Monthly Archives: December 2018

UEFA Champions League draw: Liverpool vs Bayern, Man United vs PSG

18, December 2018

UEFA Champions League draw: Liverpool vs Bayern, Man United vs PSG 0

Football fans all over the world are relishing the mouth watering ties served up for the UEFA Champions League knockout stages, including a match between last season’s finalists Liverpool and German champions Bayern Munich.

The round of 16 draw, held on Monday paired defending champions Real Madrid, who are chasing a fourth successive title, and Dutch side Ajax. Juventus, who have the services of Portuguese talisman, Cristiano Ronaldo, will take on Spain’s Atletico Madrid. Ronaldo won four titles with Real Madrid.

Struggling Manchester United have been handed a seemingly herculean task of stopping Neymar and Mbappe’s Paris Saint Germain.

The other round of 16 fixtures includes Tottenham vs Borussia Dortmund, Lyon vs Barcelona and AS Roma vs FC Porto. The first legs will be played on February 12-13 and February 19-20, while the return legs will be played on March 5-6 and March 12-13. Fans are now sharing their predictions and thoughts on several social media polls.

Source: Africa News

Former Ghanaian Head of State Scolds West Over Crisis In Togo, Cameroon, Others

17, December 2018

Former Ghanaian Head of State Scolds West Over Crisis In Togo, Cameroon, Others 0

Some policies and democratic practices adopted from the west are to blame for the political instability in Togo, Cameroon and other countries.

This, according to former President JJ Rawlings, has been a contributing factor to Africa’s under-development.

He says the kind the democratic election that Africans have adopted from the foreign world is not providing the kind of freedom the continent should enjoy.

He, is therefore, advocating for a shift in order to reverse the trend.

In a post on Facebook, Mr. Rawlings expressed worry over the inhumane treatment and lack of development the people of Africa continue to endure from white leaders, saying that it is time for all to rally behind Africans who toil for the gains of the continent.

“The time has come for the West to stop avoiding African patriots. Let’s not be intimidated by or feel threatened by the conviction of African patriots. We are sick and tired of the perceived intellectuals who are doing the bidding of others and themselves but their own kind.”

He believes foreign nations are doing Africa more harm than good, and wondered if these leaders of the developed world care about the minorities in society other than their parochial interest.

“More insulting to the sensibilities of the African is the knowledge that some of them are protégés of failed heads who’ve become kingmakers and shamelessly parading Presidential abodes and offices pulling deals on behalf of corporate interests inimical to the continent, he noted.

Mr. Rawlings even talks about how the renowned Saudi Arabian Journalist Jamal Khashoggi, was cruelly murdered with other advanced countries and influential bodies looking unconcerned instead of ensuring that justice is served.

Find below, the full post of the Former President

“Is the world going to continue looking away while the Togo and Cameroon situation deteriorates in pain, blood and terror?

If the world can become so insensitive and immune to the fate of Palestinians; black lives in Africa cannot expect anything less inhuman.

If a close friend and ally of personalities in the US government like President Trump and his team can brazenly and thoughtlessly butcher such a known personality in their Saudi consulate in a country that stands up to the Israeli government’s intransigence and impunity, such atrocity creates an opening and provides the license for other dictators to do just a little less savagery to a lot more lesser people from other ethnic groups in our parts of the world.

It only takes one government to get away with it and others seeking the opportunity to disempower an already subjugated people will take advantage of it and terrorize theirs too.

Won’t countries like Germany, the Vatican, France and the USA with a lot of influence on these countries intervene even if they won’t publicly condemn? How else will civilized nations demonstrate to the world that they’re serious about the Khashoggi killing?

It’s also about time the UN Secretary General’s office stopped accepting insensitive cold-blooded hypocrites whose favorite occupation is rapping and stooping their way into their political ambitions while keeping away from the blood and pain of their own kith and kin.

The monetized Western democratic elections in our world don’t always give us the best. The best however in intellect and wisdom grounded in humility, integrity and compassion can always be found in abundance on our continent and simply have to be selected.

