News

8, December 2016

1,750 Takfiri terrorists may have returned to Europe ⁰

An EU report warns that a third of the estimated 5,000 European nationals who traveled to Iraq and Syria to join Takfiri terrorists have returned home, probably with a mission to launch attacks. The report, to be presented to EU interior ministers on Friday by the bloc’s counter-terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove, said as many as 1,750 Takfiri terrorists may have returned home. Fifty-percent of the terrorists remain in the battle theater, which amounted to between 2,000 and 2,500 Europeans, while between 15 to 20 percent of those who joined the terrorists have died, the report added.

There were two types of “foreign terrorist fighters” returning, the report said, identifying them as “those in the majority that will drift back, and those who will be sent back on specific missions, which are of most concern.” Even some European women and children born or raised in areas under the control of Daesh could present a security threat as they may have been influenced by the group’s Takfiri ideology, it added.

Some returnees have been convicted and serving prison sentences, while some others are being carefully monitored and some are free in their communities, the report said without giving any figures. Last month, Belgium warned that Takfiri terrorists were increasingly returning to Europe. Daesh claimed responsibility for March 22 Brussels attacks which killed 32 people. The attackers were linked to November 2015 attacks in Paris, which killed some 130 people.

According to the new report, “there is also a significant foreign terrorist fighter contingent with Daesh in Libya which might attempt to use their nationality or family connections to return to Europe.” It said the European Takfiris remain in touch with Daesh via social media networks, and are greatly migrating from the from mainstream Twitter social networking service to Telegram end-to-end-encrypted messaging service.

Presstv

8, December 2016

Yaounde under pressure to investigate police inhuman treatment on Anglophones ⁰

As pressure keeps mounting on the Biya regime over police and army brutality on innocent British Southern Cameroon citizens, the two security departments have asserted recently that by resorting to force as a last resort, they were obeying the orders of their leaders. The predominantly Francophone dominated military and police force were caught on camera inflicting inhuman treatment on Anglophone students and lawyers.

The international communities have been fed with videos circulated on social networks featuring law enforcement elements brutalizing students and lawyers from the Anglophone section of the country. The United States government reacted by calling on the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime to provide protection to its citizens. Yaoundé responded through Issa Tchiroma, Minister of Communication by making a mockery of the Anglophone people observing that public authorities are required to ensure the maintenance of order and security.

Faced with national and Western pressures due to the often bloody repression, the CPDM leadership has reportedly announced sanctions against some elements responsible for the wronged abuses. Last Friday at the national assembly, Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo said that investigations are under way and that the guilty parties will be punished. “There will be disciplinary and criminal penalties against those responsible. On the civil plane there was a violation of human rights and on the military level there was a violation of instructions, “declared a senior official at the ministry of defense.

Confronted with this intractable situation, the elements of the forces of order in question have hardened their tone. A spokesman for the police department was quoted as saying that “Each unit has a leader. The elements positioned on the ground acted according to what their head of unit asked them to do. So there is no need to say today that we will punish the elements.”

By Rita Akana

8, December 2016

The Anglophone Problem – When Facts don’t Lie ¹²

A preacher once told his congregation: “Next week, I plan to preach about the sin of lying. To help you understand my sermon, I want you all to read Mark 17.” The following Sunday as he prepared to deliver his sermon, the pastor asked for a show of hands. He wanted to know how many had read Mark 17. Every hand went up. The preacher smiled and said: “Mark has only 16 chapters. I will now proceed with my sermon on the sin of lying.” This joke says a lot about human nature, but shows how Francophones are often caught committing the sin of lying about the Anglophone problem. Francophones are wont to wish into reality what is not there, and to deny the truth when it suits them. Lying is a sin that was committed by five Francophone Ministers who told the world at a press conference that there is no Anglophone problem in Cameroon. The integrity deficit associated with lying about the Anglophone problem is a travesty that insults and diminishes every Cameroonian and must stop.

The point must therefore be made, and with emphasis, that there is an Anglophone problem but the problem is deeply embedded in the asymmetrical political structure of the country, which has led to institutional paralysis engendered by leadership failure. Anglophones are divided over the Anglophone problem, just as Francophones are united in their bellicosity and belligerence towards Anglophones whom they cast as treasonable felons and secessionists who cannot be trusted. Francophones have used this self-fulfilling fallacy as an excuse to exclude Anglophones from the commanding heights of decision-making and treat them as second class citizens. But facts don’t lie like the lying laity of Mark 17.

