News

3, January 2018

Europe hit by storm Eleanor, causing disruptions ⁰

Winter storm Eleanor swept into France, Belgium and the Netherlands on Wednesday after tearing through England and Northern Ireland, cutting power to tens of thousands of people and forcing airports and train services to halt operations.

A skier was killed by a falling tree at Morillon in the French Alps while 15 others have been injured by the storm across the country, four of them seriously, civil defense spokesman Michael Bernier told AFP.

Another person was hurt by a falling tree in the southern Dutch village of Heesch.

Heavy winds led the airports in Strasbourg and Basel-Mulhouse on France’s border with Germany and Switzerland to close before they were reopened shortly after midday.

At Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport, 60 percent of departures were delayed Wednesday morning, as were a third of arrivals, while a handful of flights had to be rerouted before the winds eased back a bit.

The winds were also wreaking havoc with train services in several French regions.

About 200,000 homes across northern France were without electricity, while “particularly intense” flooding was expected on the Atlantic coasts.

The Eiffel Tower, which attracts six million visitors a year, was closed until at least Wednesday afternoon, while worries about falling tree branches prompted Paris officials to close all city parks for the day.

Eleanor barreled into continental Europe after whipping across England, Northern Ireland and Ireland, with the Thames Barrier, one of the largest movable flood barriers in the world, closed as a precautionary measure to protect London from swelling tides.

A woman takes photographs as waves crash over the tidal wall along the seafront in New Brighton, north west England, on January 3, 2018, as Storm Eleanor swept over the country. (Photo by AFP)

Gusts of 160 kilometers per hour (100 mph) were recorded at Great Dun Fell in Westmorland, northwest England, while overturned vehicles and trees caused closures of major motorways.

In Ireland, power supply company ESB said electricity had been restored to 123,000 customers, while 27,000 remained without power.

Belgium and parts of Spain were also put on “orange” alert, the third of four warning levels, with officials urging people to exercise caution when venturing out.

Although the winds eased toward midday, rescue workers in Brussels were kept busy with about 70 calls across the city, mainly after trees were knocked down, and several parks were closed.

In the Netherlands, 252 of about 1,200 flights were cancelled at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, a key European hub, as weather alerts were issued for several regions.

Several main roads and train lines were also closed as officials rushed to prepare flooding defenses.

Flights were also disrupted at Frankfurt’s airport in Germany, where the storm has been baptized Burglind, and at Zurich airport, as Swiss officials urged hikers to avoid forest walks.

RTS television reported that about 14,000 homes were without power in several Swiss cantons.

Eleanor is the fourth major storm to hit Europe since December.

The storm is now heading for the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, where meteorologists are warning of violent gusts that could reach 200 kilometers per hour.

Austria is also in its path, where the avalanche risk was expected to be raised to four on a scale of five in several areas Wednesday afternoon.

(Source: AFP)

3, January 2018

Suicide blast on a mosque on Nigeria’s border with Cameroon kills 14 ⁰

Fourteen worshippers were killed Wednesday when a suicide bomber attacked a mosque on Nigeria’s border with Cameroon, civilian vigilantes told AFP. The suspected Boko Haram jihadist blew himself up amid worshippers inside the mosque in Gamboru around 5:00 am (0400 GMT), shortly before morning prayers. “Fourteen bodies have been pulled out of the rubble,” said Umar Kachalla, a civilian militiaman, who said the mosque had been completely destroyed. “Only the muezzin has survived and we believe more bodies are buried under the debris,” said Kachalla. “The death toll may likely rise.”

An hour earlier, a patrol of vigilantes spotted four suspected suicide bombers on the outskirts of the town and arrested one of them after a chase, said a second vigilante, Shehu Mada. “Two of them turned back and fled while the fourth disappeared into the darkness and we believe it was he who attacked the mosque,” Mada said. Boko Haram’s eight-year insurgency against the government of Nigeria has spilled into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, killing around 20,000 people and displacing more than 2.6 million. In August 2014, the group seized Gamboru, a trading hub along with neighbouring town of Ngala.

