The US Department of Defense’s chief of staff, Rear Admiral Kevin Sweeney, has quit his post in the wake of his boss’s resignation.

Sweeney released a statement not long after a resignations was submitted by Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

Mattis’s former deputy, Patrick Shanahan, began serving as acting Defense secretary at the beginning of January.

“After two years in the Pentagon, I’ve decided the time is right to return to the private sector. It has been an honor to serve again alongside the men and women of the Department of Defense,” he said.

Before him, Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White had announced her resignation at the end of December.

The US president pushed James Mattis out of his post after disagreement over Trump’s decision to end the US military presence in Syria and scale it back in Afghanistan, making Trump further isolated at helm.

Before leaving Pentagon, Mattis ordered withdrawal of an estimated 2,200 US forces from Syria.

Mattis submitted his letter of resignation after he failed to convince the president that the US military presence in Syria is associated with maintaining critical alliances and partnerships.

The long list of dismissals and resignations in the Trump administration reveals the chaotic play of power inside the White House.

Source: Presstv

Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered the country’s armed forces to get prepared for a “comprehensive military struggle” amid escalating tensions with the United States.

Addressing a meeting of the Central Military Commission in Beijing Friday, the president urged the armed forces to strengthen their sense of urgency and do everything possible to prepare for battle.

Xi said the world is in an era of drastic changes and “China is still in an important period of strategic opportunity for development,” Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

He said various predicable and unpredictable risks and challenges have been arising and that the armed forces needed to be able to respond quickly to emergencies and nurture new types of combat forces. 

Xi’s remarks follow his speech on the 40th anniversary of a key Taiwan policy statement in which he said Beijing would make no promise to renounce the use of force and reserved the option of taking all necessary means to achieve “reunification” with Taiwan.

China claims sovereignty over Taiwan, and almost all world countries recognize that sovereignty under a policy known as “One China.”

‘Sinking US warships will resolve tensions’

A senior naval official said recently that tensions with the US will easily be resolved if the Chinese naval forces sink two of American warships in the South China Sea.

The deputy head of a Chinese military academy Admiral Lou Yuan said in an address late last month that “what the United States fears the most is taking casualties.”

He said sinking one carrier only would kill 5,000 and sinking two would double that number.

Beijing should, Lou said, deal with Washington by using an “asymmetric counter-attack,” that is “use our strengths to attack the enemy’s weaknesses. Whatever the enemy fears, we strike. Wherever the enemy is soft, we will exploit it.”

US military presence in the sea has long been a source of concern for Beijing which claims almost the entire South China Sea.

Beijing has also warned Washington that close encounters by air and naval forces of the two countries in the region could easily trigger miscalculation or even accidents at sea or in air.

The US, however, says military operations are meant to protect “freedom of navigation” in the sea, a gateway for trillions of dollars in maritime trade each year.

Taiwan appeals for support

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who accuses Beijing of interfering in the island’s political and social development, called on Saturday for international support.

“We hope that the international community takes it seriously and can voice support and help us,” Tsai told reporters in the capital Taipei.

She said if the international community did not support her government, “we might have to ask which country might be next.”

Taiwan has already lost several allies one after another since Tsai took office in 2016. Only last year, it lost three allies, who switched diplomatic allegiance to Beijing, leaving Taiwan now with just 17.

China says Taiwan is historically part of its territory, with no right to formal diplomatic ties of its own with other countries.

Almost all countries, including the US, recognize Chinese sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan. Washington, however, has long courted Taipei in an attempt to counter China.

US President Donald Trump signed the so-called Taiwan Travel Act last year, which encourages high-level visits between the two sides, despite Beijing’s strong opposition.

Taiwan and the mainland separated amid a civil war in 1949. Beijing has vowed to bring the island under its control — by force if necessary.

Source: Presstv

According to the United Nations Children Emergency Fund, UNICEF, some 400,000 children are in need as a result of the war in Southern Cameroons. UNICEF revealed that approximately 309, 0000 of the children (77%) are in the Northern and Southern Zones adding that some 206,000 are badly in need of immediate assistance.

The report further pointed out that since 2016, political and social instability exacerbated by sporadic violence, impacted negatively the life of the civilian population of Southern Cameroons. Correspondingly, more than 437,000 persons have been displaced.

Going by the report, the Child Protection Area of Responsibility has been activated in October, along with the activation of the other clusters. Its response strategy will focus on 4 different pillars: prevention of further abuse; response to children victims of abuse; capacity building of local actors and communities on child protection; advocacy and multisector collaboration on child protection.

