10, February 2023

Football: Ronaldo scores four to pass 500 league goals ⁰

Cristiano Ronaldo scored all of Al Nassr’s goals in a 4-0 rout of Al Wehda in the Saudi league on Thursday as he passed the 500 league goal mark in his club career.

The 38-year-old Portuguese star now has 503 goals scored for five different teams stretched across five leagues.

He hit three for Sporting Lisbon in his fledgling career, 103 for Manchester United over two spells, 311 for Real Madrid and 81 at Juventus.

Ronaldo now has five for Al Nassr who he joined after the World Cup following his bitter divorce from United.

On Thursday, he hit the 500 mark in the 21st minute with a left-footed strike.

He made it 2-0 with his right foot just before the interval before his hat-trick arrived from the penalty spot eight minutes into the second half.

It was his 61st career hat-trick.

He added a fourth just after the hour mark when he was first to a rebound.

Ronaldo had opened his account for his new employers last Friday with a stoppage-time penalty in a 2-2 away draw against Al Fateh.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner, who holds the all-time records for Champions League and international goals, is banking more than 400 million euros for his surprise move to Saudi, according to sources close to Al Nassr.

The giant sum includes 200 million euros for promoting Saudi Arabia’s expected joint bid to host the 2030 World Cup, the sources told AFP.

Ronaldo has become a figurehead for the conservative kingdom’s push to improve its reputation through sports — a process that has drawn accusations of “sportswashing”, or trying to sanitise its human rights record.

Source: AFP

9, February 2023

Arrests of Amougou Belinga and Maxime Eko Eko must be followed by further progress ⁰

IPI, the global network for independent journalism, welcomes apparent preliminary progress in the police investigation into last month’s murder of Cameroon journalist Martinez Zogo. IPI urges authorities to pursue the investigation to its full conclusion and hold all culprits responsible according to the law.

Martinez Zogo, the director general of radio Amplitude FM, a privately owned media house based in Yaounde, the capital city of Cameroon, was a popular journalist and host of the radio program ‘’Embouteillage’’. He reported on government malpractice, the embezzlement of public funds, and corruption.

On January 17, 2023, Martinez Zogo was abducted by unknown individuals in Yaounde. Several days later, on January 22, his body was found with signs of torture, as IPI previously reported. His abduction and assassination triggered national and international outrage and condemnation. IPI and other press freedom groups have called for a speedy and thorough investigation.

On February 2, 2023, the minister of state and secretary general of the Presidency of the Republic of Cameroon, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, issued a press release announcing the arrest of several suspects. At least 20 individuals are reported to have been arrested or interrogated, including several with high public profiles in the country’s security services.

Among the highest profile individuals arrested is Léopold Maxime Eko Eko, who heads Cameroon’s General Directorate for External Intelligence (DGRE).

On February 6, 2023, authorities arrested another powerful figure, the business tycoon Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga, who is said to have connections to high-ranking public officials and ministers. According to reports, Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga is strongly suspected of involvement in the kidnapping, torture, and killing of Zogo. Belinga is also the owner of the L’Anecdote media group in Cameroon. Two other powerful people, journalist Bruno Bidjang, the director general of Anecdote media group, and Raymond Thomas Etoundi Nsoe, a retired colonel and former commander of the presidential guard, are also suspected of involvement in the assassination and were arrested in Yaounde on the same day.

“IPI welcomes these signs of apparent progress in the investigation into the horrific murder of Martinez Zogo in Cameroon”, IPI Deputy Director Scott Griffen said. “However, these initial arrests and interrogations of suspects are only a first step on the path to justice. Cameroonian law enforcement must deliver on this initial progress and ensure that all those involved in this crime – including the masterminds, regardless of their position or prominence – are held to account.”

“We will be closely following this investigation, and call on the authorities to ensure sufficient transparency as the investigation moves forward in order to maintain its credibility. The world’s eyes are on Cameroon to firmly defeat impunity in this case.”

9, February 2023

Hopes fade as Turkey-Syria quake toll at 17,500 ⁰

Hopes were fading Thursday for rescuing survivors of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, which has killed over 17,500 people in one of the deadliest tremors in decades.

Bitter cold has hampered the four-day search of thousands of flattened buildings and the 72-hour mark that experts consider the most likely period to save lives has passed.

