Monthly Archives: March 2021

13, March 2021

US COVID deaths surpass 532,000 with over 29.30 million cases ⁰

The total number of COVID-19 cases in the United States topped 29.34 million on Friday, with the national death toll reaching 532,384, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University.

Nearly 4,000 infection cases of coronavirus variants have been reported in the United States as of Thursday, according to the latest data of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The number of variants reported will likely increase as more specimens are sequenced and if the frequency of variants increases, according to the CDC.

Experts are concerned about some worrisome variants that are in places like California and New York.

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said in an interview Friday that he is “not surprised” that the COVID-19 pandemic is still spreading in the United States and the new variants of coronavirus is the biggest challenge for the country.

Studies are underway to determine whether variants are more transmissible, cause more severe illness, or are likely to evade immunity brought on by prior illness or vaccination.

A new poll from the Associated Press and the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago showed that the African and Hispanic Americans are more likely to be affected by the pandemic.

About 1,500 adults were surveyed from Feb 25 to March 1. According to the results, African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to suffer income losses compared with the white Americans.

The data showed that 62 percent of Hispanic Americans and 54 percent of African Americans have lost some form of household income during the yearlong pandemic, including jobs, pay cuts, cuts in hours and unpaid leave, while the proportion for white Americans is only 45 percent.

The poll also found that 38 percent of Hispanic Americans and 29 percent of African Americans said someone in their household was laid off during the pandemic, but only 21 percent of white Americans said the same.

In addition, the results also showed that compared with white Americans, African Americans and Hispanics were more likely to have loved ones who died from the novel coronavirus, and they were less likely to receive the vaccine.

In addition, the rate of COVID-19 deaths among African Americans and Hispanics in the United States does not match their population, according to the latest data from the CDC.

(Source: Reuters)

13, March 2021

Biya-World Bank, CPDM against Mohamadou Dabo, Buhari’s new men, Sassou’s PRO ⁰

Cameroon has hired consultancy Drake & Bart to design an institutional framework that would help wean the country off World Bank help in managing its mining cadastre.

Sky falls in for tycoon Mohamadou Dabo’s business airline

The Cameroonian authorities have brought the curtain down on the operations of the business travel specialist Global-S-Aviation. And its founder, the vastly wealthy businessman Mohamadou Dabo, is facing prosecution over the contract to upgrade Garoua airport.

Nigeria’s new military top brass after Buhari purge

President Buhari has put an entirely new team at the helm of the Nigerian military. Both public opinion and the military itself have welcomed the overhaul, while national security adviser Babagana Monguno has kept his job and could even consolidate his influence.

Candidate Sassou deploys his lobbyists and PR people in Washington and Paris

Hoping to be re-elected for a fourth term on 21 March, the Congolese leader Denis Sassou Nguesso recently retained the services of two PR firms in the French and American capitals to shore up his rather tattered international image.

Source: Africa Intelligence

12, March 2021

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe tells Jeune Afrique “As Ambazonians, each one of us has a one-way ticket to Buea” ⁰

The Paris-based Jeune Afrique has made a reputation of speaking for Southern Cameroons-La Republique du Cameroun peace. The French language media house has recently published several damaging human rights reports and corruption scandals against the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé.

French Cameroun civil servants passing for political elites who have never served in the army are accusing Jeune Afrique of destabilizing their so-called one and indivisible Cameroon.

However, sitting Thursday in the Kondengui High Security Prison in Yaoundé with the leader of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia,President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Jeune Afrique will again take several machine gun bullets in the stomach from government officials of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate.

The Southern Cameroons chief executive told Jeune Afrique in this soul-searching conversation that Mr Biya’s government will stop at nothing in trying to deceive the world.

