21, August 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yaounde steps up its comedy ⁰

Many Cameroonians have never known the country’s territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, as a comedian.

The conman has always been known as an unrepentant butcher and a self-aggrandising crook and trickster, especially over the last three years when citizens of the country’s two English-speaking regions took up arms to defend themselves against the Yaounde government whose only conflict resolution tool is the gun.

As a special adviser at the presidency, Atanga Nji distinguished himself through his reckless and ill-informed declarations on the Southern Cameroons crisis which only inflamed the country’s English-speaking minority.

His total and unwavering support for the corrupt Yaounde government enabled the country’s president, Paul Biya, to hand him the territorial administration portfolio with special focus on cleaning up the mess the government had created in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Known for his impulsiveness and lack of a deep sense of analysis, the conman cum territorial administration minister thought the Augean Stable created in the northwest and Southwest regions would be cleaned up through trickery and assassination of a few youths.

In his warp thinking, he thought it would take just a few days and his master would pour kudos and accolades on him.

Atanga Nji did not know he was leading a tough mission into the unknown; a quagmire that would rob him of his youthfulness and health.

Four years after Southern Cameroonians took to the streets to demonstrate against systemic and institutional marginalization, the country’s two English-speaking regions are now awash with guns and bombs have started going off, targeting mostly uniformed officers and enablers of the corrupt Yaounde government.

A mission that was supposed to be a walk in the park to the “brain-dead” territorial administration minister has become a sisyphean task and the crisis that the Biya regime thought could be wrapped up in a few weeks might outlive most Yaounde-based politicians if care is not taken.

The crisis has become a huge nightmare to the government and Paul Atanga Nji who was considered as the man with the “midas touch” seems to be running out of solutions as Southern Cameroonian restoration forces take on the ill-trained and corrupt national army with confidence.

Initially, the government thought killing a few people would prompt Southern Cameroonians to walk back on their decision to call it out, but the killing of a few people only turned out to be grave mistake whose consequences might linger for decades.

Instead of rescinding their decision to fight against marginalization, Southern Cameroonians instead made common cause. They know that bullies must be confronted and for three years, the hunting rifle bearing fighters have morphed into an organized army with sophisticated weapons and whose hit and run tactics have reduced the national army to scouts whose members are seeking to establish a war economy in the region instead of seeking to roll back the insurgency.

The government is running out of options and currently, it is working with blacklegs within Southern Cameroons who are willing to betray their souls for a paltry CFAF 50,000 and sex from the alcohol-inflamed and sex-starved soldiers.

But restoration forces have a strong message for anybody who betrays the cause and this message was delivered when some angry fighters slaughtered Comfort Tumassang in Muyuka in broad daylight last week.

The message is a reminder to all Southern Cameroonians on ground zero that aiding and abetting the enemy is a treasonable felony that must be punished in a manner that is far from being fair.

The Southern Cameroonian justice system – at least that which is being enforced by the fighters – is fast. In the region, justice is never delayed, so it is never denied. This is the only region in the world where all the fighters are judges and lawyers. Their laws are not written and only those fighting in the jungles of Southern Cameroons can interpret them.

According to a Cameroon Concord News Group source, Ms. Tumassang has been flirting with sex-starved soldiers and receiving money from them as an incentive for her to betray Southern Cameroonian fighters who, for three years, have given the military a run for its money.

Her killing sent three of her friends who were also involved in espionage against Southern Cameroonians packing to Yaounde where they are being protected by the corrupt regime that has been avoiding frank discussions and negotiations with Southern Cameroonians.

The gruesome killing of Comfort Tumassang has sent the government into a tailspin and instead of seeking a genuine and sustainable solution to the problem, it has, through its conman in chief, Paul Atanga Nji, issued a document banning the purchase of machetes in a region wherein subsistence agriculture is the mainstay of the region’s economy.

To purchase a machete, many farmers in the two English-speaking regions of the country, most of whom live in very rural regions which are not accessible even during the dry season, have to head to Divisional headquarters to obtain a permit from the Divisional Officers. This is the new Cameroon government comedy at work.

By this ministerial order signed by Paul Atangha Nji, the government has clearly demonstrated that it is running out of solutions to bring the insurgency to an end.

