Politics

25, June 2019

Whiles Biya, Others sit-tight: Niger, Mauritania, Tunisia presidents bowing out ⁰

About a half dozen African leaders have secured their long-term political futures after tweaking their respective constitutions to allow them remain viable to engage in elective politics.

In the north, Egypt’s Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi, down the Sahara Chad’s Idris Deby Itno, on the West African coast Togo’s Faure Gnassingbe.

Cameroon’s Paul Biya shows no signs of slowing down with a seventh consecutive term secured in 2018. Then there is Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Denis Sassou Nguesso of Republic of Congo.

But whiles these long serving “servants” have usually hogged the media headlines with the schemes they employ to amend laws in their favour, there are a number of leaders who have left and others ready to retire.

In January this year, we published an article looking back at African leaders who left officeeither after losing elections or after serving their terms.

In this piece, we look at three leaders ready to leave office when their tenures expire. Mohammed Ould Abdul Aziz (Mauritania), Mahamadou Issoufou (Niger) and Beji Caid Essebsi (Tunisia).

Mohamed Ould Abdul Aziz

Came to office: After a coup d’etat in August 2008
Won elections: Restored democratic order and won two elections in 2009 and 2014 (for final term).
Tenure expires: This year with the swearing in of a successor.
Preferred candidate: Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, the former Minister of Defense.
Best remembered for: A clampdown on opposition bloggers, active participation in the G5 Sahel force.

Oul Abdel Aziz

Beji Caid Essebsi

Came to office: December 2014 after the Arab Spring ousted Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
Tenure expires: When next elections are held in November, he is not contesting
Preferred candidate: Neither Beji of his Nidaa Tunis party have named one. His current PM Youssef Chahed is leading a new party, Tahya Tounes.
Best remembered for: Being Tunisia’s first democratically elected president.

“I will say frankly that I do not want to present for a second term because Tunisia has a lot of talents,” Essebsi said at a meeting in April of his party Nidaa Tounes in Monastir.

Tunisia’s president

Mahamadou Issoufou

Came to office: 2011 after overthrow in 2010 of Mamadou Tandja. Won 2011 elections and secure final term in 2016.
Tenure expires: 2021 when next polls are to be held.
Preferred candidate: Mohamed Bazoum, the Minister of Interior
Best remembered for: Playing key role in migration crisis. Participation in G5 Sahel block and Boko Haram combat.

Niger president

24, June 2019

US: Trump says he might win 2020 election despite gloomy polls ⁰

US President Donald Trump has confidently spoken about his intention to sweep the country’s upcoming presidential polls, playing down poll returns that have cast doubt on his reelection chances in some key states.

CNN and other American media outlets have reported that the US president is behind key Democratic hopeful and former vice president Joe Biden in states like Michigan and Wisconsin.

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Trump, however, said, “I’m probably not too prepared to lose. I don’t like losing. I haven’t lost very much in my life.”

The head of state has also ordered firing of several pollsters in reaction to the unwelcome statistics.

In 2016, a mechanism called the Electoral College system, which overrides the popular vote making 538 electors across different states liable for electing the chief executive, handed the presidential election’s victory to Trump over the Democratic Party’s Nominee Hillary Clinton. This is while voters had given the latter three million more votes.

Still, Trump claimed he did not “believe” in the validity of “a lot” of votes cast which showed he had lost the popular vote to Clinton.

“I’ll say something that, again, is controversial. There were a lot of votes cast that I don’t believe,” he said on NBC.

Trump, though, hailed Clinton as “a great candidate,” saying, “She was very smart. She was very tough. She was ruthless and vicious.”

He suggested that he would find running against Biden to be much easier than having to contend against Clinton again. “[Biden’s] sleepy. She was not sleepy.”

The US president formally launched his re-election campaign on June 18.

PressTV-Trump launches re-election bid amid low approval rating

“We are going to keep America great again,” Trump told a packed arena in Orlando, Florida, distancing himself from his trademark 2016 election slogan of “Make America Great Again,” which had invited him much controversy.

He sidestepped the issue of a consistent unfavorable performance in popularity votes, which has dogged him ever since he took office, and took credit for a strong economy.

The US economy has grown to some extent under Trump. Economists, however, put the growth down to his cutting the country’s contribution to various international accords and humanitarian funds as well as huge increase in the American arms exports to flashpoint areas across the world under the president.

Source: Presstv

21, June 2019

US: Trump to be impeached when evidence obtained ⁰

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reiterated that if investigations of President Donald Trump find significant wrongdoing, the chamber would have to move to impeach him.

