22, February 2018
Biya regime creates new military region based in Bamenda 0
Cameroon has a new military region created to cater for security needs in the west and northwest region, the state-owned CRTV has reported.
President Paul Biya signed directives reorganizing the country’s defense forces leading to the splitting into two of the former military region [Région militaire interarmées – RMIA] RMIA 2 which is based in Douala.
The new region becomes the fifth (RMIA 5) and is headquarted in capital of the northwest region Bamenda. It is to be headed by General Agha Robinson Ndong while General Julius Caesar Ellie has been appointed commander of its Gendarmerie region (RG5).
The measure is seen as a clear plan to deal with the raging Anglophone crisis that has rocked the country since October 2017. Separatists in the region continue to engage in deadly clashes with security forces.
Under the banner of the so-called Ambazonia republic, separatists are pushing a breakaway of the Anglophone regions (northwest and southwest) from French-majority Cameroon.
The government has insisted that the region remains secured and has declared the separatists terrorists. Last month, Nigeria deported about 47 separatists to Yaounde, the deportees included a known separatist leader, Julius Sisuku Ayuk Tabe.
Nigeria has also been bearing the brunt of the crisis in Cameroon with the continuing influx of refugees. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, has reported that thousands of people have arrived in Nigeria over the past few months.
Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis
What began in 2017 as peaceful protests by Anglophone activists against perceived marginalization by Cameroon’s Francophone-dominated elite has become the gravest challenge yet to President Paul Biya, who is expected to seek to renew his 35-years in power in an election next year.
Government repression – including ordering thousands of villagers in the Anglophone southwest to leave their homes – has driven support for a once-fringe secessionist movement, stoking a lethal cycle of violence.
The secessionists declared an independent state called Ambazonia on Oct. 1. Since then, thousands have fled to Nigeria, including 2,300 who fled in a single day on Dec. 4 fearing government reprisals after raids by separatists militants killed at least six soldiers and police officers.
At the end of World War One, Germany’s colony of Kamerun was carved up between allied French and British victors, laying down the basis for a language split that still persists.
English speakers make up less than a fifth of the population of Cameroon, concentrated in former British territory near the Nigerian border that was joined to the French-speaking Republic of Cameroon the year after its independence in 1960. French speakers have dominated the country’s politics since.
Source: Africa News
23, February 2018
Haiti suspends Oxfam operations amid sex abuse scandal 0
Haiti has suspended Oxfam Great Britain’s operations in the Caribbean country following allegations of sexual misconduct by some of the charity organization’s staff.
Oxfam entered Haiti after a devastating earthquake hit the island nation in 2010. There have been allegations of sexual misconduct against those sent to help the victims of the earthquake, which killed tens of thousands. Oxfam has formally apologized, expressing “shame” for the behavior of its staff.
Haiti’s Planning and External Cooperation Minister Aviol Fleurant said on Thursday that Oxfam’s suspension was ordered due to “serious failings” by Oxfam Great Britain between 2010 and 2011, and that a definitive decision on its ability to operate in Haiti would be made in two months following a review of the evidence.
“If during the two month-long investigation, I find out there is a link between the aid funds that Oxfam received on behalf of Haiti and the crime that has been committed, we will… declare Oxfam Great Britain persona non grata in the country,” Fleurant said.
In a separate statement, Fleurant accused Oxfam staff of committing acts of “sexual abuse” and exploitation.
Fleurant said the suspension of the charity’s right to operate was limited to Oxfam Great Britain and did not apply to Oxfam Canada.
Oxfam is a confederation of 19 independent charitable organizations with nearly 10,000 staff working in over 90 countries that use the name Oxfam and are led by UK-based Oxfam International, which is one of the UK’s biggest charities.
The charity, which receives hundreds of millions of dollars from government and private sources, aims to work for greater impact on the international stage to reduce poverty and injustice.
It said it had lost 7,000 regular donors since it was revealed that its staff sexually exploited vulnerable women in Haiti, according to British daily The Guardian on Tuesday.
Britain and the European Union are reviewing their funding of Oxfam amid the allegations in Haiti.
Meanwhile, Winnie Byanyima, the executive director of Oxfam International, has promised to appoint an independent commission to investigate the allegations of sexual abuse by the staff of the charity.
Byanyima described the majority of the rank and file working at the charity organization as people of values.
Source: Presstv