4, February 2019

Nigeria: Vice President Osinbajo survives helicopter crash ⁰

Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Saturday survived a helicopter crash while on an official trip to the country’s central state of Kogi, a presidential spokesman has confirmed.

The six-seater helicopter, conveying Osinbajo and some of his aides, crash-landed in Kabba area of Kogi, presidential spokesman Laolu Akande said in a statement.

It was badly damaged but all the passengers and crew members were unhurt, the presidential aide said.

The exact cause of the accident will be determined by experts in due course, he said, confirming that an investigation has been launched into the helicopter crash.

The vice president himself confirmed through twitter that he and his aides on board are “safe and sound”, adding the crew “managed the situation well.”

Another presidency official told Xinhua there’s no indication of sabotage or anything extraordinary so far.

According to local broadcaster Channels Television, the propeller of the helicopter broke off close to a field in the town, causing the chopper to crash-land.

Nigeria will hold general elections on Feb. 16 to elect the president and national assembly members, and on March 2 to elect state governors and state houses of assembly members.

Xinhua

4, February 2019

New bridge to be built linking Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea ⁰

Officials of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea said Saturday that they have agreed on plans to construct a bridge to link both countries.

“It is an integrating project that establishes the possibility of movement between the two countries. Once this project is realized, we will have another possibility of traveling by land through Cameroon and the Republic of Equatorial Guinea,” Paul Tasong, Cameroonian ministerial delegate from the Ministry of Economy Planning and Regional Development, told reporters.

At the end of the day, the agreement was reached during a meeting in Cameroon’s commercial capital Douala between delegations led by Tasong and Baltasar Engonga Edjo, Equatorial Guinean minister in charge of regional integration.

According to the agreement, the bridge will be constructed over the Ntem River, on the corridor linking Kribi, Campo in Cameroon and Bata in Equatorial Guinea. A memorandum of understanding will be signed between both countries on March 15, officials said.

The Economic Community of Central African States will oversee the construction work that is expected to begin this year.

Xinhua

3, February 2019

Protest held to back jailed Catalan independence politicians in Barcelona ⁰

A demonstration in support of the Catalan leaders who were jailed after the failed independence bid in October 2017 was held in Barcelona on Friday.

A woman holds a placard reading “Freedom for political prisoners” in Barcelona during a demonstration in support of jailed Catalan pro-independence leaders. (AFP)

Activists and supporters gathered in the center of the Catalan capital, just eleven days before the trial against the Catalan separatists is set to begin.

Volunteers carried Catalonia flags and banners, while a number of them were seen climbing a ladder up to the balcony of the European Union Commission offices, where they hanged a banner reading ‘Self-determination is a right, not a crime’.

President of the Catalan National Assembly Elizenda Paluzie said: “A group of members of the Catalan national assembly, have entered the headquarters of the representation of the European Union here in Catalonia, and have delivered a letter to Jean-Claude Junker and Ferran Tarradellas, who is the head of the representation of the European Union here in Barcelona, in which we denounce all the violations of fundamental rights that have occurred since the first fragrant violation, namely the police violence during the referendum on the first of October.”

Spain’s prosecutor is seeking prison terms of up to 25 years for 12 Catalan politicians on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds, after the failed attempt at breaking away from Spain in 2017.

Presstv

3, February 2019

Central African Republic: Peace talks hit a snag ⁰

Peace talks being held in Khartoum, Sudan, hit a snag Thursday when a coalition of 14 armed groups suspended their participation, citing the government’s refusal to consider a general amnesty and a unity government.

The groups have set a 48-hour deadline for the government to acquiesce to their terms, and have threatened to leave if that doesn’t happen. However, mediators expressed optimism that some kind of deal could be reached.

Back on Central African soil, 18 people were killed last Friday when gunmen opened fire at a funeral. In a briefing in late 2017 for WPR, Richard Moncrieff wrote about the difficulties U.N. peacekeepers have had in bringing the violence under control.

Source: World Politics Review

3, February 2019

French Cameroun: Boko Haram kills 2 civilians in the Far North region ⁰

At least two civilians were killed in the night of Wednesday to Thursday by suspected members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram in the town of Goumouldi in the far north of Cameroon, local sources said Thursday.

The two victims, both men, were members of a local vigilance committee against Boko Haram.

“Since the Boko Haram elements were reported at the border, we organized ourselves, taking turns monitoring the locality.The first team finished and they took over, around 7 pm to finish around 5 o’clock and probably, their attack came “at that time, told Amos Tchendé, also a member of the local vigilance committee.

According to local sources cross-checked, the attackers, about six individuals, came from the border, would have come in search of food.

