Headline News

20, July 2016

UN: Security Council to vote to select new Secretary General ⁰

The 15 members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will vote behind closed doors on Thursday in order to select the next secretary-general to the world body out of a dozen officially proposed contenders.

Representatives of the 10 non-permanent member states along with those of powerful permanent five – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – will huddle together on Thursday to choose the ninth officeholder of the UN, a successor to the incumbent Ban Ki-moon.

Each member state will rate the 12 candidates with a ballot marked “encourage,” “discourage” or “no opinion,”, and the contender with the most secured “encourage” ballots will be nominated for the job and introduced to the General Assembly for the final vote.

The selection process, however, is not that straightforward and is hugely overshadowed by the unique and highly controversial privilege of the five permanent members to veto.

Not only can the five permanent members veto any resolution but can block any candidate as well. As a result, the selection is subject to the veto of any of the five permanent members of the Security Council.

Of the 12 candidates, six are women, from three different continents. If one of them is selected as the next leader of the UN, she will be the first ever officeholder of the world body, since there has never been a female secretary-general so far.

Moreover, the bulk of the candidates – eight – are from Eastern Europe, a region which has had no representatives in the top job since the creation of the UN in the final year of the Second World War.

Among the top contenders vying for the job are Argentina’s Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra, Slovenia’s former president Danilo Turk, New Zealand’s former premier Helen Clark, and Antonio Guterres, who served as Portugal’s prime minister.

Ban took office for his first five-year term on January 2007 and was re-elected to a second term on June 2011, after his first one expired on December 2011. He will leave office at the end of the year and will be replaced by the new leader on January 2017.

The UN is under fire for years by member states not only for the unrivaled ability of veto, enjoyed by the permanent five members, but also for its secretary-generals, who are chosen not for their abilities to run the world body and serve all member states, but to serve the permanent five members.

Presstv

20, July 2016

Three French soldiers killed in Libya ⁰

France’s defence ministry says three of its soldiers have died in Libya, reportedly after their helicopter was shot down. A short statement said the soldiers died “while on mission”.

Earlier on Wednesday, ministry spokesman Stephane Le Foll confirmed for the first time that French special forces were in Libya. On Tuesday, Associated Press quoted Libyan officials as saying an Islamist militia shot down a French helicopter. The attack on Sunday happened near the city of Benghazi, and left no survivors, AP reported.

BBC

20, July 2016

Tottenham ready to sell Clinton N’jie ⁰

Tottenham are considering allowing Clinton N’Jie to leave White Hart Lane on loan as they finalise a deal to sign Georges-Kevin N’Koudou from Marseille. Sources in France claim Marseille want to replace Spurs-bound N’Koudou with N’Jie, who only moved to the Premier League club for {8.3 milion from Lyon last summer although neither deal is thought to be dependent on the other one.

Tottenham are understood to have agreed a £10.8m deal for winger N’Koudou, with the 21-year-old scheduled to take a medical. The arrival of the France Under-21 international will further increase competition for places on the flanks, which means Spurs are open to the prospect of N’Jie heading out on loan for an initial 12 months.

Manager Mauricio Pochettino had been willing to listen to offers for Son Hueng-Min and Nacer Chadli this summer, but 22-year-old N’Jie may well head out before either man. The Cameroon international’s first season with Spurs was disrupted by a medial collateral ligament injury in December and he made just 12 appearances in all competitions. A loan back to Ligue 1, where he built his reputation with Lyon, could help N’Jie rediscover his best form – rather than spending an extended spell on the substitutes’ bench.

The fact Tottenham have also signed striker Vincent Jassen this summer will further limit N’Jie’s opportunities at White Hart Lane. N’Koudou scored 10 goals for Marseille last season and has also been watched by West Ham United, Manchester United and Liverpool, which may have influenced Tottenham’s decision to move now. The signing of N’Koudou will not necessarily mean Tottenham abandon their search for another attacking midfielder, despite the fact Liverpool are emerging as favourites to sign Newcastle United’s Georginio Wijnaldum. Spurs are unwilling to meet Newcastle’s £25m valuation of Wijnaldum and Liverpool are expected to make a bid for the 25-year-old this week.

The Telegraph

19, July 2016

Mali: 12 soldiers killed in militant attack on army base ⁰

At least a dozen Malian soldiers were killed Tuesday in an attack by militants on an army base in the city of Nampala in central Mali.

