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14, January 2019

French Cameroun: One soldier killed in road accident ⁰

One soldier was killed and several others injured on Saturday in a car crash in the Centre region of Cameroon, police sources said.

The accident occurred on the Bafoussam-Yaounde highway in Ndiki, a village in Mbam and Inoubou division of the Centre region of the country, according to eyewitnesses.

“The accident happened early this Saturday. One soldier died on the spot and another senior military personnel was seriously injured. Several civilians were injured and rushed to the hospital for treatment,” a police source told Xinhua.

“The army vehicle was severely damaged. Some of the victims were in a critical condition,” Jean-Claude Essomba, who witnessed the accident, told Xinhua.

The army confirmed the accident, saying those injured were being treated. The army has ordered formal inquiries into the tragedy. On Friday, the army said several soldiers were injured in another road accident on the Douala-Yaounde highway.

Source:Xinhuanet

13, January 2019

UK: Joseph Wirba releases a frank and thoughtful key to understanding the war in Southern Cameroons ⁰

The much respected SDF Southern Cameroons Member of Parliament Hon. Joseph Wirba on Saturday January 12 published a book in the United Kingdom on the crisis in Southern Cameroons.

The book titled “Wirbaforce” is a frank and thoughtful key to understanding the MP’s trials and tribulations ever since the inception of the crisis in late 2016. The book launch was reportedly attended by a cross section of the Ambazonian Diaspora in the United Kingdom and beyond.

Addressing the sell-out crowd, Joseph Wirba paid tribute to the more than 4000 Southern Cameroonians killed in the on-going war. The outspoken Southern Cameroons politician also observed that his book remains a candid narrative of the truth about the genocidal campaign currently going on in Southern Cameroons.

Local media houses in Cameroon had reported that the Social Democratic Front MP had taken up resident in the United Kingdom late last year after running away from Cameroon.

Hon Joseph Wirba was the first MP to have addressed the Anglophone problem and later fled the country to neighbouring Nigeria in 2017. He returned to Yaounde the same year and resurfaced in the National Assembly building from where he reechoed his stance on the marginalization of English speaking Cameroonians.

13, January 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Kondengui prison authorities reject humanitarian aid from Ayah Foundation ⁰

The management of the Kondengui High security prison in Yaoundé on Thursday January 10 turned down a huge consignment of humanitarian aid destined for Anglophone inmates detained as a result of the war in Southern Cameroons.

Journal du Cameroun reported that the aid offered by the Ayah Foundation was rejected at the prison on ‘instructions’ from senior Cameroon government officials. The Foundation decried the attitude of the prison authorities whom they said had given clearance for the relief to be brought in only to later backtrack on their decision.

The French Cameroun prison authorities have not made any public statement regarding the issue but a source at the prison facility observed that the guards had acted on instructions from the prison administration.

An official of the prison was quoted as “A prison is not a refugee camp.” The official also pointed out that it is the sole responsibility of prison authorities to accept or reject relief aid.

Reported by Journal du Cameroun

13, January 2019

US: Castro announces 2020 presidential election bid to take on Trump ⁰

A top Hispanic politician has announced his bid to run in the US 2020 presidential election in an effort to deny the current US leader, Donald Trump, a second term.

Former Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julián Castro, a Democrat, made the announcement in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas Saturday.

“I am a candidate for president of the United States of America,” he said during a speech. “There is a crisis today, it’s a crisis of leadership. Donald Trump has failed to uphold the values of our great nation.”

The 44-year-old officially launched his presidential campaign as preparations were underway for two key conventions in the Latino political world.

If elected, Castro will be the first Hispanic president in US history.

“I know that with your help and support we have the best candidate with the best ideas and the biggest heart,” said his brother, Texas Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro.

The former Obama administration official has pledged support for various progressive positions, including a “Medicare for all” single-payer health care system.

He has also vowed to “recommit the United States to the Paris climate accord,” which Trump scrapped.

The GOP rushed to respond to Castro’s announcement, calling him a “one of the biggest lightweights to ever run for president.”

“Julián Castro has made history by becoming one of the biggest lightweights to ever run for president. He was a weak mayor who couldn’t even handle being HUD secretary. This is obviously just another desperate attempt to become someone else’s running mate,” Republican National Committee spokesman Michael Ahrens said.

Castro served as the mayor of San Antonio until 2014.

His bid for the White House in 2020 was announced ahead of conventions by Bold PAC — the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s (CHC) campaign arm — and the Latino Victory Fund in Puerto Rico on Sunday.

13, January 2019

US: Snowstorm targets Washington, at least five dead in Midwest ⁰

A winter storm that dumped heavy snow on the US Midwest, causing at least five roadway deaths, stranding some motorists in Missouri and canceling dozens of flights, marched east toward Washington on Saturday.

