Headline News

11, January 2018

Ambazonia risks wider destabilization as Cameroon army begins operation to crackdown businesses ⁰

With the arrest and killing of hundreds of Ambazonians in the Manyu County this week, the Biya Francophone regime has taken a step closer to provoking a violent insurgency in the Southern Cameroons territory by embarking on an economic crack down. As tensions rise, both the Cameroon administration and the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia have succeeded to push Nigeria further into the British Southern Cameroons conflict

After the massive seizure of cocoa, rice and the destruction of fuel largely imported from Nigeria, Tuesday the 9th of January 2018 witnessed the Cameroon armed forces intensified their actions on motorbikes. More than 200 motors bikes were confiscated in Mamfe Central sub constituency.

Cameroon Concord News learned that road blocks were erected from the High Court Junction in Mamfe town right to the Customs office. All the bikes that were forcefully collected from their riders were transported using an army truck to a military camp in Besongabang.

The leadership of the Francophone dominated army reportedly auctioned some of the bikes to raise money for the purchase of food stuffs and drinking water for the starving soldiers. The Manyu constituency in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia now risks wider destabilization with this current Cameroon army economic crackdown on Southern Cameroonians.

By Judith Fon

10, January 2018

Victims of their upbringing: President Biya’s son may be expelled from ENAM ⁰

The eldest of President Biya’s two children recently admitted into ENAM has been absent from school ever since the beginning of the school year and could be replaced by a candidate on the waiting list. Cameroon Concord News understands the 2017/2018 academic year at the National School of Administration and Judiciary (ENAM) started on Monday with an official opening ceremony which was followed by classes that commenced on Tuesday, January 09, 2018.

Paul Junior Biya was conspicuously absent and nothing has been heard of him. There is no longer any doubt that Paul Junior Biya, declared admitted in 16th position out of 85 candidates in Cycle B of the administrative division is a truant. Cat calls have greeted his absence with many suggesting that he should be replaced by a candidate from the waiting list. A senior lecturer of the so-called prestigious school was heard murmuring privately that there are many who are waiting and it is unfair to leave an empty place because of the whims of a child from a rich family.

Aged 23, Paul Junior Biya was one of the candidates who sat for the ENAM entrance examination on September 16, 2017. His absence has now generated a new controversy with some students who know him personally saying he is not good material for ENAM. “You are the only one surprised. Cameroonians, who know more or less the presidential family, know that Biya Junior has no place at ENAM. Even if he does a trick, he does not have the capacity to sail through the two years training program” noted a staff at ENAM.

It is vital to include in this report that the list of candidates admitted to Cycle B of the Administrative Division of the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM) for the academic year 2017/2018, ranked in order of merit.

By Rita Akana

10, January 2018

Unauthorised gold mining in Cameroon reaps deathly toll ⁰

Forty-three gold diggers died in abandoned mines in Cameroon in the first 10 months of last year, a watchdog group said Wednesday.

“The toll of people who died in mining holes… reached 43 in the first 10 months” of 2017, said Foder, a local NGO whose full name in English means Forest and Rural Development.

The group said much of the blame lay with corporations, many of them Chinese, which abandon open-cast gold mines after profitable seams run out.

When the companies leave, individual gold hunters move in, digging holes into a site that in some cases have already been excavated to a depth of 200 metres (650 feet).

Nine died last year after the walls of their hole collapsed on top of them, Foder said. In September, a 12-year-old boy drowned in a lake that had formed in an abandoned pit.

Foder said the problem is worst in eastern Cameroon, where from 2012 to 2014, 250 mines were opened and then abandoned by their operators. It is campaigning for mining companies to cover over open-cast operations with earth when they pull out.

Source: The Citizen

10, January 2018

Ambazonia: Banks, travel agencies and shops are closed in Bamenda ⁰

Cameroon’s English-speaking regions are observing a three-day “dead city” protest against the arrest of a number of separatist leaders in Nigeria last week, local media reported.

At least 10 Cameroonian separatists, among them leader Julius Tabe, were arrested in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, the activists said in a statement on Sunday.

In protest of the move, the English-speaking separatists urged the population to stay at home from Monday through Wednesday.

“For fear of reprisals, we remained at home. Everything is calm on the streets … Banks, travel agencies and shops are closed. Only security forces are patrolling the streets,” Musa Abu, a Bamenda resident told Anadolu Agency late Monday.