The time has come for the West to stop avoiding African patriots. Let’s not be intimidated by or feel threatened by the conviction of African patriots. We are sick and tired of the perceived intellectuals who are doing the bidding of others and themselves but their own kind.

More insulting to the sensibilities of the African is the knowledge that some of them are protégés of failed heads who’ve become kingmakers and shamelessly parading Presidential abodes and offices pulling deals on behalf of corporate interests inimical to the continent.”

Source: Modern Ghana

Biya regime steps up attacks in Southern Cameroons as support for IG rises

17, December 2018

Biya regime steps up attacks in Southern Cameroons as support for IG rises 0

Scores of Ambazonians have been arrested in a stepped-up Biya regime crackdown in the northern zone and Southern zone of Southern Cameroons amid fears that support for the exiled Ambazonian Interim Government is rising. Francophone civil administrators with the support of pro Yaoundé militia groups are in control of Bamenda, Bali, Wum, Batibo and Ndop but these localities have witnessed the worst clashes between Cameroon government forces and Ambazonia Restoration Fighters over the week.

Recently, Batibo experienced Cameroon government military raids of extraordinary proportions. Our chief intelligence officer in Widikum who contributed to this report revealed that the onslaught on Batibo was done with intelligence gathered from a Southern Cameroons armed group headed by Cho Ayaba. The Francophone army fired and beat demonstrators after innocent civilians raised an Ambazonian flag.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that the image of Cho Ayaba has been established in Batibo as the subcontractor of the French Cameroun occupation forces with his criminal gang working in the shadow of French Cameroun troops and disappearing whenever French Cameroun soldiers raid neighbourhoods in Batibo.

Cameroon government troops arrested 35 Southern Cameroonians today at the Hospital Round About in Bamenda, taking the total number of those detained in to more than 165, Cameroon Intelligence Report correspondent in Bamenda Sama Ernest reported.

A dramatic video shows French Cameroun government troops blowing up houses in Belo, Kendem, Batibo and Weh recently. The Ambazonia Communications Secretary, Chris Anu has condemned the French Cameroun government atrocities and also sounded a note of caution to members of an obscure organization headed by Cho Ayaba committing crimes in Southern Cameroons.

By Rita Akana

Nigeria: Farmer-herder clashes left over 3,600 people dead in 2 years

17, December 2018

Nigeria: Farmer-herder clashes left over 3,600 people dead in 2 years 0

Amnesty International says clashes between farmers and semi-nomadic herders in Nigeria have left more than 3,600 people dead since 2016. The UK-based rights group, in a report on Monday,documented an upsurge in communal violence involving chiefly Muslim herders and mainly Christian farmers fighting over land and water rights.

“The Nigerian authorities’ failure to investigate communal clashes and bring perpetrators to justice has fuelled a bloody escalation in the conflict between farmers and herders across the country, resulting in at least 3,641 deaths in the past three years and the displacement of thousands more,” Amnesty said.

The report said 310 attacks had been recorded between January 2016 and October 2018, most of them in 2018. “These attacks were well planned and coordinated, with the use of weapons like machine guns and AK-47 rifles,” said Osai Ojigho, Amnesty’s Nigeria director.

“Yet, little has been done by the authorities in terms of prevention, arrests and prosecutions, even when information about the suspected perpetrators was available,” she said.

An international rights group urges the International Criminal Court to launch a full-blown probe into the atrocities committed during the Boko Haram terror group’s campaign of violence in Nigeria.

Experts say climate change and expanding agriculture have aggravated the herder-farmer conflict over land and water. The International Crisis Group said in July that the farmer-herder conflict killed six times more people than the war with the Boko Haram terror group in the first half of 2018,

Ojigho further said, “In some places, because of the failures of the security forces, competition over resources is used as a pretext to kill and maim along ethnic or religious lines.”

“The conflict has also been dangerously politicized by some state government officials who have inflamed tensions by embarking on a blame game along political party lines,” she said.

