News

25, November 2017

Libya: 31 refugees drown as boat sinks off western coast ⁰

At least 31 refugees have died after their Europe-bound boat capsized off Libya’s western coast, Libyan coastguard officials say.

The flimsy boat overturned on Saturday and the Libyan coastguard brought some 200 survivors back to port in the Libyan capital Tripoli.

The volatile North African nation, effectively run by competing militia groups, has remained a key transit hub for asylum seekers from war-ravaged countries trying to reach Europe. Most refugees are packed into flimsy inflatable boats that often break down or sink.

Many are picked up by international vessels and taken to Italy, where more than 115,000 have landed since the end of August this year.

An increasing number of refugees and asylum seekers are intercepted by Libya’s European-backed coastguard and returned to the North African country.

Refugees arrive at a naval base after they were rescued by Libya’s coastal guard in Tripoli, Libya, November 23, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

The United Nations migration agency said on Friday that more than 33,000 refugees had died at sea while trying to reach European shores since 2000, making the Mediterranean “by far the world’s deadliest border.”

On Friday, the Libyan coast guard rescued some 378 refugees after their boats sustained damage in the Mediterranean Sea, officials said, adding that the rescue operation lasted over 72 hours.

Italy’s coast guard also said that some 1,600 refugees had been rescued from nearly 20 vessels in the central Mediterranean on Wednesday and Thursday.

Source: Presstv

25, November 2017

Ambazonia: Muyuka market on fire ⁰

The Muyuka Main Market in the Fako constituency has partially been ravaged by fire. The incident occurred on the night of 23rd to 24^th of November 2017. The fire whose origin remains undetermined has reduced to ashes more than a dozen shops. The president of the market interviewed by Canal 2 international television revealed that the fire started at “midnight and everything was automatically reduced to ashes. My life ends in this fire” he pointed out. According to an initial estimate, material losses are significant and can be estimated at several million CFA francs.

Market fires in the one time United Republic of Cameroon are a phenomenon. They are recorded everywhere in the country. The capital, Yaoundé, has been hit at least twice in recent months. On August 22, 2017, it was the central market that saw 50 stores go up in smoke. A few months earlier, in April 2017, the Etoudi market, in the district hosting the Presidency of La Republique du Cameroun was attacked by the flames. Investigations have shown most of the time that poor electrical installations cause damage in commercial spaces.

Source: Cameroun Info.Net

25, November 2017

Time magazine rejects Trump’s ‘Person of the Year’ claim ⁰

The Time news magazine has disputed US President Donald Trump’s claim that he turned down the American weekly’s “Person of the Year” honor after being told that he would only “probably” receive the designation.

The pushback came after Trump tweeted on Friday that he turned down the distinction, because the magazine did not guarantee him the spot.

“Time Magazine called to say that I was PROBABLY going to be named “Man (Person) of the Year,” like last year but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot. I said probably no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway!” the president tweeted.

The magazine issued a statement disputing Trump. “The President is incorrect about how we choose Person of the Year. TIME does not comment on our choice until publication, which is December 6,” a spokeswoman told CNN.

Time’s chief content officer, Alan Murray, also shot back at Trump from his own Twitter account.

Trump has previously criticized the magazine for not being selected in past years. “Thank you @oreillyfactor for your wonderful editorial as to why I should have been @TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year. You should run Time!” Trump tweeted in December 2015.

In December 2012, Trump tweeted, “I knew last year that @TIME Magazine lost all credibility when they didn’t include me in their Top 100… ”

Trump has long been obsessed with being on the cover of TIME and other news magazines, even making fake covers to hang in some of his properties.

In June, The Washington Post reported that at least four Trump Organization properties had on display a fake Time magazine with Trump on the cover and featuring flattering headlines about his reality TV show, “The Apprentice.”

Source: Presstv

25, November 2017

Slavery in Libya: Eto’o denies granting 1.5 million CFA francs to every Cameroonian migrant ⁰

French Cameroun football legend,Samuel Eto’o has denied claims of having granted financial assistance to the tune of 1.5 million FCFA to every Cameroonian migrant repatriated to the country after the outbreak of the scandal of black slavery in Libya.

“Several sites circulated a rumor that I gave money to each returnee migrant, on a topic of news.This rumor is absolutely unfounded,” noted the French Cameroonian football star who took advantage of the opportunity to give advice to his “brothers and sisters”, reminding them that “love prevents more harm than money can solve”.

