News

Testing Ambazonia’s red lines a risky experiment for the Cameroon gov’t soldiers

3, July 2021

Testing Ambazonia’s red lines a risky experiment for the Cameroon gov’t soldiers 0

The commander of the Buffalos of Nyonga providing security in the Bali District has warned that any provocative action along the Mamfe-Bamenda Main Road by Cameroon government troops would be testing the Federal Republic of Ambazonia’s red-lines and a risky experiment.

The Amba commander made the comment in a video released recently by the Buffalos of Nyonga detailing an attack against the Cameroon government army inside Bali saying the destruction of several Cameroon government military vehicles in Southern Cameroons is an indication that the Southern Cameroons Interim Government has red lines.

Ambazonia Restoration Forces beheaded Cameroon government troops who reportedly killed an influential Muslim cleric.

Cameroon government military officials admitted for the first time in public that June was the bloodiest month of the year, with more than 40 soldiers killed.

Cameroon government army spokesman Captain Cyrille Serge Atonfack Guemo confirmed that three troops were killed and beheaded in Bamali and many army vehicles were destroyed. Captain Atonfack did not give details on how many troops were killed inside the military vehicles.

Ambazonia is the indigenous name of the former United Nations trust territory of the Southern Cameroons under United Kingdom Administration for close to half a century, excluding the period of British connection with the territory from 1843 to 1887. When Republique du Cameroun took control of the territory, it split it into two parts and designated them as “northwest and southwest provinces/regions of Republique du Cameroun.” This was rejected and continues to be rejected by the people of the former British Southern Cameroons. The people of the territory insist on the indigenous name of their Homeland which is Ambazonia. This is consistent with a 1978 recommendation of UNESCO that African countries should call their countries by the name they wish to be known. Here, the designations ‘Ambazonia’ and ‘the Southern Cameroons’ are used interchangeably.

By Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

UN Security Council taking no practical step to promote peace in Southern Cameroons

3, July 2021

UN Security Council taking no practical step to promote peace in Southern Cameroons 0

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government says the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutterres has taken no practical step to promote peace and end the four-year-old war in Southern Cameroons. Dabney Yerima also stressed that what UN officials say is only meant for media consumption.

The exiled Ambazonian leader told a Southern Cameroons think tank in the Nordrhein Westphalia region in Germany that remarks by UN officials regarding peace in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia are only for propaganda purposes. Comrade Dabney Yerima furthered that the Ambazonia Interim Government have not witnessed any practical action supporting UN remarks.

Yerima also said that he was hopeful the Biden administration will push the UN to prove its seriousness about peace by stopping the French Cameroun raids and swiftly implement the visa restrictions on the Biya French Cameroun political elites.

The senior Southern Cameroons official revealed that the so-called Swiss proposed peace initiative ranges from plain fiction to the most absurd.

Vice President Dabney Yerima’s remarks come as all efforts by friends of Cameroon including the US, Canada, Germany and collective action at the international level for establishing peace and ending the Biya French Cameroun imposed war on Southern Cameroons have failed.

The leader of the Ambazonian nation, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe had earlier opined that the French Cameroun aggressor have to end all their attacks against British Southern Cameroons, take out all their troops and French speaking civil administrators and compensate Southern Cameroons victims before entering any peace process.

La Republique du Cameroun war, which Yaoundé had claimed would last only a few weeks but is still ongoing, has failed to achieve its goals.

The War in Southern Cameroons 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 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 French 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

Cameroon gov’t army raids not to affect Ambazonia resolve to fight occupation

3, July 2021

Cameroon gov’t army raids not to affect Ambazonia resolve to fight occupation 0

The Ambazonia Restoration Force says Cameroun government military attacks throughout the entire Southern Cameroons territory is now seen by the people of Southern Cameroons as a showy action and will not undermine the determination of Amba Self Defense Groups to fight against the French Cameroun occupation.

A spokesman for the Restoration Forces in Bui made the remarks in an audio statement on Thursday after the Bui Warriors slaughtered 40 of the 300 Cameroon government army soldiers deployed to Kumbo last week.

“Heavy deployments will not affect the insistence of our people and their valiant resistance to continue the struggle by all means to fight for their rights and end their suffering,” the Ground Zero Ambazonia commander said in the message.

