Politics
ISIL has announced a new leader for the insurgent group, Boko Haram. ISIL referred to Abu Musab al-Barnawi--who was previously spokesman for Boko Haram-- as the new leader, replacing Abubakar Shekau. Al-Barnawi was featured in the latest issue of an ISIL magazine.
Boko Haram, which has lost most of the territory it controlled 18 months ago, is fighting to overthrow Nigeria's government.
Its seven-year insurgency has left 20,000 people dead, mainly in the country's north-east.
In the interview in IS's weekly Arabic magazine al-Naba, Mr Barnawi said his group "remained a force to be reckoned with" and said it had been drawing new recruits.
He described the group's battle against West African states as a war fought by Muslims against "apostates" and "crusaders".
Al-Barnawi was Boko Haram's spokesperson until he and other members defected to form the Vanguard for the Protection of Muslims in Black Lands (Ansaru) group in 2013. The splinter operates in north-eastern Nigeria and, unlike Boko Haram, does not attack Muslim civilians and does not force women and children to carry out suicide bombing missions.
"Al-Barnawi has been the spokesman of Ansaru after the 2012-2013 split. He personally distanced himself from the killing of Muslim civilians by Boko Haram in 2012," David Otto, CEO of global security provider TGS Intelligence Consultants, told IBTimes UK. "The split was seen as a leadership disagreement on soft targets that killed Muslims , women and children."
Although Ansaru is a splinter of Boko Haram, Otto said that the two groups reintegrated in the Nigerian-Cameroon border region, where they exchange resources and militants "towards a common goal."
IBTimes
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Nigerian troops have killed five Islamists who were planning an attack in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
During the incident on Monday, the troops managed to confiscate a cache of arms and ammunition, including two AK-47 rifles and a machine gun.
The troops successfully thwarted the plans on the insurgent group Boko Haram.
Over 2 million people have been displaced and thousands have been killed during the groups seven year insurgency, which has seen Boko Haram launch cross-border attacks.
Boko Haram seeks to establish an Islamic state adhering to strict Sharia law in Africa’s biggest economy.
Recently, the European Union signed a 50 million Euro agreement in support of a multi national task force that is fighting the militants.
The multi-national joint task force is drawn up by Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Benin.
AFP
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A group of Pentecostal pastors in Cameroon have "pressured" for an extension of the 34-year-rule by Cameroon's president, Paul Biya, according to a signed letter officially published Tuesday in the state-run newspaper, Cameroon Tribune.
Most of the names endorsing the 83-year-old leader appear to be from the French-speaking regions in the West African nation. However, critics have been quick to rubbish the move, arguing that a marriage between religion and politics ruins governance, democratic accountability and the rule of law.
"In Botswana, the church was instrumental in speeding up democratic processes. They assisted in holding leaders accountable and pushing forth good governance policies. In Cameroon, it is the opposite. Religion and politics marry, and pastors and priests bless their union on the altar," Fai Pontius says.
"I will never go to church again. It is unacceptable," Moh Cletus tells me on Facebook.
But others claimed pastors and priests have the right to participate in politics because they are citizens. "Give to Biya what belongs to Biya and to God what belongs to God," a Facebook user told me on grounds of anonymity.
In 2013, Cameroon's President Paul Biya ordered the closure of nearly 100 Christian churches in key cities, citing criminal practices organized by Pentecostal pastors that threaten the security of the state. Biya used the military to permanently shut down all Pentecostal church denominations in the nation's capital that were not registered.
Security analysts dismissed Biya's actions as a "ploy" to seal up lips that speak against the regime in churches. More than 500 Pentecostal churches operate in Cameroon, but fewer than 50 are legal, according to state reports.
In 2018, Biya would be running for another term in office despite growing discontent about his heavy-handed rule of his citizens.
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The Minister of Higher Education, Jacques Fame Ndongo signed communiqué No. 16.000/MINESUP/CAB/nn on July 26, 2016 explaining Biya’s regime’s “Plan Special Jeunes”. China’s Sichuan Telecom Construction Engineering Co. Ltd has been contracted to supply 500,000 pieces of mini computers to university students. This will gulp down 75 Billion Francs of borrowed money from China’s EXIM Bank.
