10, May 2018

Secession Palaver: Spain blocks second Puigdemont comeback bid in Catalonia ⁰

Spain’s government on Wednesday stepped in to block Carles Puigdemont from being re-appointed president of Catalonia, pressuring the separatist camp to pick another candidate and form a regional government after months of limbo.

Protesters hold a framed picture Catalonia’s self-exiled ousted president Carles Puigdemont during a demonstration in Barcelona on May 2, 2018. (AFP)

Madrid successfully requested the Constitutional Court to cancel a reform voted for last week by Catalonia’s majority separatist parliament that would allow Puigdemont to be appointed president without having to be present.

The court announced on Wednesday evening it had ruled “admissible the appeal of the government” and suspended the reform, which had been temporarily blocked while the court deliberated.

Government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo said earlier the Catalan parliament would not be able to call a session to appoint Puigdemont “at the risk of committing the offence of disobedience”.

Puigdemont’s allies had announced Saturday they would try and have him appointed by May 14.

But they also recognised that if they couldn’t, they would pick an alternative candidate to unblock the political impasse in Catalonia, which was put under direct rule by Madrid on October 27 after a failed secession bid.

That day, Rajoy also sacked Puigdemont and all his ministers after the regional parliament declared independence following a referendum that wasn’t sanctioned by Madrid and was banned by the courts.

Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy arrives to welcome the president of the European Parliament before holding a meeting at La Moncloa palace in Madrid on May 8, 2018. (AFP)

He also called snap regional elections for December 21, which separatist parties went on to win, once again getting an absolute majority in parliament.

By then, Puigdemont had already left for Belgium in self-imposed exile.

But since then, all candidates proposed by the separatist camp to lead Catalonia have fallen flat, as they are either abroad and wanted by Spain, or already in prison, charged with rebellion.

Critics of the independence camp have charged they are merely dragging the process out to try and garner sympathy.

Speaking in the Senate on Tuesday, Rajoy slammed the separatists’ attempts to have Puigdemont re-appointed.

Catalonia’s self-exiled ousted president Carles Puigdemont during a meeting with politicians on May 5, 2018 in Berlin. (AFP)

He accused them of “having put Catalan politics in an absurd loop in which the personal interests of one person are placed before the collective project of an entire society”.

Catalan separatists, however, say Puigdemont is their legitimate leader as his Together for Catalonia grouping received the most votes out of all separatist parties in the December elections.

They also say the rebellion charge against him and others is disproportionate, and describe those already in jail in Spain — like former Catalan vice president Oriol Junqueras — as “political prisoners”.

Puigdemont is currently in Germany after being detained there in March on a European arrest warrant against him issued by Spain. He was later released on bail.

Source: AFP

10, May 2018

France’s Macron says Trump made a mistake by leaving JCPOA ⁰

French President Emmanuel Macron has said that the US decision to leave the Iran nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was a “mistake.”

Macron made the remarks on Wednesday during an interview with Germany’s Deutsche Welle broadcaster.

He added that Europe needed to reaffirm its commitments to the JCPOA in an attempt to preserve regional stability.

“What’s most important is to maintain stability and peace in the Middle East,” he added.

“We stand today at a historic moment for Europe — Europe is in charge of guaranteeing the multilateral order that we created at the end of World War II and which today is sometimes being shaken,” he added.

Macron’s remarks came one day after US President Donald Trump declared that his country is pulling out of the JCPOA, saying Washington will not only reinstate the anti-Iran sanctions lifted as part of the deal, but will also “be instituting the highest level of economic” bans against the Islamic Republic.

The JCPOA came out of years of negotiations between Iran on one side and six world powers, namely the US, Russia, China, Germany, France and Britain, on the other, in July 2015.

Other signatories to the deal, as well as the United Nations and the EU had warned Washington against any bid to sabotage it. They call the JCPOA a pillar of regional and international peace and stability, and reiterate the multilateral pact cannot be simply terminated by a single party.