“The recent French Cameroun military actions in Bui are nothing but a showy reaction to appease its corrupt leadership in Yaoundé and cover up escalating succession crises in French Cameroun,” he added.

The Restoration Force spokesman also stressed that Ambazonia Self Defense groups would confront French Cameroun hostile policies and would force the Yaoundé regime to respect Southern Cameroons rights.

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 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 Rita Akana in Bamenda

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Armed men kill physics teacher in Kumba

2, July 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Armed men kill physics teacher in Kumba 0

Gunmen stormed the home of a government school teacher in Kumba, opened fire, and killed him point-blank in front of his children.

The attack occurred on Thursday night in Kumba, a town in Cameroon’s restive South-West region, where separatist insurgents operate.

The victim, 52-year-old Fuh Max Dang alias grandpa was a physics teacher at Government Bilingual High School (GBHS) Kumba. He was also an examiner of physics for the Cameroon General Certificate of Education (GCE) Examination.

Kumba-based journalist, Divine Nyambot reports that the deceased physics teacher returned home shortly before armed men storm his residence and killed him.

“He had just returned home and was in his bedroom before the gunmen arrived. They knocked on his door and his children said ‘Daddy somebody is looking for you.’ That is how he stepped out of his bedroom before meeting with the unfortunate situation. His corpse has been deposited at the Kumba District Hospital mortuary, ”said Nyambot.

William Ndiba Itoe, publisher of Cameroon Echoes writes that: “Mr. Fuh was a very nice guy. I knew him for a long time. He was a GCE physics examiner and teacher of GBHS Kumba. He was a nice, and quiet gentleman. ”

He adds that: “They just got into his house at Station in Kumba yesterday night and knocked on the door. His kids opened the door and they told the kids to go and call for their father in the bedroom. When he came out they shot him without saying a word. ”

Although competent state services have opened investigations to shed light on the incident, public opinion in Kumba suggests that Fuh Max was killed simply because he is a teacher and is taking part in GCE exams.

No group has claimed responsibility for the murder of the teacher though popular opinions have accused separatist fighters of targeting schools, teachers, and schoolchildren.

Source: CIN

African leaders, Zambians pay respects to founding president Kenneth Kaunda

2, July 2021

African leaders, Zambians pay respects to founding president Kenneth Kaunda 0

Mourners waving white handkerchiefs, Kenneth Kaunda’s trademark symbol, paid tribute Friday at a memorial service for Zambia’s first president, who died last month aged 97, as VIPs hailed him as one of southern Africa’s great statesmen.

Neatly distanced in compliance with Covid rules, scores of Zambians stood on the terraces of the National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka, swaying to dirges and solemn music played by a military band.

A hero of the struggle against white-minority rule, Kaunda died on June 17 at a military hospital where he had been admitted with pneumonia.

He always carried a white handkerchief – an item that he said symbolised love and peace, and which he started carrying while incarcerated during the struggle for independence.

Zambia’s founding father was given full military honours, including a 21-gun salute and an airforce jet display.

A casket draped in the Zambian flag was driven on a gun carriage into the 60,000-capacity stadium and placed under a white marquee.

Braving the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the southern African country, several foreign dignitaries and presidents flew to Lusaka to pay their respects.

Zambia is among Africa’s top three countries reporting the highest number of new cases over the past week, after South Africa and Tunisia, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

“Today is a passing of an era,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told mourners.

“Kaunda was the last surviving leader of the generation who lit the path to Africa’s freedom from colonial misrule.”

“We will never be able to pay back the debt that we owe you,” Ramaphosa said, while Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu lauded Kaunda’s record as an anti-imperialist who “believed that … Africans deserved to decide our own destiny as a people and that we could not be discriminated against”.

The African Union’s commission chairman, Moussa Faki Mahamat, described Kaunda as “a unifier”, a “giant among men”.

“Had it not been for the selfless efforts of his generation, I would not be before you today, as the African Union would not exist,” he noted.

‘Defeated Goliath of oppression’

Also present were the presidents of Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Botswana, the prime minister of Lesotho, Britain’s Minister of African Affairs and Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland.

“He was a warrior who defeated the Goliath of oppression,” said Scotland.

British junior foreign minister James Duddridge, representing Zambia’s former colonial ruler, said Queen Elizabeth II was saddened by Kaunda’s death and that “the world has lost a great man”.

