Headline News

Kenya: Court ponders election delay

25, October 2017

Kenya: Court ponders election delay 0

Kenyan police have clashed with protesters in the capital Nairobi as calls increase on the country’s Supreme Court to delay a controversial rerun of presidential election, which is slated for October 26.

Police officials said on Tuesday that they fired tear gas to disperse a small group of people who were protesting in downtown Nairobi.

The officials said the confrontation, which occurred amid bustling traffic, was not serious and that police officers fired blanks. However, clouds of tear gas forced some city workers and passers-by to hurry away from the area.

There was no report of potential casualties. Rights group say some 67 people have been shot dead by police forces since the results of the August 8 presidential election were declared. President Uhuru Kenyatta won that vote but Kenya’s Supreme Court annulled the results over irregularities in the electronic vote process. Opposition candidate Raila Odinga, who had challenged the original vote, has called on his followers to boycott a rerun set for Thursday, saying irregularities still persist and people who helped the government tamper with the results have not been sacked from the election watchdog.

Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga answers journalists after a meeting on October 19, 2017 with the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) in Nairobi. (AFP photo)

 

Authorities in the Supreme Court said on Tuesday that they would hear a petition by the opposition and rights groups to postpone the October 26 rerun. The court said it would convene a meeting on Wednesday morning to hear petitioners.

Petitioners say a large number of voters would not be able to vote in the rerun as Odinga has called on them not to turn out. They also cite comments by senior election officials who have expressed doubts that the Thursday vote could be free and fair.

 

Source: Presstv


Yaounde: Transport Minister suspends General Travel Agency

25, October 2017

Yaounde: Transport Minister suspends General Travel Agency 0

The Francophone Minister of Transport has suspended as a precautionary measure and subject to prosecution, the General Travel Agency following a serious traffic accident that occurred on Tuesday the 24th of October, 2017 between Boumnyebel and Sombo on the National No. 3 road, commonly known as the Douala-Yaoundé highway.

Cameroon Concord News can now confirm that 15 people died and the death toll is expected to rise. The remains of the 15 were dropped off at the morgue of the Edea Regional Annex Hospital, where many wounded are being cared for.

Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo told state radio and television that his decision was based on the recurrence of traffic accidents involving the travel agency. The driver of the bus who has been involved is also punished with a withdrawal of his driving license for a period of 12 months.

Cameroon ranks among the most underdeveloped countries on the face of the earth despite its natural and human resources. Cameroon is bereft of infrastructure. Its hospitals have been reduced to consultation clinics. Its roads have consumed more lives than HIV and malaria put together.

Cameroonians have lost faith in the government. Years of unemployment have reduced them to sorry spectators of events in their own country. Many have died of preventable illnesses and for many, the shadow of uncertainty is permanently looming large on the horizon.

By Sonne Peter, CCN


Cameroon: An important notice to UK visa applicants

24, October 2017

Cameroon: An important notice to UK visa applicants 0

From:

British High Commission Yaounde
Part of:
Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, and Gabon
Published:
24 October 2017

The Visa Application Center (TLS) is experiencing some technical challenges.

Home Office
Home Office

Due to unforeseen circumstances, please be advised that the UK Visa Application Centre in Yaoundé is currently closed for the remainder of this week. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes to our customers. All those who had an appointment to submit their application this week will be contacted directly to reschedule when the VAC re-opens. We are working hard to resume normal operations as soon as possible. Please monitor this website for further updates



12 dead and 30 hospitalised in Yaounde-Douala road carnage

24, October 2017

12 dead and 30 hospitalised in Yaounde-Douala road carnage 0

At least 12 people were killed today  Tuesday the 24th of October 2017 in the morning following a traffic accident on the Yaoundé- Douala highway, the two main cities of La Republique du Cameroun.

The colision occurred between a transport vehicle and a truck precisely between Sombo and Boumnyebel two localities in the Central region. The bus was coming from Douala in the Littoral region and had 70 passengers on board.

According to our information, 12 people were killed on the spot after the shock. Thirty people were seriously injured.  We gathered that the death toll is expected to rise following the late arrival of first aid.

By Sama Ernest, CCN

 


Italy: Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni ready to discuss calls for great autonomy

24, October 2017

Italy: Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni ready to discuss calls for great autonomy 0

The Italian government is ready to open negotiations with Lombardy and Veneto after the two wealthy regions voted overwhelmingly for greater autonomy, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Tuesday.

Unlike a recent referendum on independence in Catalonia, which sparked a political crisis in Spain, the Italian votes this weekend were legal, but not binding on Rome.

Making clear he had no intention of making a drama out of the twin ballots, Gentiloni said he was ready to discuss how Lombardy and Veneto wanted to proceed.

“Here we are talking about how to make Italy work better. We are not calling into question Italy and its unity,” Gentiloni said during a visit to an oil refinery close to Venice, the capital of the northeastern Veneto region.

“The government is ready to look into the merits of this … it will be a complex discussion that can’t be done in five minutes,” he added.

Regional governments have the right to ask for greater oversight in 23 policy areas, including the environment, infrastructure, health and education.

