News

15, December 2017

Biya orders withdrawal of troops from Manyu ⁰

President Biya has secretly ordered all combat troops to be withdrawn from Manyu Division, Cameroon Concord News has learned from a well-placed official in Yaoundé. Biya informed the supreme command of the Cameroon armed forces earlier today Friday to end all military operations in the Manyu constituency which is one of the most divisive conflicts in Cameroon history.

The military leadership that travelled to Mamfe hinted some of the soldiers today that they will soon be leaving Manyu. “After nearly two weeks, Biya regime’s war in Southern Cameroons will be over” our source said.

The withdrawal of the predominantly Francophone troops marks a turning point in the Yaoundé regime crackdown that started in 2016 and resulted in the creation of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Biya, eyeing a 2018 re-election campaign likely to be fought over his handling of the Anglophone crisis and the economy is looking to wind down the one year old Southern Cameroons crisis that has done lasting damage to Biya’s image worldwide and stretched Cameroon military and budget to the brink.

Etoudi has been briefed of the military casualties and French speaking Cameroonians are beginning to question the wisdom behind a military solution to the Anglophone problem. Biya intends to use the traditional chiefs and reduce the military role to security in a territory where levels of violence has risen sharply and attacks on state institutions remain a daily occurrence.

Almost 85 Cameroon soldiers have died and the Manyu deployment has cost Cameroon taxpayers over 3 billion FCFA in military spending alone. Even as Anglophone political elites including those in the army seek to distance themselves from Yaoundé on the genocide in Anglophone Cameroon, Southern Cameroons will never get to its feet after the ferocious violence that has shattered its society and killed hundreds of people.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

15, December 2017

Jerusalem al-Quds: EU defies Trump ⁰

European Union leaders have rejected a contentious US decision to recognize Jerusalem al-Quds as Israel’s “capital,” saying the 28-member bloc’s stance on the city remains “unchanged.”

“EU leaders reiterate firm commitment to the two-state solution and, in this context, the EU position on Jerusalem [al-Quds] remains unchanged,” President of the European Council Donald Tusk said in a message posted on his official Twitter account on Thursday.

The tweet came after EU leaders discussed Trump’s decision at a summit underway in the Belgian capital of Brussels.

On December 6, Trump sparked international outrage as he declared that Washington was recognizing Jerusalem al-Quds as the “capital” of Israel and that he had instructed his administration to begin the process of moving the American embassy from Tel Aviv to the ancient city.

The dramatic shift in Washington’s Jerusalem policy has drawn fierce criticism from the international community, including Washington’s own allies, while triggering demonstrations against the US and Israel worldwide.

European leaders attend the first day of a European Union summit in Brussels on December 14, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Thursday’s statement by the bloc’s heads of state and government adds fresh weight to the criticism of Trump’s move.

According to media reports, French President Emanuel Macron had lobbied for a sharper statement against Trump’s declaration.

Israel failed to torpedo the statement, but managed to get the French text watered down with the help of the Czech Republic and Hungary.

On December 7, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini voiced alarm at the US decision and said it could take the region “backwards to even darker times.”

Mogherini also reaffirmed the position of the European Union on Tuesday, saying East Jerusalem, which hosts the al-Aqa Mosque compound, shall become the capital of a Palestinian state and the western part of the city shall go to Israel as part of a so-called two state solution.

“We have made it clear that we will continue to respect the international consensus on Jerusalem [al-Quds], as Europeans, including the relocation of our embassies until the final status of Jerusalem [al-Quds] is resolved through direct negotiations between the parties,” she added.

Jerusalem al-Quds remains at the core of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, with Palestinians hoping that the eastern part of the city would eventually serve as the capital of a future independent Palestinian state.

The entire city went under Israel’s control after the regime annexed East Jerusalem al-Quds in 1967 during the Arab War.

15, December 2017

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Dadi in Yaounde’s hands ⁰

The Cameroonian armed forces have reportedly invaded the headquarters of the Cho Ayaba gang in Dadi and seized a large stockpile of weapons and ammunition there.

