24, September 2019

US: Impeachment pressure grows over Trump’s call with Ukraine president ⁰

Pressure is escalating for Democrats in the US Congress to launch impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump over allegations that the Republican president had asked his Ukrainian counterpart to launch an investigation that could damage Democratic political rival Joe Biden.

Speaking to reporters as he arrived at the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday, a defiant Trump said he is taking the impeachment threat “not at all seriously”

“The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, was largely corruption… and largely the fact that we don’t want our people, like vice president Biden and his son, creating… the corruption already in the Ukraine,” Trump said.

Trump also sought to deflect any blame from himself and redirect it towards Biden, accusing the former vice president, without evidence, of engaging in corruption in Ukraine.

The latest crisis for Trump was sparked earlier this month after The Washington Post reported that Trump made a phone call in July to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and allegedly attempted to coerce Zelensky into finding damning information about Biden’s son’s business dealings in Ukraine.

On Sunday, Trump acknowledged that he discussed Biden and his son in a call with the Ukrainian president.

Several Democrats now argue that Trump’s call for Ukraine to investigate Biden, and what they suspect was a threat to condition $250 million in aid to Ukraine on an investigation of Biden, is impeachable conduct.

That view may be pushing House leaders towards a tipping point for launching removal proceedings.

The Democratic leader of a key congressional panel said on Sunday the pursuit of Trump’s impeachment may be the “only remedy” to the situation.

Amid the growing pressure, several Republicans in the US Senate, which would hold a trial of Trump should the House impeach him, have signaled they want the president to be more transparent about the call and the whistleblower’s complaint.

“I would just urge the president — you know, he’s talking openly about the conversation — to release as much as possible,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump loyalist, told the Hugh Hewitt radio show.

However, Democrat leaders have hesitated to pull the impeachment trigger. Launching impeachment proceedings could be a politically risky move ahead of a presidential election.

Source: Presstv

24, September 2019

Kenya: 7 children killed, scores hurt in school collapse ⁰

Seven have died and scores injured when a school building collapsed in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, in an accident blamed on shoddy construction.

“We can confirm that we have seven fatalities,” said government spokesman Cyrus Oguna.

Education Minister George Magoha said in a statement that 64 pupils had been admitted to Kenyatta National Hospital, most of them with minor injuries, but two others required “more attention.”

Hundreds of angry residents of Dagoretti, a poor suburb where many live in makeshift homes, thronged the site where rescuers picked through the rubble until the search for victims ended in the afternoon.

An AFP reporter at the site said books and desks were strewn through the debris of the two-story building, a semi-permanent structure made of concrete, iron sheeting and timber.

“I had just dropped my son to school, and heard screams on my way back, and that is when I found people assisting them out to hospital,” said Margaret Muthoni at Kenyatta National Hospital, whose four-year-old son was injured.

Relatives wait outside a security perimeter set up near the area of a collapsed school building on September 23, 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya. (Photo by AFP)

“I am just lucky my son survived with injuries. It is a very unfortunate incident because some children have died,” said Muthoni.

Kepha Otieno said he had lost his five-year-old daughter.

“I just can’t believe. It is too hard for me and the family,” he said.

The school was a private institution with around 800 registered pupils, said Magoha, adding that it would be closed for the next four days.

‘Disaster waiting to happen’

Dagoretti MP John Kiarie told KTN television that it appeared the first floor had collapsed on children on the ground floor. However, details were sketchy.

Kiarie said the area had no land on which to construct a proper public school.

He said the disaster highlighted the lack of “regulation of educational institutions, especially those in informal settlements… regulations that pertain to the construction and stability of educational institutions.”

“It is the highest level of irresponsibility and greed when you look at this structure that came down, and even the ones standing. It is another disaster waiting to happen,” said Shadrack Okelo, a local resident.

Moses Nyakiongora, an official with the National Building Inspectorate, said at the scene: “This school was not properly constructed. It is totally substandard.”

Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for education Prof George Magoha meets pupils of a school that collapsed earlier in Nairobi on September 23, 2019 at the Kenyatta national hospital. (Photo by AFP)

Magoha visited the site and vowed to build a public school in the area.

“What has happened here today is regrettable but investigations have been launched,” he said.

“I have inspected the rest of the classrooms and they look stable. But the one that collapsed was substandard, it should not have been allowed to be there.”

Numerous buildings have collapsed in Nairobi and other Kenyan towns with deadly results in recent years, as the country experiences booming growth in the construction industry. Corruption has allowed contractors to cut corners or bypass regulations.

