Biya’s rhetoric in public and the 37 Ambazonian asylum seekers abducted in Taraba, Nigeria

4, December 2019

Biya’s rhetoric in public and the 37 Ambazonian asylum seekers abducted in Taraba, Nigeria 0

The 37 Southern Cameroons asylum seekers abducted in Taraba State in Nigeria on the 31st of December 2017 and illegally deported to French Cameroun will be appearing before the Yaoundé Military Court tomorrow the 5th December 2019.

The 37 innocent Southern Cameroons civilians are facing charges of terrorism acts of terrorism, secessionism, and lack of National Identification Cards.

The accused have spent a year incommunicado in the bunkers of the National Gendarmerie Headquarters ( SED) in Yaounde without access to sunlight, no medical attention and are undergoing torture.

Abducted and illegally deported to Yaoundé on the 26th of January 2018,They were later transferred to the Kondengui Central Prison on the 04th January 2019 where they have spent another year marking two years of unlawful detention without trial.

They will be appearing before the Military Court in Yaoundé for the 3rd time.

Yaoundé tried to bring Ambazonia to its knees, but Restoration Forces thwarted plot via self defense- VP Yerima

4, December 2019

Yaoundé tried to bring Ambazonia to its knees, but Restoration Forces thwarted plot via self defense- VP Yerima 0

Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima says the Biya Francophone regime resorted to an unprecedented fracas including a senseless military action to bring the Federal Republic of Ambazonia down to its knees, but Southern Cameroonians successfully thwarted the plot through self defense actions. 

Comrade Dabney Yerima made the comments at a cabinet meeting that was summoned to examine the Monday ghost operations in Ground Zero. The Southern Cameroons Vice President slammed the continues French Cameroun military atrocities in Ambazonia and warned pro Yaoundé CPDM politicians in Southern Cameroons to be ready for a crushing response from Ambazonia Restoration Forces if they venture to stage any elections in the territory.

Dabney Yerima called on Southern Cameroonians to invest in the Amba Bonds Project in order for the Interim Government to be able to counter the French Cameroun criminal and terrorist military. “Our people in Ground Zero have successful thwarted all French Cameroun moves and conspiracies by putting up resistance” he added.

The Southern Cameroons exiled leader observed that despite numerous acts of provocation and sabotage by the French Cameroun government, the people of Ambazonia have preserved their dignity and are slowly but surely overcoming difficult situations and will eventually emerge victorious by exercising resistance and enduring hardships.

Vice President Dabney Yerima again made a mockery of the so-called Major National Dialogue and the Swiss initiative. He pointed out that the idea of dialogue only came because French Cameroun is now facing firm resistance.

“The drama being acted by  French Cameroun surrogates such as the Government Delegate to the Bamenda City Council and the much respected Chief George Tabetando in Mamfe are contrary to Biya’s rhetoric in public,” Dabney Yerima said, noting that even “the Commonwealth, the Francophonie and the African Union are aware of that.”

By Sama Ernest with files from Rita Akana

NATO Summit: France and Germany to tell Trump they will not be treated as junior partners

4, December 2019

NATO Summit: France and Germany to tell Trump they will not be treated as junior partners 0

NATO leaders will tell U.S President Donald Trump on Wednesday they are spending billions more dollars on their militaries in the hope that he pares back his attacks on the Western alliance.

In formal talks following a Buckingham Palace reception on Tuesday to celebrate 70 years of NATO, European leaders led by Germany and France aim to tell Trump they will not be treated as junior partners as they confront global conflicts.

Despite Trump’s accusations on Tuesday that allies were “delinquent” in their failure to spend as much as the United States on their armed forces, Europe, Turkey and Canada will use the gathering at a luxury golf club north of London to argue they will spend $400 billion collectively on defence by 2024.

“If we invest money and risk our soldiers’ lives… we should be clear on NATO’s fundamentals,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter, adding that on Wednesday he would “defend the interests of France and Europe.”

That is likely to include a push to broaden NATO politically to consider a bigger role for the alliance in the Middle East and possibly Africa, although Berlin and Paris must first seek NATO support for a “wise persons” group to draw up reform plans.

