Headline News

22, December 2018

Yaounde Suspends 16 Journalists, 7 Media Outlets ⁰

Cameroon has suspended 16 journalists and seven news outlets for periods ranging from one month to six months for what it calls media offenses.

The National Communication Council suspended Vision 4, a privately-owned television station in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde, and two of its journalists for one month each. Ernest Obama was suspended for what the NCC said was the use of hate language that could have ignited tribal conflicts in Cameroon. Nadine Patricia Mengue was suspended for erroneously announcing the death of Gabon President Ali Bongo Ondimba during its primetime news program Oct. 25.

On Oct. 30, Gabon also suspended the station from broadcasting for six months on its territory after it again reported the death of Ondimba, who was said to be in hospital in Saudi Arabia suffering from exhaustion.

Gabon’s broadcasting authority said the incorrect and false report had undermined its national unity, social cohesion and public order.

Praise for suspensions

Journalist Melvis Kimbi of Cameroon state broadcaster CRTV says the sanction on Vision 4 was long overdue.

“This particular media house was spreading false information, an information of that magnitude which could have actually triggered a diplomatic crisis between Cameroon and Gabon, and there has been a lot going on on the Vision 4 media that has not been punished,” Kimbi said.

The NCC also suspended Maneh Mirelle of the TV station Canal 2 International for 6 months, Joseph Roland Djotie of Le Quotidien de L’Economie for one month, and Zebaze Benjamin for two months.

Dom Pipelassi Michael Doppas was suspended for two months for repeatedly reporting that Cameroon football star Samuel Eto’o is a homosexual.

Journalist Etienne Ngalle of La Nation newspaper says the NCC did a good job by suspending the media outlets and journalists who were highly unprofessional in doing their jobs.

He says he appreciates the NCC for suspending a journalist of the radio station Soleil FM who declared, without presenting any evidence, that Eto’o is a homosexual. Ngalle says journalists should stop spreading slander and telling lies intended to destroy public figures.

Previous action

Reporters Without Borders has accused Cameroon’s Communication Council of taking a tougher line toward journalists and media. But the recent sanctions have been hailed by some media professionals, especially as those sanctioned were asked to defend themselves in front of the NCC.

In 2017, the NCC suspended 35 journalists and media outlets, accusing them of failing to respect professional norms and ethics.

Cameroon has more than 500 newspapers, and 100 radio and TV stations, which express divergent views about the presidential election.

The Reporters Without Borders 2018 World Press Freedom Index ranks Cameroon 129 out of 180 countries in the world.

Source: VOA

22, December 2018

Buckingham Palace: Anthony Joshua honoured by Prince Charles, receives OBE ⁰

British heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua has been awarded by the Royal Family for his services to Sport. The award of an OBE bestowed on him by the Prince of Wales. Joshua is currently a unified world heavyweight champion, holding three of the four major championships in the sport.

An OBE simply means: (Officer of the) Order of the British Empire. The event took place on Thursday December 20, 2018.

Anthony Joshua who has Nigerian roots currently holds the IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight belts. He has fought 22 fights and won all with all but one coming by way of knockouts.

Anthony Joshua was born in Watford to a Nigerian mother and a British father of Nigerian and Irish descent. He has lived some parts of his life in Nigeria until his boxing debut in 2013.

Joshua expressed interest in representing Nigeria at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, but wasn’t selected. He has since climbed the ladder to be the unified World Heavyweight Boxing Champion under the British flag.

Source: Africa News

22, December 2018

US House adjourns, ensuring a government shutdown ⁰

The U.S. House of Representatives adjourned just before 7 p.m. on Friday night (0000 GMT on Saturday), leaving the Capitol before approving government funding and thereby ensuring a government shutdown. The House is set to return from recess at noon on Saturday.

The failure by the U.S. Congress and President Donald Trump to agree to a government spending bill by midnight will shutdown several federal agencies.

Donald Trump on Friday threatened a “very long” government shutdown if opposition Democrats refuse to approve funds for more border security and a wall on the US border with Mexico.

“Shutdown today if Democrats do not vote for Border Security!” Trump fumed, one of a string of tweets on the subject.

“The Democrats, whose votes we need in the Senate, will probably vote against Border Security and the Wall even though they know it is DESPERATELY NEEDED.

“If the Dems vote no, there will be a shutdown that will last for a very long time. People don’t want Open Borders and Crime!”

Trump and congressional Democrats remain far apart as a midnight Friday deadline looms to approve funds to keep the US government up and running.

Without an agreement, key agencies will close and many workers will be furloughed right before Christmas without a paycheck.

Trump appeared to harden his demand for $5 billion in funding for the wall on the US-Mexico border, a pet project he has fought for since he began campaigning for president in 2015.

