Headline News

18, July 2017

Bishop Jean Marie Benoit Bala: Going home to rest ⁰

The National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, NCPC confirmed in a press release made public on Monday the 17th of July 2017 that it has received the remains of the late Bishop of Bafia brutally murdered recently by forces closed to the Yaoundé regime.

His Lordship Bishop Jean Marie Benoît Bala, Bishop of Bafia was found dead on the 2nd of June, off the Sanaga River, precisely at Tsang, a village in the Monatelé constituency in the Center region. Cameroon Concord News can now reveal that the Bishop’s body has been handed over to the church after identification.

The process reportedly took place under the watchful eyes of Archbishop Jean Mbarga, Bishop of Yaoundé, Archbishop Samuel Kleda, president of the NCPC, and Abraham Kome, Bishop of Bafang who is the interim apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Bafia.

We understand the Roman Catholic Bishops are planning a funeral on the 2nd and 3rd of August 2017. The NCPC has also indicated that it intends to file a complaint against X, for assassination of Bishop Jean Benoit Bala.

Public opinion is completely divided in a crisis where the judge and jury are the same and at a time when Roman Catholic loyalty is no more on the teachings of Christ but on the doctrines of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
Cameroon Concord News

18, July 2017

“Mayor Ekema Patrick is building houses everywhere and changing employees” ⁰

Four employees of the Buea city council have been on strike since Monday morning demonstrating at the esplanade of the residence of the Francophone governor of the Southwest region.

They say the current Buea council leadership is owing them 24 months of wage arrears. The strikers who sought an audience with the CPDM boss of the Southwest region were unable to obtain it. Nevertheless, they are determined to carry on with their strike action.

“They want to see how far we can go but we are determined to go all the way, it’s our right, it’s our money, we do not know how we’re going to send our children to school. The Mayor is building houses everywhere, changing employees all the time,” said Hans Manga, one of the protesters contacted by Radio Equinoxe.

A staff delegate who spoke earlier on the same radio noted that the strikers did nothing to try to meet the mayor before embarking on their disengagement action.

By Sama Ernest
Cameroon Concord News

18, July 2017

Revealed: Cameroon military vessel sank with 37 people on board ⁰

An investigation is underway and a crisis committee has been set up after the sinking of a military vessel that left Douala on Sunday morning en route to the Bakassi peninsula. The nation’s military spokesman confirmed late yesterday that 34 soldiers were missing and that there were only three survivors. The boat was ferrying soldiers of the Rapid Intervention Battalion BIR, on a logistical mission transporting equipment destined for the military base in Bakassi.

According to a statement from the Cameroon army, the ship was an LCM, a ship designed to carry and disembark vehicles. It was commissioned in 2009 and was currently shuttling between Limbe and Bakassi on the border with Nigeria. It carried “supplies and equipment” for BIR’s civil-military activities in the peninsula. The Rapid Response Battalion is currently building infrastructure there and carries out development work.

The army says the sea was very rough on that fateful Sunday and the weather conditions abruptly deteriorated. And it was six in the morning when the “Mundemba” sank with 37 people on board. According to Colonel Didier Badjeck, bad weather was responsible for the accident. “This zone is a zone that is particularly dangerous and so the weather can change very, very brutally. Sure they were caught in a bad wave that had to overturn the boat. The operation station immediately lost the boat. There was no alert from the crew. It’s an accident that happened suddenly, “he says.

For the time being, rescue operations are continuing. The navy has deployed its diving teams, but the chances of finding survivors are dwindling hour by hour. A source inside the military hinted Cameroon Concord News that the army was now involved in a recovery operation.

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Concord News

18, July 2017

Biya meets African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina ⁰

Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) was received in audience by President Biya on Monday 17 July 2017 at the Unity Palace.

Both men reviewed the 45-year-old cooperation that exists between Cameroon and the AfDB. They also discussed key areas of investment such as energy, agro-industrialisation, and regional integration.

Speaking to reporters at the end of the audience, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina lauded the Commander-in-Chief of Cameroon’s Armed Forces for the support provided towards the preservation of peace and security in north-eastern Nigeria and the Central African Republic.

