CPDM crime syndicate “wins” 90% of elective senate seats

5, April 2018

CPDM crime syndicate “wins” 90% of elective senate seats 0

Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), the country’s ruling party has swept an overwhelming majority of seats in the senate after the March 25 polls.

According to official results from the elections body, ELECAM, CPDM won 63 out of the 70 seats available. The remaining seven seats went to the main opposition, Social Democratic Front (SDF).

CPDM won in nine out of the ten regions of the central African country with the SDFwinning only in one of the Anglophone regions – the North West. Seven other parties failed to win a seat.

Cameroon’s parliamentary system caters for 100 senators out of which 70 are to be elected by municipal councillors across the country. The remaining 30 slots are the prerogative of the president.

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 The senatorial elections marks the start of a busy electoral calender as it is set to be followed by council, legislative and presidential elections later this year. The respective dates are yet to be determined by the President.

President Paul Biya is expected to seek another term in office after over three decades in charge. The country is currently riled by secessionist elements in the Anglophone regions – northwest and southwest regions.

The secessionists have entered an armed phase of a struggle for independence. About twenty five security forces have so far been killed in guerilla style attacks. Government received over 40 separatist members deported from Nigeria, they included leader Sisuku Julius Ayuk Tabe.

 

Culled from Africa News


Yaounde: Issa Tchiroma’s kidnap and rescue account disputed by tour operator

5, April 2018

Yaounde: Issa Tchiroma’s kidnap and rescue account disputed by tour operator 0

African Adventures, a tour operator in Cameroon says the government’s official statement that a dozen foreign tourists had been rescued in a military operation was not accurate.

Government said on Wednesday that security forces had rescued a dozen foreign tourists and six locals kidnapped in the restive Anglophone region. The foreign contingent were said to include seven Swiss and five Italians.

Information minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakary said the army’s elite Rapid Intervention Batallion rescued the group hours after they were abducted on their way to the Twin Lakes in Mount Manengouba National Park, about 300 km (186 miles) northwest of the capital Yaounde.

But according to the company, in the April 2, 2018 incident, its clients were not kidnapped but rather they were only stopped by an armed group and their documents checked.

Their statement added that just when the group were about to leave, security forces arrived, resulting in a brief engagement, after which they were allowed to leave.

African Adventures’ position muddies the waters even more because the Swiss government according to an RFI reporter also said it was not until yesterday (April 4) that they were told about the incident.  Bakary blamed the kidnap on “secessionist terrorists”, a term used by the government to refer to the English-speaking separatists who want to carve out a new state called Ambazonia from mainly French-speaking Cameroon.

The Ambazonian Defence Force (ADF), the main Anglophone separatist group battling state security forces, denied any involvement in the kidnappings.

“ADF does not take hostages. ADF arrest enablers and collaborators and does not arrest foreign nationals,” Cho Ayaba, a leader of the Ambazonian Governing Council, to which the ADF is loosely affiliated, told Reuters.

The ADF has been responsible for most of the shootings that have killed more than 20 state security agents in a year-long uprising against President Paul Biya’s Francophone government that they say has marginalised the English-speaking minority.

 

Source: Africa News


France ‘to launch European military crisis force in June’

5, April 2018

France ‘to launch European military crisis force in June’ 0

France says it will “launch” a deployable European military crisis force in June, with French defense officials confirming that the army would work outside of existing European Union efforts.

French Defense Ministry sources revealed on Wednesday that the French government had been in touch with a dozen countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Denmark, over the military crisis force and had organized a working group to outline the idea in March, Reuters reported.

It was not clear what countries had joined the initiative — the sources did not reveal the names of the countries — but enough countries had apparently agreed to be involved to make a launch possible.

The initiative reportedly aims to unite European countries with a military capacity and political desire to cooperate on planning, carry out joint analyses of emerging crises, and swiftly react.

“It would not be within the European Union and would allow countries outside it, like Britain, to be part of it,” one French military source said, even as the UK is yet to officially leave the EU.

“It’s creating a smaller group of countries that have common analysis and procedures,” another source said. “It would plug in the different military planning and operations centers.”

The sources left the door open to other countries joining the force later.

