News

Ambazonia fronline leader released after brief arrest in Ghana

17, August 2019

Ambazonia fronline leader released after brief arrest in Ghana 0

One of the frontline leaders of the Ambazonia separatist movement Ebenezer Akwanga was on Friday arrested and questioned by security forces in Ghana before he was later released, sources have confirmed.

The Bureau of National Investigations, Ghana’s intelligence agency, is said to have taken in Ebenezer Akwanga for questioning which lasted for over an hour before he was released.

At the time of his arrest, Akwanga who heads the Southern Cameroons Defense Forces (SOCADEF), one of the armed groups in the restive Anglophone regions, was holding a meeting on the Anglophone crisis at the University of Ghana with some Cameroonians.

Sources say he was only later released after the intervention of former Ghanaian President John Rawlings but we cannot independently verify the claims. Ebenezer Akwanga has spent the past weeks in Ghana where they he has been lobbying support for international mediation into the crisis in Cameroon.

Source: Journal du Cameroon

Equatorial Guinean denies media reports on border wall with Cameroon

17, August 2019

Equatorial Guinean denies media reports on border wall with Cameroon 0

Equatorial Guinea’s foreign minister, Simeon Oyono Esono Angue, on Friday denied reports that his country is planning to build a wall along the border with its neighbor Cameroon.

In early August, Western media reported that Equatorial Guinean soldiers had crossed the Ntem River that forms a natural border between the two countries and erected milestones in the town of Kye-Ossi on the Cameroonian side.

“The wall does not exist. The people talking about the wall lack information. When there is a problem between two countries, it is necessary to solve the problem through peaceful and diplomatic means. The media is free to propagate information but I insist that there is no wall,” Angue told reporters in the capital of Yaounde after meeting with Cameroonian Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute.

He said he was sent by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea to consolidate bilateral relationship which he described as “excellent” between the two countries.

In late July, Cameroon’s army chief Rene Claude Meka toured the 180-km border between the two countries and warned that Cameroon would not tolerate any “expansionist ambitions.”

Source: Xinhuanet

Conflicting reports as 7 La Republique soldiers injured in Kumba

17, August 2019

Conflicting reports as 7 La Republique soldiers injured in Kumba 0

At least seven Cameroonian soldiers were injured Thursday afternoon after their armored car skidded and fell along the road in Kumba, a town in Southwest, one of the two war-torn English-speaking regions of Cameroon, according to local police.

“Some of them sustained life threatening injuries and others minor injuries. They have all been rushed to the hospital to receive medical attention,” police said. The soldiers, all members of Cameroon elite force, Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), were on a mission to Mamfe, another town in the region where separatists are known to be operating when the accident happened.

Separatists claimed to have caused the accident with an improvised explosive, but the army denied, saying it was caused by “bad road”. Armed separatists have been clashing with government forces in the two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest since 2017 in a bid to create an independent nation they call “Ambazonia”.

Source: Xinhaunet

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Bali Park in Flames

17, August 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Bali Park in Flames 0

The famous Bali park that hosted many shops has gone up in flames.

The park came down on Friday after a mysterious fire in the evening.

Though the cause of the is unknown, many people are blaming the military for this unfortunate event.

Some people are also blaming the newly minted criminals in town who are wreaking havoc and giving the struggle a bad name.

Kingsley Betek is already in Bamenda and will be heading to Bali to get more details.

Russian pilots land plane in cornfield, earn highest praise from the Kremlin

16, August 2019

Russian pilots land plane in cornfield, earn highest praise from the Kremlin 0

Two Russian pilots safely landed an airliner carrying 233 people in a cornfield outside Moscow after striking a flock of birds, prompting the Kremlin to hail them as heroes who will receive top state awards.

The Russian authorities have said it was a miracle that no one was killed when the Ural Airlines Airbus 321 came down in a field, southeast of Moscow, with its landing gear up after hitting a passing flock of gulls, disrupting the operation of the plane’s engines.

Up to 74 people, including 19 children, were treated for injuries, six of whom have been hospitalized, Russian news agencies quoted the emergencies ministry as saying.

State television said the incident was being dubbed the “miracle over Ramensk”, the name of the district near Moscow where the plane came down, around one kilometer (0.62 miles) from Zhukovsky International Airport.

The Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid praised pilot Damir Yusupov as a “hero,” saying he had saved 233 lives, “having masterfully landed a plane without its landing gear with a failing engine right in a corn field.”

