An open letter was delivered this morning to representatives of President Paul Biya, requesting the immediate start of dialogue to resolve the Cameroon crisis. The letter, in English and French, was authored by five Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who previously served in Cameroon, echoing the feelings of numerous other RPCVs.

Open Letter to Cameroon President Paul Biya

August 22, 2018.

To His Excellency, President Paul Biya:

Since the creation of the United States Peace Corps in 1962, more than 3,600 Americans have served as Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) in all ten regions of Cameroon.  PCVs have proudly worked alongside their Cameroonian counterparts in a wide range of service sectors. The warmth and welcome of Cameroonians towards volunteers and their generosity of spirit and hospitality profoundly changed and enriched our lives.

Cameroon has been respected throughout Africa for its history of stability and its protection of religious, cultural, and language diversity. That stability and diversity has contributed to Cameroon’s continued prosperity.

As Americans who were very fortunate to have lived and served in Cameroon as PCVs, we are concerned about the current situation. It is from our personal experience of living and working in Cameroon that we express our shock and distress over the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the North West and South West Regions..

We have seen the recent reports on the crisis from international groups such as Amnesty International, the International Crisis Group, and Human Rights Watch. Additionally, the news reports from international and Cameroonian media on the increasing violence and killings in the Anglophone regions are troubling.

We do not attempt to analyze or judge the many factors contributing to the current situation, but we call for the earliest cessation of all violence, killings, destruction, and suffering affecting the Cameroonian people. We strongly reiterate the recommendations of other groups that you invite an independent international third-party to help mediate an end to the conflict.

We have been in contact with experienced conflict mediation teams at the Kofi Annan Foundation, and at the Carter Center, led by former United States President Jimmy Carter. Both groups have indicated a strong interest in assisting Cameroon in mediation efforts if invited.

As you know, the world celebrated Nelson Mandela Day on July 18, which highlighted Mandela’s leadership and practice of national dialogue, forgiveness, reconciliation, and unity. We propose that Mandela’s legacy could also serve as a model for Cameroon during this difficult time.

We wish you well and respectfully urge you to announce the earliest convening of all relevant parties for mediation efforts, led by a third party.

Sincerely,

Dennis King, New York – 1971-1974 (Bambili)

Craig Kinzelman, Ohio – 1967-1972 (Buea, Bamenda)

Haley McLeod, Washington – 2013-2016 (Bapi)

Evan Schneider, Oregon – 1973-1975 (Banso)

Bill Strassberger, Florida – 1982-1986 (Njinikom, Bamenda)

Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, pleaded guilty Tuesday to campaign-finance violations and other charges, saying he and Trump arranged the payment of hush money to a porn star and a former Playboy model to influence the election.

Cohen’s account appears to implicate Trump himself in a crime, though whether   or when   a president can be prosecuted remains a matter of legal dispute.

The guilty plea was part of a double dose of bad news for Trump: It came at almost the same moment his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was convicted in Alexandria, Virginia, of eight financial crimes in the first trial to come out of special counsel Robert Mueller’s sprawling Russia investigation.

In a deal reached with federal prosecutors, Cohen, 51, pleaded guilty to eight counts, including tax evasion. He could get about four to five years in prison at sentencing Dec. 12.

In entering the plea, Cohen did not name the two women or even Trump, recounting instead that he worked with an “unnamed candidate.”

But the amounts and the dates all lined up with the $130,000 paid to porn star Stormy Daniels and the $150,000 that went to Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal to buy their silence in the weeks and months leading up to the 2016 White House election. Both women claimed to have had affairs with Trump, which he denies.

Cohen, his voice shaky as he answered questions from a federal judge, said one payment was “in coordination and at the direction of a candidate for federal office,” and the other was made “under direction of the same candidate.”

Daniel Petalas, a former prosecutor in the Justice Department’s public integrity section, said, “This brings President Trump closer into the criminal conduct.”

“The president has certain protections while a sitting president, but if it were true, and he was aware and tried to influence an election, that could be a federal felony offense,” Petalas said. “This strikes close to home.”

However, in the charging documents, a news release and comments outside the courthouse, prosecutors did not go as far as Cohen did in open court in pointing the finger at the president. Prosecutors said Cohen acted “in coordination with a candidate or campaign for federal office for purposes of influencing the election.”

As cable networks were showing split-screen coverage of the conviction and plea bargain by two former loyalists, Trump himself boarded Air Force One on his way to a rally in West Virginia and ignored shouted questions about the men.

Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, noted in a statement that “there is no allegation of any wrongdoing against the president in the government’s charges against Mr. Cohen.”

‘Take a bullet’

After the court hearing, which ended with Cohen released on $500,000 bail, the lawyer wiped away tears as he gazed out a courthouse window. He left the building and headed straight for a black SUV with tinted windows. A couple of people outside chanted, “Lock him up!” as they recorded the scene with their phones.

