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Postpone the AFCON in Cameroon due to the Southern Cameroons crisis

10, December 2021

Postpone the AFCON in Cameroon due to the Southern Cameroons crisis 0

Africa’s most prominent soccer championship, the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), has twice been pushed forward.

The first postponement was because Cameroon was deemed unprepared to host the games, and the second was because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) — Africa’s soccer governing body — is now being asked if the escalating violence in the country’s Anglophone regions poses too great a threat to spectators and team safety.

A vicious civil war has been raging in Cameroon’s English-speaking areas, whose people make up 20% of the Central African country, since September 2017.

The clashes are between Cameroonian government forces and armed separatist groups.

Parties on both sides of the conflict committed widespread human rights violations in 2020, including extrajudicial or summary executions and mass murders in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions, a report by Human Rights Watch found.

There are now mounting calls to delay the AFCON competition until the warring parties call for a ceasefire and enter peace negotiations.

Can matches be played in Anglophone regions?

According to the AFCON fixture, 24 qualifying teams are scheduled to play matches in six venues across Cameroon.

Limbe stadium is in the Anglophone zone, Bafoussam stadium is near its border, and the others, located in majority-French-speaking regions (Yaounde, Douala, and Garoua) may also be vulnerable to attacks.

In 2021, the Anglophone conflict witnessed an escalation in improvised explosive devices (IED).

There have also been several explosions outside the Anglophone regions, with officials holding separatist groups responsible for the blasts.

In particular, Yaounde saw IED explosions which injured civilians in June, July, August, and November 2020.

There is a real risk of such attacks in all AFCON venues, especially in Limbe.

Although Limbe is one of the few relatively quiet towns in the Anglophone regions, two bomb attacks during the African Championship of Nations football tournament in January 2020, one of which injured police officers, highlights the city’s vulnerability.

An armed separatist group called the Fako Action Forces (FAF) claimed responsibility for at least one of those IEDs. Moreover, the same group has recently been active in Buea, the capital of the Southwest Region and close to Limbe.

Last month, FAF claimed an IED attack on the University of Buea which injured 11 students. They also killed a driver for defying the separatists’ Monday stay-at-home- “ghost town” orders, which have been in place for five years.

CAF under pressure

Given the increasing attacks on civilians, the Confederation of African Football may come under pressure to postpone the tournament until President Paul Biya’s regime attends peace talks.

Moreover, during AFCON, the deteriorating security situation would pose risks to players on and off the pitch.

The Cameroon authorities allegedly wish to host AFCON because of its status this will confer on them, on the continent and beyond.

Many believe that President Biya hopes to win the favor of young Cameroonians by staging the matches. Yet, the games may also offer an opportunity for young Cameroonians to express their frustration with the country’s human-rights abuses.

The Cameroonian government has consistently responded to peaceful protests with violence and military action, losing support and driving more youth to take up arms.

Biya, 88, has been in power since 1982.

International election observers routinely condemn Cameroon’s elections for lacking legitimacy.

Human rights watchdogs accuse his forces of behaving with impunity, targeting unarmed civilians in the Anglophone regions, burning villages, and causing over 700,000 people (out of 6 million people living there) to flee into the bush or elsewhere in the country. Tens of thousands more are in exile in neighboring Nigeria and beyond.

When sports mix with politics

This controversial AFCON is not the first time sporting events have become sensitive politically.

In the 1970s, protests greeted the cricket team of repressive apartheid South Africa when it went on tour.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan led the USA and other countries to pull their athletes from participation in the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Politics overshadowed the 2008 Beijing Olympics due to China’s human-rights violations, brutal crackdown on Tibet, and initial refusal to support sending peacekeepers to stop a genocide in Darfur.

The upcoming 2022 Beijing Olympics is under scrutiny due to China’s mistreatment of its Uyghur minority.

Cameroon security services recently conducted anti-terrorism simulation exercises, including a mock attack on a stadium, but the shadow of the 1972 Munich Olympics, where the Palestinian group Black September murdered 11 Israeli athletes, hangs over any proposed AFCON soccer games.

The fact that the country needs to practice these simulations begs the question: Why is the Confederation of African Football allowing AFCON to take place in an insecure environment and under the authority of a government committing crimes against humanity against its citizens?

For the sake of AFCON and the sake of suffering Cameroonian citizens, the Confederation and the Cameroonian government should think carefully about the safety and morality of hosting the Africa Cup of Nations in January in Cameroon.

