Politics
The President of the Republic of Cameroon did not attend the inauguration ceremony of Denis Sassou Nguesso.He sent his chief of staff , Martin Belinga Eboutou to represent him.
He made the announcement public through a statement signed by the Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh and read yesterday Friday, April 15, 2016 on CRTV.
Last Sunday, Congolese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation , Jean -Marie Gakosso , had come personally and received in audience by the PM to hand Paul Biya's invitation.He specifically said that Congolese President attached great importance to the presence of the president of Cameroon . "This is why President Sassou think if he has only three guests ,then his brother and friend Paul Biya should be among those three to witness his inauguration " according to the envoy .
Denis Sassou-Nguesso who has been in power for 26 years, was re-elected by over 60 percent of the vote for a disputed third term after the first round of elections on March 20.
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West Africa has been on high alert following recent terror attacks on hotels in Mali, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. And now in Ghana, a leaked security document says Ghana and Togo are the next targets of the al-Qaida affiliate that claimed responsibility for the previous attacks. Ghanaian President John Mahama has told the nation not to panic.
The leaked memo says the threat of a terror attack in Ghana is “real,” citing intelligence from the National Security Council Secretariat. It is addressed to Ghana’s immigration service.
The document calls for stronger border surveillance, including “thorough profiling” of people from Mali, Niger and Libya.
The memo was shared on social media and picked up by local press.
President Mahama sought to reassure the nation on state-run radio Thursday.
“We have trained our own special forces. Currently a significant number of them [are] on standby. We are preparing for any such eventually but we need the alertness of the public," said Mahama.
Ghana's government put the nation on high alert in March after al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) attacked a beach resort outside Abidjan, killing 19 people.
The leaked document says information from Ivory Coast, including confessions obtained from the mastermind of the attack there, indicates that the attackers entered that country in a 4x4 vehicle registered in Niger. The memo says the attackers concealed their explosives and weapons in the spare tire compartment.
Mahama said the leak was unfortunate.
"They didn’t need to put the intel in there. You just to send a directive asking for alertness and asking them to search more thoroughly vehicles and all that. Every country in West Africa is at risk and we are at risk not only from external forces but even from internal forces. We have evidence of radicalization of our own citizens who have gone out to join some of these terrorist groups," he said.
The head of the West African Center for Counter Terrorism in Accra, Mutharu Muqthar Mumuni, says panic must be avoided.
“We need to ensure vigilance and reporting of suspicious activities; however, we’ve got to be very careful in order not to condone acts that have the proclivity to lead to gross basic human rights violations relating to lynching of innocent people," said Mumuni.
The AQIM attacks in Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast marked an alarming expansion for the group whose operations until then had been confined to North Africa and parts of the Sahel region.
VOA
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Representative Frederica Wilson of Florida is easy to spot in a crowd. Dressed all in red from her cowboy hat to her boots, she stood on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol on Thursday to mark the somber two-year anniversary of the abduction of more than 200 girls from the northern Nigerian village of Chibok by the militant group Boko Haram.
Wilson leads a weekly gathering of members of Congress to call for the release of the girls. The attending lawmakers dress in red, too, just as demonstrators in Nigeria do.
The Chibok girls represent hundreds or thousands of girls and women who have been kidnapped and raped by Boko Haram, and hundreds of men and boys who have been hurt or killed, Wilson said Thursday. More than 2.6 million people have been displaced by the group's violence.
Wilson said she has visited Nigeria, and heard shocking firsthand accounts of the group's unspeakable atrocities, including beheadings. She and other members of Congress strongly condemned the fact that Boko Haram is forcing girls as young as eight years old to act as suicide bombers in terrorist attacks.
Wilson was joined on the Capitol steps by Democratic minority leader Nancy Pelosi, a number of other lawmakers and some Nigerian girls who escaped from Boko Haram and now have safe haven in the United States.
Bipartisan fight
Republican Representative Chris Smith made clear that Congress' efforts to keep the issue alive is a bipartisan one. Smith pointed out that Boko Haram wages war on girls and women, often singling out Christians, but that most of its victims are fellow Muslims.
Democratic Representative Barbara Lee agreed that the terrible ordeal of the Chibok girls is a symbol of a much broader war on women by Boko Haram, saying that what their fighters are doing amounts to modern-day slavery. Some terrorism experts believe that the Chibok girls, and other Nigerian girls kidnapped later, are alive and that they are being held as a potentially valuable ransom tool.
A video that has emerged recently shows some 15 girls, alleged to be Chibok girls, dressed in black.
Terrorism expert Malcolm Nance told VOA that he believes the video is legitimate, and he believes Boko Haram is trying to extort money from the Nigerian government. He also said the girls may be forced to cook, clean and bear children for Boko Haram fighters.
Democratic Representative Sheila Jackson Lee is calling for Congress to allocate funds for the families of victims who were abducted, and also vowed to keep advocating for the girls’ release.
Wilson is ready to "hop on a plane" at a moment's notice to welcome the Chibok girls upon their release, and promised to keep pushing for it until it happens.
