Headline News

20, January 2018

Egypt: President Sisi to stand for re-election in March vote ⁰

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has announced that he will stand for re-election in the presidential vote due to be held in March.

“I announce to you in the honesty and transparency which we are used to… my candidacy for the post of president of the republic,” Sisi said at a Cairo conference broadcast live on state television on Friday.

Sisi came to power as president in June 2014 after winning a landslide victory in the presidential election held a month earlier with securing nearly 97 percent of the vote. In July 2013, he led a military coup against Mohamed Morsi — Egypt’s first democratically-elected president after the fall of former dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011 — that led to Morsi’s ouster and imprisonment.

The presidential election is scheduled to be held on March 26-28, with candidates required to submit all necessary papers to Egypt’s National Elections Authority between 20 and 29 January.

Who else will stand?

Sisi is widely expected to win in the first round of the vote, particularly after two prominent potential candidates announced that they would not take part in the poll. His main challenger former premier Ahmed Shafiq, who had declared his candidacy last month, said he would not run in the election.

On Monday, Mohamed Anwar Sadat, a dissident and nephew of Egypt’s late president of the same name, also announced that he would not run in the election, citing a climate of fear surrounding the vote.

Egypt’s ex-military chief of staff General Sami Anan

However, the former armed forces chief of staff, General Sami Anan, said in a video posted on his official Facebook page that he would run for president to “save” Egypt from “incorrect policies,” and called on state institutions to preserve neutrality toward all candidates.

“I call on civilian and military institutions to maintain neutrality towards everyone who had announced their intention to run and not take unconstitutional sides of a president who will leave his post in a few months,” Anan said.

Sisi, however, warned on Friday that he would not allow “corrupt” people to run for president.

Sisi’s administration has been tough on followers of the Muslim Brotherhood, the most prominent political party in Egypt which is now outlawed. Many members of the party, including Morsi, have been given harsh sentences while tens of thousands have been arrested awaiting trial.

The crackdown on the Brotherhood has sparked widespread outrage around the world as rights campaigners and governments keep criticizing the Sisi administration for the collective imprisonment of the party members.

Source: Presstv

20, January 2018

US government shutdown begins over budget impasse ⁰

The US government has officially shut down after lawmakers in the upper chamber of Congress failed to reach a deal on a short-term budget for funding government operations.

Senators were still negotiating on the Senate floor after the midnight deadline passed, but the White House issued a statement blaming opposition Democrats for the crisis.

Republicans in the Senate fell well short of the 60 votes necessary to pass a temporary spending bill on Friday, which had passed the House of Representatives on Thursday.

The federal government has been operating on a third temporary funding measure since the current fiscal year began in October.

Senate Democrats blocked consideration of the bill to keep the government operating.

The vast majority of Democratic senators have said they would not support the legislation unless it includes protections for hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants, but Republicans have so far refused.

The government shutdown began early Saturday morning on the first anniversary of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

However, senators from both parties were trying to reach a new deal to reopen the government quickly, possibly just hours after the midnight deadline passed.

Trump admitted Friday that chances were “not looking good” that 11th-hour talks in Congress would break the impasse, blaming Democrats for the deadlock.

A meeting at the White House between Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, and President Trump failed to break the stalemate on Friday.

The White House was quick to blame Democrats for the shutdown.

“Senate Democrats own the Schumer Shutdown,” the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said in a statement. “Tonight, they put politics above our national security, military families, and our country’s ability to serve all Americans.”

Democrats hit back, saying Republicans were responsible for the management of a government in their control.

“A Republican president occupies the White House, and Republicans hold the majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate,” said Representative Nita Lowey, a Democrat from New York.

There have been four government shutdowns since 1990. In the last one in 2013, government funding lapsed for 16 full days and more than 800,000 government workers were put on temporary leave.

Essential institutions like the White House, Congress, military and law enforcement would continue working but with reduced staff. Some agencies would shut altogether. But others in the massive bureaucracy will be sent home without pay.

Source: Presstv

20, January 2018

Ambazonia: Secretary of State for Finance meets US officials ⁰

Miriam Metchane Ewang

19, January 2018

Ambazonia Crisis: Concern grows for women and children fleeing Cameroon ⁰

With the number of people fleeing English-speaking areas of Cameroon for Nigeria growing, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is increasingly concerned at the plight of women and children among them.

Women and children represent about 80 per cent of the approximately 10,000 refugees registered so far in eastern Nigeria’s Cross River state. Thousands more are among the population of unregistered Cameroonians in neighbouring states.

Some of these are boys and girls who fled to Nigeria alone. Unaccompanied and separated children are particularly affected by difficult access to food and the lack of subsistence opportunities.

