About soter

Posts by :

4, March 2022

Russia seizes Europe’s largest nuclear power plant ⁰

Ukrainian authorities say Russian forces seized the largest nuclear power plant in Europe Friday after a building at the complex was set ablaze during intense fighting.

Fears of a potential nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhia plant spread alarm across world capitals, before authorities said the fire in a building identified as a training center, had been extinguished.

Ukraine’s president accused Russia of resorting to “nuclear terror” and seeking to repeat the Chernobyl disaster after saying that Russian forces attacked a nuclear power plant.

Russia’s defense ministry, however, blamed the attack at the site on Ukrainian saboteurs, calling it a monstrous provocation.

Earlier, in a video message, President Volodymyr Zelensky urged world leaders to prevent Europe from “dying from a nuclear disaster”.

US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said there was no indication of elevated radiation levels at the Zaporizhzhia plant, which provides more than a fifth of the total electricity generated in Ukraine.

Local officials also said that essential equipment at the station was unaffected and radiation levels were normal.

An official at the state enterprise that runs Ukraine’s four nuclear plants said there was no further fighting, the fire was out and Zaporizhzhia was operating normally.

“(Nuclear power plant) personnel are on their working places providing normal operation of the station.”

A video from the plant showed one building aflame, and a volley of incoming shells. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Ukrainian authorities had assured the IAEA that “essential” equipment were unaffected.

Russia has already taken control of the Chernobyl plant, about 100 km north of Kiev, which has been one of the most radioactive locations on earth since it saw an explosion in its fourth reactor in April 1986.

Financial markets in Asia spiraled out of control as early reports of the incident emerged, with stocks falling and oil prices soaring further.

“Markets are worried about nuclear fallout. The risk is that there is a miscalculation or over-reaction and the war prolongs,” said Vasu Menon, executive director of investment strategy at OCBC Bank.

Culled from Presstv

3, March 2022

Macron officially declares his candidacy in 2022 French presidential election ⁰

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday announced he would run for a second term in the April French presidential election, seeking a mandate to steer the euro zone’s second-largest economy through the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Macron announced his bid for the 2022 presidential election with a “letter to the French” which began with the recent challenges the country has faced during his first five-year term.

“Over the past five years, we have faced many trials together. Terrorism, the pandemic, war in Europe: rarely has France been faced with such an accumulation of crises,” the letter, which was published in several newspapers, began.

“We have not succeeded in everything,” Macron continued. “There are choices that, with the experience I have acquired, I would no doubt make differently. But the transformations undertaken during this mandate have enabled many of us to live better, and France to gain in independence. And the crises we have been experiencing for the past two years show that this is the path that must be followed.”

The letter then stated his intent to run for a second term. “I am asking for your confidence for a new mandate as president of the Republic. I am a candidate to…respond to the challenges of the century. I am a candidate to defend our values…I am a candidate to continue to prepare the future of our children and our grandchildren.”

The French president, who has been at the centre of diplomacy over Ukraine, left his official declaration to the last minute with the deadline set by the authorities at 6 pm (1700 GMT) on Friday.

While there was always little suspense about the 44-year-old’s intentions, his candidacy announcement was repeatedly delayed because of the crisis in eastern Europe that has seen Macron take a prominent role in diplomatic talks.

Nearly a month before the April 10 first round of the presidential election Macron has yet to engage in any official campaigning and scrapped a rally planned in Marseille this weekend due to the Ukraine crisis.

Rivals ‘boxing on their own’

Ahead of Friday’s deadline for candidates to stand, polls widely show him as the front runner, with the war turning the attention to foreign policy rather than the domestic issues favoured by his opponents.

“In a crisis, citizens always get behind the flag and line up behind the head of state,” said Antoine Bristielle, a public opinion expert at the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, a Paris think tank.

“The other candidates are inaudible. In every media, all anyone is talking about is the invasion,” he told AFP.

