MSF says Biya wants NGO to act as an intelligence agency and to report Amba fighters

4, August 2021

MSF says Biya wants NGO to act as an intelligence agency and to report Amba fighters 0

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is withdrawing from Southern Cameroons after failing to reach an agreement with the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime following eight months of suspension despite extensive negotiations.

The announcement of MSF’s withdrawal was made public Tuesday, August 3, 2021, through a statement by Emmanuel Lampaert coordinator of MSF operations in Central Africa.

“We therefore have no choice but to withdraw our teams. However, we will keep a small liaison office in Bamenda, the regional capital, to continue the dialogue with the authorities,” he said.

It was in December 2020 that the international NGO was suspended from all activities in Southern Cameroons on a lame and ridiculous reason that its physicians were helping Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

Hardliners in the regime including Defense Minister Beti Assomo and Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji accused the NGO of collaborating with the Southern Cameroons Interim Government and Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces and also of treating wounded Ambazonians in the name of international humanitarian law.

The Biya French Cameroun conman Paul Atanga Nji wanted by the Special Criminal Court in Yaoundé even said in a press conference in Yaoundé that weapons and ammunition were found in MSF ambulances.

Last May, MSF’s CEO visited Yaoundé and was received by the Minister of External Relations, the Minister of Defense and Paul Atanga Nji of Territorial administration.

After discussions with LeJeune Mbella Mbella (Minrex) Joseph Beti Assomo (Mindef) and Paul Atanga Nji (Minat), no compromise was reached.

According to Doctors Without Borders, the Biya regime officials want the NGO to act as an “intelligence agency and to report to Yaoundé every location where injured Ambazonia fighters are being treated.”

The Beti Ewondo gang opposed the requirements of international humanitarian law, specifically the Vienna Convention, which sets out the principles of neutrality and independence of NGOs.

MSF has been providing emergency medical care and free ambulance service in Southern Cameroons since 2018.The NGO says that since its suspension, several children have died for lack of medicine, due to the lack of means to get to hospitals.

By Fon Lawrence

 Nkotti François has died

4, August 2021

 Nkotti François has died 0

Makossa legend and leader of the renowned group “Black Styl” Nkotti François has died today August 4, 2021 in the Douala General Hospital.

Desto as he was often referred to by his colleagues and fans all over the world, celebrated his 50 years of musical career recently and published an autobiographical book that traces his long and rich musical career with the likes of Toto Guillaume, Emile Kangue, Ake Loba, and Monie Miller.

Nkotti François was one of the patriarchs of Makossa who successfully recorded several albums with more than 150 songs.

He created the national song contest which has become today “Mutzig star”. He was also an economic actor with the Musical, Artistic, Industrial and Commercial Fair of Cameroon (Fomaric) of which he was the boss for over twenty years.

A multidimensional man, Nkotti François was also a militant of the ruling CPDM party and was elected mayor in (2002-2013) of the Bonalea district, Moungo Division in the Littoral region.

By Fon Lawrence

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Where is Paul Atanga Nji?

4, August 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Where is Paul Atanga Nji? 0

For some time now, Cameroon’s flamboyant and noisy territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, has been missing in action even as thousands of the country’s army soldiers are being killed and humiliated by a ragtag military that started off with machetes and clubs to defend the population and its territory against the invaders from East Cameroon.

The man who said there was no Southern Cameroons crisis when the problem hit the international stage and the author of many new expressions, including “the boyses in the bushes” and “burying the bereaved” has suddenly disappeared from the public’s eye and nobody is talking about him in public.

The conman par excellence had told his bosses in Yaoundé that if given the territorial administration portfolio, he would end the high level insurgency in days given that he knew the terrain and was an Anglophone.

Strangely, after more than two years in such a high position Paul Atanga Nji has not achieved much and things have gone from bad to worse despite all the tactics he has used, including killing young males and placing weapons on their corpses and creating groups pretending to be new Southern Cameroonian factions in the conflict.

Some people are also holding that he might be helping the other Paul, the one struggling for his life in Geneva, with his illnesses. It is still tough to many sound minds to understand how a person can help a sick person when illnesses are not transferable.

However, many regime insiders are warning that Paul Atanga Nji is someone who can transform sand into gold and that he could still pretend that his presence by the ailing Paul might help reduce his pain. No one should underestimate Atanga Nji, a regime baron advised.

