Cameroonian refugees have received relief materials consisting of rice, salt, tin tomatoes, detergent, maggie seasoning, cooking oil and toiletries worth thousands of naira from a non Governmental Organisation, Rhema Care Integrated Development Centre.

Speaking after the donation at the weekend in Ekpuk Community, Mkpat Enin Local government Area, Mr Eric Shu, Chief Executive Officer, Rhema Care Integrated Development Centre, said the organisation was moved by the plight of refugees in the camp.

Noting that the relief materials would go a long way to improve the living condition of the refugees, Shut added that the donation was in line with the objectives of the NGO to render assistance to the poor and vulnerable ones, as well as transform deprived communities in Africa.

He said the Centre was also involved in establishing projects like borehole, shelter and construction of schools to enable deprived persons feel accepted in the community.

“Rhema Care has been working in Nigeria with the poor and vulnerable population in various areas in Nigeria.

“When we heard of the refugees situation in Nigeria, with Cameroonians coming in, we felt that this is our area of operation. So, we initiated an intervention; Akwa Ibom is one of those areas we are intervening.

“Even when the National commission for refugees and United Nation have registered the refugees in Akwa Ibom, not all were registered.

“Apart from the relief materials, we are also looking at the areas of water, sanitation and hygiene for this community. We believe that we would be able to rehabilitate the borehole that has been completely blocked; there is also the issue of shelter and education, ” he said.

He commended the indigenes of Ekpuk community for their hospitality towards the refugees, and appealed that they should not relent in their humanitarian gesture.

Also speaking, the National Coordinator, Bakassi IDPs in Akwa Ibom Mr Aston Joseph, said the political unrest in Cameroon led many Cameroonians to migrate into Nigeria.

Advising the refugees to be law abiding, maintain the peace and unity which has been in existence in the state, before their arrival, Joseph said, “Since October 2017, there had been a serious political unrest in Cameroon, that made many Cameroonians to migrate into Nigeria and some of them are Nigerians who were born and brought up in Cameroon.”

The Chairman of the Ekpuk community, Mr Sunday Mboso, commended Rhema Care Integrated Development Centre,  for their kind gesture in providing assistance to the refugees.

“I want to thank Rhema Care Integrated Development Centre for helping the people. it is not an easy task and God will continue to bless you people.

“I also want to assure you that the refugees will always be accepted and protected in the community,” he said.

In their appreciation, Miss Epolle Njume, one of the leaders in the camp and a beneficiary, thanked the organisation for the assistance rendered to them.

She appealed to other NGOs and philanthropic organisations to emulate the Rhema Centre and provide youths in the camp with skills to empower them to be self-reliance.

“I am so delighted, but we still have other challenges like where to sleep, food, as well as lack of medical assistance. We are also pleading that the State Government and other agencies help us by training us to acquire skills that will enable us take care of ourselves,” she said.

Culled from Oracle News

The Federal Government says it will commence the voluntary repatriation of over 91,000 Nigerian refugees from Cameroon in July. Hajiya Sadiya Farouk, the Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, disclosed this on June 20 at the occasion commemorating the 2018 World Refugees Day in Abuja. She said that the Federal Government, Cameroon and UNHCR had signed a Tripartite Agreement in March 2, 2017, which inaugurated the Tripartite Commission with an advanced Technical Working Group to ensure the modality for their return.

According to her, the Technical Working Group has concluded concrete operational modalities and support measures, including setting the timetable and procedures to ensure the safe, dignified, voluntary return and sustainable reintegration of Nigerian refugees from Cameroon.

“All things being equal,” she said, “the voluntary repatriation should commence in July 2018.” She further said that Nigeria is presently hosting 1960 urban refugees, 809 Asylum seekers persons from Africa, Middle East, Asia and Europe respectively.

Jose Antonio-Canhandula, Country Representative, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Nigeria, said that Nigeria has more Internally Displaced Persons than refugees in the country.

He urged all humanitarian partners to find durable solutions to put an end to human want, stating that human beings should not be eternally dependent on humanitarian assistance.

Halima Ahmed, Commissioner for Finance, ECOWAS Commission, said that addressing the plight of refugees, IDPs and other vulnerable groups were part of the major concern of ECOWAS commission.

