Cameroon elections body rejects candidacy of president's main rival
The chief of the electoral commission, ELECAM, announced the decision in a press conference on Saturday when he read out a list of 13 approved candidates which did not include Kamto. No reasons were given. Those not listed have two days to appeal.
Biya, 92, has been in power for 43 years and is the world's oldest-serving head of state. He announced his intention earlier this month to seek re-election in the October 12 vote.
Kamto had come in second place with 14% of the vote in the last election in 2018, which Biya won by a landslide amid allegations of fraud.
"In case of the rejection of certain candidates in this election, it is possible there will be protests in the centre of Yaounde and near the seat of ELECAM," the United Nations Department of Safety and Security said in a statement on Friday.
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The Guardian
30 minutes ago
- The Guardian
‘Really cautious': why the ICJ is delaying a Gaza genocide verdict
While Palestinians in Gaza die in ever-increasing numbers from starvation each day and a growing number of legal scholars, aid officials and politicians have begun describing Israel's actions as genocide, a definitive ruling on the question by the world's top court will be a long time coming. Experts on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said a judgment on whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is unlikely before the end of 2027 at the earliest, amid warnings that the international community should not use the court's glacial proceedings as an excuse to put off action to stop the killing. Israel was originally due to present its rebuttal to the genocide charge brought by South Africa on Monday, but the court has granted its lawyers a six-month extension. The panel of 17 judges accepted Israel's argument that it needed more than the nine months allotted to prepare its case, because they claimed 'evidentiary issues' in South Africa's presentation meant 'the scope of the case remained unclear'. The South African legal team countered that none of the arguments given by Israeli lawyers were a legitimate reason for delay, and dragging out the case was unjustifiable in view of the humanitarian emergency in Gaza. But the court sided with Israel, which now has until next January to present its case. 'I think [the ICJ is] being really cautious here because of the political climate,' said Juliette McIntyre, a senior lecturer in law at the University of South Australia. 'They don't want to be accused of just running roughshod over Israel's procedural rights and finding that it's committed genocide without fully giving them an opportunity to respond.' Since its founding in 1945, the ICJ has always favoured circumspection over speed in its role as ultimate arbitrator between nations. 'The ICJ is known for its slow deliberation. It is 80 years old and it wants to work in a certain way,' said Iva Vukušić, assistant professor in international history at Utrecht University. After Israel presents its defence next January, each side would typically be given time to put together a further round of arguments to counter each other's points and new developments. 'The second round is usually around six months each, so that's another year, and then that brings us to January 2027,' said Michael Becker, who served as a legal officer at the ICJ from 2010 to 2014, and who is now assistant professor of international human rights law at Trinity College Dublin. 'If everything were to go smoothly and you don't have any other intervening events or interruptions to the procedure, you'd have a hearing sometime in 2027, probably early enough in the year so that you could have a judgment by the end of the year.' A range of factors could drag the case into 2028 however, including demands by other countries to intervene. The ICJ does have a tool to address the mismatch between the tempo of its proceedings and the urgency of catastrophic situations like Gaza. In 2024, it issued three sets of 'provisional measures', in the form of instructions to Israel, responding to South Africa's requests. In January last year, the ICJ ruled that the claim of genocide was 'plausible' and acknowledged 'the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is at serious risk of deteriorating further before the court renders its final judgment'. It ordered Israel to 'take all measures within its power' to stop acts of genocide, and incitement to genocide from being committed and take 'immediate and effective measures' to allow aid into Gaza. In March 2024 it added more measures demanding humanitarian assistance should be allowed to enter, and in May, it ordered the Israeli offensive on the southern city of Rafah to cease and the Rafah crossing from Egypt to be reopened to aid deliveries. Israel almost entirely ignored the provisional measures and rejected the genocide accusation as 'outrageous and false', and South Africa has sought no further measures, despite the periods of total blockade Israel imposed on Gaza this year. According to a source close to its legal team, the intense pressure from Washington has had an effect. In February, Donald Trump issued an executive order halting aid to South Africa, castigating it for its stand at the ICJ, made alleging, without evidence, that the country's white Afrikaners were 'victims of unjust racial discrimination'. The South African government has insisted it has no intention of dropping the Gaza case however. Quite apart from the ICJ's deliberately ponderous pace, is the very high standard of proof required to arrive at a genocide judgment. On the page, the 1948 Genocide Convention does not set a high bar, defining genocide as the intentional destruction 'in whole or in part' a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. In its interpretation of the convention however, the ICJ has required 'fully conclusive' evidence that an accused state had genocide intent in committing mass killings and there were no other feasible, competing motives, such as counter-insurgency or territorial acquisition. Under that standard, the court has yet to rule against any country for genocide. The current panel of judges have an opportunity to moderate that daunting standard in a genocide case which will precede Gaza – Myanmar's atrocities against the Rohingya people, which is expected to start hearings early next year. Even without a change on the ICJ benchmark, a growing number of legal scholars believe that in its actions in Gaza, Israel is crossing even that high bar. 'While it's really slow and frustrating, one of the benefits of [the ICJ's deliberate pace] is that when the court, almost inevitably I think at this point, finds that Israel has been committing genocide, we will be able to say that there is no doubting this conclusion,' McIntyre said. Whatever the outcome, many experts in international humanitarian law argue that a fixation on a genocide verdict could be a dangerous distraction, delaying decisive action by the international community as it waits for an ICJ verdict while demonstrable crimes against humanity are allowed to continue. 'The problem with this kind of fixation is it contains a kind of underlying suggestion that if it doesn't meet the legal definition of genocide, it's OK,' Becker said. 'It causes people to lose sight of the fact that if we're talking about genocide, we're already in a very grave situation to start with. It shouldn't actually require genocide for there to be an obligation to step in or to take action.'
Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
ANDREW PIERCE: How humiliating! Starmer could lose seat to Corbyn ally
After his disastrous first 12 months in No 10, most polls already point to Sir Keir Starmer losing the next general election. But will he forfeit his Commons seat as well? That indignity looks increasingly likely thanks to the efforts of his predecessor as Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who was expelled from the party last May. Over the past week, Jezza's newly launched rival party has set up shop in Holborn & St Pancras, the north London constituency held by Starmer since 2015. More worrying for the PM is the candidate who will contest the seat for Corbyn's party at the next election: Andrew Feinstein, the pro-Palestinian activist who ran as an independent in the constituency last year. He secured an astonishing 19 per cent of the vote, slashing Starmer's majority from 28,000 to just 11,000. Next time round, with the resources of Corbyn's party behind him, Feinstein is likely to fight an even more effective campaign. And his supporters are confident it will take him all the way to Westminster. PS Whispers from the Westminster cloisters: Keir Starmer has fallen out with his Commons Chief Whip, Sir Alan Campbell. I'm told Campbell was unhappy when Starmer and his sidekick Morgan McSweeney suspended York MP Rachael Maskell from the Labour Party for rebelling over benefits cuts. Prime Ministers seldom prosper when they argue with their Chief Whips – and Campbell is nobody's fool. He was hardly known for his charm and good manners when it came to his successor Margaret Thatcher, but it seems former PM Ted Heath was just as rude to his staff. Lord Patten remembers being summoned to Heath's Piccadilly apartment in the mid-1970s. Patten and his colleagues arrived at 9am but Heath did not appear until 10am – in a kimono. 'About 1pm, his housekeeper comes in with a silver tray with a bottle of Chablis, a plate of lobster salad, and some brie and camembert,' recalls Patten, who hadn't even been offered a coffee. 'As Heath tucked in, he asked: 'Have you had anything to eat, boys?' We said: 'No, Ted, we haven't.' He said, 'Aww, you must be very hungry then.' That was it.' Jets on a wing and a prayer Labour's commitment to hike defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP by 2035 will include the purchase from US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin of 12 F-35 stealth jets, which can carry nuclear warheads. So how much will they cost? Cue this answer from defence minister Maria Eagle: 'Prices will be identified during contract negotiations.' No wonder the defence procurement budget is in such a mess. Tory culture spokesman Nigel Huddleston can't be accused of not being on top of his, er, brief at the lower end of the arts. His brother-in-law was a member of all-male strip troupe the Chippendales, and even stripped off at the Tory MP's wedding in 1999. Sadly, he no longer provides that kind of entertainment. As Nigel says: 'They retire young in that line of work.' On his Rosebud podcast, former MP Gyles Brandreth says he was proud to watch his MP daughter Aphra in a Commons debate she initiated: 'Watching her speaking was moving, and she was brilliant. What was interesting was the subject... potholes!' Political leaders like to bask in the reflected glory of giving awards to rock stars, but Noddy Holder, lead singer of Slade, has gone one better than Sirs Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart and Paul McCartney. He's been offered a token Lordship... from the Monster Raving Loony Party.
The Guardian
4 hours ago
- The Guardian
Daughter of woman murdered by man who US deported speaks out: ‘He was denied due process'
The daughter of a woman murdered by a man from Laos who is among those controversially deported from the US to South Sudan has spoken out about her family's pain but also to decry the lack of rights afforded to those who were expelled to countries other than their own. Birte Pfleger lives in Los Angeles and was a history student at Cal State University in Long Beach when her parents came to visit her from their native Germany in 1994 and ended up shot by Thongxay Nilakout during a robbery while on a sightseeing trip. Pfleger's mother, Gisela, was killed and her father, Klaus, wounded. Nilakout, now 48, is Laotian and was among eight convicted criminals from countries including Mexico, Cuba, Vietnam and Myanmar who were deported to the conflict-torn African country, amid uproar over Donald Trump's extreme immigration policies. In an interview with the Guardian, Pfleger said: 'It's been 31 years living with the irreparable pain and permanent grief, so, on the one hand, I wanted him gone. On the other hand, I'm a historian and I have taught constitutional history. He was denied due process and that's a constitutional problem.' The government of South Sudan has not disclosed the men's exact whereabouts since arriving in the country earlier this month, after legal problems had caused them to be stuck in nearby Djibouti after legal wrangling, or provided any details about their future. A lawyer representing the men said 'their situation is fragile,' noting their relatives have not heard from the deportees since a US military plane flew them to Juba, South Sudan's capital, before midnight on 4 July. A police spokesperson in South Sudan, Maj Gen James Monday Enoka, indicated that the men may ultimately be moved on. 'They will be investigated, the truth will be established and if they are not South Sudanese they will be deported to their rightful countries,' Enoka said. But few details are forthcoming. The US Department of Homeland Security called the men 'sickos'. The deportations had been initially blocked by US district judge Brian Murphy, who had ruled that the group needed to receive notice and due process before being taken to South Sudan, including the opportunity to express fear of being harmed or tortured there. But in a 7-2 ruling, the US supreme court paused Murphy's orders, clearing all obstacles preventing the Trump administration's plan. Just days after the ruling, the administration issued a memo suggesting officials would ramp up deportations to third countries with little notice and due process. The directive by Todd Lyons, acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), said US officials may deport migrants to countries other than their own with as little as six hours' notice, even if those third party nations have not made assurances about their safety. Legal experts have objected. 'We are going to continue to fight the policy that conflicts with the statute, the regulations and with the constitution,' said Trina Realmuto, executive director of the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, an organization leading a class-action lawsuit against Ice. The UN human rights office denounced the action and urged the US to halt deportations to third-party countries. More than 250 Venezuelans have just been repatriated after being deported by the US without due process to a brutal anti-terrorism prison in El Salvador. Previously a multinational group of migrants was sent to Panama from the US and ended up trapped in a hotel then caged in a jungle setting, while more recently another group was deported to the tiny African kingdom of Eswatini, which critics there described as 'human trafficking' and lamented the prospect of more to follow. 'International law is clear that no one shall be sent anywhere where there are substantial grounds for believing that the person would be in danger of being subjected to serious human rights violations such as torture, enforced disappearance or arbitrary deprivation of life,' the UN said in a statement. Nilakout was 17 when he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his murderous attack on Birte Pfleger's parents. In 2012, the US supreme court ruled that life without parole was unconstitutional for minors. After nearly 30 years behind bars, Nilakout became eligible for parole in 2022, despite a challenge from Pfleger, and was released from a California state prison the following year. He was picked up in Trump's mass deportation dragnet after the Republican president returned to the White House in January. Pfleger, now a history professor at Cal State University in Los Angeles, said she felt conflicted when she found out that Nilokaut had been deported to South Sudan. 'The moral dilemma here is that he should have never been let out of prison. But once he was released from prison, Ice should have been able to deport him, or he should have self-deported to Laos. But of course, what happened is he was put on a Gulfstream jet headed for South Sudan that violated a federal judge's orders to give notice. He and the others were denied due process,' she said. Pfleger continued: 'I am not involved in victims' rights organizations or anything like that. I have not gone to law school, but I have read the constitution and the history of it. And I think that due process rights are fundamental. And when they're no longer fundamental, we all have a problem.' The pain for Pfleger and her sister of losing their mother and their father being wounded having watched his wife get shot and being unable to help her persists, and the family had not expected Nilakout to be freed, she said, adding that her father, Klaus, is 93 and frail. My mom was everything to him,' she said. In a statement, the government of South Sudan cited 'the longstanding support extended by the United States' during its fight for independence and its post-independence development, for the latest cooperation. Between 2013 and 2016, a civil war killed 400,000 people in South Sudan. Earlier this year, the threat of a new war breaking out pushed the US embassy to issue a level 4 warning to Americans not to go to South Sudan because of crime, kidnapping and armed conflict there. The German government recently warned, via the foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, posting on social media that: 'After years of fragile peace, South Sudan is again on the brink of civil war.' The UN commission on human rights in South Sudan warned 'We are witnessing an alarming regression that could erase years of hard-won public progress.' The UN added that a humanitarian crisis was looming with half the country already suffering food insecurity and two million internally displaced, with a further two million having fled the violence to seek sanctuary in neighboring countries.