UNHCR staff have received numerous reports that children have to work or beg to survive or to help their families. Many children are unable to attend school, as they lack both the time and funds for education. Although schooling in Nigeria is free, there are still some basic costs, such as those for school materials.

UNHCR is working with the Nigerian authorities to assist with the reunification of separated children with their families, to provide unaccompanied children with protection services and to restore the basic right of all children to education. Some children arriving to Nigeria reported to UNHCR that they had been out of school in Cameroon for the whole of the past academic year.

For women, the lack of work combined with the over-stretched reception facilities, creates a higher risk of sexual and gender-based violence, particularly from survival sex. So far, only a limited number of such cases have been recorded, mainly in the Amana community of Cross River state. However, UNHCR is concerned that many more incidents go unreported or are referred only to community elders. Incidents of domestic violence, as well as cases of teenage pregnancies involving girls as young as 14, have also been reported.

In Nigeria’s Benue state, where two school buildings have been reserved by authorities to serve as temporary refugee hosting accommodation, women and their families are forced to sleep inside communal school halls, deprived of private space and the right to family dignity. For them – and for the rest of the population living in temporary tents hastily built next to local residences – sufficient and appropriate shelter is key to ensure adequate registration, systematic aid distribution and reduced protection risks.

UNHCR is currently working with the Nigerian authorities to identify sites away from the border, where the refugees can be hosted according to international standards. We are also establishing offices in the towns of Calabar and Adikpo to better provide assistance and protection to the women and children. Our support includes food, basic relief items, health, and water and sanitation facilities.

UNHCR recognizes the enormous generosity of the Nigerian border communities, opening their doors to Cameroonian refugees. Almost all of those registered reported that they had left their homes because of insecurity and that they would go back only when it’s safe to do so.

Source: The UN Refugee Agency

19, January 2018

Ambazonia Crisis: Money threatens the integrity of the military ⁰

The Southern Cameroons crisis that has split the country and put the country on a downward economic and political spiral is gradually destroying the country’s military. According to our source in the military, there is growing disgruntlement within the military, especially among Anglophones who are not happy with what is being done to fellow Anglophones in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

According to our source, money is very likely to cause huge cracks on the military’s wall. Top military officials are, according to our source, taking advantage of the military actions that are currently playing out in the South West region. It is being rumored that the defense minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, and his friends are robbing the country blind. While the foot soldiers are being killed in the South West region, the generals and government officials are making hay while the sun shines.

It is alleged that Mr. Assomo is now taking financial decisions without following national procurement rules. He claims that the country is at war and if processes and procedures have to be followed, the president’s decision to eradicate the separatists will not be implemented to the letter. Many observers hold that the war could just be an excuse for some government officials to implement their personal agenda and this is causing many foot soldiers to question the rationale behind the killing of innocent civilians and the burning of their homes.

Our source further adds that even among the rank and file, there is a lot of frustration. Most of the government soldiers claim that they are not properly paid and that the risk of having to fight those tough “Ambazonian Tigers” was causing many of them to develop mental issues. Many are sleep deprived, especially those who have witnessed the killing of their colleagues, our source add. He intimated that the soldiers whose duty posts are in the South West region are not being paid per diem, but those coming from Yaoundé are entitled to huge per diems and this is gradually destroying the unity the military needs to prosecute the war.

Our source stressed that the soldiers who are permanently resident in the South West region are now helping Anglophone fighters who are known for their toughness. It is alleged that in Mamfe, the “Odeshi boys”, the fighters who have killed close to two hundred army soldiers have been aided and abetted by government troops who are not satisfied with their financial arrangements.

It is alleged that some government troops have been informing the fighters of troop movement and this accounts for the heavy casualty that government troops have taken over the last two months, especially in the Manyu jungle that has been a tough terrain for most army soldiers.

Meanwhile, discussions between arrested Anglophone leaders and government officials are continuing in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, despite the numerous hitches deriving from differences of opinion. The Cameroon government delegation, led by Mr. Rene Said, the country’s territorial administration minister, is still trying to sell its decentralization policy that is being rejected by Ambazonian leaders. The arrested leaders argue that the decentralization policy is enshrined in the country’s constitution, but for over twenty-two years, it has not been implemented and this, in their opinion, makes it hard to trust any word from the government.

According to our source which elected anonymity, Mr. Rene Sadi has threatened on many occasions to quit the negotiations as Ambazonian leaders keep on arguing that their objective was to get the government of Cameroon to discuss divorce issues. Some of those divorce issues include, debt-sharing, oil revenue, general amnesty and the peaceful return of refugees to the Federal Republic of Ambazonia; things that are not sitting well with the Cameroon delegation at the negotiations.

