14, March 2018

Ambazonia Crisis: 3 gendarmerie officers among dead in Nguti attack ⁰

The bodies of three gendarmerie officers including the newly appointed Commander of the Nguti Gendarmerie Brigade, Guy Robert Lontsi have been identified at the Manyemen hospital by family members. The three were reportedly killed on Tuesday morning in clashes between security forces loyal to the Biya regime in Yaoundé and Ambazonian militants.

The suspected secessionists’ militants who recently declared their allegiance to the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia clashed in Nguti some few kilometers from Manyemen. Cameroon Concord News sources in the locality hinted that the Brigade Commander Guy Robert Berlin Lontsi was killed during the attack while two other gendarmes who sustained serious injuries later gave up at the Manyemen hospital.

A Cameroon government administrative official contacted by Camcordnews said a student gendarme was also injured during the deadly clashes. The government agent who sued for anonymity also added that Security forces neutralized three attackers and recovered firearms.

We understand the restoration forces targeted the Nguti Gendarmerie Brigade forcing most of the Nguti inhabitants to flee their ancestral homeland. There are also reports that the new brigade commander provoked the situation when he ordered the arrest of many young people and was demanding families to pay colossal amount of money to the gendarmerie for their children to gain their freedom.

By Sama Ernest

14, March 2018

Biya regime bans ex minister from leaving country ⁰

The passport of French Cameroun CPDM baron who also moonlighted as Minister of Water and Energy, Basile Atangana Kouna has been confiscated by security agents in Yaoundé. Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the former cabinet minister has also been barred from leaving the country.

The decision to keep Basile Atangana Kouna under surveillance was made public via an order signed by the Delegate General for National Security on March the 8^th. The National Police boss hinted in the press release that it was the responsibility of all heads of border posts, airports and the ten Regional Delegates for National Security to ensure that Mr. Basile Atangana remains in Cameroon pending an investigation.

Things are falling apart deep within the ruling CPDM crime syndicate. We understand the former Secretary of State at the Ministry of Public Works, in charge of roads, Louis Max Ohandja Ayina has also been given a travel ban by the Biya regime.

Basile Atangana Kouna’s travel documents were withdrawn a day after he was relieved of his duties as Minister of Water and Energy. Local media reported that the former minister tried to leave the country on March 7, aboard a Turkish airlines flight when he was restricted by security forces. Recently, a sea of CPDM personality were barred from leaving the country including the General Manager of the Cameroon Telecommunications Company, Camtel, David Nkotto Emane and some of his collaborators.

Pretending to fight corruption and establishing the so-called Special Criminal Court was President Biya’s way of saving himself the embarrassment of being humiliated during his perennial trips abroad as the President of the most corrupt country in the world. This ranking of the country as the most corrupt or one of the most corrupt countries had a potential to hamper President Biya’s personal pecuniary interests far from the borders of Cameroon. There was therefore a personal interest need to establish the court. Another personal interest need was to avail himself of a legal tool under his direct control to consolidate absolute power, blackmail potential rebels and competitors within the system and to stifle any form of institutional opposition. Biya has eventually perceived the anti corruption drive as a tool with which to whitewash his more than thirty years of corrupt governance and the rape of the economy.

By Rita Akana with contributions from Soter Agbaw-Ebai

13, March 2018

UN says 100,000 Venezuelans claimed refugee status since 2017 ⁰

Nearly 100,000 people who fled Venezuela have claimed refugee status since the start of 2017, the UN said Tuesday, as it ramped up response plans for a displacement crisis likely to worsen.

The UN refugee agency said the number of Venezuelans who have sought asylum has shot up 2,000 percent since 2014, but the most dramatic increases have occurred over the last 14 months.

With the country’s economic and political crisis intensifying, UNHCR has drawn up a “regional response plan that covers eight (surrounding) countries”, spokesperson Aikatarina Kitidi said.

“In view of the situation in Venezuela, it is crucial that people are not deported or forcibly returned there,” she added.

Asked if the UN had received reports of deportations or forced returns, Kitidi did not answer directly, saying only the agency was calling for “solidarity” among nations in the region in responding to Venezuelans in need.

An influx of Venezuelans has reportedly stirred tensions in Brazil, notably in the city of Boa Vista which has received 40,000 people, raising its population by more than 10 percent.

Hundreds of Venezuelans there have been sleeping on the ground for months, while using restrooms in gas or bus stations.

A Venezuelan elder refugee waits for his turn to take a shower at a shelter in the city of Boa Vista, Roraima, Brazil, on February 24, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

UNHCR warned that an increasing number of Venezuelans, especially those living abroad without legal protection, are “vulnerable to exploitation, trafficking, violence, sexual abuse, discrimination and xenophobia”.

The UN agency does not have a precise figure for those who have fled the crisis in Venezuela.

Regarding only those who have filed refugee claims, UNHCR said the figure stood at 145,000 since 2014 — but 94 percent of those claims have been recorded since the start of 2017.

