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President Paul Biya has dismissed the commander of the army airbase in Yaoundé involved in the management of donations made to Cameroon defense forces and security services by citizens and private investors. By Decree No. 2015/221, Paul Biya fired Colonel Claude Martin Owona who had spent only two months on the post.  Biya replaced the commander of the Air Base 101 of Yaoundé with another of his kinsman, Colonel Mvondo Menyengue Alfred, previously head of maintenance department of the defense forces.

Cameroon Concord received evidence that President Biya was reliably informed of the alleged involvement of the senior officer in the scandal of misappropriation of donations offered to the defense and security forces engaged in the war against the Nigerian Islamic sect Boko Haram. A military source who spoke to Cameroon Concord at the time of writing this report and sued for anonymity observed that “donations -Rice, pasta, flour, fish, beef, sardines, plantains, bananas, mineral water, toilet paper, maize, beans, yams, fruit juice, vegetable oil had been hidden at the air base 101 in Yaoundé”.

Luc Magloire Atangana, Minister of Commerce, who had received donations, had insisted they be given directly to beneficiaries. Cameroon Concord understands donations had been diverted to homes and in some supermarkets in the capital by highly placed government and army officials. The Presidency has ordered an investigation, and it is expected that those involved in this horrendous crime will have to face the military court.  

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Ngwa Bertrand

15.May.2015

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Former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo will go on trial in November for his alleged role in the violence that followed 2010 elections in the west African state, the International Criminal Court said on Thursday.Ironically no charges have been filed against Outtara's backers who also committed human right abuses.

"The Trial Chamber... scheduled the opening of the trial... for November 10 in order to hear the opening statements of parties and participants," the court in the Dutch city of The Hague said in a statement.

Gbagbo is to be tried together with Charles Ble Goude, a former minister and close ally of the ousted ex-leader.

The prosecution is to start presenting its case early next year, the ICC added.

The court in March combined Gbagbo and Ble Goude's trials because the cases against them are nearly identical.

Both men face four charges of crimes against humanity for murder, rape, inhumane acts and persecution related to the deadly violence that erupted after the disputed presidential poll.

'Campaign of violence'

Long-time leader Gbagbo's refusal to concede defeat in the election sparked a bloody five-month stand-off, in which some 3,000 people died, according to the United Nations.

Gbagbo is alleged to have fomented a campaign of violence in a vain attempt to stay in power after being defeated in his bid for reelection by long-time rival, Ivory Coast's current President Alassane Ouattara.

Prosecutors said Goude commanded militias that murdered, raped and burned hundreds of people alive in an orgy of violence involving both sides that ended only after Gbagbo's arrest in an assault on his Abidjan compound by Ouattara's French and UN-backed forces.

Ble Goude was arrested in Ghana in January 2013 and extradited to the Ivory Coast, but it wasn't until March 2014 that he was sent to the Netherlands to face prosecution at the world's only permanent war crimes court.

Gbagbo, 69, is being held in The Hague since his transfer to the ICC's detention unit in late November 2011. No charges have been filed against Ouattara's backers, raising claims of a "victor's justice".

An Ivory Coast court in mid-March sentenced Laurent Gbagbo's wife Simone to 20 years in prison for her role in the unrest.

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Ngwa Bertrand

14.May.2015

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(Reuters)The head of Burundi's army said on Thursday that an attempted coup had failed and forces loyal to President Pierre Nkurunziza were in control. Army Chief of Staff General Prime Niyongabo's announcement came a day after another general said he had sacked Nkurunziza for seeking an unconstitutional third term in office. Gunfire could still be heard in the capital, Bujumbura, and whether the government had regained control was not clear.

The president, who was in Tanzania for an African leaders meeting on Wednesday when the attempt to topple him was announced, called on Burundians to "remain calm" in a message delivered via the presidential website and his Twitter feed. There was no official confirmation about the whereabouts of the president, who sparked more than two weeks of protests by saying he would seek another five years in office. Two Tanzanian sources said he was in Dar es Salaam. One said he was at a "secure location".

"The coup attempt failed, loyal forces are still controlling all strategic points," Niyongabo said in a statement broadcast on state radio. In Burundi's civil war that ended in 2005, the army was commanded by minority Tutsis who fought against rebel groups of the majority Hutus, including one led by Nkurunziza. The military has since been reformed to absorb rival factions, but fault lines in its ranks have remained.

It was not immediately clear if the government was now fully back in control, although police had returned to some streets which they had left on Wednesday. In one suburb, which had been a protest flashpoint, a group of young men who tried to walk to the center of the city were blocked by police officers, a Reuters witness said. In another location, policemen were seen beating up a youth.

A journalist at the state broadcaster said heavy gunfire being was heard around the state television and radio station in the capital on Thursday morning, a Reuters witness said. Another reported loud blasts in the city.

 RADIO STATIONS ATTACKED

The Reuters witness said two private radio stations and a television station were attacked by unknown men in police uniforms. The two stations were among those that carried Major General Godefroid Niyombare's announcement on Wednesday that he had sacked Nkurunziza. Neither Niyombare nor his spokesmen were immediately available to comment. While Nkurunziza was in Tanzania, the presidency dismissed the declaration by Niyombare, who was fired as Nkurunziza's intelligence chief in February, saying the coup had been "foiled".

Niyombare had said on Wednesday the capital's airport and all border crossings were closed. It was not immediately clear if that was still the case. The East African leaders condemned the takeover attempt. "East African leaders are determined to find a lasting solution to Burundi's crisis," Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe told reporters. "Africa does not want the leadership of any country to be assumed by the barrel of a gun." A protester, who is against President Pierre Nkurunziza's decision to run for a third term, gestures in front of a burning barricade in Bujumbura, Burundi May 14, 2015.

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Ngwa Bertrand

14.May.2015

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Migrants in Libya are being tortured, gang-raped and abused even before risking the world’s deadliest sea crossing, a human rights group claims.

The abuse is being carried out by armed criminal groups and traffickers, as well as within immigration detention centres, according to a new dossier by Amnesty International.

It says recent moves by the European Union to ‘destroy’ vessels used to take migrants across the Mediterranean could trap refugees and asylum seekers within Libya, worsening their suffering.

Clamour for the EU to act intensified last month after a boat of migrants capsized en route from Libya to Europe, killing around 800.

The flow of migrants fleeing war in the Middle East and Africa has continued since last November, when Italy’s search-and-rescue operation was replaced with a cheaper EU version.

The EU announced a series of measures last month, including more funding for its search-and-rescue operation and a crackdown on smugglers.

Amnesty’s report comes ahead of EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini’s address to the UN Security Council today (May 11), where she hopes to win backing for international intervention in Libya.

Libya has been in chaos since former leader Muammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011.

Fifty-three people have died around the Libyan city of Benghazi in the last five weeks, according to medics, as forces loyal to Libya’s government fight Islamist groups.

Amnesty International interviewed migrants that had crossed the Mediterranean Sea between August 2014 and March 2015.

Here is a small selection of their stories.

Torture

Mohamed, a Somali refugee, was held captive by smugglers in the Libyan desert.

He said: “I entered Libya through the Sahara. It was very dangerous, many died. In the desert, Libyan men were forcing, torturing us, beating us with swords, guns, stones, Kalashnikovs. They would beat us every day. They broke my finger, a friend had broken arm. We couldn’t escape. My friend Mohamed tried to escape and was shot dead. Another man was hit on the head with a stone and died. You didn’t eat or drink. Only very little once per day. I stayed one month, then paid. My mother’s brother is in Holland; he paid.”

Gang rape

One Nigerian woman said she was gang-raped on her first day in Sabha. She told Amnesty: “Five Asma boys [gangs of young armed robbers] stopped in front of us and forced me and my husband into their car. They took us to a far place outside the city in the desert; tied my husband’s hands and legs to a pole and gang-raped me in front of his eyes. There were 11 men in total– the five men who forced us into the car and another six who joined them later in the desert.”

Extortion

One boy from the Ivory Coast, 17 at the time, says his smugglers had handed him over to a criminal group shortly after arriving in Libya. He was kept in a house for four months and fed just once a day.

He said: “They tortured us to force us to call our relatives to extort money from them. If you don’t pay, you don’t go out. The next morning, the head of the prison came to speak to us, telling us that our family members needed to wire the money immediately to his brother in Ghana. Once he received the money, we would be set free. I told him that I did not have any family members, that all of them had died. He answered: ‘You will join them in death if you don’t pay.’ I started crying, and so they started beating me with a belt and a broomstick. Other detainees tried to intervene, but they were also beaten. The prison is run by Libyans but they have Ghanaians working for them.”