The Ambazonian President, Julius Ayuk Tabe, for his part, is insisting that it will be hard working with the government of Cameroon that is wont to deceit, intimidation and corruption. He argues that the concentration of power in the hands of one man in Cameroon is responsible for all the issues Anglophones have faced in Cameroon. He insists that it will be hard for the Francophone leadership to understand that centralization has only bred corruption and intimidation. He points to the general malaise in the country as evidence of the negative effects of centralization. He argues that Mr. Biya and his people have pauperized Cameroonians and their love for power and control has rolled back the country by at least five decades.

While the negotiations are not producing any meaningful results, both sides are at least talking and agreeing that the fighting was not necessary, as many lives have been lost. UN and Nigerian negotiators, for their part, are asking both parties to meet each other halfway. Both the UN and Nigeria have very little appetite for separation, but are hugely in favor of a federal structure that will bring powers to the regions, while reducing the red tape that has been the hallmark of the centralized system that has been the bane of people’s lives in Cameroon.

It should be recalled that the Southern Cameroons crisis started in October 2016 with calls from lawyers and teachers for better working conditions. But the government’s brutal reaction to these peaceful calls only made matters worse, especially when the Anglophone Diaspora jumped into the fray following the arrest of the leasers and the banning of the Anglophone Consortium that was negotiating with government officials.

By Kingsley Betek

West Africa Bureau Chief (Abuja, Nigeria)

Cameroon Concord News Group

19, January 2018

Ambazonia: Interim Government threaten attacks on foreign companies ⁰

A group of Cameroonian activists demanding secession from the French-speaking regions says it’s considering attacks on foreign companies operating in the central African nation.

The group, which hails from the country’s two Anglophone regions, says it wants to “target foreign companies investing in Cameroon” because their revenues sustain “incompetent officials” in President Paul Biya’s government, according to emailed comments from a spokesman, Chris Anu, on Friday. Anu didn’t specify the nature of the attacks.

Ten leaders of the separatist movement, which refers to the two Anglophone regions as the Republic of Ambazonia, have been held in neighboring Nigeria since Jan. 6 at an undisclosed location, according to their Nigerian lawyer, Femi Falana. Nigeria’s State Security Service has denied knowledge of their detention, he said. Nigerian authorities haven’t yet commented on the issue.

“Abducting our leaders isn’t going to deter us, it will only just spur us the more,” the group said in a statement last week.

Thousands of people have crossed the border into Nigeria and more refugees are expected to arrive in the coming weeks as the Cameroonian government intensifies its actions against the pro-independent movement, the United Nations Refugee Agency said in a Jan. 16 statement. The agency and its Nigerian counterpart, the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, officially registered 9,620 asylum seekers by Jan. 12, according to the statement.

www.bloomberg.com

19, January 2018

US says dialogue the ‘only path’ to resolve Cameroon Anglophone crisis ⁰

The United States has reiterated its call for dialogue in Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis tasking the government to engage aggrieved parties in the restive region.

The U.S. embassy in Yaounde were reacting to the recent deaths of two members of the Cameroon security apparatus. “We urge the Government of the Republic of Cameroon to act with restraint in response to these acts of violence.

“We continue to appeal to all sides to enter into meaningful, broad-based dialogue. Dialogue is the only path towards a resolution of legitimate grievances,” a statement issued early this week read.

The U.S. condemned the murders and sent condolences to the families of the slain officers – the Marine was killed in Ekondo-Titi (southwest) on January 14 whiles the gendarme was killed in the town of Wum (northwest) on January 15.

The deaths are a continuation of an armed attack on state security forces. President Paul Biya late last year declared war on the secessionists after four troops were killed. The number of slain troops is about a dozen with the latest incident.

Source: Africa News

19, January 2018

Egypt: Sisi fires spy chief in surprise decree ⁰

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has fired the country’s head of the intelligence in an unexpected move as presidential elections draw nearer.

Sisi’s office announced the move in a terse statement on Thursday. The decree replaced Khaled Fawzi, the head of General Intelligence Directorate, with close Sisi aide and the head of the president’s office, Abbas Kamel as the agency’s interim head.

The president also ordered a cabinet reshuffle last week.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has fired the country’s head of the intelligence in an unexpected move as presidential elections draw near.

Sisi’s office announced the move in a terse statement on Thursday. The decree replaced Khaled Fawzi, the head of General Intelligence Directorate, with close Sisi aide and head of the president’s office, Abbas Kamel, as the agency’s interim head.

The president also ordered a cabinet reshuffle last week.

The presidential polls are to be held in March. The former prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, who had declared his candidacy last month and was once seen as a main challenger to Sisi, said earlier in January that he would not be running.

