News

19, August 2018

Boko Haram jihadists kill four farmers in Nigeria ⁰

Four farmers were killed by Boko Haram jihadists outside a key northeast Nigerian city, a militia leader and survivor told AFP on Saturday.

On Friday, around a dozen Boko Haram Islamists riding on motorcycles stormed crop fields near Ali Goshe village, 6km outside the city of Maiduguri, and slit the throats of four farmers.

The attack on civilians comes as the jihadists are launching a surge of assaults against troops in Nigeria, putting the military on the back foot six months before presidential polls.

“So far we have confirmed the death of four people in the attack which happened around midday,” said Ibrahim Liman, who is part of the militia taskforce fighting Boko Haram in the region.

“When the Boko Haram terrorists came the farmers fled but the gunmen managed to grab four and slaughter them.”

Shuaibu Boka, who was among the farmers who escaped, said the jihadists did not shoot in order to avoid attracting the attention of security forces.

“There were dozens of us tending our crops when they came on motorcycles and we all fled in different directions,” Boka said.

“When we returned much later after the gunmen were gone, we found four of our men slaughtered,” he said, adding that the jihadists had killed the 75-year-old head of the community.

Boko Haram’s nine-year quest to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria has killed over 20,000 people and displaced some 2.6 million from their homes, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis in the remote Lake Chad region.

The majority of the displaced people used to be subsistence farmers, but because of the ongoing violence they can no longer tend to their fields and rely on food handouts from aid agencies to survive.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Friday it was providing emergency help after 33 children died of malnutrition, diarrhoea and malaria over the span of two weeks in Bama, a camp housing people displaced by the insurgency.

Agriculture in the region has been decimated by almost a decade of conflict, with locals unable to sow or cultivate crops and jihadists raiding grain stores.

But farmers have been forced to try to resume their work in areas where the military has restored relative peace to help alleviate chronic food shortages.

Boko Haram jihadists have been targeting loggers and peasant farmers, accusing them of spying and passing information to the military and the local militia fighting them.

Source: News 24

18, August 2018

Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Press Conference Against Genocide ⁰

The Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) Interim Government is inviting you for a Press Conference at the National Press Club, Monday August 20^th at 1PM. The Press Conference shall focus on the ongoing genocide in the country of Cameroon and the civil war in which the Southern Cameroons, Ambazonia wants to secede and become an independent country. It shall also address the alleged fraud and bribery involving the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Anthony Guitterese and the government of Cameroon, to cover up human rights abuses by the Cameroon government.

Speaking at the press briefing shall be the major stakeholders and different frontline leaders for Ambazonia, including the Interim President, Dr. Samuel Sako Ekome. They will address the current armed struggle/civil war in Cameroon in which US military equipment meant for use against Boko Haram is being used by the government of Cameroon to kill civilians.

The leaders shall also use the opportunity to publish a Memorandum of Understand (MoU) that binds all the movements in a collaboration pack.

We will greatly appreciate your presence at the conference. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at 603-682-2687. Contact person is Chris Anu. He can also be reached on email, anuchris@yahoo.com.

18, August 2018

End of Earth Task: Kofi Annan goes home to rest ⁰

It is with immense sadness that the Annan family and the Kofi Annan Foundation announce that Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations and Nobel Peace Laureate, passed away peacefully on Saturday 18th August after a short illness. His wife Nane and their children Ama, Kojo and Nina were by his side during his last days.

Kofi Annan was a global statesman and a deeply committed internationalist who fought throughout his life for a fairer and more peaceful world. During his distinguished career and leadership of the United Nations he was an ardent champion of peace, sustainable development, human rights and the rule of law.

After stepping down from the United Nations, he continued to work tirelessly in the cause of peace through his chairmanship of the Kofi Annan Foundation and as chair of The Elders, the group founded by Nelson Mandela. He was an inspiration to young and old alike.