Nigerian troops retook both towns in September 2015 with the help of Chadian forces following months-long offensives. Despite the recapture of the area, Boko Haram fighters continue to launch sporadic attacks, laying ambush on troops and vehicles as well as attacking and abducting farmers. On Tuesday Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video message claiming a series of attacks in the northeast including those in Gamboru.

Source: Vanguard

3, January 2018

Boko Haram says it carried out Christmas attacks in Nigeria ⁰

A leader of the militant group Boko Haram has released a video claiming it carried out a series of attacks in north-east Nigeria over the Christmas period.

Abubakar Shekau, the head of one of Boko Haram’s three factions, declared the group active and operational a day after the Nigerian president said the militants had been defeated.

“We are in good health and nothing has happened to us,” he said in the video released on Tuesday. “Nigerian troops, police and those creating mischief against us can’t do anything against us, and you will gain nothing.

“We carried out the attacks in Maiduguri, in Gamboru, in Damboa. We carried out all these attacks.”

There has been a surge in violence in recent months, with dozens of people killed in suicide bombings and attacks on military bases in the region. Authorities have put this down to desperate insurgents trying to find food, weapons and ammunition.

Three people were reportedly burned to death on Christmas Day in Molai, a village near Maiduguri, the birthplace of Boko Haram. On Saturday 25 loggers were killed 13 miles from the state capital.

It is unclear to which Gamboru attack Shekau was referring, but he may have meant an ambush of an aid convoy on the Gamboru road in which four people were killed.

His declaration that the self-styled Islamists are alive and well contradicted the Nigerian president’s new year message which was broadcast the day before.

“We have since beaten Boko Haram,” said Muhammadu Buhari. “Isolated attacks still occur, but even the best-policed countries cannot prevent determined criminals from committing terrible acts of terror.”

In mid-December the government announced it was releasing $1bn from its excess oil account to pay for military equipment and training to fight the insurgency. Later it said not all the money would be spent on fighting Boko Haram alone.

Nigeria has recently announced a plan to combat Boko Haram by making villagers living in insecure areas move to garrison towns – although this was in effect how the military operated for most of 2017.

It is unclear how villagers who have always made their living farming, herding and fishing will be expected to survive when they are living on lands not their own and are not permitted to leave.

It is impossible to build up a clear picture of what exactly is happening in north-east Nigeria and across its borders in Cameroon and Chad.

According to a security tracker set up by the Council on Foreign Relations to monitor deaths reported in the media, more than 30,000 people have died in the conflict since May 2011. There are thought to have been large numbers of unreported deaths in inaccessible regions.

For the past two years, the Nigerian government has insisted it is winning or has won the war. According to the Nigerian army’s latest pronouncement, 700 Boko Haram captives recently escaped to Monguno, one of the local government areas of Borno state, after military operations in the region.

Pouring scorn on declarations of his death or capture, Shekau periodically releases video messages aimed at the government, the Nigerian people or a global audience. In the most notorious of these, he paraded the Chibok girls, a group of 300 schoolgirls kidnapped by his men, and vowed he would “sell them in the market”.

Culled from The Guardian

3, January 2018

Deaths and detentions as Biya Francophone regime cracks down on Southern Cameroonians ⁰

Felix Agbor Nkongho looked over his shoulder at a secluded Yaoundé cafe. As a leader of Cameroon’s growing anglophone rights movement, he had reason to be on his guard. A month previously he had been in prison in the capital, waiting to be tried under the country’s new anti-terrorism laws.

A prominent lawyer and activist, if convicted Agbor Nkongho would have faced the death penalty for his part in organising peaceful protests. The arrest of anglophone activists was part of the Cameroonian government’s attempt to quash discontent emanating from its English-speaking regions.

