Headline News

18, May 2017

US: White policewoman cleared in black man’s shooting death ⁰

A white policewoman in the US state of Oklahoma, who was accused of fatally shooting an unarmed African American man, has been acquitted from all charges. Officer Betty Jo Shelby, 43, shot dead 40-year-old Terrence Crutcher next to his car on a street in Tulsa on September 16, 2016.

The Tulsa County District Court jury of eight women and four men ruled Wednesday that the officer, who has been on unpaid leave since she was charged, was not guilty of manslaughter. During the proceedings, Shelby said that she acted according to her training because she had reasonable fear that the victim was reaching for a gun.

However, the Crutcher family’s lawyer, rejected her reasoning, saying that video from the killing shows Crutcher was “simply going to the car with his hands up, and making the turn and pivoting to put his hands on the car when the shot is fired.”

Prosecutors also argued against Shelby, noting that she shot Crutcher a few seconds before he made the gesture that the defense cited as the basis for her reaction. Shannon McMurray, Shelby’s lawyer, accused the prosecutors of hypocrisy and said they were attacking the officer in response to the media frenzy surrounding the case.

Crutcher’s father, Joseph, accepted the vote but said he knew the officer was guilty. “I have four grandchildren that are at home that has lost their daddy. I said I would accept whatever the verdict was, and I’m going to do that. But let it be known that I believe in my heart that Betty Shelby got away with murder,” he said.

The ruling makes Shelby the latest white officer to escape unharmed after killing an African American over the past few years. Similar rulings were issued by grand juries in the deaths of Eric Garner on Staten Island, Tamir Rice in Cleveland and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, all of them controversial cases that prompted a national debate about race relations and the use of force by law enforcement.

Source: Presstv

18, May 2017

Sudan’s Bashir, Trump to attend same summit in Saudi Arabia ⁰

Sudan’s foreign minister says President Omar al-Bashir will attend a summit in Saudi Arabia, where US President Donald Trump will also be present, despite arrest warrants for war crimes and genocide issued by the International Criminal Court against the Sudanese leader.

“I can confirm President Bashir will go … to Saudi Arabia,” Ibrahim Ghandour told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland. “We look forward (to) normalization of our relations with the US,” he added. Trump will start his first ever foreign tour as the president of the United States by visiting Saudi Arabia. He is scheduled to arrive in the kingdom on Saturday.

The summit of Arab and Muslim leaders is expected to include top-level talks the next day. Asked if the Sudanese president is expected to shake hands with Trump, Ghandour said it was impossible to predict, but added that “a handshake doesn’t mean a lot if relations are not (good).”

The Hague-based ICC issued an arrest warrant on July 12, 2010 for Bashir over allegations of genocide committed in Darfur conflict. An earlier arrest warrant for the Sudanese leader was issued in March 2009 by the ICC for charges including war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Bashir has strongly denied the allegations against him, dismissing the claims as a Western conspiracy to seize Sudan’s oil, gas and other natural resources. The armed conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan has killed as many as 300,000 people and displaced 2 million, according to the United Nations.

Presstv

18, May 2017

Anglophone teachers in Yaoundé have refused to correct copies of the 2017 Common Entrance Examination ⁰

Unhappy with the reduction the Francophone government’s reduction of the marking fees from 60 francs last year to 33 CFA francs this year, Anglophone teachers in Yaoundé have said that they will not correct a single script of the Common Entrance Examination that held on Tuesday 16 May 2017. The expression on the faces, and the angry tone of the conversations held with some of the teachers by our cream of reporters in Yaoundé, speaks volumes about the prevailing situation.

The 2017 session of the Common Entrance has just been completed by the primary school pupils and they are now waiting for the red ball pen users to get the correction job done. However, Cameroon Concord News has learnt from the Anglophone teaching community in Yaoundé that none of these teachers intend to enter the marking centers.

The Southern Cameroonians have refused to make the corrections and are also denouncing the drastic reduction of their expenses envisaged for this task. They had already done so last year, when the Biya Francophone government reduced the correction costs by half, from 120 CFA francs to 60 francs. The teachers were already in the marking centers yesterday Wednesday, May 17, 2017 preparing the marking scheme to start the corrections, when the CPDM Regional Delegate for the Center Region sent by the Minister of Basic Education announced another drastic reduction- a reduction according to which each teacher will receive only 33 CFA francs per corrected script.

