Southern Cameroons War: Disturbing news out of Ground Zero

13, March 2020

Southern Cameroons War: Disturbing news out of Ground Zero 0

On January 30, armed separatists kidnapped Marie (not her real name), a 19-year-old secondary school student, in Buea, in Cameroon’s Anglophone South-West region. Three days later, they chopped her finger off with a machete.

The reason? Marie wanted to go to school.

Since 2017, armed separatist groups have enforced a boycott of education in the country’s two English-speaking regions, as part of a perverse attempt to pressure the government to get greater political recognition.

They’ve burned school buildings and kidnapped and assaulted students and teachers for not complying with their demands to keep schools shut. They have used schools as bases, torturing and holding people hostage in and near them.

“They punished me because they found schoolbooks in my bag,” said Marie. “They wanted to cut a finger of my right hand to prevent me from writing again. I begged them [not to], and then they chopped the forefinger of my left hand.”

Marie said the separatists also maimed a 19-year-old man who was held with her and also accused of attending school. Both students were released on February 3, after a ransom payment. They have received medical treatment but have not yet returned to school.

Separatists’ attacks on schools, students, and teachers in the Anglophone regions have had a devastating impact on education. According to United Nations agencies, nearly 600,000 children have been prevented from going to school since late 2016, and only 19 percent of primary and secondary schools are open across the North-West and South-West regions. Government forces have been implicated in one arson attack at a school, according to open source investigators.

In September 2018, Cameroon announced its endorsement of the Safe Schools Declaration, one of 28 African Union members to join this international political commitment to protect education during armed conflict. Clearly, far more needs to be done by the government to ensure children can return to school safely and to promote alternative forms of education, including teaching by radio, the internet, or television, for those students who cannot yet return.

In their brutal campaign, separatists are using education as a weapon for political gains and are robbing an entire generation of children of their fundamental right to education. Separatist leaders should immediately direct their fighters and followers to stop interfering with children’s education.

Culled from Human Rights Watch

WHO warns Europe is coronavirus ‘epicentre’ as outbreak continues to spread

13, March 2020

WHO warns Europe is coronavirus ‘epicentre’ as outbreak continues to spread 0

The World Health Organisation warned Friday that Europe was now the “epicentre” for the global coronavirus pandemic and reporting more daily cases than China did at the height of its outbreak. This statement came as the outbreak continued to spread across the world, provoking further closures and travel bans in an attempt to contain it, and big swings on financial markets. Follow our FRANCE 24 live blog for the latest news as it happens.

“Europe has now become the epicentre of the pandemic,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a virtual press conference, describing the more than 5,000 deaths worldwide as “a tragic milestone”.

The Louvre Museum will be closing Friday evening at 6 until further notice following a French government directive banning gatherings of more than 100 people in a bid to contain the coronavirus’s spread. All schools, crèches and universities across France will be closed from Monday.

In France, 61 people have died of the virus. The number of cases was put at 2,876, an increase of 595 cases and 13 deaths from Wednesday.

Stock markets rebounded after Thursday’s plunge with European stocks staging a comeback, rising 8 percent by Friday afternoon after recording early losses. The Dow rose 773.20 points, or 3.6 percent, at opening to 21,973.82.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has announced a two-week state of emergency beginning Saturday.

Major sports events have been cancelled, including the Champions League and the  Premier League.

China reported its lowest-ever number of new coronavirus cases: just eight on Friday, with no new domestic infections outside Hubei province.

Italy, which has recorded nearly 15,113 coronavirus cases and 1,016 deaths, remains on a nationwide lockdown.

Culled from France 24

French Cameroun: Maurice Kamto escapes unscathed after assassination attempt

13, March 2020

French Cameroun: Maurice Kamto escapes unscathed after assassination attempt 0

The leader of the Cameroonian Renaissance Movement Prof Maurice Kamto has escaped an assassination attempt.

In a video posted on Facebook and shared by the party spokesperson, Sosthène Médard Lipot, a man in his forties was seen being pinched by a small group of MRC supporters in the presence of the party’s Vice Chairman Alain Fogue. The party officials accused him of having tried to take the life of Maurice Kamto, using an automatic pistol that he held in his hand.

MRC spokesman was quoted as saying that three persons have been arrested. Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the Vice Chairman Professor Fogue is currently meeting with the Governor of the North Region on the matter.

Maurice Kamto’s motorcade was on its way to the Far North Region, precisely in Tokombéré, as part of the national tour he had previously embarked on. It was therefore at the entrance of the city of Garoua that the incident occurred.

