8 people lost their lives first following an explosion of an improvised device at Wulba and in a suicide attack attributed to the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram at Kossa in the Far North region of French Cameroun. The attacks took place on Sunday the 17th of September 2017 in the morning.

Five people including three civilians and two suicide bombers died in Kossa, near Mora, Mayo-Sava division in the Far North region. It was around 5am (4am GMT), during prayer time that the first girl triggered her bomb at the entrance of a concession. The second suicide bomber who took advantage of the panic created by the first detonation, set off his bomb inside the concession killing three people including one child and two women.

The two suicide bombers died in the double suicide bombing. 72 hours before, in Wulba, three Cameroonians, including a first-class soldier, Abakar Mahamat of the Joint Multinational Force(FMM), based in Mora, died after the explosion of an improvised explosive device.

Two other men, including members of vigilance committees whose mission was to alert the army and authorities during the Boko Haram intrusions, were also killed in the explosion.

By Fru James
Cameroon Concord News

At least 30 Burundian refugees have been killed in clashes with Congolese security forces over plans to send some of them home, a Reuters witness and local activists said on Saturday.

Police and soldiers opened fire as the refugees protested over the plan in the town of Kamanyola in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday, the activists told Reuters.

Congo’s government spokesman Lambert Mende denied that those killed were refugees, saying that the clashes broke out when assailants from an unidentified armed group attacked an office belonging to the national intelligence agency.

Five soldiers and 20 of the attackers were killed in the fighting, Mende said.

More than 400,000 refugees have fled Burundi – including 40,000 to neighboring Congo – since violence erupted in April 2015 when President Pierre Nkurunziza said he would seek a third term in office, a move his opponents said was unconstitutional.

Wendo Joel, an activist from a Congolese pro-democracy and human right group, said the refugees had seized a weapon and killed a soldier as they tried to free some of their arrested compatriots.

“The soldiers first fired in the air but there were many refugees,” Joel told Reuters. “I have counted 32 bodies. There are also about 100 wounded.”

Reuters TV footage showed more than 30 bodies covered by sheets on the roadside in Kamanyola, with many more wounded also lying in the street.

A UN spokeswoman confirmed that at least 18 Burundian asylum seekers had been killed but said the toll was likely to rise. Many others had taken shelter at the UN peacekeeping mission’s nearby base, she added.

According to a spokesman for the UN refugee agency, more than 2,000 Burundian refugees live in Kamanyola with host families.

In a statement, Burundi’s main opposition grouping, CNARED, accused Burundian army troops and members of the ruling CNDD-FDD’s youth group Imbonerakure of carrying out the killings with the Congolese army.

Burundian officials could not be immediately reached for comment, but Burundi’s foreign minister Alain Aime Nyamitwe wrote on Twitter: “My heart sinks as I learn of the shootings in Eastern #DRC.”

“Clarifications are needed on the shootings and circumstances around,” he added.

The violence in Burundi has killed over 700 people and a UN commission said last week there were reasonable grounds to believe authorities had committed crimes against humanity. The government rejected the commission’s findings as “propaganda”.

Gunmen thought to have crossed the border from violence-racked Central African Republic attacked civilians in a remote part of Cameroon, killing one and carrying off 22, a local government official said on Wednesday. Banditry is a long-standing problem in eastern Cameroon, but armed attacks and kidnapping for ransom have become much more frequent in the last two years as civil conflict has intensified across the border in Central African Republic.

Armed bandits have taken advantage of insecurity in Central African Republic to loot homes and kidnap children, fuelling calls from human rights organisations including Amnesty International, for a United Nations force to protect civilians there. The latest attacks in Cameroon happened on Sunday in the isolated localities of Landou and Ouro Kessoum, Jean Kalandi, sub-prefect of Rey-Bouba in northeastern Cameroon, said on state radio.

“The armed bandits attacked shortly before midnight on the fateful day. They ransacked houses, looted food items and took away any valuable property they could carry,” Kalandi said. “They were well armed with very modern weapons, killed one person and took away 22 others as hostages to an unknown destination. We suspect these kidnappers are either highway robbers or rebels from CAR who have been harassing our people living along our common frontier,” he said.

A week earlier gunmen had taken 15 people hostage in a similar attack in the same area, but the victims managed to escape when their captors got drunk and fell asleep, Kalandi said. Kalandi gave no details about the victims of the latest attacks, and could not immediately be reached by phone from the capital Yaounde. Kidnappers often target the nomadic cattle-herding Mbororo people, who have a reputation for wealth and sometimes pay millions of CFA francs to free their relatives. Cameroon has recently deployed large numbers of its Rapid Intervention Brigade to combat insecurity in the east, but they are hampered by poor roads along the 600 km (375 mile) border.

Central African Republic has suffered years of conflict. In the north-west, which borders Cameroon, government forces have burned scores of villages in the past two years in the hunt for rebel fighters, leaving displaced villagers and nomadic herders vulnerable to armed bandits known locally as Zaraguinas. A northeastern revolt mounted last year from Sudan’s violent Darfur province was eventually repulsed with the help of fighter jets and special forces from former colonial power France.

