Biya regime says biggest stadium will host AFCON matches despite construction delays

5, December 2021

Biya regime says biggest stadium will host AFCON matches despite construction delays 0

Cameroon’s minister of Sports and Physical Education Narcisse Mouelle Kombi said on Friday that the country’s biggest stadium will be able to host matches at January’s Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), despite delays in completing ongoing construction work.

Cameroon’s government was scheduled to hand over the new 60,000-seat Olembe Stadium to sports authorities on Friday, but postponed the date “indefinitely.” It was the second time in less than one week the government had postponed the handover ceremony.

Kombi said that technical delays were hindering the stadium’s completion.

“This is mainly because of the pursuance of the technical review and assessment of about 500 compartments within Olembe Stadium and its annex facilities. The full functionality of these compartments is necessary for the total operation of this wonderful football facility. The government has expressed the firm zeal to ensure that all the facets of the stadium meet world class standard,” Kombi told reporters in the capital Yaounde.

The stadium, located 13km north of Yaounde, is scheduled to host the opening match of AFCON on January 9 next year, with the final to take place in the same stadium on February 6.

Cameroon has already inaugurated four other stadiums in the cities of Douala and Garoua, as well as Chinese-constructed stadiums in Bafoussam and Limbe which will also stage several AFCON matches.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

AGovC/ADF kidnappings in Bamenda shines a light on Cho Ayaba corruption

5, December 2021

AGovC/ADF kidnappings in Bamenda shines a light on Cho Ayaba corruption 0

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group developed interest in Mr. Cho Ayaba Lucas when we got intelligence that he had an inappropriate relationship with one Emerald Johnson living in Nigeria. Emerald Johnson had hosted Cho Ayaba Lucas (now with a PhD attached to his name) in her motel while he visited Dadi in Manyu on November 2017, to tour a camp he claimed his ADF boys were being trained.

Lady Emerald Johnson didn’t only host Dr. Ayaba, she accompanied him, sitting in the back seat in the car with him to Dadi. Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report told the world that it wasn’t a coincidence that Dr. Ayaba Cho chose Emerald Johnson and her hotel facilities to host the meeting in Calabar that saw the arrest of innocent needy Southern Cameroons refugees who had gone there hoping they would get some money after Ayaba addresses them.

Unfortunately for those who ignored the signals we incessantly flashed out and went to the meeting, they were picked up right at their hotel locations before the meeting even started. News began to filter out immediately after the arrest from the police station in Calabar as one of them had succeeded to sneak his phone into the cell. From behind bars, he began sending text messages to others who had stayed back in Ikom. He said what happened to the NERA 10 in Abuja has happened to them, that they have all been abducted.

When things took the wrong turn, Cho Ayaba and his criminal gang spun the news, denying knowledge and responsibility for the meeting entirely! First, he accused the Ambazonia Interim Government of calling the meeting, actually naming the then Acting President, Dr. Sako and Homeland Security Secretary, John Egywang as the ones who called for the meeting. He said that the disgraced Sako Ikome set up the meeting purposefully to get his supporters abducted like in the Abuja case. To some other people, he said that the IG had called for the meeting to persuade his ADF members to defect him and join the joint initiative that was being put together by the IG for self-defense. When contacted, both the disgraced Sako Ikome and John Egywang denied ever knowing about the meeting.

Now, it was well past midnight on 29 November 2021 in Bamenda the chief city in the North West when gunmen pulled up in an AK30 car and snatched Mr. Ndopping Roger Ndem and his breastfeeding wife. The spokesman for AGovC/ADF, Capo Daniel went on social media and demanded a ransom payment. Abductions are now common in Southern Cameroons, but the Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dabney Yerima called the instance “an attack on the Ambazonia liberation struggle… aimed at helping Biya and French Cameroun”.

While they are yet to be released, the incident has once again raised questions about the threats faced by innocent Southern Cameroons citizens in Ground Zero, as many are seeing the abductions as teleguided by leaders of AGovC/ADF, one of the numerous armed militia groups committing horrible crimes in Southern Cameroons.

Some of the ones kidnapped were initially leading mass protests against La Republique du Cameroun in Ground Zero and had taken the lead, with mass rallies frequently staged amid the heavily fortified streets in Bamenda and Buea.

Southern Cameroonians living in Ground Zero are now being monitored by the Francophone dominated Cameroon government intelligence agencies and armed militants of AGovC/ADF. One Southern Cameroons analyst based in Bamenda who commented on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of this kidnapping matter, told Cameroon Concord News that AGovC/ADF militias were trying to frighten Southern Cameroons civilian activists through kidnappings and assassinations.

