Headline News

4, June 2022

ECOWAS leaders discuss sanctions against juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea ⁰

West African leaders on Saturday opened a meeting in Ghana’s capital Accra to decide whether to ease or ramp up sanctions against junta-ruled Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is expected to decide whether to keep, lighten or lift retaliatory measures on Mali, imposed in January after its military regime announced an intention to rule for another five years.

Ghana’s President Nana Akufo Ado opened the summit, attended by the heads of state of most of the 15-member countries but without any representative from Mali, Burkina Faso or Guinea visible in the audience.

“This present summit will re-examine and assess the situations in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso in light of recent developments within the region and global context,” he said.

“Our objective has always been to find ways to help these countries return to constitutional order.”

Guinea, Burkina Faso and Mali are currently suspended from ECOWAS bodies.

While Mali has already been slapped with sanctions, the other two countries risk further punitive measures from the bloc after ruling juntas in their respective capitals vowed to hold onto power for another three years.

West Africa has seen a succession of military coups in less than two years — two in Bamako, followed by Conakry last September and Ouagadougou in January.

Insurgency

ECOWAS, keen to limit political instability spreading further, has held summits and piled on the pressure to shorten the juntas’ so-called transition periods before a return to civilian rule.

But strongmen Colonel Assimi Goita in Mali, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya in Guinea and Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba in Burkina Faso, have all flouted that pressure and since been sworn in as presidents.

They invoke the severity of domestic crises — that span jihadist insurgency to social problems — and claim they need time to rebuild their states and organise elections.

A UN report published last week said the West African sanctions had contributed to worsening living conditions, particularly for the poor.

One of the most volatile and impoverished countries in the world, Mali is battling a decade-old jihadist revolt, which began with a regional insurrection and then spread to Niger and Burkina Faso.

ECOWAS closed borders and suspended trade and financial exchanges, except for basic necessities.

In Guinea, the military overthrew president Alpha Conde last September and has vowed a return to civilian rule in three years.

Burkina Faso’s government was overthrown in January, when disgruntled colonels ousted elected president Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

Source: AFP

4, June 2022

Fleeing Ambazonian refugees flood Nigeria border town in Cross River State ⁰

Members of the Nigerian Red Cross have since arrived at the Community health centre in Bashu, Boki LGA where new refugees from southwest Cameroon have flooded since Sunday.

The huge population of the new arrivals appear to be overwhelming.

They fled Obonyi, a border town with Boki LGA of Cross River State last Sunday after Ambazonian soldiers had reportedly killed about 20 Southwest Cameroonians in Obonyi border community next to Nigeria’s Boki LGA.

Reports say they allegedly refused to join the Ambazonian soldiers to fight Cameroon government for their independence.

The remainder of the population had to flee into nearby Bashu in Boki LGA Nigeria for their safety with matchet cuts and bullet wounds.

Their population as of yesterday stood at over 2000, according to local sources.

Many of them have knife cuts, bullet wounds and other injuries.

The head of a particular man was dangling following matchet cuts from the Ambazonian militants.

The Red Cross officials were seen frenetically dispensing pain-killing drugs, dressing wounds and giving water to the survivors.

A Red Cross official who did not want his name mentioned said, “The number of these refugees are increasing. They need medical and humanitarian attention. We are trying our best but other agencies should come in soon before our supplies exhaust. Our personnel have been very busy attending to the influxes. We give the elderly women, children and critically wounded ones immediate medical care. But space is another problem…”

Augustine Ogar, a youth leader in the community, said facilities have been overstretched, and there is an immediate need for humanitarian supplies.

Source: Daily Post Nigeria

4, June 2022

Biya gang seeking to set Southern Cameroonians against the Ambazonia Interim Gov’t ⁰

Professor Carlson Anyangwe says the enemies in La Republique du Cameroun have developed a diabolic harsh ploy seeking to pit the people of Southern Cameroons against their Interim Government and the Ambazonia revolutionary institutions.

Professor Anyangwe made the comments recently in the US saying French Cameroun military and political leaders are now pinning their hopes on popular cat calls in Ground Zero against kidnapping for ransom in order to discredit the Ambazonia Interim Government.

“Biya and his French Cameroun CPDM crooks are propagating the atrocities of some Southern Cameroons criminal gangs in a bid to set Ambazonians against their Interim Government” Professor Anyangwe said.

However, the prominent Southern Cameroons academic noted that “the regime in Yaoundé is making miscalculations as they have always done by erroneously believing that they will win the war without recognizing the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia or making some huge political concession.”

