News

11, February 2021

US announces sanctions against Myanmar’s generals ⁰

Anti-coup protesters on Thursday took to the streets of Myanmar for a sixth consecutive day, after US President Joe Biden announced sanctions against the Southeast Asian nation’s generals and demanded they relinquish power.

There has been an outpouring of anger and defiance since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi last week and detained her along with other senior figures of her National League for Democracy party.

Security forces have used tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets against the protesters, with isolated reports of live rounds also being fired. Police also ramped up their harassment of the NLD with a raid on its headquarters.

But demonstrators again marched peacefully on Thursday in Naypyidaw—the capital and military stronghold—as well as Yangon, the largest city and commercial hub.

“Don’t go to the office,” chanted a group of protesters outside Myanmar’s central bank in Yangon, part of a civil disobedience effort urging civil servants and people in other industries to boycott work and put pressure on the junta.

“We aren’t doing this for a week or a month—we are determined to do this until the end when (Suu Kyi) and President U Win Myint are released,” one bank employee who had joined the protest told AFP.

There were also fresh rallies in the cities of Dawei and Mandalay, with protesters carrying signs that said “Restore our Democracy!” and “We condemn the military coup”.

US sanctions

Western nations have repeatedly denounced the coup, with the United States leading calls for the generals to relinquish power.

In the most significant concrete action to pressure the junta, Biden announced Wednesday that his administration was cutting of the generals’ access to $1 billion in funds in the United States.

“I again call on the Burmese military to immediately release democratic political leaders and activists,” Biden said, as he flagged further sanctions.

“The military must relinquish power.”

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has also warned the bloc could impose fresh sanctions on Myanmar’s military.

“This seems like a well calibrated set of measures… Also a strong signal that President Biden himself announced them,” Myanmar-based political analyst Richard Horsey tweeted, describing the sanctions as a “clear message” to the military.

Crackdown deepens

There were more reports of arrests on Thursday, including the deputy speaker of the parliament’s lower house and a key aide to Suu Kyi, taking the number of coup-linked detentions to more than 200, according to monitor Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

The military justified last week’s power grab by claiming widespread voter fraud in the November polls, which saw a landslide for Suu Kyi’s party.

It quickly moved to stack courts and political offices with loyalists as it ended a decade of civilian rule.

Fears are growing over how long the junta will tolerate the masses of people taking to the streets.

Live rounds were fired at a rally in Naypyidaw this week, critically wounding two people—including a woman who was shot in the head.

Images depicting the woman have been shared widely online alongside expressions of grief and fury.

“They can shoot a young woman but they can’t steal the hope and resolve of a determined people,” UN special rapporteur Tom Andrews tweeted Wednesday.

The military’s clampdown on information using internet blackouts—with tech companies ordered to cut communications intermittently—has drawn widespread condemnation.

Concern was also building Thursday that the junta was planning to impose a much harsher and sustained internet crackdown.

Tech-focused Myanmar civil society organisation MIDO tweeted that a draft cyber security bill had been sent to telecom companies, which would allow the military to order blackouts and website bans.

It would also require social media platforms to hand over users’ metadata.

Source: AFP

10, February 2021

Mali: 20 UN peacekeepers wounded ⁰

Around 20 United Nations peacekeepers were wounded in an attack on their base in central Mali on Wednesday, a UN spokesperson said, offering a provisional toll.

Unidentified militants attacked a temporary base near Kerena, a village in the war-torn centre of the Sahel state, at around 7 am.

Olivier Salgado, the spokesman for the UN’s MINUSMA mission in Mali, said the position was “targeted by direct and indirect fire.”

First established in 2013, the 13,000-strong MINUSMA has suffered one of the highest death tolls of any mission in UN peacekeeping history.

Over 230 of its personnel have died since the mission began, and improvised explosive devices killed five peacekeepers last month alone.

The latest casualties were from a Togolese contingent of peacekeepers, according to an official briefed on the matter, who requested anonymity.

Some peacekeepers were gravely wounded, the official added.

A municipal government official, who declined to be named, also told AFP that militants drove an explosives-laden vehicle into the camp before opening fire.

Mali has been struggling to contain a jihadist insurgency which first emerged in the north of the country 2012, and has since spread to the centre of the country and to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands more have had to flee their homes.

Four peacekeepers were killed by a roadside bomb in northern Mali on January 14, and one died the following day in a similar blast.

– Cycle of violence –

Central Mali is an epicentre of the Sahel conflict where assaults on soldiers and ethnic killings are common.

Ten Malian troops were killed in the same area last week when al-Qaeda-affiliated jihadists raided their camp.

