News

Huge fire rips through London’s Camden Market

10, July 2017

Huge fire rips through London’s Camden Market 0

Ten fire engines and more than 70 firefighters have battled a large fire in a building in London’s popular Camden Lock Market, a well-known tourist attraction, the London Fire Brigade has said. According to the Fire Brigade, the fire which erupted a few minutes before midnight was under control by around 3:00 a.m. local time on Monday, but firefighters would continue to “damp down” the site in order to prevent any re-ignition.

There were no immediate reports of any casualties or cause of the blaze. The London Fire Brigade said on Twitter in an earlier statement that the first three floors and roof of a building within the market were alight. “The Brigade’s 999 Control Officers have taken multiple calls to the highly visible blaze and people are asked to avoid the area,” it said on Facebook.

This is the second major fire incident in London in recent weeks. On June 14, a fire tore through the Grenfell Tower residential building, killing at least 80 people. Cheap materials used to refurbish the tower were cited as the reason for the Grenfell inferno, according to a report published in The Times.

The 24-story building block with 120 apartments was home to many Muslim residents. Reports said a lack of suitable equipment; low water pressure and radio problems hindered the response to the Grenfell Tower disaster. Fire crews have told the BBC that low water pressure, radio problems and equipment that was either lacking or did not arrive before the fire got out of control.

Source: Presstv


Nairobi: Kenyan interior minister dies in hospital

9, July 2017

Nairobi: Kenyan interior minister dies in hospital 0

Kenya’s government on Saturday announced the death of Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery at a hospital in the capital Nairobi. Nkaissery, 68, a retired army officer, had held the position of cabinet secretary for interior and coordination of national government since late 2014.

“It is with deep sorrow and shock that we announce the sudden passing on of Interior CS Retired General Joseph Nkaissery,” said a statement from Kenya’s State House. It said Nkaissery died “at Karen Hospital in Nairobi a few hours after being admitted for a check-up” without providing further details on the cause of death.

Nkaissery was a Member of Parliament from 2002 until 2014 when President Uhuru Kenyatta named him interior minister to replace Joseph Ole Lenku who was dismissed following a spike in insecurity and terror attacks in the country.

(Source: AFP)


Former Cameroon Defense Minister dies in Paris

9, July 2017

Former Cameroon Defense Minister dies in Paris 0

Philippe Menye Me Mve, a former Governor and Minister for Defense who recently wrote a letter to President Biya begging for an appointment has died in Paris, France. The Francophone political elite reportedly suffered a stroke when news got to him that he had been dropped from government.

Born in 1937, Philippe Menye Me Mve was a senior civil administrator who held several positions of responsibility in the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime.

He was Deputy Prefect of Mfou, then Prefect of Nkam, Prefect of Dja-et-Lobo, Prefect of Haut Nkam, Prefect of Moungo (as of 11 April 1984), Prefect of Mayo Tsanaga 1985), and Prefect of Mfoundi (as of 31 October 1989). On 10 January 1992, he was appointed Governor of the Western Region. From September 19, 1996 to December 7, 1997, he held the post of Minister for Defense.

As the defense boss, he targeted General James Tataw with numerous “demande des explications” and Tataw got Biya to give him a sack. He traveled abroad for treatment and upon his return lately, Menye Me Mve addressed a letter to President Biya saying Monsieur le président, Je suis là…» “Mr. President, I am here …”

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Concord News


Bishop Bala Affair: National Episcopal Conference attack statement by Yaounde Prosecutor

9, July 2017

Bishop Bala Affair: National Episcopal Conference attack statement by Yaounde Prosecutor 0

The President of the National Episcopal Conference, Archbishop Samuel Kléda has reaffirmed the stance of the Cameroonian bishops that the late Bishop Jean-Marie Benoit Bala was brutally murdered. His Lordship Samuel Kleda made the revelation to the press on Saturday as part of the activities of the 11th plenary assembly of the bishops of Central Africa that is currently holding in Yaoundé.

Responding to questions from journalists at the headquarters of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (NCPC), the man of God observed that the “Bishops maintained their position” that “Bishop Jean-Marie Benoit Bala was brutally murdered.”

The reaction of the Cameroonian episcopate was very much awaited since the publication on July 4 of a statement bearing the DNA of Jean-Fils Kléber Ntamack, the Prosecutor in charge of the investigation in which Ntamack reported that drowning was the most probable cause of death of the late Bishop Bala.