From every indication, the territorial administration boss seems to be seeing the writing on the wall. The crisis in Southern Cameroons will not be over anytime soon and his promise to mop up the mess out there cannot be fulfilled, especially as Amba fighters have procured more sophisticated weapons and have also sharpened their hit-and-run tactics.

He may also be seeing the end of the massive scam that his government has put in place. The architect of this scheme has been pinned down in a Geneva clinic by many debilitating illnesses and the chances of him recovering are very slim. Paul Atanga Nji may just be plotting his exit strategy as he knows the next president will not be using his services which have done much to send many young soldiers to an early grave and have deeply divided the country.

Paul Atanga Nji, the man with very limited formal education, is very responsible for the killing of more than 10,000 Cameroonians in a war that could have been avoided if the right words and approaches had been used.

He strongly believes in the use of a hammer to kill a fly and holds that negotiating or talking to opponents is a sign of failure and this has plunged the country in a pretty mess. Now that things have spiralled out of control, he has gone underground. He is simply tired of “burying the bereaved” as the “boyses in the bushes” continue to put up a huge show that has left the government wondering.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman, Editor-In-Chief

Cameroon Concord News Group

Yaoundé: Vision 4 political commentator ditched over Southern Cameroons comment

4, August 2021

Yaoundé: Vision 4 political commentator ditched over Southern Cameroons comment 0

Popular French Cameroun political analyst was recently kicked off his prime time slot for pro Southern Cameroons comment.

Dieudonné Essomba has participated in the ”Club d’Elites”, broadcast every Sunday on the private television channel, Vision 4 show since its inception but was ousted over his pro Southern Cameroons statements.

Vision 4 bosses contacted by our Yaoundé city reporter insist it is due to heightened sensitivities and to avoid accusations of a conflict of interest.

His last appearance on the popular program was on July 18, 2021 in which the economist analyzed the anti-Biya demonstration organized on July 17 by Cameroonian activists, united under the banner of the Anti-Sardinard Brigade (BAS).

The French Cameroun political commentator indexed the Biya regime and accused it of being at the origin of all the ongoing crises in Cameroon particularly the war in Southern Cameroons.

Speaking to reporters in Yaoundé recently, Dieudonné Essomba said “I signed a contract with Vision 4. For now, it has not been terminated. But they have asked me not to come anymore”.

By Rita Akana

US: New York Governor Cuomo ‘sexually harassed multiple women’

4, August 2021

US: New York Governor Cuomo ‘sexually harassed multiple women’ 0

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo “sexually harassed multiple women”, including employees, New York’s Attorney General Letitia James said Tuesday as she announced the findings of an independent investigation into allegations against the powerful Democrat.

The explosive report, which was swiftly made public, details allegations by 11 women that paint a “deeply disturbing yet clear” picture of a pattern of abusive behavior by the governor and his senior staff, James said — allegations which Cuomo himself quickly denied.

It was not clear if he would face criminal prosecution, with James saying the investigation was “civil in nature.”

The five-month investigation “concluded that Governor Andrew Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women and in doing so violated federal and state law,” James told a news conference.

She said Cuomo “sexually harassed current and former New York state employees by engaging in unwelcome and non-consensual touching and making numerous comments of a suggestive sexual nature that created a hostile work environment for women.”

The investigation also found that Cuomo and his senior team took retaliatory action against at least one former employee for coming forward with her story, she said.

Cuomo issued an unequivocal denial and gave no indication that he was considering his position.

“First, I want you to know directly from me that I never touched anyone inappropriately or made inappropriate sexual advances,” he said in a televised statement.

“I am 63 years old. I have lived my entire adult life in public view. That is just not who I am. And that’s not who I have ever been.”

He said that he had published a response to every allegation made by the women against him on his website, adding: “Please take the time to read the facts and decide for yourself.”

And he suggested that resignation was not on his mind, saying: “What matters to me at the end of the day is getting the most done I can for you.

“And that is what I do every day. And I will not be distracted from that job. We have a lot to do.”

In recent months multiple women have publicly denounced what they said were inappropriate words and gestures from Cuomo, who drew praise nationwide for his pandemic response early in the crisis.

In March President Joe Biden said that if the accusations against Cuomo are proven he should go.

‘Climate of fear’

Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, was one of the first to call for Cuomo to face consequences over the report.

“Governor Cuomo must resign and be arrested immediately,” she tweeted.

