11, May 2018

Trump picks veteran diplomat Tibor Nagy for top Africa post ⁰

President Trump has nominated a career diplomat with extensive experience in Africa to lead the State Department bureau focused on the sub-Saharan region.

Mr Trump also on Thursday formally submitted to the US Senate his choice of Kyle McCarter as the next US ambassador to Kenya.

YAMAMOTO

Tibor Nagy, a former US envoy to Ethiopia and Guinea, will take over as assistant secretary of state for Africa if the US Senate clears his nomination in the coming weeks. Donald Yamamoto has been holding that position on an interim basis since last September.

Mr Nagy, who also worked in US embassies in Zambia, Seychelles, Togo, Cameroon and Nigeria, is unlikely to encounter significant opposition, having compiled a long record of service under both Democratic and Republican presidents.

His nomination, along with that of Mr McCarter, was welcomed by a Democratic senator, Chris Coons, who pays close attention to African issues.

At the same time, however, Senator Coons called attention to the Trump administration’s seeming political indifference toward Africa and its delay in naming nominees to key Africa positions in the US government.

“Simply put, the United States and the Trump administration must do a better job of engaging on this critical continent, and I’m hopeful that these two nominees will prove that they are the right people for that important task,” Senator Coons said.

Mr Trump had reportedly been leaning toward a different Africa specialist, J Peter Pham, as his first choice for the State Department job once held by former ambassador to Kenya Johnnie Carson.

GODEC

Prof Pham, a scholar at a Washington think tank, had his nomination blocked behind the scenes by a powerful Republican senator, partly due to a dispute over US policy toward Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara.

That same Senator, James Inhofe, on Thursday hailed the choice of Mr Nagy.

“I am confident that Ambassador Nagy, with Secretary of State Pompeo and President Trump, will be highly successful advancing an ‘America First’ policy of mutual respect, trade and cooperation. I look forward to his swift confirmation in the Senate,” Inhofe said.

Mr McCarter, a Republican member of the Illinois state legislature, would succeed Robert Godec in the Nairobi post if confirmed by the Senate. Mr McCarter has long been involved in charitable causes in Kenya and is a fluent Swahili speaker.

Source: Daily Nation

11, May 2018

Genocide in Southern Cameroons: Nigerian Spiritual leader says Ambazonian rural areas have become deserted ⁰

Bishop Emmah Isong disclosed how a man was recently shot despite pleadings that he was not a militant He said if the blood flow should not stop now, Cameroon might turn to another Rwanda. Emmah Isong, the national publicity secretary of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, on Thursday, May 11, alleged the killings of Nigerians in Southern Cameroon. Punch reports that Isong, who condemned the act in a statement issued regretted that his brother-in-law was one of the innocent persons recently killed by the Cameroonian gendarmes. He said, “There are so many killings in Cameroon especially the southern part. Last Friday in Ekondo Titi, some gendarmes moved into the villages and assassinated my brother-in-law in broad daylight, shooting at sight on any male or youth.

“The entire rural areas have become deserted. In one of the operations, they shot a man who was lying on a sickbed right on the chest, despite pleadings that he is not a militant. “Much innocent blood has been shed silently and my worries are not that I have lost a relation but my questions are- What is the government gaining by arbitrarily eliminating the lives of the young Cameroonians. “Can’t the governments of France, United Kingdom or the United States of America intervene in this genocide? Do we still have the role of the United Nations in defending the poor harmless English speaking citizens of a poor African nation?

“How long will this last and can’t the President Paul Biya-led government look for dialogue which the people are requesting? “If these people are accused of killing soldiers in retaliation, how many civilians can the soldiers then kill to avenge and who will help us count? Please, help Cameroon not to turn to another Rwanda please, please, please, the blood flow should stop now.”

www.naija.ng

11, May 2018

Nigeria, Kenya screen travelers at airports, border posts after Ebola outbreak in DR Congo ⁰

Nigeria has increased screening tests at airports and other points of entry as a precautionary measure following an outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the immigration service said on Thursday.

At least 17 people have died in an area of northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo, two years after the worst ever outbreak of the virus ended in West Africa after killing more than 11,300 people and infecting some 28,600, mainly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Nigeria was hailed as having contained the virus in 2014, with 8 deaths, following fears that it could spread through the commercial capital of some 20 million inhabitants and across Africa’s most populous country of around 180 million people.

The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) said thermometers had been used to monitor some entrants into the country since the virus last hit the region. Screening had been stepped up since the latest outbreak in Congo.

“We are using all the facilities available to detect the virus. That means extra use of thermometers,” said NIS spokesman Sunday James, speaking via phone.

“We must take extra measures to make sure people are screened at all the entry points into the country,” he said.

