Monthly Archives: November 2016

18, November 2016

US: Majority of Democrats in favour of putting an end to the Electoral College system ⁰

A new poll shows a majority of US Democrats are in favor of putting an end to the Electoral College system, after Hillary Clinton lost the November 8 presidential election to Donald Trump despite winning the popular vote by more than a million votes.

According to the Huffington Post/YouGov poll, released on Thursday, 66 percent of Democrats are in favor of discarding the Electoral College for a popular vote system to elect the US president, while 14 percent want to keep the current system in place.

However, 67 percent of Republicans are comfortable with the Electoral College, while only 13 percent want Congress to amend the Constitution so the candidate who receives the most number of total votes across the country wins the election. Overall, 41 percent of Americans are in favor of scrapping the Electoral College and rely on the popular vote to elect a president, while 34 percent prefer the current system and 25 percent are not sure.

In the United States, the Electoral College, a system established by Article Two of the Constitution, ultimately decides the presidential election, not the popular vote. Americans vote in each state at a general election to choose a slate of “electors” pledged to vote for a party’s candidate who is elected president should they receive an absolute majority of electoral votes among the states. However, the winner does not always correspond to the candidate who won the popular vote.

Democrats have denounced at the Electoral College system as an “outdated, undemocratic system” that does not reflect modern American society, after Democratic nominee Clinton won the popular vote last week but lost the Electoral College to the Republican rival, Trump.

In the popular vote, Clinton has won 62,829,832 votes compared to Trump’s 61,488,190, or 47.9 percent to 46.9 percent, respectively, according to an analysis from the independent Cook Political Report Thursday. However, Trump won 290 of the total 538 electoral votes, compared to Clinton’s 232. It takes 270 Electoral College votes to win the White House. Several Democrats, including 2016 presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, have called on Congress to review the Electoral College.

Trump had earlier complained about the Electoral College system, saying he had “respect” for the system but he preferred the popular vote method. But, in a tweet, he said, “the Electoral College is actually genius in that it brings all states, including the smaller ones, into play. Campaigning is much different!”

Trump’s campaign had been hit with many controversies since its inception in early 2015. But he still managed to stun the world by defeating the heavily-favored candidate, Clinton, in the election. The poll released on Thursday also suggests 78 percent of Americans consider Trump’s victory legitimate, while 40 percent of Democrats say they won’t accept the billionaire as the legitimate president, and 42 percent believe the presidential election was “rigged.”

Presstv

18, November 2016

Mozambique: Scores of people killed in an explosion ⁰

Scores of people have been killed and more than a hundred others injured in an explosion that happened as they tried to siphon oil from an overturned truck in western Mozambique. The incident occurred on Thursday in the village of Caphiridzange in Tete Province, killing 73 people and injuring over 110, some of them critically, the government said in a statement.

The truck had been carrying fuel to Malawi from the port city of Beira. The exact circumstances of the incident were not clear. An early government statement had said the blast occurred “because of the heat.” Information ministry director Joao Manasses, however, said people may have ambushed the truck.

Government officials said the local hospital was reinforcing its staff to help treat those injured, saying more bodies might be in surrounding woods because some badly burned people had tried to run into a nearby river. Three government ministers were due to arrive to the village on Friday to monitor the rescue work.

The government in Mozambique increased fuel prices at the beginning of October, causing a rise in the inflation rate. Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries, has been suffering the consequences of an economic crisis since its civil war ended in 1992, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Presstv

18, November 2016

The “Ahidjoness” in Prime Minister Philemon Yang is gone ¹

Prime Minister Philemon Yang and President Paul Biya are both militants of the ruling CPDM party. The similarities end there. Yang was appointed into the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo government after spending only six months in Buea as a Magistrate. The late Ahidjo saw in the young Yang a dynamic, hard working and patriotic lad whose mastery of the French language remains a mystery to many at the CNU leadership.

A story was often told of how the late President Ahidjo summoned Philemon Yang to Yaoundé for a one-and-one. Yang arrived from Buea on that fateful day that Ahidjo had to meet with a visiting head of state. Yang did the unthinkable!! He drove to the Prime Minister’s office and informed Biya that he was given just a day by his boss in Buea to be out of station. Biya as prime minister laughed hard and asked Yang if his patron in Buea had legitimate authority more than Ahidjo. Yang insisted and traveled back to Buea. Ahidjo and Biya reportedly shared a conversation on the matter and history had it that the late president was so proud of the young Magistrate who had so much respect for constituted authority. Philemon Yang was appointed as the youngest minister ever in the Ahidjo government.

