The deaths at sea of a mother and child have further exposed the flaws in a pact between Italy and Libya that has led to thousands of migrants being forcibly returned to the chaotic north African country.

Their bodies were found last week in the drifting wreckage of a boat off the Libyan coast by rescuers from the Spanish ship, Proactiva Open Arms. A woman from Cameroon was also found clinging to a piece of wood.

Sharing harrowing images of the bodies and the terrified survivor, the NGO accused the Libyan coastguard of abandoning the trio after they refused to be taken back to Libya, the main point of departure for migrants attempting the perilous crossing to Europe, with the rest of the intercepted group.

Libya’s coastguard has been patrolling the Mediterranean sea since striking a deal with Italy in February 2017 that empowered it to bring migrants back to a country where aid agencies say they suffertorture and abuse. The deal, which entailed Italy providing funds and equipment, was made by Marco Minniti, the former interior minister from the centre-left Democratic party, in an attempt to stem the migrant flow.

The agreement was recently reinforced by Italy’s new far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, who travelled to Tripoli in June “to help Libya as well as Italy block migration”.

“The Italy deal is really unconscionable at a time when the world needs leadership and compassion,” Iverna McGowan, the director of Amnesty International’s European institutions office, told the Guardian.

“To blindly sign a deal like that and close your eyes to the human consequences is very chilling.”

In January 2017, the EU unveiled a €200m plan aimed at stopping migration from Libya, including €32m to expand its training programme for the Libyan coastguard.

The simultaneous plans have proved successful at reducing migration: the number of migrants landing on Italy’s southern shores in the first half of 2018 was down 81% on the same period last year.

As politicians celebrated, testimony recounted to the Guardian by migrants who have arrived in Sicily in recent months reflected the human implications of an agreement that has caused death, severe suffering and torn families apart.

“Libya is the worst place on earth,” said Ibrahim Diallo, a 20-year-old man from Gambia. “If you are a black African they automatically consider you a slave.

Diallo was detained in a camp where he was forced to work and clean the streets at gunpoint. “I saw Africans getting shot in the legs just because [the armed gangs] wanted to check if their weapons worked.”

A migrant from Nigeria, who asked not to be named, said he suffered serious burns after being set on fire by his captors for failing to raise ransom money. He had been in a detention camp for two years, where he recalled often “waking up with a dead man next to me”.

Chica Kamara, from Sierra Leone, has had no news of his son since the pair got separated at sea and the 10-year-old boy was taken back to Libya.

“We left Sierra Leone because of war, Ebola and dictatorship,” said Kamara, who had fallen into the sea when the Libyan coastguard intercepted a boat with his son on board. “I wanted a better life for my son. When I realised he was being taken away I started to scream and cry.”

Women tell of being repeatedly raped in Libya, where the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates there are 662,000 migrants. The number of people detained in appalling conditions in official camps has almost doubled to 9,300 within the last three months, the UN agency said earlier this week, although that doesn’t include the many held in camps run by warlords or people smugglers. Within the first five months of 2018, more than 40% of migrants who left Libya were sent back.

Carlo Parini, a chief inspector in the Sicilian port of Syracuse, said his team gathered as much information as possible from migrants. “It’s hard to hear their stories,” he added. “Especially when you have pregnant women telling you they have been beaten or tortured.”

An official at the Italian ministry of interior saidthe country was forced to make the deal with its former colony after several pleas to the EU to share the migrant burden failed to yield a response. “Our main contribution is supplying boats and equipment to the Libyan coastguard,” he said. “In June last year, some 18,000 people landed in a week, and the EU did nothing to help.”

But the agreement is also a consequence of the EU’s Dublin regulation, which allows member states to send migrants back to the EU country they arrived in, usually Italy or Greece. In 2016, almost 35,000 people were returned to Italy from other EU states, predominantly France.

“At the same time, southern Italy was also dealing with thousands of arrivals from Libya,” said Fulvio Vassallo, an asylum law professor at the University of Palermo. “On top of this, countries in Europe rejected [a plan] to relocate migrants.”

By being complicit in returning people to countries where they could be subjected to torture, the EU is violating international law, say experts. In March, the Proactiva Open Arms ship was seized by Sicilian authorities and three of its crew accused of facilitating illegal immigration for refusing to hand over migrants to Libya. Upon releasing the vessel in April, a judge recognised that Libya was not a safe place and that the migrants could not have been taken back.