In a message, the British monarch said Kaunda’s “maintaining Zambia as a bastion against apartheid has earned him a place in history”.

Kaunda, popularly known by his initials of KK, was president of Zambia for 27 years, taking the helm after the country gained independence in October 1964.

He headed the main nationalist group, the left-of-centre United National Independence Party.

He was nicknamed by some “Africa’s Gandhi” for his non-violent, independence-related activism in the 1960s.

He hosted many of the movements fighting for independence or black equality in other countries around the continent – sometimes at a heavy cost.

But his popularity at home waned as he became increasingly autocratic and banned all opposition parties.

Taxi tribute

Zambia declared a period of mourning after his death, with flags flown at half mast, while his body was taken around the country for the public to pay their respects.

He will be buried next Wednesday at the country’s presidential burial site situated opposite the cabinet office in Lusaka.

Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera said Kaunda’s burial would signify the “planting of a vibrant seed”.

“From this seed, let’s harvest a new African generation with new pan-Africanism… free from corruption,” he urged.

Some taxi drivers in Lusaka drove with their headlights on as a way of mourning the country’s founder.

“We have agreed here that we will be driving with our lights on as a way of mourning Dr Kaunda, shikulu (grandfather). The loss is too huge, not only here in Zambia but the entire world,” driver Lazarus Daka, 37, told AFP.

Sources: AFP, REUTERS

Maurice Kamto denied entry to France

2, July 2021

Maurice Kamto denied entry to France 0

French authorities have rejected Cameroonian opposition leader Maurice Kamto’s visa application to attend a literary event near Paris.

Source: Africa Intelligence

Arrest and isolating Ambazonian leaders wrong and dangerous for Biya regime

2, July 2021

Arrest and isolating Ambazonian leaders wrong and dangerous for Biya regime 0

The Southern Cameroons Secretary of the Economy, Hon. Tabenyang Brado has insisted that the Abuja abduction and subsequent arrest of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides was totally wrong and that the Biya Francophone regime is now facing its last journey of many dangers in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.

Hon. Tabenyang told Cameroon Concord News US Bureau Chief that ever since the arrest of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, political and economic relations with La Republique du Cameroun are no longer possible.

“It was not only wrong but it was also very dangerous for the security interests of the two Cameroons,” Hon. Tabenyang added.

The Southern Cameroons front line leader also thanked Vice President Dabney Yerima for stabilizing and uniting the Ambazonia Restoration Forces with the Big Rubbergun Project saying, “We need unity and great leaders like Yerima to get to Buea.”

The power dynamics are no longer in favor of Cameroon government forces. In Southern Cameroons, the massive jungles and wide savannas is providing coverage for the determined fighters and they are making the most of this natural advantage. Those who doubted the determination and courage of these fighters had to think twice before expressing their views, especially as the number of body bags heading to French Cameroun is increasing by the day.

Our chief political man, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai opined that “The tell-tale signs of a political and military miscalculation had begun appearing on the government’s dashboard.

The fighting that started with hunting rifles has now seen AK-47s thrown in the mix and their presence has been a long nightmare to the Cameroon government military. These dangerous Russian-made war machines have cut short the lives of many soldiers, sending their families into long periods of mourning. Many are already questioning the rationale behind the fighting.

But the fighters are not yet done. They still have unfinished business. The Federal Republic of Ambazonia is not yet independent.

By Isong Asu with files from Camcordnews US Bureau

Ethiopia: A regional capital falls, and so does the stature of leader and its military

2, July 2021

Ethiopia: A regional capital falls, and so does the stature of leader and its military 0

The surprise fall of the Tigrayan regional capital, Mekelle, this week has put Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in a tough spot, dealt a blow to the country’s military and placed the Tigrayan forces in a position of strength. 

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed may have won a Nobel Peace Prize, but on Monday, June 28, he seemed unable to grasp the difference between war and peace, ceasefire and defeat, and – more critically – the distinction between spin and the hard realities on the ground.

The disconnect has threatened not just Abiy’s credibility, but the security of his country, the wider Horn of Africa region, and exposed the challenges confronting the African Union – based in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa – in its bid to deliver “African solutions to African problems”.