New York lawmakers also reacted swiftly, with state senate majority leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins saying it “should be clear to everyone that he can no longer serve as governor.”

Carl Heastie, speaker of the New York assembly, said the report would be examined by lawmakers but appeared to demonstrate Cuomo was “not fit for office.”

The investigators released some details of the allegations against Cuomo during the news conference.

One former employee said the charismatic, media-friendly politician slipped his hand under her blouse last year, while a trooper on Cuomo’s protective detail said he inappropriately touched her stomach and hip.

His conduct was “not just old fashioned affection and behavior as he and some of his staff would have it, but unlawful sex-based harassment,” said Anne Clark, one of the lawyers heading the investigation.

She said that Cuomo himself responded to investigators with “a mixture of admitting to certain things but putting a different spin on them and denying others.”

But none of the women welcomed his attentions, the other lawyer leading the probe, Joon Kim, said. “All of them found it disturbing, humiliating, uncomfortable and inappropriate.”

Clark detailed one incident where Cuomo prepared a letter he wanted to release to the press attacking one of the alleged victims, though he was ultimately persuaded not to.

And Kim said Cuomo and his staff fostered a “climate of fear” that kept women from speaking out. “It was a culture where you could not say no to the governor,” he said.

The investigators said that at least one report has been made to police about Cuomo’s behavior, and that their findings could be used in any criminal investigations.

The women involved can also decide whether they want to sue Cuomo, they said.

James praised the women, saying the investigation had found that all 11 were credible.

“I am inspired by all the brave women who came forward. But more importantly, I believe them,” she said.

(AFP)

Man dresses as a woman to sit exams on behalf of girlfriend

4, August 2021

Man dresses as a woman to sit exams on behalf of girlfriend 0

A Senegalese student was detained Monday after he disguised himself as a woman in a bid to sit for national examinations on behalf of his girlfriend.

The student, enrolled in a university in the north of the country, and his girlfriend “were placed under arrest on Monday evening.

They will be tried on Thursday with his girlfriend for “exam fraud”, their lawyer said Tuesday.

“The couple is to be “tried on (Thursday) August 5 for exam fraud and complicity in fraud”, by the court of Diourbel,” the prosecutor said.

The student, whose age was not disclosed, had moved to Diourbel to take the exams for his girlfriend, a student in a high school in this city, according to the prosecution.

Photos posted on social networks depicted him wearing a red dress with black patterns, wearing a veil with the same colors and a black shawl, to deceive the invigilators.

He was surprised on Saturday, the third day of the exam, during the English test, by the supervisors, who according to the press, noticed that something was wrong with his attire.

They then reported him to the police who arrested him and his girlfriend who was waiting for him in a hostel in the city, according to the same source.

Source: Africa News

Jamaica’s Thompson-Herah wins 200m to seal Olympic double

3, August 2021

Jamaica’s Thompson-Herah wins 200m to seal Olympic double 0

Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah made Olympic history in Tokyo Tuesday, blazing to victory in the 200 metres to complete an unprecedented women’s sprinting “double-double”.

Thompson-Herah, the 2016 Olympics 100m and 200m gold medallist who successfully defended her 100m title on Saturday, bagged a record fourth individual gold after storming home in a blistering 21.53sec.

Namibia’s Christine Mboma took silver in 21.81sec while the USA’s Gabby Thomas took bronze in 21.87sec.

The 29-year-old Thompson-Herah’s time was the second fastest in history after Florence Griffith Joyner’s world record of 21.34sec set at the drug-tarnished 1988 Seoul Olympics.

As well as becoming the first woman to claim a 100m-200m “double-double”, Thompson-Herah is the only female track and field athlete to win four individual Olympic golds.

Thompson-Herah got off to a blistering start, building a lead off the bend which she never relinquished.

It looked as if Thomas and Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce would take the silver and bronze, but that duo were passed by a scorching finish over the final 20 metres from Namibian teenager Mboma who plundered silver.

Source: AFP

Cameroon gov’t army soldiers are dying in Southern Cameroons

3, August 2021

Cameroon gov’t army soldiers are dying in Southern Cameroons 0

The war in Southern Cameroons is not generating a drumbeat of daily headlines in French speaking Cameroon, even though the conflict has claimed thousands of Anglophone and Francophone lives and seen tens of thousands of Southern Cameroonians as refugees in neighbouring Nigeria. It is indeed a conflict that will go on for a long time and will eventually see children of veteran soldiers deployed in the same war.

The Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime has no pity for English speaking Cameroonians. Correspondingly, the death of children and pregnant women during this fighting does not arouse any pity in Yaoundé. The Biya criminal gang has one objective – proving that it can win a war – and the generals leading the troops clearly hold that the insurgency is an opportunity for them to enrich themselves.

But for over four years now, the initial purpose of the Francophone dominated military mission – to go after Ambazonia Restoration Forces and destroyed English speaking Cameroon– has not been met and the mission has now devolved into French Cameroun’s “forever war”.

As Biya and his Beti Ewondo military leaders continue to unleash its army soldiers on the Southern Cameroons population just to demonstrate its strength, Ambazonia Restoration Forces are fighting back and killing the Francophone soldiers in their numbers.

A total of 2067 Cameroon government soldiers have died and 9000 have been wounded since the war started four years ago. The number of Southern Cameroons civilian deaths range from 25,000 to 35,000, while the cost of military operations continues to rise.

More than 2,000 Francophone army soldiers have escaped to the Ivory Coast via Nigeria and many are defecting to seek safety in other French speaking African countries, according to Cameroon Ministry of Defense. Instead of seeking ways of ending the violence and engineering peace in the two English-speaking regions of the country, the Yaounde government is doing its best to prove a point that has no raison d’etre. 

This is a war that could have been clearly avoided if the government had used known instruments of conflict management and resolution. Genuine dialogue, a key thrust of conflict resolution, was clearly ignored and to deceive the people of Southern Cameroons and the international community, the despicable Yaoundé government organized a semblance of dialogue wherein it chose who had to participate in it, which issues had to be discussed and what resolutions and conclusions had to be reached by the participants; an idea which only caused the conflict to escalate by multiple notches.

The recent killing of two Southern Cameroons civilians and raping of a 53-year-old woman is no accident and let nobody be deceived by whatever the government would say.

The Yaounde government is in the business of winning an argument and it will stop at nothing to prove its point. As usual, it will order an investigation, the findings of which will remain a dead letter like most of the other investigations conducted over the last 39 years by a government that has been conducting itself like a crime syndicate made in the same mould as the Sicilian Mafia.

By Isong Asu in London

Japan: Cameroonian suspected in death of missing woman whose corpse found in mountains

3, August 2021

Japan: Cameroonian suspected in death of missing woman whose corpse found in mountains 0

Police have arrested a male Cameroonian national who is suspected in the death of a missing woman whose corpse was found in Nara Prefecture earlier this month, reports Mainichi Broadcasting System (July 29).

On the night of July 27, police apprehended the unnamed suspect as he tried to board a flight at Haneda Airport in Tokyo.

Thus far, police have accused the suspect of forging documents at his place of employment. However, police are building a case against him in the death of Junko Sasaoka, a 56-year-old nurse.

On July 23, police found the body of Sasaoka lying face-up in a grove of trees in the Nakamachi area of Nara City, Nara Prefecture.

Bloodstains and hair

Police said last week that her vehicle was found in a supermarket parking lot about 1.2 kilometers away from her home in Yamatokoriyama City, Nara three days before.

Bloodstains matching Sasaoka and strands of her hair attached to tape were found inside the vehicle, police said.

Police also said that security camera footage showed a man, believed to be a foreigner, leaving the vehicle in the parking lot. The same footage shows him then boarding another car driven by a second man, also believed to be a foreigner.

Police have also revealed about 30 million yen in cash disappeared from a bank account connected to Sasaoka before the incident.

Reported missing

Sasaoka was last seen when she commuted to a special home for the elderly in Osaka Prefecture on July 9.

Her sister reported her missing with the Koriyama Police Station on July 15. Police began searching for her the following day.

Police have not divulged how the Cameroonian is connected to the death of Sasaoka.

Source: Tokyo Reporter

CPDM Crime Syndicate:  US seizes Cameroon-flagged tanker

3, August 2021

CPDM Crime Syndicate:  US seizes Cameroon-flagged tanker 0

US authorities have seized a Cameroon-flagged small clean products tanker over alleged North Korean sanctions breaches the US Justice Department said in a statement.

A New York federal court entered a judgement of forfeiture over the 2,734 DWT oil products tanker Courageous on Friday.

The US administration alleges the Cameroonian vessel was used for ship-to-ship transfer of oil products with North Korean vessels.

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