Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Joseph Kabila on Wednesday pledged to appoint a new prime minister in the next two days, in line with a stalled December peace deal struck with the opposition. “The prime minister will absolutely have to be named within 48 hours,” Kabila said in a much-awaited speech to MPs and senators on the state of a December 31 power-sharing agreement, yet to be implemented. The deal brokered by the influential Catholic Church aimed to avoid a full-blown crisis in the vast restive nation following Kabila’s failure to step down at the end of his second and final mandate mid-December. It enabled Kabila to remain in office pending elections in late 2017 in tandem with a transitional body and a new premier, to be chosen within opposition ranks.

But putting the deal in place hit a major hurdle in early February with the death of veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, who had gathered together the opposition in a coalition. In his speech in the capital, Kinshasa, Kabila urged the opposition group “to overcome its internal squabbles” and to hand him a list of candidates for the post of prime minister. Kabila has run one of the world’s least developed countries since the 2001 assassination of his father Laurent. Violence has flared across the country of 71 million people in recent months however, amid fears of a continued delay in this year’s promised elections.

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The Forum of the Francophone Cameroun Diaspora to be held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from the 25^th  to 27^th of May 2017 initiated by French speaking Cameroonians living outside the national borders, will address the issue of Biya’s continued stay in power and political succession in Cameroon.

Francophone Cameroonians abroad have chosen to reflect on strategies that will lead to a lasting solution to the current socio-political situation in Cameroon. Cameroon Concord News gathered that the main objective of the Burkina Faso forum will be to identify grievances in relation to the socio-political situation in Cameroon and to plan viable therapeutics for a new Cameroon.

The participants in this forum are mainly academics, artists, journalists, businessmen, political leaders, members of the civil society, men of culture and a group calling itself “Friends of Cameroon”. The organizers of the Diaspora forum hope that this year’s meeting will provide recommendations and resolutions that will bring political change in Cameroon. Cameroonians from inside and outside are unanimous: It is time to think of a patriotic start for real change in Cameroon.

By Fru James

A general strike called by the opposition to force Congolese President Joseph Kabila to share power has slowed business activities in the country’s four biggest cities. “We’ve followed the call … because we are suffering greatly. Let him (Kabila) quit power, he has finished his mandate, we want no more of him,” Mamie Biamba, a resident of the capital Kinshasa, told AFP on Monday.

The central square — Place Victoria — in the usually teeming city of more than 10 million people was almost empty in early morning, with police posted on key arteries. The strike also hit the Democratic Republic of Congo’s second city, Lubumbashi, as well as eastern Goma and the central cities of Mbuji-Mayi and Kananga. But it was business as usual in Kisangani in the northeast and Mbandaka in the northwest.

An umbrella alliance of parties, known as the Rassemblement (Movement), had urged people to stop work in protest at Kabila’s failure to implement a power-sharing deal signed on December 31 and to appoint a prime minister from the opposition. The president’s constitutional mandate expired last year at the end of his second five-year term. His unwillingness to enable elections and step down led to protests in September that left some 50 people dead.

At 8:00 am (0700 GMT), shops and service stations remained closed in Kinshasa and public transport was scarce, with people walking from their homes in eastern working-class districts to their workplaces in the city center. The situation was similar in distant Lubumbashi, according to witnesses in the country’s mining capital, about 1,570 kilometers southeast of Kinshasa.

“One shop in five is open,” a resident told AFP, while a bank manager stated that work had slowed down and several of his staff had failed to show up. “I was almost alone on the roads and I charged high fares,” taxi driver Nyembo Muyumba said in Lubumbashi. But some people voiced indifference to the strike call, which followed pressure on Kabila by the United Nations, the African Union and the European Union to abide by the December deal.

“We’re not concerned by appeals from politicians. Our problem is to find something to feed our children, send them to school,” said Albertine Bulanga, who sells maize in a Kingasani market. “Life has become unbearable for the little people like us while they (the politicians) have cushy lives.

