Troops in the West African nation of Cameroon have tortured prisoners at a remote military base that is also used by U.S. personnel and private contractors for drone surveillance and training missions.

As the U.S. military has fortified the Cameroonian site, known as Salak, and supported the elite local troops based there, the outpost has become the scene of illegal imprisonment, brutal torture, and even killings, according to a new investigation by The Intercept and the Goldsmiths, University of London-based research firm Forensic Architecture, based on extensive research by Amnesty International. Nearly 60 victims held at Salak described to Amnesty International how they were subjected to water torture, beaten with electric cables and boards, or tied and suspended with ropes, among other abuses.

Forensic Architecture investigated conditions of detention and torture at two sites of illegal incarceration, run by Cameroon’s security forces, to accompany a new report by Amnesty International. See the full investigation here.Video: Forensic Architecture

No evidence has emerged that U.S. personnel were involved in torture, but photos and videos from Salak show U.S. soldiers and civilian contractors near the facilities where prisoners were held, and detainees testified to seeing and hearing Americans in uniform during their imprisonment.

“We can’t be 100 percent sure that Americans were aware of the torture,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, Amnesty International’s lead researcher on a new report about abuses by Cameroonian forces. “But our evidence demonstrates that at Salak these practices occur in places that are accessible and can be visible to U.S. and other foreign personnel.”

Salak serves as ground zero for Cameroon’s fight against the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram, a campaign that the United States has thrown its full support behind. Last month, President Donald Trump sent a letter to Congress outlining current “deployments of U.S. Armed Forces equipped for combat.” In addition to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia, Trump mentioned Cameroon, where “approximately 300 United States military personnel are also deployed, the bulk of whom are supporting United States airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations in the region.”

Over the last decade, the United States has devoted hundreds of millions of dollars to Cameroon (more than $111 million in security assistance since 2015) while training its elite military force and providing everything from arms to humanitarian aid to development assistance.

“We are proud of the Cameroonian Security Forces’ commitment to protecting Cameroonian citizens,” said U.S. Ambassador Michael Hoza in a speech earlier this month. Last spring, Hoza praised the conduct of Cameroon’s elite Rapid Intervention Battalion (known by its French acronym, BIR), which Amnesty specifically accuses of torture. “In their training, conduct, and leadership, the BIR exhibited all of the values we expect in our own armed forces — professionalism, protection of the civilian population, and respect for human rights,” Hoza wrote.

The new report by Amnesty International — which catalogues the cases of 101 individuals subjected to illegal incarceration, torture, or extrajudicial killing by Cameroonian security forces at multiple sites — stands in sharp relief to the ambassador’s comments and raises serious questions about ongoing U.S. support.

“During torture, they asked me in French to confess that I was a member of Boko Haram,” one former detainee told Amnesty. “They beat me with a wooden plank and a chain as they tried to force me to eat pork. I am Muslim and I don’t eat pork so I refused, and I was tortured. They beat me several times with the wooden plank, which had a nail stuck into it. I was beaten everywhere, especially on my legs and ankles. I received so many blows that I passed out.”

U.S. Africa Command did not respond to questions about whether the command was aware of reports of abuses being carried out at Salak. Multiple requests to the U.S. Embassy in Cameroon for an interview with Ambassador Hoza went unanswered, as did requests for interviews with the offices of Cameroon’s president and prime minister as well as the Cameroonian Embassy in Washington, D.C.

Between December 2013 and February 2015, two buildings appeared on the western side of Salak, and foundations were laid in the southwest corner for hangars.

“Everyone says they are Americans”

For years, the U.S. military has maintained an outpost in Douala, Cameroon, and a drone base in the remote town of Garoua. Little, however, has been reported about the U.S. facilities known as the “Salak Compound office” or the nearby “Team Maroua House Office.”

The Cameroonian airfield and military base at Salak, in the northern border region wedged between Nigeria and Chad, expanded as Boko Haram’s indiscriminate attacks on civilians increased, leaving tens of thousands across the region injured or dead and millions of others displaced, and following the April 2014 kidnapping of 276 girls from a school in Chibok, Nigeria, which generated international attention.

Satellite imagery shows the significant expansion of the base, including the construction of two buildings between December 2013 and January 2015 later described to Amnesty International by witnesses as “the Americans’ buildings.” By 2015, a U.S. Naval Mobile Construction Battalion appeared to be beefing up fortifications at the camp. Around the same time, the U.S. Defense Department arranged for Insitu, a subsidiary of the defense giant Boeing, to supply Cameroon’s military with six ScanEagle surveillance drones worth $9.3 million, according to contracting documents.

Between February 2015 and February 2017, the northwestern section of the base was expanded to make room for a ScanEagle unmanned aerial system.

Today, Salak serves as the headquarters of Operation Alpha, the BIR’s internationally backed counterterrorism campaign against Boko Haram, and an increasingly integral site for the U.S. military’s operations in West Africa.

“Maroua and nearby Salak air field are important hubs for our security assistance efforts in the region, and we regularly have small numbers of U.S. personnel (military and/or contractor) in the area supporting Cameroon’s aviation, logistics, counter-improvised explosive devices and force protection capabilities,” Capt. Jennifer Dyrcz, a spokesperson for AFRICOM, told The Intercept by email. “U.S. Africa Command does intend to assist Cameroon in refurbishing and improving Salak air field for Cameroonian use.”