Kofi Annan was a son of Ghana and felt a special responsibility towards Africa. He was particularly committed to African development and deeply engaged in many initiatives, including his chairmanship of the Africa Progress Panel and his early leadership of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

Wherever there was suffering or need, he reached out and touched many people with his deep compassion and empathy. He selflessly placed others first, radiating genuine kindness, warmth and brilliance in all he did. He will be greatly missed by so many around the world, as well as his staff at the Foundation and his many former colleagues in the United Nations system. He will remain in our hearts forever.

The family kindly requests privacy at this time of mourning. Arrangements to celebrate his remarkable life will be announced later.

18, August 2018

Biya regime denies army shooting unarmed people ⁰

Cameroon’s communications minister and government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary on Thursday dismissed as “utter manipulation” a video displaying Cameroonian soldiers in brutal killings and wanton molestation in the Far North region of the country.

The video released last Friday showed soldiers firing automatic weapons at unarmed people assembled face down and sitting against a wall.

“The government condemns this gruesome, unbearable and unsupportable situation. At the same time while some accusing fingers are pointing at our army, from the same video you have another voice which says that this gruesome killing was perpetrated by another army in another nation,” Tchiroma told a press conference in the capital Yaounde.

His reaction followed a report by an international NGO stating that the shocking killings were committed by Cameroonian security forces during a military operation in the village of Achigaya in the Far North region of the country.

Cameroonian army is a responsible, discipline and people-friendly force, Tchiroma said but announced that an enquiry into the crime is in progress.

“A commission is on right now leading a thorough investigation in order to find out the perpetrators of the gruesome killings. If it happens that they are Cameroonians, then they will be taken to the court,” said Tchiroma.

Last week, Cameroon arrested seven soldiers suspected of having shot dead at close range two women and two young children in the Far North after denying the crime was not committed by Cameroon security forces.

Source: Xinhuanet

17, August 2018

Biya Francophone regime admits soldiers were arrested over execution video ⁰

Cameroon’s government has announced the arrest of six soldiers following a probe into a video released a few weeks ago that documented the abuse of civilians, the privately-owned Cameroon Info news site reports.

It marks a U-turn from their previous denials that any arrests had been made over the video which emerged last month.

The six soldiers are suspected of being the perpetrators of, or accomplices in the summary executions of women and children in the Far North Region, Cameroon Info reports.

In the clip which circulated widely on social media, men wearing military fatigues shoot two women, including one with a baby on her back, and a little girl.

They are heard accusing the victims of being connected to the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram.

Source: Daily Trust

17, August 2018

Former Ghanaian Head of State says France, Biya Cannot Escape Blame For Southern Cameroons Atrocities ⁰

Jerry Rawlings, Former Ghanaian Head of State and President of Ghana, has described the violence in Cameroon as a “horrible situation” and stated that France and Cameroonian leader Paul Biya cannot escape blame for the atrocities in the Anglophone half.

Rawlings made the condemnation while receiving members of the TakeItBack movement led by Omoyele Sowore, a presidential aspirant in the forthcoming elections in Nigeria, at his office in Ridge, Accra, Ghana.

He expressed worry that the situaton in Cameroon hasn’t been receiving consistent media attention because of the interest of some powerful western powers in the country’s resources.

Giving an eyewitness account of the happenings in Cameroon, Togolese Activist, Farida Nabourema, who is part of the TakeItBack team and was recently in Cameroon, said: “The week I was there, they actually shot four young men. We were going into town and a woman stopped us where there were four corpses of Anglophone Cameroonians.

She said the four were killed in an extra-judicial manner.

She added that the family later confirmed that one corpse was deposited at the hospital, while others were taken away by the military. She also spoke of widespread burning of villages, which she described as ethnic cleansing.

Sowore, who is an activist, called for an end to the bloodshed in Anglophone Cameroon, noting that every African life deserves to be protected.

He also called on the international community to look into events in Cameroon for the sake of posterity.

Culled from Sahara Reporters

17, August 2018

Tanzania to arrest entire village over broken water pipe ⁰

Tanzanian police said Thursday it planned to arrest all the residents of a village in the country’s south after water pipes were destroyed by a mob.

The inhabitants of Ngolo village were accused of deliberately smashing pipes taking water to a neighboring settlement in Mbeya region.

