News

Revealed: Biya regime paid Boko Haram 3.5 million US dollars

19, June 2017

Revealed: Biya regime paid Boko Haram 3.5 million US dollars 0

The Action Group Against Money Laundering in Central Africa (GABAC) has revealed in its April 2017 report that the Biya regime paid a ransom for the release in 2013 of the seven members of the French family Moulin- Fournier. Cameroon paid the sum of 3.5 million dollars (about 2 billion FCFA) to the terrorist group Boko Haram.

It was in April 2013 when the Nigerian Islamic sect abducted seven members of a French family Tanguy Moulin-Fournier. Gabac in its report cited a confidential file from the Nigerian government that says “Boko Haram received about $ 3.5 million from the French and Cameroonian negotiators in exchange for the hostages.”

Cameroon Concord News understands a certain Alhaji Abdallah, a Cameroonian financial agent and an exporter of vehicles based in Amchide was the intermediary who played a major role in the Boko Haram deal. In February 2013 and in exchange for the release of the French citizens, the government paid $ 3.5 million and did release some Boko Haram prisoners of war in April 2013.

Alhaji Abdallah was subsequently arrested by Cameroon security agents including all members of his team that took part in the Boko Haram negotiations. Seven French tourists, including four children, were kidnapped on a Tuesday (February 19th 2013) in the Far North region of Cameroon on the border with Nigeria.

By Chi Prudence Asong
Cameroon Concord News


Half of Nigeria food never reached Boko Haram victims

18, June 2017

Half of Nigeria food never reached Boko Haram victims 0

Nigeria says half of government food aid meant to reach the victims of a militancy northeast of the country has not reached its destination. A spokesman for acting president Yemi Osinbajo said late on Saturday that half of the trucks carrying food aid for people driven from their homes by Boko Haram Takfiri group have been diverted away from their destination.
“Over 1,000 trucks of assorted grains are now on course, delivering the grains intact to beneficiaries since the commencement of the present program as against the reported diversion of over 50 trucks in every 100 trucks sent to the northeast,” said Laolu Akande in an emailed statement.
Osinbajo, acting in lieu of President Muhammadu Buhari who is in Britain on medical leave, launched a program on June 8 to reach out to around 2.7 million people identified as IDPs, or internally displaced, as a result of more than eight years of insurgency by Boko Haram. Akande said the new system for distribution of food would significantly prevent the diversion of the humanitarian aid.
“The issue of diversion of relief materials, including food and related matters, which has dogged food delivery to the IDPs would be significantly curbed under the new distribution matrix,” said the official, elaborating that 1,376 military personnel and 656 armed police would be tasked with guarding the food from where it its loaded to the trucks to the three main location where displaced people live, namely Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
More than 20,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram started its devastating campaign in northeast Nigeria in 2009. The violence has claimed many lives in neighboring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameron. A large-scale government offensive has pushed the militants from key areas they used to control, although sporadic attacks have continued over the past months.

Source: Presstv


Top Iranian general says Tehran has the means to punish US

18, June 2017

Top Iranian general says Tehran has the means to punish US 0

A top military official says Iran has the means to punish Washington after the US Senate approved a new sanctions bill which targets the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) on terrorism charges. “The ruling establishment in the US is a hegemonic, expansionist, bullying and blackmailing regime and the root of hostilities with us is based in these things,” Deputy Chief of Staff of Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri said.

“Since the early years of the Islamic Revolution, the Iranian nation has been familiar with US enmity towards the revolution, the establishment and its effective organs such as the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps,” he added. On Thursday, US senators approved sweeping sanctions against Iran over its ballistic missile program. The measure would also enforce sanctions and an arms embargo against IRGC.

The Senate legislation, hailed by Israel and its influential lobby groups in the US, still must pass the House of Representatives and be signed by President Donald Trump to become law. Iranian officials have said the bill violates, “both in letter and spirit”, a nuclear accord, to which the US is a party. They have called for a strong response, with Iran’s parliament working on retaliatory measures, according to an MP. “If the Americans and the Zionists do not change their manners, we will take more drastic steps – hereby announcing that we have the means of punishment at our disposal,” Gen. Jazayeri said without elaboration.

