World

5, January 2019

There are reasons why the Swiss won’t stop President Biya’s Geneva stays ⁰

Reports in 2018 that alleged Cameroon’s president Paul Biya runs his country from a Geneva hotel raise questions whether official Switzerland can intervene in such cases.

Neutral Switzerland, and international Geneva in particular, have long been known as a playground for the rich. But should the Swiss clamp down when some of these people, like Biya, are linked to regimes with dubious democratic records in corrupt countries?

According to a report in early 2018 by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the Cameroonian president has spent at least 1,645 days on private visits abroad since he came to power in 1982, and Geneva is by far his favourite destination. The Hotel Intercontinental in Geneva with its swimming pool and view of Mont Blanc is the residence of choice for the Cameroonian presidential couple.

“According to reporters’ conservative calculations – based on publicly available hotel room prices and a compilation of entourage lists – the total hotel bill of Biya and his colleagues for one stay at Intercontinental adds up to around $40,000 per day,” says OCCRP. “At that rate, the cost of all of the president’s private trips (1,645 days in total) would add up to about $65 million since he came to power – and that’s not counting food, entertainment and the rental of a private plane.”

A traffic light in the foreground of an image of the Intercontinental hotel — (Keystone)

A report by the Wall Street Journal in November 2018 said that since Biya became head of state the hotel is transformed several times a year into a kind of offshore presidential palace for several weeks. According to the WSJ, Biya pays for everything in cash. A normal stay costs several million Swiss francs (about the same in US dollars), according to Christian Penda Ekoka, who was Biya’s chief advisor before moving to the opposition. Ekoka told the WSJ that the money came directly from the treasury, and that everything was paid in cash to prevent the trips appearing in the state account.

Cameroonian protestors

Another report by Swiss public broadcaster RTS in June this year also highlighted Geneva as a “paradise for dictators”. It includes some scenes of the frequent demonstrations by Cameroonian exiles outside the Hotel Intercontinental when Biya is there. “Shame on Switzerland!” they cry. “It’s taxpayers’ money!” “He is stealing the money from the oil of our anglophone region, which is in ruins.”

Cameroon has a reputation for corruption. In 1998 and 1999 it was ranked bottom of the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, and in 2017 it was rated 153rd out of 180 countries. Although Biya is recognized as the legitimate president of Cameroon, his democratic credentials are questionable. The francophone president, 85, won re-election for a seventh term this October in what foreignpolicy.com called a “master class in fake democracy”. That election took place amid an upsurge of rebellion in the country’s anglophone regions, which has been violently repressed by his security forces.

According to the International Crisis Group, “Cameroon’s structural weaknesses (hyper-centralisation, no separation of powers, restriction of civil liberties, corruption of state officials, weak institutions and failure to renew its leadership) are becoming more problematic each passing year. President Paul Biya, in power for 36 years, governs through a combination of clientelism, manipulation of ethnic rivalries and routine human rights violations.”

So what should Switzerland do?

So is Biya’s frequent presence in Geneva an embarrassment for Switzerland, and should it act? “Foreign heads of state can – in a private capacity – stay in Switzerland without the federal authorities being formally informed or involved in the visit,” the foreign ministry told swissinfo.ch.

“As a legitimate head of state, he has a right to travel, especially to Geneva which is the seat of many international organizations,” says Marc Guéniat, Senior Researcher at Swiss NGO Public Eye. “What is problematic is that he spends so much time at taxpayers’ expense, taking over an entire floor of a 5-star hotel.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, which spoke to several former hotel managers, the Intercontinental vacates the entire sixteenth floor for Biya and his entourage, sometimes adding around 30 rooms on other floors.

“He’s not wanted by Interpol, so it’s not a legal question,” says analyst Daniel Warner, a retired former deputy head of the Geneva Institute of International and Development Studies. “Unless he’s on trial somewhere, it’s a political question and a judgment question, and as a neutral country what do you expect the Geneva or Swiss authorities to do? If he’s wanted for a crime, that would be something different, but there is no formal legal process against him.”

Some people nevertheless think Switzerland could do more, starting with tighter checks on visas and on cash coming into the country. One angry Cameroonian demonstrating outside the Geneva Intercontinental in the RTS report tells a Swiss police officer that if Biya “has come to live in Switzerland” he should ask for his residence permit like everyone else.

