Headline News

21, July 2020

Southern Cameroons refugees battling starvation amid COVID-19 pandemic ⁰

In Southern Cameroons almost all its citizens living in the rural areas and various parts of urban centers have been left to fight the COVID-19 pandemic on their own. The ghost town operations and numerous lockdowns have mounted Ambazonian miseries with many facing starvation due to lack of work and Biya regime apathy.

The Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé did not actually imposed any lockdown restrictions on Southern Cameroons counties as the number of confirmed coronavirus infections in the two Cameroons keeps increasing on a daily basis.

Due to pressure from the French brewery Brasseries du Cameroun, Yaoundé was quick to open the country again after cases sharply increased. Southern Cameroons largely rural territory abandoned for over 58 years by the French Cameroun political elites has feeble health infrastructure.

Southern Cameroons caseload is on course to hit an unprecedented level, with fatalities approaching a thousand.

By Fon Lawrence

20, July 2020

Ambazonia Interim Gov’t always ready for dialog with French Cameroun: Vice President Yerima ⁰

Southern Cameroons Vice President Dabney Yerima says the people of Ambazonia and their Interim Government are more than ever before ready for dialog with the French Cameroun government in Yaoundé adding that negotiation is the only way out of existing differences between the two Cameroons.

Vice President Yerima made the comments during a telephone conversation with the leader of the German Ambazonia Think Tank late on Sunday.

“After killing 32,500 of our people, burning down 550 of our villages, forcing 125,000 Southern Cameroonians to become refugees and 1.4million as IDPs including 3,000 still detained in French Cameroun jails, the Interim Government have tried time and again with our 4 points Amba Agenda to engage in bilateral negotiations with the French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé” Yerima added.

“It is evidently clear that only resistance will determine what perspective Biya and his vicious regime would choose to respond to our proposal to begin dialogue” he added.

French Cameroun President Biya and his backers in Paris, France launched a war against the people of British Southern Cameroons to try and force Ambazonians to remain as second class citizens in La Republique du Cameroun.

In January 2018, the Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia Sisiku Ayuk Tabe was arrested with 46 Southern Cameroonians in NERA hotel in the Nigerian capital, Abuja by Nigerian Special Forces. They were then handed over to the Biya Francophone regime in French Cameroun – a move that was ruled illegal by a Nigerian court in March this year.

President Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, and nine of his senior advisers were convicted of charges including terrorism and secession and given a fine of $350m (£286m) after an all-night sitting by the French Cameroun court.

The severity of the sentence has failed to stop the bloody conflict playing out in Southern Cameroons between Ambazonia Restoration Forces and the Cameroon government military.

Vice President Yerima, however, said the Ambazonia Interim Government is always prepared to hold negotiations with La Republique du Cameroun as long as they respect the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

20, July 2020

Coronavirus: Ballon d’Or will not be awarded in 2020 ⁰

The Ballon d’Or will not be awarded this year due to the extraordinary conditions created by the coronavirus pandemic, organisers France Football announced on Monday.

It will be the first time the trophy given for the world’s best men’s footballer has not been awarded since Englishman Stanley Matthews won the inaugural edition in 1956.

“There will be no edition in 2020, because it turns out, after thoughtful consideration, that all the conditions are not met,” said Pascal Ferre, the editor of the magazine.

The COVID-19 outbreak saw all major football leagues shut down in March, with the German Bundesliga the first to resume behind closed doors in May.

France Football said it would be unfair to vote on the world’s best player when some leagues, including the French Ligue 1, cancelled their seasons early.

Ferre also suggested that it would not be right to judge players based on games played without spectators present.

“We believe that such a singular year cannot… be treated as an ordinary year,” he added.

“Two months (January and February), out of the eleven generally required to form an opinion and decide who should lift the trophies, represent far too little to gauge and judge, without forgetting that the other games were played –- or will be played –- in unusual conditions (behind closed doors, with five replacements, Champions League’s Final 8 played in a single game).”

Lionel Messi won a record-breaking sixth Ballon d’Or last year.

The women’s Ballon d’Or, which was first awarded in 2018, has also been cancelled.

France Football added that it was looking forward to holding a ceremony in 2021, but that this year it would instead organise a vote for the all-time greatest men’s XI.

Source: AFP

20, July 2020

Southern Cameroons War: Dozens flee as Biya regime forces advances on Pinyin ⁰

Several Southern Cameroonians including women and children have fled a Cameroon government assault on Pinyin, prompting warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe in the Northern Zone of Ambazonia.