Ebola spread to Nigeria in 2014 when Patrick Sawyer, a Liberian-American diplomat, flew into the country from Liberia and collapsed at the main international airport in Lagos.

Kenya screens travelers at airports, border posts

Authorities in Kenya have also beefed up efforts to screening travelers at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, the border posts of Busia and Malaba.

Cabinet Secretary Sicily Kariuki told journalists that thermal guns had been installed at these points to detect persons with elevated temperatures.

A National Health Emergencies Council has also been established to act expeditiously to prevent any importation of Ebola.

Culled from Africa News

11, May 2018

South Africa: Armed men slit throats of worshipers at Durban mosque ⁰

Three men armed with guns and knives slit the throats of three worshipers at a mosque near Durban in South Africa and a person was killed, an emergency service official said on Thursday.

One victim jumped from a side window of the building, which had been set ablaze sending smoke billowing, said Prem Balram, a spokesman for Reaction Unit SA, a private emergency service, who was among the first on the scene.

“One of the three has just died on his way to hospital. The other two are in critical condition,” said Balram, adding that the suspects fled in a white car. “The suspects were Egyptian males. The local people here identified them.”

South African police said the motive of the attack at a mosque on the Old Main Road in Ottawa in the KwaZulu-Natal province was unknown and they were investigating.

Africa’s most industrialized country has a large expatriate community and attracts many tourists but has seldom been associated with Takfiri militancy.

Balram said police had cordoned off the scene of the attack.

“There is a knife that was recovered at the scene, we believe the knife is suspected to have been used in the crime,” the KwaZulu-Natal police spokeswoman Captain Nqobile Ngwala said at the scene.

This image shows a bloody knife which was purportedly used for a stabbing attack on worshipers by one of three assailants at a mosque in Durban, South Africa.

Police said in a statement that three unknown men entered a mosque after the midday prayer and attacked three people.

The suspects also set certain rooms in the mosque alight before fleeing in their getaway vehicle, police said.

“The motive of the attack on the three men is unknown at this stage,” police said, adding that no arrests have been made.

(Source: Reuters)

10, May 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Buhari-Biya Intelligence Accord fuelling Corruption in Nigeria ⁰

The intelligence cooperation deal signed between Yaoundé and Abuja that culminated to the abduction and subsequent extradition of the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and 46 members of his administration to Cameroon has created an equally dangerous enemy: corruption deep within the Nigerian police force.

That is according to Cameroon Intelligence Report correspondent in Calabar who recently found out that Nigerian police officers are enriching themselves by arresting innocent Southern Cameroonian refugees and ferrying them to Abuja.

We gathered that the Nigerian officers are given handsome financial rewards and in some cases they are accorded rank progression for any Southern Cameroonian arrested in Calabar or Ikom and taken to Abuja. Our senior intelligence officer in the Nigerian political capital who contributed to this report noted that the dollar payments are made by officials in the French embassy in Abuja.

Some of the officers who spoke to our undercover reporter in Calabar revealed that sometimes raids are staged in camps hosting Southern Cameroons refugees and the unlucky ones are immediately transported to Abuja. “It’s a money making venture and we are enjoying it” noted a Nigerian police officer at the Ikom police headquarters.

Much of this money is said to have come from deals negotiated with French multinationals drilling the Bakassi oil fields by the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé. A police constable who confirmed French embassy participation in the scheme but sued for anonymity revealed that some of his superiors ordered him to include “ghost police officers” who don’t exist resulting in inflated payments that benefit some police chiefs.

A senior aide to the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako contacted by our London desk declared that the Interim Government was aware of the situation and had hired a legal team in the Cross River State in Nigeria to counter the move.

Inside sources in Abuja say the Biya regime is losing millions of dollars on fraudulent policing action targeting the Southern Cameroons communities in Nigeria. A Roman Catholic priest in Calabar was quoted as saying that Corruption in Nigeria is worsening the Southern Cameroons conflict.

The Buhari administration has opened secret detention centers in Abuja for Southern Cameroonian activists arrested in Cross River State. Elsewhere, United Nations officials have completed registration in Sardauna Local Government Area, Taraba state bringing the total figures of Ambazonian refugees in Nigeria to 21,291. In Boki Local Government Area, Cross River, seven new villages are reportedly hosting an unverified number of new refugees. The UN is 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. Some 50,000 Southern Cameroonians have fled the conflict into neighboring Nigeria

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

10, May 2018

Persecuted just for speaking ENGLISH: Southern Cameroonians FIGHTING BACK ⁰

AN ANGLOPHONE region in Cameroon has erupted with demands for independence with residents claiming they have been persecuted by the central government for separatist ambitions. An English speaking region, known as Ambazonia, in Cameroon has been fighting for independence with dozens of people injured during protests since late 2017.

The unrest in Cameroon began in November, when English-speaking teachers and lawyers in the north-west and south-west regions of Cameroon, frustrated with having to work in French, took to the streets calling for reforms and greater autonomy.

French is the official language for most of Cameroon but English is spoken in two regions that border Nigeria.

cameroon english language ambanzonia french independence protests

Ambanzonians protest against the Cameroon Government to gain independence

Protests by separatists prompted a violent crackdown by Cameroon’s military last year in which troops opened fire on demonstrators. There are currently six rebel groups in the forest fighting against Government’s troops.

But Cameroon President Paul Biya has so far ignored the protests. An anonymous independence activist told Deutsche Welle: “It is the only option because the people believe it is through these means that they can force the President into dialogue. “What Ambazonians are doing now is simply defending themselves, they did not start the violence.”

Dozens of people have been killed and many more injured in clashes following the region’s symbolic declaration of independence on October 1, 2017, which sparked a crackdown by the government.

Some leaders in the movement for independence have been forced to take refuge in neighbouring country Nigeria. Last November, the self-declared president of the republic Sisiku Ayuk Tabe Julius said that “all options are on the table” in the region’s bid for independence.

He said: “We are going to separate. We are going to restore our independence. “We are going to disclose the terms of that separation and then we will build a wonderful nation.” He has since been detained in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Culled from Express.co.uk

10, May 2018

Congo-Kinshasa officials confirm Ebola outbreak after 17 dead ⁰

Cases of hemorrhagic fever were reported in an area of Congo that is facing an Ebola epidemic as far back as December and the first deaths were ported in January, a spokesman for the World Health Organization said in capital Kinshasa on Thursday.

The health ministry said on Tuesday that at least 17 people had died in an area of northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo where health officials have now confirmed an outbreak of Ebola, but did not give a time frame. Only two cases have been confirmed as Ebola, by a laboratory in Kinshasa.

A time span as long as five months since the first infection would be alarming, since it gives the virus a head start in infecting lots of people before action was taken to contain it.

This is the ninth time Ebola has been recorded in the vast, forested central African nation since it was first identified near the eastern Ebola river in the 1970s. It comes less than a year after an outbreak killed eight people in Congo’s remote northeastern forests.

“According to our early information, the cases have been reported since December and the first deaths were reported in January, but the link between the deaths and the epidemic has not yet been established,” WHO Congo spokesman Eugene Kabambi told Reuters.

The health ministry said on Thursday it had dispatched a team of 12 experts to the area to try to trace new contacts of the disease, identify the epicenter and all affected villages and provide resources.

The epidemic so far appears to be centered around the village of Ikoko Impenge, near the town of Bikoro, where local health officials had reported 21 patients showing signs of hemorrhagic fever, of whom all but four of whom had died.

“This advance team brought the first batches of equipment, mostly containing rapid diagnostic tests for the Ebola virus and laser thermometers,” the health ministry statement said.

It added that they had already arrived in the regional capital Mbandaka, about 150 km away from the affected area.

Ebola is best known and most feared for the internal and external bleeding it can cause in its victims, owing to damage done to blood vessels. Victims often die of shock but symptoms can be vague, including fever, muscle pain, diarrhea and nausea.

The worst Ebola epidemic in history ended in West Africa just two years ago after killing more than 11,300 people and infecting 28,600 in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

A woman looks for discarded bottles and scrap metal in a dump in Freetown, Sierra Leone, March 28, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

Congo’s long experience of the disease and its vast, remote geography mean outbreaks are often localized and relatively easy to isolate and snuff out.

But Ikoko Impenge and Bikoro lie not far from the banks of the Congo River, an essential waterway for transport and commerce, downstream of which lie both Kinshasa and Brazzaville, capital of neighboring Congo Republic. Between them, the two cities have a population of more than 12 million.

(Source: Reuters)

10, May 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis, Biya’s Nepotism and the Cho Ayaba-Boh Herbert Distraction Techniques ⁰

French Cameroonians are now seeing the very bad omen and a very bad sign that the so-called one and indivisible Cameroon is heading towards disintegration. The situation looks just like Zaire under the late Congolese thug, Mobutu. And everything points to the fact that the 36 years old CPDM government is tacitly in support of the practice of nepotism and the genocide that is happening now in Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia.

Every well-meaning Cameroonian including Cardinal Christian Tumi has spoken, advised and pointed out the danger of allowing army soldiers killing innocent Southern Cameroons civilians and burning down their towns and villages. Regrettably, before things assumed this dangerous dimension, the 85 year old Francophone dictator, Paul Biya had tactfully and craftily handed over the entire security apparatus to his Beti Ewondo kinsmen. This explains why French speaking Cameroonians including their political elites are looking the other way while Beti-Ewondo soldiers are perpetrating their atrocity in Southern Cameroons.

