21, January 2019

African presidents #10YearChallenge: Biya, Afwerki, Nguema et. al. ⁰

The 10 year challenge hashtag continues to gain traction on social media platforms especially Facebook and Twitter.

For those who have yet to grasp what it is about, it is a photo comparison challenge spanning over a decade. So you retrieve a photo of a decade ago and compare it to a recent one.

Many people have and continue to share their photos with the hashtag #10YearChallenge. At Africanews we are doing so for heads of state seeing that their busy schedules won’t allow them to ‘participate.’

This is the second part which is concentrated on leaders in the Central Africa bracket. The challenge ties in someway with our info hub titled: African Leaders Then and Now.

In all instances, the 2008/2009 photo appears on the left with the 2018/2019 photo to the right. The descriptions below are in the same order.

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya leaves the Elysee Palace after a meeting with France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris July 24, 2009.

Paul Biya delivers his New Year message to Cameroonians on Decemebr 31, 2018.

Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso awaits the arrival of his France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy (not pictured) at the beginning of a State Dinner at the Presidential palace in Brazzaville on March 26, 2009.

Sassou Nguesso in France to mark the centenary of World War, November 2018.

Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema arrives for the inauguration of President Jacob Zuma in Pretoria May 9, 2009.

Obiang Nguema in Cuba for a state visit, 2018.

Gabon’s President Ali Ben Bongo arrives at the morning session of United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen December 18, 2009.

Ali Bongo in Libreville after returning from Morocco to oversee swearing in of a new cabinet, January 2018.

Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki speaks during an interview in Asmara May 13, 2008.

Afwerki in Addis Ababa at the reopening of the Eritrean Embassy in Ethiopia, July 2018.

Culled from Africanews

20, January 2019

Israel and Chad renew diplomatic ties decades after rupture ⁰

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Chad on Sunday for what he called a “historic” trip, during which he announced renewal of diplomatic ties decades after they were ruptured. Netanyahu and Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno have “announced the renewal of diplomatic relations between Chad and Israel”, a statement from the Israeli premier’s office said.

Ties between Israel and the Muslim majority nation were broken in 1972. “The two sides view the resumption of relations as the key to future cooperation for the benefit of both countries,” the statement said.

Netanyahu on Twitter called the announcement “a historic moment”. The Israeli leader has sought to improve ties with countries in the Arab and Muslim world and said he expected more such diplomatic breakthroughs soon.

His one-day visit follows Deby’s November trip to Israel. The two leaders at the time declined to comment on whether their talks have included arms deals. Chadian security sources say the country has acquired Israeli equipment to help battle rebels in the country’s north.

Chad is also one of several African states engaged in Western-backed operations against Boko Haram and Islamic State group jihadists. Pressure from Muslim African nations, accentuated by the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973, led a number of African states to sever relations with the Jewish state.

But in recent years, Israel has held out the prospect of cooperation in fields ranging from security to technology to agriculture, to improve ties on the continent.

Deby is one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders. He took over the arid, impoverished nation in 1990 and won a disputed fifth term in April 2016 to lead the country of some 15 million people.

(AFP)

20, January 2019

Martin Belinga Eboutou in Canada: How art the mighty fallen ⁰

Dr Martin Belinga Eboutou was a senior government official in the Biya regime. But the theft of part of the money intended to corrupt the President Buhari ethnic political cartel for the arrest and extradition of Ambazonian leaders from Nigeria, constrained Paul Biya to remove and conceal in his immediate proximity his longtime mystical devil worshipping soul mate Martin Belinga Eboutou for misappropriating a sizeable part of the booty putting Biya in conflict with Buhari.

Today, our senior intelligence officer in Yaoundé has confirmed that Dr Martin Belinga Eboutou and his family have fled La Republique du Cameroun and have reportedly taken up permanent residence in Canada. With age and poor health telling on him, the crime syndicate that was bankrolled by Martin Belinga Eboutou has awoken to the reality that at long last, its many criminal tentacles notwithstanding, its days of accountability for the impunity and international criminality are near.

A medical doctor who doubled as Martin Belinga’s chief strategist, in a phone call in Yaoundé confirmed he was out of the country and that even his wife has abandoned her duty post at the University of Yaoundé and joined him in Canada.