Jeune Afrique: How do you feel after 3 years and 2 months of incarceration?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Imprisonment is not a good thing no matter the conditions. Freedom is always better. My team and I feel bad that as Refugees and Asylum-seekers in Nigeria, since 5th January 2018, when we were abducted in Nera Hotel, Abuja, Nigeria, we now find ourselves imprisoned and sentenced for life in Cameroun. This, in complete violation of all international and national laws and conventions! Despite the Abuja High Court Judgement of the 1^st of March 2019 that ruled that we be returned to Nigeria, discharged, acquitted, and compensated. However, our quest for a free and independent Ambazonia supersedes our persons. So, if this is the price, we must pay for Ambazonia to be independent and free, we would all do so willingly.

Jeune Afrique: On the 20^th of August 2019, the Military Tribunal Yaoundé condemned you and 9 members of your Team to Life Imprisonment. Did you appeal against the judgement? If you did, what became of the Appeal?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: In a sham trial on August 20, 2019,I and the 9 members of my team were given a Life Imprisonment sentence by the Tribunal Militaire Yaoundé in what has remained the most inequitable, unfair, and ridiculous Judgement ever given by a court of law. The court started hearing in Capital Offenses proceedings and completed same to judgement without giving the Accused persons opportunity to have legal assistance or even to be heard and delivered judgment in front of us without as much as even touching or reading any of the pieces of evidence that were admitted into court without any respect for procedures and laws. The court illegally used public speech support system with loudspeakers of more than 100000 watts and the witnesses who testified were all standing at the door of the court following up the proceedings! One of the Accused persons collapsed in court and the Court went ahead with him lying helpless on a bench in court throughout the trial. The trial marked the height of injustice by a court of law on a people. There were so many illegalities that only our lawyers can talk to you about.

We filed an Appeal to the Appeal Court of Centre Region, Yaoundé. On September 19, 2020, the Appeal Court, in like manner went ahead with proceedings in French language before us without any translators, denied our lawyers and us any opportunity to talk and delivered judgement within less than 20 minutes of hearing, confirming the Decision of the Yaoundé Military Tribunal.

The peoples of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia since invasion and occupation on the 30^th of September 1961 by La République du Cameroun, LRC, have never had Justice in Cameroun. This has been our painful experience till date.

We have filed a notice of appeal to the supreme court as their laws require, but till date we have had no feedback. This of course is not surprising as we do not expect to have justice on an international issue from a domestic and corrupt system like that of Cameroun.

Jeune Afrique: The government has often maintained that due to the many stakeholders involved in the conflict and that these various stakeholders do not cherish peace and dialogue, that there is no one to talk to. Do you subscribe to this assessment?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Mr Biya’s government will stop at nothing in trying to deceive the world. Such statements by the government of LRC are meant to buy time while exploring military options, with the hope that her military will come out victorious, which is a fallacy. Ambazonians will resist to the last man standing. The people of the Southern Cameroons, (also known as Ambazonia) are a peace-loving people. They want peace at all cost. Remember, that in 1958 Southern Cameroons had a democratic election and a peaceful transfer of power during their period of self-rule under British trusteeship. The people still have and cherish these values. However, there can be no peace without justice. If Mr Biya claims he does not know whom to talk to, then why were we abducted from Nigeria in January 2018? Every house has its own problems including LRC. Yes, just like in all other conflicts, there are several stakeholders in this conflict. On our side we know ourselves and have a common goal. This makes it difficult for the LRC government to corrupt one of these factions and have their way, as it is their stock in trade. It is not for them to decide whom to talk to. The people of Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia are ready for talks. They know their leaders and will constitute their team themselves for this purpose. No one will hand pick for them. The Ambazonian team will be all-inclusive. Let Mr. Biya do what is needed by: i) Withdrawing all his forces from our streets; ii) Freeing all prisoners; iii) Granting general amnesty to those in the Diaspora; and iv) Committing to an international mediated negotiation, in a neutral venue; and Ambazonians will be there. Anything short of these, Mr Biya will be talking to himself.

