Monthly Archives: April 2020

10, April 2020

Cameroonians looking for missing president amid coronavirus crisis ⁰

Cameroon’s aged president is coming under fire for his absence from the national stage as the central African country faces a burgeoning coronavirus crisis.

A month after the first case of COVID-19 was recorded, 87-year-old Paul Biya has yet to address the nation — a silence that for supporters is a sign of gravitas but for critics one of failure.

According to official figures posted early Monday, Cameroon has 658 cases of the virus, with nine deaths, making it the second most-affected country after South Africa in sub-Saharan Africa.

Cameroon is already waging two violent conflicts, one against Boko Haram terrorists in the north, the other against English-speaking separatists in the west. The fighters in the new front are doctors and nurses who are woefully lacking in masks and breathing equipment.

In his 37 years in power, Cameroonians have become accustomed to Biya’s long absences, mainly because of poor health, but his silence over the pandemic is raising sharp questions. He posed for the cameras after talks with the US ambassador on March 11, but did not speak to the press.

Six days later Biya urged Cameroonians on Facebook to “respect” measures taken to combat the virus, but since then there has not been so much as a whisper from a leader who has overseen many crises since he took power in 1982.

– Biya ‘cannot be pinned down’ –

Biya’s track record suggests he is not a major communicator in the best of times, making just three or four appearances a year. But for researcher Stephane Akoa, “In a context like this, the presidential message is important.”

Last week, speculation mounted on social media that Biya could be dead, prompting a formal public denial by Communications Minister Rene-Emmanuel Sadi, who insisted that Biya was “going about his official business as normal”.

But there was no word from the president himself, provoking a sharp attack from main opposition leader Maurice Kamto, the runner-up to Biya in 2018 elections. On Friday, Kamto demanded that the president address the nation within seven days, otherwise “the people… will inevitably see his failure”.

Biya’s silence “is becoming criminal,” he added. Labour Minister Gregoire Owona snapped back, saying Kamto wished to politicise the crisis, calling it “shameful”.

Oswald Baboke, the president’s deputy chief of staff, commended Biya’s “wisdom… (and) restraint,” writing in the press that “the President’s time cannot be improvised and cannot be pinned down.”

Thus far the youthful health minister, Malachie Manaouda, has been the point man for the coronavirus crisis, tweeting out frequent updates and detailing the government’s response. But criticism has grown louder with the rise in known cases from 142 to 658 in a week.

– ‘Lack of coordination’ –

“Government communication is weak, its response was late and in some respects poorly prepared,” said Stephane M’Bafou, a consultant in public management and governance. “There is an obvious lack of coordination,” said economist Albert Ze.

Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute on March 13 announced measures such as closing borders and a ban on rallies, which have been extended.

The one new step since then, attributed to Biya but announced by Ngute, has been the creation of a solidarity fund worth one billion CFA francs (1.5 million euros / $1.65 million). Others say the response does not go nearly far enough.

“We must quickly declare a curfew, isolate the cities where cases are confirmed and move towards a general containment regardless of the socio-economic cost,” said M’Bafou.

Source: AFP

10, April 2020

Southern Cameroons fighters relaunch attacks to reject French Cameroun reconstruction Plan ⁰

Cameroonian separatist fighters have relaunched attacks after the government announced a reconstruction plan, claiming that peace was returning to the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions of the central African state. The military said attacks were reported in at least seven villages, with about 13 fighters killed, but the fighters say the military had more casualties.

Public Works Minister Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi says road construction engineers are leaving after persistent attacks in several parts of the Northwest region, where President Paul Biya had instructed them to begin reconstructing the central African state’s English-speaking regions, devastated by three years of separatist conflict. Djoumessi spoke to VOA via a messaging app.

“The work started, unfortunately some criminals came and destroyed the property of the company but we have to continue without showing any signs of weakness. The head of state [Cameroon’s president] himself is extremely committed,” he said.

Biya last week created what he called the Presidential Plan for the Reconstruction and Development of the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions. The reconstruction and development plan envisages construction of roads, schools, hospitals, public edifices, markets, private homes and villages in areas destroyed by three years of fighting.

