About soter

Posts by :

19, May 2022

Football: Bale deserves good Real Madrid farewell, says Ancelotti ⁰

Carlo Ancelotti said on Thursday that Gareth Bale deserves a good send-off in Real Madrid’s last home game of the season against Real Betis.

Bale will leave Real Madrid when his contract expires at the end of June, after nine years at the Spanish giants, during which he has won three La Liga titles and the Champions League four times.

But after an impressive first few years in Spain, Bale’s popularity with the Madrid fans has plummeted while the Spanish press have regularly criticised him for a perceived lack of commitment.

Real Madrid traditionally stage tributes when significant players depart, with the team playing their final La Liga game at the Santiago Bernabeu against Betis on Friday.

Bale may not be able to play in the match as he is struggling with a back problem.

“Everyone knows that Bale’s contract is ending and that he says goodbye to Real Madrid this year,” said Ancelotti in a press conference.

“Whether he plays tomorrow or not, it’s not that important, the important thing is that Bale has been part of the history of this club. He will remain in the memories of all Real Madrid fans.

“He was very important to the Decima (when Real Madrid won their 10th Champions League), in the 2018 Champions League final in Kiev, in the Copa del Rey final (in 2014).

“He has written some great chapters for this club. It is important that everyone recognizes that.”

Real Madrid won La Liga last month with four games to spare, allowing Ancelotti to rest and rotate players ahead of the Champions League final against Liverpool in Paris next Saturday.

“Liverpool have had more difficulties than us, they are preparing very important matches,| Ancelotti said. “But we are not just thinking about the final, we will think about just the final from Monday.”

Ancelotti was also asked four times about Kylian Mbappe, who is still to announce whether he will extend his contract at Paris Saint-Germain or join Real Madrid next season.

Asked whether fans are talking to him about Mbappe in the street, Ancelotti said: “No, because I don’t go in the street. I spend my time at the training ground, in the car or at home.

“Sometimes in Madrid’s good restaurants, but they don’t ask me there. They ask me about the Champions League final.”

Source: AFP

19, May 2022

Nearly 60 million people displaced in 2021 by conflict and natural disaster ⁰

Conflicts and natural disasters forced tens of millions to flee within their own country last year, pushing the number of internally displaced people to a record high, monitors said Thursday.

Some 59.1 million people were registered as internally displaced worldwide in 2021 — an all-time record expected to be broken again this year amid mass displacement inside war-torn Ukraine.

Around 38 million new internal displacements were reported in 2021, with some people forced to flee multiple times during the year, according to a joint report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

That marks the second-highest annual number of new internal displacements in a decade after 2020, which saw record-breaking movement due to a string of natural disasters.

Last year, new internal displacements from conflict surged to 14.4 million — marking a 50-percent jump from 2020 and more than doubling since 2012, the report showed.

‘World is falling apart’

And global internal displacement figures are only expected to grow this year, driven in particular by the war in Ukraine.

More than eight million people have already been displaced within the war-ravaged country since Russia’s full-scale invasion began on February 24, in addition to the more than six million who have fled Ukraine as refugees.

“2022 is looking bleak,” IDMC director Alexandra Bilak told reporters.

The record numbers seen in 2021, she said, marked “a tragic indictment really on the state of the world and on peace-building efforts in particular”.

NRC chief Jan Egeland agreed, warning: “It has never been as bad as this.”

“The world is falling apart,” he told reporters.

“The situation today is phenomenally worse than even our record figure suggests.”

In 2021, sub-Saharan Africa counted the most internal movements, with more than five million displacements reported in Ethiopia alone, as the country grappled with the raging and expanding Tigray conflict and a devastating drought.

That marks the highest figure ever registered for a single country.

‘Titanic shift’ needed

Unprecedented displacement numbers were also recorded last year in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Afghanistan, where the Taliban’s return to power, along with drought, saw many flee their homes.

In Myanmar, where the military junta seized power in a February coup last year, displacement numbers also reached a record high, the report found.

The Middle East and North Africa region recorded its lowest number of new displacements in a decade, as the conflicts in Syria, Libya and Iraq de-escalated somewhat, but the overall number of displaced people in the region remained high.

Syria, where civil war has been raging for more than 11 years, still accounted for the world’s highest number of people living in internal displacement due to conflict — 6.7 million — at the end of 2021.

