News

24, June 2021

French Cameroun: Land dispute leaves two dead, four injured ⁰

At least two people have been killed and four others seriously injured Tuesday following a dispute over land in Cameroon’s Far North region, a government official said.

Jean Lazare Ndongo Ndongo, prefect of Logone-et-Chari division of the region, said that the feud flared early Tuesday in Makary subdivision after villagers of two rival communities paid a visit to the disputed parcel of land. A traditional leader and a notable were killed and scores of houses were set ablaze, he told local media.

“The situation is now under control. Culprits will be punished,” Ndongo said, adding that government forces have been dispatched to the area to restore peace and order.

Authorities have asked the villagers to desist from using force to settle disputes in the subdivision where militants of terror group Boko Haram are reported to be active.

Source: Xinhuanet

23, June 2021

Former Mauritanian president Aziz in jail over corruption charges ⁰

Mauritania’s former president, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, was on Tuesday jailed after a judge in charge of a corruption probe ordered his incarceration, his party and prosecutors said.

A prosecutor speaking on condition of anonymity and the spokesman of the former president’s party Djibril Ould Bilal confirmed his detention without citing the reason.

Aziz has twice gone before a magistrate investigating the case since the charges, including money laundering, were brought in March.

The move comes days after the former leader refused to continue reporting to police after being put under house arrest.

Aziz ruled the conservative West African state from 2008 to mid-2019, when he was succeeded by his former right-hand man and ex-defence minister, Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani.

The ex-president has said he is being persecuted in a bid to keep him out of politics, but has vowed he will not go into exile.

Aziz joined a small opposition party, Ribat National, in April in an attempt to salvage his political career after being expelled from the ruling Union for the Republic (UPR) party, which he had founded.

The 64-year-old former general who came to power in a coup already had to report to police three times a week and to seek approval before leaving the capital.

The charges followed a year-long probe initiated by parliament into the handling of oil revenue, the sale of state property, the winding up of a publicly owned food-supply company and the activities of a Chinese fishing firm.

A state prosecutor involved with the investigation in March said cash and assets worth the equivalent of about 96 million euros ($115 million) had been seized.

(AFP)

22, June 2021

Ambazonia War Casualty Report: Southern Zone ⁰

The French Cameroun Senior Divisional Officer for Kupe-Muanenguba, Jean-Marie Tchakui has confirmed the Amba attacks that claimed the lives of two Cameroon government army soldiers and a civil servan in Southwest.

The troops were killed in one incident, in Nguti on Friday, Mr. Jean-Marie Tchakui, told journalists during a press briefing.

“There were three soldiers. Two were killed on the spot,” said Tchakui. “And one was able to escape although he was wounded”,

“Our two soldiers died while on their way back from guarding a factory shut down due to threats by secessionists,” he added.

In the second attack, a delegate from the economy ministry in neighbouring Ndian Division was killed.

“What is certain is that he was murdered. His body was found,” Lawrence Nwafua, Senior Divisional Officer for Ndian Division was quoted as saying during Friday’s situation report.

The War in Ambazonia has already claimed at least 40 000 lives, almost all of them civilian children, men and women, murdered by Cameroun troops in a series of targeted killings, organized massacres, and killings by fire in over 400 villages burnt down to ashes across Ambazonia. Over half a million people have been forcibly displaced as refugees living in various countries and especially in refugee camps in Nigeria. Over another half a million people have become IDPs hiding in forests, caves and hills due to forced displacement. Additionally, over 1.5 million people are facing a humanitarian disaster.

Republique du Cameroun uses not only arson and the destruction of food, livestock, and crops in the fields as weapons of war. It also uses rape. Rape of Ambazonian women and girls by Cameroun government troops is systematic and widespread. This agonizing situation is compounded by the fact that a high percentage of Cameroun troops are HIV positive and also has other STDs. When they rape they infect the women and girls. This appears to be part of the genocide agenda of Cameroun. Reports are now emerging of scores of school girls raped, impregnated and infected by Republique du Cameroun’s troops. This poses a nightmare not only of the HIV and STD infections but also of rampant teenage pregnancies. Cameroun troops have burnt down health facilities and killed health workers in rural and semi-urban areas. Accessing health facilities or health practitioners is a huge challenge for rural and semi-urban folks.

