Headline News

17, January 2023

Agbor Clarisse Death: Studying in Ghana can be deadly ⁰

When Agbor Clarisse Enoetie left her University hostel in Kumasi to Accra to attend a music concert, her mates knew it was business as usual. She reportedly disappeared on her way back to Kumasi.

Her family in Cameroon placed their faith in the Ghanaian police to find her. An investigation was opened and later it became a recovery mission!

It is extremely difficult to describe the pain Clarisse Enoetie’s family is suffering after the ex-Saker Baptist College jewel was murdered four academic years after arriving in Ghana to study medicine.

Students like Agbor Clarisse and her family aren’t being properly informed on the potential dangers they face before setting out on what should be life-enhancing journeys.

Clarisse Enoetie is known to always make good decisions! The trip to Accra wasn’t her’s! To be more accurate, it was unlike her.

Cameroon Concord News Group gathered that in Ghana, foreign students are regularly being targeted, drugged, kidnapped, killed, raped, taken to unsafe places, placed in unsafe homes, and placed in unsafe vehicles on unsafe roads.

We of the Concord Group have also discovered that there is no Cameroon government agency, credentialing organization, or institution attached to the Ministry of Higher Education that keeps track of deaths or injuries during study abroad.

With the number of Cameroonian students studying abroad growing every year, safeguards are now essential.

Cameroonian students are new to travel particularly to other African countries and they need to know that it’s a different world out there.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

17, January 2023

Zangaléwa: Founder and lead singer, dies at 71 ⁰

Jean Paul Zé Bella from the Zangalewa group passed away on Sunday, January 15, 2023.

According to reports, Zangalewa’s group’s founder and leader, who is well known for the hit song “Zamina Mina Mina,” passed away from lung cancer. He was 71 years old.

Zé Bella died in the military hospital in Yaoundé, the nation’s capital.

Artist-musician Johnny Tezano claimed that Zé Bella had been battling lung cancer for several years. The news was also confirmed by various other artists online.

Who was Jean Paul Zé Bella

Ze Bella was the music artist of the band of the famous song Zamina mina (Zangaléwa)”. It is a 1986 hit song, sung by a Makossa group from Cameroon.

He was the famous author of Waka Waka. It was remixed by Shakira, the Waka Waka, the Official 2010 FIFA World Cup Song.

Ze Bella was the leader of the defunct group. He declared that while they were proud that a “world music icon” Shakira had remixed their song as the World Cup anthem, they nonetheless expected to be properly credited and adequately compensated.

Ze Bella Cause of Death

Ze Bella cause of death was lung cancer. Singer and drummer, Ze Bella who was born on 23 July 1952 in Sangmélima, Cameroon sadly passed away. He was a member of the Golden Sounds group.

Zamina mina (Zangaléwa) was the famous song released by Golden Sounds group. Following the widespread success, the group changed its name to Zangaléwa as a result of the song’s popularity.

During World War II, the majority of the band members served in the Cameroonian Army.

Source: Ngnews247

17, January 2023

Biya regime cuts diamond and gold export duties by 50% to control illegal exits ⁰

The Cameroonian government, in its 2023 Finance Act, announced it is cutting diamond and gold export duties by 50%. The fees will now be 5% of the FOB value of the ore to be shipped, instead of 10%.

“We have noted that since this exit tax was raised to 10%, spontaneous export declarations have virtually disappeared (although these ores continue to be exported from Cameroon, ed). The few revenues that Customs has been able to collect are the result of seizures from traffickers,” says an authorized source in the Customs Department. This means that, instead of providing more customs revenue to the Treasury, the increase in the export tax on diamonds and gold a few years ago has had the opposite effect in Cameroon. Indeed, mining operators and other buyers have developed informal export channels to avoid paying the tax. The new reduction in the exit tax is a way for the government to encourage the return to formal exports.

