No peace in sight for Southern Cameroons unless Biya regime attacks and deployments end: Milton Taka

18, March 2021

No peace in sight for Southern Cameroons unless Biya regime attacks and deployments end: Milton Taka 0

Southern Cameroons Secretary of State for Communications and Information Technology Hon. Milton Taka says there will be no peace in sight for the Federal Republic of Ambazonia unless the French backed French Cameroun occupiers stop the killing of innocent Southern Cameroonians and the invading army soldiers leave the territory. 

In his press briefing on Wednesday Comrade Milton Taka observed that “There is no political solution until French Cameroun withdraws all its troops from Southern Cameroons streets, free all Southern Cameroons prisoners and commit to an international mediated negotiation in a neutral venue.”

He referred to the President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe Jeune Afrique interview and said, the position articulated by the Ambazonian leader has been accepted by the people of Southern Cameroons and their Interim Government and it is now for the French Cameroun side to seek to establish peace that will benefit both La Republique du Cameroun and the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

The Southern Cameroons official said earlier this week that the Biya French Cameroun government has never been reputed for dialoguing and it views dialogue as a sign of weakness and it was in no mood in 2016 to change its old bad ways.

“This is a government that has a huge tool box but in that massive box, there is only one old rusty tool – violence – which has not been effective in recent times. Ambazonians are waiting for real action not mere words on peace coming from Switzerland.”

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe hails Ambazonia Restoration Forces: Stay united, defend your homeland

18, March 2021

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe hails Ambazonia Restoration Forces: Stay united, defend your homeland 0

The leader of the Ambazonian nation President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his second in command Comrade Dabney Yerima have in a joint statement called on the Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces to remain united and focus on meritorious activities with courage and strength.

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and Vice President Dabney Yerima made the remarks in a message addressed to Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces late on Tuesday.

“On behalf of the founding fathers of our nation; We  send our  greetings to all the Restoration Forces on Ground 1 and on  Ground Zero; May the Almighty God bless you with a successful mission to Buea; remain united and focus on the self defense assignment”   the Ambazonia leaders stated in the message.

The Southern Cameroons Self Defense Force was formed on the order of the Ambazonia Interim Government shortly after the proclamation of the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia when the level of barbarism being perpetuated by the Cameroon government military and the Francophone dominated government militias to completely annihilate the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) became alarming.

 As a result of the on-going genocide in the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia), an estimated 20,000 people have been killed, over 500 towns and villages have been burnt down, over 120,000 people are seeking refuge in Nigeria and further afield, over 1million people are internally displaced or living in bushes and over 3,000 persons incarcerated in prisons and detention facilities.

Over the past four years, the Southern Cameroons Self Defense Force has successfully defended the Ambazonian nation from attacks by the enemy French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé.

It has also been playing a momentous role in fighting terror created by a pro Cameroon government armed group known as Atanga Nji Boys.

By Asu Vera Eyere with additional reporting from Rita Akana

CPDM Crime Syndicate says deaths from consuming fake alcohol spike during pandemic

18, March 2021

CPDM Crime Syndicate says deaths from consuming fake alcohol spike during pandemic 0

Authorities in Cameroon say the coronavirus pandemic has led to a spike in excessive drinking – and in deaths from fake alcohol.  Consumer groups protested on Monday, saying authorities need to do more to crack down on both counterfeit alcohol and medicine.

Hundreds of people came out on Monday to watch the seizure of what authorities allege are “fake whiskies” from Elig-Edzoa market in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde.

Officials of Cameroon’s ministry of trade, customs and the police were cracking down on fake alcohol to mark World Consumer Rights Day.

Pauline Biloua is member of the Cameroon National Consumers Council, the government’s consumer protection body. She said thousands of fake alcoholic drinks have been seized from at least 200 shops and 350 bars across Cameroon within the past month.

She said since the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in Cameroon in March 2020, many people have lost their jobs and are now extremely poor. Consumers who can no longer afford to buy good quality whiskies now purchase fake locally brewed alcoholic drinks which are dangerous to health, she said. Many people have developed liver problems and died from consuming fake whiskies, she added.

Meanwhile, several dozen people took part in a protest Tuesday against the sale of fake and counterfeit goods.

Delor Magellan Kamseu Kamgain is president of Cameroon’s National Consumers League. He said he organized the protest because the government is still not doing enough to protect consumers.

He said poverty caused by the coronavirus is pushing most Cameroonians to go out for cheap products. Kamgain said unfortunately for consumers, the government has allowed fake and counterfeit products including medicines and whiskies that are highly consumed in Cameroon to be sold publicly. He said all that a consumer organization like his can do is to educate and sensitize people on the risks civilians are exposed to when they consume goods of doubtful origin.