By Chi Prudence Asong

24, November 2017

Who is in Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s cabinet? ⁰

By the authority vested in me, I hereby make the following appointments: –

 Vice President – XXX (Ground Zero)

 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs – Prof Carlson Anyangwe

o Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs – Dr Samuel Ikome Sako

 Secretary of State for Defence & Homeland Security – XXX (General)

o Under-Secretary of State for Defence & Homeland Security – XXX

 Secretary of State for Finance & Economy – Brado Etchu Tabenyang

o Under-Secretary of State for Finance & Economy – Dr Cornelius Kwanga

 Secretary of State for Communication & Information Technology – Christopher Anu

o Under-Secretary of State for Communication & IT – Milton Taka

 Secretary of State for Education – Wilfred Tassang

o Under-Secretary of State for Education – Dr Elizabeth Ambe

 Secretary of State for Home Affairs – Dr Ojong Okongor Eno

o Under-Secretary of State for Home Affairs – Shufai Blaise Berinyuy

 Secretary of State for Health & Social Services – Caleshe Bongo

o Under-Secretary of State for Health & Social Services – Edith Ngang

Ambassador to the African Union & Rest of Africa – Eyambe Elias
Ambassador to the SADC countries – Jessy Engu Itambi
Ambassador to the United Nations & America – MbuliRene
Ambassador to the United Kingdom – Kingsley Ekolle
Ambassador to the Scandinavia & the Nordic Region – Emma Larry Daniel
Ambassador to mainland Europe – Dr Elad Kisito
Ambassador to Asia & Middle East – Tangie Donatus Muma

 Chairperson, Ethics Commission – Chief Fonkem Achankeng

o Deputy Chairperson, Ethics Commission – Nancy Assanga

 Chairperson, Judiciary Commission – Bobga Harmony Mbuton

o Deputy Chairperson, Judiciary Commission – Denis Atemkeng

 Director Performance, Monitoring & Evaluation – Prof Cosmas Ambe

o Deputy Director Performance, Monitoring & Evaluation – Prof Martin Ayim

 Director Intelligence – XXX

o Deputy Director Intelligence – XXX

Done at Buea this 24th Day of November 2017

24, November 2017

Boko Haram: Nigeria’s Adamawa community threatens to relocate to Cameroon ⁰

Following frequent attacks by Boko Haram insurgents, some community leaders in Madagali, Adamawa state, have threatened that their people would relocate to neighbouring Cameroon.

Speaking during a presentation of relief materials by NEMA to those affected by recent attacks on Gulak town, the headquarters of the council on Thursday, the community leaders expressed disatisfation with the situation adding that distribution of food to the affected communities was not their ”top priority.”

Yusuf Muhammad, chairman of the council, said security of lives and property was their major concern.

”Our top priority in Madagali local Government Area is that we need security not food. Government, as matter of urgency should bring lasting solutions to stop excessive attacks and destruction on our people. If the deadly attacks continue, we have no other alternative rather than to relocate to Cameroon Republic,” Mr. Muhammed said.

He complained that the people of the area, ”were more affected by the insurgency and yet were neglected as if they were not Nigerians.” The council boss said insurgents lived just three kilometres away from Madagali area and this was why they (sect) find it easy to attack the community.

He urged the government to deploy more soldiers to the area to protect the people. Binta Garba, an APC Senator at the event, confirmed what the council chairman said as ”true.” Mrs. Garba said both Madagali and Michika local government areas were neglected in terms of Federal government intervention. ”Are we really part of Nigeria,? If yes; Government should prove to us and treat us as Nigerians,” the senator said.

Responding, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Special Duties, Abdulazeez Nyako, thanked the council chairman for his frankness. Mr. Nyako assured the people of the area that he would table the matter when he returned to the senate.

Mustafa Maihaja, Director General of NEMA, who was represented by an air commodore, Sunday Ohemu, said the relief materials were part of the government’s intervention meant to bring succour to the community. Three trucks loaded with assorted food and non-food items were presented to the community.

Source: Premium Times

24, November 2017

Ambazonia: Head of State calls on Anglophone MPs to leave Yaoundé and return to Buea ⁰

November 23rd 2017

Dear Members of Parliament,

Dear Fellow Ambazonians,

Video footage of the goings-on in Yaoundé which have reached us this morning evokes the message in the book of Daniel 5ff. That the illustrious SDF MPs took to the floor of the National Assembly to intone Amba protest songs is a historic moment, no less portentious than the fiery denunciation which Hon. Joseph Wirba delivered from that same podium almost a year ago.

We salute these MPs for their courage and patriotism. We urge the people of their respective constituencies to show them support in anyway possible.

Surely, our fifty-six-year misadventure with the Republic of Cameroun must be coming to a close, in a no less dramatic fashion. The peace plants the MPs brandished today are close figurative equivalents of “Benevolent Neutrality” which foreshadowed our peoples’ decisive exit from another entangling alliance more than six decades ago.That singular action was a catalyst to the of our own nation in 1954. In the same way the withdrawal of all our MPs will crystallise the restoration of that Nation.