The strike also affected the reopening of schools that had been scheduled for Monday, Jan. 8.

“The school was opened early in the morning, but the students did not come. We were forced to close it, otherwise the building would have been burned by activists,” Tatou Godlove, the principal of the Bafut High School in the Northwest Region said.

Ayaba Acho, the so-called defense minister of the self-proclaimed Republic of Ambazonia, said Nigeria should not extradite “our leaders” to Cameroon, because they “are not” Cameroonians.

“They are Ambazonians,” he said referring to the Northwest and Southwest Regions. “We are in the process of increasing contacts with the Federal Government of Nigeria for their release”.

The government has also shut down the Internet in the two English-speaking regions in the Central African state.

Protests have been going on for more than a year in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions. The Anglophone minority say they are being marginalized by the Francophone majority.

The protesters are calling for a return to federalism or the independence of the English-speaking Cameroon, which the demonstrators refer to as the “Republic of Ambazonia”.

French Cameroon gained its independence From France in 1960. In 1961, a federal state was set up when British Cameroon gained its independence from Great Britain and joined French Cameroon.

The federal state was later dissolved in favor of a unitary state in 1972.

Since then, English-speakers say they are being marginalized, forced to use French in public institutions and schools, and also use the French-Cameroon legal system in courts.

www.aa.com.tr

10, January 2018

Ivory Coast soldiers loot arms from elite base ⁰

Soldiers in Ivory Coast’s second largest city looted weapons from the base of an elite military unit overnight before setting it on fire, leaders of the faction said on Wednesday.

The soldiers, who were involved in a series of mutinies last year that tarnished the image of Ivory Coast, one of Africa’s fastest growing economies, accuse the elite unit, known as the CCDO, of spying on them.

Residents of Bouake reported late on Tuesday hearing gunshots and heavy weapons fire between the rival factions, though they said the situation on Wednesday was calm after some early sporadic gunfire and businesses were operating normally.

(Source: Reuters)

10, January 2018

Roberto Mancini open to coaching Italy after FIFA World Cup ⁰

Zenit Saint-Petersburg coach Roberto Mancini said Tuesday he was open to taking over the vacant job as Italy national football coach.

Mancini, 53, is being touted along with Chelsea manager Antonio Conte and former Bayern Munich coach Carlo Ancelotti to take the reins of the demoralized four-time World Cup winners.

Giampiero Ventura was fired as coach last November days after Italy’s shock failure to reach the World Cup final for the first time in 60 years.

Finding Ventura’s successor has been complicated because the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) has to elect a president to replace Carlo Tavecchio, who was also forced to resign.

“Before choosing a new coach it seems to me that we have to choose a new FIGC president,” former Manchester City and Inter Milan boss Mancini told Italian talk show “Tiki Taka”.

“But I absolutely don’t rule out Italy, like the other coaches I think. When you’re a coach you can rule nothing out.”

Former Chelsea, Real Madrid, Juventus and AC Milan boss Ancelotti – a three-time Champions League winner – had been Tavecchio’s choice.

But the 56-year-old, free since his sacking by Bayern Munich last year, has said he would prefer to stay in club management.

Former Juventus boss Conte, 48, coached Italy from 2014 before joining Chelsea in 2016, winning the Premier League in his first season.

Conte revealed last year that he misses Italy and plans to return to his homeland in the near future.

“Italy is my homeland, so once I have had some good experiences, formative experiences, important and life-changing experiences, I’ll be back. I don’t know when but that’s the aim,” he said in September.

The FIGC on Monday agreed their budget for 2018 and have set aside 5 million euro ($5.6m) to pay the new coach, despite a projected deficit of 9 million euros for the year, according to press reports.

Three candidates have their hat in the ring for FIGC presidency – former Italy and Roma star Damiano Tommasi, now head of the Italian Players’ Union; Italian Professional League president Gabriele Gravina and FIGC vice-president Cosimo Sibilia.

The election for president will take place on January 29.

(Source: Agence France Presse)

10, January 2018

UK says Iran’s domestic affairs ‘none of our business’ ⁰

The United Kingdom’s ambassador to Iran says the Islamic Republic’s domestic affairs, including recent riots, are none of his country’s business and that the UK will stay out of Iranian internal affairs.

Ambassador Nicholas Hopton made the remarks in a gathering titled “Europe and the Geopolitical Affairs of West Asia,” which was being hosted by Iranian think tank the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday evening.

