Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has appointed a prime minister for the first time since the post was abolished following a coup in 1989. Bakri Hassan Saleh, 68, took the oath of office at the presidential palace in Khartoum on Thursday, a day after he was named as prime minister by the executive bureau of the president’s National Congress Party (NCP).

A close confidante of Bashir, Saleh has served in several ministerial portfolios in the Sudanese government, including interior and defense. The army general, who is known as “Bashir’s shadow,” was head of Sudan’s all powerful National Security and Intelligence Service in the 1990s.

Saleh was an influential military officer in the 1989 coup which brought Bashir to power. He has been a key aide to Bashir and served as first vice-president, a post he will continue to occupy in the future.

The appointment is part of reforms proposed by a year-long national dialogue between the Sudanese government and some opposition groups.

Bashir, who has faced criticism over his way of dealing with dissent, concluded in October last year a national dialogue involving his government and several opposition groups. The main aim of the initiative is to resolve insurgency in Sudan’s border regions and heal the country’s crisis-wracked economy.

Bashir scrapped the post of prime minister after he launched the 1989 coup against then premier Sadiq al-Mahdi. Lawmakers approved constitutional amendments last year while Mahdi returned to Sudan from a two-year exile last month. The post of prime minister was created by constitutional amendments.

Many say the appointment of a new prime minister would help Bashir revive his decades-old rule and give it a new look. Khaled Tigani, a senior journalist, said Sudan would hardly differ under Saleh’s premiership as it would be a continuation of Bashir’s rule.

“General Bakri’s appointment is broadly a continuation of Bashir’s rule rather than a new chapter in Sudan’s politics,” he told AFP, adding, “But at the end of the day it depends on the leadership that General Bakri manages to show.”

Saleh said in a brief statement after taking oath that his cabinet would represent various political forces. “Our country is at a historic moment as it harmonizes all political parties and powers who participated in the national dialogue,” Saleh said.

Presstv

Hundreds of protesters have marched through the capital of Guinea-Bissau, demanding the departure of embattled President Jose Mario Vaz. On Thursday, the crowd of angry demonstrators on the main avenues of the capital Bissau held anti-government placards and repeatedly chanted slogans such as “Jomav get out”, using the president’s local nickname.

They also called for fresh elections to end the political crisis gripping the African country. The demonstration came a day after parliament rejected a program submitted by Prime Minister Umaro Mokhtar Sissoco Embalo.

Vaz appointed Sissoco in November after months of regional talks seeking an end to an 18-month political turmoil in the country. The prime minister has already missed a 60-day deadline to present a government program and budget that have to be accepted by parliament.

“The party … voted against the program of the PM because his government is illegitimate,” said Seidy Ba Sane, a spokesman for the country’s ruling PAIGC party. Sissoco has stressed that he would continue ruling without the confidence of parliament.

People in the West African country say the failure to pass a budget has begun to affect their daily lives and caused delays in payment of salaries for civil servants.  In addition, the ongoing crisis has stoked fears that drug traffickers might profit from the power vacuum in the country. Earlier this month, the United Nations expressed concern “over challenges posed by transnational organized crime and emerging threats, including drug trafficking, in the country.”

The economy of Guinea Bissau, one of the world’s poorest countries, is heavily reliant on cashew nut production.  Violence has rocked Guinea-Bissau since 1974 when it gained independence from Portugal. Since its independence, the country has suffered from political turmoil, including a series of military coups largely due to the unprecedented expansion of the army.

Presstv

Senator and former world and European best footballer, George Oppong Weah made a courtesy visit on Tuesday in Accra to President Nana Akufo-Addo to congratulate him on his election as President of Ghana. Weah took advantage of his meeting with Akufo-Addo to invite him not only to strengthen the bilateral relations between Liberia and Ghana but also to support a credible election in Liberia on October 10, 2017.

The new occupant of Flagstaff House in Accra thanked Weah for his visit and promised that the links between Ghana and Liberia will be strengthened and that Ghana will continue to support and defends democracy in the countries of the region.

The Liberian senator also saluted the endurance of Akufo-Addo, who got elected president after running for the third time. The visit of George Oppong Weah comes after the one made last week in Accra by Didier Drogba, the Ivorian football legend.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Hail to the courageous and persistent Ambazonians who continue the ghost town strategy even when everybody would like to celebrate the win of the Africa Cup on the streets! No! Now is not the time to focus on sports, now is the time to focus on survival of the whole homeland, the whole People of Ambazonia. Either you stand up now altogether or you become extinct. The independent Nation of Ambazonia aka “Southern Cameroons” is threatened by genocide and has suffered unspeakable treatment by the illegitimate dictatorial regime of Cameroun aka Exploitation-Colony-of-France for tooooo long.