That was followed by the DR Congo at 5.3 million, Colombia at 5.2 million, and Afghanistan and Yemen at 4.3 million.

Despite the hike in conflict-related displacement, natural disasters continued to account for most new internal displacement, spurring 23.7 million such movements in 2021.

A full 94 percent of those were attributed to weather and climate-related disasters, like cyclones, monsoon rains, floods and droughts.

Experts say that climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of such extreme weather events.

China, the Philippines and India were hardest hit, together accounting for around 70 percent of all disaster-related displacements last year.

Increasingly, conflict and disasters collide, creating a “complex quagmire of problems”, Egeland said, worsening risks and often forcing people to flee several times.

In places like Mozambique, Myanmar, Somalia and South Sudan, overlapping crises impact food security and heighten the vulnerabilities of millions.

“We need a titanic shift in thinking from world leaders on how to prevent and resolve conflicts to end this soaring human suffering,” Egeland said.

Source: France 24

19, May 2022

AU, EU remaining silent on French Cameroun atrocities against Southern Cameroonians ⁰

Professor Carlson Anyangwe has sharply criticized the African and European Unions for exercising double standards on human rights, saying the two international bodies have remained silent on five years of French Cameroun atrocities against the English speaking people of Southern Cameroons as well as the horrendous criminal acts that the Francophone prison officials are perpetrating on Southern Cameroons detainees.

“While AU and EU officials accuse Mali and Central African Republic of committing war crimes, they tend to turn a blind eye to the atrocities committed against civilians in the war in Southern Cameroons. The regime in Yaoundé has carried out crimes throughout the entire Southern Cameroons, spanning from Buea to Bamenda, Bali, Batibo and Mamfe. Francophone army soldiers have attacked weddings in Southern Cameroons, turning them into funerals,” Professor Anyangwe told Cameroon Concord News.

Anyangwe added, “What have the AU or EU said about the massacres in Ngarbuh? What have they said about the killings in Kwa Kwa? What have they said about the massacres of Reverend fathers and missionaries in Southern Cameroons? What have they said about the killing of Anglophone journalists?”

Professor Anyangwe noted that thousands of trials should be held to bring French Cameroun military officials to justice for crimes committed in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

By Isong Asu

19, May 2022

Weak, crumbling and falling apart-FECAFOOT Secretary General resigns ⁰

The secretary general has confirmed in a letter addressed to his boss that he is leaving his post

The Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot) has suffered a huge blow after secretary-general Benjamin Didier Banlock resigned from his post on Wednesday.

In a correspondence sent to his boss, Samuel Eto’o, on Wednesday, Banlock announced he was leaving his post because “Cameroonian football is not on the right direction and refused among other things to be reduced to the “dancer of the President.”

“I have reasons to believe Cameroonian football will only regain its greatness if great me, who carry great ideas, act with greatness in an environment that allows for elevation and progress, in other words, the achievement of great designs,” Banlock explained in his letter seen by GOAL.

“For my part and very humbly, an administration of progress at Fecafoot cannot be reduced to the “president’s dancer “which seems to be your only will,” Banlock continued in his message directed at Eto’o.

“The texts, the good managerial and governance practices, the objectives of federal projects and the results must motivate the decisions, justify the postures, the choices and the commitments.

“Thanks to the Executive Committee of Fecafoot for the trust placed in me but regrets for not being able to work in an environment conducive to achieving performance.”

On December 11, 2021, Eto’o, who played for a host of clubs across Europe, most notably Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter Milan, was elected as president of the Cameroon federation.

Almost two weeks after Eto’o took charge of the federation, the former Cameroon captain chaired an emergency committee meeting on Monday, December 27, 2021, via a video conference and he re-appointed Banlock to the post after resolutions were passed.

He came in as an interim in the new Eto’o era having served in the same position in the previous Federation which was under Njoya. Banlock was first confirmed as the federation’s secretary on January 2, 2019, before he was fired by Njoya, on August 2021.

Eto’o was in charge during the 33rd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations which the country hosted. However, the Indomitable Lions could not make it to the final as they suffered a penalty shoot-out defeat in the semi-finals against Egypt.

Source: Goal.com

18, May 2022

Biya regime reopens border with Central African Republic ⁰

The government of Cameroon has agreed to reopen its border with the Central African Republic for humanitarian reasons.

