News

China unveils ‘Polar Silk Road’ project

26, January 2018

China unveils ‘Polar Silk Road’ project 0

China on Friday outlined its ambitions to extend President Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative to the Arctic by developing shipping lanes opened up by global warming.

Releasing its first official Arctic policy white paper, China said it would encourage enterprises to build infrastructure and conduct commercial trial voyages, paving the way for Arctic shipping routes that would form a “Polar Silk Road”.

The official paper revealed that Beijing would pursue its strategic regional objectives “jointly with Arctic States, while respecting traditions and cultures of the Arctic residents including the indigenous peoples and conserving natural environment”.

“China hopes to work with all parties to build a ‘Polar Silk Road’ through developing the Arctic shipping routes,” the paper, issued by the State Council Information Office, said.

The paper revealed that China also eyes development of oil, gas, mineral resources and other non-fossil energies, fishing and tourism in the region.

Despite being a non-Arctic state, China has gained interest and increased its activity in the polar region.

China, which became an observer member of the Arctic Council in 2013, owns a major stake in Russia’s Yamal liquefied natural gas project.

Yamal has planned to supply China with four million tonnes of LNG a year, according to the state-run China Daily.

Another advantage is that shipping through the Northern Sea Route would save almost 20 days off the regular time using the traditional route through the Suez Canal, the newspaper reported last month. COSCO Shipping has also previously sailed vessels through the Arctic’s northeast passage.

The file photo shows an Arctic LNG tanker in Saint Petersburg. (By AFP )

 

China’s increased activities in the region has prompted concerns from Arctic states over Beijing’s long-term strategic
objectives, including possible military deployment.

“Some people may have misgivings over our participation in the development of the Arctic, worried we may have other
intentions, or that we may plunder resources or damage the environment,” Vice-Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou said at a briefing.

“I believe these kinds of concerns are absolutely unnecessary.”

China’s Belt and Road initiative aims to connect China to Europe, the Middle East and beyond via massive infrastructure projects across dozens of countries, reflecting Xi’s desire for China to take on a more prominent global leadership role.

(Source: Reuters)


Brazil court orders seizure of ex-president Lula’s passport

26, January 2018

Brazil court orders seizure of ex-president Lula’s passport 0

A Brazilian court on Thursday approved the seizure of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s passport, the Justice Ministry said, after an appeals court upheld the corruption conviction of the left-wing hero.

The decision came on the eve of a planned trip by Lula to Africa. It also came a day after appellate court judges voted to uphold Lula’s convictions on taking a bribe and money laundering and extended his sentence, in a major blow to the popular politician’s plans to run again for the presidency this year.

Lula’s lawyer Cristiano Zanin said the former president’s passport would be handed in on Friday, but called the decision “shocking” and an unnecessary restriction on his freedom of movement. In a statement, he said that the appellate court had been informed of Lula’s trip to Africa and his plans to return to Brazil on Jan 29.

“He won’t travel now,” Lula spokesman Jose Chrispiniano said, adding that the former leader had planned to attend an African Union conference in Ethiopia.

Justice Minister Torquoato Jardim, who was informed of the decision by the federal police chief, recommended that Lula be informed of the decision to avoid any problems, the ministry said.

Lula could be arrested as soon as judges make a decision on a final appeal in his case, which is expected to occur in at most two to three months.

(Source: Reuters)


Schools Set Ablaze as Biya regime Vows Crackdown on Separatists

25, January 2018

Schools Set Ablaze as Biya regime Vows Crackdown on Separatists 0

Unrest in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions intensified with arson attacks on schools and a city market as the government vowed to quash a secessionist movement whose leaders are in detention in Nigeria, saying it won’t negotiate with terrorists.

 At least three schools were torched this week in the Northwest region, one of two Anglophone areas in the majority French-speaking Central African nation, after a market in the city of Bamenda was set ablaze in an attack the government blames on the separatists. Gunmen killed one soldier and seriously injured another on Thursday as they were on patrol in a town west of Bamenda, a commander of the paramilitary police, Ewane, said by phone.
 “The government cannot and will not engage any form of dialogue with terrorists bent on amputating part of the national territory in the name of secession,’’ Communication Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary said in a phone interview late Wednesday. “You don’t negotiate anything with such people.”
Security forces have stepped up patrols in the areas, searching houses and arresting those who can’t produce identity papers as part of “a routine operation,’’ Simon Emile Mooh, prefect for the Bui Division in the Northwest region, said by phone. “The forces of law and order are merely making sure that no weapons have been sneaked in,” he said.

