Blanket amnesty, renegotiating military deals with Russia and restructuring the army are among the several demands that armed groups in the Central African Republic have presented to an African Union expert panel seeking to broker peace in the country.

An AU document, seen by AFP, lists 97 demands by the armed groups in return for peace, with a government of national unity required along with the amnesty and a restructuring of the army.

The African Union has been leading a peace process in the Central African Republic but there has been little progress.

The C.A.R. crisis

CAR descended into violence in 2013 following the ouster of the majority-Christian country’s president, Francois Bozize, by a coalition of Muslim-minority rebel groups called the Seleka.

In response, Christians, who account for about 80 percent of the population, organised vigilante units dubbed “anti-balaka.”

France intervened militarily to help force out the Seleka before handing on to a UN peacekeeping mission.

However, the central government remains very weak, with its authority largely confined to Bangui, and violence has led to thousands of deaths.

According to a diplomat in Bangui, representatives of each armed group are expected to meet with the AU panel in the western town of Bouar on Monday to seek to “harmonise” their demands, before submitting the final list to the authorities.

But the government has so far refused to accept any conditions for the cessation of hostilities.

The Russian question

Another demand received by African Union experts is a review of military deals between the CAR and Russia.

Moscow has had a high diplomatic presence in the country in recent months and is seeking to organise a parallel mediation meeting on Saturday in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, according to sources.

CAR spokesman Ange-Maxime Kazagui on Monday denied any government involvement in those talks and reaffirmed Bangui’s strong support for the African Union mediation.

Backed by the United Nations and the Central African Republic’s main partners, the African panel has also met with former presidents Michel Djotodia, in Benin, and Francois Bozize, in Uganda.

There have been numerous attempts at mediation in CAR since the start of the crisis, and seven peace deals have been signed, without any sign of calm being restored.

AFP

Dozens of Cameroon’s tribal rulers have fled their palaces in the English-speaking southwest region after armed men pulled the chief of the Balondo people out of church and killed him. Separatists have abducted and killed other chiefs in the region, allegedly for collaborating with the government.

At the Catholic church in Buea, southwestern Cameroon, people gathered to pray on Sunday afternoon for the late chief Stephen Itoh Esoh.

A week ago, gunmen pulled the supreme chief of the Balondo people out of the Baptist church in Ekondo Titi village and shot him dead.

Among those praying was Peter Njumbe, a Cameroon lawmaker. He said if the chief had listened to them, he might still be alive.

The chief refused to run away from Ekondo Titi, said Njumbe. He would not abdicate from his throne because of death threats. He would only abdicate if his own people told him they no longer wanted him and that he should leave the throne, says Njumbe. The chief would not abdicate his responsibilities, he added.

Strikes and violence erupted in the English-speaking northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon in late 2016, in response to the forced use of French in schools, courts and other public institutions. A separatist movement is pushing for independence under the name Ambazonia.

Chief Itoh is the eighth traditional ruler killed by armed men in the southwest region within the past four months.

Since July, the separatists have abducted seven other chiefs in the southwest and three in the northwest they accused of collaborating with the government. They circulated videos on social media of the chiefs pledging their allegiance to armed separatists, presumably under duress.

One of the abducted chiefs was later found dead, provoking widespread condemnation, while the others were released.

Many traditional rulers have fled the English-speaking regions to avoid becoming targets, according to the government.

Chief Joseph Ebong of Atati village escaped to Nigeria after being threatened with violence. Speaking by phone, he said he will only return to Cameroon when peace returns to English-speaking areas.

“We are appealing to both the national and international community to turn their eye on Cameroon and try to see how they can solve this problem before we shrink into a full-fledged, full-scale war,” Ebong said.

Traditional rulers say Cameroon’s military offers them little protection.

The governor of the southwest region of Cameroon, Bernard Okalia Bilai, is calling on the chiefs to return. He says the military has been deployed to defend the people, including the chiefs.

“They should come back to their homes. The forces of law and order are there to protect them against all acts of terrorism,” Bilai said. “The traditional rulers, we invite them to come back.”

The attacks on the tribal chiefs have generated widespread criticism of the separatists in Cameroon.

Ebenezer Teba is a member of the elite in the southwestern town of Lebialem. He says the assaults on traditional rulers — custodians of ancestral traditions are unacceptable.

