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28, December 2023

Russia reopens Burkina Faso embassy after 32 years ⁰

Russia has reopened its diplomatic mission in Burkina Faso after a gap of nearly 32 years.

The West African country has been distancing itself from its historical partner France over the past year.

The Russian Embassy in Ouagadougou was reopened on Thursday. It was closed in 1992.

This was all announced by the government of Burkina Faso and separately confirmed by the Russian Ambassador to Ivory Coast Alexei Saltykov.

“Russia formally reopened its embassy this Thursday in Ouagadougou,” the Burkinabe Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

While announcing the news, Saltykov also said Russia’s President Vladimir Putin would name the new ambassador to Burkina Faso. Saltykov is to head the mission in the meantime.

“Despite our physical absence here, bilateral cooperation in the political and economic fields has never ceased,” he went on to say, describing Burkina Faso as “an old partner with whom we have solid and friendly ties.”

Burkina Faso, once under French rule, is currently ruled by a military junta led by Captain Ibrahim Traore which seized power in September, the second coup in eight months against pro-France governments.

After the coup, France recalled its ambassador from Ouagadougou and has not replaced the envoy.

Burkina Faso’s military leaders have suspended the French TV outlets LCI and France24 as well as Radio France Internationale (RFI) and expelled the correspondents of the French newspapers Liberation and Le Monde over their “subversive activities.”

In September, Burkina Faso’s Foreign Ministry ordered France’s military attaché Emmanuel Pasquier and his team to leave over “subversive activities.”

In October, the country signed a deal with Russia for the construction of a nuclear power plant to boost the energy supply to the Sahel nation.

Less than a quarter of the population in Burkina Faso has access to electricity.

Being one of the poorest countries in the world, Burkina Faso has been under the influence of terrorist groups linked to al-Qaeda and Daesh that have killed thousands of its citizens, creating one of the fastest-growing humanitarian crises in Africa.

Source: Presstv

28, December 2023

Africa Cup of Nations: Rigobert Song names strong 27 Indomitable Lions ⁰

Head coach of the Cameroon national team, Rigobert Song has named a provisional squad of 27 players likely to represent the Indomitable Lions during the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations, Ivory Coast 2023.

The five-time champions, who last won it in 2017 are drawn in Group C alongside Senegal, Gambia and Guinea.

The provisional squad:

GOALKEEPERS: André Onana, Epassy quote, Simon Ngapandouetnbu, Fabrice Ondoa

DEFENDERS: Jean-Charles Castelletto, Harold Moukoudi, Oumar Gonzalez, Darlin Yongwa, Nouhou Tolo, Christopher Wooh, Enzo Tchato, Junior Tchamadeu, Malcolm Bokele

MIDFIELDERS: Yvan Neyou, Olivier Kemen, Olivier Ntcham, André-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Wilfried Nathan Douala, Benjamin Elliot Njongue

FORWARDS: Karl Toko-Ekambi, George-Kevin Nkoudou, Vincent Aboubakar, Faris Pemi Moumbagna, François-Régis Mughe, Frank Magri, Leonel Ateba, Clinton Njié

All selections are provisional until the final list of 24 players is announced by CAF after the submission deadline on Wednesday, 03 January.

Source: CAFonline

28, December 2023

“Cameroon political system is more of gossiping and intimidation” Dr Joachim Arrey ⁰

As 2023 fades into history and 2024 looms large on the horizon, the Cameroon Concord News Group deems it necessary to talk to a keen observer of the Cameroonian political and economic landscape who will present the past to our readers and walk them into the New Year with relative ease. In this regard, the Group Chairman, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, talked to Dr. Joachim Arrey, the Executive Director of the Global Think Tank for Africa, a not-for-profit organization delivering humanitarian help to needy pupils, who is always willing to share his perspectives on key issues facing Cameroon, and he had this to say.

