Headline News

3, February 2018

Ultimatum by Interim Government on the fate of the President: WHY WE SUPPORT THE ULTIMATUM ⁰

Cameroon Concord News Group strongly supports the ultimatum issued by the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia giving French Cameroun and Nigeria until Monday 5th February 2018 to prove that our interim president Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and 11 other members of the Interim Government who were abducted in Abuja, Nigeria on January 5, 2018 are alive. Cameroon Concord News Group supports the statement made by the Communication Secretary of the Interim Government, Hon. Chris Anu that past that dateline, if prove that they are alive is not provided, then the reaction that proceeded the genocide in Rwanda will look like a child’s play. For Cameroon Concord News Group, there could hardly be a better way of painting the picture of the potential reaction to the provocation and the international conspiratorial genocide against Ambazonia that has culminated in the abduction of our leaders in a supposed democratic Nigeria. This abduction in Abuja, the seat of power in Nigeria clarifies at long last, the dubious role played by some members of the Nigerian Government as the God fathers of the international crime cartels that have brought the countries of the African Sahel and the Gulf of Guinea on their knees. This international crime is a stain on the conscience of the supposed democratic Federation of Nigeria. The French slave territory of French Cameroun is the well-known Al Capone crime paradise in the Gulf of Guinea that preys on the blood and sweat of the Southern Cameroons.

Cameroon Concord News Group has read with dismay some timid attempt at condemning this strong statement made by the Interim Government, alleging that it amounted to an apology of genocide. This accusation which the criminal regimes to which the ultimatum has been shying to make is regrettable and unfortunate. Cameroon Concord News Group is tempted to suspect that such a timid statement is intended to benefit the genocidal regime and the abductors of our interim leaders. The statement of the Interim Government delivered by Hon. Chris Anu was not responsible for the genocide in Manyu, Kwakwa and other parts of Ambazonia. The statement was not responsible for the genocide perpetrated on November 22 and October 1, 2017 which was widely celebrated by the government of French Cameroun, members of the CPDM and Members of the Senate and National Assembly of French Cameroun. It was not responsible for the genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes that have decimated hundreds of thousands of Southern Cameroons/ Ambazonian citizens for the past fifty-seven years. That statement was not responsible for the widespread and systematic rape of our girls in schools and universities, torching of civilian settlements and deportation of our people from our ancestral lands. It was not responsible for the hundreds of thousands of our refugees in foreign lands. It is regrettably the absence of statements of this nature and action to implement that provided cattle fodder to the impunity with which these crimes have been committed so far. It is the preplanned genocide of our people and the abduction of our leaders that the ultimatum promises a strong response worse than that occurred under similar genocidal circumstances in Rwanda.

For these reasons we strongly endorse the statement and urges the Interim Government to extend the ultimatum to include the immediate and unconditional release of our leaders if they are alive, the immediate and unconditional halt to the genocide and withdrawal of all French Cameroun’s terrorist forces from our territory, the divestment of French Cameroun’s colonial administrators and all symbols of colonial governance from our territory. That a person laying claims to leadership in the Southern Cameroons struggle should come out in times like these to condemn this strong statement calls for legitimate suspicion. It is regrettable that this individual and others have so far not come out strongly to condemn the genocide in the Southern Cameroons like the Roman Catholic Bishops, the International Crisis Group, Amnesty International and the African Bar Association have boldly done. Rather they have turned their weapons inward to attack and delegitimize every effort to confront the enemy comprehensively and decisively. We in the Cameroon Concord News Group hold that this strong statement is appropriate in the circumstances. French Cameroun and its corrupt co-conspirators in the Nigerian Government will bear the consequences of the escalation of the genocidal war of choice they have declared against Ambazonia and its consequences in the entire Gulf of Guinea.

