Headline News

7, August 2019

India: Veteran politician Sushma Swaraj passes away ⁰

Veteran Indian politician Sushma Swaraj, who most recently served as minister of external affairs, passed away on Tuesday, following a cardiac arrest.

Swaraj, 67, a senior leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had opted out of contesting elections earlier this year citing health reasons.

“A glorious chapter in Indian politics comes to an end,” tweeted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “India grieves the demise of a remarkable leader who devoted her life to public service and bettering lives of the poor.”

A former Supreme Court lawyer, Swaraj was the senior most woman in Modi’s cabinet in his first term, which ended in May.

Swaraj was an active social media user, who often responded on Twitter and intervened to help people seeking assistance.

She was also known as a fiery politician and nationalist.

In 2017, she threatened to rescind the visas of all foreign executives of Amazon.com, if the e-commerce giant did not immediately take down doormats resembling the Indian flag from its Canadian portal.

President Ram Nath Kovind said India had “lost a much loved leader who epitomized dignity, courage & integrity in public life.” The opposition Congress party said it was “saddened.”

(Source: Reuters)

7, August 2019

First African-American winner of Nobel Prize for Literature dies ⁰

Author Toni Morrison, who won Nobel and Pulitzer prizes for books documenting the African-American experience, has died at age 88.

Paul Bogaards, a spokesman for the publishing company Alfred A. Knopf, announced the death but did not provide an immediate cause.

Morrison’s novels included “The Bluest Eye,” “Beloved,” and its sequel, “Jazz.” She was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1993, becoming the first African-American to attain the feat.

Novelist Toni Morrison smiles with U.S. President Barack Obama as he prepares to award her a 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, May 29, 2012.

6, August 2019

Malaria has killed 1,800 people in Burundi so far in 2019 ⁰

Malaria has killed more than 1,800 people in Burundi this year, the United Nations (UN)’s humanitarian agency says, a death toll rivaling a deadly Ebola outbreak in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In its latest situation report, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 5.7 million cases of malaria had been recorded in Burundi in 2019 — a figure roughly equal to half its entire population.

Of those cases, a total of 1,801 died from the mosquito-borne disease in Burundi between January 1 and July 21, OCHA said.

The tiny country of 11 million people in the African Great Lakes region has still not declared a national emergency, despite OCHA saying the outbreak crossed “epidemic proportions” in May.

“The national malaria outbreak response plan, which is currently being validated, has highlighted a lack of human, logistical and financial resources for effective response,” OCHA said in its latest weekly bulletin on humanitarian emergencies.

“All stakeholders, including the national authorities and partners are called upon to provide the requisite resources to mount a robust response to this event before it escalates.”

A lack of preventative measures like mosquito nets, climatic changes, and increased movements of people from mountain areas with low immunity to malaria were driving the crisis, OCHA said.

‘Many crises’

An OCHA official told AFP that “the decision to declare an epidemic is the sovereignty of the Burundian state.”

The country declared a malaria epidemic in March 2017, when it recorded 1.8 million cases and 700 deaths, but is resisting doing the same now.

A senior government official, who declined to be named, said the government did not want to admit weaknesses ahead of elections set for 2020.

“We are less than a year away from the presidential election. [President Pierre] Nkurunziza, who is facing many crises, does not want to recognize what could be considered a failure of his health policy,” the official told AFP.

Burundi has been in crisis since 2015, when Nkurunziza ran for a third term and was re-elected in elections boycotted by most of the opposition.

At least 1,200 people were killed and more than 400,000 displaced in violence the UN says was mostly carried out by state security forces.

Nkurunziza announced in 2018 that he would not stand again, confounding critics who accused him of working to extend his grip on power.

UN investigators said in July that “drastic” steps were needed to boost democratic freedoms in Burundi if the government wanted the elections to be considered credible.

Burundi, one of the poorest countries in the region, abuts the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the second-worst Ebola outbreak in history has killed more than 1,800 people amid fears the infectious fever could spread beyond its borders.