It was also unclear why the plan involved so much secrecy. The French discussions on the matter with other countries had not been previously reported.

Germany has been loath to participate in military intervention forces. But French Defense Minister Florence Parly is expected to discuss the project with her German counterpart, Ursula von der Leyen, in Paris on April 5, according to Reuters.

During a speech on Europe last September, French President Emmanuel Macron stressed the need for a shared European military intervention force and defense budget by the end of the decade.

Two month later, 25 participating EU member states signed a pact to fund and develop a new military union that would coordinate policies and projects among members in the face of alleged threats from the east of the continent.

The agreement on the Permanent Structured Cooperation, or PESCO, was part of efforts led by Germany and France to bring the EU closer to having a permanent joint military force parallel to NATO but exclusive to the EU.

Denmark, Malta, and Britain are EU members absent from the PESCO scheme, which came into force in December.

French officials insist that the newly-proposed European military crisis force will not cannibalize the PESCO defense pact.

 

Source: Presstv


Liverpool fans bombard Man City bus with bottles

5, April 2018

Liverpool fans bombard Man City bus with bottles 0

Liverpool fans threw bottles and cans and aimed fireworks at the Manchester City bus as it arrived at Anfield ahead of Wednesday night’s Champions League game.

In the video, Liverpool fans can be seen launching bottles at Manchester City’s bus before the game on April 4.

Liverpool won the game, 3-0.

(Source: AP)


Opposition candidate Julius Maada Bio wins Sierra Leone presidential runoff

5, April 2018

Opposition candidate Julius Maada Bio wins Sierra Leone presidential runoff 0

Opposition candidate Julius Maada Bio has won a narrow victory in a run-off election to become Sierra Leone’s next president, according to official results by the country’s electoral body.

The National Electoral Commission announced at 10:00pm local time that Maada Bio of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) won 51.8 percent of a total of over 2.5 million ballots cast in the March 31 vote, beating out the ruling All People’s Congress candidate Samura Kamara, who garnered 48.1 percent.

Kamara, a former foreign affairs minister, and Maada Bio, who briefly ruled Sierra Leone as head of a military junta in 1996, were vying to replace outgoing President Ernest Bai Koroma, who cannot seek re-election due to term limits.

I feel happy about the results. I am here because my president Julius Maada Bio has won the election in this country.

Maada Bio is to be sworn in as president tonight at a yet to be disclosed venue.

“The new president will be sworn in tonight,” Chief Justice Abdulai Hamid Charm told Reuters.

SLPP supporters began celebrating in the streets of the capital Freetown on Wednesday evening in anticipation of the official announcement of results.

“I feel happy about the results. I am here because my president Julius Maada Bio has won the election in this country,” said Adolfus Kargbo, among a group of SLPP supporters chanting Maada Bio’s name.

Who is Maada Bio?

Julius Maada Bio, 53, has tasted the presidency before having served a military Head of State for about three months. He led the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) military junta government that lasted from January 16 to March 29 1996.

He has also tasted how it feels to be on the ballot paper, he was the Sierra Leone Peoples Party’s candidate for the last elections. He lost to outgoing Ernest Bai Koroma.

As a military ruler, he toppled his boss in the NPRC junta Captain Valentine Strasser in January 1996 but handed over to democratically elected Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of the SLPPafter the 1996 presidential elections.

He later retired from active service that year and moved to the United States to further his studies. He earned a Masters Degree in International Affairs from the American University in Washington DC.

He was born on May 12, 1964 and graduated from military academy in October 1987 aged 23. He has played part in peacekeeping ops by the United Nations famously in Liberia. He played a role in the 1992 coup and led the 1996 one before handing over after elections.

He returned from the U.S. to join the SLPP in 2005. Contested to lead the party but lost the bid. He was picked as party’s presidential candidate in 2012 polls and garnered 37% of votes to place second.

He is a Roman Ctholic married to Fatima Bio a practicing Muslim and a Gambian national. They got married in an interfaith ceremony in London in 2013. The couple have a child but Maada Bio has three other children from a previous marriage. The vice presidential candidate of the SLPP is Jalloh Mohamed Juldeh.