Yet Amnesty International found that Salak is also used as an illegal prison to hold people detained by the BIR. The prisoners are mostly men — often military-age, often Muslim, and often members of the Kanuri ethnic minority — but women and children as young as 7 have also been held there.

“We’re not talking about real Boko Haram fighters, but about people arrested on suspicion of supporting Boko Haram, who are just ordinary people who were at the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Allegrozzi, of Amnesty International. “[The Cameroonian security forces] often arrest people on the basis of little to no evidence. These civilians are then transferred to illegal detention facilities.”

The human rights group documented pervasive use of stress positions, suspension by ropes, and water torture in addition to sleep deprivation, extraction of fingernails, burning, and electric shocks. Former detainees, their families, lawyers and others also described beatings with chains, batons, machetes, and other objects.

“In Salak, I was permanently chained up. I was only given one meal per day, and I was tortured at least three times. The first two times, men in plain clothes beat me severely all over my body with electric cables,” one former detainee told Amnesty.

Amnesty estimates that dozens of prisoners died as a result of torture and other ill treatment in detention facilities run by the Cameroonian security forces between 2013 and 2017, but the number could be far higher. Former detainees at Salak described a routine process by which corpses of those who died in group cells after being tortured were wrapped in plastic by other detainees and transported off site by BIR troops.

Multiple detainees witnessed white men, sometimes identified specifically as Americans, exercising or working in an open-air “garage” immediately south of the detention cells.

“During my detention in Salak, I saw white men there on several occasions. Most of the time, I saw them from the windows of my cell. I saw them jogging in the early morning, from the back window of my cell. … I also saw them standing or talking from the front window of the cell — the window that faced the garage,” recalled one former prisoner.

Another detainee, held from February to July 2016, told Amnesty:

I saw white men in Salak many times and I heard them talking in English. I think they were Americans. Everyone said they were Americans and we knew American soldiers stocked material in Salak. I saw them running from the back window of my cell, especially in the morning, as well as standing in front of our cell, just where the garage was. Some were wearing plain clothes, others were in uniform. The uniform was like camouflage clothing, green and beige.

Further evidence of a persistent American presence on the base comes from public social media postings by a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force, now employed by Boeing subsidiary Insitu, who began working at the base this spring. Forensic Architecture discovered photographs geotagged at Salak and shared on social media by the American veteran, who did not respond to The Intercept’s requests for comment. The images offer an unprecedented window into activities at the base and line up with previously reported details about U.S. operations in Cameroon.

For instance, photos uploaded in April show a “skyhook,” which is used to land ScanEagle drones by plucking them out of the sky, as well as signal relay equipment located near a shipping container that the veteran referred to in a photo caption as “The Office.”

Top: BIR soldiers in discussion with unidentified foreign personnel. The device in the background is the “skyhook” for a ScanEagle drone. Bottom: On top of containers referred to as “The Office,” there appears to be a communications array probably linked to the ScanEagle unmanned aerial system.

In photographs posted to the veteran’s Facebook account in May, white men can be seen donning night vision goggles alongside members of the Centre Anti-Terroriste, a training program associated with BIR. (Publicly available contract information shows that in 2015 and 2016, the U.S. military purchased night vision goggles for Cameroonian forces.)

A video posted that same day by the veteran shows U.S. and Cameroonian forces playing a game of night vision soccer on a tree-lined square at the south side of the Salak base. At least one person can be heard speaking English with an American accent.

It’s impossible to know if all the white men on the base were Americans and which Americans were active duty military personnel. “What I can say is a small number of contractors and U.S. forces rotate in and out interminably based on mission,” AFRICOM’s Jennifer Dyrcz replied when asked if U.S. personnel were living on the Salak base.

Ilaria Allegrozzi of Amnesty International says there is no question that Americans serve there. “This was not challenged by the U.S.,” she says, referring to conversations with Ambassador Hoza and other U.S. officials regarding the U.S. troop presence at Salak. “Our evidence show that American personnel is present at Salak. They’re there.”

Spatial analysis by Forensic Architecture, utilizing satellite imagery, open-source material, and 3D modeling to geolocate the Air Force veteran’s photos, confirms the precise areas visited by Americans. Combined with interview material obtained by Amnesty International, the group’s work indicates Americans — and possibly French military personnel and Israeli contractors — have apparently unrestricted access to Camp Salak, and have regularly been present at, or very near, sites where detainees have been incarcerated or tortured.

Such abuses should come as no surprise to the U.S. government. The State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor has long chronicled human rights violations in line with Amnesty International’s findings. In 2007, the State Department’s annual human rights report noted that “more than 100 persons were reportedly beaten after members of the Rapid Intervention Brigade arrested them in and around Maroua, in the Far North Province. The victims were detained for several days at Salack [sic], where many of them were stripped naked, blindfolded and beaten, then held in a cell with water on its floor.” In every State Department human rights report since 2010, BIR troops have been cited for assaults, killings, and other outrages against noncombatants. Last year’s report specifically cited previous investigations by Amnesty International into torture and deaths at Salak.