In April 2016, 49 people were killed in the collapse of a six-floor building in the north-east of the capital.

(Source: AFP)

23, September 2019

Most French Camerounians detached from reality in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima says the position of most French speaking Cameroonians on what is happening in Southern Cameroons has been detached from reality ever since the beginning of the Ambazonia revolution three years ago.

The Southern Cameroons second-in-command made the remark during a telephone conversation with the chairman and editor-in-chief of the Cameroon Concord News Group, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai late on Sunday, adding that spending hush hush money to shut down the Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report face book pages and groups by the Biya Francophone regime will not stop the coverage of the French Cameroun genocidal campaign going on in Southern Cameroons.

Comrade Dabney Yerima further said that instead of working to achieve better living standards for French Camerounians, Biya and his consortium of CPDM crime syndicates continued to pursue a policy that served the interests of lobby groups in the United States.

The Southern Cameroons Vice President said there were a number of positive developments in the Ambazonia struggle that he will be making public in the coming days. Dabney Yerima also urged the chairman of the Concord News Group to seek legal advice in dealing with the closure of the face book departments in Concord and Intelligence Report and to continue to cover the war in Southern Cameroons.

Dabney Yerima said that the long-held unrealistic narrative promoted by the French Cameroun mainstream media outlets about events in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia had started to gradually lose its effect due to the good work by the Cameroon Concord News Group team.

Comrade Dabney Yerima observed that what is actually happening in Southern Cameroons requires a fact finding mission from both the United Nations and the African Union. He noted that the international community should adopt a different policy based on reality and not on what is being promoted by French Cameroun representatives in various diplomatic missions in Europe and the US.

By Chi Prudence Asong

23, September 2019

Indomitable Lions: Kana-Biyik announces retirement for the second time ⁰

The 30-year-old defender calls time on his international career having earned six caps for the Indomitable Lions

Cameroon and Gazisehir Gaziantep defender Jean Armel Kana-Biyik has retired from international football.

The former France youth international quits his African national team after making six appearances, the last being at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals when the Indomitable Lions drew 0-0 with Ghana.

In announcing his decision, the France-born defender said he needs to focus on his club career with Turkish Super Lig side Gazisehir Gaziantep, as well as paving way for upcoming players.

“After a long reflection, I’ve decided to bring an end to my international career,” BBC quoted Kana-Biyik as having announced on social media.

“I’m making way for younger players and I’ll focus on my club career. But I’m proud to have donned the prestigious Cameroon jersey with its rich history.”

He is the son of former Cameroon international defender Andre Kana-Biyik and has had previous club stints in France with Le Havre, Rennes and Toulouse.

Kana-Biyik might not have enjoyed a fluent international career, having quit the national team in 2014 after being snubbed for the 2014 Fifa World Cup.

He, however, came out of retirement and managed to feature at the 2019 Afcon in Egypt.

Source: Goal.com

23, September 2019

Truckloads of Chinese weapons dispatched to Southern Cameroons ⁰

French Cameroun army soldiers deployed to Southern Cameroons have reportedly received truckloads of new Chinese made weapons and munitions dispatched by the Biya regime, irrespective of the so-called national dialogue by Yaoundé aimed at ending the war in Southern Cameroons.

Requesting anonymity, a senior Cameroon government army officer serving with the Rapid Intervention Battalion, BIR in the economic metropolis of Douala told Cameroon Concord News on Sunday that the regime in Yaoundé has received huge amount of weapons and logistical equipment provided by Beijing to Yaoundé to assist in the war in Southern Cameroons.

Our source added that the ammunitions came in via the Douala port from China and has been transported to Buea and Bamenda. He further noted that Yaoundé recently sent a convoy of 9 trucks loaded with military service men and women from the French Cameroun base in Koutaba to Bamenda.

French Cameroun sponsored militias continue to kidnap people, commit armed robbery and carry out raids on Ambazonia citizens in both the Northern and the Southern Zones. They recently carried out a string of attacks – supported by French Cameroun forces in Bamenda, Bali and Ekok in Eyumojock with many Ambazonia detainees taken to unknown locations and their fate remains uncertain.

By Rita Akana

23, September 2019

National Dialogue: Not about Paul Biya ⁰

Ever since Cameroon’s long-serving president, Paul Biya, announced his national dialogue in lieu of the inclusive dialogue called for by the international community, many hypocrites have sprung into action.

Some are still speaking the old and provocative language that brought about the crisis in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Many claim federalism is not good for the country, adding that it is too expensive. Many of them fail to understand that excessive centralization is hyper-expensive, as it creates the conditions for corruption and the abuse of power.