Ahmed said: “The ECOWAS Commission is committed to preventing causes of displacement through our various political and diplomatic processes as well as mitigating and alleviating the suffering of our displaced populations in the ECOWAS space. She added that In responding to these situations, the ECOWAS Commission has provided assistance in food and financial aid to displaced populations in the North East of Nigeria.

Source: NTA News

Zimbabwea’s Emmerson Mnangagwa has reportedly said that a group linked to former first lady Grace Mugabe could be behind an explosion that rocked a stadium where he addressed his Zanu-PF supporters on Saturday.

The blast came as Zimbabwe prepared to hold its first post-Mugabe presidential election on July 30, with 75-year-old Mnangagwa and 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, the main contenders.

Authorities gave no details of what had caused the explosion at Mnangagwa’s first rally in Bulawayo, an opposition stronghold where the ruling ZANU-PF has not won in national elections since 2000.

According to BBC, Mnangagwa said he suspected that a group called the Generation 40 (G40), which supported Grace for presidency, was responsible for the explosion.

Mnangagwa further said that investigations were still under way and those behind the attack will soon be apprehended.

Mr Mnangagwa described wife to Mugabe as someone who has in the past directly insulted him

“On what basis would I trust someone who was used by a cabal to say things that had no basis?” he asked.

Despite the apparent attempt on his life, Mr Mnangagwa said there would be no countrywide security clampdown and elections scheduled for next month would go ahead in a free and fair manner.

Zimbabwe was stable and that foreign investors should not worry, he said.

Source: Africa News

Following the crisis in Southern Cameroons, the Cross River State is currently playing host to over 21, 000 refugees.

The representative of the Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Migrants, Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, Mr. Ayasanya Akintunde said this in Ikom as the world celebrated the 2018 World Refugee Day, with the theme “We Stand with the Refugees”.

He said millions of people are displaced from their country due to conflicts and other factors and “Nigeria is playing host to about 21, 000 refugees from neighboring Cameroon Republic.”

Akintunde expressed the hope that “the crisis will be resolved timely to enable the refugees return home”, while urging their host communities to continue to give them support in the spirit of humanity.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) Field Officer, Mr. Muhammed Nasry said the agency is doing everything within its powers to provide succour for the refugees, migrants and asylum seekers,

He said the world refugee day is a time to recognize the humanity of refugees and called for positive actions from stakeholders that can alleviate their plight.

Muhammed stated that, “getting laws and policies right is vital, but it is local people that are on the frontline when refugees arrive and whose welcome makes the difference between rejection and inclusion, between despair and hope and between being left behind and building a future”.

On his part, Head of Ikom Local Government Administration, Mr. Julius Adie, the Divisional Immigration Officer (DIO), Amor Austine, the Judge of the High Court, Justice Obojor Ogar told the refugees to be law abiding and to feel free to explore all available channels of communication to register their complaints and assured the Cameroonian refugees of adequate security and protection.

Representative of the refugees, Mr. Tabe Karim urged the United Nations to step in fully to resolve the problem in Cameroon to enable them return home and continue their normal lives.

Culled from The Guardian

Seven Islamist militants surrendered to Algerian authorities on Wednesday near the North African country’s border with Mali, the defence ministry said.

Security forces recovered arms including six Kalashnikov assault rifles, the ministry said in a statement.

Violence has declined in Algeria since the 1990s, when a conflict between the state and Islamist insurgents killed an estimated 200,000 people.

Reuters

Violence between the security forces and armed separatists in Cameroon continues to escalate, increasing the risk of potential mass atrocity crimes. On 26 May the bodies of at least 29 people, including children, were discovered in the town of Menka in the northwest of the country, highlighting the increasingly violent and insecure environment within Cameroon’s Anglophone regions.

Peaceful demonstrations over the alleged marginalization of Cameroon’s English-speaking minority began in 2016. According to an Amnesty International report released on 11 June, government forces used live ammunition against protesters, arbitrarily arrested and tortured detainees, and have destroyed a number of villages in the restive Anglophone regions. In response, armed Anglophone separatists have killed at least 44 military personnel, burned down schools and attacked teachers for not participating in a separatist boycott. Over 20,000 Cameroonians have fled to neighboring Nigeria.