The attack on the UN base comes ahead of several important political summits dedicated to curbing the Sahel conflict.

France and the G5 Sahel — a military alliance comprising Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, Niger and Mali — are due to meet in Chad on February 15 and 16.

Signatories of the shaky Algiers peace accord are also due to meet in the northern Malian town of Kidal on Thursday.

Mali’s government and several armed groups signed that agreement in 2015. Among other things, it provides for decentralising governance in the vast and ethnically-diverse nation of 19 million people.

Although the implementation of the Algiers accord has been extremely slow, the deal is viewed as one of the few escape routes from Mali’s cycle of violence.

Source: AFP

10, February 2021

US investigators say pilot error caused Kobe Bryant helicopter crash ⁰

The helicopter crash that killed NBA legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter and six other passengers was probably caused by the pilot becoming disoriented after flying into clouds, investigators said Tuesday.

Ara Zobayan, the pilot of the chartered Island Express helicopter, probably suffered “spatial disorientation,” the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.

Also likely contributing to the January 26, 2020 crash in Calabasas, California was “self-induced pressure” on the pilot to complete the flight for his celebrity client, the NTSB said.

The NTSB also cited “inadequate review and oversight” of safety management processes by Island Express as a probable cause of the crash but did not find that the helicopter had experienced any mechanical problems.

Bryant, 41, was traveling with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and six other passengers when the Sikorsky S-76 helicopter slammed into a fog-shrouded hillside west of Los Angeles. There were no survivors.

The NTSB said weather conditions were marginal on the morning of the flight but acceptable for flying under visual flight rules, where a pilot stays out of the clouds and maintains eye contact with the ground.

Shortly before the crash, the pilot said he was climbing to 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) to get above the clouds but the helicopter was actually in a steep left turn and descending rapidly, NTSB investigators said.

While the pilot perceived that the helicopter was climbing it was actually descending, they added.

“We are talking about spatial disorientation where literally the pilot may not know which way is up or down, whether he or she is leaning left or right,” NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said.

In its findings, the NTSB said “the probable cause of this accident was the pilot’s decision to continue flight under visual flight rules into instrument meteorological conditions which resulted in the pilot’s spatial disorientation and loss of control.”

Island Express was not certified to fly passengers in instrument conditions and the pilot violated the rules by trying to fly through the clouds, it said.

“He would have been illegal by going into the clouds,” Sumwalt said.

‘Likely self-induced pressure’

The NTSB also said in its findings that “contributing to the accident was the pilot’s likely self-induced pressure.”

“Self-induced pressure is a real thing,” Sumwalt said.

“Pilots are ‘can-do’ oriented. The pilot is paid to fly. “He wants to get the job done.”

Zobayan was ferrying Bryant that day from Orange County to Camarillo for a basketball game to be played by a team featuring the former NBA star’s daughter. Bryant was the youth team’s coach.

Two of Gianna Bryant’s 13-year-old teammates were among those who died in the crash along with an assistant coach on the Mamba Sports Academy team.

The NTSB chairman said the accident was avoidable.

“It could have been landed safely all the way up to the point where he went into the clouds,” Sumwalt said. “There were opportunities along the way to have reversed course and prevent this crash by simply landing.”

The NTSB said there had been “inadequate review and oversight” of Island Express’s safety management processes but it was not considered an unsafe operator overall.

“We did not find significant glaring issues with the organization,” Sumwalt said.

“They had cancelled a number of flights due to weather and that’s what we want companies to do.”

And while the 50-year-old Zobayan was considered an experienced pilot with more than 8,500 hours of flight time he “did make mistakes,” Sumwalt said.

“It was an issue of judgement and decision-making that led to this tragic situation,” he said.

Bryant was one of the greatest basketball players ever, an iconic figure who became a face of his sport during a glittering two-decade career with the Los Angeles Lakers.

He was a five-time NBA champion in a career that began in 1996 straight out of high school and lasted until his retirement in 2016.

He also was a two-time Olympic gold medalist, helping spark the US squad of NBA stars to titles in 2008 in Beijing and 2012 in London.

Source: AFP

10, February 2021

Southern Cameroons growing humanitarian needs have been enhanced by the Covid-19 outbreak ⁰

Since its independence in 1960, Cameroon has been facing socio-political issues in the anglophone North West (NW) and South West (SW) regions. In late 2016, local lawyers and teachers mobilised over demands for respect of the region’s Anglophone educational and judicial systems.

This escalated into armed confrontations, with the proliferation of non-state armed groups (NSAG) and the deployment of governmental military forces.

