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22, February 2019

High-profile journalist kidnapped in Southern Cameroons ⁰

The president of the Northwest regional chapter of Cameroon Association of English-speaking Journalists (CAMASEJ) was kidnapped Thursday by “unknown gunmen” in Bamenda, Cameroon’s largest Anglophone city, CAMASEJ said in a statement.

“It is with great disbelief and shock that CAMASEJ Northwest just learned of the kidnap of its president, Ambe Macmillian Awa, this Thursday afternoon around 2:30 p.m. by unknown gunmen,” Fongoh Primus Ayeh, secretary general of CAMASEJ Northwest, said in a statement released Thursday evening.

Ayeh “vehemently” condemns the act and said it was “tantamount to kidnapping all journalists in the region and nation.” He said the search for Awa’s whereabouts was in progress and demanded his “immediate and unconditional release.”

Awa, who is also secretary general of the Northwest chapter of Cameroon Journalists Trade Union, is the first high profile journalist to be kidnapped since an armed conflict started in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon in November 2017.

His abduction has drawn condemnation. Committee to Protect Journalists tweeted that it was “concerned” over the abduction and stressed that “he must be freed unharmed.”

Kidnappings have become rampant in the two troubled Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest since the start of this year. Over the weekend, 170 students and their teacher were kidnapped in the Northwest. They were released later following negotiations.

Armed separatists want the two regions to secede from largely French-speaking Cameroon and create a new nation they called “Ambazonia.” The United Nations estimates that at least 430,000 people in Cameroon have been displaced internally by the conflict.

Xinhuanet

22, February 2019

Yaounde: Minister Nalova says teaching in secondary schools to go digital ⁰

Cameroon’s Minister of Secondary Education Nalova Lyonga said Wednesday that the country will begin teaching students in secondary school online to “gain time and facilitate the learning process.”

“We have a lot of schools that are not built with the right material and methodology. We are looking into the teaching methodology. We want to go digital,” Lyonga said during mid-term evaluation meeting of the 2018-2019 school year held in the capital, Yaounde.

“The more subjects we have online the better, and this is a methodology that shows us how we can actually transform a 45 minutes lesson into 10 minutes by highlighting those very important elements of the lesson,” She added.

Cameroon already has a sample of the online teaching platform and teachers are being trained on its usage, she said, adding that the programme will cover about 2,000 secondary schools in the country.

Xinhua

22, February 2019

Abortions From Rapes on Rise in Southern Cameroons ⁰

A new study confirms rape has become a weapon of war in Cameroon’s separatist conflict, and many victims are terminating pregnancies with crude, unsafe abortion techniques.

Sixteen-year-old Mercy Azefor says she was raped in Nkambe while hiding on her mother’s farm after her parents were killed in April 2018. Nkambe is in the Northwest region, one of two areas where English-speaking separatist groups are fighting to break away from Cameroon and its French-speaking majority.

Azefor says a family running from the fighting drove her to Yaounde. There, she met pastor Grace Mbegno of Divine Redemption Ministries, who took her in.

Two months ago, Azefor gave birth to a baby girl.

“I gave her the name Gracious because she is all that I have,” Azefor said. “I do not want her to go through what I went through. She will certainly have good education and help others tomorrow. She knows no other father than God who created her.”

A Cameroonian nonprofit group, the Rural Women Center for Education and Development, is keeping track of at least 300 school-age girls from the Northwest region who became pregnant as a result of rape, either from suspected separatist fighters or government soldiers.

Dangerous procedures

Vera Wirsiy, coordinator of the center, says the group was motivated to carry out the study after a 14-year-old rape victim came to a hospital in the Northwest town of Ndop and asked that her six-month pregnancy be terminated.

“The young girl came to do an abortion,” Wirsiy said. “The medical personnel tried to find out what happened. She told him the community is not safe, gunshots, her grandmother is not able to take care of her. The guy impregnated her and ran.”

Wirsiy said at least 130 of the 300 girls they met had already had abortions, with some using crude traditional means that endanger their lives.