“Even President Ronald Reagan tried for 8 years to build a Border Wall, or Fence, and was unable to do so. Others also have tried. We will get it done, one way or the other!” Trump wrote.

According to Trump, “The Democrats are trying to belittle the concept of a Wall, calling it old fashioned. The fact is there is nothing else’s that will work, and that has been true for thousands of years.

“It?s like the wheel, there is nothing better. I know tech better than anyone, & technology….. on a Border is only effective in conjunction with a Wall.”

(France 24 with Reuters and AFP)

22, December 2018

Biya regime Reopens Ekok Border with Nigeria ⁰

Cameroon has reopened its southwestern border with Nigeria after closing it about a year ago because of conflicts between Cameroon’s military and armed separatists fighting to create an English-speaking state.

A senior official from Cameroon’s military asks the people of Ekok village on the southwestern border with Nigeria to consider the soldiers as friends who are there to protect them.

Cameroon businessman Christopher Efiom, 46, buys food from Cameroon and takes it to Nigeria where it is sold. When he is returning from Nigeria, he buys spare motor parts and sells them in Cameroon. He says the presence of the military in the border market has chased fighters to the bushes and across the border to Nigeria. He says that for a month now, merchants have been able to do business despite ongoing fighting between the military and the separatists.

A car filled with supplies to sell across the border is seen in Ekok, a Cameroonian village on the southwestern border with Nigeria.

“There are days that the military goes down to attack the boys [fighters] and when they go down, there is serious gun shooting,” Efiom said. “So many casualties are on the field. The Amba fighters usually block us on the way and you can never predict when they are there. There are days that even the military are unable to carry the convoy right to Nigeria.”

“Amba” is the self-declared English-speaking region of Ambazonia, where armed separatists are fighting for independence.

Cameroon businessman Cletus Ndungang, 32, says although the military has reopened the border, business has yet to resume fully because most buyers and sellers still fear for their safety.

“Eighty percent of our rice is imported. It is very risky for a businessman to carry rice knowing that there is going to be a problem. Even maize. We also have oil, we have sugar. In fact, all the food, there is a problem because of this barbaric act. Most of the businessmen would not want to come in,” he said.

People buy and sell their goods in Ekok, a Cameroonian village on the southwestern border with Nigeria.

When Cameroon declared war on the armed separatists in November 2017, it said gunmen were attacking border localities in Cameroon’s southwest and escaping to Nigeria.

Nigeria denied the assailants were crossing over from its territory into Cameroon.

Bernard Okalia Bilai, governor of Cameroon’s southwest region, says collaboration between the Nigerian and Cameroon militaries is bringing peace to the border areas and business is resuming; but, he says, civilians who sought to escape the fighting should look to the military as their partners in working toward peace.

The separatist insurgency gained momentum in 2017 following a government crackdown on peaceful protests by Anglophones, who complain of being marginalized by the French-speaking majority. Some political leaders have called on President Paul Biya to initiate dialogue with the separatists. But Biya — who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years — has refused any talks on Cameroon becoming a divided state.

Culled from the VOA

21, December 2018

Yaoundé offered Cho Ayaba money to cede revolution and betray General Ivo ⁰

Our chief intelligence officer in Yaoundé says the Biya regime offered money to Cho Ayaba and the so-called Ambazonia Defense Council to forgo the Southern Cameroons resistance and to help the French Cameroun intelligence unit of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) to locate General Ivo at one of Chief V.E Mukete’s plantations in the Meme County.

Our Yaoundé correspondent who served in the Cameroon army and retired as a captain also opined that following the failure of several attempts to destroy the Ambazonian resistance, the Biya Francophone regime has been conspiring against the Southern Cameroons Interim Government using ego/power-seeking profiteers, opportunists, activists and clueless self-seekers.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the Ambazonian Communications Secretary, Hon. Chris Anu will be commenting on the happenings in the Meme County and also on the state of the revolution tomorrow December 22^nd.

We gathered that the French Cameroun government assigned Paul Atanga Nji- the Minister of Territorial Administration to offer Cho Ayaba including some prominent members of the AGC and ADF anything in return for stopping the Southern Cameroons revolution.

“They were offered money and have been told that they shall be part of the authority in Anglophone Cameroon on condition that they work against the Interim Government of Southern Cameroons,” our Intel officer in Yaoundé revealed.

There are many other French Cameroun conspiracies against the Southern Cameroons revolution, including attempts to stir up a conflict between the Ambazonia Self-Defence and Restoration Forces Council (ASC/RF), the command and control system prosecuting the war against La Republique du Cameroun and the Ambazonian Interim Government.