On Monday evening, reports started emerging from Mekelle, capital of war-ravaged northern Tigray province, that Ethiopian troops were suddenly withdrawing from the city. Before long, crowds gathered in Mekelle’s streets to celebrate the departure of Ethiopian government forces and welcome the arrival of Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) rebel fighters.

The Abiy administration, however, had an unusual spin on the latest development in the devastating eight-month-long Tigray conflict. The government had declared an “unconditional, unilateral ceasefire” in the province, according to a statement published by state media.

Tigrayan leaders offered a different narrative. 

In a statement released Monday night, Tigrayan leaders asserted that Mekelle’s fall was due to a “lightning operation” by the Tigray Defense Forces, a rebel army composed of members of the region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) as well as non-members. The TDF was formed shortly after Abiy ordered a military operation on Tigray in November 2020, and this was their “victory” against “the invading forces”, the statement proclaimed.

“It’s clearly, without a doubt, a military defeat. You can’t have a situation where one party declares a unilateral ceasefire while fleeing areas it once controlled. They could have at least said they retreated for tactical reasons,” said Awol Allo, senior lecturer at Keele University in England.

Days later, the official narrative was starting to unwind and the ceasefire was in doubt.

“If it is required, we can easily enter Mekelle and we can enter in less than three weeks,” Redwan Hussein, spokesman for the Ethiopian government’s task force for Tigray, told reporters in Addis Ababa on Wednesday.

Abiy, meanwhile, acknowledged that government troops had left Mekelle, and that his army units had been ambushed and “massacred” while advancing through Tigrayan villages. But he attempted to downplay the fall of the Tigrayan regional capital, insisting it was not a defeat.

“It was the centre of a government. A centre for known and unknown resources. But by the time we exit, there is nothing special about it except that there are some 80,000 people, and those who loot people,” said Abiy in a videotaped address posted on his website, vastly underestimating the city’s population of around 500,000, according to demographers.

‘Monumental fall from grace’

From a globally fêted peacemaker to hawk overseeing a conflict that has seen mass killings, displacements and allegations of serious human rights violations by the UN, Abiy’s international stature has taken a sharp nosedive over the past eight months.

“For Abiy, it’s such a monumental fall from grace. This is somebody who came to power on the back of widespread popular protests. He was popular, his team was popular, and he received extensive international praise for establishing friendship with the Eritrean dictator,” said Awol, referring to the 2018 peace deal signed by Abiy and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki.

Awol – who was among the experts who nominated the Ethiopian prime minister for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize – believes Abiy’s credibility began to slide with his attempts to “consolidate power and enact his childhood ambitions on 100 million inhabitants of Ethiopia”.

Abiy’s rise from rural poverty to the country’s highest office is by now the stuff of legend in Ethiopia, a rags-to-riches tale that acquires a messianic quality with every retelling. As recounted in a 2018 interview with the New York Times, the story goes that his impoverished mother once whispered into the ear of a 7-year-old Abiy that he would “end up in the palace” and “serve the nation”.

Critics, however, question whether Abiy, now 44, is best serving his country and its military, the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF).

“This is a military that has a reputation for being tough. Unfortunately, with this particular defeat of a big national force being repulsed by a tiny region, the Ethiopian military no longer has the same standing,” said Awol.

Rebel ‘mastermind’ rises from forced retirement

The Ethiopian military’s loss of stature has been the TDF’s gain.

On November 4, 2020, when the Ethiopian prime minister ordered a military operation in Tigray following escalating tensions with his former coalition partner, the TPLF, military experts immediately warned of a tough fight between “battle-hardened” troops.

With a combined force of around 140,000 active personnel, mostly in the army, the ENDF is considered a military heavyweight in the Horn of Africa region, one that has conducted cross-borders campaigns in neighbouring Eritrea and Somalia, and has been the backbone of the UN-backed African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

But the northern Tigray province – with its well-armed regional paramilitary force led by former national army generals – could also put up a fierce resistance, analysts warned.

That resistance strengthened as Abiy’s controversial use of Eritrean troops and militias from the rival ethnic Amhara group united Tigrayans, including those who had fallen out with the TPLF.

Formed in the 1970s, the TPLF emerged as the biggest and most powerful armed rebel group in Ethiopia following the 1991 ouster of brutal dictator Mengistu Hailemariam. The party then dominated Ethiopian politics for over two decades, overseeing economic development in the impoverished nation, but also maintaining power through repression.

