Headline News

2, September 2021

Ailing Biya projects economy to grow 4.4 percent in 2022 ⁰

Cameroon’s economy is predicted to grow by 4.4 percent next year while economic activity this year will rebound to 3.4 percent compared with 0.7 percent in 2020, according to the country’s President Paul Biya.

In 2022, based on the assumption that the pandemic will be brought under control and economies will open up, coupled with the fallout from the stimulus measures, Cameroon’s economy is projected to grow by 4.4 percent, with 4.7 percent for the non-oil sector and -1.8 percent for the oil sector. Inflation is expected to be contained at 2 percent, below the community threshold of 3 percent, Biya said in a document addressed to government officials.

The document also outlined the country’s proposed budget for the fiscal year 2022, providing insight into top priorities for the Central African nation.

The post COVID-19 recovery plan aims to ensure the structural transformation of Cameroon’s economy with particular emphasis on the continuation of the import-substitution policy required to strengthen the resilience of the economy, Biya said in the document that was made public on Tuesday.

“Specifically, special emphasis will be placed on finalization and commissioning of major first-generation projects, strengthening of social cohesion and decentralization, reconstruction of crisis-affected regions, particularly the Northwest, Southwest and Far North, organization of the Africa Cup of Nations and continued implementation of Universal Health Coverage,” Biya said.

The fight against security threats with a view to sustainably overcoming the pertinent challenges facing the country will be strengthened, according to the document.

Source: Xinhuanet

1, September 2021

FIFA World Cup: Record-breaking Ronaldo rescues Portugal with late double ⁰

Cristiano Ronaldo broke the all-time international goalscoring record with his 110th Portugal goal and then scored an injury-time winner to salvage his country a dramatic 2-1 World Cup qualifying victory over the Republic of Ireland in Faro on Wednesday.

The 36-year-old Ronaldo, whose return to Manchester United from Juventus was confirmed on Tuesday, had missed a penalty in the 15th minute before John Egan gave Ireland a half-time lead.

But Ronaldo equalised in the 89th minute with a header, before outjumping the Irish defence again in the sixth minute of added time.

He passes Ali Daei, who scored 109 international goals, after equalling the Iranian great’s record tally during Euro 2020.

Portugal sit top of Group A with 10 points from four matches, although Serbia are only three points behind with a game in hand.

The group winners qualify automatically for the finals in Qatar, with the runners-up heading into the play-offs.

Ireland are still only above bottom team Azerbaijan after three defeats, including a humiliating 1-0 home loss to Luxembourg in March.

Luxembourg claimed a second win in World Cup qualifying for the first time in their history in the day’s other match, beating the Azeris 2-1.

Ronaldo was gifted the perfect opportunity to take the record on his own early on after Jeff Hendrick was adjudged to have tripped Bruno Fernandes.

The referee was asked by VAR to have a second look on the pitchside monitor, but he stuck with his original decision after a lengthy delay.

– Ronaldo misfires –

But the crowd in the Algarve were stunned, as Ronaldo’s well-struck penalty was saved by diving Ireland goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu, a teenager who is on loan at English third-tier side Portsmouth from Manchester City.

The hosts continued to threaten, with Diogo Jota heading against the post just after the half-hour mark.

Stephen Kenny’s Irish side grew in confidence, though, and Aaron Connolly was denied by the legs of Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patricio in the 45th minute.

Ireland claimed a shock lead from the resulting corner, as centre-back Egan leapt highest to glance a header into the far corner of the net.

Bazunu almost went from hero to villain in first-half injury time, but managed to gather Jota’s volley at the second attempt after initially allowing the ball to squirm out of his grasp.

Portugal started the second half brightly although it was Ireland who almost doubled their lead, as Brighton forward Connolly fired wide under pressure from Joao Palhinha, with his penalty appeals for an apparent nudge in the back waved away.

The Euro 2016 champions predictably piled on the pressure in the final half an hour, with Bernardo Silva inexplicably blazing over from only seven yards out.

Ronaldo saw a free-kick from the edge of the box saved by Bazunu, but he powered a header into the net just seconds later.

James McClean almost grabbed all three points for Ireland as his shot was kept out by Patricio.

But with the allocated five minutes of injury time already played, Ronaldo met Joao Mario’s cross with another towering header.

Ronaldo was booked for his celebration and will miss Portugal’s next qualifier against Azerbaijan next week through suspension, although it is unlikely he will be overly bothered by that.

