10, February 2022

Frustrated Biya commends “honourable” AFCON performance of Indomitable Lions ⁰

Cameroonian President Paul Biya commended the national football team, Indomitable Lions, for an “honorable” performance during the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) that was hosted by the Central African nation.

Biya said, despite the fact that the team won what he described as a “small final”, they needed to prepare hard for future competitions.

“The performance of Cameroonian players probably did not meet all the expectations of our fellow citizens. This is why I urge our Indomitable Lions to continue to be always more motivated and united, in order to prepare well for the important future sporting championships,” Biya said in a statement released on Tuesday.

The Indomitable Lions won bronze in the competition after beating Burkina Faso through a penalty shootout.

The four-week championship ended on Sunday with Senegal emerging champions.

Source: Xinhuanet

10, February 2022

Deported Cameroonian Asylum Seekers Suffer Serious Harm ⁰

Cameroonian authorities subjected dozens of asylum seekers deported by the United States to serious human rights violations between 2019 and 2021, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 149-page report, “‘How Can You Throw Us Back?’: Asylum Seekers Abused in the US and Deported to Harm in Cameroon,” traces what happened to the estimated 80 to 90 Cameroonians deported from the United States on two flights in October and November 2020, and others deported in 2021 and 2019. People returned to Cameroon faced arbitrary arrest and detention; enforced disappearances; torture, rape, and other violence; extortion; unfair prosecutions; confiscation of their national IDs; harassment; and abuses against their relatives. Many also reported experiencing excessive force, medical neglect, and other mistreatment in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody in the US.

“The US government utterly failed Cameroonians with credible asylum claims by sending them back to harm in the country they fled, as well as mistreating already traumatized people before and during deportation,” said Lauren Seibert, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The Cameroon and US governments need to remedy these abuses, and US authorities should provide opportunities for wrongly deported Cameroonians to return and reapply for asylum.”

By returning Cameroonians to face persecution, torture, and other serious harm, the US violated the principle of nonrefoulement, a cornerstone of international refugee and human rights law.

Between December 2020 and January 2022, Human Rights Watch interviewed 41 deported Cameroonian asylum seekers, 4 asylum seekers in the US, and 54 other people in the US and Cameroon, including relatives and friends of those deported, witnesses to abuses, lawyers, immigrant rights activists, and experts. Human Rights Watch collected and analyzed US asylum and immigration documents of deported people, as well as photographs, videos, recordings, and medical and legal documents corroborating accounts of mistreatment in Cameroon.

Cameroon has faced humanitarian crises in several regions in recent years. Respect for human rights has deteriorated and the government has increasingly cracked down on opposition and dissent. Violence since late 2016 by government forces and armed separatist groups in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions has caused mass displacement, as have intercommunal violence and ongoing conflict with Boko Haram in the Far North region.

“We put all our hope in the USA when we went to seek refuge,” said a 37-year-old man who was deported to Cameroon in October 2020. “We did not imagine the US would return us like that.” He spent nearly three years in US immigration detention and was arbitrarily detained in Cameroon after his return. He remains in hiding.

The people interviewed were deported during the Trump administration, which was characterized by hardline immigration policies, narrowed access to asylum, and racist, anti-migrant rhetoric. Though conditions in Cameroon had not improved, the grant rate for asylum or other protection for Cameroonians by US immigration courts dropped by 24 percent between fiscal years 2019 and 2020. The US deported over 100 Cameroonians in 2020.

The Biden administration took the positive step of cancelling a February 2021 deportation flight to Cameroon. However, it deported several Cameroonians in October 2021 and has failed to designate Temporary Protected Status for Cameroon, despite conditions making return unsafe.

Nearly all of the deported people interviewed had fled Cameroon between 2017 and 2020 for reasons linked to the crisis in the Anglophone regions. Human Rights Watch research indicates that many had credible asylum claims, but due process concerns, fact-finding inaccuracies, and other issues contributed to unfair asylum decisions. Lack of impartiality by US immigration judges – who are part of the executive branch, not the independent judiciary – appeared to play a role. Nearly all of the deported Cameroonians interviewed – 35 of 41 – were assigned to judges with asylum denial rates 10 to 30 percentage points higher than the national average.