The events of 1st October , 2017 were a stark reminder that, as leaders, they have been deserted by their people in the inhospitable land called the Republic of Cameroun. If the lawmakers are still in the service of their constituents, they will muster the courage to follow their constituents’ demands.

It remains the official position of this administration that once our MPs formally tender their resignation, a sergeant-at-arms will receive the credentials of ALL of them who choose to leave Yaoundé and assume their rightful place in the peoples’ house in Buea. The longer they wait, the more risk they expose their people to; incivility, mayhem, extortion, terrorism, and savagery. No doubt so many CPDM MPs can’t face the facts from their SDF peers.

We, therefore, once again invite all Southern Cameroons MPs to make the only decision this historic moment demands of them: leave Yaoundé and return to Buea. We urge them to do so while they still have the choice. As the Book of Daniel tells us, the writing is on the wall; however, unlike Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, they may still have time to be exalted by their people. A history of the Cameroons is being rewritten, and we hope they will be on right side of it. All it takes is for them to do the RIGHT thing as representatives of their people.

Respectfully,

SISIKU Julius AyukTabe

President, Interim Government

24, November 2017

Ambazonia: Fon of Kom passes away ⁰

His Royal Highness, Fon Vincent Yuh II, the Fon of Kom, in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has dissappeared. The Fon passed away on Wednesday the 22nd November 2017. The custodian of the Kom tradition known to many as ‘Bikom’ joined his ancestors after a protracted illness at his Liakom Palace, some five kilometres from Fundong, the chief town in the Boyo constituency.

Vincent Yuh II was crowned Fon of Kom on the 17th of September 1994. The late Fon ‘dissappeared’ aged 97. He was regarded as one who enshrined the values of peace and development in the kom kingdom. According to Bochung El Hadj Lawan Bako, a member of the ‘Kwifoyn’ (Kom’s highest secret society),Fon Yuh II who suceeded Fon Yibain was one of most celebrated development icons in the kom fondom.

He was the fourteenth ruler of the land, a trader and onetime village head of Anjin,one of the 43 villages in Kom , before his enthronement in 1994. Going by the tradition, the successor of the throne is the first nephew of the late fon, in this case the eldest son of the Fon’s sister. According to Kom people ‘the sun has stopped shinning in the land’ but they also believe that a Fon does not die but travels.

Source: CRTV

24, November 2017

Interpol arrests 40 human traffickers after Libya slave auction ⁰

At least 40 people have been detained during a swoop on human trafficking across West Africa, after a video surfaced showing refugees apparently being sold at auction in Libya.

In a statement on Thursday, Interpol said those arrested face prosecution for offences including human trafficking, forced labor and child exploitation.

“They are accused of forcing victims to engage in activities ranging from begging to prostitution, with little to no regard for working conditions or human life,” the statement read.

Interpol also noted that some 500 people, including 236 minors, had been rescued in simultaneous operations across Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal.

“The results of this operation underline the challenge faced by law enforcement and all stakeholders in addressing human trafficking in the Sahel region,” the operation’s coordinator Innocentia Apovo said.

The Interpol-led action comes amid global outcry sparked by footage of Africans being sold as slaves in Libya. CNN last week aired footage of a live auction in Libya where black men were being sold for as little as $400 to North African buyers as farmhands.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has recently said that the reported auctions of African refugees in Libya as slaves amounts to “crimes against humanity.”

Libya, gripped by chaos and lawlessness since the fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, was the main embarkation point for mostly African refugees seeking to head to Europe until recently.

However, the flow across the central Mediterranean subsided when the European Union reached an agreement with local militia to provide them with funds and training on relocation of refugees.

In October, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) warned that thousands of Libyan refugees were living in dire conditions in a hub to the west of the capital Tripoli, saying they could be exposed to abuse on a shocking scale.

Source: Presstv

23, November 2017

Lagos arraigns Cameroonian home help for employer’s murder ⁰

The Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions has arraigned a Cameroonian, Leudjou Joel, for the alleged murder of his Nigerian employer, Miss Dayo Eniola. Joel, who worked as a cleaner for 33-year-old Eniola in the Ikoyi area of Lagos, was said to have allegedly stabbed his employer to death last December.

Twenty-one-year- old Joel was arraigned on murder charges before the Lagos State High Court in Igbosere. The Attorney General of Lagos State, Mr. Adeniyi Kazeem, who led the prosecution team that took Joel before Justice Adedayo Akintoye on Monday, told the court that the foreigner stabbed his Nigerian employer to death over his rejected request for salary advance.

He allegedly committed the crime at No. 15, Prince Tayo Adesanya Street, Park View Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos. Upon Joel’s arraignment on Monday, Kazeem prayed the court to order that the accused be remanded in the prison custody, pending commencement of trial. Justice Akintoye made an order that Joel should be remanded at the Ikoyi Prison. She adjourned till January 18, 2018 for commencement of trial.

Source: The Punch