Ousmane Diallo, the deputy mayor of the nearby town of Diabaly, and a security source both confirmed that assailants also wounded at least 27 people as they took control of the military base, which is located close to Mauritania’s border.

“The army is regrouping in town (Diabaly) and is preparing a counter-attack to retake the base, which fell into the hands of the assailants,” Diallo said.

Presstv

19, July 2016

Race for the White House: Donald Trump’s wife speech included phrases and words from Michelle Obama ⁰

In her first major political speech, presumptive US Republican Party nominee Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, has apparently lifted a paragraph from Michelle Obama’s speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Melania addressed a cheering crowd at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday after a brief introduction from Trump where she portrayed her husband as a talented, compassionate and unrelenting leader who, if elected, would unify the country.

Melania’s speech included phrases and even precise words from Michelle Obama’s 2008 address. Following is the paragraph in question from Melania’s speech: “From a young age, my parents impressed on me the values that you work hard for what you want in life: that your word is your bond and you do what you say and keep your promise; that you treat people with respect. They taught and showed me values and morals in their daily life,” said the Slovenian-born jewelry designer and former model.

Presstv

19, July 2016

Inside Cameroon: Is the SDF Diaspora revolution over? ¹

The Social Democratic Front (SDF) and the ruling Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement (CPDM) are both major political parties in the Republic of Cameroon. The similarities end there! The SDF as Cameroon’s main opposition party is in a state of brooding, and its diaspora outlets in Europe and the United States of America are facing an energy-draining soul-searching brooding.Yet, every SDF militant you meet in the streets of London, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin and Oslo is not even worried.Is their silence deliberate or accidental? What is really the matter? Is it that the SDF revolution is actually over? Or is it in the words of Dr.Boniface Forbin “going, going, gone”.

The SDF tormented by fear graciously accepted the 43 seats awarded the party by a CPDM government-rigged parliamentary election in 1997. The understanding then from every SDF militant particularly those in the diaspora was that: well, we know the party will do nothing in parliament, but what will it achieve by staying out? It would have continued as a front as some Semi Bantus and Sawas recommended. But the Bafourchu mafia that hijacked the SDF were tired of staying on the sidelines of power and those luxurious hotels in Yaounde, the nation’s capital. From 43 seats gotten through a counterfeit parliamentary elections in 1997, the SDF has slowly but surely been reduced to a North West Region political party in 2014.

Correspondingly, it is evidently clear that the silence maintain by SDF militants in the diaspora is deliberate and betrays frustration arising from the fear that the SDF as a political entity in Cameroon has outlived its usefulness and the revolution that came along with it is over. When this reporter speaking to SDF militants in Paderborn,Germany in 2000 did observe that the SDF going to parliament in 1997 under those CPDM conditions was in effect surrendering and beginning a new form of cooperation with the President Biya regime, he was given matching orders to leave the venue. The 1997 SDF decision demonstrated a frightful and unloving attitude by the party towards the Cameroonian people. It was indeed a decision that was contrary to the SDF’s fundamental objective which was to overthrow the crime syndicate headed by President Paul Biya and bring about democracy, economic prosperity, law and order and above all good governance in the Republic of Cameroon.

As a big political party with a very small brain, the SDF did not know that its Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi’s greatest distinction and strength laid in his consistency and unswerving faithfulness to the party’s objective over the years. A pro-National Assembly policy destroyed this overnight. To be sure, the 1997 pro-Assembly decision weakened the SDF and its leadership forever!! The SDF diaspora in Europe and the USA cannot wash their hands off this failure like the biblical Pontus Pilate! The argument that came from New York, Berlin and London that there is no future prospect for free and fair election under President Biya greatly contributed to ending the SDF revolution. What the SDF diaspora was actually saying to their leadership back home was that “if you can beat them, join them”.Which they did!!

The SDF it can now be said was never ready for a long term campaign. What we know as Africans is that similar liberation struggles have lasted for decades and even more. The revolution that finally brought Meles Zenawi to power in Ethiopia in 1991 lasted 17 years. Though a very bad example in modern day Africa, but it is on record that Yoweri Kaguta Museveni challenged the electoral fraud of Milton Obote and that led to a long campaign based on a 10-point programme. He finally beat Obote and all the others in 1986, after 16 difficult years. In Namibia, Sam Nujoma and Toivoja Toivo founded SWAPO in 1959 to fight abusive colonialism. Nujoma went on exile in 1966 but kept up his fight for liberation. He won and became President of Namibia in April 1990-after 31 years. In South Africa the ANC campaign began in 1910. Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years. That did not daunt the spirit of the struggle. The campaign for African majority rule in Northern Rhodesia now Zimbabwe lasted for more than 20 years. So where does our Cameroon SDF stand in history? Maybe the SDF diaspora needs to come up with a new idea!!!!

