Real Madrid Football Club receives Francis Ngannou ahead of fight with Tyson Fury

24, July 2023

Real Madrid Football Club receives Francis Ngannou ahead of fight with Tyson Fury 0

Cameroonian-French professional mixed martial artist Francis Zavier Ngannou is back on social media trends.

The 36-year-old is trending after teaming up with Spanish La Liga giants Real Madrid.

Francis Ngannou and Real Madrid

 On the third day of Real Madrid’s training in Los Angeles, Francis Ngannou was there. 

Among the Real Madrid stars to pose with Ngannou are Brazil star Vinicius Junior, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Eduardo Camavinga, and Éder Militão.
Among the Real Madrid stars to pose with Ngannou are Brazil star Vinicius Junior, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Eduardo Camavinga, and Éder Militão.

When the team was on the UCLA campus, the mixed martial artist stopped by and posed for pictures with some of the athletes.

Among the Real Madrid stars to pose with Ngannou are Brazil star Vinicius Junior, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Eduardo Camavinga, and Éder Militão.

Ngannou and Mbappe

Ngannou teamed up with the Real Madrid stars after meeting France football captain Kylian Mbappe in Cameroon.

In Yaoundé, the two men shared a meal together, and the PSG striker captured the occasion with a photo that was later shared in an Instagram story. 

The MMA star and the Parisian striker appear to be savoring ndolé, a regional dish in Cameroon.

Ngannou and Fury

Ngannou takes on British WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury in a mega-crossover fight.

On October 28, the fight will take place in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.

Source: Pulse Sports Nigeria

Gabon: Ali Bongo to face 18 other presidential candidates in August election

24, July 2023

Gabon: Ali Bongo to face 18 other presidential candidates in August election 0

Gabon’s leader Ali Bongo Ondimba will face 18 other candidates in next month’s presidential election, authorities announced Monday.

Bongo is favourite to win a third term at the head of the oil-rich West African state ruled by his family for 55 years.

The 64-year-old, who took over from his father, Omar Bongo Ondimba in 2009, officially announced in July that he would run again.

His leading rivals include Alexandre Barro Chambrier of the opposition Rally for the Fatherland and Modernity (RPM) party and the National Union’s head Paulette Missambo.

The opposition failed to agree on a single candidate to challenge Bongo in the August 26 poll, but candidates are former ministers and part of the Alternance 2023 coalition.

Bongo’s powerful Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) holds strong majorities in both houses of parliament.

The president was narrowly re-elected in 2016, with just 5,500 more votes than rival Jean Ping who claimed the election had been fixed.

Announcement of the results sparked violence in the capital Libreville that left five dead, according to the government. The opposition says 30 people were shot dead by the security forces.

Bongo suffered a stroke in 2018 and spent months on the sidelines recovering, leaving the opposition to question his fitness to run the nation.

In April, the Gabonese parliament voted to amend the constitution and reduce the president’s term from seven to five years.

The presidential ballot will coincide with elections for the National Assembly and regional and local councils.

Gabon is one of the richest countries in Africa in terms of per capita GDP due largely to its oil revenue and relatively small population of 2.3 million.

A third of the population live below the poverty threshold, according to the World Bank.

Source: AFP

At least 15 killed, 19 missing after ferry sinks off Coast of Indonesian Island

24, July 2023

At least 15 killed, 19 missing after ferry sinks off Coast of Indonesian Island 0

At least 15 people were killed and 19 more were missing on Monday after a ferry sank off the coast of Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, search and rescue officials said.

The boat sank with 40 people onboard just after midnight local time (1700 GMT on Sunday), the local office of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency said in a statement.

Six people were rescued and taken to hospital for treatment, and the cause of the sinking was being investigated, it said.

“Provisionally, there are 19 people who are still being searched for,” Muhamad Arafah, head of the local search and rescue agency in Kendari city in Southeast Sulawesi, said in the statement.

One search team will dive around the accident site, while another will search the water’s surface using boats, he said.

The ferry was crossing from Lanto village on Buton island to Lagili village on Muna island in Southeast Sulawesi, the agency said.

It shared images of rescuers mobilising for the search effort, and several dead bodies covered by sarongs laid on tarpaulin at a local hospital.

It is common in Indonesia for the number of actual passengers on a boat to differ from the manifest.

Marine accidents occur frequently in the Southeast Asian archipelago nation of around 17,000 islands, where people rely on ferries and small boats to travel around despite poor safety standards.

In 2018, more than 150 people drowned when a ferry sank in one of the world’s deepest lakes on Sumatra island.

In May last year, a ferry carrying more than 800 people ran aground in shallow waters off East Nusa Tenggara province and remained stuck for two days before being dislodged.

No one was hurt in that accident.

Source: AFP

Douala building collapse death toll could rise as 16 confirmed killed

24, July 2023

Douala building collapse death toll could rise as 16 confirmed killed 0

At least 16 people have been killed and nearly three dozen injured after a four-storey building collapsed onto a smaller one in Cameroon’s largest city, according to authorities.

“The casualty figures may be higher”, said Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua, governor of Cameroon’s Littoral region, where the city Douala is located.

The commercial centre is 210 kilometres west of the capital, Yaounde.

The governor said that “rescue workers, assisted by Cameroon government troops, are still digging the wreckage to see if more bodies can be recovered.”

The military’s fire brigade has been ordered to join the country’s Red Cross and other rescue services in searching for survivors.

Residents living in the Ndogbon neighbourhood where the incident took place said they were in shock.

“We heard people screaming … and struggled to help some out of the wreckage, but could not do it with our spades and hoes,” Gaspard Ndoppo, who lives near the collapsed buildings, said.

The four-storey building caved in around midnight local time and the cause remains unclear, but locals said it looked to have deteriorated with exposed and worn out rods.

Building collapses happen often in Douala, sometimes due to natural disasters such as landslides and other times because of poor construction, locals say.

Douala’s city council is currently demolishing houses in high-risk zones susceptible to floods or landslides but the building that collapsed was not marked for demolition.

Source: AP/Reuters

Douala: At least 12 killed in building collapse

24, July 2023

Douala: At least 12 killed in building collapse 0

A four-storey building collapsed in Cameroon’s commercial capital Douala, killing at least 12 people and injuring others, the regional governor said on Sunday.

The building, located in the city’s eastern Ange Raphael neighbourhood, caved in around midnight.

“Twelve died and the others are in hospital for medical attention,” the governor of the surrounding Littoral region told journalists at the site, saying 31 people in total were affected.

The situation was under control and rescue teams were making sure no one remained under the rubble, he said.

Though the cause of the collapse was unclear, local residents said it looked deteriorated with exposed and worn out rods.

Source: Reuters

Biya’s continued stay in Geneva: A new president is in the making

22, July 2023

Biya’s continued stay in Geneva: A new president is in the making 0

President Biya’s end is very near and his fall will be sudden, swift and bloodless. It is more than a month ever since the 90-year-old travelled to France from where he reportedly fired General Ngambou Esaïe after the soldier man warned Minister Paul Atanga Nji that he was walking on broken bottles.

We of the Concord Group can now reveal that a new president is in the making. In the nation’s capital Yaoundé, Biya’s acolytes both within his ruling CPDM party and the military are claiming that he is still in charge and that it is business as usual.

But there is still much they in Yaoundé don’t know. And one of such is simply that, you cannot remain head of state forever!

There are under-the-table talks that the army may intervened due to the sacking of General Ngambou Esaïe which is widely seen as clearing the way for Franck Biya, President Biya’s eldest son to succeed the father.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands Biya and his men are in Geneva planning a massive purge deep within the ruling CPDM party with prominent CPDM barons being targeted.

According to Cameroon Intelligence Report sources, plans are being made to arrest top figures both in government and in the military.

Where is Paul Biya?

Mr Biya has been conspicuously absent since he travelled to France a month ago. The 90-year-old president is now at the mercy of his young and foolish wife who is keeping him under guard at the InterContinental Hotel in Geneva. He only reads prepared statements and talk to cabinet ministers who speak his native tongue.

But he has not been seen by the Cameroonian people since his recent trip to France. So, who actually fired General Ngambou?

It is clear that Chantal Biya and her relations are now in charge of state affairs in a country that is disintegrating! The ruling CPDM party should disown Biya and if they do—- A new president is indeed in the making

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Camair-Co slated for review as per latest IMF bailout

21, July 2023

Camair-Co slated for review as per latest IMF bailout 0

Camair-Co is amongst four state-owned enterprises to be placed under a performance contract by November 2023 in line with Cameroon’s commitment to improve the viability of its public enterprises under the supervision of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

This is according to the IMF’s Fourth Review in July 2023 of its Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and Extended Fund Facility (EFF) to Cameroon, which allowed for an immediate disbursement of about USD73.6 million to the West African country. The latest allocation brings total IMF disbursements to Cameroon under the arrangements to about USD493.6 million.

While the medium-term outlook for the country remains positive, provided reforms continue, the IMF called for structural reforms to be accelerated. According to the IMF, the Cameroonian government has committed to strengthening public enterprise management and the performance of its SOEs to improve service delivery and limit fiscal risks.

To this end, diagnostic studies have been completed at four state enterprises – the technically-bankrupt national carrier Camair-Co; the Port Authority of Douala (PAD); Cameroon Telecommunications (CAMTEL); and Cameroon Water Utilities Corporation (CAMWATER). In the first phase, these companies will be placed under performance contracts by November 2023 which will specify their obligation to meet a public service mission, the evaluation of unit costs (as a basis for paying subsidies) and quality indicators to be published with evaluation reports.

During the second phase, the government will gradually reduce subsidies to underperforming public enterprises. Large industrial SOEs, notably PAD, will be listed on the Central African Stock Exchange (BVMAC). A planned listing of Camair-Co is not mentioned in the IMF report.

Still, as reported, the airline’s possible listing was alluded to in a report of a technical committee for the rehabilitation of SOEs (Commission Technique de Réhabilitation des Entreprises du Secteur Public – CTR). In 2020, Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, also told the government to urgently develop a plan that restructures and revives Camair-Co to facilitate selling off 51% to a strategic private investor.

According to the CTR, Camair-Co needs to clean up its balance sheet and consolidate its financial standing before any divestment. To settle part of its liabilities, it would transfer its overall debt as of December 31, 2020, to the Cameroonian state and undergo financial restructuring. The government would then set up a civil aviation fund to compensate the state-owned carrier for losses on domestic routes.

Yet the IMF recommends that government subsidies to SOEs be better prioritised. “As part of the diagnostic studies of each public enterprise, the authorities will assess the subsidies with the aim of reducing those allocated to the weakest performance. In this context, the authorities have initiated a study to be finalised in November 2023 of all the approved or administered prices of the products of public enterprises with the aim of reviewing, if necessary, their formula for determining prices and/or their possible liberalisation,” it stated.

Camair-Co has been loss-making since its inception in 2011. It ended 2021 with negative equity of XAF115 billion Central African francs (USD190.4 million) against a share capital of XAF21.8 billion (USD36.1 million), meaning the airline is technically insolvent.

Camair-Co was the subject of a recovery plan proposed by Boeing Consulting in 2016, which included settling its debt at the time, injecting new capital, resizing its network, and modernising its fleet, but the plan was never implemented.

The airline has a fleet of nine aircraft, of which only five are in service. The fleet includes two B737-700s (of which only one is active); one parked B767-300ER; two DHC-8-Q400s, two parked MA-60s, one EMB-135LR and one EMB-145LR (both wet-leased), according to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module.

Source: ch-aviation

Southern Cameroons: 18 per cent of health facilities have been forced to close

21, July 2023

Southern Cameroons: 18 per cent of health facilities have been forced to close 0

Cameroon’s North-West and South-West Regions are experiencing a severe humanitarian crisis: more than 630,000 people are internally displaced, and more than 86,000 people have taken refuge in neighbouring Nigeria. The ongoing sociopolitical crisis in both regions led to violence that is affecting the local economy and people’s access to essential social services. Essential services and infrastructure have now collapsed in the most severely affected areas.

Approximately 18 per cent of health facilities have been forced to close since April, and many that are operational are struggling to function.

Internally displaced persons, returnees, and some host populations, especially those in hard-to-reach areas without health facilities, are facing challenges accessing health care. Partners are mobilizing to provide humanitarian assistance to people in need.

Source: UN

Yaoundé gets CFAF40bln EU funding to empower women, develop agriculture

20, July 2023

Yaoundé gets CFAF40bln EU funding to empower women, develop agriculture 0

Finance Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey signed on Tuesday (July 18) three financing agreements with the head of the European Union (EU) delegation to Cameroon, Philippe Van Damme. The CFAF40 billion support covered by the agreement will support the fight against food insecurity, the construction of certain infrastructure, and the resilience of women in the North-West, South-West, West, and Littoral regions.

The women resilience program notably covered by the agreements involves the promotion of women empowerment with the creation of income-generating activities and an improvement of access to vocational training, Philippe Van Damme says. 

Food insecurity, which is also targeted by the EU funding, officially affects around 3 million people in Cameroon, or around 11% of the country’s population. Children under the age of 5 are the hardest hit, with 1/3 suffering from chronic malnutrition.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Wheat prices soar after Russia threatens all ships traveling to Ukraine

20, July 2023

Wheat prices soar after Russia threatens all ships traveling to Ukraine 0

Wheat prices have risen sharply on global markets after Russia said it would treat ships heading for Ukrainian ports as potential military targets.

Moscow pulled out of a deal this week that had guaranteed safe passage for grain shipments through the Black Sea.

A White House spokesperson accused Russia of planning to blame Ukraine for attacks on civilian ships.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said he would return to the grain agreement immediately if his demands were met.

They include reconnecting Russia’s agricultural bank to a global payment system.

A Russian air strike on the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv wounded 18 people on Wednesday night, according to a local official.

The region’s governor Vitaliy Kim said nine of the injured, including five children, were taken to hospital for treatment.

Other air strikes were reported on the port of Odesa.

Elsewhere, a drone strike in Russian-controlled Crimea killed a teenage girl, a Russian-backed official said.

Following previous air strikes around Odesa this week, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of deliberately targeting grain export infrastructure and putting vulnerable countries at risk.

Kyiv urged other countries in the Black Sea region to intervene to assure the safe passage of cargo ships.

“From 00:00 Moscow time on 20 July 2023 [21:00 GMT Wednesday], all vessels sailing on the Black Sea to Ukrainian ports will be regarded as potential carriers of military cargo,” the Russian defence ministry said.

“Flag states of such vessels will be considered to be involved in the Ukrainian conflict on the side of the Kyiv regime,” it added.

Wheat prices on the European stock exchange soared by 8.2% on Wednesday from the previous day, to €253.75 (£219.78) per tonne, while corn prices were up 5.4%.

US wheat futures jumped 8.5% on Wednesday, their highest daily rise since just after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi said strikes had destroyed 60,000 tonnes of grain and damaged considerable parts of grain export infrastructure.

Russia began targeting Ukraine’s ports in the early hours of Tuesday within hours of its withdrawal from the grain deal.

Source: BBC

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