World

29, April 2018

Trump threatens to shut down government over border wall ⁰

US President Donald Trump says he will shut down the federal government in September unless Congress provides more funding for a wall he has promised to build on the border with Mexico.

“That wall has started, we have 1.6 billion (dollars),” Trump said on Saturday at a campaign rally in Washington, Michigan.

“We come up again on September 28th and if we don’t get border security we will have no choice, we will close down the country because we need border security.”

Trump’s proposal for the construction of a 2,000-mile wall has been met with strong criticism both at home and abroad.

The construction work began on April 9, with US Customs and Border Protection officials gathering to mark the groundbreaking of the $73-million project at Santa Teresa near New Mexico’s state line with Texas.

In March, Trump made a similar threat to push for changes in immigration law to help prevent criminals from entering the US.

A $1.3 trillion spending bill, which Trump signed last month to keep the government funded through the end of September, authorized only $1.6 billion for fencing, surveillance technology and other measures related to the wall, although the president originally wanted as much as $25 billion for the project.

The government briefly shut down in January over immigration, but another shutdown ahead of the November mid-elections, on the other hand, is unlikely to be supported by his fellow Republicans who are anxious to keep their control of Congress.

Trump, who had pledged to crack down on immigrants to the US, cited the hundreds of Central American migrants traveling in a “caravan” as one of the reasons he has called for stronger border security.

“Watch the caravan, watch how sad and terrible it is, including for those people and the crime that they inflict on themselves and that others inflict on them,” he said on Saturday.

“It’s a horrible dangerous journey for them and they come up because they know once they can get here they can walk right into our country.”

Immigrants, who include women and children, say they had to flee their homes in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras due to death threats from gangs, the murder of family members or political persecution.
Source: Presstv

26, April 2018

UN finds five mass graves in Congo amid ethnic violence ⁰

United Nations investigators have discovered five probable mass grave sites in eastern Congo’s Ituri province where an outbreak of ethnic violence has killed at least 263 people, a UN peacekeeping mission said.

The report from the mission provides the most comprehensive portrait to date of the human cost of months of violence between Lendu pastoralists and Hema herders since December that has caused one of Africa’s most serious refugee crises.

Violence across eastern Congo’s borderlands with Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi has spiked since President Joseph Kabila refused to step aside at the end of his mandate in 2016, eroding state authority and emboldening armed groups.

The mostly Lendu-led attacks have forced more than 60,000 people to flee across Lake Albert into Uganda, and the UN refugee agency expects 200,000 refugees to reach Uganda this year. Tens of thousands of others have fled to other towns inside Congo.

The investigators did not provide details about the suspected mass graves, but said that about 120 towns and villages were pillaged and destroyed between December and mid-March.

According to Hema refugees Reuters interviewed last month in Uganda, Lendu groups typically attack Hema villages shortly after dusk with guns, machetes, axes and bows and arrows.

The precise motives for the attacks are difficult to pin down but tensions between the two communities have long been stoked by disagreements over cattle grazing rights, crops, gold mining and political representation.

Open warfare between the two communities from 1999-2007 is estimated to have killed some 50,000 people in one of the bloodiest chapters of a civil war in eastern Congo that left millions dead from conflict, hunger and disease.

Aid agencies say the crisis is a “mega-disaster” and are trying to raise over $2 billion to respond but Congo’s government has accused them of exaggerating the situation and boycotted a recent donor conference.

(Source: Reuters)

26, April 2018

France won’t leave Iran nuclear deal, Macron tells US Congress ⁰

French President Emmanuel Macron says his country will not leave the Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), amid US efforts to persuade European parties to the agreement to withdraw from it.

Speaking at the US Congress Wednesday on the final day of a three-day state visit, Macron said the JCPOA was not addressing what he called “all concerns” but stressed that the deal could not be ditched.

“We signed it, both the United States and France.”

“We should not abandon it without having something substantial and more substantial instead. That’s why France will not leave the JCPOA, because we signed it,” he said.

He also vowed that Iran will “never” be allowed to develop atomic weapons.

“Our objective is clear. Iran shall never possess any nuclear weapons. Not now. Not in five years. Not in 10 years. Never,” Macron said.

Trump has often vowed to pull the United States out of the 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, which was negotiated under his predecessor, Barack Obama.

Back in January, Trump said it was the last time he was extending the sanctions relief for Iran as part of the nuclear agreement, giving the European signatories a May 12 deadline to fix what he claimed to be the “flaws” in the agreement or he would refuse to waive those bans.