Asked what the visa regulations are for non-European heads of state visiting Switzerland, the foreign ministry told swissinfo.ch that “when a head of State comes on a private visit to Switzerland he is subject to the same rules as any other foreigner staying in Switzerland”. It did not, however, directly answer the question of who delivers the visas and how long such heads of state are allowed to stay.

Cash rules

Unlike the EU, Switzerland does not automatically require a declaration when importing large amounts of cash. However, under an Ordinance of 2009, Swiss customs officials can request information “on the import, export and transit of cash in an amount of at least CHF10,000 or an equivalent amount in foreign currency”, including the reasons and origin of the money. If there is suspicion of money laundering or terrorist financing, the customs office can also request information when the amount of cash is less than CHF10,000 ($10,000).

As a head of state, Biya enjoys diplomatic immunity. This was confirmed by the foreign ministry. “A sitting head of state enjoys, according to international customary law, absolute legal immunity (for both public and private acts) and personal inviolability,” the ministry said in response to swissinfo.ch. “As for the members of his entourage, the statute they may be granted in Switzerland is examined on a case by case basis, according to the aim of the visit and the function they perform.”

Brazil recently seized millions of dollars from the luggage of a delegation accompanying Teodorin Obiang Nguema, the playboy Vice-President of Equatorial Guinea who is also a frequent visitor to Switzerland. But “Teodorino”, unlike Biya, has a court ruling against him. He was sentenced in France in absentia in October 2017 to a suspended three-year prison sentence for money laundering. And in that case, the Swiss authorities seized luxury cars and a yacht belonging to him, at the request of the French authorities.

Culled from Swissinfo.ch

4, January 2019

UNICEF says 400,000 children in Southern Cameroons need aid ⁰

According to the United Nations Children Emergency Fund, UNICEF, some 400,000 children are in need as a result of the war in Southern Cameroons. UNICEF revealed that approximately 309, 0000 of the children (77%) are in the Northern and Southern Zones adding that some 206,000 are badly in need of immediate assistance.

The report further pointed out that since 2016, political and social instability exacerbated by sporadic violence, impacted negatively the life of the civilian population of Southern Cameroons. Correspondingly, more than 437,000 persons have been displaced.

Going by the report, the Child Protection Area of Responsibility has been activated in October, along with the activation of the other clusters. Its response strategy will focus on 4 different pillars: prevention of further abuse; response to children victims of abuse; capacity building of local actors and communities on child protection; advocacy and multisector collaboration on child protection.

By Sama Ernest

31, December 2018

Malta rescues 180 refugees as weather deteriorates ⁰

Malta has pulled 180 refugees to safety from two boats in distress, while 49 more were stuck in limbo at sea as the weather worsened in the Mediterranean.

An army patrol boat picked up 28 refugees from a dinghy some 71 nautical miles southwest of Malta before plucking another 152 people from a wooden boat to the south.

The rescues followed the recovery by Malta Sunday of 69 refugees on a wooden boat which had run into trouble.

Meanwhile, the UN’s refugee agency said time was “running out” for 49 people rescued by NGO boats but denied a safe port in Europe, some of whom have been stranded at sea for over a week.

The NGOs — the German Sea-Eye and Dutch Sea-Watch — called for “an immediate solution for those being held hostage by European States, who are denying them a safe port.”

“With the weather conditions forecast to worsen this evening, a solution must be found by the end of 2018 in order to prevent placing people’s heath at further risk,” they said in a joint statement.

The German-flagged Professor Albrecht Penck ship has 17 refugees from West Africa on board who were rescued on Saturday in international waters off Libya.

At the same time, the Dutch-flagged Sea-Watch 3 has 32 refugees rescued on December 22و including three young children, three unaccompanied adolescents and four women from Nigeria, Libya and Ivory Coast.

While Italy, Malta, Spain and the Netherlands have refused to accept the Sea-Watch 3 refugees, several German cities have offered to take them in.

On Saturdayو a government spokesman said Germany would only accept some of the refugees if other European countries also agreed to do so.

Last week, a newborn baby and his mother were helicoptered from a boat to Malta.

“The negotiations over which country takes them in must happen only once those rescued are brought safety to land,” UNHCR special envoy Vincent Cochetel said.

More than 1,300 refugees have died trying to reach Italy or Malta via the central Mediterranean since the beginning of the year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The Italian interior ministry said Monday that the number of 2018 arrivals in Italy was down over 80 percent compared with 2017 at just 23,370.

