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Nigeria's government will seek a lasting peace settlement with militants in the oil-producing southern Niger Delta region in 2017, President Muhammadu Buhari said in a New Year's message on Saturday.

Attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria's energy hub, coupled with low oil prices, helped push Africa's biggest economy into recession - the first in 25 years - in the second quarter. Crude oil sales account for two-thirds of government revenue in the OPEC member country.

Attacks by militants, who want a greater share of the country's energy wealth to go the impoverished oil-producing swampland, have been less frequent since November when Buhari held talks with community leaders from the region.

"We will continue to pursue peace initiatives in the Niger Delta as I, again, call on our brothers in that region who have taken to violent disruptions of economic infrastructure to come to the negotiating table," Buhari said in an emailed statement.

The attacks cut Nigeria's oil production, which stood at 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd) at the start of 2016, by more than a third in the summer.

Repairs to oil facilities have since lifted production, which reached nearly 1.8 million bpd in December, according to oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu.

But sporadic attacks, most recently in late November, have been carried out by groups that are not taking part in peace talks.

"In this new year, I want to reassure all Nigerians that our defense and security forces are more than ever before ready to perform their constitutional role of protecting lives and property," Buhari said.

He listed other security concerns, including the threat posed by Islamist militant group Boko Haram which the president said last week had been pushed out of its stronghold in the remote northeastern Sambisa forest.

After pushing militants out of the forest, a move that Reuters has been unable to independently verify, Buhari said Nigerians should "watch out for strange figures settling in their communities".

He said authorities would help to resettle some of the two million people displaced by the jihadist group's seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state in the northeast of Africa's most populous nation.

A man purporting to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau on Thursday denied the group had been pushed out of the Sambisa forest.

Reuters

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Rita Akana

31.Dec.2016

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Congolese President Joseph Kabila has reportedly agreed to step down after elections in 2017, according to a tentative agreement struck by the various political parties. Kabila's mandate ran out earlier this month.

President Joseph Kabila, in power for 15 years, has reportedly agreed to step down by the end of next year, in what would be Congo's first peaceful transfer of power since independence in 1960.

The tentative deal, announced by mediators late Friday, would prohibit President Joseph Kabila from changing the constitution to extend his mandate and run for a third term, Marcel Utembi, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference in the Democratic Republic of Congo, told reporters.

The possible agreement comes after weeks of tense talks among the political parties. But it remains unclear if elections can be organized by the end of next year.

"The government is asked to take all steps so that the elections are organized by the end of 2017 at the latest," said Utembi.

The deal, which is expected to be formally signed on Saturday, prohibits Kabila from changing the constitution to allow him to hold power for a third term.

Kabila's last term expired on December 19. However, authorities have effectively extended it until 2018, claiming they needed the extra time to organize a new election.

DW

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Rita Akana

31.Dec.2016

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President Paul Biya has signed a decree yesterday Friday December 30, 2016, declaring Monday, January 2, 2017 a public holiday.This is because of the New Year celebration celebrated every January 1st.This year’s falls on a Sunday which is not a working day. Therefore, the following day is a holiday.
Paul Biya has applied the law of 7 December 1973, which establishes the system of legal festivals in our country and which states that when a civil holiday is celebrated on a Sunday, the following day is assimilated to this holiday.
By this decree therefore, workers will go back to work on Tuesday, January 3, 2017.

Cameroontoday

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Rita Akana

31.Dec.2016

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In a classified meeting attended by Santa Meteo Radio on Thursday December 29 2016, the all Anglophone Teachers Trade Unions made up of CATTU, TAC, PEATTU, CEWOTU, and BATTUC made it crystal clear that FEDERALISM will stand a better chance in curbing the 50years struggle especially with regards to government's inability or unwillingness to finding long lasting solution to the Anglophone subsystem of Education.

In a few page declaration presented to the Press in Bamenda by the President of Teachers Association Of Cameroon Tameh Valentine Nfon quote;
"Today the generalized outcry for FEDERALISM from the community is pushing us to think of it as the ultimate solution to the Anglophone community's woes" end of quote.
Santa Meteo Radio caught up with the the President of the Catholic Education Workers Trade Union CEWOTU, Kimfon Micheal Yufanyuy who furthermore disclosed that and I quote " we have not concluded that FEDERATION is a condition but what we want to make it known is that a drowning man can hang even on a snake. We are saying that government's attitude towards our grievances is putting us to the position of a drowning man. And if the community is offering FEDERATION as a solution of us being safe from drowning, then we will have no option than to say, that is the solution" end of quote.

According to Mr Kimfon Michael Yufanyuy, If government keeps on pushing them to a drowning point, they will hang even on a snake and if the FEDERATION is the snake, we will hang on it.
It Should be noted that this emergency press declaration from the 5 Anglophone Teachers Trade Unions was in response to the Ghogomou's led Ad hoc committee that met on Tuesday December 27 2016 at the North West Governor's office where he used the avenue to refer to the leaders of the teachers Trade Unions as extremist and rebels trying to deviate the mind of the Anglophone Teachers.

The director of cabinet at the prime minister's office even went ahead to say the government will use all necessary means at their disposal to see that the second school term on January 2017 begins hitch free.

Cameroontoday

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Cameroontoday

30.Dec.2016

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A plot to blow up a major bridge in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos has been foiled following the arrest of a 43-year-old man suspected of being part of a gang that planned to carry out the attack, police said.

Nigeria Police Force spokesman Don Awunah said, in a statement issued late on Wednesday, "credible intelligence" suggested the man was an explosives expert who planned to attack the Third Mainland Bridge in the city of 21 million inhabitants.

Awunah said the man told police he was part of a gang with links to the oil-producing Niger Delta that was unhappy because its members were not part of an amnesty scheme for militants in the restive region who laid down their arms in exchange for money and training.

Police were hunting for the rest of the gang, Awunah said.

Boko Haram militants have launched frequent bomb attacks in the northeast in the last few years and other groups have attacked oil facilities in the southern Niger Delta this year but Lagos, in the southwest, is usually peaceful.

The bridge, which carries thousands of drivers each day, spans a lagoon to connect mainland Lagos with the city's Victoria Island business district where many businesses and banks that drive Africa's biggest economy have headquarters.

Police said the man from Ondo state, around 250 km (155 miles) from Lagos, had been under surveillance and was arrested on Nov. 2 at a hideout in Ikorodu, a district on the outskirts of Lagos state. He was found to have two AK-47 rifles.

He identified an accomplice who was followed by police on Dec. 26 but who abandoned his car in Ikorodu and fled. Explosives and detonation equipment were found in his car.

Awunah said the attack on the bridge would have caused major devastation. "Further investigation is being intensified to arrest all the other members of the militant gang still at large," he said.

Reuters

 

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Rita Akana

29.Dec.2016

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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein have received petitions detailing the grievances of the minority Anglophone people in Cameroon.

The petition is signed by Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla, Head of Agbor Nkongho Law Firm; Dr. Fontem A. Neba, Secretary General, National Union of Higher Education Teachers – SYNES-UB Chapter; Barrister Justice Ebah Ntoko, Head of Justice Law Firm Mutengene and Member of the Cameroon Bar Council; Ayuk Nkwa Pacal, President, Law Society, University of Buea; and Salim Sango Aliyu, Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa. The petition was sent to the UN head quarters last week and it addresses the grave human rights violations being committed by security forces against the English speaking minority in the Republic of Cameroon.

Below is the letter:

Subject: Attention to a pattern of grave human rights violations being committed by the security forces against the English speaking minority in the Republic of Cameroon

1.On behalf of the Common Law Lawyers, Teachers’ Union and Civil Society Organizations of the South West and North West Regions of the Republic of Cameroon, we would like to bring to your attention a pattern of grave human rights violations being committed against the civilian population including, lawyers, teachers, students, women, children and civil society organizations by the security forces in the Republic of Cameroon.