A citizen prepares to vote for a referendum in Venice, on October 22, 2017, to request in Lombardy and Venice regions more autonomy from central government. (Photo by AFP)

 

The most delicate negotiations are likely to be over tax returns, with Veneto demanding that it be allowed to spend 90 percent of all the taxes raised on its own territory.

Among Italy’s 20 regions, Lombardy and Veneto account for just under a third of its economic output and are home to around 25 percent of its population.

Italy’s poorer, less developed southern regions are worried that they will receive less funding in future if Lombardy and Veneto get to keep more of their own tax take.

Five regions in Italy — the islands of Sicily and Sardinia and three relatively small border areas with linguistic minorities — already have special autonomous status under the constitution. Veneto wants to join them.

However, this would need a change to the constitution, which the government seems unwilling to accept.

“We are ready (to grant greater powers) within the limits fixed by our laws and by our constitution,” Gentiloni said.

Negotiations are likely to take many months and look certain to be interrupted by national elections due by next May. Any deal between the government and the regions will have to be approved by parliament.

The latest opinion polls suggest a hung parliament will emerge from the forthcoming election, making it impossible to predict the government formation that will carry on the negotiations.

(Source: Reuters)


You’re fired! Biya sacks Cameroon ambassador to Great Britain and Northern Ireland

24, October 2017

You’re fired! Biya sacks Cameroon ambassador to Great Britain and Northern Ireland 0

Nkwelle Ekaney is no longer Cameroon’s High Commissioner to Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In a letter dated October 19, President Paul Biya instructed the Minister of External Relations, Lejeune MBELLA MBELLA, to recall urgently and definitively to Cameroon, the High Commissioner of Cameroon in Great Britain and Ireland, Nkwelle Ekaney.

The Biya letter noted that the British authorities will be informed of a possible replacement of the disgraced diplomat.

According to a source close to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a meeting was held last week between Minister Lejeune MBELLA MBELLA and Nkwelle Ekaney on the decision of the Head of State Paul Biya. No official information is currently available on the reasons for the Biya action.
By Chi Prudence Asong, CCN


Southern Cameroons Crisis: Musonge playing the Francophone card

24, October 2017

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Musonge playing the Francophone card 0

The president of the so-called National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism has issued a political statement after he led a delegation of CPDM elites to the Buea Province in Southern Cameroons. Mafany Musonge said the people of Southern Cameroons are in favour of decentralization not secession.

Former Prime Minister Peter Mafany Musonge made the revelation after he reportedly met some, political intellectuals, traditional leaders, businessmen and leaders of civil society associations.

At the end of the consultations, Musonge and his gang pointed out there “there are localities where access  by roads is a huge problems.”  The CPDM Senator who as Prime Minister Minister did not carry an iota of development to West Cameroon observed that there are the problems of education, infrastructures which can be resolve through the effective implementation of decentralization.

Musonge summarized his findings in four main points: effective implementation of decentralization, construction of basic infrastructure, respect for the regional balance and representation of girls and sons of the two Anglophone regions in decision-making positions in the public administration as well as in the government.

A spokesperson for the Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Governing Council has dismissed the Musonge declarations as “mere political rhetoric”. The Governing Council indicated recently that it has been 23 years ever since Mr Paul Biya spoke of decentralization and nothing has been implemented.

 

By Rita Akana, CCN


No Comment: Richard Kwang Kometa’s take on the Southern Cameroons crisis

24, October 2017

No Comment: Richard Kwang Kometa’s take on the Southern Cameroons crisis 0

The week-long consultations led by Prime Minister, Head of Government, Philemon Yang in the North West Region and in the South West Region by former Prime Minister, Peter Mafany Musonge who is the pioneer president of the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism should logically be finalising reports of their findings. According to the announcement by the Director of Cabinet at the Prime Minister’s Office calling for the field trip from 15-24 October, 2017 on instructions of the Head of State, President Paul Biya to commune with the afflicted populations and take the message of peace and fraternity, the delegation members had an opportunity to sample opinion across the both regions.

Although most of the discussions took place behind closed doors, some who cared to give a gist of their exchanges with certain officials evoked the need for all and sundry to be brought on board. Such proposals could simply be a question of commonsense because the unrest in the two localities has for the past one year led to several people drawing conclusions and taking decisions that appear to exclude them from the mainstream reflections in the country. Those who not only insist on the form of the State to be reviewed, but think that nothing good can result from the present peace and stability in Cameroon must have discovered by now that not everybody shares such ideas. Particular attention has been the Diaspora or those who have taken delight in giving instructions from comfort zones abroad acting in complete variance with the situation on the ground. Not only have such persons taken over genuine claims by teachers and Common Law Lawyers in the country to disrupt school programmes and the normal trend of business and social life in the two regions, but they have taken such radical positions in a bite to control a situation that they do not’ master.

