19, June 2023

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Francophone soldiers kill 10 in Big Babanki ⁰

At least ten Southern Cameroonians were killed in an offensive by the Francophone dominated Cameroon government military in Big Babanki in the North West region.

The attack on Big Babanki was carried out late on Friday night to the early hours of Saturday.

Yaoundé said those killed were armed separatists who abducted, tortured and later released dozens of women in the locality last month.

A source with strong ties to the Ambazonia Interim Government contacted by Cameroon Concord News denied the allegations and revealed that the deceased were all civilians.

Hundreds of people in Big Babanki fled to the bush as the offensive unfolded.

Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces, who have been in conflict with the Yaoundé government since 2017, hope to establish an independent nation in the two English-speaking regions known as the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

By Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

16, June 2023

Football: Mbappe among scorers as France see off Gibraltar in Euro qualifying ⁰

Kylian Mbappe netted from a penalty as France eased to a 3-0 win over minnows Gibraltar on Friday to maintain their 100 percent record in Euro 2024 qualifying.

Olivier Giroud gave last year’s World Cup runners-up an early lead in Faro, in Portugal’s Algarve, and Mbappe made it 2-0 from the spot in first-half stoppage time.

The France captain then forced an own-goal from Aymen Mouelhi to complete the scoring after the break, although Les Bleus also hit the woodwork four times.

The result follows wins over the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland in March and leaves France on a maximum nine points from three games in qualifying Group B.

They are three points better off than Greece, who beat Ireland 2-1 in Athens on Friday and have a game in hand.

France host Greece on Monday, while the Netherlands — currently involved in the Nations League finals — have three points from two games.

Mbappe had dominated the headlines in the build-up to this game after confirming he would not extend his contract at Paris Saint-Germain, which expires next year.

That has raised the prospect of PSG selling their superstar in this transfer window, even if the 24-year-old has said he intends to stay with the French champions next season.

He led Didier Deschamps’ team out at the Estadio do Algarve, where Gibraltar are hosting games because they do not boast a stadium of their own up to international standards.

France needed just three minutes to open the scoring in front of a sparse crowd as Giroud headed in from Kingsley Coman’s cross, and Aurelien Tchouameni then became the first visiting player to hit the bar.

Gibraltar, ranked 201st in the world and second-last in Europe ahead of just San Marino, almost drew level in remarkable fashion in the 34th minute when Ayoub El Hmidi tried to lob goalkeeper Brice Samba from just inside the France half.

Samba, making his France debut, was spared embarrassment as the shot landed on the roof of the net.

France got a penalty following a VAR review for a handball by Gibraltar captain Roy Chipolina, and the harsh award was converted by Mbappe.

It was Mbappe’s 12th goal in 12 appearances for France since the start of this season.

Antoine Griezmann hit the post early in the second half before Mouelhi’s own goal arrived in the 78th minute.

Tchouameni and substitute Axel Disasi then both struck the woodwork late on.

Source: AFP

16, June 2023

South Africa president urges Russia and Ukraine to de-escalate ⁰

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Friday called on Ukraine and Russia to de-escalate their conflict, as he arrived in the war-torn country on a mission to broker peace.

Ramaphosa is one of a group of African leaders that arrived in the Ukrainian capital earlier on Friday as air raid sirens sounded and explosions were reported in the city.

“This war must be settled and there should be peace through negotiations,” he told reporters after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“We argue that there must be de-escalation on both sides.”

Culled from France 24

16, June 2023

Simon Ngonja killing: Pet dog or Star Building action? ⁰

According to reports on social media in the nation’s capital Yaoundé, Simon Ngonja, a senior aide to Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute lost his life days after been attacked by his pet dog.

The Prime Minister’s Office has maintained a kind of deliberate silence ever since the incident was made public.

Cameroonians are being fed stories that Simon Ngonja was attacked by his German shepherd dog when he returned from a trip on Sunday, June 11, 2023.

Pro Biya regime social media outlets revealed that Simon Ngonga’s dog had pounced forcefully on him after he opened the gate of his house with some suggesting that he fought fiercely with the dog for his life but couldn’t save himself as the dog kept attacking him over and over again.

