The leader of the Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Governing Council has congratulated the people of Southern Cameroons for their commitment and sacrifices made so far in the liberation struggle saying the wide participation in the October 1 Independence Day celebration proves to the world “the greatness of the Ambazonia people.”

Sesekou Ayuk Tabe’s comment came during a televised broadcast on Sunday in which he praised the “freedom and sovereignty that the Southern Cameroons people are beginning to enjoy in a region where people are mostly ruled by dictatorial regimes.”

Sesekou Ayuk Tabe was apparently referring to La Repubique du Cameroun that list SCACUF as a terrorist organization.   “You spoke loud and clear to the rest of world that you require the restoration of your nation, the Republic of Ambazonia.’ The Chairman revealed that the Governing Council has been collecting data for over two weeks now and “it’s appalling what Mr Biya and his forces have done to our people.”

The Southern Cameroons leader made a mockery of the Prime Minister of French Cameroun, Philemon Yang “I hope Mr Philemon Yang who is PM will go and count the deaths of those that the regime has killed and will be able to join the liberation struggle. In 1954, Endeley led our people out of Enugu, Philemon Yang has been given a similar opportunity” said the chairman.

The leader further pointed out that “Our issues have been raised at the highest international level. The UN has made a call and calls like that comes when the UN has reason to believe that genocide is going on in Southern Cameroons. The Roman Catholic Bishops have spoken and the UN is now aware. None of our deaths will go unaccounted for! All those responsible will be brought to justice.”

His Excellency Sesekou Ayuk Tabe informed Southern Cameroonians that the governing council was working with lawyers in New York, London and Washington and have opened a case at the International Criminal Court to bring Biya and his acolytes to justice. He saluted the Southern Cameroons Diaspora forum to be held in Paris, France and recommended that its resolutions should be forwarded to the UN, the African Union and the EU.

The leader also hinted of a diabolic harsh ploy to stifle the revolution by a small group of lawyers.  Sesekou Ayuk Tabe sounded a note of caution that the Southern Cameroons movement is bigger than any individual.

In a soul-searching presentation, the leader focussed on Southern Cameroonians back home saying we owe you a huge debt for the sacrifices you have made, we ask you to keep an inventory of all those who have been affected by the brutality of the Biya  Francophone Beti Ewondo regime.

“I have instructed the Department of Health and Social Services to reach out to our people to help bury our fallen heroes.  Cover their remains with our flag and sing the Ambazonia anthem before burial.”

Addressing the all-powerful Southern Cameroons Diaspora, the leader was full of praise.  “This movement has lasted a year and more because of you in the Diaspora. This is the moment for you to take this struggle to its last destination.  I am asking those of you in the Diaspora to engage your local leaders, write letters to Members of Parliament, religious institutions, organise exhibitions on the atrocities of the Biya regime and organise demonstrations in front of the embassies.”

The leader called for responsible leadership in all the various departments during these dramatic moments of the struggle.  Said the Chairman, “Anyone can lead a movement but the true task of leadership is when things are not gong your way, you are call to display good leadership qualities. Keep your eyes on the prize-the prize is the restoration of independence. I am urging every one of us to desist from saying or posting things that do not foster the struggle.”

The Chairman of the Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Consortium United Front revealed that in the coming days, the Governing Council shall be organising a large conclave to analyse the successes and failures of the struggle and to map out the way forward.  A defiant Ayuk Tabe made it clear to the French Cameroun political leadership that there was still a small room for negotiation to discuss the terms of our separation so that we will become two friendly nations.

By Chi Prudence Asong, CIR

French Cameroun army killed 255 people during and a day after the October 1 celebration, more than 6 every 50 minutes, but an official Biya regime count misclassified over three quarters of the deaths, according to our cream of senior intelligence officers operating in Southern Cameroons . More than 150 of all killings carried out by elements of the Rapid Intervention Batallion, BIR in Mamfe, Bamenda, Ekona, Kumba, Kumbo, Eyumojock, Ndop and Wum were deliberately incorrectly classified as not having been Biya regime-related.

Our intel officers and military informants counted 255 of the Francophone army-related deaths, while the Yaounde government’s Ministry of Territorial Administration counted only 10. The bad and unacceptable data is currently being traded at the UN and the African Union with the support of the French ambassador in Yaounde.

The Francophone governor of the Bamenda State in Southern Cameroons, Lele Afrique reportedly ordered his kinsmen and women from Mbouda in the West region to leave Bamenda County before troops from La Republique du Cameroun were deployed to carry out the genocide. A recent study by a sister publication, Cameroon Concord News found that  Francophone soldiers  are more likely to kill Southern Cameroonians in their communities than Boko Haram militants in the Far North region.

The Francophone Minister of Defense, Joseph Beti Assomo including one of the prominent April 6^th Coup plotters, Issa Tchiroma Bakary who now moonlight as Minister of Communication and Cameroon government spokesman have long been suspected of significant underreporting of the killings in Southern Cameroons. Cameroon Intelligence Report correspondents who are currently doing the counting have been using crowd-sourced information from the various counties and villages including social media news stories.

Deaths of Southern Cameroonian children and people in villages in Akwaya, Lebialem, Bangem, Tombel, Jakiri, Oku, Bali, Batibo, Ekok,  were completely left out of the French Cameroun government tally.Some Francophone civil administrators failed to report any of the deaths at the hands of the army in order not to attract Francophone solidarity with Anglophone Cameroonians. The army in the Manyu State killed 30 civilians after Ocotber 1 celebrations in the Eyumojock County, but none of those deaths was included in the official French Cameroun government count.

There is mounting pressure for the creation of a Southern Cameroons Deefense Force and one necessary component to that is  selling to the Southern Cameroonian Diaspora an accurate count of the number of people killed by the Francophone military. The Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Governing Council have been under heightened scrutiny in recent days for the disproportionate number of French Cameroun army killings of Southern Cameroonians.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, CIR

US President Donald Trump has refused to certify the international nuclear agreement with Iran and warned he might ultimately terminate it, in defiance of other world powers and undermining a landmark victory of multilateral diplomacy.

Speaking from the White House on Friday, Trump said he will choose not to certify that Tehran is complying with the 2015 nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Trump’s speech signaled a major shift in US policy and detailed a more confrontational stance toward Iran over its civilian nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Trump also said his goal is to ensure Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon.

“We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror and the very real threat of Iran’s nuclear breakout,” Trump said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has recently reported that Iran is complying with the agreement.

Trump is required by law to certify every 90 days whether or not Iran is complying with the nuclear deal. If he argues that Iran is not in compliance, that could cause an American withdrawal from the international pact.

While Trump did not pull Washington out of the nuclear deal, he gave the US Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions against Tehran that were lifted under the pact.

Reimposing sanctions would put the US at odds with other signatories of the accord such as the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany, as well as the European Union.

Trump also announced sanctions on the IRGC, which he accused of destabilizing the Middle East and threatening American interests in the region.

“I am authorizing the Treasury Department to further sanction the entire Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for its support for terrorism and to apply sanctions to its officials, agents and affiliates,” he said.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement earlier Friday that the Iranian Armed Forces, including the IRGC, are the symbol of power and defenders of security and are supported by the Iranian government and nation.

The statement, which came a few hours before Trump’s speech, emphasized that Iran’s core policy is to support regional peace and stability and confront any destabilizing and divisive measures aimed at creating tensions and conflicts in the region.

According to the statement, the US support for Israel and other “repressive” regimes in the region over the recent decades has caused war and conflicts on one hand and created “the ominous phenomenon of terrorism” on the other.

In his remarks, the US president also accused Iran of supporting the “atrocities” of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and said Tehran “condoned” Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his own people.

Assad has previously stated that a recent suspected chemical attack in Syria’s Khan Shaykhun town was part of a Western scenario to demonize the incumbent Damascus government.

Iran has been providing military advisers on the request of the Syrian government, helping turn around the battle which has been going on for more than six years now.

Trump’s threat to terminate the nuclear deal comes as the US has a history of quitting international pacts and organizations.

This is not the first time that the international community witnesses efforts by the Trump administration to renege on a multilateral agreement.

Trump withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Agreement in June and has ordered the US to withdraw from UNESCO next year.

The US decisions to abandon multilateral agreements is not limited to the Trump administration. In 2002, the administration of former US President George W. Bush withdrew from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty (ABM), which it had signed with the Soviet Union in 1972.

Source: Presstv

Many of Southern Cameroonians were culled as children, under the pressures of a 56 years old hostile culture.  Hundreds of Southern Cameroonian lives have been destroyed by an army from a country- La Republique du Cameroun that tells us we don’t belong.  Many of our youth never survived October 1, 2017.

The ones who did have fled with life threatening wounds into the forest  hiding from the Francophone colonial military hoping for  when the Southern Cameroons Ambazonia Governing Council  finds enough international support or when Southern Cameroonians will feel strong enough to go forward without fear to proclaim themselves to the world.

Every one from Southern Cameroons including the so-called CPDM federalist Anglophones, walks around being terrified at the possibility of being murdered for who we are.  Obviously this fear has grown more intense since the October 1 independence day celebration; to the point where some of us are turning to trivial issues such as who controls funds or which direction Barrister Agbor Balla or Dr Fontem Neba are heading to  rather than face the new wave of hostility that has been rolling forward by the young and inexperience Francophone political elites such Joseph Beti Assomo, Governor Bernard Okalia and Rene Sadi who are killing our people. We recognize this.

Tomorrow Saturday the 14^th of October is a day that the members of our Governing Council have said we should honor all those killed during our October 1 protest including the Ancestors of our land, who were taken from us forcefully for daring to be who they are- Ambazonians and whose lives were ended by a Francophone regime that rejected their existence.  This is Southern Cameroons Day of Mourning and Resistance.

We are call upon to hold eucharistic celebrations in all the Roman Catholic Churches in Southern Cameroons including every other denomination.  Be there and be a part of the Resistance.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-in-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

The ambush against a joint patrol that killed four US troops on October 04 would have occurred with “a potential complicity” between villagers and the Islamic state, revealed US channel CNN.

Initial investigations by US military officials hints that American soldiers killed in an ambush were reportedly trapped with the villagers’ complicity.

According to AFRICOM, US soldiers were on mission to meet with local leaders and “develop relationships. The Americans then felt that the operation was safe and did not require air support.Eventually, US forces fell into an ambush.

CNN, quoting the Ministry of Defense, reported that surviving soldiers who attended the meeting with local leaders said “they suspected the villagers of delaying their departure, keeping them waiting.”

Investigations are still under way to shed light on this attack, the first in which American soldiers lose their lives in Niger.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, CIR

By Chi Prudence Asong, CIR

Russia’s Strategic Missile Troops have kicked off large-scale military drills in Southern Siberia, nearly a month after test-firing a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that renewed a missile dispute with the US.

More than 4,000 servicemen and 400 pieces of military hardware, including the Topol-M ICBM mobile launchers, were taking part in the exercise, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday.

Russian supersonic fighter jets were also participating in the drills, which were expected to fuel an ongoing missile row between Russia and the US.

The US has long been accusing Russia of violating the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between Washington and the former Soviet Union, which went into effect in 1991 and expired in 2009.

The treaty banned the two sides from deploying more than 6,000 nuclear warheads atop a total of 1,600 ICBMs and bombers.

The deal was replaced by the New SATRT agreement in 2010, under which Russia and the US agreed to reduce by half the number of strategic nuclear missile launchers they had.

The dispute took the spotlight again in mid-September, when Russia test-fired a RS-24 Yars nuclear missile that can deliver multiple nuclear warheads to targets 11,000 kilometers away.

American officials said the Yars missile’s deployment amounted to a breach of both START agreements, because it was an upgraded version of the Topol-M missile. Russia has denied the accusation, saying the missile is a new design.

US President Donald Trump has also been critical of the START agreements, claiming that they favor Russia.

According to reports, when Russian President Vladimir Putin asked Trump about extending the treaty during their first phone call in February, the American head of state responded by calling it “one of several bad deals negotiated by the [former President Barack] Obama administration.”

An avid supporter of nuclear weapons, Trump ordered the Pentagon in April to review Washington’s nuclear posture.

Unnamed Pentagon officials told US media on Wednesday that Trump had surprised military commanders by asking them for a tenfold increase in the US nuclear arsenal.

The Pentagon has recently granted contracts to American arms manufacturers to develop new ICBMs and nuclear-capable cruise missiles in a bid to replace the US Air Force’s ageing arsenal of strategic thermonuclear weapons.

Source: Presstv

The United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF) has warned that the lives of tens of thousands of children in Mali are being threatened by acute malnutrition as violence and instability fuel a deepening nutrition crisis in the West African country.

In a report published on Monday, the agency said that an estimated 165,000 children were expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition across Mali in 2018, up from a total of 142,000 registered this year.

The rate of acute malnutrition among under-five children in the conflict-ridden areas of Timbuktu and Gao has reached “critical” levels and above 15 percent on the World Health Organization’s classification scale, while the national rate also remains very high, according to the UNICEF report.

New government data also revealed that at least a tenth of children across Mali were suffering from global acute malnutrition.

“Behind these figures are the lives of the most vulnerable and forgotten girls and boys in Mali,” said UNICEF Representative Lucia Elmi in a press release.

“We must provide life-saving treatment and ensure each and every one of these children can fully recover. At the same time, we need to invest in the critical first 1,000 days of the lives of children to reduce the risk of acute malnutrition from occurring in the first place,” she added.

Children who suffer from the severe form of acute malnutrition have grave muscle wasting, very low weight for their height, and are nine times more likely to die in case of disease – such as diarrhea or malaria – due to a weakened immune system.

UNICEF also expressed alarm over the violence in northern Mali that has so far displaced tens of thousands of people, disrupted health services, hindered access to water and sanitation and left even more children at risk.

“Efforts need to be intensified to build the resilience of families through improved food security, prevention and treatment of severe acute malnutrition, access to water and sanitation,” said Noël Zagré, a nutrition advisor with UNICEF.

In 2012, militant groups linked to al-Qaeda exploited an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising and took control of key cities in Mali’s north.

While the militants were largely ousted by a French-led military operation, attacks have continued on UN peacekeepers (MINUSMA) and French forces, civilians, and the Malian army.

Former rebels still control the northern city of Kidal, and fighting between groups previously loyal to the Tuareg rebellion and pro-government militia is common, in violation of a ceasefire.

Source: Presstv

The U.N. Human Rights office denounces the killings of demonstrators from Cameroon’s Anglophone community in towns across the Northwest and Southwest regions Sunday, October 1, and is calling for an impartial investigation into these events.

Government figures put the number of deaths at about 10. But other estimates report many more people than that were killed. U.N. Human Rights spokesman, Rupert Colville, says credible sources indicate some of the deaths were caused by the excessive use of force by the security forces.

“We call on the Government of Cameroon to establish prompt effective and independent investigations to ensure accountability and, of course, impartial, as well,” said Colville. “Cameroon’s Anglophone regions have seen multiple strikes and demonstrations over the past year as resentment and tensions have built at what English-speakers view as discrimination against them in favor of the majority French-speaking population.”

Anglophones make up about 20 percent of Cameroon’s majority Francophone population. Grievances over their perceived economic and political marginalization have been building for years. The killings last Sunday came amid wide-scale protests by the English-speaking community, leading to a symbolic declaration of independence from the majority of the French speaking country.

The U.N. human rights office is calling for restraint by the security forces to prevent a recurrence of similar bloody events. Colville says people must be allowed to exercise their right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.

“We call on all people to pursue peaceful means to make themselves heard. Over the past few months, public and private property have been damaged, and at least two homemade bombs are reported to have been planted in public places,” said Colville. “There also have been arson attacks on a number of schools.” Colville says his office welcomes comments by President Paul Biya, in the aftermath of the killings, condemning all forms violence and calling for dialogue to find a durable solution.

Source: Africa News

The ambush that took the lives of three American Special Forces soldiers and wounded two others in Niger on Wednesday highlights the little-noticed but growing American involvement in contested pockets of Africa, where jihadist groups have taken root and Washington is rushing to backstop allies.

It is unclear what group carried out Wednesday’s deadly attack, but Nigerien forces have been fighting with with jihadist groups like the Islamic State-affiliated Boko Haram and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in the area where the attack occurred.

The soldiers, the first U.S. casualties in Niger, were advising and assisting Nigerien troops fighting terrorists, U.S. Africa Command spokesperson Robyn Mack said. It’s part of a broader effort by U.S. troops to help African armies better track and combat terror groups which have proliferated across the region in recent years in countries like Niger, Cameroon, and Chad.

The United States has long maintained a drone base in Niger’s capital of Niamey to monitor the movements of al-Qaida and Islamic State-affiliated groups who slip back and forth across often porous borders with Mali, Nigeria, and Chad.

To track those groups, the Trump administration has moved ahead with Obama-era plans to open a second U.S. drone base in the country near Agadez, which already houses U.S. troops. Overall, there are approximately 800 U.S. forces currently on the ground in Niger, one of the larger American footprints on the continent, charged primarily with training Nigerien forces and providing intel and reconnaissance support.

The new drone base in Niger will be the latest of about a dozen small bases (“cooperative security locations” in Pentagon-ese) spread throughout the continent. The small bases house special operations forces, logistics personnel, trainers, and manned and unmanned aircraft, and are used as supply centers and jumping off points for missions.

Across Africa, the U.S. military footprint has counterterror operations in mind. The largest U.S. base on the continent is in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, which gives U.S. forces the ability to launch airstrikes and special operations raids into nearby Yemen and Somalia, while also covering the critical Bab al Mandeb waterway which leads into the Red Sea.

Other small bases dot the landscape, including in Somalia, where Foreign Policy has reported on one outpost in the port of Kismayo, and there a base in neighboring Kenya, known as Camp Simba used for drone operations. Both bases have been active in the international fight against al-Shabaab, an al-Qaida-linked Islamist group in Somalia.

Tunisia has also confirmed that Americans operate unarmed drones used for monitoring the continuing fighting in neighboring Libya, which has seen a huge influx of various al-Qaida offshoots, the Islamic State, and a variety of local militias and criminal groups that have been smuggling thousands of migrants into Europe.

American forces are also active in Chad, helping push back against Boko Haram, which is mostly active in Nigeria and its eastern border regions. Chad is one of the nerve centers of the international counterterror fight, with U.S., French, and British troops working alongside local forces at the Multinational Joint Task Force in the capital of Ndjamena. Chad’s central role in battling terrorism made the country’s inclusion on the latest U.S. travel ban all the more puzzling.

The U.S. fight against Boko Haram is also supported by a small drone facility in the skinny northern neck of Cameroon, squeezed between Chad and Nigeria. Since 2015, drones there have run surveillance of the border to sniff out Boko Haram fighters, and there are about 300 American troops there now. The Pentagon is currently investigating whether Americans were present at another Cameroonian base where U.S.-trained security forces allegedly detained and tortured civilians.

U.S. involvement is only slated to grow. Africa Command wants five manned surveillance aircraft to fly full-time from several locations across the continent. In the meantime, U.S. strikes against terrorists are proceeding at a greater pace in the Trump administration than in the Obama years.

In May, one Navy SEAL was killed and two others were wounded in Somalia in a firefight with al Shabab fighters. That was the first American combat death there since the ‘Black Hawk Down’ incident in 1994.

Culled from Chicago Tribune

Three US Army special operations commandos have been killed and two others injured in Niger.

Colloquially known as the Green Berets, the special forces came under fire in the West African country on Wednesday, sources told the Associated Press.

Source: Presstv