Cameroon’s Medical Council says about three-fourths of the 7,500 deaths from liver problems in Cameroon in 2020 were due to the consumption of fake alcohol.

The police said some products are made from pure ethanol or with alcohol bought or stolen from pharmacies and hospitals.

Fake drugs are another problem. The government said about 380 people died of fake drugs in Cameroon in 2020, up from 223 in 2019.

The government said the true numbers are probably higher because fewer than 30 percent of civilians visit hospitals. Some buy roadside drugs and others prefer African traditional medicine.

Trade minister Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana said he has ordered a crackdown on all the fake drugs and alcohol.

He said he has ordered investigations on the origin of all fake drugs and whiskies circulating in Cameroon. He said he has asked the police to immediately seize all fake goods in the market. He said customs officers have been asked to protect the border so that fake goods should not be smuggled into Cameroon.

Atangana said Cameroonians should report people suspected of producing or selling fake goods to the nearest police station.

Source: VOA

Ngarbuh Massacre: Human Rights Watch says justice should be done and seen to be done at trial

18, March 2021

Ngarbuh Massacre: Human Rights Watch says justice should be done and seen to be done at trial 0

The trial of three members of security forces accused of involvement in the killings of 21 civilians in Ngarbuh, in Cameroon’s North-West region, is due to resume today.

The trial, which began on December 17, 2020, and adjourned twice, takes place before the military court in the capital, Yaoundé, about 380 kilometers from Ngarbuh, making it difficult for family members of victims to attend. Family members’ lawyers are concerned about how challenging it is for their clients to participate in the trial, as is their right as civil parties in the case under Cameroon law. They would prefer the trial be held at the military court in Bamenda, closer to Ngarbuh.

“Our clients don’t have the financial means to travel to Yaoundé,” Richard Tamfu, one of the lawyers, told Human Rights Watch. “The court sitting in Bamenda would fit with the key principle of meaningful access to justice, bringing it closer to the victims.”

The attack on the village of Ngarbuh on February 14, 2020, was one of the worst by Cameroonian army soldiers since the crisis in the Anglophone regions began in late 2016. Soldiers killed 21 civilians, including 13 children and a pregnant woman, and burned 5 homes in a reprisal attack aimed at punishing residents suspected of harboring separatist fighters. Two soldiers and a gendarme have been arrested in connection with the massacre and charged with murder, arson, destruction, violence against a pregnant woman, and disobeying orders. Seventeen members of a vigilante group and a former separatist fighter have also been charged but remain at large.

On February 3, some families of the Ngarbuh victims received food items and 5 million CFA (US $9,000) each as compensation for the destruction of their property from the Governor of the North-West region, on behalf of President Paul Biya, a move criticized by lawyers representing the families who said it is up to the court to decide on reparations.

The participation of victims of gross human rights violations in criminal proceedings is an essential way of giving them a voice. Cameroonian authorities, with the support of international partners, if necessary, should ensure that the victims’ families can attend and participate in the trial so that their rights to justice and reparations are upheld.

Source: Human Rights Watch

COVID-denying president of Tanzania John Magufuli is dead

17, March 2021

COVID-denying president of Tanzania John Magufuli is dead 0

Tanzania’s President John Pombe Magufuli is dead.

In a televised address on Thursday night, Tanzania vice-president Samia Suluhu Hassan said that Magufuli had died of heart complications.

“It is with great regret that I inform you that today, 17 March 2021, at 18:00, we have lost our courageous leader, President John Pombe Magufuli of Tanzania,” said Samia Suluhu Hassan, Tanzania Vice President.

Hassan said that Magufuli was hospitalized on March 6 at the Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute.

This comes after weeks of speculation on his whereabouts with the suspicion that he had been hospitalized for Covid-19.

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has not been seen in public for 18 days and rumours have spread that he was ill.

The speculation had led to several arrests, as the government sought to contain the rumours.

On Tuesday, the opposition leader from the Alliance for Change and Transparency (ACT Wazalendo) issued a statement demanding Magufuli’s whereabouts.

The party also called for the release of all citizens who have been arrested for circulating rumours about the president’s health.

There has been speculation and rumours flying on social media that the 61-year-old president may have contracted coronavirus and been airlifted to a Kenyan hospital for treatment then flown to India a day later.

Tanzania’s main opposition leader Tundu Lissu, who is exiled in Belgium, said, citing sources that Magufuli was gravely ill from Covid-19, exacerbated by underlying health conditions.