In a final communique, NATO allies will recommit to their pledge to defend each other, while Britain is also expected to put six warships, two fighter squadrons and thousands of troops at NATO’s disposal to meet a U.S. demand for European armies to be more combat-ready.

NATO will also warn China for the first time that it is monitoring Beijing’s growing military might, agreeing to gradually prepare the alliance to defend against any possible future hostilities, in arenas ranging from the Arctic to computer networks.

But the debate is unlikely to be easy.

Tuesday’s gathering in London was marked by testy exchanges between Trump and Macron over the future of transatlantic ties, while the U.S. leader reiterated his criticism of Germany for not spending enough on defence, seemingly unaware of Berlin’s new defence plans to reach a NATO spending target by 2031.

“I’m a politician, and I’m used to being criticised for good rhetoric but bad substance. In the case of NATO it is the opposite. We have had bad rhetoric but extremely good substance,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told diplomats and experts at an event in London on Tuesday.

Macron also accused Turkey of working with Islamic State proxies in Syria, although Canada’s leader played down tensions.

“NATO has survived because we’ve always had frank conversations,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

(REUTERS)

Radio show helps ordinary Nigerians take on officials

4, December 2019

Radio show helps ordinary Nigerians take on officials 0

Early each morning, a crowd gathers outside Ahmad Isah’s radio studio in Nigeria’s capital Abuja hoping to share their problems over the airwaves.

For those waiting — men and women, young and old — Isah’s Brekete (very big in Pidgin English) Family show offers a rare chance try to hold officials to account in a country where rampant graft and abuses of the justice system often frustrate citizens.

The lucky few who Isah picks each day get to make themselves heard on issues ranging from their struggles against the authorities to medical needs and requests for financial assistance.

The others will have to come back another time.

“My goal is to give a voice to the voiceless, facilitate arbitration, expose wrongdoings and force those in power to respect rights,” Isah told AFP.

“The inspiration is about justice, kindness, and support to humanity.”

Nicknamed the “Ordinary President”, Isah begins his live show on Human Rights radio with a call and response in pidgin, the language widely spoken in Nigeria, to get his audience fired up.

Teacher Winifred Og ah has come to try to get some redress after she says a local court wrongly auctioned off her car for failing to pay rent on her house.

“I believe that the justice you get here, you can’t get it outside,” she told AFP.

“I have been listening to the programme and was encouraged by how other people’s problems were being resolved.”

– ‘Usually unheard’ –

Rights groups in Africa’s most populous nation often complain of a culture of impunity, where the wealthy easily skew the system in their favour and officials rarely have to answer for their misdeeds.

“The voices of the masses in Nigeria are usually unheard because they don’t have the financial muscle or connections to be able to project their views especially when in need of justice,” said Daniel Soe tan, from the Goodwill Ambassadors of Nigeria civil society organisation.

He is a regular listener to Isa’s show and lauds it for “helping to project the voices of ordinary people” in a way that makes it difficult for officials to ignore.

“When these issues are projected, it attracts the attention of the authorities to attend to their plights,” Soe tan said.

“It is a forum that allows people to speak because if they are left with authorities alone, there can be bureaucracies and attempts to silence them.”

Human Rights radio has been on air since 2006 and while Isah did not give precise audience figures he insisted it even had listeners outside Nigeria.

In a country where confidence scams are rife, the show has a checklist of requirements people must go through before they can bring their cases for resolution.

They first need to depose to an affidavit at the High Court in Nigeria in which they swear they are telling the truth.

– ‘Nothing is working’ –

It is not easy taking on the powerful interests deeply entrenched at every level of Nigeria’s federal, regional and local governments.

But Isah insists the radio show’s combative style has had concrete results bringing officials to book.

“Some of them see us as a threat. They don’t like us. We have exposed several corruption cases that other people are afraid to go close to,” he said.

“There is injustice everywhere, government is not accountable, and there is no justice for the poor, bad roads, terrible hospitals. Nothing is working in this country.”

Over 44 percent of Nigeria’s roughly 190 million people are estimated to live in extreme poverty and that fraction is expected to grow as the population expands.

The show also looks to give financial assistance to those in need with support from the MacArthur Foundation and it own fund-raising.

One of the beneficiaries Luis Kinta said the radio had raised two million naira ($5,600, 5000 euros) to boost his shoemaking business.