Source: DeutscheWelle

Richard Bona comes under attack from pro Biya militants after his civil war incitement video

10, December 2021

Richard Bona comes under attack from pro Biya militants after his civil war incitement video 0

Richard Bona, a Cameroonian-born musician living in the U.S., is strongly criticized on Facebook over a video posted about three days ago. In the video, he called for the launch of “another war front” and an invitation to “burn” a TV station deemed too close to the government.

Responses immediately poured in. “Bro, is it your country? Go talk about your country and leave us alone…,” “You are not a Cameroonian so shut up…,” “Don’t talk about Cameroon,” are examples of comments posted by users to express their disagreement over the musician’s post.

For Richard Bona, Cameroonian opposition leader Maurice Kamto is an “obedient guy.” “I told him. Things wouldn’t have gone that way if another guy was in his shoes. Another war front would have been launched. Anyway, Ambazonians understood this. There is no other way than war with those looters and thieves,” he said in the video criticizing the delays in the construction of some of the infrastructures that will host the AFCON2021.

The video was posted on Facebook by some members of the Cameroonian diaspora who are harming people and properties in Europe with complete impunity, all in the name of a so-called fight for the wellbeing of Cameroonians. Those individuals usually rally through social media, Facebook most of the time. Yet, on several occasions, Facebook expressed its will to fight hate speech or addresses likely to spark violence or social unrest in all the countries represented by user communities on its platform.

Its system seems rather focused on influential countries and groups that can subject it to major political pressures. In Cameroon, like in several African countries, Facebook and WhatsApp have become useful tools for millions of users who wish to boost their business. The social platforms have also become political and ideological battlegrounds for unruly individuals with plots against elected persons and authorities.

Last October, U.S.-based media the Wall Street Journal published a journal series based on documents sent to the U.S. Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by Frances Haugen, a former civic integrity team and product manager for Facebook later turned whistleblower against the online social media firm.

Before the congress, she indicated that “Facebook repeatedly encountered conflicts between its profits and our safety” and “consistently resolved those conflicts in favor of its profits.”

Media that read the documents leaked by Frances Haugen also report that although the internal management is aware of misuse of the social platform, warning signs are not always taken into account.

“The result has been a system that amplifies division, extremism, and polarization – and undermines societies around the world. In some cases, this dangerous online talk has led to actual violence that harms and even kills people,” reads Frances Haugen’s statement before the U.S. Congress.

In Africa, public authorities are regularly abused, threatened and their family members mocked with sometimes degrading words that would not be tolerated in any so-called democratic country. There are not many things African countries can do. Indeed, they can’t summon Facebook’s boss like the U.S. Congress or the European parliament would do. Also, when an African country chose to restrict or ban access to social media to prevent such abuses, it is immediately accused of taking a regressive move or being a repressive dictatorship.

The musician Richard Bona usually criticizes authorities about mismanagement deeds. Those criticisms are often supported by the general public which is upset about the misdeeds. However, the hundreds of negative comments about his recent video prove that there is a boundary most Cameroonians don’t want to cross no matter their political opinions or divergences.

Source: ecofinagency

Thousands of French Cameroonians seek safety in Chad after clashes

10, December 2021

Thousands of French Cameroonians seek safety in Chad after clashes 0

Several thousand people have fled deadly inter-ethnic clashes in northern Cameroon, seeking safety across the border in Chad, the Red Cross said Thursday.

Cameroonian authorities say conflict between fishermen of the Musgum community and ethnic Arab Choa herders around the town of Kousseri has claimed at least four lives.

Thousands of people fleeing the violence have sought refuge by crossing the Chari river into Chad, near the capital N’Djamena.

“There are at least 3,000 refugees, and the number is likely to grow,” Khala Ahmat Senoussi, president of the Red Cross in Chad, told AFP.

A Chadian police source said that “refugees are still arriving, some of them by boat”.

Jean-Lazare Ndongo Ndongo, prefect in Cameroon’s northern Logone-Chari region bordering Chad, told CRTV state television that “despite the security provisions that had been made, a mob managed to enter the town… with around 20 shops looted and four people losing their lives.”

“What we saw was terrible,” said Rahma Ahmat, a 55-year-old woman wearing a black veil who had fled to the Farcha forest outside N’Djamena.

“I saw a person being burned, I was terrified”.

The local official said the Musgum fishermen attacked areas mostly inhabited by Choa Arab herders “from all sides”.

A senior aid worker told AFP that the Musgum used bows and arrows in their attack, drawing violent ripostes from the Arabs.

“I took part in the brawl with the Musgum community,” 35-year-old Hajim said.