Under federal law, expenditures to protect a candidate’s political fortunes can be construed as campaign contributions, subject to federal laws that bar donations from corporations and set limits on how much can be given.

“If those payments were a crime for Michael Cohen, then why wouldn’t they be a crime for Donald Trump?” Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, tweeted.

Cohen’s plea follows months of scrutiny from federal investigations and a falling-out with the president, for whom Cohen once said he would “take a bullet.”

The FBI raided Cohen’s hotel room, home and office in April and seized more than 4 million items. The search sought bank records, communications with Trump’s campaign and information on the payments to the two women.

According to prosecutors, the payment to McDougal was made through the parent company of the National Enquirer. Cohen made the payment to Daniels through his own company and then was reimbursed by Trump, he said.

Trump denied to reporters in April that he knew anything about Cohen’s payments to Daniels, but the explanations from him and Giuliani have shifted multiple times since.

The president has fumed publicly about the raid, branding it “a witch hunt,” an assault on attorney-client privilege and a politically motivated attack by enemies in the FBI. But privately he has worried about what information Cohen may have after working for the Trump Organization for a decade.

“Obviously it’s not good for Trump,” Sol Wisenberg, who conducted grand jury questioning of President Bill Clinton during the Whitewater investigation, said of the plea bargain.

“I’m assuming he’s not going to be indicted because he’s a sitting president, Wisenberg added. “But it leads him closer to ultimate impeachment proceedings, particularly if the Democrats take back the House.”

The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has held that a president cannot be indicted while in office. Trump’s lawyers have said that Mueller plans to adhere to that guidance, though Mueller’s office has never confirmed that. There would presumably be no bar against charging a president after he leaves the White House.

Daniels ‘vindicated’

Daniels said Tuesday that she and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, feel vindicated and look forward to apologies “from the people who claimed we were wrong.”

Nothing made public so far indicates Cohen has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, but Avenatti said he is certain that is happening.

Mueller’s team, which is looking into Russian interference in the presidential election, came across some of the evidence against Cohen in the course of its investigation and referred the matter to federal prosecutors in New York.

Deputy U.S. Attorney Robert Khuzami said that in addition to the campaign finance violations, Cohen failed to report more than $4 million in income between 2012 and 2016, including $1.3 million from his taxi medallion holdings.

Cohen also lied to a financial institution by failing to disclose more than $14 million in debt and obtaining a $500,000 home equity line of credit he wasn’t entitled to, Khuzami said. Cohen used that credit line to fund the Daniels payment, prosecutors said.

After making the hush money payments, Cohen submitted phony invoices to Trump’s company, ostensibly for services rendered in 2017, the prosecutor said.

“Those involves were a sham,” Khuzami said. “He provided no legal services for the year 2017. It was simply a means to obtain reimbursement for the unlawful contributions.”

Before the election, Cohen had been a trusted member of the Trump organization, working out of an office in Trump Tower next to one used by his boss. He raised millions for Trump’s campaign.

The president’s initial support for Cohen after the raid soon degenerated into a public feud, with Cohen hinting he might cut a deal with prosecutors.

When Cohen’s team produced a recording he had made of Trump discussing one of the hush-money payments, Trump tweeted: “What kind of lawyer would tape a client? So sad!”

(AP)

French Cameroun continues detention of more than three thousand Southern Cameroons citizens and its vicious military campaign currently going on deep within the Ambazonia territory not only shows that Biya’s human rights record as painted by the corrupt UN African structure are just a sham but also that the Biya Francophone regime are almost out of control. French Cameroun under the 85 year old dictator reportedly has the worst human rights record in Africa and the Yaoundé government is playing a game with the European Union and the United States including Canada saying they are working to improve via the so-called National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms.

The war declared by the ailing Francophone head of state has demonstrated that French Cameroun human rights record, it’s just more of the same and even worse. The French Cameroun army particularly members of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) are executing women and children in Southern Cameroons towns and villages, which is condemned by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,  the International Crisis Group and other organizations.

The Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and 46 senior aides of his government have been behind bars with no legal representation ever since they were extradited from the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Cameroon Concord News gathered that Francophone public prosecutors with strong ties to the Biya Francophone regime are calling for the death penalty for all Southern Cameroons detainees.

Yaounde has secretly executed several Anglophone human rights activists for supporting separation with French Cameroun. A majority of the Southern Cameroons human rights leaders arrested recently, came on French Cameroun government radars during the teachers and lawyers protests that demanded an end to discrimination against English speaking Cameroonians.

