Politics

Southern Cameroons Crisis: AU, EU using double standard in dealing with Biya regime

14, September 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: AU, EU using double standard in dealing with Biya regime 0

A senior adviser to the Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government has slammed the AU and EU for following double standards in dealing with the Biya regime over the war in Southern Cameroons, noting that both African and European diplomats disregard for the Ambazonia issue has turned the Francophone dominated regime in Yaoundé into an international consortium of crime syndicates.

Dr Patrick Ayuk made the comments in a Sunday telephone conversation when he was asked by Cameroon Concord News why the African Union and the European Union show no sensitivity toward the genocide going on in Southern Cameroons.

“It is sad and unfortunate that the AU and the EU are following a very shameful path vis-à-vis the war in Southern Cameroons and as a result they not only refrain from putting pressure on French Cameroun but are also providing Yaoundé with everything at its disposal to encourage Biya and his gang to continue to kill innocent Southern Cameroons women and children” Yerima’s top aide said.

Dr Ayuk Patrick emphasized that nobody in French Cameroun is in any position to speak about the future of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Ambazonia is the indigenous name of the former United Nations trust territory of the Southern Cameroons under United Kingdom Administration for close to half a century, excluding the period of British connection with the territory. When La Republique du Cameroun took control of the territory, it split it into two parts and designated them as “northwest and southwest provinces/regions of Republique du Cameroun.” This was rejected and continues to be rejected by the people of the former British Southern Cameroons.

The people of the territory insist on the indigenous name of their Homeland which is Ambazonia. This is consistent with a 1978 recommendation of UNESCO that African countries should call their countries by the name they wish to be known. Here, the designations ‘Ambazonia’ and ‘the Southern Cameroons’ are used interchangeably.

By Isong Asu in London

Bundes: Dr Merkel’s candidate seeks to turn tide in election debate

12, September 2021

Bundes: Dr Merkel’s candidate seeks to turn tide in election debate 0

A televised election debate on Sunday marks one of the last chances for Germany’s struggling chancellor candidate Armin Laschet, from Angela Merkel’s conservative camp, to close the gap with his centre-left rival.

Two weeks before voters head to the polls, gaffe-prone Laschet will face off against Finance Minister Olaf Scholz from the Social Democrats (SPD) and Annalena Baerbock from the left-leaning Greens in the second of three primetime debates.

The first general election of the post-Merkel era has become an unexpected nailbiter in Europe’s top economy.

Angela Merkel's long political career
Angela Merkel’s long political career AFP

Surveys show support for Merkel’s centre-right CDU/CSU bloc plummeting to historic lows of around 20 percent while the SPD has come from behind to lead at around 26 percent.

With the Greens polling at 15 percent, a number of coalition outcomes are possible — but observers say the chances of one-time frontrunner Laschet taking the crown are fading fast.

Bild newspaper said the debate could be make-or-break for Laschet.

“To turn the tide, he needs a clear success,” it wrote.

Viewers were left unconvinced by Laschet’s performance in the first debate last month, when Scholz was declared the winner.

– ‘Historic debacle’ –

Laschet, the premier of North Rhine-Westphalia state, has been on a downward spiral following a series of missteps, including being caught on camera laughing during a tribute to victims of Germany’s deadly floods in July.

Scholz meanwhile, although often described as wooden and uncharismatic, has run an error-free campaign.

Olaf Scholz, although often described as wooden and uncharismatic, has run an error-free campaign
Olaf Scholz, although often described as wooden and uncharismatic, has run an error-free campaign Tobias SCHWARZ AFP/File

As vice-chancellor and guardian of the nation’s finances, the 63-year-old has positioned himself as the continuity candidate and the natural heir to Merkel’s legacy — despite hailing from a rival party.

The CDU/CSU alliance that has dominated Germany’s post-war politics now faces a “historic debacle” on September 26, Der Spiegel weekly news magazine wrote.

In a sign of growing nervousness, conservatives have gone on the attack against Scholz, accusing him of riding on Merkel’s coat-tails and of trying to steer Germany to the left.

Even Merkel, who is bowing out after 16 years in power and had vowed to stay out of the election battle, has joined the fray.

