The Federal Government and the Republic of Cameroon have pledged to complement each other’s effort in securing the borders of both countries, particularly against terrorists and secessionists.

The Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Zubairu Dada, while declaring open the 8th Session of the Cameroon-Nigeria Trans-Border Security Committee Meeting in Abuja, said the committee has achieved a lot of appreciable strides since its establishment in 2012.

Dada disclosed that Nigeria will always welcome and support any initiative from the Republic of Cameroon that will strengthen the border relations and curtail security threats, especially from terrorists and secessionists.

Dada added that since the signing of the Cameroon-Nigeria Trans-border Security Agreement in February 2012 and the first session of the committee’s meeting in Yaounde in 2013, the committee has made efforts to collectively address the enduring challenges of terrorism and other forms of criminality along borders in order to promote peaceful coexistence.

Dada further said it was crucial to sustaining the level of cooperation between the two countries.

‘It is crucial that we sustain this level of cooperation in order to overcome our lingering border security concerns. It is for this reason that we are gathered here in Abuja, in line with the aforementioned agreement to ensure that our people in the border areas live in a peaceful and secured environment,’ Dada said.

Dada also stated that the Common Border Governance Strategy as agreed during the 4th Conference of African Ministers responsible for border management held in Addis Ababa in 2016, was critical in addressing challenges and opening doors of opportunities for trans-border economic cooperation.

‘It was unanimously agreed that Africa’s peace and security is directly intertwined with good border governance at the attainment of sustainable development in the border areas,’ Dada stated.

In his remarks, the Head of the Cameroonian delegation, Mr Atanga Nji Poul, described the committee as an important forum for both countries.

The Minister of Territorial Integrity of Cameroon disclosed that since the commencement of the Committee activities, Nigeria and Cameroon borders have recorded a lot of improvement in terms of security.

Atanga Nji maintained that due to the improvement in security, the activities of Boko Haram and other criminals have reduced drastically which led to the returning of many Nigerian refugees residing in Cameroon back home.

The Head of the Nigerian Delegation and National Security Adviser, General Babagana Monguno, said the 8th session’s main focus is the consolidation on gains of the previous ones.

Monguno added that multilateral platforms in the fight against terrorists must be sustained by both countries.

He reaffirmed the commitment of the two countries to resist any attempt to form alliances by secessionist groups to destabilise the region.

Source: Sunnewsonline

Sudan will hand over to the International Criminal Court (ICC) several of its former leaders, including deposed autocrat Omar al-Bashir, wanted for crimes against humanity and war crimes during the conflict in Darfur, the country’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

“The Council of Ministers has decided to hand over the wanted persons to the International Criminal Court,” Mariam al-Mahdi, Sudan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.

According to the official Suna agency, the decision was arrived at after a consultative meeting between the office of the foreign ministry and the new chief prosecutor of the Hague-based court, Karim Khan, who was visiting Khartoum.

The Darfur conflict broke out when rebels from the territory’s ethnic central and sub-Saharan African community launched an insurgency in 2003, complaining of oppression by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.

Al-Bashir’s government responded with a campaign of aerial bombings and raids by militias known as janjaweed, who stands accused of mass killings and rapes. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes.

The court charged al-Bashir with war crimes and genocide for allegedly masterminding the campaign of attacks in Darfur. Sudanese prosecutors last year started their own investigation into the Darfur conflict.

Also indicted by the court are two other senior figures from al-Bashir’s rule: Abdel-Rahim Muhammad Hussein, interior and defense minister during much of the conflict, and Ahmed Haroun, a senior security chief at the time and later the leader of al-Bashir’s ruling party. Both Hussein and Haroun have been under arrest in Khartoum since the Sudanese military, under pressure from protesters, ousted al-Bashir in April 2019.

The court also indicted rebel leader Abdulla Banda, whose whereabouts are unknown, and janjaweed leader Ali Kushayb, who was charged in May with crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Source: Africa News

The corruption trial of former South African president Jacob Zuma, is scheduled to resume online this Tuesday. The office of the chief justice announced this after the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg last week declared that the case would be heard in open court.

Jacob Zuma is currently in prison for contempt of court , but since last week he’s has been in a nearby hospital.

His legal team had complained that a virtual appearance would infringe on his rights. But Zuma is still in hospital on the eve of the trial proceedings and a postponement is likely.

His lawyers are expected to offer evidence of his undisclosed medical issues which could lead to a further postponement of the corruption case.

Source: Africa News

Suspected jihadists massacred more than 40 civilians in northern Mali and killed 12 troops in an ambush in neighbouring Burkina Faso, officials said Monday, highlighting the security crisis gripping the two fragile states.