2.These grievous violations are happening within the context of peaceful and non-violent protests being organized in the past two months in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon by lawyers, teachers and students, to express their frustrations, dissatisfaction and discontent towards the continued marginalization of the English speaking minority in Cameroon. The protests are also meant to denounce institutionalized discrimination and human rights violations being committed against the English speaking minority as well as practical steps being taken over a prolonged period of time by the Government of Cameroon with the intention of completely undermining the bi-cultural, bi-jural and bilingual specificities of the Republic of Cameroon as enshrined in the constitution.

3.In direct response to actions by the government to undermine the common law system being practiced by the English speaking minority, through the appointment of civil law trained magistrates to the common law jurisdictions who more often than not don’t speak and/or understand English language; the language used in the Courts of the common law jurisdictions of South West and North West regions. Other grievances include but not limited to, failure to provide legal texts in English; inability and unwillingness by the government to put in place institutional guarantees to preserving the tradition and practice of the Common Law, the lawyers, after numerous attempts to bring this to the attention of the relevant government authorities without success, started a series of peaceful demonstrations on 8 November 2016 in Bamenda and 10 November 2016 in Buea, respectively the headquarter towns of the North West and South West Regions. In exercising their freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, enshrined in national and international law, lawyers have been subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Wigs and gowns belonging to some lawyers have been seized while their offices have been illegally searched and vandalized accompanied by the seizure of important documentation.

4.Similarly, teachers, students and some members of the population including women who have been opposing attempts by the national authorities to “francophonise” the Anglo-Saxon educational system have systematically been targeted by security forces. Despite the fact that teachers called for a civil disobedience “sit-in” campaign and students, have organized peaceful assemblies to air their grievances, they remain primary targets of security forces. We have documented at least 6 persons killed by the security forces in Bamenda, North West Region, scores of people brutalized and injured by the security forces and subsequently arrested and arbitrarily detained in Limbe, Buea, Tiko, Kumba and Bamenda, while hundreds continue to be subjected to acts of constant intimidation and humiliation.

5.Also alarming is that female students of the University of Buea have been molested, physically assaulted with allegations of at least a female student raped on 28 November 2016 in Buea by a police officer.

6.The aforementioned acts are happening under the watch of regional and national administrative and security authorities without any concrete steps taken to put a stop to them and identify and/or hold perpetrators accountable. This prevailing climate of impunity is amplifying the pattern of human rights violations.

7.We approach your instance because with cogent evidence in our possession and in the custody of credible national and international institutions, we have established the commission of systematic violations of the right to life, right to physical integrity, freedom from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; the freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; the freedom of opinion and expression and right to liberty and security of person. These acts by security forces are orchestrated to instill fear in and to intimidate the population, while restricting the role of human rights defenders such as lawyers. They are also intended to compromise the independence of lawyers in upholding the due process rights and speaking out on behalf of the minority, marginalized and vulnerable. In this regard, we can establish that the Republic of Cameroon is reneging on its international obligations to promote and protect the human rights of its citizens especially the English speaking minority.

8. It is our stance that the systematic nature of these acts gives reasons to believe that they are being planned, ordered and executed, and therefore cannot be seen as isolated acts of some unruly Police/Gendarmes/Military officers. In order to maintain the professionalism of the Police/Gendarmes/Military which in large parts is made up of trained personnel, we are calling for immediate action to be taken to ensure accountability in these cases.

9.Due to the absence of a credible and concrete move by the relevant authorities to initiate investigations into these abhorrent human rights violations, we are left with no other choice than to bring same to your attention, while at the same time, soliciting your prompt action in putting a stop to this wave of human rights violations by the security forces.

10.We remain steadfast in our call for a credible, independent and fair investigation into these crimes to be carried out by an independent Commission of Inquiry.

We are in custody of evidence of high probative value, including oral testimonies and real time videos to substantiate our assertions and will be willing to share same with you upon request. We emphasize our unwavering determination to continue advocating in a peaceful manner, consistent with national and international law, for the respect of all the rights of the English speaking minority in Cameroon.

The Sun

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The Sun

29.Dec.2016

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