Cameroon’s francophone president Paul Biya. — Cameroon’s francophone president, Paul Biya. Photograph: Carlo Allegri/Reuters

What began as a simple request for English to be used in the courtrooms and public schools of the country’s two anglophone regions has escalated into a crisis in which dozens of people have died, hundreds have been imprisoned and thousands have escaped across the border to Nigeria.

If the situation is not defused through dialogue, the entire country could be destabilised ahead of elections in the autumn, according to the International Crisis Group.

A number of anglophone activists are calling for secession and the creation of a new country, which they want to call Ambazonia.

“The anglophone crisis is the biggest timebomb in Cameroon,” said Agbor Nkongho, who was released by presidential decree seven months after his arrest. “If it’s not addressed, it could break the country.”

A year ago, after French-speaking staff were appointed to anglophone courts, lawyers in Bamenda, the capital of one of the anglophone regions, took to the streets in protest. They were soon joined by teachers, who said francophones with little English were being hired in their public schools.

“As usual our government, which has no idea how to resolve conflict, turned to repression,” said Ngo Mbe.

After months of bellicose rhetoric, Cameroon’s long-time president, Paul Biya, appeared to hold out something of an olive branch to the anglophone regions in his new year’s address, saying dialogue was the best way of resolving the crisis and promising to decentralise power so that people could manage their own affairs.

However, he added: “All those who have taken up arms, who perpetrate or encourage violence should be fought relentlessly and held accountable for their crimes,” before congratulating the security forces for their “bravery, determination, restraint and professionalism.”

He made no mention of the 40 people killed and 100 injured surrounding the peaceful protests of 1 October, when activists from the Southern Cameroonian United Front symbolically declared the two anglophone regions the independent republic of Ambazonia. The government closed borders to the anglophone regions before deploying the army’s Rapid Intervention Brigade, a unit that is normally found fighting Boko Haram in another of the country’s crises, that of the northern Lake Chad region.

The October crackdown in towns and villages along Cameroon’s border with Nigeria caused at least 7,000 people and possibly as many as 20,000 to flee into Nigeria’s Cross Rivers state, where the UN refugee agency is bracing itself for the arrival of 40,000 more.

“Our fear, however, is that 40,000 people might actually be a conservative figure in a situation where the conflict might continue,” said the agency’s Babar Baloch in a recent briefing.

The latest high-profile figure to be detained, the writer, poet and professor Patrice Nganang, was released last week and repatriated to the US after three weeks behind bars. Police had arrested him at Douala airport shortly after he published an article criticising the government’s handling of the crisis.

Accused of posting a death threat against Biya, Nganang was told he would not get another visa for Cameroon, in effect meaning he would not be allowed to return.

Cameroonian authorities said 10 security officials were killed in November, and announced that four more were killed last week by separatists “using perfidy”.

The UN’s secretary general has called for a halt to the violence and for dialogue, but the opposition accuses 83-year-old Biya, who has been in power since 1982, of not being interested.

In some ways, however, international pressure seems to have had an effect. Two weeks ago Ahmed Abba, a journalist who had been jailed for 10 years for terrorism, had part of his sentence quashed, just as the Commonwealth’s secretary-general, Patricia Scotland, met opposition politicians and representatives of civil society to discuss “moving forward”.

Cameroon has a long history of conquest and subjugation. When the colonial scramble for Africa began, Germany managed to grab what it named Kamerun, but after the first world war the territory was confiscated and the French and British carved it up between them, the French taking the larger part.

At independence in 1961, the UN held a referendum giving anglophone Cameroonians the choice of joining either Nigeria or francophone Cameroon. With no option to become an independent state, they chose their francophone neighbours and together became a federal republic. But the anglophones soon found it was not a marriage of equals.

Talk of an independent Ambazonia has been around since the 1980s but has gained traction in the past few months.

When Agbor Nkongho was released, he found that while he had been in jail the “murderous repression” had led to some anglophone activists on the outside becoming more radical.

