Headline News

“Biya regime and the Ambazonia Interim Government have one surprising thing in common”

16, February 2018

“Biya regime and the Ambazonia Interim Government have one surprising thing in common” 0

While the search continues to find the sub-prefect of Batibo, a locality in the Momo constituency in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia abducted  last February 11 by unidentified gunmen, the Francophone  governor  has installed an acting Divisional Officer leading political commentators to opine that the Biya regime and the Ambazonia Interim Government have one surprising thing in common-the way they replace abducted leaders.

Adolphe Lele Lafrique, installed on Wednesday, Ernest Nkwandze as acting sub-prefect of Batibo and pleaded with the Batibo traditional authorities to help free the abducted DO.  Namata Diteng, the DO of the Ambazonian Batibo district, has been missing since Sunday, when his burnt-out car was found in an isolated area. Cameroon’s army said on Monday that it was continuing to search for a local official after separatists in a restive English-speaking region claimed to have captured him.

He had been meant to preside over local festivities for Cameroon Youth Day, a controversial day in the country’s two anglophone regions — in the northwest and southwest — where dozens of people have been killed since October after a violent crackdown on protests against the mainly French-speaking government.

There were numerous appeals by separatists online to “kill the prisoner” of the “colonial army”. Army spokesman Colonel Didier Badjeck told AFP that Cameroon forces were continuing their search for Diteng on Monday night.

Badjeck also dismissed as “fake news” a picture of a dead man circulating online that some separatists claimed was Diteng.

By Sama Ernest


Fru Ndi withdraws from presidential election

16, February 2018

Fru Ndi withdraws from presidential election 0

The leader of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), Ni John Fru Ndi has announced his decision not to contest the 2018 presidential elections, which according to the ruling CPDM crime syndicate should be held between the 14th of September and the 14th of October.

The 77 year old Southern Cameroonian who is also the founder and current chairman of the SDF, the so-called second-largest force in the National Assembly added that he intends to remain the head of the Social Democratic Front.

Three senior members of the SDF have so far made public their intention to run for the presidency and they include, Joshua Osih, Joseph Mba-Ndam and Tchinda Forbi. John Fru was a candidate in the presidential elections in 1992 and 2011.

By Fru James in Bamenda


South Africa parliament elects Ramaphosa as new president

15, February 2018

South Africa parliament elects Ramaphosa as new president 0

South African lawmakers formally named wealthy former businessman Cyril Ramaphosa as new president Thursday after scandal-tainted Jacob Zuma resigned under intense pressure from his own party.

Ramaphosa, the only candidate, was approved without a vote by the parliament in Cape Town, chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng told assembled lawmakers to loud cheers.

Zuma announced his resignation late Wednesday, and aimed barbs at the African National Congress (ANC) party for vowing to oust him via a no-confidence vote in parliament.

In a 30-minute televised address, Zuma said he had “come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect”.

“I have only asked my party to articulate my transgressions and the reason for its immediate instruction that I vacate office,” he said.

Zuma, 75, had been embroiled in a divisive power struggle with Ramaphosa, the deputy president.

Ramaphosa won control of the ANC when he was elected as its head in December.

Benchmark South African stocks scored their biggest gains since June 2016 after news that a pro-business reformist would be taking the helm.

The FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index rose as much as 2.7 percent, while the rand reached its strongest level since February 2015, gaining 0.5 percent at 11.6570 to the dollar in early trade.

Zuma said in a TV interview earlier Wednesday that he had received “very unfair” treatment from the party he joined in 1959 and in which he had fought for decades against apartheid white-minority rule.

He said he was angered over “the manner in which the decision is being implemented… I don’t agree, as there is no evidence of if I have done anything wrong.”

President of South Africa Jacob Zuma attends the last day of the NASREC Expo Centre in Johannesburg on December 20, 2017, during the African National Congress (ANC) 54th National Conference. (Photo by AFP)

 

‘We are not celebrating’

The party’s national executive committee had ordered Zuma’s recall from office on Tuesday, after a 13-hour meeting at a hotel outside Pretoria, but he at first refused.

ANC officials then said that if Zuma did not resign, the party’s lawmakers in the Cape Town parliament would vote him out on Thursday.

But, after the resignation, party deputy secretary general Jesse Duarte cautioned: “We are not celebrating.”

“We have had to recall a cadre of the movement that has served this organisation for over 60 years, it’s not a small matter.”

Zuma, who had no formal education, was jailed on Robben Island for 10 years alongside Nelson Mandela under apartheid and rose through the ranks of the ANC to take power in 2009.

But his rule was dominated by graft scandals, economic slowdown and falling popularity for the celebrated liberation party.

In a day of high drama, police early Wednesday raided the Johannesburg home of the Gupta business family, which is accused of overseeing a web of corruption in Zuma’s government.

