Morocco has made an official request to join the African Union (AU) again more than four decades after leaving the pan-African bloc in protest at Western Sahara’s membership.

In a statement released on Friday, the AU said that it had received Rabat’s bid to rejoin the 54-member body. “The Kingdom of Morocco has officially submitted a request to accede to the African Union Constitutive Act, and therefore, become a Member of the Union,” the statement read.

Morocco’s membership request must be approved by a vote of the AU Commission in order to be accepted. Meanwhile, AU Commission Chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said member states will be informed and the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI will be notified of the outcome.

Morocco withdrew from the AU in 1984, when the mineral-rich and sparsely populated Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) – commonly known as Western Sahara – was accepted as a member. Morocco annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, in 1975. Morocco maintains that Western Sahara is an integral part of the kingdom, but the international community has not recognized the annexation.

Western Sahara is home to the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, a Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement aiming to end Moroccan presence in the territory.  In 1991, Moroccan forces and Sahrawi rebels agreed on a UN-brokered truce and a referendum to settle the status of Western Sahara. However, the vote has never taken place.

Rabat first announced its decision to return to the AU in July, with the king saying that his country wanted to “take up its natural place within its institutional family.” However, he stressed that rejoining of the body did not mean an change in Morocco’s stance on Western Sahara.

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Egyptian rescue workers have pulled out from the Mediterranean Sea the bodies of more than a hundred refugees whose boat recently capsized near the coast of Egypt.

A senior Egyptian official said on Friday that a total of 162 bodies had been pulled out from Egyptian waters. The vessel capsized on Wednesday.

Rescue and recovery operations were still underway, while the military said it had rescued 163 survivors, who are said to be mostly Egyptians, but also include a Syrian, as well as Sudanese, Eritreans, and an Ethiopian asylum seeker.

The survivors said about 450 refugees had been on board the overcrowded fishing boat that was heading toward Italy when it sank about 12 kilometers off the coast. In this regard, authorities have arrested four suspected human traffickers.

Since 2014, according to the United Nations, more than 10,000 asylum seekers have lost their lives attempting to cross the Mediterranean into Europe in substandard vessels overloaded with desperate refugees.

The current year has been described by the United Nations as “the deadliest year on record in the Mediterranean Sea.”The perilous sea route across the Mediterranean Sea from Egypt to Italy, which often takes more than 10 days, is just one of several routes used by asylum seekers.

After Balkan countries closed the popular overland route in March and the European Union reached a deal with Turkey to halt departures, asylum seekers from conflict zones in the Middle East and North Africa have turned to new paths to reach Europe.

Frontex, an EU agency for the management of operational cooperation at the external borders, said in June that crossing from Egypt to Italy was becoming increasingly popular.

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The President of the Republic His Excellency Paul BIYA granted audience to Madam Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States Under-Secretary of State for African Affairs, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York on Thursday 22 September 2016. At the end of their discussions, the American Under-Secretary of State told the press that the audience with the Cameroonian Head of State was focused on the fight against the terrorist group Boko Haram, the handling of refugees and economic cooperation between the United States and Cameroon.

Madam Linda Thomas-Greenfield lauded the total commitment of Cameroon in the fight against Boko Haram which has yielded serious blows to this terrorist group. She reiterated the support of the United States of America to all the countries fighting terrorism. The American Under-Secretary of State appreciated the harbouring of hundreds of thousands of refugees by Cameroon and all the measures the Government has taken to give them good living conditions. Cameroon currently hosts over 350 000 refugees of different nationalities, but mainly Nigerians and people from the Central African Republic.

Madam Linda Thomas-Greenfield affirmed that Cameroon and the USA have very solid bilateral economic relations. She also indicated that the second US-Africa Business Forum which held on the 21 September 2016 in New York, with the participation of Cameroon, was an excellent occasion to examine the ways and means to increase commercial links between Cameroon and the United States.

The Diplomat and the Head of State also discussed the participation of Cameroon at the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly. It should be recalled that Madam Linda Thomas-Greenfield was granted audience by the President of the Republic at the Unity Palace in Yaounde on 6 September 2014. President Paul BIYA had an audience with the Secretary-General of the United Nations BAN KI-MOON yesterday evening. The face-to-face meeting held on the side-lines of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

The warm and friendly audience took place at Mr BAN KI-MOON’s office in New York. Both personalities have recorded a cordial relationship. Mr BAN KI-MOON is a great friend to Cameroon. He established this friendship during his official visit to Cameroon on 9 to 10 June 2010. The UN Secretary General was accompanied by his wife, Mrs BAN SOON-TAEK. It is during this visit that Mr BAN KI-MOON told the press that President Paul Biya is a long-time friend and “a respected leader in the world.” In return, the Cameroonian Head of State affirmed that the relationship between Cameroon and the United Nations is “a long history of trust and friendship.” President Paul Biya and Mr. BAN KI-MOON equally met on 25 September 2010 during the 65th Session of the UN General Assembly.

Both personalities probably made an overview of relations between Cameroon and the United Nations, and activities of the ongoing 71st session of the UN General Assembly in New York. Mr BAN KI-MOON’s second and final term as head of the UN Secretariat ends in January 2017. Elected on 13 October 2006, he took office on 1 January 2007 and was re-elected on 21 June 2011. His mandates were marked by numerous initiatives and reforms to strengthen the organisation. These include: the promotion of sustainable development, women’s empowerment, assistance to countries in crisis or instability, a new impetus to disarmament, arms control, and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

CRTV

Sudan says it is hosting about 400,000 refugees, who fled the civil war in South Sudan that erupted in late 2013. Sudan’s Interior Minister Babiker Digna told reporters in the capital Khartoum on Wednesday that more refugees continued to pour into the country.

“The number of South Sudanese refugees registered by Sudanese authorities is 400,000,” Digna said, adding, “The influx of South Sudanese continues until now… and the process of registering them is also ongoing.” The United Nations earlier said that as of August 31, the total number of South Sudanese refugees in Sudan had exceeded 247,000.

Responding to a discrepancy between the two figures, Digna said “many times” there was disagreement with the UN on the numbers. On September 16, the United Nations refugee agency said in a statement that fighting in South Sudan had forced more than one million people to flee the war-stricken country. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said another 1.61 million people had been displaced inside the country.

On the same day, Noriko Yoshida, the UN refugee agency’s representative for Sudan, appealed for more global aid to help address South Sudan’s refugee crisis, adding, “If we don’t have sufficient resources, it is also difficult to protect and assist these refugees.”

The Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda are also hosting thousands of refugees from South Sudan.

The country gained independence in July 2011, but descended into war in December 2013, after President Salva Kiir accused the former vice president, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup to usurp power.

Numerous international attempts to reach a truce between the warring sides have failed. South Sudan has experienced a new wave of conflict since July 8, when gunfire erupted near the state house in Juba as President Kiir and Machar were holding a meeting.

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It has been revealed that dozens of heavily armed Boko Haram jihadists were seen and among them men with white skin “mestizo, Tuareg, Arab and Western. This new intelligence information released by both the Cameroonian and the Nigerian military comes out at a time when Boko Haram has recently committed umpteenth abuses.

Yaounde and Abuja have ordered their armies to be on high alert since last Friday around Dabanga. The Nigerian military under operation Lafiya Dolle and their Cameroonian counterparts in the Joint Multinational Force including the 41^st Mechanised Infantry Battalion code named Alpha have all been strengthened.

The presence of men with white skin in the ranks of the Boko Haram sect is being treated seriously by both the Buhari and the Biya administrations. Troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger have been battling the terrorists in recent months. The group has pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorists operating mainly in Syria and Iraq.

By Rita Akana

Gabonese citizens resident in France have held a massive demo in support of the president elect, Ali Bongo. The rally that took place at the Place du Trocadero Square of Human Rights, Paris on Sunday, September 18, 2016, called on foreign powers to respect the decision of the Gabonese people including their sovereignty.

The demonstrators started the event with a minute of silence in tribute to victims of post-election violence that rocked the Gabonese nation. All speakers at the rally upheld that Ali Bongo Ondimba was rightfully declared the winner on August 31, 2016, by the CENAP (Autonomous National Electoral Commission) with 49.80% of votes against 48.23% for Jean Ping.

