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20, March 2019

Africa’s “PRESIDENT FOR LIFE” trend continues as Museveni seeks reelection ⁰

n September 2017, lawmakers from Uganda’s ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), President Yoweri Museveni’s party, introduced a bill to abolish a constitutional provision that bars anyone 75 or older from running for president.

Two years on, the same lawmakers have unanimously endorsed the president to continue his tenure. If approved by the National Executive Committee and the National Delegates’ Conference, the endorsement would mean Museveni at 74 years old and already in power for 33 years, would seek a record sixth re-election in the upcoming general elections in 2021.

In one word, there is a possibility Museveni could become president for life. This is nothing new, it is a recurring trend and has been the case in several African countries.

Together with Museveni, two other African heads of state have ruled for over three decades each. These include Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo in Equatorial Guinea and Paul Biya of Cameroon.

They could have been five but in 2017, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos stepped down after thirty-eight years in office, and in November of that year, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was forced from office after thirty-seven years by a military coup.

In addition, more than a dozen other African heads of state have been in power for at least ten years, such as Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Burundi’s Pierre Nkurunziza. While in the northern part of the African continent, the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria is being governed by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has been in power since 1999.

After the announcement of his candidacy for a fifth presidential term last month, nationwide protests broke out in the capital city of Algiers. Weeks of protests and nationwide demonstrations in the country have pushed the long-time leader to drop his plans of running for another term. However, he remains in office and protests have continued, with calls for him to resign immediately.

Bouteflika suffered from a stroke in 2013, has been in a wheelchair since then and is frequently hospitalized. However, his desire to hold on to power has not weakened.

President Bouteflika, who had a stroke in 2013 and has been in a wheelchair ever since assumed office in 1999. Photo credit: Al Arabiya

These long reigns in the countries highlighted reflect a common problem throughout Africa; the region is home to many of the world’s longest-ruling heads of state.

Military coups were once common as a means to seize power, with both Mbasogo and Museveni entering their presidencies this way. However, they have declined during the last two decades – there were twenty-seven successful coups from 1970 to 1982, but only twelve from 2000 to 2012, and just the one against Mugabe since then.

Now, despite laws prohibiting presidents from holding power for so long, many of these leaders secure longer terms by proposing amendments and eventually changing their constitutions in a bid to get additional terms in office – an act described as “constitutional coups.”

Paul Biya is serving as the President of Cameroon since November 1982. Photo Credit: CGTN

As a result, democratic societies in the African continent are stuck with ageing leaders or family dynasties who cling to power through fraudulent elections or constitutional changes forced on their people.

The popularity and widespread practice of entrenched leadership in Africa propel corruption, instability, societal fractures, stagnant economies and democratic backsliding. Zimbabwe, Sudan and now Algeria are just some of the notable examples that come to mind.

Refusal by African heads of state to step down at the appointed time has had devastating consequences and correlates with developmental, economic and security challenges in the countries affected.

Although some African countries with long-serving leaders such as Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone have recorded democratic victories and regime change recently. Albeit elsewhere on the continent, leaders continue to disregard their countries’ own constitutions and laws governing presidential tenure, despite actions from regional and international bodies.

Separating African leaders from the addiction to power is an ongoing struggle, and there appears to be no end in sight.

Source: Venturesafrica

20, March 2019

France and U.S. Striking Different Notes In Africa ⁰

There were smiles all around in Kenya as French President Emmanuel Macron and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta shook hands over a series of infrastructure deals worth $3.3 billion.

It was the third stop on the French president’s East African charm offensive – and the first-ever visit to Kenya by a French head of state.

France wants trade and commercial relationships that are “fair and profitable for the Kenyan people,” Macron said. Alluding to Africa’s many relationships with China often freighted with debt, French investments would be respectful of the receiving country’s sovereignty and sustainable, he pledged.

Among the newly signed deals is a contract for a railway line from Nairobi to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, a trip of about 12 miles that can take up to two hours by car.

Other signed deals include a 30-year concession for a French company to operate a highway linking the Kenyan capital and Mau Summit in western Kenya, a contract for a solar power plant and a contract for coastal and maritime surveillance.

