Monthly Archives: February 2021

First woman, first African: Nigeria’s Okonjo-Iweala set to be named WTO boss

15, February 2021

First woman, first African: Nigeria’s Okonjo-Iweala set to be named WTO boss 0

Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala looks set to be confirmed Monday as the first woman and first African leader of the beleaguered World Trade Organization, a near-paralysed institution desperately needing a kick-start.

The WTO has called a special general council meeting at which the former Nigerian finance minister and World Bank veteran is expected to be formally selected as the global trade body’s new director-general.

US President Joe Biden strongly swung behind her candidacy shortly after the only other remaining contender, South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee, pulled out.

“I look forward to finalising the process,” Okonjo-Iweala said on February 6 after securing the Biden administration’s support.

The organisation is also eager to conclude the drawn-out process, having been leaderless since Brazilian career diplomat Roberto Azevedo stepped down last August, a year ahead of schedule.

The process of picking one of eight candidates to succeed him had been expected to wrap up by November, but the administration of former US president Donald Trump blocked the consensus to appoint Okonjo-Iweala. 

‘Reform candidate’

The 66-year-old will not be at the WTO’s Geneva headquarters for Monday’s virtual session and it is not known when she would take up her duties.

The 164-member organisation’s special session gets under way at 1400 GMT and Okonjo-Iweala is scheduled to hold an online press conference two hours later.

The WTO picks its leaders through consensus-finding, so even though she is the only candidate still in the race — boasting US, EU and African backing — there is always the chance of a spanner being thrown in the works.

She will take over an organisation mired in multiple crises and struggling to help member states navigate the severe global economic slump triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Okonjo-Iweala argued during the race that she was best placed out of the eight candidates for the post to steer the WTO through the crises.

“I am a reform candidate,” she insisted.

She has among other things warned that growing protectionism and nationalism have been spurred on by the pandemic and insists barriers need to be lowered to help the world recover.

Even before Covid-19 battered the global economy, the WTO was weighed down by stalled trade talks and struggled to curb trade tensions between the United States and China.

The WTO also faced relentless attacks from Washington under Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump. Among other things, Trump brought the WTO’s dispute settlement appeal system to a grinding halt in late 2019.

‘Boldness, courage’

Okonjo-Iweala has said her priorities include getting long-blocked trade talks on fishery subsidies across the finish line and breathing life back into WTO’s Appellate Body.

Twice Nigeria’s finance minister (2003-2006 and 2011-2015) and its first female foreign minister in a two-month stint in 2006, Okonjo-Iweala is seen as a trailblazer in her west African homeland.

She has brushed off claims she lacks experience as a trade minister or negotiator, insisting that what is needed to lead the WTO is not technical skills but “boldness, courage”.

She has portrayed herself as a champion against Nigeria’s rampant corruption — saying her own mother was even kidnapped over her attempts to tackle the scourge.

But her critics argue she should have done more to tackle it while in power.

A development economist by training with degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, Okonjo-Iweala has also had a 25-year career as a development economist at the World Bank, eventually becoming its number two.

She is on the Twitter board of directors and chaired Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

(AFP)

Macron meets G5 Sahel leaders amid questions over France’s strategy

15, February 2021

Macron meets G5 Sahel leaders amid questions over France’s strategy 0

Leaders of France and five Sahel countries on Monday begin a two-day summit to discuss the G5-Sahel grouping’s anti-insurgency operations amid mounting local dissatisfaction over the military-heavy approach that has failed to stabilise the poorly administered region.

Leaders of the so-called G5 Sahel – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger – are attending the two-day summit in the Chadian capital N’Djamena, with French President Emmanuel Macron joining via videolink.

The meeting comes a year after France boosted its Sahel deployment, seeking to wrench back momentum in the brutal, long-running battle.

But despite touted military successes, jihadists remain in control of vast swathes of territory and attacks are unrelenting.

Six UN peacekeepers have been killed in Mali this year alone, and France has lost five soldiers since December.

