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15, December 2024

The Holy Father touches down in Corsica for first papal visit ⁰

Pope Francis’ one-day visit to the French island of Corsica on Sunday, two days before his 88th birthday, puts a dual focus on the Mediterranean, highlighting local traditions of popular piety on the one hand and migrant deaths and wars on the other.

The visit to Corsica’s capital Ajaccio, birthplace of Napoleon, will be one of the briefest of his papacy beyond Italy’s borders, just about nine hours on the ground, including a 40-minute visit with French President Emmanuel Macron.

It is the first papal visit to the island, which Genoa ceded to France in 1768 and is located closer to the Italian mainland than France.

Corsica stands out from the rest of secularized France as a particularly devout region, with 92 confraternities, or lay associations dedicated to works of charity or piety, with over 4,000 members.

“It means that there is a beautiful, mature, adult and responsible collaboration between civil authorities, mayors, deputies, senators, officials and religious authorities,’’ Ajaccio Cardinal François Bustillo told The Associated Press. “There is no hostility between the two. And that is a very positive aspect because in Corsica there is no ideological hostility.”

Papa Francescu, the pope’s name in Corsican, will address more than 400 participants at the Conference on Popular Religiosity in the Mediterranean, organized by the bishop of Ajaccio, Cardinal Francois-Xavier Bustillo.

The pope’s remarks will include reflections on local religious traditions, especially strongly held in Corsica, including the cult of the Virgin Mary, known locally as the Madunnuccia, which protected the island from the plague in 1656 when it was still under Genoa.

“The Mediterranean is the backdrop of this trip, surrounded by situations of crisis and conflict,’’ which is expected to be echoed in the pope’s address, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said. The pope has often referred to the tragedy of migration, which he has said has turned the Mediterranean into “Europe’s largest cemetery.”

After the conference address, he will travel to the 17th-century cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta to meet with clergy, stopping along the way at the statue of the Madunnuccia. Francis will celebrate Mass at the Place d’Austerlitz park, where it is said Napoleon played as a child. Around 7,000 faithful are expected. He will meet privately with Macron at the airport before departing for the 50-minute flight back to Rome.

The pontiff pointedly did not make the trip to Paris earlier this month for the pomp surrounding the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral following the devastating 2019 fire. The visit to Corsica seems far more suited to Francis’ priorities than a grand cathedral reopening, emphasizing the “church of the peripheries.”

It is Francis’ third trip to France, each time avoiding Paris and the protocols that a state visit entails. He visited the port of Marseille in 2023, on an overnight visit to participate in an annual summit of Mediterranean bishops, and went to Strasbourg in 2014 to address the European Parliament and Council of Europe.

Corsica is home to more than 340,000 people and has been part of France since 1768. But the island has also seen pro-independence violence and has an influential nationalist movement, and last year Macron proposed granting it limited autonomy.

Source: AP

13, December 2024

Biya regime dismisses 450 state employees ⁰

The Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reform, Joseph Le announced in a statement dated December 10, 2024, that he had signed a new series of decrees ordering the dismissal and revocation of certain civil servants and state employees governed by the Labor Code. These new sanctions affect 450 personnel (319 civil servants and 131 state employees under the Labor Code), bringing the total number of dismissals and revocations to 4,027 to date.

“However, those who believe they have been unfairly sanctioned may submit an appeal to the Superior Council of the Civil Service,” the minister reminded in his statement.

In the communiqué, Joseph Le emphasized the legitimacy of these measures, clarifying that they were taken in accordance with existing regulations, particularly the decree of October 7, 1994, on the General Statute of the Civil Service, amended and supplemented by the decree of October 12, 2000, as well as the decree of November 9, 1978, outlining common provisions applicable to state employees governed by the Labor Code.

This round of terminations falls within the framework of the contentious phase of the Physical Counting of State Personnel (Coppe) operation, aimed at cleaning up the government payroll database by removing irregular personnel entries. The reasons for this regularization include unjustified absences, undeclared resignations, or unreported deaths. The operation is scheduled to conclude in 2025, after which all affected personnel will be removed from the Civil Service in accordance with the president’s directives outlined in the circular of October 23, 2024, regarding the preparation of the 2025 budget.

According to the minister, the dismissed personnel are part of a group of 8,766 public employees at risk of sanctions. Despite the issuance of numerous notices to these employees, only 601 of them responded to requests for explanations and, in some cases, appeared before the Permanent Disciplinary Council of the Civil Service, explained. He added that further waves of dismissals and revocations cannot be ruled out.