The kidnappings currently being carried out by Mr. Cho Ayaba Lucas and his men is a vain attempt at sending a message to Southern Cameroons civilians that the AGovC/ADF militias are the most powerful [force] today in Southern Cameroons. However, it is shining a light on the Cho Ayaba corruption that took him to London for an oil deal.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Kidnapping of Ndopping Roger and breastfeeding wife: Dr. Patrick Ayuk says all evidence points to Cho Ayaba

5, December 2021

Kidnapping of Ndopping Roger and breastfeeding wife: Dr. Patrick Ayuk says all evidence points to Cho Ayaba 0

A senior Southern Cameroons academic, Dr Patrick Ayuk, has called on Ayaba Cho Lucas and his gang to release Mr. Ndopping Roger Ndem, who was kidnapped 29 November 2021 while working for CamWater in Bamenda the chief city in the North West.

Ayaba Cho Lucas, leader of the notorious AGovC/ADF crime syndicate operating in the Southern Cameroons, has blatantly refused to order the release of Mr. Ndopping Roger Ndem despite collecting over USD 5000 as an initial ransom payment.

Addressing a group of Southern Cameroonians in Luxembourg via zoom, Dr Patrick Ayuk said, “To conceive that a criminal gang would kidnap a man and a breastfeeding wife is appalling and unacceptable. This crime has nothing to do with the Southern Cameroons struggle, and the leader of this criminal entity, Cho Ayaba, should order the release of this man immediately. Kidnap for ransom has no place in Ambazonia”

The Ndopping Roger incident has rightfully invited immense pressure on Ayaba Cho Lucas and his Ambazonia crime syndicate.  Our chief correspondent in Bamenda who contributed to this report opined that 97.4% of Southern Cameroonians are against kidnapping for ransom even if the proceeds are for the liberation struggle.

Dr Ayuk furthered, “even if the AGovC/ADF claims that the proceeds of their criminality will be used to buy tools that will eventually liberate Ambazonia, that doesn’t make their actions acceptable. We cannot intentionally punish the people we want to liberate. Cho Ayaba must know that his actions are tantamount to highway robbery and against international law. These actions diminish our struggle in the eyes of our international partners.”

The AGovC/ADF has been one of the many militias operating in Southern Cameroons ever since President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe declared the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia on October 2017. The group says its Defense/Kidnapping Unit is led by a certain Mr Capo Daniel an untrained motor mechanic, who regularly announces kidnappings and ransom demands on social media.

Many Southern Cameroonians have wondered aloud why SDOs and Governors representing the French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé are braving the bad roads and the streets of Ambazonia, while private citizens are easy targets for AGovC/ADF.

Elsewhere, Ambazonian leaders at home and in the Diaspora have condemned Ayaba Cho Lucas over his disgraceful kidnapping-for-ransom activities in Ground Zero. They say his militia is taking advantage of the security vacuum and making life unbearable for ordinary citizens.

By Isong Asu in London with files

CNN fires Chris Cuomo for helping brother deal with sexual misconduct claims

5, December 2021

CNN fires Chris Cuomo for helping brother deal with sexual misconduct claims 0

CNN fired news anchor Chris Cuomo, the network announced on Saturday, after “additional information” came to light during an investigation into his efforts to help his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, deal with allegations of sexual misconduct.

Cuomo, who hosted CNN’s most-watched prime-time news show, had been suspended on Tuesday. He had admitted in May that he had broken some of the cable news network’s rules in advising his brother how to handle the allegations from a public relations perspective.

Andrew Cuomo, 63, was forced to step down as governor in August after multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. He has denied any wrongdoing.

In a statement on Saturday, CNN said, “Chris Cuomo was suspended earlier this week pending further evaluation of new information that came to light about his involvement with his brother’s defense.”

“We retained a respected law firm to conduct the review, and have terminated him, effective immediately,” it added. The network did not provide details on the new information.

In a statement on Twitter, Cuomo, 51, said he was disappointed.

“This is not how I want my time at CNN to end but I have already told you why and how I helped my brother,” he said.

In journalism it is considered a breach of ethics to use one’s position to advocate for a personal cause or to conduct investigations for personal reasons.

Cuomo was initially suspended after New York Attorney General Letitia James showed texts and other messages in which he sought to use his own sources in news media outlets to find information on the case and the women involved in it.

