Politics

27, December 2018

Russia backs bin Salman, warns US not to interfere with Saudi throne succession ⁰

Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has “every right” to succeed his ailing father into power, says Russian Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, warning the United States against interfering with the embattled prince’s right to rule the kingdom.

Bogdanov, who is also President Vladimir Putin’s envoy to the Middle East, said Tuesday it was up to Riyadh to decide what was next for bin Salman when King Salman, 82, dies. “Of course we are against interference. The Saudi people and leadership must decide such questions themselves,” Mikhail Bogdanov said in an interview in Moscow, according to Bloomberg.

Bin Salman became Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler last year in an untraditional manner, replacing Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the late Saudi king’s son.

Wary of getting bogged down in a power struggle, bin Salman soon launched a widespread crackdown against other royals to cement his grip on power.

However, his actions went mostly unanswered until October this year, when Riyadh admitted to murdering dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in the Turkish city of Istanbul.

The crown prince has also faced worldwide criticism for leading the ongoing deadly war against Yemen, which has killed thousands of civilians.

US President Donald Trump’s reluctance to hold the crown prince responsible for his actions has prompted angry bipartisan calls in Washington to remove MbS from power.

Prominent senators have publicly blasted the crown prince, with Lindsey Graham, Trump’s staunch ally, calling him “crazy” and “dangerous.”

Bogdanov said Tuesday that Americans were in no positions to make such calls.

“The king made a decision and I can’t even imagine on what grounds someone in America will interfere in such an issue and think about who should rule Saudi Arabia, now or in the future. This is a Saudi matter.”

Culled from Presstv

27, December 2018

Yaounde: Maurice Kamto ‘barred’ from travelling out of the country ⁰

The man widely believed to have won the October 7 presidential poll in French Cameroun, Prof Maurice Kamto has accused authorities of scheming to bar him from travelling out of the country.

According to a statement from a member of the Kamto Campaign, Cameroun government authorities have refused to renew Kamto’s passport since it expired despite all formal procedures completed for renewal.

“The national and international community is informed that President Maurice Kamto has been barred from leaving Cameroon,” Olivier Bibou Nissack, spokesman for Maurice Kamto said.

Kamto last left the country in November to attend the African Union summit with the help of his civil passport but it has equally reached its expiration date without renewal and his team sees this as a means to stifle the president of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement.

“It is now very clear that the various illegal restrictions on Kamto’s freedoms which started with a house arrest which never came to fruition, other measures are being taken to restrict his freedom of movement and communication” Bibou Nissack said

Maurice Kamto has refused to recognize the results proclaimed by the Constitutional Council declaring Paul Biya winner of the October 7 Presidential election, vowing to challenge the results at international level.

Source: Journal du Cameroun

22, December 2018

US House adjourns, ensuring a government shutdown ⁰

The U.S. House of Representatives adjourned just before 7 p.m. on Friday night (0000 GMT on Saturday), leaving the Capitol before approving government funding and thereby ensuring a government shutdown. The House is set to return from recess at noon on Saturday.

The failure by the U.S. Congress and President Donald Trump to agree to a government spending bill by midnight will shutdown several federal agencies.

Donald Trump on Friday threatened a “very long” government shutdown if opposition Democrats refuse to approve funds for more border security and a wall on the US border with Mexico.

“Shutdown today if Democrats do not vote for Border Security!” Trump fumed, one of a string of tweets on the subject.

“The Democrats, whose votes we need in the Senate, will probably vote against Border Security and the Wall even though they know it is DESPERATELY NEEDED.

“If the Dems vote no, there will be a shutdown that will last for a very long time. People don’t want Open Borders and Crime!”

Trump and congressional Democrats remain far apart as a midnight Friday deadline looms to approve funds to keep the US government up and running.

Without an agreement, key agencies will close and many workers will be furloughed right before Christmas without a paycheck.

Trump appeared to harden his demand for $5 billion in funding for the wall on the US-Mexico border, a pet project he has fought for since he began campaigning for president in 2015.