Ten leaders of the separatist movement, which calls the two Anglophone regions the Republic of Ambazonia, have been held in neighboring Nigeria since Jan. 6 at an undisclosed location, according to their Nigerian lawyer, Femi Falana. The crisis began more than a year ago with peaceful protests against the French language’s dominance in courtrooms and schools.

One of the movement’s interim leaders, Bobga Harmony, announced on Facebook “the multiplication of self-defense operations” because the government rejects talks. “We shall continue targeting anti-secessionists as well as burn down schools,” he said.

Source: Bloomberg


Ambazonia Crisis: Gunmen cross from Nigeria, attack Cameroon border post

25, January 2018

Ambazonia Crisis: Gunmen cross from Nigeria, attack Cameroon border post 0

Gunmen attacked a border crossing in Cameroon’s southwest on Thursday, launching their assault from Nigeria, security source witnesses said.

No one was killed, the officials said, but the incident is likely to further damage relations between the neighbors, strained over the rise of an Anglophone Cameroonian separatist movement.

Five security and administrative agents said the unidentified gunmen launched their attack on the Ekok border post along Cross River.

“They came around 3 a.m. (0200 GMT). They came from Nigeria and there were many of them. They had heavy weapons. They had grenades. They were shooting everywhere,” said one police source, who like the other witnesses asked not to be named.

“We don’t really know how it happened,” a second security source told Reuters. “Some of these guys came from the riverside (beneath the bridge). We don’t know exactly which path they took, but all of them came from Nigeria.”

Government officials in Cameroon would not immediately comment on the attack.

Nigeria’s defense ministry spokesman said he was not aware of the incident and referred queries to the military. A Nigerian military spokesman said he was not aware of the attack but would make checks.

Cameroonian military officials and pro-government media accuse Nigeria of sheltering the insurgents, who since last year have waged a guerrilla campaign to establish an independent homeland for Cameroon’s English-speaking minority.

Reuters reported last month that Cameroonian troops crossed into Nigeria in pursuit of the rebels without seeking authorization from Nigeria, provoking a behind-the-scenes rift between two nations with a history of fraught relations.

The militaries of Cameroon and Nigeria repeatedly clashed over the disputed Bakassi peninsula in the 1980s and 90s.

The status of the territory was settled in Cameroon’s favor by The Hague-based International Court of Justice in 2002 and in recent years the two countries have cooperated extensively to stamp out the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

More than 15,000 refugees have fled to Nigeria amid Cameroonian military operations against the Anglophone separatists, the United Nations refugee agency and Nigerian government officials said earlier this month.

REUTERS


Ambazonia Refugee Crisis: Aid presented by Minister Mengot were foodstuffs seized from Nigerian and Anglophone businessmen

25, January 2018

Ambazonia Refugee Crisis: Aid presented by Minister Mengot were foodstuffs seized from Nigerian and Anglophone businessmen 0

The Manyu CPDM food aid meant to feed thousands of Ambazonian refugees and displaced persons was forcefully collected from Nigerian and Southern Cameroons businessmen trading on the Enugu-Bamenda Highway, Cameroon Concord News has learned.

The bags of rice, beans and salt were seized from traders by heavily armed Cameroon government troops and part of the items handed over to Minister Victor Mengot and his CPDM delegation from Yaoundé. We also gathered that the small quantity handed over to the pro Biya comedians is being diverted by corrupt contractors and there are already calls to open an independent investigation.

The bags of rice were taken from the businessmen and women through roadblocks manned by a bewildering array of the Francophone dominated army and bandits serving with councils controlled by the ruling CPDM crime syndicate.

Ever since the 84 year-old President Biya declared war on the Anglophone communities, not only are kidnappings and executions common, but Southern Cameroons’s insecurity also makes it difficult for senior Cameroon government officials to travel to the rural areas. Minister Victor Mengot could not go to places like Kembong, Dadi and Nsang as government agents who do go there run the risk of relying for protection on the same people they are fighting.

A prominent Manyu CPDM elite who travelled to Mamfe with Minister Mengot and who did not wish to be named, told Cameroon Concord News that a significant amount of food presented by the Minister Mengot delegation was being diverted to cartels who were selling it illegally.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

 


UN says number of extra-judicial killings in Congo-Kinshasa has tripled

25, January 2018

UN says number of extra-judicial killings in Congo-Kinshasa has tripled 0

The United Nations has slammed the Democratic Republic of Congo for its inability to contain a surge in the number of extra-judicial “executions” in the country, saying figures show a three-time increase in two years of such killings by “state agents”.

The United Nations Mission in Congo (MONUSCO) said Wednesday that a crisis in vast region of Kasai has driven up the number of summary “executions” in the DRC, saying state agents carried out 1,176 extra-judicial killings last year.

