Football: Man City defender Mendy charged with seventh count of rape

22, December 2021

Football: Man City defender Mendy charged with seventh count of rape 0

Manchester City and France international footballer Benjamin Mendy has been charged with a further count of rape, a court was told on Wednesday.

The 27-year-old defender was already facing six allegations of rape and one of sexual assault but was charged last week with a seventh rape.

Restrictions on reporting the latest rape charge were lifted as Mendy appeared at Chester Crown Court for a preliminary hearing before his trial next year.

The charges relate to alleged offences against five different women in 2020 and this year.

The footballer who lives in Prestbury, near Macclesfield, northwest England, appeared alongside his co-defendant Louis Saha Matturie, 40, from Eccles, on the outskirts of Manchester.

Matturie is charged with six serious sex offences against young women.

Both men were remanded in custody after a 40-minute hearing. Their trial, which was scheduled to take place in January, was put back to later next year.

Mendy was a £52 million ($70 million) signing from Monaco in 2017 and has played 75 times for City but his playing time has been limited by injuries and a loss of form.

The last of his 10 caps for France came in November 2019.

The left-back won the World Cup with France in 2018. He has been suspended by the Premier League champions pending the outcome of the criminal proceedings.

Source: AFP

Prominent Nigerian human rights activists, Sowore, Odinkalu, Agomoh demand release of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides

21, December 2021

Prominent Nigerian human rights activists, Sowore, Odinkalu, Agomoh demand release of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides 0

Some prominent human rights’ activists in Nigeria have demanded the release of the Vice-President of American University Nigeria (AUN), Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and nine others arrested by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Nigerian Police Force since 2018.

Tabe and other scholars were arrested by the then SARS operatives in January 2018 at Nera Hotel, Abuja, as alleged members of Ambazonia, also known as English-speaking Cameroon or Southern Cameroon and they had been illegally detained since then in Cameroon.

Despite the court ruling in 2019 that ordered the Nigerian government to unconditionally release them and a payment of N200milllion (about $500,000) to each for aggravated damages, the Cameroonian dons had remained in detention.

However, the activists including Omoyele Sowore; former Chairman of Nigerian Human Rights Commission and lawyer, Prof Chidi Odinkalu, and Executive Director, Prisoners’ Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), Dr Uju Agomoh, have called for their release.

They also urged all students across universities, colleges and faculties to join in the struggle for the freedom of the scholars.

They disclosed these in a statement, “Call for SARS to Release and Return the Vice President of the American University of Nigeria and his Colleagues Now” made available to SaharaReporters on Tuesday.

The statement reads, “January 5, 2022, will mark four years since American University of Nigeria (AUN)’s Vice President and his colleagues have been illegally imprisoned after being snatched by Nigeria’s notoriously corrupt and ruthless paramilitary police known as SARS.

“The victims, leaders of the Ambazonian community living in Nigeria who have come to be known as the “Nera 10,” were meeting at the Nera Hotel to plan a meeting with the UNHCR regarding the plight of tens of thousands of refugees from Ambazonia (also known as English-speaking Cameroon or Southern Cameroon), who have been pushed across the border by the violent actions of the Cameroonian military.

“Those arrested include: Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Recruitment at American University of Nigeria (AUN) — Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Assistant Professor of Computing, Director of the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness, and Vice Chair of the Institutional Review Board AUN — Dr. Fidelis Ndeh-Che, Head of the Surgery Unit of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Ahmadu Bello University — Prof. Augustine Awasum, Associate Professor of Geology, Ahmadu Bello University — Dr. Henry Kimeng, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Economics, Yar’adua University — Dr. Cornelius Kwanga; Others are Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Bayero University — Dr. Egbe Ogork, Union organizer and Leader of the Teachers Unions and the Federation of Parent Teachers Union (CAPTAC) — Mr. Wilfred Tassang, Human Rights lawyer and Legal Worker Organizer — Barrister Shufai Berinyuy, Human Rights lawyer and Legal Worker Organizer — Barrister Eyambe EliasCivil Society leader — Dr. Nfor Ngalla Nfor.

