5, October 2018

CAF President: “It’s only Cameroon that can say tomorrow that ‘we are ready or give us more time we are not ready’ ⁰

The head of the African soccer confederation has expressed satisfaction with Cameroon’s preparations to host next year’s African Cup of Nations, a statement at odds with the body’s position last week when it declined to back the country.

Confederation of African Football president Ahmad said Tuesday on a visit to Cameroon that CAF had “never thought of” and “never considered” dropping Cameroon as host. “It is left to Cameroon to tell us,” said Ahmad, who is from Madagascar and goes by one name. “We are not the ones organizing (the competition). It is Cameroon that is hosting the competition.

“It’s only Cameroon that can say tomorrow that ‘we are ready or give us more time we are not ready.’ It depends on Cameroon, not CAF.”

Ahmad’s position that CAF had no problem with Cameroon’s preparations contradicted statements made by the confederation after a two-day executive committee meeting last week. Then, CAF declined to confirm Cameroon as host for the tournament next June and July and instead delayed a decision until the end of next month and after at least two more inspection visits.

Cameroon has been criticized for serious delays with stadiums and other infrastructure and is in the midst of a violent separatist rebellion in the west, where two tournament host cities are located. CAF would first send a joint CAF-FIFA team to assess the security situation this month, it said, and then inspect infrastructure before deciding if Cameroon can hold Africa’s top soccer tournament.

Ahmad’s visit to Cameroon this week was also contrary to what CAF said last week, when it decided to hold off any inspection visits until after the Cameroonian presidential elections, which take place on Sunday. President Paul Biya is seeking another term to extend his 36-year rule in Cameroon.

That election could be a catalyst for more violence in the southwestern and northwestern regions, where English-speaking separatists have been engaged in bloody fighting with government forces since late 2016. Cameroon is about 80 percent French-speaking.

Ahmad said he had decided to visit Cameroon on the invitation of former Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o. “It is thanks to him that this visit has been organized in order to clear the air on every front,” Ahmad said.

CAF has no “Plan B” for the tournament, Ahmad said, a tournament which will be the first African Cup to be increased from 16 to 24 teams, placing additional pressure on Cameroon’s creaking infrastructure. Despite Ahmad dismissing the notion of a “Plan B,” Morocco has been mentioned as a possible replacement host.

If Morocco did stand in, it would be the fourth straight African Cup to be moved from its original host country. South Africa stepped in for Libya in 2013, the tournament was switched from Morocco to Equatorial Guinea in 2015, and Libya again backed out of its hosting last year, leaving Gabon to host at the last minute. Cameroon’s team is the African champion and was hoping to defend its title on home soil.

Source: News Observer

4, October 2018

CPDM has been in shambles since 1985 ⁰

A senior aide to President Paul Biya told Cameroon Concord News on Monday in Yaoundé that the ruling CPDM party has been in shambles since it was created in 1985. The outspoken baron who sued for anonymity also condemned President Biya for slowly but surely pushing the nation into disaster.

The French Cameroun political elite further pointed out that Francophone mediocrity has ruined the nation and sharply divided the ruling party adding that the aftermath of the October 7^th presidential election would be ‘disastrous’ if President Biya and the ruling CPDM party fails to heed the US ambassador’s advice.

Cameroon Concord News gathered from another reliable source that the CPDM is badly in need of a new leader and a new idea that can save the party from its current ill-fated flight. We understand, Biya and his gang had long planted a demon that was growing in the womb of the party for their own selfish Francophone Beti Ewondo interest.

There are fears deep within the Central Committee of the CPDM that even after the presidential elections; the ruling CPDM crime syndicate may end up without a genuine leader and without candidates at all legislative arms of government.

Our source said many elderly politicians opposed the idea of Biya seeking a 7^th term and had told the party’s Secretary General during a private Central Committee caucus meeting last year. He said President Biya was misled to believe that he was still the people’s choice.

“What happened in the meeting in Mvomeka’a was that there were people who misled Biya and the CPDM hierarchy and are using Biya’s continued stay in power to achieve their own ends. The CPDM has been in shambles in the last three decades.”

