Crisis Group’s work in Cameroon put under reported risks in this country on the policy making radar years before the outbreaks of the Boko Haram insurgency in the Far North and a separatist revolt in Anglophone regions.

Crisis Group’s story in Cameroon began in 2009, when we consulted a broad range of ordinary Cameroonians, from teachers to activists, about emerging dangers in their country. Our first two reports, published in May and June 2010, aimed to focus diplomats’ thinking on worsening problems of governance, over-centralised politics and insecurity. At the time, we were still a lonely voice raising these issues. “Our reports were widely admired, but largely ignored”, recalls the lead contributor, our Central Africa expert and current Project Director Richard Moncrieff. “It’s a classic problem with early warning”.

In 2013, Crisis Group hired Hans de Marie Heungoup to analyse Cameroon full time. A young postgraduate from Cameroon with several years of research experience and expertise in conflict prevention, he soon concluded that the jihadist group Boko Haram posed a significant threat in the Far North. “Because of the way Cameroon is governed, it was clear that dealing with the insurgency would be a challenge”, Heungoup explains.

In 2016, a travelogue about a three-week trip to the Far North by Hans de Marie Heungoup, including photos and videos, brought the reality of the Boko Haram conflict to the outside world. After publication, the U.S. State Department asked him for a detailed briefing about his findings.

Our November 2016 report, Cameroon: Confronting Boko Haram, provided a ground-breaking assessment of the emergence of the insurgency in the country’s Far North, the government’s response to it and the political and economic consequences of its counter-insurgency efforts. It provoked extensive debate in Cameroon, where Hengoup and Moncrieff briefed officials from the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of External Relations and diplomats.

“We were the first NGO to engage on Boko Haram in Cameroon and we are the only NGO that has consistently produced ideas for a comprehensive approach to stemming the violence in the country’s Far North”, notes Moncrieff. “Officials say we help them think through their response. A reliable source told us that the president’s office would usually take an hour to talk through our reports on Boko Haram with senior officials from the defence, foreign affairs and communication ministries”.

” ‘Crisis Group plays an indispensable role in understanding Cameroon, particularly during these difficult moments for the country.’ – Peter Henry Barlerin, U.S. Ambassador to Cameroon, October 2018″

Follow-up reports in 2017 tackled the economic and humanitarian fallout of the conflict, and explored options for rebuilding the troubled region. Cameroon’s international partners have frequently adopted our recommendations, for example on demobilising vigilante groups and dealing with Boko Haram members. The World Bank and several development agencies, including USAID and France’s AFD, told us that our analysis guided their projects in the Far North, while some European and U.S. diplomats have used it to develop their policy engagement in Cameroon.

We have had impact with Cameroonian officials as well. In late 2018, the government took a new approach to the northern insurgency. It created a committee to disarm, demobilise and reintegrate former Boko Haram combatants, as we had advised in our August 2018 report Cameroon’s Far North: A New Chapter in the Fight against Boko Haram. Officials in Yaoundé tell us that the government is now far more aware of the need to tackle socio-economic and humanitarian issues in areas where Boko Haram operates. It has started acting tentatively to promote development there, and is considering the incorporation of some vigilante groups into local municipal police forces, as we have recommended.

Another central focus for Crisis Group in Cameroon has been the crisis in the country’s Anglophone regions. We sometimes faced strong resistance in doing this work. Cameroonian authorities publicly criticised and even rejected our findings after we reported on how government troops committed widespread abuses against separatists and civilians in the Anglophone Northwest and Southwest regions, warned this could trigger a broader crisis, and made suggestions for preventing it.

” ‘Your organisation has done a crucial work in the Far North. My colleagues and I definitely use your analysis and usually comment it.’ – Cameroonian senior official at the Ministry of External Relations, March 2017″

But our timely, unique research and our August and October 2017 early warning reports about violence in the Anglophone regions were prescient. Our worst fears came to pass. Tellingly, those two publications are among Crisis Group’s most-read publications since its inception.

