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26, January 2024

Children of Nollywood actor Mr Ibu arrested ⁰

Two of popular Nigerian actor John Okafor’s children have been arrested for allegedly stealing money raised to pay for his hospital fees last year.

Known as Mr Ibu, the 62-year-old had a leg amputated in November after fans had donated to a crowd-funding scheme.

His son Daniel Okafor and adopted daughter Jasmine Chioma are accused of hacking into his phone and taking $60,700 (£47,800) for themselves.

The pair have not commented since their arrest in the city of Lagos.

The police issued a statement about their arrest and their investigation into the alleged fraud after the siblings appeared at a bailing hearing on Thursday.

A court said the two could be freed if a $17,000 bond was posted. They remain in custody.

The police’s criminal investigation unit said it had discovered that they had allegedly installed an app on their father’s phone after the fund-raising began.

This allegedly enabled them to start transferring money out of his account.

They are expected to appear in court on 11 March for the next hearing.

Mr Ibu’s health issues first came to public attention last October, when the family posted a video on social media of the Nollywood star celebrating in hospital. In the clip he asked his fans for help with medical bills, eliciting a huge response.

The actor became famous 20 years ago in the Nigerian comedy Mr Ibu – which became his nickname. It is still regarded as one of the best Nigerian performances in a comic role.

He went on to act in several other notable movies in Nollywood, as Nigeria’s multi-billion-dollar film industry is known, in a career that has spanned more than two decades.

The star told a local newspaper a few years ago that he had a total of 13 children some of whom were adopted.

Source: BBC

26, January 2024

Indomitable Lions face Super Eagles amid multiple clashes of AFCON champions ⁰

The clashes of champions pit Nigeria against Cameroon, Egypt against Democratic Republic of Congo, title-holders Senegal against Ivory Coast and Morocco against South Africa.

None of the other four matches feature a former winner, but 2015 semi-finalists Equatorial Guinea will attract attention after topping a group including more fancied Nigeria and Ivory Coast.

Looks at the eight matches and predicts which countries will advance to the quarter-finals of the African football showpiece.

Saturday

Angola v Namibia
This clash of southern Africa neighbours was totally unexpected given Angola had not gone beyond the group stage since being 2010 hosts and Namibia had been winless in three earlier appearances.
Angola overshadowed Algeria and Burkina Faso to top Group D with Gelson Dala scoring twice while Namibia stunned Tunisia, were crushed by South Africa, then exceeded expectations to hold Mali.
Prediction: Angola to win

Nigeria v Cameroon
When it comes to finals in the Cup of Nations Cameroon have won all three against Nigeria, who got the better of the Indomitable Lions in three other meetings.
A Victor Osimhen-led Nigerian attack have found goals hard to come by with just three in three matches, including a penalty and an own goal, but the Cameroon defence is far from impregnable.
Prediction: Nigeria

Sunday

Equatorial Guinea v Guinea
Equatorial Guinea captain Emilio Nsue, the leading tournament scorer with five goals, told his team “not to get carried away” after topping Group A through a shock 4-0 win over Ivory Coast.
Guinea are a team who regularly reach the knockout phase, then make little impact. They will hope fit-again Serhou Guirassy can recapture his Bundesliga scoring form.
Prediction: Equatorial Guinea

Egypt v Democratic Republic of Congo
It would have been hard to imagine before the tournament began that record seven-time champions Egypt would qualify without winning a match, but they drew all three in Group B.
The absence of injured talisman Mohamed Salah is a massive blow against a workmanlike Congolese side, led by impressive centre-back Chancel Mbemba, that also progressed after three draws.
Prediction: Egypt

Monday

Cape Verde v Mauritania
This is another tie that no neutral observer would have foreseen before Mauritania, after two unlucky losses, stunned two-time champions Algeria to finish third and squeeze through.
They need to avoid conceding free kicks in their half as Cape Verdean Bebe scored from a 40-metre set-piece against Mozambique. Holding Egypt suggests they will not be pushovers.

