French Cameroun: 2 journalists attacked while reporting on businessman praised by Biya

22, February 2025

French Cameroun: 2 journalists attacked while reporting on businessman praised by Biya 0

The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on the Cameroonian authorities to investigate and hold accountable those who attacked Equinoxe TV journalists Joseph Abena Abena and Augustin Ndongo while they were reporting in a village in Cameroon’s South Region on February 13.

“The attack on Joseph Abena Abena and Augustin Ndongo is yet another expression of the sense of impunity for those who intimidate and threaten journalists in Cameroon,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative. “Cameroonian authorities must investigate and hold accountable the assailants and ensure a safe working environment for journalists.”

Abena, a regional correspondent for privately owned Equinoxe TV, and Ndongo, a camera operator, were attacked when they went to investigate an agricultural facility owned by Samuel Tony Obam Bikoué, a controversial figure praised by President Paul Biya three days earlier for helping to create “an agricultural industry,” but whose involvement in the banana plantation sector has been criticized by a local prefect.

The journalists were attacked when they entered the facility, according to a statement from the National Union of Journalists of Cameroon and Abena, who told CPJ that one of the attackers asked him why he wanted to harm Bikoué’s business rather than investigating other officials’ interests.

Abena said that the assailants, some armed with clubs, snatched Ndongo’s camera, confiscated the two journalists’ phones, and forced them to sit on the ground while making lynching and death threats, according to Abena, who told CPJ that he had identified himself as a journalist and presented his press card. 

“One of the attackers said he knew me before he said they were going to kill us,” Abena said. 

The two journalists were released after a local official intervened, but Abena said that his computer was damaged and one of the attackers took the memory card from Ndongo’s damaged camera. 

CPJ’s calls and messages to Bikoué and Denis Omgba Bomba, director of the media observatory at Cameroon’s Ministry of Communication, went unanswered

CPJ has documented several physical attacks and acts of intimidation against journalists in recent months in Cameroon, ahead of the country’s elections later this year.

Culled from CPJ

Champions League: PSG draws to play Liverpool, Real Madrid Vs Atletico Madrid

21, February 2025

Champions League: PSG draws to play Liverpool, Real Madrid Vs Atletico Madrid 0

Liverpool finished first in the 36-team league phase of the competition to qualify directly for this stage, while PSG had to come through a two-legged play-off tie in which they crushed fellow French side Brest 10-0 on aggregate.

The first leg will take place at the Parc des Princes in Paris on March 4 or 5, with the return at Anfield a week later.

The clubs last met in the Champions League in the group stage in 2018/19, when PSG won 2-1 at home after Liverpool triumphed 3-2 in England.

In another eye-catching tie, reigning champions Real Madrid will play city rivals Atletico Madrid in a repeat of the finals of 2014 and 2016, both of which were won by Los Blancos.

Bayern Munich will take on German rivals Bayer Leverkusen, while Arsenal face PSV Eindhoven and Inter Milan take on Feyenoord, who are fresh from knocking out AC Milan in the play-offs.

Barcelona will face Benfica, who they defeated 5-4 away in Lisbon in the league phase last month.

Aston Villa will face Club Brugge, having already lost away to the Belgians in the league phase.

Last season’s beaten finalists Borussia Dortmund will take on French side Lille.

Source:  AFP

Camtel deploys 75 engineers to boost service quality

21, February 2025

Camtel deploys 75 engineers to boost service quality 0

Camtel, a state-run company, added 75 new tech hires this week, including computer integration specialists, software development engineers, and satellite solution specialists, in an effort to improve service delivery in the face of strong competition.

The new employees, who just completed a four-month intense in-house training at the National Emergency Telecommunications Network Centre in Ekounou-Yaounde, join the telco’s existing pool of 180 technicians dispersed across the country.

Judith Yah Sunday Achidi, Camtel’s general manager, remarked: “Camtel has the task to digitalise Cameroon’s economy and to do that, we need qualified human resources and that is what we have done with the recruitment of these young engineers’

“We have the conviction that we have recruited the best talents and from the interactions we have had with them for the past four months, we are very sure that they will play an essential role in our digital transformation drive.”

