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The UN Secretary General Representative ( SRSG ) for central Africa (UNOCA) calls for the release of detainees.

The SRSG held a series of meetings in Yaoundé with some stakeholders and Government officials.

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Rita Akana

12.Apr.2017

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An explosion has hit a bus carrying the Borussia Dortmund football team to today's match against Monaco. Player Marc Bartra has been injured and rushed to a hospital.Police are at the scene in the city of Dortmund. No words yet on the conditions of Africa's best player Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.Dortmund and German police confirmed there has been an explosion near the vehicle at around 7pm. The bus was hit as it was leaving the team's hotel for today's match.The match has been cancelled.

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Rita Akana

11.Apr.2017

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Lagos, Nigeria, Sunday, 9 April 2017 — The struggle for the restoration of the independence of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia got a major boost Sunday when all the front-line liberation movements committed to a united front and reaffirmed plans to organize the election of an interim prime minster in May 2017.

This is one of several resolutions adopted Sunday at the close of a second, three-day conclave organized in Lagos (Nigeria) within a four-week period by the Southern Cameroon Ambazonia Consortium United Front (SCACUF).
The elected Interim Prime Minister will form a full-fledged Interim Government for the annexed former British Trusteeship Territory of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia which will follow the holding of a third conclave of leaders, the organization of an independence conference, massive street demonstrations all over the world and major fund-raising campaigns.
Attended by almost all the leaders of liberation movements (Ambazonia, SCNC, SCAPO, Consortium, AGC, SCYL, MoRISC, etc.), the conclave set up a Secretariat for the umbrella organization and elected Wilfred Tassang to the position of Secretary General. The remaining officials of the Secretariat are Ntumfoyn Boh Herbert in the role of Spokesperson; Barrister Nalowa Bih in the role of Administrative Secretary; Barrister Eyambe Elias as Southern Cameroons First Ambassador to the African Union; Barrister Ayuk Alexander Ashu in the role of Financial Secretary a. Mrs. Caleche Bongo in the role
of Support and Relief Secretary.
The conclave all elected a Leadership Council to serve as the supervisory authority of the SCACUF Secretariat. Members of the Leadership Council include HRH Barrister Fon Fongum Gorji Dinka (Ambazonia); Mola Njoh Litumbe; Nfor Ngala Nfor (SCNC); Agustine Ndangarn (SCAPO); Elvis Kometa (MoRISC); Dr. Lucas Cho Ayaba (AGC); Dr. Ebenezar Akwanga (SCYL); Mr. Frederick Ndeh Nifang (Consortium); Prof. Carlson Anyangwe (Advisor); Mr. Elias Fangbeng (Honorary Member), and Mr. Milan Atem (Honorary Member);
Southern Cameroonian leaders reiterated their commitment to pursue the restoration of the independence of Southern Cameroon through all legal and non-violent means, noting that the basic rights of a state most frequently stressed in International Law are those of independence and equality of states; of territorial jurisdiction; and of self-defense or self-preservation. The United Front, however, reminded the international community, notably the African Union and the United Nations of the crimes against humanity and acts of genocide being perpetrated against Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia citizens by La Republique du Cameroun and called on these organizations to join them in insisting for the immediate and unconditional release of all Southern Cameroonians/Ambazonians abducted, deported to Yaounde and facing trial on trumped up charges before kangaroo courts of the colonizer.
The leaders reminded the African Union and the United Nations of their unanswered pleas to these institutions:
To uphold the independence of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia by ensuring the full implementation of United Nations Resolution 1608 of 21 April 1961;

To reaffirm the right of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia to put an end to any union La Republique du Cameroun claims has existed between their two countries in keeping with Principles VII and VIII of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1541 of 15 December 1960;

To deploy United Nations Peacekeepers in Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia to end crimes against humanity and acts bordering on the type that were perpetrated during the Rwanda genocide; .

 To fully implement Article 20(3) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights which calls on all African countries, signatories to the Charter, to lend every assistance to colonized peoples;

 To order the colonial government of La Republique du Cameroun to withdraw its colonial administrators and army of occupation deployed across Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia in violation of Article 4(b) of the African Union Constitutive Act and against UN resolutions against colonization and external domination of other people;

To ensure that colonial La Republique du Cameroun honors its international treaty commitments to withdraw its troops to its boundaries as obtained at independence; To order the colonial regime of La Republique du Cameroun to end its ongoing reign of fear and blind repression against the sovereign people of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia, including ending the unjustified Internet blackout slammed against them for soon nearly three months;

To decry the political persecution of Southern Cameroonians/Ambazonians, including notably the political witch hunt targeting the outspoken Member of Parliament, Honorable Joseph Wirba.

