Monthly Archives: November 2019

Indomitable Lions: Ex-midfielder Modeste M’Bami turns down team manager role

26, November 2019

Indomitable Lions: Ex-midfielder Modeste M’Bami turns down team manager role 0

Former Cameroon midfielder Modeste M’bami has turned down an offer to become his country’s new team manager.

The 37-year-old retired in 2016 and Cameroon’s football federation (Fecafoot) wanted him to succeed Salomon Olembe, who worked under former head coach Clarence Seedorf at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

But the former Paris St-Germain and Marseille midfielder said his appointment to work alongside new head coach Tony Coneicao was made by Fecafoot without prior consultation.

“I decline the offer of my appointment to the position of Team Manager of the national men’s team A ‘of Cameroon,” M’bami said in a statement.

“I remain convinced that the appointment to such an important position should meet certain prerequisites; discussion with the person concerned, specifically about the project, the working conditions and collaboration that would be presented in the agreement, ‘the contract’.”

Capped 38 times by his country, the 2000 Olympic Games football gold medallist also cited the poor treatment of former players in same role also contributed to his decision.

“Given the fact that some former footballers before me have been appointed and have always suffered humiliation in the exercise of their duties, which has always led to their dismissal without means,” he added.

“In view of all the above, I can easily draw the conclusion that the change of personnel in different positions is not the real solution to the scourge that undermines our football in general and our national teams in particular.”

Born in the capital city of Yaoundé, M’bami played professionally in France, Spain, China, Saudi Arabia and Colombia.

A former youth international, he represented the Indomitable Lions at the 2003 Fifa Confederations Cup and two Nations Cup tournaments in 2004 and 2008.

Source: BBC

French Cameroun: Maurice Kamto’s MRC to boycott February elections

25, November 2019

French Cameroun: Maurice Kamto’s MRC to boycott February elections 0

Cameroon’s opposition leader said on Monday his party would boycott February’s legislative and local elections, hardening his standoff with the authorities, which are also grappling with a deadly separatist insurgency.

This is the latest sign that President Paul Biya’s attempts to foster national reconciliation have faltered, after peace talks in September were boycotted by separatists and opposition politicians.

Maurice Kamto, the head of the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC), called on other opposition parties, as well as civil society and religious groups, to join MRC in boycotting the elections on Feb. 9.

“The electoral code is tailored to allow the current regime to cheat and remain in power forever,” he told a news conference.

Kamto has been mobilising dissent against Biya since losing what he says was a fraudulent presidential election in October.

Biya, who has governed Cameroon for nearly four decades, is seeking to calm unrest stoked by the vote as well as a separatist crisis that has cost 2,000 lives over the past two years.

Kamto was arrested in January after leading protests which security forces dispersed with live bullets, and faced insurrection charges before a military court.

He was released last month in what the government said was a gesture of national reconciliation.

The separatist revolt, which began as peaceful protests by English speakers against what they see as their marginalisation by the French-speaking majority, now aims to create an independent state.

It has emerged as the biggest security challenge of Biya’s tenure, forcing half a million people from their homes.

Source: Reuters

Congo-Kinshasa crowd vents anger at UN troops for failing to stop deadly attack

25, November 2019

Congo-Kinshasa crowd vents anger at UN troops for failing to stop deadly attack 0

Residents in DR Congo’s volatile city of Beni set fire to the local town hall and accused US peacekeepers of inaction after eight civilians were killed overnight in a militant attack, an AFP reporter said.

Army spokesman Colonel Mak Hazukai confirmed the latest casualties in the city, near the Ugandan border, telling AFP that “the enemy entered the Boikene quarter and killed eight civilians.”

Incensed locals then partly burnt the town hall and then moved towards the camp of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) on the outskirts of Beni, accusing it of inaction.   

There have been a string of rallies against local forces and UN peacekeepers in Beni for failing to stop attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia.

Nearly 70 civilians have been massacred in the Beni region since military action against the ADF began at the start of November.

