Headline News

10, July 2025

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Over 150,000 children missing ⁰

More than 150,000 children have gone missing in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions amid the ongoing armed conflict, now in its eighth year. The figures were revealed during the 7th session of the Presidential Plan for the Reconstruction and Development (PPRD) of the North-West and South-West regions, held on July 4 in Bamenda, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute.

According to Paul Tassong, president of the PPRD steering committee, NGO reports indicate that separatist groups abducted many of these children without issuing any ransom or public demands.

This worsening security crisis has also driven over 200,000 children out of classrooms across the two regions.

In its June 2025 report on the Situation of Children in Cameroon, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) confirms that school enrollment in these areas remains alarmingly low, with some children having missed school for more than five years.

The report also states that, in 2024, 334,000 people were displaced from the North-West and South-West, including 174,000 who crossed into Nigeria. The conflict has crippled the education system: 41% of schools are closed, leaving 223,749 children out of school and increasing their vulnerability to recruitment by non-state armed groups.

To address this humanitarian crisis, the government launched the PPRD, aimed at rebuilding and stabilizing the affected areas. Over the first five years, the state and partners mobilized over CFA600 billion—a dramatic rise from the plan’s initial budget of 89 billion, later reassessed to CFA2,500 billion due to escalating needs.

With this funding, the government has rebuilt nearly 120 schools—71 in the North-West and 49 in the South-West—as part of broader efforts to restore basic services and community infrastructure.

Since late 2016, the two Anglophone regions have faced a violent separatist insurgency, initially triggered by grievances over perceived marginalization. Armed groups have enforced school boycotts, and attacks on students, teachers, and school buildings have become widespread.

Source: Business in Cameroon

10, July 2025

President Trump praises Liberian leader on English ⁰

US President Donald Trump complimented the president of Liberia Wednesday on his English-speaking skills — despite English being the official language of the West African nation.

Liberian leader Joseph Boakai appeared embarrassed by US President Donald Trump's gaffe — Liberian leader Joseph Boakai appeared embarrassed by US President Donald Trump’s gaffe © Jim WATSON / AFP

Trump was hosting a White House lunch with African leaders Wednesday, and — after brief remarks from President Joseph Boakai — asked the business graduate where he had picked up his linguistic know-how.

“Thank you, and such good English… Where did you learn to speak so beautifully? Where were you educated?” Trump said.

Boakai — who, like most Liberians, speaks English as a first language — indicated he had been educated in his native country.

He was facing away from the media, making his countenance hard to gauge — but his laconic, mumbled response hinted at awkwardness.

Trump, who was surrounded by French-speaking presidents from other West African nations, kept digging.

“It’s beautiful English. I have people at this table can’t speak nearly as well,” he said.

US President Donald Trump (C) speaks during a multilateral lunch with visiting African leaders at the White House © Jim WATSON / AFP

US engagement in Liberia began in the 1820s when the Congress- and slaveholder-funded American Colonization Society began sending freed slaves to its shores.

Thousands of “Americo-Liberian” settlers followed, declaring themselves independent in 1847 and setting up a government to rule over a native African majority.

The country has a diverse array of indigenous languages and a number of creolized dialects, while Kpelle-speakers are the largest single linguistic group.

Boakai himself can read and write in Mendi and Kissi but converses in Liberia’s official tongue and lingua franca — English.

Source: AFP

10, July 2025

South Korea’s ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol rearrested ⁰

South Korea’s former president has been rearrested over last year’s failed martial law bid that plunged the country into political turmoil.

Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached in April over the order, which saw military rule introduced for six-hours in December.

A senior judge at Seoul’s Central District Court issued an arrest warrant for Yoon on Wednesday, citing fears he could destroy evidence.

Yoon, who was the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested, faces trial on charges of leading an insurrection over his attempt to impose martial law.