MONUSCO deplores “the exceptional increase” which showed that killings had tripled in number over the past two years.

It said at least 89 women and 213 children were killed as part of the extra-judicial killings in the DRC in 2017.

The findings, which were part of MONUSCO’s annual report on human rights violations in the DRC, said that 64 percent of all extra-judicial killings by state agents last year were carried out by armed forces.

The report also indicated that rights violations and abuses committed in 2017 across the central African country had risen by more than 25 percent compared to the previous year, adding that a total of 6,497 cases had been recorded last year.

MONUSCO said at least 752 people were executed in Kasai, a region that comprises three provinces plagued by violence since August 2016 when Kamwina Nsapu, a tribal chieftain known for his fierce opposition to regime of President Joseph Kabila, was killed. Around 3,000 people have been killed since then while some 1.4 million remain displaced.

The UN report described Kasai as a region plagued with “persistent crisis”, saying crimes by state agents were rampant there. The world body lost two of its experts in the region last March while investigating the violence.


What does it take to get the Ambazonian leadership released from Nigeria?

24, January 2018

What does it take to get the Ambazonian leadership released from Nigeria? 0

The Interim President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and 10 of his senior aides are being held captive in the Federal Republic of Nigeria by the President Buhari administration. A leading voice in the Southern Cameroons struggle for independence has said the Nigerian action is an “act of aggression” against Ambazonia.

The Ambazonian Secretary for Communication Hon. Chris Anu has condemned the act in the most strongly worded statement ever since the interim government was announced by President Ayuk Tabe. There are fears that Nigerians residing in Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun may be targeted by the Ambazonian Defense Force known as the Tigers.

“What happened in Abuja wasn’t staged by Yaoundé, but an act of aggression against the people of Ambazonia, its independence and dignity, and against relations between Ambazonia and the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” a spokesperson for the Interim Government said Wednesday.

In a telephone conversation with CIR, Ambazonia’s Secretary of State for Finance & Economy Hon. Brado Etchu Tabenyang stated that “The Ambazonian Government does not accept that President Ayuk Tabe remain hostage, and we do not know the reasons for his captivity. Nothing justifies such an action from an experienced Nigerian leader which violates the Vienna Convention and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

Responding to calls for dialogue from the President of Equatorial Guinea Teodoro Obiang, a senior adviser to President Ayuk Tabe told CIR that “It is not possible for us to dialogue with our leaders in detention.”

On the whereabouts of the detained Ambazonia leaders, Cameroon Intelligence Report contacts in Abuja have met with the Sisiku and his team and we want to reiterate that they are very, very well.  The Ambazonian leaders – Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Prof. Che Awasum,  Barrister Nalowa Bih, Dr. Fidelis Che, Dr. Nfor Nfor, Dr. Henry Kimeng, Prof. Che Awasum, Mr Tassang Wilfred, Dr. Ojong Okonghor, Barrister Shufai Berinyuh, Barrister Eyambe Elias and Dr. Cornelius Kwanga – were arrested at Nera hotel by the Nigerian Secret Service, DSS in Abuja on January 5th while holding a meeting.

A high-level Cameroon government ministerial source told CIR today that President Biya and his closest allies “have no idea what’s going on with the Ambazonia leaders in Nigeria,” and that President Buhari has again sent words to Biya via the President of Equatorial Guinea.

The arrest of President Ayuk Tabe plunged Southern Cameroons counties into a political crisis and stoked fears of conflict between Ambazonians and Nigerians living in Cameroon. So far the Ambazonian interim Government have called for calm, and made public statements asking for Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s release.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai


Twin car bombings kill more than 30 in Libyan city of Benghazi

24, January 2018

Twin car bombings kill more than 30 in Libyan city of Benghazi 0

Twin car bombings outside a mosque have claimed the lives of more than 30 people and wounded dozens more in Libya’s second city Benghazi.

Security officials said on Wednesday that the bombers blew up two cars 30 minutes apart outside the mosque after evening prayers on Tuesday in the central neighborhood of al-Sleimani.

Emergency and security workers who had rushed to the scene were among those killed in the second blast.

Fadia al-Barghathi, a spokeswoman for the city’s al-Jala hospital, said that the facility received 25 dead and 51 wounded. Spokesman Khalil Gider said that the Benghazi Medical Center received nine dead and 36 wounded.

Health officials said many of the wounded were in critical condition and the death toll was likely to rise.

Military spokesman Milud al-Zwei said Ahmad al-Fituri, a security official for Khalifa Haftar forces, was also among those killed.

Benghazi has been relatively calm since military strongman Haftar announced the eastern city’s “liberation” from militants in July last year after a three-year campaign.