Source: Presstv

9, May 2018

Hon WNO Effiom: The “Grandmaster” Begins Final Journey Home ⁰

The country lost a true patriot and statesman in the person of Hon Willie Ndep Orock Effiom; former Grand Chancellor of National Orders and former Speaker of the West Cameroon House of Assembly. His was a life of leadership and service to the nation

“No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men,” once observed the famous British historian, Arthur James Balfour. The Rt. Hon Willie Ndep Orock Effiom; former Grand Chancellor of National Orders and former Speaker of the West Cameroon House of Assembly, who will be committed to mother earth next Saturday, May 12, 2018 in his native Nsanaragati, Eyumojock Sub-Division, in Manyu; was by every measure, a great man in his own right. The passing of Pa Effiom, as he was fondly called, is a great national loss; but it is also an occasion for the country to celebrate a truly great life and a man of virtue. No doubt, his death elicited an effluence of encomiums for a man who ran the race and never stumbled. Born April 3, 1931 in Nsanaragati; the 4th and last surviving child of Pa Obi Effiom and Mama Katching Ojong both of blessed memory, the inevitable end overtook the “Rock of Nsan” in December last year. Pa Effiom was 86 years old.With his passing, Manyu has lost one of its most authentic political voices.A prodigiously gifted man with granite determination, his compelling life story is a profound journey, which took him from the hinterlands of Nsanaragati to Mamfe; where he attended primary school; before a foray into politics that began a public service career spanning over 50 years.Pa Effiom shaped and witnessed Cameroon history; he spoke truth to power and exits the stage a fulfilled man. Befittingly, he will be honored with a state funeral. His family, friends and the entire nation should be proud of his acclaimed virtues.Such are the memories of outstanding men in history.

Every man is unique. There is only one Pa Effiom; who in all honesty and sincerity was not born great. It could not be rightly said either that he had greatness thrust upon him. From all available records, he worked hard and tirelessly for his greatness, in most cases, defying long odds. Orphaned at a very tender age, the young Willie Ndep Orock Effiom worked as an aide to a Nigerian businessman, Mr. Anya and put himself through primary school in Mamfe town. Like many of his generation, he proceeded to the Teacher Training College and graduated as a teacher. He was subsequently appointed Headmaster of Nfuni primary school; from where he launched his illustrious political career built upon rock-solid grassroots endorsement.

As party politics took hold in Southern Cameroons, his charm and gift for leadership raised his visibility and public profile, eventually attracting the attention of KNDP party barons who drafted him as their candidate in the 1959 elections into the Southern Cameroons House of Assembly. At the relatively young age of 28, Pa Effiom was virtually a political underdog. In Mamfe West, he was up against the KNC candidate; the formidable Victoria-based businessman, Solomon Ashu Arrey (later Chief SA Arrey of Ossing) and SE Takunchong of Besongabang who defied party orthodoxy to run as an independent, ostensibly because of his name recognition. Pa Effiom, the political dark horse upstaged the apple cart by winning a landslide. The results according to the Southern Cameroons Information Service Press Release No 249 of January 29, 1959, showed Effiom (4,004 votes); SA Arrey (1,702), and SE Takunchong (297). The political establishment could not but take notice!

It is to his adroitness as a one-man political powerhouse, that as a freshman MP, he was appointed Secretary of Public Works and Transport in the first cabinet of Prime Minister JN Foncha in 1959. After the December 20, 1961 elections, in which he soundly defeated SE Takunchong (CPNC) and SEM Agbaw who ran as an independent, Pa Effiom established himself as a political force to reckon with in Mamfe politics. The West Cameroon Gazette, Vol 2, No 2 showed that Effiom won 5,969 votes (68.1%) while Takunchong got 2,049 (23.7%) and Agbaw 643 (7.4%). In January 1962, he was retained in the cabinet as Secretary for Education, and held other cabinet portfolios such as Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary, until he left the executive branch of the then West Cameroon government in 1967 following his election as Speaker of the West Cameroon House of Assembly and President of the House of Chiefs; a position he held until the federation was abolished in 1972.

