Headline News

25, September 2017

Ecobank Xpress Cash: How an ambitious innovation wants to revolutionise banking in Cameroon ⁰

“Ecobank Xpress Cash” is the new money withdrawal option put in place by Ecobank. With this operation, customers of the Pan-African bank can now make withdrawals without a card. According to Ecobank, the option is a question of boosting through digital channels financial inclusion, currently estimated in the country to 20%, out of a population of more than 20 million people.

“The digital strategy in question directly favors one of the main factors of development of our economies, namely the financial and economic inclusion of the populations. Ecobank will thus be able to reach and serve more customers in Cameroon, including those who are unbanked, “the bank said.

It is vital to include in this report that in May 2017 Ecobank indicated its intention to capitalize on digital services. The bank launched “Ecobank Mobile App”, that helped individuals and companies to use bar codes for payments and banking partnership with third parties. With “Ecobank Xpress Cash”, the Pan-African bank is the only one among the fifteen commercial banks to offer this type of service in Cameroon.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from CIN

25, September 2017

Russian general killed in Syria ⁰

A Russian general has been killed by Daesh terrorists close to Syria’s eastern Dayr al-Zawr province.

According to a statement released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Sunday, Lieutenant-General Valery Asapov was killed after coming under Daesh mortar fire.

The statement added that Asapov, a senior military advisor in the country, was stationed at a Syrian command outpost aiding in the liberation of Dayr al-Zawr when he was killed.

“As a result of a sudden mortar shelling by Daesh militants, Lieutenant-General Valery Asapov was fatally wounded by an exploding shell,” read the statement.

In early September, the ministry announced the death of two more Russian servicemen in Daesh shelling in Syria. Together with Asapov, that brings the overall death toll of Russian troops in Syria to 37.

Last week, Moscow announced that the Syrian military had liberated more than 85 percent of the strategic eastern city of Dayr al-Zawr from Daesh terrorists.

The Syrian army’s liberation operation in Dayr al-Zawr is facing strong resistance and massive fire from areas where militant groups and US-backed forces are stationed.

Daesh overran large parts of Dayr al-Zawr province, including its oilfields, in mid-2014 as it seized swathes of land in Syria and neighboring Iraq.

By early 2015, the Takfiri terrorists were in control of some parts of Dayr al-Zawr and besieged the remaining parts, which were under government control.

The blockade was lifted in early September by Syrian government forces, which brought relief to tens of thousands of people trapped in the city. It is estimated that 100,000 people remain in the government-held parts of the city.

Source: Presstv

24, September 2017

Germany: Merkel wins 4th term in office ⁰

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has clinched a fourth term in office through general elections, while the hard-right AfD party has also won its first seats in parliament.

According to latest results from Sunday general elections, Merkel has won around 33 percent of the vote with her conservative Christian Union (CDU/CSU) bloc, AFP reported.

Merkel was followed by the Social Democrats and their candidate, Martin Schulz, who ended second by scoring about 20-21 percent of the vote. Schulz announced after elections that his party will serve as the opposition following Sunday’s general elections.

Exit polls also showed that in a surprising turn of events the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) has captured around 13 percent of the vote, which made it the country’s third biggest political party and enabled it to enter Germany’s parliament for the first time.

Martin Schulz, the leader of Germany’s Social Democratic (SPD) Party and candidate for chancellor, gives a speech during an electoral meeting on the eve of general elections, in Aachen, western Germany, on September 23, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

A recent poll, conducted by the INSA institute for the local Bild daily, showed sliding support for CDU by two percentage points to 34 percent, and the SPD, down by one point to 21 percent. The hard-right AfD rose by two percentage points to 13 percent.

The 63-year-old Merkel saw a decline in her approval ratings over the past two years, mainly due to a decision at the beginning of 2015 to allow hundreds of thousands of refugees into Germany. However, her success in controlling the refugee inflow and her message that the German economy needs to be rendered fit for the future by investing in digital technologies seem to have won hearts in the run-up to the parliamentary elections.

The AfD, a nationalist, anti-Islam party, has hugely capitalized on Merkel’s fall in several states.

24, September 2017

Explosion in Mali kills 3 UN soldiers from Bangladesh ⁰

Three United Nations soldiers from Bangladesh were killed by an explosive device that detonated as they were escorting a convoy in northern Mali on Sunday, the West African country’s peacekeeping mission and Bangladesh’s military said.

Attacks on peacekeepers in Mali, where extremist groups continue to operate in the vast desert in the north of the country, have made the UN mission there, MINUSMA, the organization’s deadliest.