“I ran from the fighting because I was soon overwhelmed and I couldn’t track down my child”.

Many refugees have brought only mattresses to wait out the violence in the forest outside N’Djamena, an AFP correspondent saw.

The leader of Chad’s military junta Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said the situation was “worrying” in a statement Wednesday, calling for “solidarity and hospitality” for the refugees but also asking the international community for aid.

During a week in August in Cameroon’s Far North, 32 people were killed and dozens wounded in clashes between Musgum fishermen and Choa Arab herders, the United Nations said.

The authorities said the clashes were sparked by disputes over access to water.

Deadly inter-community clashes are relatively rare in Cameroon, but frequent in Chad and Nigeria — in particular between sedentary farmers and nomadic herders.

Source: AFP

Southern Cameroons Crisis: What is the rationale behind the burning of homes?

9, December 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: What is the rationale behind the burning of homes? 0

For some time now, there has been a de-escalation in the military violence playing out in the two English-speaking regions of the country where tens of thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Many political analysts thought the government had understood that its collective punitive expedition was counter-productive and images emerging from some towns and villages in the conflict areas where government forces were working with the civilian population gave the impression that the government had understood that it could win this war more by wining hearts and minds than by counting on its questionable military might. 

But yesterday’s images of soldiers burning down entire neighborhoods in the Northwest regional headquarters of Bamenda clearly revealed that government forces were walking back to their old bad ways. Old habits die hard, and the government’s demons are clearly rearing their ugly heads. 

For close to five years, army soldiers have been burning homes in the two English-speaking regions in the hope that the population will submit, but this old and ineffective strategy is not delivering the desired results. Southern Cameroonians are determined to get this problem addressed once and for all and throwing in the towel is not an option. 

As many people get robbed of their dignity and means of livelihood by the brutal military through such devilish ways, so too do these civilians look for ways to get their ‘pound of flesh’ and there is no better way than joining the ranks of the separatists who are only too willing to see their ranks swell.

The burning of homes did work in the early 1960s when the government of Amadou Ahidjo, the country’s first president, was facing a guerrilla warfare against a movement which was fighting the French-imposed government in East Cameroon (French-speaking Cameroon), but that strategy is, without a doubt, the least effective in modern times. 

A lot has changed after more than six decades. Today’s fighters have more means than anybody would have imagined in the 1960s. There are millions of Southern Cameroonians living out of the country because of marginalization and poor governance and this huge Diaspora will continue to support the struggle until the Yaounde regime agrees to come to the negotiating table.

Burning homes and gunning down innocent civilians will only breed bitterness and this will lead to revenge and further killings. Within the Southern Cameroonian community out of the country, it is held that those burning homes and roasting people alive are young boys from the Center and South regions of the country whence the president hails, and this does not augur well for those who hail from these two regions, especially as the country’s president is on life support and his regime is steadfastly heading to a chaotic end. 

There is revenge in the air. Southern Cameroonians will want to make the Betis, people from the dying president’s ethnic group, feel the pain they have gone through for decades. There are also the northerners who are hellbent on teaching the Betis the learns they learned shortly after the April 6, 1984 Coup d’Etat in Cameroon. More than a thousand northerners were summarily executed, and this unfortunate situation has left many northerners very bitter. 

The government needs to ask itself if there is really any wisdom in the way it has conducted its crackdown against the country’s English-speaking minority. More than ten thousand lives have been lost in a war that could been avoided if a more diplomatic approach had been adopted.

The military, for its part, has also lost more than 4,000 soldiers in a senseless war and the burning of homes will only cause separatist fighters to continue killing soldiers. And most of those being killed are young men from the South region who have been deceived into thinking that power belongs to them, and that Southern Cameroonians want to claim what rightfully belongs to the Betis.

Power will always come and go, but human life is irreplaceable. Destroying property and other assets will not deliver the results expected. The only way is to get to the bottom of things and deal with the root cause of the dispute. There is simply no wisdom behind the burning of homes. Dialogue and negotiations will surely deliver better results and lasting peace. 

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

UK’s Johnson welcomes second child with wife Carrie

9, December 2021

UK’s Johnson welcomes second child with wife Carrie 0

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday became a father again, after his wife, Carrie, gave birth to a girl, Downing Street said.

The “healthy baby girl” was born at a London hospital in the early hours and “both mother and daughter are doing very well”, a spokeswoman for the couple said.

“The couple would like to thank the brilliant NHS (National Health Service) maternity team for all their care and support,” she added.

