News

27, August 2016

Italy: Funeral mass held for victims of the recent earthquake ⁰

Italians held a mass funeral Saturday for the victims of the recent earthquake in the central part of the country whose death toll has reached 290. The country observed a national day of mourning Saturday. Italy’s civil protection agency said in a statement that the tally rose to 230 confirmed deaths in Amatrice, the worst hit town, in Rieti province as more bodies were recovered. Elsewhere, in Accumoli, located in the same province, 11 people were announced dead, and in Arquato del Tronto, in the province of Ascoli Piceno, 49 others lost their lives.

In the early hours of August 24, a powerful earthquake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale hit Italy, and almost flattened scores of towns and villages in the central parts. The quake was followed by a series of aftershocks, the strongest of which measured 4.2, rattling the already hit areas. Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi joined hundreds of mourners at a state funeral for some 40 victims of the quake at a community gymnasium in the town of Ascoli Piceno, the capital of March region.

“Don’t be afraid to cry out your suffering but do not lose courage. Together we will rebuild our houses and church. Together, above all we will restore life to our communities, starting from our traditions and from the rubble of death. Together,” said Bishop Giovanni D’Ercole in the community gym, urging the mourners to find courage to rebuild their homes and communities.

The 2,000-population town of Amatrice is now in ruins with only a few buildings left standing. In 2009, Aquila in central Italy was jolted by a 6.3-magnitude quake. Over 300 people died in the natural disaster. Two other tremors also jolted the northern region of Emilia Romagna in May 2012, leaving nearly two dozen people dead and some 14,000 others homeless.

Presstv

27, August 2016

Cameroon arrest Gendarmerie Captain leading a criminal gang in the Far North region ⁰

Captain Hamadjam Hamadjam, commander of the gendarmerie company post in the Mayo-Tsanaga division was relieved of his duties and arrested late on Wednesday the 25^th of August in an operation staged by the military high command of the Far North legion.

Captain Hamadjam is currently being held at the Maroua Central Prison. A journalist with a sister publication Cameroon Intelligence Report observed that the military officer is suspected to be the leader of a criminal gang to which is attributed several armed robberies including assassinations in the Far North region.

Cameroon Concord News understands six other security officers arrested by elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion are right now on trial. They are all believed to be part of the Captain Hamadjam gang.

By Rita Akana

26, August 2016

Bolivia: Interior Minister beaten to death ⁰

Bolivian Interior Minister Rodolfo Illanes has been beaten to death by striking mine workers after being kidnapped, the government says. Interior Minister Carlos Romero told a press conference that his 56-year-old deputy was abducted after he went to talk to the protesting miners in Panduro, around 160 km from the administrative capital, La Paz.

Senior government officials, including the interior and defense ministers, have labeled the killing as an “unprecedented criminal act” and a brutal murder. “All signs indicate that our deputy minister, Rodolfo Illanes, has been cowardly and brutally murdered,” Romero said Romero also called on Bolivia’s justice system to “clear up the murder and establish responsibility.”

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Reymi Ferreira said on private television station Red Uno that President Evo Morales was “deeply shaken” upon receiving the news. The deputy minister “was harassed, tortured… he was beaten to death according to the information we have,” Ferreira said before breaking down in tears.

He said that authorities were attempting to recover the body. The ringleaders who killed Illanes had been identified, Ferreira said, adding that the act “cannot go unpunished, and must be taken to court.” Moises Flores, director of a mining radio station, earlier confirmed the death of Illanes, who has served as deputy interior minister since March. “We saw the lifeless body of Deputy Minister Illanes.”

Presstv

25, August 2016

Biya spends billions of FCFA hiring VIP aircrafts ¹

President Paul Biya for several years has traveled on hired planes paid by the Cameroonian tax payer. He left Yaounde on Wednesday for a “short stay” in Europe using a lease transaction VIP aircraft that reportedly cost a fortune.