This ongoing conflict has led to a complex humanitarian emergency with 2.3 million people in need in 2020 (OCHA), including more than one million school-aged children.

The growing humanitarian needs have been enhanced by the COVID-19 outbreak, affecting the entire territory of Cameroon.

10, February 2021

Cameroon, Nigeria cooperating in counter-terrorism ⁰

The Nigerian military is currently working with forces from neighboring Cameroon to clear Boko Haram terrorists from the country’s volatile northeast region, the country’s new army chief said Monday.

“We are working in tandem with forces from Cameroon to annihilate Boko Haram,” Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru told journalists during an operational visit to troops in northeast Borno State, the heartland of over a decade of terror attacks.

He said his visit, the first since his appointment as army chief on January 26, was to receive briefs from army commanders in the theatre of operations against terrorists.

He disclosed forces from Chad will also be brought into the operation. He said it was a new operational strategy to end terror attacks in the area.

Nigeria shares regional borders with Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.

Source: Anadolu Agency

10, February 2021

Pirates Board Product Tanker off Cameroon ⁰

On Saturday night, the product tanker Sea Phantom was boarded by pirates about 115 nm off the coast of Cameroon in the Gulf of Guinea.

According to Dryad Global, the tanker was making about 13 knots on an easterly course, then took evasive maneuvers.

Multinational Maritime Coordination Center (MMCC) Zone D notified the Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea navies, and both dispatched response units. The Equatorial Guinea frigate Wele Nzas and Cameroonian patrol boat Dipikar responded, and a helicopter launched from Equatorial Guinea was the first asset to arrive on scene.

At least eight pirates fled when the helicopter arrived. Fortunately, the crew was found uninjured in the tanker’s citadel. The vessel arrived safely at Malabo, Equatorial Guinea on February 7.

“The key to disrupting this piracy attack was a combined response by two navies and the presence of a helicopter. The helicopter probably caused the pirates to flee before they could break into the Sea Phantom’s citadel,” said Captain Sylvestre Fonkuah, Cameroon Navy, ECCAS Zone D Commander.

It is the ninth incident in West African waters so far this year, Dryad reported. 2021 has started off with sevderal serious attacks, including a rare fatality during a kidnapping incident aboard the Turkish-operated container ship Mozart late last month.

Attacks instigated by Nigerian pirate groups account for the overwhelming majority of serious piracy incidents worldwide. All hijackings and 95 percent of all maritime kidnappings recorded last year occurred in the Gulf of Guinea, affecting 130 crewmembers in 22 separate attacks. One record-setting kidnapping occurred almost 200 nautical miles from land, and the average kidnapping occurred within about 60 nm offshore, according to IMB, illustrating the range and capability of Niger River Delta pirate action groups.

About 80 percent of the attackers were equipped with firearms, according to IMB. Nine out of the 11 incidents worldwide in which vessels came under fire occurred in this region.

“The latest statistics confirm the increased capabilities of pirates in the Gulf of Guinea with more and more attacks taking place further from the coast . . . Despite prompt action by navies in the region, there remains an urgent need to address this crime, which continues to have a direct impact on the safety and security of innocent seafarers,” said Michael Howlett, Director of the ICC International Maritime Bureau.

Following pressure from European shipowners, the European Council recently voted to establish its first ever “Coordinated Maritime Presences (CMP)” in the Gulf of Guinea, setting up a mechanism to “increase the EU’s capacity as a reliable partner and maritime security provider, offering greater European operational engagement, ensuring a permanent maritime presence and outreach in Maritime Areas of Interest.” A small number of European member states have already deployed their own naval assets to the region, resulting in several successful piracy deterrence and interdiction operations.

Source: Maritime Executive

8, February 2021

The 2 Cameroons: Young People Develop a Historic Resolution for Peace ⁰

Last September, amidst a bloody civil war between radical Anglophone secessionists and a brutal Francophone dictatorship, 89 courageous young people throughout Cameroon embarked on a journey to transform their country from a unitary authoritarian regime to a two-state democracy. The result was a historic seven-page document entitled “A Resolution for Peace by the Anglophone and Francophone Youth of Cameroon,” in which the children call upon President Paul Biya as well as leaders and citizens of the world to help them bring peace and equality to their beloved homeland.

The 15-week journey to justice, known as the Cameroon Peace Project, was developed and administered by the Global Justice Journal (GJJ), a US-based educational platform whose mission is to share the voices of youth who have been silenced by persecution and to assist them in creating positive social change. The project was facilitated locally by Kumba-based NGO, Survivors’ Network, whose staff recruited students and teachers for the program and forwarded the participants’ weekly assignments to GJJ. This may seem like a relatively easy task, but GJJ founder Cece Buckley insists otherwise.

