November 23rd 2017

Dear Members of Parliament,

Dear Fellow Ambazonians,

Video footage of the goings-on in Yaoundé which have reached us this morning evokes the message in the book of Daniel 5ff. That the illustrious SDF MPs took to the floor of the National Assembly to intone Amba protest songs is a historic moment, no less portentious than the fiery denunciation which Hon. Joseph Wirba delivered from that same podium almost a year ago.

We salute these MPs for their courage and patriotism. We urge the people of their respective constituencies to show them support in anyway possible.

Surely, our fifty-six-year misadventure with the Republic of Cameroun must be coming to a close, in a no less dramatic fashion. The peace plants the MPs brandished today are close figurative equivalents of “Benevolent Neutrality” which foreshadowed our peoples’ decisive exit from another entangling alliance more than six decades ago.That singular action was a catalyst to the of our own nation in 1954. In the same way the withdrawal of all our MPs  will crystallise the restoration of that Nation.

The events of 1st October , 2017 were a stark reminder that, as leaders, they have been deserted by their people in the inhospitable land called the Republic of Cameroun. If the lawmakers are still in the service of their constituents, they will muster the courage to follow their constituents’ demands.

It remains the official position of this administration that once our MPs formally tender their resignation, a sergeant-at-arms will receive the credentials of ALL of them who choose to leave Yaoundé and assume their rightful place in the peoples’ house in Buea. The longer they wait, the more risk they expose their people to; incivility, mayhem, extortion, terrorism, and savagery. No doubt so many CPDM MPs can’t face the facts from their SDF peers.

We, therefore, once again invite all Southern Cameroons MPs to make the only decision this historic moment demands of them: leave Yaoundé and return to Buea. We urge them to do so while they still have the choice. As the Book of Daniel tells us, the writing is on the wall; however, unlike Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, they may still have time to be exalted by their people. A history of the Cameroons is being rewritten, and we hope they will be on right side of it. All it takes is for them to do the RIGHT thing as representatives of their people.

Respectfully,

SISIKU Julius AyukTabe

President, Interim Government

At least 40 people have been detained during a swoop on human trafficking across West Africa, after a video surfaced showing refugees apparently being sold at auction in Libya.

In a statement on Thursday, Interpol said those arrested face prosecution for offences including human trafficking, forced labor and child exploitation.

“They are accused of forcing victims to engage in activities ranging from begging to prostitution, with little to no regard for working conditions or human life,” the statement read.

Interpol also noted that some 500 people, including 236 minors, had been rescued in simultaneous operations across Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal.

“The results of this operation underline the challenge faced by law enforcement and all stakeholders in addressing human trafficking in the Sahel region,” the operation’s coordinator Innocentia Apovo said.

The Interpol-led action comes amid global outcry sparked by footage of Africans being sold as slaves in Libya. CNN last week aired footage of a live auction in Libya where black men were being sold for as little as $400 to North African buyers as farmhands.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has recently said that the reported auctions of African refugees in Libya as slaves amounts to “crimes against humanity.”

Libya, gripped by chaos and lawlessness since the fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, was the main embarkation point for mostly African refugees seeking to head to Europe until recently.

However, the flow across the central Mediterranean subsided when the European Union reached an agreement with local militia to provide them with funds and training on relocation of refugees.

In October, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) warned that thousands of Libyan refugees were living in dire conditions in a hub to the west of the capital Tripoli, saying they could be exposed to abuse on a shocking scale.

Source: Presstv

The French Cameroun dictator is putting pressure on the Prime Minister Philemon Yang administration to make available the sum of  CFAF 50 billion needed for the 2018 presidential elections, Cameroon Concord News has gathered from a source inside the presidency.

In the framework of the 2018 Finance Act, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, the Minister –Secretary General at the presidency of the republic, reportedly instructed the secretary-general of the Prime Minister’s office to raise 50 billion FCFA (77,524,508 euros) for the 2018 elections.

