Chairperson of the Ambazonia Self-Defence Council (ASC) today announced the appointment of Mr. Nso Foncha as new Spokesperson of the ASC Council. Mr. Foncha will provide a public voice for the Council by ensuring that public announcements are made in the most appropriate fashion and through the most appropriate channels. Within that role, Mr. Foncha will conduct most correspondences with media outlets, such as TV, newspapers, and radio stations. Mr. Foncha will also communicate with the members of the public who have questions about the Council and ongoing self-defence activities throughout Ambazonia. The spokesperson will brief regularly the people of Ambazonia at home and abroad on self-defence developments. The spokesperson will serve as the only official source of information regarding self-defence to the African Union, United Nations, governments and international organizations. For all self-defence related inquiries, email ASC Spokesperson Mr. Nso Foncha at official.asc@africamail.com

The Ambazonia Self-Defence Council brings together more than 95% of scores of self-defence groups across Ambazonia territory that are dedicated to defend Ambazonia people, their property and interests against all threats. While the Interim Government pursues diplomacy, the Council promotes the inherent right of individual and collective self-defence against ongoing armed attacks on the people and within the territory of Ambazonia perpetuated by armed soldiers of La Republique du Cameroun and mercenaries from République du Tchad ordered by President Paul Biya. However, the ASC Council does not assume responsibility for the actions of any self-defence group that violate international conventions and human rights laws.

The Council seeks to ensure that established and rapidly rising new self-defence groups by unemployed, frustrated and angry youths across Ambazonia exercise self-defence activities in a professional manner and consistent with international law and practices until the conclusion of a UN-backed negotiated solution to fully implement April 1961 UN General Assembly Resolution 1608(XV) on the Southern Cameroons right to sovereignty

Anglophone secessionists protested in the United Kingdom on Saturday, calling for the international community to come to their rescue and free Southern Cameroon in Africa.

The secessionists have been protesting since the end of 2016, arguing that they were being marginalized by majority French speaking Cameroonians in virtually all areas of public life.

But impoverished French speaking Cameroonians have reacted with dismay, saying they were as impoverished, and as neglected, as the Anglophones, by an irresponsible dictatorial regime led by one man for almost four decades.

French speaking Cameroonians in the country’s far north who are being massacred by Boko Haram terrorists without a single visit by President Biya have found Anglophones’ blames incomprehensible.

But the Anglophones have argued that Cameroon should return, not to the united nation it was under the German occupation, but to an entity of two “separate” states that it became after the first world war, when French and British colonial powers divided the country and imposed their languages and cultures.

Many French speaking Cameroonians have argued that Anglophones’ claims that Cameroon should go back to the arrangement before the reunification in 1972, should also argue that Cameroon should go back to the unified country it was under the German occupation long before the British and the French divided it following the first world war.

Those who disagree with the Anglophones, argue in effect that Cameroon existed long before the brutal occupations by French and British forces.

Those in favor of this school of thought often react with sadness that today’s generations do not seem to remember the whole history, and are choosing to protest in the United Kingdom, a bloody country that caused the mess now being experienced in many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Cameroon.

Source: Today News Africa

A rocket and car bomb attack left one UN peacekeeper dead, a dozen wounded and another dozen French soldiers hurt at Timbuktu’s airport area, Mali’s security ministry said Saturday. “A terrorist attack targeted” France’s Barkhan camp as well as UN troops stationed outside the northern Mali city during the afternoon, the ministry said on Facebook.

A dozen rockets were fired at the two camps with gunmen dressed as UN blue helmets riding two vehicles rigged with bombs. “One of the vehicles exploded, while the second bearing the UN sign was halted,” the statement said.

The ministry said the latest casualty toll was one UN soldier dead, a dozen wounded, five of them seriously, and a dozen French soldiers also hurt. “The fighting ended towards 18h30. The sector is being searched. The situation is under control,” it added.

A foreign security source told AFP that the assault was “unprecedented” in Timbuktu. The United Nations had earlier released the same toll for its troops. In a tweet, the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali announced, “One blue helmet was killed in gunfire exchanges with the assailants, a dozen wounded.”

MINUSMA had earlier “confirmed a major and complex attack on the camp at Timbuktu this afternoon (mortars + exchanges of fire + suicide attack vehicle)”. “It’s the first time there has been an attack on this scale against the MINUSMA in Timbuktu,” the security source said.

“We’ve never seen an attack like this,” an official from the Timbuktu governorate told AFP. “Shell fire, rockets, explosions and perhaps even suicide bombers.” Unrest in Mali stems from a 2012 Tuareg separatist uprising against the state, which was exploited by jihadists in order to take over key cities in the north.

