Cameroon must urgently rethink a policy of “murderous repression” in its restive English-speaking regions or risk the crisis spiralling into an armed uprising, the International Crisis Group (ICG) warned Thursday. In a report on the political crisis in the west African nation, the NGO said the government’s crackdown on the anglophone minority had failed and had only served to fuel a clamour for independence.

French-speaking Cameroon has a large anglophone minority which comprises around a fifth of its population of 22 million. Gathered mainly in two regions, many English-speakers say the suffer inequality and discrimination.

Simmering resentment has fuelled a breakaway movement that on October 1 issued a symbolic declaration of independence for the putative state of Ambazonia, prompting a crackdown by a government firmly opposed to secession.

In the face of mounting protests in the runup to the declaration, the security forces “responded with disproportionate force, leading to at least 40 deaths and over 100 injured protesters between September 28 and 2 October,” the ICG said.

It pointed to the use of live rounds and excessive use of teargas. “Due to such murderous repression, secessionist ranks are growing by the day, and some are more firmly evoking the idea of an armed struggle or ‘self defence’,” it said.

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, 84, must act swiftly to find a serious political solution to the crisis, and it was also crucial that the international community speak out firmly against such state violence, the ICG said.

“If he hopes to avoid an armed uprising in Anglophone regions, which would without doubt have an impact in the Francophone zone, the Cameroonian president must go beyond superficial measures and take responsibility in order to find political solutions to the crisis.”

The report was published three days after Prime Minister Philemon Yang began a visit to the Northwest Region, one of the two troubled anglophone areas, as part of what he termed a “dialogue” with the English-speaking minority.

Yang travelled to Bamenda, the main regional town, where he met the heads of trade unions in the transport, education and shopping sectors, as well as with bankers and other business figures, Cameroon Radio Television (CrTV) said.

He delivered “a message of peace and living in harmony” while those who met him put forward proposals “for a definitive way out of the crisis,” it said, without giving further details.

Source: The Guardian

US President Donald Trump has made insensitive remarks to the pregnant widow of a soldier killed in an ambush in North Africa on October 4.

Trump, in a phone call, told the widow of Army Sgt. La David Johnson, one of the four US Special Operations soldiers killed in Niger, that her husband “knew what he signed up for… but when it happens it hurts anyway.”

On Tuesday, Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson told multiple news outlets that she overheard Trump making such remarks while she was in the car with the “distraught” woman to meet the body in Miami when the president called her.

“They were astonished,” Wilson said of their reaction. “It was almost like saying, ‘You signed up to do this, and if you didn’t want to die, shouldn’t have signed up’.” She said that Myeshia’s only words during the five-minute conversation were “thank you” at the end of their talk.

Wilson said she tried to talk to Trump and “curse him out,” but the family refused to give her the phone. Myeshia, who has already two young children, is also six months pregnant with a third child.

A White House official later reacted by saying that Trump’s “conversations with the families of American heroes were private.”

Trump called the families of the fallen soldiers nearly two weeks after the incident. The US Department of Defense is still conducting a review into the ambush, the details of the mission, however, remain unclear and there is no final results yet.

Source: Presstv

US President Donald Trump has finally offered condolence to the families of four special operations soldiers recently ambushed to death in uranium-rich Niger, where the United States is not formally at war.

“President Trump spoke to all four of the families of those who were killed in action in Niger,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement on Tuesday.

The US president has been under fire over remaining silent after the incident for around 12 days.

“He offered condolences on behalf of a grateful nation and assured them their family’s extraordinary sacrifice to the country will never be forgotten,” she said.

Two other Green Berets were also injured on the October 4 ambush near the Nigerien capital Niamey by militants said to be linked with the Daesh Takfiri group in Iraq and Syria.

The American troops were supposedly on an advisory and training mission in the African country, along with 40 Nigerien troops, when the attack was launched.

Trump finally spoke about them on Monday, while taking the chance to attack former President Barack Obama.

“So the traditional way, if you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them, didn’t make calls, a lot of them didn’t make calls. I like to call when it’s appropriate, when I think I’m able to do it,” he said.

He further complained about how “tough” it is to call the families of the fallen soldiers.

“The toughest calls I have to make are the calls where this happens — soldiers are killed,” Trump said. “It’s a very difficult thing. Now it gets to a point where you make four or five of them in one day, it’s a very, very tough day. For me that’s by far the toughest.”

As the Monday presser continued, Trump was pressed on his claims, making him to back down a bit.

“I don’t know if he did. I was told that he didn’t often, and a lot of presidents don’t, they write letters. I do a combination of both,” said the US president. “President Obama, I think probably did [call] sometimes and maybe sometimes he didn’t, I don’t know, that’s what I was told… all I can do is ask my generals.”