By Sama Ernest

Malta has pulled 180 refugees to safety from two boats in distress, while 49 more were stuck in limbo at sea as the weather worsened in the Mediterranean.

An army patrol boat picked up 28 refugees from a dinghy some 71 nautical miles southwest of Malta before plucking another 152 people from a wooden boat to the south.

The rescues followed the recovery by Malta Sunday of 69 refugees on a wooden boat which had run into trouble.

Meanwhile, the UN’s refugee agency said time was “running out” for 49 people rescued by NGO boats but denied a safe port in Europe, some of whom have been stranded at sea for over a week.

The NGOs — the German Sea-Eye and Dutch Sea-Watch — called for “an immediate solution for those being held hostage by European States, who are denying them a safe port.”

“With the weather conditions forecast to worsen this evening, a solution must be found by the end of 2018 in order to prevent placing people’s heath at further risk,” they said in a joint statement.

The German-flagged Professor Albrecht Penck ship has 17 refugees from West Africa on board who were rescued on Saturday in international waters off Libya.

At the same time, the Dutch-flagged Sea-Watch 3 has 32 refugees rescued on December 22و including three young children, three unaccompanied adolescents and four women from Nigeria, Libya and Ivory Coast.

While Italy, Malta, Spain and the Netherlands have refused to accept the Sea-Watch 3 refugees, several German cities have offered to take them in.

On Saturdayو a government spokesman said Germany would only accept some of the refugees if other European countries also agreed to do so.

Last week, a newborn baby and his mother were helicoptered from a boat to Malta.

“The negotiations over which country takes them in must happen only once those rescued are brought safety to land,” UNHCR special envoy Vincent Cochetel said.

More than 1,300 refugees have died trying to reach Italy or Malta via the central Mediterranean since the beginning of the year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The Italian interior ministry said Monday that the number of 2018 arrivals in Italy was down over 80 percent compared with 2017 at just 23,370.

The biggest number came from Tunisia, followed by Eritrea, Iraq, Sudan, Pakistan and Nigeria.

In mid-2017, departures from Libya dropped after a controversial deal between Italy and the war-torn North African country.

A campaign against the NGO rescue organizations peaked in June this year with far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini’s “closed-ports” policy aimed at ending all rescue operations, including military ones.

(Source: AFP)

Leading British daily the Guardian says 2018 has ended on a note of triumph for the Syrian government amid the US decision to withdraw troops and a race among Arab states to restore ties with Damascus. 

US President Donald Trump has announced a rapid troop withdrawal from Syria. The Guardian said the decision has “ended any potential threat originating from an indefinite American presence inside Syria’s borders.”

Last week, the UAE reopened its embassy in Damascus, which it had closed in 2011. Bahrain followed suit and other countries, including Kuwait, are expected to re-establish ties in the coming year. And the Arab League is reportedly poised to re-admit Syria, seven years after expelling it.

According to the Guardian, these developments come five months after the Syrian army made arguably its most consequential gain against terrorists since the foreign-backed war erupted, when it took control of Dara’a in the southwest.

Dara’a, the birthplace of foreign-backed sedition, had been the last stronghold of militants. Its return to the government fold removed any viable threat against the state, either politically or militarily, near the capital.  

“Taken together, the military and diplomatic developments over the past six months leave no room for doubt: Assad has decisively won the conflict,” the Guardian wrote. 

After the surrender of militants in the south, two regions had remained outside the government’s control and both were under the protection of foreign powers, namely Turkey in the north and the US in the east.

The two NATO countries had arrangements with Russia about operating in those zones to avoid confrontation, which meant that any further military advances had to be approved by Moscow.

Damascus and its allies saw these areas as sanctuaries for hostile forces that could become entrenched, and whose mandate could change to fighting the state.  

“Trump’s sudden decision has ended that problem,” the Guardian said. The Syrian government “no longer faces the threat of an indefinite American presence in eastern Syria,” the paper said. 

Last week, residents of Manbij appealed to the Assad government to retake the city near the Turkish border after the US withdrawal and by Friday Syria’s military had arrived at the frontline in the predominantly Arab town west of the Euphrates river.

Under the US protection, YPG militants used to control the city but Turkey is concerned about continued dominance of the Kurdish group near its borders.

Turkish officials have frequently stated that they would welcome a government takeover of YPG-controlled areas if that involved removing the militants from those areas. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey would have “no business in Manbij if the YPG terrorists leave”.

On the diplomatic front, the UAE proposed normalizing ties with Damascus in 2016, but that plan was snubbed by the Trump administration. According to the Guardian, senior Emirati officials began to refloat the idea of restoring ties with Assad earlier this year, encouraging its Saudi and Bahraini allies to do the same.