An armed group infiltrated the Kamto motorcade, and one of the members pulled out his gun to open fire but had the bad luck that he was on a motorcycle, and there were cars on either side blocking his view of the MRC leader. He was apprehended.

At the time of filing this report, information filtered that the Governor of the North region Jean Abate Edi’I and his security chief have identified the presumed assassin as an officer on duty with the National Gendarmerie.

By Rita Akana

Ivory Coast: Prime Minister named ruling party’s presidential candidate

13, March 2020

Ivory Coast: Prime Minister named ruling party’s presidential candidate 0

Ivory Coast’s ruling party has named the prime minister as its candidate for the October presidential poll, after President Alassane Ouattara ended months of speculation and said he would not seek a controversial third term.

The choice of Amadou Gon Coulibaly, a close friend and confidant of the president, comes ahead of a challenging election for the West African country — the world’s top cocoa producer and home to more than 25 million people.

A 2010 vote ended in violence between rival political factions which left 3,000 people dead.

“I am aware of the magnitude of the responsibility and the magnitude of the burden,” Coulibaly said after being nominated late Thursday by the Rally of Houphouetists for Democracy and Peace, or RHDP.

“I have appealed to all my sisters and brothers to be united,” he added. “We must win these elections in the first round.”

The constitution allows only two presidential terms, but Ouattara, 78, had said he would be able to stand due to a constitutional change in 2016 — a claim rejected by the opposition.

Analysts say it was essential to announce Ouattara’s choice of candidate quickly.

“The RHDP has stepped up the tempo to give Amadou Gon Coulibaly time to campaign and be visible,” said political scientist Jean Alabro.

“From the moment Ouattara was no longer a candidate, he had to readjust the strategy in order to mobilise around the new leader, and to remove any hint of another candidate,” added political scientist Arthur Banga.

– In president’s shadow –

While the choice of Coulibaly was not unexpected, the announcement — made without a vote and a week after Ouattara ruled out running in the October 31 race — came as a surprise.

The 61-year-old has spent his career in the shadow of the president.

“I’ve been learning alongside President Alassane Ouattara for 30 years,” he said Thursday.

He was the president’s secretary general from the time Ouattara came to power in 2010 until his appointment as prime minister in 2017.

Before that he was a senior civil servant and minister of agriculture. He was trained in France and, like Ouattara, has a good grasp of international finance.

“If we want our country to continue to evolve in the spirit of (Ouattara’s) governance, Gon (Coulibaly) is best placed,” said Hamed Bakayoko, the defence minister.

Coulibaly is from a large family in the country’s north and is very influential among traditional chiefs. He was mayor of Ivory Coast’s fourth-largest city, Korhogo, from 2001 to 2018.

Ouattara had kept Ivorians guessing over his political future, saying last year that he could run again if his traditional rivals were candidates.

Since the death of founding President Felix Houphouet-Boigny in 1993, Ivory Coast politics have been dominated by three men: Henri Konan Bedie, Laurent Gbagbo and Ouattara.

Gbagbo, who refused to step down after losing elections in 2010, was acquitted by the International Criminal Court last year on charges relating to the unrest triggered by his bid to cling on to power.

Bedie, who will be 86 during the October election, has not ruled out running.

Source:  AFP

Australian minister who met with Ivanka Trump has coronavirus

13, March 2020

Australian minister who met with Ivanka Trump has coronavirus 0

A senior Australian politician tested positive for the new coronavirus and entered hospital quarantine Friday, days after returning from Washington where he met Ivanka Trump and US Attorney General William Barr. 

Home Affairs Minister, Peter Dutton, was in the United States last week for a meeting with members of the FiveEyes intelligence alliance — Australia, the United States, Britain, Canada and New Zealand — that included Barr. 

He also met with US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka on March 6, according to a photo posted by the Australian embassy in Washington, which shows the pair standing close together. 

It is not yet known when Dutton contracted the virus.

“This morning I woke up with a temperature and sore throat,” said Dutton, an influential member of the government and a key architect of Australia’s controversial immigration laws.

“It is the policy of Queensland Health that anyone who tests positive is to be admitted into hospital and I have complied with their advice.”

Dutton said he feels “fine” but his diagnosis will raise concerns about whether other members of the cabinet and Prime Minister Scott Morrison may have been infected.

The prime minister’s office confirmed Friday that Dutton attended a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, but other participants would not be quarantined.

“Only people who had close contact with the minister in the preceding 24 hours before he became symptomatic need to self-isolate,” a spokesman said. “That does not include the Prime Minister or any other members of the Cabinet.”

In contrast, New Zealand Internal Affairs Minister Tracey Martin — who also met Dutton in Washington — has self-isolated and will get tested for the virus on Saturday, local media reported.