However, Cameroon Intelligence Report Yaoundé City Correspondent has hinted that Simon Ngonga’s killer was inside his residence moments before the so-called pet dog operation and that Ngonga himself knew something was up in the Star Building.

Mr Simon Ngonga, who is thought to have been on the phone to his brother when he approached his house, had reportedly told some colleagues that he was very worried about his time at the prime minister’s office.

This item is still developing in Yaoundé!

By Rita Akana with Intel files

16, June 2023

Amid Sex Scandals: Biya regime seeks to reshape higher education system ⁰

The Cameroonian government has submitted to parliament a draft bill aimed at reshaping its higher education system.

The new guidelines will advance modern higher education reform and improve the quality of compulsory education, said Wilfred Gabsa Nyongbet, secretary general of the Cameroonian Ministry of Higher Education, while defending the draft bill on Friday.

“The education system we have used so far was developed in 2001, but in 22 years higher education has evolved. That is why a lot of innovations have been introduced in the new draft law,” Nyongbet told reporters after the bill was presented to the National Assembly in the capital of Yaounde.

Nyongbet said Cameroon will create entrepreneurial universities to increase the possibility of universities having additional sources of income. This means that universities could have the leeway to create and run businesses. He stressed that the new system will allow more students to become job creators rather than job seekers.

The professionalization and overall development of students will be a priority, and these efforts must reach every student at every university, according to officials.

These changes are coming at a time when the Higher Education Ministry has been hit by many scandals over the last decades but none has been as big as the one that might take down the country’s higher education minister, Jacques Fame Ndongo, who is being described by his collaborators as a ‘man on a diet of sex.’

The minister’s office has become the theatre of multiple sex sessions designed to satisfy Mr. Ndongo’s out-of-control libido.

Mr. Ndongo seems to be shooting pornographic movies in his office as he has transformed his office into his own Hollywood.

Young girls, some as young as 21, are permanently streaming to Prof. Fame Ndongo‘s office and the soundtracks emanating from that office shortly after those girls walk into that “Hollywood studio” are always unsettling to the minister’s collaborators who simply want to do their job and head home to their wives and children.

Prof. Fame Ndongo’s sexual misconduct has reduced the higher education ministry into a playground for people to whom sex is medicine.

Some of the minister’s closest collaborators, most of whom are women, have been bedded by the satyr who passes off as a minister.

Some of these women are today senior officials of the ministry and since they are out of favor with the minister due to their ages, they no longer feel valued and are doing their best to sabotage the minister’s work.

According to an official of the Higher Education Ministry who spoke to the Cameroon Concord News correspondent in Yaoundé, Rita Akana, on condition of anonymity, said that some of the disgruntled women who have lost their shine and charm of yesteryears even challenge the minister to the face, causing him to lose authority among his staff.

The source, a man who will soon be retiring and is terribly bitter about the way his career has gone, is now singing like a canary and he is very willing to lay bare everything happening in a ministry which, in his opinion, has been terribly mismanaged by Prof. Ndongo who has run the ministry for close to 20 years.

Reported by Xinhuanet and Camcordnews

15, June 2023

Target killings of Francophone army soldiers ‘key’ to bringing Yaoundé to its knees ⁰

A senior adviser to the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government has lauded recent target killings against Cameroon government military personnel deployed to Southern Cameroons, saying the growing power of the hit-and-run tactics now being applied by restoration groups in Ground Zero is the key to bringing the occupying French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé to its knees.

Dr Patrick Ayuk made the remarks in a meeting with the leaders of the Manyu County Security Council in London on Tuesday.

The Biya Francophone regime launched a deadly military campaign on Southern Cameroons in 2016, sparking the creation of a multiple of Southern Cameroons Self Defense Groups and the subsequent killing of more than 4000 Cameroon government army soldiers.

The two sides are yet to agree to a ceasefire.

Cameroon government troops have reportedly killed thousands of Southern Cameroonians in the North West and South West regions. Several Southern Cameroons leaders have also been victims of the more than six year old conflict.