“It is an atrocity that has reached its apex,” Teba said. “Of course, those who are attacking are known. They are those claiming to be fighting for the independence of southern Cameroons. They are attacking traditional rulers because they feel these traditional rulers are giving information to government troops to enable government troops to attack them. So they want all traditional rulers, they are forcing all traditional rulers, to support their course.”

Sociologist Bernard Arrey, however, blames the chiefs. He says they are getting involved in politics and taking sides against the wishes of their people.

“Chiefs are meddling into politics,” Arrey said. “It is not strange to see chiefs treated like common citizens. Chiefs have lost control of their population, they have lost control of their dignity. Most of them are even victims of these fighters because they think that the chiefs are some sort a liaison, they relay information. They are some sort of a sell-out to the government forces.”

The armed separatists have never denied responsibility for the abductions and killings. They have instead issued warnings on social media against any chief collaborating with the government.

Cameroon’s government says it is counting on the chiefs to help end the fighting in the English-speaking region.

The government says hundreds of people, including more than a hundred policemen and troops, have died in violent clashes since January.

Source: VOA

A public inquiry has opened in South Africa, probing alleged corruption under scandal-tainted former president, Jacob Zuma, who is accused of overseeing widespread graft during his nine-year reign.

The inquiry, which could take two years to deliver its findings, is set to hear evidence of allegations that Zuma let ministries and government agencies be plundered for private gain in a scandal known as “state capture.”

Much of the probe is expected to focus on Zuma’s relationship with the Guptas, a wealthy Indian family accused of wielding undue political influence.

An earlier report by a watchdog detailed allegations that Zuma ensured the Gupta family won preferential contracts with state companies, including huge mining deals, and were even able to choose cabinet ministers.

Zuma himself appointed the inquiry in January on the orders of a high court, weeks before he was forced to resign from office as criticism grew from within the ruling ANC party.

Zuma’s alleged involvement in multiple graft scandals damaged the party’s image ahead of elections next year.

His successor President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to tackle corruption.

The inquiry will in part establish whether official appointments were “disclosed to the Gupta family or any other unauthorized person before such appointments were formally made,” said inquiry head Raymond Zondo, the country’s deputy chief justice.

Although the inquiry does not have powers to arrest or prosecute, it can refer matters for possible criminal investigation.

“At the heart of the investigation is whether outsiders influenced government or state-owned enterprises for selfish gain,” said the commission’s lead lawyer Paul Pretorius on the inquiry’s opening day.

State funds looted

Pravin Gordhan, a former finance minister now responsible for state companies, has estimated that around 100 billion rand ($6.8 billion) of state funds may have been looted through corrupt awarding of government tenders.

Gordhan is among those expected to give evidence, along with his former deputy Mcebisi Jonas.

Jonas has alleged he was taken by Zuma to the Guptas’ home in Johannesburg, where Ajay Gupta said he would be appointed finance minister.

When Jonas refused, Ajay allegedly offered him 600 million rand and asked if Jonas had a bag to take away 600,000 rand in cash immediately.

Pretorius said the commission would probe whether Zuma violated the constitution “by facilitating the unlawful awarding of tenders of state-owned enterprises.”

Zondo vowed a thorough investigation and called for members of the public to submit their own evidence, but he expressed disappointment at the lack of cooperation from government officials.

The local Sunday Times said Zuma has been invited to appear, but the commission’s spokesman declined to comment.

Zuma and the Guptas deny any wrongdoing.

“I hope that the inquiry gets to the bottom of how the South African state was captured in the way it was and what can be done to prevent this from happening again,” David Lewis, executive director of South Africa’s non-profit organization Corruption Watch, told AFP.

Zuma, 76, was forced to resign in February when ANC lawmakers turned against him.

The former president also has been charged with 16 counts of graft linked to an arms deal from before he became president.

(Source: AFP)

Cameroon’s government has announced the arrest of six soldiers following a probe into a video released a few weeks ago that documented the abuse of civilians, the privately-owned Cameroon Info news site reports.

It marks a U-turn from their previous denials that any arrests had been made over the video which emerged last month.

The six soldiers are suspected of being the perpetrators of, or accomplices in the summary executions of women and children in the Far North Region, Cameroon Info reports.