By Chi Prudence Asong

22, June 2021

Amba fighters Kill 3 French Cameroun gendarmes in Ngoketunjia ⁰

Three gendarmes were killed by Ambazonia Restoration Forces in the Northwest region, the latest deaths in a bloody four-year conflict.

The attack on Saturday follows the murders of two soldiers and an official in the neighboring Southwest region in two separate incidents. Five other French Cameroun officials are still in Amba protective custody in Ndian Division.

“Three gendarmes who were at a checkpoint were attacked and killed” by Southern Cameroons Self Defense forces at Ngoketunjia. The French Cameroun civil administrator of the county Quetong Handerson Kongeh confirmed the Amba attacks and added that two of the three killed had been decapitated. A fourth managed to escape.

He said a large number of Amba fighters overwhelmed the gendarmes who “could not defend themselves.”

A bitter independence struggle by English-speaking Cameroonians has been raging in Southern Cameroons since 2017.

British Southern Cameroonians have long complained of being marginalized by the French-speaking majority and 88-year-old President Paul Biya, in power for 38 years. From 2017, their demonstrations devolved into a bloody conflict.

Ambazonia Restoration Forces have extended their violent attacks against police and soldiers to civilians suspected of aiding the Francophone dominated army.

UN and international aid groups say both army troops and Southern Cameroons forces have committed abuses and crimes against civilians.

In the past four years, more than 37,500 people have been killed and over 700,000 have fled their homes to escape the conflict.

By Rita Akana with files

21, June 2021

EU hails ‘progress’ on talks with Iran to restore 2015 nuclear deal ⁰

Top diplomats said Sunday that further progress had been made at talks between Iran and global powers to try to restore a landmark 2015 agreement to contain Iranian nuclear development that was abandoned by the Trump administration. They said it was now up to the governments involved in the negotiations to make political decisions.

It was the first official meeting since Iran’s hard-line judiciary chief won a landslide victory in the country’s presidential election last week.

Some diplomats expressed concern that Iran’s election of Ebrahim Raisi as president could complicate a possible return to the nuclear agreement.

Enrique Mora, the European Union official who chaired the final meeting of the sixth round of talks between Russia, China, Germany, France, Britain and Iran, told reporters that “we are closer to a deal, but we are not still there.”

“We have made progress on a number of technical issues,” Mora added. ”We have now more clarity on technical documents – all of them quite complex – and that clarity allows us to have also a great idea of what the political problems are.”

He did not elaborate.

Top Russian representative Mikhail Ulyanov said the members of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, “took stock of the significant progress made at the Vienna talks, including at the sixth round, and decided to make a break to allow participants to consult with their capitals in preparation for what is supposed to be the final round of negotiations.”

“There are a few controversial points which require political decisions. Apparently diplomatic efforts to find common language have been almost fully exhausted. So the time has come for political decisions,” Ulyanov added.

The nations involved in the negotiations have been trying to resolve the major outstanding issues on how to return the U.S. into the landmark agreement, which then-U.S. President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of unilaterally in 2018. Trump also restored and augmented sanctions to try to force Iran into renegotiating the pact with more concessions.

Ulyanov said after heading back to report on the talks’ results to their respective governments, he expected the diplomats to return for the final round of talks in Vienna in about 10 days and said they could finalize negotiations by mid-July.

“I believe we have all chances to arrive at the final point of our negotiations, maybe even by mid-July, unless something extraordinary and negative happens,” he said.

In a written statement after the talks Sunday, the E3 European senior diplomats urged speedy decision-making in the capitals involved in the talks.

“Delegations will now travel to capitals in order to consult with their leadership,” the diplomats wrote without giving their names, as is customary. “We urge all sides to return to Vienna and be ready to conclude a deal. The time for decision is fast approaching.”

