World

11, March 2019

Ethiopian Airlines launches forensic probe into crash ⁰

Ethiopian Airlines says it has teamed up with all stakeholders including international organizations to conduct forensic investigations to the cause of Sunday’s accident.

The probe it said will also help identify victims of those who perished in the crash.

In a statement posted to twitter, the airline said a committee made up of Ethiopian airlines, Ethiopian Civil Aviation Authority and the Transport Authority has been set up to carry out the probe.

Ethiopian Airlines will release further information as soon as it is available through its website and social media pages.

The airline said it has contacted families of the victims to inform them of the tragic accident.

It added that once the identities of the deceased are established, their bodies will be delivered to their families and loved ones.

‘‘Ethiopian Airlines will release further information as soon as it is available through its website and social media pages’‘, it added.

Africa News

10, March 2019

Colombia: Plane crash leaves 14 people dead ⁰

Fourteen people were killed in a plane crash in the Colombian plains province of Meta on Saturday, the country’s civil aviation agency said.

The Special Administrative Unit of Civil Aeronautics said there were no survivors of the crash, which occurred after the DC-3 aircraft made a distress call at 10:40 a.m. local time (1540 GMT).

The plane, which is owned by Laser Aereo airlines, was en route from the southern city of San Jose del Guaviare to central Villavicencio, the agency said.

It crashed about midway through its flight, in San Carlos de Guaroa municipality.

The airline said it had no immediate comment.

In a later statement posted on Twitter, the agency named those who had died, including the mayor of a small town in the jungle province of Vaupes.

The aircraft’s navigability permissions were up-to-date, as were the medical certifications of its crew, the agency added.

(Source: Reuters)

9, March 2019

US: White House communications director and ex-Fox executive Shine resigns ⁰

White House deputy chief of staff and de facto communications director Bill Shine has stepped down after just eight months leading President Donald Trump’s communications team, the White House has announced.

Shine, a former top Fox News executive, will work as a senior adviser to Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement on Friday.

Sanders added that President Trump accepted Shine’s resignation on Thursday night.

“Bill Shine has done an outstanding job working for me and the administration,” Trump said in a statement. “We will miss him in the White House, but look forward to working together on the 2020 presidential campaign, where he will be totally involved. Thank you to Bill and his wonderful family!”

Shine joined the White House in July 2018. So far five men, including Shine, have resigned from this post under Trump. He was brought on in an attempt to burnish Trump’s image.

“Serving President Trump and this country has been the most rewarding experience of my entire life,” Shine said in a statement. “To be a small part of all this president has done for the American people has truly been an honor. I’m looking forward to working on President Trump’s reelection campaign and spending more time with my family.”

PressTV-Fears of 'brain drain' hit White House amid staff exits

Shine, 55, had been scheduled to travel with President Trump to Vietnam for the second North Korea summit but suddenly dropped off the trip two days before, according to reports.

He has kept a low profile throughout his time in the White House.

Presstv

6, March 2019

Southern Cameroons War: 208 Ambazonians killed, 875 injured in 2019 ⁰

Cameroon government forces have killed 208 Southern Cameroonians in the Northern and Southern Zones of West Cameroon in the first week of February 2019, according to a Cameroon Intelligence Report and Cameroon Concord News monitoring group.

Four Cameroon government army soldiers were killed by Ambazonia Restoration Forces during the same period in the Mezam County in the Northern Zone. More than 875 Southern Cameroonians have been injured during 2019 clashes – the highest number of injuries in a single year ever since President Biya declared war against Anglophone Cameroonians.

Nearly 109 of those Southern Cameroonians killed and 600 of those injured were young university graduates and teenagers. Thirteen members of the Ambazonia Self Defense Council armed group were among the fatalities.

Approximately 90 percent of the fatalities and nearly 65 percent of the injuries took place after Defense Minister, Joseph Beti Assomo secretly ordered Francophone Beti-Ewondo soldiers to carry out an extermination campaign in Southern Cameroons.

According to eyewitness report, several hospitals were attacked by troops loyal to the regime in Yaounde as government soldiers searched for injured Southern Cameroonians. Hundreds of Southern Cameroonians have been injured by live ammunition with the crisis showing no signs of ending.

