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US: Trump fires Ambassador Michael Stephen Hoza and other US diplomats
US President Donald Trump has expelled all ambassadors to foreign countries including Michael Stephen Hoza of Cameroon on his first day in office, according to reports. Trump, who was sworn into office as the 45th president of the United States on Friday, had demanded that all ambassadors appointed by his predecessor Barack Obama leave their offices on the same day with no grace period.
As many as 80 ambassadors for countries, agencies and issues, including the ambassador for global women’s issues, have been discarded. According to common policy, politically-appointed ambassadors resign at the start of a new administration, but it is less common to have no replacements in line.
Trump’s transition team had announced the decision to foreign ambassadors on December 23. The move risks cutting all direct connections of the US with Germany, the UK and Canada, as well as other critical allies. In addition, countries such as China, India, Japan and Saudi Arabia will be waiting for replacements, a lengthy process that is carried out by the US Congress.
So far, few appointments have been made, including South Carolina governor Nikki Hayley, who replaced Samantha Power as the US ambassador to the United Nations. Also, bankruptcy lawyer David Friedman and Iowa Governor Terry Branstad have been appointed ambassadors to Israel and China respectively. Trump has been under criticism for other major staffing gaps below cabinet level.
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Anglophone Problem: Leaders say Ghost Town to target schools and internet companies
Southern Cameroonians will begin a campaign of civil disobedience against the government of La Republique du Cameroun and direct action against internet companies and mobile telephone providers on Monday, to demand an end to the epidemic of rapes, extra judicial killings and the release of all prominent Anglophone leaders arrested in Buea and Bamenda.
The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society, a group formed in the wake of serious marginalization of Anglophones said they would “no longer stand by and watch Francophone political elites treat Southern Cameroonians like slaves.” The leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium which has more than 3000 operation managers in West Cameroon said all academic institutions in Southern Cameroons will remain closed until all Anglophone demands are met by the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime. The ghost town operation will be staged for a one month period.
The Anglophone leaders say they are prepared to get arrested in their fight against injustice, discrimination and destruction of the Anglo-Saxon heritage including the Common Law and the educational system. Mark Bara and Ivo Tapang who are helping to lead the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society ’s direct action campaign, which kicks off on Monday, said CACSC would go much further by paralyzing not only school activities, but other sectors such as transport and business.
As well as directly targeting Francophone administrative power in Southern Cameroons, the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium will also go after any Anglophone so-called political elite who attempts to work against the interest of West Cameroonians in the struggle. “We are going to be targeting people who are working to sabotage the Southern Cameroons revolution”, noted an operations manager in Ekok at the borders with Nigeria.
On Monday, the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has asked Southern Cameroonians to stay at home for a kind of “die-in” and avoid any confrontation with troops that have been deployed from French Cameroun. Both the Ministers of Secondary Education and Telecommunication have opined that shutting down internet services in British Southern Cameroons comes right and has worked to the CPDM government’s advantage. However, new findings have revealed that the government action on internet services has recruited more followers for the Consortium and many Southern Cameroonians now believe in secession.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Rita Akana, Sama Ernest
Trump, Putin meeting may take months
The Kremlin says that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “ready” to meet US President Donald Trump but the preparations for such a meeting will take some time. “This will not be in coming weeks, let’s hope for the best — that the meeting will happen in the coming months,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Saturday.
Trump became to 45th US president on Friday after taking the oath of office on the steps of the US Capitol during a momentous event marred by massive protests against his divisive rhetoric. He added that so far there have been no talks between Moscow and Washington on the subject but this will change after the two leaders talk over the phone.
“President Putin will call President Trump after the inauguration to congratulate him. It’s a protocol thing that has to be done,” he said. “We expect that they may discuss their positions on a possible meeting,” he added.
Peskov went on to note that it would be “a big mistake” to think that Russia-US relations will be “free of contradictions and disputes” during Trump’s presidency. “We indeed are the two biggest countries in the world. And we can’t live without frictions, conflict of interests.”
On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow and Putin have time and again stated that Russia is “ready to walk its part of the path to move the dialogue with Washington into constructive mode.” The ties between Washington and Moscow have deteriorated over the conflict in eastern Ukraine since 2014 and the crisis in Syria.
The United States, the European Union and some other Western countries have imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia over accusations that Moscow has been involved in the crisis in Ukraine, which has killed nearly 10,000 people to date. The Kremlin strongly rejects the allegations.