This disturbing increase of 15 billion comes at a time when the parliament is meeting to review the 2018 budget. Indeed, general elections are scheduled for October 2018, including the presidential elections, for which nearly 10 French Cameroun politicians have already announced their intention to run for office.

By law, Mr. Biya will summon the electorate to chose their mayors, parliamentarians, senators and the president of the republic. Work in the so-called national assembly has been brought to a stand still following protest led by opposition MPs of the Social Democratic Front party.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

France today called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over slave-trading in Libya as President Emmanuel Macron blasted the auctioning of Africans as a crime against humanity. “France decided this morning to ask for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss this issue,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told parliament.

“We are doing it as a permanent member of the Security Council. We have this capability and we are using it.” Macron said the auctions, captured on film in footage aired by US network CNN, were “scandalous” and “unacceptable”.

“It is a crime against humanity,” he said after meeting with African Union chief Alpha Conde. “I hope we can go much further in the fight against traffickers who commit such crimes, and cooperate with all the countries in the network to dismantle these networks.” CNN aired footage last week of an apparent auction where black men were presented to North African buyers as potential farmhands and sold off for as little as $400.

But the European Union — which is increasingly influenced by the French president — has also been criticised for cooperating with the Libyan coastguard to prevent migrants crossing the Mediterranean. UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein accused the international community of turning a “blind eye to the unimaginable horrors endured by migrants in Libya” and called the EU’s policy “inhuman.” AFP spoke to a number of black African men in Cameroon this week who also reported being slaves in Libya, which has descended into civil war since the Western-backed overthrow of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

“It was total hell,” said Maxime Ndong, one of 250 migrants who arrived in Cameroon on Tuesday night on a plane chartered by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to take people home. “There is a trade in black people there. People who want slaves… come to buy them,” he told AFP. “If you resist, they shoot at you. There have been deaths,” added Ndong, who spent eight months in Libya.

Another migrant, 22-year-old Sanogo, said he had been caught by people who said they were police before being sold to a slave trader. He was then forced to work on a tomato farm. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed horror at the footage on Monday, saying the auctions should be investigated as possible crimes against humanity. African music and football stars have expressed outrage at the revelations, including Ivorian reggae singers Alpha Blondy and Tiken Jah Fakoly, as well as footballer Didier Drogba.

Source: Indian Express

A US Navy aircraft with 11 people on board has crashed into the Philippine Sea while en route to an aircraft carrier, the military said in a statement.

“A United States Navy aircraft carrying 11 crew and passengers crashed into the ocean southeast of Okinawa,” a statement said on Wednesday.

“Personnel recovery is under way and their condition will be evaluated by USS Ronald Reagan medical staff.”

This is the latest accident to hit the US armed forces in East Asia.

The interim president of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe will make public his first ever cabinet in the coming days, Cameroon Concord News has learned from reliable sources close to the leader.

In a press release issued on November 19, 2017, the interim head of state urged Southern Cameroonians to remain united despite the circumstances. President Ayuk Tabe reiterated that the Southern Cameroons revolution is not about groups or factions as was the case in the past.

The Sisiku revealed that revolutions do not succeed in the midst of disunity and indiscipline. “We must have a common goal, and unity in our actions.”

Sisiku Ayuk Tabe informed Ambazonians that work is almost complete on the formation of an interim government for Southern Cameroons. “It is not easy to choose fourteen individuals out of a population of nearly eight million people,” says the leader.

President Ayuk  Tabe also pointed that the stage of activism in the Southern Cameroons struggle is over, “Now you have to go to the nation building phase.” He invited the different Ambazonian groups to unite for a common purpose; the restoration of Southern Cameroons.

The leader sounded a note of caution to some prominent figures in the struggle “All of us, as leaders, must choose to work together for the good of our people and our country (Ambazonia), otherwise we will be rejected by our people.”  Sisiku Ayuk Tabe also noted that any leader who will work for his personal interest, will be excluded from the interim government.

