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Kidnap, Ransom and Extortion in Ambazonia: Yerima moves to block ADF/AGOVC criminal payments

2, December 2021

Kidnap, Ransom and Extortion in Ambazonia: Yerima moves to block ADF/AGOVC criminal payments 0

INTERIM GOVERNMENT STATEMENT ON THE ADF/AGovC CRIMINAL KIDNAP OF MR NDOPING for RANSOM

Fellow Southern Cameroonians,

A video is circulating on social media posted by Capo Daniel and the ADF/AGOVC implicating the  Interim Government of Ambazonia on a sickening crime scheme. The video is of a kidnapped Mr Ndoping, a manager at CamWater. The criminal perpetrators are asking for a ransom for his release. The Interim Government of Ambazonia wants to put on record that it condemns this action strongly.

After consultations with defence teams on the ground, we were informed that they were under the custody of AGOVC/ADF fighters. The kidnapped family includes a breastfeeding mother! The IG calls for them to be released unharmed without delay!!

Earlier, I called Capo Daniel and asked for the immediate release of these Southern Cameroonians, but he requested to talk directly to the family. I know many people who have reached out to Dr Cho Ayaba to ask for their freedom to no avail.

Fellow Ambazonians, our fight is against the invading army of French Cameroun, not on our people fighting for their livelihoods when there is yet no alternative for them. I am a father, and I can imagine what the children of the kidnapped couple are going through right now.

The IG distances itself from any acts of kidnapping and informs Ambazonians that no agreement has ever been reached between the IG and ADF/ AGOVC regarding any Liberation Tax collection in Ambazonia. We know it’s our collective responsibility to liberate our nation and your IG has strong institutions to attain this objective.

Let me make this as clear as possible: any leader’s mandate in this revolution is to liberate our people, not rule over them. Let’s focus on liberation and stop putting the cart before the horse.

I take this opportunity again to call on the AGOVC/ADF and Capo Daniel to refrain from implicating the Interim Government of Ambazonia in criminal activity. I also call on Dr Cho Ayaba to show leadership by releasing Mr Ndoping immediately.

Thank You, and God Bless You

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Ambazonia Interim Government

Football: Rangnick granted work permit to start Manchester United job

2, December 2021

Football: Rangnick granted work permit to start Manchester United job 0

Ralph Rangnick has been granted a work permit to start his reign as Manchester United manager, the Premier League club announced on Thursday.

The 63-year-old German will be introduced to the media on Friday and take charge of the team for the first time at Crystal Palace on Sunday.

“As all paperwork has now been completed, we will hold an in-person press conference with Ralf Rangnick at Old Trafford at 9:00 am tomorrow morning,” said a United statement.

United confirmed the appointment of Rangnick as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s short-term replacement on Monday.

But Rangnick, who was manager of sports and development at Russian club Lokomotiv Moscow, had to wait for a work permit to begin his role at Old Trafford.

Caretaker manager Michael Carrick will take charge for a third time against Arsenal at Old Trafford on Thursday, the former United midfielder having overseen a Champions League win at Villarreal and a Premier League draw at Chelsea.

Rangnick will remain as manager until the end of the season before starting a two-year consultancy role at United.

Source: AFP

Southern Cameroons: Doctors Without Borders reports over 180 cholera cases, eight deaths

1, December 2021

Southern Cameroons: Doctors Without Borders reports over 180 cholera cases, eight deaths 0

At least eight people have died and more than 180 others infected in a cholera epidemic that is sweeping across two health districts in Southwest region, international medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Tuesday.

“The Ekondo Titi Health District has reported over 160 cases of cholera, with 62 patients hospitalized at the Cholera Treatment Unit, 15 patients treated at the Oral Rehydration points, and 5 deaths recorded. The Bakassi Health district has also reported 29 suspected cases with three deaths from October 27 to November 29. The condition is particularly worrying because it means that cholera has spread in the community,” Donatien Tshishimbi, MSF Medical Coordinator said in a statement released by MSF on Tuesday.

The population is vulnerable to infectious diseases like cholera because access to health care is difficult and the living conditions are poor, MSF said.

The international medical charity has established two cholera treatment centers and dispatched a team of health personnel to the affected areas to provide free treatment to the population.

In early November, the country’s health authorities in the region warned that cholera was spreading in parts of the region accompanied by a rise in COVID-19 cases.