For three decades, the government has been ruthless and many Cameroonians have very little or no respect for their government.

This new order banning the purchase of machetes demonstrates that those ruling the country are comedians and they are now ready to take their comedy to the next level.

According to an opposition figure in the nation’s capital, Yaounde, this new decision by the country’s territorial administration minister to place restrictions on the purchase of machetes is the outcome of putting square pegs in round holes.

“When you put the wrong people in certain positions, you only get what you are getting today in Cameroon. When you transform roadside mechanics into mechanical engineers, you end up getting the wrong solutions for problems that might tear the country apart,” he said.

“Cameroon is collapsing, but our political and social architects are more concerned with robbing the country blind and keeping power. The Southern Cameroons crisis is an issue that has weakened the state and if care is not taken, it might result in the balkanization of our beloved country. Many other groups are watching and they hold that the crisis in the country’s two English-speaking regions might inspire them to seek independence too,” he added.

“Rather than placing restrictions on the purchase of machetes in Southern Cameroons’ rural areas, it would be wise for the government to head to the negotiating table where there are possible solutions to the issues that triggered the crisis. For the last four years, the government has been seeking to cure a cancer patient with aspirin and this has caused the cancer to spread to other parts of the body. The government should understand that its tricks and pseudo-solutions are not delivering the much-needed results. It is time to change course,” he stressed.

“Paul Atangha Nji’s brand new skills as a comedian will not help this country. As a heartless conman and despicable butcher, he did not deliver much. If the government thinks he is the man who will seek real solutions to those issues that are giving our country a bad name, then even the head of state is confused. The government needs to adopt a new approach and dead wood like Atangha Nji should be weeded out of the political system. He lacks what it takes to deal with this complicated issue. It is way out of his league. He should instead go back to his village and become a farmer, though he will need an authorization to purchase a machete. That is where he belongs. Politics is not his thing,” he concluded.

The government seems to be overwhelmed and to distract the docile population, it has resorted to a strain of comedy that is not putting smiles on anybody’s face.

Like Atanga Nji, the country’s president cum comedian-in-chief, Paul Biya, is also trying to distract Cameroonians by announcing that all those who played in the 1990 World Cup competition would be granted homes thirty years after the competition.

Several of those players have already died and many of them have been reduced to bags of bones by poverty and psychological torture.

Some of their children have been robbed of the opportunity to go to school because of the the government’s insensitivity to the plight of those who are, indeed, the heroes of that country.

The granting of these apartments is welcomed, but if not well managed, those apartments might end up becoming ticking time bombs as those failed children might end up fighting each other as their ailing and aging parents disappear from the scene.

While it is a welcome relief to many of those players, especially to the family of Tataw Eta Stephen who captained the team in 1990, but died in abject poverty a few weeks ago, many Cameroonians think that the corrupt Yaounde government could do better by putting in place well-defined mechanisms that can serve the country’s heroes and ambassadors such as musicians and players.

Many of these cultural ambassadors and players end up in dire financial straits because the government has failed to play its role as a creator of opportunities and mechanisms for proper financial management.

The Yaounde government has to abandon it improvisation and comedy to focus on the job that is its own. Cameroonians deserve better and they think it is time to walk away from the comedy that has given their country a bad name and sent many hardworking citizens to an early grave.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Group Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

21, August 2020

US: Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon arrested ⁰

Former White House adviser Steve Bannon was arrested Thursday on charges that he and three others committed fraud as part of an online fundraising campaign to build US President Donald Trump’s Mexican border wall.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan announced that Bannon had been charged in an unsealed indictment for allegedly defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors through a $25 million crowdfunding campaign called, “We Build the Wall.”

The donors thought the money would go towards helping to build a border wall along the frontier with Mexico, prosecutors said.

Co-defendants Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea were also charged.

According to the indictment, Bannon promised that 100 percent of the donated money would be used for the project. But the three men are accused of collectively using hundreds of thousands of dollars in a manner inconsistent with the organisation’s public claims. Kolfage, whom prosecutors described as the public face and founder of the operation, allegedly received thousands of dollars that he used to fund a lavish lifestyle.