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South African President Jacob Zuma may face another impeachment as the country’s parliament speaker says she would consider requests from opposition parties to hold a new no-confidence vote against the embattled leader. Parliament Speaker Baleka Mbete said Sunday after cutting short a trip abroad that an impeachment may be held against Zuma following his decision last week to sack South Africa’s popular finance minister.

Mbete said in televised remarks that the request for the no-confidence vote was submitted to her by the centrist Democratic Alliance (DA) and the ultra-left Economic Freedom Fighters Party (EFF). The two parties have asked the speaker to reconvene the parliament and hold an urgent sitting on the issue. Mbete is also the national chairperson of the ruling African National Congress (ANC). Her new announcement shows how she and senior members of the ANC disagree with Zuma’s removal of Pravin Gordhan.

Gordhan attended a memorial for an anti-apartheid activist on Saturday and called on the ANC supporters to mobilize against Zuma. Previous no-confidence votes against Zuma have failed as his ANC party, which has ruled South Africa since the end of apartheid in the 1990s, dominates the parliament.

However, Gordhan’s removal, which badly affected the markets, seems to have clearly undermined Zuma’s leadership in the ANC. More elements within the party are joining the opposition in calling for Zuma’s removal from power.

Even Zuma’s deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, has said that he disagreed with the decision to sack Gordhan, arguing that the move could downgrade South Africa’s credit ratings. The Communist Party, a key ally of ANC, also said Friday that “Zuma must now resign.” Zuma has lost a great deal of his popularity over the past years over a string of missteps and scandals.

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Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has appointed a prime minister for the first time since the post was abolished following a coup in 1989. Bakri Hassan Saleh, 68, took the oath of office at the presidential palace in Khartoum on Thursday, a day after he was named as prime minister by the executive bureau of the president’s National Congress Party (NCP).

A close confidante of Bashir, Saleh has served in several ministerial portfolios in the Sudanese government, including interior and defense. The army general, who is known as “Bashir’s shadow,” was head of Sudan’s all powerful National Security and Intelligence Service in the 1990s.

Saleh was an influential military officer in the 1989 coup which brought Bashir to power. He has been a key aide to Bashir and served as first vice-president, a post he will continue to occupy in the future.

The appointment is part of reforms proposed by a year-long national dialogue between the Sudanese government and some opposition groups.

Bashir, who has faced criticism over his way of dealing with dissent, concluded in October last year a national dialogue involving his government and several opposition groups. The main aim of the initiative is to resolve insurgency in Sudan’s border regions and heal the country’s crisis-wracked economy.

Bashir scrapped the post of prime minister after he launched the 1989 coup against then premier Sadiq al-Mahdi. Lawmakers approved constitutional amendments last year while Mahdi returned to Sudan from a two-year exile last month. The post of prime minister was created by constitutional amendments.

Many say the appointment of a new prime minister would help Bashir revive his decades-old rule and give it a new look. Khaled Tigani, a senior journalist, said Sudan would hardly differ under Saleh’s premiership as it would be a continuation of Bashir’s rule.

“General Bakri’s appointment is broadly a continuation of Bashir’s rule rather than a new chapter in Sudan’s politics,” he told AFP, adding, “But at the end of the day it depends on the leadership that General Bakri manages to show.”

Saleh said in a brief statement after taking oath that his cabinet would represent various political forces. “Our country is at a historic moment as it harmonizes all political parties and powers who participated in the national dialogue,” Saleh said.

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Hundreds of protesters have marched through the capital of Guinea-Bissau, demanding the departure of embattled President Jose Mario Vaz. On Thursday, the crowd of angry demonstrators on the main avenues of the capital Bissau held anti-government placards and repeatedly chanted slogans such as “Jomav get out”, using the president’s local nickname.

They also called for fresh elections to end the political crisis gripping the African country. The demonstration came a day after parliament rejected a program submitted by Prime Minister Umaro Mokhtar Sissoco Embalo.