The organizers sounded a note of caution to the French media and some French politicians not to meddle in Gabon’s internal affairs. They noted that the strategy of Jean Ping, throughout the campaign was based on denigration, insults, violence and falsehood. The demonstrators also revealed that they were calm and confident that the Constitutional Court will validate Ali Bongo as winner.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Cameroon announced to the world that she was indeed “Africa in miniature” at the draw for the 2016 Africa Women Cup of Nations on the 18th of September 2016. During the ceremony at the Multipurpose Sports Complex in Yaounde, the rich heritage was displayed through traditional dances from the four cultural zones of Cameroon: the Fang Beti, Sahel, Sawa and Grassfield. Each individual in the hall cited with one of the cultural zones.

The climax of the event came when the representatives from other African countries were able to identify a Cameroonian dance similar to theirs. Apart from representing Cameroon, the dance groups went the extra mile to present the traditional dances of the seven other countries participating in 2016 AFCON.

It was a total blend of colour and culture as flags were waved during the performances as an expression of joy, communicating Cameroon’s readiness to host the 2016 AFCON. A projection of some remarkable parts of Cameroon was made available to help the visitors catch a glimpse of what Cameroon is like while saying a warm Cameroonian, “Welcome/Bienvenue”!

CRTV

A militant raid on a village in the Central African Republic (CAR) has left 26 villagers dead in the worst instance of bloodshed in recent months, an official says. Militants from the Seleka group attacked the village of Ndomete, near the town of Kaga-Bandoro, about 350 km (220 miles) north of the capital, Bangui, on Friday. Reports of the attack, however, emerged on Saturday.

“There were 26 victims… the village chief was among the victims,” Albert Mokpeme, a spokesman for the presidency, said on Saturday. “It was a massacre,” he emphasized. Officials are concerned that the incident could revitalize the dormant acts of vendetta between the mainly Muslim Seleka militants and rival Christian anti-Balaka militias. In early 2013, Seleka toppled the then-President Francois Bozize, who was replaced by Michel Am-Nondokro Djotodia, the first Muslim to hold the presidency in the CAR.

Christian militias reacted by engaging in large-scale attacks against the minority Muslims. A fifth of the population was forced to flee to safer regions as the impoverished nation was plunged into violence along ethnic and religious fault lines. Thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in the resource-rich country, as it suffered its biggest crisis in its half-century of independence during the period of violence in 2013 and 2014.

In 2014, some 11,000 peacekeepers were deployed by the United Nations (UN) to the country as part of the established United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).

“MINUSCA regrets the loss of human life and the wounded that were recorded and also denounces attacks against the humanitarian community and United Nations personnel,” the UN said following the Friday bloodshed.

On July 23, 2014, Seleka and anti-Balaka representatives signed a ceasefire agreement in the Congolese capital, Brazzaville, but the country has not yet emerged from its bloody past.

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Former Burkinabe Prime Minister, Luc-Adolphe Tiao was arrested on Friday and detained at a prison in Ouagadougou.  Luc-Adolphe Tiao who served as the last Prime Minister to ousted dictator, Blaise Compaore is accused of having signed a requisition order, authorizing the use of weapons during the repression of the popular uprising of the 30th and 31^st of October 2014.

Mr. Tiao returned to Burkina Faso after more than a year in exile in the Ivory Coast and was arrested after a very intensive interrogation by the gendarmerie in Ouagadougou. He is accused, along with all the 32 ministers of the last Compaore government of assault, murder and complicity following attempts by the Cabinet via a bill to amend the Constitution which would have allowed Blaise Compaore, to stay in power.

Ten other former cabinet ministers of the ancien regime have already been questioned by the police, but all went Scot-free after their hearings.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Nigeria-based Boko Haram Takfiri militants have attacked soldiers in neighboring Niger, with reports saying more than two dozen people have been killed in the fighting.

Niger’s Defense Ministry said late Tuesday that the attack on its soldiers had been carried out a day earlier near the village of Toumour, about 65 kilometers northeast of the town of Diffa.

Nigerien armed forces spokesman Colonel Moustapha Michel Ledru said five soldiers had been killed and six others injured as a result of the fighting, which also saw at least 30 militants killed.

The official, who was delivering a statement on Niger’s national television, said two Boko Haram militants had been arrested and the army confiscated a large quantity of arms and ammunition.

The clashes came less than a week after two Nigerien soldiers were declared dead after their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device during a patrol near Barwa locality in Diffa.

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