Ambazonia Interim Gov’t says France is major obstacle to peace in Southern Cameroons

25, November 2019

Ambazonia Interim Gov’t says France is major obstacle to peace in Southern Cameroons 0

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government (IG0 has described the French administration under President Emmanuel Macron as the biggest stone wall standing on the path to peace in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Africa’s newest nation which is direly in need of political stability.

The Communications Secretary, Milton Taka made the comments in this week’s Interim Government briefing to the people of Southern Cameroons both in Ground Zero and in the diaspora.

“The most prominent obstacle lying in the way of genuine dialogue between the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and La Republique du Cameroun is the French government. Paris wants Southern Cameroonians to be second class citizens in the French controlled La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroonians want to be free and develop their own country” Milton Taka observed.

Palais de l’Élysée has been in direct contact with French Cameroun politicians and officials including the 86 year old dictator, Paul Biya pushing for a senseless military solution to the conflict in Southern Cameroons. Communications Secretary, Milton Taka further pointed out that the United States government and the European Union with the support of the African Union are capable of getting the two nations to reach an understanding. “The more the French government intervenes, the more they delay the solution to the war in Southern Cameroons.”

The Ambazonia Communications Secretary also stated that France would not be rid of French Cameroun’s ongoing economic and political woes created by its surrogate, Paul Biya by pushing for a continues military confrontation with Ambazonia.

Speaking to the Paris-based Jeune Afrique news magazine recently, the Southern Cameroons leader, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe noted that the level of barbarism being perpetuated by Mr Biya’s military and his government militias 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 20,000 people have been killed, over 280 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. There are calls for Mr Biya and his military and private militia to be held accountable for the crimes committed in Southern Cameroons.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

US Navy chief fired over handling of SEAL saga involving Trump

25, November 2019

US Navy chief fired over handling of SEAL saga involving Trump 0

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper fired the Navy’s top civilian on Sunday over his handling of the case of a Navy SEAL who was convicted of battlefield misconduct in Iraq and later won the support of President Donald Trump.

Esper also determined that the sailor in question, Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, should be allowed to retain his Trident pin designating him as a SEAL – effectively ending the Navy’s efforts to carry out a peer review that could have ousted him from the elite force.

Trump, who publicly opposed taking away Gallagher’s Trident pin and had intervened in the case to restore his rank, cheered the moves.

“Eddie will retire peacefully with all of the honours that he has earned, including his Trident Pin,” Trump said on Twitter.

The fired Navy Secretary Richard Spencer last week suggested a possible split with Trump by telling Reuters that Gallagher should still face a peer review board.ADVERTISING

The SEAL was acquitted by a military jury in July of murdering a captured and wounded Islamic State fighter in Iraq by stabbing him in the neck, but it convicted him of illegally posing with the detainee’s corpse. That had led to his rank being reduced.

The White House said in November that Trump had restored Gallagher’s rank and had pardoned two Army officers accused of war crimes in Afghanistan. Critics had said such actions would undermine military justice and send a message that battlefield atrocities will be tolerated.

In a letter published in media reports, Spencer took parting shots at Trump and defended the need to preserve “good order and discipline throughout the ranks” — something Navy officials had believed the peer review board would help ensure.

“The rule of law is what sets us apart from our adversaries,” Spencer wrote, according to the reports.

“Unfortunately it has become apparent that in this respect, I no longer share the same understanding with the Commander in Chief who appointed me.”

The Pentagon declined to immediately provide a copy of Spencer’s letter.

However, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman offered a different version of events leading up to Spencer’s dismissal, saying Spencer also had a private line of communications with the White House.

“Secretary Spencer had previously and privately proposed to the White House – contrary to Spencer’s public position – to restore Gallagher’s rank and allow him to retire with his Trident pin,” Hoffman said.

Spencer never informed Esper of his private proposal, Hoffman said.

Esper decided to ask for Spencer’s resignation after “losing trust and confidence in him regarding his lack of candor over conversations with the White House,” Hoffman said.

Esper had favored letting the review process “play itself out objectively and deliberately, in fairness to all parties,” Hoffman said. But that now appeared impossible.

“At this point, given the events of the last few days, Secretary Esper has directed that Gallagher retain his Trident pin,” Hoffman said.

Trump said he would nominate the U.S. envoy to Norway, Ken Braithwaite, to replace Spencer as Navy Secretary.

In an appearance on Fox News Channel on Sunday, Gallagher indicated that he hoped to retire next Saturday, “without the board” convening to decide whether he could continue to be a SEAL, considered among the most elite of U.S. fighting forces. 

(REUTERS)

Israeli party leader Gantz says Netanyahu threatening ‘civil war’

25, November 2019

Israeli party leader Gantz says Netanyahu threatening ‘civil war’ 0

The Main challenger of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leader of Blue & White party Benny Gantz has warned that the premier’s rejection to resign is threatening a civil war in Israel.