Our work on the Anglophone crisis is beginning to have an impact, even if a sustainable peace is still a long way off. Following Crisis Group’s 21 December 2017 statement calling for the government to engage in dialogue with Anglophone leaders to discuss the country’s decentralisation and governance, President Paul Biya changed tack.

In a 31 December speech of the same year, he promised decentralisation. And in 2018, he created a ministry of decentralisation, allocated it $90 million and released 289 Anglophone detainees.

This progress notwithstanding, the insurgency spread and nearly 1,000 Anglophone activists remained behind bars in early 2019. The government was still rejecting dialogue with Anglophone leaders on governance and institutional reforms, and failing to stem abuses committed by security forces. In response, the U.S. announced in January 2019 a reduction of its military assistance to Cameroon. This was a measure we had recommended it take if the government continued its crackdown in Anglophone areas.

Crisis Group played a catalytic role in persuading the Catholic Church to mediate the Anglophone crisis. A group of senior Western diplomats in Yaoundé used our April 2018 briefing, Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis: How the Catholic Church Can Promote Dialogue, as a starting point in its outreach to Catholic bishops, Anglophone federalist leaders and the government to push for mediation. The Church continues to play this role.

” ‘ICG’s reports on Cameroon are the most solid. I recommend them to all new diplomats. Now, why don’t things move? Pushing for recommendations is not an easy job.’ – Senior German diplomat in Yaoundé, March 2018″

The personal credibility of our analysts and senior staff in diplomatic circles is crucial to Crisis Group’s impact. They have testified on Cameroon in the UK parliament, at EU seminars and twice in the U.S. Congress, and briefed senior officials from the UN, the African Union, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and Cameroon. The Ambassador of a European country in Cameroon told us: “Crisis Group reports have had a very great impact and influence [and] are read by Western ambassadors and other policymakers in Yaoundé”. In September 2017, four U.S. congressmen quoted our report as they asked then-U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to intervene for the release of Anglophone detainees. Then on 7 December of the same year, ten U.S. senators quoted Richard Moncrieff in their letter to Tillerson requesting that the U.S. pressure the Cameroonian government to solve the Anglophone conflict and advocating for individual sanctions against senior Cameroonian officials involved in human rights abuses.

Cameroonians are living through tough times. While war rages in the Anglophone areas and the Far North, the political scene is riven with bad faith and dishonesty and public debate on social media is full of manipulation and propaganda. Many of Cameroon’s citizens are nervous about what will happen when President Biya’s long rule finally comes to an end.

In this tense environment, Crisis Group is a trusted voice in the conversation that Cameroonians are having about their own country and future. Thanks to numerous television appearances and speeches by Hans de Marie Heungoup, and even his week-long detention by security forces, Crisis Group has become a household name in Cameroon. ‘‘It is amazing that you can reflect on our country so clearly’’, a Cameroonian diplomat told us. ‘‘It is like you are holding a mirror for us’’.

Written by the International Crisis Group

Cameroon’s Minister of Communication Emmanuel Rene Sadi has expressed “indignation” over what he described as the European Union’s interference in Cameroon’s internal affairs.

“Cameroonian internal issues can and should be resolved in Cameroon, by Cameroonians themselves, and the leaders they have freely chosen,” Sadi told a late-night press conference on Monday.

“In any case, the Cameroonian people can never be fooled, and stands ready to say no to subjugation,” he said.

The minister was reacting to a European Union (EU) Parliament resolution that expressed concerns over “high degree of instability” and alleged crackdown on “peaceful demonstrators” in Cameroon.

The EU statement was full of “untruths,” Sadi said.

“The Cameroonian Government is radically opposed to this European Parliament Resolution, and expresses its indignation at an act marked by bias, which is akin to a string of untruths, gratuitous affirmations, ungrounded recriminations, and injunctions accompanied by blackmail, directed against the Cameroonian authorities and our Defense and Security Forces,” he minister said.

Cameroon is a sovereign state with rule of law and respect of human rights, he said.

“As a result, it is up to the Cameroonian people, and the people alone, responsible for providing itself with the institutions of its choice and the laws that govern the life of the nation, just as it is up to the people to choose the person to preside over the destiny of the Cameroonian nation,” Sadi said.

