Monthly Archives: November 2018

21, November 2018

Gabon: President Ali Bongo heading to London for medical recovery ⁰

Gabon’s sick president Ali Bongo Ondimba has recovered after he was admitted for severe fatigue on medical advice.

Even as his situation becomes better after weeks at the King Faisal hospital in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, reports indicate that he is heading to the United Kingdom to continue recuperation.

The Jeune Afrique portal which broke the news of Bongo’s ill-health in October 2018, said London was chosen to allow Bongo receive specialist care. It added that Morocco was the other destination on the cards but London had been settled on.

The last government update on Bongo’s health was on November 11 with presidential spokesman, Ike Ngouni, confirming that the president was recovering his faculties and was to remain in Saudi on expert advice.

Since then, the country’s top court has ordered a significant ruling that allows cabinet meetings to be chaired by the vice-president in the president’s absence.

The meeting had been off since Bongo was taken ill. He was in Saudi to attend an investment summit when he was taken ill. Some reports said he had suffered a stroke.

Source: Africa News

21, November 2018

Cameroon army frees kidnapped students in Kumba ⁰

Cameroon’s security forces have rescued kidnapped students and one teacher after a raid on a camp of separatist fighters in the South-West region.

The group of nine, not 20 as first reported, was taken from a school in the city of Kumba, on Tuesday.

Four attackers were shot dead in the operation but one was captured, a senior official told the BBC.

Cameroon’s North-West and South-West regions have been hit by a separatist rebellion since last year.

Armed groups in the two English-speaking regions have called on local residents to boycott schools until a referendum on independence is held.

Protests against marginalisation by the country’s French-speaking majority have been met with a crackdown.

They want to create an independent state called Ambazonia.

Gunmen entered the Lords Bilingual School on Tuesday afternoon causing panic. Many of the students jumped over the school fence walls to avoid being taken.

In the confusion, earlier reports had suggested that a higher number of students had been taken, journalist Peter Tah, who has been covering the conflict in the region, says.

Three students were released on Tuesday night after two gunmen were shot dead in a shootout with security forces who raided their camp. In addition, one gunman was captured, Nto’ou Ndong Chamberlin, Senior Divisional Officer for Meme district, in the South-West region, told the BBC.

The seven remaining hostages, including the teacher, managed to escape after the melee.

Two other attackers, including the group’s leader called “Man of Locks” were killed in an operation on Wednesday morning, Mr Nto’ou said.

Security forces seized nine guns in the operation as well as cartridges and three motorbikes, he said.

Guns seized from the Cameroon separatists

The incident comes almost a fortnight after nearly 80 students were safely returned after being taken from a school in the North-West regional capital of Bamenda.

The government had accused separatists of being behind that kidnapping. The Anglophone separatists denied they were involved.

Kidnappings of students, teachers and high profile people has become common in the Anglophone regions.

Journalist Peter Tah says that Kumba city had been badly affected by the unrest.

Most of its residents and those in surrounding towns in the South-West region have fled because of the fighting, he says.

Cameroon – still divided along colonial lines

French commentary on the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885: Otto von Bismarck, then Chancellor or Germany, is portrayed here wielding a knife over a sliced-up cake, labelled "Africa". His fellow delegates around the table look on in awe.

Colonised by Germany in 1884
British and French troops force Germans to leave in 1916
Cameroon is split three years later – 80% goes to the French and 20% to the British
French-run Cameroon becomes independent in 1960
Following a referendum, the (British) Southern Cameroons join Cameroon, while Northern Cameroons join English-speaking Nigeria

Culled from the BBC

21, November 2018

US: Trump stands by Saudi ally despite Khashoggi murder ⁰

President Donald Trump said the United States would not punish its Saudi ally for the gruesome murder of US-based columnist Jamal Khashoggi, despite conceding that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman may have known of the killing.

