Breaking News

18, July 2016

King Mohammed VI of Morocco announces plans to rejoin the African Union ⁰

Morocco has officially announced plans to rejoin the African Union more than three decades after it left the bloc in protest at the independence of Western Sahara. King Mohammed VI sent a message to the leaders of the union as they began a two-day summit in the Rwandan capital Kigali on Sunday, saying it’s time for his country to retake its position in the organization.

“For a long time our friends have been asking us to return to them, so that Morocco can take up its natural place within its institutional family. The moment has now come,” said the monarch. He said although Morocco left the club, “it never quit Africa.” In 1984, King Mohammed’s father, King Hassan II, pulled the North African country out of the union over the decision to accept the independence of Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as a formal member.

Morocco annexed Western Sahara in 1975 and considers it the kingdom’s “southern province.” For decades, the United Nations has been seeking to hold a referendum on independence for the territory. While the government in Morocco continues to carry out multi-million-dollar development projects in the territory, several African countries recognize the area as the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic.

Morocco has offered wide-ranging autonomy for the region, but the Polisario Front, the independence movement in the Western Sahara insists that a referendum be held so that the local population can decide their fate. Leaders of the movement warned in April that that if the UN Security Council fails to set a timetable for a vote on self-determination, war will be possible over the disputed territory.

Presstv

18, July 2016

Russia delivers advanced S-300 air defense system to Iran ⁰

Russia has reportedly delivered the first missiles of the advanced S-300 long-range air defense system as part of a military contract between Moscow and Tehran. According to a report published by Tasnim news agency on Monday, the first shipment of the missiles was delivered to Iran “recently.”

Russia had committed to delivering the systems to Iran under an 800-million-dollar deal in 2007. It, however, refused to deliver the systems to Tehran in 2010 under the pretext that the agreement was covered by the fourth round of the United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.

Following Moscow’s refusal to deliver the systems, Tehran filed a complaint against the relevant Russian arms firm with the International Court of Arbitration in Geneva. In April 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a presidential decree, paving the way for the long-overdue delivery of the missile defense systems to Iran.

The decision to deliver the S-300 long-range air defense system came after Iran and the P5+1 group of countries — the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia plus Germany — reached mutual understanding on Tehran’s nuclear program in the Swiss city of Lausanne on April 2, 2015.

Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili, the commander of the Khatam al-Anbia Air Defense Base, said on July 1 that the S-300 missile defense system is to go operational in Iran by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (ending on March 20, 2017).

Presstv

18, July 2016

Buea: UB lecturers suspend strike action ¹

Students in the University of Buea (UB) have continued writing their Second Semester examinations scheduled from June 28-July 18, 2016. On Monday, 11 July, lecturers went on strike, with examinations reportedly overseen mainly by support staff. According to the Registrar, Prof. Roland Ndip, the examinations have been going on hitch-free. He added that the University Senate meets on 3 August during which results will be discussed and approved before being published online. This is so that students in any part of the country and abroad can easily access their results.

Asked about the strike action by lecturers of the university, the Registrar concerted with another school official and then refused to make any statement. However, Cameroon Tribune was able to speak to the First Vice President of the National Syndicate of Teachers of Higher Education (SYNES), Buea chapter, Dr. Ndeh Martin Sango. He confirmed that they actually declared a strike, but it had just been suspended.

“We decided to strike during exams because of unpaid bonuses. These are bonuses for the supervision of long essays, leave claims, re-sit exams, supervision of Master’s theses, and bonuses related to extra working hours. These bonuses date back to 2013 and all attempts to get the university to pay them have failed,” Dr. Ndeh Martin Sango explained. He continued; “We suspended the strike after pleas by students and parents as some of the students will be writing public competitive exams. We decided to suspend the strike so that these students should not suffer innocently. However, we will continue with the strike by withdrawing our services from re-sit exams. We will not start lectures in October if the bonuses are not paid,” he warned.

The union leader alleged that the University of Buea is going through serious administrative crisis, reason why the authorities were not open to dialogue. “We gave the administration a one-month notification before the strike. If the administration was proactive, they would have called the executive of SYNES for dialogue and probably, we would not have declared a strike. In the absence of dialogue, there is always an alternative and we saw strike action as an alternative,” Dr. Ndeh Martin Sango said. Meanwhile, the UB authorities have on several occasions declared their openness to constructive dialogue.

