27, May 2023

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 6 officials, teachers kidnapped in Momo Division ⁰

Separatist fighters have abducted six officials and teachers in Cameroon’s English-speaking region of Northwest which has been ravaged by a protracted armed separatist conflict, according to local officials.

Benoit Nicaise Fouda Etaba, the prefect of the Momo division of the region, said that three officials including two high-ranking members of the ruling party and three teachers were ambushed and kidnapped along the Andek-Mbengwi road stretch of the region.

The abducted persons took part in the National Day celebrations on May 20 and were returning to the Northwest chief town of Bamenda before the separatists kidnapped them, officials said.

“The defense and security forces are currently on diligent hunt to track down this gang of terrorists, present them to the competent judicial authorities to answer to their barbaric acts,” the prefect said in a statement made public and stressed that it was necessary for the population to collaborate with security forces to “fish out this band of criminals.”

There has been no comment from separatist leaders.

Cameroon’s Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest have been facing a separatist conflict since 2017.

Source: Xinhuanet

27, May 2023

Douala-Edea: 15 mourners taking body for burial die in road smash ⁰

Fifteen people in Cameroon taking the body of a loved one for burial died Friday when their minibus was involved in a crash with a lorry, the transport minister said.

The lorry’s driver also died in the accident and three people in the minibus were injured, Transport Minister Jean Ernest Massena Ngalle Bibehe said on state radio, CRTV.

The crash happened in the industrial city of Edea, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of the country’s economic capital, Douala.

“The minibus was transporting a body,” the minister added but was unable to elaborate on the cause of the collision.

Cameroon has among the highest proportion of road deaths in Africa, according to the latest available figures from the World Health Organization.

Earlier this month, 15 people died when a bus plunged off the road in eastern Cameroon.

Source: AFP

26, May 2023

Cannes spotlights Mambar Pierrette: ‘It’s high time Cameroonian stories influence world cinema’ ⁰

In the Directors’ Fortnight, which runs parallel to the main festival, Rosine Mbakam’s “Mambar Pierrette” painted an intimate portrait of a Cameroonian seamstress and single mother struggling to make ends meet against a backdrop of social hardship and the threat of floods.

Pierrette Aboheu Njeuthat stars as the titular character, a mother of three who works tirelessly at her sewing machine to provide for her children while customers and neighbours linger in her small shop, sharing their joys and disappointments in a deftly woven tapestry of communal life in the city of Douala.

A remarkable debut feature based on the life of Mbakam’s seamstress cousin, “Mambar Pierrette” draws on the director’s experience of documentary filmmaking, which has previously explored the themes of kinship and migration to Europe. FRANCE 24 spoke to the filmmaker about her focus on character studies and her commitment to promoting African stories in the moviemaking industry.

“Mambar Pierrette” is your first feature-length fiction film, although it is based on your cousin’s life. Where do you draw the line between documentary and fiction?

I drew inspiration from Pierrette’s life to write the script, placing it at the very heart of the film. Once we started shooting, the other characters also added their input, bringing the screenplay closer to their own lives.

Fiction never takes over. Its role is to add substance to the narrative and provide more context. In particular, the fictional element helps underscore the fact that Pierrette’s social predicament is not only a result of her small income, her husband’s irresponsibility or Cameroon’s politics. It is also derived from an enduring neo-colonialism that leaves swaths of the population in poverty.

The fabric shop is at the heart of your film. What does it symbolise?

My film tells the story of Pierrette, who is a seamstress in real life. Sewing embellishes, it brings people together, and her workshop is a place where people open up and share their secrets. I wanted to highlight the value of this work of dressmaking and transformation, which has all but vanished in the West. We shop, but we have lost this relationship with what we wear.

The sewing room also represents gender relationships in Cameroon. The men remain in the entrance, at the door, while the women establish themselves in the workshop, inhabiting the space. These opposing stances signal the contrast between a new generation of women who are increasingly assertive and men who don’t accept this reality – and are therefore in a vulnerable situation. Pierrette doesn’t sew for women only, she works for everyone, her workspace excludes nobody. By keeping at a distance, the men seek to protect themselves and avoid questioning their position in society.

Culled from France 24

26, May 2023

Pope Francis has fever, clears his schedule ⁰

Pope Francis has a fever that caused him to clear his schedule on Friday morning, the Vatican said, nearly two months after the 86-year-old pontiff was hospitalised with bronchitis.

“Due to a feverish state, Pope Francis did not receive an audience this morning,” said Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, without giving more details.

