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Rescuers saved 484 migrants from boats in the Mediterranean on Saturday and found the bodies of seven men who had died in the attempt to get to Europe, Italy's coast guard said.

More than 45,000 people have reached Italy by boat from North Africa this year, a more than 40 percent increase on the same period of 2016, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says.

The new deaths add to a toll of 1,222 on the route as of May 10, compared with 966 by the same date last year, according to IOM calculations. 

The migrants were rescued from four separate rubber boats by the Italian coast guard and navy, an aid group and two private vessels, the coast guard said in a statement.  

The coast guard gave no details of the migrants' origins, but most arriving in Italy are originally from Sub-Saharan Africa or Bangladesh, and pay Libya-based smugglers to organise their passage.

A senior official in a United Nations-backed Libyan government in Tripoli said on Sunday his administration was ready to create a new guard to patrol the country's chaotic southern border, but it would only be possible to secure the frontier if other countries helped.

"If we don't resolve Southern Libya's problems, we will not resolve the migrant issue," Abdulsalam Kajman, vice president in the U.N.-backed government headed by Fayez Seraj, told Corriere della Sera newspaper.

"The difficult economic situation in that region pushes lots of young people to work for the traffickers," Kajman said, adding Italy had said it was willing to train the new guard.

Libya primarily needs administrative and logistical help, he added, saying Turkey had donated 20 tonnes of medicine but now that needed to be taken to southern Libya and distributed.  

 

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Reuters

14.May.2017

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Emmanuel Macron, 39, has officially become the eighth president of France’s Fifth Republic after an inauguration ceremony at the Elysée Palace on Sunday where he was handed power by outgoing Socialist president François Hollande.

Independent centrist Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old political neophyte, has officially become the youngest president ever elected in France and the youngest serving leader of a G7 nation.

Sunday morning’s handover of power between the outgoing Socialist François Hollande and his onetime protégé Macron was marked by pomp, ceremony, and symbolism – with some of the business of power thrown in as the new president named the first members of his presidential staff.

There was evident affection in the passing of the torch from a president so unpopular he declined to stand for re-election and the young upstart Macron, unknown to the general public only three years ago, who gambled on quitting as economy minister last year to mount his own bid for the presidency, and won.  

Independent centrist Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old political neophyte, has officially become the youngest president ever elected in France and the youngest serving leader of a G7 nation.

Sunday morning’s handover of power between the outgoing Socialist François Hollande and his onetime protégé Macron was marked by pomp, ceremony, and symbolism – with some of the business of power thrown in as the new president named the first members of his presidential staff.

There was evident affection in the passing of the torch from a president so unpopular he declined to stand for re-election and the young upstart Macron, unknown to the general public only three years ago, who gambled on quitting as economy minister last year to mount his own bid for the presidency, and won.

Macron and Hollande spent an hour in discussion in the president’s office before the handover ceremony, considerably longer than had been scheduled, before Macron walked his predecessor to a waiting late-model Citroën DS in the palace courtyard to the applause of staff. Hollande called out, “Bon courage!” as he stepped in to the vehicle and was driven off into the history books.

When one recalls how many genuine Hollande rivals had for years been tipped one after another as favourites to march up the red-carpeted courtyard Elysée Palace on Sunday as the Socialist’s successor – from conservative former president Nicolas Sarkozy to conservative former prime ministers Alain Juppé and François Fillon, not to mention the populist spitfire Marine Le Pen, this election’s presidential runner-up – the manifest congeniality, even affection, in Sunday’s handover is unsurprising. Macron took part in Hollande’s successful 2012 campaign and served under him as advisor at the Elysée, before being named unexpectedly to fill the economy minister role from 2014 to 2016.  

 

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France24

14.May.2017

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At least five people were wounded by gunfire on Sunday during protests in Ivory Coast's second-biggest city, Bouake, against an army mutiny, according to a witness, as popular opposition to the three-day nationwide revolt over bonuses gathered momentum.

Mutinous soldiers have now opened up access to the city, a leader of the uprising and Bouake residents said, allowing vehicles to move in and out for the first time since Friday.

The mutiny began in Bouake and spread quickly to other cities and towns, mirroring an uprising by the same group in January that paralysed parts of Ivory Coast.  

The soldiers, most of them ex-rebel fighters who fought to bring President Alassane Ouattara to power, cut off access to Bouake, defying the army chief, who threatened severe punishment if they did not return to barracks.

The defence minister has vowed not to negotiate with the renegade troops.

Heavy gunfire erupted in Bouake's city centre early on Sunday as the soldiers sought to disperse crowds of residents who were attempting to organise a march against the mutiny.

"The population rose up, but the mutineers quickly dispersed the march with shots," said Bouake resident Simon Guede. "Everything is closed. No one is in the streets except the soldiers and a few protesters."

A witness saw five people who had been brought to the city's main hospital with bullet wounds following the aborted march. Two other protesters, who had been beaten, were also being treated.  

 

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Reuters

14.May.2017

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The central government in Yaounde has finally conceded  defeat in the fight to stifle West Cameroonian students. In a press release read on the lone state broadcaster, the Minister of Secondary Education declared on Saturday that unregistered candidates or students can sit all the official examinations to be taken in West Cameroon. The case of candidates whose registration was problematic is a minute detail.

The press release comes barely two days after the minister’s tour of the two regions of West Cameroon.  Mr Ngalle Bibehe had undertaken upon himself to go to the field and see the story for himself and evaluate the level of prepared for the examinations.

After the tour, it was said that government had made a historic decision to have unregistered candidates sit examinations they did not prepare for. Thus, on Saturday, the minister simply confirmed it and rendered it official.  

Since the start of the unrest in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon, the majority of students and pupils in the regions have not been going to school.

Until recently, the central government in Yaounde had held tight to the claim that schools had resumed in West Cameroon.

The GCE Board equally claimed previously that the number of registered candidates was encouraging.

Some months back the Prime Minister toured the North West Region to urge students to go back the school, all to little avail.

What does this move mean to Cameroonians? If ministers must go to the field before making historic decisions, then we are “moving forward.”

The Minister of Secondary Education has been in Cameroon since the start of the unrest, we guess.  

 

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Rita Akana

13.May.2017

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The President of the Higher Judicial Council has summoned the Higher Judicial council to, a conclave at the Unity Palace on June 7, 2017. Paul Biya made the call yesterday through an official circular. Though the items on the agenda have not been made known yet, its likely that deliberations will center around the crisis rocking the Judicial system following the sit down protest of Common law lawyers in the North West and South West regions, as well reforms announced over a month ago
The head of state had asked the Minister of Justice Laurent Esso to announce a series of reforms that will quell the ongoing tensions within the judicary.

Amongst these solutions, the Ministry of Justice  was to draw up and submit to  a bill amending the organization and functioning of the Supreme Court to include the Common Law Section.he  also ordered a new assessment test of the mastery of common law by magistrates serving in the Northwest and South West Courts of Appeal. On the basis of this second evaluation, the Head of State will proceed with the redeployment of the magistrates taking into account their mastery of the official language most used, without calling into question either the irreversible option of National integration or the career development of magistrates.

These announcement did not move Common law lawyers who did not show up on the 2nd of May, the date court activities inn the regions were to resume as announced by Bar Council President, Ngnie Kamga.
Camcord is reliably informed that there is panic amongst magistrates as it is rumoured that most of them could be swept by transfers and retirement.

The ongoing stalemate which has paralysed courts in the Anglophone regions reached its peak with the arrest and detention of Barrister Felix Nkongho Agbor Balla and Senior Magistrate, Justice Ayah Paul Abine.  Some lawyers and magistrates who spoke to this reporter on condition of anonymity are calling on the head of state to use the Highly anticipated session to clear  the disturbing situation of Justice Ayah Paul Abine who was "abducted" and thrown in jail without following due procedues for the arrest of a senior judge.

  They also want President Paul Biya to end the trial over  the Balla and co affair who could face a death penalty for what sympathizers call "trumped up charges" of terrosrism, treason, secession and contempt against the state.

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Rita Akana

13.May.2017

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Business men in the economic capital Douala have been schooled on the modalities of becoming a partner with the United Nations Procurement Division. This during a chat with the organ's Director, Dmitri Dovgopoly in Douala Friday.
Addressing the economic operators, Dovgopoly says he has come to Cameroon to enable local businessmen to deal with the UN. Targeted domains include but are not limited to transport, telecommunications, food and construction .
In order to do business with the United Nations, local contractors have been given certain conditions.  The Procurement Chief said companies will be taken based on their capacities to deliver, quality of their goods, economic viability and their capacity to work with various governments and multi cultural communities.
Cameroon has been a key player in helping the UN bring peace to the CEMAC sub region. The country through military and financial effort greatly contributed to the reigning calm in the Central African Republic. With most volatile countries being landlocked, Cameroon's port city Douala has been the point for UN supplies to get through to these zones.  While saluting the efforts of the Cameroon government, Dovgopoly says it is time for the business community to avail themselves of this partnership to enable the Global watchdog meets its objectives of bringing peace to conflict torn countries.
Dmitri Dovgopoly told Camcord that the UN is more than willing to ensure the sustainability of this newfound partnership.
The UN Procurement Division for more than 60 years has been the back bone behind the success of peacekeeping missions supplying them with their basic necessities, assisting humanitarian organizations and bringing hope to war victims.

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Rita Akana

12.May.2017

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