Source: AFP

1, September 2021

University of Buea Sex Scandal: More gory details are emerging ⁰

When the University of Buea was created in 1992 by a presidential decree, the country’s English-speaking minority saw only the good side of things. With their usual rose-colored spectacles, English-speaking Cameroonians saw only the bright side and nobody ever thought their beloved university would one day become a place where sex and marks trafficking would take place in plain sight.

But once the university’s doors were opened in 1993, the lecturers, indeed, those who are supposed to guarantee that the sanity and sanctity of the university are intact started demonstrating their ugly side. Those who are supposed to be the custodians of the citadel of learning are clearly failing their students and the entire country’s English-speaking community. The shepherds are all yielding to the temptations of the flesh and the “place to be” has become anything but the ideal place of learning.

The lecturers have transformed the girls into their sex slaves. Sex has been weaponized to dominate the young and vulnerable girls who should be empowered so that they can face the future with confidence and dignity. Almost all University of Buea male staff are involved in the sex scandal. They grant marks to the students and receive free sex in exchange. Many of the students graduate without the requisite knowledge and skills that can make them job-ready.

Many Buea University students and graduates are desperate and for different reasons. The students are desperate because their own lecturers have morphed into a “living terror”. The fear of dealing with a lecherous lecturer has left many students with tons of butterflies in their stomachs. For the graduates, they hold their degrees, but many of those degrees are not even worth the paper on which they have been printed. They are devoid of the knowledge that is supposed to guide them in life. They are bereft of the skills they should have acquired while in the university. They sold sex and got marks but cannot sell the same product to get the job of their dream. Their own lecturers have not only ruined their self-esteem, they have also ruined their chances in life.

The disgraced Prof. Agborbechem and Prof. Ernest Molua are simply the tip of a massive iceberg that might drown the entire university when it melts. The Cameroon Concord News Group has been calling the office of the Vice Chancellor of the University to get his opinion on this issue, but nobody is picking up the calls. Some of the numbers on the university’s letter head simply do not work and nobody has bothered to return our calls. Could the mess flowing all over the university be taking place with the blessing of those who are supposed to check it? Some of the numbers we have used to call the vice-chancellor’s office are: +237233322760, +2372333322134 and 237233322690.

This matter will not be pushed under the rug. The University of Buea cannot be a place where young girls get destroyed by their own lecturers. The Cameroon Concord News Group’s Permanent Correspondent in Buea has been talking with some university students and the outcome of that discussion is a clear indictment of the institution’s lecturers.

Prof. Agborbechem is a champion in this regard and his sins go beyond sex. According to a young student who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity, Agborbechem needs to be fired from that institution. He is a terror that needs to be checked and he should leave with all his accomplices. They are many and if they don’t get checked, they will pull down the entire university. Their usually high and out-of-control libido is a reputational risk to a university that is supposed to be a beacon of hope to the country’s English-speaking minority.

According to a source in the university, “Agborbechem sleeps with female post-graduate students and makes promises to facilitate the defense of their theses. He particularly made such a promise to one post-graduate female student, but when her thesis was taken to the jury, it had so many errors. He had not told the student about those errors. Out of anger, the student promised to expose him for sleeping with her and deceiving her. Agborbechem had to negotiate hard and long for his misconduct and corruption not to be exposed,” the young lady told the Cameroon Concord News Group correspondent.

“As if enough was not enough, he also scheduled a PhD defense when he was not supposed to. He even asks his students to give him money for their defense to take place. For male students, he asks for CFAF 300,000 for them to be scheduled for defense and for the female students who are beautiful, he requests for sex. Those who are not appealing to him must pay the sum of CFAF 200,000,” the student said.

For some time now, the learned but crooked professor has been avoiding motels and hotels for fear that they could be bugged. He has been in this trade for a long time, and he knows the tricks of the trade. His office is now very busy. He is avoiding the watchful eyes of the authorities and those who know him. He has therefore transformed his office into a comfortable motel where he humiliates his victims. He lacks the moral stuff that makes a university don. The university must take appropriate measures to check this satyr who is ruining many lives.

While it is being alleged that the University of Buea is secretly conducting its investigations, the Cameroon Concord News Group is also pleased to inform the public that it has hired some undercover agents to carry out an in-depth investigation into a scandal that is slinging mud at the university’s reputation. The outcome of the Cameroon Concord News Group’s investigation will be published piecemeal.

The Cameroon Concord News Group has nothing against Prof. Agborbechem and Prof. Molua. Its objective is to help the beleaguered university clean up its act. Degrees cannot be obtained on the basis of sex and money. A university is a citadel of learning and the University of Buea was created for that purpose and not for sex.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report

1, September 2021

Football: Jerome Boateng signs for Lyon ⁰

The summer transfer window is now over in Europe with some last minute interesting signings.

