Thousands at memorial for Nigerian televangelist T.B. Joshua

9, July 2021

Thousands at memorial for Nigerian televangelist T.B. Joshua 0

Thousands of Nigerians have been paying their last respects this week to Temitope Balogun Joshua, one of Africa’s most popular televangelists, known as T.B. Joshua.

The controversial Nigerian-born pastor died about a month ago at the age of 57.

A memorial service was held for him Thursday at the auditorium of the Lagos headquarters of the megachurch he founded, Synagogue Church Of All Nations. The ceremony was aired live by his Emmanuel Television Station.

Joshua’s body, dressed in a white suit and in a transparent casket, was displayed as mourners, many weeping, filed past, including people visiting from different parts of the world to pay their respects.

Joshua was noted for making predictions and for his claims to cure various ailments and to make people prosper through miracles. He was, however, controversial, with critics questioning his claims of cures and alleging that he profited from desperate people seeking hope.

More than 15,000 people from Nigeria and abroad attended Joshua’s Sunday services in the stadium-like church, including many African presidents, senior government officials, international soccer players, musicians and other high-profile celebrities. Joshua’s popularity reached across Africa and to South America where he held many religious crusades.

In September 2014, the guest house of the Lagos church collapsed, killing more than 100 people, most of them foreigners who were in Nigeria to attend his services.

While authorities say the building collapsed because of structural defects, T.B. Joshua insisted the building was blown up by a small plane that he claimed flew over it shortly before it tumbled down.

Tributes and services have been held all week. Joshua will be buried Friday. He is survived by his widow and three children.

Source: Africa News

Amba Fighters are determining the magnitude, depth of the war in Southern Cameroons

8, July 2021

Amba Fighters are determining the magnitude, depth of the war in Southern Cameroons 0

The leader of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe says it is Ambazonians that are presently determining the magnitude and quality of the war in Southern Cameroons.

“We have to do what we’ve got to do today; we will and we must as Ambazonians, so our children will be able to do tomorrow that which they want to do” President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe said on twitter.

“Regarding the course for the Restoration of our Statehood which is rooted in its History and Geography, there are many amongst the people of LRC who don’t understand and don’t care, while others understand but disagree, and a few others who understand and support us. However, it is important that we understand the limits to which the people of LRC, however well-meaning, will empathise with our experience. If they truly listened to our calls for equality and development, we might have avoided this inevitable hurt, pain, destruction, breakage and ultimate separation.

The pain of the experience of the people of the former British Southern Cameroons now known as Ambazonia, through many decades of oppression and subjugation is real and very deep. The good in most people outweighs the evil in them. This is how we learn to trust, forgive and live with people. Many Ambazonians now accept that we will never have to live together with LRC in any form. Our people have endured enough, so our children can finally enjoy Opportunity and Promise” the Ambazonia leader added.

The mineral-rich but poverty-stricken Southern Cameroons has been unstable ever since the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime in Yaoundé declared war against the people of Ambazonia four years  ago.

Thousands of people have died since the war erupted and more than a quarter of the population have fled their homes. Of these, 75,000 are refugees in neighbouring Nigeria.

Even though bloodshed has receded in intensity over the few months, violence remains chronic.

By Chi Prudence Asong

England stand on brink of history after reaching first Euro final

8, July 2021

England stand on brink of history after reaching first Euro final 0

England fed off the energy of a passionate Wembley crowd to beat Denmark 2-1 in extra time in the Euro 2021 semi-finals on Wednesday and now stand just 90 minutes away from ending their 55-year trophy drought.

Gareth Southgate’s men will face Italy on Sunday — again on home turf and roared on by a nation at fever pitch — infused with belief they can make history by winning the Euros for the first time and lift a second major trophy after their 1966 World Cup triumph.

World passes ‘tragic milestone’ of four million recorded Covid-19 deaths

7, July 2021

World passes ‘tragic milestone’ of four million recorded Covid-19 deaths 0

The world passed the “tragic milestone” of four million recorded Covid-19 fatalities on Wednesday, the World Health Organization said, adding that the pandemic’s true toll was probably higher.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the landmark had been reached, more than 18 months since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019.

“The world is at a perilous point in this pandemic. We have just passed the tragic milestone of four million recorded Covid-19 deaths, which likely underestimates the overall toll,” Tedros told a press conference at WHO headquarters in Geneva.