The TPLF’s excesses sparked several splits within the ranks, including a particularly acrimonious one in 2001, following the end of the end of Eritrea-Ethiopia war.

One of the casualties of the internal TPLF splits was Gen. Tsadkan Gebretensae, considered one of Ethiopia’s finest military strategists, who was fired from his post as Ethiopia’s chief of general staff.

When Abiy launched a military offensive in Tigray, Gen. Tsadkan was among several former TPLF senior military officers who joined the freshly minted TDF.

“The TPLF is a party with a contested legacy because it brutalised the Ethiopian public for nearly a quarter of a century,” explained Awol. So when the TDF emerged out of the TPLF last year, it attracted “all the Tigrayans who disagreed with the TPLF in the past and who saw no reason to reject the TDF,” he explained.

Gen. Tsadkan immediately assumed joint responsibility for the TDF’s military affairs, and spent months training new recruits before the latest offensive was launched, wrote leading Africa analyst Alex de Waal in a BBC column. Following the spectacular fall of Mekelle, the retired army general is being hailed as the Tigrayan “mastermind” in a recruiting coup for the TDF.

No African solution for this African problem

Ethiopia’s decommissioning of senior Tigrayan military commanders raised eyebrows in November, when the AU fired its security chief a day after the bloc’s chair, Moussa Faki Mahamat, received a letter from the Ethiopian defense ministry requesting the Tigrayan general’s dismissal, according to Reuters.

Gen. Gebreegziabher Mebratu Melese was on a list of military officials accused of treason for belonging to the TPLF “junta”.

Headquartered in Addis Ababa, the AU has faced criticisms over its inability to intervene in a conflict that has killed thousands of people, displaced over a million and has plunged the area to the brink of a humanitarian disaster, according to the UN.

“I think the AU’s credibility is in tatters, its prestige has been undermined by its failure to tackle the issue or even table a resolution on the Tigrayan crisis. There is a widespread belief among Tigrayans that the AU simply followed the Ethiopian government’s talking points,” said Awol.

Following a call by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for the AU to do more to address the crisis, the bloc launched a commission in June to investigate alleged human rights violations in Tigray.

But like the UN, the AU is limited by the interests and actions of its member states, a fact underscored by the Ethiopian government’s call on the bloc to “immediately cease” the human rights commission leading the inquiry.

Eritrean troops, Amhara militias ‘sandwich Tigray’

The most serious implications of Abiy’s use of military force in Tigray, however, concern the future security and stability of his own ethnically diverse nation.

The Ethiopian prime minister’s use of Eritrean troops – which was officially denied as “fake news” for months – in northern Tigray and of Amhara militias in the southern and western regions was part of a “sandwich Tigray” strategy to isolate the recalcitrant province, according to analysts.

But by turning one ethnic group against another and inviting the involvement of a neighbouring country that has long been an enemy of the Ethiopian state, Abiy has played with fire. Those flames could engulf the nation and the region.

Traditionally, ceasefire declarations are welcomed as opportunities to try to bring warring camps to the table. But the Ethiopian government’s so-called ceasefire could spark an intensification of the conflict, many analysts warn.

“It’s difficult to bring the two parties to the table,” Awol explained. “Abiy invited the enemy country, Eritrea, and that’s really hard to reconcile. Barbaric crimes were committed, there’s been a polarisation of the populace and hatred fueled by propaganda. I find it very hard to see how the country can move on.”

On the domestic front, the Amhara “elites” have long contested pieces of territory in what is now Tigray province, particularly the Benishangul-Gumuz region near the eastern border with Sudan, where the massive Grand Renaissance Dam is under construction.

Politically sidelined in recent years, the Amharas nevertheless consider themselves the country’s cultural elites. Critics say Abiy has stoked Amhara nationalism, including frequent references to Menelik I, the first Solomonic emperor of Ethiopia who is believed to be the ancestor of the last emperor, Haile Selassie.

The rise in the TDF’s military fortunes are a troubling development for the Amhara militias, noted Awol. “The biggest losers could be the Amharas because the Ethiopian National Defense Forces have left. Will Abiy now defend the areas the Amharas have taken and now control? There will be military, economic and ideological problems ahead,” he warned.