“Even President Ronald Reagan tried for 8 years to build a Border Wall, or Fence, and was unable to do so. Others also have tried. We will get it done, one way or the other!” Trump wrote.

According to Trump, “The Democrats are trying to belittle the concept of a Wall, calling it old fashioned. The fact is there is nothing else’s that will work, and that has been true for thousands of years.

“It?s like the wheel, there is nothing better. I know tech better than anyone, & technology….. on a Border is only effective in conjunction with a Wall.”

(France 24 with Reuters and AFP)

21, December 2018

Spanish PM, pro-secession leader agree to find solution to Catalonia crisis ⁰

Spain’s socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the regional leader of Catalonia agreed Thursday to find a solution to the political crisis that has been festering since a failed secession attempt by the region last year.

The agreement was reached in a meeting in Barcelona between Catalan regional President Quim Torra and PM Sánchez, whose Socialist administration has taken a more conciliatory approach to the independence issue than its conservative predecessor.

Following the meeting, their governments issued a joint statement calling for a “commitment for effective dialogue that leads to a political proposal that has the backing of large part of Catalan society.” The statement, which The Associated Press has seen, was read out by the spokeswoman of the Catalan government, Elsa Artadi, after the meeting.

Artadi says that members of the two governments have agreed to meet again in January. The PM plans to hold a Cabinet meeting of his government on Friday in Barcelona, which radical separatist groups are expected to protest.

Sanchez, who also seeks to secure support for his minority government in the northeastern region, will gather his ministers in Barcelona in an attempt to help resolve a political conflict over Catalonia’s independence drive.

National police will be deployed in Barcelona to guard the cabinet meeting amid fears that extreme elements of the independence movement could stoke violence.

Jailed Catalan independence leaders however have called on protesters to demonstrate peacefully. Nine Catalan separatists, who have been jailed and await trial for rebellion, call for a “peaceful protest” during an upcoming cabinet meeting.

A lawyer representing former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and five other Catalan politicians who have been charged in Spain for violent rebellion has appealed to the UN’s Human Rights Committee to help defend their democratic rights.

Nico Krisch denounced a “grave interference in the democratic order” linked to the charges against Puigdemont, who lives in exile in Belgium, as well as Oriol Junqueras, Raul Romeva, Josep Rull, Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Turull. The five are being held in pre-trial detention in Spain.

The Catalan politicians have been charged and suspended from office by Spain’s Supreme Court for their roles in organizing an independence referendum in Catalonia 14 months ago. The Spanish and Catalan governments have been at odds since the Catalan Parliament issued an illegal and ineffective declaration of independence last year.

In October 2017, Catalonia unilaterally declared independence, prompting Madrid to take control of the region – which has 7.5 million people and accounts for about a fifth of Spain’s economy – and arrested secessionist leaders.

Source: Presstv

20, December 2018

British MPs Reaffirm Right of Ambazonians to Assert Sovereignty, Call for Peacekeepers ⁰

British Members of Parliament (MPs) called Wednesday for the deployment of Peacekeepers to arrest the bloodletting in Ambazonia and reaffirm the right of Ambazonians to assert sovereignty over their Homeland.

During over an hour of debate in the British House of Lords, MPs cited Article 4(b) of the African Union Constitutive Act on the sanctity of borders inherited from colonization to debunk the claim of a “one, and indivisible Cameroon” evoked by the Biya regime to justify the annexation of Ambazonia.

MPs challenged the UK Government to go beyond expressing concern and mouthing platitudes. They urged them to call for the deployment of African Union or United Nations Peacekeepers to help arrest the armed violence that has, so far, killed thousands, internally displaced half a million people and left 3.3 million others in need of humanitarian assistance.

MPs blamed London for lack of sensitivity in prioritizing a 1.5 billion pound oil and gas deals in Ambazonia without regard for the impact such a deal could have on further human rights violations.

