Headline News

London attacker identified as 52-year-old Khalid Masood

24, March 2017

London attacker identified as 52-year-old Khalid Masood 0

The British police have identified the attacker who struck in the heart of London on Wednesday as 52-year-old Khalid Masood. “Masood was not the subject of any current investigations and there was no prior intelligence about his intent to mount a terrorist attack,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Thursday. The police added that Masood was known by “a number of aliases” and had been living in the West Midlands. He was born in Kent in southeast England.

“Five people remain in a critical condition and two have life-threatening injuries,” London police said in a statement. Hours earlier, the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group claimed responsibility for the British Parliament attack that left at least four people dead, including the attacker. A statement published by the Amaq News Agency, which is seen as the group’s official press service, said the assailant was a “soldier” of Daesh.

The statement said the man launched the attack because of Britain’s participation in the US-led bombing on territories in Syria and Iraq. The person “carried out the operation in response to calls for targeting citizens of the coalition,” Daesh said. The wording of the statement did not however clearly show that if the attack was directly orchestrated or facilitated by the terror group, but indicated that the assailant was inspired by Daesh ideology.

It comes after Prime Minister Theresa May said the attacker was British-born and known to the country’s domestic intelligence agency, MI5, and had been investigated before. “What I can confirm is that the man was British-born and that some years ago he was once investigated by MI5 in relation to concerns about violent extremism,” she told MPs on Thursday, a day after an attack outside the UK Parliament in London which also injured some 40 people.

“He was a peripheral figure,” she added. “The case is historic, he was not part of the current intelligence picture.” She added that “when operational considerations allow, he will be publicly identified.” In a defiant speech to the Parliament, May said, “We are not afraid and our resolve will never waver in the face of terrorism.” Lawmakers earlier held a minute’s silence in honor of the victims. The assailant plowed a car on Wednesday into pedestrians and stabbed a police officer, an incident that has been declared a terrorist incident.

Police have arrested eight people during the investigation into the incident. MI5 Director General Andrew Parker earlier said his agency had fully mobilized its operational response in support of the police. “We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our police colleagues, grieving at their loss while also applauding the professional excellence of their response,” he said in a statement. Meanwhile, the British Queen expressed her “deepest sympathy” with the people affected by the terror attack, calling it an act of “awful violence.” “My thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathy are with all those who have been affected by yesterday’s awful violence,” she said in a statement issued on Thursday.

Presstv

Fight breaks out at funeral of former National Education Minister, Joseph Mboui

23, March 2017

Fight breaks out at funeral of former National Education Minister, Joseph Mboui 0

Fighting erupted during the funeral program of the former Minister of National Education, the late Prof. Joseph Mboui. The war of words and violent exchange of punches between the wife of the deceased and her daughter occurred during the removal of the remains which was scheduled at 10 am this Thursday, March 23, 2017 at the morgue of the General Hospital in Yaoundé but  did not take place.

The bereaved family, friends and other acquaintances of the deceased Joseph Mboui who made the trip, rather lived a spectacularly incredible spectacle. The wife of the deceased who announced the funeral from today Thursday and to run through Saturday, March 25, 2017, met an opposition introduced by her own daughter.

Two camps emerged with one fully behind the girl who scheduled the funeral for next month, exactly on April 22, 2017 and the Mum’s own followers who decided that her husband shall be buried this weekend and not after. Because of this unfortunate setback, a tribute ceremony to the Honorable Joseph Mboui initially scheduled at 12:00 pm on Thursday in the National Assembly was postponed…

Joseph Mboui died in France on Monday, February 27, 2017, following an undisclosed illness at the age of 79. He will eventually be buried in Bamble, his native village about 25 kilometers from Edea in the Sanaga-Maritime Division in the Littoral Region.

By Fru James with files from Cameroun Info.Net

Senior Canadian MP calls for gov’t intervention over escalating Anglophone Crisis

23, March 2017

Senior Canadian MP calls for gov’t intervention over escalating Anglophone Crisis 2

A senior Canadian member of parliament, Hélène Laverdiere has written a letter to the Canadian Minister for Foreign Affairs on the Southern Cameroons crisis. Hon. Laverdiere who is also a prominent figure in the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Canadian National Assembly observed that the rise of violence between Francophone and Anglophone communities in Cameroon is very disturbing as the next presidential election is scheduled for 2018.

