Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe arrived at a university graduation ceremony in the capital on Friday, his first public appearance since a military seizure of power that political sources say is aimed at ending his 37 years in office.

Wearing a blue and yellow academic gown and mortar board hat, the 93-year-old sat in large wooden chair at the front the hall. He was greeted by ululations from the crowd as he declared the ceremony open.

Earlier Friday, Zimbabwe’s military claimed that it was making “significant progress” in talks with Mugabe for his departure from power while it pursues and arrests allies of the president and his wife.

Talks with Mugabe continued, the military said in a statement reported by the state-run Herald newspaper and Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation.

Zimbabwe’s military is “currently engaging with the Commander-in-Chief President Robert Mugabe on the way forward and will advise the nation of the outcome as soon as possible,” the statement said.

“Significant progress has been made in their operation to weed out criminals around President Mugabe,” it said, adding that the military had already arrested some although others remained at large. Those sought had been “committing crimes that were causing social and economic suffering in Zimbabwe.”

The military is seeking cabinet ministers and other top officials who had been associates of first lady, Grace Mugabe, part of a clique dubbed the G40 because many were in their 40s and 50s. They are of a different generation from the one that fought for independence from white minority rule.

Army troops and armored vehicles continued to patrol the capital, Harare, as Zimbabweans went about their daily business.

Ousted VP back in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s former vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose sacking last week triggered the military’s takeover, has returned to the country, an aide told AFP Friday.

Mnangagwa, who is a leading candidate to succeed President Mugabe, flew back to Harare on Thursday after nearly a week abroad, as army chiefs and the president met to negotiate Mugabe’s exit from office.

The generals took over late on Tuesday after Mnangagwa was sacked by the president and Mugabe’s wife emerged in prime position to succeed her increasingly frail husband.

Government TV showed Mugabe, the world’s oldest head of state, dressed in a navy blue blazer and grey trousers standing alongside army chief General Constantino Chiwenga.

(Source: Agencies)

Three people were shot dead Friday in Nairobi, an AFP reporter saw, as police dispersed thousands of opposition supporters welcoming home their leader Raila Odinga from an overseas trip.

The three men, all with bullet wounds in the upper body, were seen lying on the road in Muthurwa, a city suburb where riot police armed with tear gas, water cannons and rifles clashed with stone throwing protesters, part of angry battles that lasted throughout the day.

Odinga won an unprecedented court victory overturning the result of the August 8 presidential poll, leading to a rerun last month that he then boycotted claiming it would not be free and fair.

Kenya’s Supreme Court is due to rule Monday on whether President Uhuru Kenyatta can be sworn in for a second term or if there must be another rerun.

The dispute over this year’s presidential vote has left the country deeply divided and protests between opposition supporters and police have become commonplace.

Human rights groups estimate that close to 50 people have been killed in election-related violence, the vast majority shot by police.

Odinga returned Friday from a 10-day trip to the United States where he visited think tanks and sought support for his contention that fresh elections must be held, supervised by an overhauled election board.

His National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition had called its supporters to a “Welcome Back Baba Convoy” — using a nickname for Odinga — to join the opposition leader on his way from the airport to a planned rally in the city center.

But a heavy deployment of police blocked roads and broke up crowds surrounding the convoy, unleashing liberal amounts of tear gas, copious jets from water cannon trucks and firing shots.

The clashes caused chaos in the capital that continued late into the afternoon.

Following the rerun vote, NASA launched a “National Resistance Movement” aiming to use civil disobedience and boycotts to challenge what it considers to be Kenyatta’s illegal government.

Friday’s gathering of thousands of opposition supporters in Nairobi was the movement’s first show of strength since then, but fell short of the “million man march” promised by party leaders.

It also marked a heavier deployment of police than in the past, as they sought to block Odinga from holding a rally.

Eventually, Odinga managed to say a few words to cheering supporters from the sunroof of his car.

“Today is the day we are launching Kenya as a third republic,” he said, referring to independence from Britain in 1963 and the new constitution in 2010.

“What you have seen is a signal that a third liberation is coming soon,” Odinga said before driving away.

(Source: AFP)

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has refused to cede power to the military which has seized power in the southern African country and put him under house arrest.

Generals met with Mugabe on Thursday in the capital, Harare, and made efforts to push the 93-year-old veteran to resign, sources confirmed to the AFP news agency.

Mugabe’s motorcade reportedly took the president from his home to State House to hold a meeting with the generals.

The president also held meetings with envoys from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regional bloc.