Dadi is the area that the controversial Southern Cameroons activist passing for a military commander staged a military parade and posted on face book.

Yaoundé interpreted the Cho Ayaba move as coming from the Interim Government headed by Sisiku Ayuk Tabe. Cho Ayaba in the video released some weeks ago was reviewing his troops.

By Rita Akana

15, December 2017

Yaounde facing strong response from Southern Cameroons militants ⁰

The Cameroonian army is facing a strong response from armed Southern Cameroons militants following what is being described as an invasion of the Manyu State in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and continues military incursion is doomed to fail, according to our South West bureau chief who is currently monitoring the situation in Mamfe.

“Any military operation led by General Elokobi Daniel Njock against the people of Akwaya will fail as it would elicit a harsh and unexpected response,” Sama Ernest told our news desk late last night.

Last week, a top Cameroon government official revealed Biya regime’s intentions of deploying thousands of troops in the Eyumojock and Akwaya sub constituencies. His remarks followed a series of attacks ordered from Yaoundé on the Southern Cameroons civilian population in Mamfe, Egbekaw, Besongabang and Kembong including Kajifu and Agborkem-German.

On Thursday, Cameroonian military vehicles and helicopters entered Mamfe under escort and staged attacks on Egbekaw. The Cameroon army deployed massive reinforcements to its outposts on the Ekok border in preparations to sending forces into Akwaya and Otu, which is part of a deal with Nigeria to de-escalate the conflict in the area.

“The Cameroonian military presence is aimed at thwarting the Federal Republic of Ambazonia project in Southern Cameroons and imposing a siege on Manyu Division. The Biya Francophone regime is not fighting any terrorist organizations in Southern Cameroons,” said Sama.

The statement was echoed by an aide to the Interim Head of State of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe who spoke to us recently in Calabar in Nigeria. The Cameroon government’s goal in Manyu is to prevent Southern Cameroonians from linking the Bokis of Cameroon to the Bokis in Nigeria including the Ejagham cantons of Eyumojock to those in Nigeria and change the character of the Anglophone crisis.

Yaoundé only controls a pocket of land since General Elokobi Daniel Njock started the operation in Manyu. Cameroon Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo has previously described the Manyu Division area on the Nigeria border as a “terror corridor” in the making.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

15, December 2017

Netherlands: Two killed in double stabbing attacks ⁰

At least two people have been killed and several others injured in two stabbing attacks in the southern Dutch city of Maastricht, police say.

The police said in a statement that two stabbing attacks had been carried out on Thursday night a few hundred meters away from each other in a residential neighborhood in northern Maastricht, a city close to the Netherlands’ borders with Belgium and Germany.

In the first incident, a man was stabbed to death during a fight and a suspect fled the scene. Ten minutes later, another attack occurred, in which a woman was fatally stabbed and two men were injured. Another wounded person was later found at a local mosque and transferred to hospital, police explained.

One suspect was detained on suspicion of involvement in the incidents, police said, adding that, “Research has shown that there is no reason to assume that these incidents have a terrorist motive.”

Police added that they “are still investigating these incidents in the neighborhood.”

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who was at a European Union summit in the Belgian capital of Brussels, also said the attacks were not terrorism-related.

Source: Presstv

14, December 2017

Somalia: Bomb attack kills 17 at Mogadishu police academy ⁰

The al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab militant group has launched a bombing attack on a police training camp in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, killing at least 17 officers and injuring 20 others.

The casualties took place on Thursday, when an assailant infiltrated the General Kahiye Police Training Academy during an early morning parade and detonated the explosives strapped around his waist and torso.

“A man wearing an explosive vest entered the camp disguised as a policeman, and blew himself up,” police officer Mohamed Abdulle said. “Medical rescuers are still working on evacuating the casualties.”