In the letter to Chrystia Freeland, her country’s Foreign Minister, Hélène Laverdiere, spokesperson for the New Democratic Party (NDP) demanded for an update on Canada’s position on the Anglophone crisis. She added that many Canadians have expressed concern about the violation of human rights in Cameroon.

The much respected MP revealed that in addition to the humanitarian crisis and refugees in the Lake Chad region, coupled with the fight against Boko Haram, Cameroon is struggling with a complex internal political crisis. In recent months, the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime in power since 1982 has restricted the rights of Anglophone Cameroonians. Reports indicate that freedom of the press is reduced, civil society organizations have been dismantled, schools have been closed and electronic communications are interrupted in the English-speaking regions.

Hélène Laverdiere added to this picture, poverty and unemployment which is very widespread in Cameroon. She hinted that the stability of Cameroon is threatened.  Hence the need for an intervention by Canada, which, like Cameroon, has English and French as its official languages. “As a country with two official languages, Canada is well positioned to play a positive and constructive role in encouraging respect for people, including those related to language, in Cameroon. Canada also has some expertise in conflict prevention and mediation that could be crucial to a political solution to this crisis, “she noted. She appealed to Chrystia Freeland to communicate with her Cameroon counterparts to offer Canada’s support to end the crisis.

By Chi Prudence Asong with files from Cameroun Info.Net

Camair-Co to acquire new generation planes

23, March 2017

Camair-Co to acquire new generation planes 0

The Cameroon Airlines Company, Camair Co is expected to acquire new generation planes to boosts it’s haggard and grounded fleet. The company that currently has only five planes is presently under a seven year restructuring plan with America’s Boeing Company. The overall objective of the reforms is to revamp the company and get it back to business.

According to the Director General of Cameroon Airlines Corporation, Ernest Dikoum, the priority of the company presently is to give priority to local and sub continental flights. Ernest Dikoum says strict measures will be put in place to end the issuance of free tickets; accordingly, even government officials will have to pay flight tickets.

Camair-Co intends to fly 23 destinations including eight local flights to Bafoussam, Bamenda, Yaoundé, Douala, Bertoua, Ngaoundéré, Maroua, and Garoua. The company has also scheduled regular flights to four inter-continental airports including Bruxelles, Paris, Washington, and London.  At the regional level, eleven destinations have been scheduled: Abidjan, Bamako, Bangui, Cotonou, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Libreville, Ndjamena and Lagos.

As the airliner seeks to regain its clientele and enhance customer satisfaction and efficiency in service delivery, it has sort the expertise of the aero plane manufacture Boeing in the elaboration and implementation of its seven year restricting plan. The Minister of Transport, Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o, presented the details of the restructuring plan during a ceremony in Yaoundé attended by the Minister Delegate for Transport Méfiro Oumarou, chairman of the board of Administration of Camair-Co.

The new plan replaces that elaborated June last year. It lays emphasis on the acquisition of new air carriers and the diversification of destinations. According to the director of sales at Boeing, Michael Bangue-Tandet, in the next seven years the company will acquire twelve new passenger planes and a cargo plane and two turbo propulseurs 777 200 ER (Extended Range) as temporal measures while expecting the Boeing 787 in the course of the third and fourth year.

In line with the plan, Camairco will purchase a 737 cargo plane in the first year while the MA60, the 737 and the SF will be replaced in five years by new generation aeroplanes. In the course of the second and third year, turbo propulseurs Q400 manufactured by Bombardier will be added while the 737 800 will be acquired to boost regional flights. In the meantime, the 767, christened the Dja will be revised and used for support missions. The 787 will be returned to their owners after two or three years of exploitation.

In July 2020, the company will acquire two Boeing 787 “Dream liner”. Minister Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo’o, noted that one of the two Dreamliners will be available by December 2018, Ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON 2019. The rehabilitation of Camair Co has been estimated at 60 billion CFA francs and so far, 30 billion CFA francs has already been raised by a consortium of banks lead by Ecobank.

The Minister added that the remaining 30 billion CFA francs will be provided by the government of Cameroon. The Transport boss commended the management team of Camair Co for raising the punctuality of flights by the national carrier to 76% and performing 72 domestic flights per week. He says this is proof of management’s ability to efficiently carryout the renovation of the company.

CRTV

UN says Biya regime expelled 2,600 Nigerians fleeing Boko Haram

23, March 2017

UN says Biya regime expelled 2,600 Nigerians fleeing Boko Haram 0

More than 2,600 Nigerians who fled into northern Cameroon to escape Boko Haram Takfiri militants have been forced to go home since the start of the year, the UN said Tuesday. Thousands of Nigerians have been displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency, which has seen deadly attacks since 2009 in pursuit of a caliphate in northern Nigeria.

Some 85,000 have sought refuge in Cameroon but the UN refugee agency said many had been sent back, with officials citing security reasons. “So far this year, Cameroon has forcefully returned over 2,600 refugees to Nigerian border villages against their will,” UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch told reporters in Geneva.

He said UNHCR staff in Nigeria had heard and documented accounts about Cameroon troops forcing refugees to return to Nigeria, “without allowing them time to collect their belongings.” Baloch pointed to a case where refugees were rounded up during a military offensive against Boko Haram insurgents in the Mandara Mountains on the Cameroonian side of the border. They were then taken in trucks to a camp for displaced people in Banki, in Nigeria’s Borno State.

“Those returned included a one-year-old child and a nine-month pregnant woman, who gave birth the day after her arrival in Banki,” he said. “During the chaos families were separated and some women were forced to leave their young children behind in Cameroon, including a child less than three years old,” he added.

The UNHCR said it was particularly alarmed to see that the forced returns were continuing unabated after its previous protests and even after the governments of Nigeria and Cameroon signed an agreement with the UN on March 2 to ensure voluntary returns when possible. “While recognising the legitimate national security concerns of the Cameroon government, UNHCR reminds authorities that refugees are themselves fleeing violence and attacks from Boko Haram and that their access to asylum and protection must be ensured,” the agency said.

Baloch stressed that the forced return of asylum seekers and refugees constitutes refoulement, which is a serious violation of international law. Though Boko Haram was born in Nigeria, the Daesh-affiliated group has carried out frequent attacks in Cameroon, Chad and Niger, prompting the formation of a regional force to fight back. Some 200,000 Cameroonians from the Far North region near Nigeria have left their villages in fear of the violence.

Presstv

Witnesses to lie under oath in case against Barrister Agbor Balla and Dr. Fontem

23, March 2017

Witnesses to lie under oath in case against Barrister Agbor Balla and Dr. Fontem 2

The trial of the Chairman and other leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium which will resume today in a military tribunal in Yaoundé remains a conspiracy by the Francophone apartheid police apparatus to stifle the Southern Cameroons revolution and to continue with the marginalization of the Anglophones in Cameroon. The Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime has assembled a sea of witnesses backed by Francophone security agents who know how to set Anglophones up and pressurized them into giving false statements and forced to lie under oath by police with hidden political agendas.

Some four months ago, the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium picked Barrister Agbor Nkongho to champion the case for federalism and the plight of the Anglophone communities in a country run by a consortium of criminal gangs. Barrister Agbor Balla also uncovered a plot to kill the Common Law and the Anglo Saxon educational system by a CPDM group of Francophone political elites based in Yaoundé. The Francophone regime has cracked down on Anglophone activists and the Chairman of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium including his top aides are now on trial in a Francophone military court for what the Yaoundé regime described as malicious acts of terrorism.

The Francophone regime has gone to extreme lengths and humiliated Southern Cameroonians. An Anglophone Supreme Court Judge, Lord Justice Paul Ayah Abine was arrested and detained like a common criminal. Hundreds of Southern Cameroonian youths have been abducted and are currently suffering in detention centers in French Cameroun. Universities female students have been raped and some infected with HIV. An Anglophone opposition MP, Hon. Joseph Wirba has been forced to flee for his life. Dozens of West Cameroonians have been killed in Buea, Kumba, Bamenda, Jakiri and Kumbo.

The leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium have nothing to hide‚ so if there were allegations by all means, a commission would have investigated the Anglophone crisis not a military tribunal. The Francophone judges handling the current Anglophone cases are similar to those who sent former Anglophone Prime Minister Chief Ephraim Inoni to jail for privately informing a French ambassador that he was capable of running the country. These Francophone judges cannot be trusted. Pressure is now being put on Barrister Akere Muna by the regime for his support for the rule of law in a so-called bilingual Cameroon.