Cameroon Concord News: Good day! It’s been a long time since you shared your perspective on what is happening in Cameroon. Are you still interested in what is happening in your homeland?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: Thank you Mr. Chairman for reaching out to me. It has indeed been a long time since we shared perspectives on key political issues in Cameroon, but this is in no way my disengagement from our country’s political landscape. The older I get the more interest I develop in our country’s politics which leaves much to be desired. It is even a misnomer for us to characterize what is happening in Cameroon as politics. Our political system is more of gossiping and intimidation than the healthy politics we all clamoured for in the early 90s. Our fellow citizens have been put on a forceful diet of stress and starvation and many of them are losing weight against their will. Times are hard and a hungry stomach can easily be intimidated. Also remember that a hungry, ignorant and gullible people are easy prey for those with malicious and wicked political schemes. With our people yielding to the intimidation, our so-called advanced democracy has morphed into a full-blown dictatorship. However, it should be underscored that in politics, nobody intimidates you without your own approval. After more than forty years of humiliating and grinding poverty under a regime that is on a diet of power, our fellow citizens should understand Victor Hugo’s wise saying: “where dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right.” Silence may be golden, but in a situation of excruciating financial pain and suffering, silence will not deliver the bread-and-butter Cameroonians have been looking forward to for more than four decades.

Cameroon Concord News: You have always been anti-violence and you hold that real political alternation and change can only be a reality in Cameroon if the electoral code is changed; making sure that the bodies running elections in the country are totally independent of the government and its auxiliaries in the various regions. Do you see this happening anytime soon?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: Change has always been a work-in-progress and it requires patience and consistency. Anybody who expects a political miracle in Cameroon is surely not living on this planet. The Cameroon electoral system has been designed to serve an individual who has surrounded himself with hungry and desperate people. Senators, parliamentarians and appointed officials in the country are hungry and desperate and they hold that he who has made it possible for them to climb to the pinnacle of politics in Cameroon is their God. These people are going to use whatever means are available to them to keep things as they are. However, it behooves the population and key opposition players to mount pressure on a regime which is on its last leg for things to change. Strangely, the population has resigned itself to fate, hoping that there would be some divine intervention on its behalf. Unfortunately, miracles only happen to those who manufacture them. The people of Cameroon must start acting in a different way. Heaven helps only those who help themselves. For the political opposition, not many of its members can be relied upon. Many of them are still in the grip of poverty and poverty hardly breeds virtue. They make noise in the hope that those in charge of government affairs can see them and offer them something. The tough financial times the country is going through have emasculated the political opposition and this unfortunate situation plays in favour of a government whose cardinal objective is to stay in power for decades or centuries without posting any admirable political and economic results. Engineering and delivering an independent electoral system in Cameroon are huge possibilities but that is not without significant challenges. The electoral system has been configured to always favour the ruling party, and changing that requires huge opposition to the government. Without a clash – intellectual and even political – such change will be a distant tomorrow affair. Those who are making huge gains from the current system will never deliver such change to the people on a platter of gold.

Cameroon Concord News: There are multiple elections scheduled to take place in Cameroon come 2025. Are you therefore saying that the opposition does not stand a chance giving that the current electoral code will be the one that will be used?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: The country’s political opposition still has a fighting chance. Though the system has been designed to favour the ruling party, there is still some leeway for the political opposition to erode the ruling party’s undeserved political gains. The political opposition must be strategic in its approach. Based on my personal analysis, there are two opposition parties which can cause ripples in that political ocean – MRC led by Prof. Maurice Kamto and the SDF led by Josua Osih. However, creating those ripples will require more than just political grandstanding. Maturity and flexibility on the part of those opposition parties could bring about the change Cameroonians have been hankering after. Instead of competing against each other, these two parties can get into a strategic alliance which may roll back the ruling party in regions such as the North West, the South West and the West regions. In the Grand North, the SDF and MRC must make the most of the frustration of the people of those regions. They need to let Cameroonians know that the country is on the brink of collapse and there is no point following the ruling party over the cliff like lemmings. With the ruling party’s chairman gradually fading away, the internecine fighting playing out within the ruling party should be good news to the political opposition. Though poverty has a nation-wide impact, it is in the northern regions that this impact is very visible. The northern regions have simply been left to their own devices and Boko Hara is bombing life out of the people while the government watches helplessly. There is a different way of doing things and the country’s political opposition must come up with effective and efficient ways of delivering hope to the people of the north. They are desperate and they really want change. The current regime is at its wit’s end and it has run out of gasoline. It has nothing to offer to the people of Cameroon. If anything, it is death. Many Cameroonians are dying helplessly and those who are supposed to protect them and deliver hope are either busy robbing the system blind or are rejoicing that they have held the people to their balls.

