12, January 2019

US: Democrat Tulsi Gabbard says she will run for president in 2020 ⁰

Democratic US Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii said in remarks aired by CNN on Friday that she will run for president in 2020, becoming the latest member of her party to pursue a challenge to Republican President Donald Trump.

“I have decided to run and will be making a formal announcement within the next week,” Gabbard, a liberal 37-year-old Iraq War veteran as well as the first Hindu and first Samoan-American elected to the US Congress, told CNN.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts on Dec. 31 announced she had formed an exploratory committee for a White House run in what is expected to be a crowded Democratic primary field before the November 2020 presidential election.

Gabbard said “the issue of war and peace” would be the main focus of her campaign.

Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Democratic presidential field could eventually include Senators Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as former Vice President Joe Biden. Julian Castro, former President Barack Obama’s housing secretary, also formed an exploratory committee in December.

In the race to pick a candidate to run against Trump, Democrats will grapple with the tension between the party’s establishment and liberal wings that flared during the 2016 state-by-state nominating contests between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who ran under the Democratic banner.

Gabbard made headlines in 2016 by quitting a leadership post at the Democratic National Committee over the party’s decision to limit the number of debates between Clinton and Sanders, with analysts believing fewer debates benefited Clinton. Clinton ultimately won the Democratic nomination but lost to Trump.

The congresswoman then endorsed Sanders for president, becoming one of the few members of Congress to do so. Gabbard remains popular with some liberals but will have serious competition with other candidates on the left flank of the party.

Gabbard has also drawn criticism for secretly meeting with Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, whose removal from power she opposes, during a 2017 trip to the war-ravaged country.

PressTV- US congresswoman in 'secret' visit to Damascus

Iowa holds the first presidential nominating contest in 13 months. Warren informally kicked off the 2020 Democratic presidential nominating fight on visit last weekend to Iowa, condemning the corrupting influence of money on politics and lamenting lost economic opportunities for working families.

(Source: Reuters)

12, January 2019

Aliko Dangote still Africa’s richest man ⁰

Alhaji Aliko Dangote still maintains his spot as Africa’s richest man according to Forbes Magazine. The magazine disclosed that as at January 11, 2019, the 61-year-old was worth $9.9 billion.

Forbes listed him as the number one on Africa’s list of billionaires for the year 2019. The Kano State indigene has held the richest man tag for the past few years.

He was ranked the 100th richest man in the world in 2018 and number 66 on the Powerful People 2018 list – both released by Forbes.

Forbes put much of Dangote’s wealth to his cement business – the continent’s largest producer straddling most sub-Saharan African countries.

“Dangote Cement produces 44 million metric tons annually and plans to increase its output 33% by 2020. Dangote also owns stakes in publicly-traded salt, sugar and flour manufacturing companies,” Forbes added.

With a fortune estimated at $14.1 billion, the CEO of the Dangote group which has significant business interests in cement production across.

Other billionaires listed:

Behind Dangote is Nigerian oil magnate Mike Adenuga whose wealth was estimated at $9.2 billion. South African Nicky Oppenheimer, Egyptian Nassef Sawiris and Johan Rupert completed the top five with $7.3bn, $6.3 bn and $5.3bn respectively.

The eighth slot had five persons with one of them being Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman whose wealth is estimated at $2.3 billion.

She is daughter to former Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos and was at a point during her father’s reign head of state oil company. She was fired by new President Joao Lourenco on allegations of financial impropriety – she flatly denies all the allegations.

Others on the eight slot of the list are Zimbabwean telecoms tycoon Strive Masiwiya and South African mining magnate Patrice Motsepe.

Source: Africa News

12, January 2019

New Africa programme to focus on youth and its engagement with heritage ⁰

Connect and inspire African youth with the possibilities of their rich heritage. Use digital technologies, including social media, to promote heritage awareness and support creative industries. Engage heritage as an economic asset, to address poverty and unemployment among young people. These are just some of the potential directions discussed during ICCROM’s Africa Expert Meeting for Cultural Heritage Conservation, held at the Egyptian Academy in Rome from 9 – 11 January 2019.

