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Southern Cameroons Crisis: 2 Cameroon gov’t soldiers killed in Amba raids

26, February 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 2 Cameroon gov’t soldiers killed in Amba raids 0

Two Cameroon government army soldiers and civilians were killed during a fierce battle involving Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces on Wednesday in Kumbo, a military source said late on Thursday, highlighting the intensity of the violence.

The Francophone administrator in the area said five other soldiers including a lieutenant and several civilians were injured during the sporadic exchange of artillery fire between the Francophone dominated Cameroon government army and Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

The Cameroonian military rarely comments on reports of soldiers or civilians being killed in clashes in Southern Cameroons except being pushed to do so by the renowned Human Rights Watch. Southern Cameroons activists have meanwhile sometimes exaggerated the civilian death toll.

Cameroon government forces stormed Mbuluf, Tsenla, BBH, Tobin, Kikaikom, Mbveh Vekovi in the Bui County and local civil rights groups including the Roman Catholic Church, Diocese of Kumbo have accused Cameroon government troops of deliberately targeting civilians and burning homes during the fighting.

Cameroon News Agency reported that the walls and windows of the Catholic Church in Bamkikai where civilians ran for safety were also touched by bullets as soldiers went on rampage.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files

French Cameroun: Police arrest 9 for practicing homosexuality

26, February 2021

French Cameroun: Police arrest 9 for practicing homosexuality 0

9 Cameroonians suspected of homosexuality have been arrested in western Cameroon. Two of them are still in custody, a police officer and a lawyer told AFP Thursday.

“We arrested them to check if they are homosexuals,” an officer in the town of Bafoussam, where the nine men were arrested said on condition of anonymity.

He said 7 were freed and two are still in custody, adding that they will go to the prosecutor’s office probably on Friday. And their crime? Practicing homosexuality. The officer said one of them admitted that he was having relations with the other.

Alice Nkon, who defends the rights of LGBT people within the association ADEFHO, had previously indicated that 7 of the 9 persons were arrested Tuesday at the headquarters of the association, Colibri, whose main mission is to care for persons infected with HIV.

Mrs. Nkon explained that the police “decided to search the headquarters of Colibri on the grounds that it is a homosexual association’’, an assertion he denies.

Homosexual practices are prohibited in this Central African nation. The law provides for sentences ranging from 6 months to 5 years in prison and a fine of up to 200,000 FCFA or 300 euros against anyone who has sex with someone of the same sex.

Arrests for alleged homosexuals have dropped significantly in recent years in Cameroon, but they seem to be on the rise again recently, Mrs Nkon said.

On February 8, two transgender persons were arrested in Douala, the economic capital. They are still behind bars. Their trial, which began on February 10, is scheduled to resume on March 10.

Source: Africa News

Yaounde: Turkish envoy receives Order of Valour medal

26, February 2021

Yaounde: Turkish envoy receives Order of Valour medal 0

Turkish Ambassador to Cameroon Ayse Sarac has received the medal of Commander of the Order of Valour as she reached the end of her mandate in the country after two years of service.

The medal was presented to her by Lejeune Mbella Mbella, the minister of external relations, on behalf of Cameroon’s President Paul Biya.

Sarac arrived in Cameroon in January 2019. “I was privileged to work in a very welcoming positive atmosphere,” Sarac said during the ceremony at the External Relations Ministry on Tuesday.

She also reiterated her utmost gratitude for the very fruitful and dynamic cooperation between Turkey and Cameroon in many fields, including diplomacy, international cooperation, trade, economy, energy, infrastructure, civil aviation, education, sustainable development, health tourism, and humanitarian assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We support African solutions to African problems. We have a very strong partnership with Cameroon.

“We are privileged to have high political will of two heads of state, fully implementing good relations of two countries which had tremendous effects on quality of our relations,” the Turkish ambassador said.

She said Turkey will remain committed to furthering bilateral cooperation through its embassy, as well as strong institutions and investors.

Sarac also noted that Turkey and Cameroon showed great solidarity during the pandemic, particularly in the evacuation flights of citizens of both countries.

Anadolu Agency

US: Biden lifts Trump freeze on many green card applicants

25, February 2021

US: Biden lifts Trump freeze on many green card applicants 0

President Joe Biden on Wednesday lifted a freeze on green cards issued by his predecessor during the pandemic that lawyers said was blocking most legal immigration to the United States.

Former President Donald Trump last spring halted the issuance of green cards until the end of 2020 in the name of protecting the coronavirus-wracked job market — a reason that Trump gave to achieve many of the cuts to legal immigration that had eluded him before the pandemic.

Trump on Dec. 31 extended those orders until the end of March.

Trump had deemed immigrants a “risk to the U.S. labor market” and blocked their entry to the United States in issuing Proclamation 10014 and Proclamation 10052.

