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11, August 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis causing hardship for women ⁰

Cameroon President Paul Biya must let “peace reign” in the country’s troubled Anglophone regions, according to a former mayor and Catholic activist.

Elizabeth Kang, a leading member of the Catholic Women Association (CWA) spoke to Crux on the sidelines of the women’s convention for peace in Yaoundé.

“I am pleading on God Almighty to do to the Head of State as he did to Saul. Saul was a murderer and when he was going down to Damascus again to carry out his killing, God changed him and renamed him Paul, and he became a great preacher and wrote many books in the Bible. If our Paul today is Saul, God will change him back to the real Paul,” she said.

Biya has been largely blamed for the five-year conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions where a separatist war has left over 4000 dead and forced more than a million people to flee their homes.

When Anglophone teachers and lawyers took to the streets in 2016 to protest the use of French in English-speaking schools and Common Law courts, Biya deployed the military, taking a hardline stance that escalated tensions, and morphed into demands for self-rule by the country’s English speakers.

Separatists have been fighting the military ever since, and violently enforced a school boycott that has left the regions’ children without an education for five years.

Kang says she believes that Biya has the power to bring the conflict to an end.

“The head of state of this country is the father of this nation. He has the authority to say ‘stop the killing, come my children, let us discuss this issue.’ For me, I hold him very responsible,” she told Crux.

“The head of state of this country has to make a statement to the effect that we are all his wives, we are all his children. … As one woman we want to cry out: Withdraw the army. The army too is dying. The mother of the soldier is wailing like me, the mother of the civilian. We are the same women wailing for our children.”

Kang is a witness to the daily horrors of war in her native Wum. Sometimes, the horrors are too close to home. Among others, her husband has had to spend time in the dreaded Kondengui Central Prison in Yaoundé.

“The first person I lost was my brother’s son whom I raised. Some armed people came and called him out of the house in my absence. In the morning, they had chopped off his ears. The second one was my son. They came and took him out at 5 a.m. [in front of] his wife beat him up and tore his left ear. The third one is my husband who was carried up to Kondengui. He stayed in Kondengui for nine months, and when the family head is not there, you know what that means. An entire family can go astray because the pilot of the house is not there. The other one was my neighbor’s son whose head was blown off by cartridges from unknown persons, and he died. I will not name my cousins that were slain in a whole village. Sometimes, people were carried in other villages and shot in Wum town.”

Holding back tears, Kang notes that women are paying a disproportionate price in the conflict, many of them “menstruating on leaves. The pride of a woman has been taken away. Women are delivering children in the bush, and under very bad conditions.”

The Catholic Women Association came up with various proposals to bring an end to the hostilities.

They called for continued and inclusive dialogue that addresses core issues around peace, solidarity and shared humanity in Cameroon; as well as the equal and permanent involvement of women peace mediators and negotiators in peace processes at all levels, while enforcing their protection at all times.

They also underscored the need to create additional centers for psychological support and trauma treatment, while at the same time making sure that the country’s disarmament and demobilization centers are made functional and responsive to the existing conflict.

“Peace has to reign,” Kang said simply, but added this will be contingent on Biya “calling the army to the barracks, the separatists dropping their guns, and genuine and sincere dialogue to address the root causes of the conflict.”

Source: Crux

10, August 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Abandoned CDC-Delmonte workers are stalked by hunger, death ⁰

Deprived of everything under the Franklin Ngoni Njie administration, CDC-Delmonte workers who had been scraping on FCFA 500 FRS per day are now left with nothing. General Manager Ngoni Njie and his Musonge gang have not raised any alarm ever since the war in Southern Cameroons started four years ago as the workers, abandoned in places like Tiko, Mautu, Mondoni, Ekona and Muyuka slid silently into catastrophe.

“They have become like beggars,” said Cameroon Concord News Fako Bureau Chief. CDC-Delmonte workers have been unable to properly feed themselves or their families and many are being forced out of their homes by landlords.

Many of the workers have their tiny arms immobilized by malnutrition, some have kids suffering from tuberculosis and beneath their poorly equipped “Carabout” houses, the dirt floor is slowly being eaten away by the heavy rains in places like Tiko.

The workers are dying like flies and the toll has continued to climb since.

In 2021, at least 37 CDC-Delmonte workers have died across Fako according to Cameroon Concord News sources in the Southern West region.

More than 3000 workers have been left in abject poverty at CDC-Delmonte estates, spread across Southern Cameroons.

