Top US cardinal questions Pope’s remarks in Chile

21, January 2018

Russia: US arms deliveries to Syria militants prompted Turkey’s offensive ⁰

The Russian Defense Ministry has accused the US of fueling tensions in northern Syria by supplying arms to militant groups.

“The Pentagon’s uncontrolled deliveries of modern weaponry to the pro-US militants in the north of Syria contributed to the rapid escalation of tensions and prompted the Turkish special operation,” said a statement released by the ministry on Saturday.

The statement was released after Ankara began new air and ground operations around the area of Afrin in northern Syria aimed at ousting the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara views as a terror organization and the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK).

The US’ “provocative actions” such as establishing “border forces” and other activities aimed at the “disintegration of Syrian sovereignty, and supporting armed militant groups” have resulted in Turkey’s “extremely negative” reaction.

A few days before the launch of Turkey’s northern Syria operations, Washington claimed that it was not supporting the YPG in Afrin.

“We are not operating in Afrin. We are supporting our partners in defeating remaining Daesh pockets along the Middle Euphrates River Valley, specifically in areas north of Abu Kamal, on the eastern side of the Euphrates River,” said spokesman for the US-led coalition Colonel Ryan Dillo.

Earlier in the day, the Russian Foreign Ministry released a statement voicing its concerns over Turkish military operations in Syria, in which it noted that Russian troops were withdrawing from Afrin “to prevent potential provocation and exclude the threat to the life and well-being of Russian military.”

A photo made available by the Dogan New Agency shows Turkish army military trucks transporting armored vehicles to reinforce the border units in Sanliurfa close to the Syrian border on January 16, 2018.

Turkish tanks cross border into Syria

Meanwhile, several Turkish military trucks carrying tanks and other armored vehicles have crossed the border into the Syrian city of A’zaz in northern Syrian.

The deployment started after Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced that ground operations are expected to begin on Sunday.

Yildirim also said that Turkish “armed forces have started an air campaign in order to destroy elements” of the YPG militants in Syria.

The Turkish army also said in a statement that the airstrikes had struck 108 targets belonging to Kurdish militants, but it did not say whether the targets were all in Syria’s Afrin’s province.

According to an YPG spokesman, the air raids have killed 10 people, seven of whom civilians.

“Seven civilians were killed, including a child, as well as two female fighters and one male fighter,” said YPG spokesman Birusk Hasakeh, adding that the child was an eight-year-old boy.

YPG vows to resist Turkish airstrikes

Following Turkey’s Saturday night airstrikes on Afrin, the YPG announced that it had no choice but to fight back.

“We will defeat this aggression, like we have defeated other such assaults against our villages and cities,” said a statement.

While noting that Turkey was targeting civilian neighborhoods, the YPG called on the people of north Syria to unite and defend Afrin.

Source: Presstv

21, January 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Minister Victor Mengot’s politics of rice and beans ⁰

Dear Editor,

On the 18^th of January 2018, I raised my concerns through your media outlet about the so-called MECDA statement issued by Minister Victor Mengot calling for an ‘initiative’ to raise money to help our brothers and sisters who have escaped to seek refuge in Nigeria. This so-called statement made no mention of the fact that this crisis is as a direct result of the policies of a regime he represents.

I predicted accurately and warned him that the days of political fibbers like him misleading our parents with rice and beans were truly over. My advice was not noticed by his highness. Armed with bags of rice, beans, salt and other food items of little or no value, the Minister headed to Mamfe to do what his predecessors did to our parents- dupe them.

A friend, who attended the circus to give me accurate information observed that the place was filled with empty chairs and fresh air. The people of Mamfe had boycotted. He said an elderly gentleman in Main Street Mamfe noted ‘the days of rice and beans politics are over. Let him use the money to buy more creaming lotion’.

This avoidable public humiliation for Minister Mengot is characteristic of CPDM. A country built on mediocrity can never produce anything better. Faced with a serious crisis, and in a state of affairs where his people are being murdered by the government he represents, he lacks the intellectual depth to drum up policies or the politics to persuade the murderer of Mvomeka to seek another path. All he can come up with is the text book politics of old.

As he heads back to Yaoundé with his tail between his legs, I hope he got the message loud and clear. I hope he informs his boss that Mamfe and Manyu people are Ambazonians and are not for turning.

Thanks

Robert Ashu Mengot

Copenhagen, Denmark

20, January 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yaounde jails wife in place of husband ⁰

A woman in Cameroon has told BBC Pidgin that she was jailed for three months instead of her husband when the military couldn’t find him.

On 1 October, the military came in search of Delphine Dzelafen’s husband. “As I was about to go to bed, I heard a big knock on the door, I thought the door was going to break, I rushed to see, about 10 military men,” she said.

“As I opened the door, they jumped in and started searching, asking, where is he, as they looked for my husband, Njilah Jones. They searched they whole compound, then arrested me.”

