Monthly Archives: May 2021

28, May 2021

Biya regime uncovers over 7,000 ghost workers on gov’t payroll ⁰

Cameroon’s Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reform Joseph Le said on Wednesday a national physical headcount of civil servants has identified 7,622 fictitious workers on the state payroll, a fraud which had been plaguing the economy for years.

“It is almost four years since the state has been trying to get clarification from these personnel. Since the investigation has come to an end, it is high time that the repressive measures should be implemented,” Le told reporters at a media briefing in the capital, Yaoundé.

“We have already sacked 493 personnel but the process is just beginning,” he added.

The ghost workers were mostly state employees who had either left to go and work for other organizations or simply left the country to work overseas.

The minister also cited the cases of 315 civil servants who had died but were still on the payroll of the state with family relations receiving their salaries.

Prosecutions could follow, but for the moment the priority was to get stolen money repaid, Le said.

So far, the government has recovered 30 billion CFA francs (about 55.86 million U.S. dollars), Le said.

Source: Xinhuanet

27, May 2021

Zidane resigns as Real Madrid coach ⁰

Zinedine Zidane resigned as Real Madrid manager with immediate effect, the Spanish club said Thursday, just days after the club were beaten to the La Liga title by Atletico Madrid.

The Frenchman’s departure came at the end of a disappointing campaign for the 13-time European champions, who also lost to Chelsea in the Champions League semi-finals as they failed to win a trophy for the first time in 11 seasons.

“Real Madrid announces that Zinedine Zidane has decided to bring an end to his current spell as coach of our club,” said a Real Madrid statement.

“Now’s the time to respect his decision and show our respect and gratitude for his professionalism, dedication and passion in the last few years and for what he represents for Real Madrid.

“Zidane is one of Real Madrid’s all-time greats and his legend goes beyond what he has done as a coach and player for our club. He knows that he is always in the heart of the club’s supporters and that Real Madrid will always be his home.”

Zidane had a contract through June 2022.

He left the club for the first time after leading Madrid to one of its most successful runs from 2016-2018, with three consecutive Champions League titles. In his two years and five months in charge, Madrid won a total of nine trophies, including two Club World Cups, two UEFA Super Cups, one Spanish league and one Spanish Super Cup.

He only won the league title once and a Spanish Super Cup in his second stint.

ZIdane quit the first time less than a week after leading the team to its third straight Champions League title, saying it was time for a change and that he didn’t see it clearly that the club would keep winning with him in charge.

He had been dismissing talks about his future recently, saying that he would discuss it with the club. He said he believed that Madrid could do well without him as coach.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)

27, May 2021

Mali’s transitional president, prime minister released after military detention ⁰

Mali’s interim president and premier have been freed from military detention, senior military and government officials said Thursday. Their release came three days after President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane were detained and stripped of their powers in what appeared to be the country’s second coup in nine months.

“The interim president and prime minister were released overnight around 1.30am [local time]. We were true to our word,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Family members confirmed that President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane had been freed.

The two men have returned to their homes in the capital Bamako, those close to them said, though the conditions of their release were not clear.

The development came a day after military officials said the country’s transitional president and prime minister had “resigned” while in detention, a move the UN called “unacceptable”.

Ndaw and Ouane, tasked with steering the return to civilian rule after a coup last August, were detained by the military on Monday in what the international community called a military coup.

Over the past few days, the UN, along with the African Union and other international bodies, as well as the US, have repeatedly urged Mali’s military to release the transitional leaders.

Ndaw and Ouane had been heading the interim government with the declared aim of restoring full civilian rule within 18 months.

The leader of Mali’s 2020 coup, Col. Assimi Goita, who has been serving as the transitional vice president since September, seized control of the West African country earlier this week by deposing the two leaders in an unprecedented move.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and AP)

27, May 2021

Football: Rashford racially abused online following Man Utd Europa defeat ⁰

Marcus Rashford says he was racially abused on social media following Manchester United’s defeat in the Europa League final.

The 23-year-old, who has previously been a victim of online attacks, said he had received “at least 70 racial slurs” following United’s penalty shootout loss to Villarreal in Gdansk on Wednesday.

United, who lost 11-10 on penalties, later tweeted to say their players had been subjected to “disgraceful racist abuse”.

“At least 70 racial slurs on my social accounts counted so far,” Rashford wrote on Twitter. “For those working to make me feel any worse than I already do, good luck trying.

“I’m more outraged that one of the abusers that left a mountain of monkey emojis in my DM is a maths teacher with an open profile. He teaches children!! And knows that he can freely racially abuse without consequence…”

Last month English football, along with other sporting bodies, united for a four-day social media boycott to urge the companies to take a stronger stance over racial abuse.

Speaking before the latest incidents of abuse, England boss Gareth Southgate praised the job players had done in highlighting the issue.

“I do think there has been progress over the last year on the issue of racism because social media is just in general a poor reflection of what happens through society,” he told the BBC.

“But the reality is if it wasn’t social media these situations are happening on our streets at certain times.

“(The players) have used their voice in a very positive manner, in particularly the last 12 months. We have to keep fighting racism.”

Source: AFP

27, May 2021

Macron seeks reset with Rwanda on historic visit ⁰

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Rwanda on Thursday for a highly symbolic visit aimed at turning the page on a quarter century of diplomatic tensions over France’s role in the country’s 1994 genocide.

Macron is the first French leader since 2010 to visit the central African country, which has long accused France of complicity in the mass killings of Rwandan Tutsis.

The French president arrived in the capital, Kigali, early Thursday and is set to hold talks with Rwandan President Paul Kagame.

He will visit a memorial to the 1994 slaughter that left an estimated 800,000 people dead, mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus who tried to protect them from Hutu extremists.

Two reports completed in March and in April that examined France’s role in the genocide helped clear a path for Macron’s visit.

The French report, which was commissioned by Macron and released in March, included a adamning indictment of Paris’s role in the bloodshed.

In findings accepted by the French government, the historians accused Paris, which had close ties to the ethnic Hutu regime behind the massacres, of being “blind” to preparations for the genocide and said it bore “serious and overwhelming” responsibility.

The commission found no proof, however, of French complicity in the bloodshed.

For Kagame, who led the Tutsi rebellion that ended the genocide and had led the charge against France ever since, the report was a game-changer.

On a visit to France last week, Kagame, who at one point broke off relations with France, said the report had paved the way for France and Rwanda to have “a good relationship”.

A ‘renewed’ relationship

Ahead of Macron’s visit to Kigali, both sides have spoken enthusiastically of a “normalisation” of ties.

Government spokesman Gabriel Attal on Wednesday called the visit “a particularly meaningful act” for Macron.

“It signals, I think, a memory that is pacified and a relationship that is renewed,” he told reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting.

“It is proof that the president’s willingness to face our history, our past, in complete transparency is the best way forward,” he said.

French officials say Macron could also use the visit to name an ambassador to Rwanda, filling a post left vacant since 2015.

But some in Rwanda want France to go further in facing up to the past and officially apologise for failing to help stop the killing of 800,000 Rwandans between April and July 1994.

They will be listening closely when Macron delivers a speech on Thursday at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, the final resting place for over 250,000 genocide victims.

Kagame has downplayed the importance of the issue.

“It’s not up to me, or anyone else to demand apologies,” he told Le Monde newspaper in a recent interview, insisting that any such expression had to be spontaneous on the part of the French.

French ‘blindness’

From Rwanda to Algeria and the colonial-era looting of African art, Macron has gone further than his predecessors in shining a light on unsavoury chapters of France’s past in Africa.

The last French president to visit Rwanda was Nicolas Sarkozy, who attempted to break the ice by admitting to “serious mistakes” and a “form of blindness” on the part of the French during the genocide.

His remarks fell short of expectations in Rwanda and relations between the countries continued to fester.

Macron has presented himself as the standard-bearer of a new generation that came of age after the colonial period and is not afraid to admit to past wrongs.

While campaigning for president, the (now) 43-year-old declared that the colonisation of Algeria was a “crime against humanity” — an admission that deeply upset conservatives in France, where colonial rule has long been portrayed as relatively benign.

He has also acknowledged that France instigated a system that facilitated torture during Algeria’s war of liberation from France, and he agreed to return art looted by colonial forces from Benin and Senegal.

Analysts say these gestures are aimed at wooing young Africans who view France with suspicion, convinced that it is still pulling the strings in former French colonies where it propped up strongmen for decades.

“The fact of being from a new generation and a young president does not change the course of relations between France and African countries,” Gilles Yabi, president of Senegal’s WATHI think-tank, told AFP after the release of the Rwanda report in March.

To counter allegations of French paternalism, Macron has made a point of trying to nurture ties with English-speaking countries in Africa that lie outside of France’s traditional sphere of influence.

After Rwanda, he will travel to South Africa.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)

27, May 2021

CPDM Crime Syndicate eyes $845 million debt issue this year on international market ⁰

Cameroon’s government has received the go-ahead to issue loans on the international market worth 450 billion CFA francs ($845 million) this year, according to an order signed by President Paul Biya on Wednesday.

It said this would be done mainly for the partial or full redemption of the current Eurobond. Cameroon issued that 10-year Eurobond worth $750 million in 2015.

Source: Reuters

26, May 2021

Death of Germaine Ahidjo: Senegalese President Macky meets Ahidjo’s family ⁰

One month after the death of former Cameroon First Lady Germaine Ahidjo, the President of Senegal, Macky Sall, visited her family in Dakar, the Senegalese capital. The Senegalese president arrived at the Ahidjo family residence on Monday 24 May 2021, accompanied by some of his collaborators.

President Macky was bearer of a special message from the people of Senegal to the Ahidjo family, still mourning the death of their mother and grandmother, who died on 20 April 2021 in Dakar.

Political commentators say the gesture is an indication of the importance the Senegalese nation has for the very first Cameroonian presidential family exiled in this West African country.

Germaine Ahidjo was buried in pure Muslim tradition at the Yoff cemetery, beside her husband, Ahmadou Ahidjo, who died in 1989.

President Macky Sall was not at her funeral, but by his gesture, he was able to redeem himself, even though the Cameroonian diplomatic authorities in Senegal remained indifferent to this important death.

Before Germaine’s death, the question of the repatriation of the remains of Cameroon’s first president was often raised but Germaine’s wish was not fulfilled during her lifetime, and it would be difficult to predict the timing of the repatriation of not only Ahmadou Ahidjo’s remains, but also that of his wife Germaine.

By Chi Prudence Asong

26, May 2021

Mali’s ex-junta chief seizes power after military nabs interim president ⁰

Mali’s military strongman Assimi Goita says the removal from power of the country’s interim president and vice president in recent days was the right move, alleging that the now detained leaders intended to sabotage the transition process with an uncalled for decision to reshuffle the cabinet.

Transitional President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane – tasked with steering Mali to civilian rule nearly 10 months after a Goita-led coup — were taken into custody at a military base outside the capital Bamako on Monday evening, sparking an immediate reaction by former colonial power France.

French President Emmanuel Macron slammed the move as a “coup within a coup” and threatened to impose sanctions.

Former junta leader Goita, who was lately serving as interim vice president, justified the arrest of the interim leaders and seizure of power by claiming that the two had failed to consult him about a government reshuffle in which two former coup leaders lost their cabinet positions.

In a statement read on public television, Goita said Ndaw and Ouane had been stripped of their duties for seeking to “sabotage” the transition, which would “proceed as normal.”

“This kind of step testifies to the clear desire of the transitional president and prime minister to seek to breach the transitional charter,” he added, describing the move as a “demonstrable intent to sabotage the transition.”

In his statement, Goita further pledged to hold elections next year to restore an elected government as previously planned.

The United Nations

France, which continues to hold major political and military influence over Mali, joined the US, the European Union as well as the United Nations, African Union (AU) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to condemn the detentions and demanded their immediate release.

The demand was further echoed on Tuesday by other Western governments such as Britain and Germany.

“We are prepared to take in the coming hours targeted sanctions against those” responsible, Macron declared during a press briefing at the end of an EU summit.

France has deployed more than 5,000 troops in Mali in a purported move to combat the growing presence of militants in the Sahel.

“Sanctions will be adopted against those who stand in the way of the transition,” EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell also warned in a Twitter post.

A delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) arrived in Mali on Monday to help resolve the dispute. ECOWAS played a key role in the formation of the interim government after the August coup.

UN Security Council to meet on new Mali turmoil

The UN Security Council, meanwhile, is expected to hold an emergency meeting behind closed doors on Wednesday following the latest coup in Mali, diplomats stated on Tuesday.

The session was requested by France, Niger, Tunisia, Kenya and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, all of which are current UNSC members, except France, which is a permanent member with veto power.

The development came after French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian declared earlier on Tuesday that a special UNSC meeting would be held following the “coup” in Mali, without stipulating when it would convene.

The situation could exacerbate instability in the West African country, where alleged al-Qaeda-linked militant groups control large areas of the north and center and stage frequent attacks on Mali’s military forces and civilians.

The problems in Mali are widely viewed as part of a recent democratic backslide in West and Central Africa, where strong military factions have taken control or presidents have extended their rule beyond allotted mandates.

Last month, a military council seized power in Chad after the battlefield death of president Idriss Deby. His son, Mahamat Idriss Deby, now runs the country and has promised a transition to civilian rule similar to Mali’s. The opposition and civil society insist that the military holds too much power and fear Deby will not relinquish control.

Mali’s young military officers ousted president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020 after weeks of demonstrations over perceived government corruption and his handling of the growing insurgency by suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants.

ECOWAS, a 15-nation regional bloc, threatened sanctions, prompting the junta to hand power to a caretaker government that pledged to reform the constitution.

Source: Presstv

26, May 2021

US: NY prosecutors convene grand jury to hear evidence in Trump criminal probe ⁰

New York prosecutors have convened a grand jury that is expected to decide whether to indict former president Donald Trump, suggesting they may have found evidence of a crime, US media reported Tuesday.

The development is the latest step towards the 74-year-old Trump, who left the White House in January, possibly becoming the first ever ex-US leader to face criminal charges.

The grand jury was set up recently and will sit three days a week for six months, reported The Washington Post, citing two unnamed people familiar with the case.

The panel is also hearing several matters unrelated to Trump’s case, the paper added.

ABC also reported the move.

The Washington Post said it suggests that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance may have found evidence of a crime, if not by Trump then somebody close to him.

A spokesman for Vance refused to comment when contacted by AFP.

In the United States, prosecutors typically refer important cases to grand juries made up of citizens who examine the prosecution’s case in secret. They hear evidence and can request additional documents before deciding whether criminal charges should be brought.

Vance and New York state Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats, are investigating Trump’s business dealings.

They are probing whether the Trump Organization committed tax evasion, insurance and bank fraud.

Trump denies wrongdoing and has called the investigations “a continuation of the greatest political witch hunt in the history of the United States.”

Vance’s probe initially focused on hush payments made to two women who allege they had affairs with Trump — but the investigation has since been expanded.

Investigators suspect the Trump Organization may have artificially inflated and reduced the value of assets, particularly several properties in New York state, to either get bank loans or reduce their taxes.

Last week, James said her office was investigating the Trump Organization in a “criminal capacity” and was working with Vance’s team.

Vance, who leaves his post at the end of December, acquired eight years of Trump’s tax returns in February after a years-long legal battle that went to the Supreme Court.

Source: AFP

26, May 2021

Biden and Putin to hold their first summit in Geneva in June ⁰

US President Joe Biden and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin will hold their first summit next month in Geneva, both sides said Tuesday, setting the stage for a new chapter in their fraught relationship.

The meeting in the Swiss city will be on June 16, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.

“The leaders will discuss the full range of pressing issues, as we seek to restore predictability and stability to the US-Russia relationship,” she said.

The Kremlin confirmed the summit details and said in a statement that Putin and Biden would be discussing “issues of strategic stability,” as well as “resolving regional conflicts” and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Biden, making his first international trip as president, will go to Geneva immediately after separate summits with his key Western allies in the G7, NATO and the European Union.

The face-to-face meeting with the Kremlin leader comes amid levels of tension not seen for years, with Washington now dialling back its ambitions to little more than establishing a relationship in which both sides understand each other and can work together in specific areas.

Since taking office, Biden has launched new sanctions against Moscow over what US authorities say was the Russian role in the massive Solar Winds cyber attack and repeated meddling in the 2020 presidential election.

Washington has also harshly criticized Moscow for the near-death poisoning and subsequent imprisonment of one of the last open opponents to Putin, Alexei Navalny.

And where Biden told an interviewer that he agreed with the description of Putin as a “killer,” the Russian government has formally declared the United States to be an “unfriendly” country.

Moves to ease tension

The open recriminations are a long way from the often puzzling relationship between Trump and Putin.

The Geneva summit will come almost three years after Trump famously sided with the Kremlin leader over the US intelligence agencies on the question of whether Moscow interfered in the 2016 US presidential election.

However, both sides are working to calm the waters ahead of the Geneva summit, with the White House emphasizing hopes for working alongside Russia on well-defined strategic issues like nuclear weapons control and the Iran nuclear negotiations.

To prepare the ground, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and veteran Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met last week in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said after the Blinken-Lavrov meeting that repairing ties “will not be easy” but he saw “a positive signal.”

Moscow welcomed a US decision to waive sanctions that had been holding up completion of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline — a major energy supply route from Russia to Europe that US officials worry will make the EU overdependent on the Russians.

Source: AFP