The largely peaceful election process has come as a relief for the country of 7 million people, who endured a civil war in the 1990s and whose economy was dragged down by an Ebola epidemic in 2014-15 and a global slump in commodity prices in 2015.

 

Source: Africa News


Southern Cameroons Struggle: BEWARE OF THE DESPERATE CRIMINAL TACTICS OF FRENCH CAMEROUN

4, April 2018

Southern Cameroons Struggle: BEWARE OF THE DESPERATE CRIMINAL TACTICS OF FRENCH CAMEROUN 0

Cameroon Concord News Group has documented and published unimpeachable evidence of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and several international crimes committed against the peace-loving people of the Southern Cameroons by French Cameroun.  These crimes are ongoing for the past fifty-six years. Cameroon Concord News Group has established that the motivation for these crimes are of an economic nature for which France is the primary beneficiary. It is France’s economic interests over the abundant mineral and natural resources in the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia that has corruptly sustained colonial rule over the Southern Cameroons.  Over the past fifty-six years, French Cameroun unleashed a reign of terror over the Southern Cameroons.  Through collective punishment, systematic rape and humiliation of our girls and women, torching of civilian settlements, pillage and looting of our natural and petroleum resources, massacre of civilians, enforced disappearances, systematic torture, large scale abductions and imprisonment, indignities on women and children and several egregious violations, French Cameroun with impunity put the collective existence of the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia in jeopardy.

These crimes escalated from September 22, 2017 to October 1, 2017 when the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia reclaimed their independence and sovereignty over their territory. The people and government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia under the leadership of the President His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe deserved the protection of international law but the international community betrayed the “never again” sacred trust it made to humanity after the holocaust by allowing French Cameroun deploy weapons of mass destruction to kill and maim armless civilians on its watch.  Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report have consistently denounced the use by French Cameroon of   the stolen wealth and resources of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to corrupt Senior UN officials and some members of the government of Nigeria to facilitate the commission of crimes against the Federal Republic of Ambazonia among which the abduction of His Excellency the President and members of the Interim Government was.

The decision by the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to resort to self defence to protect its people and territory has recorded successes so far. The resilience of the people and the successes recorded with so little has alarmed the enemy and its co-conspirators in Nigeria and France. Before his abduction by a joint criminal gang comprising Nigerian intelligence personnel and a French Cameroun special operations death squad, the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia in an address enjoined the citizens of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to protect the lives of civilians of all nationalities found in the territory of Ambazonia. Endorsing self defense after the abduction of our leaders, the Acting President Dr Samuel Sako and the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia reiterated this policy which was established by His Excellency the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. Cameroon Concord News Group fully endorsed the policy.

French Cameroun’s military operations within the territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has as its primary focus the massacre of civilians, the looting, pillaging, and torching of civilian settlements, the rape of our girls and women, and several other crimes. These crimes for which Paul Biya by himself, or through his subordinate criminal agents, like Laurent Esso, Fame Ndongo, Atanga Nji, George Tabetando, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Owona Nguini, Okalia Bilai, Lele L’Afrique, Joseph Beti Assomo ( minister of armed forces) French Cameroun services commanders deployed to prosecute the genocide, have taken responsibility are well documented.  The sheer magnitude of the crimes and its potential to spill over to the territories of neighbouring countries and the sub-region has forced the international community to begin to pressurize French Cameroun to halt its criminal campaign and to engage in an all-inclusive dialogue with the legitimate representatives of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

To ease this pressure, French Cameroun has developed criminal tactics aimed at de-legitimizing the Federal Republic of Ambazonia’s self-defense efforts, its defense of its sovereignty and its people. This strategy of French Cameroun is developing right before our very eyes. Unfortunately, some gullible Ambazonia leaders in search of power and relevance are falling into these traps. French Cameroun is courting an unstructured group of gullible individuals loosely called Federalists to preposition themselves as persons it can rely on to organize a dialogue aimed at resolving the current crisis. These gullible individuals will be used to validate the one and indivisible Cameroun policy of French Cameroun and then dumped to face the consequences of their treachery of their people’s aspirations. The so-called dialogue will be a French Cameroun internal initiative with some foreign envoys accredited to French Cameroun deployed acting as facilitators. Atanga Nji on behalf of French Cameroun presented the nature of the dialogue that French Cameroun will organize and own as well as the condition it intend to impose for participation. Chris Anu was right and quick to reject the so-called dialogue outright, opting rather for negotiations organized by an external international actor that will provide a facilitator for the occasion. A party to a negotiation cannot impose an agenda, the nature and composition of the representation by another party. The negotiations will surely be on the terms of separation, accountability for the crimes committed within the territory of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and the payment of reparations for the crimes committed.

French Cameroun is conscious that crimes of an international character committed against civilians will never go unpunished.  Not in our time. For this purpose, it is attempting to pin responsibility for its crimes on Southern Cameroons legitimate self-defense fighters.  Unfortunately, some of our leaders are falling into these traps and deliberate policy of criminalization.  Cameroon Concord News Group has seen a video in the social media posted by French Cameroun through its surrogates with child soldiers holding and manipulating arms. French Cameroon did this knowing that the crime of conscription and deployment of children below the age of 15 years as child soldiers is one of the most serious international crimes.  This mischief was easily identified by several Ambazonians who rightly denounced it as an enemy scheme aimed at attempting to blackmail our self-defense efforts. The self-defense forces of Ambazonia do not put their identity out in the social media in order not to invite harm to the families of the fighters and their communities.  This sensible self-defense strategy deprives traitors and spies on the payroll of the enemy the ability to subvert the strategic and tactical operational command decisions taken by Ambazonia fighting forces at ground zero.  Cameroon Concord News deplores in very strong terms the conduct of persons aligned with a social media frenzied Ambazonia for alleging armed adult and child soldiers were members of the ADF. This plays into the ego of a leaders known for taking responsibility for actions helpful or harmful without thinking about the consequences for the entire cause. Endorsing this French Cameroun mounted video posted to social media carefully laying out a case of conscription and use of child soldiers is troubling. 

Cameroon Concord News strongly condemns the execution of civilians who are not taking part in the armed conflict. Cameroon Concord News and the National Telegraph published news reports about the summary execution in cold blood of some seven civilians who were in the custody of French Cameroun forces who were brought to Kendem Upper Banyang by Tabatando to force the people to vote in senatorial elections organized by French Cameroun. These elections were banned by the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.  There exists a deliberate pre-planned criminal military strategy by French Cameroun to summarily execute Ambazonian civilians.  Cameroon Concord News is please that based on the operational orders of the interim government, Ambazonia self-defense forces have so far not targeted civilians. The burning to painful death of old and vulnerable people in civilian settlements, cowardly execution of civilians in Kendem and other locations in Ambazonia are criminal acts which will never be forgotten or forgiven. Ambazonia can never again belong to the same nation with an enemy republic that preys on the blood of its civilians.  The alleged execution of a high French Cameroun government functionary of Ambazonia origin by the ADF on the orders of Dr Cho Ayaba must also be vehemently condemned. Cameroon Concord News holds the opinion that this reckless conduct provides French Cameroun the opportunity to abduct and execute people of Ambazonia origin and place the responsibility on our self-defense fighting forces. There is no greater way of demoralizing and de-legitimizing the cause for which our people have greatly sacrificed than painting and presenting this irresponsible image to the international community. This conduct if not abated may send the wrong signals to our different communities within our territory from which these individuals hail. For this reason, summary executions of civilians must be discouraged and condemned.

Cameroon Concord News Group has published news reports about the existence of an organized elaborate trans-border criminal network operating in French Cameroun and Nigeria which abducts foreign nationals for ransom.  Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Cavaye Djribril, Amadou Ali, Atanga Nji and members of the political Islam crime syndicate associated with Boko Haram within the immediate political circle of Mohammadu Buhari are members.  The announced military operation that allegedly liberated foreign tourists of European origin at a moment when no known tourist could venture into the territory of Ambazonia under French Cameroun’s scourge earth criminal military operations is a hoax. It is a desperate attempt to criminalize the Ambazonia revolutionary war of survival and obtain by fraud a European Union resolution branding our fighting self-defense forces as terrorist organizations.  The Interim Government must come out strongly to deny and denounce this desperate criminal ploy. It must ask for an international investigation into the alleged abduction as well as other crimes committed by French Cameroun in our territory. In the light of this spurious, desperate and shameful fabricated allegation, French Cameroun should allow human rights organizations it had hitherto denied access to conduct investigations on this allegation and that of other crimes perpetrated by French Cameroun soldiers.  Investigators from the countries of origin of the alleged abductees should come to conduct independent investigations as well. The Interim Government should allow access into the territory of Ambazonia for the purpose of these investigations, but such access must be denied to French Cameroun forces whose presence on our territory is and must never ever be condoned.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group


Southern Cameroons Crisis: Amba fighters put regional social affairs delegate out of his misery

4, April 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Amba fighters put regional social affairs delegate out of his misery 0

Ambazonian fighters who have been battling government troops in the English-speaking parts of the country have finally killed the regional social delegate kidnapped in Batibo, North West Region, sometime last month, a source close to the fighters has informed the Cameroon Concord News Group.
The fighters who are under the control of Dr. Cho Ayaba, a fiery and tough advocate of Southern Cameroons secession, said they killed the regional delegate on the instruction of Dr. Cho Ayaba.
The delegate, who was kidnapped after the Divisional Officer for Batibo, had called on the government to seek a solution to the Southern Cameroons crisis so that his life could be spared. But the government’s relentless pursuit of a military solution against Southern Cameroons fighters is surely to blame for his killing. It should be recalled that over the last weeks, many people have been kidnapped and released as a means to let the government know that despite its military actions, Southern Cameroons is not under its control. .
Even Professor Leke of the G.C.E Board who had been charged with the importation of criminal aliens into the country with the intent of destabilizing the fatherland was released and given a message to deliver to the Prime Ministers.  Ambazonian fighers are not known for killing their captives. They have, for many weeks now, been kidnapping many people including a female councilor in Njinikom for voting in the senatorial elections to demonstrate their power and authority in the region.
Meanwhile, as the battle rages on, there are efforts under way to bring the fighting to an end.  The American Ambassador, Peter Henry Barlerin, yesterday brought together some civil society leaders, clergymen, political leaders, and representatives of human rights organizations, as well as a government representative who shared perspectives on the Southern Cameroons crisis in order to chart a path towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict that is clearly at a dead end.

Speaking during the event, Barrister Felix Agbor-Balla who stands for federalism and who had served some time in jail because of this crisis, stressed that the  government’s failure to comply with provisions of the Foumban Conference was to blame for the crisis. He also pointed to the flagrant and extensive social exclusion, social and economic injustice, structural division and political discrimination as those issues that needed to be promptly addressed if Cameroon had to remain one and indivisible.

He argued that to restore peace and to calm down tensions, Messieurs Mancho Bibixy, Terence Penn Khan and others facing trial at Military Courts in Yaounde must be released. He stressed that Mr. Ayuk Tabe Julius and 47 others arrested in Nigeria and extradited to Cameroon should be given access to their lawyers and offered amnesty to participate in any sincere and inclusive dialogue that would  serve as the basis for the building of a modern and peaceful Cameroon.

He called for an immediate, inclusive and transparent dialogue that should be mediated by neutral parties as a means to guarantee compliance with any resolutions that will be made during the dialogue.

He stressed that ending the conflict through dialogue would speed up disarmament, a return of refugees and internally displaced, as well as a building of social and mutual trust.

“It is time to put a permanent end to killings on both sides, violence and suffering upon the innocent civilian population,” he stressed.

With such efforts, it is like Cameroonians will soon be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Cameroonians want peace. They want a genuine and negotiated peace. They need an inclusive and a sincere dialogue that will lay to rest many of the issues that are hurting the country’s efforts to attain sustainable levels of development.

But these efforts will surely not be a panacea. Old ways will be difficult to address. People who have been having many benefits from the corrupt and highly centralized system are not yet ready to lose some of their benefits. To them, the country is theirs and changing the status quo will be like bending over backwards to please the masses who, in their view, do not matter.

The Southern Cameroons crisis will surely linger for a long time.  The country’s economy has already taken a lot of punches and if care is not taken, it may bottom out. For now, the government has one objective. Pay civil service salaries in order to avoid a popular uprising.

