11, December 2017

Maroua: Boko Haram kills 3 in Kerawa ⁰

The Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram staged a suicide bombing today in Kerawa, Mayo Sava Division in the Far North region. Cameroon security sources say the attack resulted in a death s of three people. We gathered that the young suicide bomber infiltrated Muslim faithful who were leaving the mosque after the dawn prayer.

“The toll would be heavier if the suicide bomber was inside the mosque where Muslims gathered for prayers” said one of the witnesses. The blast actually collapsed a section of the Kerawa Mosque.

The Far North, affected by the violence at the peak of the insurgency in 2014-2015, had seen in recent weeks a gradual and fragile return to calm. But jihadist attacks have resumed in this border region of Nigeria and near the Mandara Mountains, where Boko Haram has several camps. Military sources in the region reported that a truck driver was kidnapped today December 11, 2017 in the locality of Dabanga.

By Sonne Peter

11, December 2017

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Nigeria denies any implication in tensions ⁰

Paul Biya, Cameroon’s president received on December 7, 2017 Lawan Abba Gashagar, high commissioner of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to Cameroon and special envoy of the Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari, According to the Cameroonian presidency, Lawan Abba Gashagar delivered a message, from the Nigerian president, related to the two countries’ cooperation to Paul Biya.

The Nigerian diplomat denied any implication of his country in the climate of violence that has been reigning for over a year now in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon which forms the country’s English-speaking regions. He explained that Nigeria supports in no way the secessionists which demand the independence of those regions they baptized “Ambazonia”. Quite the opposite actually, the Nigerian government wishes a rapid return of peace in Cameroon and the preservation of its territorial integrity.

The Nigerian emissary also explained the presence of some secessionists’ leaders in Nigeria. Indeed, he said that the Cameroonians residing in Nigeria are actually favored by some clauses of the bilateral accord between the two parties which allow citizens of the two countries to stay in the other country for three months without a visa. This regulation compels the visitor to scrupulously respect the laws and regulations of the host country. The law also prohibits activities which can destabilize the visitor’s home country.

Source: Business in Cameroon

11, December 2017

How the Ambazonian Resistance is Rising and Forging a new Cameroon ⁰

The world is witnessing the birth of new powerful nation-the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. Yes, but not in the sense the French government and French Cameroun political elites had hoped. The people of Southern Cameroons have moved away from La Republique du Cameroun in the midst of a fierce war between Southern Cameroons armed militants and forces loyal to the regime in Yaoundé.

Instead of disempowering the people of Southern Cameroons and its sponsor, the Diaspora, the war declared by President Paul Biya has only augmented the strength and prestige of what is known as the “Interim Government,” a power bloc that includes Southern Cameroonian groups in Southern Africa, East and Western Europe, Asia, the Arab world, USA and Canada including the Scandinavian countries.

But the Biya war declaration is only one in a series of developments that significantly transformed the geopolitical structure in Southern Cameroons—from the banning of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, which first opened the door to greater Anglophone unity, to shutting down of internet services in West Cameroon which led to the proliferation and empowerment of Ambazonians . These Biya regime actions have prompted a fundamental reconfiguration of the contemporary Cameroon order. Needless to mention the brutal killings of hundreds of Southern Cameroonians by the French Cameroun army.

Francophone political elites, grappling with the consequences of an eroding French Cameroun state system, poor governance, and excessive use of military force enabled Southern Cameroonians and its powerful Diaspora to build a new political and security architecture from the ground up. With the current onslaught on the people of Southern Cameroons by the Francophone dominated army, Southern Cameroons armed movements are slowly but surely creating a transnational, multi-ethnic, and cross-confessional political and security network that will make the Ambazonian resistance more muscular and effective than ever before.

The most important issue that the new French Cameroun administration after Biya will face will be the rise of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and given the deterioration of the regional security order and presidential elections in Cameroun, Nigeria including Equatorial Guinea not far away, the question is what to do about it. So far, policy discussions have focused on keeping Biya in power which may end up in a full scale civil war. Engaging the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and discuss the terms of separation is the wise thing to do by whosoever in running the think tank in Yaoundé.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

11, December 2017

Explosion near Times Square in New York ⁰

An explosion has rocked the Port Authority bus terminal near Times Square in New York. The explosion took place on Monday morning at the station, which is one of the busiest commuter hubs during rush hour, at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue in New York, according to officials.

“The NYPD is responding to reports of an explosion of unknown origin at 42nd Street and 8th Ave, #Manhattan. The A, C and E line are being evacuated at this time. Info is preliminary, more when available,” the New York police department wrote on their Twitter account.