However, after calling the effort a “volunteer organisation”, Bannon received more than $1 million of the donations, which he funneled through a non-profit he controlled, prosecutors said, using some of it for his personal expenses.

All four men are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The indictment said they faked invoices and used sham “vendor” arrangements, among other methods, to hide what was really happening with the money.

“Not only did they lie to donors, they schemed to hide their misappropriation of funds by creating sham invoices and accounts to launder donations and cover up their crimes, showing no regard for the law or the truth,” said Philip Bartlett, head of New York’s division of the US Postal Inspection Service, which worked on the investigation.

The initiative began in 2018 as a GoFundMe campaign to raise money that organisers said would go towards the border wall Trump had promised throughout his 2016 campaign, which Bannon led in its critical final months.

Before his role in the campaign, Bannon ran the conservative website Breitbart News. After Trump was elected, he moved on to a top White House strategy post.

The blunt-spoken, combative Bannon became the voice of an inflammatory nationalistic conservatism. He encouraged Trump to follow through on some of his most contentious campaign promises, including a controversial travel ban on some countries and the decision to pull out of the Paris climate change agreement.

But Bannon also clashed with other top advisers, and allegations that he was the power behind the throne irked Trump. He left the White House after falling out of favour in August 2017.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP and REUTERS)

21, August 2020

Emergency ECOWAS summit calls for reinstatement of Mali’s president Keita ⁰

An emergency summit of the West African bloc ECOWAS called Thursday for the reinstatement of Ibrahim Boubacar Keita as Mali’s president after he was deposed in a military coup on Tuesday. West African leaders said they would soon head to the country amid growing concerns about regional stability.

West African presidents plan to fly to Mali as regional powers escalate efforts to block a coup-driven regime change, two sources said, after an opposition coalition there joined the junta in rejecting foreign interference.

Leaders of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) convened over the crisis on Thursday, after it suspended Mali, shut off borders and halted financial flows in response to Tuesday’s overthrow of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

The bloc plans to send a delegation of presidents including the leaders of Niger, Senegal and Ghana to Mali’s capital, Bamako, to seek a resolution to the crisis, a regional diplomat and a senior official told Reuters.

It was not immediately possible to confirm the information.

The coup, which has rocked a country already in the grip of a jihadist insurgency and civil unrest, has been met with almost universal condemnation abroad.

Within Mali, the M5-RFP coalition of opposition groups said it was working with the mutineers. It labelled ECOWAS’s initial response to the coup over-reaction stemming from some regional leaders’ fears that it could set off unrest in their countries.

“(The leaders) are on an all-out drive to set ECOWAS against Mali,” said M5-RFP spokesman Nouhoum Togo.

The capital Bamako was calm for the second straight day on Thursday, a Reuters reporter said, as people appeared to heed earlier calls from junta spokesman Colonel Ismael Wague to return to work and go about their daily lives.

Marc-Andre Boisvert, an independent researcher on the Malian security forces, said the senior mutineers were all respected army colonels.

“It was a coup led by combat-experienced, not personality-driven  officers,” he said “I expect they were selected to be the image of the coup as they are respected and close to the (ordinary) soldiers.”

ECOWAS is expected to release a statement outlining its next steps later on Thursday.

In July, an ECOWAS delegation failed to broker an agreement between Keita and the opposition, who were leading large-scale protests against the government.

Leaders attending the bloc’s virtual summit said the political upheaval in Mali could destabilise the entire region.

“The events in Mali (have).. grave consequences for the peace and security of West Africa,” Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari tweeted.

The coup has fuelled concerns it could disrupt a military campaign against jihadists linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State operating in northern and central Mali and West Africa’s wider Sahel region.

France will continue its Mali-based military operations against Islamist fighters, its armed forces minister said on Thursday.

Landlocked Mali has struggled to regain stability since a Tuareg uprising in 2012 which was hijacked by al Qaeda-linked militants, and a subsequent coup in the capital plunged the country into chaos.

(REUTERS)

21, August 2020

Boko Haram: Multinational force hand over 94 rescued persons to Nigeria ⁰

A multinational force comprising troops from Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria, have handed over to Nigeria’s Borno state 94 persons who were rescued from Boko Haram captivity in the fringes of Lake Chad, a state official said Thursday.