The UN health agency’s director-general said some countries with high vaccination coverage were now “relaxing as though the pandemic is already over”, dropping public health measures and planning to roll out booster shots.

“The world is at a perilous point in this pandemic

‘Shocking inequity’ in vaccine access

But he said that far too many countries all over the world were seeing sharp spikes in cases and hospitalisation, due to fast-moving virus variants and a “shocking inequity” in global access to vaccines.

“This is leading to an acute shortage of oxygen, treatments and driving a wave of death in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America,” Tedros said.

“Vaccine nationalism, where a handful of nations have taken the lion’s share, is morally indefensible

“At this stage in the pandemic, the fact that millions of health and care workers have still not been vaccinated is abhorrent.”

Tedros said variants were currently outpacing vaccines due to the inequitable distribution of available doses, which he said was also threatening the global economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.

“From a moral, epidemiological or economic point view, now is the time for the world to come together to tackle this pandemic collectively.”

(AFP)

“We will eventually sing the Ambazonian National Anthem in Buea’ Vice President Yerima

7, July 2021

“We will eventually sing the Ambazonian National Anthem in Buea’ Vice President Yerima 0

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government Dabney Yerima says Southern Cameroonians will eventually prevail over the French backed French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé and they will sing the Ambazonian National Anthem in Buea.

“Southern Cameroonians in Ground Zero and our Restoration Forces are giving me hope that we will eventually sing the Amba National Anthem together at Bongo Square in Buea,” Comrade Dabney Yerima said during a conversation with a Namibian radio host on Sunday.

The exiled leader revealed how Southern Cameroonians across the world had been struggling with patience and sacrifice to free their homeland.

“Since the 1970s, Southern Cameroons ‘civil society organizations and individuals periodically organized non-violent protests and sent deputations and petitions to the French Cameroun authorities calling for the redress of legitimate grievances, including the ending of its colonization and annexation of the Southern Cameroons. These actions were always met with characteristic violent repression, imprisonment, torture, and killings” Yerima said.

Vice President Dabney Yerima meanwhile, voiced gratitude towards all Southern Cameroons Self Defense groups for their resistance efforts aimed at achieving the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Yerima also congratulated the people of Southern Cameroons for their successful uprising and struggle against a French-backed vicious regime in La Republique du Cameroun that has been attacking Ambazonia since 2017.

“Now, we are witnessing the defeat of the aggressive French Cameroun military,” he said, adding, “Ever since the first day of the war, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe had faith in the Ambazonian people’s strength for steadfastness and victory.”

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Bamenda: Ambazonia fighters vow revenge after deadly French Cameroun attacks

7, July 2021

Bamenda: Ambazonia fighters vow revenge after deadly French Cameroun attacks 0

Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces have pledged revenge after Cameroon government soldiers murdered an innocent Ambazonian in his car in Below Foncha Street in Bamenda.

Elements of the so-called Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) on Sunday 4 July 2021 in Bamenda opened fire and killed Mr Njibril Dula.

Eyewitnesses contacted by Cameroon Concord News said the Francophone army soldiers targeted Njibril Dula to spread fear in the area.

In an audio statement issued late Monday, Ambazonia Restoration Forces pledged to avenge the blood of Njibril Dula which they described as a righteous martyr. The Amba spokesman also noted that the vengeance to be wreaked on the French Cameroun perpetrators of this heinous crime will be felt inside Etoudi. They also warned the Francophone soldiers against repeating its aggression on Southern Cameroons civilians.

Earlier on Monday, Ambazonian fighters operating in the Meme County also warned of severe retaliation after it was revealed the pro French Cameroun group popularly known as Atanga Nji Boys was responsible for the murder of a physics teacher in Kumba.

Ambazonian fighters have stressed that French Cameroun military bases in Southern Cameroons are within the range of its Big Rubbergun.

The War in Ambazonia has already claimed at least 40 000 lives, almost all of them civilian children, men and women, murdered by French Cameroun troops in a series of targeted killings, organized massacres, and killings by fire in over 400 villages burnt down to ashes across Southern Cameroons. Over half a million people have been forcibly displaced as refugees living in various countries and especially in refugee camps in Nigeria. Over another half a million people have become IDPs hiding in forests, caves and hills due to forced displacement. Additionally, over 1.5 million people are facing a humanitarian disaster.

