Southern Cameroonians under the ‘Republic of Ambazonia’ have named a new leader in the person of  Sako Ikome Samuel.

The new development comes in the wake of the arrest and deportation of Julius Ayuk Tabe, the group’s known leader. Tabe and 46 others were handed over to Cameroon from Nigerian authorities after they were arrested in an Abuja hotel in January 2018.

In his first address to the nation, Ikome Samuel in his capacity as Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia declared that the movement had now entered an era of individual and communal self defense.

“Now is the era of self-defense. From effective personal self defense to legitimate Ambazonia community protection programs to stop the wanton destruction of lives and our property in Ambazonia.

“We are therefore going to work to accredit and embrace all self defense and security groups that will endorse our IG rules of engagement. I will be reaching out to all in the days ahead,” he stressed in the over 21 minutes address.

He described the stage of the separatist struggle as at a precipice. He blamed the arrest of Tabe and 11 others as a planned effort by Nigeria, Cameroon and the French government. According to him, he will continue to serve British southern Cameroonians against French Cameroon.

Cameroonian authorities in November 2017 issued international arrest warrants for fifteen leaders of the Anglophone separatist consortium known as the Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC).

According to a local website, the main target was Sisiku Ayuk Tabe who is being held by authorities in Yaounde awaiting trail.

The government accuses the group of being behind rising violence in the northwestern and southwestern regions. The two areas known as ‘Anglophone Cameroon’ has been at the heart of clashes between pro-government forces and secessionists.

According to him, the Ambazonia nation was birthed in October 2017 when the group were met with forces by security elements in a move to declare symbolic independence. Deaths were reported, scores were injured and hundreds others arrested in raids.

An ensuing guerilla style of attacks on security forces – police, soldiers, gendarmes, led President Paul Biya to declare war on the group. Reprisal attacks have led to thousands fleeing the region into the forest and into Nigeria.

The United Nations and Cross River State of Nigeria continue to receive thousands of people streaming into communities. The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, says the numbers continue to increase.

Source: Africa News

Cameroon Concord News Group has been informed that violent clashes are currently playing out in several towns in Southern Cameroons. Our source in Batibo has reported that three army soldiers have been killed by unknown gunmen while the Batibo Senior Divisional Officer has been taken by the gunmen to an unknown destination.

The Batibo Assistant Mayor, Esther Tebo, for her part, is currently hiding in the forest after gunmen showed up at her church and opened fire, wounding several people.

In Kembong, a town in Manyu Division which was a hotspot during the violent confrontations in December 2017, is back in the spotlight following an attack by heavily armed gunmen on the temporary military barrack in the town.

The attack resulted in the killing of three gendarmes, with many other uniformed officers wounded. The wounded have been flown by helicopter to the Mamfe military hospital for treatment, a measure expected to help stabilize them. Sources close to the military say the wounded will soon be flown to Douala where it is believed they would get better treatment.

Our military sources also reported that several of the attackers had been killed, adding that the fighting was still ongoing. There is rising fear among the population, given that the last time a military officer was killed in Kembong, many houses were torched by army soldiers in revenge.

The military source added that the attackers used heavy artillery and some artisanal weapons and were many. The source advised that the Southern Cameroons crisis would not be addressed through military action, adding that the loss of life should push the government into negotiating a way out of this conflict that is very likely to run for years if dialogue is not pursued.

The incident, which is a response to the government’s military action in many parts of Southern Cameroons, comes less than 24 hours after the country’s president, Paul Biya, said the North West and South West regions were stabilizing during a speech delivered to the country’s youth on Saturday, February 10, 2018, on the occasion of the country’s Youth Day.

Mr. Biya’s speech had been expected by millions of Cameroonians, especially the youths, who have been victims of the government failure to create jobs and grow the economy. The wait also stemmed from the fact that for more than two weeks, there had been speculations about the whereabouts of Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, 85, who had been missing in action.

Mr. Biya was expected to deliver a live speech on Saturday, February 10, 2018, directed at the youths to urge the country’s impoverished and unemployed youths to continue persevering in their efforts to find work.

He used the occasion to point out that though the economy had not been delivering the results expected, it was more because of a combination of external factors such as declining oil prices, the Southern Cameroons crisis and the Boko Haram insurgency.