As was the case with Chief Inoni and Forjindam, witnesses will be made to lie under oath. That is where the malice comes in and supports the case for an independent Southern Cameroons state. We of this publication understands  that affidavits used in the Barrister Agbor Nkongho and Dr Fontem prosecution were “helped”‚ and that the decision to prosecute the Anglophone leaders did not come from the national directorate of public prosecutions‚ but that Francophone political elites played a serious role in the decision. Biya and his Francophone Beti Ewondo regime need a fight!! They will get one!!

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Biya extends Italian stay citing a meeting with Pope Francis

23, March 2017

Biya extends Italian stay citing a meeting with Pope Francis 3

The Cameroonian dictator, Paul Biya and wife have decided to apparently extend their stay in Rome. The 84 year old leader who is currently on a three-day state visit to Italy announced via the Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic, that he will meet with the Holy Father Pope Francis.

In a press release from the Civil Cabinet at the Presidency of the Republic announcing the meeting between Francis and the former seminarian, the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government intends to give the international public opinion a different perception of the extra judicial killings and rapes going on in Southern Cameroons.

Biya’s regular visits to the Vatican have greatly weakened the Roman Catholic Church in Cameroon. Roman Catholic Christians prefer to purchase holy water blessed by TB Joshua than that from the Vatican.

Pope Francis is reportedly aware of the too much interference of CPDM officials in Roman Catholic affairs and recently appointed Bishop Dieudonne Nzapalainga from the Central African Republic with a small Christian population as Cardinal leaving Cameroon with nothing following the retirement of Cardinal Tumi.

pix_1481230554e205554_1Southern Cameroons arrestsGhost town stoneswum

By Rita Akana CAMCORDNEWS

Knifeman rams car into crowd at Parliament in London terror attack

22, March 2017

Knifeman rams car into crowd at Parliament in London terror attack 0

A car mounted the pavement and ploughed into pedestrians crossing the busy Westminster Bridge beside London’s Big Ben. Parliament has been placed on lockdown with MPs locked inside and armed police carrying shields protecting the building.

Reports suggest that 12 people have been injured and Scotland Yard said the attack is being treated as a “terrorist incident”. A “police officer has been stabbed” and the “alleged assailant was shot by armed police”, Commons Leader David Lidington has told MPs. Metropolitan police said they were called to a firearms incident on Westminster Bridge.

The Sun

Lord Justice Ayah Paul to remain in Francophone custody

22, March 2017

Lord Justice Ayah Paul to remain in Francophone custody 1

The High Court in Mfoundi, Yaoundé has rejected the demand by Lawyers of the imprisoned Advocate General of the Supreme Court, Justice Ayah Paul Abine, for his unconditional liberation. The Lawyers applied using the Habeas Corpus because according to them Ayah Paul was illegally arrested on January 21, 2017 at his residence.

One of the Defense Counsel Barrister Ndong Christopher said by arresting him on Saturday which was a weekend they were doing so in contradiction of the Criminal Procedure Code which forbids arrest of someone on Public Holidays or weekends unless that person is caught red-handed committing a crime.

The lawyers of Ayah Paul have hinted they could apply against the rejection. This development according to pundits means Ayah Paul may likely be referred to the military tribunal. The Mfoundi High Court during a closed door court session last week in an informal way charged Ayah Paul Abine with terrorism, secession, propagation of false information and rebellion.

The President of the Popular Action Party, PAP, has now spent two months in custody at the Defense State Secretariat. His family has recently written to the State demanding his release due to poor health but the request has fallen into answering machine.

Cameroun Info.Net

Former President of the French National Assembly is no more!!

22, March 2017

Former President of the French National Assembly is no more!! 0

The former president of the French National Assembly, Henri Emmanuelli has died. The news was made public on Tuesday in France. French media reports say if there is a man who will be affected by the departure of the celebrated French Socialist; it will be the former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo currently being detained at the International Criminal Court.

The former Ivorian leader constantly referred to him as my white twin and for good reason.  The two men seen here share the same date of birth. To be sure, both men were born on the 31st of May 1945. Other affinities, more ideological ones contributed to bring the two leaders closer together.  A statement by the former Ivorian head of state through his spokesman Justin Katinan Koné is expected soonest.

By Chi Prudence Asong

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