Politics

28, December 2023

“Cameroon political system is more of gossiping and intimidation” Dr Joachim Arrey ⁰

As 2023 fades into history and 2024 looms large on the horizon, the Cameroon Concord News Group deems it necessary to talk to a keen observer of the Cameroonian political and economic landscape who will present the past to our readers and walk them into the New Year with relative ease. In this regard, the Group Chairman, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, talked to Dr. Joachim Arrey, the Executive Director of the Global Think Tank for Africa, a not-for-profit organization delivering humanitarian help to needy pupils, who is always willing to share his perspectives on key issues facing Cameroon, and he had this to say.

Cameroon Concord News: Good day! It’s been a long time since you shared your perspective on what is happening in Cameroon. Are you still interested in what is happening in your homeland?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: Thank you Mr. Chairman for reaching out to me. It has indeed been a long time since we shared perspectives on key political issues in Cameroon, but this is in no way my disengagement from our country’s political landscape. The older I get the more interest I develop in our country’s politics which leaves much to be desired. It is even a misnomer for us to characterize what is happening in Cameroon as politics. Our political system is more of gossiping and intimidation than the healthy politics we all clamoured for in the early 90s. Our fellow citizens have been put on a forceful diet of stress and starvation and many of them are losing weight against their will. Times are hard and a hungry stomach can easily be intimidated. Also remember that a hungry, ignorant and gullible people are easy prey for those with malicious and wicked political schemes. With our people yielding to the intimidation, our so-called advanced democracy has morphed into a full-blown dictatorship. However, it should be underscored that in politics, nobody intimidates you without your own approval. After more than forty years of humiliating and grinding poverty under a regime that is on a diet of power, our fellow citizens should understand Victor Hugo’s wise saying: “where dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right.” Silence may be golden, but in a situation of excruciating financial pain and suffering, silence will not deliver the bread-and-butter Cameroonians have been looking forward to for more than four decades.

Cameroon Concord News: You have always been anti-violence and you hold that real political alternation and change can only be a reality in Cameroon if the electoral code is changed; making sure that the bodies running elections in the country are totally independent of the government and its auxiliaries in the various regions. Do you see this happening anytime soon?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: Change has always been a work-in-progress and it requires patience and consistency. Anybody who expects a political miracle in Cameroon is surely not living on this planet. The Cameroon electoral system has been designed to serve an individual who has surrounded himself with hungry and desperate people. Senators, parliamentarians and appointed officials in the country are hungry and desperate and they hold that he who has made it possible for them to climb to the pinnacle of politics in Cameroon is their God. These people are going to use whatever means are available to them to keep things as they are. However, it behooves the population and key opposition players to mount pressure on a regime which is on its last leg for things to change. Strangely, the population has resigned itself to fate, hoping that there would be some divine intervention on its behalf. Unfortunately, miracles only happen to those who manufacture them. The people of Cameroon must start acting in a different way. Heaven helps only those who help themselves. For the political opposition, not many of its members can be relied upon. Many of them are still in the grip of poverty and poverty hardly breeds virtue. They make noise in the hope that those in charge of government affairs can see them and offer them something. The tough financial times the country is going through have emasculated the political opposition and this unfortunate situation plays in favour of a government whose cardinal objective is to stay in power for decades or centuries without posting any admirable political and economic results. Engineering and delivering an independent electoral system in Cameroon are huge possibilities but that is not without significant challenges. The electoral system has been configured to always favour the ruling party, and changing that requires huge opposition to the government. Without a clash – intellectual and even political – such change will be a distant tomorrow affair. Those who are making huge gains from the current system will never deliver such change to the people on a platter of gold.

