The internet, still slow and inaccessible to many, has been restored in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions, sources and digital rights groups say.

Access Now, a global advocacy group that has been pushing leaders to stop disrupting the internet under the #KeepItOn campaign, confirmed the internet was back as of Thursday (Mar. 1). While social media sites were back, users continued to complain about pages uploading slowly while some websites still couldn’t be accessed without a virtual private network.

Otto Akama, who runs the Makonjo media startup in Buea the capital of the Southwest region, also said the network was “very unstable.” This was especially true, he added, for the national telecommunications service Camtel. Since it operates the country’s fiber-optic backbone, the company has a monopoly on the nation’s internet infrastructure—making it easy for them to shut down the internet or pressure other telecom operators to do so.

“It is several times slower than it used to be,” Akama, whose company uses the Camtel service and was contemplating switching to other operators, said. “We lose several hours per day waiting for pages to load.”

For over a year now, the internet in the two Southwest and Northwest Anglophone regions has either been completely off or slowed down for more than 240 days as of Feb. 28 this year. As the blackout dragged on, the country recorded one of the longest shutdowns ever on the African continent. The internet was back on for 48 hours in January for a diplomatic visit, but otherwise, it’s been off for the entire period. There are strong doubts about the permanency of the current restoration.

With mounting international pressure, Access Now and Internet Sans Frontières joined a lawsuit along with a consortium of local and regional civil society organizations, which cited violations of freedom of expression, access to information, and discrimination based on language.

But that wasn’t before businesses like internet cafes, microfinance institutions, money transfer agencies and many of the digital startups in the Silicon Mountain were deeply affected. Akama said his company lost 3,000 euros ($3,700) every month. Ayuk Etta, whose company Skylabase provides software to financial institutions, was forced to relocate some of his operations to The Gambia.

The political crisis that kickstarted the shutdown is still flaring on too, as the central government continued repressing dissent over the perceived marginalization of the English-speaking minority. Last October, Anglophone separatists declared independence for a region they called Ambazonia, leading authorities to kickstart a military crackdown. The fallout from that violent clampdown is now spiraling, leading to a refugee emergency, and escalating tensions with neighboring Nigeria.

Source: Quartz Media

No fewer than 142 Cameroonian are taking refuge in Akwa Ibom State as a result of the crisis rocking the Southern and English-speaking areas of Cameroon, the State Comptroller of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Livingstone Amadi disclosed weekend.

Amadi who made the disclosure during an interview in Uyo said the refugees currently spread across three local government areas of the state. The State Comptroller of NIS, who is barely three months old in the state, said the Cameroonian refugees were being camped in makeshift structures in Oron, Eket and Mkpat Enin Local Government Areas of the State.

According to him, the Akwa Ibom government had assisted with relief materials, stressing that the Cameroonian refugees experience was a national issue to Nigeria given the influx of people from Southern Cameroon.

“You know border states like Cross River, Benue and Taraba, are also affected by the refugees fleeing English-speaking areas of Cameroon into Nigeria.

“The Akwa Ibom state government had sent relief materials to the three different camps to support the refugees there. We have also gotten delegations from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the United Nation High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR),” he added.

Since last year the English-speaking regions of Cameroon had witnessed tensions over alleged discrimination against them by the majority French-speaking population, leading to thousands fleeing the country.

Amadi said within the last three months of his assumption of duty, he had rebranded the state headquarters to make the work environment attractive to both staff and the public.

“We have tiled the passport office, giving facelift to the comptroller’s office; we are tiling the production and enrolment office in the next one week. We are making judicious application of the little funds that we have,” Amadi stated.

The NIS comptroller said he was impressed with the conduct of his officers in the command, emphasising that his officers had exhibited the highest sense decorum in border management.

“The Federal Government is working on modalities for ease of doing business in Nigeria, my officers are very responsible, they cannot brutalise any businessman coming in or going out of Nigeria.

“We are a security agency of government interfacing with the public at all times. My officers had been conducting themselves in an orderly manner depicting the behaviour of trained and disciplined officers,” he maintained.