ICE also failed to protect confidential asylum documents during deportations, leading to document confiscation and apparent retribution by Cameroonian authorities.

Between 2019 and 2021, Cameroonian police, gendarmes, military personnel, and other officials detained or imprisoned at least 39 people deported from the US. Authorities detained many without due process or in inhumane conditions, for periods ranging from days to months. Some were held incommunicado.

Human Rights Watch documented 14 cases of physical abuse or assault of 13 deported people, 13 by Cameroonian authorities – including 9 in detention – and 1 by armed separatists. State agents raped three women in custody, subjected a man to forced labor, and severely beat returnees, often during interrogations. Several of these cases amount to torture.

A woman deported in October 2020 said she was tortured and raped by gendarmes or military men during six weeks in detention in Bamenda, North-West region: “Every two days … they were using ropes, [rubber] tubes, their boots, military belts … They hit me all over my body. They said that I’ve destroyed the image of Cameroon … so I had to pay for it.”

State agents harmed or targeted the family members of at least seven deported people. While looking for returnees, government forces allegedly shot and killed a woman’s sister, abducted a man’s 11-year-old son, and severely beat a man’s mother. Others were arbitrarily detained, extorted, and harassed.

Cameroonian authorities threatened and abused returnees not only for reasons linked to why they initially fled, but also for seeking asylum in the US, and for actual or imputed opposition to the government. “[Officials] said … ‘You people left here, you ran … to the US, telling lies about the government,’” said a woman deported in October 2020.

Nearly everyone interviewed also cited mistreatment during US immigration detention, transfers, or ICE flights. ICE detained all but one of the 41 asylum seekers interviewed for prolonged and unnecessary periods, an average of 1.5 years. Human Rights Watch documented 24 cases of alleged excessive force, cruel or inhuman treatment, or other physical abuse by ICE officers, other officials, or ICE contractors against 18 Cameroonians subsequently deported.

Deported Cameroonians have yet to receive a remedy for harms experienced. As of January, many remained in grave danger in Cameroon or struggled to survive after fleeing again. Human Rights Watch and members of the Cameroon Advocacy Network (CAN), a coalition of immigrant rights groups and Cameroonian immigrants in the US, urged the US government to grant Cameroonians deported between 2020 and 2021 humanitarian parole to return to the US for “urgent humanitarian reasons.”

“The suffering that Cameroonians deported by the US have been through is heartbreaking and makes it crystal clear that Cameroon is not safe for return,” said Daniel Tse, CAN coordinator. “If the Biden administration hopes to make the US immigration system more humane, it should rectify the wrongs done to Cameroonian asylum seekers and halt deportations to Cameroon.”

Quotes from the report

All of those quoted are identified with pseudonyms for their safety.

On post-deportation abuses in Cameroon

“Paul,” deported in October 2020: In January 2021, military personnel assaulted Paul, deported in October 2020, at his mother’s home in the South-West region. “Four military guys broke the door and came inside…. They started beating me…. They said, ‘You were deported from America?… You are the ones sponsoring the Amba [separatist] fighters.’”

“Marie,” deported in October 2020: In January 2021, men in black uniforms assaulted Marie at a checkpoint en route to Bamenda. “They started beating me… They said, ‘Here’s the Ambazonian … destroying the name of the country.’… They used some whip … on my neck and back… They slapped me … I fell on the ground. They … kicked me … the pain was too much.”

“Richard,” deported in October 2020, said at New Bell prison in Douala, from October to November 2020: “I was kept in a dark room, only given two slices of bread for the whole day … [Officers] beat me … [with] batons … and a military belt … and their cutlasses … I was tortured for 14 days, every day, three times a day… They were making me feel that’s the end of my life.”

“George,” deported in October 2020: Military men severely beat his 60-year-old mother in the South-West region in December 2020. “Since they could not find me … five of them were beating her … with a military belt… She fell down crying, so then they kicked her… They were hitting her with sticks… They left her to lie there… People in village came and took her to the hospital.”

On ICE failure to protect confidential asylum documents

“Maxwell,” deported October 2020: “When we were leaving … I was shouting and screaming that I need to take some documents out of my bags, but [ICE] never gave me any attention. In Cameroon, when we arrived … [police] asked, ‘Did you ask for asylum in America?’ I said no… [T]hey said I should shut up, that I was lying, because they found every piece of paperwork in my bag … proving that I asked for asylum.”

On abuses during US immigration detention and deportations

“Thierry,” deported October 2020: “I went to the US to seek asylum for the persecution I experienced in my country. I was just so sad, because I did 2 years 10 months [in detention], and I am not a criminal.”

“Christian,” deported October 2020, said at a US immigration detention center: “They put me face down on the ground. One ICE officer put his knee on my neck, pushing with so much pressure … I was crying. I said, ‘Please, please, I can’t breathe.’… They forced me inside the game room …, forced my head onto the ping-pong table … Some were hitting me. One twisted my arm … like he was going to break it…. They took my fingerprint by force.”

“Robert,” deported November 2020: “[ICE] put me in a ‘Wrap’ [or similar full-body restraint] because I was refusing to get in the plane… [T]hey tie your legs and your hands, each is connected to each and you can’t sit up straight. It’s a form of punishment…. I told them God will judge them. The ICE officers told me I should go to hell, that whatever complaint I do, the case will go nowhere.”

On unfair US asylum denials

“Richard,” deported October 2020: “When you’re trying to give an explanation of what happened, [the asylum officer] wouldn’t give you an opportunity. He would just say, ‘OK, OK’… Sometimes he would speak so fast that I didn’t understand, and he would threaten, ‘This is the last time I’m repeating myself,’ and if I don’t give him answers … he will not interview me anymore. I was so tense.”

“Michael,” deported November 2020: “I wasn’t understanding the [immigration] judge or government lawyer sometimes, and sometimes they didn’t understand me… They would say ‘speak louder,’ and if I said I didn’t understand …, they thought maybe I wanted to escape from the question.”

Culled from Human Rights Watch

10, February 2022

32 dead in Cameroon cholera outbreak ⁰

Thirty-two people have died in an outbreak of cholera in Cameroon, the authorities said on Wednesday.

The water-borne disease was first detected in the Southwest and Centre regions in late October, and then spread to three other regions.

As of 1 January, there were 32 deaths out of 1 102 recorded cases, Health Minister Manaouda Malachie said in a statement.

Outbreaks of cholera, an acute form of diarrhoea that is treatable with antibiotics and hydration, occur periodically in Cameroon.

The country’s last epidemic was between January and August 2020, when 66 people died.

Cholera is caused by a germ that is typically transmitted by poor sanitation. People become infected when they swallow food or water carrying the bug.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates an annual global tally of between 1.3 and four million cases, leading to between 21 000 and 143 000 deaths.

Source: AFP

10, February 2022

Biya regime to begin mass arrests after Africa Cup of Nations ⁰

The Special Criminal Court will order the arrest of several Cameroon government authorities in the coming days as the 88-year-old President Biya vowed that those responsible for dubious award of contracts in the buildup to the Africa Cup of Nations and the Covid-19 pandemic will pay a heavy price.

The corruption came amid a period of political turmoil in Southern Cameroons that critics blame on Biya’s increasingly authoritarian rule and the fight against the Nigerian Islamic terror group Boko Haram. Staying in power by rigging every election, Biya has shaken up his government, arrested several prominent figures, cracked down on dissidents, restricted the news media and renewed fighting with Boko Haram and Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

The Yaoundé regime has also come under pressure from the thousands of refugees in the Far North region who have fled violence in Northern Nigeria, and a series of bloody attacks between the Arab shoa and Kotoko ethnic groups.

A source at the office of the presidency, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with CPDM rules said, the Special Criminal Court will also target the leadership of the Cameroon Development Cooperation (CDC) in Southern Cameroons.

Our chief Yaoundé informant has described the upcoming anti corruption operation as massive and said those found guilty will receive every punishment they deserve. The government will also be pressing ahead with a purge of judicial and police officials.

