News

22, September 2016

Yaounde: Police neutralize gang of taxi robbers ⁰

Three man aged between 20 and 34 years were presented to the press as a gang of taxi robbers who have dispossessed some 30 women of their handbags using a taxi in Yaoundé. The alleged gang leader, Tsala Andre Jules who also goes by the name Boulli Jean alias Pa Ye is an ex-convict. He is said to have created the gang after he left prison about a year ago for similar offences. He is the driver of the taxi used in the robbery. He told the police that they operate about three times a week generally around 8:00pm to 6:30am.

He was arrested in Essos after he attempted to escape. Enyengue Andre Loic, a member of the gang fakes the role of a passenger in the front seat of the taxi they use in their operations while Mekongo Augustin plays the same role on the back sit. Both men were arrested in Mimboman neighbourhood. They have denied any involvement.

According Senior Police Superintendent Babanguida Ahmadou, service head for Interventions and Investigations at the Judicial Police Department in Yaoundé, investigations that led to the arrest of the gang began after a victim deposited a complaint.

The victim noted the matriculation number of the taxi in which she was robbed of her hand bad containing her tablet, smart phone and a medical; kit Bio Disque. The victim told the police that she boarded the taxi at about 9:30pm at the Multi Sports Complex to Elig Edzoa. During the journey the drive change the direction and drove to a dark area. The passenger on the back seat pull out a dagger placed on her throat and threatened to kill her if she resisted. The accomplice on the front seat then ceased all her belongings.

A huge number of handsets including smart, phones, tablets and laptops including other devices and daggers where presented to the press as objects recovered from the suspects who are expected to face the law courts.

CRTV

22, September 2016

Cameroon Secret Service kills Boko Haram suicide bomber in Djakana ⁰

A suicide bomber was killed on Wednesday night in Djakana as he was about to unleash mayhem. Cameroon Concord News was reliably informed that he was shot by elements of the secret service and the bomb he was carrying exploded wounding five other persons. The death toll from the incident that occurred in Djakana, near the district of Mora in the Mayo-Sava Division in the Far North is expected to rise as four other persons were badly affected.

The explosion happened shortly after evening prayer. The suicide attack on Wednesday comes one month to the day after the last attack that hit Mora on the 21^st of August 2016 which claimed the lives of 4 and wounded 24. These suicide attacks on Cameroonian territory are not claimed by Boko Haram. They are systematically attributed to the Nigerian Islamic sect by Cameroon security forces. Boko Haram pledged allegiance to the Organization of the Islamic state and is now called Province of the Islamic State in West Africa.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Amadou Adama

21, September 2016

US: Mentally ill black man shot 14 times by police ⁰

Police in the US state of California have released video footage of a deadly encounter between officers and a mentally ill African American man, who was killed after being shot 14 times. The violent confrontation happened on July 11, when two police officers fired 18 rounds at 50-year-old Joseph Mann, after he failed to heed to their warnings. Disturbing footage from three police dash cams and a nearby surveillance camera, released Tuesday, showed the officers slowly chasing Mann for a few minutes and asking him to drop his knife before gunning him down from about 15ft (6 meters) away.

Sacramento Police Chief Sam Somers confirmed the news on Tuesday, saying the footage were released after conversations with City Manager John Shirey and Mayor Kevin Johnson. According to the videos, Mann’s arms were raised and he did not seem to threaten the officers with any weapon when he was shot. He collapsed and could be heard shouting in pain as the cops opened fire.

Prior to the incident, police had received distress calls about a man dwelling Del Paso Heights while holding a knife and gun in his hands. The knife was later found at the scene but Mann’s alleged firearm was never recovered by police. According to the media, the 911 callers had clearly pointed to Mann’s mental illness but the dispatch had failed to inform the officers of the matter.

“There’s a man outside of my apartment with a gun and a knife,” a 911 caller said in the recording. “There’s children all around, and he’s mentally ill.” Mann’s family has filed a civil lawsuit against the police and the city, alleging that the officers should not have resorted to lethal force because he was experiencing a mental crisis. “Any reasonable police officer should have noticed that he was mentally impaired” John Burris the Mann family’s lawyer said.