Cameroon Concord News: There are multiple elections scheduled to take place in Cameroon come 2025. Are you therefore saying that the opposition does not stand a chance giving that the current electoral code will be the one that will be used?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: The country’s political opposition still has a fighting chance. Though the system has been designed to favour the ruling party, there is still some leeway for the political opposition to erode the ruling party’s undeserved political gains. The political opposition must be strategic in its approach. Based on my personal analysis, there are two opposition parties which can cause ripples in that political ocean – MRC led by Prof. Maurice Kamto and the SDF led by Josua Osih. However, creating those ripples will require more than just political grandstanding. Maturity and flexibility on the part of those opposition parties could bring about the change Cameroonians have been hankering after. Instead of competing against each other, these two parties can get into a strategic alliance which may roll back the ruling party in regions such as the North West, the South West and the West regions. In the Grand North, the SDF and MRC must make the most of the frustration of the people of those regions. They need to let Cameroonians know that the country is on the brink of collapse and there is no point following the ruling party over the cliff like lemmings. With the ruling party’s chairman gradually fading away, the internecine fighting playing out within the ruling party should be good news to the political opposition. Though poverty has a nation-wide impact, it is in the northern regions that this impact is very visible. The northern regions have simply been left to their own devices and Boko Hara is bombing life out of the people while the government watches helplessly. There is a different way of doing things and the country’s political opposition must come up with effective and efficient ways of delivering hope to the people of the north. They are desperate and they really want change. The current regime is at its wit’s end and it has run out of gasoline. It has nothing to offer to the people of Cameroon. If anything, it is death. Many Cameroonians are dying helplessly and those who are supposed to protect them and deliver hope are either busy robbing the system blind or are rejoicing that they have held the people to their balls.

Cameroon Concord News: Do you think there will be any real elections in the country’s two English-speaking regions?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: Mr. Group chairman, messaging is key in any initiative which is bound to succeed. Real elections can hold in Southern Cameroons depending on the messages which will be put out there. While the fight for independence is still playing out in the country’s two English-speaking regions, there is no gainsaying that the fight for an independent Southern Cameroons has lost steam. The struggle has lost its way and it is now in the hands of thugs and criminals who are making the most of the ugly situation. Many Southern Cameroonians now agree that total independence is light years away. Federalism seems to be the attractive golden median and many French-speaking Cameroonians are buying into the federalist narrative. Southern Cameroonian politicians should use the popularity of federalism to convince more of those misguided criminals to come out of the bushes. The federalist rhetoric is peaceful, more meaningful and friendly and this has gained ground even in East Cameroon. If the government of Yaoundé yields to the calls for a federal system in Cameroon, the struggle for independence will die a natural death. The government must learn how to yield some ground if peace must return to Cameroon. Federalism has a way of triggering economic prosperity and policies based on federalism can help unleash our country’s economic potential. My call to all Southern Cameroonian federalists is that they should form a common platform or political party which I know will make major inroads in the 2025 parliamentary elections given the support federalism is enjoying among Southern Cameroonians. I am therefore urging federalists like Dr Simon Munzu and Barrister Felix Nkongho Agbor Balla to step up to the plate to provide much-needed leadership. Preaching federalism on the streets will not cut it. Federalists must find a way to the country’s parliament to fight from within. When Southern Cameroonians understand that there is a party which wants to take the fight to the parliament on their behalf, they will happily vote for those candidates who they believe will help to incarnate their aspirations and dreams. I know there is the issue of financing, but having spoken with many people out of Cameroon, I know that the Diaspora will put vast resources at the disposal of the federalist political party as many members of the country’s Diaspora have deep faith in federalism. There are many people who want to mobilize resources for such a noble cause.

Cameroon Concord News: Dr. Joachim Arrey, allow me to take you down the economic lane. Cameroon is in the throes of a biting economic crisis. Do you think the coming year holds any hope for Cameroonians, especially our youths who are desperate and looking outwards for opportunities?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: Each year, we all look forward to the head of state’s speech, hoping that tough and sound economic measures will be announced to douse the economic fire which has reduced Cameroonians to paupers. But every New Year only brings more hardship and disappointment to the people as the government fails woefully to engineer sound economic and financial solutions to the economic crisis. The government has failed to put our children to work and many of them are desperate. Thousands are dying in the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea while struggling to reach Europe, a place many of them think is an El-dorado. Despite these unfortunate situations, the Yaoundé government has pursued the same policies which have delivered excruciating pain to Cameroonians. Many young Cameroonians are willing to walk to North America given that Cameroon is only offering them hardship and premature death. If the government does not take a long and hard look at its policies, the economic and financial fate of its people will change, unfortunately for the worse. I sincerely do not see any hope on the horizon. Our country’s social architects are deeply asleep at the switch. This is taking a huge toll on the country’s economy. Corruption is rippling out like ragweed, delivering pain and death to the poorest who do not know where to turn to. Police officers just like customs officers are making the most of the chaos which is playing out. The system seems to be collapsing and there is a general feeling that there is nobody in charge and this has triggered a wave of looting and corruption. Though the system is collapsing, I still hope that there is no justification for young Cameroonians to undertake such perilous journeys. The future may be bleak, but there are some green shoots. A silver lining is gradually emerging from the dark clouds the government’s incompetence has cast on the country. Entrepreneurship and skills building have come to deliver some hope to our youths. Many of the country’s tertiary institutions are now offering courses which can enable our young men and women to acquire skills and look forward to a brighter future. The lack of skills relevant to the new global economy has left many young Cameroonians unemployed for years. The government should invest more resources into skills development as a means of alleviating the financial hardship which has been stalking young Cameroonians for decades like a stubborn shadow.

