Monthly Archives: August 2019

10, August 2019

Trump defends immigration raids as ‘good deterrent’ ⁰

US President Donald Trump has defended his administration’s unprecedented immigration sweeping operations that led to the arrest of nearly 700 undocumented migrants in the southeastern United States.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said, “I want people to know if they’re coming into the US illegally, they’re getting out,” noting, “And this serves as a very good deterrent.”

On Wednesday, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement the agency had detained 680 people who were working illegally at seven food processing plants across the southern state of Mississippi.

About 600 ICE agents spread across the plants operated by five companies, surrounding the perimeters to prevent workers from fleeing.

Trump said when “people see what they saw (Wednesday), like they will see for a long time, they know that they’re not staying here.”

Meanwhile, Mississippi Attorney General Mike Hurst, who was in charge of the operation, also defended the raids, but said officers made sure that the children could reconnect with their parents.

“We are unaware of any child presently w/o (without) a parent as a result of this operation,” he tweeted on Thursday.

Many of those detained have been transported to an ICE facility in Jena, Louisiana, according to the US Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Mississippi.

Some of them have been released for “humanitarian reasons” but required to appear in US immigration court.

Bill Chandler, executive director of the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, called the “terrible” raids “another effort to drive Latinos out of Mississippi,” blaming Trump for fanning racism with his past incendiary comments about immigrants.

“This is the same thing that Trump is doing at the border with the Border Patrol,” he said, referring to the increased crackdown on migrants coming into the US.

On Thursday, former vice president and the frontrunner in the Democratic presidential primary race Joe Biden criticized the raids too, saying the operation was “simply wrong.”

“What are we doing?” he asked during a meeting with Latinos and Asians as part of his campaign in Iowa.

“There are US-born children wondering whether or not they’ll ever see their parents again.”

The raids, planned months ago, happened just hours before Trump visited El Paso, Texas, a majority-Hispanic city near the US-Mexico border where a man linked to a white supremacist group was charged with fatally shooting 22 people.

Source: Presstv

10, August 2019

Final Days: Signs of Biya regime’s impending demise ⁰

Is President Paul Biya’s regime on the verge of crumbling? Happenings over the past three months suggest it is. First are the obvious signs: the reemergence of Boko Haram attacks in the Far North region demanding immediate deployment of more troops, a long standing ally President Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea now set to build a wall to prevent Cameroonians from entering his country, the Southern Cameroons war that has become more intractable, the security situation in the East region that is deteriorating at catastrophic rapidity and the curious fact that the man himself is suffering from cancer. But there are some equally intriguing bits of circumstantial evidence.

The first emerged recently, when Biya signed a decree informing Cameroonians that the Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh will henceforth deputize for him. Many within the Francophone regime responded privately by stating that such a move has no constitutional backing. The arrest of former Defense Minister Edgar Alain Mebo Ngo’o had long signaled that Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh was already in charge and the ailing Biya and his ruling Beti Ewondo clan were attempting to prevent a major break deep inside the government. And would Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh have so crudely ridiculed Mebo Ngo’o—and, by extension, the Francophone dominated Beti Ewondo military, which has favoured the Biya regime if he did not realize the end was near?

Recently, the Biya government has been kicking international human rights groups and their representatives out of the country. The International Crisis Group was forced to leave as there was fear that the renowned body was helping the world to witness the impending collapse of the Biya regime.

In August alone, the regime has invested hundreds of millions of FCFA (money that it does not even have) on a campaign to get Southern Cameroons parents to send their children back to school. The whole exercise seems to have failed. Few will fail to notice that the local population in Southern Cameroons now feels that the Ambazonia Restoration Forces have booted the French Cameroun army out of town. Every Southern Cameroonian now believes it is safe to come out against Biya.

Also, the West has placed the regime in some kind of economic sanctions. German Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel recently stopped all military cooperation with Yaoundé. The Americans took a more radical approach by not only ending a very lucrative military deal with Biya but also pulled out all US servicemen and women from the North region that were stationed there to help in combating the Nigerian Islamic sect Boko Haram.

For their part, the Swiss ordered President Biya to leave their country and they are now in support of regime change as a goal towards ending the numerous crises that have rocked the Cameroonian nation. The Dutch and the Belgians have all withdrawn financial aid to the Yaoundé regime. Our senior political correspondent in Paris, France noted that the French are hoping that the Biya regime will collapse as soon as possible.

