Colombian nun freed four years after being kidnapped by Mali jihadists

10, October 2021

Colombian nun freed four years after being kidnapped by Mali jihadists 0

A Franciscan nun from Colombia kidnapped by jihadists in Mali more than four years ago has been freed, Mali’s presidency said.

Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez was taken hostage on February 7, 2017 in southern Mali near the border with Burkina Faso where she had been working as a missionary.

A statement on the presidential Twitter account paid tribute to her “courage and bravery” along with photos of the nun taken after her release Saturday.

“I thank the Malian authorities, the president, all the Malian authorities, for all the efforts you’ve made to liberate me, may God bless you, may God bless Mali,” Sister Gloria said in images broadcast on state television showing her with Mali’s interim president Colonel Assimi Goita and the archbishop of Bamako Jean Zerbo.

“I am very happy, I stayed healthy for five years, thank God,” the nun said, smiling and wearing a yellow robe.

Her liberation had been the fruit of “four years and eight months of the combined effort of several intelligence services”, the presidency said.

In the official statement, Goita assured that “efforts are under way” to secure the release of all those still being held in Mali.

Archbishop Zerbo said Sister Gloria was “doing well”.

“We prayed a lot for her release. I thank the Malian authorities and other good people who made this release possible,” the archbishop said.

Sister Gloria, 59, was kidnapped near Koutiala, 400 kilometres (250 miles) east of Bamako. She had worked as a missionary for six years in the parish of Karangasso with three other nuns.

According to one of her colleagues, Sister Carmen Isabel Valencia, she offered herself in place of two younger nuns the kidnappers were preparing to take.

“She is a woman of a very particular human quality, down to earth … moved by the love of the poor,” Sister Carmen said.

In Colombia, her brother Edgar Narvaez said he was very emotional after receiving news of her release.

“She is in good health, thank God. They sent me pictures and she looks well,” he told AFP.

In a letter sent last July by the Red Cross to her brother, Sister Gloria said she was held by “a group of GSIM”, the Al-Qaeda-linked Group to Support Islam and Muslims, the largest jihadist alliance in the Sahel.

A source close to the negotiations to release her told AFP she had not been ill-treated during her captivity and during that time she had learned the Koran.

“The negotiations lasted months, years,” said the source, without giving further details.

Bound for Rome

An official at Bamako airport, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP the nun had arrived in the Malian capital on Saturday evening from where she was due to fly to Rome. Her departure from Bamako was confirmed by the city’s archdiocese.

In Colombia, Vice-President Marta Lucia Ramirez — who is also foreign minister — said she was “very happy” at Sister Gloria’s release, which she attributed to the work of the government and also stressed the “humanitarian efforts of the French government to contribute to this success”.

National police director Jorge Luis Vargas also welcomed her release.

“Today is very good news for Colombia, but also for the national police for all the efforts made over the years to secure the safe release of our compatriot,” he said.

Vargas said meetings had been held with several European and African ambassadors to try to secure the nun’s release.

“With Interpol, and with other international organisations, we have always sought to bring those responsible to justice.”

There were irregular reports about the nun over the years, including at the beginning of 2021, when two Europeans who managed to escape captivity reported that she was well.

Then in March, her brother received proof that she was still alive, passed on from the Red Cross.

It was a letter written in capital letters “because she always used capital letters”, containing the names of their parents and ending with her signature, he told AFP earlier this year.

Mali has been struggling to contain a jihadist insurgency that first emerged in the north of the country in 2012, and which has since spread to neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Kidnappings, once rare, have become more common in recent years as a security crisis has deepened in Mali, particularly in the centre of the former French colony.

French journalist Olivier Dubois was abducted on April 8 in northern Mali by jihadists affiliated with Al-Qaeda.

Dubois, who worked with several French news outlets, said in a hostage video that GSIM had abducted him.

(AFP)

French Cameroun: Two Boko Haram militants, one civilian killed in Far North region

10, October 2021

French Cameroun: Two Boko Haram militants, one civilian killed in Far North region 0

At least two militants of the terror group Boko Haram and a civilian have been killed in raids in Cameroon’s Far North region, according to local and security sources.

