Headline News

22, November 2017

US: Trump backs Moore despite sexual misconduct allegations ⁰

US President Donald Trump has voiced support for embattled Roy Moore, the Republican Senate candidate in Alabama, despite mounting allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Trump said he did not want to see the victory of the Democratic opponent of Moore, who has resisted growing calls to step aside.

Moore, who has been accused of sexually abusing and pursuing teenage girls, is facing off against Democratic Doug Jones in a high-stakes special election in Alabama.

“He totally denies it,” Trump said of 70-year-old Moore when asked about whether electing “a child molester” was better than electing a Democrat in the Alabama race.

“He says it didn’t happen,” said the president, noting “You have to listen to him, also.”

“We don’t need a liberal person in there, a Democrat, Jones,” Trump said. “I’ve looked at his record. It’s terrible on crime. It’s terrible on the border. It’s terrible on the military.”

Trump shrugged off the accusations, saying the fact that those who have accused Moore did not come forward earlier put into question such complaints.

In response, Jones issued a statement, saying he “believes the women, and that the people of Alabama will hold Roy Moore accountable.”

Doug Jones meets with supporters and voters at a Mexican restaurant, November 20, 2017, in Talladega, Alabama. (Photo by AFP)

Trump, who himself has been accused of sexual impropriety, also said that he was happy that women are now coming forward accusing lawmakers and media figures, many of whom Democrats, of sexual misconduct.

This comes as the United States is grappling with a growing list of sexual assault and harassment scandals that rocked the world of entertainment, business and politics.

Others involved in such scandals include Democratic Senator Al Franken, renowned actor Kevin Spacey as well as Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

Culled from Presstv

21, November 2017

Mugabe resigns bringing the curtain down on a 37-year reign ⁰

Robert Mugabe resigned as president of Zimbabwe on Tuesday, parliament speaker Jacob Mudenda announced, bringing the curtain down on a 37-year reign.

Mugabe was swept from power as his autocratic rule crumbled within days of a military takeover.

“I Robert Gabriel Mugabe in terms of section 96 of the constitution of Zimbabwe hereby formally tender my resignation… with immediate effect,” said speaker Mudenda, reading the letter.

The bombshell news was delivered to a special joint session of parliament.Lawmakers had convened to debate a motion to impeach Mugabe, who has dominated every aspect of Zimbabwean public life since independence in 1980.

It was greeted on the streets of the capital Harare with car horns and wild cheering. Zimbabwe’s Parliament has erupted in cheers as the speaker announces the resignation of President Robert Mugabe.

The speaker stopped impeachment proceedings to say they had received a letter from Mugabe with the resignation “with immediate effect”. It is an extraordinary end for the world’s oldest head of state after 37 years in power.

21, November 2017

Nigeria: Blast kills at least 50 at mosque ⁰

A bombing attack has killed at least 50 people at a mosque in northeastern Nigeria, police say.

Police said a teenage assailant detonated his explosives early Tuesday as people were arriving for morning prayers at the mosque in the town of Mubi in Nigeria’s Adamawa State.

“So far, we have at least 50 dead from an attack at a mosque in Mubi,” state police spokesman Othman Abubakar said Tuesday.

He added that Takfiri Boko Haram terrorists were responsible for the attack.

The Tuesday attack saw the highest loss of life since September, when 18 people were killed in a bombing attack in the nearby Borno State.

Abubakar said officials were “still trying to ascertain the number of injured because they are in various hospitals.”

More than 20,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram started its deadly campaign in northeast Nigeria in 2009. The violence has claimed many lives in neighboring countries of Chad, Niger, and Cameroon as well.

A large-scale government offensive has pushed the militants from key areas they used to control, although sporadic attacks have continued over the past months.

Source: Presstv

21, November 2017

Ambazonia: Interim Head of State says the Southern Cameroons revolution is not about groups or factions ⁰

The interim president of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe will make public his first ever cabinet in the coming days, Cameroon Concord News has learned from reliable sources close to the leader.

In a press release issued on November 19, 2017, the interim head of state urged Southern Cameroonians to remain united despite the circumstances. President Ayuk Tabe reiterated that the Southern Cameroons revolution is not about groups or factions as was the case in the past.

The Sisiku revealed that revolutions do not succeed in the midst of disunity and indiscipline. “We must have a common goal, and unity in our actions.”

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe informed Ambazonians that work is almost complete on the formation of an interim government for Southern Cameroons. “It is not easy to choose fourteen individuals out of a population of nearly eight million people,” says the leader.

President Ayuk Tabe also pointed that the stage of activism in the Southern Cameroons struggle is over, “Now you have to go to the nation building phase.” He invited the different Ambazonian groups to unite for a common purpose; the restoration of Southern Cameroons.

The leader sounded a note of caution to some prominent figures in the struggle “All of us, as leaders, must choose to work together for the good of our people and our country (Ambazonia), otherwise we will be rejected by our people.” Sisiku Ayuk Tabe also noted that any leader who will work for his personal interest, will be excluded from the interim government.

By Sama Ernest, CCN

21, November 2017

4 women file new sexual assault allegations against Bill Clinton ⁰

Former US President Bill Clinton is facing explosive new claims of sexual assault, according to top-level Democratic Party and the author of several bestselling books on the 42nd American president.

Edward Klein, former New York Times Magazine editor and the author of numerous bestsellers including his fourth book on the Clintons, Guilty as Sin, in 2016, said on Monday that Clinton is facing four separate lawsuits from women who claim he assaulted them when they were teenagers.

The women are now launching legal proceedings and are asking for cash to keep their silence, claimed Klein, whose latest book is All Out War: The Plot to Destroy Trump was released on October 30, 2017.

A member of the 71-year-old former president’s legal team has confirmed the existence of the claims, which stem from the period after Clinton left the White House in 2001.

The women accused Clinton of assaulting them when they were working in low level jobs for billionaire investor Ron Burkle. Clinton was hired by the Burkle to generate business. It is not clear whether the billionaire was aware of the alleged assaults.

Bill Clinton joins Hillary Clinton on stage after her acceptance speech for the nomination to be President at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 28, 2016. (Photo by Getty Images)

The women will go public with their accusations if the legal negotiations fail, according some senior Democratic Party sources, Mail Onlinereported.

“Bill is distraught at the thought of having to testify and defend himself against sex charges again,” said a Democratic Party official familiar with the case as saying.

“He hopes his legal team can somehow stop the women from filing charges and drag him through the mud.”

The fresh allegations will revive memories of Clinton’s notorious extramarital affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky while he was still in the White House, and of previous charges of sexual assault against him.

Bill Clinton with Monica Lewinsky in the White House (file photo)

Clinton, then 49, and 22-year-old Lewinsky started a sexual relationship in 1995 in the White House and came to light in 1998.

Lewinsky admitted she had sexual encounters with Clinton on nine occasions, until March 1997 and alleged that First Lady Hillary Clinton was at the White House during many of those incidents.

On January 26, 1998, Clinton ended a televised speech with the false statement that he did not have sexual relations with Lewinsky.

Clinton admitted in a taped testimony in front of grand jury on August 17, 1998, that he had engaged in an “improper physical relationship” with Lewinsky. On that day, he also admitted in a televised statement that his relationship with Lewinsky was “not appropriate.”

The Lewinsky scandal led to impeachment of Clinton in the House of Representatives on December 19, 1998. Clinton was acquitted by the Senate in 1999 over his affair with Lewinsky.

Clinton was also sued by Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, back in the late 1990s for sexual harassment. Clinton reportedly paid $850,000 to settle the lawsuit by Jones.

Culled from Presstv

21, November 2017

Nigeria: Six farmers killed in Boko Haram attack ⁰

Boko Haram militants have launched an attack on a village outside the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, killing at least six farmers.

Locals and the civilian militia said the fatalities took place on Sunday, when the Takfiri extremist group raided Lawanti village in the Jere area of Borno state.

“Our people went to the farm to work. Seven Boko Haram on two motorbikes met them and slaughtered two, then killed the other four. They killed six people in all,” said Mohammed Asheik, from the Civilian Joint Task Force assisting the Nigerian military with security in the northeast.

Jidda Ahmed, a local resident, also confirmed the report and said his elder brother, Musa Jidda, had been “shot and beheaded” as he tried to flee.

Over the past months, attacks on isolated rural communities in the remote state of Borno have been a feature of Boko Haram’s militancy.

Boko Haram has been largely pushed out of its main strongholds in northern Nigeria, according to the country’s military and government. The group, however, is still active in its Sambisa Forest enclave in Borno and launches sporadic attacks on civilians and security forces from there.

The Nigerian military launched renewed counter-terrorism offensives after the end of the rainy season in northeastern Nigeria in September. Those offensives have diminished Boko Haram’s capacity to launch attacks, but the government warns that the group can still attack civilians at “soft” targets such as mosques, markets, and camps for displaced people.

At least 20,000 people have been killed and more than 2.6 million others displaced as a result of eight years of Boko Haram militancy, which has also affected Nigeria’s neighbors, including Niger, Cameroon, and Chad.

Source:Presstv

20, November 2017

Suicide attack kills 3 children in northern Cameroon ⁰

Three children were killed and several others injured in a suicide bomb attack in northern Cameroon. The attack occurred Monday morning in the town of Kolofata, in Cameroon’s Far North Region near the Nigerian border.

“The suicide bomber hid the explosive device in a bag of beans which he was carrying,” said Gen. Bouba Dobekreo, commander of a joint military operation. Dobekreo added that the explosion killed four people, including three children and the suicide bomber himself, a man in his forties.

“Several injured were transported by soldiers to Mora Hospital,” said Bakari Midjiyawa, the region’s governor. Cameroon’s Far North has been relatively calm for the past two weeks. Last month several Boko Haram terrorists surrendered to Cameroonian authorities.

“The return of these former Boko Haram fighters doesn’t mean the end of the war,” warned Alfred Fuller, a retired colonel, and analyst. “It could be a strategy for the group to trick the troops and revive major attacks,” he added.

Cameroon has been fighting the Nigerian insurgent group since 2014. Boko Haram attacks have killed nearly 2,500 Cameroonians between 2014 and 2017, according to Cameroon’s Defense Ministry. The UN refugee agency estimates approximately 26 million people in the Lake Chad region have been affected by Boko Haram violence, and more than 2.6 million displaced.

Source: World Bulletin

20, November 2017

Shifting alliances among Southern Cameroons figures in the US is making political initiatives inconsistent ⁰

Molyko in the Buea County of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is a street of contrasts, with hotels, cafes and an old Art Decor University of Buea campus intermingled with hoops of razor wire that cordon off private buildings. The first anti French Cameroun government action resulting from the Southern Cameroons revolution took place here about a year ago. Anglophone citizens from all walks of life—young and old, men and women, secularists, teachers and lawyers, members of trade unions and employers unions—all united to denounce successive Francophone regimes that have not met the needs of Southern Cameroonians for over 56 years.

The people of Southern Cameroons have drafted a new constitution, meant to be a new social contract for its society. The process is still going on and has not been smooth. The Governing Council that has legitimate authority in Southern Cameroons has renamed the territory as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. Negotiations between the interim government and other Southern Cameroons groups stopped when few of the opposing sides could not reach agreement. But after the new nation was shaken by a series of French Cameroun killings, massive arrests and detentions, the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and a cream of other Southern Cameroons leaders observed the chaos currently going on in La Republique du Cameroun and decided that, despite their differences, they shared a common need to forge ahead with the struggle for an independent Southern Cameroons.

The 4^th Conclave that produced the draft constitution, grappled with three contentious questions: the role of political parties in the Southern Cameroons society, gender equality, and limits on executive power. Professor Carlson Anyangwe and the legal think tank purposely used precise language in the constitution to set forth principles for the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. To be sure, the 4^th Conclave was a potent reminder of the United States’ constitutional process in 1789, when setting down words defined values for a nation.

Seeing the violence against our people and the sufferings of thousands that have escaped to neighboring Nigeria should bring everyone together with a renewed understanding of the urgency to come to agreement. We of this publication believe and fervently too that you are either with the interim government or with the Biya Francophone regime.

The interim government pointed in the draft constitution that the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is a civil state that is based on citizenship, the will of the people, and the supremacy of law. The draft constitution declared that women and men have equal rights and duties and we understand this will reflect in the upcoming cabinet.

The greatest challenge was how to prevent a return to dictatorship. The Federal Republic of Ambazonia’s draft constitution places limits on executive power, protects civil liberties and freedom of the press, and guards due process. It is the only constitution in West and Central Africa to grant “freedom of conscience.” The draft constitution included provisions for presidential term limits, elections, a constitutional court with power to impeach, an independent judiciary, and independent constitutional bodies with responsibility for issues such as combating corruption and human rights.

Based on this draft constitution, Southern Cameroonians should all rally behind the interim government and participate in the political process including the struggle for complete and total independence. Governance will not been smooth. But we as a people will get to Buea. Bloody attacks by French Cameroun forces have undermined the tourist industry, the bedrock of the Ambazonia economy. Consequently, shifting alliances among leading Southern Cameroons figures in the US and Europe is making political initiatives inconsistent.

Thanks to the interim government, Southern Cameroons has maintained its peaceful revolution. Nigeria is helping with support to our refugees in the Cross River State and several other measures. Ambazonia is slowly but surely becoming a priority for the UN, the EU and the African Union. Keep the faith in the interim government.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group

20, November 2017

Zimbabwe: Mugabe defies own party, refuses to resign ⁰

Speaking while under house arrest, Zimbabwe’s embattled President Robert Mugabe has shocked the nation by making no mention of resignation despite a military takeover and a looming noon deadline set by his own party for him to cede power.

The 93-year old president delivered a 20-minute address Sunday on live television, hours after his Zanu-PF Party sacked him and urged the leader to step down by noon (1000 GMT) on Monday or face impeachment.

Zimbabweans, who widely expected Mugabe to announce his resignation in the address, had gathered in public places across the capital, Harare, to watch the speech.

However, much to their disbelief, Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for nearly four decades, offered no concessions to his opponents, and even pledged to preside over a special Zanu-PF congress scheduled for next month.

The president acknowledged criticism from Zanu-PF, the military and public, but said the events of last week were not “a challenge to my authority as head of state and government.”

A video grab from footage shows military commanders stand next to Mugabe as he was delivering a speech on live TV address in capital Harare on November 19, 2017. (Via AFP)

“Whatever the pros and cons of how they [the army] went about their operation, I, as commander-in-chief, do acknowledge their concerns,” he said.

The long-running president stressed the need to return normality to the African state, but made no mention of demands from the public and from his own party, to resign as president.

Angered by the speech, Chris Mutsvangwa, head of the influential war veterans’ association, said plans to impeach Mugabe in parliament would now go ahead, and that there would be mass protests on Wednesday.

“That speech has nothing to do with realities,” he said, calling on people to go back to the streets.

Both houses of Zimbabwe’s parliament are due to convene on Tuesday for a debate over the impeachment bid, which would require a two-thirds majority in both chambers.

The political crisis began in the South African county after Mugabe sacked his vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, two weeks ago.

People attend a prayer meeting after Mugabe was dismissed as party leader of the ruling ZANU-PF’s central committee in Harare on November 19, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

The sudden move angered army commanders and led to the military takeover last week. The commanders considered Mugabe’s sudden decision as an attempt to position his wife, Grace Mugabe, as his successor.

She has not been seen since the takeover.

It was thought that the army had managed to take power in a “bloodless transition” coup, but it insists that it has no intention of taking permanent control of government and that it is an operation to root out “criminals around (Mugabe) who are committing crimes.”

Mnangagwa, who was appointed interim leader of the Zanu-PF, is widely expected to take over from Mugabe as president.

Culled from Presstv

20, November 2017

“Robert Mugabe has no intention of leaving the scene” ⁰

The world sat in front of hundreds of millions of TV screens yesterday and watched Robert Mugabe make a speech regarding his future and that of Zimbabwe. The expectations from east to west, north to south were the same. Reuters, long believed to be the leader in news scoops had fed the other leading news agencies including Cameroon Concord News Group that the old fox was about to announce his exit from the international and political scene with dignity. We were all fooled.

It seems to be a familiar pattern on the world scene that news agencies these days get their predictions utterly erroneous. The election of Trump and Brexit were predicted inaccurately and incorrectly reported. As I watched the TV screens and spoke to Cameroon Concord News Group Southern Africa Editor live from Harare, nothing could have prepared me for what I was witnessing.

I witnessed a fragile old man, 93 years of age ramble; ramble on and on and on. At some stages of his speech, he sounded like someone who had suffered and was recovering from a stroke. Earlier in the day, the political party which he founded, and has led for 37 years, the ZANU-PF had dismissed him as leader. He had been given till today noon by the party to step down as the president of Zimbabwe or face the degradation of impeachment. His speech to the nation was seen as a platform for the old fox to announce his submission and ensuing peaceful retirement.

We waited for the punch line announcing his resignation which never came. We have now been reliably informed that the generals who led the move to remove him from office were told he was going to make a speech announcing his resignation but Mugabe refused to show them a copy of his speech. Cameroon Concord News understands from our Southern Africa editor in Harare that the Generals asked to see his speech but Mugabe emphatically refused.

As I watched the speech, I noticed like the hundreds of millions who did the same around the world that he was too old and in many occasions couldn’t follow the pages coherently. It was a pity and an embarrassment for someone who was once a great leader. I wondered what drives him to believe that if he didn’t have the mental coordination to read a written speech, he had all the faculties in place to run a nation. He appeared just too ancient and incapable.

The party which he founded has now disowned him. The overwhelming majority of his people don’t want him to continue as leader after almost four decades. Based on what we saw yesterday, Mugabe hasn’t got the mental ability and dynamism to make day to day decisions as a leader but he insist on carrying on as the president of his country.

We thought we had seen the last chapter of this drama, but it looks like Comrade Robert Mugabe has no intension of making that happen. Those close to him say bushiness is what took him to the top. The big question now is if that is what will bring him down spectacularly.

By Asu Ashu

Cameroon Concord News

London