News

10, April 2017

Battle for Southern Cameroons: Former news caster takes on Barrister Akere Muna ¹

AKERE MUNA: STOP EQUIVOCATING.

Lawyer Akere Muna, Please stop using ambiguous language to conceal or avoid committing yourself regarding the legal grounds for the independence of the Southern Cameroons.

You have a right, as a loyal son of Solomon Tandeng Muna, to defend your father’s enduring and endearing political legacy,even though, to his credit, he renounced the legacy of unification before his demise, by joining the 1995, 9 Man delegation to petition the United Nations on the independence of the Southern Cameroons.

We are aware of the retainer agreements you have signed with the Biya regime and the exceptional pecuniary benefits you have derived from your professional relationship with this potentate.

But you have the option of dissociating your professional relationship as a lawyer, with the responsibility to defend any client, from your political conviction to defend a bloodthirsty dictatorship from which your family has benefited.

There is testimonial evidence that apart from defending the Biya dictatorship in law suits, you have proposed your sister for a ministerial position, when you declined the offer to join the Biya government.

Akere, this is my question, why would the Biya dictatorship arrest Justice Paul Ayah Abine and not you?

What is your legal explanation for this apparent aberration, or is this politics as usual in French Cameroon where the Munas are stakeholders for this unconscionable annexation, that has been legally disguised as a federation?

Please, Southern Cameroonians need answers, because the battle lines are being drawn and we want to make sure no one is caught in the crossfire.

Thanks.

Larry Eyong-Echaw

10, April 2017

Britons, Germans and French may also be denied entry to US ⁰

As US President Donald Trump is mulling a tougher border action, reports say that his new “extreme vetting” policy could make agents ask Britons, Germans and the French entering the country to hand in passwords for their digital devices and social media pages or risk being denied entry. The policy under consideration in the White House can require the tourists to reveal personal data, disclose financial information or even face lengthy and detailed ideological questioning ahead of entering.

“All international travellers arriving to the US are subject to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) inspection. This inspection may include electronic devices such as computers, disks, drives, tapes, mobile phones and other communication devices, cameras, music and other media players and any other electronic or digital devices,” the US Border Patrol and Protection told The Guardian on Sunday.

“Keeping America safe and enforcing our nation’s laws in an increasingly digital world depends on our ability to lawfully examine all materials entering the US,” it added. The UK Foreign Office, meanwhile, declined to comment or provide advice for the tourists. The soc-called “extreme vetting” of foreign nationals is part of the new president’s measures to fight terrorism.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an American NGO campaigning for digital civil rights, also acknowledged that the tourists could truly be deported by an agent if they refuse to cooperate in this regard.

“Border agents cannot deny a US citizen admission to the country. However, if a foreign visitor declines, an agent may deny them entry,” it said. “If a foreign visitor refuses a border agent’s demand to unlock their digital device, provide the device password, or provide social media information, and the agent responds by denying entry, the foreign visitor may have little legal recourse.” Trump’s executive order to ban travelers from some Muslim-majority countries has so far been blocked in courts twice.

Presstv

9, April 2017

Bribery and Corruption: Bar Association President announces end to Common Law Lawyers strike ²

The so-called Bar Association President and a gang of lawyers have reportedly announced that the strike action called by the Common Law Lawyers and endorsed by the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has been called off by the Batonier. The Bar Association President made public a press release from Douala informing the nation that the Common Law Lawyers are now willing to work with the Biya Francophone regime after the Yaounde authorities outlined a series of fake measures to stifle the Southern Cameroons revolution.

Below is the communiqué endorsed by Barrister Jackson NGNIE KAMGA

PRESS RELEASE OF THE BAR ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT

Following the extraordinary Bar Council meetings held respectively in Buea and Bamenda on the Saturdays 18th and 25th March 2017, which meetings were immediately followed by working sessions between lawyers of the two Anglophone regions and the Bar Council,

It was recommended that a unique framework comprising of very senior advocates from the North West and South West regions be set up to reflect on the way forward.

By The Bar President Decision No N° 038/BOABC/ADM/03/17 of 31st of March 2017, a conclave of senior advocates of the North West and South West regions to which some junior colleagues were integrated to elaborate the modalities of the way forward, was set up with the missions of making proposals on the way forward.

The conclave met in Bamenda on the 1st of April 2017 and in Buea on the 8th of April 2017.

Mindful of Government’s response to the demands of the Anglophone lawyers as announced by the Minister of State in charge of Justice ,during his press conference of the 30th of March 2017 , and the creation by the Minister of Public Services of an adhoc committee in charge of organizing the special recruitment of Common Law magistrates and judicial officers,

The conclave unanimously came up with the following recommendations:

1- That the President of the Bar Association is hereby authorized to enter into dialogue with the Government on matters bearing on the Common Law Lawyers.

2- That Advocates of the South West and North West regions shall resume work on the 2nd may 2017, for the resolutions of the ad hoc committee submitted to the Prime Minister and approved by the Head of States to be fully implemented

3- That this conclave shall be convened on the 30th July 2017 to evaluate progress made on the implementation of these resolutions.

On behalf of the Bar Council, the Batonnier sincerely thanks his colleagues of these two regions for this renewed confidence bestowed on the ruling organs of the Bar Association.

He especially thanks the members of the conclave who made enormous sacrifices and walked the extra mile to ensure the normalization of our activities.

He is mindful of all their recommendations, and announces that the lawyers in the North West and South West regions will resume work on the 2nd of May 2017.

He pledges to continue negotiations with the Government in order to satisfy the demands of the common law lawyers as well as the release of our two colleagues currently under detention in Yaoundé.

In the days ahead, the Batonnier, with a delegation of Bar Council members will travel to Buea and Bamenda to meet the heads of these jurisdictions in order to discuss and define concrete modalities for the resumption of work.

The Batonnier stresses that the return to normal is the fruit of dialogue between the Government and the Bar Association, dialogue which should be perpetuated and reinforced in a determined and responsible manner

Done in Douala this 9th April 2017

The Bar President

Jackson NGNIE KAMGA esq.

9, April 2017

Wilfred Tassang says exploitation of Southern Cameroon’s people and its resources is game over for the Francophone political elites ⁰

Tomorrow Monday the 10^th of April 2017, ghost town will be staged throughout Southern Cameroons as earlier decreed by the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. Southern Cameroonians will chained themselves at home and will denounce the Francophone administrative machinery used to marginalize West Cameroonians. It is part of the recent series of civil disobedience campaign designed by the detained leaders of the Consortium.

Attention will be focus on the Buea and Limbe districts of Southern Cameroons which runs from the foot of Mount Fako via Limbe to Tiko under additional review by the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. The Consortium will likely direct its operations to stifle the Francophone regime’s diabolic ploy in the Fako constituency.

The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium is the body behind the ghost town operations whose goal is to sabotage, interrupt, and stop the complete dominance of Southern Cameroonians by the French Cameroun political elites. Tomorrow’s ghost town protest is a continuation of the civil disobedience by Cameroon Anglophone Common Lawyers, Anglophone teachers and young people in Southern Cameroons.

The Biya Francophone regime has not commented on the ghost town operation, although its Francophone cabinet ministers have been announcing a series of fake measures aimed at deceiving English speaking Cameroonians to remain in the failed union.

Since 2016, hundreds of Southern Cameroonian citizens have been arrested in Buea, Kumba, Kumbo, Jakiri, Mamfe and Bamenda. And the Secretary General of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, Wilfred Tassang has warned that exploitation of Southern Cameroon’s people and its resources is game over for the Francophone political elites.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

9, April 2017

Suicide bomber attack in Maroua kills 1, injures 5 ⁰

A suicide bomber attack blamed on the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram on Saturday killed one person and left five people seriously injured in the locality of Kolofata located in the Mayo-Sava Division in the Far North region.

Cameroon Concord News gathered from a well-placed security source that only the kamikaze, a young man of about 15 years, was killed in the explosion. The wounded were rushed over to the military hospital in Kolofata.

This is the second suicide bombing that occurred in Mayo-Sava since the beginning of April. In the early morning of April 3, two women kamikazes were killed at the entrance of Mora behind the technical high school.

By Eyong Johnson

9, April 2017

Egypt: Blast hits area near church ⁰

At least 21 people have been killed and more than 50 others injured in an explosion that hit an area near a church in the northern Egyptian city of Tanta, sources say. State television confirmed the explosion on Sunday but the cause of the blast is yet unknown. Provincial governor Ahmad Deif told state television that the explosion occurred inside the church. “Either a bomb was planted or someone blew himself up,” Deif said.

The sources added that there was a second blast near the city’s police academy. Egypt has been facing violence due to terrorist attacks across the country in the past years. The Takfiri Velayat Sinai terrorist group has claimed responsibility for most of the attacks. The group, previously known as Ansar Bait al-Maqdis, was founded in 2011, and in mid-2013, it began a campaign of deadly attacks against Egyptian security forces.

Militants have been taking advantage of the turmoil caused in Egypt after the country’s democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, was ousted by the military in July 2013. Velayat Sinai has killed hundreds of soldiers and police officers, particularly in the Sinai Peninsula, since then. In November 2014, it pledged allegiance to the Daesh terrorist group, which is mainly active in Syria and Iraq, and renamed itself again as Daesh-Velayat Sinai Province.

Presstv

8, April 2017

Russia deploys missile-armed ship to Syria after US attack ⁰

Russia has reportedly sent a missile-armed frigate to its naval base in Syria’s Mediterranean coastal city of Tartus following a recent US missile strike against an airbase in the Arab country. An informed military-diplomatic source in Moscow told Russia’s TASS news agency on Friday that the Admiral Grigorovich, a Russian Black Sea Fleet’s frigate, was due to arrive in the Mediterranean later on the day.

“The Russian ship armed with cruise missiles Kalibr will visit the logistics base in Tartus,” the source said. The 4,000-ton warship’s presence off Syria’s coast would depend on the situation, but “in any way it will last more than a month,” the source added.

The Russian ship was deployed to Syria after taking part in a joint exercise with Turkish ships in the Black Sea. Early on Friday, US warships in the eastern Mediterranean launched a barrage of 59 Tomahawk missiles against Shayrat Airfield in Syria’s Homs Province, which Washington alleged was the origin of a suspected chemical attack on the town of Khan Shaykhun in Syria’s Idlib Province earlier this month.

Washington has not provided any evidence to support the accusations, prompting criticisms from many countries and international intuitions for choosing to take unilateral military action hastily and without proof. The strike drew the praise from anti-Damascus militant groups as well as the parties long viewed as their staunch supporters, including Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey and their Western allies.

Syria has categorically denied carrying out the purported gas attack, with Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem stressing that the Idlib airstrike had targeted a depot, where terrorists stored chemical weapons.

Presstv

8, April 2017

Southern Cameroons: Leaders to be tried together with 25 other suspects ¹

The Yaoundé military court has ordered a combination of proceedings in the so-called trial of the leaders’ of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium. The case of Dr Fontem Neba, Dr. Agbor Bala and Bbc Mancho- whose trial opened on the 13^th of February at the Yaounde military court was attached to that of the other 25 accused and deferred to the 27^th of April.

The 28 defendants are prosecuted for acts of terrorism, hostility against the fatherland, secession, revolution, insurrection, outrage to the President of the Republic, outrage against constituted bodies and officials, group rebellion, civil war and propagation of false news.

The Francophone regime has revealed that the leaders risk the death penalty if they are convicted of acts of terrorism in accordance with article 2 of Law No. 2014/028 of 23 December 2014 on the punishment of acts of terrorism.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

7, April 2017

Issa Tchiroma issues statement on US truck controversy ⁰

The Minister of Communication, Issa Tchiroma Bakary has issued a press release to clarify public on the issue concerning trucks hired by the government of the United States that were transiting from Chad to Cameroon.

The press release indicated that the trucks that were travelling from Ndjamena in Chad to Garoua in Cameroon were detained in the town for Kousseri by the Cameroonian customs agency assisted by the security forces for a routine security check. The check, he indicated is in accordance with sovereignty and security regulations enforce.

The press release further states that after the check, no weapons or ammunition were found in the containers. The truck load contained bathing items, toilet towels, foot needs, electrical cables and air conditions equipment. The Minister in the release saluted the valuable support Cameroon has been benefiting from the US government in the fight against the Boko Haram terrorist group.

CRTV

7, April 2017

Nigeria: Boko Haram militants attack, burn down military base ⁰

The Boko Haram terrorist group has attacked and set a military base in northeastern Nigeria on fire, raising fears of a reemergence of the Daesh-linked outfit. Armed men from a Boko Haram faction on Thursday staged an attack on the military base in the Wajirko Village, 150 kilometers from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.

“The gunmen arrived in pickups and engaged soldiers in the base just outside the village in a heavy shootout,” a local resident Bukar Maduye told media. “The soldiers were outgunned and forced to withdraw from the base and allowed the gunmen, who were from Mamman Nur faction, to take over the base, which they looted and set on fire,” he said.

A member of a vigilante group, which is assisting the military in its battle against Boko Haram terrorists, confirmed the incident, adding that the soldiers at the base had moved to another military base 40 kilometers away. “There were no reports of casualties from either side but the base was completely burnt by the Boko Haram terrorists and the soldiers fled,” said Mustapha Karimbe. On Wednesday, Boko Haram militants attacked Abbati, a farming community outside Maiduguri, where they killed seven men and stole 360 heads of livestock.

In recent weeks, the Takfiri militants have intensified their attacks in areas near Lake Chad, stealing food from residents after raiding their farms. They have also killed several civilians they accused of cooperating with the military.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power in 2015 with a pledge to eradicate Boko Haram, claims to have prevailed over Boko Haram’s militancy; however, frequent deadly attacks in the West African country indicate otherwise. In its fight against Boko Haram, the Nigerian military is being assisted by troops from neighboring countries such as Chad and Cameroon.

Presstv