It was unclear who the pope had been expected to meet with, as his agenda was not made public on Friday, as is customary.

The pope’s morning audiences are usually reserved for heads of states, associations and clerics, while his afternoons are devoted to work and private meetings.

On Thursday, he had eight meetings on his published schedule.

Francis, who has been the leader of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics for a decade, has suffered increasing health issues over the past year, from persistent knee pain to his recent hospital stay for bronchitis.

The episodes have sparked widespread concern and fuelled speculation that he might choose to retire rather than stay in the job for life, a choice made by his predecessor, Benedict XVI.

In late March, Francis was admitted to hospital in Rome after having breathing difficulties, and stayed for three nights.

He was treated with antibiotics for bronchitis.

As he left the Gemelli Hospital on April 1, the pope smiled and joked with well-wishers, quipping: “I am still alive!”

He went on to participate in Holy Week and Easter services, the most important week in the Christian calendar.

Good days, bad days

For about a year, the pope has had to rely on a wheelchair due to recurring pain in his knee that he has said cannot be treated through surgery.

Asked about his health in an interview with US Spanish-language network Telemundo broadcast on Thursday, Francis said it was “much better”.

“I can walk now. My knee has been mending. I could hardly walk beforehand, now I can. Some days are more painful than others, like today,” the pope said.

Francis added that doctors had caught his bronchitis infection just in time.

“If we’d waited a few more hours, it would’ve been much more serious. But I was out (of the hospital) in four days,” he said.

Despite his health issues, Francis continues to travel widely, and concluded a three-day visit to Hungary earlier this month.

His next planned trip is to Lisbon from August 2-6 to attend World Youth Day, the Vatican announced on Monday.

The pope acknowledged last July, however, that he needed to slow down.

“At my age and with this limitation, I have to save myself a little bit to be able to serve the Church,” he said then.

“Or, alternatively, to think about the possibility of stepping aside.”

In March, however, he insisted that he had no current plans to quit.

Benedict XVI, who died on December 31 aged 95, surprised the world in 2013 when he announced he was stepping down, a radical move not seen since the Middle Ages.

Source: AFP

26, May 2023

Celine Dion cancels 2023-2024 shows over health ⁰

Pop icon Celine Dion on Friday cancelled all her remaining shows scheduled for 2023-2024, saying she was not strong enough to tour as she battles a rare neurological disorder.

Last year the 55-year-old Canadian singer revealed that she was suffering from the rare medical condition that was affecting her singing.

“I’m so sorry to disappoint all of you once again… and even though it breaks my heart, it’s best that we cancel everything until I’m really ready to be back on stage,” the My Heart Will Go On songstress tweeted.

“I’m not giving up… and I can’t wait to see you again!” she added.

A statement released by her tour said: “With a sense of tremendous disappointment, Celine Dion’s Courage World Tour today announced the cancellation of all remaining dates currently on sale for 2023 and 2024.”

“I’m working really hard to build back my strength, but touring can be very difficult even when you’re 100%,” the statement quoted Dion as saying.

In December 2022, she posted a tearful video on Instagram to say she had recently been diagnosed with Stiff-Person Syndrome and would not be ready to start a European tour in February as planned.

She said the disorder was causing muscle spasms and was “not allowing me to use my vocal cords to sing the way I’m used to.”

The “Courage World Tour” began in 2019, and Dion completed 52 shows before the Covid-19 pandemic put the remainder on hold.

She later cancelled the North American section of the tour due to health problems.

The tour was to have been the Grammy-winning winner’s first global concert tour in a decade and the first without her husband-manager Rene Angelil, who died from cancer in 2016.

Source: AFP

26, May 2023

Cameroon’s Higher Education Ministry: Prof. Fame Ndongo on a ‘sex diet’ ⁰

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.

“How did the Cameroon Concord News Group expect Prof. Jacques Fame Ndongo to punish sex criminals like Profs. Molua and Agborbechem who had transformed the University of Buea into their own harem?”

“Prof. Jacques Fame Ndongo and his protégés – Molua and Agborbechem – are birds of a feather and that was why they were moved out of Buea to escape the media’s scrutiny because of their sexual misconduct,” the source said angrily.

“Today Prof. Molua has reconstituted his harem in the University of Douala and he is plying his trade with ease. However, the Bassas are already tired of his abuse of women and they are hatching a plan to take him down once and for all. For his part, Agborbechem has continued with his bad sex habits in Bamenda and the noise coming out of there is not pleasant. Agborbechem‘s life is at risk and if he does not control his libido, Amba fighters will chop off his penis one of these days. I pray he takes this warning seriously,” our source said.

