News

23, July 2016

19 Nigerian soldiers missing after Boko Haram ambushed ⁰

The Nigerian military says 19 soldiers have gone missing after the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group ambushed military forces in the embattled northeastern province of Borno. On Thursday, “when our troops were returning to their defensive location, they ran into an ambush by the terrorists who came to reinforce their fleeing comrades. The troops fought back… killing many of them,” said Major-General Lucky Irabor, the military chief of staff, on Friday.

He went on to say that three officers and 16 soldiers were still missing, adding that another 16 soldiers and three pro-government civilian vigilantes sustained injuries in the incident. The development came three days after the army conducted a full-scale operation in the restive province, killing at least 42 terrorists and rescuing 42 children and 38 women kidnapped by Boko Haram in Gangere village. This also comes as military has reportedly rescued as many as 10,000 people form Boko Haram captivity this year.

Presstv

22, July 2016

Revealed: Algeria is the most racist country on earth ⁰

Algeria is the most racist country in the world, according to a study conducted by several organizations including Open Borders for Refugees and Stop Dis Stop Crime in Nations. The North African nation won the first place following more than 1,248 respondents in which over 75% of its citizens admitted to haven racist ideas or very extreme.

The population of Algeria is composed of 99% Arabs and 1% of Europeans (according to official sources), because the black skin individuals are not counted. Algeria has blatantly refused to host any migrant from Iraq and Syria.

91% of Arab Algerians have reportedly demanded the immediate expulsion of blacks in the country (which are not up to 100,000 people. 83% of those surveyed would prohibit Christianity and 61% would ban Judaism. More than half is against the admission of refugees, not because of the jihadist threat but because of the ethnicity of the migrants. 95% of Algerians would ban visas for Chinese immigrants.

Algeria is the country with the most racist crimes on the road; over 21,000 road deaths in 2015 and more than 60,000 wounded with the victims mostly black, Europeans or Asians, according to the study.

Chi Prudence Asong (Cameroon Concord News Group)

22, July 2016

Buea: Forum to raise funds to support orphans and widows of fallen soldiers ends up with numerous pledges ⁰

The Fallen Patriotic Foundation, FPF, a non-denominational and apolitical organization has joined hands with government to support orphans and widows of soldiers who died in the course of defending the nation in the war against Boko Haram extremism. According to statistics from FPF, there are close to 450 orphans who need full parental support. The founder of the foundation, Laura Ndiwane epse Sako, said FPF was working to provide assistance in the area of education to children of fallen soldiers.

They also seek to provide counseling and psychosocial assistance to families of the deceased to enable them cope with the situation and accept the loss, as well as assist them in the compilation of documents to receive death benefits from the State, among others. During the ceremony, the Secretary General of Buea Council on behalf of the Mayor, made a contribution for schools in Buea, while Mrs. Menga pledged to sponsor all orphans of fallen patriots in the South West Region.

A company that supplies antennas pledged to sponsor all the orphans of two northern regions. There were other pledges as well as freewill donations. The widow of Major Agbor Djomo Johnson, Noubessi Ruth, said that her daughter was just six weeks old in her womb before the father died at the battle front. A video of the activities of the military in the battle front was also projected during the ceremony.

The Fallen Patriots Foundation was created on November 27, 2015 in Yaoundé with the objective to support and guarantee the education of orphans of fallen soldiers. The importance of the ceremony was to present the foundation and to raise funds. In the days ahead, specifically on the 10^th 12^th and 19^th of August, 2016, scholarships will be awarded to children from Maroua, Garoua and Yaoundé respectively.

Cameroon Tribune

21, July 2016

Nigeria: Army frees 42 children, 38 women from Boko Haram cells ²

Nigeria’s military has rescued at least 80 children and women in an operation against the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group in the country’s troubled northeast. Army spokesperson Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman said on Thursday that the captives were released on Tuesday by troops who attacked a gathering of the Boko Haram militants at Gangere village in Borno state.