Jeune Afrique: In light of the UNSC Resolution 2565 calling for a cease fire, will you be willing to denounce violence, call for a ceasefire and continue your revolution in a nonviolent way?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: UNSC Resolution 2565 calling for a ceasefire is a welcome development that could stop the genocide Mr Biya’s government is committing in the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia. We remember there was a similar one last year, but Mr Biya shunned it. Let it be on record that the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia are not violently opposing Mr Biya. They are acting only in self-defence. Proof of this is that there has not been any encroachment into the French Cameroun Territory to attack anyone. The war that is ravaging us was declared by Mr Biya on the 30^th of November 2017. The onus is on him to declare a ceasefire of the war he declared. Our Restoration Forces came on board to defend our vulnerable population a long time after Mr Biya’s declared war on us and was pursuing an ethnic cleansing and genocide agenda on the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia. Once Mr Biya declares a ceasefire and commits to the four points highlighted above, we can assure you, the killings will stop.

Jeune Afrique: The government of La République du Cameroun thinks that the Secessionists have been totally defeated, is that true?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: For the records, we are not secessionist but restorationists. A secessionist from LRC is anyone who want to change/reduce the nation whose independence was obtained on the 1^st of January 1960. On that date Buea was not part of LRC, neither was Bamenda. The Southern Cameroons got its independence on the 1^st of October 1961, 20 months after LRC’s. Anyone who thinks to the contrary has the burden of brandishing the union treaty between the Southern Cameroons and La Republique du Cameroun. We are merely appealing to the international Community, particularly the UN to restore legality and truth in our relationship with La République du Cameroun, as per UN Resolutions, 1514(XV); 1608 and Article 76(b) of the UN Charter.

With regards to LRC government’s claim that we have been totally defeated, this is not the first time we are hearing that from them. They should match their words with reality. Remember their denial of Ngarbuh Massacre and many others. The war has been raging unabated for 4 years now. Under his instructions and watch Mr Biya’s forces have embarked on committing genocide in the Southern Cameroons/ Ambazonia. The world silently watches as this goes on, in complete disregard of the R2P commitment and the Never Again Promise after the 1993/94 Genocide in Rwanda. We are bothered if the war continues for a long time because of the lives of our people killed every day by Cameroun military forces,but until Mr Biya and his colonial forces leave our territory, for us, it is “TOTAL INDEPENDENCE OR RESISTANCE FOREVER.

Jeune Afrique: In January 2019, your lawyer said that you are ready to negotiate directly with the Cameroun Président, Paul Biya, on the condition that the Negotiations take place out of Cameroun. According to our sources, you have started negotiations with some High Authorities of Cameroun, … Can you confirm this?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: While we have always been willing and ready for talks, we have not held any negotiations with La République du Cameroun. It is not in our interest to talk to Mr Biya directly. We are interested in La Republique du Cameroun coming to the table as an equal partner with Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia. However, we have had some consultative overtures with some of their envoys and we clearly expressed 4 cardinal confidence-building measures, that can lead to any negotiations with them. These measures included:

Withdrawing all his forces from our streets.
Freeing ALL persons arrested and detained or imprisoned on account of the conflict.
Granting general amnesty to all Ambazonians in the Diaspora; and
Committing to an international mediated negotiation, in a neutral venue.

Once these measures are implemented, we will consult with the other Ambazonian leaders and prepare for the negotiations with LRC.

Jeune Afrique: Why have the negotiations not ended/succeeded?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Negotiations have not started because the government of LRC is yet to address the 4 confidence-building measures put forward to them. Once these measures are implemented, we are sure the negotiations will start and progress, in good faith.

Jeune Afrique: US Senate passed RES. 684 calling for a genuine and inclusive dialogue, but the Cameroun government claims that they already had the Grand National Dialogue (GND). Do you agree with the recommendations of GND and if not why?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: The so called Grand National Dialogue by LRC was a meeting of Mr Biya’s contemporaries and committee of friends that endorsed the agenda of the ruling party. It was a charade and a monologue. To us, the GND was a non-event, a waste of time and resources. Mr Biya was talking to himself. Almost two years after the GND there is basically nothing to showcase.

We are opened to talks but that must be only when the confidence building measures have been implemented and we must talk as equal partners as was previewed in UN Resolution 1608.

Jeune Afrique: You have consistently called for a UN Mandated Fact-Finding Mission to Southern Cameroons. Can you explain why this is necessary and what it will achieve?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Our call has been consistent for a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Mandated Fact-Finding Mission to the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia. For 4 years and counting Mr Biya, his military and their private militias have been committing genocide in the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia. As we speak reports are claiming more than 32,500+ civilians have been killed; over a million children are out of school; 550+ villages have been razed down, 3,000+ are presently in detention centres and prisons; hundreds of our women and girls have been raped; thousands of our loved ones are missing. The Norwegian Refugees Commission (NRC) has stated two years in a roll that this is the world’s most under-reported crisis – obviously because Mr Biya and his team block access to the international world and are shielding and trying to clean up the crimes they are committing in the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia. Remember they or their militias most often commit heinous crimes and accuse our Restoration Forces. A UN mandated Fact-Finding Mission is a very vital, important, and absolutely necessary tool to investigate and unravel the gravity of the atrocities being committed there.

A UNSC mandated Fact-Finding Mission will be independent, reliable, unbiased, and professional in information search, analysis, and dissemination. Their conclusions are genuine and could enable the UN to make valid judgement, take right decisions and implement them. Information generated by the IFFM will determine the depth, degree, and severity of the war-crimes as well as action during the conflict on the peace-loving peoples of Ambazonia against perpetuators of such crimes and Human Right Abuses.

Jeune Afrique: Let’s come back to your life in prison; Are you treated fairly well? How do you spend your days? What do you read?

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe: Like all other Ambazonians incarcerated in various Prisons in la République du Cameroun, we are under serious psychological trauma and at times subjected to very inhuman conditions. When we are sick and admitted in hospital, we are chained to hospital beds like it happened to Barrister Shufai Blaise Berinyuy and especially Brother Thomas Tangem who died handcuffed to a hospital bed. We take care of our feeding and medications, etc. In a nutshell, our conditions in prison are deplorable.

We pass our days reading the various books that we are able to secure, given that the Prison Authorities denied us access to books the ICRC Yaounde had promised to give us. In addition to regular exercise to keep us healthy and fit, we also play games like Monopoly, Chess, Scrabble and Drafts.

Jeune Afrique: Any last word?

President Sisisku Ayuk Tabe: Yes, I would like to convey our heartfelt condolences to all our people who have loss and are continuing to lose loved ones in this senseless war declared on us by Mr. Biya. I want to thank all Ambazonians for remaining steadfast and holding the fort. As Ambazonians, each one of us has a one-way ticket to Buea. We will either get the independence that is rightly ours or we would resist our oppressors forever. The pain or death our oppressors subject us to, are momentary compared to the freedom we are seeking for Ambazonia. None is more difficult to defeat than he/she who is ready to give everything including his/her life for a cause. In our quest to restore our Statehood, we should focus our gaze on the prize ahead. Each and every one should accurately measure his/her words and actions to ensure that we add no unnecessary pain on our people and that they take us one step closer to Buea. In a free Ambazonia, we will build world-class institutions that will make Ambazonia an icon of peace, democracy and stability, not only in the Gulf of Guinea but in Africa.

To the international Community, international law and conventions tell us self-determination is a fundamental right. The people of the Southern Cameroons have made their choice for an independent nation. We cannot be denied that right that is given to others freely. Remember the Never Again promise after Rwanda 1993/94 Genocide. Remember the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). With more than 32,500+ killed and the level of other atrocities meted on us, one more death is one too many. Act now to end the Genocide. Deploy a UNSC mandated Fact-Finding Mission to the Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia as a first step to addressing the root-causes of the conflict, which hinges on the botched decolonization process of 1961. Thank you.