Morrison will no longer attend a rugby match on Saturday night after earlier saying he would even as he announced a bar on gatherings of more than 500 people.

Dutton is among the 184 people in Australia who have been confirmed as having COVID-19. He is just the latest in a string of political figures around the world to suffer a scare.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has been tested for the virus after a top aide was diagnosed with the disease following a trip to the US during which both met with Trump. 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in quarantine for two weeks after his wife tested positive for the virus. 

British MP Nadine Dorries a junior health minister who helped craft legislation to fight the contagion, is also infected.

Several US lawmakers have isolated themselves after attending a conservative conference in late February.

The White House has insisted Trump does not need testing, despite interactions with several people who have been exposed to the virus, saying “only people with prolonged close exposure to confirmed positive cases should self-quarantine.”

(Source: AFP)

US carries out retaliatory air strikes in Iraq against Iran-backed militia

13, March 2020

US carries out retaliatory air strikes in Iraq against Iran-backed militia 0

The United States waged a series of precision air strikes on Thursday against an Iran-backed militia in Iraq that it blamed for a major rocket attack a day earlier that killed two American troops and a 26-year-old British soldier.

The U.S. strikes appeared limited in scope and narrowly tailored, targeting five weapons storage facilities used by Kataib Hezbollah militants – including facilities used to store weaponry for past attacks on U.S.-led coalition troops, the Pentagon said.

Iraq’s military said in a statement that the U.S. air strikes hit four locations in Iraq.

The U.S. military did not estimate how many people in Iraq may have been killed in the strikes, which officials said were carried out by piloted aircraft.

But there no was no indication of the kind of high-profile killings that President Donald Trump authorized in January, when the United States targeted a top Iranian general, Qassem Soleimani.

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, in a Pentagon statement detailing the strikes, cautioned that the United States was prepared to respond again, if needed.

“We will take any action necessary to protect our forces in Iraq and the region,” Esper said.

Trump had been quick to authorize the U.S. military to respond following Wednesday’s attack in Iraq, in which militants fired dozens of 107 mm Katyusha rockets from a truck, striking Iraq’s Taji military camp north of Baghdad.

Out of the roughly 30 rockets fired, some 18 hit the base. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

It was the third time in recent months the U.S. military lashed out against Kataib Hezbollah. It killed more than two dozen militants in December in response to an attack on an Iraqi base that killed a U.S. contractor. The U.S. military drone strike in January that targeted Soleimani also killed Kataib Hezbollah founder Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

It was unclear whether the latest strikes would deter the militants from further action. The rocket attack on Taji took place on what would have been Soleimani’s 63rd birthday, suggesting the militants were still looking for revenge.

Further attacks?

Dennis Ross, a former U.S. ambassador now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank, cast doubt on the Pentagon’s ability to deter Kataib Hezbollah.

“Regrettably, these attacks on our forces will continue as Iran has no problem fighting to the last of the Shia militias and believe they can force us out of Iraq,” he said on Twitter.

Iran retaliated for the U.S. drone strike that killed Soleimani by launching missiles from its territory at an Iraq base hosting U.S. troops – leaving more than 100 U.S. forces with brain injuries.

In the latest attack, 14 U.S.-led coalition personnel were wounded, including American, British, Polish and other nationals. Private-industry contractors were among the wounded.

U.S. Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Pentagon reporters that five of the wounded were categorized as “urgent,” suggesting serious injuries that could require rapid medical evacuation.

The UK named its fallen service member as Lance Corporal Brodie Gillon. The United States has not yet identified the U.S. service members killed.

In a sign of concern that tensions between the United States and Iran could be headed toward open conflict, the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Wednesday to limit Trump’s ability to wage war against Iran.

The Republican president has been engaged in a maximum-pressure campaign of renewed sanctions and near-constant rhetoric against Iran, after pulling the United States out of the international nuclear deal reached during the administration of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have mostly played out on Iraqi soil in recent months.

Iran-backed paramilitary groups have regularly been rocketing and shelling bases in Iraq that host U.S. forces and the area around the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Source: REUTERS

Canadian PM Trudeau in two-week isolation after wife tests positive for coronavirus

13, March 2020

Canadian PM Trudeau in two-week isolation after wife tests positive for coronavirus 0

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be in isolation for two weeks after his wife, Sophie, tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday, and the outbreak prompted the province of Ontario to shutter schools to limit the spread.

Sophie Gregoire Trudeau recently returned from London and experienced flu-like symptoms, so she was tested for the coronavirus, the prime minister’s office said earlier on Thursday. The test came back positive, it said in the evening.

