Monthly Archives: December 2017

UNICEF says 2017 is devastating year for children in war zones

28, December 2017

UNICEF says 2017 is devastating year for children in war zones 0

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has described 2017 as a devastating year for children trapped in conflict zones across the globe, saying the scale of attacks on children in war-ravaged regions reached “shocking” levels in the year.

In a new report published on Wednesday, the UN’s children agency said that throughout 2017, children in war-ravaged zones had come under attack in places where they naturally had to be safe, such as homes, schools, hospitals, and even playgrounds.

According to the UN body, children were employed as human shields, killed, maimed, kidnapped, raped, and even recruited against their will by armed outfits in conflict areas from Iraq, Syria, and Yemen to Nigeria, South Sudan, and Myanmar.

Furthermore, millions of children also bore the brunt of diseases spread as a result of medical shortages caused by fighting, the report said, adding that children also suffered from malnutrition and trauma when access to food, water, and sanitation, and health services was impeded by constant hostilities.

“As these attacks continue year after year, we cannot become numb. Such brutality cannot be the new normal,” said UNICEF Director Manuel Fontaine.

The report also said that some 27 million children in conflict regions had been forced out of school.

“UNICEF calls on all parties to conflict to abide by their obligations under international law to immediately end violations against children and the targeting of civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals,” the reports added, calling on countries with influence over involved parties to conflicts “to use that influence to protect children.”

 

Culled from Presstv


Southern Cameroons Crisis: 2 mass graves with dozens of bodies found in Mamfe

28, December 2017

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 2 mass graves with dozens of bodies found in Mamfe 0

Two mass graves containing dozens of bodies have been found in Mamfe, a local human rights activist hinted Cameroon Concord News today Thursday the 28th of December 2017, adding they appeared to belong to people who had been killed by Cameroon government forces operating in Manyu Division ever since President declared war against the people of Southern Cameroons.

The mass graves were discovered behind the old council office in Mamfe, the chief town in the Manyu constituency. Our Manyu Bureau Chief reported that one of them contained 10 bodies belonging to young people from Eshobi, Egbekaw, Besongabang and Dadi including five other villages.

They had been forced out of the Mamfe prison immediately after the attack on the gendarmerie post in Egbekaw by Cameroon government troops, according to a local human rights activist.  The number and identity of the bodies in the other mass grave was not yet known. A Mamfe Rural Council Official who spoke to us but sued for anonymity confirmed that two mass graves had been found, but declined to give more details.

Passersby found the mass graves after noticing a smell and insects there, the Council officer said. The victims belong to the Manyu ethnic group which the Yaounde regime accuses of supporting the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Dozens of armed Southern Cameroons militants have remained active in Manyu confronting the Francophone dominated army.

By Judith Fon in Mamfe


Libya deports 142 migrants back home to Guinea

28, December 2017

Libya deports 142 migrants back home to Guinea 0

Libya put 142 illegal migrants on a flight back to Guinea on Wednesday with the help of the UN migration agency, officials said, as the North African country steps up deportations to ease severe overcrowding in its detention centers.

The International Organization for Migration flew the Guinean migrants from two western cities – Zewara and Zawya – to the city of Misrata, from where they boarded a plane for Conakry.

(Source: Reuters)


Cameroon army: 18 hostages rescued

28, December 2017

Cameroon army: 18 hostages rescued 0

18 Cameroonian hostages have been released by the elements of the 31st Mechanized Infantry Division of the Cameroon army.

They were detained between the localities of Gamba (North) and Mbé   in the Adamaoua, two neighboring areas in the north of Cameroon where arm robbery and attacks on the motorway are rife.

During the operation that led to their release, four of the hostages were wounded and were evacuated to the Norwegian hospital in N’gaoundere. Among the hostages are traders, farmers and cattle dealers.

By Rita Akana


Ugandan forces kill more than 100 rebels in Congo-Kinshasa

27, December 2017

Ugandan forces kill more than 100 rebels in Congo-Kinshasa 0

Uganda’s armed forces have killed more than 100 Uganda-based rebels during a high-scale offensive in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The Ugandan army said in a statement Wednesday that several other rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) were wounded in aerial attacks and artillery raids.

