Nigerian High Commissioner to Cameroon, Lawan Abba Gashagar has met the so-called Speaker of the Senate, Marcel Niat Njifenji over comments made by former Nigerian Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo on the Southern Cameroons crisis. Niat Njifenji and Ambassador Lawan Abba reportedly held a meeting on Friday, October 27, 2017.

Lawan Abba Gashagar, recalled that Cameroon hosted thousands of Nigerian refugees and that to date, the two countries are thinking about the strategy to set up a process to accompany them to their country of origin in the best conditions.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that regarding the situation in Ambazonia, Lawan Abba Gashagar said that his country encourages a peaceful and diplomatic resolution of the problem.  “There is no question of supporting any situation likely to create problems for our neighbors, just as we do not want our neighbors to support a situation that will be a problem to us,” he added. Many Southern Cameroonians have taken refuge in Nigeria as a result of the rapes, extra judicial killings and massive arrests including genocide currently going on in Southern Cameroons.

In an interview on October 25, 2017 in the panafrican newspaper Jeune Afrique, Olusegun Obasanjo, former Nigerian Head of State made public his opinion on the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon. OBJ said that federalism is a good system of governance, because “thanks to federalism, each party can express itself on the future of the country and move at its own pace without disturbing others.” He also made a passionate call for President Biya to leave power.

By Rita Akana, CCN

Fighting between armed groups around the town of Batangafo in northern Central African Republic have left at least two dead and 10 wounded, aid workers said Monday.

Seven of the wounded were admitted to a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Batangafo and three were sent to a facility in Kabo, Sandra Smiley, with MSF in the capital Bangui, said.

UN sources said fighting broke out on October 24 between anti-Balaka militia — a group that says it is defending Christians — and another armed group, the Patriotic Movement for Central Africa (MPC).

At least two people died in the village of Saraghba, a few kilometers from Batangafo, but it was too dangerous to access the zone to get a complete toll, concurring sources said.

Batangafo is one of many hotspots in the violence that has gripped CAR over the past four years. In September, the death of a worker employed by a humanitarian group plunged the town into violence, leaving a confirmed death toll of six and 28,000 people without aid.

Mired in poverty but rich in diamonds and other minerals, CAR has been battered by a conflict between rival militias that began after then-president Francois Bozize was overthrown in 2013.

Under a UN mandate, the former colonial power France intervened to push out the Muslim Seleka fighters who had taken over, and the UN launched a peacekeeping mission in 2014. But the country remains chronically prone to violence, with armed groups controlling most of the country.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres, who last week made a four-day visit to CAR, is calling for the UN Security Council to renew the mandate of the organization’s 10,000 peacekeepers when it expires on November 15, and add another 900 blue helmets.

(Source: AFP)

Suspected Boko Haram militants killed at least 10 villagers in northern Cameroon on Sunday night in what army and local officials said was revenge for attacks by Cameroon’s army.

Cameroon’s semi-arid far North region has been a target of Boko Haram suicide bombings and raids for eight years as the Islamist insurgency spilled over the border from Nigeria, killing 20,000 and uprooting nearly three million in the Lake Chad region.

Cameroon forces have tried to beat back insurgents but have struggled to stop unpredictable attacks that have been the hallmark of Boko Haram’s bid to carve out an Islamic state. A senior army source said the attackers came to the village of Gouderi at 11 p.m. on Sunday and killed 11 people.

Two local officials told Reuters by phone that “about 10” had been killed. “It looks like revenge because the army killed Boko Haram members in this village and forced others to retreat to Nigeria,” the army source said.

Source: Vanguard

The Great Bibixy Mancho has appealed to the Biya regime and its gang of corrupt judges to release all Southern Cameroons young men and women detained in the context of the Anglophone crisis. The Hon. Bibixy Mancho made the declaration at the hearing on October 26, 2017 in the Yaounde Military Tribunal.

During the hearing, the radio host was the first to speak at the Yaoundé Military Court, “Madam President, Yes, I took part in the demonstrations, condemn me to death, but let these children go back to Bamenda, they did not do anything. They are detained in very bad conditions, without being able to benefit from the assistance of their parents. When some members of their families come to visit them in prison, they are stuck in front of the gate because they do not have a pass to get to them, it is better that they are judged in Bamenda where they can benefit from the assistance of their loved ones, “the leader said.

After his speech and that of the other detainees who denounced the inhuman conditions in which they are incarcerated, Mancho Bibixy who is the only geniune leader of the Southern Cameroons crisis remained in detention. He was accused by the state prosecutor for  instigating the rebellion in the Bamenda County.

Mancho Bibixy was arrested on November 30, 2016 in Bamenda. Seen once in a coffin during a march, on November 28, 2016, he also demonstrated with the MPs and Senators of the Social Democratic Front. But by some strange happenstance, Mancho Bibixy did not benefit from the so-called presidential pardon on August 29, 2017.

By Eyong Johnson, CCN

The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has begun intervention in the management of Cameroonian refugees streaming into Nigeria. More than 5,000 persons have already arrived five border communities, the Commission said, describing their situation as “worrisome”.

Following shutdown of the Nigeria-Cameroon border at Mfum/Ekok, Comptroller-General of Immigration, Mohammed Babandede, had said about 40,000 refugees were expected to migrate to Nigeria, as projected by the United Nations Refugee Agency, and that Cross River State was expected to host close to 30,000.

On Tuesday, Director General of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), John Inaku, led a team from the UNHCR to Utanga and Amana in Obanliku local government area, preparatory to an intervention in the crisis. He urged the host communities to sustain the tempo of their generosity. The team expressed concern over the challenge of meeting the needs of the affected and disclosed readiness to partner with Nigerian authorities to address the issue.

