News

26, April 2019

Southern Cameroons War: Aid group says Ambazonians need more help ⁰

Tens of thousands of people are living in the bush without humanitarian aid in Cameroon after two years of fighting between separatists and government forces that has failed to attract widespread international support, an international aid agency said Thursday.

More than half a million people have fled their homes but the crisis has yet to generate the humanitarian response that is needed, according to Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, who visited the restive Southwest region this week.

“They are not able to return to their torched villages nor do they have confidence that they can go to the towns,” he said.

The English-speaking separatists in the Northwest and Southwest regions allege years of marginalization by the government of largely French-speaking Cameroon. President Paul Biya, in power since 1982, has branded the separatists as terrorists.

Hundreds have been killed as fighters from a number of armed groups battle government forces and attempt to economically paralyze the regions.

Egeland met with women who had sought refuge in the capital of Southwest region, Buea. “They told harrowing stories of how villages have been attacked at night. Often they wouldn’t know whether it was one side or the other,” he said. “Some said they thought it was government. Others said they thought it was rebels. What they have in common is that they fled with nothing.”

Civilians also have been targeted by the separatists, who have kidnapped students from schools. They also have amputated the hands of those still working on rubber plantations after a boycott was called to halt the local economy.

Egeland called on all sides to allow humanitarian organizations access to the volatile regions, and on other aid groups and European governments to step up assistance.

The Central African nation is divided along lines created during colonialism by European powers. The country now known as Cameroon was first ruled by the Germans then divided among the French and British. As a result, there are English- and French-speaking regions. English speakers are estimated at about 20% of the population.

Culled from The Washington Post

25, April 2019

South Africa: 60 killed, over 1,000 displaced in flood ⁰

At least 60 people have been killed and more than 1,000 have fled their homes after heavy rains caused flooding and mudslides along South Africa’s eastern coast, authorities said on Wednesday.

Most of the deaths were in KwaZulu-Natal province. Flooding also killed at least three people in neighboring Eastern Cape province, state broadcaster SABC said.

The rains mainly hit areas around the port city of Durban. Multiple dwellings collapsed in mudslides, said Robert McKenzie, a KwaZulu-Natal Emergency Medical Services spokesman.

Rescue workers were digging through collapsed buildings on Wednesday. Victor da Silva, a resident of the coastal town of Amanzimtoti, said his family managed to evacuate before the floods destroyed their home and cars.

“On Monday, the water was just crazy. And yesterday morning I got here, everything was fine, my garage was still here, the other part of the house was still here, and it just couldn’t stop raining,” Da Silva said.

“And then an hour and a half later, everything poof (vanished) because the rain just hasn’t stopped. Authorities in southern Tanzania ordered evacuations of residents from low-lying areas and the closure of schools and offices ahead of landfall of Tropical Cyclone Kenneth on neighboring Mozambique’s coast on Thursday.

“We’ve decided to evacuate all residents of valleys and other low-lying areas and we advise them to seek refuge at public spaces,” Mtwara regional commissioner Gelasius Byakanwa, told reporters.

Johan Fourie said he fled his home in Amanzimtoti, Kwazulu-Natal, just before part of it collapsed. “I nearly lost my life, and my neighbor, I believe, is in hospital,” Fourie told eNCA television.

The region had been hit by heavy rains for days, but authorities did not foresee the extent of the downpour late on Monday, said Lennox Mabaso, a spokesman for the provincial Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs department.

“As a result, there was flooding and some structures were undermined and collapsed on people,” Mabaso said.

Some people were swept away by the water, he added.

President Cyril Ramaphosa visited affected communities in KwaZulu-Natal on Wednesday and was expected in the Eastern Cape in the next few days.

“This is partly what climate change is about, that it just hits when we least expect it,” he said.

Last week, 13 people were killed during an Easter service in KwaZulu-Natal when a church wall collapsed after days of heavy rains and strong winds.

(Source: Reuters)

25, April 2019

Battle for Ambazonia: Francophone gendarme killed in Muyuka ⁰

A Cameroonian gendarmerie officer was kidnapped and beheaded on Wednesday by an unknown Southern Cameroons Liberation Force in the Muyuka Sub Constituency in Fako County.

The young officer deployed to Southern Cameroons by the regime in Yaounde had been reportedly kidnapped. Cameroon Concord News gathered that he was then beheaded by the Ambazonian fighters, who eviscerated him.

