Politics

French ambassador to Cameroon says her mission will end in September

20, July 2016

French ambassador to Cameroon says her mission will end in September 0

Christine Robichon, first ever female French ambassador to Cameroon has announced that her mission to Cameroon will come to a close in September 2016. She made the announcement at her residence in Yaoundé on the 14th of July during the celebration of the French National Day.

Said Madam Christine Robichon, “This is the third time I am celebrating July 14 with you. This is also the last because my mission has eventually come to an end. This mission was exciting. I had the chance to rely on a great team, to be supported by the French community in Cameroon and its associations”.

She was appointed to Cameroon in 2016 and experienced a stay described by many political commentators as both calm and turbulent. Christine Robichon was booed during a public demo in Yaoundé against the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

Ambassador Robichon further stated that ” I arrived when the crisis in neighboring Central African Republic  and Boko Haram atrocities were along the Cameroon borders, when a false and negative campaign against France was developing in the country, I have had challenges. In the next two months, I will leave Cameroon with the satisfaction of a job well done, and I want to come back here as a traveler, friend, retired and free of any professional obligation.”

Chi Prudence Asong (Cameroon Concord News)

US ambassador to Cameroon says the United States is proud of its partnership with Yaounde

17, July 2016

US ambassador to Cameroon says the United States is proud of its partnership with Yaounde 0

Michael Stephen Hoza, Ambassador of the United States of America to Cameroon tells Cameroon Tribune that the US is proud of the strong partnership it has with Cameroon. In this soul searching conversation, he also talks of areas of bilateral cooperation and preparations of US presidential election.

What are the key areas of current bilateral cooperation between Cameroon and the United States of America ?

Ambassador Stephen Hoza: The United States of America is proud of our strong partnership, particularly on the security front with Cameroon to defeat the violent extremism of Boko Haram, to provide peacekeepers to the United Nations and bring stability back to the suffering people of the Central African Republic and to defeat pirates in the Gulf of Guinea.

Our partnership extends into the health sector where we work closely with Cameroon’s health experts to fight infectious disease, to eradicate polio, to defeat HIV/AIDS, to build health sector capacity to prevent, detect and respond to virulent pandemics like Ebola or Avian Bird Flu, and to take on the scourge of malaria. We have sponsored people to people programs that have brought Fulbright scholars, International Visitors, and Young African Leaders to America, each of them representing a beautiful thread in the fabric of our bilateral relationship.

We have partnered with Cameroonians at all levels to sustain the engagement of Peace Corps Volunteers engaging their new families in a vibrant cultural exchange. We promote private sector investment in Cameroon, like Taylor Guitars and Crelicam, who bring world class technology, create jobs for Cameroonians, and responsibly harvest the riches of Cameroon’s wonderful forests. Crelicam supplies Cameroonian ebony to all of the finest guitar makers in the world, and Bob Taylor has partnered with the University of Yaounde and UCLA to begin a program that will plant more ebony than Crelicam cuts down!  That is American corporate social responsibility at its finest.

All eyes are now almost turned towards the various parties nomination conventions ahead of the November 8, 2016 presidential election in the United States of America. How is your general appraisal of the electoral process up to this moment?

Ambassador Stephen Hoza: This is an exciting time for Americans to exercise our voice through our vote.  When George Washington was elected as the first president in 1789, only 6 percent of the U.S. population could vote. In most of the original 13 states, only landowning men over the age of 21 had the right to vote.

Today, the U.S. Constitution guarantees that all U.S. citizens over the age of 18 can vote in federal, state and local elections. In November of this year, America will hold its 57th Presidential election.  Over 218 million American citizens, every man and woman aged 18 and up, will have the right to vote, and their vote will select the chief executive of our country-peacefully.  Winners will celebrate; losers will concede graciously and plan for the next election.

It is certain that after the presidential election, the US will have a new President to pilot the affairs of the country. How do you see the American position and rule in international affairs when the new leadership will be in power?

Ambassador Stephen Hoza: We can’t predict the results of the election or what the next President’s policies will be. However, we can say that the beauty of democratic systems are in their absolute commitment to respecting the will of the people in their choice of leaders, and the constitutional processes that ensure smooth transitions from one chief executive to the next.

