24, March 2023

French Revolution: Government will not ‘yield to violence’ ⁰

French President Emmanuel Macron strongly condemned violence that erupted in Thursday’s demonstrations against raising the French retirement age and said he would not give in to it.

“We will yield nothing to violence, I condemn violence with the utmost strength,” Macron told a news conference, after an EU Summit in Brussels, on Friday.

Macron is under pressure to find a way out of a crisis that has seen some of France’s worst street violence in years over a pension bill he has pushed through parliament without a vote.

As protests are expected to continue next week, a planned state visit to France from Britain’s King Charles III has been postponed at Macron’s request.

“I think we would not be serious and lack common sense to propose to His Majesty the King and the Queen Consort to come do a state visit in the middle of the demonstrations,” Macron said Friday.

The French president said that the visit would be rearranged for early summer.

Source: AFP

23, March 2023

Yaoundé: Court refuses to release Francophone business tycoon facing murder charges ⁰

The Appeal Court in Yaoundé has rejected Francophone businessman, Amougou Belinga lawyer’s request to release him.

Court extended detention of Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga, who is held on charges of murdering journalist Martinez Zogo.

Amougou Beliga is being charged with murder of the much respected journalist and whistleblower Martinez Zogo.

The prosecution indicated that the suspect took advantage of his connection to the security apparatus of the state and killed the radio host.

The CEO of the press group l’Anecdote left Kondengui prison in Yaoundé this Thursday, March 23, 2023 for the Court of Appeal hoping he was going to get a provisional release but the request was rejected.

The hearing lasted a couple of minutes and the Court of Appeal announced the postponement of the case to April.

The disgraced Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga was remanded in custody on Saturday, March 4, 2023 by the Military Court in Yaoundé for “complicity in torture by aiding and abetting” in the case of Martinez Zogo, the whistleblower journalist kidnapped on January 17, 2023 before being murdered shortly after.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

23, March 2023

Football: UEFA launch probe into Barcelona refereeing scandal ⁰

European football’s governing body UEFA said on Thursday it was launching an investigation into claims Barcelona paid for favourable refereeing decisions.

UEFA said its ethics and disciplinary inspectors would probe “a potential violation of UEFA’s legal framework by FC Barcelona in connection with the so-called ‘Caso Negreira'”, referring to the Spanish league’s former refereeing chief Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira.

Barcelona have already been charged with corruption by Spanish prosecutors for payments between 2001 and 2018 to a company owned by Negreira, totalling around 7.3 million euros ($7.95 million).

The club say they were paying for reports and advice on refereeing but prosecutors have accused the club of seeking to gain favourable decision-making from officials.

Charges were filed earlier this month against the club, Negreira and two former Barcelona presidents, Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, among others.

Negreira, a former referee, was the vice president of the refereeing committee of the Spanish football federation between 1994 and 2018.

The investigation began after Spain’s tax authorities identified irregularities in tax payments made between 2016 and 2018 by the company Dasnil 95, owned by Negreira.

Dasnil 95 reportedly received payments from Barcelona between those years.

The last invoice was issued in June 2018. After that the refereeing committee was restructured and Negreira left the organisation.

Joan Laporta, the current Barcelona president, has insisted his club is innocent.

“Let it be clear Barca have never bought referees and Barca have never had the intention of buying referees, absolutely never,” he said.

La Liga president Javier Tebas has previously said Barcelona faced no immediate danger because the governing bodies of Spanish, European and world football all have five-year statutes of limitations.

On the criminal level, the accused could face up to four years in prison.

The case has caused tensions between Barcelona and old rivals Real Madrid, with the latter’s president, Florentino Perez, not travelling to the Camp Nou for last weekend’s Clasico, which was won by the Catalans.

Real Madrid have confirmed they will appear in the case as an “injured party” to defend their interests.

Relations between the two rival clubs seemed to be improving of late, as they looked to launch a European Super League project together in 2021 and remain set on the idea.

Source: AFP

23, March 2023

Several dead, scores missing after migrant boats sink off Tunisia ⁰

At least five African migrants died and another 33 were missing after four boats sank off the coast of Tunisia on Wednesday as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Italy, an official of a local rights group said.

Romadan Ben Omar, the official in the Tunisian Forum for Social and Economic Rights, said that coast guard rescued five migrants who had been on board boats that sank off the coast of the southern city of Sfax, and that they were in a bad psychological condition.

A judicial official told Reuters on Thursday that 33 of the migrants were still missing and the Coast Guard had rescued 84 others.

The coastline of Sfax has become a major departure point for people fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East for a shot at a better life in Europe.

The incident comes amid a significant increase of migration boats from the Tunisian coast toward Italy and in the midst of a campaign by Tunisian authorities of arrests targeting undocumented sub-Saharan African immigration.

