China has denounced as “groundless accusations” French President Emmanuel Macron’s warning against what he called the dominance of the East Asian country in the Indo-Pacific region.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying hit back at the French president’s comment and said Macron’s concerns were baseless as China has been seeking a peaceful rise to a global power status.

The French president said during his visit to Sydney on Thursday that France, India and Australia shared a responsibility to protect the region from “hegemony,” making an implicit reference to China’s growing might.

“What’s important is to preserve rules-based development in the region … and to preserve necessary balances in the region,” Macron said. “It’s important with this new context not to have any hegemony.”

“In the eyes of the world, which country could be said actually to be exercising hegemony in the world nowadays? Who has also long exercised military or economic hegemony of every kind in the region?” Hua asked.

“Before making such comments or groundless accusations, you should clarify these facts,” the spokeswoman told reporters during a regular press briefing, in a thinly veiled reference to the United States.

The Chinese state-run Global Times also blasted Macron and accused him of staging an “opportunistic show in (the) Indo-Pacific.”

“As France is in decline, opportunism is rising within its diplomacy,” the newspaper said.

France has a number of island territories in the Pacific Ocean.

The country maintains a strong security presence throughout the resource-rich region, with 4,500 permanent military personnel stationed in its Indian Ocean bases and 2,800 in the Pacific.

Australia, a Frances’s close ally, has also become increasingly alarmed at Beijing’s power and influence in the Pacific, which it claims could potentially upset the strategic balance in the region.

India and the US have recently engaged in talks to boost operational cooperation, including bilateral maritime security and open market trade, in the Indo-Pacific region.

India has begun holding trilateral naval exercises with the US and Japan that military experts say could eventually include Australia as well.

The US has already announced plans seeking to confront China’s influential moves in the strategic region by enhancing its military presence there.

The United States has criticized China’s construction of islands and military facilities in the South China Sea, saying they could be used to restrict free nautical movement.

China says there is no issue with freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and opposes efforts to use it as an “excuse” to infringe on its sovereignty and security interests.

Source: Presstv

The Cameroon government has reportedly banned the Catholic Church from extending humanitarian aid to persons fleeing the security crisis in the restive Anglophone regions.

According to a journalists with Equinoxe TV, a renown priest had been questioned for distributing foodstuff to people stranded by the ongoing crisis.

“I am reliably informed that church leaders have been banned from assisting displaced anglophones who fled military brutality and burnings of their houses. A renown man of God has equally received a query from the state for distributing foodstuff to the people in despair,” Mimi Mefo said in a tweet.

Thousands of Cameroonians have routinely fled their homes into forests for fear of attack by the security forces. The army has repeatedly dismissed attacks on civilian populations stressing that its actions are within limits of its operation.

The United Nations refugee agency in neighbouring Nigeria has recorded over 20,000 refugees who fled the fighting back home. They are said to be living in dire straits as the UNHCR continues to seek funding to support them.

The Catholic Church has been a vocal civil society group all through the crisis in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest (Anglophone) regions. They have repeatedly called for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

The international Crisis Group has identified the church as the most potent political mediator between the government and separatist elements.

It’s April 26 report titled: Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis: How the Catholic Church Can Promote Dialogue, averred that the clergy needed to united with a strong common position (between federalism vs. decentralisation) in order to be seen as credible mediators.

Source: Africa News

The United Nations is considering a dramatic u-turn on its stance in the ongoing Southern Cameroons crisis as military operations by the Biya regime continues to push Cameroon into a civil war, Cameroon Concord News has learned from diplomatic sources in New York and in Paris. Our sources hinted that the move is being orchestrated by the French government but it’s being sold to the people of Cameroon as a President Biya initiative.

We gathered the French have opted for a four states federation and are presently trading the idea with UN officials. The change in the French approach came after events over the weekend in Munyenge where forces supporting the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia slaughtered hundreds of French Cameroun soldiers.  The Southern Cameroons troops had marched in from their Muyuka, Muea and Tiko strongholds, where they had been fighting Biya regime forces.

