Headline News

Southern Cameroons: Landslides and flooding in Buea and Limbe

19, March 2023

Southern Cameroons: Landslides and flooding in Buea and Limbe 0

Flooding and landslides impacted Buea and Limbe in the Southwest Region, overnight March 18/19. Damage to property and casualties have been reported. Multiple road routes have reportedly been flooded.

Further heavy rainfall, conducive to additional flooding and landslides, is forecast through March 19. Disruptions to electricity and telecommunications services are possible where significant flooding or landslides impact utility networks.

Floodwaters and debris flows may render some bridges and roadways impassable, impacting overland travel in and around affected areas. Ponding on road surfaces could cause hazardous driving conditions on regional highways. Authorities could temporarily close some low-lying routes that become inundated by floodwaters.

Sources: Crisis 24                                 

US: Trump says he expects to be arrested Tuesday, calls for protest from supporters

18, March 2023

US: Trump says he expects to be arrested Tuesday, calls for protest from supporters 0

Former US President Donald Trump said he expects to be “arrested” on Tuesday over hush money allegedly paid to a porn star before the 2016 election, calling on his supporters to protest.

“Leading Republican candidate & former President of the United States of America will be arrested on Tuesday of next week,” the 76-year-old billionaire said Saturday on his Truth Social platform, adding: “Protest, take our nation back!”

An indictment would make Trump the first former US president to be charged with a crime, marking an explosive and unpredictable development in the 2024 White House race — as Trump seeks again to clinch the Republican nomination.

Not even a conviction in the hush money case would prevent Trump from running, but an indictment could have major consequences, galvanizing his critics but also electrifying his supporters.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reacted with fury, accusing New York prosecutors of pursuing “political vengeance” against Trump. McCarthy vowed on Twitter to launch a congressional probe of the matter.

But his Democratic predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, denounced Trump’s announcement as “reckless,” saying it would “foment unrest among his supporters.”

“He cannot hide from his violations of the law, disrespect for our elections and incitements to violence,” added Pelosi, who was still speaker when Trump was impeached for inciting the January 6, 2021 rioting in the US Capitol.

The current investigation, led by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat, centers on $130,000 paid weeks before the 2016 polls to stop porn star Stormy Daniels from going public about an affair she says she had with Trump years earlier.

Trump’s lawyer told CNBC on Friday that his client, if indicted, would surrender to face criminal charges.

Trump has denied having had an affair with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, and has dismissed the investigation as politically motivated.

‘Illegal leaks’

In his Truth Social post, written in capital letters, Trump referred to “illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorneys office” and said the investigation was “based on an old & fully debunked (by numerous other prosecutors!) fairytale.”

He doubled down in another post, assailing his successor, President Joe Biden, as “crooked” and urging his followers to “Protest, Protest, Protest!!!”

Reports said authorities were planning to increase security around the Manhattan courthouse in coming days.

Trump’s lawyer Susan Necheles indicated that his posts Saturday were based on media reports and not on any fresh action taken by prosecutors.

“Since this is a political prosecution, the District Attorney’s office has engaged in a practice of leaking everything to the press, rather than communicating with President Trump’s attorneys,” Necheles said in a statement to AFP.

A grand jury is a citizen panel which examines evidence presented by prosecutors to decide if a charge is warranted.

The jury in New York heard on Monday from Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who made the payment to Daniels. Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018 on related federal charges. He pleaded guilty but said he had been carrying out Trump’s orders.

Daniels herself met with prosecutors on Wednesday and “agreed to make herself available as a witness, or for further inquiry if needed,” according to her lawyer Charles Brewster.

Trump has been invited to testify, which legal experts say suggests an indictment is near.

The payment to Daniels, if not properly accounted for, could result in a misdemeanor charge for falsifying business records. That might be raised to a felony if the false accounting was intended to cover up a second crime, such as a campaign finance violation, The New York Times has reported.

2024 prospects

Trump is facing several criminal probes at state and federal level over possible wrongdoing that threaten his new run at the White House.

In Georgia, a prosecutor is investigating Trump and his allies’ efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the southern state. The grand jury in that case has recommended multiple indictments, the forewoman revealed last month.