The office of the president of the republic changed hands on November 6^th 1982 and the moderate Ahidjo men were all sent abroad as ambassadors after the controversial April 6^th coup. Yang was appointed Cameroon ambassador to Canada where he spent more than two decades before he was moved back home as Assistant Secretary at the presidency of the republic. Prime Minister Philemon Yang is a celebrated CPDM militant and head of government but everywhere he has been, this native of Oku in the North West region has demonstrated so much love for fatherland which is the main brand of the Ahidjo men and women. His time as a politician and a statesman is drawing to a close and so too is the “Ahidjoness” in him.

He is heading a consortium of crime syndicates known as the CPDM led government metamorphosing from one scandal to another. Recently, his administration has issued a terse statement that it will not keep the promise made to the Cameroonian people to restore urban public transport by bus, before the African Cup of Nations women’s football, which begins in Yaoundé on November the 19th. On the 30^th of August 2016, a partnership agreement was signed in Yaoundé between the Minister of Transport and a Portuguese Group known as Eximtrans / Irmaos Mota to set up a mass urban transport system in Yaoundé and Limbé.

The agreement provided for 150 air-conditioned buses with a capacity of 91 seats including 39 seats and 52 standing for mass transport in Yaoundé and Limbé. 135 of the buses had to be reserved to serve 13 lines from Yaoundé. While 5 others were assigned to Limbé. 10 “VIP” buses were reserved for transportation during the female Africa Cup of Nations. One of Philemon Yang’s numerous cabinet ministers; Edgard Alain Mebo Ngo’o told the world that 40 of the new buses have been reserved exclusively for the participation teams for the AFCON which he revealed were to be delivered before October 31, 2016.

The Philemon Yang administration told the Cameroonian people that our nation had invested 17 billion FCFA for a 10-year operating period, of which 10% are held by the State represented by the urban community of Yaoundé. Faced with a hostile public opinion due to the absence of the buses, the Yang government has announced that the contract will not be executed before the tournament. The buses, they say will arrive after the competition. By not allowing Transport Minister Edgard Alain Mebo Ngo’o to face the media over this prominent and successful failure, Prime Minister Philemon Yang has acted like an ordinary politician from Oku. We can now tell the world that the “Ahidjoness” in him is gone and he has embrace Chantalistes Biyayistes.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai (Cameroon Concord News Group)

18, November 2016

Britain to construct 5,300 social housing units in French Cameroon ⁰

President Paul Biya has received a British business delegation led by the UK High Commissioner to Cameroon, Brian Olley. The audience that held today Thursday in the Unity Palace was reportedly intensive and productive.

At the end of the meeting, the British top diplomat revealed that more than 5,300 social housing units will soon be built in Cameroon. High Commissioner Brian Olley added that the projects, amounting to 140 billion CFA francs will be realized in Douala, Yaounde and Kribi.

On combating the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram, Brian Olley announced that Britain would intensify its support for the Cameroonian defense forces, particularly in the area of military training, revealing that a post of military attaché would be created in April next year in its representation in Cameroon.

Ambassador Brian Olley also stated that more than 15 billion CFA francs had already been mobilized by the United Kingdom for the assistance to refugees and displaced persons who are victims of terrorism.

The UK ranks second on the list of Cameroonian donors with (US $ 88.2 million) behind France (US $ 167 million) Germany (US $ 87.4 million), the United States (US $ 40.7 million) and Japan (US $ 25.1 million).

By Chi Prudence Asong

17, November 2016

William Aurélien Eteki Mboumoua will be buried at the Bois de Singes cemetery ⁰

The remains of the former Secretary General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and President of the Cameroon Red Cross (CRC) will leave the Yaoundé General Hospital mortuary on the 24^th of November 2016 for its final resting place.

According to a program published by the Cameroon Red Cross, the late William Aurélien Eteki Mboumoua, will embark on his last journey from Yaoundé to Douala on 24 November, where he will be buried on Saturday the 26th of November at the Bois de Singes cemetery. A ceremony will be held at the Yaoundé General Hospital in the presence of numerous political figures, members of the government, the great family of the International Committee of the Red Cross including administrative, traditional and religious authorities.