Ambazonian fighters have swept up most of the Southern Cameroons rural counties and are now moving toward the historic capital city of Buea. The morale in the Biya regime forces is at its lowest and we understand French President Macron has written to the U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the situation in Cameroon.

In Paris, at the Elysée Palace, Emmanuel Macron has reportedly gathered with his advisors and key cabinet members to discuss the numerous trade union protests in France including the happenings in Cameroon. The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia recently pointed out the massacres of civilian populations carried out by Biya forces, attacks that often used heavy artillery shot into non-military centers.

The Communications Secretary of the Ambazonian government, Hon. Chris Anu stated in an audio message made public this week that “the security situation in Southern Cameroons has gravely deteriorated in the last three weeks in Belo, Lebialem and Munyenge.” Chris Anu went on to note that in these circumstances, it’s urgent that Ambazonians make huge financial donations to enable the Interim Government push on with the mission to Buea with the necessary self-defense operations.

The Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako and members of his cabinet have taken great pains to present the policy of Southern Cameroons Self-Defense as obedient, dutiful order-taking on behalf of the people of Ambazonia mindful of the violence being deployed against them by French Cameroun political elites.

But, beyond the so-called four states federation, there’s a matter the French government has still not bring to the U.N. and the European Union when it talks about attacks on civilians in Southern Cameroons. Many alleged massacres have occured in Manyu, Lebialem, Belo, Bali, Batibo, Tombel, Mundemba, Kwa Kwa and Munyenge where perhaps 1,000 may be among the dead. The French embassy in Yaoundé knows Biya is responsible for the killings.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai and Chi Prudence Asong

Presidents of Cameroon and Somalia have made official comments on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day. Both leaders used their social media handles to make their views known.

For his part, Cameroon’s Paul Biya spoke about the effect of fake news. “Disinformation, slander and lies for selfish gains, have eclipsed the dissemination of real news,” he said in a tweet.

On his part, Somalia’s Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo lauded the efforts of journalists across the country promising to protect the constitutional right of freedom of expression.

“Many praise to the Somali media as we mark the World Press Freedom Day. You’ve shown resilience and commitment to your work, even under tough circumstances.

“My administration is committed to protecting the freedom of expression, a right enshrined in our Provisional Constitution,” he said. Incidentally, the two countries are noted for gross rights abuse against journalists in the line of their work. Somali journalists have often been shot dead by militants operating in parts of the Horn of Africa nation. Arrest and detention of journalists also happens from time to time.

In Cameroon, international rights groups have reported that the government employs an atmosphere of fear and restrictions that force journalists to self-censor their work for fear of detention and high fines.

Some journalists in the country’s Anglophone regions have also been arrested in the line of their work. The country’s communications minister, however, pegs press freedom to the number of media houses operating in the Central African nation.

About World Press Freedom Day

World Press Freedom Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 1993, following the recommendation of UNESCO’s General Conference. Since then, 3 May, the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek is celebrated worldwide as World Press Freedom Day.

It is an opportunity to: celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom; assess the state of press freedom throughout the world; defend the media from attacks on their independence and pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

The 2018 Theme is: ‘Keeping Power in Check: Media, Justice and The Rule of Law.’ According to the U.N., the theme of the 2018 celebration highlights the importance of an enabling legal environment for press freedom, and gives special attention to the role of an independent judiciary in ensuring legal guarantees for press freedom and the prosecution of crimes against journalists.

At the same time, the theme addresses the role of the media in sustainable development, especially during elections – as a watchdog fostering transparency, accountability and the rule of law.

The theme also aims to explore legislative gaps with regard to freedom of expression and information online, and the risks of regulating online speech.

Source: Africa News

US President Donald Trump is reportedly hiring Bill Clinton’s impeachment lawyer, Emmet Flood, as White House lawyer Ty Cobb quits.

“For several weeks Ty Cobb has been discussing his retirement and last week he let Chief of Staff [John] Kelly know he would retire at the end of this month,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement. On Wednesday.

Cobb (pictured below) was the main figure in the Trump team to defend the administration against of allegations of collusion with Russia.

Flood, a veteran Washington lawyer, would be joining the team “to represent the president and the administration against the Russia witch hunt.”