Panje Roland of Cameroon’s Ministry of Women Empowerment said many more women and girls in the Northwest and Southwest regions have been victims of sexual exploitation, but it is difficult to know their numbers because many are hiding.

‘Weapon of war’

In December, Allegra Baiocchi, coordinator of the U.N. system in Cameroon, called for the protection of women and girls in the war zone and a stop to what she called humiliating practices.

“We know that rape is today a weapon of war and many women, thousands of women, have had to flee and are today even more vulnerable to sexual abuse,” she said.

A report last year by rights group Amnesty International criticized both the Cameroon military and separatists for abuses of civilians.

In October, the government of Cameroon said it had opened investigations into reports of police and soldiers raping teenage girls and young women.

VOA

22, February 2019

Urgent support needed to respond to Humanitarian Needs in Cameroon ⁰

Humanitarian needs in Cameroon have risen by a third this year owing to an upsurge in insecurity and violence, leaving one in six people – mostly women and children – requiring assistance. Today we launch the 2019 Humanitarian Response Plan appealing for US$299 million to provide support to 2.3 million people.

“The humanitarian emergency in Cameroon must remain high on our agenda. We must step up efforts to meet the needs of the affected population, many of whom are surviving in deplorable conditions without assistance,” said Ms. Allegra Baiocchi. the United Nations Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Cameroon.

“In recent years, funding for humanitarian response has not kept pace with the needs. This means that we have been unable to provide enough food, water or medicine to vulnerable people, treat malnutrition or assist displaced families. This is very worrying as humanitarian needs are likely to continue growing in the coming months,” Ms. Baiocchi said.

In 2018, only 40 per cent of the $320 million needed for humanitarian assistance was received.

This year, around 4.3 million people need urgent assistance. Displacement has risen by 82 per cent compared with 2018. Renewed armed attacks have driven tens of thousands more Nigerians into Cameroon’s Far-North region, which already hosts 138,000 refugees. In North-West and South-West regions, worsening violence has uprooted 437,000 people and forced over 32,000 to seek refuge in neighbouring Nigeria. The East, Adamaoua and North regions host 275,000 Central African refugees.

“We acknowledge the scale of the humanitarian emergency and urge all actors to work with the Government to address the rising needs,” said MINAT. “We must also work together to not only ease the suffering of vulnerable populations, but to seek lasting solution for communities to withstand adversity.”

The crises arising from armed violence add to existing chronic vulnerabilities, including inadequate basic services, epidemics, food insecurity and malnutrition as well as the impact of climate change.

The 2019 humanitarian response plan focuses on providing immediate assistance to save lives, bolstering the protection of affected civilians, identifying risks and vulnerabilities to support the resilience of communities to shocks.

Africa News

22, February 2019

US: Senator Bernie Sanders slams Trump as a ‘demagogue’ ⁰

US Senator Bernie Sanders, who announced he is running for president again in the 2020 elections, has responded to President Trump’s attacks on him, calling him a “demagogue.”

In an interview with CBS News aired Tuesday, the Independent senator from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, said the American people should not believe what Trump says.

“You got a president who is a demagogue, you got a president who is leading us in an authoritarian direction, I would hope that the American people don’t believe too much of what he says,” Sanders said.

Sanders to run for US president again

Sanders, who announced his 2020 election campaign on Tuesday, has been a relentless critic of Trump, and has called him “the most dangerous president in modern American history.”

“We are running against a president who is undermining American democracy as he leads us in an authoritarian direction,” Sanders said in an email to Reuters on Tuesday.

Trump has in turn railed against what he claims is the Democratic Party’s turn to socialism, citing the rising popularity of Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, both self-proclaimed democratic socialists.

A spokeswoman for Trump’s 2020 election campaign took a swipe Tuesday at Sanders and the Democratic Party in general, saying Sanders had already won his party’s nomination for president because the rest of the Democratic candidates had adopted his brand of socialism.

“But the American people will reject an agenda of sky-high tax rates, government-run health care and coddling dictators like those in Venezuela,” Trump campaign national press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement.

A former mayor of Burlington, Vermont, Sanders won a US House of Representatives seat in 1990, making him the first independent elected to the House in 40 years. In 2006, he won a US Senate seat and in 2018 was voted in for a third six-year term.