After the plan was announced, separatists warned on social media that they will not accept such projects from what they said a foreign government in Yaounde, and began attacking military posts and burning more infrastructure. The fighters torched local council offices and schools in Bui, Donga Mantung and Ngoketunjia administrative units in the Northwest and Lebialem and Manyu administrative units in the Southwest.

The military said in a release that there was heavy fighting in the northwestern villages of Vekovi, Tatum and Mbiame and the southwestern town of Kumba, with 13 fighters killed. The fighters on social media said the casualties were more on the side of government troops. The military has denied the allegations.

Benard Okalia Bilai, governor of the English-speaking Southwest region, speaking via a messaging app, said since the attacks were relaunched last week, the population has been collaborating with the military to denounce the attackers.

“The populations have understood that they were misled, so they have realized that their future, their hope is within the institutions, and that what the head of state has put at their disposal is their future and that they should collaborate with those authorities, the forces of law [the military], to denounce those who are disturbing. The damages are enough,” he said.

Christopher Effimba, leader of the NGO Hope Cameroon, said the central African state should make sure peace fully returns to its English-speaking regions before reconstruction projects are launched. He said the separatists are still very active and strong. He also spoke via a messaging app.

“Infrastructural development cannot be implemented in the field if we do not have a peaceful atmosphere. Therefore, calm the atmosphere,” he said. “We need peace to enable the road workers to dig the roads. If the people do not accept peace, it is impossible for any Caterpillar, any bulldozer to go in there and try to do any road.”

Unrest began in Cameroon in 2017 after a government crackdown on peaceful protests led by lawyers and teachers who complained of being marginalized by the French-speaking majority.

In October 2019, Biya organized a national dialogue to solve the crisis but the separatists did not attend. The separatists said they will only be ready to discuss the terms of their independence in a republic they have created called Ambazonia.

The unrest has killed more than 3,000 people and displaced over 500,000 according to the United Nations. Fifty thousand others are asylum seekers in neighboring Nigeria.

Source: VOA

9, April 2020

The Church, A Story God Himself Has Created ⁰

Holy Thursday Catechesis: Ste Anne’s Parish, Salem MA,

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston

Theme: “(…) As Christ loved the Church” (Ephesians 5:25)

(The Church, A Story God Himself Has Created – Joseph Ratzinger)

Dear Holy People of God of Ste Anne’s Parish,

1. Today, we begin our solemn celebration of the Sacred Triduum, that is, the three days that mark the peak of the Christian calendar. These days offer us the opportunity to enter sacramentally into the Suffering, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Three mysteries are central to the liturgical celebration of today: Firstly, the Mystery of the Commandment of Mutual Love: “I give you a new commandment, love one another as I have loved you” – the Lord says to us – (John 13:34); the Mystery of the Sacred Priesthood: “I Call You Friends, Because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father” (John 15:15) – At the heart of the Catholic priesthood stands friendship with Christ. Without this friendship, this intimacy, the Catholic priesthood has NO meaning; and finally, the Mystery of the Eucharist: “Do this in Memory of Me” (Luke 22:19).

2. Initially, I was thinking of reflecting with you on the Eucharist, the Sacrament of the Real Presence of Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains the designation “real presence” this way: “This presence is called ‘real’ – by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be ‘real’ too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present” (St. John Paul II, Catechism of the Catholic Church, # 1374).

3. The key word of this text is “substantial.” It is a word largely derived from Greek philosophy, especially in the metaphysics of Aristotle, in which one finds a distinction in the Ten Categories, between what Aristotle refers to as “substance” and “accidents. To allude to an example that might be helpful: the “substance” would be “wood.” The accidents will be “a chair,” “a black table,” “a short table,” “white papers,” “green papers,” et cetera, made from the “substance” of wood. That which remains when others change is the substance. A table might be dismantled and reassembled so that it takes the form of a chair. But the “woodness” remains. And the “woodness” is the substance.

