Monthly Archives: February 2018

19, February 2018

The Reboot Distraction: The Harm and the popular will ⁰

Cameroon Concord News Group accurately characterized the so-called reboot conference that held on the 11 of February 2018 in Washington DC the stillborn consortium by another name. The conduct of the reboot principals after the said conference has proved Cameroon Concord News right.

Cameroon Concord News Group can now authoritatively state that the underlying motivation for convening the so-called reboot conference was not in the best interests of Ambazonia. In coming to this conclusion, one needs only to study the policy positions adopted by some of the participating members that predate the lawyers and teachers’ revolution. This included the period ending up to the Interim Government that finally achieved the unity of purpose towards the reactivation of the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. One of the reboot principals, Edwin Ngang in a write up, called Southern Cameroons’ youths who have laid down their lives to defend our homeland ignorant, greedy and naïve. Prior to forming his own Ambazonia, he was a representative of the Government of Ambazonia under Fon Dinka.

Ebenezar Akwanga another reboot principal used derogatory language not worth repeating for the sake of decency, against the Interim Government, our President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government who were abducted, Mark Barata, citizens of Ambazonia who disagree with him and a wide range of Ambazonians. Boh Hebert a key principal of the reboot conference has called for contributions and the subscription of shareholding towards acquiring a radio and television which he will manage supposedly on behalf of Ambazonians. Jacob Mbah, is a representative of Fon Dinka. He has since neither said nothing nor Fon Dinka whom he represents in the USA.

It is on record, that apart from Akwanga and Cho Ayaba his former secretary-general of the SCYL who broke way to form Ambazonia Governing Council who support self-defense, Boh Hebert, Edwin Ngang and Jacob Mbah for Fon Dinka are vigorously oppose to the self defense option that the Interim Government has endorsed for the defense of our homeland, the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. It is also on record that one of the signatories of the MoU that was signed at the reboot conference Jacob Mbah at no moment attended the different conclaves in Nigeria, has never attended any conference or meeting called to strategize on the freedom of the homeland; so also, Fon Dinka whom he represents. So therefore, what brought these individuals with diametrically opposed positions on how to defend our people and free our country together in the so-called reboot conference? Did some participating members write to Nigerian intelligence services independently urging them to disrupt the activities of the Interim Government within the territory of Nigeria? And did these entreaties play into the ploy of Nigeria and French Cameroon emboldening them to abduct and possibly execute the President and members of the Interim Government so as to blame the crime on these overzealous power mongers? This may explain why Akwanga was confident enough to boast about the impending abduction of the President and members of the Interim Government prior to their first announced reboot conference, embarrassing his acolytes who preferred to feign ignorance of the crime. However, the fact that he made this revelation in the context of the reboot conference and has repeated it in the context of the said conference without any participating member protesting or condemning his statements is quite revealing indeed. Cameroon Concord News Group has insistently revealed without in any way prejudicing the investigations which the Interim Government has ordered, that the alarm raised by Milan Atam and the very energetic, courageous and combative actions of the Communication Secretary of the Interim Government Hon. Chris Anu on getting the information on the abductions, both in the USA and in Nigeria might have prevented the extra judicial execution from occurring.

It is regrettable that the concerted actions of individuals to discredit and delegitimize the Interim Government through petitions, false reports and even entrapment to the Nigerian intelligence services might have aided and emboldened the enemy and Nigeria to perpetrate a serious crime with profound consequences to the liberation struggle of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, its international image, its treaty obligations and the international rule of law. The thirty-nine boys arrested in Taraba State about a week before the abduction of our leaders, were in no way connected to the Interim Government. The Police Spokesman in Jalingo stated that they were not armed and were not committing an unlawful activity at the time of their arrest. There are no doubts that they were asylum seekers. But their arrest has been factored into the evil ploy to harm the Interim Government. Did the petitions sent by these detractors serve as a base to justify the illegal actions of the Nigerian Police, the Intelligence Unit and special operations unit of French Cameroun deployed by the National Security Adviser to President Buhari to abduct our leaders, while the intention of power seekers was merely to facilitate a ban of their activities in the territory of Nigeria? Cameroon Concord News Group investigators in Nigeria are following all credible leads to bring details of this information to its readers when and if they are available.

Cameroon Concord News Group has consistently disclosed that the purpose and intents of the reboot conference which was consistently disclosed by Akwanga, Boh Hebert and Cho Ayaba was first to form a Government since by the time of the reboot conference, the President would have disappeared, and the Government collapsed. The abduction of the President and members of the Interim Government did not signal the end of the Interim Government as they expected. President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe stated that the struggle for the freedom and independence of Ambazonia was greater than everyone, starting with himself. That premonition guided the Ambazonia revolutionary train, to co-opt an acting President H.E Dr Sako Ikome to immediately endorse the much anticipated self-defense of our people and our fatherland from foreign aggression. The policy statement of the Interim Government on self-defense, the banning of all elections organized by French Cameroun in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, to find and rescue of our President and members of the Interim Government and the call for unity of all the fighting forces and liberation movements was made pursuant to an overwhelming popular demand by Ambazonians at ground zero and abroad.