“SARS was apparently acting in a back-room arrangement with next door Cameroon, which is controlled by the longest running dictatorship on earth, a French neocolonial regime. After holding these educators and civil rights leaders for three weeks, SARS in violation of their fundamental human rights and the international legal principle of non-refoulement, illegally handed them to Cameroon.

“Fourteen months later, in a sharp rebuke to the SARS and the Nigerian administration, the Federal High Court in Abuja issued a ruling that this abduction of the Nera 10 had violated Nigerian and international law.

“The Court ordered the Federal Government of Nigeria to ensure their immediate and unconditional release and return to Nigeria, and make a payment of two hundred million Naira (about five hundred thousand US Dollars) to each for aggravated damages.

“Yet, nearly three years later, no action has been made to implement the court’s decision. Instead, the Cameroon regime has continued and escalated a campaign of mass arrests, torture, arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances of teachers, students and civil society leaders from the targeted community.

“Activists on the ground estimate at least 3000 university lecturers, students, lawyers, trade unionists, human rights activists and journalists are being held in horrendous conditions in various detention facilities across the territory controlled by Cameroon solely for advocating for the rights and dignity of their community.

“They are being detained arbitrarily and many have spent years in prison without being charged or tried, with many reported cases of torture, squalid conditions, health neglect, and outright disappearances.

“On this sombre anniversary, we demand that SARS and the Nigerian and Cameroon governments respect the March 1, 2019, High Court decision and immediately return AUN Vice President Sisiku AyukTabe and his colleagues to their families and students.

“We call on faculty, staff, students, and human rights supporters worldwide to take action to demand the immediate rectification of this travesty of justice. Please contact the ambassadors and political leaders in your country who are responsible for maintaining relationships with Nigeria and Cameroon, and ask that they publicly demand the return of the “Nera 10” to their families and students.

“Examples of such ambassadors and political leaders include the US Secretary of State, UK Foreign Secretary, EU High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and the German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, etc.”

Source: Sahara Reporters

Africa Cup of Nations: CAF President reassures that tournament will kick off in Cameroon on Jan 9

21, December 2021

Africa Cup of Nations: CAF President reassures that tournament will kick off in Cameroon on Jan 9 0

In his last-minute visit to Cameroon, Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe has given some reassurances that the Africa Cup of Nations will go ahead as planned after weeks of uncertainty.

“We will all be present in Cameroon in a few weeks,” said Motsepe standing in the Olembe stadium, which is scheduled to host both the opening match and final of the continental finals.

“I am so proud of the work carried out. We can see the scale of the commitments taken so that the problems raised in recent days are resolved.”

When pressed what that precisely meant, Motsepe said: “I will meet you on January 9. I will be there from the 7th with my wife and my children because we are all Cameroonians! (…) So if I’m there from the 7th, everyone must be there on the 7th, for the event to kick off on the 9th.”

The CAF boss will hold meetings with Cameroon’s president Paul Biya to seek further reassurances over the competition. European clubs have been reluctant to release players because of the emergence of the Omicron variant and FIFA president Gianni Infantino is understood to have put his weight behind those European clubs who demand the tournament be rescheduled.

Motsepe however defended African football.  “Our generation must be the one who believes in Africans,” said Motsepe.

“We can organise a football competition as qualitative as that organised in Europe and elsewhere in the world. We have to believe in ourselves, we have to stop being negative and sceptical about our own abilities. Sometimes we are overly critical of ourselves. If we ourselves do not trust Africans, who will trust them?”

In 2019, the Africa Cup of Nations was shifted from Cameroon to Egypt at the eleventh hour because the West African country was not ready to stage the 24-team format.

Source: Inside World Football

Biya regime arrests hundreds for deadly clashes that displaced 100,000 in the Far North

21, December 2021

Biya regime arrests hundreds for deadly clashes that displaced 100,000 in the Far North 0

Cameroonian authorities say troops have arrested hundreds of armed men blamed for communal violence in the northeast this month that displaced more than a hundred thousand people — most to neighboring Chad. Authorities say they also seized hundreds of weapons as well as cattle stolen during the conflict over scarce resources.