This time around, the pill was impossible to swallow for these dedicated Anglophone teachers especially as reductions have become recurring in the cost of marking the Common Entrance Examination. Based on a Prime Minister Order that sets the fee for correction of the Common Entrance at 120 CFA francs, the angry teachers have made it clear that no copy will be marked under these conditions. It is now evident the Southern Cameroons crisis has spilled over into French Cameroun.

By Rita Akana

Cameroon Concord News

17, May 2017

Southern Cameroons Revolution: Learning from a relevant scholarly work ⁰

Writing about the collapse of the democratic republic in answer to the challenges and perceived injustices of globalisation that gave rise to Fascism, Nazism, Communism and Tyranny, Professor Timothy Snyder in his book ON TYRANNY: TWENTY LESSONS FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY” The Bodley Head London 2017 asserts that “history does not repeat itself, it instructs”.

The relevant lessons I have chosen from the 21 lessons that the twentieth century must instruct and inspire our resolve to confront the tyranny that has held our people under bondage and state of slavery for the past fifty-six years are:

1) Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead of what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do. The learned author states that anticipatory obedience is a political tragedy. History records that anticipatory obedience produced Adolf Hitler. Anticipatory obedience produced both Babatoura Ahidjo and Paul Biya. Lately some traditional rulers and political gamblers are known for providing the anticipatory obedience which have encouraged President Biya to pursue the policy of systemic repression and criminality that has been ongoing in the Southern Cameroons for the past fifty-six years.

2) The defence of institutions. Do not speak of our institutions unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after another unless each is defended from the beginning. “Some German Jews voted as the Nazi leaders wanted them in the hope that the gesture of loyalty will bind the new system to them. That was a vain hope”. Are some of our people different from this category of German Jews who supported and sustained their own genocide?

3) Beware the one-party state. The parties that remade states and suppressed rivals were not omnipotent from the start. They exploited a historic moment to make political life impossible for their opponents.

4) Take responsibility for the face of the world. The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow. Notice the Swastika and the other signs of hate. Do not look away and do not get used to them. Remove them yourself and set an example for others to do so.

5) Remember Professional ethics. When political leaders set a negative example, professional commitments to just practice become more important. It is hard to subvert a rule-of-law without lawyers, or to hold show trials without judges. Authoritarians need obedient civil servants, and concentration camps directors and businessmen interested in cheap labour.

6) Be wary of paramilitaries. When the men with guns who have always claimed to be against the system start wearing uniforms and marching with torches and pictures of a leader, the end is nigh. When the pro-leader paramilitary and the official police and military intermingle, the end has come. When a purported government opponent and former political prisoner becomes the mouth piece for genocide apology against Southern Cameroonians, and this includes open appeals for the formation of purported vigilantes that have preceded cases of arson, disappearances and other forms of criminality on the watch of marauding police and army, there is need for profound worry.

7) Be reflective if you are armed. But say no to orders to shoot and kill people you swore to protect. The tyrant may already have deployed you to rape, maim and kill. Be sure that doing so has consequences.

8) Believe in the truth: To abandon facts is to abandon freedom.

9) Contribute to good causes: Be active in organizations, political or not that express your own view of life.

10) Learn from peers in other countries.

11) Be calm when the unthinkable arrives: Modern tyranny is terror management. When a terrorist attack occurs, the tyrant exploits it to consolidate power. At times the tyrant organizes the terrorist attack to justify violence and criminality.

12) Be as courageous as you. You must conquer fear and know that victory belongs to the just.

By Chief Charles A. Taku

17, May 2017

La Republique: Adèle Mballa Atangana dropped by CRTV following on-air blunder ⁰

The management of the Cameroon Radio and Television, CRTV has replaced the 8:30 pm Francophone newscaster, Adèle Mballa Atangana. Mballa Atangana who also moonlights as Director of Information at Crtv-Television desk was told to get some rest yesterday Tuesday the 16^th of May. CRTV insiders say she is presently depressed following a costly mistake she made during the presentation of the Monday May 15^th 8:30 pm news in the French language.

Adèle Mballa Atangana announced the new members of the French government whose names were unveiled, according to her, shortly after the appointment that Monday, of Edouard Philippe to the post of Prime Minister by French President Emmanuel Macron. Some French citizens in Cameroon did inform CRTV that the new French government has not been made public . The French statement indicated that a new government was expected today Wednesday May 17, 2017. CRTV’s editorial board later on discovered that Adele Mballa Atangana was drowned by the many hoaxes circulating since Monday on the web about the first French government of the Macron era.

Adèle Mballa Atangana was replaced by Evelyne Owona Essomba who presented the 8:30 pm news on Tuesday May the 16^th 2017. CRTV is used to perpetrate crimes against Anglophones far worse than the Lake Nyos Disaster or the numerous deaths recorded on the Tiko-Douala highway. It is an instrument of mass mobilization through falsehood, corruption of the popular conscience and the deification of the 84 year old dictator who has finally destroyed the tribal tolerance miraculously put in place by the late President Ahidjo. CRTV was and is the conduit through which egregious violations and crimes of unimaginable magnitude are perpetrated against Southern Cameroonians.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group

17, May 2017

Yaounde: Waves of assault by armed gangs against students attributed to militiamen from the Central African Republic ⁰

An organized crime group from the Central African Republic is spreading terror in the nation’s capital Yaoundé. Hundreds of Cameroonian students were victims of aggression by armed gangs at a place known as “Rail-Ngousso”, during a sporting event. The Central African Republic militia men arrived on board motorcycles armed with machetes, knives and guns and attacked students, robbing them of their cell phones, purses and various objects under the helpless gaze of the only policeman committed to surveillance, but unarmed.

Cameroon Concord News understands some of the victims of the Tuesday attack were rushed to the Gynecological Hospital in Ngousso. Our informant hinted that “One of them, even died.” According to police sources in, the attack carries the DNA of militiamen from the Central African Republic who are residing in Yaoundé as refugees.

A journalist with a sister publication, Cameroon Intelligence Report revealed that among the more than 265,000 Central African refugees gathered in Cameroon are many militiamen, accustomed to the use of firearms and heavy weapons.

A angry police boss was quoted as saying that “Cameroon does not offer enough opportunities to its own children. What opportunities can she offer these Central African refugees?” The senior police officer who sued for anonymity was again heard murmuring privately that what was Biya thinking to have accepted 265,000 foreigners to come and live here?

Cameroon has now become the sleeping cells for Central African Republic armed gangs as Douala and Yaounde are witnessing an increasing crime rate. The members of the CAR sleeping cells were recruited from the Seleka and Anti Balaka militia. Without activities, these “refugees” engage in gangs and armed attacks, which are now, worrying the Cameroonians and could be at the origin of the rise of Xenophobia.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Cameroon Concord News

17, May 2017

48 percent of Americans support Trump’s impeachment ⁰

A new opinion poll shows that Americans who support President Donald Trump’s impeachment outnumber those who oppose the move. The survey released by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling showed that 48 percent of the respondents would support Trump’s impeachment, while only 41 percent would opposed it.

The same polling company reported three months ago that Americans were evenly divided on the issue. The Tuesday poll was conducted between May 12 and 14, interviewing 692 registered voters with a minus 3.7 percent margin of error.

According to a Gallup survey released a day earlier, Trump’s job approval ratings after more than 100 days in office were the least among four US presidents. It showed that only 38 percent of Americans approved of Trump’s performance as president, while 57 percent were unhappy with it. Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama had an approval rating of 64 percent at this point in his presidency.

The number stood at 56 percent for his Republican predecessor George W. Bush. At least 12 congressional democrats have called for Trump’s impeachment since he took office in January. The results of both surveys were released after Trump’s controversial dismissal of FBI director James Comey, but before reports that Trump shared classified information with Russians.

The combination of Trump firing Comey while his campaign was under FBI investigation for possible collusion with Russia and the president subsequently admitting that he had done so in part because of his frustrations over the Russia investigation was a key factor for Democrats in US Congress to mull removing Trump from office.

“President Trump has committed an act for which he should be charged by the US House of Representatives. The act is the obstruction of a lawful investigation of the president’s campaign ties to Russia influence in his 2016 presidential election,” said Al Green, a Democratic senator from the US state of Texas. “President Trump is not above the law. He has committed an impeachable act and must be charged. To do otherwise would cause some Americans to lose respect for, and obedience to our societal norms. This is not personal, this is constitutional.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer holds a news conference at the US Capitol following the firing of Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey by President Donald Trump May 9, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

Additionally, US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday that Trump’s intelligence sharing with Russians had exposed Americans to a “greater risk,” and the president had to provide Congress with a transcript of his meeting with top Russian officials after he reportedly discussed highly classified information. “I am calling on the White House to make a transcript of the meeting with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador available to the congressional Intelligence Committees as soon as possible,” Schumer said.

He added that if Trump “has nothing to hide, he should direct that the transcript of the meeting be made available.” Arguing that the Trump administration is in a “crisis of credibility,” the Senate’s top Democrat stressed that the reporting, if accurate, means Trump “may have badly damaged our national security, nothing less, and in several ways.”

White House press secretary Sean Spicer, however, insisted that Trump’s conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russia’s ambassador to the US, Sergey Kislyak, were not intelligence leaks, but rather they discussed common threats to the two countries. Spicer declined to comment on the lawmakers’ demand for access to the transcript of Trump’s controversial meeting.

Source: Presstv

17, May 2017

French Cameroun: State cracks down on medical doctors ⁰

André Mama Fouda, the Francophone Minister of Public Health, has decided to send a neurologist and a neurosurgeon to a health center, which is devoid of any equipment, and is housed in small locality of barely 500 inhabitants, whereas these specialists are rare in the large cities hosting several millions of people.

In a typical Francophone style of governance, these young doctors, some of whom are teachers and researchers, will no longer be able to pursue their research or offer courses to their students. The only crime committed by these doctors particularly, Dr. Bassong is that he is the leader of the Cameroon Medical Union (Symec), which has called for a strike action to fix the country’s public health system.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that for three months, Cameroonian doctors have observed three days of strike, widely followed, by all medics throughout the national territory. The doctors are calling for the introduction of universal health coverage in order to improve the supply of care and to ensure equal access to care for all Cameroonians from all walks of life.

SYMEC inter alia is also calling for a salary increment for doctors in the public sub-sector, the suspension of assignments for unpaid medics and the implementation of an accelerated processing procedure for their integration files including an increase in the retirement age of doctors from 55 to 65 years.

In the face of the doctors’ grumbling, the government seems to have decided to asphyxiate the strikers, through disciplinary measures, with the sole objective of decapitating the union, which is advocating the end of a policy whereby some few privileged patients are ferried abroad for treatment in a nation where a little more than 8000 Cameroonian doctors have moved outside the national borders.

Minister Mama Fouda has pushed his cynicism further, by banning last Sunday the broadcasting on a private and state television a message from Symec in which the latter had explained the motivations behind the strike action.

By Chi Prudence Asong

16, May 2017

2 killed, 6 injured in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno ⁰

Two people have been killed and six others have been injured in an attack on a village in Nigeria’s volatile northeast. A police spokesman said on Tuesday that three female attackers had targeted villagers late on Monday in Mandarari Ward, located some 36 kilometers (22 miles) from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.

Borno is the heartland of an eight-year-long insurgency by Boko Haram, a Takfiri terrorist group responsible for the death of more than 20,000 civilians and security forces in Nigeria and neighboring countries. More than two million people have also been displaced in Nigeria as a result of the ruthless campaign of killing, abduction and extortion by Boko Haram.

A massive operation by the Nigerian military, which intensified two years ago, has forced militants out of the areas they used to control in the country’s north. However, Boko Haram still continues to use locals gripped by poverty to launch attacks.

The Nigerian army says an increase in Boko Haram’s attacks came following the rainy season last year, adding that weather conditions have facilitated the activity and movement of militants in the woods and bushes. The army says the ease of activity would end in a few weeks’ time as the rainy season starts again.

Boko Haram is an ally of Daesh, a Takfiri terror group based mainly in Iraq and Syria. The group claims, as its name goes, that it wants to put an end to the Western-style education in Nigeria. The group has yet to claim the attack in Borno on Monday.

Source: Presstv

16, May 2017

Biya Francophone government trying to appease Southern Cameroonians ⁰

The Francophone regime in Yaoundé has announced two competitive entrance examinations for the special recruitment of 50 magistrates and 30 court registrars from Southern Cameroons in a move interpreted by the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium as a desperate attempt at stifling the West Cameroon revolution.

The Biya regime, dominated by vicious anti Anglophone elements launched the so-called recruitment examination at the Advanced School of Administration and Magistracy, ENAM. A statement aired by the state owned radio and television stated that the competitive entrance organized by the Ministry of Public Service and Administrative Reforms is for the 2017/2018 academic year.

The information was contained in a press release signed by a Francophone cabinet Minister, Michel Ange Angouing. The release further stated that the written part of the examination shall be only in the English language. The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has called on Southern Cameroonians not to take part in the process. A spokesperson for the Consortium said the recruitment of 50 magistrates and 30 court registrars will not resolve the acute unemployment in Southern Cameroons.

The Francophone political elites say the examination will be written in four of the ten regions notably Centre, North, North West and South West. Potential examiners have been referred to the notice board of the Ministry and regional delegations or the website of the Ministry of Public Service for details.

By Rita Akana with files from CRTV