Nkwelle Ekaney is no longer Cameroon’s High Commissioner to Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In a letter dated October 19, President Paul Biya instructed the Minister of External Relations, Lejeune MBELLA MBELLA, to recall urgently and definitively to Cameroon, the High Commissioner of Cameroon in Great Britain and Ireland, Nkwelle Ekaney.

The Biya letter noted that the British authorities will be informed of a possible replacement of the disgraced diplomat.

According to a source close to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a meeting was held last week between Minister Lejeune MBELLA MBELLA and Nkwelle Ekaney on the decision of the Head of State Paul Biya. No official information is currently available on the reasons for the Biya action.
By Chi Prudence Asong, CCN

Some senators are saying they didn’t know the US had troops in Niger as questions swirl about the raid that killed four US servicemen there earlier this month. The Pentagon, however, said Monday it has kept Congress informed of the operation. Military investigators are looking into the exact circumstances of the October 4 raid, including how Sgt. La David Johnson was separated from the 12-member team as it was ambushed by 50 ISIS fighters.

“I did not,” Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pennsylvania, responded to CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day” Monday whether he knew there were troops in Niger. “When you consider what happened here, the four sergeants lost their lives, I think there’s a lot of work that both parties and both branches of government need to do. Not only to stay more informed but to focus on why we’re there and what happened to get to the bottom of this.”

Several other leading senators also said they were in the dark about the operation in the western Africa nation. “I didn’t know there was 1,000 troops in Niger,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” Sunday. “They are going to brief us next week as to why they were there and what they were doing.”

He continued: “I got a little insight on why they were there and what they were doing. I can say this to the families: They were there to defend America. They were there to help allies. They were there to prevent another platform to attack America and our allies.”

Graham also said during the interview that his longtime friend and colleague in the Senate, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, is frustrated, “rightly so.”

“We don’t know exactly where we’re at in the world, militarily, and what we’re doing. So John McCain is going to try to create a new system to make sure that we can answer the question (about) why we were there,” he said. “We’ll know how many soldiers are there, and if somebody gets killed there, that we won’t find out about it in the paper.”

When Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was asked later on “Meet the Press” about knowing whether there were troops in Niger, he responded, “No, I did not.”

The Pentagon told CNN it keeps Congress regularly informed on the movements within the agency. And the White House said Monday it notified congressional leaders in June about 965 troops conducting counterterrorism duties in Niger and Cameroon.

Several Republican House members told CNN on Monday they were aware of the operation. “With respect to Niger, I serve on the appropriations committee. I oversee military construction projects,” Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pennsylvania, told Cuomo. “We have a presence there. Not just there, but within that whole Lake Chad region, supporting local troops to support fight Boko Haram, support operations in West Africa and the operation in Mali. So we have all sorts of people in that region fighting a very dangerous foe, and ISIS in West Africa, especially.”

And Oklahoma Republican Rep. Steve Russell, a member of the government oversight and reform committee, also told CNN he knew about the troops. “It’s not new, and lawmakers that seem to be aghast at these missions going on are simply not well-read,” Dent told CNN’s John Berman and Poppy Harlow.

Culled from CNN

The World Health Organization (WHO) has overturned it controversial decision, made quite recently, in appointing Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe as its “goodwill ambassador” to Africa following international outrage.

The director-general of the United Nations organization, Tedros Adhanom, made the announcement on Sunday, four days after he appointed the 93-year-old Zimbabwean president at a high-level meeting on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Uruguay.

“Over the last few days, I have reflected on my appointment of H.E. President Robert Mugabe as WHO Goodwill Ambassador for NCDs in Africa. As a result I have decided to rescind the appointment,” Tedros said in a statement published on the WHO official website.

On Wednesday, Tedros, an Ethiopian politician, academic, and public-health authority, who assumed power as the eighth head of the WHO in July, had praised Zimbabwe as a country which had managed to place “universal health coverage and health promotion at the center of its policies to provide health care to all.”

The unexpected decision, however, faced criticism from the beginning and sparked outrage among key WHO member states, the United States in particular, and other critics of Mugabe’s decades-long long rule. Tedros’ decision was described by critics as the result of “poor judgment” and “miscalculation.”

Critics say that Zimbabwe, under Mugabe, has seen a significant reduction in life expectancy, dropping from 61 in 1985 to 44 in 2003, largely due to the nation’s ailing economy and widespread poverty.

Mugabe is also under fire for the longevity of his role as the leader of the African country. He served as the prime minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987. In December 1987, the country’s parliament amended the constitution and declared Mugabe to be the executive president, a new position that lasted until now and gave him much more power.

However, Mugabe, who is suffering from several health scares, has pledged never to give up the presidency.

“I will be there until God says come, but as long as I am alive I will head the country, forward ever, backwards never,” he told the African Union last year.

As the goodwill ambassador, he was supposed to co-ordinate the WHO’s battle against heart disease, cancer and diabetes across Africa.

“I have listened carefully to all who have expressed their concerns, and heard the different issues that they have raised. I have also consulted with the Government of Zimbabwe and we have concluded that this decision is in the best interests of the World Health Organization,” further said Tedros, whose election as the first African leader of the UN organization was billed as a pivotal moment for the continent, where much of the organization’s work is based.

UN agencies often name high-profile personalities as goodwill ambassadors to draw attention and highlight their tasks in the eyes of the global community and to garner support for the cause. Tedros’ contentious decision, however, has raised doubts regarding his leadership just four months into his tenure.

Source: Presstv