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Biya regime says 2.4 million need emergency food support

13, July 2022

Biya regime says 2.4 million need emergency food support 0

Cameroon’s government has called for emergency food support for more than two million people facing hunger along its northern borders with Chad and Nigeria. At a crisis meeting Monday in Yaoundé, authorities blamed natural disasters, insecurity, and intercommunal clashes in part for causing the food shortage in the nation of 26.5 million people.

Agriculture Minister Gabriel Mbairobe said floods and elephants have devastated several hundred hectares of farmland, poultry farms and crops, and killed an unknown number of cattle, sheep and goats within the past six months.

Mbairobe also said devastating migratory caterpillars, crickets and weaver birds have decimated thousands of hectares of farmland in Cameroon, especially on the border with Chad and Nigeria. He said close to 300,000 people find themselves in extreme or emergency food insufficiency situations and 2.6 million people are not certain they will have a meal each day.

Food insecurity is threatening the lives of 6 million Cameroonians, Mbairobe said.

Speaking in Yaounde on Monday during the crisis meeting, Mbairobe said most poor civilians threatened by food insecurity find it difficult to cope with rising prices caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Cameroonian government blames the war for a 15 to 30 percent increase in the price of staple food items, especially wheat, maize, sorghum and rice widely consumed in areas along the northern border with Nigeria and Chad.

Cameroon relies on Ukraine for 60 percent of its wheat imports. The war has caused the price of a 50-kilogram bag of wheat to climb from $35 to $60, an amount the government says a majority of the hungry people cannot afford.

Ephraim Chi, who owns a maize plantation in Pousse, a town on the border with Chad, said unpredictable weather conditions and changing climate patterns make it difficult for farmers to know when to plant.

“At times we will go for a long time without rain and at times the rains will become intense, so farmers are now confused when to actually plant their crops and that is why we have a lot of poor yields now,” he said. “People are cutting a lot of trees and these trees regulate the climate. When the soil is so dry because we have cut down a lot of trees, the catchments (water collections) dry up.”

Chi blamed civilians for cutting down trees for firewood and logging companies for what he said is their attitude to destroy the environment.

Cameroonian officials say more than 40,000 people, a majority of them cattle ranchers, farmers and fishers, plan to return to the border region despite fleeing December 2021 bloody clashes over water resources.

The government has not said how much it needs to reduce the food crisis, but that it is in negotiations with funding agencies and friendly countries.

Last week, Japan’s government donated $1.2 million to the World Food Program to assist vulnerable persons, including those threatened by hunger in Cameroon, Chad and the Central African Republic.

In a food analysis in April, the World Food Program said staple food prices, early depletion of household food stocks, and declining incomes from reduced crop sales limit food access for poor Cameroonian households amid low levels of humanitarian assistance.

The report says the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency in northern Cameroon and clashes between government forces and separatist fighters in the Northwest and Southwest regions continue to negatively affect the livelihoods of populations and drive high numbers of acutely food insecure persons. The separatists are seeking to carve out an independent English-speaking region from the rest of the French-speaking country.

Source: VOA

War in Ukraine: Latest developments

12, July 2022

War in Ukraine: Latest developments 0

Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:

Ukraine claims arms depot hit

Kyiv says it has destroyed an arms depot as part of a barrage of rockets and missiles on Russian military targets in southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian military officials say the strikes in the Kherson region destroyed artillery, armoured vehicles “and a warehouse with ammunition in Nova Kakhovka”.

Russian authorities in the city say Ukrainian strikes damaged civilian infrastructure and left at least seven people dead, a toll that could not be independently verified.

EU approves one billion euros in aid

European Union finance ministers approve one billion euros ($1 billion) in financial aid to Ukraine, a first instalment of a promised nine-billion-euro package for Kyiv agreed in May.

“This will give Ukraine the necessary funds to cover urgent needs and ensure the operation of critical infrastructure,” says Czech Finance Minister Zbynek Stanjura, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

‘Massive’ strikes on southern city

Russian forces launch “massive” strikes on the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, with missiles hitting two medical facilities and residential buildings, the city’s mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych says.

The regional head, Vitaliy Kim, says 12 people have been wounded in the attacks.

Netherlands pledges weapons

During a visit to Kyiv, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte says the Netherlands will join other Western allies and send more advanced artillery to the front lines.