Consider this: over 55 years after independence and re-unification, there has never been an Anglophone President or an Anglophone Secretary General or Director of Civil Cabinet at the Presidency. Nor has an Anglophone ever held the strategic ministerial portfolio of Defense, Finance, Territorial Administration, Communication, External Relations, National Education or even in charge of the Police, Gendarmerie, the Army and Intelligence services; not even ambassadors to English-speaking countries like the USA and Nigeria. For a region that represents about 20% of the population, accounting for over 60% of GDP, the fact that the lone oil refinery named in French (SONARA) is in Anglophone Cameroon, yet has been run by Francophone general managers with a predominantly Francophone workforce since its creation is unacceptable. It just cannot be that there are no competent Anglophones to occupy these positions.

As if that was not enough, higher institutions like the National Polytechnic, ENAM, IRIC, ESSTIC, INJS, IFORD, CUSS, Public Works, ENSPT, IRAD, are heavily laden with French courses; another way of saying, Anglophones need not apply. Although Cameroon is officially a bilingual country where both English and French are equal, when has the president ever made an official address to the nation in English? All official correspondences are in French, even when directed to Anglophones. French is the language used in the administration, police, gendarmerie, army and the courts. Anglophones have to seek translators at their own expense. All road signs are in French and there is not a single word in English on the FCFA currency in circulation; is this constitutional?

The facts and figures of Anglophone marginalization under President Biya are staggering. Of the 700 ministers appointed since Biya took office in 1982, only 76 (10.8%) have been Anglophones. In the current 63-member cabinet, there are only six Anglophones (9%) and only, Philip Ngole Ngwese (2%) out of the 38 Ministers has a cabinet portfolio. There are four Anglophone Secretary Generals (10%) and three Anglophone DAGs (7%) in the central administration. In state corporations, there are less than 15 Anglophones (11%) out of over 130 general managers. Of the over 130 Board chairmen of state corporations, there are only 10 Anglophones (7%). Of the 58 SDOs in the country, there six Anglophones (10%) and only three of the nation’s 33 generals in the Armed Forces are Anglophones.

The picture in the judiciary is even more pathetic and scandalous with Francophones occupying all key positions in the Supreme Court – President of the Supreme Court; Attorney General; Head of Judicial Division; Head of Administrative Division; Head of audit Division; Head of Special Criminal Court; Special Attorney Special Criminal Court; Director of Military Justice; Registrar-In-Chief Supreme Court and Secretary General Supreme Court. 58 (39%) of the 148 magistrates in the Southwest are Francophones while 54 (61%) of the 89 magistrates in the legal department in the Southwest are Francophones. Of the 50 magistrates working in Buea (Bench & Legal Department), 20 (40%) are Francophones while 20 (71%) of the 28 magistrates in the legal department in Buea are Francophones. Of the 30 new bailiffs that were appointed in January 2014 in the Southwest, 28 of them (93%) are Francophones.

The situation in the Northwest region is even worse. Of the 128 magistrates in the Northwest, there are 67 Francophones (52 %). Of the 97 magistrates of the legal departments, 64 of them are Francophones, (65.9%); 22 (48.9%) of the 45 magistrates in Bamenda are Francophones. There are 27 magistrates in the legal department in Bamenda of which 21, (77.8%) are Francophones. All the 21 new bailiffs (100%) appointed in January 2014 to the Northwest are Francophones. Comparatively, of the 119 magistrates in Douala, only two (1.7%) are Anglophones. Likewise, only two (1.9%) of the 107 magistrates in Yaoundé are Anglophones. These are very disturbing statistics in a bilingual country with two legal systems!

There is no reference hospital and no functional airport or seaport in Anglophone Cameroon. It is worth recalling that preliminary studies by the consortium charged with the construction of the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline had established that the project will be cost-effective if the pipeline was built from Doba in Southern Chad to Limbe, which has a natural deep seaport. According to documents from the World Bank and the Washington-based Environmental Defence Fund, the then Secretary General at the Presidency, Joseph Owona re-routed the project to his native Kribi; taking the pipeline through ecologically sensitive areas and increasing the distance by 90 miles and the cost by $2 billion. Owona warned the investors that Limbe was risky because Anglophones might one day agitate for secession and the pipeline will be exposed to sabotage and vandalism.