The railway, President Kenyatta said, “will help completely transform the lives of millions of urban workers”. It should be operational by 2021.

The two leaders then shared a photo op seated in Uhuru’s new Peugeot 3008 SUV – assembled in Kenya.

Still, France faces an uphill battle to win more deals in Africa, where China, Turkey and others have moved in quickly and competition is fierce.

In 2017, French exports to Kenya, a former British colony, were about $200 million — about half Uganda’s exports to its neighbor. China exported $3.8 billion, making it Kenya’s biggest trading partner.

Nonetheless, France made few missteps if any on its four nation African tour while U.S. Asst. Secretary of State Tibor Nagy earned negative headlines while in Cameroon for chiding President Paul Biya over a list of human rights violations.

Pro-government groups were unhappy with his references to the detention of opposition leader Maurice Kamto and 150 of his supporters and to the violence in the western Anglophone separatist regions. Other countries on Tibor Nagy’s itinerary are Uganda, the DRC and Rwanda.

Coincidentally, the official visits come as both French and America governments are under fire at home over the erosion of civil liberties, income inequality, racism and the rise of white nationalism and neo-Nazism.

Source: Indepthnews.net

20, March 2019

Democrats push for ending Electoral College to prevent Trump triumph in 2020 ⁰

Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the many Democrats running for 2020 US presidential election, has joined a partisan push to scrap the Electoral College, the constitutional entity tasked with electing US presidents, in order to prevent President Donald Trump from repeating his controversial 2016 victory.

The current election system in the US overrides the popular vote, which gives the victory to the candidate winning the most ballots, in favor of a so-called winner-take-all mechanism.

This means the Electoral College with its 538 electors across different states, who are chosen based on each state’s representation in Congress, is liable for electing the chief executive.

Despite losing the popular vote to his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, by a significant margin, Trump still won the 2016 White House race in a 304-227 electoral vote landslide. The threshold for winning presidency is 270 electoral votes.

Speaking in a televised CNN town hall in Jackson, Mississippi, Warren said Monday that it was impossible to have a “national vote” in America with the Electoral College in place.

“Well, my view is that every vote matters. And the way we can make that happen is that we can have national voting. And that means get rid of the electoral college and everybody counts,” Warren said to enthusiastic applause.

Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of several Democrats running for the party’s nomination in the 2020 presidential race, speaks during a campaign event, March 8, 2019 in the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by AFP)

The 69-year-old Massachusetts lawmaker called for amendment to the US Constitution that guaranteed the right to vote for all citizens, including convicted felons, and said it was equally important to scrap laws that made casting ballots more difficult.

This puts Warren next to Clinton, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and many other Democrats who have called for ending the Electoral College.

Last October, when she was running to represent New York’s 14th Congressional District, Ocasio-Cortez famously called the Electoral College a vestige of slavery.

“It is well past time we eliminate the Electoral College, a shadow of slavery’s power on America today that undermines our nation as a democratic republic,” she wrote on Twitter.

PressTV-US Electoral College ‘shadow of slavery power’: NY Dem

NY Dem Ocasio

Hillary Clinton made a similar call in an article published by The Atlantic last month, saying that the “legitimacy” of the US election system was in doubt.

“And you won’t be surprised to hear that I passionately believe it’s time to abolish the Electoral College,” she wrote.

Ongoing efforts

Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee has introduced a constitutional amendment to eliminate the electoral college but it has yet to be brought up for a vote in the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Democrats.

At the same time, at least 12 states plus the District of Columbia – with a total of 181 electoral votes— have signed onto the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, an agreement that requires the signatory states to select their presidential electors based on who wins the popular vote nationwide regardless of the overall state outcome.

The compact would only take effect when enough states have signed to push the total electoral votes to 270, an objective that experts say is impossible to fulfill before the 2020 election.

Republicans in favor of keeping Electoral College

Unlike Democrats, most Republicans are against changing the current election system in US, a trend that rose sharply after Trump’s victory.

A Gallup poll conducted weeks after the 2016 Election Day showed that only 19 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents supported changing the system, down from 54 percent in 2011.