In an interview with ABC News, Cobb said a presidential interview with special counsel Robert Mueller is still being considered.

“It’s certainly not off the table and people are working hard to make decisions and work towards an interview,” Cobb said.

Trump added attorneys Joseph DiGenova and Victoria Toensing to his team of outside lawyers in March.

The investigation, known as the Russia probe, seeks to find out whether the Russian government coordinated with Trump’s aides after the intelligence community’s conclusion that the Kremlin helped with the New York billionaire’s campaign effort ahead of winning the White House, an allegation dismissed both by Moscow and the president.

Source: Presstv

Fresh violence in northwestern Cameroon has forced hundreds of teachers and students from their classrooms. Separatist rebels are targeting schools for not observing calls to strike.

Heavy rains fall as we arrive at Saint Bedes school in the English-speaking town of Ashing.

Dozens of students are carrying boxes out of the school. 17-year-old student Ambe John is leaving.

“I am going home due to what happened in school and for the sake of my principal. I need to go home so he can be rescued,” said Ambe John.

Armed men attacked the school on Monday, abducting the principal and the school chaplain. Government officials told VOA for the two men were targeted by anglophone separatists for violating instructions to remain closed in support of the Ambazonian independence movement.

The chaplain was later released but the principal has not been found.

Godlove Nformi left his home in the nearby French-speaking town of Bafoussam to pick up his son when he got news of the attack.

“The matron gave us the information that we should come and take our children home,” he said. “I am feeling too bad because I think that with everything children should have been going to school at least to see that their future is guaranteed.”

Schools in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions — the northwest and the southwest — were shuttered for nearly a year starting in November 2016. Teachers and lawyers were on strike demanding reforms to address what they say is the marginalization of Anglophones in mostly French-speaking country.

Some schools reopened last October, but the crisis has intensified. Late in November, President Paul Biya declared a state of war in the Anglophone regions.

The government says at least 30 schools have been attacked this year, with at least a dozen teachers either killed or wounded in the northwest and southwest regions. Hundreds more have fled.

Johnson Itoh, the most senior education official in the northwest region, says they have been pleading with the teachers to return since the government has deployed the military to protect them.

“We are having personnel of secondary education especially school heads shot at in the northwest here. The going is tough, the tough must get going. So what we are trying to do is to raise up the morale of those in the field,” said Itoh.

Adolph Deben Tchoffo, governor of the northwest region of Cameroon, has been visiting the villages to encourage parents to send children to school.

The governor says he has come on behalf of President Biya to call on the population to seal a pact of collaboration with the military and administrative authorities so that the rebels, which the government has deemed terrorists, can be defeated. He says all village heads and traditional rulers should create self-defense groups to ward off infiltration.

Since early 2017, the government has responded forcefully to the unrest in the Anglophone regions. Rights group say the crackdown, which has included the detention of hundreds of people and at one point a three-month internet blackout, inflamed tensions, making dialogue more difficult.

The conflict has killed dozens on both sides this year and displaced at least 20,000 people.

Source: VOA

French Cameroun spies are operating a front organization in Calabar and Ikom to exert political pressure on the Buhari government to arrest other Southern Cameroons leaders, Cameroon Intelligence Report has learned. Details of the organization emerged as two alleged spies openly disagreed over the sharing of money in a hotel in Calabar and failing to disclose their affiliation with the Biya regime when questioned by Ambazonian intelligence officers operating in the Cross River State of Nigeria.

The spies who all hail from Manyu Division are accused of secretly promoting French Cameroun interests in the long-running conflict between the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and La Republique du Cameroun using millions of francs CFA of covert funding provided by Yaoundé.

The Southern Cameroons security services recently identified Minister Mengot and the Municipal Administrator for Mamfe, Ayuk John Takunchong as the principal architects of the French Cameroun spying scheme and CIR understands the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako is under pressure to order the arrest of these Manyu traitors as relations between the Southern Cameroons and French Cameroun under Biya continue to deteriorate in the wake of the killing of many Southern Cameroons civilians.