12, March 2021

Football: South African billionaire Motsepe is new president of Caf ⁰

South Africa’s Patrice Motsepe is the new president of the Confederation of African Football (Caf) after being elected unopposed on Friday.

The 59-year-old’s path to the presidency was cleared over the last week when his rival candidates for the presidency withdrew from the race, while another rival – Madagascar’s Ahmad – was barred from running.

Who is Caf’s new billionaire president Motsepe?

Addressing a gathering of Africa’s member associations at the elections venue in the Moroccan capital Rabat, Motsepe stressed his belief in how unity can herald a new era for African football.

“It’s a huge honour and privilege for me [to be Caf president],” said Motsepe, Africa’s ninth-richest person according to Forbes magazine.

“Let me thank my brother [Fifa president] Gianni [Infantino] for the vision and encouragement of unity. We can only deal with the challenges of Africa and we will succeed, but we will only do so when we are united.”

Motsepe then turned to Africa’s assembled member association presidents and Executive Committee as he looked towards a brighter future.

“The leadership we have in Africa [and] the leadership we have of football in every country gives me confidence and inspires me.

“I am absolutely confident that by working together, we will indeed succeed to make African football not just reach the summit but be amongst the best in the world.”

Motsepe, the owner of 2016 African champions Mamelodi Sundowns, one of South Africa’s most successful teams, has previously spoken of his desire to see an African team win the World Cup.

During the General Assembly, the 52 members present – with Chad, whose FA was dissolved by the government on Thursday, and Eritrea the only countries failing to attend – voted to expand the number of Caf vice-presidents from three to five.

Elections for both Caf’s Executive Committee and for Africa’s representation on the Fifa Council are also being held – with results expected shortly.

Source: BBC

12, March 2021

EU: Medicines regulator approves Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot Covid-19 vaccine ⁰

The European Commission authorised Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose coronavirus vaccine on Thursday, giving the European Union’s 27 nations a fourth licensed vaccine to try to curb the pandemic amid a stalled vaccination drive in the bloc.

“More safe and effective vaccines are coming to the market. We have just authorised the use of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine in the EU, following EMA positive review,” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, wrote on Twitter.

The EU medicines regulator said earlier it was recommending the vaccine be authorised “after a thorough evaluation” of Johnson & Johnson’s data found it met the criteria for efficacy, safety and quality.

“With this latest positive opinion, authorities across the European Union will have another option to combat the pandemic and protect the lives and health of their citizens,” said Emer Cooke, executive director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

US pharma giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) filed on February 16 for approval for the vaccine, developed by its Belgian subsidiary Janssen.

Its approval offers a boost for the EU’s sluggish vaccination programme, even if reports say the first J&J shipments doses may not arrive in European countries until April.

Stella Kyriakides, the EU’s health commissioner, said the vaccine’s authorisation marked “another key step towards ensuring that all citizens can access safe and effective vaccinations as soon as possible”.

AstraZeneca concerns

The move comes as several European countries have suspended their roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine citing concerns about patients developing blood clots after receiving the jab.

The EU has so far approved three vaccines – Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and the AstraZeneca jab developed by the University of Oxford.

Three other vaccines are under “rolling review” by the Amsterdam-based EMA – Novavax, CureVac and Russia’s Sputnik V.

As well as being the first that requires a single injection as opposed to two, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is easier to store.

The J&J shot however appears less protective than Pfizer and Moderna’s regimes, which both have an efficacy of around 95 percent against all forms of Covid-19 from the classic coronavirus strain.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP)

12, March 2021

Dabney Yerima: Southern Cameroons resistance is a continuation of Dr Emmanuel Lifafe Endeley’s prophetic path ⁰

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government has told a South African radio host in Johannesburg that the Federal Republic of Ambazonia’s four-year-old armed resistance is inspired by the prophetic path of Dr Emmanuel Lifafe Endeley who was strictly against any union with French Cameroun and its marquisard movements.