One ruling party MP told AFP this week the Ukraine crisis meant that Macron’s rivals were “boxing on their own”, while several polls have shown his personal ratings rising.

The former investment banker admitted in a national address on Wednesday night that the crisis had “hit our democratic life and the election campaign” but promised “an important democratic debate for the country” would take place.

The latest IFOP poll for Paris Match, LCI and Sud Radio on Thursday showed Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen leading in the first round and qualifying for the run-off with Macron getting 28 percent and Le Pen securing 17 percent.

The figures for the April 24 runoff showed Macron securing 56.7 percent of the vote against Le Pen.

Source: REUTERS

3, March 2022

Manu Dibango: Today, Tomorrow And Forever ⁰

Emmanuel N’Djoké Dibango – Manu Dibango – will live forever thanks to his Afropolitan sounds, and to the fact that many artists in Africa and beyond are deeply indebted to him.

He was a man of legendary generosity of spirit and talent, with an accommodating heart that sought to bridge the local and the global with creativity and innovation in song and music. His album Soul Makossa was of such artistic genius that even a global superstar like Michael Jackson couldn’t resist sampling from it to enrich his own album, Thriller.

In his 1994 biography, Dibango describes himself as “Négropolitain”. It’s a term that would later be adopted and popularised as “Afropolitanism” by others enthralled by his idea of grounded cosmopolitanism.

African and European at one and the same time.

He saw himself – and insisted on being seen – as “a man between two cultures, two environments”. His music could not be confined to either, without losing its complexity and richness. It was the fruit of his diverse influences. His nimble fingers, voice and intellect were averse to any artificial barriers or attempts to contain the flow of the river of musical humanity.

Three kilos of coffee

Born on December 12 in 1933 in Douala, Cameroon, Dibango was sent by his parents to study in France when he was only 15 years old. He arrived in France bearing a gift of three kilograms of coffee from his parents, for his host.

In France he met Francis Bebey, another musician from his native Douala, with whom he formed a band and began to experiment with different modern instruments, such as the piano and the saxophone.

He later relocated to Brussels where he met his wife to be, Marie-Josée (whom he would fondly call Coco). It was also in Brussels that his music career began to blossom through fruitful contacts. Two in particular stand out: Joseph Kabasélé and African Jazz, who introduced him to “the cha-cha and the rumba, the two breasts nourishing Zairean music”, and who, in 1961, also invited him to Zaïre (today’s Democratic Republic of Congo). The result was his first record, African Soul, “a mixture of jazz, popular music, and rumba”.

Dibango’s life was exemplary in its resilience, combativeness and ingenuity in mobilising his creativity to contain or at least confront political and cultural repression. His music brought him worldwide fame. But he did not feel particularly fulfilled in the land of his birth.

He spent the best part of his life in a determined struggle to win recognition for music as art and musicians as artists in his motherland and elsewhere in Africa. These were contexts of strongman politics, personality cults and repeated frustrations by politicians, sometimes in cassock. Notwithstanding censorship, jealousy, penury, and repeated frustration and disappointment as an artist, Dibango refused to be deterred.

Manu Dibango performs on stage at Ronnie Scott’s club in 2009 in London. David Redfern/Redferns

Leaving Cameroon

He returned to Cameroon from Zaïre in 1963, issuing the album Nasengina. This was his only piece constructed purely from the indigenous Cameroonian makossa.

Dibango was appreciated by ordinary Cameroonians. But he hated the fact that politicians kept his artistic creativity under close surveillance. He was disenchanted with authorities that did not allow people “to fantasise” and “to dream”, and who forced everyone to talk “in cautious whispers” and to be “wary of everyone else”.

In 1964, disappointed in “this harmful atmosphere”, Dibango closed down his club and abandoned all dreams of opening a musical conservatory or arts institute. He left Cameroon for France after barely 16 months back home.

