11, January 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: The killing won’t stop ⁰

The killings in Southern Cameroons will not be ending anytime soon, especially as all the factions involved are determined to win on the battlefield though many experts have clearly indicated a military victory will never be possible.

For its part, the government has intensified its military efforts in the two English-speaking regions in the hope that by winning the war in those regions, it could focus on other insurgencies in the northern and eastern parts of the country.

As the world turns its focus on the Trump-orchestrated drama in Washington DC, the Yaoundé government is taking advantage of the confusion to commit heinous human rights violations in the country’s two English-speaking regions.

On Sunday, government army soldiers descended on Mautu in Muyuka in the country’s Southwest region where it gunned down some ten innocent civilians, most of whom are women and children.

Donald Trump’s political miscalculations in the United States are empowering many dictators across the globe and this is very likely to result in devastating human rights abuses in countries such as Cameroon.

The government human rights abuses are on the rise in Cameroon and with the confusion in Southern Cameroons intensifying, army soldiers are killing civilians with impunity.

The government has a lot on its hands and its frustrations are mounting by the day. Besides the crisis in Southern Cameroons, Boko Haram is wreaking havoc in the country’s northern region where hundreds of soldiers and civilians were slaughtered last week.

But it is in the Eastern region that a huge storm is brewing. Russians are determined to elbow the French out of the Central African Republic where a French-sponsored civil war is spreading death and destruction in the country.

The fighting in the Central African country is gradually spreading to Cameroon and there is growing fear that the Russians might come to Cameroon to destabilize the corrupt Yaounde government.

Last week, Cameroon’s 87-year-old president, Paul Biya, had to dispatch the Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, to Equatorial Guinea to plead with Equatorial Guinea’s president to help secure the border between the two countries, an action which clearly highlights the fear ripping the government apart.

But it is not only the government that is committing abuses. Ambazonian fighters are also guilty of heinous crimes which must be condemned by the international community.

Yesterday, the principal of Government High School Ossing in the Southwest region, Mr. Ayuk Martin, was killed by reckless and trigger-happy boys.

Though the principal is being accused of betrayal and collaboration with the government, many observers in the war-torn regions point out that nothing can justify the killing of another human being. Such killings have been counter-productive and they have given the revolution a very bad name.

Also, another principal was shot in Tinto, a town some 50 km from Mamfe. The principal was shot in the leg and is now recovering in a local hospital.

But a manager with PAMOL, a state-owned oil-producing business in Ndian Division of the Southwest region of the country was killed on Sunday for cooperating with the government. Some workers of the institution were also amputated, an act which has generated swift and open condemnation.

Last week was indeed a disaster to the country’s military. The same insurgents attacked and killed three soldiers returning from a mission in Njikwa, Momo Division in the Northwest region with the Senior Divisional Officer (SDO). The Momo Divisional delegate of Communication was also murdered and she was the only civilian killed in the ambush. The SDO, who was the target of the ambush, survived and he is currently thanking his lucky stars.

Similarly, another ambush at Matazen checkpoint in the Northwest region brought down more than five gendarmes and three civilians last Friday, making the week one of the bloodiest for Cameroon’s military.

From every indication, if the international community does not step in, the killings in Southern Cameroons might not end, especially as some military and government officials are making huge proceeds from the confusion playing out in Southern Cameroons.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

10, January 2021

UK says on course for Covid-19 vaccination target as deaths top 80,000 ⁰

Britain is on course to have immunised its most vulnerable people against Covid-19 by mid-February and offering a shot to every adult by autumn, with some 2 million people having already received a first dose, its health secretary said on Sunday.

“Over the last week we’ve vaccinated more people than in the entirety of December, so we’re accelerating the roll-out,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC.

Britain is battling surging infections but is pinning its hopes on rapid immunisation to enable life to start returning to some degree of normality by the spring.

Hancock said around 2 million people had already received a first shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

“We’ve now vaccinated around a third of all of the over 80s, so [we are making] very, very good progress,” he said.

For the government to meet its goal of vaccinating more than 14 million people by mid-February, comprising the over-70s, the clinically vulnerable – the elderly or with pre-existing conditions – and health and social-care workers, it needs to deliver 2 million shots a week.