Cameroonian authorities say the military is conducting an intensive search to find and arrest additional armed men operating in Logone and Chari, along the northern border with Chad.

The governor of the Far North region, Midjiyawa Bakari, says military raids on hideouts in the area led to the arrests of several hundred men.

Speaking from the region’s capital, Maroua, Bakari said the men were believed responsible for much of the violence this month that displaced more than 100,000 people — most of them across the border to Chad.

He says besides the arrests, the military also seized several hundred weapons that the men were using to attack and kill civilians. Bakari says troops also seized 30 motorcycles that armed men from rival communities were using in attacks. He says more than 200 cattle stolen from ranchers have been recovered and will be handed over after investigations to determine their legitimate owners.

Clashes broke out on December 4 between ranchers and fishers over water resources, leaving scores dead and sending tens of thousands fleeing — most of them women and children.

Arab Choua cattle ranchers and ethnic Mousgoum fishers accuse each other of trespassing and occupying each other’s land.

Bakari says most males who remained in the villages are involved in the fighting.

He would not give details on how many people have been killed in the clashes but said no government troops are among the casualties.

President Paul Biya last week dispatched to the area a delegation of lawmakers, ministers, religious leaders, and traditional rulers to negotiate a peace between the communities.

Retired army colonel Hamad Kalkaba Malboum was part of the delegation.

He says in areas where the clashes have stopped, they are asking villagers to return home.

“The president of the republic of Cameroon sent the mission [delegation] to tell people that they must be calm, the government will give instructions to rebuild what has been destroyed, and we need also to prepare the development of that region, which has also suffered Boko Haram [atrocities],” he said.

Boko Haram, an Islamist militant group from Nigeria, has since 2014 spread to neighboring Cameroon, Chad, and Niger, launching attacks that have killed more than 30,000 people and displaced two million.

Cameroon’s government is allocating $300 million to rebuild infrastructure the militants destroyed along the border.

The communal violence this month left several villages and markets burned to the ground.

Cameroonian authorities have asked people in the area who own weapons to hand them over.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports at least 85,000 Cameroonians have fled into neighboring Chad and 15,000 are internally displaced. But it says the real number could be much higher.

Source: VOA

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yerima says French Cameroun military solution an illusion

21, December 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yerima says French Cameroun military solution an illusion 0

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government, Dabney Yerima has brushed aside the much talk about French Cameroun military solution to the five year-long conflict in Southern Cameroons as an illusion. The exiled Southern Cameroons leader stated in an interview with Cameroon Intelligence Report late on Monday that the two independent Cameroons are locked in a strategic stalemate on the ground for the past five years.

Dabney Yerima told CIR’s correspondent in Holland that it is time for the new generation of La Republique du Cameroun political elites to come to the negotiating table for the two nations to discuss the terms of separation.

Yerima furthered that Southern Cameroonians were not expecting miracles or quick solutions and pointed out that the path forward will be necessarily incremental. But he noted that 2022 will witness the departure of the 88-year old French Cameroun dictator, Paul Biya and with a new leader in Yaoundé, the Ambazonia Interim Government and its jailed leaders will be able to work on concrete steps towards a satisfactory divorce package.

The Southern Cameroons revolutionary figure highlighted that the lingering atrocities currently being committed by the Francophone dominated Cameroon government military and self defense operations by Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards are making it increasingly clear that Biya and Yaoundé cannot determine the outcome of the Southern Cameroons war of liberation, and that a military solution remains an illusion.

Dabney Yerima stated that he remains actively engaged with other Southern Cameroons restoration groups in order to develop a unified front against the enemies of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government underscored that it is important for restoration groups to move away from empty social media propaganda on face book, Whatsapp and YouTube and commit to the liberation struggle.