Source: IOL

The Chairman of the Southern Cameroons Governing Council, Sesekou Ayuk Tabe has met with the Southern Cameroons Diaspora community in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. The Chairman of the governing council also visited members of some families whose children were allegedly killed by French Cameroun security operatives during rallies and protests staged by the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Consortium.

Sesekou Ayuk Tabe with his entourage embarked on a visit to show solidarity and condolence to the families and communities of those who died on the cause of Southern Cameroons restoration ever since the revolution started some 11 months ago.

The leader visited Leicester in the Midlands and London where he held intensive and productive discussions with Southern Cameroonians residing in the UK. The Sesekou observed during his trip to Leicester that “We wish to remind Southern Cameroonians, friends of Southern Cameroons and lovers of Southern Cameroons freedom to stay at home in honour and remembrance of those Southern Cameroons soldiers that died for us to live as well as for Southern Cameroons children who have been starved to death through the policy of the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime.”

“It will be a landmark achievement and remarkable event for Southern Cameroonians to honour and remember BBC Mancho and all Southern Cameroons detainees who are currently still being held in Francophone jails.” Sesekou Ayuk Tabe noted that it is our duty to honour BBC Mancho and all those in French Cameroun jails by staying at home; no business and movement, both human and vehicular from Monday to Wednesday. The leader added that any meeting with La Republique will only take place after the release of BBC Mancho and all Southern Cameroons detainees.

By Chi Prudence Asong
Cameroon Concord News

Three people were killed in an attack attributed to Boko Haram last night in the small border town of Dzaba, in the Mayo Moskota Division in the Far North region of La Republique du Cameroun. Security officials operating within the area say 9 people including women and children are missing.

According to another community source, the missing persons were kidnapped by militants of the Nigerian Islamic sect. We also gathered that 48 businesses and homes were burnt down by Boko Haram assailants during the attack.

Amnesty International recently reported that Boko Haram has killed at least 158 civilians since April 2017 in Cameroon, in armed attacks and suicide bombings. This is four times more than in the first five months of the year.

This upsurge in attacks is occurring in a context where the Nigerian Islamic sect, which has paid allegiance to the organization of the Islamic state and is now called the Islamic Province in West Africa, was announced militarily weakened.

By Chi Prudence Asong
Cameroon Concord News

More than 1,000 people have died from the mudslide and flood that hit Sierra Leone’s capital nearly two weeks ago, a local leader and a minister said Sunday during services honoring the disaster’s victims.

The government had earlier put the death toll for the Aug. 14 mudslide at 450 dead, while rescuers and aid groups warned that many of the more than 600 people missing would likely not survive.

“Over 1,000 perished in the mudslide and flood disaster, and we will never know the exact number now,” Elenoroh Jokomie Metzger, the head of the women of Regent, said. Regent is an area on the outskirts of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, where the mudslide hit.

Hundreds of burials have taken place, while rescue and recovery efforts have continued through rain that could bring fresh tragedy due to unsafe housing conditions.

Reverend Bishop Emeritus Arnold Temple, Sierra Leone’s Methodist minister, who delivered the Sunday sermon at a Methodist church near Regent, said an accurate count was important for accountability.

 

“It may well be over 1,000 Sierra Leoneans we are mourning now. But why should about 1,000 of our compatriots’ lives end tragically like this?” Temple said. “Who should we really blame? We are bound at a point in the blame game to attribute the blame so that corrective measures can be put in place so that never again should we allow this to happen.”

Thousands of people living in areas at risk during heavy rains have been evacuated. Aid groups are delivering supplies and helping provide clean water to prevent a health crisis.

Some critics accuse Sierra Leone’s government of failing to learn from past disasters in Freetown, where many poor areas are near sea level and lack good drainage. The capital is also plagued by unregulated construction on its hillsides.

(Source: AP)

A group supporting victims of crime in South Africa says it will legally challenge a controversial Foreign Ministry decision to grant immunity to Grace Mugabe, a move which allowed the wife of Zimbabwe’s president to leave the country without standing trial for an alleged assault on a young model.

AfriForum’s chief Kallie Kriel said Monday that the civil rights organization was preparing a court injunction to set aside the decision to grant diplomatic immunity to Grace Mugabe after she reportedly assaulted Gabriella Engels, a 20-year-old model, with an electrical extension cord at a hotel in Johannesburg.

“We are going to ask the court to say that the decision to grant immunity is unlawful because our legislation says that diplomatic immunity cannot apply in serious crimes, and violence is part of that,” said Kriel.

The rights campaigner also said that Grace, the wife of Zimbabwe’s ailing leader Robert Mugabe, was in South Africa for medical assistance, adding that she could not enjoy diplomatic immunity during the stay.

“We believe that the diplomatic immunity should not have been granted,” Kriel said, adding, “She had been here for medical assistance with regards to her foot and therefore diplomatic immunity does not apply.”

Grace flew out of South Africa in the early hours of Sunday despite being sought by police for the assault on Engels, which left the young model with cuts on her forehead and on her head that required stitching. That had prompted the model to file an assault charge against Mugabe.

