Southern Cameroons Crisis: Manyu Ghost Warriors says it destroyed 1 Cameroon gov’t police vehicle

30, March 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Manyu Ghost Warriors says it destroyed 1 Cameroon gov’t police vehicle 0

Ambazonia Restoration Forces destroyed a police vehicle that was heading to the Upper Banyang Sub Division on Sunday as it pressed on with an offensive against Cameroon government troops deployed to Manyu.

A Manyu Ghost Warriors statement said four police officers were killed during the attack in the Tinto 1 forest but our reporter in Mamfe is yet to confirm the correctness of this developing story.

Hundreds of Manyu people have been killed and several displaced in a four-year Southern Cameroons insurgency that at its height saw the Ambazonia Interim Government control the entire Southern Cameroons territory.

There has been no comment from the Francophone civil administrator, who alongside the out gone mayor of Mamfe, John Ayuk Takunchong occasionally puts out statements and videos celebrating the genocide in Manyu Division.

Manyu has remained a hotspot since the fighting started 4 years ago, especially as the Southern Cameroonian President, Julius Ayuk Tabe, hails from this natural resources-rich Division.

The natives of this Division are not going to throw one of theirs under the boss anytime soon and the Amba fighters who have been keeping law and order in the Division have vowed that they will not be downing their tools until Mr. Julius Ayuk Tabe gets released from the East Cameroons dungeons where he has been locked up for more than 2 years.

By Asu Vera Eyere with files

Football: Sergio Aguero starts long farewell as Man City exit looms

30, March 2021

Football: Sergio Aguero starts long farewell as Man City exit looms 0

Sergio Aguero, who will always be associated with a single gilded moment in Manchester City’s history, is starting his long goodbye from the club with his position secure as one of the Premier League’s all-time greats.

Fans in the blue half of Manchester are coming to terms with the impending departure of the 32-year-old striker, who will leave when his contract expires at the end of the season.

Aguero joined City from Atletico Madrid in 2011, three years after the club was taken over by Abu Dhabi owners, and will leave after 10 trophy-laden years as the club’s record goalscorer, with 257 goals in 384 games so far.

“When a cycle comes to an end, many sensations arise,” the Argentine wrote on Twitter.

“A huge sense of satisfaction and pride remains in me for having played with Manchester City for a whole 10 seasons — unusual for a professional player in this day and age.”

Aguero has won four Premier League titles, with a fifth looking almost certain this season for City. Pep Guardiola’s side also remain in the hunt for a historic quadruple.

City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has revealed a statue of the striker has been commissioned to stand alongside those currently being made to honour Aguero’s former team-mates David Silva and Vincent Kompany.

“Sergio’s contribution to Manchester City over the last 10 years cannot be over-stated,” said Al Mubarak. “His legend will be indelibly etched into the memories of everyone who loves the club and maybe even in those who simply love football.”

Team-mate Kevin De Bruyne hailed him as a “City legend forever” while City defender Aymeric Laporte described him as a “class act” on and off the pitch.

Aguero has struggled with injuries since having knee surgery in the close season. A hamstring problem complicated his comeback and then he had to sit out a month after a coronavirus infection.

Those factors will have played a part in City’s decision not to offer him a new contract but the player himself is adamant he is far from finished, saying he is ready to face his new challenge with “passion and professionalism”.

– Aguero magic –

Even nine years after the event, it is impossible to separate Aguero from the goal that forever earned his place in the hearts of City fans.

Manchester United were seconds away from celebrating yet another Premier League title, prolonging the agony of their neighbours, who had not been crowned English champions since 1968.

But Aguero had other ideas, receiving the ball from Mario Balotelli and thundering home a finish to secure a 3-2 victory against QPR and send the Etihad into raptures.

There is even a 93:20 lounge at the stadium in a nod to the timing of Aguero’s dramatic title-clinching winner.

The Argentine became the club’s record goalscorer when he overtook Eric Brook’s 78-year landmark in 2017 and is now far out on his own.

He is the highest-scoring overseas player in Premier League history and is fourth on the all-time Premier League goalscoring list, with 181 goals.

Aguero’s problems with injuries and illness this season mean he has made just 14 appearances and he has scored just three times.

