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22, January 2019

Italy wants France sanctioned for ‘creating poverty in Africa’ ⁰

Italy’s deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio on Monday insisted that France’s policies in Africa have created poverty and caused migration.

Maio’s remarks came hours after France summoned the Italian ambassador to Paris to protest the original assertions made over the weekend.

Italy’s accusations

Speaking on Saturday in central Italy, Di Maio attacked France’s Africa policy, the latest chapter in a war of words between Rome and Paris since the anti-establishment 5-Star-Movement and far-right League won power last year.

“If we have people who are leaving Africa now it’s because some European countries, and France in particular, have never stopped colonizing Africa,” said Di Maio, who leads the 5-Star.

“If France didn’t have its African colonies, because that’s what they should be called, it would be the 15th largest world economy. Instead it’s among the first, exactly because of what it is doing in Africa.”

Di Maio added that France was manipulating the economies of 14 African countries that use the CFA franc — a colonial-era currency which is underpinned by the French Treasury.

“France is one of those countries that by printing money for 14 African states prevents their economic development and contributes to the fact that the refugees leave and then die in the sea or arrive on our coasts,” he said.

France reacts

Ambassador Teresa Castaldo was summoned on Monday afternoon by the chief of staff of European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau, the French diplomatic source said.

“It’s not the first time the Italian authorities have made unacceptable and aggressive comments,” the French diplomatic source added.

France argues that the CFA franc has brought welcome monetary stability to the countries that use it, but French President Emmanuel Macron said in 2017 that it was up to African governments to decide what to do with the currency.

Italy wants France sanctioned

The new Italian government has frequently clashed with Paris, be it on immigration or policy in Libya, eager to mark the difference between itself and the previous center-left administration which had good ties with the French authorities.

“I’ve stopped being a hypocrite talking only about the effects of immigration and it’s time to talk about the causes,” Di Maio said at the weekend.

“The EU should sanction all those countries like France that are impoverishing African countries and are causing those people to leave.”

Reuters

21, January 2019

Ambazonia Interim Gov’t warns Dion Ngute: “Don’t play with fire” ⁰

Operation commanders loyal to the Ambazonian Interim Government in both the Southern and Northern Zones have advised the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé against playing with fire after it was revealed Prime Minister Dion Ngute may stage a home coming visit to Southern Cameroons anytime soon.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered from sources deep within the Southern Cameroons Interim Government that Ambazonian Restoration forces were ready to deliver a strong response to any French Cameroun military convoy transporting Mr. Dion Ngute to the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

We understand the 85 year old President Biya recently dispatched his Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defense in Charge of the National Gendarmerie, Yves Galax Landry Etoga to the Southern Zone to get a real assessment of the situation.

Yves Galax arrived the Southern Cameroons capital, Buea on January 14, 2019 and reportedly had secret security briefings from the leadership of the Gendarmerie Legion in the South West, Squadron No 80 and the Gendarmerie Post in Bonjongo. The Biya emissary was also at the Military Hospital in Buea were he got intelligence of the number of soldiers killed and injured in the Southern Zone.

A Special Representative of the Ambazonian Homeland Security Chief in Buea observed that the appointment of Mr. Dion Ngute was a move by the French Cameroun regime to test the Ambazonian Interim Government’s reaction. “Nonetheless, any act of provocation against Southern Cameroonians by the so-called Prime Minister Dion Ngute could backfire on French Cameroun as hundreds of Ambazonia fighters in the Fako County are ready to strike targets at Bongo Square”, he warned.

The IG’s Special Representative made it clear that Ambazonia Restoration Forces were the official self-defense organization funded by the Southern Cameroons Interim Government and therefore has the right to defend the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

By Chi Prudence Asong with contributions from Sama Ernest in Buea

21, January 2019

Cabinet Reshuffle: The Rise and Rise of Chantal Biya ⁰

Ever since the formation of the last two governments, (March 02, 2017 and January 4, 2019), Cameroonian public opinion including that of the independent press have attributed a vast majority of those appointed to first lady Chantal Biya.

Some senior editorialists have even observed that Chantal Biya named the Philemon Yang and now Dion Ngute governments which have several relatives of the Cameroonian lady holding key positions in the cabinet and heading lucrative state-owned companies. These Chantal Biya family members are very influential and feared by other members serving in the Biya regime.