Cameroon Concord News: Thank you, Dr. Joachim Arrey, for your time and pearls of wisdom. Any last word for our readers?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: It is always a pleasure sharing my perspectives with you. For your readers, I would encourage them to continue reading the Cameroon Concord News if they must have a balanced perspective of what is happening in Cameroon. Keep informing Cameroonians! Thank you and do extend my regards to your staff.

24, December 2023

Kidnappings for Ransoms in Southern Cameroon: A Daily and Deadly Reality ⁰

Five months ago, Amnesty International stated: “Cameroonian authorities must act to end the violence against the population and conduct thorough investigations into the killings, acts of torture, rapes, burning of houses and other atrocities committed in the Anglophone regions…” The 5th July 2023 report, like many before, was disapproving and detailed extensive human rights violations and other crimes committed by multiple actors in the war-torn Anglophone regions of the country. Following the report, Cameroon Concord News Group tasked its undercover reporters in the country to establish the extent of the kidnapping-for-ransom market. Our correspondents have revealed a disturbing criminal empire worth hundreds of thousands of dollars operating due to the security vacuum created as a result of the war in the Southwest and Northwest regions of Cameroon.

The war between forces loyal to the regime in Yaoundé against Anglophone separatists seems to have stalled with vast remote areas of the Anglophone regions now ungovernable and Cameroon Concord News Group can reveal that armed criminal gangs now control most of the rural areas, with the government unable to exert any control and authority over hundreds of square miles of land.

Some separatist groups in the diaspora have taken advantage of the security vacuum in the war-torn country with the AGovC (Ambazonia Governing Council) implementing a “liberation tax” rip-off. Our sources reported that this so-called tax is collected through MTN and Orange Mobile Money transfers by gang leaders who own multiple fraudulent mobile money accounts. In many areas, hundreds spoke on condition of anonymity and recounted the ordeals of dealing with rogue Cameroon army soldiers and separatist gang. In Kumbo, Northwest region, a government official said “These Amba fighters are now kidnapping for ransoms, particularly as the money could be paid through MTN and Orange Mobile Money accounts”

There are stories of families that have been separated as Ambazonia fighters chase people to pay huge ransoms. The campaign of violence and intimidation is unbearable in some cases and the only way is for people to leave the country. The family of Joseph Agbor Ndip, who left Cameroon last year as he was hounded by Amba fighters for money with threats of death are still getting intimidating messages from both the Cameroon army and rogue gangs asking them to pay money for their safety. We uncovered that the amount asked in some of these messages is over $10,000 in a country where over 75% live on less than $5 a day.

In many areas of the country, Amba Fighters are charging 10,000 frs CFA ($20) monthly “taxes” to fund the war for independence. Agbor Ndip’s family says they and many others are being blackmailed as traitors for not responding and they live in fear. The family of Monica Eyambe Agbe, who fled an abusive marriage recounted that Amba fighters “have asked us to pay over 20 million CFA that our late father “borrowed” and never paid. How are we ever going to get that kind of money? Our lives are not worth living”

It is disgraceful that the regime in Yaoundé always ignores credible reports from international human rights organizations about abuses in the country. The authorities in Cameroon have actively discredited and delegitimized the July report from Amnesty International. The stories of hundreds of enforced disappearances are real and painful to the families involved. The families of Joseph Agbor Ndip, Monica Agbe, Alfred Tita and Toto Roland and many more are now facing never-ending harassment from the armed gangs and the lawless French Cameroon army operating with impunity.

