Monthly Archives: July 2019

17, July 2019

Internet a distant dream for many in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea ⁰

Equatorial Guinea is awash in oil, although little of the wealth has trickled down to the poor.

Yet one of the most glaring inequalities here is access to the internet.

Other parts of the world are pushing ahead with plans for fast, free — or at least low-cost — universal online access. Equatorial Guinea, a small reclusive state on the coast of central-western Africa, seems stuck in a timewarp.

With rare exceptions, sluggish speeds and stratospheric bills are the daily lot of people who want to search for information on the web, use social media, email, messaging and the myriad of other internet activities that are routine elsewhere.

“The internet in Equatorial Guinea is still a big-money business, reserved for those who can afford it,” said Mboro Mba, 35, seated on the ground behind a hotel as he tried to hook into a free wi-fi service with his smartphone.

Equatorial Guinea has the most expensive internet in the world after Zimbabwe, according to a list published this year by Ecobank, a pan-African bank.

One gigabyte of mobile data — roughly equivalent to watching an hour of television on Netflix — costs an eye-watering $35 dollars (31 euros).

By comparison, the average monthly pay of a manual worker or restaurant waiter in Equatorial Guinea is between 100,000-150,000 CFA francs ($170-260, 150-230 euros).

“For 2,000 CFA francs (3.40 euros), I can’t even download an 80-second video,” a local journalist told colleagues from central Africa who had come to Malabo to cover a regional meeting and found themselves caught out by internet problems.

“You really have to be patient to work with the internet in this country,” said a visitor from the Republic of Congo, unsuccessfully trying to send files to his editor.

The barriers to internet access here are so high that the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN agency, estimates that just a quarter — 26 percent — of Equatorial Guineans go online.

The authorities have set up a “free, public internet network” along the Paseo Maritimo, a seafront six kilometres (3.5 miles) long in Malabo that is also used for sporting activities and leisurely strolls.

“I come here almost every evening to talk on WhatsApp to my mother who is in Spain,” says Filomena, 32, a clothes vendor.

“I don’t have the money to have an internet connection, so I come here often with my friends to use the wi-fi,” schoolboy Jorge Obiang says, leaning against a tree with several young companions, all glued to their screens.

A former Spanish colony, Equatorial Guinea is nominally one of the richest states in Africa thanks to oil income.

By next month, its president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, will have ruled with an iron fist for 40 years — the longest tenure of any African leader alive today.

He has long been criticised for corruption within the regime and lack of openness to the rest of the world.

The slow service is especially paradoxical since “the country is situated in the Gulf of Guinea and so has access to a number of seabed cables”, said Julie Owono of Internet Sans Frontieres (Internet Without Borders), an NGO.

Equatorial Guinea — consisting of an island where Malabo lies and a forested territory on the African mainland that hosts trading capital Bata — is connected to three undersea fibre optic cables supplying internet service.

In neighbouring Gabon, internet access is five times less expensive on the scale drawn up by Ecobank.

– No competition –

The sky-high price of the internet “is explained by the very strong presence of the state (telecom) company on the market and lack of competition,” Owono said.

“Everything here is centralised, political decisions depend on one person, or a family, and it is difficult to establish a competitive market.”

The state telecoms agency GITGE, which sets tariffs, declined to respond to AFP’s questions.

Another disincentive for competition is internet blackouts ordered by those in power, she said.

In November 2017, on the eve of parliamentary elections, access to WhatsApp was blocked and social media became unavailable for five months.

“We’re living in the information era — the government is applying an enormous brake,” said Owono.

AFP

17, July 2019

US House passes resolution condemning Trump’s ‘racist’ tweets ⁰

The US House of Representatives has passed a resolution officially condemning President Donald Trump’s racist comments against four minority Democratic congresswomen.

The resolution passed on Tuesday denounces Trump for his “racist comments that have legitimized fear and hatred of New Americans and people of color.”

Referring to Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib Michigan and Ayanna Pressley Massachusetts, Trump wrote on Twitter Sunday, “Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.”

So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly……

Three of the four Representatives were born in the United States, but all are US citizens. Omar, a Muslim congresswoman, was born in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu and immigrated to the US as a refugee.