In the clip which circulated widely on social media, men wearing military fatigues shoot two women, including one with a baby on her back, and a little girl.

They are heard accusing the victims of being connected to the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram.

Source: Daily Trust

Tanzanian police said Thursday it planned to arrest all the residents of a village in the country’s south after water pipes were destroyed by a mob.

The inhabitants of Ngolo village were accused of deliberately smashing pipes taking water to a neighboring settlement in Mbeya region.

Governor Albert Chalamila had on Wednesday, “ordered that all the inhabitants of this village be arrested regardless of their condition.”

In response, police on Thursday deployed several vehicles and officers to arrest the villagers, said regional commander Ulrich Matei.

“They committed economic sabotage. The government has disbursed money, installed water pipes and they destroyed them! We cannot accept that,” Matie said.

The police chief added that he had sent “enough vehicles, with enough fuel and police on board” to arrest the villagers.

Details about the incident remain sketchy, but the village, whose population is around 1,600, lies in an area where water resources are sketchy.

(Source: AFP)

A boat carrying more than 40 pupils has sunk while crossing the Nile River in Sudan, leaving at least 22 primary school children dead.

The state news agency SUNA reported that the small boat went down around 750 kilometers (470 miles) north of the capital Khartoum on Wednesday morning while it was crossing the river to a school in the village of Kabna.

A female hospital employee in the village also drowned.

“This morning, 22 schoolchildren and one woman died when their boat sank in Bouhayra in Nile State as they traveled to school from Kneissa,” the agency said.

SUNA added that the boat sank after one of its engines broke down “halfway across because of a strong current.”

A witness, who asked not to be named, said that the vessel had been crossing the river against the current, adding, “All the families (in the area) are in mourning.”

The small boat was reportedly overloaded, carrying sweet potatoes and grain in addition to the passengers.

According to the agency, the victims’ bodies have not yet been recovered.

Ibrahim Hassan, another witness, said at least nine children survived the ordeal.

Residents of the region rely on wooden boats to cross the Nile, which is an important transport route for people and goods in the country.

Monsoon rains in Sudan regularly last from June to November and cause the Nile, one of the world’s longest rivers, and its tributaries to overflow.

Source: Presstv

Southern Cameroonian fighters, popularly known as Amba boys, have sown panic across the entire English-speaking region today, Tuesday, August 14, 2018.

In Besongabang, civilians could be seen in a video running in different directions when gunshots supposedly fired by Amba boys rang out around a military camp in the town’s city center.

The pandemonium caused by the shoot-out caused the main highway leading to the border with Nigeria to be closed.

A few casualties have been reported, but the full picture of the unfortunate situation will only become clearer when our reporters on the ground will have to talk with military and police sources.

In Buea, Amba boys attacked army soldiers around Bomaka, a highly populated neighborhood in Buea, located some three kilometers from Mile 17.

Meanwhile, a case of serious violence was also reported in Babungu, in the Northwest region.

It was reported that Hon. Njingu Moussa who was traveling from Bamunka, Ndop, to Babessi with two trucks loaded with soldiers was attacked by Amba boys who, many say, were targeting the army soldiers.

Many people questioned by our sources on the ground say the trucks were attacked by pro-independence fighters.

It is alleged that the soldiers later retreated to the Babungo Three Corners where many civilians were waiting for the tension to subside.

According to Cameroon News Agency (CNA) correspondent reports, Hon Moussa and the convoy decided to blend with the civilian population so as to complicate things for the fighters who always claim their role is to protect the civilian population that is usually threatened by the military.

However, on their way back, the shooting continued around the Babungo Rice farm in Three Corners. Four soldiers have been reported dead as a result of the shoot-out at the border between Baba I and II.

Cameroon Concord News Group reporters are already on the ground and they will be providing more news about this developing story.

By Kingsley Betek

A senior press secretary to Ugandan president Yoweri Kaguta Museveni said on Monday evening that the president’s car came under attack by opposition supporters in the town of Arua, where a bye-election is to hold on Wednesday.

Phtos shared by Don Wanyama showed that the rear mirror of the president’s Toyota V8 had been smashed in the attack. He did not comment whether the president was hurt or not.