By Isong Asu with files from Den Hague

Japan hangs three men on death row in first executions since 2019

21, December 2021

Japan hangs three men on death row in first executions since 2019 0

Japan hanged three prisoners on Tuesday, its first executions in two years, with the government saying it was necessary to maintain capital punishment in the face of continued “atrocious crimes”.

Japan is one of the few developed countries to keep the death penalty, and public support for capital punishment remains high despite international criticism, especially from rights groups.

More than 100 people are currently on death row in Japan, most of them for mass murder. Executions are carried out by hanging, usually long after sentencing.

One of the three executed on Tuesday was Yasutaka Fujishiro, 65, who used a hammer and knife to kill his 80-year-old aunt, two cousins and four others in 2004, a justice ministry spokeswoman told AFP.

The other two were 54-year-old Tomoaki Takanezawa, who killed two clerks at an arcade game parlour in 2003, and his accomplice Mitsunori Onogawa, 44.

The executions were the first under Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who took office in October.

“Whether to keep the death sentence or not is an important issue that concerns the foundation of Japan’s criminal justice system,” deputy chief cabinet secretary Seiji Kihara said.

“Given that atrocious crimes keep occurring one after another, it is necessary to execute those whose guilt is extremely grave so it is inappropriate to abolish capital punishment.”

Members of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations “strongly protest” Tuesday’s executions, the body’s president Tadashi Ara said in a statement.

Ara urged the government to “abolish capital punishment and stop all executions until it is abolished”.

Half a century on death row

Japan executed three death row inmates in 2019 and 15 in 2018 – including 13 from the Aum Shinrikyo cult that carried out a fatal 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway.

For decades, authorities have told death row inmates just hours before an execution is carried out.

Two prisoners are suing the government over the system, which they argue is illegal and causes psychological distress.

The pair are also seeking compensation of 22 million yen ($194,000) for the distress caused by living with uncertainty about their execution date.

In December 2020, Japan’s top court overturned a ruling blocking the retrial of a man described as the world’s longest-serving death row prisoner, raising new hope for the now 85-year-old.

Iwao Hakamada has lived under a death sentence for more than half a century after being convicted in 1968 of robbing and murdering his boss, the man’s wife, and their two teenaged children.

But he and his supporters say he confessed to the crime only after an allegedly brutal police interrogation that included beatings, and that evidence in the case was planted.

Worldwide, at least 483 people were executed last year in 18 countries, according to rights watchdog Amnesty International.

That represents a drop of around a quarter from the year before, and fits a downward trend since 2015.

The figure does not, however, include the “thousands” of executions believed to have been carried out in China, which keeps such data secret, along with North Korea and Vietnam.

Japan and the United States are the only members of the G7 group of developed countries that still use the death penalty.

Source: AFP

Omicron now dominant Covid-19 variant in US

21, December 2021

Omicron now dominant Covid-19 variant in US 0

The fast-spreading Omicron variant is now the dominant strain of Covid-19 in the United States, health authorities reported Monday, as the WHO called for greater efforts to ensure the pandemic ends next year.

The new variant has helped fuel record case surges, forcing a return to harsh restrictions in some countries. But in the United States, President Joe Biden does not plan on “locking the country down”, press secretary Jen Psaki said earlier in the day.

Omicron now accounts for 73.2 percent of new US cases over the past week ending Saturday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. In some regions of the country – the Pacific Northwest, South and parts of the Midwest – it already comprises more than 90 percent of new infections.

With Biden set to deliver an address on Covid-19 Tuesday, the White House reported that a mid-level, fully vaccinated and boosted staff member had tested positive for Covid-19 after spending 30 minutes in proximity to the president three days prior. Biden has so far tested negative.

Early data suggests Omicron could be more infectious and possibly have higher resistance to vaccines, despite indications that it is not more severe than the Delta variant.

Since it was first reported in South Africa in November, Omicron has been identified in dozens of countries, dashing hopes that the worst of the pandemic is over.

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for nations to redouble efforts to help end the pandemic, calling for new year events to be cancelled because it was better to “celebrate later than to celebrate now and grieve later.

“We have to focus now on ending this pandemic,” he said.

More restrictions

The European Union approved its fifth Covid-19 jab Monday – from US firm Novavax – with Europe already far ahead of other parts of the world with its rollout of vaccines and booster shots.

Authorisation of the jab, which uses a more conventional technology than other Covid vaccines, has raised hopes that people worried about getting vaccinated might now come forward.

The other vaccines approved in the bloc are from Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, and the EU has already signed a deal to buy up to 200 million doses of the two-shot Novavax vaccine.

“At a time where the Omicron variant is rapidly spreading… I am particularly pleased with today’s authorisation of the Novavax vaccine,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.

London on Monday announced it had cancelled a New Year’s Eve event in the central Trafalgar Square for 6,500 people.

Paris has already cancelled its new year celebrations, and Germany is expected to roll out tight restrictions on private parties and close nightclubs, according to a proposal seen by AFP.

“New Year’s Eve celebrations with a large number of people are unjustifiable in the current situation,” reads the draft document.

Morocco has announced a blanket ban on New Year’s Eve celebrations.

But British Prime Minister Boris Johnson ruled out any further tightening of England’s coronavirus rules over Christmas, while pledging to keep the situation “under constant review.”

Queen Elizabeth II is nonetheless understood to have cancelled plans to spend Christmas at her Sandringham estate and will instead take “sensible precautions” and stay at Windsor Castle, according to British media.

The Netherlands has already imposed a Christmas lockdown, and von der Leyen has warned that the Omicron variant could be dominant in Europe by mid-January.

World Economic Forum postponed

As the pandemic gathers pace, weary populations are faced once again with new rounds of restrictions and cancellations of big events.

The World Economic Forum said it was postponing its annual January get-together of the world’s rich and powerful in the Swiss ski resort of Davos because of the new variant.

“Despite the meeting’s stringent health protocols, the transmissibility of Omicron and its impact on travel and mobility have made deferral necessary,” the WEF said Monday.

Israel’s health ministry recommended banning nationals from traveling to the United States, and added several European countries to its Covid “red list.”

The world of sport continues to be buffeted by the virus spread, with several English Premier League football teams recording outbreaks that forced games to be abandoned in recent days.

However, the Premier League said after a meeting on Monday it had rejected a plan to temporarily halt the season, saying: “It is the League’s collective intention to continue the current fixture schedule where safely possible.”

Tennis also continues to suffer major blows, with Spanish star Rafael Nadal the latest player to test positive, throwing his participation in next month’s Australian Open into doubt.

Source:  AFP

Africa Cup of Nations Uncertainty: FIFA President Infantino is backing player withdrawals

20, December 2021

Africa Cup of Nations Uncertainty: FIFA President Infantino is backing player withdrawals 0

Fresh uncertainty has emerged over whether next month’s African Nations Cup in Cameroon will take place following claims that FIFA president Gianni Infantino has intervened.

Unconfirmed reports suggest a split within the Confederation of African hierarchy over whether to press ahead, in the wake of the new Covid variant and the threat of multiple player withdrawals, with the Continent’s showpiece tournament that has lucrative television contracts.

Infantino is understood to have put his weight behind those European clubs pushing for the rescheduling of the event that is due to kick off on January 9.

Apparently a virtual meeting of CAF’s executive committee on Sunday failed to reach agreement, with the Cameroon hosts refusing to accept yet another delay to a tournament which has already been postponed twice.

Reports suggest a CAF delegation, headed by the African football body’s president, Patrice Motsepe, was due to travel to Cameroon today to check on final preparations, with another meeting now scheduled for Wednesday.

The growing narrative is that Infantino’s first priority is the Club World Cup, due to begin on February 3 but which overlaps with the conclusion of the Afcon.

Source: Inside World Football

Ambazonia Interim Gov’t threatens to attack Africa Cup football teams

20, December 2021

Ambazonia Interim Gov’t threatens to attack Africa Cup football teams 0

The leadership of the  Ambazonia Interim Government has warned they could target the four football teams – including Tunisia – playing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Group F matches in Southern Cameroons.

Tunisia, Mauritania, Gambia, and Mali will play in the town of Limbe, southern Cameroons, in mid-January, which is a constituency under the control of the Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards.

Earlier this month, Vice President Dabney Yerima threatened the French Cameroun regime saying Amba fighters will carry out attacks against Limbe and Buea – two towns that have stadiums hosting Africa Cup matches.

Dabney Yerima called on the African Football Federation, FIFA and Total Energies to take their responsibilities and prevent the tournament from taking place inside Southern Cameroons territory.

The Ambazonia Interim Government said Amba self defense groups will disrupt the games if the Biya French Cameroun government does not withdraw its army soldiers from the Federal Republic of Ambazonia which separated from the rest of French-speaking Cameroon five years ago through a bloody insurrection that has cost thousands of lives.

The AFCON tournament will run from 9 January to 6 February and gather 24 African soccer teams, officials, and thousands of fans. Cameroon authorities have assured that the tournament will be safe and deployed additional troops to Southern Cameroons to prevent Ambazonia fighters from advancing during the games.

The fate of January’s Africa Cup of Nations finals in Cameroon is now hanging in the balance due to concerns over Biya regime’s readiness to host the tournament as Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe arrived in Yaounde on Monday for talks.

On Sunday, a CAF executive committee meeting resolved to go ahead with the 24-team event only if Motsepe was able to secure guarantees from Cameroon over its readiness.

Several members of the committee called for the tournament to be postponed, insiders hinted local and international media, but the majority voted for Motsepe to make an emergency trip to engage with the corrupt Francophone government officials.

Concerns have been voiced over a lack of organisation, incomplete building work and the threat of coronavirus outbreaks among the large number of players and staff set to descend on the under-resourced country in the next few weeks.

By Chi Prudence Asong with files

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Archbishop Andrew Nkea says attacks intensify, with great suffering of civilians

20, December 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Archbishop Andrew Nkea says attacks intensify, with great suffering of civilians 0

“The situation in the English-speaking regions is always very tense. According to observers, the ‘Amba Boys’ (the independence fighters, ed) are intensifying their attacks on the military. This leads to a violent reaction from the army, which however also affects the civilian population. Recently, for example, armed groups planted a bomb near an army center that destroyed the building and killed some of the military and soldiers. In response, they set fire to the houses around the area, resulting in the death among the military and at least two civilians, as well as several completely destroyed homes”. This is what the Archbishop of Bamenda, Mgr. Andrew Nkea Fuanya reports to Agenzia Fides.

The English-speaking areas continue to represent a hotbed of great tension in Cameroon while the dialogue process is struggling to proceed. The Archbishop continues: “There has been no progress in recent times. Now is a period full of activity, at every level, and we hope that after the Christmas holidays we can resume the process of meeting and dialogue. As for the general situation, after pointing out that the attacks have increased in number and intensity, it must be said that, from a social point of view, life continues: people have learned to live with this absurd state of affairs. Shops, offices, transport continue their business. Even schools are open, although not all, only in large centers, let’s say that 60% of institutions are open. In this period, the cities are full of Christmas decorations, churches are always full. People are tired, they want to go back to a normal life and with these demonstrations they take the opportunity to show it to everyone. As a Church, also through the intervention of Caritas and the “Justice and Peace” Commission, we are taking action to support the new internally displaced people created by the latest attacks and we really hope that Christmas can enlighten hearts and that the new year brings good news”.

To the situation of high tension that has been recorded for years in the western English-speaking regions, there are recently added those that have emerged in the north of the country, where shepherds and fishermen have clashed violently over issues related to the use of water. In the past few weeks alone, there have been 22 deaths and thousands displaced

“The bishop of Yagoua – concludes Mgr. Andrew Nkea Fuanya – told us that the situation is really difficult. These internal tribal conflicts are truly worrying, especially in that area of the country where we should all be united in order not to offer room for maneuver for the advance of Boko Haram, who is very active in that area”. 

Source: Agenzia Fides

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