The viscera of the Francophone officer were scattered in pieces in some few corners of Muyuka. The gendarme’s head was abandoned on the main road linking Muyuka to Buea. It is difficult to establish the group behind the act.

However, the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime announced recently that several secessionist camps were dismantled on Tuesday night and 6 Ambazonian fighters killed in fighting in Kwakwa and Bafut.

Ever since the English speaking people of Southern Cameroons declared the independence of their own state, clashes between Ambazonian Restoration Forces and troops loyal to the regime in Yaounde have been reported all over the Ambazonian territory.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than half a million Southern Cameroonians have been displaced and several hundred killed by Francophone soldiers.

By Sama Ernest in Buea

25, April 2019

There are reasons why Yaounde is at war with the International Crisis Group ⁰

Crisis Group’s work in Cameroon put under reported risks in this country on the policy making radar years before the outbreaks of the Boko Haram insurgency in the Far North and a separatist revolt in Anglophone regions.

Crisis Group’s story in Cameroon began in 2009, when we consulted a broad range of ordinary Cameroonians, from teachers to activists, about emerging dangers in their country. Our first two reports, published in May and June 2010, aimed to focus diplomats’ thinking on worsening problems of governance, over-centralised politics and insecurity. At the time, we were still a lonely voice raising these issues. “Our reports were widely admired, but largely ignored”, recalls the lead contributor, our Central Africa expert and current Project Director Richard Moncrieff. “It’s a classic problem with early warning”.

In 2013, Crisis Group hired Hans de Marie Heungoup to analyse Cameroon full time. A young postgraduate from Cameroon with several years of research experience and expertise in conflict prevention, he soon concluded that the jihadist group Boko Haram posed a significant threat in the Far North. “Because of the way Cameroon is governed, it was clear that dealing with the insurgency would be a challenge”, Heungoup explains.

In 2016, a travelogue about a three-week trip to the Far North by Hans de Marie Heungoup, including photos and videos, brought the reality of the Boko Haram conflict to the outside world. After publication, the U.S. State Department asked him for a detailed briefing about his findings.

Our November 2016 report, Cameroon: Confronting Boko Haram, provided a ground-breaking assessment of the emergence of the insurgency in the country’s Far North, the government’s response to it and the political and economic consequences of its counter-insurgency efforts. It provoked extensive debate in Cameroon, where Hengoup and Moncrieff briefed officials from the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of External Relations and diplomats.

“We were the first NGO to engage on Boko Haram in Cameroon and we are the only NGO that has consistently produced ideas for a comprehensive approach to stemming the violence in the country’s Far North”, notes Moncrieff. “Officials say we help them think through their response. A reliable source told us that the president’s office would usually take an hour to talk through our reports on Boko Haram with senior officials from the defence, foreign affairs and communication ministries”.

” ‘Crisis Group plays an indispensable role in understanding Cameroon, particularly during these difficult moments for the country.’ – Peter Henry Barlerin, U.S. Ambassador to Cameroon, October 2018″

Follow-up reports in 2017 tackled the economic and humanitarian fallout of the conflict, and explored options for rebuilding the troubled region. Cameroon’s international partners have frequently adopted our recommendations, for example on demobilising vigilante groups and dealing with Boko Haram members. The World Bank and several development agencies, including USAID and France’s AFD, told us that our analysis guided their projects in the Far North, while some European and U.S. diplomats have used it to develop their policy engagement in Cameroon.

We have had impact with Cameroonian officials as well. In late 2018, the government took a new approach to the northern insurgency. It created a committee to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate former Boko Haram combatants, as we had advised in our August 2018 report Cameroon’s Far North: A New Chapter in the Fight against Boko Haram. Officials in Yaoundé tell us that the government is now far more aware of the need to tackle socio-economic and humanitarian issues in areas where Boko Haram operates. It has started acting tentatively to promote development there, and is considering the incorporation of some vigilante groups into local municipal police forces, as we have recommended.

Another central focus for Crisis Group in Cameroon has been the crisis in the country’s Anglophone regions. We sometimes faced strong resistance in doing this work. Cameroonian authorities publicly criticised and even rejected our findings after we reported on how government troops committed widespread abuses against separatists and civilians in the Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions, warned this could trigger a broader crisis, and made suggestions for preventing it.