Speaking on the House floor prior to Tuesday vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged both Democratic and Republican lawmakers to “join us in condemning the president’s racist tweets.”

“To do anything less would be a shocking rejection of our values and a shameful abdication of our oath of office to protect the American people.”

Meanwhile, a growing number of Republicans, after initial hesitation, began to openly criticize Trump.

Texas Representative Will Hurd, for example, described Trump’s tweets as “racist and xenophobic” and “unbecoming of the leader of the free world.” Also, after one Ohio Representative, Mike Turner, called Trump’s words “racist,” four other Republicans from the same US state joined him in condemning the comments.

Nonetheless, some other Republicans continued to support Trump, with Representative Dan Meuser, Republican of Pennsylvania saying, “What has really happened here is that the president and his supporters have been forced to endure months of allegations of racism.”

“This ridiculous slander does a disservice to our nation,” Meuser said.

Trump, in response to the vote, said on Twitter that “those Tweets were NOT Racist,” adding, “I don’t have a Racist bone in my body!”

Source: Presstv

16, July 2019

Southern Cameroonians split on Swiss mediation ⁰

The split within the Cameroonian English-speaking secessionist movement over the choice of Switzerland as the mediator in its dispute with the Yaoundé government threatens to derail the initiative.

The about-face came just as final adjustments for the talks were being made. The Swiss claim the initiative has the support of the international community and denounced these new maneuvers, saying it would be a step back in the dialogue process.

There have been growing doubts, however, about the neutrality of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD Centre), the institution mandated by the Swiss authorities to conduct the talks. The main grievance relates to possible collusion between Geneva and Yaoundé.

Facilitator or mediator?

At the beginning of July, when President Paul Biya was in Geneva on a private visit, the secessionist leader of the Ambazonia Governing Council (AGC) Lucas Ayaba Cho issued a statement denouncing the “too close” relationship that he held existed between Geneva and Yaoundé.

He called on Switzerland to clarify its position. “[It] must clearly tell us if they are just a facilitator or a mediator. We will agree to work with Switzerland if it agrees to discuss with the mediator who will speak on behalf of Ambazonia, while it represents Cameroon,” he said. The AGC is one of the secessionist factions with an armed wing on the ground in Cameroon.

Apparently, during discreet preparatory meetings on 25 and 27 June, there was no direct dialogue between the English-speaking separatists and Cameroonian officials. The Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) clarified its role as mediator in a communiqué on 27 June, stating that it had been “mandated by a majority of the parties to facilitate an inclusive negotiation process”.

A source within the HD Centre, supported this, claiming that it was the main separatist groups “who approached Switzerland first” in order that it could open up a path of dialogue with the Cameroonian government.

Transparency should be the rule

The source went on to state that: “Our work has consisted in making contact with the multitude of groups that abound in the diaspora, in order to have a fairly representative range of the Ambazonian movement. We invited about ten of them and had two meetings with them. We also made an offer to the Cameroonian authorities through their ambassador, which was endorsed by the President of the Republic.”

The Swiss FDFA said it adhered to “the principle of discretion, in order not to compromise the process”. It further stated: “Discretion was a request from both parties to avoid controversy in the contact phase, to protect the process and to allow everyone to agree on the basis.”

This so-called discretion, however, is at the root of the suspicion of some participants, who believe that “transparency should be the rule”. The Consortium of Anglophone Civil Society Actors (CACSC), the organisation behind the first political demands made 2016, stated in a press release on 8 July, that transparency is a guarantee of trust.

“Trust is essential when engaging in such debates because it is only what can ensure that all parties accept the conclusions,” said the CACSC in its statement.

Call for mediation

There has been silence in Yaoundé about the follow-up to the first steps of the dialogue initiated by Switzerland. Having returned from his private trip to Geneva disrupted by Cameroonian political opponents, President Paul Biya has yet to comment on the subject.

Within the Cameroonian administration, however, the dissent expressed by secessionist groups did not go unnoticed. “These secessionists are making an unhealthy overbid,” said an anonymous official from the Ministry of Territorial Administration. “It is purely bad faith, they were all unanimous when they called for dialogue. They say they are fighting for their people, but in reality they do not care about them at all or they would not make that kind of decision when we are on the way out of the crisis. Mediation is the only way to resolve the conflict and end the violence.”

