Headline News

11, April 2018

5 French Cameroonian athletes missing at Commonwealth Games ⁰

Five Cameroonian athletes competing at the Commonwealth Games in Australia have gone missing, the country’s Team Manager, Victor Agbor Nso, said on Tuesday. Nso told Cameroon state broadcaster CRTV that Weightlifter Olivier Matam and boxers Ndzie Tchoyi and Simplice Fotsala were due to compete on Tuesday but could not be found. He added that two other weightlifters — Aka Angeline Filji and Mikoumba Petit David, had earlier gone missing from the games at the Gold Coast, but did not specify when.

He explained that Australian police were informed about the situation. He said “we have officially informed our hierarchy back home: the Ministry of Sports and the president of the National Olympic Committee of Cameroon. “We have also laid formal complaint to the Australian police.” It is not the first time Cameroonian athletes disappeared at major sporting event. In 2012, five male boxers, a female footballer and a male swimmer absconded from the London Olympic village.

Source: www.vanguardngr.com

11, April 2018

US: White House says Trump ‘has the power’ to fire Mueller ⁰

US President Donald Trump “has the power” to fire Robert Mueller, the special counsel in the so-called Russia probe, the White House says as Republicans warn him not to do so.

“He certainly believes that he has the power to do so,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Tuesday. “I know a number of individuals in the legal community, and including at the Department of Justice say he has the power to do so.”

This is while Republicans in US Senate are taking measures to insulate Mueller from being dismissed.

Republican Senator Thom Tillis is pushing the Senate Judiciary Committee to take up his legislation aimed at protecting Mueller.

“It’s a good bill that’s going to have enduring value beyond this presidency. I think the president’s frustrated, I may be if I were in the same position,” Tillis said. “But I do think it’s a bill that’s worthy of a mark-up in Judiciary and sending it to the floor.”

Legal experts believe that the president cannot directly fire him Mueller.

Republicans lawmakers are trying to keep Mueller’s probe going after the FBI raided the offices of Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen.

Firing Mueller could end Trump’s presidency, Republicans have warned.

Justice Department Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is the only one who has the authority as the department is in charge of the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion between Trump’s aides in Russia.

The investigation seeks to find out whether the Russian government coordinated with Trump’s aides after the intelligence community’s conclusion that the Kremlin helped with the New York billionaire’s campaign effort ahead of winning the White House, an allegation dismissed both by Moscow and the president.

Source: Presstv

10, April 2018

Cameroon and Nigeria back ICC president ⁰

Nigeria, Cameroon and other states have renewed their support for the International Criminal Court (ICC) following the March election of Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji as president.

In a letter of congratulations to the Nigerian judge, the Nigerian government pledged its “continued backing and unflinching support,” according to a press release from the ICC.

Similar expressions of support have come in from countries worldwide and from the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Mr Eboe-Osuji presided over the trial of Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto, although the case was eventually dropped.

Source: BusinessGhana

10, April 2018

The Truth about the Justice Mbeng Martin Abduction Affair ⁰

Justice Martin Mbeng, a onetime senior Southern Cameroons judge was kidnapped when gunmen stormed the funeral service of his late mother in Ewelle village in Eyumojock Sub constituency in the Manyu County. Cameroon Intelligence Report has been reliably informed that the armed men fired bullets in the air and at the vehicle that the retired justice ferried to the village.

Our senior intelligence officer revealed that retired justice Mbeng Martin made a dramatic u-turn in his long held position of benevolent neutrality and launched a negative campaign against President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, when the regime in Yaoundé informed him that President Biya had plans to appoint his younger brother Martin Mbeng Jr, French Cameroun’s current ambassador to Brazil as Prime Minister and Head of Government but that the Sisiku Ayuk Tabe issue was serving as a stone wall.

We understand the retired judge started a campaign of personal destruction that was aimed at President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe. A source in Ewelle hinted that the elders sounded a note of caution to him to stay clear of the Southern Cameroons revolution and to bear in mind that many people have been killed in Ewelle village by troops loyal to the regime in Yaoundé. His anti-revolution stance including actions against his own kinsman, the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia attracted the abduction action from the revolutionary guards protecting Ewelle village.