Camtel intends to use its expanded technical staff, as well as emerging technologies it has acquired, to combat recurring network failures.

Source: iTweb

Former Spanish football chief Luis Rubiales convicted of sexual assault over forced kiss

20, February 2025

Former Spanish football chief Luis Rubiales convicted of sexual assault over forced kiss 0

A Spanish court on Thursday convicted former football chief Luis Rubiales of sexual assault over the forced kiss he gave star forward Jenni Hermoso and fined him € 10,800 ($11,300).

But the court acquitted him and the three other accused of the charge of coercion in the case.

Prosecutors had sought a prison term of two-and-a-half years for Rubiales – one year for sexual assault and 18 months for coercion – for having allegedly pressured the player to downplay the incident.

Rubiales was accused of sexual assault for kissing Hermoso in 2023 following Spain’s triumph in the women’s World Cup in Australia, as well as coercion for allegedly trying to convince her to downplay the incident afterwards.

Rubiales will appeal his conviction for sexual assault over the forced kiss, his lawyer Olga Tubau Martinez said Thursday.

“Mr. Rubiales has decided to appeal the ruling,” she told AFP after the verdict in the trial.

Global outcry

The global outcry over the kiss forced Rubiales to resign in disgrace and thrust the spotlight on the prevalence of macho culture and sexism in sport.

Hermoso, 34, said on the opening day of the trial on February 3 she felt “disrespected” after a non-consensual kiss that “should not happen in any social or work setting”.

But Rubiales, 47, told the court on Tuesday he was “totally sure” Hermoso consented to the kiss as she went up to receive her winner’s medal, which was broadcast live around the world, and denied putting pressure on her after the incident.

He conceded he “made a mistake” on the podium, saying he should have “been in a more institutional role”, but denied any offence had been committed.

Rubiales’ stance on the stand contrasted with the defiance he displayed when the scandal broke.

During an emergency federation meeting in August 2023, he minimised the importance of the kiss and defied calls for his resignation, railing against “false feminism”.

Rubiales resigned in September that year after FIFA suspended him and Spanish prosecutors opened an investigation into alleged sexual assault. He had been federation chief since 2018.

Hermoso, the all-time top scorer for the Spain women’s team who now plays for Mexican club Tigres, was not called up to the national squad immediately after the World Cup.

The new coach Montse Tome said she wanted to protect the player and denied omitting her from the squad was a “punishment”.

(Source: AFP)

Cocoa leaders unite to embrace innovation in the face of unprecedented challenges

20, February 2025

Cocoa leaders unite to embrace innovation in the face of unprecedented challenges 0

Political and economic instability in recent weeks – from the delay and simplification of regulation to the freeze on international development funding and soaring cocoa prices – are further straining a global cocoa sector already grappling with profound challenges. In response, the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) Partnership Meeting will convene global leaders to drive collaboration, accelerate innovation and build long-term resilience across the supply chain.

Under the theme “Our Future: Resilience Through Sustainability”, the meeting on 19-20 March takes place at a defining moment for the cocoa industry. Its location in Brazil – host of COP30 and one of the few nations to have updated its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to reducing greenhouse gas emissions – adds a forward-looking dimension to the discussions. As a leader in agricultural mechanisation, Brazil offers a unique platform for knowledge exchange between cocoa-producing nations, highlighting scalable innovations that can boost efficiency and sustainability.

“Unprecedented challenges require unprecedented collaboration,” said Chris Vincent, President of the WCF. “By bringing together the entire cocoa sector, we aim to share best practices on critical issues such as disease prevention, mechanisation and navigating climate change and evolving geopolitical challenges – all of which are essential for reducing operational costs, increasing productivity and enhancing farmer profitability. A more adaptive sector will be better equipped to withstand shocks and secure a sustainable future.” Vincent concluded.

