Cameroon probes deadly unrest in restive anglophone region

Cameroonian authorities have denied that security forces opened fire on protesters. By STR (AFP/File)

Yaoundé – Cameroon has launched a probe into recent deadly violence linked to a symbolic declaration of independence in the west African nation’s English-speaking region, the defence minister said Friday.

“Apart from the material damage, precise enquiries have been opened by judicial authorities on the toll,” Defence Minister Joseph Beti Assomo said on state radio.

According to an AFP tally, 14 people died in violence in the run-up to the symbolic October 1 declaration of independence of Ambazonia, the name of the state the separatists want to create.

However Amnesty International has given a toll of 17.

Cameroonian authorities have said that security forces did not open fire during the demonstrations.

Assomo had on Thursday visited Buea, the main city in the English-speaking southwest region, where he headed a meeting to review security.

Cameroon’s anglophone-francophone rift dates back to 1961 when the British-administered Southern Cameroons united with Cameroon after its independence from France in 1960.

The English speakers complain they have suffered decades of economic inequality and social injustice at the hands of the French-speaking majority.

Anglophones account for about a fifth of the 22 million population.

Source : Ghana News https://www.modernghana.com/news/809232/cameroon-probes-deadly-unrest-in-restive-anglophone-region.html

ICC Prosecutor renews call to arrest Libya commander

Mahmoud Mustafa Busayf Al-Werfalli is suspected of involvement in the deaths of 33 people in the war-torn city of Benghazi. By – (ICC-CPI/AFP/File)

 The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has renewed her call for the immediate arrest of a senior Libyan commander wanted for war crimes, amid allegations he has killed more people.

Mahmoud Mustafa Busayf Al-Werfalli “stands accused of serious crimes. I therefore call again on Libya to take all possible steps to immediately arrest and surrender him to the ICC,” prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said in a statement.

Werfalli, born in 1978, is a senior commander in the Al-Saiqa brigade, an elite unit which defected from the Libyan National Army after the uprising against longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

The brigade has been battling alongside forces loyal to Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city, which was recently liberated after a three-year campaign.

In August, ICC judges issued a warrant for his arrest, alleging he was behind a series of murders and bloody executions of 33 people in the city.

He is accused of being involved in at least seven incidents in 2016 and 2017, during which he allegedly personally shot or ordered the execution of people who were either civilians or injured fighters.

At the time, Libyan national army said Werfalli had been arrested and was under investigation by military authorities.

But Bensouda said she had received “reports alleging conversely that the suspect is at large and may have been involved in additional killings since the ICC warrant of arrest was issued.”

Her office was investigating, but Bensouda added she was “gravely concerned about these new allegations, and generally about further violent loss of life in Libya.”

The ICC remains in a legal tug-of-war with Libyan authorities to transfer Kadhafi’s son Seif al-Islam to The Hague, with the two sides disputing who has the right to judge him.

“Bringing safety, security and stability to Libya is a must,” Bensouda said, adding that “so is fighting impunity in Libya” for the grave crimes committed in the country.

Source: Modern Ghana News https://www.modernghana.com/news/802395/war-crimes-prosecutor-renews-call-to-arrest-libya-commander.html

CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME- A REFLECTION OF PRESIDENT BUHARI’S…

The United Nations General Assembly held last week at the UN headquarters in Newyork   themed ‘Focusing on People: Striving for Peace and a Decent Life for All on a Sustainable Planet.’ saw a host of world leaders addressing the assembly on global issues including agenda 2030 and the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

In his address to the United Nations General Assembly on the 19th of September 2017, Nigeria’s president Muhamadu Buhari  touched on one of the world’s most pressing human rights issues: the brutal violence against Rohingya muslims in myanmar.  He said;

The international community cannot remain silent and not condemn the horrendous suffering caused by what, from all indications is a state-backed programme of brutal depopulation of the Rohingya inhabited areas in Myanmar on the bases of ethnicity and religion. We fully endorse the call by the Secretary-General on the Government of Myanmar to order a halt to the ongoing ethnic cleansing and ensure the safe return of the displaced Rohingya to their homes in safety and dignity.

While his comments will depict that of a true global spectator and also appeal to the victims of Rhohingya,  the Nigerian community will be left wondering why he doesn’t practice similar sentiments in his own country.  Recall back  in December 2015, months after Buhari took office, a skirmish between Nigeria’s military and the members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, a Shiite Muslim group in Nigeria’s north saw “more than 350 people,” including women and children, unlawfully killed according to Amnesty International report.

Amnesty reported that the military tried to “destroy and conceal evidence” of the killings. Nearly two years after the alleged massacre of the Shiite Muslims and despite a court order for his release, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, the leader of the Shiite group, is still being detained by the government.

In his speech he also called for peaceful resolution  of conflicts so that they wont be a repeat of the war situations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He said;

All necessary pressure and diplomatic efforts must be brought to bear on North Korea to accept peaceful resolution of the crisis. As Hiroshima and Nagasaki painfully remind us, if we fail, the catastrophic and devastating human loss and environmental degradation cannot be imagined.

This is quite surprising because only recently Mr president faced gross criticism for his handling of secessionist agitations from the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a group in Nigeria’s southeast. Soldiers were deployed to the region to maintain peace but many have viewed it as a needless and brute show of force which worsened an already bad situation. The secessionist agitation is rooted in decades-long belief in the southeast that the region has been marginalized by Nigeria’s federal government and as such are seeking a referendum . Four people reportedly died in clashes between the soldiers and the IPOB members.

Lastly and more interestingly, the president made mention of the urgency for member states to ratify the treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons. It is no news that the Nigeria government is pen friendly in signing treaties but completely reluctant in domesticating them knowing fully well that section 12 of the 1999 constitution makes inactionable all treaties and statutes that have not been domesticated into our local laws.

The Nigerian Coalition for the International Criminal Court therefore calls on the President and lawmakers to also see to the domestication of the Rome statute too so our country can be able to punish war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

They are  over two million displaced persons in Nigeria’s northeast due to the long-running Boko Haram insurgency. these  displaced persons in the northeast have been forced to live in congested camps where hunger and disease are rife. Nearly half a million childrenin the region are severely malnourished, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council. Most of the internally displaced people’s camps are underfunded by the government and officials have been accused of diverting and selling donated relief materials at local markets for personal gain.

THE NCICC INSTITUTES AN ACTION FOR THE ARRESTS OF…

On the 13th of July 2013, the Nigerian Coalition for the International Criminal Court (NCICC)  applied for an arrest warrant  in the Federal  High Court in and effort to compel the government  to arrest Sudan’s president Omar  Al-Bashir and hand him over to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The ICC issued an arrest warrant in 2009 for Mr Bashir alongside three others, for charges of genocide in Darfur region of Sudan. An estimated 300,000 have died and some 2.7 million others displaced since the conflict broke out in 2003. Sadly, Omar Bashir who was in Nigeria attending an AU summit conference on health fled the country 24hours after his arrival  amidst protest for his arrest.

The NCICC chairman, steering committee Mr Chino Obiagwu frowned at Nigeria’s failure to arrest the Sudanese president stating that “Nigeria was in breach of its international obligations by failing to arrest him, and was fueling a culture of impunity. He added that Nigeria is a state party to the Rome Statute of the ICC, and as such, has international legal obligations to ensure that this country does not become a safe haven for alleged perpetrators of crimes under international law like Al-Bashir. He warned that:

Failure of Nigeria to do so was a brazen disregard of its international treaty obligation under Article 89 of the Rome Statute of the ICC which it has ratified since 2001. It amounted to grave diplomatic blunder for the Jonathan administration to invite and give full ceremonial reception to a war crime indictee in disregard of millions of victims of Darfur atrocities and their families, some of them Nigerian citizens who are still crying for justice.

NCICC noted that such failure also undermines the pursuit of international justice, peace and security which are the objectives of the ICC.

Nigeria signed the Rome statute on the 1st of June 2000 and ratified it on September 2011  making it the 39th state party to the Rome statute.