Demands for decentralisation of power have been quickly followed by demands for a return to a federal republic, and calls to split from Cameroon. Agbor Nkongho does not think this is a good idea. “We can still live as one; unity in diversity,” he said.

Culled from The Guradian

2, January 2018

Biya-Patrice Nganang Affair: Zimbabwean woman’s joy as Cameroon frees hubby ⁰

A US-BASED Zimbabwean woman says she is excited following the release of her Cameroonian husband who was detained for three weeks on charges of threatening to shoot that country’s president.

Early last month, Nyasha Bakare, who was born in Zimbabwe but now lives in the US, led a global campaign to free her husband, Patrice Nganang, who had been arrested at an airport in Yauonde, Cameroon.

A dual US and Cameroonian citizen and a professor at New York’s Stony Brook University, Nganang was arrested when he was about to board a flight to Harare to meet Bakare and their daughter, Nomsa aged eight years for the festive holiday.

Bakare and Nomsa were visiting relatives in Zimbabwe.

Nganang was arrested on 6 December, denied bail and remanded to a maximum security prison on charges that he had threatened to shoot Cameroon president, Paul Biya.

“Patrice faces charges in Cameroon linked to his writings critical of the Cameroonian situation and government. He was arrested Dec 6, 2017, while embarking on a flight for Harare (Zimbabwe) to join his wife and daughter,” Bakare wrote in an appeal soon after her husband’s arrest.

Her appeal for the release of Nganang immediately attracted global attention and last Thursday a Cameroonian judge was forced to order his release and immediate deportation to the US.

“We are very excited to be reunited and can’t wait,” Bakare wrote after the release of the professor.

Bakare said her husband had been arrested for writing an article for a French magazine criticising Biya’s 35 year-long rule.

Angela Quintal programme coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said international pressure and efforts from supporters played an important role in securing Nganang’s release.

“(It) is a sign that President Paul Biya’s administration has woken up to the fact that violating the right to freedom of expression to silence critical voices, including in the press will not be condoned by freedom-loving Cameroonian citizens, or the international community,” Quintal said.

Bakare and Nomsa have since left Zimbabwe for the US to reunite with Nganang.

Source:New Zimbabwe.Com

2, January 2018

Biya regime can get $100M from UN for underfunded or ‘forgotten’ emergencies ⁰

Cameroon is among nine countries that can avail of at least $100 million in funding from the United Nations in 2018 for underfunded or “forgotten” emergencies. The funds will come from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), a voluntary fund pool that supports critical relief operations in crises around the world.

During a pledging conference in New York on Dec. 8, UN Secretary General António Guterres said the CERF would allocate $100 million each for nine countries with “underfunded emergencies.” Aside from Cameroon, the other countries are the Philippines, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, Mali, Eritrea, Haiti and Pakistan.

Under the grant program, the CERF invites partners to identify projects that could qualify under CERF’s guidelines for underfunded emergencies.

The CERF defines “underfunded emergencies” as crises that cannot be funded sufficiently by governments and appear to have been “forgotten.” While local nongovernment organizations cannot directly receive funds from the CERF, they are encouraged to get involved in the process because they often serve as implementing partners.

The CERF is replenished every year and Guterres said the UN General Assembly passed a resolution in 2016 increasing CERF’s annual funding target from $450 million to $1 billion due to increasing humanitarian needs globally. Protracted crises from long-running conflicts and the impact of natural disasters are likely to continue in 2018, he said, while the impact of climate change was likely to grow and intensify.

