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Southern Cameroons Crisis: Top US Senator says accountability for tragedies is first good step

8, June 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Top US Senator says accountability for tragedies is first good step 0

U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, applauded Secretary Blinken’s announcement today that the United States will impose visa restrictions on individuals who are believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the peaceful resolution of the crisis in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon.

“For nearly four years, the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon have experienced one of most neglected human tragedies on the African continent. Countless atrocities and grave human suffering continue without much notice or intervention from the rest of the world,” said Ranking Member Risch. “I’m glad the United States is taking more definitive action against those undermining a peaceful resolution to the armed conflict in Anglophone Cameroon, and is acting on the Senate’s call for targeted sanctions in a bipartisan resolution that I introduced. Today’s action is a good first step to increasing accountability for those undermining peace in Cameroon.”

On January 1, 2021, the Senate agreed, by unanimous consent, to a bipartisan resolution introduced by Ranking Member Risch regarding the Anglophone crisis (S.Res.684). A key provision in the resolution urged the United States government to consider imposing targeted sanctions on individual government and separatist leaders responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights.

Southern Cameroons Crisis: US Secretary of State announces visa restrictions on those undermining the peaceful resolution of the conflict

8, June 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: US Secretary of State announces visa restrictions on those undermining the peaceful resolution of the conflict 0

The United States is deeply concerned by the continued violence in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon.  We continue to call for both the Cameroonian government and separatist armed groups to end the violence and engage in a dialogue without preconditions to peacefully resolve the crisis.  It is important that children can attend school and that humanitarian aid can be delivered.  We urge all relevant stakeholders in Cameroon and in the diaspora to engage constructively and seek a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

We condemn those who undermine peace through engaging in or inciting violence, human rights violations and abuses, and threats against advocates for peace or humanitarian workers.

I am establishing a policy imposing visa restrictions on individuals who are believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining the peaceful resolution of the crisis in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon. This decision reflects our commitment to advance a dialogue to peacefully resolve the Anglophone crisis and support respect for human rights.  The United States strongly supports the Cameroonian people, and we remain committed to working together to advance democracy and mutual prosperity for both our countries.

T.B Joshua attempted to join Nigerian Army

7, June 2021

T.B Joshua attempted to join Nigerian Army 0

Temitope Balogun Joshua popularly referred to as T. B. Joshua died on Saturday at the age of 57.

He died just seven days to his birthday.

Here are quick facts about the leader and founder of The Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN).

1. Joshua was born on 12 June 1963 after he spent 15 months in his mother’s womb and narrowly avoided death after a quarry explosion near his house sent rocks through its roof just seven days after his birth.

2. T.B Joshua was formerly called Balogun Francis.

3. He attended St. Stephen’s Anglican Primary School in Arigidi Akoko, Nigeria, between 1971 and 1977, but failed to complete one year of secondary school education.

4. He worked in various casual jobs after his schooling had ended, including carrying chicken waste at a poultry farm.

5. Joshua attempted to join the Nigerian military but was thwarted due to a train breakdown that left him stranded en route to the military academy.

6. He started his church in 1987.

7. According to The Guardian UK, his church attracts more weekly attendees than the combined number of visitors to Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London.

8. Joshua is “YouTube’s most popular Pastor with over 1,000,000 subscribers.

9. In 2008, he received the Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) by the Nigerian government.

10. He was also voted the Yoruba man of the decade by Pan-Yoruba media outlet Irohin-Odua in 2008.

11. He was called one of Africa’s 50 most influential people by Pan-African magazines The Africa Report and New African Magazine.

12. As of 2011, according to Forbes, Joshua was Nigeria’s third-richest pastor, although the claim was immediately denied in a statement by the church.

13. He was known to be controversial, and was even ‘blacklisted’ by the government of Cameroon in 2010.

Source: PMNews Nigeria

Africa Cup of Nations draw in Cameroon delayed by Covid-19

7, June 2021

Africa Cup of Nations draw in Cameroon delayed by Covid-19 0

The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations draw, scheduled for Yaounde on June 25, has been postponed due to Covid-19, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) confirmed on Monday.

A CAF official said the delay of the ceremony to an undecided date was due to “logistical reasons related to Covid-19”.

The seeded draw will create six groups of four teams with the winners and runners-up in each plus the four best third-place sides advancing to the knockout second round.

Among the 23 countries who have qualified are defending champions Algeria, hosts Cameroon and record seven-time title-holders Egypt.

Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Tunisia and Zimbabwe have also secured places.

The last place will be filled by Sierra Leone or Benin, who meet between June 12-14 after a dispute over coronavirus tests prevented the qualifier taking place last March.