The official added that the freed hostages included 42 children and 38 women. Usman noted that 42 terrorists were also killed during the high-scale offensive. This comes as military has reportedly freed as many as 10,000 hostages form the grips of the Boko Haram terrorists this year. The Takfiri terrorist group has kidnapped a large number of civilians, including several women over the past years.

On April 14, 2014, Boko Haram terrorists kidnapped 276 girls from their secondary school in the northeastern town of Chibok in Borno. Fifty-seven of the girls managed to escape afterwards, but the fate of the remaining others is still largely unknown.

That mass abduction of female students by the terrorist group has shocked people around the world and brought global attention to Boko Haram’s militancy. 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.

Boko Haram 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

21, July 2016

“Tony Blair shall sleep no more” ⁰

British MPs have been given a date in September to debate a motion in the House of Commons to find former prime minister Tony Blair in contempt of parliament for involving the UK in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The date was agreed on Wednesday by the speaker and MPs from across seven parties led by Scottish National Party’s Alex Salmond.

The motion will say that former Labour prime minister had given “seriously misleading” statements in the House of Commons in 2001, 2002 and 2003 and should be therefore held in contempt. The motion was launched after the Chilcot inquiry into the role of the UK in the Iraq war released a report on July 6.

Even if the motion was passed, it would be mainly symbolic as the House of Commons has not used its power to punish non-MPs for several years. The Chilcot report offered a scathing critique of the UK government’s involvement, under Blair, in and after the invasion of Iraq.

The report said Blair had overstated the threat posed by Saddam’s supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs), deployed ill-prepared forces to the Arab country and had “wholly” inadequate plans for after Saddam’s ouster.

Members of the media inspect the volumes that comprise Iraq Inquiry report, during its presentation by John Chilcot in London on July 6, 2016. ©AFP

The report concluded that Blair’s decision to join the US-led war in Iraq was made “before the peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted.” A spokesperson for the group of MPs who launched the motion said families of British soldiers killed in Iraq were also planning legal action against Blair that would proceed separately.

The inquiry revealed that “Blair was promising US President George W Bush in private memos while he was telling Parliament and people something entirely different in public statements,” the spokesperson also said.

“If we are to prevent such a catastrophe happening again it is essential that parliamentarians learn to hold the executive to critical examination in a way that Parliament failed to do in 2003,” the spokesperson added.

Meanwhile, families of dead soldiers have launched an appeal to raise£150,000 to pay for a legal assessment of the Chilcot report to determine whether they could pursue private prosecution of Blair. The appeal, known as the Crowd Justice, said in a statement on its website that the report has confirmed that there were“serious failings” before and after Iraq war.

“Our armed forces must never again be so callously sacrificed by political ambition and the irresponsibility and failings of Government and Whitehall,” the statement also said. “Those responsible should be held to account. Now it is down to us, the families, to ensure that justice is done,” it added.

Presstv

21, July 2016

Yaounde: Government Delegate fighting urban disorder ⁰

The Government Delegate to the Yaoundé City Council, Gilbert Tsimi Evouna inaugurated seven modern multipurpose kiosks on Wednesday the 20th of July 2016. The new cabins will serve as links between customers and enterprises and contribute in fighting urban disorder.

Prior to the building of the kiosks, the haphazard implantation of business kiosks along streets was the situation that prevailed in Yaoundé. The Government Delegate explained that the number of kiosks will increase to 150 by November 2016 and 500 in 2017. The project was co-sponsored by the city council and some undisclosed institutions.

CRTV

20, July 2016

UN: Security Council to vote to select new Secretary General ⁰

The 15 members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will vote behind closed doors on Thursday in order to select the next secretary-general to the world body out of a dozen officially proposed contenders.

Representatives of the 10 non-permanent member states along with those of powerful permanent five – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States – will huddle together on Thursday to choose the ninth officeholder of the UN, a successor to the incumbent Ban Ki-moon.