The latest report could affect the results of the upcoming elections, in which President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking a new term. Buhari has been under fire for adopting a soft position on the herders, who come – like the president — from the Fulani ethnic group.

The administration of Buhari, who came to power on a pledge to eradicate militancy and corruption, has also been under scrutiny for failing to end the Boko Haram terror group’s campaign of violence in Nigeria’s restive northeast.

Abuja announced in 2015 that Boko Haram – which is affiliated to the Takfiri Daesh terror group, had been “largely defeated” in the northeast, but a multitude of Boko Haram attacks indicate the group’s active presence in that region.

In the latest instance of violence, Boko Haram terrorists on Sunday stormed a village near the city of Maiduguri, Borno State, firing indiscriminately and setting fire to homes there overnight. It was not clear if there were any casualties in the attack, which forced hundreds of people to flee.

A military source said troops and fighter jets were deployed to the scene and pushed out the militants after a “fierce battle.” Boko Haram has in recent months launched numerous attacks in a bid to capture Maiduguri, the birthplace of its founder, Mohammed Yusuf.

Over the past few years, at least27,000 have been killed and more than two million people displaced from theirhomes by Boko Haram.

Source: Presstv

Sudanese President Is First Arab Leader to Visit Syria in 8 Years

17, December 2018

Sudanese President Is First Arab Leader to Visit Syria in 8 Years 0

Sudan’s president has become the first Arab leader to visit Damascus since the Syrian civil war began eight years ago.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad greeted Omar al-Bashir at the airport Sunday, the state-run news agency SANA reported.

Most Arab countries have closed their embassies in Damascus and condemned Assad for using overwhelming military force and failing to negotiate with the opposition.

Syria was also expelled from the 22-member Arab League.

No official reason was given for the visit, but SANA said the two leaders held talks at the presidential palace about developments in the region and in Syria.

As the war in Syria winds down in Assad’s favor, some Arab nations have called for normalizing ties with Damascus and even of allowing it back in the Arab League.

Source: VOA

Freed Ambazonians ask for release of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe including top aides

17, December 2018

Freed Ambazonians ask for release of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe including top aides 0

Barely 24 hours after being released from detention centers, some of the people accused of fighting for the creation of an English-speaking state in Cameroon have called for the movement’s leaders to be released if President Paul Biya wants peace in the country.

The detainees’ release last week came after Biya ordered charges against them dropped. Evelyn Ako, a mother of four, says she spent the night with her husband for the first time in 22 months. She says he was arrested in the English-speaking Southwest town of Mamfe and taken to Yaounde.

“With him besides me, we can work harder,” she said. “He used to give me money to support my children but this year, they are in the house. They have not gone to school because of [his absence]. So this thing has disturbed us a lot. It has disturbed even our family because any money that we gather, we used it to buy foodstuff to go and give him. We use it to buy medicines, dresses.”

FILE - A still image taken from a video shows riot police walkin along a street in the English-speaking city of Buea, Cameroon, Oct. 1, 2017.

Evelyn Ako relocated to Yaounde to help her husband and says they will only return to Mamfe when the crisis is over.

Joseph Cho, the spokesperson for the 120 people released from detention camps, said they are pleading with Biya to free their leaders.

“We have leaders. If these people are released, things will be better,” Cho said. “Like Sissiku … who [was] arrested because of this. We expected this decision long ago. Things would not have been the way it is now.”

Sissiku is the name given to the leader of the Ambazonia separatist movement, Julius Ayuk Tabe. He was arrested in Abuja, Nigeria, with 46 of his collaborators and extradited last January to Cameroon. They face a possible death penalty on charges of secession, terrorism and attempting to destabilize Cameroon.

‘Frank dialogue’ needed

University of Yaounde political analyst Willibroad Ze Ngwa says if Biya frees the Anglophone leaders, peace likely will return to Cameroon.

“The most important should be releasing the leaders and engaging in frank dialogue with these people. I pray the head of state [president] should move us into 2019 with some sort of general amnesty so that Cameroonians should be able to live in total concord and harmony,” Ngwa said.