During Wednesday’s seven-hour hearing, a special counsel team argued for the arrest warrant on five key charges, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

The charges include Yoon’s alleged violation of the rights of cabinet members by not inviting some of them to a meeting before he declared martial law.

Yoon initially attended the hearing alongside his lawyers to deny the charges, before being taken to Seoul Detention Center to await a decision on an arrest warrant.

He was first arrested in January following a lengthy stand-off, with investigators scaling barricades and cutting through barbed wire to take him into custody from his residence in central Seoul.

Yoon was released two months later after a court overturned his arrest on technical grounds, but still faces trial.

If found guilty, he could face life in prison or the death penalty.

Prosecutors have reportedly found evidence that Yoon ordered military drones to be flown over North Korea to provoke a reaction that would justify his martial law declaration, according to reports.

Other senior officials also face charges including insurrection and abuse of authority over the martial law declaration.

Insurrection is one of a small number of criminal charges from which South Korean presidents do not have immunity, but now Yoon is no longer president he is open to other criminal charges.

South Korea’s new president, Lee Jae-myung, was elected in June following a snap election after Yoon’s impeachment.

Lee campaigned on the promise to strengthen the country’s democracy following the crisis and appointed a special counsel team to investigate Yoon over the imposition of martial-law, as well as other criminal allegations surrounding his administration.

Source: BBC

9, July 2025

Moscow: Cameroonian admits guilt in court over rubles-to-dollars scam ⁰

Water into wine? How about turning rubles into dollars.

A Moscow court heard that Hans Tabi Takang, a Cameroonian conjurer who has lived in Russia for 12 years, swindled his victims of around two million rubles (around €20,000), the state-owned Kommersant outlet reported.

In one case, the self-proclaimed magician deceived a woman whom he had convinced he could turn paper or rubles into U.S. dollars via a “special ritual.”

“To turn paper into money, you take a 5,000-ruble note, wash it with a special powder mixed with water, then use that liquid to spray the cash inside a suitcase, wrap the money in foil for some time, and after these steps, the bills are supposed to turn into $100 notes,” the woman said Tabi Takang told her.

After the woman handed over 500,000 rubles to Tabi Takang, the mendacious magic man took off with the money.

According to Kommersant, Tabi Takang said he understood the charges and admitted his guilt.

In a second case, Tabi Takang claimed he would collect special pieces of paper sent by his mother from Cameroon, which he would transform into dollars after a “witchcraft ritual.”

The Russian ruble has been on a rollercoaster ride following sweeping economic sanctions enacted by the West after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

However, the ruble has recently become the world’s top-performing currency, according to Bank of America, owing to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and its impact on the dollar, along with the Russian central bank’s high interest rates and strict capital controls.

Source: Politico.EU

9, July 2025

Political paralysis has gripped Yaoundé and it is now at a dangerous crossroads ⁰

It is difficult to say where the political chaos in Yaoundé will lead us to after very powerful political leaders from the North announced they were no longer with President Biya. It is hard to predict.

Some of Biya’s men in government are still protesting against the North and struggling to handle pressure coming from Barrister Akere Muna and Professor Maurice Kamto.

Unconfirmed reports suggest Ministers Issa Tchiroma, Bello Bouba and Mey have told loyalists to leave Yaoundé and head back to the North.

Political paralysis has gripped Cameroon and the October presidential election is fast approaching.

Biya and his Beti-Ewondo political elites have been in control for 42-years and now there are extraordinarily deep fissures with rival Fulani and Hausa parties – loyal to the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo.

The Minister-Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh with no experience of the Cameroon political story is trying to form a new coalition and breaking with the tradition that government formation and electioneering is simply the prerogative of the head of state.

Southern Cameroonians have already told Francophones to get out of their land and anger is now rising in the West and in the North.

Ngoh Ngoh is taking the last kicks of a dying horse and in doing so; he is attempting to justify the unjustifiable!