Republique du Cameroun uses not only arson and the destruction of food, livestock, and crops in the fields as weapons of war. It also uses rape. Rape of Ambazonian women and girls by Cameroun troops is systematic and widespread. This agonizing situation is compounded by the fact that a high percentage of Cameroun troops are HIV positive and also has other STDs. When they rape they infect the women and girls. This appears to be part of the genocide agenda of Cameroun. Reports are now emerging of scores of school girls raped, impregnated and infected by Republique du Cameroun’s troops. This poses a nightmare not only of the HIV and STD infections but also of rampant teenage pregnancies. Cameroun troops have burnt down health facilities and killed health workers in rural and semi-urban areas. Accessing health facilities or health practitioners is a huge challenge for rural and semi-urban folks.

By Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

Yaoundé accuses C.A.R rebels of stealing cattle

7, July 2021

Yaoundé accuses C.A.R rebels of stealing cattle 0

Cameroon officials are accusing rebels from the Central African Republic of crossing the border and stealing cattle and abducting villagers for ransom. The officials say C.A.R. rebels are fleeing the country to escape post-election violence. Officials in Cameroon accuse C.A.R. rebels of entering the country’s territory and harassing civilians and others displaced by fighting in the neighboring country.

Officials say the rebels then take cattle and food from Cameroonian ranchers and farmers. About 30 civilians were abducted in June with demands for family members to pay ransoms of between $1,000 to $10,000 per person to guarantee their safe return.

Authorities say people suspected of collaborating with Cameroonian officials to denounce the rebels, who are hiding in villages along the Cameroon border, are also abducted and tortured in retaliation.

Kildadi Tagueke Boukar is governor of the Adamawa region of Cameroon that shares a border with the C.A.R. He visited Mbere, an administrative unit in the Adamawa region, on Monday. He says Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, asked him to make sure that the military is deployed to protect host communities and people displaced by the fighting in the C.A.R. He spoke by the messaging app WhatsApp from Djohong, a commercial town in Mbere.

“The Mbere Division shares more than 160 Kilometers of border with Central African Republic [C.A.R.] and along this border rebels inrush [cross over to] our territory, steal cows,” Boukar said. “We have come to reinforce the forces of law and order [military], to encourage the population to be on alert and to inform the hierarchy [government] of the situation which is going on at this border.”

Boukar did not say how many government troops have been deployed to stop the C.A.R. rebels. He said the troops seize weapons illegally trafficked into Cameroon by the rebels.

Cameroon has not given figures on the number of cattle taken by the rebels. The government says economic activity is at a nosedive in Djohong and Ngaoui, villages with the largest cattle markets in Mbere. The markets sell about a hundred cows a week, down from at least 1,000 every week last year. Cattle ranchers accuse the rebels of either stealing money and their cows or they fear of being tortured. Buyers say they can no longer shop in border markets with the C. A. R. for fear they will be abducted, or their money taken.

Oumarou Issama is mayor of Djohong. He says civilians are held in the bush for several weeks until their families pay ransom to the rebels. He says C.A.R. rebels are escaping heavy fighting with government troops and crossing with weapons into Djohong. He says the fighting is increasing the number of displaced persons from the C.A.R. escaping post-election violence. He spoke by the messaging app WhatsApp from Djohong.

Issama says civilians at Cameroon’s border village of Yamba, near Djohong suffer most from the fighting in neighboring C.A.R. He says since June 15, 3,000 of the 6,500 people living in Yamba are displaced persons from C.A.R. He says the host community and displaced persons are again witnessing regular fighting over lodging, water, food and farmland.

Mbere is home to 21,000 people displaced due to the crisis in the C.A.R. Seven thousand of the displaced persons had returned to their country but came back to Cameroon within the past two months, following renewed fighting between C.A.R. rebels and the country’s regular troops.

Renewed violence erupted in the C.A.R. after the December 2020 elections, in which Austin-Archange Touadera was reelected president. Seven of the C.A.R.’s 14 rebel groups refused to recognize Touadera’s victory and have been fighting to seize power. The C.A.R. says much of the fighting is now in border areas, where rebels can cross over to neighboring countries due to porous borders.

Cameroon shares a 900-kilometer border with the C.A.R.

Source: VOA

Iran starts enriched uranium production as US, European powers cite threat to reviving nuclear deal

7, July 2021

Iran starts enriched uranium production as US, European powers cite threat to reviving nuclear deal 0

Iran has begun the process of producing enriched uranium metal, the U.N. atomic watchdog said on Tuesday, a move that could help it develop a nuclear weapon and that three European powers said threatened talks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Iran’s steps, which were disclosed by the International Atomic Energy Agency and which Tehran said aimed to develop fuel for a research reactor, also drew criticism from the United States, which called them an “unfortunate step backwards.”