Witnesses said the bomber, in order to inflict maximum damage, targeted a spot where soldiers had gathered to rehearse for Somalia’s Police Day celebrations scheduled for December 20.

The Takfiri terrorist group immediately claimed responsibility for the deadly attack but gave a higher death toll.

The General Kahiye Police Training Academy is the biggest training camp for police and security forces in Somalia.

The Horn of Africa nation has been the scene of deadly clashes between government forces and al-Shabab militants since 2006.

Soldiers from the African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM) stand at attention in Mogadishu, July 11, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

The Takfiri militant group was forced out of the capital by African Union troops in 2011 but still controls parts of the countryside and carries out attacks against government, military, and civilian targets in Mogadishu and regional towns.

The extremist group is just one of the challenges facing the new Somali government, which is still struggling to expand its authority beyond the capital and other selected areas.

The Thursday attack comes as the African Union is finalizing plans to trim its peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which was deployed a decade ago to help secure the Somali government.

The force of 22,000 is set to lose 1,000 soldiers this month as part of a long-term plan to withdraw troops from the country and hand security to the Somali army.

Source: Presstv

14, December 2017

Anglophones Flee to Nigeria as Crackdown Grows ⁰

When soldiers burst into her village in southwest Cameroon last month with guns blazing, small farmer Eta Quinta, 32, raced into the forest with three of her children.

“I found a canoe and I used it to cross over with my kids, not knowing where my husband and my (other) two kids are,” she told Reuters across the border in Nigeria, where thousands of English-speaking Cameroonians have fled in past weeks.

What began last year as peaceful protests by Anglophone activists against perceived marginalisation 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, 7,500 people 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.

The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR is preparing for up to 40,000 refugees.

Quinta and her children walked for three days through the dense forests to reach a border crossing at the Agbokim Waterfalls. They remain without news of the rest of the family.

“There are many pregnant women in the forest,” Quinta said as she held her sick two-month-old baby whose head was covered by a white wooly hat. “I have friends in the forest and am not sure if I will get to see them again or their kids.”

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.

Cameroonian authorities say the English-speaking separatists pose a security threat that justifies their crackdown.

The new arrivals in Nigeria live mainly with host families who have supported them with food, clothing and shelter. The integration, a UNHCR official said, was made easier by the pidgin English spoken on either side of the border.

Food and medicine are in limited supply. Four people have died of sicknesses since coming to Nigeria and the refugees sometimes sleep as many as 50 to a five-by-seven meter room.

Their anger has grown toward a government they feel no longer represents them, which could provide the separatists with easy recruits.

“We were walking for peaceful demonstrations … but it’s because of the killing of our innocent people that is why our own people have started reacting,” said Tiku Michael, a businessman, farmer, father of six and now a refugee.

“Even … God himself, he will not allow things to go (on) like that.”

Source: Reuters

14, December 2017

Anglophone Crisis: Helicopters launch attack on Egbekaw Village in Manyu ⁰

4 military helicopters have attacked civilian positions in Egbekaw village in Mamfe town in what the Cameroonian army calls a “terrorist raid” on Southern Cameroons militants.

Grenades were dropped on Egbekaw and 15 shots fired at some residence today, Cameroon Concord News reporter said.

The helicopters flew from a military base located in Besongabang to attack the Egbekaw area.

Manyu Division is in the midst of a political and economic crisis that has sparked mass exodus into Nigeria.

Many of those in the Cameroonian army who support the Biya regime see Mamfe has the headquarters of the Southern Cameroons uprising.

What happened in the attack?

Four helicopters were seen flying over Egbekaw village dropping grenades with soldiers firing at civilians. No casualties have been reported.

By Sama Ernest in Egbekaw

14, December 2017

US: Kentucky lawmaker accused of sexually molesting teen commits suicide ⁰

Dan Johnson, a Republican state lawmaker in Kentucky who has refused to resign after allegations that he sexually assaulted a teenage girl in his church, has apparently killed himself.