Still, he could not bring himself to give up on Cameroon entirely. He would pay brief return visits from the early 1980s onwards. His desire “to forge a unified image of Cameroon, representing all the musical currents in the country” received rare facilitation from the Minister of Culture who happened to be his friend, and resulted in a three-record set, Fleurs Musicales du Cameroun.

But his desire to project himself as “this famous Cameroonian musician heard everywhere but in Cameroon” would be met with the same contradictions, making the air “unbreathable” in what he described as his “last African adventure”.

He felt cursed that he “couldn’t create something here in Cameroon”. He found it ironic that Côte d’Ivoire, with the blessing of then President Houphouët-Boigny, could entrust him with the task of heading the Orchestre de la Radio-Télévision Ivoirienne, while Cameroon could not even take seriously his expertise as a professional musician of world renown.

Together with other expatriate African musical talents in France, Dibango released Tam-Tam pour l’Ethiopie, to raise funds for famine-stricken Ethiopia between 1983 and 1985. The initiative served as “proof that Africans too could take concrete action” vis-à-vis their own predicaments. And he personally took the proceeds from the album to refugee camps in Ethiopia to ensure that

‘For once, the money wouldn’t be misused by the government in power’.

Although the situation has improved significantly since publication of his biography in 1994, Dibango’s music is still much more appreciated abroad – as “world music” – than in Cameroon.

Despite the government’s attempts to impose creative inertia upon him in the early 1960s, Dibango was given the honour of composing the theme song of the 1972 Africa Cup of Nations football finals hosted by Cameroon. In 1988, he received a decoration as a Knight of Order and of Valour. However, as Dibango observed, “the authorities could decorate me with all the medals they liked” without doing much to stop “the descent into hell” for artistic creativity in a country where it is not uncommon to mobilise the military to raid clubs. Or to impose entertainment taxes with the intention of crippling artists who are perceived to be critical or unpalatable.

Manu Dibango died after contracting COVID-19 at the age of 86 in Paris, where he felt “condemned to be an expatriate”.

Quibble as they may in Cameroon, Dibango leaves behind a towering record of Afropolitan musical genius of truly global magnitude, to feed and inspire many a generation to come. Manu Dibango does not have to be in Cameroon, in Africa or physically in the world to continue to do things of relevance.

Culled from The Citizen

3, March 2022

Should South West Chiefs and North West Fons remain neutral on the war in Ambazonia? ⁰

The Agbaw-Ebai Debate:

Should Southern Cameroons Chiefs and Fons remain neutral on the war in Ambazonia?

A/Yes, it’s not their place to get involved

B/No, they need to be on the right side of history

Let your voice be heard!

3, March 2022

Southern Cameroons ‘forgotten’ war leaves refugees in limbo ⁰

Three years ago, Akor Pelkings fled his home in western Cameroon, where a conflict raged between the security forces and rebels fighting for an independent state.

Today, the 25-year-old is one of 70 000 Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria, wondering in despair when they can return.

Yet they in turn are among a million people uprooted by a conflict which is now in its fifth year yet remains largely forgotten – even unknown – in the rest of the world.

The violence erupted in 2017, when militants declared an independent state in Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions, home to most of the anglophone minority in the majority French-speaking country.

Both the separatists and government forces have been accused of atrocities in the fighting, which according to the International Crisis Group (ICG) has killed more than 6 000 people.

Pelkings crossed into Nigeria, finding shelter in one of the refugee camps that have sprung up near the border regions, although they often have less international aid than in other conflict areas.

He said:

Why no one cares? Our lives are destroyed, and no one cares. The conflict went to days, to months, now to years.

In dozens of interviews with AFP, Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria described their experience.

A common thread emerged – a process of darkening fear, which began as neighbours, relatives and supporters of the anglophone secessionist movement were whisked away in police vans and were rarely heard of again.

Gerard Tiko’Or Akenji, who founded an agricultural cooperative at a camp operated by the UN refugee agency in Ogoja, eastern Nigeria, said the intimidation was unprovoked.

