23, May 2017

19 dead and more than 50 hurt in Manchester Arena blast ⁰

Nineteen people have been killed and more than 50 injured in a suspected terror attack at Manchester Arena. The blast happened at 22:35 BST on Monday following a pop concert by the US singer Ariana Grande. Home Secretary Amber Rudd said it was “a barbaric attack, deliberately targeting some of the most vulnerable in our society”.

Paramedics at the scene told the BBC they had treated some of the wounded for “shrapnel-like injuries”. North West Ambulance Service said it had taken 59 casualties from the explosion to hospitals and treated a number of walking wounded. Greater Manchester Police has established an emergency telephone number in response to the attack. It is: 0161 856 9400.

In light of the attack the Conservatives, Labour, SNP and Liberal Democrats have all confirmed that Tuesday’s campaigning in the general election has been suspended. The prime minister has announced she will chair a meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee at around 09:00 BST.

Theresa May said: “We are working to establish the full details” of what happened in Manchester. “All our thoughts are with the victims and the families of those who have been affected.” BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said senior counter-terrorism officers were assembling in London and liaising with the Home Office. Unconfirmed reports from two unnamed US officials suggested the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.

BBC

22, May 2017

Anglophone Crisis: Center for the Advancement of Women in Bamenda ravaged by “suspicious fire” ⁰

The Bamenda Center for the Advancement of Women and Families in Southern Cameroons was set on fire on the night of 19-20 May 2017. Located in the district called Old Town, close to the Central Police Station and the prefecture in Bamenda 2 and below the regional division of the Judicial Police of the Northwest, it remains a mystery how the building was attacked by unidentified men.

The building made of definitive materials that displayed great looks has now been destroyed and there are now only walls in cinder blocks blackened by a thick layer of smoke greeting the neighborhood. Although the origin of the fire remains unknown, the known unknowns is that it is an act of reprisal against the non-observance of the various disengagement movements launched since the social crisis that has rocked Southern Cameroons.

The fire caused serious damage on the infrastructure that composed of a multimedia center, offices and a study room that are currently unrecognizable. A highly placed official loyal to the regime in Yaoundé said that the number of public buildings burned since the beginning of the crisis in November 2016 is increasing.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Cameroon Concord News

22, May 2017

Battle for Southern Cameroons: Fire destroys GCE Board office, Gendamerie Brigade Post in Banga Bakundu ⁰

One of the buildings hosting the Cameroon General Certificate of Education Board was ravaged by fire on Sunday May 21, 2017 in Buea. The battered office is part of the communications department newly created in the Board. Smoke was first seen coming out of the windows before guards on duty raised an alarm. The fire was finally brought under control but sources say pertinent documents were destroyed.

Reporters were denied access to the site of the incident by the forces of law and order. The cause of the disaster is not yet known but there are fears it might affect the already controversial 2017 session of the GCE.

In a related development, the Gendamerie Brigade Post in Banga Bakundu was also gutted by another fire outbreak. Eye witnesses say the Banga-Bakundu Brigade Post was completely brought down by flames on Saturday May 20^th. Some media reports hinted that upon hearing the news, the Divisional Officer for Mbonge SOMBE embarked on an investigative mission but was involved in a ghastly car crash some 10 km from Muyuka. The Biya appointee was rushed to the Limbe regional Hospital.

Source: Cameroon Info.Net

22, May 2017

After Southern Cameroons: Thousands rally in Aden to support secession ⁰

Thousands of Yemenis have rallied in the port city of Aden in support of a so-called autonomous body set up to rule the south by officials of ex-president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. Protesters, who had reached the southwestern city from several southern provinces, chanted, “Independence is our objective,” the Middle East Eye news portal reported.

The autonomous body to manage the war-wracked country’s south was launched by Hadi’s governor for Yemen’s port city of Aden after he was fired by the Saudi-backed former president. Hadi sacked Maj. Gen. Aidarous al-Zubaidi over his perceived close ties with the United Arab Emirates after accusing the UAE of acting “like an occupation power in Yemen rather than a force of liberation.”