Benin refused to play in Freetown because five of their stars were barred having tested positive for Covid-19 in tests conducted by Sierra Leone medical officials.

All five tested negative for the illness before travelling to Freetown and when they returned to their clubs in Europe.

The Cup of Nations was originally set for January and February this year only to be postponed because of the pandemic.

Source: AFP

Leader of Boko Haram is dead, says rival militant Islamist group

7, June 2021

Leader of Boko Haram is dead, says rival militant Islamist group 0

The Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) militant group said in an audio recording heard by Reuters on Sunday that Abubakar Shekau, leader of rival Nigerian militant Islamist group Boko Haram, was dead.

Shekau died around May 18 after detonating an explosive device when he was pursued by ISWAP fighters following a battle, a person purporting to be ISWAP leader Abu Musab al-Barnawi said on the audio recording.

“Abubakar Shekau, God has judged him by sending him to heaven,” he can be heard saying.

Two people familiar with al-Barnawi told Reuters the voice on the recording was that of the ISWAP leader.

A Nigerian intelligence report shared by a government official and Boko Haram researchers have also said Shekau is dead.

Last month, Nigeria’s military said it was investigating Shekau’s alleged death, also reported in Nigerian and foreign news outlets. The audio statement, first obtained by local media, is ISWAP’s first confirmation that its arch rival in the Lake Chad region has been killed.

Islamic State “are consolidating the whole area, the Lake Chad region and (Shekau’s stronghold),” said Bulama Bukarti, an analyst specialising in Boko Haram at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.

“ISWAP had framed Shekau as the problem and he was the only person they wanted to remove,” Bukarti said of Islamic State’s attempt to lure Boko Haram commanders and fighters to their side.

Shekau’s death could lead to the end of a violent rivalry between the two groups, enabling Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) to absorb Boko Haram fighters and consolidate its hold on territory in northeastern Nigeria, political analysts said.

That would allow ISWAP to focus its attention on the government and military, whose war efforts are languishing.

Shekau ‘killed himself instantly’

Boko Haram’s leader was reported to have been killed on several occasions over the last 12 years, including in announcements by the military, only to later appear in a video post.

In the audio recording, the man identified as al-Barnawi said his fighters had sought out the warlord on the orders of the Islamic State leadership, and battled Boko Haram insurgents until Shekau fled.

ISWAP chased him down and offered him the chance to repent and join them, he said.

“Shekau preferred to be humiliated in the afterlife than getting humiliated on earth, and he killed himself instantly by detonating an explosive,” he said.

Boko Haram grabbed headlines worldwide with its 2014 kidnapping of more than 270 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok, sparking a global campaign for their return dubbed #BringBackOurGirls, backed by the likes of Michelle Obama.

Around 100 of the Chibok Girls are still missing, and some are thought to have died in captivity.

Shekau led the transformation of Boko Haram from an underground Islamic sect in 2009 to a full-fledged insurgency, killing, kidnapping and looting its way across northeast Nigeria.

The group has killed more than 30,000 people, forced around 2 million people to flee their homes and spawned one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

ISWAP was previously part of Boko Haram before its split five years ago, pledging allegiance to Islamic State. The schism was caused by religious ideological disagreements over the killing of civilians by Boko Haram, to which ISWAP objected.

(REUTERS)

Biya regime battles vaccine hesitancy as only 11% of jabs used

6, June 2021

Biya regime battles vaccine hesitancy as only 11% of jabs used 0

Authorities in Cameroon are battling vaccine hesitancy with only eleven percent of doses received since April dispensed most of them due to travel requirements. Cameroon’s government and clergy have been struggling to get the public to accept that the vaccines are safe.

A group of 70 Cameroonian Muslims gathered at the Djoungolo government hospital in Yaoundé Friday to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Coordinator of the Council of Imams and Muslim Dignitaries of Cameroon, Moussa Oumarou says vaccine hesitancy meant he had to convince the group.

He says Cameroon’s government asked the clergy to convince their followers that the vaccines could save their lives.

Oumarou says every religion that puts God first seeks to protect human lives. He says it is both a divine and civic obligation to protect lives by accepting to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Oumarou says the council has asked all Imams and Muslim dignitaries in Cameroon to accept to be vaccinated and to encourage all their faithful to be vaccinated.

Cameroon health officials say only 75,000 people have been inoculated since April, when the government received 700,000 doses.

And most of the doses administered, say officials, went to people who were planning to travel outside of Cameroon, including expatriates.

37-year-old college teacher in Yaoundé Rigobert Fonbanla says many Cameroonians don’t trust authorities’ urging the jab after a COVID funds scandal and seizure of fakes.  

