News

18, November 2016

Rigobert Song sends message to the Indomitable Lionesses ⁰

Canal 2 international has broadcasted a telephone conversation with the emblematic captain of the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, Rigobert Song still interned at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in France. In the news bulletin today, Rigo said he was getting better and better and thanked the Cameroonian people especially President Biya and his wife for their support. “For the moment, I feel good, I’m in full rehabilitation. I am aware of some few things”.

The former international defender has kept his lion’s heart and he shocked the Canal 2 journalist when he reminded him in the conversation that Cameroon was just 24 hours to the kick-off of the 10th edition of the 2016 Women’s Africa Nation’s Cup. “To my sisters, the indomitable Lionesses I convey to them the determination … I wish that everything goes very well,’ Song added.

Rigobert Song suffered a stroke last October the 2nd at his home in Yaoundé. After an emergency treatment in a hospital in Yaoundé, he was evacuated three days later to France on high instruction from the presidency of the republic.

By Chi Prudence Asong with files from CIN

18, November 2016

Boko Haram claims responsibility for three bomb attacks in Nigeria ⁰

Six people have been killed in three bomb attacks in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno. The bombings were carried out in Maiduguri, Borno’s capital, on Friday. One of the explosions rocked Jiddari area near a mobile police post, Borno state police commissioner Damian Chukwu told reporters in Maiduguri.

The official added that two other bombings were carried out “along Maiduguri-Gamboru road.” The Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists have claimed responsibility for the bombings. Police said four assailants and two civilian defense fighters were killed in the bombings. One of the attackers was arrested.

Emergency personnel stand near the wrecked remains of a vehicle ripped apart following two bombings in Nigeria’s northeast city of Maiduguri on October 29, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Maiduguri has been the epicenter of Boko Haram’s seven-year insurgency. Borno has taken the brunt of Boko Haram’s acts of terror, which started in 2009. The group has recently regained momentum after it was nearly obliterated months ago by a joint military force made up of Nigerian government forces and troops from neighboring countries.

Boko Haram has pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, which is mainly active in Syria and Iraq. The United Nations has warned that areas affected by Boko Haram face a humanitarian crisis. Boko Haram terrorists have so far killed more than 20,000 people and forced over 2.7 million others from their homes. The group started its campaign with the aim of toppling the central government in Nigeria.

Presstv

18, November 2016

Mozambique: Scores of people killed in an explosion ⁰

Scores of people have been killed and more than a hundred others injured in an explosion that happened as they tried to siphon oil from an overturned truck in western Mozambique. The incident occurred on Thursday in the village of Caphiridzange in Tete Province, killing 73 people and injuring over 110, some of them critically, the government said in a statement.

The truck had been carrying fuel to Malawi from the port city of Beira. The exact circumstances of the incident were not clear. An early government statement had said the blast occurred “because of the heat.” Information ministry director Joao Manasses, however, said people may have ambushed the truck.

Government officials said the local hospital was reinforcing its staff to help treat those injured, saying more bodies might be in surrounding woods because some badly burned people had tried to run into a nearby river. Three government ministers were due to arrive to the village on Friday to monitor the rescue work.

The government in Mozambique increased fuel prices at the beginning of October, causing a rise in the inflation rate. Mozambique, one of the world’s poorest countries, has been suffering the consequences of an economic crisis since its civil war ended in 1992, according to the International Monetary Fund.

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18, November 2016

Britain to construct 5,300 social housing units in French Cameroon ⁰

President Paul Biya has received a British business delegation led by the UK High Commissioner to Cameroon, Brian Olley. The audience that held today Thursday in the Unity Palace was reportedly intensive and productive.

At the end of the meeting, the British top diplomat revealed that more than 5,300 social housing units will soon be built in Cameroon. High Commissioner Brian Olley added that the projects, amounting to 140 billion CFA francs will be realized in Douala, Yaounde and Kribi.

On combating the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram, Brian Olley announced that Britain would intensify its support for the Cameroonian defense forces, particularly in the area of military training, revealing that a post of military attaché would be created in April next year in its representation in Cameroon.

Ambassador Brian Olley also stated that more than 15 billion CFA francs had already been mobilized by the United Kingdom for the assistance to refugees and displaced persons who are victims of terrorism.

The UK ranks second on the list of Cameroonian donors with (US $ 88.2 million) behind France (US $ 167 million) Germany (US $ 87.4 million), the United States (US $ 40.7 million) and Japan (US $ 25.1 million).

By Chi Prudence Asong

17, November 2016

William Aurélien Eteki Mboumoua will be buried at the Bois de Singes cemetery ⁰

The remains of the former Secretary General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and President of the Cameroon Red Cross (CRC) will leave the Yaoundé General Hospital mortuary on the 24^th of November 2016 for its final resting place.

