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3, May 2026

Iran says Trump has to choose between ‘impossible’ war or ‘bad deal’ ⁰

Iran says US President Donald Trump now faces a sharply narrowed choice between an “impossible military operation” against Iran and a “bad deal” with the country.

The IRGC’s Intelligence Organization made the announcement in an X post on Sunday, after Iran submitted a comprehensive proposal aimed at bringing a permanent end to the illegal US-Israeli war of aggression against the Islamic Republic.

With the proposal, Iran put the ball back into the court of Trump, whose country is looking for a face-saving way to escape the war quagmire it has become trapped in.

“Iran sets Pentagon a blockade deadline; China, Russia, Europe shift tone against Washington; Trump’s passive letter to Congress; acceptance of Iran’s negotiating terms; there is only one way to read this: Trump must choose between ‘an impossible military operation or a bad deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran,’” it said.

“The room for US decision-making has narrowed.”

The unprovoked US-Israeli aggression on Iran began on February 28 with airstrikes that assassinated senior Iranian officials and commanders.

The Iranian armed forces unleashed 100 waves of successful retaliatory strikes against sensitive and strategic American and Israeli targets throughout the region.

They also blocked the Strait of Hormuz to oil and gas tankers affiliated with the enemies and those cooperating with them in an attempt to maintain security at the critical waterway.

Source: Presstv

3, May 2026

Ambazonia conflict escalates after visit of Pope Leo ⁰

Following the recent visit of His Holiness Pope Leo, tensions in Southern Cameroons have escalated once again, marking a troubling return to violence in the English speaking regions of Cameroon. Several reports indicate that armed clashes have resumed, resulting in the deaths of at least 14 civilians in Ndzerem-Nyam village and 2 government soldiers in Big Babanki.

The resurgence of conflict highlights the fragility of peace efforts and the deep-rooted divisions that continue to fuel unrest between separatist groups and state forces. Civilians remain particularly vulnerable, often caught in the crossfire as hostilities intensify.

Despite hopes that the Pope’s visit might encourage dialogue and reconciliation, the renewed violence underscores the ongoing challenges facing any lasting resolution. Observers continue to call for increased international attention and meaningful negotiations to prevent further loss of life and stabilize the region.

Two Cameroonian soldiers were killed on Friday in an ambush by Ambazonia Restoration Forces at a security checkpoint in Big Babanki in the Tubah subdivision.

Local media reported an increase in attacks on civilians and security forces in the region in recent weeks.

Cameroon has been experiencing an armed separatist conflict in its English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest since 2017, as separatists seek to create a new nation known as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

By Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

2, May 2026

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Rights group disputes Ndzerem-Nyam army version ⁰

Fresh details have emerged over the April 26 military operation in Ndzerem-Nyam village, in Cameroon’s North-West Region, with conflicting accounts deepening concerns over what exactly transpired during the raid.

While the Ministry of Defense Cameroon maintains that all those killed were armed fighters, the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa says civilians were among the victims.

According to official communication, security forces carried out a targeted operation against separatist elements, leading to the deaths of 14 individuals described as “terrorists” who allegedly opened fire on troops.

However, CHRDA presents a different picture. The organisation reports that several of those killed were civilians caught in the violence. Among those cited are individuals said to have had no direct involvement in hostilities, including workers and residents present in the village at the time.

‎Operation during cultural gathering

The incident reportedly unfolded in the early hours of the morning, at a time when the community was hosting a cultural event. Sources indicate that both armed separatists and civilians were present, a factor that may have complicated the situation on the ground.

An exchange of gunfire is said to have occurred after security forces moved into the area, though the exact sequence of events remains unclear due to the absence of an independent account.

Property destruction and rising tensions

Beyond the loss of life, the rights group also points to the destruction of civilian property, including houses and motorcycles allegedly set ablaze during the operation.

‎‎The incident is believed to have occurred due to the heightened tensions between neighbouring communities, with reports of disputes linked to the organisation of the cultural festival. These underlying frictions may have contributed to the volatile environment in which the raid took place.

CHRDA has condemned the killings and is calling for a transparent and impartial investigation to establish the facts. Its president, Agbor Nkongho, urged authorities to ensure accountability and clarify the circumstances surrounding the deaths.‎

Source: lebledparle

1, May 2026

Nine African migrants expelled by US to Cameroon ⁰

Nine migrants from four African countries arrived this week in Cameroon after being expelled from the United States, part of a deal between the two countries, one of their lawyers told AFP on Thursday.

