Monthly Archives: December 2019

India: Vice President Naidu meets parliamentary delegation from Cameroon

4, December 2019

India: Vice President Naidu meets parliamentary delegation from Cameroon 0

Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu met parliamentary delegation from Cameroon in Delhi on December 04. The delegation was led by Njingum Musa Mbutoh. While interacting with the delegation, Naidu said that India was committed to being a reliable partner of Cameroon in its development journey. Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha Harivansh Narayan Singh was also present during the meeting.

London now Paris: Rwanda signs tourism promotion deal with PSG

4, December 2019

London now Paris: Rwanda signs tourism promotion deal with PSG 0

Rwanda signed a deal on Wednesday with French soccer club Paris St Germain to promote tourism in the east African nation, its second such agreement since last year.

“We invest part of our tourism revenues in strategic collaborations such as the one with Paris St Germain because we understand the positive effect they have on the overall perception of the country globally,” the Rwanda Development Board’s chief executive, Clare Akamanzi, said in a statement after the signing.

Akamanzi did not say how much Rwanda would pay for the deal. A source close to the French club said it was worth between 8 and 10 million euros.

Under the deal, PSG will promote Rwandan products, while messages promoting Rwanda will be displayed on its women’s team kit and in the club’s stadium.

PSG said on Twitter that it had signed a deal “inviting the world to participate in the remarkable transformation of Rwanda”.

Last May, Rwanda signed a sponsorship and tourism promotion deal with the English soccer club Arsenal.

Rwanda earned $380 million from tourism in 2018, the central bank said last month, and was forecast to earn $405 million this year. It expects to earn $800 million by 2024, mainly from conferences and high-end tourists who trek with gorillas.

REUTERS

US: US lawmakers weigh impeachment charges against Trump

4, December 2019

US: US lawmakers weigh impeachment charges against Trump 0

The next phase of impeachment begins Wednesday in the US Congress as lawmakers weigh charges against Donald Trump, after the high-stakes inquiry into the president detailed “overwhelming” evidence of abuse of power and obstruction.

Four constitutional scholars will testify before the House Judiciary Committee in the first of a series of hearings to establish the gravity of Trump’s alleged crimes.

On Tuesday, congressional Democrats made a forceful case that Trump should be removed from office for abusing his powers by pressuring Ukraine for dirt on a Democratic election rival.

“The president placed his personal political interests above the national interests of the United States, sought to undermine the integrity of the US presidential election process and endangered US national security,” said the final report on the House Intelligence Committee’s probe, led by lawmaker Adam Schiff.

“President Trump and his senior officials may see nothing wrong with using the power of the office of the president to pressure a foreign country to help the president’s reelection campaign,” it said.

“However, the Founding Fathers prescribed a remedy for a chief executive who places his personal interests above those of the country: impeachment.”

– Articles of impeachment –

The report is expected to form the basis for the Judiciary Committee to draw up formal charges — articles of impeachment — that could include bribery, abuse of power, obstruction and contempt of Congress.

Democrats reportedly aim to have the articles presented for a vote to the entire House of Representatives before Christmas on December 25.

If they pass as expected, Trump would then stand trial for removal in the Republican-controlled Senate, where he is expected to be exonerated.

On Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham dismissed both the report and the impeachment process.

“At the end of a one-sided sham process, Chairman Schiff and the Democrats utterly failed to produce any evidence of wrongdoing by President Trump,” she said in a statement.

The report mapped out a months-long scheme by Trump, his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and senior diplomats and White House staffers to pressure Ukraine’s president into investigating Joe Biden, the current favorite to win the Democratic White House nomination in 2020.

Trump also pressured President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate a “conspiracy theory” that it was Ukraine — not Russia — that interfered in the 2016 US election, to benefit the Democrats.

In both cases, the report said, Trump conditioned nearly $400 million in US military aid and a high-profile summit with Zelensky on Kiev opening the investigations, which Democrats have said amounts to bribery.

The report also makes a strong case for charges of obstruction against Trump, for refusing to provide documents to investigators, preventing witnesses from appearing and threatening some of those who did appear.