He also highlighted President Paul BIYA’s contribution in the stabilisation of macroeconomic issues within the CEMAC region, which prevented a devaluation of the CFA Franc.

“I encouraged the President to continue with the effort of microeconomic stabilisation and what the government is doing in terms of diversifying the economy,” Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said. He added that: “the AfDB strongly supports Cameroon. We wish the President and the Government all the best with the plan for accelerated development to a middle income country by 2035.”

President Paul BIYA exchanged gifts with the distinguished guest, whom he later decorated with a medal of Grand Officer of the Order of Valour. The AfDB has invested US$ 2.5 billion (approximately CFAF 1,436 billion) in Cameroon since 1972. The group currently supports 22 projects and there are plans to inject US$ 150 million for the realisation of the Natchtigal Dam.

Culled from the PRC

17, July 2017

Richard Bona angry at CPDM politicians using his image ⁰

Richard Bona, the famous Cameroonian singer and guitarist has accused the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime of misusing his image. After he was refused a visa to travel home for the funeral rites of his mother who passed away recently, Richard Bona opined that the use of his image in a commercial in Cameroon was a deliberate action orchestrated by President Biya and his gang.

Cameroon Concord News learnt that a strong reaction from the singer prompted the Yaoundé authorities to remove the image. Richard Bona who hails from Minta in the Central region of Cameroon was quoted as having written these lines to the CPDM government: “To Mr BIYA and his government, please immediately remove my image from your video. The law prohibits that! And it’s always you who start again. Encore and Encore.”

By Fru James
Camcordnew Desk

17, July 2017

Boko Haram bomber kills eight in fresh attack in Nigeria ⁰

A bomb attack has claimed the lives of at least eight people and wounded several others in Nigeria’s troubled northeast, officials say. The attack was carried out by a suspected female member of the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, local Nigerian officials said on Monday.

The head of the Borno state emergency management agency, Ahmed Satomi, said that the female bomber had detonated her explosives at a mosque in the London Ciki area of Maiduguri at about 5:30 a.m. local time (0430 GMT). “She killed eight people and injured 15 others. The mosque was being guarded by civilian JTF (joint task force) militia during prayers,” media outlets quoted Satomi as saying.

“Unknown to them, the girl was being pursued from another part of town by residents who were suspicious of her movement at the time,” he added, noting, “When she approached the mosque, they demanded that she stop to be searched but she suddenly bolted into the mosque and set off her bombs.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Satomi pointed out that three other female bombers were located in Maiduguri at about the same time. He went onto say that two were killed in Mammanti area as they tried to cross the ditch around the city perimeter. This is while another set off her explosives in the suburb of Simari.

It is the second time in a week that Boko Haram bombers have sought to cause carnage in Maiduguri. Last Monday, at least 19 people were killed and nearly two dozen others injured when four women set off their bombs in the Molai Kolemari area of the city. In recent weeks, a number of bomb attacks by suspected members of Boko Haram have taken place in the capital of Borno state and its environs. Militants have regularly targeted mosques, markets, camps for those displaced by the conflict and other civilians across the troubled region.

In December 2016, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power in 2015 with a pledge to eradicate Boko Haram, announced that the army had “crushed” the terror group by retaking its last key bastion, deep inside the thick Sambisa Forest in Borno. The group has, however, resorted to sporadic shooting and bombing attacks in the northeast of the African country, spreading panic among local residents.

Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly terror attacks in Nigeria since the beginning of its militancy in 2009, which has so far claimed the lives of at least 20,000 people and made more than 2.7 million displaced.

The United Nations has warned that areas affected by the Boko Haram militancy face a humanitarian crisis. Back in February 2016, four nations of the Lake Chad Basin — Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria –launched a campaign, together with a contingent from Benin, to confront the threat from Boko Haram in the region.

Source: Presstv

17, July 2017

New military oligarchs installed in Cameroon ⁰

The eleven senior officers appointed on the 29th of June 2017 by the 84 year old Cameroonian dictator, have been installed into their functions. The attributes they received came with new responsibilities and tougher assignments.

Performing the installation rituals, the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defense, Joseph Beti Assomo, noted that the appointments made by President Biya are a strategic solution to the security situation in the Far North, East and other parts of the country. They now bear the burden coordinating their respective units and working in synergy with other active forces to protect the territorial integrity of the state.

The defense boss further pointed out that Cameroon’s military today is undergoing a process of renewal of command and the injection of new blood into the system was necessary so that it meets the challenges imposed it by the constantly evolving world marked by the transposition of conflicts and new forms of threats.

The new generals are therefore expected to strategize on a new approach to conventional menaces and adapt their operational mechanisms to counter asymmetric threats imposed by extremist groups such as Boko Haram.

Source: CRTV

17, July 2017

Many feared dead after Cameroon military vessel capsizes in Debuncha ⁰

The regime in Yaoundé has confirmed that a logistics boat of the Rapid Intervention Battalion, BIR that left the Douala metropolis en route to Mudemba on Sunday the 16th of July 2017 disappeared with 30 soldiers on-board.

The CPDM government statement said, the ship was heading to the Bakassi peninsula and the crew was headed by Lieutenant Colonel Moussa. We understand the logistics boat of the Rapid Intervention Battalion sank to the bottom of the waters at Debuncha in the South West region.

President Biya has reportedly set up a commission of inquiry to investigate the circumstances surrounding the shipwreck en route to Bakassi. A crisis unit has been working since yesterday at the Ministry of Defense in Yaoundé and Limbé.

A statement by Joseph Beti Assomo, the minister delegate at the presidency in charge of defense, revealed that three soldiers were rescued after the boat capsized. The outcome of this sad incident is expected soon from the commission of inquiry chaired by the Secretary of State for Defense in charge of the Gendarmerie.

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Concord News

16, July 2017

Clinton Njie: Tottenham’s Cameroon forward heading to Marseille ⁰

Tottenham forward Clinton Njie is to join French side Marseille on a permanent deal after the two clubs agreed a deal.

The Cameroon international, 23, was on loan to the Ligue 1 club last season, scoring four goals.

Njie joined Spurs from Lyon in 2015 for a reported £10m and made 14 appearances for the club, though he suffered a serious knee injury in December 2015.

“We wish Clinton all the best for the future,” Tottenham said.

Source: BBC

16, July 2017

Eight dead in Senegal soccer stadium crush ⁰

Eight people were killed during Senegal’s soccer league cup final in Dakar on Saturday, the sports minister told AFP, as a wall collapsed onto clashing supporters, triggering a panicked crush. Sports Minister Matar Ba said a young girl was among the dead, while around 60 injured fans had been taken to health facilities in Dakar.

He vowed “strong measures so that such an event will never be repeated in Senegal,” speaking to AFP by phone. A mass deployment of firefighters and ambulances remained at the scene late Saturday. An AFP journalist who attended the match described a stadium bursting with people for the long-awaited clash between local teams US Ouakam and Stade de Mbour.

At 2-1 during extra time, US Ouakam supporters began throwing stones at Stade de Mbour fans, causing spectators to begin vacating their seats in a rush, the journalist said. Part of a wall supporting bleachers seating fans from both sides then collapsed, while police had begun firing tear gas and panic spread in the stadium leading to a crush.

“All of a sudden when the wall fell… we knew exactly that some of our own had lost their lives because the wall fell directly onto people,” said Cheikh Maba Diop, a witness who helped evacuate victims from the stadium and lost a friend in the tragedy.

Also speaking at the scene, soccer fan Mara Die Diouf said policing at the stadium had been inadequate. Diouf described police retreating from an area separating the two teams’ supporters once projectiles began being thrown, triggering dangerous movements by spectators unable to defend themselves.

AFP journalists at the scene saw belongings covered in blood at the site, with a pair of glasses and clothing strewn among broken pieces of concrete. Campaigning for Senegal’s legislative elections due on July 30 would on Sunday be suspended in respect for the victims, said a spokesman for President Macky Sall.

Sall also wanted “punishments serving as a warning,” following the tragedy, spokesman El Hamidou Kasse said on TFM television. Senegal’s safety record at large gatherings has been heavily criticized this year after the death of dozens of people at a religious retreat in April, when a fire ripped through makeshift shelters.

(Source: AFP)