PAP, amongst other issues, pick the following:
• PAP notes that the government failed to inform the Cameroonian people of the interest rates of this loan that the country shall incur within this ten year period. We ask that such figures be made known immediately;
Muchas computers are vital for research and other academic course work, PAP believe that, this does not beat urgent priority projects on Cameroon’s development totem pole such as fighting the scourge of unemployment, provision of potable drinking water to every household, mechanise agricultural practices, putting meaning to the words, ‘free primary education’ etc. Let us randomly consider the issue of combating unemployment.
75 Billions can do a lot! Go also, to our state budget line by line and cut back on fuel, so-called out-station allowances and other reckless spending such as entertainment. Put all of these together and create factories across the country that would finish our raw materials … create a name for the country as a manufacturing hub in the region.
And by the way, in case this embarrassment of a regime didn’t know, 75 Billions could provide six thousand jobs to youths with a monthly salary of 100,000 Frs for the next ten years.
• The bidding process to pick Sichuan Telecom Construction Engineering Co. Ltd is mired in mystery and constitutes a very bad deal for Cameroon.
At the press conference of Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo, he brandished a sample of the said computers. This shows that what the government intends to supply are only mini laptop computers. The Intelligence Unit of PAP National Strategic Team contacted seven major laptop manufacturers in China’s leading manufacturing city of Shenzhen namely Shenzhen Yu Chuang Xing Ye Technology Co., Ltd; Shenzhen Yongjing Digital Limited Company; Shenzhen Sanwo Digital Technology Co., Ltd; Shenzhen Yyhong Technology Co., Limited; Shenzhen Sayirin Technology Co., Limited; Shenzhen Hisent Science & Technology Co., Ltd and Shenzhen BOCOOR Technology Com Ltd and requested for Pro forma Invoices (PI) for the highest grade quality of 500,000 mini laptop computers with each having a warranty of 2 years. Lo and behold, the prices ranged from 52 dollars (29,350 Frs) to 79 dollars (46,373 Frs) per piece [Current exchange rate is [1 USD = 587 XAF].
A mean of the best prices these factories accept to provide is 65.5 dollars (38,448.5 Frs). Now, if government is buying 500,000 mini laptop computers for a whopping 150,000 Frs per piece, it is either a very bad deal or some ministers have added mouth-watery commissions – four times greater than the actual cost – a scenario capable of ‘under-developing’ the Cameroonian people.
• It is a bait president Biya is using to impress upon the youths as elections draw to a close.
Biya’s so-called “Special Plan for the Youths” is a mockery to the young people of Cameroon. PAP believes that it is the youths who ought to be the actual commanders of their destiny and not some octogenarian who is tired, unproductive and lazy!
The youths must remember that as per the research carried out by the School of Gerontology, Southern California University in 2011, cognitive ability depreciates with age. That explains why, in 1981, the IMF reported Cameroon’s economic growth rate stood at some 12.25%. The minds presiding over the country at the time were young, vibrant and energetic.
Joseph Owona became director of the International Relations Institute of Cameroon (IRIC) in 1976, "when he was all of thirty-one years old" (Martin Mayer, The Diplomats, p. 162); Bello Bouba Maigari became Paul Biya’s Prime Minister in 1982 at 35; Dorothy Njeuma, who until a few years ago was still the Rector of the University of Yaounde (I) became Vice Minister of Education in 1975 when she was 32 years old; Nzo Ekangaki was 28 years old when he became Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1962, and 38 when he was elected Secretary General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU); Paul Bamela Engo, currently a judge at the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea, was 33 years old when he became a Minister Counselor at the Cameroon Embassy in Bonn, Germany in 1964 and 38 when he was elevated to the rank of a Minister Plenipotentiary in 1969, Kamdem Niyim became Minister of Health in 1964 at the age of 23, etc., etc.
Fast forward to 2004 when our economic growth rate plummeted to 4.2%. Those governing? Tired, lazy, unproductive gerontocracy!
These old men cannot pretend to be designing a future for us they won’t live to see.
And as the PAP Chieftain, Ayah Paul Abine always puts it to the youths, "the red sea may not part in our days. We need a bridge to cross to the other side ... that bridge is PAP"
PAP strongly advise the youths to guard against such game of hoodwink by the Biya regime at the wake of elections.