We strongly condemn any betrayal of the revolution and its leadership and support the self-defense efforts of Ambazonians at home and abroad. Those who cannot provide a strong response to the ongoing crimes against our people or bold enough to strongly condemn the crimes should spare the people the pains and provocations of timid statements that benefit our adversaries.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman and Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

2, February 2018

Joshua Osih: The Compromise Candidate ⁰

Over the last two years, Cameroon’s political future has been very uncertain, especially as the current political elite is constituted mainly of people who are over 75 years. For many Cameroonians, this is very concerning, especially as more than 70% of the country’s population is between 20 and 50 years old.

But one of the greatest challenges facing the country today is that of holding the country together. The country’s unity is under threat. Over the last two years, Cameroon has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. The Anglophone crisis has revealed the inadequacies of the current political system and the divisions within the country are clearly pointing the country in the wrong direction. These divisions are threatening the very foundation on which this beautiful country has been built.

The Anglophone minority is threatening to leave the union on grounds that it has been characterized by injustice, corruption, marginalization and abuse of human rights. Months of street demonstrations in early 2017 only resulted in violent clashes, with government troops killing Anglophone demonstrators.

Matters came to a head in the later part of 2017, with Anglophone fighters taking on army soldiers. The consequences of this fighting have been unbelievable. The death toll has been high on both sides and the end is unfortunately not in sight, as the government remains steadfast in its logic of winning the war through military violence and at all cost.

The crisis has not only revealed how politically vulnerable the country is, it has also demonstrated that a new political class is supposed to emerge if Cameroon, the once stable nation, has to preserve that attribute that has made it a special country on the African continent. The country’s dual colonial heritage has always made it to stand out and this beauty is under threat as the conflict between Anglophones and the State plays out on the streets and jungles of former West Cameroon.

While Anglophones are right in their fight against political and economic marginalization, there is a growing consensus that there is a huge governance problem that needs emergency action. The country lacks modern infrastructure. Its roads have become death traps. Its hospital have been reduced to consultation clinics and the quality of education that inspired hope in millions of Cameroonians has declined over the last twenty years to ridiculous levels.

Today, human rights abuses are rampant. The courts have lost the people’s respect. The judiciary is at the beck and call of the executive branch of government and this is making it hard for Cameroonians – both Anglophones and Francophones – to get the justice they need in their own country.

Cameroonians in general are looking forward to meaningful political change. The current political leaders have fallen short of the people’s glorious expectations. The ruling party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), has monopolized power for more than five decades and there is nothing to show for it. The arrogance of government ministers and CPDM parliamentarians has been the subject of many discussions ever since the Anglophone crisis started. And this is causing many people to take a look at different strategies that can help the country rid itself of the ruling party which is widely considered as a crime syndicate.

But it is not only the political scene that is begging for improvement. The country’s economy has been melting down at an alarming rate and this has been exacerbated by the escalating corruption that has made life unbearable for millions of Cameroonians. Cameroon’s economy has contracted over the last decade and this contraction is bound to continue, especially as the country is mired in multiple conflicts. The Anglophone crisis is already swallowing huge amounts of financial resources that could have been invested to transform the lives of many young Cameroonians and this situation is very likely to continue as the government refuses to call for an inclusive and sincere dialogue that most believe can deliver better results. In the North, Boko Haram is maiming and killing innocent Cameroonians and this threat is also affecting the country’s economy.

Over the years, unemployment has become an issue in Cameroon. Unemployment is blighting the lives of many Cameroonians as a resulted of long years of mismanagement and corruption. Today, many young Cameroonians prefer to look outwards as their country has failed to harness their potential. Poverty –generated by the ruling party – has robbed Cameroonians of their dignity. Their desperation can be seen on their faces. The people of Cameroon need change. They need someone who can inspire hope in them. Someone who understands their plight and is driven by a strong feeling of patriotism. This has been the missing ingredient in the entire political game for the last thirty years.