She spent the night at Kumba police station and the next morning was blindfolded and taken to prison in Yaoundé.

Her family didn’t know where she was until she was released on 5 December. Barrister Agbor Balla Nkongho, founder of the Centre for Human Right and Democracy is documenting all the detainees connected with the Anglophone crisis.

He said unjustified detention is becoming more common: “This is how many people find themselves in prison in connection with the Anglophone crisis when they have not committed any crime.”

Authorities cracked down on months of protests in Cameroon where the English-speaking minority said they were being discriminated against by the French-speaking majority.

BBC

20, January 2018

Ambazonia Crisis: Manyus boycott Minister Victor Mengot’s charity visit ⁰

Minister Victor Mengot’s Manyu Solidarity Assistance Initiative for displaced persons in Manyu is ending in controversy today as the Mamfe population and tribal groups boycotted the event. The youthful CPDM Member of Government arrived Mamfe, the chief town in Manyu amid growing anger and calls for “Odeshi” strikes on the ceremonial ground.

Minister Mengot was due to issue a policy statement projecting the CPDM crime syndicate as still in charge of affairs in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia but there was no one to listen to him. A spokesperson for the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia said the boycott action was taken in response to Mr Mengot’s “inaccurate, misinformed, and disrespectful statement” regarding the genocide in Manyu.

Minister Victor Mengot has consciously denied the reality of the occupation and the killings of innocent Southern Cameroons civilians in Manyu by the francophone dominated armed forces.

“As Ambazonians and supporters of the Interim Government, we cannot in good conscience host Minister Mengot, a person who denounces Manyus and prioritises the feelings of our women and children” noted Agbor James Enow a local businessman in Mamfe.

By Judith Fon in Mamfe

20, January 2018

Abuja: French Cameroun’s longest extradition fight is over as Minister Rene Sadi returns to Yaoundé ⁰

The Francophone Minister of Territorial Administration Rene Sadi has returned to Yaoundé with intelligence report suggesting that the Biya CPDM crime syndicate has lost its long-running diplomatic battle for the extradition of the leaders of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Rene Sadi traveled to Abuja two weeks ago and has reportedly spent millions of US dollars fighting for the transfer to Cameroon of President Ayuk Tabe and his top aides in what has been described as La Republique du Cameroun’s longest-running extradition case.

A frustrated Minister Sadi arrived the Nsimalen International airport incognito late on Friday and is expected to brief the 84 year old Cameroonian dictator; President Paul Biya. Yaoundé had argued that the extradition would not violate any articles on human rights, relating to inhuman or degrading treatment and the right to a fair trial.

Lawyers representing the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia will begin with court action on Monday the 22^nd of January 2018. The legal team has successfully petitioned for a hearing.

The Ambazonian leaders – Sikiku Ayuk Tabe, Prof. Che Awasum, Barrister. Barrister Nalowa Bih, Dr. Fidelis Che, Dr. Nfor Nfor, Dr. Henry Kimeng, Prof. Che Awasum, Mr Tassang Wilfred, Dr. Ojong Okonghor, Barrister Shufai Berinyuh, Barrister Eyambe Elias and Dr. Cornelius Kwanga – were arrested at Nera hotel by the DSS in Abuja on January 5 while holding a meeting.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

20, January 2018

Egypt: President Sisi to stand for re-election in March vote ⁰

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has announced that he will stand for re-election in the presidential vote due to be held in March.

“I announce to you in the honesty and transparency which we are used to… my candidacy for the post of president of the republic,” Sisi said at a Cairo conference broadcast live on state television on Friday.

Sisi came to power as president in June 2014 after winning a landslide victory in the presidential election held a month earlier with securing nearly 97 percent of the vote. In July 2013, he led a military coup against Mohamed Morsi — Egypt’s first democratically-elected president after the fall of former dictator Hosni Mubarak in 2011 — that led to Morsi’s ouster and imprisonment.

The presidential election is scheduled to be held on March 26-28, with candidates required to submit all necessary papers to Egypt’s National Elections Authority between 20 and 29 January.

Who else will stand?

Sisi is widely expected to win in the first round of the vote, particularly after two prominent potential candidates announced that they would not take part in the poll. His main challenger former premier Ahmed Shafiq, who had declared his candidacy last month, said he would not run in the election.

On Monday, Mohamed Anwar Sadat, a dissident and nephew of Egypt’s late president of the same name, also announced that he would not run in the election, citing a climate of fear surrounding the vote.

Egypt’s ex-military chief of staff General Sami Anan

However, the former armed forces chief of staff, General Sami Anan, said in a video posted on his official Facebook page that he would run for president to “save” Egypt from “incorrect policies,” and called on state institutions to preserve neutrality toward all candidates.

“I call on civilian and military institutions to maintain neutrality towards everyone who had announced their intention to run and not take unconstitutional sides of a president who will leave his post in a few months,” Anan said.

Sisi, however, warned on Friday that he would not allow “corrupt” people to run for president.

Sisi’s administration has been tough on followers of the Muslim Brotherhood, the most prominent political party in Egypt which is now outlawed. Many members of the party, including Morsi, have been given harsh sentences while tens of thousands have been arrested awaiting trial.

The crackdown on the Brotherhood has sparked widespread outrage around the world as rights campaigners and governments keep criticizing the Sisi administration for the collective imprisonment of the party members.

Source: Presstv

20, January 2018

US government shutdown begins over budget impasse ⁰

The US government has officially shut down after lawmakers in the upper chamber of Congress failed to reach a deal on a short-term budget for funding government operations.

Senators were still negotiating on the Senate floor after the midnight deadline passed, but the White House issued a statement blaming opposition Democrats for the crisis.

Republicans in the Senate fell well short of the 60 votes necessary to pass a temporary spending bill on Friday, which had passed the House of Representatives on Thursday.

The federal government has been operating on a third temporary funding measure since the current fiscal year began in October.

Senate Democrats blocked consideration of the bill to keep the government operating.

The vast majority of Democratic senators have said they would not support the legislation unless it includes protections for hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants, but Republicans have so far refused.

The government shutdown began early Saturday morning on the first anniversary of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

However, senators from both parties were trying to reach a new deal to reopen the government quickly, possibly just hours after the midnight deadline passed.

Trump admitted Friday that chances were “not looking good” that 11th-hour talks in Congress would break the impasse, blaming Democrats for the deadlock.

A meeting at the White House between Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, a Democrat from New York, and President Trump failed to break the stalemate on Friday.

The White House was quick to blame Democrats for the shutdown.

“Senate Democrats own the Schumer Shutdown,” the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said in a statement. “Tonight, they put politics above our national security, military families, and our country’s ability to serve all Americans.”

Democrats hit back, saying Republicans were responsible for the management of a government in their control.

“A Republican president occupies the White House, and Republicans hold the majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate,” said Representative Nita Lowey, a Democrat from New York.

There have been four government shutdowns since 1990. In the last one in 2013, government funding lapsed for 16 full days and more than 800,000 government workers were put on temporary leave.

Essential institutions like the White House, Congress, military and law enforcement would continue working but with reduced staff. Some agencies would shut altogether. But others in the massive bureaucracy will be sent home without pay.

Source: Presstv

20, January 2018

Ambazonia: Secretary of State for Finance meets US officials ⁰

Miriam Metchane Ewang

19, January 2018

Ambazonia Crisis: Concern grows for women and children fleeing Cameroon ⁰

With the number of people fleeing English-speaking areas of Cameroon for Nigeria growing, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is increasingly concerned at the plight of women and children among them.

Women and children represent about 80 per cent of the approximately 10,000 refugees registered so far in eastern Nigeria’s Cross River state. Thousands more are among the population of unregistered Cameroonians in neighbouring states.

Some of these are boys and girls who fled to Nigeria alone. Unaccompanied and separated children are particularly affected by difficult access to food and the lack of subsistence opportunities.

UNHCR staff have received numerous reports that children have to work or beg to survive or to help their families. Many children are unable to attend school, as they lack both the time and funds for education. Although schooling in Nigeria is free, there are still some basic costs, such as those for school materials.

UNHCR is working with the Nigerian authorities to assist with the reunification of separated children with their families, to provide unaccompanied children with protection services and to restore the basic right of all children to education. Some children arriving to Nigeria reported to UNHCR that they had been out of school in Cameroon for the whole of the past academic year.

For women, the lack of work combined with the over-stretched reception facilities, creates a higher risk of sexual and gender-based violence, particularly from survival sex. So far, only a limited number of such cases have been recorded, mainly in the Amana community of Cross River state. However, UNHCR is concerned that many more incidents go unreported or are referred only to community elders. Incidents of domestic violence, as well as cases of teenage pregnancies involving girls as young as 14, have also been reported.

In Nigeria’s Benue state, where two school buildings have been reserved by authorities to serve as temporary refugee hosting accommodation, women and their families are forced to sleep inside communal school halls, deprived of private space and the right to family dignity. For them – and for the rest of the population living in temporary tents hastily built next to local residences – sufficient and appropriate shelter is key to ensure adequate registration, systematic aid distribution and reduced protection risks.

UNHCR is currently working with the Nigerian authorities to identify sites away from the border, where the refugees can be hosted according to international standards. We are also establishing offices in the towns of Calabar and Adikpo to better provide assistance and protection to the women and children. Our support includes food, basic relief items, health, and water and sanitation facilities.

UNHCR recognizes the enormous generosity of the Nigerian border communities, opening their doors to Cameroonian refugees. Almost all of those registered reported that they had left their homes because of insecurity and that they would go back only when it’s safe to do so.

Source: The UN Refugee Agency