A looming election campaign dominated by immigration also encouraged Minniti to collaborate with Libya, although the Democratic party was eventually ousted in the ballot in early March. Italy’s new populist administration has since used virulent tactics to fulfil its anti-immigration pledge, including denying docking rights to rescue ships, while trying to push an inharmonious EU into sharing responsibility. However, a proposal by Italy to create reception and identification centres in Africa received a blow on Friday when it was rejected by Libya.

But as the EU battles, traffickers continue to make all the gains out of migrant suffering.

“Traffickers are having an easy life,” said Alfonso Giordano, a politics professor at Luiss University in Rome. “If we don’t resolve this in a shared, structured way over the long-term, there’ll continue to be massive problems and countries like Libya will continue to use blackmail.”

Source: The Guardian

China has donated 6.86 million euros ($7.95 million) to Cameroon’s army to boost its “peacekeeping and security operations”, state radio reported Thursday.

The donation was made on Wednesday by China’s ambassador to the central African country, Wang Ying Wu, in a meeting with Defence Minister Joseph Beti Assomo, CRTV reported.

The ambassador told state radio that the grant was intended to help Cameroon’s army “reinforce its capacities in peacekeeping and security operations in the region”.

Cameroon faces armed challenges in the Far North region, where jihadists from neighbouring Nigeria’s Boko Haram are active, and in the Northwest and Southwest regions, where separatists from the English-speaking minority have launched an insurgency.

The army has been accused of serious human rights abuses in areas where troops are active, including filmed extrajudicial killings of women and children put on social media and condemned by Amnesty International on July 12. The government first dismissed the video as a fake, but President Paul Biya later ordered an investigation.

A presidential election has been set for October 7 in a tense climate, particularly in the west, where anglophones make up about a fifth of the population of the mainly French-speaking country.

Paul Biya, who is 86 and has ruled for almost 36 years, has announced that he is ready to run for a seventh term in office.

About 10 challengers have submitted their candidacy applications to Election Cameroon (Elecam), the body organising the poll. Final approval or rejection is down to the Constitutional Council.

AFP

Violent tensions between Cameroon’s government and Anglophone separatists have forced more than 180,000 people from their homes since December, Human Rights Watch said Thursday in a new report that blames both sides for “grave abuses” against civilians.

Warnings about Cameroon’s crisis are growing as the Central African nation faces an October election in which 85-year-old President Paul Biya, in power since 1982, says he will run again.

The human rights situation in the largely French-speaking country where Anglophone separatists seek an independent state has taken a deadly turn since late 2016 and “could still get much worse,” said Mausi Segun, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “International action is needed to ensure that both sides protect civilians and ensure justice for crimes against them.”

Cameroon’s northwest and southwest have faced unrest since 2016, when teachers and lawyers held demonstrations demanding respect for the region’s English education and justice systems. The government responded with force, and though an agreement was reached with lawyers and teachers’ unions last year, armed separatists emerged seeking an English-speaking state.

As the separatists, described by the government as “terrorists,” began attacking schools to enforce a boycott, some Anglophone activist groups declared an independent state of Ambazonia.

In response, government forces have “killed civilians, used excessive force against demonstrators, tortured and mistreated suspected separatists and detainees and burned hundreds of homes in several villages,” the Human Rights Watch report says, also citing satellite imagery.

“Despite the abuses and provocations by armed separatists, the government should never be attacking civilians and burning villages,” Segun said. Human Rights Watch wants Cameroon to give independent monitors and the United Nations human rights office access to the troubled regions.

Biya has authorized investigations, and his government last month announced a plan to rebuild more than 10,000 homes affected by the violence.

In response to the new report, the government condemned separatist attacks and defended its security forces, saying all alleged atrocities are investigated. Just because such investigations “are not always widely disseminated to the public does not in any way mean that they are not taken,” it said.

Cameroon’s security forces also are under scrutiny for their response to a separate threat from Boko Haram extremists in the north. After a video emerged last week showing uniformed men blindfolding two women with small children strapped to their backs and shooting them as suspected Boko Haram supporters, Amnesty International experts said Cameroonian forces appeared to be involved. The government denied it.