The CPDM and Biya have made promises to change the country, to restore things that were working properly under the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo and to cleanse the public service and state owned companies. But the country has now regressed to extending illegally postponing council and parliamentary elections so many times something that doesn’t exist within the constitution of the nation.

Most of the crises Cameroon now faces including the conflict in Ambazonia are as a result of CPDM internal wrangling and illegality, imposition of grassroots leaders, manipulation of the nation’s constitution and extension of tenure of mayors and MPs.

Our Yaoundé city reporter who contributed to this report observed that there are barons within the CPDM party, particularly Francophones, “You see them mostly every day coming to the Unity Palace, they feel that Cameroon belongs to them, they are closer to President Biya than any other person. They antagonize Southern Cameroonians calling them Biafra and Anglos.”

By Asu Vera Eyere with files from Rita Akana

4, October 2018

Boat capsizes in Guinea-Bissau, 60 feared dead ⁰

A small boat carrying refugees has capsized off the coast of the West African country of Guinea-Bissau.

Port officials said on Wednesday that the capsized boat may have had more than 60 people aboard.

Commander Siga Batista said the vessel, classified as a pirogue narrow wooden fishing boat, sank on Monday night in the Atlantic.

“An overloaded pirogue, transporting illegal migrants, capsized in our waters,” Batista told AFP by telephone, saying that the fisheries surveillance department had alerted him to the disaster.

“We don’t know how many people were on board when the boat sank, nor their identity or even their nationality. But according to information that has reached me there were more than 60 people on board the pirogue,” Batista said.

No survivors have been found but local radio stations have asked fishermen to tell authorities if they spot any bodies or passengers still alive.

The impoverished country, which has 200 kilometers of coastline and no patrol ships, was facing difficulty in launching a rescue operation.

“Due to the financial situation, we have had difficulty organizing a rescue operation,” Batista said.

The impoverished former Portuguese colony has been in the grip of a power struggle since August 2015.

Legislative elections are scheduled for November 18.

The handout picture, obtained on June 15, 2018, from French non-governmental organization Doctors without Borders (MSF) shows refugees on board the MV Aquarius at sea, on June 14, 2018. (Via AFP)

Asylum seekers set out from Africa, hoping to land in Europe and find a better life there.

According to the UN migration agency (IOM), in 2017, over 3,000 refugees lost their lives crossing the Mediterranean.

Source: Presstv

4, October 2018

UK accuses Russian military intelligence of global cyber attacks campaign ⁰

Britain accused Russian military intelligence on Thursday of directing a host of cyber attacks aimed at undermining Western democracies by sowing confusion in everything from sport to transport and the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In a British assessment based on work by its National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Russian military intelligence (GRU) was cast as a pernicious cyber aggressor which used a network of hackers to spread discord across the world.

GRU, Britain said, was almost certainly behind the BadRabbit and World Anti-Doping Agency attacks of 2017, the hack of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 2016 and the theft of emails from a UK-based TV station in 2015.

“The GRU’s actions are reckless and indiscriminate: they try to undermine and interfere in elections in other countries,” said British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

“Our message is clear – together with our allies, we will expose and respond to the GRU’s attempts to undermine international stability,” Hunt said. Britain believes the Russian government is responsible for the attacks.

Though less well known than the Soviet Union’s once mighty KGB, Russia’s military intelligence service played a major role in some of the biggest events of the past century, from the Cuban missile crisis to the annexation of Crimea.

Russian cyber power?

Though commonly known by the acronym GRU, which stands for the Main Intelligence Directorate, its name was formally changed in 2010 to the Main Directorate of the General Staff (or just GU). Its old acronym – GRU – is still more widely used.

It has agents across the globe and answers directly to the chief of the general staff and the Russian defence minister. The GRU does not comment publicly on its actions. Its structure, staff numbers and financing are Russian state secrets.