Government forces ambushed and killed two militants of the group on Saturday in Mozogo, a locality of the region, a military official who opted for anonymity told Xinhua.

The militants had earlier raided the locality Friday night killing a civilian and destroying property, according to witnesses.

The raids came barely three days after the militants attacked Assighassia village of the region killing seven civilians.

Local media reported that the militants launched the attacks after troops targeted their strategic positions in a coordinated offensive killing several terrorists.

Source: Xinhuanet

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Nurses Seek Extra Care for the Terminally Ill

10, October 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Nurses Seek Extra Care for the Terminally Ill 0

Nurses in Cameroon are marking this year’s World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (October 9) with visits to terminally ill patients in the country’s restive North-West and South-West regions. The regions’ ongoing separatist conflict has left hundreds of patients unable to receive regular in-home hospice care. Cameroon’s nurses are calling for that to change.

Mundih Noelar Njohjam a doctor treating patients with terminal diseases at Cameroon Baptist Conventions Health Services in Bamenda, capital of the English-speaking North-West region, says the separatist crisis is depriving many patients of palliative care.

“The high level of insecurity caused by the ongoing crisis has negatively affected access to palliative care for many patients, especially those living with cancers. Patients with terminal diseases are unable to get to health facilities where they can receive adequate palliative care. Consequently, they have to settle for suboptimal palliative care,” Njohjam said.

The Cameroon Association of Terminally Ill Patients reports that more than 900 patients are denied access to palliative care in the English-speaking western regions.

The association says hundreds of patients in need of help to relieve them of pain and suffering are dying in towns and villages. They say several hundred caregivers have fled hospitals in Cameroon’s troubled English-speaking regions since the separatist crisis escalated in 2017.

Hundreds of patients who have the means relocate to safer French-speaking towns to receive medical care for their terminal illnesses. The patients say they prefer to relocate to Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, and Douala, a coastal city where many of their family members have rushed to for safety.

Among others, the nurses visited the Yaounde residence of Christophe Esselebo, a 67-year-old retired teacher who has been living with HIV and liver disease for three years. He says he faces a great deal of stigma from family members and friends.

He says to prevent developing a mental health crisis, he avoids feelings of emotional attachments with family members who have abandoned him because of his condition. He says he avoids mental trauma during his remaining days by being positive about life and making friends on social media with people who think positively.

Esselebo says he regularly follows up treatment recommended by his doctor.

The visit to homes of people living with terminal diseases this year was organized by the Cameroon Association of Terminally Ill Patients and Santo Domingo Cameroon, a center that cares for people with terminal diseases.

Fulbert Kenfack Jiofack, coordinator of Santo Domingo Cameroon, says poverty pushes 70% of sick Cameroonians to seek assistance from African traditional healers. He says because of either illiteracy or lack of financial means, families abandon their members diagnosed with terminal diseases at home until they die.

Jiofack said fighters in the English-speaking western regions and government troops should avoid inflicting more pain on patients who are already suffering from diseases that cannot be cured. He said medical staff members should be allowed to give health care to people in need.

The nurses ask civilians to stop prejudging the terminally ill in Cameroon.

Cameron’s health ministry says the greatest prejudice is shown toward those suffering from infectious terminal diseases such as HIV.

The health ministry says stigma is driven by the thought that those receiving palliative care will die soon and that terminal illnesses are divine punishment for wrongdoing. Some families prohibit palliative caregivers from visiting their sick patients at home, the government reports.

Nurses said the role of palliative caregivers is to ease patients’ physical pain with medicines and provide psychological, emotional and spiritual counseling to people who have life-threatening and terminal illnesses.

Source: VOA

Hamilton fastest in Istanbul F1 qualifying but Bottas takes pole

9, October 2021

Hamilton fastest in Istanbul F1 qualifying but Bottas takes pole 0

Lewis Hamilton dominated qualifying Saturday for the Turkish Grand Prix but his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas will start the race from pole position.

Hamilton, the championship leader, set a new lap record three times in qualifying but because his team incurred a 10-place grid penalty by changing his engine ahead of the race he will start 11th.

His closest rival for the title, Dutchman Max Verstappen of Red Bull, will start alongside Bottas, a Finn, on the front row.

Hamilton improved his time in each of the three qualifying phases. After breaking the 16-year-old track record in practice on Friday he broke it again in each of the three qualifying sessions.

He finished the session with a time of 1min 22.868sec, 0.130sec ahead of Bottas with Verstappen 0.328 back.

Frenchmen Charles Leclerc in a Ferrari, and Pierre Gasly in an Alpha Tauri will start on the second row.

Veteran Spaniard Fernando Alonso and Mexican Sergio Perez of Red Bull occupy the next two places.

Source: AFP

Poor nations still waiting for G7 COVID-19 vaccine donations

9, October 2021

Poor nations still waiting for G7 COVID-19 vaccine donations 0

Since the pandemic hit in March 201, rich countries have been promising to take poorer nations under their wing. Countries like the US, the UK and Canada started buying up vaccines, promising to donate hundreds of millions of doses. They have not delivered on those promises though. Dozens of countries say COVAX, the organization in charge of the equitable distribution of vaccines, won’t even respond to calls or emails from top diplomats.

By the end of 2021, rich countries will have a stockpile of one billion spare COVID-19 doses. Here in Britain, with most adults double jabbed, more than a million people have now been offered a booster shot. But will 3 doses be enough protection here, when 98% of people in low-income countries remain unvaccinated.

All along the WHO has warned that the pandemic is not over anywhere, until it is over everywhere. Now it says the world stands on the precipice of failure, and that hoarding is not only immoral, but stupid.

Even many European countries lost hope in COVAX months ago; taking matters into their own hands. Countries like Russia and China were quick to fill orders from countries like Hungary and Slovakia that couldn’t wait for the European Union to deliver. But countries that can’t afford to pay are still waiting for handouts.

Source: Presstv

US to hold first in-person talks with Taliban since Afghan withdrawal

9, October 2021

US to hold first in-person talks with Taliban since Afghan withdrawal 0

The United States and the Taliban will hold their first in-person talks since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan starting Saturday, the State Department said.

The US delegation will meet Saturday and Sunday in the Qatari capital Doha with senior Taliban representatives, a State Department spokesperson said.

The United States has remained in contact with the Taliban since the longtime foes seized Kabul in August as US troops pulled out but the meeting will be the first that is face to face.

“We will press the Taliban to respect the rights of all Afghans, including women and girls, and to form an inclusive government with broad support,” the spokesperson said Friday.

“As Afghanistan faces the prospect of a severe economic contraction and possible humanitarian crisis, we will also press the Taliban to allow humanitarian agencies free access to areas of need,” he said.

The State Department stressed that the meeting did not indicate that the United States was recognizing Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

“We remain clear that any legitimacy must be earned through the Taliban’s own actions,” the spokesperson said.

Letting US citizens leave

The US team will also press President Joe Biden’s key priority of letting US citizens and Afghan allies during the 20-year military operation leave the country.

The United States says that the Taliban have largely cooperated on letting out US citizens. Around 100 remain, predominantly US citizens with roots in Afghanistan who are undecided on whether to leave, according to US officials.

But the United States acknowledges that it was not able to get out most Afghan allies who wanted to leave during a hasty airlift that pulled tens of thousands of people out of Kabul before the withdrawal.

The spokesperson did not specify who would represent the two sides. Senior US officials including Central Command chief General Frank McKenzie met with the Taliban in Kabul in August as US troops took over the airport for the airlift.

(AFP)

Indomitable Lions: Choupo-Moting double powers Cameroon to victory as Ivory Coast thrash Malawi

9, October 2021

Indomitable Lions: Choupo-Moting double powers Cameroon to victory as Ivory Coast thrash Malawi 0

The Indomitable Lions grabbed a comfortable home win while Patrice Beaumelle’s men outshone their hosts in Johannesburg

Bayern Munich striker Eric Choupo-Moting scored a brace as Cameroon defeated Mozambique 3-1 in a Fifa World Cup qualifying match on Friday.

Choupo-Moting found the target in each half of the encounter and Lyon star Karl Toko Ekambi brought his goalscoring form from Ligue 1 to the Indomitable Lions’ camp to seal their victory in the 63rd minute.

Following their 2-1 loss to the Ivory Coast in September, Cameroon bounced back in style with the Bayern Munich forward breaking the deadlock at Stade Omnisports in the 28th minute.

The goal separated both teams at the break and six minutes after the restart, Choupo-Moting made it 2-0 for the hosts.

The lead was later extended by Toko Ekambi, however, the Indomitable Lions goalkeeper Devis Epassy Mboka could not keep a clean sheet as Mozambique pulled a goal back through Sporting Lisbon midfielder Geny in the 80th minute.

With two minutes left on the clock, the visitors were reduced to 10 men as second-half substitute Danilo was given a straight red card.

The victory means Cameroon now have six points after three matches in Group D while Mozambique suffered their second straight loss, and they have picked up just a point so far.

In South Africa, Ivory Coast put in a commanding display to defeat hosts Malawi 3-0 in the other group fixture.

Max Gradel opened the scoring in the 35th minute followed by goals from PSV midfielder Ibrahim Sangare and Sassuolo’s Jeremie Boga extended their unbeaten streak in Group D.

The Elephants remain at the summit of the group with seven points from three outings while Malawi are third on the table with three points.

Patrice Beaumelle’s men will host Malawi for the return fixture on Monday while Mozambique are scheduled to face Cameroon in Morocco on the same day.

Source: Goal.com

General No Pity reserves right to use all means to counter the Francophone dominated army

8, October 2021

General No Pity reserves right to use all means to counter the Francophone dominated army 0

The Chairman and Editor-In-Chief of the Cameroon Concord News Group says Ambazonia Restoration Forces in Ground Zero now headed by General No Pity reserve the right to explore all  means to protect the people of Southern Cameroons and the Ambazonian homeland, and to counter the so-called Cameroon government army that Biya and his gang have deployed to Southern Cameroons.

“General No Pity and all Self Defense Forces have the right to use all means that would yield positive results as Southern Cameroonians strive for freedom, independence and liberation. Our people should not accept diktats that advance French Cameroun and by extrapolation France’s economic and political interest in Southern Cameroons and undermines British Southern Cameroons independence and freedom and the struggle against occupation,” Cameroon Concord News Group Chairman Soter Agbaw-Ebai said at a gathering of Southern Cameroonians in London on Wednesday.

He added, “Southern Cameroonians should also not allow any French Cameroun hostilities against our people directed by the Beti and Ewondo ethnic groups to go unpunished. Southern Cameroonians: man and woman, boy and girl, old and young must be strong and prepared to take on challenges at self defense levels.”

The Concord Group Chairman hailed the performance of Vice President Dabney Yerima of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government and the emergence of General No Pity as a blessing for both the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and the resistance front.

“Thanks to the firm and courageous position of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, its supporters and advocates of Southern Cameroons independence and dignity, the Francophone arrogance and military expedition in now crumbling” our senior political man said.

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai went on to say that the actions of the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime do not correlate at all with morality and humanity, and that Yaoundé does not work for justice as it has been evident in Southern Cameroons.

By Isong Asu in London

Southern Cameroons Crisis: We turned to Twitter to understand conditions in Ground Zero

8, October 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: We turned to Twitter to understand conditions in Ground Zero 0

For the past five years there has been conflict in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon, with no solution or end in sight. There have been political, social and cultural differences and antagonisms for several decades. But the current conflict began in 2016 when lawyers and teachers started protesting over the increasing use of French in the legal and educational systems in these regions, known as Anglophone Cameroon.