In order to prevent any further armed conflict and address the growing threat of potential mass atrocity crimes, the government of Cameroon should immediately initiate a dialogue with Anglophone community leaders and constructively address the historic grievances of the English-speaking minority. The government must also ensure that the universal right to freedom of expression and assembly are respected. The security forces must end the use of disproportionate and deadly force against peaceful demonstrators and ensure that the human rights of all Cameroonians are protected, regardless of language or identity.

All perpetrators of grave human rights abuses in Cameroon, including members of armed separatist groups and the military, must be held accountable for their actions.

Source: Reliefweb

Six villagers were killed overnight in northern Cameroon in an attack attributed to Nigeria’s Boko Haram jihadist group, a local leader said today.

The attack occurred in the village of Mangave Foya, said Abdoulaye Yerima Bakari, the head of the Dogba administrative region. “They attacked the home of a district chief, whom they shot, as well as two other people” who were in the building, he said.

When the neighbours came out to investigate the gunfire, the assailants opened fire, killing three of them, he said. A local self-defence group and the security forces, joined by some villagers, gave chase, killing five attackers and arresting three others, he added.

Boko Haram, a militant movement opposed to Western influence and seeking an Islamic state based on Sharia law, has caused the deaths of at least 20,000 people since it took up arms in Nigeria in 2009.

Their insurgency has spilled into neighbouring countries, including Cameroon. Since 2014, the group has killed 2,000 civilians and soldiers and kidnapped about 1,000 people in northern Cameroon, according to an analysis by the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank.

Source: AFP

Robberies and kidnappings are on the rise in eastern Cameroon, as violence from the neighboring Central African Republic spills across the border. Armed groups from the C.A.R. have been stealing supplies and taking dozens of people hostage for ransom.

Iya Gabdo, a cattle rancher, says armed men took him hostage three weeks ago after he could not pay the $5,000 they demanded. Gabdo says many of his peers were also kidnapped that day.

He says the only available water for the hostages was from doubtful sources, and they were hardly served a meal a day. He says most of the hostages are now sick, either because they did not bathe or because they drank dirty water.

The military freed Gabdo this past week, returning him and 13 others to the town of Ngaoui. The military said one hostage was killed in the rescue and several were wounded. Several armed men also were killed.

Ngaoui hosts one of the largest cattle markets on Cameroon’s border with the C.A.R. The market was reduced to a shadow of itself four years ago when armed groups started crossing the border to attack and kidnap Cameroonian cattle ranchers and business people for ransom, or to steal their property.

On several occasions, Cameroon sealed the border.

In 2016, business resumed in border areas when new C.A.R. President Faustin-Archange Touadera promised to bring peace to the troubled nation. But last year, the United Nations reported that fresh fighting involving armed groups in the C.A.R. was leading to new waves of bloodshed and displacement.

Kildadi Taguieke Boukar, governor of the Adamawa region of Cameroon, says that since the fighting erupted again, there have been increasing attacks in Cameroon’s territory.

“They kidnapped the chief of Akundere and they asked him a ransom of a hundred million CFA [$180,000],” Boukar said. “So, I want to invite the population to continue cooperating, giving the information to the forces of law and order, to the administration. And I think, I do hope we are going to put an end to this type of banditry.”

The C.A.R. descended into chaos after longtime leader Francois Bozize was overthrown in 2013 by a predominantly Muslim rebel alliance called the Seleka. Christian militias called the anti-Balaka emerged in response, accelerating a cycle of sectarian violence.

Last month, the C.A.R.’s minister of humanitarian activities visited Cameroon and said violence continues in her country because it is hard to control the circulation of arms, or to bring the various armed factions together for true dialogue.

Culled from VOA

Former South African President Jacob Zuma, who was ousted by his own party in February, appeared at the Durban High Court on Friday for the second time on corruption charges relating to a $2.5 billion arms deal in the late 1990s.

Zuma faces 16 charges of fraud, racketeering and money laundering relating to the deal to buy European military hardware to upgrade South Africa’s armed forces after the end of apartheid in 1994.

State prosecutors and Zuma’s lawyers presented arguments over a start date for the trial, a rare example of an African leader being held to account for his actions.

Judge Mjabuliseni Madondo adjourned the case to July 27 for the state and the defense to indicate whether they can commence the case. The matter will be heard in the nearby city of Pietermaritzburg to allow for renovations at the Durban court.

“There are still some applications to be launched,” he said, adding that it was still too early to say when a trial could start. Lawyers for the state said they were still ready for a trial to start in November.

Zuma, clad in a dark suit and red tie, shook hands and laughed with his supporters as he left the court. Outside, hundreds of supporters sang his name and waved placards.

The national prosecutor this week turned down a request by the 76-year-old to delay Friday’s hearing pending the outcome of a separate legal challenge over the state paying his legal fees.

The speed with which prosecutors have moved against Zuma is a sign of his waning influence since he was replaced as head of state by Cyril Ramaphosa, his former deputy, four months ago.

Ramaphosa has made the fight against corruption a top priority as he seeks to woo foreign investment and revamp an ailing economy.

Zuma’s supporters say the former president, whose nine years in power were marked by economic stagnation and credit rating downgrades, is the victim of a politically motivated witch-hunt.

(Source: Reuters)

The French government has never denied its involvement in Cameroon politics. It is an open secret that French Commissioner Roland Pre toppled the government of Andre Marie Mbida and installed Ahmadou Ahidjo who slaughtered thousands of Bamilekes and Bassas during the uprising against the French in the late 50s and early 60s. French diplomats in Cameroon have also never resisted genocidal claims brought against Paris by French Cameroonians.  Cameroon Intelligence Report has gotten reliable information that the French embassy in Abuja worked with Nigeria’s secret service and mobile police to arrest the Interim President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe in Abuja and it is currently bankrolling Nigerian police officers in the Cross River State and Benue to suppress the Southern Cameroons resistance.

We gathered from Nigerian police sources in Abuja that the French government paid the Nigerian DSS via an arrangement with President Buhari’s security adviser, Babagana to arrest the Ambazonian leadership that was operating in the Nigerian capital city and in some parts of the North and Cross River and the French are even helping to plan Buhari’s reelection bid in 2019.

According to the United Nations, some 40,000 Southern Cameroonians have fled the wave of terror and killings in their ancestral home to Nigeria. The UN again noted recently that some 160,000 Southern Cameroonians have been internally displaced and badly in need of food, shelter and medicine. French multinationals running the oil fields in the Bakassi Peninsula have been accused of collaborating with the Biya regime in the extermination campaign going on in Southern Cameroons. A highly placed Cameroon government official who spoke to our undercover reporter revealed that Total has been paying millions of dollars to the Cameroon government military deployed to Southern Cameroons.

A Southern Cameroons commander serving with the Ambazonia Self-Defense Council Restoration Force hinted that French military equipment and vehicles are playing a big part in French Cameroun military operations in Southern Cameroons and he conceded that Yaoundé had paid the military huge sums of money to dish-out to Southern Cameroons local leaders- a move recently denounced by the Interim Government of the people of Southern Cameroons.

Amnesty International and the International Crisis Group say the French Cameroun army is overseeing a human rights tragedy in Southern Cameroons. Most of the alleged human rights abuses, they say, follow the Biya regime’ refusal to dialogue with the exiled Interim Government. French speaking Cameroonians are not able to take on the French multinationals that virtually controls every aspect of the Cameroonian nation from rails to ports and from politics to football.

For 57 years, the people of Southern Cameroons have seen their human rights constantly abused by successive French Cameroun governments with the support and backing of French multinationals and diplomatic missions. Speaking recently to the Cameroon Concord News Group, the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Dr Samuel Ikome Sako observed that hundreds of Southern Cameroonians are being killed and thousands are brutalised for attempting to raise grievances to the international community. The Ambazonian exiled leader also stated that French Cameroun government forces are threatening, beating, killing and jailing local leaders of the Southern Cameroons struggle.

By Sessekou Asu Isong with files from Kingsley Betek and Sama Ernest