By Kingsley Betek with files from Sama Ernest and Chi Prudence Asong



Southern Cameroons Crisis: President Ayuk Tabe is at the Gendarmerie

4, April 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: President Ayuk Tabe is at the Gendarmerie 0

For more than two months, many people around the world have been wondering about the whereabouts of the Southern Cameroonians abducted in Nigeria in January 2018 and extradited to Cameroon at the end of January. There have been lots of speculations, with many assuming that the Ambazonian president and his cabinet had been killed by the Yaounde government as the easiest way out of the conflict.

This has been pure speculation. The government of Cameroon through its spokesperson had made a commitment that those extradited to Cameroon would be given a fair trial. Though doubts exist, the international community is still holding the government to its words. Mr. Ayuk Tabe and his collaborators have not been granted access to a lawyer and this is in contravention of all legal rules in the country and around the world.

However, acknowledging that 47 Southern Cameroonians had been extradited meant that the government was telling the international community that it was prepared to follow global norms in the handling of such matters. The government knew and still knows that killing Mr. Ayuk Tabe will only make things worse. If his arrest resulted in the escalation of the crisis in the days that followed, then his killing would surely set Cameroon on fire.

But today, Cameroon Concord News Group, Southern Cameroons most read news platform, has finally established that Mr. Ayuk and his collaborators are in Yaounde at the Gendarmerie where they are being given VIP treatment contrary to fears that they are being molested and tortured.

According to a Cameroon Concord News Group source, last week Mr. Ayuk and a few of his collaborators  were let out to have some fresh air. Our source said he saw him, but given the context and circumstance, he could not talk to him. He said he recognized him and was pleased to stand face to face to this man who has caused the Yaounde government to lose sleep.

He added that where the Southern Cameroonians are kept is not a place that is very exposed. They are kept at the extreme corner of the Gendarmerie, very close to the foyer of the Gendarmerie and this does not grant the detainees enough fresh air.

The Cameroon Concord News Group’s source has been keeping an eye on Mr. Ayuk Tabe and has said that Mr. Ayuk Tabe is healthy and in good spirit. He added that he was sure some good things would soon be happening as the head of state is also looking forward to a peaceful resolution as the international community continues to use back diplomatic channels to mount pressure on the government.

Since January 2018, Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report have been working on this case and have used inside sources to gather information on this matter and these efforts have yielded some reassuring results. “Mr. Ayuk Tabe is being treated well in the hope that he could be used for future negotiations,” our source said.

“The government understands that only Mr. Ayuk Tabe and his collaborators can make meaningful decisions for the people of Southern Cameroons and if the killings and destruction playing out in the two English-speaking regions have to come to an end, Mr. Ayuk Tabe must be made to play a key role in the entire process,” our source added.

The government wants a speedy end to the problem, but cannot accept any rhetoric on secession. The government wants Mr. Ayuk Tabe who is the legitimate face of the struggle to walk away from his idea of splitting the country.  He has been recognized as the poster child of the Southern Cameroons crisis that has put the country on the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Meanwhile, the American Embassy in Yaounde is seeking ways to bring Cameroonians to the negotiating table with a view to finding a peaceful resolution to the crisis that has torn the country apart.

The American Ambassador, Peter Henry Barlerin, yesterday brought together some civil society leaders, clergymen, political leaders, and representatives of human rights organizations, as well as a government representative who shared perspectives on the Southern Cameroons crisis in order to chart a path towards a peaceful resolution of the conflict that is clearly at a dead end.

Speaking during the occasion, Barrister Felix Agbor-Balla who stands for federalism and who had served some time in jail because of this crisis, stressed that the  government’s failure to comply with provisions of the Foumban Conference was to blame for the crisis. He also pointed to the flagrant and extensive social exclusion, social and economic injustice, structural division and political discrimination as those issues that need to be promptly addressed if Cameroon had to remain one and indivisible.

He argued that to restore peace and to calm down tensions, Messieurs Mancho Bibixy, Terence Penn Khan and others facing trial at Military Courts in Yaounde must be released. He stressed that Mr. Ayuk Tabe Julius and 47 others arrested in Nigeria and extradited to Cameroon should be given access to their lawyers and offered amnesty to participate in any sincere and inclusive dialogue that would  serve as the basis for the building of a modern and peaceful Cameroon.

He called for an immediate, inclusive and transparent dialogue that should be mediated by neutral parties as a means to guarantee compliance with any resolutions that will be made during the dialogue.

He stressed that ending the conflict through dialogue would speed up disarmament, a return of refugees and internally displaced, as well as a building of social and mutual trust.

“It is time to put a permanent end to killings on both sides, violence and suffering upon the innocent civilian population,” he stressed.

With such efforts, it is like Cameroonians will soon be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Cameroonians want peace. They want genuine and negotiated peace. They need an inclusive and a sincere dialogue that will lay to rest many of the issues that are hurting the country’s efforts to attain sustainable levels of development.

But these efforts will surely not be a panacea. Old ways will be difficult to address. People who have been having many benefits from the corrupt and highly centralized system are not yet ready to lose some of their benefits. To them, the country is theirs and changing the status quo will be like bending over backwards to please the masses who, in their view, do not matter.

The Southern Cameroons crisis will surely linger for a long time.  The country’s economy has already taken a lot of punches and if care is not taken, it may bottom out. For now, the government has one objective. Pay civil service salaries in order to avoid a popular uprising.

The government understands that as long as the Francophone majority can put food on the table, it will never challenge the government. In this regard, it is working hard to keep Cameroonian mouths busy with food and it is ensuring that beer, its sedative of choice, makes it to the bars on a daily basis. The country’s breweries have been ordered to produce more beer brands so as to keep Cameroonians out of touch with the political and economic reality of their country.

According to an inside source, there are plans to reduce the price of beer in the two English-speaking regions of the country. This is intended to bring many Southern Cameroonians to the bars. By drinking heavily, they will be busy drowning their worries in alcohol and this will lead to a fizzling of the crisis that has given the government a bad name.

But the government seems to be forgetting that there is a huge external factor in this crisis – the Southern Cameroons Diaspora that is hell-bent on financing this crisis and possibly take the destruction to East Cameroon. Currently, there are many fund-raising efforts underway in many North American cities. These resource mobilization facilities are intended to purchase more arms so that the large willing pool of fighters back in Cameroon can be more equipped to wreak more havoc.

The Southern Cameroons Diaspora is wealthy. This is a Diaspora that has successfully transformed marginalization into an opportunity. If the government really wants an end to this conflict, then it must engage with the Southern Cameroons Diaspora, especially with Southern Cameroonians who are in the United States and Canada. Without that, the country will continue to be in total turbulence.

The Diaspora wants to play an important political and economic role in Cameroon. It wants old systems to be deleted. It wants the elimination of a market-dominant minority from the system. This minority seems to be the bane of the existence of most lives in Cameroon. The Diaspora wants an end to political tribalism that is ruining the country.  If Cameroon has to walk away from its ugly past, then it must reengineer its systems. The current ones are outdated and inefficient. And this can only be achieved through meaningful, inclusive and sincere dialogue.

By Kingsley Betek, Rita Akana with contributions from Soter Agbaw-Ebai 



Southern Cameroons Struggle: There are reasons why Cho Ayaba hates Chris Anu

4, April 2018

Southern Cameroons Struggle: There are reasons why Cho Ayaba hates Chris Anu 0

Southern Cameroons media guru, Chris Anu who also moonlights as the Communication Secretary for the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has finally made his position clear on the leadership situation deep within the Anglophone struggle, saying the clamour by Southern Cameroonians in both the Northern and Southern zones is “Not to kill its victims, but to go after those who have made us victims.”

Chris Anu implicitly denounced the so-called leader of an obscure organization known as the Ambazonia Defense Force, a militant group led by Cho Ayaba, which has been playing drums of killings and kidnappings and creating sectional unrest among Ambazonians. “Yes this is a revolution, but a revolution doesn’t go after its own especially those considered powerless’, Chris Anu wondered aloud in a posting on his face book page.

Chris Anu observed that “Why should all these politicians and the Atanga Njis of Cameroun walk free and the Ayabas go after powerless people? Chris stressed that his recent take on Ayaba Cho has nothing to do with the Interim Government but further pointed out that “If good people in this revolution do not stand up to Ayaba who is bent on sacrificing this struggle at the altar of power and fame, then Count Me Out”.

Mindful of the fact that the people of Southern Cameroons are ever ready to partner with the powerful Anglophone Diaspora groups in order to ensure the restoration of the state of Southern Cameroons, Chris Anu submitted that “We must collectively show Ayaba the door out of any form of leadership in this struggle.”

The Ambazonian Communication Secretary was reacting to news that Animbom Aaron Akiabom, the Social Welfare Delegate in Bamenda had been killed by a criminal gang led by Cho Ayaba. To be sure, Animbom Aaron Akiabom, the Social Welfare Delegate in Bamenda, a longtime Pastor and Deacon in the Baptist Church was abducted in Batibo early in March while returning from a funeral.

Cho Ayaba claimed the credit and paraded him in a social media video on March 10 as prove that his group actually had him in custody. Chris Anu has now revealed that he was since killed.

Our chief political editor, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai had previously sounded a note of caution to Ambazonians to move away from the Cho Ayaba gang. Said Agbaw-Ebai ,“With the dust now settled, Southern Cameroonians can see clearly that there is no difference between Ayaba and La Republique forces. If the Lebialem Dragons had killed Prof Leke Tambo, that would have been the end of the revolution in Bangwa land.”

Soter Agbaw-Ebai noted that Southern Cameroons defense groups should and must respect the laws of war.

By Chi Prudence Asong in London


Trump says he could have ‘a very good relationship’ with Putin

4, April 2018

Trump says he could have ‘a very good relationship’ with Putin 0

President Donald Trump says he could have “a very good relationship” with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, even as the United States and many European nations have expelled more than 150 Russian diplomats.

“Getting along with Russia is a good thing,” Trump said Tuesday during a joint press conference with leaders of three Baltic countries most concerned about the potential for “aggression” from Moscow.

“I think I could have a very good relationship with Russia and with President Putin, and if I did, that would be a great thing. And there’s also a great possibility that that won’t happen. Who knows?”

Trump made the comments as his administration raised the prospect of a White House meeting between the US and Russian presidents.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump and Putin had “discussed a bilateral meeting in the ‘not-too-distant future’” during their most recent phone conversation last month, and that the White House was among “a number of potential venues.”

Trump called Putin on March 20 to congratulate him on his reelection, stoking criticism he is overly warm with the Russian president even as the US intelligence has conduced Russia interfered in the 2016 US election.

During the White House summit on Tuesday, Trump said he was looking to expand business ties with Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as their leaders have called on the US to take a tougher stance against Russia.

US President Donald trump speaks during a joint press conference with President Raimonds Vejonis of Latvia, President Kersti Kaljulaid of Estonia and President Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania in the East Room of the White House on April 3, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

 

“The Baltic countries remain a key market for US aircraft, automobiles, machinery and medical equipment, and we welcome increased bilateral trade with all three nations based on the principle of fairness and reciprocity,” he said.

Trump told the foreign leaders that “nobody has been tougher on Russia” than he has been, noting he has pushed for increased military spending and energy production to beat Russia.

“We’re essentially now energy-independent. We’re an exporter of energy. That is not a positive for Russia,” he said.

“We are going to have a military stronger than we’ve ever had before by far,” he added. “That’s not exactly a great thing for Russia.”

The three states, along with the US, moved to impose new sanctions on Moscow in response to the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in England last month, an attack that Western officials have blamed on the Kremlin.

The UK says the nerve agent Novichok had been used to poison the pair, claiming only Russia had the capability, motive and intent to be behind the attack.

Moscow has vehemently denied any involvement, saying the substance could have originated from the countries studying Novichok, including the UK itself, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Sweden.

The Trump administration announced plans to expel 60 Russian diplomatic officials it accused of being spies following the nerve agent attack against Skripal.

Despite diplomatic actions by his administration, Trump has not forcefully condemned Putin and Moscow for the incident.

Moscow has also expelled nearly 60 diplomats from different countries in retaliation.

 

Source: Presstv


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