The genocide currently going on in Southern Cameroons is not something that is speculative but one that is staring everybody in the face. Yet a veteran media guru Boh Herbert and one Cho Ayaba claiming to be Anglophone leaders have reportedly joined La Republique du Cameroun to denounce the leadership of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

A situation where the Delegate-General for National Security, the National Gendarmerie boss, the Army Chief of Staff, the Minister for Defense and all the nation’s intelligence services are in the hands of the Beti-Ewondo ruling clan not from the Center and South regions but predominantly from the South is very disturbing! Such a thing never happened in the days of President Ahidjo.

Let us examine calmly and honestly the composition of the entire Biya security council. It is made up of only Betis, and the only person in their midst is Paul Atanga Nji, an Anglophone man who does not command anything. The nation is suffering the worse nepotism in its history and it is facilitating the breakdown.

For 57 years, the French Cameroun political elites supported by successive French governments designed the composition of government of the Cameroonian federation and its agencies in such a manner that failed to reflect the bilingual and federal character of the Federal Republic of Cameroon. Consequently, the desire to promote national unity and also to command national loyalty is no longer in the Southern Cameroonian DNA.

Paul Biya’s nepotism, sectionalism and parochialism go contrary to our Anglo-Saxon spirit, but the President does not give a damn and unfortunately all Southern Cameroonians serving in his government seems to be very docile. The Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government has flouted every provision of both the old and the new constitutions and every violation of the constitution in an Anglo-Saxon tradition is an impeachable offence. But instead it is Biya and his gang that regularly queries the action of the members of the Francophone dominated National Assembly and the Senate, threatening to remove their leaderships.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group cannot imagine this kind of massive killings being done by these rampaging French Cameroun army soldiers in Southern Cameroons and Boh Herbert and his acolytes such as Cho Ayaba are unable to join the majority following of the Interim Government to help our people. There are other Ambazonians whose own contribution has been limited to names calling—Milan!! Atam Milan!! Milan!! Milan!! Milan!! This begs the question: Are these men truly Southern Cameroonians?

The Southern Cameroons freedom fighters on Ground Zero have pushed so hard and have successfully created a state within a state. All what they need is a Diaspora leadership to help them complete this onerous task and in good time. As we have seen from numerous global best practices including the ANC in South Africa, all Southern Cameroons Diaspora groups should rally behind the Interim Government or keep quiet and do their own thing.

The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia under Dr. Samuel Ikome Sako should not acquiesce in the face of the flurry of attacks, but should stand firm in the defense of Southern Cameroonians. It will be unfair to the Southern Cameroons nation to say someone like Cho Ayaba is a leader. A Southern Cameroonian who spent more than a decade in Germany producing fake SCNC documents for Nigerians and Congolese fostering their asylum claims for a fee now turns around to attack a legitimate government loved and supported by Ambazonians!! Again, if you look at that Cho Ayaba crime syndicate critically, you will see that 99 per cent of the men and women in his insignificant team jumped into the struggle for their personal interest not Southern Cameroons. Cho Ayaba is notorious for such nasty things as his best friend ever in Germany was a Bamileke citizen known as Jean Monie who assisted him in his fraudulent ventures.

Many Ambazonians have been militating in many other Southern Cameroons groups before eventually joining the fighting that started two years ago. To you we say the Interim Government remains the best thing that ever happened to Southern Cameroonians. Correspondingly, every Ambazonian should support Dr. Sako and his team. Let Ambazonians ignore Cho Ayaba and Boh Herbert who have all along been trying to execute a hidden agenda that is now not hidden.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

10, May 2018

Ambazonia Self-Defense Council Spokesman to address Southern Cameroonians ⁰

The spokesperson for the Ambazonia Self-Defence Council (ASC) is expected to make a public statement on Sunday the 13^th of May 2018 on the state of the resistance against the French Cameroun army. Cameroon Concord News gathered from reliable sources that Commander Nsoh Foncha will speak of the framework that was put in place in March 2018 by the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Dr Samuel Ikome Sako uniting all self-defense activities across the territory of Ambazonia.

Our senior political man, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai who contributed to this report, hinted that the leadership of the Ambazonia Self Defense Council will channel its message to Southern Cameroons freedom fighters on ground zero, the Southern Cameroons Diaspora including the international community.

The self-defense discourse, the first ever since the revolution started two years ago is also expected to detail operations on ground zero and to inform Southern Cameroonians of the defense strategy being implemented with the approval of the Interim Government. Commander Nsoh Foncha will also appeal to every Ambazonian to get involved in self-defense issues in their respective counties and constituencies. The address of the Ambazonia Self-Defense Council spokesman shall also bear a message to the governments of the United States, France and Great Britain.

This item is still developing

By Chi Prudence Asong in London

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