British Prime Minister Theresa May is facing growing pressure from within her own Conservative Party to reveal the true cost of leaving the European Union and settling the Brexit “divorce bill.”

Conservatives lawmakers in Parliament, as well as former cabinet ministers, say the time has come for the premier to be completely open on how much Brexit will cost.

Labour, Britain’s main opposition party, has threatened to get conservatives onboard for a plan that gives parliament a vote on the matter.

The so-called EU divorce bill, or Brexit financial settlement, is the sum of money demanded by the EU from the UK as it leaves the bloc.

Britain and the EU have agreed on a divorce bill that is likely to be between $54 billion to $67 billion.

May is set to travel to Brussels on Monday to hammer out an agreement on the terms of the withdrawal.

If May’s offer on critical withdrawal issues fails to make “significant progress,” EU leaders will refuse at their next summit on December 14 to unlock the next phase of the Brexit negotiations about a future trade deal and a transitional arrangement after Britain leaves the EU in March 2019.

The EU insists that Britain must resolve critical withdrawal issues, including a multibillion-euro divorce bill, EU citizens’ rights and the Irish border, before there can be any talks on future relations.

EU member states have become increasingly frustrated with Britain’s reluctance to compromise, and are also worried that May’s fragile Conservative government is unable to do so even if it wanted to.

Source: Presstv

US President Donald Trump has pulled the country out of a UN compact aimed at improving migrant and refugee situations around the world.

The US mission to the global body announced the decision on Saturday, saying the Trump administration deemed the pact “inconsistent” with its policies.

“Today, the US Mission to the United Nations informed the UN Secretary-General that the United States is ending its participation in the Global Compact on Migration,” it said in a statement.

Known as the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, the compact is a non-binding political declaration that was unanimously adopted by the 193 members of the UN General Assembly in September 2016.

Under the compact, the members pledged to uphold the rights of refugees, help them resettle and insure they have access to education and jobs.

“The New York Declaration contains numerous provisions that are inconsistent with US immigration and refugee policies and the Trump Administration’s immigration principles. As a result, President Trump determined that the United States would end its participation in the Compact process that aims to reach international consensus at the UN in 2018,” read the statement.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said Washington would continue its support of migrants and refugees around the globe, but noted that “our decisions on immigration policies must always be made by Americans and Americans alone.”

She said the US itself “will decide how best to control our borders and who will be allowed to enter our country,” calling the declaration incompatible with “US sovereignty.”

So far the US, under Trump and his “America First” policies, has withdrawn from several other global commitments made under the administration of former President Barack Obama, including the Paris climate accord.

More recently, Trump has pulled America out of the Paris-based culture and education body, UNESCO, accusing it of “anti-Israel bias.”

Source: Presstv

The new slave trade-human trafficking in Libya is being carried out by many nationalities, including Nigerians and Ghanaians, according to a Cameroonian returnee, who was abducted in the country. Foka Fotsi, who was trafficked twice, told Reuters that those in charge of one of the places where he was held included Ghanaians and Nigerians. Fotsi story corroborated another testimony by a Nigerian in the southern state of Edo, who identified one Charles, a Nigerian as the trafficking kingpin. Foka Fotsi- battered in a camp run by Nigerians and Ghanaians Unable to find work to support his family, Fotsi decided to leave Cameroon last year, but fell into the hands of a Libyan kidnap ring before reaching Europe. “There was torture like I’ve never seen. They hit you with wooden bats, with iron bars,” he said, removing the hood of his sweatshirt and showing the still raw red wounds on his skull. “They hang you from the ceiling by (your) arms and legs and then throw you down to the floor. They swing you and throw you against the wall, over and over again, ten times. “They are not human beings. They are the devil personified.”

Christelle Timdi, another Cameroonian recounted her  horrendous experience in the north African country. When uniformed men boarded the overloaded rubber dingy carrying her and her boyfriend to a new life in Europe, she thought the Italian coastguard had come to rescue them. But the men took out guns and began to shoot. “Many people fell in the sea,” the 32-year-old Cameroonian said as she described seeing her boyfriend, Douglas, falling in the water and disappearing into the darkness. The gunmen took Timdi and her fellow passengers back to Libya where they were locked up, raped, beaten and forced to make calls to their families back home for ransom payments to secure their freedom. Timdi, who flew back to Cameroon last week, told her story as international outcry escalated over a video which appeared to show African migrants being traded as slaves in Libya. Libya’s U.N.-backed government has said it is investigating and has promised to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Timdi said she had not seen the footage broadcast by CNN, but had witnessed the trade in humans while in Libya. “I saw it with my own eyes,” she said, describing how she had seen a Senegalese man buying an African migrant. Libya is the main jumping off point for migrants trying to reach Europe by boat. Timdi said many traffickers posed as marine guards, police officers and taxi drivers to ensnare victims. There were around 130 other migrants on her boat when the gunmen opened fire in the middle of the night, Timdi said. After being taken back to Libya they were locked in an abandoned factory building where men would grab and rape the girls and women – and sometimes even the men. “We tried to hide the younger girls among us,” Timdi said, describing the terrifying moments when the guards would scour the room with torches, searching for their next victims. “I was heavily pregnant – that’s why I wasn’t raped. And it’s all done in front of others – they say it’s so that you know what will happen to you if you don’t pay up.” Timdi said the facilities used by traffickers appeared to be well organised and guarded, adding that most people inside wore fake police or military uniforms. “The place was surrounded by army-style vehicles with guns ready to fire, so we didn’t dare try and escape.”

Timdi’s family paid 1 million CFA francs ($1,800), frantically collected from relatives and friends, to free her. But she said ransoms were no guarantee of safety. The traffickers work with a network of taxi drivers who are supposed to transfer released migrants to migrant camps – but who often re-traffick them, Timdi said. “If they send you a good taxi, you’ll arrive at your destination, but if it’s a bad taxi the driver will sell you on to someone else,” she said. “There are people who have been resold twice, three times. And when you call your family to tell them that you’ve been resold once again, no one will believe you, they won’t send more money to free you.” Timdi was released by her captors in October and gave birth to a baby girl, Brittanie, in a Libyan hospital just days later. Timdi and Fotsi were among 250 Cameroonians who were flown home this week by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) as part of a voluntary return scheme for migrants stranded in Libya. The programme, funded by the European Union, provided returnees with clothing and medical checks. The most vulnerable, including pregnant women, also received around 400 euros ($475). IOM Cameroon head Boubacar Saybou said it was launching a programme to help migrants set up businesses, and will also provide start-up funding. “We need to create opportunities for them here. That’s what’s important,” he said. Fotsi said he hoped to follow up on the scheme. But for now his most pressing problem was finding a place to sleep. “I pray that God gives me work that I can do here,” he said. “If we don’t get work you’ll find many of us walking the streets again.”

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation report

Intelligence reaching Cameroon Concord News from Yaounde indicates that the French Cameroun dictator, Paul Biya has ordered the Senior Divisional Officer for Manyu to ask Ambazonians to vacate 16 villages.

Our Yaounde city reporter who is very experience in intelligence gathering noted that the Biya intention is to take ammunition and explosives into those villages, then turn around and claim to have discovered arms brought in by the interim government headed by His Excellency President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe.

A senior aide to President Ayuk Tabe has also hinted that the Ambazonian chief executive will be commenting on this developing situation and the happenings in Ambazonia later today.

Stay with us for the latest in Southern Cameroons