Vaz appointed Sissoco in November after months of regional talks seeking an end to an 18-month political turmoil in the country. The prime minister has already missed a 60-day deadline to present a government program and budget that have to be accepted by parliament.

“The party … voted against the program of the PM because his government is illegitimate,” said Seidy Ba Sane, a spokesman for the country’s ruling PAIGC party. Sissoco has stressed that he would continue ruling without the confidence of parliament.

People in the West African country say the failure to pass a budget has begun to affect their daily lives and caused delays in payment of salaries for civil servants.  In addition, the ongoing crisis has stoked fears that drug traffickers might profit from the power vacuum in the country. Earlier this month, the United Nations expressed concern “over challenges posed by transnational organized crime and emerging threats, including drug trafficking, in the country.”

The economy of Guinea Bissau, one of the world’s poorest countries, is heavily reliant on cashew nut production.  Violence has rocked Guinea-Bissau since 1974 when it gained independence from Portugal. Since its independence, the country has suffered from political turmoil, including a series of military coups largely due to the unprecedented expansion of the army.

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Senator and former world and European best footballer, George Oppong Weah made a courtesy visit on Tuesday in Accra to President Nana Akufo-Addo to congratulate him on his election as President of Ghana. Weah took advantage of his meeting with Akufo-Addo to invite him not only to strengthen the bilateral relations between Liberia and Ghana but also to support a credible election in Liberia on October 10, 2017.

The new occupant of Flagstaff House in Accra thanked Weah for his visit and promised that the links between Ghana and Liberia will be strengthened and that Ghana will continue to support and defends democracy in the countries of the region.

The Liberian senator also saluted the endurance of Akufo-Addo, who got elected president after running for the third time. The visit of George Oppong Weah comes after the one made last week in Accra by Didier Drogba, the Ivorian football legend.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Hail to the courageous and persistent Ambazonians who continue the ghost town strategy even when everybody would like to celebrate the win of the Africa Cup on the streets! No! Now is not the time to focus on sports, now is the time to focus on survival of the whole homeland, the whole People of Ambazonia. Either you stand up now altogether or you become extinct. The independent Nation of Ambazonia aka “Southern Cameroons” is threatened by genocide and has suffered unspeakable treatment by the illegitimate dictatorial regime of Cameroun aka Exploitation-Colony-of-France for tooooo long.

The ghost town form of maximum passive resistance must continue at any cost to put more and more pressure on Mista Biya on his cronies and on all international parties which may still think that Anglophones are just an internal problem in Cameroon. No! The Anglophones are not the problem, they are the solution! The real problem is with the Francophones, who crawl in the the arse of French and other foreign corporations to profit from exploitation of their own fellow Cameroonians. And what the French are doing with Cameroun, like a rapist with its victim, Yaoundé is doing with Ambazonia.

 It’s only about robbing robbing robbing. That’s why they don’t allow any weapons for the Ambazonians to defend themselves and control their own resources by themselves. Nevertheless, right now, it is favorable to stay with all forms of passive resistance until an exile government of Ambazonia is formed which will drive a worldwide peaceful campaign for the support of the buildup of a modern, independent, entrepreneurial, prosperous, free Ambazonia in which the People can vote for their own State’s name and new, much better Constitution per Referendum. But to make it happen, we need everyone of you, each and every single one, to help keeping the resistance spirit in the suffering population alive and to promote the convincing of the Francophones also, that they shall support the Ambazonians in their quest for independence, because once achieved, that would be the most potential way to help the Francophones as well to get rid of that corrupt and outdated Biya regime and French robbery post colonialism. So please, try to call as many people in the homeland as you can and keep them informed and highly spirited.

