Cameroon says hundreds of Central African Republic (CAR) civilians have fled across the border in the past few days to escape election-related violence. Bangui is holding elections later this month and those fleeing into Cameroon say sporadic clashes are already breaking out.

 Local residents say Garoua Boulay’s public square in the past four days has seeing an unusual influx of civilians from neighboring CAR. 

 Gregoire Mvongo, the governor of Cameroon’s East region which includes Garoua Boulay, says about a thousand people have crossed over into Cameroon since Friday to escape violence in the lead-up to the December 27 poll.   

 Mvongo said the situation in the CAR is very troubling.  He said he traveled to Garoua Boulay Sunday and ordered the military to porous border areas to limit the spill-over into Cameroon from the new wave of fighting.  

 Among those who fled the CAR is 32-year-old agricultural engineer Jean Paul Nambobona.  He says he trekked with his wife and two children through the bush before finding transport to Garua Boulay.  He said on the road they saw many people struggling to leave the CAR. He added that he wanted former president Francois Bozize to remember that the CAR has gone through very difficult moments and its civilians want a return to peace.  

 On Saturday, the CAR government accused Bozize of organizing a rebel alliance to attack the capital, Bangui, a week before the election. 

 Bangui said U.N. peacekeepers dispersed armed rebels loyal to Bozize who were occupying areas near the capital.  

 Bozize, whose candidacy for the presidential election was rejected, denied he organized any rebel attack. His opposition coalition on Sunday demanded the election be postponed due to the violence, but the government insisted the vote will go ahead.

 Speaking on Radio RCA, self-declared youth leader Rigobert Ngaissio said that young people should not listen to rebels who call for taking up arms against the state.

 He said he is calling on all Central Africans, especially the youth, to be vigilant and patriotic because the threats to stability are real and serious. Ngaissio said it is imperative for everyone to contribute to stability in the Central African Republic.

 A government spokesman on Monday confirmed reports that Russia and Rwanda had each sent several hundred troops to the country.  

 Rwanda on Sunday said its troops were dispatched in response to rebels supported by Bozize targeting its peacekeeping forces.  

 Russia has been supplying the Central African Republic with arms and security contractors.  

 CAR descended into violence in 2013 when Bozize was ousted by the Séléka, a rebel coalition from the Muslim minority, which accused him of breaking peace deals.

 But Bozize maintains a large following, especially in the army and among the country’s largest ethnic group, the Gbaya.

 The December 27 election is seen as an important step in bringing stability to the CAR.  

 In the past seven years of fighting, close to a million Central Africans have fled to neighboring Cameroon, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria.

Source: VOA

Rebel forces advancing on the Central African Republic’s capital Bangui have been pushed back and the situation is “under control”, a spokesman for UN peacekeeping forces said Sunday, as tensions mount a week before key elections.

The government had alleged an attempted coup when three of the powerful armed groups that control most of the country’s territory began advancing towards the capital along critical main roads, ahead of presidential and legislative elections scheduled for December 27.

Earlier Sunday, the Coalition of the Democratic Opposition (COD-2020) called for the votes to be postponed “until the re-establishment of peace and security”.

Uniting the main parties and movements opposed to President Faustin-Archange Touadera, COD-2020 was until recently led by former president Francois Bozize, who the government said Saturday was at the head of rebel fighters massing not far from the capital.

Vladimir Monteiro, spokesman for the UN’s MINUSCA peacekeeping force, told AFP Sunday that “the armed groups have left the town” of Yaloke, on one of the routes towards Bangui, and that they had given up ground in two other areas.

MINUSCA “sent blue helmets to Mbaiki, where there were clashes on Saturday… to block the armed groups,” Monteiro added, saying “the situation is under control”.

But security and humanitarian sources said that parts of the armed groups were still on the ground around Bossembele — around 150 kilometres (90 miles) from Bangui.

The government had said Saturday that former president Bozize was at Bossembele with fighters from three rebel groups which announced a coalition on Saturday called the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC).

They urged members to “scrupulously respect the integrity of the civilian population” and to allow vehicles belonging to the United Nations and to humanitarian groups to circulate freely in the former French colony.

In a joint statement, a group known as the G5+ — France, Russia, the US, the EU and the World Bank — urged Bozize and allied armed groups to lay down their arms, calling for the elections to go ahead on December 27.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed for calm and called on all sides to ensure credible elections and peace.

And the 11,000-strong MINUSCA force warned Saturday it would “use all means at its disposal including planes to prevent violence.”

‘Why take up arms?‘

Meanwhile, Bozize’s KNK party denied the former leader wanted to carry out a putsch.

“We categorically deny that Bozize is at the origin of anything,” Christian Guenebem, a spokesman for his KNK party, told AFP.

“The government has always wanted to undermine the physical and political integrity of Bozize.”

“Why take up arms against your countrymen?” Touadera asked at a rally in Bangui Saturday.

“The national election authority and Constitutional Court have guaranteed that the elections will be held as scheduled,” added the president, who is widely expected to win re-election.

