Headline News

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

Biya regime deploys over 1,000 soldiers to join UN forces in Central African Republic

15, September 2022

Biya regime deploys over 1,000 soldiers to join UN forces in Central African Republic 0

Cameroon’s Defence Minister Joseph Beti Assomo on Wednesday announced the deployment of more than 1,000 soldiers to maintain peace and stability in the neighboring Central African Republic (CAR).

The 750 soldiers and 360 gendarmes make up the ninth contingent of Cameroonian troops tasked with carrying out stabilization and peacekeeping mission in the CAR.

The contingent is part of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), which began protecting civilians in CAR in 2014 under the UN Charter, Assomo said during a ceremony in the country’s East region to award medals to soldiers who underwent special training in the region.

“I urge you to represent your country in the right way,” Assomo said, and demanded the soldiers execute their assignment in strict respect of the rules guiding MINUSCA.

The contingent is taking over from predecessors who spent a year building peace in the war-torn country.

The CAR has been wracked by violence since the Seleka rebels ousted then President Francois Bozize in 2013. The conflict has forced nearly half of the country’s population to migrate and depend on humanitarian assistance, according to the UN.

Source: Xinhuanet

Indomitable Lions: Bryan Mbeumo has been called up to Rigobert Song’s squad

14, September 2022

Indomitable Lions: Bryan Mbeumo has been called up to Rigobert Song’s squad 0

Brentford attacker Bryan Mbeumo has been called up to the Cameroon squad for their two upcoming friendlies.

Bryan switched his international allegiance from France to Cameroon in August and has now received his first call-up to Rigobert Song’s squad.

The 23-year-old has played a key part in our good start to the season, having scored in wins over Manchester United and Leeds.

Cameroon will play against Uzbekistan in Goyang, South Korea on Friday 23 September, before facing South Korea at the Seoul World Cup Stadium on Tuesday 27 September.

Those two friendlies are in preparation for Cameroon’s World Cup campaign later this year, after they qualified for the tournament in Qatar in dramatic circumstances in March.

Karl Toko Ekambi scored a 124th-minute winner against Algeria in their World Cup play-off tie, which saw them go through on away goals following a 2-2 aggregate draw.

It sealed an eighth World Cup finals appearance for the Indomitable Lions.

Cameroon have been drawn in Group G with Switzerland, Serbia and five-time world champions Brazil at the World Cup, and will kick off their campaign against Switzerland on Thursday 24 November.

Source: BrentfordFCnews

End of Covid pandemic in sight: WHO

14, September 2022

End of Covid pandemic in sight: WHO 0

The number of newly reported Covid-19 cases has dropped dramatically, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, urging the world to seize the opportunity to end the pandemic.

Newly reported cases of the disease, which has killed millions since being identified in late 2019, last week fell to the lowest level since March 2020, said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“We have never been in a better position to end the pandemic,” he told reporters. “We are not there yet, but the end is in sight.”

But the world needed to step up to “seize this opportunity”, he added.

“If we don’t take this opportunity now, we run the risk of more variants, more deaths, more disruption, and more uncertainty.”

According to WHO’s latest epidemiological report on Covid-19, the number of reported cases fell 12 percent to 4.2 million during the week ending September 4, compared to a week earlier.

‘Underestimate’

But the agency has warned that the dropping number of reported cases is deceptive, since many countries have cut back on testing and may not be detecting the less serious cases.

“The number of cases that are being reported to WHO we know are an underestimate,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO technical lead on Covid, told reporters.

“We feel that far more cases are actually circulating than are being reported to us,” she said, cautioning that the virus “is circulating at a very intense level around the world at the present time.”

Since the start of the pandemic, WHO has tallied more than 600 million cases, and some 6.4 million deaths, although both those numbers are also believed to be serious undercounts.

A WHO study published in May based on excess mortality seen in various countries during the pandemic estimated that up to 17 million people may have died from Covid in 2020 and 2021.

Van Kerkhove noted that going forward there will likely be “future waves of infection, potentially at different time points throughout the world, caused by different sub-variants of Omicron or even different variants of concern.”

But, she added, “those future waves of infection do not need to translate into future waves of death.”

‘Seize this opportunity’

In a bid to help countries to do what is needed to rein in the virus, the WHO on Wednesday published six policy briefs.

Among the recommendations, the WHO is urging countries to invest in vaccinating 100 percent of the most at-risk groups, including health workers and the elderly, and to keep up testing and sequencing for the virus.

“These policy briefs are an urgent call for governments to take a hard look at their policies, and strengthen them for Covid-19 and future pathogens with pandemic potential,” Tedros said.

“We can end this pandemic together, but only if all countries, manufacturers, communities and individuals step up and seize this opportunity.”

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan agreed.

“Even as the pandemic wanes, and as the number of cases may drop, we are going to have to maintain high levels of vigilance,” he told reporters.

“We still have a highly mutable, evolving virus that has shown us time and time again over two and a half years how it can adapt, how it can change.”

Source: AFP

Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin arrives at Westminster to lie in state

14, September 2022

Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin arrives at Westminster to lie in state 0

Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin left Buckingham Palace for the last time Wednesday as it was taken amid somber pageantry on a horse-drawn gun carriage past crowds of mourners to the Houses of Parliament, where the late monarch will lie in state for four days.

Crowds began massing early along the flag-lined road outside the palace for the procession from the monarch’s official London residence to the historic Westminster Hall at Parliament. King Charles III and other members of the royal family walked behind the coffin.

Thousands of people gathered on The Mall outside Buckingham Palace and along the banks of the River Thames hours before the coffin procession began.

About a half-hour before the procession was due to start, the gun carriage passed through the palace’s wrought iron gates.

Joan Bucklehurst, a 50-year-old retail worker from Cheshire in northwestern England, said the queen “meant so much for everybody”.

“She was amazing, yeah,” she added, choking up with emotion. “So, we had to be here. We’ve been here a few times when there have been special occasions, but this one, I couldn’t miss this.”

The crowds are the latest manifestation of a nationwide outpouring of grief and respect for the only monarch most Britons have ever known, who died at her beloved Balmoral summer retreat on Thursday at age 96, ending a 70-year reign.

Outpouring of grief

“It’s a very sad day, but it’s our last opportunity to do our duty for the queen and it’s our first opportunity to do it for the king, and that makes us all very proud,” said Maj. Gen. Christopher Ghika, of the Household division, who is responsible for organising the ceremonial aspects of the queen’s funeral.

London’s Heathrow Airport halted flights that could disturbing the procession. British Airways canceled 16 flights as a result of the changes.

The airport said in a statement that the changes would “ensure silence over central London as the ceremonial procession moves from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall”.

Troops involved in the procession have been preparing since the queen died. So have the horses of the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery.

Sgt. Tom Jenks, from the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, said that the horses have undergone special training, including how to handle weeping mourners, as well as flowers and flags being thrown onto streets as the procession passes by.

People stood behind metal barriers or sat on folding chairs, umbrellas at the ready, takeout coffees in hand under gray skies hours before the coffin was scheduled to leave the landmark palace at 2:22pm (13:22 GMT).

Crowds have lined the route of the queen’s coffin whenever it has been moved in its long journey from Scotland back to London.

On Tuesday night, thousands braved a typical London drizzle as the state hearse, with interior lights illuminating the sovereign’s flag-draped casket, drove slowly from a military air base into the heart of London.

Geoff Colgan, a taxi driver who took the day off to witness the moment, stood stunned in the moments after the queen’s coffin passed.

“It’s one of those things you know would happen, but when it does you can’t believe it,” he said, holding his toddler.

Crowds line the banks of the River Thames

Earlier, in Edinburgh, some 33,000 people filed in silent respect past her coffin as it lay for 24 hours at St. Giles’ Cathedral.

Hundreds of thousands are expected to do the same in London when the queen lies in state at the 900-year-old Westminster Hall, the oldest building in Parliament, for four days before her state funeral on Monday.

The hall is where Guy Fawkes and Charles I were tried, where kings and queens hosted magnificent medieval banquets, and where ceremonial addresses were presented to Queen Elizabeth II during her silver, golden and diamond jubilees.

Chris Bond, from Truro in southwest England, was among those lining up along the banks of the River Thames. He also attended the lying in state of the queen’s mother in 2002.

“Obviously, it’s quite difficult queuing all day long, but when you walk through those doors into Westminster Hall, that marvellous, historic building, there was a great sense of hush and one was told you take as much time as you like, and it’s just amazing,” he said.

“We know the queen was a good age and she served the country a long time, but we hoped this day would never come,” he added.

Chris Imafidon, secured the sixth place in the queue.

“I have 1,001 emotions when I see her,” he said. “I want to say, God, she was an angel, because she touched many good people and did so many good things.”

Source:  AP

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