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The schedule for Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral

18, September 2022

The schedule for Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral 0

Two thousand guests, including several hundred presidents, heads of state and monarchs, will attend Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral at Westminster Abbey in London on Monday. She will then be buried at Windsor Castle in the evening.

Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral, which is one of the biggest logistical challenges in British history, will take place on September 19 in Westminster Abbey, London.

US President Joe Biden, the Emperor of Japan Naruhito and French President Emmanuel Macron are among the 2,000 guests attending this historic event. More than 10,000 police officers from all over the country will be stationed in the capital as the authorities expect record crowds along the funeral route.

In the afternoon, Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin will travel to Windsor Castle for a church service. She will then be buried in a private ceremony. FRANCE 24 outlines the programme for this extraordinary day. 

Procession with music

On Monday morning, the royal coffin, which is currently on display at Westminster Palace in London, will be moved to Westminster Abbey where the state funeral will take place. The procession will begin at 10.35am (11.35am in Paris) and the coffin will be placed on a gun carriage towed by 98 naval officers, in a tradition dating back to Queen Victoria’s funeral in 1901. 

The procession, followed by the king and members of the British Royal Family, will be led by a band of 200 pipers and drummers from the Royal Air Force to Westminster Abbey Gate at 10.52am.

State funeral

Although the state funeral service, led by the Dean of Westminster David Hoyle, will begin at 11am, the Abbey’s doors will open three hours earlier to welcome the 2,000 people who have been invited to the event.

While the final list of invitees is being kept secret for security reasons, several heads of state, political representatives and monarchs have already said that they will be attending. These include President Biden, President Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Indian President Droupadi Murmu.

Members of the Belgian, Dutch, Qatari and Saudi royal families will also be present, as well as several hundred anonymous people who were decorated by the queen, including social workers and carers.

After the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby’s sermon, the Last Post will be sounded, followed by two minutes of silence to be observed in the Abbey and throughout the UK.

The Reveille, national anthem and a lament performed by the queen’s piper will conclude the state funeral service at around noon.

Foreign heads of state and government representatives will then attend a reception hosted by the British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly at Church House, the headquarters of the Church of England, next to Westminster Abbey.

The queen’s coffin will be paraded through the capital to Hyde Park Corner, to the sound of the bells of Big Ben, where it will be loaded into a hearse and driven to Windsor, a town in south-eastern England, some 30km from London.

Religious ceremony and burial at Windsor

From 3pm, a new procession, preceded by members of the Royal Cavalry, will cross the ‘Long Walk’ leading to Windsor Castle, the British Royal Family’s famous residence. The Royal Family will then join the procession to St. George’s Chapel.

Some 800 guests, including the queen’s personal staff, will attend the service, led by the Dean of Windsor David Conner.

Finally, at 7.30pm, the queen will be laid to rest in a private funeral service held in the presence of the king and members of the Royal Family. 

Queen Elizabeth II will be buried with her late husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, in the King George VI Memorial Chapel.

Culled from France 24

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Roman Catholic Bishops condemn attacks on clergy, churches

17, September 2022

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Roman Catholic Bishops condemn attacks on clergy, churches 0

COMMUNIQUÉ ABOUT THE BURNING DOWN OF THE ST. MARY’S CATHOLIC CHURCH NCHANG, MAMFE DIOCESE AND THE KIDNAPPING OF RELIGIOUS PERSONNEL

It was with great shock and utter horror that we, the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda, learnt of the burning down of the St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Nchang, Mamfe Diocese, and the kidnapping of five priests, one Religious Sister and two lay faithful by unknown Gunmen, and taken to an unknown destination in the surrounding Forests of Nchang village on the evening of 16th of September, 2022. This act was completely unprecedented, and as at now, no concrete reason has been given for this heinous act against the house of God and the Messengers of God.