French international Eduardo Camavinga is the only Real Madrid new player for the next season

The Angolan born midfielder signed on Tuesday a 6 year contract with the spanish giants who agreed to paid 35 Million Euros to his former club, Rennes in France.

Meanwhile Moise Kean is back to Juventus. The italian returns from the Premier League and after a spell at Everton. He had a successful loan at Paris Saint-Germain last season and had been linked with a move back there before Lionel Messi’s arrival.

And it is a new challenge for Jerome Boateng in France. After 10 successfull seasons at Bayern, the brother of black star Kevin-Prince has now joined Lyon as a free agent, a signing he concluded on Tuesday.

Culled from Africa News

1, September 2021

Biden defends Afghanistan exit as ‘best decision for America’ ⁰

President Joe Biden on Tuesday defended his decision to pull troops out of Afghanistan, saying it was in the US national interest.

“We no longer had a clear purpose in an open-ended mission in Afghanistan,” he said a day after the final withdrawal.

“This is the right decision. A wise decision. And the best decision for America,” he said.

1, September 2021

New coronavirus variant ‘Mu’ under close scrutiny by WHO ⁰

The World Health Organization has said it is monitoring a new coronavirus variant known as “Mu”, which was first identified in Colombia in January 2021.

Mu, known scientifically as B.1.621, has been classified as a “variant of interest”, the global health body said Tuesday in its weekly pandemic bulletin.

The WHO said the variant has mutations that indicate a risk of resistance to vaccines and stressed that further studies were needed to better understand it.

“The Mu variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape,” the bulletin said.

There is widespread concern over the emergence of new virus mutations as infection rates are ticking up globally again, with the highly transmissible Delta variant taking hold – especially among the unvaccinated – and in regions where anti-virus measures have been relaxed.

All viruses, including SARS-CoV-2 that causes Covid-19, mutate over time and most mutations have little or no effect on the properties of the virus.

But certain mutations can impact the properties of a virus and influence how easily it spreads, the severity of the disease it causes, and its resistance to vaccines, drugs and other countermeasures.

The WHO currently identifies four Covid-19 variants of concern, including Alpha, which is present in 193 countries, and Delta, present in 170 countries.

Five variants, including Mu, are to be monitored.

After being detected in Colombia, Mu has since been reported in other South American countries and in Europe.

The WHO said its global prevalence has declined to below 0.1 percent among sequenced cases. In Colombia, however, it is at 39 percent.

(AFP)

1, September 2021

French Cameroun: Boko Haram abducts 15 fishermen in Far North ⁰

At least 15 fishermen were kidnapped by terror group Boko Haram late Monday in Cameroon’s Far North region, local authorities said on Tuesday.

Several witnesses who fled after Monday’s raid on Blaram, a sandy fishing village of the region near the shores of Lake Chad, said militants rounded up the fishermen who were fishing and drove them to an unknown destination.

The military did not respond to a request for comment. A security source said they were aware of the incident but were still investigating the details.

In the past month, the terror group has intensified attacks and abductions on civilians in the region, according to security reports.

Source: Xinhuanet

1, September 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Rev. Father Julius Agbortoko Released ⁰

Rev Fr. Julius Agbortoko Agbor, Priest of the Diocese of Mamfe and current Vicar General of the Diocese of Mamfe who was kidnapped over the weekend by some unidentified armed men, has been released.

He was freed late on Tuesday following pleas by many Christians and other distinguished personalities including the Cameroon Concord News Group for his unconditional release.

Father Agbortoko, a faithful servant of humanity, was taken to an unknown destination by armed men believed to be separatist fighters, though many observers hold that those who kidnapped him were some rogue elements who have nothing to do with the fighting in the English-speaking regions of the country.

By Fon Lawrence

31, August 2021

Kidnapping of priests in Southern Cameroons: IG issues statement ⁰

Kidnap of Reverend Father Julius Agbortoko in the Diocese of Mamfe

Yesterday, 29 August 2021, unidentified criminal elements abducted Reverend Father Julius Agbortoko Agbor, Priest of the Diocese of Mamfe and current Vicar General of the Diocese of Mamfe.

The Interim Government of Ambazonia forcefully condemns this thoughtless and criminal act and calls for those involved to release Father Julius Agbortoko Agbor immediately without preconditions. The Interim Government takes a strong view against kidnappings in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. It is, therefore, the view of the Interim Government of Ambazonia that the perpetrators of abductions are not associated with any legitimate self-defence group loyal to the Ambazonia cause.

The kidnapping of members of the clergy is unfortunate, unacceptable and underscores the need for all the factions involved in this conflict to seek ways of reaching a peaceful resolution. Those who kidnap men of God are crossing a dangerous red line, and all God-fearing Southern Cameroonians must condemn this unconditionally.

The Catholic Church in Southern Cameroon has played a significant role since the war in Ambazonia started in 2016. We must not make enemies of our allies and sympathizers. Religious institutions are indispensable parts of the Southern Cameroon structure, and any attack on their members and workers is an attack on the Ambazonia we intend to build.

The Interim Government of Ambazonia is committed to confronting and defeating the evil of kidnappings in Ambazonia. All self-defence groups are called upon to collaborate with the Interim Government to root out all rogue elements involved in this misconduct. Our quest for self-determination will succeed if we do the right things. Unfortunately, kidnapping is not consistent with our state values, and Reverend Father Julius Agbortoko Agbor must be released now.

Thank you,

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

The Federal Republic of Ambazonia

31, August 2021

Football: Ronaldo eyes more Man Utd history after ‘dream’ return ⁰

Cristiano Ronaldo said he has a “never ending love” for Manchester United after sealing his return to Old Trafford from Juventus on Tuesday.

United have secured the five-time Ballon d’Or winner for a initial fee of 15 million euros that could rise to 23 million euros ($27 million, £20 million) according to figures released by the Italian club.

The 36-year-old has signed a two-year contract with an option to extend that deal by a further season.

Ronaldo made his name on the world stage in six years at United between 2003 and 2009 before moving to Real Madrid for a then world record transfer fee of £80 million.

The Portugal captain scored 118 goals in 292 games during his first spell at United, winning his first Ballon d’Or and Champions League title, as well as three Premier League titles, one FA Cup and two League Cups.

“This is absolutely 100% the stuff that dreams are made of,” Ronaldo posted on Instagram.

“Everyone who knows me, knows about my never ending love for Manchester United. The years I spent in this club were absolutely amazing and the path we’ve made together is written in gold letters in the history of this great and amazing institution.

“I can’t even start to explain my feelings right now, as I see my return to Old Trafford announced worldwide.

“It’s like a dream come true, after all the times that I went back to play against Man. United, and even as an opponent, to have always felt such love and respect from the supporters in the stands.”

Ronaldo is expected to make his second United debut at home to Newcastle on September 11.

But the United support were already delirious at his impending arrival as they chanted his name and held up a cardboard cut out of Ronaldo in a 1-0 win at Wolves on Sunday.

Manchester United fans celebrated the return of Cristiano Ronaldo with a cardboard cut out at Wolves Oli SCARFF AFP

“History has been written in the past and history will be written once again!” Ronaldo added. “You have my word! I’m right here! I’m back where I belong! Let’s make it happen once again!”

United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer played alongside his new star during his previous spell in England, but it was his former boss Alex Ferguson who played a big part in convincing Ronaldo to return to the club despite interest from Premier League champions Manchester City.

Alex Ferguson (left)played a big part in bringing Cristiano Ronaldo (right)back to Manchester United Andrew YATES AFP/File

“Sir Alex, this one is for you,” said Ronaldo.

– Pressure on Solskjaer –

The investment in Ronaldo, who is set to become the highest paid player in the Premier League, piles the pressure on Solskjaer to end his wait to win a major trophy since taking charge of the Red Devils in December 2018.

United have also signed Ronaldo’s former Real Madrid teammate Raphael Varane to bolster their defence and splashed out £73 million to bring 21-year-old England winger Jadon Sancho from Borussia Dortmund in their quest to win a first Premier League title since 2013.

“Ronaldo’s return demonstrates the unique appeal of this club and I am absolutely delighted he is coming home to where it all started,” said Solskjaer.

Solskjaer’s men have taken seven points from their opening three Premier League games to sit two points behind leaders Tottenham.

The English giants have also not won the Champions League since 2008, when Ronaldo scored in the final against Chelsea in Moscow.

However, Ronaldo’s experience in Italy serves as a warning that even his goalscoring prowess does not bring a guarantee of success in Europe.

In his three seasons in Turin, Juve never made it beyond the Champions League quarter-finals — crashing out to far less well-resourced opposition in Ajax, Lyon and Porto.

Inter Milan also ended Juventus’ nine-year grip on Serie A last season.

However, Ronaldo still topped the Serie A goal charts last season and rolled back the years at Euro 2020 to win the Golden Boot despite playing just four games as Portugal bowed out at the last 16.

Source: AFP