Biya regime extends curfew in Southern Cameroons

26, February 2018

Biya regime extends curfew in Southern Cameroons 0

The governor of the North West region has extended a curfew restricting movement of persons and property from 8PM to 6AM, a decision he says was taken because of ‘growing threats of secessionist activists against the forces of law and order’.

The curfew which was first imposed in the Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions two weeks ago has been extended for a week.

The week long curfew is renewable in the ‘quest for a long lasting return to normalcy’.

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 The curfew orders are as follows;
  • During the said period (8PM to 6AM), movement of vehicles, persons and goods shall be strictly forbidden.
  • All off licenses, snack bars and night clubs shall remain closed.
  • Motor parks shall remain closed and night travel buses shall be expected to leave town before 8PM.
  • Circulation of motorbikes is completely suspended.
  • The orders do not apply to administrative authorities, forces of law and order, persons and vehicles in possession of special authorisations to circulate, and ambulances.

The security forces in the North West region including the recently created military region based in Bamenda, are charged with implementing the curfew.

Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis

What began in 2017 as peaceful protests by Anglophone activists against perceived marginalization by Cameroon’s Francophone-dominated elite has become the gravest challenge yet to President Paul Biya, who is expected to seek to renew his 35-years in power in an election next year.

Government repression – including ordering thousands of villagers in the Anglophone southwest to leave their homes – has driven support for a once-fringe secessionist movement, stoking a lethal cycle of violence.

The secessionists declared an independent state called Ambazonia on Oct. 1. Since then, violent scenes that have resulted in loss of lives for both the secessionists and government forces have played out in the Northwest region, whose capital is Bamenda.

At the end of World War One, Germany’s colony of Kamerun was carved up between allied French and British victors, laying down the basis for a language split that still persists.

English speakers make up less than a fifth of the population of Cameroon, concentrated in former British territory near the Nigerian border that was joined to the French-speaking Republic of Cameroon the year after its independence in 1960. French speakers have dominated the country’s politics since.

 

Source: Africa News


Yaounde: French Ambassador and Angolan Foreign Affairs Minister at Unity Palace

26, February 2018

Yaounde: French Ambassador and Angolan Foreign Affairs Minister at Unity Palace 0

President Paul BIYA granted two audiences at the Unity Palace on Friday 23 February 2018. The French Cameroun dictator met with the French Ambassador to Cameroun, Gilles Thibault and Angola’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Manuel Domingos Augusto.

For over two hours, Biya and the French Diplomat discussed the socio-political situations in Cameroon. Ambassador Gilles Thibault revealed to reporters after the audience that they centred their discussion on issues such as economic development, security, the violence in the North West and South West Regions, 2018 elections, and the fight against terrorism.

 

The Angolan Foreign Affairs Minister was bearer of a special message from President João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço.  Manuel Domingos Augusto explained to news men and women that it was imperative to reinforce bilateral relations between Cameroon and Angola, since the latter is undergoing political transition.

He also highlighted the necessity to consult BIYA on the March 2018 summit of the Council for Peace and Security in Central Africa (COPAX), which will be held in Libreville – Gabon.

 

Source: The Presidency La Republique du Cameroun



Nigeria: Buhari administration confirms 110 girls missing after militant raid on Dapchi school

26, February 2018

Nigeria: Buhari administration confirms 110 girls missing after militant raid on Dapchi school 0

Nigeria has confirmed another mass kidnapping of schoolgirls in the militancy-riddled northeast, saying it has deployed extra troops and planes to search for over 100 girls, who remain missing following a Boko Haram raid on their school last week.

Militants on February 19 drove into the town of Dapchi in northeastern Yobe State in trucks and attacked the school, causing students and teachers to flee into the surrounding bush.

It is not known how the girls were abducted, but witnesses say some of the attackers were camouflaged, making the students mistake them for army soldiers.

Government and police officials have been giving contradictory figures of those missing, with estimates ranging from 50 to 100.

The Yobe State government also added to the confusion on Wednesday, when it said dozens of the abducted girls had been rescued, prompting many locals, including the parents of the missing girls, in Dapchi to celebrate.

