The Chinese leader, XI Jinging has invited President Biya to Peking.  Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered the invitation was transmitted to the 84 year-old dictator on Friday the 3^rd of March by the Chinese ambassador to Cameroon, Wei. Wien. It will be the sixth visit of the Cameroonian chief executive to China after those of March 1987, October 1993, September 2003, November 2006 and July 2011.

In an audience held at Unity Palace, the Chinese envoy said the visit will be held on a mutually convenient date.  The Chinese ambassador said that “China intends to work with Cameroon to carry on the Sino-Cameroonian strategic cooperation at a higher level in order to contribute more to the well-being of our two peoples”.

It must be said that the Sino-Cameroonian relationship goes back more than 45 years. The various areas of cooperation include hydroelectric projects, improved drinking water supply, agriculture, culture and armaments. On the economic front, China is Cameroon’s largest trading partner and Cameroon is “the second largest African beneficiary of Chinese financing.

Cameroon Intelligence Report

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a U.S. based independent press freedom advocacy organization, has tasked the government to give clarifications regarding the reported imprisonment of at least eight journalists arrested in the wake of the crisis rocking the country’s English speaking regions.

In an open letter to the Minister of Communication and government spokesperson, CPJ said the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms (NCHRF), had confirmed the detention of at least five journalists as of February 20.

“Since then we have heard reports of at least three other journalists jailed in Cameroon,” CPJ said. It reminded the communication minister that he claimed media practitioners in Cameroon “can speak their mind” and there was no journalist was in prison in country. “You requested that we forward you a list of detained journalists. We did this privately the same day and repeatedly but unsuccessfully attempted to follow up with you directly,” independent press freedom advocacy group reminded the minister citing a February 15 conversation.

CPJ said it is requesting the minister’s assistance in reconciling his contention that no journalists are jailed in Cameroon with the conclusions of NCHRF, “and request clarification on the location” of Atia Tilarious Azohnwi of The Sun newspaper, Amos Fofung of The Guardian Post, Thomas Awah Junior, of the monthly Aghem Messenger magazine, Mfor Ndong of Voice of the Voiceless, Hans Achumba, of Jakiri Community Radio and Tim Finnian, publisher of Life Time newspaper among others.

It urged the minister to clarify the reasons for their detention, where they are held, and their current legal status. The government spokesperson was yet to officially react to the letter which CPJ said was faxed to his office.

CPJ noted in the letter that it is aware the government has taken “increasingly drastic” steps to suppress the rights to transmit and receive information in Cameroon, particularly in predominantly Anglophone regions in recent months.  Media outlets have also been suspended, and journalists have been banned from practicing their craft, according to the CPJ.

Cameroun Info.Net

UN Security Council inspectors are currently visiting countries in the Lake Chad Basin combating the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram since 2013. The delegation comprising 15 members arrived Cameroon on Thursday for a working visit. A statement signed by Minister Adoum Gargoum, in charge of relations with the Islamic world said that the UN mission to Cameroon has gotten the high approval of President Paul Biya. The delegation is conducting a field mission for the first time in the Lake Chad Basin.

Cameroon Concord News understands the mission will continue in all the countries of the Lake Chad Basin and ends on March 7th. The countries of the Lake Chad Basin Commission including Benin set up the Joint Multinational Force to confront Boko Haram. With approximately 10,000 troops, the Joint Multinational Force has contributed greatly to militarily weakening Boko Haram, which paid allegiance to the Organization of the Islamic State and is now called, Province of the Islamic State in Africa.

By Sama Ernest

Major Thomas Brooks, outgoing Chief Officer for Security Cooperation at the United States Embassy in Cameroon has been honored by the regime in Yaounde. Without any parliamentary approval, he was made Knight of the National Order of Valour by the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defense on behalf of the Head of State, Paul Biya.

Major Thomas Brooks was decorated on Monday the 27th February 2017 during a ceremony at the Ministry of Defense in Yaoundé. Minister Joseph Beti Assomo indicated that the medal was in recognition of the American officer’s contribution in the acquisition of military vehicles and other materials from the US Government in the fight against the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

The US Ambassador to Cameroon, Michael Steven Hoza and other Cameroonian and American officials were present at the ceremony.

CRTV

Amnesty International has censured US President Donald Trump for adopting a “poisonous” rhetoric that “dehumanizes” entire communities and sets the stage for “angrier and more divisive politics” in the world.

In a statement upon the release of its annual human rights assessment, Amnesty said Wednesday that the divisive rhetoric used by people like the new American president led to an unprecedented spike in hate crimes last year.

“2016 was the year when the cynical use of ‘us vs. them’ narratives of blame, hate and fear took on a global prominence to a level not seen since the 1930s. Too many politicians are answering legitimate economic and security fears with a poisonous and divisive manipulation of identity politics in an attempt to win votes,” said Salil Shetty, Amnesty’s secretary general.