To add insult to injury, the government has made it a point to assign Francophones who neither speak nor understand English to Anglophone regions. A Francophone DO in Oku, Kamdem Andre once called a meeting with traditional rulers and started speaking in French. Not understanding what he was saying, the Fons started dozing. Feeling snubbed, the angry DO ordered his bodyguards to wake-up the Fons with a slap each and the meeting ended in chaos. DO Kamdem is not an isolated case. Francophones disrespect Anglophones in positions of authority, even the prime minister, head of government. Francophone ministers either ignore cabinet meetings called by the PM or come late, in breach of standard protocol. When then prime minister, Achidi Achu appointed Raymond Gwanyalla as Director of Customs, the then Finance Minister; a Francophone openly challenged the PM in a flagrant display of insubordination. The Minister not only refused to preside at Gwanyalla’s installation, but ordered a boycott of the event which was heeded by all Francophone Directors in the Ministry of Finance. Surely, nothing like this happens in any country worthy of respect.

As Prime Minister, Peter Mafany Musonge was humiliated by the paymaster general in Yaoundé. Musonge was dealing with a crisis after a timber truck derailed killing dozens, mostly roadside hawkers in the hotbed of Mutengene. Anger was boiling on the streets when President Biya ordered that FCFA 200 million be given to the PM to go help the victims and deceased families. A voucher was established to this effect; with the “visa” of the Finance Minister and the PM’s office and sent to the Yaoundé central treasury, but then paymaster general, Etogo Mbezele refused to pay, ostensibly because the director of the treasury had not “visa” the voucher. The treasury director was vacationing in France and traveled abroad with his “visa.” Informed of Mbezele’s decision, an exasperated Musonge could not help but exclaim in anger and frustration: “Oh these Frogs!” It must be stated in no ambiguous terms that Musonge spoke from the heart. His spontaneous outburst speaks to a deep-seated Anglophone frustration with an erratic system of government, with its consequent value misplacement, the like of which should never be countenanced in any civilized nation.

There are countless instances where Francophones are appointed to boss better educated and qualified Anglophones. It is a tragedy that after fifty-five years of independence and re-unification, we are still talking of Anglophones and Francophones, but that is the sad reality of Cameroon. Anglophones have been treated shabbily; they are asking whether they made the right choice in 1961, since only they were asked if they wanted reunification with Francophones. Despite that fact that East Cameroun was deeply embroiled in a bloody insurgency and terrorism, Anglophones closed their eyes and voted with their hearts. Fifty-five years after that vote, all Anglophones are asking is to be given the opportunity to manage their own affairs but they are being called secessionists and enemies from within, Biafrans, and even asked to go back to Nigeria.

This in itself is demeaning and outlandish. Our strength as a nation lies in our diversity. The bridge towards our future will be built on lessons from the past; hence the government must refrain from assuming that anyone calling for restructuring of the present structure wants to breakup the country. It is not Anglophones who threaten national unity; rather, it is the politics of exclusion and marginalization of Anglophones that poses a threat to peace and stability. Those who see Anglophones as a conquered people should look at these unsettling statistics and learn the right lessons because the mood is very scary but the looming crisis is still avoidable.

By Valerian Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai

7, December 2016

Bashar al-Assad says victory in Aleppo “a huge step” in ending the war in Syria ⁰

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says victory in the battle for the city of Aleppo will be “a huge step” in bringing the war in Syria to an end. Assad said the full liberation of Aleppo in northwestern Syria would deal a huge blow to the regional and international supporters of militant groups, al-Mayadeen television station said, citing an interview with al-Watan newspaper expected to be published on Thursday.

“It’s true that Aleppo will be a win for us, but let’s be realistic, it won’t mean the end of the war in Syria,” Assad said. “But it will be a huge step towards this end.” The Syrian president said in response to a question about the possibility of a ceasefire in Aleppo that such a possibility was “practically non-existent, of course.” “The Americans in particular are insisting on demanding a truce, because their terrorist agents are now in a difficult situation,” Assad said.

Washington would have no more trump cards to show if Aleppo is liberated, the Syrian president stated. Assad said Aleppo was the “last hope” of militants and their supporters, “after their failure in the battles of Damascus and Homs.” The Syrian president said the militants’ defeat in Aleppo would fully change the course of battle in Syria. “The decision to liberate all of Syria is taken and Aleppo is part of it,” al-Mayadeen quoted the president as saying. Assad also stated that Turkey had done its best to protect the militant stronghold in Aleppo, but it has failed.

The Syrian government has been making advances in militant-held areas in eastern Aleppo, with recent reports saying that the military and its allies have managed to retake two-thirds of the territory that used to be under the control of the militants. The conflict in Syria, which flared up in March 2011, has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people, according to an estimate by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.

Presstv

7, December 2016

Governor Otto Joseph Wilson begins final journey ⁰

The Governors of the other nine Regions of Cameroon are already in Yaoundé to pay a final tribute to their colleague of the Center, Otto Wilson Joseph, who died on 24 October 2016 in a hospital in France.

According to a program made public this Wednesday on national radio and television (CRTV), the plane having on board the remains of Otto Wilson Joseph will land on Thursday night in Yaoundé. Once in his Command Region, Otto Wilson will be granted military honors and a vigil.

On Friday, the remains will leave Yaoundé for a final trip to the Isangele district in the Bakassi Peninsula in the Southwest Region. At Isangele, Otto Wilson Joseph will be accorded one last vigil in the presence of his colleagues and some members of the Biya government. On Saturday, December the 10th, the earth will close on him.

Otto Joseph Wilson, who headed the Central Region since the 4^th of June 2014, died on the 24^th of October 2016 following a protracted illness after a medical evacuation at the American hospital in Paris, France on 8 October 2016.

Anang Jude with cables from CIN

7, December 2016

Egypt dismantles a vast network trafficking human organs ⁰

The Egyptian authorities have announced the dismantling of a vast network specialized in the trafficking of human organs. According to the administrative control authority, twenty-five people were arrested in possession of “millions of dollars and gold bullion after an investigation carried out in 10 hospitals.

Among the suspects arrested were doctors, nurses, intermediaries and buyers, the ministry said, referring to the largest case of organ trafficking ever seen in Egypt. The network is made up of Egyptians and nationals from other Arab countries who take advantage of the economic situation of citizens to be able to buy their organs and sell them for a large sum of money.

According to the United Nations, hundreds of poor Egyptians sell their organs every year to buy enough to live or repay their debts.

By Chi Prudence Asong

7, December 2016

Nigeria: Poverty, prejudice drive more women to join Boko Haram ⁰

Failing to improve the lives of girls and women trapped in poverty and domestic drudgery in north-east Nigeria could drive them into the ranks of extremist groups, analysts said. Many girls and women have been abducted by the jihadist group Boko Haram and used as cooks, sex slaves and even suicide bombers, according to rights groups including Amnesty International.

Yet some women in the mainly Muslim north-east, frustrated by poverty, gender discrimination and deep-rooted patriarchy, have chosen to join Boko Haram voluntarily in the hope of a better life, an International Crisis Group (ICG) report said. “For some women trapped in domestic life, Boko Haram offers an escape,” Rinaldo Depagne, West Africa project director for the ICG, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in Dakar, Senegal. “But this reflects a huge abyss of desperation among women … and a failure of society in the north-east,” he added.

Rates of child marriage, school enrolment and literacy among girls and women in positions of power are far worse in the north of Nigeria than the rest of the country, activists said. But women often take senior positions in Boko Haram. Female members are almost as likely as men to be deployed as fighters and may outnumber them in roles such as recruiters and intelligence operatives, researchers said in a study published in October.

Boko Haram militants have killed about 15,000 people and displaced some 2.6 million in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria during a seven-year campaign to carve out an Islamist caliphate. The army has driven Boko Haram out of much of the territory it held in 2014, but government and aid agencies must focus on caring for and reintegrating women affected by the insurgency as the country comes back under their control, the ICG said. Many women uprooted by the conflict and living in camps for the displaced have resorted to selling sex in exchange for food, while those who were married to or raped by the militants are often rejected by their communities.

For those women who chose to join Boko Haram, the power and freedom afforded to them means they are far more difficult than men to de-radicalise and reintegrate into their communities, according to Nigerian psychologist Fatima Akilu. “Exclusion and abuse of women may undermine military gains and mean they have same kind of grievances that pushed many to join Boko Haram in the first place,” Depagne said. “The state and civil society must improve the situation for women affected by Boko Haram, both victims and perpetrators, and ensure they play a role in rebuilding the north-east,” he added.

Defenceweb

7, December 2016

Obama says Guantanamo Bay is a disgrace and waste of money ⁰

US President Barack Obama has expressed disappointment over failure to close the notorious prison of Guantanamo Bay in Cuba during his term in office, saying it was a disgrace and a waste of money. “We are wasting hundreds of millions of dollars to keep fewer than 60 people in a detention facility in Cuba,” Obama said during his last security speech in the US state of Florida on Tuesday. “That’s not strength … And I will continue to do all that I can to remove this blot on our national honor.”

The US president noted that the prison, which currently holds 59 detainees without pressing charges dishonors America. Obama had pledged during his 2008 presidential campaign to close the military prison, which is located on Cuba’s southeastern coast, before he leaves office in January. However, he has been unable to fulfill his promise in the face of stiff opposition from the US Congress. The Obama administration has transferred most of the detainees to other countries, but there is a small number of detainees who the administration says it would like to keep at a US facility for national security reasons.

A Senate report in December 2014 revealed that the CIA had used a wide array of sexual abuse and other forms of torture as part of its interrogation methods against the prisoners at Guantanamo. About 780 men have passed through the facility since it was opened following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks to hold terrorism suspects. Washington says the prisoners are terror suspects, but has not pressed charges against most of them in any court.

Presstv

7, December 2016

National Communications Council suspends 20 journalists ⁰

The National Communications Council, the secular arm of power in the field of media regulation has dished out new sanctions against particularly virulent media reporting against the CPDM regime. More than 20 journalists and media were suspended from activities on Tuesday the 6^th of December 2016.

Cameroon Concord News gathered the sanctions ranged from 1 to 6 months including the cessation of activities in some cases. The heaviest sanction was imposed against Douala-based “Aurore plus” newspaper and its editor, Michel Michaut Moussala, with more than 35 years of the professional experience.

The newspaper was suspended from activities and its publisher banned from the profession following a complaint by the former general manager of Camair-Co. The “powerful” Minister of Transport Edgar Alain Mebe Ngo’o successfully got the head of a reporter while the President of the Cameroon Football Federation had a journalist suspended for writing that he was “not the president of the FECAFOOT”.

By Rita Akana

6, December 2016

UN names 41 peacekeepers in sex abuse in Central African Republic ⁰

The UN has named and referred for punishment 41 of its peacekeepers accused of a slew of “abhorrent” sexual abuse of refugees in the Central African Republic (CAR). The announcement came after a four-month probe into disturbing reports of sexual assaults and exploitation of women and children by the UN peacekeeping mission in the CAR (MINUSCA) in the Kemo prefecture during 2014 and 2015. According to UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, the joint probe by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) and investigators from Burundi and Gabon found 25 of the suspects were from Burundi and 16 others from Gabon.

The world body had shared the report with both member states, including the “names of the identified alleged perpetrators and has requested for appropriate judicial actions to ensure criminal accountability.” The investigation was primarily based on the testimony of victims and witnesses given the lack of medical, forensic or any other physical evidence of alleged incidents that happened at least a year ago.In total, the OIOS interviewed nearly 150 complaints, including those of 25 minors, all of which reported sexual abuse in the town of Dekoa of the prefecture. Some of the female victims acknowledged their abusers through photos and other evidence. “The alleged perpetrators, if allegations against them are substantiated, and, if warranted, their commanding officers will not be accepted again for deployment in peacekeeping operations,” Dujarric said.

All of the alleged perpetrators had been rotated out of the crisis-hit country before the allegations surfaced, he added. “The United Nations condemns, in the strongest terms, all acts of sexual exploitation and abuse committed by peacekeepers or any other UN personnel and will maintain follow up so that perpetrators of these abhorrent acts are brought to justice,” he said.

Last year, UN chief Ban Ki-moon fired the head of MINUSCA mission because of the increasing number of sexual abuse cases. He warned that the UN would throw out the entire peacekeeping unit if the soldiers accused of assaults were not prosecuted.

Under peacekeeping arrangements, the countries providing the troops have jurisdiction over prosecuting such crimes. The CAR plunged into crisis in December 2013, when anti-balaka militia began coordinated attacks against Muslims after the ouster of the government in March that year.

The UN peacekeepers have been patrolling in the crisis-hit country since April 2014 to protect citizens and refugees from violence between warring factions there. In his latest annual report, Ban announced that 69 cases of sexual abuse had been committed by UN peacekeepers last year, half of them in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Presstv