Islamist fighters in the Sahel first emerged in northern Mali in 2012, during a rebellion by ethnic Touareg separatists which was later overtaken by the jihadists.

France intervened to rout the insurgents, but the jihadists scattered, taking their campaign into the ethnic powder keg of central Mali and then into Burkina Faso and Niger.

Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed, according to the UN, while more than two million people have fled their homes.

Calls for a course correction strategy

The crushing toll has fuelled perceptions that the jihadists cannot be defeated by military means alone.

At a summit in the French city of Pau last year, G5 Sahel leaders agreed to step up military cooperation to tackle the threat. “We have no choice. We need results,” said Macron at the end of the January 2020 summit.

But some experts believe there is a choice between focusing on a solely military strategy or viewing it as a component of a strategy that includes governance, political representation, fiscal reforms, anti-corruption as well as human rights issues.

In a report published February 1, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) called on G5 Sahel leaders to “reorient their approach to one rooted in efforts to prioritise governance, notably by soothing the escalating tensions among communities and between communities and the state in rural areas, which jihadists exploit, and by improving governments’ delivery of basic services to citizens”.

Jean-Herve Jezequel, the ICG’s Sahel director, said conventional military engagement had failed to deliver a knockout blow.

The jihadists “are capable of turning their backs, bypassing the system, and continuing,” he said.

Last Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called for a “diplomatic, political and development surge” to respond to the situation.

Last year, France upped its Barkhane mission in the Sahel from 4,500 troops to 5,100 – a move that precipitated a string of apparent military successes.

French forces killed the leader of the notorious Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Abdelmalek Droukdel, as well as a military chief of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM).

Troop drawdown?

But the latest attacks have also brought the number of French combat deaths in Mali to 50, prompting soul-searching at home about Barkhane’s cost and usefulness.

Macron last month opened the door to a drawdown, suggesting France may “adjust” its military commitment.

Despite persistent rumours, France is not expected to announce any troop withdrawal at N’Djamena.

Instead, to lighten the load, France is hoping for more military support from its European partners through the Takuba Task Force which assists Mali in its fight against jihadists.

The Sahel armies, for their part, are unable to pick up the slack.

In 2017, the five countries initiated a planned 5,000-man pooled force, but it remains hobbled by lack of funds, poor equipment and inadequate training.

Chad, which reputedly has the best armed forces among the five, promised a year ago to send a battalion to the “three border” flashpoint where the frontiers of Mali, Niger and Burkina converge. The deployment has still not happened.

Paris also hopes last year’s successes can strengthen political reform in the Sahel states, where weak governance has fuelled frustration and instability.

In Mali, the epicentre of the Sahel crisis, army officers overthrew president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita last August after weeks of protests over perceived corruption and his failure to end the jihadist conflict.

The interim government has pledged to reform the constitution and stage national elections, but critics say the pace of change is slow.

A 2015 regional deal between Mali’s government and northern rebel groups has also barely advanced, yet it is one of the country’s few options for escaping the violence.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Football: Salah vows Liverpool won’t give up title fight

14, February 2021

Football: Salah vows Liverpool won’t give up title fight 0

Mohamed Salah has warned Manchester City that Liverpool will “fight like champions” despite a miserable run that plunged his side’s Premier League title defence into turmoil.

Jurgen Klopp’s side are languishing 13 points behind leaders City after crashing to a 3-1 defeat at Leicester on Saturday.

Salah had given Liverpool the lead with his 17th league goal of the season, but the Reds collapsed in the closing stages.

Klopp conceded the title to City after Liverpool’s third successive defeat.

It is a remarkable decline after Liverpool romped to their first title in 30 years last term.

But, after 24 hours of painful fallout from the loss at the King Power Stadium, with Liverpool fans hanging a banner in support of the German boss on the railings outside the Kop reading ‘Jurgen Klopp YNWA’, Egypt forward Salah made a defiant statement of intent.

“It’s been a tough period for many reasons. We are champions and we will fight like champions, until the very end,” Salah wrote on Twitter.

