Monthly Archives: November 2017

24, November 2017

Boko Haram: Nigeria’s Adamawa community threatens to relocate to Cameroon ⁰

Following frequent attacks by Boko Haram insurgents, some community leaders in Madagali, Adamawa state, have threatened that their people would relocate to neighbouring Cameroon.

Speaking during a presentation of relief materials by NEMA to those affected by recent attacks on Gulak town, the headquarters of the council on Thursday, the community leaders expressed disatisfation with the situation adding that distribution of food to the affected communities was not their ”top priority.”

Yusuf Muhammad, chairman of the council, said security of lives and property was their major concern.

”Our top priority in Madagali local Government Area is that we need security not food. Government, as matter of urgency should bring lasting solutions to stop excessive attacks and destruction on our people. If the deadly attacks continue, we have no other alternative rather than to relocate to Cameroon Republic,” Mr. Muhammed said.

He complained that the people of the area, ”were more affected by the insurgency and yet were neglected as if they were not Nigerians.” The council boss said insurgents lived just three kilometres away from Madagali area and this was why they (sect) find it easy to attack the community.

He urged the government to deploy more soldiers to the area to protect the people. Binta Garba, an APC Senator at the event, confirmed what the council chairman said as ”true.” Mrs. Garba said both Madagali and Michika local government areas were neglected in terms of Federal government intervention. ”Are we really part of Nigeria,? If yes; Government should prove to us and treat us as Nigerians,” the senator said.

Responding, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Special Duties, Abdulazeez Nyako, thanked the council chairman for his frankness. Mr. Nyako assured the people of the area that he would table the matter when he returned to the senate.

Mustafa Maihaja, Director General of NEMA, who was represented by an air commodore, Sunday Ohemu, said the relief materials were part of the government’s intervention meant to bring succour to the community. Three trucks loaded with assorted food and non-food items were presented to the community.

Source: Premium Times

24, November 2017

Opposition MPs Demand Open Debate on Anglophone Crisis ⁰

Opposition lawmakers disrupted parliament for a second day in a row Friday as tensions deepen over the government’s handling of the crisis in the country’s anglophone regions.

Lawmakers of Cameroon’s main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front sang a protest song demand parliament hold debates on how to resolve the year-long strike in the two English-speaking regions.

“We have been here for more than one year and in every session nothing is said about the crisis,” complained SDF’s Joseph Mbah Ndam, who is also vice speaker of parliament, “so we have decided today that nothing will go on here if we do not find a definite solution to the anglophone crisis.”

Uptick in violence

The crisis has grown increasingly violent over the past year as separatist groups have emerged. Many schools in the southwest and northwest remain shut and a strike has closed down many businesses.

French-speakers are the majority in the bilingual country, and anglophone activists say they are marginalized. Many are demanding reforms, while others want all-out independence.

Most of the SDF lawmakers hail from the two anglophone regions. They have faced threats and physical assaults for continuing to serve in the National Assembly amid the crisis.

The SDF lawmakers announced a boycott a week ago demanding the government do more to peacefully end the strike. On Thursday, they began singing to interrupt parliament proceedings.

2018 budget

Government ministers had come to answer questions on last year’s budget and the 2018 financial plans. Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, the speaker of the National Assembly, says he could not bear the disturbances by the SDF and called off the plenary.

He announced that the ruling CPDM majority had voted and adopted last year’s settlement bill even though no vote had taken place.

The CPDM controls 148 seats in the 180 member parliament and the SDF just 18. Political analyst Reymond Etoga says the SDF won’t be able to derail the passing of the 2018 budget, but the government should heed their calls for open debate to resolve the anglophone crisis.

“In order for us to be able to create a society where everyone can feel part of, we must understand that truth is very necessary,” Etoga noted, “and we are in a quagmire situation at this point in time because the system in place has refused categorically to be able to say this is white and this is black.”