In 2017, CERF reached a record high income of $504 million through additional commitments made by donors, according to the United Nations. The fund allocated almost $130 million to help prevent famine in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. The fund also supported relief responses such as those for Palestine refugees in Gaza, for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, and those affected by hurricanes “Irma” and “Maria” in the Caribbean. Created in 2005, the CERF is managed by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Report by the Globalnation. Inquirer

1, January 2018

Ambazonia: Biya Vows to ‘Deal’ with the Interim Government ⁰

Cameroon President Paul Biya says he will destroy all terrorists whom he says are fighting to separate his country or using it as a hiding place for armed attacks on neighboring states. In a message, Biya reiterated he was open for dialogue with the disgruntled English speaking minority in the bilingual country but that his military would deal with armed separatists fighting for the independence of the English speaking regions.

FILE – A still image taken from a video shot on Oct. 1, 2017, shows protesters waving Ambazonian flags in front of a road block in the English-speaking city of Bamenda, Cameroon.

President Paul Biya says it is his duty to ensure public order, social peace, the unity of the nation and Cameroon’s integrity, and so he has issued instructions that all those who have taken up arms, who perpetrate or encourage violence should be fought relentlessly and held accountable for their crimes before the courts of law.

“It is my firm belief that fast-tracking our decentralization process will enhance the development of our Regions,” he said. “To that end, I have ordered the implementation of the necessary measures to speedily give effect to this major reform. We will contribute towards consolidating the rule of law and open a new page in our democratic process.”

Many Cameroonians had expected Biya to be lenient towards armed insurgents and invite them to the negotiation table.

FILE – Soldiers patrol in Bafut, in the northwest English-speaking region of Cameroon, Nov. 15, 2017.

Biya said he requested the government engage in constructive dialogue with English speakers to seek solutions to their demands. But he added that he will destroy all those who have taken arms against the state, which he reiterated will remain one and indivisible.

He however pledged to make Cameroon a decentralized unitary state by implementing decentralization as spelled out in the country’s constitution.

Rene Emmanuel Sadi, Cameroon’s minister of territorial administration and decentralization, says the decentralization Biya spoke about encounters many challenges.

“We started implementing this process effectively since 2010, but of course we can ascertain the fact that the there are still some difficulties, there are still some problems,” he said. “The councils complain that the resources put at their disposal do not allow them to respond to the needs of the populations and to the implementation of their projects.”

FILE – In this photo taken Feb. 19, 2015, Cameroon soldiers check a truck on the border between Cameroon and Nigeria as they combat regional Islamic extremists force’s including Boko Haram.

Until a few years ago, Cameroon was referred to as a peace haven because it had never experienced major challenges. But the Boko Haram insurgency on its northern border with Nigeria that started four years ago has killed more than 25,000 people, and displaced millions of people in Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Niger according to the United Nations.

FILE – Refugees sit at the door of their home at the Minawao Refugee Camp in northern Cameroon.

The spillover of the carnage in the Central African Republic (CAR) is also felt on the central African state’s border with CAR with repeated cases of kidnappings for ransom and attacks by armed men.

Adolph Deben Tchoffo, governor of Cameroon’s English speaking north west region, says he supports Paul Biya’s determination to eliminate the armed separatists so that schools can reopen and businesses pick up in the English speaking areas of Cameroon more than one year after they were hampered by the crisis.

“We are begging for peace and we are leaving no stone on turned to maintain long lasting security, securing the population, asking the population to mobilize themselves to support government to make sure the economic activity, the social activity in the region comes back to normalcy,” he said.

Biya said Cameroonians desire greater participation in managing their affairs, especially at the local level and as such he will make sure the constitution is respected fully.

Cameroon will hold local council, parliamentary and presidential elections in 2018. Many hope the polls will be transparent. Biya has been president for 35 years, winning in elections opposition political parties say are always rigged to favor him.

Source: VOA

1, January 2018

5,247 killed in Boko Haram militancy in Nigeria’s Adamawa since 2013 ⁰

At least 5,247 Muslims have been killed in the Boko Haram insurgency across the northeastern Adamawa state of Nigeria over the past four years, a group says.

The Adamawa State chapter of Muslim Council, which comprises several Islamic organizations, said in a report on Sunday that more than 5,100 Muslims were also injured across seven local government areas of the state since 2013.