But malaria is a much bigger killer on the continent.

The World Health Organization recorded nearly 220 million cases of the parasitic illness in 2017, with an estimated 435,000 deaths. More than 90 percent of malaria cases and deaths have been in Africa.

(Source: Agencies)

6, August 2019

Southern Cameroonian journalists fear for their lives ⁰

Cameroonian journalists who choose to remain in the Anglophone regions increasingly prefer to report on non-controversial issues such as health, education and infrastructure and avoid discussing the ongoing conflict.

Separatists and government troops alike will not hesitate to harass authors of reports that are not in their interest. Raymond Ndingana is one of many journalists who have been harassed by government troops.

“The last time I fell into the hands of the military, they almost destroyed my working tools simply because they asked me a question in French and I responded in English,” Ndigana told DW. “They got angry and called me all sorts of names.”

Caught between the fronts

Constant armed confrontations between the regular army and separatist fighters prevent journalists from going out into the field to cover events and file reports. But that is not the only difficulty the reporters face. Fon Quinta, a journalist for Vision 4 television, has been covering the Anglophone crisis for over two years. Quinta says that her duty as a journalist is to report on events in a fair and balanced way. But this is becomig impossible. “The government will call and say: ‘You’re working hand in glove with the separatists’,” she said. The separatists have also called her, accusing her of standing in the way of independence.

Security forces on trucks in Cameroon (DW/F. Muvunyi)

Anglophone journalists fear government troops and separatists

Fongoh Primus from Rainbow Radio Mbengwi agrees that journalists are faced with an impossible task. “How can I feel safe, when every day I see trigger-happy government soldiers armed to the teeth, pointing their guns at civilians and ready to kill, sometimes just for fun?” he told DW. “How can I feel safe when every day I come across drugged separatist fighters with fetish objects on their bodies carrying sophisticated weapons and ready to shoot to death any suspects?”

Self-censorship is the new normal

According to Maikem Emmanuella, radio station manager at NVEFCAM, self-censorship is now common in many newsrooms. “You do not know what to say or write,” she said. Emmanuella does her job every day in a state of fear. “When writing a story, you have to be careful, especially when it concerns the crisis,” she explained. “We get stories of people shot by the military, but you can’t report on these cases and stories saying it was the military.” With many journalists now scared of reporting, there are fears that the most critical stories in Anglophone regions will go unreported.

English-speaking communities chafe at what they see as discrimination from the French-speaking majority. The government rejects demands for autonomy and has dispatched thousands of troops in a crackdown. There are currently no open channels for a dialogue between the government and the rebels. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW). Cameroonian authorities have regularly tortured and held incommunicado detainees arrested in the government’s crackdown on the armed separatist movement.

In October 2017, radical separatists declared the creation of the “Republic of Ambazonia,” covering the two English-speaking regions incorporated into Francophone Cameroon in 1961. The declaration went largely unnoticed outside Cameroon, and “Ambazonia” — named after a bay at the mouth of the Douala River — has not been officially recognized by the international community.

Source: DeutscheWelle

6, August 2019

Kondengui Riots: Whereabouts of 100s Unknown ⁰

Hundreds of people marched in Cameroon’s capital, demanding to know the whereabouts of imprisoned relatives who were moved to unknown locations last week after a riot inside a large Yaounde jail.

“We simply want the government to let us know where they are,” said Julius Berka, 32, who demonstrated Monday. “We do not have any bad intentions. It is our right to know where they are.”

The prisoners were moved after a riot in the Kondengui Central Prison on July 22. Detained separatists from Cameroon’s English-speaking regions and jailed opposition members took possession of the prison yard to denounce overcrowding, deplorable conditions and lengthy trial delays.

Prisoners are taken from the Kondengui Central Prison in Yaounde, Cameroon, July 23, 2019. (M. Kindzeka/VOA)

The prison, built for 750 inmates, was holding more than 6,000.

