Monthly Archives: August 2017

La Republique is 5th in FIFA Africa’s new ranking

10, August 2017

La Republique is 5th in FIFA Africa’s new ranking 0

La Republique du Cameroun is now fifth (5th) in the FIFA African ranking made public today August the 10th, 2017 behind Tunisia in fourth position.

The country that is currently at daggers-drawn positions with the new leadership of the Confederation of African Football Association is ahead of Nigeria (6th), Burkina Faso (7th), Algeria (8th), Ghana (9th) and Côte d’Ivoire (10th).

With a decisive 2018 World Cup qualifier against Nigeria, Cameroun also ranked 35th, progressing from one place in the World classification.

By Sonne Peter
Cameroon Concord News



North Korea says plans to fire missiles at Guam ready by mid-August

10, August 2017

North Korea says plans to fire missiles at Guam ready by mid-August 0

North Korea has announced that it will develop plans by mid-August to fire four intermediate-range missiles at the US territory of Guam. North Korea’s state media made the announcement on Thursday, noting that the plans will be presented to the country’s leader Kim Jong-un who will decide on whether to launch the missiles.

“The Hwasong-12 rockets to be launched by the KPA (Korean People’s Army) will cross the sky above Shimane, Hiroshima and Koichi Prefectures of Japan,” said the report, citing KPA Commander General Kim Rak-gyom.

“They will fly 3,356.7 kilometers for 1,065 seconds and hit the waters 30 to 40 kilometers away from Guam,” added the report. The KPA commander was cited in the reported as saying that US President Donald Trump was “bereft of reason” and only “absolute force can work on him.” He added that Trump’s recent “fire and fury” comments were a “load of nonsense.”

“They will be met with the fire and fury and, frankly, power, the likes of which this world has never seen before,” said Trump speaking in New Jersey on Tuesday. Meanwhile, North Koreans took part in a mass rally arranged by Pyongyang authorities in protest at recent sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council. The UN Security Council on Saturday passed a resolution slapping sweeping sanctions on the North over its first test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The council members, including Pyongyang’s traditional allies Beijing and Moscow, voted 15-0 for a partial ban on exports, aimed at slashing the North’a $3 billion foreign revenue by a third.

The sanctions ban all exports of coal, iron and iron ore, lead and lead ore, as well as fish and seafood from the country. They also block North Korea from increasing the number of workers it sends abroad, and prevents new joint ventures with Pyongyang or increasing investments in current ventures.

During the Wednesday rally, the protesters gathered in Pyongyang’s central square where senior North Korean officials delivered speeches to the crowd. Also on Wednesday, France urged all the concerned parties in the North Korean crisis to act responsibly and towards de-escalating the situation.

“France’s position is that it’s preoccupied by what is happening. You all know like me that today North Korea is capable of firing an intercontinental ballistic missile with missiles which can cross distances of 6,000 to 9,000 kilometers. And then, the American media have reported these past days about the North’s capacity to nuclearize its ballistic missiles,” said French government spokesman Christophe Castaner. “We call on all parties to act responsibly and de-escalate the situation,” He added.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric also told reporters that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is deeply worried over the surge in aggressive rhetoric by parties to the North Korea crisis.

“The secretary general remains extremely concerned by the ongoing situation and is troubled by the increase in confrontational rhetoric,” said Dujarric.

In a relevant development on Wednesday, Russia’s UN envoy, Vassily Nebenzia (seen below), expressed hopes that the US would keep “calm” in the crisis with Pyongyang.

 

“A military solution is not an option anyway,” he said.

“Our strong wish is that the United States keeps calm and refrains from any moves that would provoke another party to actions that might be dangerous,” he added.

North Korea has been under UN sanctions over its missile and nuclear development programs since 2006. The sanctions have, however, failed to dissuade the country from pursuing its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.

Pyongyang says it needs to continue developing its missile force as a deterrent against the US and its regional allies’ aggression and expansionism. Since early July, the North has tested two ICBMs, which it says can hit the US mainland.

Source: Presstv



Indian nun rescues Cameroonian sex slaves from Middle East

10, August 2017

Indian nun rescues Cameroonian sex slaves from Middle East 0

A celebrated Indian nun who rescues Cameroonian women from slavery in the Middle East has called for greater support for victims to help them recover from the horrors of being drugged, raped and abused. Sister Vanaja Jasphine says she has identified more than 200 women who have been trafficked from the central African nation and enslaved in the Middle East in recent years.

The 39-year-old nun last year helped to bring home 14 trafficking victims, whom she refers to as Cameroon’s “children”. A rising number of African women are heading to the Middle East for domestic work, driven abroad by the lack of jobs at home, rights activists say. Yet many have their passports confiscated and end up trapped in modern-day slavery.