Some drew comparisons with U.S. Airways Flight 1549, which performed a landing on the Hudson River in New York in 2009 after striking a flock of geese.

“We congratulate the hero pilots who saved people’s lives,” Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said, adding that the Kremlin would see that the men were quickly given state honors. “There’s no doubt about this. They will be given awards.”

BELLY-FLOP LANDING

The plane’s engines were turned off when it executed the emergency landing and it also had its landing gear up, according to Elena Mikheyeva, a spokeswoman for Russia’s civil aviation authority.

Footage, shot by passengers, showed the flight lasted less than two minutes and that the engines had experienced difficulties almost immediately after take-off.

Vitya Babin, 11, who was on the plane with his mother and sister, said passengers had not been warned that there was going to be an emergency landing. There was silence in the cabin and then screams began when it touched down, footage showed.

“We were not warned,” said Babin.

An unnamed passenger interviewed by state television said the plane had started to shake moments after it took off.

 “Five seconds later, the lights on the right side of the plane started flashing and there was a smell of burning. Then we landed and everyone ran away,” he said.

(Source: Reuters

Biya French Cameroun regime Setting Up New Military Bases in Southern Cameroons

16, August 2019

Biya French Cameroun regime Setting Up New Military Bases in Southern Cameroons 0

Recently in the Meme County, French Cameroun army soldiers erected a fortified position with a perimeter of large sand barriers and barbed wire in Kumba. The French Cameroun government understands that Southern Cameroonians are in disarray and are no longer contributing financially to the struggle so they are building military bases in all the major towns and cities in Southern Cameroons which were at the beginning of the revolution under the control of Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

Etoudi said on Monday that it was intensifying French Cameroun security apparatus in Southern Cameroons.  The Biya regime has vowed to secure all the major towns and villages in Ambazonia and push for school resumption in order to wade off the pressure coming from the international community.

Cameroon government military spokesperson, Colonel Badjeck reportedly refused to comment publicly on the new plan and also noted to our undercover reporter in Yaoundé that the French Cameroun regime will not discuss specific movements and locations of French Cameroun forces in Southern Cameroons.

Colonel Badjeck observed that French Cameroun military commanders have been delegated the authority and the responsibility to position soldiers and resources needed to accomplish the back to school mission.

Scores of French Cameroun army jeeps each with dozens of soldiers on watch are now parading the streets of all major Southern Cameroons settlements. Previously, French Cameroun troops only patrolled the front lines in both the Northern and Southern Zones.  But ever since the Sako Ikome financial scandal that rocked the Ambazonia Interim Government, more French Cameroun forces are now at new post all over Southern Cameroons.

The Senior Divisional Officer for Manyu was quoted as saying that “Before, government forces could hardly patrol the streets of Mamfe.  Now it is better with the disunity in the exiled so-called Ambazonia Interim Government” he said.

Cameroon Concord News Group chief correspondent in Bamenda, Sama Ernest hinted that more of such French Cameroun army posts are expected to be built along the highway linking Bamenda to Mamfe.

By Chi Prudence Asong with files from Sama Ernest

President Sassou Nguesso Says drilling of oil at Congo’s new field will adhere to environmental standards

15, August 2019

President Sassou Nguesso Says drilling of oil at Congo’s new field will adhere to environmental standards 0

Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso promised Wednesday to exploit the discovered hydrocarbon field in the Cuvette region (north) in an environmentally friendly way, in a message on public television.

On August 10, two oil companies presented the characteristics of the first onshore oil field discovered in the Cuvette region.

I take note (…) of the successful completion of the oil exploration operations carried out under the Ngoki permit, highlighting the presence of quality oil reserves in the northern part of our country.

Mr. Sassou Nguesso said that the discovered deposit is located on the periphery of wetlands that support peatlands.

“Congo remains fully aware of the need to preserve peatlands, given their impact on global climate balance and the protection of biodiversity,” the Congolese president stressed.

“Our country has never violated the obligation to protect peatlands in its lake areas. It has no intention of doing so in the future, notwithstanding the financial compensation announced and still to be received,” he said.

The president was speaking in a speech related to the celebration of the 59th anniversary of the independence of Congo, a former French colony, on August 15.

The “Delta de la Cuvette” deposit covers an area of 9,392 square metres and could produce up to one billion cubic metres of hydrocarbons, including 359 million barrels of oil, or 983,000 barrels per day.

