Monthly Archives: February 2018

25, February 2018

Fru Ndi says Biya regime bears direct blame for Anglophone crisis ⁰

Leader of Cameroon’s main opposition party, Social Democratic Front (SDF) Ni John Fru Ndi, officially waded into the security crisis riling the country’s Anglophone regions. In a letter to addressed to President Paul Biya, the SDF leader denounced what he termed “atrocities” committed in the English-speaking areas of Cameroon by government forces.

“I must draw your attention to the daily atrocities in this part of our country (English-speaking areas),” Fru Ndi wrote in the letter. “Every day that passes, an innocent Cameroonian dies, a woman loses her husband,” he lamented.

The veteran opposition chief said he was also worried about “the rise of hate speech (between English-speaking and French-speaking Cameroonians)” which in his view “brings us closer and closer to a civil war”.

Since the outbreak of the so-called “Anglophone crisis in 2016”, many civilians and soldiers have been killed, but access to the affected areas remains difficult, making it difficult to access information on the spot.

The 77-year-old who says he is an Anglophone but against secession from Cameroon, has repeatedly blamed incumbent Biya for the crisis and the deterioration of the security situation in English-speaking Cameroon.

The government insists that the regions remain safe and secure despite guerilla style attacks that have claimed the lives of over twenty security officials.

Source: Africa News

25, February 2018

Scuffles break out as France’s Macron visits farm fair ⁰

Demonstrators from vegan and animal activists group “269 Life France” demonstrated against French president Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, February 24, during his first visit as president to the country’s main agricultural fair in Paris.

Macron received whistles and other protests as he met visitors to the fair and journalists. French farmers are discontent over producer prices, European Union trade talks and Chinese land purchases.

In a country with a profound attachment to its pastoral roots, the Salon de l’Agriculture is a mandatory rite of passage for political leaders, who tend either to relish the event – as former president Jacques Chirac visibly did – or endure it. Nicolas Sarkozy, during his presidential farm show debut a decade ago, let rip with an expletive-laden insult against a man in the crowd who had declined to shake his hand. His words were caught on video and haunted him for the rest of his term.

Macron responded differently to provocation on Saturday, scrapping his itinerary to engage several of his hecklers in a lengthy and detailed exchange on trade policy, social charges and food standards in front of TV cameras.

25, February 2018

Mexico president shelves plan to visit US after Trump phone call ⁰

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has shelved a plan to visit the United States following a phone conversation with US President Donald Trump, in which the US president reportedly lost his temper.

The Washington Post first reported the development on Saturday, citing US and Mexican officials.

It said Pena Nieto was planning to visit Washington in February or March, but “shelved” his plan after a “testy” phone call with Trump on Tuesday.

The 50-minute phone call between the Mexican president and his US counterpart reached an impasse over Trump’s campaign promise of building a wall on the US’s border with Mexico and making Mexico City pay for it.

The report said the two leaders “devoted a considerable portion” of the phone conversation to discussing the border wall. Pena Nieto reportedly asked Trump to publicly affirm Mexico’s position that it will not pay for the wall. The US president refused.

According to the Mexican account of the conversation, Trump at some point “lost his temper.” According to the American version, he was frustrated by Pena Nieto’s demand.

In this file photo, taken on April 16, 2017, border agents patrol the US-Mexico border in a vehicle prior to an Easter mass at the fence separating the two countries at Friendship Park, in San Ysidro, California. (By AFP)

The Mexican president had canceled an earlier trip after Trump threatened to impose a tax on Mexican imports to pay for the border wall.

During his campaign for presidency, Trump had hinted that illegal Mexican immigrants to the US were “murderers” and “rapists.” That enraged the Mexican government and people. Once the US president promised to build the wall and make Mexico pay for it, Mexico City made it clear that it was not going to.

Meanwhile, an upcoming presidential election in Mexico scheduled for July is a determining factor and any compromise by Pena Nieto may risk damaging his public image and reducing his chances for re-election.

Some experts say that a trip to the US by the Mexican president any time before the election would be a risk.

Source: Presstv

25, February 2018

49-year-old Joshua Osih to face Biya ⁰

Joshua Osih, a 49-year-old lawmaker has been elected as flagbearer of Cameroon’s main opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF). A native of the country’s southwest region, Osih is an aviation expert.

He was the overwhelming choice of delegates at the SDF congress polling 1,021 votes representing 88.4% as against 134 votes (12%) polled by his closest challenger, Forbi Nchinda. He, however, remains deputy chairperson of the party which is still led by Ni John Fru Ndi, 77, founder of the SDF.

Ndi who was the party’s candidate in the last election said he was leaving the stage for younger politicians at the party’s congress held in capital of the northwest region of Bamenda.

“I will not present my candidature for the Presidential election, I want you to chose who is best to be the flag bearer,” Ndii told delegates.

Cameroon has a busy electoral year in which they are set to pick senators in late March, 2018. The elections will in effect mark the start of a busy electoral calender as it is set to be followed by council, legislative and presidential elections later this year.

The respective dates are yet to be determined by the President. President Biya, 85, is expected to seek a mandate extension after over three decades in charge of the Central African country. His regime has faced secession threats in the predominantly Anglophone regions – northwest and southwest.

Source: Africa News

24, February 2018

Intense fighting reported in Southern Cameroons’s Muyenge ⁰

French Cameroun army strikes against suspected Southern Cameroons fighters in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia have continued after the British Minister left the territory, with intense fighting occurring in the South West Muyenge community, where French Cameroun rockets have reportedly landed on houses. There are reports of massive killings going on in Ngolo, Melima and Bakundu and more than a thousand have escaped into the forest.

Thousands of families have also been displaced and the Christians churches are warning that the situation in Southern Cameroons is critical. The fighting in Muyenge pits French Cameroun government forces and their allies from Chad against local Ambazonian defense groups.

In a speech recently, the acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Dr. Samuel Sako Ikome endorsed the legitimate right of Ambazonians to self defense.

By Sama Ernest

24, February 2018

European Union to double funding for military force in West Africa’s Sahel region ⁰

The European Union is to double the budget allocated to a multi-national force in West Africa’s Sahel region as part of a declared mission to crack down on militancy and human trafficking there.

Europe fears that growing instability in the Sahel region of Africa — an arid land mass lying to the immediate south of the Sahara Desert and stretching east-west across the breadth of the African continent — could worsen the already high levels of human trafficking toward Europe and create a springboard for militant attacks on the West.

“There is a direct European interest in restoring stability to the region,” a senior EU diplomat said as quoted by media reports published on Friday. “There is a general awareness now that the future of the European Union is also the future of Africa.”

The deaths of two French soldiers in Mali this week and four US soldiersin Niger in October last year, where most Americans did not know the United States had forces, has highlighted the security threat in the vast scrublands spanning from Mauritania to Chad.

To address the mounting security threats, Brussels and Washington have devised a two-sided strategy, including military and development aid in Africa.

The West created the G5 Sahel force — made up of troops from Mali, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, and Mauritania — to counter militancy in the region. The Western-backed force is to receive more than 400 million euros (494 million dollars) to be able to meet its declared objectives.

The new budget is almost double the 250 million euros it has now.

France, which has more than 4,000 troops in the region, has been frustrated that it is the only EU member with combat troops on the ground, although others have contributed trainers.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that the military approach alone would not be effective and called for greater efforts to relieve the roots of the conflict, namely poverty, poor governance, and climate hazards.

“When you add more weapons, you add more suffering,” Patrick Youssef, the deputy head of the ICRC’s operations for Africa, told Reuters. “That needs to be accompanied with real measures to alleviate the suffering that is the main reason why this war was created.”

24, February 2018

Most Americans have grim outlook on US direction ⁰

A majority of Americans think the direction of the United States has worsened over the last year, mainly due to a surge in racism and violence fueled by President Donald Trump, according to a new survey.

Some 53 percent say the country’s overall direction is pretty grim, despite improvements in the economy, according to a poll released Friday by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Despite that gloomy outlook, Americans are more likely to see the US economy as having improved rather than worsened in the past 12 months, 39 percent to 24 percent, the poll found.

“Well, I hold a job again,” said 67-year-old David Peterson of Torrance, California, a quality assurance manager at an aerospace company who was forced to work at a security job for a year. “But recent events would point toward things getting worse. … It’s a lot of violence in the news. A lot of violence in the country. A lot of natural disasters.”

Americans’ view of the nation has darkened in the 13 months since Trump took office, amid devastating mass shootings, a deadly race riot in Charlottesville, Virginia, record-setting hurricanes and Trump’s volatile White House and his feud with North Korea.

The poll also found that most people, nearly two-thirds, continue to disapprove of how Trump is handling his job as president, while just 35 percent approve.

Even among Democrats, just 8 percent of whom say they approve of how Trump is handling his job overall, 21 percent say they approve of his handling of the economy. Among Republicans, three-quarters approve Trump’s overall performance while 82 percent back his performance on the economy.

A recent US poll released last month showed that most Americans think Trump’s first year in office was a failure and that he has divided the nation.

Trump ended his first year in office in January with the lowest average approval rating of any elected president in his first year.

Source: Presstv

24, February 2018

President Ayuk Tabe aide says UN Secretary General is Biya’s henchman ⁰

A top adviser to the detained President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has dubbed the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres as a “henchman” of France and by extrapolation La Republique du Cameroun after he expressed support for the fake dialogue called for by President Biya.

The President Ayuk Tabe aide who opted for anonymity told Cameroon Concord News that the deliberate silence maintain by Mr. Guterres ever since he met the French Cameroun dictator in Paris, France demonstrates an absurd sophistry inappropriate to his duty as secretary general of the United Nations.

Discussing the long-running Southern Cameroons crisis, Guterres has only echoed the position of France and French Cameroun in resolving the conflict. Southern Cameroonians had denounced remarks made by Guterres and the Secretary General of the Commonwealth as ill-minded.

The UN Security Council is yet to apply sanctions on the Biya regime over its genocide campaign that has claimed the lives of hundreds of Southern Cameroonians. We gathered that the UN was responsible for the abduction and subsequent extradition of the Ambazonia Interim Government in Abuja, Nigeria.

By Chi Prudence Asong

23, February 2018

Lebanese Prime Minister receives Cameroon Presidential Candidate ⁰

The President of the Council of Ministers Saad Hariri received this evening at the “Center House” the candidate for the Presidential elections in Cameroon, barrister Akere Muna heading a delegation.

After the meeting, Akere Muna said: “The relations between the Lebanese residing in Africa and the countries they are living in must be upgraded to an institutional level. As a Presidential candidate in my country, we must find ways to raise this relationship to this level, especially with the challenges that Lebanon faces at this stage.”

Earlier, Hariri chaired at the Grand Serail the meeting of the Ministerial Committee tasked with studying the draft budget. The meeting was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Ghassan Hasbani, Ministers Ali Hasan Khalil, Michel Pharaon, Mohamed Fneich, Jamal Jarrah, Raed Khoury, Ayman Choucair and Youssef Fenianos and the Secretary General of the Council of Ministers Fouad Fleifel.

After the meeting, Minister Khalil said: “We completed most of the items of the budget draft, including some of the reform related items and we will continue the discussions with numbers on Monday.” He added: “If the political forces and the representatives of the committee bear their responsibility and if we work on decreasing the numbers to be able to reduce the deficit, this will be very important.”

He said: “New taxes were not discussed, contrary to what was said today, and the issue that was raised during the meeting had to do with increasing the electricity tariff when it would be supplied 24 hours a day. There are no numbers from outside the draft and all expenses should be from within the budget.”

Source: NNA

23, February 2018

Fru Ndi steps down from presidential race ⁰

The national chairman of the main opposition party in Cameroon, Ni John Fru Ndii, has declared that he will ‘not be presenting his candidature for the 2018 presidential elections’. The veteran politician founded the Social Democratic Front (SDF) in 1990 and has led the party since then.

Speaking at the special congress of the party held in Bamenda, 77 year old Ndii reportedly said he was leaving the stage for the younger generation. I will not present my candidature for the Presidential election, I want you to chose who is best to be the flag bearer.

Ndii has recently been embroiled in a war of words with secessionists in the Anglophone region who wanted the SDF congress moved from Bamenda to Yaounde.

Ndii maintains that he is an Anglophone citizen who is not pro-secession. Analysts will now watch whether 49 year old Joshua Osih, who is currently the deputy of the party, will now seek to be nominated as the party’s presidential flag bearer.

Electoral activities ahead of the presidential election , have already started, and the opposition party recently met in the restive Bamenda region and declared that it would participate in the March 25 senatorial polls.

President Paul Biya is expected to seek another term in office after over three decades in charge of the Central African nation. The country is currently riled by secessionist elements in the Anglophone regions – northwest and southwest regions.

Source: Africa News