He said it was unfounded that his men had been extorting money and brutalising travellers along Oron beach in Oron local government area of the state.

Culled from All Africa

A man has shot himself dead outside the White House, the US Secret Service – in charge of protecting the residence of the American president – announced, noting that no one else was harmed in the incident.

“At approximately 11.46am, a white male suffered a self-inflicted gun-shot wound to the head outside the North White House fence line. The subject is deceased,” said the Secret Service in a statement on Saturday.

It further added, “The subject approached the vicinity of the North White House fence line and removed a concealed handgun and fired several rounds, none of which appear at this time to have been directed towards the White House.”

The White House Deputy Press Secretary Hogan Gidley also briefed reporters about the apparent suicide event, saying: “We’re aware of the incident. The president has been briefed.”

The identity of the dead man and the motive behind his action remain unclear. Washington DC Police Department, which is leading the investigation into the incident, announced later in the day that it was “working to notify next of kin” of the dead individual, hinting that he has been identified.

At the time of the incident, US President Donald Trump was away from the White House and staying with his wife Melania at his Florida vacation spot, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property.

According to local reports, Trump spent the morning at one of his golf courses in the southeastern state before flying back to Washington to attend an evening event.

Donald Trump was not in residence at the time of the incident. The president and his wife Melania were in Florida, staying at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property. Trump spent the morning at one of his golf courses in the state before flying back to Washington to attend an evening event.

At the time of the shooting, which took place near the main entrance of the White House, the building was placed on lockdown. Members of the White House press corps tweeted that they were sheltering in the briefing room.

Source: Presstv

Slain Slovak investigative journalist Jan Kuciak was laid to rest in his wedding suit on Saturday as police released the seven Italian nationals who were detained regarding Kuciak’s explosive report on high-level corruption.

Kuciak’s murder has raised fresh concern about media freedom and corruption both in Slovakia and Europe. It follows the October 2017 assassination of investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who had denounced corruption in Malta.

Kuciak’s burial in the northern Slovak village of Stiavnik came a day after his fiancée, Martina Kusnirova, was laid to rest in her wedding gown in the northern town of Gregorovce. The couple, both 27, were to marry in May.

The ceremony began with the reading of a poem written by Jan for his fiancée that he had planned to read at their wedding.

Leading the funeral mass, Bratislava Archbishop Stanislav Zvolensky told hundreds of mourners packed into the local Roman Catholic church that “if the murderer thought he was able to silence Jan, he was wrong.”

“He achieved the opposite. An attack on a journalist is also an attack on the freedom of our country. We must not allow it.”

Slovak police commander Tibor Gaspar has said the motive for murder was “most likely” related to Kuciak’s investigative journalism.

In Italy, prosecutors have suggested that the ‘Ndrangheta may have been behind the killing of Kuciak and his fiancée, who were found dead at their home near Bratislava on Sunday.

Kuciak was about to publish an article that raised possible political links between Italian businessmen operating in Slovakia and the ‘Ndrangheta.

Political tool?

Hours before the funeral, police released seven Italian nationals named in Kuciak’s report and who were detained on Thursday, a day after it was posthumously published.

Police investigators said that after “checking the facts,” they were unable to bring charges within the legal 48-hour detention period.

Thousands flocked to candlelit anti-corruption vigils for the murdered journalist held on Friday across Slovakia, an EU, and NATO country of 5.4 million people.

Leftist Prime Minister Robert Fico has accused the opposition of using the murder as a “political tool to get people out on the streets and gain power.”

The latest protests echoed a wave of anti-graft rallies by mostly young Slovaks last year demanding the dismissal of senior police officials and ministers in Fico’s government for alleged foot-dragging on fighting corruption.

The seven Italians were taken into custody on Thursday in police raids in the eastern town of Michalovce.

Slovak media reported that among those held was businessman Antonino Vadala — the owner of several companies — and some of his relatives, alleged by Kuciak to have links to the mafia and contacts in the Slovak government.