The United States has a long history of supporting and working with foreign forces accused of torture, and recent events suggest the practices continue. Just last month, the Associated Press reported that U.S. military interrogators were collaborating with forces from the United Arab Emirates who tortured detainees in Yemen. A video also recently surfaced that appears to show U.S.-allied troops in Syria torturing prisoners.

And from the Philippines to Vietnam to Iraq, Americans have engaged in such acts themselves. Following the 9/11 attacks, the United States began employing methods of torture — including water boarding and stress positions — under the euphemism “enhanced interrogation.” According to the new Amnesty International report, when researchers confronted a representative of Cameroon’s minister of defense with accounts of prisoners being bound, suspended by ropes, and beaten, he claimed the practice was “exploitation approfondie.” Translation: enhanced interrogation.

Culled from The Intercept

Russia this week announced the upcoming launch of its largest military exercises since the end of the Cold War, involving some 300,000 troops. The message seems clear: Russia feels under threat and will do what it must to protect itself.

The Vostok-2018 (East-2018) operation will be launched in Russia’s central and eastern military districts from September 11 to 15 and is set to mobilise around 300,000 troops, more than 1,000 military aircraft and two naval fleets, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday. The exercise will also involve forces from China and Mongolia’s militaries.

Shoigu painted a picture of a vast military operation that will closely mirror combat conditions. “Just imagine that 36,000 pieces of military hardware are simultaneously in motion: These are tanks, armoured personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles and, all this is, naturally, in conditions close to a combat environment,” hetold journalists.

Asked at a press briefing why the Vostok-2018 exercises will be so massive, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov expressed the Russian view that it remains under threat from international actors and thus has no choice but to prepare on a grand scale.

“The country’s ability to defend itself in the current international situation, which is frequently quite aggressive and unfriendly toward us, is absolutely justified and has no alternative.”

Russia’s ministry of defence announced Thursday that it would also be holding a week of naval exercises in the Mediterranean Sea starting September 1. Some 25 vessels and 30 aircraft are slated to take part, according to Russia’s TASS news agency, with exercises including anti-aircraft, anti-submarine and anti-mining operations.

The upcoming mobilisation comes a year after Russia’s Zapad-2017 (West-2017) exercise, conducted jointly with Belarus. According to NATO, up to 70,000 troops participated in those training missions. The 300,000 forces committed to Vostok-2018 thus mark a sharp increase in the numbers Russia is willing to mobilise for its annual strategic exercises, a practice it revived in 2008.

“This is a PR coup from Moscow to showcase large troop displacements and preparedness,” said Mathieu Boulègue, a research fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House who specialises in Russian military and defence matters. Chatham House is an independent policy institute based in London.

These exercises have two main goals, according to Boulègue. First, Vostok-2018 is aimed at highlighting Russia’s strategic mobility and its command of military logistics. Second, this year’s exercise is “clearly emphasising” size.

Moreover, the inclusion of China is designed to send the world a message.

“For Russia, the PR/communication strategy behind China’s participation is clearly to demonstrate that 1) Russia is not isolated militarily, and 2) Russia is seeking to form some sort of an anti-US military alliance with the help of China,” Boulègue said in an email.

China is not looking to antagonise anyone, but Beijing believes that Russia-China relations are currently “good enough to explore a deepened cooperation, and notably in the military sphere”.

“It’s also a strong signalling to the West and the US.”

Paranoid delusions and failed good intentions

Russia has been steadily increasing its military investment ever since its August 2008 conflict with Georgia. In 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin committed the Kremlin to increasing military preparedness.

“The Russian Armed Forces learned some hard lessons in Georgia,” wrote Dave Johnson, astaff officer in NATO’s Defence Policy and Planning Division, of the Zapad-2017 exercise.

“Low manning and readiness levels forced the Russians to attack with a scratch force. Shortfalls in C4ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) were sorely felt, as was the limited ability of the land and air forces to operate together, and the lack of precision weapons.”

Russia remains ever vigilant of any NATO actions near its own borders, stridently opposing any manoeuvers in the Baltics. It has also roundly criticised plans for an October training exercise that nevertheless falls far short of the scale of Vostok-2018: TheNATO drill in Norway, the Baltic Sea and the North Atlantic will involve some 35,000 troops from 30 NATO members and partners backed by about 70 ships and 130 aircraft.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that the exercise was “clearly anti-Russian”.

These NATO exercises are plans for “defensive and – what is crucially important – offensive operations at northern latitudes during a ‘high-intensity’ conflict with an equal enemy”, Zakharova said.

“This show of force is to take place in direct proximity to the Russian borders and is clearly anti-Russian.”

Moscow has a “preoccupation” with the idea that a major conflict with the West is on the horizon, said Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at the Russia and Eurasia Programme of Chatham House and a specialist in Russian security policy.

While there are several reasons for this, it is partly a “paranoid delusion on the part of Moscow”.

Russia believes Western governments want to weaken it, even break it apart. “Nothing could be farther from Western intentions,” Giles said. “A destabilised Russia is the last thing the West wants.”