The deportees arrived Wednesday and were from Ghana, Angola, Ethiopia and Congo-Brazzaville.

Cameroon is among several African countries that have agreed in recent months to participate in a controversial scheme allowing the United States to send undocumented migrants to third countries when there are impediments to sending them to their own country.

The six women and three men who arrived Wednesday were part of the third such flight since January, joining the seventeen immigrants previously deported by the United States to Cameroon, Alma David, a US immigration lawyer, told AFP.

Joseph Awah Fru, a Cameroonian lawyer who followed the first two groups after their arrival in Yaoundé, confirmed the arrival of this third flight on Wednesday to AFP. According to the New York Times, Washington is paying Cameroon $30 million to be part of the scheme.

The other African countries to have reached similar agreements are Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Rwanda, South Sudan, Eswatini and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Most of these immigrants are prevented from deportation to their own country by the US justice system due to safety concerns, and are therefore sent to a third country, which can then expel them.

Of the seventeen people previously deported to Cameroon, four have been sent to their countries of origin: Morocco, Angola, and Senegal.

US courts had ruled that two Moroccan women’s fears for their safety should they return to Morocco were well-founded.

But after being sent back, they are now living there in hiding, according to Awah.

The thirteen others, who are staying at a centre run by Cameroonian authorities in conjunction with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), will be able to apply for asylum in Cameroon if they wish.

In September, Human Rights Watch stated that these expulsions under “opaque agreements” violated international law and should be rejected.

Source: AFP

1, May 2026

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Francophone soldiers kill 14 People in Ndzerem-Nyam ⁰

The Cameroonian armed forces killed 14 people it called “terrorists,” in the country’s volatile northwest, the defense ministry said.

Cameroon’s two anglophone regions have suffered almost a decade of armed violence following attempts to secede from the rest of the mostly French-speaking central African country.

In a statement released Thursday, Cameroon’s defense ministry said its security forces had neutralized 14 people in the town of Ndzerem-Nyam, in the northwest, on Sunday.

It said soldiers took an “appropriate and professional response” after “heavily armed terrorists opened heavy fire”.

“Several weapons of war” and “improvised explosive devices” were seized, the ministry added, claiming the casualties were “dangerous terrorists”.

African Conscience, an NGO, condemned in a statement on Monday what it called the “brutal killings of at least 14 persons, mostly unarmed civilians” after the military interrupted a cultural ceremony.

It refuted the claim that those killed had been armed, said only a few were separatists, and called on the government to launch an independent investigation.

On a visit to the region in April, Pope Leo XIV condemned an “endless cycle of destabilization and death”.

In 2020, soldiers killed at least 21 people, including pregnant women and children, in Ngarbuh, a village in the northwest.

Conflict erupted after President Paul Biya, who has ruled the central African country since 1982, violently put down peaceful demonstrations in 2016 by English speakers who felt marginalized.

Monitors estimate thousands of people have been killed in the subsequent violence between armed separatists and Cameroonian security forces.

Source: The Defense Post

1, May 2026

Douala partners Huawei to advance digital transformation plans ⁰

During an official visit to China, Douala Mayor Roger Mbassa Ndinè signed a memorandum of understanding with Huawei on April 28, 2026, focused on the digital modernization of Cameroon’s economic capital. The agreement reflects the ambition of the Douala City Council (CUD) to strengthen urban management tools and move toward a “Smart City” model.

At this stage, financial details, implementation timelines, and contractual terms have not been disclosed. The agreement should therefore be distinguished from a finalized contract or a funded program. It instead sets a framework for cooperation between the CUD and the Chinese group across several digital initiatives.

According to a source close to the matter, the planned areas of cooperation include urban surveillance, smart traffic management, modernization of the municipal IT system, digitization of land records, expansion of municipal fiber networks, and remote management of public lighting.

One component would involve equipping the urban monitoring center with supervision and video surveillance tools to support municipal police efforts in managing urban disorder. Another would focus on deploying sensors and traffic monitoring systems on major roads, in a city regularly affected by congestion.

