News

25, March 2025

President Kagame of Rwanda planning to attack Burundi ⁰

Burundi’s president has told the BBC he has seen “credible intelligence” that Rwanda plans to attack his country.

Évariste Ndayishimiye also said that Rwanda had tried to launch a coup a decade ago in Burundi, akin to “what it’s doing in the Democratic Republic of Congo” now.

Rwanda has already hit back, calling the president’s comments “surprising” and insisting that the two neighbours are co-operating on security plans for their shared border, which has been shut for over a year.

Despite extensive UN evidence, Rwanda has always denied arming and backing the M23 rebel group, which has recently seized large parts of eastern DR Congo alongside Rwandan troops.

Rwanda has also denied links to the resurgent Red Tabara rebel group, which President Ndayishimiye says is a proxy force similar to the M23 and is being supported by Rwanda to destabilise Burundi.

“They would say it’s an internal problem when it’s Rwanda [who is] the problem. We know that he [Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame] has a plan to attack Burundi,” Ndayishimiye added.

“Burundians will not accept to be killed as Congolese are being killed. Burundian people are fighters.

“But now we don’t have any plans to attack Rwanda. We want to resolve that problem by dialogue.”

At the heart of Ndayishimiye’s comments was a call for peace and the full implementation of an agreement between the two nations – a peace deal that had been signed in previous years but, according to Burundi, had not been honoured by Rwanda.

“The people who did the 2015 coup [were] organised by Rwanda, and then they ran away. Rwanda organised them – it went to recruit the youth in Mahama camp. It trained them, it gave them arms, it financed them. They are living in the hand of Rwanda,” he alleges.

“If Rwanda accepts to hand over them and bring them to justice, the problem would be finished.”

Source: BBC

21, March 2025

Cameroon’s displaced population exceeded 1 Million amid persistent violence ⁰

More than one million people were displaced in Cameroon in 2024, according to a report published in early March by the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The report identified 453,662 displaced people in the Far North region, 583,113 in the Northwest and Southwest regions, and 281,488 refugees from the Central African Republic in the East.

“Although there was no major change in the political situation in Cameroon in 2024, the Far North, Northwest, and Southwest regions remained plagued by persistent armed violence, with significant incidents primarily affecting civilians as well as humanitarian operations,” the Norwegian Refugee Council said in the report.

The Far North region has faced incursions by Boko Haram fighters from Nigeria since 2014, affecting the Mayo-Tsanaga, Mayo-Sava, and Logone-et-Chari departments. The region is also home to the Minawao refugee camp, the country’s largest, hosting nearly 70,000 refugees. Armed separatist groups have conducted attacks in the Northwest and Southwest regions since 2017.

The Norwegian Refugee Council report cited additional factors contributing to the high displacement numbers, including “the increase in fuel prices, accompanied by a rise in the cost of basic goods and services, which has had a significant impact on already vulnerable communities, limiting access to essential goods and services for displaced people, particularly women and children.”

The Norwegian Refugee Council’s 2024 budget in Cameroon totaled nearly 7 billion CFA francs, with approximately 22% provided by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Source: Sbbc

20, March 2025

Archbishop Andrew Nkea urges direct talks with Anglophone separatists ⁰

According to the Archbishop of the Bamenda archdiocese, the Yaoundé government needs to engage direct talks with separatists in the country’s two English-speaking regions if a sustainable peace is to come.

Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya was speaking in Yaoundé on March 18 during a meeting to assess the ground covered in implementing the resolutions of the September 29-October 4 Major National Dialogue to resolve the crisis.

Nkea told participants at the meeting that was chaired by Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute that separatist fighters “believe the government is not truly committed to solving this problem.”

“Some feel that while many declarations are made on radio, television, and in newspapers, little is actually implemented,” the archbishop said.

The separatist crisis in Cameroon began in 2016 when lawyers and teachers in the English-speaking regions protested against the marginalization by the predominantly French-speaking government. The situation escalated into a full-blown separatist conflict, with armed groups in the northwest and southwest regions seeking independence for a new state called Ambazonia.

The conflict has led to the deaths of more than 6,000 people, the displacement of over a million, and the destruction of property.

Cameroon has two main language groups—French and English—due to its colonial history. Over time, the Anglophone regions have expressed concerns about being treated unfairly, with their identity and rights often ignored or suppressed.

President Paul Biya admitted the assimilation plan to Moh Ibrahim on November 12, 2019 during the Second Paris Peace Summit in France.

“We tried assimilating their system into the majority francophone system but because of identity differences, it failed,” Biya said.

This deep-rooted tension eventually led to the open conflict.