4. In this sense, “real presence” means that Christ is present in the substance of the bread and wine, the Eucharistic species. It means in the form of bread and wine, we encounter Christ, not a symbolic presence, but in that substance, in that “breadness” and “wineness.” That means it is Christ we touch and receive in the bread and wine, even if, as Aquinas wrote in his beautiful hymn, the senses all fail us, for we see and touch bread and wine, but what we see and touch, in the bread and wine, is Christ. I sometimes feel like Thomas the Apostle, when I look at the before the bread and wine of the Eucharist. Thomas sees a man before him, Jesus, the Risen One, and yet proclaims, “My Lord and My God” (John 20:28). We see bread and wine, and, with the faith of Thomas, the faith of the Church of all the ages, we believe that it is the body and blood of Christ.

5. Dear Holy People of God, inasmuch as I would have loved to delve deeper into this mystery of the Eucharist, my deepest sentiments today is to talk about another mystery, which is clearly not so evident regarding the liturgical texture of Holy Thursday. Initially, I said Holy Thursday marks three mysteries, viz, the mystery of God’s unconditional love, the mystery of the Sacred Priesthood, and the mystery of the Eucharist. But somewhere hidden in all three, lies another mystery, the Mystery of the Church. During these days of COVD 19, aren’t we living, severed in a very concrete sense, from the Church? Aren’t we feeling this sense of loss, as if we have been cut off from the life-wire, from that which gives us purpose and meaning in life? I have heard from so many of you, via emails, phone calls and text messages, how, all of a sudden, we now feel like spiritually orphaned! We can no longer attend Holy Mass. We can no longer celebrate the Sacrament of Confession. And many more. Perhaps this “spiritual desert” in which we are finding ourselves given the absence of the sacramental Church, gives us the opportunity to take a fresh look at the Mystery of the Church. I do not intend to turn this catechesis into an ecclesiology (i.e., the study of the doctrine of the Church) lecture at Boston College. For that to happen, I would have to charge you $3450 each for the course. Hence, I will make just a few observations relevant to our spiritual lives.

6. In the first place, the Church is not an institution created by a commission or committee of persons. The question is often asked in ecclesiology: Did Jesus Christ found the Church? As Joseph Ratzinger argues, the question about Jesus and the founding of the Church is a false question because it is unhistorical. The Church was already there, ecclesial ab Abel – in the Old Testament, as a community called by God from the world and for the world. To speak simply, the beginnings of the Church is traceable to when God calls Israel and forms Israel as a nation to bring the nations to the worship of the true God. Hence, Jesus did not need to start by founding a Church. What Jesus did in his ministry, and specifically the mysteries of Unconditional Love and the Eucharist which we celebrate today, consisted essentially of two things: Jesus radicalizes the commandment of love, from love of the neighbor to love of the enemy; and secondly, Jesus universalizes this love, the neighbor is now the Samaritan. It is only through this process of radicalization and universalization that the Gentiles, that is, the non-Jew, can enter into the story of God. This is the door, thanks to which an American, a Filipino or a Cameroonian enters into the story of the Covenant, the story of the Church, a story, as Benedict beautifully described, – “a story God himself has created.” I love the reflective pronoun employed by Benedict – A Story He Himself has created!

7. Dear Holy People of God, if the Church is not an institution created by some brilliant theologians from library research but rather, a story God himself has created, it means that the heart of the Church is the One whom God has made heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2). Christ is the heart of the Church. It is important to remember that, especially when you think of my flaws and weaknesses, as I struggle to accompany you on this holy journey to God. Every one of us, pastor and people, live from Christ and for Christ. In this sense, the Church, as Romano Guardini beautifully articulated, is a living organism, alive in the soul of believer. It is only in you, in your heart and in my heart, that the Church takes root and flourishes. Pastors will come and go. Structural and institutional adjustments will come and go. Buildings will be constructed, others, demolished. Parish pastoral councils will serve their terms. Political and economic systems will rise and fall. And many more. But the Church of God, the story God himself has created, will remain, in the hearts of the idiota, the simple souls, in the lives of the poor in spirit, those who live for God and depend on God, as the example of the New Testament shows us: Mary of Nazareth; Zechariah, John the Baptist, Elizabeth, Simeon, Anna, et cetera. The Church, the life of Christ in the human heart, will be there, until when the Angel of the Apocalypse announces, “The time of waiting is over” (Revelation 10:6), and the history of the Church will come to an end with the history of the world, and then the new heaven and a new earth will emerge, and there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness, the world of the past has gone (Revelation 21:1, 4). And God will make all of creation new (Revelation 21:5).