Biden stated in his proclamation Wednesday that shutting the door on legal immigrants “does not advance the interests of the United States.”

“To the contrary, it harms the United States, including by preventing certain family members of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents from joining their families here. It also harms industries in the United States that utilize talent from around the world,” Biden stated in his proclamation.

Most immigrant visas were blocked by the orders, according to immigration lawyers.

As many as 120,000 family-based preference visas were lost largely because of the pandemic-related freeze in the 2020 budget year, according to the American Immigrant Lawyers Association. Immigrants could not bring over family members unless they were U.S. citizens applying for visas for their spouses or children under the age of 21.

It also barred entry to immigrants with employment-based visas unless they were considered beneficial to the national interest such as health care professionals.

And it slammed the door on thousands of visa lottery winners who were randomly chosen from a pool of about 14 million applicants to be given green cards that would let them live permanently in the United States.

The blocked visas add to a growing backlog that has reached 437,000 for family-based visas alone, said California immigration lawyer Curtis Morrison, who represented thousands of people blocked by the freeze.

“I’m thrilled for my clients who are now in a position that they can now enter the U.S.,” he said. “But that backlog will take years if the administration does not take ambitious measures.”

A federal judge last year issued a ruling that all but lifted Proclamation 10052 by allowing temporary foreign workers to enter the United States if their employers are members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce or several other large organizations that represent much of the U.S. economy.

But Proclamation 10014 continued to block thousands of immigrants.

Immigration lawyers said they were surprised Biden did not immediately lift the freeze like he did with Trump’s travel ban imposed against people from mostly Muslim-majority countries. As a result, some immigrants blocked by the travel ban found they still could not come to the United States because of the freeze.

Biden’s actions come only days after thousands of visa lottery winners at risk of having their visas expire won a court order that put their visas on hold by the judge in the case. Now they will be allowed to use their visas to enter the country.

The United States makes available up to 55,000 visas a year for immigrants whose nationalities are underrepresented in the U.S. population. The visas must be used within six months of being obtained.

Meanwhile, Biden has proposed legislation that would limit presidential authority to issue future bans against immigrants.

The president has not said whether there will be any redress for visa lottery winners who lost out because of the pandemic-era policies. But he is calling for the U.S. to increase the number of diversity visas available via the lottery each year from 55,000 to 80,000.

Source: AP

French Cameroun MPs Letter: Biya 1-Biden 0

25, February 2021

French Cameroun MPs Letter: Biya 1-Biden 0 0

On Wednesday, February 24, 2021, 63 members of La Republique du Cameroun’s National Assembly reportedly described senior US Congress men and women as “a few misguided representatives of the US Congress.”

The so-called Francophone lawmakers were responding to a February 17, 2021 letter from over 40 Democratic members of the US Congress to President Joe Biden and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking them to “grant temporary protected status to British Southern Cameroonians living in the U.S. by placing an 18-month break in proceedings on their deportations”.

Temporary protected status is given to people already in the United States from countries devastated by conflict or natural disasters with La Republique du Cameroun being no exception.

The 63 French Cameroun MPs who were all handpicked by the ruling CPDM crime syndicate and granted parliamentary portfolios in Yaoundé did maintain a kind of silence of the lamb last year when the Trump administration cut off Cameroon from a trade pact over allegations of human rights violations.

President Donald Trump said the regime in Yaoundé failed to address concerns over its “persistent gross violations of internationally recognized human rights” allegedly committed by security forces.

The US also cut more than $17 million in security aid and support to Cameroon in February 2020 over concerns about its human rights record.

AGOA helps sub-Saharan countries improve trade ties with the US. Eligible countries must meet criteria including a good human rights record to benefit from the trade.

The CPDM gang of 63 pointed out that, “The Cameroon they describe and allude to in their correspondence does not exist and we believe it is a figment of the misinformed views of certain individuals who are determined to cause further destabilization in the whole Central African Region.”

“As legislators, we welcome genuine expression of concern and support for the well-being of the vast majority of Cameroonians. We urge the United States Congressmen to be more vigorously engaged in ensuring the respect of international conventions against transnational crime and criminality to which the United States is a signatory and to ensure that their country is not a refuge for criminal perpetrators and financiers of acts of extreme violence and terrorism on the people of Cameroon,” the Francophone MPs furthered.

The President Biya praise singers also noted that they were “appalled by the falsehood, distorted opinion, and the extremely negative characterization” of Cameroon by the members of the US Congress.