Corruption is expensive. The number of government officials in jail today and the amounts of money they are being accused of embezzling speak to the fact that corruption is more expensive than federalism.

The current form of the state is to blame for most of the country’s woes and suggesting that it cannot be changed simply implies the chaos of the past three years should continue.

If the form of the state cannot be discussed and changed, then the so-called national dialogue does not need to take place. Mr. Biya’s government has had multiple opportunities to make Cameroon great, but he has misused every single opportunity available to him.

The Tripartite Talks and the 1996 Constitutional talks were huge opportunities for him to endear himself to Cameroonians. He unfortunately missed all the targets.

If Mr. Biya and his CPDM government do not walk away from their old ways, then they want more bloodshed in Cameroon. The country has already lost a lot of blood and it is time to turn off the unpleasant streams of blood that have turned our country into an abattoir.

The government must always bear in mind that the dynamics have changed. The Internet has come and it has come to stay and Cameroonians will use it to expose the corruption and the dishonesty of Cameroon government officials.

Besides, if Southern Cameroonians are not satisfied with the outcome of the so-called dialogue, they will ensure that more guns head to Cameroon for action and this will be bad news for the suffering masses. We must avoid this.

Today, it is not only the government that can purchase weapons. The equation has changed. Government officials must always know that they cannot always lead Cameroonians by their noses.

As Cameroonians, we must work hard to ensure that old demons do not rear their ugly heads again in our country. We must prevent bloodshed in our country by having a frank and fruitful discussion on the Southern Cameroons issue and other problems that have pitted ordinary citizens against their own government.

Francophones should understand that they must never speak for Southern Cameroonians. They do not understand the issues and they are easily corruptible and contented with whatever crumbs Mr. Biya has for them.

Southern Cameroonians know they deserve more. They also know how to be patient. But after five decades of patience, they feel it is time to do things differently and that was why they stood up as one man to challenge the Yaounde authoritarian regime.

And they will never be apologetic about it. Cameroon belongs to all of those who have been born in the country and it will be preposterous to let a few people exploit others. It is always great to live for a day as a lion than to live for a century as a sheep. Southern Cameroonians have proven that.

They have also proven that they still have a stomach for a fight if the government still wants to continue with its manipulation and tricks.

The financial resources are there and there is a huge pool of willing fighters prepared and ready to muddy the waters.

The irony is that it is the government itself that has created the huge pool of fighters. Its inability to create jobs for young graduates has only made it possible for the government’s enemies to create work for the idle hands and minds that are available across the country.

Second, the government’s arrogance has also made things easy for Cameroonians to hate it. An efficient and arrogant government can only incur the people’s wrath. The government’s refusal to heed the people’s call for changes in the manner in which the country is being run has only made the country ungovernable.

The form of the state must change for peace to prevail. If Francophones are happy with Mr. Biya’s disastrous decentralization, let them know that Southern Cameroonians will never accept that.

Like most Cameroonians, I don’t want any more bloodshed. I want to see honesty and determination during the so-called talks which are gradually turning into a carnival of press releases and motions of support for Paul Biya.

This is bad news for some of us who hold that the dialogue could bring about peace. The guns, that have spoken for three years should be silenced for us to make giant strides.

However, the government must understand that Southern Cameroonians will always keep their gun option on the table if the government does not change its ways. The chaos of the past will always be a reminder to the government whenever it wants to play its pranks.

The fund-raising events will surely continue until the right solutions are found if the government does not display a lot of good faith.

Cameroon is bigger than Paul Biya. It is bigger than the ruling CPDM. The chaos of the last three years should always serve as a reminder each time a major decision has to be taken.

The government should also seek to repair its relation with the country’s Diaspora. The Diaspora has the resources to destabilize the country for a long time.

Having a good relationship with it, implies that those resources could be converted into investment funds.

Dr Joachim Arrey

23, September 2019

Burundi govt accuses Catholic bishops of spreading ‘hatred’ ⁰

Catholic bishops in Burundi came under fire from authorities for “spitting venomous hatred” over a damning message read out in churches Sunday denouncing intolerance and political violence ahead of 2020 elections.

The message issued by the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Burundi and read out in churches expressed their “concern” eight months ahead of the May 20 presidential election comes five years after President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term plunged the country into crisis.

In the letter seen by AFP, the bishops raised the alarm over efforts to “suffocate and assault certain political parties and to persecute their members. Criminal acts go as far as murders with political motives… perpetrated against those with different opinions to the government.”