The announcement comes as Johnson faces a backlash over the imposition of new coronavirus restrictions designed to curb the spread of the new Omicron variant.

He is also under pressure from the public after claims that Downing Street staff held a Christmas party last year in defiance of restrictions on social gatherings.

Thrice-married Johnson, 57, has four children from his second marriage to the lawyer Marina Wheeler, and now two with Carrie, 33, a former Conservative Party media adviser whom he wed in May.

The couple’s first child, Wilfred, was born in April last year, not long after Johnson was treated in hospital intensive care for Covid.

The prime minister has another child, a daughter, from an extra-marital affair.

In September, after years of speculation about how many children he had, he told NBC in an interview that he had six.

Source: AFP

In Southern Cameroons, at the request of General No Pity, Fon of Bambalang arrested

9, December 2021

In Southern Cameroons, at the request of General No Pity, Fon of Bambalang arrested 0

His Majesty Yakum Kevin Teuvih, President of the North-West Fons Conference is reportedly in Amba drag-net, Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered from security sources in Bamenda.

Fon Yakum Teuvih was arrested by Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards inside his Bambalang Palace at about 5:30 pm on Tuesday, December 7, 2021 and he is currently being interogated over his close ties with the Francophone dominated Cameroon government military deployed to Southern Cameroons.

Bambalang palace spokesperson said Fon Yakum Teuvih was performing some traditional rituals when the Ambazonia Self Defense forces raided the palace.

A senior Ambazonia official hinted Cameroon Intelligence Report that the Fon’s arrest was ordered by “General No Pity” who himself hails from Bambalang.

Fon Yakum Teuvih who also moonlights as Vice President of the North-West Regional Assembly was elected into the North-West House of Chiefs on December 6, 2020 and has ever since been very vocal against the Ambazonia resistant movements.

Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards often carry out detention raids against Southern Cameroonians in Ground Zero who continue to represent the interest of the Biya French Cameroun regime.

In French Cameroun, more than 3,000 Southern Cameroonians are reportedly held in jails, Douala, Dschang and Yaounde.  Several Southern Cameroonians have been incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention, which allows holding English speaking Cameroonians inmates without trial or charge. Some Southern Cameroons prisoners of concience have been held in administrative detention for up to five years.

By Sama Ernest

Africa Cup of Nations: Questions and doubts remain with month to go until kick-off in Cameroon

9, December 2021

Africa Cup of Nations: Questions and doubts remain with month to go until kick-off in Cameroon 0

One month today Cameroon and Burkina Faso are slated to get the Africa Cup of Nations underway, probably in Yaounde even if doubts remain over the host nation’s ability to stage the tournament.

Up to 40 Premier League players could be involved. And as the UK adds much of the African continent to its travel red list following the spread of a new coronavirus variant the word could is doing a lot of lifting.

There are still too many doubts and questions around a tournament that may impact Arsenal and Chelsea severely but see Tottenham Hotspur continue unchanged.

So here is an explainer of the key dates, what still needs to happen to make it a reality and for how long players from your club are likely to be absent.

How long does the tournament last?

The final is scheduled for February 6 in Yaounde, meaning a player who goes all the way could end up missing seven club fixtures should he have to report for duty on December 27, which is the date currently stipulated by FIFA.

That’s pretty much two weeks before the tournament starts. Is there a chance of players being given permission to join up later?

Yes. This is a work in progress with clubs negotiating late releases with respective national teams. Some clubs, including Arsenal and Chelsea, are hopeful that they can keep their players until a week before the tournament kicks off, with Chelsea and Liverpool particularly keen on that possibility considering the title hopefuls face each other on January 2. Senegal, for whom Edouard Mendy and Sadio Mane will be star men, play their opening game on January 10, ditto Hakim Ziyech’s Morocco with Mohamed Salah’s Egypt a day later.

Which clubs will be impacted most?

It is perhaps easier to say who will not be without a key player. Four Premier League teams – Tottenham plus Leeds, Newcastle and Norwich – will not have anyone reporting for duty. Watford could be worst hit with five members of Claudio Ranieri’s squad in contention and next worse off could be Arsenal and Crystal Palace. Mikel Arteta may be without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon), Mohamed Elneny (Egypt), Thomas Partey (Ghana) and Nicolas Pépé (Ivory Coast) for the duration, with Patrick Vieira contemplating the absence of Jordan Ayew (Ghana), Cheikhou Kouyaté (Senegal), Jeffrey Schlupp (Ghana) and Wilfried Zaha (Ivory Coast).

Is there a chance they will not go at all because of the Omicron variant?

Unlikely but not impossible. The situation will need to worsen further but it is worth taking note of the warning statement sent by the European Clubs’ Association last week relating to their “deep concerns” around player welfare and their desire to work with FIFA to “ensure all necessary precautions are in place to protect players and club interests” as the health situation “continues to deteriorate in an alarming manner”.

On the other side the CAF head of communications, Alex Siewe, told BBC Sport on Tuesday that there has been no mention of a postponement. “We can’t keep spending time dealing with rumours,” he said. “We did not receive any other message or information from our leaders – nothing such as changing of dates or countries. We did not discuss such during all our last meetings. We are on site. We are working.”

If Cameroon was added to the red list, players would need to be quarantined for 10 days upon their return but, going off the rules for last month’s international break, they would be allowed special permission to train and play games.

Reports suggest there is still a lot of work to be done?

It seems that way. FIFA’s secretary general Fatma Samoura has taken a hands-on role in recent weeks due to stadiums and facilities being behind schedule. There are meant to be six grounds in use but CAF have not confirmed the exact status.

So what happens if they fail to get things ready?

No deadline has been specified and there have been whispers of moving the show elsewhere – possibly to Qatar. But that poses another long list of logistical questions and at the beginning of this week former CAF technical director Abdel Moneim Shatta suggested that it could simply end up being cancelled in a TV interview.

Source: Football.London

Football: Barcelona knocked out of Champions League as Benfica, Lille, Salzburg advance to last 16

9, December 2021

Football: Barcelona knocked out of Champions League as Benfica, Lille, Salzburg advance to last 16 0

Barcelona crashed out of the Champions League in the group stage for the first time in over 20 years with a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich on Wednesday, as Benfica, French champions Lille and Red Bull Salzburg all qualified for the last 16.

Meanwhile, Chelsea missed out on first place in their group to Juventus after conceding a late equaliser away to Zenit Saint Petersburg, while snow in northern Italy forced the postponement of Atalanta’s decisive game against Villarreal.

Barcelona started the day in second place in Group E but had to win away to Bayern Munich to be sure of going through, otherwise they risked being overtaken by Benfica.

Xavi Hernandez’s side were duly outclassed by an already-qualified Bayern who made it six wins out of six in the group, with Thomas Mueller’s 34th-minute header just crossing the line before Ronald Araujo could clear.

The game was played behind closed doors at the Allianz Arena due to coronavirus restrictions in Bavaria, but that did not handicap Bayern, with Leroy Sane’s powerful strike doubling their lead before the break and then Jamal Musiala making it 3-0 just after the hour.

‘A new era’

The Catalans were knocked out as Benfica beat Dynamo Kiev 2-0 in Lisbon, first-half goals by Roman Yaremchuk and Gilberto seeing them snatch second and a place in next Monday’s draw for the last 16.

“We didn’t compete. This is the Champions League but it is our reality and we have to face up to it,” Xavi told Spanish media.

“We are starting a new era from zero. Our objective is the Champions League, not the Europa League.”

Barcelona, who scored just twice in the group stage, had appeared in the knockout rounds of the Champions League in each of the last 17 seasons, last missing out in 2003-04 when they played in the UEFA Cup after coming sixth in La Liga the previous year.

They last went out of the Champions League in the group stage in 2000/01 when a team featuring a 20-year-old Xavi finished third in their section behind AC Milan and Leeds United.

The five-time European champions will now drop into the Europa League knockout-round play-offs in February.

Juve pip Chelsea

In contrast Lille are through to the Champions League knockout stages for the first time in 15 years after beating Wolfsburg 3-1 in Germany to top Group G.

Burak Yilmaz gave Lille an early lead and Canadian striker Jonathan David made it 2-0 in the 72nd minute before Angel Gomes got their third. Renato Steffen got a late consolation.

Salzburg, Austrian champions in each of the last eight seasons, also progressed thanks to a 1-0 win over Sevilla, with Noah Okafor scoring the only goal before the Spaniards had Joan Jordan sent off.

It is the first time Salzburg have reached the knockout phase, while Sevilla join the likes of Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League—that may suit them given they have won that trophy or its predecessor the UEFA Cup a record six times, all since 2006.

Atalanta game postponed

Last season’s winners Chelsea had already qualified for the last 16 and were on course to top Group H as they led 3-2 away to Zenit going into injury time.

But then Magomed Ozdoev’s stunning strike earned Zenit a 3-3 draw, allowing Juventus to snatch first place as Moise Kean’s goal gave them a 1-0 win against Malmo.

Timo Werner had tapped in to put Chelsea ahead in the second minute, but Claudinho and Sardar Azmoun both scored before the break for Zenit.

Romelu Lukaku’s first goal in nearly three months made it 2-2, and Werner’s second of the night looked to have won it for Chelsea before Ozdoev struck.

“My analysis is very clear: our behaviour changes when we have a lead and this is something we never did and we should never do,” said Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel, whose team twice squandered an advantage to lose 3-2 at West Ham United last weekend.

Atalanta’s game against Villarreal in Group F was postponed due to snow in Bergamo and was rescheduled for Thursday at 1800 GMT, with the Italians having to win to pip their visitors to second place in the group.

Group winners Manchester United drew 1-1 at home to Young Boys, with Mason Greenwood’s acrobatic effort putting Ralf Rangnick’s side ahead before Fabian Rieder equalised.

Source: AFP

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Cameroon gov’t military burns Bamenda City in war on Ambazonia

9, December 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Cameroon gov’t military burns Bamenda City in war on Ambazonia 0

Cameroon government army soldiers burned down several houses in Bamenda the chief city in the North West and killed two children on Wednesday 8, December 2021. The soldiers also destroyed many shops around Azire Old Church forcibly displaced hundreds of people in its fight against Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards.

The Francophone dominated Cameroon government army, which has frequently been accused of human rights abuses in its five-year fight against Southern Cameroons Self Defense groups, did not respond to Cameroon Concord News requests for comment.

Five residents interviewed by Cameroon Concord News correspondent in Bamenda confirmed the incident with one of them stressing that the roasting of two kids by the army soldiers should immediately hamper Yaounde’s ability to purchase arms.

Cameroon government troops razed more than 15 houses when they came under attack around Mbengui Road forcing several Bamenda residents to leave their homes.  Several videos and images are currently circulating on social media showing several large fires in the area and almost every structure razed. We gathered that the Francophone soldiers were going house to house and rounding people up.

“We watched our houses go into flames,” a 65-year-old man told Cameroon Concord News. “We all have been crying.”

“The soldiers called us Anglofools and Biafras and set our houses ablaze” one of the residents said.

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Dabney Yerima said recently that the people of Ambazonia have managed to wear down the Francophone dominated Cameroon government army. That has left the Cameroon government military on the defensive and the soldiers are now targeting Southern Cameroons civilian population.

By Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

CAF allays fear of postponing Afcon in Cameroon

8, December 2021

CAF allays fear of postponing Afcon in Cameroon 0

The Confederation of African Football have dismissed rumours that next month’s Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) could be moved away from Cameroon following the recent discovery of the new Omicron variant of Covid-19.

The new variant has led to travel restrictions being introduced by some countries for several African nations, with Nigeria, which neighbours Cameroon, the latest to be added to the United Kingdom’s ‘red list’.

In recent days, some media organisations have suggested the dates of the 24-team tournament could change or even the location be moved, possibly to Qatar.

Caf’s director of communications, Alex Siewe says neither his organisation nor leading Cameroon officials have discussed such events.

“We can’t keep spending time dealing with rumours,” he told BBC Sport Africa.

“We did not receive any other message or information from our leaders—nothing such as changing of dates or countries. We did not discuss such during all our last meetings. We are on site. We are working.”

Africa’s football showpiece, which has already been delayed because of the global pandemic, is due to kick off on January 9 in Yaounde with the final on February 6. Staff from the Caf arrived in Cameroon this week to organise the Afcon finals.

“An official delegation from Caf has been released and general secretary Veron Mosengo-Omba is joining us in two days,” Siewe added.

The European Club Association, an independent body that represents clubs across Europe, has expressed its “deep concerns” regarding player welfare before the tournament, adding that the public health situation “continues to deteriorate in an alarming manner”.

Kenya’s national team, Harambee Stars, will be a no show at the forthcoming Africa Cup of Nations. Algeria is the defending champions, having won the 2019 edition.

Kenya’s slim hopes of qualifying for the continental showpiece were dimmed after settling for a 1-1 draw with Egypt in their penultimate Group ‘G’ qualifier at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani.

Other than hosts Cameroon and champions Algeria, other nations expected in the tournament include Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Comoros, Ivory Coast, Egypt and Equatorial Guinea.

Others are Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, G. Bissau and Malawi. Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Tunisia, Sudan and Zimbabwe will also participate.

Source: The Star.co.ke

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