The current rate is around 200,000 a day, Hancock said.

Seven mass vaccination centres will open this week, supplementing almost 1,000 doctors surgeries and hospitals offering shots. Hancock said every adult would be offered a vaccine by the autumn.

In a bid to speed up vaccinations, the British government has changed its vaccine guidelines to allow a second dose of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines to be administered up to 12 weeks after the first, instead of three weeks as originally planned.

However, Pfizer scientists have warned governments not to be overly confident that one dose would offer enough protection in the long term, saying there is “no data” showing that protection after the first dose is sustained after 21 days.

Surging cases

A highly transmissible new variant of the virus is surging around Britain and Prime Minister Boris Johnson has imposed a third national lockdown in England to try to stem the pandemic before the most vulnerable are immunised. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have imposed similar measures.

More than 80,000 people in Britain have died within 28 days of receiving a positive Covid-19 test, the fifth highest official death toll globally, and over 3 million people have tested positive.

England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said on Sunday the national health service in parts of the country was facing “the most difficult situation anyone could remember”.

Hancock did not rule out a tougher lockdown, saying he would “not speculate” on further restrictions, although he added that the “vast majority” of people were complying with current rules.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

10, January 2021

Raising the Death Penalty Bar in Southern Cameroons: Ossing School Principal Killed ⁰

In 2017, the US-based Interim Government of Ambazonia (The IG) announced that the death penalty still stands in the Southern Cameroons and the sentence would be used for those who commit high crimes and misdemeanor against the state. Amongst the crimes that The IG deemed publishable by the death penalty were treason, murder, large scale drug trafficking, espionage and being a senior member of French Cameroun’s CPDM crime-syndicate.

Over the last few months, Ambazonia Intelligence Service and Southern Cameroons law enforcement officers have zeroed in on Peter Mafany Musonge, Yang Philemon, Atanga Nji,and other high-value targets to implement the death penalty for their voluminous crimes against the state.

Concentration on high-value targets however does not mean that smaller targets are being ignored. Saturday, 9 January 2021 execution of the Martin Ayuk, Principal of Government High School Ossing, Manyu County came as no surprise to many familiar with the matter.

Speaking to Cameroon Concord News Group’s Global Headquarters in the United Kingdom, an Ambazonian commander with knowledge of the matter said “Martin has been attracting death to himself for a long time. He has been in consistent and persistent communication with the French Cameroun terrorist forces in Mamfe. We warned him countless times, but he was stupidly arrogant. He did not want to learn from what happened to Mathias Ako, the former Regent Chief of Ossing”

The Ambazonian Commander furthered that “Martin committed crimes of treason and espionage against the people of Ambazonia on many occasions and his actions led to the unlawful arrests and murder of many in Ossing village by the terrorist French Cameroon military. He called the terrorists military of French Cameroun to Ossing in December 2020 to confiscate many of Southern Cameroons self defense weapons that were safely stored in a farm in the forest in Takpa. He had to face the death penalty for calling the military to collect our weapons that cost us more than USD 10,000. Again, he was openly telling us that he had no respect for us as a self-defence force in an area we control. His action was unacceptable”.

The Ambazonian Self-defence commandant went on to add “we do use the death penalty in Manyu County in moderation and only in occasions that the evidence against the accused is overwhelming, and where there is no room for doubt.”

Over 6 000 people have died and close to half a million have been displaced. Multiple separatists groups have formed in Southern Cameroons.

At least six soldiers died and five more were wounded on Wednesday after a roadside bomb exploded in Momo County in the Northern Zone of Southern Cameroons.

By Bisong Ayuk with files from Ossing

10, January 2021

Support for Olympics hits new low in Japan ⁰

Support for holding the coronavirus-postponed Tokyo Olympics this summer has hit a new low in Japan, a poll found Sunday as the country battles a third wave of infections.

Just over 80 percent of those asked by Kyodo news agency said the huge global event should be cancelled or postponed again — a jump from around 60 percent in a December 6 survey by the same outlet.

Kyodo said the survey asked 1,041 participants nationwide, who were selected by random dialling.