The military says the operation has been carried out from Ugandan territory.

The rebels were accused of carrying out the attack that left several UN peacekeepers dead earlier this month.

On December 7, armed assailants attacked a base of the United Nations peacekeepers in eastern DRC, killing at least 15 peacekeeperswho were mostly from Tanzania.

The base, which is located about 45 kilometers from the town of Beni, has been repeatedly attacked by rebels from the ADF. It is home to the peacekeeping mission’s rapid intervention force, which has a rare mandate to go on the offensive.

The UN described the attack in Congo as the worst in the recent UN history as well as a war crime.

The ADF originated in Uganda as a rebel force against the government and carried out deadly bombings in the 1990s. A military campaign forced them to relocate to eastern Congo.

The DRC had one of the most brutal colonial rules before undergoing decades of corrupt dictatorship and back-to-back civil wars that left the mineral-rich country poor and politically unstable.

In 2006, the UN mission helped carry out Congo’s first free and fair elections in 46 years, paving the way for President Joseph Kabila to be elected for a five-year term.

His second term in office ended in 2016. Under the DR Congo’s constitution, Kabila is banned from seeking a third term. However, he is authorized to stay in office until his successor is elected but he decided to remain in power. This prompted the UN to urge the Congolese authorities “to respect the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the Congolese Constitution.” The delay in holding an election has flared up violence in the country.

 

Source: Presstv


More Southern Cameroonians flee Cameroon government crackdown

27, December 2017

More Southern Cameroonians flee Cameroon government crackdown 0

The worsening conflict between Cameroon’s Francophone dominated government and English-speaking Cameroonians now known as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia have displaced about 40 000 people. About 20 000 people are internally displaced while over 40 000 have fled to neighbouring Nigeria. Up to 65 percent of children in the affected area are displaced and face difficulties to attend school.

Tensions between the Francophone dominated security forces and Anglophone communities in the Southern Cameroons have intensified since November resulting in casualties among the civilian population and security forces.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has registered 7 204 arrivals in remote areas of Nigeria’s Cross River State. The refugee agency indicated that thousands more are awaiting registration.

Some 70 per cent of the registered asylum seekers, mostly women and children, come from Akwaya. It is among areas worst affected by deadly protests against alleged marginalization by the government dominated by French-speaking Cameroonians.

“As the unrest in Cameroon continues and more asylum seekers arrive, UNHCR is concerned that the local population’s capacity will soon be stretched to its limits,” said a UNHCR spokesperson. UNHCR and partners have developed a contingency plan for an estimated 40 000 new arrivals from Cameroon.

The minority English-speaking community in Cameroon is disgruntled by the reunification process that brought the English and the French-speaking parts of the country together in 1961. They complain about marginalisation and under-representation in the country’s Francophone-dominated administration of President Paul Biya. The Central African country is seen as fragile with the 2018 elections and the Boko Haram insurgency infiltrating from neighbouring Nigeria posing other problems.

 

CCN with files from CAJNews


Anglophone crisis sliding into a rebellion

27, December 2017

Anglophone crisis sliding into a rebellion 0

A secessionist push in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions is on the brink of a full-blown revolt, threatening political stability in a country ruled by one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders. Following a crackdown on independence supporters who tried to raise flags on government buildings in the central African nation’s English-speaking regions in October, at least 16 members of the security forces have been killed in attacks the government blames on the activists. This month a mob of 200 men besieged a paramilitary police station, according to the government.

It marks a dangerous turn in the crisis that began about a year ago with peaceful protests against the French language’s dominance in courtrooms and schools. Attacks on the military “presented those activists who were against armed combat before with a fait accompli — those who want to take up arms now have the upper hand,” said Hans De Marie Heungoup from the International Crisis Group. “There’s a real risk of rebellion that could make the Anglophone regions ungovernable.”
The secession issue in Cameroon echoes a global trend spanning from Iraqi Kurdistan and Catalonia in Spain, where leaders this year led thwarted drives for independence, to Africa itself. In neighboring Nigeria there are new calls for a southeastern Biafran state, 50 years after a previous attempt led to a civil war that claimed a million lives. Meanwhile, Kenya’s political opposition, smarting from an election loss they blame on rigging, have warned some regions could seek to secede.