8. Dear Holy People of God, this is what I feel the Lord asking that I share with you today, on Holy Thursday: To love the Church, as Christ loved her (Ephesians 5:25). The Church, in the concreteness of the here and now. The Church, our supernatural family of faith, wider than our biological families. The Church, that family that God himself has created for us, from every tribe and tongue and people and nation (Revelation 7:9). – What a beautiful image, the universality of the Church! The Church, our mother and teacher, sometimes too slow for our liking, often times disfigured by the sinfulness of her members, scandalized by the actions of us her leaders, and yet, and this is what is of utmost importance, bearing in her the hope for the world, that is, Christ, in the form of the Gospel Message and the Sacraments.

9. May the Lord be close to each and every one of you, as we enter into the sacramental celebration of his Passion, Death and Resurrection. May the Love for the Church come more alive in our hearts, the love for that story which God himself has created, and which we are called to love, just as Christ loved her, Amen!

(Fr Maurice Agbaw-Ebai)

9, April 2020

US: More signs of absolute dysfunction coming from the White House ⁰

The resignations of US President Donald Trump’s chief spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham and Acting US Navy Secretary Thomas Modly show absolute dysfunction in the White House, according to Myles Hoenig, an American political analyst and activist.

Hoenig, a former Green Party candidate for Congress, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Thursday after Grisham stepped down Tuesday and the US Navy chief offered to resign in the wake of an aircraft carrier coronavirus crisis.

Modly’s trip last weekend to address sailors aboard the COVID-19-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt cost taxpayers more than $243,000, according to a Navy official.

In a speech to the sailors, Modly branded the fired captain of the ship as “naive” and “stupid” for seeking aid, causing his resignation Tuesday.

“When Donald Trump was running for president he promised to hire only the best. Maybe he saw himself as the reincarnation of John Kennedy with a cabinet of the ‘best and the brightest’ but like that previous administration, this term referred to the utter failure of its foreign policy regarding Vietnam,” Hoenig told Press TV.

“For Trump, it relates more to the idea of dumb and dumber when it comes to his choice of advisors, personnel picks, and overall policies. The latest resignations of Acting Navy Secretary Modly, followed by press secretary Grisham shows more than just looking for the best to represent the administration, but shows absolute dysfunction in the White House,” he said.

“Rarely has there been a near mutiny on board a US Naval ship which caused the ranking civilian close to the President to step down. Secretary Modly relieved of his command Captain Crozier for publicly highlighting a critical medical problem on board in order to get the attention of much higher ups. Modly, in talking with the naval personnel on board called him stupid and naïve. This didn’t go well and he was cursed at by many of the sailors. Discipline and decorum flew out the window, or porthole,” he added.

“On the political side the resignation of Stephanie Grisham, who never held a press briefing, only showed that in all policies it is President Trump who leads the way and is leading the way towards utter confusion, chaos, misinformation, and ridiculous conspiracy theories coming from the White House. On the Corona virus he’s not a doctor but plays one on TV, often offering to his supporters medical advice that contravenes the wisdom of the medical profession. But like everything else, it isn’t just that he thinks he is smarter than anyone in the room, as he so often states, but he has financial interests in the quackery that he’s promoting,” he noted.

“Overall, these two most recent resignation serve as a metaphor for a collapse of societal norms and capitalist dysfunction, not at all started by Trump, but certainly exaggerated by him. Overt racism, homophobia, misogyny, failure to accept responsibility, conspiracy theories, saving the very wealthy over the needs of everyday people, long preceded Trump but are all the hallmark of the Trump administration,” he concluded.

Source: Presstv

9, April 2020

France to extend coronavirus lockdown again, will run beyond April 15 ⁰

France will extend its nationwide lockdown put in place to contain the spread of the new coronavirus for a second time, meaning it will run beyond April 15, the French presidential palace said on Wednesday.

The Élysée Palace said French President Emmanuel Macron would address the nation regarding the disease situation on Monday evening.

Macron will from now until Monday “speak to a large number of public and private actors – French, European and international – on what is at stake concerning Covid-19 and prepare the decisions that will be announced on Monday to the French”, the presidency said.

It will be Macron’s third prime time address from the Élysée Palace since the crisis began.

The announcement comes as France’s coronavirus death toll rose to 10,869 after hospitals recorded 541 new fatalities over the most recent 24-hour period.

Jérôme Salomon, head of the public health authority, told reporters that there were now 7,148 people in intensive care at hospitals across France, a net increase of 17 from the day earlier, the lowest increase recorded in recent weeks.

Salomon said he was unable to give a tally for the country’s nursing homes, which account for more than 30 percent of total fatalities, due to “technical problems”.

The health official said the nationwide lockdown, which began on March 17, had helped slow down the virus’s spread.

“The slowing seen over the last days is linked to your good respect of the confinement rules,” he said.

He expressed hope that France would see a flattening in its curve of cases in coming days but emphasised that this “plateau is at a very high level”.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

9, April 2020

WHO fires back after Trump dig about their handling of coronavirus pandemic ⁰

The head of the World Health Organization gave a strident defence of his agency’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday, in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s criticism and suggestions that Washington could review its funding for the agency.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for unity and a halt to “politicization” of the global health crisis, specifically urging China and the United States to show “honest leadership”.

Tedros said he expected U.S. funding to continue with traditional bipartisan support.

Trump and his administration repeated its criticism, on Wednesday. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington was re-evaluating U.S. funding to the body, saying international organizations utilizing U.S. taxpayer money needed to deliver on their goals. But he objected to a leadership change at the WHO at this time.

U.S. contributions to the WHO in 2019 exceeded $400 million, almost double the second-largest country donor, according to U.S. figures. The WHO website shows the United States as its top donor, contributing nearly 15% of the budget.

Trump told the daily White House briefing on the coronavirus that Beijing’s payment was a small fraction of Washington’s WHO contribution, and that was “not fair at all.”

“So, we’re going to do study, investigation. And we’re going to make a determination as to what we’re doing. In the meantime, we’re holding back. We … want to see.”

Trump said the WHO issued a statement on Jan. 14 saying “there was no human-to-human transmission” and criticized him “very strongly” when he said he was going to shut down flights from China.

Tedros said the WHO had “kept the world informed about the latest data, information and evidence” and noted that Thursday would mark 100 days since China first notified the organization of cases of “pneumonia with unknown cause” on Dec. 31.

Tedros, a former foreign minister of Ethiopia, rejected Trump’s suggestion that the WHO was “China-centric”, saying: “We are close to every nation, we are colour-blind.”

Earlier, Dr Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to Tedros, also defended the U.N. agency’s relationship with China, saying its work with Beijing authorities was important to understand the outbreak.

“It was absolutely critical in the early part of this outbreak to have full access to everything possible, to get on the ground and work with the Chinese to understand this,” said Aylward, who led a WHO expert mission to China in February.

In an interview with KDKA Radio, Pompeo said: “I think it’s pretty clear that the World Health Organization hasn’t lived up to its billing, it hasn’t been able to achieve what it was designed to achieve, and we just can’t continue to permit that to go on. We’ve got to find a way.”

Pompeo was asked at the coronavirus briefing whether it was time to change the WHO leadership and replied: “This is not the time to be doing that kind of change.”

‘We make mistakes’

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday now was not the time to assess the global response to the pandemic, calling instead for the international community to focus on working in solidarity to stop the virus.

Tedros said his U.N. agency would conduct its usual assessment of its performance after the emergency and draw lessons about its strengths and weaknesses, adding: “We make mistakes like other human beings.”

He summarised his advice as: “Please, unity at national level, no using COVID for political points. Second, honest solidarity at the global level. And honest leadership from the U.S. and China.”

“The most powerful should lead the way and please quarantine COVID politics,” he added, referring to COVID-19, the highly contagious, sometimes deadly illness caused by the new coronavirus.

Tedros said Beijing and Washington should follow the example of what the former Soviet Union and the United States did in 1967 when they launched a 10-year global campaign that eradicated smallpox, a disease then killing 2 million people annually.

Tedros rejected “racist slurs” against him, which he said had originated in Taiwan, and disclosed that he had also received a death threat during the crisis.