€1 million reward 

The allegations in Kuciak’s report triggered an angry rebuke from Fico, who showed reporters stacks of euro bills totaling the €1-million (US$1.2-million) reward he has offered for information that could lead to the killers.

Interior Minister Robert Kalinak said on Facebook on Thursday that Italian police, Europol, the FBI, and Scotland Yard pledged to help Slovak investigators.

Two close Fico associates were forced to resign after the article was posthumously published on Wednesday, while one minister quit in protest.

Echoing opposition parties, the leader of Most Hid, a junior partner in Fico’s three-party coalition, has also demanded Interior Minister Robert Kalinak resign.

The party said Saturday it would meet on March 12 to decide whether to quit the coalition after Kalinak refused to step down on Saturday.

‘Dangerous’ insults

Fico once told journalists they were “dirty, anti-Slovak prostitutes,” but he vowed that his government was committed to the “protection of freedom of speech and the safety of journalists” in the wake of the murder.

Christophe Deloire, the secretary-general of Reporters without Borders (RSF), told AFP he had asked Fico on Friday in Bratislava to “clearly express his regrets” for having publicly insulted journalists, something the RSF chief called “dangerous.”

Fico’s office later issued a statement saying that there was “no call on the PM to apologize to journalists,” denying Deloire’s claim.

But contacted by AFP, Harlem Desir, the Freedom of the Media representative at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, confirmed that Deloire had called on Fico to apologize to journalists.

The European Parliament is expected to send a fact-finding mission to Slovakia as early as next week, German MEP Ingeborg Grassle said on Saturday.

(Source: AFP)

Nearly 30 people, including civilians and soldiers, have been killed when gunmen launched a coordinated attack in Burkina Faso’s capital, targeting the army headquarters and the French embassy.

Five assailants reportedly got out of a pick-up truck in the center of the capital Ouagadougou and opened fire on passersby before heading towards the French embassy on Friday morning. They then set fire to the car.

Meanwhile, a blast took place near the headquarters of the Burkinabe armed forces and the French cultural center, which are located around a kilometer (half a mile) from the area of the first assault that houses the embassies, the prime minister’s office and the United Nations offices, witnesses said.

“I saw people with sacks on their backs attack the guard. Then I heard the explosion. I saw soldiers flee the army headquarters building running,” witness Kader Sanou said. The explosion hit the army compound, setting the building on fire.

Media reports quoted three security sources, two in France and one in West Africa, as saying that at least 28 people lost their lives in the attack on the military headquarters.

Two of the sources said 28 people were killed and a third reported that “around 30” died in the attack in the capital.

Government spokesman Remi Dandjinou had earlier said the attackers killed five people and injured about 50 others during the attack on the military headquarters.

Speaking on state television, he added that two paramilitary gendarmes lost their lives while defending the French embassy.

According to the government, four gunmen were killed in the embassy attack and two in the second assault.

Burkina Faso’s government had said in a statement posted on the government’s Information Service website, “Special units of the defense and security forces have been deployed.”

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but previous assaults were conducted by allies of al-Qaeda in retaliation for the country’s participation in a regional fight against Takfiri militants.

Jean-Marc Châtaigner, France’s ambassador to West Africa’s Sahel region described the assault as a “terrorist attack.”

The attack was the third major attack in Ouagadougou in just over two years.

In August 2017, a terrorist attack on the upscale Turkish restaurant Aziz Istanbul in Ouagadougou killed 19 people, many of them children, and injured 21 others.

In January 2016, assailants launched an attack on a hotel also popular with foreigners and a café in the capital, killing at least 30 people from 18 different nationalities. The al-Qaeda Takfiri terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Burkina Faso, one of the poorest countries in the world, shares a northern border with Mali, which has long been battling al-Qaeda.

French Special Forces have been present in Burkina Faso since 2010 on a declared mission to help regional governments in the Sahel tackle extremism, particularly in neighboring Mali.

France was a former colonial power in Africa, ruling over Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast as well as the Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Morocco, and Algeria. Ghana was a former British colony.