” ‘Your organisation has done a crucial work in the Far North. My colleagues and I definitely use your analysis and usually comment it.’ – Cameroonian senior official at the Ministry of External Relations, March 2017″

But our timely, unique research and our August and October 2017 early warning reports about violence in the Anglophone regions were prescient. Our worst fears came to pass. Tellingly, those two publications are among Crisis Group’s most-read publications since its inception.

Our work on the Anglophone crisis is beginning to have an impact, even if a sustainable peace is still a long way off. Following Crisis Group’s 21 December 2017 statement calling for the government to engage in dialogue with Anglophone leaders to discuss the country’s decentralisation and governance, President Paul Biya changed tack.

In a 31 December speech of the same year, he promised decentralisation. And in 2018, he created a ministry of decentralisation, allocated it $90 million and released 289 Anglophone detainees.

This progress notwithstanding, the insurgency spread and nearly 1,000 Anglophone activists remained behind bars in early 2019. The government was still rejecting dialogue with Anglophone leaders on governance and institutional reforms, and failing to stem abuses committed by security forces. In response, the U.S. announced in January 2019 a reduction of its military assistance to Cameroon. This was a measure we had recommended it take if the government continued its crackdown in Anglophone areas.

Crisis Group played a catalytic role in persuading the Catholic Church to mediate the Anglophone crisis. A group of senior Western diplomats in Yaoundé used our April 2018 briefing, Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis: How the Catholic Church Can Promote Dialogue, as a starting point in its outreach to Catholic bishops, Anglophone federalist leaders and the government to push for mediation. The Church continues to play this role.

” ‘ICG’s reports on Cameroon are the most solid. I recommend them to all new diplomats. Now, why don’t things move? Pushing for recommendations is not an easy job.’ – Senior German diplomat in Yaoundé, March 2018″

The personal credibility of our analysts and senior staff in diplomatic circles is crucial to Crisis Group’s impact. They have testified on Cameroon in the UK parliament, at EU seminars and twice in the U.S. Congress, and briefed senior officials from the UN, the African Union, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and Cameroon. The Ambassador of a European country in Cameroon told us: “Crisis Group reports have had a very great impact and influence [and] are read by Western ambassadors and other policymakers in Yaoundé”. In September 2017, four U.S. congressmen quoted our report as they asked then-U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to intervene for the release of Anglophone detainees. Then on 7 December of the same year, ten U.S. senators quoted Richard Moncrieff in their letter to Tillerson requesting that the U.S. pressure the Cameroonian government to solve the Anglophone conflict and advocating for individual sanctions against senior Cameroonian officials involved in human rights abuses.

Cameroonians are living through tough times. While war rages in the Anglophone areas and the Far North, the political scene is riven with bad faith and dishonesty and public debate on social media is full of manipulation and propaganda. Many of Cameroon’s citizens are nervous about what will happen when President Biya’s long rule finally comes to an end.

In this tense environment, Crisis Group is a trusted voice in the conversation that Cameroonians are having about their own country and future. Thanks to numerous television appearances and speeches by Hans de Marie Heungoup, and even his week-long detention by security forces, Crisis Group has become a household name in Cameroon. ‘‘It is amazing that you can reflect on our country so clearly’’, a Cameroonian diplomat told us. ‘‘It is like you are holding a mirror for us’’.

Written by the International Crisis Group

24, April 2019

Interpol rescues 157 child slaves in Benin, Nigeria ⁰

Up to 216 human trafficking victims have been rescued from forced labour and prostitution in a major operation in Benin and Nigeria, Interpol said on Wednesday.

Operation Epervier II involved 100 police officers across the two countries who rescued 157 child slaves, said the global police organisation, which coordinated the raids in early April.

Many of the children were working in markets peddling goods, carrying heavy loads or fetching water, while others worked as housemaids or were forced into prostitution, Interpol said. Of the minors rescued, 36 were boys and 121 were girls.

This is about organised crime groups who are motivated by money.

“This is about organised crime groups who are motivated by money,” Stanfield told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“It is challenging (to stop them) in the region because of lack of resources,” he said, adding that countries are nonetheless becoming better equipped and more prepared.

Child slaves

The children rescued were between the ages of 11 and 16 and came from Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria and Togo.

The youngest was a boy forced to smuggle heavy goods such as bags of rice across the Benin-Nigeria border, Interpol said.

Most were subject to beatings and abuse, including death threats and warnings they would never see their parents again. They are now in the care of national agencies or charities, and in some cases returned to their parents.