The biggest number came from Tunisia, followed by Eritrea, Iraq, Sudan, Pakistan and Nigeria.

In mid-2017, departures from Libya dropped after a controversial deal between Italy and the war-torn North African country.

A campaign against the NGO rescue organizations peaked in June this year with far-right interior minister Matteo Salvini’s “closed-ports” policy aimed at ending all rescue operations, including military ones.

(Source: AFP)

31, December 2018

President Assad ‘has decisively won’ war in Syria ⁰

Leading British daily the Guardian says 2018 has ended on a note of triumph for the Syrian government amid the US decision to withdraw troops and a race among Arab states to restore ties with Damascus.

US President Donald Trump has announced a rapid troop withdrawal from Syria. The Guardian said the decision has “ended any potential threat originating from an indefinite American presence inside Syria’s borders.”

Last week, the UAE reopened its embassy in Damascus, which it had closed in 2011. Bahrain followed suit and other countries, including Kuwait, are expected to re-establish ties in the coming year. And the Arab League is reportedly poised to re-admit Syria, seven years after expelling it.

According to the Guardian, these developments come five months after the Syrian army made arguably its most consequential gain against terrorists since the foreign-backed war erupted, when it took control of Dara’a in the southwest.

Dara’a, the birthplace of foreign-backed sedition, had been the last stronghold of militants. Its return to the government fold removed any viable threat against the state, either politically or militarily, near the capital.

“Taken together, the military and diplomatic developments over the past six months leave no room for doubt: Assad has decisively won the conflict,” the Guardian wrote.

After the surrender of militants in the south, two regions had remained outside the government’s control and both were under the protection of foreign powers, namely Turkey in the north and the US in the east.

The two NATO countries had arrangements with Russia about operating in those zones to avoid confrontation, which meant that any further military advances had to be approved by Moscow.

Damascus and its allies saw these areas as sanctuaries for hostile forces that could become entrenched, and whose mandate could change to fighting the state.

“Trump’s sudden decision has ended that problem,” the Guardian said. The Syrian government “no longer faces the threat of an indefinite American presence in eastern Syria,” the paper said.

Last week, residents of Manbij appealed to the Assad government to retake the city near the Turkish border after the US withdrawal and by Friday Syria’s military had arrived at the frontline in the predominantly Arab town west of the Euphrates river.

Under the US protection, YPG militants used to control the city but Turkey is concerned about continued dominance of the Kurdish group near its borders.

Turkish officials have frequently stated that they would welcome a government takeover of YPG-controlled areas if that involved removing the militants from those areas. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey would have “no business in Manbij if the YPG terrorists leave”.

On the diplomatic front, the UAE proposed normalizing ties with Damascus in 2016, but that plan was snubbed by the Trump administration. According to the Guardian, senior Emirati officials began to refloat the idea of restoring ties with Assad earlier this year, encouraging its Saudi and Bahraini allies to do the same.

“The nature of this conflict, then, has changed drastically, with influential Arab countries now using their diplomatic capital to enable the regime to restore control over Syria,” the paper said.

“Countries that once funded the opposition fighting against Assad are working hard to strengthen him in the hope that he becomes less reliant on their rivals,” it added.

Jordan has already reopened its borders with Syria, meaning that Damascus now has trade ties with all its neighbors except Turkey.

“Trump’s withdrawal has ended any potential threat originating from an indefinite American presence inside Syria’s borders. It has also effectively killed off any political challenge to Assad through the political process in Geneva – once an objective of the US presence in the country,” the Guardian wrote.

“Restoration of ties with Arab neighbors will consolidate the military gains made over the past six months,” it added.

According to the Guardian, since the government took over Aleppo in late 2016, few have questioned Assad’s recovery, but until recently many still doubted his ability to re-emerge as a regional player with normalized relations with other countries.

“The past year now suggests that he has a real chance of doing just that. There will be many people in the region – and beyond – willing to help,” the paper said.

Source: Presstv

30, December 2018

Chris Anu is Cameroon Concord Person of the Year ⁰

Today, Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report are pleased to announce the winner of this year’s Cameroon Concord Person of the Year. He is the Communication Secretary of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Chris Anu.

