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)

Poachers killed six troops and two guides in a wildlife park in northern Cameroon, Defence Minister Joseph Beti Assomo said Monday.

“Six members of the defence forces and two civilian guides were killed ” on Thursday during a clash with heavily-armed men on horseback in Bouba Ndjida national park in the north of the country, Beti Assomo said in a statement aired on state radio.

In 2012, 128 elephants were killed in the Bouba Ndjida park within two months, according to the government. The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) put the figure at 480.

The WWF attributed that massacre to poachers from Sudan and Chad.

Since March 2012, Cameroon has deployed a hundred troops in the wildlife reserve to help deal with the threat from poachers and protect the elephant population for which the park is known.

The eight people killed in Thursday´s violence were carrying out a routine patrol, source said.

Poaching has killed an estimated 110,000 elephants over the last decade, with transnational organised crime syndicates taking over the illicit trade.

The most recent figures, for 2016, showed the global trade in illegal ivory continues to thrive in light of record seizures despite a decline in poaching.

According to the Great Elephant Census in 2016, the first ever pan-African survey of savanna elephants, numbers are estimated to have fallen to 352,000, down from 1.3 million in 1979.

Source: The News.com

Three French Cameroun gendarmes have been killed in Kembong village in Eyumojock Sub constituency in Manyu today Sunday the 11^th of February 2018. The three were killed as the Francophone dominated army was conducting operations following reports of “imminent attacks” by the Ambazonian Defense Force.

The so called Cameroon military spokesman Colonel Didier Badjeck confirmed the news earlier today and stated that the perpetrators of the crimes have already been arrested. On Friday, an internal memo from the Cameroon Ministry of Defense reported threats of “imminent attacks” by the Ambazonian Defense Force against “several cities” in Southern Cameroons. A curfew has been introduced in the territory.

Since the beginning of the Ambazonian crisis, the Biya regime has reported that only 26 members of the security forces have been killed by suspected separatists. However, no record of the number of civilian deaths has been established from an official source since the beginning of the crisis. Nearly 40,000 Southern Cameroonians, mostly villagers have fled to Nigeria.

By Rita Akana

Cameroon imposed a week-long night curfew from Saturday in its restive English-speaking west citing fears of an “imminent” attack by separatists but long-serving President Paul Biya claimed the volatile situation had “stabilised”.

Dozens of people have been killed in the two English-speaking regions since October after a violent crackdown on protests against the mainly French-speaking government.

Many English-speakers have accused the Francophone majority of discrimination and that has fuelled a separatist movement.

Army spokesman Colonel Didier Badjeck said the curfew would come into force Saturday. It will last from 8:00 pm to 6:00 am and is due to concerns of an “imminent attack” in “several cities” by separatists, backed by “mercenaries” from neighbouring Nigeria, a defence ministry memo said.

The curfew can be renewed, said a note from the governorate of the English-speaking north-west region, seen by AFP.

Cameroon’s southwest and northwest regions are home to an English-speaking minority that accounts for about a fifth of the population.

In October, separatists declared the two regions as the self-proclaimed republic of “Ambazonia”, prompting a forceful reaction by the government.

Police say 22 police and soldiers have been killed in the violence but officials in the capital Yaounde have not released figures for the number of separatist or civilian losses.

The spiralling violence has prompted an estimated 30,000 Cameroonians to flee to neighbouring Nigeria.

Biya, 84, who has held power since 1982, on Saturday called on young Cameroonians to be “patriotic internet users” and said the situation in the Anglophone areas had improved after “troubles which sometimes sparked acts of violence.”

It comes after a string of grisly video clips circulated online alleging atrocities against separatists by Cameroonian soldiers.

On Friday, the Cameroonian army denied its troops were responsible for the alleged gruesome killings in English-speaking regions in the unverified video.

“These accusations of atrocities are dreamt up. We are victims of disinformation and fake news,” said army spokesman Colonel Didier Badjeck.

(AFP)

The Cameroonian army on Friday denied its troops were responsible for alleged atrocities against separatists in English-speaking regions after unverified footage apparently involving soldiers was posted online.

“These accusations of atrocities are dreamt up. We are victims of disinformation and fake news,” army spokesperson Colonel Didier Badjeck told AFP, just days after the appearance of the latest of a string of grisly video clips.

None of the clips could be independently verified by AFP, with Badjeck insisting the army had “a culture of respect for human rights” and accusing the separatists of being “skilled at disinformation”.

Since October, troops have staged a crackdown targeting activists in Cameroon’s restive western regions where the English-speaking minority has staged protests against the government in this predominantly francophone country.

In the absence of any formal acknowledgement of the toll among separatists, eyewitness accounts of brutality against civilians have proliferated on social media and in parts of the press.

On Wednesday, the European Union condemned the violence in Cameroon, referring to the recent deaths of three members of the security forces and a number of civilians as “unacceptable” and calling on the police and army to exercise restraint.

“It remains crucial for the security forces to be proportionate in their use of force while carrying out their duties,” it said in a statement which followed similar condemnation from the US State Department a day earlier.

But the Cameroon army spokesperson said they were at risk of falling foul of a campaign of disinformation.

“It’s important that the bodies with which we maintain good relations don’t just listen to one side,” he said.

 ‘We are harassed’ 

Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest Regions are home to an anglophone minority that accounts for about a fifth of the country’s population and which has long complained of discrimination at the hands of the French-speaking majority.

In October, separatists issued a symbolic declaration of independence for the putative state of Ambazonia, prompting a crackdown by a government firmly opposed to secession.

Anglophone separatists have responded by escalating their own operations against state institutions. The spiralling violence has forced an estimated 30 000 Cameroonians to flee to neighbouring Nigeria.

Badjeck said a soldier had died on Thursday after being stabbed in the eye with a knife in the main western town of Bamenda, with his death raising the toll among the police and security forces to 23.

“Our soldiers are struck down every day. We are harassed. It may happen that there are reactions on the ground, that a soldier loses his self-control. But it hasn’t happened yet,” he said.

And last weekend, at least four civilians were shot dead by troops during several incidents in the Northwest Region, witnesses said. One told AFP that men “in military uniform came and started smashing up houses.”

Source: AFP

The Catholic Church in Nigeria says the continued influx of Cameroon refugees into Nigeria’s Cross River State was worsening the poverty situation in host communities.

According to Caritas Nigeria, a wing of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN), poor communities were suffering from the burden of hosting fleeing Cameroonians.

Head of Caritas Nigeria, Rev. Fr Evaristus Bassey, in a press statement said the Anglophone crisis in south and northwest Cameroon was beyond the political and security parameters, posing a huge humanitarian condition.

“While Caritas Nigeria has carried out assessments in Cross River State where the refugees have the largest concentration, it is seeking for guidance on other areas where the refugees are located to make necessary assessments in the state.

“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 lived within host communities with relatives or in abandoned government quarters or uncompleted buildings or any available open space.

“They have been dependent on the generosity of their also impoverished host communities for food and clothing as most of them fled for their lives with only the clothes they had on.”

The United Nations refugee body, UNHCR, has reported that persons fleeing the security situation in Cameroon were virtually entering Nigeria with little or nothing. They have been offering immediate relief as they continue efforts at registering them.

Back in Cameroon, the Ambazonia group continues its face – off with security forces. Over 20 security personnel – soldiers, police, gendarmes, have so far been killed. President Biya has declared war against the separatists seeking to breakaway from the French – majority Cameroon.

Calls for effective and sincere dialogue has been made severally. Biya hinted that he supported dialogue but no concrete efforts have materialized in that area. A known separatist leader, Julius Ayuk Tabe and over 40 others were recently deported from Nigeria to Yoaunde.

Source: Africa News

Boko Haram fighters stormed a village in northeast Nigeria and murdered two civilians, while six people were killed in an attack in northern Cameroon, a local resident and security sources told AFP on Monday. The attacks came as Nigeria’s military again maintained the jihadists had been defeated, and that its repeated raids and suicide bombings were “a sign of weakness”.

At least 20,000 people have been killed in nearly nine years of violence and more than 2.6 million made homeless, triggering a humanitarian crisis across the Lake Chad region. Bulama Bukar said Boko Haram fighters stormed his village, Alau-Kofa, about 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) on Sunday, firing guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

“Two people were burnt alive and the whole village was burnt, along with our food,” he told AFP. Bukar, whose father was shot in the leg during the attack, said the jihadists “specifically came to steal our cattle” but were forced to abandon the herds when soldiers arrived.

“Last Wednesday they attacked the village, killed three people and took away 50 cattle. And now they came back,” he added.  A security source 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) away in the Borno state capital Maiduguri, confirmed Bukar’s account.

“It is part of the fightback strategy by the terrorists, who are facing mounting pressure from the military,” he said. Another security source in Cameroon said “six people were killed and the attackers burnt down more than 100 houses” in the village of Hitawa, at about 11:00 pm on Sunday.

Nigeria’s military said last week they had cleared the Sambisa Forest in Borno state of Boko Haram fighters — just over a year after making a similar claim. Major General Rogers Ibe Nicholas, leading operations against the jihadists, was reported as saying on Monday that the Islamic State affiliate was “completely defeated”.

Asked about the claim, he told AFP: “In the Sambisa Forest where we have them, we have completely defeated them.” The military was “taking them on wherever they go outside that area, he added. He attributed Sunday’s attack in Alau-Kofa to “criminals who came to steal goats”.

At a meeting with the military and security agencies in Maiduguri, Nigeria’s Information Minister Lai Mohammed said: “The last phase of the war with Boko Haram is now on.

“The military is punching deep into the enclaves of the insurgents,” he said, adding that the group was only able to mount “cowardly attacks on soft targets”. “That, in itself, is a sign of weakness,” he added. There have been repeated assertions that military operations were in the final stages dating back even further to the previous administration.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari first claimed the jihadists were “technically defeated” in December 2015. But the security source warned against triumphalism, despite recent successes. “They have indeed been pushed out of Sambisa. They have relocated their camps to Dubur and Yuwe on the rear fringes of Sambisa.” Boko Haram’s capacity has been weakened since it controlled swathes of territory in northeast Nigeria in 2014 but it still poses a threat.

The BBC last month said the militants killed at least 967 people in 150 attacks in 2017, up from 910 deaths in 127 attacks the previous year. Civilians remain at risk, particularly in remote rural areas and even in more well-guarded camps for people displaced by the conflict.

This and a recent federal government request for an extra $1 billion for security funding have led to questions about the veracity of claims about the end of the conflict. Similarly, the military has been asked why it needs 12 Super Tucano A-29 ground aircraft from the United States if the militants are scattered and on the run.

The air force said last month the aircraft were required “to consolidate on successes recorded so far.” The security source said troops on the ground remained cautious about hunting down Boko Haram factional leader Abubakar Shekau, as he was using hostages as human shields.

They include some of the schoolgirls abducted from the Borno town of Chibok in April 2014 and female police officers seized in an ambush last year. “They don’t want to harm them, which is why they are limiting aerial offensives,” he added.

Source: Indian Express