The government says that after the riot, about 250 prisoners were moved. Separatists on social media gave the government five days as of last Wednesday to disclose where the detainees were or face the consequences.

On Monday, they said they had been informed that 88 of the English-speaking inmates were in a cell in Yaounde. The location of the others was not disclosed.

Government spokesperson Rene Emmanuel Sadi says the inmates were taken out of the Kondengui prison because of the role they played in the riot, in which part of the facility was torched and many inmates injured.

Deployment of the police at the Kondengui Central Prison, Yaounde, Cameroon, July 23, 2019. ( M. Kindzeka, VOA) — FILE – Police are deployed at the Kondengui Central Prison, Yaounde, Cameroon, July 23, 2019. (M. Kindzeka/VOA)

“The inmates identified as being the leaders on this insurgency, 177 people on the day of the event and 67 thereafter for a total of 244 insurgents, have been handed over to the police and gendarmerie services for questioning,” Sadi said.

He added that some of the inmates were in more secured detention facilities in Yaounde while others were moved elsewhere to make the prison less congested.

Denis Nkemlemo, spokesperson for the main opposition political party, the Social Democratic Front, says by keeping the prisoners beyond the reach of family members and friends, the government is aggravating the crisis in the English-speaking regions.

Armed groups in the two regions have fought to separate them from majority French-speaking Cameroon since 2017.

Rights group Amnesty International has called on authorities to improve the grim prison conditions, release anyone detained only for peaceful protest, and ensure that every person held past the legal period of pretrial detention goes before a judge immediately or is released.

VOA

6, August 2019

Yaounde Military Tribunal Break dance: S.Cameroons leaders trial adjourned again until August 19th ⁰

The Accused Persons in the case The People Vs Sisiku Julius AYUK TABE & 9 others were brought to court at about 12.00 midday. By the time they arrived The courtyard which is in the heart of a military command center was heavily militarized and servicemen and women in mufty brought to fill the seats of the court hall so that family and friends of the Accused Persons and other Ambazonians can be sent away or denied entry into the yard on lame and ridiculous reason that the court hall is full.

Correspondingly, several family members were denied access even into the yard to stand outside the court and follow the proceedings. Some of French Cameroun soldiers sat directly behind the Accused Persons and constantly threw abusive slangs on them expressing the desire to see the court deal with these Ambazonia terrorists accordingly.

The court session however didn’t begin till about 1.00pm when the panel of Judges presided over by Lt Col. MISSE MISSE Jacques Baudouine entered the military court hall and declared the session open. As soon as the Registrar in Chief who was Chief court clerk summoned the Accused Persons to the dock at instance of Presiding Judge and read out the statement of 12 offences alleged to have been committed by the Accused with 11 of them carrying the Death Sentence, Prof Awasum Augustine sought leave of court and presented the deteriorating health situation of the Accused Persons especially Dr NDE CHE Fidelis, TASSANG Wilfred and also Barrister EYAMBE Elias EBAI who had even paid sum of 200000 frs but was still to be attended to by the ophthalmologist two weeks after.

He catalogued this situation aggravated by the Hunger Strike they were compelled by circumstances to engage and pleaded with the court for an adjournment of the case for them to get medical attention and come back to court healthy! The court took note the situation but insisted that trial should go on especially as to him the detainees are sick because they voluntarily engaged in the Hunger Strike. He then called on the Military State Counsel better known by the French appellation Commissaire du Gouvernement CG to open the case for the prosecution.

Batonier emeritus Barrister ETA BESONG Jr who led the defense team of more than 60 lawyers present in court took the floor and eloquently objected to the court going on with the proceedings because of a pending Interlocutory Appeal in the car which is pending before the Supreme Court and so by law proceedings in the main suit before all lower jurisdictions ought to be adjourned sine die (without date) pending the decision of the Supreme Court!