The French Cameroun government has arrested hundreds of Ambazonian women and children and many more have escaped into the bushes as the regime intensifies its crackdown against the people of Southern Cameroons. The United Nations said in a report that some 161, 000 Southern Cameroonians have been internally displaced by the war and that some 50,000 have fled to neighboring Nigeria.

French Cameroun security officials have also intensified security measures in the Southern Zone of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia including the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsular.  The Ambazonian Interim Government under the leadership of Dr. Ikome Sako says it won’t back down on its fight for an independent state for Southern Cameroons.

The French government of President Emmanuel Macron is supporting the Francophone regime in Yaoundé and both sides have been spending billions of Franc CFA on the military in an attempt to crush the Anglophone uprising. They have destroyed Southern Cameroons infrastructures and they are killing hundreds of Southern Cameroons young men and women with little or no strong condemnation from the international community.

By Chi Prudence Asong

A local leader of the Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces charged with the liberation of the Manyu County has highlighted the failure of the Biya Francophone regime and its allies deep within the Buhari administration in the Federal Republic of Nigeria in their push to regain control of the strategic border town of Ekok, observing that the enemies of the Ambazonian people have faced defeat in Eyumojock and Akwaya sub constituencies.

The captain of the Manyu Odeshi Warriors made the remarks on Saturday in a statement issued on the state of the fighting raging in the hinterlands of the Manyu County particularly in the Etoko-Kendem border and in the Ekok- Otu corridor.  The Ambazonian freedom fighter also pointed out that the Southern Cameroons border with Nigeria has turned into a field of defeats for Ambazonian enemies adding, “We ask the Almighty God to take revenge on Biya and Buhari and their acolytes for their crimes and treachery against the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and its powerful Interim Government.”

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime and the Muhammadu Buhari Fulani crime syndicate in Abuja are two regimes that excelled each other in hypocrisy and treachery in order to prove their complaisance to the French government headed by Emmanuel Macron.

The Ambazonia Restoration Force has been defending Southern Cameroons women and children including the Ambazonian nation against a France-French Cameroun-led coalition of invaders.

The coalition, which features several soldiers from France and the Republic of Chad, began the campaign last year, killing more than two thousand Southern Cameroonians. Military planes donated by the United States government to combat the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram now provides aerial intelligence to the French Cameroun army, while helping out the invading forces.

By Rita Akana in Ekok

Intelligence services of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia have confirmed that bullets and guns used by the French Cameroun army in its genocidal campaign in Southern Cameroons that has claimed the lives of some 2000 people had been supplied by France. The Ambazonian security agents briefed Acting President Samuel Ikome Sako late on Sunday the 19^th of August 2018 in the US.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the Ambazonian leader was provided details including the numbers on the weapon confiscated by restoration forces. Acting President Sako is expected to hold his first international press conference today in Washington DC.  The Francophone dominated army has continued its onslaught in Southern Cameroons sparking outrage from international human rights groups and UN officials.

Late last week, Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces hinted our chief intelligence officer in Buea that guns and bullets recovered from the Cameroon government army showed that it was likely manufactured in France. Yaoundé has demonstrated to the international community that its military action in Southern Cameroons is legitimate.

The French government of President Emmanuel Macron has pushed the world to turn a blind eye on the atrocities being committed by French Cameroun soldiers in Southern Cameroons.  Recent comments by the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji have highlighted the issue of French complicity in the deaths of thousands of Southern Cameroonians.

Recently, hundreds of Ambazonians in Canada took to the streets to condemn the killings and economic hardship caused by the Biya regime war in Southern Cameroons. The French Cameroun army and its CEMAC allies launched a brutal war against Southern Cameroons last year in an attempt to crush the Anglophone uprising.

The Biya Francophone government military offensive initially consisted of helicopter gun-firing campaign, but was later coupled with the deployment of ground forces. The war, however, has so far failed to achieve its goals, thanks to stiff resistance from Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

It is with immense sadness that the Annan family and the Kofi Annan Foundation announce that Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations and Nobel Peace Laureate, passed away peacefully on Saturday 18th August after a short illness. His wife Nane and their children Ama, Kojo and Nina were by his side during his last days.

Kofi Annan was a global statesman and a deeply committed internationalist who fought throughout his life for a fairer and more peaceful world. During his distinguished career and leadership of the United Nations he was an ardent champion of peace, sustainable development, human rights and the rule of law.

After stepping down from the United Nations, he continued to work tirelessly in the cause of peace through his chairmanship of the Kofi Annan Foundation and as chair of The Elders, the group founded by Nelson Mandela. He was an inspiration to young and old alike.