But all hopes are not lost. A new political class is gradually emerging and Joshua Osih, the smart, bilingual and patriotic Cameroonian who understands the people’s plight has finally thrown his cap into the ring. After having served for long as vice-president and parliamentarian of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), Mr. Osih believes that this is the right time to help pull the country out of the political and economic doldrums.

His candidacy in the upcoming presidential election comes as a relief to many young Cameroonians who clearly hold that it is time to walk away from the ineffective and inefficient gerontocracy that has brought pain and death to many Cameroonians. Many young Cameroonians hold that the country needs younger hands to transform the country’s economic and political landscape and Joshua Osih has a safe pair of hands.

It is widely believed that his understanding of both Francophone and Anglophone cultures makes him the ideal candidate for the post of president in a country that might implode if the right person does not step in. His moderate stance on many issues has earned him the respect of the entire nation.

Joshua Osih’s time has come. He is being considered as the comprise candidate even by Anglophones who have clearly demonstrated their frustration with the Yaounde government. Cameroon needs to heal and only someone with Joshau Osih’s temperament and charisma will be able to help the country walk away from its ugly past.

Born on 9 December 1968, Joshua Osih is the first Anglophone Cameroonian to serve as a Parliamentarian in Douala in the Littoral region. Besides being a politician, he is the chairman of Camport PLC in Cameroon, a successful business that has made many to think that he is the right man to lead Cameroon into a prosperous and peaceful future.

A Cameroon Concord News Group Production

2, February 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Mass graves located in Mamfe ⁰

The Cameroon military will soon be answering for its crimes in Manyu Division following its actions in that region. It is now emerging that after the government’s military operation in Manyu Division, many residents of the Division’s leading city are talking of mass graves in and around the city. Cameroon Concord News Group West Africa Bureau Chief, Kingsley Betek, who is currently in Mamfe, has gathered that there is a huge mass grave behind the former Council Office which is located just in front of deep valley.

Residents of the area have been advising our correspondent of the eerie sounds and cries of young men being beaten as the military sought to check the “Odeshi Boys” who were chopping down army soldiers sent from Yaounde to come and quell the rebellion in Mamfe.

“We used to see many young men being dragged to that location by angry soldiers. The boys were being maltreated and despite their plea that they were not responsible for the killing of army soldiers, government troops beat them up like animals. I know that many have been killed and dumped behind the former council office located on the way to Banya. I am prepared to testify whenever the international community comes to investigate the crimes committed by the soldiers,” a resident of Mamfe, who elected anonymity, said.

“The army is supposed to protect civilians, but when the troops came here, they beat up everybody for a crime that was committed by a few people. We do not even know those who have been killing the soldiers, but each time that happens, soldiers go on a rampage. They have completely destroyed Kembong and other surrounding villages and this makes it hard for us to go to our farms and send our children to school. It is like they are instead helping to enforce ghost town operations here,” the angry resident of Mamfe added, stressing that “government has to change its strategy. We would not be in this mess if the government had seen things differently.”

“The government does not even seem to see the folly in its actions. Intimidating and killing civilians makes it hard for the civilians to work with the police or gendarmes. For any real security to return to the environment, the government must consider the local population as its ally instead of its enemy,” he stressed.

There are also reports that there are other mass graves on the way to Eshobi, a little town some 40km from Mamfe town where government troops had set up camps, giving the impression that they wanted to construct the road. Many residents are today accusing the government of employing that strategy to hide its evil deeds in the area.

Residents of villages in Manyu Division are still bitter about the military action against them. They accuse the soldiers of having stolen their cocoa, coffee and petrol as they swept through those villages in their search for the young and determined fighters who actually gave the soldiers a run for their money.

It is alleged that huge bags of cocoa and coffee are being stocked at the Besongabang military camp and some soldiers are using this produce to make some fast money. Besides using the conflict as an excuse to enrich themselves, army soldiers are stopping business people from plying their trade in the region. Many rice exporters are being asked to give more than CFAF 2,000,000 as bribe for them to carry their products to Nigeria and this is done with the knowledge of the top military officials in the region. This is not only robbing the people of their revenue, it is also rendering many young men unemployed and these young men are those who are swelling the ranks of the dangerous fighters.