WCF’s pivotal role in fostering collaboration

The WCF Partnership Meeting is the premier global event dedicated to cocoa sustainability, attracting more than 400 stakeholders from over 40 countries to ensure a direct link between global strategies and on-the-ground realities. This year’s agenda will explore impactful solutions to key industry challenges, including regulatory compliance, evolving geopolitical challenges, modern farming innovations and industry-wide impact measurement.

Confirmed speakers include:

Alex Assanvo – Executive Secretary, Initiative Cacao Côte d’Ivoire-Ghana (ICCIG)

Eduardo Bastos – Executive Director, Brazilian Agribusiness Association (ABAG)

Marcello Brito – Executive Secretary, Legal Amazon Consortium of States

Santiago Gowland – CEO, Rainforest Alliance

Schneider Guataqui Cervera – Global Policy Maker, International Labour Organisation (ILO)

Deborah Faria – Full Professor at the State University of Santa Cruz (UESC)

Dr Koffi N’Goran – Deputy Director General, Coffee Cocoa Council of Côte d’Ivoire (CCC)

Anna Paula Losi – Executive President, Brazilian Association of Cocoa Processing Industries

Valmir Ortega – Partner, Belterra Agroforestry

Pam Thornton – Commodity Trader, Nightingale Investment-Armajaro

Wieneke Vullings – Consul General of the Netherlands in São Paulo.

A full list of confirmed speakers is available on WCF’s website.

By Cecilia Manjang

October Presidential Election: Will 92-year-old Biya be re-elected?

20, February 2025

October Presidential Election: Will 92-year-old Biya be re-elected? 0

It actually seems like a done deal even though Cameroonians both French and English speaking will not vote for him.

Shortly after he took office from the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo, he pretended to be a man of rigour and moralization. And after 42 years in power, it is now certain that President Paul Biya will be running for an eighth term, and he is expected to win comfortably without campaigning.

He has not submitted the necessary documents to run on October 11, but the activities of his acolytes are quashing any uncertainty surrounding his decision. To justify his intention to run, senior Cameroon government officials from his Beti Bulu tribal extraction have been busy explaining that at 92, he is being urged to do so by other political parties and the civil society.

In fact, Cameroon’s numerous opposition parties have not put forth any credible candidate for the elections. Even the SDF of Joshua Osih and the MRC of Maurice Kamto have still not even formed a coalition.

No specific reason has been put forward to justify why a 92-year-old man still wants to remain in office. Biya’s only curt explanation is that he has experience that has failed to deliver anything positive to the Cameroonian people leaving observers perplexed.

His cabinet ministers and ELECAM officials, the body responsible for organizing elections in Cameroon are busy making things harder for opponents to mobilize their bases and to organize protests. Employees and civil servants who attempt to strike are ruthlessly crushed and severely dealt with!

Biya’s ministers have been campaigning for several months now but there is nothing for them to take advantage of in each outing to boast about his record.

Biya’s 42-years in office have been a prominent and successful failure in the fight against corruption. He has been unable to recover money held abroad by oligarchs close to him.  All what his Special Criminal Court claims to do in the fight against corruption ranges from plain fiction to the most absurd. Cameroon as a nation is losing everything including its international presence.

In his forty-two year presidency, Cameroon became the first African country to introduce unemployment benefits for traditional rulers who have all abandoned their villages and are currently living in big cities such as Douala and Yaoundé.

Covid-19 funding disappeared amid rising inflation and Cameroonians have never benefited from increase in oil and gas prices under his leadership.  Biya’s repression of civil liberties remains an indelible black mark on his administration. Yaoundé still has more than 5000 Southern Cameroons prisoners of conscience, including journalists, activists and the leader of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Sisiku Ayuk Tabe.

The disintegration of the Anglophone press over the last six years following the Ambazonia uprising has been frightening. The few independent media houses that exist in French speaking Cameroon face financial troubles due to the difficulty of accessing funding of any kind.