The Yaoundé regime advance comes amid calls by UN Secretary General for a global cease fire. Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered from eyewitnesses that an attack in the village of Pinyin late on Sunday the 19 of July 2020 killed a baby girl, who was just two months old, and her mother.

Our chief correspondent in Bamenda who contributed to this report hinted that the major goals of the French Cameroun government operation are to deprive Southern Cameroonians of healthcare, kill Ambazonia medical workers and push Southern Cameroonians to flee to Nigeria.

Exiled Ambazonia leader Vice President Dabney Yerima described the Pinyin situation as a “tragedy”.

With 32,500 Southern Cameroonians killed, 550 Southern Cameroons villages burnt, 125,000 refugees, 1.4million IDPs and 3,000 still detained any military intervention will have solid basis in international law.

By Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

20, July 2020

Mamfe Mayor says Amba fighters are in complete control of Manyu County ⁰

Southern Cameroons Restoration fighters are in complete control of the entire Manyu County except the town of Mamfe, the mayor of Mamfe and a military source said on Sunday, although the Biya regime in Yaoundé said it had control of the area.

In an interview with a local radio station, Mayor Tabenchung Robinson Ashu revealed that Ambazonia Restoration Forces were running the affairs of the entire rural communities in Manyu and that only Mamfe the chief town in the county was enjoying some form of Yaoundé protection.

Cameroon Concord News learnt that recent deadliest assault in Manyu by the Cameroon government army on the Amba fighters has failed to turn the tides.

Troops loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaounde reported that they retook the Ekok border post but said they lost control again and that the Ekok-Mamfe road remained under Amba control. A military source in Mamfe confirmed the takeover.

At the time of filing this report, our correspondent in Mamfe was unable to independently verify who had control of the Mamfe-Ekok road.

By Kingsley Betek

19, July 2020

Yaoundé tense as post Biya succession void looms ⁰

With the Southern Cameroons crisis showing no signs of ending, the burning question now for many Cameroon political commentators is: Who will succeed Biya? Biya, 87, has ruled the oil-exporting nation for 38 years, making him among Africa’s longest rulers.

There are a lot of under-the-table talks about the issue of succession in Yaoundé. This is another major threat to stability in the already divided nation.

Stability in the two Cameroons matters to the wider region. Its $22 billion-a-year economy is by far the largest in CEMAC region. Reuters reported that aside from Cameroon’s oil sector, the country hosts miners such as Canada-listed Geovic GMC.TO and Australia’s Sundance Resources (SDL.AX) and the port in Douala is vital to traffic in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea.

Over the years, Biya has achieved “stability” while astutely outmaneuvering opposition both within his ruling CPDM crime syndicate and outside it. With Mr.Paul Biya all-powerful, there is no clear successor or plan to manage a post-Biya era.

Consequently, several close relatives of President Biya are vying for the leadership of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate and some of the party barons have already been silenced, Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered from a reliable source in Yaoundé.

The war raging within the Francophone dominated political structure is to succeed the 87 year old President Paul Biya as head of state.

We understand that some of the Biya acolytes have been very careful not to display their ambitions for fear of suffering a similar fate like the former Secretary General at the Presidency Jean-Marie Atangana Mebara and the former Finance Minister Polycarp Abah Abah. Out of the woods before the 2011 presidential election, both men were immediately targeted by the anti-corruption Operation Sparrow hawk.

Among the contenders to take over from Mr. Paul Biya is the current Finance Minister Louis Paul Motaze who is a Bulu from Dja-et-Lobo Division. To be accurate, Motaze is from President Paul Biya’s home constituency and he is also a nephew to late Jeanne-Irène Biya, Cameroon’s former First Lady. Minister Louis Paul Motaze presently moonlights as the CPDM’s regional coordinator for the South Region.

Motaze is being challenged by Justice Minister Laurent Esso, the all-powerful Sawa political boss from the Littoral fiefdom and also by the current Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.

The political heat generated by the infighting within the ruling CPDM party is making the job of the Secretary General of the CPDM Central Committee Jean Nkuété very difficult. Jean Nkuété is President Paul Biya’s long-time friend and the Beti Ewondo gang considers him a lesser evil in the struggle for power.