However, Cameroonians had been very concerned about the absence of their president. Many analysts held that the country’s president might either be dead or that his health situation might have taken a turn for the worse.

However, yesterday’s speech did not reassure many people, as they hold that it had been taped many weeks before it was delivered. They justify their claim with the fact that the president did not make any reference to the arrest of Southern Cameroons leaders and the creation of a constitutional council a few days before the youth day.

It should be noted that Mr. Biya has been having serious health issues for some time now and a source close to the ailing dictator had intimated that the 85-year-old Biya was suffering from prostrate cancer and a failing heart.

Cameroonians no longer have faith in the government. They hold that the government speaks from both sides of its mouth and that current actions by the president’s collaborators give to understand that there is something fishy unfolding behind the scenes.

Cameroonians are still looking for assurances that their president is alive. They want to be sure that Mr. Biya’s collaborators are not working behind the scenes to change the country’s constitutional order just to ensure the Betis who have been mismanaging the country for more than three decades do not wrestle power out of the hands of the real constitutional successor.

According to a source at the Presidency which elected anonymity, the Secretary General at the presidency has ever since Mr. Biya disappeared from the public’s eye, been holding a series of meetings with some of his collaborators who have been advising him to issue decrees that would usher in constitutional changes on Mr. Biya’s behalf.

They point to the appointment of Clement Atangana early last week as president of the constitutional council as one of the changes aimed at changing things to the advantage of a Beti Mafia that has been running the show for many years.

The scheduling of senatorial elections next month is considered as one of the measures designed by the Beti Mafia to kick out the current senate president, Marcel NyatNjifenji, so that it could retain power even after Mr. Biya’s death.

Under the country’s current constitution, the constitutional successor is the president of the senate, Marcel Nyat Njifenji, a man many hold has played a key role in the corruption and mismanagement that have become the country’s hallmark.

Today’s violence in many Southern Cameroons towns and cities is a reminder that military violence will not address the issues Southern Cameroonians have complained about. It is also a reminder that Cameroon is on the war path and if care is not taken, the conflict could degenerate.

It should be recalled that ever since the conflict started in October 2016, more than 500 civilians have been killed by the country’s military, while more than 300 uniformed officers have lost their lives, especially in Manyu Division where there were violent clashes in December 2017 and January 2018.

By the Editorial team with field reports by Kingsley Betek, Rita Akana and Meshack Enowmbi in Cameroon

A Russian Antonov An-148 passenger plane carrying 71 people has crashed after taking off from Moscow’s Domodedovo airport killing all people on board, Russian media report.

The jet belonging to the domestic Saratov Airlines was flying to Orsk city, located about 100 kilometers southeast of the southern tip of the Ural Mountains, and crashed in the Ramensky district outside Moscow on Sunday.

According to Russian news agencies, the plane was carrying 65 passengers and six crewmembers.

News agencies said witnesses in the village of Argunovo saw a burning plane falling from the sky.

Russia’s Ministry of Emergency Situation said it has dispatched crews to the reported crash site to probe the case.

Russian news agencies, citing sources in the emergency services, reported that the wreckage of the plane was spread over a wide area around the crash site.

“Debris has been found, there are no survivors,” Russia’s TASS news agency quoted a source as saying.

According to Interfax, the Russian Transport Ministry is considering various possible reasons, including weather conditions and human error for the incident.

The following video shows screenshots of Flightradar tracking of Saratov airlines flight, screenshot of speed and altitude graph before signal lost. The governor of the Orenburg region, where the plane was flying to, has been quoted by Russian media as saying that “more than 60 people” on board the plane were from the region.

Russian prosecutors have opened an investigation into Saratov Airlines following the crash.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has offered his condolences to the families of those on board with his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, saying, “The president offers his profound condolences to those who lost their relatives in the crash.”

The new incident is the latest in a string of plane crashes in Russia.

A light aircraft crashed in November in Russia’s far east, killing six people on board, AFP reported.

A military plane carrying Russia’s Red Army Choir crashed in December 2016 after taking off from the Black Sea resort of Sochi, killing all 92 people on board. The choir was due to give a concert to Russian troops operating in Syria. Pilot error was blamed for that crash.