Anyangwe pointed out that French Cameroun and Biya are making such mistakes because they are getting wrong advice from some Southern Cameroons traitors such as Paul Atanga Nji, Paul Tassong and Dion Ngute who say Yaoundé should count on Southern Cameroons pro Yaoundé civil servants.

“These so-called Southern Cameroons CPDM elites are naive to suppose that Ambazonians have lost their faith in President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Ambazonian Interim Government,” Anyangwe reiterated.

Anyangwe furthered that French Cameroun lies and deceptions must be exposed.

By Enowtaku Ebanghatabi Christelle in the US

4, June 2022

Shakira and footballer Gerard Pique separate ⁰

Colombian superstar Shakira and FC Barcelona defender Gerard Pique announced Saturday they were calling time on their relationship of more than a decade.

The 45-year-old “Hips don’t Lie” songstress is one of the biggest names in the global music industry and has sold more than 60 million albums.

Spanish football hero Pique, 35, won the 2010 World Cup and the 2012 European Championship, and is a three-time Champions League winner with Barcelona.

The couple share two sons and had been living together for years on the outskirts of Barcelona.

“We regret to confirm that we are separating. For the well-being of our children, who are our upmost priority, we request respect for (our) privacy,” they said in a statement.

With her mix of Latin and Arabic rhythms and rock influence, three-time Grammy winner Shakira is one of the biggest stars from Latin America, scoring major global hits with songs such as “Hips don’t Lie” and “Whenever, Wherever”.

In 2020, she performed with Jennifer Lopez at the halftime show of the NFL’s Super Bowl championship final in Miami, typically one of the most-watched half-hours in US television.

The couple announced their separation just over a week after Spanish court documents inched Shakira closer to standing trial in Spain for tax fraud after a Barcelona court dismissed an appeal from the singer.

Spanish prosecutors accuse her of defrauding the Spanish tax office out of 14.5 million euros ($15.5 million) on income earned between 2012 and 2014.

They say she moved to Spain in 2011 when her relationship with Pique became public but maintained official tax residency in the Bahamas until 2015.

Her defence lawyers say she moved to Spain full time only in 2015 and insist that her “conduct on tax matters has always been impeccable in all the countries she had to pay taxes”.

In an interview with AFP in 2019, Shakira said temporarily losing her voice two years earlier had been “the darkest moment of her life” and affected her “deeply”.

She later recovered her voice naturally, without needing to undergo surgery as recommended by doctors and subsequently carried out a world tour in 2018.

Source: AFP

4, June 2022

“Biya CPDM provocations threaten both Cameroons with explosion” ⁰

Dr Emmanuel Anyangwe Ngassa a Southern Cameroons front liner based in Germany has warned that the regime in Yaoundé and its continued illegal provocative military operations in West Cameroon might lead to a great explosion in the two Cameroons.

Dr Ngassa Anyangwe in a conversation with Cameroon Concord News Group was referring to the recent Nollywood style military operation in Batibo which Yaoundé said helped released the 80-year-old Senator Regina Mundi from Ambazonia captivity.

“The activities of Francophone army soldiers in Southern Cameroons remain a great provocative move,” Ngassa said.

“There is consensus within all Southern Cameroons resistance groups for a reaction to such provocative moves deep inside Yaoundé. Things may lead to a great explosion within the two Cameroons,” said the renowned Southern Cameroons medic.

“Any further Biya regime military action targeting the people of Southern Cameroons would unsettle the two Cameroons because such actions provoke every freedom-seeking and honorable Ambazonian,” Dr Ngassa warned.

“In trying to hand over power to his son who has not done anything in this life, Biya and his men are resorting to something that would bring about tragic consequences for both La Republique and Southern Cameroons” Dr Ngassa concluded.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

3, June 2022

African Union head tells Putin Africans are ‘victims’ of Ukraine conflict ⁰

African Union head Macky Sall on Friday urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to take into account the suffering in African countries from food shortages caused by the conflict in Ukraine.

Sall, the Senegalese president, told Putin on a visit to Russia to “become aware that our countries, even if they are far from the theatre (of action), are victims on an economic level” of the conflict, adding that food supplies should be “outside” of Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over Ukraine.

Source: AFP

3, June 2022

Queen Elizabeth to miss Jubilee thanksgiving service after ‘discomfort’ at kickoff ⁰

Britain celebrates the second day of Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee on Friday, with the highlight a service of thanksgiving attended by senior royals and politicians that the 96-year-old monarch herself will miss due to ongoing mobility issues.

The four days of events kicked off on Thursday, when a happy-looking Elizabeth waved to crowds from the balcony of Buckingham Palace after a military parade and Royal Air Force flypast, and later led the lighting of the Principal Platinum Jubilee Beacon at her Windsor Castle home.

