News

15, January 2020

Sudan quells revolt of former agents after hours of gunfire in Khartoum ⁰

Sudan says it has quelled a revolt after hours of heavy gunfire between the government forces and former agents of president Omar al-Bashir in the capital Khartoum.

Gunfire erupted and some explosions were heard at some bases of the Directorate of General Intelligence Service, formerly known as the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) — the security arm of Bashir — early Tuesday afternoon, in what the government said was a violent mutiny over pay by members of the intelligence services.

Troops from operating centers of the intelligence started a rebellion in some parts of the capital, said government spokesman Faisal Mohamed Saleh.

He said a number of NISS troops had come out on the streets, set up barricades and opened fire in the air.

“This happened because those troops rejected the amount of money they got for their retirement,” Saleh said, adding that negotiations were being held.

Reuters quoted residents as saying that a security building was seized by gunmen near the airport.

A civilian walks past Sudan’s soldiers in the capital Khartoum, January 14, 2020. (Photo by Reuters)

The army said two soldiers were killed and five people injured in the gunfire. Medics said a 15-year-old boy and a soldier were among those wounded.

On Wednesday, the head of the sovereign council announced that it had reopened the airspace and that the army was in control of all intelligence buildings.

Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan also said he will never allow any coup to take place in the country.

Sudan’s prosecutor general called for removing the immunity of NISS troops involved in the revolt.

“Those members of the intelligence involved in what happened today have committed a crime … I call for their immunity to be removed so they can face justice,” the prosecutor general said.

The Forces of Freedom and Change — a key part of the transitional government — also said in a statement earlier on Tuesday that it was “assessing the situation.”

“We are calling on our people to be calm and not give a chance for those who want to drag our homeland into bloodshed,” it added.

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said in a Twitter message that the situation was under control and that “this will not stop us from achieving the goals of our revolution.”

People gather near the area where a gunfire erupted in the capital Khartoum, January 14, 2020. (Photo by Reuters)

A senior member of the ruling council, General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemeti, accused former intelligence chief Salah Gosh of being behind the rebellion.

He said he did not consider the unrest as a coup attempt, but such action would never be tolerated.

The former agents, who started the rebellion, were at the forefront of a bloody crackdown against demonstrations, which eventually led to the ouster of Bashir in April last year — 30 years after he took power in a coup.

At least 170 people were killed during the crackdown on demonstrations.

Late last year, a court sentenced Bashir to two years in prison for corruption and the illicit possession of sizable amounts of foreign currency.

The African country is now run by a transitional government, composed of military rulers as well as members of the protest movement.

Source: Presstv

14, January 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: The knife has turned inwards ⁰

When you dine and wine with the Yaoundé government, you must be very careful, as the government is a crime syndicate made out of the same mould as the Sicilian Mafia that sometimes carries out some internal cleansing.

For many years, the Yaoundé government has been conducting some purges and those purges have resulted in the imprisonment of many members of the ruling CPDM.

Prime Ministers, ministers and directors are all languishing in jail, proof that the Yaoundé crime syndicate does not spare anybody.

Today, it is the turn of the Fon of Balikumbat, a respected traditional ruler whose word is usually law to his people.

The game he is used to playing has finally become too dangerous even for his Yaoundé financiers who are now questioning his role in the ongoing armed conflict in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

The current Fon of Balikimbat in the Ngoketunjia Division of the North West Region was arrested on Tuesday, January 13, 2020 in Yaoundé.

He is being charged with many crimes and sins which could leave him in the dungeons of East Cameroon for a long time.

It is alleged that when the present Fon succeeded his father, he acquired a lot of arms under the watchful eyes of the Yaoundé government.

The newly minted Fon kept some of the sophisticated and dangerous arms for his personal security.

At the onset of the present crisis, the current Fon of Balikumbat selectively furnished some of his disgruntled youths with sophisticated weapons which are being used today to wreak havoc on army soldiers deployed to the North West Region.

