Politics

Yaoundé tense as post Biya succession void looms

19, July 2020

Yaoundé tense as post Biya succession void looms 0

With the Southern Cameroons crisis showing no signs of ending, the burning question now for many Cameroon political commentators is: Who will succeed Biya? Biya, 87, has ruled the oil-exporting nation for 38 years, making him among Africa’s longest rulers.

There are a lot of under-the-table talks about the issue of succession in Yaoundé. This is another major threat to stability in the already divided nation.

Stability in the two Cameroons matters to the wider region. Its $22 billion-a-year economy is by far the largest in CEMAC region.  Reuters reported that aside from Cameroon’s oil sector, the country hosts miners such as Canada-listed Geovic GMC.TO and Australia’s Sundance Resources (SDL.AX) and the port in Douala is vital to traffic in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea.

Over the years, Biya has achieved “stability” while astutely outmaneuvering opposition both within his ruling CPDM crime syndicate and outside it. With Mr.Paul Biya all-powerful, there is no clear successor or plan to manage a post-Biya era.

Consequently, several close relatives of President Biya are vying for the leadership of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate and some of the party barons have already been silenced, Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered from a reliable source in Yaoundé.

The war raging within the Francophone dominated political structure is to succeed the 87 year old President Paul Biya as head of state.

We understand that some of the Biya acolytes have been very careful not to display their ambitions for fear of suffering a similar fate like the former Secretary General at the Presidency Jean-Marie Atangana Mebara and the former Finance Minister Polycarp Abah Abah. Out of the woods before the 2011 presidential election, both men were immediately targeted by the anti-corruption Operation Sparrow hawk.

Among the contenders to take over from Mr. Paul Biya is the current Finance Minister Louis Paul Motaze who is a Bulu from Dja-et-Lobo Division. To be accurate, Motaze is from President Paul Biya’s home constituency and he is also a nephew to late Jeanne-Irène Biya, Cameroon’s former First Lady. Minister Louis Paul Motaze presently moonlights as the CPDM’s regional coordinator for the South Region.

Motaze is being challenged by Justice Minister Laurent Esso, the all-powerful Sawa political boss from the Littoral fiefdom and also by the current Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.

The political heat generated by the infighting within the ruling CPDM party is making the job of the Secretary General of the CPDM Central Committee Jean Nkuété very difficult. Jean Nkuété is President Paul Biya’s long-time friend and the Beti Ewondo gang considers him a lesser evil in the struggle for power.

By Isong Asu

Berlin, Rome, Paris threaten sanctions on states interfering in Libya

18, July 2020

Berlin, Rome, Paris threaten sanctions on states interfering in Libya 0

France, Italy and Germany are “ready to consider” sanctions on foreign powers violating an arms embargo in Libya, a joint statement by their leaders said Saturday.

The statement did not directly name any foreign actors funneling arms to Libya but multiple powers have been sending fighters and weapons, fuelling a bloody proxy war that reflects wider geopolitical rifts and divisions in the Middle East and within NATO.

While forces loyal to strongman Khalifa Haftar are backed by Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, the UN-recognised unity government is fighting back with Turkey’s support.

“We … urge all foreign actors to end their increasing interference and to fully respect the arms embargo established by the United Nations Security Council,” the statement said.

“We are ready to consider the possible use of sanctions should breaches to the embargo at sea, on land or in the air continue.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said they therefore “look forward to the proposals the EU High Representative/Vice President will make to this end.”

Voicing “grave concerns” over the escalating military tensions in Libya, they urged “all Libyan parties and their foreign supporters for an immediate cessation of fighting and for a stop of the ongoing military build-up throughout the country.”

In Brussels for a crunch EU summit on hammering out a huge recovery rund for the bloc, the three European leaders had met on the sidelines of the meeting to discuss the deteriorating situation in Libya.

Since 2015, a power struggle has pitted the UN-recognised, Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) against forces loyal to Haftar, who is based in eastern Benghazi.

Ankara’s military support for the GNA has tipped the balance and allowed its forces in June to repel Haftar’s 14-month advance on Tripoli and launch a counteroffensive.

This week, Egypt racheted up tensions, with its president warning his country “will not stand idle in the face of any moves that pose a direct threat to the national security not only of Egypt but also that of Libya”.