The confirmation of this position reinforces the Catholic faithful Christians and the national community in general, who were awaiting the reaction of the Bishops. For some days Christian resistance has been organized around this affair and Cameroon Concord News understands the resistance will continue until the truth is revealed.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
Cameroon Concord News


Biya orders parliament to lift Joseph Wirba’s immunity from prosecution

8, July 2017

Biya orders parliament to lift Joseph Wirba’s immunity from prosecution 0

After a private meeting between National Assembly Speaker Cavaye Djibril and President Biya late on Thursday, an emergency meeting of the nation’s parliamentary bureau has been summoned 24 hours after the close of the second session of the legislative year 2017.

The Bureau of the National Assembly is meeting today Saturday the 8th of July 2017 in Yaoundé. The reason for this emergency session at the Chamber has not been made public.

However, reliable sources have hinted that the office of the National Assembly has been convened to trigger a procedure that will result in lifting the immunity of Honorable Joseph Wiba, the SDF MP from the Jakiri constituency.

This item is still developing

Camcordnews Desk


Bakassi Peninsular: Fears mount as 97 deaths linked to Cameroon Gendarme attack

7, July 2017

Bakassi Peninsular: Fears mount as 97 deaths linked to Cameroon Gendarme attack 0

A Nigerian newspaper, Nigeria Today has reported that some 97 Nigerians are feared killed as Cameroon Gendarmes allegedly attacked residents of Bakassi over failure to pay a 100,000 Naira boat levy. The paper said our Gendarmes sacked mainly Nigerians from Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Ondo states. Many others escaped at midnight with their fishing boats and arrived at Ikang in Bakassi and Ibaka in Akwa Ibom.

The killing and sacking of Nigerians in former Bakassi is believed to be a violation of the 2005 Green Tree Agreement (GTA) by the Nigeria-Cameroon Mixed Commission which stipulates that the Bakassi returnees must be properly resettled to their natural habitat so that they can have a meaningful living. The GTA also states that Nigerians who choose to remain in Cameroon can do so without any molestation. The agreement makes it clear that there would be a committee monitoring the activities but since the day the treaty was signed, Bakassi people have not seen any monitoring team.

Nigerian Federal government officials yesterday evaded questions from The Guardian as government spokesmen failed to respond to inquiries. Three text messages seeking clarification on what the official reaction of Nigeria would be did not elicit any response. At Ikang beach, it was a picture of abandoned and traumatised people. Most of them remained at the jetty looking disillusioned and rejected, while a few women with their babies and children moved into Ikang village for shelter.

They looked helpless, as they pondered on how to survive, pointing at some of the boats they managed to rescue — apparently the only property they came back with. The fate of the Bakassi people at the hands of the Cameroon Gendarmes, and even back home since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgment, has been that of neglect by the Nigerian government. The internally displaced persons from Bakassi Cameroon since the GTA 12 years ago have lived in squalor in rickety mosquito-infested classroom blocks in Cross River and Akwa Ibom despite complaints from notable leaders like Senator Florence Ita-Giwa and the Bakassi paramount ruler, Etinyin Etim Okon Edet.

The situation is so bad that in the Akwa Ikot Edem Udo IDP camp, over 1,000 children are not in school. The Bakassi IDPs and the latest returnees have accused the Cross River State government and Federal Government of playing politics with their lives and means of livelihood. At the Ikang Beach in the new Bakassi yesterday, many of the returnees with their wooden engine boats were seen hanging around the jetty, lamenting their fate.

They alleged constant harassment and raping of their women by the gendarmes. They said yesterday’s incident was the climax as the attackers came shooting and chasing them away for refusing to pay the N100,000 engine boat tax.
One of the returnees, Chief Umoh Umoh Inyang, said that from Akpankanya in Abana, the headquarters of former Bakassi “the Cameroonian gendarmes have been harassing us. They destroyed our boats, beat us and shot many of us to death. They make a lot of trouble for us in Akpankanya in Bakassi.

“They would not let us carry on with our lives and livelihood in peace. The suffering is so much that we have to come back. They would not let us go to the sea for our fishing, and in our houses where we were just staying, they came and asked us to pay N100, 000 for each boat and when we said we did not have such money, they started beating us. They shot many of us.

“We had to leave suddenly, and so many people missed their children and members of their families. We got to this Ikang jetty around 2:00 a.m. today. They even raped our wives. Many of our people have been held captive there. They have killed about 97 people. Many people ran into the bush, many are scattered along the waterways. We came in all these boats you are seeing here. We were over 2,000 who were scattered over there. At least 94 were killed in Atabong where we were. We don’t know about other areas. We were hearing gunshots all over the place. We have about 137 who landed here in Ikang. The number is actually growing because we were 132 when we first got here and the immigration officials are registering us.”

