Politics
Four years after their last meeting in Yaoundé (May 2012), President Paul Biya and Vincent Bolloré, Chairman and CEO of the Bolloré group have met again on Wednesday in the Cameroonian capital. At the end of the audience granted him by the Cameroonian dictator on Wednesday, April 6, 2016, the French investor made public a series of announcements which signaled that our nation has completely been taken over by the French.The CEO of the Bolloré Group revealed that he took stock of investments by his group in Cameroon.
He also hinted his group intends to pursue new projects in the fields of transport and logistics, especially regarding the Kribi port industrial complex, railways, energy and culture. For the new port, Vincent Bolloré told the press that his group will be signing shortly a concession contract with the Cameroon government which will lead to the management of the container terminal at the port of Kribi.
Regarding the railway, the company "Cameroon Railways (CAMRAIL)", a subsidiary of Bolloré Africa Logistics, the French businessman promised to bring the journey time between Yaoundé and Douala -the two main cities of the country to less than three hours. Culturally, the French investor also promised to open in June, a movie theater in Yaounde, under the Vivendi-Canal + activities. In the renewable energy sector, Vincent Bolloré, revealed he plans an extension of the solar panel system inside the country, experienced with real success at the University of Yaounde I.
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- Chi Prudence Asong
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The Senate has adopted two separate bills aimed at facilitating and regulating trade activities. The bills were approved yesterday April 4, 2016 in Yaounde during a plenary sitting of the Senate chaired by its president Marcel Niat Njifenji. The first bill to authorize the President of the Republic to ratify the Agreement on Trade facilitation concluded on December 7, 2013 in Bali, Indonesia during the 9th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). It was adopted by the House after the reading of the report of the Foreign Affairs Committee that studied the bill.
A Senate statement revealed the bill will ease border procedures of member States so as to facilitate trade operations at exportation and importation. The ratification of the bill will enhance the smooth movement of goods between Cameroon and foreign countries and thus boost the economy. Members of the Senate also adopted the bill regulating external trade in Cameroon during yesterday’s plenary attended by the Ministers of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atagana, Louis Paul Motaze of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development and Grégoire Owona sitting in for the Vice Prime Minister, Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Relations with the Parliament. The second bill adopted seek to spur economic growth by adopting the principle of freedom to import or export subject to some restrictions.
The explanatory statement also indicated that the bill will protect domestic production by combating unfair trade practices such as dumping. Trade Minister, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana provided further details to concerns of Senators regarding the two bills. Responding to the difficulties posed by illicit goods, the Minister said measures have been put in place to check contraband goods while the importation of medical and environmental goods will be liable to authorization and controls. He also revealed that a bill is in the making to check the importation of used cars.
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- Cameroon Tribune
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World military spending totalled almost $1.7 trillion in 2015, an increase of one percent in real terms from the previous year, according to new figures released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The data has been released to coincide with the start of the Stockholm forum on Security and Development. The 2015 increase is the first in military spending since 2011 and reflects continuing growth in Asia and Oceania, central and eastern Europe and some Middle Eastern states. The decline in spending in the West is also levelling off. At the same time, spending decreased in Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Thus, the global military expenditure picture is mixed, according to SIPRI.
The United States remained by far the world’s biggest spender in 2015, despite its expenditure falling by 2.4% to $596 billion. Among the other top spenders, China’s expenditure rose by 7.4% to $215 billion, Saudi Arabia’s grew by 5.7 % to $87.2 billion - making it the world’s third-largest spender - and Russia’s increased by 7.5% to $66.4 billion. A combination of high oil prices and new oil discoveries and exploitation has contributed to a surge in military spending in many countries around the world in the past decade, SIPRI said. However, the crash in oil prices that started in 2014 has begun to reverse this trend in many oil revenue-dependent countries and further cuts in spending are expected this year.
The most dramatic oil revenue-related reductions in spending in 2015 were in Venezuela (-64%) and Angola (-42%). Decreases were also recorded in, among others, Bahrain, Brunei, Chad, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Oman and South Sudan. Despite declining oil revenues, several other oil-exporting countries continued to increase military spending in 2015. Many of these countries - notably Algeria, Azerbaijan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam - were involved in conflict or faced with heightening regional tensions. However, Russia’s expenditure was lower than projected in its budget, and Saudi Arabia’s spending would have fallen but for the additional $5.3 billion cost of its military intervention in Yemen. Russia and Saudi Arabia are planning cuts in 2016.
Military spending in North America and Western and Central Europe has been decreasing since 2009, largely as a result of the global economic crisis, as well as the withdrawal of most US and allied troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. There were signs in 2015, however, that this decline was coming to an end. US military spending was down by 2.4% in 2015, a much slower rate of decline than in recent years. This was the result of measures passed by Congress to partially protect military spending from previously agreed budget deficit-reduction measures. US military spending is projected to remain roughly level in real terms in 2016. Taken together, spending in Western and Central Europe was down by just 0.2% in 2015.
However, in Central Europe alone spending was up 13%. There were particularly large increases in countries bordering Russia and Ukraine - namely Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia - which are those most concerned about Russia’s intentions following the crisis in Ukraine. In contrast, Western European expenditure was down 1.3% but this was the lowest rate of annual decline since the start of the recent fall in spending, which began in 2010. The United Kingdom, France and Germany have all announced plans for modest spending increases in the coming years sparked by concerns about Russia and the threat posed by the Islamic State.