“Of course, America has to change its manners, or we will force the Americans to do that,” he told the Central News Service which is affiliated to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB).  Jazayeri said the world public opinion views “the US and international Zionism as the godfathers of terrorism.”

“Evidence suggests that Daesh and other terrorist groups have been raised in the lap of America and the reactionary regimes of the region,” he said.  The commander said US measures in intensifying sanctions on Iran and accusing IRGC of supporting terrorism “will make us fight the Great Satan with a more determined spirit.”

The “Great Satan” is the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini’s description of the United States, who led a revolution against Iran’s Pahlavi regime which was a close American ally. “This is a historical irony that the terrorist Americans are calling the revolutionary and popular IRGC, whose mission has been fighting terrorism from its inception and supporting the Palestinian, Iraqi and Syrian people as well as confronting homegrown terrorists, as a sponsor of terrorism,” Jazayeri said.

“The other strange thing is that the peoples of the world have not forgotten the current American president’s admission about the creation of Daesh and assistance to it,” he added. Addressing supporters at a campaign rally in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in August, Donald Trump said then-President Barack Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton “founded” Daesh in the Middle East.

Source: Presstv

Cameroon customs intercept Boko Haram drugs hidden in cans, bags and cartons

17, June 2017

Cameroon customs intercept Boko Haram drugs hidden in cans, bags and cartons 0

Cameroon custom officers in the Far North region serving at the Fotokol checkpoint have seized 200 kg of drug destined for the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram.  A leading security source operating on-site on behalf of the Joint Multinational Force (FMM) who spoke to us but sued for anonymity, revealed that some 3,000 packages, consisting mainly of Tramadol was intercepted by the Customs officers stationed at Fotokol on the border with Nigeria.

In addition to the Tramadol, the officers also seized Indian hemp that was channeled to Boko Haram fighters in the Lake Chad basin.  Boko Haram has allegedly pledged allegiance to the Organization of the Islamic State and has been staging armed incursions deep inside Cameroon territory. These narcotics, transported by the local networks of the sect, were concealed in cans, bags and cartons.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Cameroon Concord News

Kofi Annan says future of DR Congo in grave danger

17, June 2017

Kofi Annan says future of DR Congo in grave danger 0

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and nine former African presidents have warned that the future of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is in “grave danger” due to the failure to organize an election to replace President Joseph Kabila.

Kabila refused to step down at the end of his constitutional mandate last December, adding to uncertainty in the vast, mineral-rich Central African nation, where regional wars from 1996-2003 killed millions of people.

An agreement between Kabila’s ruling coalition and opposition leaders calls for the presidential election to take place by the end of this year, but delays in registering voters and mobilizing financing make that increasingly unlikely.

This file photo, taken on February 03, 2015, shows President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Joseph Kabila attending a training session of his country’s football team in Bata Kabila. (Photo by AFP)

“The failure to organize elections in late 2016, in conformity with the constitution of the DRC, has created an acute political crisis,” Annan and the former presidents, including South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki and Nigeria’s Olusegun Obasanjo, said in a statement issued late on Thursday.

“We feel obliged to sound the alarm before it is too late,” it added.

Dozens died last year in violent anti-government protests in major cities, and an insurrection in the center of the country has killed hundreds and displaced 1.3 million since last August.

(Source: Reuters)

Special Criminal Court closing down on the former GM of the Telecom Regulatory Agency

15, June 2017

Special Criminal Court closing down on the former GM of the Telecom Regulatory Agency 0

The Attorney General at the Special Criminal Court in Yaoundé has signed an order preventing Jean Louis Beh Mengue, former general manager of the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (ART) who was sacked from his position on the 8th of June from traveling out of the country.

Cameroon Concord News understands Jean Louis Beh Mengue is under a major judicial investigation. The former head of the telecommunication regulatory agency in Cameroon has been accused by the State Supreme Audit, the body responsible for the control, verification and audit of public finances of embezzlement and misappropriation during his time at the head of the company which he led since its creation in 1999.

By Rita Akana

Camcordnews

Burundi: UN details horrible torture, More of President Nkurunziza Opponents are ending up dead

15, June 2017

Burundi: UN details horrible torture, More of President Nkurunziza Opponents are ending up dead 0

The United Nations says the government of the African country of Burundi is condoning the torture and killing of its opponents security forces and government-allied militia. Investigators said state security agencies and the ruling party’s youth wing the Imbonerakure are continuously engaged in torture, rape, disappearances and murder of opponents.

Those crimes are fueled by hate speech” from government officials, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi said in a briefing to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday. The investigators said they recorded a “feeling of deep and widespread fear” in the hundreds of testimonies gathered from people who had fled to neighboring countries. “Today we can say that our initial fears concerning the scope and gravity of human rights violations and abuses in Burundi since April 2015 have been confirmed,” they said.

The investigators said they were struck by the cruelty and brutality of the perpetrators. “We most specifically gathered a number of testimonies alleging the use, during torture sessions, of clubs, riffle butts, bayonets, iron bars, metal chains or electric cables, resulting in some cases in the breaking of bones of the victim or making them lose consciousness.

“Long needles stuck into victims’ bodies or unidentified products injected into them; nails ripped out with pliers; burns; and many abuses inflicted on male detainees’ genital organs,” they added. Fatsah Ouguergouz, chairman of the UN commission, said a woman in her fifties was raped by four members allegedly belonging to the Imbonerakure and wearing police uniforms, as a punishment for her children belonging to an opposition party.

The government, which has denied entry to Burundi to the UN officials investigating the allegations, rejected the charges. “We do not accept the content of this report,” said the country’s human rights minister Martin Nivyabandi, claiming the aim of the UN investigators was to discredit the country’s officials.

Burundi was thrown into a political crisis in April 2015 when President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a third term that his opponents said was unconstitutional. Since then at least 500 people have been killed while over 400,000 have fled the country. The UN’s Commission of Inquiry on Burundi was established in September 2016 with the aim of investigating the alleged violations of international humanitarian law and crimes against humanity. The commission’s final report is due to be presented to the Human Rights Council in September.

Source: Presstv

Buea: Ghastly auto crash claims the life of a CPDM Section President

15, June 2017

Buea: Ghastly auto crash claims the life of a CPDM Section President 0

Three persons including the CPDM Section President for Meme 1 have died and a dozen injured following a ghastly motor accident which occurred along the Buea-Ekona highway. John Kingue Lysingue, a chartered member of the ruling CPDM party who moonlighted as Section President and Councilor for the Kumba 1 Council perished en route to Buea on Wednesday June 14, 2017.

Cameroon Info.Net reported that a bike rider whose bike went into flames after the incident died on the spot alongside a passenger he was transporting. The accident happened when a 14 seater bus had a head-on-collision with a red colored Carina E belonging to the CPDM Section president of Meme 1, John Kingue.

John Kingue died from the wounds he sustained. The injured victims were rushed to the Buea regional hospital while the deceased were taken to the mortuary. The accident came just 12 days after 5 other persons were killed on the same highway.

By Eyong Johnson

Cameroon Concord News

Shabab kills 11, takes 20 hostages in Mogadishu

15, June 2017

Shabab kills 11, takes 20 hostages in Mogadishu 0

Al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militants have taken at least 20 people hostage in a restaurant in the Somali capital of Mogadishu after ramming an explosive-laden car into a hotel next door, claiming the lives of 11 people.

Security officials said the militants first rammed the car into the entrance of the Posh Hotel in the capital on Wednesday and then stormed the Pizza House restaurant, which is adjacent to the hotel and a popular venue for young citizens, according to Reuters.

The gunmen cut off electricity to complicate security forces’ efforts to end the siege, according to officials. Heavy gunfire was also heard. “The fighters are still inside Pizza House and they hold inside over 20 people. We do not know how many of those are dead or alive,” said Ibrahim Hussein, a police major.

