Headline News

12, September 2022

Prince Harry calls Queen Elizabeth II his ‘guiding compass’ ⁰

Prince Harry on Monday paid an emotional tribute to his late grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, calling her his “guiding compass”, and vowing to “honour” his father in his new role as king.

In his first public comments since the queen’s death last week aged 96, Harry said he was “forever grateful” to her and said she was “sorely missed”.

Harry and his wife Meghan stunned the monarchy by announcing they were quitting royal duties and moving to the United States in early 2020.

From there, they launched a series of broadsides criticising their life in the institution, including claims of racism.

That exacerbated tensions with his older brother, heir to the throne Prince William — with whom he is reported to be barely on speaking terms — and their father, now King Charles III.

But Harry, who was on a whistlestop visit to Britain with Meghan when the queen died, was handed an olive branch by Charles in his first speech as king, when he spoke of his “love” for the couple.

William also invited his brother and sister-in-law to join them for an impromptu walkabout to view floral tributes at Windsor Castle on Saturday.

Harry, a former British Army captain who saw service in Afghanistan, said the queen was his commander-in-chief but also his “granny”.

He said he would cherish the memory of the first time she met Meghan and hugged the couple’s young children, Archie, aged three, and Lilibet, one.

“I cherish these times shared with you, and the many other special moments in between. You are already sorely missed, not just by us, but by the world over,” he added.

“We now honour my father in his new role as King Charles III. Thank you for your commitment to service. Thank you for your sound advice.

“Thank you for your infectious smile. We, too, smile knowing that you and grandpa (Prince Philip) are reunited now, and both together in peace.”

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Harry and Meghan jetted in from their new home in California last week to attend a series of charity functions in Britain and Germany, where the next Invictus Games for disabled veterans takes place.

Queen Elizabeth II joined her grandson in a 2016 spoof video before the first edition of the multi-sports event, poking fun at playful jibes from the former US president Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle.

The video indicated a close relationship between Harry and his grandmother, which persisted despite the bombshell announcement that he was leaving royal life.

She allowed the couple to retain their official titles as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and said they would remain “much-loved members of the family”.

The late monarch also held back from publicly rejecting the couple’s claims of racism, stating that “some recollections may vary”, but promising an investigation.

Harry rushed to the Balmoral estate in the Scottish Highland last Thursday after an announcement about the queen’s health.

But he travelled separately from his brother and other senior royals, arriving several hours after the death was announced.

Harry, who is expected to stay on Britain for the queen’s funeral next Monday, is believed to have last met her in private during the public celebrations for her Platinum Jubilee in June.

Source: AFP

12, September 2022

Biya and his Francophone gang were blind to see the Indomitable Lions spirit of the Ambazonian people ⁰

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government has said that the 89-year-old Francophone dictator and his CPDM political gangsters failed to see the Indomitable Lions spirit of the Southern Cameroons people when they launched the ill-considered war on West Cameroon.

Dabney Yerima pointed out that the French Cameroun regime is now desperately relying on the so-called Special Forces within the Francophone dominated Cameroon government military to bring down the Ambazonia resistance.

In a Saturday zoom meeting with some Ambazonia commanders in Ground Zero, Dabney Yerima reaffirmed the position of the Ambazonia Interim Government that Southern Cameroonians as a people will get to Buea.

“Biya and his criminal gang in French Cameroun believed that they would succeed in bringing the Ambazonia people to their knees within a month, but they did not know that the spirit of the Southern Cameroons people is identical to that of the Kenya Land and Freedom Army also known as the Mau Mau,” Dabney Yerima said.

Pointing to Yaoundé’s recent deployment of Special Forces to the North West and South West, Dabney Yerima said the “Francophone enemies are shifting the war toward our civilian population with the goal of disheartening our people.”

Yerima then called on the people of Southern Cameroons to boost their spirit of courage, patience, and resistance even further in order to overcome the difficulties.

Vice President Dabney Yerima told the Ground Zero commanders that Amba fighters can defeat the Cameroon government army as long as the Interim Government can help increase their fire power since Yaounde only understand the language of force.

“The Southern Cameroons resistance is progressing and moving forward. We are currently in a stronger position than our French Cameroun enemies, both militarily and in terms of organization” Yerima concluded.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

12, September 2022

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Over 16 killed by Cameroon gov’t army fire in Kumbo hospital ⁰

Cameroon government army soldiers on Friday raided the divisional hospital in Kumbo and eyewitnesses said 16 suspected Ambazonia fighters were taken out of their sick beds and were summarily executed.