Mann’s family members described him as a smart college graduate who succeeded in several careers before deteriorating into mental illness about five years ago. The case is expected to stir more controversy and anti-police sentiments in the US, amid a public outrage against law enforcement agencies due to their unjustified killings of unarmed African Americans over the past months.

Presstv

21, September 2016

Sudan hosting 400,000 refugees who fled the war in South Sudan ⁰

Sudan says it is hosting about 400,000 refugees, who fled the civil war in South Sudan that erupted in late 2013. Sudan’s Interior Minister Babiker Digna told reporters in the capital Khartoum on Wednesday that more refugees continued to pour into the country.

“The number of South Sudanese refugees registered by Sudanese authorities is 400,000,” Digna said, adding, “The influx of South Sudanese continues until now… and the process of registering them is also ongoing.” The United Nations earlier said that as of August 31, the total number of South Sudanese refugees in Sudan had exceeded 247,000.

Responding to a discrepancy between the two figures, Digna said “many times” there was disagreement with the UN on the numbers. On September 16, the United Nations refugee agency said in a statement that fighting in South Sudan had forced more than one million people to flee the war-stricken country. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said another 1.61 million people had been displaced inside the country.

On the same day, Noriko Yoshida, the UN refugee agency’s representative for Sudan, appealed for more global aid to help address South Sudan’s refugee crisis, adding, “If we don’t have sufficient resources, it is also difficult to protect and assist these refugees.”

An internally displaced person is seen among civilians and UN peacekeepers on September 3, 2016, at a UN camp in Juba, South Sudan. (Photo by AFP)

The Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda are also hosting thousands of refugees from South Sudan.

The country gained independence in July 2011, but descended into war in December 2013, after President Salva Kiir accused the former vice president, Riek Machar, of plotting a coup to usurp power.

Numerous international attempts to reach a truce between the warring sides have failed. South Sudan has experienced a new wave of conflict since July 8, when gunfire erupted near the state house in Juba as President Kiir and Machar were holding a meeting.

Presstv

21, September 2016

Two UN summits on refugee crisis successful failures ⁰

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) says two recent summits on the global refugee crisis held at the United Nations (UN) were dismal failures. “This week’s summits on the global refugee crisis failed to meet the challenge of this critical moment in history,” read a statement released by the rights group on Tuesday, referring to two high-level summits attended by world leaders and held at the UN headquarters in New York.

The first meeting, held on Monday, was hosted by the outgoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. During that summit, countries reconfirmed their commitment to receiving and assisting refugees. But the HRW said it was “filled with dismal speeches that veered from vapid platitudes disconnected from real world challenges to get-tough pronouncements about securing borders and stopping irregular migration.”

The second summit, which was held on Tuesday and hosted by the outgoing US President Barak Obama, called on the participating countries to accept higher refugee relocation quotas, and to donate more money for refugees.

The Tuesday summit was also viewed by the rights group as a disappointment since it was expected to hear speeches from “world leaders about how they would support the countries where most refugees live,” but almost no such speech was delivered.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addresses the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters, in New York City, September 20, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

According to the statement, the crisis has reached a “critical moment” since many countries, which host the huge majority of the world’s refugees, have clearly said that they have reached the limit of their capacity.

It added that some of those countries, which have generously hosted refugees for years — or even decades — are now pressuring asylum seekers to leave, have shut down their doors to new arrivals, or have announced that they would be doing so soon.

In the second summit, however, some more concrete goals were put on the table, including getting one million refugee children into school, granting work permissions to one million of their parents, and resettling a significant number of more refugees.

“As laudable as these goals are, however, they are not an end in themselves,” since they in fact “will help to keep front-line host countries from becoming destabilized,” the HRW said.

“That is the best strategy for ensuring that their doors can remain open so that people fleeing threats to their lives in the months and years to come will still have a place of refuge,” it added.