But a top US official cautions that Moscow is also receiving a weapons boost, with Iran planning to supply hundreds of drones with combat weapon capabilities to Russia for use in Ukraine.

Fast-tracking passports

After Russian President Vladimir Putin passed a decree fast-tracking Russian passports for all Ukrainians, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to open a representative office for separatist authorities in Moscow.

Source: AFP

Mali arrest 50 soldiers from Ivory Coast

12, July 2022

Mali arrest 50 soldiers from Ivory Coast 0

Malian authorities arrested nearly 50 soldiers from Ivory Coast who came to Mali to work for a contracting company of the United Nations mission in Mali. The government made the announcement Monday calling the Ivorian soldiers “mercenaries,” in a move that could raise tensions between the two West African countries.

Two aircraft arrived at Mali’s international airport Sunday with the 49 soldiers “with their weapons and ammunition of war, as well as other military equipment,” said Malian government spokesman Col. Abdoulaye Maiga. They “were illegally on the national territory of Mali,” and the transitional government considers them mercenaries, he added.

U.N. mission spokesman Olivier Salgado said these Ivorian soldiers “are not part of one of the MINUSMA contingents, but have been deployed for several years in Mali as part of logistical support on behalf of one of our contingents.” He said that their arrival as relief would have been communicated beforehand to the national authorities. They are working for a German company that is contracted by the U.N. mission known as the Sahelian Aviation Services.

Government spokesman Maiga said they would put an end to the protection activity of the Sahelian Aviation Services by foreign forces and demand their departure from Malian territory. The government invited “the airline “ Sahelian Aviation Services “to henceforth entrust its security to the Malian defense and security forces,” he said.

Mali’s transitional government affirmed in June that it will not authorize the U.N. mission to investigate ongoing human rights violations in Mali, adding to further tensions as France also withdraws its forces.

Source: AP

Autopsy in Spain for ex-Angola leader amid foul play claims

11, July 2022

Autopsy in Spain for ex-Angola leader amid foul play claims 0

An autopsy has been carried out on in Spain on former Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who died last week in Barcelona, at the request of one of his daughters who suspects foul play, her lawyers said Monday.

The results of the autopsy are not yet available, a spokesperson for Tchize dos Santos’ lawyers said.

A Barcelona court authorised the post-mortem on Friday, the day of his death, a court spokeswoman said.

Dos Santos, who ruled Angola between 1979 and 2017, had lived in Barcelona since April 2019.

The 79-year-old was taken to hospital and placed in intensive care after suffering a cardiac arrest on June 23.

His 44-year-old daughter — whose full name is Welwitschia dos Santos — swiftly demanded the hospital retain his body “until an appropriate autopsy is carried out.”

She said in a statement on Saturday there were “a series of signs” that her father’s death occurred under “suspicious circumstances”.

Tchize has filed a legal case in Spain against the former Angolan president’s widow, Ana Paula, and his personal physician for “attempted murder”.

The complaint also includes allegations relating to “failure to exercise a duty of care, injury resulting from gross negligence and disclosure of secrets by people close to him,” her lawyers said in a statement on Friday.

Tchize claimed her father and his wife had been separated for some time, meaning that his spouse had no right to make decisions about his health.

Police confirmed receiving the complaint and said they had opened an inquiry.

Tchize also argues her father wanted to be buried privately in Spain and not in Angola in a state funeral “which could favour the current government” in the former Portuguese colony.

Born in the slums of Luanda, dos Santos was one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders.

Critics say he used his nation’s oil wealth to enrich his family while leaving his people among the poorest on the planet.

When he stepped down, dos Santos handed over to former defence minister Joao Lourenco whom he had handpicked to succeed him.

But Lourenco quickly turned on his erstwhile patron, starting an anti-corruption drive to recoup the billions he suspected had been embezzled under dos Santos.

Source: AFP

Southern Cameroons: 13 killed in road accident

11, July 2022

Southern Cameroons: 13 killed in road accident 0

At least 13 people have died after a truck collided with a bus in southwestern Cameroon, according to local police.

The accident occurred Saturday morning along Kumba-Muyuka highway in Southwest region of the country.

The truck lost control and collided head-on with a bus that was carrying 30 passengers at a locality called Bombe Bakundu which is located along the highway, police said.

Several people were injured and rushed to a local hospital, according to officials.