By Sama Ernest, CCN

Former US President Bill Clinton is facing explosive new claims of sexual assault, according to top-level Democratic Party and the author of several bestselling books on the 42nd American president.

Edward Klein, former New York Times Magazine editor and the author of numerous bestsellers including his fourth book on the Clintons, Guilty as Sin, in 2016, said on Monday that Clinton is facing four separate lawsuits from women who claim he assaulted them when they were teenagers.

The women are now launching legal proceedings and are asking for cash to keep their silence, claimed Klein, whose latest book is All Out War: The Plot to Destroy Trump was released on October 30, 2017.

A member of the 71-year-old former president’s legal team has confirmed the existence of the claims, which stem from the period after Clinton left the White House in 2001.

The women accused Clinton of assaulting them when they were working in low level jobs for billionaire investor Ron Burkle. Clinton was hired by the Burkle to generate business. It is not clear whether the billionaire was aware of the alleged assaults.

The women will go public with their accusations if the legal negotiations fail, according some senior Democratic Party sources, Mail Onlinereported.

“Bill is distraught at the thought of having to testify and defend himself against sex charges again,” said a Democratic Party official familiar with the case as saying.

“He hopes his legal team can somehow stop the women from filing charges and drag him through the mud.”

The fresh allegations will revive memories of Clinton’s notorious extramarital affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky while he was still in the White House, and of previous charges of sexual assault against him.

Clinton, then 49, and 22-year-old Lewinsky started a sexual relationship in 1995 in the White House and came to light in 1998.

Lewinsky admitted she had sexual encounters with Clinton on nine occasions, until March 1997 and alleged that First Lady Hillary Clinton was at the White House during many of those incidents.

On January 26, 1998, Clinton ended a televised speech with the false statement that he did not have sexual relations with Lewinsky.

Clinton admitted in a taped testimony in front of grand jury on August 17, 1998, that he had engaged in an “improper physical relationship” with Lewinsky.  On that day, he also admitted in a televised statement that his relationship with Lewinsky was “not appropriate.”

The Lewinsky scandal led to impeachment of Clinton in the House of Representatives on December 19, 1998. Clinton was acquitted by the Senate in 1999 over his affair with Lewinsky.

Clinton was also sued by Paula Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, back in the late 1990s for sexual harassment.  Clinton reportedly paid $850,000 to settle the lawsuit by Jones.

Culled from Presstv

Speaking while under house arrest, Zimbabwe’s embattled President Robert Mugabe has shocked the nation by making no mention of resignation despite a military takeover and a looming noon deadline set by his own party for him to cede power.

The 93-year old president delivered a 20-minute address Sunday on live television, hours after his Zanu-PF Party sacked him and urged the leader to step down by noon (1000 GMT) on Monday or face impeachment.

Zimbabweans, who widely expected Mugabe to announce his resignation in the address, had gathered in public places across the capital, Harare, to watch the speech.

However, much to their disbelief, Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe for nearly four decades, offered no concessions to his opponents, and even pledged to preside over a special Zanu-PF congress scheduled for next month.

The president acknowledged criticism from Zanu-PF, the military and public, but said the events of last week were not “a challenge to my authority as head of state and government.”

“Whatever the pros and cons of how they [the army] went about their operation, I, as commander-in-chief, do acknowledge their concerns,” he said.

The long-running president stressed the need to return normality to the African state, but made no mention of demands from the public and from his own party, to resign as president.

Angered by the speech, Chris Mutsvangwa, head of the influential war veterans’ association, said plans to impeach Mugabe in parliament would now go ahead, and that there would be mass protests on Wednesday.

“That speech has nothing to do with realities,” he said, calling on people to go back to the streets.

Both houses of Zimbabwe’s parliament are due to convene on Tuesday for a debate over the impeachment bid, which would require a two-thirds majority in both chambers.

The political crisis began in the South African county after Mugabe sacked his vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, two weeks ago.