The former chairman of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, Barrister Agbor Balla in a statement that sparked outrage strongly condemned the targeting of prominent Southern Cameroonians by the Ambazonian freedom fighters and demanded that those responsible for these acts be brought to justice.

Nearly 240 French Cameroun soldiers have been killed in the Manyu County that includes Akwaya, Eyumojock, Upper Banyang and Mamfe Central ever since the Ambazonia revolution started a year ago and spiraled into an armed conflict following the abduction of the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe in Abuja, Nigeria.

Thousands of Southern Cameroons have been killed in the war initially fought between troops loyal to President Biya, against Ambazonia forces in Manyu known as the “Odeshi Boys.” Violence has spread throughout Southern Cameroons and now involves most of the nation’s English speaking groups.The United Nations has not commented on the deteriorating situation in West Cameroon.

The French Cameroun government forces stand accused of targeting Southern Cameroons population including women and children and sometimes deliberately shooting at innocent civilians. Cameroon Concord News Group Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai has called for the release of Justice Martin Mbeng and any other Southern Cameroonian detained by the Ambazonian freedom fighters.

A prominent figure of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate from Kendem village, Rose Arongagbor was detained recently but later on released.

By Chi Prudence Asong with files from Rita Akana and Sama Ernest

10, April 2018

Bundes: Hundreds of flights cancelled due to public sector strike ⁰

Thousands of passengers at four German airports, including the biggest hub Frankfurt, were stranded on Tuesday as ground staff and other public sector workers staged walkouts across the country to increase the pressure in a pay dispute.

Lufthansa said on Monday it was cancelling more than 800 of its planned 1,600 flights on Tuesday and Frankfurt airport operator Fraport has warned of disruption.

As well as Frankfurt, airports in Munich, Cologne and Bremen were hit. The industrial action also affected nurseries, rubbish collection services and swimming pools in several German states.

He said the union would escalate the dispute if employers did not present an offer next week. The third round of talks start on April 15.

(Source: Reuters)

10, April 2018

Nigerian President Buhari to seek second term in 2019 ⁰

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari confirmed on Monday he will seek another term in elections next year, ending months of speculation about his future after bouts of ill health.

The 75-year-old said he would seek his party’s presidential ticket to contest elections in February 2019 during a closed door meeting of the national executive committee of his All Progressives Congress (APC) party.

The announcement by Buhari, a northern Muslim who became the first opposition candidate to defeat an incumbent at the ballot box, was widely expected although stocks on the Nigerian market fell 1.01 percent on Monday to a three-month low.

“It takes away the concern of an open race which would have fueled uncertainty,” said a Lagos-based equity sales analyst.

Buhari took office in May 2015 after vowing to improve security and crackdown on endemic corruption, but Africa’s top oil producer fell into its first recession in 25 years in 2016, largely caused by low crude prices and militant attacks in the Niger Delta, and its recovery remains fragile.

After spending five months in Britain last year being treated for an undisclosed ailment, opposition groups in Africa’s most populous nation and other critics said he was unfit for office and his administration was beset by inertia.

If Buhari is selected to contest the presidential election, it is not clear who he would face as the PDP, which prior to the former general’s 2015 victory had held power since Nigeria adopted civilian rule in 1999, has yet to select a candidate.

Incumbency factor

“The president said he was responding to the clamor by Nigerians to recontest in 2019, adding that he wanted to give NEC the honor of notifying them first,” Buhari’s spokesman Garba Shehu said in an emailed statement.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari arrives for the 30th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Heads of State and the Government of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia January 28, 2018. (Photo by Reuters)

Antony Goldman, of Nigeria-focused PM Consulting, said although Buhari’s party – a broad coalition of groups which largely united to oust the PDP – was riven by divisions, it was nevertheless likely that he would become the APC candidate.

“With the PDP weak and still discredited, incumbency is still a powerful factor,” said Goldman. “It would be a huge surprise if he was not the APC’s candidate and the candidate to beat in 2019,” Goldman added.