After the West Cameroon gov’t was dissolved in 1972, Pa Effiom returned to Mamfe and was elected Member of Parliament from 1973 until 1990. In 1988, he faced one of the strongest challenges in his political career during the legislative elections featuring the Khaki list, which he headed and the Green list led by DA Wanobi, whom he had mentored. In the end, Pa Effiom fought the political battle of his life and defeated the Green list. It was the last election he would ever contest and although he returned to Parliament where he was elected President of the Finance Committee, his tenure was cut short after Parliament was dissolved and fresh elections called, in the wake of the country’s return to multi-party politics. He was appointed Grand Chancellor of the National Orders in July 1990; a position he held until he retired from government and active public service in 2007.

Although loyalty to friends trumped other considerations, when it came to politics, Pa Effiom was a conviction rather than consensus politician. He never aimed to convince his political opponents;he sought to defeat them. While he neither schemed, nor bulldozed his way to seek power for its sake, Pa Effiom had a strong handshake and a long memory; he was an encyclopedia of events with accurate dates. He remembers all and forgets nothing. He demonstrated a rare courage and determination to succeed in the rough and tumble of politics, where he had to fight several battles. For someone who believed absolutely in himself and his own abilities and trusted his gut instincts, Pa Effiom was, however, no less trenchant in battle.When he went to war against his political opponents, his legendary patience gave him enough staying power and he took no prisoners.The trademark placid poker face he wore like a ventriloquist gave him an unpredictable mien of sorts and reinforced the mythology of his persona, creating an overwhelming feeling of awe. People whispered that it was not a wise man that will oppose whatever Pa Effiom wanted in politics and there was a long list of political casualties as credible deterrence.He exuded trust and loyalty and his principled leadership and selflessness confounded even his most ardent critics and detractors.

Pa Effiom was a very private family man who shunned publicity, but he was also an unapologetic conservative and traditional iconoclast, who feared no one and was very comfortable in his own skin.He had no time for women liberals;his formidable wife, Lucy Tabe Effiom, who passed away in 1998 after a protracted illness was never allowed to work.After the passing of his first wife, Pa Effiom remarried Gladys Oben Effiom. A man of honor even in death,Pa Effiom is survived by eight children: Ria Enaw (USA), Raymond Ayem Effiom (USA), Dr. Charles Effiom (Britain), Dr. Bisong Effiom (Britain) Obi Bernard Effiom (USA), John Okem Effiom (South Africa), William Ofa Effiom (Mamfe) Ntui Effiom (Yaoundé);eight grandchildren, nephews, nieces, cousins and family friends to mourn him.

People who saw Pa Effiom from a distance will never know he was more than just a rigid politician. A great conversationalist with a roaring, infectious laughter, Pa Effiom was a light-hearted man of fulsome humor and a man of many worlds; a universe of politics and public service, all neatly woven by a life of quiet philanthropy and sacrifice for his people which he did without any fanfare or publicity.Having experienced poverty and financial hardship firsthand as a young man, Pa Effiom had a naturally generous and feeling heart. He lived for others. He troubled himself very little about material things.His life also reflected a truth to self-personal philosophy. Where many would have sniffed out dubious means from our corrupt system to enrich himself and family members, Pa Effiom was tenacious in his moral responsibility.He left a worthy footprint on the sands of time as an inspiring example of fortitude, magnanimity and dignity and his revulsion for materialistic wooliness, profligacy and vulgarity on the part of public officials was without measure.

As a member of the CPDM party where he played the role of wise man, Pa Effiom witnessed some of the checkered parts of Cameroon’s political history, notably the unresolved Anglophone question.With his demise, certainly departs a huge slice of Anglophone history, but in the wake of Biya’s anti-Anglophone war, Pa Effiom displayed a posture that many have construed as aloofness, from a man whom character, history and providence placed in the firmament of eminence; and he served the nation well. When many had thought he would deploy his political capital and acumen to help resolve the Anglophone problem, Pa Effiom’s silence was deafening. His usual taciturnity, iron-cast audacity and moral strength were largely unfelt even as soldiers waged a campaign of terror against his own Manyu people. This was inconsistent with a moral disposition that normally would require him to speak out. By acting otherwise, he placed himself on the wrong side of history.