The Francophone dominated government has used deadly force against unarmed Southern Cameroons civilians, provoking serious condemnation from several human rights groups and an unprecedented action from the current US administration.

But in the absence of meaningful diplomacy, and with the blessing of the French government headed by Emmanuel Macron, Francophone soldiers continue to kill hundreds of Southern Cameroons citizens. Cameroon government soldier’s shocking use of force against English speaking Southern Cameroonians has resulted in the deaths of scores of innocent civilians.

Hundreds of Southern Cameroonians have sustained gunshot injuries, mainly to the limbs, and an estimated 569 people have devastating, disabling wounds that need specialist limb reconstruction treatment and long-term rehabilitation. That number continues to rise every day. 39 people have been paralyzed due to spinal cord injuries, and 77 people have permanent vision loss in both the Northern and Southern Zones in Southern Cameroons.

Four clergies including an American missionary were killed by Cameroon government forces and dozens of Roman Catholic seminarians injured. A senior political observer noted that:

“If someone had told me in 1982 that Biya could be this wicked, I would not have believed it. Why is he sending soldiers to burn down people’s houses in villages that do not even know anything about the rebellion that is taking place in the country? Has he got children? Does he know about the law of karma? There is no way that he and his collaborators will avoid the long hand of karma. They will live long to bury their children for their evil. The following will cry for years before dying.

Paul Biya
Joseph Beti Assomou
Rene Sadi
Fame Ndongo
Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh
Atanga Nji
Issa Tchiroma
Joseph Owona
Tabetando
Marcel Niat Njifenji
Cayaye Yegue Djibril
Achidi Achu
Nalova Lyonga
Peter Mafany Musonge
Laurent Esso

All CPDM parliamentarians in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

All Northwest and Southwest senators. Their silence in the face of this genocide is clearly an approval of it.

All army generals who are ordering these massacres.

The SDOs and DOs in the two English-speaking regions of the country

The foot soldiers who are blindly implementing the orders to kill innocent people. May they suffer from the worst form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The governors of the SW and NW regions.

I wish all of these people a long life for them to go through the most violent health disorders. Cameroon belongs to them. I hope they will never leave it behind them. I will want to see them buried with Cameroon.”

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

4, March 2019

US: Several dead as tornado leaves trail of destruction in Alabama ⁰

At least 22 people, some of them children, died after a tornado swept through Lee County, Alabama on Sunday, and the death toll was expected to rise as rescuers searched through the rubble of destroyed homes, authorities said.

Emergency workers faced a grim night of pulling the dead and injured from the wreckage of homes and businesses.

“The challenge is the sheer volume of the debris where all the homes were located,” Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said in an interview with CNN. “It’s the most I’ve seen that I can recall.”

Storms, including at least one apparent tornado, uprooted trees and destroyed homes in neighboring Georgia, initially knocking out power to 21,000 customers, said Georgia Power spokeswoman Meredith Stone.

That number was reduced by more than half later on Sunday evening, she said. On Twitter, U.S. President Donald Trump urged residents of Alabama and other areas affected by the storms to be “careful and safe.”

“Tornadoes and storms were truly violent and more could be coming,” Trump wrote. “To the families and friends of the victims, and to the injured, God bless you all!”

In Alabama, Lee County Coroner Bill Harris said the death toll could rise. The East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika said in a statement that it was treating more than 40 patients as a result of the tornado and expected to receive more.

Some patients had been sent to other hospitals, it added. Severe weather unleashed one of many possible tornadoes that threatened the Southern United States on Sunday afternoon.

Tornado warnings and watches were in effect for parts of Georgia and Alabama through Sunday evening.

Video footage from the small community of Beauregard in Lee County showed homes reduced to piles of wreckage, felled trees, and debris from blasted buildings scattered across roads.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey warned residents on Twitter that more severe weather might be on the way. She said the state was working to help families who had been affected.

A state of emergency for Alabama, issued on Feb. 23 to deal with flooding, would be extended, she said.

