Headline News

25, May 2018

Actor Morgan Freeman accused of inappropriate behavior, harassment ⁰

At least eight women have accused Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman of subjecting them to inappropriate behavior or harassment on film sets or at promotional events, CNN reported on Thursday.

As part of its investigation of the 80-year-old actor, CNN said it had spoken with 16 people, some of whom also alleged inappropriate behavior by Freeman at his production company, Revelations Entertainment.

Freeman said in a statement that he was sorry to anyone who had been made to feel uncomfortable or disrespected.

“Anyone who knows me or has worked with me knows I am not someone who would intentionally offend or knowingly make anyone feel uneasy,” he said. “I apologize to anyone who felt uncomfortable or disrespected — that was never my intent.”

Representatives for Freeman and Revelations Entertainment did not respond to requests for comment beyond the statement. Reuters was unable to independently confirm any of the accusations.

Following the CNN report, credit card company Visa said in a statement that it was suspending its “marketing in which the actor is featured.” Freeman has been the longtime voice of Visa television advertisements.

A torrent of accusations of sexual misconduct against male actors, filmmakers and agents have roiled Hollywood since last fall, leading in some cases to resignations and the halting of projects.

Similar accusations have also engulfed powerful men in US politics and business, and inspired a #MeToo social media movement by people publicly sharing their stories of sexual harassment or abuse.

CNN reported that eight people told the network they were victims of what some labeled harassment and others called inappropriate behavior by Freeman. It said eight others told the network that they witnessed the actor’s alleged misconduct.

CNN also reported that other sources denied having seen any questionable behavior by the actor, and that those sources described him as behaving professionally on set and in the office.

Freeman, whose career has spanned 50 years and more than 100 movies, won a Oscar in 2005 as best supporting actor for his role as a former boxer in “Million Dollar Baby.”

(Source: Reuters)

25, May 2018

UN Register 21,291 Southern Cameroons Refugees in Nigeria ⁰

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants, and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) have so far registered 21,291 Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria.

This is the headcount of Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria since October 2017 when the francophone and anglophone crisis began in the neighbouring Central African country. The headcount showed that children and women constitute about 77 per cent of the refugee population.

The UNHCR, in a press statement on Thursday, said the refugees were living in 40 different locations across four states of Nigeria including Cross River, Benue, Akwa Ibom and Taraba, noting that the refugees have been arriving in Nigeria since October 2017.

The UN Refugee Agency, which stated that some of the refugees had to be relocated to a new site in Nigeria, said: “The essence of this relocation exercise by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency and the Nigerian Government is to ensure that the Cameroonian refugees live in safety, and in respect of the international humanitarian norm that refugees should stay at least 50 kilometres from the borders.”

It said: “On May 22, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, moved some 331 Cameroonian refugees from Abande to Anyake, Kwande Local Government Area (LGA) settlement, in a move intended to help provide care and protection to people forced to abandon their homes mostly in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon.

“To date, UNHCR, together with the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants, and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), has registered some 21,291 refugees in Nigeria; children and women constituting 77 per cent of the refugee population.

“Living in 40 different locations across four states – Cross River, Benue, Akwa Ibom, and Taraba – the refugees have been arriving in Nigeria since October 2017.”

The press statement read that while addressing the community leaders and members of the host community who were gathered to witness and welcome the arrival of the refugees in Anyake, Boubacar Bamba, the Assistant Representative for Operations stated that UNHCR is actively engaged with partners and the government authorities to find creative ways to address the current refugee situation more sustainably.

He explained that: “Refugees who can learn, contribute, and provide for their families in exile are better placed to rebuild their lives anywhere – including at home once it’s safe to return.”

The statement claimed that Emmanuel Shior, the Executive Secretary of the Benue State Emergency Management Agency, commended UNHCR for its active role and commitment to responding with the much-needed assistance for the Cameroonian refugees.

He promised that two members of staff who were stationed in Abande will be redeployed to Anyake, where they will continue to provide support as the refugees settle into their new environment.

Over the past few months, UNHCR, state authorities, Norwegian Church Aid, and the residents of the host community worked tirelessly to construct a transit site, two multipurpose housing facilities, 32 temporary shelters, and 24 latrines in preparation for the move to Anyake, located 66 kilometres from Abande, Benue State.

