31, July 2021

Covid-19: WHO sounds alarm on Delta as China outbreak spreads ⁰

Mushrooming outbreaks of the highly contagious Delta variant prompted China and Australia to impose stricter Covid-19 restrictions on Saturday as the WHO urged the world to quickly contain the mutation before it turns into something deadlier and draws out the pandemic.

China’s most serious surge of coronavirus infections in months spread to two more areas Saturday — Fujian province and the sprawling megacity of Chongqing.

More than 200 cases have been linked to a Delta cluster in Nanjing city where nine cleaners at an international airport tested positive, with the outbreak spanning Beijing, Chongqing and five provinces as of Saturday.

The nation where the disease first emerged has rushed to prevent the highly transmissible strain from taking root by putting more than one million people under lockdown and reinstituting mass testing campaigns.

Worldwide, coronavirus infections are once again on the upswing, with the World Health Organization announcing an 80 percent average increase over the past four weeks in five of the health agency’s six regions, a jump largely fuelled by the Delta variant.

“Delta is a warning: it’s a warning that the virus is evolving but it is also a call to action that we need to move now before more dangerous variants emerge,” the WHO’s emergencies director Michael Ryan told a press conference.

He stressed that the “game plan” still works, namely physical distancing, wearing masks, hand hygiene and vaccination.

But both high- and low-income countries are struggling to gain the upper hand against Delta, with the vastly unequal sprint for shots leaving plenty of room for variants to wreak havoc and further evolve.

In Australia, where only about 14 percent of the population is jabbed, the third-largest city of Brisbane and other parts of Queensland state were to enter a snap Covid-19 lockdown Saturday as a cluster of the Delta variant bubbled into six new cases.

“The only way to beat the Delta strain is to move quickly, to be fast and to be strong,” Queensland’s Deputy Premier Steven Miles said while informing millions they will be under three days of strict stay-at-home orders.

‘The war has changed’

The race for vaccines to triumph over variants appeared to suffer a blow as the US Centers for Disease Control released an analysis that found fully immunised people with so-called breakthrough infections of the Delta variant can spread the disease as easily as unvaccinated people.

While the jabs remain effective against severe disease and death, the US government agency said in a leaked internal CDC document “the war has changed” as a result of Delta.

An analysis of a superspreading event in the northeastern state of Massachusetts found three-quarters of the people sickened were vaccinated, according to a report the CDC published Friday.

The outbreak related to July 4 festivities, with the latest number of people infected swelling to 900, according to local reports. The findings were used to justify a return to masks for vaccinated people in high-risk areas.

“As a vaccinated person, if you have one of these breakthrough infections, you may have mild symptoms, you may have no symptoms, but based on what we’re seeing here you could be contagious to other people,” Celine Gounder, an infectious diseases physician and professor at New York University, told AFP.

According to the leaked CDC document, a review of findings from other countries showed that while the original SARS-CoV-2 was as contagious as the common cold, each person with Delta infects on average eight others, making it as transmissible as chickenpox but still less than measles.

Reports from Canada, Scotland and Singapore suggest Delta infections may also be more severe, resulting in more hospitalisations.

Asked if Americans should expect new recommendations from health authorities or new restrictive measures, US President Joe Biden responded, “in all probability,” before leaving the White House by helicopter for the weekend.

He did not specify what steps could be taken.

Source: AFP

31, July 2021

Catholic Women Association of Cameroon: Committed to serving the Church ⁰

The Catholic Women Association of Cameroon held its 9th National Congress from 23 to 25 July 2021 under the theme: “Catholic Women called to holiness for the sanctification and holistic development of the world.”

The national event, which brought together more than 500 Catholic women from different parts of Cameroon, was held in the Diocese of Ngaoundéré, north-central Cameroon, Adamawa Plateau.

During the closing Mass of Sunday, 25 July, at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Apostles in Ngaoundéré, the Catholic women pledged to plant a new seed of mutual love that would inspire other members, especially a new generation of members. They will also double up on accomplishing works of mercy within communities.