“We will not allow this season to be defined by the recent results we’ve had. That is my promise to all of you.”

While retaining the title may now be beyond Liverpool, they are still in the Champions League.

Klopp’s team face the Bundesliga’s second-placed side Leipzig in a last-16 first-leg clash on Tuesday.

The match, which has been moved to the Puskas Arena in Hungary due to German government coronavirus regulations not allowing Liverpool to travel to the country, could be pivotal to the rest of the Reds’ campaign.

Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold hopes a different competition and scenario will provide the lift they need to get out of their current slump.

“Everyone talks about a bad spell and a dip in form and stuff, but I feel personally we’ve performed well in the last few weeks, in the last two months or six weeks or so,” he told Liverpool’s website.

“It’s just that we haven’t been getting the results and it’s a results business so there’s no excuses for that.

“But I think confidence-wise, we’re not playing badly, we’re not getting battered.

“It’s about turning those performances into results and that’s probably what we need to look at most.

“In situations like this you want the opportunity to put it right as soon as possible.

“Different competition, which always freshens it up, different mentality going into it. It’s going to be a different task for us, a Champions League night.”

Source: AFP

French Cameroun: Fru Ndi to quit as SDF Chairman

14, February 2021

French Cameroun: Fru Ndi to quit as SDF Chairman 0

John Fru Ndi, the so-called charismatic leader of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) will no longer be chairman of the party he created in 1990.

At almost 80 years old, the Biya French Cameroun acolyte announced Thursday, February 11, 2021, his intention to no longer preside over the destiny of the SDF after 30 years at the head of the party.

As National Chairman and presidential candidate of the SDF since its creation on 26 May 1990, John Fru Ndi was for several decades passing as the main opponent of Paul Biya, Chairman and president of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate.

Fru Ndi was candidate in the presidential elections of 1992, 2004 and 2011 and was ranked second many times in his quest to occupy the Etoudi Palace.

In 1997, John Fru Ndi boycotted the presidential elections after secretly collected hundreds of millions of FCFA from the Biya regime in a channel that had the late John Ebong Ngole and former governor Enoh Abrahams as agents.

His performance in the 1992 presidential election against Biya remains his best result so far and in 2018 he handed over the right to contest presidential elections in his party to one Joshua Osih who reportedly obtained 3.5% and was ranked 4th.

So much goodwill was wasted on the SDF leader by both French and British Southern Cameroonians. From 43 Members of Parliament in 1997, 22 in 2002, 16 in 2007, and 18 in 2013, the SDF only got 5 seats in the French Cameroun dominated National Assembly in 2020. 

John Fru Ndi is leaving to join the list of Southern Cameroons unpopular leaders such as Muna, Foncha, Achidi Achi, Fonka Shang and Peter Musonge while his party is in a sharp decline and on the verge of extinction.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

Spain’s Catalonia holds regional election, testing separatists’ strength

14, February 2021

Spain’s Catalonia holds regional election, testing separatists’ strength 0

Catalonia goes to the polls Sunday for an election Madrid hopes will unseat the region’s ruling separatists more than three years after a failed bid to break away from Spain.

But the vote could see a high level of abstentions as Spain battles a third wave of the pandemic.

Regional authorities ramped up restrictions to slow soaring case numbers after the Christmas holidays and while the situation has slightly improved, the figures are still high.

When the polls open at 0800 GMT on Sunday, about 5.5 million voters will be eligible to cast their ballots.

But 35,600 of the 82,000 people assigned to help staff polling stations on the day have asked to be recused, despite pledges they will receive full protective suits.

The regional government has insisted that all necessary health and security measures are in place, providing antigen tests for election workers, as well as spacious, well-ventilated polling stations.

It has accepted only 23,300 of the requests.

Separatists eye majority

Turnout for the vote is not expected to exceed 60 percent — and not just because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The vote has been overshadowed by a bitter split between the separatist factions following the failed 2017 independence bid that sparked Spain’s worst political crisis in decades.

The Catalan government has been dominated by separatists since 2015, but Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is hoping this election, the fifth in a decade, could end their rule.