Another returnee Mr. Nse Okon, from Akpankanya in Abana, said: “They destroyed everything. In 2008 they killed three people who worked with me. The government should come to our aid and resettle us properly in our own country. This time around, they came and told me to pay N100, 000 tax for this engine and I said I did not have that kind of money. That is why they started beating us.

“The Nigerian government should intervene urgently in this matter. Let the international community also intervene in this matter. Our land has been ceded and the people are not accommodating us there. If we can be resettled here and given work to survive, we would be grateful. They should note that we cannot survive upland too because we are all fishermen and most of us did not go to school. So they should resettle us and create alternatives for us to survive.”

Culled from Nigeria Today


Moscow: President Putin hails ‘high reliability’ of Russia’s new cruise missile

7, July 2017

Moscow: President Putin hails ‘high reliability’ of Russia’s new cruise missile 0

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he is pleased with the “high reliability” of the country’s new Raduga KH-101 cruise missiles, after a number of them were successfully used against terrorist positions in Syria.

“The application of this missile showed a very high degree of reliability. This is really the most modern weapon, with high-precision and high-power, and a decent range of 4,500 kilometers,” Putin said during a meeting of Russia’s Commission on Military Technical Cooperation with Foreign States on Thursday.

The comments came a day after the new breed of air-launched missiles, fired from Tu-95 strategic bomber jets 1,000 kilometers away, successfully hit Daesh targets on the border between Syria’s Hama and Homs provinces.

Putin said the Russian military should boost its defensive capabilities by developing more modern weapons of Kh-101’s quality and, in doing so, use the country’s combat experience from the ongoing anti-terror efforts in Syria.
“Russian weapons are demonstrating reliability and great opportunities during the anti-terror operation in Syria… It is necessary to carefully analyze this combat experience both for the modernization of existing systems and for the development of promising types of military products,” he said.

Raduga made its combat debut in November 2015, when Tu-160 bombers fired 16 of them at Daesh targets across Syria. The missile is capable of carrying high-explosive, penetrating or cluster warhead, while its KH-102 variant can be equipped with nuclear warheads. The missile’s accuracy for moving targets is said to be less than 10 meters.

The KH-101’s design coupled with its use of radar absorbing materials and other stealth technologies allow it to get past the enemy’s defenses and hit targets deep inside its territory from the distance. This means Russia is now capable of carrying out long-range precision strikes, an ability that US Air Force commanders have been long boastful about.

In mid-April, US President Donald Trump ordered US Navy warships in the Mediterranean Sea to fire around 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield in retaliation for a chemical attack that the White House claimed was carried out by the Syrian government.

Both Russia and the US have been leading military campaigns in Syria. Unlike Washington, however, Moscow only intervened upon a request from Damascus and has coordinated its airstrikes with Syrian military forces to avoid civilian casualties.

Source: Presstv


Bishop Balla Affair: Biya regime gave the “European Interpol” doctors the body of another man to examine

7, July 2017

Bishop Balla Affair: Biya regime gave the “European Interpol” doctors the body of another man to examine 0

A new autopsy conducted on a Cameroon bishop, who died under mysterious circumstances last month, is contradicting the findings of previous autopsies, which indicate the prelate died of foul play instead of suicide by drowning.
The body of Bishop Jean-Marie Benoît Bala of the diocese of Bafia had been recovered June 2 by authorities from the Sanaga river and examined by teams of doctors from local medical colleges on June 2 and again on June 22. The examinations by these doctors, one of which had been appointed by the national bishops’ conference, found no water in the bishop’s lungs, ruling out suicide but did find signs of torture on his body.

In opposition to these findings, results from the latest autopsy conducted by two doctors working for the International Police Organization (INTERPOL) were released Tuesday via statement by Cameroon’s attorney general’s office. The statement asserts that “drowning is the most probable cause of death of the bishop.” The statement adds, “After an in-depth examination, no trace of violence was found on the body of the deceased.”
Early news reports had speculated that his death may have been the result of suicide. Subsequent autopsies disproved this theory as no water was found in the lungs and the body showed signs of violence.

The National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon issued a statement June 13, affirming the bishop was brutally murdered. “We, the bishops of Cameroon, are convinced that Bp. Jean Marie Benoît Bala did not commit suicide; he was brutally murdered. This is one more murder and one too many,” they declared. In their statement, the bishops listed a number of Church leaders from Cameroon, who had died under mysterious circumstances and called upon local authorities to protect them and bring criminals to justice.