“The nature of this conflict, then, has changed drastically, with influential Arab countries now using their diplomatic capital to enable the regime to restore control over Syria,” the paper said.

“Countries that once funded the opposition fighting against Assad are working hard to strengthen him in the hope that he becomes less reliant on their rivals,” it added.

Jordan has already reopened its borders with Syria, meaning that Damascus now has trade ties with all its neighbors except Turkey.

“Trump’s withdrawal has ended any potential threat originating from an indefinite American presence inside Syria’s borders. It has also effectively killed off any political challenge to Assad through the political process in Geneva – once an objective of the US presence in the country,” the Guardian wrote.

“Restoration of ties with Arab neighbors will consolidate the military gains made over the past six months,” it added. 

According to the Guardian, since the government took over Aleppo in late 2016, few have questioned Assad’s recovery, but until recently many still doubted his ability to re-emerge as a regional player with normalized relations with other countries.  

“The past year now suggests that he has a real chance of doing just that. There will be many people in the region – and beyond – willing to help,” the paper said.

Source: Presstv

Today, Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report are pleased to announce the winner of this year’s Cameroon Concord Person of the Year.   He is the Communication Secretary of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Chris Anu.

The winner was overwhelmingly elected by thousands of participants from among a list of four individuals comprising Paul Biya of neighbouring French Cameroun, Cardinal Christian Tumi, Barrister Agbor Balla Nkongho and Chris Anu, the Communication Secretary of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.   The participants in their thousands overwhelmingly voted Communication Secretary Chris Anu as the Cameroon Concord Person of the Year. Most of the participants explained their choice and vote in messages sent to the head office of Cameroon Concord News Group.

Cameroon Concord News Group is please to share with its readership world-wide, the critical characteristics which the respondents have consistently identified as the qualities of leadership that impelled them to vote for Communication Secretary Chris Anu.  The respondents held the candidates to the highest standards of stable universal leadership in conflict management. Focused, consistent and inspirational leadership were also critical attributes considered.

Most of the voters stated that Communication Secretary Chris Anu, is humble, passionate, steady, deliberate, probable, sincere and confident in his stewardship to his people. His dedication to the defense of his people is unwavering, undivided, and unassailable. He is a respectable, knowledgeable and effective communicator. He is a respectable voice and strong symbol of the Ambazonian war of self- defense and liberation.

Cameroon Concord News Group has critically examined the performance of Communication Secretary Chris Anu. Prior to his appointment by His Excellency President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Chris Anu was a successful communication expert, news media owner and practitioner; in addition to many successful respectable professional pursuits.  He did not embrace the struggle for gain or for sentimental reasons.  He did so out of conviction.

The genocidal war which arch criminal enemy Paul Biya the demented neo-colonial President of French Cameroun declared against armless peace-loving people of Ambazonia, is fought in several battlegrounds; at home and elsewhere world-wide.  A critical background is the Federal Republic of Nigeria from where the President of the Interim Government of Ambazonia, nine members of the Interim Government and hundreds of Ambazonian refugees were abducted and handed over to the terrorist regime of French Cameroun.  The deportation of hundreds of thousands of Ambazonian refugees from their ancestral homes are residing under dire conditions in Nigeria.  Thousands of Ambazonian civilian settlements have been systemically torched and their subsistence economy pillaged and destroyed.  The visit by Chris Anu to Nigeria after the abduction of His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe brought international spotlight to the plight of these Ambazonian victims.  In this regard, he is an unchallenged fearless general leading from the front in the Ambazonia war of liberation against internal and external enemies of Ambazonia.

He is a fearless crusader for the liberation of Ambazonia. In critical moments in this struggle, he confronted the enemies of Ambazonia single handed. He so doing, he saved the train of freedom from being derailed.  When the President of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and nine members of the Interim Government were abducted in a joint terrorist operation carried out by operatives of the Nigerian Directorate of State Security commandeered by Babagana Muganu and led by Duara Lawal and the Presidential Special Operations Unit of French Cameroun forces,  Chris Anu, promptly moved to Nigeria and organized international press conferences that pressurized the execution squad to spare the lives of our leaders. The French Cameroun Special Operation Unit has been consistently used to eliminate real and perceived enemies or former allies to protect the devilish world of the crime syndicate in power. This is the unit that was deployed to abduct and assassinate the Bishop of Bafia in French Cameroun.