Moreover, all 62 passengers died when a FlyDubia jet crashed in March 2016 in bad weather during an aborted landing at Rostov-on-Don airport.

Source: Presstv

The White House has warned that the US government faces a second shutdown in three weeks as Congress encounters obstacles to pass a temporary spending bill before midnight.

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget “is currently preparing for a lapse in appropriations,” an OMB official said Thursday, calling on lawmakers to get the measure to President Donald Trump’s desk “without delay.”

With just hours to go before current federal funding expires, the effort stalled in the Senate when one lawmaker blocked a quick vote on the compromise bill in the upper chamber of Congress.

The legislation, which extends government funding for six weeks and raises the federal debt ceiling, would break the cycle of government funding crises.

Republicans and Democrats agreed Wednesday on a two-year deal to increase government spending. But the bill hit a stumbling block after Senator Rand Paul refused to allow the Senate to act expeditiously to pass the spending measure.

Moving legislation swiftly through the Senate requires consent by all 100 members, but Paul objected.

The legislation is expected to increase the bulging federal deficit which is estimated to be around $440 billion for fiscal year 2018.

“I can’t in all good honesty and all good faith just look the other way because my party is now complicit in the deficits,” Paul said.

If the Republican senator from Kentucky stands his ground, congressional rules dictate that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can declare a new session at midnight Friday, then hold a procedural vote on the spending bill one hour into the new day. A final vote would follow.

If passed, the bill would then head to the House of Representatives. If it passes, it would be sent to the White House for a signature by Trump, who supports the measure.

But the deal’s fate in the lower chamber is far from certain. Fiscal conservatives in the House may join with Paul in balking at adding billions of dollars to the national debt two months after passing a $1.5 trillion tax cut package.

The US government shut down for two days last month after a failure to pass legislation to fund government operations and agencies.

There have been four government shutdowns between 1990 and 2017. In 2013, government funding lapsed for 16 full days and more than 800,000 government workers were put on temporary leave.

Source: Presstv

France is planning to spend $33 billion (€27bn) to upgrade its arsenal of nuclear weapons as part of a massive $370 billion (€300bn) military spending over the next few years to meet the NATO military alliance’s requirements, the French defense chief has announced.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, French Defense Minister Florence Parly said Paris wanted to increase its military budget so that it can “hold its own” as a key power in Europe.

“The government’s goal is twofold: reach the target of spending two percent of GDP on defense by 2025, while also ensuring we manage our public finances,” Parly said.

France spends $42 billion (€34bn) or 1.8 percent of its GDP for military purposes, slightly less than the two-percent threshold set by NATO.

Under the new plan, President Emmanuel Macron’s government increases overall spending by $2 billion (€1.7bn) a year starting from 2019 until 2022, when it will reach $53 billion (€44bn). Then the budget would be bumped up by $3.6 billion (€3bn) a year between 2023 and 2025.

By then, Paris is supposed to have completed the expensive revamp of its nuclear arsenal, with work on a third-generation nuclear submarine program and a new generation of airborne nuclear missiles already underway today.

“We are going to make up for past shortfalls and build a modern, sustainable, protective army” that would allow France “to hold its own,” said Parly.

French military forces are currently deployed to West Africa on a declared mission to fight militant groups.

The country is also a main contributor to a US-led coalition that has been targeting alleged terrorist positions in Iraq and Syria since 2015.

The years-long operations have put strain on France’s military forces and equipment.

With thousands of troops overseas, the new program allows the defense department to perform a host of upgrades on equipment, from bullet-proof vests to combat uniforms.

There will also be a 34-percent increase in spending on “modernizing weaponry,” which includes buying new Scorpion armored vehicles, four Barracuda attack submarines and three multi-mission frigates, as well as a new fleet of Griffon multi-role armored vehicles.

There are also plans to develop new spy satellites, light surveillance aircraft, new Rafale fighter jets and armed drones. Air tankers are also on the long list of upgrades.

The development is a major reversal in France’s military strategy over the past years and is expected to please US President Donald Trump, who has put NATO allies under pressure to increase their military budgets.

Source: Presstv