30, May 2018

Zimbabwe to elect new president, MPs on July 30 ⁰

Zimbabwe announced on Wednesday it would choose a new president and parliament on July 30, in the country’s first electoral test since the removal of its autocratic former leader Robert Mugabe.

His successor, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, unveiled the date in the official Zimbabwe Government Gazette.

“Monday, the 30th day of July, 2018 (is) the day of the election to the office of President, the election of members of the National Assembly and election of councilors,” Mnangagwa said in a proclamation.

Once a right-hand man to the 94-year-old Mugabe, Mnangagwa dramatically succeeded the veteran leader in November after nearly four-decades in charge when troops swarmed the streets and briefly seized key sites.

Mnangagwa, 75, will square off against the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, now led by 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa following the death of Morgan Tsvangirai in February.

If no candidate receives a simple majority in the first round of the presidential election, a run-off will be held on September 8.

Elections under Mugabe were marred by corruption, intimidation and violence, but Mnangagwa has vowed to hold a free and fair vote.

The election will be the first to be monitored by Western observers in many years.

On Monday Harare and the European Union announced that observers from the bloc would monitor polls in the southern African country for the first time in 16 years.

A prospective voter (L) checks her voter registration details with ZEC officials on May 29 2018 at an inspection center in Harare, ahead of Zimbabwe harmonized 2018 general election, expected for July. (Photo by AFP)

The head of the last EU observer mission, Pierre Schori, was thrown out of Zimbabwe in 2002 on the eve of presidential elections that were condemned as flawed.

Following the high-profile spat, Zimbabwe barred the EU and other Western observers from sending further missions to monitor polls in the country as Mugabe grew more and more defiant of foreign criticism up until his downfall.

And in a further sign of Zimbabwe’s growing efforts to mend fences with former foes following Mugabe’s resignation, the country has applied to re-join the Commonwealth, the bloc of former British colonies said Monday.

Harare’s membership was suspended in 2003 over the violent and graft-ridden elections the previous year.

Zimbabwe left the Commonwealth at the height of violent land seizures, when white farmers were evicted in favor of landless black people — a policy that wrecked agriculture and triggered economic collapse.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland confirmed that the organization would also send observers to the elections.

Mugabe sent shockwaves through the ruling ZANU-PF, the party he dominated for decades, when he recently posed with a retired general who will take on the government in this year’s election.

Despite a slew of reformist pledges and announcements it is unclear whether Mnangagwa, who was a vital cog in the ZANU-PF party and helped Mugabe to hold onto power for 37 years, has won the support of ordinary Zimbabweans.

(Source: AFP)

30, May 2018

Southern Cameroons: Human Rights Watch warns separatists to quit attacks on education facilities ⁰

International rights group, Human Rights Watch (HRW) have warned separatists in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions to quit attacks on education facilities and anything that obstructs education.

The group has subsequently called for the safe and immediate release of a female school head who was abducted by suspected separatists late last week.

Madam Georgiana Enanga Sanga of Government High School Bolifamba Mile 16 was abducted along with another head teacher on 25 May in capital of the restive Southwest region, Buea.

According to reports, the taxi they were travelling in was intercepted and they were specifically picked whiles other passengers were allowed to continue their journey.

Her colleague head teacher has since been released with machete wounds, but Ms Sanga has yet to be accounted for. The action of the abductors is believed to be connected with ongoing nationwide examinations – GCE Ordinary and Advance Level Examinations.

“Enanga’s kidnappers should release her immediately, and separatist groups should put a decisive end to all attacks meant to obstruct children’s education,” HRW’s deputy director of global advocacym Philippe Bolopio said .

“Attacks against students, teachers, and schools inflict long-term harm on children, and sully the reputation of those who carry them out.”

Separatists have long used attacks on schools as a measure to ground life in the affected regions. The move is seen as part of a wider plan to put pressure on government in the ongoing fight for secession.

The Catholic Church and the United States have recently expressed disquiet about the attacks on both sides and its effects on lives of people living in the two regions. Abductions are not uncommon as separatists have used it as a means to put pressure on government.

What has become known as the Anglophone crisis affects the North West and South West regions of the Central African country with a section of the English-speaking minority pushing to secede under the so-called Ambazonia Republic.