“The decision to engage in this project was an extraordinary act of courage by our local partners, teachers and students,” says Buckley. “President Biya, whose regime has ruled Cameroon since 1982, has declared any discussion of federalism a crime punishable by imprisonment. So to develop a resolution calling for Cameroon’s return to a federal government is the ultimate form of passive resistance.”

According to Buckley, the vast majority of students had no idea that, upon achieving independence from France and Great Britain in 1960 and 1961, respectively, Cameroon was meant to be a federal republic consisting of two equal states — one Francophone and one Anglophone. In fact, it is virtually impossible to find a copy of the original 1961 constitution anywhere in Cameroon. Once participants learned the true history of their country, however, their path to peace became clear. As fanatical separatists continued to demand a violent division of the country and the reigning dictatorship continued to oppress 20 percent of the population for no reason other than their Anglo-Saxon heritage, the young Anglophone and Francophone peacebuilders reached across the cultural divide and set their sights on a groundbreaking collaboration.

In addition to discovering the history of their own country, students learned about the sometimes tumultuous history of Anglophone-Francophone relations in Canada. Through the use of texts, music and poetry, they also drew inspiration from peace leaders who preceded them, including Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and Leymah Gbowee, who was instrumental in bringing an end to Liberia’s civil war. Little by little, these shining examples of heroism instilled in participants the hope and confidence they needed to successfully graduate from the program on January 30, 2021 as the changemakers they were always meant to be.

Now their fate rests in your hands.

Source: Global Justice Journal

8, February 2021

Israel: Netanyahu appears in court to answer corruption charges ⁰

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appeared in court to formally respond to corruption charges against him, as his trial resumes weeks before legislative elections in the occupied territories.

He arrived at the Jerusalem al-Quds district court for a hearing on Monday morning under heavy security and after several delays due to the coronavirus lockdown.

Dozens of protesters demanding his resignation gathered near the court house, following weekly demonstrations held in recent months.

Netanyahu, who is the first Israeli prime minister to be indicted while in office, will likely be required to verbally confirm the defense filed by his lawyers.

In 2019, he was indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust stemming from three long-running cases.

Case 1,000 involves allegations that Netanyahu received luxury gifts from international billionaires in exchange for favors. In Case 2,000, he is accused of conspiring with the owner of the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper to undermine a critical daily. And Case 4,000 involves allegations that Netanyahu offered incentives to the Israeli telecom provider Bezeq in return for positive stories in the Walla news website.

It is the second time that Netanyahu attends a hearing of his trial in person.

The first hearing took place last May, where the premier alleged that the charges against him were “fabricated.”

He repeated that claim on Sunday, calling on his supporters not to come to the court to show solidarity with him due to surging coronavirus infections.

“I know you want to give me strength in light of the fabricated and false cases against me,” Netanyahu said. “But we are at a time when a [mutated strain] is spreading around the world and in Israel too, so for the sake of your own health I ask you: Don’t come tomorrow.”

Israeli parliament (Knesset) speaker and Netanyahu loyalist Yariv Levin had insisted that the court must postpone the trial, claiming it was unfair for the prosecution to present its case during the election campaign.

Proceeding now “will be lending a hand to blatant meddling in the elections,” he told Israel Hayom newspaper.

Israel will hold its fourth parliamentary elections in two years on March 23 amid public anger over Netanyahu’s graft charges and handling of the coronavirus crisis.

Source: Presstv

7, February 2021

Myanmar: Thousands gather for a second day of protests against military coup ⁰

Thousands of anti-coup protesters in Myanmar poured back onto the streets Sunday, as an internet blackout failed to stifle growing outrage at the military’s ouster of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The fresh rally followed the largest protests to date on Saturday, when tens of thousands came out in cities across the country to condemn the coup that brought a 10-year experiment with democracy to a crashing halt.

Thousands of chanting protesters marched in Yangon, backed by a din of car horns. They held up banners that said “Justice for Myanmar” and “We do not want military dictatorship”. Some waved the signature red flags of Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy (NLD) party.

“I completely despise the military coup and I am not afraid of a crackdown,” said Kyi Phyu Kyaw, a 20-year-old university student.

“I will join every day until Amay Suu (Mother Suu) is freed.”

Many demonstrators flashed the three-finger salute inspired by the “Hunger Games” films, which was used as a symbol of resistance by pro-democracy protesters in Thailand last year.

The protesters planned to hold a rally at Yangon City Hall, but access to the area was blocked by police and barricades. Demonstrators were forced to split into different groups as they tried to find a way around the checkpoints.