Meanwhile, the fighting in Southern Cameroons has intensified following the extradition of the Ambazonian President, Julius Ayuk Tabe, to Yaounde. Many young Southern Cameroonians have stepped up attacks on soldiers and gendarmes in a bid to express their frustration and anger.

Two gendarmes were attacked on Thursday in the North Western town of Mbingo by masked men, who shot the uniformed officers point blank, killing the male officer on the spot. The female officer is struggling for her life in the town’s main hospital.

In Bangem, a town in the Southwest region of the country, Amba Tigers have been fighting running battles with Cameroon’s military in the city’s downtown core where it is reported that an ELECAM official has been killed alongside some army soldiers. Unconfirmed reports indicate that more than four people have been killed in Bangem since the Tigers showed up to carry revenge attacks against army soldiers following the extradition of Mr. Ayuk Tabe who has become the incontestable poster child of the Southern Cameroons struggle.

It has also been reported that civilians in the town of Bangem are heading out of the town in large numbers to surrounding villages in a bid to seek refuge from army soldiers who have been attacking and killing unarmed and innocent civilians.

Other towns such Pinyin and Batibo in the Northwest region have also witnessed clashes between Ambazonian fighters and government troops. The increasing attacks had been predicted by many analysts and politicians who had posited that the arrest and extradition of Mr. Ayuk Tabe would only exacerbate things as more people would be radicalized.

Many international observers are calling on the government of Cameroon to use this moment to smoke the pipe of peace as military violence and intimidation have not produced the results the government had expected. They contend that the government must change its strategy as the current one is gradually pulling the country towards a bloody civil war that is unnecessary.

It should be recalled that the government of Cameroon which is stuck in the past is using old tactics that had been employed in the 60s against French Cameroon freedom fighters popularly known as Maquisards in the pious hope that the Southern Cameroons population will submit to its will.

Critics point out that it has unfortunately failed to understand that times have changed. People are more educated today and the existence of the Internet have made it hard for such tactics to produce the desired results. Besides, with a huge and prosperous Southern Cameroons Diaspora, it will be hard for the government of Cameroon to obtain an outright victory.

The Diaspora is propping up efforts of the young and determined fighters who sincerely hold that with a little luck they can successfully bring the government of Cameroon to the negotiating table or get Southern Cameroons out of the mess in which short-sighted politicians like Muna and Foncha had dumped the region.

The Southern Cameroons Diaspora will continue to destabilize Cameroon for a long time if the government does not make permanent dialogue a way of life in a country that was hastily stitched together by the United Nations. The Southern Cameroons Diaspora is rich and it has successfully transformed marginalization into a huge opportunity.

The government therefore stands to gain if it changes its policies to recognize the Diaspora as a strategic partner in the country’s efforts to attain sustainable levels of development.

Mr. Biya and his government must now embrace dialogue as the ideal way to pull the country from the brink. From reactions obtained following the arrest and extradition of Mr. Ayuk Tabe, it is obvious that more blood will continue to flow, as Southern Cameroonians are determined to follow through with their threat of splitting the country.

By Kingsley Betek in Mamfe

2, February 2018

Cameroon boils: 3 police, one civilian killed in restive after extraditions ⁰

Three policemen and a civilian were killed on Thursday in separate incidents in a region of Cameroon roiled by separatist violence, three days after dozens of activists were extradited from neighbouring Nigeria, sources said.

“Armed separatists this morning attacked a checkpoint” in the village of Bingo, in the country’s Northwest Region, according to a source familiar with military activity in the area.

“Two wounded gendarmes were taken to hospital, where they died of their injuries,” the source said.