Over the next few months, there will be more voluntary relocations to Anyake settlement, which can host some 3,000 to 4,000 Cameroonian refugees.

Source: thisdaylive.com

25, May 2018

Philippines: 4 Cameroon men arrested for scam in Quezon City ⁰

Four tourists from Cameroon who allegedly duped people of their money were arrested in Quezon City on Wednesday.

Bame Jacob, 42; Ogie Oscar Mbang, 48; Tangang Yannick Ndare, 27; and Aly Camara, 33, were arrested in an entrapment operation at the parking lot of a mall on North EDSA at around 7:30 p.m.

They are facing charges of estafa and illegal possession and use of false treasury or bank notes and other instruments of credit.

“I have directed our investigators to check their records at the Bureau of Immigration. We need to verify their passports,” Director Camilo Cascolan, chief of the National Capital Region Police Office, said in a news briefing yesterday.

Michael Amungwa,42, also a Cameroonian, and Ma. Ruby Verzosa, a 55-year-old Filipina, were arrested at the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) headquarters yesterday after they reportedly tried to bribe policemen with P200,000 to release the suspects.

Amungwa denied they were bribing police officers and insisted the money is for a police clearance.

According to QCPD director Chief Superintendent Joselito Esquivel Jr., four people complained that they were duped into investing P300,000 in a money-making scheme involving the use of a chemical to produce counterfeit dollar bills.

Source: www.philstar.com

25, May 2018

Southern Cameroons economic collapse is worse than Biafra after the Nigerian civil war ⁰

Southern Cameroons economy is rightly an afterthought compared to the scope of suffering that has accompanied the senseless war launched by President Biya. Approximately 1300 are dead. Some 40,000 Ambazonians have fled the country to Nigeria and as many as 160,000 others have been displaced internally according to the United Nations.

Correspondingly, it’s worth noting the almost utter economic devastation. Cameroon Concord News Group estimates that more than 95% of the Southern Cameroons economy has been destroyed by the war. Understandably, our estimate is based on very limited data and conjecture due to the fact that the French Cameroun army soldiers have prevented all our efforts at getting access to most important data ever since the revolution began.

For the record, the two year destruction of more than three-quarters of the Southern Cameroons economy would rank among one of the steeper economic collapses ever recorded deep within the African continent, outpacing the catastrophic economic decline of Biafra after their defeat in the Nigerian civil war. As the killing of innocent Southern Cameroons civilians continue in places such as Santa and Pinyin village, it would take Africa’s newest state-the Federal Republic of Ambazonia about 40 years to reach its pre-war real GDP level.

By Seseskou Asu Isong, London

25, May 2018

Canada: At least 15 injured after two men set off bomb at restaurant ⁰

Two unidentified men walked into a restaurant on Thursday in the Canadian city of Mississauga and set off a bomb, wounding more than a dozen people, and then fleeing, authorities said.

The blast went off in the Bombay Bhel restaurant at about 10:30 p.m. Fifteen people were taken to hospital, three of them with critical injuries, the Peel Regional Paramedic Service said in a Tweet.

The two male suspects went into the restaurant and detonated their improvised explosive device, Peel Regional Police said in a Tweet. The men then fled.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Police posted a photograph on Twitter showing two people with dark zip-up hoodies walking into an establishment with one of them appearing to be carrying an object.

The attack in Mississauga, Canada’s sixth largest city, comes a month after a driver plowed his white Ryder rental van into a lunch-hour crowd in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 15.

Mississauga is on Lake Ontario about 20 miles (32 km) west of Toronto.

(Source: Reuters)

25, May 2018

What’s behind the feud between the US and the Biya regime? ⁰

Last week, the political atmosphere in Yaoundé grew a little more tense. For the first time in his 36 years as head of state, President Biya received a verbal missile fired by the US ambassador Peter Barlerin at Yaoundé. Cameroon Intelligence Report understands no one was injured at the Unity Palace even though Francophone political commentators and CPDM cronies including some pro-Biya comedians have openly suggested the attack was tantamount to an act of war by the US.

The Interim Government of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia claims that the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government is carrying out genocide in West Cameroon with its troops burning and destroying Southern Cameroons towns and villages. The U.S. ambassador to Cameroon, Peter Barlerin, backed the claim during a fiery meeting with the 85 year-old President Biya.