The former president is also the subject of a federal probe into his handling of classified documents as well as his possible involvement in the January 6 rioting.

Some observers believe an indictment bodes ill for Trump’s 2024 chances, while others say it could provide a huge boost.

“The arrest secures the nomination for Donald Trump,” tweeted Rick Wilson, a political strategist who quit the Republican Party in protest over Trump. “The base will rally politically, and possibly physically.”

Tech billionaire Elon Musk, a self-described libertarian who has increasingly aligned with Republican positions and who overturned the Twitter ban on Trump, went even further.

“If this happens, Trump will be re-elected in a landslide victory,” Musk said in a tweet.

Source: AFP

Russia says ICC warrant for Putin is meaningless

17, March 2023

Russia says ICC warrant for Putin is meaningless 0

Moscow has dismissed the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on social media.

“Possible ‘recipes’ for arrest coming from the international court will be legally void as far as we are concerned,” she added without referring to Putin by name.

Source: France 24

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Prof Chiabi Emmanuel’s killing is truly shocking and utterly despicable

17, March 2023

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Prof Chiabi Emmanuel’s killing is truly shocking and utterly despicable 0

The recent killing of several innocent civilians in Muea by the Cameroon government military and the brutal assassination of Professor Chiabi Emmanuel in Bamenda by a non-state armed group is truly shocking and utterly despicable, Barrister Agbor Balla pointed out in a release on the crisis in Southern Cameroons.

University dons have to be able to go out and prepare the next generation for the challenges ahead and to understand the problems of the students so they can act upon them.

The Barrister Agbor Balla statement did not ascribe motives, but stated that it can only be described as “unacceptable in a civilized society.”

Agbor Balla expressed great sorrow at the death of Professor Chiabi including the civilians killed in Muea.  

“Halt the Barbarism! Barrister Agbor Balla said and furthered that “Irrespective of their alleged crimes, these extra judicial, summary or arbitrary killings cannot be the solution. What have they solved? Do they not create room for more escalation and hate?

“We must rise up against these killings”, the man of law warned.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Nelly Epupa

Cameroon-Nigeria Border: Fresh fighting with Boko Haram displaces thousands

16, March 2023

Cameroon-Nigeria Border: Fresh fighting with Boko Haram displaces thousands 0

At least 3,000 people have been displaced in fresh fighting along the Nigerian-Cameroonian border, according to forces battling Boko Haram militants.

Refugees at Minawao, a camp on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria, say the number of people seeking humanitarian assistance in the camp increases by the day.

Isaac Luka, president of Nigerian refugees at Minawao, said the current influx caused by hunger and gun battles is making living conditions that were already bad in the camp even worse.

“There are Nigerians coming from the host community around the border,” he told VOA via a messaging app from Minawao on Wednesday. “They were given portions of land to start cultivating food, but this year the season was not good for the harvest and recurrent attacking at the border pushed them to the camp. They have their relations in the camp. They share the little they have. Some go selling firewood to earn something for their children.”

Luka fled Nigeria’s Borno state in June 2014 after Boko Haram terrorists killed more than 20 people in his village, including his family.

He said host communities around the camp are also overwhelmed by the number of civilians escaping hunger and battles between Cameroon government troops and Boko Haram fighters along the northern border with Chad and Nigeria.

Toudje Voumou, the highest government official in Mayo-Moskota district, said the Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, or MNJTF, has increased its presence on the border. The force has troops from Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad.

Voumou said for about two weeks there have been intense battles between Cameroon government troops and Boko Haram militants on both sides of the Cameroon-Nigeria border. Voumou added that several military posts have been erected to face Boko Haram militants hiding and harassing civilians in villages on both sides of the border.

MNJTF announced in February that the month of March will be dedicated to wiping out remaining Boko Haram fighters in the border area.

The force said several attacks have been launched on Boko Haram strongholds, but did not specify how many jihadists have been killed or wounded.

The Cameroon government said civilians should assist troops fighting the jihadists by reporting strangers in their villages. The government also said it has remobilized militias to assist with the ongoing battles against Boko Haram by reporting strangers and armed men hiding in the bush to government troops.

Olivier Guillaume Beer, the UNHCR representative in Cameroon, spoke to Cameroon state broadcaster CRTV this week, saying humanitarian conditions for displaced persons is concerning.

“We have 2,500 people in the transit center, which has a capacity of 300. These people are supposed to be registered and then go to the Minawao refugee camp, which is already very saturated. Sixty-seven thousand people in the camp,” Beer said. “So, these are our challenges. We need more resources to be able to register and document them, to provide health care, increase the number of classrooms, and alleviate the suffering of this population.”

During an April 2022 visit to Cameroon, the U.N.’s refugee chief, Filippo Grandi, vowed to give more support to displaced persons and refugees fleeing violence and natural disasters. However, the U.N. said it received only 23% of the $100 million it needed to take care of the growing needs of refugees in the central African state.

Boko Haram attacks broke out in Nigeria in 2009 before spreading to neighboring countries, including Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

More than 36,000 people have been killed, mainly in Nigeria, and 3 million have fled their homes, according to the United Nations.

Source: VOA

Football: Gianni Infantino re-elected FIFA president

16, March 2023

Football: Gianni Infantino re-elected FIFA president 0

Gianni Infantino has referenced Rwanda’s hardship in recovering from a genocide, which saw an estimated 800,000 people murdered, when discussing his campaign to become FIFA president in 2016.

Infantino was speaking at the FIFA electoral congress in Rwanda’s capital of Kigali where he was re-elected for another four-year term after running unopposed. And while he will view the result as confirmation of his popularity, his opening speech is the latest example of his bizarre and often controversial style.

Ahead of the World Cup in Qatar last year, the 52-year-old attacked his critics in a rambling hour-long speech in which he declared: “Today I feel Qatari, Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel [like] a migrant worker.”

Source: Mirror.co.uk

NSAHLAI Family: Another fraud case in the USA

15, March 2023

NSAHLAI Family: Another fraud case in the USA 0

A federal jury convicted an Ashburn woman today on charges of conspiracy, bank fraud, and money laundering.

According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Rose-Marie Nsahlai, 47, and her husband fraudulently obtained two Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. The PPP was a program instituted by the U.S. Congress to help businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic continue to pay salaries or wages to their employees. Nsahlai carried out the scheme in connection with two of her husband’s businesses by creating fraudulent payroll documentation for each business, and then submitting that documentation in support of the PPP loan applications. The fraudulent documentation represented that her husband’s businesses had dozens of employees with over $17 million of annual payroll in 2019, when in fact they had few, if any, employees.

In total, Nsahlai and her husband fraudulently obtained approximately $2,501,753 in loan proceeds, and they then spent those funds on items unrelated to any legitimate PPP-related expense. Those items included the down-payment on a 7,000-square-foot home in Leesburg. Nsahlai’s husband pleaded guilty to this scheme in 2021.

Nsahlai faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison when sentenced on July 19. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Kareem Carter, IRS Criminal Investigation Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Washington D.C. Field Office; Maureen R. Dixon, Special Agent in Charge of the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); Michael Serra, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Office of Inspector General for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC); and Amaleka McCall-Brathwaite, Eastern Region Special Agent in Charge for the Small Business Administration, Office of Inspector General (SBA-OIG), made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Rossie D. Alston, Jr. accepted the verdict.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jordan M. Harvey and David A. Peters are prosecuting the case.

Source: Justice.gov/USA

Assad meets Putin in Moscow

15, March 2023

Assad meets Putin in Moscow 0

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad offered Russian President Vladimir Putin his support in the Ukraine conflict during a visit to Moscow on Wednesday. The meeting between the two leaders in Moscow came as thousands of Syrians demonstrated in rebel-held northwestern Syria to mark 12 years since the start of pro-democracy protests in 2011, which the Assad regime brutally crushed with Russian help.  

In a televised meeting with Putin in the Kremlin, Assad said Russia was fighting neo-Nazis and “old Nazis” in Ukraine, according to a Russian translation.

Without offering evidence, Assad said the West had taken in “old Nazis”, and was now supporting them.