In a statement released by the state governor’s spokesman Isa Gusau, the victims, 37 adult males, 17 adult females, and 40 children were rescued by the troops of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) during a major offensive against the insurgents around Lake Chad.

Gusau said the MNJTF commander Ibrahim Yusuf handed over the victims to the Borno government at a brief ceremony in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.

Yusuf was quoted in the statement as saying that some of the captives voluntarily went to the Headquarters Sector 1 of the MNJTF in north Cameroon.

Kakashehu Lawan, the state commissioner for justice, who received the victims, said in the statement the state will profile, debrief, de-radicalize, and reintegrate the rescued persons to live a normal life with their families.

Boko Haram has been trying to establish an Islamist state in northeastern Nigeria since 2009, extending its attacks to countries in the Lake Chad Basin, posing enormous security, humanitarian, and governance challenges to countries including Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Benin, and Niger.

Source: Xinhuanet

20, August 2020

Biya desperately fighting back Southern Cameroonians but get humiliated by Amba fighters ⁰

Ambazonian Intelligence Chief says French Cameroun dictator Paul Biya and the French Cameroun armies including the National Gendarmerie have desperately been fighting the people of Southern Cameroons for 58 years before the creation of the Ambazonia Restoration Force but have been humiliated in the last four years.

The newly appointed Southern Cameroons frontline leader made the comment during a zoom cabinet meeting chaired by Vice President Dabney Yerima on Wednesday in which he accused French Cameroun Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji along with some French Cameroun CPDM hardliners of trying to stifle and suffocate Southern Cameroonians demand for dignity in a union with French Cameroun that was established in 1961.

Ever since the emergence of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe as the leader of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Biya and his gang of French Cameroun surrogates have desperately tried to resuscitate the past of appointing a Francophone Governor, Francophone SDO, Francophone DO, a Francophone State Counsel and a Francophone judge Yet it keeps getting humiliated by the Ambazonian people.

It is time for the International community to change tack

The top Southern Cameroons security chief opined that the British government that put Ambazonians in this mess should start heralding the need for a better change.

The level of barbarism being perpetuated by French Cameroun’s military and militias loyal to the French Cameroun President Paul Biya as they pursue their genocidal war and scorch earth policy to completely annihilate the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) is alarming.

So far, as a result of the on-going genocide in the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia), an estimated 35,000 people have been killed, over 300 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.

It is also reported that over 4.5. Million people are at risk of famine. The French Cameroun government is doing everything through its private militia (popularly known as Atanga Nji Boys) to commit atrocities and link them to Southern Cameroons self-defense forces, so as to evoke international sympathy.

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government has noted that only an independent fact-finding mission can establish the facts and thus far, Mr. Biya’s government has resisted all requests by independent humanitarian organizations to visit Southern Cameroons.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

20, August 2020

Southern Cameroons War: Minister Atanga Nji cannot cross a bridge he destroyed ⁰

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dabney Yerima says French Cameroun Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji will again fail in new push to destabilize the Ambazonia resistance.

In a correspondence addressed on Tuesday, August 18, 2020 to the Francophone Governors of the two Southern Cameroons zones, the so-called Minister of Territorial Administration set out preconditions for the people of Ambazonia to acquire farming tools such as machetes, shovels, diggers and spades which the Yaounde based comedian claimed are often used by Ambazonia Restoration Forces to perpetrate killings.

Paul Atanga Nji observed that the escalation of violence and killings recorded in recent days in Southern Cameroons through the exacerbated use of edged weapons, has forced the French Cameroun authorities to pound their fists on the table.

The Paul Atanga Nji letter made public on Tuesday 18 August 2020 was sent to the Governors of the North-West region, Adolphe Lele Lafrique, and the South-West region, Bernard Okalia Bilai, to restrict the sale and use of farming tools.

The French Cameroun surrogate Paul Atanga Nji wanted by the Special Criminal Court in Yaoundé for corruption and fraud during his tenure at Post Bank also enacted preconditions to be met in order to acquire these objects from any shop in Southern Cameroons.