The GRU traces its history back to the times of Ivan the Terrible, though it was founded as the Registration Directorate in 1918 after the Bolshevik Revolution. Vladimir Lenin insisted on its independence from other secret services.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has said GRU officers used a nerve agent to try to kill former double agent Sergei Skripal, who was found unconscious in the English city of Salisbury in March. Russia has repeatedly denied the charges.

After the Skripal poisoning, the West agreed with Britain’s assessment that Russian military intelligence was to blame and launched the biggest expulsion of Russian spies working under diplomatic cover since the height of the Cold War.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, himself a former KGB spy, said on Wednesday that Skripal, a GRU officer who betrayed dozens of agents to Britain’s MI6 foreign spy service, was a “scumbag” who had betrayed Russia.

Britain said the GRU was associated with a host of hackers including APT 28, Fancy Bear, Sofacy, Pawnstorm, Sednit, CyberCaliphate, Cyber Berkut, Voodoo Bear and BlackEnergy Actors.

“This pattern of behaviour demonstrates their desire to operate without regard to international law or established norms and to do so with a feeling of impunity and without consequences,” Foreign Secretary Hunt said.

The United States sanctioned GRU officers including its chief, Igor Korobov, in 2016 and 2018 for attempted interference in the 2016 U.S. election and cyber attacks.

“Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU), a Russian military intelligence organization, knowingly engages in significant activities that undermine cybersecurity on behalf of the Russian government,” the U.S. Treasury said in March.

(REUTERS)

4, October 2018

Cameroon’s Brighton defender fined for speeding ⁰

Brighton and Hove Albion player Gaetan Bong has pleaded guilty to speeding at 90mph in a 70mph zone.

Crawley magistrates heard the 30-year-old was caught breaking the limit in his Land Rover on the A27 in Shoreham, West Sussex on 29 December.

The court was told the defender, from Cameroon, was travelling back from training. His solicitor pleaded guilty on his behalf as he was not in court.

Bong was fined £667 plus costs, and given three points on his licence. He already had six points before this offence.

‘Too fast’

In court, Bong’s solicitor Mark Haslam said the footballer “offers his apologies”.

“He was travelling back from training in the middle of the day,” said Mr Haslam. “He was driving too fast – I accept that on his behalf.”

Another charge – of failing to respond to a court summons – was dropped after it emerged that while Bong had submitted paperwork to the court, the details had not been logged.

Bong joined Brighton from Wigan in July 2015 and has since made 72 league appearances. He has also played for Olympiakos and Valenciennes in Greece and France respectively.

Source: BBC

4, October 2018

Cameroon’s displaced thousands fear disenfranchisement ⁰

“If you have the polling card, you go and vote, but it’s complicated once you’re there,” said Yagana Adi, 55, who wants to vote in Cameroon’s presidential election on Sunday. Her identity papers were lost when she fled an attack on her village by Boko Haram jihadists in 2014.

The raid happened in Djakana in Cameroon’s far north near the Nigerian border and forced her to abandon her home along with her 13 children.

“I said to the children that we were leaving, we walked for hours, days, and we arrived in Maroua,” the regional capital, she said. Two of her daughters did not manage to flee in time and were picked up by jihadists.

Nearly one in 10 people in the far north have followed a similar path to Yagana, fleeing repeated attacks by Boko Haram which is based in neighbouring Nigeria.

Roughly 80,000 have since returned home but 238,000 remain displaced, according to the International Organization for Migration. Many have sought refuge with friends and family in the region’s towns like Maroua.

“If you go into a Maroua neighbourhood, they’re everywhere,” said a humanitarian source on the ground. “The problem is that they don’t have their papers anymore and so can’t register on the voter roll.”

– ‘Challenges for displaced people’? –

The electoral commission Elecam has vowed that those who have been “displaced will be able to vote,” according to the organising body’s regional director Amadou Ali.

“They’re not just displaced people — they are voters. The fact that they’ve been displaced will not have any impact on the election.”

He added that people without their documents will be able to register to vote in the towns where they have sought refuge. “It’s not true, I wasn’t able to get a voting card,” retorted Yagana, as she rested on a mat.

“I’ve requested it but a local official asked me for 40,000 CFA francs ($70, 60 euros).” Yagana and her family are now living on a vacant plot of land lent to her by a Maroua resident where they have erected a makeshift shelter using sheets and tarpaulins.

“I think less than one-third of those displaced in the far north are registered on the voters’ roll,” said Hans de Marie Heungoup, a Cameroonian researcher at the International Crisis Group (ICG) think-tank.

The region is Cameroon’s most populous and its poorest and has previously voted overwhelmingly for President Paul Biya.

“There’ll be an election in the far north, but who the people vote for is another question,” said a prominent figure in Maroua where Biya made his only appearance of the campaign so far at the weekend. It was also his first visit to the region since 2012.

Majority-francophone Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions — the southwest and northwest — have been rocked by a separatist insurgency since a symbolic independence declaration one year ago.

“The challenges for displaced people to vote there are greater,” said a senior military source based in Yaounde.

– ‘The election? It doesn’t concern us’ –

The army has been deployed to the two restive regions to battle separatist fighters since the end of 2017. According to the ICG, the secessionists control “a significant proportion of rural areas and main roads” in the regions. Skirmishes are violent and occur daily, displacing thousands of local residents.

In the southwest, 246,000 people have been displaced according to the UN, while no estimate exists for the northwest region which is largely inaccessible to aid groups and journalists.

Some 25,000 others are sheltering in neighbouring Nigeria, according to the UN. “The people have sought refuge in the bush and they are living in awful conditions,” said a humanitarian source in Buea. The town is rocked by bursts of gunfire daily, according to local sources.

No reception centres for displaced people have been opened in the anglophone areas where separatists have threatened to disrupt the vote. In the face of continuing clashes, a surge of troops is planned, according to the senior officer.

Elecam has also said that some polling stations will be “relocated” in the anglophone region which has traditionally been a reliable well of votes for the main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) whose candidate is Joshua Osih.

He has described the planned “relocations” in interviews as “an illegal measure” that could damage his chances. Asked about the looming vote, a student in Douala who fled Buea with his family said: “The election? It doesn’t concern us. I want to get my father’s job and our house back. Here, we are stuck.”

Source: AFP

4, October 2018

Biya regime and Ambazonia Interim Gov’t have Southern Cameroons on lockdown ahead of elections ⁰

On Monday Oct. 1, Cameroon’s Anglophone separatists marked the first anniversary of their self-declared breakaway state, the Federal Republic of Ambazonia (Southern Cameroons) in a somber mood. This was a marked difference from last year’s outpouring of celebrations and rhetoric by locals to unilaterally and symbolically declare independence of Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions.

That was because both the Cameroon government and the separatists themselves had decreed a total lockdown for the date, Oct. 1 and beyond—with an eye on a contentious national election less than a week away.

In order to circumvent the type of massive mobilization of English speakers which saw thousands on the streets last year, the government placed restrictions on movement. In the north-west region, movement of persons from one sub-division to another was prohibited for a period of 48 hours, spanning from Sunday Sept. 30 to Monday Oct. 1. The public gathering of more than four people was also temporarily outlawed. This added to a dusk-to-dawn curfew earlier in place.

The governor of the north-west region, Lele Lafrique Tchoffo Deben Adolphe said the temporary restriction of movement of people was an “appropriate measure taken to guarantee security of its citizens and their properties before, during and after this day [Oct. 1].”

In the south-west region, similar restrictions, including shutting down of all businesses, suspension of socio-cultural meetings, closure of motor parks and ban on circulation, were instituted by local administrators.

However, despite the measures, pro-independence English-speaking Cameroonians hoisted the blue-white flags of Ambazonia, and chanted their national anthem in some towns like Muyuka, Santa, Pinyin, Fontem, Ndu, Bafut, and even in far-off London where demonstrations took place.

For their part, separatists started enforcing a lockdown expected to end on Oct. 10, in a bid to frustrate political campaigns and a presidential poll on Oct. 7 in the two English-speaking regions.

The lockdown and the fear of being caught up in fresh clashes sparked the mass exit of people. Thousands of residents in the north-west and south-west regions have crossed over to the French-speaking parts of the country while others have gone abroad. In the south-west region alone, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimates that 246,000 people have been internally displaced, with a further 21,000 having cross over the border to Nigeria as refugees.

To enforce the lockdown, separatists have sabotaged bridges linking different localities and used trees to block major highways in the restive areas. On Sept. 30, no fewer than five vehicles were set ablaze along the Kumba-Mamfe road and the wreckages used to block the road. Gunshots were also heard in towns like Buea and Bamenda, while clashes between the warring parties get more frequent and deadly.

Armed separatists are determined to forestall any election in “their region.” However, Paul Atanga Nji, Minister of Territorial Administration has said the presidential poll will take place across all 360 sub-divisions of the country, including those in the embattled English-speaking regions.

The race for president involves nine contenders, including incumbent Paul Biya, 85, who is seeking to extend his 36-year rule by another seven years. Biya is campaigning on his “force of experience” to floor his eight challengers in the Oct. 7 poll. There is little likelihood the incumbent won’t win. Besides the fact that Transparency International says elections in Cameroon are often marked by irregularities, the challengers will have to share opposition votes, giving Biya an edge in a one-round election in which one requires just the highest number of votes to emerge winner.

President Paul Biya has reiterated his resolve to end the conflict which started as a modest protest by English speakers against real and perceived marginalization by his Francophone-dominated government. While launching his bid for re-election in the northern city of Maroua, on Sept. 29, he claimed the state had overcome the toughest ordeal in the conflict-ridden regions.

Culled from Quartz

4, October 2018

Federal Republic of Ambazonia: Francophones say they are living in ‘fear’ in Victoria ⁰

“We live in fear,” said Edouard, a French-speaking resident of Limbe, a coastal town in Cameroon’s southwest anglophone region where francophone people have been frequently targeted by armed English-speaking separatists.

Trepidation has given way to terror in the cosmopolitan tourist town of 85,000 with a significant francophone population as the anglophone separatist crisis has grown following a symbolic independence declaration a year ago.

A number of French-speakers — both military and civilian — have fled the town with its sandy beaches and lush mountain backdrop after coming under attack. “I moved my family to Douala because we live in fear” here, said Edouard, a young secretary referring to the country’s nearby economic capital.

Other French-speakers, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, described how their loved ones had been “tortured” by the separatists seeking to break away from Cameroon. Cameroon’s southwest, including Limbe, and northwest are home to largely French-speaking Cameroon’s anglophone community who make up around one fifth of the population.

The separatists have vowed to disrupt presidential elections on Sunday in which President Paul Biya, who has dismissed the nascent insurgency as mere “trouble”, will seek a seventh term.

Edouard said he will never again return to Mile 4, the outer suburb where he had lived for years until his departure in July. Flanked by rolling hills, the area is isolated from the rest of the town and is one of the few places where separatists armed with machetes roam with impunity, according to witnesses.

When the men of the separatist movement are not asserting their presence in Mile 4, they hide in the nearby foothills. Late on the night of September 26, there was an attack on Mile 4’s police station that claimed the lives of two officers. The army encircled the area for several days following the audacious raid.

Several other attacks apparently intended to intimidate the area’s French speakers have been reported in Mile 4.

– ‘Situation could deteriorate’ –

“They came into the areas and started demanding which were the French homes,” said a resident.

“They came to my house twice to kidnap me — but fortunately they didn’t find me. “They (also) tried to kidnap a neighbour but he managed to escape.”

The resident added that the separatist elements came to the area nightly, singing the anthem of their self-proclaimed “Ambazonia Republic” in front of French households.

The increasing number of incidents persuaded Edouard to move his family, first staying at a hotel before securing accommodation in another suburb.

On Church Street, a smart road in the town centre where stylish young people sat on cafe terraces drinking and laughing, French and English groups sat apart.

“Generally people mixed here. But because of the crisis there’s a climate of mistrust — the anglophones mistrust the francophones, and vice versa,” said Edouard.

“The current situation could deteriorate into something worse,” warned a member of a local community organisation who declined to be named.

Anglophones in Cameroon have long felt marginalised and have previously called for greater recognition with the more vocal among them advocating for the creation of an independent nation in the southwest and northwest.

– ‘They think we’re inadequate’ –

The separatist movement erupted into violence a year ago with hundreds killed in the conflict.

“(The crisis) has allowed anglophones to conclude that they are unable to have anything more to do with us because they think we’re inadequate,” said Danielle, who moved to Limbe in 2005, and lives with an anglophone.

But Lessly, one of the few anglophones willing to speak about the situation, said the violence engulfing Cameroon’s English areas has a number of origins.

“A typical anglophone citizen who you’d meet on the street sees the destruction and killing perpetrated by the army as acts perpetrated by francophones,” he said.

He conceded that the crisis has damaged relations between the English and French communities because many anglophones do not realise that “in that very army, there are English speakers”.

“Division isn’t good and complicates life for everyone — socially and economically,” added the young businessman.

The apparent separatist goal is to seize control of Limbe’s Sonara oil refinery — the country’s largest — where the majority of staff including the managing director are French-speaking.

The town is also home to an elite army rapid intervention force which is often spotted heading to or from inland flashpoints of separatist violence including Kumba and Mamfe.

Source: AFP

3, October 2018

Uneducated Footballers Stain Cameroon Polity: Eto’o, Song endorse Biya ⁰

Samuel Eto’o announced Tuesday that he will vote for incumbent President Paul Biya in the October 7th presidential election. The former captain of the Indomitable Lions spoke at the end of a meeting with the President Biya, saying that the country needed a unifying leader.

Another former captain of the Cameroon national football team Rigobert Song also made it clear that he was voting for 85-year-old Biya.

The electoral campaign is currently in full swing in Cameroon. Paul Biya, is seeking a seventh consecutive term since taking office in 1982. Eight other candidates are running for office including Cabral Libii, and opposition leaders Maurice Kamto and Joshua Osih.

For the past 2 years the country has been facing unrest due to the ongoing crisis in the English Speaking regions. However, it is generally opined that the outcome of this election is very critical to the stability of the country as any irregularities may plunge the country into a civil war.

Source: Africa News

3, October 2018

Biya Cancels visit to Southern Cameroons ⁰

“Biya was planning to go but security and medics advised otherwise on the visit,” said a well placed source of the last-minute decision to cancel the Buea campaign trip. The 85 year old cancelled his first visit to Southern Cameroons ever since the inception of the Ambazonia uprising from which more than 3000 Ambazonian women and children have been killed by Francophone soldiers loyal to his regime.

Biya instead held an emergency meeting with the visiting President of the Confederation of African Football. Both men including the controversial Cameroonian football legend Samuel Eto’o discussed the delay in infrastructural development and wider insecurity in Southern Cameroons.

Some pro CPDM comedians have criticized the Biya regime’s initial response to the Southern Cameroons crisis and EU officials last week said the government had done too little to adapt to the difficulties posed by the crisis in Anglophone Cameroon. The European bloc also stated that it was not going to monitor the counterfeit presidential polls.

Cameroon Concord News Group understands candidate Paul Biya also annulled another campaign trip to Kribi. Our Yaounde city reporter noted that the Ministry of Territorial Administration had ordered massive deployment of troops and war machinery to the Fako County in the now Federal Republic of Ambazonia costing the Cameroonian tax payer hundreds of millions of FCFA.

Joseph Emmanuel Ba’ana, Vice President of the so-called Biya Campaign announced the cancellation but did not provide any details as to the reasons that could have led to this last-minute change. However, a lot of under-the-table talk currently going in the nation’s capital, Yaoundé have it that the Francophone dictator is out of breath, tired and is no longer very motivated to carry on as Head of State. A CPDM baron who recently spoke to our undercover reporter observed that Biya was virtually forced by his entourage to seek the seventh mandate in this election despite his highly catastrophic record.

By Sama Ernest