Monthly Archives: January 2018

Biya’s agent to visit Ambazonian refugees in Nigeria

17, January 2018

Biya’s agent to visit Ambazonian refugees in Nigeria 0

The National Executive Committee of the SDF has authorized Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi to visit Ambazonian refugees in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Cameroon Concord News has learned from SDF sources.

We gathered that it was one of the resolutions taken at the National Executive Committee meeting that held in Bamenda last weekend.  SDF executive members also resolved to appeal for the establishment of parliamentary commission of inquiry on the Southern Cameroons crisis and the release of those still detained by the francophone dominated army.

Discussions during the NEC forum also focused on the future of the current leader John Fru Ndi who has been at the helm of the party since its creation in May 1990. A majority of SDF militants and sympathizers have been calling on the Chairman to step down.

Information has filtered that contrary to what was reported by some Cameroonian media houses, Fru Ndi has indicated his willingness to seek a new term as the head of the party during the February 22nd convention.

By Rita Akana


Abduction of Ambazonian leaders in Abuja: The Nigerian Police Force  got it all wrong

17, January 2018

Abduction of Ambazonian leaders in Abuja: The Nigerian Police Force  got it all wrong 0

The Nigerian Police Force (NPF) recently sponsored an article in the Vanguard in which it claimed that the leaders of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia abducted last week in the capital city of Abuja flouted Nigerian laws by operating training camps deep inside the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Vanguard story further pointed out that Southern Cameroonians were staging an “Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB-styled” revolution in Cameroon. The report stated that the leaders were arrested in both Taraba and Cross River states.
According to a Police source not cited by the publication “the government of Nigeria cannot be seen to be harbouring separatists from a neighbouring country like Cameroon when both countries are cooperating and jointly fighting to uproot Boko Haram terrorists who are insurgents trying to impose their own Islamic state in the North east.
In its ill-disguised attempt at misleading the Nigerian public opinion, the Vanguard noted that “It is common knowledge that the federal government of Nigeria recently clamped down on the illegal activities of the IPOB (Independent Peoples of Biafra). So how can the territory of Nigeria be used to train separatists to cause civil disobedience in such a friendly country?”
The Vanguard story also observed that the arrested Ambazonian leaders were caught red-handed within the training camps for separatist members for future confrontation with Cameroonian authorities. Vanguard confirmed that officials of Nigeria’s ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cameroon’s Embassy in Nigeria have held discussions over the arrest.
Ambazonians are of the opinion that the Nigerian Vanguard’s take on the ongoing crisis is shameful, disgusting and disgraceful. The reasons given by the Nigerian Police Force is also utterly wrong.  The revelation that the leaders were caught red-handed is mere whitewash.
The leader of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and his top aides were not arrested in Taraba and in Cross River State, but in Abuja. Correspondingly, a Nigerian Police Chief Inspector had issued a public statement informing Nigerians that there was  no incriminating evidence against the 39 Southern Cameroonians who were arrested in Taraba.
The Buhari administration, including the DSS, is very much aware that the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is not engaged in any armed conflict with La Republique du Cameroun. The Interim Head of State, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, has made this position loud and clear in his public outings in Nigeria and in the West.
Linking the Southern Cameroons crisis to the IPOB and Boko Haram is also an inaccurate stereotype. Biafrans have not sought refugee status in another country as it is the case with Ambazonians in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The war against the Nigerian Islamic Sect, Boko Haram, is an international issue which includes troops from the United States of America, Chad and Niger. To be sure, the Joint Multinational Force combating Boko Haram is not a Nigerian- French Cameroun affair.  The Bakassi Peninsula is also an international issue. However, Nigerians are being slaughtered everyday in Bakassi by French Cameroun gendarmes and many have been killed ever since the beginning of the Southern Cameroons uprising. Is the Nigerian Police Force saying that these Nigerians living in Bakassi and the border areas of Southern Cameroons cannot be protected?
  
