Yemen’s Interior Ministry has issued a statement confirming the death of the country’s ousted president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, during clashes in capital Sana’a.

The confirmation came after a Yemeni radio station announced earlier on Monday that Saleh had been killed during clashes in the Yemeni capital.

The Interior Ministry further said in its statement that Saleh had been creating “chaos” in the country through cooperating with “militias of aggression” and by providing help to “extremist militias.”

The ministry added that the Yemeni forces, backed by fighters from the popular Ansarullah Houthi movement, were in full control of all positions previously held by Saleh’s militias in Sana’a.

The statement also noted that conflicts, which had plagued Sana’a during past days, were actually over after death of Saleh.

“The Interior Ministry announces the end of the crisis of the treason militia and the killing of its leader and a number on his criminal partisans,” it added.

Later in the day, Saudi-owned al-Arabiya television quoted sources in Saleh’s General Peoples Congress as confirming that he had been killed.

The news channel added that the sources had said Saleh was killed by sniper bullets.

A few hours later, officials in Ali Abdullah Saleh’s General People’s Congress (GPC) confirmed to Reuters that Saleh had been killed outside Sana’a, in what sources in the Houthi group said was an RPG and gun attack.

The GPC officials said Saleh was killed south of the capital Sana’a along with the assistant secretary-general of the GPC, Yasser al-Awadi.

Earlier on Monday, Saudi Arabia unleashed a fresh wave of aerial bombardments against targets in Yemen’s capital in an apparent effort to support forces loyal Saleh.

Since November 29, armed clashes sparked by forces loyal to Saleh, have continued against Houthi forces that are at the forefront of a retaliatory war against the Saudi-led military coalition. Saleh loyalists accused the Houthi fighters of raiding their bases across Sana’a and beyond, an allegation that the Houthi leader has strongly denied.

Saleh stepped down following a 2011 uprising after being in power for 33 years. His resignation in 2012 paved the way for Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi to assume power as Yemen’s president. Hadi, however, resigned in 2014 and fled the country to Saudi Arabia.

The Houthi movement assumed responsibility for running state affairs after Hadi’s escape threw Yemen into a state of uncertainty and threatened a total security breakdown in the country, where an al-Qaeda affiliate was present.

Later on, Saleh joined forces with the Houthis and the Yemeni army to defend the country against the brutal Saudi aggression, which started in March 2015.

On Saturday, however, Saleh officially announced the end of his alliance with Houthis, claiming that the movement had imposed hunger on the country and worked as an ally of Iran.

Source: Presstv

Manyu Division in the South West Region of Cameroon is currently under military rule as the government continues to conduct its “clean-up campaign” in the two Anglophone regions of the country. Some 18 military trucks arrived the Manyu Divisional headquarters of Mamfe on Sunday, December 3, 2017, following a declaration of war by the country’s president on Anglophone secessionists who have been calling for the total liberation of the once British trust territory. The trucks have been heading to villages such as Otu, Agborkem German, Esaghem, Nsanarakati and Eshobi to “mop up” those villages of those the government terms as “terrorists” who have been killing army soldiers in recent months.

According to our military sources in Mamfe, the objective of the campaign is to track down those who have been responsible for the killing of army soldiers in the region. The sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said that after a roll call by the government, it was discovered that more than 200 army soldiers sent to Manyu Division to preempt the declaration of independence had not returned to their base and things were made worse when 4 gendarme officers and 2 policemen were savagely killed in the region last week.

According to civilian sources in Mamfe town and in Otu, a border village, the soldiers who are heading to these villages have been brutalizing women whose husbands have fled into the forest and into Nigeria to seek refuge. It should be recalled that a press release by the Senior Divisional Officer for Manyu, Oum II Joseph, last Friday sowed panic, causing many men to cross over into Nigeria or seek refuge in the dense equatorial forest. Although the South West Region’s Governor had said on Saturday that the said press release was fake, many Manyu Citizens who are used to government tactics knew that it was a strategy to deceive them. The villagers understand that the government has been hurt and the killing of army soldiers was a humiliation to the beleaguered government.