“They arrest so many youths from my community,” said Akenji, 45, who added that he had been picked up four times from the start of the conflict until he finally fled in March 2019.

Terror at night

“I left the country because of fear of death,” said Akenji.

“I always tied my sneakers, and lie on my bed with my legs down, and my door open, in case of any noise I have to run,” he said.

He added:

The sound of gun and explosives have killed many of old people, because they are very afraid.

Then the schools began to close as threats from separatists and the fear of violence kept students at home.

“At the beginning of the conflict, I had to stop going to high school,” said Pelkings, who dreamed of going to university but now raises chickens in this camp in Nigeria.

In September 2021, the start of the academic year, two-thirds of schools in the two English-speaking regions were closed, depriving 700 000 children and adolescents of education, according to the UN.

Hundreds of schools have been attacked there, according to the campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Almost all of those attacks were by armed separatist groups who refuse to allow French to be taught.

Even so, said a humanitarian source, “no one (in the camps) will tell you” that the separatists are to blame, because most of the refugees support their cause.

Childbirth alone

Access to health care has also deteriorated dramatically in English-speaking Cameroon.

Health centres have been attacked or occupied.

Chu Bernice Chang will never forget the circumstances of her first birth when at age 21 she delivered her girl, at home, without any help.

The clinic in her village was being used as a rear base for the Cameroonian army, she said.

According to the ICG, 250 villages have been destroyed in the conflict – a punishment for being suspected of helping one side or the other.

Actions of this kind were cited by many refugees as to why they left, sometimes fleeing from one day to the next.

“My village was attacked more than six times,” said Odilia Ntong, a 50-year-old. “They destroyed the house, the shooting, I had nothing, so left.”

For five days she moved through the bush with nine other women, hungry and sleeping on the ground before she managed to cross the border into Nigeria.

Ntong now lives alone in Takum, a small town in eastern Nigeria, in a tiny room that she rents for $3,60 a month.

To survive, she makes traditional hats that she sells on the market, and receives from the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, like all Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria, 2 600 naira (five euros) per month.

“It’s an invisible crisis,” said Roland Schoenbauer, the spokesperson for UNHCR in Nigeria.

“The number of refugees kept increasing since 2017, while the funds made available by donors have decreased.”

After five years of war, Pelkings sees little hope his life will improve.

“Here we are safe, but we are hungry,” Pelkings said. “Many of my friends are back in Cameroon. Some were killed, some are still in the bush.”

Source: AFP

3, March 2022

CPDM Crime Syndicate: Students stranded as teachers strike, demand unpaid salaries ⁰

Teachers in Cameroon are refusing to work, citing unpaid salaries, some dating back years. Government-led negotiations Tuesday failed to reach an agreement, putting the education of hundreds of thousands of children on hold.

Students at Government Bilingual High School Deido in the city of Douala sing that the government should pay their teachers so children have access to education.

In the song, the children say their dreams of becoming government ministers, doctors, journalists and entrepreneurs will be shattered if the government fails to listen to teachers.

Architect David Muluh has three children in the school. He says he visited the school on Wednesday to find out why teachers come to school but refuse to teach and “because of COVID, children have not been regular in school. If they continue losing [education] because their teachers are on strike, the children’s future is jeopardized. So, my plea is that the government should look into their problems.”

Muluh said school attendance in Cameroon has not been regular since the central African state reported its first cases of COVID-19 in March 2020.

He said during the Africa Football Cup of Nations, which Cameroon hosted last month, the government interrupted classes so students could fill empty football stadiums. He said children have no time to waste if they are to prepare for this year’s final examinations, expected in May.

Ten Cameroon teachers’ associations and unions last week announced a strike against what they call the disrespect of teachers by the government.

The teachers say the monthly salaries of primary school teachers should be increased from about $150 to at least $400. They are also asking the salaries of secondary school teachers to be increased from about $400 to at least $800.

Valentine Tameh, president of the Teachers’ Association of Cameroon, says his colleagues are particularly angry because the government has recruited more teachers than it can pay and now owes several years of unpaid salaries.

“You have teachers who have gone for 9 years, 10 years, without salaries and the government has kept promising and kept promising and promising and what is most irksome is that those who have money, go and give bribes and they have their arrears, they have their salaries.”

The sides negotiated Tuesday, and the government promised to look into the teachers’ grievances and pay the outstanding salaries of at least 17,000 teachers, though it did not say when.

A statement from Fouda Seraphin Magloire, secretary general of the prime minister’s office, said the teachers agreed to suspend the strike.

Geography instructor Appolinnaire Ze, a spokesman for the disgruntled teachers, says the teachers agreed to no such thing.

Ze says all teachers should go to school, but should not teach. He says school children should be calm and understand that teachers are going through a very difficult time. Ze says teachers should be humble but courageous to ask intimidating police and government officials if the police and government officials can also work for so many years without being paid.

The government denies that its officials and the police are trying to intimidate the teachers.

Source: VOA

2, March 2022

Southern Cameroons Crisis: The slaughtering has resumed! ⁰

For some months now, many observers and analysts of the Cameroonian political scene have been misled into thinking that things were improving in the country’s two English-speaking regions after more than five years of reckless and wanton killing of both soldiers and civilians.

For some analysts, the country’s successful organization of a beautiful Africa Cup of Nations (AfCON) might have resulted in the reduction of hostilities in the two English-speaking regions, especially as Southern Cameroonians fighters, including some of their own generals, were also watching the matches and even supporting the Cameroon national team. It appears that if peace must return to Cameroon, then the country will have to host the AfCON every month.

Some observers had even predicted that the fighting might fizzle out after the Africa Cup of Nations as most youth in Southern Cameroons are preparing to participate in efforts aimed at developing football in the country.

But the month of March has brought in bad news to many who have been monitoring the Southern Cameroons crisis which has already sent more than ten thousand Cameroonians to an early grave.

On Tuesday, there was a massive slaughter of army soldiers by Southern Cameroonian fighters in the country’s Northwest region. The dead included – Mbem Jean Pierre, Kamga Dieudonné, Ntieche Mefire Mohamed, Kamto Kamdem Fabice, Ntongfack Brice, Kameni Albert, Tchinda Antoine, Ninchue Blaise. One survivor, Baba Jean, successfully escaped to the Mesaje Brigade while one soldier is still missing. The hunting season is clearly open, and the world will very soon be seeing rivers of blood in that part of the country.

But the situation in the Northwest Region was reduced to a dress rehearsal when a massive IED explosion consumed a Divisional Officer, the Ekondo-Titi Mayor, soldiers and others who were part of a convoy that was rushing to Bekora, a small town located some 30 miles from Ekondo-Titi, to lay the groundwork for the Prime Minister’s visit which was planned for March 2022.

This visit will not be taking place as Prime Minister Dion Ngute has promptly cancelled the trip after hearing of the slaughtering orchestrated by Southern Cameroonian fighters in his home division.

The visit was supposed to demonstrate that the country’s President, Paul Biya, who is losing his memory, was listening to the people of Ndian Division. Prime Minister Dion Ngute had already started rehearsing his lies, but Southern Cameroonian fighters have sent home a strong message – Dion Ngute will not be using their land to tell his massive unproductive tales.

According to Southern Cameroonian fighters who contacted the Cameroon Concord News Group, it seems as if Dion Ngute is suffering from memory failure. The burning of his home was a clear message that the people of Ndian Division had thrown him up and they will not be seeing him anytime soon in Ndian Division.

“Dion Ngute is an expert liar. He lies in a winning way. He was planning a trip to Bekora to come and poison our minds with his lies. Our security agents within the government told us that a delegation led by the Divisional Officer would be in Bekora to lay the groundwork for CPDM lies and we took the necessary measures to ensure that no rain of lies falls on Ndian Division. We burnt his home when this conflict started to let him know that we do not want him anymore in our land. He is an unrepentant CPDM stalwart and no story from him should be trusted,” an angry fighter said.