He himself came to lead Spain’s government in 2018 thanks in part to support from Catalan separatists. Even today, his minority government relies on them to pass legislation.

But Sanchez has not hidden his desire to remove them from power.

To that end, former health minister Salvador Illa is spearheading the Socialists’ bid to unseat the separatists in Sunday’s election. Sanchez has even taken part in some electoral meetings himself.

The polls put his PSC (Socialist Party of Catalonia) neck-and-neck with the pro-independence parties.

Post-election deal-making

Even if the PSC comes out on top however, polls suggest none of the parties will win an outright majority of 68 in the 135-seat regional parliament.

And that means the eventual outcome will depend on deal-making.

Forming a government “will probably be quite challenging” and prospects of a repeat election cannot be ruled out, says Antonio Barroso, an analyst at political consultancy Teneo.

And while the separatist parties remain deeply divided, polls suggest the hardline JxC — “Together for Catalonia” — and the more moderate ERC could once again cobble together a ruling majority.

Both this week formally ruled out a coalition with the socialists.

The main question then is which of the two will come out stronger.

In the previous election in December 2017, JxC was ahead, forming a 70-seat coalition with ERC.

Should the tables be turned in ERC’s favour, it would likely ease tensions and help the tentative reconciliation Sanchez’s government has sought to broker since coming to power.

“An ERC executive would maintain the current ambiguous approach of criticising Madrid rhetorically but not adopting any unilateral measures,” said Barroso.

“In contrast, a government headed by JxC would probably lead to a more confrontational stance.”

(AFP)

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Why the bitterness will never end

14, February 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Why the bitterness will never end 0


For four long years, the Yaoundé government should have understood that violence only begets violence, but the authorities of this collapsing country seem to be on a diet of power and nothing, except a robust intervention of the international community can instil some sanity in the minds of those who rule Cameroon.

Violence seems to be the cornerstone of the government’s territorial administration strategy to the extent where the soldiers sent to the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon think that they have been given carte blanche to kill any and everybody.

These soldiers should have been properly trained to make the population their ally in their effort to end the insurgency that is really tearing the country apart.

The injustices that have triggered the discontent among the country’s English-speaking minority have been left unaddressed despite the loss of life, but new despicable situations are being generated everyday by the soldiers who think it is their divine right to treat the local population in the North West and South west regions as animals.

The Southern Cameroonian insurgency is a challenging and massive problem that requires a huge tool box, but the morally and ideologically bankrupt Yaoundé government has demonstrated that the only tool in its small tool box is brutality; a tool that has only made matters worse.

This government has no regard for human life and the manner with which army soldiers treat suspects in Southern Cameroons clearly underscores that winning hearts and minds is not a key thrust of the government’s conflict resolution strategy, that is, if it has a strategy.

The obvious abuse in a recent video wherein army soldiers are molesting an innocent civilian speaks to the government’s penchant for human rights violations. The fact that abusive government forces are never punished only encourages them to commit more atrocities.

What is more interesting is the happiness with which the soldiers themselves document their own atrocities. They are happy, relaxed and enthusiastic to commit murder with impunity.

Such images do not make room for reconciliation as both camps will be retaliating and even seeking to outdo each other.

However, while the ragtag military groups fighting for the total liberation of Southern Cameroons can be forgiven because of their ignorance and irresponsibility, government troops which engage in such gross human rights violations fail to understand that they belong to a state military which has responsibilities under the Geneva Convention.

The government which sends its troops to Southern Cameroons has a huge responsibility to ensure that Southern Cameroonian fighters who are caught are treated based on the requirements of the Geneva Convention.

The world is not without rules. There could be some chaos especially that caused by Donald Trump’s Administration as former president Donald Trump sought to withdraw the United States from many international organizations, but the Biden Administration has clearly stated that it will be filling its leadership role and human rights will be given pride of place on its agenda.

While the Yaoundé government might be protecting those who have committed atrocities in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon, Southern Cameroonians must make it their duty to expose those human rights violations.