The people have in their overwhelming majority rejected the so-called reboot conference and its outcome. It was conceived with an evil agenda which was manipulated by Nigeria and French Cameroun to attack the heartbeat of our liberation struggle. Cameroon Concord News Group calls on the Interim Government to intensify its efforts to find and rescue the President His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe. Cameroon Concord Group does not minimize the contributions of any leader or any Ambazonian to our liberation struggle. However, the battle for freedom is a relay in which every Ambazonian is called upon to get involved. Over the past fifty-six years, there are persons who have been fighting this battle. They have done so at great personal risk and sacrifices. They should take pride of the fact that children who were not born when they joined the struggle have grown up in the struggle and have taken it many steps ahead. They have taken up the challenge of self-defense and with no weapons, no ordnance, no food supplies, and no logistics, are confronting and keeping the rapacious enemy at bay. They are doing so with only their determination and duty to our Ambazonia fatherland as their weapons of war. They are making the supreme sacrifices hoping that Ambazonians worldwide will eschew all differences and join the Interim Government so that together, the war of aggression and genocide against our people and fatherland can be prosecuted to victory. For this reason, Cameroon Concord News Group calls on the reboot participating members to limit the harmful impact of the harm some of the participating partners have caused to our struggle by uniting with the Interim Government to fight our common enemy.

To this I put my name

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

18, February 2018

Paul Biya, Cameroon’s Roaming President: “Nobody knows what Biya thinks, or what he’ll do… everything can be changed from one day to the next” ⁰

Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, likes to travel abroad. As a result, he’s missed some far-reaching events in the country he rules from afar.

Pages from the Cameroon Tribune relating to Paul Biya’s travels. OCCRP journalists used the state newspaper as a primary source to chart the president’s numerous foreign trips since taking office. (Image: OCCRP / Authors.) Some rights reserved.

In October 2016, when an overloaded train derailed in the small town of Eseka, killing over 75 people, Biya was on a “brief private visit to Europe” which is how his office refers to his regular jaunts to Geneva. The president only returned from Switzerland two days after the catastrophe, finally voicing his condolences on the airport tarmac.

A year later, Biya was away on another “private” visit to Switzerland when protests broke out in western Cameroon over marginalization of the English-speaking minority population. He didn’t return for another three weeks. While he was away, his security forces violently repressed demonstrators, setting off what has since become a simmering guerilla war.

The 85-year-old Biya has led his West African nation since 1982, winning four elections by sometimes improbably huge margins (while being accused by the opposition and observers of massive fraud).

His country’s citizens have become increasingly frustrated with his repeated absences.

An investigation supported by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) gathered information about the president’s travels from 35 years of editions of the daily government paper, the Cameroon Tribune. They show that, over that time, Biya has spent at least four-and-a-half years on his “brief private visits.” This total excludes official trips, which add up to an additional year. In some years, like 2006 and 2009, Biya has spent a third of the year out of the country.

These calculations are conservative because some editions of the Tribune are hard to find, and archives in Cameroon, France, and the United States have gaps in their collections that span several years.

The president is not in

Cameroon is a low income country: A quarter of its 23 million citizens earn less than US$ 2 a day farming or hustling small jobs. The average life expectancy is under 60. In hopes of a better life, many of the country’s youths set off for Europe illegally in precarious vessels. Some are among the over 3,000 migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean in 2017.

Like them, the president seems to prefer a life in Europe. But the similarities stop there.

Biya’s official salary is modest (reportedly just $271 per month, plus bonuses), but he travels and lives abroad in luxury — thanks, at least in part, to his country’s taxpayers. According to Cameroonian political scientist Achille Mbembe, nobody really knows what he does on his frequent trips to Geneva, although speculation ranges from hospital treatments to shopping sprees.

While his palace in Yaoundé is rumored to be luxurious, Biya prefers to spend a large portion of his “private trips” at the five-star Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva, which offers a swimming pool and striking views of Lake Geneva and Mont Blanc.

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya and First Lady Chantal Biya arrive at the opening ceremony of the Francophone Summit in Montreux October 23, 2010. (Image: REUTERS/Valentin Flauraud.)

He does not travel alone. His wife Chantal, renowned for her gravity-defying hairdos, accompanies him on nearly every trip, as does an entourage of up to 50 people that includes ministers, bodyguards, butlers, and various other staff.

One of Biya’s closest confidants, Joseph Fouda, a military officer and special advisor, has accompanied him on at least 86 trips, amounting to more than three years of travel since 1993. He prefers a room on a top floor of the Intercontinental. Another close confidant, Martin Belinga Eboutou, 78, has spent nearly three years travelling with the president starting in 1987, when he was Cameroon’s ambassador to Morocco. Eboutou soon became a fixture on Biya’s journeys as his chief of protocol, and later as director of the president’s Civil Cabinet.

According to reporters’ conservative calculations — based on publically available hotel room prices and a compilation of entourage lists — the total hotel bill of Biya and his colleagues for one stay at Intercontinental, adds up to around $40,000 per day. At that rate, the cost of all of the president’s private trips (1,645 days in total) would add up to about $65 million since he came to power — and that’s not counting food, entertainment, and the rental of a private plane. The president’s office did not comment on this issue.

Duration of Paul Biya’s official and unofficial trips abroad, per year. (Image: OCCRP / Authors.) Click to enlarge.The president attempted to buy a brand new private jet in 2004, but his staff reportedly cut corners on the deal, buying a defective plane covered by a fresh coat of paint that nearly crashed on its first flight. Since then, the president has chartered at least several private aircraft, including a luxury jet formerly owned by the government of Kazakhstan. Used for regular journeys, such a plane would be large enough to carry some 300 passengers, but for an elite clientele it has been fitted with amenities such as full-size beds and an office, and seats about 60 people.