Yaoundé’s “military victory only” strategy effectively means that they have ruled out a negotiated solution to the conflict. What this means is that some of the country’s most vulnerable people are now cut up between armed gangs and an unruly army. The refusal of Mr Biya and his men to accept that their conservative approach is leading to several avoidable deaths is regrettable.

The Amnesty International report and the findings of the Concord Group over the last three months have exposed leadership fatigue in Yaoundé. The warring parties have announced a detente and this has created a security vacuum for criminals to operate. Kidnapping gangs and a disgruntled Cameroon army extorting money from businesses and the local population are among the major reasons for the massive exodus from the country.

The scale and horror of the war in the Anglophone regions in Cameroon rightly captured the world’s attention for almost six years, but by some strange happenstance, it now appears to be one of the world’s forgotten conflicts. What Amnesty International and our investigation have uncovered is a vicious and malicious underworld of kidnapping for ransoms in a very poor and unsafe environment.

By Chi Prudence Asong, with files from Alain Tabot-Tanyi

20, December 2023

Congo-Kinshasa: Polls open in high-stakes election after fraught campaign ⁰

Polling stations opened Wednesday in a high-stakes Democratic Republic of Congo general election pitting the incumbent President Felix Tshisekedi against a fragmented opposition, as much of the east of the country is mired in conflict.

Polling stations opened in sub-Saharan Africa’s largest country at 6 am (0400 GMT) and will close at 5 pm local time.

AFP journalists saw the first voter casting his ballot at a polling station in the eastern city of Kisangani, which sits in a region an hour ahead of the rest of the huge country, which straddles two time zones.

Voters still waiting in line at 5 pm will be given tokens and polling booths will stay open until they cast their votes, an official at the electoral commission told AFP.

The government declared a bank holiday for Wednesday, and as during previous elections, it closed the borders and suspended domestic flights.

Around 44 million Congolese, in a nation of 100 million, are registered to choose their president as well as lawmakers in national and provincial assemblies, and local councillors.

In a first, Congolese citizens residing in South Africa, Belgium, the United States and France will also cast ballots.

More than 100,000 candidates are running for various positions, and while counting is set to begin as soon as polling stations close, results are not expected to be announced for several days.

Several observation missions will be watching the voting process, with the largest one run by a union of Catholic and Protestant churches mobilising 25,000 election observers.

Leaders of this influential mission promised Tuesday to conduct a “parallel count” for the presidential election.

‘Foreign candidates’

Tshisekedi, 60, faces 18 challengers.

The incumbent, who took office in 2019 and is running for a second five-year term, is considered the front-runner to win in the single-round presidential vote.

Tshisekedi’s record, as he himself has acknowledged, is mixed. He has presided over years of economic growth but little job creation and soaring inflation. He is asking for another term to “consolidate his gains”.

Throughout the campaign, he also poured scorn on what he termed “foreign candidates” – suggesting that his opponents have dual loyalties and lack the will to stand up to Rwanda, which the DRC accuses of funding rebel groups on its soil.

Moise Katumbi, a 58-year-old businessman and former governor of mineral-rich Katanga province, is the main target of such attacks.

Armed conflict in eastern DRC overshadowed much of the electoral campaign. Militias have plagued the troubled region for decades, a legacy of regional wars that flared in the 1990s and 2000s.

Tensions have resumed since the M23 group, which is allegedly backed by Rwanda, began capturing swathes of territory in late 2021.

Clashes with M23 fighters have subsided in recent weeks but the rebels continue to hold sway over large parts of North Kivu province. Citizens living in those areas will not be able to vote.

Other presidential candidates include Martin Fayulu, a 67-year-old former oil executive who says he was the true winner of the 2018 election that brought Tshisekedi to power.

Surgical gynaecologist Denis Mukwege, 68, who won the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for his work helping rape victims, is also running.

All the major opposition candidates say they suspect the government of preparing electoral fraud.

Flory Tshimanga, a 32-year-old seller of mobile phone credits in Kinshasa, said he thought the vote would proceed without hiccups.

“It’s when the results come in that there could be problems,” he said.

Source: AFP

8, December 2023

Moscow: Putin announces presidential candidacy in 2024 elections ⁰

Vladimir Putin on Friday moved to prolong his grip on Russia for at least another six years, announcing his candidacy in the presidential election next March that he is all but certain to win.