The government of Cameroon’s poor handling of the crisis contributed to its escalation into an armed conflict. Thousands have been killed, are living in the bush, or have fled to other parts of the country (becoming internally displaced persons) or in neighbouring countries as refugees. The warring parties did not heed the UN secretary general’s call for a global ceasefire to focus on ending the conflict in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, the conflict continues to have a negative impact on all aspects of life, particularly the livelihoods and health of citizens in the battleground regions of the north-west and south-west. Access to already inadequate health services has been reduced. More insights about how the conflict is affecting the health of citizens are needed to understand the situation and propose solutions.

We set out to understand how the conflict was affecting the key determinants of health. These include poverty, particularly in contexts where there is no universal healthcare and where the cost of living continues to rise.

We believe in experts. We believe knowledge must inform decisions

As is the case in other conflict and war situations, it was difficult to collect public data. So we examined tweets to understand what topics were being discussed.

In 2019, the number of mobile phone subscriptions in the country was 21.4 million out of a population of around 27 million people. Data for phone usage is expensive, and internet access is not reliable. Hootsuite, a social media management platform, reported that approximately 23% of the population – 6.21 million people – were internet users. And of these, 4.3 million were active on social media platforms.

This report estimated that there were fewer than 125,000 Twitter users in the country. Nevertheless, we believe examining the use of Twitter can provide insights about the crisis because social media can provide short descriptions of the issues that people are facing.

Our use of Twitter to gather information isn’t novel. Scholars are increasingly using social media to collect data about conflicts. But we have not found many studies exploring health and the social determinants of health using this approach.

We used the descriptions shared on Twitter to provide a more visible and robust picture of health related issues. This approach can help identify health challenges and how they’re affecting citizens.

How we examined tweets

We collected and analysed 1,868 tweets posted from 1 October 2016, the month when the conflict began, to 1 September 2019 to understand what people were discussing. The tweets were from everyday citizens, the government, news outlets and nongovernmental organisations that were communicating with people in Cameroon and abroad to draw attention to the effects of the crisis on citizens and, in some cases, what actions had been taken by the government.

Our focus was on the social determinants of health, often used to understand public health issues. These are the non-medical factors that influence the health of people. They include:

policies and systems such as social, economic, employment, education and health policies and systems

social attitudes and practices related to inclusion and discrimination

factors influencing daily life in other ways such as housing, food, and cultural policies and practices.

Our findings showed that Twitter was being used to share information and to call for action. Analysis of tweets revealed eight distinct themes:

neglect from government related to health:education, loss of employment, increased poverty, housing and homelessness, social exclusion and oppression, women and gender inequality, health services.

People felt neglected by the government. There were negative tweets and criticisms of the government’s neglect of its citizens and lack of support during the crisis.

Tweets also referred to failures in the education system. Most schools in the north-west and south-west regions have remained closed for years with teachers and students staying at home due to insecurity. Several tweets called for schools to reopen.

Tweets also referred to a deterioration in work opportunities. Some businesses were closed, resulting in job losses for thousands of people. Many who were still employed either went for several months without pay or received salary cuts.

There was also evidence of poverty increasing because of the conflict. Despite these impacts, some tweets reported that the government was discouraging humanitarian support.

Thousands of people lost their homes and were displaced. Several villages were either burned down or seized by the military or non-state armed groups. Hundreds of thousands of people were internally displaced within Cameroon or fled to neighbouring countries as refugees.

People experienced social exclusion and oppression. There were tweets about the lack of human rights and the prevention of freedom of expression. Children’s rights were violated, with references made to child trafficking, slavery and a decrease in basic education.

Women and girls were very vulnerable. Sexual violence and rape increased. Some pregnant women were forced to give birth in unsanitary conditions with minimal supplies.

Health services were difficult to access. The fighting resulted in the destruction of some hospitals and clinics. Some nongovernmental organisations provided services to the vulnerable population.

The way forward

Our findings highlight two important points. The first is the need to develop and implement effective systems to collect data in regions and circumstances where conventional methods of data collection are limited.

The second is the various inequities that are affecting the citizens of Cameroon amid the ongoing political conflict.

Using Twitter to collect data demonstrates the importance of identifying new ways to actively explore the social determinants of health in understudied regions and situations.

