The governor of the North West region has extended a curfew restricting movement of persons and property from 8PM to 6AM, a decision he says was taken because of ‘growing threats of secessionist activists against the forces of law and order’.

The curfew which was first imposed in the Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions two weeks ago has been extended for a week.

The week long curfew is renewable in the ‘quest for a long lasting return to normalcy’.

 The curfew orders are as follows;

• During the said period (8PM to 6AM), movement of vehicles, persons and goods shall be strictly forbidden.

• All off licenses, snack bars and night clubs shall remain closed.

• Motor parks shall remain closed and night travel buses shall be expected to leave town before 8PM.

• Circulation of motorbikes is completely suspended.

• The orders do not apply to administrative authorities, forces of law and order, persons and vehicles in possession of special authorisations to circulate, and ambulances.

The security forces in the North West region including the recently created military region based in Bamenda, are charged with implementing the curfew.

Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis

What began in 2017 as peaceful protests by Anglophone activists against perceived marginalization by Cameroon’s Francophone-dominated elite has become the gravest challenge yet to President Paul Biya, who is expected to seek to renew his 35-years in power in an election next year.

Government repression – including ordering thousands of villagers in the Anglophone southwest to leave their homes – has driven support for a once-fringe secessionist movement, stoking a lethal cycle of violence.

The secessionists declared an independent state called Ambazonia on Oct. 1. Since then, violent scenes that have resulted in loss of lives for both the secessionists and government forces have played out in the Northwest region, whose capital is Bamenda.

At the end of World War One, Germany’s colony of Kamerun was carved up between allied French and British victors, laying down the basis for a language split that still persists.

English speakers make up less than a fifth of the population of Cameroon, concentrated in former British territory near the Nigerian border that was joined to the French-speaking Republic of Cameroon the year after its independence in 1960. French speakers have dominated the country’s politics since.

Source: Africa News

At least seven people have been killed in Chad and Cameroon by militants of the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group, which is based in neighboring Nigeria.

A local source in the northern Cameroon border area said Thursday that five civilians had been killed in Boko Haram’s raid two nights earlier on a border town, which gives direct access to Nigeria.

“A group of Boko Haram fighters made an incursion during (Tuesday) night in Assigashia …The attackers killed five people and wounded five more,” said the source, who was close to administrative authorities.

An official in the Cameroon security services also confirmed the raid and the casualty toll.

Due to its geographic location, Assigashia has seen recurrent Boko Haram attacks in the past. The militants were blamed for a raid in January that left a civilian killed.

Meanwhile, a captain and a soldier were killed in Chad in an ambush by Boko Haram.

A senior military official said Thursday that the attack which took place a day earlier targeted the troops who were returning from a border patrol in the Lake Chad region near the Nigerian frontier.

“The Boko Haram attackers disappeared into the island” on the lake, said the source about the attack, which was the first known assault on Chadian territory by Boko Haram since May 2017.

More than 20,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in more than eight years of insurgency by Boko Haram in Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

Nigeria’s government says the militants have been pushed from major strongholds in northern cities and towns. However, attacks targeting civilians and security forces have continued unabated over the past months both inside and outside Nigeria’s borders.

Source: Presstv

More than 25,000 refugees have travelled across the border from Cameroon to Nigeria and dozens continue to arrive every week. Caritas Nigeria is appealing for urgent support to fight an emerging humanitarian crisis as a growing number of refugees have been forced to flee political upheaval and armed conflict in neighbouring Cameroon.

“The situation is dire,” said Fr Evaristus Bassey, director of Caritas Nigeria. “According to some of the refugees, they escaped on bush paths with only the clothes they were wearing.” Caritas Nigeria says assessments show more than 25,000 refugees have travelled across the border from Cameroon to Nigeria and dozens continue to arrive every week. Caritas has launched an international appeal to provide 10,000 refugees in Cross River State with food, clean water, mosquito nets and other aid.

Fr Bassey said the influx was having a serious impact on already impoverished Nigerian communities.“Many refugees are staying with relatives or friends they have known on the Nigerian side,” he said. “Typically many of these villages are rural and housing conditions are poor and congested. Some of these communities in peace time had no functional latrines except designated spots for open defecation. Water sources are from the stream.”

The armed insurgency in Cameroon is largely driven by the Ambazonian group which is demanding the full restoration of statehood for what was a former British colony in southern Cameroon from 1922 to 1961. Their objective is the dissolution of the 1961 Union of Southern Cameroon with French Cameroon.

English speaking parts of Cameroon have long complained of marginalization by the French-speaking dominated government, which has deteriorated into a brutal crackdown. Caritas Cameroon’s Fr Kisito Balla Onana said, “Our English-speaking brothers and sisters are in distress.

“Two weeks ago I went to the field with one of the bishops. We visited deserted villages where the houses were burned down. Many of their inhabitants had left and were living in extremely difficult conditions. Caritas brought them clothes, food and a small sum of money.”

Many refugees have fled their homes to Nigeria to escape the conflict which has destabilised the country and destroyed lives and livelihoods.

Caritas Nigeria says services are stretched and there is inadequate accommodation, food, water and sanitation available.“We want to urgently provide humanitarian relief to those in dire need, before this crisis becomes too monstrous and difficult to handle,” said Fr Bassey.

Caritas Nigeria conducted rapid assessments across some of the affected areas that have received a large influx of refugees from Cameroon. The assessment revealed that the Cameroonian refugees in Cross Rivers State were mostly based in the communities within Nigeria that are sharing borders with Cameroon.

Most refugees are living in host communities with relatives, in abandoned government quarters or uncompleted buildings and even open space. They have been dependent on the generosity of impoverished host communities for donations of food and clothing as most of them fled for their lives.

“Caritas Nigeria carried out an assessment two years ago on the Oban corridor in 18 communities because of an environmental program we wanted to initiate,” Fr Bassey said. “The clean water and hygiene conditions were appalling. These are aggravated now with the present crisis.”

While Caritas has carried out assessments in Cross River State where the refugees have the largest concentration, it is seeking input and guidance in other areas where refugees are being housed.

“Caritas has already made assessments in the Oban Corridor and the Boki and Ikom axis,” said Fr Bassey. “Caritas will soon carry out market surveys and establish relationships with vendors for food vouchers. The main challenge though is that markets are far from these communities and transportation is a huge challenge in transporting materials.”

The Nigerian Church is planning a national collection and Caritas Nigeria is appealing for urgent donations of food, clothing, blankets, medicine, cooking utensils and WASH materials.

Fr Bassey said in Nigeria systems and institutions often respond quickly to a crisis but pressure from the international community might assist Nigeria to face up to the challenge over the longer term.

He said language barriers with French speaking Cameroon made co-operation challenging across borders and the Nigerian government would need a lot of support if the situation escalates into a full-blown crisis.

Source: Reliefweb.int

At least 17 people have been killed and several others injured in Mozambique’s capital when a 15-meter pile of garbage collapsed due to heavy rain and buried seven houses, officials say.

The collapse happened at around 3 a.m. (0100 GMT) in the impoverished Hulene neighborhood, which is around 10 kilometers from the center of Maputo. The houses were built illegally and authorities had previously asked the residents to leave, officials said.

Torrential rain is thought to have caused the loose waste to shift and crash down on the shacks, trapping the occupants who were sleeping at the time of the incident on Sunday night.

Mozambique’s emergency service warned there could be more victims, trapped under the vast waste pile in Hulene.

“The information we received from local authorities is that the number of people living in those houses exceeds the number of deaths recorded, so work is still ongoing to see if there are any other deaths,” said spokesman Leonilde Pelembe.

The rubbish mound destroyed five homes and rescue teams were still searching through the wreckage to find survivors, he added.

“I live in this neighborhood because I have nowhere to go. Had the government told me to go to another place to live, I would have left here,” said local resident Maria Huo.

Her family home was partially destroyed and her son injured in the landslide, she said.

“It’s been more than 10 years that the dump should have been closed because it’s full — but they still continue to pile trash on the trash. The consequence is this,” said Teresa Mangue, a neighborhood leader.

Heavy rain has been falling on Maputo since Sunday, causing flooding, damaging homes and deluging roads and schools.

(Source: Agencies)

On February 2, more than two dozen Boko Haram fighters emerged from a hideout in Sambisa Forest and surrendered to authorities. Their defections were a key victory for Nigerian forces and regional allies in their battle against the diminished, but still deadly, terrorist group.

Maj. Gen. Rogers Nicholas of the Nigerian Army told VOA’s Hausa service that he believes there are more defections to come.

“Now they have repented. They surrendered voluntarily. They are now with us. We have provided them with clothes to wear, food to eat and drugs for their health,” said Nicholas, the theater commander for Operation Lafiya Dole, Nigeria’s effort to defeat Boko Haram.

“We will hand them over to the state government to decide what to do next. We are calling on those still hiding in the forest to come out and surrender. We will accept them and take care of them,” he said.

One of the defectors said he and the other fighters were struggling with a lack of food, water and medical supplies.

“We were just suffering in the bush. Thank God we were accepted by the authorities and provided for. I want to call on those still in the forest to come out and surrender with their weapons. Nothing would happen to them,” the fighter told VOA.

But lasting peace has been elusive in the fight against Boko Haram. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and top officials have declared the group defeated multiple times, only to see more attacks. The group killed more than 900 people in 2017, a slight increase from the previous year, according to BBC Monitoring. They remain among the most deadly terrorist groups on the continent.

Hit and run terrorists

Vincent Foucher, senior consultant for the International Crisis Group, recently returned from a research trip to northeast Nigeria and said the group is weakened but still dangerous.

“Boko Haram has basically gone rural,” he said, pointing to marshy areas in and around Lake Chad and mountainous areas along the border with Cameroon as the group’s strongholds. “They don’t seek anymore to control large chunks of territory. They just go for hit and run. They mix guerilla and terrorism basically. And they are still there.”

Foucher said life inside Maiduguri, the largest city in Borno State, has mostly returned to normal, with busy commerce and significant activity by nongovernmental organizations. Other cities in the northeast have been turned into garrison towns with trenches dug around them for protection, he said.

“The military are, you know, a bit more corrosive — are sort of trying to push people to flock to those towns to sort of control what’s going on. This is classical counterinsurgency policy,” said Foucher. “You want to take the water away from the fish, as the saying goes.”

Foucher said the Nigerian Army has made some advances in counterinsurgency through its specially trained mobile strike teams and via air strikes. He said he also is heartened to see the Nigerian Army taking claims of abuse or human rights violations seriously, and in some cases, issuing court-martials to those suspected of crimes.

Regional cooperation

Perhaps most significantly, the Multinational Joint Task Force has made gains. The 10,000-person force is headquartered in N’Djamena, Chad, with regional bases in the four countries surrounding Lake Chad. In addition to the affected nations of Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon, Benin also contributes troops to the effort.

The task force marks a major step forward in regional military cooperation, Foucher said, with bilateral missions, intelligence sharing and countries granting permission for neighboring forces to cross borders in pursuit of Boko Haram fighters.

“It’s not perfect, but the level of cooperation, actually, between the four countries, whether in the framework of MNJTF or whether actually outside — there are also some bilateral links that are working, and it is actually quite remarkable,” he said.

The task force embodies the ideal of “African solutions to African problems,” an often-cited approach to tackling military, political and societal issues without relying too heavily on Western support.

“I think, for once, an African regional security mechanism that is building, you know, that is not just a mimicry of what Europe has been trying to do,” Foucher said. “It is really based on a need that states feel for some sort of coordination, so it’s an interesting thing.”

Source: VOA

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn suddenly resigned on Thursday in what he described as a bid to smooth reforms, following years of violent unrest that threatened the ruling party’s hold on Africa’s second most populous nation.

The resignation — unprecedented in Ethiopia’s history — followed a wave of strikes this week in towns near the capital and demonstrations successfully demanding the release of more opposition leaders.

More than 6,000 political prisoners have been freed since January as the government struggles to placate simmering anger among the two largest ethnic groups, the Oromo and Amharic, who complain they are under-represented in the country’s corridors of power.

The prime minister leads the nation under Ethiopia’s political system, and Hailemariam’s resignation underscores the depth of division within the ruling coalition over how fast to pursue political reform.

Ethiopia is the region’s largest economy and a key Western ally in the fight against militancy but rights groups criticize its government for jailing journalists and political opponents.

It was not clear who would replace Hailemariam. He also resigned as chairman of the ruling coalition, which has governed since it defeated a military regime in 1991.

“Unrest and a political crisis have led to the loss of lives and displacement of many,” Hailemariam said in a televised speech. “I see my resignation as vital in the bid to carry out reforms that would lead to sustainable peace and democracy.”

(Source: Reuters)

Source: Channel Africa

Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has died after a long battle with cancer.

His death casts his Movement for Democratic Change party into the unknown, less than three months after the army ousted long-time ruler Robert Mugabe.

Mr Tsvangirai, who died in South Africa, was 65.

“I can confirm that he died this evening. The family communicated this to me,” MDC vice-president Elias Mudzuri told Reuters.

Arguably Zimbabwe’s most popular politician, the mining union leader’s career was ultimately defined by his tussles – both literal and figurative – with Mr Mugabe, who resigned after a de facto coup in December.

Elections are due within the next six months and Mr Tsvangirai’s illness and now death leaves his party in disarray, to the advantage of the ruling ZANU-PF party.

ZANU-PF is now led by 93-year-old Mr Mugabe’s former deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Although Mr Tsvangirai suffered serious physical abuse at the hands of security forces, including serious head injuries in police custody in 2007, he went on to form an uneasy working relationship with Mr Mugabe in a 2009-2013 coalition government.

Source: RTE

Three soldiers and two civilians were killed and 11 other people injured in an accident involving DR Congo President Joseph Kabila’s motorcade, his office said Wednesday.

The accident happened on a road in the southwest of the country, 220 kilometers (110 miles) south of Kinshasa, as Kabila was returning to the capital on Tuesday.

“Last night, a vehicle in the presidential motorcade was hit on the Matadi highway at Kimpese by a truck carrying cement,” communications official Yvon Ramazani told AFP on Wednesday.

“Three soldiers in the Republican Guard were killed along with two civilians who were nearby,” he said. Seven soldiers and four civilians were also injured, Ramazani said, adding that the accident had been caused by heavy rain.

Kabila “stayed on the site until the emergency services arrived, and personally supervised the ambulance evacuation of dead and injured,” he said.

The Republic Guard is an elite force tasked with the protection of the president. Kabila was returning from a stay in the sea port of Matadi.

Roads in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a sprawling, poverty-stricken country, are notorious for accidents. Poor road surfaces, overladen vehicles and excessive speed are often the causes of mishaps.

Kabila on Wednesday was to meet in Kinshasa with the presidents of the neighboring Republic of Congo and Angola, Denis Sassou Nguesso and Joao Lourenco, for a tripartite meeting.

(Source: AFP)