Cameroonians queue for fuel as shortages hit the capital

23, July 2022

Cameroonians queue for fuel as shortages hit the capital 0

Scenes like this at gas stations in Cameroon’s capital, jerrycans in hand are becoming commonplace.

Most fuel stations have run out of diesel in recent days and those that have are now rationing it.

“You line up for 4 hours, 5 hours, I’ve been here since 6 o’clock,” said Nkeudeu, a transporter.

“There is already no fuel at other stations and where we find a little bit of petrol, we are told we can’t fill our tanks,” said Moffo Koumeni, a cab driver.

In the wake of scarce supplies of diesel, transporters have increased fares. Prices of goods too are shooting up.

“While the fuel shortage situation is becoming untenable for motorists in the city of Yaoundé and surrounding towns, experts believe that this is a way for the authorities to prepare Cameroonians for a possible increase in fuel prices”, said our correspondent Joel Kouam in Yaounde.

On the international market, oil prices have soared and the state is finding it hard to continue subsidizing fuel.

“The lines you find in the gas stations is an impact. … It is a psychological moment, it is necessary to prepare the Cameroonian citizen for an increase in prices”, said Dr. Youmssi Bareja, an oil and mining expert.

Fuel subsidies cost the Cameroonian state over $1.2 billion a year and Yaounde has come under pressure from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stop them.

Source: Africa News

Indomitable Lions: Cameroon ordered to pay compensation to sacked coach

23, July 2022

Indomitable Lions: Cameroon ordered to pay compensation to sacked coach 0

Cameroon have been ordered to pay former coach Toni Conceicao compensation of 1.6 million euros ($1.63 million) after sacking him following their third place finish at this year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals, FIFA’s Football Tribunal has ruled.

Conceicao took his former employers to world football’s governing body seeking compensation after being removed from his job in March, weeks after the Indomitable Lions finished third at the tournament they hosted.

FIFA ordered the Cameroon Football Federation to pay about 1,350,000 euros to the 60-year-old Portuguese-born coach as compensation for a breach of contract without just cause and additional sums for outstanding salary and bonuses.

Source: Reuters

PCC Cameroon under Rev Fonki: Corruption runs rampant. Who should we hold responsible?

23, July 2022

PCC Cameroon under Rev Fonki: Corruption runs rampant. Who should we hold responsible? 0

In The Pursuit of God, A.W. Tozer wrote, “the world is perishing for lack of the knowledge of God, and the Church is famishing for want of His Presence.” It is a demonstrable fact that the lack of knowledge and Presence of God has characterized the leadership of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC) since 2014. And this tragedy does not look like ending soon.

The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon has an archaic law that the position of Moderator rotates between the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon. The genesis of this rule is politics, not spiritual, and this law is illogical and ridiculous. The current Moderator and leader of the Church, Rev Fonki Samuel Forba, despite his name, says he is from Akwaya and presented himself when he campaigned for the role of Moderator of the PCC as a candidate from the Southwest region.

It is pointless to state the obvious now, but Rev Fonki was never a treasured leader when he became Moderator of the PCC. He won the Moderatorship because Rev Abwenzoh W. Membong and Rev Besong Johnson Tabe could not sort themselves out before the election. Also, many in the Church, particularly those from the Southwest caucus, didn’t consider the boring details of scrutinizing the candidates before the election in 2014.

Cameroon Concord News Group has been informed that since his rise to the top, Rev Fonki excises power without responsibility. He commands almost complete loyalty by cramming the top positions in the PCC with unintelligent and spiritually vacuous nobodies. The Synod of the PCC and a majority of the pastors heading presbyteries throughout the national territory are all active and willing arm of the Fonkian enterprise. Most pastors in strategic positions and large congregations in the PCC have been put there by Rev Fonki Samuel Forba as privatized propagandists, apologists, bullies, and infiltrators. These co-criminals see Fonki as one of their own and love him dearly. With undiluted assurance and protection from his subjects, he is free to wreck the PCC, and he is doing so astoundingly.

Rev Fonki has a dark and devilish mindset with CPDM propensities and tends to transfer adversaries or intellectual and spiritual superiors to inaccessible territories. Cameroon Concord News Group can reveal that Rev Besong Johnson Tabe, who was once the Secretary of the Committee of the Ministry, is now languishing in Barombi Kang, a pocket-sized rural community on the fringes of Kumba. Rev Mokoko Mbue, a former Communications Secretary and one of the rising stars of the PCC communion is now in exile precisely in a congregation in Bafousam.

