Headline News

26, April 2022

Ireland: Cameroon Concord Group Editor-in-Chief honoured by leading Roman Catholic Cleric ⁰

The Chairman and Editor-In-Chief for the Cameroon Concord News Group, the Right Honorable Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai has been awarded by the Holy See in Ireland, joining an elite group of leading media gurus who have been honoured by the leadership of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.

Soter Agbaw-Ebai joined the media family in 1988 and later on served as Yaoundé City reporter for the Weekly Post, Manyu Bureau Chief of the Herald newspaper, Desk Editor of Newsweek Communications, Publisher of the Focus Newspaper and senior international correspondent for Aimet Magazine.

The ceremony was conducted by His Grace Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo, the Vatican Ambassador at Saint Finian’s Church in Swords Ireland.

Performing the religious ritual, Papal Nuncio Jude Okolo said ‘to a great news reporter and a man of great intellect and integrity, and a lover of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.’

Soter Agbaw-Ebai opined: “I was totally overwhelmed first when I heard about the prospect of being awarded this highest honour by a Papal Nuncio, and then by the truly magnificent 12 year anniversary of Swords Centre African Chaplaincy Archdiocese of Dublin.”

Sir Paul Uzo expressed his congratulations and pride on behalf of the African Chaplaincy in the Archdiocese of Dublin, saying: “The award is of a great accolade for Soter Agbaw-Ebai, recognising his excellent journalistic achievements. It’s also a tremendous honour for the African Chaplaincy.”

By Diamond Esoh in Swords Ireland

26, April 2022

The Holy Father cancels events again due to knee pain ⁰

Pope Francis was forced to clear his diary for the second time in less than a week on Tuesday due to recurring knee pain, the Vatican said.

“Due to knee pain, and following medical advice, Pope Francis has suspended today’s activities,” which included his participation in a meeting of his advisory Council of Cardinals, the press office said.

The 85-year-old pontiff, who in the past few days has been seen grimacing from pain on several occasions, had on Friday also cleared his schedule to undergo medical checks.

Francis, who was elected pope in 2013, cancelled a trip to Florence in February due to what the Vatican called “acute gonalgia”.

The pain in his right knee has recently prevented him from attending events and presiding over religious celebrations.

He also suffers from hip pain which forces him to limp and last July, spent 10 days in hospital after undergoing colon surgery.

However, the pontiff has a packed schedule including overseas events, visiting Malta earlier this month with further trips planned to the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Canada, Lebanon and Kazakhstan later this year.

Source: AFP

26, April 2022

Two Cameroon gov’t soldiers killed in Amba attack in Eyumojock ⁰

A spokesman for the Cameroon government army on Tuesday confirmed two soldiers were killed following an attack by Amba fighters in Eyumojock Sub Division in Manyu.

In a communiqué issued in the French language, the Cameroon government army spokesman said Ambazonia forces attacked a military checkpoint at Mkpot Village, a community in Eyumojock Sub Division, engaging them in a gunfight.

The troops were deployed to Mkpot at the request of the village corrupt traditional ruler who recently donated some of his blood money for the installation ceremony of the Bishop of Mamfe.

Sadly, during the firefight that ensued, two Cameroon government soldiers- one identified as Master Sergeant Owono Etienne, license number 11/15690 paid the supreme price.

Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards is the paramilitary wing of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government led by Vice President Dabney Yerima, seeking to make a state in English speaking Cameroon and form the independent nation of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

By Kingsley Betek in Mamfe

26, April 2022

Attack on Batibo, Guzang and Awom: Ambazonia Interim Gov’t calls for mass mobilization to confront Biya and French Cameroun ⁰

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government says all Southern Cameroonians in the diaspora must mobilize to confront the French Cameroun occupation and colonial settlers and to head to all international organizations in their host countries in droves to raise awareness of French Cameroun’s intensified assaults on Southern Cameroonians.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Vice President Dabney Yerima said the Southern Cameroons diaspora population should be ready to begin massive protests in various capitals in the West.

“Southern Cameroons unity and resistance in confronting the Biya French Cameroun occupation will deter the Francophone political elites from implementing their malicious schemes targeting the people of Southern Cameroons” the statement read.

Earlier on Monday, Francophone army soldiers once again attacked Southern Cameroonians in Batibo, Awom, and Guzang. Seven civilians were reportedly killed by Cameroon government troops and several others were arrested with some summarily executed.

Cameroon Concord News correspondent in Widikum said homes were ransacked, money, food stuff and other valuables taken away. He also affirmed that bullets injured 19 people, including one cleric while a dozen suffered from tear gas inhalation.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

26, April 2022

Situation in Southern Cameroons similar to lead-up to the KNDP Crisis ⁰

A senior Ambazonian official has hit out at CPDM Southern Cameroons elite for fraternizing President Biya and his Francophone regime in Yaoundé.

“There are two approaches among the people of Southern Cameroons. The majority resists the occupying French Cameroun regime, but the other front, namely the CPDM Southern Cameroons elites and AGOVC, are La Republique du Cameroun’s mercenaries” Dr. Patrick Ayuk, a member of the Dabney Yerima-led Ambazonia Interim Government told Cameroon Concord News on Monday.

The first front, Dr. Patrick Ayuk said, is ready to make all sacrifices to expel the occupying Biya French Cameroun regime from the entire Federal Republic of Ambazonia, but the latter does not believe in the liberation of Southern Cameroons.

The senior Dabney Yerima adviser said the current situation in Southern Cameroons is similar to the lead-up to the KNDP crisis of 1963 after French Cameroun secret agents had murdered the Secretary General Zacharia Abendong.

The French Cameroun anti KNDP operation saw the emergence of ST Muna and his group that eventually auctioned Southern Cameroons.

The occupying French Cameroun regime says it is committed to the status quo of a one and indivisible Cameroon and nothing will change about it.

Dr. Patrick Ayuk furthered that the Southern Cameroons diaspora failure to back up Ground Zero in the face of the French Cameroun military onslaught is delaying the mission to Buea.

By Isong Asu

25, April 2022

French nun Sister Andre, 118, claims title of world’s oldest person ⁰

A French nun who recently celebrated her 118th birthday with her traditional port-and-chocolate cocktail is now the world’s oldest known person, following the death announced Monday of a Japanese woman one year her senior.

Lucile Randon, known as Sister Andre, was born in southern France on February 11, 1904, when World War I was still a decade away.

She now lives at a nursing home in Toulon along the Mediterranean coast, beginning every day with breakfast and then a morning mass, though her eyes can no longer see.

“She’s happy, she likes very much this attention,” said the home’s communications director David Tavella, adding that a short press conference would be held Tuesday morning.

“But it’s just another step, because her real goal is to overtake Jeanne Calment,” a French woman who was reportedly 122-years-old when she died in 1997.

This year Sister Andre got a handwritten New Year’s greeting from President Emmanuel Macron, among the many letters and boxes of chocolates sent by well-wishers.

“I was always admired for my wisdom and intelligence, but now people could care less because I’m stubborn,” she jokingly told an AFP in an interview for her 118th tour around the sun.

“I’m thinking of getting out of this business but they won’t let me,” she said.

She worked as a governess in Paris — a period she once called the happiest time of her life — before taking her religious vows with the Daughters of Charity.

Previously the person deemed the world’s oldest by the International Database on Longevity (IDL) and Guinness World Records was Kane Tanaka, whose death in Japan on April 19 was announced Monday.

With her death, “Sister Andre indeed becomes the oldest, and by far, since the next oldest is a Polish woman who is 115,” said Laurent Toussaint, a computer scientist and amateur tracker for the IDL as well as the French institute of demographic studies (INED).

Most centenarians are found in the world’s so-called blue zones, where people live longer than average, such as Okinawa in Japan or on the Italian island of Sardinia.

But France, while not considered a blue zone, nonetheless has 30,000 centenarians, according to statistics institute Insee, with around 40 of them 110 or older.

Source: AFP

25, April 2022

Bishops of Cameroon re-consecrate the country to the Immaculate Heart of Mary ⁰

On Divine Mercy Sunday, 24 April, Bishops of Cameroon led thousands of Cameroon’s Catholic faithful in re-consecrating the conflict-torn nation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The overnight weekend pilgrimage to the Marian Shrine of Marienberg culminated in the consecration on Sunday morning.

Pope Francis’ appeal for peace in Cameroon

In his Regina Coeli appeal on Sunday, Pope Francis not only appealed for peace in Ukraine but also threw his support behind the national pilgrimage in Cameroon.

“The Bishops and faithful of Cameroon today are making a pilgrimage to re-consecrate their nation to the Mother of God and entrust it to her protection,” said Pope Francis. He added that Catholics in Cameroon were praying for “the return of peace in their country, which has been wounded by violence in several regions for five years,” the Holy Father said.

Bishop Abraham Boualo Kome of Bafang Diocese, in his role as President of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, presided over the Eucharist on Sunday. The Archbishop of Bamenda Archdiocese and Apostolic Administrator of Mamfe Diocese, Andrew Nkea Fuanya, preached at the Divine Sunday Mass.

Be apostles of reconciliation and peace

Archbishop Nkea said the Catholic faithful in Cameroon needed to become apostles of justice and peace if the country was to return to peaceful co-existence it once had. The pilgrimage, he said, had only one scope: To implore the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary for reconciliation and peace in Cameroon.

Speaking earlier, when the Marienberg national pilgrimage and prayer vigil was announced, Bishop Kome told journalists, “The National Pilgrimage and Prayer for Peace to take place in Marienberg is an expression of solidarity of all our brothers and sisters towards the people of the troubled regions of our country that suffer in a visible way,” he said.

Cameroon’s five-year war that no one is winning

There are hardly any headlines about the conflict in Cameroon. In fact, there are several conflicts happening in the country.

According to crisisgroup.org, “Cameroon is beset with two major violent conflicts but also faces rising ethno-political tensions on and offline. The bigger conflict between the government and separatists from the English-speaking minority started in 2017 and has killed over 6 000 people. It has displaced 765 000 people, of whom over 70 000 are refugees in Nigeria. According to the UN, 2.2 million of the Anglophone regions’ four million people need humanitarian support. At the same time, about 600 000 children have been deprived of effective schooling because of the conflict. The country also faces a reinvigorated jihadist insurgency with deadly attacks in the Lake Chad area. The war with Boko Haram, centred in the Far North, has killed over 3 000 Cameroonians, displaced about 250 000 and triggered the rise of vigilante self-defence groups. Nascent ethnic clashes along the border with Chad have displaced thousands too. Elsewhere, and particularly following the October 2018 presidential election, ethnic discourse is heightening political tensions on and offline.”

The Marienberg weekend vigil

Cameroon’s Marienberg Shrine is a remote location that sits on the outskirts of Edea, Littoral Region, in Cameroon.

The weekend’s pilgrimage started on Saturday, 23 April, with the arrival of various delegations from various dioceses of Cameroon. Most of Saturday afternoon was centred around the recitation of the rosary, meditation, confessions, silence, personal prayer and adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.

In the evening, at 20.30, the overnight prayer vigil commenced and continued right up to early morning, in time for people to prepare for the procession and Sunday Mass.

The vigil comprised prayers animated by various devotional groups and teaching on what consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary means.

Source: Vatican News

25, April 2022

Europe hails Macron victory as French rivals vow fight over June legislative vote ⁰

Emmanuel Macron was re-elected as the president of France on Sunday with more than 58 percent of the vote. As international leaders offered their congratulations, rival political parties say they are preparing to do battle ahead of French parliamentary elections in June.

European Council chief Charles Michel, as well as the prime ministers of Belgium and Luxembourg, were among the first to congratulate Macron, followed by many of the bloc’s 27 leaders.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said French voters “have sent a strong vote of confidence in Europe today,” adding: “I am happy that we will continue our cooperation.”

Political parties in France led by La France Insoumise (France Unbowed or LFI) and Rassemblement National (National Rally or RN) are preparing to battle it out in legislative elections on June 12 and 19.

24, April 2022

Polls open across France as Macron and Le Pen vie for French presidency ⁰

French voters head to the polls on Sunday in the second and final round of the country’s presidential election, with President Emmanuel Macron and his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen facing off in a rematch of their 2017 duel.

Macron, 44, topped the first round of the election on April 10 with 27.8% of votes cast. The pro-European incumbent is aiming to become the first president to win re-election since Jacques Chirac in 2002.

Le Pen, who took 23.1% of the first-round vote, is making her third run for the presidency. The 53-year-old nationalist leader is hoping to become the first woman to hold the job.

First exit polls are expected at 8pm Paris time (GMT+2) when the last polling stations close in Paris and other cities. Until then, French media are barred from quoting candidates or publishing polls to ensure they don’t influence voters.

Some 48.7 million are registered to vote, though pollsters have warned that turnout could be lower than in the first round, when one in four abstained from voting.

Source: France 24

24, April 2022

Football: Didier Drogba loses bid to become Ivorian federation president ⁰

Didier Drogba lost a controversial bid to become president of the Ivory Coast Football Federation when he was eliminated after the first round of voting at Saturday’s elective congress.

The former Chelsea star polled only 21 votes in a three-way race, with the two other candidates, Yacine Idriss Diallo (59) and Sory Diabate (50) polling more than double his tally. Diallo won a second round to decide the presidency of the federation.

Drogba’s candidacy had been disputed last year when he first attempted to stand for election but did not receive the required support from clubs and other interest groups, such as the players’ union and coaches’ association, whose nominations he needed to get on the ballot.

FIFA then stepped in to dissolve the federation, putting the control of Ivorian football under a ‘normalisation committee’ while the statutes and electoral code were rewritten.

It allowed Drogba, 44, to stand but while he received much public encouragement, he garnered little support inside the Ivorian football community.

Earlier this week he was accused of pulling out of a live television debate with the other two candidates hours before it was due to be aired on television, according to a statement released by the state broadcaster. The debate went ahead without him.

The Ivory Coast hosts next year’s Africa Cup of Nations final.

Source: REUTERS