Cholera, which is spread by ingesting fecal matter, causes acute watery diarrhea and can kill within hours if not treated.

Source: Xinhuanet

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Gunmen abduct Camwater official

1, December 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Gunmen abduct Camwater official 0

Separatist fighters in Cameroon’s restive English-speaking region of Northwest said on Tuesday they have abducted an official of Cameroon Water Utilities Corporation (Camwater), a public-private company that supplies water in the country.

The official who heads the company in the region was seen pleading for his safety and freedom in a video made public on Tuesday by separatist fighters.

The fighters are heard saying in the video that he will only be released when a ransom of 10 million XAF (about 17,299 dollars) is paid and the company ceases to collect money from people for the use of public taps.

Officials of Camwater contacted by Xinhua have confirmed the abduction and said security forces have launched operations for his safe release.

Abductions are common in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest where an armed separatist conflict is underway. The December end-of-year festivities are also usually characterized by kidnapping and violence in the regions, according to security reports.

Source: Xinhuanet

Four decades since AIDS epidemic began, but still no vaccine

1, December 2021

Four decades since AIDS epidemic began, but still no vaccine 0

Covid vaccines began to show promise just months after the novel coronavirus started spreading across the globe. So why have decades of HIV/AIDS research yielded so little progress on a jab to prevent a disease that claimed some 680,000 lives in 2020?

As the globe marks World AIDS Day on Wednesday, why is there still no vaccine to protect people from the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)?

One answer is that the political will and colossal investment that have spurred on Covid vaccine development have largely been missing from AIDS vaccine research since HIV was discovered in 1983.

But another lies in the complexity of the science behind HIV.

“With Covid vaccines, researchers worry about the vaccine being able to fend off a handful of variants that have become particularly worrisome,” reads a June report by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI).

“But for HIV, there are millions and millions of different viruses that have resulted from the virus’s stealth ability to rapidly mutate… It is this astonishing level of diversity that any HIV vaccine must contend with.”

Olivier Schwartz, head of the viruses and immunity unit at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, says that while most people can recover naturally from an initial coronavirus infection and thus acquire immunity, this is not the case for HIV.

“HIV mutates much more easily than Covid and so it is more difficult to generate so-called broadly neutralising antibodies that could prevent infection,” he said.

Only a handful of people naturally produce these antibodies when exposed to HIV.

Research into a vaccine has meant studying those rare responses, understanding how they work, and trying to replicate them in healthy people’s immune systems.

An mRNA jab?

Several dozen vaccines are being studied, with one by US firm Moderna seeking to use the same mRNA delivery method as its popular Covid vaccine.

The June report describing the research explains how the mRNA jab is meant to deliver instructions for a process called “germline targeting”.

This means “guiding the immune system, step by step, to induce antibodies that can counteract HIV”, the report explains.

So far, the technique is complex, involving an initial shot to activate important B-cells before several jabs attempt to spur the body into producing a range of antibodies.

Being able to visualise a way forward has given researchers hope, and some say it’s thanks in no small part to the pandemic.

“These last few years have seen unprecedented growth in our understanding of the immune system,” Serawit Bruck-Landais of French AIDS organisation Sidaction told AFP.

But even with seeming breakthroughs, Bruck-Landais says, progress on an HIV jab is “not enough to be able to say we will have an AIDS vaccine soon”.

The US clinical trials for the Moderna vaccine that were set to begin in August are still listed on the National Institutes of Health website as “not recruiting”.

‘Lack of investment’

Researchers looking into vaccines say they are overlooked in terms of funding.

“The market is too weak for pharmaceutical groups and there’s a disappointing lack of investment,” says Nicolas Manel, a research director at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM).

“Many researchers are very motivated, but they have to make do with the funds they have.”

In the absence of a vaccine, focus has historically been on promoting preventative measures like protected sex, clean needles, and overall better access to healthcare for marginalised populations.

Some 38 million people across the globe live with the virus.

Monsef Benkirane, research director at the France-based Institute of Human Genetics, points to important improvements in medicine that allow many people with HIV to live longer, healthier lives.

Importantly, by reducing an infected person’s viral load, HIV treatments today can vastly decrease or eliminate a person’s chances of transmitting HIV to another person.

But Benkirane says many people lack access to the treatments, while those who do have access sometimes struggle to follow through and take all the necessary medications.