Making inordinate use of the social media to create bubble effects of the existence of any real influence among the populations has not always been true. Apart from a few isolated incidence like violence in Lebialem Division in the South West Region, the general consensus has been around providing a favourable environment within Cameroon for sons and daughters of the country to stay in peace and harmony. Prevent children from going to school has proven to be one of the weakest link in the twist that the crisis took. Going down to the divisions, subdivisions and villages must have provided the government-triggered delegation with the possibility to listen to everyone, look for ways to avoid extremism and agree on concrete plans for life to return to normal in both regions. By getting everyone involved, the chances are that those outside the country who have used the social media to derail a noble cause by teachers’ and lawyers’ trade unions will have to reconsider their positions and return to the fold.

Needless recalling that a bird in hand is worth two in the bush and destroying present achievements and hoping that better alternatives could exist in future simply looks irrational. Children can be allowed to go to school; business persons effect their transactions while the politicians play out their differences without holding innocent Cameroonians hostage. The exchange of ideas between members of the delegation and the population equally meant creating room for all those who had any positive proposals for a strong and progressive country to bring them forward. People may disagree to agree, but the bottom-line must not be total disruption of existing values and complete mistrust. There are certainly artificial realities that are being made to conflict with the intrinsic state of affairs in the country but every contribution that can add to enabling the true strength of Cameroon to blossom will be welcome.


Washington: Key senators say they didn’t know the US had troops in Niger

24, October 2017

Washington: Key senators say they didn’t know the US had troops in Niger 0

Some senators are saying they didn’t know the US had troops in Niger as questions swirl about the raid that killed four US servicemen there earlier this month. The Pentagon, however, said Monday it has kept Congress informed of the operation. Military investigators are looking into the exact circumstances of the October 4 raid, including how Sgt. La David Johnson was separated from the 12-member team as it was ambushed by 50 ISIS fighters.

“I did not,” Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pennsylvania, responded to CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day” Monday whether he knew there were troops in Niger. “When you consider what happened here, the four sergeants lost their lives, I think there’s a lot of work that both parties and both branches of government need to do. Not only to stay more informed but to focus on why we’re there and what happened to get to the bottom of this.”

Several other leading senators also said they were in the dark about the operation in the western Africa nation. “I didn’t know there was 1,000 troops in Niger,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” Sunday. “They are going to brief us next week as to why they were there and what they were doing.”

He continued: “I got a little insight on why they were there and what they were doing. I can say this to the families: They were there to defend America. They were there to help allies. They were there to prevent another platform to attack America and our allies.”

Graham also said during the interview that his longtime friend and colleague in the Senate, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, is frustrated, “rightly so.”

“We don’t know exactly where we’re at in the world, militarily, and what we’re doing. So John McCain is going to try to create a new system to make sure that we can answer the question (about) why we were there,” he said. “We’ll know how many soldiers are there, and if somebody gets killed there, that we won’t find out about it in the paper.”

When Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was asked later on “Meet the Press” about knowing whether there were troops in Niger, he responded, “No, I did not.”

The Pentagon told CNN it keeps Congress regularly informed on the movements within the agency. And the White House said Monday it notified congressional leaders in June about 965 troops conducting counterterrorism duties in Niger and Cameroon.

Several Republican House members told CNN on Monday they were aware of the operation. “With respect to Niger, I serve on the appropriations committee. I oversee military construction projects,” Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pennsylvania, told Cuomo. “We have a presence there. Not just there, but within that whole Lake Chad region, supporting local troops to support fight Boko Haram, support operations in West Africa and the operation in Mali. So we have all sorts of people in that region fighting a very dangerous foe, and ISIS in West Africa, especially.”

And Oklahoma Republican Rep. Steve Russell, a member of the government oversight and reform committee, also told CNN he knew about the troops. “It’s not new, and lawmakers that seem to be aghast at these missions going on are simply not well-read,” Dent told CNN’s John Berman and Poppy Harlow.

 

Culled from CNN


Battle For Southern Cameroons: La Republique boost up strategies of digital communication

24, October 2017

Battle For Southern Cameroons: La Republique boost up strategies of digital communication 0

Digital applications which will enable decentralised services of the Ministry of Communication provide the central service with adequate information within the shortest possible space has been presented in Yaounde. The initiative was presented by the Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, on October 20, 2017 in a meeting with the Regional Delegates of Communication.

Speaking on the delegation of the Minister shortly after the meeting, the Interim Secretary General, Felix Zogo, said the idea is intended to boost up strategies of digital communication which will enable the government to be proactive, interactive and permanent on the social media. He said the platform will facilitate the exchange of information from the different regions and this will in tend aid the government in making informed decisions.

Zogo furthered that the different social networks will be maximised and government communication rendered more visible. The Regional Delegate of Communication at the South West Region, Rosette Achu Muna Bih, said the pioneer meeting in the digital sphere warrants decentralised services to provide information to the government within the framework of promoting a well drafted communication policy.

She said the intensive communication strategy will supply hierarchy with the happenings in their different regions. “We therefore have as an obligation to henceforth constantly update the platform with clear and precise information on what transpires in our respective regions,” she stated. The platform, to be operational in the near future, will therefore give supplementary visibility to government’s communication mechanisms.

 

Source: Cameroon Tribune


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