The Major National Dialogue proposed a broad tapestry of measures to resolve the crisis. These included the adoption of a special status for the two Anglophone regions; the restoration of the House of Traditional Chiefs; the rapid integration of ex-combatants into society; accelerating the decentralization process to empower local authorities and improve governance; implementing measures to boost local development and national growth, including improving infrastructure like roads to support small farmers; as well as providing skills training and deradicalization programs for those affected by the conflict.

While admitting that significant progress has been recorded in several of these commitments, the Bamenda archbishop, one of the religious leaders appointed as member of the committee to follow up the implantation of the dialogue resolutions, urged the government to recognize the need to engage directly with core separatists.

“The boys [separatist fighters] feel you are merely talking among yourselves or to your friends,” the archbishop warned.

He said the Church can only facilitate such a dialogue, but can’t make any pledges on behalf of the state.

“We can only go out with camwood, wash and rub their feet, pray with them, and urge them to stop killing their own,” Nkea said.

He further revealed that both Ambazonian fighters and the leadership they have met believe that some members of the government want the crisis to continue and are actively obstructing genuine dialogue. This perception, he warned, fuels distrust and complicates efforts towards a peaceful resolution.

The archbishop noted that some of the fighters have indicated a willingness to attend follow-up committee meetings, suggesting this demonstrates “a willingness, albeit cautious, from some actors to engage in the dialogue process.”

Nkea condemned the continued use of force as a way of resolving the conflict.

“All wars, including the First and Second World Wars, ended at the negotiating table. The Ambazonians are ready for meaningful dialogue, and we, as religious leaders, can facilitate it,” he stated.

Dion commended the efforts of the religious leaders, even as he extolled the achievements of his government in the implementation of the Major National Dialogue resolutions.

The prime minister said the decentralization process has been sped up, with the institution of Regional Councils in the eight francophone regions of the country and Regional Assemblies in the two English-speaking regions.

In the area of Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR), Dion announced that at least 3,500 ex-fighters have dropped their weapons and are now being deradicalized and given life skills at various DDR centers in the two regions.

The prime minister noted further that legal action has already been taken against some separatist leaders in the diaspora whom the government blames for manipulating the youths to take up arms in the first place.

Noting that peace was gradually returning to the two regions, he pointed to the population’s increasing discomfort with the war, saying it was evidence that the people have rejected violence.

But religious leaders and conflict resolution experts have warned that if the root causes of the conflict are not addressed, the country could end up with what’s known as “negative peace” – a term the refers to a situation where there is an absence of direct violence or open conflict, but the underlying causes of the conflict – like injustice, inequality, or oppression – remain unresolved.

This, experts say, would be a recipe for future confrontations.

Source: Crux

20, March 2025

Hon. Rose Abunaw’s vision of women era as she quits Mohwa ⁰

The former Vice President of the National Assembly today challenged Cameroonians to consider rallying behind female politicians so as to create gender parity.

During a recent sackcloth removal in loving memory of her late elder sister General Nana Abunaw, Rose Abunaw said Yaoundé had built women’s leadership but must expand their fields of participation in governance.

“Cameroonian women were part of the struggle to build this great nation since 1961, advancing women course is a duty that Unity Palace owes every Cameroonian woman and I will continue to be part of this push for women leadership in Cameroon,” Hon. Rose Abuanw added.

Hon. Rose Abunaw explained that she was leaving Mohwa- the once renowned Manyu women association for personal reasons.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that Hon. Rose Abunaw has relegated Mohwa for Eyumema. “In my commitment to Mohwa, I have had the pleasure of working with very sound Manyu women at different times and in different capacities in Mohwa. All of them treated my late sister General Nana with love and respect but I think it’s now the time for me to move on,” Hon. Rose Abuanw said.

This item is still developing

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai with files from Kingsley Betek

19, March 2025

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 2 soldiers killed in suspected separatist attack ⁰

At least two Cameroonian soldiers were killed early Wednesday in a suspected separatist attack in the country’s West Region, according to security sources.

The attack took place in Magda in the West Region, which borders the English-speaking region of Northwest, where an armed separatist conflict is ongoing, local officials said.

An army official in the region, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the two soldiers were killed when separatist fighters ambushed them and opened fire.

“I can guarantee you that our brave soldiers will pursue and capture them. That act is intolerable,” the official said over the phone.

Fighting between government forces and separatist fighters has persisted in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest since 2017, when separatists attempted to establish an independent nation in these regions.

Source: Xinhuanet

19, March 2025

Biya regime orders crackdown on soldiers seeking Ukraine fight ⁰

Minister Delegate at the Presidency of the Republic in charge of Defense (Mindef), Joseph Beti Assomo, issued a directive on March 13, 2025, outlining measures to prevent Cameroonian army deserters from joining the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

In a written message to defense and security forces (FDS) unit heads, Assomo instructed them to prevent such desertions. “Following consistent and credible reports indicating the clandestine departures of certain FDS members (…), please urgently take all appropriate measures to tighten control over personnel within your ranks,” Assomo wrote.