Cameroon Concord News: Do you think there will be any real elections in the country’s two English-speaking regions?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: Mr. Group chairman, messaging is key in any initiative which is bound to succeed. Real elections can hold in Southern Cameroons depending on the messages which will be put out there. While the fight for independence is still playing out in the country’s two English-speaking regions, there is no gainsaying that the fight for an independent Southern Cameroons has lost steam. The struggle has lost its way and it is now in the hands of thugs and criminals who are making the most of the ugly situation. Many Southern Cameroonians now agree that total independence is light years away. Federalism seems to be the attractive golden median and many French-speaking Cameroonians are buying into the federalist narrative. Southern Cameroonian politicians should use the popularity of federalism to convince more of those misguided criminals to come out of the bushes. The federalist rhetoric is peaceful, more meaningful and friendly and this has gained ground even in East Cameroon. If the government of Yaoundé yields to the calls for a federal system in Cameroon, the struggle for independence will die a natural death. The government must learn how to yield some ground if peace must return to Cameroon. Federalism has a way of triggering economic prosperity and policies based on federalism can help unleash our country’s economic potential. My call to all Southern Cameroonian federalists is that they should form a common platform or political party which I know will make major inroads in the 2025 parliamentary elections given the support federalism is enjoying among Southern Cameroonians. I am therefore urging federalists like Dr Simon Munzu and Barrister Felix Nkongho Agbor Balla to step up to the plate to provide much-needed leadership. Preaching federalism on the streets will not cut it. Federalists must find a way to the country’s parliament to fight from within. When Southern Cameroonians understand that there is a party which wants to take the fight to the parliament on their behalf, they will happily vote for those candidates who they believe will help to incarnate their aspirations and dreams. I know there is the issue of financing, but having spoken with many people out of Cameroon, I know that the Diaspora will put vast resources at the disposal of the federalist political party as many members of the country’s Diaspora have deep faith in federalism. There are many people who want to mobilize resources for such a noble cause.

Cameroon Concord News: Dr. Joachim Arrey, allow me to take you down the economic lane. Cameroon is in the throes of a biting economic crisis. Do you think the coming year holds any hope for Cameroonians, especially our youths who are desperate and looking outwards for opportunities?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: Each year, we all look forward to the head of state’s speech, hoping that tough and sound economic measures will be announced to douse the economic fire which has reduced Cameroonians to paupers. But every New Year only brings more hardship and disappointment to the people as the government fails woefully to engineer sound economic and financial solutions to the economic crisis. The government has failed to put our children to work and many of them are desperate. Thousands are dying in the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea while struggling to reach Europe, a place many of them think is an El-dorado. Despite these unfortunate situations, the Yaoundé government has pursued the same policies which have delivered excruciating pain to Cameroonians. Many young Cameroonians are willing to walk to North America given that Cameroon is only offering them hardship and premature death. If the government does not take a long and hard look at its policies, the economic and financial fate of its people will change, unfortunately for the worse. I sincerely do not see any hope on the horizon. Our country’s social architects are deeply asleep at the switch. This is taking a huge toll on the country’s economy. Corruption is rippling out like ragweed, delivering pain and death to the poorest who do not know where to turn to. Police officers just like customs officers are making the most of the chaos which is playing out. The system seems to be collapsing and there is a general feeling that there is nobody in charge and this has triggered a wave of looting and corruption. Though the system is collapsing, I still hope that there is no justification for young Cameroonians to undertake such perilous journeys. The future may be bleak, but there are some green shoots. A silver lining is gradually emerging from the dark clouds the government’s incompetence has cast on the country. Entrepreneurship and skills building have come to deliver some hope to our youths. Many of the country’s tertiary institutions are now offering courses which can enable our young men and women to acquire skills and look forward to a brighter future. The lack of skills relevant to the new global economy has left many young Cameroonians unemployed for years. The government should invest more resources into skills development as a means of alleviating the financial hardship which has been stalking young Cameroonians for decades like a stubborn shadow.