Defying pressure from US lawmakers to impose tougher sanctions on Saudi Arabia, Trump said he would not cancel military contracts with the kingdom. Such a “foolish” move would only benefit Russia and China, said the US president, whom critics accuse of exaggerating the importance of those weapons sales to the American economy.

Trump said US intelligence agencies were still studying the evidence around Khashoggi’s murder and who planned it.

“It could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event – maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!” Trump said in a statement.

“We may never know all of the facts surrounding the murder of Mr Jamal Khashoggi. In any case, our relationship is with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” he said. “The United States intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia.”

The gruesome murder of Khashoggi, who vanished after being lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, has hugely embarrassed Washington.

The killing torpedoed a powerful PR campaign led by the crown prince to show that the conservative Islamic state has embarked on a new reformist path.

It also threw into question the White House strategy to make MBS, as the royal prince Mohammed Bin Salman is widely known, its main partner in the tinderbox region.

After offering numerous contradictory explanations for Khashoggi’s disappearance, Riyadh said last week he had been killed and his body dismembered when “negotiations” to convince him to return to Saudi Arabia failed. It said allegations the prince had ordered the killing were false.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in Washington on Tuesday that Turkey was not entirely satisfied with the level of cooperation it was receiving from Riyadh on Khashoggi’s murder and may seek a formal United Nations inquiry.

Republican and Democratic leaders of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee said they had asked Trump for a second human rights probe over Khashoggi’s killing.

Similarly, Representative Francis Rooney, a Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Washington should apply the so-called Magnitsky Act to those responsible for Khashoggi’s death. The law freezes US assets of human rights violators and prohibits Americans from doing business with them.

Saudi prince ‘involved’ in murder

Trump has for weeks resisted accepting mounting evidence of Saudi government involvement in the Khashoggi killing – and accusations that MBS ordered the hit.

However, with The New York Times reporting that the CIA has definitively concluded that Prince Mohammed was involved, the focus turned to whether Trump would punish his Saudi partner or find a way to let it slide.

In his statement, released by the White House press office, Trump took the latter option, saying that the US-Saudi relationship was more important than the possible involvement in the crime of Prince Mohammed.

He noted that Saudi King Salman and the crown prince “vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning or execution of the murder of Mr Khashoggi”.

Also, Saudi Arabia, he said, provides crucial help in the US struggle to contain Iranian ambitions, as well as having committed to $450 billion in US weapons contracts and other investments. In addition, the Saudis have helped in keeping oil prices low, Trump said.

“The United States intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other partners in the region,” he said.

Trump acknowledged a strong push in Congress for the United States to sanction MBS and take other action against the Saudi leadership.

“I will consider whatever ideas are presented to me, but only if they are consistent with the absolute security and safety of America,” he said.

However, this statement was described as “shameful” by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a tweet on Tuesday.

“Mr. Trump bizarrely devotes the FIRST paragraph of his shameful statement on Saudi atrocities to accuse IRAN of every sort of malfeasance he can think of. Perhaps we’re also responsible for the California fires, because we didn’t help rake the forests – just like the Finns do?” Zarif wrote on Twitter.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)

21, November 2018

436,000 Ambazonians internally displaced, Humanitarian response plan underfunded ⁰

With at least 436,000 people currently internally displaced in Cameroon’s South-West and North-West – and in neighbouring departments – due to hostilities between armed groups and security forces, the country remains of urgent humanitarian concern.

Humanitarian presence and response are slowly increasing in the affected areas, with priority given to the South-West region which is the epicentre of the displacement crisis with 246,000 IDPs. OCHA has strengthened its capacity including on access and civil-military coordination, and other UN humanitarian agencies are establishing a presence in the two regions and are responding primarily through NGOs in the affected areas.

However, limited access due to insecurity and lack of funding remain impediments to the scale-up of humanitarian programming.

A special three-months response plan launched at the end of May to address the urgent needs of 160,000 vulnerable people in the South-West and North-West requested US$15 million in funding. But only a $5 million rapid response grant from the Central Emergency Response Fund has been received.