Cameroon Tribune

18, July 2016

Cameroon arrest 4 fake price controllers ⁰

Four suspected fake price controllers are presently in detention at the Special Unit for the Control of Services at in the General Delegation of National Security in Yaounde. The suspects who are yet to be identified were arrested at 2:00 p.m. on Friday July 15, 2016 in Nkolfoulou, Soa, in the Mefou and Afamba Division of the Centre Region. Some of the traders immediately informed the Control Brigade of the Ministry of Trade in the Mefou and Afamba Division who immediately informed the police.

Reports say, the suspected fake price controllers who claimed to be on an official mission of the Ministry of Trade harassed traders in the area and seized some of their goods such as cartons of whisky, wine, and other household goods. According to the reports, the fake price controllers produced fake documents showing their belonging to an Association for the Protection of the Rights of Consumers. The group is made up of two men, one woman and was accompanied by a police officer who works in the Centre Region.

One of the suspects disappeared into thin air while at the police station. A man hunt was immediately put in place to get the fugitive. Sources in Soa said the suspected fake controllers have been harassing traders in the Mfoundi Division for the past three weeks and were only caught in the fourth week in the Mefou and Afamba Division.

The Centre Regional Delegate for Trade, Ombele Nama Alain called on traders to be vigilant and to always verify whether the service note provided by the controllers have been signed by the chief of brigade for trade before attending to them. He said traders should always be in direct contact with the chief of brigade so that each time there is a control team before them they will be able to contact the brigade to be sure that the team is legal. He also called on the public to report to the services of the Ministry of Trade in case of any fake products for action to be taken.

Cameroon Tribune

18, July 2016

South West journalists to boycott Prime Minister Philemon Yang’s visit today in Buea ⁰

Journalists in the South West region have announced a boycott of Prime Minister Philemon Yang’s visit to the region today. Cameroon Concord News was reliably informed that the media gurus and journalists are protesting against the arrest of one of their colleagues, Teke Julius serving with the Cameroon Radio and Television.

The South West reporters revealed that coverage of the Prime Minister’s visit that begins today in Buea will only go ahead if the head of government or the Senior Divisional Officer for Fako issues an open apology and order the immediate release from illegal detention since April the 9^th 2016 of Teke Julius.

Nfor Hanson Nchanji, a long standing Cameroonian journalist championing the release of Teke Julius observed that the journalist was arrested on lame and ridiculous reasons that he recorded a conversation of the Prime Minister and a contractor.

Chama Victor Bama (Cameroon Concord News Group)

17, July 2016

President Putin condemns recent botched military coup in Turkey ⁰

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a phone call to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to condemn the recent botched military coup attempt in Turkey and express hope that the country would soon embrace stability. In the phone call on Sunday, Putin described as categorically unacceptable the “anti-constitutional acts and violence” in the life of a state, saying that he “wishes for a speedy restoration of strong constitutional order and stability in Turkey.”

The Kremlin said in a statement that the Russian leader also offered condolences on the death of 161 troops and civilians killed during the coup attempt. The Turkish government and the military say more than 100 coup plotters were also killed in the course of state action against the military intervention which unfolded late Friday and was declared as failed a day later.

Russia and Turkey last month restored ties which had been badly strained following Ankara’s shooting of a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian border last year. The restoration came after Erdogan apologized to Putin over the incident and passed on his condolences to the families of the jet’s pilot and the crew member killed after the downing.

The Kremlin said the two leaders also confirmed during the Sunday phone call plans for a personal meeting in the nearest future. Turkish officials said earlier this month that Erdogan would fly to the Russian resort of Suchi to meet Putin in August. The Sunday statement said Erdogan also vowed to take “all necessary steps” to ensure the safety of Russian tourists visiting Turkey. Later on Sunday, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency, quoting presidential sources, reported that Erdogan and his Russian counterpart will meet in the first week of August.