Democrats were a mirror image as 81 percent of participants in the survey said they supported an amendment to switch to a national popular vote, up from 69 percent five years earlier.

US movement seeks to axe Electoral College system

Republican state Senator Paul Lundeen, who voted against the compact in Colorado, said removing the Electoral College would hurt smaller and more rural states while giving more power to urban areas, where Democrats have a stronger base.

He also said the move undermines the principle of federalism by ceding power to larger states like California and New York, something he said was short-sighted and only fueled by Democrats’ opposition to Trump.

“If there’s a partisan element it’s the knee-jerk reaction: ‘I hate this current president and he didn’t win the popular vote,’” he said. “And I think that hurts us in the long run.”

Presstv

19, March 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: US Diplomat Reminds Biya of his long stay in power ⁰

The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, who met with Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, used the meeting to send home many messages to Africa’s oldest and longest serving president.

While passing on messages from the Trump Administration to Mr. Biya, the diplomacy-savvy and straight-talking American handed Mr. Biya a picture of him and President George Bush senior of blessed memory.

The message in the picture was clear though not many people, especially those in government, could figure out the message. The picture which contains a much younger Biya was a reminder that Mr. Biya belonged to the past. Americans have an uncanny way of delivering their messages and this one did actually produce the desired effect.

It is therefore up to Mr. Biya to understand that Americans are no longer admiring him as a leader. America and Cameroon may be allies especially in the fight against terrorism, but they hold that Mr. Biya has overstayed his welcome in power and should quit the scene.

A source in Yaounde has indicated that the picture put Mr. Biya off balance. He seemed to have decoded the message contained in the picture and is not very happy about it.

It should be recalled that before coming to Africa, Mr. Nagy had to go to Brussels and Paris where he raised the issue of Cameroon with his interlocutors.

Americans understand that Cameroon is France’s sphere of influence, but they are insisting that the French should let the old leader to quit power in order for peace to return to the sub-region.

Americans do not want to alienate their French allies, but they are insisting that Mr. Biya must go as he is the problem in Cameroon. He is being accused of human rights abuses, dictatorship and corruption.

Mr. Biya seems to be seeing the writing on the wall. The European Union is no longer comfortable with a dictator who is maiming and mowing down his own people. Mr. Nagy’s shuttle diplomacy is hurting Mr. Biya and even the French are gradually changing their position.

It should be recalled that while in Yaounde, Mr. Nagy had a straight talk with the country’s Mr. Biya on the Southern Cameroons crisis which he qualified as “unnecessary”.

During the meeting with Mr. Biya, the American diplomat urged the president to embrace the frank and inclusive dialogue proposed by the international community, adding that Southern Cameroonians only wanted to be considered as normal citizens of Cameroon and that they would never accept the second-class citizenship the country had imposed on them.

He said that the US administration was closely watching events in Cameroon, pointing out that only dialogue could put an end to the crisis in the country. Mr. Nagy also stressed that the route taken by the government to end the crisis was unnecessary and that the loss of human life and property was a clear indication of a disproportionate use of force by the government.

Mr. Nagy also said America would encourage the country to pursue other forms of government that might reduce tensions in the country, adding that Donald Trump’s administration was ready and willing to lend a hand in the development of a truly federal system in Cameroon, a message that had also been sent to the Cameroon government by the Canadian embassy in Yaounde.

Canada, it should be underscored, has significant experience in the handling of minority issues and is very willing to bring that experience to Cameroon so as to enable the two linguistic groups that make up the country to live in peace.

Mr. Nagy used the occasion to remind Mr. Biya that Cameroon was a major American ally in the region, stressing that chaos in Cameroon could spill over to other countries and this could result in disorder that might disrupt life in the entire region.

He hailed Cameroon’s economic potential, adding that the country was blessed with abundant human and natural resources that could be used to bring about shared prosperity and wealth, but for this to happen, there must be peace and justice.

Speaking to journalists after his meeting with President Paul Biya, the American diplomat said diplomatic discussions were always confidential, but added that his discussion with Mr. Biya was frank and direct. A statement which has made sources close to the government to hold that Mr. Biya has been delivered a tough message which he has to take seriously or face destabilization from the frustrated American administration.

Mr. Nagy however said he appreciated Mr. Biya’s wisdom, adding that the United States and Cameroon had much in common and that he would like to bring many American investors to Cameroon so as to create opportunities for the country’s youths.

He said America wanted the best for Cameroon, stressing that he would like young Cameroonians to have the best jobs possible, but that would require peace in the country.

Asked about the statements he had made prior to his coming to Cameroon, Mr. Nagy said quotations could be interpreted in different ways and that he was happy the country’s press was still vibrant and that he was either an angel or a devil depending on the interpretation of his declarations.

It should be underscored that Mr. Nagy had made statements regarding the Southern Cameroons situation that cast the government of Cameroon in very bad light. He had called on the government to stop the killings, adding that only a global forum could definitively deal with the issue that was tearing the country apart.

The tough talking diplomat had struck fear in Yaounde and many government officials have been worried about America’s position regarding the Southern Cameroons crisis. Before arriving Cameroon, Mr. Nagy had said the Trump administration clearly felt that the Southern Cameroons crisis that had put the country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons was an issue that required the international community’s attention as the government of Cameroon had clearly demonstrated that it was incapable of dealing with it using peaceful means..

Meanwhile, sources within Yaounde government say Mr. Nagy who had visited other African countries, was bearing a special message from many countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom who strongly believe that the Yaounde regime has crossed the red line.

“They are all scared of Americans. They know what America and its allies are capable of doing. They know the American diplomat is carrying a message from different nations and if the Yaounde government does not change its approach to this conflict, it might incur the wrath of the US,” our sources said.

“We know what Americans are capable of doing. If the government decides to ignore American advice on this, it runs the risk of dealing with a larger crisis. Government officials are scared that America might arm Southern Cameroonian fighters who are still using hunting rifles. If America comes to help Southern Cameroonians, their language might change from peaceful negotiation to regime change and this will imply more chaos and panic in the region,” our sources pointed out.

“It is not Mr. Nagy that is talking. It is Mr. Trump. President Biya knows that and he knows with more oil being discovered in the Southwest region, Americans might come in to get a fair share. The government will surely change its language and that will mean a return to normalcy in the two English-speaking regions of the country. But some hawks in the region are still beating the drums of war as they are making the most of the situation. Many of them have become rich overnight and would want the chaos to continue,” our sources said.

“Americans are not happy that an American missionary was killed in Bamenda as a result of this conflict. The message to Mr. Biya could be clear, but there are undertones which the government must seek to understand. Americans hardly forgive and they will surely want to take their revenge if the government does not listen. Americans are mad at the Yaounde government for the humiliation they have inflicted on the American ambassador after he advised Mr. Biya not to run in the last presidential election which he clearly lost,” our sources pointed out.

By Linda Embi in Yaounde

19, March 2019

Koffi Olomide found guilty of sexual assault in France ⁰

Popular Congolese musician Koffi Olomide was on Monday handed a two-year suspended prison sentence for the statutory rape of one of his former dancers when she was 15.

Olomide went on trial after four former dancers claimed he sexually assaulted them several times between 2002 and 2006. The assaults allegedly happened in the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as in France, including at a villa outside Paris where the women said they were held against their will.

The dancers said they managed to make a night-time escape from the villa in June 2006, and have not returned to their country since for fear of reprisals.

Prosecutors at his trial in Nanterre, outside Paris, had sought a seven-year prison sentence but the court dismissed the assault and kidnapping charges.

Olomide, 62, was also ordered to pay 5,000 euros ($5,700) in damages to the former dancer, as well as a 5,000-euro fine for helping three of the women enter France illegally.

Olomide’s history of violence

The singer, whose real name is Antoine Agbepa Mumba, was first charged in 2012 with aggravated rape but the charges were subsequently reduced.

Facing a French arrest warrant, he fled to DR Congo in 2009 but had initially said he would appear at the trial to defend himself.

However, he failed to show for the trial last month, which was held behind closed doors at the women’s request.