“Dion Ngute has not achieved much for our people, and we do not trust anything from him. Since becoming prime minister, he has only succeeded to get married to a young Beti girl who is keeping an eye on him for the Beti Mafia. It is a good thing that he has cancelled his trip. We are planning to root out all Yaounde government agents from our land. If anybody had thought the fighting had stopped, let them know that we are still active and we will be active until we get our independence,” the fighter stressed.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

2, March 2022

Amid Ekondo Titi attack Ambazonia Interim Gov’t calls for intensified resistance against Yaoundé ⁰

The Ambazonia Interim Government has condemned the murder of a nurse in Bamenda by plain cloth police officers as a serious escalation that should be met with intensified resistance.

Vice President Dabney Yerima in a statement on Wednesday noted that the only way to protect the people of Southern Cameroons and deter the French backed French Cameroun occupation is by more force, according to the Ambazonia Department of Foreign Affairs.

The Dabney Yerima statement said the strongest response to the French Cameroun military would be to intensify attacks and inflict heavy losses on Cameroon government army soldiers deployed to Southern Cameroons.

The statement came as the Divisional Officer for Ekondo Titi Sub constituency TIMOTHÉE ABOLOA and the Municipal Administrator Nanji Kenneth including three servicemen were killed by a roadside bomb.

The war in Southern Cameroons was started by a head of state whose collaborators have always projected him as the strong man, ordained by God to be eternal not only on earth but also on the throne, but the last years have proven that eternity here on earth is simply a mirage and that no man, including Paul Biya, born of a woman, will ever be physically eternal in a world nobody really understands.

For five years now, Biya has seen 4000 Cameroon government troops killed in Southern Cameroons and his energy waning. Though he seems to believe his own lies that he is still energetic, many events including the Africa Cup of Nations have continued to remind the 89 year-old dictator that time is running out for him.

Both French and Southern Cameroonians have seen him struggle to walk and when he dares to walk, he trembles like a 7-month baby who wants to try his luck at walking.

As his energy levels decline, so too do his muscles fall apart and that makes it hard for his clothes to fit him.

Recently his own trouser sought to take French leave of him during an event where there were thousands of guests at the Unity Palace.

By Chi Prudence Asong

2, March 2022

Tiger Woods scoops PGA Tour’s $8 million popularity prize ⁰

Tiger Woods hasn’t played in a US PGA Tour event in more than a year, but the golf great still won the inaugural Player Impact Program bonus that rewards a player’s popularity.

The 15-time major champion collects a $8 million top prize, the tour announced on Wednesday.

Six-time major winner Phil Mickelson, who had appeared to indicate in a December social media post that he had finished first, finished second for a $6 million bonus — and a Twitter poke from Woods.

“Whoops,” Woods tweeted, along with a screenshot of Mickelson’s December post in which he thanked “all the crazies and real supporters too, who helped me win the PIP.”

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Americans Jordan Spieth, Bryson DeChambeau and Justin Thomas will all receive $3.5 million from the $50 million PIP bonus pool.

Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka and world number one Jon Rahm of Spain each collect $3 million.

The program rewards 10 players based on an “impact score” determined by their popularity in internet searches, the number of unique news articles that include a player’s name, a social media score based on a player’s reach, conversation and engagement metrics, television sponsor exposure and a “general awareness” score among a broad US population.

Not all players are fans of what amounts to a popularity contest. Reigning FedEx Cup champion Patrick Cantlay is among those who would prefer to see tour bonuses based on on-course performance.

“I think I’m old-school in the respect that I would like the money to be doled out relative to play, and I don’t think the PIP does that,” Cantlay said last month.

“It may be the first departure that the tour has had from rewarding good play to rewarding social media or popularity presence, so I don’t like that departure.”

That Woods emerged as the winner is a testament to the continuing interest he sparks not only among keen golf enthusiasts but also among casual fans and celebrity watchers.