Governor Albert Chalamila had on Wednesday, “ordered that all the inhabitants of this village be arrested regardless of their condition.”

In response, police on Thursday deployed several vehicles and officers to arrest the villagers, said regional commander Ulrich Matei.

“They committed economic sabotage. The government has disbursed money, installed water pipes and they destroyed them! We cannot accept that,” Matie said.

The police chief added that he had sent “enough vehicles, with enough fuel and police on board” to arrest the villagers.

Details about the incident remain sketchy, but the village, whose population is around 1,600, lies in an area where water resources are sketchy.

(Source: AFP)

16, August 2018

Ambazonia Interim Government says killing of medics in Southern Cameroons ‘disgrace to Biya and President Macron ⁰

The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia says a recent deadly attack by French Cameroun government forces on the town of Mbengui in the Northern Zone, which massacred two nurses and 14 other innocent civilians, is a disgrace to the Biya Francophone regime and the French government, the main sponsor and arms supplier to French Cameroun.

The Ambazonian Department of Health issued the declaration as hundreds of medics in the Northern Zone came out in their numbers on Wednesday to pay their last respects to their colleagues who were shot at the weekend by soldiers loyal to the regime in Yaounde. Cameroon Concord News Group understands Nancy Azah and her husband, Njong Paddisco ran two separate clinics in Mbengwi.

Several senior political commentators have criticized the African Union and the United Nations for inaction on the Biya regime’s policy of killing innocent Southern Cameroons citizens. In a broadcast to Ambazonians recently, Communications Secretary, Hon. Chris Anu said, Southern Cameroons interim government does not pin its hopes on the UN or the AU for any effort towards ending the genocidal campaign going on in Southern Cameroons, but rather relies on its own restoration forces and other freedom-seeking people to that end.

Over 2,000 people have been killed and 170 villages burned in English-speaking regions of Cameroon. Violence has escalated in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions in the last 18 months, with reports of French-speaking state forces launching a string of random attacks, kidnappings, and rapes against English-speaking residents and their villages.

After English-speaking residents in the Northwest and Southwest regions protested in October 2016 demanding autonomy because they feel underrepresented in the government, violence in those communities escalated throughout 2017.

Last month, the United Nations expressed concern that the violence against those communities has only “worsened considerably” since 2017 as there have been multiple reports of detention, torture, burning down of homes and excessive use of force by state forces.

Over the past weeks, several European and North American cities have been witnessing Ambazonian protests against the Biya Francophone regime and its French government partners deep within the UN and AU structures. Ambazonian protesters in Canada recently also called on the international community to punish the regime in Yaounde for its crimes against Southern Cameroons civilians.

In a relevant development, the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has summoned all Southern Cameroons resistance groups to Washington DC for a unity meeting.

By Rita Akana in Bamenda

15, August 2018

22 children die in boat sinking on Nile River in Sudan ⁰

A boat carrying more than 40 pupils has sunk while crossing the Nile River in Sudan, leaving at least 22 primary school children dead.

The state news agency SUNA reported that the small boat went down around 750 kilometers (470 miles) north of the capital Khartoum on Wednesday morning while it was crossing the river to a school in the village of Kabna.

A female hospital employee in the village also drowned.

“This morning, 22 schoolchildren and one woman died when their boat sank in Bouhayra in Nile State as they traveled to school from Kneissa,” the agency said.

SUNA added that the boat sank after one of its engines broke down “halfway across because of a strong current.”

A witness, who asked not to be named, said that the vessel had been crossing the river against the current, adding, “All the families (in the area) are in mourning.”

The small boat was reportedly overloaded, carrying sweet potatoes and grain in addition to the passengers.

According to the agency, the victims’ bodies have not yet been recovered.

Ibrahim Hassan, another witness, said at least nine children survived the ordeal.

Residents of the region rely on wooden boats to cross the Nile, which is an important transport route for people and goods in the country.

Monsoon rains in Sudan regularly last from June to November and cause the Nile, one of the world’s longest rivers, and its tributaries to overflow.