Dr Patrick Ayuk congratulated all Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces and stressed that even CPDM Anglophones are now being respected in La Republique du Cameroun because of the sacrifices made by Amba fighters.

“Today, there is fear everywhere in Ground Zero deep within French Cameroun administrative and security circles and this situation shows that the hit-and run policy was correctly identified by the fighters and they are following it,” Dr Patrick Ayuk said.

Dr Patrick Ayuk furthered that achieving great goals in this fight for independence requires taking great risks.

The Vice President Dabney Yerima aide appreciated all Southern Cameroons combatant groups in Ground Zero for their unity in the battlefield, describing it as very important to the liberation of the Ambazonia homeland.

By Isong Asu

Cameroon Concord News London Bureau Chief

15, June 2023

Football: Messi mania at fever pitch as Argentina face Australia in Beijing ⁰

Messi mania gripped a sweltering Beijing ahead of a sell-out friendly on Thursday evening between world champions Argentina and Australia in the Chinese capital.

All eyes were on Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest footballer of all time, who lifted the World Cup for the Albiceleste in December.

Thousands of Chinese fans braved temperatures of nearly 40 degrees Celsius, gathering at Beijing’s newly renovated Workers’ Stadium several hours before the 8 pm (1200 GMT) kick-off.

Many came clad in replica Argentina shirts emblazoned with Messi’s name and number 10, while others had daubed their faces with sky-blue and white paint or were excitedly clasping flags.

Security guards corralled hundreds of fans behind barriers outside the western gate to the ground, where the Argentina team coach was due to enter.

Forty-year-old lawyer Zhong Xiaoqing from eastern China’s Zhejiang province told AFP that Messi was his “perfect idol”.

“Messi is the greatest player of all time,” he said. “I was completely enamoured the first time I saw him play in 2005.

“He’s a model for me -– my perfect idol.”

For 29-year-old HR worker Sun Bingxin from northern Shanxi province, the excitement had been overwhelming.

“I’ve been so pent up about it that I feel like I could cry with joy,” she told AFP before kick-off.

“Every football fan in China has wanted to be here tonight, so it’ll be a spectacular occasion.”

Liu Rui, a 24-year-old student from Nanjing in eastern Jiangsu province, said being at the match was “really a dream come true”.

“In 40 years’ time, I can tell my grandchildren about this,” he told AFP.

Low profile

Hundreds of flag-waving fans had been camped outside the team’s luxury hotel ever since they touched down on Saturday.

Crowds have lined heavily guarded streets hoping to catch a glimpse of the 35-year-old each time the team goes for training.

The man himself has kept a low profile, but that has done little to dampen enthusiasm.

One daring fan recounted his tale of spending the night inside the Four Seasons hotel in a bid to get a close encounter with Messi and his teammates.

“I first hid in the janitor’s closet, then went up to the team’s floor through the fire escape staircase,” the man, surnamed Lin, told AFP.

He was questioned by hotel security before being released.

Another fan, Li Weihua, said he had flown from his home city of Shenzhen in southern China, heading straight to the hotel.

He does not even have a ticket for the match at the 68,000-capacity Workers’ Stadium, which had quickly sold out.

“I just want to feel the environment,” said the 29-year-old, who had never been to Beijing before.

Huang Yongming, 17, from the northeastern city of Changchun, was more successful in getting a highly coveted ticket.

“I spent around 3,000 yuan ($419) for a ticket,” Huang told AFP. “I know it’s expensive, but I thought that if I didn’t take the opportunity, I would regret it.”

Messi is set to join Inter Miami this summer, after two years at Paris Saint-Germain.

Source: AFP

14, June 2023

Grammy Awards: Africa finally gets its own category ⁰

The American music industry’s Grammy Awards announced on Tuesday that they will be awarding a gramophone to the best African music performance at their next edition, a further sign of their quest for diversity and a consecration for the genre.

The new award covers a wide range of styles, from Afrobeat and Afro-fusion to Kwassa Kwassa and Ndombolo from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana drill, Afro-House and South African hip-hop, said the Recording Academy, which brings together music industry professionals, in a press release.