By Isong Asu

19, July 2020

WHO reports nearly 260,000 single-day Covid-19 infections, a record high ⁰

Countries from the U.S. to South Africa to India were struggling to hold down rising rates of the coronavirus, as global deaths from COVID-19 surged past 600,000 in a sign of how far off the world remains from a return to normalcy.

While the U.S. leads global infections, South Africa now ranks as the fifth worst-hit country in the pandemic with 350,879 cases — roughly half of all those confirmed on the African continent. Its struggles are a sign of trouble to come for nations with even fewer health care resources.

India on Sunday reported a 24-hour record surge of 38,902 new cases, taking the country’s total to 1,077,618. Elsewhere in Asia, China confirmed 13 new cases in the northwestern city of Urumqi while South Korea reported less than 40 additional cases for a second straight day.

The Urumqi outbreak is the latest to pop up since China largely contained the domestic spread of the virus in March. At least 30 people have been infected and authorities are conducting universal testing in communities where cases were discovered, later to be expanded to other parts of the city and major businesses.

South Korean authorities are also struggling to suppress an uptick in local infections, with 34 additional cases, 21 of them domestic and 13 from overseas, raising the country’s total to 13,745 with 295 deaths.

Both countries are mandating testing and enforcing two-week quarantines on all overseas arrivals.

After a one-day respite, COVID-19 cases in the Australian state of Victoria rose again, prompting a move to make masks mandatory in metropolitan Melbourne and the nearby shire of Mitchell. Health officials on Sunday recorded 363 new cases in the past 24 hours. Two men and a woman in their 90s died, taking the national death toll from COVID-19 to 122.

‘Sitting ducks’

The World Health Organization on Saturday again reported a single-day record of new infections with 259,848.

South Africa now trails the U.S., Brazil, India — all far more populous countries — in the number of infections, surpassing Peru, after health authorities announced 13,285 new cases.

South Africa’s new coronavirus epicenter, Gauteng province, hosts the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria and one-quarter of the country’s population of 57 million, with many poor people living in crowded conditions in the middle of a frosty Southern Hemisphere winter.

“The simple fact is that many South Africans are sitting ducks because they cannot comply with World Health Organization protocols on improved hygiene and social distancing,” the foundation of former South African archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu and his wife, Leah, warned in a statement.

Global COVID-19 deaths have hit 601,549, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The United States tops the list with 140,119 deaths, followed by 78,772 in Brazil and 45,358 in the United Kingdom and 38,888 in Mexico, where a surge in cases has frustrated plans to reopen the economy.

The number of confirmed infections worldwide has passed 14.2 million, out of which 3.7 million are in the United States. There are over 2 million in Brazil and more than 1 million in India. Experts believe the true numbers around the world are higher because of testing shortages and data collection issues in some nations.

‘Never seen anything like this’

Infections are soaring in U.S. states like Florida, Texas, Arizona, fueled by the haphazard lifting of lockdowns and the resistance of some Americans to wearing masks.

Teams of military medics have been deployed in Texas and California to help hospitals deal with a deluge of patients who are flooding emergency rooms in parts of the U.S. Some patients are being moved into hallways to make room for most seriously ill and nurses are working extra shifts to keep up with the surge.

Patients struggling to breathe are being placed on ventilators in emergency wards since intensive care units are full, officials say.

Patients are waiting “hours and hours” to get admitted, said Dr. Alison Haddock of the Baylor College of Medicine in the state of Texas, which reported a new daily record for virus deaths Friday and more than 10,000 confirmed cases for the fourth consecutive day. More than 80 infants have tested positive for the virus in the state.

“I’ve never seen anything like this COVID surge,” said Haddock, who has worked in emergency rooms since 2007. “We’re doing our best, but we’re not an ICU.”

The surge of infections means that millions of American children are unlikely to return to classrooms full time in the fall.

Local lockdowns in Spain, India

Police in Barcelona are limiting access to some of the city’s beaches because sunbathers are ignoring regulations amid a resurgence of the coronavirus. Authorities in Amsterdam are urging people not to visit the city’s famous red light district and have closed off some of the historic district’s narrow streets because they are too busy.

Local governments in India continued to reimpose focused lockdowns in several parts of the country following a surge in cases. And in Iran, the president made the startling announcement that as many as 25 million Iranians could have been infected, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. Hassan Rouhani cited a new Health Ministry study that has not been made public. Iran has the Middle East’s worst outbreak with more than 270,000 confirmed cases.

