians are having about their own country and future. Thanks to numerous television appearances and speeches by Hans de Marie Heungoup, and even his week-long detention by security forces, Crisis Group has become a household name in Cameroon. ‘‘It is amazing that you can reflect on our country so clearly’’, a Cameroonian diplomat told us. ‘‘It is like you are holding a mirror for us’’.

Written by the International Crisis Group

24, April 2019

Interpol rescues 157 child slaves in Benin, Nigeria ⁰

Up to 216 human trafficking victims have been rescued from forced labour and prostitution in a major operation in Benin and Nigeria, Interpol said on Wednesday.

Operation Epervier II involved 100 police officers across the two countries who rescued 157 child slaves, said the global police organisation, which coordinated the raids in early April.

Many of the children were working in markets peddling goods, carrying heavy loads or fetching water, while others worked as housemaids or were forced into prostitution, Interpol said. Of the minors rescued, 36 were boys and 121 were girls.

This is about organised crime groups who are motivated by money.

“This is about organised crime groups who are motivated by money,” Stanfield told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“It is challenging (to stop them) in the region because of lack of resources,” he said, adding that countries are nonetheless becoming better equipped and more prepared.

Child slaves

The children rescued were between the ages of 11 and 16 and came from Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria and Togo.

The youngest was a boy forced to smuggle heavy goods such as bags of rice across the Benin-Nigeria border, Interpol said.

Most were subject to beatings and abuse, including death threats and warnings they would never see their parents again. They are now in the care of national agencies or charities, and in some cases returned to their parents.

Dealing with perpetrators

Investigations are underway to dismantle the crime networks active in Benin and Nigeria, which are source, transit and destination countries for human trafficking, said Paul Stanfield, Interpol’s director of organised and emerging crime.

Police arrested 47 suspected traffickers and seized vehicles, cash, phones and computers in the operation, which targeted markets in the countries’ capitals as well as airports, seaports and border areas, said Interpol.

About 1.4 million people, or 0.8 percent of the population, are estimated to live as slaves in Nigeria, according to the 2018 Global Slavery Index published by human rights group Walk Free Foundation. Benin has an estimated 58,000 slaves out of a population of 11 million.

“These crimes can only be tackled collectively and through interagency cooperation,” said Dominic Asogwa, Comptroller of Nigeria’s Immigration Service in the Seme border region, in a statement.

Interpol will continue working to identify hot spots for modern slavery in West Africa with a focus on mobilizing countries to address the issue themselves, Stanfield said.

“I think we’ll be here for the long-term, but we don’t want to be in charge of leading it,” he said.

REUTERS