News

6, March 2018

Russian cargo plane crashes in eastern Syria, 39 killed ⁰

Russia’s Defense Ministry says a cargo plane operated by the Russian military has crashed in Syria, killing at least 32 people on board.

The ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that 33 passengers and six crew members were on board the plane when it crashed while landing in Hmeimim airbase in the western Syrian province of Latakia.

“On March 6, Russia’s Antonov-26 transport plane crashed at about 15:00 Moscow time as it was about to land at Hmeimim airdrome. According to preliminary data, there were 33 passengers and six crew members on board. Nobody survived,” the ministry’s statement said.

Russia has maintained military presence in Syria since late 2015, when Damascus asked Moscow to intervene in the war on terror in the country.

The assistance has proven very essential for Syria as it has managed to retake many areas from militants, relying on Russia’s air cover.

Hmeimim is the main base used by the Russian military in Syria while it also accommodates flights carrying Russia’s humanitarian aid and other cargos.

The Russian Defense Ministry said later that it had launched an investigation into the incident, which it said was caused by a technical malfunction. It said preliminary data received from the site of the crash, about 500 from the runway, proved that there was no terrorist incentive involved.

This is the second time an An-26, a military transport aircraft capable of carrying up to 38 passengers and some 5,500 kilograms in cargo, crashes in Syria. A Syria-operated one crashed while landing at the besieged Abu al-Duhur military airport in Idlib in January 2015.

Source: Presstv

6, March 2018

The internet, slow and sketchy, is back in Southern Cameroons—for now ⁰

The internet, still slow and inaccessible to many, has been restored in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions, sources and digital rights groups say.

Access Now, a global advocacy group that has been pushing leaders to stop disrupting the internet under the #KeepItOn campaign, confirmed the internet was back as of Thursday (Mar. 1). While social media sites were back, users continued to complain about pages uploading slowly while some websites still couldn’t be accessed without a virtual private network.

Otto Akama, who runs the Makonjo media startup in Buea the capital of the Southwest region, also said the network was “very unstable.” This was especially true, he added, for the national telecommunications service Camtel. Since it operates the country’s fiber-optic backbone, the company has a monopoly on the nation’s internet infrastructure—making it easy for them to shut down the internet or pressure other telecom operators to do so.

“It is several times slower than it used to be,” Akama, whose company uses the Camtel service and was contemplating switching to other operators, said. “We lose several hours per day waiting for pages to load.”

For over a year now, the internet in the two Southwest and Northwest Anglophone regions has either been completely off or slowed down for more than 240 days as of Feb. 28 this year. As the blackout dragged on, the country recorded one of the longest shutdowns ever on the African continent. The internet was back on for 48 hours in January for a diplomatic visit, but otherwise, it’s been off for the entire period. There are strong doubts about the permanency of the current restoration.

With mounting international pressure, Access Now and Internet Sans Frontières joined a lawsuit along with a consortium of local and regional civil society organizations, which cited violations of freedom of expression, access to information, and discrimination based on language.

But that wasn’t before businesses like internet cafes, microfinance institutions, money transfer agencies and many of the digital startups in the Silicon Mountain were deeply affected. Akama said his company lost 3,000 euros ($3,700) every month. Ayuk Etta, whose company Skylabase provides software to financial institutions, was forced to relocate some of his operations to The Gambia.

The political crisis that kickstarted the shutdown is still flaring on too, as the central government continued repressing dissent over the perceived marginalization of the English-speaking minority. Last October, Anglophone separatists declared independence for a region they called Ambazonia, leading authorities to kickstart a military crackdown. The fallout from that violent clampdown is now spiraling, leading to a refugee emergency, and escalating tensions with neighboring Nigeria.

Source: Quartz Media

6, March 2018

Buhari to visit Yobe state where 110 schoolgirls abducted ⁰

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will visit Yobe, the northeastern state where 110 schoolgirls were abducted by suspected members of Islamist militant group Boko Haram last month, the presidency said on its official Twitter feed on Monday.

The presidency said Buhari would visit areas affected by criminality in the last few weeks to meet and console communities affected from Mar. 5. It said he will visit Yobe, Taraba, Benue and Rivers States.The tweet did not say whether he would visit the town of Dapchi, where the girls were taken on Feb. 19.

It however mentioned that he had received the Liberian president, George Weah, before starting the regional tour in Taraba state. Buhari is later expected to travel to Ghana for the country’s 61st independence celebrations.

Buhari urged Nigerians to cooperate with security agencies in order to arrest the latest wave of crime and atrocities by Boko Haram.

Source: Africa News

5, March 2018

At least 10 die in Nigeria farmer-herder clashes ⁰

At least 10 people were killed in several days of violence between herdsmen and farmers in eastern Nigeria, police said on Monday, but the cattle drivers gave a higher toll.

Clashes broke out in a number of remote herding villages in the Mambilla district of Taraba state last Thursday and continued throughout the weekend.

The violence is part of a wider series of clashes between largely nomadic cattle herders and farmers in central and southern Nigeria that has put pressure on the government to act.

“So far we have established the deaths of 10 people in the violence between herders and farmers in the Mambilla area,” said state police spokesman David Misal.

“Security personnel have succeeded in restoring normalcy in the area and there is ongoing security operation to consolidate peace.”

According to herders, Mambilla militia armed with machetes and spears stormed five herding settlements of Nyiwa, Yerimaru, Wuro-Mogoggo, Leme and Gagarum between Thursday and Saturday.

“From our records, 19 people have been killed and 23 injured in the unprovoked attacks in these five villages by armed Mambilla tribe militia,” said the head of the Nigerian herders union MACBAN, Mohammed Keruwa.

Nyiwa was worst hit with nine herders killed by the attackers who also “killed 318 cows, stole 38 cows, 158 sheep and 308 fowls,” he added.

Mambilla lies on Nigeria’s border with Cameroon and is a herding and farming hub reputed for fertile land, lush vegetation and abundant water.

Tensions have been running high for many years between herders and farmers over land and water rights.

The herders are Muslim and the farmers are largely Christian, which adds an ethnic and religious dimension to the tensions. Many herders have fled to northern Cameroon.

In January 2002, more than 20,000 herders fled the Mambilla plateau area into Cameroon following violence with farmers which MACBAN said at the time left 50 herders dead.

In June last year deadly clashes again broke out in the area. MACBAN claimed more than 700 herders were killed in the violence but the authorities gave a much lower toll.

The southern state of Benue has been a flashpoint in recent months after resistance to a new law banning open grazing for cattle.

In January, 73 people from the ethnic Tiv farming communities were buried at a mass funeral after a series of attacks blamed on Fulani herders.

(Source: AFP)

5, March 2018

142 Ambazonians Escape to Akwa Ibom Due to Crisis in Southern Cameroon ⁰

No fewer than 142 Cameroonian are taking refuge in Akwa Ibom State as a result of the crisis rocking the Southern and English-speaking areas of Cameroon, the State Comptroller of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Livingstone Amadi disclosed weekend.

Amadi who made the disclosure during an interview in Uyo said the refugees currently spread across three local government areas of the state. The State Comptroller of NIS, who is barely three months old in the state, said the Cameroonian refugees were being camped in makeshift structures in Oron, Eket and Mkpat Enin Local Government Areas of the State.

According to him, the Akwa Ibom government had assisted with relief materials, stressing that the Cameroonian refugees experience was a national issue to Nigeria given the influx of people from Southern Cameroon.

“You know border states like Cross River, Benue and Taraba, are also affected by the refugees fleeing English-speaking areas of Cameroon into Nigeria.

“The Akwa Ibom state government had sent relief materials to the three different camps to support the refugees there. We have also gotten delegations from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the United Nation High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR),” he added.

Since last year the English-speaking regions of Cameroon had witnessed tensions over alleged discrimination against them by the majority French-speaking population, leading to thousands fleeing the country.

Amadi said within the last three months of his assumption of duty, he had rebranded the state headquarters to make the work environment attractive to both staff and the public.

“We have tiled the passport office, giving facelift to the comptroller’s office; we are tiling the production and enrolment office in the next one week. We are making judicious application of the little funds that we have,” Amadi stated.

The NIS comptroller said he was impressed with the conduct of his officers in the command, emphasising that his officers had exhibited the highest sense decorum in border management.

“The Federal Government is working on modalities for ease of doing business in Nigeria, my officers are very responsible, they cannot brutalise any businessman coming in or going out of Nigeria.

“We are a security agency of government interfacing with the public at all times. My officers had been conducting themselves in an orderly manner depicting the behaviour of trained and disciplined officers,” he maintained.

He said it was unfounded that his men had been extorting money and brutalising travellers along Oron beach in Oron local government area of the state.

Culled from All Africa

5, March 2018

Ambazonia Conflict: Curfew in North West Zone extended amid security crisis ⁰

The curfew in Cameroon’s North West region has been extended by another week by the governor. A March 4, 2018 press release said the extension was to contain growing threats from secessionist activities.

The governor “has renewed the regional order restricting the movement of persons and property as from the 3rd of March 2018 from 09 PM to 05 AM within the North West Region for a period of one week renewable,” the release said.

Governor Adolphe Lele Lafrique also appealed to the population to better collaborate with the law enforcement agencies to ‘put an end to the detrimental activities of secessionist activists and a few misguided individuals who are taking our peace loving and hospitable region hostage.

Under the measure, movement of vehicles, persons and goods shall be strictly forbidden between 9 pm and 5 am. All public places like restaurants snack bars and night clubs shall remain closed.

All transport terminals shall remain closed and night travel buses shall be expected to leave town before the curfew sets in. Circulation of motorbikes is completely suspended.

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

The adjoining South West region also imposed a month-long curfew over similar security concerns. The two regions are at the heart of the Anglophone crisis, where separatists under the so-called Ambazonia republic are seeking to breakaway from French-majority Cameroon.

Source: Africa News

5, March 2018

7 dead in east Congo-Kinshasa raid blamed on Ugandan rebels ⁰

Seven people died in a raid by suspected Ugandan extremist rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the latest in a string of deadly cross-border attacks, officials said Sunday.

“Six people were shot dead and another was stabbed” in the village of Eringeti in DR Congo’s restive North Kivu province, a Congolese military source told AFP.

Eringeti’s mayor Leon Baungatho said the assault happened around 5.30 pm (1530 GMT) on Saturday.

“We are still grieving,” said regional official Noela Kavivutwiraki. “The army needs to redouble its efforts to prevent surprise attacks from Ugandan rebels.”

Thought to be behind a string of deadly attacks in North Kivu, the Ugandan Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia stands accused of a number of atrocities in DR Congo.

Congolese authorities and the UN mission in DR Congo, MONUSCO, accuse the ADF of having killed more than 700 civilians as well as combatants in the Beni region from 2014-16.

The ADF is also accused of killing 14 UN peacekeepers in eastern DR Congo on December 7, in the biggest single loss of peacekeepers in nearly a quarter of a century.

The government in January declared it was waging “war” on the ADF and a Congolese militia, the Yakutumba, which is active in South Kivu province, several hundred kilometers (miles) to the south.

(Source: AFP)

5, March 2018

Nigeria: Cross River government provides succour to Southern Cameroons refugees ⁰

The Cross River government has provided food and non food materials to over 3,500 Southern Cameroonian refugees camping in Boki local government area of the state. Presenting the items on Saturday to the refugees, Dr Mercy Akpama, Managing Director, Cross River Food Bank Commission, said that the gesture was part of the activities to mark Gov. Ben Ayade’s 50th birthday. Newsmen recalled that the state government had donated some materials to refugees camping in Ikom Local government area and promised to also extend same to refugees in Etung, Obudu and Akamkpa local government areas.

Newsmen also report that the state government had promised to build camps for the refugees in order to alleviate their plight pending their return home. Akpama said that Ayade’s administration places premium on the welfare of residents in the state and those in distress. “The governor has sent us here to come and donate this food and non-food materials to you. “In his vision, he has decided that we come here today and give you this food so that you can also join him in celebrating his birthday.

“There is no greater pain like depriving a people of their ancestral homes and reducing them to wants in body and soul,’’ she said. Dr Itam Abang, member representing Boki I state Constituency in the state house of assembly, urged the refugees to be law abiding. Abang said that the state was working with the federal government and the international community to find a solution to their plight. “Governor Ayade’s administration has value for human welfare and security; this he has shown through the delivery of all these food and non food materials,’’ she said.

Mr John Inaku, Director General of Cross River State Emergency Management Agency, told the refugees that the state governor was passionate about their plight. “We have your brothers and sisters in other locations as well, these items are for those of you in Boki and I can assure you that the governor will also reach others soon,” he said. Mr James Ogar, who spoke on behalf of the refugees, lauded the government and people of the state for their concern, noting that the gesture was a sign of true love to those in need. Newsmen report that the items included rice, plantain, beans, yam, garri, palm oil, cartons of Indomie, toiletries, cooking utensils amongst others.

Source: www.vanguardngr.com

5, March 2018

Cameroonian launches drones for global market ⁰

Talking fast and dreaming big, William Elong shows off the first “made in Cameroon” drone at his sixth-floor workshop in downtown Douala, minutes from the economic capital’s Atlantic seafront.

The 25-year-old, known as a high-flyer after being named one of Forbes’ most promising young Africans under 30, is enthusing about his new unmanned aerial drones and keen to promote his company and Africa as a place where IT and new tech can flourish.

We must “get out of the Afro-centric vision of business” to “understand that when one has a global vision, worldwide, this includes Africa,” Elong says in a discussion of future technologies.

Elong has no degree in IT or robotics but studied strategy and competitive intelligence in France, becoming the youngest-ever graduate from Paris’ Economic Warfare School.

He founded his startup Will & Brothers in 2015 with a main project called Drone Africa, which aims to provide drones for civil purposes to businesses, the state in Cameroon and elsewhere.

With a top range of up to 20 kilometres (12 miles), the drones can be used for purposes as different as cartography, media coverage, support for agriculture and detecting gas in mines to reduce the risk of accidents.

“The know-how is here, in Cameroon,” says Elong, who is aware young African talent often seeks employment in Europe and elsewhere. He says at this stage his firm’s capital of $200,000 (162,400 euros) has come from Western backers.

Also supported by the government of President Paul Biya, Elong hopes eventually to raise $2 million to expand the business but he regrets that “not many Africans are involved” in the project, which features two airborne types of drone and one terrestrial model.

The commercial market in Africa is expanding with unmanned aircraft already whizzing across the skies delivering items like medicine and food, and even helping farmers sow seeds.

– ‘Flying wing’ –

In Rwanda, drones get medical supplies such as blood and vaccines to remote areas. Tanzania is launching a similar programme. And drones equipped with night-vision cameras help to detect and track poachers in Kenya, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Elong presents the two airborne prototype models on a table inside his assembly shop. The first “flying wing that we’ve baptised Algo” has the furthest range and could prove an economical solution to the costly task of making maps, he suggests.

Three drone makers at work in the plant run by William Elong, 25, who aims for a Cameroonian entry into the market for pilotless aircraft

The second type, known as Logarythm, has four arms forming a propeller, can reach an altitude of up to 500 metres (1,640 feet) and is fitted with high-definition cameras, which would be useful in high-risk zones and for precision work, Elong adds.

Crucially, he argues, manufacturing costs are lower than those of foreign manufacturers, so the drones produced will be priced competitively across the African marketplace.

He envisages “selling drones to Vietnam, to Venezuela, to Denmark for example, and becoming one of the biggest global enterprises in this sector.”

Elsewhere, two young engineers in white lab coats are carefully building a prototype. “When all the components are available, we are able to assemble a drone like this in 24 hours,” says engineer Louis Ekani.

Some of the parts are made in Cameroon, while others are supplied from abroad.

– ‘The pride of Cameroon’ –

“The start was extremely complicated,” says young technical director Yves Tamu, who is described on the company website as an entrepreneur, digital champion and inventor. “But we have a dynamic, autonomous and state-of-the-art team thanks to which we found the solution (to assembling drones).”

The average age of employees is barely 22 and the team comprises mainly engineers and developers who have spent two years building airworthy drones.

“Will & Brothers is the pride of Cameroon,” gushed Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Libom Li Likeng at a government ceremony to present the drones in early February.

Their design demonstrates “the innovative capacity of Cameroonian youth”, she added.

Elong’s firm is represented in Ivory Coast and plans to open offices in France and the United States, but he stresses the development of artificial intelligence is his primary goal.

Will & Brothers has worked on an AI known as Cyclops, which enables drones to detect people, objects and vehicles and to identify different types of animal at specific sites.

“Artificial intelligence is the future of humanity,” Elong says, confident that Africa can at least try to compete with the big tech giants in California. “It knocks me out that so many people here take no interest in technology.”

Source: The Citizen

5, March 2018

Yaounde: Biya regime says it busted regional child trafficking ring ⁰

Cameroonian authorities say they have dismantled a network of child traffickers responsible for dozens of abductions in the region over the past several months. The network is said to have extended into neighboring Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Chad.

The operation intensified after three young children were found dead in the back of a truck, prompting angry residents to torch a hotel owned by alleged traffickers.

Hundreds of people are still visiting the neighborhood where the inn was razed last Tuesday by an angry mob in Cameroon’s southern town of Kiossi, on the border with Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Thirty-nine-year-old Vanessa Nzali was among parents of missing children who arrived in Kiossi Friday. She says she had traveled some 280 kilometers from Cameroon’s capital Yaounde when she heard that unidentified children had been found there by Cameroonian police. She says she immediately decided to travel to Kiossi to see if her missing 11-year-old daughter was among the children.

People are seen gathered at the remains of an inn burned down by an angry mob suspecting the inn's owner to be linked to child trafficking, in Kiossi, Cameroon, March 3, 2018. (M. Kindzeka/VOA) — People are seen gathered at the remains of an inn burned down by an angry mob suspecting the inn’s owner to be linked to child trafficking, in Kiossi, Cameroon, March 3, 2018. (M. Kindzeka/VOA)

Nzali says four months ago she returned home from work and was informed by her neighbors that her daughter went to fetch water from a well and four men forced her into their car and drove off. She says her neighbors also told her there was a baby crying in the car.

Quetong Handerson Kongeh, the most senior Cameroon government official in the Ntem Valley administrative unit that includes Kiossi, says the inn was razed after a vehicle belonging to its owner was found with the three dead children who, as determined later, were aged two, four and seven years old.

“At about 2 p.m., their parents started looking for them and could not find them. These children had been kidnapped by some suspects who took them into an inn deep down into the quarter in Kiossi. They administered some toxic products and these children went off [died]. They now put these children inside bags and tied them, and put all of them in the back booth of a vehicle.”

Handerson Kongeh says 15 people suspected to be members of a network of child traffickers operating in Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea were arrested when investigations were opened.

In 2016, the Yaounde-based Interpol office for central African states reported that thousands of children, alongside men and women, were forcibly abducted in Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and the Republic of Congo to be used as combatants, cooks, guards, sex partners, servants, messengers, and spies.

Quetong Handerson Kongeh, center, the most senior Cameroon government official in the Ntem Valley administrative unit that includes Kiossi confers with local officials, in Kiossi, Cameroon, March 3, 2018. (M. Kindzeka/VOA)

Patricia Asta of the local non-governmental organization Children’s Rights says child kidnapping has increased in Central African states because many childless couples and mothers are ready to buy from the black market. She says some are forced to serve as commercial sex workers, while others are recruited or kidnapped and then transported to far away places where they are forced to work as pickpockets, beggars and drug transporters.

Asta says within the past several months at least 26 cases of abductions have been reported to her NGO, with parents saying their children either were tricked, forced or persuaded to leave. She says they also have had cases of children who were held for ransom.

She says her organization has decided to educate parents to be vigilant. It is also asking all victims to join the associations’s lawyers in legal processes that will protect and free children from predators who are out to target mainly naive teenagers. She says it is her wish to see to it that all child traffickers are punished.

Cameroon, according to the 2012 trafficking in persons report by the U.S. State Department, also is a source, transit, and destination country for children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking.

Source: VOA