Southern Cameroonians living in exile in any part of the world must sink their differences if they really want to achieve something. They must alert the authorities of their host countries to the government- orchestrated massacre that is playing out in Southern Cameroons.

Instead of fighting each other, the various Southern Cameroonian groups must understand that unity is strength and that if they fail to make common cause, those on the ground will continue to pay a huge price.

The internecine conflicts within the various groups and the internal disagreements between the different factions have clearly robbed the insurgency of its vitality and this is giving the Yaoundé government the possibility of thinking that it can obtain a clear military victory in Southern Cameroons.

Today, there are many Southern Cameroonian groups abroad and most of these groups do not even collaborate to ensure that the Yaoundé government is given a good run for its money.

Each group now lays claim to legitimacy and recognition by the people of Southern Cameroons, but the truth is totally different.

No group is legitimate. No group is without its supporters. No group will represent the entire Southern Cameroons in the event of any negotiations. No group will fight alone to achieve the total liberation of Southern Cameroons and no group has the resources to prosecute this war.

The truth is that, as Southern Cameroonians continue to fight each other, they are unknowingly letting the Yaoundé government off the hook.

If the government has to feel any pressure, the different factions must bury their pride and ego to reach out to the other groups so that a new and formidable force, capable of becoming a nightmare to the government, can be created.

This struggle is far from over and if Southern Cameroonian groups do not make common cause, the Yaoundé government will continue to have an upper hand and its soldiers will continue to treat innocent civilians better than cattle.

All hopes are, however, not lost. Despite the numerous factions which have helped to weaken the unity of purpose that held Southern Cameroonians together, one fact remains.

Julius Ayuk Tabe is the poster boy of this struggle and many Southern Cameroonians still long for the days when he was a clear symbol of unity and determination.

Southern Cameroonians must come together. They have a common interest. The enemy is still strong and he is doing all he can to roll back the gains the insurgency has made over the last four years.

The disunity among Southern Cameroonians that is killing the insurgency needs to be brought to an end if the enemy must be brought to the negotiating table.

The violence which has become the government’s hallmark needs to be made known around the world and this must be done through concerted efforts. Going it alone will not deter the government from killing and maiming innocent individuals and children.

If the burning of a baby by government forces and the beating of an innocent man by BIR officials for no crime committed and the numerous atrocities that have shocked the world cannot speak to the leaders of the various factions, what then will speak to them for them to understand that making common cause is central to making the Yaoundé government to come to the negotiating table?

Time is of the essence. The government has ratcheted up its violence and brutality against the people of Southern Cameroons and this will not end if all the leaders of these factions do not come together to act as a single group.

The IG must immediately undertake diplomatic initiatives that will enable the world brand the Yaoundé government as a massive and merciless abuser.

The world has been caught in multiple crises and for it to pay attention to what is happening in Southern Cameroons, the various factions involved in this struggle must start working together. There is power in numbers and the world needs to know that Southern Cameroons has the right men and women who are capable of making a difference.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-In-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Five people including a Capitol Police officer died: US Senate votes to acquit Trump of ‘incitement of insurrection’

13, February 2021

Five people including a Capitol Police officer died: US Senate votes to acquit Trump of ‘incitement of insurrection’ 0

The US Senate voted Saturday acquit former president Donald Trump of incitement of insurrection charges linked to the deadly January 6 invasion of the Capitol building.

Senate Democrats led by impeachment manager Jamie Raskin began laying out the case against Trump on Tuesday. In three days of testimony, they accused the former president of directly inciting the mob that left his January 6 rally near the White House and invaded the Capitol building to halt the certification of Electoral College votes giving Joe Biden the presidency. Democrats used dramatic video of the mob to underscore the dangers lawmakers faced that day, with Raskin stating bluntly that the trial is about “setting standards of conduct for the president of the United States so this never happens to us again”.