According to the police, fatal accidents are common in Cameroon due to reckless driving, dangerous overtaking, drunk driving and poor state of road.

The Ministry of Transport estimates that 1,500 people die in road accidents each year in the central African nation.

Source: Xinhaunet

Who is more corrupt? Franck or Chantal Biya

9, July 2022

Who is more corrupt? Franck or Chantal Biya 0

An authoritative French newspaper Nouvel Observateur has reported that members of President Paul Biya’s family have spent more than three billion FCFA to buy luxury homes in Paris, Monaco and in different locations in France.

An investigative report published on Thursday, July 7, 2022 entitled “Luxury real estate: how France attracts the dubious money from around the world,” Nouvel Observateur revealed that Franck Emmanuel Biya and Chantal Biya respectively the eldest son and wife of the President of the Republic of Cameroon, are among sixty dubious persons who have invested hundreds of millions of Euros in France to buy houses and luxury apartments- a phenomenon on which there are strong suspicion of money laundering.

Five investigative French journalists who wrote the report stated that Franck Biya bought a luxury house near the principality of Monaco for nearly three million Euros in 2004 when he was aged 33.

Nouvel Observateur noted that the Franck Biya house has a swimming pool and it is located in a popular private estate at Cap-Martin, not far from Monaco.  When French authorities asked him how he raised the money for the purchase, he did not answer.

The French paper also reported that Chantal Biya, the first lady owns three apartments in different locations in France.

The newspaper article also revealed that Chantal Biya is too extravagant evidenced by how much she spends on her hairstyles and her flashy stays in Geneva with President Biya.

The French journalists opined that Chantal Biya has never worked but registered a company in France that she used in spending more than 2 million Euros to buy three apartments in the 16th district of Paris, Levallois-Perret and in Nice between 1997 and 2009 – two of which were paid in cash and the third financed by a loan from BNP.

The first lady acquired the houses through a Cameroonian Senator, Pierre François-Xavier Menye Ondo, who is also a notary and a business partner, with only 1% share in two of the three purchases.

A leading French lawyer, William Bourdon quoted in the report said “From Saint-Tropez to the 16th district of Paris and from Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat to Montfort-l’Amaury, 62 people including Franck and Chantal Biya have spent, between 1985 and 2020, more than 744 million Euros to buy real estate in France”.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files

Southern Cameroons: Deadly floods in Fako point to a looming climate emergency

9, July 2022

Southern Cameroons: Deadly floods in Fako point to a looming climate emergency 0

Flash floods triggered by sudden rains swept through the Likomba-Mutengene main road in Fako Division in the early hours of Saturday. The Saturday disaster came with no warning.

“The local Likomba River was flooding with massive boulders. The trees were falling! It was terrifying” Cameroon Concord News Buea Bureau Chief said.

Likomba and Mutengene are in the mountainous Fako Division, where deadly cascade of rock, debris and water regularly wreak havoc.

Many are attempting to understand what caused the avalanche. But the massive flooding illustrates the risks of development in an area vulnerable to the accelerated effects of climate change.

An Environmentalist contacted by Cameroon Concord News say the construction of houses and building development works all over Fako Division have put the inhabitants in a precarious position.

Cameroon government military, paramilitary and police as well as disaster management officials were conspicuously absent as passengers in vehicles dug through mud, sand and rocks that swamped the Likomba-Mutengene road. Several passenger vehicles were on the road when the rains struck.

By Toto Roland Motuba

ID Card: Biya regime has detained over 5000 Anglophone teenage boys and girls

8, July 2022

ID Card: Biya regime has detained over 5000 Anglophone teenage boys and girls 0

Cameroon Concord News Group office in Yaoundé has revealed that the Francophone dominated military forces arrested some 5000 Southern Cameroons teenagers amid continued aggression against Ambazonia Self Defense Forces.

Concord’s Yaoundé Bureau Chief Rita Akana wrote in a write up  that there were minors as young as 16 among the detainees.

Many of the children were arrested when Cameroon government soldiers raided towns and villages across the South West and North West Regions.

“The Biya regime is so wicked,  devilish and occultic so much that they have over 5000 boys and girls of average age of 18 years in prisons for as flimsy as lack of ID cards” Rita Akana said.

 “Most of these juveniles are mercilessly abused by regime officers as sex slave” She furthered.