By Rita Akana in Yaoundé

9, February 2022

Open Letter to Samuel Eto’o, FECAFOOT President ⁰

Dear Mr. Eto’o,

After two months following your election as the president of FECAFOOT, I feel I should write to you, especially after the successful organization of the Africa Cup of Nations (AfCON). A few unfortunate situations almost marred the event, but the population’s response and the government’s determination to deliver went a long way in mitigating the impact of those incidents.

Over the last two months, you have demonstrated that you have a sound understanding of football and people management evidenced by your approach to dealing with football players and the unfortunate in our society.

During the competition, I watched you giving pep talks to the indomitable lions. Instead of donning a suit and sitting at the grandstands, you preferred to ride the buses with the players. Such an attitude only breeds confidence and unites the players who look up to you for inspiration.

Even when the players lost a match, you knew how to raise their spirits. You clearly demonstrated to them that failure is not the opposite of success, but a stepping-stone to higher heights and I am sure that you have bred faith in them.

With the AfCON now history, I believe it is time for us to draw the lessons which will help the national team and the country, going forward. The country’s national team emerged third in a competition that took place in Cameroon. This is not the best result, and it falls short of the population’s expectation. But the spectacular manner wherein the boys pulled victory out of the jaws of defeat made Cameroonians to forget the disappointment resulting from the defeat Egypt handed to the country’s national team. Your pep talks had clearly taught the boys that the difference between the impossible and possible resides in man’s determination and their determination brought home a bronze medal.

While the country basks in its consolation, we must understand that as a nation, we must prepare well ahead of time if we have to continue winning trophies. There are many competitions ahead of us. We still have to lock horns with Algeria and if we do not leave Algeria with a bloodshot eye, Cameroon may not be represented in Qatar.

To ensure the county’s national team stays on the winning side, FECAFOOT must establish a talent scouting mechanism which should help the national team coach identify talent across the country. This is all the more urgent as the current crop of players is aging and clearly showing signs of fatigue.

There is a huge talent pool in Cameroon. Identifying talent is nothing new in Cameroon. Claude Le Roy, a former coach of the Indomitable Lions, did this when he arrived in Cameroon in the 1980s and this initiative resulted in the discovery of talented players like Victor Ndip Akem and Tataw Eta Stephen who were little known in Cameroon before his arrival and that initiative brought immeasurable glory and recognition to Cameroon.

Based on your own story, it was the same Claude Le Roy who gave you a chance for you to play in the national team. He had identified you as a young talented boy whose skills needed to be developed and honed, and his decision turned out to be right as you have brought fame and joy to millions of Cameroonians as a global football icon.

I understand you are determined to rebuild the country’s shattered football championship which has faced neglect for years. This will be a great move as it will enable many young men to ply their trade and hone their skills. A good national championship will serve as a solid foundation for the country’s national team.

Local talent can also deliver beyond expectation. All the players need is someone who can breathe faith in them. Egypt has proven that a team made mostly of local players can be a threat to many national teams on the continent. If Egyptians can do it, Cameroonians can also do it! Cameroon has the resources and I strongly hold that you can convince the political leaders to change the way they see football and footballers.

The fact is that achieving much in this sector will require much financial resources, but if the country continues to see football as a tool for entertainment, then Cameroonians should not be disappointed when the national team loses matches. Any endeavor that is under-resourced will surely not deliver the results expected of it.

While financial resources are hard to come by, I know you will take the right steps to entice and attract the private sector to participate in the development of the country’s football sector. I have been seeing you signing partnership agreements with some companies and international organizations, and this gives hope to millions of Cameroonians. I would urge you to continue in this path and you should know that millions of Cameroonians stand with you in your dream to give the country’s youths a fighting chance in life.

While the private sector and other organizations are likely sources of sponsorship, I would suggest that we also look inward. During the just ended AfCON, Cameroonians were proud to wear the country’s colors. All types of memorabilia were sold. More than ten million Cameroonians happily bought the national team’s jersey, flag, and other memorabilia to demonstrate their support for their national team.

Unfortunately, this money went to private pockets. A good national team jersey sold for CFAF 10,000 and if 10,000,000 proud Cameroonians bought these jerseys from a FECAFOOT designated store, FECAFOOT would have netted about CFAF 100,000,000,000 in a month. Such money could go a long way in financing football development in the country. Remember! The jersey is just one item. There were also other items purchased by the happy people of Cameroon.