Followers of influential Minister Issa Tchiroma were not faced with tear gas and stun grenades during their political rally in Garoua recently but there’s nervousness about where this issue could lead.

The Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia crisis continues to ravage the country but the threats coming from the North and the Bamilekes seems to be intra-sectarian. The spectre of further violence hangs heavy.

In many ways, what is presently going on in Cameroon is really a power play for the spoils that come from the levers of government. It’s not a spontaneous people’s uprising.

National Assembly speaker Cavaye Djibril is appealing for restraint and de-escalation but what is happening in La Republique du Cameroun reflects the profound instability of a political system of government that was set up to serve one man-92-year-old President Biya.

Cameroon is at a dangerous crossroads.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

9, July 2025

October Presidential Election: Yaoundé has a Paul Biya problem ⁰

It began when the 92-year-old leader peed on his trousers, including on his shoes on the May 20 Boulevard in Yaoundé, the nation’s capital. Biya had refused to make the trip to Yaoundé from Mvomeka’a for the celebration but was forced to do so by his wife Chantal Biya and her acolytes in government.

Biya, the political disaster that has been around for forty-two years has recorded an excellent backward trend performance during his tenure as chief executive.

The ruling CPDM Chairman and his men set fire to every profitable government corporation that was established by the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo and corruption and dwindling profits became their hallmark.

Recent efforts led by Minister Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh to run a tribal crime syndicate that guarantees his continued stay in power are coming up short. And all this is producing tension. But it is now becoming something more brutal: a cacophony of politicians from the Northern regions outlining the myriad ways in which they dislike the 92-year-old President Biya.

Complaints have come from Minister Issa Tchiroma, who recently told the Cameroonian people that Biya is a finished man and no longer in command. They have also come from Bello Bouba Maigari who complained about the poor running of state affairs.

The mutiny deep within the ruling CPDM crime syndicate has become so open that those grousing no longer even bother to do it in private. According to Cameroon Intelligence Report sources, a group of senior government ministers including Prime Minister Dion Ngute and Justice Minister Laurent Esso are now complaining about President Biya’s shortcomings in the presence of prominent CPDM Central Committee members in Yaoundé.

Even primary school pupils are getting in on the act with several of them saying that they want to see a new head of state.

Biya’s delayed announcement on the October presidential election is now the butt of jokes.

Only Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, Paul Atanga Nji and Biya’s wife Chantal still think Cameroon should be run by a living corpse. As I write, it is increasingly embarrassing for everyone in the CPDM including the Southern Cameroons comedians that their boss His Excellency President Paul Biya is being laughed at in rarefied circles, and that even his kinsmen and women now see him unfit for office.

The current situation in Cameroon is evidence of leadership failure. The question now is whether to push the idiot out before October or get a decent man like Barrister Akere Muna to challenge him.

We of the Concord Group think that Biya has no defense because his performance over a 42-year period has been dreadful. It is hard in Cameroon today to ask the question “what is the problem?” because everything is the problem!

Anti Bamileke, anti Tchiroma and anti Bello Bouba ranting is not enough to save Biya! Let him go and go now! It is no longer enough to say the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow and when the young people disagree with the corrupt leadership, they are forced to leave the country. This is exactly what is happening in Cameroon.

All of Biya’s partners in Southern Cameroons, West region and now the North have left saying that he is no longer capable of governing the country. Even more concerning is that the list includes many who were considered die-hard Biya loyalists. Even if the ruling CPDM party decides to oust Mr Biya, they do not have a clear successor. The problem with waiting to see how things develop in Yaoundé is that a young and inexperienced soldier might stage a coup and make things more complicated.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

8, July 2025

Biya regime holds forum on AI opportunities, challenges ⁰

A two-day forum opened in Cameroon on Monday to discuss the opportunities and challenges of artificial intelligence (AI) for the Central African country.

According to the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, which organized the event, the forum aims to define a national strategy for AI by establishing a solid ethical and regulatory framework that respects the country’s cultural and social values.