Since this crisis started in 2016 until today, the People have suffered terribly and men and women of God have been soft targets of kidnappers, torturers and unscrupulous gun men. A wave of persecution against the hierarchy of the church is now the new game of the “Struggle”, and all kinds of threat messages are sent out against Missionaries who have surrendered their lives to work for the people. These attacks are not only against the Catholic Church but also against the Presbyterian and the Baptist Churches in Cameroon. And strange enough, some of those who attack the churches ferociously, are people who are either members of these churches or who have benefitted from the generosity of these Churches.

We,the Bishops of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province, strongly condemn all these attacks against the Church and her Ministers and we appeal to those who have taken the priests, the Nun and the Christians in Nchang to release them without further delay. We insist on this because this act has now crossed the red line and we must say that “Enough is enough”.

We equally call on those who burnt down the St. Mary’s church, Nchang, and all those who either instructed them or support them from home and abroad, to repent of their evil ways because where they are  now, they may find themselves fighting against God and not men (Acts 5:39). And no one ever fights against God and wins.

We express our solidarity and prayerful wishes to the Most Rev. Aloysius Fondong, Bishop of Mamfe, all the Priests, Religious and Christ’s Lay Faithful in the Diocese of Mamfe, and especially to the Christians of St. Mary’s Parish Nchang, during this trying moment.

Looking at all that the Church has done and is still doing for the people of the Regions of the South West and North West Regions of Cameroon in its history, we, the Bishops and the Ministers of the Churches address our people with the strong words of Yahweh to Israel “Our People, what have we done to you, how have we offended you, answer us”(Micah 6:3-4).

It is important to remind these violent offenders of the Church and Her Ministers that what they have done in 2022 AD is equivalent to what King Nebuchadnezzar did in 587 BC when he burnt down the temple in Jerusalem and looted the temple and carried away the priests to Babylon, (2Kings 25:8-19). But they must also remember what happened to the great King Nebuchadnezzar after attacking the house of God: “He was driven from human society and fed on grass like oxen, and was drenched by the dew of heaven; his hair grew long as eagle’s feathers, and his nails became like bird’s claws”(Daniel 4:30).

We call on all Christians to continue to pray for the Church in the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda and for all her Ministers. We pray for protection and at the same time for forgiveness of the offenders like Christ on the Cross who prayed: “Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing”(Lk.23:34).

We call on people of goodwill to exercise vigilance over the temporal goods of the Church and her personnel and protect them from the powers of the Evil One. While we pray for protection, we also pray through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, that peace may return to our Ecclesiastical Province and that a lasting solution may be reached to this problem.

Whatever the case, we give glory to God whose power working in us can do infinitely more than we can ever ask or imagine. We give glory to God from generation to generation in the Church, and in Christ Jesus forever and ever. Amen.(Eph.3:20)

Given in Bamenda, Seat of BAPEC, this Saturday, the 17th Day of September, 2022.

All the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda.

+Andrew NKEA,

President of Bamenda Provincial Episcopal Conference (BAPEC)

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Roman Catholic Church set ablaze in suspected Amba raid on Manyu village

17, September 2022

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Roman Catholic Church set ablaze in suspected Amba raid on Manyu village 0

The crisis of Christian persecution in Southern Cameroons has grown in the face of continued inaction from the Biya regime in Yaoundé and law enforcement apparatus. The criminals have not been identified, but are likely Francophone soldiers benefitting from the war in Southern Cameroons or Ambazonia fighters, both of which terrorize and kill Christians in Anglophone Cameroon with impunity, knowing that in almost all cases there will be little or no significant response from the Biya Francophone government or Francophone dominated military. Both Cameroon government army soldiers and Ambazonia fighters have made the situation of Christians in the South West and North West regions a human rights catastrophe of immense proportions.

The Holy Father Pope Francis has implored the Cameroon government to make the plight of Christians in West Cameroon a top priority. Christians in Southern Cameroons are walking the way of the Cross. May our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ also bless them with the joy of a resurrection and new flourishing of their communities.

Unidentified armed men have razed the building of Saint Mary’s Catholic Church in Nchang village, Manyu Division, South West region.