“In addition to improving access to treatments, there are still problems with people actually sticking to the treatment regimens, even in Europe,” he said.

Source: AFP

Archbishop Andrew Nkea is Cameroon Concord Person Of The Year

1, December 2021

Archbishop Andrew Nkea is Cameroon Concord Person Of The Year 0

In December every year Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report decide on persons who generate the most news in the past 12 months and our readers vote to get the winner.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group are happy to make public the winner of the Cameroon Concord Person of the Year 2021.   He is the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province, His Grace Archbishop ANDREW NKEA

The senior Roman Catholic cleric received the highest number of votes ever since we started the award in 1999 from a list of renowned personalities comprising Barrister Amungwa Tanyi Nicodemus, one of the lawyers representing President Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, the jailed leader of the Ambazonia Interim Government, and several other people arrested in connection with the Southern Cameroons crisis, Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, Enow Ngashu, Director General of the National Football Academy and Professor Maurice Kamto of the MRC party.

Cameroon Concord People voted vigorously for His Grace Archbishop Andrew Nkea as the Cameroon Concord Person of the Year 2021 and a cream of them particularly from the diaspora gave explanations for their decision in some soul-searching correspondences sent to Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report.

Archbishop Andrew Nkea is a key player in efforts at seeking a peaceful resolution to the crisis in Southern Cameroons. As Bishop of the Diocese of Mamfe, Andrew Nkea did all he could to save so many lives. He worked tirelessly to bring supplies to Southern Cameroonians who were internally displaced, going sometimes to areas that even Cameroon government army soldiers could not go.

In Manyu Division, Archbishop Andrew Nkea knew exactly how to negotiate with Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards and in the process; he would appeal to their consciences for them to spare the lives of even their worst enemies.

Even after leaving Mamfe where the Ambazonia war started, the Roman Catholic cleric has remained at the forefront of humanitarian efforts during this crisis that hit the global stage some five years ago and has claimed the lives of some 10,000 Cameroonians, with army soldiers accounting for close to 35% of the deaths.

Archbishop Andrew Nkea’s desire to save lives has taken him to distant lands such as Europe and the United States where he engaged with various Southern Cameroonian communities to raise funds for internally displaced persons and those who are living in Nigeria as refugees.

As recorded for us by the Cameroon Concord News Washington Bureau, Archbishop Andrew Nkea travelled to Baltimore in the USA, in July 2019 for a fundraiser for Southern Cameroons refugees organized by the Manyu Community in the DC, Maryland and Virginia (DMV) area where thousands of dollars were raised to help those who had left their homes to seek refuge somewhere else.

The Bamenda Metropolitan Archbishop called out the government in Yaoundé and sounded a note of caution when the military killed a Kenyan Mill Hill Missionary priest working in Kembong in Eyumojock Sub Division. Like a good shepherd, he flew to Kenya and buried the priest and did all he could to console the family members of the deceased priest.

Ever since the Holy Father Pope Francis appointed him as Archbishop of the Bamenda Archdiocese, Archbishop Andrew Nkea has been playing a key role in efforts at finding a lasting solution to the conflict that is still consuming many innocent lives and he is working day and night to ensure that peace returns to the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon.

The complexity of the Southern Cameroons war required engaged clerics who are full of faith and the Holy Spirit to lead and help prevent the Cameroonian nation from a complete collapse.  Archbishop Andrew Nkea fully understood and embraced this mission marketing the sufferings of the English speaking people to the international community and today, the crisis in Southern Cameroons has earned international recognition with many developed democracies including the United States calling for a frank and genuine dialogue to resolve the situation.

Archbishop Andrew Nkea remains the only Roman Catholic cleric who braved the threats coming from Cameroon government officials and visited the Ambazonian leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides at the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison in Yaoundé. And the Metropolitan Archbishop continues to demonstrate the highest level of neutrality in the 5-year-old conflict that has rocked Southern Cameroons.

For over five years, Archbishop Andrew Nkea who reportedly has no interest in supporting the Yaoundé regime has continued his humanitarian operations so that those who have been caught in the crossfire can have access to humanitarian assistance. He recently seek and gotten support from the Cameroon Catholic Community in Mulheim, Germany to equip the Saint John of God Hospital in Mamfe with an X-ray film printer to help many affected by the fighting.

