Monthly Archives: October 2018

UK: British Prime Minister says Brexit talks “95 percent” complete amid fears of political mutiny

22, October 2018

UK: British Prime Minister says Brexit talks “95 percent” complete amid fears of political mutiny 0

Prime Minister Theresa May will tell Britain’s parliament on Monday that Brexit talk are “95 percent” complete but that she cannot accept the EU’s Northern Ireland border proposals – as she faces an increasingly mutinous faction within her party.

May has been on the receiving end of a furious backlash from Brexit hardliners in her own party after indicating at an EU summit last week that she could accept a longer post-divorce implementation phase than previously envisaged.

Her shift aimed to break an impasse in negotiations between London and Brussels over how to keep the Irish border open after Brexit, by giving the two sides more time to agree their future relationship.

But it infuriated Brexiteer colleagues who fear remaining tied to the EU for years after Britain’s formal departure next March.

Several Sunday newspapers said rebellious MPs were preparing a fresh bid to topple her leadership this week, many carrying colourful off-record quotes from the plotters.

In a bid to calm passions, May will address MPs in the House of Commons on Monday where she will say the divorce deal with Brussels is nearly done.

“Ninety-five per cent of the Withdrawal Agreement and its protocols are now settled,” she will tell parliamentarians, according to a partial transcript released by her office late Sunday.

Highlighting progress in the year-long talks, she will say agreements have now been reached across a broad range of issues including with Spain on the status of the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar, and with Cyprus on the UK’s military bases there. “We have broad agreement on the structure and scope of the future relationship, with important progress made on issues like security, transport and services,” she will say.

Busted backstop

But on Ireland she will seek to reassure MPs in her own party that she will not bow to the EU’s current proposals.

“As I set out last week, the original backstop proposal from the EU was one we could not accept, as it would mean creating a customs border down the Irish Sea and breaking up the integrity of the UK,” she will say.

“I do not believe that any UK Prime Minister could ever accept this. And I certainly will not.” The so-called backstop is a proposal to keep either Northern Ireland or all of Britain in a customs union should future trade talks end in deadlock.

Talks have stalled over how to stop its land frontier with the Republic of Ireland, an EU member, becoming a hard border again. London believes customs and other checks can be avoided through a new trade agreement with Brussels, but accepts the need for a fallback plan until that deal is agreed.

However, the two sides have so far been unable to settle the terms of this so-called backstop. France’s Europe minister Nathalie Loiseau told the BBC Sunday that the bloc needs “definitive answers, or at least no temporary measures which disappear and we don’t know what to do afterwards”.

Despite voting in favour of a split from Europe, the British public remains deeply polarised on Brexit. On Saturday more than half a million anti-Brexit protesters hit the streets of London, the largest demonstration since 750,000 people showed up against the Iraq war in 2003.

(AFP)


Southern Cameroons Crisis: Gunmen abduct six children from a school in Bamenda

22, October 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Gunmen abduct six children from a school in Bamenda 0

Gunmen have abducted six children from a school in Bamenda, the capital of the northwestern, English-speaking Northwest region of Cameroon, a teacher there told AFP. “People attacked the high school yesterday (Friday) at 11:00 am (1000 GMT),” a teacher in Bamenda told AFP. “Six pupils have been abducted.”

The information was confirmed by a source close to the security services in Bamenda. Local media reports said one of the six had managed to escape, but that information has not yet been independently confirmed. Cameroon’s two anglophone regions in the west of Cameroon are the site of an armed separatist uprising, where the separatists have called for a boycott of the schools. They argue the French-language education system penalises English-speaking students.

Already, since the start of the new term in September, insurgents have killed one school director, mutilated a teacher and attacked several high schools. The results of the country’s presidential election, which took place on October 7, are still to be announced, but the incumbent, Paul Biya, ran for a seventh term in office.

Biya, 85, has refused to enter into dialogue with the separatists and at the beginning of the year launched a military crackdown in the regions.

AFP


UN says Yaounde forcing Nigerian refugees to return home when it is not safe

22, October 2018

UN says Yaounde forcing Nigerian refugees to return home when it is not safe 0

The UN has said that Cameroon is forcing Nigerian refugees to return home, even when it is not safe for the refugees to do so.

More than 100,000 refugees who fled violence in Nigeria have sought refuge in northern Cameroon.

But with the host country also battling against the armed group Boko Haram, the UN says that the government is now sending some of the refugees back, even if the same violence they fled still exists.

Cameroon’s government insists that returns are voluntary and only when conditions are safe.


Yaounde: All is set for Biya’s coronation

22, October 2018

Yaounde: All is set for Biya’s coronation 0

Preparations are on the way in Yaoundé to declare 85 years old dictator Paul Biya as the winner of the October 7th election that took place in La Republique du Cameroun. Even by his own high standards of election rigging, this year’s poll was the most dramatic and by far his most effective election mugging. Today the 22nd of October 2018, there’ll be a theatrical public ceremony in Yaoundé by the Constitutional Council to proclaim his triumph. Cameroon Concord News Group can confirm without any fear of ambiguity that the canopies and other bits and pieces that would be used during this state formality have been ordered and preparations are almost complete. On Friday, the regiment responsible for getting all the ingredients ready for the ritual confiscated the phones of all those working in Etoudi palace.

‘All the legal representations that were made by the opposition parties over the last week challenging the legitimacy of the results of the election were applauded by the old despot’. He welcomed these representations so the world could see that there is a proper free and fair electoral system in the country. Behind the scenes, we were reliably informed that he remained in constant conversation with the main players in the Constitutional Council giving the so-called judges standing instructions on what to do. Our source confirmed that members of the Constitutional Council paid regular visits to the elderly autocrat to receive directives.

Our correspondent in Yaoundé who is also very experience in intelligence gathering hinted that the frail dictator has received absolute assurance from the military that he has their loyalty. Over the last few weeks, Yaounde recorded some under-the-table talk that the military will step in and take power in a coup d’état. These tensions, were real but after many meetings and hush-hush deals it was called off. We gathered from a senior military official that the army had contemplated taking over last week and Biya was genuinely apprehensive but the internal squabbling among the many tribes represented in the army made it impossible for them to agree a deal. ‘The old canny fox stepped in with bags of dollars and bought their loyalty’ our source added.

Whilst infrastructures, institutions and public services in the country continue to dilapidate, Paul Biya who has ruled the nation with an iron fist for thirty-six years is prepared to be sworn in to start another seven year term at the top. Cameroon is one of the poorest nations in the world and Biya has presided over public corruption and embezzlement at a scale never seen since Mobutu Seseko of Zaire. With Boka Haram destabilising the north of the country, the Anglophone zones have declared independence from French Cameroun and created the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. The world is watching curiously what solutions the 85 year old will offer to bring his poor and crisis-filled country under control.

By Asu Vera Eyere


Biya regime locks down major cities before release of election results

21, October 2018

Biya regime locks down major cities before release of election results 0

Cameroon’s two major cities were tense on Sunday and riot police were on the streets as security forces try to prevent protests before the results of the country’s controversial presidential election are released.

Dozens of riot police, some armed with machine guns, surrounded the activist and politician Kah Walla’s house on Sunday afternoon, preventing her from leaving to attend a peaceful demonstration planned in the centre of Douala, the economic capital.

The election results are due to be released on Monday morning, and are widely expected to show a resounding victory for Paul Biya, the country’s octogenarian president who put himself forward for a seventh term. The protest was billed as a march “to say goodbye to Biya” who, in his 36th year as president, spends a significant amount of his time on holiday in Geneva.

The opposition has said there was widespread fraud and voter intimidation in the 7 October election, and rejected the results early on despite the fact that they had not yet been released. Legal attempts to have the election rerun have failed.

Walla told the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle last week that she was “bent on ousting the Biya regime”, and that the ballot box had been proven not to be a solution.

Anglophone rebels, who have been fighting for secession from the francophone majority in a spiralling conflict, boycotted the election and many English-speakers were unable to vote. Others who had fled to French-speaking regions faced raids and intimidation from the authorities.

Riot police were also posted to major streets and roundabouts in Douala and the capital, Yaoundé, on Sunday afternoon. Many internet users complained that they were unable to access Facebook and WhatsApp because they had been blocked.

A Reuters journalist, Josiane Kouagheu, was arrested while trying to cover the protests, according to Angela Quintal from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Culled from The Guardian


UK: Thousands rally in London for new Brexit referendum

21, October 2018

UK: Thousands rally in London for new Brexit referendum 0

Hundreds of thousands of people hit London’s streets on Saturday to join the People’s Vote march, calling for a referendum on the final Brexit deal.

Demonstrators hold placards as they take part in a march calling for a People’s Vote on the final Brexit deal, in central London on October 20, 2018. (AFP)

 

The protest, led by young voters and London Mayor Sadiq Khan, headed to Parliament Square, where a rally was held in the late afternoon. Organisers said around 700,000 protesters attended the event.

Among the speakers who addressed the crowds, were leading remain advocates such as Khan, Chuka Umunna, Vince Cable, Caroline Lucas and Anna Soubry. UK Prime Minister Theresa May has ruled out a second referendum on Brexit.