The French Cameroun government under Biya is seeking to create such a rift because the Ambazonian Interim Government is the guarantor of the Southern Cameroons resistance.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Sama Ernest and Pierre Onana

21, December 2018

Biya regime bans ‘President Ali Bongo death’ claim television ⁰

Cameroon has slammed a one-month ban on a private television station that falsely announced the death of Gabonese President Ali Bongo Odimba while he was in a Saudi hospital. Cameroon Media watchdog, the National Communication Council (NCC), said the Yaoundé-based Vision 4 television aired an “unfounded declaration” on its prime time newscast of October 27.

The council said the broadcast was a gross disrespect of “professional requirements of investigation and crosschecking of information delivered to the public”. Gabonese authorities had in October banned the TV channel on its territory for six months for the same reason.

Latest prohibitions

NCC also imposed a one month ban on journalist and Vision 4 TV director Ernest Oboma “for inciting tribal hatred and violence” on television. Officials of the channel have snubbed similar decisions against them by the watchdog previously and it was not clear whether they would respect the latest prohibitions.

Besides Vision 4 TV and its director, the Cameroon media regulator also sanctioned four other media organs and about 20 local journalists for allegedly flouting professional ethics.

Pre-trial detention

The council said it had prohibited Ms Mireille Flore, a journalist with Canal 2 International television, from practising in the country following a complaints against her by a bicycle repairer who she presented in a report, “without proof”, as a paedophile. Mr Dom Pipelassi Michael Dopass, a journalist and presenter of the radio programme, Sports and Investigation, was slammed a two-month ban following the broadcast of “unfounded claims” against football legend Samuel Eto’o, the NCC said.

The council also suspended the Sports and Investigation programme for same reason and same duration. The journalist who works for the Yaoundé-based Soleil FM is in pre-trial detention in the Cameroon capital for same crime. The Cameroon Journalists Trade Union (SNJC) was yet to comment on the latest sanctions by the regulator, but had described previous suspensions by the watchdog as attempts by government to muzzle the already gagged press.

Culled from The East African

21, December 2018

French National Assembly approves Macron’s tax concessions to ‘Yellow Vest’ protesters ⁰

The French National Assembly on Friday approved a package of emergency concessions first announced by President Emmanuel Macron in a bid to end the violent “yellow vest” protests. The tax cuts for low-income workers were put forward by Macron in a televised address earlier this month to help cool weeks of protests that brought major disruption to the country.

The measures provide a “quick, strong and concrete response” to the crisis, said the labour minister Muriel Penicaud in a debate which lasted into the early hours of Friday morning. The measures include the removal of a planned tax increase for a majority of pensioners and tax-free overtime pay for all workers.

Economists estimate the cuts will cost up to 15 billion euros ($17 billion). The concessions will now move to the Senate for approval. Tens of thousands of people joined rallies across France on consecutive Saturdays in a movement which sprung up over fuel tax hikes but snowballed into broader opposition to Macron.

Police this week said they would start removing barricades at roundabouts and on motorways after the demonstrations began to run out of steam.

The protests, which at times spiralled into violence, took a toll on the economy, with businesses counting the cost of supply disruptions, smashed property and a dearth of shoppers and tourists who stayed away from city centres.

On Thursday the president told critics of the fuel tax hikes “you’re right” after 1.15 million people signed a petition suggesting several other ways to fight fossil fuel pollution.

Macron called the petition a “citizens’ act”.

“Your message, I heard it. I am responding to you directly, you are right,” Macron wrote on the website Change.org.

He reminded the petition signers that his government has cancelled the planned increase in fuel tax and that no hikes in gas and electricity prices would be made during the winter.

While restating that reducing fossil fuels which contribute to climate change was a necessary action, Macron added that it “must not put the problems of the end of the world in opposition to the problems at the end of the month” alluding to the anger of the “yellow vest” protest movement about the cost of living in France and the difficulty in making ends meet.

The number of people who have been killed during the “yellow vest” protests since they began in early November rose to nine on Thursday after a 60-year-old man was hit by a lorry at a demonstration next to a motorway near Agen in southwestern France.

(AFP)

21, December 2018

Spanish PM, pro-secession leader agree to find solution to Catalonia crisis ⁰

Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the regional leader of Catalonia agreed Thursday to find a solution to the political crisis that has been festering since a failed secession attempt by the region last year.

The agreement was reached in a meeting in Barcelona between Catalan regional President Quim Torra and PM Sánchez, whose Socialist administration has taken a more conciliatory approach to the independence issue than its conservative predecessor.

Following the meeting, their governments issued a joint statement calling for a “commitment for effective dialogue that leads to a political proposal that has the backing of large part of Catalan society.” The statement, which The Associated Press has seen, was read out by the spokeswoman of the Catalan government, Elsa Artadi, after the meeting.

