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Sub Saharan African migrants are being bought and sold at modern-day slave auctions in Libya, according to an investigation by CNN.

The news channel found evidence of two separate auctions, held after dark at undisclosed locations in the war-ravaged country, which has become the epicentre of the ongoing migrant crisis.

Footage showed men, the majority from Niger, being auctioned off by local slavers for 600 Libyan dinar each — roughly equivalent to $400 or £300.

Reporters at CNN were given mobile phone footage showing one group of men being sold at an indoor auction, which they said they were able to independently verify.

Later they travelled to Tripoli, Libya, and were directed to an auction which they managed to film in person.

Reporter Nima Elbagir said she saw 12 men sold off in a matter of minutes by a man dressed in camouflage gear, who referred to them as "merchandise."

He reportedly said: "Does anybody need a digger? This is a digger, a big strong man, he'll dig. What am I bid, what am I bid?"

According to the news channel, the victims of the slave trade were migrants from elsewhere in Africa hoping to cross the Mediterranean with the help of people smugglers, and migrate to Europe illegally.

However, increasing efforts by European and Libyan officials to stop the crossings means that increasing numbers of men are getting stuck in Libya with nowhere to go, CNN said.

When they run out of money to pay the traffickers, they are taken as slaves and sold for farm work. At a migrant camp on the Libyan coast, several men told CNN they have been enslaved as well, and were beaten and abused during the process.

Libyan authorities promised to investigate, CNN said. Here is a video report showing more of the investigation.

Business Insider UK

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Rita Akana

15.Nov.2017

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Zimbabwe’s military seized power early on Wednesday saying it was targeting “criminals” around President Robert Mugabe, the only ruler the country has known in its 37 years of independence.

Soldiers seized the state broadcaster. Armoured vehicles blocked roads to the main government offices, parliament and the courts in central Harare, while taxis ferried commuters to work nearby. The atmosphere in the capital remained calm.

The military said Mugabe and his family were safe. Mugabe himself spoke by telephone to the president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, and told him he was confined to his home but fine, the South African presidency said in a statement.

It was not clear whether the apparent military coup would bring a formal end to Mugabe’s rule; the main goal of the generals appears to be preventing Mugabe’s 52-year-old wife Grace from succeeding him.

But whether or not he remains in office, it is likely to mark the end of the total dominance of the country by Mugabe, the last of Africa’s generation of state founders still in power.

Mugabe, still seen by many Africans as an anti-colonial hero, is reviled in the West as a despot whose disastrous handling of the economy and willingness to resort to violence to maintain power destroyed one of Africa’s most promising states.

He plunged Zimbabwe into a fresh political crisis last week by firing his vice president and presumed successor. The generals believed that move was aimed at clearing a path for Grace Mugabe to take over and announced on Monday they were prepared to “step in” if purges of their allies did not end.

“We are only targeting criminals around him (Mugabe) who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country in order to bring them to justice,” Major General SB Moyo, Chief of Staff Logistics, said on television.

“As soon as we have accomplished our mission, we expect that the situation will return to normalcy.”

CAREENING OFF A CLIFF

Whatever the final outcome, the events could signal a once-in-a-generation change for the southern African nation, once one of the continent’s most prosperous, reduced to poverty by an economic crisis Mugabe’s opponents have long blamed on him.

Even many of Mugabe’s most loyal supporters over the decades had come to oppose the rise of his wife, who courted the powerful youth wing of the ruling party but alienated the military, led by Mugabe’s former guerrilla comrades from the 1970s independence struggle.

“This is a correction of a state that was careening off the cliff,” Chris Mutsvangwa, the leader of the liberation war veterans, told Reuters. “It’s the end of a very painful and sad chapter in the history of a young nation, in which a dictator, as he became old, surrendered his court to a gang of thieves around his wife.”

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change called for a peaceful return to constitutional democracy, adding it hoped the military intervention would lead to the “establishment of a stable, democratic and progressive nation state”.

Zuma - speaking on behalf of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) - expressed hope there would be no unconstitutional changes of government in Zimbabwe as that would be contrary to both SADC and African Union positions.

