Monthly Archives: December 2018

22, December 2018

Biya regime Reopens Ekok Border with Nigeria ⁰

Cameroon has reopened its southwestern border with Nigeria after closing it about a year ago because of conflicts between Cameroon’s military and armed separatists fighting to create an English-speaking state.

A senior official from Cameroon’s military asks the people of Ekok village on the southwestern border with Nigeria to consider the soldiers as friends who are there to protect them.

Cameroon businessman Christopher Efiom, 46, buys food from Cameroon and takes it to Nigeria where it is sold. When he is returning from Nigeria, he buys spare motor parts and sells them in Cameroon. He says the presence of the military in the border market has chased fighters to the bushes and across the border to Nigeria. He says that for a month now, merchants have been able to do business despite ongoing fighting between the military and the separatists.

A car filled with supplies to sell across the border is seen in Ekok, a Cameroonian village on the southwestern border with Nigeria.

“There are days that the military goes down to attack the boys [fighters] and when they go down, there is serious gun shooting,” Efiom said. “So many casualties are on the field. The Amba fighters usually block us on the way and you can never predict when they are there. There are days that even the military are unable to carry the convoy right to Nigeria.”

“Amba” is the self-declared English-speaking region of Ambazonia, where armed separatists are fighting for independence.

Cameroon businessman Cletus Ndungang, 32, says although the military has reopened the border, business has yet to resume fully because most buyers and sellers still fear for their safety.

“Eighty percent of our rice is imported. It is very risky for a businessman to carry rice knowing that there is going to be a problem. Even maize. We also have oil, we have sugar. In fact, all the food, there is a problem because of this barbaric act. Most of the businessmen would not want to come in,” he said.

People buy and sell their goods in Ekok, a Cameroonian village on the southwestern border with Nigeria.

When Cameroon declared war on the armed separatists in November 2017, it said gunmen were attacking border localities in Cameroon’s southwest and escaping to Nigeria.

Nigeria denied the assailants were crossing over from its territory into Cameroon.

Bernard Okalia Bilai, governor of Cameroon’s southwest region, says collaboration between the Nigerian and Cameroon militaries is bringing peace to the border areas and business is resuming; but, he says, civilians who sought to escape the fighting should look to the military as their partners in working toward peace.

The separatist insurgency gained momentum in 2017 following a government crackdown on peaceful protests by Anglophones, who complain of being marginalized by the French-speaking majority. Some political leaders have called on President Paul Biya to initiate dialogue with the separatists. But Biya — who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years — has refused any talks on Cameroon becoming a divided state.

Culled from the VOA

21, December 2018

Yaoundé offered Cho Ayaba money to cede revolution and betray General Ivo ⁰

Our chief intelligence officer in Yaoundé says the Biya regime offered money to Cho Ayaba and the so-called Ambazonia Defense Council to forgo the Southern Cameroons resistance and to help the French Cameroun intelligence unit of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) to locate General Ivo at one of Chief V.E Mukete’s plantations in the Meme County.

Our Yaoundé correspondent who served in the Cameroon army and retired as a captain also opined that following the failure of several attempts to destroy the Ambazonian resistance, the Biya Francophone regime has been conspiring against the Southern Cameroons Interim Government using ego/power-seeking profiteers, opportunists, activists and clueless self-seekers.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the Ambazonian Communications Secretary, Hon. Chris Anu will be commenting on the happenings in the Meme County and also on the state of the revolution tomorrow December 22^nd.

We gathered that the French Cameroun government assigned Paul Atanga Nji- the Minister of Territorial Administration to offer Cho Ayaba including some prominent members of the AGC and ADF anything in return for stopping the Southern Cameroons revolution.

“They were offered money and have been told that they shall be part of the authority in Anglophone Cameroon on condition that they work against the Interim Government of Southern Cameroons,” our Intel officer in Yaoundé revealed.