But the Kremlin tends to view international relations as a zero-sum game. Even security – something the West believes is best served through multilateral cooperation – is seen in these terms. Russia holds fast to the idea that “a finite amount of security” exists, Giles said. So Russia becomes less safe as other nations become more secure.

Moreover, Moscow continues to perceive security issues in “old-fashioned, brute force terms”.

‘Epicentres of chaos and instability’

And Western actions have helped fuel these fears. Western governments have an unfortunate recent history of “failed good intentions”, Giles observed. Interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, however well-meaning, have in many cases made the situation worse. In the process, the West has left behind “epicentres of chaos and instability” that Russia sees as inching ever closer to Moscow.

For decades, entrenched attitudes on both sides have created a seemingly permanent impasse. Speaking at a press conference in Helsinki with his Finnish counterpart on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron said the European Union needed to rethink its post-Cold War relationship with Russia.

“It is in our interest” for the EU to pursue a strategic relationship with Russia that “brings stability, that will, in the long term, bring more strength and [coherence]”, Macron said.

But in a concurrent pronouncement that seemed certain to ruffle Russian feathers, Macron noted that Europe had for too long relied on US protection. While the transatlantic NATO alliance remains important, he said, the EU needs to boost its own defence capabilities.

Culled from France 24

Amnesty International has accused Nigeria’s government of carrying out unlawful arrests and practicing “enforced disappearance,” calling on Abuja to clarify the fate of hundreds of Shia activists taken into custody.

In a statement on Thursday, the international rights organization said the fate of at least 600 members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) has been unknown since their arrest in 2015.

“The Nigerian government has used enforced disappearance as a longstanding tactic to silence critics and instill fear in civilian populations,” Amnesty International Nigeria Director Osai Ojigho said. “Enforced disappearance is an instrument of intimidation that grossly violates human rights. It is unacceptable and must stop.”

“In some cases, families live with the pain of not knowing whether their loved ones are alive or dead,” he added.

The statement said the government had kept some detainees incommunicado for nine years or more, without giving them access to their families or lawyers, and others have continued to languish in prisons despite court orders for their release.

Ojigho called on the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to “do the right thing” and either release the prisoners or charge them with a crime.

She also blasted the government for using enforced disappearance against people who were already faced with the threat of military operations and armed terror groups such as Boko Haram.

Among the detainees, there is IMN leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, who was illegally detained by government forces in a raid by the Nigerian army on his residence in the northern town of Zaria in December 2015.

Since 2009, Boko Haram militancy has left at least 20,000 dead and made over 2.6 million others homeless. The terrorists pledged allegiance to the Takfiri Daesh group in 2015.

Boko Haram, whose name roughly translates as “Western education is forbidden,” has used kidnapping as a weapon of war, seizing thousands of women and young girls as well as men and young boys.

Source: Presstv

After more than 18 hours of flight to China, Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, is once more ill at ease. The 86-year-old Biya, who is also known as the “monarch” due to his arrogance and dictatorial tendencies, is having some health issues which might disrupt his China agenda.

His usual shortness of breath and a pounding heart have reared their ugly heads in China even though Mr. Biya was recently in Switzerland to see his medical doctors.

Mr. Biya, who travels around the world with a pharmacy and hospital manned by some medical experts, was recently in Switzerland for a very quick fix after his heart and prostrate started acting up on him. Years of pressure and the spiraling of the Southern Cameroons crisis are taking a huge toll on the monarch’s fragile health.

It should be recalled that Mr. Biya had to discharge himself from a Swiss hospital sometime last week just to head home and change his wardrobe before leaving for China for a Sino-Africa Summit which will be an opportunity for the cash-strapped Biya to display his begging bowl to the Chinese.

The long trips are now catching up with him and it is obvious that his China agenda, which includes negotiating for loans with major Chinese banks and pleading with Chinese investors to come and invest in Cameroon, is under threat.

According to the Cameroon Concord News Group’s Asia correspondent, there is fear within the monarch’s entourage, as concerns about his health mount. At 86, it is obvious that Mr. Biya cannot continue to undertake long trips. These trips are taxing to his health, but he is compelled by circumstances of his making to head abroad to seek some cash infusion from his allies, as his country’s economy totters on the brink of collapse.

Years of mismanagement and misappropriation of state funds have dumped the country’s economy in the doldrums and given the economy’s current situation, it will take years of professional and expert financial engineering to pull the economy back from the brink.

The level of unemployment among the country’s youths is appalling. With the economy still on a tailspin, it is clear that the country is heading for more challenging times. Many investors are heading out of the country, and even those who had plans to come to invest in the sub-region’s largest economy, are holding off on those plans, as the military violence in the two English-speaking regions threatens to migrate to the French-speaking part of the country.

Speaking in French, a member of the monarch’s entourage advised the Cameroon Concord News Group’s Asia correspondent that Mr. Biya has real health problems, but due to the financial squeeze the country is going through, Mr. Biya who is expecting huge sums of money from the Chinese, had to be there in person.

“The president thinks that his presence in China might cause Chinese to grant Cameroon more loans. Cameroon is going through real financial problems. The economy is suffering due to disruptions by the insurgents in the two English-speaking regions of the country. Investors are concerned about coming to Cameroon and the president holds that having a meeting with Chinese investors might help allay their fears,” the senior government official who elected anonymity said.

