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Southern Cameroons Crisis: Catholic Bishops criticize violent campaign to quell independence movement

30, April 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Catholic Bishops criticize violent campaign to quell independence movement 0

Several Catholic bishops in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions are sharply criticizing President Paul Biya’s violent, years long campaign to quell an independence movement in those regions. In recent NCR interviews, three prelates suggested that Biya’s government had initially underestimated the growing influence of those calling for the creation of a new, separate state and then responded with disproportionate force. Retired Archbishop Cornelius Fontem Esua, who led Cameroon’s Bamenda Archdiocese from 2006 to 2019, said Biya had erred drastically in late 2017 when he pledged to “eliminate” independence fighters. “Violence only begets violence,” Esua told NCR. “The moment the government started using live bullets on peaceful protesters, it was evident that things would simply go out of hand.”

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(NCR graphic/Toni-Ann Ortiz) The conflict had erupted in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions earlier in 2017 when protests against new government-appointed judges in the regions turned violent. As government forces responded with lethal force, tensions mounted and many English speakers in the predominantly French-speaking country started asking for independence. The ensuing conflict between separatist fighters and government forces has killed at least 3,000 civilians, according to Human Rights Watch. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre estimates that at least 460,000 have been forced to flee the affected areas, with tens of thousands seeking refuge in neighboring Nigeria. The Catholic bishops said the government has been too violent in its response to those seeking to form an English-speaking state. Esua said Biya’s 2017 pledge effectively made clear that “anybody who identified himself with the Anglophone cause was considered a terrorist.” After two years of fighting between the two sides, Biya called for a one-week “Major National Dialogue,” held Sept. 30-Oct. 4, 2019. However, the president said the dialogue would not only consider the insurgency but also “issues of national interest such as national unity, national integration and living together.” Bishop George Nkuo, who has headed the Kumbo Diocese in the Northwest Region since 2006, said that approach was wrong because it didn’t address the urgency of the Anglophone problem. Nkuo said the forum should have been used to discuss the Anglophone problem and not all the problems of the nation. He said it was necessary to use that dialogue to revisit the root causes of the conflict as the only possible way of bringing forth a sustainable solution. And the causes of the problem, he said, are rooted in Cameroon history. Initially colonized by Germany in 1884, Cameroon would be divided between Britain and France after the defeat of the Germans in World War I. Britain got one-fifth of the formerly German territory, which it administered as part of Nigeria until 1961 — when through a plebiscite, the British Southern Cameroons (as the British administered entity of Cameroon was then called) voted to reunite with the part formerly administered by France (which had gained its independence in 1960). The two entities went into a federal structure of government, with each entity allowed to freely run its affairs in line with the systems inherited from the colonial powers. But in recent years, some people in the English-speaking regions had accused the central government of trying to quash their traditions.

Tobin_View_of_the_Cathedral CROP.jpg

A view of the Catholic cathedral of Kumbo, in Cameroon's English-speaking Northwest Region (Wikimedia Commons/Kintong) A view of the Catholic cathedral of Kumbo, in Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest Region In 2016, four Catholic bishops in the English-speaking regions accused Biya’s government of trying to strangle their culture. “Anglophone Cameroonians are slowly being asphyxiated as every element of their culture is systematically targeted and absorbed into the Francophone Cameroon culture and way of doing things,” they wrote at the time. Nkuo said the 2019 dialogue should have revisited these historical perspectives to come up with the right answers to the problem. The current archbishop of Bamenda, Andrew Nkea Fuanya, criticized the format of the dialogue, saying it didn’t involve the appropriate representatives of the English-speaking regions. “That wasn’t a dialogue at all,” Fuanya told NCR. Esua was invited to participate in the dialogue. “To be frank, it was a monologue,” he said. “In a dialogue, you take two people to dialogue. And in a dialogue, you have different opinions. You have to listen to the other person and the other person listens to you, and gradually you come to an agreement.” “Ninety percent of the participants at the National Dialogue were all government people, or people with government allegiance, but the real persons with whom you had to dialogue were not there,” said Esua. Separatist leaders weren’t part of the dialogue. Sesseku Ayuk Tabe, the recognized leader of the movement to form a new country of Ambazonia, was arrested in 2018 and is now serving a life sentence. “You couldn’t talk of a dialogue if these people weren’t there,” Esua said of the separatist leaders’ absence at the negotiating table. Nevertheless, the dialogue came up with a number of recommendations, including the adoption of a special status for the two Anglophone regions, the immediate relaunch of certain airport and seaport projects in the regions, the rapid integration of ex-combatants into society, and a hastening of decentralization of power away from the central government.

Esua said none of these recommendations responds to the demands of Cameroon’s English speakers.

“The whole problem of Cameroon and the sociopolitical situation in the Northwest and Southwest regions is about the form of government. It’s about the two systems of education, it’s about the two systems of law, the two systems of administration. That was not part of the discussion,” the cleric told NCR.

He said he was frustrated that a “special status” for Anglophone regions should even come up as a recommendation, since it’s something already enshrined in the country’s 1996 Constitution.

“It’s not a question of a special status, because it’s not a gift they are giving to the Anglophones. The Anglophones have a right to organize themselves according to their customs and cultures as inherited from the British,” said Esua.

He also blasted the recommendation about hastening the decentralization process, noting that it was paradoxical that the government keeps the centralized structures in place and continues talking about decentralization.

“I’m afraid they are not giving the right solutions to the problem,” said the retired archbishop.

Culled from ncronline.org

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yerima to call for attacks on French Cameroun officials and interests

30, April 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yerima to call for attacks on French Cameroun officials and interests 0

Southern Cameroons Vice President Dabney Yerima will call for an attack on interests of La Republique du Cameroun in Ambazonia, Cameroon Intelligence Report has learnt from sources close to the Interim Government.

Our informant revealed that the exiled Southern Cameroons leader told his war cabinet late on Wednesday to make French Cameroun colonial officers and business interests in the Ambazonia homeland the highest priority of targets for the Restoration Forces.

Dabney Yerima lambasted President Biya of French Cameroun for turning the Federal Republic of Ambazonia into a military base from which every evil against the people of Southern Cameroons is planned and executed.

Ever since the French Cameroun dictator declared war against the English speaking people of Southern Cameroons, Ambazonia towns and villages are now home to La Republique du Cameroun’s largest contingent of troops.

Despite its bloody and persisting military campaign against Ambazonia Self Defense Groups for over four years now, the Cameroon government army has lost large parts it once held in Southern Cameroons to the Amba forces loyal to the Southern Cameroons Interim Government.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Chad’s Idi Amin Dada tells opposition to “caution supporters” after crackdown

29, April 2021

Chad’s Idi Amin Dada tells opposition to “caution supporters” after crackdown 0

The Chadian Transitional Military Council, CMT, expressed itself for the first time on the demonstrations against the establishment of the military council led by Mahamat Idriss Déby, one of the sons of the former Chadian president killed on 19 April.

The Ministry of Public Security and Immigration had earlier placed a ban on protests but various civil society and democratic opposition bodies defied it.

According to the spokesman of the Transitional Military Council, General Azem Bermandoa, the so-called peaceful demonstration paradoxically led to the deliberate destruction of 15 national police vehicles as well as two stations belonging to the Total company.

He further added that there were intentional assaults on law enforcement officers on mission where a retired policewoman was pulled out of a public transport vehicle to be lynched.

The General called on the organisers of demonstrations to discipline their militants and deplored the death of six people.

On another hand, President Xi Jinping sent condolences on Wednesday to Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, head of Chad’s transitional military council, over the passing of Chadian president Idriss Deby.

Source: Africa News

Biya succession: Will it be a tug of war between Franck Biya and Mohamadou Ahidjo?

29, April 2021

Biya succession: Will it be a tug of war between Franck Biya and Mohamadou Ahidjo? 0

The Emmanuel Macron administration in France is currently constituting a small clique of senior army officers in the presidential guard in Yaoundé to propel Franck Biya to fill the anticipated vacancy that will be created soon by the demise of his father, Paul Biya, president of La Republique du Cameroun, Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered from reliable sources in the French capital, Paris.

In La Republique du Cameroun, the National Assembly, the Senate and the Constitutional Court are all dominated by the ruling CPDM crime syndicate that is ever ready to endorse any French backed coup.

Paul Biya is a personal friend to nearly all prominent French politicians including Francoise Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac, Francoise Hollande and the disgraced Nicolas Sarkozy. The 88-year-old has been in power for more than 38 years, thanks to a 1984 coup, systematic electoral fraud, the faithful allegiance of an army packed with supporters and members of his Francophone Beti Ewondo ethnic group, solid Western support (especially from Paris), and corrupt management of Cameroon’s meagre economic resources.

The Cameroonian constitution has been rewritten so many times so that the old butcher in Yaoundé could become president for life.  The revisions have hampered all main opposition candidates including Fru Ndi and Maurice Kamto and it is now helping the Biya family to clear the way for Franck Biya, who was appointed Special Adviser to his father some years ago.

Franck Biya has never been put in charge of anything in Cameroon. He only mismanaged a vast family empire in timber with an estimated value of several billion CFA francs.

While all eyes are on Franck Emmanuel Biya, presented as a potential successor and next president of La Republique du Cameroun, supporters of Badjika Mohamadou Ahidjo, son of the first head of state have reportedly announced a big rally in Yaoundé slated for July 21 2021.

Our Yaoundé city reporter who contributed to this report noted that for the moment, the initiators of the Badjika Mohamadou Ahidjo Yaoundé rally are unknown to the general public.  But what we do know is that for several weeks now, a curious armed group- the Movement for the Liberation of Cameroon (MLC) has been threatening the Biya regime from the Far North Region.

However, this so-called pro Badjika movement has announced its presence in the nation’s capital at a time when the Franck movement has been openly asking Franck Biya to declare himself a candidate for the 2025 presidential election.

According to French Cameroun political elite, Prof. Mathias Eric Owona Nguini, the MLC aims to create a hybrid war to cut Cameroon in two, between the north and the south in order to make the country ungovernable.

To Owona Nguini’s theory, the north would include the regions of Adamaoua, the North and the Far North as well as part of the East.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

US: Biden lays out ambitious plan, promises to turn ‘peril into possibility’

29, April 2021

US: Biden lays out ambitious plan, promises to turn ‘peril into possibility’ 0

President Joe Biden declared Wednesday night in his first address to a joint session of Congress that “America is rising anew,” and pointed optimistically to the nation’s emergence from the pandemic as a vital moment to rebuild the U.S. economy and fundamentally transform government roles in American life.

Biden marked his first 100 days in office as the nation pushes out of a menacing mix of crises, making his case before a pared-down gathering of mask-wearing legislators because of pandemic restrictions.

Speaking in highly personal terms while demanding massive structural changes, the president urged a $1.8 trillion investment in children, families and education to help rebuild an economy devastated by the virus and compete with rising global competitors.

His speech took place in a setting unlike any other presidential address in the familiar venue, with the U.S. Capitol still surrounded by fencing after the building was stormed in January by insurrectionists protesting his election.

The nationally televised ritual of a president standing before Congress for the first time was one of the most watched moments of Biden’s presidency so far, a chance to sell his plans to voters of both parties, even if Republican lawmakers prove resistant.

“America is ready for takeoff. We are working again. Dreaming again. Discovering again. Leading the world again. We have shown each other and the world: There is no quit in America,” Biden said.

“I can report to the nation: America is on the move again,” he said. “Turning peril into possibility. Crisis into opportunity. Setback into strength.”

This year’s scene at the front of the House chamber had a historic look: For the first time, a female vice president, Kamala Harris, was seated behind the chief executive. And she was next to another woman, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, both clad in pastel.

The first ovation came as Biden greeted, “Madam Vice President.” He added “No president has ever said those words from this podium, and it’s about time.”

The scene was familiar yet strange, with members of Congress spread out, a sole Supreme Court justice in attendance and many Republicans citing “scheduling conflicts” to stay away.

There was no need for a “designated survivor,” with so many Cabinet members not there, and the chamber was so sparsely populated that individual claps could be heard echoing off the walls.

Biden was upbeat and forceful.

“I have never been more confident or more optimistic about America,” he said. “We have stared into an abyss of insurrection and autocracy — of pandemic and pain — and ‘We the People’ did not flinch.”

He repeatedly hammered home how his plans would put Americans back to work, restoring millions of jobs lost to the virus. He laid out a sweeping proposal for universal preschool, two years of free community college, $225 billion for child care and monthly payments of at least $250 to parents.

His ideas target frailties that were uncovered by the pandemic, and he argues that that economic growth will best come from taxing the rich to help the middle class and the poor.

For Biden, whose moment has been nearly a half century in the making, his speech also provided an update on combating the COVID-19 crisis he was elected to tame, showcasing hundreds of millions of vaccinations and relief checks delivered to help offset the devastation wrought by a virus that has killed more than 573,000 people in the United States.

He also championed his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, a staggering figure to be financed by higher taxes on corporations.

Unimpressed, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said in the Republicans’ designated response that Biden was claiming too much credit in fighting the pandemic and reviving the economy.

“This administration inherited a tide that had already turned,” Scott said. “The coronavirus is on the run.”

Seizing an opportunity born of calamity, Biden has embraced major action over incremental change. But he will be forced to thread a needle between Republicans who cry government overreach and some Democrats who fear he won’t go big enough.

The Democratic president’s strategy is to sidestep polarization and appeal directly to voters. His prime-time speech underscored a trio of central campaign promises: to manage the deadly pandemic, to turn down the tension in Washington in the aftermath of the insurrection and to restore faith in government as an effective force for good.

Biden also was addressing an issue rarely confronted by an American president, namely that in order to compete with autocracies like China, the nation needs “to prove that democracy still works” after his predecessor’s baseless claims of election fraud and the ensuing attack on the U.S. Capitol.

No American politician has more familiarity with the presidential address to Congress than Biden.

He spent three decades in the audience as a senator and eight years as vice president seated behind President Barack Obama during the annual address.

Yet the desire for swift action is born from political necessity. Biden understands that the time for passing his agenda could be perilously short given that presidents’ parties historically lose congressional seats in the midterm elections, less than two years away. The Democrats’ margins are already razor-thin.

He spoke against a backdrop of the weakening but still lethal pandemic, staggering unemployment and a roiling debate about police violence against Blacks.

Biden also used his address to touch on the broader national reckoning over race in America, and to call on Congress to act on prescription drug pricing, gun control and modernizing the nation’s immigration system.

In his first three months in office, Biden has signed a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill — passed without a single GOP vote — and has shepherded direct payments of $1,400 per person to more than 160 million households.

Hundreds of billions of dollars in aid will soon arrive for state and local governments, enough money that overall U.S. growth this year could eclipse 6% — a level not seen since 1984.

Administration officials are betting that it will be enough to bring back all 8.4 million jobs lost to the pandemic by next year.

A significant amount proposed Wednesday would ensure that eligible families receive at least $250 monthly per child through 2025, extending the enhanced tax credit that was part of Biden’s COVID-19 aid.

There would be more than $400 billion for subsidised child care and free preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds.

Another combined $425 billion would go to permanently reduce health insurance premiums for people who receive coverage through the Affordable Care Act, as well a national paid family and medical leave program.

Further spending would be directed toward Pell Grants, historically Black and tribal institutions and allow people to could attend community college tuition-free for two years.

Funding all of this would be a series of tax increases on the wealthy that would raise about $1.5 trillion over a decade.

Biden wants to raise the top tax rate on the most affluent families from 37% to 39.6%. People earning in excess of $1 million a year would see their rate on capital gains — the profits from a sale of a stock or home — nearly double from 20% to 39.6%, which would mean the wealthiest Americans could no longer pay at a lower rate than many families who identify as middle class.

He took aim at a hallmark achievement of the Trump presidency, saying the 2017 tax cuts failed to deliver on Republicans’ promise of strong growth. It was a recognition of how narrow the common ground is between the two parties.

“When you hear someone say that they don’t want to raise taxes on the wealthiest 1% and on corporate America – ask them: whose taxes are you going to raise instead, and whose are you going to cut?” Biden said.

Republican lawmakers in Congress so far have balked at the price tags of Biden’s plans, complicating the chances of passage in a deeply divided Washington.

Source: AP

France and the “Son Succeeding Father Policy in Africa”

29, April 2021

France and the “Son Succeeding Father Policy in Africa” 0

The political class in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) watched last week with delight at how a French coup, installed37-year old Mahamat Idriss Deby as Chad’s new president. The coup unfolded without any significant internal or external objection. Besides a half-hearted statement issued by the African Union, asking for a return to civilian rule, the coup was treated by international actors as a simple matter in a region of many adventures. Thanks to neo-colonial France, the young and naïve Mahatma Deby has officially started his own 30-40 years reign of terror and misrule.

In neighbouring Cameroun, 88-year-old Paul Biya has misruled the country with an iron fist since November 6, 1982, after taking over from Ahmadou Ahidjo. Following numerous health scares over the last seven years, France has been working tirelessly in the background to find a suitable replacement that would keep its neo-colonial grip on the country and the CEMAC region going.  Therefore, the coup in Chad offers hope to those in France and Cameroon who were concerned that Franck Biya succeeding his father, Paul Biya, would be tricky.

For 38 years, Paul Biya has divided and misruled his country to such an extent that France is concerned that a change of leadership to anyone out of the current crime syndicate would not serve France’s interest. France and Paul Biya have not groomed anyone within his ruling CPDM party for power and have had sleepless nights over the last seven years about the way forward. But the success of last week’s experience in Chad has calmed their nerves.

Cameroon Intelligence Report has been informed that Franck Biya is already receiving presidential protocol lessons and getting intelligence briefings from senior officials in the military, the gendarmerie, the secret service and the police. Many prominent media gurus and political scientists from France have been recruited to make the planned political succession as effortless as possible. Cameroon’s key institutions, such as the security services and military, including critical ministries and state agencies are all headed by President Biya’s trusted tribal cronies. Our source said Franck Biya has been holding private meetings with his father’s coterie of barons as they plan.

The thought of Franck Biya succeeding his father would be laughable in many countries where decency and high standards are part of the state political fabric. Franck Biya has never held a job and certainly is not a university graduate. He comes in with neither competence nor experience, but for France, this does not matter. What matters is his ability to do as Paris orders. The numerous conflicts in Cameroun have failed to draw in condemnation from major global powers. This intentional silence and inactivity have been due to France’s extensive work in the dark arts of international political lobbying.

Hearing Macron talk to African countries about what is good for them is like having a lion lecture an antelope on protecting themselves. Since Europe realised that colonialism and theft had to end in the fifties, no other nation has been more aggrieved at ending neo-colonial theft and exploitation than France. The country’s entire economic system is built around the command, control and stealing of the natural resources of its former colonies. Portugal, Spain, Great Britain have all maintained a degree of political distance from their former preys, but France has doggedly refused to do the same.

Son-succeeding-father is a foreign policy objective of France in the CEMAC region designed to prolong their neo-colonial activities.  At 77, Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo Brazzaville, who has accumulated 36 years in office, has his son Denis Christel Sassou-Nguesso as he preferred successor. President Ali Bongo of Gabon, who has been incapacitated since suffering a stroke in 2018, has appointed his 29-year-old son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, as the General Coordinator of Presidential Affairs. Current president Ali Bongo succeeded his father, Omar Bongo, who ruled Gabon for 42 years.  Equatorial Guinea already has a President-in-waiting, the son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who has led the country since staging a coup in 1979.

France has made a habit of throwing petrol bombs around Africa to serve its interest. It is grossly wrong to think that it will never face a day of reckoning for its meddling in African political affairs. In the brutal arena of International Relations, it is naïve to expect nation-states to be pleasant. But Africans are not asking for a friendly France; they ask for France to leave African politics to Africans.

Weak institutions in the CEMAC region are sturdy pillars of enriching the French Treasury. Nothing illustrates this better than the ongoing attempt to get a lineup of sons replacing their dads. Africa is paying the price for political passivity and France’s ruthlessness.

Integrity is an unknown noun in the French diplomatic community when it comes to dealing with Africa. France is a vacuum of integrity, and it is sowing the seeds of future turmoil in Africa with impunity. France has a lifelong contempt for the norms of decent behaviour in political leadership. What will not alter if Africans remain mute is the character of France. Apologists posit that sons succeeding their fathers offer continuation and political stability. The question is the continuation and strength of what and for whom?

France’s greatest weakness is in consistently underestimating the youths of Africa and the intelligence of Africans. Like the protests in Senegal, Mali and Chad, we need more of them and real political action in the continent to bring this evil to an end.

By Isong  Asu with Intelligence Files

Cameroon Concord News Group

London Bureau Chief

PCC: Prayerful condolences on death of Moderator Nyansako Ni Nku

28, April 2021

PCC: Prayerful condolences on death of Moderator Nyansako Ni Nku 0

The Primate of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon and other clerics of the Christian Church have expressed their prayerful condolences on the death of Most Revered Nyansako Ni Nku, Emeritus Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC).

The office of the Synod Clerk in Buea, Southern Cameroons said the pastors of the entire PCC were saddened by the news of his passing as he held, over many years, several roles of leadership and responsibility in the PCC and also in the All African Conference of Churches (AACC).

Cameroon Concord News understands that for many years Rev. Nyansako Ni Nku served the PCC faithfully in a number of pastoral responsibilities and was elected president of the AACC in 2003.

“At this sad time for Rev. Nyansako Ni Nku’s family, we pray for all those who mourn him and for the happy repose of his soul,” Leonie Awu a member of PCC Bastos Yaoundé contacted by Cameroon Concord News said.

The Most Revered Nyansako Ni Nku, who was Moderator of the PCC from 1999-2009, was one of the most prophetic voices within the Cameroonian Christian Church alongside the late Roman Catholic Cardinal, Christian Tumi.

In his homilies, he will always say “Quit the stage when the ovation is loudest! Do not leave when the people no longer want you.”

Though he reportedly died in Douala on Tuesday April 27, 2021, Nyansako Ni Nku lived the latter years of his retirement in the South West Region.

No date has been made public for the funeral of the man who raised the profile of the PCC at home and abroad.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Southern Cameroons Covid-19 Update

28, April 2021

Southern Cameroons Covid-19 Update 0

The vaccination campaign against COVID-19 has been launched in the North-West and South-West.

All the health districts in the North-West and South-West have reported a positive case.

Distribution of vaccines to all the health districts in the North-West and SouthWest.

Briefing of health personnel in the NorthWest and South-West on the available vaccines by the central level.

First consignment of medical equipment (ventilators) and office equipment for the North-West and South-West received by WHO.

Source: UN

Cameroon student extradited from Romania in Pittsburgh-based puppy scam case

28, April 2021

Cameroon student extradited from Romania in Pittsburgh-based puppy scam case 0

A student from Cameroon charged in Pittsburgh with running a puppy scam during the COVID-19 pandemic appeared briefly in a Pittsburgh federal courtroom on Tuesday after being extradited last week from Romania, where he has been in custody for five months.

Desmond Fodje Bobga appeared by video from the Allegheny County Jail before U.S. Magistrate Judge Maureen Kelly, who set a preliminary hearing for Monday.

Mr. Bobga, a Cameroon citizen attending college in Romania, was arrested in December by Romanian authorities following an investigation by the Pittsburgh FBI.

Federal prosecutors accused him of taking money for dogs and other animals and not delivering. He is charged with 12 counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, forging the seal of the U.S. Supreme Court and identity theft.