Sanders made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2016, losing out to Hillary Clinton, who was in turn defeated by Trump.

His call for universal health care, a $15 minimum wage and free public university education has gained huge strong support among young liberals.

He mounted a fierce challenge to Clinton as he spoke to swelling crowds and garnered passionate support on social media. His 2016 campaign also rejected the use of corporate money and instead relied on small-dollar donations.

Presstv

22, February 2019

Sudan detains dozens of opposition leaders in largest crackdown ⁰

Sudanese security forces have detained nearly two dozen opposition leaders, who were on their way to deliver a petition to the presidential palace calling for President Omar al-Bashir to resign.

Media reports said opposition leaders belonging to several political parties were arrested while gathering in downtown Khartoum on Thursday.

The arrests took place as they were getting ready to deliver the petition, which demanded the formation of a new transitional government to replace Bashir and his administration.

In a statement, the Sudanese Congress Party confirmed that authorities “pre-empted” demonstrations. It said deputy head of Umma Party Mariam Sadiq al-Mahdi, the party’s secretary general Sara Naqdallah and Communist Party leader Mokhtar al-Khatib were arrested.

The spokesman of the Sudanese Professionals’ Association (SPA), the main protest organizer, was also arrested.

Later, police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of angry protesters who had gathered to march near the Arab Market area in the capital city.

Protesters held anti-government placards and chanted slogans such as “Peaceful, peaceful against the thieves” and “Fall, that’s it” to send the message that their only demand was Bashir’s fall.

The detentions amount to the largest crackdown against the opposition in one day since the demonstrations began two months ago.

Official figures show 30 people, including some security agents, have lost their lives since the onset of the rallies. Activists and some rights groups say nearly 60 people have died so far.

Since December, Sudan has been rocked by a wave of protests calling on Bashir, who seized power in a 1989 military coup, to step down.

Sudan opposition unites against Bashir

The country’s security forces have so far used tear gas, stun grenades and live ammunition to break up demonstrations, and detained hundreds of protesters and opposition figures.

The president has remained defiant, addressing loyalists at a number of rallies across the country and seeking support from regional allies.

Bashir and other senior Sudanese officials have repeatedly said that the government can only be changed through elections. The 75-year-old veteran leader is considering running for a third presidential term in next year’s elections.

Sudan has been struggling with a worsening economic crisis, including a serious shortage of foreign currency. The cost of some commodities, including medicine, has more than doubled and inflation has hit 70 percent. A growing lack of food and fuel has also been regularly reported across several cities, including Khartoum.

Anti-govt. protesters in Sudan targeted with tear gas

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court over charges of masterminding genocide in the Darfur region.

President Bashir, who has cultivated close ties with Saudi Arabia, has also stressed his intention to continue participating in the war on Yemen.

Presstv

22, February 2019

Amnesty jabs Cameroon govt: Military trial of civilians ‘horrifying’ ⁰

International Rights group, Amnesty International, AI, have described the insurrection charge slapped on Cameroon opposition chief as horrifying, accusing Yaounde of being less tolerant of criticism.

In a statement issued today (February 21), AI stressed that it was a clear violation of basic human rights to continue putting civilians before military courts.

Kamto appeared before the Yaounde court today, his second appearance since he was arrested in late January 2019. Reports indicate that the case has been adjourned till February 26.

“It is horrifying that the Cameroonian authorities are considering sentencing Maurice Kamto to death simply for daring to participate in a peaceful protest.

“He is one of many people who have been caught up in a wave of mass arrests as authorities attempt to silence their critics,” said Marie-Evelyne Petrus Barry, Amnesty International’s West and Central Africa regional director.

“As well as having their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly crushed, many of Cameroon’s opposition members are now facing unfair trials by military courts.

“We are calling on authorities to end this ruthless assault on dissenting voices. Civilians should not be tried by military courts and should not face the death penalty for exercising their human rights,” she stressed.

International and regional human rights bodies including the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights consider that military courts should not, in any circumstances whatsoever, have jurisdiction over civilians. This is also recognized in the Principles of fair trial in Africa.