Gold and diamonds produced in Cameroon are highly prized by traffickers. According to official statistics, despite the creation of a mechanism to promote formal export channels, notably through Capam and more recently Sonamines, only about 10% of national gold production is sold in formal channels. The rest goes through informal channels, sometimes with the complicity of the producing companies.

The same phenomenon is observed in diamond production and marketing. For example, according to the Kimberley Process National Permanent Secretariat, Cameroon exported 654 carats of diamonds in 2019. However, the actual production was way more than that since a significant volume went through informal ways, the organization said.

As evidence, while 654 carats were exported, the Kimberley Process National Permanent Secretariat reveals that it was able to trace, throughout 2019, a little over 1,595 carats of diamond production.

Source: Business in Cameroon

17, January 2023

Quebec police say killing of health-care worker from Cameroon was a homicide ⁰

Quebec provincial police say they are investigating the death last week of a health-care worker from Cameroon as a homicide.

The body of Nadine Flora Alinanyinyi, 34, was found Thursday in her apartment in Mont-St-Hilaire, Que., about 40 kilometres east of Montreal.

A two-month-old baby was found unharmed inside the apartment.

Alinanyinyi had been recruited to Quebec from Cameroon in 2020 and was employed at Le Quartier Saint-Hilaire seniors residence as a personal support worker.

Sgt. Audrey-Anne Bilodeau says authorities have met with the baby’s father but do not consider him a suspect.

Her employer said in a statement last week that Alinanyinyi was appreciated by her peers and had been on maternity leave.

Source: Global News

16, January 2023

CPDM Crime Syndicate: Thieves stole 85 million in Cavaye Djibril’s Tokombéré residence ⁰

The Speaker of the National Assembly, Cavaye Djibril shocked the nation when he made a complaint recently at the Tokombéré gendarmerie post how some thieves broke into his home and stole huge sums of money.

Cameroon Concord News understands the President of the National Assembly made the matter public on Wednesday, January 11, 2023 and added that the criminals made away with 85 million CFA francs.

The so-called Right Honourable Cavaye Yeguié Djibril, who hails from Tokombéré, Mayo-Sava Division, Far North region has a history of always accusing his relatives of theft and enjoys detaining them at the local gendarmerie station. His younger brother Talba Cavaye who also moonlights as a notable of the chiefdom of Mada is already in police drag-net.

This is not the first time that cash is stolen from Cavaye Yeguié Djibril. In 2015, he dragged his bodyguard, Captain Bouba Simala, to the military court in Yaoundé, for “attempted kidnapping, terrorism and incitement to robbery,” accusing him of stealing 5 million CFA francs.

By Rita Akana

14, January 2023

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Doctors Without Borders Welcomes Release of Staff Accused of Aiding Ambazonians ⁰

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French abbreviation MSF, welcomed Cameroon’s release of five members of its staff detained for a year on charges of helping separatists. MSF maintains it helps anyone who needs medical care and says it will only resume work in separatist areas with government security guarantees.

The group this week welcomed the military tribunal’s December 29 acquittal of the five workers – four of them Cameroonians and one Indian.

The military arrested two of the staff in December 2021 in Nguti, a southwestern town on the border with Nigeria, while they were transporting a patient with a gunshot wound to a hospital.

The military said the patient was a separatist and the next month arrested two more MSF staff members, accusing them of collaboration.

The French aid group said they abide by medical ethics of helping all in need but could not continue in the area under the threat of arrest.

In May, MSF suspended operations in Cameroon’s southwest.

Despite the dropped charges, MSF’s Operations Manager for Central Africa Sylvain Groulx said they cannot yet resume the needed aid work.

“We are obviously waiting to try to engage with the government so that we may resume our activity and we hope that they [the government] will be willing to sit down and discuss with us because these are lifesaving activities that we had to stop. It is very difficult for ministry of health ambulances to access certain areas. We were able to negotiate our access with all the actors and we were exceptionally allowed to do that, saving many lives,” said Groulx.

Paul Atanga Nji is Cameroon’s minister of territorial administration. While not specifically mentioning MSF, he told state broadcaster CRTV Tuesday that any aid groups helping rebels would be charged in court.

He said they will not allow aid groups that are believed to be separatist accomplices to operate in Cameroon. Nji said Cameroon’s military is working hard to bring order in the restive western regions. He said government hospitals have proven they have all that it takes to save the lives of people who need assistance.

Hospitals in Cameroon’s conflict areas have struggled to maintain services and staff, who say they have been victims of both military and separatists.

Nineteen-year-old University of Buea student Benedict Luma said MSF saved his uncle’s life in 2020.

“My uncle bled excessively when he was shot in the leg. Everyone was afraid he would die because there was no hospital around. Our neighbors advised us to call Doctors Without Borders on the phone, and in less than an hour, their ambulance came to save my uncle’s life,” he said.

Doctors Without Borders has provided medical aid in Cameroon to victims of Boko Haram Islamist militants along the northern border with Nigeria since 1984.

Until last May it also provided surgical care and malaria and COVID-19 treatment in Cameroon’s restive South-West region.

The aid group says it treated more than 1 million patients in Cameroon in 2020 alone.

Cameroon’s English-speaking separatists are fighting to break away from the French-speaking majority that it says treats them as second-class citizens.

Since the conflict broke out in 2017, the UN says more than 3,500 people have been killed and 750,000 displaced.

Source: VOA

14, January 2023

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Amba fighters kill police in Kumba ⁰

There is a general belief that things are getting better in the country’s two English-speaking regions as some calm has returned but it is obvious that it will take time for genuine and sustainable peace to return to the two restless regions.

The new-found peace may still be hiding some dangers and it will not be out of place to see some destruction and killings in many parts of the two English-speaking regions of the country.

In Kumba, a police officer was brought down yesterday by people suspected of being Amba fighters and this incident is a sordid reminder of a past when it was a death sentence to be a uniformed officer in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon.

While confrontations between the military and Southern Cameroonian fighters are rare today, it cannot be said that the war, which has raged for more than five years, is over.

Today, many cars can go to Mamfe, Ekondo-titi and many towns in the two English-speaking regions, but the fear of being caught up in crossfire is still there as the issues which triggered the Southern Cameroons crisis have not yet been addressed.

More killings have also been taking place in the Northwest region. Two soldiers were also sent to an early grave this week and this underscores the fact that until genuine dialogue takes place, Cameroon might never come out of its madness of killings.

If the killings have reduced, it is more because government troops have been ordered not to kill like they used to kill in the past.

Their recklessness with their guns is to blame for the streams of blood which have flowed in the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Actions by Southern Cameroonian fighters were just acts of retaliation whenever the sex-starved, alcohol-inflamed and trigger-happy soldiers went on a killing spree.

The Southern Cameroons crisis which started as a protest by teachers and lawyers in 2016 has sent more than 7,000 Cameroonians to an early grave, with soldiers accounting for 40% of the deaths.

The number of soldiers and civilians living with mental, physical and psychological scars will never be known as the Yaoundé government is not in the business of keeping statistics and when it even tries its hands at that, its old habit of lying always stands in the way, making it hard for any reasonable person to trust its data.

Economically, the conflict has driven the sick economy to the bottom of the abyss. Government corporations like the CDC, PAMOL and others are still struggling and the government is too cash-strapped to engineer any sustainable solutions for these ailing corporations.

The road to economic recovery is tortuous and replete with bumps. The government is desperate and has resorted to tough financial and fiscal measures to refill its empty coffers, measures which are leaving many desperate and poor.

Over the last few weeks, the cost of government services to the citizens has gone up. Fuel prices have gone up and a bottle of gas now costs CFAF 10,000, well beyond the reach of many families.

The rationing of fuel is now a daily occurrence even in the country’s capital, Yaoundé. The Biya government is out of cash and it is using even unorthodox means to sustain itself in power.

