Tennis: Gauff becomes youngest Slam finalist for 18 years at French Open

2, June 2022

Tennis: Gauff becomes youngest Slam finalist for 18 years at French Open 0

Coco Gauff will face world number one Iga Swiatek for the French Open title after the teenager eased into her maiden Grand Slam final with a straight-sets victory over Martina Trevisan on Thursday.

The 18-year-old American claimed a 6-3, 6-1 win in a nervous match which saw both players featuring in a major semi-final for the first time.

Gauff is the youngest Grand Slam finalist since Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004.

“I think I’m a little bit in shock right now,” said Gauff. I didn’t know how to react after the match. I’m lost for words.”

The players made 37 unforced errors between them in a poor first set before Gauff upped her game in the second.

The 18th seed will be a heavy underdog against Swiatek, who is on a 34-match winning streak, in Saturday’s showpiece match.

But she will have nothing to lose as she bids to become the youngest Slam winner since Sharapova stunned Serena Williams in London 18 years ago.

“I’m just going to go into it like another match,” Gauff added.

“Yeah, it’s a Grand Slam final but there are so many things going on in the world right now, especially in the US, so I don’t think it’s worth stressing about it.”

Unseeded Italian Trevisan saw her fine tournament and 10-match unbeaten run end with a whimper, as she served four double faults and made 36 unforced errors.

Gauff made a fast start and broke in the third game for an early advantage.

She became rattled though after failing to persuade the umpire to overturn a controversial line call as errors flew off both players’ racquets.

But Gauff composed herself to take the set with a run of three straight games.

Trevisan was broken four times in a row, winning just three points in those games as her serve was taken apart.

The world number 59 took a medical timeout before the second set to have her thigh strapped, but Gauff took total control of the match when she won a 14-minute game with a backhand winner for a 3-1 lead.

She went on to secure a final berth in style, breaking yet again before a hold to love.

Source: AFP

Tunisian president sacks dozens of judges, tightening grip on judiciary

2, June 2022

Tunisian president sacks dozens of judges, tightening grip on judiciary 0

Tunisia’s president sacked 57 judges on Wednesday, accusing them of corruption and protecting terrorists in a purge of the judiciary that comes as he seeks to remake the political system after consolidating one-man rule.

In a televised address President Kais Saied said he had “given opportunity after opportunity and warning after warning to the judiciary to purify itself”. Hours later the official gazette published a decree announcing the dismissals.

Among those sacked was Youssef Bouzaker, the former head of the Supreme Judicial Council whose members Saied replaced this year as he moved to take control of the judiciary.

The council had acted as the main guarantor of judicial independence since Tunisia’s 2011 revolution that introduced democracy and Saied’s changes prompted accusations he was interfering in the judicial process.

Another prominent judge on the list of those sacked was Bachir Akremi, whom some political activists accuse of being too close to the Islamist Ennahda party and of stopping cases against it. Ennahda and Akremi both deny that.

Last summer Saied dismissed the government and seized executive power in a move his foes called a coup before setting aside the 2014 constitution to rule by decree and dismissing the elected parliament.

He says his moves were needed to save Tunisia from crisis and his intervention initially appeared to have widespread public support after years of economic stagnation, political paralysis and corruption.

Saied, who has also replaced the independent electoral commission, has also said he will introduce a new constitution this month that he will put to a referendum next month.

However, nearly all Tunisia’s political parties have rejected the move along with the powerful UGTT labour union.

With Tunisia’s economy failing, and with public finances in crisis, Saied meanwhile faces the prospect of growing popular anger over high inflation and unemployment, and declining public services.

The UGTT said this week that public sector workers would go on strike on June 16, posing the biggest direct challenge to Saied’s political stance so far.

Source: REUTERS

Ukraine war enters 99th day: Senegalese President to speak to Putin

2, June 2022

Ukraine war enters 99th day: Senegalese President to speak to Putin 0

The head of the African Union, Senegalese President Macky Sall, will speak with President Vladimir Putin in the southwestern Russian city of Sochi on Friday, Dakar said.

The visit is aimed at “freeing up stocks of cereals and fertilisers, the blockage of which particularly affects African countries”, along with easing the Ukraine conflict, Sall’s office said Thursday.

The visit was organised after an invitation by Putin, and Sall will travel with the president of the African Union Commission, his office added.

The AU will also receive a video address from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, though no date has been set.

Biya regime detained thousands of Anglophones since the war started five years ago

1, June 2022

Biya regime detained thousands of Anglophones since the war started five years ago 0

The Southern Cameroons Department for Homeland Security says more than three thousand Ambazonians have been detained by French Cameroun since the war started in 2017.

A statement released recently by the Ambazonia Interim Government said on Monday that French Cameroun prison authorities and the National Gendarmerie have been committing brutal crimes against English speaking Southern Cameroons prisoners, including women, children, and the elderly.

Southern Cameroons prisoners are subjected to severe physical and psychological torture during the arrest, at interrogation centers, and in jails, the IG statement noted.

According to the Ambazonia Interim Government, nearly 175 Southern Cameroons detainees have been killed as a result of torture and medical negligence in Francophone jails in Douala, Yaoundé, Dschang and Mbouda.

Francophone prison authorities keep Southern Cameroons detainees and prisoners of conscience under deplorable conditions lacking proper hygienic standards. The Southern Cameroonians are subjected to other inhumane and degrading circumstances, including administrative detention, solitary confinement, and bans on family visits.

The Southern Cameroons prisoners have been held for over five years now without being charged, tried, or convicted.

By Isong Asu in London

Senator Regina Mundi affair: Money has changed hands

1, June 2022

Senator Regina Mundi affair: Money has changed hands 0

Who says kidnapping is not a lucrative business?  The release of Senator Regina Mundi has demonstrated that kidnapping is the business of some of the factions involved in the insurgency in Cameroon.

ADF, Cho Ayaba’s criminal gang, has just been made richer by a desperate Yaoundé government which has been seeking to demonstrate that it has the military muscle and that it is in control of its territory.

Regina Mundi had been kidnapped some three weeks ago and all attempts by the government to free her without losing any of its soldiers fell flat on their faces.

The armed ADF militants had demanded the release of some 80 Southern Cameroonians held in the Yaoundé Maximum Security Prison, but the government was reluctant to engage in such an arrangement.

The government instead delivered CFAF 80 million through an agent, then later went to where the ADF insurgents had told the government agent to meet the weary Mundi and staged a melodrama designed to save the government’s face.

It’s hard to believe that after a serious exchange of fire, the government soldiers did not register any casualty or lost any people.

Ms. Regina Mundi could not have come out of the lion’s den unscathed without the government engaging in a certain qui pro quod.

Money has changed hands and this might encourage other factions in the fighting to review their strategies.

A source close to the ministry of defense has informed Cameroon Intelligence Report that if the government had not paid such a huge amount, the old and frail lady would have still been in captivity.

“Those separatists are not people you joke with. Senator Mundi is happy to be out of the lion’s mouth and she has a message for the government – make peace with the insurgents or there will be no rest in Yaoundé,” the source said.

The source added that the “the senator looked healthy and from her clothing, it could be concluded that she was well-dressed and waiting for the military to come and pick her up.”

“There was no stress on her face and no fear. That clearly says that it was an arrangement between the government and the kidnappers. If the government has become a good customer in the business of kidnapping, then small kidnappers will have to step up their game to earn more,” he said.

“Nobody is free. There is money to be spent. All government officials should be ready now to head to the jungle. The boys are now more aggressive. There is money and who does not want it. The government has money to give away, but it cannot sit and dialogue with the same kidnappers. What an irony,” he concluded.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Gunmen kill 24 in Akwaya Sub Division

1, June 2022

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Gunmen kill 24 in Akwaya Sub Division 0

Twenty-four civilians were killed and around 60 wounded in an attack by gunmen in Akwaya Sub Division in Manyu on Tuesday.

The death toll in the remote Southern Cameroons sub constituency is one of the bloodiest in a nearly five-year conflict pitting armed Ambazonia Restoration Fighters against Cameroon government forces in the breakaway West Cameroon.

The gunmen reportedly attacked Obonyi II, a village in Akwaya near the Nigerian border.

Unconfirmed reports say gunmen were separatists fighters who wanted the inhabitants to pay them money levy to support the armed conflict against the Francophone dominated military.

Local authorities placed the death toll at 24 with at least 62 wounded.

The attack was confirmed by the Divisional Officer for Akwaya and the Senior Divisional Officer for Manyu.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that after the attack, some people fled to Nigeria and others to the forest.

In 2017, Anglophone resentment over perceived discrimination radicalized and snowballed into a separatist movement that declared the two regions independent.

The country’s veteran president, Paul Biya, 89, responded with strong measures.

Clashes between militants and security forces have claimed more than 6,000 lives and displaced around a million people, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG).

The separatists have attacked police, soldiers, civil servants and schools, whom they consider to be symbols of the state, and often carry out kidnappings.

However, civilians have suffered abuses by both sides, according to international NGOs and the United Nations.

Earlier Tuesday, the Cameroon government army said it had freed a kidnapped senator. Senator Elizabeth Regine Mundi, 79, had been kidnapped along with her driver on April 30 in Bamenda, in the Northwest Region.

However, Cameroon Concord News sources hinted that the Biya government delivered CFAF 80 million through an agent then later went to where the ADF insurgents had told the government agent to meet the weary Senator Mundi and staged a melodrama designed to save the government’s face.

By Kingsley Betek in Mamfe

Boko Haram kills 3 Cameroon gov’t soldiers, 4 civilians

1, June 2022

Boko Haram kills 3 Cameroon gov’t soldiers, 4 civilians 0

Militants of the terror group Boko Haram killed at least three soldiers and four civilians in a raid early Tuesday in Cameroon’s Far North region, according to security and local sources.

A military official who opted for anonymity told Xinhua that militants armed with heavy weaponry arrived in Hitaoua, a locality in the region by 3 a.m. local time. They overran government forces, killing at least three soldiers and four civilians.

One person was also abducted.

Reinforcement troops arrived at the locality and repulsed the attackers who retreated into the mountain, according to the locals.

In another Boko Haram attack in the region Monday night, the militants wounded four civilians, members of the same family in Yabogo village. The militants have stepped up attacks on civilians and military in the region in the past one week, according to security reports.

Source: Xinhuanet

Yaoundé: Star Building in Panic Mode

31, May 2022

Yaoundé: Star Building in Panic Mode 0

As the news that the hawks in the Yaoundé government are seeking a replacement for the current Prime Minister, Chief Dr. Dion Ngute, gains momentum, the mode at the Star Building in Yaoundé has changed significantly. The once vibrant staff at the Star Building now walk like zombies because they are unaware of what will befall them once Dion Ngute is given the marching order.

Dr. Ngute’s collaborators are very concerned about their own future, especially as it is dawning on them that their boss is not in the good books of the President, Paul Biya. The Prime Minister himself has, over the last few days, refused to read newspapers given to him, for fear that the news may not be music to his ears. 

His collaborators who have stumbled on some of the news articles about his departure printed them and hastily took them to him, hoping that he might like to get more details about the dark clouds hanging over his political future, but Prime Minister Dion Ngute, a jovial and energetic man, simply said he did not want to read the newspapers which were already prophesying his exit from the prestigious Star Building. 

When Dr. Ngute came to office as Prime Minister, he was an avid news-reader. He was in love with the stories about his coming to power but today what used to be as luscious as locust has suddenly become as bitter as coloquintida.  The newspapers, which extolled his virtues to the skies, have become harbingers of bad news and the Ndian Division native is in no mood to read his own political obituary. 

A source close to Dr. Ngute reported that he was a very frustrated Prime Minister. “For all the time he has been in office as Prime Minister, he has not implemented any project. He has always been complaining about the lack of a budget which can enable him to accomplish his mission. He is very angry with the hawks in the regime who have done all they can to make his job very hard,” the source said.

Mr. Dion Ngute’s scorecard as a Prime Minister is dismal. He was brought to the Star Building to disconnect the Southwest region from the insurgency that has claimed many lives in the two English-speaking regions of the country, but under his watchful eyes, the low insurgency morphed into a full-blown civil war, causing the government to lose credibility abroad and revenues at home as the economy struggles.

For more than three years, Dion Ngute has not engaged the country’s Diaspora in general and the country’s English-speaking community abroad in particular.

The country’s Anglophone Diaspora has played a key role in the insurgency that has left the government with a bloodshot eye and the Yaoundé government holds that appointing someone who can speak with the insurgents while selling the government’s position will be the ideal solution.

Dion has failed and the secret talks at the Presidency have concluded that it will be proper to cut him out if Cameroon must regain its lost peace.  He has simply outlived his usefulness.

He has not lived up to the government’s glorious expectations. He has never been to his native Ndian Division in more than five years where there have been gruesome killings. He has never taken that risk. He has simply not understood that in politics, risk is the down payment on success. In his warped thinking, his life is more important than national peace and unity.  

For some observers of the Star Building, the Prime Minister seems to be in an interminable honeymoon since he got married to a woman who can be his daughter and many observers hold that he is just dogging the footsteps of his sick and tired boss whose wife is almost 40 years his junior. Since he got married, he has been wearing a smile not because Cameroon is getting better but because his young wife has erased some of his years and wrinkles which once occupied a prominent spot on his forehead. Dion is a happy man while the country is sinking.

A happy face has become Dion’s perfume, and this is hurting those at the Unity Palace and many analysts think that the President, Paul Biya, holds Dion in very low esteem. The last pictures of Dion bidding farewell to the sick 89-year-old president at the Nsimalen Airport speak volumes for the disdain Mr. Biya has for his Prime Minister. 

Meanwhile, the search for his replacement is well underway. Politicians close to President Biya hold that the Prime Minister should be replaced with another South-westerner to demonstrate that the President has nothing against South-westerners who are moderate in their ways and can easily be brought back to the fold.

Internally, there seems to be a shortage of influential South-westerners who can run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. Francophone politicians close to the President’s wife, Chantal Biya, hold that a new face from the Diaspora may make a huge difference.

They want someone who can confidently talk with the separatists and still promote the government’s agenda. The focus is now on South-westerners working in international organisations and things appear to be well on track.

A source close to the Unity Palace has it that a Cameroon Embassy staff in Cote d’Ivoire has spoken with an African Development Bank Group staff on this issue, though no agreement has been reached but it is being rumored that the South-westerner in Abidjan is insisting on working honestly for the country.

The source added that the person contacted is highly respected by both federalists and separatists, and he holds that federalism could help douse the fire which has been burning in Cameroon for over five years, an idea which does not go down well with many regime hawks. The source also said that another candidate working for the World Bank had been contacted but he does not have the leverage and cloud over with separatists who are determined to have their own country.   

The need to find an external candidate is also being promoted by the French who are already scared that they might lose Cameroon if the insurgency in the two English-speaking regions is not rolled back.

Last week, the French Ambassador to Cameroon, Christophe Guilhou, paid a courtesy call on Mr. Biya. He used the occasion to underscore his country’s position regarding succession planning in Cameroon. The French know that Mr. Biya’s health is failing and that if he were to leave the scene unceremoniously, the country could be caught in a downward political spiral.

All the ingredients are in place for real political chaos to play out, especially as the president’s constitutional successor is also being tormented by a colony of diseases which have reduced his body to conference center. The clouds are gathering over Cameroon and the French are aware of this.

They currently have multiple crises on their hands. Mali, Guinea, the CAR, and Burkina Faso are already slipping out of their grip, and they do not want Cameroon to be thrown into the mix. Cameroon could be a tough challenge, especially as the two English-speaking regions are already in a concerning turmoil which has exposed the government’s inability to deal with political and military crises.

Dion Ngute may not be happy, but his performance as the Prime Minister of Cameroon leaves much to be desired. He cannot point to any concrete achievements and his permanent party mood is really a provocation of regime hawks. While he continues to have a blast with his young wife, his collaborators are losing sleep and weight, and until this issue is settled, there will be no happiness at the Star Building.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Canada proposes legislation for total ‘freeze’ on handgun ownership

31, May 2022

Canada proposes legislation for total ‘freeze’ on handgun ownership 0

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday a proposed freeze on handgun ownership in Canada that would effectively ban their importation and sale, following recent mass shootings in the United States.

The bill must still be passed by Parliament, with the ruling Liberals holding only a minority of seats.

“We’re introducing legislation to implement a national freeze on handgun ownership,” Trudeau told a news conference, joined by dozens of families and friends of victims of gun violence.

“What this means is that it will no longer be possible to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns anywhere in Canada,” he said. “In other words, we’re capping the market for handguns.”

Days after Canada’s worst mass shooting left 23 dead in rural Nova Scotia in April 2020, the government banned 1,500 types of military-grade or assault-style firearms.

But Trudeau acknowledged Monday that gun violence continues to rise.

The government statistical agency reported last week that firearms-related violent crimes account for less than three percent of all violent crimes in Canada.

But since 2009 the per capita rate of guns being pointed at someone has nearly tripled, while the rate at which a gun was fired with an intent to kill or wound is up five-fold.

Almost two-thirds of gun crimes in urban areas involved handguns.

Police often point to smuggling from the United States — which is reeling from recent shootings at a school in Texas and at a supermarket in New York state — as the main source of handguns.

Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino estimated there are about one million handguns in this country — up significantly from a decade ago.

Trudeau commented, “People should be free to go to the supermarket, their school or their place of worship without fear. People should be free to go to the park or to a birthday party without worrying about what might happen from a stray bullet.

“Gun violence is a complex problem,” he said. “But at the end of the day, the math is really quite simple: the fewer the guns in our communities, the safer everyone will be.”

The proposed law would also strip anyone involved in domestic violence or stalking of their firearms license, and take away guns from those deemed to be a risk to themselves or others, as well as strengthen border security and criminal penalties for gun trafficking.

It would also ban long-gun magazines capable of holding more than five bullets.

Source: AFP

Champions League: Liverpool accuse French authorities of ‘deflecting responsibility’ for final chaos

31, May 2022

Champions League: Liverpool accuse French authorities of ‘deflecting responsibility’ for final chaos 0

Liverpool chief executive Billy Hogan has accused the French authorities of trying to “deflect responsibility” for the chaotic scenes that marred the Champions League final in Paris.

UEFA have announced an independent review into scenes outside the Stade de France on Saturday that saw supporters funnelled into overcrowded corridors and hit with tear gas and pepper spray from police.

Kick-off to the match, which Real Madrid won 1-0, was delayed by 36 minutes to allow supporters extra time to access the stadium.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin blamed the chaos on “industrial-scale” fraud of 30,000 to 40,000 fake tickets.

However, that account has been strongly rejected by Liverpool fans who have pointed to a series of organisational failings around the stadium and the heavy-handed response from police.

Liverpool chairman Tom Werner has demanded an apology from French sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera.

Oudea-Castera initially blamed Liverpool for helping to cause the mayhem, telling a French radio station that the club failed to properly organise its supporters who went to Paris.

“We just feel that everyone should be focused on getting the investigation right and less about making inflammatory comments that attempt to deflect responsibility for what happened on Saturday night,” Hogan told the Liverpool website.

“We should know all the facts to make sure that the scenes that we’ve all seen – absolutely disgraceful – from Saturday don’t ever happen again.”

Family members and friends of the Liverpool squad were caught up in the scenes outside the stadium.

Left-back Andy Robertson said a friend he had given a club ticket to was denied entry and accused of carrying a fake ticket.

The wife of Thiago Alcantara, Julia Vigas, posted on Instagram: “Due to a lack of organisation and security, there were so many scary moments.”

Vigas added: “Something has to be done, these kind of things cannot happen in any kind of event and we ask for responsibility. It could have been much worse.”

UEFA initially blamed the late arrival of fans for the problems before later issuing a statement referring to fake tickets as the cause.

“To say our fans didn’t turn up on time is crazy,” added Hogan.

“My colleagues across the club, our ownership and I, we all saw it with our own eyes. We were outside the ground, on the ground, in those crowds and from everything I saw, our fans arrived early and they were queueing as directed by authorities.”

Liverpool have begun compiling their own evidence with supporters and other people present invited to report their experiences via a feedback form on their website.

Fans have compared the dangerous scenes outside the stadium to the Hillsborough disaster in which 97 Liverpool fans were killed in a crush in 1989.

UEFA said their own independent review, led by Portugal’s Dr Tiago Brandao Rodrigues “will examine decision making, responsibility and behaviours of all entities involved in the final.”

Source: AFP

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