Iran has repeatedly warned that any failure to respect the multinational agreement would have grave consequences, stressing that there is no alternative to the nuclear accord.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron (C) greets members of Congress after addressing a joint meeting of Congress inside the House chamber at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on April 25, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

‘Trade war’

Elsewhere in his remarks, the French president also warned against a trade “war” between allies and asked for a free and fair global trade.

“We need a free and fair trade, for sure,” Macron said. “A commercial war opposing allies is not consistent with our mission, with our history, with our current commitments for global security.”

Macron’s remarks came as US trade sanctions on European steel and aluminum will enter into force in coming weeks unless Trump agrees to sign a waiver.

Paris climate agreement

On climate, Macron told US lawmakers there was “no Planet B,” acknowledging a disagreement with Trump, who pulled his country from the landmark Paris accord on climate change.

“Let us face it. There is no Planet B,” Macron said.

“We have disagreements between the United States and France. It may happen, like in all families,” he said but added that such differences would be short-term. “We’re just citizens of the same planet,” Macron said.

He said he was confident the United States “would come back and join the Paris agreement.”

Trump said last year that his country would withdraw from the accord, which aims to reduce damaging emissions and was signed by almost 200 countries.

Culled from Presstv

25, April 2018

419: Cameroon men arrested as alleged ‘Black Money’ gang members in Thailand ⁰

Police have arrested two Cameroon men for having swindled a man from Oman out of Bt4 million worth of Omani banknotes. Pol Maj-General Maitree Chimcherd, commander of the Crime Suppression Division (CSD), told a press conference on Wednesday that Pierre Alain Gandjui and Jean Robert Kongne were arrested on Tuesday.

The arrests were made a day after the Omani victim filed a complaint with the CSD on Monday that he had been a victim of a “Black Money” gang that stole 50,000 Omani rials from him.

The victim, who police did not name, said he was cheated in late January but only decided to file a complaint with police on Monday. The victim said the gang had an Omani man as an accomplice.

He said the Omani businessman contacted him and said that he wanted to sell him 5 kilograms of gold for Bt4 million. But, when they met, the Omani businessman changed his mind and said he wanted to sell 15 kg of gold for Bt12 million.

The victim said the Cameroon men, who were present, told him that they could use special ink and paper to make copies of the rial banknotes.

The con artists took a 200-rial note from him and placed it on a piece of white paper that had been cut to the same size as the bank note. They were wrapped together in foil and then put into some black ink. After 10 minutes, the con artists unwrapped the foil to show that the white paper had become a rial banknote.

The victim then agreed to give 50,000 rials to the con artists to use the same process. The Cameroon men appeared to wrap the bank notes in foil and wrap white paper in another bundle and put them into the black ink tank.

The victim was told to wait overnight, and the conmen would return to add more ink. The victim said the Cameroon men disappeared and he could not contact anyone. It turned out that the conmen managed to switch real money with a bundle of white paper.

Maitree said the CSD investigated and found that the gang had four members but two other members had fled the country. He said records showed that the gang members had entered Thailand several times and there could be more victims.

Source:Thai Visa News

24, April 2018

121 Cameroonian Returnees Arrive Home Safely with IOM Assistance ⁰

Last week (19 April) 121 Cameroonian migrants returned home from Libya after being assisted by IOM, the UN Migration Agency. The returnees were welcomed at Nsimalen international airport in the capital Yaoundé, by representatives from the European Union Delegation, Cameroon’s Ministry of External Relations and Boubacar Seybou, IOM Chief of Mission in Cameroon.

Upon arrival, the returnees received medical check-ups including psychological support from the Ministries of Health and Social Affairs. IOM provided food assistance and distributed a delivery kit to pregnant women, which included clothes, basins, towels and other useful material.

“I have lived the worst nightmare in Libya, moving for nine months from prison to prison. And now that I’m back, I ask myself what pushed me outside Cameroon,” one of returnees told IOM staff at the airport.

This latest charter was organized within the framework of the EU-IOM Joint initiative for migrant protection and reintegration in Cameroon, financed by the European Union and implemented by IOM. This project aims at strengthening the mechanisms for migrant protection and assistance all along the migration route.

So far 1,357 Cameroonians (1,105 men, 252 women) have returned home under the initiative.

In addition to facilitating the voluntary return to the country of origin of Cameroonian migrants, the EU-IOM joint initiative also focuses on supporting returnees’ reintegration in the country and on raising-awareness on the risks of irregular migration. The programme’s operations in Cameroon started in June 2017.

With the cooperation of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Civic Education, 184 returnees have been supported by IOM to start their livelihood activities. In addition, the business plans of more than 700 migrants have been approved as of the end of March, and the migrants will soon receive the material they need to start activities in fields such as agriculture, livestock breeding and retail, among others.