Governor of the English-speaking Northwest region, Deben Tchoffo, says the government is open for dialogue and the separatists should disarm.

“Use all means at your level to convince your other mates to lay down their guns and to come back to normal civil life,” Tchoffo said. “They will be well taken care of, they will be well treated, trained and even supported to ease their coming back to civil life.”

Separatist insurgency

The separatist insurgency gained pace in 2017 following a government crackdown on peaceful protests by Anglophones, who complain of being marginalized by the French-speaking majority.

Biya was re-elected to a seventh term in October, and since then there has been pressure from the international community to start sincere dialogue with the separatists.

Last Thursday, U.S. Deputy Ambassador Jonathan Cohen told the U.N. Security Council that conditions in Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions had highly deteriorated, and the United States wants an immediate end to violence and a speedy start to talks between the government and separatists.

Culled from the VOA

UK: Labour Party to push for Brexit vote to come before Christmas

17, December 2018

UK: Labour Party to push for Brexit vote to come before Christmas 0

Britain’s main opposition Labour Party has said it will do its best to force Prime Minister Theresa May to bring her European Union withdrawal deal to Parliament for a final vote before Christmas.  

“We will be using whatever mechanisms we have at our disposal next week to try and force the government to bring forward that deal for a vote before Christmas,” Labour election coordinator Andrew Gwynne said on Sunday in an interview with the BBC television.

The comments come nearly a week after May decided to put off a planned vote in the House of Commons on her Brexit deal, saying she would try to gain more assurances from the EU about a controversial clause in the deal on the border with Ireland so that it could go through the chamber.

The move met with huge ire from the Labour and other parties in the Commons. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has repeatedly criticized the postponement while calling May, who went to several trips around Europe, a “runaway prime minister” who wanted to ignore parliament in the Brexit process.

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Gwynne, who is Labour’s policy chief for communities and local government, did not elaborate how his party would force May to come to the chamber with her Brexit deal earlier than she is willing to.

May’s office said on Saturday, after the premier returned from a summit of EU leaders, that a vote on Brexit deal would certainly come before the January-21 deadline imposed by the parliament.

That announcement sparked fears that May was trying to delay the vote until the last moments so that the parliament would have no option other than approving the deal so that Britain could avoid a disorderly exit from the EU on March 29, 2019.

Source: Presstv

Did I See An Amba Boy Going To Be Executed? A Franklin Sone Bayen war report

16, December 2018

Did I See An Amba Boy Going To Be Executed? A Franklin Sone Bayen war report 0

I believe I saw Michael Akachi walk to his death. He was escorted to the “stake” by two armed soldiers of the Rapid Intervention Brigade (BIR). He just could not see his sympathizers or mourners watching, bemused at his final walk; he was blindfolded with a red piece of cloth. Neither could he give them a goodbye wave, though obviously hearing their voices and movements around; his hands were bound in front of him.

This is the story of the summary execution of a suspected combatant of the Ambazonia restoration forces or “Amba Boys” at Mabanda, just outside Kumba, along the Kumba-Mamfe road.

My multiple mission was to convey relief supplies from a humanitarian organization abroad destined for my village IDPs, which had been stuck for weeks in Douala as none of those assigned for the dispatch was ready to brave the gun battles infested Kumba-Mamfe Road.This was a few days to the dreadful countdown to September 16, initial debut date of the announced lockdown ahead of October 1 (“Amba Independence” celebration) and October 7 (presidential election), when people were fleeing the Southwest and Northwest in droves, most of them to Francophone cities for sanctuary.

I thought there was no better time to bring humanitarian supplies to our suffering people stuck in the forest.Another reason for braving the Kumba-Mamfe road was to check on village home before the lockdown, especially after reports of soldiers breaking into homes hoping to find weapons.  But above all, as a journalist, that was an opportunity to jot some notes on the unfolding drama. I jotted a few.A fraction of my fellow passengers were young women doing the reverse journey from Anglophone and Francophone cities to their villages to both support their ageing parents camping in the forest under precarious conditions, and to “enjoy” the safety of the forest at a time of uncertainty of what the city held for anyone, should the looming confrontations from the October lockdown snowball into the unknown.