The challenge you now face is for you to work with the political leaders for the establishment of a “Lions Boutique” where all jerseys would be sold. The politicians should come up with a law banning the production of national team jerseys and other memorabilia by individuals who do not even pay taxes.

There are other ways FECAFOOT can raise money to develop football in Cameroon. I will be happy to discuss that with you or your representative in private.

Have a good day and May the Lord grant you more energy as you seek to raise football standards in Cameroon.

Sincerely,

Joachim Arrey

arreyjoachim@hotmail.com

9, February 2022

Arsenal FC Palaver: Arteta hits back at Aubameyang ⁰

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said on Wednesday he was the “solution, not the problem” following former captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s departure from the club after a series of disciplinary problems.

Aubameyang left the Emirates Stadium for Barcelona last week after agreeing a contract termination with the English side, allowing him to sign for the Catalan giants on a free transfer.

The 32-year-old Gabon international had not played for Arsenal since December, when he was stripped of the captaincy by Arteta after returning late from an agreed break.

Asked at his unveiling as a Barca player what had happened in London, Aubameyang said: “I don’t think I did anything wrong. I think (the problem) was just with him. He wasn’t happy. I was calm and that’s it.”

But Arteta countered those claims as he addressed reporters on the eve of Arsenal’s Premier League trip to Wolves.

“You ask the question directly to me, so I respond,” he said.

“I am extremely grateful for what Auba has done at the club, for his contribution since I have been here and the way I see myself in that relationship is the solution, not the problem.

“What I am saying is that I’ve been this solution, 100 percent, I can look in the eye of anybody.

“I do lot of things wrong, for sure. But the intention all the time is the best — and not for me, it is for the club and for the team.”

The onus on scoring the goals to keep alive Arsenal’s top-four ambitions in the absence of Aubameyang now falls on Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah.

Both men have less than six months remaining on their contracts but Arteta has backed them to fill the void even though Lacazette has scored just three Premier League goals this season and Nketiah is yet to get off the mark in the league.

“Auba’s trajectory at the club and the importance of his goals is unquestionable,” Arteta said, confirming Lacazette would captain the side for the time being.

“But we have other players, and we believe we have other qualities in different ways to try to accomplish the amount of goals that we need in the team. That’s what we are going to try to do.”

Source: AFP

9, February 2022

Understanding why Rev Father George Ngalame left the priesthood for love ⁰

The Holy Roman Catholic Church was a thousand years old before it definitively took a stand in support of celibacy in the twelfth century. Frankly speaking, the decision was reached at the Second Lateran Council held in 1139, when a rule was approved forbidding priests to marry. In 1563, the Council of Trent reaffirmed the tradition of celibacy.

To be sure, priestly celibacy is rooted in tradition, not Catholic dogma, so the Holy Father Pope Francis could change it overnight. Clerics who are happy with the current rules say celibacy allows priests time and energy to focus completely on their flock and to emulate the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, who was unmarried, more faithfully.

George Ngalame served as Financial Secretary under retired Bishop Bushu in the Diocese of Buea. He was transferred to Kumba the chief city in Meme Division after it was widely claimed that an audit in the diocese of Buea targeted his person. Kumba eventually became a diocese and the Holy Father appointed His Lordship Agapitus as Bishop.

There is no official document linking George Ngalame to the Diocese of Kumba. Consequently, we of the Cameroon Concord News Group can opine that Bishop Agapitus did not renew George Ngalame’s faculties! The man of God had left Kumba secretly and travelled to the USA.

Arriving the US, the young George Ngalame with the Revered Father title still attached to his name had to start the maneuvers of regularizing his stay. The journey took him through the sea of Bagalum and monikim dancers that separated him most of the times from familiar Cameroon faces.

A friend introduced him to a Cameroon Concord News undercover reporter in the US for him to stage a sham marriage but it never worked out as our colleague later on hinted that she was scared of the repercussion on judgment day.

When George Ngalame was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest, he made a promise to his bishop to be celibate for the rest of his life. It was easy to do at the time with his whole family behind him and very little temptation came his way because of the complete absence of financial resources. But things changed when he was appointed Financial Secretary in the diocese of Buea.

As Financial Secretary, you got the whole world in your hands!! Families will name hundreds of newly born babies after you! Young girls will make you their spiritual leader! You will even use Church money and provide bank statements for relatives and friends travelling abroad and from that office, millions of FCFA shall fall on your left and on your right hand and you will stand tall in the middle and all the good things of the world including beautiful women will come to you. The confident about being celibate will disappear. So, when you are removed from that very lucrative function in the Church hierarchy, the prospect of never having children becomes suspiciously daunting.

To be accurate, a revered father title attached to your name in Europe or America provides the same quality that attracts ladies to any Financial Secretary back home in Cameroon. However, with no support from anywhere in the world, George Ngalame began to fall in love, which needless to say isn’t allowed if you are a Catholic priest.

Yes, it is allowed – but a Roman Catholic cleric shouldn’t do anything about it, apart from suppress it and go to confession. George had to make the most important decision of his life. He really wanted to be a priest and many who know him including Revered Father Maurice Agbaw-Ebai still think it was his calling and that he was good at it. But George Ngalame has taken off his dog collar for the final time and walked away from the Catholic priesthood.

Unreliable sources in Kumba hinted this reporter that Bishop Agapitus ignored George Ngalame’s request for guidance. With no church superior on sight to speak to him, Revered Father George Ngalame has finally choosing love over the church. Some priests have come crawling back within a year but judging from the Nollywood performance on the video posted on face book, George is gone for good.

George Ngalame is not under any pressure from the church to abandon his beautiful wife. But here at last is a Roman Catholic Cleric who was destined for great things if he had stayed in Kumba. Many English speaking Cameroonians thought that he could not break the vow of celibacy – but it turns out that with George Ngalame, it was as easy as making it.

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group do not know whether George Ngalame will be banned from marrying his wife in a Roman Catholic Church because the church still see him as a priest. However, only God knows what his Bishop is thinking of him having sex.

In today’s world, we know men who have left the priesthood for love and have felt lost ever since – wanting to be priests again but being told that they can’t be. We know men who have pushed away the person they love because they are scared to leave the priesthood where they have a home, living expenses and prestige! We also know men caught between both worlds, unable to leave the priesthood and unable to leave their lover. This inevitably leads to secret affairs and even secret children.

So, what’s the outrage about George Ngalame?

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

8, February 2022

Ex-pope Benedict asks for forgiveness for clerical child sex abuse ⁰

Ex-pope Benedict XVI asked for forgiveness Tuesday for clerical child sex abuse committed on his watch, but aides rejected allegations of a cover-up while he was archbishop of Munich.

“I can only express to all the victims of sexual abuse my profound shame, my deep sorrow and my heartfelt request for forgiveness,” the 94-year-old said in a letter published by the Vatican.

The letter from the former pontiff — who stepped down in 2013 — was released in response to a German inquiry last month that criticised his handling of cases involving paedophile priests in the 1980s.

“I have had great responsibilities in the Catholic Church. All the greater is my pain for the abuses and the errors that occurred in those different places during the time of my mandate,” he wrote, without addressing specific cases.

The German investigation accused Benedict of knowingly failing to stop four priests accused of child sex abuse when he was archbishop of Munich between 1977 and 1982.

Benedict, who is in frail health, asked a team of aides to help him respond to the lengthy findings by law firm Westpfahl Spilker Wastl (WSW), charged by the archdiocese of Munich and Freising to examine abuse cases between 1945 and 2019.

The aides insisted in a statement published alongside the letter Tuesday that “as an archbishop, Cardinal Ratzinger was not involved in any cover-up of acts of abuse”, referring to the pope’s birth name, Joseph Ratzinger.

Not aware

In one case, a now notorious paedophile priest named Peter Hullermann was transferred to Munich from Essen in western Germany where he had been accused of abusing an 11-year-old boy.

Benedict’s team has already admitted to unintentionally giving incorrect information to the report authors when they denied his attendance at a meeting about Hullermann in 1980.

But they denied any decision had been taken at that meeting about reassigning the priest to pastoral duties, and on Tuesday said the abuse had not been discussed.

“In none of the cases analysed by the expert report was Joseph Ratzinger aware of sexual abuse committed or suspicion of sexual abuse committed by priests. The expert report provides no evidence to the contrary,” the statement said.

In his letter dated February 6, the former pope expressed hurt that the “oversight” over his attendance at the 1980 meeting “was used to cast doubt on my truthfulness, and even to label me a liar”.

Benedict, who lives in a former monastery within the Vatican walls, said he was “particularly grateful for the confidence, support and prayer that Pope Francis personally expressed to me”.

The Vatican defended Benedict last month, saying he had battled sexual abuse while pontiff, but Francis has said nothing in public.

Fear and trembling

In his letter, Benedict said that after thanking his supporters, there should follow “a confession” — the Catholic practice of admitting sins and seeking absolution.

He said that every day, he asked himself whether he was guilty of “a most grievous fault”, using the phrase said during confession at Mass.

“In all my meetings… with victims of sexual abuse by priests, I have seen at first hand the effects of a most grievous fault,” he wrote.

“And I have come to understand that we ourselves are drawn into this grievous fault whenever we neglect it or fail to confront it with the necessary decisiveness and responsibility, as too often happened and continues to happen.”

Before becoming pope, Benedict led the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation — once known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition — giving him ultimate responsibility to investigate abuse cases.

In the letter, he made a clear reference to his failing health, saying that “quite soon, I shall find myself before the final judge of my life”.

“As I look back on my long life, I can have great reason for fear and trembling,” he wrote.

But he added that he was nevertheless “of good cheer” as he prepared to “pass confidently through the dark door of death”.

Source: AFP

8, February 2022

Burkina prosecutors seek 30 years for ex-leader Compaore over Sankara murder ⁰

Military prosecutors on Tuesday called for a 30-year jail term against Burkina Faso’s former president Blaise Compaore for the 1987 murder of his predecessor, revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara.

The closely-followed trial is heading to a climax as the West African nation reels from its latest coup, following popular anger over jihadist attacks.

Prosecutors asked a military court in the capital Ouagadougou to find Compaore, who fled to Ivory Coast in 2014, guilty on several counts.

Accused of masterminding the assassination, Compaore is being tried in absentia on charges of attacking state security, concealing a corpse and complicity in a murder.

At the request of the defence, the trial was then adjourned until March 1.

Revered among African radicals, Sankara was an army captain aged just 33 when he came to power in a coup in 1983.

The fiery Marxist-Leninist railed against imperialism and colonialism, often angering Western leaders but gaining followers across the continent and beyond.

He and 12 colleagues were gunned down by a hit squad on October 15, 1987, at a meeting of the ruling National Revolutionary Council.

Their assassination coincided with a coup that brought Sankara’s former comrade-in-arms, Compaore, to power.

Compaore ruled for 27 years before being deposed by a popular uprising in 2014 and fleeing to neighbouring Ivory Coast.

Fourteen people stand accused in the trial, 12 of them appearing in court. Most pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution also requested 30 years in jail for the commander of Compaore’s presidential guard, Hyacinthe Kafando, who is suspected of having led the hit squad. He is also being tried in absentia.

It sought a 20-year sentence for Gilbert Diendere, one of the commanders of the army during the 1987 coup and the main defendant present at the trial.

Compaore’s former right-hand man, General Gilbert Diendere, is already serving a 20-year for engineering an attempted putsch in 2015

Compaore’s former right-hand man, General Gilbert Diendere, is already serving a 20-year for engineering an attempted putsch in 2015 OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT AFP

He is already serving a 20-year sentence over an attempted military coup in 2015.

Mariam Sankara, the slain ex-president’s wife, welcomed the prosecution’s plea.

“We’ve been waiting for years,” she said. Now “we’re waiting for the final verdict.”

‘Asking for justice’

The prosecution recounted the day Sankara was killed in its closing statement

It said that when Sankara headed to the National Revolutionary Council meeting, “his executioners were already there”.