Source: Presstv

15, August 2018

Nigerian soldiers protest as Boko Haram attacks surge ⁰

Disillusioned and exhausted, Nigerian troops battling a surge in Boko Haram jihadist attacks have reached breaking point, protesting less than six months before presidential polls.

The Nigerian army dismissed it as a “misunderstanding”, but on Sunday hundreds of soldiers protested in the airport of Maiduguri, the capital of restive northeast Borno state, for several hours, shooting into the air and disrupting flights.

They were furious about a planned redeployment to a battlefront in the remote Lake Chad region after fighting Boko Haram jihadists for years without relief.

“We should not have been here for more than a year but this is our fourth year and still they are asking us to move to Marte,” one of the protesting soldiers told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“We need some rest, we are war-weary and need to see our families.”

The protest comes after a wave of bloody assaults on military bases in the northeast, forcing the army to retreat and marking a Boko Haram comeback.

The resurgence of violence has put pressure on Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who is seeking a second term in office and maintains that the country is now in a “post-conflict stabilisation phase.”

Experts say that Nigeria hasn’t faced such a serious threat from the jihadists since the peak of the insurgency between 2013 and 2015, when Boko Haram controlled swathes of territory in the country’s northeast.

“There has been a military evolution akin to what we’ve seen in Syria and Iraq,” said security analyst Yan St Pierre to AFP.

“Boko Haram’s quality of attack is higher, the level of preparedness is higher.”

The Nigerian military is overwhelmed by the “catastrophic security situation,” said St Pierre, “they are relying on old tactics no longer applicable in the northeast.”

Desperate to stop the onslaught, Nigeria’s military chief Yusuf Tukur Buratai said that “cowardly” soldiers would be punished by death in a July 27 memo seen by AFP.

Soldiers who “abandon their positions” have the potential to “rubbish all the laudable gains made in the operations in the past 3 years against BHT (Boko Haram terrorists).”

– Relentless attacks –

The attacks are relentless. In less than a month, dozens of soldiers have died, though in the absence of any official death toll from the military, the number is feared to be much higher.

Boko Haram has traditionally launched attacks during Nigeria’s rainy season between June and September when roads become water-logged, making it difficult for troops to do patrols.

The more mobile jihadists seize the opportunity to restock their arsenal of weapons from war-torn Libya and Mali through Nigeria’s porous borders.

Sanda Kime, who is part of the militia force fighting against Boko Haram in Lake Chad, said the latest attacks were because of “huge arms supplies” secured by the jihadists.

“They are now better armed which makes them more daring,” said Kime.

The garrison town of Monguno is on high alert after Boko Haram sent out a warning this week that it would attack on August 22 during the Muslim Eid festival, said residents and aid workers.

Similar threats were sent to troops in Askira and Uba towns, security sources said.

On Monday, the United Nations announced the suspension of humanitarian work by its agencies in Monguno from August 19 over security concerns, according to an internal memo seen by AFP.

– Easy hideouts –

Fighters loyal to IS-affiliated Boko Haram factional leader Abu Mus’ab Al-Barnawi are believed to have carried out most of the raids.

The faction is mostly based in the Lake Chad area and in areas south of Maiduguri including Benisheikh and Buni Yadi in nearby Yobe state.

In June, Nigerian fighter jets bombarded Al-Barnawi’s Tumbun Gini enclave in the Lake Chad area, forcing him to flee southwards to a forest near Benisheikh, 80 kilometres south of Maiduguri, according to sources with deep knowledge about the group.

“He moved his operational base to the Benisheikh area from where he planned the attacks on military bases,” said a source who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.

Al-Barnawi, the son of Boko Haram’s deceased founder Mohammed Yusuf, has found sanctuary in the Lake Chad region, an area fertile in vegetation and fish that is difficult for security forces to penetrate.

“The camps are a reservoir of fighters for the group from where they plan and launch attacks”, said Usman Nalado, a fisherman from the town of Baga on the shore of the lake.

“To end their attacks troops need to smoke them out.”

Source: AFP