Images of the meeting showed Mugabe dressed in a navy blue blazer and grey trousers standing alongside army chief General Constantino Chiwenga who smiled and was dressed in camouflage military fatigues.

Military forces took control of Harare on Wednesday, with soldiers and armored vehicles blocking roads to the main government offices, the parliament, and the courts in central Harare.

Mugabe has been in power for almost four decades, since the former British colony gained independence from the UK in 1980.

To many Zimbabweans, he is a “war hero” and an “African icon” who played a definitive role in making the country independent.

However, his deteriorating health in recent years has triggered a succession war between his wife Grace and Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The military generals are strongly opposed to Grace’s presidency, while Mnangagwa has maintained cordial ties with the military.

On Thursday, the African Union expressed concern, calling on Zimbabwe’s military to halt what “seems like a coup”.

AU chief, Guinea’s President Alpha Conde, warned that the continent “will never accept the military coup d’etat” in Zimbabwe and called for a return to the “constitutional order.”

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres also called for “calm and non-violence” and for the fundamental rights of Zimbabwean citizens to be preserved, a spokesman for the UN chief said.

In Harare, residents continued life as normal on Thursday, commuting, socializing and working as they ignored the few soldiers still on the streets.

The state-owned Herald newspaper in its editorial took a neutral stand by remaining loyal to Mugabe but also endorsing the military’s action.

Source: Presstv

La Republique du Cameroun is heading towards a major political crisis in parliament. The 18 MPs and 14 senators of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), have issued a statement in which they denounced in 8 points, the socio-political situation in Southern Cameroons.

The SDF parliamentary groups in the Senate and the National Assembly slammed among other things, excessive human rights abuses, mass killings, jailing of Southern Cameroonians in French Cameroun detention centres and the plight of Southern Cameroons refugess in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The predominantly Anglophone parliamentarians say Southern Cameroonians are considered by the Biya Francophone government to be “terrorists” and the regime is killing them in their numbers. The SDF elected representatives have also pointed out that instead of an inclusive, frank and sincere dialogue, the Yaounde government has been applying the use of force to a purely political problem.

Consequently, the SDF has suspended its participation in the current session, the 4th of its kind since the outbreak of the Southern Cameroons crisis in November 2016. A member of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate who spoke to our Yaounde city reporter immediately after the SDF decision was made public condemned the SDF MPs for receiving their bonus before launching their strike action.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

Zimbabwe’s opposition leader and former prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai has returned to the African country to following an effective coup against long-time President Robert Mugabe.

A spokesman for Tsvangirai, who is the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said he had flown back home from South Africa late on Wednesday, adding that two other former government ministers had also returned to their country from Russia.

The privately-owned NewsDay Zimbabwe paper reported that Tsvangirai was “ready to enter negotiations to form a transitional government with former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa.”

Political tensions emerged in Zimbabwe last week after Mugabe fired Mnangagwa and accused him of plotting to take power, including through witchcraft. Mnangagwa, who enjoyed the backing of the military, had previously been considered the most likely to succeed the president if Mugabe resigned or died while in power. His sudden dismissal, however, raised speculations that Mugabe was clearing the way for his wife, Grace, to take the position.

 

The Thursday announcement came a day after the army seized power in the country in what was described by the leader of the African Union as a “coup.”

Military forces blocked roads to the main government buildings in the center of the capital, Harare, and sought to portray it as a “bloodless transition” away from Mugabe.

Meanwhile, Reuters cites a “source” said that Mugabe and his wife and two key figures from her G40 political faction are under house arrest at Mugabe’s “Blue House” compound in Harare.

The army has also detained Finance Minister Ignatius Chombo, a leading member of the G40, which is a faction of the ruling ZANU-PF party, run by the president’s wife.

ZANU-PF said in series of tweets on Wednesday that “E Mnagngawa will be president of ZANU PF as per the constitution of our revolutionary organization.”

 

Mugabe and his wife have been on the European Union (EU)’s sanctions list along with other key figures in Zimbabwe’s ruling elite, facing travel bans and asset freezes abroad.

The Zimbabwean president has called the sanctions, by the EU and separately by the United States over rights issues “wrong,” blaming them for his government’s failure to pay its workers on time, which led to a crippling strike last year.

Source: Presstv

Cho Ayaba, a leading member of the Ambazonian struggle has confirmed that Southern Cameroons militants killed two gendarmes in two coordinated attacks in the Bamenda County.  There are however conflicting reports on the incident in Bamenda.