Recently, the Minister of Territorial Administration and ex-convict, Paul Atanga Nji, forced the Fon to declare his allegiance to the Yaoundé crime syndicate.

This led to the Fon denouncing some of the the Amba fighters. The Fon sheepishly embarked on this mission which led to the arrest of some Amba fighters in the Ngoketunjia Division.

Under arrest and severe torture by the poorly trained armed forces, the Amba boys (brave Southern Cameroonian fighters) decided to provide proof of the Fon’s role in the struggle.

The boys revealed that most of the weapons had been handed to them during the early days of the struggle by the present Fon of Balikumbat.

The Yaoundé government conducted a so-called independent investigation, at the end of which, there was probable cause to arrest the Fon of Balikumbat.

He was arrested in Yaoundé on Tuesday and he is being accused of sponsoring and abetting armed groups in Southern Cameroons with the objective of destabilizing the country.

Sources close to the Fon have indicated that they do not know where the Fon is being held.

He has not yet been visited by a lawyer or human rights groups, but what is certain is that the Fon will not be going home anytime soon.

The Yaoundé government, which he flirted with for a long time, has suddenly become a millstone around his neck.

In trying to give up well trained Southern Cameroonian fighters to his Yaoundé master, he has ended up being hoisted with his own petals.

The knife has turned inwards and it is clear that the people of Balikumbat will have to look for a new Fon, as the current one will be with the thousands of Southern Cameroonian fighters languishing in the notorious Yaoundé maximum prison known by the population as Kondengui.

By Kingsley Betek in Cameroon

14, January 2020

‘Surviving was a miracle’: Iran’s missile attack on Iraq base ⁰

Waves of ballistic missiles, soldiers hunkered down in bunkers for hours, intense shock waves — a top US commander said he reacted to Iran’s unprecedented attack against an Iraqi base with “disbelief”.

In an exclusive interview with AFP at the Ain al-Asad airbase in western Iraq, Lt. Colonel Tim Garland said his superiors had given him “a couple hours of advance warning” last Tuesday night that an attack by Iran was coming.

“My first reaction was shock, initial disbelief,” he said, sceptical that Iran would be capable, and willing, to conduct a bold attack on Ain al-Asad.

The airbase was targeted in retaliation for the US killing top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad on January 3.

The base is one of the largest in Iraq, with 1,500 US troops making up the bulk of a coalition presence directly adjacent to thousands of Iraqi forces.

Getting those forces to safety was an act of quick thinking and coordination across the army and air force commanders at Ain al-Asad, Garland said.

By 11:00pm (2000 GMT), US and coalition forces had evacuated from their sleeping quarters and offices, and were hiding out either in fortified bunkers or dispersed across the base.

They waited, tense, for over two hours.

But not even their commander expected the strength of the blasts that came next.

“When the first round came in, it was the loudest, most powerful noise I’ve ever heard,” Garland told AFP.

– Shockwave ‘bowed door’ –

“There’s something unnatural about the air. The way it moved, the way it heated up; the shock wave that came in and bowed the door in and bowed it back out,” he said.

Starting at 1:35am and for the next three hours, around five volleys of ballistic missiles slammed into the base at varying intervals.

“I have not been that scared for a long time. It’s been a while,” said Garland, who has served multiple tours in Iraq.

“We didn’t know what it was going to look like — if there was going to be a carpet bombing effect,” he added.

When the strikes quietened around 4:00am, commanders and soldiers emerged from their bunkers to fires burning across the base, more than a dozen impact sites but — miraculously — no casualties.

Two soldiers who had been in guard towers were blown out of their positions but only suffered concussion, the commander said.

“How they survived was a miracle of God,” Garland remarked.

He said the volleys that hit the base were timed in such a way as to trick soldiers into thinking the bombing was over.

“It was just enough time to make you feel safe. It was my opinion that it was intended to inflict casualties,” said Garland.

