Politics

26, March 2024

CPDM supporters want Cameroon’s four-decade President, 91, to run again ⁰

Supporters are urging the world’s oldest leader, 91-year-old Cameroonian President Paul Biya, to run for office in the 2025 presidential election, potentially extending his more than four-decade rule.

They say Biya is the only one who can bring peace and development to the country, but the opposition says Biya must leave office after running Cameroon for decades.

Several hundred people sang in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, on Sunday, calling for Biya to accept the nomination of the Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement, or CPDM party, in the 2025 presidential election.

Biya created the CPDM on March 24, 1985, three years after his predecessor, Cameroon’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, stepped down due to ill health and handed power to Biya.

Biya has been president of Cameroon since 1982 and leader of his party since 1985.

During the party’s 39th anniversary on Sunday, party officials organized rallies in all Cameroon towns and villages to ask people to support Biya as their candidate in the 2025 elections.

Senior CPDM official Fru Jonathan described Biya as the party’s natural candidate, saying there is peace, unity and economic growth in the country. Jonathan said Biya is strong and healthy.

“We think that you don’t change a winning team,” Jonathan said. “If there is any challenger, let him come up, but we have not seen any challenger who can beat our candidate, so we all rely on him and call on him to continue to rule and bring our country to emergence as that is his vision.”

Biya has not said if he will be a candidate.

Cameroon senior state functionaries appointed by Biya, along with Biya’s party officials, credit the long-serving leader for constructing at least 6,000 kilometers of roads, providing electricity and water to towns and villages, and building several hundred classrooms and hospitals.

But Cameron’s opposition and civil society disagree with that positive assessment, saying under Biya the Cameroon Bank and the Fund for Agricultural Development created to fund farmers’ projects crumbled.

The opposition also says corruption has become widespread during Biya’s rule, with Transparency International ranking Cameroon as the most corrupt country in 1998 and 1999.

Cabral Libii, 44, an opposition parliamentarian with Cameroon’s Party for National Reconciliation, or PCRN, placed third in Cameroon’s 2018 presidential elections.

Libii said Cameroonian youth will not continue to watch Biya cripple the economy, deprive civilians of their liberties and freedoms, and rule Cameroon with an iron fist while now showing signs of being ruler for life.

He said Biya is the cause of sorrows brought about by extremely high unemployment, underemployment and crises in the English-speaking western regions that have claimed more than 6,000 lives.

Libii said Cameroon opposition and civil society are organizing themselves to present a candidate to oust Biya, whom they describe as elderly and frail to the point he is hardly seen in public.

Libii said Cameroon needs young dynamic leaders to salvage the country from underdevelopment.

Opponents said many youths were hired to take part in rallies to give the false impression that Biya is popular.

Both the government and Biya’s CPDM party officials deny that civilians, especially poor youth, were hired.

At 91, Biya is the oldest leader in the world and the second-longest-serving president after his neighbor, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea.

Biya’s party says he has won all presidential elections since the return of multiparty politics in Cameroon in 1990, but the opposition says previous elections have been marred by fraud.

Source: VOA

25, March 2024

Senegal’s ruling coalition presidential hopeful recognises opposition Faye’s victory ⁰

Senegal’s governing coalition candidate Amadou Ba on Monday recognised a win by anti-establishment candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye in the first-round of presidential elections and offered his congratulations, a statement said

“Considering the trends of the presidential election results and awaiting the official declaration, I congratulate the president Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye on his victory in the first round,” Ba said in the statement.

The concession came a day after Senegal’s presidential election Sunday, which followed months of uncertainty and unrest that tested the West African nation’s reputation as a stable democracy in a region rife with coups.

This is Senegal’s fourth democratic transfer of power since gaining independence from France more than six decades ago. It took place one month later than initially scheduled after President Macky Sall tried to delay it until the end of the year. Sall is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term and is expected to step down on April 2 when his mandate ends.

After the polls closed Sunday, voters praised the peaceful outcome amid concerns after months of deadly protests ignited last summer by the jailing of the popular opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and concerns that the president wanted to stay in power. Rights groups said dozens were killed, while hundreds more were jailed.

In a move that defused tensions just ahead of the election, Sonko was released after months in prison along with Faye, to jubilant celebrations on the streets of Dakar. Sonko was barred from the race in January due to a prior conviction and Faye ran in his place.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)

25, March 2024

Race For Etoudi: Cameroon Concord Editorial Chair endorses Professor Titus Edzoa ⁰

It is becoming clear that there is a massive power vacuum in Cameroon as the country’s ailing leaders are incapable of making sound economic and political decisions which can help steer the country out of the mess for which the country is now noted.

