Monthly Archives: December 2018

12, December 2018

160+ world countries approve UN pact on migration ⁰

The first United Nations (UN)global pact on migration has been formally adopted during an intergovernmental conference in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh, despite a series of withdrawals from the procedure leading to the pact driven by anti-immigrant populism.

More than 160 countries agreed on the non-binding Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration — the first global document on managing migration — on Monday at the start of the two-day conference.

The document outlines 23 objectives to open up legal migration and discourage illegal border crossings, as the number of people on the move globally has increased to over 250 million.

The United States and at least 16 other nations have either withdrawn from the negotiations that had been ongoing over the pact for some time or expressed concerns about it, with some claiming that the agreement violated national sovereignty.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday described it as a “road map to prevent suffering and chaos,” refuting claims that the pact would allow the UN to impose migration policies on member states.

The pact “is not legally binding,” Guterres emphasized, adding, “It is a framework for international cooperation.”

“We must not succumb to fear and false narratives,” he added. On Friday, the US criticized the pact as “an effort by the United Nations to advance global governance at the expense of the sovereign right of states.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Panama’s President Juan Carlos Varela, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez were among the leaders who attended the Marrakech conference.

Merkel defends multilateralism

Merkel defended the accord and multilateralism, stressing that it sought to block, rather than encourage, illegal migration. “This is about safe, orderly and regular migration — it says (this) clearly in the title,” she said.

The US was the first country to quit the talks late last year, while Australia, Austria, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, and Slovakia all withdrew from the process in recent months and weeks. And Chile pulled out overnight.

Right-wing and populist leaders in the US, some European countries, and beyond have taken increasingly draconian measures to stop the flow of migrants in recent years. The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, welcomed the pact, saying it could help provide better access to education and health for migrant children and offer “them stronger protection from exploitation and violence.”

Other organizations, including Amnesty International and the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC), see the agreement as just a first step, and have called for further steps toward protecting migrants.

“We have heard repeatedly that this compact is not legally binding and does not impact on state sovereignty,” IFRC President Francesco Rocca said at a news conference on the sidelines of the main dialog. “But if we are serious about fixing this problem, it should at the very least be ethically binding.”

The UN General Assembly is slated to adopt a resolution formally endorsing the pact on December 19.

Source: Presstv

12, December 2018

Nigeria: Opposition Candidate Absent From Election Accord Ceremony ⁰

Nigeria’s main opposition candidate did not attend an event on Tuesday to sign an election agreement stating a commitment to hold a peaceful election early next year, and his party attributed his absence to a “communication lapse.”

The opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) confirmed in an emailed statement that its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, had not participated in the signing ahead of February’s election. President Muhammadu Buhari attended the event in the capital, Abuja.

The peace accord ceremony was held days after the PDP said authorities had frozen the bank accounts of its vice presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

Elections to choose the leader of Africa’s most populous country — the continent’s top oil producer and by many measures its largest economy — have in the past been marred by violence, vote-rigging and voter intimidation.

The ceremony was an attempt to mirror the signing of an acclaimed deal ahead of voting in 2015, when Buhari came to power. It was credited with helping prevent a repeat of violence in the wake of the 2011 election, which Human Rights Watch said killed 800 people and displaced 65,000.

The accord aims to ensure that the 2019 elections are “free, fair and credible,” the document said. Signatories pledged that their campaigns would refrain from “religious incitement” and “ethnic or tribal profiling,” and that they would not incite violence, according to the document.

The PDP said it was investigating the circumstances behind the “unfortunate communication lapse” between party officials and the National Peace Committee (NPC), the nongovernmental organization that arranged the event, which resulted in Abubakar’s absence.

“Our presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar and the party are fully committed to a peaceful electoral process and elections in 2019,” said PDP spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan in an emailed statement.

He said the PDP would visit the NPC office to “fulfill all necessary obligations towards the peace accord ahead of the 2019 general elections.”

The NPC earlier said it had sent invitations for the event to all 91 registered parties and the 73 presidential candidates.

Independent observers for the 2015 race, the first time the agreement was signed, have since praised the accord for helping Nigeria pull off its first-ever peaceful transition from the ruling party to the opposition. Buhari defeated the incumbent Goodluck Jonathan.