In Bangladesh, confirmed cases surpassed 200,000 but experts say the number is much higher as the country lacks adequate labs for testing. Most people in rural areas have stopped wearing masks and are thronging shopping centers ahead of the Islamic festival Eid al-Adha this month.

Scientists, meanwhile, poured cold water on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s hope that the country may return to normal by Christmas, saying that, without a vaccine, normal life was a long way off.

Source: AP

18, July 2020

Kuwait’s ruler hospitalised, crown prince steps in ⁰

Kuwait’s crown prince stepped in as partial ruler on Saturday after the hospitalisation of the 91-year-old emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, state news agency KUNA said.

“The crown prince (Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad Al-Sabah) is to temporarily execute certain prerogatives of the emir,” his half-brother, the head of state’s office announced, quoted by KUNA.

The agency reported earlier that Sheikh Sabah, ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state since 2006, was hospitalised “to undergo medical tests”.

In September 2019, Sheikh Sabah underwent medical tests shortly after arriving in the United States, leading to a meeting with President Donald Trump being called off.

The emir had his appendix removed in 2002, two years after having a pacemaker implanted. In 2007, he underwent urinary tract surgery in the United States.

Sheikh Sabah argued last year for de-escalation in the Gulf as tensions surged between the US and its arch-foe Iran.

He is widely regarded as the architect of modern Kuwait’s foreign policy.

Sheikh Nawaf, 83, is an elder statesman who has held high office for decades, including the defence and interior portfolios.

Source: AFP

18, July 2020

Berlin, Rome, Paris threaten sanctions on states interfering in Libya ⁰

France, Italy and Germany are “ready to consider” sanctions on foreign powers violating an arms embargo in Libya, a joint statement by their leaders said Saturday.

The statement did not directly name any foreign actors funneling arms to Libya but multiple powers have been sending fighters and weapons, fuelling a bloody proxy war that reflects wider geopolitical rifts and divisions in the Middle East and within NATO.

While forces loyal to strongman Khalifa Haftar are backed by Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, the UN-recognised unity government is fighting back with Turkey’s support.

“We … urge all foreign actors to end their increasing interference and to fully respect the arms embargo established by the United Nations Security Council,” the statement said.

“We are ready to consider the possible use of sanctions should breaches to the embargo at sea, on land or in the air continue.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said they therefore “look forward to the proposals the EU High Representative/Vice President will make to this end.”

Voicing “grave concerns” over the escalating military tensions in Libya, they urged “all Libyan parties and their foreign supporters for an immediate cessation of fighting and for a stop of the ongoing military build-up throughout the country.”

In Brussels for a crunch EU summit on hammering out a huge recovery rund for the bloc, the three European leaders had met on the sidelines of the meeting to discuss the deteriorating situation in Libya.

Since 2015, a power struggle has pitted the UN-recognised, Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) against forces loyal to Haftar, who is based in eastern Benghazi.

Ankara’s military support for the GNA has tipped the balance and allowed its forces in June to repel Haftar’s 14-month advance on Tripoli and launch a counteroffensive.

This week, Egypt racheted up tensions, with its president warning his country “will not stand idle in the face of any moves that pose a direct threat to the national security not only of Egypt but also that of Libya”.

Libya has been mired in chaos since the 2011 uprising that toppled and later killed longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Source: AFP

18, July 2020

Ambazoniagate: Lawyers demand dismissal of case, immediate release ⁰

The lawyers of jailed Southern Cameroons leaders have called for the dismissal of the case against them and every Ambazonian detained ever since the crisis started as well as their immediate release from French Cameroun government’s captivity.

Barristers Sihm ,Akuwiyadze Joseph , Ndong Christopher, Pekum Emmanuel , AmungwaTanyi, Ndoki Michelle and Ayukotang Ndep representing President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides in a statement read in front of the Kondengui Prison demanded that all charges against the leaders be quashed, and that they be freed as soon as possible.

The Court of Appeal in the French Cameroun’s Central Region that recently postponed the hearing has not set a date to listen and decide on the demand.

In January 2018, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe was arrested with 46 Southern Cameroonians in NERA hotel in the Nigerian capital, Abuja by Nigerian Special Forces. They were then handed over to the Biya Francophone regime in French Cameroun – a move that was ruled illegal by a Nigerian court in March this year.

The severity of the sentence has failed to stop the bloody conflict playing out in Southern Cameroons between Ambazonia Restoration Forces and the Cameroon government military.

By Rita Akana in Yaoundé