“We are losing people, why would I care about being attacked when people are dying?” he said, noting there were already “60,000 body bags” after more than 1.3 million infections.

“We will have many body bags in front of us if we don’t behave,” he added.

Source: REUTERS

9, April 2020

Cameroonians are worried about coronavirus but also about an absent president ⁰

Like elsewhere, Cameroonians at home and abroad are very worried over the novel coronavirus which has been rapidly spreading across the country.

By the close of April 7, Cameroon had registered 685 cases of Covid-19, with nine deaths, overtaking other countries to become the second hardest hit in Sub-Saharan Africa after South Africa. Cameroon now has over 15 times as many confirmed cases as any other country in the central African sub-region and one of the highest numbers of daily new cases on the continent. Like many other African countries, Cameroon is not well-equipped to handle a major outbreak of the disease.

But as Cameroonians grapple with the spread of Covid-19, they are also preoccupied with the absence of their leader. President Paul Biya, 87, who in 2018 secured another mandate to extend his 36-year rule to 2025, has not publicly addressed his compatriots since the country registered its first case on March 6. His next-door peer, Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon, with just 30 confirmed cases, has addressed his people on at least three occasions, despite still recuperating from a stroke.

Biya was last seen in public on Mar. 11, when he received the US ambassador to Cameroon at the Unity Palace in Yaoundé. No official mention has been made of his whereabouts thereafter. Even pressure from activists and opposition leaders has not forced the African strongman out in public.

Two weeks ago, Cameroon’s main opposition leader, Maurice Kamto issued an initial seven-day ultimatum, calling on president Biya to personally address the nation. On April 3, Kamto called on the population of coronavirus-affected regions to stay at home—a move the runner-up of the 2018 presidential election said he took because “the Head of State has refused to assume his functions in the fight against the coronavirus.”

The Popular Action Party on its part expressed concerns over the inaction of President Biya and accused Yaounde authorities of playing “a hide-and-seek game.” The party promised to seize the country’s constitutional council to make a declaratory statement on the vacancy or not of the presidency.

Despite his country exhibiting multiple layers of vulnerability to Covid-19, Biya has stuck with his reticence for public speaking. He however instructed the prime minister to put in place a 13-point response strategy and has through social media called on Cameroonians to respect the measures put in place. From wherever he is, the president has also signed several decrees, including one instituting a national solidarity fund to fight COVID-19 and another appointing officials to lead the reconstruction of the conflict-ravaged English-speaking regions in the country’s southwest.

It isn’t unprecedented for Biya to be unseen or silent during critical moments in the life of the country. Even recent widespread rumors of his demise on social media have not forced his hand. His aides and supporters have described this phenomenon as “presidential silence” and have often argued that “his attitude is a sign of maturity and wisdom.”

Biya’s “private visits” to his usual retreat at the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva has often been a source of political controversy and quiet embarrassment. One estimate is that he’s spent 15% of his time in power, abroad.

Over the last decade, Biya has made the top floor suites of the five-star luxury hotel into his home away from home spending months at a time even as his country has slowly descended into conflict from Boko Haram Islamic terrorists in the north and an Anglophone-led insurgency in north- and southwest of the country.

Culled from Quartz Africa

8, April 2020

French Cameroun: Bombing Kills 10, Triggers Renewed Boko Haram Fear ⁰

Cameroon is calling on people living in two villages bordering Nigeria to return from their hideouts after two teenagers detonated explosives and killed at least 10 civilians. The military says it has secured the area, but civilians maintain that the villages have been infiltrated by Boko Haram terrorists.

Speaking via a messaging app from the northern village of Blama Kamsoulou, community official Adamu Sidiki says dozens of people have fled since Sunday night’s suicide bombing, fearing Boko Haram.

About 70 people have escaped to the bushes and nearest towns because they believe Boko Haram is making a powerful comeback, Sidiki said, adding that barely two weeks ago, the terrorist group killed at least 90 Chadian soldiers in the nearby Boma peninsula. It is high time Cameroon protected its citizens by redeploying its military to border zones that terrorists are again occupying, he said.