“We are facing tough times and if urgent measures are not taken, many development projects will be suspended. I am scared that this might affect our ability to organize the Africa Cup of Nations that is scheduled to take place next year in Cameroon,” he added.

“The insurgency in the two English-speaking regions of the country is a real concern to the president. With many armed groups emerging every day, it is clear that rolling back this insurgency might take a long time and lots of money,” he said.

“Currently, the military is facing serious issues. They need modern equipment to effectively deal with this situation that is a huge nightmare to the government. The government wants to negotiate, but it is confused. It does not know where to start, as the groups are many and the demands of the insurgents are like shifting sands. It is indeed unfortunate,” the frustrated official quipped.

“We could have avoided this situation, but a few hardliners in the government pushed the president to take a tough stance on this issue and this appears to be counterproductive. The country could be in for a long, difficult war. We should have used other means to address this problem. With the passing of each day, things only get worse,” he said.

“The news about what is happening in those two regions is not music to my ears. Children and women are killed on a daily basis and it is alleged that our military is involved in gross human rights abuses. This military violence is coming back to haunt the regime which is now seen in the West as a violator of human rights. The future is not promising for our country,” he regretted.

“Look at the pretty mess we now have on our hands. Some of our allies are abandoning us mid-stream. Americans have withdrawn their military assistance to Cameroon and this is hurting our country’s military.  We cannot continue to fight many wars at the same time. We have to seek an honorable exit where possible and I know it is easier to negotiate with Anglophones than with Boko Haram in the north. We have to talk to people who can listen. All we need is for Anglophones to present to us their leaders so that we can end the violence that is decimating our population and military,” he stressed.

After having been mired in a tough military, economic and social battle over the last two years, the Yaoundé government is facing serious economic and financial crisis and this is keeping the country’s officials awake all night.

The crisis pitting Southern Cameroonian separatists against the Yaoundé government has seriously eroded the government’s financial base.  The fighting is expensive and it has taken a huge bite out of the government’s fragile finances.

The soldiers who are battling a tough insurgency in the country’s English-speaking regions are grumbling and many need a pay increase. This is affecting their morale and things are only getting worse as the soldiers take many casualties.

A few months ago, the government had to increase the per diem of the soldiers fighting in the jungles of Southern Cameroons and this is weighing on the government’s budget.

The operation of heavy military equipment in these unpredictable jungles of Southern Cameroons is costing the government an arm and a leg. This has been compounded by the economic sabotage that Southern Cameroonian fighters have engaged in.

Over the last six months, some of the country’s major state corporations which are great money spinners have had to deal with the angst of Southern Cameroonian fighters who are determined to bring the country’s economy to its knees.

Corporations such as PAMOL and CDC all require a shot in the arm, but the cash-strapped government of Yaoundé is incapable of providing the much-needed infusion. Priming the pump of these corporations will require huge amounts of money. PAMOL has completely shot down due to increased disruption by Southern Cameroonian fighters.

Some 3,000 PAMOL workers have been rendered jobless and the corporation’s equipment is gradually rotting in various locations in the country. Some of the palm oil production corporation’s facilities have been burned down and threats from Southern Cameroonian fighters actually made some of the workers to throw in the towel even before the corporation announced its bankruptcy.

For the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), its operation capacity has been diminished over the last seven months. Ghost town operations and violence against its workers have made it hard for the country’s second largest employer to operate at full capacity.

The separatists’ economic sabotage is actually producing the desired effect as the government has seen some of its revenue streams diminishing.  With many workers laid off from these two large corporations, the government has also witnessed a huge tax base erosion. The loss of more than 3,000 workers from these two corporations implies that income taxes paid to the government have diminished.

But the collapsing of these two corporations is not the worst news the Yaoundé government will be hearing. Southern Cameroonian separatists have their eyes set on the country’s lone refinery, SONARA, which is located in the southwest port city of Limbe.

They strongly believe that if they can successfully bring down SONARA, then they will be able to force the government to the negotiating table where some of the divorce issues can be discussed and addressed.

The government has therefore made it a policy to deploy troops around the refinery and this is costing it a pretty penny. This has been compounded by declining oil production and falling oil prices. Cameroon’s oil fields have been delivering some of the finest oil in the world and this has brought in billions of dollars into the government’s coffers.

Unfortunately, the Yaoundé government that is wont to mismanaging and misappropriating the country’s wealth cannot really show to the people of Cameroon what it has done with the country’s oil wealth it has received over the last 40 years.

The country’s financial woes have been compounded by the flaking support of its allies. The regime’s backers are no longer forthcoming financially. Its European allies such as France are falling back on their financial pledges and this is pushing the government into a financial abyss.

Last week, the government got more bad news from rating agencies which classified it as an investment risk due the ongoing military violence in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

This implies that many investors will hold off on any investment plans they may have for the country. Similarly, any loans extended to the country will be coming with a huge price tag as the country is no longer credit-worthy. Left in the noose of a financial squeeze and a destructive military situation, the Yaoundé government is bound to look for alternative financial partners and investment resources.