On Tuesday he posted photos on his Twitter account of activity in Dar es Salaam.

Source: Africa News

Mali: Dozens of soldiers killed in attack on army base

17, March 2021

Mali: Dozens of soldiers killed in attack on army base 0

At least 31 soldiers were killed in an attack in northern Mali this week, an army officer said Wednesday, in one of the deadliest assaults on the military this year.

Dozens of assailants on motorbikes and pickup trucks on Monday stormed a military post southwest of the town of Ansongo, near the borders with Burkina Faso and Niger, the army said on social media.

An initial statement said two soldiers had been killed and eight wounded, but late on Tuesday the army gave the higher casualty figures, specifying 11 dead and 14 injured with 11 still missing.

But on Wednesday, a Malian army officer, who declined to be named, said the death toll had further risen to 31.

He added that the bodies of 13 assailants were found after the clash.

It remains unclear how many soldiers are still missing.  

Mali was plunged into conflict in 2012 when local Tuareg radicals supported by jihadists revolted in the north.

France intervened to crush the rebellion, but the jihadists scattered and regrouped, taking their campaign into central Mali in 2015 and then into neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.

In Mali alone, thousands of civilians and troops have died and hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes.

The so-called three-border zone was the scene of a military offensive from early last year by the French Barkhane force and its regional allies, especially against the jihadist Islamic State in the Greater Sahara group (EIGS).

Militants frequently target Mali’s army — which is largely poorly equipped and underfunded — in attacks.

Source: AFP

US-Russia Tension: Kremlin recalls US ambassador after Biden threatens sanctions for election-meddling

17, March 2021

US-Russia Tension: Kremlin recalls US ambassador after Biden threatens sanctions for election-meddling 0

Russia recalled its ambassador to the United States to Moscow for consultations on the future of US-Russia ties on Wednesday, shortly after President Joe Biden said Vladimir Putin would “pay a price” for alleged election-meddling.

Biden made his comments after a US intelligence report supported longstanding allegations that Putin likely directed efforts to try to swing the 2020 US presidential election to Donald Trump.

Russia denies the allegations.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it had called its ambassador, Anatoly Antonov, back to Moscow to discuss the future of Russia’s relationship with the United States. The move was designed to ensure bilateral ties did not degrade irreparably, it added.

Source: REUTERS

Football: “African team must win World Cup” declares new CAF chief Patrice Motsepe

17, March 2021

Football: “African team must win World Cup” declares new CAF chief Patrice Motsepe 0

Four days after being elected President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Patrice Motsepe set out his plans to take the sport forward across the continent at a press conference in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

The 59 year-old South African mining billionaire assumed the role on Friday at a CAF General Assembly meeting in Morocco, without the need for a vote after a deal brokered by the world governing body FIFA saw his three challengers withdraw, leaving him as the only candidate.

Motsepe said that African football must aspire to have one of their national teams win the World Cup in the near future.

“During the next World Cup and also during the forthcoming World Cups, that African nations compete (in) and, if you look at what we said in the manifesto, it’s part of our plan that an African team must win the World Cup. I think let’s clap hands for that.

“We have to, we need to get the private sector to sponsor African football. We must increase the sponsorship for the AFCON Africa Cup of Nations), make it significantly more substantial. We must increase the sponsorship for the Champions League, the African Champions League.”

He also promised to be more proactive in bringing together the 56 member associations that make up the CAF.

As the head of CAF, Motsepe automatically becomes a FIFA vice president and a member of the FIFA Council.

Source: Africa News

Corrupt France: Sarkozy back on trial again after conviction

17, March 2021

Corrupt France: Sarkozy back on trial again after conviction 0

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy goes on trial Wednesday over claims of illicit financing for his failed 2012 re-election bid, just two weeks after a landmark conviction for corruption.

On March 1, the 66-year-old became France’s first post-war president to be sentenced to prison when he was given a three-year term, two years of which were suspended, for corruption and influence peddling.

That case was one of several hanging over him since he left office.

Sarkozy has denied any wrongdoing, saying he is the victim of a vindictive judicial system with which he tangled while in power between 2007 and 2012.

In the trial opening Wednesday, which he is not expected to attend, the divisive rightwinger is accused of overspending on his failed 2012 re-election bid to the tune of 20 million euros ($24 million).

The money was spent on lavish US-style rallies in the final days of the race, as Sarkozy scrambled to fend off an unexpectedly strong challenge from his Socialist rival Francois Hollande.

Prosecutors say accountants had warned him that the campaign was set to blow the 22.5 million euro ($26.7 million) cap on spending between the first and second rounds of voting, but Sarkozy insisted on holding more events.