This measure, facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), is to enable the resumption of the exportation of high consumption basic products from Cameroon to the war-torn country.

The decision to stop the exportation of basic products from Cameroon to its neighbours, the Central African Republic and Congo (Brazzaville), was taken by Cameroon’s Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atanga, because of the Ukrainian war and its consequences on certain products of high consumption in Africa.

According to Cameroonian authorities, the measures were taken with a view to protecting the Cameroonian people from the consequences of the Ukrainian war which has provoked “enormous inflationist shocks in Africa”.

The Central African Republic, had on its part, attributed the measure to pressure from France and the European Union with a view to asphyxiating the Bangui regime, which is supported by Russian mercenaries.

“Instead of opting for a diplomatic solution to the situation by contacting the Cameroonian authorities for negotiations, the Touadera regime in Bangui resorted to accusations that Cameroon closed its frontier to satisfy European demands,” a political analyst in Bangui who opted for anonymity said.

However, sensing the catastrophic consequences linked to the border closure, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) resorted to humanitarian diplomacy and took the initiative to contact and discuss with the Cameroonian authorities on the possibility of reopening the border.

Discussions between the two sides led to the current temporary suspension of the decision to close the border between the Central African Republic and Cameroon.

Source: HumAngle

18, May 2022

US: More protections are needed for Southern Cameroonians ⁰

After Cameroonians advocated for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for five years since the Anglophone Crisis broke out in Cameroon in 2017, the Department of Homeland Security finally designated 18 months of protected status for Cameroonian nationals in the U.S. on April 15. TPS will protect qualifying Cameroonians from deportation and give them the ability to receive work permits. Advocates say they are grateful for the designation, but more can be done to grant relief to a community whose home country is in the midst of war and a humanitarian crisis.

“This is the bare minimum,” said Sylvie Bello, the founder and CEO of the Cameroon American Council.

Advocates are still pushing for Cameroonians to qualify for the Special Student Relief Program, which allows international students studying on a school visa to apply for permission to reduce their course load and to work over 20 hours in on-campus positions, or apply for a card to work off-campus. They are also asking for a refugee resettlement program and Humanitarian Parole. The resettlement program would assist Cameroonian refugees in guaranteeing long-term or permanent residence status in the U.S. The solution would ensure they are protected against deportation and creates a pathway to citizenship. Humanitarian Parole would also create a pathway for Cameroonians to leave their perilous conditions and immigrate to the U.S., and would bar them from deportation for two years.

Humanitarian Parole would make a difference for Evans Meh, a member of the Cameroon American Council, who says his mother’s “dying wish” is to reconnect with her oldest daughter, who is still in Cameroon, for a final passage of maternal rites. His mother, a U.S. citizen in hospice care, cannot travel to Cameroon due to her ailing health. Humanitarian parole would allow expedited visa access into the country for relatives of U.S. citizens.

“My U.S. citizen mother deserves to reunite with her daughter, who lives in the war zone of Northwest Region of Cameroon,” Meh said.

According to Bello, the delay in granting TPS is rooted in a racist and anti-Black immigration system. Bello points out that none of the countries currently granted Humanitarian Parole are in Africa.

“The government does not think that African countries also need humanitarian programs,” Bello said. “We want that for Cameroon. I have at least two members of my community who would benefit from a special humanitarian program.”

Despite the ongoing conflicts in Cameroon, ICE deported more than 90 Cameroonians on two deportation flights in October and November 2020. According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), at least several dozen of those deported were denied asylum. In a follow-up report by HRW, they found that Cameroonian authorities subjected dozens of the same asylum-seekers to serious human rights violations. In 2020, 38.4% of Cameroonian asylum claims were denied.

“This life-saving victory was secured by countless hours of work and the extraordinary leadership of Black immigrants,” said Lisa Parisio, CLINIC’s director of advocacy. “While we celebrate, we also pray for and think about the Cameroonians who were deported to danger when TPS should have been in place. Slow-walked TPS designations are deadly and fly in the face of congressional intent and the values of safe haven that underpin the law. Equitable policy and practice require that TPS be used broadly, boldly, and immediately to respond to humanitarian crises for all countries in need.”

Additional relief could help reunite families separated by the conflict. Bello plans to continue advocating for this relief.

“We are putting a warning to [Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro] Mayorkas when it comes to Cameroon,” Bello said. “We will not tolerate the anti-Blackness and the anti-Africanness within immigration.”

Source: Prism report

18, May 2022

FIFA clears Cameroon to pick Kévin Nkoudou, Olivier Ntcham ahead of World Cup ⁰

Cameroon’s recruitment drive ahead of the World Cup continued on Monday with FIFA approving the change in international eligibility of former France Under-21 winger Georges-Kévin Nkoudou.

Nkoudou, who was with Marseille and Tottenham before joining current club Beşiktaş, never played for the French senior national team and could make the change to Cameroon under FIFA rules because of his family ties.

The application to FIFA was made by the Cameroonian Football Association, which is led by national team great Samuel Eto’o.

The 27-year-old Nkoudou was named last week in coach Rigobert Song’s preliminary squad for 2023 African Cup of Nations qualifying games in June. The group also included former Celtic midfielder Olivier Ntcham.

FIFA confirmed Ntcham’s eligibility change from France only last week though he had been called up in March for World Cup qualifying playoffs against Algeria.

The Swansea player did not take part in the playoffs as Cameroon advanced on the away-goals rule by scoring in stoppage time at the end of extra time in the second leg.

Cameroon was drawn in a World Cup group with Brazil, Serbia and Switzerland. The tournament in Qatar starts on Nov. 21.

Source: AP

18, May 2022

CPDM Crime Syndicate and the Mbalam iron project: The matter promises to be hot ⁰

Negotiations between Cameroon and Sundance Resources (and its local subsidiary Cam Iron SA), which began in the second half of 2021, for an amicable settlement of the dispute over the Mbalam iron ore mining project, have failed.

The Australian mining company brought the case to the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris in June 2021 to force Cameroon to grant it an operating license on the project, after the mining convention of November 29, 2012, and the transition agreement of June 30, 2015. The company said Cameroon was about to grant the license to another partner.

Sundance wants Cameroon to at least repay the amount it invested in the research phase. The money is estimated at CFA94 billion (subject to audit), according to the Minister of Mines, Industry and Technological Development (Minmidt), whose services led the negotiations with the Australian mining company.

Disapproval

Gabriel Dodo Ndocké believes that paying this “debt” will put a definitive end to the battle between the Cameroonian government and Sundance Resources but President Paul Biya (pictured) seems to disapprove. In a letter dated April 18, the President said he prefers an arbitration approach and has already contacted Thierry Lauriol, a lawyer at the Paris bar and partner in the firm Jeantet, to defend Cameroon before the court. Thierry Lauriol was Congo’s lawyer before the court of arbitration of London when the country was battling against the same company for the Congolese part of the same project.

The lawyer should have already filed the response of the State of Cameroon to the request for arbitration before the deadline of April 30, 2022. Under this strategy, the Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motazé, was instructed to urgently make $55,000 (about 34.57 million CFA francs) available to the collector at the Embassy of Cameroon in Paris. The money covered the urgent procedure that ended April 1, 2022, by a decision not favorable to Cameroon. The International Court of Arbitration in Paris issued a provisional decision prohibiting Cameroon “from issuing an exploitation permit for the Mbalam iron ore deposit or from issuing any instrument or document having a similar effect, to Sonamines or any other entity,” Sundance reported.

Delay

In August 2021, Sundance Resources announced it was relying on arbitration proceedings against Cameroon and Congo to pay debts owed to its shareholders estimated at $132 million (about CFA70.86 billion), as of the end of January 2021. In Congo, the Australian firm is claiming damages of $8.76 billion, or more than CFA4,700 billion at the current value of the US dollar.

Since 2015, after several extensions of its exploration license on the project, the Australian mining junior has not managed to secure a technical and financial partner for the implementation of infrastructure related to the Mbalam project (construction of a railway more than 500 km between Mbalam and Kribi, of the mine and a mineral terminal at the deepwater port of Kribi). Successive attempts with the Chinese companies China Gezhouba, in 2015, Tidfore Heavy Equipment Group Ltd, in 2018, and AustSino, after 2018, have all failed.

On June 25, 2021, in Yaoundé, Cameroon signed an MoU with AutSino Resources Group Ltd and Bestway Finance Ltd for the construction of the railway (more than 500 km) linking Mbalam to the deepwater port of Kribi. This prompted Sundance to take AutSino to court in Australia for breach of trust. Sundance believes that the Chinese company used the data it had provided to negotiate and obtain the Mbalam permit behind its back.

Culled from Business in Cameroon

17, May 2022

Spanish cabinet approves paid ‘menstrual leave’ ⁰

Spain’s cabinet on Tuesday approved a bill that grants paid medical leave for women who suffer from severe period pain, becoming the first European country to advance such legislation.

Menstrual leave is currently offered only in a small number of countries across the globe, among them South Korea and Indonesia.

But the proposed legislation must still be approved by the Spanish parliament, with a vote not expected for months.

It was not clear whether Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s minority coalition government, which has made women’s rights a priority, has enough support in the assembly to pass it.

The Spanish bill entitles workers experiencing period pain to as much time off as they need, with the state social security system — not employers — picking up the tab for the sick leave.

As with paid leave for other health reasons, a doctor must approve the temporary medical incapacity.

Equality Minister Irene Montero said the law will recognise a health problem that has been largely swept under the carpet until now.

“Periods will no longer be taboo,” she told a news conference after the cabinet approved the bill.

“We will be the first country in Europe to introduce a temporary sick leave that is fully financed by the state for painful and incapacitating periods,” she added.

“No more going to work with pain, no more taking pills before arriving at work and having to hide the fact we’re in pain that makes us unable to work.”

Montero belongs to the far-left Podemos party, Sanchez’s junior coalition partner which has been the driving force behind the law.

‘Have to be careful’

About a third of women who menstruate suffer from severe pain, according to the Spanish Gynaecology and Obstetrics Society.

Italy in 2016 proposed a bill that would have granted three paid days off to women suffering menstrual pain who obtained medical certificates.

But the draft bill did not progress before the parliamentary term expired in 2018.

Spain’s proposal has divided politicians and even unions, with some saying it could stigmatise women in the workplace and favour the recruitment of men.

“You have to be careful with this type of decision,” said Cristina Antonanzas, deputy secretary general of one of Spain’s largest trade unions, the UGT, warning it could impact “women’s access to the labour market”.

But Spain’s other major trade union, the CCOO, said the proposed measure was “justified” if period pain prevents a woman from working, and called it a major “legislative advance”.

Reproductive health reform

The Spanish legislation is part of a much wider reproductive health reform which will include changes to the country’s abortion laws.

It will end the requirement for minors of 16 and 17 to obtain parental consent before terminating a pregnancy and include measures to boost access to abortion at public hospitals.

The draft bill also calls for the free distribution of contraceptives and menstrual hygiene products in high schools, and strengthens sex education.

“We are advancing feminism. Women should be able to decide freely about their lives,” tweeted Sanchez.

Since he came to power in 2018, women have taken up most cabinet posts for the first time in Spain’s history, taking up top portfolios such as defence, economy and finance.

Spain decriminalised abortion in 1985 in cases of rape, if a foetus is malformed or if a birth poses a serious physical or psychological risk to the mother.

The scope of the law was broadened in 2010 to allow abortion on demand in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, but access to the procedure is complicated by the fact that many doctors in public hospitals refuse to perform abortions.

Source: AFP

17, May 2022

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Enjoying French support, Biya gang pressing on with unspeakable crimes ⁰

Cameroon Concord News Group senior political man says the Biya Beti Ewondo gang; owing to French government unswerving support continues to carry out its unspeakable crimes with no end in sight against the English speaking people of Cameroon.

Speaking today in Dublin the Right Hon. Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai urged the US and the European Union to make a stand to put an end to Yaounde’s atrocities in Southern Cameroons.

Soter Agbaw-Ebai who also moonlights as editor-in-chief of the Concord Group said Southern Cameroonians should not allow the blood-thirsty Biya regime which kills women and children to stage the so-called national day celebration in the Ambazonian homeland.

“Enjoying French government unwavering support for decades, the Francophone military’s unspeakable crimes will continue with no end in sight – unless the USA with its European allies make a stand” Mr. Agbaw-Ebai noted.

‘Supplying weapons to Southern Cameroonians is morally legitimate under the present conditions’ he furthered.

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai quoted the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin who said recently on the Ukrainian situation that “There is a right to armed defense in the case of aggression.”

By Chi Prudence Asong in Dublin