“By way of illustration, any person wishing to acquire a machete must obtain prior agreement from a Sub-prefect of his area of residence, and provide proof of an agricultural activity before any acquisition in a hardware store or a shop; the seller must identify the buyer, retain his telephone number, and obtain the location of his residence, not without requiring him to show his National Identity Card” Atanga Nji said in his ministerial order.

“French Cameroun is no longer a part of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and the use of its colonial mechanism in Southern Cameroons has all been outlawed by President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe” Dabney Yerima told an Ambazonian think tank in Holland on Wednesday.

After the recent coup in Mali, the Biya French Cameroun regime is seeking to give the impression that it is in control of activities in Southern Cameroons by claiming that French and Southern Cameroons are one political entity.

This Biya Francophone regime’s new push comes after its military violence have failed to deliver the goods and the regime now uses young girls as spies and they have succeeded on several occasions to infiltrate the ranks of the Ambazonia Restoration Forces. An approach that has led to the death of many Southern Cameroons Self Defense fighters!

Restoration forces, for their part, have been sending a clear message to those who betray the revolution. Last week, a young lady was hacked to death in Muyuka, a town in the country’s southwest region where the insurgency has taken root. She had been accused of flirting with and spying for the military, an allegation that has been confirmed by the Cameroon Concord News Group correspondent in Muyuka.

Corruption, mismanagement and dictatorship have become French Cameroun’s hallmarks, with the country’s ruling party considering itself as the government.

The Southern Cameroons Vice President also expressed the Interim Government’s resolve to keep standing, with all power, against French Cameroun.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

20, August 2020

African Union suspends Mali’s membership as international community condemns coup ⁰

Military coup leaders in Mali faced a barrage of condemnation on Wednesday from international powers, with the African Union suspending the country’s membership a day after mutinying soldiers detained President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita following months of protests against his rule.

The chorus of disapproval included statements from the African Union (AU), the European Union and the United States demanding that the military leaders release Keita, Prime Minister Boubou Cisse and other officials detained on Tuesday.

Keita – under pressure from months of protests over economic stagnation, corruption and a continuing Islamist insurgency – said in a televised address hours after he was detained that coup leaders had given him no choice but to resign.

Jubilant crowds cheered the rebels as they arrived in central Bamako on Tuesday. Tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Bamako since June calling for Keita to resign over what they say are his failures to address security and economic woes.

Mali coup ‘diplomatic nightmare for France’

The mutinous soldiers who staged the coup, who have called themselves the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, have promised a transition to civil political rule with elections to be held in a “reasonable amount of time”. In the meantime they have closed the country’s borders and announced a curfew.

A spokesman for the junta, Ismael Wague, said France’s anti-jihadist Barkhane force and the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali as well as forces from neighbouring countries were “partners for stability and restoring security”.

However, France and other international powers as well as the AU have denounced the mutiny, fearful that the fall of Keita could further destabilise the former French colony and West Africa’s entire Sahel region.

The AU has suspended Mali’s membership in response to the military’s seizure of power and the detention of the president, the bloc announced in a tweet on Wednesday. The suspension will last until constitutional order is restored, it said, demanding the release of the deposed president and other senior officials.

The current chairman of the AU, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, called for the “immediate return to civilian rule”.

An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council convened on Wednesday condemned the mutiny and urged the soldiers to release all detained government officials without delay. The 15 members “underlined the urgent need to restore rule of law and to move towards the return to constitutional order”, according to a statement.

‘Unconstitutional’

The influential West African regional bloc ECOWAS said it was sending a high-level delegation to “ensure the immediate return to constitutional order”. The 15-nation bloc – which includes Mali – also said that it would suspend the country from its internal decision-making bodies.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that “the fight against terrorist groups and the defence of democracy and the rule of law are inseparable”, referring to the situation in Mali.

“To leave is to provoke instability and to weaken our fight. It is not acceptable,” the French president wrote on Twitter, calling for power to be “returned to civilians,” for “milestones (to be) laid for a return to constitutional order” and for the Malian president and his prime minister to be freed.