The overall 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan for Cameroon requesting $320 million is also underfunded at less than 37 per cent.

Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

21, November 2018

Mumbai: Cameroon women held with fake passports ⁰

Two Cameroonian nationals who wanted to join their families in France were intercepted at the Mumbai airport on Friday after attempting to fly out using forged Guatemalan passports.

Alvine Nokam and Ololie Konhawo, who live in the Central African country, arrived at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Friday night to board a Jet Airways flight to Paris, the police said.

At the immigration counter, they furnished passports issued this year by Guatemala’s Director of Migration, and which identified them as nationals of Cameroon. However, a routine inspection by an immigration official of their passports under a scanner’s ultra-violet lights revealed that the bio-pages of both documents, which contained their names, ages, dates of birth, passport number and expiration date, were forged.

Upon being questioned by a senior Bureau of Immigration official, the women admitted that they were from Cameroon, who planned to move to Paris to be with their families and in search of better financial prospects, the police said. An official at Sahar police station said earlier this year, the women had contacted a travel agent in their native country on Facebook. “Both the women paid the agent 2000 Euros each for a fake Guatemalan passport,” the official added.

Source: Indian Express

21, November 2018

Believers trapped as Biya regime wages war on two fronts ⁰

The stakes are high and believers are running out of places to go as Cameroon wages war on two fronts. Illia Djadi – Africa Bureau Chief at World Watch Monitor – describes a Boko Haram insurgency in northern Cameroon. “Ministers in that area are not safe,” he notes. “They had to leave the area or [be] attacked, ransacked, set on fire, destroyed by Boko Haram.

“We had a number of stories of church ministers killed by Boko Haram. Attacked and killed.”

At the same time, government forces are fighting armed separatists in western Cameroon.

Fighting in the North

(Screenshot)

Boko Haram officially began expanding its operations from Nigeria into Cameroon in October 2014. However, northern Cameroon was one of the first places authorities searched six months earlier following Boko Haram’s infamous Chibok abduction. Last month, 57 Chibok captives were spotted at two Boko Haram strongholds.

On Holy Week in April 2014, Boko Haram abducted hundreds of schoolgirls from Chibok, Nigeria, sparking international outcry. Over 50 girls escaped during the initial months of their captivity, and 106 have been released so far. One hundred are still thought to be in the grasp of terrorists.

Furthermore, Boko Haram terrorists are reportedly raiding and pillaging villages throughout northern Cameroon, stealing food and destroying property. “They (Christians) had to leave,” says Djadi.

“They had to run for their own life, for their own safety, and for the safety of their children and families.”

Fighting in the West

As explained in this report by BBC News, the clash between English-speaking separatists and Cameroon’s French-speaking government began last year. The conflict has killed hundreds since then, and approximately 436,000 have been displaced.

(Screenshot captured from Charles Wesco memorial video)

American missionary Charles Wesco was caught in the crossfire at the end of October. Wesco and his family moved to Cameroon from Indiana to begin missionary service 12 days before he was fatally shot.

“This American missionary has become [the] victim of an issue…but before him, other church ministers, leaders, have also been killed,” Djadi states.

The separatist conflict may seem limited to western Cameroon, Djadi adds, but it could quickly become a regional issue.

“That’s exactly what happened with Boko Haram. It first affected north-eastern Nigeria, and now…it is affecting northern Cameroon. It is affecting Chad, it’s affecting Niger.”

3 ways to pray for Cameroon

For their safety, believers are being told to leave both northern and western Cameroon. Djadi says the dilemma is more complicated than it appears.

“They have a strong sense of their calling, to go there even if it’s not safe,” he explains.

“That’s the key issue: what to do? There’s no easy answer.”

While the crisis in Cameroon is multifaceted, there are three specific ways you can pray. First, pray for peace.

“For missionaries [and] churches to run their ministries, they need peace,” notes Djadi.