– Legal scholars to testify –

To counter Republican attacks on the impeachment process, Judiciary Committee chair Jerry Nadler has invited a mix of liberal and conservative constitutional scholars to testify Wednesday.

They include Noah Feldman of Harvard Law School, Pamela Karlan of Stanford Law School, Jonathan Turley of The George Washington University Law School and Michael Gerhardt from The University of North Carolina School of Law.

Turley, a conservative, has called Trump’s behavior inappropriate but said Democrats need much more evidence to prove their case.

“Abuse of power is impeachable, but it is the most difficult of potential impeachment claims,” he wrote on his website.

“If Democrats continue with their plan to impeach Trump by the end of December, they would be presenting the thinnest record and fastest impeachment investigation in history.”

Gerhardt told Slate that the allegations against the president appear impeachable.

However, he said, whatever the Constitution says, politics and public opinion are involved, especially with an election coming up next year.

The authors of the Constitution “thought that the American people would care about facts, the American people would largely become educated, and they would care about the Constitution,” he said.

“And it’s not entirely clear that they do.”

Source: AFP

Biya’s rhetoric in public and the 37 Ambazonian asylum seekers abducted in Taraba, Nigeria

4, December 2019

Biya’s rhetoric in public and the 37 Ambazonian asylum seekers abducted in Taraba, Nigeria 0

The 37 Southern Cameroons asylum seekers abducted in Taraba State in Nigeria on the 31st of December 2017 and illegally deported to French Cameroun will be appearing before the Yaoundé Military Court tomorrow the 5th December 2019.

The 37 innocent Southern Cameroons civilians are facing charges of terrorism acts of terrorism, secessionism, and lack of National Identification Cards.

The accused have spent a year incommunicado in the bunkers of the National Gendarmerie Headquarters ( SED) in Yaounde without access to sunlight, no medical attention and are undergoing torture.

Abducted and illegally deported to Yaoundé on the 26th of January 2018,They were later transferred to the Kondengui Central Prison on the 04th January 2019 where they have spent another year marking two years of unlawful detention without trial.

They will be appearing before the Military Court in Yaoundé for the 3rd time.

Yaoundé tried to bring Ambazonia to its knees, but Restoration Forces thwarted plot via self defense- VP Yerima

4, December 2019

Yaoundé tried to bring Ambazonia to its knees, but Restoration Forces thwarted plot via self defense- VP Yerima 0

Ambazonia Vice President Dabney Yerima says the Biya Francophone regime resorted to an unprecedented fracas including a senseless military action to bring the Federal Republic of Ambazonia down to its knees, but Southern Cameroonians successfully thwarted the plot through self defense actions. 

Comrade Dabney Yerima made the comments at a cabinet meeting that was summoned to examine the Monday ghost operations in Ground Zero. The Southern Cameroons Vice President slammed the continues French Cameroun military atrocities in Ambazonia and warned pro Yaoundé CPDM politicians in Southern Cameroons to be ready for a crushing response from Ambazonia Restoration Forces if they venture to stage any elections in the territory.

Dabney Yerima called on Southern Cameroonians to invest in the Amba Bonds Project in order for the Interim Government to be able to counter the French Cameroun criminal and terrorist military. “Our people in Ground Zero have successful thwarted all French Cameroun moves and conspiracies by putting up resistance” he added.

The Southern Cameroons exiled leader observed that despite numerous acts of provocation and sabotage by the French Cameroun government, the people of Ambazonia have preserved their dignity and are slowly but surely overcoming difficult situations and will eventually emerge victorious by exercising resistance and enduring hardships.

Vice President Dabney Yerima again made a mockery of the so-called Major National Dialogue and the Swiss initiative. He pointed out that the idea of dialogue only came because French Cameroun is now facing firm resistance.

“The drama being acted by  French Cameroun surrogates such as the Government Delegate to the Bamenda City Council and the much respected Chief George Tabetando in Mamfe are contrary to Biya’s rhetoric in public,” Dabney Yerima said, noting that even “the Commonwealth, the Francophonie and the African Union are aware of that.”