Libya has been mired in chaos since the 2011 uprising that toppled and later killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Source: AFP

US: Amid decline in poll numbers ahead of election, Trump replaces campaign manager

16, July 2020

US: Amid decline in poll numbers ahead of election, Trump replaces campaign manager 0

President Donald Trump shook up his campaign staff amid sinking poll numbers less than four months before the election, replacing campaign manager Brad Parscale with veteran GOP operative Bill Stepien.

“I am pleased to announce that Bill Stepien has been promoted to the role of Trump Campaign Manager,” Trump said Wednesday on Facebook. “Brad Parscale, who has been with me for a very long time and has led our tremendous digital and data strategies, will remain in that role, while being a Senior Advisor to the campaign.”

Trump and Parscale’s relationship had been increasingly strained, with the president annoyed by the publicity Parscale had garnered in the role. But the final straw appeared to be a Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally last month that drew an unexpectedly low crowd of about 6,200 people after Parscale had bragged that more than a million people had requested tickets. The president was furious.

The shakeup injected familiar turmoil to Trump’s 2020 campaign, which had so far largely avoided the regular staff churn that dominated the president’s 2016 campaign and his White House. It comes as Trump has been struggling in his reelection campaign against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, with the nation facing health and economic crises during a pandemic that has killed more than 135,000 Americans.

The staff change was not expected to alter the day-to-day running of the campaign. News of the shuffle was delivered to Parscale on Wednesday afternoon by White House adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Parscale, a political novice, ran Trump’s digital advertising in 2016 and was credited with helping bring about his surprise victory that year. Stepien has been in politics for years, working for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and serving as Trump’s national field director in 2016.

Parscale had been increasingly sidelined in the weeks since the Tulsa rally and as the president’s public and private poll numbers have taken a hit amid the pandemic. Speculation had been rampant about who might be promoted to lead the operation, with names like former Trump strategist Steve Bannon floated.

Parscale is a close ally of Kushner, who wields ultimate control over the campaign. A Florida resident, he had not been a regular presence of late in the campaign’s Arlington, Virginia, headquarters, sparking some resentments among staffers.

Rather than parting ways completely, Parscale was retained in part because of the difficulty the campaign would have faced in rebuilding its digital advertising operation so close to the Nov. 3 general election. While the Republican National Committee owned most of the campaign’s data, voter modeling and outreach tools, Parscale ran most of the microtargeted online advertising that Trump aides believed were key in 2016.

Parscale’s digital advertising firm was among the campaign’s most significant vendors, and some in Trump’s orbit have alleged that the former campaign manager was profiting off the president’s reelection. Parscale has repeatedly denied the claims.

Trump has been pressed by allies in recent months to expand his political circle and more forcefully define his run against Biden. Last month, Trump announced a promotion for Stepien and returned former communications chief Jason Miller to his campaign, taking away some of Parscale’s clout and influence.

Biden also shuffled his campaign team, albeit much earlier in the cycle, amid a disastrous stretch in his primary run. For Biden, the moves marked genuine shakeups that expanded and changed how his campaign operated.

Biden elevated Anita Dunn, effectively displacing his first campaign manager, Greg Schultz, after a fourth-place Iowa finish and as he was already headed for a second embarrassing finish in New Hampshire. Dunn had joined Biden at the outset of his campaign after having served President Barack Obama as a top communications adviser.

With Dunn’s urging, Biden hired his current campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, in March after Dunn and others helped resurrect Biden in Nevada and South Carolina and put him on the path to the nomination. Schultz is now at the Democratic National Committee, helping lead the joint battleground strategy among the national party, the Biden campaign and state parties.

Source: AP

Beti-Ewondo Politics: Ambassador sent packing from Paris after falling out with long-serving bursar

15, July 2020

Beti-Ewondo Politics: Ambassador sent packing from Paris after falling out with long-serving bursar 0

Replaced by André-Magnus Ekoumou, Cameroon’s ambassador to France Alfred Nguini only lasted 17 months in the job before falling foul of in-house politics.