The autonomous body gathers 26 members, including the governors of five southern provinces and another Hadi minister. It has proclaimed that it aims to “run the southern provinces” and “represent them inside and outside” the country.

Hadi’s loyalists have accused the men of setting up secret liason with the Emirates, buying arms from it and forming military units. Yemen’s Houthi movement has also rejected the new council, calling it a “threat to the territorial unity of the Yemeni republic,” and a part of a “colonial plot.”

Yemeni supporters of the Houthi Ansarullah movement attend rally to protest two years of Saudi invasion of the country, in the capital Sana’a, March 26, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Aden has been racked by armed clashes, explosions and assassinations since Houthi fighters were pushed out of the city in July 2015 by Saudi-backed militants. Al-Qaeda and Daesh terrorists are now audaciously driving their armed vehicles around the city, passing checkpoints set up by Hadi loyalists.

The United Arab Emirates has a strong military presence in the area as part of a Saudi-led coalition which has been pommeling Yemen for more than two years now in order to return Hadi to power and dislodge Houthis and their allies from their areas of control.

Aden has been grappling with a spread of arms, where arms possession is unprecedented, especially among young people. Residents in the city have complained that armed groups usually clash with one another in the streets and go unpunished when they kill civilians.

Source: Presstv

22, May 2017

SDF: Another Senator is trending again, this time about National Day Celebrations ⁰

Senator Paul Maounde of the Social Democratic Front took his place on the grand stand during 20^th May celebrations despite SDF ban on all party militants and representatives. Paul Maounde has defended his stance claiming that the SDF National Executive Committee had forbidden militants from participating in the parades but not to attend.

The Senator represented the SDF in Meiganga and recently said he did not violate the instructions of National Chairman Ni John Fru Ndi who had earlier announced the SDF decision to boycott festivities marking the 45th anniversary of the so-called National Day.

“I am a Cameroonian citizen. I am an elected representative of the people. I do not see why an elected official would not attend the national day celebration of his country. There is a misunderstanding. It was never said that a citizen should not attend the parade. It was said that the party will not match. There is a misinterpretation of the Chairman’s order.” argued Paul Maounde.

By Eyong Johnson

Cameroon Concord News

22, May 2017

CNPS General Manager is being investigated for fraud ⁰

A Prosecutor at the Special Criminal Court has opened an investigation against the current General Manager of the National Social Insurance Fund, CNPS. According to several sources, the State of Cameroon is suing Mekulu Mvondo Akame Alain Noel Olivier for “suspicions tax evasion” in complicity with the firm TSEKANE. Cameroon Concord News gathered that he made” SPECIAL DEDUCTIONS” on the salaries of some employees without any legal basis and transferred the money to a firm where he had vested interest.

Mvondo Akame Alain Noel Olivier was appointed head of the National Social Insurance Fund (CNPS) by a presidential decree on 7 April 2008. He was previously a secretary in the Economic Affairs Division at the Presidency of the Republic. The 58-year-old CEO of the CNPS is a product of the National School of Administration and Judiciary.

In 1998, the former Minister of State Control, Mrs Gwanmesia got Mekulu Mvondo arrested and detained for six months in the central prison at Kondengui, in a preventive detention, until the verdict of a scandal that had rocked the Douala ports vindicated him. Alain Olivier Noël Mekulu Mvondo left Kondegui and State Control and joined Hévéa du Cameroun (Hévécam), a privatized company in which the State remains a shareholder, where he held the position of Deputy Managing Director in charge of human resources management.

By Rita Akana with cables from CIN

21, May 2017

Yaounde: Husband stops wife from boarding flight to Paris ⁰

A man prevented his wife from boarding a flight to Paris at the Yaoundé Nsimalen airport last Thursday. The lady whose names we are withholding had gone through airport security and was waiting for the time to initiate the formalities for her boarding when her husband arrived and handed over their marriage certificate to the airport police officers who later denied the woman access to the plane.

