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US Latest: Biden arrives in Washington, Trump to depart in a grand airbase ceremony that he helped plan himself

20, January 2021

US Latest: Biden arrives in Washington, Trump to depart in a grand airbase ceremony that he helped plan himself 0

President-elect Joe Biden made a sober entrance to the nation’s capital Tuesday, ready to assume power as America reels from the coronavirus pandemic, soaring unemployment and grave concerns about more violence as he prepares to take the oath of office.

Biden, an avid fan of Amtrak, had planned to take a train into Washington ahead of Wednesday’s Inauguration Day, but scratched that plan in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

He instead flew into a military airbase just outside the capital on Tuesday afternoon and then motorcaded into fortress D.C. — a city that’s been flooded by some 25,000 National Guard troops guarding a Capitol, White House and National Mall that are wrapped in a maze of barricades and tall fencing.

Shortly before Biden departed for Washington, the U.S. reached another grim milestone in the pandemic, surpassing 400,000 deaths from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University.

“These are dark times,” Biden told dozens of supporters in an emotional sendoff in Delaware before departing for Washington. “But there’s always light.”

Biden, who ran for the presidency as a cool head who could get things done, plans to issue a series of executive orders on Day One — including reversing President Donald Trump’s effort to leave the Paris climate accord, canceling his travel ban on visitors from several predominantly Muslim countries, and extending pandemic-era limits on evictions and student loan payments.

Trump won’t attend Biden’s inauguration, the first outgoing president to skip the ceremony since Andrew Johnson more than a century and a half ago. The White House released a farewell video from Trump just as Biden landed at Joint Base Andrews. Trump, who has repeatedly and falsely claimed widespread fraud led to his election loss, extended “best wishes” to the incoming administration in his nearly 20-minute address but did not utter Biden’s name.

Trump also spent some of his last time in the White House huddled with advisers weighing final-hour pardons and grants of clemency.

Trump plans to depart from Washington Wednesday morning in a grand airbase ceremony that he helped plan himself.

Source: France 24

Fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region leaves more than 130 dead

19, January 2021

Fighting in Sudan’s Darfur region leaves more than 130 dead 0

The latest inter-ethnic violence to rock Sudan’s restive Darfur region had killed nearly 140 people by Monday, tribal leaders said just weeks after a peacekeeping mission ended operations.

Clashes left 55 people dead in South Darfur on Monday, after a separate round of violence in West Darfur reportedly killed 83 and displaced tens of thousands over the weekend.

It was the worst violence reported since the signing of a peace agreement in October, which observers had hoped would end years of war.

The bloodshed, which appeared not to involve any signatories to the deal, came just over two weeks after the United Nations / African Union peacekeeping force UNAMID ended years of operations.

While former rebels have committed to laying down their arms, decades of conflict have left the vast, impoverished region awash with weapons and divided by bitter rivalries over land and water.

In South Darfur, fighting broke out early Monday between the powerful Arab Rizeigat tribe and the Fallata, a cattle and camel-herding people who trace their roots to the Fulani of western Africa.

“The clashes between the Rizeigat tribe and the Fallata tribe have killed 55 people, and wounded 37 others,” local Fallata leader Mohamed Saleh told AFP.

Saleh said that several homes were torched in the attack, which appeared to be in revenge for Fallata tribe’s killing of a Rizeigat member around a week ago.

‘Deficient’ peace deal

The fighting in South Darfur comes after at least 83 people were killed in clashes between rival ethnic groups on Saturday and Sunday in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state.

On Monday, SUNA news agency quoted the West Darfur governor as saying the death toll was yet to be confirmed as uncounted bodies remained at the scene of the fighting.

Aid group Save the Children urged all sides to lay down their arms “before the situation gets out of control.”

The charity’s Sudan director Arshad Malik said the wounded had overwhelmed healthcare centres and that “we have seen disturbing photos of injured and dying people on the floors and corridors of hospitals”.

The group warned that “many children will have been separated from their parents, and will now be at risk of exploitation”.

Sudanese authorities said they had sent a “high-profile” delegation to calm tensions.