Prediction: Cape Verde
Senegal v Ivory Coast
While one of the favourites, Senegal have lost both previous Cup of Nations matches against Ivory Coast and must bury a jinx which has seen the last six holders fail to retain the trophy.
Ivory Coast fired coach Jean-Louis Gasset after being humiliated by Equatorial Guinea and caretaker Emerse Fae knows only a drastic improvement when attacking will offer any hope.
Prediction: Senegal

Tuesday

Mali v Burkina Faso
A clash of former runners-up with Malian Lassine Sinayoko and Burkinabe Bertrand Traore among eight players who have scored twice so far in the Ivory Coast.
Both sides are physically powerful, with Mali exploiting that factor in a group victory over South Africa, and they have been more impressive than rivals who surprisingly fell to Angola.
Prediction: Mali

Morocco v South Africa
While Morocco will be favourites, they have won only one of five meetings with South Africa, who rank among the most unpredictable teams in this tournament.
Outmuscled by Mali, they thrashed giantkillers Namibia, then fought a dour goalless draw with Tunisia. Morocco have several potential match-winners while South Africa rely on Themba Zwane.
Prediction: Morocco

26, January 2024

Football: Jurgen Klopp to step down as Liverpool manager at end of season ⁰

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is to step down from the role at the end of the season.

Klopp took over as Reds boss in October 2015 and his contract was due to run until 2026.

He led Liverpool to their first league title in 30 years in 2019-20, having won the Champions League the previous season.

“I told the club already in November,” the German told the Liverpool website.

Source: BBC

25, January 2024

Cameroon designer brings African couture to Paris Fashion Week ⁰

Imane Ayissi is on a mission to put authentic African textiles in the spotlight but faces an uphill battle as a pioneer African couturier at Paris Fashion Week in France.

The bark of the Obom tree, kente cloth from Ghana and kapok fibres from Burkina Faso are some of the textiles — little-known in Europe — that the Cameroonian turned into bespoke dresses for his haute couture show in Paris on Monday.

“Often when we talk about African fashion, we think of colorful fabrics that Africans actually only started wearing relatively recently,” Ayissi told AFP at his workshop ahead of the show.

Ayissi — who in 2020 became the first designer from Sub-Saharan Africa at haute couture week — seeks to resurrect more traditional fabrics like rafia, drawn from local trees and plants, that were used before the African market was flooded with imports during the colonial period.

Source: AFP

25, January 2024

UN peacekeepers honor Cameroon colleague killed last week in CAR ⁰

UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (CAR) paid tribute on Wednesday to peacekeeper Emmanuel Steve Atebele of Cameroon, who was killed last week by an explosive device, a UN spokesman said.

The Jan. 15 bombing attack in Mbindali in Ouham-Pende Prefecture also wounded five other peacekeepers. But they are all now in stable condition, said Stephane Dujarric, chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Dujarric said that the UN mission in CAR, known as MINUSCA, also reports that specialized units of the force, in coordination with the UN Mine Action Service, continue to work to minimize the risks linked to explosive devices.

He said they now regularly carry out clearances and destruction of unexploded ordnance operations and conduct awareness campaigns for the local population.

Peacekeepers have established a temporary operational base in Am-Dafock in Vakaga Prefecture, close to the border with Sudan, he said.

“This base will strengthen our efforts to secure the area and help prevent potential violence and tensions ahead of the seasonal movement of livestock, known as transhumance,” said the spokesman.

Source: Xinhuanet

25, January 2024

Schools reopen in Southern Cameroons ⁰

In the early morning in Buea, the chief town of Cameroon’s war-torn English-speaking region of the Southwest, 18-year-old Carine and her younger sister, Judith, are getting ready for school. But for these teenagers, it has been a long time coming.

Judith is 15 but is still in primary school. Carine was supposed to be in university, but she just started secondary school. They are among hundreds of thousands of children in the country’s two English-speaking regions of the Northwest and Southwest, who have resumed school after five years.

Carine and Judith had to stay at home since 2017 due to a persistent crisis in the regions, where separatists have been clashing with government forces in a bid to secede from the French-majority Cameroon and create an independent nation they call “Ambazonia”.

“I feel so happy I am able to attend school after five years. This is a dream come true,” Carine said in Buea, asking for her family name and school not to be published.

Judith and Carine fled the locality of Ekona in the region with their family in 2022 amid renewed fighting and relocated to Buea where they enrolled in school last year. Still reeling from her ordeal in the war-torn zone, Judith said she felt especially fortunate to go to school because some of her friends have not been able to study due to the conflict.

“Running up and down from bush to bush was difficult. Now I am focused on my studies to fulfill my dream of becoming a doctor,” said Judith who also asked for her family name not to be mentioned.

Fighting between government forces and armed separatists has made it too dangerous for formal lessons in the Anglophone regions of the Central African nation. Separatists enforced a school boycott in the troubled regions since 2016 to protest against what they described as educational injustices against English-speakers. The school boycott left more than 800,000 children out of school, according to UNICEF.

Now, schools are gradually reopening in safer areas of the regions after Cameroon’s military liberated more than 100 villages and schools from rebel occupation.

“In 2022, we expected 429 secondary schools to reopen, but only 233 functioned. In 2023, almost all the schools reopened, and this year, attendance has improved significantly,” said Hannah Mbua Etonde, chief of secondary education in the Southwest region.

“We are seeing students coming back to school in their numbers; many schools are also gradually reopening. The situation is generally improving,” said Adolph Lele Lafrique, governor of the Northwest region, adding that since the start of the year, there has been little or no attack on teachers, students and schools in the region.

The armed conflict is not over, but some separatist leaders are now encouraging children to return to school, saying a boycott is no longer a weapon of their struggle for independence. Parents here said they’re breathing a sigh of relief after the call for school resumption by the separatist leaders.

Augustine, whose name has been changed for safety reasons, teared up thinking of the bombing that leveled his son’s primary school in Batibo, a locality in the Northwest region but is determined to ensure the eighth-grader continues his studies. “My son’s school is not there anymore, but he has started school here in Buea. The most important thing is for our children to learn. Almost all schools are now functioning, and parents are no longer afraid to send their children to school,” he said.

“My humble plea as a parent to the administration is that security should be guaranteed 100 percent, 24/7 for our kids to go to school,” said Michael Njie whose child started school in 2022 after spending four years at home.

Improving school attendance is a top priority for the government given the war’s long-term social and economic impact on the country, its children, and the willingness of those who fled to return. Across the regions, authorities have been repairing damaged schools and building new ones.

As Cameroon joins the rest of the world to celebrate International Day for Education, officials have been visiting schools in the troubled regions to assure parents everything is under control and that their children will be safe.

“We just want to learn. Let them keep the guns away from schools and students,” Judith said.

By Haggai Fung Achuo

24, January 2024

South Africa expects ICJ judgment on Israeli genocide in Gaza on Friday ⁰

South Africa expects the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule this Friday on whether it will grant emergency measures to stop the Israeli genocidal campaign in the besieged Gaza Strip, a report says.

News website News24, citing two sources close to the matter, reported on Wednesday that a South African government delegation had touched down in The Hague in anticipation of the judgment.

South Africa’s justice ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri, however, in a social media post on X said: “We do not have an official communication from the court as to when the judgment will be delivered.”

South Africa filed the lawsuit against Israel at the end of December, after nearly three months of Israeli aggression against Palestinians in Gaza.

The lawsuit said Israel’s actions are “genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.”

The application also said Israeli attacks breach the UN’s Genocide Convention, and urged the court to “order Israel to cease killing and causing serious mental and bodily harm to Palestinian people in Gaza.”

Source: Presstv

24, January 2024

Clash of the Titans: Nigeria to face Cameroon in AFCON last 16 ⁰

The Super Eagles of Nigeria will face the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon in the Round of 16 of the African Cup of Nations on Saturday.

The fixture was confirmed after the Cameroonians rounded off the group stage with a pulsating 3-2 victory over the Gambia on Tuesday night.

By the win, they finished Group C with four points behind Senegal while Guinea who lost to the Teranga Lions also on Tuesday qualified for the knockout as one of the best losers.

Super Eagles reached the knockout stage after beating Guinea Bissau 1-0 on Monday.

The team finished Group A with seven points behind the surprise package, Equatorial Guinea.

In the game at the Stade de la Paix, Cameroon scored twice with time ticking away to snatch a dramatic win and one that eliminated Ghana from the tournament.

In an amazing finish in Bouake, Ebrima Colley scored on 85 minutes to put Gambia 2-1 up only for Joseph Gomez to concede an own goal before an added-time Christopher Wooh goal won a thriller.

Although Cameroon are 80 places above the Gambia in the world rankings, they came under considerable first-half pressure and were lucky to be level at 0-0 by half-time.

Source: Punch Nigeria

24, January 2024

Francis Ngannou capable of ‘massive upset’ against Joshua ⁰

Francis Ngannou can cause a “massive upset” by defeating Anthony Joshua in their heavyweight showdown in Saudi Arabia, according to veteran promoter Frank Warren.

British boxer Joshua heads into the March 8 fight looking to back-up his commanding stoppage-win over Sweden’s Otto Wallin in December as he continues his quest to become a three-time world champion.

But Warren believes Joshua will have his work cut out in a 10-round bout against the 37-year-old Cameroonian fighter Ngannou.

Best known as a mixed martial artist, Ngannou stunned many observers with an early knockdown of Tyson Fury, promoted by Warren, before suffering a controversial split-decision loss to the World Boxing Council heavyweight champion in October.

And Warren believes Ngannou’s punching power could pose problems for another British boxer in the 34-year-old Joshua when they meet in Riyadh.

“Joshua’s come into this after his last fight against Wallin,” Warren said Wednesday.

“He’ll be a big favourite going in, but I know that if he gets caught on the whiskers (chin) then this fella (Ngannou) could cause a massive upset because he can whack.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how he takes the fight and to see if he fights on the outside or the inside. Ngannou’s game is getting on the inside. He’s a big man, he’s strong.”

Joshua’s victory over Wallin was his third win of 2023 but Warren said his two defeats by Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk, the man who deprived him of the World Boxing Association, International Boxing Federation and and World Boxing Organisation belts, were proof of an enduring vulnerability.

“The two fights to Oleksandr Usyk, we can see what they are,” said Warren.

“People have seen him (Joshua) wobble a few times in fights, that happens with him. I’m not saying there’s a confidence issue, but there wasn’t that when he was such an emphatic fighter.”

Fury and Usyk will clash for the undisputed heavyweight title in Saudi Arabia on February 17.

The winner will be crowned the heavyweight division’s first undisputed champion since Lennox Lewis, who held all the major belts from 1999 to 2000.

Source: AFP

24, January 2024

Historic Mauritania victory condemns Algeria to shock AFCON exit ⁰

Former champions Algeria crashed out of the Africa Cup of Nations on Tuesday after losing 1-0 to Mauritania, who are 75 places lower in the world rankings.

Captain Mohamed Delllah Yaly scored after 37 minutes in Bouake for the Group D outsiders, who will fill one of four places reserved for third-placed finishers in the mini-league stage.

Angola defeated Burkina Faso 2-0 in the same section and topped the final standings with seven points. Burkina Faso (four) and Mauritania (three) also advanced to the knockout stage.

Champions in 1990 and 2019, Algeria came to the Ivory Coast among the favourites to win the African football showpiece only to depart without winning a match.

After draws with Angola and Burkina Faso, they were stunned by Mauritania, who had never won a Cup of Nations match in eight previous attempts spanning three editions.

The winners were constantly on the back foot, especially in the closing stages, but showed defensive resilience to pull off a famous victory.

Former Manchester City winger Riyad Mahrez arrived in west Africa as the standout Algerian, but poor performances in his first two matches saw him relegated to the bench for this match.

“It’s a fact that these have not been his best matches with Algeria, but don’t kill him too soon,” pleaded coach Djamel Belmadi before facing Mauritania.

The absence of Mahrez did not affect the Desert Foxes unduly for much of first half as they camped in Mauritanian territory seeking to break the deadlock.

Wild celebrations

Houssem Aouar connected with a low cross midway through the half and his sidefooted goal attempt flew narrowly wide.

Against the run of play, Mauritania took the lead on 37 minutes just after goalkeeper Anthony Mandrea conceded a corner having used his leg to block an Aboubakary Koita shot.

Algeria failed to clear the corner and when the ball returned to the area, Iraq-based captain Dellah Yaly struck the ball into the net off a post.

It was not the cleanest of strikes, but that did not matter as wild celebrations erupted after the underdogs took the lead in a Cup of Nations match for the first time.

Algeria responded by putting pressure on the Mauritanian defence again and Hicham Boudaoui was not far off target with a shot from just outside the box.

Belmadi turned to Mahrez, now playing in the lucrative Saudi Pro League, at half-time, bringing him on in place of Aouar to confront tall, well-organised opponents.

Koita squandered a chance to double the lead just before the hour mark, dribbling into the box before blazing over to the relief of Mandrea.

Almost immediately, Bodda Mouhsine was guilty of equally wild finishing from close range, after a Koita free-kick was deflected into his path.

At the other end, a perfectly weighted Mahrez cross led to a Boudaoui header being superbly tipped over by goalkeeper Babacar Niasse, who later foiled Aissa Mandi from point-blank range.

Source: AFP