During a trip to the United States, the Archbishop told an American journalist that his cardinal objective is to ensure that both parties in the Southern Cameroons conflict meet in a neutral place to discuss their differences so that peace can return to a country that was once touted for its peace.

Painted by many around the world as a man of peace, Archbishop FUANYA Andre Nkea (to use his three names) has no interest in taking sides in a conflict that should not have started and understands the risks and the need to bring both parties to the negotiating table.

In a strongly worded pastoral letter addressed to President Biya at the very beginning of the crisis, the Bishops of the Bamenda Province demonstrated that they understood there must always be room for a possible negotiation and only spiritual leaders can bring about that window of opportunity and communication. Archbishop Andrew Nkea carried along with him the Archbishop of Yaoundé, Jean Mbarga to begin a peace process with the jailed Southern Cameroons leaders that was torpedoed by hardliners of the Biya Francophone regime including some top Francophone military officials who are making huge profits from the war in Southern Cameroons.

Upon his appointment as Metropolitan Archbishop of Bamenda and Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Mamfe on 30, December 2019, Fuanya Andrew Nkea opined in his homily that no war has ever been wrapped up in the battlefield even when the belligents are too powerful; they always understand that real and sustainable peace can only be gotten at the negotiating table. He has maintained that position till this day and he remains a total man of God at the service of the Lord.

The Preaching Bishop as the nation always refers to him is not a politician nor a cleric-politician but a servant of God full of faith and the Holy Spirit.

Archbishop Andrew Nkea has met several times with a stone wall in carrying out his Southern Cameroons peace mission but has never relented and as he (himself) rightly puts it:  “My faith in Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit guides all my actions during these difficult times in our nation’s history.”

Archbishop Andrew Nkea’s Southern Cameroons peace mission in the fullness of faith and the Holy Spirit is greatly appreciated.  We of the Concord Group are proud of his work as a man of God, preaching peace and bringing relief to the suffering people of his archdiocese. We therefore congratulate Archbishop Andrew Nkea for the richly deserved recognition accorded him by a tremendous majority of Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report readers.  2022 will bring more success stories to both French and English speaking Cameroonians.

On behalf of the over daily thirty thousand readers of Cameroon Concord News and the Cameroon Intelligence Report, we call on the Francophone dominated Biya regime in Yaoundé and the Southern Cameroons Interim Government under the stewardship of Vice President Dabney Yerima to listen to Archbishop Nkea’s peace message in order to end this senseless war currently going on in Southern Cameroons.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Church in Bamenda grieving the killing of students and teachers

30, November 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Church in Bamenda grieving the killing of students and teachers 0

Cameroon’s Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda have denounced the heinous murder of four students and a teacher of Government Bilingual High School Ekondo Titi, South West Region of Cameroon.

In a statement signed by the Archbishop of Bamenda on behalf of other Bishops, Andrew Nkea, the Bamenda Provincial Episcopal Conference (BAPEC) expressed its deep distress at the cruel killings of students and a teacher on Wednesday, 24 November 2021.

The brutal killings of students and teachers

“Our hearts have been pierced again! In recent times, we have painfully witnessed an agonising drama involving, among other evils, the targeting and killing of pupils, students and teachers … We have hardly recovered from the cruel killing of Enondiale Tchuengia Carolaisse (a class one pupil) killed in Molyko-Buea on Thursday, 14 October 2021, and the brutal killing of another pupil, Brandy Tataw, on Friday, 1 November 2021, in Nkwen-Bamenda, than we are confronted again with the killing of four more innocent Cameroonians within the protected area of a school,” said Bishop Nkea.

Explaining the tragic attack on the school by gunmen, Archbishop Nkea said, “On Wednesday, 24 November 2021, some persons armed with guns and explosives, invaded the premises of Government Bilingual High School Ekondo Titi and shot and killed three students: Emmanuel Orome (12 years), Joyceline Ikem (16 years), and Emmanuel Kum (17 years); and a teacher, Celestine Song. These innocent victims are not the cause of the socio-political crisis, and their deaths cannot be the solution. Their murder is totally senseless and unacceptable,” said the Archbishop of Bamenda and President of the BAPEC.

A fourth student later died at a local hospital bringing the total number of victims to five. Seven students wounded in the attack are receiving treatment in hospitals around the city of Buea.