Anglophone journalists are subject to regular intimidation that has become formalized in recent years through the arrest and harassment of those who speak critically of the Francophone dominated regime. Journalists who will be allowed to cover the presidential elections will most likely be, as for previous elections, handpicked by the authorities. This will not be a new occurrence.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group are of the opinion that the presidential elections will be a hoax. So, boycott or participate is the question that Cameroonian political parties and voters will face this coming October.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Football: marvellous Mbappe sends Man City crashing out of Europe

19, February 2025

Football: marvellous Mbappe sends Man City crashing out of Europe 0

Manchester City’s Champions League campaign came to a tame conclusion at the Bernabeu as Kylian Mbappe’s brilliant hat-trick inspired holders Real Madrid to a comfortable victory and place in the last 16.

Pep Guardiola’s side were attempting to reverse a 3-2 deficit from the play-off first leg but this contest was effectively over after four minutes when Mbappe’s precise lob from Raul Asencio’s pass increased their advantage.

City, with Erling Haaland only fit enough for the bench, saw their plight worsen moments after Mbappe’s opener when they lost defender John Stones to injury.

And City’s earliest Champions League exit since they failed to get out of the group in 2012-13 edged closer when Mbappe showed brilliant close control to wrong-foot Josko Gvardiol before beating Ederson after 33 minutes.

The France forward’s third came just after the hour with a low shot as City subsided, barely laying a glove on Real all night as they were outclassed.

City pulled a goal back when Nico Gonzalez turned in his first goal for the club after Omar Marmoush’s free-kick hit the bar, but it was no consolation on a desperate night for the reigning Premier League champions.

It was a chastening experience for Guardiola, whose discomfort was particularly relished by Real’s fans because of his old Barcelona allegiances, as he faces a mammoth task to rebuild and restore City to Europe’s top table.

Source: BBC

The Holy Father has pneumonia in both lungs

19, February 2025

The Holy Father has pneumonia in both lungs 0

Pope Francis, who was admitted to hospital last week, has developed pneumonia in both of his lungs, the Vatican said Tuesday, adding that the 88-year-old was in “good spirits”.

“The laboratory tests, chest X-ray, and the Holy Father’s clinical condition continue to present a complex picture”, the Vatican said in a statement.

Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital last Friday for bronchitis, but the Vatican on Monday said it was changing his treatment following tests.

It said Tuesday that a “polymicrobial infection” which has come on top of “bronchiectasis and asthmatic bronchitis, and which required the use of cortisone antibiotic therapy, makes therapeutic treatment more complex”.

“The follow-up chest CT scan which the Holy Father underwent this afternoon… demonstrated the onset of bilateral pneumonia, which required additional drug therapy,” it said.

The pontiff had part of his right lung cut away when he was 21, after developing pleurisy that almost killed him.

The Vatican had already cancelled a papal audience on Saturday and said he would not attend a mass on Sunday, although it has yet to announce plans for his weekly Angelus prayer, held on Sunday.

“Nevertheless, Pope Francis is in good spirits,” it added.

The pope spent his fifth day in hospital alternating rest with prayer and reading texts, the Vatican said.

Pilgrims pray

Francis, the head of the Catholic Church since 2013, was admitted to hospital after struggling for several days to read his texts in public.

It is the latest of a series of health issues for the Jesuit, who has undergone hernia and colon surgery since 2021 and uses a wheelchair due to pain in his knee.

Among the pilgrims and tourists gathered in Saint Peter’s Square on Tuesday, many said they were praying for the pope’s recovery.

“I hope that he’s getting better soon,” Birgit Jungreuthmayer, a 48-year-old Austrian tourist, told AFP.

Others gathered outside the Gemelli hospital, holding candles or saying prayers.

“I came to say a prayer for the pope so that he may recover soon. I send him my best wishes”, said Jacqueline Troncoso, a Bolivian resident in Rome.

The Vatican published drawings done by children in the hospital for Francis, as well as letters from parents asking him to pray for their sick offspring.

Francis “gives thanks for the closeness he feels at this time and asks, with a grateful heart, that we continue to pray for him”, it said.

Active schedule

Despite his health troubles, Francis remains a very active pontiff, with a busy weekly schedule and regular overseas trips.

In September 2024, he completed a four-nation Asia-Pacific tour, the longest of his papacy by duration and distance.