Hossein Salami, commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said on Sunday the missiles it fired in the early hours of Wednesday were not aimed at killing American personnel.

By Monday, most of the impact sites had been cleared.

A bulldozer was piling up the last of the twisted metal and debris from the last site, located by the base’s airfield.

A soldiers’ living quarters had been totally pulverised and still smelt of charred metal.

Soldiers who lived there told AFP they had lost all their personal belongings — clothes, books, pictures of their families and mementos they had carried through more than a decade in the military.

But given the intensity of the strikes, Garland said, they were lucky.

“Theatre ballistic missile strikes. That’s unprecedented,” he said.

Source: AFP

14, January 2020

Macron says ‘hopes to convince’ Trump to keep US forces in Africa ⁰

French President Emmanuel Macron says that he “hopes to convince” his US counterpart Donald Trump to keep American troops in Africa, after a top general said the Pentagon was weighing a troop reduction.

“If the Americans decided to leave Africa, this would be very bad news for us,” Macron said after a summit meeting with leaders of five Sahel nations fighting a mounting Islamist insurgency.

(Source: AFP)

14, January 2020

Niger: Army chief fired as terrorists kill 174 soldiers within 2 months ⁰

Niger’s president has fired the army’s chief of staff after attacks against security forces have killed at least 174 security force members since December.

President Issoufou Mahamadou’s action on Monday came after the death toll from an attack by Islamic extremists on Niger’s military last week rose to at least 89, making it the most deadly attack of its kind in years in the West African nation.

The fatalities from the attack Thursday rose dramatically from the 25 soldiers that the government initially said were killed last week.

In addition to the soldiers killed in that attack on the Chinagrodrar Advanced Military post near the border with Mali, at least 77 extremists were killed by Niger’s army and its foreign allies, most notably France and the United States, according to a statement issued Sunday by the government.

The military’s response, which included air support, pushed the extremists from Niger, the government said. There will be three days of national mourning beginning Monday, the government announced.

Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Ahmed Mohamed will be replaced by Brig-Gen. Salifou Modi, who was the military attache for Niger in Germany, the presidential statement said Monday. He also dismissed the Secretary General of the Ministry of National Defense and the Chief of Land Staff.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for Thursday’s attack, but the attack bore the hallmarks of an Islamic State-linked group that said it was behind the December ambush near the town of Inates that killed 71 soldiers and was previously the most deadly attack of its kind in Niger in years.

“The government calls on the population to be more vigilant, more serene and united, and reaffirms its determination to continue the fight against terrorism until the final victory,” the government statement said.

The increase in the death toll as a summit opens in Pau, France, that is to be attended by French President Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger Mauritania.

Those countries make up the G5 Sahel groups that are working with France against the threat of extremists in the region. The crisis of extremist violence across the Sahel is deepening, particularly in Burkina Faso and Mali.

Islamic extremists also targeted and killed 14 Niger security force members who were escorting election officials on Dec. 25 near Sanam, about 200 kilometers (124.27 miles) from the capital of Niamey. Officials from the national electoral commission were in the area to conduct a census before next year’s vote.

Niger’s military has received training for years from both American and French forces, but these attacks underscore the threat extremists still pose.

Source: AP

13, January 2020

Cameroon military threatens to burn down villages in Manyu Division ⁰

Soldiers deployed to Manyu Division in the Southwest Region of Cameroon have threatened ordinary citizens in Mkpot, Mbatop and Ebam with death if they do not reveal where the tough Southern Cameroonian fighters known as Amba boys are hiding.

The sex-starved, alcohol-inflamed and trigger-happy soldiers on Monday, January 13, 2020, stormed several villages in the highly volatile region of Manyu Division, threatening innocent civilians they would burn their villages the next time they returned to those villages if the whereabouts of the Amba fighters were not revealed.