The US recently put a smile on Biya’s face by donating two sophisticated fighter jets and repeatedly warned that the planes were only to be used to counter Boko Haram incursions in the Far North region of the country.

In the short term, this latest salvo fired by Ambassador Peter Barlerin probably won’t result in any kind of direct conflict between Yaoundé and Washington. (Though it will, undoubtedly, result in the collapse of the Biya regime.) However, it will only deepen the friction between Yaoundé and the Western nations that have been supporting Biya for more than three decades. The pronouncements by some Biya loyalists including Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary and Foreign Affairs Minister Mbella Mbella have made the situation very much intractable. Here are some important ways to understand the Yaounde-Washington disputes and suspicions:

The US fears that Cameroon is heading towards disintegration and that may have a spill over effect in neighboring countries such as Chad and Gabon including Congo Brazzaville. It’s true that Washington and Yaoundé have never been on opposite sides of international politics but the rift presently going on is an indication that Biya has overstayed his time.

The war against Boko Haram and the global war on terror have certainly informed the domestic and foreign policy priorities of both the United States and Cameroon. Both countries established solid bi-lateral relations and have been sharing intelligence. But Ambassador Barlerin’s advice to Biya isn’t simply, or even primarily statements that can be ignored. It is abundantly clear that the Trump and Emmanuel Macron administrations agreed on what the ambassador had to tell Biya.

Biya’s poor management of the crisis in Southern Cameroons spawned the tensions between Washington and Yaoundé. But the atrocities being committed by French Cameroun army soldiers in Southern Cameroons played a big role in creating the hostile environment we see today.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

25, May 2018

War of words continue between Yaounde and Washington ⁰

Two Cameroonian ministers have responded to remarks by the United States ambassador who late last week accused government of complicity in deadly violence in the restive Anglophone regions.

First was Information Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary who in an interview with the RFIchannel insisted that the nation was rather the victim to secessionist violence. “I am really surprised at the statement of US Ambassador, We are victims, the nation as a whole a victim,” he said.

In a more formal response, the Minister of External Relations issued a statement calling on the diplomat to respect Cameroonians.

It added in part that the country was never going to allow a leader to be imposed on it by the west – in apparent reference to the call by the ambassador for president Biya to start thinking about his political legacy.

Ambassador Peter Henry Barlerin had met with President Paul Biya in Yaounde to discuss bilateral issues ahead of the May 20 national unity day.

In a read out issued by the U.S. embassy in Yaounde, the ambassador said government forces and separatists were culpable in violence in the two regions – northwest and southwest.

He added that government was employing targeted killings and also detaining people without recourse to the law.

Meanwhile, the position of the ambassador was buttressed by the bishop of Mamfe, a town located in the southwest region.

According to Bishop Andrew Nkea, dialogue was needed urgently to avert a useless and senseless civil war in which the government and separatists were committing grave crimes against the people.

The bishop stressed that whiles the army was burning down entire villages, the separatists were also burning down schools and other state institutions. The international Crisis Group has identified the church as the most potent political mediator.

Its April 26 report titled: Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis: How the Catholic Church Can Promote Dialogue, averred that the clergy needed to united with a strong common position (between federalism vs. decentralisation) in order to be seen as credible mediators.

Source: Africa News

24, May 2018

Cameroon bishops alarmed by ‘blind, inhuman, monstrous violence’ ⁰

‘Not a week goes by without houses being burned down, people kidnapped or killed. Fear has taken over this territory’

The situation in English-speaking regions of Cameroon is “marked by blind, inhuman, monstrous violence and by a radicalisation of positions that alarm us,” said the president of the Cameroon bishops’ conference.

“Let us stop all forms of violence and let us stop killing each other,” said Archbishop Samuel Kleda of Douala, the president, in a statement May 16. “Let us save our country from an unfounded and useless civil war.”

Caritas Internationalis, in an appeal launched May 15, reported that the conflict in Cameroon “has forced 160,000 people out of their homes into the bush and a further 26,000 to cross into Nigeria as they flee regions ‘stalked by fear and death.’ Whether a person speaks English or French has become a reason to kill.”

Tensions between Cameroon’s French-speaking majority and English-speaking minority have been growing since late 2016 when lawyers and then teachers in the English-speaking northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon went on strike to protest the appointment of French-speaking judges and the use of French in schools. In October, English-speaking separatists declared an independent state, “Ambazonia.”