Putin still commands wide support after nearly a quarter-century in power, despite starting an immensely costly war in Ukraine that has taken thousands of his countrymen’s lives, provoked repeated attacks inside Russia – including one on the Kremlin itself – and corroded its aura of invincibility.

A short-lived rebellion in June by mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin raised widespread speculation that Putin could be losing his grip, but he emerged with no permanent scars.

Putin announced his decision to run in the March 17 presidential election after a Kremlin award ceremony, when war veterans and others pleaded with him to seek re-election.

“I won’t hide it from you – I had various thoughts about it over time, but now, you’re right, it’s necessary to make a decision,” Putin said in a video released by the Kremlin after the event. “I will run for president of the Russian Federation.”

Tatiana Stanovaya of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center noted that the announcement was made in a low-key way instead of a live televised speech, probably reflecting the Kremlin’s spin effort to emphasize Putin’s modesty and his perceived focus on doing his job as opposed to loud campaigning.

“It’s not about prosperity, it’s about survival,” Stanovaya observed. “The stakes have been raised to the maximum.”

About 80% of the populace approves of Putin’s performance, according to the independent pollster Levada Center. That support might come from the heart or it might reflect submission to a leader whose crackdown on any opposition has made even relatively mild criticism perilous.

Whether due to real or coerced support, Putin is expected to face only token opposition on the ballot.

Putin, 71, has twice used his leverage to amend the constitution so he could theoretically stay in power until he’s in his mid-80s. He is already the longest-serving Kremlin leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, who died in 1953.

In 2008, he stepped aside to become prime minister due to term limits but continued calling the shots. Presidential terms were then extended to six years from four, while another package of amendments he pushed through three years ago reset the count for two consecutive terms to begin in 2024.

“He is afraid to give up power,” Dmitry Oreshkin, a political analyst and professor at Free University of Riga, Latvia, told The Associated Press this year.

At the time of the amendments that allowed him two more terms, Putin’s concern about losing power may have been elevated: Levada polling showed his approval rating significantly lower, hovering around 60%.

In the view of some analysts, that dip in popularity could have been a main driver of the war that Putin launched in Ukraine in February 2022.

“This conflict with Ukraine was necessary as a glue. He needed to consolidate his power,” said commentator Abbas Gallyamov, a former Putin speechwriter now living in Israel.

Brookings Institution scholar Fiona Hill, a former U.S. National Security Council expert on Russian affairs, agrees that Putin thought “a lovely small, victorious war” would consolidate support for his reelection.

“Ukraine would capitulate,” she told AP this year. “He’d install a new president in Ukraine. He would declare himself the president of a new union of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia over the course of the time leading up to the 2024 election. He’d be the supreme leader.”

The war didn’t turn out that way. It devolved into a grueling slog in which neither side makes significant headway, posing severe challenges to the rising prosperity integral to Putin’s popularity and Russians’ propensity to set aside concerns about corrupt politics and shrinking tolerance of dissent.

Putin’s rule has spanned five U.S. presidencies, from Bill Clinton to Joe Biden. He became acting president on New Year’s Eve in 1999, when Boris Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned. He was elected to his first term in March 2000.

When he was forced to step down in 2008 by term limits, he shifted to the prime minister’s post while close ally Dmitry Medvedev served as a placeholder president.

When Putin announced he would run for a new term in 2012 and Medvedev submissively agreed to become prime minister, public protests brought out crowds of 100,000 or more.

Although Putin has long abandoned the macho photo shoots of bear hunting and scuba diving that once amused and impressed the world, he shows little sign of slowing down. Photos from 2022 of him with a bloated face and a hunched posture led to speculation he was seriously ill, but he seems little changed in recent public appearances.

“He’s a wartime president, is mobilizing the population behind him,” Hill said. “And that will be the message around the 2024 election, depending on where things are in the battlefield.”

Source: AP

7, December 2023

US: Senate Republicans block Ukraine and Israel aid bill ⁰

Senate Republicans have blocked a move to pass an aid bill for Ukraine after failing to secure border compromises they sought in exchange.

The $110bn (£87.3bn) package included $61bn for Ukraine, as well as funds for Israel and aid for Gaza.

Republicans are insisting that any aid to Ukraine be tied to sweeping US immigration and asylum reforms.

The White House has warned that US funds for Ukraine could soon run out.

Senators voted 51 to 49 against advancing the bill, with 60 votes needed. The vote throws uncertainty into the future of aid for Ukraine and sends lawmakers back to the negotiating table with just days to go until Congress has scheduled winter break.

Every single Republican Senator voted against the measure, along with independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who had earlier in the day expressed reservations that the legislation included billions in military aid for Israel.

“I do not believe we should be appropriating over $10 billion for the right-wing extremist Netanyahu government to continue its current military approach,” Mr Sanders said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ongoing campaign in the Gaza strip, which has so far killed thousands of civilians.

Mr Sanders, who is a long-time critic of Mr Netanyahu, added: “What the Netanyahu government is doing is immoral, it is in violation of international law, and the United States should not be complicit in those actions.”

Earlier on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden said he was “willing to make significant compromises on the border” in order to get the aid bill passed.

“This cannot wait,” he said, adding that “Republicans in Congress are willing to give Putin the greatest gift he could hope for”.

Also on Wednesday, the Biden administration announced $175m in new security assistance for Ukraine from the supply of funding that has already been approved. The package includes ammunition, including missiles and artillery shells, as well as “equipment to protect critical national infrastructure”, the US Department of Defense said in a news release.

Concerns over the future of the $110bn package grew on Tuesday after a classified briefing for lawmakers aimed at shoring up support for new funds broke down spectacularly.

Senators shouted at each other over border security and least a dozen Republicans walked out.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also cancelled a virtual briefing with lawmakers over a “last-minute matter”, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Tuesday, without providing further detail.

Mood dims in Kyiv as US stand-off imperils war effort

The package already includes provisions for border security, but Republican demands for additional changes to asylum rules has complicated negotiations with Democrats. While the party’s members are overwhelmingly in favour of aid to Ukraine, some have sought to use the issue as a way address mounting domestic concerns over the US southern border.

Ahead of the failed vote to bring the package to the floor, Mr Schumer delivered an emotional plea to his colleagues on the Senate floor, telling them that the vote was an important “moment in history” and that they should “rush to the defence of democracy” in Ukraine.

“You can be sure that Vladimir Putin is watching closely,” he said.

Source: BBC

1, December 2023

Etoudi: Farewell Audience to Indian High Commissioner ⁰

Paul BIYA granted a farewell audience to Anindya Banerjee, High Commissioner of India to Cameroon on 29 November 2023 at Unity Palace.

Biya and Banerjee reportedly discussed issues of common interest, including the strengthening of the friendly and cordial bilateral relations that exist between Yaoundé and New Delhi in areas like trade, agriculture, health, and capacity building.

The outgoing Indian Diplomat started his mission in Cameroon on 21 February 2022.

Culled PRC

18, November 2023

Liberia’s George Weah concedes presidential election defeat to Joseph Boakai ⁰

Liberian leader and football legend George Weah conceded defeat to opposition leader Joseph Boakai after a tight presidential run-off, saying it was “time to put national interest above personal interest”.

The latest and nearly complete results showed Boakai leading with nearly 51 percent of the votes in Liberia, Africa’s oldest republic founded by freed American slaves.

“The results announced tonight, though not final, indicate that… Boakai is in a lead that we cannot surpass,” Weah said in a speech on national radio late on Friday.

He said his CDC party “has lost the election but Liberia has won,” adding: “This is the time for graciousness in defeat”.

The 78-year-old Boakai lost to Weah, 57, by a large margin in the second-round presidential vote in 2017.

With more than 99.5 percent of the polling stations reporting vote tallies after Tuesday’s second-round vote, Boakai had garnered 50.89 percent of ballots cast, according to the election commission.

Boakai was 28,000 votes ahead of Weah, according to Friday’s figures. The two finished neck-and-neck in the first round last month, with a national lead of just 7,126 votes for Weah.

The election of Weah — the first African footballer to win both FIFA’s World Player of the Year trophy and the Ballon d’Or — had sparked high hopes of change in Liberia, which is still reeling from back-to-back civil wars and the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic.

But critics have accused his government of corruption and him of failing to keep a promise to improve the lives of the poorest.