Members of the House of Lords also questioned the wisdom of the UN decision in 1961 to deny Ambazonia the right to independence as a stand-alone country. They challenged the legality of the 11th February 1961 plebiscite and the failure over the decades to heed many warnings from Ambazonians about the collapse of the two-state federation and their exclusion from political decision-making.

In response to questions, the UK Government assumed the role of lawyers for the Biya regime, denying accusations that the Biya regime is perpetrating ethnic cleansing; suggesting that violations have been on both sides; and arguing that London can continue to do business-as-usual despite the genocidal violence.

Ntumfoyn Boh Herbert (Yindo Toh)

17, December 2018

UK: Labour Party to push for Brexit vote to come before Christmas ⁰

Britain’s main opposition Labour Party has said it will do its best to force Prime Minister Theresa May to bring her European Union withdrawal deal to Parliament for a final vote before Christmas.

“We will be using whatever mechanisms we have at our disposal next week to try and force the government to bring forward that deal for a vote before Christmas,” Labour election coordinator Andrew Gwynne said on Sunday in an interview with the BBC television.

The comments come nearly a week after May decided to put off a planned vote in the House of Commons on her Brexit deal, saying she would try to gain more assurances from the EU about a controversial clause in the deal on the border with Ireland so that it could go through the chamber.

The move met with huge ire from the Labour and other parties in the Commons. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has repeatedly criticized the postponement while calling May, who went to several trips around Europe, a “runaway prime minister” who wanted to ignore parliament in the Brexit process.

Gwynne, who is Labour’s policy chief for communities and local government, did not elaborate how his party would force May to come to the chamber with her Brexit deal earlier than she is willing to.

May’s office said on Saturday, after the premier returned from a summit of EU leaders, that a vote on Brexit deal would certainly come before the January-21 deadline imposed by the parliament.

That announcement sparked fears that May was trying to delay the vote until the last moments so that the parliament would have no option other than approving the deal so that Britain could avoid a disorderly exit from the EU on March 29, 2019.

Source: Presstv

13, December 2018

Ambazonia Crisis: Biya decrees are mostly theater ⁰

The Cameroonian President-Dictator has signed another decree ordering the “discontinuation” of proceedings before the Yaoundé Military Tribunal against hundreds of Southern Cameroons activists. Biya has kept to his outdated pattern of governance and his acolytes, his critics, and the media alike have portrayed them as dramatic u-turn on the war in Southern Cameroons.

The Biya decision has reportedly affected some 289 Ambazonian detainees and we understand the decree will be implemented by the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defense, Joseph Beti Assomo. Biya’s high-profile orders have merely allowed him to announce his intentions to the international community but have not stopped the killings going on in Southern Cameroons. So far, they’ve been more like text messaging than governing, proclaiming his goodwill without really advancing it.

A close look at the language of today’s decree shows that nothing has changed in Yaoundé but basically new releases with presidential signatures, plus instructions to his cabinet ministers to look into the issues at hand. In hosting the Africa Cup of Nations, Biya simply directed his Secretary General at the presidency to devise a plan. His decree on the Anglophone crisis set up a Paul Ghogomu commission. His war decree on Southern Cameroons and Boko Haram instructed cabinet ministers and the military leadership to devise plans to achieve those goals.

Some pro CPDM comedians have however opined that today’s decree comes as a follow-up to the setting of the so-called disarmament, demobilization and reintegration committee for ex fighters of armed groups in Southern Cameroons. It is indeed an empty decree.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

13, December 2018

2 protesters killed during Congo-Kinshasa opposition rally ⁰

At least two people were killed Wednesday in clashes with police on the sidelines of an opposition rally in eastern DR Congo ahead of this month’s presidential elections, several sources said.

The violence erupted in Kalemie, a town on Lake Tanganyika as opposition candidate Martin Fayulu was campaigning there.

It came a day after two of his supporters were killed and 43 hurt in clashes at a rally in Lubumbashi, DR Congo’s second city.

A witness said “live rounds” were fired as Fayulu arrived in Kalemie.