Kofi Annan was a son of Ghana and felt a special responsibility towards Africa. He was particularly committed to African development and deeply engaged in many initiatives, including his chairmanship of the Africa Progress Panel and his early leadership of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

Wherever there was suffering or need, he reached out and touched many people with his deep compassion and empathy. He selflessly placed others first, radiating genuine kindness, warmth and brilliance in all he did. He will be greatly missed by so many around the world, as well as his staff at the Foundation and his many former colleagues in the United Nations system. He will remain in our hearts forever.

The family kindly requests privacy at this time of mourning. Arrangements to celebrate his remarkable life will be announced later.

The video released last Friday showed soldiers firing automatic weapons at unarmed people assembled face down and sitting against a wall.

“The government condemns this gruesome, unbearable and unsupportable situation. At the same time while some accusing fingers are pointing at our army, from the same video you have another voice which says that this gruesome killing was perpetrated by another army in another nation,” Tchiroma told a press conference in the capital Yaounde.

His reaction followed a report by an international NGO stating that the shocking killings were committed by Cameroonian security forces during a military operation in the village of Achigaya in the Far North region of the country.

Cameroonian army is a responsible, discipline and people-friendly force, Tchiroma said but announced that an enquiry into the crime is in progress.

“A commission is on right now leading a thorough investigation in order to find out the perpetrators of the gruesome killings. If it happens that they are Cameroonians, then they will be taken to the court,” said Tchiroma.

Last week, Cameroon arrested seven soldiers suspected of having shot dead at close range two women and two young children in the Far North after denying the crime was not committed by Cameroon security forces.

Source: Xinhuanet

Jerry Rawlings, Former Ghanaian Head of State and President of Ghana, has described the violence in Cameroon as a “horrible situation” and stated that France and Cameroonian leader Paul Biya cannot escape blame for the atrocities in the Anglophone half.

Rawlings made the condemnation while receiving members of the TakeItBack movement led by Omoyele Sowore, a presidential aspirant in the forthcoming elections in Nigeria, at his office in Ridge, Accra, Ghana.

He expressed worry that the situaton in Cameroon hasn’t been receiving consistent media attention because of the interest of some powerful western powers in the country’s resources.

Giving an eyewitness account of the happenings in Cameroon, Togolese Activist, Farida Nabourema, who is part of the TakeItBack team and was recently in Cameroon, said: “The week I was there, they actually shot four young men. We were going into town and a woman stopped us where there were four corpses of Anglophone Cameroonians.

She said the four were killed in an extra-judicial manner.

She added that the family later confirmed that one corpse was deposited at the hospital, while others were taken away by the military. She also spoke of widespread burning of villages, which she described as ethnic cleansing.

Sowore, who is an activist, called for an end to the bloodshed in Anglophone Cameroon, noting that every African life deserves to be protected.

He also called on the international community to look into events in Cameroon for the sake of posterity.

Culled from Sahara Reporters

The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia says a recent deadly attack by French Cameroun government forces on the town of Mbengui in the Northern Zone, which massacred two nurses and 14 other innocent civilians, is a disgrace to the Biya Francophone regime and the French government, the main sponsor and arms supplier to French Cameroun.

The Ambazonian Department of Health issued the declaration as hundreds of medics in the Northern Zone came out in their numbers on Wednesday to pay their last respects to their colleagues who were shot at the weekend by soldiers loyal to the regime in Yaounde. Cameroon Concord News Group understands  Nancy Azah and her husband, Njong Paddisco ran two separate clinics in Mbengwi.

Several senior political commentators have criticized the African Union and the United Nations for inaction on the Biya regime’s policy of killing innocent Southern Cameroons citizens. In a broadcast to Ambazonians recently, Communications Secretary, Hon. Chris Anu said, Southern Cameroons interim government does not pin its hopes on the UN or the AU for any effort towards ending the genocidal campaign going on in Southern Cameroons, but rather relies on its own restoration forces and other freedom-seeking people to that end.

Over 2,000 people have been killed and 170 villages burned in English-speaking regions of Cameroon. Violence has escalated in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions in the last 18 months, with reports of French-speaking state forces launching a string of random attacks, kidnappings, and rapes against English-speaking residents and their villages.

After English-speaking residents in the Northwest and Southwest regions protested in October 2016 demanding autonomy because they feel underrepresented in the government, violence in those communities escalated throughout 2017.

Last month, the United Nations expressed concern that the violence against those communities has only “worsened considerably” since 2017 as there have been multiple reports of detention, torture, burning down of homes and excessive use of force by state forces.

Over the past weeks, several European and North American cities have been witnessing Ambazonian protests against the Biya Francophone regime and its French government partners deep within the UN and AU structures. Ambazonian protesters in Canada recently also called on the international community to punish the regime in Yaounde for its crimes against Southern Cameroons civilians.

In a relevant development, the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has summoned all Southern Cameroons resistance groups to Washington DC for a unity meeting.

By Rita Akana in Bamenda