Law enforcement sources said one suspected bomber – who had wires attached to him – was taken into custody. He was arrested after the device partially detonated, according to sources. His identity was not immediately known. Francisco Ramirez — a commuter — told CNN that he heard two explosions as he was exiting a bus about 7:45 a.m. ET.

“From what I saw it sounded like it came from the subway, but I’m just guessing,” he said. “It was two distinct explosions seconds from each other. As I was making my way toward the outside, I kept getting shoved by cops and there were cops at every entrance blocking and there was police and SWAT everywhere.”

“It was scary. It was just a lot of chaos but I didn’t see any injuries,” he added. President Donald Trump was briefed on the explosion, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said. New York Mayor de Blasio has also been briefed on the incident.

Source: Presstv

11, December 2017

Ambazonia Crisis: 3 killed in Kumba ⁰

At least 3 people were killed in armed clashes between Ambazonian militants and Cameroon defense forces, according to community and security sources in Kumba.

Armed men claiming to represent the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), a movement classified as a terrorist organization by Yaoundé, attacked a gendarmerie post.

The clashes took place on the night on Saturday in Kumba the chief city in Meme Division. 3 attackers were killed and 5 soldiers were seriously injured.

Southern Cameroons is witnessing many scenes of clashes between defense forces and armed bands claiming secession. These secessionists are considered “terrorists” by Yaoundé.

By Rita Akana

11, December 2017

Yaounde: MP injured by flying debris in parliament amid anglophone crisis ⁰

A politician was hurt by an object thrown by another MP during chaotic scenes in Cameroon’s parliament in which vuvuzela horns were blown to drown out a budget debate, sources said on Saturday.

It comes against a backdrop of unrest in the country’s English-speaking regions which led to independence protests that turned fatal in October and the detention this week of US literary professor Patrice Nganang for criticising the government’s handling of the issue.

Government spokesman Issa Tchiroma said Nganang’s arrest on Wednesday in Douala followed the posting on Facebook of a death threat against the head of state.

He repeated the pledge of President Paul Biya, who has been in charge of the francophone nation since 1982, to rid the country of what he calls secessionists among the English-speaking minority, which has complained about discrimination.

Resentment among anglophones has fed a spiral of political demands and also a government crackdown, leading to calls for secession.

In Saturday’s incident, Hermine Patricia Ndam Njoya of the opposition Democratic Union of Cameroon “hurled into the air” parts of her desk to protest against the assembly speaker’s refusal to allow her party’s legislators to speak, the party’s communications officer Amadou Mongwat claimed.

Mongwat said the object landed on the head of a member of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, causing a head injury. It is not clear from video of the alleged incident where the object lands or what is thrown. Other reports have suggested a shoe was hurled.

The speaker ended the session with the announcement that the budget had been adopted without further discussion.

Last month four Cameroonian soldiers were killed by suspected separatists in the south-west of the country, while international monitors say at least 20 people have been killed since late September. The president of the senate has since promised to have a commission investigate the anglophone issue.

The detained writer Nganang, who has a home in New Jersey and has been teaching in the US since 2000, was said to be in good spirits and has met a lawyer, a colleague at New York’s Stony Brook University said.

Karin Deutsch Karlekar at advocacy group PEN America said: “Detaining an important independent voice like Patrice Nganang, who has used his writing to investigate the consequences of violence, is indicative of a movement by the government to silence all political criticism and dismantle the right to free expression.”

US professor Patrice Nganang, who has been detained in Cameroon after writing an article criticising the government’s handling of the anglophone crisis. Photograph: AP

Farhan Haq, a spokesman for the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said at a briefing on Thursday he hoped Nganang was safe but did not say whether the UN was aware of the detention or whether it would intervene. “We certainly hope and expect that this particular person will be found, and we’re hopeful that nothing untoward has happened,” he said.

Nganang has published 12 books, scholarly essays, novels and books of poetry.

Culled from The Guardian

11, December 2017

Trump slams media over fake news, calling reporters a ‘stain on America’ ⁰

US President Donald Trump has once again railed against the media blasting journalists and calling their work “a stain on America” after a string of errors in reporting on his presidency emerged over the past week.

“Very little discussion of all the purposely false and defamatory stories put out this week by the Fake News Media. They are out of control — correct reporting means nothing to them. Major lies written, then forced to be withdrawn after they are exposed…a stain on America!” Trump tweeted Sunday.

The tweet came after some journalists made several reporting errors causing them to become targets of Trump and conservative media and commentators.