According to unofficial United Nations data, 12,000 of those who have reached Italy this year set sail from Tunisia, compared with 1,300 in the same period of 2022. Previously, Libya was the main launch pad for migrants from the region.

Last month, President Kais Saied said in comments widely criticised by rights groups and the African Union that undocumented sub-Saharan African immigration was a conspiracy aimed at changing Tunisia’s demographic make-up.

He ordered security forces to expel any migrants living in Tunisia illegally.

The order had led people to flee the country, even if they previously had no intention of making the dangerous crossing to Europe, a senior official with the United Nations said.

Tunisia is struggling with its worst financial crisis due to the disruption of negotiations with International Monetary Fund for a loan amid fears of default in debt repayment, raising concerns from Europe, especially neighboring Italy.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani previously told Reuters that Rome wanted the IMF to unblock the $1.9 billion loan to Tunisia, fearful that without the cash the country would be destabilised, unleashing a new wave of migrants toward Europe.

Source: Reuters

22, March 2023

French Cameroun: Mine blast kills four soldiers, Injures several in Far North ⁰

Four Cameroon government soldiers were killed and several others, including two civilians, were injured by a highway bomb in Amchide and Sabon Gari in the Far North region, where Boko Haram militants are active, military told Cameroon Intelligence Report Wednesday.

We gathered that a BIR patrol vehicle hit a mine on the main road linking Amchide and Sabon Gari. A bike rider and one resident were also caught in the blast.

“Four soldiers died in the explosion and many others were badly injured while two civilians were also injured,” our source said.

Cameroon government military leadership in the Far North region accused Boko Haram militants of planting the bomb.

Yaoundé did not immediately respond to a request for official comment.

Boko Haram has launched several attacks in and around the Far North region, targeting troops loyal to the Biya Francophone regime.

By Nelly Epupa with files from Rita Akana

21, March 2023

Water turmoil in Douala casts shadow over precious resource ⁰

Dawn breaks in Cameroon’s economic hub, the seething metropolis of Douala, and a crowd gathers at the water spigots by the Guinness brewery in the run-down district of Bassa.

They fill up jerrycans and canisters from the only dependable local source of water — a borehole installed by the brewery itself in the absence of a reliable state supplier.

People load up car trunks, motorcycle taxi luggage racks or else balance containers on their heads.

The hole is one of a huge number of privately-owned wells which dip into the water table in this region of four million people.

But lack of regulation has led to chaos, raising questions as to whether the precious resource can be sustained or remain drinkable.

Overconsumption and pollution of the planet’s limited supplies of freshwater lie at the core of a three-day UN Water Conference opening in New York on Wednesday.

Boreholes everywhere

Cameroon’s water problems are clearly big, according to anecdotal evidence, but there are few figures to give statistical depth.

The government says the public water utility Camwater serves a “majority” of households — but does not offer figures, or even an estimate.

Not far from Bassa, in the PK12 district, two machines are hammering away on a corner of land wedged between buildings, making the ground shake.

Boring into the ground to reach the aquifer requires copious amounts of lubricant, in the form of water pumped in by teams at the surface and a chemical additive called Polyfor.

Care has to be taken to avoid polluting the supply, said Serge Diffo, who runs the small drilling company, Hydyam.

But, he said, “you see septic tanks right next to boreholes in residential blocks.”

Wells drilled for individual use do not need any prior authorisation, a practice that verges on heresy in typical urban planning.

Hygiene fear

“Every person, in line with what he can afford, simply drills one or more wells without bothering to pay attention to anyone,” said Firmin Bon, a professor of hydrology at Maroua University.

A borehole typically costs at least a million CFA francs (around $1,600) in a country where the minimum wage is 36,000 francs.

“The density can come close to 100 boreholes per square kilometre (250 per square mile),” said Bon.

“They are sometimes in contact with sources of pollution, latrines and sewage.”

He predicted, at best, a rise in cases of gastroenteritis or, at worst, cholera — and, in the long term, cancer.

In the nearby but better-off valley of Logbessou, villas are fitted out as far as the eye can see with water tanks in the form of massive but unsightly black, grey or blue plastic water butts which store water from boreholes.

A study published by the Pan African Medical Journal found that in 2018, two-thirds of households in Doula’s fifth district were consuming water drawn from boreholes. Half of the households were more than a 15-minute walk from a source.

The country’s deputy minister for water, Hamadou Youssoufa, described the situation in Douala as “a concern,” and blamed it on runaway urban development and a population explosion.

He said the ministry was carrying out a study into the hygiene of the boreholes, which “will be useful for requiring consumers to uphold the standards.”

Skepticism

President Paul Biya, Cameroon’s iron-fisted ruler for the past four decades, acknowledged in his New Year’s address that the water problem in Douala was one of his “main concerns.”

He said the government had been asked to launch a “mega-project” this year to supply drinking water to the city and its environs.