French Cameroun authorities have issued 15 international arrest warrants against leaders of the Governing Council including the President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe. This is the latest development as tensions continue to escalate in the so-called one and indivisible Cameroon, with Anglophone secessionists upping the ante in what they say is their struggle against President Paul Biya’s Francophone government, and the French-speaking majority, for equality.

The deaths of the two gendarmes, who were reportedly ambushed by gunmen on motorbikes, was confirmed by Cameroonian security officials. English-speaking Cameroonians say they suffer social and economic marginalisation and are forced to work in French. The deaths marked the worst fighting between Ambazonian militants and government forces in the central African state following mostly peaceful protests during the course of last year.

However, the peaceful protests have solicited a harsh response by security forces, including the use of helicopter gunships to fire on civilians, resulting in dozens killed and hundreds arrested. Last month French Cameroun opposition leader Aboubakar Siddiki was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a military court on charges that his lawyer and Amnesty International said were politically motivated.

The court convicted Siddiki, the president of northern Cameroon’s main opposition party, of hostility against the homeland as well as revolution and contempt of the president over accusations he plotted to destabilise the country.

The military crackdown on protesters has been accompanied by political dissidents being detained without trial while the media has been muzzled, including banning the opposition English-language TV channel. French-speaking Cameroon gained its independence from France in 1960 and the linguistic divide has existed for ages underground, only resurfacing recently in response to government violence.

Reported by African Independent

The government should be under no illusion that the struggle is over because the resistance just began.

As distraught Anglophones continue to query and reject the very basis of the Cameroonian State;with a majority favouring independence, the leadership of the Anglophone struggle remains embattled on all fronts over its tepid response to the violent crackdown by security forces in the wake of the October 1 restoration of independence, in which hundreds of Anglophones were killed, hundreds more detained or missing, with thousands forced to flee to neighbouring Nigeria.From all indications, the independence restoration was a political misadventure, given the growing chasm within the fractious leadership,unvested with the history of liberation struggles and the taxing and quite complex challenges of navigating global power relations. Amid the apparent despair in the face of genocide, the government seems poised to run down the clock through the backdoor without genuine dialogue to resolve the crisis.The mistaken assumption is that differences between federalists and restorationists will divide and kill the struggle.This is a fatal mistake because Anglophones remain resolutely committed to the struggle. In the face of genocide, the message Anglophones have sent to the government is clear and unequivocal: give us freedom or death. The government should therefore be under no illusion that the struggle is over because, if anything, the resistance just began.

This is no time for public grandstanding; nor is it a moment political self-aggrandisement. The struggle is at crossroads and whether you support federalism or independence, the question every Anglophone must ask is this:Besides the token measures of appeasement, what has changed in the past 13 months? Has government through its actions and utterances of its spokespersons shown any interest in dialogue, let alone a desire to consider federalism? Without demagoguery,the truth is that nothing has changed.The government has shown no interest in dialogue and regime apologists have repeatedly foreclosed any debate on federalism.It is now clear that Anglophones will never get federalism unless the regime is pressured to realize that the two options to resolving the crisis is either federalism or independence. The catch-22 here is that only pressure for independence by restorationists will force Biya’s hand towards federalism. It therefore stands to reason that all Anglophones should raise their voices for independence until the rising crescendo becomes too loud to be ignored.

While not unmindful of the great trials and tribulations confronting our people; after our youths have been killed, maimed and dehumanised, it is mind-boggling to even contemplate sending our children to school. This will be more than just a betrayal of the struggle, and the sacrifices of Anglophone activists, including the larger than life Mancho BBC, who are still standing trial on bogus charges that carry the death penalty.Besides, giving up school boycott; the main leverage of the struggle has no redeeming strategic value, even to the federalists, as it amounts to an act of unilateral surrender.Our work is not done as long as the Anglophone is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of brutality by Francophone security forces who see us as a conquered and captured people.This is a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the high price our people have already paid, we must brace and bear ourselves to our responsibilities as a people fighting for their freedom.The real battle is about to begin.Upon this battle depends the survival of the Anglophone nation. Upon it depends our own future and that of our children and grandchildren.