Source: Sbbc

13, December 2024

Niger suspends BBC radio for ‘spreading false news’ ⁰

Niger on Thursday announced it was suspending BBC radio for three months, with the British broadcaster joining the growing list of Western media sanctioned by military juntas in the Sahel.

The ban on the BBC – accused of airing “erroneous information likely to destabilise social peace and undermine the morale of the troops” fighting jihadists – will come into force “with immediate effect” countrywide, the leadership said.

Popular BBC programmes including ones in the Hausa language are broadcast in Niger via local radio partners.

Since seizing power in a July 2023 coup, the military government has banned several Western media outlets.

Besides the BBC, two French broadcasters, Radio France Internationale (RFI) and France 24, have been banned there since August 2023.

On Thursday evening, the junta also said it was “filing a complaint” against RFI.

No programme in particular was mentioned in the decisions taken concerning the BBC and RFI.

But on Wednesday both broadcasters reported that jihadists had killed 90 soldiers and upwards of 40 civilians in Chatoumane, in the western Tera region bordering Burkina Faso teeming with armed fighters.

Although AFP was unable to verify those numbers from an independent local source, a Western security source told AFP that 90 to 100 people died in Tuesday’s attack.

‘Baseless assertions’

But on Wednesday Niger’s junta denied the attack happened, describing reports of the atrocity as “baseless assertions” and a “campaign of intoxication”.

For years Niger – along with its two neighbours Burkina Faso and Mali – has been plagued by jihadist violence.

The frontier lands straddling the three states – where Tuesday’s attack is said to have taken place – have long been a hideout for jihadists linked to the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda.

All three of those Sahel countries have experienced military coups in recent years, and Niger’s fellow juntas have likewise suspended foreign media outlets.

With the three turning their backs on former colonial ruler France, many French media outlets have been suspended on accusations of being propaganda mouthpieces for Paris.

Other voices deemed critical of the military authorities have been silenced.

All three juntas have turned towards Russia for their security needs and expelled French troops stationed in the Sahel to fight against jihadists.

Niger’s army occasionally releases official reports on some of the jihadists’ attacks, which it says are carried out by “terrorists”.

On Wednesday it announced the death of 10 soldiers in an attack the previous day in the west of the country.

Near the borders with Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria, Niger’s far southeast also faces attacks from Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP) group.

Jihadist attacks have killed at least 1,500 civilians and troops in Niger in the past year, according to conflict monitoring group ACLED – more than double the 650 killed from July 2022 to July 2023.

Source: AFP

12, December 2024

Swedish prosecutor closes rape inquiry against Kylian Mbappe ⁰

An investigation into alleged rape and sexual assault in Stockholm which Swedish media said targeted Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe has been closed due to insufficient evidence, the Swedish prosecutor said Thursday.

Mbappe, the 25-year-old Frenchman who is one of the highest-profile players in world football, visited the Swedish capital October 9-11 with a group of people after he was left out of his country’s squad for a Nations League match.

Sweden’s prosecution authority announced on October 15 that it was investigating an alleged incident that occurred at an upscale Stockholm hotel on October 10, without mentioning the suspect by name.

Several Swedish media outlets, including newspapers Aftonbladet and Expressen and public broadcaster SVT, identified Mbappe as the suspect.

“My assessment is that the evidence is not sufficient to proceed and the investigation is therefore closed,” prosecutor Marina Chirakova said in a statement that also did not mention Mbappe by name.

Chirakova said the person in question had not been interrogated and “not been notified of suspicion of a crime”.

“I have concluded, based on what has emerged in the case, that new evidence, including interrogations of the person in question, would not change the evidence situation right now,” she told AFP.

She said her team had nonetheless “conducted a large number of interviews in the investigation”.

Petra Eklund, the lawyer for the plaintiff, whose name has not been disclosed, told AFP she had “no comment” to the news that the case had been closed.

Mbappe’s lawyer said in October that he was “shocked” to see his name linked to the investigation.

Speaking for the first time about the case on Sunday, he told French television show Clique he was “not involved”.

“I haven’t received anything, no summons… I’m not involved,” he said.

According to Aftonbladet, Mbappe and his entourage dined at a restaurant one evening before going on to a nightclub.

The complaint was filed on October 12 after the alleged victim had sought medical attention, according to the newspaper.

Expressen reported that police had seized some clothing as evidence, saying it consisted of women’s underwear, a pair of black trousers and a black top. Photographs showed police officers leaving the hotel with brown bags.

Difficult season

Mbappe joined Madrid this summer after seven years at Paris Saint-Germain and has stayed clear of scandal in his private life.

The forward, who is known for carefully managing his image through a close network of family, lawyers and spokespeople, has become one of the world’s highest paid players after a stellar career that began when he was barely into his teens.

He has had a difficult season since moving to reigning European champions Real Madrid from PSG in the summer, failing to find his top form.

However the Frenchman scored in Madrid’s 3-2 win against Italian side Atalanta on Tuesday which revived Real’s flagging bid to regain their Champions League title.

Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham were all on the scoresheet in Bergamo as Madrid moved up to 20th place in the Champions League table, on nine points from six matches.

The Spanish giants would have been at risk of dropping out of the Champions League play-off places if they had lost.

Mbappe won the World Cup as a teenager in 2018 in Russia and scored a hat-trick in the 2022 final in Qatar which France lost on penalties to Lionel Messi’s Argentina.

At PSG he was part of a superstar trio with Messi and Brazilian forward Neymar, but the Qatar-owned club were unable to win the Champions League.

Source: AFP

12, December 2024

Unity Palace: Goodbye Rear-Admiral Joseph Fouda ⁰

After a heated argument with First Lady Chantal Biya, Rear-Admiral Joseph Fouda was drummed out of the Unity Palace accused of fraud.

He headed no unit of the Cameroonian armed forces, nor did he even grace its highest ranks, let alone did he earn President Paul Biya’s eternal gratitude by rescuing him from some plot or other, but Rear-Admiral Joseph Fouda was the most important military man of the last 20 years – nearly half the President’s time in power. Now, he is gone.

For more than two decades, he helped the 91-year-old President Biya to resist the intrigues and internal quarrels that undermined the presidential entourage. Through him, Biya avoided pitfalls and dodged cheap tricks.

Rear Admiral Joseph Fouda was indeed a very loyal aide-de-camp to Paul Biya and remains one of the oldest and closest collaborators of the head of state – a unique link that was forged in the corridors of power. Fouda is now a thing of the past.

Rita Akana with files from Africa Confidential

11, December 2024

Cameroon Concord Person of the Year 2024: Longue Longue, the musician ⁰

In this year’s razor-thin Cameroon Concord News Group contest, singer Longue Longue received the nod over Samuel Eto’o. According to our Yaoundé Bureau Chief, Cameroon Concord readers decided that Longue Longue is the one to receive Cameroon Concord News Group’s annual distinction.

So, we of the Cameroon Concord News Group are today announcing singer Simon Longkana Agno, aka Longue Longue as our annual Person of the Year.

We were preparing to publish a headline “Men of the Year” rather than “Person of the Year” as Samuel Eto’o was reportedly neck-to-neck with Longue Longue. But Eto’o’s boycott of the veteran’s international friendly against Brazil was indeed counterproductive for the man who was one of the world’s best strikers in the 2000s, and who was elected president of the Cameroonian Football Federation on December 12, 2021.

Longue Longue narrowly defeated Samuel Eto’o for the Cameroon Concord Person of the Year title, which recognizes the person who, for better or worse, has had the most impact on the year’s events.

On fighting for human rights in Cameroon, Longue Longue remains a study in resoluteness and mastery.

Cameroon Concord People voted for Longue Longue for midwifing a new human rights order and a new quest for justice in Cameroon that has had a decidedly favorable impact on the course of events in Yaoundé and in Paris.

Longue Longue singlehandedly remade and united the Cameroonian nation by exposing the evil perpetuated on innocent citizens by the regime in Yaoundé.

Longue Longue’s amiable demeanor tapped into a desire to liberate the entire Francophone Africa with his songs earned him huge support from our readers all over the world particularly from the diaspora in Europe and North America.

Longue Longue, renowned for making hits about bad governance in Cameroon, colonialism and other social ills was seen in a video recorded in a Douala gendarmerie station, hands cuffed behind his back, sitting on the floor in his underwear as the soles of his bare feet are beaten with a flat machete.

The ruling CPDM crime syndicate said in a poorly worded statement that they have “opened an investigation into the Longue Longue incident.”

Longue Longue went through all of this for the Cameroonian people and for his freedom of thought.

Cameroonians watched Longue Longue in panic with his underpants underneath a chair!

Cameroonians watched a leg standing on Longue Longue’s knee!

Cameroonians watched the arrest of Longue Longue in 2019 after posting a video saying that the 91-year-old President Biya had rigged the 2018 election and that Maurice Kamto of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement was the rightful winner of the polls.

Longue Longue’s torture video is indeed a reminiscent of the horrific treatment Cameroonian opposition figures, journalists, Southern Cameroons activists including Roman Catholic clerics are facing under the 42-year- old Biya regime.

The renowned Barrister Akere Muna said Longue Longue’s treatment was a “stark reminder of the depths of depravity to which humanity can descend”.

More than three decades after he left Yabassi to Douala on the back of a truck for a job that eventually gave him nothing; Longue Longue won the Makossa Best Artist Award after his huge success with the album “Ayo Africa”.

He told the Cameroonian people to always wait for God’s time. “There is nothing to do but wait” he said instead of rushing to consult witch doctors to be successful in life.

He is the first Cameroonian singer to get a majority of the Cameroon Concord News vote. Only Archbishop Andrew Nkea had done that in all of our history.

We of the Concord Group are proud of his work as a singer and also as an activist, singing against injustice and fighting for human rights in Cameroon. We today congratulate Longue Longue for the richly deserved recognition accorded him by a tremendous majority of Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report readers. 2025 will bring more success stories to the Cameroonian nation.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

11, December 2024

Ban on NGOs: Rebecca Enonchong weighs in on Atanga Nji’s performance ⁰

Despite Paul Atanga Nji’s continued stay in office as Minister of Territorial Administration, his recent suspension of several NGOs is now being branded a disaster by many including renowned businesswoman Rebecca Enonchong.

Biya regime suspended the activities of several NGOs and associations for three months, and banned two other entities. The decision was defended by Paul Atanga Nji, Minister of Territorial Administration, who justified it on the grounds of suspected illicit financing, money laundering and terrorist financing.

The organisations targeted by this measure include the Charitable Socio-cultural Association of Cameroon (ACSCC), Reach Out Cameroon (ROC), the Réseau des droits humains en Afrique centrale (REDHAC) and the L.M Nanje Foundation INC. The suspensions and bans were issued without prior notice, sending shockwaves through the human rights community.

On social network X, Rebecca Enonchong denounced the measure. ‘Suspending human rights groups by an administrative measure, without due process, is pure provocation. Defending these organisations is our duty. We cannot allow our common rights to be flouted with impunity’ noted the businesswoman.

Atanga Nji, the conman par excellence had told his bosses in Yaoundé that if accorded the territorial administration portfolio, he would end the crisis in Southern Cameroons given that he knew the terrain and was an Anglophone.

The man with very limited formal education is now seeing the end of the massive scam that his government has put in place and has decided to destroy the civil society.

By Rita Akana

10, December 2024

Israel’s Netanyahu takes the stand in historic corruption trial ⁰

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu takes the stand on Tuesday in his long-running trial for alleged corruption, setting off what’s expected to be a weeks-long spectacle that will draw unwelcome attention to his legal woes as he faces an international arrest warrant for war crimes and the fighting in Gaza continues.

It is the first time an Israeli prime minister is testifying as a criminal defendant, an embarrassing milestone for a leader who has tried to cultivate an image as a sophisticated and respected statesman.

Netanyahu arrived at the packed courtroom ahead of his testimony, appearing at ease and shaking hands with members of his Likud party who were in attendance. Before taking the stand, Netanyahu’s lawyer laid out the defense’s case, and attempted to poke holes in the indictment.

Netanyahu will answer during his court appearances to charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases.

He is accused of accepting tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of cigars and champagne from a billionaire Hollywood producer in exchange for assisting him with personal and business interests. He is also accused of promoting advantageous regulation for media moguls in exchange for favorable coverage of himself and his family.

Netanyahu, 75, denies wrongdoing, saying the charges are a witch hunt orchestrated by a hostile media and a biased legal system out to topple his lengthy rule. His testimony caps years of scandals that have swirled around him and his family.

“Eight years I’ve waited for this day. Eight years I have waited to present the truth. Eight years I am waiting to knock down once and for all these deluded and absurd charges against me,” Netanyahu said defiantly on the eve of his testimony. “These investigations were born of sin. There was no offense, so they found an offense.”

Dozens of people gathered outside of the court in Tel Aviv, some protesting against Netanyahu, including family members of hostages held in Gaza, and also a group of his supporters. A banner draped in front of the court read: “Crime Minister.”

Under Israeli law, indicted prime ministers are not required to step down. But the charges against Netanyahu cleaved deep divisions in Israel, with protesters demanding he resign and former political allies refusing to serve in government with the Israeli leader, triggering a political crisis that led to five elections in less than four years beginning in 2019.

Netanyahu’s supporters view the charges as the result of the justice system’s bias and overreach.

Despite the pressure, the polarizing Netanyahu has rejected calls to step down and has used his position as prime minister to lash out at law enforcement, media and courts.

The testimony, set to take place six hours a day, three days a week for several weeks, will take up a significant chunk of Netanyahu’s working hours, prompting critics to ask if he can capably manage a country embroiled in a war on one front, containing the fallout from a second, and keeping tabs on other potential regional threats, including from Iran or the recent fall of Bashar Assad in Syria.

An Israeli court rejected a request by Netanyahu’s lawyers to reduce the expected testimony hours, as well as several other requests to delay the start of the testimony, which they said were necessary because of the prime minister’s busy schedule and the country’s significant challenges.

Source: FRANCE 24 with AP

10, December 2024

Biya’s live facial recognition project still trying to identify a banker ⁰

The President of Cameroon, Paul Biya, last week directed his government to source for money from a Chinese bank for the partial financing of a national video surveillance project with live facial recognition.

The move comes weeks after another Chinese partner, China Construction Bank Corporation (CCBC), decided to discontinue negotiations to offer the government a loan of FCFA 33 billion (approximately US$52 million).

In a decree signed on December 2, the president asked the Minister of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Alamine Ousmane Mey, to sign a loan agreement with the Shenzhen branch of China Citic Bank Corporation Ltd worth $52 million for the partial financing of the project’s second phase.

At the close of September, Cameroon’s debt management company (CAA) disclosed in a public debt report that CCBC had decided to withdraw from the deal. Although the CAA’s report didn’t mention CCBC by name or the reason for the withdrawal, it is clear that an authorization had been given in 2021 to contract a loan with the bank for the project, as reported by Business in Cameroon.

In March this year, the government also got presidential authorization to secure another loan from the Hong Kong branch of Banco Santander for the same project.

The funding from these two banks, when obtained, will enable the government to start the second phase of the facial recognition project which will see the construction of command and data centers in each of the ten regional capital of the country, installation of base stations, and the inter-connection of police services for more efficient crime detection.

Phase I of the project has already been completed with hundreds of CCTV camera planted in the two largest cities of Yaounde and Douala, as well as in other regional cities. This phase has already seen the construction of two major command centers, the second of which was inaugurated last year in Douala.

Apart from capturing crime scenes, the system is meant to record traffic accidents, disruption of road traffic such as through violation of traffic lights, or any other form of urban disorder that warrants prompt police intervention.

It is being implemented by the General Delegation for National Security (DGSN) in partnership with Cameroon’s state-owned telecommunications company (CAMTEL) and Chinese tech giant Huawei. Huawei supports similar video surveillance projects in other African countries in what appears to be a growing trend across the continent.

The video surveillance projects, despite the advantages touted by governments, have faced criticism from digital rights advocates over concerns related to privacy and human rights.

Source: Biometricupdate

9, December 2024

Francophone-Anglophone education systems: Nalova explains Baccalaureate pass rate harmonization ⁰

The passing grade for the francophone general baccalaureate in Cameroon was set at 10 out of 20 to ensure “equity” between the francophone and anglophone education systems, Minister of Secondary Education Nalova Lyonga told lawmakers.

“In previous years, students in the francophone subsystem were admitted to exams with an average score below 10, whereas those in the anglophone subsystem had to achieve a score of 10 or higher,” Minister Nalova Lyonga said during a December 4 appearance before the National Assembly’s Finance Committee. This decision was necessary to “harmonize the two subsystems,” she explained.

This harmonization led to a dramatic decline in the 2024 francophone baccalaureate pass rate, which fell to 37%, the lowest in 20 years.

The Ministry of Secondary Education did not provide an official explanation for the poor results, which were released in July. However, teachers interviewed said that unlike in previous years, there were no post-correction deliberations in 2024. These deliberations had previously allowed candidates with scores below 10 to be “rescued” by examination boards. As a result, only candidates who achieved a final average of 10 or higher after the exam grading were declared successful.

This policy is expected to continue. In September, during the start of the school year, Minister Lyonga announced in Bafoussam that there would be no further “rescues” for candidates scoring below an average of 10.

Source: Business in Cameroon