Monthly Archives: February 2021

Francofools and the FIFA Mafia: FECAFOOT now has two interim presidents

3, February 2021

Francofools and the FIFA Mafia: FECAFOOT now has two interim presidents 0

The Biya regime in La Republique du Cameroun is currently opposing the provisional executive committee of the Cameroon Football Federation to be chaired by Senator Albert Mbida.

On 2 February 2021, an extraordinary session of the General Assembly of the Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT) was held via a videoconference and it dealt inter alia with the consequences of the arbitral award rendered by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on 15 January 2021.

The 51 members participating in the said session, out of the 74 of the General Assembly reportedly set up a Provisional Executive Committee chaired by Senator Albert Mbida.

Cameroon Concord News understands the Provisional Executive Committee was constituted for a period of three months and has the main task of managing the day-to-day affairs of the Cameroon Football Federation, to revise the statutes, the electoral code and organize an electoral process that is fair, equitable and transparent.

By some strange happenstance, the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji reacted to the FECAFOOT zoom meeting by ordering all regional governors to ban all FECAFOOT meetings not loyal to ruling CPDM backed interim president Seydou Mbombouo Njoya.

According to the corrupt regime in French Cameroun, the convening of the said meeting is “contrary” to the CAS ruling of 15 January 2021 with particular reference on point 255.

As a reminder, on 15 January, CAS annulled the electoral process that led to the election of the current executive of FECAFOOT.

In its ruling, CAS gave FIFA, the world football governing body the responsibility to set up either a new normalization committee or to maintain the current executive committee until a electoral process is organized.

Due to the African Championship of Nations tournament, which brings together 16 African national teams without their stars playing outside the continent-a dress rehearsal before the African Cup of Nations, FIFA decided to maintain the current executive of the Cameroon Football Federation by promising to “strictly” supervise its “exceptional mandate”.

This “exceptional” mandate is limited to “tasks” allowing and ensuring “continuity” of current affairs and those related to the finalization in the “short term”, of the process of adoption of the required statutes and regulatory texts and the organization of new elections.

By Rita Akana

Biya Francophone regime spreading fake news about ex-Amba fighters’ protest in Buea

3, February 2021

Biya Francophone regime spreading fake news about ex-Amba fighters’ protest in Buea 0

For over fifteen months, French Cameroun authorities have attempted every trick in the book to deceive the world that Southern Cameroons restoration forces are laying down their arms. The corrupt dictatorship illegally occupying Ambazonia, has built three makeshift prisons housing common criminals and paid actors, and termed the facilities, Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration Centre.

The Monday, 1 February 2021 demonstration by alleged ex-Ambazonia separatist fighters in the Buea facility was a major embarrassment for the regime in Yaoundé. The protesters were heard screaming that they were “protesting against their poor living conditions and the unfulfilled promises of the La Republique du Cameroun Government ever since they dropped their arms.”

A Cameroon Concord News Group source on the scene said locals identified about eight of the protestors as burglars that are serving time in the Buea Central Prison. A local resident who elected anonymity furthered “I recognised four burglars who are supposed to be serving time for aggravated burglary since 2013. They have nothing to do with the Ambazonia struggle. They must have been paid by this corrupt government to stage that they live in the DDR centre. It is disgusting and disgraceful.”

As the protest continued, one of the alleged ex-separatist fighters said “the reason for the protest was because we have been suffering for more than a year since we laid down our arms. We have been living in unfavourable housing conditions, poor treatment, no jobs causing some of our wives and partners to leave us.” Another protestor shouted “all of the promises made to us by the government for jobs and employment are unfulfilled and because of this, we have decided to carry on a protest so the government can see in to their problems.”

In a country not known to show civility to protesters, the local population around Bokwango and Long Street in Buea were left suspicious and concerned at the peaceful manner that the government applied to stop the so-called protest. A local resident said “this was a staged protest especially after some on the true identities of the protestors were revealed and we are very worried that they are our new neighbours.”