Africa News

21, February 2019

Race for Councillor to Fingal County Council: Swordscatlelite give support to Paul Uzo ⁰

North county Dublin’s Holy Christian Candidate – Mark J. Savage has endorsed Paul Uzo and assured the Independent Candidate of his Number 1 Vote for the upcoming local elections in Ireland.

In a soul-searching letter addressed by the much respected Swordscastlelite to Paul Uzo, Mark J. Savage observed that “Notwithstanding my respectfully held disagreement on the Restoration of Birthright Citizenship Bill 2017 nevertheless as a devout Swordscastlelite and an (elite Evangelical Christian) who is a member of the Church of Swords Castle (Swords Castle Ltd.) and an original native of Swords County Dublin originally from Number 1. Main Street Swords; I feel specially please to welcome you to my hometown and sincerely hope you are successful as an independent candidate in your forthcoming campaign for to be elected as Councillor to Fingal County Council.”

Below is the official correspondence from Mark J.Savage

Dear Mr Uzo

Good luck with your campaign for election. Notwithstanding my respectfully held disagreement on the Restoration of Birthright Citizenship Bill 2017 – nevertheless as a devout Swordscastlelite and an (elite Evangelical Christian) who is a member of the Church of Swords Castle (Swords Castle Ltd.) and an original native of Swords County Dublin originally from Number 1. Main Street Swords; I feel specially please to welcome you to my hometown and sincerely hope you are successful as an independent candidate in your forthcoming campaign for to be elected as Councillor to Fingal County Council and you can be assured of getting my first preference vote.

Kind regards and praises to the good Lord Jesus Christ and the Church of Swords Castle

– Mark J. Savage

21, February 2019

Yaounde Military Court assuming jurisdiction despite finding President Ayuk Tabe and CO as refugees and asylum seekers ⁰

The legality of the abduction of Southern Cameroon Leaders from Nigeria and their court-martial in Cameroun raises critical issues in International Law; in particular in times when the world is confronted with an acute refugee problem. International Criminal Justice in which I have been involved these twenty years, has elaborately litigated this issue with my participation regarding its suspects who sought and obtained refugees status in different parts of the world prior to their arrest and surrender.

On the acquittal of the former commander of the reconnaissance battalion of the former Rwandan Army, Major Nzuwonemeye who was arrested in Cameroun and transferred to the ICTR Detention Centre in Arusha Tanzania, whom I defended at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, there is an ongoing litigation for him to be returned to France from where he sought refugees status prior to his arrest and trial at the ICTR. Prior to this case, the Court of Appeal of the Centre Province in Cameroun rejected a Rwandan request to arrest and return to Rwanda, Colonel Theoniste Bagosora, Laurent Semanza, Francois-Xavier Nzuwonemeye, Jean Baptiste Barayagwiza and others who fled to Cameroun after the fall of Kigali to the Rwanda Patriotic Front led by Paul Kagame. The Cameroun court decided was based on the grounds that it would be illegal to return them to Rwanda where there was a prospect of the death of penalty pursuant to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its additional protocol. There was no extradition treaty between Cameroun and Rwanda. Nevertheless the Cameroun Court found unpersuasive, the invocation of the principle of reciprocity in the absence of an extradition treaty by Rwanda to obviate the legal protections afforded by the 1951 multilateral refugee treaty. For the record, Colonel Bagosora was then alleged to be the mastermind of the genocide in Rwanda although the prosecution at trial at the ICTR failed to prove this serious allegation. It should be emphasized that the transfer of the suspects then to the ICTR was done pursuant to the UN Security Resolution establishing the ICTR which mandated UN member states to cooperate with the court.

The case of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and 9 others and the decision of the court-martial before whom they stand trial to assume jurisdiction overruling challenges to the jurisdiction of the court-martial must be viewed from the perspective of the multilateral regime on which the objections were based. It must also be premised on the treaty obligations of the abducting state-Nigeria. The court-martial is a consequential danger that multiple international multilateral treaty regimes expressly interdicted. Nigeria is a state party to the ICC. There is an ICC preliminary examination in Nigeria since 2010. The crime of abduction is one of the crimes in the Rome Statute which is currently under preliminary examination is a multiplicity of crimes committed in the territory of Nigeria for which a preliminary examination was initiated.