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Explaining MTN liability for the collective punishment and genocide perpetrated by La Republique du Cameroun on Southern Cameroons
Southern Cameroonians and the world have listened to the interview in which an MTN official in South Africa attempted to explain and justify the contractual basis on which it terminated or suspended indefinitely internet services in the Southern Cameroons. The problem is that the so-called national security threat clause alleged by Republique du Cameroun to request the cooperation of the MTN in its ongoing criminal actions that have led to loss of life and limb in the occupied territory pertains to a situation where a state of public emergency is legally justified and declared.
Even in such circumstances MTN would have been required sufficient guarantees of the non-derogation of certain International Treaty protected human rights like the right to life as a condition to acceding the impugned request. There is in this situation, no legal or constitutional authority to justify the actions of the MTN in acceding to a request that has facilitated the commission of crimes against humanity or a widespread and systemic basis without such guarantees.
Apart from their contract with the government of Cameroun their operations are regulated by international treaties which as a state party, Cameroun must respect. The collective nature of the impugned crimes is a violation of international law. There ought to have been an arbitration clause in the MTN contract with Cameroun which MTN would have invoked to protect their clients, ensure that its involvement does go beyond their contractual obligations and are within international law.
The fact that their actions are facilitating the perpetration of crimes which they acknowledged in the interview and with its knowledge is a source of great concern. There is no indication that it has taken measures to protest these violations to Cameroun.
MTN should have protested and/or insisted that Cameroun notifies the International Telecommunication Union of its actions and get assurances that the intended actions to abate the so-called national security threats were neither disproportionate nor abused to commit international crimes. It would appear such guarantees were neither sought nor obtained prior to MTN taking action that have facilitated the perpetration and attempted misprision of international crimes against Southern Cameroonians.
The responsibility of the MTN is thus not based on the alleged compliance with the contract it has with Republique du Cameroun but its inability to obtain verifiable guarantees that the purported national security clause was not used to perpetrate egregious violations and crimes of a collective and grave nature.
Chief Charles A.Taku
Anglophone Problem: Justice Ayah Paul arrested in Yaounde
President Paul Biya backed by the French embassy has ordered the arrest of Justice Ayah Paul Abine of the Supreme Court of Cameroon. Justice Ayah was forcefully arrested from his residence by 6 heavily armed men from the Secretariat for Defense, SED. They had no arrest warrant. Ayah was not permitted to make any calls nor answer any. He was told by them that in case of any resistance he would be brutalized and that he had no choice than to comply.
It almost got violent as Ayah Paul Abine stated to them what the law provides. The armed men prevented anyone from neither making nor taking calls. They get into Ayah’s privacy with no restraint. Even Ayah’s wife wasn’t permitted to change clothes as the men in question accompanied her even into her privacy. No one can tell what Biya’s men are up to but as Ayah left the house he told his administrator to say this to you all: THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES TILL THE END!!!
Amnesty International calls for release of prominent Anglophone leaders
CAMEROON: ARRESTS AND CIVIL SOCIETY BANS RISK INFLAMING TENSIONS IN ENGLISH-SPEAKING REGIONS
20 January 2017, 15:56 UTC
The Cameroonian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release two civil society leaders arrested in the English-speaking part of the country, and lift the ban imposed on their organization, Amnesty International said today.
On 17 January the Minister of Territorial Administration banned the activities of the Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC) and the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC). The president of the CACSC, Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor-Balla, and its Secretary General, Dr. Fontem Aforteka’a Neba, were arrested, sparking protests in the southwest city of Buea.
On the same day both Agbor-Balla and Dr. Fontem Neba had signed a statement calling for protest activities to be carried out without violence.
“These two men have been arrested solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression. This flagrant disregard for basic rights risks inflaming an already tense situation in the English-speaking region of the country and is clearly an attempt to muzzle dissent,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, Amnesty International Central Africa Researcher.
According to the Minister of Territorial Administration, “all activities, meetings and demonstrations initiated or promoted by the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC), any other related groups with similar objectives or by anyone partisan to these groups, are hereby prohibited all over the national territory”.
The government has accused the two groups of supporting a series of demonstrations that began in late October 2016 across several cities in the English-speaking region of Cameroon. The protesters are calling, among other things, for an end to the use of French in courts and schools. This week a “ghost town” strike – where citizens are asked to remain at home – was called in the regions’ main cities.
“This worrying pattern of arbitrary arrests, detention and harassment of civil society members is entirely at odds with the international human rights law and standards that Cameroon has committed to uphold,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi.
In December, at least two unarmed protesters were killed in Bamenda, the largest city in the English-speaking region, when security forces used live ammunition to disperse a protest.