“Military spending in 2015 presents contrasting trends,” said Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman, head of SIPRI’s military expenditure project. “On one hand, spending trends reflect the escalating conflict and tension in many parts of the world; on the other hand, they show a clear break from the oil-fuelled surge in military spending of the past decade. This volatile economic and political situation creates an uncertain picture for the years to come.” In Africa military spending fell by 5.3% following 11 years of continuously rising spending, SIPRI research found. This was mainly due to the large cut by Angola, the largest spender in sub-Saharan Africa in the wake of the sharp fall in oil prices.
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- Defenceweb
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Cameroon says a regional force arrested more than 300 Boko Haram fighters and freed at least 2,000 people in the first five days of an operation to flush the terrorists from their remaining hideouts along the borders of Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
A thousand soldiers from the regional force, composed of fighters from Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon, returned from the Walasah area in Nigeria to their base at Mora, Cameroon.
Cameroon General Bouba Dobekreo, one of the commanders, said Tuesday that 17 villages had been freed. He said soldiers destroyed a Boko Haram logistics base and training center, plus vehicles, and had seized huge stocks of weapons and other materiel. He said they were ready to go farther into the hinterlands and do away with Boko Haram.
Dobekreo said people freed from Boko Haram strongholds had been handed over to the Nigerian army or had left the area with the soldiers' protection.
Among the returning soldiers was Eyong Levis, who said he and five other soldiers had been wounded by a land mine.
"Where I am now, I am getting better and I am determined that when I will be strong, I have to go there because those men are not armies," Levis said. "They are just rebels, and I am determined to finish with them. I hope that by the end of this year, Boko Haram will be history."
Beya Jude, a 47-year-old father of four, said he had crossed into Cameroon because so many people in his village died during the raids.
"On Saturday in the morning, they called us," he said. "We gathered our children, our wives and others. I brought my family all here."
Hundreds of Nigerian refugees were sent to the Minawao refugee camp in Cameroon.
Raids organized by the joint force since December have increased the number of internally displaced persons and refugees in Cameroon from 150,000 to more than 200,000.
More than 1,000 humanitarian workers have also been deployed to attend to the refugees and internally displaced.
(VOA)
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- Elangwe Pauline
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On the night of the 5th and 6th of April 1984, gun shots were heard around the presidency of the republic. On the 6th of April, a message was read over state radio which Cameroonians were later on told was limited only to the residents of Yaounde the nation’s capital by a brave technician. The message indeed had confirmed that a coup had been staged and the Biya regime was now a thing of the past. Forces loyal to the regime came to the fore and on April the 7th, President Biya Biya was back in action. He took the floor and addressed the Cameroonian people informing them that he had survived a coup fomented by troops still loyal to his predecessor, the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo.
Following these "sad" events, the remnants of the Ahidjo men in the presidential guard were executed and ever since the attempted 1984 coup, the 83 years old dictator now approaching his 34th year in power is still holding firmly the helm of the Cameroon ship. He has resisted every form of opposition. He survived the civil disobedience campaign in March and April of 1991. He successfully neutralized Ni John Fru Ndi and the Social Democratic Front. Biya was victorious after the ghost town operations. Since 1984, the Cameroonian strongman has organized 4 presidential elections. In 1992 he declared himself winner and placed his main challenger , John Fru Ndi under house arrest. He says he genuinely won the presidential elections of 1997, 2004 and 2011. In April 2008, he changed the constitution of the nation and made himself head of state forever and ever.
Whatever Biya wants, Biya gets!! He launched the so called anti corruption campaign known as "Operation Sparrowhawk", ostensibly to clean up the malpractices in the management of public affairs. When age started telling on him, he carriedout his own version of “A Hundred Flower Campaign” when he dished out news that he had passed on in a Swiss hospital. His agents identified those within his ruling council who celebrated when the news was made public and immediately he made a dramatic u turn and transformed Operation Sparrowhawk into a reckoning tool and eventually eliminated potential dolphins for the post of president of the republic. Since then several barons of the regime have been imprisoned, ostensibly for "embezzlement" of public funds. Now he wants another constitutional amendment to enable him hold early presidential elections. Our Right Royal President lives on
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- Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
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The ongoing Boko Haram incursions in the Far North Region of Cameroon has resulted in mass displacement of villagers in the boarder communities to Nigeria.
The number of displaced Cameroonians has now reached 170 000 persons, mostly from the localities of the three main departments affected by the incursions of Boko Haram - Mayo-Sava , Mayo Tsanaga , Logone and Chari.
These statistics were presented on Monday, April 4, 2016 , by the Director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM ), for Western and Central Africa Richard Danziger , during an audience granted by the Prime Minister of Cameroon Philemon Yang in Yaounde.
The Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria – now in its sixth year – has spilled over into Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Militants have targeted civilians, razing villages and killing residents. An estimated 20,000 people have been killed, and more than 2 million displaced, according to U.N. figures.
Cameroonian troops have joined Nigerian soldiers this month in fresh operations to chase militants from remaining strongholds around Lake Chad and in the Sambisa forest in northeast Nigeria.
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- Elangwe Pauline
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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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