Politics

Nine military officers in the West African state of Niger have been detained on allegations of plotting a coup against the government and will face a military court, the country’s interior minister says. Hassoumi Massaoudou further stated in a Saturday news conference in the capital Niamey that the suspects were taken into custody earlier this week after what he described as a month-long surveillance operation, AFP reported. The Nigerien minister added that the coup plot had been thwarted "thanks to the loyalty" of a number of soldiers "who regularly kept us informed of the plan's progress."

According to the report, the announcement came after the country’s opposition figures challenged the government to offer proof of the alleged plot. Massaoudou said the suspected coup plot was set to be carried out on December 18, when President Mahamadou Issoufou was due to return to Niamey from an Independence Day celebrations elsewhere in the country. The development came just weeks prior to the nation’s scheduled presidential and parliamentary elections, in which the 63-year-old president plans to seek a second term. This is while Issoufou announced in a televised address to the nation on Thursday that most of the key suspects involved in the alleged plot were already in custody.

The opposition, however, quickly rejected the claim, insisting that the president had offered “no proof” and accusing the government of efforts to manipulate the nation’s political atmosphere ahead of the February 21 polls. According to the interior minister, among those detained in connection with the coup plot were air force General Souleymane Salou, commander of Niamey’s air force base, Lieutenant Colonel Idi Abdou Dan Haoua, and chief of the 1st Artillery Battalion in the western town of Tillaberi, Nare Maidoka, in addition to two senior officers with the elite anti-terror units.

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Ngwa Bertrand

20.Dec.2015

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About 90 percent of voters in the capital of the Central African Republic have said yes to a proposed new constitution, in a referendum that will pave the way for elections this month, authorities said on Friday. Results from this week's vote are yet to come in from other parts of the country. About 10 percent of the population of nearly 5 million lives in the capital Bangui. Central African Republic has been mired in conflict for nearly three years, since mostly Muslim rebels from a coalition called the Seleka seized power in the majority Christian country. The rebels later handed power to a transitional government charged with steering the landlocked nation to a vote scheduled for Dec. 27.

Religious and inter-communal violence has continued, killing about 100 people since September, despite the efforts of two interim governments, a U.N. peacekeeping force and a French mission. Violence in Bangui during the referendum killed five and wounded 34, according to the Red Cross. Turnout was around 30 percent of registered voters. "We are able to give the provisional results from the countryside (outside Bangui) on Sunday or Monday," said Julius Ngouade Baba, the spokesman for the national election authority. Human Rights Watch said fighters affiliated with Seleka leader Nourredine Adam blocked people from voting in some parts of the north after Adam said conditions were not in place for polls to take place.

On Tuesday Adam declared the northeast region to be autonomous, saying it would seek independence and spurring the government to call for international action. The referendum results must be validated by the constitutional court, which will complete that task two weeks after the publication of the complete provisional tally. The proposed constitution reins in the president's power and expands that of parliament, establishing a senate to complement the existing national assembly. It also creates a Special Criminal Court to try grave crimes. Central African Republic is rich in diamonds, gold, oil and uranium but has one of the world's poorest populations.

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Ngwa Bertrand

19.Dec.2015

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The Obama administration is considering how to respond to an Iranian ballistic missile launch that violated U.N. Security Council resolutions, senior U.S. officials said on Thursday, as senators pressed for a strong reaction. "We are now actively considering the appropriate consequences to that launch in October," Stephen Mull, the State Department's lead coordinator for implementing an international nuclear deal with Iran, told a Senate committee hearing. Almost every Republican U.S. lawmaker, as well as several of President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats, opposed the nuclear agreement announced in July, in which Iran agreed with major powers to curtail its nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions.

Concerns in the United States about the agreement have intensified since Iran's rocket test on Oct. 10 and other events seen as hostile, including the conviction of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who has been held by Tehran for more than 500 days. Many lawmakers criticize the Obama administration for what they see as an inadequate response to Tehran. "One area that we all agree on is the need to be tough on any destabilizing or illegal action by Iran. With that view, I think the agreement is off to a really terrible start," said Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As first reported by Reuters, a team of sanctions monitors in a report on Tuesday found that Iran violated a U.N. Security Council resolution by test-firing a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. "We have a very permissive environment," said Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, who opposes the nuclear deal, as he closely questioned Mull and other administration officials about the response to the missile test. Senator Chris Coons, another Democrat who backed the Iran deal but with reservations, said that starting next month members of Congress would push for renewal of a U.S. sanctions bill that is in force until the end of 2016.

Mull said the administration is looking forward to working with Congress on the issue. Asked whether he thought Iran would view renewing the legislation as a U.S. violation of the nuclear deal, Mull said it would be hard to predict. Separately, two-thirds of the Republicans in the Senate signed a letter sent to Obama on Wednesday urging him not to lift sanctions on Iran under the nuclear deal, saying Tehran's recent ballistic missile testing showed "blatant disregard for its international obligations." On Thursday, 21 Democratic senators led by Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the foreign relations panel, also wrote to Obama, saying they were deeply concerned about Iran's ballistic missile testing.

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Ngwa Bertrand

18.Dec.2015

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The second trial involving Yves Michel Fotso, ex-General Manager of Camair, the defunct national airline, came up for hearing at the Yaounde-based Special Criminal Court, SCC, on Thursday, December 17, 2015. However, not much progress was made because counsel for Yves Michel Fotso informed the court that he was in hospital. Though they did not say what he was suffering of or where he was hospitalised, the court later ruled that the matter be adjourned to January 20, 2016. Yves Michel Fotso on November 6, 2014, pleaded not guilty to charges of fraudulently obtaining 18.9 billion FCFA from 2000 to 2002.

The suit, filed by Camair’s Liquidation Committee and the State of Cameroon, says the sum comprised 4,051,209,866 FCFA, 4,606,130,515 FCFA, and 8,934,203,742 FCFA, which was compensation for the famous Boeing 747 ‘Combi’ aircraft as well as 1,400,000,000 FCFA, representing the worth of the wreck of the aircraft. On Monday, May 25, 2015, the trial witnessed a mild drama when counsel for Michel Fotso, argued for the dropping of charges against him. But both the Advocates General and counsel for the civil claimant, asked the court presided by Mr. Justice Moukoury Francis and assisted by Mr. Justice Jean Claude Michel Nana and Mrs. Justice Zibi Nsoe, to reject the defence’s application.

The Advocates General were Taghim Jean Claude and Ngoupa Napoleon. According to the civil claimant and prosecution, the accused’s request for dropping of charges could only be considered if he applied to the Minister of Justice after reimbursing the amount he embezzled before the start of the trial. But in the case at hand, they argued, Yves Michel Fotso had simply made known his intention to reimburse, though he also applied for charges against him to be dropped. In response, counsel for the accused pointed out what they saw as inconsistencies in the arguments of the prosecution, recalling that in the first phase of the same trial, an agreement had already been reached between the accused and the Legal Department.

Thus, it was not simply the mention of intention to reimburse, but honouring the agreement by paying in 250 million FCFA, Fotso’s lawyers argued. They pointed out that their client did not continue with the reimbursement because his bank accounts were frozen, though he offered to pay in kind. The former Camair GM’s counsel therefore pleaded with the court to defreeze his accounts in order to enable him continue with the reimbursement. The court later refused to defreeze the accounts or to drop charges against Fotso. He took the matter to the Supreme Court and lost.

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Ngwa Bertrand

18.Dec.2015

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U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Wednesday for urgent talks to avert civil war in Burundi as the central African country defended the actions of its security forces and rejected any idea of stationing foreign troops on its soil. Ban said he would send his special adviser Jamal Benomar to the region for talks with the Burundi government, other countries and the African Union on ways to defuse a crisis that has spurred fears of a return to full-scale ethnic conflict. "An inclusive political dialogue is needed urgently. We must do all we can to prevent mass violence and act decisively should it erupt," Ban told a news conference in New York. "What we have seen over the past few days is chilling."

In the worst clashes since a military coup was foiled in May, insurgents attacked military camps in the capital Bujumbura on Friday, and nearly 90 people were killed in the ensuing violence. U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said on Tuesday the authorities had responded to the attacks with house searches, arrests and alleged summary executions. Burundi, whose crisis pits supporters of President Pierre Nkurunziza against those opposed to his serving a third term in office, rejected the criticism of its security forces. "The security forces intervened with the greatest possible professionalism," it said in a statement late on Tuesday. "It would therefore be irrelevant to talk of bringing foreign forces into Burundi." "Those who recommend it hide many other intentions," said the statement, issued by a government spokesman. The United Nations and the African Union have started preparing for the possible deployment of international peacekeepers in case the violence worsens. Such a move would require authorization by the Security Council.

However, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, president of the U.N. Security Council for December, said on Wednesday there had been "insufficient contingency planning." "Many council members are very eager to see the pace of contingency planning by the U.N. accelerated," Power told reporters. Burundi has accused neighboring Rwanda and some Western nations of meddling in its affairs, saying they are stoking the crisis. Western powers are concerned that Burundi, which only emerged from a civil war in 2005, could plunge back into ethnic conflict, destabilizing a region that witnessed a genocide in Rwanda in 1994. Like Rwanda, Burundi has an ethnic Hutu majority and a Tutsi minority.

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Ngwa Bertrand

17.Dec.2015

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Burundi has moved closer to civil war after insurgents attacked military camps in the capital last week and authorities responded with house searches, arrests and alleged summary executions, the U.N. human rights chief said on Tuesday. Fighting in Bujumbura last week killed almost 90 people, the worst clashes since a military coup was foiled in May. It follows months of sporadic violence and assassinations, mostly in the capital, between supporters and opponents of President Pierre Nkurunziza. The crisis in Burundi alarms Western powers, who worry it may slide back into conflict after emerging from an ethnically fueled civil war 10 years ago. They fear it could destabilize a region where memories of the 1994 genocide in neighboring Rwanda are still raw.

"With this latest series of bloody events, the country seems to have taken a new step towards outright civil war and tensions are now at bursting point in Bujumbura," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement. After Friday's fighting, security forces launched "intensive house searches" in Bujumbura's Musaga and Nyakabiga districts, he said. Both areas saw protests earlier in the crisis against Nkurunziza's re-election for a third term.

During the searches, the security forces "arrested hundreds of young men, allegedly summarily executing a number of them and taking many others to unknown locations," the U.N. rights chief said in his statement. He urged "all actors in the current crisis, including political leaders and state authorities at the highest level, to take every step possible to stop this deadly escalation and engage in a meaningful and inclusive dialogue." There was no immediate response to from the government, but it regularly dismisses accusations of rights abuses. The government also says it is open to dialogue.

Opponents say the government's offer of talks has been a smokescreen because it has failed to allow discussion of core issues, such as the president's current five-year term in office. Opponents say the president violated a peace deal that ended the civil war by seeking a third term. Officials point to a ruling by the constitutional court that said he could run again

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Ngwa Bertrand

16.Dec.2015

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