The weather system, which started as rain from Mexico but has since turned into snow, is forecast to affect an 1,800-mile (2,900 km) swath of the United States from Colorado to the Mid-Atlantic.

Traffic moves along Pacific Street near its intersection with 189th Street as snow falls in Omaha, Neb., Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019. (Photo via The Detroit News )

The storm hit Kansas and Missouri on Friday and pummeled those states again on Saturday as it extended into parts of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, said US Weather Prediction Center meteorologist Andrew Orrison.

In Kansas City, snow dusted the field at Arrowhead Stadium during Saturday’s National Football League playoff game between the hometown Chiefs and Indianapolis Colts.

“There’s snow time like Showtime,” the Chiefs said on Twitter, sharing video of the team’s quarterback Patrick Mahomes arriving at the stadium in the snow.

The storm is leaving its heaviest snowfall on areas west of St. Louis, where about a foot and a half of snow was recorded, with still more falling on Saturday, Orrison said.

At least five people died in weather-related crashes on roads in Missouri and Kansas, according to the highway patrolmen in both states.

Michael Fuehne, left, and David Fellner Jr., both of Belleville, strain as they push the car of Billy Brownlee out of a pile of snow after Brownlee went sideways while making a turn in Belleville, Ill., on Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019. (Photo via AP)

“I think it’s safe to say that every road is bad in Kansas right now!” Trooper Tod Hileman, a spokesman for the Kansas Highway Patrol, said on Twitter on Saturday.

Dozens of flights were canceled at St. Louis Lambert International Airport, which described the onslaught of snow on Twitter as one of its biggest single-day winter storms in years.

Snow is forecast for the Appalachian Mountains and the Mid-Atlantic on Saturday evening and Sunday.

“Given how cold it is across the Midwest and even in the mid-Atlantic region, certainly people who are going to be out are going to want to dress in layered clothing,” Orrison said.

Washington, where many federal government offices are closed due to the US government shutdown, is expected to receive 6 to 8 inches (15 cm to 20 cm) of snow from this storm, according to the National Weather Service.

Kyle Haraugh, of NFL Films, clears snow from a camera location at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., Saturday, Jan. 12, 2019. (Photo via AP)

Central and northern Virginia will receive even more, with up to 10 inches of snow possible in some places. Baltimore and parts of Maryland are also bracing for a similar amount.

Philadelphia is expected to receive a few inches of snow, but areas north of there are expected to be spared, Orrison added.

(Source: Reuters)

12, January 2019

French Cameroun multimillionaire dies in Paris ⁰

Cameroonian multimillionaire Samuel Noutchogouin is no more. The business tycoon died on Friday in Paris, France at the age of 85 years.

The French Cameroun citizen hailed from Bandjoun in the Koung-Khi district of the Western region. The late Jean Samuel Noutchogouin made his fortune from cattle rearing and breeding and founded S.P.C Agrocam and Belgocam, specialized in the production and marketing of livestock.

In 2015, he was ranked by Forbes among the men with the biggest fortunes in Cameroon. The magazine estimated wealth at more than 150 billion FCFA (315 million dollars). Samuel Noutchogouin never militated in any political party.

By Sama Ernest with files

12, January 2019

Gabon: President Ali Bongo names new premier after failed coup ⁰

Gabon’s President Ali Bongo, who has been out of the country for two months recovering from a stroke, named a new prime minister on Saturday in an apparent effort to shore up his political base days after a failed coup attempt.

The plotters of Monday’s coup attempt were arrested or killed within hours of seizing the national radio station, but the move reflected growing frustration with a government weakened by Bongo’s secretive medical leave in Morocco.

Gabonese soldiers stand in front of the headquarters of the national broadcaster Radiodiffusion Television Gabonaise (RTG) in Libreville on January 7, 2019

In a decree read by the secretary-general of the presidency on national television early on Saturday morning, Bongo named Julien Nkoghe Bekale as prime minister, replacing Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet, who has served since 2016.

Issoze-Ngondet’s tenure was marked by a sharp drop in oil output and prices that has squeezed revenues, raised debt and stoked discontent in the OPEC member state.

Oil workers’ strikes have become more common, and economic growth was 2 percent last year, down from over 7 percent in 2011.

The nomination of Nkoghe Bekale, 56, who has held several ministerial posts since 2009, represents a return to a tradition begun by Bongo’s father, Omar, of choosing prime ministers from the Fang, Gabon’s largest ethnic group.

Omar Bongo ruled Gabon from 1967 until his death in 2009, establishing the country as a pillar of “Francafrique,” a web of influence that gave companies from former colonial power France favored access to African autocrats.

The Bongos come from a smaller ethnic group, and the appointments were a way of broadening the president’s base. But Ali Bongo, who succeeded his father when he died, bucked tradition in 2016 by choosing Issoze-Ngondet, who comes from a different ethnic group.