WCA welcomes move from the Government of Cameroon to engage with Separatist leaders

14, July 2020

WCA welcomes move from the Government of Cameroon to engage with Separatist leaders 0

WCA welcomes the move from the Government of Cameroon to engage with separatist leaders for preliminary talks to find peace in the English speaking regions of Cameroon

With more than 3 years of a devastating war in the English Speaking regions of Cameroon showing little signs of easing, The West Cameroon Association, (WCA) is encouraged by the Press Release of Communications Minister of Government of Cameroon (GoC), Mr Rene Emmanuel Sadi, on July 06 2020 which indicates that representatives of the GoC has been engaged in preliminary talks with some of the captured separatist leaders in the search for a return to peace in the English speaking regions. WCA hopes that these exploratory meetings are a genuine beginning to seeking a lasting and durable settlement to the conflict.

It is apparent that discussions with these individuals cannot be conducted under their own free will as they are serving lengthy prison sentences for activities related to the crisis. WCA therefore proposes to the GoC to consider taking the following actions to demonstrate its seriousness and commitment to the process:

1.       Release all those who have been arrested and imprisoned as a result of the crisis, so that they can engage with the process as free people.

2.       Seek the inclusion of other parties whom majority of the English Speaking Cameroonians will find acceptable, including those who are connected with the fighters in the bushes and forests.

Accordingly, WCA would urge the GoC to continue with these confidence building measures and to seriously consider putting in place the enabling conditions for credible negotiations such as proposed by Mr. Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe following the reported meeting.

Sign

Richard Nfor

Mahmoud Dicko, the populist imam challenging Mali’s President Keita

13, July 2020

Mahmoud Dicko, the populist imam challenging Mali’s President Keita 0

With no end in sight to Mali’s economic and security crises, a prominent conservative cleric has emerged as the most potent challenge to a widely discredited political establishment perceived as having run out of ideas and solutions.

Days after orchestrating a protest movement that brought down Mali’s prime minister, in April last year, popular cleric Mahmoud Dicko was asked whether he intended to trade religion for politics.

“I am not a politician, but I am a leader and I have opinions,” he told French-speaking magazine Jeune Afrique. “If that is political, then yes, I am political.”

Just over a year later, the prominent imam is at the forefront of an even larger protest movement that has brought tens of thousands of protesters to the streets of Bamako to call for another resignation — that of Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, the embattled Malian president commonly known as IBK.

Protesters accuse Keita and his government of failing to address Mali’s multiple crises, ranging from a continued jihadist insurgency in the north, to intercommunal violence in the centre and a crippling economic crisis in the south, where 90 percent of the country’s population lives.

Triggered by the disputed results of legislative elections in March, the recent protests turned violent at the weekend as security forces cracked down on protesters and opposition leaders, killing at least four people in Bamako’s worst civil unrest in years.

The protest movement has brought together a motley coalition of opposition politicians, anti-corruption activists and religious figures — with Dicko acting as the undisputed crowd puller, whipping up hostility towards the government and then calling for restraint.

Between Riyadh and Timbuktu

A one-time Keita ally, the 66-year-old cleric is no political novice. Dubbed the “people’s imam” by his own supporters, he has played a prominent role in public life for more than a decade, chairing the country’s High Islamic Council from 2008 to 2019.

Dicko was born into a leading family from Timbuktu , the ancient “city of 333 saints”. As with other local religious leaders, his brand of Islam defies easy categorisation, blending the social conservatism nurtured by his training in Saudi Arabia with a form of reverence for the mystical traditions of West Africa.

The imam first rose to prominence in 2009, leading a protest campaign that forced Mali’s then President Amadou Toumani Touré to water down a reform of family law that would have expanded women’s rights. More recently, he secured the withdrawal of a school textbook that touched on the subject of homosexuality.

In between, the outspoken cleric stirred outrage by suggesting the 2015 terrorist attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako was divine punishment for Malians who “imported” homosexuality from the West.

And while he welcomed France’s military intervention to repel jihadist insurgents in 2013, he has since likened the troops’ continued presence to colonial-era practices, stoking an anti-French sentiment that has angered Paris and embarrassed Mali’s president.

Talking to jihadis

But the troublesome imam wasn’t always a thorn in Keita’s side. In 2013, he backed IBK for the presidency and accompanied him on several trips abroad — most notably in the Gulf, where his Saudi connections were particularly valued.

His conservative credentials also facilitated on-off talks with jihadi insurgents back home, as Keita’s government alternated between armed confrontation and attempts to sway the more moderate, homegrown factions.

The decision by former prime minister Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga to relieve Dicko of that role precipitated the imam’s fallout with the government. Angered by the snub, the “people’s imam” rallied tens of thousands of supporters last year to call for the PM’s removal — which he duly obtained.

According to sociologist Bréma Ely Dicko (no relation), both the cleric and his mentor Mohamed Ould Bouyé Haïdara, also known as the chériif de Nioro, felt sidelined by the government they once supported. “They were both frustrated, and the regime they once helped became the regime they had to fight,” he explained.

In further evidence of his scarcely concealed political ambitions, Mahmoud Dicko quit the High Islamic Council later that year to found his own Islamist movement, the Coordination des Mouvements, Associations et Sympathisants (CMAS). Since then, Mali’s fractured opposition has gravitated around his movement, hoping to tap on its broad appeal.

“Many opposition figures who would have stood no chance of seizing power are now relying on the imam and his followers for leverage, thereby handing him considerable political clout,” said analyst Aly Younkara in an interview with French daily Le Monde.

‘Problems everywhere’

With Keita’s many foes now loosely allied in the so-called June 5 Movement (M5), named after the first day of protests last month, Dicko has emerged as the unofficial spokesperson for the many grievances voiced by Malians exasperated by the continuing economic and security crisis.

“We have problems between communities, within the army and even between clerics – problems everywhere,” Dicko told FRANCE 24’s sister company, radio RFI in June. “There is poor governance and a deep malaise in the country. Corruption is rampant. I say it and I say it again!”

The latest wave of protests was sparked by a dispute over parliamentary elections, which saw the country’s constitutional court reverse provisional results and hand additional seats to the president’s party. The decision infuriated many Malians, exasperated by cronyism and corruption in a country starved of functioning public services.

Keita, who won a second term in 2018, has sought to appease the protesters by promising to dissolve the court and re-run elections for some contested seats. But the weekend’s bloodshed and the arrest of several M5 leaders have hardened the movement.

“We are not going to accept this nonsense,” one M5 spokesman, Nouhoum Togo, told REUTERS on Sunday, referring to the president’s proposals. “We demand [Keita’s] resignation plain and simple.”

‘Calm down!’

As the crisis festers, much will depend on Dicko’s stance in the coming weeks — and how far he can control Mali’s feuding opposition leaders, many of whom are both more secular and more confrontational vis à vis Keita than he is.

In a sign of the imam’s clout, and of the growing importance of religious leaders in a secular state with a mainly Muslim population, both Keita’s envoys and international mediators have been sounding out the imam before reaching out to the traditional opposition.

On Saturday, Dicko’s supporters erected barricades around his mosque in Bamako, fearing an attempt to arrest the popular imam. But the cleric himself struck a more conciliatory tone, appealing for calm and an end to the violence.

Speaking to FRANCE 24 ahead of the weekend protests, Dicko claimed the opposition had dropped its demand for the president to step down, but wanted further gestures from him.

“We think it [the resignation] will cause more problems than it will resolve,” he explained. “Mali’s problem is not about a government of national unity. It is a problem of governance.” The imam stressed that change must be secured through peaceful means, adding: “My age and my position command that I be measured.”

He repeated that message on Sunday, as some opposition leaders reportedly went into hiding to escape arrest, pleading for calm in a video message posted online: “Do not set fire to petrol stations or this district. Calm down, please! Calm down!”

Culled from France 24

Poland’s incumbent Duda tops presidential vote

13, July 2020

Poland’s incumbent Duda tops presidential vote 0

Poland’s state electoral commission said Monday that conservative President Andrzej Duda has won 51.21% of the vote with almost all votes counted in the country’s weekend election.

The nearly complete results, based on a count of votes from 99.97% districts, shows liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski just behind with 48.79% of the vote.

The final results could vary somewhat, however.

If the result is born out, it would be one of closest elections in Poland’s history, reflecting the deep divisions in this European Union nation.

Sunday’s vote was originally planned for May but was delayed amid bitter political wrangling.