There are many other French Cameroun conspiracies against the Southern Cameroons revolution, including attempts to stir up a conflict between the Ambazonia Self-Defence and Restoration Forces Council (ASC/RF), the command and control system prosecuting the war against La Republique du Cameroun and the Ambazonian Interim Government.

The French Cameroun government under Biya is seeking to create such a rift because the Ambazonian Interim Government is the guarantor of the Southern Cameroons resistance.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Sama Ernest and Pierre Onana

21, December 2018

Biya regime bans ‘President Ali Bongo death’ claim television ⁰

Cameroon has slammed a one-month ban on a private television station that falsely announced the death of Gabonese President Ali Bongo Odimba while he was in a Saudi hospital. Cameroon Media watchdog, the National Communication Council (NCC), said the Yaoundé-based Vision 4 television aired an “unfounded declaration” on its prime time newscast of October 27.

The council said the broadcast was a gross disrespect of “professional requirements of investigation and crosschecking of information delivered to the public”. Gabonese authorities had in October banned the TV channel on its territory for six months for the same reason.

Latest prohibitions

NCC also imposed a one month ban on journalist and Vision 4 TV director Ernest Oboma “for inciting tribal hatred and violence” on television. Officials of the channel have snubbed similar decisions against them by the watchdog previously and it was not clear whether they would respect the latest prohibitions.

Besides Vision 4 TV and its director, the Cameroon media regulator also sanctioned four other media organs and about 20 local journalists for allegedly flouting professional ethics.

Pre-trial detention

The council said it had prohibited Ms Mireille Flore, a journalist with Canal 2 International television, from practising in the country following a complaints against her by a bicycle repairer who she presented in a report, “without proof”, as a paedophile. Mr Dom Pipelassi Michael Dopass, a journalist and presenter of the radio programme, Sports and Investigation, was slammed a two-month ban following the broadcast of “unfounded claims” against football legend Samuel Eto’o, the NCC said.

The council also suspended the Sports and Investigation programme for same reason and same duration. The journalist who works for the Yaoundé-based Soleil FM is in pre-trial detention in the Cameroon capital for same crime. The Cameroon Journalists Trade Union (SNJC) was yet to comment on the latest sanctions by the regulator, but had described previous suspensions by the watchdog as attempts by government to muzzle the already gagged press.

Culled from The East African

21, December 2018

French National Assembly approves Macron’s tax concessions to ‘Yellow Vest’ protesters ⁰

The French National Assembly on Friday approved a package of emergency concessions first announced by President Emmanuel Macron in a bid to end the violent “yellow vest” protests. The tax cuts for low-income workers were put forward by Macron in a televised address earlier this month to help cool weeks of protests that brought major disruption to the country.

The measures provide a “quick, strong and concrete response” to the crisis, said the labour minister Muriel Penicaud in a debate which lasted into the early hours of Friday morning. The measures include the removal of a planned tax increase for a majority of pensioners and tax-free overtime pay for all workers.

Economists estimate the cuts will cost up to 15 billion euros ($17 billion). The concessions will now move to the Senate for approval. Tens of thousands of people joined rallies across France on consecutive Saturdays in a movement which sprung up over fuel tax hikes but snowballed into broader opposition to Macron.

Police this week said they would start removing barricades at roundabouts and on motorways after the demonstrations began to run out of steam.

The protests, which at times spiralled into violence, took a toll on the economy, with businesses counting the cost of supply disruptions, smashed property and a dearth of shoppers and tourists who stayed away from city centres.

On Thursday the president told critics of the fuel tax hikes “you’re right” after 1.15 million people signed a petition suggesting several other ways to fight fossil fuel pollution.

Macron called the petition a “citizens’ act”.

“Your message, I heard it. I am responding to you directly, you are right,” Macron wrote on the website Change.org.

He reminded the petition signers that his government has cancelled the planned increase in fuel tax and that no hikes in gas and electricity prices would be made during the winter.

While restating that reducing fossil fuels which contribute to climate change was a necessary action, Macron added that it “must not put the problems of the end of the world in opposition to the problems at the end of the month” alluding to the anger of the “yellow vest” protest movement about the cost of living in France and the difficulty in making ends meet.

The number of people who have been killed during the “yellow vest” protests since they began in early November rose to nine on Thursday after a 60-year-old man was hit by a lorry at a demonstration next to a motorway near Agen in southwestern France.

(AFP)

21, December 2018

Spanish PM, pro-secession leader agree to find solution to Catalonia crisis ⁰

Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the regional leader of Catalonia agreed Thursday to find a solution to the political crisis that has been festering since a failed secession attempt by the region last year.

The agreement was reached in a meeting in Barcelona between Catalan regional President Quim Torra and PM Sánchez, whose Socialist administration has taken a more conciliatory approach to the independence issue than its conservative predecessor.

Following the meeting, their governments issued a joint statement calling for a “commitment for effective dialogue that leads to a political proposal that has the backing of large part of Catalan society.” The statement, which The Associated Press has seen, was read out by the spokeswoman of the Catalan government, Elsa Artadi, after the meeting.

Artadi says that members of the two governments have agreed to meet again in January. The PM plans to hold a Cabinet meeting of his government on Friday in Barcelona, which radical separatist groups are expected to protest.

Sanchez, who also seeks to secure support for his minority government in the northeastern region, will gather his ministers in Barcelona in an attempt to help resolve a political conflict over Catalonia’s independence drive.

National police will be deployed in Barcelona to guard the cabinet meeting amid fears that extreme elements of the independence movement could stoke violence.

Jailed Catalan independence leaders however have called on protesters to demonstrate peacefully. Nine Catalan separatists, who have been jailed and await trial for rebellion, call for a “peaceful protest” during an upcoming cabinet meeting.

A lawyer representing former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and five other Catalan politicians who have been charged in Spain for violent rebellion has appealed to the UN’s Human Rights Committee to help defend their democratic rights.

Nico Krisch denounced a “grave interference in the democratic order” linked to the charges against Puigdemont, who lives in exile in Belgium, as well as Oriol Junqueras, Raul Romeva, Josep Rull, Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Turull. The five are being held in pre-trial detention in Spain.

The Catalan politicians have been charged and suspended from office by Spain’s Supreme Court for their roles in organizing an independence referendum in Catalonia 14 months ago. The Spanish and Catalan governments have been at odds since the Catalan Parliament issued an illegal and ineffective declaration of independence last year.

In October 2017, Catalonia unilaterally declared independence, prompting Madrid to take control of the region – which has 7.5 million people and accounts for about a fifth of Spain’s economy – and arrested secessionist leaders.

Source: Presstv

20, December 2018

IG’s Assertion on Biya’s Provocative Decree “Releasing” 289 Ambazonians ⁰

The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia expresses total disappointment in regards to the deceitful and unjust decree issued on Thursday, 13th December 2018, by French Cameroun President, Paul Biya. The decree ordered the discontinuance of some pending cases at their military tribunal in relation to 289 Southern Cameroonians/Ambazonians unjustly abducted since the beginning of the ongoing conflict in Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia.

The Interim Government considers the decree as a sign of confusion within the Yaoundé regime, and a big provocation to the peaceful people of Ambazonia, considering that there are more than 3,000 citizens from Ambazonia in different detention centers and prisons across French Cameroun and within the occupied territory of Ambazonia. Some of these victims have already been convicted and imprisoned on trumped-up charges.

The Interim Government has observed that the obnoxious decree talked of releasing some people who committed misdemeanors (minor offences), whereas the Yaoundé regime is not holding any Ambazonian for charges less than treason and acts of terrorism with death penalties hanging over their heads. Moreover, after reviewing the lists of purported detainees released by French Cameroun, the following irregularities were observed:

Names of deceased Ambazonians who died in prison as a result of the inhumane treatment meted on them by French Cameroun were on the list.