Cameroon Concord News: Thank you, Dr. Joachim Arrey, for your time and pearls of wisdom. Any last word for our readers?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: It is always a pleasure sharing my perspectives with you. For your readers, I would encourage them to continue reading the Cameroon Concord News if they must have a balanced perspective of what is happening in Cameroon. Keep informing Cameroonians! Thank you and do extend my regards to your staff.

28, December 2023

Bundes: Veteran politician Wolfgang Schaeuble dies aged 81 ⁰

Wolfgang Schaeuble, who served as a member of the German parliament for over half a century, has died aged 81, ending one of Germany’s longest political careers in which he helped secure his country’s place at the heart of Europe.

Schaeuble devoted much of his career to re-unifying his country and later served as former chancellor Angela Merkel’s finance minister during the eurozone debt crisis. He died peacefully late on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) said on Wednesday.

Schaeuble was born in 1942 in the southern city of Freiburg and had been a member of parliament without interruption since 1972.

“Germany has lost a formative Christian Democrat who loved to argue and yet never lost sight of what politics is all about: making life better for citizens,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a statement.

As interior minister, Schaeuble, who represented the West, was key in drawing up the terms of Germany’s reunification treaty, signed in August 1990, after the fall of the Berlin wall.

“He epitomised post-war democratic Germany like few others,” said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.

The CDU praised Schaeuble’s commitment to stability and responsibility in financial matters, saying “his legacy will live on in the annals of German and European history”.

As finance minister, Schaeuble pulled the strings of Germany’s policy response to the euro zone crisis, securing support on the right of Merkel’s conservative bloc for three Greek bailouts.

That determination bordering on intransigence helped make him the most popular German politician at home and the most hated abroad, earning him the soubriquet – bestowed by news magazine Spiegel – of “chancellor behind the scenes”.

Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who was outspoken in his criticism of the austerity policies championed by Berlin at the height of the debt crisis, said on Wednesday that history would judge Schaeuble harshly.

“Wolfgang Schaeuble was the embodiment of the political project of buttressing a monetary union in which he himself did not believe,” wrote Varoufakis on his website.

However, praise for his contributions came from across Europe, including from leaders in France, Slovakia, the Netherlands and Italy.

“Europe loses one of its staunch supporters,” said Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani on X.

Schaeuble served as finance minister until 2017, when he took over as president of the Bundestag lower parliamentary house, showing the same focus that saw him adapt to paralysis after being shot three times at an election campaign event a few days after German reunification in 1990.

While that drive won him the respect of fellow conservatives and lawmakers from other parties, his career was not without setbacks.

For a time in the 1990s, Schaeuble was considered the anointed successor to former conservative chancellor Helmut Kohl. As head of the CDU in 1998 following Kohl’s election loss, Schaeuble had named Merkel as his deputy.

However, it was a pairing that would last less than a year and a half: Merkel was instrumental in forcing him to resign the CDU leadership in 2000 after a funding scandal, with Merkel taking over and eventually serving as chancellor in 2005.

“We will miss Wolfgang Schaeuble’s voice in Germany, I will personally miss his advice,” said Merkel in a statement. “I mourn the loss of a politician who shaped our country in many ways.”

Source: Reuters

26, December 2023

War in Southern Cameroons likely to continue through at least mid-2024 ⁰

Separatist activism is likely to continue in the Southwest and Northwest regions of Cameroon through at least mid-2024. An explosive device detonated in Bamenda, Northwest Region, on Dec. 25, without casualties reported. Previously, suspected Ambazonia secessionist militants raided a market in Bamenyam, West Region, a locality bordering the Norwest Region, on Nov. 21, killing at least nine residents and kidnapping an unspecified number. A similar attack in Mamfe, Southwest Region, left at least 20 civilians dead in early November.