Culled from Presstv


Message to Ambazonians as French Cameroun awaits presidential election results

21, October 2018

Message to Ambazonians as French Cameroun awaits presidential election results 0

This presidential election has given the opportunity to Anglophones to send a very strong message to Yaounde and they have done so 500%. Anglophones don’t seem to realize how powerful a message they sent to the whole world by boycotting the election 100%.

A boycott is a very important tool that has been used successfully during the civil rights movement in the 60s by Dr Martin Luther King and black people in the United States. It was used by Mahatma Ghandi and his people in India during their resistance to British rule. In South Africa black people used it successfully against apartheid.

Let nobody fool you Anglophones. You have achieved a great goal in your struggle for freedom and justice. The world was watching, the UN saw it all and took special note. Yaoundé is panicking but won’t let you see it. The message was powerful and resounding. You have gained great respect even in the eyes of Francophones who laughed and mocked you as ” Anglofools” or as “les fauteurs de trouble” when you started this struggle and go rolled in mud, shot and maimed and tour businesses burnt or looted.

Now, I want to say this. Let no single one of you go out after the election results are announced, Biya or Kamto being the winner. If you get arrested in Yaounde or Douala and found to be an Anglophone then you are a terrorist that has crossed to the francophone zone to incite trouble and you know what will be done to you. Let Francophones feel the pangs of injustice and let’s see the look on their faces. I will also advise that everyone saves some emergency money to use for a quick exit if necessary.

Source: Anonymous


US: Voices of concern for Southern Cameroons at a New Jersey Church

21, October 2018

US: Voices of concern for Southern Cameroons at a New Jersey Church 0

Silva Munuza was describing the deadly conflict back home in Cameroon to Cliff Jones, his pastor in Laurel Springs.

A 38-year-old accountant who lives in Clementon and has a young daughter, Munuza talked about the brutality of the security forces, the burning of villages, and of the dead. And then his voice broke.

“Silva couldn’t keep on speaking,” Jones recalled. “He knows people who have been killed.”

The effect on the pastor was profound.

“When I saw a brother in Christ break down four times in the space of five minutes,”  he said,  “I realized that we need to do something.”

That’s why St. Paul’s Presbyterian, a cozy church on a pretty street in small-town Camden County, is praying for Cameroon, a West African nation where six complicated decades of tension between the English-speaking minority and the French-speaking majority threaten to erupt into civil war.

The pastor, Munuza, and others in the church hope to educate the congregation and the public about the situation in that riven, faraway land, and are exploring other ways to help. A good number of the 200 people in the English-speaking Cameroonian community that has taken root in South Jersey during the last 20 years are Presbyterian, and belong to St. Paul’s.

Silva Munuza, center, who emigrated from Cameroon to the United States 10 years ago, prays during Sunday services at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Laurel Springs. Munuza is an elder at the church and is working to educate the congregation about the increasingly deadly political violence in his homeland.
JOSE F. MORENO

Silva Munuza, center, who emigrated from Cameroon to the United States 10 years ago, prays during Sunday services at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Laurel Springs. Munuza is an elder at the church and is working to educate the congregation about the increasingly deadly political violence in his homeland.

 

I met Munuza there during services on a recent Sunday, and later sat down with him and five other Cameroonians in Fellowship Hall at the church.

Until I started working on this column, pretty much all I’d known about Cameroon was that the Sixers’ amazing Joel Embiid is from there.  I’ve since been reading news stories online and watching YouTube clips about the turmoil, and I’ve seen some of the awful images — a man on his knees being beaten, a charred body in a ruined, roofless house, entire villages reduced to cinders — that have been widely disseminated on social media. I’ve also visited the website of the self-described “interim government” of an envisioned English-speaking, independent Cameroonian state to be called the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

But nothing prepared me for the conversation around the table.

“My brother died on the spot, and a neighbor who was like a father to me had just left his home and also was killed,” said Ernest Awa, 40, a health-care worker who lives in Lindenwold. “I lost those two people,” he said softly.

Awa was describing the events of Sept. 1 in Pinyin, a village in the northwestern portion of the English-speaking part of the country, where many of the Cameroonians in South Jersey have family. Witnesses posted videos charging security forces the government claims are seeking to quell a separatist rebellion with shooting civilians at will.

At the table, a young Cameroonian woman who lives in Camden County and asked not to be identified because she feared for her family’s safety said she hasn’t been able to reach her father back home for the last two weeks. He’s in his 70s and escaped an attack near Pinyin by hiding in the wilderness, she said.

“I don’t know when I will be able to go back there,” said Valerie Mouthchia, 45, a project manager who lives in Clementon. She has become an American citizen and said the U.S. should not support the government in Cameroon, which she said is responsible for human rights violations there.