Though the country’s Territorial Administration Minister, Paul Atanga Nji, has, out of fear, banned all activities aimed at building coalitions against the crumbling Biya government, there are still huge efforts underway both in Cameroon and abroad to engineer a solid coalition which will successfully oust Mr. Biya and his corrupt CPDM party from power once and for all.

It is gradually emerging that a massive coalition is being built around Professor Titus Edzoa, who is currently in Europe to discuss various political possibilities which would lead to the building of a coalition.

The Chairman and Editor-In-Chief of the Cameroon Concord Group has welcome the news of growing support for Professor Titus Edzoa to head a three-year transition program beginning 2025 in an inclusive government.

Speaking on Saturday in London during an event organized for Cameroon’s Diaspora and in which Biya’s succession was on the agenda, the Concord Chairman said:

“All progressive forces both in French- and English-speaking Cameroon should place their support behind Professor Titus Edzoa, as he gets himself ready to head a new Cameroon Government next year. This is an important step at a crucial moment for our divided nation.”

Chairman Soter Agbaw-Ebai added that Professor Titus Edzoa, if given the mandate, will act in the national interest of a federated Cameroon.

“Cameroon is badly in need of a smooth transition of power and many around the world believe Prof. Titus Edzoa will contribute to the quick formation of a unified and inclusive government which can address the serious security, humanitarian and political challenges facing Cameroon,” Agbaw-Ebai said.

“Professor Edzoa can be assured he has Cameroon Concord News full commitment to working with an inclusive Cameroon government formed with all blocs including the detained leaders of the Ambazonia Interim Government” Agbaw-Ebai concluded.

By Chi Prudence Asong

25, March 2024

North Korea says Japan’s PM Kishida has requested summit with Kim Jong Un ⁰

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister said Monday that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has requested a summit with her brother, adding a meeting was unlikely without a policy shift by Tokyo.

Relations between the two countries are historically strained, including by a long-running kidnapping dispute and North Korea’s banned weapons programmes, but Kishida has recently expressed a desire to improve ties, which Pyongyang has hinted it is not opposed to.

Last year, Kishida said he was willing to meet Kim “without any conditions”, saying Tokyo was willing to resolve all issues, including the abduction by North Korean agents of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, which remains an emotive issue in Japan.

“Kishida… conveyed his intention to personally meet the President of the State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as soon as possible,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Kim Yo Jong — who is one of the regime’s key spokespeople — had hinted last month at a possible future invitation for the Japanese leader to visit North Korea.

But she said the “history of the DPRK-Japan relations gives a lesson that it is impossible to improve the bilateral relations full of distrust and misunderstanding,” without a substantive policy change on Tokyo’s part.

She warned that were Japan to remain “engrossed in the abduction issue that has no further settlement” then Kishida’s hopes of improving ties would not materialise.

Kishida said Monday that he was not aware of the KCNA report, and did not directly comment on its contents, while calling top-level talks with North Korea “important”.

“For Japan-North Korea relations, top-level talks are important to resolve issues such as the abduction issue,” Kishida said in parliament, referring to kidnappings that took place in the 1970s and ’80s.

“This is why we have been making various approaches to North Korea at the level directly under my control, as I have said in the past.”

North Korea admitted in 2002 that it had sent agents to kidnap 13 Japanese people in the 1970s and ’80s who were used to train spies in Japanese language and customs.

The abductions remain a potent and emotional issue in Japan and suspicions persist that many more were abducted than have been officially recognised.

Analysts have long said that contention over the issue could hinder progress towards a summit between Kishida and Kim Jong Un.

But North Korea’s statement appeared to be an attempt by Pyongyang to negotiate terms for any future summit between the two countries’ leaders, Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, told AFP.

“It seems the North sees there’s no point in making contact with the Japanese side without checking what requirements each side has in mind that could lead to nothing after all if those requirements are too different to reconcile,” Hong said.

“It is Pyongyang’s way of testing how serious Japan is in holding the meeting and setting its own summit prerequisites in order to host the meeting.”

Japan’s former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi paid a landmark visit to Pyongyang while in office in 2002, meeting Kim’s father Kim Jong Il and setting out a path to normalise relations in which Japan would offer economic assistance.

The trip led to the return of five Japanese nationals and a follow-up trip by Koizumi, but the diplomacy soon broke down, in part over Tokyo’s concern that North Korea was not coming clean about the abduction victims.