41 – Wolen Vitalis

43 – Wirsiy Frederic

According to family sources, some detainees who were supposedly released precisely from the Bafoussam Central Prison were never abducted or jailed.
Achankeng Fidelis
Ninju Felix
A sizeable number of the supposed detainees released are citizens from French Cameroun not Ambazonians and definitely had no connection with the ongoing conflict.
At the Yaoundé Central Prison (Kondengui), of the 82 detainees enlisted for release, only 63 were actually released.

The Interim Government hereby concludes that the decree is a covert, conceived manipulative plan, aimed at deceiving the international community that the brutal dictator Mr. Paul Biya is taking measures to end the war he declared on the people of Ambazonia over a year ago. His soldiers still continue to kill unarmed Ambazonia civilians indiscriminately and burn down entire villages.

Hon. Chris Anu

20, December 2018

CEMAC countries to harmonize trade laws ⁰

The Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) has finalized plans to harmonize laws governing trade in the sub-region, Fatima Haram Acyl, vice-president of CEMAC said on Tuesday.

“We are going to harmonize so we make sure that somebody that is trading in Chad, in Cameroon, Central Africa Republic or anywhere in CEMAC actually operates under the same law,” Acyl told reporters as trade ministers and economic experts from the CEMAC sub-region met in Cameroon’s economic capital Douala to adopt a legislation on competition and consumers protection.

She said the intention was to intensify integration in the sub-region that already has a single market and free trade zone.

“The CEMAC is one market. We have the same people, the same currency and free movement of people. So this exercise is very critical,” Acyl said.

The new legislation will attract more foreign investors and erase unhealthy competition and consumer exploitation that has retarded trade development in the sub-region for a long time, according to Acyl.

CEMAC is made up of Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of the Congo and Equatorial Guinea. With a total population of about 37 million, it was established to promote cooperation and exchange among its members.

Source: Xinhuanet

20, December 2018

Biya regime seeks to split Ambazonians, President Sisiki Ayuk Tabe senior adviser says ⁰

A senior aide to President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe says the French Cameroun regime is attempting to create division in the Ambazonian revolutionary structure both at home and abroad using ego/power-seeking profiteers, opportunists, activists and clueless self-seekers. In a telephone conversation with our London Bureau Chief, Chi Prudence Asong from an undisclosed location in Nigeria, the Sisiku Ayuk Tabe senior adviser whose name we are withholding also pointed out that the sovereign people of Ambazonia should be more vigilant during these difficult times.

“Disunity is slowly but surely bringing its ugly head deep within structures that are the very foundation of the Southern Cameroons resistance and this may push Ambazonians back to that nasty past known as North West/South West Divide” he opined and added that the Biya Francophone regime intends to split Southern Cameroonians along tribal fault lines and the activities of some so-called front line leaders are helping the Yaoundé government to put together a sectarian puzzle among Southern Cameroons institutions such as the Ambazonia Self-Defense Council, the Ambazonia Restoration Forces and the Interim Government.

He also reminded Southern Cameroonians of the immortal words of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe that “No individual is bigger than the revolution” and described the French Cameroun regime under the 85 year old Biya as a threat to Ambazonia’s sovereignty and blamed the French Cameroun army for continuously violating Southern Cameroons rights.

Elsewhere, Acting President Ikome Sako has urged the UN Security Council to recognize Southern Cameroons as an independent state and to ensure the safe return of Southern Cameroons refugees to their homeland from French Cameroun and the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Ambazonian Acting President reiterated that the Ambazonia Self-Defence and Restoration Forces Council (ASC/RF), the command and control system prosecuting the war against La Republique du Cameroun, does not go out of its way to target civilians. Dr Sako also dismissed allegations that ASC/RF is at daggers-drawn positions with the Southern Cameroons Interim Government.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

20, December 2018

US: Nearly 700 Catholic clergy in state of Illinois accused of sexual abuse ⁰

Almost 700 clergymen in the US state of Illinois have been accused of sexually abusing children, a far greater number than the Catholic Church had previously disclosed, dealing a new blow to the credibility of the church.

The state’s six Catholic dioceses had publicly identified 185 priests accused of sexually abusing children and had not released the names of at least 500 others, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said Wednesday.

In a scathing statement, the attorney general’s office criticized the Church’s handling of the abuse allegations, saying in some cases the archdioceses did not investigate the allegations at all or did not notify law enforcement or child welfare agencies.

“The preliminary stages of this investigation have already demonstrated that the Catholic Church cannot police itself,” Madigan said.

The Illinois investigation was opened following the release of a probe by the attorney general of Pennsylvania that found over 300 Catholic priests in that state had sexually abused at least 1,000 children over a 70-year period, crimes that were systematically covered up by bishops.

The US Justice Department has opened an investigation into child sex abuse by hundreds of Catholic priests in the state of Pennsylvania. In October, the US Justice Department opened an investigation for the first time into clergy abuse.

In a letter released by the Vatican in August, Pope Francis condemned the US Catholic Church’s failure to bring to justice perpetrators of abuse. The Roman Catholic Church has been hit by numerous scandals in the past few years, involving allegations of covering up the sexual abuse of children by priests to protect pedophiles and the reputation of the Church.

Approximately 6,900 US Roman Catholic priests were accused of sexual abuse with at least 16,900 young victims between 1950 and 2011, according to data from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Similar patterns of abuse have since emerged at dioceses around the globe, undermining the Church’s moral authority and depleting its finances as it paid out billions of dollars in settlements.

Cases of Catholic priests raping and molesting children, and of bishops covering up for them, have erupted on nearly every continent in recent years. Some theologians have argued that the church’s policy on celibacy fosters sexual dysfunction and abusive behavior among priests.

Source: Presstv

20, December 2018

Chinese football imposes salary cap in new spending crackdown ⁰

Chinese football on Thursday imposed a salary cap of 10 million yuan ($1.45 million) a year for domestic players and vowed to kick teams out for so-called “yin-yang contracts”.

The swingeing measures are part of a ramped-up effort by the Chinese Football Association (CFA) to clamp down on big spending and get teams to toe a tougher financial line.

There will also be a limit on bonuses and other financial inducements for domestic players, according state sports channel CCTV5, reporting on an end-of-season CFA conference in Shanghai.

Foreign players are not affected by the salary cap, which will be in place for the new Chinese Super League (CSL) season when it starts in the spring.

Among a raft of other measures, teams must submit contracts for their players and coaches by the end of the year as part of a crackdown on “yin-yang contracts”.

Such contracts — one for the tax man and another with the real value of the agreement — are thought to be widespread in football and showbusiness in China.

If the CFA uncovers any tax-avoidance schemes, the offending player or coach face a ban of between one and three years. Their clubs can be deducted points or even kicked out the league.

Two years ago, Brazilian attacking midfielder Oscar joined CSL side Shanghai SIPG from Chelsea for an Asian-record 60 million euros and Argentine forward Carlos Tevez signed for rivals Shanghai Shenhua, both earning some of the highest wages in world football.

Their high-profile arrivals, along with dozens of other foreign stars such as Brazilians Hulk and Paulinho, triggered fears that Chinese clubs were distorting the international transfer market with overinflated wages and fees.

But the CFA has since moved to stop the splurge and force teams to focus on youth development instead, and there is unlikely to be serious money spent when the winter transfer window opens on January 1.

“The association will draw on the experience of advanced overseas leagues to design comprehensive measures to control high wages, high bonuses, high transfer fees and other issues,” Li Yuyi, CFA vice chairman, said earlier this week, according to Xinhua news agency.

Li added: “If there’s only investment but no clear idea of what the long-term returns are, Chinese football is not sustainable.

“Companies (who own teams) need to understand why invest, what are the rewards and what it contributes to society.”

AFP