French troops have been fighting in the country since 2013, after Mali asked it to help regain territory seized by Islamist extremists who had hijacked a Touareg rebellion in the country’s northern desert regions the previous year.

The French military succeeded in this initial task – but the jihadist insurgency has since spread throughout Mali and across the border to Niger and Burkina Faso.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced Keita’s overthrow in a statement on Wednesday. “The United States strongly condemns the August 18 mutiny in Mali as we would condemn any forcible seizure of power,” he said. “The freedom and safety of detained government officials and their families must be ensured.”

The EU condemned the events in Mali as “unconstitutional”.

“The European Union condemns the attempted coup d’état under way in Mali and rejects all unconstitutional change,” the bloc’s diplomatic chief, Josep Borrell, said in a statement Tuesday.

Neighbouring Algeria has also rejected the coup. “Algeria reiterates its firm rejection of any anti-constitutional change of government,” the foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. It said Algeria was following with “concern” developments in Mali, with which it shares an almost 1,400-kilometre (850-mile) border.

Morocco also reacted to the coup on Wednesday, stressing the need for “stability” in Mali, calling for “responsible dialogue, respect for constitutional order and the preservation of democratic gains.”

In a statement shortly after the coup Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Malians to protect their democratic institutions and called for the “immediate and unconditional release” of Mali’s president.

The UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on the events later on Wednesday.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)

20, August 2020

US Politics: Kamala Harris accepts VP nomination ⁰

US Senator Kamala Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president on Wednesday, imploring the country to elect Joe Biden president and accusing Donald Trump of failed leadership that had cost lives and livelihoods.

The first Black woman and Asian-American on a major US presidential ticket, Harris summarized her life story as emblematic of the American dream on the third day of the Democratic National Convention.

“Donald Trump’s failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods,” Harris said.

Former US President Barack Obama told the convention Trump’s failures as his successor had led to 170,000 people dead from the coronavirus, millions of lost jobs and America’s reputation badly diminished in the world.

The evening featured a crush of women headliners, moderators and speakers, with Harris pressing the case against Trump, speaking directly to millions of women, young Americans and voters of color, constituencies Democrats need if Biden is to defeat the Republican Trump.

“The constant chaos leaves us adrift, the incompetence makes us feel afraid, the callousness makes us feel alone. It’s a lot. And here’s the thing: we can do better and deserve so much more,” she said.

“Right now, we have a president who turns our tragedies into political weapons. Joe will be a president who turns our challenges into purpose,” she said, speaking from an austere hotel ballroom in Biden’s hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.

Biden ahead in polls

Biden leads Trump in opinion polls ahead of the Nov. 3 election, bolstered by a big lead among women voters. Throughout the convention, Democrats have appealed directly to those women voters, highlighting Biden’s co-sponsorship of the landmark Violence Against Woman Act of 1994 and his proposals to bolster childcare and protect family healthcare provisions.

Obama, whose vice president was Biden from 2009-2017, said he had hoped that Trump would take the job seriously, come to feel the weight of the office, and discover a reverence for American democracy.

“Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t. And the consequences of that failure are severe,” Obama said in unusually blunt criticism from an ex-president.

“Millions of jobs gone. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before,” Obama said.

The choice of a running mate has added significance for Biden, 77, who would be the oldest person to become president if he is elected. His age has led to speculation he will serve only one term, making Harris a potential top contender for the nomination in 2024.

Biden named Harris, 55, as his running mate last week to face incumbents Trump, 74, and Vice President Mike Pence, 61.

Former first lady and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee who lost to Trump, told the convention she constantly hears from voters who regret backing Trump or not voting at all.

“This can’t be another woulda coulda shoulda election.” Clinton said. “No matter what, vote. Vote like our lives and livelihoods are on the line, because they are.”

Clinton, who won the popular vote against Trump but lost in the Electoral College, said Biden needs to win overwhelmingly, warning he could win the popular vote but still lose the White House.

“Joe and Kamala can win by 3 million votes and still lose,” Clinton said. “Take it from me. So we need numbers overwhelming so Trump can’t sneak or steal his way to victory.”

Democrats have been alarmed by Trump’s frequent criticism of mail-in voting, and by cost-cutting changes at the US Postal Service instituted by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump supporter, that could delay mail during the election crunch. DeJoy said recently he would delay those changes until after the election.