The government does not oppose public protests so long as they are not a threat to public order and peace he said, adding that “appropriate measures” are being taken by the government to resolve the conflict in the Anglophone regions.

Xinhuanet

The European Union has warned of an unfolding catastrophe in the conflict-hit English speaking regions of Cameroon where the state and separatist militia are engaged in blatant atrocities.

In a resolution on Thursday the EU Parliament said the security and political situation in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon were deteriorating and called on President Paul Biya’s government to immediately take all steps to bring an end to the violence and impunity in the country.

In its resolution No 2019/2691(RSP) of April 18 the European Parliament deplored the growing violence and discrimination facing the Anglophone community in the country; expressing particular concern over allegations that government forces are responsible for killings, excessive use of force, and torture of civilians.

“Regrettably, unlawful killings and atrocities continue to be reported regularly (in the regions) allegedly involving both the security and defence forces and separatist groups,” Federica Mogherini, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy told the EU parliament.

She said the 28-member states EU has consistently called for dialogue between the government and armed separatists as the only way to achieve a sustainable solution to the crisis, “in a non-violent and inclusive manner, respecting fundamental rights and the rule of law.”

In the resolution, the legislative body asked the government to lift the ban on the activities of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium and to ensure an open space in which civil society can operate.

In her statement to Parliament Ms Mogherini said there was repression of demonstrations and narrowing of political space in Anglophone regions. She said 47 key opposition figures are under arrest awaiting military trials while more than a hundred protesters are in detention. Lawyers said Cameroon laws were not being respected.

“We have asked for the release of detainees against whom hard evidence cannot be produced and we asked for an immediate halt to violence, to human rights violations and hate speech. Regarding the situation in the English speaking regions of the Northwest and Southwest, we have consistently called for dialogue as the only way to achieve a sustainable solution, in a non-violent and inclusive manner, respecting fundamental rights and the rule of law,” Ms Mogherini said.

However, she lamented unlawful killings and atrocities continue to be reported regularly, allegedly involving both the security and defence forces and separatist groups

About 500,000 people are now displaced, including 32,000 refugees from Cameroon registered in Nigeria. Cameroon is also grappling with continued attacks by Boko Haram in the far North as well as in Chad, Niger and Nigeria.

“We know that Boko Haram is not invincible, and has suffered major setbacks. Yet we are seeing civilian deaths and losses by the security forces in Cameroon,” she told Parliament. There have been various accounts, supported by unverified gory images, describing what is going on in Cameroon as genocide but the government says the accounts are exaggerated by civil society looking for sponsors.

“We need to continue our humanitarian support as part of the international humanitarian response on the various fronts. If we consider both the Internally Displaced People and the refugees coming from Nigeria and the Central African Republic, there is about one million people in need of help,” she said.

Violence erupted in the Cameroon’s two English speaking regions when an industrial strike by aggrieved lawyers and teachers in 2016 over perceived marginalization turned into a clamour by armed separatists for outright independence of the region. Ambazonia, as the separatists identify the region, was administered as part of Nigeria as a UN trust territory under British control prior to reunification.

In November last year, the International Crisis Group (ICG) reported that the fighting had already killed between 450 to 500 civilians, 185 members of the security forces and hundreds of armed separatists. No official casualty figures have been reported since then but the toll has certainly risen as there has been several attacks since then.

ICG estimated that around 10 armed separatist groups had gained control of “large rural areas and a number of main roads” in the two English speaking regions.

Besides killings, the groups have been blamed for the repeated kidnappings of school children, staff and other officials in the regions. Trips to various localities of the regions even for burials are near impossible as the armed groups have mounted road blocks and kidnap travellers for ransoms.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a recent report said government forces killed at least 170 civilians in the last six months while civilians in the Anglophone regions were also attacked by armed separatists during the same period, with at least two men being executed.

The report said soldiers, special army units and gendarmes used indiscriminate force and torched hundreds of homes and public buildings in the Northwest and Southwest regions between October and March.