Do not seek power and prestige

The local Ordinary, Bishop Emmanuel Abbo, addressed the women association and encouraged them to commit and dedicate themselves even more to the different apostolates in their dioceses. Bishop Abbo, nonetheless, admonished the ladies against the temptation of seeking power, prestige and honour at the expense of their calling as lay Catholics. He warned against unhealthy tendencies that undermine others.

Growing a new generation of young Catholic women

National Chaplain of the Catholic Women in Cameroon, Father Giles Ngwa Forteh, for his part, expressed the wish to see a new generation of Catholic Women grow, one whose language and life would be anchored on the law of love.

“Rediscovering the love of God and sharing must be our goal. Indeed, the hatred we see around us clearly indicates that the human heart has become seriously hardened. Only the Word of God can soften that heart and make people take actions that can transform the world. God renews us every time we approach him,” he said.

Source: Vatican News

31, July 2021

Biya regime says Boko Haram attacks military, seduces civilians ⁰

Officials in Cameroon say Boko Haram militants appear to be changing their tactics and attacking only military and government targets in an effort to try to attract more recruits.

This week, Cameroonian Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo a military hospital in Maroua about 80 kilometers from Nigeria’s Borno state, where 14 government troops and four civilians are recovering after Boko Haram attacks over five days on the northern border with Nigeria.

Assomo said Cameroonians and President Paul Biya share the grief of family members of 14 soldiers killed by the jihadists.

Among the wounded soldiers is 37-year-old Lieutenant Innocent Beti who was shot in his abdomen when Boko Haram attacked the village of Sagme. He said if he recovers and is given another chance, he will not hesitate to fight the terrorists.

Cameroon’s military said it has recorded at least seven Boko Haram incursions on its territory during July. The Boko Haram forces targeted military positions and public buildings in the border towns of Mozogo, Fotokol, Amchide and Achigachia.

Assomo said the deadliest attacks were in the villages of Sagme and Zigi.

The defense minister says unlike previous years, the terrorist group has avoided attacks on civilians, markets, religious institutions and schools.

He said the military should immediately examine and adequately respond to the new wave of threats posed by Boko Haram.

Assomo said more troops have been deployed to the border area, but did not say how many. He asked civilians to help the military by reporting strangers in their towns and villages, and by creating their own militias.

Saibou Issa, a conflict resolution specialist at the University of Maroua, believes Boko Haram is trying to gain the trust of civilians.

He said the new wave of attacks indicates Boko Haram fighters now share the ideology of the jihadist splinter Islamic State West Africa Province, which appears to be gaining control over Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad border localities. Issa said that group attacks military positions and government officials to gain sympathy and recruit civilians.

Issa also said poverty in the Lake Chad Basin is pushing many young men to join the terror group, where they expect to be paid for killing government troops. He said it’s possible that former fighters who were unhappy that Boko Haram attacked civilians may now rejoin the group.

Cameroon is pleading with its citizens not to join the jihadist group, which the government says only brings pain and sufferings. Boko Haram violence that started 12 years ago has cost the lives of 30,000 people and displaced about 2 million in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad, according to the United Nations.

Source: VOA

31, July 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Accused of hiding figures on military deaths, Defense Minister summons General Nka Valere to Yaoundé ⁰

Several Cameroon government army soldiers have been killed recently in Southern Cameroons and the sad reality is reportedly creating tension within the military hierarchy in Yaoundé.

Senior intelligence officers of the Cameroon government army have accused General Valere Nka the head of the military operations in Southern Cameroons of systematically manipulating operational intelligence reports following directives from some politicians who are benefitting from the war.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the situation in Southern Cameroons is deteriorating at catastrophic rapidity and all the more serious because several army officers are now saying that the number of soldiers who died ever since the 88-year-old President Biya declared war against British Southern Cameroonians is much higher than those published officially. A source deep within the Francophone dominated army was quoted as saying that the practice of manipulating the military death toll was adopted by the ruling CPDM crime syndicate in order not to demoralize the troops.