Source: International Organization for Migration

24, April 2018

Belo: French Cameroun forces killed, raped and burned civilians alive ⁰

The French Cameroun army caused mayhem over the weekend in Djichami, a small community in the Belo municipality Boyo Division. For the past three weeks, inhabitants of Belo, Anyajua, Dzikfin, and other small villages have been targeted by the Francophone dominated Cameroon military with scores of houses burnt down. It should be recalled that the Raster man (Sam Sawyer) who was infamously beheaded by the cowardly soldiers from French speaking Cameroun was from Belo.

Cameroon Intelligence Report sources on the ground revealed that the beheading of Sam Sawyer changed the phase of the revolution as the young men in his community enrolled massively in to the resistance army. Many of the Belo young men and women openly told our correspondent that they prefer to die fighting, than to be killed like Sam Sawyer whom they say was never involved in an armed resistance before his demise.

We understand that last week, a gendarme officer in Belo left his colleagues and went out with his gun raping women and young girls. The officer our informant noted was captured by unknown gun men, and shortly after pictures of him with hands tied ,soaked in his blood were circulating on social media. The Francophone administrators in the constituency were quoted as saying that the beheading of the officer prompted the killing Sam Sawyer. A position denied by many Ambazonians contacted by our reporter.

In retaliation to the abduction and killing of the said gendarmerie officer, French Cameroun troops invaded the neighboring communities’ and moved right as far as Njinikom, torturing and killing innocent civilians. The inhabitants of Belo have abandoned their ancestral homeland because of the continuous French Cameroun military incursions taking along with them their livestock. The French Cameroun army has been stealing goats, chicken and other foodstuffs in order to sustain their campaign in the area. With Belo now a ghost settlement, the inhabitants of Djichami reportedly destroyed the only bridge linking Belo and Djichami to prevent the blood thirsty French Cameroun soldiers from penetrating their neighborhoods.

This preventive measure could not protect the people of Djichami as the Francophone soldiers used the back corridor passing through Ndawara over the weekend and on Sunday morning killed 12 people. Homes were set on fire and an old man and his son were burnt alive. At the time of filing this report, we gathered that some armed men attacked the Gendarmerie Brigade down town Belo, but we are yet to confirm the casualties on the side of the French Cameroun army.

By Ntam Charles Ngeh in Bonn, Germany with files from Sama Ernest

24, April 2018

Macron in US for 3 days, will attend first Trump state dinner ⁰

French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife have arrived in Washington for a three-day state visit as US President Donald Trump hosts his administration’s first official state visit of his presidency.

Impressed by the warm welcome he received for the Bastille Day ceremony last July in Paris, the US president has returned the favor by making Macron the first foreign leader of the Trump-era to receive a state visit.

Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, President Donald Trump, and First lady Melania Trump pose at their table at the Jules Verne restaurant for a private dinner at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, July 13, 2017. (AFP)

The Macrons arrived at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington to the playing of both the French and American national anthem, where Macron said he was looking forward to the “very important” visit.

“This is a great honor and I think a very important state visit given the moment of our current environment,” Macron said Monday as he briefly spoke to reporters outside the plane, first conversing with the crowd in English and then in French.

The couple then took a motorcade into Washington, DC, and were spotted walking around downtown, just blocks from the White House.

The couple arrived just after 1:30 pm at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, where they received a red-carpet welcome. (Photo by Reuters)

“Is this agreement perfect and this JCPOA a perfect thing for our relationship with Iran? No,” Macron said on “Fox News Sunday,” before his trip to the US. “But for nuclear, what do you have as a better option? I don’t see it. What is the what-if scenario or your plan B? I don’t have any Plan B for nuclear against Iran. So that’s a question we will discuss.”

The French first couple decided to take a walk around Washington upon their arrival for a three-day trip to the Unites States. (AFP)

Melania Trump plans dinner menu, Democrats not invited

Donald Trump is the first president since Calvin Coolidge in the 1920s to end his first year in office without hosting a foreign leader on a state visit. But now Trump and his wife are preparing for a pomp display of hospitality. The US first lady has selected specific decor, entertainment and food options for Tuesday night’s state dinner, the White House said.

The menu will consist of three courses, which will include American dishes with French influences. The main course will be a rack of spring lamb with Carolina gold rice jambalaya.

In a break with tradition, AP has reported that Trump has invited no Democratic members of Congress or journalists. But at least one Democrat will be in the crowd: the office of Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards confirmed his attendance. Louisiana is a state with a strong French cultural heritage.