In Bamenda, suspects riding a motorcycle also shot dead an officer, a government spokesperson told AFP. A civilian also died after being shot by soldiers during an operation in the nearby city of Santa, sources said.

The violence marked the first casualties among the security forces in the troubled region since Nigeria extradited 47 separatists on Monday, including their self-proclaimed president, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe.

– “Escalation of violence” –

“There is an escalation of violence, undoubtedly,” said Minister of Communication Issa Tchiroma Bakary, citing “a campaign on social networks where they (separatists) invite people to resist and kill.”

“These calls can have an amplifying effect of violence,” he said.

The separatists previously warned the extradition of the 47 from Nigeria to Cameroon would lead to an escalation.

“The abduction (of Ayuk Tabe) is throwing petrol on the flames of the revolution,” Chris Anu, a member of the self-described “government”, told AFP.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) on Thursday criticised Nigeria for breaching international agreements over the extraditions, saying “their forcible return is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement”.

Non-refoulement, a French term, is the practice of not forcing refugees or asylum-seekers to go back to a country where they could be persecuted.

The UNHCR said most of the 47 had submitted asylum claims in Nigeria.

Amnesty International has also expressed concern about the fate of the arrested separatists, saying they could face torture and an unfair trial.

The separatists are demanding independence for two regions that are home to most of the country’s anglophones, who account for about a fifth of the population.

Their campaign draws on widespread resentment over perceived discrimination at the hands of Cameroon’s French-speaking majority.

On October 1 last year, the breakaway movement issued a symbolic declaration of independence for “Ambazonia,” their name for the putative state.

Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, has responded with a crackdown, including curfews, raids and restrictions on travel.

His government has also forged closer cooperation with Nigeria, where around 30,000 Cameroonians have sought refuge from the violence.

The anglophone minority in Cameroon is a legacy of the colonial period in Africa. France and Britain divided up the former German colony under League of Nations mandates after World War I.

A year after the French-ruled territory became independent in 1961, the southern part of British Cameroons was integrated into a federal system, scrapped 11 years later for a “united republic”.

Cameroon is due to hold general elections, including for the presidency, this year. Observers say the ballot could be badly affected by the crisis in the English-speaking regions.

Source: The Citizen

2, February 2018

Legal questions raised about Nigeria’s extradition of the Ambazonian leader ⁰

The Nigerian authorities extradited 47 Cameroonian Anglophone separatists this week to face charges in Yaoundé where the government has described them as “terrorists”. Concerns have been raised by lawyers about the legality of such an extradition given the lack of any specific treaty between the two countries and outstanding requests made by the separatists for political asylum.

“I’ve not really found any particular extradition treaty between Nigeria and Cameroon,” Abiola Olagunju, Secretary General, Nigerian Bar Association, told RFI. “The nearest one that we have is the charter for the Lake Chad basin that was signed by the president in 2017.”

Ten of the separatists, including Ayuk Tabe, leader of the self-proclaimed Federal Republic of Ambazonia, were arrested by Nigerian security forces at a hotel in Abuja at the start of January.

Olagunju said specific extradition treaties exist with other countries within the Ecowas regional bloc such as Benin, Togo and Ghana, but not with Cameroon. The Nigerian lawyer spoke in general about the legal relationship between the two countries and not specifically about the case of the separatists.

“The first thing we must note is that the crimes or alleged offence must be extraditable, but not every crime or offence is extraditable in Nigeria,” said Olagunju, by telephone. “Political offences are not extraditable […] like treason, sedition and offences against the government of that state,” he added.

Ayuk Tabe is leading a campaign for the creation of a separate English-speaking entity apart from the Francophone administration in Yaoundé. Tensions in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions have grown over the past year.

The crisis began with protests over perceived marginalisation by the Cameroonian authorities. The government responded with a crackdown including curfews, raids and restrictions on travel. More recently another separatist entity called the Ambazonia Governing Council has launched attacks against Cameroonian security forces.