It is being rumored that school fees in government universities will soon rise from CFAF 50,000 to CFAF 300,000 and this will be beyond the reach of many desperate and helpless families which view their children’s education as a visa out of grinding poverty.

Cameroon is going through a lot and it is becoming clearer by the day that Biya, the man many thought would take the country to the land of promise, has driven the country into a rabbit hole which will keep generations of Cameroonians in desperation for a long time.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

13, January 2023

Elvis Presley’s only child, Lisa Marie, dead at 54 ⁰

Lisa Marie Presley, the only daughter of rock ‘n’ roll legend Elvis Presley, died on Thursday after being rushed to a Los Angeles-area hospital suffering from cardiac arrest, according to media reports.

“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” her mother, Priscilla Presley, said in a statement.

“She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known. We ask for privacy as we try to deal with this profound loss,” the statement added.

Lisa Marie Presley suffered cardiac arrest in her home in the Los Angeles suburb of Calabasas, according to entertainment website TMZ. She was then taken to hospital on Thursday.

She attended the Golden Globes awards show in Beverly Hills earlier this week, where actor Austin Butler won the best actor award for portraying her father in the film “Elvis.” Butler paid tribute to Lisa Marie Presley and her mother during his acceptance speech.

Elvis Presley died of cardiac arrest in August 1977 at the age of 42.

Lisa Marie Presley was born on Feb. 1, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee and became the owner of her father’s Graceland mansion a popular tourist attraction in the city. She was nine years old when Elvis died there.

Her own music career began with a 2003 debut album “To Whom It May Concern.” It was followed by 2005’s “Now What,” and both hit the top 10 of the Billboard 200 album chart. A third album, “Storm and Grace,” was released in 2012.

She was married four times. She wed pop star Michael Jackson in 1994, just 20 days after her divorce from her first husband, musician Danny Keough.

The high-profile couple divorced in 1996 as Jackson was battling child molestation allegations.

Presley married actor Nicholas Cage, a huge fan of her father, in 2002. Cage filed for divorce four months later.

Her fourth marriage was to her guitarist and music producer Michael Lockwood. Their divorce was finalized in 2021.

She had four children. Her only son, Benjamin Keough, himself a musician, died in 2020 at age 27, a death ruled a suicide by the Los Angeles County coroner. Daughter Riley Keough, 33, is an actress.

Her two other daughters are twins Harper and Finley Lockwood, 14.

Source: Reuters

13, January 2023

Sand Miners in Muyuka reject the introduction of technology ⁰

Life could be challenging in rural Cameroon, especially in conflict-hit Southwest, but many people are seeking ways to overcome the challenges and people in Muyuka in the Southwest region are no exception and they are using sand mining to eke out a livelihood.

Sand mining is still a major source of livelihood to many youths in Muyuka, but technology is threatening to render them unemployed and financially poor.

Recently, some youths in Muyuka took to the streets to protest against the use of machines in sand quarries and they are determined to take their fight to the highest office in the land.

Based on expert opinion, technology will surely improve productivity and profits but not for the youths who do not have faith in it and they are not in the mood to welcome such technology.

According to sources in Muyuka, a certain businessman from Buea had introduced the use of machines in the sand quarries, making it possible for just seven people to be employed, thus rendering many youths jobless since the machines are likely to replace human labour.

One of the sources disclosed that, sand quarries employ about ninety five percent of the youths, and that had been their main source of livelihood since the start of the armed conflict.

The use of technology, which is supposed to be an event for jubilation, is causing a nightmare for these youths who prefer digging and extracting sand the traditional way.

Several young men and women turned to sand digging as the only means of survival when the crisis escalated and they are willing to continue doing so in the years to come.

By Cecilia Manjang

13, January 2023

Yaoundé: Many prayer sessions are underway and Biya is the reason for the prayers ⁰

Cameroonians are known for being prayerful, but very few of them ever tell you why they are praying so hard.