The share of the Congolese State that granted a permit in 2006 amounts to 35%.

Two oil companies own the Delta de la Cuvette. These two firms belong to Congolese businessman Claude Wilfrid Etoka, who is very close to President Sassou Nguesso. Both are from this region.

Source: AFP

African leaders join Macron at commemoration of WWII landings in Provence

15, August 2019

African leaders join Macron at commemoration of WWII landings in Provence 0

President Emmanuel Macron saluted Thursday a French army “that emerged from the shadows and exile” during the Allied landings on the Mediterranean coast 75 years ago and the sacrifices by fighters from France’s former colonies in Africa.

“The glory of all these soldiers of the Liberation is immense, and our gratitude must never fade. We will never forget anything, nor anyone,” Macron told veterans at the Boulouris national cemetery in Saint-Raphael.

He was joined by the presidents of Guinea and Ivory Coast, Alpha Condé and Alassane Ouattara, for a ceremony marking the 1944 operation which saw French forces take a lead role in freeing their country from Nazi Germany’s grip.

Only a handful of French soldiers had taken part in the Normandy landings a few weeks earlier, which for decades overshadowed the Provence landings that were nonetheless crucial in turning the war’s tide.

The offensive included the remnants of France’s free forces as well as thousands of soldiers from its African colonies.

“For decades these African fighters did not have the glory and the esteem they deserved for their bravery,” Macron said, adding that through their spilled blood, “France has a part of Africa in it.”

He urged the mayors of towns and cities to name streets and public squares in honour of soldiers from Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco as well as West Africa.

“These men make all of Africa proud, and express the essence of France: a commitment, a love of liberty and greatness, a spirit of resistance united by courage,” Macron said.

Condé also lauded the “shared memory of the French and African people,” saying that without the sacrifice of the colonial fighters, “humanity would not be able to keep fighting for peace.”

‘Nancy has a stiff neck’

Besides accelerating the German retreat, the Mediterranean landings were hugely symbolic for a French nation eager to emphasise its role in its own liberation.

“After the humiliating defeat of 1940, seeing a French army free national territory showed the entire world that France has the ability to fight with an established army,” said Florimond Calendini, director of the national memorial of the landings, in Toulon.

Some 450,000 Allied soldiers using more than 2,000 ships took part in Operation Dragoon, including 250,000 French fighters, with most of the rest from the US.

The French launched the assault shortly after midnight on August 15 by scrabbling up the rocky cliffs at Cap Negre, named for the rock’s dark colour.

Resistance fighters in the south had been alerted to the impending offensive the night before, when underground radio sent a series of coded messages using seemingly anodine phrases such as “Nancy has a stiff neck.”

As during the Normandy landings, locals would play a key role in harassing German forces as they fell back, helping the Allied soldiers to advance must faster than in the north.

Hitler ordered a retreat from southern France as soon as August 17, except for the strategic ports of Toulon and Marseille, but these fell within 10 days.

“In less than two weeks, all of Provence was liberated. It was a huge surprise for the Allies,” Calendini said.

Overlooked legacy

At the time, France’s “Army B” consisted of nearly 600,000 men, two-thirds of them from African garrisons in countries still under French colonial rule.

The force included around 233,000 “Muslims”, as they were referred to at the time — including Moroccan battalions and infantry sections from Algeria, as well as fighters from Senegal and other West African colonies.

There were also so-called Marsouins (“porpoises”), recruits from France’s territories in the Pacific or the Caribbean.

African troops in particular paid a heavy price, with 55,000 killed over the course of World War II.

Yet for years their sacrifices were largely overlooked by most French, and in 1959 the government added injury to the insult by capping their military pensions as African nations gained their independence.

France finally agreed in 2002 to increase the payouts to partially make up for the veterans’ lost spending power over the subsequent decades — though they were still far below those of French ex-soldiers.

Pressure continued to mount until then president Nicolas Sarkozy announced in 2010 that pensions would be the same for all its veterans, regardless of nationality or place of residence.

Sarkozy was the only former French head of state to attend the ceremony Thursday at Boulouris.

(AFP)

Southern Cameroons Interim Gov’t Condemns Militias, Kidnappings

15, August 2019

Southern Cameroons Interim Gov’t Condemns Militias, Kidnappings 0

Fellow Ambazonians,

The Interim Government Condemns Militias, Kidnappings and Ransom Demands

I come to you with revolutionary greetings from your President Sisiku AyukTabe and his team in the Principal Prison Kondengui, Yaoundé.

The war was declared on us by the French Cameroun regime. More than three thousand of our people have been killed. Our villages have been burnt down and hundreds of thousands of our people are living in the forests and as refugees in Nigeria. We picked up arms as a last resort to defend ourselves and property.

Over the last six months our brave self-defence forces have faced enormous challenges. They have given their lives to create and build a new country that will be the envy of the world. One of the challenges now confronting us is that of multiple kidnappings and demand for ransom in our Country-The Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Yesterday, Tuesday the 13th of August 2019, we read from a son of Ossing village in the Manyu County that he intends to create a militia in the village to work in collaboration with the enemy. My office has also been informed that a Roman Catholic Priest was kidnapped and abused in Kikaikom, Bui County. The Chairman of The SDF, John Fru Ndi, confirmed recently that Atanga Nji Paul, Ekema Patrick and many other La Republique du Cameroun agents have militias active in Ambazonia. These rogue gangs rape, kidnap and demand ransoms. Their intention is to sabotage our revolution and we condemn this strongly.

Your Interim Government strongly denounces these atrocities-whether in the case of Dr Joachim Arrey forming a militia in his village to work with La Republique du Cameroun forces as he claimed or the kidnapping of the Priest by rogue gangs sponsored by the regime in Yaoundé and its surrogates. Those involved in this form of criminal activities aren’t working for the good of our struggle.

French Cameroun agents have infiltrated our revolutionary structures and are committing horrible crimes but we must be clever in our quest for self determination. All self-defence groups are hereby called upon to collaborate in rooting out all rogue elements from our Restoration Forces. Unity of purpose will root out these evil gangs.
Our quest for self-determination will succeed if we do the right things. Kidnappings, extortion and abuse of local population are not consistent with our values.

We have the backing of many international organisations and our quest for independence and freedom is legitimate. We can’t afford to let them and ourselves down by associating with groups that intimidate and abuse people. Our goal is to build a just, tolerant and progressive society.

Let’s continue our fight for self-defence, freedom and independence with integrity and decency. If we do this, we would meet the success we desire in the near future.

Short Live the Revolution; God Bless The Southern Cameroons, Ambazonia.

Dabney Yerima Vice President

Federal Republic of Ambazonia

US: Six Philadelphia cops shot, police fear hostage situation

15, August 2019

US: Six Philadelphia cops shot, police fear hostage situation 0

Six Philadelphia police officers were shot and wounded on Wednesday (August 14) in a shootout during a drug raid on a house and negotiators were urging the shooter to surrender as two officers remained trapped inside the home, police said.

Three hours into the standoff, Philadelphia Police said all of the wounded officers were in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries.

Police were serving a drugs warrant at a north Philadelphia home at around 4:30 p.m. when the male shooter entered the house and opened fire on the officers.

“Many of them had to escape through windows and doors to escape from a barrage of bullets,” Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross told a news conference. 

The shooter continued to fire on a SWAT truck parked outside the residence in the Nicetown-Tiago neighborhood as officers tried to negotiate his surrender, Ross said.

Police called the man’s phone, talked with him on a bullhorn and involved a family member in the negotiations, Ross added.

“I’m worried about a potential hostage situation and we’ve got to get that resolved,” said Ross, adding that he believed the two officers trapped inside the home were not wounded. 

“We are trying to get him to come out peacefully,” Ross said, declining to confirm whether there was more than one shooter. “There’s no indication that he’s trying to surrender, we do know that he is still alive, there’s no question of that because of the shots that keep ringing out.”

Police told local residents to remain inside their homes and stay out of the area after hundreds of rounds were exchanged.

Local television station Fox 29 reported some kind of movement by police around 7:30 p.m. when a large bang was heard.

Two other officers were also injured in a car accident while responding to the shooting. 

There were reports the shooter was livestreaming the incident on Facebook.

President Donald Trump has been briefed on the shooting and was monitoring the situation, the White House said.

Local media reported the shooter appeared to have a high-powered weapon and a significant amount of ammunition. The incident follows a string of mass shootings in California, Texas and Ohio in which gunmen used semi-automatic rifles.

“I’m a little bit angry about someone having all that weaponry and all that firepower, but we’ll get to that another day,” said Mayor Jim Kenney after visiting three of the wounded officers in hospital.

(Source: Reuters)

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