The state of Cameroon has paid a whopping sum for the hiring of air crafts for President Biya and his family. The exorbitant cost charged reflects the VIP airplanes required by the Cameroonian chief executive.

Biya who is fond of Airbus, especially the Boeing 777-200, 767-200 and 757-200, which are among the largest commercial aircraft in the world, with special facilities including a main bedroom, suite bathroom, a presidential office, a dining / meeting room, seats in business class (50 to 60 seats), a communications center, a rest area for the crew as well as ice cream, spends billions of FCFA every year for his unproductive numerous journeys to Europe.

If we add the cost of regularly leasing of an Airbus aircraft to the subsistence cost of the presidential delegation at the Continental Hotel in Swiss- presented as the customary destination for Mr. Biya during his private visits to Europe, the expenditure for each presidential trip does not only call for anger but also hatred for the presidential couple.

By Sama Ernest with files from Cameroon-info.net

25, August 2016

UNICEF says 49,000 Nigerian children may die to malnutrition ⁰

The UN children’s fund (UNICEF) says some 49,000 Nigerian children could die of malnutrition in the country’s troubled northeast this year if they are not provided with humanitarian aid.

According to a report published by UNICEF on Thursday, some 475,000 children around the Lake of Chad face “sever acute malnutrition” due to drought and the seven-year militancy by the Daesh-affiliated Boko Haram terror group in northeastern Nigeria.

The shallow Lake Chad, which is located on the southern edge of Sahara, borders Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria.

The report added that out of the nearly half a million children at risk, the Nigerian children, who live in the embattled Borno State, Boko Haram’s heartland, would lose their lives by the end of the year if they do not receive treatment and food.

It also appealed for $308 million to tackle the crisis, adding that, to date, it only received some $41 million, 13 percent of what it needed to help those affected in the four countries.

A handout photo released by UNICEF shows Nigerian refugees receiving food aid at the Minawao refugee camp in Northern Cameroon, on April 5, 2016. ©AFP

In the terror-torn Borno “towns and villages are in ruins and communities have no access to basic services,” UNICEF further said in the report, adding that nearly two thirds of hospitals and medical centers had been partially or totally destroyed. Three-quarters of water and facilities responsible for maintaining sanitation also needed rehabilitation, it added.

According to the report, some 2.2 million people are still trapped in the areas under the control of Boko Haram, despite counter-terror assaults against it. An estimated 20,000 people have been killed and more than 2.6 million others made homeless since the beginning of the Boko Haram bloody militancy in Nigeria in 2009.

The terror group has pledged allegiance to Daesh Takfiri terrorists, who are mainly wreaking havoc in Syria and Iraq. Boko Haram has spread its attacks from northeastern Nigeria, its traditional stronghold, to the neighboring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon. Regional countries have created a joint military force in helping Nigeria fight the terrorist group.

Presstv

25, August 2016

Italy: Death toll from powerful earthquake reached 247 ⁰

The death toll from a powerful earthquake that devastated parts of central Italy has reached 247 as rescue and search operations are underway to find possible survivors. On Thursday, Italy’s civil protection agency said a tally by local officials showed that 190 people were killed Rieti Province and 57 in the province of Ascoli Piceno.

According to local media, Italian emergency crews are vigorously searching search through the debris of collapsed houses in the affected areas to find more than 100 people missing a day after the quake measuring 6.2 on the Richter scale flattened scores of towns and villages in the central parts.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said many people were still trapped under the rubble, and vowed that “no family, no city, no hamlet will be left behind.” Officials in Italy’s civil protection agency also said there have been more than 300 aftershocks following the tremor, which was also felt in Rome, adding that searching for survivors is the top priority. The 2,000-population town of Amatrice, one of the areas hardest hit by the Wednesday quake, is now in ruins with only a few buildings left standing.

Presstv

24, August 2016

US has urged its citizens to leave Gaza ⁰

The United States has urged its citizens staying in Gaza to leave the coastal enclave “as soon as possible” over the Israeli bombardments of the area.

The warning came after the Israeli military Sunday pounded targets in the Gaza Strip and injured four, including two in the town of Beit Hanun.

The State Department warned Tuesday against “all travel” to the Gaza Strip and “urges those present to depart as soon as possible when border crossings are open.”

“The security environment within Gaza and on its borders is dangerous and volatile,” the department added. It also said that Americans have been killed or wounded in the Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 2015. However, it added that “there is no indication that US citizens were specifically targeted based on nationality.”

Presstv

23, August 2016

Cameroon lawyers have denounced a hundred sentences of capital punishment in the Far North region ⁰

Legal practitioners in Cameroon have denounced the mistreatment of people sentenced in connection with the fight against terrorism. Cameroon Concord News has gathered that between July 2015 and July 2016, the courts in the Far North Region of Cameroon have delivered over a hundred sentences of capital punishment.

Barrister Mohamad Al Amine, lawyer of the Cameroon Bar, practicing in the city of Maroua who confirmed the information also revealed that these death sentences all involved suspected Boko Haram militants. Lawyer Mohamad Al Amine who is one of only seven lawyers in the region ravaged by rampant attacks orchestrated by the Nigerian Islamic sect Boko Haram deplored the conditions under which those convicted, including “more innocent” are judged.

A journalist reporting for Cameroon Intelligence Report recently opined that the defense of all terrorism related cases have been left to CPDM appointed lawyers for a fee of 5,000 CFA francs per accused. Cameroon-info.net noted in a story on the Boko Haram trials that most of the lawyers appointed by the state counsel cannot even gain access to case files let alone to visit their clients. The prisoners have no contact with their families, lawyers and doctors.

Cameroon government spokesman and minister of communication, Issa Tchiroma has failed to provide a detailed report on the goings-on in the Far North region. We now can reveal that our forces of law and order backed by the CPDM regime are only interested in applying the so-called new terrorism law voted by the national assembly. Calls by members of the Cameroon Bar Association for more humanity in the treatment of those sentenced to death are being ignored by the Biya Francophone Beti-Ewondo regime.

The testimony about the poor treatment of those on the death row in the Far North Region was made public during the launching of activities by the Network of Cameroonian Lawyers against the death penalty in Cameroon (RACOPEM) that took place in Limbe . Members of the body have adopted a firm stand to abolish the death penalty. For them, this type of condemnation not only violates the constitution and international treaties signed by the government but is also not effective in deterring criminals. Barrister Eta Besong Junior, former president of the Cameroon Bar has called on his colleagues to fight this battle with courage and abnegation.

By Rita Akana with files from Cameroon-info.net

23, August 2016

Demands for new national identity card on the rise in Yaounde ⁰

300 demands for the new national identity cards are recorded daily at the Yaounde 10^th District Public Security Station; one of the four pilot identification posts set up in the capital city to issue national identity cards under the new identification system set up by the service provider, GEMALTO.

At 10.00 am yesterday, August 22, 2016, crowds of citizens requesting new national identity cards could be seen lined up in the courtyard of the 10^th District Public Security Station in the Bastos neighbourhood. Guided each day by officers and men of the station as from 4:00 am, those seeking the national identity card for the first time or after the loss of the former, go through stages that involve writing their names on lists as they come, submitting their documents in the secretariat and proceeding to the identification posts where two computers integrated with cameras, electronic fingerprints and signature pads as well scanner-printers record details before a receipt is delivered. Notices outlining requirements and costs are pasted on walls to guide users.

“It takes just 10 minutes when the Internet connection is at its best. Out of 300 demands recorded daily, we issue at least 60 receipts,” stated the Head of the Police Station, Senior Superintendent of Police Ze née Fouda Isabelle. Despite the huge number of requests, she said operations were going on normally since the day after the August 9 2016 launch of the new system. Besides the cost per card that stands at FCFA 2,800, instead of FCFA 5,000 under the old system, users say the procedure is shorter and police officers more welcoming. “I am very satisfied,” Bogni Brondon Richard, a high school leaver from the West Region told Cameroon Tribune after receiving his receipt for his first ever identity card.

“We no longer do fingerprints with ink but use electronic machines instead. This new system will limit fraud,” said Fridoline Elomo Mvogo, a Yaounde resident who received a receipt for a new identity card after she lost the first. According to Senior Superintendent Ze Isabelle, challenges recorded so far include users’ ignorance of requirements and influence-peddling by some personalities for their acquaintances or “protégés” to be given preferential treatment.

Cameroon Tribune

23, August 2016

Nigeria: 30 gunboats, patrol vessel commissioned by the Navy ⁰

The Nigerian Navy has commissioned 30 locally made and nine Sri Lankan gunboats into service, and unveiled an indigenous 38 metre long patrol vessel. The vessels were commissioned in Lagos on 17 August in a ceremony attended by Ministry of Defence Permanent Secretary Danjuma Sheni and Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ete-Ibas, amongst others. The 30 gunboats, which are 8.2 metres long, were built by the Epenal Boat Yard in Port Harcourt. Officials said they would be used to patrol the Niger Delta. The vessels displayed last Wednesday appear to be armed with ST Kinetics 40AGL automatic grenade launchers.

Sheni said another 20 of the locally built gunboats would be delivered to the Nigerian Navy. Ete-Ibas was reported by local media as saying that said the Epenal-built boats were an improvement on 30 others unveiled in Port Harcourt in February and featured modifications that improved sea-keeping, amongst others. He said the vessels contribute to Nigeria’s national security and prosperity and come at half the cost of acquiring vessels from overseas, something that is important as “mounting operational challenges in the face of [the] progressively dwindling economy necessitated the navy to explore more cost saving options through local construction of these patrol boats.”

Nine of the boats were earlier acquired second hand from Sri Lanka for $4.2 million. They were handed over on 6 May in a ceremony in Sri Lanka. According to the Sri Lankan Navy, six Arrow class boats and three Wave Rider class boats were handed over in what the Navy said was its first international defence sale. The 14.5 metre long and 3.5 metre wide inshore patrol craft are powered by two 350 HP engines. They are equipped with a radar system, GPS and electronic compass. The contract included training for Nigerian personnel in Sri Lanka.

In addition to the smaller gunboats, the Nigerian Navy will receive a locally built patrol boat, which was apparently also commissioned last week. NNS Karaduwa is the second Seaward Defence Boat to be built in Nigeria and is 38.9 metres long. In June 2012 the Nigerian Navy commissioned the NNS Andoni, Nigeria’s first locally built warship, into service, and laid the keel for the second Seaward Defence Boat. The 33 metre NNS Andoni had its keel laid at the Naval Dockyard in December 2007, with full construction beginning in January the following year.

Also seen at the Nigerian Naval Dockyard last week was the Ekpe-class patrol boat NNS Damisa and two of the three Combattante IIIB vessels, which were having work carried out at the dry dock. Several other vessels were also seen in Channels Television footage at the yard, including a Yola-class patrol boat.

Senate Committee Chairman on the Navy, Isa Aman-Isa, was reported by Nigeria’s National Daily Newspaper as saying “our plan is to increase the [naval] platforms with the hope that the force would get more from the loan from China-African relations of about $60 billion. In the 2017 budget, we have started making adequate provision for the navy to get more funding. By next year, the issue of Niger Delta Avengers would be a thing of the past.”

Last week the Nigerian government contracted Almarine, a division of John Holt Plc, to manufacture naval vessels, reports This Day. The company said it would manufacture gunboats, as well as ambulance boats, patrol boats and transport boats that may be needed by the Nigerian Navy.

Defenceweb