Comrade Dabney Yerima made the remarks in a live interview on Wednesday in which he informed the people of the city of Johannesburg on the state of the Southern Cameroons struggle and the need for the South Africa government to push for collective international action to help the people of Ambazonia.

Yerima opined that the British Southern Cameroons revolution is simply following the prophetic path that was mapped out by Dr Emmanuel Lifafe Endeley but ignored by leading KNDP forces in the 60s.

The roasting of a baby on February 11, 2021 in Batibo in the North West region seems to be shocking to millions around the world, but very few people remember that the burning of homes during an insurrection or insurgency in Cameroon is a French Cameroun government policy which dates back to the days of the marquisard movement in East Cameroon.

The burning of a baby in Batibo on the so-called Youth Day by Cameroon government army soldiers is a clear reminder that peace and stability are still illusory in Southern Cameroons though the regime in Yaoundé is giving the impression that things are stabilizing in Ambazonia.

The roasting of vulnerable people is nothing new during this conflict that has already sent more than 7,000 Cameroonians to an early grave.

Kwakwa and Ngarbuh are still fresh in many minds. In Kwakwa, an old woman and a sick old man were roasted alive by Francophone army soldiers.

In Ngarbuh, Francophone government troops gunned down scores of people and set homes ablaze, leaving many calcinated in their homes. These were young children and pregnant women who had nothing to do with the insurgency that has been playing out in Southern Cameroons for over four years.

Vice President Yerima pointed out that the French Cameroun crime syndicate in Yaoundé clearly holds that burning the homes of the poor and innocent Southern Cameroonians will cause the population to discontinue its support to the insurgents even when it has not been really proven that the population is supporting the fighters.

Following the proclamation of independence by the Ambazonian leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, the French government of President Emmanuel Macron and French Cameroun villains and criminals joined forces and lined up and are now confronting the Southern Cameroons revolution, similar to what happened to the late Dr. Emmanuel Lifafe Endeley when he began his plebiscite campaign against British Southern Cameroons joining La Republique du Cameroun.

Elsewhere in the interview, the exiled Southern Cameroons leader elaborated on ways that the nations in Southern Africa that are all members of the Commonwealth can help thwart the fabricated conspiracies of the French government and that of La Republique du Cameroun against the peaceful people of Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files

12, March 2021

Cardinal Robert Sarah: “I have never opposed the pope.” ⁰

Cardinal Robert Sarah on Wednesday rejected claims that he and Pope Francis are enemies, in his first interview since stepping down from his Vatican post.

In an interview with an Italian newspaper published March 10, the Guinean cardinal said that he had “tried to be a loyal, obedient, and humble servant of the truth of the Gospel.”

“Even though some journalists continually repeat the same nonsense,” he told Il Foglio, “I have never opposed the pope.”

An English translation of the cardinal’s interview was published on Wednesday by the National Catholic Register.

On Feb. 20, Pope Francis accepted Cardinal Sarah’s resignation as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Sarah had submitted his resignation to the pope when he turned 75 in June 2020, as Church norms dictate.

Before his resignation, Sarah was the most senior African prelate at the Vatican, appointed head of the liturgy department by Pope Francis in November 2014.

Sarah said in his interview that when Pope Francis told him that he had decided to accept the resignation, “I immediately replied that I was happy and grateful for his decision.”

“I am happy and proud to have served three popes — St. John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis — in the Roman Curia for more than 20 years,” the cardinal continued.

“Some people insinuate without reason or even being able to provide concrete and credible proof that we were enemies, it’s not true! Pope Francis likes frankness. We have always worked together with simplicity, despite the fantasies of journalists,” he said.