Our sources have also advised that the military is seizing all cell phones to ensure that no pictures make their way out of the region. The government holds that this action will help to suppress the people of this region once and for all. However, our military sources have promised that they will make sure pictures emerge as they are not comfortable with the operation that is clearly designed to suppress the English-speaking minority.

Though the International Crisis Group and Amnesty International have been proscribed in Cameroon, our sources have alleged that some of their members are operating on the ground and will be able to bring out the eerie tales of the government’s misadventure in a region that is determined to frustrate all its  efforts to impose its own version of peace in the region.

It should be recalled that the Anglophone crisis that has rocked Cameroon over the last twelve months has entered a critical phase. According to many analysts, Cameroon is sliding into a civil war and only international efforts can check this unfortunate situation, as secessionists are determined to carry their action to a logical conclusion.

Today, many parts of Manyu Division have been militarized and the citizens are not allowed to move from one location to the other. The people seem to have been rolled back into the dark ages against their wish. It also seems the government is helping to enforce the ghost towns that have been going on in the region for one year by undertaking such unnecessary military actions.

In border villages and towns like Ekok, Otu, Agborkem German and Nsanarakati, army soldiers are abusing young girls and the population does not know where to turn to for protection. For those who have escaped, the unfortunate thing is that many of them may never return home, especially those who are hiding in the jungle as the conditions out there are not the best.

With hordes of refugees heading to Nigeria, it is obvious that international community will become aware of the scale of destruction and murder that is taking place in Southern Cameroons, especially in Manyu Division that is the birthplace of Anglophone activism.  With the anger and frustration of having been marginalized and chased out of the country, these young men will surely constitute a strong pool of willing fighters if they lay their hands on weapons. Instead of fighting secession which is an idea with appeasement, the government has decided to kill an idea with missiles and this is unfortunately not producing the desired results. The government has failed to understand that in cases like this, appeasement is better than brute force. As the population gets terrorized, it becomes very hard for the government to obtain reliable intelligence on how to track the people the soldiers are looking for. No security system in the world has ever done a great job without the participation of the civilian population.

The government stands to gain if it seeks to win hearts and minds. The Anglophone problem has been playing out for over a year now and Anglophones have clearly stated their problems. A strike that started with lawyers and teachers was allowed to quickly degenerate into calls for federalism that was promptly rejected by the government, with the country’s president, Paul Biya, stating that the form of the state could not be discussed. This has put him in a tight spot and, today, he does not know how to eat the giant humble pie he had made for himself. Anglophones are not backing down. The deployment of troops across the region is not synonymous with a return to the old days. The country has been caught up in unprecedented turbulence and this is taking a toll on the fragile economy. The few resources that could have been used to reboot the economy are now being used to run a war that is doomed to failure as it is a guerrilla warfare and the secessionists’ hit-and-run tactics are bringing humiliation to the government, as its soldiers continue to bite the dust.

The solution to the Anglophone problem is at the negotiating table. The government has to swallow its pride and accept that there is no return to the status quo ante. Cameroon will never be the same again and instead of killing and maiming ordinary citizens, it is time to meet Anglophones halfway so that the new republic’s future can be discussed. It is unfortunate that Cameroon is ending up with a dictator’s legacy – a civil war.

By Kingley Betek in Ekok

Clashes have broken out between French security officers and a group of protesters, who were out on the streets in Paris on Sunday to censure the death of a young black man in police custody.

Police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters chanting “justice” at the Gare du Nord station in the French capital, where the black man was arrested last month.

Source: Presstv

The Cameroon army will follow President Paul Biya’s instructions and ensure that violent anglophone separatists can no longer cause any trouble, Defence Minister Joseph Beti Assomo said on Saturday. “Measures will be taken immediately for a process which will eradicate this inconvenient situation we are experiencing,” the minister added, without giving details of what action would be taken.

On Thursday Biya denounced “repeated attacks by a band of terrorists” and promised the Cameroon people that “steps are being taken to incapacitate these criminals and to make sure that peace and security are safeguarded”.