The ghost town form of maximum passive resistance must continue at any cost to put more and more pressure on Mista Biya on his cronies and on all international parties which may still think that Anglophones are just an internal problem in Cameroon. No! The Anglophones are not the problem, they are the solution! The real problem is with the Francophones, who crawl in the the arse of French and other foreign corporations to profit from exploitation of their own fellow Cameroonians. And what the French are doing with Cameroun, like a rapist with its victim, Yaoundé is doing with Ambazonia.

 It’s only about robbing robbing robbing. That’s why they don’t allow any weapons for the Ambazonians to defend themselves and control their own resources by themselves. Nevertheless, right now, it is favorable to stay with all forms of passive resistance until an exile government of Ambazonia is formed which will drive a worldwide peaceful campaign for the support of the buildup of a modern, independent, entrepreneurial, prosperous, free Ambazonia in which the People can vote for their own State’s name and new, much better Constitution per Referendum. But to make it happen, we need everyone of you, each and every single one, to help keeping the resistance spirit in the suffering population alive and to promote the convincing of the Francophones also, that they shall support the Ambazonians in their quest for independence, because once achieved, that would be the most potential way to help the Francophones as well to get rid of that corrupt and outdated Biya regime and French robbery post colonialism. So please, try to call as many people in the homeland as you can and keep them informed and highly spirited.

 The Ambazonian Diaspora is feverishly working on all diplomatic and guerilla and media campaign fronts to make the world convinced that it is driving far far better with free Ambazonia than with enslaved Cameroon! You will see, independence, freedom, prosperity, own government, own army, own currency, own modern constitution, all this will come, if you only remain persistent and network with the homeland like one man with one agenda and one command structure! Every Ambazonian, every “Southern Cameroonian” has to become a warrior for independence now! Ambazonians and Cameroonians are the creme de la creme of Africa and they will get their long deserved freedom!

LONG LIVE AMBAZONIA!!!

Moroccan officials have rejected claims that their country will have to recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) now that the kingdom is permitted to rejoin the African Union (AU). Moroccan Deputy Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said in an interview published on Sunday that Morocco’s membership in the AU would not mean a recognition of the SADR borders declared by the the Polisario Front in the Western Sahara region at the height of a war for the territory.

“Not only does Morocco not recognize – and will never recognize – this so-called entity … It will (also) redouble its efforts so the small minority of countries, particularly African, which recognize it, change their positions,” said Bourita.

The Moroccan diplomat said Rabat will not change its stance on the territory, refuting statements by Polisario and its allies that Morocco’s return to the African bloc implies a recognition of the SADR’s borders.

“This is nonsense from the point of view of international law and state practice,” Bourita said, adding that joining “an international forum in the presence of an unrecognized entity cannot imply the state’s recognition of that entity.” The AU decided in a meeting in Ethiopia last Monday to approve Morocco’s re-entry into the bloc. The kingdom left the AU in 1984 after the continental body admitted SADR.

Polisario backers, namely Algeria and South Africa, had resisted Morocco’s return. A diplomatic source in Rabat said Morocco’s re-entry into AU was a major setback for those countries, saying they “spent months doing everything they can to prevent our return, until the last minute.”

The source said Polisario backers are now trying to present their “failure as a success” by pretending that Morocco has accepted to recognize SADR. “Morocco will continue to mobilize to delegitimize the SADR,” said the senior diplomat, adding, “The return of Morocco is a direct challenge to the presence of the Polisario within the AU.”

The Polisario head and SADR president, Brahim Ghali, said Sunday that the movement was ready to hold talks with Morocco, but warned that “all options are open” in the independence struggle from the kingdom, meaning that the movement could return to armed struggle against Rabat.

“We always look for the peaceful way” to resolve the conflict, Ghali said, adding, “But all options remain open.” Ghali called on Morocco to meet its commitments, saying the kingdom should respect the international borders of the Sahrawi Republic now that it is a member of the AU

The disputed Sahara territory was for long a Spanish colony until it went under Moroccan control in 1975. Years of war ended with a ceasefire in 1991 but the two sides of the conflict have rejected efforts to reach a permanent solution. Some 165,000 people, known as Sahrawis, currently live in a refugee camp in Tindouf, southwestern Algeria. The population mostly lives on aid from UN agencies and international NGOs.