Fifteen professionals from 15 institutions met to discuss how best to design an impactful programme to support youth and its engagement in heritage in the African region. The Africa Expert Meeting took inspiration from the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and particularly from the development goals for sustainable cities and communities, gender equality, decent work and economic growth. Also invoked was the Africa Union’s Agenda 2063 “The Africa We Want,” which is committed to realizing Africa’s full potential in development, culture and peace.

The event was launched on Wednesday 9 January in the presence of HE Mr Hisham Badr, Egyptian Ambassador to Italy, HE Mr Hassan Abouyoub, Moroccan Ambassador to Italy, Mr Giovanni Panebianco, Secretary-General of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (MIBAC), and Dr Gihane Zaki, Director of the Egyptian Academy in Rome, together with Dr Webber Ndoro, Director-General of ICCROM.

“Africa has the youngest population of any continent,” said Dr Ndoro, ICCROM’s Director-General. “Heritage can be for youth a source of livelihood, identity, and a stimulus for development. The input of youth needs to be clear for what our heritage is and how to take it forward.”

Noting Egypt’s upcoming presidency of the African Union in 2019, Egyptian Ambassador Hisham Badr commented: “This meeting focuses on two important elements: culture – with all its meanings, values, messages – and youth.” He added, “Culture is a mainstay. Egypt is a nation that’s proud of its culture. In all its international relationships, in its sustainability initiatives, culture is the key.”

“We must consider the needs and special skills of youth,” underlined Giovanni Panebianco, Secretary-General of the Italian Cultural Heritage Ministry MIBAC. “Heritage conservation offers real opportunities to build a better future for Africa. Italy is aware of its role with respect to Africa, and is actively pursuing scientific and cultural cooperation in the aim of overall sustainable development on the continent.”

“It’s time to invest in young Africans,” said Dr Gihane Zaki, Director of the Egyptian Academy in Rome. “How can we put young people forward, help them take responsibility for their heritage, with enthusiasm, energy, generosity and passion?” Dr Zaki stressed Egypt’s keenness to support young people in the African continent. “I am confident that ICCROM will play a strategic role in implementing new, fresh and innovative ideas to engage young people. It’s important also to remember and appreciate women’s pivotal role in African societies.”

The three-day discussions led to definition of broad directions for a future Africa programme that aims to make African heritage attractive to young people on the continent, improving their involvement in the stewardship of heritage to ensure inclusive economic and social benefits to all generations. The proposed Africa programme includes the following objectives:

1) Sustain economic and social development through innovation and engagement with stakeholders for youth and women in heritage.

2) Increase engagement and interest of youth and women in heritage through the adoption of a people-centred approach in conservation.

3) Strengthen institutions as dynamic, innovative, reliable and attractive resources for communities, government and the private sector.

These objectives were presented at the event’s closing ceremony on Friday 11 January, attended Mr Giorgio Marrapodi, Director-General of Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), and Mr Cléophas Adrien Dioma, Director and co-founder of the Ottobre Africano festival and representative of the African Diaspora in Rome.

“This programme is about making heritage cool through innovative ways, and making African heritage accessible to African youth and women,” said Benis Nchang of Better Life Initiative, Cameroon and Alyssa K Barry of Senegal, youth representatives to the meeting. “It’s about making youth proud of our African cultural heritage, and encouraging them to contribute to its conservation.”

For his part, Dr Ndoro thanked all the meeting participants for their contributions to the discussion, as well as the ambassadors and institutional representatives present. He extended particular thanks to the Egyptian Academy in Rome for hosting the event, and called on all ICCROM’s partner institutions and Member States, both in Africa and worldwide, to support this new initiative.

“It’s time to unlock the potential of heritage to provide a better life and livelihood to communities in Africa,” said Dr Ndoro. “Heritage is about now, about what is happening today. Youth must see the opportunities in heritage.”

Member States represented: Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Canada, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Morocco, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.

The Africa Expert Meeting was held at the Egyptian Academy in Rome, by gracious invitation of its Director, Dr Gihane Zaki, also an ICCROM Council Member. The Egyptian Academy is the only fine arts academy in Rome that represents both Africa and the Arab States, and thus is a committed stakeholder in a successful Africa strategy at ICCROM.