William Aurélien Eteki Mboumoua had a meteoric rise in the Cameroon political system. He was Minister of National Education, Minister of Youth and Sports, Minister of Culture, Chancellor of the University of Yaoundé, Special Advisor to the President of the Republic, Minister of Missions at the Presidency of the Republic, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Member of the Executive Council and Vice-President of UNESCO, Secretary General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), Member of the Advisory Committee of the United Nations for Disarmament Studies and National President of Cameroon Red Cross.

Born at the Bonadibong neighborhood in Douala, Aurélien Eteki Mboumoua died on Wednesday the 26^th of October at the age of 83.

By Chi Prudence Asong

17, November 2016

Women’s AFCON 2016: Cameroon deploys troops to Limbe and Yaounde ⁰

Cameroon has announced a massive deployment of troops to help strengthen police presence during the Africa Cup of Nations Women’s Football which runs from the 19^th of November to the 3^rd of December 2016. Yaoundé has already stationed nearly 3,000 police officers in the cities of Yaoundé and Limbe, where the matches of the 10th edition of the female AFCON football will take place.

Cameroon Concord News sources say the Cameroonian authorities have reinforced surveillance in order to ensure maximum security of the members of the different teams and delegations including officials of the Confederation of African Football. Many elements of the police force have been seen in recent days on the main streets of the nation’s capital. Plain cloth police officers have also been deployed in the hotels where teams are lodged.

By Chi Prudence Asong

17, November 2016

Several Turkish soldiers seeking asylum in Germany ⁰

Several Turkish soldiers at NATO’s central command in Ramstein has sought asylum in Germany in the wake of Turkey’s widespread crackdown against military personnel, journalists and political activists. According to a German official, quoted by the dpa news agency, family members of the soldiers stationed at the airbase insouthwestern Germany have also applied for asylum.

Paul Junker, a regional official in nearby Kaiserslautern, said the asylum requests had come from “more than one family,” but declined to say how many individuals were involved. German Interior Ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth said last month that 35 Turkish diplomatic passport holders had formally applied for asylum in Germany. The actual figure of the asylum seekers, he said, could be higher.

Relations between Turkey and Germany have strained following the July 15 botched coup, which Ankara claims to have been organized by US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier often clashed with Turkish officials during a visit to Ankara this week, reflecting tough times in their relations.

After 11 years of negotiations, Turkey’s prospects of joining the EU look more remote than ever, with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu telling Steinmeier on Tuesday that Turkey was “fed up” with the European Union. “We are truly fed up of these statements degrading Turkey. The criteria are clear but there are double standards and a two-faced approach. This is what we don’t like,” Cavusoglu told a joint news conference. Over 240 people were killed and more than 2,100 others injured in the coup attempt, which Gulen has strongly condemned and denied any involvement in.

Tens of thousands of people, including military personnel, judges and teachers, have been suspended, dismissed or detained as part of the post-coup crackdown. International rights groups argue that Ankara’s crackdown has gone far beyond the so-called Gulenists and targeted Kurds as well as government critics.

Turkey detains, suspends mayors over PKK links

On Thursday, Turkish officials arrested and suspected three mayors in the Kurdish-majority southeastern part of the country over alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group.

Unnamed security sources said police detained the mayor of Van city, Bekir Kaya, and four other municipal officials early Thursday.

Bekir Kaya, mayor of the southeastern Turkish city of Van

The sources said the mayors of Mardin and Siirt citties, identified as Ahmet Turk and Tuncer Bakirhan respectively, had also been discharged and replaced with administrators appointed by the Interior Ministry. Earlier this month, 13 legislators from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) were arrested after being accused of links to Kurdish militants.

Party leaders Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ remain in custody along with eight others, waiting to stand trial on terrorism-related charges. A shaky ceasefire between the PKK, which has been calling for an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984, and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015. Ever since, attacks on Turkish security forces have soared.

Over the past few months, Turkish ground and air forces have been carrying out operations against PKK positions in the country’s troubled southeastern border region as well as Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and northern Syria.

Presstv

17, November 2016

Draws for the 2016 Inter-Pool competition to be stage today in Yaounde ⁰

The Cameroon Football Federation, FECAFOOT has announced that the draw for the 2016 Inter-Pool tournament will take place at its headquarters in the Tsinga district in Yaoundé today Thursday the 17^th of November 2016 at 3 pm.