“One woman was thrown from the balcony of a two-storey building by her employer after she accidentally burnt her boss’s shirt whilst ironing,” Jasphine said of a victim in Kuwait. Others are drugged and turned into sex slaves – being raped multiple times a day and even forced to have sex with animals.

“They come home with a lot of trauma,” Jasphine, coordinator of the Justice and Peace Commission of Kumbo, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a seminary in the capital Yaounde. “Sometimes, a (woman forced to be a) sex worker can be exploited 15 times a day – physically, mentally, she’s drained … she’s gone,” added the nun, who moved to northwest Cameroon almost a decade ago to work with the country’s poorest.

“In the end, she doesn’t have anything. She comes back in the same dress she left in.” Jasphine was hailed in June as one of eight global heroes in the fight against trafficking at the launch of the United States’ annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, which grades countries on their efforts to stamp out modern-day slavery. But Jasphine has no time for celebrations. She is too busy seeking funding, counselling and support for victims left traumatised by their ordeal abroad.

Jasphine says she identifies trafficking victims by working with activists, community leaders and civil society groups. To raise awareness about their plight, she has helped organise demonstrations, where women have marched with placards reading: ‘Bring back our suffering daughters’. “We got a lot of support from the people,” said Jasphine.

“It touches every heart because they (the people) feel: ‘It’s my own child who is affected, who is exploited’.” She has also lobbied government officials, all the way to the country’s prime minister, to do more to help the women.
Cameroon has made strides towards meeting the U.S. minimum standards to end trafficking, having provided services to some victims and sent a delegation to the Middle East to discuss Cameroonian workers’ rights, the 2017 TIP report said.

Yet the state has not funded repatriation for slavery victims stranded in the Middle East, and continues to rely on civil society groups to bring trafficking cases to its attention and provide most services for victims, the report said.

The government has tried to crack down on Cameroonians travelling to the Middle East, but traffickers have changed tactics, and are instead flying women via Nigeria, Jasphine said. She said the government must now do more to help those coming home.

Although her organisation and other groups try to help victims get back on their feet, take them to hospital and provide counselling, it is simply not enough, the nun warned. “It is very disheartening,” Jasphine said, showing a series of distressed text messages from one of the women she helped to rescue from Kuwait, who is now struggling financially.
“Much more needs to be done.”

Culled from Thomson Reuters Foundation



Kenya: Opposition claims ‘vote fraud after hack,’ rejects results

9, August 2017

Kenya: Opposition claims ‘vote fraud after hack,’ rejects results 0

Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga has claimed “massive fraud” in the general elections, rejecting the preliminary results, which have put his longtime rival, incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta, in the lead.

According to the official website of Kenya’s election commission (IEBC), Kenyatta was holding on to a commanding lead with 54.8 percent, while Odinga has only secured 44.4 percent after nearly 13 million ballots were counted from more than 35,000 of the 40,833 polling stations.

Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday, Odinga claimed that the results of Tuesday’s general elections are not reliable as the election commission’s voting systems had come under cyberattack, leading to “massive and extensive” vote fraud.

“Hackers gained entry into our election database” and “created errors,” Odinga said. “You can only cheat the people for so long,” the opposition leader said. “The 2017 general election was a fraud.”

He called on his supporters to maintain calm, but said “I don’t control the people.” Odinga’s deputy, Kalonzo Muyoka, also made a similar call, adding, however, that the opposition might urge “action” at a later date, without elaborating.

The opposition figure had earlier in the day decried the tallying process as a “sham.” Odinga alleged that the IEBC had not provided documents showing how the tallies were obtained, saying “it is the machine that has voted. These results are wrong.”

The hacking claims prompted Kenya’s election commission to react and counter the allegations, assuring Kenyans that “all is well.” Despite Odinga’s call for calm, a group of his supporters took to the streets to protest the results, chanting “No Raila, no peace.”

The protest, however, turned violent after police forces intervened and fired tear gas at the crowd. At least one protester was killed as riot police opened fire during the clashes in Kisii County, said Leonard Katana, a regional police commander.

Anti-riot units of the Kenyan Administration police are positioned outside a police station on the outskirts of Kibera in Nairobi, on August 9, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

 

Kenyatta, 55-year-old son of Kenya’s first president after independence from British colonial rule, campaigned on a record of key infrastructure projects — many backed by China – while claiming strong economic growth. Odinga, who is also the 72-year-old son of a leader of the independence struggle, presented himself as a champion of the poor as well as a fierce critic of corruption in the country.

Many voters, however, were expected to vote along ethnic lines. Kenyatta is broadly regarded as the candidate of the nation’s largest ethnic group of Kikuyu, while Odinga is affiliated with the Luo voting bloc, which has never won a presidential race.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta speaks to the media after voting at a polling station during the August 8, 2017 presidential election in Gatundu, Kiambu county. (Photo by AFP)

 

The top opposition candidate, who is making his fourth presidential run, has further accused his rival of stealing victory from him through rigging both in 2007 and 2013 polls. In 2007, the disputed election led to two months of ethnically-driven political violence that killed nearly 1,100 people and displaced 600,000 others.

The challenged poll in 2013 was referred to the courts, and ended largely peacefully even though Odinga emerged defeated. Tensions have been high leading up to this year’s election since late last month, when Chris Msando, a key administrator of the biometric voting system, was murdered.

“We fear that this is the precise reason why Mr. Chris Msando was assassinated,” Odinga emphasized, pointing to his allegation of fraud. However, IEBC appeared undeterred by Odinga’s statements.

Commissioner Roslyn Akombe said despite a request by an unnamed political party to halt releasing preliminary results the body has decided to “continue to display the results.”

Source: Presstv


New York: Biya delegation told to implement measures to build confidence with Southern Cameroonians

9, August 2017

New York: Biya delegation told to implement measures to build confidence with Southern Cameroonians 0

The Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), Amina J. Mohammed has stressed the importance of implementing measures to build confidence between French Cameroun and the Southern Cameroons community.

The UN diplomat met a French Cameroun delegation on Tuesday led by Paul Ghogomu, the Director of Cabinet at the Prime Minister’s Office and called for inclusive dialogue in attempts at resolving the Southern Cameroons crisis.
The Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations welcomed the efforts announced by the Biya Francophone regime and wished that the rights of the persons prosecuted in the context of the Southern Cameroons revolution be respected.

Dozens of Southern Cameroons arrested in the context of the Anglophone crisis, including three of the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium are currently prosecuted by the Yaoundé military court.
They are tried for acts of terrorism, popular insurrection, civil disobedience, contempt of the head of state … and risk the death penalty.

The situation has becoming more intractable following the election of an interim leader and the creation of the Southern Cameroons Governing Council including the intensification of the civil disobedience campaign by the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium.

By Chi Prudence Asong
Cameroon Concord News



CRTV-Amadou Vamoulke Affair: The shocking truth about Charles Ndongo’s involvement

9, August 2017

CRTV-Amadou Vamoulke Affair: The shocking truth about Charles Ndongo’s involvement 0

Amadou Vamoulke, the former general manager of the Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV), has been questioned at the Special Criminal Court in a new case just three days after the start of his trial in the Gervais Mendo Ze affair. The so-called new case relates to his management of the Cameroon radio and television (CRTV).

Cameroon Concord News sources revealed that this new file which could open comes after an audit report commissioned by Charles Ndongo the current general manager of CRTV on the management of his predecessor. For more than four hours on the 3rd of August, Amadou Vamoulke was interrogated at the Special Criminal Court.

Amadou Vamoulke who is incarcerated in the Kondengui Central prison in Yaoundé, was called to explain the purchase without tender the rights of re transmissions of certain major football competitions. Charles Ndongo alleges that Vamoulke violated the procurement procedure in connection with the purchase of these rights.

We understand the prosecutors at the Special Criminal Court and French Cameroun financial crime experts did not find any evidence against Amadou Vamoulke in the audiovisual (TV tax) scandal estimated at 3.9 billion FCFA. For instance, Amadou Vamoulke could not have been able to falsify an account operated by the treasury department in Yaoundé.

Alice Nkom one of the lawyers of the former GM of CRTV was quoted as saying that “Amadou Vamoulke is a victim of political and judicial fury. In the first case the judges were put under pressure to charge a citizen who did not steal anything. The Special Criminal Court hired experts who in their reports proved that the former General Manager of CRTV did not commit any crime, but in spite of these conclusions from the experts, our client is still in jail.”

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Concord News



Southern Cameroonian arrested for wearing an Argentina National Football team jersey

9, August 2017

Southern Cameroonian arrested for wearing an Argentina National Football team jersey 0

The man was abducted for wearing the Argentina Football T shirt. It was claimed that his T-shirt carried the secessionist colours. But actually, the guy was putting on the T shirt of the Argentina football team which looks almost like that of the secessionist group, the Southern Cameroons National Council.

Security agents in civilian dress instantly contacted the law and enforcement units, who hurried to the venue and instantly whisked him and disappeared with him in a mini bus. The people around could neither question or comment, but wondered quietly as they continued with their different marketing activities.

A certain Pa Kwenti said: “Police acted very quickly to arrest the individual and he remains in police custody at this time, he was certainly taken Up station for questioning, but might end in Yaoundé if found guilty. He could be charged with inciting violence, public disorder and threat to national unity. But all depend on his good luck and financial capacity of his family.”

Source: Cameroon Info.Net



Biya Francophone regime suffers 4 billion FCFA losses due to fraud and cyber crime

8, August 2017

Biya Francophone regime suffers 4 billion FCFA losses due to fraud and cyber crime 0

Cameroon has suffered nearly 4 billion CFA francs of losses due to financial scam on the Internet according to the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Minette Libom Li Likeng. She revealed that 3.7 billion CFA francs of losses have been attributed to bank card fraud.