Kyiv and the West say Russian accusations that Ukraine has become a hotbed of Nazism are a baseless pretext for an unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine.

Welcoming Assad at the start of the meeting that came on the anniversary of Syria’s 12-year uprising-turned-civil war, Putin emphasised the Russian military’s “decisive contribution” to stabilising the country.

Assad thanked Putin for backing Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, noting that the Kremlin’s support has remained strong despite the fighting in Ukraine.

“Even though Russia now is also conducting the special operation, its position has remained unchanged,” Assad said, using the Kremlin’s “special military operation” term for the war in Ukraine.

Moscow has provided robust political support to Assad at the UN and actively mediated to help repair his government’s ties with regional powers. Russia’s military support for Assad also helped him to turn the tide in a civil war that began in 2011 as a pro-democracy movement.

Source: France 24

Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo Regime: Candidates line up to succeed disgraced Maxime Eko Eko

15, March 2023

Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo Regime: Candidates line up to succeed disgraced Maxime Eko Eko 0

Four candidates have been identified to succeed Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, the head of the Directorate General of External Research popularly known as CENER who was indicted on 4 March in the case of journalist Martinez Zogo’s murder.

After 12 years at the head of the Cameroonian secret service, Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, one of the main targets of the investigation into the murder of journalist Martinez Zogo, is now an X factor.

The francophone dominated military intelligence agents since late January secretly investigated the murder of journalist Martinez Zogo with Israeli help and their findings have implicated Biya’s counter-espionage chief.

This item is still developing

By Nelly Epupa

French Cameroun: CPDM Leads Senatorial Election; Opposition Alleges Fraud

14, March 2023

French Cameroun: CPDM Leads Senatorial Election; Opposition Alleges Fraud 0

Opposition parties in Cameroon have accused the ruling party of vote-buying in Sunday’s Senate elections. Early results show the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) winning all seats in the poll which 10 opposition parties contested.

Singing and celebrating in the streets of the capital Yaoundé, supporters of the CPDM already proclaimed themselves the winners of the March 12 Senate elections.

The CPDM is the party of Cameroon’s long-serving leader, 90-year-old Paul Biya.

Local media, including state broadcaster CRTV, report that similar celebrations took place in at least nine other locations.

Early results from ELECAM, the elections management body, indicate that the CPDM won all 70 seats in Sunday’s vote.

ELECAM said the elections, involving 15,000 designated members of the Senate electoral college, were free of glitches across the central African country. Voters in the restive western regions defied separatist threats and carried out their duties, the body said.

Opposition parties say the elections were marred by irregularities.

Denis Emilien Atangana was a candidate of the Front des Democrates du Cameroun, or FDC.

He said it was scandalous for the ruling CPDM to hire buses to transport all municipal and regional councilors who constitute the electoral college to polling stations. He also said the CPDM used threats, bullying and vote-buying to deprive voters of their freedom to make democratic choices. He also claimed, while in the buses, officials of the CPDM distributed money and threatened to punish voters who refused the bribe.

Atangana said opposition parties will file petitions with the Constitutional Council to cancel the results of the vote.

He said the government and ruling CPDM suffocate democracy by wanting to occupy all elected and appointed government positions.

Atangana alleged the polls were marred by low turnout and violence. The opposition says many voters in the volatile Northwest and Southwest regions did not vote due to threats from separatists who vowed to disrupt the process.

Separatists on social media, including WhatsApp and Facebook, say they stopped many electors from voting.

About 15,000 councilors in 60 divisions across Cameroon make up the electoral college. ELECAM says more than 97% of electors performed their voting rights.

The government says it protected all voters and candidates throughout the process.

The territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, said the government did not report irregularities that could jeopardize the outcome of the polls.

“More than 3,000 national and international observers were accredited by the ministry of territorial administration,” he said. “They travelled across the country, and we hope that they will produce objective reports on the conduct of this election, which in our opinion was free, transparent and credible. As of now, no major incident has been reported in any of the 58 divisions of the country.”

The Senate, or upper house of parliament, has 100 seats. Seventy are elected by the councilors. The other 30 will be appointed by President Biya, who has the power to select opposition members as senators.

Source: VOA

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