Monthly Archives: July 2017

Syrian defense minister hails Iran, Russia support in fighting terrorism

14, July 2017

Syrian defense minister hails Iran, Russia support in fighting terrorism 0

The Syrian defense minister has lauded the support provided by Iran, Russia and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement in battling terrorism inside Syria. Major General Fahd Jassem al-Freij made the remarks during a Thursday field visit to units of the Syrian army in Damascus south-eastern Countryside.

“Our battle against terrorism is continuous and the terrorist scheme against Syria is collapsing and retreating thanks to the steadfastness of the Syrian people who rallied around their army and leadership as well as the support provided by the friendly countries, particularly Russia, Iran and the Lebanese Resistance,” the official SANA news agency quoted Freij as saying.

Syria has been fighting different foreign-sponsored militant and terrorist groups since March 2011. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimated last August that more than 400,000 people had been killed in the crisis until then. Russia and Iran are the main international backers of the Syrian government in its battle against foreign-backed terrorists. At Damascus’ request, Iran has been providing military advisory support to the Syrian military in its counterterrorism operations.

Russia has been also carrying out an aerial campaign in Syria in coordination with Damascus since September 2015 to further boost the Syrian military’s anti-terror fight. Moreover, Iran and Russia along with Turkey have brokered several rounds of peace talks between Syria’s warring parties in the Kazakh capital, Astana. The Astana discussions produced a memorandum of understanding on de-escalation zones in Syria that sharply reduced fighting in the Arab country. The negotiations are aimed at bringing an end to the foreign-backed militancy in Syria, which began in March 2011.

Earlier this week, UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said that opposition groups had achieved significant progress in coming closer together on the issues of Syri’’s future and constitutional reform, noting that “the opposition’s stance is now not that far even from Damascus.” Last month, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Syria’s opposition groups, which are being sponsored by foreign countries, were progressively losing their power.

Meanwhile, the Syrian government forces continue to make advances against foreign-backed terrorists groups in several fronts. Earlier this week, Syrian Air Force fighter jets had carried out a string of aerial assaults against Daesh positions in al-Hussainia, al-Bogheilia, Panorama, Hattla, Marat and Mazloum districts in the eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, killing scores of the militants and destroying large amounts of their munitions.
Separately, Syrian army soldiers have regained control over al-Heil oil fields northeast of the ancient city of Palmyra, inflicting heavy losses on Daesh terrorists. Elsewhere in the southwestern province of Sweida, Syrian army troops established complete control over Tal Shihab mountainous region.

Source: Presstv


Cameroon-Nigeria: NFF confirms Uyo as venue

13, July 2017

Cameroon-Nigeria: NFF confirms Uyo as venue 0

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) may have laid to rest the controversy that preceded the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier between the Super Eagles and the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon.

There was a heated debate of whether the match will be played at the Nest of Champions International Stadium in Uyo or not after the Super Eagles lost 0-2 to the Bafana Bafana of South Africa in the 2019 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier at the stadium.

But the NFF who spoke through its Director of Communications, Ademola Olajire has confirmed the stadium as the venue for the encounter which will now be played on September 1.

Olajire told journalists yesterday in Abuja the issue of venue has been settled and that all the necessary stakeholders are being informed of the date and venue. He also assured that the federation is putting in place every necessary arrangement that will ensure that the Super Eagles who are leading their group with six maximum points will get the desired result when the defending African champions visit Nigeria.

“I want to confirm that the match against Cameroon will take place in Uyo on the September 1. Uyo has been a good ground for the Super Eagles irrespective of what happened in the last game against South Africa in the AFCON qualifier.

“Equally, I have to reassure all lovers of Nigerian football that the NFF is not leaving any stone unturned to ensure that we defeat Cameroon because that will brighten our chances of qualifying for the World Cup” Olajire concluded.