Amid the expressions of shock and outrage, the United States said it was “gravely concerned” and called on Cameroon to investigate.

Source: Fox News

The Ambazonian Interim government says French Cameroun army violence persists against Southern Cameroonians and the overall environment remains menacing for Ambazonians on ground zero. Communication Secretary, Hon. Chris Anu said in a statement on Thursday that the genocide going on in Southern Cameroons towns and villages and the arrival of thousands of Southern Cameroons refugees in Nigeria reflects the continuing gravity of the human rights violations by French Cameroun soldiers in Southern Cameroons.

Chris Anu wondered aloud why Southern Cameroons members of parliament and senators were still serving in French Cameroun mindful of the overt threats they faced of violence and persecution. The Ambazonian Communication Secretary also noted that it was shameful Southern Cameroons political elites are mute when their people are being cut off from their sources of livelihood, hundreds including women and children are being killed and the overall menacing environment is pushing thousands to flee their ancestral homeland.

The statement comes as the Francophone dominated army has reportedly intensify its onslaught in Southern Cameroons. There are reports that the deadly violence against Southern Cameroonians is premeditated and amounted to genocide. Human Rights groups including Amnesty International have all indicated that the Cameroon military was guilty of committing crimes against humanity and genocide.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that the French Cameroun army made systematic preparations for genocide against Southern Cameroonians in Belo, Batibo, Kwa Kwa and Muyenge.  The brutal campaign has forced some 50,000 Southern Cameroonians to flee their homeland and seek refuge in Nigeria. Southern Cameroonians based in Ndian, Meme, Manyu, Menchum, Fako, Mezam and Bui Counties have been subjected to a campaign of killings, rape and arson attacks by the Cameroon government military backed by the country’s ruling CPDM party.

By Sama Ernest with files from Rita Akana

Former U.S. president Barack Obama advised talented young Africans on Wednesday to drive change at home rather than emigrating, and urged their governments to do more to curb a brain drain.

Obama, whose Kenyan-born father studied in the United States but later returned home to work as an economist, described the phenomenon of the best minds leaving for global centres abroad as “a real issue”.

“More and more not only are we seeing concentrations of wealth, we are seeing concentrations of talent in various global centres, whether it is Shanghai or Dubai,” said Obama, who is on his first visit to Africa since leaving office in January 2017.

Obama told young African business people and activists at a gathering in Johannesburg that opportunities could be greater in their own countries. “Precisely because there may be less of a concentration of talent, … your chances of being transformative are going to be higher,” he said.

His non-profit organisation, The Obama Foundation, runs a leadership programme aimed at helping aspiring Africans to solve pressing problems on the continent.

“If we have African leaders, governments and institutions which are creating a platform for success and opportunity, then you will increasingly get more talent wanting to stay,” Obama said. “Once you reach a tipping point, not only will you stop the brain drain, then it will start reversing.”

On Tuesday he used a lecture marking 100 years since the birth of South Africa’s first post-apartheid president Nelson Mandela to urge world leaders to resist cynicism over the rise of strongmen – pointed comments which many interpreted as a reference to his successor, Donald Trump, among others.

Earlier this week Obama called on Kenya’s leaders to turn their backs on divisive ethnic politics and clamp down on corruption.

REUTERS

The U.S. has expressed outrage over a recent video of execution being carried out allegedly by Cameroonian military personnel.

Heather Nauert, U.S. Department of State spokesperson, in a statement called for thorough and transparent investigation by the government of Cameroon.

It said: “The U. S. is gravely concerned over the recent video depicting men wearing military-style uniforms executing two women and two children, one an infant.

“International media, Amnesty International, and Cameroonian human rights organisations attribute the actions portrayed in the video to the Cameroonian military.

“We call on the Government of Cameroon to investigate thoroughly and transparently the events depicted in the video, make its findings public, and if Cameroonian military personnel were involved in this atrocity, hold them accountable”.

The U.S. said all countries, including Cameroon, must uphold their international and national commitments and obligations to protect the human rights of their residents and promote accountability.‎

NAN reports that rights group, Amnesty International, on Saturday said it has “credible information” that Cameroonian soldiers were involved in the executions.

