Monthly Archives: August 2019

Getting married in the City of Coventry makes a special day even more significant

3, August 2019

Getting married in the City of Coventry makes a special day even more significant 0

Music floated from the Chapel, as the final preparations were made for a busy day of a historic wedding celebration that had His Lordship Bishop Emmanuel Bibi as chief celebrant. All the planning such as finding the venue, sending out invitations, checking out Winnie Couture franchise opportunities to find the dress of your dreams and choosing bridesmaids all paid off as the big day finally arrived!

It was that of ex-military officer Albert Angafor who recently graduated from the University of Coventry and his wife Viola Fechu. Viola wore a beautifully embroidered dress while Albert had a suit that shined brightly in the summer sun.

Speaking to Cameroon Concord News Group, Viola revealed that she didn’t want a big bouquet and instead opted for a simple option. Albert and Viola milled around the crowd before the wedding started and chatted to those who made the journey to celebrate their commitment to each other.

The Eucharistic celebration held at St Mary and Benedict Church Coventry with hundreds of family members and friends from all the nooks and crannies of the UK including US, Mainland Europe and Cameroon. Both Albert and Viola are originally from Mile One, Up station in Bamenda, in Southern Cameroons.

By Honorine Akenji in Coventry

Messi banned for 3 months

3, August 2019

Messi banned for 3 months 0

Argentine superstar Lionel Messi has been banned from playing for his national team for 3 months and fined 50,000 dollars after heavily criticizing CONMEBOL during the 2019 Copa America.

Messi had accused the South American football governing body of “corruption” for 2 incidents during the June-July Copa America, which was hosted by bitter rivals Brazil.

Argentina were denied 2 penalty claims in their 2-0 semi-final defeat to the hosts. Then, the 32-year-old striker was sent off, during the third-place play-off match against Chile in Brazil.

The statement by CONMEBOL didn’t specify why Messi was being punished, but said it was related to its disciplinary regulations. 

The ban means Messi will miss Argentina’s upcoming friendlies against Chile, Mexico and Germany in September and October. However, he will be with his team in the South American qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup, which will begin in March next year. 

French Cameroun: Boko Haram militants kill four villagers in Far North region

3, August 2019

French Cameroun: Boko Haram militants kill four villagers in Far North region 0

At least four bodies of villagers slashed to death by terror group Boko Haram were recovered early Friday in Guederou, a village in Cameroon’s Far North region, Cameroon’s army said on Friday.

The villagers were going about their daily activities when the militants struck, killing them and injuring some others on Thursday night, according to the army.

“Following the rapid intervention from the Cameroon army, two Boko Haram terrorists were neutralized and several others injured,” the army said in a statement.

On Tuesday, the group also attacked Kalagari, another locality in Far North region and chopped off the ears of “several” women, according to local authorities.

Boko Haram has killed about 2,000 people in Cameroon since 2014, according to local media quoting international NGOs.

Source: Xinhuanet

Biya’s Southern Cameroons war pushing Ambazonians into abject poverty

3, August 2019

Biya’s Southern Cameroons war pushing Ambazonians into abject poverty 0

Cameroon government army soldiers and anti Ambazonia armed groups supported by French Cameroun Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji targeting Southern Cameroons civilian population in both the Northern and Southern Zones have further deepened the suffering of the Ambazonia population as the Interim Government under Comrade Dabney Yerima struggles to press ahead with fund raising activities to support the Restoration Forces.

During the past three years, the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime has destroyed hundreds of Southern Cameroons settlements and financial institutions on lame and ridiculous reasons that they were linked to separatists. Correspondingly living conditions in Southern Cameroons have become steadily worse.

Ever since the onset of the Ambazonia resistance, French Cameroun soldiers including heavily armed men sponsored by Minister Paul Atanga Nji (A Southern Cameroonian by birth), have committed huge number of atrocities killing women and children and restricting Southern Cameroons agrarian population from farming.

Yaoundé has also been staging attacks on medical facilities located in Southern Cameroons and hundreds of small businesses have been forced to shut down. This is while French Cameroun appointed governors and civil administrators continue to deceive national and international public opinion that the Biya regime is in control and merely confronting separatist fighters.

Withstanding close to three years of a genocidal campaign, Southern Cameroonians, aided by its diaspora in Europe, the Republic of South Africa and North America have managed to greatly contain the Francophone terrorists passing for Cameroon government army soldiers.

The French Cameroun government onslaught in Southern Cameroons presently being staged by the gendarmerie, elements of the Rapid Intervention Battalion(Bir), the French Cameroun army and the Francophone dominated police force  have greatly exacerbated suffering among the traumatized Ambazonia populace following the war that has killed nearly 4000 people and displaced half a million.

The Ambazonia leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides detained at the Kondengui High Security Prison in Yaounde have urged the international community to hold the Biya Francophone regime accountable for the crimes in Southern Cameroons. The leader and his cabinet recently indulged in a hunger strike action to attract international attention to the plight of the Southern Cameroons people.

Vice President Dabney Yerima is expected to announce a major change in policy in the Southern Cameroons revolution this coming week.  According to the United Nations, some 40,000 Southern Cameroonians are now refugees in Nigeria and the figure is expected to rise. 95 percent of Southern Cameroonians now subsist beneath the poverty line. Independent pharmacies that provided medicines, blood derivatives and dialysis supplies have all disappeared and above all, Southern Cameroons HIV patients are dying in their numbers.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

UN Says New wave of terrorist attacks possible before end of this year

3, August 2019

UN Says New wave of terrorist attacks possible before end of this year 0

The United Nations has warned that a new wave of terror attacks may occur before the end of this year, as tens of thousands of foreigners, who had traveled abroad to join the Daesh or other terrorist groups, are said to be still alive.

Specialist monitors at the UN Security Council said in a report that despite recent decrease in attacks across the globe, terrorism continues to pose a significant threat to the world as up to 30,000 foreigners who traveled to the Iraq or Syria for joining the Daesh might still be alive.

Extremists from across Europe joined Daesh in droves in 2014, when the Takfiri terror group launched its campaign of death and destruction in Iraq and Syria.

European countries estimated that as many as 6,000 people traveled to the two Arab countries back then. About a third were killed, while another third remain detained in the region or have moved elsewhere.

“Their future prospects will be of international concern for the foreseeable future,” the report said. “Some may join al-Qaeda or other terrorist brands that may emerge.”

Europe has so far been unwilling to take back citizens who traveled to join Daesh, saying they pose a security threat to the European Union member states.

This has prompted US President Donald Trump to threaten the EU on Thursday that he may release over 10,000 European Daesh members, captured in Syria and Iraq, to return to the place where they came from.

PressTV-Trump to unleash 2,500 militants if Europe rejects them

Trump for several times asked European leaders to act more decisively and take back their nationals. Back in February, he posted a tweet calling on Europe to take them back or Washington would be “forced to release them.”

The US said it has arrested around 850 foreigners on terror charges in the last few years.

Back in January, France said it was considering the repatriation of 130 men and women to be tried, but a month later no progress appeared to have been made. French officials also said last year that they were working on plans to return children born to foreign fighters.

Earlier this year, Germany said that a third of its estimated 1,000 nationals who are believed to have joined Daesh in Iraq and Syria since 2013, have returned to their homeland. Many of those have since been prosecuted or placed into rehabilitation programs, Berlin said.

Source: Presstv

US announces new sanctions against Russia over Skripal poisoning

3, August 2019

US announces new sanctions against Russia over Skripal poisoning 0

A fresh round of sanctions were imposed on Moscow Saturday by the United States over the 2018 poisoning of former double-agent Sergei Skripal in the United Kingdom.

Russian agents have been blamed for the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury in March last year using the Soviet-developed nerve agent Novichok.

Washington said Saturday it will oppose “the extension of any loan or financial or technical assistance to Russia” by international financial institutions and put limits on US banks from financing Russian sovereign debt, US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.

The US will also limit the export of goods and technology to Russia, Ortagus added.

Chemical weapons

The Salisbury attack, the first offensive use of chemical weapons in Europe since World War II, caused an international outcry and prompted a mass expulsion of Russian diplomats by Western nations.

Moscow denies involvement in the poisoning and has offered numerous and varied alternative explanations and counter-accusations.

Skripal, a former officer with Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, was found guilty in 2006 of “high treason” before being traded in a spy exchange between Moscow, London and Washington.

In January the European Union imposed chemical weapons sanctions on nine Russian and Syrian officials, including the chief of the powerful GRU.

(AFP)

Islamic Movement in Nigeria challenges govt. ban

3, August 2019

Islamic Movement in Nigeria challenges govt. ban 0

The Islamic Movement in Nigeria has challenged a ban imposed by the Nigerian government in a Federal High Court. 

The court action challenging the banning of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria was filed at the Federal High Court Abuja by lawyers representing the movement. The lawyers said the order was hastily filed and granted, and that it violates the Nigerian constitution.

The Federal High Court had earlier granted an application by the Nigerian government banning the activities of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, and designating it a terrorist organization. In an announcement after the court order, the Nigerian chief of police said any protester arrested in connection with the movement would be prosecuted under the terrorism act. The team of lawyers representing the Islamic Movement in Nigeria wants the Federal High Court to intervene.

Supporters of leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky, have been engaged in several protests demanding the release of the prominent cleric who has been in detention for close to four years in violation of a court ruling ordering his immediate release.

Members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria have time and again stressed that the Nigerian government is determined to portray a negative impression of the Islamic Movement in order to justify the continuous oppression and murder of its members. They have pledged to be peaceful no matter the level of provocation.

Source: Presstv

Sudan Crisis: Factions agree constitutional declaration for transitional govt.

3, August 2019

Sudan Crisis: Factions agree constitutional declaration for transitional govt. 0

Sudan’s military council and its main opposition coalition have agreed a constitutional declaration to usher in a new period of transitional government, African Union mediator for Sudan Mohamed Hassan Lebatt told a news conference in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The document, which outlines the powers and the relationship between the branches of the transitional government, comes after weeks of protracted negotiations brokered by the African Union and neighboring Ethiopia amid sporadic bouts of violence in the capital Khartoum and other cities.

Lebatt said that the delegations will continue talks on Saturday over the technical details of the signature procedures but did not elaborate further on the contents of the declaration.

Sudan’s stability is crucial for the security of a volatile region stretching from the Horn of Africa to Libya that is ridden by conflict and power struggles.

This final agreement is meant to pave the way to a political transition after military leaders ousted former President Omar al-Bashir in April following months of protests against his rule.

Two key points of contention had been the role of Sudan’s General Intelligence Service and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the country’s most powerful paramilitary group.

PressTV-Thousands of Sudanese protest against killing of students

According to a draft of the declaration seen by Reuters, the intelligence service will report to the cabinet and the sovereign council, the body that will rule the country in the transitional period, while the RSF will fall under the general command of the armed forces.

The sides had previously agreed that the sovereign council will be comprised of 11 members — five officers selected by the military council, five civilians chosen by the FFC and another civilian to be agreed upon by both sides. Its first leader will be from the military.

When the sovereign council is formed, the country’s current ruling body, a transitional military council headed by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, RSF commander General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, will be dissolved.

(Source: Reuters)

Cameroon wrestling legend Jacob Mbeng, better known as Super Makia,has died aged 61

2, August 2019

Cameroon wrestling legend Jacob Mbeng, better known as Super Makia,has died aged 61 0

Africa’s wrestling legend Jacob Mbeng Makia, known by his ring name of Super Makia, has passed away aged 61.

The all time reigning African heavyweight champion was a mainstay on the African wrestling scene for more than two decades and appeared on Guinness Cameroun shows.

The great Super Makia also appeared on the international stage wrestling in Europe, China and in North America and was one of Cameroon wrestling’s best known figures alongside his kinsman the late Eko

Ntuntih News posted a heartfelt message on Face Book confirming the shock news, leading to tributes pouring in from across the wrestling community.

They wrote: “Ntuntih News announce with regrets the passing on of Jacob Mbeng Makia popularly referred to as Super Makia. The Cameroonian heavyweight passed on this morning. The born and breathe kumba boy, who discovered his talent after travelling to Nigeria in the 1980s died at the age of 61 as a fighter turn Hollywood actor and Singer.”

Chief Eyong Paolo of Mulheim an der Ruhr, Germany noted that “Super Makia was our friend. His passing leaves a huge hole in the lives of those who knew him.” He was the lone challenger of Congolese giant the DESTROYER. Super Makia was born on the 26th of February 1958. He fought 86 fights, won 85 and drew 1.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in Mulheim an der Ruhr

Benin Republic: Court bans presidential rival from elections

2, August 2019

Benin Republic: Court bans presidential rival from elections 0

A court in Benin on Friday handed a top opposition politician a suspended six-month jail term over campaign breaches and banned him from standing for elections for five years, in the latest case targeting rivals of President Patrice Talon.

Former prime minister Lionel Zinsou, who lives in France, was found guilty of using false documents and “exceeding” spending limits in his 2016 bid for the West African nation’s presidency, judicial sources told AFP.

Critics say the latest ruling is part of a concerted crackdown by former business magnate Talon that has driven key opponents into exile.

Multi-millionaire Sebastien Ajavon, who has voiced his ambitions for the top job, was sentenced in absentia to 20 years for drug trafficking in October.

Former president Thomas Boni Yayi left Benin in June, ostensibly for medical treatment, after being kept under de-facto house arrest after he criticised one-sided parliamentary elections that sparked bloody street protests.

– ‘Repression’ –

Talon, who made his fortune in cotton, came to power in 2016 on a modernising platform as he vowed to stamp out corruption and mismanagement in a country that has a reputation as one of the region’s most stable democracies.

Zinsou, who also holds French citizenship, came second to Talon in the 2016 presidential race but has remained in Paris in the face of his legal problems.

Protests rocked Benin following the parliamentary vote in April that saw parties allied to Talon win all the seats as opposition groups were effectively banned.

Amnesty International said post-election “repression reached disturbing levels” after four people were killed during the demonstrations.

In late July the ministry of justice released a list of “wanted” suspects, including a string of political figures it accused of evading justice in the country.

The minister signed a decree stopping authorities from issuing identification documents for anyone who did not answer police summons, in a move seen as targeting Talon’s opponents abroad.

Vincent Foly, the editor-in-chief of La Nouvelle Tribune that was shut down last year, said it was a sign that Talon was looking to tighten his grip over the country.

“He makes decisions that are seemingly unimportant but actually target opponents,” Foly told AFP.

Foly said the hardening stance had come as a surprise as initially Talon advocated to reduce the presidential mandate to a maximum of one term.

But now he said there “is no longer a shadow of a doubt” that the head of state wants to stand for re-election in 2021.

“He has realised that five years is not enough,” said Foly.

AFP

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