22, December 2024
Magdeburg: Home of English speaking Cameroonians comes under attack 0
The University of Magdeburg in the Federal Republic of Germany was the first renowned German academic establishment to offer management courses in English and this attracted hundreds of English speaking Cameroonians to the city of Magdeburg.
In the late 90s, the city of Magdeburg provided a rare opportunity for several Southern Cameroons freedom fighters who were asylum seekers in the small town of Halberstadt to blend with the English speaking student community in the University of Magdeburg. Magdeburg became the home of the new Anglophone Cameroon nationalism.
Today, Magdeburg’s Christmas market is a sad sight. This should have been the busiest weekend of the season, but the whole area has been cordoned off and all the stands are shut.
Police are the only people walking around the boarded-up mulled wine and gingerbread stalls.
On the pavement, red candles flicker, tributes laid for the victims.
Lukas, a truck driver, told me he felt compelled to come to pay his respects. “I wasn’t there when it happened,” he told me.
“But I work here in Magdeburg. I’m here every day. I’ve driven by here a thousand times.”
“It’s a tragedy for everyone here in Magdeburg. The perpetrator should be punished.”
“We can only hope that the victims and their families find the strength to deal with it.”
There is sorrow here – but there is anger too.
Many people here see this attack as a terrible lapse in security. That is a claim the authorities reject, although they have admitted the attacker entered the market using a route planned for emergency responders.
Michael, who also came to pay tributes to the victims, said “there should’ve been better security”.
“We should have been prepared better but that was not done properly.”
Many people here see this attack as a terrible lapse in security. That is a claim the authorities reject, although they have admitted the attacker entered the market using a route planned for emergency responders.
Michael, who also came to pay tributes to the victims, said “there should’ve been better security”.
“We should have been prepared better but that was not done properly.”
Standing at the security cordon, I heard a group of locals complaining loudly about Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz and regional politicians.
“They are wasting our tax money, they are just looking out for themselves. They are not interested in us. We just hear empty promises,” one man said.
“They are turning what happened here around and want to put the blame on the opposition and use it for their election campaign,” he said.
On Saturday evening, around the same time as the square in front of Magdeburg’s Gothic cathedral was filled with mourners watching a memorial service, a demonstration took place nearby.
Protesters held a banner that read “Remigration now!” – a concept popular among the far-right – and shouted “those who do not love Germany should leave Germany”.
It is not clear yet what impact this attack may have on Germany’s upcoming election.
Germany has been hit by a number of deadly Islamist attacks in the past, but investigators said the evidence they have gathered so far suggests a different picture in this case.
Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the suspect appears to have been “Islamophobic”.
The suspect, Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen, is from Saudi Arabia, and his social media posts suggest he had been critical of Islam.
He also expressed sympathy on social media for Germany’s far-right political party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), re-tweeting posts from the party’s leader and a far-right activist.
Reported by Cameroon Concord News and the BBC
23, December 2024
Martinez Zogo Murder Trial: defense challenge shifts focus to Appeal Court 0
The scheduled hearing at the Yaoundé military tribunal in the case of slain journalist Martinez Zogo is unlikely to yield significant progress. Defense lawyers have appealed the presiding judge’s November 11 rejection of their objections to the detention of their clients.
The appeal, filed with the Centre Region Court of Appeal, seeks to overturn Colonel Missé Njoné’s decision. Defense attorneys aim to compel the judge to reconsider procedural aspects of the preliminary investigation and judicial inquiry. If successful, the appeal could lead to the release of several of the 17 accused, including prominent businessman Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga and former Directorate General for External Research (DGRE) head Léopold Maxime Eko Eko.
At the December 3 hearing, defense attorneys highlighted the unavailability of the contested decision. The tribunal assured them it would be forwarded to the court registry soon. However, the appeal court cannot proceed until it formally receives the case file, leaving the trial in limbo pending a ruling on the appeal.
This marks the second appeal filed by the defense since the trial began in March. In July, defense lawyers sought to compel Judge Missé Njoné to provide them with a copy of the case file. The court denied the request, ruling that Cameroonian law does not mandate the judge to share the document. Some lawyers have since appealed this decision to the Supreme Court.
In January 2023, Zogo’s mutilated body was discovered in the northeastern outskirts of Yaoundé. As director of Amplitude FM, a radio station in the capital, Zogo was known for his popular program exposing corruption among high-profile figures.
Investigations revealed that a DGRE commando kidnapped, tortured, and murdered the journalist. The revelations led to the arrest of 17 individuals, including 12 DGRE agents.
Source: Sbbc