Many in Yaounde, the nation’s capital have opined that Chantal Biya is slowly but surely positioning her kinsmen and women in leading position in the administration. Among them, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, Minister Secretary-General of the presidency of the republic, the most powerful member of the Chantal Biya galaxy who was made minister of state on the 4^th of January.

There is also Pierre Ismael Bidoung Mkpatt Minister of Sports, (his wife Habissou Bidoung Mkpatt is in the circle of the closest to the first lady) and Oswald Baboke, (originally from the East and not Nanga-Eboko as the wife of the Cameroonian president). Oswald Baboke is the deputy director of the civil cabinet, responsible for the private affairs of the first lady. Baboke is currently one of Cameroon’s most influential leaders.

Cat calls greeted the Dion Ngute government and subsequently generated some controversies over the weekend when a large number of Cameroon government ministers appointed on the 4^th of January 2019 traveled to Nanga-Eboko, Chantal Biya’s hometown and stronghold of Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh for a meeting of thanks to the head of state for appointing them into the government.

By Sama Ernest with files

21, January 2019

World’s 26 richest own same as poorest half of people ⁰

In its annual report, Oxfam International warns against a widening economic gap between the rich and the poor due to faulty tax systems in different world countries, calculating that a mere 26 billionaires owned more than 3.8 billion people last year.

The rich grew richer and poor got poorer in 2018, the international charity organization said in the report titled “Public Good or Private Wealth.”

The world’s billionaires saw their fortunes grow by $2.5 billion per day, while the bottom half of the global population saw their wealth dwindle by $500 million daily, said the report, citing information provided by Swiss bank Credit Suisse and the Forbes List of billionaires.

It added that the number of billionaires possessing as much wealth as half of the world’s population fell from 43 in 2017 to 26 last year. Their combined fortunes reached $1.4 trillion, the same amount as the total wealth of the 3.8 billion poorest, according to the figures.

In 2016, the number stood at 61.

The report was released on Monday as political and business leaders are set to gather for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.View image on Twitter

As the elites gather at #wef19, we reveal the true costs of under-taxation of the rich on the world’s poorest.

It revealed how governments were exacerbating inequality among the masses by increasingly underfunding public services like healthcare and education at the same time as they consistently under-tax the wealthy.

“Our economy is broken, with hundreds of millions of people living in extreme poverty while huge rewards go to those at the very top,” Oxfam said. “Governments face a stark choice today — a choice between a life of dignity for all their citizens or continued extreme wealth for a tiny few.”

The report also said women and girls were the social group the hardest hit by the frightening increase in the economic gap.

Oxfam recommended that nations tax the wealthy fairer, raise rates on personal income and corporate taxes and stop tax dodging by firms and wealthy individuals.

The charity organization also advocates providing universal free health care, education and other public services including water, electricity.

It also suggests providing free childcare to free up mothers’ schedules.

PressTV-'World's richest will posses two-thirds of wealth by 2030'

The charity said that the United States played a big role in the current dire situation with most of the world’s mega-wealthy living there.

Super-rich people like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who are collectively worth $357 billion, are all Americans.

The combined fortunes of the world’s 26 richest individuals reached $1.4 trillion last year — the same amount as the total wealth of the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity.

Source: Presstv

21, January 2019

African presidents #10YearChallenge: Biya, Afwerki, Nguema et. al. ⁰

The 10 year challenge hashtag continues to gain traction on social media platforms especially Facebook and Twitter.

For those who have yet to grasp what it is about, it is a photo comparison challenge spanning over a decade. So you retrieve a photo of a decade ago and compare it to a recent one.

Many people have and continue to share their photos with the hashtag #10YearChallenge. At Africanews we are doing so for heads of state seeing that their busy schedules won’t allow them to ‘participate.’

This is the second part which is concentrated on leaders in the Central Africa bracket. The challenge ties in someway with our info hub titled: African Leaders Then and Now.

In all instances, the 2008/2009 photo appears on the left with the 2018/2019 photo to the right. The descriptions below are in the same order.

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya leaves the Elysee Palace after a meeting with France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris July 24, 2009.

Paul Biya delivers his New Year message to Cameroonians on Decemebr 31, 2018.

Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso awaits the arrival of his France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy (not pictured) at the beginning of a State Dinner at the Presidential palace in Brazzaville on March 26, 2009.

Sassou Nguesso in France to mark the centenary of World War, November 2018.

Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema arrives for the inauguration of President Jacob Zuma in Pretoria May 9, 2009.

Obiang Nguema in Cuba for a state visit, 2018.