Approximately 150 guests will take their seats in the State Dining Room on Tuesday, making for a more intimate affair than those held by President Barack Obama. Obama’s guest lists numbered into the hundreds, requiring that the event be held in a tented pavilion erected on the South Lawn because no room in the White House can accommodate that many people.

Culled from Presstv

23, April 2018

Eleven asylum-seekers dead, 263 rescued off Libya coast ⁰

Eleven asylum-seekers have died at sea and another 263 rescued by the Libyan coast guard off the country’s western coast.

Libya’s Navy spokesman, General Ayoub Kacem, said in a statement on Sunday that the coast guard found the asylum-seekers in two separate operations.

In the first operation, the coast guard found 11 bodies and 83 survivors off the town of Sabratha, while in the second op 180 asylum-seekers on two inflatable boats were rescued near the town of Zliten, according to the spokesman.

The perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea – from Libya to Italy – is one of the routes taken by asylum-seekers trying to reach Europe.

During past years, Libya’s coast guard has been financed, equipped and trained by Europeans to stop the flow of immigration to Europe by cutting migrant boats off before they can reach international vessels.

Hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers have crossed over to Europe despite its dangers and hardships; many have perished at sea, some have fallen prey to slave-traders in Libya and a faction have returned to their countries of origin.

Eritreans, Tunisians and Pakistanis constitute the three largest groups attempting the hazardous voyage across the Mediterranean to Italy from North Africa. Twelve Pakistani asylum-seekers drowned trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea in February.

More than 600,000 asylum-seekers have made the journey from Libya to Italy during the past four years.

In November 2017, the United Nations migration agency said 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.”

Source: Presstv

23, April 2018

US gov’t says Cameroon forces in gross abuse over Anglophone, Boko Haram crisis ⁰

Cameroon security forces have been cited as engaging in significant human rights abuse in respect of armed combat they are engaged in across three regions of the country, a United States government report has said.

The Central African nation is beset by Boko Haram insurgency in its Far North region whiles the Anglophone crisis continues to pose a security challenge to the government in the Northwest and Southwest i.e. Anglophone regions.

According to the U.S. Department of State’s Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2017, the military, police and gendarmerie – paramilitary – forces were using among others arbitrary killings, forced disappearances and prolonged military / unofficial detentions in the three regions.

In its Executive Summary relating to the country, the report said: “The most significant human rights issues included: arbitrary and unlawful killings through excessive use of force by security forces; disappearances by security forces and Boko Haram.”

It went on to mention: “torture and abuse by security forces including in military and unofficial detention facilities; prolonged arbitrary detentions including of suspected Boko Haram supporters and individuals in the Anglophone regions.”

Then there was the issue of “harsh and life threatening prison conditions; violations of freedoms of expression and assembly; periodic government restrictions on access to the internet; trafficking in persons; criminalization and arrest of individuals engaged in consensual same-sex sexual conduct; and violations of workers’ rights.”

The government has deployed a military unit the BIR, which continues to engage with Boko Haram insurgents in the Far North region. Communities in the region have been attacked mostly by suicide bombers and raids by the group.

Over in the Anglophone region, guerilla style attacks on security forces by suspected separatists under the so-called Ambazonia republic banner has led to the formation of a new military unit headquartered in the capital of the northwest region, Bamenda.

There has been a sustained call for dialogue to solve the crisis even though the government has insisted that it will only engage with persons with the unity of the nation at heart.

Separatists have killed over 20 security forces, locals have fled their homes for fear of being caught in the cross fire with thousands now seeking asylum in neighbouring Nigeria.

Source: Africa News

23, April 2018

Lebialem County: French Cameroun Troops Come Under Attack, But No Ambazonian Injured ⁰

Cameroon Intelligence Report has been informed that elements from the Rapid Intervention Battalion, BIR deployed from Dschang in French Cameroun to Menji were ambushed by the Red Dragons protecting the Lebialem County. A well-placed source deep within the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia who confirmed the attack also said that the Red Dragons staged the ambush around Ntsianbeh Catholic Mission in Lewoh. We gathered that 4 government soldiers were killed during the attack.

Elsewhere in the Lebialem County, Cameroon government officials accompanying the Francophone governor of the South West region came under attack by Southern Cameroons self-defense forces. The Biya regime soldiers retaliated by firing against the Red Dragons. Citing French Cameroun military sources, our Menji correspondent reported that the Red Dragons have been observing a slow buildup of pro- Biya regime forces over the past week and have alerted the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Dr. Samuel Sako.

Source: www.cameroonintelligencereport.com