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October 1: Vice President Yerima urges Ambazonian unity against French Cameroun military

4, September 2020

October 1: Vice President Yerima urges Ambazonian unity against French Cameroun military 0

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government has strongly urged all Ambazonia Restoration Forces in Ground 1 and in Ground Zero including their leadership in the West to sew up their differences and prepare to confront the French Cameroun occupational army on October 1.

Dabney Yerima made the comments on Thursday in Holland, after he reportedly had a joined plenary meeting of his fellow Southern Cameroons leaders.

“As we prepare to celebrate our national day this coming October, all Southern Cameroons Self Defense Groups must come together to tell the world that the Federal Republic of Ambazonia will forever remain united against French Cameroun colonialism” he said.

Vice President Yerima noted that the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and its people are going through an unprecedented and dangerous stage of their struggle with French Cameroun political elites attempting to distract Southern Cameroonians with their so-called regional elections.

The Southern Cameroons exiled leader pointed out that 35, 000 Southern Cameroonians were not killed for the purpose of staging a French Cameroun teleguided regional election in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Dabney Yerima again condemned the fledgling trend of détente between some Southern Cameroons traditional rulers and Minister Paul Atanga Nji and his occupying French Cameroun regime.

By Isong Asu in London

7 Killed in Suicide Bomb Attack in French Cameroun

3, September 2020

7 Killed in Suicide Bomb Attack in French Cameroun 0

At least seven people were killed and 14 others wounded in suicide bomb attack in a village hosting internally displaced people in Cameroon’s Far North region, the second of such attack in a month, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said on Wednesday.

The attack on Tuesday took place in Goldavi, close to the border with Nigeria, where some 18,000 people fleeing the violent insurgency, had sought refuge.

“We are horrified by these senseless attacks on people who have been torn from their villages, fleeing violence perpetrated by armed gangs which rage in the region, only to be stripped of safety again after they just found refuge elsewhere,” said Olivier Guillaume Beer, UNHCR Representative in Cameroon.

The UN agency said the recent attacks follow a significant rise in violent incidents in Cameroon’s Far North Region, including looting and kidnapping by Boko Haram and other armed groups active in the region.

A spokesman for Cameroon’s government was not immediately available to comment.

Suspected militants from Islamist group Boko Haram killed at least 18 people and wounded seven early last month in a grenade attack on a camp for displaced people in northern Cameroon.

The UNHCR said that an estimated 7,000 Cameroonian villagers near the border with Nigeria have fled their homes since 11 August, seeking safety in neighbouring areas.

“The displaced population has been targeted in relentless attacks, forcing them to flee,” it said, adding that the decade-long Boko Haram insurgency has killed over 30,000 in the Lake Chad Basin, and forced over three million to flee their homes.

Source: Reuters

US prepares for pre-election Covid-19 vaccine rollout

3, September 2020

US prepares for pre-election Covid-19 vaccine rollout 0

The US has urged states to get ready for a potential Covid-19 vaccine rollout two days before the presidential election, it emerged Wednesday, as France prepared to present a mammoth spending plan for its virus-hit economy.

Across the world, governments are hoping to announce a vaccine as soon as possible to reopen economies shuttered to contain an illness that has killed more than 850,000 people and infected over 25 million.

In a widely circulated letter, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked states to sweep away red tape that could prevent a network of vaccine distribution centers being “fully operational by Nov. 1, 2020.”

That is two days before voters head to the polls in an election clouded by the virus and the economic crisis it provoked, sparking concerns President Donald Trump’s administration is rushing to have a vaccine before November 3.

“The normal time required to obtain… permits presents a significant barrier to the success of this urgent public health program,” CDC head Robert Redfield told states in the August 27 letter.

“CDC urgently requests your assistance in expediting applications for these distribution facilities.”

Priority will be given to essential workers, national security officials, seniors and members of vulnerable racial and ethnic groups, according to The New York Times.

Three Western drug makers are progressing with their Phase 3 clinical trials, involving tens of thousands of participants.

AstraZeneca is partnering with Oxford University in England while Moderna is collaborating with the US National Institutes of Health. Pfizer and BioNTech are partnering on the third candidate.

– ‘Dangerous’ –

Under normal procedures, test administrators must wait — probably for months — to verify that vaccine candidates work and are safe.

The US Food and Drug Administration however has raised the possibility that a vaccine might be given emergency authorization before the end of trials.

The FDA has faced mounting criticism from the medical community that it is bowing to political pressure from Trump, who is behind Democratic challenger Joe Biden in the polls and has said one might be ready before the election.

“This means mass vaccination nationwide could start in 59 days. FIFTY-NINE DAYS. Is any #COVID19 #vaccine likely to have completed Phase 3 safety and efficacy clinical trials, and gone through full scientific and @US_FDA review in 59 days?” award-winning epidemiology writer Laurie Garrett asked on Twitter.

“To my knowledge, none of the US #COVID19 #vaccines have finished even enrolling test subjects for Phase 3 trials. Rushing this to completion within 59 days is DANGEROUS.”

FDA chief Stephen Hahn, however, has denied he is acting under pressure from Trump, arguing that any vaccine approval would be a “science, medicine, data decision.”

The US has registered more than six million Covid-19 cases — almost a quarter of the global total — and 185,000 deaths.

Shutdowns have taken a toll on livelihoods across the globe as business revenues plunge and millions are forced out of work.

In Europe, where GDP plunged 12.1 percent in the three months to June, fears are growing of more lockdowns and disruption this autumn and winter as the virus resurges.

The French economy has been pushed into its worst downward spiral since 1945, with GDP down 13.8 percent in the second quarter, after a drop of more than five percent in the first.

– Venice festival tribute –

Paris, hoping to ward off the threat of mass layoffs, has earmarked 100 billion euros ($120 billion) to counter the devastating impact of the coronavirus.

Some critics say the money may come too late to save many companies, while others say high hopes for President Emmanuel Macron’s green revolution in the French economy are likely to be dashed.

Economists have welcomed the departure from the kind of austerity measures seen after the 2008 crisis which were “a huge error,” said Philippe Martin, who heads up the CAE think tank, which advises the government.

Unlike the post-2008 crisis response, much of the new plan targets the supply and investment side of the economy, namely businesses.

The measures over the next two years include 10 billion euros’ worth of corporate tax cuts.

Youth employment is also a major target of the spending, with 6.5 billion euros aimed at encouraging hiring for millions of new entrants on a depressed job market.

In Australia, the government announced a record contraction of seven percent despite authorities providing billions of dollars in support to struggling firms.

New Delhi reported that growth suffered a historic 23.9 percent decline in the second quarter, while Brazil’s economy contracted by a record 9.7 percent.

And to add insult to injury for the sports-mad South American nation, football icon Neymar was one of three Paris Saint-Germain stars to have contracted the coronavirus, a well-placed source told AFP.

“Three Paris Saint-Germain players have confirmed positive Sars CoV2 tests and are subject to the appropriate health protocol,” PSG said in a statement.

When contacted by AFP, the club declined to confirm the identity of the players in question.

The virus failed to put the brakes on the Venice film festival in Italy, which opened Wednesday with a tribute to those who lost their lives from coronavirus.

The festival, rolling out on the glitzy beachfront Lido through September 12, is the first major international festival to take place since Covid-19 shuttered theaters, halted production and drove millions of moviegoers around the world to their television sets.

Source:  AFP

French Cameroun’s continued crimes, the only thing in the Yaoundé Special Status for Ambazonians

3, September 2020

French Cameroun’s continued crimes, the only thing in the Yaoundé Special Status for Ambazonians 0

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government has once again censured La Republique du Cameroun’s Grand National Dialogue that is yet to grant the so-called Special Status to the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, stating that the only thing that was achieved in the Yaoundé talks was the acceptance of the Biya French Cameroun’s regime continued acts of aggression against Southern Cameroonians.

In a statement on Wednesday, Vice President Dabney Yerima observed that the recent French Cameroun military atrocities in Bamenda demonstrated the only thing that was reached in Yaoundé by the Dion Ngute and Peter Mafany Musonge gangs.

Yerima also referred to the killings in Muyuka and Mautu where French Cameroun forces brutally murdered an elderly Southern Cameroonian woman and a young man who operated a small business in Mautu village.

After the Grand National Dialogue that held in Yaoundé, the French Cameroun leader and his ruling CPDM elites announced a Special Status for the people of Southern Cameroons in an attempt to normalize the crisis situation in British Southern Cameroons which sparked protests and condemnations from the Ambazonia Interim Government including its leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe.

Vice President Dabney Yerima vehemently condemned the actions of the French Cameroun army in Bamenda and said that Southern Cameroons groups should unite and strengthen the resistance front.

By Chi Prudence Asong

US slaps sanctions on ICC prosecutor Bensouda over Afghanistan war probe

3, September 2020

US slaps sanctions on ICC prosecutor Bensouda over Afghanistan war probe 0

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, over her investigation into whether American forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan. The Hague-based tribunal reacted denouncing an “unprecedented” attack against “the rule of law”.

“The International Criminal Court condemns the economic sanctions imposed by the US earlier today on the court’s prosecutor and a member of her office,” an ICC statement said. “These coercive acts, directed at an international judicial institution and its civil servants, are unprecedented and constitute serious attacks against the court, the Rome Statute system of international criminal justice, and the rule of law more generally.”

The war crimes court said it “continues to stand firmly by its personnel and its mission of fighting impunity for the world’s most serious crimes.”

Pompeo also said that Phakiso Mochochoko, the head of the ICC’s Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division, had been blacklisted under sanctions authorised by President Donald Trump in June that allow for asset freezes and travel bans.

“Today we take the next step, because the ICC continues to target Americans, sadly,” Pompeo told reporters.

In addition, Pompeo said that individuals and entities that continue to materially support Bensouda and Mochochoko would risk exposure to sanctions as well.

The US State Department also restricted the issuance of visas for individuals Pompeo said were involved in the court’s efforts to investigate US personnel. He did not name those affected, though.

‘Kangoroo court’ investigating war crimes in Afghanistan

The US move came after President Donald Trump authorised sanctions on the ICC on June 11 for probing and prosecuting US troops.

Pompeo at the time referred to the ICC as a “kangaroo court” and warned that if US soldiers are investigated by it, those of US allies in Afghanistan risk the same threat. US Attorney General Bill Barr said in June that the ICC has become “little more than a political tool employed by unaccountable international elites”.

Bensouda was given the go-ahead by the court in March to investigate whether war crimes were committed in Afghanistan by the Taliban, Afghan military and US forces.

The sanctions were announced just two months before US elections, in which Trump is running in part on his record of standing up to international institutions that don’t bow to US demands.

But Washington’s move also added to the broader pressure on the ICC to shore up its legitimacy, 18 years after it was founded to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

The ICC was founded by the Rome Statute, which entered into force in 2002, and has since been signed by 123 countries. The United States – like Russia, China, Israel, Syria and a number of other countries – is not a member of the ICC, and its opposition to the court is longstanding.

US Sanctions ‘only serve to weaken the fight’ against ‘mass atrocities’

The head of the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties, which groups the court’s member countries, said separately that it would meet to discuss how to support the tribunal in the face of the US measures. “I strongly reject such unprecedented and unacceptable measures against a treaty-based international organisation,” said assembly president O-Gon Kwon. “They only serve to weaken our common endeavour to fight impunity for mass atrocities.”

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was concerned by Pompeo’s announcement, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters. He said that “we trust that any restriction taken against individuals will be implemented consistently” with a decades-old US deal with the UN to host the world body’s headquarters in New York.

The United States revoked Bensouda’s entry visa in 2019 over the possible Afghanistan inquiry. But under an agreement between the UN and Washington, she was still able to regularly travel to New York to brief the UN Security Council on cases it had referred to the court in The Hague.

Rights groups immediately condemned the US designations.

Richard Dicker, Human Rights Watch international justice director, said it was a “stunning perversion of US sanctions”. “The Trump administration has twisted these sanctions to obstruct justice, not only for certain war crimes victims, but for atrocity victims anywhere looking to the International Criminal Court for justice,” he said.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS & AFP)

Rwanda genocide convict dies in Senegalese prison

2, September 2020

Rwanda genocide convict dies in Senegalese prison 0

The former deputy chairman of Rwanda’s ruling party during the 1994 genocide has died in a Senegalese prison, where he was serving a life sentence for his role in the slaughter.

Edouard Karemera, the deputy of Rwanda’s then-ruling National Revolutionary Movement for Development, was jailed by a UN-backed special tribunal in 2011 for genocide and crimes against humanity.

“I confirm the death of Edouard Karemera in Senegal. The cause is as yet unknown,” said Ousman Njikam, spokesman for the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT), which took over from the special tribunal when it formally closed in 2015.

A former Rwandan minister who was acquitted by the international tribunal told AFP that Karemera had been “sick for several days” and died on Tuesday morning aged 69.

He was transferred from Arusha, Tanzania, where the court was based, to Senegal in 2017, where he was held in the Sebikotane prison outside Dakar.

Karemera was also Rwanda’s interior minister in 1994.

He was convicted alongside former ruling party chief Matthieu Ngirumpatse.

After decades of tensions between Rwanda’s Hutu ethnic majority and the minority Tutsi, a killing spree erupted in April 1994 after a plane carrying Hutu President Juvenal Habyarimana was shot down.

Over the next 100 days, some 800,000 people — mainly Tutsis but also moderate Hutus — were killed.

The international tribunal was set up to try those who bore the greatest responsibility, while thousands of others were judged by Rwandan courts and grassroots tribunals known as “gacaca” that were set up to deal with the sheer number of cases.

After one of the key remaining fugitives, alleged genocide financier Felicien Kabuga, was caught in France in May, only six key suspects remain on the run.

A top French appeals court said on Wednesday that it would rule on September 30 whether Kabuga, who is 84 according to officials, will stand trial in France or before the UN tribunal in Tanzania.

(Source: Agencies)

French military in Mali says it killed civilian ‘by accident’

2, September 2020

French military in Mali says it killed civilian ‘by accident’ 0

French anti-jihadist troops in Mali killed a civilian Tuesday and injured two others after a bus refused to slow down in a volatile area despite their orders, the French army command said.

The incident occurred about 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the city of Gao in Mali’s troubled north.

The French soldiers fired warning shots in the ground but two bullets bounced off and hit the windscreen, wounding three people, including one fatally, the French army command said.

“The seriously wounded person was evacuated by helicopter to the hospital of the (French) Barkhane force in Gao, but died of his injuries,” it said.

“All steps have been taken to ascertain the exact sequence of events,” it said, expressing its “sincere condolences to the family of the deceased.”

Mali is now under the control of a junta which seized power in a putsch two weeks ago.

Swathes of its territory are outside of the control of central authorities and years of fighting have failed to halt an Islamist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives since emerging in 2012.

France has deployed over 5,000 troops serving in its Barkhane anti-jihadist force in West Africa.

A key part of French strategy to combat terrorism in the turbulent region lies with the so-called G5 Sahel force — a scheme to create a 5,000-man joint force gathering Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, Mali and Niger.

But the force lacks equipment, training and funds.

Source: AFP

Biya regime secures borders amid renewed threats

1, September 2020

Biya regime secures borders amid renewed threats 0

Cameroon says it is increasing security along its borders with the Central African Republic and Nigeria after suspected rebel incursions and interceptions of vehicles transporting explosives.

Government officials and the military braved a heavy downpour in northern Cameroon Monday to visit the commercial town of Pakete on the border with Nigeria. Jean Abate Edi, governor of Cameroon’s North region where Pakete is located said his trip is to make sure that the border with Nigeria is immediately secured.

He said intelligence reports at his disposal indicate that security is threatened on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria. He said henceforth vehicles known locally as Starlettes are prohibited from transporting goods into Cameroon from Nigeria and that the military has been reinforced along the Nigerian border.

Edi did not say how many more troops have been deployed to the border zone.

Jude Mofor, coordinator of a government operation to secure the border zone, said he invited the governor and his top officials because of the increasing wave of insecurity along the border. He says last week the military intercepted two vehicles bringing into Cameroon explosives from Nigeria. He said Starlettes are increasingly being used in transporting illegal and prohibited goods.