But former City defender Micah Richards, who won the title alongside Aguero in the 2011/12 season — believes the Argentine still has a lot to offer.

“Unless you get (Kylian) Mbappe, (Erling) Haaland or (Harry) Kane, what striker are you going to get to replace him? You get another year out of him,” Richards told the BBC.

City have been linked with a move for Borussia Dortmund hotshot Haaland, who is one of the most coveted players in world football, and Kane could be another option.

Aguero himself is adamant his departure does not mean the end of the story for him personally.

Barcelona are reported to be potential suitors and the Argentine has also been linked with Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Inter Milan.

City, for their part, hope to have thousands of fans back in their stadium as Covid-19 restrictions are eased — in time to say farewell to Aguero and give a fitting send-off to one of their true greats.

Source: AFP

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe says Self Defense Forces should serve as role models for Ambazonian youth

30, March 2021

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe says Self Defense Forces should serve as role models for Ambazonian youth 0

The leader of the Southern Cameroons restoration who also moonlights as President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku AyukTabe has hailed all Southern Cameroons Self Defense Groups who are sacrificing their lives to help free their homeland from French backed French Cameroun occupation, saying Ambazonian Restoration Forces should serve as a role model for Southern Cameroons young generation.

The Southern Cameroons leader made the comment, during a conversation with our Yaoundé city reporter inside the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison.

“Our Ambazonian heroes and Takumbeng mothers who have been martyred by La République du Cameroun (LRC) army soldiers, have sent through their sacrifices an important message to those who follow their path that getting to Buea is now a matter of urgency” Sisiku Ayuk Tabe said.

The Ambazonian leader further sounded a note of caution to the Biya French Cameroun regime saying the acceptance of an enabling environment for ceasefire by the Southern Cameroons Movements should not be interpreted as “victory” by the LRC regime in Yaoundé.

“The people of Southern Cameroons have never admired rogues and it should be known that their disdain for the system of La Republique du Cameroun derives from the corruption and embezzlement that are indeed the hallmarks of the government led by an 88-year-old president” the Ambazonian strongman added saying “the enemies should not be allowed to influence the Southern Cameroons youth and use them to advance their own greedy objectives. We are a dignified, efficient, trustworthy and confident people. We must carry these attributes on us daily.”

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe on a lighter note, expressed regret that there are people who are now being respected in La Republique du Cameroun because of the sacrifices made by Ambazonia Self Defense Groups, but these individuals continue to work against the ideals of those who lost their lives for their homeland.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

WHO experts say Covid-19 probably came to humans from animals

30, March 2021

WHO experts say Covid-19 probably came to humans from animals 0

Covid-19 probably passed to humans from a bat via an intermediary animal, an international expert mission to China concluded in a report seen by AFP Monday, while all but ruling out a laboratory leak.

But the report, drafted by World Health Organization-appointed international experts and their Chinese counterparts, offers no definitive answers on how the new coronavirus jumped to humans.

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Nearly all rural health centres destroyed in Biya regime attacks

29, March 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Nearly all rural health centres destroyed in Biya regime attacks 0

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government, Dabney Yerima has said that more than 400 health centers have been destroyed as a result of attacks by Cameroon government army soldiers waging a devastating military campaign against the English speaking people of Southern Cameroons.

Vice President Dabney Yerima told members of the Ambazonia Interim Government cabinet on Sunday that the French Cameroun regime headed by Mr. Paul Biya and the French Cameroun elite force known as the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) are responsible for the destruction of more than 400 Southern Cameroons health facilities in the rural areas.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader added that more than three quarters of all health centers in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia are now closed, while medicine is now a rare commodity.

Yerima also said that the deliberate silence maintain by the international community has turned the Southern Cameroons conflict into the largest humanitarian crisis in the Gulf of Guinea.

The high-ranking Southern Cameroons Interim Government official further highlighted that the plight of Ambazonian children remains grim with many in the rural areas dying of preventable causes.

Dabney Yerima went on to say that in the days ahead, the Interim Government will be implementing the Big Rubbergun project to push back the occupying French Cameroun army soldiers.

By  Asu Vera Eyere

French Cameroun war has inflicted millions of US dollar damage to Southern Cameroons farming sector

29, March 2021

French Cameroun war has inflicted millions of US dollar damage to Southern Cameroons farming sector 0

Prof Carlson Anyangwe, a senior Southern Cameroons academic and frontline leader has catalogued the harms caused by the French Cameroun military attacks against the people of Southern Cameroons, saying the war has, directly and indirectly, inflicted hundreds of millions of US dollars in damage to the Southern Cameroons farming sector.

Speaking exclusively to Cameroon Concord News, Prof Carlson Anyangwe said French Cameroun government army soldiers have looted agricultural buildings and facilities that were serving the CDC and PAMOL agro-industrial plants in Ndian, Fako and Menchum.

The Southern Cameroons figure added that agricultural warehouses, markets in the rural areas, farmers’ credit unions, and cocoa and coffee storage facilities have been demolished by troops loyal to the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé.

Elsewhere in his conversation with our London Bureau Chief, Prof Carlson Anyangwe said that the regular destruction of farming equipment and tools belonging to Southern Cameroons farmers is a justification for the Ambazonia Interim Government to intensify the ghost town operations throughout the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Carlson Anyangwe also pointed out that the damage done to the Southern Cameroons agrarian population was very large and that more than 96 percent of Ambazonians relying on the farming sector for their survival have been negatively impacted.

Prof Anyangwe revealed that indirect damage in the Southern Cameroons farming sector includes loss of production capacity and alternative opportunities.

By Chi Prudence Asong in London

Obama’s Kenyan granny ‘Mama Sarah’ dies aged 99

29, March 2021

Obama’s Kenyan granny ‘Mama Sarah’ dies aged 99 0

Sarah Onyango Obama, the step-grandmother of former US President Barack Obama, died Monday at a hospital in western Kenya, said relatives. She was at least 99 years old.

Mama Sarah, as the step-grandmother of the former US president was fondly called, was a philanthropist who promoted education for girls and orphans.

She passed away around 4am local time while being treated at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral hospital in Kisumu, Kenya’s third-largest city in the country’s west, according to her daughter Marsat Onyango.

“It is true she has gone to be with the Lord,” an emotional Onyango told reporters.

Once a simple country woman, Sarah Obama was for a long time best known for the hot porridge and doughnuts she served at a local school.

But she rose to world fame with the 2008 election of her step-grandson Barack, who became the first black US president.

She was the third wife of the former US president’s grandfather and helped raise his father, Barack Obama, Sr. The family is part of Kenya’s Luo ethnic group.

Providing food, education for orphans

For decades, Sarah Obama has helped orphans, raising some in her home. The Mama Sarah Obama Foundation helped provide food and education to children who lost their parents — providing school supplies, uniforms, basic medical needs, and school fees.

She will be remembered for her work to promote education to empower orphans, Kisumu Governor Anyang Nyong’o said while offering his condolences to the people of Kogelo village for losing a matriarch.

“She was a philanthropist who mobilised funds to pay school fees for the orphans,” he said.

Her famous grandson often showed affection toward her and referred to her as “Granny” in his memoir, “Dreams from My Father.” He described meeting her during his 1988 trip to his father’s homeland and their initial awkwardness as they struggled to communicate which developed into a warm bond.

She attended his first inauguration as president in 2009. Later, Obama spoke about his grandmother again in his September 2014 speech to the UN General Assembly.

‘I love education’

In a 2014 interview with AP, she said that even as an adult, letters would arrive but she couldn’t read them. She said she didn’t want her children to be illiterate, so she saw that all her family’s children went to school.

She recalled pedaling the president’s father six miles (nine kilometers) to school on the back of her bicycle every day from the family’s home village of Kogelo to the bigger town of Ngiya to make sure he got the education that she never had.

“I love education,” Sarah Obama said, because children “learn they can be self-sufficient,” especially girls who too often had no opportunity to go to school.

“If a woman gets an education she will not only educate her family but educate the entire village,” she said.

Details on preparations for her burial will be announced later, said her daughter. Sarah Obama was Muslim and it’s not clear whether she will be buried according to her faith’s practices that dictate she should be buried within 24 hours of death.

(FRANCE 24 with AP and AFP)

Amba Crisis: Washington showing its teeth, Sends Laurent Esso’s niece, Michelle Esso, out of the US

28, March 2021

Amba Crisis: Washington showing its teeth, Sends Laurent Esso’s niece, Michelle Esso, out of the US 0

The Biden Administration has begun hitting Biya administration officials where it hurts the most.

The Biden Administration has already indicated that Cameroon is a country which needs to be watched very carefully because of the gross human rights abuses taking place in the country, especially within the context of the Southern Cameroons crisis.

Washington clearly holds that the Yaoundé government is persecuting Southern Cameroonians for purely linguistic purposes.

The new U.S. Administration has sent Laurent Esso’s niece, Michelle Esso, out of the United States and she has been declared persona non grata.

Michelle Esso is paying a huge price for some of the errors and sins of her uncle, Laurent Esso, who is a key member of the Yaoundé crime syndicate that has usurped power and has opted to make things terribly hard for Cameroonians.

But it is the violence and disaster playing out in the country’s two English-speaking regions of the country that is paining the Biden Administration that is very high on human rights.

More Cameroonians supporting the corrupt and violent Yaoundé government will be knowing their fate vis a vis the Biden Administration in the coming weeks.

The Biden Administration has begun showing its teeth and it is determined to bring the aging, ailing and corrupt Yaoundé government to the negotiating table where a peaceful resolution to the four-year-old conflict will be found.

More will be yours as Cameroon Concord News Group gathers more details.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

French Cameroun: One soldier, three civilians dead in Boko Haram attack

28, March 2021

French Cameroun: One soldier, three civilians dead in Boko Haram attack 0

Security sources in Maroua said on Sunday that three civilians and one soldier were confirmed killed after Boko Haram fighters targeted a village in the Far North region with an assault over Saturday night.

Various sources revealed that the heavily fortified insurgents came aboard many vehicles and motorcycles and set blaze two shops, hangars, and started firing extensively during the attack in Dabanga village of the region.

Local officers stated that more than three civilians and one soldier were killed during the attack. Three Boko Haram insurgents were also killed in the army’s response.

A military official who asked not to be identified said that “Had the military not arrived in time and repulsed the terrorists, the death toll would have been frightening.”

5,000 people attend Barcelona rock concert after taking Covid-19 rapid tests

28, March 2021

5,000 people attend Barcelona rock concert after taking Covid-19 rapid tests 0

Music fans in Barcelona hugged, danced and sang along at a sold-out rock concert on Saturday night after taking rapid COVID-19 tests in a trial that could revive the live music industry in Spain and beyond.

Some 5,000 fans at the show for Spanish indie band Love of Lesbian had to wear masks but social distancing was not required in the Palau Sant Jordi arena.

“It was spectacular. We felt safe at all times. We were in the front row and it was something we’d missed a lot,” said publicist Salvador, 29, after the show. “We are very proud to have had the chance to take part in this. We hope it’ll be the first of many.”

In surreal scenes after a year of social distancing, fans danced up close to one another, but the sea of faces covered in masks showed that things were not quite back to normal.

Health controls at the entrance delayed the start of the concert, but could not dampen the celebratory spirit.

“Welcome to one of the most exciting concerts of our lives!” lead singer Santi Balmes told the crowd to a roar of cheers.

The government-approved concert served as a test for whether similar events will be able to start up again.

“It will be safer to be in the Palau Sant Jordi than walking down the street,” concert co-organiser Jordi Herreruela told Reuters earlier on Saturday.

Pre-concert testing at three Barcelona locations was carried out by 80 nurses wearing full personal protective equipment. Some people winced as nurses swabbed their noses.

By midday, three out of 2,400 people already screened had tested positive and one had come into contact with a positive case, said Dr. Josep Maria Libre, a doctor who oversaw the testing. They were unable to attend the concert and would get a refund.

Attendees received their antigen test results in 10 to 15 minutes via an app on their phones. The test and a mask were included in the ticket price.

“I believe today we have made one thing a reality which is to show the world that culture is safe,” said Ramon, a 49-year-old fan.

(REUTERS)

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