Iran’s deputy foreign minister for political affairs said Sunday before the meeting that “we think almost all the agreement documents are ready,” according to semi-official Iranian news agency Mehr.

“Of the main issues that remain disputed, some have been resolved and some remain, but it has taken on a very precise form and it is quite clear what the dimensions of these disputes are,” Seyyed Abbas Araghchi said.

The U.S. did not have a representative at the table in Vienna. However, President Joe Biden’s administration has signaled willingness to rejoin the Iran deal under terms that would broadly see the United States scale back sanctions and Iran return to its 2015 nuclear commitments. A U.S. delegation in Vienna is taking part in indirect talks with Iran, with diplomats from the other world powers acting as go-betweens.

Sunday’s meeting was overshadowed by the election of Raisi in Iran, which puts hard-liners firmly in control of the government at a time when Tehran is enriching uranium at its highest levels ever, though still short of weapons-grade levels. Tensions remain high with Iran and both the U.S. and Israel, which is believed to have carried out a series of attacks targeting Iranian nuclear sites as well as assassinating the scientist who created its military atomic program decades earlier.

Raisi is the first Iranian president sanctioned by the U.S. government even before entering office, over his involvement in the 1988 mass executions, as well as his time as the head of Iran’s internationally criticized judiciary – one of the world’s top executioners.

In Jerusalem, new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned Sunday that Raisi’s election as Iranian president was “the last chance for the world powers to wake up before returning to the nuclear agreement and to understand who they’re doing business with.”

“These guys are murderers, mass murderers: a regime of brutal hangmen must never be allowed to have weapons of mass destruction that will enable it to not kill thousands, but millions,” he said.

Israel has long stated that it opposes arch-enemy Iran’s nuclear program and said it would prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Iran insists its nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said Sunday he hoped the election of the new Iranian president would not be an obstacle to reaching a deal in Vienna.

“We are very close. We have been working for two months,” Borrell told reporters during a visit in the Lebanese capital of Beirut. “So I hope that the results of the elections is not going to be the last obstacle that will ruin the negotiation process.”

(AP)

21, June 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Ambazonia forces given new directives ⁰

Restoration Forces: Our Responsibility in Battle

My Dear Restoration Forces,

The people of Southern Cameroon and the Interim Government of Ambazonia salute your courage and resilience in defending our homeland from the invading and occupying forces of La Republique du Cameroun. For nearly five years, these forces have committed heinous atrocities on our people and property. They have burned over 521 of our villages, killed over 20,000 of our people, including women and children. Their day of reckoning is looming as your successes on the battlefield over the last weeks are demonstrating. Your resilience is proof that nothing will stop us from achieving our collective goal. This time, it is total independence of our homeland or resistance forever.

Self-defense is a right, and it is a core component of our liberation struggle. As you continue to discharge the enormous duty of protecting our people and reclaim our land, the Interim Government of Ambazonia wants to counsel that you must observe international law at all times. War is a dangerous undertaking, but it has rules of engagement. We must achieve our goals of freedom whilst staying on the right side of international law.

The support and adoration you have received thus far for your work are well earned. But recently, there have been disturbing videos, images and messages on social media from the conflict in our country. These are the hallmarks of a regime on its last legs. Local militias loyal to the regime in Yaoundé have been carrying out atrocities, and they intend to pin some of these criminalities on you. So, you must be vigilant and not duplicate their savagery and cruelty. The Interim Government condemns atrocities like beheadings, kidnappings, extrajudicial killings, and torture robustly. As self-defense and pro-independence forces, you must not engage in any of these activities. However, we must understand that there will be consequences for our actions one day. POWs must be treated humanely at all times as they have rights that are protected under international law.

The Interim Government wants to be very clear that our Country Sundays must remain in place till further notice. However, as you continue to make significant advances on the ground, your Interim Government will pursue diplomatic avenues to help achieve our goal. We call on the UN to commission a UN Security Council Mandated Fact-Finding Mission to investigate the atrocities during this conflict. Such a mission will curb the loss of lives and bring this war to an end.