A criminal complaint charging Andrew Cuomo with a misdemeanor sex offense was filed on Oct. 29 in a New York court.

Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, gained national fame last year during the Covid-19 outbreak for his briefings about how New York was dealing with the pandemic. He often appeared on his brother’s show during that period.

Chris Cuomo, who had tested positive for the coronavirus and at one point was self-isolating in his basement, had virtually participated in a briefing his brother was holding for other reporters.

The two brothers’ father, the late Mario Cuomo, also served as governor of New York.

Source: REUTERS

National Lottery Community Fund and Bisong Foundation Initiative: A productive partnership

5, December 2021

National Lottery Community Fund and Bisong Foundation Initiative: A productive partnership 0

Bisong Foundation is organizing workshops and public sensitization events with different community groups to have a discourse and create awareness around climate change across the historic city of Cambridge from January 2022 to December 2022  .

The atelier aims to create increased awareness of the impact of climate change in BAME communities. Renowned climate activists will be talking to participants about adopting small personal action plans. Bisong Foundation will also be holding public sensitization outreach on impending disasters climate change will have on the community if action is not taken!

The entire project will place emphasis on ways people can reduce food waste, use public transportation, cycling and walking instead of driving cars.

Although the awareness campaign will be directed towards ethnic minority groups primarily because they are notoriously hard to reach and are often not included in climate change campaigns, Bisong Foundation is encouraging the wider Cambridge community to take part and learn new ways of protecting the environment.

Michael Bisong who heads the foundation and who also moonlighted as a football player for the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon reportedly expressed his gratitude to the National Lottery Community Fund for supporting the project.

Bisong who now is a chartered Cambridge residence opined that “climate change is the most significant problem facing the world and global warming is increasing day by day, and if we cannot prevent it as soon as possible, our world will face undesirable consequences”.  Bisong is urging everyone to attend the workshops and become aware of how we can benefit from our planet, and in turn our health. 

For more details about the project and how to join any of the workshops, please call

Pascal on 07578 971671, Michael on 07956 057504 and Charlotte on 07594 378408.

For more information about Bisong Foundation visit www.bisongfoundation.org.uk

Bisong Foundation free community workshops are designed to tackle climate change and deliver benefits to health.

Stranded Cameroonians, prisoners among migrants returning with Pope

4, December 2021

Stranded Cameroonians, prisoners among migrants returning with Pope 0

Among the 50 migrants that Pope Francis is taking back to Italy with him, are two Cameroonian students stuck in the buffer zone for the past six months as neither the Turkish Cypriots, nor the Republic would take them in.

Ten of 50 are migrants held in prison for residing in the Republic without permits.

The interior ministry thanked the Pope for his initiative to relocate 50 migrants to Italy.

“Among them are the two individuals who remained in the buffer zone until today, whom the Republic had been asking the European Commission to relocate to another member state to avoid additional undesirable political problems for our country,” the ministry said.

According to the ministry, the Vatican’s symbolic gesture was recognition of the difficulties faced by Cyprus by the rising flow of migrants that “come through the occupied areas from Turkey.”

“This is the substantive solidarity we seek from our European partners,” the ministry said.

Pope Francis also met prison governor Anna Aristotelous on Friday morning who expressed her admiration for his work and sensitivity and support he showed poor people.

Aristotelous thanked the Pope for relocating 10 irregular migrants and handed him a handmade violin the prisoners had made for him.

Source: Cyprus Mail

French Cameroun: World Bank approves $200M to support agricultural production in Logone Valley

4, December 2021

French Cameroun: World Bank approves $200M to support agricultural production in Logone Valley 0

The World Bank approved on November 30, 2021 a credit from the International Development Association (IDA)* in the amount of $200 million to support Cameroon’s agricultural production in the Valley of Logone, located in the Far North region and being part of the Lake Chad basin.

The project, Valorization of Investments in the Valley of the Logone (VIVA Logone), seeks specifically to (i) support regional water security and governance of the water resources, mainly through rehabilitation of irrigation and drainage infrastructure and support to water users’ associations, (ii) promote agriculture and agribusiness production, and (iii) implement a transformational plan of SEMRY (Société d’expansion et de modernisation de la riziculture de Yagoua) and strengthen public services.

The project will benefit different groups of poor people: poor farmers, particularly women, by improving their ability to increase irrigation productivity and a likely doubling of cropping intensity; and through infrastructure investments and support for intensifying production, improved irrigation and drainage. In addition, improved flood management, including the early warning system in 300 km, would benefit the residents of the Logone Valley, both in Cameroon and Chad.