Another five UN troops were seriously wounded in Sunday’s explosion, which occurred at around 7 a.m. (0700 GMT) on the main road between the towns of Anefis and Gao, MINUSMA said in a statement.

“Our thoughts go firstly to the families and loved ones. We pledge our complete support to them during this painful ordeal,” the head of MINUSMA, Koen Davidse, said. “The mission will use all means to ensure that justice is rendered.”

The UN did not immediately release the nationalities of the soldiers. But the Bangladesh military’s media department confirmed that three of its soldiers had died by an improvised explosive device during an encounter with militants, adding that four other Bangladeshi peacekeepers were injured in the attack.

West Africa’s arid Sahel region has in recent years become a breeding ground for militant groups — some linked to al-Qaeda and Daesh — that European countries, particularly France, fear could threaten Europe if left unchecked.

Militants of the CMFPR2 (La Coordination des mouvements et Front patriotique de resistance) take position to prevent the interim authorities to convene at the Regional Assembly in Gao on February 28, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Despite a 2013 French-led military operation that drove back militants who had seized control of Mali’s north, the area remains home to groups that have staged assaults on high-profile targets in the capital Bamako, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast.

MINUSMA, established in the wake of the French intervention, has struggled to quell the unrest.

The UN Security Council established a sanctions regime this month that allows the body to blacklist anyone who violates or obstructs a fragile 2015 peace deal signed by Mali’s government and separatist groups.

Anyone who attacks peacekeepers, hinders the delivery of aid, commits human rights abuses or recruits child soldiers could also face sanctions, including a global travel ban or asset freeze.

(Source: Reuters)

24, September 2017

Germany: General elections begin, Merkel’s party poised to win ⁰

People in Germany have started heading to the polls in national elections that are likely to see Angela Merkel winning a fourth term as chancellor and a right-wing party entering parliament for the first time in 60 years.

Polling stations opened across the European country at 08:00 local time (06:00 GMT) on Sunday and will be open until 18:00, with some 61.5 million people eligible to vote.

The German chancellor is seeking a fourth term and tries to retain her Christian Democratic (CDU) Party’s status as the largest group in the German national parliament, the Bundestag.

Merkel is pitted against Martin Schulz, who is the leader of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and a former president of the European Parliament.

Among other competing parties, the far-right and anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) appears set to win seats in the national parliament for the first time in 60 years and may even emerge as the country’s third-largest party.

The AfD, a nationalist, anti-Islam party, has hugely capitalized on Merkel’s fall in several states.

Source: Presstv

24, September 2017

“Southern Cameroons has become a place of slavery under the regime of Paul Biya” Mbah Ndam ⁰

Hon. Joseph Mbah Ndam of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) has said that President Biya and his gang of French Cameroun political elites have pushed Southern Cameroonians to the wall. The Deputy Speaker of the French Cameroun National Assembly, received at his residence on Friday some Southern Cameroons demonstrators and at the reception, the SDF MP appreciated the Southern Cameroons popular uprising.

Speaking in his native tongue and pidgin, Joseph Mbah Ndam told the demonstrators that September 22, 2017 is a date chosen by God himself for the liberation of Southern Cameroons. “Democracy and freedom do not happen, they are snatched up,” said the SDF leader to his many admirers.

“Southern Cameroons has become a place of slavery under the regime of Paul Biya,” he said, adding that “if Cameroon splits into two, Paul Biya is the only culprit.” The MP feels that the anglophone crisis is the result of frustration. “The anglophones were pushed back to the wall and here are the results,” says Mbah Ndam. The member of the SDF indicated that if there is another protest march, he will take part because the President has refused to dialogue with Southern Cameroonians.

Since the beginning of the Southern Cameroons crisis, Mbah Ndam has supported the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium and the Southern Cameroons Governing Council. He has always challenged the jurisdiction of the Yaounde Military Court to try those arrested in Southern Cameroons in the context of the Anglophone crisis.

By Rita Akana, CCN

23, September 2017

Mass Arrests Happening in Mamfe County ⁰

French Cameroun police have arrested dozens of people in the Mamfe County late today. The Chairman of the Southern Cameroons Governing Council has signed off on these arrests and he isn’t playing around. Rumors indicate that the Francophone governor of the Buea Province gave the Manyu SDO permission to rough up those who were protesting.

23, September 2017

Southern Cameroons crisis has turned violent with bombings ⁰

The long-simmering crisis in Southern Cameroons has taken a dangerous turn with small explosions targeting local security officials, even as ongoing protests become increasingly vociferous.

Renewed mass protests broke out early morning on Sept. 22, (Friday), in major towns and villages across the north west and south west. The aggrieved population took to the streets with placards, whistles and flags of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia; a country they clamor to create when they secede from the present day Republic of Cameroon.