Tokyo 2020 organisers have said another delay is out of the question and are insisting the Games will go ahead despite a state of emergency declared in the greater Tokyo area this week over a surge in Covid-19 cases.

In Sunday’s national telephone poll, around 35 percent of people told Kyodo they favoured outright cancellation, while some 45 percent said the event should be postponed a second time.

The month-long emergency in the capital and surrounding regions is less strict than harsh lockdowns seen elsewhere in the world and primarily targets restaurants and bars, which have been asked to close early.

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said this week that Japan is committed to holding a “safe and secure” Olympics.

He said he believed the public mood will change when the country begins vaccinations, currently scheduled for late February.

But senior International Olympic Committee official Dick Pound told the BBC he could not “be certain” the Games will go ahead, because “the ongoing elephant in the room would be the surges in the virus”.

Public sentiment towards the Olympics in Japan has been less than optimistic for months.

Two polls in July showed the majority thought the event should be postponed again or cancelled, while a survey released in December by national broadcaster NHK found that only 27 percent of respondents supported holding the Games in 2021.

Source: AFP

10, January 2021

French Cameroun: Douala residents lose homes to demolition ⁰

A riot took place near Cameroon’s Douala International Airport on Saturday. The Police charged at a group of young people protesting the demolition of their homes and a mosque. They succeed finally in dispersing them with tear gas.

Yassu Anne, an inhabitant of the airport area has lived here for 37 years. She admits to losing everything.

“We came today to protest this because the airport was said to be dirty. They told us they’re going to fix the airport, hence the operation. But they come to demolish without warning. They come one morning to surprise us. I mean, surprise us and our children. My things are buried there…. you can’t die for your possessions, my things are over there, the pots all buried” Anne lamented.

The “cleareance operation” residents say, started at around 5 am. The authorities say it is to ensure the rights of way for Douala International Airport.

Koulanya Doko is another resident of the airport area affected by the demolitions.

“It’s not a hundred people that you see, they are thousands. And the people have been there for more than 30 years. Like me, I have lived here for 32 years. I have big children. Where will they go? But for me this way is not right. They should first come and mark the houses”.

The violence has been followed by arrests, but it hasn’t undermined the ongoing process. But the operation is not over yet. The authorities have warned that the operations of breaking up and freeing the airport will continue in the coming days.

Africanews correspondent Joel Kouam reports that in light of the affected persons reality, some families have left the area while others continue to stay on, in an effort to save what they can, while they can.

Source: Africa News

10, January 2021

Yaoundé says Ambazonia Forces, Boko Haram on offensive ⁰

Cameroon said Saturday that at least 22 people, including four soldiers, were killed in two Friday morning attacks – one by Boko Haram fighters on its northern border with Nigeria and the other by separatists fighting to create an independent English-speaking state in the country’s western regions. Officials warn of a new wave of violence and killing they say is being prepared by the separatists and Boko Haram terrorists.

Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, says there was general confusion in the town of Mozogo when militiamen warned civilians about Boko Haram suicide bombers from neighboring Nigeria in their midst.

He said some scared people fled into the bush, where they always go for safety, but many Nigerian suicide bombers were already hiding there. He said 11 civilians were killed on the spot when bombers detonated explosives. He said three were shot by the terrorist group in Mozogo, a town in Cameroon’s Mayo Sava administrative unit.

“Yesterday (Friday) we got an attack of Boko Haram in Mayo Tsanaga Division. Fourteen people died,” said Bakari. “We have been instructed by the hierarchy to extend a message of condolence and we condemn this act of Boko Haram and all measures will be taken with our vigilant committees [militias], who are working day and night alongside our forces to secure our populations.”

No one has yet claimed responsibility for attack in secessionist English-speaking North West region

Bakari said the wounded were rushed to hospitals in Mozogo and the neighboring town of Mokolo. He said the military had been deployed in Mozogo to secure Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria’s Borno state, an epicenter of Boko Haram activity.

Cameroon government spokesperson Rene Emmanuel Sadi in a release said heavily armed Boko Haram fighters have infiltrated villages around Mozogo and called for vigilance.