Travel by chartered plane isn’t cheap. Invoices from 2010 apparently sent by a company called CS Aviation to Director of the President’s Biya Civil Cabinet, and reviewed by OCCRP, bill the Civil Cabinet nearly $855,000 for one round trip for 50 passengers from Yaoundé to Geneva and back. Other invoices show that, in 2013, the plane was kept on standby for two weeks at a daily cost of nearly $157,000. The company did not reply to reporters’ requests for comment.

Number of days Paul Biya has spent in selected countries since 1982, when the Cameroonian president took office. (Image: OCCRP / Authors.) Click to enlarge.At these rates, the cost of Biya’s flights since he came to power could add up to at least $117 million.

It is not clear how much of the president’s travel money comes from the part of the national budget allocated to his office, which totaled $104 million in 2018.

According to the International Monetary Fund, more than $300 million of the revenue of Cameroon’s national oil company in 2017 was not accounted for. The president has oversight over the company, whose oil sales, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks, have historically been used as a slush fund.

According to Transparency International, Cameroon is one of the world’s most corrupt countries, ranking 145th out of 176 countries on its Corruption Perception Index.

Who pays, who plays

Cameroonians pay in other ways for the president’s jaunts abroad. Every time he returns to Yaoundé, his motorcade crosses the whole capital from Nsimalen International Airport to his home, the Unity Palace. A dozen gleaming cars, including an ambulance, whizz through the streets. To ensure a smooth journey, traffic is blocked on the main roads, at times for the whole day.

Snipers are positioned on top of buildings. Taciturn soldiers in green camouflage stand at every corner with assault rifles slung over their bulletproof vests. Cars, motorbikes and pedestrians are forbidden from crossing, and so huge traffic jams pile up against both sides of blocked avenues. The city’s yellow taxis must spend the day parked, earning no revenue.

Urban legends circulate about these grand displays, like the one about a bride and groom who ended up stuck, separated by the president’s motorcade, on opposite sides of an avenue. When the president passes, the city stops breathing.

President Biya’s party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, arranges for crowds to line the closed streets and cheer for the president. But Florian Ngimbis, a Cameroonian blogger, says that Biya’s trips are seen not just as lavish outlays, “but very much also as a kind of contempt for the Cameroonian people.”

Those few Cameroonians who have the most reason to cheer Biya’s return are the dancers and musicians paid to perform on the tarmac when his plane lands. One drummer, afraid to have his name appear in this article, remembers earning $60 a few years ago: “We didn’t complain… we could drink beers for three days.” Nonetheless, says the drummer, security concerns have trumped the thirst for pomp and ceremony lately, and fewer musicians are being invited.

Decrees upon departure

When Biya lands in Yaoundé, he also meets his government — at the airport. Formal ministerial councils are organized infrequently, every year or two at the most. But while Biya has used public funds to sustain a bureaucracy of 65 ministers and state secretaries, he mostly governs by decree or through a handful of laws sped through a rubber-stamp parliament.

Biya signs a flurry of acts between each of his trips. For example, in 2017, he signed a dozen laws — the entire legal output for that year – in a couple of days. It took him just three days to sign the entire year’s decrees.

According to Mbembe, the Cameroonian political scientist, Biya’s decrees mostly nominate civil servants to certain positions rather than directing any substantial course in policy.

“His way of exercising power is to not decide,” Mbembe said in a phone interview, “nobody knows what Biya thinks, or what he’ll do… everything can be changed from one day to the next”. He has become a “ghostly figure” leaving civil servants without direction. According to Mbembe, the unpredictability allows Biya to instil a fear of retribution in his ruling apparatus, as well as hopes of nominations to positions rendered lucrative by corruption.

It’s a system that has kept everyone in check for 35 years — including those with ambition to take over power. But it could lead to a chaotic vacuum when the 85-year old president passes – whether he’s in his West African homeland or in a luxury hotel room far overseas.

Source: Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project

18, February 2018

Ambazoniagate: President Ayuk Tabe’s lawyer says Under Buhari, Nigerian govt. has resorted to authoritarian tactics ⁰

Lagos lawyer, Mr Femi Falana, speaks on the controversial deportation of the leaders of Southern Cameroun, some of whom he described as naturalised Nigerians and led by Ayuk Julius Tabe, from Nigeria. Femi Falana The Cameroon government announced recently that leaders of the Anglophone movement, led by Mr Julius Ayuk Tabe in Nigeria, were handed over to Cameroon. How did this happen? It is true that a number of Cameroonian refugees and asylum seekers, who were illegally arrested and detained by the Federal Government, were arrested and deported from Nigeria to Cameroon on Friday, January 26, 2018.

When we received information of the plan to deport them, we rushed to the Federal High Court to stop the illegal plan. We also reached out to the Comptroller-General of Immigration, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees in Nigeria. As soon as the Commission confirmed the information, it dispatched a letter to the Federal Government pointing out that Nigeria had a legal obligation under international law not to deport the detained Cameroonians. But in a demonstration of reckless impunity, the National Security Adviser, Major-General Babagana Monguno (ret.) deported our clients in defiance of the intervention of the United Nations and the pending suit in court.