Barristers SUH FUH Benjamin and Paddy YONG also spoke objecting to court proceedings on account of poor health situation of their clients, the Accused Persons. Rather than adjourn the case for these reasons, the court proceeded to explain how the pending appeals were baseless which infuriated the defense Counsel and they argued strenuously that the court cannot usurp the role of the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court and make any pronouncements whatsoever. The court session became very stormy to extent that after close to 3 hrs of arguments that involved the CG and Counsel for the Civil Party, counsel for defense all stormed out of court in protest against intransigence of the judges and their insensitivity to the plight of their clients.

Barrister ACHU Julius one of the lawyers for the State of Cameroun, had urged the court not to give any attention to international law and diplomacy, to ignore the presence of the foreigners (2 Americans) sitting in the court hall and deliver a Camerounians Justice

With the embarrassment of lawyers storming out of court, the court rose for a short break of 15 minutes at 4.10pm. When the court session resumed at 4.55pm, Dr NDE CHE Fidelis had developed a malaise and was being attended to by some unidentified staff from the military hospital. The presiding judges sat silent on the dais in open court for more than 30 minutes while the said nurses attended to Dr Nde Che. They took his blood pressure, made other checks and even questioned him for lying on a bench in court.

One Colonel. Abeng said to be a medical doctor who was already in the dock as first prosecution witness PW1, against the Accused Persons, tried to consult the patient in open court before gaze and view of the entire public and Dr NDE CHE refused not only because the consultation was public but most especially because Colonel Abeng had come to testify and give false evidence that the Accused Persons including him should be executed. He observed that the same individual cannot be the one to consult him and even send for medication for him.

From information provided to court by Prof Awasum himself a medic and an internationally renowned Professor of Surgery from Ahmadou Bello University, Zaria, Dr NDE CHE Fidelis is a Renal patient with series of complications per his medical records which are known to the prosecution as he’s been attended to both by the medical doctors of the Gendarmerie Hospital when they were detained incommunicado at SED for 11 months and subsequently by the doctors of the Yaounde prison hospital all under control of the CG. A senior nurse from the military hospital was summoned by the Col Dr Abeng in the dock and ordered to sit by Dr NDE CHE lying on the bench and probably take care of any eventuality.

Shockingly enough, instead of adjourning the case because of the health situation of the Accused Persons before the court and especially the absence of their counsel who had stormed out, Lt Col MISSE MISSE sought the opinion of the CG and Counsel for the State party, the Civil Claimant and when they indicated their readiness to do their case, he ordered Col Dr Abeng, the PW1 to give his testimony.

Sisiku Julius AYUK TABE, Shufai Blaise SEVIDZEM BERINYUY, EYAMBE Elias EBAI and Dr Cornelius NJIKIMBI KWANGA each took turns to plead with the court to adjourn the case on account of the their poor health and to also give them the opportunity to talk with their lawyers to understand why they stormed out of court or brief new counsel in vain. They even asked the court how they could be prosecuting patients with one of them being attended to in open court and lying there flat on the bench. They told the judges to their face that they were clearly biased and were doing Injustice and that it’s a shame for la Republique du Cameroun judiciary. They also questioned how and why Colonel Dr Abeng a Bulu man brought to justify their execution could be expected to consult them and whether the Accused Persons no longer had no right medical doctor of choice.

Lt Col MISSE MISSE Jacques and his panel that included Magistrate EDOU MEWOUTOU Fidele Armand and NGOUONGUE TIANI Sandrine didn’t budge and insisted on continuing with prosecution case claiming that the examination of Dr NDE CHE by the military nurses brought by them revealed that he could take his case and more especially he had denied to be attended to by the qualified Medical doctor in court, PW1.

The Accused Persons all stood up and started rioting in court shouting to make sure that the proceedings do not continue. Even the special microphones and huge speakers that had been brought to court could not help! The CG on instructions of the court tried more than 4 times to lead the witness give evidence in vain as the Accused Persons shouted even louder each time asking the court to order them to be taken back to prison and then the court could continue with its charade or parody of a trial.