Zuma urged Zimbabwe’s government and the military “to resolve the political impasse amicably”.

ECONOMIC DECLINE

Zimbabwe’s economic decline over the past two decades has been a drag on the southern African region. Millions of economic refugees have streamed out of the country, mostly to neighbouring South Africa.

Finance Minister Ignatius Chombo, a leading member of the ruling ZANU-PF party’s ‘G40’ faction, led by Grace Mugabe, had been detained by the military, a government source said.

Soldiers deployed across Harare on Tuesday and seized the state broadcaster after ZANU-PF accused the head of the military of treason, prompting speculation of a coup.

Just 24 hours after military chief General Constantino Chiwenga threatened to intervene to end a purge of his allies in ZANU-PF, a Reuters reporter saw armoured personnel carriers on main roads around the capital.

Aggressive soldiers told passing cars to keep moving through the darkness. “Don’t try anything funny. Just go,” one barked at Reuters on Harare Drive.

Two hours later, soldiers overran the headquarters of the ZBC, the state broadcaster, a Mugabe mouthpiece, and ordered staff to leave. Several ZBC workers were manhandled, two members of staff and a human rights activist said.

Shortly afterwards, three explosions rocked the centre of the capital, Reuters witnesses said.

The United States and Britain advised their citizens in Harare to stay indoors because of “political uncertainty.”

The southern African nation had been on edge since Monday when Chiwenga, Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, said he was prepared to “step in” to end a purge of supporters of Emmerson Mnangagwa, the vice president sacked last week.

In the last year, a chronic absence of dollars has led to long queues outside banks and an economic and financial collapse that many fear will rival the meltdown of 2007-2008, when inflation topped out at 500 billion percent.

Imported goods are running out and economists say that, by some measures, inflation is now at 50 percent a month.

According to a trove of intelligence documents reviewed by Reuters this year, Mnangagwa has been planning to revitalise the economy by bringing back thousands of white farmers kicked off their land nearly two decades ago and patching up relations with the World Bank and IMF.

Reuters

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Rita Akana

15.Nov.2017

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A very reliable source has confirmed to National Telegraph that the Cameroon/Nigeria Border has been reopened. According to our source, the colonial SDO for Manyu, Oum II Joseph and his retinue would be in the border town of Ekok tomorrow November 16, 2017 at 7:30AM to officially perform the reopening rituals.

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Eric Tataw for National Telegraph, USA

15.Nov.2017

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Soldiers loyal to LR's dictator, Mr. Biya just shot at a boat driver in Nsanakang village in Eyumojock Sub-division, Manyu Division. National Telegraph's secret stringer has confirmed that the boat driver is presently at the Mamfe District Hospital receiving treatment.

National Telegraph has also been told that the boat driver was armless. Other reports suggest the soldiers shot to kill the innocent boat driver before God miraculously saved his life. Could this be the activation of another Nsanakang Battle???

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Eric Tataw for National Telegraph, USA

14.Nov.2017

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Reports reaching Cameroon Concord say some five military personnel of La Republique du Cameroun were discovered dead in the early hours of Monday morning at a checkpoint in Manyu county.

The corpses were reportedly taking to the Mamfe mortuary .

"One of the medical doctors and at least three visitors to the hospital confirmed that 'dead bodies of men in military uniforms were brought to the hospital by a BIR vehicle'," social media reports.

It's not yet clear who murdered the men.
Even the government of La Republique has not uttered a word about the tragedy yet.

At least two civilians are believed dead in Muyuka in violent confrontations with forces of La Republique on Saturday.

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Rita Akana

13.Nov.2017

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At least one civilian has reportedly died in Muyuka in the South West region  following violent confrontations with forces of La Republique.

The deceased, identified by media reports as Anziah Louis Ebowadi, was shot on the neck.Many others were injured.The incident occurred on Saturday

Reports say the commotion began when some young men blocked some trucks from entering their town. The forces of law and order later came to open the way for the trucks, and  Violence then followed, with the armed men using live bullets on the unarmed civilians. One person died and several others sustained injuries.

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Rita Akana

13.Nov.2017

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