The next day, however, the local administration apologized for the “erroneous” statement, which it said had been based on inaccurate information.

Relatives of missing school girls in Dapchi, Nigeria on February 23, 2018 (Photo by AFP)

 

Finally, the Nigerian Information Ministry on Sunday put an end to confusion and acknowledged that 110 girls are missing in a statement based on numbers obtained from parents who said their girls had not returned home since the school raid.

“The federal government has confirmed that 110 students of the Government Science and Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe State, are so far unaccounted for, after insurgents believed to be from a faction of Boko Haram invaded their school on Monday,” the statement said.

The statement said 906 students were in the school on the day of the attack.

Information Minister Lai Mohammed said additional security officials have been deployed to schools in the state.

The Nigerian Air Force also said the chief of air staff had “directed the immediate deployment of additional air assets and Nigerian Air Force personnel to the northeast with the sole mission of conducting day and night searches for the missing girls” in coordination with the ground forces.

A picture grabbed from a video released on January 15, 2018 by the Boko Haram terror group shows at least 14 of the schoolgirls abducted from Chibok in April 2014. (Via AFP)

 

The latest kidnappings have revived the painful memories of another mass abduction in April 2014, when Boko Haram militants attacked a girl school and kidnapped 294 girls in Chibok, Borno State. Many of the girls were released after negotiations, but more than 100 remain in captivity, their whereabouts unknown.

There has been growing anger among locals over the government’s handling of the recent incident as well as reports that soldiers had been withdrawn from key checkpoints in Dapchi last month.

The Nigerian government has claimed in the past that Boko Haram was defeated, but the Takfiri outfit continues to vex especially in the country’s restive northeast.

The Takfiri Boko Haram militant group has killed more than 20,000 people and forced two million to flee their homes since the onset of its terror campaign in 2009. It pledged allegiance Daesh in 2015.

 

Source: Presstv


German chancellor appoints outspoken critic as minister

26, February 2018

German chancellor appoints outspoken critic as minister 0

German chancellor Angela Merkel has named a key opponent of her centrist ideas as a minister in her cabinet for a fourth term in office.

Merkel said she would appoint Jens Spahn as health minister in her new government if a coalition deal with center-left Social Democrats (SPD) is finalized.

The 37-year-old Spahn, a leading advocate of sharper conservative profile, is known for his fierce criticism of Merkel’s moderate centrist approach, especially the one Merkel applied in talks with the SPD to reach a coalition deal.

Merkel hopes a congress of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) would on Monday sign off on the deal with the SPD which should also pass the major hurdle of gaining the approval of the congress of SPD members on March 4 before it goes into action.

Senior figures from Merkel’s CDU hailed the chancellor’s decision to include people like Spahn in a future cabinet, saying it was a sign Merkel had a desire to tolerate critics in her fourth term in office.

“It’s a good sign because he is a dedicated politician who has shown for years that he is acting in the interests of this country … He will certainly be a good health minister,” said Michael Kretschmer, a member of the CDU’s right wing and leader of Germany’s state of Saxony.

In a bid to quell surging discontent in the right wing of the CDU ahead of the Monday congress, Merkel also appointed newcomers like 45-year-old Julia Kloeckner as agriculture minister; 46-year-old Anja Karliczek as education minister and 45-year-old Helge Braun as her new chief of staff.

However, Merkel stood firm with loyalists like Ursula von der Leyen, the mother of seven who would be reappointed as defense minister and also close ally Peter Altmaier who would serve as minister of economy.

Based on the coalition deal reached this month, Merkel and the CDU would have six positions to fill in the future cabinet as she should relinquish the influential portfolio of finance ministry to the SPD.

 

Source: Presstv


Ohio governor John Kasich says US witnessing ‘the end of a two-party system’

26, February 2018

Ohio governor John Kasich says US witnessing ‘the end of a two-party system’ 0

The Governor of the US state of Ohio John Kasich says the two-party system that has dominated US politics for over a century might be nearing its end.

“We may be beginning to see the end of a two-party system,” Kasich, a Republican, told ABC News on Sunday. “I’m starting to really wonder if we are going to see a multiparty system at some point in the future in this country because I don’t think either party is answering people’s deepest concerns and needs.”

