29, September 2017

October 1: UN chief urges all parties to refrain from acts that could escalate tension ⁰

Expressing “deep concern” over the deteriorating security situation in parts of Cameroon as well as heightened tensions related to planned events this Sunday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called all parties to refrain from acts that could lead to further tensions and violence.

According to a statement attributable to his spokesperson, Mr. Guterres encouraged the Cameroonian authorities to continue their efforts to address the grievances of the Anglophone community.

“He urges the authorities to promote measures of national reconciliation aimed at finding a durable solution to the crisis, including by addressing its root causes,” the statement added.

It also noted that the UN chief supports upholding the unity and territorial integrity of the country and believes that genuine and inclusive dialogue between the Government and the communities in the South-West and North-West regions is the best way to preserve the unity and stability of the country.

The Secretary-General stands ready to support these efforts, including through the United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA), the statement read.

Source: UN.org

29, September 2017

2 Cameroonian soldiers killed in the Far North ⁰

Two Cameroonian soldiers were killed on Thursday in the Far North following an explosion of an improvised device. The two soldiers were serving with the Joint Multinational Force headquartered in Mora, in the Mayo-Sava Division in Far-North region of La Republique du Cameroun.

The service men were killed early in the morning while on patrol in a field mission at the Bonderi locality as part of the war against the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram. The device exploded as a group of soldiers passed, killing two on the spot.

Cameroon Concord News gathered from military sources that the explosive was placed by Boko Haram terrorists, whose exactions in Cameroonian territory have already caused the death of at least 2,000 people and made more than 100 thousand internally displaced persons.

By Sonne Peter, CCN

29, September 2017

La Republique: Schools yet to resume in Ocean Division ⁰

Some schools have remained completely closed in La Republique du Cameroun, despite vain attempts by the Francophone Ministers of Basic and Secondary Education to get academic institutions to begin classes in Southern Cameroons. Parents of children are in complete disarray in GHS Makoure and many other secondary schools in the Ocean Division and for good reason. Since the beginning of the school year, no teacher or even the principals of these government establishments have been visible.

Cameroon Concord News understands the governor of the South Region, Felix Nguelé Nguelé, completed a tour on September the 5th and announced on state radio and television that schools had effectively resumed. Cat calls have greeted the governor’s pronouncement with elites saying GHS Makoure never opened its doors on September 4th.

We learned teachers have not even returned to work three weeks after schools officially started throughout French Cameroun. In anger, the parents are pointing an accusing finger at Sieur Bikanda, the Divisional Delegate for Secondary Education. He is accused of having done nothing to improve the situation.

“The delegate wants to be the only elite in the area. His children are in Yaoundé and abroad studying in the best schools,” a parent said. The divisional delegation has however reacted saying, the situation is due to the fact that teachers were not assigned to the locality. In general, several institutions in the Ocean Division have assigned teachers who prefer to reside only in Kribi.

By Sama Ernest, CCN

29, September 2017

Movement restricted in Southern Cameroons ahead of independence day ⁰

Authorities in the South West Region of Cameroon have restricted movement of people and vehicles and banned meetings from Friday to Monday. The ban imposed by the Francophone Governor Bernard Okalia Bilai affects the celebration of independence day in the region on October 1.

Among the regulatory measures announced on Thursday are the closure of all borders, bars, night clubs, parks and “prohibition of any public gatherings and assembly of more than four persons in any public location”.

He said the measures are intended to preserve public peace and guarantee security “following persistent threats of destabilization through manipulation by individuals acting from outside the national territory.” This was followed by another ban on restriction imposed by the Senior Divisional Officer of the Manyu Province in the region, Oum II Joseph from Friday to Tuesday.

“All public meetings and manifestations are banned within the entire division with effect from Tuesday 26th September to Tuesday 10th October 2017,” he added. The measures follow last week’s massive demonstrations in several English-speaking towns in the North-West and South-West Regions against the continuous detention of some of the inhabitants of the regions and independence from French Cameroon.

It started in Bamenda last Friday despite a ban on movement of persons imposed the night before by Governor Adolphe Lele Lafrique following a bomb attack that injured three police officers. The demonstration spread to Buea in the South-West Region where women led the march with hundreds behind them carrying leaves, tree branches and flags of the Cameroon separatist movement.

It was the same scene in the towns of Fontem, Kumba and Mamfe among others in the same region who are also demanding to be independent from French Cameroon. Tensions are still high ahead of the October 1 independence day celebrations which risk facing demonstrations in the Anglophone regions.

Culled from Africa News

28, September 2017

Americans embarrassed to have Trump as president ⁰

A majority of American voters believe Donald Trump is not “fit to serve as president” of the United States, a new poll shows.

Fifty-one percent of American nationals contacted said they are embarrassed to have Trump serve as president, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday.

Fifty-nine percent of respondents said Trump is not an honest man, 60 percent said he does not have good leadership skills and 61 percent said he does not share their values.

A majority of voters also advised Trump to stop tweeting about every issue.

The poll also showed that Americans are split along racial lines on Trump. Ninety-four percent of black voters said the Republican president is not fit to serve, 60 percent Hispanic voters said the same, while 50 percent white voters said he is fit for the role.

Sixty-two percent of voters disapproved of the way Trump has dealt with race relations, and 60 percent said the controversial president is doing more to divide the country than unite it.

The poll also revealed divisions among men and women. Men are divided 49 percent to 49 percent, while 63 percent of women say Trump is not fit.

The poll was conducted from September 21 to 26 by phone in which 1,412 voters nationwide participated.

Another recent poll found most Americans disapprove of Trump’s leadership and see him as a divisive figure who has not fulfilled his campaign promise to positively change the US government.

More than twice as many Americans – 66 percent vs. 28 percent – said Trump is doing more to divide the country than to unify it, according to an ABC/Washington Post poll published on Sunday.

Trump has been widely criticized for his response to the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, after he said “both sides” were to blame for the violence.

Critics say that Trump’s divisive rhetoric and policies against immigrants and minorities before and after his election have emboldened far-right groups and promoted hate crimes across the country.

Culled from Presstv

28, September 2017

Southern Cameroonians express optimism at Independence Day celebration ⁰

A Special Edition Poll results released by Cameroon Concord News Group have revealed that a majority of Anglophone Cameroonians (98 percent) believe Southern Cameroon’s Independence is worth celebrating in spite of the extra judicial killings, arbitrary arrests and rapes including the economic recession that has rocked the territory. However, it should be noted that this is a vast increase from the 2006 value, indicating that the the union between West Cameroon and French Cameroun has failed.

More findings revealed that of those who believe Southern Cameroons’s Independence is worth celebrating (despite the militarisation of the territory by the French Cameroun government and challenges facing the young nation), a significant proportion (35 percent) stated that Independence Day is worth celebrating because it is Southern Cameroon’s day of independence and some (60 percent) also asserted that it marks the day Southern Cameroons was liberated from colonial rule and the correction of the 56 years injustice meted on Southern Cameroonians by Francophone political elites.

In addition, many Southern Cameroonians reported that they love being Southern Cameroonians mostly because of the Anglosaxon heritage where political leaders are held accountable. Furthermore, the poll results revealed that most Southern Cameroonians consider the the Southern Cameroons Governing Council as the legitimate body running the affairs of Southern Cameroons. Poll results show that 9 percent of Anglophones who do not think Southern Cameroon’s Independence is worth celebrating indicated that it is because people are suffering. These are some of the key findings from the Independence Day Poll conducted by the Cameroon Concord News Group in the week of September 26th 2017.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from CCN and CIR

27, September 2017

Biya regime accused of driving out Nigerians ⁰

Nigerian refugees claim they have been arbitrarily punished by soldiers for Boko Haram attacks in Cameroon as study alleges 100,000 have been forced out. Refugees who fled the Islamist militant group Boko Haram are being driven out of Cameroon and back to Nigeria, where they face violence and destitution, human rights organisations have said.
The Cameroonian military has forced 100,000 refugees to return to north-east Nigeria since 2015, in many cases after torturing, assaulting and sexually abusing them, according to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

The study builds on figures released earlier this year by the UN High commissioner for Refugees, the UN refugee agency. The figures were accompanied by the UNHCR’s first public criticism of the authorities over the returns in two years.

Refugees said soldiers had accused them of belonging to Boko Haram, or of being “Boko Haram wives”, while torturing or assaulting them and dozens of others on arrival, during their stay in remote border areas, and during mass deportations.

One refugee described an attack he witnessed in Minawao refugee camp: “A pregnant woman lost her place in the food line. When she pleaded with an official to let her back in, a soldier attacked her with a big stick. She fell to the ground and started bleeding. I later heard that she died before she reached the clinic.”
Another said: “They humiliated us like animals and beat us like we were slaves. They beat my 22-year-old brother so badly with a wooden stick on his head and his chest that he later died of internal bleeding.”

A 19-year-old woman who arrived in a Cameroonian village described the sexual abuse she witnessed. “The soldiers took advantage of women. They said that if we had sex with them, they would give us food and protect us. If we refused, they would come the next day to where you lived. They took away lots of men and women as Boko Haram suspects. Other times, they deported people to punish them because you said no. I know 18 women who agreed to have sex with the soldiers because of this and three of them got pregnant.”

HRW called on the Cameroonian government to stop all forced removals, and to prosecute soldiers who had been involved in abuses. The group also urged the Nigerian government to admit publicly that it is too dangerous for refugees to return to Borno state.

“The Cameroonian military’s torture and abuse of Nigerian refugees and asylum seekers seems to be driven by an arbitrary decision to punish them for Boko Haram attacks in Cameroon and to discourage Nigerians from seeking asylum,” said HRW’s associate refugee director, Gerry Simpson. “Cameroon should heed the UN’s call on all countries to protect refugees fleeing the carnage in north-east Nigeria, not return them there.”

The Nigerian military has repeatedly declared that it has won the war against Boko Haram, despite ongoing abductions and bomb attacks. One faction of Boko Haram is thought to have been pushed further and further into the islands of Lake Chad, driving out herding and farming communities who have sought shelter in Chad.

Cameroon has responded to the threat posed by Boko Haram mainly in military terms, and its soldiers have faced accusations of abuse before. In August, Amnesty International released a report detailing allegations of torture by the Cameroonian military, which the government denied as “outrageously accusatory”, accusing Amnesty of “playing the role of an organisation for the defence of terrorist interests”.

The latest accusations came just after the country’s president, Paul Biya, told the UN that Cameroon, having hosted thousands of refugees, “understands how much they feel hurt, victimised and threatened in their very existence”. “Therefore, let us mobilise and, through our policies, behaviours and actions, refocus on people,” said Biya.

Despite several appeals, the UNHCR has received less than a quarter of the $94m (£70m) it needs this year to help refugees who have fled to Cameroon from Nigeria and Central African Republic. Human Rights Watch warned that failure to address the shortfall risked sending Cameroon the message that donor governments do not care what happens to Nigerian refugees and that Cameroon is on its own in dealing with them, potentially making the country less accountable.

The number of internally displaced people in Nigeria is 1.7 million, far higher than the 200,000 estimated refugees in neighbouring countries. Towns in north-east Nigeria are struggling to cope with the thousands of people who continue to arrive. Overcrowding, flooding, a lack of food and an outbreak of cholera have made living conditions worse.

Organisations working in north-east Nigeria said forced returns have been widespread there, too, and also reported military abuses. In a 2015 report, Amnesty said the Nigerian military had executed 1,200 people and arbitrarily arrested 20,000, and that 7,000 people had been killed and many tortured in detention.

Culled from The Guardian

27, September 2017

Trump says NFL players disrespected US war veterans ⁰

US President Donald Trump has intensified his criticism of NFL players who took a knee during renditions of the national anthem.