The so-called Dion Ngute government is reportedly helpless and lacks the resources to launch any emergency relief program even though conditions remain grim. The CDC-Delmonte workers are dying either from malnutrition or inadequate medical care.

Dozens of men have left their families to find work in French Cameroun, but women and children have remained in houses on the estate controlled by Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

The Biya Francophone regime has done nothing to penalize CDC and Delmonte for abandoning their workers and the workers are dying in a system closer to the 19th century than the 21st.

Established by the Germans after the 1884 Berlin Conference, the CDC plantations now being auctioned to French businessmen by the Francophone political leaders in Yaoundé are among the few examples of large-scale organized agriculture in Southern Cameroons

There are several plantations in the two Cameroons but those in Southern Cameroons are widely seen as having the worst labour conditions. Most of the workers live below the U.N.’s $2 a-day threshold for extreme poverty.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

10, August 2021

US: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo resigns ⁰

Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned over a barrage of sexual harassment allegations Tuesday in a fall from grace a year after he was widely hailed nationally for his detailed daily briefings and leadership during the darkest days of COVID-19.

The three-term governor’s decision, which will take effect in two weeks, was announced as momentum built in the Legislature to remove him by impeachment. It came after New York’s attorney general released the results of an investigation that found Cuomo sexually harassed at least 11 women.

Investigators said he subjected women to unwanted kisses; groped their breasts or buttocks or otherwise touched them inappropriately; made insinuating remarks about their looks and their sex lives; and created a work environment “rife with fear and intimidation.”

Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a 62-year-old Democrat and former member of Congress from the Buffalo area, will become the state’s 57th governor and the first woman to hold the post.

The #MeToo-era scandal cut short not just a career but a dynasty: Cuomo’s father, Mario Cuomo, was governor in the 1980s and ’90s, and the younger Cuomo was often mentioned as a potential candidate for president, an office his father famously contemplated seeking. Even as the scandal mushroomed, Cuomo was planning to run for reelection in 2022.

Cuomo still faces the possibility of criminal charges, with a number of prosecutors around the state moving to investigate him.

The string of accusations that spelled the governor’s downfall began to unfold in news reports last December and went on for months.

Cuomo called some of the allegations fabricated, forcefully denying he touched anyone inappropriately. But he acknowledged making some aides uncomfortable with comments he said he intended as playful, and he apologized for some of his behavior.

He portrayed some of the encounters as misunderstandings attributable to “generational or cultural” differences, a reference in part to his upbringing in an affectionate Italian American family.

As a defiant Cuomo clung to office, state lawmakers launched an impeachment investigation, and nearly the entire Democratic establishment in New York deserted him — not only over the accusations, but also because of the discovery that his administration had concealed thousands of COVID-19 deaths among nursing home patients.

The harassment investigation ordered up by the attorney general and conducted by two outside lawyers corroborated the women’s accounts and added lurid new ones. The release of the report left the governor more isolated than ever, with some of his most loyal supporters abandoning him and President Joe Biden joining those calling on him to resign.

His accusers included an aide who said Cuomo groped her breast at the governor’s mansion. Investigators also [found] the governor’s staff retaliated against one of his accusers by leaking confidential personnel files about her.

As governor, Cuomo touted himself as an example of a “progressive Democrat” who gets things done: Since taking office in 2011, he helped push through legislation that legalized gay marriage, began lifting the minimum wage to $15 and expanded paid family leave benefits. He also backed big infrastructure projects, including airport overhauls and construction of a new bridge over the Hudson River that he named after his father.

At the same time the behavior that got him into trouble was going on, he was publicly championing the #MeToo movement and surrounding himself with women’s rights activists, signing into law sweeping new protections against sexual harassment and lengthening the statute of limitations in rape cases.

His national popularity soared during the harrowing spring of 2020, when New York became the epicenter of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak.

His tough-minded but empathetic response made for riveting television well beyond New York, and his stern warnings to people to stay home and wear masks stood in sharp contrast to President Donald Trump’s brush-off of the virus. His briefings won an international Emmy Award, and he went on to write a book on leadership in a crisis.

But even those accomplishments were soon tainted when it was learned that the state’s official count of nursing home deaths had excluded many patients who had been transferred to hospitals before they succumbed. A Cuomo aide acknowledged the administration feared the true numbers would be “used against us” by the Trump White House.

Also, Cuomo’s administration was fiercely criticized for forcing nursing homes to accept patients recovering from the virus.

The U.S. Justice Department is investigating the state’s handling of data on nursing home deaths. In addition, the state attorney general is looking into whether Cuomo broke the law in using members of his staff to help write and promote his book, from which he stood to make more than $5 million.