The only hope, according to Awol, is for the international community, specifically the Western powers, to bring the two sides to the negotiating table. But the seasoned Ethiopian analyst is not putting any bets on a peaceful outcome in the short term.

“This defeat puts the government, that until recently resisted any suggestion of peaceful negotiations, in a very weak position. If there are any negotiations, the TPLF will be negotiating from a position of strength,” Awol noted.

It’s a position Ethiopia’s Nobel laureate leader is unlikely to accept in the spirit of peace.

Source: France 24

US: Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary under George W Bush, dies at 88

1, July 2021

US: Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary under George W Bush, dies at 88 0

Donald Rumsfeld, a forceful U.S. defence secretary who was the main architect of the Iraq war until President George W. Bush replaced him when the United States found itself bogged down after three years of fighting, has died at age 88, his family said in a statement on Wednesday.

“It is with deep sadness that we share the news of the passing of Donald Rumsfeld, an American statesman and devoted husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather,” the statement said. “At 88, he was surrounded by family in his beloved Taos, New Mexico.”

The statement did not say when Rumsfeld died.

Rumsfeld, who ranks with Vietnam War-era defense secretary Robert McNamara as the most powerful men to hold the post, brought charisma and bombast to the Pentagon job, projecting the Bush administration’s muscular approach to world affairs.

With Rumsfeld in charge, U.S. forces swiftly toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein but failed to maintain law and order in the aftermath, and Iraq descended into chaos with a bloody insurgency and violence between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims. U.S.  troops remained in Iraq until 2011, long after he left his post.

Rumsfeld played a leading role ahead of the war in making the case to the world for the March 2003 invasion. He warned of the dangers of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction but no such weapons were ever discovered.

Only McNamara served as defence secretary for longer than Rumsfeld, who had two stints – from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, for whom he also served as White House chief of staff, and from 2001 to 2006 under Bush.

Rumsfeld was known for imperious treatment of some military officers and members of Congress and infighting with other members of the Bush team, including Secretary of State Colin Powell. He also alienated U.S. allies in Europe.

In 2004, Bush twice refused to accept Rumsfeld’s offer to resign after photos surfaced of U.S. personnel abusing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. The scandal triggered international condemnation of the United States.

The United States faced global condemnation after the photos showed U.S. troops smiling, laughing and giving thumbs up as prisoners were forced into sexually abusive and humiliating positions including a naked human pyramid and simulated sex. One photo showed a prisoner forced to stand on a small box, his head covered in a black hood, with wires attached to his body.

Lightning rod for criticism

Rumsfeld personally authorized harsh interrogation techniques for detainees. The U.S. treatment of detainees in Iraq and foreign terrorism suspects at a special prison set up under Rumsfeld at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, drew international condemnation, with human rights activists and others saying prisoners were tortured.

He was a close ally of Bush’s vice president, Dick Cheney, who had worked for Rumsfeld during the 1970s Republican presidencies of Richard Nixon and Ford.

Rumsfeld became a lightning rod for criticism and, with the Iraq war largely a stalemate and public support eroding, Bush replaced him in November 2006 over Cheney’s objections.

Days after vowing Rumsfeld would remain for the rest of his term, Bush announced his departure a day after mid-term elections in which Democrats took control of Congress from Bush’s Republicans amid voter anger over the Iraq War.

Robert Gates, a soft-spoken but demanding former CIA director, took over from Rumsfeld in December 2006 and made sweeping strategic and military leadership changes in Iraq.

Many historians and military experts blamed Rumsfeld for decisions that led to difficulties in Iraq. For example, Rumsfeld insisted on a relatively small invasion force, rejecting the views of many generals. The force was then insufficient to stabilize Iraq when Saddam fell.

Rumsfeld also was accused of being slow to recognize the emergence of the insurgency in 2003 and the threat it posed.

The U.S. occupation leader under Rumsfeld, L. Paul Bremer, quickly made two fateful decisions. One dissolved the Iraqi military, putting thousands of armed men on the streets rather than harnessing Iraqi soldiers as a reconstruction force as originally planned.

The second barred from Iraq’s government even junior members of the former ruling Baath Party, essentially emptying the various ministries of the people who made the government operate.