U.S. and European officials made clear that Iran’s decision would complicate, and potentially torpedo, indirect U.S.-Iranian talks seeking to bring both nations back into compliance with the 2015 deal, which was abandoned by former President Donald Trump.

The deal imposed curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme to make it harder for Tehran to develop fissile material for nuclear weapons in return for the lifting of economic sanctions. After Trump withdrew, Iran began violating many of the restrictions.

Tehran has already produced a small amount of uranium metal this year that was not enriched. That is a breach of the deal, which bans all work on uranium metal since it can be used to make the core of a nuclear bomb.

“Today, Iran informed the Agency that UO2 (uranium oxide) enriched up to 20% U–235 would be shipped to the R&D laboratory at the Fuel Fabrication Plant in Esfahan, where it would be converted to UF4 (uranium tetrafluoride) and then to uranium metal enriched to 20% U–235, before using it to manufacture the fuel,” an IAEA statement said.

A confidential IAEA report seen by Reuters said the agency had confirmed that Iran had taken steps to begin the process of producing enriched uranium metal.

Britain, France and Germany said on Tuesday they had “grave concern” about Iran’s decision, which violates the nuclear deal, formally named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“Iran has no credible civilian need for uranium metal R&D and production, which are a key step in the development of a nuclear weapon,” they said in a joint statement issued by Britain’s foreign ministry.

“With its latest steps, Iran is threatening a successful outcome to the Vienna talks despite the progress achieved in six rounds of negotiations,” they said, and urged Iran to return to the talks in the Austrian capital, which began in April and adjourned on June 20. No date has been set for a next round.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Washington was not setting a deadline for the talks, but noted “that as time proceeds Iran’s nuclear advances will have a bearing on our view of returning to the JCPOA.”

Price said the United States found it “worrying” that Iran was continuing to violate the agreement “especially with experiments that have value for nuclear weapons research.

“It’s another unfortunate step backwards for Iran,” he said. Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s ambassador to the IAEA, noted the agency’s report on Iran’s latest violation of the 2015 deal as well as the Biden administration’s decision to maintain the Iran sanctions reimposed by Trump, also violations of the accord.

“The only way out of this vicious circle is resumption of #ViennaTalks without delay and full restoration of #JCPOA,” he wrote on Twitter.

Source: REUTERS

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Interim Government Statement on the Murder of a Physicist in Kumba

6, July 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Interim Government Statement on the Murder of a Physicist in Kumba 0

Interim Government Statement on the Murder of a Physicist in Kumba

Last Thursday, 1 July 2021, 52-year-old Mr Fuh Max Dang, a Physics teacher at GBHS Kumba, Meme County, was murdered by unidentified gunmen in the presence of his children after returning from work. The Interim Government condemns this atrocity robustly.  Our thoughts and prayers are with his close family and friends during this challenging time. The Interim Government of Ambazonia directed Ambazonia Intelligence Services to open an immediate and comprehensive investigation into the tragedy.

While the investigation was still ongoing, The Interim Government of Ambazonia aimed not to make any statements that may influence its outcome. Late last night, Ambazonia Intelligence Services briefed the Interim Government that initial reports attributing the murder because Mr Fuh was a teacher are unsubstantiated. The investigation into this tragedy is still inconclusive, and the Interim Government of Ambazonia will report soonest as more facts are made available.

On Sunday 4 July 2021, in Bamenda, the French Cameroon army opened fire and killed Mr Njibril Dula in an unprovoked attack in Below Foncha neighborhood in Bamenda. The victim was unarmed in his car. This attack bears similarities with the execution of Mr Fuh Max Dang. These executions of unarmed citizens going about their business are the hallmarks of a regime on its last legs. For a long time now, Ambazonia Intelligence Services have reported that local militias loyal to the regime in Yaoundé have been carrying out executions with the intent of pinning their criminalities on our self-defense forces. So, we call on our self-defense forces to remain vigilant.

Self-defense is a right, and it is a core component of our liberation struggle. However, The Interim Government wants to caution all genuine self-defense forces within Ambazonia that acts of violence on persons for being teachers are intolerable. We must not target any non-combatants also. We know our enemy and must remain focused as we march towards Buea. The Ambazonia we intend to build will need talents from all walks of life, and we cannot afford to waste lives.