The governor had also increasingly come under fire over his rough and sometimes vindictive treatment of fellow politicians and his own staff, with former aides telling stories of a brutal work environment.

Cuomo has been divorced since 2005 from the author and activist Kerry Kennedy, a member of the Kennedy family, and was romantically involved up until 2019 with TV lifestyle personality Sandra Lee. He has three adult daughters.

He gained political experience early on as his father’s hard-nosed and often ruthless campaign manager, and went on to become New York attorney general and U.S. housing secretary under President Bill Clinton before getting elected governor in 2010.

New York has seen a string of high-level political figures brought down in disgrace in recent years.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in 2008 in a call-girl scandal. Rep. Anthony Weiner went to prison for sexting with a 15-year-old girl. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman stepped down in 2018 after four women accused him of abuse. And the top two leaders in the Legislature were convicted of corruption.

(AP)

10, August 2021

French football fans await Messi in Paris amid rumours of transfer to PSG ⁰

Paris Saint-Germain supporters have been gathering in anticipation of the arrival of Argentina superstar Lionel Messi after his emotional Barcelona departure at the weekend.

Members of the PSG faithful assembled outside the club’s Parc des Princes home and at an airport to the north of the French capital on Monday as the Qatari-owned outfit looked set to add the 34-year-old to a squad that already includes Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.

Paris is expected to be Messi’s next destination after his tearful exit from the side he has represented throughout the 17 years of his glittering professional career.

However, on Monday journalists from AFP TV spotted him still at his home near Barcelona alongside his family as well as his friend and former teammate, Luis Suarez.

Later, French media reported that he had left for Ibiza to hold discussions with the Parisian club.

Following last week’s announcement by Barca that they could not afford to keep their all-time top goal-scorer, PSG emerged as the favourites to sign Messi, helped by the deep pockets of their Qatari owners.

They see him as the missing piece in their jigsaw as they chase the Champions League, the trophy they want more than anything else.

Off the field, his rumoured move has added 1.2m followers to PSG’s social media accounts since Friday.

“I am happy if he arrives at Paris,” new PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma told Sky Sports Italia on Monday outside his Parisian hotel.

“He is the strongest in the world, I am excited and happy at the thought of having him in the team,” he added.

Coming to terms

Messi conceded at his tearful farewell news conference in Barcelona on Sunday that joining PSG was a “possibility”.

In reality, with Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City having ruled themselves out, they are about the only club who can afford what is expected to be a deal worth 35 million euros ($41 million) a year.

“I gave everything for Barcelona from the first day that I arrived right to the last. I never imagined having to say goodbye,” Messi said.

“I have still not come to terms with the reality of leaving this club now – I love this club.”

He leaves Barcelona with 672 goals in 778 appearances, a record tally for one club.

Messi won 35 trophies at the Camp Nou after joining Barca aged 13, but his last appearance was a damp squib: a 2-1 home defeat behind closed doors against Celta Vigo in May.

His trophy tally includes four Champions League and 10 La Liga titles.

“The greatest of all,” wrote Messi’s old Barcelona teammate Dani Alves—who won the Olympic gold with Brazil—in an Instagram message on Monday.

One group of Barcelona fans, represented by a Parisian lawyer, announced their intention to lodge a complaint with the European Commission in connection with the rules of financial fair play that Barcelona and PSG must follow.

‘Extraordinary for Ligue 1’

Despite offering to cut his salary by half to seal a new five-year contract which the club carrying debts of 1.2 billion euros ($1.41 billion) and the player had agreed on, the deal foundered on strict Spanish league salary cap rules.

Messi’s arrival would make PSG even more obvious favourites to reclaim a French title they missed out on last season to Lille.

Some in Ligue 1 have mixed feelings about the impending arrival of arguably the greatest player of all time.

“It’s extraordinary for Ligue 1,” said Metz coach Frederic Antonetti.

“But for a purist like me, Messi should have finished his career at Barcelona.”

This summer PSG have already added veteran Spanish defender Sergio Ramos from Real Madrid and Italy’s Donnarumma, the star of Euro 2020.

They have also signed Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum, snatching the Dutchman from under the noses of Barcelona, and spent 60 million euros on Inter Milan right-back Achraf Hakimi, who scored on his league debut at the weekend.

An added attraction in moving to Paris is that coach Mauricio Pochettino, like Messi, started his career at Newell’s Old Boys in Rosario, Argentina.