Kim Yo Jong said that Kishida “should not think that it is possible for him to meet our state leadership when he has wanted and decided.”

“If Japan truly wants to improve the bilateral relations and contribute to ensuring regional peace and stability as a close neighbor of the DPRK, it is necessary for it to make a political decision for strategic option conformed to its overall interests,” she added.

Source: AFP

22, March 2024

CPDM Crime Syndicate elects Cavaye Yeguie Djibril as National Assembly speaker ⁰

Cavaye Yeguie Djibril, a senior member of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, Cameroon’s ruling party, was reelected the country’s House Speaker of National Assembly Friday.

During an elective plenary sitting of the House in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, Cavaye was reelected with 143 votes out of 156 votes, and there were 13 void votes.

Born in 1940, Cavaye has been the president of Cameroon’s National Assembly since 1992, making him the longest-serving house speaker of the country since independence in 1960.

Source: Xinhuanet

22, March 2024

Nintcheu and Sisiku Ayuk Tabe Meeting: Biya regime bans opposition coalitions ⁰

A declaration by Cameroon’s territorial administration minister to make two opposition coalitions illegal is part of a government crackdown on opposition and dissent.

On March 12, 2024, the minister, Paul Atanga Nji, said in a statement that the Political Alliance for Change (Alliance politique pour le changement, APC), led by Jean-Michel Nintcheu, and the Political Alliance for Transition in Cameroon (Alliance politique pour la transition, APT), led by Olivier Bile, are “illegal,” calling them “clandestine movements.” The minister also referenced a recent meeting at a prison in Yaoundé between Nintcheu and Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, a leader of the Anglophone separatist group Ambazonia Interim Government, as a factor in the decision to ban the coalition.

“The government’s move against these coalitions shows how the Cameroonian authorities are moving to close down space for the opposition and for public debate ahead of the 2025 presidential elections,” said Carine Kaneza Nantulya, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should immediately lift the ban and allow opposition parties to continue working without harassment.”

In December 2023, a prominent opposition leader, Maurice Kamto, was reelected as the leader of the Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (Mouvement pour la renaissance du Cameroun, MRC), one of the most prominent opposition groups in the country. Kamto used his reelection to announce the creation of the APC.

The current president, Paul Biya, has been in power since 1982 and is serving out his seventh term. Biya, 91, was last reelected in 2018 after a contested vote-counting process. Kamto challenged the official results and declared himself winner of the election.

Biya’s 2018 election sparked a wave of political repression. After the 2018 vote, opposition-led protests occurred across the country, and the government responded with a heavy crackdown and the use of excessive force by the police, army, and gendarmes. In January 2019, Kamto and over 200 of his supporters were arrested and detained. Kamto was charged with insurrection, hostility against the homeland, criminal association, threats to public order, rebellion, and inciting insurrection, crimes that can carry the death penalty. He was freed on October 5, 2019, and the charges were dropped, though the crackdown on the opposition continued.

In early September 2020, Cameroon authorities banned demonstrations across the country after Kamto’s MRC encouraged people to take to the streets over the government’s decision to call regional elections in December 2020. Opposition parties had expressed concerns that the elections could not be conducted freely and fairly without reforming the electoral code and addressing the lack of security in the country’s minority Anglophone regions, where separatist groups and security forces have repeatedly clashed.

On September 22, 2020, Cameroonian security forces fired tear gas and water cannons and arrested over 550 people, mainly opposition party members and supporters, to disperse peaceful protests across the country. Many peaceful protesters were beaten and mistreated while being arrested and in detention.

While the majority of Kamto’s supporters who were arrested in 2019 were eventually released, 41, including Olivier Bibou Nissack and Alain Fogue Tedom, two of the group’s leaders, remain behind bars after being sentenced to seven years.

When initiating the APC in December 2023, Kamto said that the opposition should rally behind one candidate for the next presidential elections, slated for late 2025. Biya has not announced if he will run again for reelection.

Opposition groups simply coordinating activities and forming alliances cannot be considered “clandestine movements;” instead, this coordination should be considered a normal and important feature of the democratic process, Human Rights Watch said.

Activists have expressed doubts over the legality of the government’s ban. “This decision is not based on any legal texts,” Emmanuel Simh, a prominent rights activist and lawyer for the MRC, told Human Rights Watch. “No law in Cameroon prevents legally established parties getting together to establish a coalition. It’s just repression and another attempt to muzzle the opposition, to prevent it from organizing ahead of the next presidential elections.”