In addition to this developing scandal, there is also the matter of choice of army soldiers deployed to Southern Cameroons. The Francophone Beti Ewondo military hierarchy is accused of protecting their blood relations preventing them from being sent to Southern Cameroons while other ethnic minorities within the Cameroon government army are deployed regularly with some having spent two years on the Ambazonian front line.

In order to calm the tension on the ground, General Nka Valere has been urgently summoned to the Ministry of Defense to explain himself to Defense Minister Beti Assomo.

Hundreds of Cameroon government soldiers are defecting

The fighting in recent weeks has caused huge casualties on both sides and the losses in the ranks of the Cameroon government army are beginning to have a negative impact on the troops with hundreds of defections now being recorded.

A video posted on social media by a group of Cameroon government soldiers deployed to Southern Cameroons gave the world an insight into the difficult situation confronting the troops. The soldiers were heard denouncing their comrades who have deserted the army and even opening accusing senior officers of corruption.

By Fon Lawrence

30, July 2021

Angola: Isabel dos Santos ordered to return $500 million in energy shares ⁰

Isabel dos Santos, daughter of Angola’s former president and Africa’s onetime richest woman, must return to Angola her shares in Portugal’s Galp energy firm worth 422 million euros ($500 million), an international arbitration court has ruled.

Dos Santos is accused of diverting billions of dollars from state companies during her father Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s nearly 40-year rule of the oil-rich southern African nation.

The embattled ex-first daughter, whose business assets have been frozen since 2019, was ordered by a Dutch court this week to return shares worth $500 million to Angola’s national Sonangol energy group, which she chaired until Lourenco took power.

The transaction under which Dos Santos acquired her stake in the oil and gas company Galp is “null and void”, according to a copy of the ruling seen by AFP on Friday by the Netherlands Arbitration Institute (NAI), which is part of the International Court of Arbitration.

After paying a 15 percent deposit from the bank account of another company in the British Virgin Islands, dos Santos allegedly paid the rest of the amount in Angola’s local currency, worth little outside the country, rather than in euros as agreed on the sales contract, according to the NAI.

Santos’s six-percent stake in Galp is part of a myriad of investments in Angola and former colonial ruler Portugal, worth about $3 billion according to Forbes magazine, that have been under scrutiny.

The court’s decision — dated July 23 and first reported by Dutch media late Thursday — said that the 2006 purchase of the shares, acquired through a company owned by dos Santos’ late husband Exem Energy, was illegal.

Dos Santos had consistently denied any wrongdoing and denounced all accusations as a politically motivated witch hunt.

Exem’s lawyers intend to appeal the decision “with the competent court”.

“In this arbitral award the political narrative clearly overrides the legal analysis,” the company said in a statement emailed to AFP on Friday.

One of Sonangol’s lawyers, Yas Banifatemi, told Dutch media there was “nothing political” in the court’s decision.

“The arbitration court has judged that Isabel dos Santos enriched herself with money stolen from Angolan people,” said Banifatemi, cited in Dutch daily newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad.

‘The princess’

President Joao Lourenco has vowed to crack down on corruption since dos Santos retired in 2017, removing his predecessor’s cronies from key positions and probing the former regime for alleged graft.

He has targeted several members of the dos Santos family, including Isabel and her younger brother Jose Filomeno dos Santos, sentenced to five years in prison for diverting oil revenues last year.

Isabel is the eldest daughter of Angola’s ex-president, accused of ruling the country with an iron fist, leaving a legacy of poverty and nepotism.

The British-educated billionaire businesswoman has faced several allegations of plundering the public purse and funnelling the money abroad.

In a trove of 715,000 files released in January 2020 by the award-winning New York-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and dubbed the “Luanda Leaks,” dos Santos was accused of syphoning state funds from the oil-rich, but impoverished country into offshore assets.

Nicknamed “the princess” in Angola, she was accused of amassing her vast fortune thanks to the backing of her authoritarian father.