South Africa’s Foreign Ministry said later on Sunday in a statement that it had granted Grace Mugabe immunity, although it acknowledged that the decision “was not an easy one to make” and came after “careful consideration of all the relevant factors.”

AfriForum said, however, that seeking diplomatic immunity for Mugabe was an “afterthought” and that the Foreign Ministry’s decision was in line with a regional “culture of impunity.”

The group vowed to help Engels seek justice, adding that even if the court did not accept to overrule the immunity, the effort would still be positive as it could stop Grace Mugabe from visiting South Africa again.

“In the worst case scenario, if we get to a situation where she cannot come to the country any more, I think that will be a positive step,” said Kriel, adding, “But the first prize is to make sure she is being prosecuted.”

Source: Presstv

Susan Namondo Ngongi, outgoing Country Director for UNICEF Ghana, has been appointed as the new UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for Eritrea. The Cameroonian born UN official was recently appointed to head Eritrea’s UN office and is due to take up her new post this August.

Prior to her coming to Ghana, Susan Namondo Ngongi, has worked with UNICEF across Africa spanning over a decade. She started her UNICEF career in 2000 as an emergencies specialist in Sudan before moving into a co-ordination role with UNICEF’s regional office for Eastern and Southern Africa and UNICEF headquarters in New York.

Susan supported programme development, monitoring and evaluation as Deputy Representative in Liberia in 2008. She then moved to the Comoros as Representative in 2010, three years later she took the post of UNICEF Representative in Ghana.

Ms Ngongi has a Master’s in Public Administration from Columbia University, USA and a Masters in Animal Health from the University of Reading, UK. She has and continues to be celebrated as one of the leading women making Cameroon and the African continent proud through her service to humanity.

Source: Journal du Cameroun

Livestock are dying in parts of Ethiopia that are overwhelmingly reliant on their milk as deepening drought pushes up the number of districts in need of life-saving aid by 19 percent, according to a report.

At least 8.5 million people in 228 districts of Ethiopia need urgent food aid in the second half of the year, up from 5.6 million in January, according to the study published on ReliefWeb, a website run by the United Nations.

Ethiopia’s eastern Somali region is one of the country’s worst affected zones and is home to a quarter of the country’s cases of severe acute malnutrition, UN agencies said.

Severe acute malnutrition is a condition that kills up to half of sufferers under five years old.

“The number of districts requiring immediate, life-saving intervention increased to levels not seen since the height of the El Niño drought impacts in 2016,” said the joint report, which was compiled by the UN and the Ethiopian government.

A strong aid response almost halved the number of Ethiopians needing food aid to 5.6 million since mid-2016. But the devastating drought was followed by poor spring rains this year in the southern and eastern parts of the country.

Since the end of last year, about 2 million animals have died in Somali region, which is home to many herding communities, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

“For livestock-dependent families, the animals can literally mean the difference between life and death, especially for children, pregnant and nursing women for whom milk is a crucial source of nutrition,” FAO said in a statement last week.

The UN agency is helping the worst hit communities to protect their remaining livestock with vaccinations, supplementary feed and water, and improved fodder production.

“It is crucial to provide this support between now and October – when rains are due – to begin the recovery process and prevent further losses of animals,” said Abdoul Karim Bah, FAO’s deputy representative in Ethiopia.

(Source: Reuters)

Boko Haram terrorists have stepped up attacks on vulnerable people including those living in camps in northeastern Nigeria pushing the displaced from “one hell into another,” a leading international aid agency says. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said on Friday that the terrorists were looking for softer targets, including camps hosting the displaced, following the intensification of offensive by the Nigerian military against the militants.

Latest data from the NRC showed that civilians were affected by violence on about 200 occasions last month – three times more than the total for June. It also indicated that at least 32 attacks were carried out on camps and sites for those uprooted by the conflict since July.

“Camps sheltering innocent families fleeing war should be places of refuge but instead they are turning into death traps,” the head of programs for NRC in Nigeria, Ernest Mutanga, said in a statement. “Armed groups in this conflict are pushing people from one hell into another,” he added.

Terrorists have killed and injured dozens of civilians in recent months in a spate of attacks on camps and areas sheltering the displaced that bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram. Eight years of militancy by Boko Haram has so far killed more than 20,000 people and forced more than 2.7 million to flee their homes.

Last year, the Nigerian army seized large swathes of territory from the terrorists; however, the militants have struck back with renewed zeal since June and killed at least 170 people and weakened the army’s control in the northeast. Many aid agencies, including the NRC, have been forced to temporarily suspend their aid work in Maidiguri, the capital of Borno state, due to threats from Boko Haram.

“We are worried that if these attacks continue, a very bad situation will grow even worse when it comes to aid access and delivery,” Jackie Okao, protection and advocacy adviser at the NRC in Nigeria, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

The United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP) says about 5.2 million people are expected to need food aid by the end of this month – an increase of 500,000 from the start of 2017 – in a region threatened with famine. According to aid agencies, the situation could be far worse with many areas cut off from help due to the threat of Boko Haram and the arrival of the rainy season restricting access.

Culled from Presstv