Buhari led a short-lived military regime that was overthrown in a coup in 1985. His election victory three years ago was in large part due to his military credentials and his vow to end the extremist militant Boko Haram militancy.

The militants have lost most of the territory the size of Belgium that they held in northeast Nigeria in late 2014 but continue bomb attacks and kidnappings in the northeast.

Other security challenges – militant attacks in the Niger Delta oil production heartland as well as communal violence between nomadic herdsmen and settled farmers, plus a resurgence of separatist sentiments, have flared up during his tenure.

(Source: Reuters)

10, April 2018

CAR: Calm returns to Bangui after military operation ⁰

Calm is gradually returning to Bangui’s PK 5 neighbourhood following a military operation against armed groups in Central African Republic’s capital.

Heavy gunfire erupted in Bangui’s PK5 neighourhood as UN peacekeepers and domestic security forces moved in to dismantle militia bases.

“In Bangui, the whole city is calm, apart from PK 5, – inhabited mostly by muslims – where there are hotbeds of tension.You have self-defense groups raiding traders, oppose to the authority of the state.They have closed the police station in the 3rd district.They are hostile to the return of state authority in this area.This pushed the government with the support of the MINUSCA to bring order in this neighborhood. “

Some residents of PK 5 have condemned the joint military operation by the MINUSCA and Central African forces.

Eric Ngaba, Bangui reporter

“There was a peaceful march by inhabitants of PK 5, denouncing the operation of the government together with the support of MINUSCA to neutralize the self-defense groups. MINUSCA’s commander, General Bala Keita, however, says that the operation is still under consideration. “

The Central African government is determined to restore authority in the capital and it has not ruled out resumption of military operations in PK 5 especially as the leaders of the militias escaped arrest .

Written By AFP

10, April 2018

Southern Cameroons War: Biya regime says detained Ambazonia leaders are in good health ⁰

The Cameroon government has finally broken its silence on the state of separatists deported from Nigeria in early January 2018.

In an interview with the RFI English service, Information Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary, said all the detainees were in good health and being treated in accordance with the law.

He said three months on, investigations were ongoing to ascertain which charges were going to be leveled against them. He also stressed that they were enjoying all constitutional rights and would most likely be tried in a military tribunal.

They’re engineering, they’re masterminding all what is taking place in the country – assassinations, burning public institutions – you cannot imagine the kind of ordeal our population are submitted to in the northwest and southwest, and they are at the helm.

“All of them are doing very well, all of them are in very good health, all of them are enjoying whatever is enshrined in our constitution, the law of the republic.

“Which means that in case any need be, as far as the health is concerned, they receive all doctors or anyone who is capable of addressing the problem that they are confronted with.

“But I would like to emphasize the fact that whatever is taking place right now is being done in accordance with our law and penal court procedure,” the Minister said.

Supporters of the detained separatists hold that their lawyers have not been given access to their clients, the Minister addresses that point by saying that whatever processes are ongoing are within the laws of the country.

He accused the detainees of being the brain behind all the chaos that has rocked the Anglophone regions of the country. “They’re engineering, they’re masterminding all what is taking place in the country – assassinations, burning public institutions – you cannot imagine the kind of ordeal our population are submitted to in the northwest and southwest, and they are at the helm,” said Bakary.

“The likelihood that they will be court marshaled is obvious, because as I told you many people have been killed are being killed. Many people have already been slaughtered … the judiciary system will charge,” he added.

The group of over 40 detainees include the known leader of the so called interim government of Ambazonia, Sissuku Ayuk Tabe. Their extradition was criticised by the United Nation who called out Nigeria for breaching international law.

The secessionists declared an independent state called Ambazonia Republic on Oct. 1, 2017. Since then, violent scenes that have resulted in loss of lives for both the secessionists and government forces have played out in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

At the end of World War One, Germany’s colony of Kamerun was carved up between allied French and British victors, laying down the basis for a language split that still persists.

English speakers make up less than a fifth of the population of Cameroon, concentrated in former British territory near the Nigerian border that was joined to the French-speaking Republic of Cameroon the year after its independence in 1960. French speakers have dominated the country’s politics since.