PAP Secretary General
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The Head of State of Cameroon,President Paul Biya makes a gesture to boost digital communication in the entire nation by offering free laptops to students.
The beneficiaries are students enrolled in any institution based in Cameroon, whether private or public. The conditions of entitlement have not yet been made public.
The agreement will be signed on Wednesday, July 27, 2016 in Yaounde, between Jacques Fame Ndongo, Minister of Higher Education representating Paul Biya, and one of the delegates of the Chinese company whose identity is yet to be revealed.
More than 500 000 students will benefit from the donations from the Cameroonian "strongman". Total cost of production will be roughly Cfa 75 billion FCFA.
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This month, the African Union launched a new passport that would enable all Africans to travel across all countries in the "dark continent" as some dubious scholars had earlier described. And after following debates clouding the "laudable move," as I would describe, from every logical and empirical standpoint, African should be proud about this and unite around it. I will explain.
The AU is modeled on the EU, a relatively successful regional economic bloc. Its change of name from OAU came shortly after former Libyan leader and African statesman, Muammar Gaddafi, initiated a resolution in Sirte, Libya, that called for the establishment of AU, reinforce Africa's peace and security strategies, create African Economic Communities (AECs), and speed up the cancellation of Africa's debts.
Basically, this is one of the best structural governance approaches. It suffices that Africa, irrespective of its bad leaders, regroup into smaller Regional Economic Communities (RECs) based on linguistic, cultural and geography ties; manage trade, political and security issues at a regional level first; and later on merge those pillars to form a "United States of Africa" by 2034. Let me digress a little here. Cameroon dubiously sets its growth and emergence in 2035, probably because Africa would have seen significant progress by 2035. That will be for another write-up anyway.
So far, the progress across Africa has been very impressive with regional pillars like the Southern African Development Community (SADC) being the most successful among the eight pillars that include Cameroon's Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). CEMAC is only a subgroup of ECCAS. Other pillars like Nigeria's ECOWAS already rolled out passports for its regional member states. ECCAS did same. Africa is building up stronger and faster than no one ever predicted or could explain.
In fact, IMF and ADB note that sub-Saharan Africa is the fastest-growing region in the world, with the Ivory Coast being "Africa's fastest growing economy," citing to the IMF's latest World Economic Outlook. Take a look at the five biggest emerging economies in the world, one -- South Africa, is in Africa. In terms of population, Africa has over a billion with most of them being youths. Business opportunities are flooding the continent as ICT opportunities expand into the "darker regions." Every country in the world sees Africa as a hotbed of trade relations.
Neoclassical realist, Fareed Zakaria, described a rare situation about Africa in his book "The Post-American World." He notes that on one hand there is a robust economy, but on the other, the political leaders are not at all impressive. In summary, marriage between bad leadership and a robust economy beats imagination. And with the new crop of thinkers, scholars, activists, and leaders across the continent, any leader sitting in the West would predict that a revenge against the West could be imminent if Africa quickly gains uncontrolled economic power.
The battle for Benghazi was not because Gaddaffi ignited chaos, as the Western media reported. It was simply because the drive and vision for Africa by Mr. Gaddaffi was a "threat" to Western interests, particularly France. France has reportedly wrecked havoc across the continent from North to West and Center. Where France passes, underdevelopment follows.
And with fearless leaders like Robert Mugabe, Yoweri Museveni, Paul Kagame, Omar Bashir, etc., it is rational to think that no Western leader would want them around their paths. To deal away with them here is the Western strategy: demonize and vilify them with Western media propaganda; sabotage their visits; slap sanctions on their economies so that citizens feel the pinch and rally against them; sponsor Civil Society Organizations to hit hard on them irrationally; use military intervention; use the ICC.
Let me pick on the ICC, a contemporary sword of Damocles. At now, 122 countries have signed and ratified the ICC’s Rome Statute, the ICC notes. "The United States, China, Japan, India, Pakistan, Israel, and Turkey have not ratified it and thus are not under the jurisdiction of the court." Around one-third of its member states are in Africa. Interestingly, there are more than 8000 case files lying at the ICC, that have been either referred to the ICC by member states themselves or have been reported by pressure groups. But all the indicted alleged criminals are from Africa. Is that not selective justice at its peak?