“The Prime Minister is in good health with no symptoms. As a precautionary measure and following the advice of doctors, he will be in isolation for a planned period of 14 days,” an official statement said. Sophie will be in quarantine for 14 days.

“The Prime Minister will continue to fully assume his duties and will address Canadians tomorrow.”

In a personal note, Sophie said she was “experiencing uncomfortable symptoms of the virus,” adding that she “will be back on my feet soon”.

Canada reported 145 new case of the virus, a three-fold gain from a week ago. There has been one death. Seven of Canada’s 10 provinces have recorded infections.

Ontario, the most populous province, reported 17 new cases overnight, a 40% jump. To contain the virus, authorities ordered all schools to close from Saturday to April 5.

Globally, more than 127,000 people have been infected by the sometimes deadly respiratory illness COVID-19.

In a blow to hockey-obsessed Canadians, the National Hockey League suspended its season because of the outbreak, although it said its goal was to resume play “as soon as it is appropriate and prudent,” so teams can compete for the Stanley Cup championship.

With the Canadian dollar at a four-year low against its U.S. counterpart and stocks plunging, the Bank of Canada announced measures to inject liquidity into the market.

Working from home on Thursday, Trudeau spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and joined a special cabinet meeting on the coronavirus by phone, his spokesman said on Twitter.

The Pacific province of British Columbia, north of Washington state, advised against all non-essential foreign travel, including to the United States. Washington is one of the worst-affected states.

Any warning that involves the United States is politically sensitive, given the two countries’ 5,525-mile (8,890-km) shared border and Canada’s overwhelming reliance on bilateral trade.

“This is really important … the evolving situation both in the United States and globally is a risk for all of us,” British Columbia’s provincial chief medical officer, Bonnie Henry, told reporters.

Alberta’s chief medical officer, Deena Hinshaw, banned gatherings of more than 250 people and canceled all international events. Hinshaw also discouraged foreign travel.

Quebec, which has recorded 13 cases, has banned all indoor events with more than 250 people and said people returning from any foreign country should self-isolate for 14 days. Health and education public-sector workers who travel abroad will be required to self-isolate.

Separately, Canadian authorities canceled the JUNO music awards, Canada’s version of the Grammys, and Toronto’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade was suspended.

Ottawa committed C$1 billion ($723 million) on Wednesday toward bolstering the healthcare system and limiting the impact of the virus, while Ontario said on Thursday it had set aside C$100 million in “contingency funding.”

On Thursday, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said the public health crisis alone would cost the country “well north of C$10 billion.”

Source: REUTERS

Southern Cameroons Massacre: UN Secretary General Silent As Minister Atanga Nji Trashed Chased Out OCHA Official

13, March 2020

Southern Cameroons Massacre: UN Secretary General Silent As Minister Atanga Nji Trashed Chased Out OCHA Official 0

United Nations Secretary General Guterres has no comment on, and have refused to answer on, Cameroon’s expulsion and now public trashing of their own UN OCHA officials in Bamenda, Andrew Jack Pendleton. Biya’s minister Atanga Nji has publicly denounced this UN official for his mild comments on the government’s slaughter of civilians at Ngarbuh. But Guterres has said nothing. The most basic thing a UN Secretary General is expected to do is speak for UN officials being chased out. But no – Guterres is too corrupt.

On February 16 Inner City Press from its sources in Cameroon reported on the killing of more than two dozen civilians including children in Ngar in NW Cameroon.

Before 10 am on February 17 Inner City Press in writing asked Guterres, his spokespeople Stephane Dujarric and Eri Kaneko about the killings. 

There was no answer, and with Dujarric on vacation in Orlando, Florida, Eri Kaneko fielded only two questions at a ten minute long noon briefing on February 17 that Inner City Press was banned from entering and asking at.   Since then Guterres, Dujarric and Melissa Fleming have refused to answer daily questions from Inner City Press on what has become their genocide in Cameroon.

 Now there’s widely circulated video  a toddler whose mother was killed in Babanki (Kedjom Ketinguh) in Mezam, in the North West region of Cameroon. Soldiers are responsible, and 10 other civilians have been killed. Meanwhile corrupt Guterres and Catarina Vaz Pinto, the First Lady of Faux Socialism, ran right by Inner City Press loud questions about Cameroon on February 29, into the publicly funded mansion Guterres lives in some of the time.

Also one of the witnesses who exposed the Biya government’s mass killing at Ngarbuh, Mallam Danjuma has been killed and dumped in Bui by government forces in Kikaikelaki. And from the UN of Guterres? Nothing. This is Guterres’ genocide. He has the only press that ask him about it, even from his propaganda speech at NYC’s The New School.