Woods hasn’t teed it up in a PGA Tour event since the rescheduled Masters in November of 2020.

He was recovering from yet another back operation when he suffered devastating leg injuries in a one-car crash in California in February of 2021.

Woods said this month he still doesn’t know when he will be ready for top-flight competition.

But he took part in the PNC Championship family tournament alongside son Charlie in December, and the PGA Tour noted that NBC sports reported a total weekend audience for the unofficial event of 2.3 million viewers was up 53% over 2020.

Source: AFP

2, March 2022

Abramovich to sell Chelsea with ‘net proceeds’ going to Ukraine war victims ⁰

Chelsea’s Russian owner Roman Abramovich on Wednesday confirmed he is to sell the Premier League club, pledging that proceeds will go to victims of the war in Ukraine.

The billionaire believes it is in the “best interest” of the Champions League holders if he parts ways with the club he has transformed since his purchase in 2003.

“As I have stated before, I have always taken decisions with the club’s best interest at heart,” Abramovich said in a statement.

“In the current situation, I have therefore taken the decision to sell the club, as I believe this is in the best interest of the club, the fans, the employees, as well as the club’s sponsors and partners.”

It is a seismic moment for English football after nearly two decades of Abramovich’s team consistently challenging for the sport’s top honours.

Chelsea have won 19 major trophies in the Abramovich era, including their first two Champions League crowns and five Premier League titles.

But the 55-year-old’s reign will come to an end in the the fall-out from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The British government have yet to order sanctions against Abramovich, who is said to be close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but the Chelsea owner’s concern about potential seizing of assets is understood to have sparked his move to off-load the Blues.

Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss and USA investor Todd Boehly, a co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, are reported to be two of the parties now preparing a joint bid for Chelsea.

Wyss, 86, told Swiss newspaper Blick he had been offered the chance to buy the London club because Abramovich wanted “to get rid of Chelsea quickly” before potential political sanctions took hold.

It is believed Abramovich’s asking price for Chelsea will be around £3 billion ($4 billion), with American bank the Raine Group reported to have been asked to handle the sale.

– Privilege of a lifetime’

Chelsea’s debt to Abramovich currently stands at around £1.5 billion but he will not ask for loans to be repaid, while he is also said to be set to sell his London property portfolio.

Abramovich, who made a rare appearance to watch Chelsea win the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi recently, has pledged to donate any net proceeds from the sale to help victims of the war in Ukraine.

“The sale of the club will not be fast-tracked but will follow due process,” Abramovich said.

“I will not be asking for any loans to be repaid. This has never been about business nor money for me, but about pure passion for the game and club.

“Moreover, I have instructed my team to set up a charitable foundation where all net proceeds from the sale will be donated.

“The foundation will be for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine. This includes providing critical funds towards the urgent and immediate needs of victims, as well as supporting the long-term work of recovery.”

Abramovich paid £140 million to buy Chelsea from Ken Bates, using his vast wealth and the shrewd appointment of Jose Mourinho as manager to shatter Manchester United and Arsenal’s stranglehold on the Premier League.

As well as Premier League and Champions League glory, Chelsea won the FA Cup five times, the Europa League twice and the League Cup three times under Abramovich.

Abramovich, who announced the impending sale less than an hour before Chelsea’s FA Cup fifth-round tie at Luton, admitted relinquishing ownership was a painful decision.

He hopes to make one more visit to Stamford Bridge before the curtain falls on his 19-year reign.

“Please know that this has been an incredibly difficult decision to make, and it pains me to part with the club in this manner,” Abramovich said.

“However, I do believe this is in the best interest of the club.

“I hope that I will be able to visit Stamford Bridge one last time to say goodbye to all of you in person.

“It has been a privilege of a lifetime to be part of Chelsea FC and I am proud of all our joint achievements. Chelsea Football Club and its supporters will always be in my heart.”

Source: AFP