The frustrated and scared soldiers hold that civilians are sympathizing with the fighters and if they can succeed to strike fear in the minds of the villagers, they will be able to put the Amba boys out of business before the fake twin elections scheduled for February 9, 2020.

The Yaounde government has, since January 2019, been using armed militiamen to do its dirty job in Southern Cameroons.

Some of the armed militiamen are also wear army uniforms, though they have not been trained accordingly.

It is being alleged that the armed militiamen are from President Paul Biya’s South Region and the whole idea of using militiamen to wreak havoc in Southern Cameroons is an idea engineered by defense minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, and higher education minister, Jacques Fame Ndongo, both of whom hail from the South Region.

The country’s territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, an ex-convict, has also trained his own militiamen and released them on the population of the two English-speaking regions of the country where they are running amok.

Regarding the threats issued in Manyu Division by wreckless soldiers, unconfirmed sources say the Cameroon military is being aided in the commission of its atrocities by the Mkpot Chief, Nchong Thomas Nkongho, who many consider as a black leg.

It is also alleged that the Mkpot chief now dresses up in military fatigue and bears an AK47 and a pistol for self-protection, as he is in the crosshairs of Amba boys who hold that he has been betraying them and the Southern Cameroons cause for total independence.

Residents of Mkpot hold that Mr. Nchong Thomas brought the military to Mkpot and aided and abetted the trigger-happy soldiers in their slaughtering of a Mkpot resident, Best Joe. The soldiers are also being accused of setting many homes in Mkpot ablaze, an incident that has left many homeless and desperate.

It should be recalled that since the commencement of the Southern Cameroons crisis, the country’s military has burnt down more than 250 villages, with many mentally ill and old people roasted in the process.

The atrocities of the country’s military have been well document by human rights organizations like the International Crisis Group and Amnesty International which have undercover agents in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

It should be recalled in 2017, Manyu Division was the epicenter of the Southern Cameroons crisis when four irresponsible and corrupt gendarm officers where killed in Agborkem German where they had seized the money and goods of some Nigerian traders.

The military spinned the story and reported that the corrupt and lawless gendarm officers were killed by Southern Cameroonians who were protesting against the government.

The country’s out-of-touch president, Paul Biya, who was in Abidjan, Cote d’ivoire, at the time the corrupt gendarm officers were killed, bought the fake report hook, line and sinker, and declared war on Southern Cameroonians who were only complaining about the marginalization they had suffered for 60 years.

Since then, more than 5,000 Cameroonians have been killed as a result of the conflict, including some 2,000 army soldiers.

Despite calls by the international community for an inclusive dialogue whose objective will be to seek solutions to the issues that have triggered the conflict, the Yaounde government has tone deaf and it has continued mowing down its own people while paying very attention to the international community’s repeated calls.

The conflict, which started as protests by teachers and lawyers, is into its fourth year and there is no end in sight.

Currently, the United Nations is providing humanitarian assistance to internally displaced people in the two English-speaking regions of the country while Doctors without Borders are on the ground, providing medical assistance to victims of the fighting.

Kingsley Betek in Cameroon

13, January 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Maryland Squad Signs Pact With The Devil ⁰

A group of Southern Cameroonians resident in Maryland, U.S.A. has been working with the Prime Minister’s Office of the Republic of Cameroon to prove that the Yaounde government is still popular among Cameroonians living abroad. The objective of this scheme is help change America’s perspective of the situation in Cameroon.

As Southern Cameroonians demonstrate across North America to prove that the Yaoundé government is dictatorial and has been rejected by its citizens, the Prime Minister’s Office in Yaoundé has quietly contacted some dubious Southern Cameroonians in Maryland for them to organize rallies and demonstrations that will enable American Congressmen to change their perspective of what is happening in Cameroon.