On the day our new President is sworn in, this Embassy, the State Department, our military and our entire government will, as required by our constitution, immediately go to work on ensuring that his or her policies are faithfully executed in a manner consistent with our laws and regulations and that The Peoples’ business continues uninterrupted.

All federal employees pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States because it is that document that sets out our responsibilities to the office of the President and the people of the United States, and it is the values embodied by the constitution that carry over from one administration to the next, regardless of specific political programs and policies presidents are elected to enact.

And those values will continue to underpin our actions and activities now and in the future. As always, we are not focused on our position and power, but on our partnerships and their potential to promote stability and better lives for all.  We are focusing on what we’re doing right now, both in Cameroon, and around the world, and our commitment to engagement in so many regions is not going to stop.

 

French Interior Minister urged to resign

17, July 2016

French Interior Minister urged to resign 0

France’s far-right leader has called on Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve to resign, saying the steeply increasing death toll from terrorist attacks in France is clear evidence of the need for changes in the French government.   

During a speech on Saturday, two days after the deadly terrorist attack in Nice, French National Front Party Leader Marine Le Pen said, “In any other country in the world, a minister with a toll as horrendous as Bernard Cazeneuve — 250 dead in 18 months — would have quit.”

The French government is facing severe criticism from opposition politicians and newspapers following the Nice attack, the third major terrorist attack on the French soil in 18 months.

 

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African leaders in Rwanda to attend major summit

16, July 2016

African leaders in Rwanda to attend major summit 0

African leaders arrived in the Rwandan capital Saturday to attend a major summit which is expected to be dominated by discussions about excessive focus of international bodies on abuses in Africa and the conflict in South Sudan. The main theme of discussion is expected to be Africa’s uneasy relationship with the International Criminal Court (ICC) as some countries have renewed efforts to quit the body en masse despite opposition by some countries such as Botswana. Leaders have repeatedly criticized the ICC over the past years for what they call an unnecessary ICC focus on African nations. They have called for a separate African court with jurisdiction over rights abuses.

“Withdrawal from [the] ICC is entirely within the sovereignty of a particular state,” Joseph Chilengi, an AU official, told reporters. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who has been a major campaigner for the withdrawal from the ICC, recently called the court “useless.” However, the call seems to have hit a major snag, as Nigeria, Senegal and Ivory Coast have followed Botswana and pushed back as well.

Rwanda has invited Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes in the Darfur region. Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said the country would not arrest Bashir despite concerns that Kigali would hand over the Sudanese leader like it did to war criminal Bosco Ntaganda of Congo in 2013.

“Africa doesn’t support criminals, but when justice is involved with a lot of politics we take a pause to separate the two,” Mushikiwabo said this week. Discussing the fresh wave of conflict in South Sudan, where deadly clashes have erupted between army factions, is also high on the agenda at the AU summit. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who is at the summit, has called for an arms embargo as a solution to the conflict which has claimed a considerable number of lives over the past days.

 

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As family pressure mounts on Biya!! Another government likely soon!! Martin Belinga may be replaced

16, July 2016

As family pressure mounts on Biya!! Another government likely soon!! Martin Belinga may be replaced 1

President Biya is considering a cabinet shake up following pressure coming from very close family members in support of the demands of the Cameroonian first lady, Chantal Biya. Cameroon Concord News has learnt from highly placed government sources that some of the barons of the CPDM regime are on the alert for a possible reshuffle.

Joseph Le, Oswald Babouké and Remy Ze Meka have been listed by the ruling “Essingan” clan as possible replacement for Martin Belinga Eboutou, the current Minister and Director of the Civil Cabinet at the Presidency of the Republic. A source at the presidency hinted that apart from his poor financial dealings with many of President Biya’s acolytes, Martin Belinga’s health has been failing recently. We understand, he recently traveled out of the country for medical reasons.  Oswald Babouké is reportedly a cousin to first lady Chantal Biya and has been a silent force directing a large portion of the country because of the high trust placed on him by the first lady Chantal Biya and her husband

Remy Zé Méka, former Minister of Defense has always acted as a reserve general in the ruling Francophone Beti-Ewondo government.  He is often with the Head of State on private trips abroad and many have constantly referred to him as next-of-kin to the head of state.  Joseph Le, who hails from the East region in the Haut-Nyong Division, has always been a close pal to Martin Belinga Eboutou and replacing him will be a non event.

Rita Akana (Cameroon Concord News Group)

The race for the White House: Donald Trump picks Indiana Governor to be his running mate

15, July 2016

The race for the White House: Donald Trump picks Indiana Governor to be his running mate 0

Presumptive US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has chosen Indiana Governor Mike Pence to be his vice presidential running mate. “I am pleased to announce that I have chosen Governor Mike Pence as my Vice Presidential running mate,” Trump tweeted on Friday. Trump said he would make a formal announcement about his VP pick at a news conference on Saturday. Pence, 57, was elected as the governor of the state of Indiana in 2012. Before his current job, he spent 12 years in Washington in the US House of Representatives at the Congress. Pence’s popularity with many Republicans and religious conservatives makes him a target of Democratic opponents.

After the announcement, presumptive US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton issued a warning about Pence, saying he favors policies that hurt minorities and favor the wealthy and powerful — people like Trump. “By picking Mike Pence as his running mate, Donald Trump has doubled down on some of his most disturbing beliefs by choosing an incredibly divisive and unpopular running mate,” said John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman. Pence’s legislative experience in Congress as well as his position as governor of a Midwestern state could give Trump advantages in November’s presidential election.

The vast majority of Americans say they feel afraid if either Trump or Clinton is elected to the White House, a new poll shows. The Associated Press-GfK poll released Thursday found that 81 percent of US voters were worried by the idea of a Clinton or Trump presidency. On Wednesday, a poll by the Quinnipiac University showed that Trump has also overtaken Clinton in three swing states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania

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Biya’s continued stay in power: CPDM barons disagree on holding early presidential elections

15, July 2016

Biya’s continued stay in power: CPDM barons disagree on holding early presidential elections 0

A huge political divide has developed inside the presidency of the republic among senior government officials wanting to guarantee Biya’s continued stay in power. Cameroon Concord News has been reliably informed that it is a war between those supporting the holding of early presidential elections before 2018 and the followers of the serene continuation of the current seven-year term so that the election is held on the date as prescribed by the constitution.

Martin Belinga Eboutou, Director of the Civil Cabinet of the Presidency of the Republic, Jacques Fame Ndongo, Minister of Higher Education, Paul Atanga Nji, Minister of Special Duties at the Presidency of the Republic and Henri Eyebe Ayissi, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development are among other personalities supporting a constitutional amendment to shorten the presidential term and call for early general elections.

The group started a trend to please President Biya with multiplying calls claiming that it is the desire of the people to see him stay in power forever. However, some political opinions have indicated it was the head of state that inspired and sponsored the petitions.  The followers of a presidential election to be held as scheduled referred to by our informant as the conservative group includes Grégoire Owona, Minister of Labour and Social Security, Martin Mbarga Nguele, Delegate General for National Security, and a good bunch of Beti-Ewondo CPDM members of the Government.

Sama Ernest (Cameroon Concord News Group)

Morocco to rejoin the African Union

15, July 2016

Morocco to rejoin the African Union 0

Morocco is reportedly set to rejoin the African Union (AU) after leaving the pan-African organization more than three decades ago. An anonymous diplomatic source told Moroccan newspaper Akhbar al-Youm that the historic move is anticipated to be announced during the 27th AU Summit scheduled to take place in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, on July 17-18.

The source refused to confirm whether King Mohammed VI would attend the upcoming AU summit starting this Sunday. However, it said Moroccan Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar has recently been on a diplomatic trip to several African capitals, including Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Senegal, Tunisia Cameroon, Cote D’ivoire and Ethiopia, to inform them all of Morocco’s decision.

Morocco has access to services available to all AU states, but remains the only African UN member not to be a member of the AU. In recent years, several African officials have urged Rabat to return to its seat at the AU. “Morocco is a fully-fledged member of the African family, and no-one has the right to exclude the Kingdom from the AU,” Senegalese Foreign Minister Mankeur Ndiaye said during King Mohammed’s visit to Senegal in May 2015, adding, “We think that now is the time for Morocco to return to the African Union.”

The AU, which replaced the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 2001, includes all 54 African states besides Morocco that are members of the United Nations. The country decided to withdraw from the continental organization in 1984 over the union’s decision to accept the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) as a formal member. Morocco considers the territory as part of the kingdom and insists its sovereignty cannot be challenged. Morocco annexed the vast, mineral-rich territory of the Western Sahara after Spain withdrew in 1975. It is currently viewed as Morocco’s “southern provinces” and the government continues to carry out multi-million-dollar development projects in the area.

However, neighboring Algeria, like numerous other African countries, recognizes the territory as the SADR, and hosts the headquarters of the Sahrawi liberation movement, the Polisario Front. Morocco has offered wide-ranging autonomy for the region; but the Polisario Front movement, which claims the disputed territory belongs to the ethnic Sahrawis, insists that a referendum be held so that the local population can decide their fate. For decades, the UN has been seeking to hold a referendum on independence for the territory.

 

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Sell Cameroon and share the money

14, July 2016

Sell Cameroon and share the money 0

Some few days after President Biya took over from the late Ahmadou Ahidjo, he announced that Cameroon will never go to the IMF or World Bank to beg for money. Biya had been handed over everything including the country’s reserves. Some months before the former head of state was lowered into an early grave in Dakar Senegal, Cameroon was already seeking first and second standby World Bank accords. Cameroon Tribune, the nation’s national daily newspaper wholeheartedly approved of the relations with the IMF and the World Bank.

The country’s lead editorialists such as Charles Ndongo, Eric Chinje, Ful Peter, Boh Herbert, Lawrence EyongEchaw, Ntemfac Ofege, Abel Mbida,  Emmanuel Wongibe and Ebonkem Forminken went on to threaten anyone, like Paddy Mbawa and Chief Bissong Etahoben who campaigned against the IMF.  The super editors made sure positions and ranks were terminated as a result of any political discourse on the IMF/World Bank.

That was in the early stages of rigor and moralization when no one anticipated a vicious salary cut and an unprecedented devaluation of the FCFA including the emergence of Ni John Fru Ndi and the Social Democratic Front. Civil servants regularly told those in the private sector that “after all my salary is passing”. From what we now know, neither these Cameroon government media gurus nor the super editors have been charged for deceiving the Cameroonian people.

The celebration of the coming of the IMF’s privatization has continued ever since. So today we can sing with pride of the collapse of the Cameroon Shipping Lines, Cameroon Airlines, Cameroon Bank, Cameroon Railway Company, Cameroon Aluminum Company (CELLUCAM), the Public Works Department, Cameroon Transport Company (SOTUC), the Cameroon Cotton Company (SODECOTTON), Preventive Medicine Department, Produce Marketing Board, Chantier Naval, the CDC, SOCAPALM etc

The Supreme Court has been replaced with the Special Criminal Court. French speaking state counsels and judges with no mastery of the English language are being appointed to head courts in Anglophone Cameroon. Cameroonian prosecutors turned up in court because of fear for their jobs. Nationally, the arrest of highly placed government officials has been greeted with cold-hearted intolerance from rightwing CPDM politicians – several of whom say they got what they deserved for embezzling state funds.

The truth is all too clear. Who is responsible for the collapse of Cameroon as a nation? Some of the very politicians like Garga Haman Adji, Fru Ndi, Maigari Bello Bouba, Jean Jacque Ekindi, Diakolle Daisalla, Akoteh, Dr Aka Muan, lawyers and journalists who championed the cause of democracy and the rule of law against the Biya dictatorship. Now they support, or fail to speak up against anything about the Yaounde regime. Where is the movement that was seeking justice for Captain Guerandi? Where is the Union for Change? Where is the real UPC that represented the late Um Nyobe and Dr Felix Moumie? Where is Laakam? Where is the Anglophone National Congress? Where is the SDF? Where is the SCNC?