The people around the table described the conflict as a colonial legacy made worse by the authoritarian rule of longtime francophone President Paul Biya. The results of a contentious Oct. 7 presidential election are expected to be made public Oct. 22, with some media in the country predicting Biya will win.

Despite the rising numbers of casualties, displaced persons, and refugees — thousands of Cameroonians have fled across the border into Nigeria — Americans generally know little about Cameroon or its escalating crisis.

Pastor Cliff Jones, right, greets Marcel Njighe, who’s originally from Cameroon, at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Laurel Springs. The congregation prays for Cameroon, which some observers describe as on the verge of civil war. Jones said the people in his flock also want to learn more about the situation, and to do more to help.
JOSE F. MORENO

Pastor Cliff Jones, right, greets Marcel Njighe, who’s originally from Cameroon, at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church in Laurel Springs. The congregation prays for Cameroon, which some observers describe as on the verge of civil war. Jones said the people in his flock also want to learn more about the situation, and to do more to help.

 

Nevertheless, “Americans can become more aware,” Munuza said. “They can call their representatives. They can tweet. They can call for an end to the genocide.”

I asked the pastor of St. Paul’s how even a faith-filled, 360-member-strong congregation could realistically expect to have an impact on a complicated human tragedy so far away.

“For us, prayer is important,” Jones said. “Knowing people who are going through this, whose immediate family members have been killed, brings this to a much more personal level. We need to do something, and not just in words.”

Source: The Inquirer



Cameroon: Paid Public Announcement

20, October 2018

Cameroon: Paid Public Announcement 0

The future governor of the southwest region is urging all his citizens living within the Southwest and beyond to steer clear of any public demonstrations that have been scheduled to take place in many cities in East Cameroon.

The governor would like to use this opportunity to inform any person or persons who may want to import any violence from East Cameroon into the Southwest that the forces of law and order are on high alert and will deal squarely with any violators of the laws of the land.

The governor is urging all Southwest citizens to be law-abiding and to wait for any instructions from the authorities.

The governor would like to use this opportunity to thank all South- westerners for showing restraint and for being law-abiding during this challenging moment.

Dr. J. A. ARREY


Biafra: Missing leader Nnamdi Kanu is in Israel

20, October 2018

Biafra: Missing leader Nnamdi Kanu is in Israel 0

The lawyer for a missing pro-Biafran separatist leader on Saturday said he had spoken to his client, after a video and pictures emerged purporting to show him in Jerusalem.

Ifeanyi Ejiofor said he had “received a direct confirmation” about the whereabouts of Nnamdi Kanu, who has not been seen in public since September last year.

“My client is the very person seen in the pictures/video. That I can confirm authoritatively,” he added in a statement.

Kanu, a former London estate agent, heads the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement and the outlawed pirate radio station Radio Biafra.

He is facing treason charges and had been on bail at the time troops were deployed to his home city of Umuahia in Abia state, southeast Nigeria, in September 2017.

He then failed to show at his trial in the capital, Abuja, sparking speculation as to his whereabouts.

Ejiofor has previously accused the Nigerian Army of either holding his client incognito or having killed him. The military has denied the charges.

On Friday, a video live-streamed on the Facebook accounts of known associates of Kanu appeared to show him praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

He was dressed in sandals, white trousers, a white Jewish prayer shawl and skull cap.

“This is the supreme leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, the prophet of our time, Nnamdi Kanu, in the Holy City of David,” a voice off camera is heard to say.

Kanu maintains the Igbo people, who are in the majority in southeast Nigeria, are a lost tribe of Israel and it is his mission to lead them to the promised land of Biafra.

A previous unilateral declaration of independence by the Igbo people in 1967 sparked a brutal 30-month civil war that left more than one million dead.

Questions have been raised about how Kanu was able to get to Israel, as he had to surrender his Nigerian and British passports after his arrest.

Others suggested a link to next year’s election, as Kanu has previously called for a boycott of the polls in the southeast.

Peter Obi, the vice-presidential pick for the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), comes from the region. The southeast is traditionally a PDP stronghold.

There was no immediate comment from Nigeria’s government, military or security services.

But Kanu’s younger brother, Prince Emmanuel Kanu, told AFP the footage was of his brother and was shot on Friday. He also spoke to him directly and said he was “fine”.

The BBC Igbo language service also quoted one person as saying the man in the video was Kanu and another that he was headed from Jerusalem to Kiev, without elaborating.

Separate photographs of Kanu in Jerusalem do not appear to have been used previously, although it was not possible to extract a date from the images.

There was no immediate response from Facebook when contacted by AFP about the authenticity of the video.

Source:  AFP



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