About ICCROM
ICCROM is an intergovernmental organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage worldwide. It works with 136 Member States to ensure the best tools, knowledge, skills and enabling environment to preserve cultural heritage in all its forms, for the benefit of all people. www.iccrom.org

12, January 2019

Battle for Ambazonia: 3 soldiers wounded as gunmen attack school in Kumba ⁰

Three soldiers were wounded Thursday as gunmen attacked a school in Kumba, a locality in Cameroon’s Southwest, one of the country’s two strife-torn English-speaking regions, Cameroon army said. The army immediately blamed armed separatists for the attack.

“A group of armed secessionists were breaking the Multimedia Center of Bilingual High School Kumba District 2, a joint intervention team of Police and Gendarmerie came down on the site. As a result of the exchange of gunfire three gendarmes were wounded and transported to the district hospital of Kumba. On the enemy side, several were neutralized and wounded,” a statement from the army said.

The Cameroonian security forces regularly use the word “neutralize” to refer to “kill.” Locals reported hearing “deafening sound” of gunshots in the localities of Kumba, Muyuka and Muea of the Southwest region as government forces clashed with armed separatists.

“Shooting started by midday and continued this evening. The streets are deserted. Everybody is indoors,” a resident of Kumba who preferred not to be named told Xinhua.

In his New Year message, Cameroon’s President Paul Biya warned that the armed separatists will be “neutralized” if they do not drop their weapons and “follow the right track.” On Wednesday, members of the diplomatic corps in Cameroon urged Biya to settle the conflict through “inclusive dialogue.”

Government forces and armed separatists have been clashing since November 2017 after separatists declared “independence” of the two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest in the largely French-speaking African country.

Source: Xinhuanet

11, January 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Indifference is no answer ⁰

If indifference could address an issue, the Southern Cameroons crisis that has already lasted for more than two years and consumed close to 5,000 lives, would have been over a long time ago. But the more the government pretends to be busy with other things, the more the situation escalates.

The killing in the two English-speaking regions is still going on, with the government seeking to take the media’s focus off this ugly situation that has given the Yaounde government a very bad name.

More Southern Cameroonians are still dropping dead, as government troops pursue their “linguistic cleansing” in the region. In towns like Kumbo, Mamfe, Kumba and Muyuka, there have been running battles between government troops and Southern Cameroonian fighters.

Despite the government’s determination to mop up the region of the fighters, it is becoming obvious to many minds around the world that a military solution will be a distant tomorrow affair.

Though it is business as usual in French-speaking Cameroon, the fear of attacks by Southern Cameroonian fighters is ever present in many minds, especially in the regions bordering the English-speaking regions.

As the government pursues its scorch earth policy in the region, it is also creating more radicals and fighters. Despite the killing of young Southern Cameroonians in the months leading to the country’s presidential election, more young men and women have recently swollen up the ranks of the fighters, especially in places like Lebialem, where government military trucks were recently ambushed, resulting in the death of many army soldiers.

It is rare for government officials to talk about the number of army soldiers killed and even when they provide figures, they make sure the figures are too low in order not to shock the docile Francophone minority. But sources in the military hold that many army soldiers have met their death in Southern Cameroons and many cannot even be accounted for as they have been killed and their bodies dumped in shallow graves by Southern Cameroons fighters.

The Southern Cameroons crisis has been a millstone around the government’s neck and despite the economic and financial pressure that the conflict is generating, the government seems to be pretending that all is well.

All cannot be well with the country, given that the economy of the English-speaking region has collapsed. Southern Cameroons’ economy accounts for a huge percentage of the country’s GDP and, alone, it represents a huge source of foreign earnings for the country’s economy.

The disruption of major economic operations in the region has hit the country’s economy like a ton of bricks. Major state corporations like PAMOL and CDC have simply gone under and it will take tons of money for these companies to be revived. The government should be concerned about such disruptions and it should be doing all it can to ensure peace returns to this part of the country.

Rather than focus on the military component, it should be fostering peace through negotiations and dialogue and not through physical elimination and intimidation. It should even let the population understand that the fighting in that part of the country is seriously impacting the country and its economy.

But faithful to its philosophy of mystifying everything, the government has been working hard to disguise many things. The country’s president, Paul Biya, has been championing this unacceptable approach and it seems there is a code of silence that all government officials must comply with. It is hard for any government official to make mention of the crisis that is gradually killing the country.

While receiving diplomats on Wednesday in Yaounde, Mr. Biya surprised members of the diplomatic corps, as he spoke about other crises in the world without making mention of the huge crisis in his native Cameroon that has created a huge humanitarian disaster.

More than half a million Southern Cameroonians are currently internally displaced and a similar number is in neighbouring countries, especially in Nigeria, following the government’s brutal crack-down in the region which has not helped matters.

But members of the diplomatic corps did not hesitate to remind Mr. Biya that it is out of place for him to talk about other global crises that were half a world away from Cameroon while turning a blind eye to the Southern Cameroons crisis that has damaged the country’s economy and destabilized even Cameroon’s neighbours.

The dean of the diplomatic corps who hails from Gabon had to speak in English to remind the ageing Biya that his country was bilingual and that it is unfair for him to only speak in French. The Gabonese advised Mr. Biya that the world was prepared to help him when and if he decided to take the necessary steps to put an end to the military violence in his country.

It was a nail-biting experience for many government officials who were very ill at ease with the message of the diplomatic corps. But instead of being uncomfortable when Southern Cameroons is mention, the government should be looking at ways of addressing this issue that has made the government unpopular, especially the president who is being accused of being ineffective and blind to the suffering of the population.

The international community has already urged the government to initiate a long and inclusive dialogue that will help the Yaounde government to address those thorny issues that are pitting it against the country’s English-speaking minority.

Many experts argue that war has never addressed any issues and the Cameroon situation will not be an exception. They also contend that with the killings that have taken place in the country, negotiations will be challenging.

However, they are quick to point out that both sides will have to learn how to forgive if they want peace to reign. Southern Cameroonian fighters must understand that a military solution is not in the cards. They must also figure out that pushing the Yaounde government out of their territory is a very remote possibility.

The world has very little appetite for secession and Southern Cameroons has not received a lot of assistance from the international communities. Even Cameroon’s neighbours are against a secession in Cameroon as this might open the flood gates in their own countries, especially in Nigeria where the Biafra movement is very strong and is posing a huge threat to the country.

The Yaounde government, for its part, will have to understand that it cannot continue insisting on state authority. State authority does not imply killing all the citizens just because a point has to be proven. The Yaounde authorities must also understand that Cameroon will never be the same again and regardless of the solution that works out, the system must undergo many changes if Cameroon has to be one and indivisible.

By Kingsley Betek

11, January 2019

Biya regime seeking to create chaos in Southern Cameroons ⁰

The Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé has been trying to create chaos deep within the Ambazonia liberation struggle in order to keep its occupying forces in the territory and destroy the Southern Cameroons Interim Government.

An Ambazonian commander in the Lebialem County said on Thursday that the time to take the battle to the enemy territory has arrived. He also hinted that news of unnecessary confusion, conflict, distrust, animosity and discouragement within the resistance was troubling Interim President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his aides.

In a message addressed to the people of Southern Cameroons late last year, the wives of the detained Ambazonian leaders revealed the enemy’s determination to decapitate the leadership of the revolution by inserting their agents within the revolution with the purpose of implementing counter revolutionary measures and to destabilise the revolution and sow seeds of discord amongst Southern Cameroonians.

Cameroon Concord News understands the general opinion on Ground Zero is that if the Interim Government falls, chaos, repression and resentment will follow. The French Cameroun army has been waging war against Southern Cameroons civilians and businesses in a bid to bring about chaos and hardship and weaken the resistance.

We gathered from a senior security official in Buea that the appointment of Chief Dion Ngute as Prime Minister has instead angered Ambazonians from the Southern Zone. “Appointing Dion Ngute is a continuation of the French Cameroun policy of implementing their divide and rule strategy on Southern Cameroonians so that Biya and his gang will be able to maintain French Cameroun occupying forces and have a reason that it uses to legitimate this occupation” our source noted.

By Rita Akana and Sama Ernest

11, January 2019

Andy Murray announces impending retirement from tennis ⁰

A tearful Andy Murray on Friday announced he would likely retire this year due to severe pain from a hip injury, saying next week’s Australian Open could be the last tournament of a glittering career. The former world number one and three-time Grand Slam winner broke down at a press conference in Melbourne as he said the pain had become almost unbearable.

“I can play with limitations. But having the limitations and the pain is not allowing me to enjoy competing or training,” the emotional Scot said. Thirty-one-year-old “Sir Andy” said he would like to finish at his home Grand Slam in Wimbledon, but ruefully admitted he might not make it that far.

He will be remembered as the first British man to win Wimbledon in 77 years and as a player who battled his way to the top in a golden era for the game alongside Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

“Wimbledon is where I would like to stop playing, but I am not certain I am able to do that,” he said. “I’ve been struggling for a long time. I’m not sure I can play through the pain for another four or five months.

“Pretty much done everything that I could to try and get my hip feeling better and it hasn’t helped loads.” He pulled out of last year’s Australian Open to have hip surgery and only returned in June at Queen’s Club in London.

He ended the season at Shenzhen in September after only a handful of appearances to concentrate on working his way back to full fitness.

But he was knocked out in the second round on his return at Brisbane last week and called it quits on Thursday after less than an hour of a practice match in Melbourne against Djokovic, with his movement clearly hampered.

“I think there is a chance the Australian Open is my last tournament,” he said.

While he intends to begin his opening-round match against 22nd seed Roberto Bautista Agut next week, how his body withstands potentially gruelling five-set clashes in energy-sapping heat remains to be seen.

‘Legend of a bloke’

One of the so-called Big Four, along with Federer, Djokovic and Nadal, who have dominated the game for years, Murray’s ranking has slumped to 230.

He hasn’t reached a Grand Slam final since winning his second Wimbledon title in 2016, but has nevertheless enjoyed a glittering career since turning professional in 2005, with not only three Grand Slam titles, but two Olympic gold medals and 45 ATP crowns.

Notably, in 2013 Murray became the first British man to win Wimbledon for 77 years, ending the nation’s obsession with finding a champion to follow in the footsteps of Fred Perry.

World number five Juan Martin del Potro, who has also struggled with injuries and will miss the Australian Open, told Murray to “keep fighting”.

“We love you @andy_murray and we want to see you happy and doing well,” he added. Billie Jean King called him “a champion on and off court”, referring to Murray’s long-time support of women’s equality in tennis.

“So sorry you cannot retire on your own terms, but remember to look to the future. Your greatest impact on the world may be yet to come. Your voice for equality will inspire future generations,” she said.

Top Australian coach Darren Cahill, who until recently was mentoring world number one Simona Halep, said Murray was an example of the never-say-die attitude that separated the best from the average.

“When you search for examples of ’emptied the bucket to be as good as they could be’ there should be a picture of Andy Murray sitting under that quote,” he tweeted.

“Remarkable discipline for training, competition, sacrifice, perfection, a little crazy but a legend of a bloke.”

Former star Andy Roddick also paid tribute on Twitter.

“I tip my cap to @andy_murray! Absolute legend. Short list of best tacticians in history. Unreal results in a brutal era. Nothing but respect here. I hope he can finish strong and healthy,” he said.

Murray said he had an option of another operation on his troublesome hip, but it was more about his quality of life after hanging up his racquet. “That’s something I’m seriously considering right now,” he said.

(AFP)

11, January 2019

Congo-Kinshasa’s Catholic Church says its election tally shows different winner ⁰

DR Congo’s powerful Catholic Church says election results tallied by its observers do not match official results announced on Thursday by the country’s election commission, which named Felix Tshisekedi as the surprise winner.

In a pre-dawn announcement, the election commission named Tshisekedi, son of the country’s late veteran opposition leader, as provisional winner of the bitterly-contested December 30 vote – a surprise result his main opponent promptly denounced as an “electoral coup”.

Just hours later, the Church said election results tallied by its 40,000 observers scattered across the country showed a different winner, without specifying who.

“We see that the result of the presidential election as published by CENI (the electoral commission) does not correspond with the data collected by our observer mission from polling stations and counting centres,” said Father Donatien Nshole, spokesman for the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO), which represents the country’s Catholic bishops.

At stake is political stewardship of the notoriously unstable central African nation which has never known a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960. Runner-up Martin Fayulu, the pre-election favourite, said the results announced on Thursday do “not reflect the truth of the ballots”, urging the Congolese to “rise as one man to protect victory”.

In an unusually blunt comment on a foreign election, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also waded into the controversy, describing the results as “not consistent” with observers’ reports. He added: “The Catholic Church of Congo did its tally and announced completely different results.”

Last week CENCO called on the election commission to publish results “in keeping with truth and justice”, adding that data in its possession pointed to a clear winner. The United States on Thursday demanded “clarification” over the result, stopping short of recognising Tshisekedi as the winner.

“The National Independent Electoral Commission has announced provisional results, but we await clarification of questions which have been raised regarding the electoral count… We urge all stakeholders to remain calm as the process continues,” State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino said in a statement.

The last two elections in 2006 and 2011, both of which were won by incumbent Joseph Kabila, were marred by bloodshed, and many fear a repeat of the violence if there is any sense the result has been fixed.

The Catholic Church has long been pressing for the departure of Kabila, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 2001 and who has stayed in power as caretaker leader even though his second and final elected term ended in December 2016.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP)

11, January 2019

Cameroon Ranked Among The Worst Democratic Countries in Africa ⁰

A new Democracy Index published by the Economist, a renowned magazine, has placed Cameroon among the least democratic countries in Africa. In the Magazine report, Cameroon was equally ranked among the world’s top twenty most authoritarian states.

The Democracy Index based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. Based on its scores on a range of indicators within these categories, each country is then itself classified as one of four types of regime: “full democracy”, “flawed democracy”, “hybrid regime” and “authoritarian regime”.

According to the report, Cameroon performed poorly in all four categories measured. It indicates that Biya’s country has one of the worst functioning governments in the region, and there is widespread abuse of civil liberties, while the electoral process is significantly flawed.

“In Cameroon…the president secured a seventh term in elections held in October. The poll was characterized by low voter turnout amid poor security and severe irregularities that have left Cameroonians disillusioned with the fairness of the process” part of the report notes.

This is not the first time Cameroon is being showed a red card in democratic practice as similar findings were published by the Mo Ibrahim governance Index report in 2018. The report noted the spike in authoritarian governance in Cameroon, widespread corruption, abuse of civil and political rights, and a dysfunctional state.

Source: Fomlsc.com

10, January 2019

Biya’s policies fanning the flames of terrorism in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Jails in French Cameroun have become incubators of extremist and radical behaviour in Southern Cameroons, Cameroon Concord News Group has learnt. The Biya Francophone regime has repeatedly ignored calls for inclusive dialogue and has continued with its policy of arbitrary arrest of Southern Cameroonians in a bid to stifle the Ambazonia revolution.

We can now reveal that hundreds of innocent Southern Cameroonian civilians arrested ever since the inception of the crisis in Anglophone Cameroon and convicted for terrorism-related activities were detained in overcrowded and squalid prison facilities in French Cameroun where thousands of anti President Biya inmates are held.

A Francophone baron of the ruling CPDM party noted that the politics behind the crisis in Southern Cameroons is playing into the hands of corrupt military leaders deep within the Biya Beti Ewondo regime.

He added that many Southern Cameroonians detained in Douala and Yaoundé become extremists because they mostly end up in circles of anti Biya regime officials in New Bell Prison and in the Kondengui High Security prison in Yaoundé.

Meanwhile the joint trial of 10 Ambazonian leaders continues today in Yaoundé. The Interim President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his senior aides have been charged with secession and terror-related crimes. They made their first appearance before the military court on December 6, but the trial was adjourned until today because the state submitted their witness list unduly late.

Cameroon Concord News Group understands that President Ayuk Julius Tabe appeared today in the Yaoundé Military Tribunal dressed in the official Ambazonia regalia- the grassland identity which has become a trademark in the international stage depicting the people of Southern Cameroons.

At the time of fling this report, information filtered that the Biya regime has ordered a change in the trial judges of the court after Cameroon Concord News Group denounced the tribunal as a Beti Bulu traditional council. We gathered that Colonel Mem Michel has now been appointed to replace Col. Abega Eko Eko for the Ambazonia affair to resume.

By Chi Prudence Asong