(Source: AFP)

13, March 2018

Cameroonians shocked after seeing images of Late President Ahidjo’s residence ⁰

Cameroonians were shocked on Tuesday after seeing the dilapidated house of their first and late President, Ahmadou Ahidjo, who was known as the father of the nation.

Why it matters: Mr. Ahidjo was in power for 24 years, 8 months and 17 days between 18 February 1958, and November 4, 1982, when he resigned and handed over power to Paul Biya who was then Prime Minister. He was known as the man who built and united Cameroon at a time of political instability.

Mr. Biya remains in power 36 years after and he’s running for another term of seven years this year.

Mr. Ahidjo had been in charge before independence from France as interim head of State and Prime Minister between February 18, 1958 and January 1, 1960, when the French finally handed over after a brutal dictatorship. They also signed business deals that kept them in charge of the economy long after they officially left.

The pictures of the residence of the first Cameroonian President were published by Guibai Gatama, a journalist and activist who publishes L’Oeil Du Sahel newspaper. He said the residence of the former head of state in the Mayo-Oulo department in northern Cameroon had become a ghost of itself.

“It used to be a powerful place at the time,” Mr. Gatama, also from northern Cameroon wrote.

Source: Today News Africa

13, March 2018

Southern Cameroons Struggle: Militants kill police officer in Ashong ⁰

A police officer was killed over the weekend in Ashong, in the Northern Zone of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia in the midst of fighting between Southern Cameroons separatists and troops loyal to the Biya regime in Yaoundé.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that the gendarmerie brigade was attacked around 10 am GMT by armed men who reportedly came from Batibo, not far from Ashong. Three gendarmes who were providing surveillance were shot. One was killed by bullets and two others were wounded.

A well-placed security source revealed that three other gendarmes who were inside the brigade were wounded during the exchange of fire. The Ambazonian fighters made away with weapons and ammunition.

Recently, the so-called new Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji directed the French Cameroun governors in Southern Cameroons to ban the circulation of motorcycle taxi in the districts of Batibo and Widikum in the Momo County and in Mundemba, Muyuka, Kumba, Mbonge and Konye in the Southern Zone.

By Sama Ernest

13, March 2018

38 students dead in Ethiopia bus crash ⁰

Ethiopia’s state-affiliated broadcaster says that a bus plunged into a ditch, killing 38 people in Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region.

Fana Broadcasting Corporation reported on Tuesday that the bus veered off the road and went into the trench.

It said an additional 10 people were injured.

The broadcaster reported that most of the victims were university students. It said the accident happened in the south Wollo area.

Ethiopia is upgrading its road system but dilapidated roads, inadequate driving skills and poor conditions of vehicles contribute to road traffic deaths.

According to a report in Ethiopia last year, traffic accidents claimed the lives of more than 16,000 people in the country between 2014 and 2017.

(Source: AP)

13, March 2018

US: Trump fires Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ⁰

US President Donald Trump has fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, announcing he will replace him with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, White House officials said Tuesday.

In a statement to The Washington Post, Trump praised both Pompeo and Gina Haspel the deputy director at the CIA who will succeed Pompeo at the CIA, becoming the first woman to run the spy agency, if confirmed.

“I am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State,” Trump said.

“Mike graduated first in his class at West Point, served with distinction in the US Army, and graduated with Honors from Harvard Law School. He went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives with a proven record of working across the aisle.”

“Gina Haspel, the Deputy Director of the CIA, will be nominated to replace Director Pompeo and she will be the CIA’s first-ever female director, a historic milestone. Mike and Gina have worked together for more than a year, and have developed a great mutual respect,” the president continued.

Source: Presstv

13, March 2018

Nigeria struggles to contain dramatic spread of deadly Lassa fever ⁰

Nigeria is battling on two fronts against an unprecedented outbreak of Lassa fever, a cousin of Ebola, that has already killed 110 people this year.

Even as doctors are grappling to contain the threat, health watchdogs are struggling to understand why the deadly virus has spread so dramatically.

The Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) has confirmed 353 Lassa cases since January 1, compared with 143 cases for the whole of 2017.

But the possible reasons for this surge are many, said NCDC Director Chikwe Ihekweazu.

“The harder you look, the more you find,” he said, citing a change in the virus’s environment, viral mutation — and better reporting of cases by the public in response to awareness campaigns.

Lassa fever is an acute viral haemorrhagic disease that can be transmitted to humans from infected rat faeces or urine.

Like the notorious — but thankfully somewhat less contagious — it can also be passed from one person to another via contact with infected bodily fluids.

Full protective gear for medical personnel is vital and isolation is essential.

Overstretched facilities

A visit to the Lassa fever isolation ward at the Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital in southern Edo State — the only such unit in a country of 190 million people — provides a snapshot of the practical difficulties in tackling the peril.

Before the unit was built in 2008, suspect blood samples were sent to South Africa for an accurate diagnosis — but when the results came back it was already too late, doctors say.

Despite its unique status, the Lassa facility, staffed by a dozen Nigerian employees and a handful of European tropical medicine specialists, is struggling.