More than a dozen of Timbuktu’s holy shrines, built in the 15th and 16th centuries when the city was revered as a centre of Islamic learning, were razed in a campaign against idolatry by jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda in 2012. The United Nations has nearly 13,000 troops and police in Mali, many of whom are deployed in the country’s lawless north.

Seven UN peacekeepers have been killed in attacks in Mali this year alone, serving in a mission that has been described as the UN’s most dangerous. A total of 102 have been killed since MINUSMA’s deployment began in 2013.

Islamist extremists linked to Al-Qaeda took control of the desert north of Mali in early 2012, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013. Insurgents remain active, linked to drug, arms and migrant trafficking in the vast Sahel region.

(AFP)

A storm system stretching from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes has buffeted the central US with heavy snow, tornadoes, rain and hail, forcing flight cancellations, creating treacherous road conditions and killing at least three people, including a sleeping 2-year-old Louisiana girl.

In the Upper Midwest, all flights were grounded most of Saturday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as heavy snow made it difficult to keep runways clear and planes deiced. Nearly 470 flights were canceled before crews were able to open one runway shortly after 10 p.m., according to a spokesman. Blizzard conditions also forced the airport in South Dakota’s biggest city, Sioux Falls, to remain closed for a second straight day.

The Minnesota Twins home game against the Chicago White Sox was snowed out Saturday, marking the first back-to-back postponements of baseball games in the stadium’s nine seasons. Sunday’s game was also called off because of the storm, which by Saturday night had buried Minneapolis under more than 13 inches of snow (33 centimeters). The Yankees and Tigers were rained out Saturday in Detroit.

Authorities closed several highways in southwestern Minnesota, where no travel was advised, and driving conditions were difficult across the southern half of the state. The National Weather Service predicted that a large swath of southern Minnesota, including Minneapolis and St. Paul, could get up to 20 inches of snow (51 centimeters) by the time the storm blows through on Sunday.

“It’s a cool experience for me, the best Minneapolis experience,” Niko Heiligman, of Aachen, Germany, said as he braved the snow Saturday to take a walk along the Mississippi River in downtown Minneapolis. “I’m only here for the weekend, so I guess that’s how it goes. There’s snow and it’s cold. So it’s good.”

The storm is expected to persist through Sunday in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan before moving into New York state and New England.

Up to 18 inches (46 centimeters) of snow had fallen by early Saturday in parts of northern Wisconsin, with another 14 inches (36 centimeters) expected by Sunday evening. Winds of up to 55 mph (88.5 kph) caused blowing and drifting snow, along with ice shoves in Green Bay.

The National Weather Service also warned of potential coastal flooding along Lake Michigan in Wisconsin and Illinois, where Chicago residents were warned that waves could reach as high as 18 feet (5.5 meters).

Snow and wind gusts of up to 50 mph (80 kph) were whipping through parts of South Dakota for a second straight day Saturday, causing blizzard conditions that made travel all but impossible. While the blizzard warning was lifted in the western part of the state, it remained in effect for much of southern and eastern South Dakota.

No travel was advised in Sioux Falls, where police said the blowing snow made it hard to see anything. Several inches of snow fell in various parts of the state, including 18 inches (46 centimeters) in the eastern South Dakota city of Huron.

The storm and powerful winds knocked out power to thousands of customers in Michigan, which was expected to get more snow and ice through the weekend.

Two storm-related deaths occurred early Saturday. In Louisiana, winds downed a tree onto a mobile home in Haughton, killing a sleeping 2-year-old girl inside, according to the Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Office. In Wisconsin, a woman was killed when she lost control of the minivan she was driving on a slippery highway and struck an oncoming SUV near Lewiston. Three passengers in the minvan and the SUV driver were hospitalized.

On Friday, a truck driver from Idaho lost control of his rig on snow-covered Interstate 80 near Chappell in western Nebraska and slammed into a semi that had become stranded, according to the Nebraska State Patrol. He died at the scene.

In Arkansas, a tornado ripped through the tiny Ozark Mountain town of Mountainburg on Friday, injuring at least four people and causing widespread damage. Video showed uprooted trees, overturned cars, damaged buildings and downed power lines. Powerful winds also damaged several buildings at the University of Central Arkansas, though no injuries were reported there.

The storm made its mark in Texas, too, where hail the size of hen eggs fell on areas south of Dallas and Fort Worth, according to meteorologist Patricia Sanchez. In Austin, fire officials said strong winds helped spread the flames after lightning struck two houses that suffered heavy damage.

(Source: AP)