1, July 2022

Football: Inter sign goalkeeper Onana on free transfer ⁰

Inter Milan have signed Cameroon goalkeeper Andre Onana on a free transfer, the Serie A club said on Friday.

The 26-year-old, who declined to extend his contract with Ajax Amsterdam which expired in June, has joined Inter on a five-year deal according to media reports.

“I’m very happy to be part of this great club and this family, which is a great institution. What more can you say about a club that has done it all? Being here is amazing, and we hope to achieve important objectives in the future,” Onana said.

He will compete with Slovenia’s 37-year-old Samir Handanovic, who has been Inter’s first choice since 2012.

Onana, who was banned by European soccer’s governing body UEFA for violating doping rules last year, leaves Ajax having won three Eredivisie titles.

Inter, who lost their Serie A title by finishing second behind AC Milan last season, have already re-signed Belgium striker Romelu Lukaku on a season-long loan from Chelsea and signed Albania midfielder Kristjan Asllani from Empoli.

Source: Reuters

1, July 2022

Tunisia’s president pushes for new constitution that gives him broad powers ⁰

Tunisian President Kais Saied published a planned new constitution on Thursday that he will put to a referendum next month, expanding his own powers and limiting the role of parliament in a vote that most political parties have already rejected.

Saied has ruled by decree since July, when he brushed aside the parliament and the democratic 2014 constitution in a step his foes called a coup, moving towards one-man rule and vowing to remake the political system.

His intervention last summer has thrust Tunisia into its biggest political crisis since the 2011 revolution that ousted former autocrat Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and introduced democracy.

Voters will be asked to approve the new constitution in a July 25 referendum for which there is no minimum level of participation.

With most of the political establishment opposed to his moves and urging their supporters to boycott the vote, analysts say the measure is likely to pass, but with only limited public involvement.

Many Tunisians are far more focused on a growing economic crisis and threats to public finances that has caused salary delays and threatens shortages of key subsidised goods.

The draft constitution published in the official gazette late on Thursday says Saied would continue to rule by decree until the creation of a new parliament through an election expected in December.

The new constitution would also allow him to present draft laws and have sole responsibility for proposing treaties and drafting state budgets, the gazette said.

It would create a new ‘Council of Regions’ as a second chamber of parliament.

Previously, political power was more directly exercised by the parliament, which took the lead role in appointing the government and approving legislation.

Under the new constitution the government would answer to the president, not to the parliament, though the chamber could withdraw confidence from the government with a two-thirds majority.

The president could serve two terms of five years each and has the right to dissolve parliament. A separate electoral law laying out how voting would work under the new political system will be published later, the draft constitution said.

However, judges, police, army and customs officials would not have a right to go on strike. Judges have recently been on strike for weeks in protest at Saied’s moves to curtail judicial independence.

In a move that may chafe with conservatives, Islam will no longer be the state religion, though Tunisia will be regarded as part of the wider Islamic nation.

However, Saied has maintained most parts of the 2015 constitution that enumerated rights and liberties, including freedom of speech, the right to organise in unions and the right to peaceful gatherings.

Source: REUTERS

1, July 2022

Moscow: Body of Cameroonian singer Pierre Narcisse, who died last week, will be sent home ⁰

The body of the singer Pierre Narcisse, who died last week, will be delivered to Cameroon after the farewell ceremony.

This was stated by the ex-wife of the artist Valery Kalacheva, According to RIA-Novosti.

According to her, the farewell ceremony for Pierre Narcisse will take place on Thursday, and the body will immediately be taken to Cameroon.

Narcisse’s ex-wife noted that she did not understand why the singer’s relatives refused to bury him in Moscow.

Source: The Times Hub

1, July 2022

Brasaf launches first beer in Cameroon ⁰

Brasseries Samuel Foyou (Brasaf) announced the launch of its first beer in Cameroon. The drink will contain 75% malt and 25% corn.

“In a competitive brewing sector, this alcoholic beverage, which stands out from the others with its quality and packaging, will be officially presented to the public on June 30 in […] Douala,” the company said in a statement. Brasaf says it wants to be a game-changer. The new beer will be marketed in PET bottles (plastic) of 0.65cl and 0.33cl with an alcohol content of 5.1%. The brewing company promises attractive prices to the population. In addition to beer, Brasaf plans to launch “Krystal Drink”, a range of soft drinks presented as low in sugar and gas.

As a reminder, the creation and operation of Brasaf was announced 8 years ago. The owner, Samuel Foyou, who already owns a distillery (Fermencam), filed deeds of creation on July 10, 2014, with a notary in Douala. At the time, the company was created with a share capital of CFA100 million. Eight years later, the brewing company became the fourth of its kind alongside SABC Group (Castel), Guinness Cameroon (Diageo), and the Cameroonian Union of Breweries (UCB).

Let’s note that Samuel Foyou, who made his fortune through commercial activities in Congo and Angola, also owns Unalor, a match production company bought from the Fotso group in 2009, Plasticam, Sotrasel (kitchen salt production), Biscuiterie Samuel Foyou (BSF), and the Moore Paragon printing company.

Source: Business in Cameroon

1, July 2022

US: Ketanji Brown Jackson sworn in, becoming first Black woman on Supreme Court ⁰

Ketanji Brown Jackson was sworn in on Thursday as a U.S. Supreme Court justice, making history as the first Black woman on the nation’s top judicial body while joining it at a time when its conservative majority has been flexing its muscles in major rulings.

Jackson, 51, joins the liberal bloc of a court with a 6-3 conservative majority. Her swearing in as President Joe Biden’s replacement for retiring liberal Justice Stephen Breyer came six days after the court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade landmark that legalized abortion nationwide. Breyer, at 83 the court’s oldest member, officially retired on Thursday.

“On behalf of all the members of the court, I am pleased to welcome Justice Jackson to the court and to our common calling,” Chief Justice John Roberts said at the ceremony.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week found that a majority of Americans – 57% – holds a negative view of the court following the abortion ruling, a significant shift from earlier in the month when a narrow majority held a positive view.

Jackson is the 116th justice, sixth woman and third Black person to serve on the Supreme Court since its 1789 founding.

Biden appointed Jackson last year to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit after she spent eight years as a federal district judge. Like the three conservative justices appointed by the Democratic president’s Republican predecessor Donald Trump, Jackson is young enough to serve for decades in the lifetime job.

The Senate confirmed Jackson on a 53-47 vote on April 7, with three Republicans joining the Democrats in support of her.

Jackson’s appointment does not shift the court’s ideological balance.

“It has taken 232 years and 115 prior appointments for a Black woman to be selected to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States,” Jackson said at an April 8 event celebrating her confirmation. “But we’ve made it – we’ve made it – all of us, all of us.”

Biden has aimed to bring more women and minorities and a wider range of backgrounds to the federal judiciary. Jackson’s appointment fulfilled a pledge Biden made during the 2020 presidential campaign to name a Black woman to the Supreme Court. With Jackson’s addition, the Supreme Court for the first time has four women on the bench.

Breyer in January announced his plans to retire, having served since being appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton in 1994. Jackson served as a clerk for Breyer early in her legal career.

The court issued its final two rulings of its current term on Thursday. Jackson joins a liberal bloc that has found itself outvoted in major rulings this term, not only on abortion rights but on gun rights, expanding religious liberties and other matters.

Jackson will participate in arguments in cases for the first time when the court’s next term opens in October. One major case for the coming term gives the conservative justices an opportunity to end affirmative action policies used by colleges and universities in their admissions processes to increase their enrollment of Black and Hispanic students to achieve campus diversity.

Source: REUTERS

30, June 2022

Congo-Kinshasa set for final ceremony for Patrice Lumumba ⁰

The scant remains of DR Congo’s fiery independence hero Patrice Lumumba were to be interred on Thursday after a pilgrimage that revived traumatic memories but also stirred national unity.

A single tooth is all that remains of the young nationalist who was murdered in January 1961 at the age of 35, just months after becoming Congo’s first post-colonial prime minister.

A coffin containing the remains was to be enshrined in a mausoleum in Kinshasa, in a ceremony hosted by President Felix Tshisekedi coinciding with the country’s 62nd anniversary.

Topped by a large statue of Lumumba, the mausoleum is located on a main avenue of the capital which also bears his name.

Lumumba was among the vanguard of pan-African leaders who led the charge to end colonialism in the late 1950s.

He rose to prominence in 1958 when he launched a political party, the Congolese National Movement (MNC), which called for independence and a secular Congolese state.

His party won national elections in May 1960, a month before independence from Belgium, leading him to be named first prime minister of the country when it became independent.

He stunned Belgium with a speech on independence day — attended by King Baudouin — that accused the exiting colonial masters of racism and “humiliating slavery” of the Congolese people.

Within three months, Lumumba was forced out by a coup fomented with the help of Belgium and the CIA, which also opposed the support he had requested from the Soviet Union.

In January 1961, Lumumba was handed over to the authorities in mineral-rich southeast Katanga province, which had seceded from the fledgling nation months earlier with Belgium’s support.

He was shot dead and his body was dissolved in acid, but a Belgian police officer involved in the killing kept one of his teeth as a trophy.

After years of campaigning by his family, Belgium returned the tooth on June 20, a move that followed a visit of reconciliation by Baudouin’s nephew and successor, King Philippe.

The remains were taken to Lumumba’s home area of Sankuru in the centre of the country, to his political stronghold of Kisangani in the northeast and finally to the place where he was murdered before being flown to Kinshasa.

Five former prime ministers joined a funeral vigil on Thursday alongside current government chief Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde.

“The figure of Patrice Lumumba is a prime symbol of national unity, transcending political differences,” said Evariste Mabi, a premier in the 1980s under Lumumba’s nemesis, dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

“(He) embodies the people’s successful struggle for freedom.”

Source: AFP

30, June 2022

President Putin says Russia will respond to NATO moves in Finland, Sweden ⁰

Russian President Vladimir Putin has slammed NATO’s decision to approve the applications of Sweden and Finland, saying his country would respond in kind if the US-led military alliance deployed troops and infrastructure in the two Nordic countries after they join the 30-member bloc.

Putin made the remark on Wednesday, after NATO formally invited Sweden and Finland to join the military alliance following Turkey’s decision to drop its objections to their accession.

“With Sweden and Finland, we don’t have the problems that we have with Ukraine. They want to join NATO, go ahead,” Putin said after talks with regional leaders in the Central Asian ex-Soviet state of Turkmenistan.

“But they must understand there was no threat before, while now, if military contingents and infrastructure are deployed there, we will have to respond in kind and create the same threats for the territories from which threats towards us are created,” he added.

Putin said he could not rule out tensions in Moscow’s relations with Helsinki and Stockholm over their NATO membership. “Everything was fine between us, but now there might be some tensions, there certainly will,” he said. “It’s inevitable if there is a threat to us.”

Sources

30, June 2022

Biya regime number one enemy of Southern Cameroons ⁰

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government says the Biya French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé is number one enemy of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, lauding the people of Cross River State in Nigeria for their unwavering support for Southern Cameroons refugees.

Dabney Yerima made the remarks in a Tuesday telephone conversation with Cameroon Concord News London Bureau Chief.

“The people of British Southern Cameroons consider the French backed Biya regime as the number one enemy of Ambazonia,” Vice President Dabney Yerima said.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader then lauded the people of Cross River and Taraba states in the Federal Republic of Nigeria for their support for Ambazonian refugees, saying, “Deep within the Interim Government we are sure that the people of Nigeria particularly those in the Cross River and Taraba constituencies will never distanced from support of Southern Cameroons refugees and the liberation of Southern Cameroons.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Vice President Dabney Yerima said he was very satisfied with his recent trip to South Africa and his meeting with prominent South African politicians including Hon. Julius Malema.

By Chi Prudence Asong

29, June 2022

Allies freeze $330 bn of Russian assets since Ukraine invasion ⁰

A sanctions task force of leading Ukraine allies has frozen more than $330 billion in financial resources owned by Russia’s elite and the central bank since Moscow’s troops invaded, the group announced Wednesday.

The Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs Task Force (REPO) said in a joint statement that they had blocked $30 billion in assets of Russian oligarchs and officials, and immobilized $300 billion owned by the Russian central bank.

They have also detained at least five luxury yachts and frozen opulent real estate owned by the country’s billionaires.

“Together, we will ensure that our sanctions continue to impose costs on Russia for its unprovoked and continuing aggression in Ukraine,” the group said in a statement released by the US Treasury.

REPO was formed on March 17, three weeks after the invasion of Ukraine, to increase pressure on Moscow economically in hopes of getting Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war.

Its members include top finance and justice officials of the United States, Australia, France, Canada, Germany, Japan, Italy, Britain and the European Commission.

They have moved steadily to take hold of luxury estates and mega-yachts of Russian billionaires known to have ties to Putin.

But they have also worked to isolate Moscow in the global financial system, making it harder for the Kremlin to use its money on the global markets.

They have constrained Moscow’s ability to acquire advanced technologies.

On Sunday Britain, Canada, Japan and the United States jointly announced they would ban the purchase of gold from Russia in order to prevent the country and its tycoons from using the metal to avoid sanctions.

REPO warned it would continue to pursue the assets of wealthy and powerful Russians.

“REPO’s work is not yet complete,” they said. “We continue to increase Russia’s cost of its war.”

Source: AFP

29, June 2022

Southern Cameroons: IG dismisses HRW allegations as ‘baseless’, urges Ground Zero to remain steadfast ⁰

The Ambazonia Interim Government has dismissed as baseless allegations from Human Rights Watch that Amba fighters were staging attacks against Southern Cameroons communities, saying such claims are part of the attempts to deflect international public opinion from French Cameroun terrorist acts in Southern Cameroons.

In a statement on Tuesday, Southern Cameroons Department of Foreign Affairs said the allegations from the respectable Human Rights Watch fall within the framework of a plot orchestrated by the President Macron administration in France to protect the child-murdering and rogue regime in Yaoundé.

“The Ambazonia Interim Government is very much aware that a psychological operation started early 2022 to preoccupy international media outlets with fictitious scenarios, using erroneous and biased information against Southern Cameroons Restoration Groups” Professor Carlson Anyangwe said in the IG statement.

“Southern Cameroonians particularly those in Ground Zero, Ground One and in the diaspora are well aware of the baseless nature of claims made recently by Human Rights Watch! A glaring example is the situation in Akwaya—Human Rights Watch blamed the killings on Amba fighters while the Christian Communities including the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon revealed that the killings were all related to a land dispute” the Carlson Anyangwe IG statement furthered.

The Ambazonia Interim Government went on to assert that Amba fighters determinedly and strongly responds to any French Cameroun act of terror and sabotage without threatening ordinary Southern Cameroons citizens.

By Rita Akana