Source: Africa News

30, May 2018

Biya’s Continued Stay in Power: Erik Essouse is ELECAM’s new boss ⁰

Erik Essouse was appointed on Monday by President Biya as Chief Electoral Officer of ELECAM, the body in charge of the electoral process in Cameroon. The new so-called general manager replaces Abdoulaye Babale, accused by the electoral council of “gross negligence”.

Prior to his appointment, Erik Essouse was the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer. He had held the position since 2008. His appointment comes about 5 months before the presidential election, which is scheduled to take place between 14 October and 14 September. Abdoul Karimou was appointed Deputy General Manager.

By Rita Akana

30, May 2018

UN: Antonio Guterres in Mali ⁰

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Mali on Tuesday to show support for UN peacekeepers facing an Islamist insurgency that has killed scores of their colleagues.

Guterres went to the UN’s MINUSMA base for ceremonies marking the International Day of UN Peacekeepers.

“Today in these four countries, and especially here in Mali, you work in an environment where peace is not assured, you work in a setting where there are terrorist groups that do not respect anything and nobody, a setting where there is drug, human and arms trafficking,” he said.

MINUSMA has 12,500 military and police personnel. It has lost more than 160 people since it deployed in 2013 – a figure that accounts for more than half of UN peacekeeping fatalities over this period.

“The international community must understand that it must provide the G5 Sahel countries with support, assured and guaranteed support to enable the stability of the G5 Sahel force and the effectiveness of its work for peace and security in this region,” Guterres added.

Northern Mali fell into the grip of al-Qaeda-linked jihadists in 2012. MINUSMA was deployed to help stabilise the area but attacks have spilled over to the central and southern parts of the country and into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Source: Africa News

30, May 2018

Southern Cameroons: Why the Resistance Needs to Go Beyond Just Resisting ⁰

A new greatness awaits the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, but Southern Cameroonians must define it. Our top political priority over the next two years of the resistance should be to deny recognition to any Southern Cameroons group that does not take directives from the Interim Government. Clearly, the tables have turned. We now have a US administration coming up with a very different agenda on how to deal with the vicious regime in Yaoundé.

The all-out onslaught by the Trump administration against the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime has left Yaoundé reeling, scrambling to protect its leader Paul Biya and people they hold dear. The Ambazonia Self-Defense Council Restoration Forces have been resisting with unprecedented levels of energy, and the resistance has been working shockingly well so far. It is evidently clear that the Biya regime is approaching its end and French Cameroun is going to be on fire. Southern Cameroonians living in La Republique du Cameroun need to think and rethink things. There is need to change as they can’t keep playing CPDM game: they need to go back to our Anglo-Saxon principles and help in crafting our own, new vision for what the Ambazonian nation should be.

Biya’s incoherent speeches, his disregard for genuine dialogue with the leadership of the Interim Government and his obvious personal flaws has put him at daggers-drawn positions with Europe, Australia and the United States. Biya no longer has the support of the even the Central Committee members of his ruling party to propel him to the Presidency this 2018.

Since the meeting with the US ambassador, the war in Southern Cameroons has gotten worse and Ambazonians recently lost one of their brave commanders Fru Akuma. This was followed by the killing of George Nwangi at Nguti by French Cameroun army soldiers. Southern Cameroonians have never been more unified on any one topic than its dislike for the one and indivisible Cameroon. It’s natural at this point in time for every Southern Cameroonians to rally behind the Interim Government and focus on the resistance. Ambazonians should remember that powerful institutions such as the IG are almost always defined by what they are for, not what they are against.

As long as we’re only resisting, we’re waiting for the Biya regime to launch another attack. Not only will we be always on the defensive, we’ll limit our imaginations to a reality within the boundaries of Biya and French Cameroun’s world. Mindful of the unprecedented levels of participation by the US, Nigeria and above all France, it’s unlikely we’ll be able to effectively resist every move.

Winning this war and securing the Ambazonian territory is not about chasing Biya and his gangs out of Yaounde as the Americans and the French have agreed. That has its own problems. Winning is not about seeing opponents in French Cameroun bleeding. Winning is far grander: channeling unprecedented levels of consolidating and multiplying our territorial gains into an idea for Southern Cameroons that not only combats the corrosive policies we’ve seen in La Republique, but can lead to a permanently better future for all Ambazonians.

It’s not a surprised that no French Cameroun politicians who oppose Biya have come out with clear messages about how to advance a progressive agenda in the current crisis in Southern Cameroons. Perhaps they’re just as taken aback by the Biya assault as the rest of us Ambazonians.

The race to succeed Biya has evoked some powerful discussions about where Ambazonians go next. The Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Julius Tabe long made a case for the future of the territory and his favorite articulation stands tall on “My Trip to Buea”. The reality is that every Southern Cameroonian wants to have an independent state. Consequently, the resistance must demonstrate to the world our inclusive, moral, powerful one and togetherness behind our IG that we want to see beyond the struggle for independence. That togetherness will not only carry us through an inevitably difficult war of independence, but well into the future. It’s difficult for misguided Southern Cameroonians such as Cho Ayaba and Boh Herbert to think that way right now, but it has never been more necessary.

By Sessekou Asu Isong, London

30, May 2018

Ending the war in Southern Cameroons: Regime change in Yaoundé is the only option ⁰

Biya and his ruling CPDM crime syndicate are under immense pressure at the moment. The West including the United States are now supporting anti-government actions from opposition groups and the civil society. Southern Cameroonians are slamming the Biya regime for plundering the nation’s wealth on his family and tribesmen and have pulled out of the Cameroonian federation. Will the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime pay attention to the demands of French speaking Cameroonians to end the senseless war in Southern Cameroons? Almost certainly not. For 57 years, the people of Southern Cameroons have been suffering under cruel and callous successive Francophone regimes that use brutality to oppress.

The Biya government will continue to fund state terrorism in Southern Cameroons and it will continue to destabilize the Central African Republic. It will continue to deplore huge financial resources to get President Buhari elected in Nigeria. It will continue to train, fund and arm numerous other militias in the Central African Republic. It will continue to interfere in the internal affairs of nations such as Chad,Congo-Brazzaville and Equatorial Guinea and it will spark conflict where it can like in Gabon. And it will not put the needs of French Cameroonians before any of this.

How do we know this will continue if Biya stays on? Well, quite simply because this is what the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime is based on. It could not survive 35 years without this. For this reason, regime change in Yaoundé is the only option. Internationally, the regime has portrayed itself as having a moderate leader in the person of President Biya. The regime itself has spoken about dialogue, peace and unity but this is a self-proclaimed label that is based on absolutely nothing. There have been no signs of dialogue ever since the Southern Cameroons crisis began. In fact, quite the opposite. When the teachers and lawyers strike action started, instead of engaging the Consortium leaders for all the concessions they granted the Paul Ghogomu Commission, Yaounde instead criminalized dialogue, arrested the leaders of the Consortium and continued to threaten and provoke Southern Cameroonians.

The consortium of CPDM crime syndicates has a history of crushing anti regime protests, but the current crisis in Southern Cameroons is unlike any before. This time, it is all sectors of the Southern Cameroons society that are calling for recognition of Ambazonia by the international community. Southern Cameroonians are facing execution, arrest, imprisonment and torture, yet they are still risking everything to make their calls for a new nation in Africa heard. It is clear now that regime change is the only way forward for the two Cameroons to live in peace. French Cameroonians too should take advantage of the happenings in Southern Cameroons and endorse regime change as the only way to ensure that their bleak futures have any kind of hope.

Since the Ambazonian uprisings started two years ago, instead of condemning the Biya regime and holding it accountable for the killing and violence towards Southern Cameroonians, the African Union, the EU and the UN have turned their backs on the people and remained silent. However, the US ambassador Peter Barlerin has expressed his support for the people of Cameroon and made it clear that the West wants regime change too. And he has the backing of the majority of the diplomatic community in Yaoundé including the US Congress.

Ambassador Barlerin has sounded a note of caution to Biya that the world was watching. His Excellency Peter Barlerin also reminded Mr. Biya that human rights are an automatic right – not something granted as a gift by an 85 year dictator.

By some strange happenstance, the European Union, on the other hand, is very reluctant to comment on the current situation in Southern Cameroons. It appears to want to ensure that nothing affects Sub Saharan Africa after Biya, so it’s keeping quiet. When will the EU realize that regime change will benefit not just French Cameroun, but the entire sub region?

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

30, May 2018

Ambazonia’s fading Ellen and Medien Moments and the International Role in any Response ⁰

In its ongoing military campaign to suppress and subjugate an increasing conscious Southern Cameroons population who have since November 2016 been progressively pressuring the francophone dominated government to listen to their legitimate demands, the Biya régime, through its continuous and unabated violence and brutality in the two English speaking regions have crossed the red line.

Thousands of Southern Cameroonians have fled their homes seeking refuge in the bushes and forests as they battle with diseases, snake bites, insect bites and every imaginable risk under such conditions. Some 40,000 have made their way into neighboring Nigeria. According to the latest UN report, 160.000 Southern Cameroonians have been displaced internally. Cameroon government forces have ever since engaged in burning down entire village communities abandoned by desperate Ambazonians whose voices have been loud but ignored by those who are the watchdog of global security.

In his senseless malicious military campaign against citizens of the former British Cameroons, the young, the old and the weak have been burnt alive as they constitute the vulnerable class of people who are unable to undertake the pernicious and physically challenging adventure in to the forests.

Teenagers like the 11 year old Ellen of Bansoh Bui and the 14 year old Medien of Widikum have suffered life threatening and definitely life changing injuries. Both girls received bullets in their faces and have ever since been receiving medical care thanks to the relentless humanitarian campaign of the Lord Justice Ayah Foundation.

Unlike the young Pakistani girl Malala who survived the Taliban gun attack and who gained international recognition and support, these Malalas of Southern Cameroons have been ignored by the same community and organisations that stood up in support of Malala from Pakistan. In the face of all these abuses, a lot of tongues have been waging on how many more are going to flee their homes and seek refuge in dangerous habitats before the world stands up to the realities of the crisis? How many more Southern Cameroons youths are going to be slaughtered, tortured to death, and buried in mass graves before the UN will take action?

Southern Cameroonians have been calling for international assistance. They now want the world to protect them against their supposed protectors. The government’s mass murdering tactics and collective punishment have drawn a lot of flak in recent times and even the Trump Administration has been disappointed by the methods the dictatorial government in Yaounde is using to restore order in the two restive English-speaking regions of the country.

Thursday’s Menka murders came on the heels of a scathing criticism of the reckless Yaounde regime by the U.S. Ambassador, Peter Barlerin, who used his audience with the country’s president, Paul Biya, to call for an end to the senseless and targeted killings in the two English-speaking regions.

Mr. Barlerin also used the occasion to call on Mr. Biya to think of his legacy, a coded way of telling the Yaounde dictator not to run in the upcoming presidential election. It should be recalled that the Americans have a way of advising their erstwhile friends to quit power. Mr. Barlerin is simply walking in the steps of other American ambassadors who hold that governments must be accountable to their people.

The international community, and world organizations like the UN, the Commonwealth have all shown solidarity with Biya by their inaction and regular visits including exchange of pleasantries as they wine and dine in the luxurious so-called Unity Palace. The reaction of the UN and the Commonwealth has been all sound without fury, as the Biya régime goes viral with its excesses.

By Ntam Charles Ngeh

Bonn, Germany

29, May 2018

Nigeria: 1,200 Southern Cameroonian refugees in Akwa Ibom cry for help ⁰

NO fewer than 1,200 persons consisting of men, women and children, are currently taking refuge in Uyo, Esit Eket, and Oron Local Government Areas of Akwa Ibom State due to the lingering crisis in Cameroon. Some of the refugees who spoke to newsmen in the four local government areas of the state where they are taking refuge, lamented the acute suffering they are passing through and appealed to governments at all level for assistance to enable them properly settle down in the country.

A Cameroonian who identified herself as Miss Shalom Epolle, told newsmen at Utang Street, in Uyo LGA where over 95 Cameroonians and 210 Nigerians that migrated to that country are camping, that they are living in a very hazardous condition. “I came here on February 21, 2018, because of the crisis in Cameroon. But since I came, I have been facing the problem of feeding. We don’t have food to eat, no place to sleep, no beds. “Both men and women stay together, without privacy. No water, no toilet. The most important one is food because we can’t stay here when there is no food. We even go outside to look for jobs to do to get little money to help ourselves,” she said.

At Esit Eket, Mrs. Glory Harrison, who said that they are over 400 refugees camping in a church, said that their challenge ranged from lack of shelter, clothing, and food. In Oron, the Chairman of the council, Mr Anthony Etim, had arranged a temporary camp for over 500 Cameroonian refugees at the security village.

Source: www.vanguardngr.com

29, May 2018

Biya regime says Menka death toll from “clashes” rises to 32 ⁰

The death toll from a firefight in an English-speaking region of Cameroon shaken by an armed separatist campaign stands at 32, including five “hostages,” the government said.

The clash erupted at a motel last Friday in Menka, in the Northwest Region — one of two regions gripped by fighting over the last eight months.

“Twenty-seven terrorists (were) neutralised” by a 30-member special unit of police and troops, government spokesman Tchiroma Bakary, who is also communications minister, said late Monday.

The group, which were attacked at a hotel, was an “armed gang” that for months had been “sowing terror and desolation” in the region, killing gendarmes and carrying out kidnappings, rape and extortion, he charged.

Out of “15 hostages” taken by the group, five died, all of them at the hands of the attackers, he said.

About a fifth of French-speaking Cameroon’s population of 22 million is anglophone.

For years, resentment built among anglophones, fostered by perceived marginalisation in education, the judiciary and the economy at the hands of the French-speaking majority.

Demands for greater autonomy were rejected by 85-year-old President Paul Biya, in power for more than 35 years.

The crisis escalated last October after the declaration of the self-described “Republic of Ambazonia” in the Northwest and Southwest Regions, causing scores of deaths and prompting tens of thousands to flee their homes.

Human-rights watchdogs point to a range of abuses, including abductions and targeted killings.

Security forces found five pump-action shotguns, of a type only used by special forces, as well as 17 combat guns and 10 hunting rifles, about 30 military uniforms as well as five berets “which belonged to police and gendarmes who were shot dead in cold blood by the same terrorists,” Tchiroma said.

He denied “allegations that the Cameroonian army carried out a massacre on the civilian population”.

Tchiroma said images of the dead at Menka have been widely distributed on social media, prompting human-rights watchdogs and opposition politicians to voice outrage.

Nji Tumasang, an MP with the English-speaking opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF), speaking after a party delegation visited Menka on Saturday, said 22 people had been killed.

Their identity was unclear, but villagers said they were criminals, not “terrorists” as the army had said, Tumasang said.

Cameroon’s linguistic division dates back to the colonial period. It was once a German colony and was divided between Britain and France after World War I.

In 1960, the French part gained independence, becoming Cameroon, and the following year, the British-ruled Southern Cameroons was amalgamated into it, becoming the Northwest and Southwest Regions.

According to the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank, “at least 120” civilians and “at least 43” security forces have been killed since the end of 2016.

The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says around 160,000 people have been internally displaced and 20,000 have sought refuge in neighbouring Nigeria as a result of the violence.

Source: AFP

29, May 2018

Mozambique: Suspected militants behead 10 people ⁰

Suspected militants have attacked a small village in northern Mozambique and beheaded at least ten people, including children, officials have publicly announced.

Local sources said on Tuesday that suspected militants had attacked the Monjane Village during the weekend.

Details were scarce.

“We were informed about this tragedy,” AFP quoted the administrator of the town of Palma, David Machimbuko, as saying.

The country’s state broadcaster reported that “10 persons [were] decapitated” in the Palma area.

Police have not provided further information but are expected to give a news conference later on Tuesday.

One of the victims of the attack is said to be the chief of Monjane Village, according to a local resident.

“They targeted the chief as he had been providing information to the police about the location of al-Shabab in forests,” said the resident.

He was referring to a terrorist group believed to have been responsible for a deadly attack on a police station and military post in the town of Mocimboa da Praia in October last year. Al-Shabab has pledged allegiance to the al-Qaeda terrorist group and is mainly based in Somalia.

The scene of the recent attack, Monjane, is located not far from Palma, in da Praia district, which is planned to become the country’s new natural gas hub. Last year, the government announced plans to build a commercial port in Cabo Delgado Province.

But several attacks have so far been reported in the area, prompting security concerns for investors in the country. Mozambique is one of the world’s poorest countries.

Culled from Presstv