VOA

12, December 2018

Yaounde: UN experts concerned by crackdown on protests after October election ⁰

UN human rights experts have expressed concerns over a crackdown against protesters in Cameroon following President Paul Biya’s re-election, and called for the protection of freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.

International human rights standards establish the right of everyone to participate in peaceful demonstrations, the experts said. Any restriction to the freedoms of peaceful assembly and expression must be provided by the law and be necessary and proportional.

“The restrictions imposed lately by the Cameroonian authorities on the rights to peaceful assembly and expression appear to ignore such criteria, provided for by the international instruments to which Cameroon is a party,” they said. In particular, the experts underline that the country’s 2014 anti-terrorism law should not be used to curtail peaceful assembly, marches or demonstrations organised by political parties during an electoral process. Under this law, police custody can be extended from 48 hours to 15 days, and jurisdiction transferred to military courts.

Independent experts appointed by the Human Rights Council have previously expressed concerns to the authorities of Cameroon that a broad definition of terrorism, such as “disruption of the normal functioning of public services”, could be misused to ban peaceful assembly.

These worries had still not been addressed, the experts said. The authorities should respect the national legal framework for demonstrations, which requires organisers to notify local authorities seven days prior to a demonstration.

The experts acknowledged as a positive step the dropping of charges against 52 militants of the Mouvement de la Renaissance du Cameroun on 4 December, at the request of the Attorney General at the Littoral Court of Appeal, under the instructions of the Minister of Justice.

“The allegations received last month seem to indicate the establishment of a repressive climate towards civil society, political parties, and people critical of the outcome of the elections, whether it concerns their right to express their views or to manifest freely,” the experts said.

The experts repeated their calls for a review of the 2014 antiterrorism law to ensure it is not used to restrict fundamental freedoms, such as the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association. They also urged the Government to ensure a wider democratic space is guaranteed before, during and after the forthcoming legislative and municipal elections scheduled in 2019.

Culled from Reliefweb

12, December 2018

Southern Cameroons war is extracting a heavy toll on ordinary people ⁰

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has let Cameroon’s President Paul Biya know that his country will now not host the 2019 African Nations Cup pageant. The choice is an embarrassment. Once a powerhouse of Africa’s soccer, Cameroon’s popularity had dropped considerably.

CAF’s choice serves as a reminder that the rustic is sinking, and one thing should be carried out. Until a couple of years in the past, Cameroon used to be a country at the transfer. Despite its many political, financial and social issues, the rustic used to be non violent, attracted other folks from in every single place for tourism, business, and schooling.

For instance the University of Dayton had, over twenty years, run immersion programmes within the nation, and so did many different American universities. Cameroon used to be additionally a world centre: the place primary meetings, symposia, and cultural actions came about.

The country used to be a significant banking centre, in addition to host to Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote’s many actions, and extra just lately the proposed website of automobile meeting vegetation to be built via Indian and Chinese companies. And the checklist is going on.

But the Anglophone warfare has taken its toll. A calm protest which started 3 years in the past against the marginalisation of Anglophone Cameroon temporarily grew to become violent as some referred to as for the area’s entire secession from Cameroon to form the Ambazonia Republic. As a consequence Cameroon’s army drive and the Ambazonia Defence drive were locked in a dangerous include ad infinitum.

Already within the seventh term of administrative center as president, Biya’s obsession with an army resolution to the disaster has exacerbated tensions, in addition to the distress of strange other folks. Beneath CAF’s rationale that Cameroon used to be ill-ready, ill-equipped and ill-prepared to host the games used to be a way that the rustic is deeply insecure. The towns of Limbe and Buea within the heartland of Anglophone Cameroon had been going to host the games. But regimen kidnappings, assaults, street closings, and killings within the area would have undermined the essence of the games.

CAF’s announcement coincided with the failure of a last-ditch effort via His Eminence Cardinal Christian Tumi to dealer peace and convenes an All Anglophone Conference. But the tradition of threats, and Cameroon government’s failure to grant a allow for the convention to happen supposed that it used to be doomed.

Ordinary other folks have referred to as on Cardinal Tumi to not surrender. The convention, they be aware, should cross on. Many Cameroonians are determined for a non violent option to the warfare.

As the brickbats fell, stipulations for communities within the Anglophone area proceed to become worse. And whilst debates proceed to rage concerning the rights and wrongs of extensively publicised prompt answers such as federalism, decentralisation, and secession, strange other folks proceed to chafe of their day by day lives.

What’s being lost

As the warring factions stand eyeball to eyeball ready to peer who will blink first, few are asking how the result of the fight will trade the lives of strange other folks within the area. Yet the impact has been huge. There are immense financial and social penalties that have reworked communities and their way of living.

Cameroonians who would cross home for Christmas vacations and different festivities now not achieve this. Their spending stimulated the economic system. In electronic mail correspondences and responses to questionnaires with other folks in Kumba and Buea, local persons are noting that Cameroonians dwelling in different international locations are now not coming home for his or her vacations. As a consequence companies, such as resorts, are slightly protecting on.

There have been extra profound financial penalties. The area’s major agribusiness facility, the Cameroon Development Corporation, the guts of the area’s economic system, is in ruins. Plantations which produce palm oil are now not operational. Workers at banana plantations are brutalised and rubber processors were time and again attacked. Families that trusted cocoa for livelihood now face a lifetime of destitution.

Another aggravating facet of the warfare is the sluggish erosion of key portions of other folks’s tradition. Funeral celebrations are a significant facet of Cameroonian tradition. But in conversations with other folks, it seems that those festivities are disappearing. Irrespective of the place other folks are living, Cameroonians in most cases favor their burial websites to be of their village of starting place. But no longer anymore. Increasingly, persons are buried any where imaginable.

Visits to burial websites of pals and members of the family have been a dangerous revel in. For instance, going to Lewoh in Lebialem, is unthinkable as a result of the violence.

And there’s extra. In communities in Anglophone Cameroon, fundamental services and products such as trash assortment now not exist. Trash is piling up within the towns. And corpses may also be noticed on roadways. Businesses that historically operated within the evenings were bankrupted.

The checklist of hardship is going on. School structures remain empty. And each refugees and internally displaced persons are nowhere on the subject of returning to their properties.

Time to re-assess

The habitual accusation is La Republique has brought about those issues. But it is not all of the fault of La Republique. Given that probably the most assaults are undertaken via Anglophones, they have got turn into accomplices to the violence. No surprise strange persons are increasingly more asking extra direct questions on some great benefits of the rebel they had been promised.

Source: Nairaland.com

11, December 2018

Ambazonian refugees in Nigeria get relief materials ⁰

Cameroonian refugees living in the Adagom Resettlement site in Ogoja, in Cross Rivers State have been given relief materials donated by Africa Now Foundation, a charity organization.

The organisation is owned by Africa’s leading Oil and Gas lawyer, NJ Ayuk, CEO of Centurion Law Group.

“This is most impressive and undoubtedly the largest single donation we have received in years,” said Mr. Remi Oyasanya, the zonal coordinator South-South region, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internal Displaced Persons.

Oyasanya took the delivery of the materials alongside the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Cross Rivers State Emergency Management Agency in the presence of thousands of the refugees.

The materials donated included children school chairs, mattresses, pillows, blankets, buckets, Indomie Noodles, bathroom slippers, water bottles; sachets of packaged tomato paste, salt, spices, cooking oil; children school tables and a desktop computer.

In the spirit of the Christmas, the foundation also donated soft drinks of different brands, biscuits, wafers and sweets that could reach over 2,000 people.

“We are committed to doing more as a foundation, because they deserve all the love and support, we can show to them to mitigate their daily ordeals.

“They don’t deserve to be in refugee camps during Christmas. It is wrong and immoral.” said NJ Ayuk, while urging governments in West/Central Africa to do everything to end hostilities in the sub-region.

“The reasons for so much suffering coming out of this Anglophone crisis are complex and varied. It is important that everyone really sees a need for an all-inclusive dialogue that cultivates a true respect for everyone in Cameroon and the diaspora.,” said the lawyer.

The Africa Now Foundation is a humanitarian organisation committed to “six corporal works of mercy, feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned, bury the dead and give alms to the poor.”

The foundation has further expressed the commitment to visit as many African communities where succor is needed and “we can avail to them little we have.”

Source: NAN

11, December 2018

You will regret invading Southern Cameroons: Restoration Forces warns Yaounde ⁰

The Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces under the direct supervision of the Ambazonia Self-Defense Council have issued a serious warning to troops loyal to the Biya regime in Yaoundé, saying that the regime will regret invading Southern Cameroons. In a statement which was released on Monday, the Ambazonia restoration fighters noted that various strategic locations in French Cameroun will be targeted soonest.

The document that was sent to our regional office in Buea further stated that there will be a response to every French Cameroun attack in Southern Cameroons. Earlier this week, the 85 year old President Biya appointed members to the so-called disarmament commission arguing them to facilitate an end to the crisis in Southern Cameroons.

The Ambazonia Self-Defense Council was formed following President Biya’s declaration of war and subsequent invasion of Southern Cameroons and the inter-state use of terror, abduction and rendition of His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and members of the Ambazonian Interim Government to French Cameroun.

Since then, the movement has helped the Southern Cameroons Interim Government retake control of some Southern Cameroons counties from the Yaoundé regime and it is thwarting numerous French Cameroun acts of aggression.

Ever since the war started in Southern Cameroons, Francophone soldiers have not been able to distinguish between Amba fighters and the Southern Cameroons civilian population. Cameroon government troops are hitting Southern Cameroons and destroying its infrastructure.

By Sessekou Asu Isong with files from Sama Ernest

11, December 2018

Exiled Yahya Jammeh, family banned from entering U.S. ⁰

The United States has slapped a ban on former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh and his family from entering the country. The measure announced on Monday is largely related to charges of corruption and gross rights abuses during his 22 years in charge.

His wife, Zineb Yahya Jammeh, and his children, are also on the US blacklist relating to foreign leaders involved in large-scale corruption or serious human rights violations, according to a State Department statement.

The statement stressed the resolve of Washington in assisting the Adama Barrow -led government in the area of support for a transition to greater transparency, accountability and democratic governance.

Jammeh ruled The Gambia, a small English-speaking West African country, for 22 years until his defeat at the polls in 2016 by Adama Barrow.

He left power after the West African bloc ECOWAS threatened a military intervention. He is currently resident in Equatorial Guinea where regional leaders arranged for him to live in exile.

Source: Africa News

11, December 2018

The 5 highest paid presidents in Africa ⁰

People living in Africa have over the years lamented their continent’s over-dependence on other regions.

Even though the continent is blessed with natural resources such as minerals, vegetation, among others, the citizens of some countries live well below the poverty line.

According to reports, approximately 27.4% of the population in Africa was classified as severely food insecure in 2016, which is almost four times as high as any other region.

Meanwhile, politics has become a very lucrative career. Politicians are not only powerful, but their salaries are also very heavy.

In our present dispensation, African politicians earn a lot of money while citizens live poorly.

This is a reflection on the salaries some African leaders earn monthly.

1. Paul Biya

Paul Biya is the President of Cameroon. His monthly salary is $50,833.33. He is the highest paid African president.

2. Cyril Ramaphosa

Cyril Ramaphosa is the fifth president South Africa. He became president following the resignation of Jacob Zuma. Previously an anti-apartheid activist, trade union leader, and businessman, Ramaphosa served as the Deputy President of South Africa from 2014 to 2018. He earns $21,174.67.00 every month.

3. Abdelaziz Bouteflika

Abdelaziz Bouteflika is the fifth president of Algeria and has been in office since 1999. He is the third-highest paid president in Africa. His monthly salary is $14,000.

4. Uruhu Kenyatta

Uhuru Kenyatta is the current president of Kenya. He came into office in April 2013. He is the fourth highest paid president in Africa even though he ordered that some percentage of his salary should be cut off in 2014. He earns $13,860 monthly.

5. Emmerson Mnangagwa

Emmerson Mnangagwa is the third and current president of Zimbabwe. He assumed office in November 2017 after Robert Mugabe was ousted. He is ranked the fifth highest paid African president. He earns $12, 272.08 monthly.

Source:Pulse.com

11, December 2018

Amnesty urges ICC to investigate Boko Haram conflict atrocities ⁰

Amnesty International urges the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch a full-blown probe into the atrocities committed by both the Boko Haram terrorists and the Nigerian military during the militancy campaign in the African country, criticizing Abuja for not doing enough to bring those responsible to justice.

The UK-based human rights group said the Abuja government was keeping ICC chief prosecutor Fatma Bensouda “in limbo” by giving the impression of domestic action on the crimes perpetrated by both the Boko Haram terrorists and the Nigerian troops, but it is in reality doing very little on the matter.

Bensouda had opened a preliminary examination in 2010 into cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity during Boko Haram’s campaign, which had begun a year earlier. Six cases relate to the militants and include the killing of civilians, mass kidnapping, attacks on schools and places of worship, sexual violence, plus the use of children in conflict.

The other two — involving attacks on civilians, mass arrests and detention of suspects, abuse, torture and summary executions — concern the Nigerian military. “Eight years since the opening of the preliminary examination and faced with the continuing commission of crimes under international law and the possibility of a never-ending preliminary analysis, it is time for the OTP (Office of the Prosecutor) to open a formal investigation in Nigeria,” Amnesty said in a statement.

The statement came days after Bensouda said in her annual report on December 5 that there appeared to be a “tangible prospect” of proceedings against Boko Haram members, but not against troops “since the Nigerian authorities tend to deny any allegation.”

Amnesty complained that Nigeria’s government has not conducted any relevant proceedings into the atrocities, war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by both Boko Haram militants and the Nigerian forces. This edition of the program talks about Boko Haram terror threats in Nigeria and the inability of the government to contain the Takfiri group.

It also suggested that most of the investigations and prosecutions conducted by the Nigerian justice system against alleged members of the Boko Haram group, as well as the military, were not in proportion to the scope and severity of the crimes and atrocities committed by both sides of the conflict in northeastern Nigeria.

Amnesty also said none of the more than 20 government inquiries launched into claims of abuse by troops and civilian militia members in the last nine years has led to formal investigations and prosecutions.

The proceedings seemed to have been designed to provide a “veneer of accountability” and exonerate senior officers and “shield persons concerned from criminal responsibility,” Amnesty added.

The report indicates that 5,161 Muslims have also sustained various degrees of injuries. It described mass trials of more than 1,000 suspects that began in October 2017 were as a “sham” meant to provide “legal cover” for those held in prolonged, arbitrary and unlawful detention.

Prosecutions were based on unreliable and untested confessions or guilty pleas, while defendants had a lack of access to lawyers and trials were rushed through.

Since 2009, the militants have killed at least 20,000 dead and made over 2.6 million others homeless. In 2015, Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Takfiri Daesh group.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, a former general, came to power in 2015 on a platform of stamping out the Boko Haram militancy. But despite retaking swathes of territory from the group, it continues to stage attacks targeting both civilians and military targets.

Source:Presstv

10, December 2018

Biya’s efforts to regain lost power in Ambazonia will never come true ⁰

A Southern Cameroons commander in Lebialem has said that the Biya dream of restoring French Cameroun lost power in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia in cooperation with Nigeria’s ailing Buhari will never come true. “The Biya Francophone regime, in cooperation with the corrupt Buhari administration in Nigeria, is trying to restore its power in Southern Cameroons,” the Red Dragons commander in Menji told Cameroon Intelligence Report.

The Red Dragons senior military figure whose name we are withholding further referred to the Nigerian President Buhari’s role in the crisis, saying Buhari is forcefully repatriating Southern Cameroonians to be slaughtered on the pretext that they serve Nigeria’s strategic interests and stability in the Gulf of Guinea.

The Red Dragons chief says the Biya and the French Cameroun army have failed in all the plots they hatched to advance their own agenda in Southern Cameroons. The war between Southern Cameroons and French Cameroun began last year with the French Cameroun army launching onslaught against Southern Cameroons towns and villages as well as the positions of the Ambazonia Restoration Forces. The war has resulted in the burning down of some one hundred villages and the deaths of over 4,000 Southern Cameroons civilians.

Some 1400 Cameroon government army soldiers have also been killed during the fighting. Yaounde has not realized that it cannot bully Southern Cameroons into submission and has rejected calls for inclusive and genuine dialogue with the Ambazonian Interim Government.

The recent French Cameroun military aggression against the Red Dragons of Lebialem saw several French Cameroun soldiers killed and several others injured. The UN, the EU and the AU have all undermined regional stability by taking a hard line in favour of the Biya Francophone regime and against Ambazonians.

By Chi Prudence Asong