The release also says separatist fighters attacked a military post at Matazen at the western entrance to the English-speaking North-West, region killing four soldiers and two civilians. Two civilians died while being rushed to hospitals.

Among the survivors of the attack is 43-year-old trader Clarence Tatah, who was driving from the English-speaking northwestern town of Bamenda to the coastal city of Douala. He says God saved his life from more than half an hour of crossfire.

“I opened that door behind there and jumped out of the car,” said Tatah. “Then I rolled and came under the car. After the shooting lasted for about 30 to 40 minutes, I discovered that a bullet went through my chair [seat] and came out behind. God protected me. The Lord preserved me.”

General Valere Nka, commander of the Cameroon military forces fighting the separatists, says his troops transported several wounded people to hospitals. He says physical damage was enormous. Nka says civilians should help the military find the fighters by reporting suspects in their communities.

He says the task ahead is still enormous because there are many rebel camps his troops must destroy. He says it is imperative for everyone to know that the military is there primarily to protect civilians. He says he is urging the population to collaborate with the military, which is doing everything possible to protect civilians and their goods and restore peace.

Cameroon has been fighting to secure its northern border with Nigeria from Boko Haram incursions and combating separatist fighters in its English-peaking western regions.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks in the northern town of Mozogo and the western locality of Matazen.

The government, however, blames Boko Haram and separatist fighters for the separate attacks.

The separatist crisis that is in its fourth year has killed over 3,000 people and displaced more than 500,000 others according to the United Nations.

Boko Haram terrorists have been fighting for 11 years to create an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria. The fighting has spread to Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Benin.

The United Nations says Boko Haram violence has cost the lives of 30,000 people and displaced about 2 million in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Source: VOA

10, January 2021

Football: Pochettino gets first win with PSG but Lyon stay top of Ligue 1 ⁰

Mauricio Pochettino celebrated his first victory as Paris Saint-Germain coach on his home debut on Saturday as Moise Kean set the reigning champions on their way to a 3-0 win over Brest, but Lyon remain top of Ligue 1 after drawing at Rennes.

Substitutes Mauro Icardi and Pablo Sarabia added late goals for PSG who would have gone top on goal difference had Lyon not recovered from 2-0 down to earn a point in Rennes and extend their unbeaten run to 16 games.

PSG are second at the season’s halfway stage, a point behind the leaders and ahead on goal difference of third-placed Lille, who triumphed 1-0 at Nimes.

With Neymar still missing, it was not a vintage performance from PSG on a freezing Parisian night in an empty stadium — supporters are still barred from games in France with a nighttime curfew in place nationwide as part of the fight against coronavirus.

That meant it was never going to be the return to the Parc des Princes that Pochettino — who was a popular player for PSG two decades ago — would have liked.

Nevertheless the Argentine will be relieved to have his first win in charge after his first game ended in a 1-1 draw at Saint-Etienne in midweek.

He could now get his first piece of silverware when PSG play Marseille on Wednesday in the Champions Trophy, the French equivalent of a Super Cup that in normal times is the curtain-raiser to the season.

It remains to be seen if Neymar, after four weeks on the sidelines, will be fit for that game, while defender Thilo Kehrer will be sidelined after news of his positive coronavirus test fell shortly before kick-off against Brest.

Pochettino again started playmaker Marco Verratti in an advanced role behind central striker Kean, with the latter opening the scoring in the 16th minute.

Captain Marquinhos headed Angel di Maria’s corner against the post and Kean was on hand to nod in the rebound from barely a metre out. It was his 11th goal, and his ninth in Ligue 1, since signing on loan from Everton in October.

– Lyon preserve unbeaten run –

Brest, who sit in mid-table and are one of the best sides to watch in France, could have scored before that but Keylor Navas clawed away Romain Faivre’s early effort for the visitors.

It was only in the final 10 minutes that PSG ran away with the game, as Kylian Mbappe set up Icardi — on in place of Kean — to get the second before Sarabia fired in to make it 3-0.

Lyon’s long unbeaten streak looked set to end as they found themselves two goals down in Rennes, with Clement Grenier and Benjamin Bourigeaud scoring for the home side.

However, Memphis Depay pulled one back with his 11th goal of the season on 79 minutes and Jason Denayer equalised shortly after.

Lille bounced back from a shock midweek home defeat by Angers to win at Nimes thanks to a first-half goal by veteran Turkish striker Burak Yilmaz.

The draw for Rennes, and a goalless draw for Marseille at Dijon, allowed Monaco to move up to fourth spot as they beat Angers 3-0 with German international Kevin Volland grabbing his ninth Ligue 1 goal in between efforts from Guillermo Maripan and Stevan Jovetic.

There were also wins for Bordeaux, Reims and Strasbourg.

Source: AFP

9, January 2021

Children among civilians killed in French Cameroun attack ⁰

At least a dozen civilians, including eight children, were killed in a village in northern Cameroon on Friday when a female suicide bomber blew herself up in an armed attack blamed on Boko Haram.

Mahamat Chetima Abba, the traditional chief in the village of Mozogo, told the AFP news agency the attackers arrived in the middle of the night brandishing machetes.

The panicked villagers tried to run off into the nearby forest when, during a stampede, the suicide bomber detonated her device.

The account was confirmed by a member of the local defence committee, who said his group had tried to repel the attack.

Cameroon’s Far North Region is grappling with deadly incursions from neighbouring Nigeria, where an armed uprising launched by Boko Haram in 2009 has killed tens of thousands of people.

Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of the Far North Region, told Anadolu Agency that “12 farmers from Mozogo were killed in an attack by Boko Haram at about 1am [00:00 GMT]”.

“Boko Haram terrorists stormed the village, firing shots in the air. Villagers fled to a park, where Boko Haram fighters brought a girl strapped with explosives,” he said. “Twelve villagers, the young suicide bomber, and a Boko Haram terrorist were killed in the explosion, while two more people were seriously injured.”

Abba, the village chief, and a regional police officer also blamed Boko Haram for carrying out the attack.

“They infiltrated the population. Boko Haram is inflicting more and more damage here,” Abba said. “However, it seems that they no longer have the means to carry out mass attacks using guns,” he said, noting that the assailants had carried machetes.

More than 36,000 people have been killed – most of them in Nigeria – and three million people have fled their homes since Boko Haram launched its uprising in northeast Nigeria in 2009.

Boko Haram and a splinter group called the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) have stepped up attacks in recent years in Nigeria and neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Source: Aljazeera

9, January 2021

Queen Elizabeth and husband Philip receive Covid-19 vaccinations ⁰

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth and her husband Philip have received vaccinations against Covid-19, Buckingham Palace said on Saturday.

“The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh have today received Covid-19 vaccinations,” the palace said in a statement. The Queen is 94 years old and Philip is 99.

A royal source said the vaccines were administered by a household doctor at the queen’s Windsor Castle residence, adding that she made the news public to counter any speculation.

(REUTERS)

9, January 2021

‘Significant disruption’ at UK borders as Brexit reality unfolds ⁰

As long lorry queues form to enter the European Union (EU) zone in France and some refused entry at ports, businesses are being told to prepare for “significant additional disruption” in the immediate post-Brexit period.

Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove, said on Friday (January 08) that disruption at Britain’s border had not been “too profound” yet, but admitted that “It is the case that in the weeks ahead, we expect that there will be significant additional disruption – particularly on the Dover-Calais route”.

Meanwhile, in relation to Northern Ireland (NI), previously Gove had said that trade from mainland Britain to NI “will get worse before it gets better”.

Furthermore, the Danish shipping and logistics company DFDS, one of the busiest in Europe, issued a warning to drivers on Friday (January 08) that many vehicles are being held up or turned away from Dover in Kent and Calais and Dunkirk in France.

The company said in a statement: “We are experiencing a high volume of vehicles being refused and delayed at the Ports of Calais, Dunkerque and Dover, due to incorrect paperwork being presented at check-in”.

It was also revealed this week that more than 50 British retailers, including M&S, face potential tariffs for re-exporting goods to the EU.

It seems that the last-minute deal struck between Downing Street and Brussels on Christmas Eve (December 24) was too short notice for businesses, hauliers and transportation companies to re-adjust their paper work and broader logistics to align with the new post-Brexit reality.

Source: Presstv