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Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yerima thanks President Biden for US Temporal Status

16, April 2022

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yerima thanks President Biden for US Temporal Status 0

US Temporal Protection Status: A message of thank you to President Biden

Fellow Ambazonians,

In December 2017, President Paul Biya of La Republique du Cameroun declared war on the people of Southern Cameroons. Because of this war, his invading and raiding forces have created a humanitarian crisis in our nation. Today the Interim Government of Ambazonia wants to record its gratitude to the US Department of Homeland Security for granting Temporal Protection Status to Ambazonians seeking refuge in the United States of America.

Today is a great day for justice, but we must remain grounded as a people. The Interim Government of Ambazonia is calling on other governments worldwide to follow this decisive ruling by the US government by granting protection to Ambazonians within their territories.

The Interim Government of Ambazonia wants to extend the gratitude of the Ambazonian people to; Comrades Efi Tembong and Silvie Bello.

I want to put on record that APOCSNET, American Council, TAWPAC, One Voice Africa, Cameroon TPS Coalition, Grass Root Law Project, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch have been immense in leading this campaign.

To all Southern Cameroons individuals, leaders and groups who worked tirelessly to achieve this great victory, I salute your vigour for our people.

Our goal must remain freedom and justice, and together, we shall overcome.

God bless the Federal Republic of Ambazonian.

Sign:

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Ambazonia Interim Government

Biden administration protects Southern Cameroonians in the U.S. from deportation, offers work permits

15, April 2022

Biden administration protects Southern Cameroonians in the U.S. from deportation, offers work permits 0

The Biden administration will grant temporary deportation relief and work permits to Cameroonians living in the United States due to the ongoing conflict between government forces and armed separatists in that country, according to an announcement by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday.

The decision will apply to Cameroonians residing in the United States by April 14 and last a period of 18 months, DHS said. The status could aid about 39,000 Cameroonians, according to an estimate by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC).

President Joe Biden has championed the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program, which grants immigrants who cannot return to their countries safely due to extraordinary circumstances such as violent conflict or natural disasters the ability to stay and work in the United States.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas cited the conflict and a rise in attacks in Cameroon by the Islamist group Boko Haram in a statement announcing the move.

Violence against the armed forces in the western regions of Cameroon has intensified over the past year as Anglophone separatists fighting the French-speaking government increase their use of explosive devices.

In late 2020 and early 2021, Reuters spoke to more than a half dozen Cameroonian asylum seekers when they had been deported back to their country after losing U.S. immigration court cases. While all declined to be named, they told similar stories of having their identity documents confiscated by the government after returning to Cameroon and several were in hiding, fearing retaliation from local authorities.

A February Human Rights Watch report documented dozens of cases of Cameroonian authorities subjecting asylum seekers deported by the United States to human rights violations such as arbitrary arrest and torture between 2019 and 2021.

Biden, a Democrat, has greatly expanded TPS enrollment, which his predecessor, former Republican President Donald Trump, largely sought to wind down.

Source: Reuters

Biya has this foolish Francophone mentality of believing that even the economy would do what the head of state wants

15, April 2022

Biya has this foolish Francophone mentality of believing that even the economy would do what the head of state wants 0

Cameroon under the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo was a nation that offered good employment opportunities and social security to its well-educated population.  When President Paul Biya took over, the country became a place of so little hope that people left in droves.

From widely acclaimed man of rigour and moralization to a despotic dictator, Paul Biya’s 40-year rule of Cameroon has been one of Africa’s most prominent and successful failures.

Skilled at gaining an advantage, especially deceitfully over his opponents, the 89-year-old Paul Biya has outmaneuvered his political opponents for decades.  He sidelines everyone within his ruling CPDM party and government except his right-hand men in the army, the gendarmerie and the police force. It is extremely difficult to depose him.

For more than three decades, Biya has inspired other leaders in the Sub Saharan region to emulate his tactics and extend their rule by manipulating the constitution and suppressing opposition through violence and intimidation.