There was total disorder and the court was forced to take another break at about 7.00pm with Dr NDE CHE Fidelis still lying helpless on the bench. The court resumed hearing at 7.59pm and shamelessly announced that they’ve now considered the request of the Accused Persons for adjournment due to poor health and is adjourning the case to August 19 for continuation of Prosecution case.

A Cameroon Intelligence Report Production

6, August 2019

Ambazonia: Leader urges end to kidnappings ⁰

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe has condemned the rise in kidnappings in Southern Cameroons, calling for discipline and unity in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. The head of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, in letters sent to local and international media houses demanded Southern Cameroonians to remain united and focus on the struggle to free their homeland and hinted that the hunger strike will continue until all Southern Cameroons detainees are identified.

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe expressed hope that members of the pro French Cameroun armed groups operating deep inside Ambazonia would rescind the dubious and dangerous task assigned them by French Cameroun Minister Paul Atanga Nji and join the revolutionary forces.

The Ambazonian Interim Government sees kidnappings as inconsistent with Southern Cameroon’s official, historic and principled Anglo-Saxon tradition.

The leader stressed that kidnappings would not serve the fraternal relations between the Ambazonia Restoration Forces and the local population and would only further complicate the lives of Southern Cameroonians.

By Sama Ernest in Yaounde

6, August 2019

Outrage in Gambia over release of ex-president’s assassins ⁰

Relatives of people murdered by death squads in The Gambia expressed outrage on Monday over the release of three former hitmen, who said they committed dozens of assassinations ordered by ex-president Yahya Jammeh.

The men, who were part of an unofficial paramilitary unit known as the Junglers, were freed from army custody two weeks after appearing before the West African country’s Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC).

During the hearings, the assassins accused Jammeh — who ruled the country for 22 years — of ordering multiple murders, including the 2013 killings of two US-Gambians and Deyda Hydara, co-founder of The Point newspaper and AFP’s correspondent in The Gambia for 30 years.

“It’s wrong to hear all these confessions, then release the killers out in our streets, out in our communities, out in our societies,” his son, Baba Hydara, told AFP.

In a statement, Gambian Justice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou said his decision to release the three men — Malick Jatta, Omar Jallow and Amadou Badjie — was to encourage other alleged human rights violaters to testify.

“What we must not do is to scare people away from telling the truth because that will not be in anyone’s interest,” he said.

“Every victim family deserves to know the truth about their loved ones.”

The TRRC hearings, modelled on South Africa’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission, started in January and are expected to take two years.

At the end, the body can make recommendations with regard to prosecution or reparation but cannot itself issue any sentences.

Human Rights Watch on Monday warned that the hitmen, who were arrested in 2017 but have never been tried, could leave the country.

“If these hitmen flee The Gambia now, not only will they escape justice, but we will lose the key witnesses in any future trial against Yahya Jammeh for ordering these gruesome crimes,” said US attorney Reed Brody from HRW.

Hit squad

Jammeh ruled The Gambia — a tiny state that is almost entirely surrounded by Senegal, except for a small strip of coastline — after taking power in a bloodless coup in July 1994.

He was repeatedly re-elected in disputed circumstances until he was defeated in December 2016 by a relative unknown, Adama Barrow.

After a six-week crisis that led to military intervention by other West African states, Jammeh bolted from the country.

Human rights activists have accused his regime of the systematic torture of opponents and journalists, executions without trial, arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances and rape.

The commission has gripped the public with its graphic evidence.

Last month Badjie, a hit squad member, told the panel that Jammeh ordered in June 2013 for two US-Gambian businessmen who he suspected of planning a coup, Alhaji Ceesay and Ebrima Jobe, to be “chopped into pieces”.

The two men were arrested and suffocated, beheaded and buried, Badjie told the commission.