The government’s decision to ban the two political coalitions violates the rights to freedom of expression, association, peaceful assembly, and the right to participate in political life . These rights are guaranteed under international human rights law including expressly in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, both of which Cameroon has ratified.

“Cameroonians have watched Biya weaken any meaningful political opposition over the course of the last four decades and this ban is yet another example of the government’s repression,” Nantulya said. “He should consider his legacy and encourage authorities to facilitate and deliver a credible election process with full respect for fundamental rights and freedoms.”

Culled from Human Rights Watch

20, March 2024

Leo Varadkar: I am no longer best man to be Irish PM ⁰

Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar will step down as party leader immediately and will resign as taoiseach as soon as his Fine Gael successor is selected.

Announcing his resignation, Mr Varadkar described leading his country as “the most fulfilling time of my life”.

He said he was stepping down for “personal and political” reasons and was “not the best person for the job anymore”.

He was Ireland’s youngest PM when he became Fine Gael leader at 38 in 2017.

He currently leads the coalition government in Dublin, along with Fianna Fáil and the Green Party.

Speaking from the steps of government buildings in Dublin on Wednesday, Mr Varadkar said he had “led Ireland from unemployment to full employment, from budget deficit to budget surplus, from austerity to prosperity”.

PA MediaMr Varadkar said he felt he was not the “best person for the job anymore”

Mr Varadkar added that he was “proud that we have made the country a more equal and more modern place when it comes to the rights of children, the LGBT community, equality for women and their bodily autonomy”.

During his time as taoiseach, Mr Varadkar championed referendums to change the Irish constitution legalising same-sex marriage and abortion.

Mr Varadkar also listed work to improve the affordability of childcare among his achievements as well as increasing government spending on arts and culture, international development, and public infrastructure.

He also conceded that “there are areas where we have been much less successful” but added: “I hope you’ll forgive me if I leave it to others to point them out on a day like this.”

Why did Leo Varadkar resign?

Mr Varadkar said his reasons for stepping down were “both personal and political”.

He said that he felt the current government “could be re-elected” but he felt he was “not the best person for the job anymore”.

Nick Bradshaw

When is the next general election in Ireland?

The Irish government parties have said they do not expect Wednesday’s announcement to trigger a general election.

In the election of 2020, Mr Varadkar led his party to a third-place finish in terms of number of seats in Dáil Éireann, the lower house in the country’s parliament.

As part of the coalition deal struck between the parties it was agreed that Mr Varadkar and Micheál Martin would each hold the position of taoiseach for two years.

In 2020, Mr Martin was appointed taoiseach with Mr Varadkar serving as his tánaiste (deputy PM), before the two swapped roles in 2022.

Speaking after Mr Varadkar’s resignation announcement, Mr Martin said he had been “surprised” by the decision.

“I want to take the opportunity to thank him sincerely, we got on very well,” Mr Martin added.

Mr Martin said he remained committed to fulfilling the full term of the coalition government.

PA MediaMicheál Martin said he was “surprised” when he heard that Mr Varadkar was stepping down

Eamon Ryan, leader of the Green Party, the smallest of the three coalition partners, said Mr Varadkar had been “an energetic and committed leader of the country who was always supportive of his government colleagues”.

Mr Ryan said his party looked forward to the Fine Gael leadership contest and the election of a new taoiseach.

In the interim, he said, the government would continue to fulfil its mandate.

“I would like to offer my good wishes to Leo as he prepares to depart the taoiseach’s office,” he added.

‘Run out of road’

Speaking in the Dáil, (lower house of Irish parliament) Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald, who is leader of the Opposition, called for a general election.

She said it was “unthinkable” for the next taoiseach to be chosen by a “conclave” of Fine Gael politicians.

“This is a time for fresh leadership. Not just a change of taoiseach, but a change of government, and a change of direction,” she said.

Ms McDonald claimed that when Fine Gael took power in 2011 Ireland had one of the highest levels of home ownership in Europe, but it had since declined to one of the worst.

“This government has now run out of steam and run out of road, so rather than limping on in a caretaking capacity let’s go to the people,” she said.

PA MediaFirst Minister Michelle O’Neill (left) called for a general election in the Republic of Ireland

The UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, wished Leo Varadkar well following his resignation.

A spokesperson said the PM would “work closely with him and his successor”.

“Ireland is a vital partner of the UK,” the spokesperson added.

Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle ‘O’Neill also said it was “time for an election” in the Republic of Ireland.