“As our normal duty, we control everything that enters the country. This Starlette was coming and then we stopped it and it refused to stop. Our boys used a special technique that we have to stop vehicles. While controlling, the two occupants of the vehicle ran away. It is then we discovered this stock of explosives,” he said.

Mofor said they had opened investigations to determine the origin and destination of the explosives. He said they also seized and were keeping what he described as huge quantities of prohibited goods from Nigeria that may undermine the security of Cameroonians.

The governor said he suspected that the explosives were either destined to commit atrocities in Cameroon or were in transit to the troubled neighboring Central African Republic.

General Agha Robinson, commander of Cameroon troops fighting insecurity on Cameroon’s border with C.A.R. and Nigeria also visited the border zones. Robinson said the military also has noticed an increase in the number of people abducted for ransom along Cameroon’s border with C.A.R.

Robinson said he has increased troops on that border because Cameroon has within a week reported eight incursions from suspected C.A.R. rebels.

“We came to analyze the operations ongoing so that the success we are recording these days should continue. We came down also to talk to our soldiers to make them know that they have to carry out their mission with professional consciousness. We want to end by calling on the population to go towards those soldiers to denounce [suspects] and then they [the military] will be able to defend them [easily],” he said.

Robinson said in one of the incursions, the rebels left with an undisclosed number of cattle and money they seized from ranchers in the border town of Tignere.

Civilians said two other attacks on merchants were reported in the border town of Galim. They said the rebels also seized gasoline and fled on motorcycles.

Last Sunday a confrontation with Cameroon military killed three suspected rebels remaining in Tignere.

The Cameroon military said it seized war weapons from the rebels who had attacked to gain supplies but gave no further details.

Cameroon shares an 800-kilometer long boundary with the landlocked C.A.R. There are currently some 250,000 C.A.R. refugees in Cameroon.

For the past eight years, sectarian Christian and Muslim militias in C.A.R. have been waging war against each other with horrific violence.

Source: VOA

Boko Haram kills a pregnant woman in French Cameroun

1, September 2020

Boko Haram kills a pregnant woman in French Cameroun 0

A pregnant woman living in Amtchali village at the outskirt of Mora town in French Cameroun was shot dead and the insurgents looted about 15 houses before leaving the village. The injured woman died while receiving treatment in a hospital in Mora.

Following the Armed forces’ continuous assault on the Islamist militants, the jihadists have stepped up raids on villages along the border, looting homes and abducting women.

On Thursday, August 28, the terrorists attacked an IDP camp in Kolofata at night making away with foodstuff and other valuables.

Two years ago President Biya said that Boko Haram had been defeated in the country. However, security is still a major issue in the two Cameroons with Southern Cameroons facing a bloody English-language separatist movement.

French Cameroun’s Far North Region for years has been the target of suicide bombings and other attacks by Boko Haram fighters who spilled over the border from Nigeria, where the extremist group is based. Nearly a quarter-million people in French Cameroun have been displaced.

Boko Haram fighters continue to attack French Cameroun military targets despite repeated Biya regime declarations that it has been crushed.

By Fon Lawrence

French Cameroun: Customs intercepts dynamite, explosives in Garoua

31, August 2020

French Cameroun: Customs intercepts dynamite, explosives in Garoua 0

200 explosives have been seized in Garoua in northern French Cameroun by custom officers.  A security source hinted Cameroon Intelligence Report that this is the largest seizure of military hardware by the Customs Department.

This seizure comes at a time when several towns and cities including the nation’s capital Yaoundé have been rocked by a multiplication of explosions.   We understand the seizure took place on Saturday in Pakete, a village located in the Demsa district whose capital is Gashiga, Benue Division in bordering the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

A spokesperson for the French Cameroun Customs Department revealed that the improvised explosive devices were packed in a vehicle coming from Nigeria.

According to security experts in the CEMAC region, the highly porous, poorly secured and easy to cross border between Nigeria and French Cameroun is conducive for smuggling and illegal migration.

Elements of French Cameroun defence and security forces have tested and confirmed the dangerousness of the explosives.

It is vital to include in this report that in recent months several bombs have exploded in Yaoundé causing many injuries and significant material damage.

By Fon Lawrence

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