The Francophone minister also noted that several billions of CFA francs deficits recorded came from “Simbox” fraud and electronic boxes used in charging the international telephone traffic at the price of the national tariff, redirecting and manipulating the international traffic on the Internet.

The same financial damage was caused by intrusions into the information systems of some companies. 12,800 vulnerabilities were detected on government websites including more than 200 cases of usurpation of Facebook profiles and cyber-bulletins and 28 attacks.

Minister Minette Libom further pointed out that 51% of the national Internet traffic volume is tied to illegal downloads. In terms of national solutions to these so-called different threats, Minette Libom Likeng cited the establishment of two cyber security laboratories, the establishment of cyber surveillance and surveillance networks within the public security administrations.

Similarly, a campaign to identify subscribers of telephone networks, begun in 2016 and will soon be strengthened by the establishment of a digital platform for subscriber’s identification and monitoring of electronic communications traffic.

Source: Cameroon Info.Net



Europe’s egg scandal reaches UK, France

8, August 2017

Europe’s egg scandal reaches UK, France 0

Britain and France say some contaminated eggs may have reached their supermarket shelves as the European egg contamination scandal broadens. Britain’s Food Standards Agency said on Monday it was “urgently investigating the distribution of these eggs in the UK,” adding that “the number of eggs involved is very small and the risk to public health is very low.”

It did not give the number of imported contaminated eggs in the country, but said it represented 0.0001 percent of eggs annually entering Britain. The contaminated eggs came from chickens which were fed Fipronil to treat red lice, a parasite in chickens.

“We are working closely with the businesses that have received eggs from affected farms. Investigations to date indicate that any affected products are no longer on the shelves,” the agency said. Meanwhile, the French government said more than a dozen batches of Dutch eggs contaminated with Fipronil have been found at two food-processing factories in central-western France.

The French Agriculture Ministry said they were unable to immediately say whether any of the products had been shipped to customers. The European Commission said on Monday the eggs under suspicion of contamination had also been distributed to France and Britain via Germany.

“It’s now up to the Swedish, Swiss, French and to the UK to check because all these eggs are traceable and trackable,” Commission spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen told reporters.

Supermarkets in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium have pulled millions of eggs from the shelves since Belgium gave the European Commission the first notification on July 20, while retailers in Sweden and Switzerland have followed suit.

Meanwhile Dutch farming organization LTO said several million hens may need to be culled at 150 companies in the country, with 300,000 having already been killed. An LTO spokesman said they “had to be eliminated because of contamination.”

Source: Presstv



UN sees ‘early signs of genocide’ in Central African Republic amid renewed fighting

8, August 2017

UN sees ‘early signs of genocide’ in Central African Republic amid renewed fighting 0

The UN aid chief has voiced alarm over possible genocide in the Central African Republic (CAR), which has been hit by a fresh wave of clashes between armed groups in recent months. At a UN briefing on Monday, the world body’s Under-Secretary-General and Emergency Relief Coordinator Stephen O’Brien said renewed fighting in the CAR are “the early warning signs of genocide” there.

He was speaking following his recent trip to the CAR and the Democratic Republic of Congo. “We must act now, not pare down the UN’s effort, and pray we don’t live to regret it,” he said. Some 180,000 people have been driven from their homes this year, bringing the total number of the displaced in the Central African Republic to well over half a million, he said.

O’Brien said it was time to authorize an increase in troops and police serving in the UN peacekeeping force in the CAR, known as MINUSCA, to enable the mission to “deliver on its critical protection mandate.” UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix last week said he was considering sending a request to the UN Security Council for more troops for MINUSCA.

In 2013, the country fell into chaos when then President Francois Bozize was ousted by the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel alliance. The ouster caused a series of deadly reprisal attacks between the Seleka rebels and the Christian militia known as anti-Balaka.

This image taken on June 12, 2017 shows MINUSCA peacekeepers patrolling in the town of Bria in Central African Republic. (By AFP)

 

The United Nations has 12,350 troops and police on the ground to help protect civilians and support the government of President Faustin-Archange Touadera, whose election last year helped significantly contain the inter-communal violence.

In recent months, the country has, however, witnessed a fresh wave of fighting between the armed groups. In May, some 300 people were killed and 100,000 displaced in the CAR in the worst flare-up since Touadera’s election. Locals say MINUSCA forces have failed to help stop the violence and provide security in the conflict-torn country.

Nine MINUSCA peacekeepers have been killed in the CAR since the beginning of this year, raising alarm that the country is sliding back into chaos. “The risk of a relapse into another large-scale humanitarian crisis is imminent,” said O’Brien.

Source: Presstv


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