The United States congratulated “president-elect Boakai on his victory and President Weah for his peaceful acceptance of the results”.

“We call on all citizens to follow President Weah’s example and accept the results,” US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

‘Liberian people have spoken’

Weah said he had spoken to Boakai “to congratulate him on his victory”.

“The Liberian people have spoken, and we have heard their voice. However, the closeness of the results reveals a deep division within our country,” Weah said in his speech.

“Let us heal the divisions caused by the campaign and come together as one nation and one united people.”

Weah who remains president until the handover of power in January pledged to “continue to work for the good of Liberia”.

It will be the second peaceful handover of power from one democratically-elected government from another in two decades.

The elections were the first since the United Nations in 2018 ended its peacekeeping mission, created after more than 250,000 people died in the two civil wars in Liberia between 1989 and 2003.

International observers, including the European Union, have commended Liberia for holding a peaceful election.

Regional bloc ECOWAS, the Economic Community of West African States, said the poll was “largely” peaceful, but noted isolated incidents that led to “injuries and hospitalisations” in four provinces.

Clashes during the campaign left several dead before the first round and raised fears of post-election violence.

Around 2.4 million Liberians were eligible to vote on Tuesday and the turnout was roughly 66 percent, according to the electoral commission website.

Boakai is an old political hand, having served as vice president to Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected female head of state, from 2006 to 2018.

Liberia is home to around five million people and one of the poorest countries in the world.

More than a fifth of the population lives on less than $2.15 a day, according to the World Bank.

Source: AFP

14, November 2023

Gabon junta promises free elections in August 2025 ⁰

Gabon’s military leaders who deposed president Ali Bongo Ondimba in August announced on Monday that elections would be held in August 2025 under a timetable that first foresees national dialogue.

“August 2025: elections and end of the transition,” a regime spokesman said on live state TV, referring to an official but “indicative” transition timeframe, adopted by cabinet but to be submitted to a national conference next year.

The conference, scheduled for April 2024, would be made up of all the country’s “vital actors”.

Ali Bongo, 64, who had ruled the central African country since 2009, was overthrown by military leaders on August 30, moments after being proclaimed the winner in a presidential election, which both the army and the opposition declared fraudulent.

Gabon’s new Prime Minister Raymond Ndong Sima has said that a two-year transition before the free elections promised by the country’s new military rulers was a “reasonable objective”.

Ndong Sima was appointed as head of the transitional government by General Brice Oligui Nguema, who led the coup d’etat against Ali Bongo Ondimba.

Source: AFP

14, November 2023

UK: Former Prime Minister appointed foreign secretary ⁰

David Cameron has said he wants to support Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “at a hard time”, after making a dramatic comeback to government in a major cabinet reshuffle.

The former prime minister has been appointed foreign secretary and accepted a peerage to take the post.

He replaced James Cleverly, who became home secretary after Mr Sunak sacked Suella Braverman.

Lord Cameron admitted it was “not usual” for a former PM “to come back”.

But he said at a time when the country faced “daunting challenges” in the Middle East and Ukraine, he hoped his experience would be helpful to Mr Sunak’s government.

“I’ve decided to join this team because I believe Rishi Sunak is a good prime minister doing a difficult job at a hard time,” Lord Cameron said. “I want to support him.”

Later the Foreign Office said Mr Cameron had spoken to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday evening, and they discussed “the conflict in the Middle East, Israel’s right to self defence and the need for humanitarian pauses to allow the safe passage of aid into Gaza” – as well as their continued support for Ukraine and the strength and depth of the relationship between the UK and the US.

Mrs Braverman’s sacking kickstarted Monday’s cabinet reshuffle by Mr Sunak, whose party is lagging far behind Labour in opinion polls, after more than 13 years in power.

Mr Sunak’s decision to sack Mrs Braverman came after the former home secretary accused the Metropolitan Police of bias in its handling of protests.

The prime minister’s spokesperson stressed the importance of having a “united team” and acknowledged there had been “differences of style” between Mrs Braverman and Mr Sunak.

In a speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet in London, Mr Sunak said the world faced “deeply challenging times” and “it falls to us to do everything we can to shape these events”.

He said the UK government had “delivered one of the most significant years for British foreign policy in recent times” and praised Mr Cleverly for his work on Ukraine as foreign secretary.