The threat of violence remains elevated in the English-speaking regions as various armed groups continue to call for secession, highlighting the dangers for those operating or traveling in western Cameroon. The situation has remained tense since October 2017, when secessionists unilaterally proclaimed the independence of the so-called state of Ambazonia, which is unrecognized internationally. Human Rights Watch estimates that about 6000 civilians have died, and hundreds of thousands have been displaced due to armed forces and separatist-linked violence since late 2016.

Security-related operations are ongoing. Checkpoints and searches of vehicles and personnel are likely, particularly outside major cities such as Buea (Southwest) and Bamenda (Northwest). Authorities may enact temporary security measures such as curfews and telecommunication restrictions without notice in the event of significant violence or unrest.

Source: Crisis24.garda

26, December 2023

Federal Republic of Ambazonia: President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s speech designed for reconciliation ⁰

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2024, to the Valiant people of Ambazonia

The feel of the Season is once more upon us. The glory of the Lord has manifested itself one more time, through another year. Twelve months have blown past us and it feels like yesterday. It is difficult for me to say this, especially given where we were this time last year. The circumstances we find ourselves may be trying and tempting but we remain hopeful.

When so many around us are burdened with fear and uncertainty, I invite you to make room for the brothers & sisters who now are struggling to understand the ultimate reason for our fight, for the liberation and independence of our people. No gifts will mean as much as acts of pure love that you offer to the rejected, the worn down and the weary. Please notice and take care of the needy of the struggle.

We have watched the days turn into weeks, months, and years. It is understandable for some to count these years as lost time and lost opportunities. But we have chosen to quantify and qualify these days, weeks, months, and years in terms of our determination and commitment to our cause of freedom and liberty. We are on a quest for the unique feeling of belonging to a homeland wherein all are valued and dear ones can strive to bring out the best in themselves. This is the feeling of ultimate happiness that only the certainty of our fatherland can produce. We are fighting to give our children and theirs a nation that they can call their own; something which none of us now can say within LRC.

As we look forward to spending the sixth and seventh Christmas in the pursuit of this unique endeavor, we should take time to contemplate not only on the purpose but also on the course of our journey. For our purpose, I can assure you that it has never been clearer and brighter. For the course, we remain steadier, sturdier and more resolute than ever.

Now, to each member of our fight for freedom I say: Stay on the covenant path. Whether you are moving along the path or have slipped from it or you can’t see the path from where you are, I plead with you to remain steadfast. Your commitment to doing what is right, by making covenants with our people and then keeping those covenants will open the door to every spiritual blessing available to the people of Ambazonia.

Amid the internal division, sibling-rivalry, confusion, power-tussle and contradictions, we need to work tirelessly and ceaselessly to build bridges of understanding rather than creating walls of further division and internal conflict. More than ever before, we need unity of purpose. I plead with us all to work together for peace, for mutual respect and for an outpouring of love for all of Ambazonia’s children.

With this joyful hope and an abundant spirit of gratitude, I join hands with our mothers & fathers, all Prisoners of Conscience & War, and all Ambazonians to wish you the best in this very festive season, full of cheer and blessing. In this same spirit, I pledge and recommit myself to you, to the fight for Homeland and for the freedom and liberation of Ambazonia. With this spirit and in this spirit, I extend my appreciation & gratitude for all what you have been doing, for all that you have done and for what you will continue to do and be for the people of Ambazonia. The foot-of-the-mountain (Buea) beacons at the near horizon.

Sisiku AyukTabe

Kondengui Principal Prison, Yaoundé.

25, December 2023

Blast rocks market in Bamenda on Christmas Day with no casualties ⁰

An improvised explosive device exploded on Christmas Day morning in Bamenda, the chief town of Cameroon’s Anglophone region of Northwest that has been ravaged by years of armed separatist conflict, several local and security sources said.

The blast struck a market in the T-Junction neighborhood of the city, setting three makeshift shops ablaze, a security source said. “Fortunately the market closed for today, and that is why there were no casualties or injuries.”

“We heard the explosion sound. It was so loud and the sound caused panic among residents,” James Mbah, a resident of the city, told Xinhua over the phone.

Last week, separatist fighters warned that Christmas would not be celebrated in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest because the feast falls on Monday, which has been imposed by them since 2017 as “ghost town day” during which all sorts of activities in the two regions do not function.

“We are all spending Christmas at home. The streets are empty and people are just afraid of the unknown and don’t want to step out,” Mbah said.

On Sunday, the region’s governor Adolphe Lele L’Afrique said extra security would be provided to churches and other places of worship because of Christmas.

“Our brave security forces will ensure the safety and security of everyone so that they can celebrate Christmas in peace. People need to collaborate with security forces as well,” the official told reporters after a security meeting in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon.

Clashes between separatist fighters and government forces intensified in the regions since the start of this year. According to reports by local non-governmental organizations and security officials, abductions were rife, and more than 100 people including soldiers, separatist fighters and civilians have been killed in the conflict since January 2023.

Source: Xinhuanet

24, December 2023

Catholic Bishops in Cameroon reject Pope Francis’ new stance on Homosexuality ⁰

The National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (NECC) has reaffirmed its stance on sexuality that marriage is between a man and a woman.

This comes after Pope Francis, who is the head of the Roman Catholic Church, recently allowed priests to bless same-sex couples.

According to a document issued by the Vatican recently, Pope Francis said priests should be permitted to bless same-sex and “irregular” couples, under certain circumstances.

However, in a statement issued on 21 December, the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Cameroon) denounced the new position announced by Pope Francis, saying homosexuality is an abomination. Read the statement:

DECLARATION OF THE BISHOPS OF CAMEROON ON HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE BLESSING OF “HOMOSEXUAL COUPLES”

Faced with the semantic abuses designed to distort the value of realities and the true meaning of the notions of family, couple, spouse, sexuality and marriage;

Faced with the wave of indignation, questioning and concern that the Declaration “Fiducia supplicans” on the question of the blessing of same-sex couples has aroused among the people of God;

For the sake of human dignity and the salvation of all humanity in Jesus Christ; We, the Bishops of Cameroon, unanimously declare the following on the subject of homosexuality and the blessing of “homosexual couples”:

1. In conformity with our 2013 Declaration on Homosexuality, we strongly reaffirm the truth of the Church, Mother and Educator, which teaches the sacredness of the sexual identity of man and woman created in the image of God (Gn 1:26), of the dignity of their sexuality and of marriage which is the foundation of the family. The human person is created male and female: “Male and female he created them” (Gn 1:26). This invariable difference, which is the foundation of their relationship and their complementarity, is fulfilled in the bonds of marriage.

2. Homosexuality falsifies and corrupts human anthropology and trivialises sexuality, marriage and the family, the foundations of society. In the African culture, this practice is not part of family and social values. It is a flagrant violation of the heritage bequeathed to us by our ancestors. In the history of people, the practice of homosexuality has never led to societal evolution but is a clear sign of the imploding decadence of civilizations. Homosexuality sets humanity against itself and destroys it.

3. The profound identity of sexuality is misunderstood, hijacked and perverted outside the conjugal relationship between man and woman. Consequently, homosexual acts are not “sexual”, but “acts against nature” (Rm 1, 26).

4. Marriage is an institution that legitimizes sexual relations and procreation for the foundation of a new family. It is the union of a man and a woman who commit themselves to the life of a couple, to find a family and to live together in love. Homosexual unions are not marriages. They distort the meaning of marriage by reducing it to a sterile, pleasure-seeking and perverse bond: “infamy between man and man” (Rom 1:26).

5. Homosexuality is not a human right. It is an alienation that seriously harms humanity because it is not based on any value proper to the human being: it is a dehumanization of love, “an abomination”. (Lev, 18, 22). Rejecting it is in no way being discriminative; it is a legitimate protection of the constant values of humanity in the face of a vice that has become the subject of a claim to legal recognition and, today, the subject of a blessing.

6. Literally, “To bless is to speak well of”. And to “speak well of” to gain grace through the gesture of blessing a “homosexual couple” would be tantamount to encouraging a choice and a practice of life that cannot be recognised as being objectively ordered to the revealed designs of God. What is more, differentiating between liturgical and non-liturgical contexts to apply the blessing to same-sex “couples” is hypocritical. The act of blessing, whether performed in a liturgical assembly or in private, remains a blessing. We therefore declare non-compliant any form of blessing, public or private, that tends to recognize “same-sex couples” as a state of life.

7. Faithful to the constant teaching of Ecclesial Tradition which declares acts of homosexuality intrinsically disordered and contrary to the natural law (Catechism of the Catholic Church n. 2357), we, the Bishops of Cameroon, reiterate our disapproval of homosexuality and homosexual unions.

8. Consequently, we formally forbid all blessings of “homosexual couples” in the Church of Cameroon.

9. Since God does not want the death of the sinner, but his/her conversion to eternal life, we recommend those who are inclined to homosexuality to the prayers and compassion of the Church, with a view to their radical conversion. We also invite them to turn away from their mentality of victimization in which they take pleasure in considering themselves as “victims”, “weak”, and “minorities”; to seize the opportunity for conversion that God gives them in the many exhortations of His Word.

The statement was signed by Andrew Fuanya Nkea, who is the Archbishop of Bamenda and President of National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon

24, December 2023

Gaza War: Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel paying ‘heavy price’ ⁰

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the Gaza war has come at a “very heavy price” for his side.

The military says 14 more soldiers have been killed in the Palestinian territory since Friday, bringing the total of the ground assault to 153.

Saturday was one of its deadliest days – but Mr Netanyahu said his forces had “no choice” but to keep fighting.

Meanwhile, the health ministry in Gaza – run by Hamas – says another 166 people were killed in the last day.

More than 20,000 people have been killed – mostly women and children, and 54,000 injured in Gaza since 7 October, the ministry says.

Source: BBC

24, December 2023

Bethlehem deserted, Christmas celebrations suspended over Israel-Hamas war ⁰

The normally bustling biblical birthplace of Jesus resembled a ghost town on Sunday, as Christmas Eve celebrations in Bethlehem were called off due to the Israel-Hamas war. The festive lights and Christmas tree that normally decorate Manger Square were missing, as were the throngs of foreign tourists who gather each year to mark the holiday.

The gift shops were slow to open on Christmas Eve, although a few did once the rain had stopped pouring down. There were few visitors, however.

“This year, without the Christmas tree and without lights, there’s just darkness,” said Brother John Vinh, a Franciscan monk from Vietnam who has lived in Jerusalem for six years.

He said he always comes to Bethlehem to mark Christmas, but this year was especially sobering, as he gazed at a nativity scene in Manger Square with a baby Jesus wrapped in a white shroud, reminiscent of the hundreds of children killed in the fighting in Gaza. Barbed wire surrounded the scene, the grey rubble reflecting none of the joyous lights and bursts of color that normally fill the square during the Christmas season.

“We can’t justify putting out a tree and celebrating as normal, when some people (in Gaza) don’t even have houses to go to,” said Ala’a Salameh, one of the owners of Afteem Restaurant, a family-owned falafel restaurant just steps from the square.

Salameh said Christmas Eve is usually the busiest day of the year. “Normally, you can’t find a single chair to sit, we’re full from morning till midnight,” said Salameh. This year, just one table was taken, by journalists taking a break from the rain.

Salameh said his restaurant was operating at about 15% of normal business and wasn’t able to cover operating costs. He estimated that even after the war ends, it will take another year for tourism to return to Bethlehem as normal.

The cancellation of Christmas festivities is a severe blow to the town’s economy. Tourism accounts for an estimated 70% of Bethlehem’s income — almost all of that during the Christmas season.

With many major airlines canceling flights to Israel, few foreigners are visiting. Local officials say over 70 hotels in Bethlehem have been forced to close, leaving thousands of people unemployed.

Over 20,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 50,000 wounded during Israel’s air and ground offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers, according to health officials there, while some 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced. The war was triggered by Hamas’ deadly assault Oct. 7 on southern Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took more than 240 hostages.

The fighting in Gaza has also affected life in the West Bank. Since Oct. 7, access to Bethlehem and other Palestinian towns in the Israeli-occupied territory has been difficult, with long lines of motorists waiting to pass military checkpoints. The restrictions have also prevented tens of thousands of Palestinians from exiting the territory to work in Israel.

Source: AP