UNHCR official, Mr. Sam Agwa, said the condition of the refugees was disturbing, even as he commended the magnanimity of their host communities. Another staff, Mshilia Ibrahim, added that plans were underway to provide shelter for the refugees.

Eric Shu, coordinator of Rhema Care Integrated Development Centre, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), revealed that more than 50 women of the over 5,000 refugees in Utanga and Amana, were pregnant and needed urgent medical attention and shelter.

Source: The Guardian

Three United Nations soldiers were killed and two others wounded by an explosive device as they were escorting a convoy in northern Mali on Thursday, the peacekeeping mission in the West African nation said.

More than 80 members of the UN mission, known as MINUSMA, have been killed since 2013 in attacks by militant groups active in the country’s north and center.

The mission said in a statement that the peacekeepers’ vehicle struck the explosive device between the northern towns of Tessalit and Aguelhok around 2:30 p.m. (1430 GMT). It did not identify the nationalities of the soldiers involved.

“I condemn with the greatest energy such abject acts, whose only objective is to destabilize the country and harm the peace process underway in Mali,” said interim mission chief Koen Davidse.

The rise of extremist groups – some linked to al-Qaeda and Daesh – in the arid Sahel has alarmed Western powers like France, which has deployed thousands of troops to the region in response.

Four US Special Forces troops were killed earlier this month in neighboring Niger by fighters believed to belong to a local Daesh affiliate operating out of Mali.

(Source: Reuters)

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Gunmen mounted on pick-up trucks and motorcycles killed 12 gendarmes and wounded several in an attack on their base in western Niger, near the Mali border, on Saturday, two security sources said.

The village is a few dozen kilometers from where militants killed four US soldiers in an ambush on Oct. 4 that has thrown a spotlight on the US counter-terrorism mission in Niger, which straddles a large expanse of the Sahara.

The gunmen crossed over the border from Mali and drove up to the village of Ayorou, about 40 km (25 miles) inside, before springing their attack, the security sources said.

“They were heavily armed. They had rocket launchers and machine guns. They came in four vehicles each with about seven fighters,” said a security source on the scene.

One of the attackers was killed in an exchange of fire, he added. A spokesman for Niger’s military said he could not confirm any details of the attack.

Several extremist militant groups and well-armed ethnic militia are known to operate in the area near the border with Mali, and there have been at least 46 attacks recorded there since early last year.

However, security officials suspect a relatively new militant group calling itself Islamic State in the Greater Sahara to have been behind many of them, including the ambush on the joint US-Niger patrol.

(Source: Reuters)

The  Cross River State Police Command on Monday said that six residents of Danare community in Boki Local Government Area were shot by gendarmes from Bodam community during an invasion on the Nigerian territory by Cameroonians.

Hafiz Inuwa, the Commissioner of Police, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Calabar.

He said that a Cameroonian community, `Bodam’, on the border with Nigeria’s Boki Local Government Area, had been in crisis with Danare community over the international land dispute. Mr. Inuwa said after visiting Danare community that although no life was lost, six residents of Danare community were shot by the Cameroonians.

“We found out that six persons were shot and they are currently in the hospital as the pellets were being removed from their bodies. “They were shot by the people of Bodam village from Cameroon. We have advised the people to restore normalcy and shun all forms of crisis and allow the government to take charge.

Source: Information Nigeria

With Central and West Africa combating some of the world’s deadliest terrorist organisations Interpol brought police chiefs and counter-terrorism experts from the regions together to help streamline and enhance ongoing law enforcement efforts.

A two-day high-level meeting earlier this month in Yaoundé, Cameroon – the first of its kind – gave delegates from 21 countries an opportunity express their needs and be briefed on areas where Interpol can provide additional support.

This includes assistance in identifying and locating members of known transnational terrorist groups and supporters; helping countries bolster security at national and regional borders; preventing and combating the use of cyberspace for terrorist purposes; monitoring and detecting trafficking of weapons and chemical and explosive materials; and tracking and curbing the financial flows of terrorist organisations.

Opening the conference, René Emmanuel Sadi, Cameroon Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation said no region was immune to the threat of terrorism which required a unified and global response.

“The complexity of the challenges, the consequences of security gaps and exploitation of loopholes by terrorists requires a new kind of cross-border preparedness and response by police,” Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock said.

“The terrorist threat faced by central and west Africa is not only severe, but is escalating in frequency and impact. “We must build on national and regional expertise to further strengthen global security architecture if we are to develop a unified and effective response,” added the Interpol Chief, who highlighted the development of Interpol’s Regional Counter Terrorism Nodes (RCTNs) to achieve balance.

Based in Interpol offices, the RCTNs will enable counter-terrorism experts to sit side-by-side, enabling direct information exchange and rapid response capabilities to terrorist threats, backed by the Global Counter-Terrorism Centre at Interpol General Secretariat headquarters in France.

As part of a project to expand and modernise I-24/7, Interpol’s global communications network, Stock announced a EUR two million project to renew equipment in Interpol National Central Bureaus (NCBs) across Africa.

The results which can be achieved when frontline officers have access to Interpol global databases were recently highlighted by the arrest of two foreign terrorist fighters who were the subject of Red Notices, following checks against Interpol databases by West African border officials.

Increased exchange of identifying information is also a key issue for discussion. Biometric data, such as photos, fingerprints and DNA profiles, shared via Interpol have already led to positive identification of terrorists around the world, including via facial recognition.

Source: Defenseweb