Out of shame, the National Security Adviser could not disclose the deportation of our clients from Nigeria but the government of Cameroon decided to celebrate the deportation and threatened to prosecute our clients for terrorism. I have protested the deportation to President Buhari and demanded that our clients be returned to Nigeria without delay. You were one the lawyers mentioned in the case. What role did you play? My learned colleague, Mr. Abdul Oroh, is handling the case with our law firm. Both of us were at the High Commission of Cameroon last (penultimate) Tuesday to demand for access to our clients who are currently held incommunicado in Cameroon. We were asked to submit a letter to that effect and we have done so.

Does Nigeria have any extradition treaty with Nigeria? What laws were respected and what laws were violated? Nigeria has no extradition treaty with Cameroon. For that reason, the Federal Government could not file extradition proceedings in any local court. Hence, the deportation was carried out outside the ambit of the Extradition Act. No law was respected whatsoever but many laws were breached by the Federal Government which has continued to exhibit authoritarian tactics and rule of might under a democratic dispensation that is supposed to be anchored on the rule of law. In deporting our clients, the Federal Government violated Section 1 of the National Commission for the Refugees Act which prohibits the expulsion, extradition or deportation of any person who is a refugee to the frontiers of any country where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of his membership of a particular group or political opinion or whose life may be endangered for any reason whatsoever. The Federal Government also breached the human right of our clients to enter Nigeria, reside, seek and obtain asylum as guaranteed by Article 12 (3) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act. The Act further provides that every individual shall have the right, when persecuted, to seek and obtain asylum in other countries in accordance with the laws of those countries and international conventions. Apart the violation of those laws, the Federal Government breached its legal obligations under the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1969 Organization of African Unity Convention on Refugees which guarantee the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in Nigeria to protection. Among those said to be arrested were those having Nigerian citizenship and working here; and others with refugee status or seeking same. What does this scenario tell us about the Buhari administration? We have established that three of the deportees are naturalized citizens while others are recognized refugees and political asylum seekers in Nigeria. Twelve of our clients who are the leaders of the people of Southern Cameroon have been living in Nigeria for several years. Some are lecturers at the Ahmadu Bello University and the American University in Yola. Three of them are lawyers. Those who are not refugees among them have been granted permanent residency status in Nigeria. You can only expel a foreigner from your country if he violates the law. Even then an asylum seeker cannot be turned over to the authorities of a country that is likely to persecute him. Under no condition can a Nigerian citizen be deported from the country. The only time that a Nigerian citizen had been deported was in 1980 when the Shehu Shagari regime expelled Mr. Shugaba Abdulraman Darman and dumped him in Chad. The deportation was declared illegal by the High Court which ordered the Federal Government to bring him back to the country. The court also awarded damages in favour of the deportee.

The illegal deportation of the naturalized Nigerians and the refugees has caused a huge embarrassment to the Federal Government because there is no legal justification for it. Can you believe that the National Commission for Refugees, the Immigration Department and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were not consulted before the deportation of our clients was carried out? Some people look back from the arrest and transfer of Charles Taylor under Obasanjo, to the inaction of Jonathan when Libya was under attack and now transferring people who fear for their lives to a government they are running away from and the question of Nigerian leadership in Africa. What do you have to say? It is trite that the foreign policies of a government are dictated by its domestic policies.

The case of Charles Taylor is totally different from this one. The Special Court for Sierra Leone set up by the Security Council of the United Nations had issued a warrant for the arrest of the ex-Liberian president for crimes against humanity. Nigeria was under a duty under international law to turn him over to the court. But unknown to Nigerians and the international community, President Obasanjo did not want Mr. Taylor arrested in Nigeria. As President Obasanjo, who was then in the United States, was under pressure to hand over Mr. Taylor to the court, as a precondition for meeting President George Bush, he quickly directed the Immigration to allow the fugitive to leave the country. But as Mr. Taylor was rushing out of the country, he was arrested at Damboru border in Borno State at about 6 am on March 2009 by Mr. Sylvester Umoh, a Customs officer who was committed to his duty. Even though Mr. Taylor offered to bribe him with $500,000 cash, Mr. Umoh rejected it and arrested him. That was how Mr. Taylor was handed over to the Special Court to the embarrassment of President Obasanjo.

The Federal Government then descended on Sylvester Umoh. Instead of giving him a national award, he was dismissed from the service without ignominy. Although I succeeded in ensuring the conversion of Mr. Umoh’s dismissal to retirement in 2014, we are still battling with the payment of his entitlements. Again, the Libyan case is different from this case but it also demonstrated a failure of leadership. Both President Goodluck Jonathan and President Jacob Zuma of South Africa did not have the courage to challenge President Barrack Obama over the planned invasion of Libya. In fact, the representatives of both leading African nations voted for the invasion. Both Nigeria and South Africa betrayed Africa by endorsing the invasion of Libya. In particular, the strategic interests of Nigeria were not considered by the Jonathan administration. Hence, we have paid dearly for the barbaric invasion of Libya. Apart from the slave trade that President Gaddafi would not have allowed in Libya, the arms and ammunition looted from the armoury of Libya were bought by the Boko Haram sect to launch deadly attacks on Nigeria. Just like the nation is messed up locally by a cabal of primitive power mongers our foreign affairs have been ruined by the same reactionary group. Luckily for the cabal, Nigerians are not aware of the extent of the manipulation of our foreign affairs. Can you believe that the cabal almost smuggled Morocco into the Economic Community of West African States? The other day, Nigeria lost an important position contested at the African Union because the cabal insisted on a candidate who was alleged not qualified for the post? With the controversial appointment of the Director-General of the new National Intelligence Agency, it has been proved beyond any shadow of doubt that the cabal will continue to expose the country to ridicule. With the international standing and experience you have. is there any role you think Nigeria can play in resolving the crisis in Cameroon? Frankly speaking, Nigeria can resolve the crisis in Southern Cameroon in the interest of regional stability. Notwithstanding that Nigeria negligently gave out the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon, Nigerians in the island are still being harassed by Cameroonian gendarmes. As far back as 2002, the Federal Government had opted for a peaceful resolution of the political crisis in Cameroon. When the people of Southern Cameroon filed a suit at the Federal High Court to determine whether they are not entitled to self-determination within their clearly defined territory separate from the Republic of Cameroun, the Federal Government decided to settle the case out of court. Hence, by a consent judgment delivered by the Court on March 5, 2002, the Federal Government agreed to file a suit at the International Court of Justice to have a judicial confirmation of the human right of the people of Southern Cameroon to self-determination.