But Francois Songue, a 75-year-old pensioner, has grown tired of such promises over the years.

“In my part of town you have to wait for water from Camwater until two in the morning — and it doesn’t come!

“I’ve travelled more than 10 kilometres here to get drinking water for my wife, my children and myself,” he said as he stood in line at the Guinness site.

Jodelle Foguem, a young housewife, said she trusted the water that came from the brewery’s taps.

“The water is not drinkable in our parts of town. We prefer to come and get it here,” she said.

Source: AFP

21, March 2023

Cameroon a dangerous place to be a journalist ⁰

In Cameroon, one of the most popular radio talk shows is Embouteillage, aired on the private radio station Amplitude FM, whose anchor was Mbani Zogo Arsène Salomon, better known as Martinez Zogo or “Le Maestro”.

On 17 January, reports started trickling in of Zogo’s kidnapping. He was missing for five days before his naked body was discovered on the outskirts of the capital Yaoundé.

Rene Emmanuel Sadi, Cameroon’s communications minister, said Zogo’s corpse showed signs of torture. Autopsy results provided by his family show the extent of his injuries, including a broken leg and missing fingers.

Zogo had a reputation as an outspoken critic of private and public sector malfeasance. At the time of his death he was investigating business tycoon and media guru Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga.

In one of his last broadcasts, Zogo claimed to have incriminating evidence detailing how Belinga and his allies in the government had allegedly syphoned billions of CFA francs from the state’s coffers. This was not the first time that Zogo had upset powerful people. He had previously been suspended from the air and imprisoned as a result of his critical comments.

Another journalist, Samuel Wazizi, was arrested and detained in August 2019 for criticising the government’s handling of a separatist revolt in the country’s English-speaking northwest and southwest regions. He was later reported to have died in custody, but his family has yet to see his body.

“Press freedom in Cameroon is controversial,” said Charlie Aimé Tchouemou, editor-in-chief of Amplitude FM.

President Paul Biya set up a commission to investigate the murder. According to the secretary general at the presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, it has led to some arrests and many others are still being sought. Their identities have not been made public.

Reporters Without Borders revealed the arrests of about 20 members of Cameroon’s General Directorate for External Investigation, including its boss, Maxime Eko Eko, and its special operations director, Justin Danwe. Belinga, who owns the newspaper L’Anecdote and the TV channel Vision 4, and his wife were also arrested.

‘Killed like a pig’

Zogo’s wife Diane has written a letter to Biya and other world leaders demanding justice and protection for her family. “My husband was killed like a pig, let justice take its course.” Zogo’s family has declined to receive his body until after the killers have been arraigned in court.

For close to a month before he was killed, Zogo had become increasingly aware that his life was in peril, but had vowed to expose those “killing” the state. His sister Moungou Crespence said he “used to tell us that he will die for his people”.

Zogo’s colleagues are hopeful that because the investigations were ordered by the president, his killers will be brought to justice. But the commission has an arduous task ahead of it, amid accusations that senior government officials were complicit in the murder.

On 4 March, the state prosecutor presented to some of the suspects the charges levelled against them, and placed them in pre-trial detention in the Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaoundé. The key detainees are Maxine Eko Eko, Justin Danwe and Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga. The charges range from kidnapping and torture to complicity in kidnapping and torture, but none of them has been charged with murder.

Since Zogo’s death, Equinoxe Television, a private TV station in Cameroon, has begun its 8pm show with a tribute to him.

Source: Mail/Guardian

21, March 2023

Chad jails more than 400 rebels for life after death of former ruler ⁰

More than 400 rebels in Chad were handed life sentences on Tuesday following the death of former ruler Idriss Deby Itno, who was killed in 2021, a public prosecutor told AFP.

After a mass trial, they were sentenced for “acts of terrorism, mercenarism, recruitment of child soldiers and assaulting the head of state,” said Mahamat El-Hadj Abba Nana, prosecutor for the capital N’Djamena.

He did not give a detailed figure for those jailed, saying only that “more than 400 were sentenced” to life, while 24 other defendants were acquitted.

The trial opened last month behind closed doors at Klessoum prison, 20 kilometres (12 miles) southeast of the capital.

In early 2021, the country’s main rebel group, the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), launched an offensive on the north of the country from bases in Libya.

On April 20, the army announced that Marshal Deby, Chad’s iron-fisted ruler for the previous three decades, had died from wounds sustained in the fighting.

His death was announced just a day after he had been declared victor of a presidential election that gave him a sixth term in office.

He was immediately succeeded by one of his sons, General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who took the helm at the head of a 15-member military junta.

‘A masquerade’

Several defendants were also ordered to pay damages of more than $32 million to the state and $1.6 million to the ex-president’s family, said FACT lawyer Francis Lokoulde, who suggested there would be an appeal.

