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WORLD NEWSThursday 28 December 2017

Liberia still tallying votes for election Cameroon frees U.S. professor
Held for criticizing government
By JON LAYLEH player George Weah led in ner will replace Ellen John-
Associated Press several counties, but elec- son Sirleaf, who is stepping By JOEL KOUAM
MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — tion authorities warned the down after two terms. Associated Press
Liberia’s National Elections two parties to “stop mak- Weah led the first round YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — A New York literature
Commission continued ing premature pronounce- of voting on Oct. 10 but professor held in the Central African nation of Camer-
tallying votes Wednesday ments.” didn’t get enough votes to oon since early this month after writing an article that
from the West African na- This is the first time in more win outright. The runoff was criticized the government was released Wednesday,
tion’s presidential runoff than 70 years the nation contested twice in court his lawyer said.
election between a foot- founded by freed Ameri- amid claims of irregularities, Stony Brook University Professor Patrice Nganang was
expelled from Cameroon and has been told not to
People wait to cast their votes during a Presidential runoff election in Monrovia, Liberia, Tuesday return to the country where he was born, lawyer Em-
Dec. 26, 2017. Young Liberians went straight from all-night Christmas celebrations to the polls manuel Simh said.
Tuesday for a runoff election between a former international soccer star and the vice president to Nganang, 37, who has dual citizenship in Cameroon
replace Africa’s first female head of state. and the United States, had faced a Jan. 19 hearing
after being detained Dec. 7. The court in Yaounde
(AP Photo/Abbas Dulleh) early Wednesday announced he would be let go and
that all charges against him were dropped.
ball star and the vice presi- can slaves will see one with its original Nov. 7 date The charges included issuing a death threat; insulting
dent who are competing democratically elected delayed. constitutional bodies, specifically the military; and in-
to replace Africa’s first fe- government hand power Nobel Peace Prize winner citing violence in a Facebook post, according to the
male head of state. to another. Results will be Sirleaf, 79, is stepping down New York City-based Committee to Protect Journalists
The commission said late announced progressively, after two terms in office and other supporters.
Wednesday that it would though the elections com- that brought the impover- Nganang, an essayist and novelist, wrote an article
begin announcing provi- mission has two weeks to ished country out of back- for weekly news magazine Jeune Afrique that was
sional results from Tuesday’s give final results. to-back civil wars and saw critical of how Cameroon’s government has handled
vote on Thursday. Nearly 2.2 million voters it grapple with a deadly a sometimes violent secessionist movement in some
State radio correspondents were choosing between Ebola outbreak. English-speaking areas of the country.
reported unofficial results the 51-year-old Weah and As polls closed on Tuesday, The English-speaking minority in Cameroon has com-
overnight indicating that 73-year-old Vice President election workers said turn- plained about discrimination by French speakers.
former international soccer Joseph Boakai. The win- out wasn’t as high.q Dozens have been arrested and killed in protests sup-
porting independence for some Anglophone regions.
Zimbabwe’s leader appoints new VP Tensions have mounted since November 2016, when
lawyers and teachers called for a strike to stop what
By FARAI MUTSAKA month. his other vice president, the they believe is the overuse of the French language.
Associated Press He had to retire from the Zimbabwe Herald newspa- Violence erupted when separatists joined in and start-
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — military to take up the posi- per reported, saying they ed asking for complete independence.
Zimbabwe’s new President tion, according to the con- were expected to be sworn Human rights groups, which have accused Camer-
Emmerson Mnangagwa stitution. in Thursday morning. oon authorities of trying to silence opposition voices,
has appointed the coun- Mnangagwa took power Mnangagwa over the had urged Nganang’s release.
try’s former military com- after Chiwenga led a mili- weekend appointed Chi- “We can only be very happy, when we have an un-
mander as one of his two tary takeover in the south- wenga and Mohadi as lawfully and arbitrarily detained client, to see him re-
vice presidents, state-run ern African nation that vice presidents of the ruling leased,” Simh said.
media reported Wednes- forced Mugabe, then the ZANU-PF party, signaling Nganang’s wife, Nyasha Bakare, told The Associated
day, deepening concerns world’s oldest head of Wednesday’s move. Press by email Wednesday that her husband had be-
about the military’s influ- state at age 93, to resign Two former army generals gun his trip back to the United States and would arrive
ence after its ouster of Rob- amid impeachment pro- already hold powerful posts in Washington D.C. on Thursday.
ert Mugabe last month. ceedings after 37 years in in Mnangagwa’s cabinet, “We are so very happy that this 21-day ordeal is over,”
The appointment of Con- charge. while another general was Bakare wrote from Zimbabwe’s capital of Harare,
stantino Chiwenga was Mnangagwa has appoint- appointed as ruling ZANU- where she was with the couple’s 8-year-old daughter.
widely expected after ed former state security PF party commissar at a Bakare has said Nganang was on his way to join them
his retirement earlier this minister Kembo Mohadi as congress on Nov.15.q in Zimbabwe for the holidays when he was detained
at the airport in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde. The
family will reunite in New Jersey on Friday, she said.
“As I write this from Zimbabwe, where I recently wit-
nessed firsthand the fall of a dictator, Robert Mugabe,
who was only 2 years longer in office than Camer-
oon’s Paul Biya has been, I have to continue to hope
that tyrannies in Africa will soon come to an end,” Ba-
kare wrote.
Robert Harvey, a distinguished professor at Stony
Brook University who helped lead a campaign to get
Nganang released, said his colleague’s supporters
were overjoyed by the news.
“It’s just wonderful, we’re all ecstatic,” Harvey said.
He described Nganang as a professor “who believes
profoundly in the power of literature to improve us as
human beings.”
Nganang has been teaching in the United States
since 2000 and at Stony Brook University on eastern
Long Island since 2007, according to Harvey.q