“When the head of state makes a political decision like that,” Assomo told state radio, “we carry it out unwaveringly”. Mounting violence in the English-speaking west of the mainly francophone country claimed the lives of five police officers and five soldiers during the month of November, according to an official tally.

Resentment over perceived discrimination and a tough crackdown on separatist political forces has provoked secessionist demands in anglophone regions, which account for about a fifth of Cameroon’s population of 22 million.

“Paul Biya has declared war on these terrorists who seek secession,” state radio commented. At the president’s request, the defence minister held talks with senior army officials on Friday to evaluate the security situation.

“Large-scale army operation are being prepared,” in the anglophone regions, a security source told AFP. Along the border with Nigeria, local populations are being “held hostage by terrorists” said Okalia Bilai, governor of the southwest province where police and soldiers have been killed.

Since November 2016, the anglophone minority in Cameroon has been protesting against their marginalisation, with some seeking a form of federalism while others want total independence.

The government rejects both calls.The authorities have already imposed night-time curfews, restrictions on movement, raids and body searches, as well as a bid by the government in Yaounde to reach out to the anglophone community for political dialogue.

Biya has been president of the central African country since 1982, after serving as prime minister to founding president Ahmadou Ahidjo, who created a unified state out of territory that was divided between French and British colonial rulers before independence in 1960.

Source: News 24

British Prime Minister Theresa May is facing growing pressure from within her own Conservative Party to reveal the true cost of leaving the European Union and settling the Brexit “divorce bill.”

Conservatives lawmakers in Parliament, as well as former cabinet ministers, say the time has come for the premier to be completely open on how much Brexit will cost.

Labour, Britain’s main opposition party, has threatened to get conservatives onboard for a plan that gives parliament a vote on the matter.

The so-called EU divorce bill, or Brexit financial settlement, is the sum of money demanded by the EU from the UK as it leaves the bloc.

Britain and the EU have agreed on a divorce bill that is likely to be between $54 billion to $67 billion.

May is set to travel to Brussels on Monday to hammer out an agreement on the terms of the withdrawal.

If May’s offer on critical withdrawal issues fails to make “significant progress,” EU leaders will refuse at their next summit on December 14 to unlock the next phase of the Brexit negotiations about a future trade deal and a transitional arrangement after Britain leaves the EU in March 2019.

The EU insists that Britain must resolve critical withdrawal issues, including a multibillion-euro divorce bill, EU citizens’ rights and the Irish border, before there can be any talks on future relations.

EU member states have become increasingly frustrated with Britain’s reluctance to compromise, and are also worried that May’s fragile Conservative government is unable to do so even if it wanted to.

Source: Presstv

US President Donald Trump has pulled the country out of a UN compact aimed at improving migrant and refugee situations around the world.

The US mission to the global body announced the decision on Saturday, saying the Trump administration deemed the pact “inconsistent” with its policies.

“Today, the US Mission to the United Nations informed the UN Secretary-General that the United States is ending its participation in the Global Compact on Migration,” it said in a statement.

Known as the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, the compact is a non-binding political declaration that was unanimously adopted by the 193 members of the UN General Assembly in September 2016.

Under the compact, the members pledged to uphold the rights of refugees, help them resettle and insure they have access to education and jobs.

“The New York Declaration contains numerous provisions that are inconsistent with US immigration and refugee policies and the Trump Administration’s immigration principles. As a result, President Trump determined that the United States would end its participation in the Compact process that aims to reach international consensus at the UN in 2018,” read the statement.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said Washington would continue its support of migrants and refugees around the globe, but noted that “our decisions on immigration policies must always be made by Americans and Americans alone.”

She said the US itself “will decide how best to control our borders and who will be allowed to enter our country,” calling the declaration incompatible with “US sovereignty.”

So far the US, under Trump and his “America First” policies, has withdrawn from several other global commitments made under the administration of former President Barack Obama, including the Paris climate accord.

More recently, Trump has pulled America out of the Paris-based culture and education body, UNESCO, accusing it of “anti-Israel bias.”

Source: Presstv