Source: Presstv

Israeli police arrived on Friday at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s home where media reports said they were to question him for an eighth time over allegations of fraud and bribery.

Police suspect Elovitch was given business concessions in return for Netanyahu receiving good press on Walla!, a news website he owns. Hefetz is alleged to have acted as a messenger between Netanyahu and Bezeq and Walla! bosses.

He is also suspected of trying to bribe a retired judge to block a probe into the prime minister’s wife, Sara Netanyahu, over alleged misuse of public funds.

Police have now questioned the premier eight times since the beginning of 2017, and last month said there was sufficient evidence to charge him for graft, fraud and breach of trust in two other cases.

In one, he and family members are suspected of receiving one million shekels ($285,000, 230,000 euros) of luxury cigars, champagne and jewellery from wealthy personalities in exchange for financial or personal favours.

In the other case, investigators suspect the premier of trying to reach an agreement with the owner of Yediot Aharonot, a top Israeli daily newspaper, for more favourable coverage.

Israeli media said police would question him on the Bezeq affair for the first time on Friday and would also take from him a statement as a witness in suspected corruption around Israel’s purchase of three submarines from German industrial giant ThyssenKrupp.

The cases have fuelled speculation he could be forced to step down or call an early election but Netanyahu says he is innocent of any wrongdoing.

Eli Kamir, another former Netanyahu adviser arrested last week, was on Wednesday released from police custody but placed under house arrest.

Shlomo Filber, a Netanyahu ally for more than 20 years and former director general of the communications ministry, was freed last week after agreeing to turn state’s witness in exchange for avoiding jail, police said.

He is suspected of mediating between Netanyahu and Elovitch and promoting regulatory changes worth millions to Bezeq.

(AFP)

Four United Nations (UN) peacekeepers were killed in central Mali on Wednesday after their vehicle struck an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by suspected militants.

The UN mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, said in a statement that the casualties occurred when a convoy of peacekeepers hit the device along a road in the Mopti region.

“We have just received information from the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali indicating that a UN military vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device on the Boni-Douentza axis, in the region of Mopti in Mali. Preliminary reports indicate that four peacekeepers were killed and four others were wounded. Medical evacuations are currently ongoing,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

‘Undeterred’

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “strongly condemned” the IED attack and said such attacks targeting UN peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law.

“These cowardly acts will not deter MINUSMA’s determination to support the Malian authorities in their efforts to protect civilians and accompany the Malian people in their quest for peace and stability,” the UN chief added.

The Wednesday roadside attack came a day after six Malian soldiers were killed when their vehicle struck a mine in the Segou region. A forest ranger was also gunned down in another incident blamed on militants.

‘Cornered’

Al-Qaeda-linked terrorist groups in Mali have been carrying out increasingly deadly attacks on domestic and foreign forces in the African country, raising security concerns.

But the head of the MINUSMA has said the increased attacks are because the terrorists have come under intensified pressure.

“MINUSMA is currently upgrading its security presence in central Mali,” Mali mission chief Mahamat Saleh Annadif said. “Cornered, the terrorists are multiplying their attacks.”

More than 11,000 UN peacekeepers have been deployed to Mali since 2013 to counter terrorist attacks and general lawlessness.

In late January, 14 soldiers were killed and 18 more wounded in an attack on their camp in Mali’s restive northern regions.

Extremists linked to al-Qaeda took control of the desert north of Mali in early 2012 but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.

In June 2015, Mali’s government signed a peace agreement with coalitions of non-militant armed groups. But extremists still remain active in the area, and large tracts of the West African country are lawless.

Source: Presstv

The General Officer Commanding (GOC) 82 Division Nigerian Army, Major General Adamu Baba Abubakar, at the instruction of the Chief of Army Staff(COAS), Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, held an elaborate security stakeholders meeting on the 27th of February, 2018 at the 245 Reconnaissance Battalion at Ikom, Ikom Local Government Area of Cross River State. The meeting is to confirm/assess the reported occasional security threats at the border areas between Nigeria and Cameroon with the view to addressing the situation. The GOC, on behalf of the COAS, thanked the various security agencies for their efforts in ensuring peace and security of all Nigerian citizens at the border areas in the midst of the reported/recorded security threats. He used the opportunity to urge the leaders and youths of the affected communities not take laws into their hands, remain law abiding and endeavor to report any security infraction to available security organization close to them.

