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5, October 2021

Cardinal on trial as Vatican financial scandal case resumes ⁰

The trial of a once powerful Catholic cardinal and nine others resumes Tuesday at the Vatican over alleged financial fraud and a disastrous London property deal paid for with charity funds.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who served as the equivalent of chief of staff for Pope Francis at the time of the deal and was later fired from another post, is being tried alongside high-rolling London-based financiers and other Church employees.

They are accused of crimes including embezzlement, fraud and corruption relating to the Church’s loss-making purchase of a luxury property in London’s upscale Chelsea district.

Becciu was at the time number two at the Secretariat of State, the most powerful department in the Vatican’s central administration.

The case against the 73-year-old, which carries charges of embezzlement, abuse of office and witness tampering, also includes separate allegations over hundreds of thousands of euros of Church funds paid to his brother’s charity.

The trial is unprecedented in going before a Vatican tribunal of three lay magistrates rather than a religious court, after Francis changed the law to strip cardinals and bishops of legal privileges.

Becciu, one of only two defendants who attended a preliminary hearing in July in the temporary courtroom at the Vatican Museums, insists he will prove his innocence “with respect to every charge”.

The trial, which is expected to last months, follows a two-year probe into how the Secretariat of State managed its vast asset portfolio and, in particular, who knew what about the disastrous 350-million-euro (now $407-million) London investment.

Since becoming pope in 2013, Francis has vowed to clean up the Church’s finances.

The scandal is particularly embarrassing because funds used for risky ventures like the London one came from the Peter’s Pence, money donated by churchgoers for the pope’s charities.

– Risky investments –

Ahead of the trial, prosecutors painted a picture of risky investments with little or no oversight, and double-dealing by outside consultants and insiders trusted with the financial interests of the Secretariat of State.

The Catholic Church suffered a major loss when it purchased this London property in the upscale neighbourhood of Chelsea

The Catholic Church suffered a major loss when it purchased this London property in the upscale neighbourhood of Chelsea DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS AFP/File

The primary defendants are “actors in a rotten predatory and lucrative system, sometimes made possible thanks to limited, but very incisive, complicity and internal connivance,” they argued.

The current case dates from 2013, when the Secretariat borrowed more than $200 million, mainly from Credit Suisse, to invest in a Luxembourg fund managed by an Italian-Swiss businessman, Raffaele Mincione.

Half was intended for stock market purchases and the rest for part of the building in London’s Sloane Avenue.

Prosecutors allege Mincione used the money to invest in high-risk ventures over which the Church had no control. By 2018, the Secretariat had already lost millions and tried to pull out of the deal.

Another London-based financier, Gianluigi Torzi, was brought in to broker the purchase of the rest of the building and cut ties with Mincione. But he is accused of instead joining forces with him.

Torzi allegedly inserted a clause into the sale deal that gave himself control of the building through voting rights. He is accused of demanding 15 million euros to relinquish control.

Mincione and Torzi were helped, prosecutors claim, by Enrico Crasso, a former financial consultant to the Secretariat, and employee Fabrizio Tirabassi, both of whom face charges including fraud.

Also implicated are two former top officials within the Vatican’s financial affairs watchdog, including its ex-president, Swiss lawyer Rene Bruelhart, who prosecutors say did not do enough to protect the Secretariat’s interests.

Source: AFP

4, October 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yerima calls on Ambazonians to ignore Dion Ngute ⁰

INTERIM GOVERNMENT STATEMENT on DION NGUTE’S VISIT TO THE NORTHERN ZONE FROM 5TH–8TH OCTOBER 2021

Yesterday, 03 October 2021, Adolphe Lele Lafrique communicated that Joseph Dion Ngute, the Prime Minister of La Republique du Cameroun, will be “undertaking a peacebuilding visit” to the Northern Zone of Ambazonia from Tuesday, the 05 to Friday 08 October 2021.

The Interim Government of Ambazonia considers this scam an act of utter contempt and disrespect to the people of Southern Cameroons and a flagrant violation of our sovereignty. It is particularly cruel that this visit takes place a few days after the monstrous regime in Yaoundé released hundreds of army and gendarme officers to the Northern zone with the exclusive order to rape our women and kill our people.