“A series of factors, ranging from ecological fragility to violence-related insecurity, have forced Cameroon’s agricultural sector to low productivity and low-production subsistence agriculture, particularly in the Far North. Irrigation is fundamental to ensure food security and contribute to reducing the risk of conflicts in this Sudano-Sahelian agroecological zone which is the most ecologically fragile and the most vulnerable to climatic shocks. The development of the Logone Valley plays an important role in the resilience of vulnerable communities, livelihoods and ecosystems, including their ability to better cope and adapt to the impact of climatic shocks” said Abdoulaye Seck, World Bank Country Director for Cameroon.

The project will have three main components: the first one will improve the infrastructure and water management; the second will promote production and support agriculture services and the third one will support the sector development and the implementation of the project.

Source: Devdiscourse

CPDM Crime Syndicate: Over 51% of the national road network is in a dilapidated state

4, December 2021

CPDM Crime Syndicate: Over 51% of the national road network is in a dilapidated state 0

Currently, Cameroon’s road network is 121,873.93 kilometers long. However, only 48.86% of that network is in a good or average condition. As for the remaining 51.14%, it is in bad condition, Minister of Public Works Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi explained on December 1, 2021, while defending the 2022 budget of his ministerial department before the parliament.

According to the official, the poor condition of those roads is due to a lack of maintenance fundings. Indeed, he explained, over the past ten years, Cameroon’s road network has increased by 121%, from 55 000 km in 2010, to 121,873.93 km in 2021. But the budget dedicated to its maintenance has not grown proportionally.

To address the situation, the government intends to not only concede the road maintenance but also implement a new strategy aimed at ensuring the sustainability of dirt roads that constitute well over 93% of the national road network, he explained.

The new strategy was developed because the Ministry of Public Works noticed that the maintenance solutions implemented so far have limitations. On June 1-3, 2021, a workshop was organized in Yaoundé to discuss the new strategy, we learn.

Based on new maintenance methods and the use of innovative products, the strategy is aimed at “improving the load-bearing capacity of the unconsolidated materials that usually form the surface of those roads. It is also aimed at reducing the impacts f traffic on them by controlling and monitoring the circulation of heavy vehicles as well as controlling and limiting the impacts of climatic conditions…”

Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi stresses that the implementation of the new strategy will have to be supported with governance measures such as improved rigor in the execution of the works in strict compliance with agreed terms and the multiplication of monitoring and emergency intervention networks.

According to the Ministry of Public Works, the feedback collected one year after implementing this strategy will serve as guidelines for the elaboration of a technical guide for the maintenance of dirt roads taking into account ecological and technical specificities, the problems encountered, the optimal solutions, and the implementation protocol.

Ultimately, in addition to optimizing the maintenance of dirt roads, the strategy is expected t positively impact Cameroonians whose “living standard (…) is affected by the services they receive through those dirt roads.”

Source: Business in Cameroon

Covid-19: In Cameroon, preconceived notions hinder vaccination campaign

4, December 2021

Covid-19: In Cameroon, preconceived notions hinder vaccination campaign 0

Under a blazing sun, two Cameroonian health workers, Irene and Lucienne, try to convince passers-by to be vaccinated against Covid. They accost a young man in his thirties, who refuses to accept.

“I don’t trust the vaccine,” Ramos says at the outset. “White people don’t like us. They want to kill us with vaccines in which they introduce illicit products,” he says.

In Cameroon, one of the sub-Saharan African countries most affected by Covid-19 with more than 107,000 infections, including 1,795 deaths, preconceived ideas, and misinformation on social networks are holding back the vaccination campaign.

Only 4.1% of the population aged over 18 has been vaccinated since the first doses were administered seven months ago, according to the Ministry of Health, a long way from the stated objective of 40%, five weeks before the African Cup of Nations scheduled to take place in the country.

“Psychosis”

Faced with the reluctance of Cameroonians, the government has launched a double vaccination campaign: one of 5 days, from November 17 to 21, targeting the entire population, and another of one month, from November 10 to December 10, for civil servants.

Irene and Lucienne positioned themselves in the early hours of the day in front of a small public hospital in Odza, a neighborhood of Yaoundé, where a vaccination post had been opened.

Their deployment, in the middle of the street, on a busy road leading to the airport, aims to arouse the interest of passers-by. But, says Lucienne, “very few” accept the proposal. “It is very difficult to convince. There is a real psychosis among Cameroonians,” she admits.

The day before, she reports, “someone threatened to punch me if I persisted in offering him the vaccine.