The government however dismissed the report saying it lacks seriousness and objectivity.

Communication Minister, Rene Emmanuel Sadi said troops deployed to the regions work perfectly within their sovereign role of ensuring the protection of the nation and the populations, in keeping with republican values, against outlaws who mercilessly kill and sow terror and despair.

“Human Rights Watch has betrayed an obvious bias in favour of armed gangs,” Mr Sadi said. HRW called for “immediate measures by the government of Cameroon and the international community to protect the security, safety and unhindered access to healthcare and education for children.”

Cameroon Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji who is also National Coordinator of an Emergency Humanitarian Assistance Plan; a government initiative to assist victims of the conflict said the humanitarian situation in the regions is “under control.”

Contrary to the half a million Internally Displaced Persons by the crisis figure by civil society organisations, he said, official data indicated that only 152,000 persons have been displaced by the crisis.

In June last year, the government unveiled a FCFA 12.7 billion ($21.8 million) relief plan for the reintegration of the affected populations; reconstruction of destroyed infrastructure, housing, food, healthcare and education. CFCA stands for the Central Africa Franc, the single currency for the six states forming the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa States.

Relations between the minority Anglophone Cameroonians and the country’s dominant Francophone elite have long been fraught. Cameroon’s Anglophones often complain of being treated as second-class citizens since the reunification.

These grievances led to peaceful protests in 2017 which government forces violently repulsed after separatists load on the protests to declare independence for the state of Ambazonia.

President Biya, 86, who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years, has relied on military force to keep the country united.

On his re-election in November last year, President Biya vowed to pursue policies of decentralisation to address “frustrations and aspirations” in English-speaking regions hit by separatist unrest. He asked the rebels to drop their arms or face the determination of the military.

It was the first time in 13 months of pro-independence violence that Biya had clearly acknowledged the struggles of those living in anglophone areas. The United States, however, has suspended military aid to Cameroon over the suppression of human rights.

In November last year, President Biya’s government refused to authorise the Anglophone General Conference which was to kick-start dialogue on improving security in the regions. Organisers are still hopeful the conference will be allowed this year.

Culled from The East African

Sri Lankan police have arrested two dozen people in connection with a string of bomb attacks on several churches and hotels that have claimed the lives of at least 290 people.

The country went on lockdown on Easter Sunday after eight apparently coordinated blasts hit churches filled with worshipers as well as luxury hotels in the capital Colombo, and the cities of Negombo and Batticaloa.

Police announced the dramatic rise in the death toll on Monday morning, saying some 500 people had also been injured in the attacks, the worst of their kind since the end of Sri Lanka’s devastating civil war a decade ago.

There were 32 foreigners among those killed, including nationals from Britain, the United States, Turkey, India, China, Denmark, the Netherlands and Portugal.

Three police officers were also killed several hours after the attack, when they raided a house in Colombo. Police reported an explosion at the house.

There has been no immediate claim of responsibility, but police say they have already made 24 arrests in connection with the bloodshed.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told reporters that “so far the names that have come up are local,” but investigators will look into whether the suspected attackers had any “overseas links.”

The premier also acknowledged that “information was there” about possible attacks. “While this goes on, we must also look into why adequate precautions were not taken.”

An intelligence memo warning of a possible attack had circulated 10 days earlier, raising questions about whether more preventative measures could have been taken.

“Serious action need to be taken as to why this warning was ignored,” Sri Lanka’s Minister of Telecommunications, Harin Fernando, tweeted along with a photo of the memo. The document, titled “Information of an alleged plan attack,” is dated April 11 and signed by Deputy Inspector General of Police, Priyalal Dissanayake.

Some intelligence officers were aware of this incidence. Therefore there was a delay in action. What my father heard was also from an intelligence officer. Serious action need to be taken as to why this warning was ignored. I was in Badulla last night

President Maithripala Sirisena, who was on a private visit to India and Singapore, called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council early on Monday, according to a government source.

He expressed his shock at the explosions, saying he had issued directives to the law enforcers – including police and the Special Task Force – to carry out investigation into the incident and take action against those involved.