Second, ask the Lord to protect His followers in Cameroon, and pray for wisdom as they make difficult choices. Third, “pray for the Cameroon authorities, political authorities, for wisdom.”

Source: Mission Network News

20, November 2018

Nigeria: Political class gathers as ex-president Goodluck launches book ⁰

Top political players in Nigeria gathered in the capital Abuja for the launch of a book by the former president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Jonathan chose his 61st birthday to launch the book, “The Transition Hours,” which detailed events leading up to his concession after he lost elections in 2015.

Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and other top guns were present at the event that took place at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja. President Buhari was advertised as attending but instead he was represented by Secretary General of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, local media portals reported.

Also in attendance were top officials of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. It’s candidate in next February presidential polls, Atiku Abubakar, was also present.

Nigeria’s former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Abdul Salam Abubakar were also present for the event. A heavy presence of former presidents across the subregion was also recorded with Ghana’s John Dramani Mahama, Benin’s Thomas Boni-Yayi and Sierra Leone’s Ernest Bai Koroma all in attendance.

‘My Transition Hours,’ chronicles how Jonathan accepted defeat in highly contested polls barely four years ago. At the time, Jonathan was seeking a final term in office as candidate of the PDP. He lost the contest to incumbent president Muhammadu Buhari.

It was the first time in Nigeria’s recent history that an opposition party had wrestled power from the ruling party? PDP had been in power for sixteen years prior to 2015.

Before the APC government, PDP had ruled eight years through Olusegun Obasanjo who handed over to Umaru Musa Yar’Adua who died in office. His then vice president Jonathan completed his term and won his substantive first term in 2011.

Culled from Africa News

President Goodluck Jonathan: Recognizing the vision and record of a great leader

Cameroon Concord News Group was pleased to announce former Nigeria President Good Luck Jonathan as their man of the year 2015. We arrived at this conclusion after a careful and anxious consideration of a wide range of candidates. We considered the contributions of the candidates to the development and improvement of the human condition within their communities, their countries and the world at large. Our choice fell on the former Nigerian president Good Luck Jonathan due to his contributions to the enthronement of a sound democratic culture and society, democratic constitutionalism, peace, security and good governance in his country the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The vision and record of Good Luck Jonathan will greatly contribute to the development of a credible democratic culture and economic emancipation of Africa.

Former Nigerian President Good Luck Jonathan maintained the integrity and unity of Nigeria which this paper regrets, Buhari is jeopardizing with his ethnic politics that undermines the federal character of his country. The resurgence of the popular clamour for the reactivation of the sovereign state of Biafra as the recent demonstration by millions of people of Eastern Nigeria origin at home and worldwide is an obvious indicator.

While in opposition President Buhari made statements that undermined the war effort against Boko Haram. He later rallied the ethnic support of Northern Nigeria and hoodwinked the gullible Yoruba power elite to return power to the North. Now in power President Buhari’s inconsistent policy of wanting to negotiate and fighting Boko Haram is an indication that he does not intend to fight them with the same intensity that Jonathan did. Jonathan an ethnic minority Ejaw from the volatile Niger Delta of Nigeria succeeded in negotiating a peaceful abatement of the armed insurgency in the Niger Delta that disrupted oil exploitation, the main stay of the Federation’s economy and international maritime traffic. That was a major achievement that merits recognition.

Jonathan has been criticized of being lax in the fight against corruption. This criticism is exaggerated considering the fact most efforts he made in the fight against corruption were indeed sabotaged by some of the very born again torn coat politicians who energized and sponsored the then opposition APC alliance to wrestle power from Jonathan. It was on Jonathan’s watch that some of the Sani Abacha loot was repatriated and fiscal and financial discipline introduced into governance. The Ngozi Okongo Eweala led nationally and internationally acclaimed economic policies identified and closed loopholes in government fiscal and financial policies, depriving corrupt politicians and business men of the impunity with which they looted public wealth. This made powerful enemies against Jonathan within and out of his own political party the PDP. Some left to join the opposition APC alliance and have since been portrayed as the saints who will wipe corruption from the face of Nigeria. Sooner or later, the true motives underpinning the born again posturing of these political torn coats will become as obvious as day follows night to all to see. Then and only then will Nigerians discover the truth that leopards do not indeed change their spots.