Temperatures falling

Lee County Schools announced on Twitter that campuses in the county would be closed on Monday.

The National Weather Service office in Birmingham, Alabama, said it was sending three survey teams out on Monday to assess damage in Autauga, Macon, Lee and Barbour counties.

“Please stay out of damaged areas so first responders can do their job,” the NWS office said on Twitter.

The storm initially left 17,000 customers without power in Alabama, but crews were able to reduce that number to 6,000 by about 9 p.m. EST on Sunday, said Michael Sznajderman, spokesman for the utility Alabama Power.

As thousands faced a night without power, temperatures looked set to fall to near freezing following the storm.

“Colder air will sweep into the Southeast behind the severe weather with temperatures dropping into the 30s (1 C) southward to central Georgia and across most of Alabama by Monday morning,” AccuWeather meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski said.

“Those without power who rely on electric heat need to find ways to stay warm,” she added.

(REUTERS)

2, March 2019

US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs expected in Yaounde ⁰

The US Department of State announced on Thursday that the Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, was due to visit four African countries this month.

The diplomat will be in Central, East and southern Africa, the press statement noted. Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC; Uganda and Rwanda will be his destinations.

“He will promote stronger business ties between the United States and Africa, engage Africa’s vibrant youth, strengthen partnerships that aim for greater peace and security, and reinforce the United States’ commitment to the people and nations of Africa,” the statement noted.

On March 17–18, Assistant Secretary Nagy will visit a U.S.-owned firm in Cameroon, discuss Cameroon’s role as a regional partner with government officials, and meet civil society.

But before arriving in Africa, he will be in Belgium and France where he is expected to discuss the U.S. shared objectives for Africa’s security, prosperity, and self-reliance with key partners and media in Europe.

Africa News

2, March 2019

Investigation into Biya regime killings wins Royal Television Society award ⁰

An investigation led by Emmanuel Freudenthal (MPhil in Development Studies, 2007) and colleagues into mobile phone footage of the brutal killings of two women and their children in Cameroon has won the 2019 Royal Television Society’s (RTS) News Technology award.

The footage, which went viral in July 2018, showed a group of soldiers leading away the women and children, who they accused of being part of Boko Haram, before blindfolding them and shooting them dead.

The footage appeared to have been filmed in northern Cameroon, but the country’s government dismissed the video as fake news and denied that the soldiers taking part were Cameroonian.

However the team, working as part of the BBC’s Africa Eye and with a group of amateur investigators on Twitter, used clues from the footage together with open source data and software to determine where and when the killings took place as well as the identity of the killers.

The team used satellite imagery and tip-offs to help pinpoint the location, clues such as the angle of the soldiers’ shadows and the presence of seasonal paths to determine the time of year, and details of weaponry and army uniforms to confirm that the killers were indeed Cameroonian soldiers. They also used Facebook profiles along with nicknames heard in the video and information from a military source to identify the soldiers involved.

The investigation itself, named Anatomy of a Killing, went viral on Twitter and was picked up by multiple news outlets. While the investigation was taking place, the Cameroonian government announced that seven soldiers had been arrested, of whom three appear to be those identified by the team.

According to RTS, the judges described the report as ‘a superb piece of public interest journalism which held power to account and had a huge impact in social media’. The awards were announced on 27 February.

Emmanuel Freudenthal is a freelance investigative journalist based in Nairobi. He completed the MPhil in Development Studies at ODID between 2007 and 2009.

Source: Oxford Department of International Development

28, February 2019

Biya-Antonio Guterres Corruption Spreads to World Bank Dam Loan ⁰

After Paul Biya who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years on January 28 had his opponent Maurice Kamto arrested, Inner City Press asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and his spokesmen for their comment and action, if any. It was another silence of the lambs and dodged by Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Meanwhile Guterres’ UN system and affiliates like a fish rots from the head, lavish praise and money on Paul Biya as he burns villages in Southern Cameroons and takes untold money to his hotel in Geneva. It has gone beyond the money the Secretariat is raising for Biya – now the World Bank is shoveling in money for a dubious dam project.

