7, September 2020

Tokyo Olympics will go ahead ‘with or without Covid’ ⁰

Tokyo’s postponed Olympics will go ahead next year regardless of the coronavirus pandemic, IOC vice president John Coates told AFP Monday, saying they would be the “Games that conquered Covid”.

The Olympics have never been cancelled outside of the world wars and Coates, speaking in a phone interview, was adamant that the Tokyo Games will start on their revised date.

“It will take place with or without Covid. The Games will start on July 23 next year,” said Coates, who heads the International Olympic Committee’s Coordination Commission for the Tokyo Games.

“The Games were going to be, their theme, the Reconstruction Games after the devastation of the tsunami,” he added, referring to a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan in 2011.

“Now very much these will be the Games that conquered Covid, the light at the end of the tunnel.”

In an historic decision, the 2020 Olympics were postponed because of the global march of the pandemic and they are now set to open on July 23, 2021.

But Japan’s borders are still largely closed to foreign visitors and a vaccine is months or even years away, feeding speculation about whether the Games are feasible at all.

Japanese officials have made clear they would not delay the Games a second time beyond 2021.

A recent poll found just one in four people in Japan want them to go ahead next year, with most backing either another postponement or a cancellation.

– ‘Monumental task’ –

Coates said the Japanese government “haven’t dropped the baton at all” following the postponement, despite the “monumental task” of putting the event back a year.

“Before Covid, (IOC president) Thomas Bach said this is the best prepared Games we’ve ever seen, the venues were almost all finished, they are now finished, the village is amazing, all the transport arrangements, everything is fine,” he said.

“Now it’s been postponed by one year, that’s presented a monumental task in terms of re-securing all the venues… something like 43 hotels we had to get out of those contracts and re-negotiate for a year later.

“Sponsorships had to be extended a year, broadcast rights.”

With much of that work underway, or accomplished, a task force has been set up to look at the different scenarios in 2021 — from how border controls will affect the movement of athletes and officials, to whether fans can pack venues.

The group, comprising Japanese and IOC officials, met for the first time last week.

“Their job now is to look at all the different counter-measures that will be required for the Games to take place,” said Coates, the long-time president of the Australian Olympic Committee.

“Some countries will have it (Covid) under control, some won’t. We’ll have athletes therefore coming from places where it’s under control and some where it is not.

“There’s 206 teams… so there’s a massive task being undertaken on the Japanese side.”

Source: AFP

6, September 2020

Notorious gang leader killed in Bamenda ⁰

The Cameroon army said Sunday its troops have killed a notorious gang leader of multiple high-profile crimes in restive English-speaking region of Northwest.

The gang leader simply identified as Fonteh alias Mad Dog was killed in an operation conducted by Special Forces early Sunday in Bamenda, the region’s chief town, the army said.

Fonteh was notorious for abductions, theft, harassment and killing of several civilians and members of government forces in the region, according to security reports.

The region has been facing an armed separatist conflict since 2017. It is unclear if Funteh was part of separatist fighters who attempt to create an independent nation in the two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest.

Source: Xinhuanet

6, September 2020

Accra: Cameroonian Grabbed For Stabbing Woman ⁰

Ulrich Njoh Mussima, a Cameroonian who went into hiding after inflicting knife wounds on a woman, has been picked up by the Tesano Divisional Police Command.

He was picked at the Amasaman court last Thursday after he had gone to court to support his colleagues in another case.

The victim (name withheld), according to the police, was injured in the nose, chest and right shoulder during the attack.

The Accra Regional Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), DSP Effia Tenge, said on August 27, a complainant who is a neigbour to the suspect reported to the Tesano Divisional Police Command that some foreigners were operating a pub in the area and were making excessive noise.

According to the complainant, several reports had been made to owners of the pub and the police about their activities, and the police proceeded to arrest four persons, namely Toungo Thera, Mola Asobo, Michael Matouala and Mouladi Bycther, who are from Cameroon, Congo and Senegal.

“The machines they were using were also seized and brought to the station by the police team,” DSP Tenge disclosed.

The police officer said Mussima was not at the scene but upon hearing the news about the arrest of his colleagues, he stormed the house of the complainant to attack him for reporting them, but he (complainant) was not present.

He then vented his spleen on the complainant’s daughter and inflicted knife wounds on her.

DSP Tenge said last Wednesday, the four arrested suspects appeared before court for trial and Mussima went there to offer support for them and was arrested.

Source: Daily Guide

6, September 2020

Cameroon’s twin crises create surge in teen pregnancy ⁰

Rachel Tarh (not her real name) is four months pregnant. She is from the English-speaking north-west region of Cameroon, but lives on the outskirts of Douala, the largest city. Along with her family, she was displaced by conflict between separatist rebels and government forces.

When Cameroon implemented Covid-19 restrictions in March, Tarh’s school was closed along with all the others. So she started working with her mother, selling meat in the market. She met a customer she liked, and became sexually involved with him. Now she’s pregnant.

“I have been crying since then, I am always locked up in the house. My parents too are not happy with

what I have done,” said Tarh. The father has refused to take any responsibility, and she’s scared for her future.

“It’s hard for me to continue this business, it brings back memories of the days I used to go out and sell, and the promises the father of my unborn child made to me. I equally wonder if my mother can trust any of my younger ones to go out and sell. Most of our customers are men who drink in bars, at times I tried to be nice to them so they would buy from me. That is where I met the father of my baby,” she said.

It is unlikely that Tarh will return to school. “All of us used to go to school, my parents farmed for us to go to school. My mother said whatever I made as profit from the meat I sold would help me go back to school. Now my parents have to worry about me and my baby.”

Rachel’s first visit to the hospital for antenatal care was a week ago. The floods and the rains have made things worse: the roads leading to their neighbourhood are inaccessible. She was only able to afford the journey and the medical care thanks to support from two local non-governmental organisations, the Rahel Randy Foundation and Rural Doctors.

The double crisis

Tarh’s story is not unique. She is one of many young women whose lives have been impacted by not one but two crises: Covid-19 and the ongoing conflict in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions. In Douala, the worsening economy and the closure of schools has forced many young women — already trying to recover from being displaced — to turn to sex work to make ends meet, or made them vulnerable to exploitative men.

This has led to a surge in teenage pregnancies, according to the Rahel Randy Foundation, which focuses on uplifting underprivileged and orphaned girls. Ten of the 50 young women they work with have become pregnant during the pandemic. Of these, most do not have access to maternal healthcare, and suffer from familial stigma.

“Most parents fear to open up on or report these cases,” said Rahel Randy, the head of the foundation. “This ends up affecting the girl child negatively. Many times, they drop out of school, and some end up as single child mothers who head families.”

According to the United Nations Children’s Agency, maternal mortality in Cameroon is among the highest in the world at 596 deaths per 100 000 births.

Source: Mail/Guardian

6, September 2020

Cameroonian Christians Leave COVID-19-Doubting Churches ⁰

Christians have left Cameroonian churches that claim COVID-19 does not exist. The defecting Christians say they saw some who obeyed church instructions to ignore barrier measures infected or dying from the virus. Christians are being accepted into other congregations.

This song “When God Speaks” blasts through loudspeakers at Winners Chapel, a popular church in the Fouda neighborhood in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé. The song, by the Nigerian gospel singer Frank Ugochukwu Edwards, is played to welcome 23 new members.

Among them is 37-year-old Annabella Tabot. Tabot says she left the Tabernacles of Freedoms Ministries because her pastor deceived them, saying that COVID-19 did not exist. Tabot says the pastor asked her 60-year-old husband not to go to the hospital and was instead praying for healing from evil spirits.

“His health condition kept on deteriorating and he finally died. Luckily the government came in and isolated him and the other family members were not contaminated,” she said.

In August, Cameroon’s government closed Tabernacles of Freedoms Ministries for preaching that COVID-19 is a hoax. Many of its 300 members defied government orders and kept worshiping in front of the closed church.

Tabot said more than 100 members left the church when her sick husband died, shortly after he was suspected of having COVID-19 and forced to go to the hospital by the government.

The Association of Pentecostal Churches in Yaoundé reported that at least 270 Christians left from six churches that preached against the existence of COVID-19. Protus Ngala, pastor of Redemption Ministries says 11 of his followers left.

“I have gone to some of the people,” he said. “I made some questionnaires and passed them over to the church [remaining members] to try to know what needs to be adjusted. I try to do all of those things to make sure that I am a better leader. I understand that I also could be defective.”

Ngala said he has always believed that COVID-19 exists but thought it could be treated through prayer and fasting.

Governor Naserie Paul Bea of Cameroon’s Center region says the Christians are changing churches after a rigorous campaign he led to educate the public on the dangers of COVID-19. He says churches that do not respect barrier measures to protect against the virus will be punished.

“We need to limit the activities of some of these groups,” he said. “We cannot be in a state that is saying one thing and another person is preaching another thing. The [churches] are there to be a relay, not only of the government but equally to teach the people what the Bible says.”

Sociologist Paul Emmanuel Somb of the University of Yaoundé says the high wave of defections show people are not happy with most churches’ teachings.

He says many new churches should face reality and acknowledge that their teachings truly do not respond to their member’s growing spiritual and health needs. He says pastors, priests and Imams should be true guarantors of the uprightness and morality of people who are counting on them. He says religious leaders who deceived their followers, saying that COVID-19 does not exist and collected money from them, claiming to instead deliver patients from evil spirits should be held responsible for their actions.

Since March 5 Cameroon has reported more than 19,000 COVID-19 cases, with 415 deaths according to Johns Hopkins University data.

A health worker wearing protective equipment, disinfects a member of medical staff amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at an hospital in Douala, Cameroon, April 27, 2020.

The central African state blames negligence, lack of knowledge and the failure of some churches to educate their members on the dangers of COVID-19 as among the factors in the increasing number of cases.

Culled from VOA

6, September 2020

Italian Grand Prix red-flagged after Leclerc crash, Hamilton gets penalty ⁰

The Italian Grand Prix was red-flagged and brought to a halt on Sunday after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed heavily into the barriers after slewing off the track at the Parabolica.

The Monegasque driver was unhurt and walked away from the high-speed crash, but severe damage to the barriers required repairs.

Leclerc won last year’s race from pole position.

His exit after 25 laps of the 53 followed the earlier retirement of outgoing team-mate Sebastian Vettel with brake failure.

Ferrari’s premature exit completed a miserable weekend for the most decorated team in Formula One which failed to get one car in the top ten on the grid on home soil for the first time since 1984.

Lewis Hamilton set sail from pole and looked en route to his 90th career win but the Mercedes world champion picked up a 10-second drive through penalty for pitting when the pitlane was closed.

It will leave him at the back of the pack when the race led by Racing Point’s Lance Stroll restarts.

Source: AFP

6, September 2020

Football: Moment of Mbappe brilliance gives France victory in Sweden ⁰

Kylian Mbappe scored with France’s only shot on goal on Saturday in Solna to give the world champions a 1-0 victory over Sweden in the opening round of matches in the Nations League.

Mbappe picked up the ball wide of the goal in the 41st minute, squeezed past two defenders, waited for goalkeeper Robin Olsen to go down and then clipped the ball just inside the post from the narrowest of angles.

The strike was enough to give France victory in a cagey opener in Group 3 of the elite League A in the competition.

Sweden managed just three strikes on target in the 90 minutes, though one of those was a deflection off French defender Dayot Upemecano that Hugo Lloris had to save.

Antoine Griezmann had a chance to double the French lead with the last kick of the game after Anthony Martial was fouled in the box, but the Barcelona attacker blasted the penalty high.

For France’s first match since they beat Albania last November, manager Didier Deschamps recalled Juventus midfielder Adrien Rabiot for his first appearance since he refused to serve as a standby for the 2018 World Cup.

France face Croatia in a rematch of the 2018 World Cup final at the Stade de France in Paris on Tuesday while Sweden take on the fourth team in the group, Portugal, winners of the inaugural Nations League, in Solna.

AFP

6, September 2020

Tennis: Williams rallies to move into last 16 of US Open ⁰

Serena Williams overcame an early scare to defeat fellow American Sloane Stephens and move into the last 16 of the US Open on Saturday.

Williams, the third seed, lost the first set convincingly before rallying to dominate the next two, triumphing 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 inside a near empty Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“It was intense, I have to say. We always have some really incredible matches and it brings out the best of my fitness when I play Sloane,” said Williams.

Stephens, the 26th seed and 2017 US Open champion dumped Williams out of the 2013 Australian Open during her sensational run to the semi-finals as a 19-year-old.

And after dropping the opening set, Williams feared that she was about to fall victim to a major upset again.

“In that first set I don’t think she made any errors, honestly. She was just playing so clean and I just said, ‘I don’t want to lose in straight sets.’

“Next thing I know, I won the second set and I was like, ‘Okay, great,'” Williams added.

The 38-year-old, gunning for a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam singles title, will play Greece’s 15th seed Maria Sakkari for a place in the quarter-finals.

Sakkari stunned Williams in three sets at the Western & Southern Open, a US Open tuneup, in New York last week.

With spectators barred from this year’s Flushing Meadows event due to the coronavirus pandemic, several top players took advantage of suites they have been assigned to watch two of their rivals in action.

Sofia Kenin and Naomi Osaka — the second and fourth seeds respectively — took in the three-setter, as did fifth seed in the men’s draw, German Alexander Zverev, who could be seen munching on sushi.

The opportunity to watch some tennis is a rare perk this Grand Slam for competitors who would normally be swamped by fans if they appeared in the stands.

“Usually it’s impossible to watch a match in a kind of peace,” explained Williams. So it’s cool us players can watch each other. It’s interesting, I like it.”

Also among the few onlookers was Williams’ three-year-old daughter who was filmed clapping approvingly at one point.

“I hope she say her mama fighting,” said Williams, before adding, “I don’t think she was paying attention. She may have been playing with some princesses upstairs.”

It has been more than three years since Williams won her 23rd Grand Slam title at the 2017 Australian Open — when she was already pregnant with Olympia.

Williams has come close since, reaching four major finals only to come away empty handed.

Source: AFP

5, September 2020

Two French soldiers killed in Mali ⁰

Two French soldiers were killed on Saturday in a military operation in Mali’s northeastern Kidal region, the Élysée Palace announced.

The two soldiers died after their armoured vehicle hit an improvised explosive device on September 5. A third soldier was wounded in the explosion.

French President Emmanuel Macron expresses his “deep respect” for the soldiers’ “sacrifice” and sends his “sincere condolences to their families and loved ones”, the presidential office said.

France started its military operations in the country in 2013, after Mali asked it to help regain territory seized by Islamist extremists who had hijacked a Touareg rebellion in the country’s northern desert regions the previous year.

The French military succeeded in this initial task – but the jihadist insurgency has since spread throughout Mali and across the border to Niger and Burkina Faso.

Earlier on Saturday, Mali’s military junta began talks with opposition groups on Saturday on its promise to hand power back to civilians, after mounting pressure from neighbouring countries since the coup in August.

The West African country has long been plagued by instability, a simmering jihadist revolt, ethnic violence and endemic corruption, prompting a clique of rebel soldiers to detain president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita last month.

In its statement announcing the death of the two French soldiers, the president’s office reiterated France’s calls for a swift transition of power to civilian rule in Mali.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

5, September 2020

French Cameroun: Of Biya the holidaymaker and Swiss repatriation ⁰

The French Cameroun dictator who was given marching orders to leave Swiss territory in June 2019 after a massive protest by French Camerounians at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva has ever since been shuttling between Yaoundé and his native Mvomeka’a for the past 14 months.

To be sure, it is exactly 14 months since the French Cameroun chief executive left Europe and has never again embarked on his so-called “short private stay”.

On June 23, 2019, Paul Biya and his wife, Chantal Biya after spending nine months in the nation’s capital reportedly left the country to rest at the luxurious Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva, Switzerland. But on July 5, only ten days later, the National Chairman of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate and Mrs. Chantal Biya were forced to return to Yaoundé.

French Cameroonian activists in the diaspora, grouped under the Anti-Sardinard Brigade (BAS), disrupted the presidential couple’s stay in Geneva with several demonstrations, including the most important on 29th June that witnessed attacks on Paul Biya’s close guards with a spilled over effect on a Swiss journalist who accused the Biya guards of having molested him. The guards were convicted and expelled from Swiss territory. Since then, Mr. Biya has not been on holiday on European soil.

He however, made two trips in France on the invitation of President Emmanuel Macron. The first was in Lyon in October 2019 for the 6th Replenishment Conference of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the second was to attend the Paris Peace Summit in November.

Paul Biya now spends most of his time between the Etoudi Palace in Yaoundé and Mvomeka’a, his home village in the South of the country. This is a surprising attitude for a President who has always been presented as a “holidaymaker”.

A report by Organize Crime and Corruption Reporting (OCCRP), as part of the Global Anti-Corruption Consortium, indicated in 2018 that the Cameroonian President, in 35 years of reign, had spent the equivalent of 90 billion CFA francs for “short private stays” outside Cameroon, mainly in Geneva.

The same survey indicated that the Cameroonian treasury was releasing, on a daily basis for the same reasons, about CFAF 20 million only in hotel expenses of the Head of State and his delegation, excluding meals and other extras.

By Besong Esther Agbor in Halmstad