Demonstrations were supposed to have been organized in Washington D.C. and Boston where even homeless Americans had to be lured into the demonstrations with food and promises of money. T-shirts for the event had been produced and handed to supporters of the ailing and aging government in Yaoundé in an event that was unfortunately not captured on camera as the elected photographer, Joe Mombang, turned out to be ineffective. Indeed, Mr. Momband of Maryland is simply not tech-savvy and could not produce pictures that had to be sent to the Prime Minister’s Office for payment.

The team of unpatriotic Southern Cameroonians was in Cameroon during the festive period to get payment for their job, a job that was poorly done, but did not have the pictures to demonstrate their malicious actions against Southern Cameroonians who have been challenging the Yaoundé government for more than three years, charging it with marginalization and corruption.

The anger and frustration of the team leader, whose name has been withheld, boiled over while they were having lunch in a restaurant Yaoundé in which the Cameroon Concord News Group West and Central African Bureau Chief, Kingsley Betek, was also eating lunch. He could overhear the desperate government supporters arguing at the top of their voices, with the team leader regretting that if he had properly captured the event on camera, he would have been sure of netting more than CFAF 10 million at the end of the day.

Mr. Mombang was tongue-lashed for his ineptitude by the team leader who sounded so desperate and who was trying to think up news of scamming the Yaoundé government that is also very desperate to clean up its image around the world, especially in the United States where the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, has been mounting enormous pressure on the crumbling Yaoundé government.

The Trump White House is breathing down the neck of the Yaoundé government and it is starving the disintegrating government of some vital resources that have helped keep the regime a float for a long time.

The Trump Administration has been castigating the Yaoundé government for flagrant human rights abuses in the two English-speaking regions of the country and, recently, it has disconnected the cash-strapped Yaoundé government from AGOA, an economic arrangement that has helped Cameroonian businesses to have access to the lucrative American market for years.

This decision has cut the government off vital economic opportunities that have been bringing in millions of dollars to the country’s treasury. The decision, which became effective in January 2019, has already begun biting and senior government officials have already started complaining, with some secretly calling on the Yaoundé government to negotiate with the Trump Administration which has been calling for an inclusive dialogue that will help bring about peace in Cameroon.

The U.S. Department of State is already mulling targeted sanctions against some senior Cameroon government officials such as Joseph Beti Assomo, Jacques Fame Ndongo, Laurent Esso, Issa Tchiroma and Paul Atanga Nji who are considered by Americans as those responsible for the escalation of violence and human rights violations in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

The Southern Cameroons crisis, which started in 2016, has already resulted in the deaths of more than 5,000 Cameroonians, including some 2,000 soldiers, most of whom are from the center and south regions which are the regions still supporting a moribund, corrupt and inefficient government led by Paul Biya.

Besides the human cost of the conflict, the country’s economy has also taken a blow to the liver, with state-owned corporations in the two English-speaking regions of the country going under. CDC, PAMOL and SONARA have also been victims of the conflict and the Yaoundé government is currently and frantically looking for resources to rebuild these state-owned corporations that have been significant and useful revenue streams to a government that is not emotionally attached to its people.

For some three years now, children in rural areas of the English-speaking regions have not been going to school due to government-orchestrated violence that is playing out in that part of the country. Today, government soldiers have transformed themselves into kidnappers and they are wreaking havoc on the helpless population.

Last week, some five government army soldiers kidnapped a man in Buea, a city located on the foot of Mount Cameroon, and asked the relatives of the victim to pay in CFAF 2 million before he could be released. Security forces followed the trail of the money transfer and arrested the soldiers who have operating in this way for months. Cameroon’s army soldiers have become more of a problem to the population they are supposed to protect.

In many parts of Southern Cameroons, armed groups, including those formed by the country’s Territorial Administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, are running wild, and intimidating the local population that has been left homeless due to extreme government actions aimed at overcoming tough Southern Cameroonian fighters who have given government forces a run for their money.

Some 250 villages have been burnt down by government troops in the two English-speaking regions. Kwakwa, Kembong, Ossing and others are yet to recover from the massive inferno government troops created in these towns. Many mentally ill and old people were burnt alive in their homes, as government troop went on a rampage in a bid to turn the local population against armed fighters who mostly operate from the jungles.

The killings are still going on and instead of addressing the main issues; the Yaoundé government has adopted an approach wherein it has been papering over the cracks. Its cosmetic solutions have not addressed any issues and more violence is in the menu, as parliamentary and municipal elections are in the offing.

Southern Cameroonian fighters have vowed to disrupt the elections and the Yaoundé government, which is wont to violence, has already dispatched some 1,000 special forces to the two English-speaking regions of the country where they are expected to rape women and kill children.

Despite this show of muscles by the government, Southern Cameroonian fighters are still winning some critical battles, especially as some government troops are defecting and carrying with them arms and secrets to the armed groups.

The world should be bracing for more bloodshed and the greatest victims will surely be women, children and the old who, in many cases, do not have where to turn to. The days ahead do not hold any promise for the ordinary Southern Cameroonian and the fear of the unknown is gradually driving many innocent citizens out of their towns and cities before the real violent battles start.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in the United Kingdom

13, January 2020

President Macron meets with African leaders to boost fight against jihadists in Sahel ⁰

French President Emmanuel Macron will on Monday host counterparts from five Sahel countries seeking more backing in the fight against a murderous jihadist uprising even as France’s military role is being questioned.

Recent tensions between France and Sahel governments could make for a tricky exchange at the six-way talks in the southwestern city of Pau, to be attended also by the heads of the UN, African Union, and EU Council.

Macron insists his counterparts from Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania and Chad must use the occasion to express public support for France’s military presence — by far the largest foreign contribution to the fight against African jihadists aligned to Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

Visiting the region last month, the French president complained of a lack of “clear political condemnation of anti-French feelings” on the ground.

“I see opposition movements, groups, who denounce the French presence as a neo-colonial, imperialist,” Macron said in Niamey, adding he was loath to send soldiers to countries where their presence was not “clearly wanted”.

Jihadist fighters have recently stepped up their campaign against military and civilian targets, and earlier this month, UN chief Antonio Guterres warned that “terrorist groups are gaining ground.”

France has 4,500 soldiers stationed in the Europe-sized region as part of Operation Barkhane, supporting poorly-equipped, impoverished local armies that in 2017 launched a joint anti-jihadist G5 Sahel force.

‘Down with France’

On Friday, hundreds of people gathered in the Malian capital Bamako to protest the presence of foreign troops, carrying posters reading: “Down with France, Barkhane must leave” and “France is a brake on our development.”

Despite the French presence and a 13,000-strong UN peacekeeping force dubbed MINUSMA in Mali, the conflict that erupted in the north of that country in 2012 has since spread to its neighbours, especially Burkina Faso and Niger.

Thousands of civilians have been killed and more than a million displaced, with hundreds of troops dead, including dozens of French ones.

On Monday, Macron will gather Mali’s Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Burkina Faso’s Roch Marc Christian Kabore, Niger’s Mahamadou Issoufou, Mauritania’s Mohamed Ould Ghazouani and Chad’s Idriss Deby.

They will lay a wreath and observe a minute of silence for seven soldiers from Pau who died in action in Mali — among 13 French troops killed in a helicopter crash while hunting jihadists last November.

The presidents will then gather for the summit Macron has said must clarify the “political and strategic framework” of the Sahel military campaign.

After the talks, for which three hours have been set aside, the leaders will regroup for a working dinner where they will be joined by Guterres, European Council President Charles Michel and African Union Commission President Moussa Faki.

‘Remobilise’

Mali’s Keita has said the summit will be “decisive” and “will allow us to put on the table all the questions, all the grievances, all the solutions”.

But he insisted the G5 leaders would demand a “respectable and respectful relationship” with France. Kabore of Burkina Faso has described Macron’s recent insistences as “lacking in tact”.

Issifou said the summit would “launch an appeal for international solidarity so that the Sahel and France are not alone in this fight”.

The Pau meeting was postponed from December after a jihadist attack claimed the lives of 71 Niger soldiers. And last Thursday another attack by jihadists left 89 Niger soldiers dead.

On Friday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the summit would serve “to remobilise and adapt ourselves to the new reality” of the jihadist onslaught, which analysts say appears to have become bolder, more complex, and better armed.

Paris will also use the occasion to repeat its call on other Western nations to help step up the fight.

Last year, only $300 million of $400 million pledged by the international community in cash and material support to the Sahel was delivered, according to the French presidency.

NGOs on Friday urged that civilians caught in the crossfire not be forgotten at Monday’s talks.

“The military response in the Sahel is part of the problem,” said Maureen Magee of the Norwegian Refugee Council.

“Last year, military operations in Mali have pushed more than 80,000 people to flee. Engagement in the Sahel must put the protection of the populations at the heart of the response.”

(AFP)

12, January 2020

World leaders in Oman pay respects after sultan’s death ⁰

Britain’s Prince Charles and Prime Minister Boris Johnson joined regional leaders in Oman on Sunday to offer their condolences to the royal family after the death of long-reigning Sultan Qaboos.

A ceremony at Muscat’s Alam Palace drew figures from across political divides in the Middle East, including Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was among those who met the new sultan, along with Tunisian President Kais Saied, Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, and Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

Former French leader Nicolas Sarkozy was also in attendance at the ceremony, which took place a day after the new royal ruler Haitham bin Tariq was selected and sworn in.

Haitham is a cousin of Qaboos, who never married and died Friday at the age of 79 without an heir apparent.

It was Sultan Qaboos’ policy of neutrality and non-interference that elevated Oman’s standing as a “Switzerland of the Middle East” and won it respect in the region and beyond.

It maintains healthy relations with the United States as well as with regional powers Iran and Saudi Arabia, in what many diplomatic observers see as a model of balance.

Sultan Qaboos, who ruled for half a century, came to power in 1970 when he overthrew his father in a coup with British support.

As a young man, he attended Britain’s elite Sandhurst Royal Military Academy, after which he joined a British infantry battalion in Germany.

British premier Johnson is to meet with the new sultan and senior Omani officials during his visit, his office said in a statement.

“The UK and Oman have a broad and long-standing bilateral relationship that goes back over 200 years,” it said. “Our countries have deep economic ties and shared defence and security interests.”

As ruler, Qaboos modernised his country but also forged a broader role as a go-between in regional and international crises.

Under his reign, Oman refrained from taking sides in the Saudi-led blockade of Qatar as well as a military intervention in Yemen led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The sultan’s death comes amid increased tensions between Tehran and Washington, following the US killing of a top Iranian commander in Iraq that raised fears the region was sliding into war.

The late sultan’s standing has been recognised with warm tributes from across the world, including from US President Donald Trump who said Qaboos was a “true partner and friend to the United States”.

Source: AFP

11, January 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Soldiers are into kidnapping ⁰

The Cameroon News Agency (CNA) has reported that some 5 elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR)have been apprehended at the Buea Sand Pit neighbourhood, for allegedly kidnapping a man in the same locality.

The man( name withheld) was kidnapped while at home. The kidnappers jumped over the fence to find their way into his residence around the Catholic Church.

Buea GMI intercepted by tracking the mobile money number they used to collect a ransom from the victim’s family.

More than half of the CFAF 2 million ransom was paid into their MTN Mobile Money account on Thursday.

On Friday, January 10, 2020, the irresponsible uniformed officers were arrested and the victim released.

One of the kidnappers, a BIR officer, lives in the same neighborhood as the victim.

Rogue elements of the army have been giving brave Southern Cameroonians fighters a bad name as they engage in kidnapping and recklessness, including the killing of innocent civilians.

Source: Cameroon News Agency