Mr. Bobga and his cohorts created fake websites to advertise puppies using cute pictures, then communicated with victims in the U.S., obtained payment and never delivered any animals, the FBI said. In fact, there never were any animals and the whole thing was a scam, according to the FBI.

Agents said the group exploited the pandemic by telling victims who had already paid for an animal that they had to pay various extra fees for shipping, vaccination and COVID-19 quarantine.

Mr. Bobga directed some payments directly to himself and sent other payments to other African students in Romania, the FBI said.

One victim in New Brighton lost nearly $10,000. Other buyers in the Western District of Pennsylvania lived in Cheswick, Pittsburgh and Indiana County, but the schemers ripped off hundreds of victims across the U.S., the FBI said.

Source: Post gazette.com

Deportations of Cameroonian Asylum Seekers: Rights groups demand records on Trump’s ‘Death Flight’

28, April 2021

Deportations of Cameroonian Asylum Seekers: Rights groups demand records on Trump’s ‘Death Flight’ 0

Accusing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement of “crimes against humanity,” civil rights attorneys with three organizations filed Freedom of Information Act requests on Monday, demanding information on the federal government’s use of excessive force and coercion to deport asylum seekers.

The requests were submitted by lawyers at the Center for Constitutional Rights, Project South, and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) on behalf of several refugees from Cameroon. The Alliance in Defense of Black Immigrants worked with the groups to file the requests.

“The government’s mass deportations of Cameroonian and other Black immigrants [are] inhumane and targeted,” said Samah Sisay, an attorney and Bertha Justice Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights.

“Black asylum seekers, many of whom faced political persecution in their home countries, referred to their deportation as a ‘death flight.’ These crimes against humanity are unforgivable, and we must never allow them to happen again.”

—Azadeh Shahshahani, Project South

According to the asylum seekers’ complaints, ICE agents used pepper spray and, in some cases, methods of torture, to force them to sign deportation paperwork between August 2020 and January 2021, in the last months of the Trump administration.

“I said I didn’t want to sign a deportation order,” one Cameroonian asylum seeker wrote in a civil rights complaint (pdf) filed with the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (CRCL) and DHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG). “I said I am afraid to go back to my country. [An ICE agent] promised me he would torture me… He pressed my neck into the floor. I said, ‘Please, I can’t breathe.’ I lost my blood circulation.”

Last year, the U.S. government deported an unknown number of Cameroonians and other African refugees, sending them back to their home countries to potentially face violence and persecution. Many of the asylum seekers had pending trials in immigration court.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed and tens of thousands have been displaced in the past several years amid violence perpetrated by separatists and the armed group Boko Haram.

According to Human Rights Watch, people who are deported to Cameroon “face a serious risk of abuse by government security forces because they may be assumed to have links to separatists, or from the separatists themselves.”

“The government must atone for the appalling human rights abuses it has committed within its abominable immigrant prison and deportation apparatus. Black asylum seekers, many of whom faced political persecution in their home countries, referred to their deportation as a ‘death flight,'” said Azadeh Shahshahani, legal and advocacy director of Project South. “These crimes against humanity are unforgivable, and we must never allow them to happen again.”

In February, more than 40 members of Congress wrote to President Joe Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, calling on them to grant temporary protected status to Cameroonians and place an 18-month pause on their deportations.

“Country conditions in Cameroon are both extraordinary and temporary, making return untenable and warranting immediate protections for Cameroonians living in the United States,” the letter said.

Although former President Donald Trump’s term is over, the attorneys said Monday, President Joe Biden must take responsibility for ensuring that asylum seekers from Cameroon and other countries are not put in harm’s way.

The abuse of Black immigrants by the U.S. “cannot simply be swept under the rug with the change in government,” said Luz Lopez, a senior supervising attorney with the SPLC.

“If we are to take the new administration at their word that they are creating a more fair and humane immigration system, they must exercise transparency, cooperate with a full investigation, and work to ensure these abuses cannot occur in the future,” she added.

Source: Commondreams.org

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