Again, these events prove nothing definitive. They are, at most, signs, signals, tokens of shifts in the game of perceptions and the correlation of forces. For, if the signs do point to a real trend, and not just random coincidence, they might indicate that Biya’s regime will implode very soon.

Surely with Biya’s acolytes dying like flies name them: Martin Belinga Eboutou, Sadou Hayatou, General James Tataw and his allies shifting into neutral, neutrals relishing his downfall, and local foes moving into open opposition mean something. These shifts, along with divisions in the military, might be enough to convince Biya or those around him that the game is up, that there’s no way out, and that their best-case scenario is for Mister Paul Biya to resign.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

9, August 2019

After Biya: Another Cameroonian man expelled from Switzerland ⁰

Recently, a court in the canton of Bern confirmed the expulsion of a Cameroonian man who has failed to integrate, according to the newspaper Le Matin.

The man, who arrived in Switzerland 10 years ago, had his first scrape with the law in 2015 when he was convicted of robbery. Since then he has been convicted of several other crimes.

In addition, he has received over CHF 200,000 in welfare and is deeply in debt.

The head of police and military affairs asked the court to authorize the man’s expulsion. The court agreed the man’s risk to public security was more important than his private interest in remaining in Switzerland.

In addition, it noted that the man had family in Cameroon, spoke the local language and had lived there during his formative years.

Furthermore, the court decided that the region the man comes from no longer presents a risk to him, and the psychiatric treatment he has been receiving in Switzerland could be continued there.

Source: Le News

9, August 2019

Biya and his gang have spent at least $940,027 on lobbying in US since the start of 2017 ⁰

President Paul Biya’s government has hired Clout Public Affairs, a firm organised by former aides to Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, to lobby President Donald Trump and US Congress for $55,000 a month.

The contract signed in July will be in four-month increments until it is cancelled, according to public disclosure filings with the U.S. Justice Department.

Foreign Policy magazine reported that the firm, according to the contract, will provide public relations services to help cultivate a “favourable image” for Cameroon’s government, to include “placing targeted op eds in conservative-oriented outlets in order to foster a robust and growing partnership narrative into the future.”

The Clout spokesperson said it is an important time to strengthen ties between the U.S. and Cameroonian governments as the country faces growing instability and threats from terrorism. The lobbying contract does not mention work beyond PR and communications.

But it has drawn sharp criticism from human rights activists, especially after it hired U.S. President Donald Trump’s former acting attorney general, Matthew Whitaker, as its managing director.

Whitaker, who is joining Clout Public Affairs as managing director, will not be working directly on the contract with the government of Cameroon and will not be filing as a lobbyist, a Clout Public Affairs spokesperson told Foreign Policy.

Cameroon’s government has spent at least $940,027 on lobbying and PR work in the United States since the start of 2017, according to Anna Massoglia, a researcher who works on the Foreign Lobby Watch project at the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP).

Cameroon also maintains a lobbying agreement with the global law firm Squire Patton Boggs.) Tracking public disclosure filings under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA),

Massoglia estimates that this puts Cameroon 10th among African countries when it comes to expenditures to U.S. PR firms during that window.

Cameroon’s lobbying contract also represents the latest in a growing list of African governments pouring money into lobbying firms to carve out more influence in Washington under Trump, whose surrogates and campaign affiliates have cashed in on lobbying for foreign governments, catching the attention of human rights advocates and public transparency watchdogs.

“Over the past several years, there has been a hugely significant increase in the number of U.S. lobbyists representing foreign nationals, many of them connected to the Trump administration,” said Jeffrey Smith, the executive director of Vanguard Africa, which supports democracy movements in the region.

“Many of Trump’s fundraisers and supporters have struck it rich in this sector, often working on behalf of the world’s worst human rights abusers,” said Smith, who has done work on behalf of Cameroonian opposition figures. He cited Zimbabwe, which hired the Trump-linked lobbying group Ballard Partners in a bid to scrap long-standing U.S. sanctions, as well as Clout’s work for Cameroon.

Liberia outspent its next closest rival more than seven times over, with FARA records indicating that the country has spent more than $72 million in foreign influence work.

Niger’s spending in the same period totalled just $6,000, according to CRP data.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has funneled more than $10 million into lobbyists, while a powerful military figure in Sudan’s ruling military junta, Gen. Mohamed “Hemeti” Hamdan Dagalo, hired a Canadian lobbying firm for $6 million to promote his interests with the U.S., Russian, and wealthy Persian Gulf governments.