Source: AP

Federal Republic of Ambazonia: IG calls for resumption of unity talks with other front line groups

10, July 2020

Federal Republic of Ambazonia: IG calls for resumption of unity talks with other front line groups 0

The Ambazonia Interim Government has called for resumption of unity talks with other front line groups as a sign of respect and honour to the late Southern Cameroons veteran leader Mola Njoh Litumbe, Cameroon Concord News has gathered from sources close to the communications department of the Dabney Yerima administration.

We understand that in a recent outing in Holland, the Southern Cameroons Vice President emphasized the importance of reopening communications with other respectable Ambazonia front line leaders and groups to put an end to the unhealthy rivalry and division that has rocked the resistance ever since the abduction and forced extradition of the Ambazonia leader Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides from Abuja to Yaoundé.

Yerima, who was en route to US for the Southern Cameroons International Conference before COVID-19 struck has been holding telephone conversations with Ambazonia front line leaders including the controversial Cho Ayaba of the ADF.

Several Southern Cameroons think tanks have expressed their intention to help bring about unity in the Ambazonia revolutionary structures.

By Rita Akana

Ambazonia Interim Gov’t: Maryland cabal policy of sending anti Sisiku Ayuk Tabe messages serves French Cameroun’s interests

9, July 2020

Ambazonia Interim Gov’t: Maryland cabal policy of sending anti Sisiku Ayuk Tabe messages serves French Cameroun’s interests 0

A senior adviser to Vice President Dabney Yerima has said the disgraced former Southern Cameroons representatives, Sako Ikome and Chris Anu are pursuing a policy of weakening Ambazonia Self Defense Forces against the French Cameroun military, noting that the Maryland cabal’s agenda serves the interests of the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé.

“The anti President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe messages flashed out incessantly by Mr Sako and Mr Chris Anu are meant to force the people of Ambazonia into capitulating to French Cameroun policies and achieving Biya regime’s objectives” Feh Peter Forbin noted in an interview with Cameroon Concord News.

“To be accurate, the Ambazonia Interim Government under the stewardship of Comrade Dabney Yerima is a thorn in the side of French Cameroun and poses a threat to the Biya Francophone regime. Sako and Chris are therefore helping Biya and his French Cameroun gang to pull the plug on the Interim Government” added Feh Peter.

The Yerima aide further highlighted the non existence of mask in Southern Cameroons amid the coronavirus, saying Sako Ikome and Chris Anu are primarily responsible for the problem because their social media outings is blocking the flow of cash into the Interim Government.

Elsewhere, Vice President Dabney Yerima censured French Cameroun’s continuous military operations in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, saying Yaoundé’s hostile policy against the people of Southern Cameroons will not weaken the Ambazonia revolution but will strengthen it.

By  Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap in Glasgow

Biya has achieved what Russia’s Vladimir Putin hopes to achieve

8, July 2020

Biya has achieved what Russia’s Vladimir Putin hopes to achieve 0

Paul Biya may not feature prominently in discussions about how Irish politics might be made more representative, more engaging, and less unattractive to myriad intelligent, socially aware, and committed citizens discouraged by the unchanging, numbing predictability of it all.

The personal and family costs risked by participation can be dissuading too.

So are the increasingly toxic, anti-democratic, character assassinations on consequence-free social media. Biya, at 88, is the world’s longest-serving state leader. He has been president of Cameroon since 1982, and served as prime minister from 1975 to 1982. He consolidated his power in 1984 during an attempted coup when he eliminated most of his rivals.

Biya has achieved what Russia’s Vladimir Putin hopes to achieve — authority for life. Just last week, Putin saw 77.9% of voters endorse ending presidential term limits allowing him the possibility of power until 2036.

China’s president, Xi Jinping, did not feel the need to even ask when, two years ago, the term limits of the Chinese presidency were abolished. When conversations about what might happen if US president Donald Trump loses in November but refuses to quit office began, they seemed liberals’ paranoia but maybe no longer.

Should he be re-elected, it seems at least possible he may try to imitate Putin and Xi .  To even suggest that may seem bizarre but then most of what he does is bizarre.

We may not, hopefully, have a Biya, Putin, Xi, or Trump hiding in the long grass but we do have a cohort all too comfortable with life-long careers as politicians.

Culled from Irish Examiner

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