The agency said: “Extensive analysis of the weapons, dialogue, and uniforms that feature in the video, paired with digital verification techniques and testimonies taken from the ground, all strongly suggest that the perpetrators of the executions are Cameroonian soldiers.”

Cameroon’s Ministry of Communication said in a statement that the government is investigating the claims, although government spokespeson, Issa Tchiroma Bakary, is quoted in local media initially saying the video could be “fake news.”

”We haven’t authenticated yet, but I draw your attention to what we call fake news. Do not be peremptory in the attribution of this video to the Cameroonian army.

“Because the enemy is always able to slip into our defence and security forces to attribute to us such heinous crimes,” Mr Bakary said in local media reports.

Source: Premium Times

Former US president Barack Obama steps out of the shadows on Tuesday to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela, in his most high-profile international appearance since leaving office.

Obama made headlines earlier this week with a visit to Kenya, his father’s homeland. But he has otherwise stayed largely out of the political spotlight during his post-presidency, quietly meeting with world leaders and groups away from the camera’s glare.

The choice of Obama to honour Mandela – who is also affectionately known as Madiba – on the centenary of his birth is a highly symbolic one.

“We thought to ourselves, ‘Who can best represent the legacy of Madiba? Who took the baton when he became president of his own country? Who would be able to deal with issues of democracy in a world ripped apart by corruption?’” Sello Hatang, chief executive of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, said when announcing Obama as the keynote speaker.

In keeping with tradition, Obama is not expected to comment on his successor, President Donald Trump. Instead, his speech will reflect on Mandela’s legacy, which Obama said “makes me want to be better” in a eulogy following the anti-apartheid leader’s death five years ago.

Mandela, who was imprisoned for 27 years over his campaign to end apartheid, was at the forefront of the fight against South Africa’s white minority rule, He was  released from prison in 1990, and elected the country’s first black president in 1994. His leadership was marked by his steadfast commitment to reconciliation, diversity and equality.

In some ways, Mandela’s life serves as a counter-example, if not a silent rebuke, of the divisive politics Trump has embraced.

“In the US and around the world, many see recent developments that run counter to Mandela’s legacy,” Benjamin Rhodes, a longtime adviser and former speech writer for Obama, told the Associated Press. “This will be a globally minded speech, highlighting global trends and focusing on how, in his life, Mandela embodied perseverance. It will be aimed at young people in Africa and also around the world to show that we have been through darker times before and we can overcome these challenges to keep Mandela’s vision alive.”

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Mandela’s widow Graça Machel will introduce Obama ahead of his speech at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg. Around 9,000 people were expected to attend the event, according to the Nelson Mandela Foundation, which will live stream it on its website at 2pm local time (GMT+2).

Obama will remain in Johannesburg afterwards to launch his foundation’s “Leaders: Africa” programme, which will bring together 200 emerging figures from across the continent for a five-day workshop aimed at exploring solutions to the biggest challenges in their communities.

Source: France 24

Communist-run Cuba is to officially recognize the ownership of private property in an effort to boost its economy.

Private property has long been officially rejected in the Communist state as a sign of decadent capitalism.

Ruling Communist Party newspaper Granma reported on Saturday, however, that a new constitution, to be put to a referendum, recognizes free market policies and private property.

The new constitution also creates the position of prime minister alongside the president, according to Granma.

The document, by creating the position of prime minister, divides the roles of the head of state and the head of government.

The new constitution also imposes a term limit on the presidency of two consecutive five-year periods.

However, Granma said the constitution reaffirmed that central planning and state enterprise remained as the pillars of Cuban economy.

It said the government commission reforming the constitution will present its draft to the national assembly when it meets next week. It will then be put to a national referendum, expected later this year.

The commission is headed by former president Raul Castro, 87, who remains the head of the Communist Party.

Castro’s market reforms have prompted hundreds of thousands of Cubans to join the ranks of the island’s self-employed since 2010, in new privately-owned businesses ranging from restaurants to beauty salons.

Castro, who together with his older, the late revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, ruled over Cuba for nearly six decades, had proposed the reforms in 2011, as part of a bid to modernize the political system.

Fidel led the revolution that toppled Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. He died in November 2016.

Source: Presstv