A source within the pope’s entourage had told AFP Monday that Francis was admitted after a “very busy” two weeks, during which “he was weakened” — but insisted there was no alarm.

Francis followed last Sunday’s mass on television from hospital and sent a written address for the Angelus.

“I would have liked to be among you but, as you know, I am here at the Gemelli hospital because I still need some treatment for my bronchitis,” Francis wrote.

The Jesuit has left open the option of resigning if he became unable to carry out his duties.

His predecessor, Benedict XVI, stunned the world in 2013 by becoming the first pope since the Middle Ages to step down, citing his ailing health.

But in a memoir published last year, Francis wrote that he did “not have any cause serious enough to make me think of resigning”.

Stepping down is a “distant possibility” that would be justified only in the event of “a serious physical impediment”, he wrote.

In an autobiography published last month, he said that despite his ailments, “I carry on”.

“The reality is, quite simply, that I am old,” he said.

Source: AFP

Trump blames Ukraine for war

19, February 2025

Trump blames Ukraine for war 0

US President Donald Trump has blamed Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky for Moscow’s invasion, and said he could meet Russia’s Vladimir Putin before the end of the month.

Trump has also increased pressure on Zelensky to hold elections – echoing one of Moscow’s key demands to strike a deal.

Odessa’s governor says a large residential area has been left without power after a “massive” Russian strike on the Ukrainian port city. One person has been hospitalised.

Russia says Ukraine has attacked an oil refinery in the city of Syzran. No casualties have been reported.

Latest developments

Trump says he could meet Putin before the end of the month

US not opposed to European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine

Russia, US to name negotiators on ending Ukraine war

Culled from France 24

Russia back at the table – and appearing to call the shots

19, February 2025

Russia back at the table – and appearing to call the shots 0

The sight of senior Russian and American officials back around a giant negotiating table is extraordinary.

For many, most of all Ukrainians, it will have been very hard to take.

In Saudi Arabia, Moscow achieved something major: after three years of all-out war on its neighbour and isolation by the West, it was back at the “top table” of global diplomacy.

Not only that, Russia looked for all the world like it was the one calling the shots.

Even as air raid sirens continue to sound across Ukraine, that’s exactly the image Moscow wants to project.

This was not a defeated Russia, forced to the negotiating table. It was more like the US inviting the aggressor to set out its terms.

True, US officials went into the process saying they wanted to feel out Russia, check whether it’s serious about peace.

But Donald Trump had already drawn his conclusions. Last week, after he spoke to Vladimir Putin by phone, he announced that the Russian leader “wants to see people stop dying”.

Trump could have responded by telling him to withdraw all his troops.

Instead, he clearly wants to cut a deal with Moscow to end the war, as he promised voters, and move on.

After more than four hours of talks in Riyadh, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio emerged to the press and announced the first steps towards negotiations had been agreed, with teams to be formed on both sides.

He’d concluded that Russia was ready to engage in a “serious process” to end the war.

But why was he so sure?

Across the table was Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, still under sanctions for what the US Treasury called Russia’s “brutal war of choice”.

When Lavrov met the Russian media, he told them the US had proposed a moratorium on attacking energy infrastructure.

“We explained that we have never endangered the civilian energy supply and only target what directly serves Ukraine’s military,” was the minister’s reply.

That’s not true.

I have personally walked through the ruins of civilian power plants that have been directly targeted by Russian missiles.

This is the country that the US is attempting to engage with, although there is ample evidence that it can’t be trusted.

Russia has also shown zero sign of conceding any ground: why would it, when the Trump administration has already agreed that Ukraine will never join Nato, as Moscow demands, and won’t get its occupied land back?

That’s why, for Ukraine’s allies, it won’t only be the image of US and Russian officials seated at the shiny Saudi table that jarred. It’s also how they talked.

“Laying the ground” for future investment sounds like a promise of dropping sanctions: no reckoning for Russia’s war of aggression, then, just reward.

These are, of course, the earliest of early days.

But in Moscow, officials and state media sense the start of Russia’s return to where it believes it belongs: face to face with the US, as an equal.

Source: BBC

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