The Cameroonian authorities have repeatedly called on Boko Haram fighters to lay down their arms and benefit from the protection offered by the National Committee for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, created in late 2018 by President Paul Biya.

Source: African Daily Voice

3, February 2019

French Cameroun Crisis: Biya Resorts to Familiar Tactics in Silencing Opposition ⁰

Last November, during the swearing-in ceremony that marked the beginning of his seventh term as Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya addressed frustrated voters in the restive Anglophone regions and around the country, calling for unity and insisting he had heard their pleas for change. “I have also understood your desire for greater participation in taking decisions that concern the destiny of our country,” he said.

His critics had good reason to be skeptical, given Biya’s long record of ignoring criticism from the political opposition and the population at large. And in recent days, they appear to have been proved right: A new crackdown on the opposition has sent a strong signal that Biya’s current term will look much like the previous six.

Over the weekend, opposition leaders, who have challenged the credibility of last year’s election results, organized demonstrations in multiple cities, prompting a forceful response from the security forces, who dispersed crowds with tear gas and live ammunition. Among the injured, according to Amnesty International, was Celestin Djamen, a top official in the opposition Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon, or MRC.

Then, on Monday, security forces arrested Maurice Kamto, the leader of the MRC who, according to official results, finished second to Biya in the presidential contest. The charges against Kamto include sedition and insurrection. The case against him appears to be part of a coordinated assault on opposition leaders and their supporters; the MRC says more than 200 people have been detained since the weekend protests.

In an in-depth report for WPR last year, Emmanuel Freudenthal described how Biya has used an array of tactics to undermine potential challengers. Some have been co-opted via appointments to government posts, while others have been prosecuted on corruption charges widely seen as politically motivated. The president has been aided by the fact that Western powers see him as a steady ally in a volatile region and are therefore inclined to look the other way when it comes to his handling of domestic affairs.

Yet as he has shown in the past, and as he reiterated this week, Biya is not above using more violent means to keep the opposition quiet. Cameroonians should soon have a better sense of whether the recent violence will turn into sustained repression. The MRC is planning to hold more demonstrations in the coming weeks, and another harsh response by the state could tip the country into a full-fledged crisis.

Rights groups and the United Nations are appealing for restraint. In a statement Wednesday, Human Rights Watch said further violence in Cameroon, which currently holds a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, would be unacceptable.

“The Cameroon government can’t claim to respect human rights while using the standard playbook of abusers to crush opposition and curtail freedom of speech and assembly,” said Ida Sawyer, the group’s deputy Africa director. “Cameroon’s international partners should condemn Biya’s blatant and unwarranted clampdown on the political opposition.”

Source: World Politics Review

3, February 2019

French Cameroun Crisis: MRC party cancels protests after Biya regime ban ⁰

The main opposition Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon called off demonstrations planned in several cities on Saturday, a party leader said, following a government ban on protests.

“The MRC will not demonstrate today,” said Emmanuel Simh, one of the vice presidents of the movement led by Maurice Kamto, the runner-up in last year’s presidential election who was arrested this week.

Authorities on Thursday banned planned protests in the capital Yaounde after a series of unauthorized anti-government demonstrations and some 200 arrests.

Former government minister Kamto, who claims to have been cheated out of the presidency, was arrested in the economic capital Douala on Monday.

His lawyers have said he is under investigation for alleged insurrection. Four planned marches, scheduled for Friday and Saturday and the following week, were prohibited for public order reasons.

Opposition marches took place in several towns last weekend, against the re-election of Cameroon’s veteran leader Paul Biya. Biya, 85, who has held power for 36 years, won a seventh consecutive term last October. Kamto came second in the election with 14 percent.

(AFP)

2, February 2019

French Cameroun Crisis: Web reporter attacked with knife outside his home ⁰

Cameroonian authorities should immediately investigate an attack on Paul Chouta, a reporter for the privately owned news website Cameroon Web, and ensure that those who assaulted him are swiftly brought to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Chouta told CPJ yesterday that three unknown men stabbed him with a knife and beat him as he left his Yaoundé home just after 6 a.m. that day. The journalist was treated for stab wounds to his right hand and elbow and bruises to his face. “They didn’t say anything as they started to physically attack me,” said Chouta. “My neighbors came to my rescue and the attackers fled in a black Mercedes that had been waiting for them.”

Chouta and Emmanuel Vitus, the editor-in-chief of Cameroon Web, told CPJ they believe the attack was in retaliation for Chouta’s journalism. Vitus said he suspected the attack may be related to a January 22 Facebook Live interview Chouta did with Paul Eric Kingué, the campaign manager for Cameroon’s jailed opposition leader, Maurice Kamto.

Kamto has been mobilizing dissent against President Paul Biya since losing the October election, which he has described as fraudulent, Al-Jazeera reported.