The Cameroonian President authorized last February 22 the economy minister, Alamine Ousmane Mey, to sign a loan agreement with World Bank’s subsidiary, the International Development Association (IDA), for an amount of €24.5 million, or XAF16.3 billion.” How much will go for Biya’s hotel bills in Geneva, paid in cash?

The UN World Health Program’s Matshidiso Moeti praised Biya while Biya is in fact killing people. She said she “was touched when the Minister of State ‘told me that when we train health personnel we need to tell them not only to be efficient and knowledgeable but also to treat members of the public with kindness and compassion.” Paul Biya and compassion? That’s like Antonio Guterres false claim to care about and comply with freedom of the press. Doctor, heal thyself.

On February 25 in Geneva, amid a Guterres junket full of false claims of his commitment to freedom of the press and to human rights, Biya’s Foreign Minister Lejeune Mbella Mbella in his speech to the UN Human Rights Council bragged of being elected to this Council, amid his government’s slaughter in October 2018, and thanked Antonio Guterres. He called the opposition “armed terrorist groups” and did not mention the imprisonment and possible death penalty against for example Maurice Kamto, nor the military trial against the Southern Cameroons leader Sisiku Ayuk Tabe Julius and those illegally refouled from Nigeria. Nor does Guterres speak about those abductions, which took place while his deputy Amina J. Mohammed was in Abuja. This is the travesty that Guterres is turning the UN system into.

In Cameroon, the ten standing “trial” before the Yaounde Military tribunal have been told despite showing refugee and asylum seeker status that they cannot appeal. Their lawyers walked out, and silence from the UN of Antonio Guterres who not only does not allow appeals but provides for no hearing before having a journalists who questions him about Cameroon roughed up and banned, now for 232 days.

In Cameroon, Barrister Ndong Christopher proferred two groups of documents ; one from recognizing Shufai Blaise Berinyuy, Nfor Ngala Nfor, Tassang Wilfred and Eyambe Elias as refugees. The other set of documents established Julius Ayuk Tabe, Kwanga Cornelius, Ogork Egbe, Nde Fidelis, Kimeng Henry and Awasum Augustine as asylum seekers. Their lawyers state they will be filing an appeal at the Mfoundi High Court. And the UN is silent; Guterres took Biya’s golden statue and his ambassador Tommo Monthe’s favors in the UN Budget Committee, had Inner City Press roughed up as it reported on it and banned since. This race to the bottom by Paul Biya has been in parallel with Guterres’ six calls to Biya, which Dujarric refuses to answer questions about. But Guterres and Dujarric have offered no answer to this Inner City Press question: “what is the SG’s comment and follow up action, if any, on that Kamto is currently held at the building of the Groupement spécial d’opérations in Yaoundé. According to his lawyers, Kamto could be charged with: insurrection, hostility against the homeland, criminal association, threats to public order, rebellion, group rebellion, and inciting insurrection,and that there are currently up to 200 people, of whom the majority are MRC supporters, in detention following protests on January 26, and, again, on the arrest and detention of journalists Théodore Tchopa and David Eyengue Nzima merely for covering the opposition gathering in Douala.

Again, what are the read-outs of his six conversations with Paul Biya and most recently of Francois Fall’s visit there?” No answer. An UNacceptable fraud. After Guterres bragged again, this time in French, about his talks with Biya’s government, Cameroon forces burned down the hospital in Kumba in the Anglophone Southwest Region. The UN usually calls attacks on medical facilities a war crime but as we have seen, Biya’s Cameroon is a special case for Guterres, since it chaired the UN Budget Committee. But Guterres has nothing to say about Biya’s burning of a hospital. Before 9 am on Febuary 11, Inner City Press in writing asked Guterres, Amina J. Mohammed, Alison Smale, Farhan Haq and “Spokesman” Stephane Dujarric: “February 11-1: On Cameroon, what is the SG’s comment and action on the deadly burning down of the hospital in Kumba in the Anglophone Southwest Region, and on the imprisonment of nurse Njongwan Emeline for “unauthorized” filming the authorities mass arrests in Buea? In this context, please immediately specify the SG’s statement on “dialogue avec le Premier Ministre [du Cameroun] et il nous a promis que tout ce fait pour créer des conditions de respect des droits de l’homme et de dialogue pour que la situation puisse se normaliser”?” Weeks later, nothing.