Professor Elvis Ngole Ngole, a close aide of President Paul Biya, has been leading teams to dialogue with the populations in the northwest and southwest. “Those who felt they were excluded, I think it is genuine,” he said. ” As we continue, there will be more inclusion than exclusion because no one should be excluded because as long as there is democracy and we believe in it, as long as we are a republic we will keep on talking to one another and that is dialogue.”

However, government overtures at dialogue have also been coupled with a crackdown. Following violent unrest last December, troops were deployed to the anglophone regions and the internet was cut for three months. The government has released several dozen people detained for months over the strike. Activists say more remain behind bars and must also be released before any dialogue can take place.

Culled from VOA

24, November 2017

Egypt: 235 killed in attack on mosque ⁰

At least 235 people have been killed and over 130 others injured in a shooting attack and bombing at a mosque in the restive Sinai Peninsula, state TV says.

Police officers said militants attacked al-Rawdah mosque in the town of Bir al-Abd, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the North Sinai provincial capital of el-Arish, during Friday prayers.

The attack, the deadliest single incident in the country’s recent history, reportedly targeted the supporters of Egyptian security forces attending prayers there.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, which had the hallmarks of the Daesh-affiliated Velayat Sinai terrorist group.

A security source was quoted by Sky News as saying that Egyptian military drones killed 15 perpetrators of the Friday attack. The source, however, did not provide further details on the attackers’ affiliation or where the airstrikes were carried out.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi convened an emergency security meeting soon after the attack, state television reported. The Egyptian president announced three days of national mourning.

“The army and police will avenge our martyrs and return security and stability with force in the coming short period,” Sisi said.

The Sinai Peninsula has been under a state of emergency since October 2014, after a deadly terrorist attack left 33 Egyptian soldiers dead.

Over the past few years, militants have been carrying out anti-government activities and fatal attacks, taking advantage of the turmoil in Egypt that erupted after the country’s first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was ousted in a military coup in July 2013.

Velayat Sinai has claimed responsibility for most of the assaults. The group later expanded its attacks to target members of Egypt’s Coptic Christian community as well as foreigners visiting the country. That has prompted the government to impose the state of emergency and widen a controversial crackdown, which critics say has mostly targeted dissidents.

Source: Presstv

24, November 2017

Bafoussam: Bishop Gabriel Simo is dead ⁰

The emeritus Bishop of Bafoussam, Bishop Gabriel Simo has passed away in the early hours of Friday the 24^th of November, 2017 following a protracted illness at the Regional Hospital in Bafoussam.

Paralyzed by a disease for many years, the auxiliary bishop of Bafoussam Bishop Simo Gabriel reportedly resigned his post on September 14, 2013. In accordance with Canon 411 and 401 § 1 of the Code of Canon Law, the Holy Father Pope Francis accepted the renunciation of the position of auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Bafoussam presented by Bishop Gabriel Simo. At this time the prelate was not only ill, but had also reached the age limit.

Born March 15, 1937 in Bapa and ordained into the priesthood on March 27, 1966, Bishop Gabriel Simo was installed Auxiliary Bishop of Douala on April 2, 1987 at the same time as Bishop Simon Victor Tonyé Bakot. They were both appointed auxiliary bishops on the 21^st of February 1987. While Bishop Tonyé Bakot was later named Bishop of Edéa in 1993, Bishop Gabriel Simo was retained Auxiliary Bishop and appointed to Bafoussam in 1994-the functions he held until his appointment waiver in 2013. He celebrated a solemn Mass of Thanksgiving for his 50 years in the priesthood on Thursday, September 29, 2016.

By Sama Ernest with files from CIN

24, November 2017

Ambazonia: Head of State calls on Anglophone MPs to leave Yaoundé and return to Buea ⁰

November 23rd 2017

Dear Members of Parliament,

Dear Fellow Ambazonians,

Video footage of the goings-on in Yaoundé which have reached us this morning evokes the message in the book of Daniel 5ff. That the illustrious SDF MPs took to the floor of the National Assembly to intone Amba protest songs is a historic moment, no less portentious than the fiery denunciation which Hon. Joseph Wirba delivered from that same podium almost a year ago.