“If the goods are there, you must impeach,” Pelosi said to reporters on Wednesday at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.

Pelosi’s remarks were in response to a question on whether there was an alternative option of simply voting to censure the president.

The speaker said such an alternative was not under consideration.

She noted the importance of the Department of Justice’s agreement to provide Congress with a less-redacted report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election and 10 instances in which Trump tried to interfere with Mueller’s investigation.

Pelosi’s remarks came as former top Trump aide Hope Hicks appeared before the House Judiciary Committee in a closed session to answer questions about potential obstruction of justice by Trump and related matters.

Hicks was mentioned in Mueller’s report multiple times. In saying Trump “must” be impeached if that is warranted by House investigations, it was not clear whether Pelosi was moving in that direction after months of talking about the divisiveness of impeachment.

At one point earlier this year she even said that Trump was “not worth” impeaching.

“If we’re going to go down this path … we have to make sure the public has an understanding of why,” and senators understand their constitutional duty to hold Trump accountable for any wrongdoing, Pelosi said

Pelosi had said that she preferred to see Trump sent to prison rather than be impeached.

PressTV-US House Speaker Pelosi: 'I want to see Trump in prison’

“I don’t want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison,” Pelosi said at a meeting earlier this month.

US media outlet reported Pelosi as saying that she preferred to see Trump go to jail after losing the 2020 presidential election.

Democrats believe Trump is guilty of breaking the law by allegedly seeking to obstruct investigations into Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 US election.

Trump is also accused of violating constitutional prohibitions on presidents receiving financial benefits from foreign governments, and also paying pre-election hush money to two women who claim to have had affairs with Trump.

Source: Presstv

14, June 2019

Romancing with the EU: Francophone governor lifts travel ban in Bamenda ⁰

Cameroon’s English-speaking region of Northwest on Friday removed an overnight travel ban on persons and property, according to a statement signed by the region’s governor Adolph Lele Lafrique.

Lafrique did not give any reason why the ban was cancelled in the region that is ravaged by armed separatism. The ban was imposed in November last year restricting movement from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time in the region in a bid to limit persistent separatists’ attacks at night.

Fighting is still ongoing in the two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest where armed separatists want to create an independent nation they call “Ambazonia.”

Source: Xinhuanet

14, June 2019

Putin says US-Russia relations getting ‘worse and worse’ ⁰

Russian President Vladimir Putin says relations between Moscow and Washington are getting “worse and worse” due to the current US administration’s sanctions against Russia.

Putin made the remarks in an interview with Russia’s Mir TV channel published on Thursday, ahead of a G20 summit in Japan later this month at which he might meet US President Donald Trump.

Our relations “are going downhill, they are getting worse and worse,” the Kremlin quoted Putin as saying in the interview.

“The current administration has approved, in my opinion, several dozen decisions on sanctions against Russia in recent years,” he added.

“We really hope that common sense will prevail in the end,” said Putin.

“That with all of our partners, including our American partners… we can reach some decisions in the framework of the forthcoming G20 that will be constructive and create the necessary stable conditions for economic cooperation,” the Russian president stated.

Trump said on Wednesday that he would meet the Russian leader at the G20 summit in Japan, a day after Moscow said the idea for the meeting was “hanging in the air” and that there were no discussions on specifics yet.

The US president also expressed hope that his country would have “a great relationship with Russia,” while at the same time pledging to deploy 1,000 US troops to Poland.

PressTV-US sending 1,000 additional troops to Poland: Trump

Relations between the two countries remain strained over such issues as Syria and Ukraine as well as allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, which Moscow denies.

The Russian leader contrasted Moscow’s troubled relationship with Washington with what he referred to as ts blossoming ties with China, a deepening strategic friendship that has alarmed the US.

Putin also expressed certainty that his country will eventually restore its relations with Ukraine.

Source: Presstv

13, June 2019

Growing Opposition to President Paul Biya ⁰

Facing a growing pro-democracy movement, Cameroon is resorting to an old formula – namely unleashing government power in the form of threats, arrests and excessive force.

Hundreds of supporters of Maurice Kamto, leader of the opposition Cameroon Resistance Movement, have been filling the streets, demanding his release from detention but were detained themselves by security forces on June 8, 2019. According to his lawyer, Kamto could be charged with: insurrection, hostility against the homeland, criminal association, threats to public order, rebellion, group rebellion, and inciting insurrection.

