Monthly Archives: December 2019

North Korea’s Kim calls for ‘offensive’ security measures as nuclear deadline approaches

30, December 2019

North Korea’s Kim calls for ‘offensive’ security measures as nuclear deadline approaches 0

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has convened a key meeting of top ruling party officials, state media said Sunday, ahead of a year-end deadline for Washington to shift its stance on stalled nuclear talks.

The plenary session, which opened on Saturday, follows widespread speculation that Pyongyang is preparing to test an intercontinental ballistic missile — as a threatened “Christmas gift” for Washington.

Kim presided over the meeting which discussed a new “transparent, anti-imperialist independent stand”, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The ruling Workers’ Party of Korea will also “discuss important matters arising… in the building of the state and national defence”, KCNA added.

Talks on denuclearising the Korean peninsula have been largely deadlocked since the second summit between Kim and US President Donald Trump collapsed in Hanoi at the start of this year.

The opening of the plenary comes a week after Kim held a meeting of top defence officials and discussed boosting military capabilities, and ahead of the leader’s New Year speech on January 1, a key political set-piece in the isolated country.

Pyongyang has carried out a series of static tests at its Sohae rocket facility this month, after a number of weapons launches in recent weeks — some of them described as ballistic missiles by Japan and others.

North Korea is under heavy US and United Nations sanctions over its nuclear programme, but it has been frustrated at the lack of relief after it declared a moratorium on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) tests.

Russia and China — North Korea’s main ally — have proposed easing sanctions in a bid to de-escalate tensions.

‘Imminent’ threat 

The ongoing meeting could have Pyongyang announce “major policy shift” from its previous approach with the US, said Hong Min, a senior researcher at the South’s state-run Korea Institute for National Unification.

Earlier this month, North Korean media published pictures of Kim riding a white horse on a sacred mountain, imagery that experts said was heavy with symbolism and may indicate a policy announcement.

“We’ll find out what the surprise is and we’ll deal with it very successfully,” Trump said.

“Everybody’s got surprises for me, but let’s see what happens. I handle them as they come along.”

But Trump’s former national security advisor John Bolton — a longtime hawk on North Korea — has sharply criticised the president’s handling of the issue, and claimed that Pyongyang poses an “imminent” threat.

The US president has invested a huge amount of political capital in his attempt to persuade Kim to end North Korea’s isolation and give up its nuclear weapons.

There has been little progress, however, after three face-to-face meetings and numerous letter exchanges.

(AFP)

US bombs pro-Iran militant group in Iraq, Syria in retaliation for rocket attack

30, December 2019

US bombs pro-Iran militant group in Iraq, Syria in retaliation for rocket attack 0

The US has carried out air strikes against a pro-Iran militant group in Iraq, killing 19 fighters, two days after a rocket attack that killed an American civilian contractor.

The Pentagon said on Sunday it targeted weapons caches or command and control facilities linked to Kata’ib Hezbollah (KH) in Western Iraq, as well as Eastern Syria, in response to a barrage of 30 or more rockets fired on Friday.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said “we will not stand for the Islamic Republic of Iran to take actions that put American men and women in jeopardy”.

Four US service members and Iraqi security forces were also wounded in Friday’s attack at the K1 Iraqi military base in Kirkuk, an oil-rich region north of Baghdad.

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Sunday the air strikes were successful, and he did not rule out further action to “deter further bad behavior from militia groups or from Iran”.

Esper also said that he and Pompeo had travelled to Florida, where President Donald Trump has been spending the Christmas holidays, to brief him on the latest Middle East events.

“KH has a strong linkage with Iran’s Quds Force and has repeatedly received lethal aid and other support from Iran that it has used to attack” coalition forces, the Pentagon said earlier, referring to the external arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Nineteen fighters were killed by the US strikes in western Iraq, while several were wounded, according to an official from the Tehran-backed Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force.

A few hours later, four rockets exploded near a base housing US troops close to Iraq’s capital without wounding anyone, an Iraqi security official told AFP.

The military spokesman for Iraq’s outgoing prime minister Abel Abdel Mahdi decried “a violation of Iraqi sovereignty”.

Another powerful pro-Iran faction, Assaib Ahl al-Haq—whose leaders were recently hit with US sanctions—called for Americans to withdraw from Iraq.