Thanks to Chris Anu, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Nigeria issued a press statement stating that the abductees were legally in Nigeria under the protection of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, thus protected under the United Nations Convention for the Protection of Refugees (1951).  This press release provides unimpeachable evidence of the UN responsibility for the safety of the leaders of Ambazonia and others similarly placed.  The inability of the UN to secure their release and sanction Nigeria and French Cameroun for the abductions, the same criminal methods employed by Boko Haram they profess to be fighting with international support and assistance, makes the UN complicit by default in the criminal conduct outlawed by international law.

The energetic condemnation of the criminal conduct of Nigeria and French Cameroun, at the Nigeria seat of power, alarmed and embarrassed the Federal Government of Nigeria and the corrupt political cartel within the immediate political environment of President Buhari. Buhari equivocated on the release or rendition of the Ambazonia leader, members of his government and several citizens to French Cameroun. The amount of money offered to Buhari enabled him to rekindle his dwindling chances of seeking a second mandate in the forth- coming elections against the backdrop of stiff opposition within his own APC party from party leaders who wanted to hold him to his promise to serve only one term was too enticing for him to ignore. President Buhari opted for the money but denied going along with the execution within the territory of Nigeria of the abducted leaders.

The force of the well-publicized pressure put on by Chris Anu forced Babagana Mugano the National Security Adviser to President Mohammadu Buhari and the corrupt ethnic power cartel surrounding the Buhari Presidency to make a rare public statement admitting to perpetrating the crime.  French Cameroun through Boko Haram abduction- for -ramson go-between Isa Tchiroma Bakary was similarly pressured to call a press conference to confirm the rendition of the leaders to French Cameroun.

The theft of part of the money intended to corrupt the Buhari ethnic political cartel, had serious consequences for the handlers of the corrupt deal.  Paul Biya was constrained to remove and conceal in his immediate proximity, his longtime mystical devil worshipping soul mate Martin Belinga Eboutou for misappropriating a sizeable part of the booty putting him in conflict with Buhari.  Buhari on his part scapegoated his director of the State Security Service, Duara Lawal for stealing part of the money among a plethora of scandals, corrupt deals, and criminal acts which Buhari sanctioned but needed to sacrifice this zealous executioner to whitewash his tainted credentials.

The forced shameful public admission of criminality by Nigeria and French Cameroun saved the lives of our leaders and with it the Ambazonian revolution.  While Chris Anu waged this battle from the Nigeria front, time seemed to stand still for many within the struggle who claimed to be frontline leaders with several decades experience in the battle for the liberation of Ambazonia. Many of them failed to confront the combined assault of French Cameroun and Nigeria united to crush the Ambazonia revolution through the abduction and the rendition of our God given leader His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe at a critical moment in our young nation’s history.

Many did not realize the lethal effect and symbolic impact of the abduction, assassination or rendition of the only leader who has gone down in history for mobilizing millions of Ambazonians on September 22, 2017 to come out with peace plants to call for the restoration of the independence of Ambazonia and declaring it on October 1, 2017.  The corrupt deal was intended to destroy this symbol of the Ambazonia statehood and the spirit of the revolution.

Chris Anu denied the enemies their moment of glory and rendered the continued holding in captivity of the President of the Interim Government of Ambazonia, members of the Interim Government and hundreds of thousands of Ambazonian citizens by French Cameroun in complicity with the endemic corrupt cartel within the immediate power cycle of President Buhari, poison chalices that will with time determine their own fates. Thanks to Chris Anu, the Ambazonia liberation, the President and members of the Interim Government will outlive the Biya and Buhari presidencies and the corrupt power cartels sustaining them.

Communication Secretary Chris Anu has come under constant attacks by some opportunists, profiteers and power mongers who hoped to gain from the abduction of the President and members of the Interim Government to make fortunes out of the liberation war and the ferocious genocidal enterprise preplanned by French Cameroun and supported by the Buhari presidential god fathers of political Islam and their French Cameroun co-conspirators.   They fault Chris Anu for pre-empting their adventure by going to Nigeria when it was considered unsafe by many people and confronting the united resolve of the enemy and their co-conspirators to eviscerate and destroy the Ambazonia revolution and the symbol of its independence from within and outside of Ambazonia. They have not and may never forgive him.  Rather than succumb to their pedestrian tactics, Chris Anu has remained steadfast and focused on serving the Interim Government and the people of Ambazonia with undivided loyalty. For this and more, he merits the Cameroon Concord Man of the Year award.

He is respected by his peers world-wide. He is an articulate counter-point to enemy propaganda.  He is a strategist and an admirable public face of the liberation struggle.

