Monthly Archives: October 2018

20, October 2018

Counterfeit Presidential Elections: Results expected on October 22 – Issa Tchiroma ⁰

Results of Cameroon’s October 7 presidential elections are expected on Monday, according to the Information Minister, Issa Tchiroma Bakary. The minister was speaking in an interview with French channel, RFI.

His comments come less than 24-hours after the Constitutional Council dismissed 18 petitions brought by individuals and parties seeking partial to total cancellation of the process.

The Council – the ultimate judicial body for poll challenges – had earlier struck off 16 of the 18 petitions before listening to submissions from main opposition Social Democratic Front, SDF, and Cameroon Renaissance Movement, CRM, the two that were passed for hearing.

On Thursday evening, after two days of hearing submissions by legal representatives of the two parties, the Council unanimously ruled that the cases lacked merit and subsequently threw the out.

The election body, ELECAM, and ruling CPDM mounted strong challenges during the hearing arguing that the October 7 vote had passed the democratic test.

ELECAM passed nine candidates including incumbent Paul Biya. The 85-year-old is widely expected to be announced winner of the polls. He will secure a seven-year mandate that will extend his time in power to over four decades.

Source: Africa News

20, October 2018

UN says abducted girls in South Sudan lined up to be picked as ‘wives’ for rebels ⁰

A new UN report says armed men from opposition forces in South Sudan abducted women and girls, as young as 12 years, for commanders to take them as “wives”.

The report said those who were chosen – most of them still being held captive – were repeatedly being raped and abused by other military figures.

The report, the latest by the UN and others that have described civilians being raped, shot, hung, tortured and burned, estimated that 900 people were kidnapped and 24,000 displaced between April and August.

South Sudan, the youngest country in Africa, has been gripped by a bloody civil war since December 2013, when President Salva Kiir accused his former deputy Riek Machar and current rebel leader of plotting a coup.

The latest report, which is conducted based on victim and witness accounts, provides new details on abduction of women and girls by opposition forces.

It explains that women and girls were paraded and lined up for commanders to choose as “wives.”

The report has documented attacks on at least 28 villages, a settlement of internally displaced people and a refugee camp, during which the militants carried out serious abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law.

The head of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said most of the abducted civilians are still being held captive. Michelle Bachelet called on the armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Army in-Opposition (SPLA-IO) to “immediately release them, first and foremost the children.”

“As part of the revitalized peace process, it is also essential that the Government of South Sudan acts to hold the perpetrators of the abuses and violations detailed in this report to account,” she added.

They also abducted young men and boys, forcing them to be fighters, according to the report.

The surge in violence and abuses, according to the report, occurred despite the latest UN peace deal that returned Machar once again to his post as deputy to the president.

The human rights division of the UN peacekeeping mission in the country has identified three opposition commanders “who allegedly had effective command and control of the forces committing these abuses, which may amount to war crimes,” it said.

South Sudan is also the world’s most dangerous country for aid workers. A researcher in the Africa division of Human Rights Watch, Nyagoah Pur, described the abuses to the Associated Press as “horrendous.”

Pur said that the abuses reported by the UN “stress the devastating impact that the continued impunity by forces has had on civilians, especially women and girls.”

She also called for the speedy establishment of a long-promised hybrid court in the country to prosecute abuses.

South Sudan plunged into civil war two years after it gained independence from Sudan in July 2011. The brutal conflict has left nearly 400,000 people dead and millions of others displaced, a report said last month.

Source: Presstv

20, October 2018

Yaounde: Coup d’état in the offing ⁰

Rumors of a coup d’etat are rife among military personnel in Yaounde after the Constitutional Council completed its job and it is obvious that Mr. Biya will be declared the winner of the October 7 presidential poll. A source close to the military headquarters has indicated that a group of Beti officers and politicians are coming up with a plan B just in case Cameroonians kick Mr. Biya out of power.

The source hinted that some four Beti army generals and some politicians, including the Minister of Higher Education, Jacques Fame Ndongo and Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o had been meeting secretly to plan a coup in the event that Mr. Biya yielded to the demands of the people. Their objective is to ensure that power does not leave their region, especially as Mr. Biya is showing signs of fragility and is capable of yielding to international pressure.

Our source who elected anonymity said if the coup succeeded, power would be handed to former Defense Minister Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o for him to protect all those who had served under Mr. Biya. Our source added that Mr. Fame Ndongo and his group have already imported arms, using a parallel means to ensure other Cameroonians are kept in the dark.

It is also rumored that the arms found in Foumban and Bangante were part of the Fame Ndongo plot. The source stressed that some Betis wanted to see the country sink into chaos as this would prove that after Biya, there could only be chaos which they want to exploit to hang on to power.

The October 7 presidential poll seems to be bad news to the country. Ever since Prof. Kamto declared that he had won the election, the country has been on edge. Things came to a head when the Constitutional Council on Friday rejected all claims by the opposition that the election had been rigged in favor of the incumbent. From every indication, Mr. Biya will be announced on Monday as the winner of the poll and that will extend his stay in power by seven years.

It should be recalled that Mr. Biya has been in power for 36 years after taking over power in 1982. While arrangements for his swearing-in are ongoing, the opposition, for its part, is mobilizing the population to ensure the people’s vote is protected.

It is gradually emerging that the hearings at the constitutional Council were simply part of scheme designed by the ruling crime syndicate do deceive the population and the international community. Even before the hearings wound up, an agenda for the proclamation of results had been designed and guests invited for the event had received their invitations about three days ago.

It should be recalled that all the submissions and pleas of the opposition had been rejected and from there, it was clear that the Constitutional Council was determined to declare Paul Biya the winner of the election, though he had not campaigned and so many irregularities had been pointed out by lawyers and eyewitnesses.

Cameroon seems to be heading for tough times. After 36 years in power, Mr. Biya might leave his country in total chaos as the population seeks ways of unseating the sit-tight dictator. The international news must take a second look at Cameroon which is the economic engine of the region. Any chaos in the country might throw the entire sub-region into a tailspin.

By Kingsley Betek

19, October 2018

October 7: Biya lost at the polls but won at ELECAM ⁰

The judges at the Constitutional Council will go down in the nation’s hall of infamy and shame; the 10 senile-looking men and one socially-retired woman who validated the massive fraud that was perpetrated against the Cameroonian people by ELECAM.

As an uncircumcised appendage of the ruling CPDM party, ELECAM shamelessly falsified the results and gave victory to their paymaster, Biya. And despite the mountain of evidence presented by lawyers for the opposition candidates, the CC merely validated the ELECAM fraud.

This is how you win elections in Cameroon. Despite the huge material and financial resources at their disposal, CPDM elite showed little interest in Biya’s re-election and ran a lackluster “bread-and-sardines” campaign, so glaringly bereft of ideas and vision and generally lacking in depth of thinking as to answer the basic question whether Cameroonians were better-off now, than they were in 2011.

Biya lost at the polls but won at ELECAM! It is just a power grab by the vampire elite that has captured and taken the country hostage. Cameroonians must rise up in resistance and take back their country.

19, October 2018

Cameroon’s Presidential Poll: The Constitutional Council was just a formality ⁰

It is gradually emerging that the hearings at the Constitutional Council were simply part of a scheme designed by the ruling CPDM crime syndicate do deceive the population and the international community.

Even before the hearings wound up, an agenda for the proclamation of results had been designed and guests invited for the event had received their invitations about three days ago.

Meanwhile Cameroon Concord News Group has gotten intelligence that the government of Cameroon will soon be dealing with massive post-election demonstrations. The demonstrations are being planned for Monday, October 22 and will last for weeks and months.

“The election results have already been approved by the Constitutional Council and all the drama in the name of hearings is just designed to calm down tempers and deceive the international community” noted a source at the Presidency of the Republic.

The source added that Mr. Biya will be declared a winner on Sunday and there are already plans to deploy troops and police in major cities across the country. He stressed that a dusk to dawn curfew could be declared in many cities, including Yaounde where it is held that the opposition has a huge following.

As a prelude to what will happen, the government has been deploying troops at strategic locations in Yaounde and Douala, especially in neighborhoods that are mostly inhabited by Bamilekes and Anglophones. This action has been followed by random arrests to frighten any young men who have plans to take to the streets in the coming days.

The beleaguered government has also trained many spies who are serving as its eyes and ears among the population and these agents are spreading word that ordinary citizens should not express their views as they could be arrested.

By Sama Ernest and Kingsley Betek

19, October 2018

Southern Cameroons War: Fru Ndi’s home torched ⁰

Anglophone separatists have torched the home of Cameroon’s veteran opposition leader and kidnapped his sister, his lawyers said on Thursday.