Sisi has been leading an unassailable rule since ousting Egypt’s first-ever democratically-elected President Mohamed Morsi in a coup in 2014.

Ever since the coup, the country’s northern Sinai region has been awash with Takfiri terrorism. The terrorists, mainly based there, have been staging heinous attacks elsewhere in the country.

Sisi named a new Armed Forces chief of staff and announced changes in key security positions last October, after at least 16 police officers were killed in the Western Desert some 200 kilometers (125 miles) southwest of Cairo.

Source: Presstv

19, January 2018

Biya regime putting the internet back on in its Anglophone regions for diplomatic visitors ⁰

Cameroon put the internet back on in its English-speaking regions on Wednesday (Jan. 17) after nearly four months.

But it only lasted for 48 hours. It was the latest example of a political strategy by the government to try and have it both ways. This week it switched on the internet ahead of a visit from a Confederation of African Football (CAF) delegation to towns in its troubled South West region. The delegation was there to examine the readiness of stadia and other facilities needed to host next year’s African Cup of Nations, the continent’s most high profile sporting event.

After the CAF delegation moved out of the city of Limbe on Thursday (Jan.18), the internet left with them. The delegation visited the towns of Buea and Limbe over two days. During their stay in the region, local internet users could access internet normally. But soon after the delegation moved out of the city of Limbe on Thursday (Jan.18), the internet left with it. People in the region said that later in the evening the region still had internet but it was slow to the extent that nothing could be downloaded or uploaded.

Since Jan. 17, 2017, the internet in Cameroon’s South West and North West regions has been completely off or severely slowed down for a total of 206 days as of Jan. 19 this year, according to Internet Sans Frontieres.

The shutdown is part of a wider effort by the Cameroon government to clamp down on local activists in the English-speaking regions who have been protesting against what they say are injustices and economic depravity being imposed by the dominant Francophone government.

Young startup promoters work on their computers in New Bonako village — Workers at tech startups in New Bonako village which has been affected by the internet shutdowns over the last year.(Reuters/Stringer)

Otto Akam of the Buea Silicon Mountain hub of young digital startup owners said they had been expecting the internet to be switched off when the delegation left. He said the same thing happened when the Commonwealth secretary-general, Patricia Scotland, visited the region in December to meet religious, political and traditional leaders to find a way out of the ongoing crisis which has degenerated into an armed conflict. “We had 24 hours of smooth internet connectivity. It was completely switched off when she left. We returned to using other means of bypassing the blockage” he said.

Local journalists in the region, who asked not to be named, confirmed both events. The belief is that the temporary reinstatements are attempts to reassure important international guests like CAF and the Commonwealth that there are no issues with internet connectivity in the troubled region.

The internet was switched off in English-speaking Cameroon, on Oct. 1 when the region self-declared its independence with the formation of an interim government. Since then, citizens in the region have been using virtual private networks (VPN) to access the and bypass the blockage. A message circulated on WhatsApp groups while the internet was on advised internet users in the crisis region not to uninstall VPNs from their mobile devices because the internet reinstatement might last only two days; it did.

Source: Quartz Media

19, January 2018

Moscow says US leaking Russian diplomats’ bank data ⁰

Russia says the United States has been leaking to the media the confidential financial data of the Russian diplomats based in America, thereby violating their privacy and diplomatic immunity.

US media outlet Buzzfeed reported Wednesday that US officials investigating allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in the US were inspecting newly uncovered financial transactions between the Russian government and people or businesses inside the US.

Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement the following day that the transactions that had been leaked contained nothing except routine payments but that hey were being twisted to make them appear suspicious.

“It’s obvious that this could not have happened without the knowledge of the authorities of that country (the United States),” the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. “In other words, this intrusion on the sanctity of the accounts of the [Russian] embassy and its staff, who have diplomatic immunity, is the work of Washington officialdom.”

The ministry criticized Washington for “not ensuring the appropriate conditions for the functioning of Russia’s diplomatic missions,” saying the pressure on the diplomats “continues and is growing.”

The ministry demanded that Washington “immediately stop the unlawful distribution of confidential information… and hold responsible those who are to blame, including those who hold relevant posts in the American state administration.”

The US Justice Department’s special counsel, Robert Mueller, has been leading a team of investigators looking into allegations of Russian interference in the presidential election that put Donald Trump into office. Both Moscow and the White House have repeatedly dismissed the allegations.

Investigators are now looking into a number of transactions between the government in Moscow and entities in the US flagged to the Treasury Department as suspicious.

A spokesman for the Russian Embassy, Nikolay Lakhonin, told Buzzfeed on Wednesday that the embassy’s transactions in America were in compliance with the law and said that the leaked activity reports were intended to “discredit Russian official missions.”

Source: Presstv