Europe has been facing an unprecedented influx of refugees, most of whom are fleeing conflict zones in North Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria. Last year alone, well over a million refugees made their way into the continent.

Many blame major European powers for the exodus of the refugees from their home countries as the conflicts and violence that force them out are usually a result of Western policies.

Presstv

20, September 2016

Protecting the Homeland: General Elokobi Daniel satisfied with French cooperation ⁰

A training in emergency intervention techniques which covered strategies used in conceiving, preparing and carrying out operations in crowded environments to track terrorist and free hostages has ended in Yaounde.According to officials, equipping Cameroon’s defence and security with skills to effectively anticipate and counter any terrorist operations ahead of major events in the country including the Women’s Africa Cup Nations is indispensable. Non-commissioned officers of the Gendarmerie and National Security personnel have taken part in two separate training courses in planning and execution of anti-terrorist operations.

The first continent composed on 15 police and 15 gendarmes including 9 female officers from the respective corp where trained at the Judicial Police Training Centre of the National Gendarmerie in Yaoundé. They were educated on the mode of operation of terrorist movements, their potential targets and how to anticipate and stop their atrocities. Techniques of investigating crime scenes and elaborating reports for the judiciary were also learnt. The officers refreshed their minds on the working of the international police organisation, Interpol.

The Central Director of Coordination of the National Gendarmerie, Brigadier General Elokobi Daniel Njock saluted the French cooperation for the training that was facilitated by French experts. He called on the laureates to share the newly acquired skilled with colleagues in their respectively units.

Another refresher course took place in Mbankomo for 26 non-commissioned officers of the Multi-Purpose Intervention Group of the National Gendarmerie. They were trained on techniques of liberating hostages and tracking terrorist in confined areas like hotels, stadia, sports complex, planes, and trains.

The Inspector No 1, of the National Gendarmerie, Colonel Ekongwese Divine Nnoko who closed the session called on the soldiers of the intervention force to be on the alert and ready at all times. He said evidence has showed that terrorists turn to attack civilian, strategic and military installations and it’s incumbent on them to anticipant, prevent and where necessary free hostages.

CRTV

20, September 2016

Developing: Boko Haram jihadists seen and among them men with white skin ⁰

It has been revealed that dozens of heavily armed Boko Haram jihadists were seen and among them men with white skin “mestizo, Tuareg, Arab and Western. This new intelligence information released by both the Cameroonian and the Nigerian military comes out at a time when Boko Haram has recently committed umpteenth abuses.

Yaounde and Abuja have ordered their armies to be on high alert since last Friday around Dabanga. The Nigerian military under operation Lafiya Dolle and their Cameroonian counterparts in the Joint Multinational Force including the 41^st Mechanised Infantry Battalion code named Alpha have all been strengthened.

The presence of men with white skin in the ranks of the Boko Haram sect is being treated seriously by both the Buhari and the Biya administrations. Troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger have been battling the terrorists in recent months. The group has pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorists operating mainly in Syria and Iraq.

By Rita Akana

20, September 2016

US: Another black man fatally shot by police ¹

A US black man that was fatally shot by police in Tulsa, Oklahoma last Friday was unarmed, police officials say. A video, taken from a police dashcam, was released on Monday which shows that 40-year-old Terence Crutcher had his hands up when he was tasered and then shot by police.

The incident began after an officer responded to a report of a stalled SUV in the middle of the road in Tulsa, where there was another police car stopped behind the disabled SUV. In the video, it can be seen that Crutcher walked away from the police cars and toward his own car with his hands over his head.

Then, one female officer followed him with her gun pointed at the victim’s back and then three other officers joined her, which obscured the camera’s view of the black man. He then collapsed with one officer saying on the police radio, “I think he may have just been Tasered” and then another one, saying, “shots fired.” He was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Presstv

19, September 2016

Boko Haram kills 8 in Nigeria ⁰

Boko Haram Takfiri militants have killed at least eight people outside a church in northeast Nigeria. According to local residents, the fatalities occurred shortly after morning service on Sunday in the village of Kwamjilari, located about 30 kilometers east of the town of Chibok, in Borno state.