Rogardien Myumba, head of a federation of local NGOs, said: “Two opposition activists were shot dead as they were heading to the airport to welcome Mr Fayulu.”

A local doctor told AFP there were three bodies at the hospital morgue, while an emergency responder said his team had picked up four bodies.

Fayulu, 62, a little-known lawmaker and former oil executive, has made a late surge after being named the joint candidate for several opposition parties.

DR Congo is in the throes of a major campaign ahead of the December 23 election to choose a successor to President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled the vast central African country since 2001.

President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila sits in a garden at his personal ranch on December 10, 2018 in Kinshasa. (Photo by AFP)

But the campaign has been overshadowed by fears of violence in this vast poverty-stricken nation which is one of Africa’s most volatile countries and has never known a peaceful transition of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.

In the past 22 years, two massive wars have shaken the country, claiming millions of lives and sucking in armies from around southern and central Africa.

Lower-level conflicts are burning in the center and east of the country which could easily flare into fully-fledged wars, analysts warn.

Kabila has remained in office as caretaker leader even though his second and final term ended nearly two years ago.

Twenty-one candidates are running to replace him.

As well as Fayulu, the front-runners are Felix Tshisekedi of the mainstream opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress and Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, Kabila’s handpicked successor.

(Source: AFP)

12, December 2018

Nigeria: Opposition Candidate Absent From Election Accord Ceremony ⁰

Nigeria’s main opposition candidate did not attend an event on Tuesday to sign an election agreement stating a commitment to hold a peaceful election early next year, and his party attributed his absence to a “communication lapse.”

The opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) confirmed in an emailed statement that its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, had not participated in the signing ahead of February’s election. President Muhammadu Buhari attended the event in the capital, Abuja.

The peace accord ceremony was held days after the PDP said authorities had frozen the bank accounts of its vice presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

Elections to choose the leader of Africa’s most populous country — the continent’s top oil producer and by many measures its largest economy — have in the past been marred by violence, vote-rigging and voter intimidation.

The ceremony was an attempt to mirror the signing of an acclaimed deal ahead of voting in 2015, when Buhari came to power. It was credited with helping prevent a repeat of violence in the wake of the 2011 election, which Human Rights Watch said killed 800 people and displaced 65,000.

The accord aims to ensure that the 2019 elections are “free, fair and credible,” the document said. Signatories pledged that their campaigns would refrain from “religious incitement” and “ethnic or tribal profiling,” and that they would not incite violence, according to the document.

The PDP said it was investigating the circumstances behind the “unfortunate communication lapse” between party officials and the National Peace Committee (NPC), the nongovernmental organization that arranged the event, which resulted in Abubakar’s absence.

“Our presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar and the party are fully committed to a peaceful electoral process and elections in 2019,” said PDP spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan in an emailed statement.

He said the PDP would visit the NPC office to “fulfill all necessary obligations towards the peace accord ahead of the 2019 general elections.”

The NPC earlier said it had sent invitations for the event to all 91 registered parties and the 73 presidential candidates.

Independent observers for the 2015 race, the first time the agreement was signed, have since praised the accord for helping Nigeria pull off its first-ever peaceful transition from the ruling party to the opposition. Buhari defeated the incumbent Goodluck Jonathan.

VOA

12, December 2018

Southern Cameroons war is extracting a heavy toll on ordinary people ⁰

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has let Cameroon’s President Paul Biya know that his country will now not host the 2019 African Nations Cup pageant. The choice is an embarrassment. Once a powerhouse of Africa’s soccer, Cameroon’s popularity had dropped considerably.

CAF’s choice serves as a reminder that the rustic is sinking, and one thing should be carried out. Until a couple of years in the past, Cameroon used to be a country at the transfer. Despite its many political, financial and social issues, the rustic used to be non violent, attracted other folks from in every single place for tourism, business, and schooling.

For instance the University of Dayton had, over twenty years, run immersion programmes within the nation, and so did many different American universities. Cameroon used to be additionally a world centre: the place primary meetings, symposia, and cultural actions came about.

The country used to be a significant banking centre, in addition to host to Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote’s many actions, and extra just lately the proposed website of automobile meeting vegetation to be built via Indian and Chinese companies. And the checklist is going on.

But the Anglophone warfare has taken its toll. A calm protest which started 3 years in the past against the marginalisation of Anglophone Cameroon temporarily grew to become violent as some referred to as for the area’s entire secession from Cameroon to form the Ambazonia Republic. As a consequence Cameroon’s army drive and the Ambazonia Defence drive were locked in a dangerous include ad infinitum.

Already within the seventh term of administrative center as president, Biya’s obsession with an army resolution to the disaster has exacerbated tensions, in addition to the distress of strange other folks. Beneath CAF’s rationale that Cameroon used to be ill-ready, ill-equipped and ill-prepared to host the games used to be a way that the rustic is deeply insecure. The towns of Limbe and Buea within the heartland of Anglophone Cameroon had been going to host the games. But regimen kidnappings, assaults, street closings, and killings within the area would have undermined the essence of the games.

CAF’s announcement coincided with the failure of a last-ditch effort via His Eminence Cardinal Christian Tumi to dealer peace and convenes an All Anglophone Conference. But the tradition of threats, and Cameroon government’s failure to grant a allow for the convention to happen supposed that it used to be doomed.

Ordinary other folks have referred to as on Cardinal Tumi to not surrender. The convention, they be aware, should cross on. Many Cameroonians are determined for a non violent option to the warfare.

As the brickbats fell, stipulations for communities within the Anglophone area proceed to become worse. And whilst debates proceed to rage concerning the rights and wrongs of extensively publicised prompt answers such as federalism, decentralisation, and secession, strange other folks proceed to chafe of their day by day lives.

What’s being lost

As the warring factions stand eyeball to eyeball ready to peer who will blink first, few are asking how the result of the fight will trade the lives of strange other folks within the area. Yet the impact has been huge. There are immense financial and social penalties that have reworked communities and their way of living.

Cameroonians who would cross home for Christmas vacations and different festivities now not achieve this. Their spending stimulated the economic system. In electronic mail correspondences and responses to questionnaires with other folks in Kumba and Buea, local persons are noting that Cameroonians dwelling in different international locations are now not coming home for his or her vacations. As a consequence companies, such as resorts, are slightly protecting on.

There have been extra profound financial penalties. The area’s major agribusiness facility, the Cameroon Development Corporation, the guts of the area’s economic system, is in ruins. Plantations which produce palm oil are now not operational. Workers at banana plantations are brutalised and rubber processors were time and again attacked. Families that trusted cocoa for livelihood now face a lifetime of destitution.

Another aggravating facet of the warfare is the sluggish erosion of key portions of other folks’s tradition. Funeral celebrations are a significant facet of Cameroonian tradition. But in conversations with other folks, it seems that those festivities are disappearing. Irrespective of the place other folks are living, Cameroonians in most cases favor their burial websites to be of their village of starting place. But no longer anymore. Increasingly, persons are buried any where imaginable.

Visits to burial websites of pals and members of the family have been a dangerous revel in. For instance, going to Lewoh in Lebialem, is unthinkable as a result of the violence.

And there’s extra. In communities in Anglophone Cameroon, fundamental services and products such as trash assortment now not exist. Trash is piling up within the towns. And corpses may also be noticed on roadways. Businesses that historically operated within the evenings were bankrupted.

The checklist of hardship is going on. School structures remain empty. And each refugees and internally displaced persons are nowhere on the subject of returning to their properties.

Time to re-assess

The habitual accusation is La Republique has brought about those issues. But it is not all of the fault of La Republique. Given that probably the most assaults are undertaken via Anglophones, they have got turn into accomplices to the violence. No surprise strange persons are increasingly more asking extra direct questions on some great benefits of the rebel they had been promised.

Source: Nairaland.com