All going to plan he could be unveiled to supporters on Saturday, when PSG play at home to Strasbourg and a full house of nearly 48,000 will be allowed in for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic struck 18 months ago.

(AFP)

10, August 2021

South Africa: Jacob Zuma corruption hearing scheduled to resume online this Tuesday ⁰

The corruption trial of former South African president Jacob Zuma, is scheduled to resume online this Tuesday. The office of the chief justice announced this after the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Pietermaritzburg last week declared that the case would be heard in open court.

Jacob Zuma is currently in prison for contempt of court , but since last week he’s has been in a nearby hospital.

His legal team had complained that a virtual appearance would infringe on his rights. But Zuma is still in hospital on the eve of the trial proceedings and a postponement is likely.

His lawyers are expected to offer evidence of his undisclosed medical issues which could lead to a further postponement of the corruption case.

Source: Africa News

10, August 2021

“Independence of Southern Cameroons a reality, will materialize soon and very soon” ⁰

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government says the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and the final collapse of the Biya Francophone crime syndicate in French Cameroun is not just an aspiration, but a reality, which will materialize soon and very soon.

Dabney Yerima made the remarks in separate meetings on Sunday with members of the Ambazonia war cabinet and heads of Ground Zero operations.

During the meetings, Vice President Yerima congratulated all Southern Cameroons Self Defense groups on their achievements in countering La Republique du Cameroun aggression against the people of Southern Cameroons, saying, “In view of undeniable realities in Ground Zero, the leadership of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government believes that Buea is now on sight and the fall of the 88-year-old French Cameroun butcher is imminent.”

Yerima said the balance of power has shifted in favour of Ambazonia Restoration Forces adding that the Amba fighters were now more powerful and will achieve a victory beyond just a military triumph.

Biya and his French Cameroun political elites launched a brutal military campaign against Southern Cameroonians four years ago following a peaceful protest against decades of political and economic marginalization.

According to the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, more than thirty-five thousand Southern Cameroonians have been killed in the Francophone dominated army offensive, including women and children. Scores of innocent civilians have also been wounded including the destruction of more than 400 villages.

Elsewhere in his remark, Yerima said only unity can speed up the journey to Buea. He emphasized that strengthening Amba fighters through the Big Rubbergun Project is a strategy that should never be stopped.

By Chi Prudence Asong

9, August 2021

3 Cameroon gov’t soldiers killed in Boko Haram attack ⁰

At least three soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram attack in Cameroon’s Far North region, security and local sources said on Monday.

One militant of the terror group was also killed in the overnight attack on a military outpost in Sagme, a locality of the region.

A military official, who requested anonymity, told Xinhua that the terrorists attempted to dislodge troops in the town, located about 343 kilometers south of Maroua, capital of Far North region.

Boko Haram militants had in the pasted attempted to seize Sagme, which sits near the borders with Nigeria and Chad, but they were repelled by government forces.

In July, militants raided a military outpost in the town, killing eight soldiers, according to the Cameroon army.

Source: Xinhaunet

9, August 2021

Olympic flag arrives in Paris ahead of 2024 Games ⁰

Mayor Anne Hidalgo returned to the French capital on Monday with the Olympic flag from Tokyo ahead of Paris’s turn to host the Games in 2024.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo brandished the Olympic flag after disembarking from the Air France flight that brought many of France’s Olympic medalists back to Charles de Gaulle airport.

Hidalgo, who formally received the flag Sunday during the Tokyo closing ceremony from International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, told reporters the flag “is the symbol that now, really, the Paris Games are coming”, adding: They will be “very positive for our country”.

She said the Tokyo Games were “organised in very difficult conditions” because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

French organisers will stay in touch with Japanese counterparts to prepare for the Paris Games, including on security issues, Hidalgo added.

The Olympic flag will be raised at Paris City Hall later on Monday. A celebration will then take place at Trocadero square, which overlooks the Eiffel Tower, so that the public can welcome the French medalists home.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

9, August 2021

Mali: Suspected jihadists kill scores of villagers ⁰

Suspected jihadists massacred more than 40 civilians in northern Mali and killed 12 troops in an ambush in neighbouring Burkina Faso, officials said Monday, highlighting the security crisis gripping the two fragile states.

“Terrorists” on Sunday invaded the villages of Karou, Ouatagouna and Daoutegeft near Mali’s border with Niger, a military officer told AFP, using a term officials use to designate jihadists.

“(They) massacred everyone,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A document by the local prefecture, seen by AFP, said 51 people had been killed in the coordinated attacks, homes had been looted and cattle stolen.

A local official, who also asked not to be identified for security reasons, said “20 civilians were massacred in Karou. Fourteen civilians were killed in Ouatagouna, and other civilians were killed in the hamlet of Daoutegeft”.

The assailants arrived on motorbike, taking the villagers by surprise, he said.

An official at a fourth village said his locality had also come under attack.

An army unit has been sent to provide help, a military officer said, but a source in a Malian NGO said communications with the remote area were poor after jihadists had attacked telecoms sites.

Mali crisis

Mali, a landlocked and impoverished state in the heart of the West Africa’s Sahel region, has been battling a jihadist insurgency since 2012.

The crisis began with unrest in the north of the country that spread to Mali’s ethnically volatile centre and then to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.

Armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group are steering the campaign today.

Thousands of civilians and troops have died and hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes.

Mali has suffered two coups since August last year, and on July 20 military leader Colonel Assimi Goita survived an attempted assassination at a mosque in Bamako.

Alioune Tine, an independent experts on human rights in the Sahel who reports to the United Nations, last week warned that a “critical threshold” had been breached in the country’s security situation.

At the end of an 11-day visit, he highlighted “the failure of the institutions of state” as well as “relentless attacks on civilian populations” by jihadists. The armed forces themselves had committed violence against civilians, he said.

Burkina attack

In Burkina Faso, meanwhile, 12 troops were killed and eight were wounded Sunday in an ambush near the border with Mali, the government said.

“Members of the ground forces and the rapid intervention force GARSI were ambushed” in the northwest Boucle du Mouhoun region, Communications Minister Ousseni Tamboura said Monday.

The attack occurred near the village of Dounkoun in Toeni district.

President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said in a tweet that “we continue to wage without concession the war the obscurantist and barbaric forces have imposed on our country.”

A security source told AFP that the ambush had happened around 3:00 pm (1500 GMT), adding vehicles had been destroyed or captured.

The attack was “revenge for the death of two jihadist leaders who were active in the same Boucle du Mouhoun region, who were neutralised (Saturday) by the armed forces,” the source added.

He named the two leaders as Sidibe Ousmane, also known “Mouslim” and spiritual leader Bande Amadou.

A special army unit killed them following exchanges of fire between Diamasso and Bouni, in Kossi province, the government said Sunday in a statement.

Source: AFP

9, August 2021

Catholic priest murdered in western France ⁰

A Rwandan national suspected of causing a major fire that ravaged the cathedral in the French city of Nantes last year murdered a Catholic priest in western France on Monday, the interior minister and a source close to the investigation said.

“All my support for the Catholics of our country after the dramatic murder of a priest in the Vendée region,” French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin wrote on Twitter, saying he was heading to the scene.

A source close to the investigation, who asked not to be named, told the AFP that the suspect had earlier gone to police in the town of Mortagne-sur-Sevre and declared he had killed a priest.

The slain priest, 60, had been welcoming the man into his church for several months, according to the source.

The man, a Rwandan national named as Emmanuel A., has confessed to being behind the fire at the Gothic Nantes cathedral that horrified France on July 18, 2020.

He had initially been placed under arrest before being freed under judicial control.

Earlier Monday, French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who accuses the government of being weak on immigration, sought to capitalise on the incident, saying that in France “you can be an illegal migrant, set fire to a cathedral, not be expelled and then reoffend by murdering a priest”.

Darmanin immediately accused her of “making a polemic without knowing the facts” saying the man could not be expelled from France while he was under judicial control.

Immigration is set to be a major issue when Le Pen challenges centrist President Emmanuel Macron for the presidency next year.

Senator Bruno Retailleau, a conservative who represents the Vendée region, identified the victim as Olivier Maire. He said the local Catholic church had been housing the man.

“Deeply shocked by the terrible murder of a priest who had taken in his murderer into his care,” Retailleau said on Twitter.

“What was this man still doing in France?” asked the lawmaker, who is among several Les Républicains members likely to seek that party’s nomination for the 2022 presidential election.

Priceless artefacts lost in 2020 blaze

The Nantes blaze came 15 months after the devastating 2019 fire at the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, which raised questions about the security risks for other historic churches across France.

While firefighters were able to contain the Nantes blaze after just two hours and save the main structure, its famed organ, which dated from 1621 and had survived the French revolution and World War II bombardment, was destroyed.

Also lost were priceless artefacts and paintings, including a work by the 19th-century artist Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin and stained glass windows that contained remnants of 16th-century glass. Repairs are due to take several years.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)