Swiss approach not inclusive

Geneva has not commented since its last communiqué but has received the support of the international community, including the United Nations and the United States, whose leaders have welcomed the initiative. Swiss officials anonymously condemned “false information that tends to undermine the credibility of the process”. They also indicated that the time is right for the final adjustments, and that talks should begin “within three months at the latest”.

On the ground, however, local observers point out that, despite it being a positive initiative, the approach by the Swiss mediators has its limitations. Joseph Léa Ngoula, a security expert, said the Swiss approach is not sufficiently inclusive to allow all parties to express themselves.

“The Swiss approach, although beneficial, remains insufficient to stop the spiral of violence that is spreading to the different regions of Cameroon,” he said. “It includes only a limited number of actors, leaving aside all the social and political forces that have a very important role to play in stabilising crisis zones in Cameroon.

Source: The Africa Report

16, July 2019

Rubber, Palm-Oil Output Slashed by Ambazonia Revolution ⁰

Cameroon top state-owned agribusiness said the Anglophone crisis in the country has had a “disastrous” effect on its operations, cutting output of palm-oil and rubber and leaving most of its banana plantations destroyed. The majority of about 22,000 workers at the Cameroon Development Corp., the country’s biggest employer after the state, are no longer going to the company’s plantations and haven’t been paid for months, Director-General Franklin Ngoni Njie told reporters on Sunday.

Sixteen workers have been killed by separatist fighters since the crisis erupted almost three years ago, and 98 others have been assaulted or maimed, he said. The CDC grows and processes rubber, palm-oil and bananas on about 42,000 hectares (104,000 acres).

Most of its plantations are in the Southwest and Northwest regions, where Cameroon’s minority English-speaking population lives. Economic activities in the two regions have been paralyzed by rebels who want to break away from the larger French-speaking area in the central African nation.

The unrest has left only four out of 11 rubber estates functional, halted operations at two palm-oil mills and slashed output to 2,100 metric tons, from an expected 17,400 tons, the CDC said. Agriculture Minister Gabriel Mbairobe said on July 5 that President Paul Biya would take “urgent measures” to ensure a resumption of activities at the company.

Source: Bloomberg

16, July 2019

The Butcher of Yaounde postpones local elections again ⁰

Cameroon President Paul Biya said Monday he was delaying local elections to 2020, a declaration read on the radio said Monday, the second time in two years that the poll has been postponed.

“The mandate of municipal councillors elected on September 30, 2013 has been extended until February 29, 2020,” Biya declared, which essentially sets the poll back until that date. No reason was given for the extension.

On July 11, 2018, the elections were postponed a first time using the same method. Biya, who is 86, has been in power for 36 years.

Legislative elections could now be delayed as well because the government wants to hold them at the same time to cut costs, deputies told AFP.

Cameroon is in the midst of a security crisis that has pitted separatist English-speaking regions in the west against the French-speaking population elsewhere. In the north, the Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram stages regular armed attacks meanwhile.

The country is also facing political ructions, with the head of the opposition Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon, Maurice Kamto, and about 100 of the party’s supporters still in jail after their arrest in January.

(AFP)

16, July 2019

Ambazonia: The state of the revolution ⁰

Fellow Ambazonians,

I come to you with revolutionary greetings.

For more than two years now, our people have been targeted and killed mercilessly by a vicious and terrorist government in Yaoundé. Latest figures from independent and respected sources state that more than twelve thousand of our people have been murdered. More than two hundred and fifty of our villages have been burned down. There are more than one million internally displaced persons (IDPs). More than one hundred thousand of our people are living as refugees in neighbouring Nigeria and other countries. There are more than three thousand Ambazonians detained in various prisons in La Republique du Cameroun without charge. Their only crime is having the audacity to seek for justice and independence.