The information came barely an hour after a popular lawmaker, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu also known as Bobi Wine, posted on Twitter that police had attempted to kill him.

“Police have shot my driver dead thinking they’ve shot at me. My hotel is now cordoned off by police and SFC,” he wrote on Twitter with a photo of his driver slumped in the front seat.

Local media portals are reporting that Bobi Wine has been taken into police custody along with a fellow lawmaker.

Bobi Wine, an opposition lawmaker, was reportedly supporting independent candidate Kassiano Wadri. President Museveni was also in Arua campaigning for the ruling National Resistance Movement’s Nusura Tiperu.

Source: Africa News

Kenyan authorities have detained the country’s chairmen of railway and the agency that manages public land, accusing them of alleged corruption over land allocation for the new $3-billion flagship Nairobi-Mombasa railway.

The two top officials were arrested on Saturday, the latest to be caught up in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s anti-corruption drive in the African country in recent months.

The new railway, which is linking the capital Nairobi to East Africa’s main port city, was funded by China and is now considered as one of the largest infrastructure projects of Kenyatta.

Mohammed Abdalla Swazuri, the head of National Land Commission, and managing director of the Kenya Railways Corporation, Atanas Kariuki Maina, were among 18 other officials, businesspeople and firms named in a statement listing arrests that was released by the prosecutor’s office on Saturday.

However, no Chinese companies were named in the prosecutor’s statement.

Opposition leaders and Kenyan economists have already lambasted the railway’s huge funding for increasing the country’s debt burden, which the IMF estimated at between 54 and 55 percent of economic output (GDP) in the 2017-18 fiscal year.

According to the country’s anti-corruption agency, the officials siphoned taxpayer money through phony compensation claims for land used for the railway. But the agency did not clarify who made the allegations.

President Kenyatta has vowed to deal with those “caught in the web of corruption.” In 2013, when he was elected for the first time, he pledged to stamp out corruption.

Back in May, several other corruption scandals were revealed. In one case, multi-million-dollar contracts were reportedly awarded to the friends and family members of employees at the electricity supplier Kenya Power.

In another case, fraudulent payments of 30 million dollars were uncovered at the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB).

Back in 2016, the then head of Kenya’s anti-graft agency said the county was losing a third of its state budget to corruption every year. The finance ministry disputed the claim, but Kenyatta acknowledged that corruption had reached levels that threatened national security.

Kenya, the sixth poorest country in Africa, fell to the 143rd rank among 180 countries in Transparency International’s annual corruption index for last year.

Source: Presstv

PRESS RELEASE.

Fellow SCNC Members, Dear Southern Cameroonians,

Following the convening of an SCNC International Convention in Geneva, Switzerland on the 20/04/2018,

Bearing in mind the re-enforcement ban on the SCNC and its activities by the colonial regime of La Republique du Cameroun on 17/01/2017,

Following the heavy crack down on SCNC members and subsequent abductions of the National Chairman Dr.Nfor Ngalla Nfor and the National Secretary Mr.Divine Yuyun,

And on the recommendations of SCNC Local County Heads and SCNC World leaders, the activities and functioning of the SCNC is hereby moved overseas to the management of an Interim Executive Team elected and voted by the different countries National Chairman’s representatives.

This is to ensure the continuous and smooth functioning of the SCNC.

SCNC NATIONAL INTERIM EXECUTIVE TEAM.

• Acting National Chairman: Comrade Engineer Agbor Prizo
• Acting Vice National Chairman:
• Acting National Secretary General; Comrade Yerima Dabney
• Acting National Vice Sec General: Comrade Valentine Tita
• Acting National Treasurer: Madam Ako Grace
• Acting National Fin Sec: Comrade Henry Nchendze
• Acting PRO/Communication Sec: Comrade Prosper Nji Tabong
• Acting Vice PRO/Comm Sec: Comrade Encho Ngemou Mathias
• Liaison Officer to European Parliament: Comrade Michael Ayong
• Advisers: Comrade Kometa Elvis and Comrade Ebai George

NATIONAL CORDINATORS IN HOMELAND.

• Madam……. Classified
• Mr………… Classified
• All the County Heads.

Done in Switzerland, This 01^st Day of August 2018.

                Prosper N.Tabong

                Chairperson for Switzerland.

                National Acting Comm. Secretary