Later on that day, the White House press secretary appeared to do some crisis management.

“The president wasn’t criticizing predecessors, but stating a fact… When Americans make the ultimate sacrifice, presidents pay their respects. Sometimes they call, sometimes they sent a letter, other times they have the opportunity to meet family members in person,” Sanders said. “This president, like his predecessors, has done each of these. Individuals claiming former presidents, such as their bosses, called each family of the fallen, are mistaken.”

Source: Presstv

Amid the killings by French Cameroun troops deployed to Southern Cameroons by the 85 year old dictator, President Paul Biya, Inner City Press on October 17 asked the UK ambassador to the UN when his country will call a UN Security Council meeting about the crisis. He replied that any Council member can.

Later on October 17, after Inner City Press put Cameroon question to Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman and interviewed Abu Fri of Southern Cameroons in front of the UN, it exclusively obtained and published a letter from 24 US Congressmembers including Republican Daniel Donovan (R-NY) to US Ambassador Nikki Haley, to convene a Security Council meeting.

Just after the interview, Abu Fri made a similar but shorter pitch to Haley’s deputy Michele Sison, on First Avenue; to get back into the UN and file this story, Inner City Press due to UN targeting and censorship had a long wait with tourists at the metal detector). Inner City Press had on October 11 interviewed the Biya regime’s ambassador to the UN, Tommo Monthe.

Culled from Inner City Press

Ireland was being hit by an “unprecedented storm” on Monday that left 100,000 homes and businesses without power and every school in the country shut as authorities warned that lives could be in danger.

Ophelia, the largest hurricane ever recorded so far east in the Atlantic Ocean and the furthest north since 1939, was downgraded to a storm before it hit the Irish coast but nonetheless posed enough of a threat for the Met Eireann national weather service to issue a red alert.

“Ex-hurricane Ophelia is forecast to track directly over Ireland,” the service said.

“Violent and destructive gusts are forecast with all areas at risk.”

It warned that “heavy rain and storm surges along some coasts will result in flooding. There is a danger to life and property”.

Wind speeds hit 176 kilometers (109 miles) per hour at Fastnet Rock, Ireland’s most southerly point, while the fastest speeds recorded onshore were 156 kph (97 mph) at the entrance to Cork Harbour in the southwest.

Dublin Airport scrapped around 130 flights; Cork Airport cancelled most flights in what it said was the worst storm seen in its 56-year history, while several services to and from Shannon, the third-biggest airport, were also grounded.

Speed restrictions were placed on trains, and some lines in the south were cancelled.

‘PM says stay indoors’

“Stay indoors wherever you are until the storm has passed. Check on your neighbors and elderly relatives,” Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told reporters.

“It is coming your way and this is a national red alert.

“Even after the storm has passed there will still be dangers. There will be trees on the ground and power lines down.”

The education ministry said “all schools, colleges and other education institutions” were closed on Monday, after official advice on the “unprecedented storm”.

Government offices were also closed across the country.

The military has been deployed to areas forecast to be worst affected and are on standby.

The eye of the storm is forecast to track across Northern Ireland and then Scotland.

Though it will weaken as it goes, gusts are expected to reach 80 mph (129 kph) in the UK.

Britain’s Met Office issued amber warnings for Northern Ireland, Wales, and southern Scotland.

“There is a good chance that power cuts may occur, with the potential to affect other services, such as mobile phone coverage,” the UK national weather service said, warning of transport disruption.

“Flying debris is likely, such as tiles blown from roofs, as well as large waves around coastal districts with beach material being thrown onto coastal roads, sea fronts and properties.

“This leads to the potential for injuries and danger to life.”

The storm came 30 years to the day of the Great Storm, which ravaged southern England in the early hours of October 16, 1987, leaving 18 people dead.

‘Hurricane season’

Ophelia is the 15th named storm of the 2017 Atlantic season, which is expected to last until the end of November.

Three major hurricanes — Harvey, Irma and Maria — caused catastrophic damage in the Caribbean and the US Gulf Coast.

Meteorologists say Ophelia was the most powerful hurricane recorded so far east in the Atlantic and the first since 1939 to travel so far north.

It was classed Category 3 on Saturday as it passed near Portugal’s Azores islands, which means it packed winds of at least 178 kilometers (110 miles) per hour.

Seven of the nine islands in the Azores were put on high alert for the storm’s passage, but it did not cause major damage, authorities told reporters.

In Spain, three people have died in wildfires whipped by strong wind gusts spawned by Hurricane Ophelia.

Six people have also died in wildfires in Portugal, which local authorities said had been exacerbated by drought.

(Source: AFP)