In a Press Communication dated the 14th of July 2019, the colonial SDO of Meme, attempted to use old-school bribery and corruption tactics to bribe us. He offered the commercial bike riders of Kumba (Okada Boys) 5000 CFA frs each and five litres of fuel in return for going to work on Monday the 15th of July 2019. In a separate development, Patrick Ekema, the mayor of Buea threatened owners of businesses in Mile seventeen with eviction if they didn’t open their businesses on Mondays. On both occasions, yielding to the bribe or threat would have been against the spirit of our revolution. This would have been against the spirit of ghost town.

Bribery and threats are tactics synonymous with terrorist governments and rogue states. They have done us no good for fifty-eight years. The decision of the businesses in Mile seventeen, Buea and the Okada Boys in Kumba to respect ghost town today, Monday, the 15th of July 2019, is a mark of our determination as a people. It’s a mark of how much our independence means to us. The Interim Government and our leaders in detention are proud of them. Is five thousand frs CFA and five litres of fuel worth the lives that have been brutally cut short by the thugs in Yaoundé? Is five thousand frs CFA and 5 litres of fuel worth living as a slave?

For all the public utterances from La Republique about negotiations, school resumption and a peaceful resolution to this crisis, their actions show the opposite. They have and continue to move military to our territory. Their continuous murdering of unarmed civilians is a testament to their lack of respect for our lives. Are murder and the existence of their army in Ambazonia necessary for peace? Do they think that they must use threats, bribes and murder to force us to give up our legitimate struggle?

The darker the night, the nearer the dawn. At times during this struggle, the temptation to quit and give in is substantial. But let’s not give up. No nation in the history of the planet has gained freedom from its oppressor without human sacrifices. Let’s stand up and resist this terror till the last man standing. They have the superior guns, more money and the threats but we have truth, resolve and God on our side. In 2017, Paul Biya declared war on us. We were pushed to the wall and left with no choice. Our quest for justice and independence is the right thing to do. Our quest for self-determination is non-negotiable. Fellow Ambazonians, history is on our side. This revolution is the major challenge of our generation. Make no mistake; we must rise to this challenge.

In the words of Patrick Henry, let all Ambazonians follow the actions of the market traders in Mile Seventeen, Buea and the bike-riders in Kumba today in saying Give Us Liberty or Give us Death.

God Bless You All
Short Live the Revolution
Long Live the Federal Republic of Ambazonia

16, July 2019

UN releases report on Southern Cameroons ⁰

Imagine if your family was killed in front of you. Then, with no time to process what has occurred and or grieve, you are forced to hide in the wilderness for months to save your own life. After some time, some local non-governmental organizations and UN agencies find you and provide you with food, clean water, shelter and some soap. Then one day, even that little assistance is forced to be suspended, or even worse, stopped. That is the reality that most Cameroonians in the English-speaking parts of the country live in today. It has made the crisis in the English-speaking parts of Cameroon, as well as the other emergencies in the country (related to the Boko Haram crisis in Cameroon’s Far North and the influx of refugees from the Central African Republic in Cameroon’s East and North), among the most neglected and underfunded humanitarian crises in the world. In the English-speaking North-West and South-West regions alone, there are more than 1.3 million people in need of aid – which corresponds to a third of the local population. This is an eight-fold increase compared with 2018, when 160,000 people were estimated to need humanitarian assistance in those regions.

Dorothy*

This past January, Dorothy, 65, watched her husband and three of her five children being killed in front of her. She had to find the strength to pull her two other children and run. They have been on the run and in hiding ever since.

Dorothy* has been living in the wilderness since her home was burnt down in January 2019.

“In the course of running, I even badly hurt my leg and it is still badly swollen – I cannot afford to go to the hospital and I am scared to go into the big town,” Dorothy said. “In the bush, I sleep under a tree and we don’t even have blankets, we eat mostly roasted cocoyam (taro) and plantains. There are snakes that can harm us and when it is raining, we suffer more.” Dorothy often feels the urge to return to town but fears for the lives of her remaining children. “Sometimes we go for days without bathing. I am tired of living in the bush.”

Dorothy stands at the spot where her husband and three of her children were killed in what used to be her home.