In counter arguments on Friday, Trump’s defense lawyers maintained that Trump’s statements on January 6 could not be directly linked to the storming of the Capitol hours later and urged the Senate to acquit. Defense lawyer Michael van der Veen told the chamber Trump’s exhortation to the crowd to “fight like hell” was merely “political rhetoric”, adding: “Countless politicians have spoken of ‘fighting’ for our principles.”

Five people including a Capitol Police officer died in the unrest. Two other officers who responded to the insurgency committed suicide in the days following.

Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives on January 13, making him the only US president to be impeached twice. He is also the first to face trial after leaving office. 

Source: France 24

Nigeria police arrest #EndSARS protesters at tollgate

13, February 2021

Nigeria police arrest #EndSARS protesters at tollgate 0

Several protesters in Nigeria’s city of Lagos were arrested on Saturday after they tried to hold a peaceful rally against the reopening of the Lekki tollgate, where security forces shot at protesters in October, which became the epicentre of the #EndSARS movement.

“I’m not here with any weapon. I’m here for human rights. This is not done, everybody knows,” said arrested protester Jay D Boy, an artist who spoke from inside a police van.

“Even those police officers today, they know. They know that things are not going well in this country. Three of my friends were killed here last year. And we are not hearing anything about it, this is not a crime.”

Police bundled around 17 protesters into a black truck and some other people drove past shouting “End SARS”, referring to Nigeria’s police unit accused of committing the deadly abuses.

“Picked up because I was walking, in my country. Picked up because I was walking,” said Christopher Emmanuel Ogboji, another arrested protester,

#EndSARS

Many view the reopening of the tollgate as ill-timed and inconsiderate to victims of the Lekki shootings.

The huge highway tollgate became the centre of the protest movement against police brutality by the SARS unit, which has been disbanded.

The demonstrations ended abruptly after the shooting in Lagos and a wave of looting and unrest followed.

The government promised reforms in response.

An investigation into last year’s violence at Lekki has stalled with representatives of the armed forces failing to appear before the panel.

Security forces say they only used blank rounds to break up protesters who had defied a curfew, though Amnesty International said soldiers shot dead at least 10 people

Nigeria’s government this week had warned against holding new protests at Lekki, saying the rallies could descend into violence in the name of justice.

“We are calling on all Nigerian authorities to demonstrate commitment to protect the right to peaceful protest,” watchdog Amnesty International said on Twitter.

Source: Africa News

Southern Cameroons Crisis: British lawyer Karim Khan who defended Agbor Balla and Dr Fontem elected next ICC prosecutor

13, February 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: British lawyer Karim Khan who defended Agbor Balla and Dr Fontem elected next ICC prosecutor 0

More than 120 countries elected British lawyer Karim Khan on Friday as the next prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, one of the toughest jobs in international law because the tribunal seeks justice for the world’s worst atrocities — war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

His election on the second secret ballot by the 123 parties to the Rome Statute that established the court ends a drawn-out and divisive process to replace Fatou Bensouda when her 9-year term expires in June.

Khan, who has specialized in international criminal law and international human rights law, was widely seen as the favourite to get the job. But neither he nor any of the other candidates garnered enough support to be appointed by consensus, prompting Friday’s election in the U.N. General Assembly Hall.

When Michal Mlynár, vice-president of the court’s Assembly of State Parties, announced that Khan had won, a smattering of applause broke out in the hall, where masked diplomats had voted one by one, putting ballots into spaced out boxes because of COVID-19 restrictions.

Khan received 72 votes, far more than the majority needed, Fergal Gaynor of Ireland was second with 42 votes followed by Spain’s Carlos Castresana Fernandez with 5 votes and Francesco Lo Voi of Italy with 3 votes. One member did not vote.

Khan currently leads a U.N. team set up to investigate allegations of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed by the Islamic State group in Iraq and has the rank of a U.N. assistant secretary-general. He has worked as a prosecutor at the tribunal prosecuting war crimes in former Yugoslavia and crimes against humanity and genocide in Rwanda.

Khan is no stranger to the International Criminal Court, known as the ICC, having acted as a defence lawyer for Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto and persuading judges to throw out prosecution charges against his client. Gaynor acted as a legal representative for victims in the Ruto case, which focused on post-election violence.