Sarah criticized the idea that his former role leading the Congregation for Divine Worship was “an honorary position, but of little importance.”

“I believe that the responsibility for the liturgy puts us at the heart of the Church, of her raison d’être. The Church is neither an administration nor a human institution. The Church mysteriously prolongs Christ’s presence on earth,” he said.

Sarah quoted the Second Vatican Council document Sacrosanctum concilium, which says that the liturgy is “a sacred action surpassing all others” and “the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; at the same time it is the font from which all her power flows.”

“The Church exists to give men to God and to give God to men,” Sarah explained. “This is precisely the role of the liturgy: to worship God and to communicate divine grace to souls. When the liturgy is sick, the whole Church is in danger because her relationship with God is not only weakened but deeply damaged.”

He recalled Benedict XVI’s comment that the crisis of the Church is “essentially a crisis of the liturgy because it is a crisis of the relationship with God.”

“If God is not at the center of the Church’s life, then she is in danger of death,” the cardinal said.

Sarah also emphasized that the liturgy is about God, not the community or individual. This reality, he said, is expressed well when the liturgy is said ad orientem, meaning with the priest facing the altar, or liturgical East, rather than the people.

The cardinal also explained why he thought that silence was important in the liturgy.

“When man remains silent, he leaves a place for God,” he said. “On the contrary, when the liturgy becomes chatty, it forgets that the cross is its center, it organizes itself around the microphone.”

He said these questions are crucial, “because they determine the place we give to God,” and lamented that they had become “ideological.”

Factional struggles within the Church are a source of suffering for him, he said. “Too often we act as if everything is a question of politics, power, influence and the unjustified imposition of a hermeneutic of Vatican II that totally breaks and is irreversibly at odds with Tradition.”

He declared it “false” that he was opposed to the Second Vatican Council because he spoke of a sense of the sacred in the liturgy.

“I don’t believe that the struggle between progressives and conservatives has any meaning in the Church. These categories are political and ideological,” he said, adding that “the Church is not a field of political struggle.”

“The only thing that counts is to seek God ever more deeply, to meet him there and humbly kneel down to adore him.”

It was unfortunate, Cardinal Sarah said, that there are “ideologues” who set the pre-Council Church against the post-Council Church.

According to the cardinal, these people “are dividers; they are doing the work of the devil.”

“The Church is one, without rupture, without changing course, because her Founder ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,’” he said. “She goes towards God, she directs us towards him. From the profession of faith of St. Peter to Pope Francis through Vatican II, the Church turns us towards Christ.”

Now that he is retired, Sarah said that he intended to continue working and was happy to have more time to pray and read.

“I will continue to write, to speak, to travel. Here in Rome, I continue to receive priests and faithful from all over the world,” he said.

Sarah will continue to serve as a member of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, where he said he saw “with immense joy how the Church is bursting with holiness.”

“More than ever the Church needs bishops who speak clearly, free and faithful to Jesus Christ and to the doctrinal and moral teachings of his Gospel,” he said. “I intend to continue this mission and even amplify it.”

Source: Catholic News Agency

12, March 2021

Prof Anyangwe: La Republique must stop the war in Southern Cameroons ⁰

In reaction to the latest round of the Cameroon government army attacks against the impoverished Ambazonian people in Mamfe, the chief town in the Manyu County, a senior Southern Cameroons figure Prof Carlson Anyangwe has urged the Biya Francophone regime to stop its war on fellow Africans. Prof Anyangwe also observed that it is time for the international community to wake up.

Cameroon government army soldiers have continuously defied principles of morality by carrying out attacks against the English speaking people particularly in the rural areas not covered by the media.

“The international community must stop this genocide and end the war on the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia,” Anyangwe said.

The remarks from the prominent Southern Cameroons academic who recently met with Vice President Dabney Yerima in South Africa, came following intensified attacks by Cameroon government troops on the Manyu Divisional capital, Mamfe.