That notwithstanding, his legacy of personal integrity represents a high value system difficult to reestablish in a country embroiled in governance anomie and blatant moral bankruptcy. Politicians and those seeking leadership positions should see in Pa Effiom’s life an open book from which to learn the wit and wisdom of selfless patriotism. Indeed, even older generations of politicians like Nfon Mukete, Enow Tanjong, Mafany Musonge and Achidi Achu, rather than burn themselves out straddling the political space with younger aspirants, should, like Pa Effiom, cultivate the disposition of statesmanship and maintain an eloquent taciturnity of being kingmakers and oracles of the polity. To Cameroonians who are distraught and overwhelmed by the vicissitudes of Cameroon’s rudderlessness as well as those who are plundering the nation’s resources to amass needless and scandalous wealth, Pa Effiom’s life is a lesson in contentment and serenity.The “grandmaster of Manyu politics” has paid his dues. He leaves the stage a fulfilled man and totally at peace with himself.“There is no cause for birth and death, save to enjoy the interval,” wrote George Santayana. Cameroon has not only lost a father-figure but also a symbol of its rich history and character.Pa Effiom will be sorely missed.

By Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai, Boston, USA and Soter Agbaw-Ebai Dublin, Ireland

9, May 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 300,000 Euros for Ambazonian refugees in Nigeria ⁰

UNHCR appreciates the contribution of EUR300,000 by the European Commission’s department for overseas humanitarian aid (ECHO) towards the response to the Cameroon refugee situation in Nigeria.

NCFRMI and UNHCR completed registration in Sardauna LGA, Taraba state on 20 April bringing the total figures of Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria to 21,291. In Boki LGA, Cross River, seven new villages are reportedly hosting an unverified number of new refugees. UNHCR and NCFRMI are planning registration missions to the said villages.

On 24 April, UNHCR chaired the monthly technical coordination meeting in Calabar on Cameroonian refugees to assess the multi-sectoral response to the refugee influx in Nigeria’s southeastern states. As key outcomes of the meeting, the Ministry of Health (MOH) committed to taking measures to ensure that refugees receive free primary healthcare services in Cross River state. Also, the Cross River state Primary Health Care Development Agency indicated that it is recruiting additional healthcare workers to meet increasing demand as a result of the refugee influx across the state.

The UNHCR Office organised a two-day training for partners from 26 to 27 April in Ikom LGA. Some 25 UNHCR partner staff including, BENGONET, FJDP, HIFAS, Rhema-Care, Caritas and Mediatrix, took part in the training, which focused on strengthening their knowledge on humanitarian principles, protection monitoring, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, among others. Meanwhile, a registration training was organised from 25 to 27 April for 10 NCFRMI staff. These trainings aim to enable an effective response to the Cameroon refugee situation.

UNHCR Response

During the reporting period in Cross River state, UNHCR partner, HIFAS, provided health care assistance to 17 refugees referred to three health centres in Ikom and Etung LGAs. The Ikom LGA has provided power supply for the borehole water pumping system at the transit shelter in Ikom as a temporary measure to assist some 300 refugees.

The absence of specialized healthcare services at referral health centres in Oban and Akamkpa LGAs will lead to referrals of special health cases to tertiary health centres in Calabar LGA. This will result in higher transportation costs and require an increase in health response envelope.

Negotiations for a refugee relocation site in Sankwala, Obanliku LGA were concluded during the reporting period. UNHCR partner, Rhema-Care, requested that local authorities seal the deal with a formal letter indicating the donation of the land site.

Some 171 unregistered refugees were identified during protection monitoring in Cross River. It was also noted that refugees in Cross River are undertaking secondary movements within the state in search of assistance and better living conditions. Meanwhile, new arrivals were reported in Boki, Ikom, Etung, and Akamkpa LGAs.

Despite response to the refugee influx in Cross River, gaps in assistance remain significant. The refugee shelter in Amana and Ikom are overcrowded and needs identified include lamps, mattresses, blankets and kitchen sets.

In Benue, Kwande LGA, UNHCR and partners undertook a multifunctional team mission to Abande and Anyake villages, Kwande LGA, on 2 May to continue refugee sensitization on relocation and mobilize host community support for relocation. The team included partners namely, MSF, FJDP, BENGONET and SEMA. Two bridges in the host community on the relocation route need urgent repairs. Host community requested renovation of the school where refugees are hosted and a borehole, among others, as a demonstration of appreciation for hosting the refugees.

The relocation of the refugees in Abande is tentatively set to start on 15 May, meanwhile, the digging of five wells has begun at the location, where three of the wells will serve the host community and two will serve the refugees.

Source: Reliefweb

9, May 2018

Manyu Diaspora Advisory Committee calls for a total boycott of May 20th ⁰

Manyu Diaspora Advisory Committee

Urgent Press release

#0010of 07thMay2018

Subject: GET READY TO BOYCOTT BLOODY 20THMAY

To: All Parents, sons, and daughters of Manyu:

The Manyu Diaspora Advisory Committee will like to draw your attention to this fake Celebration that the secret cult government of Paul Biya has continued to use to manipulate our minds, distort our history, reinforce our status of second class citizens/slaves, and uplift themselves as the masters over our territory.

Why celebrate 20hMay when thousands of our own youths have been forced into exile in Nigeria, and thousands of others are killed or imprisoned in concentration camps across La Republic du Cameroun territory, and our villages and towns burnt to the ground by the Terrorist regime of Yaoundé?

What are you going to be celebrating when our towns, villages, and streets are undergoing full scale terrorism by the illiterate soldiers of Paul Biya, who rape, kill, and steal from our farms and houses?

Why would you want Biya’s propaganda CRTV to broadcast images of your marching children to the world, portraying them as “happy kids”, when in fact these children are living in hell and have no future at all in Biya’s Cameroun, where his thugs continue to intensify their acts of aggression upon our people?

We know the shameless CPDM shall send its corrupt slaves like the ostracized Tabetando, Mengot,Mrs. Okpu, Senator Anja and Hon. Egeli Elias to come and convince parents to send their children go out and march on the 20th of May.

You love your children, no doubt. But we are afraid these greedy Manyu CPDM slaves love just one thing-Power and Money. They will sell all of us to Paul Biya so long as money gets into their accounts. These outlawed traitors already know about Biya’s secret plot to send out his military disguised as “secessionists” between now and the20thMay to kill your children aged 13 and above on that day, blame it on “Ambazonian Restoration Forces” and then arrest your surviving children.

Have you not already seen them burn your schools, markets, homes, entire villages, then turn around and blame you for their cowardly acts of cruelty? Do not give them another chance to kill your children. You can rebuild your houses, but you can never bring your dead children back to life.

Great People of Manyu, Keep your children far away from 20thMay Celebrations. Boycott it. Keep your children safe at home. There shall be time for us to name our own holidays and proudly celebrate together.

Sincerely thankful,

The Manyu Diaspora Advisory Committee

9, May 2018

IMF says African economies sliding into debt distress despite growth ⁰

Sub-Saharan African nations are at growing risk of debt distress because of heavy borrowing and gaping deficits, despite an overall uptick in economic growth, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday.

The sober assessment came as African countries continue to tap international debt markets and issue record levels of debt in foreign currencies, spurred on by insatiable investor demand for yields.

“What really we’re concerned about is the pace of increase, rather than the average,” IMFAfrica Director Abebe Aemro Selassie told Reuters at the launch of its economic outlook for the region in Accra.

“What we’re calling for right now is that those countries are going to need to go through fiscal consolidation,” he said, adding that oil producers and other resource-dependent economies were seeking the sharpest growth in their debt loads.

The Fund projected the rate of economic expansion would rise to 3.4 percent this year, up from 2.8 percent in 2017, boosted by global growth and higher commodity prices.

Slower growth in South Africa and Nigeria – the continent’s two largest economies – weighed on the region-wide average, but the IMF expects growth to pick up in around two-thirds of African nations. However, under current policies, that rate is expected to plateau below 4 percent over the medium term.

GROWTH SEEN SLOWING

Meanwhile, around 40 percent of low-income countries in the region are now in debt distress or at high risk of it, the IMF report said. And refinancing that debt could soon become more costly.

“The current growth spurt in advanced economies is expected to taper off, and the borrowing terms for the region’s frontier markets will likely become less favourable … which could coincide with higher refinancing needs for many countries across the region,” it said.

African governments issued a record $7.5 billion in sovereign bonds last year, 10 times more than in 2016. And they have issued or plan to issue over $11 billion in additional debt in the first half of 2018 alone, the report said.

Foreign currency debt increased by 40 percent from 2010-13 to 2017 and now accounts for about 60 percent of the region’s total public debt on average, IMF data showed. Average interest payments, meanwhile, increased from 4 percent of expenditures in 2013 to 12 percent in 2017.

Six countries – Chad, Eritrea, Mozambique, Congo Republic, South Sudan and Zimbabwe – were judged to be in debt distress at the end of last year. And the IMF’s ratings for Zambia and Ethiopia were changed from moderate to “high risk of debt distress.”

The IMF conceded that Africa’s enormous needs will continue to demand heavy investments to build infrastructure and social development. But to do so while avoiding the risk of a debt trap, the continent, which currently has the lowest revenue-to-GDP ratio in the world, will need to become more self-reliant.

“Borrowing to finance spending is part of the macroeconomic policy tool kits which all countries use,” Selassie said. “But over the medium to long-term they have to rely more on domestic revenues, tax revenues to address their development spending needs.”

REUTERS

9, May 2018

Dozens dead as bandits, militia clash in Nigeria ⁰

Fighting between armed bandits and militiamen left 45 dead in northern Nigeria, police and a local militia said Sunday, amid escalating rural violence often involving cattle rustling, robbery and kidnappings.

“The 45 bodies were found scattered in the bush. The bandits pursued residents who mobilised to defend the village after overpowering them,” said a vigilante who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.

“The dead included children abandoned by their parents during the attack” in the village of Gwaska, in Kaduna state.

“The attackers were obviously armed bandits from neighbouring Zamfara state who have been terrorising Birnin Gwari area,” he added.

The Kaduna state police chief, Austin Iwar, confirmed the attack, saying: “There was violence between the militias, who are very powerful, and bandits.”

He could not break down the casualties, saying only: “For now all we know is that 12 people were buried yesterday and 33 today.”

The vigilante said the bandits struck at about 2:30 pm (1330 GMT) Saturday and stayed for three hours before retreating to their base in the forest in Zamfara.

“They burnt down many homes,” he said.

The killings follow the death of 13 people in prolonged clashes between cattle thieves and local civilian militia in Zamfara last week.

The attacks underlined the diversity of Nigeria’s security threats that persist because of an overstretched army and security forces.

Rural communities in Zamfara have been under siege for several years from cattle rustlers and kidnapping gangs, who have raided herding communities, killing, looting and burning homes.

To defend themselves, villages and herdsmen form vigilante groups, but they too are often accused of extra-judicial killings, provoking a bloody cycle of retaliatory attacks.

Adding to the proliferation of violence due to these criminal groups, Nigeria is in the grip of a security crisis as nomadic herders and sedentary farmers fight over land in an increasingly bloody battle for resources.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has been criticised for failing to curb the violence, which is becoming a key election issue ahead of presidential polls in 2019.

The military and police are fighting Boko Haram jihadists in the north, militants and pirates in the oil-rich south, a simmering separatist movement in the east as well as the bloody conflict between herdsmen and farmers spanning the vast central region.

(AFP)

9, May 2018

UK foreign secretary regrets Trump’s decision on Iran ⁰

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson voices regret for US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal.

Johnson made the comment in a tweet on Tuesday, also expressing London’s firm commitment to the landmark agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“Deeply regret US decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. UK remains strongly committed to the JCPOA, and will work with E3 partners and the other parties to the deal to maintain it. Await more detail on US plan,” he tweeted.

The British foreign secretary, who has just returned from a trip to Washington, had earlier called on US President Donald not to scuttle the Iran nuclear deal and that “it would be a mistake to walk away” from the international accord.

He argued that “only Iran would gain” if the United States withdraws from the international nuclear agreement between Iran and six world powers in 2015, which lifted nuclear-related sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

Jonson’s tweet on Tuesday came shortly after Trump announced his decision to withdraw the United States from Iran’s nuclear deal with the world powers and re-impose sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

The announcement came despite massive efforts by the European allies of the US to convince Trump to stay in the 2015 deal, reached between Iran and the P5+1, five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the US, France, Britain, Russia and China – plus Germany.