The West has lost faith in a system that is highly dominated by old and destructive people. The country’s economy needs a new breath of life and this cannot be provided by a bunch of leaders whose time has passed. The majority of Cameroon’s leaders are actually suffering from senile decay and they lack the innovative ability to turn the country’s ailing economy around. China is, therefore, the regime’s last hope. The Chinese economy is losing steam because of its trade war with the USA.

The Chinese hold that weaving new partnerships around the world can bring the much-needed oxygen to their economy that is feeling the pinch of American tariffs.

Cameroon’s economy is on life support just like the health of the country’s leaders. Cameroon needs a change in leadership. Today’s global economy requires new and innovative ideas, and it is clear that those new and innovative ideas can only come from younger leaders who have a better understanding of today’s economy which is permanently changing and constantly requiring expert economic engineering.

Mr. Biya and his cohort cannot provide the fresh blood the country’s economy needs. Obtaining more loans from the world, only sours the lives of generations of unborn Cameroonians. Cameroonians must sit up if they have to put an end to the mess that has ruined their lives.

China will surely say things that will be music to Mr. Biya’s ears, but the money will surely not be flowing in his direction anytime soon. China’s economy is stalling and it needs a huge infusion too. It will surely disappoint notorious beggars such as Mr. Biya who have carved out a negative reputation for themselves as irresponsible and dictatorial governments that lack the requisite ability to run a modern economy.

Mr. Biya who left with a large contingent holds that securing a huge sum of money from the Chinese will boost his chances of getting reelected. He holds that his begging bowl might yield some good results that might enable him to display something to his fellow citizens who have lost faith in him.

He, however, knows that he has a tough battle ahead of him. Not only is he out of money, he has to deal with some young and smart competitors. Among those running for this year’s presidential election are some good candidates who are capable of causing an upset in Yaoundé.

The Social Democratic Front (SDF) has fielded a young, knowledgeable and experienced candidate who is causing ruling party stalwarts to lose sleep. Joshua Osih, the SDF candidate, has the potential to bring about the change Cameroonians have been longing for. Mr. Biya’s poor economic performance might come back to bite him this year.

Corruption that has been his government’s hallmark has caused a lot of pain to many of his fellow citizens and they might want to use the upcoming election to punish a man who is noted for rigging elections and squandering the country’s financial resources.

Besides, the election will not take place across the entire country and, Mr. Biya being a symbol of failure for many Cameroonians; it is obvious that change is coming to Cameroon. Mr. Biya has mismanaged the country’s economy and his arrogance is tearing the country apart. A situation many French-speaking Cameroonians abhor.

Change may be on its way to Cameroon. Cameroonians just need to make common cause to put an end to their misery. The ball is in their court. Mr. Biya is a spent force. He will not be able to stop the wind of change blowing towards Cameroon if Cameroonians join forces.

By Kingsley Betek

The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia says French Cameroun’s actions have eventually served in bolstering ties among all the Southern Cameroons restoration groups. The Ambazonia Communications Secretary, Hon. Chris Anu made the remarks on Tuesday via an audio message in which he clarified the Interim Government’s stance on the resumption of schools in Southern Cameroons.

Chris Anu said the front line leaders of powerful Ambazonian liberation groups came together in Washington and reached the conclusion that the independence of Ambazonia is non-negotiable.  The Ambazonian government spokesman noted that French Cameroun government military actions against Southern Cameroons civilian population show that every Ambazonian including the pro Biya comedians of the defunct South West and North West must rethink their relations with French Cameroun, and that Biya Francophone’s war on Southern Cameroons has helped greatly to bring Ambazonians both at home and abroad together.

Last week, the Ambazonian Interim Government said in a statement that recent unilateral steps taken by the so-called South West and North West political elites in support of the genocide currently going on in Southern Cameroons were politically-motivated by Yaoundé and could serve to ultimately bolster attacks against those West Cameroon CPDM corrupt officials.  The Biya Francophone regime and the Anglophone CPDM political elites are entangled in a dispute over the organization of the upcoming presidential elections in Southern Cameroons.

Ambazonian restoration forces have taken the independence war to the economic front, adopting a series of sabotage measures against French Cameroun business interest in Southern Cameroons, including banning the sale of French products deep within the Ambazonian territory.

Over the last six months, some of the country’s major state corporations which are great money spinners have had to deal with the angst of Southern Cameroonian fighters who are determined to bring the country’s economy to its knees.

Corporations such as PAMOL and CDC all require a shot in the arm, but the cash-strapped government of Yaoundé is incapable of providing the much-needed infusion. Priming the pump of these corporations will require huge amounts of money. PAMOL has completely shot down due to increased disruption by Southern Cameroonian fighters.

Some 3,000 PAMOL workers have been rendered jobless and the corporation’s equipment is gradually rotting. Some of the palm oil production corporation’s facilities have been burned down and threats from Southern Cameroonian fighters actually made some of the workers to throw in the towel even before the corporation announced its bankruptcy.

For the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), its operation capacity has been diminished over the last seven months. Ghost town operations and violence against its workers have made it hard for the country’s second largest employer to operate at full capacity.