Bongo’s absence from Gabon since his Oct. 24 stroke in Saudi Arabia has raised questions about his ability to continue carrying out his official functions, although the government has insisted he is recovering well.

A Dec. 31 address from Morocco in which the 59-year-old president slurred his speech and appeared unable to move his right arm failed to reassure many Gabonese and was cited as one of the coup plotters’ reasons for acting.

Bongo won re-election in 2016 by fewer than 6,000 votes amid widespread accusations of fraud, sparking deadly clashes between protesters and police during which the parliament was torched.

(Source: Reuters)

12, January 2019

Confusion over policy as US begins Syria withdrawal ⁰

The United States has begun withdrawing from Syria, a military spokesman said Friday, as international observers struggled to make sense of the future of US policy in the war-torn nation.

The US-led coalition “has begun the process of our deliberate withdrawal from Syria”, said Colonel Sean Ryan, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the multinational force battling the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq. Coalition member nations have not yet issued a response to the US announcement.

“Out of concern for operational security, we will not discuss specific timelines, locations or troops movements,” Ryan said in a statement to the AP. The timeline for any Syria withdrawal has long been a matter of confusion.

President Donald Trump’s December 19 tweeted announcement that the US would withdraw the approximately 2,000 US troops in Syria within 30 days stunned US allies and even those within the administration.

The decision was a surprise even for the US special envoy to Syria, Joel Rayburn, NBC News reported, citing someone familiar with the situation. Rayburn had been scheduled to speak at an event on Syria policy the very morning Trump tweeted his announcement, forcing Rayburn’s appearance to be cancelled less than half an hour before it was scheduled to begin.

Trump’s move also prompted the swift resignations of both Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy to the coalition fighting the Islamic State group.

After coming under criticism for the abruptness of his decision, Trump extended the pullout target from one month to several, later abandoning the idea of a deadline at all.

In his first Cabinet meeting of the New Year on January 2, Trump denied he had ever suggested a timetable.

“I never said fast or slow,” Trump said of the US withdrawal during the televised Cabinet meeting. “Somebody said four months, but I did not say that either.”

Analysts have warned that the US is unlikely to be able to achieve any of its goals in Syria without a significant troop presence. Others have warned of the risks of leaving the Kurds, the US allies whose YPG fighters have helped lead the fight to expel the Islamic State group from much of the country, without sufficient backup from US forces to stave off a promised offensive from Turkey.

Ankara considers Kurdish forces adversaries because of their links to the PKK separatist group active inside Turkey. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the far-right media outlet Newsmax that part of the US mission was still “ensuring that the Turks don’t slaughter the Kurds”.

Over the next few days Trump sought to underscore that there was no rush, telling reporters at the White House on January 6 that “we are pulling back in Syria. We’re going to be removing our troops. I never said we’re doing it that quickly.”

“We won’t be finally pulled out until ISIS is gone,” he added, using another acronym for the Islamic State group.

Damage-control diplomacy

Trump himself tried to assuage fears with a Monday tweet denying any change in policy. “We will be leaving at a proper pace while at the same time continuing to fight ISIS and doing all else that is prudent and necessary!” Trump wrote.

But Trump’s initial announcement had already sent administration officials into a new round of damage control, rushing to reassure allies that the pullout will not be swift or sudden.

Shortly after the start of the year, Secretary of State Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton embarked on Middle East tours aimed at bolstering regional alliances. Bolton was dispatched to Israel and Turkeywhile Pompeoset off on a nine-nation trip to Jordan, Iraq and Egypt before heading to the Gulf to visit Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait.

Speaking in Israel on January 6, Bolton said US troops would remain in northeastern Syria until Islamic State forces are routed and Kurdish fighters were ensured of protection.

Bolton said there were “conditions” that must be met before the US pullout that could take months or even years.

“There are objectives that we want to accomplish that condition the withdrawal,” Bolton told reporters in Jerusalem, including the defeat of the estimated 17,000 remaining IS fighters in Syria.

Turkey must “meet the president’s requirement that the Syrian opposition forces that have fought with us are not endangered”, he said, making a clear reference to the Kurds.

The remarks sparked outrage from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who called them a “serious mistake” and later appeared to snub Bolton, cancelling their meeting mere moments before it was about to begin.

But those sentiments were echoed by Pompeo, speaking from the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq after a visit to Baghdad.

“These have been folks that have fought with us and it’s important that we do everything we can to ensure that those folks that fought with us are protected,” Pompeo said in Erbil.

In a speech in Cairo on Thursday, Pompeo tried to convince US allies that policy in Syria had not shifted focus. The “complete dismantling” of the Islamic State group remains a US goal, he said, as does curtailing Iranian influence in Syria.

“Let me be clear: America will not retreat until the terror fight is over,” Pompeo said.