South Sudan’s government, also implicated in war crimes and widespread corruption, has drawn criticism for hiring former U.S. diplomats to lobby on its behalf for $3.7 million to boost ties with the Trump administration.

Source: Foreign Policy

9, August 2019

Yaounde-Malabo Tension: Ailing Biya orders army to be on the alert ⁰

Cameroon has instructed its military to be on the alert as Equatorial Guinea says it is building a border wall to stop Cameroonians and West Africans from illegally entering its territory. Equatorial Guinea’s announcement comes as officials of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) regional economic bloc, of which Equatorial Guinea is a member, are encouraging the free movement of people and goods to boost economic growth in the region.

Thirty-two-year old Cameroonian merchant Kome Pascal imports wine from Equatorial Guinea. He also exports cement, roofing sheets and farm produce from Cameroon to the neighboring nation.

“I feel very bad because goods will not come again into Cameroon and farmers who sell in Equatorial Guinea, what do they expect them to do with their goods,” he told VOA. “Building that particular wall is not going to permit Cameroonians to sell their goods.”

When Equatorial Guinea said it was building the wall and erected milestones on the border near the Cameroon town of Kye-Ossi, Cameroon army chief Lieutenant General Rene Claude Meka visited the border. Meka said he was told the neighboring state was not respecting territorial limits and was encroaching on Cameroon land. He said the Cameroonian army would not tolerate any unlawful intrusion.

Anastasio Asumu Mum Munoz, Equatorial Guinea ambassador to Cameroon, was called up by Cameroon’s minister of external relations on Thursday to explain his country’s plans for the border.

Ambassador Munoz said his country plans to build a wall, but that reports that the its military had installed milestones in Cameroon territory are misleading.

Equatorial Guinea has always accused Cameroon of letting its citizens and West Africans enter its territory illegally.

More than 100 migrants from Togo, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Benin on their way to Equatorial Guinea and Gabon are currently stranded in Cameroon after they were rescued from their capsizing vessel in the Atlantic Ocean.

Cameroonian-born Christian Mbock, visiting lecturer of international relations at the National University of Equatorial Guinea, said the wall will stop illegal migrants and secure Equatorial Guinea.

“There was a problem in Equatorial Guinea because there was a coup there, then the government had to protect itself and said that the government was suspending the implementation of [CEMAC’s decision for free movement],” he said. “It is a complex situation.”

Equatorial Guinea has often sealed its border with Cameroon, complaining of security threats posed by illegal immigration.

In December 2017, Equatorial Guinea said it had arrested 30 foreign armed men from Chad, the Central African Republic and Sudan on the border. The report said they possessed rocket launchers, rifles and a stockpile of ammunition to destabilize the government of President Theodoro Obiang, who has led oil-rich Equatorial Guinea since 1979.

Cameroon said it also arrested 40 heavily-armed men on the 290-kilometer boundary.

Both countries are members of the CEMAC, which in 2017 said it had reached a milestone when heads of state meeting in Chad lifted visa requirements for their 45 million citizens traveling within the six-member nation economic bloc.

Source: VOA

9, August 2019

Why Southern Cameroonians Must Have Hope; Vice President Dabney Yerima ⁰

Fellow Ambazonians,

I come to you with revolutionary greetings from your President, Sisiku AyukTabe and his leadership team as they enter the tenth day of their hunger strike. Our prayers and thoughts are with them and all our heroes in illegal detention in French Cameroun at this challenging time.

There is a short video in circulation of our heroes crammed like sardines in a truck. They are on their way to a ‘court’ in La Republique du Cameroun. In the video, our heroes were defying their incarceration by singing liberation songs. From their audaciousness, tears of joy rolled down my eyes. There is a spirit in the young men of this revolution that gives me hope. They remind me of the statement; unjust practices must be broken and challenged before a just society is established.

Since 2017, our young men and young women have defied all odds. The government of French Cameroon declared war on us. We had nothing but primitive weapons to defend ourselves. In their minds, in a few months, we would be cowed and destroyed through their reign of terror. But we have and continue to prove them wrong. The cruelty our heroes endured after the peaceful prison protest of 22nd and 23rd of July 2019 was despicable. But that hasn’t discouraged them. They have returned full of focus, drive and determination to get to the promise land-Buea. They have returned with sharpness in their mind and a direction in their vision.