A granny who was at the hospital when the soldiers stormed the facility told Cameroon Concord News that she and many other patients suffered respiratory problems as a result of tear gas inhalation.

Cameroon government troops had over the past four days detained several Southern Cameroonians in Kumbo and Jakiri.

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 Fon Lawrence

10, September 2022

Cameroonian man kills ex-wife in Canada ⁰

A 29-year-old Cameroonian mother, Gisele Itale Betondi passed away in a Canadian hospital after being savagely stabbed by her ex-husband on Thursday at her residence, Cameroon Concord News has learnt from sources in Montreal.

Gisele was a mother of three who reportedly arrived North America four years ago to join her 50-year-old Cameroonian husband. However, the marriage took a dramatic u-turn and domestic violence became the reason behind their separation.

The knife ran through Gisele 5 times held by a man she once called honey. She has now left behind 3 young children ages 4, 2 and 2 months old.

By Chi Prudence Asong with files

10, September 2022

After Queen Elizabeth, Paul Biya now world’s oldest head of state ⁰

President Paul Biya is now the world’s oldest head of state following the demise of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday. The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral in Scotland on Thursday aged 96, Buckingham Palace announced.

“The death of Her Majesty Elizabeth II is felt painfully and affects the Commonwealth of Nations. She had a unique stature and played an emblematic role throughout history,” tweeted Biya, who now becomes the world’s oldest sitting head of state.

The 89-year-old autocrat has been at the helm of central Africa’s largest economy for 40 years and counting. If his prior seven years as prime minister are added to his four-decade reign, Biya would be the world’s longest-ruling non-royal leader.

Economic downturn

Biya is followed in age by Michel Naim Aoun, the 88-year-old former military general who has served as president of Lebanon since October 2016.

Under Biya, Cameroon survived an economic downturn in the mid-1980s to the early 2000s and moved from a one-party to a multiparty state.

The Lion Man, as the octogenarian leader is fondly referred to by members of his ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) party and his admirers, reluctantly accepted multiparty politics in the 90s, though he has remained a serial election winner, with opposition parties describing all the votes as routinely rigged in his favour.

Cameroon has had only two heads of state since its independence from France in 1960 and Biya is the only president most of the nearly 28 million Cameroonians (World Population Review) have ever known. He inherited a country of less than 10 million people when he was sworn in for the first time in 1982, succeeding the country’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo. Cameroon has a largely youth population, with more than 60 per cent of the populace under the age of 25.

Biya raised hope when he ascended to the helm but his tenure has been mired in controversies, with the leader coming under heavy criticism for authoritarian rule and endemic corruption in a country where an average citizen lives on less than $2 a day.

Cameroon had been rated as ‘the most corrupt country in the world’ by Transparency International, which ranked the country as the top most corrupt nation in the world successively in 1998 and 1999.

Biya has also become notorious as an absentee president ruling from abroad, lavishly spending taxpayers’ money in luxurious hotels in Switzerland, which is described as the second home of the permanently holidaying leader. He regularly swings off to the Alpine country for some rest at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva.

A 2018 investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) estimated that Biya spent nearly 60 days on private visits out of the country the previous year and that he spent a third of the year abroad in 2006 and 2009.

The report, described by Biya’s supporters as “propaganda”, said the leader had spent $182 million on his private travel since becoming president. It said Biya spent $40,000 a day for hotel accommodation for himself and his entourage.

Dominated parliament

Biya would have been ineligible to run and eventually be elected for a sixth term in 2011 if the ruling party-dominated parliament had not voted three years earlier to amend the constitution, removing presidential term limits. The tinkering of the constitution gave Biya the leverage to stay in power indefinitely.

Cameroon had largely been relatively peaceful under Biya until an insurgency by Nigerian-based Boko Haram spilled over into the country since 2013. Three years later, what could be his biggest challenge – an industrial strike by lawyers and teachers in the English-speaking part of the country – started. It morphed into a separatist conflict crackdown on protesters.

Separatist groups sprouted and increased demands for independence of the two regions, giving birth to armed groups that have been battling government troops since. The violence has caused about 6,000 deaths and a major humanitarian crisis, with almost 600,000 people internally displaced in the Anglophone and neighbouring regions, and over 77,000 forced to become refugees in Nigeria, according to humanitarian organisations.

Biya, who rarely speaks to the media, left it up in the air whether he will seek reelection or retire at the end of his current mandate when he told a French journalist in July that he still has three years left for his current seven-year term to expire.

“Wait until the end of the mandate to know whether I will stay or go back to the village,” Biya said at a joint press conference with visiting French President Emmanuel Macron in Yaoundé.

Culled from The Citizen

10, September 2022

Biya’s Anglophone Secretary receives FIFA World Cup trophy ⁰

The FIFA World Cup trophy was presented to one of President Paul Biya’s Anglophone secretaries passing for a Prime Minister and Head of Government Joseph Dion Ngute.

The FIFA delegation which presented the trophy on Thursday September 8, 2022 in Yaoundé was led by former French footballer David Trezeguet and Patrice Bila; vice President of the of The Coca-cola company for West and Central Africa, official sponsors of the trophy tour.

The Former French international and 1998 World Cup winner; David Trezeguet reportedly saluted Cameroon’s passion for football and the legendary achievements of the Indomitable Lions.

By Isong Asu with files from Rita Akana

10, September 2022

Two Southern Cameroonian men shot dead by Francophone soldiers in Wum ⁰

Two young Southern Cameroonian men have been killed by the Francophone dominated Cameroon government military during a night raid in Wum, the chief town in Menchum Division, North West region.

According to a report by the Ambazonia Interim Government (IG), the Cameroon government soldiers led by Colonel François Pelene inaugurated a new BIR camp in Wum and after the installation rituals the said Colonel ordered some soldiers to storm the Niakom Over side neighborhood in Wum promoting violent confrontations between the residents and the Francophone army soldiers.

Two young businessmen not identified by the IG were taken to the Wum hospital but succumbed to the injuries they had sustained during the Cameroon government military operation, the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dabney Yerima said in statement.

In recent weeks, Cameroon government troops have ramped up attacks on Southern Cameroons towns and villages. As a result of these attacks, dozens of Ambazonian have lost their lives and many others have been arrested.

According to a Roman Catholic Southern Cameroons think tank in Germany, Francophone army soldiers have shot and killed at least 314 Southern Cameroonians since June 2022.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

10, September 2022

Charles III is formally proclaimed king by Accession Council ⁰

An historic Accession Council proclaimed Charles III as Britain’s new king on Saturday morning following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II aged 96. In his speech at Saturday’s ceremony at St James’s Palace in London, King Charles III vowed to follow the example of his late mother and said he was “deeply aware of this great inheritance and of the duties and heavy responsibilities of sovereignty”.

The council, televised for the first time, is a centuries-old formality to recognise the new king’s sovereignty even though he automatically became monarch after Queen Elizabeth II’s passing.

Several hundred privy councillors including current Prime Minister Liz Truss and all of her living predecessors, Charles’s wife Camilla and his eldest son and heir William all attended the ceremony at St James’s Palace, London.

King Charles III said his mother, who died on Thursday in Balmoral aged 96, “gave an example of lifelong love and of selfless service” that he promised to emulate. He added that he was “deeply aware” of the “duties and heavy responsibilities of sovereignty”.

Source: France 24

9, September 2022

Buckingham Palace becomes shrine for a grieving nation ⁰

A stream of mourners laid flowers and tributes outside Buckingham Palace on Friday, as it became the focal point of a country grieving the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Stony-faced soldiers in red coats and bearskin hats stood guard by the palace, the late queen’s London headquarters during her 70-year reign.

Mourners stood silently and watched, while some placed bouquets in the black railings of the landmark residence.

“We just wanted to pay tribute to the queen,” said Natalie Vehring, a violinist who has performed at concerts attended by the queen.

She was at the palace with her husband and two sons in school uniform, while on a video call with her mother in Australia.

“My mum says she remembers the king dying,” added the 46-year-old, referring to the queen’s father, George VI, who died in 1952.

“I grew up in Australia, the monarchy was a very huge part of our childhood, we sang the national anthem every day at school.

“It’s amazing how she was working a day before her passing,” she added.

People left candles in glass jars, rain-sodden Union Jack flags, newspapers bearing the late queen’s image and personal notes.

“Thank you. You served our country to the end. Faithful in God,” said one message.

“Thank you for your service Ma’am. You were a guiding light in dark times, the foundation of a nation, our strength and stay. Rest in peace,” read another.