 “Terrorists” on Sunday invaded the villages of Karou, Ouatagouna and Daoutegeft near Mali’s border with Niger, a military officer told AFP, using a term officials use to designate jihadists.

“(They) massacred everyone,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A document by the local prefecture, seen by AFP, said 51 people had been killed in the coordinated attacks, homes had been looted and cattle stolen.

A local official, who also asked not to be identified for security reasons, said “20 civilians were massacred in Karou. Fourteen civilians were killed in Ouatagouna, and other civilians were killed in the hamlet of Daoutegeft”.

The assailants arrived on motorbike, taking the villagers by surprise, he said.

An official at a fourth village said his locality had also come under attack.

An army unit has been sent to provide help, a military officer said, but a source in a Malian NGO said communications with the remote area were poor after jihadists had attacked telecoms sites.

Mali crisis

Mali, a landlocked and impoverished state in the heart of the West Africa’s Sahel region, has been battling a jihadist insurgency since 2012.

The crisis began with unrest in the north of the country that spread to Mali’s ethnically volatile centre and then to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.

Armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group are steering the campaign today.

Thousands of civilians and troops have died and hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes.

Mali has suffered two coups since August last year, and on July 20 military leader Colonel Assimi Goita survived an attempted assassination at a mosque in Bamako.

Alioune Tine, an independent experts on human rights in the Sahel who reports to the United Nations, last week warned that a “critical threshold” had been breached in the country’s security situation.

At the end of an 11-day visit, he highlighted “the failure of the institutions of state” as well as “relentless attacks on civilian populations” by jihadists. The armed forces themselves had committed violence against civilians, he said.

Burkina attack

In Burkina Faso, meanwhile, 12 troops were killed and eight were wounded Sunday in an ambush near the border with Mali, the government said.

“Members of the ground forces and the rapid intervention force GARSI were ambushed” in the northwest Boucle du Mouhoun region, Communications Minister Ousseni Tamboura said Monday.

The attack occurred near the village of Dounkoun in Toeni district.

President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said in a tweet that “we continue to wage without concession the war the obscurantist and barbaric forces have imposed on our country.”

A security source told AFP that the ambush had happened around 3:00 pm (1500 GMT), adding vehicles had been destroyed or captured.

The attack was “revenge for the death of two jihadist leaders who were active in the same Boucle du Mouhoun region, who were neutralised (Saturday) by the armed forces,” the source added.

He named the two leaders as Sidibe Ousmane, also known “Mouslim” and spiritual leader Bande Amadou.

A special army unit killed them following exchanges of fire between Diamasso and Bouni, in Kossi province, the government said Sunday in a statement.

Source: AFP

South Africa’s imprisoned former President Jacob Zuma has been admitted to hospital for observation near the Estcourt Correctional Center where he is currently serving a 15-month sentence, the government announced on Friday.

Zuma is in prison for defying a Constitutional Court order to testify at a state-backed inquiry probing allegations of corruption during his presidential term from 2009 to 2018.

A routine checkup indicated that Zuma should be admitted to a hospital, according to the correctional services department’s statement.

Zuma’s jailing last month sparked violent riots in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces, which quickly descended into widespread looting of shopping centers and the torching of trucks in KwaZulu-Natal.

More than 330 people died in the rioting and more than R20 billion ($1.36 billion) in property was destroyed.

Zuma has filed an application for his prison sentence to be rescinded by the Constitutional Court, and is expected to appear in the Pietermaritzburg High Court next week in a separate trial for corruption.

The news of Zuma’s hospitalization follows the Cabinet reshuffle in which President Cyril Ramaphosa fired some of his ministers over the recent riots and corruption allegations.

Source: AFP

Twenty-four Chadian soldiers were killed in an attack by militant fighters in the troubled Lake Chad region, a senior local official said Thursday.

“Troops from a returning patrol were resting when they were attacked by Boko Haram” on Wednesday, the region’s deputy governor, Haki Djiddi, told AFP.

“Twenty-four troops were killed, several were wounded and others have scattered into the countryside.”

Army spokesman General Azem Bermandoa Agouna confirmed that an attack had taken place at Tchoukou Telia, an island 190 kilometres (118 miles) northwest of the capital N’Djamena, but refused to give any toll.

Troops from “three army sectors have joined the soldiers who came under attack yesterday,” Mahamat Fodoul Makay, the governor of Lake province, told AFP.

Lake Chad is a vast area of water and marshland bordered by Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon as well as Chad.

Jihadists from Boko Haram and a rival splinter group, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), have been using the region for years as a haven from which to attack troops and civilians.

The Chadian authorities tend to call the jihadists “Boko Haram” regardless of their affiliation.