They also said the ruling party’s youth league — the feared Imbonerakure which the UN has accused of atrocities — had “taken the place of security forces”.

Presidential spokesman Willy Nyamitwe lashed out at the bishops on Twitter after the message leaked on social media ahead of the church services.

“Some bishops should be defrocked because it is becoming a habit: on the eve of elections they spit their venomous hatred through incendiary messages,” he wrote on Saturday.

The secretary general of the ruling CNDD-FDD Evariste Ndayishimiye meanwhile accused the bishops of “sowing division”.

“It is shameful to spread hatred among the faithful,” he told a political gathering Saturday.

A team of investigators from the United Nations earlier this month warned of a climate of fear in Burundi ahead of the elections, with crimes against humanity and other serious violations continuing with impunity.

“The commission found that the eight common risk factors for criminal atrocities are present in Burundi,” it said, insisting that “the evolving situation must be monitored with the greatest vigilance.”

The Imbonerakure especially have carried out killings, disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detentions, acts of torture and rape against actual or alleged political opposition members, the investigators said.

At least 1,200 people were killed in violence in the wake of the 2015 election and more than 400,000 were displaced in violence between April 2015 and May 2017 the UN says was mostly carried out by state security forces.

In a surprise development, Nkurunziza announced last year that he would not stand for election in 2020, confounding critics who accused him of working to extend his grip on power.

Relations soured between the government of Nkurunziza, a devout evangelical, and the Catholic Church after it opposed his third-term bid in 2015.

(AFP)

23, September 2019

Split by Brexit, Labour kicks off conference showdown ⁰

Britain’s main opposition Labour Party will begin the daunting task of forming a coherent Brexit plan at its annual conference on Sunday, with polls suggesting it could face an election drubbing.ADVERTISING

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s moment of truth comes with the crisis-torn country hurtling toward an October 31 exit from the European Union without a plan for future trade.

Yet the same divisions over Europe that saw Boris Johnson’s right-wing Conservatives lose their working majority — and make a general election appear inevitable — are also tearing apart Labour on the left.

The 119-year-old party’s support base consists of cosmopolitan city-dwelling europhiles and traditional working-class communities that rejected Brussels in the 2016 referendum.

Polls show these views have become even more entrenched today — a polarisation that further complicates Corbyn’s bid to find a unifying stance.

The strongly anti-European Brexit Party and the pro-EU Liberal Democrats are eroding Labour’s support on both flanks, and it now sits 15 percent behind the Conservatives, according to a poll published late Saturday.

Labour officials will hunker down in a swanky hotel on England’s south coast Sunday night to whittle down their Brexit options to a single position that will be either rejected or approved Monday.

Corbyn has given every indication that he wants Labour to stay neutral on the defining issue of UK politics.

“No, I am not sitting on the fence,” he insisted in a testy ITV interview Friday.

He has promised to negotiate a new divorce deal that maintains closer EU relations and then hold another referendum in which remaining in the bloc is the other option.

But he would not say which of the two he would campaign for — or whether he actually wants to stay or go.

“The British people will make that final decision,” Corbyn told ITV.

Ugly polls

Efforts to keep the peace by appeasing both wings of his party are not sitting well with voters ahead of an early election that most expect to happen within months.

A September YouGov survey showed that just half of self-identifying Labour supporters trust Corbyn’s ability to “make the right decisions on Brexit”.

And an Ipsos MORI analysis found Corbyn’s net satisfaction rating at -60. No opposition leader has fared worse in more than 40 years.

“This strategy of being all things to all people on Brexit — it paid off partly in 2017 (elections), but it’s not clear that it’s going to pay off again,” said London School of Economics analyst Sara Hobolt.

“I think it wouldn’t be right for Labour to have no opinion on such a big decision,” Labour’s foreign affairs spokeswoman Emily Thornberry agreed.

“Labour should campaign for remain,” she told The Guardian.

Party discipline

The push for Labour to reject Brexit is being resisted by a eurosceptic core of socialist Corbyn supporters who include his closest aides.

The rise of the veteran leftist followed a 2015 change in Labour leadership election rules that gave equal weight to the votes of both rank-and-file members and MPs.

Corbyn’s left-wing views resonated with new members and young people disillusioned by the New Labour approach of Tony Blair’s more centrist government.

A group called Momentum that helped Corbyn become leader that year unsuccessfully tried Saturday to abolish the post of the party’s pro-European deputy leader Tom Watson.

“I knew there was discussions going on about the role of deputy leader, I did not know that that particular motion was going to be put forward,” Corbyn admitted on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.