Cameroon’s government said in a release Monday that two male suicide bombers were spotted by civilians Sunday near the Blama Kamsoulou village primary school. When the attackers noticed that they were being monitored, they rushed to the traditional ruler’s palace and detonated the explosives they were carrying.

Roger Saffo, secretary general of the Far North Region governor’s office, said the blasts took the lives of many villagers.

“On the spot, there were nine people killed and 15 people wounded,” Saffo said. “I want to seize this opportunity to appeal to our population to be more vigilant, to be cautious, to collaborate with the forces of law and security.”

FILE - Cameroonian soldiers stand guard at a lookout post as they take part in operations against Boko Haram militants on Elbeid bridge that separates northern Cameroon form Nigeria's Borno state near the village of Fotokol, Cameroon, Feb. 25, 2015. — FILE – Cameroonian soldiers stand guard at a lookout post as they take part in operations against Boko Haram militants on Elbeid bridge that separates northern Cameroon form Nigeria’s Borno state near the village of Fotokol, Cameroon, Feb. 25, 2015.

Suffo said the wounded were transported to a hospital in the nearby town of Mora, where one person died. Nine others are in critical condition.

Midjiyawa Bakary, governor of the Far North region, said he has ordered soldiers to deploy to the border villages that Boko Haram fighters have allegedly infiltrated.

Local vigilante committees should be reinforced immediately and civilians should work in collaboration with the militias to make sure both the military and administrative authorities are informed anytime strange people are found in their villages, Bakary said.

On March 24, Chad’s president, Idriss Deby, announced that 92 Chadian troops were killed in a Boko Haram attack that lasted several hours. He said 24 army vehicles were destroyed, and captured military arms were taken away in speedboats by Boko Haram.

Boko Haram has also renewed attacks on the Nigerian military, with the killing of at least 50 soldiers in an ambush near Goneri village in Nigeria’s northern Yobe state in March.

Cameroon has not reported a large-scale Boko Haram attack for the past two months, but the Islamist militant group invades the territory regularly for supplies or to kidnap citizens for ransom.

Source: VOA

8, April 2020

Bernie Sanders quits 2020 US Democratic presidential campaign ⁰

Leading US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has ended his presidential campaign, paving the way for his rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, to win the Democratic presidential race.

This is Sanders’ second failed attempt to grab the Democratic party’s nomination after he fell short of defeating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016 primaries.

“The path toward victory is virtually impossible,” Sanders said in a livestreamed speech to supporters from his hometown of Burlington, Vermont, on Wednesday.

“I have concluded that this battle for the Democratic nomination will not be successful. And so today, I am announcing the suspension of my campaign,” the 78-year-old US senator added.

Sanders’ exit comes after a series of losses to Biden, beginning in South Carolina in late February and continuing with losses in crucial states like Michigan and Florida last month.

Source: Presstv

8, April 2020

Trump threatens to withhold funds from WHO, says UN body is ‘China-centric’ ⁰

President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to cut US funding to the World Health Organization, accusing it of bias toward China during the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump told reporters he was “going to put a very powerful hold on” funding to WHO, the UN body whose biggest funding source is the United States.

“We’re going to put a hold on money spent to the WHO,” said Trump, who pursues an “America First” agenda and has previously criticised other UN and multilateral agencies.

He gave no details about how much money would be withheld and minutes later during the same press conference he said: “I’m not saying I’m going to do it.”

“We will look at ending funding,” he added.

According to Trump, the WHO “seems to be very biased toward China. That’s not right.”

His comments built on an earlier statement on Twitter in which he accused the WHO of being “very China centric.”

Trump asked why the WHO had given “such a faulty recommendation,” apparently referring to the UN body’s advice against curtailing international travel to stop the virus which first spread from China.

“Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on,” Trump wrote, referring to his decision to ban travel from the country.

China faces criticism in Washington, particularly from Republicans, over the way it handled the pandemic and Trump has expressed doubt over the accuracy of Chinese statistics for cases and deaths.

However, Trump himself has been widely criticized for initially downplaying the virus, which he likened to an ordinary flu and said was under control in the United States, before later accepting that it was a national emergency.

More than 12,000 Americans have now died from COVID-19.

(AFP)