“The same government that is asking people to accept to be vaccinated against COVID-19 is the same government that is investigating the authenticity and origin of the coronavirus vaccines,” said Fonbanla. “There is a possibility that corrupt government officials may have imported fake COVID-19 vaccines or produced dubious COVID-19 vaccines. I will wait for investigations announced by the government to be complete before I can decide whether I will be vaccinated or not.”

Most of a $335 million International Monetary Fund loan to Cameroon to fight COVID disappeared.

Last week at least 15 ministers were called up at the supreme state audit office to justify their management of the funds.

In December, Cameroon announced that its military seized several tons of fake COVID drugs and vaccines from neighboring Nigeria, raising fears that other fakes might be in circulation.

Cameroon’s Health Minister Manaouda Malachie says the COVID vaccines being used are good quality and recommended by the World Health Organization.

He says the vaccines are not obligatory but will be administered freely to all civilians who want to save their lives from the deadly coronavirus. Malachie says Cameroon’s President Paul Biya is very keen to have transparency on all COVID-19 vaccination procedures. He says the state of Cameroon cannot joke with the lives of its citizens.

To encourage Cameroonians to get the jab, hospitals in the northwest region in April said they would wave a usual $2 consultation fee.

In May, Cameroon’s government instructed all its ministers and senior officials to be vaccinated in public.

Source: VOA

Burkina Faso: More than 130 killed in deadliest attack

6, June 2021

Burkina Faso: More than 130 killed in deadliest attack 0

Suspected jihadists have massacred at least 138 civilians in Burkina Faso’s volatile north, in the deadliest attacks since Islamist violence erupted in the west African country in 2015, officials said Saturday.

President Roch Marc Christian Kabore denounced an attack near the borders with Mali and Niger, where jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State have been targeting civilians and soldiers.

“Several injured have succumbed to their wounds and new bodies have been discovered. The still provisional toll is 138 deaths,” one local official said Saturday evening.

“The bodies were buried in mass graves,” the official said, adding that “there are dozens of injured” after the overnight attack by armed assailants.

“We must remain united and solid against these obscurantist forces,” Kabore said, condemning the massacre in the village of Solhan as “barbaric” and “despicable.”

Declaring three days of national mourning, ending Monday night at 11:59 pm, the government stated that “terrorists,” a term for jihadists, killed civilians of all ages and set fire to homes and the main market.

A security source lamented “the heavy human toll, the worst recorded to date,” while warning it could still increase.

The assailants struck around 2:00 am (0200 GMT) against a position of the Volunteers for the Defence of the Motherland (VDP), an anti-jihadist civilian defence force which backs the national army, before attacking homes and carrying out “executions,” a local source said.

Opposition leader Eddie Komboigo demanded that “the massacre of our people, we never tire of repeating, must stop unconditionally. Every measure must be taken to protect the Burkinabe” people.

The VDP was set up in December 2019 to help Burkina’s poorly-equipped military fight jihadists but it has suffered more than 200 fatalities, according to an AFP tally.

The volunteers are given two weeks’ military training before working alongside the security forces, typically carrying out surveillance, information-gathering or escort duties.

‘Neutralise these terrorists’

The government said that “the defence and security forces are at work to neutralise these terrorists and restore calm to populated areas.”

A security forces official said that men were deployed to secure populated areas and to remove and bury bodies.

Solhan, a small community around 15 kilometres from Sebba, the main city in Yagha province, has suffered numerous attacks in recent years.

On May 14, Defence Minister Cheriff Sy and military top brass visited Sebba to assure people that life had returned to normal, following a number of military operations.

The massive attack by suspected jihadists came hours after another attack Friday evening on Tadaryat village in the same region in which 14 people were killed, including an armed volunteer who had come to help them.

Since 2015 Burkina Faso has struggled to fight back against increasingly frequent and deadly jihadist attacks from groups including the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS).

The attacks first started in the north near the Mali border, but have since spread to other regions, particularly in the east.

Around 1,400 people have died and more than a million have fled their homes.

Source: AFP 

The Holy Father’s ‘pain’ over bodies found at Canadian indigenous school

6, June 2021

The Holy Father’s ‘pain’ over bodies found at Canadian indigenous school 0

Pope Francis expressed his “pain” Sunday over the discovery of the remains of 215 children in a mass grave at a former indigenous boarding school in Canada run by the Church.

But he did not go so far as to offer the apology that many people have been calling for over the unfolding scandal.

“I follow with pain the news coming from Canada about the shocking discovery of the remains of 215 children,” he said, following Sunday prayers at Saint Peter’s Square.

The discovery of the remains of the children last month sent shockwaves through Canadian society.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday called on the Catholic Church to take responsibility for its role in the deaths at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia.