Presstv

17, July 2016

US ambassador to Cameroon says the United States is proud of its partnership with Yaounde ⁰

Michael Stephen Hoza, Ambassador of the United States of America to Cameroon tells Cameroon Tribune that the US is proud of the strong partnership it has with Cameroon. In this soul searching conversation, he also talks of areas of bilateral cooperation and preparations of US presidential election.

What are the key areas of current bilateral cooperation between Cameroon and the United States of America ?

Ambassador Stephen Hoza: The United States of America is proud of our strong partnership, particularly on the security front with Cameroon to defeat the violent extremism of Boko Haram, to provide peacekeepers to the United Nations and bring stability back to the suffering people of the Central African Republic and to defeat pirates in the Gulf of Guinea.

Our partnership extends into the health sector where we work closely with Cameroon’s health experts to fight infectious disease, to eradicate polio, to defeat HIV/AIDS, to build health sector capacity to prevent, detect and respond to virulent pandemics like Ebola or Avian Bird Flu, and to take on the scourge of malaria. We have sponsored people to people programs that have brought Fulbright scholars, International Visitors, and Young African Leaders to America, each of them representing a beautiful thread in the fabric of our bilateral relationship.

We have partnered with Cameroonians at all levels to sustain the engagement of Peace Corps Volunteers engaging their new families in a vibrant cultural exchange. We promote private sector investment in Cameroon, like Taylor Guitars and Crelicam, who bring world class technology, create jobs for Cameroonians, and responsibly harvest the riches of Cameroon’s wonderful forests. Crelicam supplies Cameroonian ebony to all of the finest guitar makers in the world, and Bob Taylor has partnered with the University of Yaounde and UCLA to begin a program that will plant more ebony than Crelicam cuts down! That is American corporate social responsibility at its finest.

All eyes are now almost turned towards the various parties nomination conventions ahead of the November 8, 2016 presidential election in the United States of America. How is your general appraisal of the electoral process up to this moment?

Ambassador Stephen Hoza: This is an exciting time for Americans to exercise our voice through our vote. When George Washington was elected as the first president in 1789, only 6 percent of the U.S. population could vote. In most of the original 13 states, only landowning men over the age of 21 had the right to vote.

Today, the U.S. Constitution guarantees that all U.S. citizens over the age of 18 can vote in federal, state and local elections. In November of this year, America will hold its 57th Presidential election. Over 218 million American citizens, every man and woman aged 18 and up, will have the right to vote, and their vote will select the chief executive of our country-peacefully. Winners will celebrate; losers will concede graciously and plan for the next election.

It is certain that after the presidential election, the US will have a new President to pilot the affairs of the country. How do you see the American position and rule in international affairs when the new leadership will be in power?

Ambassador Stephen Hoza: We can’t predict the results of the election or what the next President’s policies will be. However, we can say that the beauty of democratic systems are in their absolute commitment to respecting the will of the people in their choice of leaders, and the constitutional processes that ensure smooth transitions from one chief executive to the next.

On the day our new President is sworn in, this Embassy, the State Department, our military and our entire government will, as required by our constitution, immediately go to work on ensuring that his or her policies are faithfully executed in a manner consistent with our laws and regulations and that The Peoples’ business continues uninterrupted.

All federal employees pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States because it is that document that sets out our responsibilities to the office of the President and the people of the United States, and it is the values embodied by the constitution that carry over from one administration to the next, regardless of specific political programs and policies presidents are elected to enact.

And those values will continue to underpin our actions and activities now and in the future. As always, we are not focused on our position and power, but on our partnerships and their potential to promote stability and better lives for all. We are focusing on what we’re doing right now, both in Cameroon, and around the world, and our commitment to engagement in so many regions is not going to stop.

17, July 2016

French Interior Minister urged to resign ⁰

France’s far-right leader has called on Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve to resign, saying the steeply increasing death toll from terrorist attacks in France is clear evidence of the need for changes in the French government.

During a speech on Saturday, two days after the deadly terrorist attack in Nice, French National Front Party Leader Marine Le Pen said, “In any other country in the world, a minister with a toll as horrendous as Bernard Cazeneuve — 250 dead in 18 months — would have quit.”

The French government is facing severe criticism from opposition politicians and newspapers following the Nice attack, the third major terrorist attack on the French soil in 18 months.