In March 2020, around 100 Chadian troops were killed in an overnight attack on the lake’s Bohoma peninsula, prompting an offensive the following month led by Chad’s then president, Idriss Deby Itno.

After pursing the militants deep into Niger and Nigeria, Deby said there was “not a single jihadist anywhere” on the Chadian side of the lake region.

Attacks have continued, however.

In July, 11 Cameroonian troops and a civilian were killed in two attacks in Cameroon’s Far North region, the tongue of land that lies between Chad to the east and Nigeria to the west.

Deby was killed in April 2021 during fighting against rebels in northern Chad and was succeeded by his son, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, at the head of a military junta.

Boko Haram launched a revolt in northern Nigeria in 2009 before extending its campaign into neighbouring countries.

According to UN figures, more than 36,000 people, most of them in Nigeria, have died and three million have fled their homes.

In 2016, Boko Haram split over its indiscriminate targeting of Muslim civilians and use of women suicide bombers.

Boko Haram said in June that its leader, Abubakar Shekau, had died in fighting with ISWAP, which claims allegiance to the Islamic State group.

Source: Africa News

France on Friday cleared the extradition of Francois Compaore, the brother of Burkina Faso’s former president, to his home country where he is wanted in connection with the murder of a prominent journalist.

The Council of State, France’s highest court for cases involving public administrations, rejected an appeal by Compaore’s lawyers against a previous ruling for his extradition, saying there were no constitutional or other grounds to overturn the decision.

Compaore is the younger brother of Blaise Compaore, who was ousted in a popular uprising in 2014 — after 27 years in power that started with a coup d’etat — and went into exile in Ivory Coast.

The murdered journalist was Norbert Zongo, director of the weekly magazine L’Independant and an investigative reporter. His charred body was found on December 13, 1998, along with three killed colleagues in a burnt-out car on a road south of the capital Ouagadougou.

The killings sparked mass protests in Burkina Faso and drew international condemnation.

Initially only one suspect, presidential guard member Marcel Kafando, was charged for the killing and later acquitted.

Zongo had been investigating the death of David Ouedraogo, Francois Compaore’s driver.

Burkina Faso closed the probe after freeing the guard member, but the judiciary reopened the case after Blaise Compaore had been deposed.

An independent investigation ordered by the subsequent government concluded that the assassination was linked to the professional activities of the journalist who had a track record of uncovering irregularities in the Compaore regime.

Six suspects, all members of the presidential guard, were identified by the independent investigators and three were charged.

‘Dignity, honour and responsibility’

The Burkina Faso judiciary suspects that Francois Compaore may have ordered the hit, although he has not so far been charged with any crime.

French police arrested him at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris in October 2017 following an international arrest warrant issued by his country’s government. In 2020, Burkina Faso made a deal with France for his extradition.

Compaore’s lawyers said on Friday that their client was ready to face his country’s judiciary “with dignity, honour and responsibility”.

But they added in a statement sent to AFP that he felt the extradition was politically motivated, and that the Council had failed to take into account the risk of torture, inhumane treatment and of an unfair trial awaiting him.

“He would certainly be exposed to such risks if he were handed over to Burkina Faso,” they said.

Compaore has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in the hope of stopping the extradition, they said.

Source: AFP

Isabel dos Santos, daughter of Angola’s former president and Africa’s onetime richest woman, must return to Angola her shares in Portugal’s Galp energy firm worth 422 million euros ($500 million), an international arbitration court has ruled.

Dos Santos is accused of diverting billions of dollars from state companies during her father Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s nearly 40-year rule of the oil-rich southern African nation.

The embattled ex-first daughter, whose business assets have been frozen since 2019, was ordered by a Dutch court this week to return shares worth $500 million to Angola’s national Sonangol energy group, which she chaired until Lourenco took power.

The transaction under which Dos Santos acquired her stake in the oil and gas company Galp is “null and void”, according to a copy of the ruling seen by AFP on Friday by the Netherlands Arbitration Institute (NAI), which is part of the International Court of Arbitration.

After paying a 15 percent deposit from the bank account of another company in the British Virgin Islands, dos Santos allegedly paid the rest of the amount in Angola’s local currency, worth little outside the country, rather than in euros as agreed on the sales contract, according to the NAI.

Santos’s six-percent stake in Galp is part of a myriad of investments in Angola and former colonial ruler Portugal, worth about $3 billion according to Forbes magazine, that have been under scrutiny.

The court’s decision — dated July 23 and first reported by Dutch media late Thursday — said that the 2006 purchase of the shares, acquired through a company owned by dos Santos’ late husband Exem Energy, was illegal.