By Fon Lawrence

Japanese gov’t ordered to pay 1.65 million yen over death of Cameroonian man

17, September 2022

Japanese gov’t ordered to pay 1.65 million yen over death of Cameroonian man 0

A Japanese court on Friday ordered the government to pay 1.65 million yen in damages to the bereaved family of a Cameroonian man who died while being detained in an immigration control facility in eastern Japan.

The mother of the man, who died aged 43 in the Higashi-Nihon Immigration Center in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, in March 2014, had demanded that the government pay 10 million yen in damages, alleging that immigration officials failed to send him to a medical institution despite his claims of ill health.

The ruling “confirmed that it is but natural to send someone who is suffering to the hospital,” said the defense counsel, describing it as a “breakthrough” that the court determined the state had the duty of care over the man.

In handing down the judgment, the Mito District Court ruled the immigration bureau failed to carry out its duty, saying it should have sent the man to a hospital immediately.

But Presiding Judge Masahiko Abe ruled out linking the bureau’s actions to the man’s death. “As the man’s health had rapidly deteriorated, it does not necessarily mean he might have been saved if he had been taken immediately to a hospital,” he said.

The plaintiff’s side will consider appealing the case, while the Justice Ministry said it will look into the ruling and take the appropriate action.

In a March 2022 hearing, Abe had recommended that the two sides reach an out-of-court settlement.

According to the ruling, the Cameroonian man was detained by the center in November 2013 after he was refused entry into the country at Narita airport outside Tokyo a month earlier.

He was reported to have health issues, including diabetes, and on March 27, 2014, he was transferred to a recuperation room monitored by a security camera after complaining of feeling unwell.

Although he underwent a medical examination in the facility, his condition worsened until his death days later, on March 30.

Until authorities found him in cardiopulmonary arrest, he had not been seen by any doctor outside the facility, nor had he been sent by ambulance to a hospital, the ruling said.

Security camera footage taken the night before his death showed the man falling from his bed to the floor and crying out, “I’m dying.”

The man’s bereaved family maintained that the immigration agency’s response to his illness was illegal, while the national government sought the case’s dismissal arguing the response was appropriate.

The government had said that leaving the judgment on dispatching detainees by ambulance to staff without medical knowledge is difficult, and even if the man had been transported from the facility, he still might not have been saved.

Treatment of foreign nationals detained at Japanese immigration facilities has come under increased scrutiny in recent years.

In March 2021, 33-year-old Sri Lankan Ratnayake Liyanage Wishma Sandamali died in a Nagoya detention facility after complaining of ill health, including vomiting and stomachaches, for around a month.

Her family members say it is clear she would have lived if immigration bureau officials had given her appropriate care.

Her death contributed to a backlash that culminated in the government shelving in May 2021 revisions to the immigration law, which included measures to make it easier to deport asylum seekers.

Plans to resubmit the bill in the Diet session in the fall have also been abandoned, government sources said earlier.

Wishma’s family is also seeking damages from the government over her death. Her sisters filed a complaint in August seeking an independent review of the Nagoya District Public Prosecutors Office’s decision not to prosecute 13 people working at the facility when she died.

Prosecutors said they could not make a conclusion on her cause of death or establish a causal link between her treatment and her death.

Shoichi Ibusuki, a defense lawyer representing her family, said the ruling regarding the Cameroonian man was the “first-ever ruling that found the immigration facility responsible for a death.”

Source: Japan Today

President Macron picks army general to be French ambassador to Cameroon

17, September 2022

President Macron picks army general to be French ambassador to Cameroon 0

President Emmanuel Macron announced on September 15, 2022 that he has appointed General Thierry Marchand to be the next French ambassador to Cameroon.

Thierry Marchand is a favorite among France-Afrique supporters in Paris who want to see President Biya’s eldest son, Franck Biya succeed the father. As ambassador, he would oversee the Elysée plan.

French President Emmanuel Macron signed a decree on September 15, 2022, making official the appointment of Marchand as ambassador to Cameroon replacing his compatriot Christophe Guilhou.

The appointment of General Thierry Marchand comes at a time when military cooperation between the Francophone dominated Biya government and France is faltering, even though it was renewed in September 2021.

People in the know have opined that Russian presence in the Central African Republic and the recently signed military cooperation agreement with Moscow by the Biya regime has been a difficult pill to swallow for Elysée.

General Thierry Marchand has served the French Republic in Gabon, Central African Republic, Djibouti and Somalia flirting with diplomacy and the military.

By Rita Akana

Biden en route to London to attend funeral of Elizabeth II

17, September 2022

Biden en route to London to attend funeral of Elizabeth II 0

US President Joe Biden on Saturday headed to London to attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

The state funeral, the first in Britain since the death of Winston Churchill in 1965, will take place Monday at Westminster Abbey in London at 11:00 am (1000 GMT).

Biden will be among several hundred leaders from around the world attending the somber and historic event, along with some 2,000 other guests.

While the leaders of the European Union, France, Japan and many other countries will attend, those of Russia, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Syria and North Korea were not invited.

On Sunday, Biden will attend a reception organized by King Charles III, the White House announced. The two men spoke by phone on Wednesday, with Biden vowing to preserve the “special relationship” between their countries.

A meeting Biden was to have held Monday with new Prime Minister Liz Truss at her Downing Street residence has been canceled, US and British officials announced, but the two instead will meet Wednesday in New York when both arrive to attend the annual United Nations General Assembly.

World leaders were beginning to gather in London on Saturday to prepare for Monday’s funeral.

Their presence — along with that of hundreds of thousands of mourners from across Britain and around the world — poses an extraordinary challenge to British police.

It will be London’s largest ever policing event, the city’s Metropolitan Police force said Friday.

More than 2,000 officers have been drafted from across the country to help Scotland Yard.

After the funeral, the queen’s coffin will be transferred by royal hearse to Windsor Castle, west of London, for a committal service.

That will be followed by a family-only burial in which the queen will be laid to rest alongside her late husband Philip, both her parents and her younger sister.

Source: AFP

Biya regime officials say Amba fighters attacking schools in Southern Cameroons

16, September 2022

Biya regime officials say Amba fighters attacking schools in Southern Cameroons 0

Officials in Cameroon say armed separatists have chased several thousand children from schools just days after the students returned to classrooms for the first time in years. Troops sent to restore school security in the western regions say they have killed at least 13 rebels in clashes over the last month.

Cameroon’s military says separatist attacks this month on western villages, mostly on schools, sent thousands of schoolchildren, teachers and villagers fleeing for safety.

Lingalla Prudence is among students who on Monday fled Kumbo, an English-speaking town in the Northwest Region. The separatist conflict has disrupted her education so often that the 21-year-old, who should be in college, is still trying to finish high school.

“We were in school, and some people brought guns and chased us out of the school and kidnapped some teachers and all the children are out of school,” she said.

Teachers’ associations say the Anglophone rebels are targeting state schools, which they view as a tool of the French-speaking majority’s rule. But they are also attacking religious and private schools.

Joe Tiemuncho, coordinator of the Parent-Teachers Association for Presbyterian schools in Cameroon, said separatist attacks and threats have shut down scores of schools that had reopened, some for the first time in years, when the school year started on September 5.

“Many schools have shut down given the intimidations that are coming from separatist fighters,” he said. “Teachers, learners and school managers are afraid to get into full-swing activities because it is unpredictable, you can’t say what will happen in the next few minutes. Some teachers have even had their arms amputated. Students have been kidnapped and they [fighters] continue to kidnap teachers, students and others asking for ransom.”

Cameroonian military spokespersons weren’t allowed to speak with reporters on a trip to the area, but they did confirm that hundreds of troops were deployed to restore security so classes can resume.

The military says the separatists also declared a lockdown in the English-speaking western regions that paralyzed trade. Separatists that declared the lockdown say it is in response to a government ban on community schools that the rebels control.

Cameroon in August closed more than 200 community schools that rebels said they controlled.

The military says in the past week troops killed at least 13 rebels during clashes in the towns of Kumbo, Oku and Ndop.

Rebel spokesman Daniel confirmed their fighters were killed and said they also killed government troops.

Cameroon’s military did not confirm any fatalities but said a few troops were wounded.

Cameroon’s anglophone rebels want to create a breakaway state they call Ambazonia, separate from Cameroon’s French-speaking majority. The U.N. says the rebel conflict has killed more than 3,300 people and displaced more than a half-million since fighting broke out in 2017.

Culled from the VOA

Biya French Cameroun regime’s foundation based on marginalization and crimes

16, September 2022

Biya French Cameroun regime’s foundation based on marginalization and crimes 0

Vice President Dabney Yerima has strongly denounced the massacre of six Southern Cameroonians in Kumbo and the recent French Cameroun government army raids on the Kumbo Divisional Hospital, stating that the foundation of the Yaoundé regime is based on marginalization and crimes.

The exiled Ambazonia leader made the comments in a statement released late on Thursday which he observed that the shameful events in Kumbo reveal a continuation of appalling and unbelievable massacre of Southern Cameroons civilians throughout the Ambazonian territory at the hands of the blood-thirsty Biya French Cameroun regime and its Southern Cameroons collaborators in Maryland USA.

Dabney Yerima added, “The happenings in Bui County was neither the first crime committed by the French Cameroun crime syndicate nor would be the last one.”

“The foundation of the Biya French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé is based on marginalization, crimes and flagrant violations of human rights,” the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government pointed out.

In recent weeks, Ambazonia fighters have carried out a series of deadly ambushes against the Cameroonian army which have been on a bigger scale than anything yet seen since the start of the conflict five years ago. The army high command wants to change strategy but has yet to say how it intends to proceed.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Back-to-School: Southern Cameroons lockdown campaign is raging against Yaoundé

16, September 2022

Back-to-School: Southern Cameroons lockdown campaign is raging against Yaoundé 0

The entire Southern Cameroons territory has been shutdown ever since the government in Yaoundé announced its so-called back-to-school policy. Businesses and government offices remained close as Ambazonians continue to reject the current political status quo with French Cameroun.

An estimated three million Southern Cameroonians have stayed indoors in numerous towns and villages throughout Southern Cameroons and amid a brutal crackdown by Cameroon government army soldiers, the back-to-school lockdown has resulted in the deaths of several people.

“The Ambazonian Interim Government and the people of Southern Cameroons are proving that they have the will to resist and experience in developing networks and taking it upon themselves not to allow the French Cameroun regime to continue to dictate and dominate the political life in Southern Cameroons,” Dabney Yerima, the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government told journalists recently in Den Hague, Holland.

Since top Cameroon army general Bouba Dobékréo  announced he will crush the Southern Cameroons uprising within months, Southern Cameroons restoration groups have carried out a series of deadly ambushes against the Cameroon government military which have been on a bigger scale than anything yet seen since the start of the conflict five years ago. And now, the resistance is being spiced with acts of civil disobedience to denounce French Cameroun’s military presence and atrocious activities in Southern Cameroons.

Five years into the conflict, Southern Cameroons restoration groups have again imposed a successful lockdown in both the South West and the North West regions. Southern Cameroonians have remained defiant and unified on one thing, which is the complete rejection of Biya, Yaoundé and French Cameroun.

Cameroon Concord News London Bureau Chief Isong Asu thinks the unity among Southern Cameroonians today in Ground Zero is growing stronger again and that the complete implementation of the Big Rubbergun Project will be a turning point to mark the beginning of the end of Biya French Cameroun rule in Southern Cameroons.

Members of a ‘think-and-do-tank’ in the UK with strong ties to the Ambazonia Interim Government have urged Vice President Dabney Yerima to mobilize resources for all Amba fighters in Ground Zero.

Anger has been rising since the appointment of General Bouba Dobékréo and it is now further growing as the military creates more victims. Many Southern Cameroons families too have not recovered from atrocities committed by Amba fighters.

Despite violent repression from the Cameroon government military and the paramilitary Rapid Intervention Battalion Forces (BIR), the Southern Cameroons lockdown is raging on against the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé.

Francophone army soldiers have kept up their heavy-handed response and launched sweeping arrests of hundreds of Southern Cameroonians and Ambazonia activists. There are reports of the Cameroon government military going house to house in Kumbo in Bui Division detaining Southern Cameroonians.

Ghost towns and lockdowns have been successful in Southern Cameroons in the past; but this time around they are the two most effective tools the Ambazonia Interim Government has!

The 2022 back-to-school lockdown has taken root in Southern Cameroons with a wide array of participating Ambazonia groups and restoration forces.

In the entire Southern Cameroons, the majority of government and educational institutions have stopped working, and several businesses and banks have remained closed as many people responded to the lockdown calls.

Demands include the complete release of all Southern Cameroons detainees including President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and an end to French Cameroun occupation of the Ambazonia homeland.

Lockdown is an extreme form of peaceful protest in Southern Cameroons to tell those in power in Yaoundé that, if they want to rule, Ambazonians won’t cooperate and they will squeeze French Cameroun economic and political interest in Southern Cameroons dry until their demands are met.

However, the campaign, besides hurting the political and military leadership in Yaoundé, affects Southern Cameroonians in their livelihoods, though many are willing to pay such a price for the greater good down the line.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

India’s Adani briefly listed as world’s second-richest person

16, September 2022

India’s Adani briefly listed as world’s second-richest person 0

Indian industrialist Gautam Adani briefly became the world’s second-richest person on the Forbes real-time billionaire tracker on Friday, weeks after becoming the first Asian to break into the top three.

The self-made billionaire’s net worth surged $4 billion overnight to $154 billion, according to Forbes, ranking him ahead of LVMH’s Bernard Arnault and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.

Tesla founder Elon Musk remained well out in front with a fortune of more than $270 billion.

Arnault — who at times held the top spot in May 2021 — and Adani traded the number two position during the day as the share prices of their companies fluctuated.

Adani, 60, made his fortune in ports and commodities trading and now operates India’s second-largest conglomerate with interests ranging from coal mining and edible oils to airports and news media.

His ballooning net worth reflects a stratospheric rise in the market capitalisation of his publicly listed companies, as investors back the Adani Group’s aggressive expansion of old and new businesses.

Shares in the flagship Adani Enterprises — of which the billionaire owns 75 percent — have soared more than 2,700 percent since March 2020, and doubled in value in the past six months.

Stock price surges in other group companies including Adani Transmission, Adani Power, Adani Ports and Adani Green Energy catapulted Adani past fellow Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani this year.

Analyst estimates indicated the market capitalisation of Adani’s seven listed companies also briefly overtook those of the Tata group on Friday morning, making the Adani Group India’s largest conglomerate.

Born in the city of Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat to a middle-class family, Adani dropped out of college to work in the diamond industry before starting his export business in 1988.

In 1995, he won a contract to build and operate a commercial shipping port at Mundra in Gujarat, which has since grown to become India’s largest port.

At the same time, Adani expanded into thermal power generation and coal mining in India and overseas.

In recent years, the conglomerate has forayed into petrochemicals, cement, data centres and copper refining, in addition to establishing a renewable energy business with ambitious targets.

Recent investments in Indian news media and a bid for 5G airwaves this year have raised speculation that the billionaire’s empire could soon impinge on sectors dominated by Ambani’s Reliance Industries.

But Adani’s rapid expansion into capital-intensive businesses has also raised financial alarms, with Fitch Group’s CreditSights last week reiterating that they “remain concerned over the Adani Group’s leverage”.

Source: AFP

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