“I came here without knowing anyone. The good thing is that ordinary president assists without knowing the tribe, religious and affinity of those he supports,” he said.

But the major focus for Isah remains on trying get redress for those wronged by Nigeria’s abusive officials — and the flow of hopefuls bringing cases to him shows no sign of slowing.

“The justice system is only for the rich, not for the poor, So this is why we need this kind of journalism in this country,” he said.

“I will never give up.”

Source: AFP

US House report accuses Trump of power abuse

4, December 2019

US House report accuses Trump of power abuse 0

US Democratic lawmakers at the House Intelligence Committee have accused President Donald Trump of abusing his power in office in his conduct toward Ukraine.

In a much-awaited report released on Tuesday, Democrats said Trump solicited foreign interference to boost his re-election chances, undermined national security and ordered an “unprecedented” campaign to obstruct Congress.

Trump “placed his own personal and political interests above the national interests” of the US and not only “sought to undermine the integrity” presidential election process, but also endangered US national security.

In the 300-page report, the House Democrats also leveled allegations of sweeping abuse of power by Trump and said he used US military aid and the prospect of a White House visit to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to launch investigations into one of his political rivals in the 2020 election.

“The evidence is clear that President Trump used the power of his office to pressure Ukraine into announcing investigations into his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and a debunked conspiracy theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 election,” the House Democrats said. “These investigations were designed to benefit his 2020 presidential reelection campaign.”

The lawmakers argued that “damage … will be long-lasting and potentially irrevocable if the President’s ability to stonewall Congress goes unchecked.”

The US House Judiciary Committee has called Trump’s refusal to participate in an impeachment hearing “unfortunate” and said that it is a sign that Trump has something to hide.

US Congressman Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee leading an impeachment inquiry into Trump, said in a news conference after the release of the report that evidence for impeaching Trump was overwhelming.

Schiff declined to say whether he believes Trump should be removed from office, but he issued a stark warning about the danger of keeping a president with no boundaries in office.

“This is the result of a president who believes he is beyond indictment, beyond impeachment, beyond any form of accountability and indeed above the law. And that is a very dangerous thing for this country to have a president who believes they are above the law,” Schiff said during the press conference.

The report serves as the backbone of the Democrats’ impeachment proceedings against Trump, who is accused of withholding military aid to Ukraine, to force Kiev to open a probe into his Democratic political rival Joe Biden. Trump has denied the allegation and rejected the impeachment as a witch-hunt.

Trump slams report as ‘sham’

The White House responded to the published report on Tuesday afternoon and denounced it as a “one-sided sham process” that found “evidence of nothing.”

“This report reflects nothing more than their frustrations. Chairman [Adam] Schiff’s report reads like the ramblings of a basement blogger straining to prove something when there is evidence of nothing,” White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said.

Behind closed doors late Tuesday, the Democratic-led panel voted 13 to 9 to officially adopt and issue the report to the House Judiciary Committee, which is tasked with drafting articles of impeachment against the president.

The report is expected to form the basis for the Judiciary Committee to draw up formal charges or articles of impeachment in the coming weeks.

Opinion polls show Americans are bitterly divided over the impeachment.

Source: Presstv

Ambazonia: Vice President Yerima to honour Sisiku Ayuk Tabe in historic South Africa Visit

3, December 2019

Ambazonia: Vice President Yerima to honour Sisiku Ayuk Tabe in historic South Africa Visit 0

Southern Cameroons Vice President Dabney Yerima will visit the Republic of South Africa from the 10th of December in an official outing to the Rainbow nation harboring thousands of Ambazonian citizens and home to the Southern Cameroons national television, the SCBC, according to the Foreign Affairs Department of the Ambazonia Interim Government.

Dabney Yerima will be attending a series of Ambazonia national events in the cities of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Rustenburg and Cape Town to market the Amba Bonds Project and also to honor the jailed Southern Cameroons leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides, a senior Ambazonia communication official told journalists on Monday.

According to the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, the purpose of the historic visit is to rally support for the newly created Bank of Ambazonia and to thank the Sisiku Ayuk Tabe majority following in the Republic of South Africa for their continues  solidarity and commitment with the people in Ground Zero including the thousands in French Cameroun detention centers.