According to a document sent to the Acting President, Minister Mengot has reportedly sponsored many missions to Calabar, the latest being that of the Mayor of Mamfe to help the Nigeria security to identify and arrest innocent Southern Cameroonians who fled into the Cross River State of Nigeria. The Manyu CPDM spying network describes itself in educational materials as a “none profit organization dedicated to raising the level of knowledge in Nigeria about the Anglophone problem and to help the Southern Cameroons refugees return home.”

But Southern Cameroons sources have revealed that the Manyu CPDM initiative is actually one of the many French Cameroun killer networks that are run by elements of the Biya government, including French Cameroun’s military intelligence service. The other ones are in Lagos and Taraba.

The Cameroon embassy in Abuja and its Consulate in Calabar have been given an open cheque with one purpose – to hide Biya regime’s involvement in the killing of thousands of Southern Cameroonians and to influence the Nigerian government’s position on Ambazonia.

President Buhari’s handlers in Yaoundé have allegedly funneled millions of dollars through the Cameroon embassy to contribute to APC elected officials, fund high-profile conferences on the Cameroon Anglophone problem, and pay for other efforts that promotes Buhari’s continued stay in power in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Source: www.cameroonintelligencereport

Amid the worsening crackdown by the army of 36-year Cameroon president Paul Biya in the country’s Anglophone areas, a video has circulated depicting soldiers burning down homes. The Cameroon government army had blue helmet of the type used by UN peacekeepers. On April 30 Inner City Press asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric about the video, the day after publishing a story about it, in Google News. Dujarric said he hadn’t seen the video but militaries should not use UN equipment or colors, presumably when burning civilians homes down.

Inner City Press: a video emerged over the weekend from Cameroon showing or depicting soldiers burning people’s homes in the Anglophone areas, and what… what a lot of people focused on is that one of them, at least, is wearing a blue helmet.  I don’t think it means the UN is doing it, but I do wonder, what are the rules?  I wanted to ask you, what are the rules if people have served in UN peacekeeping missions… have you seen the video?

Spokesman:  “I haven’t seen that particular video, so I can’t comment on the particular helmet, whether it was just blue or a UN helmet.  We have seen, in different parts of the world, various security forces and army… we’ve seen reports of them using equipment that they own, which had been painted white or blue and reused domestically.  It is a responsibility to ensure that no equipment that has UN markings is ever used in any domestic operation.  But, again, I’m not… that’s a matter… that’s an issue of principle.  I haven’t… I can’t comment on that specific report.” Hours later, still nothing.

The lack of confidence in the UN in these areas, and on this issue, was inflamed as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in October 2017 stopped by Yaounde on his way from the Central African Republic (where the UN pays Biya’s government for peacekeepers who have been charged with sexual abuse). Guterres did not meet with any opposition figures, and accepted a golden statue from Biya.

Guterres’ envoy Francois Lounceny Fall has publicly said that secessionist are extremists, the word used by Biya to justify the scorched earth strategy exemplified by the video. Inner City Press asked UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zaid why his Office hasn’t updated the death figures and he claimed it was because the UN has no access.

Guterres’ humanitarian Assistant Secretary General Ursula Mueller visited Cameroon, but not the Anglophone areas. Human Rights Watch didn’t even include Cameroon in its 2018 “World Report,” and told Inner City Press this is because it does not view it as among the 90 most serious problems in the world.

Guterres’ Deputy Secretary General Amina J. Mohammed was in Abuja in her native Nigeria when 47 Cameroonians were illegally sent back by the Buhari government. Buhari was in Washington on April 30 and a protest of Ambazonians planned. Earlier in April, Inner City Press asked the US State Department about the refoulement to Cameroon and received a day later a statement. But what will happen on this video, and on the underlying issues?

Culled from Inner City Press

US president Donald Trump praised Nigeria’s efforts in the fight against terrorism, pledging to help Buhari’s government solve the deadly violence between Christian farmers and Fulani herdsmen. Trump was addressing a press conference with Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari after the latter’s historic visit to the White House.

“Nigeria was one of the first African countries to join the coalition to defeat the Islamic state group and Nigerian forces are leading regional efforts against EI in West Africa,” he said, also mentioning the fight against Boko Haram “another ruthless jihadist group.