The Federal Government also undertook to take other measures as may be necessary to place the case of the people of Southern Cameroon for self-determination before the United Nations General Assembly and other international organizations. On the basis of that judgment, which is valid and subsisting, Nigeria is estopped from colluding with the Paul Biya regime to terrorize the people of Southern Cameroon. Under Nigerian jurisprudence is it possible for people to be held without access to a lawyer? Under Section 35 of the Constitution and section 6 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act the fundamental right of every suspect or detainee to access their lawyer is guaranteed. With respect to the Cameroonians, all efforts made by their lawyers, doctors and family members to visit them in custody were frustrated. Even Mrs. Nalowa Bih who is pregnant was denied medical attention. But due to the intervention of the Minister of Foreign Affairs a representative of the Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees in Nigeria was allowed to visit our clients before they were expelled from Nigeria. During the visit, the United Nations representative found that our clients were held in an underground cell at the headquarters of the Defence Intelligence Agency on the orders of the National Security Adviser.

From your findings, who ordered the arrest? Some people say they were arrested and taken to Cameroon long before Nigerian authorities even got wind of it. When we were refused access to our clients by the National Security Adviser, we filed an application at the Abuja Judicial Division of the Federal High Court on Thursday, January 25, 2018 for the purpose of securing their fundamental rights to personal liberty and freedom of movement. Barely 24 hours later, in utter disdain for due process, the National Security Adviser deported our clients from Nigeria to Cameroon. Up till now, the National Security Adviser has not been called to justify his action since the country is run on the basis of official impunity. But as law abiding citizens we have challenged the illegal deportation and we have concluded arrangements to give our clients the best legal defence. We shall pursue the case until Nigeria returns to the community of civilized nations. The Federal Government has to be compelled to abandon its embrace of the rule of might.

www.vanguardngr.com

18, February 2018

All 66 people killed after plane crashes in Iran ⁰

A passenger plane has crashed in central Iran during a flight from Tehran to the southwestern city of Yasuj, killing all 66 people on board, authorities said on Sunday.

The ATR 72, a twin-engine turboprop operated by Aseman Airlines, crashed in bad weather into Dena Mount near the town of Semirom, an official at the Iranian carrier said.

Local officials in Semirom said the crash site was hard to reach and rescue helicopters had been unable to land because of heavy fog and rain.

Spokesman for Iran’s emergency services Mojtaba Khaledi said rescue teams had traveled to the crash site by land and were trying to find the debris.

“The weather is currently cloudy and rainy and rescuers are searching for the plane but they have not sighted it yet. Despite the poor weather conditions, relief groups are continuing their search,” he said.

Air controllers said the plane went off radar screens 50 minutes after take-off from Mehrabad airport in Tehran at around 8:00 am (0430 GMT). The flight had 60 passengers, including a child, and six crew.

The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) said the plane crashed around 23 kilometers (14 miles) from Yasuj, some 500 kilometers south of the capital.

Franco-Italian planemaker ATR has a deal with flag carrier Iran Air for the delivery of 20 ATR 72-600 passenger planes. The company delivered eight aircraft in 2017 and plans to deliver a further 12 by the end of this year.

The 70-seat ATR planes are aimed at domestic routes, which Iran seeks to revitalize after the lifting of sanctions in early 2016.

Iran is also renovating its aging fleet for international or long-distance flights under deals signed with Airbus and Boeing to buy a total of 180 passenger jets.

The country has received three Airbus jets in 2017 – one Airbus A321 and two Airbus A33 – and was due to get another by year-end which did not come through. The first Boeing is due around May 2018.

Source: Presstv

18, February 2018

School carnage survivor slams Trump, lawmakers for getting National Rifle Association money ⁰

A student from a Florida high school where yet another US mass shooting left 17 people dead has blasted President Donald Trump and many lawmakers in the country for receiving money from the powerful lobby group National Rifle Association (NRA), which fervently opposes gun control across the nation.

“If the president wants to come up to me and tell me to my face that it was a terrible tragedy and how it should never have happened, and maintain telling us how nothing is going to be done about it, I’m going to happily ask him how much money he received from the National Rifle Association,” said student Emma Gonzalez of Marjory Stohneman Douglas High School during her speech at a major gun control rally in Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday.

“I already know — $30 million,” she then added. “Divided by the number of gunshot victims in the United States in the one and a half months of 2018 alone, that comes out to being $5,800.”

A gun enthusiast holds a weapon during the South Florida Gun Show at Dade County Youth Fairgrounds in Miami, Florida, on February 17, 2018.

“Is that how much these people are worth to you, Trump?” she then asked as thousands of protesters at the rally started changing “shame on you” after she mentioned the NRA’s donations to Trump.

Gonzalez further told the crowd that US politicians should stop accepting political donations from the NRA.

The protesters carried anti-NRA signs and demanded changes to gun control laws in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, days after 17 people were shot and killed at the high school in the city of Parkland, some 25 miles away.

Thousands of students, parents, teachers and neighbors also chanted, “Vote them out!” as they called for gun control legislation, which has always been opposed and foiled by NRA-backed members of the US Congress.

Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks at the NRA-ILA’s Leadership Forum at the 146th NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits on April 28, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by AFP)

Gonzalez further censured Trump for signing a bill last year that overturned an Obama-era regulation designed to make it more difficult for mentally ill people to purchase guns.

“The people in the government who are voted into power are lying to us. And us kids seem to be the only ones who notice and our parents to call ‘B.S.,’ ” Gonzalez said. “We are prepared to call ‘B.S.’ ”

Gonzalez then condemned lawmakers who “sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA” for saying nothing can be done to prevent shootings.

“They say that tougher gun laws do not decrease gun violence. We call ‘B.S.’ They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. We call ‘B.S.’ ”

“If you agree, register to vote,” she underlined. “Contact your local congresspeople. Give them a piece of your mind.”

Meanwhile, The Network for Public Education and the American Federation of Teachers called on students, teachers and administrators to organize sit-ins, walkouts and other acts of protest on April 20, the anniversary of the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado.

The groups said the aim is to push lawmakers to enact gun control legislation.

You or the gun!

Protesters hold signs at a rally for gun control at the Broward County Federal Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on February 17, 2018.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said the answer to school violence is to keep guns away from people who should not have them.

A number of Democratic lawmakers have renewed their call for gun control legislation after the mass carnage. Survivors of the shooting have also joined the call, demanding Republican lawmakers take action following the bloody shooting.

The development came as Florida State Legislature is struggling with what to do in the aftermath of the carnage.

Some Republican lawmakers wanted to consider a bill to put trained, armed volunteers or school employees inside the state’s public schools.

The state’s Senate Judiciary Committee was due to take up the legislation (SB 1236), but committee chairman Senator Greg Steube announced late Friday that the measure would not be taken up after all.

Steube made his decision after several top senators said they were opposed to considering the bill, AP reported.

According to local press reports, the teen accused of shooting and killing 17 people in a Florida high school is said to have left a suburban Palm Beach County mobile home in November because his benefactor gave him an ultimatum: you or the gun.

Source: Presstv

18, February 2018

Paris: President Macron’s popularity drops to 44 percent ⁰

A new opinion poll shows that French President Emmanuel Macron’s approval rating has fallen to below 50 percent, its lowest level since October last year.

The results of the survey by Ifop, the French Institute of Public Opinion, published on Sunday revealed that only 44 percent of the respondents approved of Macron’s performance.

The results showed a 6-percentage-point decline compared to those of a previous poll in January and also marked the lowest approval rating for the French president since October last year, when it stood at 42 percent.

The Sunday poll was conducted from February 7 to 17.

The French government earlier this month announced plans to shake up the country’s costly civil service and modernize the public sector despite opposition. France already has one of the highest public spending ratios in the world.

French Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin said a voluntary redundancy plan for government employees could be a possible move.

Macron won the French presidency last year, and his party subsequently won a commanding majority in parliamentary elections. Macron’s pro-Europe, pro-business party controls 309 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly. It recently lost two by-elections.

Source: Presstv

17, February 2018

Mexican helicopter crash kills 13, minister survives ⁰

At least 13 people on the ground, including three children, were killed when a Mexican military helicopter carrying top officials surveying damages from an earthquake crashed in a small town in the southern state of Oaxaca, authorities said on Saturday.

The helicopter, which was carrying Mexico’s interior minister and the state governor, crashed on top of two vans in an open field while trying to land in Santiago Jamiltepec after a tour of damage from a powerful earthquake on Friday, officials said.

The senior officials survived but 12 people at the scene were killed and another died later in a hospital, Oaxaca’s attorney general’s office said in a statement. Fifteen more people were injured.

The 7.2 magnitude quake left nearly a million homes and businesses without power in Mexico City and the south and damaged at least 50 homes in Oaxaca.

The state, along with Mexico City, is still reeling from earthquakes that caused widespread damage in September and killed at least 471 people.

(Source: Reuters)

17, February 2018

“The only way to win freedom in Ambazonia is with a gun” ⁰

For the first time in his life, Victor Obi believes that the only way to win freedom in Cameroon is with a gun.

“I don’t want to die, but the only future is our independence, and they will not give it to us,” said the student, whose name has been changed for his own safety.

The 25-year-old is camped out in a small Nigerian village just kilometres from his home in Cameroon where authorities have launched a crackdown on English-speaking separatists.

“They killed my sister and my brother,” said Obi, his voice heavy with hatred. “I have nothing to lose.”

In December, Obi says soldiers invaded his hometown of Kajifu and started shooting indiscriminately at suspected separatists, said to be running a major training camp in the thick equatorial forest surrounding the village.

Kajifu is located in one of Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions that have been pushing for independence from the French-speaking elite who rule the West African country.

On October 1, separatists declared the two regions as the self-proclaimed republic of “Ambazonia”, marking a turning point for the country’s English-speaking minority, which makes up around a fifth of the population.