This action from Dion Ngute and his master in Yaoundé confirms what the opinion of all Ambazonians is, that La Republic du Cameroun has a disregard for the lives of our people. This move is proof of Yaoundé’s steadfast commitment to deception.

After consultation with Generals and Commanders in Ground Zero, major military operations have been planned in the Northern zone over the next few days. Consequently, our military leaders cannot guarantee the safety of anyone who ventures outside their home.

Because the safety of our people is of paramount importance, your Interim Government now wants to counsel that all law-abiding Southern Cameroonians in the Northern Zone must stay at home during these four days. All emergency activities within this zone of Ambazonia must be assumed with extreme caution.

Fellow Ambazonians, this is a difficult journey we have embarked upon. No one can say with utmost certainty what the outcome will be, but we must remain focus and keep our eyes on the prize despite the games from the murderous regime in Yaoundé. We shall not accept anything less than total independence.

God Bless Ambazonia. It’s Total Independence or Resistance forever.

Thank You, and God Bless You

Dabney Yerima

4, October 2021

Extreme heat threatening cities ⁰

Rapid population growth and global warming are increasing exposure to extreme heat in cities, aggravating health problems and making moving to urban areas less beneficial for the world’s poor, according to a study released Monday.

The rise is affecting nearly a quarter of the world’s population, said the report published in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”

In recent decades, hundreds of millions of people have moved from rural areas to cities where temperatures are generally higher because of surfaces such as asphalt which trap heat and a lack of vegetation.

Scientists studied the maximum daily heat and humidity in more than 13,000 cities from 1983 to 2016.

Using the so-called “wet-bulb globe temperature” scale, a measure that takes into account heat and humidity, they defined extreme heat as 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).

The researchers then compared weather data with statistics on the cities’ population over the same 33-year period.

They calculated the number of days of extreme heat in a particular year by the population of the city that year to come up with a definition called person-days.

The authors found that the number of person-days in which city dwellers were exposed went from 40 billion per year in 1983 to 119 billion in 2016.

Cascade Tuholske at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, a lead author of the study, said the rise “increases morbidity and mortality.”

“It impacts people’s ability to work, and results in lower economic output. It exacerbates pre-existing health conditions,” he said in a statement.

Population growth accounted for two-thirds of the exposure spike, with actual warming temperatures contributing a third, although proportions varied from city to city, they wrote.

Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka was the worst-affected city, seeing an increase of 575 million person-days of extreme heat over the study period.

That was largely attributable to its population soaring from around four million in 1983 to around 22 million today.

The authors said the patterns they found in Africa and South Asia, “may crucially limit the urban poor’s ability to realize the economic gains associated with urbanization.”

They added that “sufficient investment, humanitarian intervention, and government support” would be needed to counteract the negative impact.

The study was carried out by researchers at New York’s Columbia, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, the University of Arizona at Tuscon and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Source: AFP

4, October 2021

UK threatens to abandon post-Brexit deal on Northern Ireland ⁰

Britain’s Brexit minister threatened Monday to trigger a contentious break clause in the UK’s divorce deal with the European Union – a move that would send the UK’s already chilly relations with its huge neighbor into a deep freeze.

David Frost told a gathering of the UK’s governing Conservative Party that the Brexit agreement – which he negotiated and was signed by Britain and the EU – was undermining peace in Northern Ireland and causing “instability and disruption.”

He said unless there are major changes to the deal, Britain will invoke Article 16, a provision that lets either side suspend the agreement in exceptional circumstances.

However, Britain has made that threat before, and Frost did not pull the trigger.

“But we cannot wait forever,” he said.

The crisis straining UK-EU relations stems from trade arrangements for Northern Ireland, the only part of the UK that has a land border with the 27-nation bloc. The divorce deal the two sides struck before Britain’s departure means customs and border checks must be conducted on some goods moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

The regulations are intended to prevent goods from Britain entering the EU’s tariff-free single market while keeping an open border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland – a key pillar of Northern Ireland’s peace process. But the checks have angered Northern Ireland’s unionists, who say they impose burdensome red tape on businesses and weaken Northern Ireland’s ties with the rest of the UK.

Britain accuses the EU of being needlessly “purist” in implementing the agreement, known as the Northern Ireland Protocol, and says it requires major changes to work.

Blaming the bloc’s “heavy-handed actions,” Frost said “the Protocol itself” was undermining Northern Ireland’s 1998 peace agreement.

“Businesses, political parties, the institutions, and indeed all in Northern Ireland face instability and disruption,” he said.

“So I urge the EU to be ambitious. It’s no use tinkering around the edges. We need significant change.”

Officials in the EU are likely to greet Frost’s ultimatum with disdain. The EU blames Britain for the disruption, accusing it of trying to renege on a legally binding deal it signed up to.

Britain has also angered the EU by delaying the introduction of checks on some goods from the bloc agreed in the divorce deal, citing the burden on businesses.

Britain’s Conservatives are holding their first in-person conference since Britain left the bloc last year. Despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s vow to “get Brexit done,” the rupture is roiling the economy as Britain tries to bounce back from pandemic disruption and damage.

A severe shortage of truck drivers, due in part to a post-Brexit exodus of European workers, has snarled British supply chains, leaving gaps on supermarket shelves, fast-food chains without chicken and gas pumps dry of fuel. Scores of soldiers have been drafted in to drive fuel tankers after more than a week of gas shortages.

2, October 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Three Cameroonian soldiers killed in Bamali ⁰

At least three Cameroonian soldiers were killed on Thursday in an ambush by separatist fighters in the country’s restive Anglophone region of Northwest, according to local and security sources.

Separatist fighters ambushed soldiers who were on patrol in Bamali village of the region and opened fire on them, according to a military official who asked not to be named.

A video of the ambush filmed by separatist fighters went viral on social media in the Central African nation.

Clashes between government forces and separatist fighters were also reported early Thursday in at least seven parts of the region, according to security reports.

Separatist leaders declared the “independence” of the two Anglophone regions of the country in 2017 and have since been battling with government forces.

Source: Xinhuanet

2, October 2021

Cameroon’s Elderly Say They Feel Abandoned ⁰

In Cameroon, scores of seniors marked Friday’s International Day of Older Persons by calling on authorities to do more to support the elderly in the country’s conflict areas.

Many of those demonstrating in Yaounde fled from Boko Haram terrorism in the north or Cameroon’s separatist conflict in the west. They say hundreds of seniors remaining in those regions have been left to fend for themselves.

Sixty-seven-year-old Veronica Ngum, an activist for the elderly in Cameroon, said a majority of protesting seniors are suffering.

She said they lack energy to work, are frail, and lack the financial means to buy healthy food or be treated in hospitals.

The Cameroon Association of Elderly Persons organized the 30-minute walk to raise awareness of what they said is the plight of older persons in the country. Similar protests took place Friday in the cities of Bafoussam and Douala.

The Timely Performance Care Center for disabled children and older persons helped organize the protest.

The manager of the Yaounde-based center, Betty Nancy Fonyuy, said older persons suffer neglect from their families and communities.

“Most of them that are here are the elderly that have been abandoned by their families,” she said. “Some of them are already visually impaired. The center gives them ambulatory materials, medications and reading glasses, with food supplies, bathing supplies, and their basic needs.”

Fonyuy said her center has received at least 120 older persons displaced from Cameroon’s English-speaking regions since January. Some have no relatives in Yaounde. She said her center is finding it difficult to help all elderly in need, and pleaded with donors to help.

Pauline Irene Nguene, Cameroon’s minister of social affairs, said Cameroon has a national solidarity plan that includes the treatment and resettling of people, especially vulnerable civilians like older persons affected by Boko Haram terrorism and separatist conflicts.

Nguene said the government is inviting older persons who have been displaced to report to social affairs offices of their choice for medical assistance.

The United Nations General Assembly instituted the International Day of Older Persons in 1990 to examine issues and challenges faced by the elderly. The day is marked every year on October 1.

A 2020 government report indicates there are about two million people older than 60 among Cameroon’s 25 million population. The report says most of them are poor and need lodging, food and health care.