Investigators say his total spending on the second round came to nearly 43 million euros ($51 million).

To hide the spending, the PR firm behind the campaign, Bygmalion, and officials in Sarkozy’s UMP party (since renamed Les Republicains) are accused of conspiring to have the UMP foot the bill through a system of fake invoices.

The former president says he was unaware of the fraud — unlike some of the defendants he is not charged with fraud, but with the lesser offence of illegal campaign financing. He fought for years to avoid a trial.

‘Runaway train’

Bygmalion executives and Jerome Lavrilleux, the deputy manager of Sarkozy’s 2012 campaign who will also go on trial, have acknowledged the system of fake invoices.

Lavrilleux in particular made headlines in 2014 after he tearfully confessed to the scam during a French TV interview, saying: “This campaign was a runaway train that no one had the courage to stop.”

The trial is set to run until April 15, but Lavrilleux’s defence team has said it will seek to postpone the start because his main lawyer has been hospitalised with Covid-19.

If convicted, Sarkozy risks being sentenced to up to a year in prison and a fine of 3,750 euros.

On March 1, he was found guilty of forming a “corruption pact” with his lawyer to convince a judge to share information about yet another investigation into the politician’s affairs, relating to his winning 2007 campaign.

His prison sentence stunned the political establishment and prompted his many admirers on the right, including Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, to send him messages of support.

This sentence is not expected to see him serve actual jail time with two of the three years suspended by the court and the remaining year set to be served at home with an electronic bracelet.

Sarkozy has appealed the verdict which effectively crushed any hopes that he could stage another presidential comeback after a first failed attempt in 2016.

In an TF1 television interview on March 3, he repeated that he had “turned the page” on his political career but made clear he would continue to make his political views known and anoint right-wing favourites.

Sarkozy is married to former singer and model Carla Bruni, with whom he has a nine-year-old daughter.

He has also been charged over allegations he received millions of euros from the late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi for his 2007 election campaign.

And in January, prosecutors opened a probe into alleged influence-peddling involving his activities as a consultant in Russia.

Source: AFP

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Chasing the shadow

17, March 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Chasing the shadow 0

The Southern Cameroonian rebellion which has been robbing the Yaounde government of its sleep is gradually stallling not because Southern Cameroonians are tired of fighting those who have polluted their lives for more than half a century, but because some of those who are supposed to point the population in the right direction have simply lost their way.

Of course, the revolution has received major setbacks, especially with the arrest of the Southern Cameroonian president, Julius Ayuk Tabe, whose leadership had galvanized the entire population of Southern Cameroons both at home and abroad during his short time at the helm of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government.

During his time, Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe spent his own money to carry out certain missions, though Southern Cameroonians were pouring money into the Interim Government accounts as their way of supporting those on Ground Zero who were taking the brunt of the Yaounde regime’s anger.

Southern Cameroonians in Australia, Japan, Nigeria, South Africa, Germany, France, Belgium, the USA, the UK and Canada gave huge sums of money to enable the Interim Government to function properly and to sell the Southern Cameroonian’s sorry plight to the international community.

Mr. Julius Ayuk Tabe’s effective charm offensive designed to bring the conflict in Southern Cameroons to the fore was never in doubt. His trips abroad informed the world that Cameroon’s English-speaking minority was being marginalized to extinction.

He took risks and the Southern Cameroonian population saw him and still sees him as the poster boy of a revolution that will not be going away anytime soon though some issues have cast doubts on the quality of some of those who pass off as leaders of the revolution.

Once Mr. Ayuk Tabe was arrested, a new interim administration was given the mantel of leadership. Southern Cameroonians were looking forward to seeing the same quality of leadership that Mr. Ayuk Tabe had demonstrated, but they were very disappointed because the interim government, led by Sako Ikome and Chris Anu, was a gross mistake that has become a long nightmare that will not be going away anytime soon.

Millions of Southern Cameroonians are still not believing lots of things and many hold that a miracle could still occur and that Dr. Sako Ikome and his cohort could still engineer something that could leave the Yaounde government in a state of fear.

But Dr. Sako and his friend, Chris Anu, lack what it takes to strike fear in a government that has already been brought to its knees by courageous Southern Cameroonian fighters.

The inefficiency of the Sako interim government and the embezzlement of the people’s resources engineered by Chris Anu have simply stemmed the flow of money into their coffers and this has impacted their ability to operate freely, although they have successfully embezzled some USD 1.250 million from the people’s coffers.

In terms of morality, President Julius Ayuk Tabe had raised the bar way too high for morally bankrupt and attention seeking criminals to operate without the people seeing through them.

While the people of Southern Cameroons cannot throw this capital gang of criminals in jail, they can punish them financially and they have simply stopped putting their money in unsafe hands and this is hurting the Sako Ikome limping interim government.

But instead of addressing the real issues that have caused the people to lose confidence in Sako Ikome and his team, Chris Anu has resorted to chasing shadows instead of the object.

He has successfully recruited Barrister John Fru Nsoh, a miscreant who missed the dangerous police nets of the  Yaounde government and now erroneously holds that President Julius Ayuk Tabe is the source of his problems, including his incurable erectile dysfunction and diabetes.

Both John Fru Nsoh and Chris Anu have transformed Mr. Ayuk Tabe into their favorite punching bag. They seem to hold him responsible for their interminable financial issues in the United States.

The people of Southern Cameroons are not going to give Chris Anu their money and it is not their reckless and purposeless punching of a man who placed the people’s interest above his that will change the minds of Southern Cameroonians.

The people of Southern Cameroons have never admired rogues and it should be known that their disdain for the Yaounde government derives from the corruption and embezzlement that are indeed the hallmarks of a government led by a dying 88-year-old president.

They cannot be frowning at such indiscipline just to smile at a bunch of lazy and helpless pastors – Chris Anu and Sako Ikome – who before the crisis could not even afford a used car but are now driving top-of-the-line vehicles.

While they are enjoying their loot, John Fru Nsoh, a man who should be back in Cameroon to put his legal knowledge at the service of the insurgency, is hoping that the two Hell-bound pastors will one day extend their hand of charity to him.

He has been holding briefs for them and to demonstrate that he is loyal, he has been publicly insulting Sisiku Ayuk Tabe albeit in a strain of English that leaves much to be desired.

Many Southern Cameroonians are really surprised why Chris Anu and his unemployed barrister have decided to make Mr. Ayuk Tabe their target instead of a government that is hellbent on maintaining them in the stress of exile.

For the people of Southern Cameroons, the Yaounde government is their enemy and seeing Chris Anu and John Fru Nsoh taking aim at a man who does not even call their names is at best worrisome.

Southern Cameroonians cannot and will never be distracted by this duo that has missed its way. Chris Anu and Sako Ikome might have dealt the revolution a blow, by embezzling the money that was earmarked for arms, but the people of Southern Cameroons remain steadfast to their dream of having an independent country and they prefer to put their money in the right hands.

They clearly hold that it is better to send the money to the fighters on the ground who are giving the country’s army soldiers a run for their money.

Targeting President Julius Ayuk Tabe is not only morally wrong, it is outright insane, especially as Southern Cameroonians still see Yaounde as the source of their problem.

Why would any sane Southern Cameroonian ever single out a dying Achidi Achu as his target when it is clear that the Yaounde government is that target any and every Southern Cameroonians should be fighting against? This will be stupidity in its superlative degree. Southern Cameroonians should not be confused here. Why spend a lot of energy on a man who has been jailed in a sick and old body in his native Santa why there are Yaounde army soldiers all over Southern Cameroons and they are maiming and killing Southern Cameroonians with impunity?

The focus for now should be the fighting on the ground and not President Julius Ayuk Tabe who will never betray the aspirations of the people of Southern Cameroons.

President Julius Ayuk Tabe is in jail and the enemy is not even mulling the possibility of releasing him and his collaborators. So why the obsession about a man who is still faithful to his principles and to the people of Southern Cameroons? What crime has he committed that makes Chris Anu and John Fru Nsoh to be insulting him on a daily basis?

This is the time for all Southern Cameroonians of good will to come together in order to mount enormous pressure on a government that is grossly insensitive to the plight of the Southern Cameroonian.

Instead of spreading hate and division, can Chris Anu and John Fru Nsoh understand that they are in exile not because of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, but because of a government that has already killed more than 5,000 Southern Cameroonians in a conflict that could have been simply avoided?

What value are Chris Anu and John Fru Nsoh adding to the rebellion by punching President Ayuk Tabe even when he is down? Will their continuous divisive strategy and actions ever lead to an independent Southern Cameroons?

It is time for Southern Cameroonians to take a long and hard look at those who pass off as their leaders. Genuine leaders unite. They wash their dirty linen at home and not in public. They know how to place the general interest above personal interest and they are usually driven by the desire to achieve results. Do Chris Anu and John Fru Nsoh really fit this mould? It is up to the Southern Cameroonian to make this decision, but time is of the essence. A reasonable people do not chase shadows. They chase the objects.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Group Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

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