“The American military presence has become a burden for the Iraqi state and a source of threat against our forces,” it said in a statement.

“It is therefore imperative for all of us to do everything to expel them by all legitimate means.”

‘Caught in the middle’

US-Iran tensions have soared since Washington pulled out of a landmark nuclear agreement with Tehran last year and imposed crippling sanctions.

Baghdad—which is close to both countries —risks being caught in the middle. 

In Iraq’s neighbour Syria, Shiite powerhouse Iran backs the government of President Bashar al-Assad in an eight-year civil war.

Friday’s attack on the K1 base in Kirkuk involved a direct hit on an ammunition depot caused secondary explosions, and four more rockets were found in their tubes in a truck at the launch point, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Federal security forces, Shiite militia units and IS sleeper cells all have a presence in Kirkuk province, which is claimed by both Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region and federal authorities.

Friday’s attack and the US retaliation come as Iraq is gripped by its biggest anti-government street protests since the US-led invasion of 2003 that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

Protesters, many of whom grew up in the post-Saddam era, have vented their anger at a government they consider inept, corrupt and beholden to Iran.

Protest-related violence has claimed about 460 lives, most of them demonstrators, and left some 25,000 people wounded, but rallies and sit-ins have continued.

Since October 28, at least 11 attacks have targeted Iraqi military bases where US soldiers or diplomats are deployed, including five rockets that hit Al-Asad air base on December 3, just four days after US Vice President Mike Pence visited troops there.

A US source has said pro-Iran factions in Iraq are now considered a more significant threat to American soldiers than IS, whose sweeping offensive in 2014 saw Washington deploy thousands of troops to the country.

(AFP)

Australia: Sydney fireworks to go ahead despite massive protest petition

30, December 2019

Australia: Sydney fireworks to go ahead despite massive protest petition 0

A petition to cancel Sydney’s famous New Year’s Eve fireworks and use the money to fight bush fires ringing the city has topped 260,000 signatures, but officials say the show will go on.

Sydney is spending Aus$6.5 million ($4.5 million) on this year’s fireworks display — funds that the Change.org petition argues would be better spent on supporting volunteer firefighters and farmers suffering through a brutal drought.

The massive fireworks display on Sydney Harbour “may traumatize some people,” the petition says, “as there is enough smoke in the air.”

Toxic smoke haze from bush fires raging across Australia has blanketed Sydney and other major cities for weeks.

Australian firefighters spend Christmas Day battling blazes

Entire towns have been left in ruins by devastating blazes in worst-hit New South Wales (NSW) state, where eight people have died and an area the size of Belgium burnt to cinders.

“2019 has been a catastrophic year in Australia for Floods and Fires,” the petition states. “All states should say NO to FIREWORKS.”

A City of Sydney spokesman said while they “appreciate the concerns” of the people opposed to holding the fireworks during a bush fire crisis, cancelling the celebration would have “little practical benefit for affected communities.”

“We began preparations and planning for the NYE celebrations 15 months ago. This means most of the budget, largely used for crowd safety and cleaning measures, has already been spent,” the spokesman said in a statement.

“Cancelling the event would seriously hurt Sydney businesses. It would also ruin plans for tens of thousands of people from across the country and overseas who have booked flights, hotels and restaurants for New Year’s Eve,” the statement added.

Sydney’s council added that it has donated Aus$620,000 to support the bush fire and drought response and would also promote a Red Cross disaster relief fund during the televised fireworks broadcast.

A volunteer from the New South Wales Rural Fire Service works to extinguish spot fires following back burning operations in Mount Hay, in Australia’s Blue Mountains, December 28, 2019. (Photo by Reuters)

A heatwave is due to sweep across parts of NSW in the coming days, with deteriorating bushfire conditions expected to hit Tuesday.

NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said he did not expect any impact on the fireworks, but he was prepared to cancel them last-minute if he deemed it to be too risky.

“The pyrotechnics organisations and local authorities are used to working with us around exemptions in the summer period, whether it is Christmas, New Year or some other event,” he said. “They know the arrangements, the procedures, and we will work through to make sure that risk is appropriately addressed and, where necessary, we won’t allow them to go ahead.”