Source: VOA

2, October 2021

Biya regime stages anti-terror simulation drill ahead of AFCON ⁰

Cameroon staged its biggest ever anti-terrorism exercise Tuesday and Wednesday to prepare against any terrorist attacks during the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) which will be hosted by the Central African nation next year.

Sirens wailed as 100 personnel drawn from the army, navy as well as police and rescue services gave a carefully orchestrated demonstration of how they would deal with a terrorist attack during a football match.

During the mock exercises held at the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Yaounde, the capital, policemen and soldiers overpowered a group of gunmen who took some important personalities and other football spectators hostage.

“The objective of this exercise was to make sure that every (security) unit understands what to do. We also wanted to see if there is synchronisation of action and understanding of each other in order to be able to get to the solution which is bringing back peace and security. We wanted to prove that Cameroon is ready for any eventuality during AFCON,” Colonel Franics Ekosso, one of the organizers of the event, told reporters during the simulation exercise staged.

“Although it is an exercise, it gives us an opportunity to show how we can interact with defense forces in situations like this,” said Leonard Ntuntu, commander of 10th Fire and Rescue Battalion.

The army said the exercises were not held in response to a specific threat but noted that an armed separatist movement in the country’s Anglophone regions, Boko Haram insurgency in the Far North region, and some security challenges in other parts of the Central African nation were reasons enough for the army to prepare for any eventuality.

AFCON, a biennial competition involving 24 African countries, is scheduled to take place in Cameroon from Jan. 9 to Feb. 6 next year.

Source: Xinhuanet

2, October 2021

CPDM looks to post-Biya future ahead of party conference ⁰

Elections to the local institutions of the ruling RDPC have now come to an end. The stakes are high, since those appointed to senior positions will be able to take part in the next party conference (the first since 2011), which could very well be decisive in terms of who succeeds Paul Biya.

Source: Africa Intelligence

2, October 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 5 years of violent civil war ⁰

Protesters criticize that English-speaking regions of Cameroon are far less developed than French-speaking parts. They also take issue with crude oil extraction off the country’s southwestern coast, arguing the proceeds only benefit Cameroon’s Francophone central government. Teachers and judges complain that English speakers are underrepresented in parliament, the government, public administration and universities.

Thousands of French-speaking judges and teachers were dispatched to Anglophone Cameroon at the start of the 2016 school term. Cameroon’s central government has been working to supplant the region’s British-style legal and education system with the French model. Anglophone Cameroonians complain that those French-speaking judges and teachers are undermining the region’s English-language culture.

November 2016: The central government first remains silent on the situation, then suppresses the Anglophone protest movement. Subsequently, tension escalate, with English-speaking Cameroonians variously calling to reestablish a federal system, or split from Francophone Cameroon. Elements within the separatist movement now regard English-speaking Cameroon as an independent state, calling it Ambazonia.

A whole range of different, Anglophone separatist groups emerge, who total some 4,000 members altogether. They are supported by Cameroon’s diaspora. The most influential separatists organizations are the Ambazonia Defense Forces, Ambazonia Self-Defense Council, African People’s Liberation Movement and its armed wing, the Southern Cameroons Defense Forces. The secessionist movement is riven by ethnic rivalries, lacking overall military and political leadership.

December 2016: Several people are shot and killed by security forces in the city of Bamenda, in Cameroon’s northwestern Anglophone region. Dozens are wounded in the clashes. The army fails to bring the situation under control.

January 2017: Cameroon’s central government launches a concerted campaign to weaken Anglophone separatist groups. English-speaking Cameroon is cut off from the internet from January to April 2017. Relatives of Anglophone activists are arrested. Cameroon’s army and police force crack down on renewed protests staged by English-speaking teachers and lawyers. Separatist groups like the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium subsequently call on all English speakers to participate in general strikes every Monday, bringing public life to a standstill.

Is a Biya political dynasty taking shape?

October 2017: Separatist leader Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe declares the Republic of Ambazonia an independent state on October 1, a national holiday officially celebrated as Unification Day. Several regions fall under the control of armed separatist groups. Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, meanwhile, continues downplaying and suppressing the conflict.

International organizations become increasingly aware of the conflict. Human Rights Watch (HRW) reports some 4,000 people have died in clashes, with around 60,000 forced to flee to neighboring Nigeria. It says about 850,000 children are unable to attend school due to the ongoing conflict. Some 2.3 million out of the 5 million Anglophone Cameroonians depend on humanitarian aid, according to HRW.

October 2018: President Biya, in office since 1982, is reelected with 71.28% of the vote. The election is, however, marred by allegations of fraud. Political and ethnic tensions between Biya supporters and the opposition intensify.

Paul Biya was reelected in October 2018

February 2019: Maurice Kamto, who heads the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) opposition party, is sentenced to eight months behind bars for inciting violence. Kamto is has repeatedly protested against systemic discrimination.

September 2019: Biya announces though state-run media outlets that a grand national dialogue will be held on September 10 to resolve the country’s protracted conflict. Talks are planned from September 30 until October 4. The governing Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (RDPC) party, several religious organizations and civil society actors support Biya’s imitative. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomes the step.

Most opposition parties, however, reject the format, as key separatist leaders remain in jail. They also criticize the summit will neither address a potential return to federalism, nor possible independence for English-speaking regions of Cameroon.

Biya dismisses mediation efforts by the UN, African Union (AU) and Catholic Church.

Opposition leader Maurice Kamto was released from prison on October 5, 2019

December 2019: Biya ratifies several laws designed to promote bilingualism and decentralization in Cameroon. Opposition figures, however, decry the move as “window dressing” to keep Biya in power.

February 2020: Kamto’s MRC party boycotts the parliamentary and municipal elections. The ruling RDPC party wins the vast majority of votes. Voter turnout, however, has reached a historic low.

March 2020: Attacks by radical Islamic terror group Boko Haram on northeastern Cameroon intensify. Incursions are launched from Nigeria and Chad, where Boko Haram is based. The campaign brings further instability to Cameroon.

March 2020: Amid the COVID pandemic, the separatist militant group Southern Cameroon Defense Forces declares a cease-fire from March 29, 2020, following a call by the UN secretary-general. The largest separatist militant group, the Ambazonian Defense Forces (ADF), declines to take part in the cease-fire. The attacks continue.

September 2021: Deadly attacks by various separatist groups on military posts and vehicles of the Cameroonian army continue to be a daily occurrence. Cameroonian security forces ready for robust clashes on October 1, which officially marks the founding of the Cameroonian state. On the same day, separatists celebrate the proclamation of the independent Republic of Ambazonia in 2017. The self-declared entity is still not recognized internationally.

Source: Deutchewelle

1, October 2021

EU postpones trade talks with Australia amid submarine row ⁰

A long-planned round of Australia-EU free trade talks have been postponed, a European official confirmed Friday, after fury over Canberra’s decision to cancel a major French submarine contract.

“The FTA trade round has been postponed for a month until November,” an EU official in Canberra told AFP, throwing the future of the far-reaching pact into doubt.

Australia last month abruptly cancelled a multibillion-dollar contract for 12 French submarines, opting to buy nuclear-powered US-designed vessels instead.

The decision prompted a major diplomatic spat with one of the European Union’s largest members and now appears to have hit ties with the entire bloc.

France has publicly said it can no longer trust Australia’s government, accusing officials of lying and questioning whether the trade agreement can go ahead.

Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan, who was scheduled to travel to Europe for the talks, played down the decision in a statement to AFP.

“We understand the French reaction to our submarine decision but ultimately any nation must act in its national interest — which is what Australia has done,” he said.

Tehan indicated he plans to meet EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis next week to discuss what would be the 12th round of negotiations.

“We will continue preparing for the 12th round of negotiations and working towards concluding a free trade agreement that is in the interests of both Australia and the EU.”

The EU is Australia’s third-biggest trading partner.

In 2020, the trade in goods between the two economies was valued at 36 billion euros ($42.4 billion) and at 26 billion euros in services.

The next round of talks was due to cover areas including trade, services, investment and intellectual property rights.

Source: AFP