He has already promised “concrete action” from the government and urged his fellow Catholics in Canada to make it clear to the Church that they expected its full cooperation too.

“Before we have to start taking the Catholic Church to court, I am very hopeful that religious leaders will understand that this is something they need to participate in,” he added.

In his speech Sunday, Pope Francis said: “I unite with the Canadian bishops and the entire Catholic Church in Canada in expressing my solidarity with the Canadian people traumatised by this shocking news.

“The sad discovery further increases awareness of the pain and suffering of the past,” he added.

– ‘Reconciliation and healing’ –

The pope called for Canada’s political and religious leaders to work together to “shed light on this sad matter” and begin the process of “reconciliation and healing”.

But in his comments Friday, Trudeau stressed: “We need to have truth before we can talk about justice, healing and reconciliation.”

UN rights experts on Friday urged both Ottawa and the Vatican to hold swift and thorough investigations into the affair.

On Wednesday, Vancouver Archbishop J Michael Miller offered an apology on behalf of the Church in a statement.

But there have been growing calls for an apology from the pope himself — including from some Canadian government ministers.

The Kamloops Indian Residential School was the largest of 139 boarding schools set up in the late 19th century to assimilate Canada’s indigenous peoples, with up to 500 students registered and attending at any one time.

Only 50 deaths were ever officially recorded at the institution, where a principal once pleaded for more funds to properly feed students.

It was operated by the Catholic church on behalf of the Canadian government from 1890 to 1969, before Ottawa took over its administration and closed it a decade later.

Source: AFP

Nigeria’s TB Joshua dies of Covid-19

6, June 2021

Nigeria’s TB Joshua dies of Covid-19 0

The Founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Temitope Joshua, better known as Prophet TB Joshua, died on the way to the hospital, SaharaReporters has gathered.

“He conducted a service yesterday evening. He had been sick for two days. He decided to go to the hospital after the evening programme. He died on the way to the hospital,” a source told Saharareporters.

The church and his family have not officially announced his death. He was 57. Joshua was born on June 12, 1963, in Arigidi,  Akoko axis of Ondo State. Plans were underway for his 58th birthday, which is six days away. 

News of his demise became a trend on social media in the early hours of Sunday as many Nigerians took turns to mourn the late prophet.

The cause of his death was not immediately disclosed, but sources told Saharareporters he fell ill two days ago. His body is believed to have been deposited at General Hospital in Isolo, Lagos.

TB Joshua’s megachurch runs the popular Emmanuel TV television station from Lagos, followed by many Christians worldwide.

Joshua is famous across Africa, Europe and America. His YouTube channel, Emmanuel TV, had over 1,000,000 subscribers and was the world’s most viewed Christian ministry on the platform before it was suspended.

A rights group had filed a complaint after reviewing videos showing the preacher conducting prayers to “cure” gay people.

He is well known for his controversial prophecies such as the Ghana terror attack, US presidential election, coronavirus and his influence in African politics. He recently predicted Nigeria would remain one despite instability in different parts of the country.

He recently wrote on his Facebook page about plans to celebrate his 58th birthday.

He said, “As things stand, you may have realised it will not be easy for me to celebrate my birthday under the present circumstances. Some of the people who want to come are troubled by the situation all over the world. We see their fear and their worry. I feel their pain; I feel their worry.

“Therefore, let us dedicate this day to prayer and fasting. Don’t forget the needy. By the grace of God, more birthdays are ahead. God bless you! Emmanuel. Jesus is Lord! Happy Birthday.” 

Source: Sahara Reporters

National Communication Council: Goodbye Peter Essoka, Welcome Joe Chebonkeng Kalabubse

5, June 2021

National Communication Council: Goodbye Peter Essoka, Welcome Joe Chebonkeng Kalabubse 0

The so-called National Communication Council has a new president. He is Joseph Chebonkeng Kalabubse, a former journalist with Cameroon Radio and Television who retired several times from the public service.

Joe Chebonkeng replaces Peter Essoka, who headed the media regulatory body since 2015, following the death in 2014 of Bishop Joseph Befe Ateba, first president of the CNC.

The 88-year-old President Biya recently made a clean sweep of the board and only two of the nine members were retained after a Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh teleguided Biya decree.

The ruling CPDM party retained Vice President Joseph Janvier Mvoto Obounou, Guibai Gatama and fired Alfaki Abdourahman, Charly Ndi Chia, Jean Claude Ottou, Christophe Bobiokono, Suzanne Kala Lobe, Nadine Machikou Ngameni.

An unknown media figure Serge Ngando Ntonè is now in the new NCC board.

By Rita Akana

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