Over the last three years, Southern Cameroonians in South Africa have been making significant contribution to the Ambazonia struggle and quest for an independent state.

Vice President Dabney Yerima is scheduled to arrive in Johannesburg on December 10. The Southern Cameroons exiled leader is scheduled to meet with the SCBC TV management team and will be making statements to the press alongside the Secretary of Communications, Milton Taka.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Football: Diouf tells irate Senegalese fans to cool it after Messi beats Mane

3, December 2019

Football: Diouf tells irate Senegalese fans to cool it after Messi beats Mane 0

While fans in Africa reacted with indignation after Sadio Mane finished fourth in the Ballon d’Or voting, another striker who played for Senegal and Liverpool, took a slightly more balanced view.

Mane, who won the Champions League, finished behind Argentine winner Lionel Messi of Barcelona, Dutch team-mate Virgil van Dijk and Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo.

Many fans in Senegal were quick to blame racial prejudice. Journalists blamed African voters.

“We can’t talk about racism, but only about favouritism,” said El-Hadji Diouf, who played 55 games in three seasons at Anfield and won 70 international caps, told AFP.

Diouf agreed, however, that players from the continent were at a disadvantage.

“Being an African footballer is of course a handicap, as the main decision-makers and influential media are not from the continent. But Messi deserves it by far. Sadio had an exceptional year but Messi, he is stratospheric,” said Diouf.

The voting panel was made up of one journalist from each FIFA nation who listed their top five order. In total 176 cast votes. Can Dijk was first on 69 ballots, Messi on 61 and Ronaldo and Mane each with 17.

Messi edged the vote with 686 points, just seven ahead of Van Dijk. Ronaldo totalled 476 and Mane 347. Only a dozen of the 46 African voters put Mane first. Messi and Van Dijk both collected more first places on the continent.

Messi collected the most total points in Africa with 187. Mane was second on 170. Van Dijk, who dominated voting from European journalists, collected 154 in Africa.

Aboubacry Ba, who used to cover football on the continent for Canal+ Africa, blamed a lack of solidarity by African journalists on the voting panel.

There is “nothing racist, but if African votes went to the continent’s stars, things would be different”, he told AFP. “The Golden Ball is no longer played on the pitch. You have to give it to a player who sells, who amazes, but not only on the field. African voters have not understood that sometimes it is necessary to vote realistically.”

Lassana Camara, a Mauritanian journalist, wrote in Senegalese newspaper Sud Quotidien that he was frustrated by the absence of Africans on the podium.

“We refuse to believe that there is racism,” he said pointing out that Eusebio, Weah, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo, all former winners are “all players of colour”.

“But when Africans vote against Africans, we will not see the end of the tunnel tomorrow,” he wrote.

Source: AFP

UK hosting tense NATO summit

3, December 2019

UK hosting tense NATO summit 0

NATO leaders are gathering in the British capital, London, for the military alliance’s 70th anniversary amid tensions on multiple fronts.

Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, is expected to call for “unity” at the meeting later today.

But Johnson’s call for solidarity will do little to conceal the deep tensions in the military alliance.

US President, Donald Trump, who arrived in London earlier, has heightened tensions ahead of the meeting by verbally attacking French President, Emmanuel Macron.

In early November, Macron described NATO as “brain dead” in an interview with the British magazine, The Economist.

Hitting back, Trump said: “You look at what happened with the Yellow Vests, they’ve had a rough year, you can’t go around making statements like that about NATO. It’s very disrespectful”.

Beyond the US-France spat, there are broader tensions within NATO, notably over Turkey’s drift towards Russia.

Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wants the Western military alliance to recognize the Kurdish-led groups Turkey is fighting in Syria as “terrorists” but NATO disagrees.

Erdogan said yesterday that Turkey will oppose a NATO defence plan for the Baltic states unless the military alliance recognises Turkey’s foes in Syria as “terrorists”.

There are also broader Turkey-NATO tensions, as demonstrated by Turkey’s row with Greece and Cyprus over offshore natural resources in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.  

The combination of these tensions and internal rows have led some experts, notably Douglas Lute and Nicholas Burns (both former US permanent representatives to NATO) to argue that the military alliance is in “crisis”.

Source: Presstv

Ex-Zimbabwe leader Mugabe left behind $10m, several houses

3, December 2019

Ex-Zimbabwe leader Mugabe left behind $10m, several houses 0

The wealth of Zimbabwe’s former longtime president Robert Mugabe was long a mystery. Now the first official list of assets to be made public says he left behind $10 million and several houses when he died in September.

Some in Zimbabwe view that estate as far too modest for Mugabe, who ruled for 37 years and was accused by critics of accumulating vast riches and presiding over grand corruption.

The report by the state-run Herald newspaper on Tuesday does not mention any overseas assets, though it is thought that Mugabe had properties in neighboring South Africa and in Asia.

The report says there appears to be no will, though lawyers are still looking for one. The report cites the lawyers as saying the law stipulates that Mugabe’s wife, Grace, and children will inherit the property in that case.

Mugabe also left behind a farm, 10 cars and 11 hectares (27 acres) of land that included an orchard at his rural home where he was buried. His daughter, Bona, registered the estate on behalf of the family, the report said.

More than a dozen farms are publicly known to have been seized from both black and white farmers by the deceased’s family.

Mugabe died of cancer in a Singapore hospital at age 95 nearly two years after he was forced by Zimbabwe’s military and ruling party to resign.

Many in the southern African nation say the country he left behind has fallen deeper into economic and political crisis, with a growing hunger problem that a United Nations expert last month called “shocking” for a state not at war.

Half of Zimbabwe’s population, or more than 7 million people, is experiencing severe hunger, the U.N. World Food Program said Tuesday, calling it a “vicious cycle of sky-rocketing malnutrition that’s hitting women and children hardest.”

It plans to more than double the number of people it helps to 4 million but said delivering aid will be complicated by “surging prices” for basic items and a regional drought that has hurt food supplies.

Critics blame the overall crisis on the administration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has struggled to fulfil promises of prosperity since taking power in 2017.

AP

Football: Cannavaro expects to stay at Guangzhou after ‘miracle’ title

3, December 2019

Football: Cannavaro expects to stay at Guangzhou after ‘miracle’ title 0

Fabio Cannavaro said taking Guangzhou Evergrande to the Chinese Super League title was “a miracle” and gave the strongest indication yet that he expects to keep his job.

The 46-year-old Italian World Cup winner was temporarily moved aside as coach in October but returned to lead China’s most successful club to the championship on Sunday.

It was the former Juventus and Real Madrid defender’s first major honour as a coach and a personal triumph after a turbulent few weeks during which he appeared to be on the brink of the sack.

“I know that many names have been mentioned as a replacement for me, including (Jose) Mourinho, (Zinedine) Zidane and (former Guangzhou coach) Scolari,” Cannavaro told the Guangzhou Daily in a report published Tuesday, referring to recent rumours.

“For a team of Evergrande’s level, fans hope to have the top coaches and the coach will definitely face various pressures.

“I’m definitely not a perfect coach and it’s impossible to make everyone satisfied.”

Guangzhou were still top of the CSL in late October but a poor run led them to briefly push Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning skipper aside and put veteran captain Zheng Zhi in charge.

Cannavaro made a surprise return at the start of November but only after a reprimand by the club, which scolded him for his “weak ability to rectify mistakes”.

Guangzhou went on to win the next three matches and seal their eighth title in nine years with a 3-0 win over Shanghai Shenhua at the weekend, after which Cannavaro was tossed in the air by his jubilant players.

“I know very well that the outside world had various opinions about it,” Cannavaro said of the brief period when he was relieved of his duties.

He did not say how close he came to leaving, but said winning the CSL had fulfilled Guangzhou’s demands for the season.

Bearing in mind injuries and the need to revamp an ageing squad, winning the title was almost “a miracle”, Cannavaro said, hailing Brazilian midfielder Paulinho as a “superhero”.

“An average team can’t do it,” he added.

Cannavaro said he has several priorities for next season, suggesting that he expects to still be in charge at Guangzhou.

“I hope to further reduce the average age of the team, get in better replacements and continue to provide talent for the national team,” he said.

Source: AFP

«< 797 798 799 800 801 >»
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.