Delivering aid

The humanitarian community is working in a highly volatile environment with many access challenges, including ongoing insecurity, confiscation and impounding of humanitarian supplies, regular ghost towns and lockdowns – which can paralyse humanitarian action for days – and a few attacks on aid supplies, most recently on 23 June. Despite this very challenging operational environment, humanitarian access is possible and needs to be accompanied by the delivery of assistance, so as not to erode the trust built with the local population. Humanitarian partners continue access negotiations and have been able to reach more than 125,000 people with humanitarian assistance so far in 2019.

Locally displaced people at the weekly food distribution allowance. Each family received 5kg of rice and 1 liter of palm oil.

Peter*

Peter,* 50, is a single father of five children. Two years ago, he was managing a community water project in one of the English-speaking regions. “It was a good job and I was able to provide for my children up until the day I was attacked.” In September 2018, his right hand was cut off during an attack.

Peter is a single father of five children. His right hand was cut off during an attack.

“I immediately collapsed with blood pouring out,” he recalled. The villagers called the mayor, who rushed Peter to the hospital. “I was in the hospital for about two weeks – I wanted to come home to be with my children. It was a terrible time and I was so scared the attackers would come back and harm my children,” he said. Now living with a disability, he has no source of income. His family depends on neighbours and well-wishers to feed them. His children are at home, as the local school was closed after the teachers were threatened and quit their jobs. “We need our schools open and we need peace now.”

Schools under siege

For the past three years, a ban on education has defined the daily life of children. Today, 80 per cent of schools are closed, with some 700,000 out-of-school children, and at least 74 schools have been destroyed. Since 2018, more than 300 students and teachers have been kidnapped. After traumatic experiences, they have all been subsequently released.

Many schools have been destroyed in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon. Teachers and students have been kidnapped. The remaining schools function under tremendous pressure.

Attacks on health care

Attacks on medical staff and infrastructure have become another characteristic of the crisis. Since the beginning of the crisis, several nurses have been killed, a dozen medical staff have been kidnapped, and at least three hospitals have been burned down. Forty per cent of health facilities in the North-West and South-West regions are not operational, and the rest are only partially functional.

A combination of prevailing insecurity, lack of funding and attacks on health care professionals and facilities have led to health centres being abandoned.

Dr David Smith *

Dr. Smith is a surgeon at a hospital in the English-speaking part of Cameroon. The hospital where he works treats victims of the violent crisis, many of whom are wounded or die from gunshot wounds or machete injuries.

Dr David Smith *, a surgeon at a local hospital in one of the English-speaking regions

“We look after those who arrive pregnant from the bush and those who suffer from the difficulty of living in the bush with ailments such as malaria and snake bites,” he said. Dr. Smith says that the hospital faces many other difficult situations. “At times the military come and takes away our wounded patients – and we never hear from them ever again.” But their biggest problem is lack of qualified staff. “Doctors and surgeons don’t want to come to this region and work.” The hospital also lacks equipment. “We desperately need help to equip our theatres and wards, and urgently need maternity incubators, for instance.”

In the media

In an interview with Sky News recently, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mark Lowcock highlighted the crisis in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.

Sky News ✔@SkyNews · Jul 12, 2019 “The international community is looking the other way.” @AlexCrawfordSky tells #Sunrise there’s been ongoing conflicts in Cameroon with separatists demanding independence, that’s led to “brutality” on both sides – “kidnapping rife, corruption rife”.http://po.st/RQkaG5

Sky News ✔@SkyNews ‘It’s a really harrowing, horrific situation.’@UNReliefChief Mark Lowcock reacts to @AlexCrawfordSky’s report on the independence war in Cameroon, calling it “one of the world’s least reported” and “most harrowing conflicts”.

Funding shortfall

All the efforts to provide assistance to the affected people are being jeopardized by the lack of international attention and critical lack of funding. The overall humanitarian response plan for Cameroon this year requested about US$300 million, but remains severely underfunded at only 19 per cent. For the North-West and South-West regions in particular, aid groups need $93 million to support 820,000 people with humanitarian assistance. Only $14 million has been received so far. More funding is urgently needed to sustain the humanitarian response. *Names have been changed.

Culled from the United Nations

15, July 2019

AFCON: 282 held over unrest in France after Algeria football win ⁰

A total of 282 people were arrested in France after unrest following the Algerian football team’s qualification for the final of the Africa Cup of Nations, the interior ministry said Monday.