The prime minister would also attend the meeting, the source added.

Authorities earlier convened an emergency meeting involving the heads of the army, air force and navy, according to Economic Reforms Minister Harsha de Silva.

Witnesses said soldiers armed with automatic weapons stood guard outside major hotels and the World Trade Centre in the business district.

Heavy security measures are also reported outside the St. Sebastian’s church in the city of Negombo — one of the churches that came under attack.

Meanwhile, a police spokesman said the Sri Lankan military had found a homemade bomb near the departure gate of Colombo’s main airport late on Sunday as it was clearing a route in preparation for Sirisena’s return home. They disposed of the device in a controlled explosion, according to the spokesman.

Night-time curfew announced

A curfew that was enforced on the country from Sunday evening was relaxed early Monday morning, allowing many people to make their way home from the main airport, where they were stranded overnight due to the restrictions.

The government, however, ordered a night-time curfew that would run from 8:00 p.m. local time until 4:00 a.m. on Tuesday in the capital.

The curfew was announced as security forces said they are carrying out searches across the country for those behind the bomb attacks.

It was also announced that the president will declare a nationwide emergency from midnight on Monday.

“The government has decided to gazette the clauses related to prevention of terrorism to emergency regulation and gazette it by midnight,” the president’s media unit said in a statement.

According to the president’s office, Sirisena will ask for foreign assistance to help track what it called international links to the bombings.

The government has also blocked access to social media and messaging sites out of concerns that “false news reports … spreading through social media” could lead to violence.

The services will be suspended until investigations into the attacks are concluded, the government said.

This has, however, concerned many, who believe it is very important for people to be able to communicate at times of crisis.

“This really puts people who already have vulnerable access to communication in a much worse position. It is a dangerous precedent to set,” said Joan Donovan, director of the technology and social change research project at Harvard Kennedy’s Shorenstein Center.

Facebook issued a statement Sunday, offering its condolences to those “affected by this horrendous act,” stating it is “committed to maintaining our services and helping the community and the country during this tragic time.”

“We are aware of the government’s statement regarding the temporary blocking of social media platforms,” it said. “People rely on our services to communicate with their loved ones.”

‘Intl. network likely involved’

Cabinet spokesman Rajitha Senaratne said on Monday that the attacks could not have succeeded without the help of “an international network.”

“We do not believe these attacks were carried out by a group of people who were confined to this country,” Senaratne said. “There was an international network without which these attacks could not have succeeded.”

 He said that authorities were warned two weeks before the attacks, and had the names of suspects.

Meanwhile, security experts have warned that the attacks bear the hallmarks of the Takfiri Daesh and al-Qaeda terror groups.

A senior Asian counter-terrorism official who declined to be identified said the attack was likely carried out by a group with “significant operational capability and skilled commanders.”

US issues travel warning

In another development, the State Department issued a travel advisory for its citizens traveling to Sri Lanka, saying that “terrorist” groups “continue plotting possible attacks in Sri Lanka.”

 It listed several potential targets, including tourist spots, transportation centers, markets, malls, government offices, hotels and places of worship, saying terrorists could attack “with little or no warning.”

Muslim leaders urge ‘maximum punishment’ for perpetrators

In the meantime, top Muslim leaders in the county demanded “maximum punishment” for the perpetrators of the attacks.

 They also offered their condolences “to the people of Christian faith and extend our hands of friendship in solidarity.”

“We urge the government to provide security to all religious sites and to give maximum punishment to everyone involved in these dastardly acts,” said the All Ceylon Jamiyyathuul Ulama, or council of Muslim theologians.

The National Shoura Council, a group of 18 Muslim organizations, also said that the government must not “leave any stone unturned in its efforts to apprehend the culprits whoever they may be and to whatever part of the populace they may belong to.”

Fears of fresh post-civil war violence

The South Asian nation has a population of about 22 million people; 70 percent of whom are Buddhist, 13 percent Hindu, 10 percent Muslim and seven percent Christian, according to the country’s 2012 census. 

Sri Lanka is reeling from a 26-year civil war that ended in 2009 with an estimated 100,000 deaths. The strife was mainly between the so-called Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government, and ended when government forces defeated the rebels.

Authorities are now concerned that the new spate of violence could upset the fragile peace in the country.

Police have already reported a petrol bomb attack on a mosque in Sri Lanka’s northwest and arson attacks on two shops owned by Muslims in the west.

Moreover, the country has recently witnessed a surge in ultra-nationalist Buddhism led by its most powerful Buddhist organization, the Bodu Bala Sena.

Source: Presstv

US President Donald Trump has swiped at Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) one day after Romney said he was “sickened” by Trump’s actions detailed in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.

Romney issued a sharp rebuke of Trump Friday following the release of Mueller’s report, saying, “I am sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the President.”

Trump, in response, took to Twitter Saturday, mocking Romney for his loss to former President Barack Obama in the 2012 election.

His tweet also featured a video compilation of clips from Romney’s 2012 election night defeat. Romney, the current Utah senator and former Massachusetts governor, lost the election by over 100 electoral votes, while losing the popular vote to the incumbent Obama by about 4 percentage points.

Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump

If @MittRomney spent the same energy fighting Barack Obama as he does fighting Donald Trump, he could have won the race (maybe)

Trump has said the report “was written as nastily as possible” by “true Trump haters.”

In other tweets earlier on Saturday, he called Mueller a “highly conflicted” individual and described his investigation as “the greatest Witch Hunt in US political history.”

Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump

Despite the fact that the Mueller Report should not have been authorized in the first place & was written as nastily as possible by 13 (18) Angry Democrats who were true Trump Haters, including highly conflicted Bob Mueller himself, the end result is No Collusion, No Obstruction!

Congressional Democrats have taken a legal step to see all of Mueller’s evidence from his inquiry into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election, with some members pushing for the impeachment of Trump just 18 months before the 2020 presidential election.

The redacted edition of the much-anticipated 400-page investigation, covering Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election, as well as Donald Trump and his team’s wrongdoings and possible presidential obstruction of justice, was released in the report on Thursday.

US Attorney General William Barr said Mueller did not discover any evidence that Trump’s election campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.

He also said the Mueller’s two-year investigation did not uncover any evidence that Trump obstructed the special counsel probe.

Source: Presstv

The Anglophone crisis in Cameroon must remain a priority for the European Union, particularly the need for humanitarian support for those displaced, said EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini in an address to the European Parliament.

“Regrettably, unlawful killings and atrocities continue to be reported regularly, allegedly involving both the security and defense forces and separatist groups,” said Mogherini. “The humanitarian consequences of this situation are alarming, with about half a million internally displaced people and over 32,000 refugees from Cameroon registered in Nigeria.”

The EU has consistently pressed for a national dialogue to resolve escalating conflict between the government of President Paul Biya and armed separatists in the English-speaking northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon.

The EU also urged Cameroon to release political prisoners where appropriate, and said it is closely watching the cases of 47 detained Anglophone leaders and their need for a fair and transparent trial.

“On behalf of all the 28 Member States we have asked for the release of detainees against whom hard evidence cannot be produced and we asked for an immediate halt to violence, to human rights violations and hate speech,” Mogherini said.

Cameroon’s situation is made worse by Boko Haram’s presence in its far north, and in neighboring  Chad, Niger and Nigeria, she added. New refugees continue to arrive from Nigeria.

“If we consider both the Internally Displaced People and the refugees coming from Nigeria and the Central African Republic, if we consider that all together, there is about one million people in need of help,” she said. “I believe we have a humanitarian duty that we need to respond to.”

Source: Africa Times

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged South African authorities to prosecute the perpetrators of deadly xenophobic violence that displaced some 300 Malawi migrants three weeks ago but has yielded no arrests.

From March 25 to 27, mobs armed with metal rods and machetes broke into the homes of foreigners in Durban on South Africa’s east coast, chasing them out and looting their belongings, HRW said.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said at least six foreign nationals were killed and several injured, raising fears of a resurgence of xenophobic bloodshed in a country where poor, jobless people accuse migrants of taking their work and benefits.

About 88 survivors of the Durban attacks asked to be sent back to Malawi as they felt unsafe, according to representatives of the Malawi High Commission.

Others had no choice but to return to the same informal settlement they had been violently chased out of.

“Re-integration of foreign nationals into communities without justice and accountability for past xenophobic attacks is a recipe for disaster,” said HRW’s southern Africa director Dewa Mavhinga.

“To deter those who attack foreign nationals, there is an urgent need for effective policing, arrests, and prosecutions.”

The lack of arrests showed “impunity for xenophobic crimes,” said the rights watchdog.

Widespread condemnation of the violence prompted emergency talks between South Africa’s foreign and police ministers, Lindiwe Sisulu and Bheki Cele, and diplomats of African countries.

HRW also urged politicians to refrain from statements that “scapegoat migrants and feed anti-foreigner violence,” ahead of May 8 general elections.

It cited remarks by President Cyril Ramaphosa at a party rally in March, when he “blamed undocumented migrants for problems and promised a crackdown.”

The country hosts millions of foreigners, most from African countries and many undocumented.

Immigrants bear much of the anger about chronic unemployment and limited economic gains made by poor black people since white-minority rule ended in 1994.

Violence erupts sporadically, targeting foreign-owned shops and migrants themselves.

Sixty-two people were killed in a wave of xenophobic violence in 2008, and at least seven in a fresh outburst in 2015.

(Source: AFP)

Leymah Roberta Gbowee, 2011 Noble Peace Prize winner, Liberian female peace activist, on Tuesday called for ending of disputes in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions that have been ravaged by war in the last two years.

“As someone who has survived war and has lived through it, I will tell Cameroonians, war has never been the answer to solving any kind of problem. My message to Cameroon is that it should never be Anglophone or Francophone, it should be one Cameroon, one people.” Gbowee told reporters in the capital Yaounde after meeting with government officials.

She said that she had spent three days in the restive regions urging for an end to the war and intensifying efforts to defend the rights of women and girls in the conflict zone.

“It is the women and girls who pay the brunt of it. There is always increase in sexually transmitted diseases, rape and abuse and teen pregnancies.” Gbowee said, citing the example of her country, Liberia which she said should serve as an example for Cameroon that nobody wins war.

“We (Liberia) went through a very devastating civil war where we killed almost 10 percent of our population and the impact is still been felt by the population. There are no winners in any kind of crisis. It takes generations for the pains to go away,” she said.

Cameroon is largely populated by French-speakers, but since November 2017, Anglophone minority have formed armed groups to fight for the independence of the English-speaking regions after complaining of decades of marginalization.

Source: Xinhuanet

The Stratolaunch, the world’s largest aircraft by wingspan, completed its successful first flight over the Mojave Desert, California, on Saturday.

The Stratolaunch has six engines and has a wingspan of 117m (384ft), bigger than the length of an American football field.

According to official information from Stratolaunch, the aircraft reached a maximum speed of more than 300 kilometres per hour (189 mph), during its 2.5 hour long flight at altitudes up to 17,000 feet (5,181m) over the desert.

According to reports, the Stratolaunch will enable convenient and affordable access to space, as its centre wing is designed to carry as many as three satellite-laden rockets and can support multiple launch vehicles, weighing up to a total of 500,000 pounds (over 226 tons).

In the face of violent attacks from US President Donald Trump and other Republicans, Muslim Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has said nobody could silence her.

“I did not run for Congress to be silent,” Omar wrote on Twitter on Saturday, hours after Trump shared a video suggesting that Omar, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives from Minnesota, was dismissive of the attacks on September 11, 2001.

Ilhan Omar✔@IlhanMN · 14hReplying to @IlhanMN

An administration that would rather give billionaires tax breaks than provide a little cushion for working people. An administration that would rather attack fellow Americans who are transgender and wear our country’s uniform than fight for equality and opportunity for all.