Source: Inner City Press

Southern Cameroons Crisis: After a week of tensions, Macron defuses the situation with Biya

13, March 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: After a week of tensions, Macron defuses the situation with Biya 0

Macron and Biya put aside their differences to talk about resolving violence in Cameroon.

The presidents of France and Cameroon “agreed on the need for an impartial inquiry” into the violence perpetrated in Cameroon’s Northwest Province during a phone conversation between the two heads of state on Sunday, 1 March.

Emmanuel Macron’s controversial remarks that set off a firestorm on 22 February when he promised to exert “maximum pressure” on Paul Biya to bring “Cameroon’s intolerable violence” to an end are but a distant memory. The French authorities are now evidently looking to calm the diplomatic spat.

The terse communiqué released by the French president’s press office expresses France’s evident resolve to de-escalate tensions between Yaoundé and Paris after they had mounted in the week leading up to 1 March.

Accordingly, during the phone call, Biya and Macron “agreed on the need for an impartial inquiry in response to the violence perpetrated against civilians in Ngarbuh village in the Northwest Province.”

Hardly a concession for Yaoundé given that it recently ordered the opening of an inquiry.

Significant support

The very same communiqué also indicates that “both presidents agreed to keep in touch to follow up on the political initiatives resulting from the Major National Dialogue,” without ever mentioning the issue of political prisoners or negotiations with secessionists, two taboo subjects for Cameroon’s government.

However, Macron had previously assured the leader of the Brigade anti-sardinards (BAS) activist group, Calibri Calibro, who had questioned him on the matter, that he would speak with the Cameroonian president about the crisis.

“I’m going to call President Biya next week and we’re going to put as much pressure as possible to bring an end to the situation,” the French head of state had said regarding the Ngarbuh massacre.

Does Macron’s return to diplomatic norms have something to do with the Cameroonian authorities’ strong reaction to his comments, with the government using every means at its disposal to convey its discontent? It is hard to say for sure.

What is certain is that the chants shouted by the “young onlookers” who took to the streets to denounce Macron’s remarks outside the French embassy on 24 February reached the highest French officials via a detailed report which, according to our sources, was sent to the Quai d’Orsay, the site of France’s diplomatic headquarters.

In light of Macron’s tempered stance, Yaoundé is expected to retain France’s support in the endless crisis pitting Anglophone separatists against Cameroon’s government. Yaoundé is trying to negotiate with international players that seek to open a direct dialogue with the currently incarcerated leaders of the separatist movement. The violence continues to take a heavy civilian toll.

Source: The Africa Report

Brazilian who met Trump tests positive for COVID-19

12, March 2020

Brazilian who met Trump tests positive for COVID-19 0

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s communications chief, who met Donald Trump last weekend at his Florida resort, has tested positive for the new coronavirus, the government said Thursday.

Fabio Wajngarten, chief spokesman for the Brazilian government, traveled with Bolsonaro last Saturday to Tuesday to the United States, where the far-right leader — who has been dubbed a “Tropical Trump” — met with his US counterpart.

Wajngarten, who posted a picture to his Instagram account that shows him side-by-side with Trump, developed flu-like symptoms and tested positive for the virus that has become a global pandemic, the Brazilian presidency said in a statement.

Trump said he was unconcerned and downplayed his contact with “the press aide,” apparently referring to Wajngarten.

“I did hear something about that. We had dinner together in Florida, in Mar-a-Lago, with the entire delegation. I don’t know if the press aide was there. If he was there, he was there. But we did nothing very unusual,” he said.

“Let me put it this way, I’m not concerned,” he said, speaking a day after announcing a shock 30-day ban on travel from mainland Europe because of the pandemic.

Brazilian media reports said Bolsonaro had also been tested for the virus.

Newspaper O Globo reported that the US embassy in Brasilia had contacted the Brazilian government for information on Wajngarten’s test.

The embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP.

The Brazilian president’s office “has taken and is taking all necessary preventive measures to protect the health of the president and all staff that traveled with him to the United States,” it said in a statement.

“This is because one of the officials in the group, Presidential Communications Secretary Fabio Wajngarten, is infected with the new coronavirus, COVID-19, as confirmed by a second test that was recently carried out.”

Bolsonaro, an admirer of Trump, met the US president at a lunch on Saturday.

After the meeting, Wajngarten posted a picture of himself standing next to Trump and wearing a hat reading “Make Brazil Great Again.”

In the picture, Trump, who is holding a similar hat, is standing next to Vice President Mike Pence.

Source:  AFP

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