The 32-year-old wife tried to leave her 39-year-old husband with their her 4 children and taking more than half of their family savings of over 2.5 million CFA francs from their credit union account. The husband, originally from the West region, is a taxi driver and the owner of several others. He was informed of the secret project by his wife’s best friend. Feeling betrayed, the husband hurried to Yaoundé Nsimalen airport on the day of the flight with their marriage certificate and managed to block his wife’s trip to Europe.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that the lady, who hails from Douala in the Littoral reportedly, met a man via Face Book who had promised her a better life and marriage in Europe. After several virtual exchanges, the young lady decided to make the trip. After the drama last Thursday, the husband, decided to seek divorce. But the two families took steps to bring back the serenity and the idea of divorce has been dropped.

By Rita Akana

Cameroon Concord News

21, May 2017

5,000 refugees rescued in 48 hours off Libya’s shores ⁰

Some 5,000 refugees bound for Italy have been rescued in waters off the coast of Libya between Thursday and Saturday morning by Italian and Libyan coastguards, statements from both countries say.

Around 2,900 people were rescued Thursday, 2,300 of whom were found in international waters and taken to Italy, while 580 picked up in Libyan waters were returned to the North African country.

Through Friday until Saturday morning, coastguards rescued another 2,100 refugees packed in 17 vessels, but found the body of one man who drowned, the Italian coastguard said.

The number of refugees arriving in Italy has soared this year by more than 30 percent in comparison with the same period last year, with 46,000 people arriving so far.

But of every 39 refugees, who survive the perilous journey across the Mediterranean, one dies, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said, adding that 1,244 refugees were known to have died so far this year.

(Source: AFP)

21, May 2017

Tokyo: Cameroonian Hassan Ndam is new WBA middleweight world champion ⁰

Cameroonian Hassan Ndam is the new WBA middleweight world champion. The Cameroonian boxer defeated the Japanese Ryota Murata, in Tokyo (2 judges to 1), on Saturday May the 20^th in a hotly contested boxing encounter.

On the fourth round, Ndam held on to the WBA middleweight belt. The Cameroonian who became French, for sporting reasons, was several times shaken by the Japanese Murata.

Camcordnews Desk

20, May 2017

May 20th Celebration: Attendance in Yaounde noticeably less than expected!! Photo shows complete boycott in Southern Cameroon ⁰

In one of the most scantily attended 20^th May celebrations in the country’s history amid early morning heavy downpour, the army and a cross section of the civilian population congregated at the 20th May Boulevard for the ceremony chaired by the 84 year old dictator, President Biya. The wet weather gave way to a sunny bright sky that allowed the Francophone dominated security agents to perform the normal rituals before the arrival of the presidential couple.

The ceremony recorded the presence of members of the Diplomatic Corps, the numerous cabinet ministers, the Prime Minister and Head of Government, the Speaker of National Assembly and the President of Senate. First Lady Chantal Biya arrived differently and her entourage was preceded by the motorcade escorting President Paul Biya. The Military orchestra was on-board and trumpeted the best of music to grace the unpopular event boycotted by many political parties and civil society organizations..

The Minister Delegate in charge of Defense at the Presidency, Joseph Beti Assomo welcomed the Commander in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Paul Biya and after the national anthem the aging leader inspected some detachments of the military and witnessed the military match past under the Command of General Edzo’o Mvondo Simon, assisted by Colonel Enow Eyong.

Events in the Buea province of Southern Cameroons took a dramatic u-turn as heavy rains including the call for a boycott by the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium rocked the boat. Our chief correspondent in the South West who contributed to this report observed that “I feared Governor Okala would collapse and die following the massive boycott of the occasion.” The situation was the same in the Bamenda province as many Southern Cameroonians observed the ghost town operation put in place by the Consortium.

Some conclusions could be drawn from the successful failure of today’s nationwide celebrations among them is simply that President Biya’s days as Head of State are numbered.

By Rita Akana

Cameroon Concord News