She visited a flood-hit region with Laschet and used a speech in parliament this week to cast him as the best choice to succeed her, saying he stood for “stability” and “centrism”.

– Comeback king? –

The still immensely popular chancellor also distanced herself from Scholz, criticising him for not unequivocally ruling out a coalition with the radical-left Linke party, which wants to disband NATO.

The Linke is currently polling at six percent and could theoretically be part of a three-way coalition with the SPD and the Greens.

Addressing a congress of the CSU on Saturday, Laschet said such a coalition would lead to “less security” and endanger Germany’s economic growth through higher taxes and more bureaucracy.

Laschet, 60, also courted controversy by saying that the Social Democrats were “on the wrong side” at key moments in Germany’s post-war history.

The remark drew an immediate rebuke from the SPD, which said it revealed Laschet’s “panic” at his slump in the polls.

SPD general-secretary Lars Klingbeil said the CDU/CSU alliance had “lost its dignity under Laschet”, adding: “It belongs in the opposition.”

Laschet has played down the importance of Sunday’s debate, saying the battle for the chancellery would be fought until polling day.

But Laschet’s fate could be sealed sooner, with record numbers expected to vote by post because of the pandemic.

Although Laschet has a track record of snatching unexpected last-minute victories, Spiegel said a typical Laschet comeback “is looking unlikely”.

Source: AFP

Morocco: King names businessman Aziz Akhannouch to lead new government

10, September 2021

Morocco: King names businessman Aziz Akhannouch to lead new government 0

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI on Friday appointed Aziz Akhannouch of the liberal RNI party as prime minister and asked him to form a government, state news agency MAP reported.

The king appointed Akhannouch “head of the government and tasked him with forming a new government”, following Wednesday’s polls, a statement from the palace said.

RNI emerged as the biggest party in Wednesday’s parliamentary election, taking 102 of the 395 seats while the former largest party, the moderate Islamist PJD, collapsed to take only 13 seats.

Akhannouch, a former agriculture minister, is one of Morocco’s richest men with a fortune estimated at about $2 billion. He has led the liberal RNI party since 2016.

Under reforms introduced in 2011, the king picks the prime minister from the largest party in parliament but retains veto power over cabinet members. In recent years he has taken back more powers within the palace walls, analysts say.

RNI is seen as close to the royal establishment and Akhannouch said in a speech after the election results were declared that he would “implement his majesty’s vision.”

Akhannouch, whose holding company operates in the fuel and gas distribution business, and was targeted by a consumer boycott campaign in 2018 over prices, has pushed RNI as a champion of social and economic reforms.

It must now build a governing coalition that can command a parliamentary majority of at least 198 seats.

The next-largest party after Wednesday’s vote was PAM, which is also liberal and pro-establishment, with 86 seats.

The PJD, whose leader Saad Dine El Otmani had been prime minister since 2017, has complained of violations in the election including what it said was vote buying by rivals.

However, after securing only 13 seats compared to 125 in 2016 it has said it will go into opposition and not seek to join the next governing coalition. Otmani and some other senior members have resigned their party posts.

Source: AFP and REUTERS

Guinea Conakry: What Next after Alpha Conde?

8, September 2021

Guinea Conakry: What Next after Alpha Conde? 0

On 22 December 2008, after the news that President Lansana Conte of Guinea, who seized power in a coup in 1984, had died, a faction of the military launched a coup. It announced that it had dissolved the government and constitution with Captain Moussa Dadis Camara as president to lead a transitional government. The junta promised to hold elections within one year after various African and Western governments denounced the coup, and Guinea was banned from several international organizations.

After two years of political turmoil that culminated to the slaughter of over 450 civilians, Guinea-Conakry held its first democratic elections. Subsequently, on 21 December 2010, Alpha Conde was sworn-in as the first democratically elected President of Guinea in a ceremony that many political commentators opined was the end of dictatorship in Francophone Africa. But in keeping with the gloomy France-Afrique tradition, the 83-year-old Alpha Conde staged a civilian coup and guaranteed his continued stay in power.

The 5 September 2021 military coup that brought Lieutenant-colonel Mamady Doumbouya to power in Guinea is no surprise to many in the continent and was the inevitable result of the lousy judgment of Alpha Conde. He had no democratic mandate and showed utter contempt for the tenets of a democratic system that brought him to power. Conde threatened the state’s fabric by amending the constitution to prolong his stay in power, and his ejection from office was his own making. By using the military last year to kill over 300 people who came out to protest his autocratic power grab, he deserves no one’s empathy at this time.

It has been clear to political scientists for many decades now, although not entirely obvious to Alpha Conde, that coups are more probable in unconsolidated democracies. Coups are more likely in countries with vast inequality between the ruling class and the citizens. So, any leader who fosters inequity, theft, and abuse of power, is carelessly preparing the fertile grounds for a coup to eject him from power.   

In a senseless distraction from the responsibilities of power, Alpha Conde was only fixated on staying in power forever.  He embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars of state funds that the country was generating from extracting the vast mineral resources that the maker of the universe endowed his country.

Like many presidents in Africa, Alpha Conde is an old crook who wandered into politics to enrich himself from state coffers. He has had eleven years to halt Guinea’s steady and alarming political and economic decline. Still, he failed woefully to live up to the considerable expectation that his people had in him in 2010. His removal from power last Sunday cannot be depicted in any way, shape or form as a loss to Guinea.

The story of the people of Guinea has been one of national challenges, brutal repressive political leadership, and military coups since the country rejected neo-colonial rule and became independent in 1958. Guinea has had three presidents from 1958 till date, but there were high hopes for democratic change and accountability when Conde was elected in 2010. Under Conde, the state was fragile in providing vital functions but callous in many other domains, especially dealing with political opponents.  

Guinea is politically and economically sick, and one need not be a rocket scientist to work this out. But under Conde, the government could not deliver its primary function of offering leadership, maintain order, provide public services, national and economic security, and economic assistance to those in need. Under him, repression and human rights abuses were aplenty.

Alpha Conde has left a trail of economic crises and misery. He had become increasingly ruthless and had little or no accomplishments to show for. The current state of economic and political calamities in Africa demands leaders equipped with empathy and integrity and Alpha Conde does not possess any of these qualities. Lieutenant-colonel Mamady Doumbouya and his team must learn from the blunders of Col. Lansana Conte and Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara, as both became presidents through military coups.

Lieutenant-colonel Mamady Doumbouya and his team need to clean up the mess created by Alpha Conde and previous regimes. They should recognize their direct shortcomings and instantly hire experts to deliver their vision. Africa has specialists in all domains that have the skill set, talents and professionalism, and above all, the continent at heart. Let them reach out to these men and women who can point them in the right direction.

The new leaders should, without delay, solicit the help of the Guinean Diaspora. The move to release all political prisoners should not be a gimmick; it must be done without delay to show the Guineans and the world that they mean what they say. They must consciously drag Guinea from economic ruin, poverty, extensive theft of state funds and lead the country into prosperity and self-pride. They can’t afford to waste time and another generation.

Since independence in 1958, Guinea has been a sad case, but now it plays a massive role in the global commodity market as it is blessed with two precious raw materials; Iron Ore and Bauxite. Aluminum is extracted from Bauxite, and Guinea is the world’s number one producer of this valuable commodity. These mineral deposits must be used as the country’s gateway to economic prosperity and national progress. 

China is always looking for markets to get iron ore, and Guinea has enormous deposits of it with massive reserves that have the capacity to produce about 150 million tons of iron ore annually, which is about 7% of global production. The new leaders of Guinea should look for creative ways to add value to the supply chain of the raw materials in their country before exporting to China and the West.

In 2020, Guinea produced around 90 million tones of Bauxite, a quarter of the global total. Guinea is responsible for more than half the Bauxite used in the global supply of aluminum. The global demand for aluminum is growing immensely, predominantly because of its weight and strength. Guinea stands to benefit enormously if the receipts from its vast raw materials are appropriately managed and invested in growing the country’s economy.

Lieutenant-colonel Mamady Doumbouya saw combats in Afghanistan when he led troops while serving in the French Foreign Legion.  The time for him to serve his people is now. He has the yam and the knife. His country has enormous potential, and the people of Guinea are exhausted of old autocrats disguised as democratic civilian leaders. These old boys are bleeding our continent dry and are using the presidency as their care homes. Africans want change, and anyone who can deliver that will be given a chance.

Guineans would pay little attention to what uniforms or suits leaders were wearing if they woke up to new roads, basic healthcare infrastructure, good schools and real hope for the future.

By Isong Asu

London Bureau Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Afghanistan and Southern Cameroons:  Watch, Time, Corruption and Determination

5, September 2021

Afghanistan and Southern Cameroons:  Watch, Time, Corruption and Determination 0

The Taliban has a saying: “you have the watch; we have the time. We were born here. We will die here. We are not going anywhere.” As the Taliban has demonstrated, if a fighting force, weak on paper, is willing and able to wait its enemy out, it can defeat a much superior force. If the guerrilla can withstand suffering and live to fight another day, many battles can be lost while still achieving ultimate victory.  The Vietnam conflict was no different, and the Taliban outlasted the might of US and Western forces for 20 years.

In Afghanistan, the West fought an enemy that will not die. America fought a nemesis that had nowhere else to go. In the Southern Cameroons, French Cameroun army soldiers are also fighting an enemy they cannot see and won’t go away. What are the similarities in both wars? Corruption and Determination! Corruption within the Afghan government and French Cameroun establishment, and Determination from the Taliban and Ambazonia Self-defence forces.

Corruption

The Taliban’s lightning advance was based on dysfunction in the government and armed forces. The same can be said of the successes of Ambazonia self-defence forces in their pursuit of independence. Corruption at the top of the Cameroon government military is doing as much damage to its adventure in Southern Cameroons. A former Afghan diplomat recently said, “From your birth certificate to your death certificate and whatever comes in between, somehow you have to bribe.” Anyone with some knowledge of Cameroon under Biya would think the diplomat was talking about the CPDM crime syndicate.

As the Taliban seized territory after territory, government soldiers dropped their uniforms, firearms and ran. On paper, the Afghan army had hundreds of thousands of US-trained fighters. But the fact is that soldiers in Afghanistan went unpaid as senior military and government officials simply siphoned military finances. Afghanistan fell easily than many expected to the Taliban because corruption was endemic in the government and military. The disease of corruption is so badly embedded in the Francophone dominated political and military establishments and this evil is a blessing to the Southern Cameroons quest for independence.

Just as the Taliban exploited the weaknesses in the Afghan army, Ambazonian self-defence forces have exploited a fragile, fraudulent, and hopeless army that has no belly for the fight. The parading of captured weapons by the Taliban on international media is evocative of the videos on social media posted by Ambazonian self-defence forces.

Procurement fraud was rife in the Afghan government, and the same crime is at a more sophisticated stage in Yaoundé. By the time of the Taliban’s final onslaught, Aghan state officials were so corrupt that most of them cut deals with the Taliban. The Afghan army was in a miserable shape to fight as its numbers were inflated by ghost soldiers. The presence of ghost soldiers deep within the Cameroon government military is very well established as the senior commanders pocket the salaries of these ghost army soldiers. The similarities between Afghanistan and Cameroon are striking, and the results, however long it takes, will be parallel.

Determination:

After the Taliban was toppled in 2001, it maintained a strong presence in parts of Afghanistan and played the long game of prolonged combat. When the Southern Cameroons leadership was abducted in Abuja, Nigeria, in January 2018, it appeared as if the Southern Cameroons liberation struggle was a pipedream that would never be realized, but the Southern Cameroons Diaspora community and self-defence forces have reorganised themselves and are deadlier now than before.

For twenty years, the Taliban maintained its structure and survived the deaths of senior leadership figures. It maintained a base in Pakistan and at home in many provinces. They also received considerable moral and financial support from states in the Middle East. Similarly, despite the leadership of the Southern Cameroons movement being incarcerated in Yaoundé, the Interim Government of Ambazonia has continued to function satisfactorily in exile.

The Taliban did not accept the legitimacy of the US-supported government, and the people of Southern Cameroons do not accept the legitimacy of French Cameroon’s rule over the territory of Southern Cameroons. Since Mr Biya and his regime have ruled out genuine negotiation with the Southern Cameroons leadership in their detention centres, the jungles of Southern Cameroons will be their unending nightmare over the next decades as the mountains, hills and valleys of Afghanistan was to the Americans. 

Just as many US right-wing policymakers believed for twenty years that the US would win militarily in Afghanistan, the hawks in Yaoundé are defiantly lying to themselves and anyone who would listen that they will emerge from the jungles of Southern Cameroons victorious and politically stronger. France will soon realise the folly of sustaining a corrupt army in a war that they will not win. Whether the political elite in Yaoundé accepts it or not, the Southern Cameroons struggle would still linger long after Mr Biya exits the scene, and the solution like the one in Afghanistan is not on the battlefield.

Paul Biya will not be the only Francophone Cameroonian president to fight the war in Ambazonia. Like Afghanistan, there is an exit strategy. The Americans talked to the Taliban and exited. Are the French Cameroun elite humble enough to do the sensible thing?

The speed and success of the Taliban shocked both Afghans and the US that had backed the Afghan government with money and military support. The US spent over $88bn on training and equipping Afghan security forces over the years. Conservative estimates say France has spent over $11 billion in equipping the Francophone dominated Cameroon army over the last four years, and the figure is growing as the enemy in the jungles in Southern Cameroons is just not going away.

La Republique du Cameroun has not a fighting chance against a liberating force that has time and nowhere to go. If the success of the Taliban is anything to go by, Southern Cameroonians are unlikely to let this great opportunity to attain freedom pass them by. Having a watch and money doesn’t guarantee that one has time. La Republique du Cameroun and France have the watch and money; Southern Cameroonians must know that, like the Taliban, they have the time.

IsongAsu

London Bureau Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Biden defends Afghanistan exit as ‘best decision for America’

1, September 2021

Biden defends Afghanistan exit as ‘best decision for America’ 0

President Joe Biden on Tuesday defended his decision to pull troops out of Afghanistan, saying it was in the US national interest.

 “We no longer had a clear purpose in an open-ended mission in Afghanistan,” he said a day after the final withdrawal.

 “This is the right decision. A wise decision. And the best decision for America,” he said.

Macron arrives at Iraq summit aimed at easing Middle East tensions

28, August 2021

Macron arrives at Iraq summit aimed at easing Middle East tensions 0

French President Emmanuel Macron is among leaders set to attend a regional summit Saturday in Iraq, with the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and a deadly jihadist attack in Kabul overshadowing the meeting.

Macron warned on Saturday the Islamic State group “remains a threat”, speaking days after an affiliate of the jihadists claimed a deadly bombing in Kabul.

“We all know that we must not lower our guard, because Daesh (IS) remains a threat, and I know that the fight against these terrorist groups is a priority of your government,” Macron said, after a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi in Baghdad, where the summit of Middle East leaders begins at midday.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II are also due to attend the summit, while the foreign ministers of arch-foes Iran and Saudi Arabia will also be present.

Organisers have been tight-lipped on the agenda, but the meeting comes as Iraq, long a casualty of jihadist militancy, tries to establish itself as a mediator between Arab countries and Iran.

Iraq seeks to play a “unifying role” to tackle crises shaking the region, sources close to Iraqi Al-Kadhemi have said.

Oil-rich Iraq has been caught for years in a delicate balancing act between its two main allies, Iran and the United States.

Iran exerts major clout in Iraq through allied armed groups within the Hashed al-Shaabi, a powerful state-sponsored paramilitary network.

Baghdad has been brokering talks since April between US ally Riyadh and Tehran on mending ties severed in 2016.

Macron aims to highlight France’s role in the region and its determination to press the fight against terrorism, his office said.

The French president considers Iraq “essential” to stability in the troubled Middle East, it added.

‘More urgent than ever’

An Islamic State (IS) group affiliate claimed Thursday’s suicide bombing in Kabul that killed scores of people, including 13 US service members.

The attack has revived global concerns that the extremist organisation, which seized swathes of Syria and Iraq before being routed from both countries, is emerging anew, analysts said.

The blast came during the final days of US-led evacuations from Afghanistan after the Taliban’s lightning takeover.

“These events show that it has become more urgent than ever to back the political process in Iraq and involve its neighbours,” a source close to Macron said.

“A solution to security threats in the region, including Daesh (IS), depends on a stable, sovereign and prosperous Iraq,” the source added.

A decade after the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, the IS group in June 2014 announced a “caliphate” in territory seized in Syria and Iraq, routing the badly prepared Iraqi army without a fight and seizing almost a third of the country.

France was part of a US-led coalition established to battle the extremists.

Iraq declared the IS group territorially defeated in December 2017, but the group still retains sleeper cells and continues to claim bloody attacks.

New IS group ‘strides’

One of the deadliest was a July bombing that ripped through a crowded Baghdad market, killing over 30 people on the eve of a key Muslim holiday.

According to Colin Clarke, senior research fellow at The Soufan Center, the IS group “still has access to tens of millions of dollars and will likely continue to rebuild its network throughout Iraq and Syria”.

Its “primary goal at the moment is to have its affiliates maintain momentum until it can sufficiently rebuild its core in the Levant,” he said. “IS affiliates in sub-Saharan Africa and now Afghanistan will have the opportunity to make strides in the coming year.”

In July, President Joe Biden said US combat operations in Iraq would end this year, but that US soldiers would continue to train, advise and support the country’s military in the fight against the IS group.

Washington currently has 2,500 troops deployed to Iraq.

Rasha Al Aqeedi, senior analyst at Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, said coalition forces believed Iraq’s security personnel could prevent another IS group advance.

“Maybe they’re not ideal, but they’re good enough for America to leave the country believing that Iraq is not going to live through another 2014,” she said.

Source: AFP

Despite Biya regime’s claims that the Ambazonian conflict is under control, recent developments suggest otherwise

28, August 2021

Despite Biya regime’s claims that the Ambazonian conflict is under control, recent developments suggest otherwise 0

The Anglophone regions’ relatively quiet start to 2021 was shattered in March by an intense series of IED attacks. Marking a new development in the Cameroonian conflict that has simmered for four years, at least one harrowing new video emerged every day. Each showcased the same pattern: the lumbering roll of a military convoy down a muddy forested road; the explosion underneath a lightly armoured Toyota; the immediate covering fire laid down in anticipation of an ambush; and, eventually, a silence punctuated by the cries of the wounded.

Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have been used by separatists in the Anglophone conflict since at least late-2018, but the tactic has now reached maturity. Extensive video evidence reveals increasingly sophisticated use of the explosives, including the deliberate targeting of the army’s least protected vehicles, remote detonations, and the use of multiple IEDs. These attacks have been more frequent, more deadly and, most importantly, have not stopped.

This is potentially devastating for the military. Cameroon has only a limited number of mine-protected armoured vehicles and so soldiers are largely left to patrol in Toyota pickup trucks with improvised armour that is entirely ineffective against IEDs. Western forces learned similarly painful lessons in Afghanistan and Iraq, with ‘Snatch’ Land Rovers referred to as “mobile coffins” by troops.

These attacks must weigh heavily on the morale of Cameroonian forces, and recent reports suggest that some units have resorted to extreme measures to counteract the threat. It has been alleged that the elite Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) has forced civilians to act as human minesweepers near Kumbo, Northwest region, in what would clearly be an egregious abuse of human rights.

The military is known to have defused dozens of IEDs, but the threat remains. It is therefore likely the government will look to acquire new armoured vehicles this year, with Cameroon’s contingent in the UN mission in the Central African Republic receiving several Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles in May.

Separatists growing stronger

This increase in IED attacks fits into a broader pattern of some separatist groups’ growing combat strength. Larger forces such as the Ambazonian Defence Forces (ADF) and Ambazonia Restoration Forces (ARF) have managed to replace their locally produced hunting rifles with more effective firepower. Over time, they have acquired weaponry from multiple sources such as corrupt or sympathetic local officials and military personnel, dealers and allied groups in neighbouring Nigeria, following attacks and ambushes, and even from the diaspora in the US. Most recently, secessionists have acquired several light machine guns and, for the first time, rocket-propelled grenade launchers (RPGs).

This has marked a step-change in rebels’ offensive capability and has led to deadlier attacks. In early-May, it was reported that 24 soldiers and civilians had been killed by IEDs in the previous two weeks. In late-June, ten soldiers were killed and a gendarmerie post was attacked in South West region in one day. Two recent raids by ‘General No Pity’, a feared commander of the Bambalang Marine Forces, at Galim in the West region and Bamali in the North-West left several soldiers dead. In July, grisly footage showing members of a separatist group celebrating around beheaded military personnel was released. And an attack in Bali on 19 July left five senior policemen dead.

Since March, it seems that around 60 to 80 service personnel have been killed, with many more wounded. This would likely make it the deadliest period for government soldiers since the crisis began. Separatist attacks have been particularly effective in the North West region, where large armed factions are believed, at times, to be working with some degree of cooperation, though not quite in harmony. In the South-West, by contrast, fighting between separatist factions remains common. In late-June, for instance, the Fako Mountain Lions killed ‘General Opopo’, a commander of the rival SOCADEF group. Disunity and distrust among secessionists in most areas, which is exacerbated through online attacks among separatist leaders in the diaspora, remains a yoke around the neck of the campaign for Ambazonian independence.

Biya’s legacy

The government’s line that the Anglophone crisis is an internal matter that is under control or has even been resolved is miles away from the current reality. There have been widespread losses of personnel and equipment recently, and the military even briefly deployed the Armoured Reconnaissance Battalion (BBR) to the region. This move neither projects strength nor suggests a military nearing victory.

That said, the separatists’ recent successes are unlikely to alter the long-term trajectory of the conflict. The kind of turnaround witnessed in Ethiopia’s Tigray region or Afghanistan is not going to be repeated; Cameroon’s separatist groups are not on the verge of capturing Bamenda or Buea. Instead, the conflict risks leaving the Anglophone regions frozen in time for a generation amid a desperate quagmire in which neither side can prevail, and as the international community looks on. Meanwhile, the military continues to recruit heavily, limiting the strategic impact of the increasing losses. As the conflict becomes ever more entrenched and intractable, resolution becomes harder to imagine. The North-West and South -West regions risk becoming to Cameroon what Kivu is to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A common phrase heard about the Cameroonian government is that it feels “time is on its side”. From the perspective of the insular, highly centralised regime, this may seem logical. Yet to other actors, it reads as a potentially fatal miscalculation. Time is not on the side of the 1.1 million children out of school or the 3 million residents of the Anglophone regions caught in the crossfire. Nor is it on the side of the 88-year-old President Paul Biya, whose 38 years in charge make him the longest-ruling non-royal leader in the world. His rule is likely to come to an end in the next election cycle, and a transition of power for such a long-standing regime is fraught with the highest risks imaginable.

Cameroon already faces immense challenges with the fight against Boko Haram in the Far North, a tense security situation on the Central African border and thousands of associated refugees, and the immense humanitarian pressures created by all of these separate crises. The strain on the Cameroonian state is enormous, and without a change in strategy, Biya’s forthcoming transition will rightly set alarm bells ringing across the world.

After nearly four decades in power, the greatest legacy the president could leave behind would be to bring the full weight of the state to the table in pursuit of a negotiated, sustainable end to the Anglophone crisis. The alternative is more smouldering armoured vehicles, soaring humanitarian need, and an increasing flow of coffins draped in the Cameroonian flag. As always, the power is with President Biya and his government, yet it is those in Anglophone Cameroon that are paying the heaviest price.

Culled from African Arguments.org

Tunisia political limbo: President indefinitely extends suspension of parliament

24, August 2021

Tunisia political limbo: President indefinitely extends suspension of parliament 0

A state of uncertainty continues to dominate politics in Tunisia, as the country effectively remains without a government one month after President Kais Saied abruptly sacked his prime minister, with the chief executive now indefinitely extending the suspension of parliament.

Saied’s unexpected intervention last month granted him an executive power, but bitterly irked his opponents, who denounced the move as a coup.

On Monday, Saied’s office issued “a presidential decree extending the exceptional measures… regarding the suspension of Parliament and lifting of the parliamentary immunity of its MPs until further notice.”

The president is to address the nation in the coming days, the statement said, without providing further details.

He is widely anticipated to announce new measures that would reassure a highly anxious Tunisian public and allay international concerns about Tunisia entering an authoritarian era.

Saied dismissed Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and suspended parliament for 30 days in July, following mass protests in several cities against the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tunisia’s biggest political party Ennahda denounced the move as a “coup,” but Saied at the time argued that his decision was meant to save Tunisia from collapse.

He said he would assume executive authority “with the help” of a government whose new chief he would personally appoint.

Ever since, authorities have placed several officials, including former ministers, under house arrest. Several politicians, lawmakers, businessmen and judges also say they have been banned from traveling abroad.

Apart from plunging the country into a political limbo, the latest developments have exacerbated political polarization in Tunisia.

The president’s critics have denounced the measures as “arbitrary” and “unjustified.”

Many, however, have thrown their weight behind the president, defending his decision to strip lawmakers of their immunity, as per Article 80 of the constitution that allows for exceptional measures if there is an “imminent danger” to national security.

Ennahdha — the largest party in parliament — called for a national dialog. But Saeed was quick to brush aside the initiative.

Before the latest presidential decree was issued, the party also announced the dismissal of its executive committee.

Party leader and parliament speaker Rached Ghannouchi has decided to form a new board “in order to meet the demands of the current period,” the party said in a statement.

“Ennahda’s head decided to dismiss the party’s executive members and restructure it in a way that responds to the requirements of the phase,” it added.

Ghannouchi is under fire over his handling of the month-long political crisis. Prominent leaders from within his party have demanded that he quit the leadership.

Ennahda has been the most powerful party in Tunisia since the 2011 revolution that ousted former Western-backed ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

The party, however, started to lose support since the economy stagnated and public services declined, after the pandemic hit the nation last year and infection rates surged this summer.

Source: Presstv

US Vice President Kamala Harris accuses China of using intimidation to back South China Sea claims

24, August 2021

US Vice President Kamala Harris accuses China of using intimidation to back South China Sea claims 0

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday accused China of coercion and intimidation to back unlawful claims in the South China Sea, in her most pointed comments on China on a visit to Southeast Asia, a region she said was critical to U.S. security.

Harris’s seven-day trip to Singapore and Vietnam is aimed at standing up to China’s growing security and economic influence globally and addressing concerns about China’s claims to disputed parts of the South China Sea.

Diverting attention and resources to the region has become a centrepiece of President Joe Biden’s administration, as it turns away from old security preoccupations with the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

The U.S. administration has called rivalry with China “the biggest geopolitical test” of the century and Southeast Asia has seen a series of high-profile visits by top administration officials, including Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

“We know that Beijing continues to coerce, to intimidate and to make claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea,” Harris said in a speech in Singapore.

“These unlawful claims have been rejected by the 2016 arbitral tribunal decision, and Beijing’s actions continue to undermine the rules-based order and threaten the sovereignty of nations,” she said, referring to an international tribunal’s ruling over China’s claims in The Hague.

China rejected the ruling and has stood by its claim to most of the waters within a so-called Nine Dash Line on its maps, parts of which Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam also claim.

China has established military outposts on artificial islands in the waters, which are crossed by vital shipping lanes and also contain gas fields and rich fishing grounds.

The U.S. Navy regularly conducts “freedom of navigation” operations through the disputed waters, which China objects to, saying they do not help promote peace or stability.

On board the USS Tulsa, a U.S. combat ship at the Changi Naval base in Singapore on Monday, Harris told U.S. sailors “a big part of the history of the 21st century will be written about this very region” and their work defending it was pivotal.

On Monday, Harris began her trip by meeting Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

They discussed the importance of upholding a rules-based international order and freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region, expanded cybersecurity cooperation and efforts to shore up critical supply chains between their countries. “Our partnerships in Singapore, in Southeast Asia and throughout the Indo-Pacific are a top priority for the United States,” Harris said on Tuesday, adding the region was “critically important to our nation’s security and prosperity”.

A top Chinese diplomat last month accused the United States of creating an “imaginary enemy” to divert attention from domestic problems and to suppress China.

Part of her task during the trip will be convincing leaders in the region that the U.S. commitment to Southeast Asia is firm and not a parallel to Afghanistan.

Biden has faced criticism over his handling of the withdrawal of U.S. forces and the chaotic evacuation after the lightning takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban.

Harris said the United States was “laser focused” on the task of “safely evacuating American citizens, international partners, Afghans who worked side by side with us, and other Afghans at risk”.

She also said that the United States had put itself forward to host a meeting of the Asia-Pacific trade group APEC in 2023, which includes the United States, China and Japan.

(REUTERS)

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