Understandably, Boko Haram is a money making venture for the Nigerian and French Cameroun political elites, including the Vanguard newspaper. Consequently, the so-called Upper Houses and Lower Houses of both countries will prolong the Boko Haram war as long as it gives them money.
In any case, if the Buhari administration had any grievances with the Ambazonian leaders, why abduct them? Why not go to court? Painting the Southern Cameroons struggle with the same battery of adjectives used on political Islam is completely unacceptable. The Nigerian Police Force got it all wrong.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai



Unrest in Ambazonia fuels cocoa smuggling to Nigeria

17, January 2018

Unrest in Ambazonia fuels cocoa smuggling to Nigeria 0

Unrest in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, the central African nation’s cocoa-growing heartland, is fuelling bean smuggling into neighbouring Nigeria, farmers and buyers said on Tuesday.

EKOK, Cameroon: Unrest in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, the central African nation’s cocoa-growing heartland, is fuelling bean smuggling into neighbouring Nigeria, farmers and buyers said on Tuesday.

Cameroon has been gripped by spiralling violence since November 2016, when government forces crushed a peaceful movement of Anglophone teachers and lawyers protesting against their perceived marginalisation by the French-speaking majority.

Violent clashes between separatists and security forces have cut many Cameroonian buyers off from parts of the Southwest region, source of roughly half of Cameroon’s total production which reached around 240,000 tonnes last season.

“Our usual buyers are scared. Some come, but they stop in towns like Mamfe and do not dare to venture further into villages that produce more cocoa,” said Takor, a cocoa farmer in Mamfe, who did not give his surname out of fear of retribution.

“Now we have buyers that come from Nigeria,” he said.

A Reuters reporter in the south-western town of Ekok saw bags of cocoa beans loaded on to pick-up trucks and into cars registered in Nigeria’s Cross River State.

Cocoa smuggling has long been an issue along the border. But Cameroonian farmers and buyers told Reuters that the crisis has aggravated the practice.

Smugglers, they said, are now paying higher prices for beans and venturing deeper into Cameroon, the world’s fifth biggest producer, to scoop up more of farmers’ output.

One farmer in the south-western village of Eyang Ntui said Nigerians paid between 850 and 1,000 CFA francs (£1.1-£1.3) per kilogram of beans. Cameroonian buyers were, meanwhile, paying around 600 CFA francs/kg, he said.

“The crisis has brought us closer together. It is easier to sell to the Nigerians who are near us,” said Mbeng, who farms 12 hectares of cocoa near Mamfe and also withheld his surname.

No estimate was available for the smuggled volumes, but Cameroonian farmers and buyers said the amounts were significant.

Farmer Georges Eyong said his cooperative had sold 53 tonnes of beans to Nigerian buyers this month.

A senior official with Cameroon’s sector regulator, the National Office for Cocoa and Coffee (ONCC), said it plans to curb cocoa smuggling by setting up check points along the Nigerian border.

“This is an illegal trade. We are not opposed to exporting Cameroonian cocoa, but exporters need to meet all the necessary terms and conditions,” said the official, who asked not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the press.

www.channelnewsasia.com


The desperately hungry and begging gendarme officer: From Sesekou Isong’s Diary

17, January 2018

The desperately hungry and begging gendarme officer: From Sesekou Isong’s Diary 0

One of the certainties any despot and serial embezzler always maintains is a well-paid and ably greased military. It’s well recognised by all that Biya and his criminal mob have maintained power in La Republique du Cameroun by an astonishing structure and system that has kept his military placated and hence on his side. Is that actually changing?

During my recent visit to The Federal Republic of Ambazonia, something fascinating crossed my path. I was stopped at one of those colonial police/gendarmes checkpoints in the Manyu County. It’s one of those thousands of road barriers that Biya and his co-conspirators have designed around the country for the facilitation of bribery and corruption.