The Ambazonia Governing Council has been clear in its use of violence, carrying out “defensive actions” and “exercising its right to defend itself”, according to its leader Cho Ayaba. On the other hand, Ayuk Tabe has previously told RFI that he eschews violent action and has only ever called for peaceful protests.

Political asylum?

In addition to questions over the extradition arrangement between Nigeria and Cameroon, some have highlighted that the separatists made a request for political asylum in Nigeria and registered with the UN refugee agency.

“The country director of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees did write to the government explaining the legal status of the refugees under international law,” Femi Falana, a Nigerian human rights lawyer who acted for the separatists, told RFI. “But in defiance of the rule of law the Nigerian government has thrown them out.”

Nigeria is a state party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, which cover the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. Depending on the circumstances of the separatists’ extradition, the Nigerian government may have violated the terms of these agreements.

“What the Nigerian government has done is indefensible,” said lawyer Falana. “The fear is that they are going to be put on trial and probably tried for treason which attracts the death penalty in Cameroon.”

The UN refugee agency in Nigeria and at its headquarters in Geneva were unavailable for a comment about this case despite several requests by RFI.

International law

The Cameroonian authorities hailed the extradition of Ayuk Tabe and his separatist supporters following their arrival in the capital. The government said it underlined the close relationship between the two countries, emphasising that the extradition was perfectly legal.

“Whatever has taken place is within the framework of our laws,” Issa Tchiroma Bakary, the government spokesperson and minister of communications, told RFI. “We are a law abiding nation as well as Nigeria, our brotherly neighbour country.”

“Rest assured that no violation of the law, in one way or another, has ever taken place and will never take place,” Minister Bakary added, refusing to comment specifically on the extradition process.

RFI

2, February 2018

Yaounde: Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s lawyer unable to see him, govt mute ⁰

The Cameroonian government has refused to respond to communication from a lawyer representing detained separatist leader, Julius Ayuk Tabe. According to lawyer Abdul Oroh, he has been unable to communicate with his client who he says is being illegally held by the government.

Yaounde confirmed early this week that Ayuk Tabe and 46 others had been extradited from Nigeria and that they had been handed over to the judiciary for the necessary processes. Nigeria and Cameroon have no extradition treaty, they do not have that relationship, and these people are not terrorists.

Speaking to the BBC Focus on Africa Radio the lawyer said he has written to several authorities including the national security chief and defense ministers but has yet to get a response.

He also expressed worry that the Nigerian authorities who arrested Tabe and others had also been tight lipped on the matter.

He slammed Cameroon’s Information Minister, Issa Tchiroma-Bakary for referring to the arrested nationals as terrorists in his statement announcing their deportation earlier this week. He has also demanded that his client and the others be released.

Ayuk Tabe is widely referred to as the leader of the Republic of Ambazonia – a group in Cameroon’s Angolphone region, pushing for a breakaway from French-dominant Cameroon. Its defense wing has claimed responsibility for deadly attacks on security officials deployed to the region.

The group said it classified all security personnel – be they soldiers, gendarmes or police as occupiers of their land. Over a dozen officers have been killed in guerilla style attacks especially at checkpoints. Tabe and six others were arrested in a hotel in the Nigerian capital Abuja in early January. Reports differed over whether they were arrested by Cameroonian operatives or Nigerian security.

Nigeria’s Department of State Security is believed to have been behind the raid leading to their arrest. He was one of fifteen others who Cameroon issued an international arrest warrant for in November 2017.

Ayuk, a former businessman who had lived in Nigeria, is seen as a moderate voice in the separatist movement and has in the past promoted dialogue over violence. Nevertheless, he has been the target of Cameroonian authorities as a leading member of a resurgent movement to break away from French-speaking Cameroon.

Source: Africa News

2, February 2018

French Cameroun soldiers invasion: Nigerian Senator calls on Aso Rock to explore diplomatic channel ⁰

The Senator representing Cross River Central, John Owna Enoh, Thursday asked the Federal Government to quickly explore official channels of communication between the country and Cameroon to protest the violation of the territorial integrity of Nigeria by Cameroon soldiers.

Enoh said that exploring diplomatic means to deal with the issue became imperative following reports that about 100 Cameroon soldiers allegedly crossed the international border into Danare on Monday night in search of the country’s militants in a crackdown on Anglophone secessionists said to have sought refuge in Nigeria.

The Cross River Central lawmakers in a statement recalled that the latest attack came on the heels of a similar attack on the same communities which falls within his constituency in December 2017.

Enoh said that in swift response to the dastardly attack on law abiding citizens of Danare, he through a motion of urgent national importance on the floor of the Senate drew the attention of Nigerians and the government to the unwarranted attack.

The lawmaker noted that he had among other prayers, called on the federal authority to deploy troops to Danare as a deterrent to stem further incursion and aggression on his constituents by Cameroonian soldiers.

The deployment of a battalion of Nigerian soldiers in the area, he said, seems not to have deterred the incursion from Cameroonian soldiers.

He described the latest invasion of Danare as unfortunate, condemnable and “constitutes a gross violation of the inalienable rights of my people to peaceful co-existence.”

He insisted that “the peaceful and law abiding citizens of Danare deserve a peaceful environment in order to pursue their legitimate aspirations.” The incessant violation of the inalienable rights of the people, which he described as fundamental, by Cameroonian soldiers, he said, is unacceptable.

“I therefore use this medium to call on the Federal Government to explore all official channels of communication between Nigeria and Cameroon to protest this violation of the territorial integrity of our nation,” he said.

Enoh said that Nigerian troops who have already been deployed in Danare should live up to their professional calling in defence of the people of Danare.

According to him, the presence of Nigerian troops reassuring as it is to the people of Danare, should not be mere tokenism but should be informed by a full evaluation of the military challenges and the consequent deployment of adequate number of soldiers who will be in the position to respond adequately to deter further attacks.

Enoh appealed to the Nigerian soldiers on ground to continue to fully discharge their professional duties in defence of the people of Danare and the territorial integrity of the Nigerian State.

Source: The Nation

2, February 2018

Ambazonia Crisis: UN slams Nigeria over Sisiku Ayuk Tabe extradition ⁰

The UN refugee agency on Thursday criticised Nigeria for breaching international agreements after the leader of a Cameroonian anglophone separatist movement and his supporters were extradited at Yaounde’s request. The UNHCR said it learned “with great concern” about the case of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, who was sent back to Cameroon this week with 46 others. They were arrested in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, on January 5.

Cameroon has called the 47 “terrorists” and said they would “answer for their crimes”, as tensions mount in the Southwest and Northwest Regions, home to most of the country’s English-speakers. They have complained about decades of economic inequality and social injustice at the hands of the French-speaking majority.

Ayuk Tabe wants the two regions to separate from the French-speaking part of the country. On October 1 last year, his movement made a symbolic declaration of independence. The UNHCR said most of the 47 sent back to Cameroon had submitted asylum claims in Nigeria. “Their forcible return is in violation of the principle of non-refoulement, which constitutes the cornerstone of international refugee law,” it said in a statement. Non-refoulement, a French term, is the practice of not forcing refugees or asylum-seekers to go back to a country where they could be persecuted.

“The returns were carried out despite UNHCR’s efforts and engagement with the authorities,” the agency said. “UNHCR reminds Nigeria of its obligations under international and Nigerian law, and urges the Nigerian Government to refrain from forcible returns of Cameroonian asylum-seekers back to their country of origin.” Human rights groups have called on Cameroon to ensure those detained get a fair trial and are well-treated. Cameroonian President Paul Biya strongly opposes secession and has flooded both regions with troops, imposed curfews, conducted raids and slapped restrictions on travel. An estimated 30,000 English-speakers have fled Cameroon to Nigeria.

www.vanguardngr.com

2, February 2018

UK sets up EU row over post-Brexit citizens’ rights ⁰

UK Prime Minister Theresa May says European Union citizens arriving in Britain during its post-Brexit transition period should not be afforded the same rights as those who arrived earlier.

The embattled premier appears set for a clash with EU negotiators after telling reporters on a trip to China that “there is a difference between those who came prior to us leaving and those who will come when they know the UK is leaving.”

She added that the status of such EU citizens would be “a matter for negotiation” when Britain meets with EU officials again in March to set the terms of the transition period, which is expected to last around two years after Britain officially exits the bloc in March 2019.

Brussels on Monday warned London that “citizens’ rights during the transition are not negotiable.”

The European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt said that “for the transition to work” there could not be “two sets of rights for EU citizens.”

That would mean the continuation of free movement and citizens’ rights for EU nationals residing in the UK during the Brexit transition, an arrangement that would cause anger among pro-Brexit lawmakers and ministers within May’s Conservative Party.

Deputy Brexit Secretary Robin Walker on Thursday insisted that Britain would not accept such an agreement.

“The citizens’ rights agreement reached in December does give certainty about the rights of EU citizens already here going forward but this agreement does not cover those who are arriving after we leave the EU,” he told Members of Parliament (MPs) in the House of Commons.

The EU and UK negotiated an agreement in December that safeguards the rights of EU citizens who arrive in Britain before it leaves the bloc next year, giving reciprocal protections for British citizens living in the EU.

The agreement allows those who have lived continuously in Britain for five years to be able to apply for settled status, while others will be able to remain in order to build-up five years’ continuous residence.

The British government has faced fierce criticism both at home and by the EU for its lack of clarity on its Brexit strategy.

The uncertainty has raised fears that Britain could crash out of the bloc without a trade deal, incurring heavy costs on domestic economy.

Source: Presstv

2, February 2018

Kenya court orders government to lift ban on three TV stations ⁰

Kenya’s High Court has suspended a government blackout imposed on three private television broadcasters over a live coverage of an opposition rally in the capital Nairobi.

Judge Chacha Mwita ordered Thursday that the shutdown imposed on the private stations, namely Kenya Television Network, Citizen Television and Nation Television News, would be suspended for two weeks so that the court could hear a petition by activist Okiya Omtatah Okoiti against the ban.

The administration of President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered a shutdown of the TV stations on Tuesday morning after they ran a live coverage of a mock swearing-in ceremony for opposition leader Raila Odinga.

Okoiti described the gag as “grossly arbitrary, disproportionate, oppressive, and unreasonable.”

Kenyatta had reportedly warned heads of the TV stations last Friday that they will be cut off the air if they broadcast the event.

A man sits in a control center of the NTV channel, which was shutdown by the Kenyan government because of its coverage of opposition leader Raila Odinga’s symbolic presidential inauguration this week, at the Nation group media building In Nairobi, Kenya, February 1, 2018. (Photo by Reuters)

Odinga was sworn in as Kenya’s “people’s president” at a park in Nairobi to the cheers of thousands of supporters. The mock ceremony came in response to Kenyatta’s taking of office for a second time, which the opposition believes was the result of rigged votes.

Odinga refused to accept the results of an initial presidential election last August. He then boycotted a re-run ordered by Kenya’s Supreme Court, claiming irregularities that existed in the first round still persisted. Official government tallies show that around 100 have been killed since the start of vote-related unrest in the Horn of Africa country.

An investigation has been launched into the Tuesday mock swearing-in ceremony which had no sign of violence.

Meanwhile, people on Thursday protested the arrest of Tom Kajwang, a lawyer and opposition lawmaker who administered Odinga’s “oath,” as he was standing a trial over his role in the swearing-in ceremony.

Source: Presstv