To all in Ground Zero, the Interim Government of Ambazonia urges you to persevere, for victory is coming our way soon. Soon, and very soon, we will be free. We call on the UN to commission a Security Council Mandated Fact-Finding Mission to investigate the atrocities in this conflict. Such a mission will curb the loss of lives and bring this war to an end.

Thank You, and God Bless You

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Federal Republic of Ambazonia

US troops quietly left Bagram Air Base without notifying Afghan command

6, July 2021

US troops quietly left Bagram Air Base without notifying Afghan command 0

After American troops withdrew without notifying them, Afghan soldiers guarding the Bagram Air Base have been left with thousands of Taliban prisoners and a fear that the enemy will attack.

The sprawling military complex about 60 kilometres north of the capital, Kabul, was at one point home to tens of thousands of US and allied soldiers, and one of the most important military sites of the two-decade war in Afghanistan.

But the last of the US soldiers quietly left the base last week, effectively completing their withdrawal from Afghanistan and leaving a massive security vacuum that the Afghan military will struggle to fill.

The new commander of the Bagram base, General Mirassadullah Kohistani, on Monday spoke candidly about the challenges ahead, as reporters were given a tour of the largely deserted base.

“You know, if we compare ourselves with the Americans, it’s a big difference,” Kohistani said, admitting his forces could not be as “powerful” as the Americans.

“But according to our capabilities … we are trying to do the best and as much as possible secure and serve all the people.”

The lack of a clear handover or transition plan appears to have made the task even more challenging.

Kohistani said he only knew of the foreign forces’ exit after they had left.

“We did not know of their timeline for departure. They did not tell us when they left.”

The US announced Friday it had completely vacated its biggest airfield in the country in advance of a final withdrawal the Pentagon says will be completed by the end of August.

“We [heard] some rumour that the Americans had left Bagram … and finally by seven o’clock in the morning, we understood that it was confirmed that they had already left Bagram,” said Kohistani.

Rotting food where restaurants once bustled

The Bagram base is key to the security of the Afghan capital while also providing strategic cover to much of the country’s rugged north, where the Taliban have focused their recent offensives.

Kohistani insists his troops can hold the base from the Taliban and that he has “quite enough” soldiers.

But with roughly 3,000 troops under his command, the figure is a tiny percentage of the number of American and allied forces during its US-led heyday.

For US troops, morale was kept up in the then-buzzing mini-city with swimming pools, cinemas, spas and fast food outlets like Burger King and Pizza Hut.

For Kohistani’s men, the entertainment venues are closed, the warehouses are locked and the shuttered dining facilities offer only the stench of rotten food from boxes of expired meal packs.

In a sign of the challenges the Afghan military faces without US backing, 1,000 troops fighting the Taliban in the country’s north fled into neighbouring Tajikistan on Monday.

Taliban ‘will definitely try to attack here’

At Bagram, Kohistani said he was already receiving reports that the Taliban were making “movements in rural areas”.

One soldier, a private named Rafiullah, offered a clear picture of what he expected would come.

“The enemy are determined and will definitely try to attack here,” Rafiullah said as two Afghan military helicopters took off behind him.

“But we will not give them the chance.”

If or when the Taliban do mount an offensive to take Bagram, one of their targets will undoubtedly be a huge prison that holds up to 5,000 Taliban inmates.

“We haven’t come here to sleep. Everybody here is prepared to secure Bagram. Our morale is high,” insisted Rafiullah.

Another soldier also defiantly said he was ready to fight the Taliban but nevertheless signalled a feeling of unease over a lack of firepower and leadership.

“We will not surrender but we need weapons and strong backing from our leaders,” he said.

Witnessing history since the start of Cold War

If the Taliban do seize control of Bagram, it will be part of a longstanding pattern. The airfield was first built by the Americans for its Afghan ally during the Cold War in the 1950s.

The Soviet Union vastly expanded it after the Red Army invaded Afghanistan in 1979. After their withdrawal, the base was controlled by the Moscow-backed government and later by the shaky mujahideen administration during the 1990s civil war.

It was reported that at one point the Taliban controlled one end of the three-kilometre runway, and the opposition Northern Alliance the other.

Bagram ultimately fell into the Taliban’s hands after they overran large swaths of the country in the mid-1990s.

Following the September 11 attacks and the US invasion of Afghanistan, the Americans took control of the base and used it as the launching pad for air strikes against the Taliban and to protect Afghan forces.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)

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