The argument that comes up the most is that the “Europeans” (referring more generally to Westerners, editor’s note) want to kill us,” adds Irene, her colleague.

The two young women try to convince another passer-by, Jamiro. She also declines the offer to be vaccinated.

“I read on the internet, and also learned in the street, that this vaccine makes you sterile”, she worries.

Disinformation

“The reluctance of the population is the result of disinformation through social networks,” David Messy, an agent of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI, a government initiative), explained to AFP.

“Some Cameroonians in the diaspora send messages to those in the country to present the supposed harm of this vaccination,” he accuses, while “vaccination protects”.

“The government strongly and firmly encourages all populations to be vaccinated,” pleads Manaouda Malachie, Minister of Health, on CRTV, the state radio. “We have enough doses for everyone,” he said.

But authorities need to do more to convince. “The biggest challenge is getting the right information to the people, who need to make their choice based on facts and not just opinions drawn from social networks,” says Professor Yap Boum II, regional representative of Epicentre, the research and epidemiology arm of Médecins sans Frontières (MSF).

“There are 30 times fewer deaths among vaccinated people than among unvaccinated people,” he continues.

“We have to go and vaccinate Paul Biya,” says an old man in the street who is offered the vaccine. Unlike other countries where heads of state have been publicly vaccinated, in Cameroon it is not known whether Mr. Biya, 88 years old, 39 of them in power, is vaccinated or not.

His Prime Minister, Joseph Dion Ngute, and some of his ministers have taken their shots on camera.

But some Cameroonians still question the existence of the virus, deeming the vaccine useless. “I’m not interested in the vaccine because I haven’t seen anyone sick yet. I doubt the existence of this disease,” says Jeannette Aboudi, 53, an orange seller in the market of Nfou, a small town in central Cameroon.

Andréa, a young woman in her twenties, has no hesitation since her aunt contracted respiratory distress from the virus. “After that, the family decided that everyone should be vaccinated,” she says, adding that she recently took her first dose.

Source: AFP

UN says violence in Southern Cameroons impacting over 700,000 children shut out of school

4, December 2021

UN says violence in Southern Cameroons impacting over 700,000 children shut out of school 0

Over 700,000 children have been impacted by school closures due to often brutal violence in Cameroon, according to an analysis released by the UN humanitarian arm, OCHA, on Thursday.

Two out of three schools are closed in the North-West and South-West regions of the country. On 24 November, four children and one teacher were killed in an attack in Ekondo Titi, in the South-West.

Lockdown

A recent lockdown imposed by a non-State armed group, from 15 September to 2 October, limited access to basic services including health and education.

Over 700,000 children have been impacted by school closures due to violence in northwest and southwest Cameroon.

During the period, OCHA reported a series of attacks in the North-West.

Eight students were kidnapped, and a girl’s fingers were chopped off after she tried to attend school. Five public school principals were also kidnapped, including one who was then killed.

All schools and community learning spaces were closed, except for some schools in a few urban areas which operated at less than 60 per cent capacity.

The lockdown and insecurity also forced UN agencies and aid organisations to temporarily suspend the delivery of aid. During that time, about 200,000 people did not receive food. 

Multiple crisis

Nine out of ten regions of the country continue to be impacted by one of three humanitarian crises: the crisis in the North-West and South-West, conflict in the Far North, and a refugee crisis, with people fleeing the Central African Republic. 

Because of these combined crises, over one million children need urgent education support. 

To answer some of these needs, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the UN global fund for education in emergencies and crises, is working closely with UN agencies, the Norwegian Refugee Council and other civil society partners.

ECW is contributing $25 million over three years and calling for other donors to fill the gap, which is estimated at $50 million.

When fully funded, the programme will provide approximately 250,000 children and adolescents with access to safe and protective learning environments in the most-affected areas.

Just this week, the Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, and the Director of Education Cannot Wait, Yasmine Sherif, had a joint visit to the country.

In a statement, Ms. Sherif said the situation “is among the most complex humanitarian crises in the world today.”

“Children and youth are having to flee their homes and schools, are threatened with violence and kidnapping, and being forced into early childhood marriage and recruited into armed groups,” Ms. Sherif recalled.

Jan Egeland argued that “putting a schoolbag on your back shouldn’t make you a target”, but unfortunately children in Cameroon “risk their lives every day just showing up for school.”

“Cameroon’s education mega-emergency needs international attention, not deadly silence by the outside world,” Mr. Egeland declared. 

Source: News@UN.org

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