Martin Belinga Eboutou singlehandedly created the French Cameroun Special Operation Unit that has been consistently used to eliminate real and perceived enemies or former allies to protect the devilish world of the crime syndicate in power in Yaoundé. This is the unit that was deployed to abduct and assassinate the Bishop of Bafia in French Cameroun.

Sources said the Belinga Eboutou family had fled together with some other former powerful stakeholders of the CPDM regime. Belinga’s departure followed the deaths of Foumane Akame, a long time acolyte to President Biya and General Asso Beniot of the Cameroon army.

It was unclear just when the Belingas left for Canada. French Cameroun newspapers reported recently that Biya persuaded Belinga Eboutou to travel to France for a medical mission before firing him. There was no official word from Yaoundé on the whereabouts of this once powerful political man at the time of writing this report. “A prominent man, his wife and kids are certainly no longer in Cameroon. We believe they have fled because of the chaotic developments in the ruling Essingan clan,” a source said.

Our sources said some of the soldiers, who worked as agents of the French Cameroun Special Unit have also fled, while President Biya was said to have arrested several former senior officials from the Far North region after the failed political rally in Maroua.

Dr Martin Belinga Eboutou was the backbone of Biya’s continued stay in power but relations between Biya and his kinsman have since soured, in part over his portfolio in the cabinet and over accusations of money for government appointments.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that Belinga Eboutou complaint bitterly before his last trip to France that first lady Chantal Biya had surrounded the head of state with relatives.

By Pierre Onana in Yaounde

20, January 2019

Yaounde and Beijing agree to boost cooperation ⁰

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s special representative Yang Jiechi and Cameroonian President Paul Biya agreed on Friday to further boost bilateral cooperation.

Yang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, said the China-Cameroon friendship has a long history and has withstood the test of time and international vicissitudes.

President Paul Biya paid a visit to China last year and attended the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), reaching important consensus with Xi, said Yang, adding that the bilateral relations has come to a new starting point in history with important opportunities for development.

Yang said the visit is aimed at strengthening communication with Cameroon and boosting the implementation of the consensus reached by the two presidents and the outcome of the summit, so as to elevate the friendly cooperation to a higher level.

Yang called on both sides to broaden friendly exchanges at all levels, jointly push forward the Belt and Road construction, deepen pragmatic cooperation in various fields, and promote people-to-people exchanges.

China will help Cameroon develop its economy and improve people’s livelihood, continue mutual support on issues concerning each other’s core interests and major concerns, and promote communication and collaboration on international and regional issues, said Yang.

For his part, Biya said Cameroon attaches great importance to the ties with China, appreciates its support and assistance, and hopes that China will make greater achievements in its development.

Biya said that Cameroon highly appreciates the Belt and Road Initiative, and supports the cooperation under the framework of the FOCAC. Cameroon is ready to work with China to implement the results of the Beijing Summit, and advance the bilateral relations to a new stage, said Biya.

The country is willing to communicate and coordinate with China more closely in multilateral affairs, Biya added. During the visit, Yang also met with Cameroonian Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute and Foreign Minister Lejeune Mbella Mbella.

Source: Xinhua

20, January 2019

Nigeria: Corruption takes centre stage in election campaign ⁰

Corruption is taking centre stage in the run-up to Nigeria’s presidential elections, with the incumbent accused of failing to tackle the scourge of graft and his challenger facing claims about his past.

Muhammadu Buhari, an austere and pious former general, will take on wealthy former vice-president Atiku Abubakar at the polls on February 16.

Both are ethnic Hausas, Muslims from the country’s north. Buhari, who rose to power in 2015 on a promise to eradicate the “cancer” of graft gnawing at Africa’s most populous nation, has cultivated an image of blamelessness.

Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s political “godfather” closely allied with Buhari, earlier this month described him as “a straight and honest man”.

“Leave a naira (local currency) on the table with Buhari in the room. You will find the naira on the table when you return,” he said, in a thinly veiled criticism of Abubakar.

For his part, Abubakar is alleged to have amassed several hundred million dollars by misusing public funds as vice-president under Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007 — yet he has never been investigated in his own country.

“On the issue of corruption, I have challenged anyone, anywhere, who has any evidence of corruption against me to come forward,” Abubakar has said.

“I will shock everyone because I believe that I will fight corruption like never before.” But in the United States, Abubakar’s name has popped up in a Senate investigation into money laundering.