Dialogue and not violence is the solution

The Bishops of the Bamenda region have appealed for the respect of life and more state protection.

“We, the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda, condemn these barbaric acts, which violate all International Laws and Conventions safeguarding the inviolability of schools and the protection of learners (pupils and students), and teachers, offend against the fundamental right to education, and breaks the Fifth Commandment of God … We have been persistent in our call for the respect and defence of human rights, especially the right to life, openness to dialogue, an option for the truth and recourse to peaceful means as the best way to a durable solution. While calling on the Government to ensure the security of schools, we make a special appeal, once more, to all perpetrators of violence to allow the genuinely human feelings of love, pardon and benevolence to flow into their hearts so that the safety and security of all may be guaranteed, alongside the right of all young people to life and to an education and a future,” the prelate of Bamenda said.

Students and teachers abandon schools

According to Cameroonian authorities, the armed attacks on schools scare teachers and students from institutions thus dealing a devastating blow on learning. Local government officials have pleaded with the children’s parents and teachers in the region not to abandon the schools.

Ekondo Titi’s senior government official, Aboloa Timothe, promised heightened security to protect schools, teachers and students from further attacks. Given the many incidents in several parts of the region, it remains to be seen how this will be done, in practical terms. Observers say that there have been more than ten armed attacks on schools in the English-speaking regions in the last few month alone. The exact figure is unclear, but more than 10 children have been killed and several teachers and students wounded.

The Anglophone crisis: A neglected conflict

It is a brutal ‘low level’ armed conflict that has been happening for the last five years in Cameroon’s western Anglophone regions. Cameroon’s military has been engaged in an armed conflict with separatist rebels, the Amba boys, who want the Anglophone areas to break away from the Francophone country. Education has been weaponised as the separatists enforce a boycott of schools. UN rights agencies have accused both the rebels and Cameroon’s military of killing civilians and widespread human rights violations.

By Miriam Metchane Ewang

Equatorial Guinea Deports Cameroonian Citizens Citing Security Concerns

30, November 2021

Equatorial Guinea Deports Cameroonian Citizens Citing Security Concerns 0

Equatorial Guinea has begun deporting thousands of Cameroonians who were residing in the country illegally, citing national security concerns. Authorities in the capital Malabo said the Cameroonians fled conflict in western Cameroon, where government troops have been fighting anglophone separatists. Hundreds of those already deported are trying to return to Equatorial Guinea to gather their belongings.

About 40 people in Kiossi, a Cameroonian southern commercial town, want to enter neighboring Equatorial Guinea this Tuesday morning. Among them is Philippe Oyono, a 33-year-old building material shop owner.

Owono said police in Equatorial Guinea forcefully removed him from his home in the town of Bata. He said he was sent back to Cameroon on November 5 alongside 65 other Cameroonians.

He said he is pleading that President Paul Biya of Cameroon raises their concerns with President Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea so that authorities can allow undocumented migrants who have been deported to Cameroon to return to Equatorial Guinea and gather their belongings. Oyono said it is not common for Equatorial Guinea to deport mothers and fathers without their children and merchants without their goods.

Government officials in Cameroon’s South region say at least 600 Cameroonians have been deported from neighboring Equatorial Guinea in the past month.

This week, Cameroon said it had negotiated with Equatorial Guinea to give undocumented migrants three months to get residency permits or to voluntarily return to Cameroon.

Cameroon’s ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, Desire Jean Claude Owono Menguele, said about a thousand Cameroonians have opted to voluntarily return.

Last week, Nguema Obiang Mangue, vice president and son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, said concerns about rising theft and banditry are behind Equatorial Guinea’s decisoin to ask undocumented migrants to leave.

He spoke on Radio Malabo, Equatorial Guinea’s state radio while addressing a crowd that supports deportation.

Mangue said he is surprised that the decision the government of Equatorial Guinea has taken to deport undocumented migrants is generating controversy and criticism. He said rising insecurity in Equatorial Guinea has pushed President Obiang Nguema to ask all undocumented migrants and those who have criminal records, including violence and theft, to leave. Mangue said Equatorial Guinea, like other countries, will not tolerate undocumented migrants.

Mangue added that legitimate refugees, including those fleeing separatist crisis in Cameroon, will not be affected by the deportations. However, he said some people displaced by the crisis in the Central African Republic and Cameroon prefer to hide within the community and work instead of registering as refugees.