Early in this struggle, Communication Secretary Chris Anu articulately and promotionally, defined the guiding principles of Ambazonia self-defense war. He cautioned Ambazonia soldiers to be disciplined and to protect civilians.   A majority of Ambazonian soldiers have prosecuted the war humanely and protected Ambazonia civilians from the genocide and the rape of our girls and women by French Cameroun terrorist forces.

Unlike some Ambazonia leaders, Chris Anu does not believe in self-engineered or pedantic publicity.  It has become a common fixture of the Ambazonia liberation struggle for some supposed leaders to make lengthy political addresses which are high on self-inflated rhetoric without any reasonable record of field achievements to support.  True revolutionary leaders do not make political speeches. They are engaged in shock and awe discreet guerrilla warfare to surprise, isolate, incapacitate and destroy the enemy.   Chris Anu is not one of these armchair leaders.

He has succeeded in helping the Interim Government to hold together a very complex web of hundreds of thousands of Ambazonians worldwide who are working behind the scenes to help move towards victory to Buea a reality.  He has demonstrated through this quality that he knows the quality human resources that Ambazonia has and the sensitivity of securing critical information that allows them to participate fully in the armed liberation struggle without putting their identities out for neophytes, disrespectful power seekers and profiteers to destroy.  He knows so well that there are millions of Ambazonians in Ground Zero and in the Diaspora who strongly support the Interim Government and strongly want the Interim Government to stay focused on GZ actions, the protection of our civilian population, care for our refugees and a discreet sustained diplomatic effort to secure our total liberation and hold Paul Biya, his terrorist forces, and his entire genocidal crime syndicate network to account.

His handling of the Batibo situation and distancing the Interim Government from the crimes committed by the Cho Ayaba gang was enormously satisfying to the people of Southern Cameroons. The actions of these men including Ntumfoyn Boh Herbert were going to cause more harm to the revolution.  The Reboot Conference Ambazonians have all become a turncoat of our struggle.

Cameroon Concord News Group congratulates Communication Secretary; the Honourable Chris Anu for the well-merited recognition accorded him by an overwhelming majority of participants. Cameroon Concord News Group thanks all those took part in this poll and wishes all our readers’ world -wide, a very merry Christmas and a rewarding prosperous new year.  With Cameroon Concord News Group’s man of the year, Communication Secretary Anu and the demonstrable resolve of all Ambazonians, 2019 will bring more successes to the liberation struggle. Cameroon Concord News Group strongly calls on all Ambazonians, friends of Ambazonia, and the International Community to support the Ambazonia liberation quest more robustly.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-in-Chief

Former Nigerian president, Shehu Shagari, has died at the National Hospital, Abuja, after a brief illness, his grandson and the president of The National Youth Council of Nigeria, Bello Shagari said on Friday evening.

He was 93. His death was also confirmed by the governor of his home state of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal.

“I regret to announce the death of former President Shehu Shagari who just passed away at National Hospital Abuja,” Tambuwal tweeted.

He was Nigerian president between 1979 and 1983. He contested and won re-election in 1983, but a military coup staged on December 31, 1983, terminated his second term. The coup brought in the then Major-General Muhammadu Buhari as the head of state.

After the coup, he was arrested by the military government on allegations of corruption. He was, however, cleared of the allegations, but that did not stop the military junta from banning him from active politics for life.

Before joining politics in 1951, Shagari was a schoolteacher. Four years after his entry into politics, he was elected a member of the Federal House of Representatives.

Source: The Guardian

Fielding a phone call from a seven-year-old on Monday, US President Donald Trump put himself on Santa Claus’s naughty list by raising doubts about his existence.

The call to American defence agency NORAD, which “tracks” Santa’s movements around the world, was one of several answered by Trump and his wife Melania as part of a Christmas Eve tradition.

It began innocuously enough: “Hello, is this Coleman? Merry Christmas. How are you? How old are you?”

But Trump then ventured into dangerous waters, asking: “Are you still a believer in Santa Claus? ‘Cuz at seven it’s marginal, right?”

The president’s question was not well-received on social media.

“Belief in Santa should be preserved as long as possible. It’s the, or close to the, beginning of the end of innocence. For Mr Trump to be responsible for that is sad…but not surprising,” a Twitter user named Walt Corey wrote.

Derryl Murphy tweeted that “Trump doesn’t know how to say anything appropriate, to anyone,” while Sarah Walker wrote on Twitter: “This further proves that he is the grinch.”

It was not immediately clear whether Coleman decided to forego leaving cookies and milk out for Santa this year.

(AFP)