News

1, August 2017

Return of Nigerian Refugees from Cameroon Should Be Voluntary ⁰

The African Union Peace and Security Council has urged Cameroon to ensure the repatriation of Nigerian refugees fleeing Boko Haram is done on a voluntary basis. Hundreds of refugees, most of them children, complain they are thirsty and hungry as they leave Cameroon on their way back to Nigeria.

They are escorted by troops from the multinational joint task force fighting the Boko Haram insurgency. Cameroon Red Cross official Joseph Guisso is among the humanitarian staff accompanying the refugees. He said the military escort is necessary because Boko Haram fighters can surprise them at any moment.

He said they have confidence in the task force and strongly believe the killings will end soon. The soldiers told VOA Boko Haram has been organizing sporadic attacks on a small scale since January. During the past two years, the regional force has retaken much of the territory Boko Haram once controlled.

The number of Nigerian refugees repatriated from Cameroon has not been made public. In March, the governments of the two countries signed a tripartite agreement with UNHCR that stipulated the repatriations must be voluntary.

In June, the U.N. refugee agency condemned what it called the Cameroonian government’s forced repatriation of 887 Nigerian refugees to the border town of Banki. The United Nations said there had been other similar incidents. Cameroon’s government has denied allegations of forced returns.

Cameroon has struggled to meet the humanitarian needs of the approximately 115,000 Nigerian refugees within its borders, as well as an estimated 200,000 Cameroonians displaced by the conflict.

Suicide attacks have picked up recently in border areas in Cameroon, with at least 30 attacks reported in June, including some targeting refugee camps. Far North region of Cameroon Governor Midjiyawa Bakari has argued it would be better for refugees to go to safer localities in their own country.

A delegation from the African Union visited the northern town of Maroua on Friday. The chairman of the African Union Peace and Security Council, Nigerian-born Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, led the delegation. He told VOA only refugees who choose to go back should be repatriated.

“We want to thank the government and people of Cameroon first for hosting these refugees and coordinating all the necessary sectors. With the United Nations agencies, we are suggesting and proposing that all the refugees should return in safety and in dignity,” said Adeoye.

Aid agencies have also expressed concern about the conditions to which refugees are returning. UNHCR and Doctors without Borders have warned food, water and other resources are dangerously overstretched in border communities in Nigeria.

Source:VOANews

31, July 2017

Yaounde: Francophone Minister signs order renaming Southern Cameroons territory ⁰

The Minister of Youth and Civic Education, Mounouna Foutsou has in a circular to the heads of various departments in his ministry renamed Southern Cameroons territory. The Francophone member of government also ordered his subordinates to attach strict observance to his instruction. The ministerial order stated that the South West and North West regions shall no longer to refer to as the Anglophone regions but simply North West and South West with the French appellation region du sud-ouest and region du nord-ouest being authentic.

Minister Foutsou’ order has been interpreted by members of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium as an insult to the people of West Cameroon. Nothing has so far come out of the Star Building following the publication of the circular at this delicate time in our country’s history.

In time, Southern Cameroons MPs and members of government including Prime Minister Philemon Yang have swallowed their pride and acceded. But for Southern Cameroonians in the struggle, denied a viable part of their identity has gone a long way to energize the sense of injustice festered over three generations and will be a major factor in the battle for secession.

Biya and his Francophone regime have offered many, sometimes contradictory, rationales for the rapes, extra judicial killings and arrests in Southern Cameroons ever since the revolution started. But this recent action by the Youth and Civil Education minister will of course have far reaching consequences.

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Concord News

31, July 2017

UK-EU freedom of movement will end in 2019 ⁰

UK government ministers have said that the free movement of people between Britain and the European Union will end in March 2019. UK Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis told the BBC that the government is “very clear” that “free movement of labor ends when we leave the European Union in the spring of 2019.”

It was a “simple matter of fact” that EU free movement rules would not apply after 2019, Lewis said. Home Secretary Amber Rudd said after March 2019, EU workers moving to Britain will have to register, at least until a permanent post-Brexit immigration policy is implemented.

Rudd said the “implementation phase” would involve new EU workers registering their details when they come to the UK.” “We will ensure we continue to attract those who benefit us economically, socially and culturally,” she added.