Cameroon Concord News learnt that the competition has been scheduled for December 2016 after the final phase of the women’s Africa Cup of Nations. FECAFOOT also said in a statement that the city of Bafoussam, capital of the West Region will host the 2016 inter-pool jamboree.

The 10 qualified teams are the ones that finished at the top of the second division championships organized separately in the ten regions of Cameroon. The inter-pool tournament is the only highway that links clubs from the second division to join the elite division known as League 1.

The list of ten candidates this year does not include the mythical clubs such as Union Abong-Mbang, Leopard of Douala and Dihep Ndi Kam of Yabassi.

Here is the complete list of the ten regional champions expected in Yaoundé for the draw:

Far North: Santos FC of Koza

North: Scorpions FC of Be

Adamawa: Watre Polo of Meiganga

East: As Bethel of Bertoua

Centre: FC Yaoundé II

South: Reste of Monde d’Ebolowa

West: As Menoua of Dschang

South West: Victoria United of Limbe aka OPOPO

North West: Bamboulet of Nkambe

Littoral: Avion FC of Nkam

By Sonne Peter

17, November 2016

Yaounde: Striking SOCATUR workers molested and detained in Kondengui ⁰

The employees of the Cameroon Society of Urban Transport (SOCATUR) paralyzed traffic for more than three hours by blocking the road to the Nlongkak district in Yaoundé on Wednesday the 16^th of November. The nearly 125 people claimed they have not been paid for over 12 months. Cameroon Concord News gathered they are actually being owed 842 million CFA francs.

President Biya had reportedly given standing instructions that the workers be paid long ago. However, on November the 15th at a meeting held with the representative of the Ministry of Finance, the striking workers were told they could not be paid. According to their spokesman Hubert Mani, the strike action was to send signals to the Head of State.

The Senior Divisional Officer for Mfoundi, Jean Claude Nsila, went down to the scene in an emergency, followed by dozens of riot police officers to try to contain the strike. The SOCATUR workers were forced to sit on the ground against their will and many were forcibly taken away and molested before being shipped to an unspecified destination.

A reporter with the Cameroon Intelligence Report hinted that some of the striking workers were detained at the Kondengui high security prison. The Prefect of Mfoundi was quoted by a local newspaper as saying “You will spend some few weeks in Kondengui”. Jean Claude Tsila has convened a crisis meeting in his office to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

16, November 2016

Boko Haram has dramatically scaled back attacks in Cameroon ⁰

Boko Haram has dramatically scaled back attacks in Cameroon in recent months, analysts said on Wednesday, suggesting a regional security force is gaining ground against the militants. The Islamist movement – which controlled an area the size of Belgium in northeast Nigeria last year and raided Cameroon and other neighbours to expand its “caliphate” – had since suffered a string of defeats, International Crisis Group (ICG) said.

The report came days after security and U.N. sources said hundreds of Boko Haram fighters and their families had surrendered on another frontline in Chad. There was no comment from any of the factions of Boko Haram which is still seen as one of the main security threats in West Africa. “We’ve seen a dizzying downwards spiral in the number of attacks and suicide bombings,” said Hans De Marie Heungoup, one of the report’s authors.

Two years ago, attacks were happening on an almost daily basis, he said. But the number had fallen to between six and eight a month since September. “[Boko Haram] has suffered heavy losses and seen its conventional capacities reduced,” the study said, partly thanks to last year’s formation of a 10,000-strong regional force with troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin.

Up to 1,000 fighters with heavy weaponry and armoured vehicles joined strikes in Cameroon’s Far North Region in 2014-15, the report said. But attacks were now focused on the northernmost tip of the region where fighters continued to control part of the fishing industry of Lake Chad amid a labyrinth of waterways.

Recruitment is also faltering in Cameroon although forced enlistment remains a risk, ICG said. Up to 4,000 Cameroonians are thought to have joined the group and some were given sign-on bonuses of up to $2000 and a motorbike, according to the study, citing interviews with locals.

Those who proved their loyalty by killing their parents often enjoyed quick promotion, it added. Analysts say the faction around the Lake Chad Basin represents the stronger branch of the group, loyal to Islamic State (IS) and led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi. Another faction led by Abubaker Shekau is based further south in Nigeria’s Sambisa forest.

Culled from Reuters