Many Cameroonians will spend time in churches praying for work, even when they know their own churches do not create jobs.

Students will spend the entire academic year praying for excellent grades instead of reading and their pastors will continue to encourage them to hope against hope even the grades indicate that some of those students are engaged in truancy and other vices which are hurting their scores.

But in 2023, more Cameroonians have opted to join the ever growing number of popularly unpopular prayer warriors.

Cost of living and government taxes have left many Cameroonians wondering if they will be able to make it to the next year, but the government is not yet done with Cameroonians.

The worst is yet to happen. The government is still holding its cards so close to its chest but the Cameroon Concord News is aware of some of those plans.

A liter of fuel will soon be CFAF 900 and cooking gas will hit CFAF 8,500. The government wants to squeeze Cameroonians into total submission and their indolence and fear are really helping the government.

The pain is real and many Cameroonians know that death is in the offing for them if something is not done and urgently. Charges in government-run hospitals will soon go up, but private clinics have already set the pace, with some private clinics already charging as much as three times what they charged last year.

In their helplessness, many Cameroonians have decided to become dangerous prayer warriors and these prayers are not really taking place in churches.

Cameroonians know that Biya is to blame for their sorry plight and since they cannot take him down through the ballot boxes or through a people power revolution, they have decided to weaponize prayers, with the key prayer point being that God should recall Mr. Biya who is already a colony of diseases.

It is even within Mr. Biya’s government that the prayers are more aggressive. Some of the president’s collaborators are sick and tired of Mr. Biya embarrassing them and the country and given that a popular uprising is a distant tomorrow affair, Mr. Biya’s collaborators are imploring the Almighty to intervene in the country’s favor.

Mr. Biya is an ill wind which has not blown any good to the country. For forty years, the man many thought would take the country to the land of promise has incompetently and quietly taken the country to the brink of collapse.

Corruption has become the country’s distinctive feature and the pillaging has entered a higher gear as some unscrupulous collaborators are picking up any dime and penny they find in their path.

Many suspect the end is near. They know that without steroids Mr. Biya would have already been dumped on the ash heap of history. They however know that his body has become steroid-resistant.

The events in Washington DC during the Africa-US Leader Summit where Mr. Biya lost his mind and was heard speaking “in tongues” during an event seem to confirm that his days are numbered.

According to sources at the Presidency of the Republic, Biya is even too tired to attend certain official events. Sometimes, he invites his own ministers to come and see him, but when they come, the tired and helpless Biya will still be sleeping and even his own social workers will still be waiting for him to wake up.

Biya will never leave power voluntarily. He is aware of his crimes, especially those against his predecessor. He understands he has failed and disappointed Cameroonians and he is in no mood to answer embarrassing questions.

Tribalism and nepotism are at their highest. The country has been polarized and 80% of the country is clearly against Mr. Biya’s ethnic group for the nepotism which has become the country’s hallmark.

Inflation is at its apex with many Cameroonians not even sure of a meal a day. Moral decadence has become the order of the day and many young girls have been morally disarmed. Prostitution is now an acceptable way of life and it is being practiced even in religious and political milieu.

Today, it is hard for a Cameroonian to achieve anything without government officials asking for a reward. Sex has become a medium of exchange in Cameroon. Where girls do not have money, they can pay with sex. Young boys are also delivering their bodies to old men whose key objective is to destroy anything in their path before they die. Homosexuality, once a Western phenomenon, has taken root in the country.

While the national desperation continues, Cameroonians hope that their prayers will be heard by a God who seems to be deaf and on Biya’s side.

According to some sources, it is being alleged that Cameroonians have been praying to the wrong God. By being indolent, they have chosen peace over political violence and the God of change is not a God of peace.

If Cameroonians have to see their dreams take shape, then they must change their ways. Biya knows he is going and he is not in a haste to change his strategy which has helped to keep him in power for more than four decades. Cameroonians will therefore have to pray to the right God if Mr. Biya must stop being a millstone around their necks.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai