15, February 2018
The crisis in Cameroon is getting worse each day as fighting between separatist groups degenerates with casualties on both sides.
The situation has been disturbing following the kidnapping of a senior government official in the English speaking north western town of Batibo by the separatists.
Source: Channel Africa
15, February 2018
The Wednesday mass shooting at a high school in Florida was the 18th shooting at a school since the beginning of 2018, that is one shooting every 60 hours.
There has been over 6,500 shooting incidents across the US so far, leading to the death of over 1,820 people and injuring more than 3,100 other.
The data have been compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit that tracks gun-related violence in the US.
According to the website, since January 69 children between the ages of 1-11 years and a staggering number of 333 teenagers (12-17 years) have been killed in various incidents.
As of Thursday, there has been 30 mass shootings, collectively killing over 58 people and injuring dozens more.
According to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group, a school shooting is “any time a firearm discharges a live round inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds, as documented by the press and, when necessary, confirmed through further inquiries with law enforcement or school officials.”
That is the very definition of what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Pompano Beach on Wednesday afternoon, where a former student who was fired for disciplinary reasons killed at least 17 people at his school.
The suspect, identified as 19-year-old Nikolaus Cruz was armed with an AR-15 rifle and what officials described as endless number of magazines.
The semi-automatic weapon, which was introduced by Colt in the 1960s, has virtually become the favorite weapon for mass murderers across the US and has been linked to many similar shootings.
Last October, a gunman armed with 14 AR-15s and a cache of other deadly weapons opened fire on a music festival from his nearby hotel room leaving 58 people dead and 851 injured.
In September 2016, a gunman used stormed a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, Killing 49 people and wounding 58 others using his AR-15.
Just two days after the shooting, the Huffington Post sent a group of reporters to see how long did it take to purchase the latest iteration of the deadly weapon. The result was astonishing: You can buy an AR-15 in Orlando in just 38 minutes.
In the latest instance of gun violence in the United States, at least 17 people were killed and several others injured in a shooting at a high school in the US state of Florida.
The shooting occurred on Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
It is estimated that there are between 270 million and 300 million guns in the US, about one per person, according to the New York Daily News.
Perhaps it is no surprise then that Statistics by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show firearms kill more than 33,000 people in the US every year, a number that includes accidental discharges, murders and suicides.
Here is a look at some of the deadliest school shootings in recent US history:
April 2007: Seung Hui Cho, a 23-year-old student, went on a shooting spree at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, killing 32 people, before killing himself.
December 2012: Adam Lanza, 20, killed as many as 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, before taking his own life.
August 1966: Charles Joseph Whitman, a former US Marine, shot and killed 16 people from a university tower at the University of Texas in Austin before being shot by police.
April 1999: Students Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, started shooting students and teachers at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, killing 12 students and one teacher while wounding more than 20 others. They both killed themselves.
February 2008: Steven Kazmierczak, 27, stormed into a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University and opened fire, killing five students and wounding 18 others before killing himself.
March 2005: Jeff Weise, 16, killed his grandfather and his companion before heading to a high school on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota, where he killed five students, a teacher and a security guard before committing suicide.
Source: Presstv
15, February 2018
The 85 year-old President Paul Biya has appointed Ernest Nkwandze as interim Divisional Officer for the Batibo constituency in Momo Division following the abduction of Namata Marcel Diteng on February the 11th by unknown gunmen. Ernest Nkwandze was installed on February 14, 2018 by the North-West Governor, Adolphe Lélé Lafrique.
The governor reportedly held a working session with the traditional authorities and security officials of the Batibo district and pleaded with the chiefs as well as the population to work in collaboration with the security forces by providing them reliable information in the search of the sub-prefect.
The sub-prefect of Batibo, Namata Marcel Diteng was abducted with his driver in the morning of February 11, 2018 by unidentified men. So far a massive search is continuing to find them.
By Sama Ernest with files from CIN
15, February 2018
French air power on Wednesday killed at least 10 jihadists in northeast Mali near the border with Algeria, local and foreign military sources said.
“French forces on Wednesday led at least one raid near Tinzaouatene, at the Algerian border, against the terrorists,” a local Malian military source told AFP.
“There were at least 10 deaths and two vehicles were destroyed.” An ex colonel in the Malian army who had defected, who is close to the jihadists’ leader, was killed in the raid, according to an army statement.
The offensive was part of France’s Operation Barkhane, active in Mali as well as four other former French colonies in west Africa Mauritania, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso.
These countries form the so-called G5 Sahel, a French-supported group that launched a joint military force to combat jihadists last year.
The Malian source said the French force had been conducting operations in northeastern Mali for several days.
A foreign military source confirmed that “several” raids had been carried out in the region on Wednesday, killing at least 10 jihadists.
Islamic extremists linked to Al-Qaeda took control of the desert north of Mali in early 2012, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.
However large tracts of the country remain lawless despite a peace accord signed with ethnic Tuareg leaders in mid-2015 aimed at isolating the jihadists.
On Tuesday in neighbouring Burkina Faso meanwhile, a policeman was killed and two were injured in an attack at a village near the eastern town of Fada N’Gourma, in a region that has largely escaped Islamist unrest.
The assailants’ identity was unknown.
Northern Burkina Faso has seen frequent attacks by suspected jihadists, with two police killed late last month in the town of Baraboule.
(AFP)
15, February 2018
At least 17 people have been killed and several others injured in a shooting at a high school in the US state of Florida.
The shooting occurred on Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Florida Govover Rick Scott ordered government flags flown at half-staff through Monday in honor of victims of the shooting.
Authorities closed the school for the rest of the week, and the district will offer grief counseling to students and their families.
Police took a suspect into custody, announcing that the person was not a current student there.
The gunman, a former student who was said to be 19 years old, quietly surrendered to police after opening fire with an assault-style rifle.
Identified as Nikolaus Cruz, the shooter had previously been expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons.
He was reportedly part of the US military-sponsored Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corp (JROTC) program at the school, but “no one ever took him seriously,” according to a recent graduate and former fellow JROTC member at Stoneman Douglas High.
Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie, described that situation as “you pray … that you will never have to see,” adding that “We cannot live in a world that’s built on fear.”
“There are numerous fatalities. It’s a horrific situation.”
The school, which has more than 3,000 students, was placed on a “code red” lockdown in the wake of the shooting.
Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson also said that “This is a really bad day,” adding there were “a number of fatalities.”
Police started dealing with the active shooter situation at the high school around 2:30 pm local time.
Source: Presstv
15, February 2018
A United Kingdom Member Parliament has stressed the need for Cameroon to adopt dialogue to resolve unrest in the Anglophone region.
Harriet Baldwin of West Worchestershire who doubles as a Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) made the call after a trip to Cameroon.
The trip afforded her the opportunity to meet with a number of stakeholders in the restive region especially in the southwest capital of Buea.
“Important visit to Buea in South West Anglophone region hearing from local people about the impact of the ongoing dispute and the urgent need for dialogue,” she said in a tweet accompanied by a photo of a meeting of leaders in Buea.
Some other work she did had to do with environment conservation and the opening of an educational facility.
The U.K. has been at the forefront of calls for Cameroon to adopt dialogue to solve the Anglophone crisis. The Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland in December 2017 visited Cameroon where she held talks with the government and other stakeholders.The Central African country is currently suffering from an armed insurgency in its English – speaking regions – Northwest and Southwest, in what has become known as the ‘Anglophone crisis.’
Addressing a cross-section of political and diplomatic actors over lunch, Scotland said “Cameroon is renowned for its tradition of peaceful and harmonious interactions. So it is with great sadness that we see it in challenging times.
“However, as the Commonwealth family, we will do everything we can to preserve the unity and peaceful existence of any member of the family. As we all know, friction and division will not enhance the ability to deliver the peace that each and every one of Cameroon’s citizen wants.
“I therefore encourage Cameroonians from all walks of life to embrace peace, unity and resolve any differences through peaceful dialogue,” the Secretary-General concluded.
Cameroon joined the Commonwealth in 1995 even though it has a dominant French population. It is also part of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) – the French equivalent of Commonwealth led by France.
Source: Africa News
14, February 2018
Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has died after a long battle with cancer.
His death casts his Movement for Democratic Change party into the unknown, less than three months after the army ousted long-time ruler Robert Mugabe.
Mr Tsvangirai, who died in South Africa, was 65.
“I can confirm that he died this evening. The family communicated this to me,” MDC vice-president Elias Mudzuri told Reuters.
Arguably Zimbabwe’s most popular politician, the mining union leader’s career was ultimately defined by his tussles – both literal and figurative – with Mr Mugabe, who resigned after a de facto coup in December.
Elections are due within the next six months and Mr Tsvangirai’s illness and now death leaves his party in disarray, to the advantage of the ruling ZANU-PF party.
ZANU-PF is now led by 93-year-old Mr Mugabe’s former deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Although Mr Tsvangirai suffered serious physical abuse at the hands of security forces, including serious head injuries in police custody in 2007, he went on to form an uneasy working relationship with Mr Mugabe in a 2009-2013 coalition government.
Source: RTE
14, February 2018
Three soldiers and two civilians were killed and 11 other people injured in an accident involving DR Congo President Joseph Kabila’s motorcade, his office said Wednesday.
The accident happened on a road in the southwest of the country, 220 kilometers (110 miles) south of Kinshasa, as Kabila was returning to the capital on Tuesday.
“Last night, a vehicle in the presidential motorcade was hit on the Matadi highway at Kimpese by a truck carrying cement,” communications official Yvon Ramazani told AFP on Wednesday.
“Three soldiers in the Republican Guard were killed along with two civilians who were nearby,” he said. Seven soldiers and four civilians were also injured, Ramazani said, adding that the accident had been caused by heavy rain.
Kabila “stayed on the site until the emergency services arrived, and personally supervised the ambulance evacuation of dead and injured,” he said.
The Republic Guard is an elite force tasked with the protection of the president. Kabila was returning from a stay in the sea port of Matadi.
Roads in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a sprawling, poverty-stricken country, are notorious for accidents. Poor road surfaces, overladen vehicles and excessive speed are often the causes of mishaps.
Kabila on Wednesday was to meet in Kinshasa with the presidents of the neighboring Republic of Congo and Angola, Denis Sassou Nguesso and Joao Lourenco, for a tripartite meeting.
(Source: AFP)
14, February 2018
Cameroon Concord News Group strongly advocates the formation of “The 5th of January Movement” in Nigeria to condemn the abduction, that day, of of Ambazonia leaders in Abuja, Nigeria. The consequences of not holding the perpetrator of the crimes accountable for their conduct will be that, their criminal conduct will embolden criminal gangs in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa to legitimize terrorism warfare as a legitimate means of settling problems of an economic and political nature. Abduction for ransom is already a critical law problem in Nigeria and French Cameroun. Although formally outlawed in Nigeria, it is official government policy in French Cameroun. Over a period of fifty-six years, French Cameroun gendarmes and other security operatives ransom Southern Cameroonians for huge bribes to regain their Freedom. The majority poor without money perish in concentration camps and inhuman dungeons at the pleasure of colonial administrators of French Cameroun. The war against Boko Haram provided French Cameroun Government officials the opportunity to arrange the abduction of foreigners with their supposed Boko Haram partners in exchange for huge ransom money which they partition among themselves. The success of this business inspired the abduction of Southern Cameroons leaders for money.
History will retain that on the 5th of January 2018, Nigeria formally endorsed terrorism warfare by abducting the President of the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia and members of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia who were legally in Nigeria under the protection of International Law. Nigeria has been widely condemned for resorting to this criminal conduct in abducting the Ambazonia leaders. They were wards of international law. By relying on terrorist means to abduct and disappear them, Nigeria committed crimes against the international rule law, and the international peace and security value system which is jealously guarded and protected by the collective conscience of humanity. These values are protected by the international multilateral treaty regime and Rome Statute which Nigeria subscribed to and become a state party to.
By becoming an associate of the regime of terror in French Cameroun that has terrorized, disappeared and massacred hundreds of thousands of colonized Southern Cameroonians over a period of fifty-six years, Nigeria has willfully transformed its national territory and the Gulf of Guinea into a terrorist paradise at the service of criminal bands holding on to political power through corruption and other criminal means in both countries. This new strategy of terrorism warfare aimed at abducting, killing and disappearing civilian leaders for political and economic benefits will surely be emulated and applied with great efficiency within the sub region and beyond. The pecuniary motivations for the abductions, the use of terrorism warfare to carry out the operation in attempts to evade the scrutiny of legitimate government security and intelligence operatives, points to the existence of parallel command structures outside the constitutional structures of supposed civilian democratic governance.
The abduction of Southern Cameroons leaders in Abuja on the 5th of January 2018 must therefore elicit an appropriate response from rule of law activists worldwide. A 5th January Movement will mobilize Nigerians and people of good will worldwide to mount a sustained campaign against the new criminal system of terrorism warfare that was launched by Nigeria and French Cameroun in Abuja through the abduction and disappearance of Ambazonia leaders. This is not just an Ambazonia problem. It is a problem of humanity at large. If nothing is done then a few months from now, several civilian leaders in all walks of life, in commerce and industry, in politics, religion, civil administration etc will become legitimate targets of abductions for all manner of political and pecuniary interest. Nigeria must therefore be forced to produce and release Ambazonia leaders forthwith.
Ambazonia has far in the exercise of its legitimate right of self defense not targeted civilians or persons not taking part in the international armed conflict between it and its neighbouring country French Cameroun. If Nigeria is not pressurized to release Ambazonia leaders and French Cameroun forced by the International Community to release and Ambazonians held it captivity, then Ambazonia may be forced to employ a tit for tat war policy against hundreds of French Cameroun’s proconsuls within its national territory. Ambazonia has already ordered them to leave the Federal Republic of Ambazonia immediately. Neither French Cameroun nor Nigeria gave Ambazonia leaders this option; they cowardly abducted them in a criminal corruption scheme unprecedented in Nigerian history. History of human power has a life span. For this reason, Babagana Mohammed Mungano a key actor in this criminal scheme will sooner or later provide a public account of what transpired while the Ambazonia train of freedom will continue to race towards its final destination un hampered even by this criminal act.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
Chairman, Editor-in-Chief
Cameroon Concord News Group
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15, February 2018
US Senate unveils immigration plan, defying Trump 0
A bipartisan group of US senators in Congress have unveiled a compromise plan to protect so-called “Dreamers” and boost border security, defying President Donald Trump’s demand to embrace his more hardline plan.
The potential breakthrough, reached Wednesday after hours of closed-door deliberations, would protect from deportation 1.8 million immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children.
Congress is struggling to act after Trump ordered the March 5 termination of DACA, an Obama-era program that gives young immigrants temporary legal status. Congress has tried and failed to overhaul immigration policy over the past decade.
While several Republicans are co-sponsoring the new bipartisan measure, it was not clear whether there would be enough support from Democrats to pass it in the Senate. Even if the bipartisan immigration plan passes the Senate, it faces an uncertain fate in the House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a larger majority.
The bipartisan measure, which has eight Republican and eight Democratic sponsors, emerged from a centrist group nicknamed the “Common Sense Coalition.”
“Our legislation underscores the broad, bipartisan commitment to creating a path to citizenship for Dreamers, who were brought to this country illegally through no decision of their own, while strengthening border security to help stop the flow of illegal immigrants,” Senator Susan Collins, a Republican from Maine, said in a statement announcing the measure.
The bipartisan effort would only make limited changes to family reunification, and would leave the diversity lottery visa untouched, because it is too “politically toxic,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the lawmakers who crafted the bipartisan plan.
But supporting the immigration deal would put members of Trump’s own party at odds with the president, who urged senators to oppose any plans that were different from his own.
In the midst of the showdown, Democrats stressed Trump would be to blame for any failure to reach a deal.
Americans “know this president not only created the problem, but seems to be against every solution that might pass because it isn’t 100 percent of what he wants,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York state.
“If, at the end of the week, we are unable to find a bill that can pass… the responsibility will fall entirely on the president’s shoulders and those in this body who went along with him.”
Source: Presstv