These days, the occupants vary from custom officers, police officers and gendarmes to forest guards and the colonial army. They habitually have whistles and are always consuming alcohol. It’s scandalous but acceptable. Almost without exception, they approach your car with no smiles, little or no training in dealing with the general public and whiff of perspiration. These so-called officers of law and order are always discourteous. You know what I mean.

On this charming sunshiny day, I was cruising along peacefully enjoying the scenery and having grand visions of how Ambaland would look like with the application of brains and love.

I was requested to pull over which I did. A young lady walked towards my car with the intention of checking my vehicle particulars and passenger identification documents I hoped. By her physical traits, I guessed she was between 21-25 years of age. Her Kalashnikov was as long as she was tall. She asked to see my car particulars and ID documents which I complied. After quickly staring at the documents she said to me ‘uncle I am an Anglophone just like you. Please for some money to buy food! I haven’t eaten since morning. I am not happy with this government and occupation.’

I couldn’t believe what I just heard. Bribing has been a permanent fixture of checkpoints in Cameroun for as long as Biya has been around but this was something else. She was begging for money to buy food. Although I was infuriated by her uniform and presence in Ambaland, I was consumed by compassion and passed her 5,000 CFA FRS which she quickly pocketed so her colleagues didn’t see it. As I drove off, my sentiment was a combination of resentment and delight. My resentment was from her being in Ambaland illicitly. My delight came from the knowledge that there must be more disenchanted in the military, gendarmes and police. I muttered to myself that if there were disillusioned members of the military, then we will certainly have many recruits soon for our struggle.

Talking to many people about this incident, I quickly learned that there were many in the Cameroon armed forces that weren’t happy at all. I was reliably informed that their daily allowance was CFA 2,000 frs which Biya’s regime is finding challenging to bear out. The one million dollar question is what can CFA 2000 frs buy these days in Cameroon? Not a lot is the honest answer.

How high up within the ranks does this gloom go is anyone’s guess. For those in Ambazonia who still find it hard to believe that victory in this struggle is possible, let me remind you that many a despot have been ousted for their inability to keep the army comfortable. Mr. Biya is indeed taking the last kicks of a dying horse.

Sessekou Asu Isong

 Next on this series, the Sesekou will be looking at the conviction by many in the villages and towns in Ambazonia that victory in this struggle is close.


Ambazonia: Nigerian House of Reps Reject Motion To Grant Full Protection To Cameroonian Refugees

17, January 2018

Ambazonia: Nigerian House of Reps Reject Motion To Grant Full Protection To Cameroonian Refugees 0

The House of Representatives on Tuesday at plenary rejected a motion urging the Federal Government to grant full protection to Cameroonian refugees and asylum seekers crossing into Nigeria. The motion by Hon. Sani Zorro also urged states and federal authorities to allow for the construction of refugee camps.

Zorro noted that there had been an influx of tens of thousands of asylum seekers and refugees fleeing Cameroon into Nigeria since the last quarter of 2017. He said that the refugees had continued to cross the Nigerian borders through Rivers, Benue and Taraba states, due to the crisis in Cameroon.

He urged the Federal Government and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to extend full protection and assistance to the asylum seekers and refugees through timely provision of shelter, food and non-food items as well as security in their various camps.

The lawmaker further called for the prevention of alleged cross-border raids by the Cameroonian armed forces, which, he said, was inconsistent with humanitarian principles and best practices. He said in line with Section 33 of the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Refugees, security personnel should not arrest and deport the refugees and asylum seekers.

Contributing to the motion, Hon. Nnenna Ukeje urged the house to take a critical look at the implications of granting full protection to the asylum seekers, considering relations between both countries.

She noted that Nigeria already had several security challenges and had entered into treaties with neighbouring countries to address insecurity in the country. Ukeje said that if caution was not taken in granting full protection to the fleeing secessionist Cameroonians, Nigeria could be seen to be supporting the division of Cameroon.

According to the lawmaker, Cameroon could pull out of the fight against Boko Haram in the region, adding that any action in favour of the secessionists, could sour the long standing relations between both countries.

In his remarks, Speaker Yakubu Dogara said that the security agencies, in line with the Geneva Convention, would profile the asylum seekers for proper identification. However, the legislators in the lower chamber unanimously voted against the motion when the speaker put it to a voice vote.

 

www.theeagleonline.com


Ambazonia Crisis: Nigerian Police Force speaks of the arrest in Taraba and Cross River

17, January 2018

Ambazonia Crisis: Nigerian Police Force speaks of the arrest in Taraba and Cross River 0

Nigerian Police Force, NPF,  has explained  that leaders of Cameroon’s Separatist Movement who were arrested within Nigeria’s territory flouted the nation’s laws by operating training camps in Nigeria. IGP-Idris Vanguard’s investigation revealed that members of the Cameroon’s Christian Secessionist group, who were agitating an “Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB-styled” independent movement were arrested in both Taraba and Cross River states. The two states have boundaries with the Southern parts of Cameroon hence there is easy access to Nigeria.

According to a Police source, “the government of Nigeria cannot be seen to be habouring separatists from a neighbouring Country like Cameroon when both countries are cooperating and jointly fighting to uproot Boko Haram terrorists who are insurgents trying to impose their own Islamic state in the North east.

“Moreover, it is common knowledge that the federal government of Nigeria recently clamped down on the illegal activities of the IPOB (Independent Peoples of Biafra). So how can the territory of Nigeria be used to train separatists to cause civil disobedience in such a friendly country.”

A security source confirmed to Vanguard that the arrested leaders were caught red-handed within the training camps for separatist members for future confrontation with the Cameroonian authorities. It was gathered that the separatist leaders would be moved to Force headquarters, Abuja, since the issue of training camps across borders have become an international and diplomatic issue. There was also indications that officials of Nigeria’s ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cameroon’s Embassy in Nigeria were already holding discussions over the arrest.

 

Source: Vanguard


Arrest of Ambazonian leaders: UN Deputy Secretary General tells Abuja “the world is watching”

16, January 2018

Arrest of Ambazonian leaders: UN Deputy Secretary General tells Abuja “the world is watching” 0

The  UN  Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed’s  emergency meeting on the arrest of the Interim President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and 9 of his top aides in Nigeria showed Abuja “the world is watching” its actions.

Madam Amina Mohammed reportedly called the meeting during her recent trip to Nigeria after acknowledging that the UN was following closely the developments in Anglophone Cameroon. Nigerian President Buhari and members of his administration had privately praised the anti-Ambazonian action carried out by the DSS and had also settled down for an extradition.

But the UN and the African Bar Association and some other interested parties said Africa’s most powerful nation had no business weighing in on the crisis in Southern Cameroons. The leadership of the African Bar Association based in Lagos, Nigeria was quoted as saying that the Nigerian government should applaud the courage of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and amplify their message portraying their struggle for self determination as a human rights issue that is spilling slowly but surely over into the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Nigerian elected representatives have complained openly that the Buhari administration was dragging a nation focused on domestic security issues into what they called a foreign matter. Nigerian foreign missions in several other countries have expressed reservations about whether it was right to detain the Ambazonian leaders.

Nigeria is aware that the UN charter empowers the Security Council to “investigate any dispute, or any situation which might lead to international friction,” and the lawyer representing the Ambazonian Interim Government is not alone in thinking the Abuja arrest qualified.

Our West Africa Bureau Chief, Kingsley Betek who contributed to this report said the Buhari administration says it is their responsibility … to assess whether the presence of the Interim Government leaders on Nigerian soil could become a threat to Abuja’s peace and security.

The UN boss was given assurances that Nigeria was designing a preventive measure to avoid further escalation of violence in Southern Cameroons.  Abuja is expected to publicly call on the Francophone dominated government in Yaoundé to set up a process to address any serious human rights violations and hold accountable anyone involved.