Land management is also a key aspect. The project includes plans to digitize 200,000 land records and introduce a digital ownership certificate. The stated objective is to improve land security and facilitate access to administrative data. However, this component will require clarification on the legal status of such certificates, the authorities responsible for validation, and safeguards for personal data protection.

The agreement also provides for strengthening municipal digital infrastructure. Huawei may support the expansion of the fiber optic network linking administrative buildings and strategic sites across the city. Solutions for remote management of public lighting are also under consideration, with the aim of reducing energy consumption and improving maintenance.

Beyond infrastructure, the agreement includes a training component. Huawei is expected to train engineers and CUD staff in managing digital systems, notably through its Huawei ICT Academy program. The city authority would act as an institutional facilitator and integrator of the selected solutions.

For Douala, the challenge goes beyond acquiring technology. The success of the initiative will depend on the transparency of future agreements, the availability of financing, local maintenance capacity, data protection measures, and the ability to align digital innovation with tangible urban services.

In a fast-growing city facing congestion, land pressure, and rising demand for public services, digital tools could improve urban management. However, the CUD-Huawei agreement will only deliver measurable results if it leads to funded, legally structured, and accountable projects.

Source: Business in Cameroon

30, April 2026

Cameroonians in Washington celebrate Pope Leo’s visit to their homeland ⁰

Walking into the Church of the Resurrection in Burtonsville, Maryland, on April 26, the pride and celebration hit you before you even found a seat. The Cameroonian Catholic Community of the Washington, D.C. area was gathering for their monthly Mass, but this wasn’t an ordinary Sunday Mass. Not only was the Catholic Women’s Organization of Cameroonian immigrants marking its 10th anniversary, but the community was also coming together to celebrate the recent historic visit of Pope Leo XIV to Cameroon.

Swaying down the center aisle, the Cameroonian women’s group led the opening procession for the Mass, followed by the concelebrating priests and the main celebrant, Bishop Jerome Feudjio of the Diocese of Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, who is from Cameroon and is the first African-born bishop serving a United States diocese. The joyful singing by the Cameroonian women filled the church before they veered off to the designated choir seats as the Mass began.

An altar server holds a candle before the opening procession for a Mass for Cameroonian Catholic Community of the Washington area held on April 26, 2026 at the Church of the Resurrection in Burtonsville, Maryland. (Catholic Standard photo by Andrew Biraj)

The concelebrating priests included Father John M. Barry, the pastor of Resurrection Parish; and seven priests from Cameroon. Also assisting at the Mass were three deacons from Cameroon, and seminarians from that country were in attendance.

The congregation filling the pews – including the Catholic Women’s Organization and other Cameroonian immigrants – wore colorful and vibrant traditional African church wear. Bishop Feudjio opened with a song, “This is the Day” and the congregation answered him in full voice. As the Mass went on, songs moved between Pidgin and English, the kind of worship that felt like home. When member of the Catholic Women’s Organization danced the lectionary to the altar and Bishop Feudjio lifted it, the congregation erupted in jubilation.

Members of the Catholic Women’s Organization drawn from Cameroonian immigrants in the Washington area participate in a lectionary procession during an April 26 Mass at the Church of the Resurrection in Burtonsville, Maryland. The lectionary was handed to the main celebrant, Bishop Jerome Feudjio of the Diocese of Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, who is from Cameroon and is the first African-born bishop serving a United States diocese. (Catholic Standard photos by Andrew Biraj)

In his homily, Bishop Feudjio congratulated the Catholic Women’s Organization for reaching the 10 year milestone before turning to challenge the entire community. He called on the community to commit more deeply to ministry, service, sacrifice, and witness. The bishop emphasized the importance of working together. stating, “A single hand can’t tie a bundle,” and he said the women’s group had been among the hands holding that community together for a decade.

Bishop Feudjio tied in Scripture, urging the congregation to listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit, and acknowledged the importance of women’s leadership as being fundamental to the Church. “The wisdom of women is the neck that turns the head,” he said. “A strong Catholic women’s organization becomes a protective gate for a parish, a neighborhood, a community, the diocese. They act as guardians of the domestic church, and no one feels alone.”

Bishop Jerome Feudjio gives the homily during an April 26 Mass at the Church of the Resurrection in Burtonsville, Maryland, for the Cameroonian Catholic Community of the Washington area. Bishop Feudjio of the Diocese of Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands is from Cameroon, and he is the first African-born bishop serving a United States diocese. (Catholic Standard photo by Andrew Biraj)

When Pope Leo XIV landed in Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon on April 15, he became only the third pope in history to visit that country, following Pope St. John Paul II’s visits in 1985 and 1995, and Pope Benedict XVI’s visit in 2009.

Pope Leo XIV used his 11-day, four-nation African tour as a global platform to speak out against war and corruption, and to uphold the dignity of human life. Days before the papal visit to Cameroon, a three-day ceasefire was declared by the separatist alliance in English-speaking regions to allow civilians and visitors to move freely during the pope’s stay. The visit intersected with the ongoing Anglophone crisis, a separatist conflict that began in 2017 and has claimed more than 6,500 lives and displaced more than 500,000 people.

At a peace meeting in Bamenda, Cameroon, thousands lined the streets to receive Pope Leo. Local Catholic leaders expressed hope that the visit could bring about “tangible miracles” for peace. A blind woman at the airport stayed behind shouting “I have greeted the pope,” while a little girl in Bamenda broke through the crowd to embrace him, becoming a symbol for the entire nation.

People pray during an April 26 Mass at the Church of the Resurrection in Burtonsville, Maryland, for the Cameroonian Catholic Community of the Washington, D.C. area. (Catholic Standard photos by Andrew Biraj)

The Cameroonian Catholic Community of the Washington, D.C. area has been finding its footing in the DMV for more than two decades. In 2005, the D.C. area was home to one of the largest Cameroonian immigrant populations in the United States. That same year, a group of Cameroonians began searching for something familiar, a Mass that looked and felt like worship back home. A community-styled Mass was organized and first held at the Crypt Church in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Lambert Mbom, an architect and Cameroonian Catholic Community coordinator, sought out a permanent parish location. With the help of Jude Ambe, Ita Ngang, and Lucia Chuo of Resurrection Parish, they asked Father Bob Keffer, who was then the pastor there, for permission to hold their monthly Mass, and in June 2006 the Church of the Resurrection became home to that community. A second group, the Catholic Women’s Organization, formed in 2016. The parish has had two Cameroonian priests in residence since 2019. The community is proud to mention that they have produced a priest, Father Bening Achi, who emerged from the Cameroonian choir there.

For Father Herbert Niba, the co-chaplain of the Cameroonian Catholic Community in the Washington area who is currently in residence at Resurrection Parish, the moment carried personal weight. Niba said the papal visit stirred memories of his own experience when Pope Benedict XVI visited Cameroon in 2009, and he was one of the choir members who sang after an intense two month preparation period in anticipation of that papal visit. Niba noted the timing of Pope Leo’s visit added a special impact for the local community, calling it a “divine coincidence.”

Women sing during an April 26 Mass at the Church of the Resurrection in Burtonsville, Maryland, for the Cameroonian Catholic Community of the Washington, D.C. area. (Catholic Standard photos by Andrew Biraj)

Last September, the CCC-WDC joined the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington to mark the 40th anniversary of Pope St. John Paul II’s historic visit to Cameroon, which was the first papal visit to the country. Father Niba encouraged his community and country to use this time to “unveil the best of what these papal visits have given to us.” He also pointed to what he called the “reverse missionary train,” the growing presence of African priests ministering in the diaspora, as evidence of the lasting fruit of the papal outreach to the African church and community.

Pius Ambe, chairman emeritus of the CCC-WDC who led the community from 2016 to 2024, was a young elementary school student in Bafut, Cameroon for Pope St. John Paul II’s first visit in 1985. Watching Pope Leo return to the same villages decades later was nostalgic for him. Ambe noted, “Cameroon is in great need of healing, in great need of peace.” He said Pope Leo “brought with him a balm to heal the pain that people have gone through for so many years, feeling unseen and abandoned.”

Ambe acknowledged the frustration some Cameroonians felt toward the Church during the conflict, believing it had not spoken forcefully enough for justice. For him, Pope Leo’s presence in Bamenda addressed that directly. “There’s no peace without justice,” he said. “The pope coming and speaking very openly and candidly was refreshing. It has helped to heal and uplift people, renewing their hope and increasing their faith.”

During an April 26 Mass at the Church of the Resurrection in Burtonsville, Maryland, for the Cameroonian Catholic Community of the Washington area, Bishop Jerome Feudjio of the Diocese of Saint Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands gives Communion to a woman and blesses a girl. Bishop Feudjio, who is from Cameroon, is the first African-born bishop serving a United States diocese. (Catholic Standard photos by Andrew Biraj)

Ngang Ita, president of the Catholic Women’s Organization of Cameroonian immigrants, said the visit sent a message that extended beyond Cameroon’s borders. For Ita, Pope Leo’s presence on African soil signaled that the faith of the Church is rooted in Africa and the pope’s interest in the continent gives Cameroonians everywhere a deeper sense of belonging. Even from Maryland, she said, gatherings like the one at Resurrection Parish “serve as a reminder of home and a reaffirmation of their place in the universal Church.”

For Emmanuel Grangni Nyasa, current pastoral council chairperson of the Cameroonian Catholic Community in the Washington area, the visit came down to one thing: unity, both within the African church and among Cameroonians here in the diaspora. “The greatest man of our faith bringing his presence brought much needed peace,” Nyasa said. “The Holy Father’s presence unites the whole of Africa as a community to do what we are supposed to do as Catholics.”

At the Church of the Resurrection, Bishop Feudjio brought the Mass to a close as the Catholic Women’s Organization filled the church with song. Before the final blessing, that group offered a tribute to the Blessed Mother, their patron saint, and dedicated flowers in her honor.

Near the end of an April 26 Mass at the Church of the Resurrection in Burtonsville, Maryland, for the Cameroonian Catholic Community of the Washington area, members of the Catholic Women’s Organization of immigrants from that African nation honor the Blessed Mother with flowers. (Catholic Standard photo by Andrew Biraj)

Then the celebration spilled out of the pews to downstairs, where the congregation ate, drank, sang, and danced, marking not only a decade of the women’s group but a papal visit that reminded them, even from 5,000 miles away, that they had not been forgotten.

Culled from Catholic Standard

30, April 2026

CAF and UEFA sign MoU aimed at strengthening collaboration ⁰

The Confédération Africaine de Football (“CAF”) President Dr Patrice Motsepe and the Union of European Football Associations (“UEFA”) President Mr Aleksander Čeferin have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MoU”) aimed at strengthening collaboration, growth and development of football across Europe and Africa.

The MoU, signed in Vancouver, Canada, underlines the guiding principles shared by CAF and UEFA, highlighting football’s role in promoting inclusion, participation and social cohesion, while reaffirming a joint commitment to solidarity, integrity and openness.

CAF President Dr Patrice Motsepe said: “African Football has experienced significant growth over the past few years and we continue to build towards making it among the best in the world. By signing the Memorandum of Understanding with UEFA, we are strengthening our historic ties and friendship between Africa and Europe that has seen some of the best African players succeeding in European Leagues. This partnership with UEFA includes youth and women’s football, development, the education and training of coaches and referees, the enhancement of governance and institutional development. It also< reflects CAF and UEFA’s shared vision of using football as a tool to bring together and unite the people of our two Continents. By combining our expertise and resources, CAF and UEFA will ensure that football continues to be a source of hope, joy and unity for millions of people worldwide.”

UEFA President Mr Aleksander Čeferin said: “Europe and Africa are home to extraordinary football landscapes, where the game plays a vital role both on the pitch and within society. This Memorandum of Understanding reflects our shared commitment to expanding opportunities for boys and girls in youth football, while harnessing the power of the game to advance women’s football and promote women’s health and wellbeing. By working closely with CAF, we aim to invest in people, share expertise and strengthen football’s positive and lasting impact on communities across both continents.”

The MoU, which runs until 30 June 2031, will combine expertise and experience across several strategic areas, including:

Youth and women’s football: CAF Member Associations will participate in selected CAF-UEFA Youth Competitions alongside opportunities for reciprocal involvement in initiatives such as the CAF African Schools Football Championship.
Football development programmes: Implementation of initiatives supporting tailored, long‑term projects and partnerships between European and African Member Associations.
Coach education: Focusing on the sharing of technical know‑how, best practice and collaborative learning activities to strengthen and align coaching structures across both Confederations.
Refereeing: Opportunities for match officials and referee instructors for knowledge exchange.
Exchange of expertise and institutional knowledge: Including observer programmes at major club and national team tournaments, as well as contributions to conferences and professional events organised by both Confederations.
Education and capacity development: With access to selected programmes, joint work on education pathways and cooperation on football medicine through the development of dedicated training frameworks.
Governance and coordination: Featuring regular meetings and progress reviews to ensure alignment on priorities and effective delivery of agreed activities.

This MoU reaffirms CAF and UEFA’s shared conviction that football can act as a driver for opportunity, education and positive social impact across Europe and Africa, while providing a basis for CAF and UEFA to develop additional joint initiatives over time.

Culled from CAF

30, April 2026

Middle East: US blockade crumbles as Iran turns to overland routes ⁰

As the US intensifies its inhuman sanctions and seeks to stifle Iran’s economy through an illegal naval blockade, Tehran has made strategic adjustments.

Pakistan formally activated a new transit corridor through Iran on Friday, announcing that the inaugural shipment including frozen meat bound for Tashkent, Uzbekistan had been dispatched via the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and Iranian overland routes.

The country designated six transit routes, including multiple key corridors connecting ports and border points inside Pakistan, forming a wide network for overland trade into Iran in a bid to bypass the maritime trade routes in the Persian Gulf.

The order, which took effect on April 25, aims to ease the logjam at Karachi Port and Port Qasim, where more than 3,000 Iran-bound containers have been stuck due to the ongoing US naval blockade of Iranian ports.

By using the new corridor, officials estimate travel time to the Iranian border will drop from 18 hours to just three hours, which in turn will lower logistics costs for regional traders.

The designated routes create a land bridge between Pakistan’s deep-sea ports and the Iranian border, offering a lifeline for third-country goods that that would otherwise be vulnerable to US naval piracy at sea.

For China, the world’s largest oil importer and the destination for an estimated 90 percent of Iran’s crude exports before the current war, the opening of overland alternatives carries acute strategic significance.

With the US Navy enforcing an illegal cordon at the mouth of the Gulf of Oman since April 13, the maritime route that once carried one-fifth of global petroleum has been hijacked by armed naval raid, subjected to systematic plunder.

The blockade’s primary target has always been as much about Beijing as Tehran. China purchases roughly 13 to 15 percent of its crude oil imports from Iran, volumes that before the war exceeded 1.38 million barrels per day.

Iranian crude, often trans-shipped through Malaysia and other intermediaries, feeds China’s independent “teapot” refineries and helps underpin Beijing’s energy security.

The Trump administration has made no secret of its intent to sever this flow. On April 23, Washington imposed sanctions on Hengli Petrochemical’s Dalian refinery, one of China’s largest independent processors, with 400,000 barrels per day capacity, alongside roughly 40 shipping companies and tankers involved in Iranian oil transport.

In a draconian announcement, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that the US would constrict “the network of vessels, intermediaries and buyers Iran relies on to move its oil to global markets”.

Yet even as the American piracy tightens, the physical blockade is showing gaps. Satellite imagery and tracking data have revealed that several Iranian-flagged vessels under sanctions had sailed out of the Persian Gulf.

While tankers maneuver, Iran’s top diplomat has been building the political architecture for overland alternatives. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi embarked on a high-stakes tour on April 23, travelling twice to Pakistan for consultations and to coordinate the corridor activation before heading to Oman and finally to Russia.

In Islamabad, the discussions reportedly focused on key issues, the details of which are not specified. But the tangible outcome was the corridor itself.

Pakistan’s new transit routes, connecting Gwadar, Karachi and Port Qasim to the border crossings of Gabd and Taftan, provide Iran with immediate access to CPEC’s road and rail infrastructure.

Gwadar was built with Chinese loans and Chinese labor precisely as a hedge against maritime chokepoints. Now, with the Sea of Oman effectively closed, goods moving overland from Iran to Gwadar can connect to Chinese markets via the CPEC network, bypassing the US Navy entirely.

On April 27, Araghchi met with President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg for talks lasting more than 90 minutes. The Iranian foreign minister described the discussions as covering “all issues, both in bilateral relations and regional issues, as well as the issue of war and aggression by the US and Zionist regimes”.

According to media reports, the Russian president said Moscow “will do what it can to support the interests of Iran and other regional countries and help bring peace to West Asia as soon as possible”.