To all in Ground Zero, the Interim Government of Ambazonia urges you to persevere, for victory is coming our way soon. Therefore, remain focused as soon, we will be free at last.

Thank You,

God bless the Federal Republic of Ambazonia

Dabney Yerima

20, June 2021

Southern Cameroons situation deteriorating as fighting rages ⁰

Explosions and heavy gunfire have rocked the entire Southern Cameroons as the humanitarian crisis worsens. More than 3,000 soldiers have also been killed and more than two thousands of them have been seriously injured.

The Biya regime has not been releasing the numbers and names of soldiers killed in battle for fear that such news could demoralize its military.

The humanitarian situation in Southern Cameroons is dire and deteriorating. Thousands of Southern Cameroonians continue to seek refuge in neighboring Nigeria and many more displaced in French speaking Cameroun as fighting between government and Ambazonia Restoration forces rages on.

The death toll is thought to be more than 40 000 lives, almost all of them civilian children, men and women, murdered by Cameroun government troops in a series of targeted killings, organized massacres, and killings by fire in over 400 villages burnt down to ashes across Southern Cameroons.

To be sure, over half a million people have been forcibly displaced as refugees living in various countries and especially in refugee camps in Ghana and Nigeria. Over another half a million people have become IDPs hiding in forests, caves and hills due to forced displacement. Additionally, over 1.5 million people are facing a humanitarian disaster.

Every Monday streets in Southern Cameroons are deserted except for people fleeing the ongoing clashes.

The clashes pit troops nominally loyal to the 88-year-old dictator, Paul Biya, against Ambazonia Restoration Forces theoretically commanded by the Ambazonia Interim Government of Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe who is now serving a life sentence in Yaoundé.

The Biya Francophone government is hiding the numbers of soldiers killed and, in certain cases, it tells the families of the troops that their children have simply defected or escaped from the military. More than 1,000 army soldiers cannot be accounted for by the military and there are no efforts by the government to establish the truth about their whereabouts.

The situation in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia has deteriorated and there is random shooting and quite heavy mortar fire coming from both sides with locals not knowing who is responsible as both Cameroon government army soldiers and Ambazonia fighters are now dressed in the same military camouflage.

The Fighting appears to be escalating rapidly in the rural areas of Southern Cameroons with the Yaoundé government now deploying armor vehicles. Recent clashes in both the South West and North West have exposed several weaknesses in the Cameroon government military.

The US has announced visa restrictions against some senior government officials blocking the implementation of a peace deal. UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutterres has also been maintaining a kind of deliberate silence on the genocide going on in Southern Cameroons.

For the moment, the fighting appears to be spreading across the entire Southern Cameroons and it is threatening critical medical supplies for thousands of people in places such as Bui, Menchum, Ndian, Kupe Muanenguba, Akwaya, Meme and parts of Fako and Mezam.

About half of the population in Douala, the chief city in the Littoral region in French speaking Cameroun is threatened with famine; inflation is at 300% and Cameroon as a nation is effectively bankrupt.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

20, June 2021

Iran: Ebrahim Raeisi wins presidential election by landslide ⁰

Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi has won Iran’s 2021 presidential election by a landslide, according to the final results by the Interior Ministry.

At a presser on Saturday, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani-Fazli said out of a total of 28,933,004 votes cast in the presidential election, Raeisi garnered over 17.9 million votes, followed by Mohsen Rezaei who secured 3.4 million.

Nasser Hemmati garnered 2.4 million votes, and Amir-Hossein Ghazizadeh-Hashemi won almost one million votes.

Orf said he was not offering precise figures because vote counting was still ongoing and said he was merely providing preliminary updates.

Rouhani, Qalibaf meet Raeisi

Later in the day, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf turned up at the campaign HQ of Raeisi to congratulate him in person.

Following the meetings, the three briefed reporters on the content of their talks.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (L) meets with President-elect Ebrahim Raeisi to congratulate him on his election win, June 19, 2021. (Photo by president.ir)

Rouhani thanked all those in charge of holding, overseeing and providing security to the election process.