Prof. Fame Ndongo has made a mess of the Ministry of Higher Education. It is alleged that he has impregnated several married women and the women fear that their husbands might notice the resemblance of their children with the infamous minister of higher education who consumes sex for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

To finance his irresponsible behavior, Prof. Fame Ndongo has set up an elaborate scheme within his ministry which puts huge amounts of money in his pocket on a daily basis.

He is now using the creation of tertiary institutions in the country which issue HND certificates as a medium of enriching himself.

He has sidelined the government established commission designed to verify if the proprietors of such schools have the proper infrastructure to run an effective school and is now using emergency methods for those schools to be established without proper facilities.

These schools are now cropping up across the country and his emergency procedure nets him CFAF 3,000,000 per school and the person fronting him is a former driver of his who is supposed to be on retirement but he is always and religiously in the ministry for reasons only known by the minister.

The Cameroon Concord News has already sent a letter to the Presidency for Professor Ndongo to be investigated and another letter will be sent to the Prime Minister to ensure that the monster running the higher education ministry does not ruin the place before he leaves, as it is rumored that he will not be part of the next government.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Editor-in-chief, Cameroon Concord News Group

26, May 2023

Biya regime massacre to be met with matching response ⁰

The Ambazonia Interim Government vowed that Yaoundé’s recent massacre of Southern Cameroons Self Defense commanders and their family members in both the Northern and Southern Zones will be met with a matching response.

Dr Patrick Ayuk, a special adviser to Vice President Dabney Yerima, made the comments in an interview with Cameroon Concord News on Thursday in London.

The Southern Cameroons academic stated that “what is currently going on in the rural areas of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is a massive crime against innocent people, against humanity, against all the people of Southern Cameroons, and, therefore, this requires that there be retaliation, which is to the level of this massacre.”

Dr Patrick Ayuk’s remark came as the Ambazonia Interim Government is preparing to hold an international conference to evaluate the state of the Southern Cameroons revolution.

The Cameroon government military has assassinated several high-ranking Amba commanders loyal to the Ambazonia Interim Government in a series of targeted strikes throughout Southern Cameroons.

Dr Patrick Ayuk warned that all Southern Cameroons restoration groups were to join each other in delivering the response to French Cameroun and it is expected to be a very strong, comprehensive and united retaliation.

He noted that the Biya French Cameroun regime was already bracing itself for the reprisal that will intensify on October 1.

Asked if there were any room for negotiation with the occupying French Cameroun regime towards a resolution of the situation in Ground Zero, Dr Patrick Ayuk said, “Absolutely not…since the Francophone military and its backers have continued this war and have closed all the phone lines in the face of mediators such as Archbishop Mbarga and Archbishop Andrew Nkea.”

By Toto Roland Motuba

25, May 2023

India: 2 Cameroonians held at Indira Gandhi International Airport with heroin ⁰

Two Cameroon nationals were apprehended from the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport here for allegedly smuggling in 6.822 kg heroin valued at Rs 47.75 crore, officials said on Wednesday.

A senior Customs official said the accused arrived at the IGI Airport from Malawi via Addis Ababa.

“The heroin was recovered from the false bottom of their bags. The seizure of this significant quantity of heroin is a major blow to drugs trafficking operations,” said the official.

The official added that the accused were found violating provisions under the NDPS Act. The duo has been placed under arrest.

Source: ommcomnews

24, May 2023

Tina Turner, known as the ‘Queen of rock ‘n’ roll’, dies at 83 ⁰

Tina Turner, the American-born singer who left a hardscrabble farming community and abusive relationship to become one of the top recording artists of all time, died on Wednesday at the age of 83.

She died peacefully after a long illness in her home in Küsnacht near Zurich, Switzerland, her representative said.

Turner began her career in the 1950s during the early years of rock and roll and evolved into an MTV phenomenon.

In the video for her chart-topping song “What’s Love Got to Do with It,” in which she called love a “second-hand emotion,” Turner epitomized 1980s style as she strutted through New York City streets with her spiky blond hair, wearing a cropped jean jacket, mini skirt, and stiletto heels.

With her taste for musical experimentation and bluntly-worded ballads, Turner gelled perfectly with a 1980s pop landscape in which music fans valued electronically-produced sounds and scorned hippie-era idealism.

Sometimes nicknamed the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” Turner won six of her eight Grammy Awards in the 1980s. The decade saw her land a dozen songs on the Top 40, including “Typical Male,” “The Best,” “Private Dancer” and “Better Be Good to Me.”

Her 1988 show in Rio de Janeiro drew 180,000 people, which remains one of the largest concert audiences for any single performer.

By then, Turner had been free from her marriage to guitarist Ike Turner for a decade. The superstar was forthcoming about the abuse she suffered from her former husband during their marital and musical partnership in the 1960s and 1970s.

She described bruised eyes, busted lips, a broken jaw and other injuries that repeatedly sent her to the emergency room.

“Tina’s story is not one of victimhood but one of incredible triumph,” singer Janet Jackson wrote about Turner, in a Rolling Stone issue that placed Turner at No. 63 on a list of the top 100 artists of all time.

“She’s transformed herself into an international sensation – an elegant powerhouse,” Jackson said.

In 1985, Turner gave a fictional turn to her reputation as a survivor. She played the ruthless leader of an outpost in a nuclear wasteland, acting opposite Mel Gibson in the third instalment in the Mad Max franchise, “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.”

Most of Turner’s hit songs were written by others, but she enlivened them with a voice that New York Times music critic Jon Pareles called “one of the more peculiar instruments in pop.”

“It’s three-tiered, with a nasal low register, a yowling, cutting middle range and a high register so startlingly clear it sounds like a falsetto,” Pareles wrote in a 1987 concert review.

‘One-horse town’

She was born Anna Mae Bullock on November 26, 1939, in the rural Tennessee community of Nutbush, which she described in her 1973 song “Nutbush City Limits” as a “quiet little old community, a one-horse town.”

Her father worked as an overseer on a farm and her mother left the family when the singer was 11 years old, according to the singer’s 2018 memoir “My Love Story.” As a teenager, she moved to St. Louis to rejoin her mom.

Ike Turner, whose 1951 song “Rocket 88” has often been called the first rock and roll record, discovered her at age 17 when she grabbed the mic to sing at his club show in St. Louis in 1957.

The band leader later recorded a hit song, “A Fool In Love,” with his protégé and gave her the stage name Tina Turner, before the two married in Tijuana, Mexico.

Tina employed her strong voice and strenuously rehearsed dance routines as lead vocalist in an ensemble called the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. She collaborated with members of rock royalty, including The Who and Phil Spector, in the 1960s and 1970s and appeared on the cover of issue two of Rolling Stone magazine in 1967.

Ike and Tina Turner bounced between record labels, owing much of their commercial success to a relentless touring schedule. Their biggest hit was a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary.”

Turner left her husband one night in 1976 on a tour stop in Dallas, after he pummelled her during a car ride and she struck back, according to her memoir. Their divorce was finalized in 1978.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted Ike and Tina Turner in 1991, calling them “one of the most formidable live acts in history.” Ike Turner died in 2007.

Europe bound

After leaving her husband, Turner spent years struggling to regain the limelight, releasing solo albums and singles that flopped and gigging at corporate conferences.

In 1980, she met new manager Roger Davies, an Australian music executive who went on to manage her for three decades. That led to a solo no.1 – “What’s Love Got to Do With It” – and then in 1984 her album “Private Dancer” landed her at the top of the charts.

“Private Dancer” went on to become Turner’s biggest album, the capstone of a career that saw her sell more than 200 million records in total.

In 1985 Turner met German music executive Erwin Bach who became her long-term partner and in 1988 she moved to London, beginning a decades-long residency in Europe. She released two studio albums in the 1990s that sold well, especially in Europe, recorded the theme song for 1995 Bond movie “GoldenEye,” and staged a successful world tour in 2008 and 2009.

After that, she retired from show business. She married Bach, relinquishing her U.S. citizenship and becoming a citizen of Switzerland.

She battled a number of health problems after retiring and in 2018 she faced a family tragedy, when her oldest son, Craig, took his life at age 59 in Los Angeles. Her younger son Ronnie died in December 2022.

Her name continues to draw audiences years after her retirement. Musical stage show “TINA: The Tina Turner Musical,” with Adrienne Warren initially acting and singing the star’s life story, was a hit first in London’s West End in 2018, and later on Broadway, and is still running. And in 2021 HBO released a documentary about her life, “Tina.”

She is survived by Bach and two sons of Ike’s that she adopted.

Source: REUTERS