“But, at the same time, our new immigration system will give us control of the volume of people coming here – giving the public confidence we are applying our own rules on who we want to come to the UK and helping us to bring down net migration to sustainable levels.”

The UK is currently due to leave the EU at the end of March 2019. Immigration was one of the central topics of last year’s Brexit referendum, which resulted in 52 percent of voters voting in favor of leaving the EU.

British finance minister Philip Hammond said Friday that the Brexit transition could last until 2022 and the UK will try to keep as many aspects of its EU membership in place as possible.

UK and EU negotiators held their first full round of Brexit talks earlier this month. The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier says that both sides still have “fundamental” differences remaining.

Brexit Secretary David Davis said last week that there is a “moral imperative” to reach a quick deal on the rights of EU nationals living in Britain and UK citizens in the bloc.

Source: Presstv

29, July 2017

Far North region: 5 killed in Boko Haram blast ⁰

Five people, including four suicide bombers and one civilian, were killed on Friday morning in an attack attributed to the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram, Cameroon Concord News has learnt from security sources in Maroua, the chief city in the Far North region.

We also gathered that another suicide bombing carried out by Boko Haram occurred 24 hours after the deaths of two gendarmes in the Sagme district of Fotokol (Logone-et-Chari), near the border with Nigeria.

By Eyong Johnson
Camcordnews

28, July 2017

54 people injured in Barcelona train crash ⁰

A commuter train crashed into a buffer in Barcelona’s Francia terminus on Friday morning, injuring at least 54 people, one of them seriously, emergency services said on Friday. The force of the crash crumpled the front of the train against the buffer and detached a sheet of metal.

Twenty of the injured, including the driver, were taken to hospital, emergency services said, while paramedics treated others on stretchers on the platform. They had previously put the number of the injured at 39.

Many of the passengers were already standing, ready to get off, when the train crashed, the newspaper La Vanguardia reported.

The train was coming from the village of Sant Vicenc de Calders in the province of Tarragona on the R2 line of the Rodalies commuter rail service, emergency services said. The state-run railway company Adif said an investigation had been opened.

(Source: Reuters)

28, July 2017

US fumes over successful Iran satellite-launch rocket test ⁰

The United States is fuming over Iran’s successful test of a satellite-launch rocket, saying it appeared to be a violation of UN Security Council resolutions. “We consider that to be continued ballistic missile development,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters on Thursday. “We consider this to be provocative action.”

On Thursday, Iran launched its domestically-manufactured Simorgh carrier, whose mission is to put Iranian satellites into the orbit. According to Tasnim News Agency, the launch was carried out from the Imam Khomeini Space Center. Simorgh, named after a bird in Iranian mythology, is capable of placing a satellite weighing up to 250 kilograms in an orbit of 500 kilometers.

The State Department spokeswoman suggested that the launch could be a “violation of UN Security Council resolutions.” Simorgh rocket is launched and tested at the Imam Khomeini Space Centre, Iran, in this handout photo released by Tasnim News Agency on July 27, 2017. The United States claims that Iran’s missile tests and rocket launches violate UN Resolution 2231, which was adopted in July 2015 to endorse the nuclear agreement.

Resolution 2231 calls on Iran “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.” Tehran insists its missile tests and rocket launches do not breach any UN resolution because they are solely for defense purposes and not designed to carry nuclear warheads.

Since his inauguration on January 20, US President Donald Trump has adopted a hostile policy towards Iran. He has repeatedly vowed to cancel the nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, including the US, and his administration has imposed new sanctions on multiple Iranian individuals and entities.

Source: Presstv

27, July 2017

11 Drowned soldiers recovered from sunken BIR ship ⁰

The families of the 34 soldiers, who died recently when the “Mundemba” sank off the coast of Debunsha in the Southwest Region, are expected tomorrow Friday 28 July 2017 in Douala for a tribute ceremony organized by the government.

We understand it is going to be hard for some of the family members who will take part in the event at the air base 201 in Douala. In addition to losing loved ones, they will leave the venue without their remains. Of the 34 servicemen including civilians who perished in the BIR boat, only eleven bodies have so far been recovered.

The Minister of Defense will preside tomorrow Friday in the name of the President of the Republic, the ceremony to pay tribute to the victims of the military ship which sunk on Sunday 16 July 2017. The corpses that have been found will be handed over to the families for burial.

