News

18, March 2018

Putin wins fourth term as Russia’s president with 73.9% of vote ⁰

Russian President Vladimir Putin has scored a landslide re-election victory for the fourth time with 73.9 percent of votes, according to an exit poll by state-owned pollster, VTsIOM.

According to the exit poll from 1,200 polling stations around Russia, Communist candidate Pavel Grudinin is runner-up with 11.2 percent of votes.

VTsIOM also said in a statement that over 37 percent of those polled refused to say who they voted for.

VTsIOM’s statement also gave the following exit poll results:

Putin’s new election win will extend his total time in office to nearly a quarter of a century, until 2024. He won election on the promise to use his new term to beef up Russia’s defense capability against the West and to raise living standards.

According to Reuters, Putin’s loyalists argued that the election result was a vindication of his tough stance towards the West.

“I think that in the United States and Britain they’ve understood they cannot influence our elections,” Igor Morozov, a member of the upper house of parliament, said on state television, adding, “Our citizens understand what sort of situation Russian finds itself in today.”

Casting his ballot in Moscow, Putin said he would be pleased with any result giving him the right to continue as president, AFP reported.
“I am sure the program I am offering is the right one,” he said.

Most people who spoke to AFP said they voted for Putin, praising him for restoring stability and national pride after the humiliating collapse of the USSR.

Local residents with flags depicting Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev celebrate on the day of Russia’s presidential election in central Simferopol, Crimea, on March 18, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

“Of course I’m for Putin, he’s a leader,” said Olga Matyunina, a 65-year-old retired economist, who added, “After he brought Crimea back, he became a hero to me.”

Sunday also marked four years since Putin signed a treaty declaring Crimea to be part of Russia.

Russia’s presidential polls opened at 8 a.m. local time (2000 GMT) in the country’s far eastern regions on Saturday and will close in the exclave of Kaliningrad at 2 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Sunday.

There were almost 109 million eligible voters inside Russia, with 94,500 polling stations across the country. An additional 1.8 million voters were abroad, and 369 polling stations were based overseas.

Official pollsters had predicted a turnout of around 65 percent in the ongoing presidential election.

A woman shows a passport cover with an image of Russian President Vladimir Putin as she visits a polling station during the presidential election in Moscow, Russia, March 18, 2018. (Photo by Reuters)

The main opposition leader and Putin’s most vocal opponent, Alexei Navalny, was disqualified from the race due to a fraud conviction that he has claimed was politically motivated.

Putin has seen his approval ratings skyrocket since the last election in 2012. Many say the surge in the incumbent’s popularity is mainly because of his successful policies toward regional issues, particularly the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria.

The 65-year-old leader was first elected in 2000 following a handover of power by then-president Boris Yeltsin, who resigned six months before the end of his tenure.

Source: Presstv

18, March 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Top Civil Servant Abducted, Four Hurt ⁰

Suspected separatists abducted a top civil servant Saturday in the English-speaking region of Cameroon while security sources said four people were hurt in an attack on a ministerial convoy, adding to months of recent unrest.

Ivo Leke Tambo, recently-appointed chairman of Cameroon’s anglophone educational board, GCE, was abducted just outside the southwestern town of Lewo. A video was later circulated by sources close to the secessionists showing a partially clothed Leke Tambo sat on the ground in the bush.

Authorities did not immediately confirm the abduction of Leke Tambo, the latest in a slew of abductions in recent weeks. Last month saw an official from the ministry of social affairs likewise kidnapped in the northwestern city of Batibo.

Tension has soared in anglophone parts of Cameroon, accounting for about a fifth of the population, since separatists on October 1 declared the self-proclaimed republic of “Ambazonia”.

The government was also silent on an attack reported Saturday by security sources in the southwestern English-speaking village of Alou by unidentified assailants on a convoy accompanying Economy Minister Paul Tasong.

Elsewhere, social media footage showed an attack on a bus carrying some 30 people by armed members of the self-declared Ambazonia Defence Forces. The latest unrest came a day after newly-appointed Interior Minister Paul Atanga Nji embarked on a 48-hour “peace mission” to the anglophone northeast of the country.

Speaking in regional capital Bamenda on Friday he appealed for “violent separatists” to desist. Long-ruling President Paul Biya called a rare cabinet meeting on Thursday at which he vowed to push ahead with a military crackdown on the separatists.

The west African country has had a tortuous colonial history that saw it pass from German rule to French and British hands and the anglophone minority complain of having long been marginalised by the French-speaking elite.

The past year has seen regular unrest which was ramped up further in January when 47 separatists, including their leader Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, were extradited from Nigeria.

Source: Urdupoint.com

18, March 2018

White House staffer left encrypted email passwords at bus stop ⁰

Ryan McAvoy, a staffer working for the administration of US President Donald Trump, reportedly left the passwords to his encrypted email account at a bus stop in Washington, DC.