According to its version of events, after Sankara entered the meeting room, the hit squad burst in, killing his guards.

“The squad then ordered president Sankara and his colleagues to leave the room. They would then be killed one by one,” the prosecution said.

The prosecution also urged prison sentences ranging from three to 20 years for five other defendants, as well as an 11-year suspended sentence for another.

It sought acquittal over lack of evidence for three of the accused, and cited the expiration of a statute of limitations for the final two.

The trial was already briefly suspended after a coup on January 24 that deposed the elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

After new military strongman Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba restored the constitution, the trial resumed last week.

Prosper Farama, the lawyer representing the Sankara family, said that, as the trial nears its end, the families were finally feeling some relief — even though “during this trial, no-one confessed or repented. No-one!”

“We ask the court to give the families justice,” he said. “We don’t want revenge, we’re simply asking for justice.”

Source: AFP

8, February 2022

Biya is now among citizens with disabilities and embodies all that is wrong with Cameroon ⁰

The image that has dominated social media of today’s Africa is ailing President Paul Biya not being able to handover the Africa Cup of Nations trophy to the Senegalese captain. Derision of the 88-year-old Biya on social media is widespread showing a changing media landscape where young Cameroonians are increasingly free to express their discontent publicly.

When Biya arrived the Olembe stadium for the closing ceremony of the Africa Cup of Nations, he was simply a bag of bones and could barely walk. He has been in office since 1982 and will be turning 89 this year.

The Cameroonian dictator has won every election ever since he took office even though he rarely appears in public and without personally campaigning. Many political commentators are now saying that Mr. Biya is unfit to run the country because of his health problems.

A frail pensioner falling off his seat during the opening ceremony of the Africa Cup of Nations in Yaoundé was billed as a triumph for the nation by militants of the ruling CPDM party from his Beti Ewondo tribal extractions. Those of us who watched Biya during the final of the Africa Cup of Nations came to the conclusion that Francophone African nations were badly in need of the gift of shame.

However, the 88-year-old head of state is part and parcel of Cameroon’s history and – with the support of his beautiful wife, Chantal Biya – he was cheered by enthusiastic well-wishers at the Olembe football temple.

The problem as far as the divided Cameroon is concerned is that the so-called father of the nation is set to remain president forever.

Paul Biya’s record of national service is questionable because he has always placed his tribal interest above democratic and economic progress. He is a French acolyte who threw his brother Idriss Deby of Chad under the bus in preference of French backing and to guarantee his continued stay in power. Together with his feared Francophone dominated military and intelligence officers; he has continued to battle Southern Cameroons Restoration fighters committed to creating an independent state in English speaking Cameroon.

Against such a background of violence in Southern Cameroons, Boko Haram incursions in the Far North region and the poor security situation in the East caused by the crisis in the Central African Republic, the appetite for coups or massive street demonstrations is limited in Cameroon. As a pro Yaoundé Southern Cameroonian told this reporter “Moving around Obili and Melen shouting Biya must go is not a wise thing to do in Yaoundé.”

The majority of those living in the cities of Douala, Yaoundé, Garoua, Maroua, Buea, Bamenda and Kumba including Bafoussam certainly want to see Cameroon’s enormous economic potential exploited to solve endemic social problems, including spiralling unemployment and infrastructure crisis. But Biya and his gang are not interested. The nation has everything including foreign reserves from oil and gas but wealth is not distributed evenly.

Cameroon is also of huge strategic importance to Europe and the US, with the Anglo-American empire viewing the country as a key ally in the war against Islamic terror. Correspondingly, with the Russians now in Bangui, Biya is at least a predictable player with whom Europe and the US can work.

From the numerous political discourses on both state and private television houses, it is evidently clear that it is time for proper democratic rule in Cameroon. However, CPDM sources in Yaoundé suggested to this reporter that the Beti Ewondo ruling clan is not ready for change and that key lieutenants still want Biya to remain in power.

Perhaps the most noticeable aspect of the behaviour of the 40-year-old Biya regime during the Africa Cup of Nations was the abiding image of Paul Biya at the Olembe Football Stadium and that summed up the state of Cameroon’s leadership crisis.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai