4, May 2017

French presidential candidates hold heated debate ⁰

French centrist presidential candidate Emanuel Macron and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen have exchanged barbs at their only televised debate prior to the Sunday presidential runoff in France. The duel on Wednesday night was rife with verbal clashes between the two presidential hopefuls, who discussed an assortment of controversial issues on economy, national security, and foreign policy.

During the two-and-a-half hour debate, Le Pen tried to highlight her flagship policy of “France-first” nationalism, including a crackdown on illegal immigration, scrapping the euro currency, and holding a referendum on European Union (EU) membership.

Macron, for his part, called for political openness, pro-market reforms, and the slashing of public spending. At one climactic point, Le Pen branded the former economy minister as “the candidate of the elite” and a “darling of the system.” Macron called her a “liar” and a “parasite of the system” in response.

Marine Le Pen, France’s far-right Front National (FN) Party candidate

On foreign policy, the 48-year-old candidate of the far-right Front National (FN) party accused her rival of being “submissive” toward German Chancellor Angela Merkel, taking a dig by saying, “France will be led by a woman, either me or Mrs. Merkel.”

Le Pen also accused Macron of having “no plan” on national security and of adopting an “indulgent attitude” toward the terrorist threats faced by the country. The 39-year-old centrist replied that he would be “uncompromising” on terrorism, which he described as the biggest issue of the next few years in France.

Accusing his rival of “hate-filled speech,” Macron warned that Le Pen’s bellicose rhetoric would divide France and lead to “a civil war.” In a final blow, Macron reproached his rival for her policies and said, “I’m sorry, Madame Le Pen; France deserves better than you.”

Emmanuel Macron, France’s presidential candidate for the En Marche! Movement

In an opinion poll immediately conducted by Elabe pollsters for BFM TV after the heated debate, some 63 percent of the people interviewed found the pro-EU former economy minister more convincing versus 34 percent for the leader of the FN party.

Macron and Le Pen won the first round of voting in France’s presidential election on April 23. Macron finished first with 24 percent, ahead of Le Pen with 21.3 percent. They will now have to contend in the runoff, scheduled for May 7. Nearly 47 million voters are eligible to vote on that day. France’s outgoing President Francois Hollande urged voters last week to back Macron and reject Le Pen.

Culled from Presstv

4, May 2017

Anglophone journalists protest police harassment, media crackdown ⁰

Some news reporters grouped under the National Union of Cameroon Journalists, SNJC converged in Buea and demanded the immediate release of all Southern Cameroon journalists arrested during the current Anglophone uprising.

They marched through the streets of Buea from the University junction to Miss Bright Inn brandishing placards which called on the Francophone government to stop harassing journalists. Others held banners with messages calling for the release of some six Anglophone journalists arrested this year.

The World Press Freedom Day commemoration in the Southern Cameroon was observed under strict and firm instructions that journalists should appear in black, signifying the stifling of Press Freedom. Kum Leonard, President of SNJC revealed that Southern Cameroon journalists were now in hiding and some like Tina Nene Nganda have fled the country.

Appeals have been made to competent authorities to make sure that rights of journalists are respected in Cameroon. Celebrations marking WPFD in Fako ended in Limbe with the participation of the loud sounding nothing Peter Essoka, President of the National Communication Council. The event was organized by the UN information center for Central Africa.

Source: CIN

4, May 2017

Soldiers representing U.S. Army Africa currently in Cameroon ⁰

Soldiers representing U.S. Army Africa are currently in Cameroon for exercise Unified Focus 17, the second accord event of the year. The accord series is composed of four major events scheduled to take place intermittently on the African continent through the beginning of August. Exercise Justified Accord 17 was held in Ethiopia last month, and the following exercises, United Accord 17 and Shared Accord 17, will take place in Ghana and South Africa, respectively.

The accord series is a U.S. Africa Command program composed of four annual, combined and joint military exercises that take place in African countries and encourage partnerships between participants from United States, African Union, European and other coalition partner forces and agencies. Although each event addresses a specific peacekeeping or security issue, they all share common objectives: communication and interaction between partners, and mutual readiness training, said Col. Anthony J. Healey, the U.S. Army Africa training, readiness and exercises director.

“The exercises facilitate enhancing information sharing and cooperation on regional security issues, strengthening regional access and freedom of movement, and increasing the participating forces’ abilities to collaborate on common missions and increase their readiness for real-world scenarios,” he said.

Until recently, each exercise was named for its targeted region. The current iterations, however, reflect the specific focus of the event instead, according to Healey. “The exercises were regionally aligned: Southern Accord, Eastern Accord, Central Accord … but when AFRICOM changed (from region-based operations) to lines of effort-based operations, they changed the names to match,” he said.

The accord exercises generally can fall into one of three categories: tabletop, command post and field training. Tabletop exercises often include senior personnel working through the decision-making process they would use in a crisis scenario. These exercises can take place in a classroom environment and include instruction from subject matter experts, Healey said.

Command post exercises are expanded tabletop exercises for commanders and staff. They require increased tactical operations and communications and may be simulation driven. These exercises can be conducted on a garrison or in the field.

Field training exercises simulate realistic combat conditions and integrate the total force, involving combat units, drills and situational training exercises, as well as the personnel required for tabletop and command post exercises. A year or more of planning and smaller events with other U.S., partner and host nation organizations go into each exercise, Healey said, which helps coordinators overcome some of the challenges that arise when multiple agencies and cultures work toward one vision and grapple with logistics.

“You’re bringing multiple agencies together and trying to come up with a singular plan to execute,” he said. “Does everyone agree with it? Can you support this? Where is the money coming from? You have to plan transportation well in advance, contracts have to be letted out … those are some of the challenges we have to work through to get from initiation to execution.”

Despite any difficulties that might accompany USARAF’s participation, there is inherent value in building and strengthening partnerships through the accord exercises, Healey said. “Whenever we go anywhere on the globe these days, it’s going to be with another partner. (Through these exercises), we get that cultural understanding from working with partners, not just American forces. … Ensuring that everyone has a shared understanding of how to solve the issue in the scenario builds confidence between the partner nations and interagencies.”

Culled from Defenseweb

4, May 2017

Nigeria army bombed Sambisa forest to distract from Buhari deteriorating health ⁰

The Nigerian army has said that its air force carried a raid near the Sambisa forest that wounded the crazy Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau and killed one of his deputies. The Nigerian military also stated that the northeastern Nigeria air raid was staged last Friday in Balla, a village some 40 km from Damboa.

Military sources in the Federal capital Abuja further suggested that the wounded Shekau would be treated near the border with Cameroon, towards Kolofata. One of his deputies killed during the raids was identified as Abba Mustapha, alias Malam Abba and another of his lieutenants, Abubakar Gashua, alias Abu Aisha reportedly had a narrow escape.

Abubakar Shekau was announced died several times by the Nigerian army and many believe this recent announcement is to divert attention from President Buhari deteriorating health situation. The Nigerian Islamic sect is now divided, weakened and has suffered heavy setbacks but still carries out murderous attacks in northeastern Nigeria and Cameroon. Its eight years insurgency has claimed the lives of more than 20,000 and 2.6 million displaced.

By Sama Ernest

3, May 2017

Southern Cameroons: Hopes fade for deal as Lawyers protest continues ⁰

Southern Cameroon lawyers did not respect the call from the so-called President of the Bar Association of Cameroon Jackson Francis Ngnie Kamga to put an end to their strike action on Tuesday, May 2. In Bamenda and Buea the courts remained empty and work has not resumed. The Anglophone lawyers had warned Barrister Kamga to stay clear of Southern Cameroon matters and to ask his Francophone political elites to release with immediate effect the detained leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium currently being tried for terrorism and incitement to secession.

The Southern Cameroon lawyers said they were astonished to see the Bar President called for an end to the strike, but not for the release of the detainees, including the leader of the Consortium, Agbor Bala. Lawyers are at the forefront of the Southern Cameroon uprising and all the legal minds have opined that the way justice is done in Southern Cameroons is not consistent with the Common Law anglophones inherited from the British.

The Southern Cameroon lawyers also demanded that at the level of the Supreme Court, a section for Anglophones should be instituted to listen to appeals coming from the jurisdictions of the Northwest and the Southwest. In English, they call it the “Common Law Bench at the Supreme Court.” The Biya Francophone Government has announced several fake measures to satisfy these demands and none have been rightfully implemented.

By Fru James

Cameroon Concord News

3, May 2017

EU to stop Schengen controls by November ⁰

EU countries that imposed border controls in the passport-free Schengen area because of the migrant crisis should end them by November, Brussels said Tuesday.

Austria, Denmark, Germany, Sweden and non-EU Norway introduced the ID checks in 2015 and have been allowed to repeatedly prolong them at set intervals. Sweden said earlier Tuesday that it was scrapping the checks.

The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, said it would now only recommend one final half-year extension from mid-May. “The time has come to take the last concrete steps to gradually return to a normal functioning of the Schengen area,” EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told reporters.

“This will be the last prolongation.” The five countries first introduced the checks as a record wave of refugees and migrants from Syria and other Middle East countries and from Africa streamed across Europe. Brussels initially set the goal of getting rid of the checks by the end of 2016 but that proved impossible.

3, May 2017

Biya expected in China ⁰

President Paul Biya will visit China at the invitation of the Chinese President. The information was made public by Wei Wenhua the Chinese Ambassador to Cameroon. It would be Mr.Biya’s sixth trip to a country whose volume of trade with Cameroon now stands at 1, 96 billion US dollars.

Ambassador Wei Wenhua told local newsmen recently that “Despite a gloomy global economic context, Sino-African cooperation is performing well.” He revealed that China was helping Cameroon in constructing the Yaoundé-Douala highway, the Kribi-Lolabé highway and the Bini hydroelectric dam at Warack.

Ambassador Wenhua also pointed out that by removing the visa requirement between China and Cameroon for holders of diplomatic passports; it was a step forward in Cooperation between the two countries.

By Sonne Peter

Cameroon Concord News

3, May 2017

Equatorial Guinea Minister says Biya only sheltering thieves ⁰

A Cameroonian senator, Francois-Xavier Ondo has reportedly extorted the sum of 465 million FCFA from a senior political figure and aide to the Head of State of Equatorial Guinea in one of the biggest 419 scams in the country’s history.

Edjo Avomo Melchor Esono, a former Minister and current senator in Equatorial Guinea was rolled by his Cameroonian notary named Francois-Xavier Ondo and collected the sum of 465 million CFA francs, destined for the acquisition of a piece of land in Yaoundé. To this day not only that the Guinean senator has not been able to take possession of the land he solicited, the worst is that Edjo Avomo Melchor Esono has also not recovered the funds made available to his Cameroonian colleague.

The Biya acolyte claimed that he was attacked by armed robbers and the money washed away in Yaounde. Several requests for the waiver of immunity from François-Xavier Menye Ondo by the Equatorial Guinea Chancellery in the Senate office have met with a stone wall with President Biya maintaining a kind of deliberate silence. The Equatorial Guinean politician was quoted saying that “Biya is sheltering thieves.”

By Rita Akana

Cameroon Concord News

2, May 2017

Archbishop Kleda’s letter: Unnecessary and unwarranted ⁰

There is a letter in circulation from the Catholic Bishops of Cameroon signed by the Arch Bishop of Douala. This is a second letter written by the Bishops of Cameroon. Like the first letter, this letter fails to clearly identify the problem the writers purport to be concerned about. I find the use of contentious slogans like safeguard of “unite nationale” and similar language which Isa Tchiroma has consistently used in relation to the subject matter of the Bishop’s letter troubling.

The good news is that the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda came out with a comprehensive letter that dispassionately identified the profound causes of the crisis and made attainable reasonable proposals for comprehensive dialogue for the resolution to the crisis. Significant national and international actors have since endorsed the proposal of a comprehensive dialogue to resolve the crisis made by the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda. From the late palliatives announced by the government, it is obvious that some of the proposals made by the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda might have influenced governmental action; at least too little, too late. It is discernible from an anxious reading of the first letter of the Bishops of Cameroon that of the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda and the present letter of the Bishops of Cameroon that the latest letter of the Bishops of Cameroon is actuated by political rather than Christian motivations.

The Christian value of their letters is mitigated by the vacuous content on details and rigour in confronting the truth that the Gospel of the Cross teaches. Their peers in the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province and a significant number of clerics from many denominations have contemporaneously denounced the ongoing egregious violations on armless citizens, the politicization of military justice, the genocide, the cultural genocide and several international crimes that have shocked the conscience of humanity in the territory of the Southern Cameroons. These late and timid reactions expose these prelates as shepherds that abandoned the flock in time of need. I find their timid condemnation of the frivolous and vexatious cases against the Bishop and Church of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda and the religious leaders of other Christian Churches surprising and unjustified. There are discernible attempts made by the Bishops of Cameroon in their two letters to impute some form of blame on Southern Cameroons civilian victims for articulating their grievances through peaceful and legal means guaranteed by multilateral treaties which Cameroon is state party. By omission or by practicing the gospel of Pontius Pilate, they may by default be emboldening and strengthening the hand of tyranny.

Their unfortunate ploy to balance their cursory concerns of the legally and morally unjustified use of excessive force by state actors who are bound by the Geneva Conventions (1949) to respect the sanctity of civilian lives, avoid actions in their deployments that will harm civilians and civilian targets is regrettable. If the actions of these prelates are intended to secure a place for them in a future comprehensive dialogue to resolve the crisis, I am afraid, they have overplayed their relevance. The crisis concerns the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda. The Bishops of this Ecclesiastical Province have spoken and we have taken note. Along with the Church, they are presently persecuted by proxy using senior members of the military who by military discipline will not form or be members of activist civil society associations. The bastardisation of the educational system harms Catholic education and the social teachings of the Church. The question, I must ask, who stands to gain from these crimes? And who stands to gain from the persecution of the prelates and church leaders? The spiritual underpinnings of these actions and the ruthless attempts to control, dominate and terrorize every person and institution that stand on the path of those who hope to eternalize power by mystical spiritual means are in the public domain. Some call it spiritual warfare. We Christians are ready and prepared for this phase of the battle as well. This is therefore a time for a profound critical re-commitment to our Christian faith and to the tenets of freedom and justice.

As a Catholic Christian, I strongly urge the Bishops of Cameroon to advice the government of Cameroon to critically read the letter of the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda in which they confronted the truth with biblical inspiration and the faith in the Christian values.

For this reason, the letters are unnecessary and unwarranted.

Chief Charles A. Taku

2, May 2017

French PM warns of EU death if Le Pen wins presidency ⁰

French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has warned that the European Union will not survive if far-right leader Marine Le Pen becomes president.

“The European Union, weakened by Brexit, would not be able to withstand the new shock that would be constituted by the arrival in power in France of a government that is openly europhobic,” wrote Cazeneuve in a column in the Liberation newspaper on Tuesday.

He further called on the country to vote for front-runner Emmanuel Macron in the decisive May 7 presidential run-off.

Macron, 39, and Le Pen, 48, won the first round of voting in the presidential election on April 23. Macron finished first on 24 percent, ahead of Le Pen with 21.3 percent.