Life

13, October 2017

France’s Audrey Azoulay picked as new UNESCO chief ⁰

UNESCO’s executive board has selected former French Culture Minister Audrey Azoulay as the new chief of the United Nations’ cultural agency.

Azoulay, who served as a minister under President Francois Hollande, narrowly beat Qatar’s Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari in the final 30-28 vote on Friday.

Azoulay must be approved by UNESCO’s 195 members on November 10.

The 45-year-old Azoulay will succeed Irina Bokova, a Bulgarian who has led the body since 2009.

The voting comes a day after the United States announced that it will withdraw from the UN’s cultural organization, accusing it of “anti-Israel bias.”

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement on Thursday that Washington would establish an “observer mission” to replace its representation at the Paris-based agency.

“In this time of crisis we need more than ever to support, strengthen and reform UNESCO and not leave it,” Azoulay told journalists, saying she would modernize the agency.

“If I’m confirmed…the first thing I will do is to restore its credibility, restore the faith of its members and its efficiency so it can act,” she added.

UNESCO is known for designating world heritage sites such as Syria’s Palmyra, the Grand Canyon in the US state of Arizona and twenty-two sites in Iran.

Source: Presstv

13, October 2017

Davido to answer questions on the killing of Tagbo Umeike and 2 others ⁰

The popular Nigerian pop star Davido has been summoned by the Nigerian police in Lagos after the suspicious death of three of his acolytes. The Afrobeat star with his real name David Adeleke was summoned by the Nigerian police in Lagos to be heard about the fuzzy circumstances around the death of three of his relatives in the space of a week.

The latest death is that of Tagbo Umeike, 35, whose body was abandoned at the General Hospital in Lagos on the 3rd October in the early morning after a very alcoholic evening. According to local police, he had consumed 40 shots of Tequila, with friends, including singer Davido.

The girlfriend of the deceased young man, Caroline Danjuma, a Nollywood actress has accussed the singer of having fled after having abandoned her friend. For now, the singer denied any connection with the deaths.

The tragedy started when the bodies of two other Davido comrades were found on the 7^th of October in a BMW parked in a private residence in the chic Banana Island area in Lagos.

By Chi Prudence Asong, CCN

12, October 2017

Trump seeks Obamacare dismantling with executive order ⁰

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that he claims will bring affordable health insurance to millions, taking his first concrete step in dismantling Obamacare.

The executive order would give “millions of Americans with Obamacare relief,” Trump said on Thursday.

The order, which tasks the administration with developing policies to increase health care quality and lower prices, is aimed at letting small businesses band together across the country to buy cheaper, less regulated health plans for their employees.

The new plan would “cost the United States government virtually nothing and people will have great great health care. And when I say people, I mean by the millions and millions,” Trump said.

Trump resorted to using presidential powers to dismantle Obamacare after fellow Republicans in Congress had failed to repeal the 2010 law.

During the last year election campaign, Trump promised to dismantle Obamacare, former President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement.

Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, accused Trump of using the executive order as a wrecking ball to single-highhandedly tear down and sabotage Obamacare after he failed to repeal the law in Congress.

“Having failed to repeal the #ACA in Congress, @POTUS is using a wrecking ball to singlehandedly rip apart & sabotage our healthcare system,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, tweeted.

Trump’s efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act failed after analyses of the GOP replacement plans showed the number of Americans without insurance would increase by more than 20 million people, as compared to current law.

Culled from Presstv

12, October 2017

US to withdraw from UNESCO over ‘anti-Israel bias’ ⁰

The United States has announced that it will withdraw from the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), accusing the UN’s cultural organization of “anti-Israel bias.”

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement on Thursday that Washington would establish an “observer mission” to replace its representation at the Paris-based agency.

“This decision was not taken lightly, and reflects US concerns with mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO,” the statement said.

“US withdrawal will take effect on December 31, 2018. The United States will remain a full member of UNESCO until that time,” it added.

UNESCO, which has 195 member states, is known for designating world heritage sites such as Syria’s Palmyra, the Grand Canyon in the US state of Arizona and twenty-two sites in Iran.

The head of UNESCO Irina Bokova voiced “profound regret” over the US decision, calling it a “loss to multilateralism.”

“I wish to express profound regret at the decision of the United States of America to withdraw from UNESCO,” Bokova said in a statement.

The US also withdrew from the organization in 1984 during the administration of former US President Ronald Regan, claiming it was biased in favor of the former Soviet Union.

Former US President George W. Bush rejoined UNESCO in 2002. The US stopped funding the body in 2011, after the organization accepted Palestine as a member.

US President Donald Trump is also reportedly considering withdrawing the United States from the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which his administration accuses of being biased against Israel.

Source: Presstv

10, October 2017

The great SOBA:UK alumni association for rock star ex-students ⁰

With excitement building amongst Sobans in the UK around the 2017 Annual Residential Convention slated from the 10th to the 12th of November in Rugby, it seems the leadership team headed by Ayuk Akoh-Arrey and his executive and event management teams, have ticked all the boxes on the to do list, and is satisfied with the preparations.

The Association wants to continue to deliver on its theme of “Building A Stronger Community”. Festivities, which include the SOBA:UK’s AGM and ceremonies, will kick off formally at 11am on the 11th of November at Dunchurch Park Hotel and Conference Centre, Rugby Road, Dunchurch.

Pre-SOBA:UK events across the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland are in full swing. These include media networking sessions, Sobans interactions with sponsors and local communities and dry runs of programs for the big day. During their address on Saturday the 11th of November, the SOBA:UK leadership team will highlight what has been achieved by so far since their recent election in the 2017 executive elections. The AGM involves members discussing SOBA:UK priorities and programmes for the year ahead, amongst many topics this year, extensions to the existing welfare structure to further support Sobans in various challenging situations in the UK, as well as new new proposals to partner with SOBA America in 2018 in giving back to the alma mater and encouraging academic and extra-curricular achievement in Sasse College.

Cameroon Concord News sought to discover how SOBA:UK has come to occupy the number one spot of Cameroon alumni associations in the UK. “It has taken a simple recipe – sustained effort and commitment by many Sobans. Ever since Ayuk Akoh-Arrey became president in 2014, with his background in financial services, he has sought to make the association financially strong. ” said Eko Ngwashi of the events management team.

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In 2014 SOBA:UK set a vision

A number of volunteers organized themselves into six strategic teams to drive growth. “We were poised to set a long term plan to compete with the likes of the Eton college alumni at this meeting” says Secretary General John Bawak. “We believed the UK association deserved to boast of a big bank account and such a vibrant community that Sobans would feel comfortable talking about SOBA:UK at their places of work. That is the moment the SOBA:UK brand became crucial”.

SOBA:UK at a long term vision meeting in 2014 to identify a model for their community of volunteers

Photographer: Alex Quest

What’s more, the potential for various members to take part in this growth by working in projects to drive the vision. This is how SOBA:UK gets people to participate in projects and activities that create the dynamic association that it is. The Charity and Welfare team establishes and reviews systems for Sobans in need. The events management team undertakes strategic leadership in planning and executing all their events. A Liasons team is responsible for liasing with the executive team and Sobans and also with the wider Cameroonian community. A business and systems team manages offline and online coordination of the association, meanwhile a publicity and marketing team carries out the marketing. Newly elected Vice Secretary General Usamatu Babangida said “It is an easy association to join, it only requires to pay membership and there is so much work to keep you busy”.

The Welfare Team on road trip to Scotland in 2017 in support of a bereaved Soban family in Nov 2015

Cameroon Concord News understands that a welfare scheme has paid over £16,000 to bereaved Sobans since 2006 when the first bereavement was issued. “Our bereavement scheme works not just because we pay out but because Sobans show up and see the families of those who are bereaved” says Financial Secretary, Batey Tako. SOBA:UK members have been known to make long road trips to be with the families of bereaved Sobans at their time of need. This extra-ordinary commitment towards each other is reciprocated in SOBA:UK events where hundreds of guests turn out in support of the association. The Welfare Team has also made over £17,500 in payouts to projects in Sasse over the last 10 years.

The Events management team boasts of three of the association’s most successful conventions in 2014, 2015 and 2016, which have seen sponsors of the likes of Lycamobile, Turkish Airways, SellamQuick.com, some other big businesses and media partners in Vox Africa, which won Channel of the Year at the African Pride Awards.

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The SOBA:UK Residential Convention is the highlight of the summerfor many Cameroonians in the UK. Cameroon Concord News gathered that due to levels of demand, preparations include tight security for the guests, the media and members of the public, both inside and outside Dunchurch Park Hotel. SOBA:UK’s Event Management team for 2017 has also authorized a “Book-Early And Get Up to £60 off” discount [www.sobaintheuk.org] to purchase a table for 10 people, with additional discounts for registered members.

Cameroon Concord News understands that the AGM is the forum where Sobans with any grievances or suggestions can attend and put their issues so that continuous structural improvements can be achieved within SOBA:UK. The president was quoted as saying that members who have genuine grievances are encouraged to attend the official AGM in 11 November, and put those to the General Assembly for deliberation. SOBA:UK we understand is financially very strong providing a good base to support its membership, which is at the heart of the Association.

Many other Sobans all over UK are also hard at work to ensure that people participate in activities and for the event to be a success as it was in 2016. As such, they have provided even greater public access to all SOBA proceedings. Sobans in other parts of the world and Cameroon who prefer to follow the event in the comfort of their homes can tune in towww.cameroonconcordnews.com for updates. The SOBA:UK convention will also be broadcast live on www.cameroonintelligencereport.com. The ceremony will also be covered by accredited journalists from various local and international media houses.

“We are confident that this greater access will allow more Sobans to hear directly from President Ayuk Akoh-Arrey about their association and about issues that concern them” noted Alfred Bate Bawak, a senior SOBA in the Midlands.

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By Chi Prudence Asong with files from Soter Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group

29, September 2017

La Republique: Schools yet to resume in Ocean Division ⁰

Some schools have remained completely closed in La Republique du Cameroun, despite vain attempts by the Francophone Ministers of Basic and Secondary Education to get academic institutions to begin classes in Southern Cameroons. Parents of children are in complete disarray in GHS Makoure and many other secondary schools in the Ocean Division and for good reason. Since the beginning of the school year, no teacher or even the principals of these government establishments have been visible.

Cameroon Concord News understands the governor of the South Region, Felix Nguelé Nguelé, completed a tour on September the 5th and announced on state radio and television that schools had effectively resumed. Cat calls have greeted the governor’s pronouncement with elites saying GHS Makoure never opened its doors on September 4th.

We learned teachers have not even returned to work three weeks after schools officially started throughout French Cameroun. In anger, the parents are pointing an accusing finger at Sieur Bikanda, the Divisional Delegate for Secondary Education. He is accused of having done nothing to improve the situation.

“The delegate wants to be the only elite in the area. His children are in Yaoundé and abroad studying in the best schools,” a parent said. The divisional delegation has however reacted saying, the situation is due to the fact that teachers were not assigned to the locality. In general, several institutions in the Ocean Division have assigned teachers who prefer to reside only in Kribi.

By Sama Ernest, CCN

22, September 2017

Over 50 people die in Chad cholera outbreak ⁰

The Chadian government says more than 50 people have died of cholera in the country since authorities declared an outbreak of the disease.

“We count 312 cases, including 52 deaths,” said Health Ministry secretary general Hamid Djabar on Thursday.

Authorities declared a cholera outbreak on Monday, which put in place a “crisis committee” to monitor the situation and to strengthen cooperation with partners such as medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the UN children’s agency UNICEF.

“For the time being, the outbreak is confined to the region of Sila” near the borders with Sudan and the Central African Republic, said Djabar.

In the neighboring region of Salamat, 19 cases and two deaths were recorded, but the Health Ministry said the situation was “under control.”

Health authorities discovered the presence of the cholera virus in the east of the country in mid-August following two deaths from acute diarrhea and vomiting.

The cholera virus, which can kill within a few hours if left untreated, regularly affects the east and the Lake Chad basin, the least developed areas of the country where half the population lives below the poverty threshold.

“In 2011, Chad, along with other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, was affected by a large-scale cholera outbreak. More than 450 deaths and a total of 17,200 cases of the disease were reported,” MSF said on its website.

A similar outbreak was also discovered in neighboring Nigeria, where the UN said Monday that at least 44 people had died of the disease in the northeast of the country.

The first cholera case in Nigeria was identified in Borno state also in mid-August and has since spread, mainly in camps for those displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency.

“According to estimates, there are 1.3 to 4 million cases of cholera every year, and 21,000 to 143,000 deaths due to the disease worldwide,” the World Health Organization said in July.

(Source: AFP)

20, September 2017

Biya Computer Gift: The CPDM government cannot stop telling lies ⁰

The anti Anglophone Minister of Higher Education, Jacques Fame Ndongo has told the Prime Minister and Head of Government that 80,000 of the 500,000 computers promised to Cameroonian students will be available as of November 2017. Fame Ndongo made the revelation during an extraordinary cabinet meeting that held on the 19th of September in the Prime Minister’s office in Yaoundé.

The controversial Francophone cabinet minister did inform Yang Philemon that he has put in place a transparent distribution mechanism that will take into account enrolment through the bio metric system in all the universities. According to a statement issued by the Ministry of Higher Education, “The computers that students expect will be delivered to them from November on wards. The Ministry of Higher Education will simply have to dispatch the computers concerned to the students who will be enrolled beforehand by the bio metric system in order to avoid fraudulent or fraudulent distributions.”

Fame Ndongo and his higher education gang now say the computers should arrive faster than expected. Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo had made numerous declarations on the Biya Computer program but none has ever come out to be true. He promised the first wave by the end of December and then another delivery date was announced for the month of February 2017 and again deferred. Cameroon Concord News understands the devices are manufactured by a Chinese company that will also equip Cameroonian universities with digital technology centers.

By Sonne Peter, CCN

19, September 2017

44 die of cholera in Nigeria’s militancy-hit northeast ⁰

The United Nations says at least 44 people have died in a cholera outbreak in the militancy-hit northeast of Nigeria, where the first case of the disease was identified nearly five weeks ago.

The world body said in a statement that nearly 2,300 confirmed or suspected cases of cholera had been registered by Monday.

“To date, the outbreak has claimed at least 44 lives, out of close to 2,300 confirmed and/or suspected cases,” read the statement.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said that nearly $10 million is needed to keep the disease from spreading.

Additional funding would assist to implement a cholera response and prevention plan in the coming months, including providing access to clean water and a vaccination program.

Peter Lundberg, OCHA’s deputy humanitarian coordinator for Nigeria, said that despite new treatment centers and sanitation measures, more needed to be done.

“The camps for displaced persons are congested, there is not enough water, sanitation facilities are poor, and the health care system is weak,” Lundberg said, adding, “We must tackle this urgently to avoid preventable suffering and loss of life.”

The first cholera case was identified in Borno State on August 16 and has since spread, mainly in camps for those displaced by the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group.

A boy walks through one of the internally displaced people camps in Gwoza, north-eastern Nigeria, on August 1, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection spread by contaminated food and water. It can be easily treated with oral rehydration solution if caught early, but the disease can kill within hours if left untreated.

The latest figures by the UN suggest a 4.3 percent fatality rate — well above the 1 percent rate that the World Health Organization rates as an emergency.

Cholera is just one of the challenges facing the Nigerian government, which is still struggling to expand its authority in the militancy-wracked northeastern states.

Displaced families stand at the main gate of a camp for internally displaced people at the Monguno district of Borno state, Nigeria, on February 14, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Last week, Mark Lowcock, the UN head of humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, said that the threat of famine caused by the conflict’s impact on farming had been averted.

But 8.5 million people in the northeast, out of 17 million in the wider Lake Chad region comprising Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, needed humanitarian assistance, Lowcock added.

Northeast Nigeria is already in the grip of a humanitarian crisis caused by the Boko Haram insurgency, which has killed at least 20,000 people and displaced more than 2.6 million since 2009.

Source: Presstv

18, September 2017

Yaounde: How President Biya’s children are changing the rules at ENAM ⁰

Last Saturday’s late arrival of the son of the President of the Republic at the examination centre for Cycle B “General Administration” into the National School of Administration and Magistracy, compelled the management of the exams to let the other candidates who came late into the hall.

A Mercedes brand vehicle matriculated CE 915 belonging to the Director of ENAM, Linus Toussaint Mendjana, having on board Paul Biya Junior entered the ENAM campus very late. Tongues have ever since been wagging on why the Director General of ENAM preferred to put his car at the disposal of the son of the President of the Republic.

4,837 candidates competed on Saturday 16 September for the entrance examinations at ENAM Cycle “B” of the administrative division. Paul Biya Junior sat for the exams in “G.A block 3” on constitutional law and general culture.

A week ago, Brenda Biya, the daughter of the President of the Republic, took part in the entrance examination to the cycle B “financial control” of the same school. The presence of the children of the President of the Republic in the list of candidates for entrance examinations to ENAM has generated a new debate in French Cameroun.

By Sama Ernest
Cameroon Concord News