Riotous celebrations erupted around the country after Algeria beat Nigeria 2-1 in the semi-final. The arrests were made nationwide on Sunday evening, the ministry said.

Some of the arrests were also linked to unrest surrounding events marking France’s national day celebrations on Sunday.

Unruly scenes erupted in Paris, Marseille and Lyon. Fifty people were arrested in the French capital and there were incidents between football fans and police on the Champs-Elysees avenue.

Dozens of cars were torched overnight in the eastern city of Lyon.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner on Monday congratulated police and firemen for their “speedy reaction and professionalism which contained the violence and to the perpetrators” being apprehended.

Of those arrested, 249 people were in custody.

Last Thursday, when Algeria defeated Ivory Coast to reach the semi-finals, fans went on the rampage in central Paris, looting shops.

On the same day in the southern city of Montpellier, an Algerian football supporter celebrating his team’s win lost control of his car at high speed and ran into a family, killing a woman and seriously injuring her baby.

Paris and Marseille are home to large minority communities of Algerian origin. Football celebrations, with supporters brandishing large national flags, have on occasion been a source of tensions.

AFP

15, July 2019

US: Poll gives Biden, Sanders and Warren lead over Trump ⁰

A new opinion survey shows that US President Donald Trump trails the Democratic Party’s most-talked-about presidential aspirants, ex-vice president Joe Biden, senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

The poll was conducted between July 7 and 9 among 800 registered voters. It was undertaken jointly by NBC News and The Wall Street Journal.

Clashing head to head, Biden would beat Trump 51 to 42 percent in the next election, while Sanders would overtake him 50 to 43, the poll showed.

‘I’d smack him in the mouth,’ Biden taunts Trump

Warren would also beat Trump outside the poll’s 3.5 percent margin of error by 48 percent against the president’s 43.

Sen. Kamala Harris will be successful too, but winning over Trump 45 to 44.

The hopefuls attend a heated televised debate on a monthly basis, which bears heavily on their respective popular image.

The competition is gaining momentum amid continued controversy surrounding Trump’s 2016 victory.

The furor concerns the country’s Electoral College system, and ongoing accusations of foreign meddling in the elections.

The system overrides the popular vote, which gives the victory to the candidate winning the most ballots. It instead makes 538 electors across different states, who are chosen based on each state’s representation in Congress, liable for electing the chief executive. Therefore, if a contestant secures at least 270 of the electoral votes, they have won the presidential race.

US movement seeks to axe Electoral College system

In 2016, the mechanism handed the presidential election’s victory to Trump over Hillary Clinton, although the voters had given the latter three million more votes.

The accusations of foreign intervention relates to claims that Russia conducted a campaign, including through various social media accounts, in order to positively influence the public opinion in Trump’s favor. Both Moscow and the president roundly rejects the claims.

15, July 2019

Germany: Moderator Fonki Samuel calls for unity and peace amid crisis in the PCC ⁰

The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon, the Rt. Rev. Fonki Samuel Forba reportedly on holidays in Europe made a surprise stop at the PC Ruhrgebiet in the city of Mülheim an der Ruhr in Germany on Sunday the 14^th of July 2019.

Rev Fonki Samuel Forba who is now heading a sinful and disgraceful Church encouraged Christians to follow the words of Christ as recorded in John 8:1-11. “Learn to remove the log from your eyes before removing the dust from others eyes“. The man of God observed during his homily that Christians should learn forgiveness and peace of mind as prescribed in Christ’s gospel.

The head of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon called for prayers for all those displaced by the war in Southern Cameroons and highlighted the fact that many congregations and presbyteries in the English speaking regions were grounded due to the ongoing crisis.

Rev Fonki pointed out that Christians should protect the church of God no matter what. The Moderator’s presentation was centred on peace and reconciliation both on the on-going crisis in Southern Cameroons and the conflict within the PCC.

The PCC has been rocked recently by numerous financial scandals with many Christians saying that the trip to Europe is unnecessary and an attempt by the Moderator to escape from the heat generated by the crisis in the church.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in Mulheim, Germany