It charged in a 2010 report that US national Jennifer Douglas, Abubakar’s fourth wife, “helped her husband bring over $40 million (35 million euros) in suspect funds into the United States through wire transfers sent by offshore corporations to US bank accounts.”

The couple are also accused of having received more than two million dollars in commissions for a contract with German industrial giant Siemens, which has since pleaded guilty in the case.

– Two essential reforms –

But this week Abubakar put paid to rumours that he was subject to a visa ban and unable to travel to the US by jetting to Washington for meetings with American counterparts. Abubakar told AFP last year he would retain no stakes in his various companies if he is elected president.

His sprawling business empire includes interests in telecommunications, transport, real estate, agriculture, import/export and healthcare.

Verifying his pledge to stand aside will be difficult in the opaque economic system in Nigeria, which global watchdog Transparency International ranked in the 148th place of a total 180 countries for corruption in 2017.

Buhari stands in stark contrast to his flamboyant fellow northerner’s private jet, Rolex watches and luxury cars.

His spokesman in 2015 said the president had “an austere and spartan lifestyle”, unlike other Nigerian politicians who have amassed wealth during their careers.

But Buhari, who vowed to usher in more transparent and accountable government, has come under harsh criticism for an apparent lack of progress in the fight against graft.

Steps in the right direction have included two essential reforms — a single Treasury account for all government revenue and the introduction of a biometric identification system in banks to better trace clients and transfers of funds.

“Those are the two areas I commend the government,” said Saadatu Falila Hamu, a specialist anti-corruption lawyer based in Abuja.

“But despite this, the government has focused their fight against corruption on people of the opposing political parties.” Hamu also faulted Nigeria’s main anti-corruption body, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for “inefficiency”.

– Oil contracts –

In November, EFCC director Ibrahim Magu boasted having seized the equivalent of $2.3 billion as well as sumptuous villas, jewellery, and cars — but often outside legal procedures.

Buhari has pledged to review all oil exploitation contracts to be renewed after this year. Such an electoral promise “can either lead to total chaos in the industry or lead to sanity”, said analyst Soji Apampa.

Nigeria depends on oil sales for 70 percent of its revenues. In 2013 under president Goodluck Jonathan, the head of the central bank reported a $20 billion shortfall in revenue — a scandal that helped bring about Jonathan’s fall and Buhari’s election in 2015.

Nevertheless, the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, considered a slush fund for successive governments, remains notoriously opaque and Buhari — who is also oil minister — named a close associate to head it.

“Imagine a broken pipeline with all of Nigeria’s resources flowing through it. Instead of fixing the hole, you bring a man with a whip” to deter people from stealing, Apampa said. “We haven’t seen a government with an elaborate plan” to repair the pipeline, he added.

AFP

20, January 2019

Congo-Kinshasa: Top court upholds Tshisekedi presidential election win ⁰

DR Congo’s top court on Sunday declared opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi the winner of disputed presidential elections after throwing out a legal challenge by the runner-up.

Announcing the final results of the long awaited poll, the Constitutional Court said Tshisekedi had won by a simple majority, paving the way for him to take over from longterm leader Joseph Kabila in an official ceremony on Tuesday.

Runner-up Martin Fayulu immediately called on the international community to reject the results, after the court said his appeal was “unfounded”.

“I ask the entire international community not to recognise a power that has neither legitimacy nor legal standing to represent the Congolese people,” he said of Tshisekedi, declaring himself “the only legitimate president”.

Inspired by

Tshisekedi’s victory was first announced earlier this month based on provisional results by the Independent National Election Commission (CENI) but it was challenged both at home and abroad, with the African Union appealing for the final results to be delayed.

On Sunday, the Consitutional Court said Fayulu had failed to prove any inaccuracies. “Only the CENI has produced authentic and sincere results,” judge Noel Kilomba said.

Hundreds of supporters of Tshisekedi had gathered outside the court holding placards saying “No to interference” and “Independent country” as riot police stood nearby.

‘Not their business’

The election commission announced on January 10 that Tshisekedi had provisionally won with 38.57 percent of the vote against Fayulu’s 34.8 percent.

Fayulu denounced the figures as an “electoral coup” forged by Tshisekedi and Kabila, and filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court.

At a summit on Thursday, AU leaders said there were “serious doubts” about the vote’s provisional results and called for the announcement of the final results to be suspended.

But DR Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende had snubbed the demand, saying: “I don’t think it is the business of the government or even of the African Union to tell the court what it should do.”

The AU also announced that its commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat and Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, currently the AU chairman, were expected to fly to DR Congo on Monday.

The European Union said it joined the AU in inviting “all the Congolese players to work constructively with this (AU) delegation to find a post-electoral solution which respects the Congolese people’s vote”.

Appeal

The Financial Times and other foreign media have reported seeing documents that confirm Fayulu as the winner.

“If the court declares Tshisekedi victor, the risk of isolation would be enormous and untenable for a country positioned right in the middle of the continent,” Adeline Van Houtte of the Economist Intelligence Unit wrote on Twitter.

Fayulu’s camp had hailed the AU appeal for the final result to be put on hold, but Tshisekedi’s entourage branded it “scandalous”.

The dispute has raised fears that the political crisis that began when Kabila refused to step down at the end of his constitutional term in office two years ago, could turn into a bloodbath. The vast and chronically unstable country lived through two regional wars in 1996-97 and 1998-2003, and the previous two elections, in 2006 and 2011, were marred by bloody clashes.

The AU has taken the firmest line of all major international bodies with regard to the post-election crisis. The Southern African Development Community (SADC), a bloc that includes Angola and South Africa, initially called for a recount and a unity government.

But in a later communique, it made no mention of those demands, instead calling on Congolese politicians to “address any electoral grievances in line with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Constitution and relevant electoral laws”.

(AFP)

20, January 2019

US: Trump offers deal to end government shutdown despite rejection by Dems ⁰

US President Donald Trump has offered a deal to end the government shutdown, linking protection for undocumented immigrants to funding of a border wall, amid immediate rejection by Democratic lawmakers.

Addressing the nation on Saturday in a televised speech from the White House, Trump outlined a plan that would extend temporary protections for young undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children — known as Dreamers — and individuals from some Central American and African nations, in exchange for $5.7 billion funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border.

“Both sides in Washington must simply come together, listen to each other, put down their armor, build trust, reach across the aisle and find solutions,” Trump proclaimed, but then insisted, “A wall is not immoral. The radical left can never control our borders. I will never let that happen.”

He further added, “As a candidate for president, I promised I would fix this crisis, and I intend to keep that promise one way or the other.”

According to local press reports, Trump’s deal would extend protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program recipients for three years and a three-year extension of protections for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders in exchange for the partial border wall funding.

Democrats, however, quickly rejected the deal, with Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York emphasizing that Trump’s offering some protections for DACA and TPS recipients “in exchange for the wall is not a compromise but more hostage taking.”

File photo of US Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Photo by AFP)

Schumer further accused the US president of “putting forward one-sided and ineffective remedies,” adding, “There’s only way out: open up the government, Mr. President, and then Democrats and Republicans can have a civil discussion and come up with bipartisan solutions.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi further described Trump’s proposal as a “non-starter” in a statement released shortly before his nationally-televised speech, insisting that the deal could not pass the House of Representative.

US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) answers questions during her weekly press conference January 10, 2019 in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

“Democrats were hopeful that the president was finally willing to re-open government and proceed with a much-need discussion to protect the border. … It is unlikely that any one of these provisions alone would pass the House, and taken together, they are a non-starter,” Pelosi further said in her statement.

The development came as tensions are also running high between Trump and Pelosi after she asked him to postpone the annual State of the Union address, slated for January 29. Trump in turn prevented lawmakers from using military aircraft for congressional trips, including for Pelosi’s planned visit to the war-torn Afghanistan this week.

PressTV-Tensions rising between Trump, Pelosi over shutdown

This is while two congressional aides cited in local press reports also pointed out that Democratic leadership was not consulted on the forthcoming White House proposal, further noting that Democrats had previously rejected similar ideas.

“Similar inadequate offers from the Administration were already rejected by Democrats. The BRIDGE Act does not fully protect Dreamers and is not a permanent solution,” said a senior House Democratic aide.

“This is not a compromise as it includes the same wasteful, ineffective $5.7 billion wall demand that shut down the government in the first place,” the aide added.

Trump also underlined in his speech that he was making his pitch to “break the logjam” that has paralyzed Washington since late December, leaving roughly a quarter of the government closed and forcing roughly 800,000 federal employees be furloughed or work without pay.