“There was a move that didn’t happen, that didn’t work and I intervened,” he added.

But Momentum boss Jon Lansman said it was time to instill party discipline and for everyone to adopt Corbyn’s neutrality on Europe.

“We need to make sure the deputy leader role is properly accountable to the membership,” he said.

‘Radical transformation’

Corbyn has sought to move past Brexit and campaign on a more traditionally Labour agenda of workers’ rights and clean climate policies.

Some of the proposals that could come up for a vote at the conference include a plan to give 10 percent of UK companies’ shares to workers over the next 10 years.

The Financial Times called this “one of the biggest state expropriations of assets seen in a western democracy”.

Momentum also wants Labour to commit to a net zero carbon emissions target by 2030 and to “abolish private schools” in a “radical and transformational” election platform.

The various motions will be put for a vote before Corbyn concludes the conference with a keynote address Wednesday.

(AFP)

23, September 2019

US: Impeachment ‘only remedy’ if Trump’s Ukraine call proved ⁰

The chairman of US House intelligence committee has threatened President Donald Trump with impeachment amid controversy over his phone call with Ukraine’s president.

Adam Schiff said on Sunday that impeachment would be the “only remedy” if an investigation revealed that the US president had pressured his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate possible corruption involving former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

“If the president is essentially withholding military aid at the same time that he is trying to browbeat a foreign leader to do something illicit, to provide dirt on his opponent during a presidential campaign, then that may be the only remedy that is co-equal to the evil that conduct represents,” Schiff told the CNN.

Schiff, who has so far been reluctant to push for presidential impeachment, said it “may be that we do have to move forward with that extraordinary remedy” if Trump sought information on Biden and his son.

“[I] want the country to understand this is the last resort,” Schiff added. “The president is pushing us down this road.”

News outlets reported last week that Trump urged Zelensky about eight times during a phone call to work with his lawyer Rudy Giuliani on a probe that could hamper the US president’s potential 2020 opponent.

PressTV-'Trump pressed Ukraine president to probe Biden’s son'

Biden said there should be an investigation into Trump’s call, denouncing the action as “an overwhelming abuse of power.”

Trump on Saturday dismissed the Ukraine allegations as another witch-hunt attempting to smear his already tarnished reputation and damage his popularity as the Americans get closer to the 2020 presidential election.

Now that the Democrats and the Fake News Media have gone “bust” on every other of their Witch Hunt schemes, they are trying to start one just as ridiculous as the others, call it the Ukraine Witch Hunt, while at the same time trying to protect Sleepy Joe Biden. Will fail again!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 21, 2019

In an interview with local media on Saturday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko insisted that his country was independent and that Kiev would never take sides with either party in US politics.

Addressing a July phone conversation between Trump and Zelensky, the Ukrainian minister said there was no coercion and the conversation was friendly.

PressTV-Biden holds modest lead in Democratic race for 2020: Poll

Biden is the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination for the 2020 election.

Since launching his bid for 2020 presidency, Biden has been referred to as “Sleepy Joe” by Trump, among other cases of name-calling.

The 76-year-old politician has also been lambasted for what his opponents and others have deemed inappropriate touching, hugging and sniffing of women and children. Biden has dismissed such allegations.

Source: Presstv

23, September 2019

Russian seamen kidnapped off Cameroon freed ⁰

Moscow on Sunday said three Russian seamen abducted in an act of piracy off the coast of Cameroon in August have been freed and brought to Germany.

The Russians were part of a group of sailors, including Chinese and Ukrainian citizens, taken hostage in mid-August after an attack on their merchant ships in the Gulf of Guinea.

In a statement, the Russian foreign ministry said they were “released from pirate captivity” and that their health was “satisfactory”.

They are due to return to Russia on Monday, it added.

The attacks took place off the port of Douala, located at the northeastern corner of the Gulf of Guinea that has become a hotspot of seaborne crime.

The total number of hostages taken in the attack is unclear. The Cameroonian navy reported the kidnappings at the time but was unable to give the number of those taken.

The Gulf of Guinea, whose coastline stretches in a huge arc from Liberia to Gabon, is notorious for piracy as well as oil theft, illegal fishing and human and drugs trafficking.

In recent years, the seas off West Africa have become “the world’s worst for pirate attacks,” according to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) watchdog.

Attacks doubled in the Gulf of Guinea in 2018 compared to the previous year — the bulk of them due to piracy, it said.

The 17 countries bordering the Gulf of Guinea and adjacent coastline have limited surveillance and maritime defence capabilities.

Source: AFP