The aide left his ProtonMail passwords at a bus stop near the White House, according to a report by The Intercept, which obtained and verified them on a piece of White House stationery.

The Intercept‘s requests for comment is yet to be returned by the staffer.

On Wednesday, Democrats on the panel released a memo in regard to the so-called Russia probe, which investigates Moscow’s alleged intervention in the 2016 presidential election as well as possible collusion between Trump’s aides and the Kremlin.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are seen during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on March 8, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by AFP)

The Democrats, who may file a new subpoena, are specifically willing to know how senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, Trump’s son in law, used WhatsApp.

Peter Mirijanian, a spokesperson for Kushner’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, told The Intercept that Kushner had nothing left to add as “in two different appearances before congressional committees, Mr. Kushner answered all relevant questions involving these matters.”

Kushner is a person of interest in the ongoing probe into Russia’s alleged intervention in the 2016 presidential election that yielded President Trump.

The investigation seeks to find out whether the Russian government coordinated with Trump’s aides after the intelligence community’s conclusion that the Kremlin helped with the New York billionaire’s campaign effort ahead of winning the White House, an allegation dismissed both by Moscow and the president.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump repeatedly attacked her Democratic contender Hillary Clinton over use of a private email server during her tenure as the secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

Source: Presstv

17, March 2018

Southern Cameroons Self-Defense Unity: Cho Ayaba and the Akwanga gang reject collaboration ⁰

A very important history making event took place last weekend, Saturday March 10. A group of Ambazonian self-defense leaders for the first time under the auspices of the Interim Government came together and agreed to work collaboratively under the direction of the IG.

The meeting took place in the USA, and witnessed in attendance, leaders of all the self-defense groups in ground zero except those of Cho Ayaba and Ebenezar Akwanga who deliberately rejected invitation to be part of the come together. The self-defense groups left the three day conclave agreeing to work as a team to combat what they all agreed is the invasion of Ambazonia by La Republique du Cameroun’s army.

“Today, I can report to the people of British Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) and to the world the creation of Ambazonia Self-Defense Council (ASC).” Read a statement that was issued only today, March 17, by Acting IG President, Dr. Samuel Sako.

The President noted that “The Ambazonia Self-Defense Council is the legitimate defense wing of the aspirations of the people of Ambazonia.” Adding that the initiative is a milestone achievement following months of consultations and a defense-focused meeting involving over a dozen top brass of the different Self-Defense groups within the territory of Southern Cameroons.

The establishment of the ASC Dr. Sako said, is a response to the call from Ambazonians for all defense bodies to collaborate and provide Self-Defense for our people, property and territory in a manner that is professional and consistent with international law.

In the two-day meeting of the Council, defense leaders discussed the state of play concerning the common security policy, defense initiatives, and political vision. They adopted conclusions on the council structure, its goals and follow-up actions. The Council brings together leaders of defense bodies under an independent defense platform and the Council collaborates with the Interim Government in a tight-knit model to implement one vision – complete independence of the Southern Cameroons.

The Ambazonia Self-Defense Council is made up of different branches: Executive Committee, Council Members, and Defense Bodies. The Council Executive Committee is responsible for top level leadership and management of our self-defense by owning the operating model of defense and managing risks, agreeing on plans for delivery of defense objectives, ensuring coherence, and leading transformation. The Executive Committee is composed of a chair, liaison officer and spokespersons who are all accountable to council members. The Chairman of the Defense Council is the principal defense adviser to the Interim President; however, all Council members are legitimate advisers, and they may respond to a request or voluntarily submit, through the Chairman, advice or opinions to the President. The spokesperson is the public relations face of the defense council. The liaison officer is responsible for coordinating multi-agency responses and resources.

Conspicuously absent from the two-day come together, where the leaders of ADF and SOCADEF led by Cho Ayaba and Dr. Ebenezer Akwanga respectively. Information from the IG says Dr. Samuel Sako prior to the meeting, held a closed door meeting with Dr. Akwanga for over two hours in which he tried persuading Akwanga to join the initiative but he turned it down. Dr. Sako held a similar meeting with Cho Ayaba by phone, but Ayaba too would not agree on joining the collaborative platform.

As things stand, it appears like Ayaba and Akwanga are out setting the stage for a Southern Sudan in the struggle for Ambazonia. Dr. Akwanga is quoted as telling Dr. Sako that, for him to join the collaborative platform for self-defense, they would have to return to the 4^th Conclave for a start. Cho Ayaba is on record on several occasions as saying that he doesn’t recognize the IG nor Sako, the Acting President.

Ever since, Ayaba has personally engaged in a sabotage crusade against the IG using the social media, particularly Facebook where he disguises with fake names like Nyamfuka Kulubang, Ashu Tambe among others to spill insults and attacks against anything Interim Government. In most of the posts in which Ayaba posts using the Nyamfuka ghost name, he promises killing top members of the IG before they get to Buea. It is left to be seen, what a coalition of Ayaba and Ebenezer’s forces will achieve Vis a Vis the larger platform of the IG.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with intelligence files from Camcordnews

17, March 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Mancho Bibixy’s case on hold ⁰

Mancho Bibixy, a broadcaster and anglophone activist accused of “threatening Cameroon’s sovereignty” for his role in protests, has had his trial adjourned for the thirteenth since his arrest over a year ago.

He first appeared in a coffin at a protest in the western city of Bamenda in November 2016, saying the vessel was symbolic of anglophone Cameroonians “who seemed to have died before their real death” and who therefore should not fear speaking truth to power.

Mr Bibixy was arrested months later in January 2017.

Cameroon’s government say Mr Bibixy and others have threatened national sovereignty by “demanding the partition of Cameroon through the creation of the State of Ambazonia”.

At a previous hearing, he is reported by the Journal du Cameroun news site as having told the judge:

“I have a heavy heart because Cameroon is on the brink of a civil war. We find ourselves in this situation because our politicians have failed in finding tangible solutions to our problems.”

Source: BBC

16, March 2018

57,000 people flee violence in Congo-Kinshasa to Uganda ⁰

The United Nations refugee agency says more than 57,000 people have fled violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo to Uganda this year.

The UNHCR said in a statement on Friday that most of the 57,000 displaced people were women and children.

UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch told reporters in Geneva that the figure far exceeds the 44,000 refugees who entered Uganda through the entire 2017.

The UN agency said over 4,000 people from the provinces of Ituri and North Kivu entered Uganda between March 10 and 13.

According to the statement, the majority of the refugees are using the dangerous route of Lake Albert, traveling upon unsafe boats from Ituri, which has been wracked by conflict between the Hema and Lendu communities.

Tensions between Hema cattle herders and Lendu farmers have largely laid dormant since a 1998-2003 war, which claimed the lives of thousands, but have flared again in recent months because of disputes over land.

More than 100 people have been killed since the violence erupted in Ituri in mid-December. The unrest has also forced 200,000 people to flee their homes.

The UN agency further said on Friday that the struggles aid workers face in accessing violence-hit regions made it “difficult to offer a detailed picture of the situation.” It, however, said “UNHCR has received chilling accounts of violence”, including rape and murder.

The agency also said it had stepped up measures to support survivors.

The DR Congo is suffering from growing insecurity. New conflicts are erupting as President Joseph Kabila struggles to maintain his grip on power after his constitutional term in office expired in December 2016.

Armed groups are active in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, which border Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania.

Violence has also erupted in the central region of Kasai. There, a tribal chieftain known as the Kamwina Nsapu, who rebelled against Kabila’s regime, was murdered in September 2016.

Source: Presstv

16, March 2018

South Africa: Former President Zuma to be prosecuted ⁰

Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s former president, has been charged with fraud, racketeering, illegal arms dealing and much more.

Zuma, 75, resigned as president last month after he was ordered to do so by his party the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

Prosecutors said on Friday that there were 16 charges in total listed in Zuma’s indictment, including money laundering.

“I am of the view that there are reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution of Mr. Zuma on the charges listed in the indictment,” said Shaun Abrahams, head of the National Prosecuting Authority. He pointed to the “long history” of the reinstated charges against Zuma, which were thrown out by prosecutors nearly a decade ago in a contentious decision that opened the way for him to become president.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was Zuma’s former deputy, has promised to fight corruption.

ANC’s response

The ANC responded to the reinstated charges against Zuma, saying it had confidence in the South African criminal justice system and is committed to the idea of “equality of all before the law.” However, it emphasized and cautioned that Zuma should be “presumed innocent until and if proven guilty.”

Meantime, the ruling party urged South Africans to allow prosecutors to do their job.

In another case, South Africa’s top court ruled in 2016 that Zuma violated the constitution following an investigation of multi-million-dollar upgrades to his private home using state funds. He paid back some of the money.

In a separate case, South African authorities are seeking to arrest members of the Gupta business family, which allegedly used its connections to Zuma to influence cabinet appointments and win state contracts.

Additionally, a judicial panel is preparing to view allegations of corruption at high levels of the South African government during Zuma’s years in office.

Opposition’s delight

South Africa’s main opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA), which spent years in court trying to get trials against Zuma started, called on prosecutors to continue legal procedures against Zuma without delay.

“Now there must be no further delay in starting the trial,” said Mmusi Maimane, leader of the DA party. “The witnesses are ready, the evidence is strong, and Jacob Zuma must finally have his day in court.”

Culled from Presstv

16, March 2018

Soldier loyal to Biya regime gun down in Kumba ⁰

Cameroonian secessionists on Wednesday shot dead a soldier in Kumba, a city in the Southwest region also known as K town.

25-year old Sardi Juvinal, a former student of Maroua high school in Cameroon’s far north, was murdered at his security post by heavily armed secessionists who have been demanding independence from the West African country for more than a year.

Why it matters: The soldier was murdered following the expiration of a 48-hour ultimatum by secessionists to Cameroonian authorities. Last weekend, the armed activists released a video showing a government official they had kidnapped pleading for his life.

Animnom Aron, a delegate for social matters in the Northwest region, who was abducted weeks ago, was heard saying he would be killed should the government fail to show that the secessionists’ leaders, arrested in Nigeria on January 5, and extradited to Cameroon on January 28, were still alive.

But the ultimatum came and went without any reaction from the government of President Paul Biya, an 80-something leader who has been in power for 36 years and plans to run for another term this year.

The crisis in Cameroon escalated in the dying months of 2016 and turned bloody last year. So far, about 40 security officers have been murdered by the secessionists and hundreds of activists have been killed by the Cameroonian military. Hundreds are being detained and hundreds are being monitored.

The activists say they want the Southwest and Northwest regions, where English is spoken compared to French elsewhere in Cameroon, to be independent. They have argued that they have been marginalized even though oil and other natural resources are located in their regions.

But millions of other Cameroonians who live in squalor and hopelessness have expressed shock and dismay at the insinuations that their lives were better off.

Many of French speaking Cameroonians have been battling Boko Haram terrorists in the country’s far north where thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.

President Biya has not visited the region since the insurgency began in 2014. The lack of leadership had prompted other Cameroonians to argue that they all suffer from the same neglect and brutality from a government too old, too deaf and too blind to feel, hear or see the suffering of its people.

In the state of Maryland in the United States where the secession is being planned and funded, the activists believe they are closer to victory than never before.

Source: Today news Africa

16, March 2018

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Village chief found dead ⁰

A Manyu traditional authority in the Awanchi-Betieku clan is among the latest casualty in La Republique’s war against the people of Southern Cameroons that have already claimed thousands of lives since President President Biya launched the anti-secessionist war last year. Killed by still unidentified assailants, Chief Boniface Atchu Njang of Mbeme was a well-known man of peace and supporter of rural development.

In the French Cameroun police report, Chief Boniface Njang was on board a government patrol vehicle when motorcycle-riding suspects fired at him. Cameroon Concord News informant said Chief Njang succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds on his head and body.

By Judith Fon

This item is still developing

16, March 2018

Amnesty says Shell, Eni negligent on Nigeria oil spills ⁰

Amnesty International on Friday accused international oil majors Shell and Eni of negligence when addressing spills in Nigeria.

Describing their actions as “serious negligence,” Amnesty said the companies were “taking weeks to respond to reports of spills and publishing misleading information about the cause and severity of spills, which may result in communities not receiving compensation.”

A Shell spokesman said Amnesty’s allegations “are false, without merit and fail to recognize the complex environment in which the company operates.”

An ENI spokeswoman said the rights group’s statements “are not correct and, in some cases, not acceptable,” adding it had provided a detailed response to Amnesty’s allegations.

Shell and Eni have for decades been two of the most active oil majors operating in the Niger Delta region.

Nigeria’s crude-producing heartland is an ecological disaster zone, scarred by decades of spills that have tainted the water and killed swathes of trees and other plants.

Yet clean-ups, and the associated compensation, are highly contentious, with some local communities even blocking teams’ access to spill sites, allowing the damage to worsen, in the hope of extracting a bigger pay-out.

This file photo taken on June 13, 2017 shows a fisherman holding a plastic bottle with water coming from the polluted Bodo River in Bodo, in the Gokana district of Ogoniland, southeast Nigeria. (By AFP)

Under Nigerian law, companies must visit sites within 24 hours of reporting a spill. Amnesty said that in one case Italy’s Eni took more than a year to respond to a spill in Bayelsa state.

While oil companies frequently attribute spills to sabotage and theft, locals say they are often due to other issues such as corrosion.

Shell has reported 1,010 spills since 2011, and Eni 820 since 2014, according to Amnesty, which said among those 1,830 reports it found 89 “about which there are reasonable doubts surrounding the cause provided by the oil companies”.

In 2015, the Bodo community and a British law firm negotiated a 55 million pound pollution settlement with Shell.

The Natural Resource Governance Institute, a non-profit group that advises countries on how to manage oil, gas and mineral resources, acknowledged there were sometimes difficulties on both sides.

“There’s no good guy here, everybody’s kind of bad. I’m sure the companies don’t do all that they can to get to these places. But then they also have genuine grievances and genuine difficulties dealing with these communities,” said Aaron Sayne, from the institute. “When spills become an opportunity to make money, your clean-up becomes really tough.”

(Source: Reuters)