Democrats also broadcast videos highlighting Trump’s crackdown on immigration, opposition to gun restrictions and his decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord.

‘Disrespect’ for facts, for women

Nancy Pelosi, the first woman Speaker of the US House of Representatives, told the convention she had seen firsthand Trump’s “disrespect for facts, for working families, and for women in particular – disrespect written into his policies toward our health and our rights, not just his conduct. But we know what he doesn’t: that when women succeed, America succeeds.”

US Senator Elizabeth Warren, a leading progressive who ran against Biden in the 2020 primary, spoke to the convention from a childcare center in Massachusetts and cited Biden’s proposal to make childcare more affordable as a vital part of his agenda to help working Americans.

“It’s time to recognize that childcare is part of the basic infrastructure of this nation — it’s infrastructure for families,” she said. “Joe and Kamala will make high-quality childcare affordable for every family, make preschool universal, and raise the wages for every childcare worker.”

In her speech later, Harris will have an opportunity to outline her background as a child of immigrants from India and Jamaica who as a district attorney, state attorney general, US senator from California and now vice-presidential candidate shattered gender and racial barriers.

She gained prominence in the Senate for her exacting interrogations of Trump nominees, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Attorney General Bill Barr.

The Republican National Convention, also largely virtual, takes place next week.

Source: REUTERS

19, August 2020

Makossa: Marthe Zambo at death’s door amid a battle with diabetes ⁰

Renowned Cameroonian musician Marthe Zambo is suffering from chronic diabetes and does not have the means to afford medication including paying her rents. Marthe Zambo made her current plight public in an interview with state radio and television CRTV on Wednesday, August 19, 2020.

The Makossa icon has lost weight and after numerous signals she incessantly flashed out to her fans all over the world, it is now evidently clear the woman with the nightingale voice is simply waiting to die.

The singer’s setbacks don’t only stop with her illness and her inability to foot her medical bills. In the next few days, she could be evicted from her home for unpaid rents.

“I have too many problems. We call it Nanga Boko in our local Cameroonian parlance! I don’t know where to go from here! I’m left to myself. I can’t pay my rents anymore,” she confessed.

It is vital to include in this report that on Saturday, August 17, 2019, Marthe Zambo and the late Mama Nguea, who died of diabetes, had received financial support from the Ministry of Culture following an appeal for help that the two artists had launched at the time. But it would appear that the token from the Biya regime was not enough to enable Marthe Zambo to take care of her basic needs.

By Rita Akana

19, August 2020

Ambazonia Interim Gov’t weighs in on unlawful arrest of Barrister Ayukotang ⁰

On Monday, 17 August 2020 at about 6pm, Barrister Ayukotang Ndep Nkongho, a member of the Interim Government of Ambazonia defence team was unlawfully arrested and is being detained at the gendarmerie station in Limbe ever since.

Barrister Ayukotang was commissioned to ascertain the facts surrounding the assassination of Bessem Blandine and two other children in Tiko, Fako County. The minors were shot by La Republique du Cameroun military while hunting for snails around their homes on Wednesday 12 August 2020. The Interim Government of Ambazonia has been briefed that the man of law had visited the parents of the executed minor and one of the injured who had a lucky escape from the attack. We are aware that he had gathered significant facts before his unlawful arrest.

As a government, the safety and security of our people and their legal representatives is our foremost concern. The Interim Government of Ambazonia through its legal representatives in Ambazonia and French Cameroun has made a formal request to the regime in Yaoundé to release Barrister Ayukotang Ndep Nkongho without delay. We must bring pressure to bear on the French Cameroun regime regarding this unacceptable harassment of members of the legal profession.

We face an enemy that is brutal and puts no value on life. The regime in Yaoundé has no respect for human rights, the rule of law, and international law. The Interim Government of Ambazonia has today notified all international media organizations and our international partners about this unlawful arrest and detention of a member of the legal profession.

The Interim Government of Ambazonia will make regular updates on this matter and will continue to keep the international community informed on this matter.

Thank You

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Federal Republic of Ambazonia