“Now is not a “time for the rearranging of the deck chairs,” the Sinn Féin vice president said.

She described Fine Gael’s time in power as “13 years of failure”.

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said: “Leo Varadkar and unionism didn’t often see eye to eye, if at all”.

However, the Democratic Unionist Party MLA wished him “all the best”.

DUP Leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said he and Mr Varadkar “were very often on different ends of the political spectrum”.

“We differed on the Republic of Ireland’s approach to legacy, and sharply differed on his approach and attitude on the [Northern Ireland] Protocol and the constitutional future of Northern Ireland,” he said.

“Where we differed, we did so respectfully.”

Sir Jeffrey added that there were other areas where they worked together on matters of mutual benefit “for both our countries”.

Ireland’s President Michael D Higgins was told of the taoiseach’s intention to resign shortly before Wednesday’s press conference and the pair spoke immediately afterwards.

A spokesman for the president said: “Over the course of this, the president thanked the taoiseach for his service.”

Who could be the next taoiseach?

Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister Simon Coveney, 51, who is deputy leader of Fine Gael, has ruled himself out.

Speaking on RTÉ, he said he made a decision “quite some time ago” that he would not stand in another leadership contest after losing to Mr Varadkar in 2017.

There will be a Fine Gael National Executive emergency meeting on Wednesday evening to start the process of selecting a new leader.

This process should take 18 or 19 days, Mr Coveney said.

He added that “there may well be” more than one candidate.

Getty ImagesHigher Education Minister Simon Harris is the early favourite with many bookmakers

At the moment four names are being mentioned.

Further and Higher Education Minister Simon Harris, 37, is the early favourite with many bookmakers.

He gained a high profile as health minister when the Republic of Ireland voted to amend its constitution to legalise abortion in 2018 and subsequently served as justice minister.

Helen McEntee became a TD at the age of 26, succeeding her father after he took his own life.

Niall CarsonAfter widespread disorder in Dublin last year, Helen McEntee faced down calls to resign from opposition parties

In 2017 she took on the high-profile role as minister of state for European affairs and in June 2020 she was promoted to become minister of justice.

After widespread disorder in Dublin in November 2023 she faced down calls to resign from opposition parties.

Paschal Donohoe is the public expenditure minister and was previously finance minister from 2017 to 2022, arguable the second-most important cabinet post.

The Dublin Central representative is also president of the Eurogroup – which brings together the finance ministers of the eurozone for informal meetings.

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys represents the Cavan-Monaghan constituency which borders Northern Ireland.

As well as her main cabinet post, she covered the justice ministry for two periods while McEntee took maternity leave.

If she became taoiseach she would be the first Protestant to hold the post.

Source: BBC

19, March 2024

Deposing the Beti-Bulu Monarch after 42 years in power ⁰

Paul Biya, the tribal chief passing for a head of state, has faced allegations of corruption and authoritarianism during his long tenure. Critics have accused his Beti-Bulu-Ewondo government of widespread corruption, human rights abuses and political repression. And he remains the master at curbing press freedoms.

Is Biya taking the last kicks of a dying horse? The Francophone dominated Cameroon government military is presently occupying most of Southern Cameroons. Cameroonians are being told that the dictator intends to run again in the 2025 presidential election.

Boko Haram is alive and active in the Far North region. The security situation in the East region is deteriorating. Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces have now killed more than three thousands government soldiers and police, an indication that the Ambazonia conflict is intensifying.

Meanwhile the prolonged, miserable plight of large numbers of citizens both in English and French Cameroun has grown. The on-going ill-treatment of innocent Southern Cameroons civilians in the seven year conflict is now unacceptable in the eyes of many deep within the African Union, even to Yaounde’s friends. Pretending in French speaking Cameroun that all is well, allowing crime to flourish and spread in the cities of Douala and Yaoundé, while refusing to dialogue with the jailed Southern Cameroons leaders is not the proper way to conduct politics.

Some of Cameroon’s European allies including Canada and the US, understandably, are out of patience with the government of the 91-year-old President Biya. The general consensus is that Biya should go! After 42 years in power, even prominent Francophone CPDM officials are now recalibrating their positions and saying Biya should be replaced.

We of the Cameroon Concord Group are pushing the military to begin setting out the various ways in which Cameroon as a nation could dump Mr Biya as leader. Biya is not a cure. He has never been a cure. He was never going to be a cure.

We now know that Cameroon’s presidential election is coming up next year, though no campaign has started but threats from the Minister of Territorial Administration against some progressive political parties.

The 2025 election offers the right opportunity for Cameroonians including those in the military and the National Gendarmerie to depose the Beti Monarch.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

17, March 2024

Trump warns US voters of a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses presidential election ⁰

Former US president Donald Trump warned of a “bloodbath for the country” if he is not elected in November.

Donald Trump told a rally in Ohio on Saturday that November’s presidential election will be the “most important date” in US history, painting his campaign for the White House as a turning point for the country.

Days after securing his position as the presumptive Republican nominee, the former president also warned of a “bloodbath” if he is not elected – though it was not clear what he was referring to, with the remark coming in the middle of comments about threats to the US auto industry.

“The date – remember this, November 5 – I believe it’s going to be the most important date in the history of our country,” the 77-year-old told rally-goers in Vandalia, Ohio, repeating well-worn criticisms that his rival, President Joe Biden, is the “worst” president.

Criticising what he said were Chinese plans to build cars in Mexico and sell them to Americans, he stated: “We’re going to put a 100 percent tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected.”

“Now if I don’t get elected it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole – that’s going to be the least of it, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it. But they’re not going to sell those cars.”

As Trump’s comment gained traction on social media, Biden’s campaign released a statement calling the Republican a “loser” at the ballot box in 2020 who then “doubles down on his threats of political violence.

“He wants another January 6 but the American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge,” the campaign said, referring to the deadly attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters in 2021.

Later, Biden spoke at a dinner in Washington, where he also warned of “an unprecedented moment in history.”

“Freedom is under assault… The lies about the 2020 election, the plot to overturn it, to embrace the Jan. 6 insurrection pose the greatest threat to our democracy since the American Civil War,” he said.

“In 2020, they failed, but … the threat remains.”

The 81-year-old, who has waved off concerns that he is too old for a second term, leavened his rhetoric with humor.

“One candidate’s too old and mentally unfit to be president,” he said of the presidential race. “The other guy’s me.”

Border issues

Earlier this month Trump and Biden each won enough delegates to clinch their party nominations in the 2024 presidential race, all but assuring a rematch and setting up one of the longest election campaigns in US history.

Among the issues Trump is campaigning on is sweeping reform of what he calls Biden’s “horror show” immigration policies, despite the ex-president successfully pressuring Republicans to block a bill in Congress that included the toughest border security measures in decades.

On Saturday he invoked the border again as he reached out to minorities who have traditionally voted Democrat.

He said Biden had “repeatedly stabbed African-American voters in the back” by granting work permits to “millions” of immigrants, warning that they and Hispanic Americans “are going to be the ones that suffer the most.”

For decades Ohio had been seen as a bellwether battleground state, though it has trended more strongly Republican since Trump’s White House win in 2016.

The rally came a day after Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, said he would not endorse his old boss for a second White House term.

Source: AFP

13, March 2024

Biya’s continued stay in power: Etoudi warns opposition groups ahead of election ⁰

Cameroon’s government has branded two political coalition groups as having an “illegal character” and warned them to suspend their activities 18 months ahead of a presidential election.

International NGOs accuse the regime of President Paul Biya, who has ruled with an iron fist for more than 41 years, of systematically suppressing opposition.

“The Political Alliance for Change (APC) and the Alliance for Political Transition in Cameroon (ATP) are not political parties under the law,” said Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji in a statement late Tuesday.

“These clandestine movements cannot carry out any political activity.

“Despite the illegal character of these movements, their promoters hold meetings, press conferences and consultations looking to recruit new members,” he said.

The statement also expressed concern over “pseudo-associations ahead of the 2025 presidential election”.

The APC dismissed what it called “curious threats,” in a “statement which indicates panic”.

The alliance said it was “ready to face the elections victoriously” next year.

The APC, led by former deputy Jean Michel Nintcheu, was set up in December at a congress of the leading opposition Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (MRC), which backed Maurice Kamto for president in the 2018 ballot.

Kamto came second and called Biya’s re-election a fraud. He was jailed without trial the following year, after staging peaceful protests.

The movement boycotted legislative elections in 2018 and over the next two years saw 700 of its supporters imprisoned, including Kamto.

Most were freed after eight months in detention without trial but 47 were jailed by a military tribunal in 2021 — 44 remain in prison today.

Rights group Amnesty international last year charged 91-year-old Biya’s regime with using military tribunals to arbitrarily detain the opposition, civilians, journalists and civil society figures on the pretext that they had committed terrorist acts.

Source: AFP