By Sama Ernest with files from Rita Akana

NATO Summit: France and Germany to tell Trump they will not be treated as junior partners

4, December 2019

NATO Summit: France and Germany to tell Trump they will not be treated as junior partners 0

NATO leaders will tell U.S President Donald Trump on Wednesday they are spending billions more dollars on their militaries in the hope that he pares back his attacks on the Western alliance.

In formal talks following a Buckingham Palace reception on Tuesday to celebrate 70 years of NATO, European leaders led by Germany and France aim to tell Trump they will not be treated as junior partners as they confront global conflicts.

Despite Trump’s accusations on Tuesday that allies were “delinquent” in their failure to spend as much as the United States on their armed forces, Europe, Turkey and Canada will use the gathering at a luxury golf club north of London to argue they will spend $400 billion collectively on defence by 2024.

“If we invest money and risk our soldiers’ lives… we should be clear on NATO’s fundamentals,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter, adding that on Wednesday he would “defend the interests of France and Europe.”

That is likely to include a push to broaden NATO politically to consider a bigger role for the alliance in the Middle East and possibly Africa, although Berlin and Paris must first seek NATO support for a “wise persons” group to draw up reform plans.

In a final communique, NATO allies will recommit to their pledge to defend each other, while Britain is also expected to put six warships, two fighter squadrons and thousands of troops at NATO’s disposal to meet a U.S. demand for European armies to be more combat-ready.

NATO will also warn China for the first time that it is monitoring Beijing’s growing military might, agreeing to gradually prepare the alliance to defend against any possible future hostilities, in arenas ranging from the Arctic to computer networks.

But the debate is unlikely to be easy.

Tuesday’s gathering in London was marked by testy exchanges between Trump and Macron over the future of transatlantic ties, while the U.S. leader reiterated his criticism of Germany for not spending enough on defence, seemingly unaware of Berlin’s new defence plans to reach a NATO spending target by 2031.

“I’m a politician, and I’m used to being criticised for good rhetoric but bad substance. In the case of NATO it is the opposite. We have had bad rhetoric but extremely good substance,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told diplomats and experts at an event in London on Tuesday.

Macron also accused Turkey of working with Islamic State proxies in Syria, although Canada’s leader played down tensions.

“NATO has survived because we’ve always had frank conversations,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

(REUTERS)

Radio show helps ordinary Nigerians take on officials

4, December 2019

Radio show helps ordinary Nigerians take on officials 0

Early each morning, a crowd gathers outside Ahmad Isah’s radio studio in Nigeria’s capital Abuja hoping to share their problems over the airwaves.

For those waiting — men and women, young and old — Isah’s Brekete (very big in Pidgin English) Family show offers a rare chance try to hold officials to account in a country where rampant graft and abuses of the justice system often frustrate citizens.

The lucky few who Isah picks each day get to make themselves heard on issues ranging from their struggles against the authorities to medical needs and requests for financial assistance.

The others will have to come back another time.

“My goal is to give a voice to the voiceless, facilitate arbitration, expose wrongdoings and force those in power to respect rights,” Isah told AFP.

“The inspiration is about justice, kindness, and support to humanity.”

Nicknamed the “Ordinary President”, Isah begins his live show on Human Rights radio with a call and response in pidgin, the language widely spoken in Nigeria, to get his audience fired up.

Teacher Winifred Og ah has come to try to get some redress after she says a local court wrongly auctioned off her car for failing to pay rent on her house.

“I believe that the justice you get here, you can’t get it outside,” she told AFP.

“I have been listening to the programme and was encouraged by how other people’s problems were being resolved.”

– ‘Usually unheard’ –

Rights groups in Africa’s most populous nation often complain of a culture of impunity, where the wealthy easily skew the system in their favour and officials rarely have to answer for their misdeeds.

“The voices of the masses in Nigeria are usually unheard because they don’t have the financial muscle or connections to be able to project their views especially when in need of justice,” said Daniel Soe tan, from the Goodwill Ambassadors of Nigeria civil society organisation.

He is a regular listener to Isa’s show and lauds it for “helping to project the voices of ordinary people” in a way that makes it difficult for officials to ignore.

“When these issues are projected, it attracts the attention of the authorities to attend to their plights,” Soe tan said.