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai (Cameroon Concord News Group)

NB: This article was first published in 2014

19, July 2016

50 billion FCFA stolen from BICEC Cameroon ⁰

An audit conducted in March 2016 by the Banking Commission of Central Africa (COBAC) has revealed that 50 billion francs CFA was stolen from the International Bank of Cameroon for Savings and Credit (BICEC). The findings also noted that the money was taken from the bank through “implied external providers with internal complicity.”

Media reports have suggested that the arrival of Alain Ripert, the new CEO of BICEC brought about the opening of the investigations. The COBAC revelations highlighted the participation of two senior executives of the bank in these criminal practices namely, Innocent Ondoa Nkou who resigned a few weeks after the discovery and Samuel Ngando Mbongue, the Director of Accounting and Treasury who was fired with four other employees.

Rita Akana (Cameroon Concord News Group)

19, July 2016

Camair-Co: Downward trend continues as pilots begin strike action ⁰

Camair Co-pilots reportedly launched a strike action on Monday, July 18, 2016, because of their poor working conditions. In a memorandum from the Union of Airline Pilots and Flight Engineers of the Cameroon Civil Aviation ( Spinac) addressed to the Minister of Finance and the chairman of the board of directors of Camair-Co, the pilots noted the non-payment of salaries since May 2016.

Commander Ngom Mambingo who signed the document also stated that the pilots were demanding three months of unpaid wages. Camair-Co like every CPDM business structure is run like a crime syndicate. Salaries for December 2015 were paid in February 2016 and that of April 2016 were paid in early July of this year.

The pilots also denounced the incompetence at the top management and operation of aircraft. The recruitment policy of the company is laughable. From 2011 to 2014, Camair-Co had 400 to 500 employees. Today, the workforce is 900 employees, against only 96 additional seats with the two new flying coffins from China- MA-Go with 48 seats each.

So in two years, Jean Paul Nana Sandjo has recruited 500 new employees in a company that is sorely lacking in financial resources to pay the maintenance costs of its aircraft, as well as wages.

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai (Cameroon Concord News Group)

18, July 2016

Cameroon in 2016: The Agbaw-Ebai Debate ⁰

Cameroon is ill, very sick

Mention one area that is in order

Military-Thieves

Police-Rotten

Roads-Death traps

Justice-So much injustice

Electricity-Epileptic

Housing-Not affordable

Civil Service-Evil servants

Tax System: Favors ruling CPDM barons

Hospitals: Mere consulting rooms

Security: Completely absent

Culture: Westernized

Politicians: Very greedy and self-centered

Religion: Hijacked by con men of god

Cameroon Concord News Group-Very worried

Cameroonian citizens: 10 percent sane and 90 per cent political comedians

18, July 2016

King Mohammed VI of Morocco announces plans to rejoin the African Union ⁰

Morocco has officially announced plans to rejoin the African Union more than three decades after it left the bloc in protest at the independence of Western Sahara. King Mohammed VI sent a message to the leaders of the union as they began a two-day summit in the Rwandan capital Kigali on Sunday, saying it’s time for his country to retake its position in the organization.

“For a long time our friends have been asking us to return to them, so that Morocco can take up its natural place within its institutional family. The moment has now come,” said the monarch. He said although Morocco left the club, “it never quit Africa.” In 1984, King Mohammed’s father, King Hassan II, pulled the North African country out of the union over the decision to accept the independence of Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as a formal member.

Morocco annexed Western Sahara in 1975 and considers it the kingdom’s “southern province.” For decades, the United Nations has been seeking to hold a referendum on independence for the territory. While the government in Morocco continues to carry out multi-million-dollar development projects in the territory, several African countries recognize the area as the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic.

Morocco has offered wide-ranging autonomy for the region, but the Polisario Front, the independence movement in the Western Sahara insists that a referendum be held so that the local population can decide their fate. Leaders of the movement warned in April that that if the UN Security Council fails to set a timetable for a vote on self-determination, war will be possible over the disputed territory.

Presstv