We will work on this problem because we cannot accept such a situation. Nigeria enters its 9th year of struggle against Boko Haram, who devastated the northeast of the country. The conflict has killed more than 20,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands.

Trump also praised Buhari’s determination to fight corruption and secure the people of his country. The US president then pledged to help Buhari address the issue of ‘Christians who are being killed, murdered in Nigeria’.

“We will work on this problem because we cannot accept such a situation,” he said. The Middle Belt of Nigeria, a meeting point between a predominantly Muslim North and a predominantly Christian South, is regularly the scene of intense inter-community tensions.

For months now, the region has been experiencing renewed tensions between Christian farmers and Muslim nomadic herders. Legislators have called for the sacking of security chiefs over failure to contain the communal violence while catholic bishops have asked Buhari to resign.

Muhammadu Buhari became, in 2015, the first Nigerian opposition leader to beat an incumbent president in an election considered free and fair. He has expressed his desire to seek reelection in next year’s elections.

Buhari used the occasion to trace the cause of communal violence in Nigeria to commend the United States for the physical and financial commitment to the fight against terror.

“The commitment of the United States to get rid of terrorism across the world, we have firsthand experience of that and we are very grateful for it,’‘ Buhari said.

“On security, I am very grateful to the United States for agreeing to sell to us the aircraft we asked for and the spare parts.’‘

Shithole or not?

The two leaders also took on the controversial storm that was raised when remarks attributed to Trump allegedly labeled several African countries as ‘shitholes’.

Asked about this episode which had provoked strong protests on the continent, Buhari preferred to stay out of the controversy. “I’m not sure how accurate this is, so the best thing for me is to keep quiet,” he simply replied.

Trump was less diplomatic.

‘‘There are countries that are in very poor condition and where living conditions are very difficult,” he said. Cooperation between the two countries has improved in substance over the past year.

Shortly after coming to power in 2015, Buhari accused President Barack Obama of refusing to sell arms to Nigeria to fight Boko Haram. But the Trump administration has changed its position by allowing the sale to Nigeria of $500 million worth of Super Tucano surveillance and tactical support aircraft, to be delivered in 2020.

Source: Africa News

A Southern Cameroons Committee is spearheading a fundraising drive to bring help to Ambazonian refugee families and internally displaced persons in West Cameroon and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.  Committee member Lylian Fotabong says the goal is “No matter how small every little cent helps”. In an effort to hit their fundraising target, the committee has organized a fundraising gala, to be held in the Glen Abbey Complex, Belgard Road, Cookstown, Dublin 24 on the 2^nd of June 2018.

The program, which includes a speech by representatives of the Southern Cameroons resistance in Ireland, begins at 8 p.m and will be directed and animated by DJ Valdoval and DJ Pozo. Tickets are 10 Euro per person.

Speaking to our Cameroon politics expert, a representative of the Southern Cameroons Community in Ireland who sued for anonymity, said the money raised would be used to help the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia cover relocation expenses for families in Nigeria, those that have migrated to French Cameroun including the families that are in the forest.

“As Southern Cameroonians, we sense the call to be living instruments of our new born nation in saving even one Ambazonian family. “All the while these families languish in Nigeria which is not their ancestral own – or on occasion are forcefully sent back into the war zone by the Fulani leader in Abuja. Life shouldn’t be a horror movie,” he added.

Lylian Fotabong the host of the June 2^nd event was quoted as saying that first, Southern Cameroonians in Ireland have to obtain the money. Then they’ll contact the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Dr. Samuel Sako to say they’re ready to help Southern Cameroonian families fleeing the conflict because they have sufficient funds to do so.

Recently in London, Ambazonia’s Communication Secretary, Hon. Chris Anu observed that the huge obstacle right now is raising sufficient funds to keep the self-defense groups operating in their respective counties. A Southern Cameroons leader in Belfast opined during an Ambazonian forum that “We’re finding that people are generous, but they’re probably holding on a little more than they used to in the past due to the activities of a criminal gang headed by one Cho Ayaba.”

By Sessekou Asu Isong

Cameroon Concord News Group

UK/Northern Ireland