“Some of the worshipers remained around the church and the gunmen opened fire and eight men died,” said Luka Damina, a resident from a nearby village. He noted that the gunmen had stationed some of their comrades on the road leading out of the village and they shot anyone who tried to flee.

“Many people ran into the bush with gunshot wounds,” Damina added. A local chief from nearby Kautikeri village, where some locals fled, confirmed the death toll, adding that the assailants had set fire to homes and fields of maize that were almost ready for harvest.

In a similar attack in the area last month, at least 10 people lost their lives and some 13 others were abducted after the assailants looted and torched houses. Boko Haram started its campaign of militancy in 2009 with the aim of toppling the central government in Nigeria.

The violence sparked by the group’s militancy has so far killed more than 20,000 people and forced over 2.7 million others from their homes. The militant group has expanded its terror activities to Nigeria’s neighboring countries. Troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger have been battling the terrorists in recent months. The group has pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorists operating mainly in Syria and Iraq.

Presstv

19, September 2016

France commemorates all victims of recent terror attacks ⁰

France has commemorated all victims of the recent terror attacks that shook the country to its core. A memorial service has been held in the capital Paris to honor the memory of all those people who unjustly lost their lives to vicious acts of terror and violence.

Hundreds of victims’ families and people who sustained injuries in the attacks attended Monday’s ceremony. President Francois Hollande and former president Nicolas Sarkozy also took part in the event during which the names of all victims of attacks carried out by Takfiri terrorists in Paris last year and in Nice in July this year were read out. “Our country had never been attacked to this extent, with such destructive rage, with such barbarian cruelty. That’s why it was so important for names, all names to be evoked,” Hollande said.

The ceremony also commemorated those killed in terror attacks in Brussels, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and Mali. Hollande also hailed the courage of the survivors present at the event, stressing the need for helping and supporting them and their families. “You’ve been through a tragedy, yet you want to live, you’re fighting for it, and you will stand up again. Your energy is an example,” Hollande said.

France terror attacks: A timeline

March 22, 2012: French police move in to kill Mohammed Merah, a self-styled al-Qaeda-inspired gunman, after he takes the lives of seven people in the city of Toulouse in a 12-day killing spree. Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, killed three soldiers, three Jewish children and a rabbi before he was shot dead following a 30-hour standoff with security forces.

A woman speaks with a police officer near a building where the chief suspect in an al-Qaeda-linked killing spree is holed up in an apartment in Toulouse, southern France, on March 22, 2012. (Photo by AP)

January 7, 2015: Two Takfiri militants attack Charlie Hebdo magazine, killing 12 people, including top editorial staff. The attack is largely believed to have been launched over the weekly’s insulting cartoons of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). A day after the magazine attack, another militant kills a policewoman. On January 9, he also takes people hostage at the HyperCacher supermarket and kills four of them before being shot dead by police. On the same day, the escaped Charlie Hebdo gunmen are killed in a printing plant in Dammartin-en-Goele north of Paris.

A man walks past flowers laid near the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris on Feb. 6, 2015. (Photo by AP)

November 13, 2015: Daesh launches a series of violent attacks, targeting cafes and a concert hall in Paris, and massacring a total of 130 people. On the same day, three bombers explode themselves and kill a bystander in a stadium in Saint-Denis.

Police and rescuers gather in front of a fast-food drive-thru restaurant outside the Stade de France stadium in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on November 13, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

July 14, 2016: A truck driver deliberately plows through a Bastille Day crowd in Nice, killing 84 people and wounding 200 others. An 85th victim of the attack, claimed by Daesh, dies later in hospital.

Local authorities and people observe a minute of silence in front of the high commission in Papeete, the capital of the French Polynesian island of Tahiti, on July 18, 2016, in tribute to the victims of the deadly Nice attack on Bastille Day. (Photo by AFP)

July 26, 2016: Two knife-wielding men loyal to Daesh take a number of people hostage at a church in Normandy. The attackers kill a 85-year-old Roman Catholic priest. Police later shoots dead the two assailants.