In September, Equatorial Guinea announced that it was to deport all undocumented migrants from countries, including Nigerians, Cameroonians, Chadians, Central Africans, Ghanaians and Kenyans.

Source: VOA

China to provide 1 billion Covid vaccine doses to Africa

30, November 2021

China to provide 1 billion Covid vaccine doses to Africa 0

China will deliver another 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa and encourage Chinese companies to invest no less than $10 billion in the continent over the next three years, President Xi Jinping said on Monday.

The country has already supplied nearly 200 million doses to Africa, where vaccination rates have fallen behind amid growing concern over the spread of the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which was first identified in southern Africa.

Xi said 600 million doses would be donations and 400 million doses would be provided through other means such as joint production by Chinese companies and relevant African countries. China will also build 10 health projects in Africa and send 1,500 health experts, he said.

In a speech via video link at the opening of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Xi said a China-Africa cross-border yuan centre would be set up to provide African financial institutions with a credit line of $10 billion, without giving further details.

China will provide $10 billion of trade finance to support African exports, create a zone for trade and economic cooperation and build a China-Africa industrial park, he said.

The announcement comes amid criticism of China’s infrastructure-for-commodities deals that some experts say saddle countries with unsustainable debt. Democratic Republic of Congo is currently reviewing a $6 billion deal with Chinese investors over concerns that it is not sufficiently beneficial to Congo.

The Belt and Road Initiative, in which Chinese institutions finance major infrastructure in mainly developing nations, has slowed: Chinese bank financing for infrastructure projects in Africa fell from $11 billion in 2017 to $3.3 billion in 2020, according to a report by international law firm Baker McKenzie.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a four-nation tour of the region last week that Washington was pushing for cleaner deals without unsustainable debts.

Xi says imports from Africa to reach $300 billion

China’s imports from Africa, one of its key sources of crude oil and minerals, will reach $300 billion in the next three years, Xi said, adding that the two sides would cooperate in areas such as health, digital innovation, trade promotion and green development.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, also speaking via video link, thanked China for its support and said African economies should be able to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines.

Discussions at the World Trade Organization on a temporary TRIPS waiver to make COVID-19 vaccines and treatments available to all needed to be finalised, he said, while criticising the travel curbs imposed on South Africa.

Source: REUTERS

Football: Ronaldo hits back at claim he wants to beat Messi’s Ballon d’Or haul

30, November 2021

Football: Ronaldo hits back at claim he wants to beat Messi’s Ballon d’Or haul 0

Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo has hit back at a “disrespectful” claim that his only remaining ambition is to win the Ballon d’Or more times than Lionel Messi.

Paris Saint-Germain forward Messi won the prestigious award for a seventh time on Monday.

Ronaldo, who finished sixth in this year’s voting, has earned the Ballon d’Or five times.

The Ballon d’Or, given to the best male and female footballers of the year, is voted on by 180 journalists and presented by France Football.

Pascal Ferre, the editor in chief of France Football, was quoted in the New York Times recently saying Ronaldo told him his primary motivation was to retire having won the accolade more often than his old rival Messi.

Ronaldo, 36, took to Instagram to deny that suggestion.

“Today’s outcome explains Pascal Ferre’s statements last week, when he said that I confided in him that my only ambition was to finish my career with more Ballon d’Ors than Lionel Messi,” Ronaldo wrote.

“Pascal Ferre lied, he used my name to promote himself and to promote the publication he works for.

“It is unacceptable that the person responsible for awarding such a prestigious prize could lie in this way, in absolute disrespect for someone who has always respected France Football and the Ballon d’Or.

“The biggest ambition of my career is to win national and international titles for the clubs I represent and for the national team in my country.

“The biggest ambition of my career is to be a good example for all those who are or want to be professional footballers.

“The biggest ambition of my career is to leave my name written in golden letters in the history of world football.”

Ronaldo, who did not attend Monday’s prize-giving event in Paris, last won the Ballon d’Or in 2017.

This year marked the first time the former Juventus and Real Madrid striker finished outside the top five voting since 2010.

Messi’s seventh success extended his lead in the male category after he set the record with his sixth in 2019.

Barcelona and Spain midfielder Alexia Putellas won the 2021 women’s Ballon d’Or.

Source: AFP

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