The crisis which has attracted considerable international attention has become the gravest challenge yet to President Paul Biya, who is set to seek a renewal of his 35-years in power in an election slated for later this year.

Culled from Africa News

9, April 2018

Southern Cameroons War: Bomb blasts rock Lebialem County ⁰

Cameroon Concord News has learned that another bomb exploded today in the Lebialem County in Southern Cameroons. We understand the installation ceremony for the new DO for Lebialem was slated for today Monday in Menji, the headquarters of the Division. Our correspondent in the Ambazonia constituency reported that the DO arrived Alou in the morning from Dschang in a military convoy.

The DO and his French Cameroun military entourage came under attack around Nchobenyae. We gathered that 7 soldiers were killed and several others were seriously wounded. The remains of the troops were transported to Menji and later to Dschang. The wounded are currently receiving treatment at MHA Hospital in Nveh. The DO’s car managed to escape the attack.

Earlier on Saturday a military truck transporting soldiers from Mamfe to reinforce the deployment in Azi was also attacked by the Lebialem Dragons. The soldiers reportedly screamed and begged for help. In Alou, a military truck on patrol came under fire but no casualties were recorded. Today’s explosion in Lebialem is the 4th in Just 3 Days. An explosion at Beluah last Friday killed 9, and injured several other soldiers.

By Chi Prudence Asong with files from Menji

9, April 2018

Mayor Patrick Ekema: From a Brobdingnagian to an academic Lilliputian ⁰

The University of Buea this week withdrew a Bachelor and a Masters degree awarded to the so-called Lord Mayor of the Buea City Council in Southern Cameroons after a committee found he had gained admission into the institution using fake GCE O and A level certificates.

Interestingly, Patrick Ekema Esunge, a chartered member of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate also holds a PhD from an American University. The Buea University senate revoked the degrees and confirmed that after a very intensive and productive investigation, Ekema will face legal action from the Ministry of Higher Education.

A message sent to our London editorial desk stated inter alia that the mayor of Buea “Mr. Patrick Ekema now has a birth certificate, marriage certificate, baptism card, GCE O’ level with 4 E grades, a First School Leaving Certificate, a gun license and a driver’s license.” The Ekema Buea University affair can best be painted using Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels-from a Brobdingnagian to an academic Lilliput.

The Brobdingnagians were giants: they averaged around 60 feet tall, and their lands and animals were correspondingly huge. Gulliver was incredibly vulnerable in this country, which is why it made sense that the satire turned increasingly towards the fragility (and grotesqueness) of the human body. Gulliver stumbled into cow pats and was nearly drowned by a frog. (Mbella Moki) All of these tales were truly dire to him, but to the Brobdingnagian court, they were a laugh riot.

The Lilliputians inhabited the first island Gulliver visited. They all stood about six inches tall, with proportionally tiny buildings and trees and horses. The Lilliputians were ruled by an Emperor who appointed his high court officials according to their skills with rope dancing rather than their actual abilities. In other words, they’re exactly governed according to rational principles. The court of Lilliput like the CPDM crime syndicate mostly seems to spend its time plotting against one another. Gulliver, unfortunately, formed one of the primary targets of these plots. His enormous size made him both expensive and dangerous for the Emperor to keep, so, even though he made himself useful in Lilliput’s wars against Blefuscu, (Ambazonia) Gulliver eventually had to flee the country to avoid having his eyes put out.

A prominent human rights lawyer, Barrister Tambe Tiku first posted fraud accusations, prompting the Biya regime to ask the university to investigate. A report from the same lawyer looking into the case was handed to the press and that forced the university council to invalidate the degrees.

Mayor Ekema has not commented on the situation and nothing has been said by his entourage on whether he intends to challenge the university’s decision. He is yet to admit to any deliberate wrongdoing or deception. But if he fails to put up a resistance, Mola Ekema will become the first highly profiled Southern Cameroonian in the consortium of CPDM crime syndicates under the direction of President Biya to lose his academic credentials.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai