5, August 2020

Didier Drogba enters race to be president of Ivory Coast football federation ⁰

CHELSEA legend Didier Drogba was mobbed by thousands of adoring fans as he submitted his candidacy to become president of Ivory Coast football.

The 42-year-old will compete with four other hopefuls for the position after launching his bid in the country’s economic capital Abidjan.

Didier Drogba was met by adoring crowds as he bid to become the new FA President in Ivory CoastCredit: AFP or licensors

Didier Drogba hopes to be voted president of football in Ivory Coast next monthCredit: AFP or licensors

The elections to be top chief at the Cote d’Ivoire Football Federation take place on September 5.

And the former striker hopes his achievements throughout his distinguished club career and with The Elephants will help him be voted in.

Indeed the surrounding streets were full of fans desperate to get a glimpse of their idol, carry banners and wearing T-shirts adorned with Drogba’s face.

However, despite his popularity with football fans in the country, he is still not certain to be on the ballot.

Drogba needs nominations from three of the 14 Ligue 1 clubs and two from the lower divisions.

The two-time African Football of the Year also must have the endorsement of any of five special interest groups of coaches, doctors, current and former players and referees, according to Reuters.

And his candidacy has already suffered a big blow after the Ivory Coast Footballers Association controversially did not support him.

Drogba said: “Football is everyone’s sport, football brings people together, football unites.

“We can see it today with all these people gathered in front of the headquarters of the Ivorian football federation.”

The Blues icon added: ”It’s no secret that our football is going badly, and that is why with my team we are committed to contributing to the rebirth of Ivorian football.

Drogba's car was mobbed by hundreds of fans — Drogba’s car was mobbed by hundreds of fansCredit: AFP or licensors

Screaming supporters even made banners for the legendary strikerCredit: AFP or licensors

5, August 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: VP Yerima urges unity to overcome French Cameroun ⁰

The Southern Cameroons Vice President Dabney Yerima has called for unity to overcome what he describes as “a scorch-the-earth policy” against the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

In a statement released following this week’s war cabinet meeting, Vice President Yerima offered on behalf of the leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe the Interim Government’s “deepest condolences” to the people of the Manyu County over the passing to eternity of football legend Tataw Eta Stephen and urged national unity among all Southern Cameroonians.

“The war in Southern Cameroons with its unprecedented repercussions is causing untold misery to our people and requires a national stand by all Ambazonian people and leaders to overcome this aggression” Yerima noted.

Yerima also hailed the Ambazonia diaspora for their support to the people in Ground Zero and expressed the Ambazonia Interim Government’s readiness to hold unity talks with other Southern Cameroons resistance groups.

By Isong Asu

5, August 2020

Nations tighten mask rules, lockdowns as Covid-19 deaths approach 700,000 ⁰

France and the Netherlands are gearing up for stricter mask-wearing rules to fight the coronavirus as the global death toll from the pandemic neared 700,000.

Paris, Toulouse and other cities announced that the wearing of masks would be compulsory in particularly busy streets and squares. People already have to wear them inside most private businesses and all public buildings.

A scientific committee advising the French government warned that the country could lose control of its spread “at any time.”

In the Netherlands, the same mask-wearing measure will be applied in Rotterdam and the famous red-light district of Amsterdam from Wednesday.

And Ireland postponed the reopening of pubs and other nightspots on the advice of scientists, concerned about rising infections.

In other developments, the Philippines placed millions of people back under lockdown. And the hunt for an effective treatment continued with the United States launching trials of an antibody treatment for COVID-19.

Philippines resumes lockdown

Millions of people in the Philippines were ordered to stay home Tuesday in a bid to contain the rising rate of infections, and relieve pressure on overwhelmed hospitals.

More than 27 million people on the main island of Luzon, including the capital Manila, went back into a partial lockdown.

People have been told to stay home unless going out to buy essential goods, for exercise or for work, after the number of recorded infections surged past 100,000.

But with only 24 hours’ notice of the shutdown, many people were stranded in Manila, unable to get back to their hometowns after public transport and domestic flights were halted.

More than 18 million people worldwide have been infected with the virus since it first emerged in China late last year.

The worst hit country, the United States, had added 1,300 new deaths as of Tuesday evening, bringing its toll to nearly 156,000, according to Johns Hopkins University. The caseload grew by 53,847 to nearly 4.8 million, it said.

Far from slowing down, the latest figures show that the rate of infection is accelerating.

Brazil is driving a surge in Latin America and the Caribbean, where infections passed five million on Monday.

South America’s largest country has recorded more than 2.75 million cases, and nearly 95,000 deaths, nearly half the region’s 203,800 deaths.

US announces clinical trials

The world’s hope of ending the current cycle of outbreaks and lockdowns rests on finding a treatment.

The United States announced Tuesday it had begun late-stage clinical trials into a drug they hope will be an antibody against the coronavirus.

The Phase 3 trial will initially enroll some 300 volunteers around the world who have been hospitalized with mild to moderate COVID-19 with fewer than 13 days of symptoms.

On Monday, Russia said it aimed to launch mass production of a vaccine in September and turn out “several million” doses per month by next year.

In response, the World Health Organization on Tuesday urged Russia to follow the established guidelines for producing safe and effective vaccines.

Just a day earlier, the agency’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on countries to focus on basic suppression measures, such as contact tracing, maintaining physical distance and wearing a mask.

“There’s no silver bullet at the moment — and there might never be,” he warned.

‘Extraordinarily widespread’

Despite the grim numbers in America, President Donald Trump adopted a resolutely optimistic tone.

“We’re seeing indications that our strong mitigation efforts are working very well, actually, especially to protect those who are most at risk,” he said during a White House press conference addressing the pandemic.

In a morning tweet, he lashed out at his coronavirus response coordinator Deborah Birx after she warned the virus was “extraordinarily widespread” in the US.

Trump — angered by what he sees as overly pessimistic media coverage of his much-criticized handling of the epidemic — accused her of giving in to pressure to sound negative about the new surge.

“Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic!” Trump wrote on Twitter Monday.

Despite rising infection numbers in Europe, some countries are pushing ahead with plans to reopen schools and finding ways to keep their battered tourism sectors functioning.

Angry Nadal withdraws from US Open

Fears over the virus led defending champion Rafael Nadal to announce on Tuesday that he will not play the US Open, which is due to start in New York on August 31.

“The situation is very complicated worldwide, the COVID-19 cases are increasing, it looks like we still don’t have control of it.” Nadal said on Twitter.

“This is a decision I never wanted to take… for the time being I rather not travel.”

Women’s world number one Ashleigh Barty withdrew from the tournament last week citing “significant risks” from COVID-19.

(AFP)

5, August 2020

Two huge Beirut explosions kill 78, injure thousands ⁰

Rescuers worked through the night into Wednesday after two enormous explosions ripped through Beirut’s port, killing at least 78 people and injuring thousands, as they wrecked buildings across the Lebanese capital.

The second blast sent an enormous orange fireball into the sky, immediately followed by a tornado-like shockwave that flattened the port and shattered windows across the city.

The explosions — which were heard in Nicosia, 240 kilometres (150 miles) away in Cyprus — were logged by seismologists, registering as the equivalent of a 3.3-magnitude earthquake.

Bloodied, dazed and wounded people stumbled among the debris, glass shards and burning buildings in central Beirut.

Around 4,000 people were hurt by the blasts, with injuries recorded right across the city.

Lebanon is already reeling from an economic crisis that has left more than half of the population in poverty. The situation has been worsened in recent months by the coronavirus pandemic.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab said 2,750 tonnes of the agricultural fertiliser ammonium nitrate that had been stored for years in a portside warehouse had blown up, sparking “a disaster in every sense of the word”.

“What happened today will not pass without accountability,” said Diab. “Those responsible for this catastrophe will pay the price.”

General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim said the material had been confiscated years earlier and stored in the warehouse, just minutes from Beirut’s shopping and nightlife districts.

A soldier at the port, where relatives of the missing scrambled for news of their loved ones, told AFP: “It’s a catastrophe inside. There are corpses on the ground. Ambulances are still lifting the dead.”

A woman in her twenties stood screaming at security forces, asking about the fate of her brother, a port employee.

“His name is Jad, his eyes are green,” she pleaded, to no avail as officers refused her entry.

“It was like an atomic bomb,” said Makrouhie Yerganian, a retired schoolteacher in her mid-70s who has lived near the port for decades.

“I’ve experienced everything, but nothing like this before,” even during the country’s 1975-1990 civil war, she said.

“All the buildings around here have collapsed.”

AFP correspondents across the city saw shop and apartment windows blown out and streets covered with broken glass.

Photos posted online showed damage to the inside of Beirut airport’s terminal, nine kilometres from the explosion.

Hospitals already struggling with the country’s coronavirus outbreak were overwhelmed by the influx of wounded people and the country’s Red Cross called for urgent blood donations.

– ‘We saw the mushroom’ –

As the national defence council declared Beirut a disaster zone, Diab appealed to Lebanon’s allies to “stand by” the country and “help us treat these deep wounds”.

President Michel Aoun declared three days of mourning, and announced he would release 100 billion lira ($66 million) of emergency funds.

Condolences poured in from across the world with Gulf nations, the United States and even Lebanon’s arch foe Israel offering to send aid. France also promised to send assistance.

AFP video footage showed areas of near-complete devastation, with cars flipped onto their roofs, warehouses flattened and survivors drenched from head to toe in their own blood.

“We heard an explosion, then we saw the mushroom,” said a Beirut resident who witnessed the second deafening explosion from her balcony in the city’s Mansourieh district.

“The force of the blast threw us backwards into the apartment.”

An AFP correspondent at the scene minutes after said every shop in the Hamra commercial district had been damaged, with entire storefronts destroyed and many cars wrecked.

A huge blaze sent up black smoke from the port area, as helicopters dumped water on burning buildings.

A ship moored off the port was on fire, and the blasts also damaged a vessel deployed with United Nations peacekeeping force UNIFIL and injured some of its personnel.

– ‘Like an earthquake’ –

Hundreds shared their shock and grief on social media.

“Buildings are shaking,” tweeted one resident, while another wrote: “An enormous, deafening explosion just engulfed Beirut. Heard it from miles away.”

Online footage from a Lebanese newspaper office showed blown-out windows, scattered furniture and demolished interior panelling.

The explosions hit a country already reeling from its worst economic crisis in decades.

The local currency has plunged, and businesses have shuttered en masse, as poverty and unemployment have soared at an alarming rate.

Charity Save the Children said “the incident could not have occurred at a worse time”.

Source: AFP

5, August 2020

UN outraged by attack on camp hosting displaced people in French Cameroun ⁰

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, strongly condemns an unprovoked and brutal attack on a site hosting 800 internally displaced people (IDPs) near the village of Nguetchewe, in Cameroon’s Far North region.

At least 18 people were killed and 11 injured in the incident during the early hours of Sunday 2 August when assailants threw an explosive device, thought to be a grenade, into the makeshift camp while people were sleeping.

Some of the wounded were evacuated to Mokolo district hospital, an hour’s drive from Nguetchewe.

Some 1,500 people, including terrified residents of the hosting village, have fled to the nearby town of Mozogo for safety.

UNHCR is deploying an emergency mission to assess the situation and evaluate the protection and health needs of those affected.

Local communities in this impoverished area are often the first responders to those fleeing growing insecurity and violence in the area which covers Lake Chad and north-east Nigeria. They are sometimes related and they share with them the few resources they have.

Against the background of growing insecurity, UNHCR anticipates enhanced community protection, shelter, water and sanitation will be needed as the country responds to the COVID-19 pandemic.

UNHCR calls on all actors to respect the civilian and humanitarian character of IDP camps, and to respond promptly to the urgent needs of people who have fled violence and suffered multiple displacements.