In addition, our results have highlighted several disparities that have resulted from, or have been exacerbated by, the consequences of the conflict that continues to negatively impact the citizens of Cameroon.

Culled from The Conversation

Pandora Papers expose greed, Assange exposed war crimes

8, October 2021

Pandora Papers expose greed, Assange exposed war crimes 0

The only surprise when it comes to the Pandora Papers revelations, exposing the scale of the greed and corruption of various world leaders, political figures and officials in hoarding obscene amounts of cash in offshore tax havens, is that anyone should be surprised.

We are living through a crisis of late capitalism, an economic system whose many and manifold contradictions have been exacerbated by a global pandemic. And we have reached the point where huge imbalance in wealth within states, between states – and also within and between regions – is no longer tenable. What is also no longer tenable is the clawing hypocrisy that underpins Western liberal democracy.

The man who more than any other has exposed this hypocrisy is Julian Assange, currently languishing in Belmarsh high security prison in London awaiting the outcome of the US government’s appeal against the decision of a British judge towards the end of 2019 not to allow his extradition to the US on grounds that his treatment there is likely to amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

The level and intensity of the persecution Assange has been made to endure is a measure of the extent to which he removed the flowery curtains of democracy and human rights behind which the savage beast of US-led Western hegemony resides. In exposing the vicious and racist character of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, the mountain of war crimes committed in their name, Julian Assange and Wikileaks quickly became a greater and more potent threat to the ability of the Empire to continue as normal than a thousand bayonets.

In societies underpinned by justice and decency instead of injustice and hypocrisy and lies, Julian Assange would be celebrated and lionised for his courage and fidelity to the truth in awakening the masses to the high crimes and war crimes committed by the powerful in their name. We don’t in the West live in such societies, however, which is why Assange has and continues to suffer the prolonged persecution at the hands of the medieval minds who sit at the apex of power in Washington and London.

The journalists responsible for the Pandora Papers story have been hailed as truthtellers and can no doubt look forward to being showered in awards for their efforts. The only difference between them and Julian Assange is the willingness to dig down into the very belly of this warmongering beast in Washington, responsible for unremitting death and destruction since the demise of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, and show the world its entrails.

“It is the job of thinking people not to side with the executioners,” French philosopher and thinker Albert Camus tells us, and since the aforementioned demise of the Soviet Union the executioners of our time have been on the march, leading to the executions of Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and the putative executions of Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, and Iran, et al.

Julian Assange walks in the same tradition as Albert Camus. Like him he is a man of fierce moral principle who could, if he’d so wished, have ploughed the same lucrative furrow as the journalists over at the Guardian do. This is the same Guardian that squeezed Assange like a lemon, enjoying the prestige of publishing the explosive revelations that came his way as head of Wikileaks, before tossing him aside when the going got tough and fabricated allegations of sexual abuse came down the pipe against him from Sweden.

“Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven,” is the Miltonian line from his classic 17th century poem, Paradise Lost, yet what we have with our mainstream journalists are people who made their peace with those who reign in hell and willingly serve the lie that this is the best of all possible worlds.

The revelations contained in the Pandora Papers are seismic, but compared to those contained in the Afghanistan and Iraq war logs, released by Julian Assange and Wikileaks, merely skim the surface of the depravity of the rich and powerful.

Every second of every day Julian Assange spends in prison stands as an indictment of Washington and its servile British ally. Yet on the level of consciousness, Julian Assange is not in prison we are. He has been to the mountaintop, as Dr King famously proclaimed towards the end of his life, but unlike Dr King Assange did not see the Promised Land there, he saw instead the broken land created in the name of US foreign policy.

There are no words to describe the foul stench of hypocrisy that permeates the corridors of power and corridors of mainstream newspapers and news organizations in the West. They are all part of the same lie and in order to live with themselves, they banish truth into the wilderness as if banishing a heretic.

Julian Assange is the great heretic of our age. He stands in the tradition of all the brave men and women in history who dared to say “No,” regardless of any personal sacrifice and cost involved. It is the job of all right- thinking people never to forget him or forgive those responsible for his plight.

Culled from Presstv

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