He also ordered senior officers to prohibit any FDS member from leaving the national territory without authorization, duly signed by him after approval from the chain of command and Military Security (Semil). For those who have already joined the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Assomo directed military authorities to take immediate action against them, in accordance with existing regulations.

The Mindef directive comes as the conflict in Eastern Europe, which began in February 2022, has become financially appealing to foreign fighters. Military experts report that Russia is offering at least 10,000 euros (approximately 6.5 million CFA francs) in bonuses to foreign volunteers who enlist, a high incentive believed to be driving soldiers from various countries to desert their armies.

Source: Sbbc

18, March 2025

Nigerian Senate to probe Cameroon’s encroachment on Akwa Ibom oil wells ⁰

The Nigerian Senate has constituted an ad-hoc committee to investigate alleged annexation of maritime territories, mangrove islands villages of Effiat clan in Mbo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom.

The resolution is sequel to adoption of a motion, sponsored by Senator Aniekan Bassey (PDP-Akwa Ibom) and co-sponsored by six other senators at plenary on Tuesday.

Senator Jimoh Ibrahim (APC-Ondo) was named Chairman of the ad-hoc committee.

Members of the committee included senators Adeniyi Adegbonmire (APC-Ondo) Seriake Dickson (PDP-Baylesa), Shehu Kaka (APC-Borno), Ipalibo Harry Banigo (PDP-Rivers).

Also in the committee are, senators Agom Jarigbe (PDP-Rivers), Ekong Sampson (PDP-Akwa Ibom), Aniekan Bassey (PDP-Akwa Ibom).

The Mbo Mangrove Island is a fishing settlement, west of the Rio Del Ray estuary and serves as the official borderline between Nigeria and Cameroon.

According to reports, the island hosts oil wells and abundant gas reserves.

Source: Punch Nigeria

18, March 2025

Death toll soars past 400 as Israel launches massive airstrikes across Gaza ⁰

The Israeli military has killed at least 412 Palestinians, mostly children and women, throughout the Gaza Strip’s entire expanse during a large-scale violation of Tel Aviv’s ceasefire agreement with the Gaza-based resistance movement Hamas.

Reports said those killed in included at least 77 people in Khan Younis in southern Gaza and at least 20 people in Gaza City in the north.

At least 500 other Palestinians were also injured during the bloodletting, Palestinian news agency Sama reported on Tuesday.

According to the agency, the raids did not spare any part of the already war-battered and mostly devastated coastal sliver, targeting residential structures, schools, and refugee centers.

Reporting on the fresh deadly escalation, Qatar’s Al Jazeera television network reported that explosions had rang out throughout Gaza’s northeastern areas, where the regime’s spy aircraft and warplanes have been engaging in extensive overflight.

The ceasefire took effect in January in the hope of ending the regime’s 15-month-plus war of genocide against Gaza that began after Hamas and its fellow resistance groups from the Palestinian territory launched a historic operation against the occupied Palestinian territories.

The operation saw the fighters venture deep inside the territories, encircling strategic Israeli bases and ensnaring 240 Zionists, including some American-Israelis.

Since initiation of the ceasefire deal, the regime has been routinely violating it besides blocking the entry of vital aid items into Gaza, including foodstuffs, medicine, and water, in an attempt to pressure Hamas into releasing those of the captives, who remained in the group’s captivity, in one batch.

Hamas has released 25 living captives and the remains of eight others in exchange for more than 2,000 Palestinian prisoners during the implementation of the first phase of the deal.

The movement has denounced Tel Aviv’s efforts at sabotaging the agreement, urging that release of the remaining captives is conditioned upon implementation of a second phase.

Earlier, the regime’s Ma’ariv newspaper reported, citing its sources, that Tel Aviv had turned down a proposal for, what it called, “selective release” of the American captives.

The sources said the regime has told the United States that diplomatic efforts towards enabling release of the remaining captives had ended.

They also said the regime’s so-called “security cabinet” had allowed its prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and minister for military affairs Israel Katz to determine the time for resumption of the genocide.

Netanyahu’s office, meanwhile, alleged that the regime had resumed its military attacks on Gaza after, what it termed as, Hamas’ turning down Washington’s proposals for extension of the ceasefire.

This is while Hamas has been constantly engaging with Qatari and Egyptian mediators towards keeping up the ceasefire, despite the disruptive Israeli efforts.

Source: Presstv

18, March 2025

VOA discarded by President Trump like a dirty rag ⁰

Chinese state media has welcomed Donald Trump’s move to cut public funding for news outlets Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, which have long reported on authoritarian regimes.

The decison affects thousands of employees – some 1,300 staff have been put on paid leave at Voice Of America (VOA) alone since Friday’s executive order.