Bozize, back after years in exile, has been barred from running in the election by the coup-prone country’s top court, as the CAR had sought him with an international arrest warrant on charges including murder, arbitrary arrest and torture.

The 74-year-old, who came to power in a coup in 2003 before himself being overthrown in 2013, said last Tuesday that he accepted the court’s decision.

The CAR spiralled into conflict when Bozize, a Christian, was ousted as president by the Seleka, a rebel coalition drawn largely from the Muslim minority.

That coup triggered a bloodbath between the Seleka and so-called “anti-Balaka” self-defence forces, mainly Christian and animist.

France sent its army to intervene, and after a transitional period, elections were staged in 2016 and won by Touadera.

Source: AFP

Borno State Governor, Babagana Zulum, on Thursday, received a delegation of the Cameroonian military at the Government House in Maiduguri, the state capital.

At the meeting, the governor tasked the Cameroonian delegation on the need for Nigeria and Cameroon to team up to defeat the Boko Haram terrorists.

The Cameroonian military delegation was led by the 4th region joint military commander, General Saly Mohammadou. He was accompanied by Commander Sector 1 Multinational Joint Task Force, General Bouba Dobekreo; Commander Fourth Gendarmerie, Brigadier General Essoh Jules-Cesar; GOC 7 Div Bridgdier, Gen. AK Ibrahim, among others.

Zulum in a statement said the Cameroonian military was in Nigeria to share experience and improve collaboration between forces of the two countries in the fight against insurgency in the Lake Chad region.

He said, “Cameroon and Nigeria, most of our people shares the same tradition and culture. Though the insecurity has affected all the countries in the Lake Chad region, all our economies have been affected. Therefore, there is need for us to come together and fight this insurgency.

“The issue of trans-border trade is very important, all of us know Banki. We are doing everything possible to reopen Banki market, we are planning to reopen Bama-Banki road. Let us support the security architectures, so that we can ensure free movement of our people.”

Source: The Punch

The Nigerian military and Cameronian Defences Forces have resolved to collaborate in border patrol and counter-terrorism operation. To clear Boko Haram from the border area.

Theatre Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj Gen Farouk  Yahaya disclosed on Wednesday while briefing newsmen after the visit of the Cameronian defence forces led by Commander of Operation Emergence 4, Gen Saly Muhamadou and troops of Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTK) at the Theatre Command Maiduguri.

“This is a visit by our counterparts in the Multi National Joint Task Force (NNJTF)  from Cameroonian defense forces. We had a fruitful discussion on how best to enhance our operations to end Boko Haram insurgency at our borders and within our countries,” Hahaha disclosed.

He said the meeting with the Cameroon forces was aimed at improving collaboration and synergy, as members of the MNJTF. “This is not the first time we are having joint operations that concerns our border and fight against terrorism,”Gen Yahaya said.

He said  the visit would further cement the relationship between the countries in the operations against “common enemy,  the Boko Haram insurgents.”

 Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon are members of the MNJTF Lake Chad Commission.

Source: Sunnewsonline

The special envoy of the African Union to Mali and the Sahel, Pierre Buyoya has resigned from his post.

The former Burundian simply confirmed to the AFP that he had submitted his resignation, without further details or reason for the resignation.

Buyoya was sentenced to life imprisonment in his country in October for the 1993 assassination of his predecessor Melchior Ndadaye.

He denounces a “political trial” and said he would appeal the ruling.

A senior AU official told AFP on condition of anonymity that ‘Mr. Buyoya resigned because he wants to “devote all his time and energy to his defense and wants to avoid a situation in the AU that would become embarrassing for a member state.’’

Another senior official who also spoke on condition of anonymity added that Buyoya’s resignation “was accepted with gratitude for the excellent work done in Mali on behalf of the AU.”

The African Union has not made any comment on Buyoya’s conviction since the verdict was announced on October 20 in Bujumbura.

The Burundian judiciary convicted Mr. Buyoya, along with about twenty of his relatives, for “attacking the head of state, attacking the authority of the state, and attack tending to bring about massacre and devastation”.

Mr. Buyoya’s name had already been mentioned in connection with the assassination of President Ndadaye, without any proof being provided.

Source: Africa News

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has chosen a new leader to replace Abdelmalek Droukdel, who was killed in June by French forces, the SITE monitoring group reported Saturday.

Algerian Abu Obaida Yusuf al-Annabi, the head of AQIM’s “Council of Dignitaries”, was named as Droukdel’s successor, SITE said.

Al-Annabi has been on the American “international terrorist” blacklist since September 2015, according to the Counter Extremism Project.

He has regularly appeared in the group’s propaganda videos, and in 2013 famously demanded that Muslims retaliate against France’s intervention in Mali.

AQIM also confirmed the death of Swiss national Beatrice Stoeckli, who was abducted in Timbuktu while working as a missionary in 2016.

It blamed her death on an attempt by “French crusaders” to free her.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb emerged from a group started in the late 1990s by radical Algerian Islamists, who in 2007 pledged allegiance to Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network.

The group has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks on troops and civilians across the Sahel region, including a 2016 attack on an upmarket hotel and restaurant in Burkina Faso that killed 30 people, mainly Westerners.