A respected professor of international law, former dean of the faculty of Juridical and Political Sciences at University of Yaoundé II, and former chairman and special rapporteur of the UN International Law Commission from 1999 to 2016, Kamto has been locked up since January 28 after he challenged the sweeping electoral victory of President Paul Biya. His offenses could result in the death penalty.

He and his other jailed supporters are reported to have begun a hunger strike.

Ida Sawyer, deputy Africa director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, commented: “The Cameroonian government’s crackdown shows that it is unwilling to accept a role for opposition parties, sending a chilling message to those who would dare challenge the status quo.”

She added: “The latest crackdown was consistent with the methods of a government whose security forces have committed grave abuses against civilians and dissenting voices in recent years.”

Local activists condemned authorities for denying lawful permits to protest – a violation of the Constitution. “We are exercising our constitutional rights,” said Christopher Ndong of the Cameroon Resistance Movement, “because we have a right to march and protest when things are going wrong.”

Human rights activist Jean Pierre Bengono also criticized the government of Paul Biya for deploying the security forces in riot gear to disperse crowds in Yaounde, Douala and Mbouda. Organized democracies need the opposition to check political excesses and discuss the well-being of its people, he maintained.

Kamto challenged the vote totals in the presidential election of October 7, 2018, and accused President Paul Biya, who has led the country for 36 years, of stealing his victory.

Beyond Cameroon’s borders, calls for his release have come from the UN Secretary-General, Amnesty International, and Board of The Hague Academy of International Law, in which Kamto serves, among others.

Government minister Paul Atanga Nji responded to the growing chorus of condemnation with a warning. “We can no longer tolerate those who undermine the laws of the republic. He [Kamto] has a hidden agenda to destabilize Cameroon. We will not give him the opportunity,” he said.

Source [IDN-InDepthNews

12, June 2019

Yaounde: House Speaker denounces foreign interference in internal affairs ⁰

Cameroon’s House Speaker of National Assembly Cavaye Yeguie Djibril on Monday denounced foreign interference in the country’s internal affairs which he referred to as “conspiracy.”

“Cameroon has become an object of conspiracy intended to destabilize the country. To justify their interference in internal affairs, the conspirators pretend to denounce it. According to them, the political system in Cameroon is against all dialogue, upholds violence, and refuses to promote human rights,” Djibril said in the capital Yaounde at the opening of the June session of the National Assembly.

“These allegations are unfounded. The National Assembly condemns and denounces this with every ounce of energy,” Djibril said. “We welcome their support but not their interference.”

Foreign powers in Europe and North America have repeatedly blamed Cameroon government for “lacking the will” to solve the conflict in the English-speaking regions of the country where armed separatists want to create an independent nation.

According to Djibril, the government was “working very hard” to restore “durable peace” and security in the two Anglophone regions.

“There is a proper framework for this kind of relationship and that is what the speaker has been saying today and extending an invitation to the European Parliament for an information and study visit to Cameroon,” Joseph Owona, a senior member of parliament told reporters.

Source: Xinhuanet

10, June 2019

Four killed on first day of Sudan ‘civil disobedience’ campaign, doctors say ⁰

At least four people have been killed across Sudan on the first day of a “civil disobedience” campaign, which was launched in the wake of a deadly crackdown on protesters by the ruling generals.

The Central Committee for Sudanese Doctors said that two people were shot dead in the capital Khartoum, while two others died in a hospital in Omdurman city after being stabbed on Sunday.

Protesters set about building roadblocks in different parts of Khartoum on Sunday morning. But riot police swiftly moved in, firing gunshots in the air before clearing the makeshift barriers.

Several vehicles of the feared Rapid Support Forces (RSF), blamed for the killings during the recent crackdown, were seen Sunday moving across some parts of the capital, loaded with machine guns.

Public transport was barely functioning and most commercial banks, private companies and markets were shut.

The Sudanese Professionals Association, a key protest group, on Saturday announced a nationwide “civil disobedience” campaign it said would run until Sudan’s ruling generals transfer power to a civilian government.

“The civil disobedience movement will begin Sunday and end only when a civilian government announces itself in power on state television,” the SPA said in a statement, adding, “Disobedience is a peaceful act capable of bringing to its knees the most powerful weapons arsenal in the world.”

A Sudanese man walks towards a barricade made of bricks to block a street for cars in Khartoum’s twin city Omdurman on the first day of a civil disobedience campaign across Sudan on June 9, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

The call by the SPA, which first launched protests against longtime President Omar al-Bashir, came days after a bloody crackdown on protesters crushed hopes for a swift democratic transition.

Meanwhile, the doctors committee linked to demonstrators also blamed the ruling military council and paramilitary forces for the latest deaths. A total of 118 people have been killed since a crackdown was launched in early June to disperse a sit-in protest outside the military headquarters in the Sudanese capital.

The assault on a sit-in outside the army complex was led by the RSF, which has its origins in the notorious Janjaweed militia, accused of abuses in the Darfur conflict between 2003 and 2004.

Middle East Eye quoted a Sudanese military expert as saying this week that the head of Sudan’s ruling military council was given a “green light” by Saudi Arabia and its regional allies to crack down on protesters.

PressTV-‘Bloody crackdown in Sudan launched at Saudi bidding’

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates backed the military council in the aftermath of the coup against Bashir by pledging $3 billion in cash and aid to the country.

Source: Presstv

8, June 2019

Nigeria’s Game of Thrones: Buhari intervenes in Kano governor – Emir feud ⁰

Nigeria president Muhammadu Buhari on Friday was reported to have moved to intervene in a power tussle between the political and traditional authorities in the north central Kano State.

Tensions had been high in Kano over a move by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje to oust the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II after a fallout deemed to be political in nature.

The Daily Nigerian portal cited an inside source at the presidency as confirming the news. Other portals have since reported same.

“You know the president hardly interferes in matters of states. But on this issue, the president had to just interfere. The president is not happy with the governor for taking the unpopular decision of balkanizing the emirate and making moves to dethrone the emir.

“The president therefore summoned Ganduje on Thursday and directed the Director-General of the DSS to call for emergency meeting with governors of the North West.

“The governors are led by the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, who first met and briefed the president on the matter on Thursday,” the source is quoted to have said.

Buhari’s intervention comes on the final day the Kano State government had given to the emir to respond to a query of financial misappropriation and to explain why he should not be suspended.

Reports say the fallout between the two men was due to perceived support of the emir for the main opposition candidate in this years gubernatorial elections which Ganduje won after a supplementary vote to secure his final term in office.

The Emir, a former Central Bank governor, has had his powers split after Ganduje split the Kano Emirates – which dates back to centuries – into five. He appointed four extra emirs with the same powers as Sanusi.

Source: Africa News

8, June 2019

Sudan: Military arrest protest leaders after meeting with Ethiopia PM ⁰

Sudanese military forces have detained leading opposition members after they met with visiting Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who was in the capital Khartoum to help end the ongoing political impasse in the country.

Ahmed met representatives of both sides on Friday in a bid to revive talks between Sudan’s Transitional Military Council (TMC) and protest groups.

Among those who attended the meeting were opposition leader Mohamed Esmat and a leader of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), Ismail Jalab. Security forces arrested both men later on without giving any reason, their aides said Saturday.

“A group of armed men came in vehicles at 3:00 am (1:00 GMT) and took away Ismail Jalab .. without giving any reason,” said Jalab’s aide Rashid Anwar, adding that SPLM-N spokesman Mubarak Ardol was also detained.

“We don’t know where they are being held,” he added.

PressTV-Khartoum protest turns bloody as Sudanese forces storm sit-in

The meeting came days after the military raided a sit-in protest outside the army headquarters in central Khartoum, killing at least 30 people.

The protesters have been calling on the military rulers to hand over power to a civilian government.

The Sundanese military announced last month that it had unseated President Omar al-Bashir and later imprisoned him. It then set up the TMC to rule the country and promised to hand over after elections.

But protests, under whose pressure Bashir was forced out, have continued in Sudan, with people demanding that more civilians be on the council than military figures during the transition period.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have already announced their support for the transitional military council. They have also expressed support for measures taken by the council following Bashir’s ouster.

PressTV-Saudi Arabia, UAE grant $3 billion aid to Sudan's junta

A Sudanese military expert told the Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity that Sudan’s military ruler General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had even discussed the recent crackdown on the protesters with Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.

“The breaking up of the sit-in was one of the main points on the agenda that was discussed. Unless he got the green light from his regional allies he would not have been able to commit such a crime,” he said.

The military expert was referring to a recent visit by Burhan to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

Both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have ties with Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, through their participation in the kingdom’s protracted war on Yemen.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had previously pledged to continue supporting the military transition council if Khartoum agrees to keep its forces in Yemen.

Source: Presstv