The category will reward “recordings that use the unique local expressions of the African continent”, the Grammys organisers added.

Long accused of not sufficiently reflecting the diversity and evolution of the music industry, the Grammy Awards have been seeking for years to broaden the range of styles and registers of awards. The category of best soundtrack for a video game was added in 2022.

Musicians from African countries, such as French-Beninese singer Angélique Kidjo (5 wins, 14 nominations) and Nigerian singer Burna Boy (one win, 6 nominations), regularly dominate the Grammy world music categories.

At the 65th edition on 5 February in Los Angeles, a trio led by South African DJ-producer Zakes Bantwini, a pillar of local house music, won thanks to a track in Zulu in the best world music performance category.

The 2024 edition will also honour two other new categories: best alternative jazz album and best dance pop recording. In 2023, 91 awards were presented in as many categories, including pop, rock, classical, hip-hop, gospel and country.

Source: Africa News

14, June 2023

CPDM Crime Syndicate: MTN says asset seizure in Cameroon threatens operations ⁰

South African mobile operator MTN Group (MTNJ.J) said on Wednesday that its Cameroon operations were threatened by the seizure of its bank accounts in the country as part of a dispute in which it plays no part.

MTN Cameroon’s accounts with more than 14 billion CFA francs ($22 million) have been frozen by Cameroon court order since September 2022, as the company was brought into a loan dispute by a Cameroonian businessman, MTN said.

Following a court decision on June 9, the funds were to be transferred into an escrow account managed by the court registrar, MTN Cameroon CEO Mitwa Ng’ambi told a press conference in Douala on Wednesday.

“A threat to our operations is a threat to everything we have built in service to Cameroon over the last 23 years,” she said, adding that the company will use “all possible means to put an end to the imminent miscarriage of justice”.

MTN is Africa’s largest mobile carrier and its Cameroon subsidiary has one of the biggest networks in the country, with over 12 million users.

Ng’ambi said the matter has caused difficulties in paying service providers and employees and could hurt MTN’s more than 800 Cameroonian employees and an additional 200,000 people who work for suppliers and others.

The controversy stems from a dispute between Cameroonian business mogul Ahmadou Baba Danpullo and South Africa’s First National Bank (FNB) (FSRJ.J) over a real estate loan, said MTN’s Ng’ambi.

After the bank liquidated a number of properties belonging to Danpullo in South Africa, the businessman retaliated by having a Cameroonian court freeze the accounts of South African companies including MTN and Chococam, owned by Tiger Brands, she said.

Melvin Akam, MTN Cameroon general manager of regulatory and corporate affairs, said the seizure of the company’s accounts was “abusive, fraudulent and unacceptable.”

A spokesperson for Danpullo’s company, the Baba Danpullo Group, declined to comment.

South Africa’s foreign ministry on Tuesday urged company executives to continue pursuing all legal avenues available.

“Unfortunately, these latest developments will challenge the extent and appetite for investments into Cameroon,” it said.

($1 = 628.7500 CFA francs)

Source: Reuters

14, June 2023

Cameroon’s internet domain name among the most popular in Africa ⁰

Cameroon’s internet domain name is “one of the most popular” in Africa, commented Ebot Ebot Enaw, MD of the National Agency for Information Technology and Communication (Antic), last week during the opening of the 3rd edition of the National Forum on the Domain Name System (DNS).

The event was held in Bertoua, in the East region of Cameroon. “The “.cm” domain is one of the best in Africa right now. It is reliable and stable, which is great news for developers and companies who want to be seen on the Internet. It is one of the top three most popular domain extensions on the whole continent,” confirms Albert Kamga, head of the standardization and cooperation division at Antic.

This success of the Cameroonian internet domain name came after the sharp reduction in registration fees. From CFA35,000, the fees were first reduced to CFA7,000 on May 26, 2015, to promote the domain name. Later, during a promotional campaign organized from July 1 to October 1, 2020, the fees were further reduced to CFA2,000 FCFA. During this short period, 21,476 new customers were attracted, Antic reported.

Source: Business in Cameroon