Gantz urged Likud party officials to step in to replace the indicted premier as soon as possible in order to resolve the political deadlock over the formation of a new cabinet.

Calls have been growing for a leadership vote in Israel’s ruling party since Thursday when Netanyahu was indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in a set of corruption cases.

Meanwhile, Likud Knesset member Nir Barkat has presented a plan to hold primaries for a new position of deputy head of the party who would replace Netanyahu if he is forced to take a leave of absence to deal with the indictment.

Also another lawmaker Gideon Sa’ar publicly challenged Netanyahu calling for him to open up the party to new leadership.

A watchdog group has asked Israel’s top court to order Netanyahu to step aside after his indictment, adding to pressure he is facing from within his ruling party.

Israelis will have to go the polls in the coming weeks for the third time in a year if no party can form a coalition cabinet. Netanyahu is under fire to resign following his indictment in a graft scandal.

In politics nothing remains the same, observers say Netanyahu’s legal charges have also boosted voices within his own Likud party calling to overthrow Netanyahu after over a decade at the party’s helm although most still side with the indicted leader.

Source: Presstv

Bank of Ambazonia to issue $10 Million bonds

25, November 2019

Bank of Ambazonia to issue $10 Million bonds 0

Credible sources within the Interim Government of the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) have confirmed that Vice President Dabney Yerima will be announcing the creation of “THE BANK OF AMBAZONIA (BOA) and Chairman of the Board of Governors today November 25th, 2019. The Bank of Ambazonia, AKA “The Ambazonian Njangi House” is an organized all-inclusive Semi-Autonomous Informal Financial Structure (Shadow Bank) with credible representatives from constituent components of the revolution. This will provide the Ambazonian people and communities with alternative but safe sources of funding for Southern Cameroons Restoration without generating additional systemic risk.

Our sources are informed that this decision is guided by sound advice from the international community, Americans and encouraging statements from the Undersecretary of State for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy. The Interim Government is quickly learning to adapt to the fast-changing nature of the Southern Cameroons Restoration quest. After listening to the calls for a more accountable, transparent and inclusive financial structure to better mobilize resources to fund our Restoration, the Interim Government has opted to go back to basics and apply what has worked best for The Southern Cameroons community for the past 58 years.

“The successive murderous regimes in Cameroun shutdown The Southern Cameroons venerable Cameroon Bank and other major financial institutions that served our communities and completely limited access to money and formal financial institutions from our people. However, they underestimated the innovation and resilience of our people in surviving within this system. The sheer determination to survive and develop our communities for the past 58 years of occupation resulted in the establishment of a very robust informal financial sector call “NJANGI HOUSES” (Shadow Banks), that revolutionized economic development and self-reliance of our people to lean on each other” stated Brado Tabenyang Etchu, the Secretary of State for Economy and Finance.

Most of the development and education of the Southern Cameroons communities has been made possible through the proceeds of NJANGI HOUSES.  The people of Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) are again currently faced with similar, but monumental challenges in their quest to restore their independence. The international community and major financial institutions have shutdown access to funding from the Southern Cameroons community to help them prosecute this war of liberation from colonial Cameroun.

The Interim Government has concluded that we are on our own and must rely on our own innovative ways to fund this quest for liberation and there is nothing that has made our people and communities more self-reliant than our innovative NJANGI HOUSE initiatives and it is this inspiration that has guided the Interim Government to form the people’s bank.

 “We must keep the enemy wondering because a bank gives us another element of surprise and institutional credibility” The government of Cameroun is incurring and mortgaging our resources to prosecute its genocidal war against our people and we cannot continue to idly watch and do nothing” noted VP Dabney Yerima.

The Bank through its Board of Governors will immediately certify the issuance of $10 million high interest yielding AmbaFreedomBonds (AFB) to the public for sale. Proceeds from the sales of these bonds will go towards financing of the revolution. We are going to incur these liabilities to defend and provide humanitarian relief to our refugees and IDPs and these liabilities are going to be part of any negotiations with the government of Cameroun and the world must take note.  Southern Cameroonians and are encouraged to own a piece of their country and patronize the purchase of these bonds as a means to fund the struggle by going to www.ambabondholders.com Bundlers/professional sales agents will be used with a bonds-based commission redeemed at time of bond maturity. Your Bond, Your Freedom!

Cameroonian among ExxonMobil crew abducted in Equatorial Guinea

24, November 2019

Cameroonian among ExxonMobil crew abducted in Equatorial Guinea 0

Seven crew aboard a supply ship for the oil industry in Equatorial Guinea were kidnapped when “pirates” attacked their vessel, the oil and gas ministry said in a statement.The 15-member crew comprised nationals from South Africa, the Philippines, Serbia, and Cameroon.