Cameroon Concord News Group understands that the teenagers are being held under the practice of administrative detention, which allows Yaoundé to keep detainees behind bars without charge for an indefinite time.

Eyong Ndip, an 18-year-old boy from Mautu, told Rita Akana that he was savagely beaten when Cameroon government soldiers arrested him near his house.

Sama Peter said a group of French speaking army soldiers had chased and caught him before they assaulted him with the butts of their rifles, stomped on him with military boots, and left him bleeding from his nose in Widikum.

At the very beginning of the crisis in Southern Cameroons, French speaking gendarmerie officers detained and assaulted 17-year-old Njuma Collins and his mum at Ekondo Titi.  The Francophone soldiers pepper-sprayed and violently beat Njuma calling him “young Amba fighter”. Njuma Collins sustained injuries to his face, back, and feet.

There is a growing trend of Francophone army soldiers shooting and injuring young English speaking Cameroonian men, especially in the knee and the leg, during overnight raids across the entire Southern Cameroons.

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dabney Yerima recently confirmed that Cameroon government soldiers had detained 5000 children since the beginning of the war in Southern Cameroons.

According to the Ambazonia Interim Government, several Southern Cameroons minors are currently being held in New Bell and Kondengui prisons including detention centers in French Cameroun.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files

Angola: Former president Dos Santos dies at 79

8, July 2022

Angola: Former president Dos Santos dies at 79 0

Angola’s former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled Africa’s second biggest oil producer for nearly four decades, has died aged 79, the Angolan presidency said Friday.

Dos Santos died at 11.10am Spanish time at the Barcelona Teknon clinic following a prolonged illness, the presidency said.

The announcement said dos Santos, who ruled Angola for almost 40 years from 1979, was “a statesman of great historical scale who governed … the Angolan nation through very difficult times.”

Dos Santos had mostly lived in Barcelona since stepping down in 2017 and he reportedly had been undergoing treatment there for health problems.

Angola’s current head of state, Joao Lourenco, announced five days of national mourning starting Friday, when the country’s flag will fly at half-staff and public events are canceled.

One of Africa’s longest serving leaders, dos Santos came to power four years after Angola gained independence from Portugal and became enmeshed in the Cold War as a proxy battlefield. His rule was marked by a brutal civil war lasting nearly three decades against US-backed UNITA rebels and a subsequent oil-fuelled boom.

Shy, but shrewd political operator

His political journey spanned single-party Marxist rule in post-colonial years and a democratic system of government adopted in 2008. He voluntarily stepped down when his health began failing.

In public, dos Santos was unassuming and even appeared shy at times. But he was a shrewd operator behind the scenes.

He kept a tight grip on the 17th-century presidential palace in Luanda, the southern African country’s Atlantic capital, by distributing Angola’s wealth between his army generals and political rivals to ensure their loyalty. He demoted anyone he perceived to be gaining a level of popularity that could threaten his command.

Dos Santos’ greatest foe for more than two decades was Jonas Savimbi, leader of the UNITA rebels whose post-independence guerrilla insurgency fought in the bush aimed to oust dos Santos’ Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA.

The Angolan strongman frequently described himself as an accidental president, taking the reins after Angola’s first leader, Agostinho Neto, died during cancer surgery in 1979.

With Neto having only served for four years and the 37-year-old dos Santos regarded as a relatively weak outside candidate, few could have imagined he would go on to rule for just shy of four decades.

But dos Santos proved an extremely astute politician.

In 2003, dos Santos banished his party’s secretary general to a junior position for appearing a little too eager to replace him. João Lourenço would have to wait 14 years to finally get his wish to become Angola’s next president.

Humble roots, grand ambitions

Born on August 28, 1942 to immigrant parents from the archipelago of Sao Tome, dos Santos was raised in the poor Luanda neighbourhood of Sambizanga. His father was a builder, his mother a maid.

But from a young age dos Santos had grander ambitions and joined the then-nascent MPLA.

Like many of his fellow liberation fighters, he spent his early 20s in exile in the Republic of Congo before moving to Baku in Azerbaijan, then part of the Soviet Union, to study petroleum engineering. There he met his first wife, Tatiana Kukanova, a Russian chess champion with whom he had his first and most famous daughter – Isabel dos Santos.

By 1977 and the death of Neto, dos Santos was among half a dozen senior MPLA members with a shot at the leadership. He won partly because he seemed the weakest candidate.