The winner was overwhelmingly elected by thousands of participants from among a list of four individuals comprising Paul Biya of neighbouring French Cameroun, Cardinal Christian Tumi, Barrister Agbor Balla Nkongho and Chris Anu, the Communication Secretary of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. The participants in their thousands overwhelmingly voted Communication Secretary Chris Anu as the Cameroon Concord Person of the Year. Most of the participants explained their choice and vote in messages sent to the head office of Cameroon Concord News Group.

Cameroon Concord News Group is please to share with its readership world-wide, the critical characteristics which the respondents have consistently identified as the qualities of leadership that impelled them to vote for Communication Secretary Chris Anu. The respondents held the candidates to the highest standards of stable universal leadership in conflict management. Focused, consistent and inspirational leadership were also critical attributes considered.

Most of the voters stated that Communication Secretary Chris Anu, is humble, passionate, steady, deliberate, probable, sincere and confident in his stewardship to his people. His dedication to the defense of his people is unwavering, undivided, and unassailable. He is a respectable, knowledgeable and effective communicator. He is a respectable voice and strong symbol of the Ambazonian war of self- defense and liberation.

Cameroon Concord News Group has critically examined the performance of Communication Secretary Chris Anu. Prior to his appointment by His Excellency President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Chris Anu was a successful communication expert, news media owner and practitioner; in addition to many successful respectable professional pursuits. He did not embrace the struggle for gain or for sentimental reasons. He did so out of conviction.

The genocidal war which arch criminal enemy Paul Biya the demented neo-colonial President of French Cameroun declared against armless peace-loving people of Ambazonia, is fought in several battlegrounds; at home and elsewhere world-wide. A critical background is the Federal Republic of Nigeria from where the President of the Interim Government of Ambazonia, nine members of the Interim Government and hundreds of Ambazonian refugees were abducted and handed over to the terrorist regime of French Cameroun. The deportation of hundreds of thousands of Ambazonian refugees from their ancestral homes are residing under dire conditions in Nigeria. Thousands of Ambazonian civilian settlements have been systemically torched and their subsistence economy pillaged and destroyed. The visit by Chris Anu to Nigeria after the abduction of His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe brought international spotlight to the plight of these Ambazonian victims. In this regard, he is an unchallenged fearless general leading from the front in the Ambazonia war of liberation against internal and external enemies of Ambazonia.

He is a fearless crusader for the liberation of Ambazonia. In critical moments in this struggle, he confronted the enemies of Ambazonia single handed. He so doing, he saved the train of freedom from being derailed. When the President of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and nine members of the Interim Government were abducted in a joint terrorist operation carried out by operatives of the Nigerian Directorate of State Security commandeered by Babagana Muganu and led by Duara Lawal and the Presidential Special Operations Unit of French Cameroun forces, Chris Anu, promptly moved to Nigeria and organized international press conferences that pressurized the execution squad to spare the lives of our leaders. The French Cameroun Special Operation Unit has been consistently used to eliminate real and perceived enemies or former allies to protect the devilish world of the crime syndicate in power. This is the unit that was deployed to abduct and assassinate the Bishop of Bafia in French Cameroun.

Thanks to Chris Anu, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Nigeria issued a press statement stating that the abductees were legally in Nigeria under the protection of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, thus protected under the United Nations Convention for the Protection of Refugees (1951). This press release provides unimpeachable evidence of the UN responsibility for the safety of the leaders of Ambazonia and others similarly placed. The inability of the UN to secure their release and sanction Nigeria and French Cameroun for the abductions, the same criminal methods employed by Boko Haram they profess to be fighting with international support and assistance, makes the UN complicit by default in the criminal conduct outlawed by international law.

The energetic condemnation of the criminal conduct of Nigeria and French Cameroun, at the Nigeria seat of power, alarmed and embarrassed the Federal Government of Nigeria and the corrupt political cartel within the immediate political environment of President Buhari. Buhari equivocated on the release or rendition of the Ambazonia leader, members of his government and several citizens to French Cameroun. The amount of money offered to Buhari enabled him to rekindle his dwindling chances of seeking a second mandate in the forth- coming elections against the backdrop of stiff opposition within his own APC party from party leaders who wanted to hold him to his promise to serve only one term was too enticing for him to ignore. President Buhari opted for the money but denied going along with the execution within the territory of Nigeria of the abducted leaders.

The force of the well-publicized pressure put on by Chris Anu forced Babagana Mugano the National Security Adviser to President Mohammadu Buhari and the corrupt ethnic power cartel surrounding the Buhari Presidency to make a rare public statement admitting to perpetrating the crime. French Cameroun through Boko Haram abduction- for -ramson go-between Isa Tchiroma Bakary was similarly pressured to call a press conference to confirm the rendition of the leaders to French Cameroun.

The theft of part of the money intended to corrupt the Buhari ethnic political cartel, had serious consequences for the handlers of the corrupt deal. Paul Biya was constrained to remove and conceal in his immediate proximity, his longtime mystical devil worshipping soul mate Martin Belinga Eboutou for misappropriating a sizeable part of the booty putting him in conflict with Buhari. Buhari on his part scapegoated his director of the State Security Service, Duara Lawal for stealing part of the money among a plethora of scandals, corrupt deals, and criminal acts which Buhari sanctioned but needed to sacrifice this zealous executioner to whitewash his tainted credentials.

The forced shameful public admission of criminality by Nigeria and French Cameroun saved the lives of our leaders and with it the Ambazonian revolution. While Chris Anu waged this battle from the Nigeria front, time seemed to stand still for many within the struggle who claimed to be frontline leaders with several decades experience in the battle for the liberation of Ambazonia. Many of them failed to confront the combined assault of French Cameroun and Nigeria united to crush the Ambazonia revolution through the abduction and the rendition of our God given leader His Excellency Sisiku Ayuk Tabe at a critical moment in our young nation’s history.

Many did not realize the lethal effect and symbolic impact of the abduction, assassination or rendition of the only leader who has gone down in history for mobilizing millions of Ambazonians on September 22, 2017 to come out with peace plants to call for the restoration of the independence of Ambazonia and declaring it on October 1, 2017. The corrupt deal was intended to destroy this symbol of the Ambazonia statehood and the spirit of the revolution.

Chris Anu denied the enemies their moment of glory and rendered the continued holding in captivity of the President of the Interim Government of Ambazonia, members of the Interim Government and hundreds of thousands of Ambazonian citizens by French Cameroun in complicity with the endemic corrupt cartel within the immediate power cycle of President Buhari, poison chalices that will with time determine their own fates. Thanks to Chris Anu, the Ambazonia liberation, the President and members of the Interim Government will outlive the Biya and Buhari presidencies and the corrupt power cartels sustaining them.

Communication Secretary Chris Anu has come under constant attacks by some opportunists, profiteers and power mongers who hoped to gain from the abduction of the President and members of the Interim Government to make fortunes out of the liberation war and the ferocious genocidal enterprise preplanned by French Cameroun and supported by the Buhari presidential god fathers of political Islam and their French Cameroun co-conspirators. They fault Chris Anu for pre-empting their adventure by going to Nigeria when it was considered unsafe by many people and confronting the united resolve of the enemy and their co-conspirators to eviscerate and destroy the Ambazonia revolution and the symbol of its independence from within and outside of Ambazonia. They have not and may never forgive him. Rather than succumb to their pedestrian tactics, Chris Anu has remained steadfast and focused on serving the Interim Government and the people of Ambazonia with undivided loyalty. For this and more, he merits the Cameroon Concord Man of the Year award.

He is respected by his peers world-wide. He is an articulate counter-point to enemy propaganda. He is a strategist and an admirable public face of the liberation struggle.

Early in this struggle, Communication Secretary Chris Anu articulately and promotionally, defined the guiding principles of Ambazonia self-defense war. He cautioned Ambazonia soldiers to be disciplined and to protect civilians. A majority of Ambazonian soldiers have prosecuted the war humanely and protected Ambazonia civilians from the genocide and the rape of our girls and women by French Cameroun terrorist forces.

Unlike some Ambazonia leaders, Chris Anu does not believe in self-engineered or pedantic publicity. It has become a common fixture of the Ambazonia liberation struggle for some supposed leaders to make lengthy political addresses which are high on self-inflated rhetoric without any reasonable record of field achievements to support. True revolutionary leaders do not make political speeches. They are engaged in shock and awe discreet guerrilla warfare to surprise, isolate, incapacitate and destroy the enemy. Chris Anu is not one of these armchair leaders.

He has succeeded in helping the Interim Government to hold together a very complex web of hundreds of thousands of Ambazonians worldwide who are working behind the scenes to help move towards victory to Buea a reality. He has demonstrated through this quality that he knows the quality human resources that Ambazonia has and the sensitivity of securing critical information that allows them to participate fully in the armed liberation struggle without putting their identities out for neophytes, disrespectful power seekers and profiteers to destroy. He knows so well that there are millions of Ambazonians in Ground Zero and in the Diaspora who strongly support the Interim Government and strongly want the Interim Government to stay focused on GZ actions, the protection of our civilian population, care for our refugees and a discreet sustained diplomatic effort to secure our total liberation and hold Paul Biya, his terrorist forces, and his entire genocidal crime syndicate network to account.

His handling of the Batibo situation and distancing the Interim Government from the crimes committed by the Cho Ayaba gang was enormously satisfying to the people of Southern Cameroons. The actions of these men including Ntumfoyn Boh Herbert were going to cause more harm to the revolution. The Reboot Conference Ambazonians have all become a turncoat of our struggle.

Cameroon Concord News Group congratulates Communication Secretary; the Honourable Chris Anu for the well-merited recognition accorded him by an overwhelming majority of participants. Cameroon Concord News Group thanks all those took part in this poll and wishes all our readers’ world -wide, a very merry Christmas and a rewarding prosperous new year. With Cameroon Concord News Group’s man of the year, Communication Secretary Anu and the demonstrable resolve of all Ambazonians, 2019 will bring more successes to the liberation struggle. Cameroon Concord News Group strongly calls on all Ambazonians, friends of Ambazonia, and the International Community to support the Ambazonia liberation quest more robustly.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-in-Chief

28, December 2018

Former Nigerian president Shehu Shagari dies ⁰

Former Nigerian president, Shehu Shagari, has died at the National Hospital, Abuja, after a brief illness, his grandson and the president of The National Youth Council of Nigeria, Bello Shagari said on Friday evening.

He was 93. His death was also confirmed by the governor of his home state of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwal.

“I regret to announce the death of former President Shehu Shagari who just passed away at National Hospital Abuja,” Tambuwal tweeted.

He was Nigerian president between 1979 and 1983. He contested and won re-election in 1983, but a military coup staged on December 31, 1983, terminated his second term. The coup brought in the then Major-General Muhammadu Buhari as the head of state.

After the coup, he was arrested by the military government on allegations of corruption. He was, however, cleared of the allegations, but that did not stop the military junta from banning him from active politics for life.

Before joining politics in 1951, Shagari was a schoolteacher. Four years after his entry into politics, he was elected a member of the Federal House of Representatives.

Source: The Guardian

25, December 2018

President Trump questions child about belief in Santa ⁰

Fielding a phone call from a seven-year-old on Monday, US President Donald Trump put himself on Santa Claus’s naughty list by raising doubts about his existence.

The call to American defence agency NORAD, which “tracks” Santa’s movements around the world, was one of several answered by Trump and his wife Melania as part of a Christmas Eve tradition.

It began innocuously enough: “Hello, is this Coleman? Merry Christmas. How are you? How old are you?”

But Trump then ventured into dangerous waters, asking: “Are you still a believer in Santa Claus? ‘Cuz at seven it’s marginal, right?”

The president’s question was not well-received on social media.

“Belief in Santa should be preserved as long as possible. It’s the, or close to the, beginning of the end of innocence. For Mr Trump to be responsible for that is sad…but not surprising,” a Twitter user named Walt Corey wrote.

Derryl Murphy tweeted that “Trump doesn’t know how to say anything appropriate, to anyone,” while Sarah Walker wrote on Twitter: “This further proves that he is the grinch.”

It was not immediately clear whether Coleman decided to forego leaving cookies and milk out for Santa this year.

(AFP)

18, December 2018

Reports detail how Russia used social media to sow US divisions ⁰

Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election on social media was more widespread than previously thought and included attempts to divide Americans by race and extreme ideology,reports released Monday said. The reports by private experts were released by US senators from both parties.

The Russian government’s Internet Research Agency, based in St. Petersburg, Russia, tried to manipulate US politics, said the reports, one by social media analysts New Knowledge and the other by an Oxford University team working with analytical firm Graphika.

The twin reports largely verified earlier findings by US intelligence agencies, but offered much more detail about Russian activity going back years that continues even now, said the reports and senior lawmakers.

For instance, one Russian troll farm tried to encourage US “secessionist movements” in California and Texas, the New Knowledge report said.