Archbishop Kleda’s statement said, “the brutal repression of the army against an independence movement in the English-speaking regions of the country” has fuelled an escalation of the humanitarian crisis.

“Not a week goes by without houses being burned down, people kidnapped or killed. Fear has taken over this territory,” wrote Hippolyte Sando of Caritas Cameroon in a letter March 28 from Mamfe, a diocese in the southwest which Caritas described as being at the “epicenter” of the violence.

“The village of Kembong is a typical example of the suffering of the people. Here, young and old alike have been sleeping in the forest since Sept. 29,” Sando wrote. “Two priests and a hundred or so villagers spent months living in the compound of Bishop Andrew Nkea of Mamfe, and it was only recently that they cautiously agreed to go back to their villages on the condition that they would no longer be attacked.”

The diocesan, national and international Caritas organisations are mobilising to provide emergency aid both within Cameroon and across the border in Nigeria where many of the refugees have sought shelter and safety.

Source: The Tablet

24, May 2018

Yaounde lashes US over ‘abuses’ in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Cameroon’s government has blasted the United States for accusing its forces of abuses, including “targeted killings,” in an English-speaking region of the country wracked by a separatist insurgency.

In a statement received by AFP on Thursday, the foreign ministry said it had expressed its “deep disapproval” of comments made by US ambassador in Yaounde, Peter Barlerin, last week.

His action “violates all diplomatic conventions as well as the rules of civility and law, both in style and substance,” it said.

Barlerin was summoned to the foreign ministry on Tuesday, four days after alleging government forces had carried out “targeted killings” and other abuses against militants demanding independence for two English-speaking regions.

“On the side of the government, there have been targeted killings, detentions without access to legal support, family, or the Red Cross, and burning and looting of villages,” the ambassador said in a statement.

“On the side of the separatists,” he also stressed, “there have been murders of gendarmes, kidnapping of government officials, and burning of schools”.

The statement followed warnings by rights watchdogs over abuses in the conflict. It was issued after Barlerin met Cameroon’s 85-year-old president, Paul Biya.

The foreign ministry statement said such allegations were “totally unfounded.”

“Despite almost daily harassment and heavy losses in terms of lives and equipment, (the security forces) have always kept in mind, with professionalism and rigour, the rules of engagment and international humanitarian law.”

Anglophones account for about a fifth of Cameroon’s population of 22 million.

Most of them live in the Northwest and Southwest regions that in colonial times were administered by Britain, joining francophone Cameroon after it gained independence from France in 1960.

Decades of resentment about perceived marginalisation in education, the judiciary and the economy escalated last year, culminating in the announcement on October 1 of a putative separate state called Ambazonia.

According to the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, “at least 120” civilians and “at least 43” security forces have been killed since the end of 2016.

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says around 160,000 people have been internally displaced and 20,000 have sought refuge in neighbouring Nigeria as a result of the violence.

Source:AFP

24, May 2018

Amnesty International says Nigeria’s military committed war crimes ⁰

Nigeria’s security forces have been accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity during its fight against Islamist insurgency Boko Haram.

A new report released by Amnesty International on Thursday reveals how the crimes were perpetrated for years and have continued despite a presidential inquiry established last August.

In some cases, the abuse appears to be part of a pattern of persecution of anyone perceived to have a connection to Boko Haram.

According to Amnesty’s report, interviewees “said that when the military conducted operations in their villages, they burnt down homes and opened fire at remaining residents indiscriminately.”

“It is absolutely shocking that people who had already suffered so much under Boko Haram have been condemned to further horrendous abuse by the Nigerian military,” said Osai Ojigho, Director of Amnesty International Nigeria.

The human rights watchdog has accused Nigerian security forces of raping thousands of women and girls at the Internally Displaced Persons camps in the country.

“Instead of receiving protection from the authorities, women and girls have been forced to succumb to rape in order to avoid starvation or hunger,” added Ojigho.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters has accused Amnesty International of planning to destabilize the country. The military had announced on Wednesday that it received credible intelligence report of a plan by the human rights body to release what it calls a false report.

“The Defence Headquarters therefore, urge all law abiding citizens to continue to trust and support the military in the ongoing war against Boko Haram and go about their normal lawful business,” read an extract from the military statement.

Nigeria has waged a nine-year war against Boko Haram. Over 2 million people have been displaced and thousands have been killed.

Source: Africa News