But even as officials criss-crossed the Middle East in a bid to clarify the US role in the region, analysts and politicians at home remained confused about the future of the US’s policy in Syria. “It is policy-making in reverse,” Aaron Stein, director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Middle East Program, told the Wall Street Journal.

Officials have been left attempting to make sense of the president’s orders on their own, resulting in a disjointed – and at times, self-serving – approach. “They are all trying to interpret the president’s directives in ways that comport with their own pet national-security projects, and not focused on coming up with one set of plays that each element of the government can work together on to implement,” Stein said.

Meanwhile, a UNHCR spokesman told a press conference on Friday that the UN is concerned over reports of new fighting in eastern Syria.

“We are deeply concerned about the situation in the northeast of the country,” said senior spokesman Andrej Mahecic. “There are reports of mounting civilian casualties, including many women and children, and a large-scale civilian displacement amid renewed fighting in the Hajin enclave in Deir Ezzor governorate in the east of Syria.”

But those hoping for some clarity on US Middle East policy may have to wait a bit longer. Pompeo told Fox News while in Cairo that an international conference focusing on Iran and the Middle East would take place in Poland on February 13-14.

Culled from France 24

12, January 2019

US: Democrat Tulsi Gabbard says she will run for president in 2020 ⁰

Democratic US Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii said in remarks aired by CNN on Friday that she will run for president in 2020, becoming the latest member of her party to pursue a challenge to Republican President Donald Trump.

“I have decided to run and will be making a formal announcement within the next week,” Gabbard, a liberal 37-year-old Iraq War veteran as well as the first Hindu and first Samoan-American elected to the US Congress, told CNN.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts on Dec. 31 announced she had formed an exploratory committee for a White House run in what is expected to be a crowded Democratic primary field before the November 2020 presidential election.

Gabbard said “the issue of war and peace” would be the main focus of her campaign.

Her office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Democratic presidential field could eventually include Senators Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand, as well as former Vice President Joe Biden. Julian Castro, former President Barack Obama’s housing secretary, also formed an exploratory committee in December.

In the race to pick a candidate to run against Trump, Democrats will grapple with the tension between the party’s establishment and liberal wings that flared during the 2016 state-by-state nominating contests between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent who ran under the Democratic banner.

Gabbard made headlines in 2016 by quitting a leadership post at the Democratic National Committee over the party’s decision to limit the number of debates between Clinton and Sanders, with analysts believing fewer debates benefited Clinton. Clinton ultimately won the Democratic nomination but lost to Trump.

The congresswoman then endorsed Sanders for president, becoming one of the few members of Congress to do so. Gabbard remains popular with some liberals but will have serious competition with other candidates on the left flank of the party.

Gabbard has also drawn criticism for secretly meeting with Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, whose removal from power she opposes, during a 2017 trip to the war-ravaged country.

PressTV- US congresswoman in 'secret' visit to Damascus

Iowa holds the first presidential nominating contest in 13 months. Warren informally kicked off the 2020 Democratic presidential nominating fight on visit last weekend to Iowa, condemning the corrupting influence of money on politics and lamenting lost economic opportunities for working families.

(Source: Reuters)

12, January 2019

Aliko Dangote still Africa’s richest man ⁰

Alhaji Aliko Dangote still maintains his spot as Africa’s richest man according to Forbes Magazine. The magazine disclosed that as at January 11, 2019, the 61-year-old was worth $9.9 billion.

Forbes listed him as the number one on Africa’s list of billionaires for the year 2019. The Kano State indigene has held the richest man tag for the past few years.

He was ranked the 100th richest man in the world in 2018 and number 66 on the Powerful People 2018 list – both released by Forbes.

Forbes put much of Dangote’s wealth to his cement business – the continent’s largest producer straddling most sub-Saharan African countries.

“Dangote Cement produces 44 million metric tons annually and plans to increase its output 33% by 2020. Dangote also owns stakes in publicly-traded salt, sugar and flour manufacturing companies,” Forbes added.

With a fortune estimated at $14.1 billion, the CEO of the Dangote group which has significant business interests in cement production across.

Other billionaires listed:

Behind Dangote is Nigerian oil magnate Mike Adenuga whose wealth was estimated at $9.2 billion. South African Nicky Oppenheimer, Egyptian Nassef Sawiris and Johan Rupert completed the top five with $7.3bn, $6.3 bn and $5.3bn respectively.

The eighth slot had five persons with one of them being Isabel dos Santos, Africa’s richest woman whose wealth is estimated at $2.3 billion.

She is daughter to former Angolan president Jose Eduardo dos Santos and was at a point during her father’s reign head of state oil company. She was fired by new President Joao Lourenco on allegations of financial impropriety – she flatly denies all the allegations.

Others on the eight slot of the list are Zimbabwean telecoms tycoon Strive Masiwiya and South African mining magnate Patrice Motsepe.

Source: Africa News