We salute these MPs for their courage and patriotism. We urge the people of their respective constituencies to show them support in anyway possible.

Surely, our fifty-six-year misadventure with the Republic of Cameroun must be coming to a close, in a no less dramatic fashion. The peace plants the MPs brandished today are close figurative equivalents of “Benevolent Neutrality” which foreshadowed our peoples’ decisive exit from another entangling alliance more than six decades ago.That singular action was a catalyst to the of our own nation in 1954. In the same way the withdrawal of all our MPs will crystallise the restoration of that Nation.

The events of 1st October , 2017 were a stark reminder that, as leaders, they have been deserted by their people in the inhospitable land called the Republic of Cameroun. If the lawmakers are still in the service of their constituents, they will muster the courage to follow their constituents’ demands.

It remains the official position of this administration that once our MPs formally tender their resignation, a sergeant-at-arms will receive the credentials of ALL of them who choose to leave Yaoundé and assume their rightful place in the peoples’ house in Buea. The longer they wait, the more risk they expose their people to; incivility, mayhem, extortion, terrorism, and savagery. No doubt so many CPDM MPs can’t face the facts from their SDF peers.

We, therefore, once again invite all Southern Cameroons MPs to make the only decision this historic moment demands of them: leave Yaoundé and return to Buea. We urge them to do so while they still have the choice. As the Book of Daniel tells us, the writing is on the wall; however, unlike Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, they may still have time to be exalted by their people. A history of the Cameroons is being rewritten, and we hope they will be on right side of it. All it takes is for them to do the RIGHT thing as representatives of their people.

Respectfully,

SISIKU Julius AyukTabe

President, Interim Government

24, November 2017

Ambazonia: Fon of Kom passes away ⁰

His Royal Highness, Fon Vincent Yuh II, the Fon of Kom, in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has dissappeared. The Fon passed away on Wednesday the 22nd November 2017. The custodian of the Kom tradition known to many as ‘Bikom’ joined his ancestors after a protracted illness at his Liakom Palace, some five kilometres from Fundong, the chief town in the Boyo constituency.

Vincent Yuh II was crowned Fon of Kom on the 17th of September 1994. The late Fon ‘dissappeared’ aged 97. He was regarded as one who enshrined the values of peace and development in the kom kingdom. According to Bochung El Hadj Lawan Bako, a member of the ‘Kwifoyn’ (Kom’s highest secret society),Fon Yuh II who suceeded Fon Yibain was one of most celebrated development icons in the kom fondom.

He was the fourteenth ruler of the land, a trader and onetime village head of Anjin,one of the 43 villages in Kom , before his enthronement in 1994. Going by the tradition, the successor of the throne is the first nephew of the late fon, in this case the eldest son of the Fon’s sister. According to Kom people ‘the sun has stopped shinning in the land’ but they also believe that a Fon does not die but travels.

Source: CRTV

24, November 2017

Interpol arrests 40 human traffickers after Libya slave auction ⁰

At least 40 people have been detained during a swoop on human trafficking across West Africa, after a video surfaced showing refugees apparently being sold at auction in Libya.

In a statement on Thursday, Interpol said those arrested face prosecution for offences including human trafficking, forced labor and child exploitation.

“They are accused of forcing victims to engage in activities ranging from begging to prostitution, with little to no regard for working conditions or human life,” the statement read.

Interpol also noted that some 500 people, including 236 minors, had been rescued in simultaneous operations across Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal.

“The results of this operation underline the challenge faced by law enforcement and all stakeholders in addressing human trafficking in the Sahel region,” the operation’s coordinator Innocentia Apovo said.

The Interpol-led action comes amid global outcry sparked by footage of Africans being sold as slaves in Libya. CNN last week aired footage of a live auction in Libya where black men were being sold for as little as $400 to North African buyers as farmhands.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has recently said that the reported auctions of African refugees in Libya as slaves amounts to “crimes against humanity.”

