23, February 2018
Fru Ndi steps down from presidential race 0
The national chairman of the main opposition party in Cameroon, Ni John Fru Ndii, has declared that he will ‘not be presenting his candidature for the 2018 presidential elections’. The veteran politician founded the Social Democratic Front (SDF) in 1990 and has led the party since then.
Speaking at the special congress of the party held in Bamenda, 77 year old Ndii reportedly said he was leaving the stage for the younger generation. I will not present my candidature for the Presidential election, I want you to chose who is best to be the flag bearer.
Ndii has recently been embroiled in a war of words with secessionists in the Anglophone region who wanted the SDF congress moved from Bamenda to Yaounde.
Ndii maintains that he is an Anglophone citizen who is not pro-secession. Analysts will now watch whether 49 year old Joshua Osih, who is currently the deputy of the party, will now seek to be nominated as the party’s presidential flag bearer.
Electoral activities ahead of the presidential election , have already started, and the opposition party recently met in the restive Bamenda region and declared that it would participate in the March 25 senatorial polls.
President Paul Biya is expected to seek another term in office after over three decades in charge of the Central African nation. The country is currently riled by secessionist elements in the Anglophone regions – northwest and southwest regions.
Source: Africa News
24, February 2018
European Union to double funding for military force in West Africa’s Sahel region 0
The European Union is to double the budget allocated to a multi-national force in West Africa’s Sahel region as part of a declared mission to crack down on militancy and human trafficking there.
Europe fears that growing instability in the Sahel region of Africa — an arid land mass lying to the immediate south of the Sahara Desert and stretching east-west across the breadth of the African continent — could worsen the already high levels of human trafficking toward Europe and create a springboard for militant attacks on the West.
“There is a direct European interest in restoring stability to the region,” a senior EU diplomat said as quoted by media reports published on Friday. “There is a general awareness now that the future of the European Union is also the future of Africa.”
The deaths of two French soldiers in Mali this week and four US soldiersin Niger in October last year, where most Americans did not know the United States had forces, has highlighted the security threat in the vast scrublands spanning from Mauritania to Chad.
To address the mounting security threats, Brussels and Washington have devised a two-sided strategy, including military and development aid in Africa.
The West created the G5 Sahel force — made up of troops from Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, and Mauritania — to counter militancy in the region. The Western-backed force is to receive more than 400 million euros (494 million dollars) to be able to meet its declared objectives.
The new budget is almost double the 250 million euros it has now.
France, which has more than 4,000 troops in the region, has been frustrated that it is the only EU member with combat troops on the ground, although others have contributed trainers.
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that the military approach alone would not be effective and called for greater efforts to relieve the roots of the conflict, namely poverty, poor governance, and climate hazards.
“When you add more weapons, you add more suffering,” Patrick Youssef, the deputy head of the ICRC’s operations for Africa, told Reuters. “That needs to be accompanied with real measures to alleviate the suffering that is the main reason why this war was created.”