Guterres has no credibility on Cameroon – he covered up Biya’s slaughter since Cameroon was chair of the UN Budget Committee, took Biya’s golden statue, had Inner City Press roughed up and banned 236 days and counting and bragged he spoke six times with Biya – while refusing any read outs.

Culled from Inner Press

27, February 2019

US: ‘Days of protecting Trump at all costs are over’ ⁰

President Donald Trump’s longtime fixer Michael Cohen has spoken for the last time before heading to prison for a series of tax and campaign finance charges.

Cohen’s testimony before the House Oversight Committee Wednesday was one of the most high-profile hearings during Trump’s tenure so far.

At the beginning of the hearing, Cohen was reminded by House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings that “the days of…protecting the president at all costs are over.”

“I am ashamed because I know what Mr. Trump is. He is a racist. He is a conman. He is a cheat,” Cohen said in his opening statement.

He also revealed “a copy of a check Mr. Trump wrote from his personal bank account — after he became president — to reimburse me for the hush money payments I made to cover up his affair with an adult film star and prevent damage to his campaign.”

Dated August 1, 2017, the check was signed by President Trump for $35,000, indicating that the president was aware of the hush money Cohen was paying for him.

Cohen made payments during the 2016 campaign to two women – adult film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal – to silence them from speaking publicly about affairs they had with Trump.

The former lawyer further expressed concerns about “presidential threats” against his family over the revelations as he was preparing to go to jail in May.

The former lawyer also accused Trump of having lied about his business dealings in Russia.

“Trump knew of and directed the Trump Moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it. He lied about it because he never expected to win the election. He also lied about it because he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the Moscow real estate project.”

During the 2016 presidential campaign Trump asserted on several occasions that, “I have nothing to do with Russia. I don’t have any jobs in Russia. I’m all over the world but we’re not involved in Russia.”

Last year, Cohen was sentenced to three years behind bars and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine.

Cohen’s testimony distracted media attention from Vietnam, where the president is holding his second summit with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un.

Presstv

27, February 2019

US: Cohen to testify Trump committed crimes in office ⁰

US President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen will tell Congress that Trump has committed crimes while in office, reports show.

Cohen will make such a disclosure in a public testimony to the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, according to former Nixon White House Counsel John Dean, who quoted Cohen’s attorney, Lanny Davis, as saying.

Cohen will say that Trump asked him several times about a massive skyscraper project in Moscow long after he had secured the Republican presidential nomination, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

If the assertion that the president was indeed inquiring about the project as late as June 2016 is true, it would be symptomatic of his continued personal engagement in the venture well into his candidacy.

This comes as Special Counsel Robert Mueller appears to be nearing the end of his investigation into whether the Trump election campaignin 2016 colluded with Russia to damage his opponent, Hillary Clinton, and whether Trump has sought to illegally obstruct the investigation.

Cohen’s revelation on Wednesday comes as part of three consecutive days of in-depth discussion with congressional committees that started on Tuesday with a closed hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The session, which lasted for almost 9 hours, mainly focused on what Cohen knows about Trump’s dealings with Russia, as well as about Cohen’s previous lies, according to two congressional sources.

PressTV-Ex-Trump lawyer pleads guilty for lying to Congress

Following the session, he told the media, “I’m going to let the American people decide exactly who is telling the truth.”

Over the course of the hearings, NBC News said Cohen will “provide evidence of alleged criminal conduct by Trump since he became president,” while the New York Times reported that Cohen “will use documents and his personal experiences to support his statements.”

Meanwhile, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders issued a statement, saying Cohen was “going to prison for lying to Congress and making other false statements.”

It was “laughable that anyone would take a convicted liar like Cohen at his word, and pathetic to see him given yet another opportunity to spread his lies,” Sanders added.

Trump has previously dismissed news of Cohen’s testimony in Congress as unimportant, claiming he had no worries about what Cohen would say about him.

Presstv