Day in, day out, by their actions, our heroes in captivity in La Republique du Cameroun continue to defy the enemy. By their actions, they keep letting the oppressor know that one can cage the person but cannot cage the revolutionary. By their actions, they are letting the oppressor know that beatings, tyranny and detention are temporary measures to postpone an inevitable outcome. By their actions, they are letting the oppressor know that the Ambazonian of the twenty-first century fears nothing but fear itself.

My people, as a nation, we have faced inexcusable inhumanness’ but we are still standing. We have faced concentration camps, burned villages, cold blood massacre but we are still standing. We have hope. Hope which cannot be shattered by illegal detention! Hope which cannot be destroyed by the killing of four months old baby Martha! Hope which cannot be shattered by the burning of two hundred and fifty villages! The French Cameroun government knows only one currency- violence. We have many- hope, fortitude, courage, decency, belief. With these and God willing, we shall prevail against this tyranny.

The despicable brutalities of La Republique du Cameroun will not stop us. The opposition we now face will definitely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of The Almighty are embodied in our just pursuit. In their defiance of the enemy, these heroes of ours give us HOPE. The great Desmond Tutu said ‘Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness’. Let’s keep our hope as our caged heroes are doing with their singing and hunger strike and our dream will be a reality.

God Bless You,

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Federal Republic of Ambazonia

9, August 2019

Of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Barrister Julius Achu and the Yaounde Military Tribunal ⁰

Barrister Julius ACHU, lawyer for the State of French Cameroun, ( Partie Civile) in the case between The People Vs Julius Ayuk Tabe & 9 others is a Douala based lawyer of Southern CAMEROONS ( Ambazonia) extraction who has lived the greater part of his life in La Republique du Cameroun and is renowned for his unscrupulous appetite for money such that the Biya Francophone regime has used him several times to achieve nefarious objectives.

From a family whose fortunes have been linked to the French Cameroun colonial empire for more than six decades, Barrister Julius Achu was the so-called Anglophone Cameroonian who sued Roman Catholic Bishop’s of Kumbo, Buea and the Archbishop of Bamenda claiming more than 150 million francs CFA as damages when the crisis pitting French Cameroun and Ambazonians began with the boycott of Schools and the Courts in 2016.

On Monday the 05^th of August 2019 in the Yaoundé Military Tribunal, Barrister Julius ACHU on behalf of his clients, the state of French Cameroun yelled that they give a damn to the opinion of the international community and the various International human rights instruments that the defense lawyers had cited generously to buttress their case, particularly the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

He shouted at the top of his voice that he didn’t care that some of them were in the court hall (and he turned and looked at the gallery where two white ladies said to be US diplomats were sitting). He ridiculed the international community and opined that they will not come to determine how justice should be dispensed in French Cameroun and prayed the presiding judges in the panel comprised of Lt Colonel MISSE MISSE Jacques Baudouine and Magistrates EDOU MEWOUTOU Fidele Armand and NGOUONGUE TIANI Sandrine to deliver Justice strictly according to French Cameroun laws.

Before the court session actually started, Mister Julius Achu requested and gotten the support of French Cameroun security men to prevent President Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe’s niece Alicia Egbe from entering the court premises. Barrister Julius Achu told the French Cameroun military judges that Alicia Egbe consistently brings “white men” to court.

By Asu Isong with files from our Yaounde Intel Officer

9, August 2019

More than two million Muslims begin Hajj pilgrimage ⁰

Muslims gathered from around the globe in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia have begun this year’s Hajj pilgrimage.

According to local media, about 2.5 million believers are participating in the annual Hajj pilgrimage, which started on Friday.

Each and every able-bodied Muslim, male or female, is required to complete the religious trip at least once in their lifetime if they also have the sufficient financial capacity to do so.

The nearly month-long pilgrimage features various rites, including stoning a column representing the devil, sacrificing sheep in remembrance of Prophet Abraham’s offered sacrifice, and Tawaf, which consists of walking and praying around the Kaaba, Islam’s holiest shrine, at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

‘An indescribable feeling’

“It’s an indescribable feeling. You have to live it to understand it,” said an Algerian pilgrim describing his first time taking part in the spiritual trip.

“It’s a golden opportunity and moment,” said his female companion.

The gathering is also seen as a symbol of Muslim unity, with all participants required to wear a simple and identical outfit during the processions.

The clothing consists of a two-piece white seamless garment for men, and a loose cover-all dress for women.