Critics have called the move a setback for democracy but Beijing’s state newspaper Global Times denounced VOA for its “appalling track record” in reporting on China and said it has “now been discarded by its own government like a dirty rag”.

The White House defended the move, saying it will “ensure that taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda”.

Trump’s cuts target the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which is supported by Congress and funds the affected news outlets, such as VOA, Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Radio Free Europe.

They have won acclaim and international recognition for their reporting in places where press freedom is severely curtailed or non-existent, from China and Cambodia to Russia and North Korea.

Although authorities in some of these countries block the broadcasts – VOA, for instance, is banned in China – people can listen to them on shortwave radio, or get around the restrictions via VPNs.

RFA has often reported on the crackdown on human rights in Cambodia, whose former authoritarian ruler Hun Sen has hailed the cuts as a “big contribution to eliminating fake news”.

It was also among the first news outlets to report on China’s network of detention centres in Xinjiang, where the authorities are accused of locking up hundreds of thousands of Uyghur Muslims without trial. Beijing denies the claims, saying people willingly attend “re-education camps” which combat “terrorism and religious extremism”. VOA’s reporting on North Korean defectors and the Chinese Communist Party’s alleged cover-up of Covid fatalities has won awards.

VOA, primarily a radio outlet, which also broadcasts in Mandarin, was recognised last year for its podcast on rare protests in 2022 in China against Covid lockdowns.

But China’s Global Times welcomed the cuts, calling VOA a “lie factory”.

“As more Americans begin to break through their information cocoons and see a real world and a multi-dimensional China, the demonising narratives propagated by VOA will ultimately become a laughing stock,” it said in an editorial published on Monday.

Hu Xijin, who was the Global Times’ former editor-in-chief, wrote: “Voice of America has been paralysed! And so has Radio Free Asia, which has been as vicious to China. This is such great news.”

Such responses “would have been easy to predict”, said Valdya Baraputri, a VOA journalist who lost her job over the weekend. She was previously employed by BBC World Service.

“Eliminating VOA, of course, allows channels that are the opposite of accurate and balanced reporting to thrive,” she told the BBC.

The National Press Club, a leading representative group for US journalists, said the order “undermines America’s long-standing commitment to a free and independent press”.

Founded during World War Two in part to counter Nazi propaganda, VOA reaches some 360 million people a week in nearly 50 languages. Over the years it has broadcast in China, North Korea, communist Cuba and the former Soviet Union. It’s also been a helpful tool for many Chinese people to learn English.

VOA’s director Michael Abramowitz said Trump’s order has hobbled VOA while “America’s adversaries, like Iran, China, and Russia, are sinking billions of dollars into creating false narratives to discredit the United States”.

Ms Baraputri, who is from Indonesia but based in Washington DC, first joined VOA in 2018, but her visa was terminated at the end of Trump’s first administration.

She rejoined in 2023 because she wanted to be part of an organisation that “upholds unbiased, factual reporting that is free from government influence”.

Source: BBC

17, March 2025

UK: King Charles meets new Canadian PM in symbolic support ⁰

King Charles gave a warm welcome to the new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney when he visited Buckingham Palace.

It was another symbolic gesture of support for Canada from a King, wearing a red tie, who has to send coded signals rather than spell things out in words, as Canada faces threats from US President Donald Trump.

But the King has sought to make clear his commitment to Canada – and if it had not been for his cancer diagnosis, the BBC understands he would have travelled there for an intended visit in 2024.

There are also suggestions that once Canada’s election is out the way, a visit to Canada will be a priority, where he can further demonstrate his support.

King’s pivotal role in Trump and Ukraine balancing act

The new Canadian prime minister told the King that his Order of Canada pin had broken this morning. The King joked: “Do you want another one?”

“There’s much to catch up on,” said the King, ushering Carney to a seat, and perhaps hoping that the broken pin was not a symbol of a Commonwealth relationship under strain.

“These are important matters,” said the King, ahead of a 30-minute conversation with no one else in attendance.

Carney later went on to meet UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer at Downing Street.

Sir Keir hailed the relationship between the two countries and said they had “so much in common – shared history, shared values, shared King.”

Carney said he was “grateful for the welcomes and the constructive discussions” with Starmer and French president Emmanuel Macron – whom he had met earlier in the day.

At a news conference, he was asked if he felt let down by the lack of public support for Canada from other allies, given Trump’s trade war with Canada, and his remarks about making Canada the 51st state of the US.

“We don’t need another country to validate our sovereignty, we are sovereign, we don’t need praise from another country, we are proud in and of ourselves,” he said, adding that Sir Keir had made a point of referring to Canada’s sovereignty and to “our shared sovereign in King Charles III.”

Source: BBC