Not only that, but they indict sit-in heads of state, and even go as far as pressuring other countries to arrest them when they come visiting. Has Tony Blair ever been indicted, despite evidence of war crimes in Iraq as revealed by the Chilcott report? No, he hasn't. So do you mean all devilish leaders are found only in Africa? I disagree.
It has always been my take that gone are those days we should be settling scores by arresting and indicting our leaders. We cannot have a burning house and we go around chasing rats. It is simple, did Nelson Mandela arrest all those Whites who were responsible for the Apartheid blunders in his country? No, he quickly rolled out peace and reconciliation. So why can't the West do same for Africa? Allow citizens to hold their leaders accountable and mind your business. Citizens are intelligent enough and can make rational decisions. The pressure our despotic leaders are now facing is hotter than even arrest. Many of them are chiseling their uncouth policies owing to citizens' demands.
And while the U.S. -- a global hegemon keeps hawking over Africa, I strongly suggest that Africans should be wise enough to see progress in their continent, and not allow Western-led interventions that will roll back their countries decades behind. Of what use is Libya today? See how North Africa has been shredded. It would take at least 50 more years for Libya to develop. The best U.S. leader for Africa would be that leader who will Mind His Business.
So far, Donald Trump thinks so. That leader who would steer clear of Africa in some way unlike Hillary Clinton who already has dirty footprints on the continent. That leader who would give Africa a chance to grow while breathing fresh air and not tear gas and bomb explosives. And if Donald Trump sends back the illegal Africans from the U.S., it would be a great thing. We need more minds to develop our continent. Ghana is what it is today because the illegal immigrants sent back from Nigeria during "Ghana Must Go," in the 1980s helped their regimes to think inclusively and look inwards.
Nonetheless, African leaders should not take advantage of the selective justice by the ICC to demand a pull out from the ICC, which I support if things remain the same. African leaders must be tried in Africa and by African courts and by Africans. If it happens in Africa, it should be debated in Africa. Our leaders must not walk away with impunity. They must be held accountable at all times by their own citizens. If Africa seeks to meet up with the six growth stages, as envisaged by the Sirte Declaration, we must unite and not disunite.
NB: For a quick look, here are the growth stages by the AU:
1. (to be completed in 1999) Creation of regional blocs in regions where such do not yet exist
2. (to be completed in 2007) Strengthening of intra-REC integration and inter-REC harmonisation
3. (to be completed in 2017) Establishing of a free trade area and customs union in each regional bloc
4. (to be completed in 2019) Establishing of a continent-wide customs union (and thus also a free trade area)
5. (to be completed in 2023) Establishing of a continent-wide African Common Market (ACM)
6. (to be completed in 2028) Establishing of a continent-wide economic and monetary union (and thus also a currency union) and Parliament
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Subcategories
Biya Article Count: 73
# Paul Biya and his regime
Explore the political landscape of Cameroon under the rule of Paul Biya, the longest-serving president in Africa who has been in power since 1982. Our Paul Biya and his regime section examines the policies, actions, and controversies of his government, as well as the opposition movements, civil society groups, and international actors that challenge or support his leadership. You'll also find profiles, interviews, and opinions on the key figures and events that shape the political dynamics of Cameroon.
Southern Cameroons Article Count: 549
.# Southern Cameroons, Ambazonia
Learn more about the history, culture, and politics of Ambazonia, the Anglophone regions of Cameroon that have been seeking self-determination and independence from the Francophone-dominated central government. Our Southern Cameroons section covers the ongoing conflict, the humanitarian crisis, the human rights violations, and the peace efforts in the region. You'll also find stories that highlight the rich and diverse heritage, traditions, and aspirations of the Southern Cameroonian people.
Editorial Article Count: 885
# Opinion
Get insights and perspectives on the issues that matter to Cameroon and the world with our opinion section. We feature opinions from our editors, columnists, and guest writers, who share their views and analysis on various topics, such as politics, economy, culture, and society. Our opinion section also welcomes contributions from our readers, who can submit their own opinions and comments. Join the conversation and express your opinions with our opinion section.