The outgoing president said his team was fully ready to offer any cooperation or assistance to their successors.

Similarly, Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf said the legislative branch stood fully ready to cooperate with the president-elect’s administration.

In turn, Raeisi pledged all-out efforts to resolve the country’s problems, especially those affecting the people’s livelihoods.

To achieve that goal, he said, he would consult with the outgoing administration, the parliament, and the elites.

Raeisi has been the chief of Iran’s Judiciary since 2019. The Muslim cleric has formerly held several other posts in Iran’s judicial branch since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Raeisi is associated with the Principlist camp, but he said he ran in the election this year as an independent when he announced his presidential bid last month.

He was campaigning with the slogan “Popular Administration, Strong Iran” on a platform of uprooting corruption in the executive branch, fighting poverty, creating jobs, containing inflation, and corruption.

Source: Presstv

19, June 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Seven soldiers killed in Ambush in Bamali ⁰

Seven soldiers have been killed in an ambush in Bambili in the northwest region of the country.

The soldiers were ambushed while on duty in the restive northwest region where a gruesome insurgency is currently unfolding.

The insurgency, which has displaced more than one million English-speaking Cameroonians, has already resulted in the killing of more than 7,000 Cameroonian civilians.

More than 3,000 soldiers have also been killed and more than two thousands of them have been seriously injured.

The government of Cameroon has not been releasing the numbers and names of soldiers killed in battle for fear that such news could demoralize its military.

Last week, some three army soldiers were hastily buried by their colleagues after Southern Cameroonian fighters ambush government soldiers in Otu in the Southwest region to hide the reality on the ground.

Sources close to the ministry of defense in Yaounde have disclosed that the government is hiding the numbers and, in certain cases, it tells the families of the soldiers that their children have simply defected or escaped from the military.

The sources add that more than 1,000 army soldiers cannot be accounted for by the military and there are no efforts by the government to establish the truth about their whereabouts.

More on the Bambili story will be yours as details come in.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

19, June 2021

French Cameroun: One year in jail for insulting 88-year-old President Paul Biya ⁰

A court in Cameroon has sentenced three plantation workers to 12 months in jail for insulting Africa’s oldest and second longest-serving president, Paul Biya, and members of his government.

The Mbanga Court in the Littoral region of the country on Thursday found Clement Ytembe Bonda, André Boris Wameni and Flavy Kamou Wouwe guilty of “contempt of the president of the republic” and “propagation of fake news via social media.”

A judge ruled that the trio, labourers at a banana plantation who are in their early 30’s, will each also pay a fine of FCFA 500,000 (about $922).

The convicts were arrested on June 10 after they were seen in a video raining insults on the 88-years-old leader and his top ministers. In the video, which went viral on social media, the main speaker, Bonda, used vulgar language to describe Biya and accused members of his government of siphoning FCFA 180 billion ($338 million).

In the clip, he said they labour at a banana plantation from 6am to 6pm, “under the rain and sun for a salary of $58.3 but ministers who loiter in the capital, Yaounde, go to their offices at 8am or 9am and turn around just for a few minutes and steal $338 million…All of you will go to hell.”

Two other convicts, who are accused of being Bonda’s accomplices, assisted in videotaping the young labourer’s outburst.

The video came after reports that Cameroon would be getting a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to aid the fight against Covid-19.

It also came after a preliminary report by the Audit Bench of the Supreme Court of Cameroon that showed there was glaring mismanagement and misappropriation of the $338 million coronavirus response special fund instituted in 2020.

The leaked report indicted several government officials of corruption, wasteful spending, improper accounting, unprocedural procurements, irregular allowances, conflict of interest and embezzlement of Covid-19 funds.

Barrister Fabien Kengne, lead counsel for the defendants, said he would appeal the ruling.

“It’s true…no one approves of the statements made, but we could have taken that as a rant. I found from my investigation that they do not have a criminal past. So these are honest citizens who were fed up,” the lawyer said.

Source: Daily Monitor