“It’s a masquerade that follows no law, no convention”, said FACT leader Mahamat Mahdi Ali.

“All that comes from a willingness to criminalise our struggle. The verdict is a non-event,” he said.

Defence lawyers had protested at the very short notice after the mass trial had been announced just days before it started on February 13.

Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno had promised to hold free elections within 18 months, but that deadline was extended for another two years.

Protests last October to mark the initially promised end to military rule met with a deadly crackdown.

The Chadian authorities first put the death toll in the capital at around 50, before updating that figure to 73 deaths. Opposition groups say the number is higher.

The Geneva-based World Organization against Torture (OMCT) accused the Chadian authorities of summary executions and torture.

A total of 262 people were then handed terms of between two and three years after a trial in the notorious Koro Toro prison, isolated in the desert 600 kilometres from N’Djamena.

The remote location and proceedings drew condemnation from international human rights groups.

Human Rights Watch not only denounced the mass trial but also the murders, forced disappearances and torture that preceded it.

The main leaders of Chad’s opposition now live in hiding or in exile, even though the junta lifted a suspension of several opposition parties in January.

Despite criticism of his authoritarian rule, the elder Deby was a key ally in the West’s anti-jihadist campaign in the unstable Sahel, particularly due to the relative strength of Chad’s military.

Source: AFP

21, March 2023

Football: Mbappé named French team’s captain ⁰

Kylian Mbappe has succeeded the retired Hugo Lloris as France captain, a source close to the team told AFP on Monday.

Paris Saint-Germain forward Mbappe, 24, accepted the proposal after discussions with Coach Didier Deschamps earlier in the day.

Tottenham goalkeeper Lloris brought an end to his international career in January after losing the World Cup final a month earlier.

Lloris, 36, had been skipper for more than a decade.

Atletico Madrid attacker Antoine Griezmann was named vice-captain after Manchester United centre-back Raphael Varane also hung up his boots following the defeat to Argentina in December.

Mbappe, who has played 66 times for his country, had been heavily linked with the role for weeks and scored a hat-trick in the World Cup final loss after helping Les Bleus to the title in 2018.

The former Monaco attacker is vice-captain at PSG behind Brazil’s Marquinhos and led the side in the defender’s absence during Sunday’s loss to Rennes.

His first game as captain will be Friday’s Euro 2024 qualifier against the Netherlands at the Stade de France.

Source: AFP

20, March 2023

Putin meets China’s Xi in Moscow, says open to negotiations on Ukraine ⁰

China’s President Xi Jinping has arrived in Moscow for an official three-day visit, during which he will discuss Russia’s ongoing military campaign in Ukraine as well as other issues of bilateral and international interest with his counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

The two leaders greeted one another as “dear friend” when they met for informal talks in the Kremlin on Monday afternoon. They will sit for formal talks on Tuesday.

During the meeting, Putin told Xi that he is ready to discuss Beijing’s Ukraine peace proposal.

“We are always open to negotiations,” Putin told Xi, adding, “We will certainly discuss all these issues, including your initiatives which we treat with respect, of course.”

“We have plenty of common tasks and objectives,” Putin said, adding that it was “symbolic” that China’s president chose to travel to Russia for the first foreign visit of his new term.

While strengthening relations with Moscow, China has released a broad 12-point proposal to solve the Ukraine crisis.

Beijing has repeatedly dismissed Western accusations that it is planning to arm Russia, saying, however, that it wants a closer energy partnership after boosting imports of Russian coal, gas and oil.

Ahead of his visit to Moscow, Xi said China’s Ukraine peace proposal reflects global views on the conflict.

“Complex problems do not have simple solutions,” he wrote in Rossiiskaya Gazeta, a daily published by the Russian government.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Putin said he was “slightly envious” of China’s rapid development in recent decades.

“China has created a very effective system for developing the economy and strengthening the state. It is much more effective than in many other countries,” Putin said.

Xi, for his part, hailed his country’s “close ties” with Russia, saying, “We are partners in comprehensive strategic cooperation. It is this status that determines that there should be close ties between our countries.”

Xi told Putin that he was convinced the Russian people would support him in a presidential election due in 2024.

“I know that next year there will be another presidential election in your country,” Xi said, adding, “Thanks to your strong leadership, Russia has made significant progress in achieving the prosperity of the country in recent years. I am sure that the Russian people will strongly support you in your good endeavors.”

Later on, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov pointed out that Xi did not specifically said Putin would participate in next year’s election, adding that the Kremlin shared Xi’s confidence in Russians’ support for Putin.

Xi was the first leader to meet the Russian president since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him on Friday over the allegation of the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia during its year-old invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow said the charge was one of several “clearly hostile displays” and opened a criminal case against the ICC prosecutor and judges. Beijing said the warrant reflected double standards.

Source: Press TV