Khan also served as counsel for Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, the son of the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who is still being sought by the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity.

“Karim Khan’s election as prosecutor is occurring at a time when the ICC is needed more than ever but has faced significant challenges and pressure on its role,” said Richard Dicker, international justice director at Human Rights Watch. “We will be looking to Mr. Khan to address shortcomings in the court’s performance, while demonstrating firm independence in seeking to hold even the most powerful rights abusers to account.”

The Rome Statute which established the court was adopted on July 17, 1998 and it entered into force on July 1, 2002, with a mandate to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide — but it only steps in when domestic courts fail to initiate their own investigations and prosecutions. Its 123 state parties are bound by its provisions, which include arresting all those sought by the court.

While the Security Council has used its power under the Rome Statute to refer conflicts in Sudan’s western Darfur region and in Libya to the ICC, calls for the U.N.’s most powerful body to refer Syria, and more recently Myanmar, to the tribunal have failed.

Dicker said in an interview that “the court in 18 years has established itself as the permanent address for accountability for the most egregious crimes.”

In the last several years, Bensouda has sought to broaden its reach beyond its early all-African focus including Afghanistan, Palestine, which is a party to the Rome Statute, and Georgia.

The ICC is needed more than ever, he said, “because of the proliferation of these horrific crimes,” but the court has faced “an existential threat” from former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

It slapped sanctions on Bensouda and one of her top aides last year for continuing to investigate war crimes allegations against Americans, although the court was often criticized in the past for its focus on African crimes.

Last week, ICC judges angered Israel by saying the court’s jurisdiction extends to territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, potentially clearing the way for the prosecutor to open an investigation into Israeli military actions and the country’s construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the decision a “perversion of justice.”

Dicker said the ICC’s challenges include addressing some poor judicial decision-making and having a docket too large for its current staffing.”

The selection process for the prosecutor and the alleged failure by the ICC’s Assembly of States Parties to conduct stringent background checks on the candidates to ensure they met the requirement of “high moral character” has drawn criticism from civil society groups that work with the court.

A diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of closed meetings said the fact that many of the meetings to discuss possible successors to Bensouda took place virtually made it difficult for member nations to discuss concerns during informal “corridor” meetings.

Source: Canadian Press

CPDM Southern Cameroons elites have no regard for interests of Ambazonia, can’t be trusted

13, February 2021

CPDM Southern Cameroons elites have no regard for interests of Ambazonia, can’t be trusted 0

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Comrade Dabney Yerima has warned against putting trust in the so-called Southern Cameroons CPDM elites in Yaoundé saying they only care about their own interests in the two Cameroons, not those of the people of British Southern Cameroon.

Yerima made the remarks in a meeting grouping donors of the Interim Government on Thursday saying men like Elvis Ngolle, Paul Tasong, Paul Atanga Nji and Peter Mafany Musonge have consistently ignored U.S. Congress Resolution 684 which is critical of their actions in the conflict in Southern Cameroons and that their continued support of the Biya French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé is for the sake of their own benefits, thus they can never be trusted.

“Our 59 year history with La Republique du Cameroun has shown that it is wrong to trust the ruling CPDM Southern Cameroons elites because they do not…feel concerned about the people of Southern Cameroons, Ambazonia IDPs and our refugees in Nigeria,” he added, noting that their presence occasionally in Ground Zero only disrupts Southern Cameroons security.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the exiled Southern Cameroons leader said “What Ambazonians want…is the unity and solidarity of all Southern Cameroons Restoration groups. Any differences and divisions among Ambazonian factions are harmful and pave the way for the presence of these CPDM Southern Cameroons elites, French Cameroun army soldiers and enemies in Ground Zero.”

Vice President Dabney Yerima also said the Southern Cameroons diaspora would never forget the sacrifices being made by the Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces in Ground Zero.

By Chi Prudence Asong in London

«< 4 5 6 7 8 >»