General Abubakar reiterated the resolve of the Nigerian government to protecting lives and properties of her citizens and the capacity of the Nigerian Armed Forces to defend the territorial integrity of the country at all times. Present at the meeting include the Commander 13 Brigade Brigadier General I Isah, Commander Military Intelligence Brigade Colonel Kingsley Nwoko, Commanding Officer 245 Battalion Colonel Solomon Diwa, a member Cross River State House of Assembly representing Boki Local Government Area Dr. Mrs Abang, the Chairmen of Boki, Ikom, Etung and Obubra Local Government Areas, Commissioner of Police, State Director of Security Services Cross River State and other heads of paramilitary organisations in the State as well as traditional rulers of the affected border communities.

The representative of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHRC), UNHRC Sub – Office Calabar Mr Josiah Kolleh Flomo also graced and made a brief at the meeting. Two important highlights of the event was the briefs made by the various commanders and heads of security agencies to the GOC and a visit to Ajasso – Etung – Mfum border with Cameroon in Etung Local Government Area of Cross River State.

Culled from prnigeria.com

Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky says her extramarital affair that led to the impeachment of Former US President Bill Clinton “was not sexual assault,” but “constituted a gross abuse of power.”

The 44-year-old made the comment in a report published by the Vanity Fair magazine on Tuesday, reflecting on events after the #MeToomovement born in the wake of the allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

“There are even some people who feel my White House experiences don’t have a place in this movement, as what transpired between Bill Clinton and myself was not sexual assault, although we now recognize that it constituted a gross abuse of power,” Lewinsky said.

“Now, at 44, I’m beginning to consider the implications of the power differentials that were so vast between a president and a White House intern,” she added.

Clinton, then 49, and 22-year-old Lewinsky started a sexual relationship in 1995 in the White House, and the affair came to light in 1998.

Lewinsky admitted she had sexual encounters with Clinton on nine occasions, until March 1997 and alleged that First Lady Hillary Clinton was at the White House during many of those incidents.

The Lewinsky scandal led to the impeachment of Clinton in the House of Representatives on December 19, 1998. Clinton was acquitted by the Senate in 1999 over his affair with Lewinsky and remained in power until 2002.

In the Tuesday report, Lewinsky said she had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of being “publicly outed and ostracized,” after the scandal and lauded the #MeToo movement for providing “the safety that comes from solidarity.”

Lewinsky further said she had been rethinking the issue of consent in her affair with the former US president back in 1998 and that she had “limited understanding of the consequences” at the time.

“I’m beginning to entertain the notion that in such a circumstance the idea of consent might well be rendered moot, although power imbalances – and the ability to abuse them – do exist even when the sex has been consensual,” she said.

“He was my boss. He was the most powerful man on the planet. He was 27 years my senior, with enough life experience to know better. He was, at the time, at the pinnacle of his career, while I was in my first job out of college,” Lewinsky added.

The former White House intern concluded that “none of the above excuses me for my responsibility for what happened. I meet regret every day.”

Her comments were made in the wake of growing allegations of sexual misconduct against powerful figures in Hollywood as well as the world of politics.

Campaigners and rights activists stress that many victims of sexual abuse and exploitation decline to report the incident due to fear, shame, and worry about damage to their career.

Sexual allegations against disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein initially sparked the latest wave of sexual harassment and assault revelations in various industries, including in the media and politics.

The US is specifically struggling to deal with a series of sexual abuse scandals that have raised doubts about how institutions, including the church, sports teams and the news media respond to those vulnerable to abuse.

At least 16 women have so far come forward to accuse the incumbent US President Donald Trump of sexual misconduct. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and the White House has called his accusers liars.

Source: Presstv