Ilhan Omar✔@IlhanMN

I did not run for Congress to be silent. I did not run for Congress to sit on the sidelines. I ran because I believed it was time to restore moral clarity and courage to Congress. To fight and to defend our democracy.39K7:22 PM – Apr 13, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy11K people are talking about this

The video spliced news footage of 9/11 with a clip from a speech Omar gave last month in which she described the terror attack as “some people did something.”

Omar, who came to the US from Somalia as a refugee and became one of the first Muslim women in Congress, thanked supporters for standing “against an administration that ran on banning Muslims from this country.”

“No one person – no matter how corrupt, inept, or vicious – can threaten my unwavering love for America,” she wrote on Twitter. “I stand undeterred to continue fighting for equal opportunity in our pursuit of happiness for all Americans.”

Ilhan Omar✔@IlhanMN · 14hReplying to @IlhanMN

I did not run for Congress to be silent. I did not run for Congress to sit on the sidelines. I ran because I believed it was time to restore moral clarity and courage to Congress. To fight and to defend our democracy.

Ilhan Omar✔@IlhanMN

No one person – no matter how corrupt, inept, or vicious – can threaten my unwavering love for America. I stand undeterred to continue fighting for equal opportunity in our pursuit of happiness for all Americans.54.9K7:25 PM – Apr 13, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy12.3K people are talking about this

In an other tweet, Omar slammed Trump’s immigration policy. 

Ilhan Omar✔@IlhanMN

This country was founded on the ideas of justice, of liberty, of the pursuit of happiness. But these core beliefs are under threat. Each and every day. We are under threat by an administration that would rather cage children than pass comprehensive immigration reform.108K7:18 PM – Apr 13, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy30.7K people are talking about this

In the hours after Trump attacked Omar, top Democrats in the US Congress strongly condemned Trump and other Republicans for attacking Omar over comments she made that seemingly minimized the 9/11 attacks, which were a series of strikes in the US that killed nearly 3,000 people and caused about $10 billion worth of property and infrastructure damage.

US officials assert that the attacks were carried out by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists but many experts have raised questions about the official account.

They believe that rogue elements within the US government, such as former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney, orchestrated or at least encouraged the 9/11 attacks in order to accelerate the US war machine and advance the Zionist agenda.

In Omar’s speech, given to a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, she said Muslims had “lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen and, frankly, I’m tired of it, and every single Muslim in this country should be tired of it.”

“CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties,” Omar said.

Lawmakers from Trump’s Republican Party have accused Omar of minimizing the 9/11 attacks, while critics of the president say he took Omar’s words out of context in order to stoke anti-Muslim sentiment.

US Senator Bernie Sanders, who is running for president again in the 2020 elections after he lost in 2016, described Omar as a leader with “strength and courage.”

“She won’t back down to Trump’s racism and hate, and neither will we. The disgusting and dangerous attacks against her must end,” Sanders tweeted Friday.

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren condemned the attacks against Omar as not only dangerous for the congresswoman, but Muslims in the US in general.

“President Trump’s inflammatory and dangerous rhetoric towards Ilhan Omar is jeopardizing her safety. He is deliberately putting her and all Muslim Americans in harm’s way,” Inslee tweeted Friday.

Jay Inslee✔@JayInslee

President Trump’s inflammatory and dangerous rhetoric towards Ilhan Omar is jeopardizing her safety. He is deliberately putting her and all Muslim Americans in harm’s way.49.6K1:41 AM – Apr 13, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy16.2K people are talking about this

Warren also tweeted a similar message on Friday: “The President is inciting violence against a sitting Congresswoman—and an entire group of Americans based on their religion. It’s disgusting. It’s shameful. And any elected leader who refuses to condemn it shares responsibility for it.”

Rashida Tlaib, the other Muslim American woman in Congress, was the first on Friday who urged Democrats to “speak up” for Omar.

“Enough is enough,” she wrote. “No more silence, with NY Post and now Trump taking Ilhan’s words out of context to incite violence toward her, it’s time for more Dems to speak up. Clearly the GOP is fine with this shameful stunt, but we cannot stand by.”

Source: Presstv