“We urge Cameroonian authorities to ensure that those who attacked Paul Chouta are identified and punished to the full extent of the law,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Angela Quintal in New York. “The government needs to send a message to those who want to silence and intimidate journalists that just because they may disagree with what the press writes or says, they cannot resort to violence and escape accountability.”

Vitus said that Chouta broadcast the interview on his personal Facebook page, which has 54,000 followers, and that Cameroon Web shared it on its platforms. He added, “The attack doesn’t come as a surprise. He consistently receives threats.” Vitus said the journalist received threatening comments on social media.

Chouta reported the attack to the police yesterday. National police spokesperson Joyce Ndjem told CPJ she does not give comment over the phone and that CPJ would need to come to Yaoundé to request comment.

The attack on Chouta came the same week that police arrested Théodore Tchopa and David Eyengue Nzima from the privately owned daily, Le Jour. Denis Nkwebo, deputy editor-in-chief of Le Jour and president of the Cameroonian journalists’ trade union, told CPJ that the journalists were arrested while covering an opposition meeting in Douala on January 28. The journalists were released without charge, Nkwebo said.

At the time of CPJ’s annual prison census, Cameroon was the third worst jailer of journalists in Africa after Egypt and Eritrea, respectively, with at least seven journalists behind bars for their work as of December 1, 2018.

Source: CPJ.org

2, February 2019

More anti-Biya protests expected as Francophone regime faces third major security challenge ⁰

Despite being banned by authorities, renewed protests are expected in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, today.

On Monday, opposition leader and self-declared president Maurice Kamto was arrested for coordinating anti-government demonstrations attended by thousands of people calling for President Paul Biya to stand down.

Mr Biya has ruled Cameroon since 1982 but contested last October’s election just the same, reportedly securing 71% of the vote. The opposition, led by the now-imprisoned Maurice Kamto, insists the election was rigged and has held sporadic protests ever since.

The demonstrations add to the significant security challenges faced by Cameroon’s government. Since 2010, the military has battled Boko Haram in the country’s north—a fight that has killed 20,000 people and displaced more than two million. Since then, the English-speaking community in the northwest announced its intention to secede from Cameroon, sparking sporadic violence.

A third struggle for power with Mr Kamto and his supporters threatens to overwhelm the state’s security forces, particularly if the movement grows. Indeed, President Biya ordered elite military units away from the frontline with Boko Haram to put down the Anglophone separatists—a third front in Cameroon’s urban centres may prove too much.

Source: Foreign Brief

2, February 2019

Francophone Crisis: Maurice Kamto begins hunger strike ⁰

Cameroon’s arrested opposition leader Maurice Kamto and 29 of his imprisoned supporters started a hunger strike a day after being told they will face eight charges amounting to treason. If found guilty, they could face the death penalty.

Christopher Ndong, secretary-general of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, said Friday that the strikers aim to show that President Paul Biya’s re-election to a seventh term in October was a stolen victory.

“Kamto wants that this government should give way because they are not legitimate after the 7th of October 2018 polls,” Ndong said. “He won the election and he wants that they should honestly hand down power without shame, because he is saying if they think that what he declared as a winner is false, let us go back and do a recount.”

FILE - Cameroon's Incumbent President Paul Biya, of the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement party, waits to cast his vote during the Presidential elections in Yaounde, Oct. 7, 2018. — FILE – Cameroon’s Incumbent President Paul Biya, of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement party, waits to cast his vote during the Presidential elections in Yaounde, Oct. 7, 2018.

The opposition’s calls for a recount of the October vote are likely to fall on deaf ears.

Biya is Africa’s second-longest ruling leader — in power for 36 years — and his government has shown little tolerance for opposition.

Police arrested Kamto and nine party officials Monday after days of peaceful protest in Yaounde and three other cities ended in clashes.

Government spokesman Rene Emmanuel Sadi said police shot and wounded seven protesters and arrested 117. Opposition supporters put the number of arrests at more than 200.

Kamto and his colleagues are now facing eight charges, including treason, inciting violence, and disruption of public peace.

Cameroon Bar Council lawyer Mujem Fombad says the men could be facing the death penalty.

“Article 102 of the penal code sanctions hostility against the fatherland. Any citizen, any citizen taking part in hostility against the republic shall be guilty with treason and punished with death,” Fombad said.

Opposition supporters also stormed Cameroon’s embassies in Paris and Berlin on Saturday. Minor damage and stolen documents were reported at the Paris embassy, which was temporarily closed.

In Yaounde, authorities summoned the French ambassador to demand that protesters who stormed the embassy be extradited to face charges. Rights group Amnesty International has called on Cameroon to release all peaceful protesters, including Kamto.

VOA