29, October 2016
Chadian Leader in Yaounde to comfort the Cameroonian people 0
President Biya has thanked his Chadian counterpart and Chairman of the African Union for coming to comfort the Cameroonian people after the railway accident that shocked the entire nation. The Chadian leader Idriss Deby Itno paid a 48 hour visit to Cameroon on Friday, October 28, 2016.
The two heads of State met head-to-head at the Unity Palace during a dinner offered by the presidential couple. Paul Biya thanked Deby for his presence after the tragic train accident on the 21st of October at Eséka. Said Biya, “As soon as you were informed of the rail disaster in my country, you sent us the condolences of the Chadian people and those of the people of the African continent in your capacity as Chairman of the African Union. This tragedy, this disaster, this event, shocked the entire Cameroonian people. Many of our compatriots have died … So many others were wounded.”
Biya added that “in addition to your message of condolence, you wanted to come in person today to bring us the comfort of your friendship. Thank you, Mr. President and dear brother. It is in trouble, they say, that one recognizes his true friends.”
President Biya did not miss the opportunity to magnify the relations linking the two countries in Central Africa. “These links are based on woven relations in history, between two neighboring peoples who have much in common. In the latest period, these relationships have shown that when the safety or even the existence of our country was threatened, we were able together to face and reverse the common enemy.” President Deby will leave Cameroon today, October 29, 2016.
By Sama Ernest
31, October 2016
Morocco: Protest rallies after a fisherman was crushed to death 0
Moroccans have staged protest rallies across the North African country after a fisherman was crushed to death in a garbage truck while trying to take back fish seized by police. On Sunday, thousands of outraged people marched on the streets of several cities, including the northern town of Hoceima in the country’s Rif region where the fishmonger lost his life on Friday.
According to local media and authorities, the street vendor, Mouhcine Fikri, jumped inside the trash truck that police used to destroy the confiscated fish in a desperate attempt to recover it when he was caught inside the crusher. Fikri, 31, was selling sword fish, which is not allowed to be fished during this time of the season.
Protesters blamed the police for the gruesome death and demanded an end to what they termed official abuse and injustice. Sunday’s rallies were called by activists from the February 20 movement, which organized demonstrations during the Arab Spring-style protests in 2011. Arab Spring refers to a series of uprisings and revolutions that started across the Middle East and North Africa in 2011 against unemployment, inflation as well as corruption, among other issues.
Fikri’s body was laid to rest in the area of Imzouren some 20 kilometers southeast of Hoceima in a huge funeral procession late Sunday afternoon.
“I have never seen such a crowd in the last few years, since 2011 at least,” said Houssin Lmrabet, an activist from the town of Imzouren, where thousands took part in the funeral of the victim and protests that followed. “Everyone feels crushed by that garbage truck.”
In an effort to calm tensions, Moroccan King Mohamed VI, currently on a tour of Africa, ordered Interior Minister Mohammed Hassad to visit the victim’s family and to ensure a “meticulous” investigation. Hassad denounced the incident and vowed that an investigation would be held to “determine the exact circumstances of the tragedy and punish those responsible.”
“No one had the right to treat him like this…. We cannot accept officials acting in haste, anger or in conditions that do not respect people’s rights,” Hassad said. The Moroccan Human Rights Association also censured the “heinous” incident and recalled another incident in Hoceima, in which five youths died during 2011 protests of the February 20th Movement. That movement emerged amid the Arab Spring uprisings that began in Tunisia when vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire after police confiscated his wares.
Presstv