Rape in immigration detention centres

One Nigerian woman told Amnesty of her time at an immigration detention centre in Sabratah: “I stayed in prison for two months. It was a women’s prison but all the guards were male.

“At night, they would come to our rooms and tried to sleep with us. Some of the women were raped. One woman even got pregnant after she was raped. No one touched me because I was pregnant. This is why I decided to go to Europe. I suffered too much in prison.

“One of the pregnant women died there – they took away her body, but we don’t know what exactly happened to her. They hit her on the stomach – she was seven to eight months pregnant and died.

“During the day, they would force us to come out of our rooms to clean or cook. They used to touch our breasts when we were working. They would beat us if we dared to shout.”

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Ngwa Bertrand

14.May.2015

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North Korea's defence minister has been executed by anti-aircraft weapons in front of an audience of hundreds, according to a South Korean intelligence report. Hyon Yong-chol was reportedly charged with treason for disobeying orders, falling asleep at a military event and being disloyal to Kim Jong-un, the latest in long line of purges carried out by the North Korean regime.  He was an unknown when he was promoted to the North Korean elite in 2012 and had been in his position for less than a year. However, he regularly accompanied Kim on public events. He was arrested late last month and executed three days later without trial.

As head of the country's military, Hyon was "as close to Kim Jong-un as it is possible to get," says the BBC's Stephen Evans. "Such a public and brutal method of execution as obliteration by anti-aircraft gun would emphasise the cost of disloyalty." This is not believed to be the first time an official has been publically executed in such an extreme manner. Last month, a human rights group released satellite images taken of heavy machine guns on a small arms firing range at an army training centre near Pyongyang in 2014. The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea said the "most plausible explanation" for the image was a "gruesome public execution" by anti-aircraft fire.

Earlier this week, South Korea's intelligence agency revealed the extent of political murders being carried out in Pyongyang, estimating that senior officials were being executed at a rate of one per week. "It all adds up to a picture of a leader in Pyongyang who feels very insecure and who is dangerous in his insecurity," says Evans. "Every time we hear rumours of more executions, we have to wonder whether it's a sign of authority or an inability to keep things under control," Victor Cha, former White House adviser on Asia under George W Bush, told the Financial Times. The most notable purge was of Kim's uncle and most senior advisor in 2013. Jang Song-thaek was executed on charges that ranged from distributing pornography to plotting a coup. He was also condemned for "half-hearted clapping" during a ceremony for his nephew. 

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Ngwa Bertrand

14.May.2015

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The International Criminal Court (ICC) says it will open an investigation into the crimes committed by the militants affiliated with Takfiri ISIL terrorists in Libya. ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda told the UN Security Council on Tuesday that a UNSC resolution approved unanimously in March 2011, which referred the situation in Libya to the ICC, extends the court’s jurisdiction to investigate alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by ISIL-aligned militant groups in Libya.  Bensouda also said she was “actively considering the investigation and prosecution of further cases,” including alleged crimes against civilians and civilian institutions by extremist groups. The insecurity in Libya hampers the investigation and prosecution of new cases, she noted. ISIL terrorists have been behind a number of crimes in Libya, including the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians in February and 28 Ethiopian Christians in April.

Elsewhere in her remarks, Bensouda called on all parties involved in the fighting in Libya to stop targeting civilians and civilian institutions “or committing any other crime that may fall within the ICC’s jurisdiction.” Libya has been the scene of violence and unrest since the 2011 uprising against long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The ouster of Gaddafi gave rise to a patchwork of heavily-armed militias and deep political divisions. The North African country has slid deeper into crisis with two separate governments and parliaments battling for power in recent months. The two rival camps vying for control over the resource-rich country, one controlling the capital city of Tripoli, and the other, Libya’s internationally recognized government ruling the eastern cities of Bayda and Tobruk, have not been able to stabilize the situation despite intervention and aid from international brokers, including the UN. Libya’s government and elected parliament moved to Tobruk after Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) militants seized Tripoli and most government institutions in August 2014 and set up its own government and parliament. The UN is facilitating negotiations between Libya’s warring sides on forming a unity government in the country.

 

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

13.May.2015

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