American football players across the US and in London, including members of the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Baltimore Ravens, knelt in a powerful display of unity during games on Sunday.

Trump called the protesters “disgraceful” and claimed they blatantly disrespected veterans who fought for the flag and country.

“I don’t think you can disrespect our country, our flag, our national anthem,” Trump said at a Rose Garden press conference on Tuesday.

“They were fighting for our country, they were fighting for our flag, they were fighting for our national anthem,” he said, referring to injured soldiers he visited at Walter Reed. “For people to disrespect that by kneeling during the playing of our national anthem I think is disgraceful.”

Meanwhile, Richard Allen Smith, an Afghanistan war veteran, told MSNBC in an interview, “I didn’t fight for any flag or anthem and I don’t know anybody that did fight for a flag or anthem.”

Trump “is a man who has no capacity for shame, he’s a serial sexual predator and a bigot,” he said, adding, he was “just ashamed that this is our president.”

Jacksonville Jaguar players show their protest during the National Anthem during the NFL International Series match between Baltimore Ravens and Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium on September 24, 2017 in London, England. (Getty Images)

Trump has called on NFL owners to sack the mostly black players who staged the protest. He also asked fans to boycott NFL games to increase pressure on the league to fire or suspend those players.

“If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop disrespecting our Flag & Country, you will see change take place fast,” Trump wrote. “Fire or suspend!”

NFL teams whose owners or CEOs have voiced their support of players’ free expression included the New England Patriots, New York Giants, Buffalo Bills, Philadelphia Eagles, Denver Broncos, San Diego Chargers, Green Bay Packers, Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers, Tennessee Titans, Indianapolis Colts and Seattle Seahawks.

The row began on Friday at a Republican political rally in Alabama when Trump described activist NFL players — mostly African Americans — as “sons of b****es” who should lose their job for not standing during renditions of the national anthem.

The protests are aimed at drawing more attention to police violence against minorities in America following a spate of deadly police shootings of black men.

They began last year when former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the anthem to protest racial injustice.

Source: Presstv

27, September 2017

Senior Southern Cameroons environmentalist arrested in Mundemba County ⁰

Francophone security agents have arrested Nasako Besingi, the chairman of an NGO charged with protecting the environment. He was arrested on Monday in his office and CCN understands police officers reportedly ransacked the building in search of documents.

The arrest of the head of the NGO “Struggle to Economize the Future Environment” (Sefe) took place on Monday (September 25th) in Mudemba, capital of the Ndian County. There are several unofficial versions of the reasons for his arrest.

Initial information revealed that the environmentalist had distributed propaganda leaflets for the release of Esonno Wakemba, a demonstrator who has been detained since the Southern Cameroons uprising started 11 months ago.

Another hypothesis links the arrest of Nasako Bensigi to his positions on the activities of Herakles Farm, an agricultural firm that is weighed down by allegations of land grabbing and illegal logging.

In this context, Nasako Besingi was sentenced in January 2016 and November 2015 to heavy fines, and some say he has been defaulting payments associated to his prison sentences, for organizing rallies with local inhabitants deemed illegal.

By Rita Akana with files from Cameroon Info.Net

26, September 2017

Angola: End of the Dos Santos era ⁰

The former Minister of Defense, José Lourenço officially took the reins of Angola on Tuesday, succeeding President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has been in power for 38 years. João Lourenço was inaugurated as the new president of Angola, after the victory of the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) in the parliamentary elections.

“By assuming the post of President of the Republic, I, Joao Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço, swears on my honor to devote myself fully to the functions that now fall to me,” said the new President, by swearing an oath on the Constitution in Luanda.

The ceremony took place in Luanda in the presence of José Eduardo dos Santos and several African heads of state, including Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, Rwandan Paul Kagame and Equator-Guinean Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
After ten years of oil boom, Angola has undergone a serious crisis for three years due to the fall in the price of black gold, its main source of revenue.

By Chi Prudence Asong, CCN