Johnson fatally shot himself on a bridge in a secluded area of Louisville in Mount Washington, Kentucky, on Wednesday night, Bullitt County sheriff Donnie Tinnell said.

The 57-year-old, who called himself “the Pope” and was pastor of the Heart of Fire Church, was elected to the state legislature in 2016.

On Tuesday, Johnson held a news conference in the pulpit of his church where he molested the 17-year-old some five years ago.

He rejected the allegations against him as “totally false” and that they were part of a nationwide strategy of defeating conservative Republicans.

On Wednesday evening, Johnson posted a message on his Facebook page and requested people to take care of his wife. He wrote that post-traumatic stress disorder “is a sickness that will take my life, I cannot handle it any longer. It has won this life, BUT HEAVEN IS MY HOME.”

It appears the post was later on removed.

According to court documents provided by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, the sexual assault incident happened at the Heart of Fire City Church where Johnson was a pastor on New Year’s Eve in 2012.

Johnson’s accuser told authorities that the molestation took place when she was staying in a living area of the Heart of Fire City Church, adding he had been drinking at the time.

According to the same documents, the case, however, was closed since the accuser was “very busy” and simply “didn’t have time” to cooperate.

This comes as the United States grapples with the sexual assault and harassment scandals that have left the world of entertainment, business and politics in a state of shock.

There have been numerous allegations of sexual harassment and abuse against media figures as well as senior politicians including Republican President Donald Trump himself. So far, at least 16 women have accused Trump of unwanted sexual advances, claims the White House has rejected as false.

Source: Presstv

14, December 2017

Yaounde closes border with Nigeria in the North ⁰

Cameroon has closed its border with Nigeria in the north, after a series of attacks by Boko Haram militants on Cameroonian ranchers. The closure is meant to protect the ranchers’ cattle, but it is hurting the ranchers’ business.

Hundreds of ranchers have brought their cattle and livestock to the Bogo market on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria. According to Cameroon’s government, this market is the supply point for most of the cattle sold across the border.

But cattle rancher and seller Ahminou Ngomna says he has not seen his Nigerian customers since September. Business usually booms with the approach of the Christmas and New Year feasts, but that is not the case now.

Only customers from Maroua in northern Cameroon have been buying from the market, and the amount they pay per cattle is not up to what Nigerian buyers pay, Ngomna said. The price per cow, which ranges from $500 to $1,000 depending on size and weight, has fallen to as little as $250.

FILE – A member of a civilian vigilante group carries a bow and arrow while running on patrol with the Cameroonian military in Kerawa, Cameroon, March 16, 2016. Kerawa is on the border with Nigeria and is subject to frequent Boko Haram attacks.

Hamidou Bouba, first deputy mayor of Bogo, says the prices started dropping when Cameroon’s government ordered the closure of parts of the border with Nigeria. The move was made because Boko Haram attacks on farmers and cattle ranchers, which had fallen since January, increased in September with armed men crossing the border for supplies.

“We are suffering very badly about this situation of Boko Haram,” Bouba said. “That is the reason why all the traders cannot go to Nigeria now. We changed their direction, moving their activities to Douala or Yaounde. That is the only solution. I think that we don’t have another solution.”

Bouba says the ranchers are encouraged to transport their cattle some 70 kilometers from the affected zones to the nearest market, because even buyers from the hinterlands of Cameroon are refusing to travel to Bogo.

Cattle ranchers and farmers comprise 80 percent of the population of the border areas. Cameroon reports that more than 100,000 have relocated due to the Boko Haram insurgency; others live in abject poverty.

Louis Paul Motaze, Cameroon’s economy minister, says the government will build new markets in safer areas.

“People here are suffering a lot not only because of the war with Boko Haram, but because of poverty,” Motaze. “This is why we would like to take into consideration another battle, and this battle is the battle for development.”

The Boko Haram insurgency, which began in northeast Nigeria eight years ago, has left at least 25,000 people dead and forced more than 2.6 million others to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.

Source: VOA