The government knows it has to break the momentum of our struggle or lose the war. If we continue to be defiant in the face of torture; if we recognise that this struggle is not about us individually and focus on the big picture; if we keep faith with the sacred covenant signed with the blood of those who have paid the ultimate price, so that we Anglophones should be free; then, make your reckoning and realise that it were better to die 10,000 deaths than to act out of coward servility because it is folly to give way to evil counsels; to refuse to do what has to be done; to listen to the naysayers and advocates of the enemy’s cause, and to fancy that because we have sacrificed so much in blood and treasure, we as Anglophones will henceforth cease to be treated as second-class citizens in Cameroon; that, whatever happens, Anglophones will no longer suffer marginalisation and discrimination, even as Francophones see them as dogs, rats and slaves to be scourged and butchered with impunity.

With schools shut down, leaving students to an uncertain fate,puerile arguments about mortgaging our children’s future have been accompanied by claims that Anglophones were deceived that UNESCO will declare 2017 a blank school year. Such baseless claims are a wilful misunderstanding of the functioning of the UNESCO Recognition and Validation of Certificates Commission; the UNESCO Education Quality Accreditation Commission and the UNESCO Policy on Accreditation and Global Education.No one needs telling that UNESCO has strict guidelines and education harmonisation standards which signatory members must adhere to, in order for an authenticated certificate from that country to be given the same recognition in another signatory country. One such guideline is duration of the academic year.If a signatory country does not meet the minimum requirements in a section or the whole country, certificates issued that year in the whole country are declared null and void. The jury is not yet out on the fate of the “political GCE” that was written in 2017, as the crisis continues, but it is anyone’s guess that UNESCO will have the last laugh on those 2017 GCE certificates.

Besides, of what use is an education that turn our institutions into degree mills that produce certificated graduates who are so half-baked educationally that they are neither useful to themselves nor to society? Those complicit school resumption advocates must be reminded that school boycott was not invented by Anglophone freedom fighters. It has been the weapon of choice for liberation movements dating back over 1000 years. After the Roman conquest of Britain, the British refused to send their children to school to protest the emasculating education the Romans were imparting on the children. Despite the threats, intimidation and heavy-handed tactics of then Roman Governor of Britain,Gnaeus Julius Agricola (AD77- 84), British children boycotted school for five (5) years. When Britain later colonized Ireland and instituted an educational system designed to keep the Irish stupid,the Irish held their children from going to school for two years. The famous Irish Revolutionary,Padraic Pearse eloquently captured the mood of the Irish resistance: “The educational system the English have instituted in Ireland is a murder machine; the schools are soulless and instead of teaching they destroy; they cannot make men but they can break them. We will keep the children home instead of sending them to the murder machine called schools.”

Apologists of school resumption deliberately refuse to look at the unacceptable face of a monumental national scandal wherein the government pays lip service to education; but treats students as liabilities and teachers like beggars.A situation where degree holders end up as bike riders and call box agents will not change by merely cajoling or threatening parents to send their children back to school.The school boycott, sad though it is, is a cruel reminder that freedom has a price and the price of freedom is very high because freedom is not given. It is pointless sending our children to school where dormitories are burnt under the watchful eyes of soldiers. The fury of the enemy has already been unleashed on our people and our brothers and sisters are already in their graves! Why should we give up now when nothing has changed in the past 13 months?Think about those who have paid the supreme price so that we may live in freedom. And then ask yourself: is my own life so precious, as to be purchased at the price of second-class citizenship?

Therefore, arise oh Ambazonians, for as Thomas Paine said, these are the times that try men’s souls.This struggle is our struggle; it is our struggle no less than it is that of the Anglophone leadership or the Anglophone Diaspora. We must have faith; we must not be stampeded by rumors or fear by detractors and naysayers. Confidence and courage are the essentials of success in fighting for our freedom. Let us unite in banishing fear. Together we cannot fail.And if we must die as Claude McKay told Black Americans during their fight for freedom and equality; “let us nobly die, so that our precious blood may not be shed in vain; then even the monsters we defy shall be constrained to honor us though dead! If we must die, let us face our murderous cowards like men with their backs against the wall; dying, but fighting back.” Let the conscience of every Anglophone hold a conversation with his/her soul; then take this solemn vow: I am fighting for my freedom; I know not what course others may take; but as for me, the choice is simple – give me freedom or give me death!

By Valerian Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai

*Ekinneh Agbaw-Ebai is a Public Intellectual and graduate of Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he was Managing Editor of the Harvard Journal of African-American Public Policy. A former Research Analyst for Freedom House, he is a Consultant and lives in Boston, USA. Talk back at ekinneh@yahoo.com

Shey Jones was appointed on Tuesday the 31st October 2017 during the Extraordinary Summit of Heads of States of the Economic Community of Central African States, CEMAC that held in the Chadian capital, Djamena.