“As legislators in Cameroon, we seek not to interfere in the decision-making processes of the Immigration Enforcement System of the United States government in dealing with its challenges, but we reject the views perpetrated by these Congressmen on the prevailing situation in Cameroon,” they said. “We consider these remarks on Cameroon as most unfriendly, derogatory, and smacks of an attempt to tarnish our image, respectability in seeking to mislead public opinion, create confusion to justify the securing of TPS and DED status from some groups defending the rights of immigrants in the USA.”

Reacting to the French Cameroun recent maneuvers’ in the US, the Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dabney Yerima observed that “The US government remains deeply concerned about persistent gross violations of human rights being committed by the Cameroonian government against the people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.”

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Biya poised to buy Chadian oil pipeline stake

25, February 2021

Biya poised to buy Chadian oil pipeline stake 0

The Chadian government, which is mired in debt and badly affected by the Covid-19 crisis, wants to speed up the sale of part of its shares in the COTCO oil pipeline to Cameroonian state-owned oil company SNH and President Biya and his ruling CPDM crime syndicate are poised to buy the Chadian oil pipeline stake as Idris Deby battles with economic crisis.

Source: Africa Intelligence

Football: Mendy’s late strike puts Real Madrid in sight of Champions League quarters

25, February 2021

Football: Mendy’s late strike puts Real Madrid in sight of Champions League quarters 0

Ferland Mendy scored late as Real Madrid beat 10-man Atalanta 1-0 on Wednesday to close in on the Champions League quarter-finals.

The French left-back’s strike in Bergamo came four minutes from time in a last 16 first leg game which the hosts played a man down for over 70 minutes as Zinedine Zidane’s side hold the advantage heading into the second leg in Madrid on March 16.

Atalanta had attacked early but the game was transformed when Swiss midfielder Remo Freuler was harshly send off on 17 minutes for tripping Mendy at the edge of the penalty area.

Gian Piero Gasperini’s woes continued with forward Duvan Zapata limping off after half an hour with a muscular problem with midfielder Mario Pasalic coming off the bench.

Spanish midfielder Isco got a rare start up front for injury-hit Real Madrid playing alongside Marco Asensio and Vinicius.

The 13-time European champions were without striker Karim Benzema due to an ankle problem with an injury list also including Sergio Ramos, Eden Hazard and Dani Carvajal.

But Zidane’s side failed to make the most of the extra man despite coming closest to breaking through in the first half with a Casemiro header, with Nacho, Isco and Vinícius Junior also threatening and Luka Modric sending over the goal.

Zapata and in-form Luis Muriel lead the Atalanta attack in their first meeting with Real Madrid.

Atalanta continued to attack, with Muriel missing a chance to give the hosts the advantage four minutes before the break with a long-range strike that went just wide.

Atalanta goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini kept the hosts in the game keeping out a Casemiro header on a free kick before the half-time whistle.

Modric sent wide of the post after the break and sent through for Vinícius but was headed away from the Brazilian.

Josip Illicic came on in place of Muriel after 56 minutes.

The Slovenian scored five goals against Valencia at this stage of the competition last season, but was substituted off four minutes from time after a poor display.

Soon afterwards Madrid broke through thanks to Mendy, who beat Gollini with a stunning curling effort into the top corner.

Real have the advantage going into the second leg having missed out on the quarter-finals for the last two seasons.

Atalanta need a historic effort in the away leg to reach the last eight for a second successive year.

The Bergamo side won their last 16, first leg clash against Valencia 4-1 a year ago on front of 45,000 spectators in Milan’s San Siro.

That match was considered to have been one of the reasons behind the acceleration of the virus in Italy with Bergamo at the epicentre of the country’s outbreak.

The were playing their second Champions League campaign, but the first knock-out match in their home stadium which underwent renovations last season when they reached the last eight.

And thousands of fans ignored the Italian team’s plea to stay away with a party atmosphere outside the stadium with a fireworks display.

Source:  AFP

Bangui: Pro-government forces capture ex-president’s stronghold

24, February 2021

Bangui: Pro-government forces capture ex-president’s stronghold 0

Pro-government forces in the Central African Republic (CAR) on Wednesday seized a stronghold of former president Francois Bozize, who was accused in December of plotting a coup, Prime Minister Firmin Ngrebada said.

“I hail the capture of the town of Bossangoa by our forces and allies today,” he said on Facebook, referring to a key pro-Bozize town 280 kilometres (175 miles) north of the capital Bangui.

“Allies” is a term used by CAR’s government for Russian paramilitaries and Rwandan troops who are supporting the beleaguered authorities against rebel groups.

“Never again will bandits disturb people in this part of the country,” Ngrebada vowed.

A senior government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said “fighting is still ongoing” but “resistance has been broken, the enemy is fleeing.”

In mid-December, six rebel groups united to launch an offensive against President Faustin Archange Touadera, just over a week before presidential and legislative elections.

The government said the rebels had acted in concert with Bozize, who seized power in 2003 and was ousted a decade later—an act that sparked a civil war along sectarian lines.

