Monthly Archives: June 2020

The Star Newspaper Publisher Paul Nkemayang is dead

20, June 2020

The Star Newspaper Publisher Paul Nkemayang is dead 0

The Star Newspaper Publisher Paul Nkemayang is dead.  Cameroon Concord News gathered that Nkemayang died Thursday afternoon after a brief illness. He had a stint with the Cameroon Life Magazine before he founded the Star Group.

The late Vice President of the Commonwealth Journalists Association, CJA, for Africa died at the Presbyterian Health Centre in Down Beach Limbe according to a family member.

Paul Nkemayang a chartered member of the Cameroon Association of English Speaking Journalists, CAMASEJ was also a pioneer member of the pro President Biya’s National Communication Council.

Yaoundé is yet to commiserate with the Southern Cameroons media industry, particularly the Cameroon Association of English Speaking Journalists over his passing on Thursday. Mr Paul Biya and Hon. Peter Esoka of the National Communication Council have instead send condolences to the Fotso Victor family.

The Chairman and Editor-In-Chief of the Cameroon Concord News Group, the Right Hon. Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai described Paul Nkemayang’s death as a collective loss to the media and the people of West Cameroon that he served passionately with his talent.  Agbaw-Ebai added that the passing of Nkemayang is devastating and a great loss not only to his immediate family but also to the journalism profession in Southern Cameroons.

Born on March 8, 1959, Foanyi Nkemayang Paul studied journalism in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and founded The Star Group in January 1991. He was made Knight of the National Order of Valour and he was crowned Osari Maribu in Manyu by Biya acolytes represented by Chief Tabetando at a time when Cameroon government army soldiers were carrying out a genocidal campaign in his native Lebialem County.

Paul Nkemayang is survived by his wife, and four children.

By Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap in Glasgow

Football: Neymar ordered to pay Barcelona 6.7 million euros as case against club dismissed

20, June 2020

Football: Neymar ordered to pay Barcelona 6.7 million euros as case against club dismissed 0

Neymar must pay 6.7 million euros ($7.53m) to Barcelona, a court ordered Friday after the player’s case against his former employer was dismissed.

After his world-record transfer to Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 the Brazilian forward sued Barca for 43.6 million euros that he claimed he was due for various bonuses.

But a judge dismissed Neymar’s case and instead sided with Barcelona, who had also sued their former player for breach of contract.

Neymar has five days to appeal the decision.

He joined Barca in 2013 and signed a new five-year contract in 2016, which included a renewal bonus worth 43.6 million euros, with 14 million paid up front.

The remaining 29 million euros was due to be paid on August 1, 2017 but Neymar left Barcelona on August 3 for Paris Saint-Germain, who activated the striker’s 222 million euro release clause.

Barcelona refused to pay Neymar the remainder of the bonus, insisting the terms of his contract had been broken.

The club in turn sued Neymar and requested the return of the 14 million euros they had paid him up front, as well as a further 8.5 million euros in damages.

“We express our satisfaction with the verdict announced today,” Barcelona said in a statement.

“The ruling has fully dismissed the player’s claim for payment of EUR43.6m, and has accepted a large part of the defence presented by FC Barcelona, as a result of which the player must return EUR6.7m to the club.

“Since the player’s representative is entitled to appeal this decision, the club shall continue to fervently defend its legitimate interests.”

Despite the financial dispute between Barcelona and Neymar, both the club and the player have been eager to be reunited.

There were even discussions last year about coming to an agreement out of court but a compromise could not be reached.

Barca spent most of last year’s summer transfer window negotiating a transfer with PSG but were unable to strike a deal, even as a number of different players were offered in exchange.

Neymar remains a popular figure among the leaders of the Barca squad, including Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, with whom he formed a devastating attacking trio during his time at Camp Nou.

“I’ve said it many times, as a footballer Ney is one of the best in the world and I would love for him to return,” Messi said in an interview with Barcelona newspaper Mundo Deportivo in February.

“He was always happy, he had fun both on and off the pitch. He brought a special sense of joy to the dressing room.”

Messi added: “He is eager to return, he was always regretful. He tried a lot to come back and that would be the first step in trying to get him here.”

Another attempt to re-sign Neymar was expected this summer but the financial implications of the coronavirus pandemic make an agreement even more unlikely.

“Neymar-type transfers will not happen,” said La Liga president Javier Tebas earlier this month.

Neymar was brought to PSG to help them finally win the Champions League but they failed to go past the last 16 in his first two years at the club.

This season, they are one of four teams through to the quarter-finals, which will be played in Lisbon in August, according to an announcement made by UEFA on Wednesday.

Source: AFP

Trump’s presidency: Going, going, gone

20, June 2020

Trump’s presidency: Going, going, gone 0

The Trump presidency is in a state of meltdown. He has been exposed once again as “an emperor without clothes.” He is losing on all fronts and as a result, is lashing out in all directions. But all of his huffing and puffing is having no effect and his poll numbers keep on sinking as the November elections draw near.

During the last week alone, the Supreme Court which Trump thought he had in his hip pocket, has ruled in favor of his opponents, extending legal protections to LGBT workers and keeping intact the Obama era orders protecting the children of undocumented immigrants.

Trump’s opposition to both initiatives has been the hallmark of his administration. In like manner, his other policies directed against immigrants, the building of a wall along the Mexican border, and his attempt to penalize “sanctuary cities” have been struck down by court rulings. Other Trump policies, such as the dismantling of Obamacare have also been met with defeat.

Trump has also used racist “dog whistles” to pander to his base of mostly white males, alienating Blacks, Hispanics, educated whites, and women in the process. His support for a police force that serves as an occupying force in Black and Hispanic communities has also backfired with mass multiracial protests against police brutality and their murders of Black men sweeping the country.

Besides all that, Trump’s criminal response to the COVID-19 pandemic led to the US having the largest numbers of cases and a skyrocketing death toll that led to the shut-down of the US economy and an economic crisis of unimaginable proportions. He is thus faced with a lose-lose situation, either keep the economy on hold until the pandemic abates, or open up the economy with the prospect of hundreds of thousands more unnecessary deaths.

Both the severity of the pandemic and the economic crisis that has ensued is the result of Trump’s blunders. Trump was more concerned with signing a trade deal with China and keeping the Stock Market at record highs than anything else, as he saw them as tickets to a second term.

But his plans went astray and he now finds his re-election prospects diminishing on a daily basis. Come November the pandemic will not have miraculously disappeared and the economy will not have recovered to any large extent. Thousands will still be dying and millions will still be unemployed.

Given the unprecedented crises that Trump now faces he has only one retort, blame China. The pandemic was not a result of his intransigence, but China’s failure to contain and control it. This is demonstrably false. New research unequivocally shows that the coronavirus was circulating in Italy weeks before it was identified in China and most of the strains of the virus in the US originated in Europe not China. Pinning the blame on China no longer holds water. But that will not deter Trump from continuing to point the finger at his favorite bête noire. Trump can only grouse about China’s supposed perfidy.

The Chinese, on the other hand, can sit back and be amused by Trump’s predicament. They will continue to do what they find necessary, protect their national sovereignty in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang. Tibet and the South China Sea and support their friends in North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and Africa. All the invective and vitriol that the US can muster to try and denigrate China will have no effect.

Given the dismal prospects that Trump is faced with he has reverted to conniption fits and temper tantrums, like the spoiled toddler he is. No one should take what he says seriously. His threat to sever ties with China are just the ravings of a lunatic howling at the moon.

Culled from Presstv

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s lawyer fears for life

20, June 2020

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe’s lawyer fears for life 0

Human Rights Lawyer Barrister Njong Henry Tita says his life is under “serious threats from the Cameroon military and other state agents.”

Barrister Njong said secret service officers serving the vicious regime in Yaounde want to take his head for defending the leader of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and nine of his top aides, as well as for revealing what actually happened during the July 23, 2019 riots at the Buea Central Prison.

“I am Barrister Njong Henry Tita, a human rights lawyer who has been defending the rights of the oppressed in national and international courts. I am one of the leading lawyers who have been defending the 10 separatist southern Cameroon leaders who were abducted from Nigeria, brought and sentenced to life imprisonment before the Yaoundé Military Court – Julius Ayuk Take and Co.,” the lawyer said in a message on his face book page.

The man of law also observed that “Besides this, I have been leading a team of over 50 lawyers defending other persons detained in connection with the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon. I have also been active in reporting any injustice that I may notice anywhere. One of such was the Buea prison riot of 23 July 2019 where my report contradicted the government position and the regime attempted arresting me but for the timely intervention of the Cameroon and African bars and other human rights organizations that put a halt to same.”

He says his quest to see and do justice has earned him a lot of bitterness amongst those perpetrating injustice in Cameroon, who now see him as an enemy.

“To that effect, I have been receiving threats, so many threats, from both the military and other state agents. The threats have now reached an intolerable point where the military are calling me on [a] daily basis asking me to report at the military camp in Buea. One of them who identified himself as commander John told me that they have spies on me and that my activities defending the Anglophones [is] tantamount to supporting and collaborating with the secessionists. He said if I don’t come to the military camp, they will do their own justice with their gun as it’s happening to others in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon,” said Njong.

“It should be noted that these threats have made me so uncomfortable and my movements are not free as I am now afraid of the unknown .To this effect, I am informing all to be aware that my life is at risk for being a lawyer standing against oppression and injustice.”

Culled from CIN with additional editing from Camcordnews

Arrest of Ernest Obama opens major rift in ruling clan as Biya’s super-rich acolyte Amougou Belinga takes command

19, June 2020

Arrest of Ernest Obama opens major rift in ruling clan as Biya’s super-rich acolyte Amougou Belinga takes command 0

Journalist Ernest Obama pushed for a complete extermination of every living creature who goes by the appellation Anglophone or Southern Cameroonian. He opined that British Southern Cameroonians fled the civil war in Nigeria and were given political asylum in French Cameroun territory by the regime of Prime Minister Andre Marie Mbida. He saluted the humiliating decision by a French Cameroun court against the renowned veteran journalist Peter Esoka and observed that the Bamilekes had a home somewhere else and not in La Republique du Cameroun. Today, from his detention cell at the State Secretariat for Defense popularly known as SED, Ernest Obama is claiming that Cameroon’s security forces are arresting him because he is not in support of Biya’s continued stay in power.

Dieudonné Ernest Obama Nana (to use his four names) the former CEO of the private television channel VISION 4 has been the “shu shu” of French Cameroun billionaire business tycoon Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga with strong ties to President Biya, Paul Atanga Nji Minister of Territorial Administration, Laurent Esso, Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seal and the controversial Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary. His televised arrest in Yaoundé has made public the dispute within the Biya family, which has ruled Cameroon for more than 40 years.

Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga owns a business empire in Cameroon, Gabon, Central Africa Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Chad ranging from telecoms to cocoa and coffee, oil and gas trading that no one in Yaoundé and Douala including top officials in the Cameroon secret service cannot explain how it all started! People in the know only say he and Minister Atanga Nji have questions to answer in the CAMPOST Affair. (See Special Criminal Court documents).

Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga is said to be playing a big role in financing President Biya’s war against the people of Southern Cameroons and making sure that the Bamileke LAAKAM mafia do not get hold of the Cameroonian presidency.  Correspondingly, he and his right hand man, journalist Ernest Obama previously viewed as part of the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo project have now broken ranks.

It follows reports Ernest Obama, considered French Cameroun’s best Mister News and former boss of Vision 4 is being prosecuted by Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga, the business tycoon and owner of the television station, for breach of trust, high treason and embezzlement of company funds.

By some strange happenstance, Vision 4 aired spectacular images of Mister Obama’s arrest and a report detailing the reasons for the judicial action. Ernest Obama is now getting his own share of the drug he gave to the thousands of innocent Southern Cameroonians killed by French Cameroun army soldiers and of course, he will welcome a visit from the Chairman of the National Communication Council, Mr Peter Esoka anytime soon.

His arrest began in an unacceptable way and the Fren ch Cameroun security forces including his former colleagues who filmed the whole scenario also acted in an inhumane pattern.

Did anyone expect French Cameroun security forces would pounce on Mister Ernest Obama who is their biggest supporter and their propaganda mouth piece ever since the beginning of the Southern Cameroons war?

Mr Jean Pierre Amougou Belinga’s action against Mr Ernest Obama is said to have possibly been ordered by Etoudi, who have propped up the Amougou Belinga business empire, while others have said it is the result of a dispute with Mr Amougou Belinga, over who decides who to succeed President Biya.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Manyu Project: Our destiny is in our hands

19, June 2020

Manyu Project: Our destiny is in our hands 0

For far too long, the people of Manyu Division have always held that their destiny is in the hands of other people, especially in the hands of their leaders and the government.

Time is gradually proving that this mentality belongs to a different epoch. Many communities around the world have developed thanks to their deep sense of self-help and community efforts.

Over the years, the Jews, Indians, Bamilekes and Igbos have made self-help the cornerstone for the development of their regions and people.

The Jews are dominating many sectors of the global economy because they know how to pull their resources. Indians have taking over many sectors of the North American economy because of their developed sense of unity.

Igbos and Bamilekes have used this age-old business and wealth creation principle to transform the lives of their people. The Chinese know that if you want to go very fast, then you have to go alone, but if you want to go very far, then you must go with other people.

Only Manyu people are yet to understand that if their destiny must change, then they must make common cause. If they need to see their region develop, then they must work together.

Arrogance, greed and bloated egos are still standing in the way of collaborative efforts among Manyu people.

The region still has a very dangerous mentality. Many Manyu people still feel diminished when others get known. The fear that others might get known pushes them into a destructive mentality.

If an idea is not theirs, then it must be killed. Though they lay claim to intellectual development, their actions and behavior still leave much to be desired.

Education, as conceived by Charlemagne, was designed to help revolutionize human thinking. Great philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato and Socrates have used their education to foster human development and development.

 But the education that the people of Manyu lay claim to is completely at variance with the initial objectives of Western education and this explains why his own part of the world is and will always be like a war zone.

But it cannot and should not always be that way. The people of Manyu must understand that there is power in numbers and they have the numbers.

They must come to terms with the fact that if they work together, they will not continue to blame their leaders who have very little resources and leeway to achieve what they expect of those leaders.

While the leaders can be instrumental in the success of some projects, it should be known that they cannot have their finger in every pie.

They lack the silver bullet. The midas’ touch can only be developed if each and every son of Manyu brings their contribution to the edification of a better and more modern Manyu.

The Manyu Project, a self-help effort comes in to fill that gap that has been holding the Division back.

The initiative, made in the mould of other initiatives that have succeeded elsewhere, will go a long way in giving the Division a facelift.

The business model is easy. The financial burden will be light. With just CFAF 1,000 from every son and daughter of Manyu Division around the world, Manyu will grow by leaps and bounds.

For those living in Cameroon, an MTN money transfer number has been set up. A GoFundMe account is being set up for people in North America and Europe.

Our destiny is in our hands. We cannot continue to blame others for our misfortune. We have a chance to either make or mar our Division.

The ball is in our court. We have to make the most of it. Ours will be a kingdom of happiness if we pool our resources to achieve our common goal.

By Dr Joachim Arrey

Atanga Nji Boys attacking Southern Cameroons businessmen and highly placed civil servants

19, June 2020

Atanga Nji Boys attacking Southern Cameroons businessmen and highly placed civil servants 0

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government says armed militias backed by Cameroon regime forces have attacked scores of Ambazonian businessmen and women including highly placed civil servants in both the Northern and Southern Zones of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia as the ruling Biya Francophone regime presses ahead with its crackdown on pro-independence activists.

Vice President Dabney Yerima, citing Ambazonia Intelligence sources reported on Thursday that pro-Yaounde armed militias passing for Amba Fighters are storming into residence and demanding huge amounts of money from the local population in Bamenda, Kumba, Buea and Mamfe.

Several innocent Southern Cameroons civil servants and businessmen are currently being held in undisclosed locations by the armed militias created and sponsored by the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji.

Last month, the exiled Southern Cameroons leader raised the issue of the Atanga Nji Boys in a letter addressed to the European Union and the United Nations in which he observed that the French Cameroun authorities were also preventing imprisoned Ambazonia leader Barrister Blaise Shufai from receiving appropriate medication.

Southern Cameroonians have been staging almost daily ghost town operations and armed resistance ever since a pro-independence uprising began in West Cameroon four years ago. The people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia are calling for complete separation and independence from La Republique du Cameroun.

The French Cameroun regime, in return, has ignored the calls and is pressing ahead with its heavy-handed crackdown and persecution of the people of Southern Cameroons and their leadership.

By Isong Asu

US: Biden’s 12% lead portends Trump’s dramatic meltdown

19, June 2020

US: Biden’s 12% lead portends Trump’s dramatic meltdown 0

US President Donald Trump’s approval rating is declining amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and protests against racial inequality and police brutality that have been sweeping the US, new polling shows.

A poll released Thursday by FOX News found that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden continues to lead Trump in the race for the White House.

The survey, conducted between June 13-16, asked participants how they feel about the Republican president’s performance in things like the economy, race relations and health care.

The poll shows 55 percent of respondents said they did not approve of the job Trump is doing as president overall, while 61 percent said they disapproved of his handling of race relations, and 53 percent said they disapproved of the way Trump is handling health care.

The poll found Biden leads Trump by a 50-38 percent margin, a statistically significant 12-point advantage and up from Biden’s 8-point lead last month.

Trump has been condemned over his response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide protests against police brutality.

Trump responded aggressively to the protests and vowed to send the military into states that couldn’t contain the demonstrations.

The fallout from the novel coronavirus pandemic has also been severe. Layoffs caused by the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic in the United States have passed 45.7 million, raising fears that despite some positive signs, the economy faces a halting recovery from the downturn.

The Fox News poll follows a separate survey released Tuesday by the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which found that Americans are deeply unhappy about the state of their country, citing Trump as a factor worsening those concerns.

The AP-NORC poll found that most Americans — including 63 percent of Republicans said the US is heading in the wrong direction. Just 24 percent said the country is headed in the right direction, down from 33 percent a month ago and 42 percent in March.

Source: Presstv

US: Pompeo slams ‘lies’ by ‘traitor’ Bolton over White House tell-all book

19, June 2020

US: Pompeo slams ‘lies’ by ‘traitor’ Bolton over White House tell-all book 0

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo late Thursday ripped into John Bolton for his explosive memoir about working for President Donald Trump, calling the former national security advisor a “traitor.”

“John Bolton is spreading a number of lies, fully-spun half-truths and outright falsehoods,” Pompeo said in a statement.

“It is both sad and dangerous that John Bolton’s final public role is that of a traitor who damaged America by violating his sacred trust with its people.”

“To our friends around the world: You know that President Trump’s America is a force for good in the world.”

Pompeo said he had not yet read the book, “The Room Where It Happened,” which the Trump administration is trying to block from publication.

But according to excerpts published by major newspapers, Bolton said that Pompeo – one of the rare aides never to clash publicly with Trump – disparaged him in private.

According to The New York Times, Bolton writes that he received a note from Pompeo during Trump’s historic first meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, saying of the president, “He is so full of shit.”

Pompeo traveled four times to North Korea in 2018 to jumpstart diplomacy for Trump, who has hailed his own efforts as worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.

But Bolton wrote that Pompeo, a month after the Singapore summit in June 2018, dismissed Trump’s North Korea diplomacy; saying it had “zero probability of success,” according to the Times report.

Bolton is well-known for his hawkish views on North Korea and left in September shortly after Trump, accompanied by Pompeo, again met Kim on the Demilitarized Zone in Korea.

Source: AFP

East Africa braces for another locust invasion

19, June 2020

East Africa braces for another locust invasion 0

East Africa is bracing for a third outbreak of desert locusts, with billions of the destructive insects about to hatch and threaten food supplies in a region already reeling from damaging rains and the coronavirus pandemic.

Spurred by favourable weather conditions, the migratory pests have descended on East Africa in record numbers since late 2019 and another wave is about to take to the skies despite the concerted use of pesticides.

“Tens of thousands of hectares of cropland and pasture have already been damaged across the Horn and East Africa,” the International Rescue Committee said in a report this month, noting even a small swarm could devour the same amount of food in a day as approximately 35,000 people.

In Ethiopia between January and April, locusts destroyed 1.3 million hectares of grazing land and nearly 200,000 hectares of crops, resulting in the loss of 350,000 tonnes of cereals, IGAD, the East Africa regional organisation, said in a June report.

But these initial estimates — corresponding to the first and second locust waves — do not fully capture the extent of damage as field surveys have been hindered by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Until we get extended figures, I would just say Ethiopia was definitely the most affected in terms of croplands, then Somalia,” says Kenneth Kemucie Mwangi from ICPAC, the climate monitoring programme of IGAD.

Somalia, which like Kenya experienced heavy rains and flooding in recent months that left scores dead, had already declared a “national emergency” against the locust scourge in February.

So far East African neighbours Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi have been spared the insects, which travel in huge swarms billions of insects strong, and can migrate 150 kilometres (90 miles) in a single day.

– 400 billion killed –

The World Bank in May approved a $500 million (445 million euro) programme to help countries vulnerable to hunger in East Africa fight the pests eating their way across the region.

Pesticide spraying operations have been underway since February, helping wipe out staggering numbers of the insects capable of multiplying their numbers 20-fold every three months.

“About 400,000 hectares were controlled in the region between January and mid May. We estimate that 400 billion locusts have been exterminated,” says Cyril Ferrand, a Nairobi-based expert with the FAO.

“We can’t estimate the total population because we don’t have access to certain areas, especially in Somalia. But we know that it’s been seriously reduced.”

In Kenya, where swarms blotted out the sky for miles in recent months, locusts have retreated to just three semi-arid counties in the country’s far north.

Fortunately too, forecasts of dire hunger did not materialise as the first swarm to arrive from Yemen in 2019 spared the end-of-year harvest, as the crops were already too mature.

The insects, which can eat their body weight in food in a single day, strip the leaves but not seeds.

“We have not seen signs of a large scale impact on food security,” says Lark Walters of the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, a US-funded food security monitoring organisation.

– Disaster after disaster –

However that doesn’t mean the impact hasn’t been keenly felt on among vulnerable communities where access to food is fragile, and any shocks can cause immense hardship, he said.

East Africa has endured a string of disasters of near-Biblical proportions in 2020: surging rain and devastating floods, locusts and then amid it all — a viral pandemic.

“Somali pastoralist communities have had three years of drought, then the locusts, now Covid, which will prevent them from exporting their livestock,” said Ferrand of the FAO.

“For them it’s disaster after disaster, so their resilience is already very low. The slightest shock can push them into extreme poverty.”

These shocks can ripple too through the wider economy, where coronavirus lockdowns and border closures have already dragged on trade and caused financial hardship.

On June 11, the credit rating agency Fitch Ratings noted that while coronavirus was the primary factor affecting growth “the ongoing desert locust invasion represents significant downside risk to East Africa’s macroeconomic stability”.

The looming third wave still lies as eggs beneath the soil, but is predicted to hatch in coming weeks, just as farmers take to the fields.

“We have concerns for the June-July harvest,” said Waters.

Warmer weather, more rain and wind gusts are expected to direct the insects northwards, deep into the Horn of Africa and as far as Yemen, areas that will become more conducive to their reproduction in the coming months.

Source:  AFP

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