“This newly released data demonstrates how aggressively Russia sought to divide Americans by race, religion and ideology,” said Richard Burr, the Republican chairman of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, in a statement.

The Russian agency worked to erode trust in US democratic institutions and its activities have not stopped, he said. The committee collected data from social media companies that was used by the private analysts in their analysis.

Senator Mark Warner, the committee’s top Democrat, said, “These reports demonstrate the extent to which the Russians exploited the fault lines of our society to divide Americans in an attempt to undermine and manipulate our democracy.

“These attacks… were much more comprehensive, calculating and widespread than previously revealed,” he said.

‘Conspiratorialist and… junk political news’

Oxford/Graphika said the Russians spread “sensationalist, conspiratorialist, and other forms of junk political news and misinformation to voters across the political spectrum.”

The group said Russian trolls urged African-Americans to boycott the election or to follow wrong voting procedures, while also encouraging right-wing voters to be more confrontational.

Since Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, it said, Russian trolls have put out messages urging Mexican-American and other Hispanic voters to mistrust US institutions.

The report from New Knowledge said the Russians ran “comprehensive Anti-Hillary Clinton operations,” such as efforts to organize Muslims to stage a pro-Clinton demonstration.

The report said Russian hackers also targeted Republican senators Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham and the late John McCain, as well as former FBI chief James Comey, special prosecutor Robert Mueller, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

A US intelligence report in January 2017 said Russian President Vladimir Putin directed a sophisticated influence campaign including cyber attacks to denigrate Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and support Trump.

The Kremlin has denied the allegations of meddling. Trump has denied any collusion between Russia and his campaign.

The matter is being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose long-running inquiry has clouded the Trump presidency and netted guilty pleas and indictments against former close Trump associates.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

17, December 2018

Sudanese President Is First Arab Leader to Visit Syria in 8 Years ⁰

Sudan’s president has become the first Arab leader to visit Damascus since the Syrian civil war began eight years ago.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad greeted Omar al-Bashir at the airport Sunday, the state-run news agency SANA reported.

Most Arab countries have closed their embassies in Damascus and condemned Assad for using overwhelming military force and failing to negotiate with the opposition.

Syria was also expelled from the 22-member Arab League.

No official reason was given for the visit, but SANA said the two leaders held talks at the presidential palace about developments in the region and in Syria.

As the war in Syria winds down in Assad’s favor, some Arab nations have called for normalizing ties with Damascus and even of allowing it back in the Arab League.

Source: VOA

16, December 2018

Did I See An Amba Boy Going To Be Executed? A Franklin Sone Bayen war report ⁰

I believe I saw Michael Akachi walk to his death. He was escorted to the “stake” by two armed soldiers of the Rapid Intervention Brigade (BIR). He just could not see his sympathizers or mourners watching, bemused at his final walk; he was blindfolded with a red piece of cloth. Neither could he give them a goodbye wave, though obviously hearing their voices and movements around; his hands were bound in front of him.

This is the story of the summary execution of a suspected combatant of the Ambazonia restoration forces or “Amba Boys” at Mabanda, just outside Kumba, along the Kumba-Mamfe road.

My multiple mission was to convey relief supplies from a humanitarian organization abroad destined for my village IDPs, which had been stuck for weeks in Douala as none of those assigned for the dispatch was ready to brave the gun battles infested Kumba-Mamfe Road.This was a few days to the dreadful countdown to September 16, initial debut date of the announced lockdown ahead of October 1 (“Amba Independence” celebration) and October 7 (presidential election), when people were fleeing the Southwest and Northwest in droves, most of them to Francophone cities for sanctuary.

I thought there was no better time to bring humanitarian supplies to our suffering people stuck in the forest.Another reason for braving the Kumba-Mamfe road was to check on village home before the lockdown, especially after reports of soldiers breaking into homes hoping to find weapons. But above all, as a journalist, that was an opportunity to jot some notes on the unfolding drama. I jotted a few.A fraction of my fellow passengers were young women doing the reverse journey from Anglophone and Francophone cities to their villages to both support their ageing parents camping in the forest under precarious conditions, and to “enjoy” the safety of the forest at a time of uncertainty of what the city held for anyone, should the looming confrontations from the October lockdown snowball into the unknown.