The errors by CNN and ABC have been widely covered in the media, including on CNN, which featured a Sunday segment on mistakes in journalism.

Trump referred to ABC News’s Brian Ross as a “fraudster” on Friday, a week after he reported that the president had directed his former national security adviser Michael Flynn to make contact with Russian officials during the campaign.

ABC later corrected the report to say the president directed Flynn to contact Russia “after” he was elected.

Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel has also became Trump’s most recent target after the president demanded Saturday that he apologize for tweeting a photo of an empty arena before a Trump rally in Florida that had been taken hours before the event started.

Weigel responded and apologized minutes after Trump tweeted that he had “put out a phony photo of an empty arena hours before I arrived.”

Trump’s comments were his latest attack against the news media for the coverage he receives. During a speech in Phoenix, Arizona, in August, he called journalists “truly dishonest” and “sick people.”

Trump has repeatedly used the term “fake news” to cast doubt on critical media reports about his administration, often without providing any evidence to support his case.

As a candidate, Trump had pursued the same anti-media rhetoric threatening to “open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.”

Source: Presstv

10, December 2017

Ambazonian refugees: More than 5000 registered in neighbouring Nigeria now, says UN ⁰

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has revealed that since the beginning of the Southern Cameroons crisis, 5, 277 Ambazonian refugees have so far been registered by the UNHCR agency in Nigeria.

The UN says it is running out of resources to support new asylum seekers who arrived on December the 4^th in Cross River State after the 84 year old French Cameroun dictator, Paul Biya declared war against the people of Southern Cameroons.

The UN body noted that new asylum seekers from Akwaya, Otu, Eyumojock, Nsan, Dadi and Bodam arrived Cross River State in Southern Nigeria. “A joint registration team from UNHCR and the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) will continue biometric registration for new arrivals in Cross River State” UNHCR stated.

The Southern Cameroonian refugees have been receiving food and non-food items including mattresses, blankets, mosquito nets, cooking utensils and hygiene kits from the UN. But with the renewed escalation of the conflict in Cameroon and the arrival of thousand new asylum seekers, the ability to respond has been affected by the lack of additional resources to support newcomers.

Cameroon Concord News understands that the UNHCR Nigeria and its partners have developed a contingency plan for about 40,000 newcomers from the Federal Republic of Ambazonia with a nominal budget of $ 18 million.

By Sama Ernest with files from CIN

10, December 2017

The International Criminal Court and Paul Biya’s heinous crimes ⁰

President Paul Biya is gaining international notoriety for torturing and murdering hundreds of Southern Cameroonians. Biya believes ruling with an iron fist is going to keep his country, divided by ethnicity and the Anglophone problem intact. However, his actions bespeak a tyrannical despot who is stopping at nothing to punish those who opposed him and those clamoring for political change.

Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court already have hundreds of crimes to choose from, these are some of Paul Biya’s most heinous.

Reprisal against Bamenda County

In 1992 following the launching of the Social Democratic Front, SDF, Biya ordered the Francophone dominated army to punish the entire city of Bamenda. More than 80 fighting-age men were apprehended and never heard from again.

Approximately a hundred other townspeople, including children, were rounded up and taken to prison in French Cameroun, where many were tortured. After a year or more in prison, many were abandoned in Yaoundé.

Though Paul Biya’s 1992 reprisal against Bamenda is considered one of his lesser-known crimes, Cameroon Intelligence Report wants it to be chosen as the first crime for which he must be tried.

The Kumba Onslaught

Following the destruction of a drink depot owned by Brasseries du Cameroun in Fiango Kumba, Paul Biya’s regime carried out the Kumba campaign against the large North West population in Fiango.

The purpose of the campaign was to reassert Chief V.E. Mukete and Biya’s ruling CPDM party control over the area; however, the real goal was to eliminate the North West majority population problem in Kumba permanently.

The campaign consisted of eight stages of assault, where up to 1000 Francophone troops attacked the area, rounded up civilians, and razed houses. Once rounded up, the civilians were divided into two groups: men from ages of about 13 to 70 and women, children, and elderly men.

Some of the men were then shot and buried in mass graves by the Mukete Thugs. The women, children, and elderly were forced to return to their area of origin in the North West province.

Hundreds of North westerners fled the area. Many people consider the Fiango-Kumba campaign an attempt at genocide.

Attacks against Southern Cameroonians

Ever since the beginning of the Southern Cameroons revolution, the French Cameroun army has used combat helicopters and massive deployment of troops to wipe away Southern Cameroons villages. It is estimated that the Francophone dominated army has staged airstrikes on 14 villages in Manyu Division, with the largest of these attacks occurring in Agborkem-German.