Biya’s current violent war in Southern Cameroons is typical of his signature action — and it has devastated Cameroon’s agricultural production, transforming what had been known as Cameroon’s breadbasket into a battle field and creating thousands of refugees.

Biya declared war against the English speaking peoples of Southern Cameroons in ringing rhetoric and stated that Cameroon remains one and indivisible. Today and as I write, it does not matter that the war in Southern Cameroons is claiming the lives of thousands of innocent civilians including army soldiers. What is more important is that billions of FCFA including Covid-19 funds injected into the war  is simply going to Biya’s army generals, Cabinet ministers, cronies and blood relations to his wife, Chantal Biya.

Millions of both French and English speaking Cameroonians have migrated to the West and in neighbouring African countries, and it is routine to find a former High Schoolteacher working as a carer or security agent in Europe or North America.  Thousands of Cameroonians are in Germany, France, UK, Holland and Belgium including the USA. And those who have stayed behind have coped with an unprecedented unemployment rate and tourism has dried up to a trickle.

Biya has this foolish Francophone mentality of believing that even the economy would do what the head of state wants.  His ruling CPDM regime is struggling to manage a dilapidated education and health services while Biya, his family and his closest allies are amassing world-class fortunes.

His Beti Ewondo gangs both in the army and in government have made Cameroon to become one of fear as a result of Biya’s far-reaching domestic spy network, the CENER. Hundreds of opposition supporters have been killed or disappeared in Douala and Yaoundé. Many more including Southern Cameroons detainees are being tortured.

It is very hard to remember that Biya once enjoyed praise for instituting rigour and moralization into Cameroonian politics.  He is now known as a leader who marginalizes critics and restricts freedoms. Human rights groups and the Holy Roman Catholic Church have documented and condemned several killings including the murder of Bishop Balla of the Diocese of Bafia which now remains the darkest stain on Biya’s record and a scar that plagues the country.

Tarnished by the killings currently going on in Southern Cameroons, Biya still has strong backing from the French and he has constantly been using the army, the police and the security network to keep the people subservient.

Biya family’s lavish ways has become outlandish, even to the French Cameroun’s jaded public. The growing outrage among Cameroonians at the excesses is finally spilling over to the military. He is going to fall in a very quick and sad way.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

UK announces controversial plan to fly migrants and asylum-seekers to Rwanda

14, April 2022

UK announces controversial plan to fly migrants and asylum-seekers to Rwanda 0

Britain will send migrants and asylum-seekers who cross the Channel thousands of miles away to Rwanda under a controversial deal announced Thursday as the government tries to clamp down on record numbers of people making the perilous journey.

“From today… anyone entering the UK illegally as well as those who have arrived illegally since January 1 may now be relocated to Rwanda,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a speech near Dover in southeastern England.

“Rwanda will have the capacity to resettle tens of thousands of people in the years ahead,” Johnson said.

He called the East African nation with a sketchy human rights record “one of the safest countries in the world, globally recognised for its record of welcoming and integrating migrants.”

Johnson was elected partly on promises to curb illegal immigration but has instead seen record numbers making the risky Channel crossing.

He also announced that Britain’s border agency would hand responsibility for patrolling the Channel for migrant boats to the navy.

“The Royal Navy will take over operational command from Border Force in the Channel with the aim that no boat makes it to the UK undetected,” Johnson said, announcing extra funds for boats, aircraft and surveillance equipment to help detain people-smugglers at sea.

“This will send a clear message to those piloting the boats. If you risk other people’s lives in the Channel, you risk spending your own life in prison,” he said.

More than 28,000 people arrived in Britain having crossed the Channel from France in small boats in 2021.

Around 90 percent of those were male and three-quarters were men aged between 18 and 39.

The Rwanda plan swiftly drew the ire of opposition politicians who accused Johnson of trying to distract from his being fined for breaking coronavirus lockdown rules, while rights groups slammed the project as “inhumane”.

Ghana and Rwanda had previously been mentioned as possible locations for the UK to outsource the processing of migrants, but Ghana in January denied involvement.