“We have decided. We will fight until the end,” said Ye Kyaw, an 18-year-old economics student.

“The next generation can have democracy if we end this military dictatorship.”

The surge in popular dissent over the weekend overrode a nationwide blockade of the internet, similar in magnitude to an earlier shutdown that coincided with the arrest of Suu Kyi and other senior leaders on Monday.

Online calls to protest the army takeover have prompted bold displays of defiance, including the nightly deafening clamour of people around the country banging pots and pans — a practice traditionally associated with driving out evil spirits.

Yangon residents repeated the pot-banging at 8 am on Sunday.

“#Myanmar’s military and police must ensure the right to peaceful assembly is fully respected and demonstrators are not subjected to reprisals,” the United Nations Human Rights office tweeted after Saturday’s protests.

Civil disobedience

As protests gathered steam this week, the junta ordered telecom networks to freeze access to Facebook, an extremely popular service in the country and arguably its main mode of communication.

The platform had hosted a rapidly growing “Civil Disobedience Movement” forum that had inspired civil servants, healthcare professionals, and teachers to show their dissent by boycotting their jobs.

On Sunday, a live Facebook video feed showed the Yangon protesters as they marched through the streets, as well as police in riot personnel standing by in some locations.

It was not immediately clear how the broadcast was bypassing the government block.

The military had widened its efforts to quell organised dissent on Friday when it demanded new blocks on other social media services including Twitter.

“The generals are now attempting to paralyse the citizen movement of resistance — and keep the outside world in the dark — by cutting virtually all internet access,” said Tom Andrews, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar.

In addition to Suu Kyi and some of her top aides, dozens have been detained so far.

The precise number of arrests is not yet known, but monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said Saturday that more than 150 people are still in custody.

International condemnation

Rumours that Suu Kyi had been released triggered brief but raucous street celebrations among her supporters on Saturday, before they were denied by her lawyer who said she remained in detention.

An immensely popular figure despite a tarnished reputation in the West, Suu Kyi has not been seen in public since the coup, but a party spokesman said Friday she was “in good health”.

Two days after the coup, criminal charges were filed against her related to the illegal import of a set of walkie-talkies.

The military had hinted at its coup intentions days in advance, insisting that the NLD’s landslide victory in the November elections was the result of voter fraud.

The Union Solidarity and Development Party, a military proxy, was trounced in the election.

Following the takeover, the junta proclaimed a one-year state of emergency after which it promised to hold fresh elections, without offering any precise timeframe.

The coup has been widely condemned by the international community, with US President Joe Biden leading calls for the generals to relinquish power and release those arrested in the post-coup crackdown.

(AFP)

7, February 2021

Buhari registered state terrorism on Nigeria’s record by abducting President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe ⁰

The Southern Cameroons Secretary for Communications, Milton Taka has said that the Nigerian head of state President Muhammadu Buhari successfully registered state terrorism on the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s official record by his administration openly accepting responsibility for the abduction and force repatriation of the Ambazonia leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides from Abuja to Yaoundé.

“Buhari was head of state in Nigeria when the Fulanis of Cameroon attempted a coup against the French Cameroun leader Paul Biya in 1984!! As the godfather of political Islam, Buhari gave all the Cameroon Fulanis involved in that coup a safe haven in Kaduna in Nigeria. But the same Buhari was quick to arrest and handover Southern Cameroons leaders to French Cameroun” Milton Taka told a press cabinet meeting in South Africa on Friday.

With what Buhari did with the Ambazonia leader and his advisers, state terrorism was eventually inscribed on the forehead of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Since the abduction of the Southern Cameroons leaders, the Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria denounced the act as “illegal and unconstitutional”. The Nigerian judge said that irrespective of whether the Southern Cameroons leaders posed a threat to the Nigerian state or not, the Federal Government did not follow due process and thus violated both the Nigerian constitution and articles 32 and 33 of the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Observing that their human rights were violated, Justice Chikere ordered their return to Nigeria. He also decided that the government should pay compensation of ₦5 million each to the 12 and ₦200 000 each to the 39 other deportees.

Elsewhere in his comments, Secretary Milton Taka said the US Senate Resolution 684 published on 01 January 2021 and the historic visit of the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin has provided the people of Southern Cameroons hope. Resolution 684 was unambiguous in illustrating the crimes of the French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé and for the first time threatened sanctions against senior members of the ruling French Cameroun gang.

“The abduction of our leaders was intended to stifle the Ambazonian struggle but it has instead galvanized a great movement” Secretary Milton Taka concluded.

By Isong Asu

London Bureau Chief