Source: Vanguard



The trial of Amadou Vamoulké: A man more sinned against than sinning

13, July 2017

The trial of Amadou Vamoulké: A man more sinned against than sinning 0

It is difficult to say exactly when the trial involving the Public Prosecutor and Cameroon Radio and Television (Crtv) against Amadou Vamoulké will take place at the Special Criminal Court. The former general manager of the state radio and television is prosecuted for an alleged misappropriation of nearly four billion FCFA.

However, it is known that one year after the legal proceedings against the former GM of Crtv started; there is an evolution in his file. Cameroon Concord News understands that judicial investigation has been closed for two weeks now, by an order of reference to the Special Criminal Court so that the accused will be made to appear before the court. Amadou Vamoulké will have to answer for an alleged diversion of nearly four billion FCFA.

On the 28th of June 2017, the man that the Beti Ewondo political elites replaced with Charles Ndongo at the helm of CRTV, was at the Special Criminal Court. On that day he was notified of the report of the inquiry into his case. According to the order of partial dismissal and referral to the Special Criminal Court, the state prosecutor accused the ex-GM of Crtv of having falsified the amounts of the TV license fee. The inflated amounts are estimated at 3.9 billion FCFA.

The Amadou Vamoulké file is a subject that still arouses some curiosities. Sources close to this case have revealed that before completing the judicial investigation, the judges sent several reports to their hierarchy in which they explained that they had not been able to demonstrate how Amadou Vamoulké was able to intervene in the influx of the audiovisual fee charged to it. The four experts commissioned by the Special Criminal Court also demonstrated that Amadou Vamoulké could not have manipulated an account housed in the Treasury Department and not at Crtv.

Depicting the Special Criminal Court established to prosecute alleged corrupt government officials and the several Alibabas responsible for pilfering from the public treasury as the President’s court is no misnomer. We call it the President’s court because it is one instrument of power through which the President is reining in on perceived opponents from within his CPDM power conduit. An attribute of a genuine court is the fairness of the trial proceedings in cases which are brought before the court for trial. It is not the number of convictions entered against accused. A court is legitimate and recognized as such because of its exercise of judicial, executive, legislative and administrative independence. A court that is independent must be accessible to all citizens after all, is equality before the law, not a constitutionally protected value? The Special Criminal Court is lacking in these attributes of impartiality, judicial independence and accessibility. It is perceived more as the President’s Court than a Court of Justice.

Establishing this court was President Biya’s way of saving himself the embarrassment of being humiliated during his perennial trips abroad as the President of the most corrupt countries in the world. This ranking of the country as the most corrupt or one of the most corrupt countries had a potential to hamper President Biya’s personal pecuniary interests far from the borders of Cameroon. There was therefore a personal interest need to establish the court. Another personal interest need was to avail himself of a legal tool under his direct control to consolidate absolute power, blackmail potential rebels and competitors within the system and to stifle any form of institutional opposition. He perceived the court as a tool with which to whitewash his more than thirty years of corrupt governance and the rape of the economy.

With the war against Boko Haram, the fight against corruption using the Special Criminal Court has afforded Paul Biya justification contest in the next institutionally flawed elections in order to eternalize power purportedly to direct the war against terror and the war against corruption. True to the name the President’s Court, the President has exclusive preserve in referring cases to the Special Court and the power to terminate them. He decides who will be arrested, who will be investigated and who will serve time and who will not.

In one instance, he ordered a detained the late Minister Bapes Bapes released from remand custody at Kondengui when a warrant was issued for his arrest without the presidential fiat. Recently Titus Edzoa a former Secretary-General at the Presidency of the Republic benefitted from a purported Presidential pardon whose primary purpose was the release of a French citizen Thiery Atangana from jail.

The fear of a presidential referral to the Special Criminal Court on additional charges of corruption under a practice devolved under the supervision of Paul Biya called “rouleur compresseur” pushed Titus Edzoa to rejoin the CPDM Party without a public resignation or repudiation of his membership of the party on which he intended to contest presidential elections prior to his incarceration. Edzoa was a victim of this system of presidential justice when new charges were brought against him when his first imprisonment was about to end in order to maintain him in prison.