This attack follows a significant rise in violent incidents in Cameroon’s Far-North Region in July, including looting and kidnapping by Boko Haram and other armed groups active in the region. The Far North region, tucked between Nigeria’s Borno and Adamawa states and Lake Chad, currently hosts 321,886 IDPs and 115,000 Nigerian refugees.

The incident is also a sad reminder of the intensity and brutality of the violence in the wider the Lake Chad Basin region that has forced more than three million people to flee: 2,7m are internally displaced in Northeast Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, while 292,682 Nigerian refugees fled into neighbouring countries.

Cameroon reports that since January this year, it has recorded 87 Boko Haram attacks on its northern border with Nigeria. Twenty-two of them were in the northern district of Mozogo alone.

Violent attacks have cost the lives of 30,000 people and displaced more than 3 million in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Culled from UNHCR

4, August 2020

Biya Regime Seals Church That Claims COVID-19 Does Not Exists ⁰

This music is played on loudspeakers by a group of seven members of the Tabernacles of Freedoms Ministries in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde.

The four women and three men move from house to house and street to street calling themselves end time evangelists. Thirty-two-year-old Prudence Mayah, the group leader is referred to by church members as sister.

She said last month God revealed to them through their pastor Ngoa Atangana that nations are wasting the time and resources being spent on fighting COVID-19.

“We are asking everybody to go on their knees and pray and know that there is nothing as coronavirus,” Mayah said. “It is God’s punishment for wrongdoing, for the several wars people are fighting in the world. A man marries a man and a woman marries a woman, so God is very angry.”

Among the 45 homes the group said it visited on Monday is that of 49-year old farmer Lionnie Fotso. Fotso said she believes in the teachings of the small church, and will follow its orders not to wear masks.

Fotso said Tabernacles of Freedoms Ministries has just confirmed her thoughts that COVID-19 is a hoax. She said no member of a group of 300 farmers where she belongs has ever attested that she saw a COVID-19 patient and none of them has been sick of the so-called coronavirus.

COVID-19 is very real, killing more than one million people worldwide since December. There have been more than 17,000 cases in Cameroon alone, and about 400 deaths in the Central African state.

But that doesn’t stop the Tabernacles church, which has about 300 followers and reaches more people with broadcasts on Yaounde radio stations.

Last week, Governor Naserie Paul Bea of Cameroon’s Center Region said three students refused to take their secondary school certificate exams because they were asked to wear masks.

When the student’s parents were asked to come to school and convince their children to wear the masks, the parents chose to take the children home. The parents said they were members of the church.

The governor said he has ordered the church to follow instructions on COVID-19 prevention or be arrested. ‘We have already closed down this church for anti-government policies,” Bea said. “You can imagine, some of our youths have refused vaccinations. Some of them are now refusing barrier measures (against COVID-19). Some of them refuse even to go to the hospitals, (saying) that if you die, they can pray and you come back to life.”

Even with the closure of the church, members have continued organizing their daily prayers and meetings in front of the sealed building.

The church says it also sends out fifteen groups of seven on a daily basis, to preach its erroneous message about COVID-19.

Source: VOA

4, August 2020

Maradona pays tribute to Tataw Stephen ⁰

Former Argentina captain Diego Maradona has saluted his late Cameroon counterpart Stephen Tataw who died last Friday aged 57.

A right-back in his playing days, Tataw captained Cameroon at the 1990 and 1994 Fifa World Cup tournaments.

At Italy 1990, he led a team that stunned then defending champions Argentina 1-0 in their opening Group B match, thanks to a Francois-Omam Biyik second-half goal.

Posting a picture of himself and Tataw on social media just before the famous match at the San Siro, Maradona saluted the ex-Cameroon skipper.

“Thirty years ago, with Stephen Tataw, captain of the “Indomitable Lions” of Cameroon at the 1990 World Cup. My respects to your family, may you rest in peace,” wrote Maradona.