France, Germany and Britain also released a joint statement in which they announced their commitment to the deal despite Trump’s decision to pull out and his threat of sanctions.

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May expressed “regret and concern” over the decision and called on Iran to “show restraint” in response to Trump’s announcement.

Russia and China, as the other signatories to the JCPOA, have warned against efforts to scrap the landmark accord and pledged to continue to honor their commitments under the deal.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has been monitoring Iran’s compliance with its commitments under the JCPOA and has consistently verified the Islamic Republic’s compliance.

The Islamic Republic has always insisted that its atomic program is merely for peaceful purposes and that the West is using the nuclear case as a pretext to put pressure on Tehran.

Source: Presstv

8, May 2018

Obama says Trump’s decision to quit Iran nuclear deal is ‘misguided’ ⁰

Former US President Barack Obama says Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal is “misguided.”

After Trump announced his decision on Tuesday, Obama asserted that it is “so misguided.”

“Walking away from the JCPOA turns our back on America’s closest allies, and an agreement that our country’s leading diplomats, scientists, and intelligence professionals negotiated. In a democracy, there will always be changes in policies and priorities from one Administration to the next. But the consistent flouting of agreements that our country is a party to risks eroding America’s credibility, and puts us at odds with the world’s major powers.”

The democratic president, who was in office when the deal was inked in 2015, further suggested that Trump’s decision would undermine efforts to negotiate with North Korea.

“At a time when we are all rooting for diplomacy with North Korea to succeed, walking away from the JCPOA risks losing a deal that accomplishes – with Iran – the very outcome that we are pursuing with the North Koreans,” Obama claimed. Iran has on numerous occasions asserted that its nuclear program is merely peaceful and not meant to make nukes.

Source: Presstv

8, May 2018

Biya regime batting Insurgencies, Illegal Weapons ⁰

Cameroon is cracking down on weapons proliferation as it battles two insurgencies and prepares to hold important nationwide elections this year. The military says it discovered a large cache of illegal weapons in a warehouse in Awae, near the capital.

Cameroon’s military raided the warehouse April 30 after locals reported suspicious movements to and from it. Adjutant Chef Major Patrice Bella is a military official who led the operation.

He says five gunmen working with the arm dealers fought back but were overpowered by the military. He says they will be investigating to find out the true owners of the weapons cache and what the weapons were to be used for.

Inside the warehouse, soldiers discovered 10,500 rounds of ammunition, as well as an undisclosed number of explosives, guns, cutlasses and knives. So far, all those arrested are Cameroonian nationals.

The location of the warehouse has sparked concern. Awae is 55 kilometers from the capital. The town hosts an international school for security forces called EIFORCES that trains African militaries on peacekeeping techniques.

Officials suspect the weapons came overland from neighboring countries, in particular Nigeria. However local residents wonder how they got past police and gendarme posts around Awae.

The discovery remains a hot topic of local conversation. 41-year-old road engineer Joseph Mbida says he is frightened because the discovery of ammunition and weapons amassed so close to Yaounde could mean people are planning to try to destabilize the country. He says he is counting on the military to track down those responsible.

Cameroon heads to presidential, parliamentary and local council elections starting in October. Meanwhile the country is grappling with instability in the Far North, where troops continue to battle Boko Haram, and in the two English-speaking regions, the northwest and the southwest, where separatist rebels are demanding independence.

In April, the government banned even the legal sale of weapons to civilians.

Paul Atanga Nji, minister of territorial administration, addressing a security meeting in Yaounde, said there are as many as 30,000 war weapons and small arms in circulation in Cameroon.

He says the use of weapons is reaching alarming proportions in Cameroon, threatening the security of everyone. He says some criminals even rent weapons to kill, steal and create disorder and that armed gangs are now found in all major cities and towns. He says the government must control its borders and stop the sale of arms.

In Cameroon, a 2016 law made the unlawful possession of a firearm punishable by a prison term of five to ten days and a fine.

However, the use of illegal firearms and weapons is judged by a military tribunal, with a possibility of life in prison if the tribunal decides the offender meant to disturb public order and peace.

Source: VOA