Muslim pilgrims wait for prayers at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca on August 8, 2019, prior to the start of the annual Hajj pilgrimage in the holy city. (Photo by AFP)

Muslim scholars have pointed that the simple attire, along with other aspects of the pilgrimage, are meant to express unity and the humility of the Muslim Ummah — the Muslim people as a whole — towards God.

The pilgrimage ends with the start of Eid al-Adha, also known as the “Festival of Sacrifice”.

Saudis fear political opposition

This year’s Hajj takes place as the country is marred in a number of conflicts with its neighbors and faces the prospect of popular expressions of discontent.

The kingdom’s push to normalize relations with Israel and further isolate the Palestinian cause in taking part in the US-backed so-called “deal of the century” has been specifically met with anger in many Muslim countries.

Saudi officials have consequently warned pilgrims to avoid any political topics during the pilgrimage, despite the belief held by many Islamic scholars that the Hajj is in fact intended to be an opportunity for Muslims to discuss social and political issues affecting the Ummah.

“Leave all other matters in your countries to discuss,” said Mecca Governor Prince Khalid al-Faisal earlier this week.

Riyadh has also faced strong criticism for its mismanagement of the Hajj specifically after thousands of pilgrims died in a tragic human crush incident in 2015.

Saudi authorities gave an initial tally of 770 deaths and then stopped updating that figure, even as official counts from individual countries whose nationals had died in the incident rose to more than a total of 2,400 individuals, reaching nearly 5,000 deaths according to some reports.

At least 464 Iranians lost their lives in the incident.

Source: Presstv

9, August 2019

PLO Lumumba meets Vice President Yerima, Promises Support For Ambazonia ⁰

The Director of Kenya School of Law and the former Director of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, Prof. Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba has promised to help the people of Southern Cameroons. The renowned academic while making a keynote address during a conference in Thuringen in the Federal Republic of Germany, said he will use his contacts to help the people of Ambazonia join Pan African Organizations.

Prof PLO Lumumba praised the leadership of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government for the resistance against the Biya Francophone government in Yaounde pointing out that Africa remained poor despite having the potential for generating enough revenue for sustainable development.

Lumumba reportedly told Vice President Dabney Yerima that Africa’s problems was being worsened by the persistent brain drain of professional trained people travelling to work in the developed world and a total lack of visionary leadership.

The Ambazonian Vice President and Prof Lumumba agreed that many intelligent migrants in the West want to return home but the leaders do not project home for their people. Lumumba said the phenomenon was largely due to the continent’s poor labour policies, low pay and high unemployment levels.

Prof Lumumba advised the Ambazonian leadership to desist from relying on divine intervention to solve the problems in Southern Cameroons.

By Asu Isong

9, August 2019

‘Nobody speaks for the United States,’ Trump tells French President Macron ⁰

US President Donald Trump has chastised French President Emmanuel Macron for sending Iran “mixed signals”.

Trump scolded Macron on Thursday telling him that no one was authorized to act in the role of mediator between the US and Iran.

“I know Emmanuel means well, as do all others, but nobody speaks for the United States but the United States itself,” Trump said in a tweet.

Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump · 11h

Iran is in serious financial trouble. They want desperately to talk to the U.S., but are given mixed signals from all of those purporting to represent us, including President Macron of France….

Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump

….I know Emmanuel means well, as do all others, but nobody speaks for the United States but the United States itself. No one is authorized in any way, shape, or form, to represent us!

It was not immediately clear what Trump was referring to, but a report earlier this week said Macron had invited Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to this month’s G7 summit to meet Trump.

European leaders are seeking to ease the escalating crisis between Tehran and Washington after Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear last year prompting Tehran to scale back its commitments under the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

PressTV-Iran to slash JCPOA commitments in 3rd phase 'in a month'

A main topic of the G7 summit later this month is expected to be the repercussions of European signatories to the Iran nuclear deal continuing to renege on their obligations.

Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the US cannot change the fact that affairs were shifting in favor of Iran.

PressTV-Zarif: US should stop isolating itself, adapt to new realities

Zarif rebuked the hawkish group of politicians and regional leaders, often referred to as the B-team, who were trying to pressure and isolate Iran by undermining the Iran nuclear deal and instigating regional tensions.

Trump and his administration officials have previously claimed that the US leadership is open to talks with Iran and that the United States does not want a war with Iran.

Source: Presstv