The two incidents, which took place Wednesday, targeted Ni John Fru Ndi who heads the Social Democratic Front and comes from Cameroon’s troubled anglophone west.

Separatists “burnt (Fru Ndi’s) house” in the North-West, said lawyer Francis Sama, referring to one of Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions which have been hit by almost daily unrest that has left at least 400 dead this year.

“They kidnapped his younger sister,” he said at a hearing before the Constitutional Court, without giving further detail on either incident.

His remarks were made during a hearing at which three opposition candidates asked for the contested October 7 presidential election be annulled on grounds of massive fraud.

Fru Ndi has spent the past quarter of a century in opposition as head of SDF which he founded in 1990.

But although he ran for the presidency three times, Fru Ndi stood aside this time, letting his deputy Joshua Osih join the race against President Paul Biya who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years.

Although Fru Ndi has long opposed Biya’s rule, the separatists see him as a “traitor” because he is in favour of returning to a federalist solution in Cameroon, while they are fighting for the creation of an independent anglophone state, Sama said.

Yaounde is firmly opposed to any return to federalism.

– Cancel the vote –

Separatist activists had called for a boycott of the election, but SDF decided to run.

In a separate incident, the SDF said Fru Ndi’s driver had been shot at by the security forces after dropping the party leader home at the weekend. Without giving further details, they said he was “out of danger”.

The political crisis in the English-speaking west of this Francophone country erupted in 2016 and deteriorated into an armed separatist uprising last year which prompted a retaliatory crackdown by the security forces.

Following the election, SDF’s Osih asked the court to scrap the ballot because “there was no presidential election” in the English-speaking regions where voting was disrupted and turnout was below five percent, the ICG think tank said.

Two other opposition candidates also joined the petition — Maurice Kamto of the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon and Cabral Libii, a TV news analyst and at 38, the election’s youngest candidate.

Libii’s request was dismissed as inadmissible, but the court has yet to respond to the other two petitions.

Source: AFP

19, October 2018

French President Macron says Post-Brexit visas for Brits is fake news ⁰

Visas for visitors from Britain after Brexit? “Fake news!” insisted President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, scoffing at the idea that France would ever impose such a demand on its neighbour.

“Brexit has consequences but.. we will not start (requiring) visas for UK people if there’s no deal,” he said at the end of a Brussels summit at which EU leaders made little progress in breaking the deadlock in talks.

“It is fake news, as other leaders would say!” he told reporters, speaking in English.

Taking precautions in the event that Britain and the European Union part ways without a deal “is just our responsibility”, Macron said.

“I want to reassure everybody about the day after,” he said. “I don’t want to create panic.”

“The day after, in case of a no-deal, everything will be organised with due processes, for normal life,” he said.

But there would have to be new regulations in place, he said, without giving further details.

“You will have flights, boats and people circulating and people making business with new rules, but this is precisely the only way to have a day after — with new regulation.”

“It is not good way to proceed by saying it would be a disaster in case of no deal… But in case of no deal, our responsibility is to be sure that the life of our people will not be (too) impacted.”

Earlier this month, the French government unveiled draft legislation aimed at setting out preparations for a possible no-deal Brexit which would cover British citizens living in France and French nationals in Britain.

Paris is seeking a “reciprocal” arrangement whereby both countries would treat each others’ expat citizens equally.

(AFP)

19, October 2018

Constitutional Council rejects Kamto, Osih petitions: Biya “victory” expected ⁰

Cameroon’s Constitutional Council on Thursday threw out the remaining two poll petitions that it had admitted from a pool of 18 seeking partial or total cancellation of the October 7 presidential elections.

The two were filed by main opposition Social Democratic Front, SDF and the Cameroon Renaissance Movement, CRM, led by ex-Biya appointee, Maurice Kamto. Osih had decried what he described as a state of apartheid in English-speaking regions, where most people could not cast votes due to insecurity.

The decision said to be a unanimous one by the judicial body paves the way for the declaration of results in a poll largely expected to hand incumbent Paul Biya a new seven-year term.

The opposition parties had alleged widespread irregularities insecurity and low turnout especially in restive Anglophone regions but the court held that it was not enough bases to warrant their demands.

The ruling CPDM and elections body, ELECAM, strongly defended the conduct of the polls stressing that the process had been free, fair and democratic.

Source: Africa News

19, October 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Biya regime has committed 4769 serious human rights violation ⁰

Cameroon Concord News Group with the support of dozens of Roman Catholic clergies and Pentecostal Church leaders registered 4769 cases of serious human rights violations in Southern Cameroons as the ruling Biya regime relentlessly continues with its war against separatists and the civilian populations in the English speaking regions of the country now known as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

The Ambazonia Interim Government based in the USA announced recently that French Cameroun regime forces have killed approximately 4000 Southern Cameroonians including women and children throughout the past year and several hundreds have been arrested during raids on Ambazonian towns and villages.

Correspondingly, there has been an increase in the number of those killed and arrested recently despite the fact that the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church including domestic human rights organizations have condemned the killings currently going on in Southern Cameroons, and called for inclusive dialogue. Francophone soldiers and security agents stormed Southern Cameroonian homes both in Ambazonia territory and Anglophone neighborhoods in Yaounde, the nation’s capital in pursuit of imaginary separatists’ fighters.

Scores of Southern Cameroonians have suffered injuries as a result of excessive use of force by troops and gendarmerie officers loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaounde. Parliamentarians of the so-called main opposition party, the SDF pretending to speak for Southern Cameroonians have instead been collecting their salaries, car allowances and parliamentary grants from the Yaounde regime.

The numbers of French Cameroun military atrocities highlighted by journalists of the Cameroon Concord News Group and the leadership of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government do not include other Biya regime crimes such as forced disappearances, torture and arbitrary sentences, which have occurred only after Southern Cameroonians exercised their rights to the freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

The Biya regime continues to tighten its grip on Southern Cameroons figures, and prosecutes Ambazonia activists and journalists such as Bibixy Mancho and Dzenyagha Thomas Awah and the Interim President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Julius Tabe. Biya is making use of law and regulations introduced to protect Cameroon against Boko Haram terrorism, in order to punish Southern Cameroons protesters through unfair proceedings and prosecutions.

By Chi Prudence Asong

19, October 2018

Trump says it ‘certainly looks’ like Khashoggi is dead ⁰

US President Donald Trump says he believes dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is dead, and that the consequences should be severe for those who carried out the assassination.

In an interview with reporters from The New York Times in the White House on Thursday, Trump stopped short of saying Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi’s murder, but he acknowledged that the allegations of the Saudi involvement in the atrocity had created a serious foreign policy crisis for his presidency.

“This one has caught the imagination of the world, unfortunately,” Trump told the reporters. “It’s not a positive. Not a positive.”

“Unless the miracle of all miracles happens, I would acknowledge that he’s dead,” Trump said. “That’s based on everything — intelligence coming from every side.”

A short time later, Trump told reporters at Andrews Air Force Base when asked if Khashoggi was dead, “It certainly looks that way to me. It’s very sad.”

Khashoggi, who was also a US green card holder, entered the Saudi mission on October 2 in order to obtain the necessary paperwork for marrying his fiancée. That was the last time he was seen.

According to The Washington Post, to which Khashoggi was a contributor, US intelligence intercepts already prove that he was killed and dismembered by Saudi agents in a hit job directly ordered by bin Salman.

Saudi may blame intelligence official for murder

The Saudi rulers are weighing blaming a top intelligence official close to the crown prince for the assassination, three people with knowledge of the Saudi plan said Thursday, according to The New York Times.

The blame will be assigned to General Ahmed al-Assiri, a high-ranking adviser to the crown prince, but American intelligence agencies are increasingly convinced that bin Salman was behind Khashoggi’s murder.

Turkish officials say they are in possession of audio and video recordings that prove the murder and incriminate Saudi diplomats.

First leaked details of the audio recordings picture a gruesome scene where Khashoggi is tortured, killed and dismembered by a Saudi assassination squad in cold blood.

On Wednesday, former CIA Director John Brennan said the United States government is working with Saudi Arabia to “concoct a story” about the fate of Khashoggi.

Speaking to MSNBC, Brennan said the Saudi Crown Prince and the White House knew what happened to Khashoggi.

“It also seems now we’re in this surreal and morally horrific situation in which the White House and the Saudis seem to be trying to sort of figure out what story they can come up with that they can both have plausibility for Mohammad bin Salman,” said Brennan.

The former spymaster said Washington and Riyadh might be looking for scapegoats inside Saudi Arabia but no matter what they do to make it look like MBS had nothing to do with the incident, their story “is going to fall apart.”

Brennan also called on the CIA and other US intelligence agencies to hand in their evidence to Congress so that lawmakers could scrutinize the White House over its role in the alleged cover-up.

Source: Presstv