Afghanistan invasion

Rumsfeld also oversaw the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 to oust the Taliban leaders who had harbored the al Qaeda leaders responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. As he did in Iraq two years later, Rumsfeld sent a small force to Afghanistan, quickly chased the Taliban from power and then failed to establish law and order.

U.S. forces during Rumsfeld’s tenure also were unable to track down Osama bin Laden. The al Qaeda chief slipped past a modest force of U.S. special operations troops and CIA officers along with allied Afghan fighters in the Afghan mountains of Tora Bora in December 2001. U.S. forces killed him in 2011.

Critics argue that had Rumsfeld devoted more troops to the Afghan effort, bin Laden may have been taken. But as he wrote in “Rumsfeld’s Rules,” his compilation of truisms dating to the 1970s: “If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.”

Another quote from “Rumsfeld’s Rules” was equally apt: “It is easier to get into something than to get out of it.”

Rumsfeld was known for his rollicking news conferences in which he sparred with reporters and offered memorable quotes.

Speaking in 2002 about whether Iraq would give weapons of mass destruction to terrorists, he said: “Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”

Rumsfeld later titled his memoir “Known and Unknown.”

“Stuff happens,” he told reporters in April 2003 amid rampant lawlessness in Baghdad after U.S. troops captured the Iraqi capital.

During his time away from public service, Rumsfeld became wealthy as a successful businessman, serving as chief executive of two Fortune 500 companies. In 1988, he briefly ran for the Republican U.S. presidential nomination.

Rumsfeld also served as a Navy pilot, U.S. NATO ambassador and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He and wife Joyce had three children.

(REUTERS)

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yerima, Amba Intel Chief discuss ways to achieve final victory

1, July 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yerima, Amba Intel Chief discuss ways to achieve final victory 0

Top leaders of the Southern Cameroons struggle have reportedly exchanged views on the latest Ambazonia gains against the Cameroon government military and ways to achieve ultimate victory against the Biya French Cameroun occupying regime.

En route to Brussels on Tuesday for a meeting on the latest developments related to the war in Southern Cameroons, the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dabney Yerima had a telephone conversation with the Ambazonia Intelligence Chief in Ground Zero.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that during the conversation, the two front line leaders spoke frankly on the situation in Bui and Otu in Eyumojock and its repercussions on the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé.

Southern Cameroons Self Defense Groups based in Ground Zero launched a counter offensive following heavy deployment of Cameroon government troops to Bui and Otu in Eyumojock. Soldiers loyal to the Biya Francophone regime turned a deaf ear an earlier ultimatum from the Ambazonia Interim Government and kept assaulting innocent Southern Cameroons civilians.

The Southern Cameroons was one of the territories set for decolonization in the context of the UN decolonization agenda. Britain’s devious handling of it and the British wheeling and dealing at the UN in 1959 and 1960 caused a great historical injustice to the people of the Southern Cameroons. That injustice continues to cry out for redress. British action resulted in the unconscionable imposition of an unnecessary and precipitated plebiscite with dead-end alternatives. Speaking through Lord Perth, Britain shamefully said the Southern Cameroons and its people were “expendable”.

The plebiscite was imposed in the teeth of opposition by the leadership of the trust territory. It offered a Hobson’s choice of ‘joining’ either Nigeria or French Cameroun. The internationally-prescribed political status option of sovereign independence was deliberately excluded. There was no good reason for doing so. On 11 February 1961, a skewed plebiscite was foisted on the people of the Southern Cameroons. Faced with the Hobson’s ‘choice’ that was forced down their throat, the people opted for independence in political association with Republique du Cameroun. It was agreed in writing between the two countries and to the knowledge of Britain and the UN, that the political association would take the form of an aggregative federation of two states, equal in status.

In 1972 Republique du Cameroun despotically ended the subterfuge of a federation and formerly annexed the territory of the Southern Cameroons as part of its territory. The Government of the Southern Cameroons was dismissed and its parliament dissolved along with the police and the public service of the federated state. All property, including artefacts, official documents and other archives, belonging to the Government of the Southern Cameroons was vandalized, destroyed in situ or carted to Yaoundé and simply burnt to ashes. The reason for this barbarianism was to erase any memory of the Southern Cameroons as a congener of statehood. Republique du Cameroun however continued to camouflage it’s predatory and expansionist politics under the cloak of what it instituted as so-called ‘United Republic of Cameroun’.

By Chi Prudence Asong

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