At least 755 people have been killed and hundreds arrested amid the anti- French Cameroun government protests and unrest. Up to 42,000 people have fled to Nigeria, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.  The outspoken governor of Cross River State has urged the Nigerian Federal Government to react carefully with all the vigilance required. A legal auditioning of the leaders is expected to begin soon.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai


Trump absent for new US embassy opening in London

16, January 2018

Trump absent for new US embassy opening in London 0

The new US embassy in London has opened its doors to the public for the first time but President Donald Trump failed to attend its inauguration.  

Last week, Trump refused to attend the inauguration over fears he will be greeted with mass protests in the British capital where most of the citizens dislike him due to his divisive polices. He also denounced the new embassy as too expensive and poorly located.

Embassy staff streamed past heavily-armed police as the new building opened for business on Tuesday.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was reportedly scheduled to open the embassy instead of Trump but he also did not attend the inauguration.

In a tweet, Trump criticized former US President Barack Obama for selling the previous embassy to a Qatari government investment fund which is planning to turn it into a luxury hotel, and building a new one.

“I am not a big fan of the Obama administration having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for ‘peanuts’, only to build a new one in an off location for 1.2 billion dollars,” Trump wrote last week.

“Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon – NO!” The decision to build and relocate the US embassy in London was made during the administration of former US President George W. Bush.

Trump’s plans to visit Britain have met resistance from some politicians and activists who disagree with his policies such as his actions on immigration and climate change.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who Trump has repeatedly criticized, had earlier tweeted that he was happy when Trump called off the proposed visit, saying the US president was not welcome in the city and “he’s finally got that message.”

Trump was expected to make his first trip to the UK since entering the White House and had originally been scheduled for a full State Visit including a Royal banquet at Buckingham Palace but this was later downgraded to a “stripped-down” trip that did not involve getting the full “red-carpet” treatment from the Queen.

More than a million people in Britain signed a petition last year calling for the state visit by the US president to be cancelled.

 

Source: Presstv


Akere Muna gets endorsed by Francophone political parties

16, January 2018

Akere Muna gets endorsed by Francophone political parties 0

A group of political parties have named Barrister Akere Muna as their candidate for the 2018 presidential elections. In a statement released Monday, the opposition political parties revealed that the founder of the Now Movement is the only credible leader to oust the 84 year old Paul Biya from Etoudi.

The Yaoundé meeting that included representatives from the civil society was hosted at the headquarters of the Alliance of Progressive Forces (AFD).  The delegates also announced the establishment of a platform for a New Republic.

Cameroon Concord News understands the decision to have the renowned Barrister Akere Muna as the unique opposition candidate has been supported by Victorin Hameni Bieleu of the UFDC.  The platform aims to “gather and federate the forces capable of championing the desire for change. And also to develop efficient strategies, coordinate their implementation, and foster any action leading to victory of their chosen candidate for the presidential election in 2018.”

By Rita Akana


Cristiano Ronaldo Tells Real Madrid Team-Mates He Wants Manchester United Return

16, January 2018

Cristiano Ronaldo Tells Real Madrid Team-Mates He Wants Manchester United Return 0

Cristiano Ronaldo has reportedly told team-mates he wants out of Real Madrid and that his priority is to secure a move back to Manchester United.

According to Manu Sainz of AS, Ronaldo feels “betrayed” that he has not been offered the improved contract he was promised by club president Florentino Perez after Real won their second successive UEFA Champions League back in June.

Sources close to the Portuguese said: “Cristiano is in the doldrums, as he feels that he has been tricked.”

Sainz added Ronaldo intends to leave Real in the summer, with Los Blancos said to be eyeing up Paris Saint-Germain duo Kylian Mbappe and Neymar as potential replacements for the 32-year-old.

Source: Bleachereport.com



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