Each member state will rate the 12 candidates with a ballot marked “encourage,” “discourage” or “no opinion,”, and the contender with the most secured “encourage” ballots will be nominated for the job and introduced to the General Assembly for the final vote.

The selection process, however, is not that straightforward and is hugely overshadowed by the unique and highly controversial privilege of the five permanent members to veto.

Not only can the five permanent members veto any resolution but can block any candidate as well. As a result, the selection is subject to the veto of any of the five permanent members of the Security Council.

Of the 12 candidates, six are women, from three different continents. If one of them is selected as the next leader of the UN, she will be the first ever officeholder of the world body, since there has never been a female secretary-general so far.

Moreover, the bulk of the candidates – eight – are from Eastern Europe, a region which has had no representatives in the top job since the creation of the UN in the final year of the Second World War.

Among the top contenders vying for the job are Argentina’s Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra, Slovenia’s former president Danilo Turk, New Zealand’s former premier Helen Clark, and Antonio Guterres, who served as Portugal’s prime minister.

Ban took office for his first five-year term on January 2007 and was re-elected to a second term on June 2011, after his first one expired on December 2011. He will leave office at the end of the year and will be replaced by the new leader on January 2017.

The UN is under fire for years by member states not only for the unrivaled ability of veto, enjoyed by the permanent five members, but also for its secretary-generals, who are chosen not for their abilities to run the world body and serve all member states, but to serve the permanent five members.

Presstv

20, July 2016

Three French soldiers killed in Libya ⁰

France’s defence ministry says three of its soldiers have died in Libya, reportedly after their helicopter was shot down. A short statement said the soldiers died “while on mission”.

Earlier on Wednesday, ministry spokesman Stephane Le Foll confirmed for the first time that French special forces were in Libya. On Tuesday, Associated Press quoted Libyan officials as saying an Islamist militia shot down a French helicopter. The attack on Sunday happened near the city of Benghazi, and left no survivors, AP reported.

BBC

19, July 2016

Mali: 12 soldiers killed in militant attack on army base ⁰

At least a dozen Malian soldiers were killed Tuesday in an attack by militants on an army base in the city of Nampala in central Mali.

Ousmane Diallo, the deputy mayor of the nearby town of Diabaly, and a security source both confirmed that assailants also wounded at least 27 people as they took control of the military base, which is located close to Mauritania’s border.

“The army is regrouping in town (Diabaly) and is preparing a counter-attack to retake the base, which fell into the hands of the assailants,” Diallo said.

Presstv

18, July 2016

King Mohammed VI of Morocco announces plans to rejoin the African Union ⁰

Morocco has officially announced plans to rejoin the African Union more than three decades after it left the bloc in protest at the independence of Western Sahara. King Mohammed VI sent a message to the leaders of the union as they began a two-day summit in the Rwandan capital Kigali on Sunday, saying it’s time for his country to retake its position in the organization.

“For a long time our friends have been asking us to return to them, so that Morocco can take up its natural place within its institutional family. The moment has now come,” said the monarch. He said although Morocco left the club, “it never quit Africa.” In 1984, King Mohammed’s father, King Hassan II, pulled the North African country out of the union over the decision to accept the independence of Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as a formal member.

Morocco annexed Western Sahara in 1975 and considers it the kingdom’s “southern province.” For decades, the United Nations has been seeking to hold a referendum on independence for the territory. While the government in Morocco continues to carry out multi-million-dollar development projects in the territory, several African countries recognize the area as the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic.

Morocco has offered wide-ranging autonomy for the region, but the Polisario Front, the independence movement in the Western Sahara insists that a referendum be held so that the local population can decide their fate. Leaders of the movement warned in April that that if the UN Security Council fails to set a timetable for a vote on self-determination, war will be possible over the disputed territory.

Presstv