A 26-year-old oil tanker, part of the shadow fleet hauling Russian crude, is currently adrift in the Indian Ocean.

As first reported by Bloomberg, the 106,547 dwt aframax tanker Turba is located some 300 km west of Aceh, Indonesia, and is signalling that it is not under command – meaning it cannot manoeuvre on its own.

Vessels use this status to keep out of the way of other traffic, usually because of mechanical or related failures.

The Turba has previously been caught in the act of transporting and transferring Russian crude to other vessels. In mid-September, Bloomberg even photographed the transfer between the Turba and Simba tankers in the Laconian Gulf offshore Greece.

The catch was that, according to AIS data at least, the two were supposed to be miles apart. The deviation in the real and electronic locations of over four miles is one of the ways used to conduct ship-to-ship transport of sanctioned Russian fuel and crude.

Giving fake coordinates to AIS, otherwise known as spoofing, allows buyers to hide buying Russian crude and fuel above approved prices. The G7 granted exemptions for handling Russian oil and fuel traded at or below fixed levels — $60 a barrel for crude and $100 for premium refined fuels like gasoline and diesel.

Even though most tankers that age have already been turned to scrap, that is not Turba’s largest problem. It also flies the flag of Cameroon which is blacklisted on the Paris MoU on Port State Control. On top of that the vessel is not insured by International Group P&I clubs with the last full inspection of the tanker being done in 2017.

At least 40 vessels hauling Russian oil to China and India between early December and early February lacked insurance from members of the International Group of P&I clubs or routine safety-management certificates, according to Equasis. Three vessels, including the Turba, didn’t have classification to demonstrate seaworthiness.

When the European Union put sanctions on Russia, the quite out-of-form Turba became part of the vast shadow fleet carrying the country’s oil and fuel. The rise of the vintage shadow fleet hauling cargoes for Iran, Venezuela, and Russia has grown to number more than 600 ships today.

Southeast Asia – a major crossroads for international tanker trades – has seen its fair share of dark fleet mishaps recently with the explosion of the Pablo aframax in May and the grounding of the VLCC Young Yang last year.

There were at least eight groundings, collisions or near misses involving tankers carrying sanctioned oil products in 2022 – the same number as in the previous three years, according to insurance firm Allianz.

Tankers still working above 20 years of age made up just 1% of the global tanker fleet pre-covid and were still a rarity at 3% before the invasion of Ukraine in late February last year. They’re now on track to make up 11% of all tanker demand by mid-2025, according to data from brokers Braemar.

Culled from Splash247

The Yaoundé floods disaster which has already killed more than 20 people and rendered hundreds of Cameroonians homeless is clearly being blamed on Gregoire Owona, a government minister in the Biya regime who has a massive illegal fish pond in the neighborhood.

On the fateful night of the accident, heavy rains in Yaoundé breached the holding walls of Mr. Owona’s fish pond, sending very strong water currents down the houses of hundreds of residents who were already asleep.

Entire families have been killed in the accident, with one man losing up to eight children.

Many survivors are holding the minister responsible for their pain and suffering, but government officials are avoiding the discussion, hoping that the country’s ailing and old president, Paul Biya, will order an investigation.

A woman who lost two of her family members was heard saying in a video shot by a resident of the neighborhood that Owona should be held responsible, adding that Mr. Owona who was running an illegal fish farm has been deceiving locals with rice and beer to ensure they never report his illegal fish farming activities to the officials.

“We must call a spade a spade. This disaster must not be covered up. The minister is to blame for our pain. We are used to hiding the truth in this country but we are not going to hide the truth surrounding this unfortunate situation. The old man must be held accountable,” the angry Yaoundé resident said.

More videos are emerging and residents of the city (shitty) are speaking up and they are calling on the head of state to order an in-depth investigation.

The survivors are also calling for compensation, especially as the government of Cameroon is not in the habit of compensating victims of any disaster.

The Cameroon Concord News Yaoundé correspondent, Rita Akana, has visited the disaster site and she reports that the residents of the area are bitter and they want justice.

Though many are scared of their security given that the disaster has been caused by a government minister, they are however complaining that the minister’s fish farm was illegal and that he should be interrogated about his illegal business.

Many are calling for severe sanctions, but so far, the government is maintaining a kind of deliberate silence and no investigation has been ordered.

“This country has become a living hell for many Cameroonians. This is the only country in the world where senior government officials who are supposed to be our role models get away with their crimes,” a gentleman who lost the sister to the Gregoire Owona-made disaster said.

“We have not yet received any assistance from the government though a few cabinet ministers have stopped by to see the disaster site. Atanga Nji, the country’s territorial administration minister, was here but he was more interested in projecting the fact that the president had sent mattresses to the victims, but I have not yet seen a mattress,” he said angrily.

“The president’s gift if he actually gifted us those mattresses is unfortunately inappropriate. Most of us are homeless and we are in the middle of a rainy season. If we will ever get the mattresses, where will we use them? We are spending the nights in the open and more rains are in the forecast. The most appropriate thing will be for the government to house all those whose houses have been destroyed. This is however not going to happen because the Cameroon government is not in the business of taking care of its citizens who are facing tough times,” the angry gentleman told Rita Akana.

“We are helpless and we are calling on anybody who can reach out to us to do so. We are really desperate. We need help. Gregoire Owona’s fish farm has ruined our lives. We have lost many people while he is still enjoying his life. This greed, which has become our country’s hallmark, must stop,” he added.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government has expressed deep concern over the latest onslaught on Southern Cameroons villages, calling on the international community to take immediate action to stop the occupying French Cameroun regime’s reckless crimes.

Dabney Yerima made the remarks on Monday, as he strongly condemned the barbaric raid on villages in Manyu Division particularly those along the Mamfe-Bamenda road.

The exiled leader went on to say the continuous attacks of the Francophone dominated military on different areas in Southern Cameroons will fail to restore Yaounde’s lost power.

Vice President Dabney Yerima emphasized on the Ambazonian nation’s legitimate right to self-defense in the face of the French Cameroun forces acts of aggression.

Yerima added that not only Southern Cameroonians but also prominent French Cameroun political elites no longer believe in the United Republic of Cameroon project.

He also noted that such terrorist actions are vain attempts by the Biya Francophone regime aimed at consolidating its hallucination of power.

By Chi Prudence Asong

At least four separatist fighters have been killed in a military operation in Cameroon’s English-speaking region of Southwest, the army said Saturday.

The operation took place late Friday in Kendem village in Manyu Division.

Government troops ambushed the fighters who were in their hideout in a cocoa farm, killing four of them and seizing weapons and ammunition, the army said in a statement and added that there were no casualties on the part of government forces.

There has been fighting in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest since 2017 as separatists want to create an independent nation in the two regions.

Source: Xinhuanet

At least 27 people were killed and more than 50 were injured in floods set off by heavy rains in Cameroon’s capital, authorities said Monday as rescuers intensified the search for those missing following the deluge the previous day.

The rains unleashed floodwaters in the district of Yaounde 2 of the country’s capital on Sunday, sweeping away buildings and reducing many to rubble.

Rescue workers are still digging through the mud and rubble “with the hope of saving lives,” Daouda Ousmanou, the top government official in the district, said Monday.

Cameroon Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Ngi, who visited the site, announced the death toll has reached 27 and that all the injured would be treated for free. “I have come to extend the condolences of Cameroon president Paul Biya to the bereaved families,” he said.

Flooding has been frequent in Cameroon in recent years, with experts often blaming climate change, and its impact has been exacerbated by shoddy construction that often circumvents regulations.

The latest floods were worsened after a dike in a manmade lake gave way, sweeping structures down the hill, the government said.

In the city’s Mbankolo neighborhood, at least 30 houses were swept away while several collapsed on residents inside, Ousmanou said. Other people drowned as they were swept away by floodwaters.

Ernest Zebaze, a 24-year-old university student, said he identified the bodies of his mother and two siblings. “I am still looking for my father who was in the house during the downpour,” Zebaze said.

Bodies of the victims have been laid out at a morgue, while the injured were rushed to hospitals. The Yaounde General Hospital said it received 12 injured, including a 7-year-old girl.

Authorities in Cameroon have been demolishing houses in high-risk zones susceptible to floods and landslides. Many of the buildings that collapsed on Sunday had been marked for demolition.

Source: AP

A senior Southern Cameroons scholar has said that the United Republic of Cameroon project has failed.

“Day-by-day it is becoming evident that British Southern Cameroons is irreversibly transitioning into Africa’s newest state. The French backed Francophone domination equation does not work in Southern Cameroons anymore, and the old ENAM order that used to serve the interests of French Cameroun political elites has been brushed to one side,” Professor Carlson Anyangwe told Cameroon Concord News on Sunday.

The renowned academic noted that the project to Francophonenize British Southern Cameroons has failed and thanks to the brave Southern Cameroons self defense forces, the criminal activities of the French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé have been unmasked.

Elsewhere in his Cameroon Concord News remarks, Professor Carlson Anyangwe noted that Southern Cameroonians have opened up a new chapter of resisting the French backed French Cameroun regime in La Republique du Cameroun.

Seven years into a deadly separatist conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions, hopes of finding a negotiated settlement seem more distant than ever as both the government and Ambazonia restoration fighters dig in, according to civil society activists.

It’s a conflict marked by spikes of extreme violence that invariably target civilians.

Rights groups accuse both the security forces and secessionist fighters of serious abuses that include extrajudicial killings, rape, kidnapping, and torture.

The root of the conflict is the central government’s historical marginalisation of the two English-speaking regions, the Northwest and Southwest, home to about 20 percent of the population.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group chief correspondent Nelly Epupa has said that the Biya Francophone regime in French Cameroun has detained more than 4000 Southern Cameroonians since the outbreak of the conflict in 2006.

Nelly Epupa who headed undercover operations for the Cameroon Intelligence Report said during our October editorial meeting on Thursday that the Francophone dominated government has persisted in detaining English speaking Cameroonians from all segments of the society including Roman Catholic clerics.

Ms Epupa further noted that several children, girls and women had been among those detained by French speaking Cameroon army soldiers deployed to Southern Cameroons. 37 women had to give birth in detention under very difficult conditions.

Nelly Epupa added that several Anglophone academics, journalists and staff from civil society organizations had been arrested.

She wondered aloud why the renowned Barrister Akere Muna recently failed to focus his attention on the remarkable increase in high profile detentions but instead commented on a minor issue in Guzang.

According to the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government, about 90% of Southern Cameroonians detained in French Cameroun suffer from chronic diseases.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Yaoundé says at least 11 hostages held by Ambazonia fighters in the North West have been rescued by the Francophone dominated security forces in Bui Division.

Menyong Gilbert Sunday, prefect of the Bui, said troops conducted an operation overnight into Wednesday, leading the rescue of 10 men and one woman who were held hostage in “an Ambazonia camp” in Kikaikom locality of the division.

The Francophone civil administrator who some reports have suggested is vying to be a Governor in a statement congratulated the security forces on their “bravery and professionalism” and urged the population to continue to collaborate with officials and troops in a bid to consolidate peace and stability in the division where separatist fighters regularly operate.

At least 6,000 people have died in fighting, according to the International Crisis Group. The U.N. estimates that over 700,000 people have been displaced. Both sides have been accused of abuses by human rights groups.

Ambazonia restorations have enforced a boycott on schools, depriving 600,000 children of their education.

In 2019, the U.S. suspended Cameroon from its flagship trade initiative with Africa, AGOA, which gave it tariff-free access to the U.S. market, citing alleged human rights violations by Cameroonian security forces.

Two of the largest state-owned companies which produce crude, palm oil, banana and rubber have almost ground to a halt. Cocoa and coffee production has also been hit.

By Isong Asu with files from Nelly Epupa