The governor, who ran a failed bid Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential primaries, said the Republican Party was his “vehicle” and not his “master.”

However, asked would he run as an independent if he was to mount another White House bid, the 65-year-old said he would not because he was still a Republican.

He is rumored to be preparing for a possible 2020 bipartisan bid with Colorado’s Democratic governor, John Hickenlooper, as his running mate.

Kasich has been a firm critic of Trump ever since he launched his presidential campaign and defeated all Republican and Democratic candidates to become president.

An elephant, the Republican Party’s symbol, and a donkey, the which represents the Democratic Party.

 

He did not have high hopes for his own party in 2018, the year both Republicans and Democrats face the fateful mid-term congressional elections.

The governor predicted that Democrats were going to have a better year overall despite lacking a clear agenda.

It was this lack of agenda on both sides that could ultimately lead to a collapse of the two-party system, he further argued.

“That’s exactly why I’m saying that our young people are fed up and why I’m saying that the prospect of a multiparty system in this country is a real possibility,” Kasich said.

The Republican and Democratic Parties are able to take turns electing US presidents and controlling Congress because the American political system discourages people from supporting third parties, such as the Greens and Libertarians.

Third party candidates face major challenges in the United States, such as the failure to meet the criteria for ballot access. Due to debate access rules, they are even often excluded from participating in presidential debates.

According to political observers, the two major US political parties are heavily influenced by corporate money and the financial markets and lack the power to implement meaningful reforms in the country.

 

Source: Presstv


Southern Cameroons Crisis: President Buhari confronting the moral compass

25, February 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: President Buhari confronting the moral compass 0

Cameroon Concord News Group condemns the abduction of the 110 innocent school girls in the town of Dapchi in Yobe state, North East Nigeria by Boko Haram. Cameroon Concord News stands firmly in solidarity with the families of the abductees in asking for an urgent search and rescue of the abductees.  Like the yet unresolved abduction of the Chibok school girls and the leaders of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, this latest abduction, blamed yet again on Boko Haram is an assault on the soul of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the conscience of humanity.

Coming at a time the government of President Buhari has still not found and freed all the Chibok school girls who were abducted over four years ago, this abduction is a humiliating defeat for the government of President Buhari who promised to defeat Boko Haram within the first hundred days of ascending to power. It is now obvious that only the gullible believed in his ability to deliver his many failed electoral promises considering the cobweb of political entanglements that tied him to the criminal cartels he promised to combat, let alone defeat in his first hundred days in power.

The anger arising from the inability of former President Good Luck Jonathan to find and rescue the Chibok girls was politically exploited by President Buhari along with what was depicted as a weak response to the war against Boko Haram. These factors helped Buhari to rise to power. Shortly after he attained power, the so-called “bring back our girls” political scam that masqueraded as humanitarian action to raise universal awareness for the search and secure the girls fizzled out to its political base.  Nothing has been heard about them ever since.

The abduction of the innocent Dapchi school girls is occurring shortly after the abduction of HE President Julius Ayuk Tabe the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and members of his interim government who were legally within the territory of Nigeria under the protection of international law. The government of President Buhari that carried out the abduction has since not shown proof of their existence or of their whereabouts.    Cameroon Concord News warned after the abduction by Nigeria intelligence units on the instructions of President of Buhari and his deputy President Professor Yemi Osinbajo, that the abduction could embolden criminal elements in Nigeria to escalate the abductions of persons protected by law for political, religious or pecuniary purposes.  Cameroon Concord News cautioned that the abductions that were master-minded by Babagana Mohammed Monganu, a national security adviser to President Buhari bypassing constitutionally empowered law enforcement agencies violated the rule of law, constitutional governance and Nigeria’s international multilateral treaty obligations.  The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees condemned the abductions. The violation of Nigeria’s international treaty obligations was condemned by significant human rights organizations such as amnesty international.  The criminal act is an indelible stain on the image of Nigeria.

The wide condemnations have not caused Nigeria to produce and release the Ambazonia abductees to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees or to their families. Cameroon Concord News believes that the disregard of the rule of law by the Government of Nigeria which opted for impunity, tyranny, and arrogance of criminal abuse of power is the criminal tonic that has emboldened Boko Haram to escalate the abduction of innocent school girls whom President Buhari on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigerian has admitted failed to provide protection against abduction in time of need.   Cameroon Concord News believes that had Babagana Mohammed Monganu  advised the President to deployed the intelligence resources at his disposal to combat the crime of abduction and provided protection and security  to Nigerians and persons legally within the territory of Nigeria rather than deployed them to committing this same crime which President Buhari pledged to combat on his ascension to power, the very painful abduction of these innocent school girls would not have occurred on his watch and that of the President.  The security failures by the Buhari administration amongst countless others that include the invasion of the territorial integrity of Nigeria by French Cameroun Gendarmes and Armed forces is humiliating and portrays Nigeria to the world as a supposed giant with feet of clay, incapable of providing protection to its people and its territorial integrity.

The persistent pattern of conduct in the abduction of the Chibok girls, the abduction of Ambazonia leaders and the Dapchi school girls is troubling.  The widely condemned abduction of Ambazonia leaders deprives President Buhari the moral authority to condemn abductions in Nigeria generally and specifically that of the Dapchi school girls. The abduction of the Ambazonia leaders make a mockery of President Buhari’s condemnation of the abduction of Dapchi school girls that has occurred slightly a month after that of the Ambazonia leaders by the Buhari administration.  In effect it calls into questions Buhari’s moral authority to condemn this despicable abduction.   It portrays his government’s failure to protect the girls as intended since his government legitimized abduction by conducting one itself from the seat of power in Abuja, the capital of the Federation.

Cameroon Concord News regrets that the moral compass pins President Buhari’s admitted responsibility of his government due to its failure to protect the school girls to be more direct than he has admitted.  President Buhari needs to explain why he risked the image of Nigeria, its constitutional governance, the rule of law and its international treaty obligations to legitimize abductions for political and pecuniary motives by abducting Ambazonia leaders who were legally within the territory of Nigeria. In so doing, President Buhari provided a fig leaf of criminality to Boko Haram and other criminal gangs to consider armless civilians as legitimate targets of war for political, pecuniary, religious and other criminal motives. Cameroon Concord News strongly believes that until President Buhari produces and releases or cause to be released Ambazonia leaders, his condemnation of the abduction of armless civilians within the territory of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will be hypocritical, disdainful and contemptuous.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group


Southern Cameroons Crisis: Another senior gov’t official abducted, female gendarme killed

25, February 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Another senior gov’t official abducted, female gendarme killed 0

Animbom Aron Yong, the Regional Delegate for Social Affairs for the North West was reportedly abducted on Saturday by unidentified individuals presented by the Biya regime as Ambazonia secessionist fighters.

The kidnapping occurred while the administrative cadre had gone to Nyen, a village in the North West constituency in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. The Francophone governor of the region, Adolphe Lele Lafrique confirmed the disappearance of the regional delegate, whose abduction occurred some 13 days after that of the sub-prefect of Batibo.

Our senior correspondent in Yaounde has also confirmed the death of a gendarme, Larrissa Souzock Mvondo during violent clashes between suspected Ambazonian militants and the Biya regime security forces.  Concordant community sources have also indicated that violent clashes between Southern Cameroons defense groups and French Cameroun military troops occurred on Saturday.

We understand that several Southern Cameroons civilians have been killed and three soldiers were also wounded during the fighting. This new drama brings to 27 (Issa Tchiroma stats) the number of soldiers killed in attacks attributed to the crisis in Southern Cameroons.

By Rita Akana and Kingsley Betek


70 million guns produced in US since 2008

25, February 2018

70 million guns produced in US since 2008 0

US gun manufacturers have produced over 70 million firearms since 2008, quickly escalating the production of rifles and the types of semiautomatic weapons used in recent mass shootings, according to data from the US government and gun industry.

In 2016, the latest year for which data is available, firearms companies sharply increased production, building 11.5 million guns, in part due to a belief that the Democratic Party would win the presidential election that year and curtail access to semiautomatic weapons such as the AR-15 rifle.

American companies have produced more than 150 million firearms since 1986, according to the “Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Export Report” published each year by the US Justice Department.

The vast majority of all US-produced firearms were sold domestically, the Justice Department said.

The data also shows periodic spikes of production and firearm sales when there’s the possibility of new federal gun-control policies.

Remington Arms Company, one of America’s largest gun manufacturers, reported sales of firearms reached $437.8 million in 2016, up 16.7 percent from the year before.

The company said sales of “modern sporting rifles,” which includes firearms like the AR-15, increased $34.2 million that year, though it didn’t provide aggregate sales figures for this style.

The two biggest years for gun production in recent history took place in 2013 and 2016, when intense debates about whether Democrats would be able to curb access to firearms.

“Gun lovers have been convinced that their right to buy guns in general, or particular types of guns, would be taken away by the politicians and they better hurry up and get whatever guns they have considered obtaining,” said Philip Cook, professor emeritus of public policy studies at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Gun sales dropped sharply in early 2017, after US President Donald Trump and the Republican Party — which oppose to gun control — took full control of government, according to sales figures from several large gun manufacturers.

To deal with last year’s falling demand, many gun companies and retailers offered steep discounts and rebates on firearms to lure more buyers.

The report comes as the National Rifle Association (NRA), a powerful gun lobby in the US, comes under increasing pressure following the mass shooting at a high school in Florida earlier this month.

Nikolas Cruz, an ex-student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, opened fire on February 14, with an AR-15-style assault rifle, killing 17 people and injuring 14 more in his former school.

It was also the 18th school shooting since January 1 in the United States, which loses around 33,000 people to gun violence every year.

 

Source: Presstv


Fru Ndi says Biya regime bears direct blame for Anglophone crisis

25, February 2018

Fru Ndi says Biya regime bears direct blame for Anglophone crisis 0

Leader of Cameroon’s main opposition party, Social Democratic Front (SDF) Ni John Fru Ndi, officially waded into the security crisis riling the country’s Anglophone regions. In a letter to addressed to President Paul Biya, the SDF leader denounced what he termed “atrocities” committed in the English-speaking areas of Cameroon by government forces.

“I must draw your attention to the daily atrocities in this part of our country (English-speaking areas),” Fru Ndi wrote in the letter. “Every day that passes, an innocent Cameroonian dies, a woman loses her husband,” he lamented.

The veteran opposition chief said he was also worried about “the rise of hate speech (between English-speaking and French-speaking Cameroonians)” which in his view “brings us closer and closer to a civil war”.

Since the outbreak of the so-called “Anglophone crisis in 2016”, many civilians and soldiers have been killed, but access to the affected areas remains difficult, making it difficult to access information on the spot.

The 77-year-old who says he is an Anglophone but against secession from Cameroon, has repeatedly blamed incumbent Biya for the crisis and the deterioration of the security situation in English-speaking Cameroon.

The government insists that the regions remain safe and secure despite guerilla style attacks that have claimed the lives of over twenty security officials.

 

Source: Africa News


Scuffles break out as France’s Macron visits farm fair

25, February 2018

Scuffles break out as France’s Macron visits farm fair 0

Demonstrators from vegan and animal activists group “269 Life France” demonstrated against French president Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, February 24, during his first visit as president to the country’s main agricultural fair in Paris.

Macron received whistles and other protests as he met visitors to the fair and journalists. French farmers are discontent over producer prices, European Union trade talks and Chinese land purchases.

In a country with a profound attachment to its pastoral roots, the Salon de l’Agriculture is a mandatory rite of passage for political leaders, who tend either to relish the event – as former president Jacques Chirac visibly did – or endure it. Nicolas Sarkozy, during his presidential farm show debut a decade ago, let rip with an expletive-laden insult against a man in the crowd who had declined to shake his hand. His words were caught on video and haunted him for the rest of his term.

Macron responded differently to provocation on Saturday, scrapping his itinerary to engage several of his hecklers in a lengthy and detailed exchange on trade policy, social charges and food standards in front of TV cameras.


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