The partial government shutdown, which marks the longest lapse in funding in modern US history, is currently in its 29th day as the stalemate over the funding of the border wall persists.

Meanwhile, several recent polls have shown that a majority of Americans blame Trump for the partial shutdown after the US president left a meeting earlier this month with Pelosi when the House speaker said she wouldn’t discuss border wall funding even if he reopened the government.

Seeking to make his case during his speech, Trump further seized on his belief that there is a “crisis” along the border requiring “urgent action.”

“Illegal immigration reduces wages and strains public services. The lack of border control provides a gateway, a very wide and open gateway, for criminals and gang members to enter the United States,” he claimed.

Source: Presstv

20, January 2019

French Cameroun Politics: Biya “concerned” over growing insecurity in Ambazonia and Adamawa ⁰

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya said on Friday he was “very” concerned about rising insecurity in the two English-speaking regions and in its mountainous Adamawa region. He pledged efforts to restore peace.

In the Adamawa region, “shepherds are victims of criminal groups specialized in kidnappings with ransom demands,” Biya said while presiding over the graduation ceremony of the Combined Services Military Academy in the capital, Yaounde.

“The situation in the Northwest and Southwest is and remains at the center of my concerns. The armed groups have in recent months engaged in killing spree. The populations are the main victims of these groups,” Biya added.

The president raised the concerns amid increasing calls across the country for peace and stability to be restored in the aforementioned regions.

“I will spare no effort to ensure that this legitimate aspiration to peace is realized. I reiterate my appeal to our young people who have let themselves be dragged into a dead end to return to the right track,” Biya said.

Local authorities said last week Adamawa region was going through its “worst moments” in history with about 150 cases of kidnapping recorded in the region last year.

In the two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest of the largely French-speaking African country, armed separatists have been clashing with government forces to create a nation called “Ambazonia.”

Xinhuanet

19, January 2019

Did Southern Cameroons ever achieve independence by joining French Cameroun? ⁰

A review of UN General Assembly resolutions and other international legal principles regarding the right to self-determination shows incontrovertibly that Southern Cameroons became independent in 1961, but has since been recolonized and occupied by French Cameroun. The ongoing struggle to restore Southern Cameroons independence is therefore consistent with International Law, including the right to self-determination. The right to separate from La Republique du Cameroun is laid out under Principles VII and VIII of UNGA Resolution 1541 of December 15, 1960.

Besides, the obligation imposed by the UN that Southern Cameroons should obtain “independence by joining” either Nigeria or French Cameroun violated Article 76(b) of the UN Charter, and UNGA Resolution 1541; both of which reaffirm independence as the inherent and inalienable right of all colonies and Trust Territories.

So, when La Republique du Cameroun says Southern Cameroons is an integral part of its territory because they have been administered jointly for 57 years is lame and ridiculous. We remember that Ukraine and Russia separated despite sharing over 1,000 years of common history. Also, Southern Cameroons broke away from Nigeria in 1953 despite sharing 44 years of common history. Even if La Republique claims Southern Cameroons is only two of its ten regions, it cannot forget that Eritrea used to be the only Red Sea province of Ethiopia. That did not stop Eritrea from gaining independence.

Ambazonians are not buying the decentralization that Biya is selling as tangible reform under the 1996 Constitution because even regional autonomy makes the wrong assumption that Southern Cameroons is part of French Cameroun and not an illegally occupied and recolonized territory. It is a pity that the 85 year old President Biya misread Anglophone public opinion and chose to stand on the wrong side of history.

19, January 2019

Warwick Law School speaks of Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute ⁰

Warwick Law School postgraduate alumnus Joseph Dion Ngute has been appointed as the new Prime Minister of Cameroon. Dion Ngute took office on 5 January 2019, replacing Philemon Yang, the country’s longest-serving Prime Minister.

Dion Ngute has served in the Cameroonian government since 1997, including positions at the Ministry of External Relations and at the Presidency of the Republic, and he has represented Cameroon on both the UN Human Rights Council and the African Commission for Human and People’s Rights.

Dion Ngute came to Warwick in 1978 to research a PhD on comparative contract law under Jill Cottrell, which was awarded in 1982. His thesis, entitled “Standardized Contracts in a Bi-jural State: the United Republic of Cameroon”, is available to read online at the Warwick Research Archive Portal