“It is a forum that allows people to speak because if they are left with authorities alone, there can be bureaucracies and attempts to silence them.”

Human Rights radio has been on air since 2006 and while Isah did not give precise audience figures he insisted it even had listeners outside Nigeria.

In a country where confidence scams are rife, the show has a checklist of requirements people must go through before they can bring their cases for resolution.

They first need to depose to an affidavit at the High Court in Nigeria in which they swear they are telling the truth.

– ‘Nothing is working’ –

It is not easy taking on the powerful interests deeply entrenched at every level of Nigeria’s federal, regional and local governments.

But Isah insists the radio show’s combative style has had concrete results bringing officials to book.

“Some of them see us as a threat. They don’t like us. We have exposed several corruption cases that other people are afraid to go close to,” he said.

“There is injustice everywhere, government is not accountable, and there is no justice for the poor, bad roads, terrible hospitals. Nothing is working in this country.”

Over 44 percent of Nigeria’s roughly 190 million people are estimated to live in extreme poverty and that fraction is expected to grow as the population expands.

The show also looks to give financial assistance to those in need with support from the MacArthur Foundation and it own fund-raising.

One of the beneficiaries Luis Kinta said the radio had raised two million naira ($5,600, 5000 euros) to boost his shoemaking business.

“I came here without knowing anyone. The good thing is that ordinary president assists without knowing the tribe, religious and affinity of those he supports,” he said.

But the major focus for Isah remains on trying get redress for those wronged by Nigeria’s abusive officials — and the flow of hopefuls bringing cases to him shows no sign of slowing.

“The justice system is only for the rich, not for the poor, So this is why we need this kind of journalism in this country,” he said.

“I will never give up.”

Source: AFP

US House report accuses Trump of power abuse

4, December 2019

US House report accuses Trump of power abuse 0

US Democratic lawmakers at the House Intelligence Committee have accused President Donald Trump of abusing his power in office in his conduct toward Ukraine.

In a much-awaited report released on Tuesday, Democrats said Trump solicited foreign interference to boost his re-election chances, undermined national security and ordered an “unprecedented” campaign to obstruct Congress.

Trump “placed his own personal and political interests above the national interests” of the US and not only “sought to undermine the integrity” presidential election process, but also endangered US national security.

In the 300-page report, the House Democrats also leveled allegations of sweeping abuse of power by Trump and said he used US military aid and the prospect of a White House visit to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to launch investigations into one of his political rivals in the 2020 election.

“The evidence is clear that President Trump used the power of his office to pressure Ukraine into announcing investigations into his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and a debunked conspiracy theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 election,” the House Democrats said. “These investigations were designed to benefit his 2020 presidential reelection campaign.”

The lawmakers argued that “damage … will be long-lasting and potentially irrevocable if the President’s ability to stonewall Congress goes unchecked.”

The US House Judiciary Committee has called Trump’s refusal to participate in an impeachment hearing “unfortunate” and said that it is a sign that Trump has something to hide.

US Congressman Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee leading an impeachment inquiry into Trump, said in a news conference after the release of the report that evidence for impeaching Trump was overwhelming.

Schiff declined to say whether he believes Trump should be removed from office, but he issued a stark warning about the danger of keeping a president with no boundaries in office.

“This is the result of a president who believes he is beyond indictment, beyond impeachment, beyond any form of accountability and indeed above the law. And that is a very dangerous thing for this country to have a president who believes they are above the law,” Schiff said during the press conference.

The report serves as the backbone of the Democrats’ impeachment proceedings against Trump, who is accused of withholding military aid to Ukraine, to force Kiev to open a probe into his Democratic political rival Joe Biden. Trump has denied the allegation and rejected the impeachment as a witch-hunt.

Trump slams report as ‘sham’

The White House responded to the published report on Tuesday afternoon and denounced it as a “one-sided sham process” that found “evidence of nothing.”

“This report reflects nothing more than their frustrations. Chairman [Adam] Schiff’s report reads like the ramblings of a basement blogger straining to prove something when there is evidence of nothing,” White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said.