“I’m pleased to have appointed a new foreign secretary who will build on everything we have achieved in the last year,” Mr Sunak said.

By bringing back Lord Cameron and firing Mrs Braverman, who is popular on the right of the Conservative Party, the prime minister has risked deepening divisions among his MPs.

Conservative former Cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said the Conservatives were “in danger of losing votes to the Reform party”.

Reform leader Richard Tice was “as happy as can be” when he saw him earlier, he told BBC Newsnight, adding: “The Champagne will be flowing in the Reform party headquarters tonight after what’s been done today.”

In key changes, Steve Barclay took Therese Coffey’s job as environment secretary, and Victoria Atkins became health secretary.

Former transport minister Richard Holden became Tory party chairman, taking over from Greg Hands.

Other senior cabinet members remained in post, including Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps and Education Secretary Gillian Keegan.

It was Lord Cameron’s appointment that stunned Westminster and made him the first former prime minister to re-enter government since the 1970s.

Source: BBC

9, November 2023

Manyu CPDM Leadership: Sheep leading giants ⁰

Any meeting intended to mobilize people to celebrate a disastrous leader in a failed state in the middle of a war and a cost-of-living crisis is likely to provoke strong emotions and should never be considered. Such meetings won’t be contemplated in any country where decent values and uprightness are second nature. CPDM political meetings around Southern Cameroons have been considered controversial, provocative and banned for over six years. The last CPDM assembly in Mamfe on Monday, 6th November, moved from controversial to pitiful. The meeting was held a few hours after the cruel massacre of over 25 innocent and defenseless people in Egbekaw village. The purpose of the meeting was for the leaders of the CPDM crime syndicate in Manyu to celebrate 41 years of Paul Biya on Cameroon’s throne.

It offered the Manyu CPDM criminals a rare opportunity to send photographic evidence to the CPDM central committee in Yaoundé that they were still loyal to the country’s Supreme leader, Paul Biya. After the Egbekaw massacre, the overwhelming majority of people in Mamfe thought that the assembly should have been cancelled. The people of Mamfe wanted a peaceful march around the city to express solidarity and demonstrate empathy and sympathy with the families of those who lost their lives in tragic and inhuman circumstances. However, the so-called Manyu CPDM elites were not in the mood for compassion. They had come to Mamfe under the protection of armoured vehicles designed for the streets of Ukraine and nothing would stop them—not even the worst massacre in Manyu in over 18 months.

And so, the celebration went ahead under a pathetic spectacle. Chief Tabetando of Bachou Ntai village looked every inch as frail as his boss, Niat Njifenji, the senate president. The Chief could hardly stand without the aid of his walking stick. Minister Mengot Arrey Nkongho appeared reddish in complexion, a considerable worry for a man who prides himself on his looks. The minister must have sat in an uncomfortable position for hours, squeezed inside the armoured tank that transported them from Muea to Mamfe. The minister looked apprehensive, shaken and wore the look of a man with a running stomach. The sight of the day belonged to Chief Prof Teddy Ako of the Chiefdom of Ossing. Cameroon Concord News has reliable information that Chief Ako is a decent man dragged reluctantly into CPDM politics by the other gang members. Chief Ako’s CPDM shirt was four sizes too large for him. It looked on him like a carpenter stitched it. Then, there was the former Mayor of Mamfe, one Mr Ayuk Takunchong, notorious for always hugging the corridors of power in search of leftovers.

The meeting went ahead with these clowns taking turns to read messages of support to Mr Biya. A sorrowful sight indeed! As people cried in Egbekaw and the hospital mortuary, these thugs sat down, ate, drank and celebrated forty-one years of misery. It was scandalous and criminal.

The quality of Manyu leaders today is a considerable worry. They are political comics pretending to lead a people desperate for strong and upright leadership. Pa Enow Tanjong, the late Chief ET Egbe including the late Hon Effiom, and Chief Michael Tambong Kima will be turning in their graves with fury as they watch these delinquents and petty criminals making a mockery of the art of leadership.

These are complex times for Cameroon and Manyu when intellectual and political giants are required to lead, but unfortunately, clowns have the levers of power. The CPDM does not welcome brave and gifted visionaries; therefore, the future of Manyu and Cameroon is in serious trouble.

By Agbor Paul Enow in Mamfe