His opening speech as leader set the tone for future public appearances, lasting just one minute and 54 seconds. Over the next 38 years he would do just a handful of interviews.

Oil boom feeds family fortunes

Although he would increasingly be regarded by his critics as a dictator, it was his apparent willingness to compromise and stand by election results in 1992 as part of a UN negotiated peace process that would seal the popularity of his party.

Jonas Savimbi, the leader of UNITA that fought on the other side of the civil war, refused to accept the result of that election and took the tired country back to war. When the Angolan army eventually succeeded in killing Savimbi, Unita had lost much of its support.

Between 2002 and 2014, as oil production grew in tandem with booming prices, the size Angola’s economy multiplied by 10, from $12.4 billion to $126 billion.

While little of the money trickled down to the poor, those closest to dos Santos became billionaires.

His eldest daughter Isabel became, according to Forbes, Africa’s richest woman and youngest billionaire worth about $3 billion. Forbes has since dropped Isabel from its list of billionaires because of the asset freezes.

Isabel also became chairman of state oil company Sonangol, while son José Filomeno headed a $5 billion sovereign wealth fund.

Dos Santos, who said in a rare 2013 interview he would like to be remembered “as a good patriot”, never specifically responded to the allegations that he had allowed corruption to become rampant.

Source: Reuters

Japan’s longest-serving Prime Minister Abe pronounced dead after shooting

8, July 2022

Japan’s longest-serving Prime Minister Abe pronounced dead after shooting 0

Shinzo Abe smashed records as Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, championing ambitious economic reform and forging key diplomatic relationships while weathering scandals.

Nearly two years after poor health forced him to leave office, the 67-year-old has died after being shot during a campaign event on Friday.

Abe was a sprightly 52 when he first became prime minister in 2006, the youngest person to occupy the job in the postwar era.

He was seen as a symbol of change and youth, but also brought the pedigree of a third-generation politician groomed from birth by an elite, conservative family.

Abe’s first term was turbulent, plagued by scandals and discord, and capped by an abrupt resignation.

After initially suggesting he was stepping down for political reasons, he acknowledged he was suffering an ailment later diagnosed as ulcerative colitis.

They called it ‘Abenomics’

The debilitating bowel condition necessitated months of treatment but was, Abe said, eventually overcome with the help of new medication.

He ran again, and Japan’s revolving prime ministerial door brought him back to office in 2012.

It ended a turbulent period in which prime ministers changed sometimes at the rate of one a year.

With Japan still staggering from the effects of the 2011 tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster at Fukushima – and a brief opposition government lashed for flip-flopping and incompetence – Abe offered a seemingly safe pair of hands.

And he had a plan: Abenomics.

The scheme to revive Japan’s economy – the world’s third-biggest, but more than two decades into stagnation – involved vast government spending, massive monetary easing, and cutting red tape.

Abe also sought to boost the country’s flagging birth rate by making workplaces more friendly to parents, particularly mothers.

He pushed through controversial consumption tax hikes to help finance nurseries and plug gaps in Japan’s overstretched social security system.

While there was some progress with reform, the economy’s bigger structural problems remained.

Deflation proved stubborn and the economy was in recession even before the coronavirus struck in 2020.

Abe’s star waned further during the pandemic, with his approach criticised as confused and slow, driving his approval ratings down to some of the lowest of his tenure.

Political storms

On the international stage, Abe took a hard line on North Korea, but sought a peacemaker role between the United States and Iran.

He prioritised a close personal relationship with Donald Trump in a bid to protect Japan’s key alliance from the then-US president’s “America First” mantra, and tried to mend ties with Russia and China.

But the results were mixed: Trump remained eager to force Japan to pay more for US troops stationed in the country, a deal with Russia on disputed northern islands stayed elusive, and a plan to invite Xi Jinping for a state visit fell by the wayside.

Abe also pursued a hard line with South Korea over unresolved wartime disputes and continued to float plans to revise Japan’s pacifist constitution.

Throughout his tenure, he weathered political storms including cronyism allegations that dented approval ratings but did little to affect his power, in part thanks to the weakness of the opposition.

Abe had been due to stay on until late 2021, giving him an opportunity to see out one final event in his historic tenure – the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games.

But in a shock announcement, he stepped down in August 2020, with a recurrence of ulcerative colitis ending his second term too.

Source: AFP

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