Cameroun signed the Rome Statute but did not ratify it. Nevertheless, the recent Rohingya jurisprudence at the ICC establishes that where a crime committed in a ICC state party continues to a non state party, the ICC shall extend its jurisdiction to the non state party. I led the Rohingya delegation to the ICC Prosecutor to press their case on December 4, 2018.

France has not returned Mr Zang Ambassa to Cameroun due to his refugee status despite the existence of an elaborate extradition treaty and judicial cooperation between Cameroun and France. By its own appellate jurisprudence and well established state practice, Cameroun has not established a jurisprudential regime of abductions, kidnapping and trial of alleged suspects in court-martials in foreign states, although its systematic abduction of Southern Cameroons nationals in their thousands from their territory and their submission to the jurisdiction of the Yaoundé court-martial has risen to the status of war crimes. The abduction and court-martial of Southern Cameroonians should not be dignified as cognizable due processes. The court-martial is a weapon of collective punishment, torture, cruel and degrading treatment of real and perceived opponents.

The international law elaborate treaty regime against the return of refugees to countries from which they fled when doing so, could subject them to grave danger or torture and other crimes outlawed by international law strongly eviscerates the reasons advanced by the Cameroun court-martial for assuming jurisdiction in this case. Cameroun has litigated international cases in which it charged civilians before court-martials and lost. It was decided that on no account should civilians be court-martialed: (1) Akwanga Vs Cameroun at the UNHRC (2) Akwanga Vs Cameroun ( African Commission for Human and Peoples Rights (3) Dinka Vs Cameroun ( UHRC).

A random search of the international treaty regime, its commentary and jurisprudence militates against the abduction, and trial of civilians who acquired refugee status under the protection of international law, in particular in judicial proceedings and court-martials where they may face the prospect of the death sentence. Lest we forget, if the interpretation and implementation of international law favoured the abduction and return of refugees to the countries from which they fled to face the dangers from which they fled, millions of refugees fleeing across international borders would simply have been returned to the countries from which they fled without due process. Armed militias and terrorists caught in battle who did not acquire the status of refugees may be detained pursuant to the laws and customs of war. As prisoners of war, they are afforded the protections in international law, and these include due process of the law. Subjecting civilians abducted and returned from foreign countries to a court-martial is not a legally recognized due process of the law. The court-martial in Yaoundé is a mockery of international law in every respect and should not be accorded a cloak of legality in any manner whatsoever.

Chief Charles A. Taku

21, February 2019

Southern Cameroons War: Manyu mourns field commander killed by “friendly fire” ⁰

The Manyu Ghost Warriors’ media relations released a statement late on Wednesday mourning the death of one of their field commanders that was recently killed by friendly fire.

According to Manyu Ghost Warriors’ media wing, their field commander, General Shina Rambo, recently died after sustaining life-threatening wounds from gunshots fired by a serviceman in his regiment.

The Manyu Self-Defense group loyal to the Southern Cameroons Interim Government did not specify what led to the incident that Shina Rambo sustained these wounds, nor did they mention which area he was deployed at before his death.

Below is the full text made public via the Manyu Global Voice

Beloved brothers and sisters of Manyu:

This is a sad day for us as a people. We have lost one of our bravest warriors.

It is with a heavy heart that I announce that General Shina Rambo is no more! Rambo died today, February 20th, 2019, from injuries he sustained from gunshots fired by one of our own in GZ. Details will be brought to you as soon as investigations wrap up.

Kindly join me to convey our heartfelt sympathies to General Rambo’s grieving family and brothers in arms.

Shina will be buried with full Ambazonia/ASC/Manyu Ghost Warriors military honors.

A two-day mourning period has been declared. All unnecessary arguments on the Manyu Global Voice Forum have been suspended during this mourning period.

You shall await further announcements. All MUST abide by this directive. Thanks

RIP Rambo

Chairman