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Concord News

27, July 2017

Putin warns of tough Russia response to insolent US sanctions ⁰

Russian President Vladimir Putin has deplored a new round of US sanctions on his country, saying Moscow will definitively respond to the embargos if they are implemented.

“It’s impossible to endlessly tolerate this kind of insolence towards our country,” Putin said on Thursday, referring to a recent vote in the US House of Representatives, where lawmakers endorsed an anti-Russia sanctions bill.

Putin, who was speaking at a joint press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in Savonlinna, said Russia’s patience with the US was waning as Washington was continuing to impose back-to-back sanctions on Moscow.

He said Moscow would definitively respond to the new US measures, adding that the size and scale of a possible response would depend on how Washington would decide to go on with the sanctions, which should be ratified in the Senate and signed by US President Donald Trump before it becomes law.
“We are behaving in a very restrained and patient way, but at some moment we will need to respond,” Putin said, adding, “When the response will be and what it will be — that we will see.”

Russia has been under a series of US sanctions since a crisis began in Ukraine in 2014. The new measures, however, come after Russia was accused of interfering in the US presidential election last year. Moscow denies any involvement in both cases. Officials in Moscow say new US bans on Russia would harm the interests of both nations.

In his remarks, Putin said investigations into alleged collusion between Russian officials and Trump’s campaign aides in last year’s elections were a sign of “a rise in anti-Russian hysteria” in the US. He called the case all but a “battle between President Trump and his political opponents,” adding that “Russian-US relations are being sacrificed to resolve questions of domestic politics.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Putin said warmer ties between Washington and Moscow would help the two sides achieve better results in the “fight with terrorism,” adding that if the two act in agreement, they “could solve very acute problems much more effectively.”

Source: Presstv

27, July 2017

Dead sperm whale found washed up on Cameroon beach ⁰

The body of a whale estimated at 14 meters long was washed up on the beach at Yoyo I in the Littoral region of French Cameroun. The discovery though not an unusual event quickly attracted people, including young men and women always eager for photos to post on social networks.

We gathered that it was a motorcycle rider who first saw the carcass at dawn. The local population rushed to the scene to get portions of the flesh but was discouraged by officials of the Conservation of the Douala-Edea Wildlife Reserve. The flesh of the whale was declared not good for consumption.

The tide reportedly moved the impressive carcass some seven kilometers, dragging it to a place called Kombo Molaka, a fishing camp. The smell had started to inconvenient the residents of the area. Consequently, under the guardianship of conservation experts, the body of the Sperm Whale was cut up and burned.

The big sperm whale is a kind of big toothed whale whose size makes it the largest carnivore in the world. Its body is grayish and its head is parallelepipedic, representing a third of the body mass. It can weigh up to 16 tons.

By Sonne Peter with files from Cameroon Info.Net

27, July 2017

Boko Haram kills 2 gendarmes’ in Far North region attack ⁰

Two gendarmes were killed and several others injured during a Boko Haram attack in the Far North Region near the Nigerian border on Wednesday, a military official told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.

“Members of Boko Haram launched an attack at a gendarmerie station at dawn in the town of Sagme near Fotokol around the Lake Chad area and the incursion resulted in the death of two gendarmes,” Brig. Gen. Frederick Ndjokep, commander of a regional force, said

“Several other soldiers were injured during the attack,” Ndjokep added. “The heavily armed assailants fled to Nigeria via river when an army reinforcement arrived,” a military source, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, said.

This is the second attack at a military post in the Far North Region since Monday. Last Monday, Boko Haram attacked a military station of the Multinational Joint Task Force that left a soldier dead, according to the military.

The latest attack comes as 10 Cameroonian regional governors gathered in the capital Yaounde to find solutions to the fight against terrorism that has hit the country’s economy hard. Last month, the Ministry of Defense announced the recruitment of more than 7,000 gendarmes and military personnel as part of the fight against Boko Haram.

Around 26 million people in the Lake Chad region have been affected by Boko Haram violence and more than 2.6 million displaced, according to the UN. Cameroon is part of a regional task force that aims to eradicate the militant group that has so far killed more than 2,000 people in the country, according to government officials.

Source: AA.com