Source: Goal.com

4, August 2020

Farewell Ambassador Tataw Eta Stephen alias Janvion ⁰

Powerful and yet, affable, that was Stephen. How does anyone explain the logic of basking in glory in life and languishing in anonymity in death? Such is the mystery of life. On the whole, I will forever admire him as a great guy because he had the courage of his convictions, and he paid the price for his passion.

He knew he was not so good academically and so, though a relative of late General Tataw who could have opened doors for him, he did not barge into medical school (CUSS Yaounde) to mess up some lives or bribe his way into ENAM and build a castle in Makeup in record time.

He was talented in soccer and he knew it. He was passionate about the beautiful game and he went on to distinguish himself on the international stage, with those vintage sliding tackles. No wonder Aljazeera carried the news of his passing.

My goodness! Did Tataw play soccer? From his debut in remote Ekona at the foot of Mt Cameroon, he attended college in Baptist Boys Secondary School Buea.

From inter-school sports competitions called OSUCS with CCAST Bambili and Nacho Comprehensive College in Bamenda, he rose to provincial club soccer with Cammark Bamenda and then the great Tonnerre Kalara Club of the nation’s capital, Yaounde.

Soccer fans remember the days of the local derbies that split the town between the legendary Roger Milla of Tonnere and the no less charismatic Black Spider Thomas Nkono, of Canon Kpa Kum.

Alongside other football household names like Abega Theophile, Mbida Arantes, Mfede Louis Paul of the continental Lions of Africa, Skipper Tataw Stephen, led the first African team to reach the 8th Finals at the World Cup. These are the boys that traumatized world bookmakers by bringing down the world champions, led by the all-time great, Maradona, in Italy 1990.

Age catches up with every man and after a two-year acquaintance with international football in Japan, he came back home.

He tried his hand in business, but of course, that was not his turf. He had a stint with the national team as part of the technical staff. For reasons best known within the tumultuous FECAFOOT that has known close to 20 coaches in 40 years, he was dropped.

That was when he began dropping morally. And when your morale drops, like a domino effect, the other areas of your life begin to adjust to the tune set, thereby.

His beloved wife dropped dead two years ago. His health dropped and with his pockets having been depleted over the years, the one who never gave up until the blast of the final whistle probably gave up on life. If that was not the case, why did he refuse to go to hospital as his health deteriorated? How come the gentle and friendly man became a recluse? Your guess is as good as mine.

Song Bahanak who took the captain’s arm band from Tataw had a huge health challenge a couple of years ago. Song was sick? The news went round like a prairie fire and all inertia was jolted into action. Red tape was broken with a snap and with a chartered flight, he was whisked off to France. His life was saved.

The captain of the Lions is an institution! What are you talking about? Until 1982 and 1990, Cameroon was nowhere in the world. Footballers, as the best ambassadors of the country, put this Central African country on the world map. Many will attest to great favours they have enjoyed world wide, and in the most unexpected circumstances when someone said “Oh, are you Cameroonian?” And the response was yes. “You have a great soccer team”. “I love Roger Milla.” ” Eto’o is my man!” “Oh! You need not pay, for I love your soccer team”. And the list goes on.

These guys did great for a country known for its corruption records. Twice in a row, Cameroon was at the top of the Corruption Index of Transparency International, remember? So, for their role on the World stage, these players deserve all the nation can afford them. The question on the mind of many is, “Why was the same treatment or even something a bit close, offered to Song Bahanak not availed to StephenTataw?

To have had 63 selections and kept the captain’s band over a majority francophone star-studded team was no mean feat. It was NOT a favour. While history will reveal the full story some day, there is cause to appeal for a mechanism to take care of our national heroes.

The cautionary line here touches on the need to learn from the school of life. Mbappe Leppe, another national hero of the 70s died in abject misery. It was so bad, the family had to plead for national compassion from any Cameroonian of goodwill. Many ran to the rescue as he lay bed-ridden at the Yaounde Central Hospital, after pictures of him did the rounds in the national daily, Cameroon Tribune.