Dos Santos had consistently denied any wrongdoing and denounced all accusations as a politically motivated witch hunt.

Exem’s lawyers intend to appeal the decision “with the competent court”.

“In this arbitral award the political narrative clearly overrides the legal analysis,” the company said in a statement emailed to AFP on Friday.

One of Sonangol’s lawyers, Yas Banifatemi, told Dutch media there was “nothing political” in the court’s decision.

“The arbitration court has judged that Isabel dos Santos enriched herself with money stolen from Angolan people,” said Banifatemi, cited in Dutch daily newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad.

‘The princess’

President Joao Lourenco has vowed to crack down on corruption since dos Santos retired in 2017, removing his predecessor’s cronies from key positions and probing the former regime for alleged graft.

He has targeted several members of the dos Santos family, including Isabel and her younger brother Jose Filomeno dos Santos, sentenced to five years in prison for diverting oil revenues last year.

Isabel is the eldest daughter of Angola’s ex-president, accused of ruling the country with an iron fist, leaving a legacy of poverty and nepotism.

The British-educated billionaire businesswoman has faced several allegations of plundering the public purse and funnelling the money abroad.

In a trove of 715,000 files released in January 2020 by the award-winning New York-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and dubbed the “Luanda Leaks,” dos Santos was accused of syphoning state funds from the oil-rich, but impoverished country into offshore assets.

Nicknamed “the princess” in Angola, she was accused of amassing her vast fortune thanks to the backing of her authoritarian father.

In Portugal, in addition to Galp, she has major bank stakes and has a controlling share of a Portuguese cable TV and telecom firm.

In December 2019, Angola’s prosecutors froze the bank accounts and assets owned by her and her Congolese husband Sindika Dokolo, who died last year, a move she described as a groundless political vendetta.

Dos Santos became Africa’s richest woman after Forbes magazine named her the continent’s first female billionaire in 2013. She lost that title when her assets were frozen.

Source: AFP

The International Criminal Court has dropped its arrest warrant for Ivory Coast’s former first lady Simone Gbagbo over post-election violence that killed thousands in 2010-2011, according to a decision made public Thursday.

Simone Gbagbo faced charges of crimes against humanity—including murder, rape, inhuman acts and persecution—following her husband’s refusal to hand over power to Alassane Ouattara, who won a 2010 election.

Over 3,000 people died in the unrest.

“The chamber considers it appropriate to decide that the warrant of arrest for Simone Gbagbo shall cease to have effect,” the court said in a seven-page ruling seen by AFP and dated July 19.

“Good news for Madame Simone Gbagbo… she can now travel freely throughout the world,” her lawyer Ange Rodrigue Dadje said in a statement sent to AFP.

In March, the ICC acquitted Laurent Gbagbo of crimes against humanity and he returned to Ivory Coast on June 17, after 10 years behind bars in The Hague, where the ICC is based, and then in Belgium.

Simone Gbagbo was not handed over to the ICC, but an Ivorian court sentenced her to 20 years in prison in 2015 for undermining state security.

She was freed on August 8, 2018 following a presidential amnesty.

President Ouattara and Laurent Gbagbo met on Tuesday for the first time in more than 10 years, after which Ouattara said that the turmoil was “behind us”.

However reconciliation was not on the cards for the Gbagbo couple—Laurent Gbagbo sought a divorce upon his return to Ivory Coast citing the 72-year-old Simone’s “consistent refusal over the years to agree to an amicable separation”.

They married in 1989 and have two daughters.

The 76-year-old Gbagbo currently lives with Nady Bamba, a 47-year-old former journalist.

Source: AFP

The vice-president of Equatorial Guinea Teodorin Obiang was definitively condemned on Wednesday for having fraudulently constituted a luxurious patrimony in a section of the “ill-gotten gains” affair, after the rejection of his appeal by the Court of Cassation.

Obiang had been sentenced by the Paris Court of Appeal in February 2020 to three years in prison with a suspended sentence, 30 million euros in fines and the confiscation of all his assets seized for “laundering of misuse of social assets, embezzlement of public funds and breach of trust” between 1997 and 2011.

The United Kingdom has also imposed sanctions a few days ago against Teodorin Nguema Obiang, son of the country’s veteran president, for allegedly syphoning state assets into his own bank accounts.

The British government decided to freeze Obiang’s assets and bar him entry to the United Kingdom. According to authorities, the president’s son would have concluded corrupt contracting arrangements and solicited bribes to support his jet-setting lifestyle.

They claim he has splurged $500 million on mansions around the world, luxury cars and a collection of Michael Jackson memorabilia including a $275,000 crystal-covered glove that the singer wore on his 1987-89 “Bad” tour.

Source: Africa News