“Our team was a hit squad for Yahya Jammeh. We had blind loyalty for Yahya Jammeh,” he said.

Alhaji’s mother Ya Mamie Cessay expressed her horror at the release of the men.

“I feel so disrespected as a mother that my government is setting free the men who just confessed in the savage killing of my son,” she told AFP on Monday.

“What is the point of truth if the perpetrators of these crimes are set loose?”

The government has said the hitmen’s release is not an amnesty but has also not set out any restrictions to prevent them from fleeing the country.

Former soldiers, currently in custody, have also accused Jammeh of the murder of around 50 migrants rounded up on a beach as they were trying to make their way to Europe, but were taken for rebels.

Barrow has indicated he will wait for the commission to conclude before deciding on whether to request the extradition of Jammah.

(AFP)

6, August 2019

Obama: Reject leaders feeding climate of fear, hatred ⁰

Barack Obama is calling on Americans to reject “any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred” after more than 30 people are killed in mass shootings in the United States.

The former US president made the comment in a lengthy statement issued Monday, without referencing Donald Trump, currently at helm in the White House.

“We should soundly reject language coming out of the mouths of any of our leaders that feeds a climate of fear and hatred and normalizes racist sentiments; leaders who demonize those who don’t look like us, or suggest that other people, including immigrants, threaten our way of life, or refer to other people as sub-human, or imply that America belongs to just one certain type of people,” Obama said in the statement.

Barack Obama✔@BarackObama

Mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, shocked the nation over the weekend, bringing gun control and white nationalism back to the country’s political discourse, particularly among Democrats running to beat Trump in 2020.

“It’s time for the overwhelming majority of Americans of goodwill, of every race and faith and political party, to say as much – clearly and unequivocally,” Obama said, adding that the rhetoric “has no place in our politics and our public life.”

Trump was, meanwhile, trying to distance himself from white supremacists, focusing on mental illness instead of stricter gun control.

PressTV-US Congresswoman: Trump 'not welcome' in El Paso

“In one voice, our nation must condemn bigotry, hatred and white supremacy,” Trump said in a nationally televised address from the Diplomatic Room of the White House. “These sinister ideologies must be defeated.”

In his 10-minute address to the nation, Trump decried the “mentally ill monsters” behind mass shootings as well as violent video games.

A woman kneels near candles and flowers after the mass shooting over the weekend in Dayton, Ohio on August 5, 2019. (AFP photo)

“Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger — not the gun,” the president said, without making any reference to his own call for bipartisan action on legislation providing “strong background checks,” just hours earlier.

It took two days for the president to address the suspected gunman’s alleged anti-immigrant bias in the El Paso shooting.

Source: Presstv

5, August 2019

Ambazonia As seen, As told: Dark Days Approaching ⁰

The decision to stay as a French Cameroun Governor, Senior Divisional Officer, Divisional Officer or District Head in Southern Cameroons is now your choice and you are responsible for your personal safety in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

We of the Cameroon Intelligence Report and Cameroon Concord News take the safety and security of both French Cameroun and Southern Cameroons citizens living in the Southern and the Northern Zones of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia very seriously and we have been providing credible and timely information to enable them to make well-informed decisions regarding their stay in the conflict infested territory.

The content on Cameroon Intelligence Report and Cameroon Concord News are provided for information only. While our cream of reporters all over Southern Cameroons have been making every effort to give both French Camerounians and Ambazonians correct information, we are hereby stating that our reports have been provided on an “as is” basis without warranty of any kind, express or implied.

The Editorial board of the Cameroon Concord News Group is hereby informing all French Cameroun administrative officials and the population of Southern Cameroons to begin evacuating the Southern Cameroons territory.

Our senior intelligence reporters in the USA, Europe, the and Republic of South Africa and in Ground Zero have all hinted of a full scale war with French Cameroun forces deployed to Southern Cameroons.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group