France has more than 5,000 troops deployed in its anti-jihadist Barkhane force in the Sahel.

Source: AFP

Ethiopian government forces have reportedly liberated two towns in the rebel-held northern region of Tigray and are further advancing to retake the regional capital, Mekelle, as violence continues to rage in the East African country for a second week.

Redwan Hussein, a spokesperson for the state of emergency task force, told CNN on Wednesday that the government forces had retaken the towns of Shire and Alamata and “are closing in [on Mekelle] but it will take about 100-200 km from several directions.”

The embattled leader of Ethiopia’s Tigray region has confirmed the losses, which he called a “temporary setback,” vowing to defeat the government.

Debretsion Gebremichael, leader of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), said his forces were inflicting “heavy defeats on all fronts” against Ethiopian forces, calling on all Tigrayans to mobilize and join the “struggle.”

Ethiopian officials have accused the TPLF of destroying four bridges on the road to Mekelle in an effort to stop government forces from advancing. The group has denied the claim.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has vowed the mission would “save the country and the region from spiraling into instability.”

Abiy said on Tuesday that a three-day deadline given to rebel forces in Tigray to lay down their arms had ended, warning of a final push to retake Mekelle.

Source: Presstv

Governance progress slowed across Africa for the first time in a decade, even before the coronavirus pandemic hit, with commitment to democracy and civil rights faltering, a major report said Monday.

The Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance, published every two years, gives each country’s government a score according to criteria including anti-corruption measures, protection of civil liberties and caring for the environment.

More than 60 percent of Africans live in countries that made progress in good governance over the period 2010 to 2019, this year’s report said.

But progress has slowed in the last five years and this year, for the first time in the last 10 years, the combined score for all the countries fell year-on-year, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation added.

The foundation, set up in 2006 to focus on the need for good political leadership and public governance in Africa, cited growing curbs on people’s ability to exercise their democratic rights and take part in civil society.

The results use data from last year and do not therefore include the impact of coronavirus.

Since the pandemic began, some elections have been postponed while “the continent had been going through a deterioration of civil society space, participation and rights long before Covid-19,” the report said.

There is “an increasingly precarious environment for human rights and civic participation” as well as a “deteriorating security situation,” it added.

– ‘Worrying declines’ –

Also this year, the incumbent presidents of Guinea and Ivory Coast succeeded in pushing through constitutional changes allowing them to stand for a third term, sparking deadly unrest while adding their names to a long list of leaders with similar playbooks.

Post-election clashes have claimed scores of lives in Ivory Coast and at least 21 in Guinea, where several opposition figures are in police custody over the violence.

In Nigeria, largely peaceful youth-led protests against a hated police unit spilled over into looting and violence.

The UN last week called for urgent measures to protect civilians in Mozambique’s northeastern Cabo Delgado province, where jihadists are wreaking havoc, warning that the population was “desperate”.

Since 2015, countries’ scores for security and rule of law and participation have slowly worsened while scores for rights and inclusion have fallen more sharply, the report said.

Only one country, Ethiopia, has made progress across all areas measured over a decade, the report said — but the continent’s second most populous country is now embroiled in a military conflict pitting the federal government against the dissident northern region of Tigray.

Across Africa, progress in some areas such as economic opportunity has come alongside “worrying declines in participation, rights, inclusion, rule of law and security,” the report said.

– Covid inequality –

Coronavirus threatens gains in economic opportunity, “worsening an already alarming situation,” it added.

For the first time, the report looked at new areas such as digital rights and inclusiveness as well as environmental sustainability.

South Africa, ranked sixth, has declined over the decade, falling more steeply since 2015, and is on a “concerning trajectory,” the report found.

The country’s former president, Jacob Zuma, was forced out by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) over a slew of corruption scandals.

ANC secretary general Ace Magashule was charged last Friday with multiple counts of fraud, corruption and money laundering allegedly committed under Zuma.

Source: Africa News

Prof. PLO Lumumba, who is widely acknowledged in Africa as a fearless and outspoken statesman and an advocate of change, was the latest guest to be hosted on Real Talk with Nana, a virtual talk show based in the UK.

Speaking on the topic, The Impact of Slavery and Colonisation on Africa, he applauded and acknowledged a few African leaders, who he said were beginning to realise the need for change on the continent and successfully taking on the African agenda; one which seeks to make the continent and it’s people, major stakeholders, in the discussion and implementation of global issues and policies for the benefit of Africa.

He described them as leaders who were thinking in the right manner and direction. These Presidents are Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Mogweetsi Masisi of Botswana, John Magufuli of Tanzania and Hage Geingob of Namibia. He expressed gratitude for such leaders and their dedication towards a new Africa.

He quickly lamented and expressed disappointment in certain African leaders, who through their actions and policies have inevitably opposed the development of Africa and inhibited the nation and her people. These were presidents, Alpha Conde of Guinea, Alassane Ouattara of Cote D’Ivoire, Paul Biya of Cameroon, Edgar Lungu of Zambia.

Source: Ghanaweb