According to a program published by the Cameroon Red Cross, the late William Aurélien Eteki Mboumoua, will embark on his last journey from Yaoundé to Douala on 24 November, where he will be buried on Saturday the 26th of November at the Bois de Singes cemetery. A ceremony will be held at the Yaoundé General Hospital in the presence of numerous political figures, members of the government, the great family of the International Committee of the Red Cross including administrative, traditional and religious authorities.

William Aurélien Eteki Mboumoua had a meteoric rise in the Cameroon political system. He was Minister of National Education, Minister of Youth and Sports, Minister of Culture, Chancellor of the University of Yaoundé, Special Advisor to the President of the Republic, Minister of Missions at the Presidency of the Republic, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Member of the Executive Council and Vice-President of UNESCO, Secretary General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), Member of the Advisory Committee of the United Nations for Disarmament Studies and National President of Cameroon Red Cross.

Born at the Bonadibong neighborhood in Douala, Aurélien Eteki Mboumoua died on Wednesday the 26^th of October at the age of 83.

By Chi Prudence Asong

17, November 2016

Several Turkish soldiers seeking asylum in Germany ⁰

Several Turkish soldiers at NATO’s central command in Ramstein has sought asylum in Germany in the wake of Turkey’s widespread crackdown against military personnel, journalists and political activists. According to a German official, quoted by the dpa news agency, family members of the soldiers stationed at the airbase insouthwestern Germany have also applied for asylum.

Paul Junker, a regional official in nearby Kaiserslautern, said the asylum requests had come from “more than one family,” but declined to say how many individuals were involved. German Interior Ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth said last month that 35 Turkish diplomatic passport holders had formally applied for asylum in Germany. The actual figure of the asylum seekers, he said, could be higher.

Relations between Turkey and Germany have strained following the July 15 botched coup, which Ankara claims to have been organized by US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier often clashed with Turkish officials during a visit to Ankara this week, reflecting tough times in their relations.

After 11 years of negotiations, Turkey’s prospects of joining the EU look more remote than ever, with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu telling Steinmeier on Tuesday that Turkey was “fed up” with the European Union. “We are truly fed up of these statements degrading Turkey. The criteria are clear but there are double standards and a two-faced approach. This is what we don’t like,” Cavusoglu told a joint news conference. Over 240 people were killed and more than 2,100 others injured in the coup attempt, which Gulen has strongly condemned and denied any involvement in.

Tens of thousands of people, including military personnel, judges and teachers, have been suspended, dismissed or detained as part of the post-coup crackdown. International rights groups argue that Ankara’s crackdown has gone far beyond the so-called Gulenists and targeted Kurds as well as government critics.

Turkey detains, suspends mayors over PKK links

On Thursday, Turkish officials arrested and suspected three mayors in the Kurdish-majority southeastern part of the country over alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group.

Unnamed security sources said police detained the mayor of Van city, Bekir Kaya, and four other municipal officials early Thursday.

Bekir Kaya, mayor of the southeastern Turkish city of Van

The sources said the mayors of Mardin and Siirt citties, identified as Ahmet Turk and Tuncer Bakirhan respectively, had also been discharged and replaced with administrators appointed by the Interior Ministry. Earlier this month, 13 legislators from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) were arrested after being accused of links to Kurdish militants.

Party leaders Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ remain in custody along with eight others, waiting to stand trial on terrorism-related charges. A shaky ceasefire between the PKK, which has been calling for an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984, and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015. Ever since, attacks on Turkish security forces have soared.

Over the past few months, Turkish ground and air forces have been carrying out operations against PKK positions in the country’s troubled southeastern border region as well as Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and northern Syria.

Presstv

17, November 2016

Yaounde: Striking SOCATUR workers molested and detained in Kondengui ⁰

The employees of the Cameroon Society of Urban Transport (SOCATUR) paralyzed traffic for more than three hours by blocking the road to the Nlongkak district in Yaoundé on Wednesday the 16^th of November. The nearly 125 people claimed they have not been paid for over 12 months. Cameroon Concord News gathered they are actually being owed 842 million CFA francs.

President Biya had reportedly given standing instructions that the workers be paid long ago. However, on November the 15th at a meeting held with the representative of the Ministry of Finance, the striking workers were told they could not be paid. According to their spokesman Hubert Mani, the strike action was to send signals to the Head of State.

The Senior Divisional Officer for Mfoundi, Jean Claude Nsila, went down to the scene in an emergency, followed by dozens of riot police officers to try to contain the strike. The SOCATUR workers were forced to sit on the ground against their will and many were forcibly taken away and molested before being shipped to an unspecified destination.

A reporter with the Cameroon Intelligence Report hinted that some of the striking workers were detained at the Kondengui high security prison. The Prefect of Mfoundi was quoted by a local newspaper as saying “You will spend some few weeks in Kondengui”. Jean Claude Tsila has convened a crisis meeting in his office to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

16, November 2016

Boko Haram has dramatically scaled back attacks in Cameroon ⁰

Boko Haram has dramatically scaled back attacks in Cameroon in recent months, analysts said on Wednesday, suggesting a regional security force is gaining ground against the militants. The Islamist movement – which controlled an area the size of Belgium in northeast Nigeria last year and raided Cameroon and other neighbours to expand its “caliphate” – had since suffered a string of defeats, International Crisis Group (ICG) said.

The report came days after security and U.N. sources said hundreds of Boko Haram fighters and their families had surrendered on another frontline in Chad. There was no comment from any of the factions of Boko Haram which is still seen as one of the main security threats in West Africa. “We’ve seen a dizzying downwards spiral in the number of attacks and suicide bombings,” said Hans De Marie Heungoup, one of the report’s authors.

Two years ago, attacks were happening on an almost daily basis, he said. But the number had fallen to between six and eight a month since September. “[Boko Haram] has suffered heavy losses and seen its conventional capacities reduced,” the study said, partly thanks to last year’s formation of a 10,000-strong regional force with troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin.

Up to 1,000 fighters with heavy weaponry and armoured vehicles joined strikes in Cameroon’s Far North Region in 2014-15, the report said. But attacks were now focused on the northernmost tip of the region where fighters continued to control part of the fishing industry of Lake Chad amid a labyrinth of waterways.

Recruitment is also faltering in Cameroon although forced enlistment remains a risk, ICG said. Up to 4,000 Cameroonians are thought to have joined the group and some were given sign-on bonuses of up to $2000 and a motorbike, according to the study, citing interviews with locals.

Those who proved their loyalty by killing their parents often enjoyed quick promotion, it added. Analysts say the faction around the Lake Chad Basin represents the stronger branch of the group, loyal to Islamic State (IS) and led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi. Another faction led by Abubaker Shekau is based further south in Nigeria’s Sambisa forest.

Culled from Reuters

16, November 2016

Russia to withdraw from the International Criminal Court ⁰

Russia has decided to withdraw its signature from the founding statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying the tribunal has failed to live up to the hopes of the international community. In a statement issued on Wednesday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it would pull out from the ICC following a decree by President Vladimir Putin, who decided for Moscow not to be “a participant in the ICC statute.”

The statement said the main reason for the withdrawal was the ICC’s way of treating Russia’s brief war with neighboring Georgia in 2008, adding that the international tribunal had ignored Georgia’s aggression against pro-Moscow civilians in the separatist region of South Ossetia. “In these conditions one cannot speak of trust in the International Criminal Court,” the ministry said, calling the ICC’s work as “one-sided and inefficient.”

The statement also slammed the ICC’s lack of independence in dealing with war cases, saying “The court did not live up to the hopes associated with it.” Russia has yet to ratify the Rome Statute that set up the ICC, the world’s first permanent war crimes court. The government has only been a signatory to the treaty since 2000.

The decision by Moscow to pull out from the ICC could further complicate the situation surrounding the court as several African members, such as South Africa and Burundi, have already decided to withdraw from the tribunal, saying it is biased and lacks justice. Gambia has also notified the United Nations that it would leave the ICC next week.

Presstv

16, November 2016

UN says thousands of Nigerian children will be at risk of dying in “a few months” ⁰

The United Nations has warned that thousands of children will be at risk of dying in “a few months” across the militancy-riddled areas of northeastern Nigeria. Peter Lundberg, the UN humanitarian coordinator, said in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Tuesday that thousands of children could die from famine in the troubled region, adding that 400,000 children were in critical need of assistance, while 75,000 could die “in (the) few months ahead of us.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, the UN official said, “Currently our assessment is that 14 million people are identified as in need of humanitarian assistance.” Lundberg added that crisis was unfolding at “high speed” in Nigeria’s troubled northeast. The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, warned in July that some 49,000 children would die of malnutrition in northeastern Nigeria if they did not get treatment.

Most of the children are in areas that had been inaccessible before a multinational force liberated them from the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group earlier this year. Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French acronym as the MSF, had earlier warned of a “catastrophic humanitarian emergency” in the city of Bama, where, it said, 200 people died in June.

Despite the government’s fight against Boko Haram, the security situation remains volatile in Borno and specifically Maiduguri, because Boko Haram terrorists still carry out attacks. Boko Haram started its campaign of militancy in 2009 with the aim of toppling the central government in Nigeria. It has so far taken the lives of more than 20,000 people and forced over 2.7 million others from their homes. The group has pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorists operating mainly in Syria and Iraq.

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