A protester died in police firing on Saturday. Two policemen were killed the same day by angry demonstrators, the UN Okapi radio said.

The ADF began as an Islamist rebellion hostile to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. They fell back into eastern DRC in 1995 and have recruited people of different nationalities, but appear to have halted raids inside Uganda.

MONUSCO on Saturday said the Congolese army had launched the offensive unilaterally.

“MONUSCO cannot engage in operations in a war zone without being asked and without strict coordination with the national army,” it said in a tweet, adding that uncoordinated action could lead to friendly fire.

(AFP)

Priests who abused deaf children get 40-year jail terms in Argentina

25, November 2019

Priests who abused deaf children get 40-year jail terms in Argentina 0

Two Roman Catholic priests were each sentenced to more than 40 years in prison in Argentina for the sexual abuse, including rape, of deaf children, a court in the western city of Mendoza ruled Monday.

Argentine priest Horacio Corbacho was sentenced to 45 years in jail, while a 42-year sentence was imposed on Italian Nicola Corradi for the abuse of some 20 children at the Provolo Institute for deaf and hearing-impaired children between 2004 and 2016.

The trial, one of several involving the school that have yet to begin, has sent shockwaves through the Catholic Church in the homeland of Pope Francis.

The court said the sentences took into account the aggravating circumstances that the priests were responsible for the children’s wellbeing, as well as the fact that the victims were minors living at the boarding school.

The victims were children and adolescents aged between four and 17.

The school’s gardener, Armando Gomez, was also jailed for 18 years for sexual abuse.

Neither of the three defendants made any response when their sentences were read out. Corradi, the eldest, had been brought into court on a wheelchair.

Outside the court a group of young people waited for the ruling, holding up banners which said “Support for the Survivors of Provolo.”

Some burst into wild celebrations when the sentence was read out in court. Some of the victims’ mothers simply embraced and wept.

– School shut down –

Corbacho, 59, and 83-year-old Corradi had been held in preventive detention since their arrest three years ago on charges of child sex abuse at the school.

Apart from the gardener, several other staff at the school were taken into custody after the allegations of abuse first came to light in 2016, and the institute, 1,000 kilometers west of Buenos Aires, was shut down.

They included a 42-year-old Japanese nun, Kosaka Kumiko, who was arrested later after surrendering to authorities. She was charged with complicity with the two priests.

The trial began on August 5 and heard evidence from 13 victims from the institute during in camera hearings.

In a fast-tracked trial last year, a former altar boy, Jorge Bordon, 50, received a 10-year sentence after pleading guilty to the sexual abuse of five children.

Another of the defendants was deemed mentally incompetent by the court for being disabled and having suffered sexual abuse himself as a child.

Fourteen more defendants are facing trial in two other separate cases involving the school.

Corradi arrived in Argentina in 1970 from the Provolo Institute in Verona, Italy, and took over the institution in the South American country, initially in La Plata near Buenos Aires, and then, from 1998, in Mendoza.

– Other cases –

Prosecutors have investigated other cases of abuse at the La Plata branch of the Provolo Institute which will also go to trial.

“Life was very bad in there,” one of the victims, 18-year-old Ezequiel Villalonga, told AFP at the beginning of the trial, highlighting the vulnerability of the children at the Mendoza school.

“We didn’t learn anything. We didn’t have any communication,” Villalonga said of the school, set up to educate children with impaired hearing or speech disorders.

“We didn’t know sign language, we didn’t know what we were writing, we asked other classmates and, also, nobody understood anything.”

Source: AFP

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo under investigation

25, November 2019

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Defense Minister Joseph Beti Assomo under investigation 0

Cameroon’s defense minister, Joseph Beti Assomo, is currently being investigated for embezzlement and misappropriation of state funds.

The defense minister, who is responsible for the crimes against humanity in the country’s two English-speaking regions over the last three years has been attracting a lot of attention due to huge amounts of money spent just to defeat the armed groups in Southern Cameroons.

There are allegations of over billing in the importation of arms and if there is probable cause, he will be hauled to the Yaounde maximum security prison where most of Biya’s ministers are spending their retirement.

The country’s white collar crimes squad which investigates allegations of misappropriation has been looking at documents submitted by the defense ministry for sometime now.

More will be yours soon.

Ambazonia Interim Gov’t says France is major obstacle to peace in Southern Cameroons

25, November 2019

Ambazonia Interim Gov’t says France is major obstacle to peace in Southern Cameroons 0

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government (IG0 has described the French administration under President Emmanuel Macron as the biggest stone wall standing on the path to peace in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Africa’s newest nation which is direly in need of political stability.

The Communications Secretary, Milton Taka made the comments in this week’s Interim Government briefing to the people of Southern Cameroons both in Ground Zero and in the diaspora.

“The most prominent obstacle lying in the way of genuine dialogue between the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and La Republique du Cameroun is the French government. Paris wants Southern Cameroonians to be second class citizens in the French controlled La Republique du Cameroun and Southern Cameroonians want to be free and develop their own country” Milton Taka observed.

Palais de l’Élysée has been in direct contact with French Cameroun politicians and officials including the 86 year old dictator, Paul Biya pushing for a senseless military solution to the conflict in Southern Cameroons. Communications Secretary, Milton Taka further pointed out that the United States government and the European Union with the support of the African Union are capable of getting the two nations to reach an understanding. “The more the French government intervenes, the more they delay the solution to the war in Southern Cameroons.”

The Ambazonia Communications Secretary also stated that France would not be rid of French Cameroun’s ongoing economic and political woes created by its surrogate, Paul Biya by pushing for a continues military confrontation with Ambazonia.

Speaking to the Paris-based Jeune Afrique news magazine recently, the Southern Cameroons leader, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe noted that the level of barbarism being perpetuated by Mr Biya’s military and his government militias as they pursue their genocidal war and scorch earth policy to completely annihilate the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) is alarming.

So far, as a result of the on-going genocide in the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia), an estimated 20,000 people have been killed, over 280 towns and villages have been burnt down, over 120,000 people are seeking refuge in Nigeria and further afield, over 1million people are internally displaced or living in bushes and over 3,000 persons incarcerated in prisons and detention facilities.

It is also reported that over 4.5. Million people are at risk of famine. There are calls for Mr Biya and his military and private militia to be held accountable for the crimes committed in Southern Cameroons.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

US Navy chief fired over handling of SEAL saga involving Trump

25, November 2019

US Navy chief fired over handling of SEAL saga involving Trump 0

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper fired the Navy’s top civilian on Sunday over his handling of the case of a Navy SEAL who was convicted of battlefield misconduct in Iraq and later won the support of President Donald Trump.

Esper also determined that the sailor in question, Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, should be allowed to retain his Trident pin designating him as a SEAL – effectively ending the Navy’s efforts to carry out a peer review that could have ousted him from the elite force.

Trump, who publicly opposed taking away Gallagher’s Trident pin and had intervened in the case to restore his rank, cheered the moves.

“Eddie will retire peacefully with all of the honours that he has earned, including his Trident Pin,” Trump said on Twitter.

The fired Navy Secretary Richard Spencer last week suggested a possible split with Trump by telling Reuters that Gallagher should still face a peer review board.ADVERTISING

The SEAL was acquitted by a military jury in July of murdering a captured and wounded Islamic State fighter in Iraq by stabbing him in the neck, but it convicted him of illegally posing with the detainee’s corpse. That had led to his rank being reduced.

The White House said in November that Trump had restored Gallagher’s rank and had pardoned two Army officers accused of war crimes in Afghanistan. Critics had said such actions would undermine military justice and send a message that battlefield atrocities will be tolerated.

In a letter published in media reports, Spencer took parting shots at Trump and defended the need to preserve “good order and discipline throughout the ranks” — something Navy officials had believed the peer review board would help ensure.

“The rule of law is what sets us apart from our adversaries,” Spencer wrote, according to the reports.