The separatists’ economic sabotage is actually producing the desired effect as the government has seen some of its revenue streams diminishing.  With many workers laid off from these two large corporations, the government has also witnessed a huge tax base erosion. The loss of more than 3,000 workers from these two corporations implies that income taxes paid to the government have diminished.

By Chi Prudence Asong and Kingsley Betek

U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused Google’s search engine of promoting negative news articles and hiding “fair media” coverage of him, vowing to address the situation without providing evidence or giving details of action he might take.

Trump’s attack against the Alphabet Inc unit follows a string of grievances against technology companies, including social media Twitter Inc and Facebook Inc, which he has accused of silencing conservative voices, and Amazon.com Inc, which he has said is hurting small businesses and benefiting from a favorable deal with the U.S. Postal Services.

He frequently berates news outlets for what he perceives as unfair coverage. Google denied any political bias, saying in a statement that its search engine is “not used to set a political agenda and we don’t bias our results toward any political ideology.”

Trump said in several tweets on Tuesday that Google search results for “Trump News” were “rigged” against him because they showed only coverage from outlets like CNN and not conservative publications, suggesting the practice was illegal.

“I think Google is really taking advantage of our people,” Trump said on Tuesday in the Oval Office. “Google, and Twitter and Facebook, they are really treading on very, very troubled territory, and they have to be careful. It’s not fair to large portions of the population.”

Facebook declined to comment. Twitter did not comment when asked for a response. In congressional testimony, both companies have denied engaging in partisan censorship. Neither Trump nor the White House detailed how or under what legal justification they would use to probe Google.

Trump’s economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, later told reporters that the White House was “taking a look” at Google, saying the administration would do “some investigation and some analysis,” without providing further details.

Earlier this summer, the new Republican chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Joseph Simons, said the agency would keep a close eye on big tech companies that dominate the internet.

In a previous investigation, the FTC decided that Google was likely justified in developing a search function that harmed other companies.

In June Representative Keith Ellison, a Democrat, asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google’s alleged anticompetitive behavior in the online search and advertising markets.

Congressional sources cautioned that it may be difficult for Trump to find a way to probe Google about news search results, and that Congress is unlikely to pass any applicable laws.

U.S. member of Congress Ted Lieu, a Democrat, said in a tweet directed at Trump that such restrictions on Google would violate the U.S. Constitution: “If government tried to dictate the free speech algorithms of private companies, courts would strike it down in a nanosecond.”

Trump’s criticism of media

While the exact science behind Google searches on the internet is kept secret, its basic principles are widely known to be generated with a variety of factors measured by the company’s algorithms.

The factors Google uses to determine which websites appear first in search results include how often that page is linked to on other sites, the use of keywords, the popularity and respectability of the news site, and personal browsing history of the person conducting the search.

Highly trafficked and cited websites like CNN.com and NYTimes.com, two of the most Trump’s most frequent targets, often appear first in search results.

Trump’s accusation of bias on the part of Google comes as social media companies have suspended accounts, banned certain users and removed content as they face pressure from the U.S. Congress to police foreign propaganda and fake accounts aimed at disrupting American politics, including operations tied to Iran and Russia.

Companies such as Facebook and Twitter have also been pressed to remove conspiracy driven content and hate speech.

Tech companies have said they do not remove content for political reasons. Some Republican U.S. lawmakers have also raised concerns about social media companies removing content from some conservatives, and have called Twitter’s chief executive to testify before a House of Representatives panel on Sept. 5.

Earlier this month, Alphabet’s YouTube joined Apple Inc and Facebook in removing some content from Infowars, a website run by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Jones was also temporarily suspended on Twitter.

(REUTERS)

British Prime Minister Theresa May pledged Tuesday to make Britain the biggest investor in Africa from the developed world, as she began a three-nation tour of the continent.

With Britain due to leave the European Union in March 2019, May is seeking to bolster Britain’s ties with other regions around the world, notably Africa. As part of that strategy, May is visiting three of Africa’s largest economies — South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya — along with her trade minister and a delegation of 29 business leaders.

“I am committed to Africa and committed to using every lever of the British government to support the partnerships and ideas that will bring benefits for generations to come,” May said in a rainy Cape Town at the start of her tour that is being promoted under the slogan “U.K.-Africa: Partners For Opportunity.”

May has high ambition, envisioning Britain becoming the biggest investor in Africa from the world’s major industrial economies — the Group of Seven that also includes the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. Only China would be ahead of Britain.

“By 2022, I want the U.K. to be the G-7’s number one investor in Africa, with Britain’s private sector companies taking the lead in investing the billions that will see Africa’s economies grow by trillions,” said May.

In response to questions, May said she will discuss South Africa’s controversial land reform plans with President Cyril Ramaphosa later Tuesday.

“The U.K. has for some time supported land reform in South Africa that will be a legal, transparent and democratic process,” said May.

She said that from previous comments from Ramaphosa, she is convinced it will not be a “smash and grab” process but one responsibly designed to encourage economic growth. May’s support for Ramaphosa’s plans for land redistribution is dramatically different from U.S. President Donald Trump, who last week was critical of the policies in a tweet.