Some two weeks ago, some peaceful protests were held in Iranian cities against price hikes and the overall economic condition of the country. Limited numbers of violent individuals, some of them armed, later sought to turn the peaceful protests into street riots. However, the original protesters soon heeded calls by authorities to leave the streets so that their legitimate activities would not play into the hands of violent rioters.

While sporadic violence continued for several days — and claimed the lives of over a dozen people — the riots gradually ended.

In the course of those events, some British media outlets provided controversial coverage of the developments.

Hopton sought to distance the British government away from such coverage. He said the British media made their own editorial decisions and the UK government “exercised no control” over them.

He did express concern about some of the coverage of the events in Iran by the media in his country, however.

“The position held by the British government is that Iran’s domestic affairs are the concern of the country [itself]. The Iranian people should decide for themselves and freedom of expression and the freedom to express protest are the rights of the people,” he said.

“What the protesters seek is none of our and the British government’s business, and the UK government will not interfere,” he stressed.

Last Thursday, it was reported that Iran’s Embassy in London had submitted a letter of complaint to the British media regulator Ofcom, denouncing the propaganda campaign launched by UK-based Persian-language broadcasters covering the riots.

The letter, the source said, pointed out that the outlets had acted in clear contravention of the British and international media regulations by trying to incite the protesters in Iran to resort to riots and armed violence.

London ‘committed to JCPOA’

Elsewhere in his remarks, Hopton said London was “fully” committed to a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six other countries on the Iranian nuclear program.

The agreement removed nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran, which, in turn, applied certain limits to its nuclear energy program.

The British ambassador pointed to the likelihood that the United States may unilaterally withdraw from the deal and said he hoped US President Donald Trump would make the right decision.

Trump faces a Friday deadline to announce whether he would certify Iranian compliance with the deal under domestic US law. He has once certified that compliance but decertified it another time. He sees the deal as a legacy of his predecessor — former president Barack Obama — that he should undo.

The United Nations and every other party to the deal have warned Washington against trying to harm the deal, calling it a triumph for diplomacy and a contributing factor to regional and international peace and security.

10, January 2018

US: Trump says he could beat Oprah in 2020 US election ⁰

US President Donald Trump says he could beat media proprietor, talk show host Oprah Winfrey in the 2020 presidential race, but does not think she will run.

“Yeah, I’ll beat Oprah. Oprah will be lots of fun,” he told reporters during a meeting with lawmakers on Tuesday. “I don’t think she’s going to run.”

I “did one of her last shows,” Trump said. “I like Oprah,” he added.

Winfrey’s rousing speech at the Golden Globes awards ignited speculation that she could run for president in 2020. She accepted the Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award on Sunday; the first black woman to be awarded the prize.

“I want all the girls watching here, now, to know that a new day is on the horizon! And when that new day finally dawns, it will be because of a lot of magnificent women, many of whom are right here in this room tonight, and some pretty phenomenal men, fighting hard to make sure that they become the leaders who take us to the time when nobody ever has to say “me too” again!” she said in the speech.

Gayle King, a close friend with Winfrey, said on “CBS This Morning” earlier Tuesday that Winfrey finds the idea “intriguing” but added that she doesn’t believe Winfrey is actually considering it right now.

“I don’t think at this point she is actually considering it” King said. “I also know, after years of watching the Oprah show, you always have the right to change your mind.”

Winfrey, an African-American woman who survived rape and grew up in poverty, is a self-made billionaire capable of emotionally connecting with ordinary Americans through the media.

Winfrey threw her weight behind US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, supporting Clinton in the battle against Trump.

Source: Presstv

10, January 2018

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe assassination: How Cameroon ‘plot to kill Ambazonia leader’ FAILED ⁰

The formation of the Interim Government prompted the Biya regime and its think tank to convene an important meeting that held in Mvomeka’a. President Biya wanted to know the General XX including some of the members of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. A senior Anglophone political elite approached Biya during the deliberations and suggested that Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, the Interim Head of State of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia be eliminated. The suggestion, coming from a Southern Cameroonian surprised even some CPDM hardliners. (See http://www.cameroonintelligencereport.com/nigeria-to-expel-the-interim-president-of-the-federal-republic-of-ambazonia/)

Yaoundé decided to put the Nigerian ambassador Lawan Abba Gashagar under pressure. To be sure, the Nigerian High Commissioner to Cameroon was either responding to questions coming from the Minister-Secretary General at the Presidency or meeting the Minister for External Relations over the activities of the Interim Government in Nigeria. Etoudi at some point requested that the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, should arrest and repatriate President Ayuk Tabe from Nigeria to Cameroon to stand trial. In a correspondence to President Buhari via Minister Rene Sadi, President Biya politely accused the Buhari administration of aiding the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Amabzonia.