Russia and Rwanda flew in military personnel to shore up the CAR’s poorly- equipped armed forces, which are also backed by a 12,000 UN force, MINUSCA.

The rebels attacked a string of towns in January and twice came close to the capital, but the government and its allies went on the counter-offensive.

A string of towns—Boda, Boali, Bossembele, Bossemptele, Yaloke and Beloko—have been recaptured and on February 16, Bangui’s road lifeline to neighbouring Cameroon was reopened.

The following day, the government said it had “completely liberated” Bambari, CAR’s fifth biggest town, located in the centre of the country, and captured “numerous prisoners.”

Shadow of Bozize

Bozize fled abroad after being toppled in 2013.

He returned in late 2019, stoking fears that the troubled nation would be plunged once more into a full-fledged conflict as elections loomed on the horizon.

Violence remains endemic in a country where two-thirds of the territory is controlled by militia groups.

Touadera won re-election in the first round of the polls, according to official figures, but the turnout was just 35 percent as many voters were unable to cast their ballot.

Bozize denies giving any support to the six rebel groups, who teamed up in December under the name of the Coalition of Patriots for Change, or CPC.

On January 4, the government launched an inquiry into him for “rebellion.”

Thousands of people have died in the CAR since 2013 and more than a quarter of the population of 4.9 million have fled their homes.

Of these, 675,000 are refugees in neighbouring countries.

Source: AFP

EU ‘yellow cards’ Biya regime over lack of action on illegal fishing

24, February 2021

EU ‘yellow cards’ Biya regime over lack of action on illegal fishing 0

Cameroon could lose its access to the lucrative European Union seafood market due to the government’s failure to tackle illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

The European Commission has put Cameroon on notice by issuing the country a “yellow card,” which is a formal warning that could lead to a total ban on seafood exports from the country to the E.U.

Cameroon, the commission said, has so far failed to abide by agreed standards “under international law of the sea as flag, port, and market state.”

The commission identified a lack of a robust registration policy for fishing vessels to operate under its flag, and insufficient attempts to ensure efficient and adequate control over fishing activities carried out by vessels flying the country’s flag, key constraints in Cameroon’s involvement in the fight against IUU.

According to the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), Cameroon is notorious in offering a “flag of convenience” to fishing vessels operating illegally with minimal monitoring and enforcement hence facilitating illicit marine seafood harvest “by making it hard to identify and take action against boat owners.”

“We very much welcome the European Commission’s decision to warn and initiate a formal dialogue with Cameroon,” EJF Executive Director Steve Trent said.

Trent said illegal operators using Cameroon’s flag of convenience abetted illicit fishing that “undermine any attempts to manage fisheries sustainably and push fish populations to collapse, threatening food security and livelihoods in many regions.”

He commended the European Commission’s use of the carding system, which he said is a “powerful tool against flags of convenience and has helped several countries such as Togo, reform dramatically.”

The preference of Cameroon as the source of the flag of convenience has been linked to laxity in government, with EJF’s previous findings showing at least a third of vessels, now sailing under the country’s flag, were adopted “only recently, in the last two to three years, despite having no obvious link with the country.”

The country’s fishing capacity is now nine times larger than it was before 2018, according to the EJF.

“Sustained commitment to progress is needed from all countries if we are to succeed in ending illegal fishing and once again the European Union is leading the world in this commitment,” Trent said.

Previously, FAO had observed emergence of a small industrial fleet “consisting primarily of shrimp trawlers, which are however often operated in joint venture with distant fishing nations.”

Despite nearly 50 trawlers greater than 24 meters having been reported way back in 2009, FAO says there are no reliable recent figures reported.

By 2015, a total fleet of 12,700 vessels was reported with 4,000 unpowered and 7,200 powered vessels, all under 12 meters, according to the FAO. An estimated 239,000 metric tons (MT) of fish was caught at the time, with 75,000 MT from inland waters and 164,000 MT from marine waters. More than 65 percent of the total catch is small pelagics.  

Source: Seafoodsource.com

8 killed, 25 injured in French Cameroun bus crash

24, February 2021

8 killed, 25 injured in French Cameroun bus crash 0

At least eight people were killed and at least 25 others were injured when a bus collided head-on with another vehicle on a highway in Cameroon’s West region early Monday, police said.

Several passengers were ejected in the accident that happened in Fossang locality of the region along the Koutaba-Yaounde highway.

More than 25 people were taken to hospitals after sustaining serious injuries, according to local police.

Road accidents are common in Cameroon often caused by reckless driving, poor state of vehicles and roads as well as overloading.

In January, at least 53 people were killed and 21 others seriously injured in an accident in the western village of Santchou.

Source: Xinhaunet

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