Before he finally died, he must have died about three times before. With time I have learnt that men die slowly or die in stages. He died from pain, from shame and from regret.

Had Janvion made better investments, he may not have counted on the Government that dropped him. Had he made some other choices, he may not have resorted to FECAFOOT that broke his heart. How do you fault a man for too much trust in the country he sweated blood for?

There is no doubt he will receive a hero’s burial. We are reminiscent of the pomp and pageantry around the burial of Marc Vivien Foe or Dr Abega Theophile, and we are comforted. The virgil will be graced by great music by Cameroon star artists and speeches by several ministers and football heroes. This will be crowned by the national promotion and decoration with the Presidential award, posthumously.

I hope his kids, Junior and Yvana will benefit from it all. Will they? Better still, I hope others like Pagal, Makanaky and Omam will take a leaf from the life and death of their fellow sportsman.

Will they learn from their Captain and make the right sliding tackle to save their families from the goal that may bring them down, before the final whistle?

Farewell, Janvion.

Bon voyage, mon type.

BoP, Riviera.

3, August 2020

French Cameroun: Military plane crashes, no fatalities reported ⁰

A Cameroonian military plane crashed in a bush during landing at Maroua Airport in the country’s Far North region on Sunday, but there were no fatalities, local authorities said.

The plane sped off the runway following landing and crashed in the bush, authorities said.

Several people, including civilians and soldiers, were injured and were immediately rushed to the hospital to receive medical attention.

The cause of the incident has not been established, but preliminary investigations indicate it was caused by “poor weather,” according to military sources.

Source: Xinhuanet

3, August 2020

FIFA: Infantino to ‘respect’ any ethics committee decision ⁰

FIFA president Gianni Infantino will “respect any decision by the ethics committee”, world football’s governing body said Monday after Swiss authorities opened criminal proceedings against him last week.

A Swiss special prosecutor has launched proceedings against Infantino, as part of an investigation into suspected collusion with the country’s attorney general, Michael Lauber. Both have denied any wrongdoing.

“I’ve no doubt that Gianni Infantino would respect any decision by the ethics commission,” FIFA deputy secretary general Alasdair Bell told a video news conference. “We don’t see any evidence of criminal or unethical behaviour,” he said.

FIFA on Sunday insisted Infantino would continue to fulfil his duties as president and blasted the Swiss probe.

It gave no indication on Monday whether or not its ethics committee had instigated proceedings against Infantino.

“The ethics committee will have to come to its own conclusion… In every case, it needs to be tested, if there’s something serious, there’s a case for suspension,” said Bell.

Questioned about Infantino’s absence during Monday’s video conference, Bell said the FIFA chief “will be available and will speak in order to clear his name.”

He added: “FIFA and Gianni Infantino have absolutely nothing to hide, we want to be transparent. There’s no factual basis for this criminal procedure.”

Infantino and Lauber are said to have held a series of meetings in 2016 and 2017.

Two such meetings were initially exposed in 2018 by “Football Leaks”, a cross-border investigation by several European news organisations.

In a statement Thursday, Swiss authorities said special prosecutor Stefan Keller “has reached the conclusion that…there are indications of criminal conduct” in relation to meetings between Infantino, Lauber and another official, Rinaldo Arnold.

“This concerns abuse of public office, breach of official secrecy, assisting offenders and incitement to these acts,” the authorities said.

Lauber, who offered his resignation on July 24, was in charge of Switzerland’s probe into the towering corruption scandal that exploded at the heart of Zurich-based FIFA in 2015.

But he was forced to recuse himself from the investigation in June 2019, following media revelations that he had held several undeclared meetings with Infantino during the probe.

Switzerland has pursued a number of cases since a raid on a luxury hotel in Zurich in May 2015 led to the arrests of a several FIFA executives and exposed an allegedly corrupt underbelly in world football.

In total, more than 20 FIFA proceedings have been opened in Switzerland over the past five years into allegations of corruption and vote-buying, and allegations over the awarding of television rights contracts.

Source: AFP