Cameroon President Paul Biya dispatched troops, combat helicopters and armoured vehicles to root out the dissidents, forcing tens of thousands to flee to neighbouring Nigeria.

At least 26 soldiers have been killed in the violence, according to an AFP tally.

But the civilian death toll isn’t known, with non-governmental organisations and independent media barred from the area.

Though the original Ambazonia leaders have dissociated themselves from militant offshoots – they claim their struggle is peaceful – there are a growing number of attacks against the government.

‘Raise an army’

On Sunday, before a national youth day parade in Batibo, a town near the Nigerian border, a government official was kidnapped and his car was burnt in an attack claimed by separatists.

Lucas Cho Ayaba, leader of the Ambazonian Defence Forces (ADF), took credit for the kidnapping, declaring: “You kill my people, we will chase you to the gates of hell.”

The ADF, along with three other militias, represent the main groups which count more than 300 fighters, according to an International Crisis Group (ICG) estimate. There are also 10 much smaller but violent factions engaged in the conflict.

Few claim attacks and it’s difficult to know exactly who is responsible, said ICG researcher Hans De Marie Heungoup.

“The main issue for Ambazonian groups is that they really lack finance,” he said.

“If they had money to buy weapons, train and feed their people, they could raise an army.”

But amidst the chaos, one thing seems certain: the crackdown has radicalised many English-speakers, among them the farmers and managers who have long felt marginalised by Yaounde but have never been interested in politics – until now.

‘They are angry’

English-speakers in Cameroon have been marginalised for too long, said Pastor John Mbe, one of more than 33,000 refugees in Cross River State, Nigeria.

“Many people have died already, we can’t go back home,” he said, “young people may not have guns and bullets, but I can tell you they’re angry.”

A source close to the militants says they have adopted the guerilla philosophy of freedom fighters in Eritrea as well as that of Nelson Mandela’s anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.

In Manyu, a region at the epicentre of the conflict, separatists block roads with tyres and tree trunks to ambush and attack military bases.

The militants are armed mostly with homemade rifles, some Kalashnikovs, grenades and other improvised explosive devices.

The few sophisticated weapons they possess have been stolen from police stations.

As a result of the simmering violence, thousands of refugees are arriving in Ikom, a city just over the border in a Nigeria, raising fears that the conflict is spiralling out of control.

Black magic

No formal fighter camp has been identified, but according to several witnesses interviewed by AFP, young refugees are performing black magic rituals to prepare for war.

They gather in small groups for “juju” ceremonies, during which they cut their foreheads and rub the bleeding wound with “magic potions” to make them invincible, said a Nigerian soldier who attended one of the ceremonies.

Their presence is a growing concern for Nigeria, an ally of Cameroon, which last month arrested and extradited 47 separatist leaders and deployed soldiers along the border.

Yet that hasn’t stopped the rebels from launching attacks from Nigerian territory in recent weeks, according to security sources.

At the end of January, suspected separatists detonated an explosive device at the Cameroon border post of Ekok, partially destroying an office.

“The truth is that many militants are hiding among the refugees, and they just cross the border at will through the forest,” said Lawrence Asuquo, head of immigration at Ikom.

“They launch attacks on the Cameroonian army and they run back to Nigeria. It’s almost impossible to track them.”

AFP

17, February 2018

Cameroon Concord News supports the policy statement of the Ambazonia Interim Government ⁰

Cameroon Concord News Group applauds the policy statement of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia on the Interim Government endorsement of the legitimate right of Ambazonians to self defense. Cameroon Concord News also applauds the commitment made by the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia to pursue the search and rescue with reinvigorated intensity, of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Interim Government who were abducted in Abuja Nigeria on 5^th January 2018.

Cameroun published some information on how this terrorist operation was executed. This was a special joint terrorist operation ordered and superintended by the Special Security Adviser to President Buhari, Babagana Mohammed Munagano. Mohammed Babagana Mungano provided the participating members of the Special Operations Unit of the Presidency of French Cameroun deployed for the mission by Martin Belinga Eboutou, the Director of the Civil Cabinet of French Cameroun with Nigeria army uniforms. Martin Belinga Eboutou is the defacto President of French Cameroun due to the agony which the prostate cancer incapacitated and demented incumbent is undergoing. The dictator whose death has been speculated in recent times, can no longer provide effective leadership on any significant matter.

Cameroon Concord News Group brought to the attention of the world that the intention of providing the participating members of French Cameroun’s special operations unit Nigerian Army uniforms was to conceal the presence and criminal activities of a foreign army in the territory of Nigeria, particularly in Abuja, the capital of the Federation of Nigeria. The entire operation was mired in corruption of unprecedented proportions, bankrolled on behalf of French Cameroun by Martin Belinga Eboutou. The proceeds of the corrupt terrorist operation benefitted President Buhari, his Vice President Yemi Osibanjo, Mohammed Babagana Mungano, the National Security Adviser and a coterie of persons within the corrupt cartel of ethnic clansmen in the Buhari administration.

Babagana Mohammed Mungano in his outing failed to provide critical information to Nigerians about the secretive criminal corrupt operation. Where were the Ambazonia leaders abducted? By who? Where are they? In Nigeria or in French Cameroun? What was the legal basis for their abduction? Without confirming or denying the public statements by his ethnic Fulani brethren and Boko Haram collaborationist Issa Tchiroma Bakary, the spokesman for the French Cameroun Government that the abductees were in their custody, Mohammed Babagana Mungano, justified his criminal conduct on behalf of the Federal Government as an attempt to deny Nigeria being used to destabilize French Cameroun. The hypocrisy in this attempt to justify the violations of international law is evident in the double standards evident in Buhari’s approach to opposing supposed attempts to destabilize French Cameroun from Nigeria. The abduction in violation of the Nigeria’s constitution through the impermissible criminal conduct contradicts the support and sanctuary that Buhari in his first administration provided to his Fulani ethnic co-conspirators Bello Bouba Maigari and others wanted then in French Cameroun for staging a failed coup d’etat that claimed thousands of lives. The motivation for the abduction of the President and members of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia was therefore purely actuated by corruption and a desire to enrich a political cabal formed around President Buhari to ensure his political survival in the next elections in 2019.

Cameroon Concord News Group strongly urges the Interim Government to deploy every means possible including securing the support of partners worldwide to locate and free our leaders whether held in Nigeria as some leads suggest or in French Cameroun. Cameroun Concord News strongly denounces the legitimization of terrorism by Nigeria and French Cameroun through the abduction of Ambazonia leaders who were legally in Nigeria under the protection of international law and Nigeria international treaty obligations. If nothing is done and this abduction left unsanctioned, it may legitimize the crime terror, threatening peace and security in the sub-region.

Cameroon Concord News Group is concerned that the message by the United Nations High Commission for the Refugees condemning this violation of international law has not been followed by a strong resolve urging Nigeria to produce the abductees and return them to the custody of the UNHCR. The abduction is not a mere state violation of its treaty obligation; it is an interstate parties’ criminal conduct that sets a dangerous precedent in a volatile sub-region where international peace and security concerns are constantly making the international community nervous. Is the United Nations by its timid reaction tacitly suggesting that Ambazonia left to itself, should seriously consider resorting to a tit for tat reprisal using the same methods to discourage the abduction of its citizens and leader by Nigeria and French Cameroun? How different are the pecuniary, or even political motivation for the abduction of the Ambazonia leaders different from the abduction for ransom crimes that French Cameroun Government officials have arranged with Boko Haram in the past by abducting foreign nationals for ransom? If left without a strong response and sanctions, will this abduction not legitimize the many ransom for freedom abductions against prominent politicians, their families and businessmen?

Cameroon Concord News Group strongly supports the decision of the Interim Government banning all elections in Ambazonia organized by French Cameroun. In view of the declaration of war made by Paul Biya against Ambazonia, the said elections are intended to support the war efforts of this foreign government, against Ambazonia. There can be no credible election when the electorate is being pursued and massacred by enemy forces and many are in refugee camps in Nigeria and others are in the forests. Cameroon Concord News Group agrees that any Ambazonian or anyone residing in the territory of Ambazonia or deployed to the territory of Ambazonia taking part in the same elections must be considered a war enemy ally.

Cameroon Concord News Group holds the opinion that the long-awaited policy statement on self defense is most welcome. In this regard, Cameroon Concord News Group once more calls for the unity of all Ambazonians to support the realization of the self-defense efforts of the Interim Government. Cameroon Concord News Group encourages Ambazonians at home and abroad to contribute to the Interim Government generously towards the defense of our fatherland. Cameroon Concord News urges all freedom loving people in the world to strongly support the Ambazonia self-defense efforts.

Cameroon Concord News Group applauds the efforts made by neighbouring communities in Nigeria, the Governors of these neighbouring states, individuals and communities within Nigeria, politicians, businessmen, churches, men and women of goodwill in Nigeria and worldwide who through prayers, financial and material contributions or other means are helping our refugees and supporting our cause. Your understanding of our plight and predicament, despite the outrageous conduct of some elements within the Federal Government, highlights the grandeur of the human spirit and the rule of law character of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Your support for our refugees and seeking the release of our abducted leaders and the justice of our quest for freedom are greatest appreciated. Cameroon Concord News Group is optimistic that victory belongs to the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

17, February 2018

Blasts claim 19 lives in Nigeria ⁰

Some 19 people have been killed and dozens more wounded when three bombers blew themselves up in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State, the hardest hit by Daesh-inspired Boko Haram militancy.

Damian Chukwu, police commissioner for Borno State, said on Saturday that the explosions occurred at a fish market about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the center of Maiduguri on Friday evening.

Babakura Kolo and Musa Ari, from the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) assisting Nigeria’s military against Takfiri militants, also said the bombers were all men.

“We have 19 dead and about 70 others injured… Two of the bombers attacked the Tashan Kifi fish market. Then four minutes later, a third bomber struck nearby,” said Kolo.

“The victims included 18 civilians and one soldier. The Tashan Kifi is an informal market which serves as an eatery, market and also hang-out for residents,” the official added.

Kolo further said 22 out of the 70 injured are in critical condition, blaming the attack on the Boko Haram militant group.

“There is no question as to who did it: Boko Haram has targeted Konduga several times,” he said.

More than 20,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram started its deadly campaign in northeast Nigeria in 2009. The violence has claimed many lives in neighboring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon as well.

Boko Haram, which pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri group in 2015, has been largely pushed out of its main strongholds in northern Nigeria, according to the country’s military and government.

The group, however, is still active in its Sambisa Forest enclave in Borno and launches sporadic attacks on civilians and security forces from there. The United Nations has warned that areas affected by Boko Haram face a humanitarian crisis.

Source: Presstv