The affected local governments are Madagali, Michika, Maiha, Mubi North, Mubi South, Hong and Gombi. The report said Madagali Local Government Area had the highest number of dead victims with 2,500 people while Hong had the least with 68.

The report, which was presented to the Adamawa governor, Alhaji Muhammadu Bindow also said over 12,700 properties, including houses, mosques, livestock and farm produce worth $220 million had been destroyed in the state.

The report also called for more support for victims and reconstruction of places of worship and schools. In addition, it recommends increasing security and financial support to local defense groups assisting the military in the fight against the Takfiri Boko Haram terrorist group.

Adamawa is one of the three states most affected by Boko Haram. The others are Borno and Yobe states.

Onlookers stand as an ambulance carries dead bodies recovered from the scene of three bomb blasts that left 13 people dead in Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria, October 23, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Boko Haram has led an insurgency in Nigeria and neighboring countries that has left around 20,000 people dead. Hundreds of thousands have also been displaced in the violence.

Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for numerous deadly terror attacks in Nigeria during the past eight years. The attacks have so far claimed the lives of at least 20,000 people and displaced more than 2.7 million others.

The United Nations has warned that areas affected by Boko Haram face a humanitarian crisis.

1, January 2018

Congo-Kinshasa: UN chief urges President Kabila to step down ⁰

UN chief Antonio Guterres has urged Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila to abide by an agreement to leave power, after at least eight people died in protests against his rule.

Kabila, in power since 2001, signed a deal with opposition groups a year ago agreeing to step down once his current term ends and new elections are held.

But violence has swelled in the giant, troubled African nation after the date of the new vote was pushed back to December 2018, prompting fears that Kabila may seek to extend his reign.

“The secretary-general urges all Congolese political actors to remain fully committed to the 31 December 2016 political agreement, which remains the only viable path to the holding of elections, the peaceful transfer of power and the consolidation of stability in the DRC,” Guterres’ office said in a statement late Sunday.

Eight people were killed on Sunday and dozens arrested as Congolese security forces cracked down on protesters who defied a government ban to demonstrate in Kinshasa and other cities.

A Catholic faithful wipes her eyes after police fired tear gas to disperse a demonstration to call for the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to step down, on December 31, 2017 in Kinshasa. (Photo by AFP)

Troops fired tear gas into churches and bullets in the air to break up gatherings at Catholic masses, in one case arresting 12 altar boys leading a protest in the capital.

“The secretary-general calls on the government and national security forces to exercise restraint and to uphold the rights of the Congolese people to the freedom of speech and peaceful assembly,” Guterres’ statement said.

DR Congo, rich with mineral wealth but plagued by violence, has not had a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.

Kabila succeeded his assassinated father Laurent Kabila in 2001 and refused to step down at the end of his second and final term in December 2016.

Elections had been due to take place by the end of this year under a church-mediated deal but were further delayed, and the poll is now scheduled for December 23, 2018.

(Source: AFP)

1, January 2018

Far North region: Female suicide bomber kills one, wounds 28 ⁰

A female suicide bomber blew herself up in a cafe in Cameroon’s far north region Sunday, killing at least one person and wounding 28 others, witnesses told AFP.

Witnesses said the woman entered the cafe at around 7:00 am (0600 GMT) before detonating her explosive vest in Bia, a village close to the border with Nigeria. The area has seen frequent attacks by the Boko Haram jihadist group in recent years. Those hurt in the blast were taken to a nearby hospital, witnesses said.

Since 2014, when Cameroon began its fight against Boko Haram, the group has killed at least 2,000 civilians and military personnel and kidnapped a thousand more in the country’s far north, according to the International Crisis Group.

Since the group emerged eight years ago, it has launched attacks in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad — the nations bordering Lake Chad — and caused the deaths of at least 20,000 people and the displacement of more than 2.6 million.