Presstv

African leaders have renewed their determination to pull out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) collectively, accusing the international body of discriminating against Africans. The African leaders adopted a strategy for their collective withdrawal at the 28th African Union (AU) summit, which wrapped up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Tuesday.

A draft of the strategy, which was recited at a closed-door AU session and was later published by AP, recommends that African states build up and strengthen their own independent judicial systems. The non-binding recommendation also calls on African nations to expand the jurisdiction of the African court of justice and human rights to resolve disputes on the continent “in order to reduce the deference to the ICC.”

This is the latest expression of impatience by African leaders with the court, which some say has focused too narrowly on African leaders. Desire Assogbavi, the head of Oxfam International’s AU liaison office, confirmed the adoption of the strategy. However, analysts say African countries are divided on whether to leave the court or try to change some of its policies.

Burundi, Gambia, and South Africa have already said they no longer recognize the court’s jurisdiction and announced their intention to quit. But several other African countries, including Nigeria, Senegal and the Republic of the Congo have spoken up in support of the ICC in recent months. One of the main African supporters of the ICC is former United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan. Since the ICC was launched on July 1,  2002, it has indicted 39 people, all of whom have been African.

Presstv

The African Union has readmitted Morocco into the bloc 33 years after its withdrawal over the still existing Western Sahara dispute. The majority of the AU member states voted for the re-admission of during the 28th summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Monday, leaving the issue of the disputed territory of Western Sahara for another day.

“Morocco is now a full member of the African Union. There was a very long debate but 39 of our 54 states approved the return of Morocco, even if the Western Sahara question remains,” Senegalese President Macky Sall told reporters. “As we have said, if the family grows bigger, we can find solutions as a family,” Macky Sall added.

Algeria and South Africa were among the heavyweights that opposed the re-admission of Morocco. The country withdrew from the AU in 1984, when the mineral-rich and sparsely populated Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), commonly known as Western Sahara, was accepted as a member. Morocco annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, in 1975. It maintains that Western Sahara is an integral part of the kingdom, but the international community has not recognized the annexation.

Western Sahara is home to the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, a Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement aiming to end Moroccan presence in the territory. In 1991, Moroccan forces and Sahrawi rebels agreed on a UN-brokered truce and a referendum to settle the status of Western Sahara. However, the vote has never taken place. Some had feared Morocco would set the expulsion of the SADR  as a precondition for its own return to the AU.

“From the moment that Morocco did not impose conditions … we take their word for it and accept that Morocco be admitted to the African Union,” said SADR Foreign Minister Mohamed Salem Ould Salek. Salek said the re-admission of Morocco will help pressure the authorities into holding a referendum to “allow the Sahrawi to choose their future”.

“Now (if) Morocco is blocking (it) will be questioned by the head of states: why are you afraid of a referendum? Why don’t you allow the Sahrawi to choose their future freely?” he said. Morocco has for several years been trying to return to the body as it reportedly seeks to expand its economy. In July 2016, Moroccan King Mohammed VI officially announced plans to rejoin the African Union.

Presstv

The Gambia’s former leader, Yahya Jammeh, has left the country after finally conceding defeat in an election under increasing international pressure. Jammeh lost the presidential election in December last year to Adama Barrow but said he would not relinquish power, claiming that there had been irregularities in the vote and pushing the country to the edge of war.

West African nations, which had been peacefully trying to convince him to leave, gradually turned to the idea of removing him militarily and put a regional force on standby as the official end of Jammeh’s mandate approached. On Saturday, some two days after the expiration of his mandate, Jammeh finally announced a decision “to relinquish the mantle of leadership” and, now with his exit from The Gambia, the way was paved for President Adama Barrow to return home from neighboring Senegal, where he was inaugurated on Thursday.

Jammeh, who had taken power in a 1994 coup, demanded from the negotiators that he be given amnesty and safe passage out of The Gambia and that his political party be recognized. But no deal on amnesty was finalized with the negotiators and Jammeh was forced to go into exile.

Regional leaders did escort him into a plane, however, seeing him off into exile in Equatorial Guinea. His family and aides were to depart on a separate plane. The fate of his party was not immediately clear. During Jammeh’s reign, his government was accused of harsh treatment of opponents.

Presstv