“Faced with the challenges of the 21st century, artificial intelligence represents a strategic lever to accelerate Cameroon’s emergence. This event embodies our desire to position AI as a lever for governance, growth, and digital sovereignty, in a spirit of inclusive transformation serving national emergence,” said Minette Libom Li Likeng, minister of posts and telecommunications, while opening the forum in the national capital of Yaounde.

The forum is being held under the theme: “Promoting an Inclusive and Sustainable Digital Economy through the Mobilization of Artificial Intelligence for an Emerging Cameroon.”

Technology experts in the country have urged for greater innovation, improved digital connectivity, and equitable access to AI.

Source: Xinhuanet

8, July 2025

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 4 Amba fighters killed in Bamenda ⁰

At least four separatist fighters were killed early Monday in a military offensive in the Northwest, according to the Francophone dominated government in Yaounde.

Government forces launched a coordinated attack on the separatist fighters in the Below Foncha neighborhood of Bamenda, the region’s chief town, a security official said.

“They (separatist fighters) had come out from their hiding to terrorize civilians. Having received a tip-off, our brave soldiers launched an attack on them. We will continue to clear the city of these threats,” the official, who asked not to be named said.

Additional troops have been deployed to the region ahead of the country’s scheduled presidential election in October, according to security sources.

An armed conflict between separatist fighters and government forces has been ongoing in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest since 2017, with separatists seeking to create an independent state.

Source: Xinhuanet

7, July 2025

Kenya: At least 11 dead in protests as central Nairobi sealed off ⁰

At least eleven people have been killed during anti-government protests in Kenya and 567 arrested, police said.

Police opened fire on demonstrators, and earlier Dr Aron Sikuku, a medic at Eagle Nursing Home on the outskirts of Nairobi, told the BBC the bodies of two people who died of gunshot wounds had been brought to the facility.

He said hundreds of protesters had gathered outside his hospital demanding to take away the bodies.

The demonstrations mark the 35th anniversary of the historic Saba Saba – meaning “seven-seven” – protests of 7 July 1990, which launched Kenya’s push for multi-party democracy.

Police released a statement on Monday evening praising officers for “exceptional restraint and professionalism in the face of sustained violence and provocation”. It said 52 police officers and 11 civilians had been wounded.

The state-run Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KHRC) earlier said at least 10 people had been killed.

In a scathing report, it accused police of using excessive force, as has frequently been the case during the current wave of protests.

“Police operated in plainclothes and unmarked vehicles” on Monday and collaborated with “armed criminal gangs in Nairobi, Kajiado, Nakuru, Kiambu, and Eldoret”, it said. The police have previously denied such accusations.

It added that it had evidence that at least two people had been abducted, as well as reporting 29 injuries and 37 arrests in towns across the country.

From early in the morning, hundreds of commuters and overnight travellers were stranded at checkpoints, some more than 10km (six miles) from the city centre, with only a few vehicles allowed through.

Roads leading to key government sites – including the president’s official residence, State House, and the Kenyan parliament – were barricaded with razor wire.

Some schools advised students to stay at home.

But clashes broke out in parts of the capital as demonstrators lit fires and attempted to breach police cordons. Officers responded with tear gas and water cannon.

According to leading Kenyan newspaper the Nation, demonstrations have spread to 17 counties out of 47.

In Meru county, eastern Kenya, a shopping centre in the town of Makutano was engulfed in flames. Clouds of thick black smoke could be seen coming from the building.

In Ol Kalou town, one protester was shot dead and another who suffered gunshot wounds survived.

In Kamukunji, near the Nairobi venue where the original Saba Saba protests were held, police battled groups of protesters who lit fires on the streets.

A planned appearance by former Prime Minister Raila Odinga was cancelled, with him saying “the roadblocks all over town which made it difficult for people to make it to Kamukunji” meant he could not “join Kenyans in commemorating this important day”.