The vast north-east African country has been undergoing a fragile transition since the April 2019 ouster of president Omar al-Bashir following mass protests against his rule.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, an umbrella group which spearheaded the protests against Bashir, said Sunday that the violence showed the “deficiencies” of the peace deal, saying it failed to address the root causes of the conflict.

Bashir, who is in custody and on trial in Khartoum, is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged genocide and war crimes in Darfur.

‘Ugly face of war’

Darfur endured a bitter conflict that erupted in 2003, leaving roughly 300,000 people dead and 2.5 million displaced, according to the UN.

The war had erupted when ethnic minority rebels rose up against Bashir’s Arab-dominated government, which responded by recruiting and arming a notorious Arab-dominated militia known as the Janjaweed.

The main conflict has subsided over the years but ethnic and tribal clashes still flare periodically, largely pitting semi-nomadic Arab pastoralists against settled farmers.

On December 31, the UNAMID force formally ended its 13 years of operations in the region. It plans a phased withdrawal of its approximately 8,000 armed and civilian personnel within six months.

Fearing deadly violence, Darfur residents held protests in late December against UNAMID’s departure.

The UN secretary-general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric called on Sudanese authorities to “bring an end to the fighting”.

“Escalating inter-communal violence has resulted in scores of deaths and injuries, the displacement of nearly 50,000 people and the destruction of property,” he said in a statement.

Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, warned that “the ugly face of war” could return to Darfur and called for more aid and protection.

“International support must not fade,” Egeland tweeted.

Sudan’s transitional government, a power-sharing arrangement between generals and civilians, signed a peace deal with rebel groups in Sudan’s main conflict zones, including Darfur, in October.

Gibril Ibrahim, leader of the Justice and Equality rebel movement, wrote on Twitter that the violence in West Darfur was “a human tragedy”.

Another rebel leader, Mini Minawi, urged implementation of the peace deal and called for “reconciliation” between Darfuri tribes.

Two groups have refused to join the peace deal, the latest in a string of agreements, including the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) faction led by Abdelwahid Nour, which is believed to have considerable support in Darfur.

(AFP)

Douala: Belarus’ Honorary Consulate opens

19, January 2021

Douala: Belarus’ Honorary Consulate opens 0

The Honorary Consulate of Belarus has opened in Cameroon. BelTA learned from the Belarusian Embassy in Nigeria.

“The official inauguration ceremony and the opening of the office of the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Belarus in the Republic of Cameroon Igor Kolesnikov took place in the city of Douala. During the ceremony Governor of Cameroon’s Littoral Region Samuel Ivaha Diboua handed over the exequatur to the Belarusian honorary consul,” the embassy informed.

The event was also attended by representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cameroon, the Belarusian Embassy in Nigeria, executive and judicial authorities, the business community and the media.

In addition to that, the honorary consul and the representative of the Belarusian Embassy in Nigeria met with the governor of Cameroon’s Littoral Region to discuss promising areas of cooperation between Belarus and Cameroon. The governor expressed interest in visiting Belarus to learn more about its economic potential.

Igor Kolesnikov is a citizen of the Republic of Belarus, a doctor by education. He has been living in Cameroon since 1995. He is executive director of GROUP FORM S.A.R.L, a Cameroonian company that sells and services medical equipment in Cameroon. Igor Kolesnikov also runs a private practice in Douala. He is widely known in business circles in Cameroon.

Source: Eng.Belta

2 UN peacekeepers killed in Central African Republic

19, January 2021

2 UN peacekeepers killed in Central African Republic 0

Two U.N. peacekeepers were killed in an attack Monday in the Central African Republic, the United Nations said.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the peacekeepers came under fire on the Bangasso-Gambo axis.

Dujarric said nine U.N. peacekeepers have been killed “in hostile incidents” in the last seven days in Central African Republic and Mali.

The mineral-rich Central African Republic has faced deadly inter-religious and inter-communal fighting since 2013, when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power after long claiming marginalization. Resistance to Seleka rule eventually led to Muslims being targeted en masse, with some beaten to death, mosques destroyed and tens of thousands forced from the capital in 2014.

Violence has stepped up following recent presidential elections.

The Associated Press

CPDM Crime Syndicate: Court denies request to release opposition leaders

17, January 2021

CPDM Crime Syndicate: Court denies request to release opposition leaders 0

On January 12, an appeals court in Cameroon rejected legal efforts to secure the release of Olivier Bibou Nissack and Alain Fogue Tedom, two prominent members of the country’s main opposition party, Cameroon Renaissance Movement (Mouvement pour la renaissance du Cameroun, MRC), as well as twenty other MRC members. They were arrested in September 2020 while exercising their right to freedom of assembly and have been in custody since.

The court’s decision came after a lower court rejected a habeas corpus request filed by the defendants on November 5, 2020.

Nissack and Fogue face politically motivated charges including attempted revolution, rebellion, and unlawful assembly. They were first held in police custody for over a month at the Secrétariat d’Etat à la Défense (SED), in Yaoundé, before being transferred to Yaoundé central prison on November 3 for a six-month pretrial detention period. At SED, they were kept in total isolation, deprived of any reading materials, and frequently denied access to their lawyers.

Nissack and Fogue were arrested as part of a massive government crackdown on peaceful demonstrations organized by the MRC on September 22 across Cameroon, which included the arrest of over 500 people, mainly MRC members and supporters.

Many peaceful protesters were beaten while being arrested and in detention. “The police beat me with truncheons,” a 39-year-old MRC member arrested in Douala told Human Rights Watch. “I spent nine days at the judicial police jail, sleeping on the floor and without access to my lawyers.”

Of the over 500 arrested, at least 136 remain in detention, 20 of whom have been convicted and sentenced to prison by civilian courts, according to the MRC’s lawyers.

“In Cameroon’s criminal justice system, habeas corpus requests appear to have lost their value as individuals who are presumed innocent are systematically deprived of their liberty,” Menkem Sother, a lawyer for Nissack said.

MRC leader Maurice Kamto continues to dispute the 2018 presidential election results which confirmed the victory of President Paul Biya, who has been in power for 38 years.

Cameroonian authorities should respect people’s right to demonstrate peacefully, immediately release those wrongfully held, and investigate law enforcement’s conduct in the 2020 crackdown and treatment of detainees.

Source: Human Rights Watch

UN says nations are failing to fund climate adaptation

17, January 2021

UN says nations are failing to fund climate adaptation 0

The world is falling short of promises made under the Paris climate deal to help the most vulnerable nations deal with the increasingly devastating impacts of climate change, according to the United Nations.

Adaptation — reducing the fallout among communities and increasing their capacity to deal with climate-related disasters such as floods and drought — is a pillar of the landmark 2015 accord, which aims to chart a path away from catastrophic warming.

The deal requires signatories to implement adaptation measures through national planning, but also through funding to at-risk countries.

The UN Environment Programme Adaptation Gap report found that the current finance levels of around $30 billion annually for adaptation fell far short of the annual cost in developing nations of $70 billion.

It said the true cost of adapting to climate impacts in these nations could be as high as $300 billion every year by the end of the decade and $500 billion by mid-century.

“The hard truth is that climate change is upon us,” said Inger Andersen, UNEP executive director.

“Its impacts will intensify and hit vulnerable countries and communities the hardest — even if we meet the Paris Agreement goals of holding global warming this century to well below 2C.”

UNEP called for a drastic scale-up of public and private finance for adaptation, as well as increased investment in nature-based solutions such as protecting and sustainably restoring ecosystems.

– Limit losses –

With just over 1C of warming since the start of the industrial era, Earth is already experiencing more intense and frequent extreme weather such as droughts and flooding, as well as storms supercharged by rising seas.

Much of the devastation wrought by climate-linked disasters falls on developing nations, and despite promises to help out financially, richer countries still aren’t hitting their adaptation funding targets.

UNEP said funding for adaptation currently represented just five percent of all climate finance.

With the cost of natural disasters set to skyrocket this century, hard-hit nations are finding it difficult to secure the finance to rebuild after extreme events.

Mozambique, which was battered by twin cyclones in early 2019, said that one year since the disasters it had received less than a quarter of the estimated $3 billion it needed to recover.

The UN report found that cutting greenhouse gas emissions will provide a long-term economic benefit by reducing the costs associated with climate change.

Achieving the 2C Paris Agreement temperature rise limit could curb losses in annual growth to 1.6 percent, compared with 2.2 percent for 3C of warming — the current trajectory if nations’ current Paris pledges are upheld.

Under the deal’s “ratchet” mechanism, countries are supposed to file new emissions reduction plans — known as nationally determined contributions, or NDCs — every five years.

The deadline for the first round of new NDC submissions was December 31, 2020. However just 71 countries representing under a third of global emissions have done so.

UNEP says global emissions must fall 7.6 percent annually this decade to keep the more ambitious Paris temperature target of 1.5C in play.

Source: AFP

UN peacekeepers retake control of Central African Republic city from armed rebels

17, January 2021

UN peacekeepers retake control of Central African Republic city from armed rebels 0

United Nations peacekeeping troops have retaken control of a city in the south eastern Central African Republic (CAR), which was captured by armed rebels two weeks ago.

A spokesman for the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) told AFP that the peacekeeping forces were in control of Bangassou, lying on the north bank of the Mbomou River.

The spokesman said that the rebels had abandoned their positions following a UN ultimatum on Friday.

Bangassou was captured early this month by armed groups waging an offensive against troops loyal to President Faustin Archange Touadera.

Touadera, who gained power following the December presidential election, accuses former president Francois Bozize of leading the armed rebellion wreaking havoc in CAR.

Bozize, who had gained power in a coup in 2003, recently returned after years in exile. He was barred from running in the election by the country’s top court and faces charges of murder, arbitrary arrest, and torture.

The African country with a population of 4.7 million has endured waves of violence since Bozize, 74, was toppled in 2013.

The violence has left thousands of people dead and forced more than a million from their homes. 

UN peacekeepers, who have been deployed to restore peace and stability to CAR, come from about a dozen countries and consist of some 11,650 blue-cap troops, 150 military observers, 300 staff officers, 2,000 police officers and 1,400 civilian personnel, in addition to about 200 UN volunteers.

Since 2014, 82 members of MINUSCA have lost their lives during their mission in CAR.

The former European colony is landlocked between Cameroon, Chad, Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo.

Despite being rich in energy and mineral resources, CAR is one of the world’s most impoverished countries.

Source: Presstv

Iran test-fires ballistic missiles on targets at sea

16, January 2021

Iran test-fires ballistic missiles on targets at sea 0

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards test-fired ballistic missiles against targets in the Indian Ocean as they wrapped up a two-day exercise, their official website reported Saturday.

The missiles of “various classes” targeted “the enemy’s battleships and destroyed them from 1,800 kilometres (1,125 miles) away,” according to the Sepahnews website.

The missiles were fired from central Iran with the targets located in the “northern Indian Ocean,” the Guards said.

A video released by state television showed two missiles being launched and targets being hit at sea.

Iran’s armed forces chief of staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri was present on the second day of the drill, alongside Guards chief Major General Hossein Salami and aerospace commander Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh.

Using “long-range missiles for maritime targets indicates that if the enemies … show any ill will towards our national interests, maritime trade routes or territory, they will be targeted and destroyed by our missiles,” Sepahnews quoted Bagheri as saying.

“We do not intend to carry out any attack,” he said, adding that the exercise showed Iran’s readiness to defend itself “with all its strength” against any aggressor.

Dubbed Great Prophet 15, the exercise also featured a drone attack on a missile defence system followed by the launch of a barrage of “new generation” surface-to-surface ballistic missiles.

The war games come at a time of rising tensions with the United States in the final days of President Donald Trump’s administration.

It was Iran’s third military exercise in less than two weeks after a naval exercise in the Gulf of Oman on Wednesday and Thursday, and an army drone drill on January 5-6.

The exercises started two days after Iran marked the anniversary of the assassination of revered Guards commander Qasem Soleimani, killed in a US drone strike in Iraq in January last year.

Source: AFP

Southern Cameroons War: Explosions at Limbe stadium days before Tanzania opener

15, January 2021

Southern Cameroons War: Explosions at Limbe stadium days before Tanzania opener 0

Several vehicles were photographed in flames in an assault that has been reportedly claimed by a group called The Fako Action Forces

Explosions were reported outside the Limbe Omnisport Stadium on Thursday, just two days before the highly anticipated African Nations Championship starts in Cameroon, in an attack apparently linked to a local separatist group.

Heading into the Chan tournament, Cameroon have faced criticism for using a host stadium in the South-West region against a backdrop of local instability.

Zambia, Tanzania, Guinea and Namibia, who are in Group D, are expected to play at the Omnisport Stadium during the tournament, which is reserved for home-based African players. The first game at the stadium is scheduled to be between Tanzania and Zambia next Tuesday.

Although the attack did not have any fatalities, several cars were destroyed, amidst ongoing concerns about the safety of the region due to separatist tensions.

The reported terrorist act was claimed by ‘Fako Action Forces’, according to local source Journal du Cameroon. The explosion reportedly took place on the ‘perimeter’ of the Limbe Stadium, just one of the venues designated to host Chan matches.

Referencing Radio Equinox, Camer Press Agency reported the explosion was caused by a homemade bomb, with the shadow government from the Ambazonia State in Cameroon having released the following reminder and warning in the days preceding the attack.

Images circulating on social media have also appeared to show evidence of the explosion.

Apart from the Group D games, the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the tournament are expected to be held in the volatile region.

Cameroon’s security department has been battling reported insurgents in the region since 2016. Zambia, Uganda, Cameroon and Niger organised a mini-tournament in the host country between January 1 and 7 ahead of the actual competition.

The three visiting nations set up camps since then and are waiting to start their respective Chan campaigns. Cameroon will start the event by playing Zimbabwe at the capital on January 16.

Apart from the Omnisport Stadium in Limbe, other stadiums that will be used are the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaounde which will host Group A games. Group B fixtures will be played at Japoma Stadium in Douala, while Group C participants will be playing at the Douala Reunification Stadium.

Source: Goal.com

Biya regime doing all it can to implement unhealthy rivalry between IG and Amba Restoration Groups

15, January 2021

Biya regime doing all it can to implement unhealthy rivalry between IG and Amba Restoration Groups 0

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Dabney Yerima says the Biya French Cameroun regime is doing all it can to implement disunity among Ambazonian front line groups and prevent dialog between the two Cameroons.

“The Ambazonia Interim Government is interested in holding a frank, candid and confidence-building dialog with the people of La Republique du Cameroun and their government in Yaoundé powered by the United Nations Security Council,” Dabney Yerima was cited by Cameroon Intelligence Report Holland Bureau Chief as telling a war cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

Yerima, however, noted that “Unfortunately, the corrupt  regime in La Republique du Cameroun have been doing their utmost to keep Southern Cameroons restoration groups at daggers-drawn positions while thwarting dialog between the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and La Republique du Cameroun.”

The United States Congress on 8 September 2020 introduced Resolution 684 on the crisis in Southern Cameroons which was adopted on 1 January 2021.

The US Congress (Senate and House of Representatives) called on “the government of Cameroon and the separatist armed groups in the English-speaking regions of the North-West and South-West to put an end to all violence, to respect the human rights of all Cameroonians, and to pursue a truly inclusive dialogue with a view to resolving the ongoing civil conflict in English-speaking Cameroon”.

Resolution 684 “condemns the abuses committed by state security forces and armed groups in the northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon, and affirms that the United States continues to hold the Government of Cameroon accountable for safeguarding the security and constitutional rights of all its citizens, regardless of region, religion, or political opinion. In addition, it urges all parties to the conflict in Cameroon, the Government of Cameroon, U.S. foreign relations entities, and members of the international community to take specific steps to resolve the ongoing civil conflict in Cameroon.

The U.S. Congress was also critical of France’s action in the conflict.  “…France maintains considerable interests in Cameroon, including significant economic and security cooperation, but has not sufficiently used its influence to stem atrocities committed in English-speaking regions or to support stronger international action to seek a resolution to the conflict,” it said.

For the record, the crisis in the English-speaking region, which is now in its fifth year, has already resulted, according to NGOs, in more than 5,000 deaths and around 700,000 displaced persons. As a result of this conflict, some 3 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance and 855,000 children are out of school.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Dabney Yerima stated that the Southern Cameroons Interim Government had announced a proposal for the UN to send a fact-finding mission to Southern Cameroons which would be particularly aimed at developing dialog between Ambazonia and La Republique du Cameroun.

By Isong Asu in London

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