Acknowledging, with deep gratitude, the critical role of women and youth in our liberation struggle and committed to expanding and streamlining youth and women in leadership of the struggle, the Conclave announced the organization in May 2017 of a Worldwide Convention of Southern Cameroonian/Ambazonian Youth and Women to elect their leaders and representatives who will complete the Leadership Council.

The United Front reiterated, for the attention of Southern Cameroonians/Ambazonians in the homeland, that the ongoing ghost town campaigns (held every Monday); the ongoing strikes by lawyers and teachers; as well as the ongoing closure of courts and schools will continue until independence. The closure of courts and schools and the observance of ghost town campaigns all across Southern Cameroons will not be lifted until the independence of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia is restored. To this effect, Southern Cameroonians/Ambazonians are invited to ignore all attempts by the colonial regime of Yaounde to offer bribes and make false promises in an attempt to stop the civil disobedience or to force them to take the bait of providing the consent it needs to continue perpetrating the crime of recolonization of our homeland.
 
The conclave reaffirmed the proscription of the CPDM all across Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia and reminded the international community that the ruling party of La Republique du Cameroun is a terrorist, human trafficking and money laundering organization.

In addition, and following the revision and adoption of the Roadmap to Independence first published last December by MoRISC (Movement for the Restoration of the Independence of Southern Cameroons), the Lagos Conclave invited Southern Cameroonians/Ambazonians living in the United States of America to massively attend the protest rallies convened before the offices of the African Union Commission in Washington, DC, on 21 April 2017; as well as the protest marches to be held outside the head offices of the World Bank and the IMF as well as in front of the White House on 22 April 2017.

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Rita Akana

10.Apr.2017

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An inter ministerial Adhoc Commission has been created by the Ministry of public service and Administrative Reforms to recruit Jurists of the Common law extraction.

These recruits will be trained at the Advanced School of Administration and Magistracy ENAM before their transfer to the different courts of Appeal on the North West and South West regions.
 
A President, two deputies and a Secretary General are amongst the eight members who make up the commission. Though the Ministry could not give the names of these members.


The move comes a week after the Minister of Justice, Laurent Esso announced measures taken by the Head of state Paul Biya to solve the issues raised by striking Common law lawyers.

Courts in the Common law jurisdictions remain grounded following a protracted strike which has rocked the North West and South West regions for six months.
Peter
Courts in these regions remain francophonised with French judges who have no mastery of the Anglo Saxon judicial system
Recruitment of Jurists for Courts in the Anglophone regions underway.

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Rita Akana

08.Apr.2017

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The United States on Friday fired dozens of cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase from which it said a deadly chemical weapons attack was launched this week, an escalation of the U.S. military role in Syria that immediately raised tension with Russia.

Just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he had ordered the attack, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said the strike had seriously damaged ties between Washington and Moscow.

Two U.S. warships fired 59 cruise missiles from the eastern Mediterranean Sea at the Syrian airbase controlled by the forces of President Bashar al-Assad in response to a poison gas attack in a rebel-held area on Tuesday, U.S. officials said.

Putin, a staunch ally of Assad, regarded the U.S. action as "aggression against a sovereign nation" on a "made-up pretext" and a cynical attempt to distract the world from civilian deaths in Iraq, his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, was cited as saying by agencies.

It was the toughest direct U.S. action yet in Syria's six-year-old civil war and leaves Trump facing his biggest foreign policy crisis since his Jan. 20 inauguration, raising the risk of confrontation with Russia and Iran, Assad's two main military backers.

U.S. officials said they informed Russian forces ahead of the missile attacks and that they took pains to avoid hitting Russian troops at the base, saying there were no strikes on sections of the base where Russians were present. But they said the administration did not seek Moscow's approval.

"Years of previous attempts at changing Assad’s behavior have all failed and failed very dramatically," Trump said as he announced the attack from his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, where he was meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Trump ordered the strikes a day after he blamed Assad for this week's chemical attack, which killed at least 70 people, many of them children, in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun. The Syrian government has denied it was behind the attack.