Instead, Kigali on Thursday announcing that it had signed a multi-million-dollar deal to do the job, during a visit by British Home Secretary Priti Patel.

“Rwanda welcomes this partnership with the United Kingdom to host asylum seekers and migrants, and offer them legal pathways to residence” in the East African nation, Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta said in a statement.

“This is about ensuring that people are protected, respected, and empowered to further their own ambitions and settle permanently in Rwanda if they choose,” said Biruta.

The deal with Rwanda will be funded by the UK to the tune of up to 120 million pounds ($157 million, 144 million euros), with migrants “integrated into communities across the country,” it said.

Backlash

Refugee Action’s Tim Naor Hilton accused the government of “offshoring its responsibilities onto Europe’s former colonies instead of doing our fair share to help some of the most vulnerable people on the planet”.

“This grubby cash-for-people plan would be a cowardly, barbaric and inhumane way to treat people fleeing persecution and war,” he said.

Detention Action said that those sent there would “likely face indefinite detention under a government notorious for violent persecution of dissent.”

“At the same time, the UK currently gives asylum to Rwandan refugees fleeing political persecution,” the advocacy group said in a statement.

Scotland’s Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said the plan showed that the Conservative government was “institutionally racist”.

The government “rightly provides asylum and refuge to Ukrainians fleeing war, but wants to send others seeking asylum thousands of miles away to Rwanda for ‘processing’,” Yousaf tweeted.

Australia has a policy of sending asylum seekers arriving by boat to detention camps on the Pacific island nation of Nauru, with Canberra vowing no asylum seeker arriving by boat would ever be allowed to permanently settle in Australia.

Since 2015 the UK has “offered a place to over 185,000 men, women and children seeking refuge (…) more than any other similar resettlement schemes in Europe,” Johnson said.

According to the UN refugee agency, Germany received the highest number of asylum applicants (127,730) in Europe in 2021, followed by France (96,510), while the UK received the fourth largest number of applicants (44,190).

Source:  AFP

French Politics: Why Macron will need to work his socks off to beat Le Pen this time

14, April 2022

French Politics: Why Macron will need to work his socks off to beat Le Pen this time 0

French President Emmanuel Macron improved on his 2017 score in Sunday’s first round of the presidential election. But he goes into the April 24 run-off with a starkly diminished reservoir of votes in what large swaths of the country have come to see as a choice of “the lesser of two evils”.

Macron trounced the same far-right candidate in a lopsided contest five years ago, but polls are pointing to a much closer race this time amid widespread dismay at a rematch voters have long said they didn’t want.

Following the first round, Macron is on course to beat Le Pen by 54% to 46%, according to a projection by pollsters Ipsos-Sopra Steria for FRANCE 24. Other polls have suggested the gap could be as narrow as two percentage points. In any case, Macron is polling well below the 66% he won in 2017 against the very same opponent.

In Sunday’s first round, the incumbent president trailed Le Pen in every age category except the over-65s, who voted massively in his favour. Without their support, he wouldn’t even be in the run-off. But the inability to generate enthusiasm among younger voters is just one of Macron’s problems after five troubled years in office and a lacklustre campaign overshadowed by the war in Ukraine.

“Macron’s reservoir of votes is extremely weak,” said Martial Foucault, head of the Cevipof institute in Paris, noting that rivals from the mainstream whose supporters are most likely to rally behind him have been all but wiped off the political map.

“The scores of the Socialist Party (1.7%) and Les Républicains (4.8%) suggest many of their supporters already voted tactically in the first round. And the more ‘Macron-compatible’ among them gave their votes to the incumbent,” Foucault told FRANCE 24. While Macron can also count on the support of voters who backed the Greens’ Yannick Jadot (4.6%) and the Communists’ Fabien Roussel (2.3%), “we’re talking about a very limited pool of voters”, Foucault added.

At the other end of the spectrum, Le Pen can reasonably expect to pick up most of the 7.1% of voters who backed her far-right rival Éric Zemmour and the 2.1% who went for nationalist right-winger Nicolas Dupont-Aignan – with both candidates throwing their support behind her on Sunday night. Their combined total brings the far right’s tally to an unprecedented 32.5% – underscoring a profound shift in the French electorate and pointing to a substantial reservoir of votes for Le Pen ahead of the April 24 run-off.

Source: France 24

Football: Man City, Liverpool advance to Champions League semi-finals on aggregate wins

14, April 2022

Football: Man City, Liverpool advance to Champions League semi-finals on aggregate wins 0

Manchester City produced a disciplined performance to secure a fractious 0-0 draw at Atletico Madrid on Wednesday and reach the Champions League semi-finals 1-0 on aggregate.

Tensions boiled over in the closing stages and Atletico defender Felipe was sent off after receiving a second yellow card before the teams played out 12 minutes of added time.

The English champions dominated the first half and Ilkay Gundogan struck the post with their best chance after a flowing move down the right.

Atletico enjoyed more possession after the interval and threatened to score the goal that would have taken the game into extra time but were unable to break down the visitors’ defence.

City, bidding to win European club football’s most prestigious trophy for the first time, will play record 13-times champions Real Madrid in the semi-finals.

Liverpool beat Benfica

Liverpool booked a semi-final showdown against Villarreal as the quadruple chasers survived a late collapse in Wednesday’s 3-3 draw against Benfica.

Jurgen Klopp’s side already had one foot in the last four after winning 3-1 in the quarter-final first leg in Lisbon.

Despite two late goals from Benfica at Anfield in the second leg, Liverpool advanced 6-4 on aggregate thanks to Roberto Firmino’s double and Ibrahima Konate’s opener.

Source:  REUTERS

Southern Cameroons Crisis: VP Yerima tells Biya “You won’t win in Ambazonia”

14, April 2022

Southern Cameroons Crisis: VP Yerima tells Biya “You won’t win in Ambazonia” 0

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dabney Yerima has praised Ambazonia fighters’ bravery in countering La Republique du Cameroun’s aggression in the entire Ambaland and advised the 89-year-old French Cameroun dictator Paul Biya to end a war he well knows he cannot win.

The exiled Ambazonia leader made the comments during a zoom meeting with some county heads on the state of the Southern Cameroons resistance on Monday.

Yerima stated that the deliberate silence of French Cameroun’s Minister Paul Atanga Nji of Territorial Administration and Joseph Beti Assomo of Defense is an indication that Yaoundé is losing the war in Southern Cameroons.

The Ambazonian leader wondered aloud why Biya and his criminal gang in French Cameroun were still going ahead with the war in Southern Cameroons that they already know there is no possibility to win.

Elsewhere in his comments, Vice President Dabney Yerima said there was need for the two Cameroons to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Yerima also hailed the constructive discussions going on in Europe aimed at reuniting the Southern Cameroons diaspora as a very good development.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Four French, one Belgian among 10 dead in Egypt bus crash

13, April 2022

Four French, one Belgian among 10 dead in Egypt bus crash 0

Four French tourists and one Belgian were among 10 people killed in a bus crash Wednesday in Egypt, whose travel industry is only just emerging from years of political upheaval and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Fourteen others — eight French and six Belgians — were taken to hospital with “broken bones, bruises and superficial injuries” but all were in a stable condition, the governor of the southern province of Aswan said.

The other five people killed were all Egyptian — the bus driver, his assistant and the tour guide, as well as two people in the other vehicle, a statement from the public prosecution said.

The Belgian foreign ministry confirmed to AFP that one of its citizens died and others were injured.

The accident occurred early Wednesday morning when the bus collided with a pick-up as it was transporting the tourists on the 300 kilometre (186 mile) road journey between Aswan and the famed Abu Simbel temple further south.

An AFP photographer saw what remained of the burnt-out vehicles lying by the roadside.

The prosecution ordered an “urgent investigation” to determine “the cause and circumstances of the accident and those responsible”.

Crashes are relatively common in Egypt, where many roads are in disrepair and traffic regulations frequently ignored.

Some 7,000 people died in road accidents in the country in 2020, according to official figures.