Armed security forces and rescue personnel are seen at the scene of an attack outside a hotel in Mogadishu, Somalia, on June 14, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

Witnesses said security forces cordoned off the whole district surrounding the site of the incidents, and that the people inside the hotel had been safely evacuated. Other sources put the number of fatalities from car bomb attack on the hotel at 17. Somalia has been a scene of deadly clashes between government forces and al-Shabab militants since 2006.

The al-Shabab, an al-Qaeda-aligned militant group, was forced out of the capital by African Union troops in 2011 but still controls parts of the countryside and carries out attacks against government, military and civilian targets seemingly at will in Mogadishu and regional towns.

In this file photo, al-Shabab fighters are seen in the Lafofe area, some 18 kilometers south of Mogadishu, Somalia. (By AP)

A particularly deadly Shabab strike on a busy market left 39 people dead in February, while a twin car bomb attack by the group on a popular Mogadishu hotel left 28 dead in January.

The Takfiri militant group is just one of the challenges facing the new Somali government, which is still struggling to expand its authority beyond the capital and other selected areas.

Source: Presstv

Bishop Jean Marie Benoît Balla of Bafia, was “brutally murdered,” the country’s bishops have confirmed

15, June 2017

Bishop Jean Marie Benoît Balla of Bafia, was “brutally murdered,” the country’s bishops have confirmed 0

Cameroon’s episcopal conference calls for full investigation and for justice to prevail after a series of homicides against the country’s clergy and religious which they attribute to “obscure diabolical forces.”

Bishop Jean Marie Benoît Balla of Bafia, was “brutally murdered,” the country’s bishops have confirmed, making him the latest in a number of Cameroonian bishops, clergy and consecrated persons to have been killed over the past 30 years.

In a June 13 statement issued by Cameroon’s episcopal conference and published by the missionary news agency Fides, the bishops called for justice to be done in the face of what they called “obscure diabolical forces.”

They said they were “convinced” that Bishop Balla did not commit suicide as had been initially thought, but that “he was brutally murdered.” Bishop Balla was just 58 years-old and would have celebrated 30 years as a priest next year.

Fisherman discovered the prelate’s body in the River Sanaga, June 2, a few miles away from where his abandoned car was found on a bridge on May 31. Inside the vehicle was a “strange message” together with some personal belongings.

“The body is now at the disposal of the authorities investigating the case to discover the causes and the perpetrators of this hateful, unacceptable crime,” the bishops stated, adding that his tragic death “shocked and upset the People of God, all Cameroonians and international opinion.”

“This is one more murder, and one too many,” the bishops added.  They pointed out “the sad list of bishops, members of the clergy and consecrated persons assassinated in circumstances still not clear today.” In particular, they remembered “Mons. Yves Plumey, archbishop emeritus of Garoua (assassinated in Ngaoundéré – 1991), Fr Joseph Mbassi (Yaoundé – 1988), Fr. Antony Fontegh (Kumbo-1990), Sisters in Djoum (1992), Fr. Engelbert Mveng (Yaoundé – 1995), to mention only a few”.

“We have the impression that the clergy of Cameroon in particular is pursued by obscure diabolical forces,” the Cameroonian bishops declared. They called in their statement for “complete light to be shed on the circumstances and the motivation of the murder of Bishop Balla,” and demanded that “those responsible be identified and handed over to justice to be judged by the law of the land.”

They also urged the government “to assume the noble task of protecting human life,” and asked the media and all who use social media “to renounce defamation, lies, and calumny and to respect the dignity of human persons.”

The bishops appealed to Bishop Balla’s assailants “to strive for urgent and radical conversion,” and encouraged the faithful to “stay courageous” as “Christ has conquered the world.” “Your pastors carry with you the pain of this sad disappearance. Let not your faith fail. Draw the necessary strength from celebration of the Eucharist,” they said, and reminded them that the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Patroness of Cameroon, “accompanies us in this hard trial.”

Source: National Catholic Register

 

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