Before speaking, May visited the I.D. Mkhize High School in Gugulethu township where she met with students.

May’s trip is the first working visit by a British leader to South Africa since 2011.

AP

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu says his country will next month hold its biggest military exercise in almost four decades.

The exercise, dubbed Vostok-2018 (East-2018), will be held in central and eastern Russian military districts, Russia’s news agencies quoted Shoigu as saying on Tuesday.

The minister further said that about 300,000 troopers, more than 1,000 military aircraft, two of Russia’s naval fleets, and all of its airborne units, will take part in the drill.

The military exercise will be the biggest since 1981, Shoigu added.

It was not clear how long the drill would last.

The drill comes amid tensions between Moscow and NATO, which regularly holds war games, although near Russia’s western borders.

NATO member states, largely made up of Western European countries, have significantly increased their military activities near Russia’s western borders in recent years.

Russia, perceiving those activities as a security threat, has held several military drills to maintain preparedness, and the NATO countries have then pointed to those drills as signs that Russia has aggressive intentions.

NATO severed ties with Russia and subsequently increased its military presence in the Baltic region following the 2014 integration of the Crimean Peninsula with Russia.

The trial of more than two dozen people, including a former intelligence agency informant, suspected in the killings of two UN sanctions monitors last year in central Congo resumed on Monday after a 10-month suspension, defense lawyers said.

Zaida Catalan, a Swede, and Michael Sharp, an American, were killed in March 2017 while investigating an armed conflict in Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kasai region between government forces and the local Kamuina Nsapu militia.

The Congo’s government has blamed their kidnappings and killings on the militia but some Western governments and rights groups suspect state officials may have been involved as Catalan and Sharp were conducting investigations in an area where the United Nations has accused Congo’s military of war crimes.

Congolese government officials initially said no state agents were involved in the killings and that they did not know at the time that the two experts were in the region. But they later said they could not exclude the possibility state agents were involved.

Among the 13 defendants appearing in court on Monday in the Kasai city of Kananga were suspected militia leaders Constantin Tshidime Bulabula and Vincent Manga, who were arrested earlier this year, Bulabula’s lawyer Tresor Kabangu told Reuters.

Kabangu said Bulabula denies wrongdoing. Manga’s lawyer, Moise Bidua, also says he denies the accusations against him.

Another dozen defendants are scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday to be identified, Kabangu said, including his client Jose Tshibuabua, who was arrested late last year.

Reuters and Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported in December that Tshibuabua was working as an informant for Congo’s national intelligence agency (ANR) when he helped Sharp and Catalan organize their trip to the town of Bunkonde. Kabangu says Tshibuabua denies any wrongdoing.

According to phone logs in the Congolese prosecutor’s file reviewed by Reuters and RFI, Tshibuabua exchanged dozens of text messages with a local ANR boss in the days before and after Sharp and Catalan were killed.

Congo’s top ANR official, Kalev Mutond, said Tshibuabua had repeatedly assured him during interrogation that he had not informed ANR officials about his contacts with the UN monitors and suggested Tshibuabua was acting on behalf of the militia.

The trial began in June of last year. It was suspended in October pending the arrival of a team of UN experts meant to assist the investigation.

The experts have complained that Congolese security officials are interfering with their work, including by not granting access to key witnesses. Swedish prosecutors working the case also say Congolese authorities have not been cooperative.

Congo denies those accusations and says its justice system is conducting an impartial investigation.

(Source: Reuters)

The European Union and the United Nation’s deliberate silence on the ongoing genocide in Southern Cameroons and ethnic cleansing of Ambazonian tribes are tarnishing the UN’s credibility. A senior traditional ruler from the Manyu County recently told Cameroon Concord News that genocide and ethnic cleansing were taking place in Southern Cameroons and such crimes were being ignored by the international community including the so-called African Union.  The Manyu custodian who sued for anonymity also pointed out that South West CPDM elites should also be held accountable for the crimes committed by French Cameroun soldiers.

Another traditional authority from the Kupe Muanenguba County contacted by our correspondent in Tombel observed that “There is really no legitimacy left for the African Union and the UN if such massacre in Southern Cameroons would be allowed to continue after all these years and nothing would be done about it.”

The 85 year President Paul Biya declared war against the people of Southern Cameroons that has left some 2000 Southern Cameroonians dead and displaced around 200,000 people since late 2016. Some 50.000 of those displaced have crossed the border into neighboring Nigeria.

Years of resentment at perceived discrimination at the hands of the Cameroon’s francophone majority have led to almost daily acts of violence and retribution. Security in the newly created Federal Republic of Ambazonia has deteriorated significantly since late last year and now clashes with Ambazonian Restoration Forces are almost daily occurrences.

The Biya Francophone government sources say a total of 109 members of the police and security forces have been killed. The conflict now poses problems for the organization of a counterfeit presidential election, scheduled for October 7, in which the 85-year-old incumbent, Paul Biya, is bidding for a seventh consecutive term.

At the time of filing this report, we gathered that the Red Dragons of Lebialem have broken into the D.O’s office at Alou and taken all the ballot boxes, papers and cards.

By Sama Ernest in Kumba with additional report from Chi Prudence Asong