18, June 2022

Mamfe District Hospital Disaster: Where are the MOHWAs and MECAs? ⁰

For more than four decades, Chief Emmanuel Tabi Egbe, a true Manyu giant in every sense of the word, instilled upon the Manyus consciousness that the role of Manyu community associations was to bring development and delight to Manyu.

For decades, MECA, MOHWA and other Manyu associations around the world have supplied financial and human resources to schools, hospitals, and other community initiatives across the nation.

But over the last few years, legitimate questions have been asked if some of these Manyu associations in the Diaspora are still fit for purpose.

The torching of the Mamfe General hospital by sadists and arsonists on the 8th of June 2022 has brought new questions about two leading Manyu associations – MOHWA and MECA.

While renowned Manyu sons, Dr. Joachim Arrey of the Global Think Thank for Africa and Prince Julian Ebai of Manyu Solidarity Group UK are galvanizing global resources to support the poor and needy people of Manyu, MOHWA and MECA groups around the world have been loudly silent. And this is really disturbing.

MOHWA, in particular, is a gloomy, dismal and shameful case of a Manyu association. The group was conceived and sold to Manyu sons and daughters on the grounds that it would support the Manyu woman and child.

The burning of the Mamfe General Hospital should have, for once, brought MOHWA to the fore, leading a charge to raise funds for a good cause.

Strangely, MOHWA is gravely and deeply involved on both sides of the Atlantic in messy and avoidable disputes about patent rights on their wrapper which adds no real value to human life.

MOHWA in Europe is now profoundly entangled in social media mudslinging and has become the gossip hub and a marriage wrecking institution at a time when it should be leading a charge to help dying, desperate and impoverished people in Manyu.

MECAs in Europe and the USA have more cases of matrimonial impropriety among their members to resolve than the family law courts in Brazil.

MOHWA USA, Europe and MECA groups are now led by people who do not have Manyu at heart.

What MOHWA and MECA now have in common is a disdain for good causes, and they now pose a grave threat to the Manyu Diaspora, and we must say so.

This is the time for these organizations to come out and put smiles on many faces in Manyu Division. Time is of the essence! Manyu sons and daughters must start thinking differently.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

18, June 2022

Ambazonia blows to the Biya regime have grown multiple times ⁰

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government (IG) says Ambazonia undercover operations on French Cameroun have multiplied, but the IG cannot reveal the details.

“Beti Assomo and Paul Atanga Nji and their military generals know better what blows they have received from Amba fighters” Dabney Yerima told Cameroon Concord News on Friday.

“I have directed our fighters to hit the enemy where it pains most and these blows will continue until we get to Buea,” Yerima said, adding “These are the attacks that the Federal Republic of Ambazonia has inflicted deep inside French Cameroun and in Ground Zero”.

Vice President Yerima was commenting on a statement by Cameroon government military about some recent incident in Missong in the North West region, for which Yaoundé have tried to imply responsibility.

“When their Francophone army kills innocent Southern Cameroonians, they now openly declare it, like when their troops cowardly opened fire, killing four women, four men and an 18-month-old girl and slightly wounding a 12-month-old baby in Missong. It is similar to the blind murders in Ngarbuh,” he said.

Vice President Dabney Yerima said contrary to other restoration groups, the Interim Government cannot disclose many of the deadly blows it deals to the occupying Cameroon government forces. “The Ambazonia Interim Government mostly observes the lights-off and confidentiality principles in these attacks.”

“Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces and other Ambazonia resistance groups have conducted far greater operations against Cameroon government troops, but we cannot disclose the details,” Yerima furthered, adding “Southern Cameroonians understand and comprehend this well“.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader stated that, “If Biya regime carries out an operation in Southern Cameroons, it knows that it will receive a response several times.”

By Chi Prudence Asong

18, June 2022

Cameroon heading for a civil war ⁰

Tribalism, nepotism, poor governance and corruption have plunged the Cameroonian nation into such dire social straits that conditions in society today look similar to those that led to the civil wars in Liberia, Rwanda including the Ivory Coast.

Rampant killings, kidnappings and attacks against Anglophones, Bamilekes and Sawas carried out by Beti Ewondo uniform officers in past years has increased in an alarming proportion.

Southern Cameroonians, Bamileke and the Sawa people have been subject to violence and dehumanization similar to what was practiced during the colonial era against the Bassas and after the 1984 April 6 Coup against the Hausas.

The destruction of Southern Cameroons and now the Littoral region aims to fight the potential political and economic power the Ambazonian diaspora and the Sawa communities in Cameroon could wield in the nearest future.

Beti Ewondo army soldiers will themselves to slaughter Anglophones at church service, Bamilekes at their shops and Sawas at their homes. These heinous acts are their way of saying that President Biya and his kinsmen are at war with the changing Cameroon. For them, hanging on to power in Yaoundé is now at stake!

Hatred is helping the Biya gang to fuel their violence, but ultimately, hatred is mostly a consequence of their beliefs in holding on to power.

Cultural and development associations too have morphed into political groupings and tension is mounting everywhere! Recently, Francophone soldiers killed nine civilians including a baby in the North West region in what the Francophone dominated Ministry for Defense painted in a statement as a “misunderstanding”.

The Cameroon government military said the four soldiers were searching for a missing colleague on June 1 when they encountered “a group of frenzied villagers”. The troops opened fire, killing four women, four men and an 18-month-old girl and slightly wounding a 12-month-old baby. The incident took place in Missong.

Nobody cares about Anglophone lives in Cameroon and today’s widespread killings in Cameroonian society, which is reflected in the numerous acts of Beti Ewondo state terrorism and hate crimes against Anglophones, Bamilekes and Sawas has now led to conditions that put Cameroon on the verge of a civil war.

Many in Yaoundé may find this thinking alarmist, but Cameroon is much closer to the conditions that led to civil wars in Liberia, Rwanda and the Ivory Coast.

At the end of it, President Biya may find himself in Kondengui prison soon and very soon if he continues to do nothing about Beti Ewondo provocative actions and the patriarchal politics that foment the anti Anglophone, anti Bamileke and anti Sawa sentiments.

By Enowtaku Ebanghatabi Christelle

17, June 2022

EU backs Ukraine’s ‘European dream’ as Russia cuts gas supplies ⁰

Europe sent a powerful symbol of solidarity with Ukraine on Friday, when Brussels backed Kyiv’s bid for EU candidate status, even as Russia shelled frontline Ukrainian cities and cut back gas supplies to the West.

With the European Commission’s backing, Ukraine could now be added to the list of countries vying for EU membership as early as next week, when member state leaders meet at their Brussels summit.

All 27 EU leaders will have to agree to the candidacy, but the heads of the European Union’s biggest members — France, Germany and Italy — already gave their full-throated support to the idea on Thursday, on a trip to a war-torn suburb of Kyiv.

Then on Friday, the European Commission gave the executive’s formal backing to the bid, and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen made her position clear by donning a striking jacket in Ukraine’s national colours.

“We all know that Ukrainians are ready to die for the European perspective. We want them to live with us for the European dream,” she said.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky immediately welcomed the decision as a “first step on the EU membership path that’ll certainly bring our victory closer”.

He thanked von der Leyen for the commission’s “historic decision” and said he expected that EU leaders would give Ukraine a “positive result” at the June 23 to 24 summit.

Once Ukraine joins the EU candidates’ list — alongside several countries in the western Balkans — it could still take years to meet all the formal membership requirements, even if Kyiv prevails in the war.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wore Ukrainian national colours to announce that the EU executive backs Kyiv’s bid for candidate status

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wore Ukrainian national colours to announce that the EU executive backs Kyiv’s bid for candidate status Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD AFP

“Yes, Ukraine should be welcomed as a candidate country — this is based on the understanding that good work has been done but important work also remains to be done,” von der Leyen said.

And in the meantime, the fighting continues, with Russian forces bombarding Ukrainian pockets of resistance in frontline Severodonetsk, including civilians holed up in a chemical plant in the eastern Ukrainian city.

And Moscow turned up the pressure on the Western allies, sharply reducing flows of natural gas in its pipelines to Western Europe, driving up energy prices.

‘Die for the dream’

France’s network provider said it had not received any Russian gas by pipeline from Germany since June 15, and Italy’s Eni said it expected Russian firm Gazprom to cut its supplies by half on Friday.

Several European countries, including Italy and Germany, are highly reliant upon Russian gas for their energy needs and, as the West sides with Ukraine, Moscow is cutting supplies.

Berlin and Rome have rejected Russia’s argument that technical issues have caused the drop in supplies, arguing that state-owned Gazprom’s move is political.

The day before the EU Commission’s announcement the French, German, Italian and Romanian leaders had travelled to Kyiv to send a powerful symbol of support to Ukraine

The day before the EU Commission’s announcement the French, German, Italian and Romanian leaders had travelled to Kyiv to send a powerful symbol of support to Ukraine Sergei SUPINSKY AFP

But western Europe is sweltering in a heatwave and energy prices are already soaring, adding to runaway inflation and industrial action in several economies.

The situation is, of course, more stark in Ukraine itself, where Russian troops have occupied a swathe of the south and east of the country during the 113-day war, including much of the Donbas region.

“The humanitarian situation across Ukraine — particularly in the eastern Donbas — is extremely alarming and continues to deteriorate rapidly,” the UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, said.

The statement said the situation is “particularly worrying in and around Severodonetsk” — where bloody battles have raged for weeks.

‘God’s will’

Severodonetsk is in the Lugansk region, where governor Sergiy Gaiday called for a ceasefire, stating hundreds of civilians were trapped in the besieged Azot chemical plant in the city.

“It is now impossible and physically dangerous to get out of the plant due to constant shelling and fighting. There are 568 people in the shelter, including 38 children,” he said.

Gaiday said earlier this week that around 10,000 civilians remained in the city, which is controlled mostly by Russian forces.

In the frontline Donbas village of Adamivka near the city of Sloviansk, a community of Orthodox nuns have seen a rocket hole blasted into the wall of their well-tended garden.

Under near-constant bombardment by Russian forces, Sister Anastasi and a group of other black-clad nuns and pilgrims live day-to-day, praying for deliverance.

“We are all alive, yes. No one has left. This is our home,” she said quietly, her face framed by a black veil, as shells crashed in the distance.

“We trust in God’s will, in God’s help, in the help of all the saints and the Holy Virgin. This is our home, we have nowhere else to go.”

At least two people were killed and 20 injured in a Russian strike on a residential area in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, the local governor said.

Source: AFP

17, June 2022

Huge gap between statements from Biya Ministers and the reality on the ground in Ambazonia ⁰

The Biya Francophone policy towards the English speaking people of Southern Cameroons is failing completely and the reality reveals the depth of progress made by Ambazonian restoration forces despite Yaoundé’s efforts to maintain the present status quo.

Surprisingly, in the face of this fiasco, French Cameroun political elites continue to hold a questionable position on the armed struggle in Southern Cameroons while relying on an unrealistic old, frail and out-of-touch leader.

Continued military operations and deployments to Southern Cameroons, various covert operations, and thousands of arrests haven’t stopped the Southern Cameroons resistance nor changed the Ambazonia behavior, and it is now very doubtful if the Biya Francophone policy will succeed in the future.

There can never ever be a military solution to the crisis in Southern Cameroons. The concept of huge military presence in Southern Cameroons is no longer working! Weapons entering into Southern Cameroons from Nigeria illustrate this fact. President Buhari’s failures in Nigeria and his well documented hatred for the East region are providing Southern Cameroonians with help that they do not even need!! The arms flow will get worse in the days and weeks ahead.

The base for Yaoundé’s policy vis-a vis Anglophone Cameroon is still founded on the thought that Francophone’s are superior with their military might and the National Gendarmerie Force, even though Southern Cameroonians have achieved and excelled more than Francophones everywhere in the world and in every international establishment.

Southern Cameroonians have succeeded in overcoming significant financial barriers, especially in the West and North America. Their knowledge is now broad and they want French speaking Cameroonians to come to Southern Cameroons as partners and not as masters.

Moreover, according to Ground Zero voices, the quest for independence is now enjoying support in Southern Cameroons and, therefore, even if all the front line leaders are killed or arrested, it is unlikely that the struggle would be abandoned.

The bottom line is that Paul Biya’s French backed Anglophone Cameroon strategy is failing. We of the Cameroon Concord News Group think that there is a huge gap between the statements from Biya’s cabinet ministers and the reality on Ground Zero.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

17, June 2022

Trump pressured VP to illegally overturn the US 2020 election ⁰

Donald Trump pressured his vice president to go along with an illegal plot to overturn the 2020 US election and whipped up a mob that put his deputy’s life in danger when he refused, congressional investigators and former administration aides said Thursday.

The House committee probing last year’s attack on the US Capitol detailed how the former president berated Mike Pence for not going along with the scheme both knew to be unlawful — even after being told violence had erupted as Congress was meeting to certify Joe Biden’s victory.

At its third public hearing into the January 6, 2021 insurrection, the panel detailed a “relentless” pressure campaign by Trump on Pence — as cornerstone of a criminal conspiracy to keep the defeated president in power.

“Donald Trump wanted Mike Pence to do something no other vice president has ever done: the former president wanted Pence to reject the votes and either declare Trump the winner or send the votes back to the states to be counted again,” panel chairman Bennie Thompson said.

“Mike Pence said no. He resisted the pressure. He knew it was illegal. He knew it was wrong.”

Trump’s lawyer John Eastman was the architect of the “nonsensical” plot, said committee vice-chair Liz Cheney, pushing the scheme aggressively despite knowing it to be unlawful.

The committee showed testimony from Pence’s general counsel Greg Jacob saying Eastman admitted in front of Trump two days before the riot that his plan would violate federal law.

‘In danger’

A desperate Trump had turned to Pence for help after dozens of legal challenges against the election were dismissed in courts across the land.

The defeated president used rally speeches and Twitter to exert intense pressure on his deputy to abuse his position as president of the Senate and reject the election results.

Members of Trump’s family were in the Oval Office on January 6 when Trump had a “heated” phone call with Pence, according to first daughter Ivanka Trump’s deposition, aired at the hearing.

She said Trump took “a different tone” than she’d heard him use before.

Nicholas Luna, a former assistant to Trump, recalled in his own deposition: “I remember hearing the word ‘wimp.'”

During his “Stop the Steal” rally later that day, Trump referenced Pence numerous times as he told his supporters to march on the Capitol and “fight like hell.”

Trump’s original speech didn’t mention Pence but he ad-libbed to berate his vice president in a move Democratic committee member Pete Aguilar said helped incite the insurrection and the threats against Pence.

But Pence resisted, releasing a letter to Congress saying the vice president had no “unilateral authority” to overturn election counts.

Aguilar said an informant from the neofascist Proud Boys told the FBI the group would have killed Pence given the opportunity.

The California congressman said the mob storming the Capitol came within 40 feet (12 meters) of Pence and to “make no mistake about the fact that the vice president’s life was in danger.”

‘Pretty jarring’

Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows told him about the violence erupting at the Capitol but the president tweeted anyway that Pence did not have the “courage” to overturn the election, aides told investigators in videotaped depositions.

Immediately after the tweet, the crowds at the Capitol surged forward, the committee said.

The mob threatened to hang Pence for failing to cooperate as they stormed the Capitol, even erecting a gallows in front of the building.

“What the former president was willing to sacrifice — potentially the vice president — in order to stay in power is pretty jarring,” Aguilar said.

The panel aired a video clip of a rioter saying he would “drag people through the streets” if Pence refused to overturn the election.

The committee also heard from retired federal judge J Michael Luttig, who testified that the United States would have been plunged into “a revolution within a paralyzing constitutional crisis” had Pence folded under Trump’s pressure.

Luttig, a renowned conservative legal scholar, had advised Pence at the time that his role in overseeing the ratification of the election was purely ceremonial — and that he had no power to oppose the result.

“There was no basis in the constitution or the laws of the United States at all for the theory espoused by Mr Eastman. At all. None,” Luttig said.

Trump reacted to the hearing by demanding that he receive “equal time” on the airwaves to lay out his bogus theory that the election was stolen — but opponents pointed out that he has not taken up the committee’s invitation to testify.

Source: AFP

17, June 2022

UK government approves extradition of WikiLeaks founder Assange to US ⁰

British Interior Minister Priti Patel on Friday approved the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to face criminal charges, bringing his long-running legal saga closer to a conclusion.

Assange is wanted by US authorities on 18 counts, including a spying charge, relating to WikiLeaks’ release of vast troves of confidential US military records and diplomatic cables which they said had put lives in danger.

His supporters say he is an anti-establishment hero who has been victimised because he exposed US wrongdoing in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that his prosecution is a politically motivated assault on journalism and free speech.

“On 17 June, following consideration by both the Magistrates Court and High Court, the extradition of Mr Julian Assange to the US was ordered. Mr Assange retains the normal 14-day right to appeal,” the UK home office said in a statement.

Patel’s decision does not mean the end of Australian-born Assange’s legal battle which has been going on for more than a decade.

He can launch an appeal at London’s High Court which must give its approval for a challenge to proceed. He can ultimately seek to take his case to the United Kingdom Supreme Court. But if an appeal is refused, Assange must be extradited within 28 days.

Source: REUTERS

17, June 2022

French Cameroun: Gunman kills seven villagers in Adamawa region ⁰

A gunman has attacked three villages in Cameroon’s mountainous region of Adamawa, killing seven people, an official said on Thursday.

Abbo Aboubakar, mayor of Belel municipality said, the man who is yet to be identified opened fire on villagers in Lesse Woka, Didjawa and Ngaoundamdji localities of the municipality.

“Four people died on Tuesday when the incident happened and three others died Wednesday in the hospital, three others are still in hospital,” Aboubakar said by phone.

Some of the villagers have fled the localities, afraid that the gunman, who villagers said was well armed, will return again, according to the official.

Cameroon shares a porous border in the region with Central African Republic (CAR) and rebels from CAR regularly crossed the boundary to attack Cameroonians, according to security reports.

In 2018, Cameroonian president Paul Biya deployed Special Forces to the region after abductions became rampant.

Source: Xinhuanet

16, June 2022

Eto’o rejecting Matip is a sign of pride which could cost Lions at the World Cup ⁰

FECAFOOT president Samuel Eto’o has reportedly refused centre-back Joel Matip an opportunity to come out of retirement and represent Cameroon at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Matip retired from international duties in 2017 subtly citing the chaos in the Cameroon football federation (FECAFOOT) as his main reason.

Five years on, Fecafoot is now led by Samuel Eto’o, the legendary Cameroonian striker with the chaos mostly subsided and his beloved country Qatar-bound for the World Cup.

Joel Matip has now reportedly tried to unretired in a bid to be available for the showpiece which Eto’o has vehemently blocked but is that decision in the best interest of Cameroon or a show of pride which could cost the Indomitable Lions?

The Liverpool defender was one of the few high-profile players in the Cameroon national team at the time of his retirement and his decision to leave them high and dry was selfish even if justified. It appears that Matip left when the going got rough and is now trying to return now that it’s good again, that’s certainly how Eto’o sees it.

Joel Matip’s desire to rejoin the Indomitable lions is mostly self-serving but so is Samuel Eto’o’s decision to block the 30-year-old defender.

What is best for Cameroon?

The truth is, despite Matip’s dodgy intentions, his presence in the national team will do Cameroon more good than harm and that conclusion should be enough for Samuel Eto’o.

Matip was Cameroon’s best defender when he retired in 2017 and has since developed into one of the best centre-backs in the world, a solid rock at the back for Liverpool.

There’s no other real reason for Cameroon to not want him in the World Cup squad other than pride, albeit justifiable pride but still pride nonetheless which can only lead to a fall.

Cameroon will play against Serbia, Switzerland and Brazil in the group stage in Qatar, all teams with world-class players but will somehow not be competing with their only player of that level.

Matip was a part of the last Cameroon World Cup squad in 2014 where they also played against Brazil who were the host nation, his experience is invaluable.

In summary, Eto’o is right to feel how he does about Matip but in his position of power, the bigger picture should be the highest consideration and Cameroonian football should be his number one priority.

But right now it seems his pride and ego supersedes the need to take the strongest possible Cameroon squad to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Source: Pulse Nigeria

16, June 2022

Biya regime begins charging for PCR COVID-19 test ⁰

Cameroon on Wednesday effectively started charging for polymerase chain reaction COVID-19 test, according to the country’s Minister of Public Health Malachie Manaouda.

Manaouda said Tuesday that the test will now cost 30,000 xaf (approximately 48 U.S. dollars).

Payment will be effected through a platform for the dematerialization of public receipts, but also on physical sites allowing the generation of a unique code and a receipt, he said.

The officials did not explain why the test that was previously free of charge will now be paid for.

As of May 11, Cameroon had 119,947 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 1,930 deaths. And 11 percent of the target population had received at least one vaccine dose, according to the Ministry of Public Health.

Source: Xinhuanet