The US oil giant ExxonMobil reported the supply ship Warden, which it was chartering from the oil services firm Swire, was attacked on Wednesday in the country’s territorial waters, it said.“Eight hid and seven were kidnapped,” the statement said.

The vessel had left the oilfield of Zafiro, 12 nautical miles off the coast, and was heading to Luba, a port town on the southern island of Bioko, when it was attacked.The statement gave no details about the kidnappers or their motives.Equatorial Guinea is located on the southern rim of the Gulf of Guinea, one of the world’s hotspots for maritime piracy.In the first nine months of this year, the region accounted for 82 percent of crew kidnappings around the world, according to the International Maritime Bureau, an organization monitoring crimes at sea.

In 2018, attacks doubled over the previous year.Pirates in the Gulf of Guinea sometimes divert ships for several days, long enough to plunder the cargo and demand huge ransoms before freeing the crew.On Nov. 4, four sailors were kidnapped and a guard was shot and wounded when suspected pirates stormed an oil tanker off the coast of Togo.

Two days earlier, pirates attacked a Norwegian-owned ship waiting to berth at the port of Cotonou in Benin, taking eight crew and the captain.In August, Russian, Chinese and Ukrainian seamen were seized in attacks on merchant ships off Cameroon’s port of Douala.

The countries bordering the Gulf of Guinea, an arc that stretches some 6,000 kilometers from Angola to Liberia in the north, have limited surveillance and maritime defense capabilities.They have been trying for several years to bolster their means of intervention and improve regional collaboration with US and French help. 

Source: AFP

East Africa storms kill 39 in Kenya, Tanzania

24, November 2019

East Africa storms kill 39 in Kenya, Tanzania 0

Heavy rains lashing East Africa have caused dozens of deaths, with 29 buried by landslides in Kenya, and 10 people drowned in a river in Tanzania, officials said Saturday.

The landslides and floods come amid weeks of destructive rains and flooding across the wider East African region.

At least 29 people were killed in Kenya when their homes were swept away in landslides during ferocious overnight rainstorms.

Their homes were hit in the early hours of Saturday amid torrential rains in the Pokot region, 350 kilometers northwest of the capital, Nairobi.

“We are saddened to confirm that 12 people from Tapach and Parua in Pokot South, and 17 from Tamkal in Pokot Central lost their lives,” Kenya’s Interior Minister Fred Matiang’i said in a statement.

“Our profound sympathies go to the families and friends of those who have been affected.”

Army and police helicopters have been sent, Matiang’i said, with efforts delayed because roads had been cut and bridges closed after streams turned into raging torrents.

Two children were pulled out alive from the smashed wreckage of their mud-covered homes, and rescue efforts to dig bodies out of the dirt continued.

“Massive landslides reported in various areas of West Pokot County following heavy downpour,” Kenya Red Cross said in a message, adding its emergency response teams had deployed to help.

Extreme weather

In Tanzania, at least 10 people drowned when they were swept away by a torrential river in the far west, in the Sengerema district of Mwanza.

“We think there is a possibility to find more bodies,” said Tanzanian Red Cross official Revocatus Kayanda, part of the team who recovered the victims.

Violent downpours have also displaced tens of thousands in Somalia, submerged whole towns in South Sudan, and killed dozens in flash floods and landslides in Ethiopia.

Close to a million people in South Sudan alone are affected with growing fears of disease and starvation.

Floods hit East Africa regularly, but scientists say that it has been exacerbated by a powerful climate phenomenon in the Indian Ocean, stronger than any seen in years.

The extreme weather is blamed on the Indian Ocean Dipole — a climate system defined by the difference in sea surface temperature between the western and eastern areas of the ocean.

The ocean off East Africa is currently far warmer than usual, resulting in higher evaporation and consequent rain over the continent.

(Source: AFP)

French Cameroun forces, pro-Yaoundé armed militia launch major assault on Bui Warriors

24, November 2019

French Cameroun forces, pro-Yaoundé armed militia launch major assault on Bui Warriors 0

Troops loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé and armed groups sponsored by Minister Paul Atanga Nji have reportedly launched a fierce assault on key locations habouring Ambazonia Restoration Forces known as the Bui Warriors, less than a month after they staged a similar attack in the Menchum County in the Northern Zone of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Cameroon Intelligence Report correspondent in Jakiri reported that the French Cameroun government troops and their Southern Cameroons proxies attacked Ambazonia residential neighborhoods in the outskirts of Kumbo and Jakiri with artillery rounds early today Sunday the 24th of November, causing heavy damage to citizens’ properties.  There were no immediate reports of possible human casualties.