Church outsiders have sometimes questioned the management skills of many a past Moderator. But for the first time, PCC congregants are now openly questioning their Moderator’s spirituality and suitability for office. A member of PC Mamfe Town said, “It is beyond obvious that he has no spiritual bone in his body. We have to pray that 2024 comes soon for him to leave our Church”.

Recent events in PC Kumba Town where the congregants and Chairwoman pushed for the disgraced Pastor Mary Wose to leave their congregation have attracted commentaries and under-the-table talk from around the globe. Still, loud silence is the only response from the Moderator. Why? The Moderator’s take on the matter betrays his determination to force Mary Wose upon the Church in PC Kumba Town. The issue in Kumba is so scandalous that practicing witchcraft professionals have now been consulted by both sides to bring the matter to a speedy close.

Cameroon Concord News Group believes that the PC Kumba Town saga is the most shameful calamity ever to engulf the PCC. Close members of the Moderator’s team told this publication that he is nursing soreness in his leg and other ailments, which is why he has not issued a public statement on the PC Kumba Town saga. We wish him well and look forward to his public statement on the matter as his health improves.

The ways of the Lord are simplicity, honesty and charity, but that is not what Rev Fonki stands for. With several buildings and business projects in Buea, Limbe, Bamenda and many other towns in Cameroon, he has made the amassment of obscene wealth one of his primary goals.

Under Rev Fonki, PCC congregants must now pay 10% of their incomes as tithes. This questionable scheme has been introduced by concocting a section of congregants’ communion cards to show these payments. Cameroon has a high unemployment rate, and salaries and wages are forever infrequent. Presbyterian secondary and primary school teachers have been going without wages for months and sometimes years. If the PCC can’t pay its teachers despite raking in hundreds of millions from grants, gifts, school fees and aid from abroad, how should these people pay the tithes intended to fuel the flashy and ungodly lifestyle of their Moderator?

Rev Fonki is now a celebrity pastor. On his journeys, there is a convoy with his flamboyant motor vehicle. The poor boy from Akwaya/Menchum is now living the dream. The child who only learned about three square meals daily as an academic concept is now a superstar pastor. Lucky boy! But he must know that he is not living according to the word of the Lord, and the Almighty has distinctive ways of punishing spiritual misconduct. Rev Fonki should draw a lesson from the late Bishop Pius Suh Awah, who ended up on a wheelchair because of his spiritual crimes against Father Kumbha Etienne.

Last year, Rev Fonki started putting together a dubious succession plan by choosing his wife, Rev Perpetua Fonki, as the Communications Secretary of the PCC. A member of PC Bafut said, “Mrs. Pepetua Fonki is the one who runs the PCC now, and she is the mastermind of their numerous financial ventures; whatever she tells Samuel Forba to do, he does. She wants to succeed him as Moderator, and because she is from the Northwest, you will see she will win the position at the next election”.

Rev Fonki Samuel is doing what no other Moderator ever succeeded in; building a deep rift between the Southwest and Northwest factions within the PCC. Thanks to him, there is now an active and robust conversation about breaking the PCC into Northwest and Southwest factions. Although Rev Fonki blames the devil, Manyu and the Bakossi people for his troubles, a source close to him has informed Cameroon Concord News Group that the Northwest faction of the Church will rigorously challenge his fantasy succession plan.

In 2019, the people of Ukraine voted for a comedian and ended up with a serious leader. In 2014, the PCC voted for a Moderator and spiritual leader, and they have had to endure a spiritually vacuous, morally bankrupt, and dangerous comedian. He should summon some humility and leave the PCC now.

By Isong Asu

Cameroon Concord News Group Senior Political Researcher

In the next piece in this series, Cameroon Concord News Group explores the Bible’s teachings on the amassment of vulgar wealth by the Church leaders.

Mali’s army says it repelled ‘terrorist attack’ on key military base

22, July 2022

Mali’s army says it repelled ‘terrorist attack’ on key military base 0

Mali’s army said it repelled a “terrorist attack” on Friday against its main base outside the capital Bamako, which was carried out with car bombs.

The attack on the Kati military base near Bamako began at 5am local time with two vehicles packed with explosives, said the Malian army in a Twitter post. 

“The provisional death toll is two assailants neutralised. The situation is under control and clearing operations are under way to flush out the authors and their accomplices,” said the army.

Residents from the area said they were woken up around 5am on Friday by gunfire and explosions. 

“we don’t know what’s going on,” a resident told AFP.  Another source told AFP, “Our base is being attacked.”

 At 8am local time, an AFP journalist also heard detonations that came from inside the camp.

 Malian special forces personnel were deployed in the area, and two helicopters flew overhead.

The French embassy sent text messages to French nationals saying “attack underway at Kati” and urging caution.

Military base at heart of past coups

The Kati base is the nexus of the Mali’s military apparatus. The base was the site of mutinies in 2012 and 2020 that led to successful coups,

The impoverished landlocked country is governed by a junta headed by Colonel Assimi Goita, who forced out the elected president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, in August 2020 and carried out a second coup the following May.

The junta staged a second coup in 2021 to force out a civilian interim president who was at odds with Goita.

Goita then became interim president. He plans to continue to lead a transitional government until elections are held in 2024.

His government has sparred repeatedly with neighbouring countries and international powers over election delays, alleged army abuses and cooperation with Russian mercenaries in the fight against the Islamist insurgency.

Despite coming to power pledging to stamp out the insurrection, the junta has been unable to prevent the insurgents from extending their operations further south from their havens in the north and centre.

Source:  Reuters

Yerima hails Southern Cameroons resistance, sees bright future for Ambazonia

22, July 2022

Yerima hails Southern Cameroons resistance, sees bright future for Ambazonia 0

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government says he is certain that the Federal Republic of Ambazonia will have a bright future after the liberation war against French Cameroun.

Dabney Yerima made the remarks during a meeting with some front line figures of the Southern Cameroons struggle in Holland hailing all Ambazonians in Ground Zero and Ground One for their perseverance and resistance in the face of five years of French Cameroun war in their homeland.

“Your leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and all of us in the Interim Government are very sure that the future will benefit the people of Ambazonia and the sacrifices and resistance of the Ambazonian people will make the future of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia bright,” Yerima said.

Echoing the position of the Southern Cameroons leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Vice President Dabney Yerima said “Soon and very soon, the French Cameroun government in Yaoundé will have no option but to withdraw from the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.”

Dabney Yerima also underlined the need for all Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces to be under one command structure.

The lack of control over fighters in Ground Zero has encouraged a sense of lawlessness, which has undermined the struggle, Yerima concluded.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Woman wins India’s presidential election

21, July 2022

Woman wins India’s presidential election 0

A woman who hails from a marginalized minority ethnic community has been chosen as India’s new president, a largely ceremonial position.

Partial results released by the election commission showed Droupadi Murmu, who is from the Santhal tribe, secured the position with the support of more than half the electorate of MPs and state legislators.

She was nominated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is accused of trampling the minorities’ rights, for the post.

Born in the eastern state of Odisha, the president-elect began her career as a schoolteacher before joining politics.

Murmu, 64, succeeds Ram Nath Kovind, the second president from the Dalit community, the bottom of the Hindu caste system.

But critics say the post is largely ceremonial and her election is not expected to make significant practical difference to the tribal community, which has long been relegated to the margins of society.

Under the country’s constitution, the prime minister and the cabinet wield executive powers in India, although the head of state can send back a few parliamentary bills for reconsideration and also helps in the process of forming governments.

Modi tweeted to congratulate Murmu, saying her “exemplary success motivates each and every Indian”.

“She has emerged as a ray of hope for our citizens, especially the poor, marginalized and the downtrodden.”

But some activists saw Murmu’s success with skepticism, saying her win would further help the right-wing party consolidate the power. 

“Whatever agenda the BJP… has to place a politician from a tribal community in the post of the President, she will only be able to do anything if she is allowed to use her pen,” Dayamani Barla, an Indian activist, was quoted as saying.

Modi’s pursuit of a “Hindu first” agenda since coming to power in 2014 has stoked communal tensions in India.

The developments follow increasing violence targeting India’s Muslim minority carried out by Hindu nationalists who have been emboldened by Modi’s silence on such attacks.

Culled from Presstv

Cameroon mega star, Ekambi Brillant in poor medical condition, needs help

21, July 2022

Cameroon mega star, Ekambi Brillant in poor medical condition, needs help 0

Veteran Cameroonian musician Ekambi Brillant is down with an unknown illness as new reports from Douala suggest. 

Elvis Kemayo recently paid him a visit, raising awareness of his condition.

Ekambi Brillant was popular in the 70s, 80s and early 90s and remains one of the greatest song writer and composer Cameroon as a nation has ever known.

Ekambi recorded a sea of greatest hits including Minya ma bobe, Moussoloki, Elongi, Cameroon Airlines and Yeye Yeah Massoma.

Cameroon Concord News senior entertainment correspondent Diamond Esoh commenting on the Ekambi situation opined that “It appears the story of riches to rags has become a major issue in the Cameroon music industry as Ekambi is yet another musician in dire need of medical and financial assistance.”

Unconfirmed reports in Douala say the renowned artist may have suffered some sort of paralysis.

By Rita Akana in Douala

Southern Cameroons Restoration Groups must join forces to expel La Republique from Ambazonia

21, July 2022

Southern Cameroons Restoration Groups must join forces to expel La Republique from Ambazonia 0

A senior Southern Cameroons front line leader Professor Carlson Anyangwe says all genuine restoration groups should immediately come together and develop strong cooperation to bring about the expulsion of French Cameroun army soldiers from the Ambazonia homeland, emphasizing that the jailed Southern Cameroons leaders will never back down on their stance in this regard.

Professor Carlson Anyangwe who currently heads the Ambazonia Department of Foreign Affairs and is also a senior advisor to Vice President Dabney Yerima made the remarks in a conversation with Cameroon Concord News Chief International Correspondent Isong Asu on Wednesday.

“The Ambazonia Interim Government remains the best platform for Southern Cameroonians to pursue the struggle and the IG will continue to support all resistance groups,” Professor Anyangwe said, describing the martyred leader of the Red Dragons of Lebialem as one of the most important members of the Ambazonia war of liberation.

Anyangwe furthered that the Biya French Cameroun regime and its Southern Cameroons comedians passing for cabinet ministers are too weak now to be able to undermine a powerful resistance front involving all restoration groups.

Carlson Anyangwe pointed out that the lack of control over fighters in Ground Zero has encouraged a sense of lawlessness, which has undermined the struggle.

The largely diaspora-based separatist leadership – initially key to raising funds and buying weapons – has seen their influence slip as fighters increasingly turn to homegrown sources of revenue. Their political clout has also been diminished by constant internal feuding.

“When petty self-interest clouds the minds of so-called leaders, their relevance to the suffering masses – who are literally an ocean away – will be non-existent,” said Sarah Derval of the pro-peace coalition of female civil society leaders, the Southwest-Northwest Women’s Task Force.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Isong Asu and the New Humanitarian

CPDM Crime Syndicate:  Biya anti-graft agency says investigations into Glencore bribery underway

21, July 2022

CPDM Crime Syndicate:  Biya anti-graft agency says investigations into Glencore bribery underway 0

Cameroon’s anti-corruption agency is investigating claims by miner and commodities trader Glencore Plc (GLEN.L) that it paid bribes to officials at state-run companies in exchange for favours, an official said on Tuesday.

Dieudonne Massi Gams, chairman of the central African country’s National Anti-Corruption Commission (CONAC), told Reuters that the agency had set up a commission of inquiry since complaints made by civil society and local media.

“We are working on it and will take our time in order to produce good results,” Gams said, without giving further details.

In June, Glencore’s UK subsidiary pleaded guilty to seven counts of bribery in connection with oil operations in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and South Sudan. read more

The company has admitted it paid bribes in Cameroon to officials of the National Hydrocarbons Corporation (SNH) and National Refining Company (SONARA) to the sum of 7 billion CFA francs ($11 million) to secure preferential access to oil between 2011 and 2016.

SNH has denied taking bribes, saying it was not directly or indirectly associated with the practices. SONARA was not available for comment.

The scandal is a test of Cameroon’s determination to fight corruption, said Akere Muna, a Cameroonian lawyer and anti-corruption specialist. He was dismayed that CONAC has not made a public statement about its inquiry, he said.

“To fight corruption you must be transparent,” said Muna, a former Vice Chairperson of Transparency International.

“They just have one thing to [do]. Ask Glencore, ‘Who did you pay?’ That is taking them forever. Glencore is still doing business in Cameroon!” he told Reuters by phone from Kinshasa.

Source: Reuters

Fako County: Truck Loses Control, Kills 5 in Tiko

21, July 2022

Fako County: Truck Loses Control, Kills 5 in Tiko 0

A truck has rammed a group of young people in Tiko, Fako County killing no fewer than five and injuring several more. Witnesses say the casualty figure could go up.

The Francophone dominated police force is yet to identify the victims. However, Cameroon Concord News gathered that the driver lost control of the vehicle while trying to evade paying a bribe at a police check point before ramming the group of young people.

Police officers have barricaded the area and some of the victims have been rushed to a nearby hospital.

Businesses along Long Street Tiko have shut down while vehicular traffic is grounded.

By Kingsley Betek in Tiko

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