“This is a complete victory. The prosecution’s entire case fell apart,” his lawyer Emmanuel Marsigny said after the ruling.

The court also dismissed the charges against two men accused of being complicit in the assaults.

It was not the first time Olomide had been charged with violence.

He was briefly jailed in DR Congo in 2016 for kicking one of his dancers, and had already been given a suspended three-month prison sentence in 2012 for striking his producer.

He is also currently sought by Zambian police for striking a Rwandan photojournalist in Lusaka in 2012.

Olomide already had a brush with the law in France, with a court finding him guilty of tax fraud in 2006.

AFP

19, March 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: American diplomat talks straight to Biya ⁰

The U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, yesterday in Yaounde had a straight talk with the country’s president, Paul Biya, on the Southern Cameroons crisis which he qualified as “unnecessary”.

He said America wanted the best for Cameroon, stressing that he would like young Cameroonians to have the best jobs possible, but that would require peace in the country.

“We know what Americans are capable of doing. If the government decides to ignore American advice on this, it runs the risk of dealing with a larger crisis. Government officials are scared that America might arm Southern Cameroonian fighters who are still hunting rifles. If America comes to help Southern Cameroonians, their language might change from peaceful negotiation to regime change and this will imply more chaos and panic in the region,” our sources pointed out.

Meanwhile another source in Yaounde has indicated that there is panic in Yaounde and that Mr. Biya has urged his collaborators to change their language vis-à-vis Southern Cameroonians.

The source, which elected anonymity, said the American position regarding the conflict was being taken seriously as it has the backing of Canada and the United Kingdom.

While Mr. Nagy was in Yaounde, the government started speaking a different language. The first to set the tone was the country’s defense minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, a staunch supporter of war and a huge beneficiary of the chaos playing out in Southern Cameroons.

Mr. Assomo, on Monday, 18 March 2019, urged army soldiers to stop terrorizing civilians, a clear indication that the message from America and its allies had gone through.

Mr. Assomo who was in Buea to install some military officials; all of whom were from his region, advised soldiers to collaborate with the population with a view to normalizing things in the troubled region.

But Assomo’s message seems to be falling on deaf ears, as rampaging soldiers got to work in the northwest region on Tuesday, killing people, burning homes and bikes in Ndop. In other parts of the two English-speaking regions, soldiers are still intimidating civilians and this implies that the government is simply paying lip service to the notion of peace in the region.

By Kingsley Betek and Linda Embi in Yaounde

19, March 2019

Death toll in Mozambique cyclone could surpass 1,000 ⁰

The number of people killed in a powerful storm and preceding floods in Mozambique could exceed 1,000, the president says, putting the potential death toll greatly more than current figures.

Only 84 deaths have been confirmed so far in Mozambique as a result of Cyclone Idai, which has also left a trail of death and destruction across Zimbabwe and Malawi, with vast areas of land flooded, roads destroyed and communication wiped out.

Speaking on Radio Mocambique, President Filipe Nyusi said he had flown over the affected region, where two rivers had overflowed. Villages had disappeared, he said, and bodies were floating in the water.

“Everything indicates that we can register more than one thousand deaths,” he said.

The cyclone has also killed 89 people in Zimbabwe, an official said on Monday, while the death toll in Malawi from heavy rains and flooding stood at 56 as of last week. No new numbers had been released following the cyclone’s arrival in the country.

Caroline Haga, a senior International Federation of the Red Cross official who is in Beira, said the situation could be far worse in the surrounding areas, which remained completely cut off by road and where houses were not as sturdy.

Nyusi flew over areas that were otherwise accessible, and some of which had been hit by flooding before Cyclone Idai.

Rescue effort

In Beira, Mozambique’s fourth-largest city and home to 500,000 people, a large dam had burst, further complicating rescue efforts.

Large swathes of land were completely submerged, and in some streets people waded through knee-high water around piles of mangled metal and other debris.

In the early hours of Monday morning, rescuers launched dinghies onto chest-high waters, navigating through reeds and trees – where some people perched on branches to escape the water – to rescue those trapped by the flooding.

Meanwhile, rescuers were struggling to reach people in Zimbabwe’s Chimanimani district, cut off from the rest of the country by torrential rains and winds of up to 170 kilometers per hour that swept away roads, homes and bridges and knocked out power and communication lines.

Zimbabwean information ministry official Nick Mangwana told Reuters the number of confirmed deaths throughout the country was now 89. The body count is expected to rise.

Members of the public and military personnel search for survivors and bodies in Ngangu township Chimanimani, Manicaland Province, eastern Zimbabwe, on March 18 2019, after the area was hit by the cyclone Idai. (Photo by AFP)

Many people had been sleeping in the mountains since Friday, after their homes were flattened by rock falls and mudslides or washed away by torrential rains.

The Harare government has declared a state of disaster in areas affected by the storm. Zimbabwe, a country of 15 million people, was already suffering a severe drought that has wilted crops.

Southeastern Africa gateway

Beira, which sits at the mouth of the Pungwe River, is also home to Mozambique’s second-largest port, serving as gateway for imports to landlocked countries in southeast Africa.

The director of a company that jointly manages the port, Cornelder, based in the Netherlands, said the port had been closed since last Wednesday but would hopefully resume operations on Tuesday.

Two cranes would be working and the company had two large generators and enough fuel for now, though damage to access routes and roads further inland was more likely to cause a problem, said the director, who asked not to be named.

The fuel pipeline running from Beira to Zimbabwe was believed to be intact, the person said, though communication was still very patchy and therefore the situation at the port remained uncertain.

In February 2000, Cyclone Eline hit Mozambique when it was already devastated by its worst floods in three decades. It killed 350 people and made 650,000 homeless across southern Africa, also hitting Zimbabwe.

(Source: Reuters)

19, March 2019

Iranian hybrid taxis join Senegal fleet ⁰

Iran has delivered as many as 30 hybrid vehicles to Senegal to be used in the country’s taxi fleet.

The ceremony for handing over the taxicabs was held at the Blaise Diagne International Airport in western Senegal. It was joined by Senegal’s Minister of Air Transport and Development of Airport Infrastructures, Maimouna Ndoye Seck.

The project for making the vehicles was leveraged by the Bank of Africa pan-African banking conglomerate.

PressTV-Iran to build hybrid electric cars

Iran Khodro

The vehicles are of the Samand LX make manufactured by Iran’s biggest carmaker Iran Khodro (IKCO).

Last month, it was reported that Iran Khodro had exported a first consignment of its Dena Plus cars to Senegal to be used in the African country’s police fleet.

Iran Khodro’s Dena Plus cars are seen in this picture as part of Senegal’s police fleet.

The report said the exports would take place through IKCO’s joint venture company with the Senegalese government, known as SenIran. Senegal also re-exports the company’s cars to Guinea and Nigeria.

IKCO also exports vehicles to Russia, Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Egypt, Algeria, and Bulgaria.

Presstv

18, March 2019

US Assistant Secretary Visit: Pro Biya groups protest “interference” in Cameroon’s internal affairs ⁰

As the top U.S. diplomat for Africa visits Cameroon, pro-government groups are protesting what they call Tibor Nagy’s interference in Cameroon’s internal affairs.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Nagy and the European Union representative Federica Mogherini recently called on Cameroon to free opposition leader Maurice Kamto and 150 of his supporters.

They also urged Cameroon authorities to work harder to stop the violence in its western, anglophone separatist regions.

FILE - Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Nov. 30, 2018. — FILE – Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa, Nov. 30, 2018.

The coordinator for Monday’s protest, Lilian Koulou Engoulou, said the demonstrators want Nagy to hear them and take their message back to Washington.

America should stop interfering in Cameroon’s internal issues, Engoulou said, and should help end the crisis in the English-speaking northwest and southwest regions by stopping Cameroonians based in the U.S. from funding what he calls terrorists and destabilizing Cameroon.

The last comment refers to separatist leaders based in the U.S. who have appealed on social media for contributions to help the fighters back home.

Communications Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi, who has previously accused the U.S. of harboring separatist leaders, said last week that Cameroon was outraged by Nagy’s statements.

One Cameroonian newspaper reports that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy is visiting Cameroon in order to free opposition leader Maurice Kamto, chase President Paul Biya and destabilize the country.

Aime Manga of Cameroon Rights Watch, a local group, said officials should take Nagy’s comments as helpful suggestions rather than criticism.

It is public knowledge that Cameroon has a serious political and social crisis, he said, and Nagy’s comments bring hope to many who want democracy.

Cameroon has detained Kamto and his supporters since January for taking part in anti-government demonstrations. They are being tried in military courts for charges that include rebellion and could face the death penalty.

In comments made days before his arrival Sunday in Yaounde, Nagy said it’s not always positive to arrest opposition members during times of crisis.

He also called the death and suffering in Cameroon’s rebellion heartbreaking and urged authorities to do more to end the fighting.

VOA

18, March 2019

Should we worry about genocide in Southern Cameroons? ⁰

Cameroon has been making headlines as another hot spot of instability in Africa. This time, the conflict is along linguistic and cultural lines, between the Francophone majority in the country, who comprise over 80 percent of the population and dominate politics, administration, education, professions and the military, and the Anglophone minority in the western provinces of Cameroon, who make up little more than 15 percent of the population.

The current conflict began two years ago as a protest by middle-class professionals, predominantly lawyers and educators, against the policies of the Francophone central government, perceived to be further marginalizing English speakers and English-speaking areas. The government of Paul Biya, which has been in power since 1982, believed those initial protests were a challenge to the authority of his regime, and responded with a severe crackdown. This, in turn, led to a full-fledged, generalized secessionist movement among the English speakers in the west.

So far, this is in line with the course of post-colonial African politics. But emerging information from within the country is increasingly setting alarm bells ringing, and the international community needs to monitor the situation very closely.

Initial reports of extrajudicial killings of women and children carried out by the central government army personnel are starting to look like systematic campaigns of violence against civilians, with thousands already dead. Entire villages have been evacuated, as some 500,000 people, well over ten percent of the Anglophone population, have been displaced from their homes as a result of indiscriminate state aggression. And attitudes are only hardening on both sides.

Rwanda’s voices are also echoing in response to these international developments. The situation in Cameroon only started making news after an American citizen was caught in the crossfire and killed. This is despite the fact that the United States has been aware that a good proportion of the documented atrocities seem to have been committed by the Rapid Intervention Battalion, an elite military unit that the US trained to fight Boko Haram in the north of Cameroon.

France, the former colonial power, is taking a stand of wilful ignorance that is eerily similar to its attitude toward Rwanda in the months leading to that genocide. And nobody else wants to go anywhere near Cameroon, since none of the major international players have strategic interests in the area – and certainly no interests tied to the Anglophone minority.

The Western press is also taking a rather strange stance on this conflict, which they often term a “near-civil war”. But a civil war implies that there is some kind of equivalence of power between the two parties, as if there was any doubt about which side might prevail. This is simply not the case here. No amount of hardened “secessionist insurgents” is going to pose a real threat to the Francophone government, or indeed the Francophone regions. Short of the two sides coming together to agree on some kind of compromise – and at this stage neither is contemplating such a thing – there are exactly two possible outcomes: Either the Biya government decides to just cut the two Anglophone regions loose and carry on with the Francophonie, or it decides to drown the two provinces in blood.

The decision over what happens next rests entirely with the Biya government. So far, there are no international power players interested in pressuring the government in one direction or the other. And at every given opportunity, the government has chosen to escalate the matter.

We may not be talking about genocide this week, but it is squarely pointing in that direction. There is nothing to suggest that the internal dynamics of the crisis, or the conduct of the Biya government, will divert the course of events, or that it will slow down.

Perhaps the best hope for Cameroon at this moment in history is, in fact, the US. The US has some leverage over Cameroon’s government and has already cut some military assistance to the Biya government over the escalating humanitarian crisis. But can we have any faith that the Trump administration will initiate a sufficiently robust policy response to a developing humanitarian crisis? That would be out of character for the administration. And as long as that remains the case, Cameroon’s most likely outcome, tragically, looks like Rwanda.

Source: alarabiya.net