Police said three unidentified people had been arrested in investigations into “Vrede Farm” — allegations that millions of dollars of public money meant for poor dairy farmers was siphoned off by the Guptas.

The estate of the controversial business family Gupta in Johannesburg, on February 14, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

 

Local media reported that Zuma had been pushing for a resignation deal that included his legal fees to fight multiple criminal charges — but he denied the allegations in his resignation speech.

One case against him relates to 783 payments he allegedly received linked to an arms deal before he came to power.

Other graft allegations have centered on the three Gupta brothers, who are accused of unfairly obtaining lucrative government contracts and even hand-picking Zuma’s ministerial appointments.

South African Members of Parliament sing and gestures prior to voting for a new president a day after the former president resigned on February 15, 2018, in Cape Town. (Photo by AFP)

 

The political standoff in recent weeks plunged South Africa — the continent’s most developed economy — into confusion over who was running the country, with last Thursday’s annual State of the Nation address cancelled at the last-minute.

Instead, Ramaphosa is to deliver the State of the Nation on Friday.

 Decline of Mandela’s party

Zuma, a Zulu traditionalist with four wives and a proud singing voice, had been scheduled to stand down next year after serving the maximum two terms.

In local polls in 2016, the ANC recorded its worst electoral result since coming to power in 1994 with Mandela at the helm as white-minority rule fell.

Winnie Mandela, former wife of former President Nelson Mandela, attends the closing ceremony of the NASREC Expo Centre in Johannesburg on December 20, 2017, during the African National Congress (ANC) 54th National Conference. (Photo by AFP)

 

Ramaphosa, 65, must revive the economy and crack down on what he has admitted is rampant government corruption if he is to boost the party’s tarnished reputation before a tricky general election next year.

He is a former trade unionist and Mandela ally who led talks to end apartheid in the early 1990s and then became a hugely wealthy businessman before returning to politics.

Zuma’s hold over the ANC was broken in December when his chosen successor — his former wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma — narrowly lost to Ramaphosa in a vote for the new party leader.

South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa dances on stage before his address at the NASREC Expo Center in Johannesburg on December 20, 2017, during the African National Congress (ANC) 54th National Conference. (Photo by AFP)

 

South Africa’s new president vows to tackle corruption

Ramaphosa, on Thursday, used his first speech in office to vow to fight government corruption, in a direct reference to accusations leveled against his predecessor Jacob Zuma.

“Issues to do with corruption, issues of how we can straighten out our state-owned enterprises and how we deal with ‘state capture’ are issues that are on our radar screen,” he told lawmakers in parliament.

“Those are issues we are going to be addressing and tomorrow we will also have an opportunity to outline some of the steps we are going to be taking,” said Ramaphosa, who got a standing ovation at the end of the speech.

“State capture” refers to alleged corruption of state institutions and state-owned businesses by private individuals seeking illegal profits.

(Source: AFP)


US Senate unveils immigration plan, defying Trump

15, February 2018

US Senate unveils immigration plan, defying Trump 0

A bipartisan group of US senators in Congress have unveiled a compromise plan to protect so-called “Dreamers” and boost border security, defying President Donald Trump’s demand to embrace his more hardline plan.

The potential breakthrough, reached Wednesday after hours of closed-door deliberations, would protect from deportation 1.8 million immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children.

Congress is struggling to act after Trump ordered the March 5 termination of DACA, an Obama-era program that gives young immigrants temporary legal status. Congress has tried and failed to overhaul immigration policy over the past decade.

While several Republicans are co-sponsoring the new bipartisan measure, it was not clear whether there would be enough support from Democrats to pass it in the Senate. Even if the bipartisan immigration plan passes the Senate, it faces an uncertain fate in the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a larger majority.

The bipartisan measure, which has eight Republican and eight Democratic sponsors, emerged from a centrist group nicknamed the “Common Sense Coalition.”

“Our legislation underscores the broad, bipartisan commitment to creating a path to citizenship for Dreamers, who were brought to this country illegally through no decision of their own, while strengthening border security to help stop the flow of illegal immigrants,” Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, said in a statement announcing the measure.

The bipartisan effort would only make limited changes to family reunification, and would leave the diversity lottery visa untouched, because it is too “politically toxic,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the lawmakers who crafted the bipartisan plan.

But supporting the immigration deal would put members of Trump’s own party at odds with the president, who urged senators to oppose any plans that were different from his own.

In the midst of the showdown, Democrats stressed Trump would be to blame for any failure to reach a deal.

Americans “know this president not only created the problem, but seems to be against every solution that might pass because it isn’t 100 percent of what he wants,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York state.

“If, at the end of the week, we are unable to find a bill that can pass… the responsibility will fall entirely on the president’s shoulders and those in this body who went along with him.”

 

Source: Presstv


Southern Cameroons Crisis worsen: Reports

15, February 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis worsen: Reports 0

The crisis in Cameroon is getting worse each day as fighting between separatist groups degenerates with casualties on both sides.

The situation has been disturbing following the kidnapping of a senior government official in the English speaking north western town of Batibo by the separatists.

Source: Channel Africa


Gun nightmare in US schools: Shooting every 60hrs

15, February 2018

Gun nightmare in US schools: Shooting every 60hrs 0

The Wednesday mass shooting at a high school in Florida was the 18th shooting at a school since the beginning of 2018, that is one shooting every 60 hours.

There has been over 6,500 shooting incidents across the US so far, leading to the death of over 1,820 people and injuring more than 3,100 other.

The data have been compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit that tracks gun-related violence in the US.

According to the website, since January 69 children between the ages of 1-11 years and a staggering number of 333 teenagers (12-17 years) have been killed in various incidents.

As of Thursday, there has been 30 mass shootings, collectively killing over 58 people and injuring dozens more.

According to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group, a school shooting is “any time a firearm discharges a live round inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds, as documented by the press and, when necessary, confirmed through further inquiries with law enforcement or school officials.”

That is the very definition of what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Pompano Beach on Wednesday afternoon, where a former student who was fired for disciplinary reasons killed at least 17 people at his school.

The suspect, identified as 19-year-old Nikolaus Cruz was armed with an AR-15 rifle and what officials described as endless number of magazines.

The semi-automatic weapon, which was introduced by Colt in the 1960s, has virtually become the favorite weapon for mass murderers across the US and has been linked to many similar shootings.

Last October, a gunman armed with 14 AR-15s and a cache of other deadly weapons opened fire on a music festival from his nearby hotel room leaving 58 people dead and 851 injured.

In September 2016, a gunman used stormed a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Killing 49 people and wounding 58 others using his AR-15.

Just two days after the shooting, the Huffington Post sent a group of reporters to see how long did it take to purchase the latest iteration of the deadly weapon. The result was astonishing: You can buy an AR-15 in Orlando in just 38 minutes.

In the latest instance of gun violence in the United States, at least 17 people were killed and several others injured in a shooting at a high school in the US state of Florida.

The shooting occurred on Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

It is estimated that there are between 270 million and 300 million guns in the US, about one per person, according to the New York Daily News.

Perhaps it is no surprise then that Statistics by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show firearms kill more than 33,000 people in the US every year, a number that includes accidental discharges, murders and suicides.

Here is a look at some of the deadliest school shootings in recent US history:

April 2007: Seung Hui Cho, a 23-year-old student, went on a shooting spree at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, killing 32 people, before killing himself.

December 2012: Adam Lanza, 20, killed as many as 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, before taking his own life.

August 1966: Charles Joseph Whitman, a former US Marine, shot and killed 16 people from a university tower at the University of Texas in Austin before being shot by police.

April 1999: Students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, started shooting students and teachers at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, killing 12 students and one teacher while wounding more than 20 others. They both killed themselves.

February 2008: Steven Kazmierczak, 27, stormed into a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University and opened fire, killing five students and wounding 18 others before killing himself.

March 2005: Jeff Weise, 16, killed his grandfather and his companion before heading to a high school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota, where he killed five students, a teacher and a security guard before committing suicide.

 

Source: Presstv


Ambazonia Crisis: Biya appoints Ernest Nkwandze as interim DO of Batibo

15, February 2018

Ambazonia Crisis: Biya appoints Ernest Nkwandze as interim DO of Batibo 0

The 85 year-old President Paul Biya has appointed Ernest Nkwandze as interim Divisional Officer for the Batibo constituency in Momo Division following the abduction of Namata Marcel Diteng on February the 11th by unknown gunmen.  Ernest Nkwandze was installed on February 14, 2018 by the North-West Governor, Adolphe Lélé Lafrique.

The governor reportedly held a working session with the traditional authorities and security officials of the Batibo district and pleaded with the chiefs as well as the population to work in collaboration with the security forces by providing them reliable information in the search of the sub-prefect.

The sub-prefect of Batibo, Namata Marcel Diteng was abducted with his driver in the morning of February 11, 2018 by unidentified men. So far a massive search is continuing to find them.

By Sama Ernest with files from CIN


French raid in Mali leaves at least 10 dead

15, February 2018

French raid in Mali leaves at least 10 dead 0

French air power on Wednesday killed at least 10 jihadists in northeast Mali near the border with Algeria, local and foreign military sources said.

“French forces on Wednesday led at least one raid near Tinzaouatene, at the Algerian border, against the terrorists,” a local Malian military source told AFP.

“There were at least 10 deaths and two vehicles were destroyed.” An ex colonel in the Malian army who had defected, who is close to the jihadists’ leader, was killed in the raid, according to an army statement.

“This was the base of the head of the network, Iyad Ag Ghaly, at Tinzaouatene, which was the main target of the operation,” a foreign security source in Mali told AFP.

The offensive was part of France’s Operation Barkhane, active in Mali as well as four other former French colonies in west Africa Mauritania, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso.

These countries form the so-called G5 Sahel, a French-supported group that launched a joint military force to combat jihadists last year.

The Malian source said the French force had been conducting operations in northeastern Mali for several days.

A foreign military source confirmed that “several” raids had been carried out in the region on Wednesday, killing at least 10 jihadists.

Islamic extremists linked to Al-Qaeda took control of the desert north of Mali in early 2012, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.

However large tracts of the country remain lawless despite a peace accord signed with ethnic Tuareg leaders in mid-2015 aimed at isolating the jihadists.

On Tuesday in neighbouring Burkina Faso meanwhile, a policeman was killed and two were injured in an attack at a village near the eastern town of Fada N’Gourma, in a region that has largely escaped Islamist unrest.

The assailants’ identity was unknown.

Northern Burkina Faso has seen frequent attacks by suspected jihadists, with two police killed late last month in the town of Baraboule.

(AFP)


US: At least 17 dead in Florida school shooting

15, February 2018

US: At least 17 dead in Florida school shooting 0

At least 17 people have been killed and several others injured in a shooting at a high school in the US state of Florida.

The shooting occurred on Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Florida Govover Rick Scott ordered government flags flown at half-staff through Monday in honor of victims of the shooting.

Authorities closed the school for the rest of the week, and the district will offer grief counseling to students and their families.

Police took a suspect into custody, announcing that the person was not a current student there.

Students and adults leave following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, a city about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Miami on February 14, 2018. (Photos by AFP)

 

The gunman, a former student who was said to be 19 years old, quietly surrendered to police after opening fire with an assault-style rifle.

Identified as Nikolaus Cruz, the shooter had previously been expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons.

He was reportedly part of the US military-sponsored Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corp (JROTC) program at the school, but “no one ever took him seriously,” according to a recent graduate and former fellow JROTC member at Stoneman Douglas High.

People are brought out of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School amid the deadly shooting at the school on February 14, 2018 in Parkland, Florida.

 

Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie, described that situation as “you pray … that you will never have to see,” adding that “We cannot live in a world that’s built on fear.”

“There are numerous fatalities. It’s a horrific situation.”

 

The school, which has more  than 3,000 students, was placed on a “code red” lockdown in the wake of the shooting.

Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson also said that “This is a really bad day,” adding there were “a number of fatalities.”

Police started dealing with the active shooter situation at the high school around 2:30 pm local time.

 

Source: Presstv


Prime Minister May envoy visits Buea, urges Cameroon to pursue dialogue in Anglophone crisis

15, February 2018

Prime Minister May envoy visits Buea, urges Cameroon to pursue dialogue in Anglophone crisis 0

A United Kingdom Member Parliament has stressed the need for Cameroon to adopt dialogue to resolve unrest in the Anglophone region.

Harriet Baldwin of West Worchestershire who doubles as a Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) made the call after a trip to Cameroon.

The trip afforded her the opportunity to meet with a number of stakeholders in the restive region especially in the southwest capital of Buea.

“Important visit to Buea in South West Anglophone region hearing from local people about the impact of the ongoing dispute and the urgent need for dialogue,” she said in a tweet accompanied by a photo of a meeting of leaders in Buea.

Some other work she did had to do with environment conservation and the opening of an educational facility.

View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on TwitterThe U.K. has been at the forefront of calls for Cameroon to adopt dialogue to solve the Anglophone crisis. The Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland in December 2017 visited Cameroon where she held talks with the government and other stakeholders.

The Central African country is currently suffering from an armed insurgency in its English – speaking regions – Northwest and Southwest, in what has become known as the ‘Anglophone crisis.’

Addressing a cross-section of political and diplomatic actors over lunch, Scotland said “Cameroon is renowned for its tradition of peaceful and harmonious interactions. So it is with great sadness that we see it in challenging times.

“However, as the Commonwealth family, we will do everything we can to preserve the unity and peaceful existence of any member of the family. As we all know, friction and division will not enhance the ability to deliver the peace that each and every one of Cameroon’s citizen wants.

“I therefore encourage Cameroonians from all walks of life to embrace peace, unity and resolve any differences through peaceful dialogue,” the Secretary-General concluded.

Cameroon joined the Commonwealth in 1995 even though it has a dominant French population. It is also part of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) – the French equivalent of Commonwealth led by France.

 

Source: Africa News


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