In Portugal, in addition to Galp, she has major bank stakes and has a controlling share of a Portuguese cable TV and telecom firm.

In December 2019, Angola’s prosecutors froze the bank accounts and assets owned by her and her Congolese husband Sindika Dokolo, who died last year, a move she described as a groundless political vendetta.

Dos Santos became Africa’s richest woman after Forbes magazine named her the continent’s first female billionaire in 2013. She lost that title when her assets were frozen.

Source: AFP

30, July 2021

ICC drops arrest warrant for Ivory Coast’s former first lady Simone Gbagbo ⁰

The International Criminal Court has dropped its arrest warrant for Ivory Coast’s former first lady Simone Gbagbo over post-election violence that killed thousands in 2010-2011, according to a decision made public Thursday.

Simone Gbagbo faced charges of crimes against humanity—including murder, rape, inhuman acts and persecution—following her husband’s refusal to hand over power to Alassane Ouattara, who won a 2010 election.

Over 3,000 people died in the unrest.

“The chamber considers it appropriate to decide that the warrant of arrest for Simone Gbagbo shall cease to have effect,” the court said in a seven-page ruling seen by AFP and dated July 19.

“Good news for Madame Simone Gbagbo… she can now travel freely throughout the world,” her lawyer Ange Rodrigue Dadje said in a statement sent to AFP.

In March, the ICC acquitted Laurent Gbagbo of crimes against humanity and he returned to Ivory Coast on June 17, after 10 years behind bars in The Hague, where the ICC is based, and then in Belgium.

Simone Gbagbo was not handed over to the ICC, but an Ivorian court sentenced her to 20 years in prison in 2015 for undermining state security.

She was freed on August 8, 2018 following a presidential amnesty.

President Ouattara and Laurent Gbagbo met on Tuesday for the first time in more than 10 years, after which Ouattara said that the turmoil was “behind us”.

However reconciliation was not on the cards for the Gbagbo couple—Laurent Gbagbo sought a divorce upon his return to Ivory Coast citing the 72-year-old Simone’s “consistent refusal over the years to agree to an amicable separation”.

They married in 1989 and have two daughters.

The 76-year-old Gbagbo currently lives with Nady Bamba, a 47-year-old former journalist.

Source: AFP

30, July 2021

Cameroonian women hold maiden peace conference amid security challenges ⁰

A peace conference dubbed National Women’s Convention for Peace grouping over 1,000 women from Cameroon’s 10 regions opened in the capital, Yaounde on Thursday amid rising security challenges in the Central African country.

The three-day conference, the first of its kind, was organized by grassroots leaders in collaboration with the German-based organization Friedrich Ebert Foundation. It targets essentially women peace activists, displaced women and girls, victims of war-related violence, female traditional and religious leaders, female soldiers and women from civil society and political parties.

“Women have a very important role to play toward achieving a sustainable future and peaceful societies. The majority of women have continued to be neglected during sustainable discussions and meaningful peace-building processes,” organizers said in a statement.

The conference will send a strong collective signal that Cameroonian women are longing for peace, it said.

The conference comes in the wake of recurrent attacks by terror group Boko Haram in the country’s Far North region and separatist raids in the English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest.

At the end of the conference, the women will make a historic declaration for peace in the country and this will go further to create space for women in peace-building processes, organizers said.

Source: Xinhuanet

30, July 2021

Financing the Yaoundé Crime Syndicate: IMF approves $689.5 million for Cameroon to help with COVID-19 impact ⁰

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday its board had approved a three-year financing deal for Cameroon worth $689.5 million to help the Central African nation’s economy recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and to support promised reforms.

The arrangement allows for the immediate disbursement of the equivalent of $177.2 million for budget support, the Fund said in a statement.

“Cameroon faces significant development challenges heightened by the pandemic. An upsurge in COVID-19 cases since January 2021, has raised concerns about growth prospects,” it said. “Steadfast commitment to strengthen transparency and good governance and reduce corruption risks will be crucial.”