The Francophone army rained down volley after volley of tear gas filled with a deadly mixture of mustard and nerve agents on Akwaya and Eyumojock. Immediate effects of the chemicals included blindness, vomiting, blisters, convulsions, and asphyxiation. A long-term effect includes permanent blindness, cancer, and birth defects.

Invasion of Bamenda, Jakiri and Mamfe

French Cameroun troops have invaded and are currently occupying Southern Cameroons territory. The genocidal intent of French Cameroun leaders in the prosecution of the genocide and crimes against humanity against the Southern Cameroons has consistently been expressed during their official functions and through news networks under their control. Unlike genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes that were committed in some parts of the world by carefully sophisticated institutional frameworks and death squads, the planners, commanders and executioners of the genocide of the Southern Cameroons have publicly taken credit for their brazen acts of criminality.

They deployed and commanded the criminal death squads and praised them for the cruelty with which they have been executing the genocide and sundry international crimes against Southern Cameroonians : The unexhaustive list of criminals and persons who bear the greatest responsibility for the international crimes committed against the Southern Cameroons are, Paul Biya, President of French Cameroun, President of the National Assembly of French Cameroun, Cavaye Yegui Djibril, President of the Senate of French Cameroun, Marcel Niat, French Cameroun’s government spokesman Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Minister of Justice, Laurent Esso, Minister of Higher Education, Fame Ndongo, Minister of Defence, Joseph Beti Assomo, Minister in charge of Missions at the Presidency, Paul Atanga Nji, Minister of Post and Telecommunications, Minette Libom Li Likeng Governor of the South West, Bernard Okalia Bilai, Governor of the North West, Adolphe Lele Lafrique, Minister of State in charge of the Gendarmerie, Jean Baptiste Bonkam, Delegate General in charge of National Security, Mbarga Nguele Martin, Army Chiefs of French Cameroun and all their proconsuls so-called senior SDO.s , Mayor Ekema Patrick Esunge, CRTV, Vision 4 television, Cameroon Tribune, French Cameroun Military Court, and the CPDM party etc.

The April 6^th Coup

At the end of the 1984 April 6^th coup against Mr. Biya, soldiers from the North rebelled against Biya’s regime. In retaliation, Biya brutally suppressed the uprising, killing hundreds of Muslim soldiers and systematically ruined the way of life of the respective families. Most of the young soldiers from Garoua were forced to flee and their way of life decimated.

We of Cameroon Intelligence Report believe that Mr. Paul Biya will be found guilty of crimes against humanity in regards to the reprisal against Manyus.

Culled from Cameroon Intelligence Report

10, December 2017

Israelis protest against corruption-tainted Netanyahu in Tel Aviv ⁰

Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets of Tel Aviv to vent their anger at the regime corruption, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to step down. Israeli media estimated that about 10,000 people turned out for the protest dubbed the “March of Shame” in Tel Aviv on Saturday. Similar demonstrations also took place in other Israeli cities.

Saturday’s rally was part of the weekly events sparked by corruption allegations against Netanyahu, who has been questioned in two cases and is suspected of being involved in bribery, fraud and breach of trust. Around 20,000 Israelis join the demonstration against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, holding up signs reading “Crime Minister.”

Protesters held banners reading, “Crime Minister,” “Neither left, nor right (we demand) integrity,” “We are fed up with corrupt (politicians)” and “Sweep the corrupt away.” They further shouted slogans such as “Corporate power, organized crime,” “We won’t stop until Bibi resigns,” “The people demand legal justice,” “Shame-Mafia” and “Bibi go home.”

Demonstrator Mira Levni said the Israelis “don’t like … the behavior of our leaders.” “I came to protest this unbelievable racist and corrupt regime. We are going to keep coming to protest until Netanyahu goes down,” said another demonstrator, Yigal Shtayim.

Another participant, Sigal Aviv, stressed that in addition to graft, the event was meant to denounce the Tel Aviv regime’s policies such as occupation and mistreatment of refugees.

“Our idea is to voice that this demonstration should include other issues, not only the issue of corruption, the corruption is only the symptom, it’s not the disease, the disease is the occupation, the disease is the way the regime treats refugees, the way it treats lower class people in Israel,” she said.

Netanyahu is suspected of having received luxury gifts from businessmen overseas in Case 1000. He is also being investigated in Case 2000 for an alleged media bribery scheme to help Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper against its competitor Israel Hayom in return for favorable coverage of the premier.

Source: Presstv