By Asu Vera Eyera in London with files from Buea

Yaoundé University 1: Rector’s wife beats husband suspected mistress in his office

3, February 2021

Yaoundé University 1: Rector’s wife beats husband suspected mistress in his office 0

Pr Maurice Aurélien Sosso’s suspected mistress was violently attacked and stripped in his office by his wife.

The “mistress” Damaris Enyegue who is reportedly the wife of the younger brother of Minister Henri Eyebe Ayissi, the current Minister of Agriculture in the Biya Francophone regime was given severe beatings by the rector’s angry wife recently in the nation’s capital.

Cameroon Concord News gathered from sources deep inside the rector’s office that the crying mistress got her stockings and underwear ripped off and torn from her legs by Mrs. Patricia Sosso.

She grabbed hold of her victim’s hair and kicked her in the back during the snake beating.

Pr Maurice Aurélien Sosso approached his wife in an attempt to dissuade her, but he quickly gave up after being pushed to one side by his mike Tyson wife, Patricia Sosso also a lecturer in the University of Yaoundé 1.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

As deportations continue in the US: Biden admin to send 60 more Cameroonians home

3, February 2021

As deportations continue in the US: Biden admin to send 60 more Cameroonians home 0

60 Cameroonians will be repatriated from the United States tomorrow Thursday 4 February 2021, a statement from the Ministry of External Relations (Minrex) has revealed. These Cameroonians are presumed to be in an irregular situation in the country.

According to another release from the Cameroon Embassy in the United States, these Cameroonians will arrive in Douala at 13:45 local time on board the Boeing 767-200 of the OMNI AIR International Company, on Thursday, February 4, 2021.

Their reception in Douala will be supervised by several administrative heads including Minrex officials, the embassy press release noted.

In view of the socio-political, security and health context that Cameroon is going through, special arrangements will be made for the said operation, hinted a confidential letter addressed to the Director of Douala International Airport by the Minister of External Relations.

The repatriation operations that started under the Trump administration are continuing under the Biden era.

On 14 October 2020, 57 Cameroonians landed at Douala International Airport from the United States.

These Cameroonians, 45 men and 12 women had been forced to return to Cameroon following a repatriation operation conducted jointly by the two countries.

By Rita Akana

Myanmar coup: China, Russia block UN Security Council condemnation

3, February 2021

Myanmar coup: China, Russia block UN Security Council condemnation 0

A top U.N. official urged the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday to “collectively send a clear signal in support of democracy in Myanmar” as the 15-member body considered a possible statement condemning Monday’s coup.

U.N. Myanmar envoy Christine Schraner Burgener briefed the council in a private meeting after the Myanmar army detained Suu Kyi and others in response to “election fraud”, handed power to military chief Min Aung Hlaing, imposed a state of emergency for one year and pledged to hold new elections.

“I strongly condemn the recent steps taken by the military and urge all of you to collectively send a clear signal in support of democracy in Myanmar,” Schraner Burgener told the council, according to her prepared remarks.

“Let us be clear, the recent outcome of the election was a landslide victory for the National League for Democracy (NLD),” she said. “The military’s proposal to hold elections again should be discouraged.”

The Security Council is negotiating a possible statement, drafted by Britain, that would condemn the coup, call for the military to respect the rule of law and human rights, and immediately release those unlawfully detained, diplomats said. Such statements have to be agreed by consensus.

“I certainly hope that we’ll be able to speak with one voice,” British U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward, president of the council for February, told reporters after the meeting.

China, backed by Russia, shielded Myanmar from any significant council action after a 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine State sent more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing into Bangladesh, where they are still stranded. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Western states accused the Myanmar military of ethnic cleansing, which it denied.

A diplomat with China’s U.N. mission said after a council meeting on Tuesday that they were “shocked” that reporters had already seen the draft council statement, adding that “this will make the process of seeking consensus even more difficult.”

“We are of the view that any action by the Council should contribute to political and social stability of Myanmar and its peace and reconciliation, avoiding escalating the tension or further complicating the situation,” the diplomat said.

Russia’s U.N. mission is seeking instructions from Moscow on the draft statement, said deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy, adding that the situation in Myanmar was “complex and volatile.”

The United Nations also raised fears on Monday that the coup in Myanmar will worsen the plight of some 600,000 Rohingya Muslims still in the country.

“At this point in time, we must ensure the protection of people of Myanmar and their fundamental rights. We must do everything to prevent violence from breaking out,” Schraner Burgener said.

(REUTERS)

Portugal: Funeral workers nearing ‘breaking point’ over Covid deaths

3, February 2021

Portugal: Funeral workers nearing ‘breaking point’ over Covid deaths 0

Yet another phone call comes in for Artur Palma, who is straining to cope with all the bodies piling up at his suburban Lisbon funeral parlour.

The call is from a nearby retirement home, prompting Palma to send his employee Jose Santos to collect the latest Covid-19 victim and drive her body back to the Velhinho funeral parlour he runs in Amadora.

Santos suits up in line with Portugal’s latest health guidelines: head-to-toe white suit, gloves and surgical mask. Then, he sets off in his hearse.

Faced with an explosion in Covid deaths during a virulent third wave in the last few weeks, Palma says that the demands on the business and staff are taking their toll.

“It’s real chaos. There are so many dead people we don’t have enough room for them all,” Palma says.

“It’s an enormous weight at all levels, physically and psychologically. We sleep little and we are reaching our limit. We are reaching the breaking point,” he adds.

Velhinho employees now make three or four trips a week to retirement homes to collect the dead, Santos, 62, tells AFP, at the wheel of his hearse.

That is about three times the number of deaths the funeral parlour handled in January 2020.

According to data compiled by AFP, over the last two weeks Portugal has recorded the largest number of infections and deaths relative to its population of any country in the world.

Over the year since the pandemic began, Portugal ranks seventh in the world for infections per capita but is lower down the list for deaths per capita.

The disease has claimed just over 13,000 lives in the country of 10 million people, including more than 5,500 in January alone.

A second general lockdown was introduced on January 15 in a bid to slow infections.

– ‘We feel it at home’ –

At the retirement home, Santos and a colleague place the body in a mortuary bag and wheel it on a stretcher to the hearse.

“It really has to happen like this from now on,” Santos says, stressing the importance of respecting health measures at each stage of preparing the body for burial.

Back at the funeral parlour, amid stacks of new ornate wooden coffins, Santos and Palma complete their protective gear by pulling on medical shoe covers, goggles, overalls and gas masks.

“We absolutely must stick to using this protective equipment. I myself put on three pairs of gloves. They are made for high-risk situations,” Palma says.

Covid-19 victims are wrapped in a shroud before being placed in the coffin.

Their bodies are not embalmed because of the contagion risk but disinfectant is sprayed everywhere.

When the coffin is sealed, Velhinho staff cover the joints with an adhesive tape, which, in turn, is sealed with several layers of cellophane.

The deceased is then put back in a refrigerated room, full of Covid victims.

Palma himself has lost family members to the disease.

“With Covid-19, I have already lost my aunt, my cousin, my father and my grandfather,” he says.

At the Velhinho funeral parlour, there are a total of just four people to cope with the recent surge in bodies and the work is having a high personal cost.

“It’s very difficult and we feel it at home with our families. Fortunately, they are there to support us,” Santos says, smoking a cigarette.

Source:  AFP

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Don’t target Ambazonians, Ground Zero commander told!

2, February 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Don’t target Ambazonians, Ground Zero commander told! 0

Southern Cameroons Vice President Dabney Yerima says the Ambazonia Interim Government supports any Vatican initiative which represents people from all Southern Cameroons restoration groups in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

During a telephone conversation with a senior Amba commander in the Mezam County on Monday morning, Yerima praised Roman Catholic Christians for granting the visiting Cardinal Secretary of State, His Eminence Cardinal Pietro Parolin a befitting welcome in Southern Cameroons.

“Through the Christian faith, the Southern Cameroons Interim Government supports an inclusive peace mission with the government of La Republique du Cameroun and considers it a necessity for the United Nations to take a leading role in Southern Cameroons” Yerima said.

“Southern Cameroonians are your people and should not be targeted in any Ambazonia Self Defense operations,” the Vice President added.

The Ambzonian Vice President then pointed to the action by the Holy See, stating that the Vatican remains a provider of good mediators and peace brokers.

For his part, the Ambazonia Ground Zero commander briefed Yerima on the continued militarization of Southern Cameroons towns and cities by the French Cameroun government in Yaoundé and pointed to the broken promises of the Interim Government towards Restoration Fighters.

By Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

Central African Republic faces dire humanitarian plight

2, February 2021

Central African Republic faces dire humanitarian plight 0

Violence-torn Central African Republic is facing an increasingly dire humanitarian situation with high insecurity on the main supply route from Cameroon blocking humanitarian deliveries and prices for basic food prices soaring, the United Nations said Monday.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this is happening as 2.3 million people are already projected to need food, while rapid assessments are showing “alarming figures of severe malnutrition among the newly displaced.”

The U.N. reported Friday that 200,000 people have fled their homes in the impoverished country in less than two months and are displaced inside and outside the country.

According to local authorities, 92,000 refugees have reached Congo from Central African Republic and over 13,200 have crossed into Cameroon, Chad and the Republic of Congo, with more continuing to arrive, Dujarric said.

Central African Republic’s former president, Francois Bozize, and his allies have been accused of inciting the latest violence, which erupted after the constitutional court rejected his candidacy to run for president in December.

President Faustin Archange Touadera won re-election in December to a second term with 53% of the vote, but he continues to face opposition from forces linked to Bozize.

On Jan. 13, rebels attacked the outskirts of Bangui, killing at least two U.N. peacekeepers and blocking important access roads to the capital, causing food prices to skyrocket. The rebel attack was the most serious threat to Bangui since 2013, when a coalition of predominantly Muslim rebels known as Seleka overthrew Bozize’s government.

The Seleka formed a new government that they said would redress the years of marginalization of the country’s Muslim population. Later that year, that government was challenged by militia fighters known as the anti-Balaka who attacked Bangui. The anti-Balaka began attacking Muslim civilians, beating people to death in the streets, destroying mosques and forcing tens of thousands of Muslims to flee Bangui in 2014.

The Seleka rebel president eventually stepped aside amid international pressure and an interim government organized democratic elections in 2016, which Touadera won.

Dujarric said a key cause of the current deteriorating humanitarian situation is the very high level of insecurity along the road link to Cameroon where over 1,600 trucks, including 500 with humanitarian supplies, have been blocked at the border since mid-December, causing a suspension of imports.

“Humanitarian organizations are beginning to report critical stock outages including food and trauma kits,” he said. “The closure of the supply route also caused a worrying increase in the prices of basic foodstuffs — that’s cassava, oil, meat and rice,” of between 75% and 220%.

“This is impacting several markets in the country, including that of the capital, Bangui, and we’re also seeing the closure of several markets because of the impossibility for traders to restock,” Dujarric said.

The United Nations is appealing for $444.7 million to assist 1.84 million people in Central African Republic in 2021, he said.

U.N. refugee spokesman Boris Cheshirkov warned Friday that tens of thousands of refugees from the country are facing dire conditions.

In Congo, he said, new arrivals who crossed the Ubangi, Mbomou and Uele border rivers told refugee officials they fled in panic when they heard gunshots, leaving their belongings behind.

Most refugees are living in dire conditions in remote, hard-to-reach areas close to the rivers without basic shelter and facing acute food shortages, Cheshirkov said. They are dependent on catching fish and on what local villagers with extremely limited resources can spare.

For many, he said, the rivers are also the sole water source for drinking, washing, and cooking, and malaria, respiratory tract infections, and diarrhea have become common.

The U.N. refugee agency is urgently appealing for food, shelter, drinking water, sanitation and health care to help those who fled Central African Republic and prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other diseases, Cheshirkov said.

Source: AP

Cameroon sees resurgence of leprosy 20 years after ‘eradication’

2, February 2021

Cameroon sees resurgence of leprosy 20 years after ‘eradication’ 0

Cameroon is seeing a resurgence of leprosy, the bacterial infectious disease that causes severe, disfiguring skin sores and nerve damage.  Cameroon health authorities, on Sunday’s World Leprosy Day, said infections have jumped by about 50% since 2018.  Leprosy patients say,  just as in ancient times, they are shunned and neglected. 

Cameroon two decades ago announced that it had eliminated leprosy, but around 200 cases continued to be reported each year. 

In 2019, cases of the bacterial disease, which damages skin and nerves, increased to 270 and last year jumped to over 300.   

Ernest Nji Tabah, the permanent secretary of Cameroon’s National Committee for Leprosy, says a number of Cameroon’s health districts have been reporting outbreaks of the chronic but curable condition. 

“About 70 new cases have been reported in the southwest.  We have hot spots in regions like the North, the Adamawa, the Southwest, the Northwest,” he said. “People think that leprosy is a spell, it is divine punishment, it is caused by witchcraft, it is hereditary and so on.  Leprosy is none of these.” 

Tabah was attending an event organized by the aid group Circle of Friends Cameroon for Sunday’s World Leprosy Day. 

Aid groups handed out small gifts of food, soap, and toiletries to 30 leprosy patients at the Jamot’s Hospital in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé.  

Jamot hospital. Center where Leprosy is treated. Yaounde 1/31/2021. Moki Edwin Kindzeka.
Jamot’s Hospital where leprosy is treated in Yaounde, Jan. 31, 2021.

Patrice Essolla, 51, says they never received such attention as most families abandoned relatives with leprosy. 

He says they need more assistance because they have been rendered helpless by leprosy.  Essolla says communities should stop thinking that leprosy patients are witches and wizards and instead give care, support and comfort the patients need to recover from it.  He says they are poor and need help — not the mental torture some families inflict on them. 

The Cameroon Baptist Convention’s Center for Hope helps care for leprosy patients in the northwestern town of Mbingo.   

The head of the center’s leprosy department Fomban Oliver says Cameroon was too quick to declare the disease eradicated.   

Speaking via a messaging application, he says Cameroon shouldn’t have closed some treatment centers and stopped education on the disease. 

“If it is possible for the government to reinstate the treatment centers, that will be wonderful.  If we do not do that, something alarming is going to happen,” he said. “In the field, there are no longer leprosy inspectors or supervisors or those controlling leprosy.  Even the new nurses and the new doctors that are up now, they know nothing about leprosy and if something is not done in the nearest future, the increase will be alarming.” 

The Health Ministry official in charge of leprosy in Yaoundé, Dian Ndjock, says they are encouraging all suspected cases to be taken to hospitals.  

She says the government will never neglect the suffering of leprosy patients.  

People disabled by Leprosy. Yaounde 1/31/2021. Moki Edwin Kindzeka.
People disabled by leprosy, in Yaounde, Jan. 31,2021.

Ndjock says patients are treated and given food free of charge in four specialized centers and that people with the disease can be rushed to any of the 380 district hospitals in Cameroon.  She says civilians should stop stigma and social exclusion of leprosy patients. 

The U.N. reports every year over 200,000 new leprosy cases are detected globally with India, Brazil, and Indonesia accounting for more than three quarters of infections.   

The World Health Organization says in the Africa region case numbers have dropped by 42% since the year 2000 but about one million people have leprosy induced disabilities. 

Source: VOA

French Cameroun Politics: Biya drops case against ex Minister Basile Atangana

1, February 2021

French Cameroun Politics: Biya drops case against ex Minister Basile Atangana 0

President Biya has reportedly ordered the minister for justice to stop all legal proceedings against disgraced former minister Basile Atangana Kouna.

In a correspondence addressed to Minister Laurent Esso, Minister-Secretary General at the Presidency of the Republic, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh wrote “I have the honour to convey to you the high directives of the Head of State, prescribing the halt of proceedings against Basile Atangana Kouna, in the case in question, I would therefore be grateful if you would inform the President of the Special Criminal Court, the Public Prosecutor at the said court and the Minister of Finance, with a view to implementing the practical arrangements for the transfer to the public treasury of money in the bank accounts of the person concerned, at the amount determined by the examining magistrate and to report to me on your diligence.”

Dismissed from the cabinet on March 2, 2018, Basile Atangana Kouna former Minister of Water and Energy was arrested some few days later in Nigeria while trying to flee from the CPDM crime syndicate.

The former minister is being prosecuted for multiple offences ranging from corruption to embezzlement with the most popular being the Camwater scandal where it is alleged that the Beti Ewondo political elite embezzled FCFA 1.2 billion.

In October 2019, Basile Atangana’s shares at the Société Générale and BGFI, luxury vehicles and land titles were seized by the Special Criminal court. Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that the assets confiscated amounted to more than CFAF 825 million.

In September 2013, Haman Adama, former Minister of Basic Education was released after returning 212.5 million CFA francs.

However, it should be pointed out that dropping of charges after reimbursement is not always automatic deep within the French Cameroun CPDM criminal structure as several former senior officials continue to languish in prison despite the restitution of their stolen wealth.

Depicting the Special Criminal Court established to prosecute alleged corrupt government officials and the several Alibabas responsible for pilfering from the public treasury as the President’s court is no misnomer. Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report call it the President’s court because it is one instrument of power through which the President is reining in on perceived opponents from within his CPDM power conduit.

 An attribute of a genuine court is the fairness of the trial proceedings in cases which are brought before the court for trial. It is not the number of convictions entered against accused.  A court is legitimate and recognized as such because of its exercise of judicial, executive, legislative and administrative independence.  A court that is independent must be accessible to all citizens after all, is equality before the law, not a constitutionally protected value? The Special Criminal Court is lacking in these attributes of impartiality, judicial independence and accessibility.  It is perceived more as the President’s Court than a Court of Justice.

Establishing this court was President Biya’s way of saving himself the embarrassment of being humiliated during his perennial trips abroad as the President of the most corrupt country in the world.  This ranking of the country as the most corrupt or one of the most corrupt countries had a potential to hamper President Biya’s personal pecuniary interests far from the borders of Cameroon.  There was therefore a personal interest need to establish the court.  Another personal interest need was to avail himself of a legal tool under his direct control to consolidate absolute power, blackmail potential rebels and competitors within the system and to stifle any form of institutional opposition. He perceived the court as a tool with which to whitewash his more than thirty-eight years of corrupt governance and the rape of the economy.

The fight against corruption using the Special Criminal Court has afforded Paul Biya justification contest in the next institutionally flawed elections in order to eternalize power.  True to the name the President’s Court, the President has exclusive preserve in referring cases to the Special Court and the power to terminate them. He decides who will be arrested, who will be investigated and who will serve time and who will not.

In one instance, he ordered a detained Minister Bapes Bapes released from remand custody at Kondengui when a warrant was issued for his arrest without the presidential fiat.   Titus Edzoa a former Secretary-General at the Presidency of the Republic benefitted from a purported Presidential pardon whose primary purpose was the release of a French citizen Thiery Atangana from jail.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai

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