Biya maintained that a Nigerian interest group was assisting the Ambazonian leader to travel out of the country to Europe and America extensively. President Buhari sent a letter to Biya stating that the Federal Republic of Nigeria has no intention of supporting Southern Cameroonians. The Nigerian ambassador handed over the Buhari letter and issued a statement to that effect in Yaoundé.

Yaoundé has never trusted Abuja and so it secretly staged a military operation deep inside Nigerian territory that attracted wide condemnation from the outspoken governor of the Cross River State of Nigeria. The Biya regime denied the cross border raids and stepped up the pressure on Ambassador Lawan Abba. The Mvomeka’a meeting had an inner caucus that resolved to assassinate President Ayuk Tabe including at least four Ambazonia cabinet ministers. Anglophone Secret Service officers were dispatched to join the thousands of Ambazonian refugees in Nigeria and 10 of them who are originally from the Manyu County deceived the Interim Government that they had actually defected from the Cameroon army.

President Ayuk Tabe gave standing instructions that the 10 so-called former soldiers of La Republique be properly auditioned before any integration into the secretariat for defense. This instruction was never followed. 4 among the ten knew that if Sisiku Ayuk Tabe was eliminated, a Manyu son will be appointed Prime Minister and Head of Government. Little did they know that from the very first day they introduced themselves as soldiers who had defected, the Nigerian Secret Service kept them under severe surveillance.

The 4 moved to other parts of Nigeria and had access to intelligence information on the activities of the Interim Government. They could afford 4 and 5 star hotels in Lagos and Abuja and had planned to kill the Interim President and members of the Governing Council in Abuja. The 4 reportedly entered Abuja and disappeared from the Nigerian security radar. Our sources in Nigeria say, the Nigerian Secret Service, the DSS were in that area where the Nera Hotels is located but were not on their normal ongoing show of force. Immediately Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides entered the hotel, the DSS drove in and staged the arrest. Further efforts to establish contact with the Ambazonia leaders have remained unsuccessful. As it stands now, we can confirm that the leadership of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is in protective custody. The DSS Buhari-led operation was principally targeted at securing the president and his cabinet.

The arrest is yielding the desired result to the liberation struggle as it has attracted the US, the French and the British governments. The Nigerian DSS has launched a manhunt for the 4 Cameroon government security agents.

The world now knows that the Biya administration has practically abandoned its call for dialogue with Southern Cameroonians in search of a brute route to eliminate the Ambazonian leader. The situation is very tense at the moment in Southern Cameroons as death threats are being issued to Nigerian citizens. None of the so-called Anglophone political elites have demanded the withdrawal of troops from the territory as their presence is raising the level of tension that already exists in the country.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

9, January 2018

Sahel states to raise fund for anti-terrorism fight ⁰

Five Sahel countries that have pledged to pool military efforts to fight terrorism have set up a fiduciary fund to oversee donations for their campaign.

The decision was made by the defense and foreign ministers of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, Malian Foreign Minister Tieman Hubert Coulibaly said late Monday.

Their countries form the so-called G5 Sahel, a French-supported group that last year launched a joint military force to combat extremism plaguing the region.

Pledges last month brought total funding over the 250 million euros ($298 million) needed to get the force up and running following a maiden mission in the volatile border zone between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in November.

A summit of donor nations is scheduled to take place in Brussels on February 23 to top up funds.

Coulibaly said the fund would include an oversight committee to ensure “good management of the funds earmarked by partners.”

Management of the fund would be “transparent… a guarantee of the success of the mission to fight insecurity in the Sahel,” Coulibaly said after the meeting in Bamako, the Malian capital.

Major contributions so far have come from Saudi Arabia (100 million euros / $119 million); the European Union (50 million euros); the G5 members (50 million euros, consisting of 10 million euros apiece); United States ($60 million) and the United Arab Emirates (30 million euros).

(Source: AFP)