 The Ambazonian Diaspora is feverishly working on all diplomatic and guerilla and media campaign fronts to make the world convinced that it is driving far far better with free Ambazonia than with enslaved Cameroon! You will see, independence, freedom, prosperity, own government, own army, own currency, own modern constitution, all this will come, if you only remain persistent and network with the homeland like one man with one agenda and one command structure! Every Ambazonian, every “Southern Cameroonian” has to become a warrior for independence now! Ambazonians and Cameroonians are the creme de la creme of Africa and they will get their long deserved freedom!

LONG LIVE AMBAZONIA!!!

Moroccan officials have rejected claims that their country will have to recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) now that the kingdom is permitted to rejoin the African Union (AU). Moroccan Deputy Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said in an interview published on Sunday that Morocco’s membership in the AU would not mean a recognition of the SADR borders declared by the the Polisario Front in the Western Sahara region at the height of a war for the territory.

“Not only does Morocco not recognize – and will never recognize – this so-called entity … It will (also) redouble its efforts so the small minority of countries, particularly African, which recognize it, change their positions,” said Bourita.

The Moroccan diplomat said Rabat will not change its stance on the territory, refuting statements by Polisario and its allies that Morocco’s return to the African bloc implies a recognition of the SADR’s borders.

“This is nonsense from the point of view of international law and state practice,” Bourita said, adding that joining “an international forum in the presence of an unrecognized entity cannot imply the state’s recognition of that entity.” The AU decided in a meeting in Ethiopia last Monday to approve Morocco’s re-entry into the bloc. The kingdom left the AU in 1984 after the continental body admitted SADR.

Polisario backers, namely Algeria and South Africa, had resisted Morocco’s return. A diplomatic source in Rabat said Morocco’s re-entry into AU was a major setback for those countries, saying they “spent months doing everything they can to prevent our return, until the last minute.”

The source said Polisario backers are now trying to present their “failure as a success” by pretending that Morocco has accepted to recognize SADR. “Morocco will continue to mobilize to delegitimize the SADR,” said the senior diplomat, adding, “The return of Morocco is a direct challenge to the presence of the Polisario within the AU.”

The Polisario head and SADR president, Brahim Ghali, said Sunday that the movement was ready to hold talks with Morocco, but warned that “all options are open” in the independence struggle from the kingdom, meaning that the movement could return to armed struggle against Rabat.

“We always look for the peaceful way” to resolve the conflict, Ghali said, adding, “But all options remain open.” Ghali called on Morocco to meet its commitments, saying the kingdom should respect the international borders of the Sahrawi Republic now that it is a member of the AU

The disputed Sahara territory was for long a Spanish colony until it went under Moroccan control in 1975. Years of war ended with a ceasefire in 1991 but the two sides of the conflict have rejected efforts to reach a permanent solution. Some 165,000 people, known as Sahrawis, currently live in a refugee camp in Tindouf, southwestern Algeria. The population mostly lives on aid from UN agencies and international NGOs.

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African leaders have renewed their determination to pull out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) collectively, accusing the international body of discriminating against Africans. The African leaders adopted a strategy for their collective withdrawal at the 28th African Union (AU) summit, which wrapped up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Tuesday.

A draft of the strategy, which was recited at a closed-door AU session and was later published by AP, recommends that African states build up and strengthen their own independent judicial systems. The non-binding recommendation also calls on African nations to expand the jurisdiction of the African court of justice and human rights to resolve disputes on the continent “in order to reduce the deference to the ICC.”

This is the latest expression of impatience by African leaders with the court, which some say has focused too narrowly on African leaders. Desire Assogbavi, the head of Oxfam International’s AU liaison office, confirmed the adoption of the strategy. However, analysts say African countries are divided on whether to leave the court or try to change some of its policies.

Burundi, Gambia, and South Africa have already said they no longer recognize the court’s jurisdiction and announced their intention to quit. But several other African countries, including Nigeria, Senegal and the Republic of the Congo have spoken up in support of the ICC in recent months. One of the main African supporters of the ICC is former United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan. Since the ICC was launched on July 1,  2002, it has indicted 39 people, all of whom have been African.

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