Headline News

26, November 2020

US: Biden urges a cautious Thanksgiving as Trump rages on over election loss ⁰

On a day of grace and grievance, President-elect Joe Biden summoned Americans on Wednesday to join in common purpose against the coronavirus pandemic and their political divisions while the man he will replace stoked the fading embers of his campaign to “turn the election over.”

Biden, in a Thanksgiving-eve address to the nation, put the surging pandemic front and center, pledging to tap the “vast powers” of the federal government and to “change the course of the disease” once in office. But for that to work, he said, Americans must step up for their own safety and that of their fellow citizens.

“This is the moment when we need to steel our spines, redouble our efforts and recommit ourselves to this fight,” Biden said. “Each of us has a responsibility in our own lives to do what we can to slow the virus.”

President Donald Trump, who has scarcely mentioned the pandemic in recent days even as it has achieved record heights, remained fixated on his election defeat.

He sent his lawyer Rudy Giuliani and other members of his legal team to meet Pennsylvania Republican state senators in Gettysburg. Inside a hotel near the hallowed battlefields of civil war, they again aired complaints about the election and repeated allegations of Democratic malfeasance that have already disintegrated under examination by courts.

“We have to turn the election over,” Trump said from the Oval Office, where he joined the meeting by speakerphone.

“This was an election that we won easily,” he said. “We won it by a lot.” In fact, the election gave Biden a clear mandate, and no systemic fraud has been uncovered. Judge after judge has dismissed the Trump campaign’s accusations as baseless, and the transition to Biden’s presidency is fully underway.

Nevertheless, Trump repeated: “This election has to be turned around.”

Trump had been expected to appear in person in Gettysburg, but did not after another member of his legal team tested positive for the coronavirus. Few at the meeting wore masks.

Altogether, the forum heard — and cheered — yet another declaration from a U.S. president seeking to reverse a democratic election and the voters’ will because he wants to stay in power. The setting was about a mile from the scene of Pickett’s Charge, where Union troops repelled a desperate Confederate attack in July 1863 and helped turn the tide of the Civil War.

The president followed up by pardoning former national security adviser Michael Flynn, the second Trump associate convicted in the Russia probe to be granted clemency by Trump.

The pardon was part of a broader effort to undo the results of an investigation that for years has shadowed Trump’s administration and yielded criminal charges against a half dozen associates. The pardon voids the criminal case against Flynn just as a federal judge was deciding whether to grant a Justice Department request to dismiss the prosecution despite Flynn’s own guilty plea to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts.

For his part, Biden has largely projected serenity as the necessary elements of a presidential transition — money, access to office space and more — were held at bay for nearly three weeks by Trump’s machinations and a delayed ascertainment by the General Services Administration that he had won the election. On Wednesday, he addressed Trump’s raw tactics only in passing.

“Our democracy was tested this year,” Biden said, “but the people of this nation are up to the task.”

“In America, we have full and fair and free elections, and then we honor the results,” he said. “The people of this nation and the laws of the land won’t stand for anything else.”

And he offered an optimistic vision, calling on Americans to “dream again” and predicting that “the 21st century is going to be an American century.”

Biden pledged more virus testing, more protective gear and clearer guidance for businesses and schools to reopen when he becomes president. Until vaccines are distributed, he said, masks, social distancing and limits in the size of gatherings “are our most effective tools to combat the virus.”

Biden’s remarks came as COVID-19 cases are surging nationwide. Hospitalizations, deaths and the testing positivity rate were also up sharply as the nation headed into Thanksgiving, and public health experts have warned that the large family gatherings expected for the holiday are likely to extend and exacerbate the surge.

He has formed a coronavirus advisory board of scientists, doctors and public health experts, and plans to establish a COVID-19 coordinator in the White House to lead his administration’s response.

This week, however, Biden focused beyond the crisis stateside and unveiled his national security team on Tuesday, including his nominees for secretary of state, director of national intelligence and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Drawing implicit contrasts with Trump, Biden said the team “reflects the fact that America is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it.” He’s also expected to name Janet Yellen as treasury secretary in the coming weeks.

In urging Americans to be vigilant in their Thanksgiving plans, Biden said Wednesday he was taking precautions of his own, eschewing his traditional large family gathering and spending the holiday instead with just his wife, daughter and son-in-law.

He’s traveling with his wife, Jill, to Rehoboth Beach, the small Delaware beach town where the two have a vacation home. That’s where they’ll host their family for Thanksgiving dinner. Biden is expected to stay through the weekend in Rehoboth before returning to Wilmington for further work on the transition.

Trump will forgo his usual plans to celebrate Thanksgiving at his private club in Florida and will instead remain at the White House.

Source: AP

26, November 2020

Bamileke Chiefs intensifies call for President Biya to step down ⁰

Some French Cameroun traditional rulers are now calling for constitutional reform and consultation among opinion leaders that will herald a smooth political transition in Yaoundé.

Constitutional reform, political transition, the war in Southern Cameroons, the revision of the electoral code, and inclusive dialogue among Cameroonian opinion leaders including the diaspora are among the topics of discussion that preoccupied traditional leaders in the western region of French Cameroun this week.

The chiefs of the Bamileke constituencies whose subjects secretly financed the genocide campaign currently going on in Southern Cameroons unanimously opined that they want to help the CPDM crime syndicate in seeking solutions to the numerous political crises facing the two Cameroons.

In a statement made public recently, the Bamileke chiefs observed that “The so-called NoSo war is sinking into an unbearable barbarity with the main victims being civilians and even children who just wanted to get an education. Assassinations, beheadings, summary executions, kidnappings and humiliations of all kinds are multiplying and becoming commonplace, thus seriously undermining human rights and dignity in our country,”

Regarding the political transition in Yaounde, the Bamileke traditional leaders, suggested a constitutional reform that will ensure stability and get a new figure to run government business in Yaoundé.

Some French Cameroun political commentators have expressed scepticism about getting a political transition in Cameroon before the end of President Biya’s term.

With age openly telling on the president, Paul Biya, 87 years old, has been in power for 38 years. The dictator claimed he was re-elected to a seventh term of 7 years at the end of the election of October 7, 2018.

The declaration of the traditional chiefs of the West comes at a time when many see no solution in sight following the acceptance by the collapsing regime to stage first regional elections on December 6.

Cameroon Concord News understands that at the end of these elections, 900 regional councillors will be elected. There will be 90 councillors in each region, including 70 representatives from government departments and 20 from various chiefdoms. The elections are being boycotted by two of the largest opposition parties, the MRC and the SDF.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

25, November 2020

Yaoundé: Southern Cameroons massacre trial set for December 17 ⁰

Cameroon’s army said Wednesday that three soldiers accused in the massacre of civilians in a troubled anglophone region, a case that triggered an international outcry, would go on trial on December 17.

The killing took place on February 14 in the village of Ntumbaw, in the Northwest Region, where anglophone separatists and security forces are embroiled in a bloody three-year-old conflict.

According to the government, 10 children and three women died, while the UN has put the toll at more than 23 dead, including nine children aged under five and two pregnant women.

“Three soldiers will appear in Yaounde military court for murder, arson and destruction of property, violence against a pregnant woman and disregard for orders,” army spokesman Colonel Cyrille Atonfack told AFP.

The trial will start on December 17, he confirmed.

The Cameroon authorities denied for two months that its security forces were to blame for any deaths at Ntumbaw.

It said the fatalities had resulted from an “unfortunate accident” when fuel was set ablaze during a gunfight between troops and separatists after a patrol came under fire.

But Human Rights Watch (HRW), in its own investigation, said civilians had been slaughtered by government forces and an auxiliary militia drawn from the ethnic Fulani community.

It based this on interviews with 25 people, including three witnesses to killings and seven relatives of victims, and on satellite imagery taken before and after the attack.

In April, as international pressure mounted, President Paul Biya’s office acknowledged responsibility by the security forces, saying three soldiers and a self-defence group had “attacked” a separatist base.

“After exchanges of fire in which five terrorists were shot dead,” they “discovered that three women and 10 children had died as a result of their actions,” it said.

HRW’s Cameroon specialist, Ilaria Allegrozzi, said the watchdog group was “pleased” that a date had been set for the trial.

“We have gone from complete denial to investigation, a presidential statement and now a trial,” she said, but cautioned that “senior individuals in the chain of command” also had to be prosecuted.

English speakers account for nearly a fifth of Cameroon’s population of 24 million, who are majority French-speaking.

Most of this minority live in two western regions called the Northwest and Southwest, which were once part of British colonies in West Africa.

Decades of grievances at perceived discrimination brewed into a declaration of independence in October 2017, which was followed by a government crackdown.

More than 3,000 people have died and at least 700,000 have fled their homes. Rights monitors say abuses have been committed by both sides.

Source: AFP

25, November 2020

Diego Maradona: Argentina legend dies aged 60 ⁰

The former Argentina attacking midfielder and manager had successful surgery on a brain blood clot earlier in November.

It was then announced he was to be treated for alcohol dependency.

One of the greatest players of all time, Maradona was captain when Argentina won the 1986 World Cup, producing a series of sublime individual performances.

He played for Barcelona and Napoli during his club career, winning two Serie A titles with the Italian side.

Maradona scored 34 goals in 91 appearances for Argentina, representing them in four World Cups.

He led his country to the 1990 final in Italy, where they were beaten by West Germany, before captaining them again in the United States in 1994, but was sent home after failing a drugs test for ephedrine.

During the second half of his career, Maradona struggled with cocaine addiction and was banned for 15 months after testing positive for the drug in 1991.

He retired from professional football in 1997, on his 37th birthday, during his second stint at Argentine giants Boca Juniors.

Having briefly managed two sides in Argentina during his playing career, Maradona was appointed head coach of the national team in 2008 and left after the 2010 World Cup, where his side were beaten by Germany in the quarter-finals.

He subsequently managed teams in the United Arab Emirates and Mexico and was in charge of Gimnasia y Esgrima in Argentina’s top flight at the time of his death.

Source: BBC

25, November 2020

African Union special envoy to Mali, the Sahel quits ⁰

The special envoy of the African Union to Mali and the Sahel, Pierre Buyoya has resigned from his post.

The former Burundian simply confirmed to the AFP that he had submitted his resignation, without further details or reason for the resignation.

Buyoya was sentenced to life imprisonment in his country in October for the 1993 assassination of his predecessor Melchior Ndadaye.

He denounces a “political trial” and said he would appeal the ruling.

A senior AU official told AFP on condition of anonymity that ‘Mr. Buyoya resigned because he wants to “devote all his time and energy to his defense and wants to avoid a situation in the AU that would become embarrassing for a member state.’’

Another senior official who also spoke on condition of anonymity added that Buyoya’s resignation “was accepted with gratitude for the excellent work done in Mali on behalf of the AU.”

The African Union has not made any comment on Buyoya’s conviction since the verdict was announced on October 20 in Bujumbura.

The Burundian judiciary convicted Mr. Buyoya, along with about twenty of his relatives, for “attacking the head of state, attacking the authority of the state, and attack tending to bring about massacre and devastation”.

Mr. Buyoya’s name had already been mentioned in connection with the assassination of President Ndadaye, without any proof being provided.

Source: Africa News

25, November 2020

Three weeks after vote still no official US president ⁰

The United States presidential election remains unresolved three weeks after the vote, drastically undermining perceptions regarding the quality of their political system.

Three weeks after the US presidential election there is still no clear winner. However, incumbent Donald Trump has now permitted the government agency which handles presidential transitions to begin working with Democrat Joe Biden, and key swing states have just certified the election in favor of Biden.

Recent polls from top media such as The Economist reveal that nearly half the country wants Trump to litigate, believes fraud swung the vote in Biden’s favor, and views Biden’s victory as illegitimate. Trump has still not spoken publicly on the subject, only communicating his refusal to concede via Twitter, repeatedly. The fact of America’s intense division still remains, and many wonder how and if the nation can be united.

Even though the election was on November 3rd, many urban areas are still boarded up and resemble war zones. The political chaos continues to feed concerns that the violent protests and rebellions from earlier in the year will return.

Biden is starting to unveil his cabinet, which was described by the mainstream media site Politico, as a “team of careerists”, because not since George Bush the first have so many key positions been handed to personal loyalists and longtime Washington insiders. The progressive wing of the Democratic Party and other party factions have been almost totally excluded.

For Secretary of State Biden has tapped Antony Blinken, viewed as the architect of Barack Obama’s interventionist foreign policy and the longtime advisor to Biden who persuaded him to vote for the second war on Iraq. Blinken was a major proponent of US involvement in Libya, Syria, Ukraine, the Saudi-led war on Yemen, and is considered a major hawk on Russia. He is expected to push the US to try and rejoin the JCPOA agreement on Iran’s nuclear energy program.

Source: Presstv

25, November 2020

Bundes: German vote to pick Merkel successor set for Sept 26, 2021 ⁰

The German government on Wednesday agreed on September 26 next year for the general election to choose a successor to Chancellor Angela Merkel, a government spokeswoman said.

Merkel has said she will not stand for a fifth term and will retire from politics next year after 16 years at the helm of Europe’s top economic power and the EU’s most populous country.

Her departure will mark a new, less certain phase in German politics and at the heart of the European Union, whose rotating presidency Merkel currently holds.

The government “proposes to the federal president the date of Sunday, September 26, 2021 for the election of the 20th Bundestag (lower house of parliament),” spokeswoman Martina Fietz told reporters.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier must still give his official approval.

The race to fill Merkel’s shoes still looks wide open, as her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party remains embroiled in an increasingly bitter leadership battle that has been extended by the pandemic.

There are currently three hopefuls for the top job in Germany’s biggest party, with a twice-delayed election for a new chief now scheduled for mid-January.

North Rhine-Westphalia state premier Armin Laschet, corporate lawyer Friedrich Merz and foreign affairs expert Norbert Rottgen are vying for the post.

The candidates have proposed an online congress if meeting in person were to be impossible because of restrictions to curb coronavirus transmission.

– Pandemic uncertainty –

The chief of the CDU traditionally leads it and its smaller Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union to the polls.

However given the failure of any of the Christian Democrat candidates to create real momentum at this early stage, CSU chief and Bavarian premier Markus Soeder has been the focus of ardent speculation about a possible run.

Bavaria has been among the states hardest hit by coronavirus infections and Soeder’s robust response to the outbreak has won praise and given him an intense national spotlight.

He leads opinion polls against all three CDU candidates when Germans are asked who they would like to see as their next chancellor.

Yet Germany’s complex coalition maths, the uncertainty created by the pandemic and the absence of Merkel as a foregone conclusion in a German general election could well throw up other surprises.

The Social Democrats (SPD), the country’s oldest party and junior partners in the “grand coalition” government, have haemorrhaged support as the centrist Merkel occupied and helped define the middle ground of Germany’s consensus-oriented politics during her long tenure.

However pollsters say a more conservative CDU leader could drive some Merkel voters into the arms of the SPD, or the ecologist Greens, in opposition since 2005.

The Greens have benefited from growing concern about the climate, particularly among young voters, while making lasting inroads among urban, affluent Germans.

Polls show increasing openness to a CDU-Greens coalition, which would be a first at the national level in Germany.

The pro-business Free Democrats, frequent kingmakers in German post-war politics, are currently polling in the single digits, as is the far-left Linke.

Meanwhile the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has about 10-percent support and is currently the biggest opposition force in the Bundestag lower house of parliament.

But the mainstream parties have ruled out joining forces with it in government.

Source: AFP

25, November 2020

Cameroonian man fined after being caught in public sex act in Northern Ireland ⁰

Belfast Magistrates’ Court heard Fabrece Nguegoub was spotted masturbating as he walked through a housing estate on the outskirts of the city.

The 26-year-old Cameroonian national, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to a charge of indecent behaviour.

He was arrested after police were alerted on October 15 this year.

The court was told a member of the public reported seeing a man matching his description walking through Merville Garden Village in Newtownabbey.

He was said to be masturbating with his trousers around his ankles. A photograph was taken of the suspect and the authorities notified.

Nguegoub was detained on the Antrim Road in Newtownabbey later that day. Defence solicitor Stewart Ballentine stressed his client made an immediate admission.

“He accepts his behaviour was totally unacceptable and may have caused offence, but that wasn’t his intention ,” the lawyer said.

“He suffers from mental health problems, he said he had started to urinate and then followed on from that.”

Mr Ballentine disclosed that Nguegoub had travelled from his native Cameroon to stay with his sister in the Republic of Ireland.

“He then made his way north to Belfast on this particular day,” he added.

District Judge Fiona Bagnall imposed a £150 fine, with the defendant to serve three days in custody for any non-payment.

Source: News Letter

25, November 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: CPDM Begins Election Campaign amid Separatist Violence ⁰

Cameroon has begun the campaign season for its December 6 regional council elections amid threats and attacks from separatists fighting to create an English-speaking state in the French-majority country. The separatists, who have vowed to disrupt the polls, attacked several military convoys dispatched to protect voters. The government is pleading with citizens to help recently deployed troops by denouncing suspects.

Councilor Emile Ngalla, 47, said he fled from Bui to Mezam, both administrative areas in Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest region on Saturday. He said separatist fighters came to his home and threatened to kill him if he takes part in Cameroon’s December 6 regional council elections.

“I am not sure taking [I will take] part in the elections, but all I want to beg is that the government should enforce security for those who have the courage to do it [participate]. The issue of elections is bringing a lot of fear,” he said.

Ngalla said he will stay in the English-speaking northwestern town of Bamenda, which he said is safer, until the elections are held.

Government officials in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions say councilors and traditional rulers who constitute the electoral college are increasingly receiving death threats from fighters.

A video shared on social media appears to show an armed man in his 30s threatening to kill candidates if they do not stop campaigning and resign.

“I am coming out today to make it clear to the international community that there will be no elections come December 6, 2020. I want to advise all our people. you must stay vigilant. There will be no elections,” he said.

Deben Tchoffo, governor of the Northwest region said besides the audios and videos shared on social media, separatists have been making anonymous phone calls threatening candidates and voters.

Speaking via telephone from Bamenda, Tchoffo said troops have been deployed to protect voters, candidates and election materials. He said separatist fighters who have intensified attacks and threats to disrupt the polls should know that they will be killed by the military if they do not surrender. He said the elections will offer special status to the English-speaking regions, as requested by residents.

Tchoffo said on Friday and Saturday there were several attacks on military convoys. He did not say if there were any deaths, but civilians said at least four troops were wounded and five military vehicles damaged in the northwestern town of Kumbo.

Friday, President Paul Biya dispatched his defense minister, police boss and defense chief of staff to the English-speaking regions to make sure the elections take place.

Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo said the population should cooperate with the military by denouncing separatist suspects in their community.

“I wish to highlight unequivocally that our presence here attests the government’s resolve to provide an effective and definite solution to this crisis which keeps tormenting our people. A people who are only asking for a peaceful life, that is to live in a safe stable and prosperous environment,” he said.

Assomo called on voters and candidates to brave the threats and asked those who had left the region to return.

The government says the December 6 regional election will put in place the special status for the English-speaking regions as decided during the grand national dialogue called by Biya last September 30 through October 4.

The dialogue was to propose solutions to the crisis in the country’s English-speaking regions. Separatist leaders invited to the national dialogue refused to take part and called the special status a nonevent, stating that they want nothing but total independence for the English-speaking regions.

Cameroon’s English-speaking regions descended into violence in 2016 when teachers and lawyers protested alleged discrimination at the hands of the French-speaking majority.

The government responded with a crackdown and separatists took up OK? Weapons, claiming that they were defending civilians. The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people and displaced over 500,000, according to the United Nations.

Source: VOA

24, November 2020

Burkina Faso opposition criticises presidential vote as early results favour incumbent Kaboré ⁰

Incumbent Burkina Faso President Roch Kaboré was leading with just 12 of around 360 voting districts declared on Monday, the electoral commission said, while opposition parties cast doubt on the credibility of the results thus far.

Hundreds of thousands of citizens were unable to cast their ballots during the presidential vote on Sunday because their polling stations remained closed for fear of Islamist violence.

Groups linked to al Qaeda and the Islamic State group operate across swathes of Burkina Faso, part of a widening jihadist threat in West Africa’s Sahel, a semi-arid region south of the Sahara Desert.

An association of the opposition parties cast doubt on the credibility of the results on Monday, repeating allegations of irregularities and fraud during a joint news conference. Ahead of the vote, international observers said they had seen no evidence of fraud.

Analysts expect a tight race that could go to a second round if no candidate wins more than 50 percent.

Kaboré, who was first elected in 2015, led in most of the dozen voting districts whose results were announced on Monday afternoon, totalling over 53,000 votes, more than double as many as his nearest rival, Zéphirin Diabré.

The electoral commission said further results would be announced on Tuesday.

Diabré is a former finance minister and 2015 runner-up. Kaboré’s other main competitor in the field of 13 candidates is Eddie Komboigo, the head of the party of Blaise Compaoré, who was president for 27 years until a 2014 revolution.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)