The celebrations continue with a National Service of Thanksgiving at London’s St Paul’s Cathedral to pay tribute to the sovereign’s 70 years on the throne.

But the queen, who has been forced to cancel a series of engagements recently because of “episodic mobility problems”, will be absent, pulling out late on Thursday and slightly taking the sheen off the day’s party atmosphere.

“The queen greatly enjoyed today’s Birthday Parade and Flypast but did experience some discomfort,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement.

Source: Reuters

3, June 2022

IG urges South Africa to stop Biya’s war crimes in Southern Cameroons ⁰

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government has reportedly sent a letter to prominent MPs in the South African parliament, calling on the government of President Cyril Ramaphosa to take measures to stop the Biya French Cameroun regime forces from killing innocent civilians including women and children in Ambazonia.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that in the letter to the South African lawmakers, Dabney Yerima called on the ANC administration to take immediate, concrete steps to stop the ongoing war in Southern Cameroons.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader has also met with heads of parliamentary groups in South Africa including the much respected Julius Malema of the Economic Freedom Fighters party urging all to immediately take action against the despotic Biya French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé.

Yerima told an anti French rally recently in South Africa that the international community must hold the Biya Francophone government in Yaoundé accountable for its atrocities against the people of Southern Cameroons.

By Isong Asu

3, June 2022

Federal Republic of Ambazonia: Vice President Yerima’s father dies in Bamenda ⁰

Vice President Dabney Yerima’s father died on Thursday after falling ill in Bamenda the chief city in the North West, aged 80.

Yerima’s father the late Caleb Tamuh Yerima died after sharing a word of prayer with his family on their chat group, the Ambazonia Interim Government said in a statement.

Family sources at Papa Tamuh Yerima’s hospital bedside hinted Cameroon Concord News that he suffered heart problems.

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government, who has been on his legs for over five weeks now, will remain in South Africa where other close members of the family will meet him.

“It is with deep regret we can confirm that Caleb Tamuh Yerima died late on Thursday. He passed away shortly after he was rushed to the hospital in Bamenda where he was undergoing treatment,” the IG said in a statement.

Dabney Yerima, who took over as leader of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government from Dr Ikome Sako, said his father had been an inspiration to him.

By Enowtaku Ebanghatabi Christelle

2, June 2022

Yaoundé: Is Senator Mundi provoking Amba Defense Forces? ⁰

The Yaoundé Senator, Regina Mundi, once held by Ambazonian Defense Forces has gone back to the senate where she was received by the same crime syndicate which caused her to be arrested by Amba Defense Forces (ADF).

The senator had been arrested one month ago for illegally participating in the politics of an unfriendly and hostile neighboring country which has killed some five thousand Ambazonias in a war that is still ongoing.

The 80-year-senator seems to have forgotten that she had told the world that she was an Ambazonian in a video when she was in custody in the green jails of Ambazonia and, being Ambazonian, she is not supposed to be aiding and abetting the enemy in a war which has resulted in the death of thousands of Ambazonians.

Ms. Mundi was only released when a foreign government and her children worked together to pay CFAF 80 million, equivalent of USD 170,000, to the ADF.

But the Yaoundé government has been trying to persuade the world that she was released after a violent gun battle that never took place.

Ms. Mundi came out of where she was held very relaxed as if she was waiting for a limousine to take her to a party. She was well-dressed and she could be seen in the pictures released by Yaoundé forces hugging Yaoundé soldiers who were also very relaxed and neatly dressed.

There were no dead bodies and no wounded in the government’s violent release of a “hostage” and no ADF weapons were seized and displayed whereas the government claimed that it surprised ADF officers.

Though now living in exile in Yaoundé, Ms. Mundi should understand that the ADF can still pick her up if she violates the terms and conditions of her parole. She is not supposed to be seen with members of the Yaoundé-based crime syndicate and must end her political career in a foreign country immediately.

Speaking to the Cameroon Concord News Group’s Yaoundé-based correspondent, an Amba soldier who spoke on condition of anonymity said Senator Mundi was a repeat offender, adding that she would very likely return to jail if she did not put an end to her illegal political activities.

“Senator Mundi is still playing with fire. She now understands that there is an active war taking place between the Yaoundé government and Ambazonia, but she has opted to return to Yaoundé to continue helping the enemy. We are keeping an eye on her and her crimes and sins will not be forgiven this time around,” the Ambazonian officer said.

“The government paid CFAF 80 million to our bosses living abroad and her release was obtained, but next time we will double the amount as she is not complying with the terms of her release,” the angry officer concluded.

By Rita Akana in Yaoundé