He added that “not only Russia, but now the whole world is admiring the Iranian people for their resistance against America”.

While Russia and Iran signed framework agreements on the International North-South Transport Corridor years ago, the current crisis has given those plans new urgency.

Araghchi used the St Petersburg meeting to reaffirm that Tehran views its relationship with Moscow as a “strategic partnership” that will continue “with greater strength and breadth”.

For China, Russia’s role is complementary. The INSTC offers a route from Mumbai to Moscow via Iranian rail links, a path that, if fully operationalized, would give Chinese goods another overland alternative to maritime shipping.

More immediately, Russia’s diplomatic cover complicates any US effort to pressure Pakistan or other neighbors into closing their borders to Iranian trade.

The central question for Washington is whether maritime piracy can achieve what missiles and airstrikes failed to deliver. After the US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28, it became clear that bombing alone would not bring down the country to its knees.

The blockade represents a shift to economic suffocation aiming to squeeze Iran’s oil revenues. But the strategy carries costs. Global oil prices remain elevated near $120 per barrel, stoking inflationary pressures across the US, Europe and beyond.

More fundamentally, the blockade’s success depends on land routes remaining closed. Pakistan’s activation of the transit corridor, Russia’s support, and China’s quiet integration of Gwadar into its supply chain collectively suggest that Tehran is building an overland escape hatch that the US Navy cannot interdict under any circumstance.

“Whenever there are sanctions or blockades, there will also be workarounds, whether informal channels or other flexible arrangements,” Wang Yiwei, director of Renmin University’s Institute of International Affairs, told The Straits Times. “The key question we should be asking is: can this blockade actually be sustained?”

For now, the answer appears uncertain but with each new overland corridor, Iran is proving impossible to seal and China unlikely to be starved.

Source: Press TV

29, April 2026

Cameroon targets up to 800 billion CFA francs at November Investment Forum ⁰

Cameroon’s Investment Promotion Agency formally launched preparatory activities for the fifth edition of the Cameroon Investment Forum on April 28 in Yaoundé, setting a target of 500 billion to 800 billion CFA francs in investment commitments from the three-day event.

The forum, CIF 2026, is scheduled for November 18 to 20 at the Yaoundé Conference Centre. It arrives at a moment of accelerating economic realignment across the continent, with the African Continental Free Trade Area gaining momentum and regional value chains reshaping where capital flows, and Cameroon is explicitly positioning itself to capture a significant share of that investment traffic.

IPA Interim General Manager Boma Donatus presented the plans alongside Walid Farghal, Director General of the AIM Global Foundation, which is co-organising the forum under a Memorandum of Understanding signed in Abu Dhabi at the AIM Congress 2025.

Beyond the investment commitment goal, the forum aims to present 40 bankable projects, close or advance at least 15 deals currently in negotiation, produce sectoral roadmaps, and identify ten priority reforms to sharpen Cameroon’s competitiveness. Sectors in focus include agribusiness, energy, digital technology, logistics, infrastructure, and manufacturing.

A significant shift in this edition is the involvement of the AIM Global Foundation as co-organiser, a partnership the IPA says is designed to bring international rigour to an event previously organised primarily through domestic capacity.

“AIM can mobilise investors from almost every country where we cannot go ourselves. With a partner like this, we are certain that the appeal of our forum will be strengthened even further. AIM has expertise in developing several types of platforms that contribute to the signing of deals and strategic partnerships,” Boma Donatus said.

AIM Foundation operates across more than 180 countries, with a network of over 300,000 investors and institutions. Farghal, who travelled to Yaoundé to attend the launch and begin technical preparations with the IPA, was direct about what AIM brings to the table.

“Our focus is to develop deals for specific sectors especially infrastructure, logistics, new energy, manufacturing and agribusiness. We are working very closely with the IPA team to make sure that all features of the forum will be well positioned and promoted internationally to all AIM Global branches,” he said.

CIF 2026 is also being framed as a platform to promote ongoing government reforms, including the digitisation of administrative procedures and the modernisation of the investment framework, signalling to prospective investors that the operating environment is actively being improved.

The IPA has opened registration for all stakeholders, including businesses, investors, financial institutions, start-ups, project promoters, public administrations, and diaspora communities, at the forum’s website.

Source: Business in Cameroon