Behind closed doors late Tuesday, the Democratic-led panel voted 13 to 9 to officially adopt and issue the report to the House Judiciary Committee, which is tasked with drafting articles of impeachment against the president.

The report is expected to form the basis for the Judiciary Committee to draw up formal charges or articles of impeachment in the coming weeks.

Opinion polls show Americans are bitterly divided over the impeachment.

Source: Presstv

Ambazonia: Vice President Yerima to honour Sisiku Ayuk Tabe in historic South Africa Visit

3, December 2019

Ambazonia: Vice President Yerima to honour Sisiku Ayuk Tabe in historic South Africa Visit 0

Southern Cameroons Vice President Dabney Yerima will visit the Republic of South Africa from the 10th of December in an official outing to the Rainbow nation harboring thousands of Ambazonian citizens and home to the Southern Cameroons national television, the SCBC, according to the Foreign Affairs Department of the Ambazonia Interim Government.

Dabney Yerima will be attending a series of Ambazonia national events in the cities of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Rustenburg and Cape Town to market the Amba Bonds Project and also to honor the jailed Southern Cameroons leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides, a senior Ambazonia communication official told journalists on Monday.

According to the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, the purpose of the historic visit is to rally support for the newly created Bank of Ambazonia and to thank the Sisiku Ayuk Tabe majority following in the Republic of South Africa for their continues  solidarity and commitment with the people in Ground Zero including the thousands in French Cameroun detention centers.

Over the last three years, Southern Cameroonians in South Africa have been making significant contribution to the Ambazonia struggle and quest for an independent state.

Vice President Dabney Yerima is scheduled to arrive in Johannesburg on December 10. The Southern Cameroons exiled leader is scheduled to meet with the SCBC TV management team and will be making statements to the press alongside the Secretary of Communications, Milton Taka.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Football: Diouf tells irate Senegalese fans to cool it after Messi beats Mane

3, December 2019

Football: Diouf tells irate Senegalese fans to cool it after Messi beats Mane 0

While fans in Africa reacted with indignation after Sadio Mane finished fourth in the Ballon d’Or voting, another striker who played for Senegal and Liverpool, took a slightly more balanced view.

Mane, who won the Champions League, finished behind Argentine winner Lionel Messi of Barcelona, Dutch team-mate Virgil van Dijk and Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo.

Many fans in Senegal were quick to blame racial prejudice. Journalists blamed African voters.

“We can’t talk about racism, but only about favouritism,” said El-Hadji Diouf, who played 55 games in three seasons at Anfield and won 70 international caps, told AFP.

Diouf agreed, however, that players from the continent were at a disadvantage.

“Being an African footballer is of course a handicap, as the main decision-makers and influential media are not from the continent. But Messi deserves it by far. Sadio had an exceptional year but Messi, he is stratospheric,” said Diouf.

The voting panel was made up of one journalist from each FIFA nation who listed their top five order. In total 176 cast votes. Can Dijk was first on 69 ballots, Messi on 61 and Ronaldo and Mane each with 17.

Messi edged the vote with 686 points, just seven ahead of Van Dijk. Ronaldo totalled 476 and Mane 347. Only a dozen of the 46 African voters put Mane first. Messi and Van Dijk both collected more first places on the continent.

Messi collected the most total points in Africa with 187. Mane was second on 170. Van Dijk, who dominated voting from European journalists, collected 154 in Africa.

Aboubacry Ba, who used to cover football on the continent for Canal+ Africa, blamed a lack of solidarity by African journalists on the voting panel.

There is “nothing racist, but if African votes went to the continent’s stars, things would be different”, he told AFP. “The Golden Ball is no longer played on the pitch. You have to give it to a player who sells, who amazes, but not only on the field. African voters have not understood that sometimes it is necessary to vote realistically.”

Lassana Camara, a Mauritanian journalist, wrote in Senegalese newspaper Sud Quotidien that he was frustrated by the absence of Africans on the podium.

“We refuse to believe that there is racism,” he said pointing out that Eusebio, Weah, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo, all former winners are “all players of colour”.

“But when Africans vote against Africans, we will not see the end of the tunnel tomorrow,” he wrote.

Source: AFP

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