The Francophone administration in Manyu has reportedly blamed the attacks that witnessed the destruction of houses and vehicles on armed Amba gangs. But people in the know including a local representative of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government have all hinted that the Mamfe attacks were staged by soldiers loyal to the French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé.

The recent rapes in Manyu as exposed by Human Rights Watch also prompted Prof Carlson Anyangwe to call on the international community to criminalize the continuation of the Cameroon government aggression against the people of British Southern Cameroons.

In another part of his statement, Carlson Anyangwe pointed to the fact that there is need for the people of Southern Cameroons and their Interim Government to intensify the resistance and ghost town operations.

By Asu Vera Eyere

11, March 2021

UK: Prince William denies British royal family is ‘racist’ ⁰

Prince William on Thursday defended the British royal family after his younger brother Harry and wife Meghan accused them of racism in a bombshell interview watched around the world.

“We’re very much not a racist family,” William told reporters during a visit to a multi-racial school in a deprived area of east London.

The Duke of Cambridge, son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, added that he had yet to speak to Harry in California since the interview first aired in the United States on Sunday.

“No, I haven’t spoken to him yet, but I will do,” he said.

A keenly awaited statement from Queen Elizabeth II issued Tuesday was conciliatory towards her grandson and his mixed-race spouse, after their interview with US chat show host Oprah Winfrey.

But it also stressed that “some recollections may vary”, as Buckingham Palace vowed to look into the couple’s assertion that an unidentified royal had asked how dark their unborn son Archie’s skin would be.

Charles has yet to comment on the controversy but was filmed on Tuesday touring a Nigerian Christian church in London whose pastors are promoting a drive to vaccinate more black people against the coronavirus.

In the interview, Harry also said that his father and brother were “trapped” in a hidebound institution.

Source: AFP

11, March 2021

Myanmar: Catholic nun begs police not to shoot protesters during unrest ⁰

A religious sister in northern Burma knelt before police on Monday, begging them not to use violent force against protestors.

In avideo, Sr. Ann Rose Nu Tawng, a member of the Sisters of St. Francis Xavier, can be seen speaking March 8 to two kneeling police officers in the city of Myitkyina, the capital of Burma’s northern Kachin State.

Speaking to Reuters, Tawng said: “I begged them not to hurt the protesters, but to treat them kindly, like family members.”

She said that senior officers had told her they were just clearing the street. In the video, the sister and one policeman can be seen touching their foreheads to the ground.

“I begged them not to shoot the children,” she said.

But soon after, “we heard loud gunshots and saw that a young kid’s head had exploded, and there was a river of blood on the street,” she recounted.

Tawng and other witnesses said that at least two protestors were killed and several injured in clashes with police.

The religious sister tried to bring some of the victims to a clinic she runs in the town but was blinded by tear gas.

“Our clinic floor became a sea of blood,” she said. “We need to value life. It made me feel so sad.”

Catholic nuns from a variety of communities in Burma have marched the streets, praying for the protestors and offering them food, according to UCA News. Amid protests in Myitkyina, the sisters hung signs saying “No to dictatorship” and “Listen to the voices of people” outside of their convent.

Burma, also known as Myanmar, is a country in Southeast Asia with a population of 54 million people. Both the democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and president Win Myint were detained by members of the military in the early hours of Feb. 1, after the military disputed the results of the 2020 election. The army general Min Aung Hlaing now leads the country.

According to an advocacy group, more than 60 people have died and over 1,800 have been detained as police crack down on protests against the Feb. 1 military coup.

Sr. Ann Rose Nu Tawng was also photographed kneeling before a line of advancing police officers late last month.

L’Osservatore Romanosaidthat the she ran out into the street on Feb. 28 as police fired tear gas at protesters.

“On her knees, she raised her hands to God and begged: ‘Don’t shoot, don’t kill innocents. If you want, hit me,’” the newspaper reported, adding that the police halted their advance.

Source: Catholic News Agency