One note, signed by “the coffee ladies”, said: “Beautiful Queen. Thank you, thank you for your constancy, your loyalty and long reign”.

‘Devastated’

Joan Russell, 55, a project manager from east London, had tears running down her cheeks as she looked at the flowers.

“I came to say a prayer,” she told AFP.

“Charles has had such a great example to follow. I believe he will do his very utmost to continue the legacy of his parents.”

There were similar scenes in Windsor, west of London, as well-wishers, many crying, left hundreds of bouquets and lit candles outside the gates of the late queen’s beloved castle.

One of those in tears was Marina Flynn, 79, whose husband used to work with the queen’s husband, the Duke of Edinburgh.

“She was wonderful, she’s done nothing wrong. I met her a couple of times with the Duke and they were always really nice. I just feel devastated,” said Flynn, dressed in black.

Others expressed concern about the new King Charles III.

“Oh I’m worried about what he would do,” said Estrella Linch, 78.

“He is not a decisive man, he doesn’t know how to take big decisions,” she added.

In Scotland, the former queen’s residence at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, which will house Elizabeth’s coffin before it travels to London, also became a focus of tributes.

Locals and curious tourists came to contemplate silently and lay flowers, as preparations began to welcome the queen’s coffin.

“All this pomp and glory is going to be a nice thing and a very sad thing,” said Rebecca Evans, 44, who works for a climate change think-tank.

“It’s going be an interesting few days.”

Source: AFP

9, September 2022

Premier League: Fixtures postponed following Queen Elizabeth II’s death ⁰

All Premier League matches this weekend have been postponed as a mark of respect following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, it was announced on Friday.

English top flight clubs took the decision despite guidance from the British government that cancelling sporting events was not compulsory during a period of national mourning.

“At a meeting this morning, Premier League clubs paid tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” the Premier League said in a statement.

“To honour her extraordinary life and contribution to the nation, and as a mark of respect, this weekend’s Premier League match round will be postponed, including Monday evening’s game.”

All games in the English Football League, Women’s Super League and Scottish professional leagues have also been postponed.

Other sporting action in Britain scheduled for Friday, including Test cricket and European golf’s PGA Championship, has been cancelled as a mark of respect.

Those events could restart over the weekend.

However, sporting chiefs have been advised to avoid any clash with a state funeral, the date of which has yet to be announced.

“There is no obligation to cancel or postpone events and sporting fixtures, or close entertainment venues during the national mourning period,” the government said in a guidance statement.

“This is at the discretion of individual organisations. As a mark of respect, organisations might wish to consider cancelling or postponing events or closing venues on the day of the state funeral.”

Fixture crunch

With fixtures next weekend potentially impacted by the policing operation in London for the funeral, football authorities face the headache of a fixture pile-up in a season already congested by a mid-season World Cup.

Manchester United’s Europa League clash with Real Sociedad at Old Trafford and West Ham’s game against FCSB in the Europa Conference League at the London Stadium went ahead on Thursday with pre-match tributes.

The British Horseracing Authority said there would be no races on Saturday — extending cancellations into a third day.

King’s Lynn, the only horse owned by the queen entered to run this weekend, will not run at the Curragh on Sunday.

Racing will return on that day, with the programme featuring the St Leger, one of Britain’s five Classic races, which the queen won in 1977 with her filly Dunfermline.

A decision is yet to be made on any rescheduling of the third Test between England and South Africa at the Oval. Thursday’s first day was a washout.

England captain Ben Stokes said he would be “honoured” to play in the queen’s memory with the possibility the match could be extended into Tuesday to make up for lost time.

“She loved sport, be honoured to play in her memory,” Stokes tweeted in response to a question on whether sporting events should go ahead.

Organisers of the PGA Championship said they were “hopeful” of resuming play over the weekend at Wentworth, near London.

Play in the opening round was suspended on Thursday and postponed on Friday.

The final three stages of Cycling’s Tour of Britain were cancelled on Thursday, with Spain’s Gonzalo Serrano declared the winner.

Tributes poured in from sports stars in Britain and across the globe after the queen’s death was announced on Thursday.

Roger Federer hailed Queen Elizabeth II for her “elegance” and “grace” while Brazilian football great Pele said her “legacy will last forever”.

England football captain Harry Kane wrote on Twitter: “The queen was an amazing inspiration and will be remembered for her incredible years of service to this country. Rest in peace, Your Majesty.”

Source: AFP