In a nation where laws are widely abused to settle personal scores and to discriminate against minorities, no answer is needed. Any anti Biya official can be sent to jail and yet Europeans and US diplomats are busy romancing with this consortium of CPDM crime syndicates operating in Yaounde, the nation’s capital. The French can free anyone sentenced in Cameroon and they are making a mockery of our already poor and corrupt judiciary system.

Former barons of the regime have spent years in Cameroon’s most hellish prisons some in solitary confinement. Amnesty International reported today Thursday the 14th of July 2016 that more than 1000 people are being detained in a prison facility in Maroua meant for 350 persons. Many have been killed while awaiting trial.

Cameroon now has two specific problems: what to do with an 83 years old frail leader and a government that has no succession plan. But Cameroon also has surely larger problems. Every time a Cameroonian civil servant, radio and television commentators, lawyers, judges, politicians, human rights activists, the business community and the clergy appease the leadership of the ruling CPDM party, the social space occupied by them grows widely. The only solution left is for us to sell Cameroon and share the money. If it does not work for you with money after the sale, former Cameroonian citizens will of course have the resources to relocate in other countries such as Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Nigeria, and Ghana and why not in the West.

The very slow and agonized fissuring of the state of Cameroon is to be measured not only in the arrests of senior government officials and Biya’s continued stay in power, nor only by entertainment coming from Brenda Biya and her mum, Chantal Biya. It can be measured, too, by a moral collapse and a cowed ambivalence of the silent majority. Those who are too frightened to confront the West backed Biya crime syndicate today will find themselves being consumed by it tomorrow. Inoni, Marafa, Mebara who is next? But before that happens, it will be good that we sell the country and share the money.

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai (Cameroon Concord News Group)

President Assad of Syria: “History will remember me as a ruler who defended the territorial integrity of his country”

14, July 2016

President Assad of Syria: “History will remember me as a ruler who defended the territorial integrity of his country” 0

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says he will be remembered in history as a ruler who defended the territorial integrity of his country in the face of foreign-sponsored militancy. “I hope that history will see me as the man who protected his country, from the terrorism and from the intervention, and saved its sovereignty,” he told NBC News television network in an exclusive interview to be broadcast on Thursday. He added, “When you protect your country from the terrorists, and you kill terrorists, and you defeat terrorists, you’re not brutal. You are a patriot.”

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the conflict. The UN has stopped its official casualty count in Syria, citing its inability to verify the figures it receives from various sources. While most European countries have been voicing opposition to the government of President Assad, some of them are gradually making a shift in their policies as they realize the importance of Damascus’ efforts in fighting terrorism.

No Putin proposition of transition 

In the interview, Assad also said Russian President Vladimir Putin has never talked to him about leaving power, despite pressure from Washington for the Syrian president to step down. “They never said a single word regarding this,” Assad said when asked whether Putin or Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had talked to him about a political transition in Syria.

Assad also said he is not concerned that Putin and US Secretary of State John Kerry, who travels to Moscow Thursday, will make a deal that would force him from power. “Because their politics, I mean, the Russian politics, is not based on making deals. It’s based on values,” Assad said. Kerry is heading on Thursday for his third visit to Moscow this year to resume Syria peace talks.

Despite appearing increasingly at odds over the way forward, Russia and the US are nominally co-chairs of international efforts to end the conflict in Syria. Foreign-backed militant groups abandoned the last UN-brokered talks in Geneva in April after declaring a new war against the Syrian government.

US foreign policy

The Syrian president further played down the lack of foreign policy experience of presumptive US Republican nominee Donald Trump, stating that neither the incumbent US President Barack Obama nor his predecessors George W. Bush and Bill Clinton had such a capability.

“Who had this experience before? Obama? Or George Bush? Or Clinton before? None of them had any experience,” he said. “This is the problem with the United States. You have to look for a statesman who has real experience in politics for years. Not because, to have position in Congress for few years, or minister of foreign affairs, for example, that doesn’t help you have the experience,” Assad pointed out.

 

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