Specifically naming Trump and a number of other world leaders, Shetty charged that self-proclaimed “anti-establishment” politicians are “wielding a toxic agenda that hounds, scapegoats and dehumanizes entire groups of people.”

Since taking office on January 20, Trump has signed a number of executive orders aimed at curbing immigration into the US, openly blaming Muslims and Latin Americans for the lack of security in the country.

On January 27, the former reality TV star authorized an entry ban against people from seven Muslim countries and halted refugee admissions for three months. Syrian refugee admissions were indefinitely suspended under the ban, which has been halted upon a federal judge’s order.

Trump has also signed a directive to begin the construction of a controversial wall on the border with Mexico, while hiring thousands of new enforcement agents to carry out more deportation raids.

During his campaign run, Trump promised to deport the 11 million undocumented immigrants that are currently residing in the country. He also threatened to withdraw funding from states that harbor illegal immigrants.

Presstv

US President Donald Trump says he is considering signing a “brand new order” on immigration, following a court ruling that blocked his executive order banning citizens of seven Muslim countries from entering the United States. Trump made the remarks on Friday aboard Air Force One on his way to Florida, after his administration suggested it would not ask the Supreme Court to review a federal appeals court decision that keeps the travel ban frozen.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, California, ruled on Thursday that a nationwide restraining order against the president’s travel ban may continue while a federal judge considers a lawsuit over the immigration policy. The Trump administration can appeal to the Supreme Court to immediately intervene, or wait until a ruling on the preliminary injunction order. But Trump told reporters on Friday, “We also have a lot of other options, including just filing a brand new order.”

Asked if he is planning to issue a new executive order, Trump said, “It very well could be. We need speed for reasons of security, so it very well could be.”  He said that he might take action on Monday or Tuesday. Earlier in the day, Trump said that he will introduce new measures as early as next week to keep the country safe against threats, indicating a new executive order is coming.

Presstv

A leading German weekly magazine has published a striking cartoon of US President Donald Trump on its cover, portraying him as a terrorist, who beheaded the Statue of Liberty while shouting “America First.”

On the cover of its Friday edition, Der Spiegel depicted the cartoon figure of Trump with a bloodied knife in one hand and the bleeding head of Lady Liberty in the other.

Edel Rodriguez, who designed the cover, told The Washington Post  that the Statue of Liberty represents the United States’ history of welcoming refugees.

Rodriguez, a Cuban refugee, who went to America as a political refugee in 1980, condemned Trump’s order to ban entry of refugees to the US, seeing it as “a beheading of democracy, a beheading of a sacred symbol.”

He argued that beheading is associated with the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group and “there’s a comparison” between ISIL and Trump. “Both sides are extremists, so I’m just making a comparison between them.”

“I was 9 years old when I came here, so I remember it well, and I remember the feelings and how little kids feel when they are leaving their country,” Rodriguez told the Post. “I remember all that, and so it bothers me a lot that little children are being kept from coming to this country.”

When asked why he pictured Trump with missing facial features, Rodriguez said, “That’s the way I see him. I see him as someone that’s very angry, and it’s pretty much his mouth that’s moving all the time, so that’s how I tend to show him in some of my work.”

Trump signed an executive order last week—after only a week in office— to bar all persons from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia from entering the United States for 90 days and suspends the US Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days until the president determines they have been sufficiently changed.

This is not the first time that the president was pictured beheading the statue. Back in December 2015, after Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” The New York Daily News pictured him beheading the Statue.

The New Yorker magazine also revealed on Friday a new cover illustration—called “Liberty’s Flameout”— showing the Statue’s flame has been extinguished.

“It used to be that the Statue of Liberty, and her shining torch, was the vision that welcomed new immigrants. And, at the same time, it was the symbol of American values,” said John Tomac, who designed the cover.

“Now it seems that we are turning off the light,” he told the magazine, which announced on Friday that it was canceling its annual party for the White House Correspondent’s Dinner.

Presstv

A US federal judge in Seattle, Washington, has ordered a temporary, nationwide halt to President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban that blocks the entry of citizens from seven predominately Muslim countries. The ruling on Friday by US District Judge James Robart was broader than similar ones before it, and represents the most severe legal blow to Trump’s action, although his administration could still have the policy put back into effect with an appeal.

The ruling prompted government authorities to immediately communicate with airlines and begin taking steps that would allow those previously affected to travel. Trump signed an executive order on January 27 that imposed a temporary travel ban on citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and placed an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees. The move also suspended admission of all refugees for 120 days.

Robart’s decision came after Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit to invalidate key provisions of Trump’s executive order.

The judge questioned the Trump administration’s use of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the US as a justification for the travel ban. He said no attacks had been carried out on American soil by individuals from the seven countries affected by the ban.

For Trump’s order to be constitutional, Robart said, it had to be “based in fact, as opposed to fiction.” The judge’s ruling was welcomed by groups protesting the immigration order.

Presstv