“Unfortunately it has become apparent that in this respect, I no longer share the same understanding with the Commander in Chief who appointed me.”

The Pentagon declined to immediately provide a copy of Spencer’s letter.

However, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman offered a different version of events leading up to Spencer’s dismissal, saying Spencer also had a private line of communications with the White House.

“Secretary Spencer had previously and privately proposed to the White House – contrary to Spencer’s public position – to restore Gallagher’s rank and allow him to retire with his Trident pin,” Hoffman said.

Spencer never informed Esper of his private proposal, Hoffman said.

Esper decided to ask for Spencer’s resignation after “losing trust and confidence in him regarding his lack of candor over conversations with the White House,” Hoffman said.

Esper had favored letting the review process “play itself out objectively and deliberately, in fairness to all parties,” Hoffman said. But that now appeared impossible.

“At this point, given the events of the last few days, Secretary Esper has directed that Gallagher retain his Trident pin,” Hoffman said.

Trump said he would nominate the U.S. envoy to Norway, Ken Braithwaite, to replace Spencer as Navy Secretary.

In an appearance on Fox News Channel on Sunday, Gallagher indicated that he hoped to retire next Saturday, “without the board” convening to decide whether he could continue to be a SEAL, considered among the most elite of U.S. fighting forces. 

(REUTERS)

Israeli party leader Gantz says Netanyahu threatening ‘civil war’

25, November 2019

Israeli party leader Gantz says Netanyahu threatening ‘civil war’ 0

The Main challenger of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the leader of Blue & White party Benny Gantz has warned that the premier’s rejection to resign is threatening a civil war in Israel.

Gantz urged Likud party officials to step in to replace the indicted premier as soon as possible in order to resolve the political deadlock over the formation of a new cabinet.

Calls have been growing for a leadership vote in Israel’s ruling party since Thursday when Netanyahu was indicted on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in a set of corruption cases.

Meanwhile, Likud Knesset member Nir Barkat has presented a plan to hold primaries for a new position of deputy head of the party who would replace Netanyahu if he is forced to take a leave of absence to deal with the indictment.

Also another lawmaker Gideon Sa’ar publicly challenged Netanyahu calling for him to open up the party to new leadership.

A watchdog group has asked Israel’s top court to order Netanyahu to step aside after his indictment, adding to pressure he is facing from within his ruling party.

Israelis will have to go the polls in the coming weeks for the third time in a year if no party can form a coalition cabinet. Netanyahu is under fire to resign following his indictment in a graft scandal.

In politics nothing remains the same, observers say Netanyahu’s legal charges have also boosted voices within his own Likud party calling to overthrow Netanyahu after over a decade at the party’s helm although most still side with the indicted leader.

Source: Presstv

Bank of Ambazonia to issue $10 Million bonds

25, November 2019

Bank of Ambazonia to issue $10 Million bonds 0

Credible sources within the Interim Government of the Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) have confirmed that Vice President Dabney Yerima will be announcing the creation of “THE BANK OF AMBAZONIA (BOA) and Chairman of the Board of Governors today November 25th, 2019. The Bank of Ambazonia, AKA “The Ambazonian Njangi House” is an organized all-inclusive Semi-Autonomous Informal Financial Structure (Shadow Bank) with credible representatives from constituent components of the revolution. This will provide the Ambazonian people and communities with alternative but safe sources of funding for Southern Cameroons Restoration without generating additional systemic risk.

Our sources are informed that this decision is guided by sound advice from the international community, Americans and encouraging statements from the Undersecretary of State for African Affairs, Tibor Nagy. The Interim Government is quickly learning to adapt to the fast-changing nature of the Southern Cameroons Restoration quest. After listening to the calls for a more accountable, transparent and inclusive financial structure to better mobilize resources to fund our Restoration, the Interim Government has opted to go back to basics and apply what has worked best for The Southern Cameroons community for the past 58 years.

“The successive murderous regimes in Cameroun shutdown The Southern Cameroons venerable Cameroon Bank and other major financial institutions that served our communities and completely limited access to money and formal financial institutions from our people. However, they underestimated the innovation and resilience of our people in surviving within this system. The sheer determination to survive and develop our communities for the past 58 years of occupation resulted in the establishment of a very robust informal financial sector call “NJANGI HOUSES” (Shadow Banks), that revolutionized economic development and self-reliance of our people to lean on each other” stated Brado Tabenyang Etchu, the Secretary of State for Economy and Finance.

Most of the development and education of the Southern Cameroons communities has been made possible through the proceeds of NJANGI HOUSES.  The people of Southern Cameroons (Ambazonia) are again currently faced with similar, but monumental challenges in their quest to restore their independence. The international community and major financial institutions have shutdown access to funding from the Southern Cameroons community to help them prosecute this war of liberation from colonial Cameroun.

The Interim Government has concluded that we are on our own and must rely on our own innovative ways to fund this quest for liberation and there is nothing that has made our people and communities more self-reliant than our innovative NJANGI HOUSE initiatives and it is this inspiration that has guided the Interim Government to form the people’s bank.

 “We must keep the enemy wondering because a bank gives us another element of surprise and institutional credibility” The government of Cameroun is incurring and mortgaging our resources to prosecute its genocidal war against our people and we cannot continue to idly watch and do nothing” noted VP Dabney Yerima.

The Bank through its Board of Governors will immediately certify the issuance of $10 million high interest yielding AmbaFreedomBonds (AFB) to the public for sale. Proceeds from the sales of these bonds will go towards financing of the revolution. We are going to incur these liabilities to defend and provide humanitarian relief to our refugees and IDPs and these liabilities are going to be part of any negotiations with the government of Cameroun and the world must take note.  Southern Cameroonians and are encouraged to own a piece of their country and patronize the purchase of these bonds as a means to fund the struggle by going to www.ambabondholders.com Bundlers/professional sales agents will be used with a bonds-based commission redeemed at time of bond maturity. Your Bond, Your Freedom!

Cameroonian among ExxonMobil crew abducted in Equatorial Guinea

24, November 2019

Cameroonian among ExxonMobil crew abducted in Equatorial Guinea 0

Seven crew aboard a supply ship for the oil industry in Equatorial Guinea were kidnapped when “pirates” attacked their vessel, the oil and gas ministry said in a statement.The 15-member crew comprised nationals from South Africa, the Philippines, Serbia, and Cameroon.

The US oil giant ExxonMobil reported the supply ship Warden, which it was chartering from the oil services firm Swire, was attacked on Wednesday in the country’s territorial waters, it said.“Eight hid and seven were kidnapped,” the statement said.

The vessel had left the oilfield of Zafiro, 12 nautical miles off the coast, and was heading to Luba, a port town on the southern island of Bioko, when it was attacked.The statement gave no details about the kidnappers or their motives.Equatorial Guinea is located on the southern rim of the Gulf of Guinea, one of the world’s hotspots for maritime piracy.In the first nine months of this year, the region accounted for 82 percent of crew kidnappings around the world, according to the International Maritime Bureau, an organization monitoring crimes at sea.

In 2018, attacks doubled over the previous year.Pirates in the Gulf of Guinea sometimes divert ships for several days, long enough to plunder the cargo and demand huge ransoms before freeing the crew.On Nov. 4, four sailors were kidnapped and a guard was shot and wounded when suspected pirates stormed an oil tanker off the coast of Togo.

Two days earlier, pirates attacked a Norwegian-owned ship waiting to berth at the port of Cotonou in Benin, taking eight crew and the captain.In August, Russian, Chinese and Ukrainian seamen were seized in attacks on merchant ships off Cameroon’s port of Douala.

The countries bordering the Gulf of Guinea, an arc that stretches some 6,000 kilometers from Angola to Liberia in the north, have limited surveillance and maritime defense capabilities.They have been trying for several years to bolster their means of intervention and improve regional collaboration with US and French help. 

Source: AFP

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