The display, watched by an estimated one billion people globally, is worth Aus$130 million annually to the NSW economy.

(Source: AFP)

Southern Cameroons Special Status: Ambazonian crowned Miss Cameroun

29, December 2019

Southern Cameroons Special Status: Ambazonian crowned Miss Cameroun 0

French Cameroun political elites have reportedly started the process of granting the so-called Special Status to the people of Southern Cameroons as Miss North West, Audrey Nabila Monkam was allowed to win the prestigious Miss Cameroun 2020 crown on Saturday.

The Miss Cameroun contest has been a French Cameroun private preserve ever since it was instituted decades ago and remained one area where Southern Cameroonians complaint of marginalization.  The language and modus operandi of the beauty contest has always been French and never reflected the bilingual nature of the country.

Audrey Nabila Monkam’s victory was announced shortly after midnight on Saturday evening during the final of the Miss Cameroon 2020 national competition, contested by 20 young women.

The 24-year-old, 1.80m tall who took over the beauty crown from Caroline Nseke is a business law student who impressed the jury and the audience with her physical and intellectual attributes in the various outfits displayed during the auditioning. Holder of a degree in banking and finance, she is seen by her admirers as a genuine intellectual.

Monkam hails from the Northern Zone of Southern Cameroons ravaged by the war declared by the Biya Francophone regime against the people of Ambazonia.

It is worth mentioning that in recent years, controversies have surrounded every Miss Cameroon contest. Some media houses have even accused Ingrid Solange Amougou, promoter of the Miss Cameroon Show of encouraging unhealthy rivalry among Cameroonian beauty queens.

The Biya regime had even attempted to take the lead in organizing the contest to end the repeated scandals that tarnished the show’s image, before backing off under some form of international pressure.

By Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap

Uzbekistan’s police charge five Cameroonians in 340,000 USD fraud case

29, December 2019

Uzbekistan’s police charge five Cameroonians in 340,000 USD fraud case 0

A preliminary criminal investigation against five Cameroonian citizens in a fraud case worth 340,000 U.S. dollars has been completed, Investigation Department of Uzbek Ministry of Internal Affairs said Saturday.

Currently all five Cameroonians are under arrest and charged with fraud and money counterfeiting, the police statement said without giving the names of the accused.

Cameroonians presenting themselves as investors got acquainted with well-off Uzbeks on the internet, then arrived in Uzbekistan as tourists to meet their online friends face to face, police said.

According to police, they told Uzbeks that they could bring in 2-10 million U.S. dollars in cash, but the money should be painted black and white to avoid drawing the attention of the customs service.

“Cameroonians said that a special powder is needed to return painted bills to their original appearance and every 100 dollars invested to purchase chemicals would be returned as 300 dollars,” police statement said.

Source: Xinhuanet

UK: Labour Party divided as it starts soul searching process

29, December 2019

UK: Labour Party divided as it starts soul searching process 0

A group of Labour MPs who lost their seats in the general election have predictably tried to blame Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour leadership for their loss.

In a letter to the Observer yesterday, the group blames “cronyism” and “anti-Semitism” for Labour’s worst electoral performance in 85 years. Some have also blamed Brexit.

Labour won only 203 seats, a drop of 59 seats, qualifying as the party’s worst national election performance since 1935.

But in a parallel move, a review launched by “Labour Together”, a network comprised of leading activists and senior Labour party figures, is said to be opposed to identifying a single issue, notably Corbyn’s leadership, for the historic defeat.

But leading signatories (of the Observer letter), including former MPs Mary Creagh and Anna Turley, argue that the magnitude of Labour’s defeat necessities soul-searching that goes “way beyond a simple review”.

Meanwhile, the Labour party leadership contest has picked up steam, with Yvette Cooper indicating she is considering joining the race.

Writing in the Sunday Mirror, Cooper, who has been the MP for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford since 2010, argues that whilst Labour “did badly” in the general election, it still has the capacity to “pull the UK together again”.  

Hitherto, only two candidates have formally declared their intention to contest the Labour leadership once Corbyn steps down as leader early next year.

The declared candidates are shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, and shadow Treasury minister, Clive Lewis.