Vital Ports

Cameroon’s English-speaking minority, about a fifth of the population, has complained of marginalization for decades and many highly educated Anglophones have moved abroad. The country, whose roads and ports are vital for landlocked neighbors such as oil-producing Chad, was split after World War I into a French-run zone and a smaller, British-controlled area.

Radical factions of the protest movement in the Northwest and Southwest regions now refer to the area as Ambazonia and discuss armed struggle on social media. About 20 percent of the population in the affected regions is estimated to support secession, according to the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

The unrest comes as Cameroon’s army struggles to halt a spate of bombings and raids by the Islamist militant organization Boko Haram near the northern border with Nigeria. While Boko Haram forced thousands of Cameroonians to flee their homes last year, the secession campaign poses a much bigger threat to the government, Heungoup said by phone from Nairobi, Kenya’s capital.

“Even if Boko Haram killed a lot of people, it was clear from the onset that they would never threaten or capture the state,” he said. “But the Anglophone crisis calls the foundations of the Cameroonian state into question.”

Heavy-handed Response

President Paul Biya, who calls the secessionists criminals, is seeking to extend his 35-year rule in elections next year. Biya is the continent’s second-longest serving head of state, after Teodoro Obiang of neighboring Equatorial Guinea. Robert Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe since 1980, resigned in November.

Ambazonia now has a self-proclaimed president, a flag and an official government website. Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland spent five days in Cameroon this month in an attempt to defuse the crisis.

“When this crisis was in its beginning stages, the government thought it could kill a few protesters, arrest others and heavily militarize the North West and South regions for the crisis to be over,” said Shadrack Mbiwang, an activist who claims to be a member of the Ambazonia army. “This time around, we are ready to fight and fight till the restoration of our statehood.”

 

Culled from Bloomberg.com


Yaounde frees US professor held for criticizing Biya regime

27, December 2017

Yaounde frees US professor held for criticizing Biya regime 0

A New York literature professor held in the Central African nation of Cameroon since early this month for criticizing the government was released Wednesday, his lawyer said.

Dual U.S. and Cameroonian citizen Patrice Nganang waited to be expelled to an unknown destination, lawyer Emmanuel Simh said, adding that the professor has been told not to return.

 The 37-year-old had written an article for Jeune Afrique that was critical of how Cameroon’s government has handled a sometimes violent secessionist movement in some English-speaking areas. The country’s English-speaking minority has complained about discrimination by French speakers. Human rights groups, which have accused Cameroon authorities of trying to silence opposition voices, had urged Nganang’s release.

The charges against him included issuing a death threat; insulting constitutional bodies, specifically the military; and inciting violence in a Facebook post, according to supporters including the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.  “We can only be very happy, when we have an unlawfully and arbitrarily detained client, to see him released,” Simh said.

 Last week, a military appeals court in Cameroon acquitted and freed Ahmed Abba, a correspondent for Radio France International’s Hausa service, who had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for not denouncing acts of terrorism and laundering proceeds of terrorist acts. Cameroon had faced international pressure over his conviction.
Culled from the Seattle Times



Biya’s New Year Message: Expect nothing and spare yourself lots of disappointment

27, December 2017

Biya’s New Year Message: Expect nothing and spare yourself lots of disappointment 0

With the year coming to an end, many Cameroonians are impatiently looking forward to the traditional end-of-year speech as they believe it could bear a special message of hope. The country has been wrapped up in conflict for over a year. There have been calls for inclusive dialogue, but the calls seem to have been falling on deaf ears as government extremists have opted for oppression and repression as the ideal tools for conflict resolution.

For more than a year, not even the country’s leader has addressed the nation. Many had hoped that in the face of such an escalating situation, the country’s authorities will instead tilt toward a strategy of winning hearts and minds, but their hard rethoric has always been accompanied by violent military action that has only made matters worse.

According to the International Crisis Group, more than sixty civilians have been killed, at least sixty government troops have also been killed and an indeterminate number of secessionist fighters have been sent to an early grave.