Jonathan’s respect of the Federal character in critical government appointments; in particular appointments into ministries and portfolios overseeing national sovereignty insured that Nigerians of all ethnicities had roles and stakes in national decision making. The national conference organized by Jonathan provides Nigerians an opportunity to chart a new future for their country and to recommit to the idea of unity in diversity. The national conference is one of the landmark attainments of Jonathan enduring legacies to his people which history has recognized and recorded for our generation and generations unborn.

Cameroon Concord News Group has always held the considered opinion that Boko Haram is a tricky adversary which is hated and loved in equal measures by gullible politicians in Nigeria and Cameroon. First it offers power thirsty politicians the opportunity to attain power. It also provides them the opportunity to retain power, siphon money meant to support the war effort.

Like President Yaradua before, President Jonathan inherited Fulani cattlemen attacks in the Middle Belt, the Niger Delta crisis and the Boko Haram insurgency in the North from the previous administration of President Obasanjo. During his reign, President Jonathan made considerable efforts in rallying sub-regional and national efforts to confront these challenges. Time has so far proved that President Buhari who criticized Jonathan’s Boko Haram strategy promising to end the insurgency if elected in a matter of months, has so far not offered any combat strategy different from that of President Jonathan to confront the armed challenges. He has also not offered any specific economic policies that defer from those put in place by President Jonathan. The slow pace of the Buhari administration may indeed be interpreted due to be a paucity of any credible economic policies that are superior to those put in place by President Jonathan.

Most significant, history will retain that President Jonathan successfully organized a free and fair election, the outcome of which he graciously accepted and respected, sparing Nigeria the risk of the bloodletting that has characterized several elections within the troubled continent of Africa.

It is sad that those who won the elections promising to bring better reforms than those put in place by Jonathan are still struggling to realize even a single promise they made to the electorate. The admitted rationale for the election of President Buhari in the last election was his proven record in combatting corruption as a military leader. President Buhari’s famed war against corruption largely succeeded then because of the dictatorial military instruments of coercion he wielded then to impose and enforce his policies. Those instruments were not available to Jonathan and absent them now a civilian president, President Buhari, facing the same adversaries may not be a hopeful of the successes he recorded in the war against corruption as a military ruler. The same forces that applauded him to power this time around will be an impediment to his corruption fighting policies and strategies due in part on human rights and rule of law considerations and potential impediments.

History will rate Jonathan fairly and may be classify him as one of the great political leaders to come out of Africa. He has demonstrated by words and deeds that he is patriotic, visionary, democratic, humane, and honest and readily one the great leaders of our generation, Africa and the democratic world. He merits our recognition.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

20, November 2018

UN condemns human rights violations and abuses in Southern Cameroons ⁰

The United Nations human rights wing has expressed worry over the security situation in Cameroon’s restive Anglophone regions from where it says it continues to receive daily reports of violence on the part of state security forces and secessionist elements.

Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, said in a statement on Tuesday: “We are deeply concerned about the worsening violence in the Southwest and Northwest regions of Cameroon, as we continue to receive reports of abductions and killings by armed groups, as well as extrajudicial killings by State armed forces.

“We urge all sides to refrain from acts of violence that have, for more than a year now, left the population in these regions living in fear, unable to access their basic human rights.”

She detailed instances of abduction especially from the Bamenda secondary school plus the most recent incident in the south-west region where eight students and an official are reported to have been abducted.

“They were all subsequently released, after some parents paid ransoms and the Catholic Diocese of Kumba intervened,” the spokesperson added.

Cameroon army’s complicity, effects of crisis

Also in recent months, Cameroonian armed forces have allegedly carried out a number of extrajudicial executions in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

On 20 October, in the village of Rom, in the Northwest town of Nwa, security forces reportedly killed four villagers during a confrontation with armed secessionist groups, while on 24 September, two men suspected of being secessionist fighters were reportedly killed on the spot. There have been numerous such reports in the preceding months.

What began as protests in October 2016 in the Northwest and Southwest regions against structural discrimination escalated into violence in 2017, and the situation has worsened considerably since then.

The violence has led to massive internal displacement – at least 436,000 people are believed to be internally displaced, while more than 30,000 have fled to Nigeria since September last year.

UN condemnation, call for probe and dialogue

We strongly condemn the human rights violations and abuses that have plagued the people in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon. We call on armed secessionists groups to refrain from the use of violence.

We urge the Government to respect and protect the rights of all, to address the long-standing grievances of the communities in these regions, including through dialogue, to promptly investigate all cases of violations reportedly involving its security and defence forces, and to hold perpetrators responsible.

We also reiterate our readiness to work with the Government of Cameroon, including through an assessment mission to the Northwest and Southwest regions of the country that will enable us to be able to look into the human rights situation first-hand and engage with the Government accordingly on ways to address it.

Source: Africa News

20, November 2018

Public Announcement: “THE BRITISH SOUTHERN CAMEROONS JUDICIAL COUNCIL” ⁰

I, Rtd. LORD JUSTICE FREDERICK ALOBWEDE EBONG, am calling on all British Southern Cameroons Barristers, Lawyers and proxy voters to:

BOYCOTT Elections to LRC Bar on Saturday the 24^th of November 2018; just as the people of British Southern Cameroons boycotted the LRC Presidential Election on October 7th 2018.
PREPARE FOR A NEW ELECTION TO THE BRISTISH SOUTHERN CAMEROONS BAR (that was created in KUMBA in January 2017) and announced by its current President Barrister BOBGA HARMONY recently.

NOTE: The British Southern Cameroons BAR Council (SC BAR) is an INDEPENDENT part in THE JUDICIAL COUNCIL. (See Map).

SIGNED ON BEHALF OF THE INDEPENDENT SC JUDICIAL COUNCIL, this 19th DAY of November, 2018 at WASHINGTON DC, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

On behalf of the British Southern Cameroons Judicial Council, I Rtd. Lord Justice Frederick A. Ebong approves this message.

Rtd. Lord Justice Frederick Alobwede Ebong

20, November 2018

233 Ambazonian children killed by the Rapid Intervention Battalion in three months ⁰

Cameroon government forces have shot and killed more than 233 Southern Cameroonian children in Boyo, Mezam, Menchum, Ndian, Kupe Muanenguba, Bui, Lebialem and Manyu in the last three months. A Roman Catholic priest in Bamenda told Cameroon Concord News on Monday that 233 Southern Cameroonian children lost their lives due to live fire from soldiers serving with the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR).

The clergy who spoke to us on condition of anonymity said a group of religious leaders will be making public a detail report of teenagers killed by Francophone soldiers. According to the man of God, majority of the children were either shot in the head, chest or belly.

Figures from the Ambazonian Interim Government show that more than 4000 Southern Cameroonians have been killed and over 165,000 internally displaced. The UN says it has registered more than twenty-thousand as refugees in the Federal Republic of Nigeria with many of those fleeing wounded by Cameroon army live bullets since the outbreak of the Anglophone crisis.

The UN and the EU are yet to make calls for the arrest of Cameroon government troops, who kill or maim Southern Cameroons children in clear violation of international law. The French government of President Macron supporting the Francophone regime in Yaoundé has reportedly blocked all diplomatic channels at the United Nations General Assembly and the African Union aimed at condemning the Biya Francophone regime for Ambazonian civilian deaths.

The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has appealed for inclusive dialogue-a move rejected by the 85 year old Francophone dictator, Paul Biya.

By Rita Akana