Dealing with perpetrators

Investigations are underway to dismantle the crime networks active in Benin and Nigeria, which are source, transit and destination countries for human trafficking, said Paul Stanfield, Interpol’s director of organised and emerging crime.

Police arrested 47 suspected traffickers and seized vehicles, cash, phones and computers in the operation, which targeted markets in the countries’ capitals as well as airports, seaports and border areas, said Interpol.

About 1.4 million people, or 0.8 percent of the population, are estimated to live as slaves in Nigeria, according to the 2018 Global Slavery Index published by human rights group Walk Free Foundation. Benin has an estimated 58,000 slaves out of a population of 11 million.

“These crimes can only be tackled collectively and through interagency cooperation,” said Dominic Asogwa, Comptroller of Nigeria’s Immigration Service in the Seme border region, in a statement.

Interpol will continue working to identify hot spots for modern slavery in West Africa with a focus on mobilizing countries to address the issue themselves, Stanfield said.

“I think we’ll be here for the long-term, but we don’t want to be in charge of leading it,” he said.

REUTERS

24, April 2019

10 African strongmen deposed since 2011 ⁰

Africa has a long history of strongmen who have spent decades in power. But since the 2011 Arab Spring, no less than 10 of them have been toppled, with two – Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir – forced out in April.

January 2011: Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution and the fall of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali

Tunisia was the first country to topple its longtime autocratic leader,Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, after the self-immolation of a 26-year-old fruit vendor sparked an uprising that would soon spread to other countries in the region and become known as the Arab Spring. Mohamed Bouazizi, who set himself on fire in the city of Sidi Bouzid on December 17, 2010, after police confiscated his fruit cart for not having a permit, became the symbol of Tunisia’s impoverished, bringing thousands of people into the streets to protest against social injustice, poverty, corruption and ultimately, Ben Ali’s rule.

After four weeks of protests and authorities responding with brutal crackdowns, the Tunisian leader was deposed on January 14, 2011, and forced to seek exile in Saudi Arabia after 24 years in power.

Fethi Belaid, AFP file picture| Tunisia’s former president Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali

February 11: The ouster of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak

Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak was the second leader to be forced from his presidential palace as the Arab Spring began to gain traction. The first protests erupted on January 25, 2011, and would lead to more than two weeks of strikes and demonstrations. Cairo’s Tahrir Square quickly became the focal point for Egyptians protesting the oppression, corruption and injustice suffered under Mubarak’s 30-year, iron-fist rule.

Hundreds of people were killed as authorities tried to stop the demonstrations andevict demonstrators from Tahrir Square. The army finally stepped in and urged Mubarak to step down. On February 11, 2011, Vice President Omar Souleiman announced Mubarak’s resignation to the thousands of people gathered on Tahrir Square.

October 2011: The end of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in Libya

Muammar Gaddafi was once the longest-reigning dictator in both the Arab world and Africa after having spent 42 years in power. Protests broke out on February 15, 2011, following the arrest of prominent human rights activist Fethi Tarbel. Fuelled by the winds of the Arab Spring, the demonstrations soon morphed into nationwide protests against Gaddafi’s rule, spreading from Benghazi to Tripoli with demonstrators calling for democracy and a fairer distribution of the oil-rich country’s resources.

Authorities responded with deadly crackdowns, and an armed conflict erupted between Gaddafi-loyal forces and opposition groups, which united to form the National Transition Council. The council was quickly recognised by the international community and backed by a military coalition made up of France, Britain, Canada and Italy. On August 23, the council announced it had taken control of Tripoli, and on October 20, Gaddafi was killed in the northern city of Sirte, his regime’s last bastion.

Joseph Eid, AFP file picture| Libya’s former dictator Muammar Gaddafi at his Bab al-Aziziya residence in Tripoli

October 2014: The toppling of Burkina Faso’s Blaise Compaoré

Blaise Compaoré came to power after staging a 1987 coup against his former friend and ally Thomas Sankara.He was elected Burkina Faso’s president in 1991 and reelected in 1998. After embarking on his second mandate, parliament approved changes to the country’s constitution, limiting the number of presidential mandates to two, and shortening the mandate period to five years instead of seven. In 2005, the constitutional council ruled that these changes could not be taken into account retroactively, thereby allowing Compaoré to run for reelection in both 2005 and 2010.