These statistics do not seem to convince the government that dialogue is the ideal way to stabilize the country. The Hawks in the regime are still beating their war drums even when the writing on the wall is visible and clearly indicates that the way forward must go through a negotiating table.

Though there are calls for inclusive dialogue, it must be acknowledged that it will be hard having the government and separatists around the same table. The anger is deep and the grievances are many and complex.

However, all hopes are not lost. While the above-mentioned groups could be diametrically opposed to each other and are even against dialogue, as their definitions of dialogue are different, there are third parties that have clearly indicated their willingness to act as mediators.

This is a conflict that will never have a clear winner. Even the government with its regular military has come to realize that declaring a war does not imply winning it. The numerous setbacks government troops have faced in Manyu Division clearly indicate that whenever there is war, the casualties will not only be on one side.

More than sixty army soldiers have been sent to an early grave and many more corpses are being picked up around the thick Manyu equatorial jungle. These lives could have been spared if dialogue had been engaged right from the beginning.

Yesterday, nine new military corpses were registered at the Mamfe Divisional mortuary and many more soldiers have been declared missing, with scores deserting for fear of death.

A young Manyu soldier’s corpse was taken to Limbe yesterday where his family lives. Though an Anglophone, he was killed by his own brothers in the jungle. He was considered an enemy just for wearing the military fatigue. A reminder that there are no brothers or sisters in situations of war.

Military authorities are clearly not giving a true picture of military casualties. Manyu Division has been a grave yard to these young and inexperience soldiers who do not understand the Manyu jungle.

This unfortunate situation should advise the government that it must pursue genuine and inclusive dialogue relentlessly. It is in the interest of all Cameroonians to work hard to ensure the government and Anglophones meet at the negotiating table to work out their differences.

But will this happen anytime soon? The end-of-year speech will be an occasion for the government to clearly articulate a message of hope and peace. Tricks have failed. Attrition has not worked. War has brought more pain and sorrows to both Anglophones and Francophones. A new strategy must be given a chance and that strategy must be predicated on peace.

However, in order not to be very disappointed, it’s better to expect nothing new. Cameroonians have seen lots of things go wrong in their country. The Anglophone crisis offers a clear manual on how a crisis should not be managed. The end-of-year speech may not bear the message many may want to hear. Expect less and the disappointment will be less.

By Dr. Joachim Arrey


Russia to supply Turkey with four S-400 missile divisions worth $2.5 billion

27, December 2017

Russia to supply Turkey with four S-400 missile divisions worth $2.5 billion 0

Russia will sell Turkey four divisions of the S-400 surface-to-air missile system worth $2.5 billion under a deal agreed between the two sides earlier this month, says the head of Russian conglomerate Rostec.

Sergei Chemezov told the Kommersant daily on Wednesday that Turkey would pay 45 percent of the cost in advance while Russia would provide loans to cover the remaining 55 percent, adding that the Russian and Turkish finance ministries had already completed talks on the loans.

He added that Moscow would begin the first deliveries in March 2020.

Turkey is the first NATO member state to acquire the advanced S-400 missile system, the Russian official said.

The deal was discussed between Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the former’s visit to Ankara on December 11.

The deal comes as Turkey has been establishing closer relations with Russia after its ties with Western and European governments soured following a crackdown in the country over the July 2016 coup attempt.

NATO originally reacted skeptically to the decision, saying the system was not compatible with its equipment.

However, the Pentagon said recently that Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 system, the most significant deal Ankara has signed with a non-NATO military supplier, was generally “a good idea” as it was inter-operable with the military alliance’s other systems.

The S-400 is Russia’s latest surface-to-air missile defense system.

It has a range of 400 kilometers and can track up to 300 targets, including aircraft, drones and ballistic and cruise missiles, simultaneously.

Russia has also agreed a deal with Saudi Arabia to supply the S-400 to Riyadh.

The agreement was signed during Saudi Arabia’s King Salman’s visit to Moscow in October.

A number of other was also signed during the King Salman’s trip, the first by a Saudi monarch.

 

Source: Presstv


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