However, other leading Labour figures, notably shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, and shadow secretary for business, energy and industrial strategy, Rebecca Long-Bailey, are widely expected to join the race.  

Source: Presstv

An Islamic State Christmas killing of 11 hostages in Nigeria threatens to flare up religious tensions

29, December 2019

An Islamic State Christmas killing of 11 hostages in Nigeria threatens to flare up religious tensions 0

A video released by Islamic State on Dec. 26 which claims to show the killing of 11 Christian hostages in northern Nigeria threatens to spark religious tensions in the country and compounds the political problems of president Muhammadu Buhari.

The Islamic State sub-group called Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) said the “beheading” of the hostages was part of its campaign to “avenge” the killing of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a US military raid in Syria last October.

ISWAP is a 2016 breakaway faction of the Nigeria-founded Boko Haram terrorist group. Until last year when more radical leaders took over, ISWAP was led by Abu Mus’ab al-Barnawi, the son of Boko Haram’s founder, Mohammed Yusuf. As well as Nigeria, it operates in Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Mali, all of which are Nigeria’s neighboring countries. In December, the group killed four aid workers from the NGO Action Against Hunger who they originally abducted in Damasak in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state in July.

In a bid to ward off talk of religious disputes getting widespread, president Buhari said Nigerians shouldn’t allow terrorists split the populace along religious lines. “We should, under no circumstance, let the terrorists divide us by turning Christians against Muslims because these barbaric killers don’t represent Islam and millions of other law-abiding Muslims around the world,” he said in a statement.

Nigeria, whose 200 million-strong population is split almost evenly between Christians and Muslims, is particularly sensitive to the risks of religious tensions being ignited after decades of on-and-off conflict especially in the country’s middle belt region over the last couple of decades. Most recently the region has been subject to vicious clashes between migratory herdsmen and local farmers primarily over land use. As the herdsmen are often Muslim and landowners widely believed to be Christian, these clashes are regularly perceived as religious clashes.

A satellite view of the residence of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi before a raid by the U.S. military is seen in this handout satellite image taken Sept. 28, 2019, and released Dec. 24, 2019 by Maxar Technologies. .

Islamic State’s release of the video came days after the United States government accused Nigeria of not protecting religious freedom. The US State Department on Dec. 18 added Cuba, Nicaragua, Nigeria, and Sudan on a Special Watch List (SWL) of governments that “have engaged on or tolerated severe violations of religious freedom.”

Nigeria and the other three countries now join Comoros, Russia and Uzbekistan on the list. The designation was a triumph of American Christian right groups that have been lobbying the Trump’s administration to appease its evangelical base by taking up the fight of Christians across the globe.

Earlier, Nigeria’s information minister Lai Mohammed rejected Nigeria’s new designation and argued the Trump administration was acting on the basis of a discredited narrative from “failed politicians and disgruntled elements.”

“The deliberate effort to give religious colouration to the farmers-herders clashes and the Boko Haram insurgency, in particular, has undoubtedly helped to mislead the US into concluding that the government is doing little or nothing to guarantee religious freedom in the country,” said Mohammed.

The video of ISWAP killing of Christians says otherwise. In fact, it reinforced what some Nigerian Christian leaders have previously claimed—that the government of Buhari had not done enough to curtail the activities of various Islamic terrorist groups operating in Nigeria.

In his reaction to the US designation of Nigeria amongst countries on SWL, the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Samson Ayokunle warned “discrimination against Christians can result in another civil war which Nigeria may not survive.” Through a spokesman CAN’s president pointed to killings of Christians in states in the middle-belt region as atrocities that could not have gone unnoticed by the United States. The Christian group alleges that while Muslims have also been killed, the primary targets were Christians.

After initially receiving plaudits for pushing back against the peak of Boko Haram’s rise in Nigeria’s northeast, Buhari’s government, which came to office in 2015, has been more recently criticized over its weak handling of Islamic insurgency, broader conflict and rising insecurity across the country.

As a result of continuing insecurity in Nigeria’s northeast, conservative Christian groups including Washington DC-based Save the Persecuted Christians (STPC) have seized on the killings to urge the Trump administration to appoint a US special envoy to Nigeria and the Lake Chad region to monitor what it called “heightened violence against Christians.”