In normal times, it treats just a couple of dozen patients each year. But since the start of 2018, the unit has already admitted more than 150.

“Now we have just below 30 patients,” said director Ephraim Ogbaini-Emovon. “We never recorded this (in previous years). Facilities are overstretched.”

Dead rats in jars of formaldehyde decorated the corridors of the small clinic. Inside the isolation ward, the temperature was stifling at above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

Kevin Ousman, who specializes in combating viral risks at the World Health Organization (WHO), spends his days reminding people of basic protection.

“Change your gloves!” Ousmane orders. “Throw away this water! Don’t put this bag on the floor.”

In front of the hospital, surgical gloves and syringes spill out of the trash bins onto the grass.

“Given the situation we’re living here, we are going right down to the basics,” Ousmane tells AFP as doctors come and go clad from head to toe in protective suits.

Family care

A striking sight is that of relatives trying to care for their loved ones. Many come wearing just flip-flops and a simple facemask when they visit a patient in the isolation ward.

“It’s a tradition in Africa for families to take care of their sick,” a WHO employee remarks. “But we have to put a stop to that, it’s much too risky.”

Wilson Oherein had heard only vaguely of Lassa fever before his wife contracted the disease, to die of it a few days ago. Their three-year-old daughter was also contaminated by Lassa fever and she was being cared for in the isolation ward at Irrua.

Oherein usually spends his days at his daughter’s bedside and feeds her. He also takes her soiled garments and washes them in a bucket. But this afternoon, he is resting in a half-finished building behind the hospital, with other family members of patients.

He is lying, exhausted, on a mat on the floor. “I will be fine,” he tries to convince himself, his forehead beaded with sweat. “I’m just anxious for my daughter and the mourning of my wife. It knocks me down.”

(Source: AFP)

13, March 2018

Nigeria: Buhari admin plans to negotiate for release of 110 abducted Dapchi girls ⁰

Nigeria’s presidency said on Monday it plans to negotiate for the release of 110 girls abducted from a school in the northeastern town of Dapchi last month, rather than use a military operation to free them by force.

The kidnapping is one of the largest since the jihadist group Boko Haram abducted more than 270 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok in 2014. Some of the Chibok girls have been freed after what security sources say were ransom payments; around 100 are still being held.

Nigeria is grappling with an insurgency by Boko Haram that has killed at least 20,000 people since 2009. Members of the group are suspected of the latest kidnapping, which happened on Feb. 19, in the state of Yobe.

President Muhammadu Buhari, a 75-year-old former military ruler, discussed the use of negotiations during a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in the capital, Abuja, the presidency said.

“Nigeria prefers to have schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram from Chibok and Dapchi back alive, and that is why it has chosen negotiation, rather than a military option,” Buhari’s office said in an emailed statement issued by the president’s spokesman.

“President Buhari added that Nigeria was working together with international organisations and negotiators, to ensure that the girls were released unharmed by their captors,” the presidency statement said.

The issue of security has become politically charged in Nigeria less than a year before a presidential election. Buhari is touring areas hit by security problems and this week will visit the state where the schoolgirls were abducted, the statement said.

Tillerson was in Nigeria for the last stop in a week-long tour of African countries, his first trip to the continent as Secretary of State, during which he has emphasised security partnerships. He visited Ethiopia, Kenya, Djibouti and Chad before arriving in Nigeria’s capital.

The emailed statement also said Buhari thanked the U.S. for assistance rendered in the fight against Boko Haram, noting that Nigerian forces are good but need assistance with training and equipment.

REUTERS

13, March 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Biya regime renews Northern Zone curfew, UN says 20,291 refugees now in Nigeria ⁰

Governor of Cameroon’s North West region has in a press statement issued a renewal of the curfew imposed in the region.

The decision to impose a curfew months back was to contain guerilla style attacks by separatist elements on members of the security force.

A March 12 statement from the governor’s office said the regional order restricted movement of persons and property as from (Sunday) the 11th of March 2018 from 09 PM to 5 AM within the region.

The two regions are at the heart of the Anglophone crisis, where English-minority population are seeking to break off from the French-majority Cameroon. Separatists elements operating under the so-called Ambazonia defense force have killed over twenty-four soldiers.

They have kidnapped one soldier and another government official in a new leg of their operations. One of the kidnapped persons, a delegate for Social Affairs in the NorthWest appeared in a recent video begging the government to intervene in securing his release.

Meanwhile, the United Nation’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, reports that the number of Cameroonians fleeing the Anglophone crisis into Nigeria has crossed the 20,000 mark.

A UNHCR report dated March 8 said a total of 20,291 people had officially been registered and were now living in Nigeria’s Benue and Cross River States. They comprised people living in nine communities.

The UN body said it needed 18 million dollars to better cater for the refugees – a request it said was based on the contingency plan. As many as 6,800 plus refugees are in Obanliku, Boki (4,664), Kwande (3,501), Akampka (2,197), Etung (1,934) etc

Source: Africa New