Our driver began receiving advice and warnings against engaging our journey prior to our take off from Mile 17 park, Buea because, he was told, there had been skirmishes between Government forces and Amba Boys along the way. Arriving Muyuka, our driver transfered us into another bus that brought passengers from Kumba; a kind of passenger swap so that each driver engaged the stretch of road he mastered better.Just over an hour into our journey, we ran into an unusual checkpoint. Two armed men in civilian clothes, all-black, with “necklaces” and other things that looked like amulets, flagged our bus. They told us to contribute to their effort. “We di fight na for wuna” (It’s your cause we are defending), they said. They urged us to make hey and drive on fast. The formalities done, we drove on.Great was our surprise that, just around the bend, not quite 20 metres on, we were at the Mabonji “mixed control” checkpoint, the last before Kumba.”So, they operate so close to each other?” a fellow passenger wondered. “It looks like they have come to an understanding to respect each other’s space until when there is combat,” said another. It was confusing.

Traffic controls, disembarkment in Kumba and other travel hassles, by 5pm, I was taking off from the Mabanda park right across town. A couple of minutes on, we were at the Mabanda checkpoint. We went through the now usual practice of alighting before the “gate”, being checked by officers, and embarking again across the gate. Three or four other vehicles had arrived the checkpoint from both sides, so there were more than a dozen passengers crisscrossing each other or loitering around the checkpoint.Just then, I saw two BIR officers with guns, escorting a young man dressed in all-black. He was possibly taller than both of them. His eyes were bound with a piece of red cloth. His hands were apparently bound infront, handcuffed, maybe. I could not tell, watching them from behind.They led him towards a right hand branch off, a few metres from the checkpoint facing Kumba. It led to the local GHS or GBHS Mabanda. I was told the military camped there. I could read gloom on the faces of three young women by me also watching, they too waiting to board their vehicle. I guessed their guess was my guess.The driver told me he had noticed that young man sitting with soldiers under a shelter at the checkpoint when we arrived there, guessing he had been arrested and kept there for some time. It looked like they decided to take him away at that moment for the many passengers transiting at that time, to be eyewitnesses and travel with the word to serve as a deterrent to other young men.I wished for a few more minutes there to take some more mental notes, but the driver said we had to get going because he had to return before nightfall with some passengers waiting in Nguti.

A few minutes on, just before we entered Ikiliwindi, about 10km from the checkpoint, we saw dead bodies on the road, some in culverts. The driver had to wabble through them carefully.About 30 minutes later, between Konye and Supe, the village that precedes the flyover, we met another unusual all-black checkpoint. A single gunman. He was about done with a vehicle ahead of us when we arrived. When the formalities were done, he greeted me in a familiar tone. When I looked at him, surprised (or scared?), he laughed and said, “Brother, you surprise? I know you. I know you,” he said chuckling now as he walked away and we drove off.Arriving Manyemen just before nightfall, I narrated the eyesaw of my journey to my acquaintances, the few village folks who braved it to stay on in the ghostly deserted village, mainly people selling fuel along the road or food to people camping at the famous Manyemen Hospital. I described the young man I had seen being taken away by the soldiers and what I guessed was his fate. “Someone said, ” Hmmn, I hope it’s not… hmmn, because that description and the colour of the dress, that could be… hmmn!” Someone else said, “Ha! Leave that your own. Anyone can be dressed in black and black.”Next morning, Friday, September 14, a young lady walking towards me said, “Brother, hmmn, it looks like that boy you described yesterday is a boy from our village o! His sister has called that they say they have found his body somewhere around Ikiliwindi. He is the son of Mami Agie Sunday.”The next time I met her, she said another call had disproved the story. But by noon, she told me again the death had been confirmed, that a family member had identified the body and plans were afoot to bury him there. Shortly after, a few women walked with Mami Agie Sunday in tears to the roadside, support her on both sides. They sat her down in front of the hospital gate to help her to find transport for the “funeral”.

In a small group apart, people took turns to narrate Michael Akachi’s last day. He had been living or working or farming in some village in Manyu division and had not been seen Manyemen for a while. That Thursday, he stopped over in the village to give some provisions to his mother before travelling on towards Kumba. At the roadside when he pulled out his wallet to pay his fare, something that looked like an amulet fell from his pocket. Onlookers, alarmed, said they warned him that could land him into trouble with Government defence and security forces who suspect such objects as the charms they believe are used by Amba Boys. They said they believed the amulets were found on Akanti at the Mabanda checkpoint, and that might have led to his arrest and his doom.