The coronavirus crisis and trade shocks from a sharp fall in oil prices led Cameroon’s economy to contract 1.5%, according to IMF estimates.

A gradual recovery could see the economy posting growth of 3.6% in 2021 and 4.6% in 2022, the Fund said.

Source: Reuters

30, July 2021

CAF confirms date for Africa Cup of Nations draw in Cameroon ⁰

The 24 qualified countries for next year’s continental showpiece will learn their fates in Cameroon next month

The Confederation of African Football (Caf) has announced the draw for the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations will take place on August 17 in Cameroon.

The event which was initially postponed in June due to logistics related to the coronavirus has the draw scheduled for the Yaounde Conference Centre at 18h00 GMT with the 24 qualified countries to be drawn into six groups of four.

The 2022 Afcon is expected to start on January 9 until February 6 with five host cities confirmed for the biennial tournament.

“Caf together with the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of Cameroon announce that the draw for the final phase of the 33rd edition of the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations, Cameroon 2021, will take place on Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at the Yaounde Conference Centre, Cameroon at 19h00 local time (18h00 GMT),” read a statement on the Caf website.

“The draw will see the 24 countries that will participate in next year’s TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations descend in the country ahead of the 9 January 2022 kick-off.

“Caf will release more information in due course including the draw procedure and special guests.”

The qualification series ended on June 15 after Sierra Leone pipped Benin 1-0 in Guinea to secure the last ticket to Cameroon and the second spot in Group L, behind Nigeria.

Host nation Cameroon are in Pot 1 alongside Algeria, Senegal, Tunisia, Nigeria and Morocco while Egypt, Ghana, Mali, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Burkina Faso are in Pot 2. In Pot 3, there is Cape Verde, Gabon, Mauritania, Zimbabwe, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone. Sudan, Malawi, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia and Gambia make Pot 4.

The tournament was first planned to take place between June and July 2021, but it was brought back to the January/February window in 2021 due to unfavourable climatic conditions in Cameroon. Caf was forced to move the tournament after the coronavirus pandemic disrupted economic activities and football’s calendar last year.

Source: Goal.com

29, July 2021

Cameroon increases its stake in Shelter Afrique with payment of USD 3.5M ⁰

Shelter Afrique has received USD 3,529,801.29 from the Government of Cameroon in additional capital subscription increasing its shareholding by 2% from the current shareholding of 3.61% to the revised shareholding of 5.24%.

Cameroon, which recently acceded to the helm of the Institution at the recently concluded 40th Annual General meeting has indeed demonstrated true leadership and commitment to strengthening of Shelter Afrique’s capital base. The Cameroon Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Her Excellency Madame Celestine Ketcha Courtes was newly appointed as President of the Shelter Afrique General Assembly at the Shelter Afrique AGM which was held in Yaoundé, Cameroon on the 24th June 2021.

In expressing gratitude to the Government of the Republic of Cameroon, The Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer commented after receiving the capital funding as follows:

“We are grateful for the unwavering support of the President of the AGM Bureau, Her Excellency Madame Celestine Ketcha Courtes and for the instrumental role she played in ensuring this capital commitment is honoured. We are confident that Shelter Afrique will benefit immensely form her leadership as the President of the 40th Annual General Meeting,” Mr Chimphondah said.

Capital Calls

In 2013 and 2017 Shelter Afrique shareholders signed up to recapitalize the Company by way of additional equity subscriptions and has since received a total of USD $96 million dollars from various shareholders.

“Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, Cameroon has shown willingness to sustain its support for Shelter Afrique. This is a demonstrable strong vote of confidence by Cameroon in Board and Management the Company. This capital injection will go a long way in supporting the Company’s ambitious plans to drive substantial capital investment into the low-cost housing sector,” Mr. Chimphondah said.

“We also wish to thank several other shareholders such as Kenya, Nigeria, Mali, Namibia, Rwanda Uganda, Togo, Zimbabwe Morocco, Lesotho, and Swaziland for their positive response to the call for recapitalization” the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive said.