In 2014, Compaoré’s ruling party proposed additional changes to the constitution to allow him to seek a fifth mandate. On October 29, as the National Assembly prepared to debate the controversial amendment, opponents stormed the parliamentary building in Ouagadougou and violent protests broke out in cities across the country.

Although Compaoré tried to appease the protesters by ditching the proposed changes and dissolving the government, he was unable to calm the wrath of the angry crowds. On October 31, Compaoré fled to Ivory Coast with the help of France after a 27-year-long reign.

Sia Kambou, AFP file picture | Blaise Compaoré in the presidential palace in Ouagadougou

January 2017: Yahya Jammeh’s failed reelection bid in Gambia

After 22 years as the president of Gambia, Yahya Jammeh finally saw himself defeated at the polls after running for a fifth consecutive mandate.

Although Jammeh initially conceded defeat to his opponent, Adama Barrow, he then demanded a recount as calls began to mount for him to be prosecuted for alleged abuses. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union responded by calling for the 2016 vote to be respected.

On January 18, when Jammeh’s mandate officially expired, he announced his intention to stay on as Gambia’s leader. The following day Barrow, who had sought refuge in Senegal, was inaugurated as Gambia’s rightful president at a ceremony held at the country’s embassy in Dakar. On January 21 Jammeh was forced into exile after losing the support of the army.

August 2017: Angola’s José Eduardo dos Santos retires after 38 years

José Eduardo Dos Santos remained at the helm of Angola for 38 years before he decided to hand over the reins at the age of 75.

Dos Santos was a key figure in the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and was elected the country’s second-ever president in 1979 – four years after Angola declared independence from Portugal and following the death of his predecessor, Agostinho Neto, in Moscow.

During his first 20 years in power, dos Santos ruled Angola with an iron fist as the government fought a civil war with a rival liberation group, UNITA, which refused to recognise the legitimacy of dos Santos and his government. Peace was declared in 2002 – 26 years after the civil war began.

After winning reelection in both 2008 and 2012, dos Santos came under increased fire for his authoritarian rule. In 2016 he announced he would retire, presenting Defence Minister Joao Lourenço as his chosen successor. In September 2017, Lourenço became Angola’s third president.

November 2017: Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe placed under house arrest

Robert Mugabe was Africa’s oldest serving leader when he announced on November 4, 2017, that he intended to hand power to his wife Grace Mugabe, 40 years his junior. After announcing the sacking of Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa – the ZANU-FP party’s choice to replace Mugabe – the army intervened and seized power, placing both Mugabe and his wife under house arrest.

On November 21, 2017, parliament launched an impeachment process to remove Mugabe, who responded by resigning after 30 years as president.

Gulshan Khan, AFP file picture | Robert Mugabe in Pretoria in South Africa

December 2018: Kabila steps down in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Joseph Kabila was only 29 years old when he took office in 2001, just 10 days after the assassination of his father, President Laurent-Désiré Kabila. In 2003 he set up a transitional government after negotiating a peace agreement that put an end to the 1998-2003 Second Congo War. In 2006, Kabila was democratically elected president for the first time. In 2011 he was reeleacted for a second, and final, term.

In 2016, as Kabila’s mandate was coming to an end, he announced that the upcoming elections would be postponed, citing the long and costly process of registering the country’s 40 million voters. After coming under increasing international pressure to announce a new date for the vote, the elections were finally held in December 2018. Félix Tshisekedi won the election, with Kabila’s chosen candidate, former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, finishing a distant third behind Martin Fayulu.

John Wessels, AFP file picture | Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa

April 2019: Street protests force out Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika

Old and in ill health, Algeria’s 82-year-old leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika refused to leave his seat until massive street protests finally drove him out of the presidential palace in April 2019.

Bouteflika’s downfall began on February 10 when the ailing president, who suffered a debilitating a stroke in 2013, announced that he intended to run for a fifth term. The news triggered unprecedented street protests in Algeria, with many viewing Bouteflika as a puppet of the ruling National Liberation Front party (NLF).

After weeks of sustained protests and several defections from both the NLF and the army – including powerful army chief General Ahmed Gaid Salah – Bouteflika announced his resignation on April 2.

April 2019: Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir ousted in coup d’état

Omar al-Bashir ruled Sudan for 30 years before mass protests – initially triggered by higher bread prices – led to his removal through a coup d’état staged by the army.

When South Sudan declared independence in 2011, also claiming the region’s precious oil reserves, Sudan was plunged into a deep economic crisis, with both fuel and food prices rising sharply. At the end of December 2018, a nearly three-fold rise in the price of bread sparked massive street protests.

Unable to quell the demonstrations – which quickly turned into a broader, anti-government movement – Bashir ordered Sudan’s first state of emergency in two decades in February. On April 11, the Sudanese military removed Bashir from his post, dissolving both the cabinet and the National Legislature as it announced a two-year transition period under military rule. Since then protesters have kept up the pressure, calling for more sweeping changes, while Bashir has been imprisoned.

Ashraf Shazly, AFP file picture | Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum

24, April 2019

Yaounde accuses European Union of interference in its domestic affairs, expresses “indignation” ⁰

Cameroon’s Minister of Communication Emmanuel Rene Sadi has expressed “indignation” over what he described as the European Union’s interference in Cameroon’s internal affairs.

“Cameroonian internal issues can and should be resolved in Cameroon, by Cameroonians themselves, and the leaders they have freely chosen,” Sadi told a late-night press conference on Monday.

“In any case, the Cameroonian people can never be fooled, and stands ready to say no to subjugation,” he said.

The minister was reacting to a European Union (EU) Parliament resolution that expressed concerns over “high degree of instability” and alleged crackdown on “peaceful demonstrators” in Cameroon.

The EU statement was full of “untruths,” Sadi said.

“The Cameroonian Government is radically opposed to this European Parliament Resolution, and expresses its indignation at an act marked by bias, which is akin to a string of untruths, gratuitous affirmations, ungrounded recriminations, and injunctions accompanied by blackmail, directed against the Cameroonian authorities and our Defense and Security Forces,” he minister said.

Cameroon is a sovereign state with rule of law and respect of human rights, he said.

“As a result, it is up to the Cameroonian people, and the people alone, responsible for providing itself with the institutions of its choice and the laws that govern the life of the nation, just as it is up to the people to choose the person to preside over the destiny of the Cameroonian nation,” Sadi said.

The government does not oppose public protests so long as they are not a threat to public order and peace he said, adding that “appropriate measures” are being taken by the government to resolve the conflict in the Anglophone regions.

Xinhuanet

23, April 2019

Algerian police arrest businessmen close to Bouteflika’s inner circle ⁰

Five Algerian billionaires appeared in court on Monday to face charges from the general prosecutor following their arrest as part of an anti-graft investigation, Ennahar TV said on Monday.

The five Algerian businessmen are Issad Rebrab, considered the richest businessman in the energy-rich north African nation, and four brothers from the Kouninef family said to be close to ex-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Ennahar TV said.

Prosecutors are investigating “insider influence to obtain undue advantages and misappropriation of real estate”, state television reported.

The Kouninef family is hugely influential and the four brothers have dealings in everything from agribusiness to civil engineering.

They are said to be close to Said Bouteflika, the younger brother and former advisor of the president who stepped down on April 2 after weeks of mass protests against his 20-year rule.

Army chief Ahmed Gaid Salah has since called on prosecutors to “accelerate the pace” of probes into corrupt tycoons with ties to Bouteflika’s inner circle.

One of Algeria’s top businessmen and a Bouteflika backer, Ali Haddad, was arrested in late March as he tried to cross the border into Tunisia with two passports and undeclared currency.

The day after he was detained, prosecutors announced graft probes into unnamed individuals and banned corruption suspects from leaving the country.

Algerian media has reported that around a dozen businessmen are under investigation, all with ties to Bouteflika’s entourage.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)

23, April 2019

Boko Haram Kidnapped 100, Set Villagers on Fire While They Slept!! Biya won’t talk ⁰

Over 100 Boko Haram jihadis reduced an entire village to ashes in Cameroon near the country’s border with Nigeria, fatally setting at least 11 residents on fire while they slept, including children and elderly persons, and taking 100 people hostage after the attack late last week.

Echoing information from a member of a local self-defense militia, an anonymous source close to security services in the area told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency on Friday, “Boko Haram made an incursion at night [on Thursday] in the Tchakamari [village] area. The toll is 11.”

The bodies were “charred,” the source added, noting that the jihadis had set fire to the entire village.

Voice of America (VOA), citing village resident Abba Malloum, placed the number of fatalities from the attack on the village at 13, adding that they “were shot to death or otherwise slaughtered, plus many wounded and about 100 men, women and children abducted.”

VOA learned that “over a hundred Boko Haram fighters attacked the village, shooting indiscriminately and setting fire to all the houses.”

Residents saw their maize, beans, groundnuts, and sheep engulfed in flames as the jihadis stole hundreds of their cattle. Tchakamari village, on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria, is deserted, with torched houses and animal carcasses bearing witness to the attack.

Resident Abba Malloum says the village of more than 400 people was reduced to ashes by Boko Haram fighters who came from neighboring Nigeria late Thursday night.

AFP learned from its local security sources that the attack began around 10 p.m on Thursday and carried on to 1 a.m. Friday, marking the deadliest Boko Haram raid into Cameroon in recent months.

The heinous assault prompted the U.S.-backed Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) of the Lake Chad Basin Commission to deploy troops to the village. MNJTF includes forces from countries plagued by the Nigeria-based Boko Haram terrorist group including Nigeria itself as well as Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.

Midjiyawa Bakary, governor of Cameroon’s Far North Region, has called for vigilance. He says after a crisis meeting of the Multinational Joint Task Force, troops have been deployed to secure the area and bring back the abducted people. The task force has been instructed to organize regular patrols and systematic searches of people, vehicles and homes and suspected villages and towns.

Boko Haram’s deadly insurgency, which began in Nigeria in 2009, has spilled over into neighboring Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, triggering a U.S.-assisted military response by the affected countries. The jihadi group split into two factions in mid-2016, including the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) West Africa Province.

Although long-time Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau pledged allegiance to ISIS, the international terrorist group only recognizes and supports the West Africa branch. Both branches are terrorizing the West Africa region.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the Boko Haram conflict has left more than 36,000 people dead, including jihadis from the group (18,950), government forces (1,958), and civilians ( 15,953) combined.

Citing the United Nations, CFR noted that the conflict has also “displaced 2.4 million people and put more than seven million at risk of starvation.”

Even as victims continue to lament the killings and kidnappings linked to Boko Haram, the newly re-elected administration of President Muhammadu Buhari recently took credit for rendering Nigeria “totally free” of the jihadi group.

The Buhari administration has falsely claimed victory over Boko Haram on several occasions, prompting a member of the opposition to question the president’s mental state.

Nigeria’s Legit news outlet noted that the administration made those comments last week as Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, the chief of staff for the army, acknowledged that Nigerian troops had confined Boko Haram to the Lake Chad region and the Sambisa forest in northeastern Nigeria where they continue to terrorize residents.

U.S. and local officials have long considered the Sambisa forest, which covers parts of the northeastern Nigerian states of Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi, and Kano, to be Boko Haram’s last major stronghold in the country. Borno State is the birthplace of Boko Haram.

Source: Breitbart.com

23, April 2019

European Union warns of worsening situation in Cameroon ⁰

The European Union has warned of an unfolding catastrophe in the conflict-hit English speaking regions of Cameroon where the state and separatist militia are engaged in blatant atrocities.

In a resolution on Thursday the EU Parliament said the security and political situation in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon were deteriorating and called on President Paul Biya’s government to immediately take all steps to bring an end to the violence and impunity in the country.

In its resolution No 2019/2691(RSP) of April 18 the European Parliament deplored the growing violence and discrimination facing the Anglophone community in the country; expressing particular concern over allegations that government forces are responsible for killings, excessive use of force, and torture of civilians.

“Regrettably, unlawful killings and atrocities continue to be reported regularly (in the regions) allegedly involving both the security and defence forces and separatist groups,” Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy told the EU parliament.

She said the 28-member states EU has consistently called for dialogue between the government and armed separatists as the only way to achieve a sustainable solution to the crisis, “in a non-violent and inclusive manner, respecting fundamental rights and the rule of law.”

In the resolution, the legislative body asked the government to lift the ban on the activities of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium and to ensure an open space in which civil society can operate.

In her statement to Parliament Ms Mogherini said there was repression of demonstrations and narrowing of political space in Anglophone regions. She said 47 key opposition figures are under arrest awaiting military trials while more than a hundred protesters are in detention. Lawyers said Cameroon laws were not being respected.

“We have asked for the release of detainees against whom hard evidence cannot be produced and we asked for an immediate halt to violence, to human rights violations and hate speech. Regarding the situation in the English speaking regions of the Northwest and Southwest, we have consistently called for dialogue as the only way to achieve a sustainable solution, in a non-violent and inclusive manner, respecting fundamental rights and the rule of law,” Ms Mogherini said.

However, she lamented unlawful killings and atrocities continue to be reported regularly, allegedly involving both the security and defence forces and separatist groups

About 500,000 people are now displaced, including 32,000 refugees from Cameroon registered in Nigeria. Cameroon is also grappling with continued attacks by Boko Haram in the far North as well as in Chad, Niger and Nigeria.

“We know that Boko Haram is not invincible, and has suffered major setbacks. Yet we are seeing civilian deaths and losses by the security forces in Cameroon,” she told Parliament. There have been various accounts, supported by unverified gory images, describing what is going on in Cameroon as genocide but the government says the accounts are exaggerated by civil society looking for sponsors.

“We need to continue our humanitarian support as part of the international humanitarian response on the various fronts. If we consider both the Internally Displaced People and the refugees coming from Nigeria and the Central African Republic, there is about one million people in need of help,” she said.

Violence erupted in the Cameroon’s two English speaking regions when an industrial strike by aggrieved lawyers and teachers in 2016 over perceived marginalization turned into a clamour by armed separatists for outright independence of the region. Ambazonia, as the separatists identify the region, was administered as part of Nigeria as a UN trust territory under British control prior to reunification.

In November last year, the International Crisis Group (ICG) reported that the fighting had already killed between 450 to 500 civilians, 185 members of the security forces and hundreds of armed separatists. No official casualty figures have been reported since then but the toll has certainly risen as there has been several attacks since then.

ICG estimated that around 10 armed separatist groups had gained control of “large rural areas and a number of main roads” in the two English speaking regions.

Besides killings, the groups have been blamed for the repeated kidnappings of school children, staff and other officials in the regions. Trips to various localities of the regions even for burials are near impossible as the armed groups have mounted road blocks and kidnap travellers for ransoms.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a recent report said government forces killed at least 170 civilians in the last six months while civilians in the Anglophone regions were also attacked by armed separatists during the same period, with at least two men being executed.

The report said soldiers, special army units and gendarmes used indiscriminate force and torched hundreds of homes and public buildings in the Northwest and Southwest regions between October and March.

The government however dismissed the report saying it lacks seriousness and objectivity.

Communication Minister, Rene Emmanuel Sadi said troops deployed to the regions work perfectly within their sovereign role of ensuring the protection of the nation and the populations, in keeping with republican values, against outlaws who mercilessly kill and sow terror and despair.

“Human Rights Watch has betrayed an obvious bias in favour of armed gangs,” Mr Sadi said. HRW called for “immediate measures by the government of Cameroon and the international community to protect the security, safety and unhindered access to healthcare and education for children.”

Cameroon Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji who is also National Coordinator of an Emergency Humanitarian Assistance Plan; a government initiative to assist victims of the conflict said the humanitarian situation in the regions is “under control.”

Contrary to the half a million Internally Displaced Persons by the crisis figure by civil society organisations, he said, official data indicated that only 152,000 persons have been displaced by the crisis.

In June last year, the government unveiled a FCFA 12.7 billion ($21.8 million) relief plan for the reintegration of the affected populations; reconstruction of destroyed infrastructure, housing, food, healthcare and education. CFCA stands for the Central Africa Franc, the single currency for the six states forming the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa States.

Relations between the minority Anglophone Cameroonians and the country’s dominant Francophone elite have long been fraught. Cameroon’s Anglophones often complain of being treated as second-class citizens since the reunification.

These grievances led to peaceful protests in 2017 which government forces violently repulsed after separatists load on the protests to declare independence for the state of Ambazonia.

President Biya, 86, who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years, has relied on military force to keep the country united.

On his re-election in November last year, President Biya vowed to pursue policies of decentralisation to address “frustrations and aspirations” in English-speaking regions hit by separatist unrest. He asked the rebels to drop their arms or face the determination of the military.

It was the first time in 13 months of pro-independence violence that Biya had clearly acknowledged the struggles of those living in anglophone areas. The United States, however, has suspended military aid to Cameroon over the suppression of human rights.

In November last year, President Biya’s government refused to authorise the Anglophone General Conference which was to kick-start dialogue on improving security in the regions. Organisers are still hopeful the conference will be allowed this year.

Culled from The East African