VOA
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A video showing 15 of the 219 schoolgirls held by the jihadist group Boko Haram has added pressure on the Nigerian government to secure their release, after activists accused authorities of mishandling the case in the two years since their mass kidnap.
Weeping parents identified the girls captured by Boko Haram fighters, who want to establish an Islamist state in northeast Nigeria and have waged a seven-year campaign of violence, killing thousands of people and displacing two million.
President Muhammadu Buhari, elected a year ago on a promise to end endemic graft and crush the group, said in December the government could talk to Boko Haram if credible representatives emerged.
In January he said the government was launching a new investigation into the kidnapping, vowing to return the girls captured at a school in the town of Chibok while taking exams. But little has emerged since then.
In the video, apparently taken in December and given to government officials by Boko Haram as proof of life for the negotiations, a person asks the 15 girls to say their names as they stand quietly in two rows, wearing headscarves.
"I saw all the girls and they are Chibok girls," Esther Yakubu, a parent of one of the abducted girls who saw the video broadcast by CNN said. "I recognise some of them because we are in the same area with them."
Yakubu was marching with some 30 other parents and activists to the presidential villa in the capital Abuja to demand the government do more to return the girls. Police stopped them at the road leading to the villa.
Witnesses to the kidnapping, Nigerian military and security officials, Western diplomats and counter-terrorism experts blame a series of failings by politicians and the military in dealing with the militants, including a lack of co-ordination.
Information Minister Lai Mohammed told CNN the government was still reviewing the video. When asked about efforts to get the girls released he only said: "There are ongoing talks."
A top government official who declined to be named, said an official reaction would only be made once the military had established the video's authenticity.
Buhari said in a statement he hoped the girls would be "rescued", suggesting the army will try to liberate them.
"Thousands of persons, mostly women and children, who were kidnapped by Boko Haram, have already been rescued and reunited with their families," he said, without mentioning the video.
Buhari said he "continues to believe that with the total commitment of the Federal Government, Nigerian Armed Forces and security agencies...the girls will be eventually rescued."
INFORMATION "LOST"
Activists said Buhari's government is not doing enough, urging the state to use the video for clues to find the girls and speak to girls who had managed to flee Boko Haram captivity.
"The incredible wealth of information that victims of terrorists can offer our security forces is being lost in the current undefined and ineffective approach," Aisha Yesufu of the #BringBackOurGirls group said in a statement.
Buhari has blamed his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan who was slow to react to the abduction.
Under Buhari's command, Nigerian troops backed up by Chad, Niger and Cameroon have recaptured most of territory held by Boko Haram, which pledged allegiance to Islamic State last year.
However, Boko Haram has no unified leadership which makes it difficult for the government to find someone to negotiate with, analysts say.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau appeared in a video circulated last month in which he seemed to suggest he was ailing and Boko Haram was losing its effectiveness. But another video emerged last week saying there would be no surrender.
Fulan Nasrullah, a security analyst, said there was little chance of a breakthrough in the talks between the government and the militants after the failure of previous efforts.
"The government is angry about the leak, as are the insurgents," he said. "The insurgents are not currently willing to negotiate for the girls following the government's alleged bad faith in previous negotiations," he said. (Additional reporting by Felix Onuoha, Writing by Ulf Laessing; Editing by James Macharia and Dominic Evans)
Reuters
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The Councils of National Orders is meeting in Yaounde to examine over 7.000 files for the eligibility for the award of medals and other distinctions during the National Day Celebrations on 20th May 2016.
The Grand Chancellor of the National Orders, Senator Peter Mafany Musonge is chairing the three-day session.
He called on council members to show proof of objectivity, equity and balance in trades and gender so that only the most meritorious individuals are awarded.
According to the council members, the Head of State, H.E. Paul Biya, Grand Master of the National Orders has allotted 3350 medals to be awarded on the D-day.
The medals include Silver after ten years of work, Vermeil after 15 years and Gold after 25 years of service.
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The Foreign Affairs Ministers of Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria had separate audience with the Prime Minister and Head of Government Philemon Yang this Tuesday 12th April 2016
During the separate audience, each of them handed a sealed message from their President to President Paul Biya.
The Equato - Guinean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Co-operation, Agapito Mba Mokuy who was the first to be received handed his sealed letter from his President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
Shortly after, he discussed issues of cooperation and fraternity between the two countries.
He also briefed reporters on his country’s mood before elections few days from now, saying everything is going on smoothly and that his government has urged its Nationals to be promoters of peace as they actively participate in the voting process. He was accompanied by his country’s Ambassador and other senior staff at the embassy.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs Khadidja Boukar Ibrahim came after with a sealed letter from his President Muhammadu Buhari.
After a close to 15 minutes talks with the Prime Minister he later on told reporters that the relations between Cameroon and Nigeria is progressing positively.
Common security issues and the plight of Nigerian refugees were also part of their discussions.
He was accompanied to the Prime Minister’s Office by the Nigerian High Commissioner to Cameroon Hadidja Moustapha.
CRTV
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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.
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.# 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.
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