Gabon’s President Ali Ben Bongo arrives at the morning session of United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen December 18, 2009.

Ali Bongo in Libreville after returning from Morocco to oversee swearing in of a new cabinet, January 2018.

Eritrea’s President Isaias Afwerki speaks during an interview in Asmara May 13, 2008.

Afwerki in Addis Ababa at the reopening of the Eritrean Embassy in Ethiopia, July 2018.

Culled from Africanews

20, January 2019

Israel and Chad renew diplomatic ties decades after rupture ⁰

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Chad on Sunday for what he called a “historic” trip, during which he announced renewal of diplomatic ties decades after they were ruptured. Netanyahu and Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno have “announced the renewal of diplomatic relations between Chad and Israel”, a statement from the Israeli premier’s office said.

Ties between Israel and the Muslim majority nation were broken in 1972. “The two sides view the resumption of relations as the key to future cooperation for the benefit of both countries,” the statement said.

Netanyahu on Twitter called the announcement “a historic moment”. The Israeli leader has sought to improve ties with countries in the Arab and Muslim world and said he expected more such diplomatic breakthroughs soon.

His one-day visit follows Deby’s November trip to Israel. The two leaders at the time declined to comment on whether their talks have included arms deals. Chadian security sources say the country has acquired Israeli equipment to help battle rebels in the country’s north.

Chad is also one of several African states engaged in Western-backed operations against Boko Haram and Islamic State group jihadists. Pressure from Muslim African nations, accentuated by the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973, led a number of African states to sever relations with the Jewish state.

But in recent years, Israel has held out the prospect of cooperation in fields ranging from security to technology to agriculture, to improve ties on the continent.

Deby is one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders. He took over the arid, impoverished nation in 1990 and won a disputed fifth term in April 2016 to lead the country of some 15 million people.

(AFP)

20, January 2019

Martin Belinga Eboutou in Canada: How art the mighty fallen ⁰

Dr Martin Belinga Eboutou was a senior government official in the Biya regime. But the theft of part of the money intended to corrupt the President Buhari ethnic political cartel for the arrest and extradition of Ambazonian leaders from Nigeria, constrained Paul Biya to remove and conceal in his immediate proximity his longtime mystical devil worshipping soul mate Martin Belinga Eboutou for misappropriating a sizeable part of the booty putting Biya in conflict with Buhari.

Today, our senior intelligence officer in Yaoundé has confirmed that Dr Martin Belinga Eboutou and his family have fled La Republique du Cameroun and have reportedly taken up permanent residence in Canada. With age and poor health telling on him, the crime syndicate that was bankrolled by Martin Belinga Eboutou has awoken to the reality that at long last, its many criminal tentacles notwithstanding, its days of accountability for the impunity and international criminality are near.

A medical doctor who doubled as Martin Belinga’s chief strategist, in a phone call in Yaoundé confirmed he was out of the country and that even his wife has abandoned her duty post at the University of Yaoundé and joined him in Canada.

Martin Belinga Eboutou singlehandedly created the French Cameroun Special Operation Unit that has been consistently used to eliminate real and perceived enemies or former allies to protect the devilish world of the crime syndicate in power in Yaoundé. This is the unit that was deployed to abduct and assassinate the Bishop of Bafia in French Cameroun.

Sources said the Belinga Eboutou family had fled together with some other former powerful stakeholders of the CPDM regime. Belinga’s departure followed the deaths of Foumane Akame, a long time acolyte to President Biya and General Asso Beniot of the Cameroon army.

It was unclear just when the Belingas left for Canada. French Cameroun newspapers reported recently that Biya persuaded Belinga Eboutou to travel to France for a medical mission before firing him. There was no official word from Yaoundé on the whereabouts of this once powerful political man at the time of writing this report. “A prominent man, his wife and kids are certainly no longer in Cameroon. We believe they have fled because of the chaotic developments in the ruling Essingan clan,” a source said.

Our sources said some of the soldiers, who worked as agents of the French Cameroun Special Unit have also fled, while President Biya was said to have arrested several former senior officials from the Far North region after the failed political rally in Maroua.

Dr Martin Belinga Eboutou was the backbone of Biya’s continued stay in power but relations between Biya and his kinsman have since soured, in part over his portfolio in the cabinet and over accusations of money for government appointments.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that Belinga Eboutou complaint bitterly before his last trip to France that first lady Chantal Biya had surrounded the head of state with relatives.

By Pierre Onana in Yaounde

20, January 2019

Yaounde and Beijing agree to boost cooperation ⁰

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s special representative Yang Jiechi and Cameroonian President Paul Biya agreed on Friday to further boost bilateral cooperation.

Yang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, said the China-Cameroon friendship has a long history and has withstood the test of time and international vicissitudes.

President Paul Biya paid a visit to China last year and attended the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), reaching important consensus with Xi, said Yang, adding that the bilateral relations has come to a new starting point in history with important opportunities for development.

Yang said the visit is aimed at strengthening communication with Cameroon and boosting the implementation of the consensus reached by the two presidents and the outcome of the summit, so as to elevate the friendly cooperation to a higher level.

Yang called on both sides to broaden friendly exchanges at all levels, jointly push forward the Belt and Road construction, deepen pragmatic cooperation in various fields, and promote people-to-people exchanges.

China will help Cameroon develop its economy and improve people’s livelihood, continue mutual support on issues concerning each other’s core interests and major concerns, and promote communication and collaboration on international and regional issues, said Yang.

For his part, Biya said Cameroon attaches great importance to the ties with China, appreciates its support and assistance, and hopes that China will make greater achievements in its development.

Biya said that Cameroon highly appreciates the Belt and Road Initiative, and supports the cooperation under the framework of the FOCAC. Cameroon is ready to work with China to implement the results of the Beijing Summit, and advance the bilateral relations to a new stage, said Biya.

The country is willing to communicate and coordinate with China more closely in multilateral affairs, Biya added. During the visit, Yang also met with Cameroonian Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute and Foreign Minister Lejeune Mbella Mbella.

Source: Xinhua

20, January 2019

Nigeria: Corruption takes centre stage in election campaign ⁰

Corruption is taking centre stage in the run-up to Nigeria’s presidential elections, with the incumbent accused of failing to tackle the scourge of graft and his challenger facing claims about his past.

Muhammadu Buhari, an austere and pious former general, will take on wealthy former vice-president Atiku Abubakar at the polls on February 16.

Both are ethnic Hausas, Muslims from the country’s north. Buhari, who rose to power in 2015 on a promise to eradicate the “cancer” of graft gnawing at Africa’s most populous nation, has cultivated an image of blamelessness.

Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s political “godfather” closely allied with Buhari, earlier this month described him as “a straight and honest man”.

“Leave a naira (local currency) on the table with Buhari in the room. You will find the naira on the table when you return,” he said, in a thinly veiled criticism of Abubakar.

For his part, Abubakar is alleged to have amassed several hundred million dollars by misusing public funds as vice-president under Olusegun Obasanjo between 1999 and 2007 — yet he has never been investigated in his own country.

“On the issue of corruption, I have challenged anyone, anywhere, who has any evidence of corruption against me to come forward,” Abubakar has said.

“I will shock everyone because I believe that I will fight corruption like never before.” But in the United States, Abubakar’s name has popped up in a Senate investigation into money laundering.

It charged in a 2010 report that US national Jennifer Douglas, Abubakar’s fourth wife, “helped her husband bring over $40 million (35 million euros) in suspect funds into the United States through wire transfers sent by offshore corporations to US bank accounts.”

The couple are also accused of having received more than two million dollars in commissions for a contract with German industrial giant Siemens, which has since pleaded guilty in the case.

– Two essential reforms –

But this week Abubakar put paid to rumours that he was subject to a visa ban and unable to travel to the US by jetting to Washington for meetings with American counterparts. Abubakar told AFP last year he would retain no stakes in his various companies if he is elected president.

His sprawling business empire includes interests in telecommunications, transport, real estate, agriculture, import/export and healthcare.

Verifying his pledge to stand aside will be difficult in the opaque economic system in Nigeria, which global watchdog Transparency International ranked in the 148th place of a total 180 countries for corruption in 2017.

Buhari stands in stark contrast to his flamboyant fellow northerner’s private jet, Rolex watches and luxury cars.

His spokesman in 2015 said the president had “an austere and spartan lifestyle”, unlike other Nigerian politicians who have amassed wealth during their careers.

But Buhari, who vowed to usher in more transparent and accountable government, has come under harsh criticism for an apparent lack of progress in the fight against graft.

Steps in the right direction have included two essential reforms — a single Treasury account for all government revenue and the introduction of a biometric identification system in banks to better trace clients and transfers of funds.

“Those are the two areas I commend the government,” said Saadatu Falila Hamu, a specialist anti-corruption lawyer based in Abuja.

“But despite this, the government has focused their fight against corruption on people of the opposing political parties.” Hamu also faulted Nigeria’s main anti-corruption body, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), for “inefficiency”.

– Oil contracts –

In November, EFCC director Ibrahim Magu boasted having seized the equivalent of $2.3 billion as well as sumptuous villas, jewellery, and cars — but often outside legal procedures.

Buhari has pledged to review all oil exploitation contracts to be renewed after this year. Such an electoral promise “can either lead to total chaos in the industry or lead to sanity”, said analyst Soji Apampa.

Nigeria depends on oil sales for 70 percent of its revenues. In 2013 under president Goodluck Jonathan, the head of the central bank reported a $20 billion shortfall in revenue — a scandal that helped bring about Jonathan’s fall and Buhari’s election in 2015.

Nevertheless, the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, considered a slush fund for successive governments, remains notoriously opaque and Buhari — who is also oil minister — named a close associate to head it.

“Imagine a broken pipeline with all of Nigeria’s resources flowing through it. Instead of fixing the hole, you bring a man with a whip” to deter people from stealing, Apampa said. “We haven’t seen a government with an elaborate plan” to repair the pipeline, he added.

AFP

20, January 2019

Congo-Kinshasa: Top court upholds Tshisekedi presidential election win ⁰

DR Congo’s top court on Sunday declared opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi the winner of disputed presidential elections after throwing out a legal challenge by the runner-up.

Announcing the final results of the long awaited poll, the Constitutional Court said Tshisekedi had won by a simple majority, paving the way for him to take over from longterm leader Joseph Kabila in an official ceremony on Tuesday.

Runner-up Martin Fayulu immediately called on the international community to reject the results, after the court said his appeal was “unfounded”.

“I ask the entire international community not to recognise a power that has neither legitimacy nor legal standing to represent the Congolese people,” he said of Tshisekedi, declaring himself “the only legitimate president”.

Inspired by

Tshisekedi’s victory was first announced earlier this month based on provisional results by the Independent National Election Commission (CENI) but it was challenged both at home and abroad, with the African Union appealing for the final results to be delayed.

On Sunday, the Consitutional Court said Fayulu had failed to prove any inaccuracies. “Only the CENI has produced authentic and sincere results,” judge Noel Kilomba said.

Hundreds of supporters of Tshisekedi had gathered outside the court holding placards saying “No to interference” and “Independent country” as riot police stood nearby.

‘Not their business’

The election commission announced on January 10 that Tshisekedi had provisionally won with 38.57 percent of the vote against Fayulu’s 34.8 percent.

Fayulu denounced the figures as an “electoral coup” forged by Tshisekedi and Kabila, and filed an appeal with the Constitutional Court.

At a summit on Thursday, AU leaders said there were “serious doubts” about the vote’s provisional results and called for the announcement of the final results to be suspended.

But DR Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende had snubbed the demand, saying: “I don’t think it is the business of the government or even of the African Union to tell the court what it should do.”

The AU also announced that its commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat and Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame, currently the AU chairman, were expected to fly to DR Congo on Monday.

The European Union said it joined the AU in inviting “all the Congolese players to work constructively with this (AU) delegation to find a post-electoral solution which respects the Congolese people’s vote”.

Appeal

The Financial Times and other foreign media have reported seeing documents that confirm Fayulu as the winner.

“If the court declares Tshisekedi victor, the risk of isolation would be enormous and untenable for a country positioned right in the middle of the continent,” Adeline Van Houtte of the Economist Intelligence Unit wrote on Twitter.

Fayulu’s camp had hailed the AU appeal for the final result to be put on hold, but Tshisekedi’s entourage branded it “scandalous”.

The dispute has raised fears that the political crisis that began when Kabila refused to step down at the end of his constitutional term in office two years ago, could turn into a bloodbath. The vast and chronically unstable country lived through two regional wars in 1996-97 and 1998-2003, and the previous two elections, in 2006 and 2011, were marred by bloody clashes.

The AU has taken the firmest line of all major international bodies with regard to the post-election crisis. The Southern African Development Community (SADC), a bloc that includes Angola and South Africa, initially called for a recount and a unity government.

But in a later communique, it made no mention of those demands, instead calling on Congolese politicians to “address any electoral grievances in line with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Constitution and relevant electoral laws”.

(AFP)