Cameroonians want the rule of law to be the guarding principle on which justice is administered in the name of the people

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
Cameroon Concord News Group


14 killed, 30 injured in Cameroon bomb attack

13, July 2017

14 killed, 30 injured in Cameroon bomb attack 0

Two bombers blew themselves up in northeastern Cameroon, killing 14 people and injuring 30 in an attack likely staged by Boko Haram terrorists, security sources said Thursday. The bombings, which took place on Wednesday evening in Waza near the Nigerian border, targeted a busy area in the market town, the sources said. The bombers struck an area with “restaurants, telephone cabins and kiosks,” a local official said.

“The town has been sealed off. Nobody can enter and nobody can leave,” the source said, adding that some of the wounded were in “quite serious” conditions. Though Boko Haram was born in Nigeria, the Daesh-affiliated group has carried out frequent attacks in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, prompting the formation of a regional force to fight back.

Cameroon’s Far North region, which borders Nigeria, has seen a resurgence in attacks blamed on Boko Haram after months of relative calm. Six civilians were killed in mid-June in a double suicide attack in Kolofata, and two others died in Limani at the start of last month when a female bomber blew herself up near the town’s public school. Some 200,000 Cameroonians from the Far North region have fled their homes in fear of the violence.

(Source: AFP)


38 probable mass graves discovered in DR Congo

13, July 2017

38 probable mass graves discovered in DR Congo 0

Another 38 probable mass graves have been discovered in DR Congo in the country’s troubled central region of Kasai, the United Nations said Wednesday. At least 80 mass graves have now been identified in the region that has seen a major spike in violence between security forces and a tribal militia since September.

The international community has voiced alarm over the violence, which has claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people, according to statistics compiled by the Roman Catholic Church. The UN’s MONUSCO peacekeeping mission had previously spoken of “more than 400 dead” while about 1.3 million people are estimated to have fled their homes in the Kasai provinces.

The investigative mission this month found the latest mass graves in the Diboko and Sumbula areas of the Kamonia territory, the UN said. The violence began last year when Kamwina Nsapu, a tribal chieftain in territory near the southern border with Angola, openly challenged the authority of President Joseph Kabila’s government, provoking a crackdown by security forces.

Nsapu was killed in a police operation in August 2016, but his armed followers fight on in the belief he is still alive, because he was buried by the regime without respect for traditional rites accorded leaders of his stature which would have opened the way to a rightful succession.

Last February, MONUSCO accused the Kamwina Nsapu militia of “atrocities… including the recruiting and use of child soldiers,” but also condemned “a disproportionate use of force” by government troops. Two western experts sent to investigate the conflict by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres went missing in March and their bodies were found in a shallow grave by peacekeepers a fortnight later. The government blamed the tribal militia for their murders.

(Source: AFP)



68 billion scandal rocks Cameroon’s biggest pension fund

13, July 2017

68 billion scandal rocks Cameroon’s biggest pension fund 0

The accountant of the National Social Insurance Fund, Patrick Hervé Bessala has openly accused his general manager, Alain Noël Olivier Mekulu Mvondo Akame of wanting to involve him in the falsification of documents relating to the payment of social benefits for the financial year 2016.

In a correspondence dated May 2017 and copies sent to the Presidency of the Republic, the Ministry of Finance and to the Ministry of Higher State Control, Patrick Hervé Bessala reported to the Chairman of the Board of the National Social Insurance Fund that : “Mr. President, following the May 23rd session of the Board of Directors of the National Social Security Fund (CNPS), in which I took part, I hereby express my deepest disagreement as to the wording of the resolutions adopted at the end of that session, as reflected in the drafting of the minutes by the secretariat and made public by the General Manager of CNPS [Mekulu Mvondo] “.

Patrick Hervé Bessala further pointed out in his letter the numerous deficiencies and inconsistencies in the financial statements presented as well as by mentioning a request made by the board of directors to the general manager with a view to setting up an ad hoc committee to assist the accounting officer in the production of the accounts for the financial year 2016.

Patrick Hervé Bessala also did accuse the GM of CNPS of obstructing, in particular, the concealment of the constituent elements of the assets of the National Social Insurance Fund, “on fraudulent payment by the authorizing officer of the expenses of the organization in place of the accounting officer and his refusal to transmit the employment accounts and supporting documents of the sum of 68 billion FCFA made available to him in order to pay social benefits for the financial year 2016 “.

The GM (seen here on photo attached to this report) Alain Noël Olivier Mekulu Mvondo Akame has been solicited to have his version of the facts. The GM instead directed news reporters to his communication services, which revealed that this conflict is not the first of its kind and is related to the character of legal bigephism that governs the financial position of the fund.

Source: CIN


GCE 2017: La Republique’s continuing academic genocide on Southern Cameroonians

13, July 2017

GCE 2017: La Republique’s continuing academic genocide on Southern Cameroonians 0

The GCE Board is currently organizing a special session of the Ordinary level 2017 examination at Franky Comprehensive Secondary School where GCE scripts were allegedly stolen by thieves. Cameroon Concord News gathered from sources at the school that the re-staging of the examination was authorized by the so-called Board Registrar, Humphrey Monono.

The massacre is continuing as candidates were seen at the school campus rewriting the papers that were ‘ stolen’. Ever since the incident, there has not been any police investigation to determine which of the papers were carried away and no arrest on the issue.

Correction of the GCE scripts is presently going on in Buea and Yaounde and questions are now being asked on when the Franky Comprehensive School candidates will finish writing and also if examiners will be recalled from their homes to mark this new version of the CPDM GCE.

Controversy has also erupted on who set the questions and cat calls have greeted the whole scenario with some Anglophone parents saying that Humphrey Monono and his gang should accept that the organization of the 2017 GCE has been a complete and total fiasco.

By Sama Ernest
Cameroon Concord News


Biya regime and SCACUF’s election of Sesekou Ayuk Julius Tabe: The AGBAW-EBAI DEBATE

12, July 2017

Biya regime and SCACUF’s election of Sesekou Ayuk Julius Tabe: The AGBAW-EBAI DEBATE 0

The West Cameroon crisis has intensified, with the election of an interim President of the Southern Cameroons Governing Council, Sesekou Ayuk Julius Tabe. The Roman Catholic Bishops who at the very beginning of the struggle wrote a strongly worded memorandum to the 84 year Cameroonian dictator have now said schools should resume in West Cameroon.

The Francophone political elites have not made any genuine concession to Southern Cameroonians and they continue to keep hundreds of Anglophones in Francophone jails including the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium.

A senior official in the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime who spoke to Cameroon Concord News late yesterday, painted SCACUF’s election of Sesekou Ayuk Julius Tabe in the following words: “Are we suppose to pay much attention any time a dog barks? Barking is their nature. They bark when they are scared, they bark when they are hungry, they bark when they need attention, they bark when they get jealous. They bark when they are lonely, and they bark to act tough.”

In this edition of the AGBAW-EBAI DEBATE, we are asking our readers what Southern Cameroonians should expect from President Ayuk Julius Tabe?


Trump says Putin preferred Clinton as US president

12, July 2017

Trump says Putin preferred Clinton as US president 0

US President Donald Trump says his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin would have been more comfortable with his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, as the president. “If Hillary had won, our military would be decimated. Our energy would be much more expensive. That’s what Putin doesn’t like about me,” Trump said in an interview with Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) on Wednesday.

He also commented about the ceasefire in southwestern Syria, announced after his two-hour meeting with the Russian president on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

“Well he wants what’s good for Russia, and I want what’s good for the United States. And I think in a case like Syria where we can get together, do a ceasefire, and there are many other cases where getting along can be a very positive thing, but always Putin is going to want Russia and Trump is going to want the United States and that’s the way it is,” Trump said. “Sometimes you’re not going to get along on things and sometimes you will. But we had a good meeting, it was a face to face meeting, it was a long meeting. It was two hours and 15 minutes. Everyone was surprised by the amount of time but that was a good thing and not a bad thing. Yeah, I think we get along very well and I think that’s a good thing, that’s not a bad thing. People said, ‘Oh they shouldn’t get along.’ Well, who are the people that are saying that? I think we get along very, very well. We are a tremendously powerful nuclear power, and so are they. It doesn’t make sense not to have some kind of a relationship.”

His comments came as the FBI as well as congressional committees were investigating whether the Russian government coordinated with Trump associates during the 2016 campaign and transition. Since the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump has adopted a positive stance towards Russia and its leader. During the interview, he asserted that the ceasefire in Syria was a manifestation of forging better ties with Moscow.

“I think we had an excellent meeting. One thing we did is we had a ceasefire in a major part of Syria where there was tremendous bedlam and tremendous killing. And, by the way, this is now four days. The ceasefire has held for four days. Those (previous) ceasefires haven’t held at all. That’s because President Putin and President Trump made the deal, and it’s held. Now, I don’t know what’s going to happen. Maybe as we’re speaking they start shooting again. But this has held unlike all of the other ceasefires that didn’t mean anything,” Trump said. “So, that was a great thing that came out of that meeting. I think a lot of things came out of that meeting but I do believe it’s important to have a dialogue and if you don’t have a dialogue, it’s a lot of problems for our country and for their country. I think we need dialogue. We need dialogue with everybody.”

Syria has been beset by conflict since March 2011. Numerous rounds of talks and three different UN special envoys have failed to resolve the crisis which has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said Monday that there is a higher potential than we are seeing in the past for progress” following the new cessation of hostilities.

Source: Presstv


Multiple bomb attacks kill 19 in Nigeria

12, July 2017

Multiple bomb attacks kill 19 in Nigeria 0

The Nigerian police say multiple bomb attacks have claimed the lives of at least 19 people and wounded about two dozen others in the country’s troubled northeast. Police said on Wednesday that the deadly attacks were carried out in the city of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, on Tuesday night.

Borno state police commissioner Damian Chukwu said 12 of the dead were members of a civilian self-defense force and the other seven were killed when they gathered to mourn them. At least 23 others were wounded in the fatal attack, he added. Danbatta Bello, a spokesman for the self-defense force, said at least one of the bombers was female. He said the bombers specifically targeted his colleagues while they were on duty.

“A teenage female suicide bomber actually crept to the sandbag post of our boys at Molai and before they could realize what was happening she detonated herself and killed three of our boys,” the Associated Press quoted Bello said as saying. “That happened simultaneously with the one that occurred at the tea vendor’s, where seven of our members who took their time off to eat their dinner were killed,” he said.

Media reports said mourning residents were preparing the bodies of the victims for burial. No group has so far claimed responsibility for the latest attacks but they have the hallmark of the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group, as it in the past employed radicalized women on multiple occasions to conduct bombings against people or army troops.

In recent weeks, a number of bomb attacks by suspected members of Boko Haram have taken place in the capital of Borno state and its environs. In December 2016, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power in 2015 with a pledge to eradicate Boko Haram, announced that the army had “crushed” the terror group a day earlier by retaking its last key bastion, deep inside the thick Sambisa Forest in Borno.

The group has, however, resorted to sporadic shooting attacks and bombings in the northeast of the African country, spreading panic among local residents. Boko Haram has killed more than 20,000 people and abducted thousands of others.

Northeastern Nigeria is part of what the United Nations has called the world’s largest humanitarian crisis in more than 70 years, with the World Food Program estimating that more than 4.5 million people in the region need emergency food assistance. The United Nations has warned that areas affected by Boko Haram face a humanitarian crisis.

Source: Presstv


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