Presstv

16, July 2016

African leaders in Rwanda to attend major summit ⁰

African leaders arrived in the Rwandan capital Saturday to attend a major summit which is expected to be dominated by discussions about excessive focus of international bodies on abuses in Africa and the conflict in South Sudan. The main theme of discussion is expected to be Africa’s uneasy relationship with the International Criminal Court (ICC) as some countries have renewed efforts to quit the body en masse despite opposition by some countries such as Botswana. Leaders have repeatedly criticized the ICC over the past years for what they call an unnecessary ICC focus on African nations. They have called for a separate African court with jurisdiction over rights abuses.

“Withdrawal from [the] ICC is entirely within the sovereignty of a particular state,” Joseph Chilengi, an AU official, told reporters. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has been a major campaigner for the withdrawal from the ICC, recently called the court “useless.” However, the call seems to have hit a major snag, as Nigeria, Senegal and Ivory Coast have followed Botswana and pushed back as well.

Rwanda has invited Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes in the Darfur region. Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said the country would not arrest Bashir despite concerns that Kigali would hand over the Sudanese leader like it did to war criminal Bosco Ntaganda of Congo in 2013.

“Africa doesn’t support criminals, but when justice is involved with a lot of politics we take a pause to separate the two,” Mushikiwabo said this week. Discussing the fresh wave of conflict in South Sudan, where deadly clashes have erupted between army factions, is also high on the agenda at the AU summit. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who is at the summit, has called for an arms embargo as a solution to the conflict which has claimed a considerable number of lives over the past days.

Presstv

16, July 2016

Cameroon and Amnesty International: Living together differently ²

Cameroonians in their great majority are still waiting for publicized press releases from human rights organisations out rightly condemning human casualties caused Boko Haram suicide bombings last 12^th, 22^nd and 25^th July in the Far North Region. The alacrity with which they have been condemning alleged human rights violations by the Cameroonian defence and security forces mismatches their apparent reluctance in responding to the 13 deaths and 10 injured caused by two suicide bombers on July 12, 2015 in the locality of Fotokol as well as the three suicide attacks perpetrated in Maroua on 22^nd and 25^th July, 2015 leaving a total of 34 dead and 117 wounded.

To many, the silence of human rights organisations cannot be comprehended, thus raising questions as to who is really behind these NGOs? Who is footing their bills? Are they fronts for those plotting to destabilize stable countries such as Cameroon? On June 20, 2015, Amnesty International issued a press release denouncing the alleged detention of 80 children in a center for minors in the Far North Region for reported links with Boko Haram. The release quoted Cameroonian authorities as saying that the kids arrested in a Koranic school were preparing a suicide-bomb mission for Boko Haram.

An allegation which some human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, said was unfounded. Could this explain the latter’s silence when the two young suicide bombers detonated their bombs in Fotokol on July 12^th and later on 22^nd and 25^th July in Maroua? The answer is blowing in the wind. Nevertheless, the silence is sharply in contrast with Amnesty’s condemnation of Boko Haram’s human rights violations in neighbouring Nigeria. In a report early this year, the NGO claimed Boko Haram had since beginning of 2014 murdered at least 5,500 civilians in North Eastern Nigeria, displaced at least one million persons due to violence and kidnapped over 2,000 women and young girls.

Amnesty International is not the only organization to have gone vocal. A Cameroonian-based NGO called the Network of Human Rights Defenders in Central Africa (REDHAC) issued a release on February 19, 2015 denouncing human rights abuses by Cameroon’s security forces in their fight against Boko Haram. Although, the release timidly mentioned Boko Haram violations, it focused on alleged intimidation, acts of torture by Cameroonian soldiers against the population to gather information.

REDHAC has surprisingly gone silent after the Fotokol and Maroua Boko Haram suicide-bombings, likewise another NGO, Nouveaux Droits de l’Homme (NDH-Cameroon) which supported REDHAC with a release, even appreciated support given REDHAC by other NGOs such as “Un Monde Avenir” and the Civil Society Platform for Democracy. What now explains their silence after the three recent suicide-bombings in Far North region of Cameroon?

Cameroon Tribune