In conservative media across America, there are barrage of stories emerging about the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. The Christian Post reported Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen have killed over 1,000 Christians in Nigeria in 2019 alone. A separate figure by put the estimated number of dead Nigerians in 10 years of the insurgency as 27,000.

The break away of ISWAP is widely believed to have brought about a change in direction for the Islamic insurgency. What started in 2009 as an indiscriminate campaign of terror against Muslims and Christians alike has in recent times seemed more targeted. From the 2018 kidnapping in Dapchi schoolgirls in Yobe state and the release of the girls with the exception of Leah Sharibu, a Christian, the insurgence seems to have taken a turn to primarily targeting Christians.

Source:  Quartz Africa

The Holy Father appoints Bishop Michael Bibi as Apostolic Administrator of Buea Diocese

29, December 2019

The Holy Father appoints Bishop Michael Bibi as Apostolic Administrator of Buea Diocese 0

Msgr. Michael Bibi, Auxiliary Bishop of Bamenda has been appointed by the Holy Father Pope Francis as Apostolic Administrator of Buea Diocese. The appointment was made today 28/12/2019 at 12noon Vatican time. By this appointment also, the Holy Father has accepted the resignation of Mgr. Immanuel Bushu as Bishop of Buea.

 Rt. Rev. Michael Miabesue Bibi 48 year old hails from Bamessing, Ngoketunjia Division. Until his new appointment, he has been the Auxiliary Bishop of Bamenda, right from the day of his nomination as Bishop on 24th January 2017. According to the new appointment he still maintains this function.

 He is also Titular Bishop of Amudarsa. The Rt. Rev. Michael Bibi will be administering the Diocese of Buea, with the right to residence until a new bishop is appointed for the diocese. It is worth reiterating again that during his new task, he would still remain the Auxiliary of Bamenda.

Source: Kumbo Diocese

US: Trump impeachment trial in Senate stuck in limbo over rules

28, December 2019

US: Trump impeachment trial in Senate stuck in limbo over rules 0

The US Senate remains deadlocked over how to proceed with an impeachment trial against President Donald Trump, more than a week after the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives impeached the Republican president on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, is waiting until she receives more clarity from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, about what an impeachment trial will look like.

McConnell, however, says he wants to start the Senate trial as soon as lawmakers return from the holiday recess in January.

Democrats are also outraged over McConnell’s pledge to coordinate the trial with the Trump administration and do everything he can to acquit the president.    

Impeachment begins in the House. If the lower chamber of Congress approves articles of impeachment, a vote is then held in the Senate. A two-thirds majority vote would be needed in the Senate to remove the president from office.

Trump became the third president in US history to be impeached, following the impeachments of former Presidents Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson. Neither Johnson nor Clinton were convicted by the Senate.

With Republicans in control of the Senate, Trump’s acquittal also seems likely.

In 1974, then President Richard Nixon resigned during his second term after it became certain he would be impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate over the Watergate scandal.

To formally launch a trial in the upper chamber of Congress, the 100-member Senate must pass a resolution with a simple majority authorizing the proceeding. But in order to do that, the House must first transmit the articles of impeachment. 

Pelosi, however, says she will not deliver the documents until Democrats “know what sort of trial the Senate will conduct.” McConnell is refusing to agree to any of that in advance and cites the 1999 Clinton trial as a precedent. 

In their dispute over how to move forward, both parties are citing the 1999 impeachment trial of Clinton, accusing each other of departing from what they view as precedents set by that trial.

Clinton’s trial in the Senate began on January 7, 1999, more than two weeks after he was impeached by the House on charges of perjury to a grand jury and obstruction of justice with regard to a sex scandal investigation.

Trump is showing signs of increasing frustration with the uncertainty surrounding his Senate trial. He spent the Christmas holiday complaining and blasting Democrats over the impeachment.  

The House approved two articles of impeachment against Trump on December 18 on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

An impeachment probe was launched in September after an anonymous intelligence community whistleblower accused the president of pressing Ukraine’s president to investigate Trump’s political rival, Joe Biden, and Biden’s son, as well as a debunked theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 US presidential election.