His appointment like those of every other ruling CPDM baron adds to his position as Board Chair of the Douala Port Authority.  State radio and television reported that Shey Jones has held several posts of responsibilities including Board Chair of the National Civil Engineering Laboratory; LABOGENIE,  CEO of MAG LLC Construction Company, Secretary of State in four ministerial departments and Secretary of State at the Ministry of Town Planning and Housing.

With political support from Prime Minister Simon Achidi Achu he served as  Secretary of State at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport.  He was Director at the Grand Travaux Yaounde. The chartered member of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate was a student at the National Polytechnic School Yaounde. He migrated to the Federal Republic of Germany  where he studied at the University of Essen. Shey Jones hails from the Donga Mantung State in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Source: CRTV

Incumbent Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has been declared the winner of the east African country’s election re-run, amid fears of further violence in flashpoint opposition strongholds.

Kenya’s electoral commission announced on Monday that Kenyatta had garnered 98.2 percent of the vote in the October 26 repeat presidential election, in which the voter turnout was almost 39 percent of the 19.6 million registered voters.

Wafula Chebukati, chairman of Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), said the incumbent president had received 7,483,895 votes from a total of 7,616,217 cast ballots.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who had boycotted the Thursday protest-hit election, collected 73,228 votes, less than one percent of the ballots cast.

Odinga accused the IEBC of not implementing reforms to prevent widespread procedural irregularities and mismanagement that had culminated in the annulment of the initial vote in August. The opposition leader won 44.7 percent of the vote after Kenyatta in the previous round that saw a turnout of nearly 80 percent.

In his victory speech on Monday, Kenyatta once again that his triumph in the original August 8 election was legitimate and that dialogue over political peace and stability in the future would have to wait if the opposition was going to file lawsuits again.

“My victory today is just part of a process that is likely to once again be subjected to a constitutional test through our courts … I will submit to this constitutional path regardless of the outcome,” Kenyatta said.

“Those who are going to ask me: ‘Are you going to engage in dialogue?’ … Let them (the opposition) first and foremost exhaust all their constitutional options,” he noted.

The incumbent president also reiterated that his victory was a “revalidation” of the people’s will after a vote that had already been branded by Odinga’s supporters as a farce.

Prior to the announcement of the election results, Kenyan police stepped up security in flashpoint areas in the country’s west, including the capital Nairobi’s slum of Mathare and the coastal city of Mombasa.

Shortly after the announcement, demonstrators began burning tires in the western city of Kisumu as well as in Nairobi’s Kibera slum, according to reports.

At least nine people have been killed by gunshot wounds and beatings by police in the post-election violence since Thursday, taking the death toll since the first presidential election in August to 49.

The turmoil over the election has been polarizing the nation and hampering growth in East Africa’s most vibrant economy. Kenya is also considered a major regional trade hub and a key security ally for Western countries.

The European Union has called on Kenyan security forces to provide protection to all citizens and avoid the excessive use of force. A decade ago, some 1,200 Kenyans were killed in violence after another disputed poll.

Source: Presstv

Kenya’s election board has indefinitely delayed the country’s re-run presidential poll in four opposition-dominated areas due to “risk of violence.”

The board’s Friday decision came two days after polling in the rest of the country, in an attempt to stem the violence in Homa Hay, Kisumu, Migori and Siaya — all in the opposition stronghold of western Kenya.

In the wake of the re-run vote, residents of the opposition’s stronghold areas blocked roads and clashed with police.

Police officials have stressed that their response to the turmoil is proportionate.

So far, incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta has won over 97 percent of votes counted with turnout estimated below 35 percent.

The re-run election was held after the Kenyan Supreme Court annulled the previous election in August over procedural irregularities. Key opposition leader Raila Odinga pulled out of the contest, saying the contest against Kenyatta was not going to be fair.

Odinga won 44.7 percent of the vote in the previous round that saw a turnout of nearly 80 percent. In Thursday’s election, Kenyatta contested six minor candidates, none of whom won over 1 percent in August.

At least five people have been killed by gunshot wounds and beatings by police in the post-election violence since Thursday.

According to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, at least 45 people died during a police crackdown on opposition supporters after the August vote.

The turmoil over the election has been polarizing the nation and hampering growth in East Africa’s most vibrant economy. Kenya is also considered a major regional trade hub and a key security ally for Western countries.

The European Union has called on Kenyan security forces to provide protection to all citizens and avoid the excessive use of force. A decade ago, some 1,200 Kenyans were killed in violence after another disputed poll.

Source: Presstv