Our driver began receiving advice and warnings against engaging our journey prior to our take off from Mile 17 park, Buea because, he was told, there had been skirmishes between Government forces and Amba Boys along the way. Arriving Muyuka, our driver transfered us into another bus that brought passengers from Kumba; a kind of passenger swap so that each driver engaged the stretch of road he mastered better.Just over an hour into our journey, we ran into an unusual checkpoint. Two armed men in civilian clothes, all-black, with “necklaces” and other things that looked like amulets, flagged our bus. They told us to contribute to their effort. “We di fight na for wuna” (It’s your cause we are defending), they said. They urged us to make hey and drive on fast. The formalities done, we drove on.Great was our surprise that, just around the bend, not quite 20 metres on, we were at the Mabonji “mixed control” checkpoint, the last before Kumba.”So, they operate so close to each other?” a fellow passenger wondered. “It looks like they have come to an understanding to respect each other’s space until when there is combat,” said another. It was confusing.

Traffic controls, disembarkment in Kumba and other travel hassles, by 5pm, I was taking off from the Mabanda park right across town. A couple of minutes on, we were at the Mabanda checkpoint. We went through the now usual practice of alighting before the “gate”, being checked by officers, and embarking again across the gate. Three or four other vehicles had arrived the checkpoint from both sides, so there were more than a dozen passengers crisscrossing each other or loitering around the checkpoint.Just then, I saw two BIR officers with guns, escorting a young man dressed in all-black. He was possibly taller than both of them. His eyes were bound with a piece of red cloth. His hands were apparently bound infront, handcuffed, maybe. I could not tell, watching them from behind.They led him towards a right hand branch off, a few metres from the checkpoint facing Kumba. It led to the local GHS or GBHS Mabanda. I was told the military camped there. I could read gloom on the faces of three young women by me also watching, they too waiting to board their vehicle. I guessed their guess was my guess.The driver told me he had noticed that young man sitting with soldiers under a shelter at the checkpoint when we arrived there, guessing he had been arrested and kept there for some time. It looked like they decided to take him away at that moment for the many passengers transiting at that time, to be eyewitnesses and travel with the word to serve as a deterrent to other young men.I wished for a few more minutes there to take some more mental notes, but the driver said we had to get going because he had to return before nightfall with some passengers waiting in Nguti.

A few minutes on, just before we entered Ikiliwindi, about 10km from the checkpoint, we saw dead bodies on the road, some in culverts. The driver had to wabble through them carefully.About 30 minutes later, between Konye and Supe, the village that precedes the flyover, we met another unusual all-black checkpoint. A single gunman. He was about done with a vehicle ahead of us when we arrived. When the formalities were done, he greeted me in a familiar tone. When I looked at him, surprised (or scared?), he laughed and said, “Brother, you surprise? I know you. I know you,” he said chuckling now as he walked away and we drove off.Arriving Manyemen just before nightfall, I narrated the eyesaw of my journey to my acquaintances, the few village folks who braved it to stay on in the ghostly deserted village, mainly people selling fuel along the road or food to people camping at the famous Manyemen Hospital. I described the young man I had seen being taken away by the soldiers and what I guessed was his fate. “Someone said, ” Hmmn, I hope it’s not… hmmn, because that description and the colour of the dress, that could be… hmmn!” Someone else said, “Ha! Leave that your own. Anyone can be dressed in black and black.”Next morning, Friday, September 14, a young lady walking towards me said, “Brother, hmmn, it looks like that boy you described yesterday is a boy from our village o! His sister has called that they say they have found his body somewhere around Ikiliwindi. He is the son of Mami Agie Sunday.”The next time I met her, she said another call had disproved the story. But by noon, she told me again the death had been confirmed, that a family member had identified the body and plans were afoot to bury him there. Shortly after, a few women walked with Mami Agie Sunday in tears to the roadside, support her on both sides. They sat her down in front of the hospital gate to help her to find transport for the “funeral”.

In a small group apart, people took turns to narrate Michael Akachi’s last day. He had been living or working or farming in some village in Manyu division and had not been seen Manyemen for a while. That Thursday, he stopped over in the village to give some provisions to his mother before travelling on towards Kumba. At the roadside when he pulled out his wallet to pay his fare, something that looked like an amulet fell from his pocket. Onlookers, alarmed, said they warned him that could land him into trouble with Government defence and security forces who suspect such objects as the charms they believe are used by Amba Boys. They said they believed the amulets were found on Akanti at the Mabanda checkpoint, and that might have led to his arrest and his doom.

2 female suicide bombers die in Cameroon attack

16, December 2018

2 female suicide bombers die in Cameroon attack 0

A Cameroon official says two female suicide bombers have died after detonating in a northern town near the Nigerian border. The governor of the Far North region, Midjiyawa Bakari, says the attack in Kolofata town occurred Friday night and wounded a woman and a 12-year-old girl.

 The governor says the attackers came from Nigeria, adding that “you know that the borders are very porous.”He says the bombers targeted a home where women had gathered to prepare for a weekly market.

It was the third suicide bombing in Kolofata in less than a week. The governor says the military has been deployed “to search everywhere” for further threats ahead of the holidays.

Cameroon has been fighting the Boko Haram extremist insurgency based in Nigeria for five years.

Amnesty International says release of 289 Ambazonians must lead to end of wrongful detentions

16, December 2018

Amnesty International says release of 289 Ambazonians must lead to end of wrongful detentions 0

Following the decision to pardon and release 289 people arrested in connection with the unrest in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon, Marie Evelyne Petrus Barry, Amnesty International West and Central Africa Regional Director said:

“Cameroon President’s decision to pardon and release nearly 300 people arrested in connection with the unrest in the Anglophone regions is a welcome step and a catalyst for human rights change.

The release must not be the last in a country where many more people are languishing in jail simply for exercising their freedom of expression. We call on authorities to release them, including students Fomusoh Ivo Feh, Afuh Nivelle Nfor and Azah Levis Gob sentenced to 10 years for sharing a sarcastic joke on Boko Haram.

“Those released include human rights journalist Michel Biem Tong who will finally be reunited with his loved ones for the first time after nearly two months in detention.

“The release must not be the last in a country where many more people are languishing in jail simply for exercising their freedom of expression. We call on authorities to release them, including students Fomusoh Ivo Feh, Afuh Nivelle Nfor and Azah Levis Gob sentenced to 10 years for sharing a sarcastic joke on Boko Haram.

“Authorities should lay out clear steps to protect and respect human rights while guaranteeing that any wrongful detentions do not continue to take place.”

Background

On 13 December, Cameroon’s Defense Minister issued a statement announcing that 289 people who have been arrested for offences claimed to have been committed during the Anglophone crisis will be released, after being pardoned by the President.

This clemency is granted to people whose cases are pending in military courts and who have been arrested for offences claimed to have been committed during the Anglophone crisis. The Minister indicates that it would be granted where the military authorities had taken into account “the relative gravity of the charges”.

The document also states that it would neither be extended “to criminals, murderers or other dangerous terrorists” nor to “those involved in commanding or planning the damaging security crisis which is currently happening in the Northwest and Southwest regions”.

While welcoming by all means the release, Amnesty International is calling on authorities to also release all those people who are languishing in jail only for exercising their freedom of expression including Fomusoh Ivo Feh, Afuh Nivelle Nfor and Azah Levis Gob who were jailed to 10 years based solely on the text of an SMS joke on Boko Haram. The High Court of Yaoundé found the three students guilty of “non-denunciation of terrorism related information”. The three young men remain in prison while over 310,000 people across the globe wrote to President Paul Biya asking him to free them.

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