Our correspondent added that local residents fled the County headquarters fearing for their lives.

The Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima is yet to comment on the French Cameroun attacks on Bui County. What we do know is that some Ambazonia Restoration Forces are trying to prevent the Francophone soldiers and their Southern Cameroons proxies from advancing towards Kumbo.

By Sama Ernest

Dangote Cameroon sees 6% sales drop in 9M19

24, November 2019

Dangote Cameroon sees 6% sales drop in 9M19 0

In the first nine months of 2019, Dangote Cameroon reported a decrease in its domestic performance with sales down six per cent.

“Our 1.5Mta clinker mill in Douala sold about 866,000t of cement in the first nine months of 2019, down six per cent from 920,000t sold in the same period in 2018. We estimate that our market share was 40 per cent during the period,” said the group.

The decline in performance has been attributed by the company due to persistent security problems in the northwest and southwest regions, where economic activity has been slowing down due to fighting between secessionists and defence forces.

In the first half of this year, Dangote had already reported a decline in activity, seeing its sales at 0.6Mt, or down 7.1 per cent YoY.

Published under Cement News

US: Members of Congress Tour US-Mexico Border in San Ysidro in response to Death of Cameroon asylum seeker

24, November 2019

US: Members of Congress Tour US-Mexico Border in San Ysidro in response to Death of Cameroon asylum seeker 0

Members of Congress visited the U.S.-Mexico border in San Ysidro on Friday in response to the in-custody death of an asylum seeker from Cameroon.

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) toured the border before holding an afternoon press conference regarding the death of Nebane Abienwi, 37, while in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody last month.

Abienwi was admitted to Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center on Sept. 26 after he experienced a hypertensive event at the Otay Mesa Detention Center. He was unresponsive and appeared paralyzed on his left side when he arrived at the hospital.

He was pronounced dead on Oct. 1. The cause of his death was ruled brain death caused by a brain hemorrhage.

The CBC says they want to call attention to the mistreatment of black immigrants.

“Thousands of African and Caribbean immigrants who immigrate to the United States of America are treated as if they are invisible,” said Rep. Karen Bass, Chair of the CBC, said. “Many arrived in South America and then walked north, all to be dehumanized and mistreated at our southern border. We are heading to the border to hear what they have been through. They are an important piece of this story.”

Karen Blass was joined by Congresswoman Barbara lee, both of California, and representative Yvette Clark of New York.

The spent the morning talking with families, many of them of African decent, in Tijuana.

The purpose of this field visit was informational, to get a first hand account of what African and Caribbean asylum seekers face trying to get the U.S.

Congresswoman Bass pointed out many from Africa and the Caribbean speak french dialects and there simply aren’t enough resources in that language to properly process them or even make them aware of their legal rights.

“We need to pay specific attention to the plight of the immigrants from African countries because they wind up being virtually stateless. Their process is strange, it is not transparent, it’s not really clear at all,” said Bass.

ICE said they are reviewing the death in a press release in October.

“ICE is firmly committed to the health and welfare of all those in its custody and is undertaking a comprehensive agency-wide review of this incident, as it does in all such cases,” the statement read in part. 

Department of Homeland Security records show Abienwi applied for admission into the country at the San Ysidro Port of Entry without proper paperwork on Sept. 5, ICE said. He was transferred to ICE custody on Sept. 19.

Source: NBC Sandiego

Italian coastguard rescues 149 migrants, others missing

24, November 2019

Italian coastguard rescues 149 migrants, others missing 0

A crowded boat filled with migrants capsized in wind-whipped seas near a tiny Mediterranean island on Saturday, sending them tumbling into the water, said the Italian coastguard, which pulled 149 of them to safety.

There were fears at least two people or perhaps many more were missing.

The coastguard said the rescue, before sunset, involving four of its motorboats and two of its specialized rescue divers, took place about one nautical mile from the beach of Isola di Conigli, an uninhabited islet just off Lampedusa, an Italian island south of Sicily.

It said those rescued, who included three children and 13 women, were brought to the port of Lampedusa, a vacation and fishing island.

At portside, two of those rescued, a Libyan and an Ethiopian, told authorities that their wives weren’t among them, prompting fears the two women were missing offshore, according to Italian news agency ANSA.

Later, ANSA said migrants told authorities that there were 169 passengers when their boat set out.

That meant as many as 20 migrants might be missing.

Rescue efforts were launched after a private citizen signaled that a 10-meter-long boat was foundering about a mile from Lampedusa, the coastguard said, adding that the distressed vessel had neither requested help nor signaled its position to the coastguard.

The coastguard said no bodies were spotted at sea during the rescue.

Risking their lives, migrants set out in unseaworthy boats launched by Libya-based human traffickers.

(Source: Reuters)

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