But this did not deter him from blasting Kenya’s “rogue police force that shoots people with impunity, a force inherited from the colonialists,” while calling for a national dialogue on reforming the country’s police.

He was arrested after the original Saba Saba protests in 1990 but last year threw his support behind the government.

By mid-morning on Monday, hundreds of overnight passengers remained stranded.

Some long-distance buses were parked in Kabete, about 13km from the city centre, with many passengers who could not afford to pay extra money for motorcycle rides to their destinations remaining there.

Humphrey Gumbishi, a bus driver, said they had started their journey on Sunday evening only to find the police road block in the morning.

“We started travelling at 8:30pm last night… We want the government to engage in a dialogue with Gen-Zs so all this can come to an end,” he told the BBC.

Anthony Irungu / BBC Buses on a highway outside Kenya's capital Nairobi — Long-distance buses were stopped far from the city centre

Anthony Irungu / BBC Police in uniform block a highway leading to Nairobi. Crowds of people are seen in the background — Key roads into Nairobi city centre have been blocked

In a statement issued on Sunday evening, the police said it was their constitutional duty to protect lives and property while maintaining public order.

Monday’s demonstrations were organised primarily by the so-called Gen-Z young people, demanding good governance, greater accountability, and justice for victims of police brutality, continuing the wave of anti-government protests since last year.

On 25 June, at least 19 people were killed and thousands of businesses looted and destroyed in a day of nationwide protests that were being held in honour of those killed in last year’s anti-tax protests.

On Sunday, an armed gang attacked the Nairobi headquarters of the KHRC, which had been hosting a press conference organised by women calling for an end to state violence ahead of Monday’s protests.

KHRC spokesman Ernest Cornel said the gang was made up of at least 25 people on motorbikes chanting: “There will be no protest today.”

“They were carrying stones, they were carrying clubs… they stole laptops, they stole a phone and they also took some valuables from journalists who were there,” he told the BBC Newsday programme.

The original Saba Saba protests were a key moment that helped usher in multiparty democracy in Kenya after years of one-party rule.

The response by the then government under President Daniel arap Moi was brutal. Many protesters were arrested, while at least 20 people were reportedly killed.

Since then, Saba Saba has come to symbolise civic resistance and the fight for democratic freedom in Kenya.

Source: BBC

7, July 2025

Russia: minister sacked by President Putin found dead ⁰

Russia’s Investigative Committee says former Russian transport minister Roman Starovoit has been found dead, apparently with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

He was dismissed earlier on Monday by President Vladimir Putin.

No reason for Starovoit’s dismissal was given and deputy transport minister Andrei Nikitin was announced as his replacement shortly after.

The Investigative Committee said it was working to establish the circumstances of the incident.

Starovoit was appointed minister of transport in May 2024.

Before that, Starovoit had served as governor of the Kursk region for almost six years, until May 2024.

The region was partly seized by Ukrainian troops in August 2024 in a surprise offensive. Moscow only recently managed to drive out the Ukrainian forces, although in late June Kyiv said it was still holding a small area of territory inside Russia.

Starovoit’s successor, Aleksey Smirnov, was only in post for a short while. He was arrested in April and was later accused of embezzling funds that had been allocated for the building of fortifications on the border with Ukraine.

According to Russian outlet Kommersant, Starovoit was about to be brought in as a defendant in the same case.

It is unclear when, exactly, Starovoit died.

The head of the State Duma Defence Committee, Andrei Kartapolov, told Russian outlet RTVI that his death occurred “quite a while ago”.

Earlier on Monday, before Starovoit’s death was announced, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was pressed by reporters on whether the dismissal meant Putin had lost trust in Starovoit over the events in Kursk.

“A loss of trust is mentioned if there is a loss of trust. Such wording was not used [in the Kremlin decree],” Peskov replied.

Source: BBC