Security forces responded with bullets and teargas, injuring some protesters in Santa and Ekona in the North West and South West Regions. However, by press time, the reprisals had not deterred protesters as they moved to public places, hoisting blue-white flags and seeking to meet with administrative and traditional authorities.

The protesters poured out on the streets hours to the time president Paul Biya was scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly. Other Anglophone protesters put up similar shows at the UN headquarters in New York. The civil disobedience call was made by the Ambazonia Governing Council and amplified by Anglophone activists in the diaspora, as a build up to Oct. 1, the day the pro-secessionist groups intend to restore their independence.

The crisis is escalating after president Biya granted amnesty to some Anglophones who were arrested and detained for months in connection to violence in the country’s English speaking regions. But many, including Mancho Bibixy still remain incarcerated. This provoked calls for the unconditional release of all detainees and further radicalsed agitators.

Fontem Aforteka'a Neba (3rd L) and Felix Agbor Balla (2nd R) two Anglophone activists leaders prepare to sign a document during their release at the prison of Yaounde, Cameroon — Cameroonian Anglophone activist leaders prepare to leave prison in Yaounde, on, Sept. 1.(Reuters/Stringer)

But, as predicted by the International Crisis Group in August, the crisis took a different twist in early September as arms became involved.

The latest of the bombings was on Wednesday morning Sept. 21, when an IED controlled from a mobile phone was activated at Hospital Roundabout in Bamenda. Three police officers were seriously injured. Another failed explosion was recorded at a petroleum depot in the major city of Douala. On Sept. 11, improvised explosive device targeting security agents on patrol was activated at Mobil Nkwen in the city of Bamenda. Five days later, another IED damaged a dormitory at Sacred Heart College Mankon, still in Bamenda, but no human loss was recorded.

Though it is yet to be established whether it is connected to the Anglophone crisis. The Ambazonia Defense Forces, the armed faction of a group of secessionist movements, has claimed responsibility for some of the attacks.

The latest incident has been described as “an act of terrorism” by a government spokesperson. Cameroon’s current difficulties stem back to its pre-independence history when it was formed by combining a region that was colonized by the British with the larger region run by the French. The country’s government, education, and legal systems are dominated by the larger French-speaking region. But in recent years tensions have mounted as people from the Anglophone regions have complained about being marginalized by the Francophone-led establishment. The Anglophone regions account for just under 20% of the Cameroon’s 23 million population.

Culled from Quartz Media

23, September 2017

Buea: Francophone Governor says Southern Cameroonians are dogs ⁰

The Francophone governor of the Buea Province has described Southern Cameroons protesters as “dogs”. Bernard Okalia Bilai made the declaration on the microphone of the Cameroon Radio and Television,CRTV-radio yesterday September the 22nd. The Biya appointee also accused Southern Cameroons peaceful demonstrators of having attacked La Republique’s forces of law and order.

In a report broadcast Friday, September 22, 2017 at 5 pm on the National Post of the CRTV, Bernard Okalia Bilai opined that “Very early in the morning there were groups of people walking on the streets, going to public buildings to attack them, the offices of DOs, SDOs, the gendarmerie and police stations all came under attack. They tore up the flags of the Republic to hoist pieces of cloth that they brandished as flags of what!! I do not know. The security forces intervened and suffered a lot of violence, a lot of attacks by these assailants. ”

The so-called governor of the South West region warned elites and community leaders. “We will not continue to tolerate huge protest. If the dogs continue to go to the streets to bite, that is destroy, they will meet the security forces.”

By Eyong Johnson, CCN

23, September 2017

Dramatic moment Mayor Ekema force back angry Southern Cameroons protesters ⁰

The residence of CPDM Mayor Ekema Patrick came under attack from angry Southern Cameroons protesters yesterday Friday the 22nd of September 2017. The Southern Cameroonians vandalised his convoy of cars including his beautiful villa and the mayor caught here on camera with a rifle, reportedly shot and killed one of the demonstrators.

There are conflicting reports on the incident with some claiming Mayor Ekema Patrick opened fire only after his home was attacked. The Francophone Senior Divisional Officer for the Manyu County and the DO of Buea also killed two Southern Cameroonians in Mamfe and Buea counties.

After he was recently exposed as an academic fraud by an investigative commission led by Barrister Tambe Tiku, the Buea County mayor’s wealth has also come under Southern Cameroons scrutiny. Many are now questioning the source of the money he used in constructing the many villas he now owns and the fleet of expensive cars parked in his home mindful of the fact that he earns a net salary of 150,000fcfa a month.