For more information please call Amnesty International’s press office in Dakar, Senegal, +221 77 658 62 27 or +221 33 869 82 31; Email: sadibou.marong@amnesty.org
Consortium declares secret Ad Hoc Committee- CATTU meeting null and void
The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has sounded a note of caution to some members of the teachers trade union known as CATTU currently holding a meeting in Bamenda with the defunct Ad Hoc Committee who entered the North West regional capital like a thief in the night. The Consortium leaders have stated that the meeting is null and void and only aims at marginalizing Southern Cameroonians.
Cameroon Concord News understand the Ad Hoc Committee was dissolved and a public announcement to that effect was made by its Chairman Paul Ghogomu Mingo. Events took a dramatic U-turn when the leaders of the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government pulled out of dialogue, banned the Consortium and arrested its leaders.
The Minister of Higher Education, Jacques Fame Ndongo who attempted bribing the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium leaders, signed a ministerial order immediately after the government’s crackdown and extended the mandate of the Ad Hoc Committee.
A lot of under-the-table talks have been going on ever since the Fame Ndongo decision on the Ad Hoc Committee that was created by the Prime Minister and Head of Government, Philemon Yang. With age telling on Biya, it is hard to say who is really in charge in Yaounde.
Today’s Bamenda meeting is in line with what the ministerial order signed by the anti Anglophone Minister of Higher Education, Jacques Fama Ndongo that the Ad Hoc Committee will begin dialogue with legalized teachers trade unions. The Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium has warned that West Cameroonians will not tolerate any betrayals coming from the much respected CATTU leadership.
Culled from Cameroon Concord News
Consortium announces unprecedented Anglophone Ghost Town protest for Monday
Paul Biya has reportedly ordered the so-called Anglophone CPDM political elites to brave the bad roads to Southern Cameroons and lure parents to send their children to school. The Francophone government recently changed its track and arrested the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium in a move that was aimed at sending the revolution underground.
Francophone schools in both the South West and the North West regions have been accorded military surveillance and security guarantees to open their doors this coming Monday. The Biya Francophone regime has shut down internet services in Southern Cameroons as a strategy to stifle the communication department of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium.
Senior Anglophone leaders including the Roman Catholic Bishops of Southern Cameroons are currently being bullied by the secret service. Southern Cameroons’s economy that revolves around farming and remittance from the Diaspora is completely grounded following the closure of all internet services in British Southern Cameroons.
Anglophone lawmakers many of whom were handpicked by the political elites at the time are presently helpless in the face of the killings, rape and torture going on in West Cameroon. The militarization of the entire Southern Cameroons territory by troops from La Republique du Cameroun has prompted West Cameroonians to be more anxious about security and the outlook for a transitioning economy.
In a sign of change, one of the Southern Cameroon’s most powerful religious figures, the Synod Clerk of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon has called for the resistance to continue. Some traditional leaders have backed the Consortium and are calling for foreign intervention.
“There’s a line in the sand that has to be drawn,” revealed a prominent Anglophone elite based in Buea in the South West region. The Consortium is urging Southern Cameroonians not to send their children to school and to respect the civil disobedience campaign which begins on Monday the 23rd of January.
The African Union has expressed concerns through its human rights commission on the situation and in a statement released late last night, the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium called on those in the Diaspora to make at least a phone call to their family members back home not to allow their kids to go to school.
Culled from Cameroon Concord News
US President Donald Trump signs executive order on Obamacare
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aiming to “ease the burden of Obamacare” which covers some 20 million Americans. Within hours of taking the oath of office, Trump fulfilled one of his most impassioned promises he had made during his presidential campaign.
The president signed the order in front of reporters at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office on Friday night. His chief of staff Reince Priebus described the order as aimed at “minimizing the economic burden” of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, “pending repeal.”
Until lawmakers are able to repeal Obamacare, “it is imperative for the executive branch to… take all actions consistent with law to minimize the unwarranted economic and regulatory burdens of the Act, and prepare to afford the States more flexibility and control to create a more free and open healthcare market,” the executive order said.
Though the order did not direct any specific actions, it gave authority to the Department of Health and Human Services and other agencies to take legal actions to ease regulatory requirements from Obamacare. “He has been told that he needs to comply with the law,” said Timothy Jost, an emeritus professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law, “but is directing the agencies to begin taking steps towards reducing regulatory requirements and giving more discretion to the states.”
The order will give states more flexibility and control over their health care markets, in keeping with longstanding Republican beliefs. They believe Obamacare marked a costly drift toward socialized, European-style medical care. Priebus sent out a memo to all government agencies and departments calling for a regulatory freeze. Congress has already taken some actions toward repealing the law through the complex budget reconciliation process.
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