Friends and relatives of Bishop Balla are rejecting the findings of this recent autopsy, owing to the fact signs of severe mutilation on the bishop’s body had been previously reported by local Cameroon press. Information has now filtered that the authorities gave the two European doctors the body of another man to examine.

Local media had reported that Bishop Balla intended to reveal the government’s alleged participation in the death of Abbé Armel Djama, rector of the Minor Seminary in Bafia. The priest’s dead body was found at the end of May in his room at the seminary located in the bishop’s diocese.

Meanwhile, a childhood friend of Bishop Balla, Pr. Vincent Sosthene Fouda, president of the Cameroon Movement for Social Democracy and a presidential election candidate, had his Face book account suspended Wednesday after he published a video, disclosing information related to the bishop’s alleged assassination.

Fouda is accusing Belinga Eboutou, Director of the Civil Cabinet at the Presidency of the Republic, of sponsoring the alleged murder of the bishop. Fouda attests that Eboutou escorted Bp. Bala out of his bishop’s residence on the night of May 29, which was the last time the bishop was seen alive. Fouda testified in the video that Eboutou called Bp. Bala that night at 11:47 p.m. saying, “Monseigneur, I am at your gate.” He then alleges that Eboutou took Bishop Balla to his home where he tortured him.


Justice Minister Laurent Esso under attack for squalid backing of Biya regime’s handling of the Anglophone Crisis

6, July 2017

Justice Minister Laurent Esso under attack for squalid backing of Biya regime’s handling of the Anglophone Crisis 0

The Biya Francophone regime has voted into law a Common Law Section within the Judicial Chamber of the Supreme Court. The bill was adopted in the Senate on the 4th of July 2017 in two readings. The controversial and anti Anglophone Minister of State in charge of Justice, Laurent Esso said that the project would make the Cameroonian law uniform.

The creation of the Common Law Section within the Judicial Chamber of the Supreme Court was defended in Parliament by Minister Laurent Esso. The bill was passed by the Senators on second reading. Senator Sonken, who asked for clarification on the bill, questioned the raison d’être behind the killing of innocent Southern Cameroonians and arresting hundreds in order to accept a project such as the Common Law Section in the Supreme Court.

Laurent Esso reportedly with too much blood in his hands remained defiant and said that the establishment of the Common Law Section within the Supreme Court was not made to resolve the problems raised in the context of the Anglophone crisis. He arrogantly observed that it is rather a section that is part of the reform process instituted by the President of the Republic in 2015.

Esso dabbled in a typical Francophone pattern and noted that “This bill addresses concerns that may become real problems tomorrow. It is not an adjustment of Anglophone law or Francophone law but a standardization of Cameroonian law.”

By Sama Ernest
Cameroon Concord News


Japan: 10 missing, 400,000 flee flooding

6, July 2017

Japan: 10 missing, 400,000 flee flooding 0

At least 10 people, including a child, were missing and 400,000 were forced from their homes after record rains battered southwestern Japan for a second day on Thursday, sending rivers surging over their banks, a government official and media said.

Parts of Fukuoka Prefecture on the southwestern island of Kyushu were hit by 774 mm of rain in nine hours on Wednesday, about 2.2 times the amount of rain that falls in a normal July, NHK national television said.
Some 7,500 rescuers, including police, firefighters, and soldiers from Japan’s Self Defense Forces, were mobilized to help with evacuations and search for the missing. Forty helicopters were on standby until the weather improved.

“There are many reports of people whose safety cannot be confirmed, things like ‘a child was swept away by the river’ and ‘my house was swept away and I can’t get in touch with my parents,'” chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga told an emergency early morning news conference.

“We will keep in close contact with the disaster-hit areas and work with all our energy to save lives and ascertain the extent of the damage,” he said. Fukuoka and Oita prefectures, both largely rural areas, were the worst-hit by the rain, which was caused by a low pressure area on the Pacific Ocean that fed warm, moist air into Japan’s seasonal rainy front.

Residents spent a worried night at evacuation centers set up at schools and government buildings on high ground amid reports of landslides and flooded roads. “It wasn’t just the rain, there was thunder and lightning, too. I couldn’t see anything ahead of me,” one woman at an evacuation center told NHK.

A schoolboy sitting with his family told NHK, “I haven’t heard from some of my friends, and I’m really worried.” There were no immediate reports of major transportation problems, but television footage showed a railway line left broken and twisted by floodwaters.

The same area was pounded by heavy rain earlier this week from Tropical Storm Nanmadol, which has since passed out to sea. The rain in Japan comes on the heels of a storm system that caused severe flooding across southern China and that killed 56 people and cost almost $4 billion in damage.

(Source: Reuters)


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