Libya, gripped by chaos and lawlessness since the fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, was the main embarkation point for mostly African refugees seeking to head to Europe until recently.

However, the flow across the central Mediterranean subsided when the European Union reached an agreement with local militia to provide them with funds and training on relocation of refugees.

In October, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) warned that thousands of Libyan refugees were living in dire conditions in a hub to the west of the capital Tripoli, saying they could be exposed to abuse on a shocking scale.

Source: Presstv

24, November 2017

Ambazonia Crisis: Anglophone MPs disrupt parliament in La Republique du Cameroun ⁰

Lawmakers predominantly from Cameroon’s Anglophone region on Thursday disrupted parliamentary proceedings in protest over the crisis in their region.

Members of Parliament from the main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) party threatened that there will be no business in the house till the ‘Anglophone crisis’ was tabled for debate.

Amid chanting of slogans and singing, the protesting MPs asked how many more people were going to be killed by the Paul Biya-led government.

Security forces last month stopped a planned demonstration in the port city of Douala organised by the SDF. The protest was said to be in solidarity with the embittered Anglophone regions.

People in the said regions have long decried marginalization by the majority French speaking part of the country. An attempted independence declaration under the Ambazonia Republic was met with armed force leading to deaths, mass arrests and injuries.

The government has described the secessionists as terrorists and also issued international arrest warrant in respect of 16 leaders of the secessionists. President Paul Biya has condemned the violence and called for dialogue but concrete efforts in that direction have yet to materialize.

Source: Africa News

23, November 2017

UK study to examine link between football and dementia ⁰

The English Football Association has announced a comprehensive study to find out how the sport may cause brain damage in players.

The association announced on Thursday that a research is to be launched into the possible link between heading a football and brain damage.

The research, which will study the incidence of degenerative neurocognitive disease in approximately 15,000 former players, will start in January.

The launch of the study to unveil the potential risk of brain damage among football players followed a BBC documentary presented by former England captain Alan Shearer this month that highlighted the case of former English footballer Jeff Astle, who died aged 59 in 2002.

An inquest found that heading a heavy leather football repeatedly during his career was a key factor in causing brain damage in the player..

“In the past decade there have been growing concerns around perceived increased risk of dementia through participation in contact sports. However, research data to support and quantify this risk have been lacking,” said Dr William Stewart.

Stewart provided medical evidence in the investigation into the circumstances surrounding Astle’s death, and is the lead expert in the study entitled Football’s Influence on Lifelong Health and Dementia Risk (FIELD).

“Through the FIELD study we hope to be able to provide some understanding of the long-term health impact of football,” he said.

Stewart and his team will be conducting the research from the University of Glasgow and the Hampden Sports Clinic.

“Dementia can have a devastating effect and, as the governing body of English football, we felt compelled to commission a significant new study in order to fully understand if there are any potential risks associated with playing the game,” it added.

Source: Presstv

23, November 2017

Lagos arraigns Cameroonian home help for employer’s murder ⁰

The Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions has arraigned a Cameroonian, Leudjou Joel, for the alleged murder of his Nigerian employer, Miss Dayo Eniola. Joel, who worked as a cleaner for 33-year-old Eniola in the Ikoyi area of Lagos, was said to have allegedly stabbed his employer to death last December.

Twenty-one-year- old Joel was arraigned on murder charges before the Lagos State High Court in Igbosere. The Attorney General of Lagos State, Mr. Adeniyi Kazeem, who led the prosecution team that took Joel before Justice Adedayo Akintoye on Monday, told the court that the foreigner stabbed his Nigerian employer to death over his rejected request for salary advance.

He allegedly committed the crime at No. 15, Prince Tayo Adesanya Street, Park View Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos. Upon Joel’s arraignment on Monday, Kazeem prayed the court to order that the accused be remanded in the prison custody, pending commencement of trial. Justice Akintoye made an order that Joel should be remanded at the Ikoyi Prison. She adjourned till January 18, 2018 for commencement of trial.

Source: The Punch