Relatives were left scouring body bags laid out in a hospital car park in Turkey’s southern city of Antakya to search for missing relatives, an indication of the scale of the tragedy.

“We found my aunt, but not my uncle,” said Rania Zaboubi, a Syrian refugee who lost eight members of her family, as other survivors sought loved ones’ bodies among the corpses.

The 7.8-magnitude quake struck as people slept early Monday in a region where many people had already suffered loss and displacement due to Syria’s civil war.

Source: AFP

9, February 2023

UN deeply concerned about the safety of journalists in Cameroon ⁰

We are deeply concerned about the safety of journalists in Cameroon following the killing of a second journalist in the country in two weeks.

Jean-Jacques Ola Bebe, a radio presenter and Orthodox priest, was found dead on 2 February near his home in the Mimboman district of the capital Yaoundé, apparently shot dead by unknown assailants. His killing came 11 days after Arsene Salomon Mbami Zogo, popularly known as Martinez Zogo, a prominent journalist and manager of privately-owned Amplitude FM, was found dead five days after he had been abducted outside a gendarmerie station in Yaoundé.

Both Ola Bebe and Martinez Zogo were outspoken voices against corruption, using their platforms on radio to denounce cases of alleged misappropriation of public funds. Ola Bebe was at the forefront in calling for justice and accountability for the murder of Zogo, his close associate.

In January, at least three other Cameroonian journalists reported that they had received credible threats from unidentified people.

The Cameroonian authorities must take all necessary measures to create an enabling environment for journalists to work without fear of reprisal, and to uphold the right to freedom of expression as guaranteed in international human rights law, and also set out in Cameroon’s Constitution. A free, independent, and diverse media environment is vital in ensuring citizens are informed and can hold public institutions to account.

We note that President Biya has ordered investigations into Martinez Zogo’s killing, and certain arrests have been made. We call on the authorities to ensure that Ola Bebe’s killing is also independently, effectively, and impartially investigated and that those found to be responsible for these killings, at all levels, are held to account.

9, February 2023

While resolving the conflict in Southern Cameroons, we can’t lose sight of child victims ⁰

Ottawa announced last month that it has been leading discussions between the government of Cameroon and separatist groups, which have been in a conflict that has violently escalated in recent years. After the announcement, the Cameroonian government stated it was not working with an external mediator. Previous attempts by Switzerland and the Vatican to bring about peace talks in Cameroon have failed.

“Peace processes are always messy and take time, and this is a conflict that has been going for 40 years,” stated Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly. Canada was seen as an ideal interlocutor because its Constitution accommodates both anglophone and francophone traditions, it has no colonial-era baggage or significant economic interest in the country, and it has long-standing diplomatic ties to Cameroon.

The crisis in the North-West and South-West regions began in late 2016, when Cameroonian security forces were accused of using excessive force against peaceful demonstrators, led by teachers and lawyers who were protesting the perceived marginalization of the country’s minority anglophone education and legal systems. Dialogue between the government, teachers and lawyers at the early stages of the crisis failed. The crisis escalated when separatist fighters used violence, restricting access to education, and put pressure on the government for political recognition and independence for the English-speaking regions. A Major National Dialogue in 2019 was greeted by many as a great first step, but it wasn’t enough. The use of military means to combat the separatist fighters has only escalated the violence, with civilians caught in the middle.

The UN estimates that the violence since the protests began has claimed more than 6,000 lives and has kept 600,000 children out of school. At least 800,000 people have fled their homes and are internally displaced or refugees in other countries. Attacks by armed separatist groups on students, teachers and schools in Cameroon’s North-West and South-West regions since 2017 have had an enormous impact on children’s education. This devastating reality has made the children of Cameroon more vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and violence.

The advocacy network Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict estimates that less than 18 per cent of peace agreements globally have included child-protection provisions. To end the cycles of violence we need to be able to ensure children’s issues and rights are not only embedded in peace agreements, but also become integrated into the entire peace mediation process. This would allow for unique opportunities to shape a joint vision for the future of a conflict-affected country.

Canada and Cameroon both have an opportunity to reinforce commitments to the protection of children. In 2018, Cameroon endorsed the international Safe Schools Declaration, which Canada has also endorsed, and the Vancouver Principles on Peacekeeping and the Prevention of the Recruitment and Use of Child Soldiers, which Canada spearheaded. These commitments focus on the importance of protecting children from violence and ensuring access to education.

Unfortunately, for the children of Cameroon, this conflict in the North-West and South-West regions is not the only concerning exposure to violence that exists. Boko Haram, in the Grand North region bordering with Nigeria, has been accused of recruiting and using children in violence since 2014. Exposing children to violence can increase the likelihood that they will engage in violent behaviour in the future. Preventing recruitment and use in the first place is therefore paramount to breaking cycles of violence.

While national-led peace processes are critical, lessons from other contexts and best practices are essential. International calls for dialogue between the separatist groups in Cameroon and government authorities need to take place. If the leaders of all sides involved fail to prioritize the protection of children in the peace process, this will have a negative impact on future generations.

The children of Cameroon deserve the opportunities we all wish for our children, to live in peace and harmony so that they may reach their full potential. Now that we are in Black History Month, it is important to recall the wisdom of Martin Luther King, who said, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy.” Let us stand collectively for children, peace and security in Cameroon, Canada and everywhere.

Culled from Globe and Mail

9, February 2023

Journalist Martinez Zogo’s murder may trigger regime change in Yaoundé ⁰

The nation has been run by the same man, Paul Biya, for decades. But as the 89-year-old fades from public view, high-stakes maneuvering is underway, which may have led to the brutal murder and mutilation of a well-known journalist.

Martinez Zogo was a journalist at Amplitude FM, an independent radio station in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé — and he became well-known for denouncing corruption. On Jan. 22, Zogo was found dead at the age of 51 — his body was severely mutilated.

From the moment the killing was reported, this central African nation of 27 million has been plunged into fear and a deep, potentially fatal regime crisis.

On Monday, one of Cameroon’s most prominent businessmen, Jean-Pierre Amougou-Belinga, was arrested at his home by about 100 security agents, who first had to neutralize his ten or so bodyguards. Amougou-Belinga is suspected of being the mastermind behind the journalist’s murder.

But that was just one in a series of arrests made in recent days, including the head of Cameroon’s counterintelligence service, as well as several members of the intelligence services. Reporters Without Borders, which has been investigating the case, reports that it has seen the statement of the Director of Special Operations of the counterintelligence service, Justin Danwe, who acknowledges his involvement. The Paris-based organization for the protection of journalists thus issued a statement that Zogo’s murder was a crime of the state.

Other journalists were reportedly threatened, including Haman Mana, director of the daily newspaper Le Jour, whom Martinez Zogo had visited a few days before his disappearance and who’d been told he would be next “on the list.”

Threat of instability in a key African country

If this were only a matter of settling scores over corruption, it would already be quite sordid; but everything seems to indicate that it goes far beyond that, that we instead are witnessing the war of political succession taking place in Cameroon.

The country’s President, Paul Biya, who will soon be celebrating his 90th birthday, has run the country for more than 40 years — a record! For a long time now, he has been an “interim” president, passing lengthy stays in Switzerland, meeting only once or twice a year with the Council of Ministers.

The country could be one of the continent’s engines of growth.

This transition has thus left a lot of room for officials to compete for influence, including the all-powerful Secretary General of the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh. It is still too early to know how this murder and subsequent arrests fit into these maneuverings, but it appears that the stakes are clearly high enough to kill, denounce and betray.

Cameroon is a key country in central Africa, and it is in no one’s interest to see it sink into even greater instability as the end of Biya’s long reign continues to drag out.

Boko Haram and oligarchs

The northern part of the nation, bordering Lake Chad, continues to face the threat of Boko Haram jihadists. The English-speaking West is in the grip of a civil war that has been going on for years, due to failures by the central government to keep its promises. All the while, much of Cameroon’s wealth is being captured by a predatory oligarchy.

And yet, it is an oil-rich, agricultural and modestly industrial country that could be one of the continent’s engines of growth. Its fate is of sufficient concern to its partners that French President Emmanuel Macron went there last summer, at the risk of appearing to support Biya, whom he has also criticized on repeated occasions.

Last week, several Cameroonian personalities from the diaspora as well as from within the country called for a national dialogue in an article in the French daily Le Monde before, they said, “a catastrophe occurs.” With the latest news, one wonders if the catastrophe has not already begun.

Source: Worldcrunch

8, February 2023

Turkey-Syria earthquake: Search for survivors as death toll surpasses 8,000 ⁰

Rescuers are racing to pull survivors from earthquake rubble before they succumb to cold weather in southern Turkey and war-ravaged northern Syria. As the death toll climbed, despair and anger were growing over the pace of rescue efforts. Follow the latest developments on our live blog below.

The death toll from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria early on Monday has now reached 5,894 in Turkey and 2,470 in Syria, bringing the total to 8,364.

More than 34,000 were injured in Turkey.

Bad weather hampered the search and rescue efforts overnight

Thousands of children may have been killed, according to UNICEF.

Monday’s quake, followed hours later by a second one almost as powerful, toppled thousands of buildings including hospitals, schools and apartment blocks, leaving thousands of people homeless.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces.

More than 12,000 Turkish search and rescue personnel are working in the affected areas, along with 9,000 troops.

More than 70 countries have offered rescue teams and other aid.

The United Nations says it’s “exploring all avenues” to get supplies to rebel-held northwestern Syria, and it released $25 million from its emergency fund to help kick-start the humanitarian response in Turkey and Syria.

Source: France 24

7, February 2023

Prosecution should seek the death penalty against Belinga Amougou ⁰

The murder of two journalists Martinez Zogo and Jean Jacques Ola Bébé in Yaoundé is not a new development in Cameroon but it is also one that should prompt prosecutors to bring the death penalty on the table for men like Amougou Belinga found to be killing media men and women and looting the state.

President Biya as always is facing international condemnation for his brutal crackdown on opposition figures to his rule, age is telling on him, the Southern Cameroons uprising has become increasingly hydra-headed, Boko Haram is now in control of certain areas in the Far North region as CPDM defectors are joining forces with anything antagonistic with his regime.

It is now time for the judiciary in Cameroon to do something to cleanse Biya’s nasty legacy and that is imposing the death penalty on Belinga Amougou.

This tougher measure should come immediately including the implementation of the Canada peace plan aimed at halting the violence that has killed thousands of Southern Cameroonians according to United Nations estimates.

On Monday, security agents arrested business tycoon Amougou Belinga and a young journalist he recently promoted to the post of General Manager of his privately-owned television channel, Vision 4 for planning and teleguiding the barbaric murder of journalist and whistleblower Martinez Zogo and his close associate Jean Jacques Ola Bébé.

The late radio host of the program “Embouteillages” had been very critical against alleged corruptors and embezzlers of public funds. It is said that more than 22 people have been arrested in Yaoundé and are currently being interrogated at the Secretariat for Defense (SED).

Earlier today, forensic searches were conducted in the building hosting the head office of the French Cameroun mafia boss. The search was conducted by Colonel Mbarga, accompanied by two divisional commissioners and officers. Amougou Belinga was present as well as his lawyer, Charles Tchoungang. The building was searched from top to bottom. AMOUGOU BELINGA only refused to open a finger print lock safe where he said some of his blood money was.

Investigators also auditioned his wife, Sarah Amougou Belinga, a senior magistrate. The operation targeting his wife was led by Colonel Abena Ayissi Parfait. Justice Sarah Amougou Belinga refused to grant access to some rooms that were later on forcefully opened.

Biya reluctantly agreed to allow an investigation into the Zogo affair after pressure from Paris, Yaounde’s close ally, and the European Union, which threatened to refer Yaoundé to the UN Security Council, a serious diplomatic escalation that could have led to the collapse of the 40-year-old regime.

In a divided nation where atrocities are being recorded on a daily basis – common sense demands state prosecutors to seek a death penalty for Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga-to use his four names, stop the bloodshed in Southern Cameroons, withdraw Francophone civil administrators from English speaking Cameroon, release all Southern Cameroons detainees including Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides and start talks with the jailed Southern Cameroons leaders.

We of the Cameroon Concord News and the Cameroon Intelligence Report are calling on state prosecutors in Yaoundé to halt the killing machine against journalists in Cameroon and the Biya regime’s tactics to buy time and avert a showdown with the international community by sentencing Jean Pierre Amougou to death by hanging.

To this I put my name

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

7, February 2023

PRC 2023: The forum for a key stakeholder in the climate debate ⁰

Found across a vast range of modern products, petrochemicals are part of the fabric of our societies. Clothing, tyres, digital devices, packaging, detergents, and countless other everyday items are made from petrochemicals. Petrochemical feedstock accounts for 12% of global oil demand, a share that is expected to increase, driven by increasing demand for plastics, fertilisers, and other products. Despite its size, the sector continues to take a back seat in the global energy debate.

Over last 50 years, society has been increasingly reliant on the products of the organic chemical industry to supply the clothes we wear, the food we eat, our health, housing, transportation, security, and other commodities. About 92% of organic chemical products are produced from petroleum, that is, fossil, or mineral, oil, and gas. In addition, these same resources are generally used to provide the large quantities of process heat and power needed by the industry. In the modern petrochemical industry, oil and gas inputs for both raw material and process energy compose about 50% of the operating costs.

The result is that not only is the chemical industry (including petrochemicals) the industrial sector with the highest emissions worldwide, it is also very vulnerable to variations in fossil fuel and carbon prices. Thus, efficiency has long been a major factor in determining competitiveness in petrochemicals, and the sector has a high success rate in reducing its energy intensity. Despite this, over the past decade, while total use of oil has grown globally at a rate of 1.4% per year over, the use of oil for chemical feedstocks has grown at about 4.0% per year. Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in an industry that is so dependent on fossil fuels presents a significant challenge that has begun to receive serious attention from researchers and businesses alike.

Regarding this sector, the concept of “biorefining” for bio-based chemicals has been given particular prominence for its potential to deliver renewability, low CO2, and energy/feedstock security in the long term. However, establishing new production routes based on biomass in Europe is shown to face considerable social, technical, and economic obstacles to reaching a scale that can contribute valuable emissions reductions.

Due to the important role the petrochemical industry plays in our lives, PRC Europe has been organizing events to shed more light on the significant role this industry has been playing when it comes to cutting emissions. PRC Europe 2023 is the annual B2B Congress and it will bring together downstream industry players who are making decisions to accelerate the energy transition and comply with COP26. Among the key topics of the business program are the question of energy trilemma, biorefining, clean hydrogen and petrochemicals production, meaning of alternative transportation fuels, decarbonization and plant improvement, recycling technologies and many others.

During 3 days of intensive networking, participants get direct access to the whole value chain of downstream. Each year PRC Europe gathers industry leaders from Oil & Gas Companies, EPCs, Refineries and Petrochemical Plants, Licensors, Chemical Companies to discuss innovative solutions and business practices and to share the lessons learned.

PRC Europe is a closed-door event aimed to gather only industry experts from both top-management and technical level. For that reason, BGS Group works upon invitations and requests selectively choosing the audience that is able to discuss ongoing trends and questions of Downstream Oil & Gas, contributing to the business program with up-to-date case-studies. Al of this transforms the Congress into an efficient B2B networking platform.

By Ayuk Boris Ebot

Science and Environment Correspondent

7, February 2023

Earthquake kills more than 5,000 in Turkey, Syria ⁰

Rescuers in Turkey and Syria braved frigid weather, aftershocks and collapsing buildings Tuesday, as they dug for survivors buried by an earthquake that killed more than 5,000 people.

Disaster agencies said several thousand buildings were flattened in cities across a vast border region — pouring misery on an area already plagued by war, insurgency, refugee crises and a recent cholera outbreak.

Through the night, survivors used their bare hands to pick over the twisted ruins of multi-storey apartment blocks — trying to save family, friends and anyone else sleeping inside when the first massive 7.8-magnitude quake struck early Monday.

“Where is my mum?” asked a distraught seven-year-old girl who was pulled — her face, hair and pyjamas covered in dust — from a collapsed building in Hatay, on the Turkish side of the border.

The sense of disbelief was widespread, as residents struggled to comprehend the scale of the disaster.

Disaster agencies said several thousand buildings were flattened across a vast Turkey-Syria border region

Some of the heaviest devastation occurred near the quake’s epicentre between Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep, a city of two million where entire blocks now lie in ruins under gathering snow.

As residents tried to clear a mountain of masonry, plasterboard and furniture that had been a multi-story building, another collapsed nearby — sending crowds screaming and clamouring for safety.

With aftershocks rattling the area, many terrified and exhausted survivors spent the night outdoors, too afraid to go home.

Source: AFP