The sudden move angered army commanders and led to the military takeover last week. The commanders considered Mugabe’s sudden decision as an attempt to position his wife, Grace Mugabe, as his successor.

She has not been seen since the takeover.

It was thought that the army had managed to take power in a “bloodless transition” coup, but it insists that it has no intention of taking permanent control of government and that it is an operation to root out “criminals around (Mugabe) who are committing crimes.”

Mnangagwa, who was appointed interim leader of the Zanu-PF, is widely expected to take over from Mugabe as president.

Culled from Presstv

News of black men being put on sale at a Libyan “slave market” has drawn outrage from the African Union (AU) and triggered violent protests in Paris.

Guinean President Alpha Conde, who is also the chairman of the AU, demanded on Friday that the “despicable trade” be stopped, the slaves be set free, and the perpetrators be put on trial.

The outrage was sparked by a CNN report showing footage of a live auction in Libya where black youths were being sold for hundreds of dollars to buyers as farmhands.

“These modern slavery practices must end, and the African Union will use all the tools at its disposal,” Conde said.

The black youths on sale in Libya are generally African asylum seekers from nations such as Guinea, Senegal, the Gambia, Mali, Nigeria, and Niger. Media reports say many of the asylum seekers end up in the wrong places and lose their freedom to gangs that are either led or are in cahoots with human traffickers.

The asylum seekers-turned-slaves had sought to cross through the country and travel over the Mediterranean Sea to Europe, where they sought to ultimately settle.

Libya has opened an investigation into the slavery report, saying it would free the slaves, according to the CNN.

“A high-level committee has been convened encompassing representatives from all the security apparatus to oversee this investigation,” said Anes Alazabi, an official with the internationally-recognized government of Libya’s Anti-Illegal Immigration Agency.

“Priorities of the investigation are not only to convict those responsible for these inhumane acts, but also to identify the location of those who have been sold in order to bring them to safety and return them to their countries of origin,” said the Libyan official.

Libya has been in a state of near chaos since 2011, when its long-time dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, was ousted, and rival militia groups and factions started vying for power and territory.

Protest in Paris

In related news, protesters carrying signs reading “No to slavery in Libya,” gathered in front of the Libyan Embassy in Paris on Saturday to protest the practice of slavery.

Culled from Presstv

The Government of Cameroon must engage representatives of the Anglophone population in a meaningful political dialogue and halt renewed violence in the south-west and north-west, where the country’s English-speaking minority are reportedly suffering worsening human rights violations, a group of UN experts* has warned.

“We urge the Government to adopt all necessary measures consistent with Cameroon’s human rights obligations to end the cycle of violence,” the experts said in a joint statement. Up to 17 people have reportedly been killed, and dozens wounded and arrested in demonstrations in the country’s Anglophone regions since 1 October.

The experts are disturbed by reports of a series of measures taken by the national authorities, including curfews, a ban on public meetings, and other restrictions aimed at preventing peaceful protests. Excessive use of force by the security services, injuries, mass arrests, arbitrary detentions, torture and other ill-treatment have also been reported.

Freedom of expression has been reportedly limited by the blocking of internet connections and of access to social media platforms such as Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook, which a UN expert has previously condemned.

“These restrictions must stop immediately, and the Government must ensure a thorough, impartial and independent investigation into all allegations of human rights violations perpetrated during and after the events of 1 October. The Government must take effective measures to prosecute and sanction all those responsible for such violations.”

The appeal for action comes nearly a year after UN experts publicly urged the Government to halt violence against the English-speaking minority , following reports that Anglophone protesters in Buea and Bamenda had suffered undue force.

The experts also denounced any use of violence against members of the security forces, after reports that several were killed last week.

Since December 2016, the experts have repeatedly raised concerns directly with the Government of Cameroon and continue to monitor and seek clarification of the alleged human rights violations in the north-west and south-west of the country.

Source: Modern Ghana