The Tomahawk missiles were launched from the USS Porter and USS Ross around 0040 GMT on Friday, striking multiple targets - including the airstrip, aircraft and fuel stations - on the Shayrat Air Base, which the Pentagon says was used to store chemical weapons.

The attack was a "one-off," a U.S. defense official told Reuters, meaning it was expected to be a single strike with no current plans for escalation.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the strike did not mean the wider U.S. policy on Syria had changed.

"This clearly indicates the president is willing to take decisive action when called for," he told reporters. "I would not in any way attempt to extrapolate that to a change in our policy or our posture relative to our military activities in Syria today. There has been no change in that status."

The attacks spurred a flight to safety in global financial markets, sending yields on safe-haven U.S. Treasury securities to their lowest since November. Stocks weakened in Asia and U.S. equity index futures slid, indicating Wall Street would open lower on Friday. Prices for oil and gold both rose, and the dollar slipped against the Japanese yen.

ARMY SAYS SIX KILLED

The Syrian army said six people were killed in the attack which led to big material losses. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least four Syrian soldiers, including a senior officer, were killed in the strikes, which almost completely destroyed the base.

"Initial indications are that this strike has severely damaged or destroyed Syrian aircraft and support infrastructure and equipment at Shayrat Airfield, reducing the Syrian government's ability to deliver chemical weapons," said Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis.

Syrian state TV said that "American aggression" had targeted the base with "a number of missiles" and cited a Syrian military source as saying the strike had "led to losses".

Trump sought to cast the attack, which took place as he and Xi were wrapping up a dinner of Dover sole and dry-aged New York strip steak, as an effort to deter Syria from using chemical weapons in the future.

"Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians," he said later. "Tonight I ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in Syria from where the chemical attack was launched.

"It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons," Trump added.

Iran, which also backs Assad, denounced the attack.

"Iran ... condemns use of chemical weapons ... but at the same time believes it is dangerous, destructive and violation of international laws to use it as an excuse to take unilateral actions," Students News Agency ISNA quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi as saying.

Israel welcomed the move.

"In both word and action, President Trump sent a strong and clear message today that the use and spread of chemical weapons will not be tolerated," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement.

U.S. lawmakers had a mixed reaction, with some criticizing Trump's decision to use force without getting their approval.

"Congress will work with the president, but his failure to seek congressional approval is unlawful,” said Senator Tim Kaine, the 2016 Democratic vice presidential candidate.

The U.N. Security Council was expected to hold closed-door consultations on Friday about the U.S. strike on Syria following a request by Bolivia, an elected member of the council, a senior Security Council diplomat said.

 

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Reuters

07.Apr.2017

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The Network of Democratic Organizations of the Cameroonian Diaspora commonly known in its French acronym as the CODE is not pleased with President Paul Biya’s continuous stay abroad after his official trip to Italy and the Vatican.

In a statement, “Alert 104” published on Tuesday April 4, 2017, the group is preparing to stage a showdown at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva, Switzerland were the Cameroonian  leader lives an extravagant lifestyle, lavishing tax payers effort with impunity. 

The President of the CODE, Brice Nintcheu in the document  confirms that the 84 year old dictator used the state visit to Italy as a pretext to go on his usual unannounced stay abroad leaving pressing problems at home. The movement believes that Biya who is sweating under the weight of domestic preoccupations such as the  Anglophone crisis, the embarrassment of the Indomitable Lions and the non payment of Secondary school teachers in the francophone zone appears to be fleeing from his responsibilities.

The CODE therefore considers Biya’s stay abroad “…not only untimely and unnecessary but also cost effective” and has given him 7days to return and take care of issues he has been mandated by the people to do for 7years. The Management of the Intercontinental Hotel where he resides has also been petitioned to send him and his delegation away or be ready face the “music”  for complicity in ruining a rich country like Cameroon.

This is not the first time the CODE is calling Biya to order over his long stay abroad. In October 2016, Emmanuel Kemta the body’s Operation Manager  had staged a dramatic scene, hurling insults on the Head of state for abandoning his duties, a move which embarrassed hundreds of clients at the hotel.

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Rita Akana

04.Apr.2017

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