Sunday, December 30, 2018

On Cameroon UN Refuses Inner City Press Questions Charade With HuffPost Who Admits Never Wrote About Biya


By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Goot PFT NYP


UNITED NATIONS GATE, December 30 --After Paul Biya who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years lied that Transparency International was observing his re-coronation, and burned village after village in the Anglophone regions while hiring lobbyists to seek and get support from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, on October 22 he claimed to win over 71% of the vote and even that 16% of those eligible voted in the Anglophone North-West and South-West regions. None of this is credible. Nor is Guterres' spokesman and censorStephane Dujarric, refusing to answer dozens of Cameroon questions from banned Inner City Press, servicing only those he allows in his briefing room including the self described Huffington Post contributor who earlier cracked, "The Anglophone have been doing some shooting." Video here. Designated or self-styled patsie, producing nothing, elbowing out others, classic UN. Here is the video. The money (literally) quote is that Guterres is "in touch with the government." YouTube hereOn December 29, weeks after Inner City Press published on this, astute Anglophones revisited it, referring to HuffPost - drawing this telling response or admission: "I never wrote about Cameroon and have not contributd to HuffPost in over a year. Your tweet is unreadable." Photo hereWait a minute - the correspondent the UN has used during its 179 day barring of Inner City Press to claim it is still answering about Cameroon, if only from a Biya perspective, now admits she "never wrote about Cameroon"? So the asking was just a scam? And why is her profile "Huffington Post"? To this the UN of Alison Smale and Guterres gives a free UN office and full access, while roughing up and banning Inner City Press which has published hundreds of stories, dozens of exclusives about abuses in Cameroon and elsewhere? We'll have more on this - the UN's ban must be immediately and long belatedly reversed.  Inner City Press before Dujarric's December 17 briefing asked: "December 17-4: On Cameroon, on which you have been refusing Inner City Press' questions, what is the SG's comment and action on Paul Biya's government's use of the charge of “fake news” to not only insult but lock up journalists covering Biya's army's killing there? Again Francois Fall describes “Gender Desks” in police stations but an Inner City Press reader today called the Kumba police station and they'd never heard of it. What was the basis of Mr. Fall's statement?" During his December 17 briefing, Dujarric joked about "une cuisine interne" - an internal cooking that Guterres and he and Alison Smale have turned the UN into. And still no answers. Also not credible are parts of this UN World Food Program pitch, which leads with "NSAG" violence in a way it would not in, say, Syria: "In November 2018, 21,748 people (10,439 men, 11,309 women) from the North West and South West (NW/SW) regions residing in the Littoral region received food assistance.
WFP Cameroon urgently requires US$ 24 million in the next 6 months to provide food assistance through general food distribution to 400,000 vulnerable displaced and local host populations affected by the NW/SW crisis.
 Since June 2018, non-state armed groups (NSAG) have intensified their operations, notably around Kumba, Buea, Mamfé and Bamenda. While attacks were previously confined to rural areas and the Nigerian border, main town centres and peripheries are increasingly affected by the violence. On the other hand, security forces have intensified operations against NSAGs in the SW in October, and NW in November. Between March and October 2018, a drastic increase in the number of IDPs was recorded, going from 40,000 to a total of 440,000.
 Through joint efforts, WFP continues to coordinate with other agencies to assess the security situation and ensure favourable conditions on the ground for distributions (particularly in Kumba). A recent mission organized jointly with OCHA, UNDSS and the Logistics Cluster confirmed roads and access to markets have been significantly affected, as well as access to transport and warehouse facilities. Strengthened coordination on the ground is in place.
In an effort to respond to the growing needs of IDPs, WFP is scaling up its support to reach approximately 400,000 IDPs and local host populations affected by the NW/SW crisis who are in dire need of food assistance in the North West, South West, West and Littoral regions by April 2019. If the food security situation in NW/SW improves, WFP will gradually scale down its intervention after the lean season from July 2019, transitioning into recovery activities for the extremely vulnerable."  We'll have more on this. Also not credible is the new report by Guterres' failed envoy Francois Lounceny Fall, nor Fall's presentation to the Councilentry to cover which Guterres is corruptly barring Inner City Press on December 13, for the 162nd day. After Fall's pitch, and dubious claims of concern from countries which are withholding all documents about Cameroon which Inner City Press has requested from them under Freedom of Information laws like the Dutch WOB, on December 13 and 14 Inner City Press asked the UN: "December 14-6: On Cameroon, on which you have been refusing Inner City Press' questions, now that Francois Fall has said he visited in November and met Government officials, state with whom else he met. He describes “Gender Desks” in police stations but an Inner City Press reader today called the Kumba police station and they'd never heard of it. What is the basis of Mr. Fall's statement?" Hours after the December 14 UN noon briefing at which those allowed in asked not a single question about anything in Africa, much less Cameroon, Guterres' deputy spokesman Farhan Haq sent this: "Regarding question December 14-6, we have provided Mr. Fall’s briefing to the Security Council, in which he details his concerns about Cameroon and his work there." And the Gender Desks?