Artadi says that members of the two governments have agreed to meet again in January. The PM plans to hold a Cabinet meeting of his government on Friday in Barcelona, which radical separatist groups are expected to protest.

Sanchez, who also seeks to secure support for his minority government in the northeastern region, will gather his ministers in Barcelona in an attempt to help resolve a political conflict over Catalonia’s independence drive.

National police will be deployed in Barcelona to guard the cabinet meeting amid fears that extreme elements of the independence movement could stoke violence.

Jailed Catalan independence leaders however have called on protesters to demonstrate peacefully. Nine Catalan separatists, who have been jailed and await trial for rebellion, call for a “peaceful protest” during an upcoming cabinet meeting.

A lawyer representing former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and five other Catalan politicians who have been charged in Spain for violent rebellion has appealed to the UN’s Human Rights Committee to help defend their democratic rights.

Nico Krisch denounced a “grave interference in the democratic order” linked to the charges against Puigdemont, who lives in exile in Belgium, as well as Oriol Junqueras, Raul Romeva, Josep Rull, Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Turull. The five are being held in pre-trial detention in Spain.

The Catalan politicians have been charged and suspended from office by Spain’s Supreme Court for their roles in organizing an independence referendum in Catalonia 14 months ago. The Spanish and Catalan governments have been at odds since the Catalan Parliament issued an illegal and ineffective declaration of independence last year.

In October 2017, Catalonia unilaterally declared independence, prompting Madrid to take control of the region – which has 7.5 million people and accounts for about a fifth of Spain’s economy – and arrested secessionist leaders.

Source: Presstv

20, December 2018

IG’s Assertion on Biya’s Provocative Decree “Releasing” 289 Ambazonians ⁰

The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia expresses total disappointment in regards to the deceitful and unjust decree issued on Thursday, 13th December 2018, by French Cameroun President, Paul Biya. The decree ordered the discontinuance of some pending cases at their military tribunal in relation to 289 Southern Cameroonians/Ambazonians unjustly abducted since the beginning of the ongoing conflict in Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia.

The Interim Government considers the decree as a sign of confusion within the Yaoundé regime, and a big provocation to the peaceful people of Ambazonia, considering that there are more than 3,000 citizens from Ambazonia in different detention centers and prisons across French Cameroun and within the occupied territory of Ambazonia. Some of these victims have already been convicted and imprisoned on trumped-up charges.

The Interim Government has observed that the obnoxious decree talked of releasing some people who committed misdemeanors (minor offences), whereas the Yaoundé regime is not holding any Ambazonian for charges less than treason and acts of terrorism with death penalties hanging over their heads. Moreover, after reviewing the lists of purported detainees released by French Cameroun, the following irregularities were observed:

Names of deceased Ambazonians who died in prison as a result of the inhumane treatment meted on them by French Cameroun were on the list.

41 – Wolen Vitalis

43 – Wirsiy Frederic

According to family sources, some detainees who were supposedly released precisely from the Bafoussam Central Prison were never abducted or jailed.
Achankeng Fidelis
Ninju Felix
A sizeable number of the supposed detainees released are citizens from French Cameroun not Ambazonians and definitely had no connection with the ongoing conflict.
At the Yaoundé Central Prison (Kondengui), of the 82 detainees enlisted for release, only 63 were actually released.

The Interim Government hereby concludes that the decree is a covert, conceived manipulative plan, aimed at deceiving the international community that the brutal dictator Mr. Paul Biya is taking measures to end the war he declared on the people of Ambazonia over a year ago. His soldiers still continue to kill unarmed Ambazonia civilians indiscriminately and burn down entire villages.

Hon. Chris Anu

20, December 2018

CEMAC countries to harmonize trade laws ⁰

The Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) has finalized plans to harmonize laws governing trade in the sub-region, Fatima Haram Acyl, vice-president of CEMAC said on Tuesday.

“We are going to harmonize so we make sure that somebody that is trading in Chad, in Cameroon, Central Africa Republic or anywhere in CEMAC actually operates under the same law,” Acyl told reporters as trade ministers and economic experts from the CEMAC sub-region met in Cameroon’s economic capital Douala to adopt a legislation on competition and consumers protection.

She said the intention was to intensify integration in the sub-region that already has a single market and free trade zone.

“The CEMAC is one market. We have the same people, the same currency and free movement of people. So this exercise is very critical,” Acyl said.

The new legislation will attract more foreign investors and erase unhealthy competition and consumer exploitation that has retarded trade development in the sub-region for a long time, according to Acyl.

CEMAC is made up of Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of the Congo and Equatorial Guinea. With a total population of about 37 million, it was established to promote cooperation and exchange among its members.

Source: Xinhuanet