Source: Presstv

Cameroon bishops visit prisons on Christmas, as Church prays for peace

28, December 2019

Cameroon bishops visit prisons on Christmas, as Church prays for peace 0

Cameroon’s Catholic clergy made a special effort to visit the country’s prisons on Christmas Day. “Christ came to free us from all our prisons,” said Archbishop Samuel Kleda as he addressed inmates in the overcrowded New Bell prison in Douala.

The prelate said he wasn’t only referring to the physical prisons where people are clamped into enclosures like the New Bell Prison; rather, Christ liberates “us from the prisons of our hearts.”

He said people can only regain their freedom if they open their hearts to Christ. “Once you recognize your sin and admit that you were wrong, you are free, you are converted, and you get to know how to proceed,” he said.

In Garoua, in the country’s north, Archbishop Faustin Ambassa Njodo said, “Christ goes to his children wherever they are.”

Addressing inmates at the Garoua prison, the archbishop said: “Whatever you did, God will come to you. If we go back to the Scriptures, the Son of God is saying that a medical doctor goes to those who are sick. That means Jesus is coming not for those who believe in Him, but for the sinner.”

Ambassa Njodo exhorted the inmates to open their hearts to receive Christ and they will have eternal life.

Cameroon’s bishops have expressed their concern about detention conditions where poor infrastructure and overcrowding mean the rights of prisoners are violated on a daily basis. Figures from the Ministry of Justice indicate that the overall occupancy rate in 2016 was 164.7 percent, even as that figure varies from prison to prison.

The New Bell Prison in Douala houses some 5,000 inmates, although it was initially constructed to hold just 800 people, giving the facility an occupancy rate of 625 percent. The notorious Kondengui prison in Yaoundé had an occupancy rate of 400 percent in 2016, and the central prison at Maroua generally holds more than 200 percent of its capacity. These figures have not changed much.

And while the country’s clergy sought to uplift the spirits of the inmates, the issue of justice for prisoners also came to the fore, with Kleda noting that good judges are also involved in works of charity.

“A judge who does his work rightly… pays attention to every person, and those who remain in jail are rightly condemned. That is charity,” the archbishop said.

The archbishop expressed disgust at the long pre-trial detention periods: Official statistics indicate that about 55.5 percent of inmates in the country are still awaiting trial.

Calls for peace dominate Christmas messages

In a country battered by a separatist war to the west and Boko Haram terrorism to the north, the message of the peace of Christ has a particularly strong appeal this year.

Ambassa Njodo painted a bleak picture of how far Cameroon had degenerated in recent times.

“We have brothers and sisters from the same families who fight each other, they don’t eat together, and this is not normal,” the archbishop said.

In the troubled North West region where a separatist uprising known as the Anglophone Crisis has been going on for the past three years, Father Gilbert Aurore noted that “we need peace, we need love and we need forgiveness.”

“Jesus Christ being the Prince of Peace has come with that peace so that we may experience life in abundance,” the priest said.

Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions – the North West and the South West – make up about 20 percent of Cameroon’s population, which is majority French-speaking. Anglophones have long complained about marginalization by the predominantly francophone government.

In 2016, peaceful protests by teachers and lawyers in the two regions over the use of French in schools and courts spiraled out of control after a government crackdown. An extremist separatist movement calling for the secession of the Anglophone regions was the result. In three years of fighting, over 3,000 people have been killed, and about 700,000 others forced from their homes.

“The bloodshed really has to stop. We are tired of this fighting,” said Bishop Andrew Nkea of Mamfe, in Cameroon’s South West region.

At St. Joseph Parish, in Tkomberé in the country’s far North region, Father Denis Daba said he had brought a “message of peace and living together, because Christ has come  for the unity of God’s children, to draw them closer, especially those who do not know him.”

A similar message was echoed by Archbishop Jean Mbarga of Yaoundé. During a homily in the city’s Our Lady of Victories Cathedral, the archbishop noted that Christmas was a time for “renewal” for families who have worked all year round. He said while people were engaged in such renewal, it was also the time to open their hearts to Christ.

“People have to open their hearts to allow God to return to them. There is need for God to return to public spaces. God must be the foundation of everything we do.”

Mbarga said only when “God takes possession of our lives” can there be a return to peace in Cameroon.

Source: Crux

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