Vital tourism industry

The Abu Simbel temple was moved from its original location in the 1960s under the rule of president Gamal Abdel Nasser to make way for the construction of the Aswan High Dam.

Egypt had begun reviving its vital tourism industry by promoting its ancient heritage, after the country’s 2011 revolution and ensuing unrest struck the sector.

But the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and the subsequent global travel bans resulted in a plunge in tourism revenues to $4 billion, from $13 billion the previous year.

The sector employs some two million people in a country of 103 million and generates more than 10 percent of GDP.

In August 2021 Russia resumed flights to Egyptian resorts, six years after a Russian airliner crashed after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 224 people on board.

But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has yet again cut off much of the flow of tourists to Egypt, as the two countries accounted for about 40 percent of visitors prior to the war.

The current administration of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has invested heavily in promoting tourism, and has organised major events in a bid to attract visitors.

Last year, the North African country staged a procession of floats carrying the mummified remains of 22 pharaohs, including Egypt’s most powerful ancient queen, to a new resting place in Cairo.

Since the start of April, visitors from dozens of additional countries have been permitted to obtain visas on arrival to Egypt, rather than applying in advance.

While attacks on tourists have largely ceased since they peaked in the 1990s, deadly incidents have occurred.

And in February 2019, a German woman and two Egyptian children were killed when a building collapsed in a residential neighbourhood of the southern city of Luxor.

Source: AFP

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Four prison officers killed in  Amba attack in Bui

13, April 2022

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Four prison officers killed in  Amba attack in Bui 0

Four prison officers were killed on Tuesday in Cameroon’s restive Anglophone region of Northwest after their convoy was attacked by gunmen, local and security sources said.

Gunmen ambushed the convoy of the prison officers in Bui, a division of the region Tuesday afternoon and killed all of them.

“They were returning from installing a new prison superintendent in another village of the region. Theodore Kiga, who is the chief prison superintendent of the region, and three other prison officers were killed in the attack,” a senior army official who asked not to be named told Xinhua by phone.

It is unclear who organized the ambush, but separatist fighters are known to be operating in the locality, the source said.

The army was in pursuit of the gunmen who escaped to the bush after the attack, according to officials in the region.

Separatist fighters have been clashing with government forces in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest since 2017 in a bid to create an independent nation in the regions they called “Ambazonia.”

Source: Xinhuanet

Douala: U.S. Ambassador Visits Laquintinie Hospital to Highlight Washington’s Health Assistance

13, April 2022

Douala: U.S. Ambassador Visits Laquintinie Hospital to Highlight Washington’s Health Assistance 0

Ambassador Christopher J. Lamora visited Laquintinie Hospital in Douala, accompanied by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Country Director Dr. Emily Kainne Dokubo. In partnership with Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Health, CDC provides care and treatment services through implementing partners in 308 facilities across all 10 regions of the country. Through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), CDC has supported clinical and laboratory services at Laquintinie Hospital since 2009.  Over the past three years, CDC has invested over $975,000 (588 million FCFA) to strengthen the hospital’s HIV prevention, care, and treatment services for all people living with HIV, including children, adolescents, adults, and key and vulnerable populations.

Laquintinie Hospital recently celebrated its 90th anniversary and now serves as the reference hospital in Littoral Region.  Under the leadership of Professor Noel Essomba, the hospital has approximately 910 beds managed by over 1300 staff, including 46 General Physicians and 113 Specialists, and receives more than 80,000 patients for consultations per year.  Established in 1988, the HIV Treatment Center serves as a model for decentralization of antiretroviral treatment in Cameroon.  Approximately, 5,400 people living with HIV receive treatment through CDC/PEPFAR support.  Also, through PEPFAR, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) supports a continuum of care for key and priority populations and orphans and vulnerable children, and funds procurement and delivery of antiretroviral drugs and HIV laboratory reagents and supplies.  Additionally, USAID supports community-led monitoring to ensure the hospital’s compliance with the government policy to eliminate HIV user fees at service delivery points.

Source: Tdpelmedia

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