Haftar, who supports an administration based in the east of the country has declared three days of mourning following the attack. Haftar’s opponents accuse him of wanting to seize power and establish a military dictatorship.

A UN-backed unity government based in the capital Tripoli, the Government of National Accord (GNA) condemned the attack as a “terrorist and cowardly act.” The GNA has struggled to assert its authority outside the west.

The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) strongly denounced the bombings as “horrific” and warned that “direct or indiscriminate attacks against civilians… constitute war crimes.”

Libyans check the aftermath of an explosion in the eastern city of Benghazi on January 24, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

 

The UN-backed government of Libya has yet to exert its control over much of the oil-rich North African country as a rival administration in the east and its powerful army continue to challenge Tripoli’s rule as they rely on support from some of Libya’s neighbors and certain rich Arab states.

Libya has been wracked by violence and divisions since dictator Muammar Gaddafi was toppled and killed in a 2011 NATO-backed military invasion.

A series of fierce clashes between rival militias at Tripoli’s airport last week left 20 dead and forced the cancellation of all flights for five days.

 

Source: Presstv


Plight of Ambazonians worse than what media and Biya regime portrays

24, January 2018

Plight of Ambazonians worse than what media and Biya regime portrays 0

It has been revealed that the plight of Southern Cameroonians ever since President Biya declared war on the Anglophone communities is much worse than what the media and Cameroon government representatives portrays. The Ambazonia Secretary of Communication, Hon. Chris Anu was quoted as saying that the genocide in Southern Cameroons is a tragedy that’s worse than anything that Cameroonian and Nigerian media houses have been able to portray about what is happening to these people.

The UN is struggling to cope with the Southern Cameroons refugee crisis in the Cross River State in Nigeria. According to the UN, nearly 40,000 Ambazonians have fled their homeland since troops loyal to the regime in Yaoundé intensified violence on the civilian population committing killings and rapes, making arbitrary arrests, and carrying out mass arson attacks destroying houses in Kembong, Kwa Kwa and Egbekaw.

The UN has not been engaged in any diplomatic effort to resolve the crisis. The Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia have accused the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime of  “ethnic cleansing” of the British Southern Cameroons minority, saying the violent bloodshed in the Manyu and Meme states had shamed the government of the 84 year-old Paul Biya.

Yaoundé and Abuja finalized an agreement early this year which facilitated the arrest of the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Aayuk Tabe including 10 of his top aides in Nigeria. The UN says thousands of persecuted Southern Cameroonians are expected in both Benue and Cross River States in Nigeria.

Ambazonian refugees have refuse to go back unless their safety can be guaranteed by an international military force and La Republique heeds their demands for an independent state of Southern Cameroons.

Yaoundé brands more than eight million British Southern Cameroonians in the country as “terrorists and immigrants from Nigeria. British Southern Cameroonians are considered as the “most persecuted minority group in Africa.”

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai


Silent since news of Trump payoff to porn star, Melania skips Davos trip

24, January 2018

Silent since news of Trump payoff to porn star, Melania skips Davos trip 0

US First Lady Melania Trump, who has made no public statement since reports of payoff from her husband’s lawyer to a porn star, will not be accompanying him to the upcoming World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The change of plans was confirmed Tuesday to CNN by East Wing communications director Stephanie Grisham, who had said a week earlier that she would be partaking at the event in a show of support for President Donald Trump.

People dressed up as (L to R) Ivanka Trump, US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump, take part in a carnival through the southwestern Macedonia’s village of Vevcani, on January 13, 2018.

 

The new decision was made based on “scheduling and logistical issues,” according to the White House official.

Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen reportedly brokered a payment to adult industry actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the latest round of the presidential election, in October 2016, to make sure she will not leak the affair to the press.

Ever since the news broke out on January 12, the wife of the 45th US president has been silent except for a pair of tweets that do not mention Donald Trump.

Later that day, the Slovenian-born first lady departed with Trump for a long holiday weekend to Mar-a-Lago, where Trump hosted two dinner events both in her absence.

“Today we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. & his service to this great country.  I am honored to be First Lady of a nation that continually strives for equality & justice for all,” she tweeted on January 15 in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

View image on Twitter
 In another tweet on Saturday, she marked the one-year anniversary of her husband’s inauguration via a picture that excluded him and instead showed her holding an American soldier’s hand.

Daniels, who is a celebrity actress, screenwriter and  director in the porn industry, has released a signed statement, denying having had any affairs with married Trump or having received any hush money. The recent allegations add to those of sexual assault by Trump, already gripping his administration in the first year.

 

Source: Presstv


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