Society

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up today in front of a public school in Fotokol killing 16 and leaving 6 with life threatening injuries. Cameroon Concord's military informant hinted a while ago that another blew himself up directly in front of a BIR military camp without any fatalities. 

Our source says both men wearing burqas carried out the attacks. The city Fotokol is located in the department of Logone-and-Chari found in the Far North region.

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Ngwa Bertrand

13.Jul.2015

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The Burundian police have killed one person while responding to “coordinated” attacks against them as fresh unrest envelops the country’s capital. The fatality was caused in Bujumbura overnight on Saturday when the police returned a series of around 10 grenade attacks in parts of the city.

"These were coordinated attacks which targeted police positions and police patrols. Fortunately there was no damage," said a senior police official. The city has been the scene of weeks of demonstrations against the central African nation's President Pierre Nkurunziza, who is seeking to serve a third consecutive five-year tenure.

Over 70 people have been killed in more than two months of protests, with over 158,000 refugees fleeing to neighboring countries, according to the latest United Nations figures. As the country is heading into presidential polls, set to take place on July 15, the head of state’s opponents say it is unconstitutional for him to run for another term in office, alleging it would violate a peace deal that ended a dozen years of civil war in 2006. Fought largely along ethnic lines, the 1993-2005 civil war killed an estimated 300,000 people.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein, also told the world body’s Security Council on Thursday that the country is on the brink of renewed violence over Nkurunziza's controversial presidential bid. The situation will slide into “devastating violence” again, if the pattern of politically-motivated violence continues in the nation, he said.

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Ngwa Bertrand

11.Jul.2015

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Drive-by shootings in two towns in southern Germany have left two people dead, sparking a huge sense of panic in the area. Police said in a statement on Friday that a man shot and killed an 82-year-old woman about noon local time in Tiefenthal, near Ansbach, in the state of Bavaria. The suspect then fatally shot a man riding a bicycle in the nearby town of Rammersdorf, the police statement said, adding that both of the victims were apparently targeted randomly and died at the scene.

The shooter then fired at a pedestrian and the driver of another vehicle, although police said they were not harmed. A later report by the n-tv television quoted police spokeswoman Simone Wiesenberg as saying that the suspect has been apprehended. A massive hunt had been launched in the entire Bavaria region for shooter, who is reported to be just 18 years old. No further details have been reported about the suspect. However, a local newspaper, in another account of the story, said workers at a gas station in Bad Windsheim, about 35 kilometers (20 miles) from the scene of the shootings, managed to subdue the man as he arrived in the area and threatened them with his gun. The reports said the workers tied the suspect up with cable ties and called the police.

Police cordoned off the service station, checking the suspect’s vehicle for any potential explosives. Authorities tried to calm down the people in the region who were quite shocked with the incident. The mayor of Leutershausen, Siegfried Hess, said he was “stunned” by the incident. “In a place with 5,500 inhabitants where we have always had a quiet life, we only know this kind of situation from television,” he told DPA. Police spokesman Bert Rauenbush told TV news channel N24, “At the moment we have no evidence of accomplices, but of course we will keep our eyes open.” The motives behind the shooting are also unclear as of yet, as is whether it was a terrorist attack.

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Ngwa Bertrand

10.Jul.2015

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Burundi is on the brink of renewed violence over President Pierre Nkurunziza's controversial bid to stand for a third consecutive five-year term, the United Nations rights chief warns ahead of the country’s forthcoming parliamentary and presidential elections. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein, told the Security Council on Thursday that the situation will slide into “devastating violence” again, if the pattern of politically motivated violence continues in the Central African nation. "Burundians appear to be braced for an explosion of the murderous violence that has so frequently engulfed the country," he said, warning that "the risk to human life, and to regional stability and development, is high" in the landlocked African state.

The official also noted that over the past two months, his office has documented dozens of killings, most of them shootings of human rights defenders and protesters by security forces as well as the militia known as Imbonerakure, the youth wing of the ruling party known by its French acronym, CNDD-FDD. He further cited reports of demonstrators being imprisoned and subjected to ill-treatment and torture in Burundi.  Over 145,000 people have fled to neighboring countries due to "precise and targeted campaigns of intimidation and terror," the UN official added. Gervais Abayeho, a spokesman for President Nkurunziza, announced last month that the presidential poll will be held on July 15, while legislative votes will be on June 29.

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Ngwa Bertrand

10.Jul.2015

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President Muhammadu Buhari will visit Cameroon after Ramadan, Cameroon Concord intelligence officers in Yaounde have revealed. The Buhari visit shall take place immediately after that of French president, Francois Hollande. After his electoral victory, the former Nigerian dictator now in civilian clothing, began a tour to thank his country's allies in the fight for the eradication of the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram. 

The menu of the visit by the Nigerian leader to Cameroon will include the fight against Boko Haram, the economic relations between the two countries, and the materialization of the Cameroon-Nigeria border, after Bakassi conflict, which ended with a victory for Cameroon at the international court. Cameroon and Nigeria share a 1,700 km of borders (land and sea), and have historical relations, sometimes stormy and tense. Approximately 5 million Nigerians are living in Cameroon.

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Ngwa Bertrand

29.Jun.2015

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The cost of global war in the year 2014 reached $14.3 trillion, or 13.4 percent of the global gross domestic product, a report by the Institute for Economics and Peace says. Last year, the cost of global conflict equaled the combined economies of Britain, Germany, France, Brazil, Canada, and Spain, according to a recent report by the Australia-based group. The statistics mark a 15.3-percent spike in the cost of conflicts since 2008 when the financial impact was recorded as $12.4 trillion, the report notes. “Large increases in costs are due to the increases in deaths from internal conflict, increases for IDP (internally displaced person) and refugee support, and GDP losses from conflict, with the latter accounting for 38 percent of the increase since 2008,” the report stated.

Since 2008, the cost of supporting IDPs and refugees has increased by 267 percent and the number of people forced to relocate by war has reached its highest since the Second World War, the report noted.  It also described the Middle East and North Africa as the most violent regions in the world and Europe as the most peaceful, adding that Saudi Arabia's ongoing aggression against Yemen has dragged down the overall outlook for the Middle East.  According to the report, Syria, which has been gripped by deadly unrest since March 2011, was world’s least peaceful country, followed by Iraq, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic.

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Ngwa Bertrand

18.Jun.2015

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