Monthly Archives: February 2022

Money and Stupidity: Biya regime says France will provide $262 million to support budget

5, February 2022

Money and Stupidity: Biya regime says France will provide $262 million to support budget 0

Cameroon said France had signed a deal valued at 150 billion CFA francs ($262 million) to support its budget.

The French Development Agency loan will finance projects up to 2024, Alamine Ousmane Mey, Cameroon’s minister of economy, planning and regional development, said in Yaounde. He didn’t describe the type of projects to be funded.

The loan represents France’s contribution to a three-year arrangement between the Central African nation and the International Monetary Fund. Last year, the IMF approved about $690 million of support for Cameroon to help its economy recover from the pandemic.

Source:  Bloomberg L.P.

Malians storm capital in anti-French mass protest to celebrate envoy expulsion

5, February 2022

Malians storm capital in anti-French mass protest to celebrate envoy expulsion 0

Thousands of anti-French protesters have flocked to the streets in the Malian capital of Bamako to celebrate the expulsion of the former colonizer’s envoy from the African country.

Some 3,000 protesters attended the rally in central Bamako on Friday, waving Mali’s national flags and burning cardboard cut-outs of French President Emmanuel Macron in celebration of the French ambassador’s dismissal.

Mali expelled the French envoy last week over what the country’s transitional government described as “hostile and outrageous” comments by the former colonial power.

Paris pushed economic and other sanctions against the African country after the expulsion, and the European Union also sanctioned on Friday several Malian officials, including the country’s prime minister.

Adama Ben Diarra, a vocal Malian activist and one of those sanctioned by the EU, was one of the organizers of the Friday’s protest. He told the cheering crowd that it was an honor to be on the bloc’s sanctions list.

Diarra said the expulsion of France’s ambassador was an important step and that the next step must be the departure of over 5,100 foreign troops deployed in Mali under the pretext of fighting terrorism and Takfiri outfits linked to Daesh and al-Qaeda.

Relations between Mali and its former colonizer have turned sour after the junta, which seized power following a military coup that ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020, ditched previously-planned elections in February and proposed to stay in power until 2025.

France has had more than 50 military interventions in Africa since 1960, when many of their former colonies gained nominal independence.

Anti-French sentiment is on the rise in West Africa as the security situation deteriorates despite the presence of French troops in the troubled region. France recently deployed more troops in the Sahel despite opposition to its presence there.

Mali has become increasingly engulfed in violence since a Tuareg uprising in 2012 was hijacked by extremist militants, who perpetrated ethnic killings and attacks on government forces and civilians.

In 2013, France intervened in Mali to purportedly curb militants who had captured the desert north, before deploying troops across the Sahel. While it has sent more troops and the UN has also its own peacekeeper troops in the African country, violence has continued to intensify and spread in the region.

Nearly 7,000 people died due to the fighting in Mali in 2020, according to the Armed Conflict and Location Event Data Project, while the UN declared late last year that more than two million people had been forced to flee their homes because of the conflict, a number that has quadrupled since 2019.

More than 14 million people in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso are now in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

Source: Presstv

Queen Elizabeth II attends party on Jubilee eve

5, February 2022

Queen Elizabeth II attends party on Jubilee eve 0

Queen Elizabeth II made a rare public appearance on Saturday, chatting and cutting cake at a party, a day before she enters her 70th year as monarch.

The 95-year-old Queen has rarely appeared in public and has cancelled major engagements since spending a night in hospital for tests last October.

Wearing a blue dress and pearls, the Queen talked to people from local community and volunteer groups at a morning reception at her Sandringham residence in Norfolk in eastern England.

She is about to mark a major milestone in her reign, as Sunday will be the 70th anniversary of the day her father, King George VI, died, and she became queen aged 25.

The nation will take part in Platinum Jubilee celebrations this summer including a four-day weekend.

On Saturday, the Queen cut a cake with the Jubilee emblem iced on top and received a posy of flowers at the reception in Sandringham’s Ballroom, which included a band playing the song “Congratulations”.

The guests included Angela Wood, a woman who helped create the recipe for coronation chicken, first served at a banquet in 1953.

Wood told the BBC in January that she helped fine-tune the recipe for the bright yellow dish of chicken, boned and coated in a curry cream sauce, while a 19-year-old student at a Cordon Bleu cookery school.

The Queen was also photographed out walking out at Sandringham. She has used a stick in public appearances since October, but royal officials said it was not linked to any specific health condition.

The Queen traditionally spends her Accession Day at Sandringham, where her father died of cancer while she was on a visit to Kenya.

She is set to become the first UK monarch to reign for 70 years.

Source: AFP

UK hit by news of record high inflation

5, February 2022

UK hit by news of record high inflation 0

Come April, many Britons will have to choose between heating and eating. Everything from bus fares to mortgages are going to cost more. Interest rates have gone up twice in seven weeks and 3 more hikes are on the horizon, as the central bank tries to tackle the situation. Meanwhile members of parliament are livid, saying the government is incompetent.

This week millions learned that their gas and electricity bills are going to jump 54 percent. The government says there’s nothing it can do, with energy prices going up worldwide.

Also causing inflation to rise is supply chain issues, higher import taxes and wages increasing. Brexit, the pandemic and a global energy crisis a perfect storm for Britain now in the grips of its worst economic slump in 300 years. But who will pick up the bill?

On the first of April costs of living will go up around 3000 pounds a household. On the same day British politicians will get a 2,000-pound pay rise. So it’s clear, those on the top of the pile have their bills covered and it will be those already on the breadline that will pick up the bill.

Source: Presstv

The British Southern Cameroonians who don’t enjoy football

5, February 2022

The British Southern Cameroonians who don’t enjoy football 0

The Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) buzz that has gripped Cameroon, which not even a stampede and eight people dying could damper, has yet to reach some parts of the country even as the tournament reaches its crescendo. In certain areas of the central African nation, watching football is a luxury.

While most of Cameroon and the rest of the continent have been enjoying the football fiesta, fear and militarisation have gripped the English-speaking parts of the country. The government pulled out all the stops to ensure no embarrassment when those fighting for secession threatened to use the Afcon to amplify their voice and cause.

At the heart of this is the so-called Anglophone crisis that began in 2017 with a strike against the marginalisation of those in the English-speaking parts of the largely Francophone country. This culminated in a strong push for secession of the Northwest and Southwest regions.

The ugly side of the beautiful game

Ardent football fan Tata Tilion comes from Buea, the capital of the Southwest Region. With Cameroon hosting the continental showpiece for the first time in 50 years, he had been looking forward to enjoying the extravaganza. But when it came, insecurity had got the better of his hometown and made football a menace to his existence.

“Teams lodging in Buea aren’t comfortable. They train with so much fear. Imagine having just military people watching training sessions,” says Buea resident Obasse Romeo.

Limbé in the Southwest Region hosted Group F – Mali, Tunisia, The Gambia and Mauritania – and two last-16 matches. But for Tilion and many like him, going to the stadium to enjoy the tournament didn’t cross their minds because of the prevailing atmosphere.

Stray bullets

The situation is worse on Mondays. This is the day when separatist fighters impose a sit-at-home strike. “The town is dreadful … [Only] courageous people are on the streets because anything can happen,” says Tilion.

As a taxi driver, he is forced to leave his home on Mondays. “The issue is you don’t know who is monitoring or if the separatist fighters have spotted you.”

In this area, secessionists fighting President Paul Biya’s French-majority government to form a breakaway state called Ambazonia are everywhere and do not wear identifiable attire. They infiltrate gatherings and public places to gain information. Improvised explosive devices that are suspected to have come from them have killed many people, particularly those they said had disobeyed their orders or sympathised with the government.

Inside the stampede at Olembé Stadium

This is why Tilion has been watching the tournament on television rather than risk his life to the detriment of his wife, three children and other relatives. Stray bullets killed three people on the opening day for Group F during shootings by both state forces and secessionist fighters.

Since the crisis started, more than 3 500 people have died during spates of violence and about 700 000 forced to flee the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon, according to UN reports.

The death of team spirit

Football fan Tiku Musu Kasa has no problem with the government deploying gun-wielding soldiers. “The advantage we have now is witnessing it [the Afcon] and being able to recount to the next generation. If you are watching it on television or following it on radio, you will not be able to give a vivid testimony of the experience in years to come.”

Kasa appreciates the role football has played to bring unity to the country. “After the abortive coup d’état of 1984, a lot of hatred continued in Cameroon, and there was an opportunity for another coup.

“But with the brilliant performance of the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon, defeating 1986 World Cup holders Argentina in the presence of the god of football at the time, Diego Armando Maradona, and other victories in the same tournament, it made people move with peace plants all over. Peace automatically returned to the country.”

During that period, people watched football freely all over the country. Sociocultural and economic activities boomed. Kasa remembers how Ekata Farmers FC of Bafia pulled in the crowds when they visited Kumba to play.

“When Cameroon had to play, people used to wear their jerseys, flags. Some dressed like footballers with boots and walked the streets. If you were a fan of a particular player, you wore that player’s jersey.”

Today, “people are afraid that if they wear team colours, fighters and people with secessionist ideas will consider them blacklegs”, Kasa says referring to the derogatory term used against people who act against trade unions by working when others are on strike. He continued that secessionists also “kill, beat them or burn their houses”.

Match day with the military

It is match day in Limbé on Sunday 23 January. In neighbouring Buea, with six hours to go before Burkina Faso’s clash with Gabon in the last 16. There are no vuvuzelas, excitement, flags or Afcon colours. The streets are heavily militarised, and soldiers line the roads and watch over suspicious joints and byways. Some use incomplete buildings and flyovers as watchtowers.

Here, unlike in the other host cities, sirens and escort drivers are not in use, perhaps for fear of attracting fighters. The driver of the Confederation of African Football-branded bus taking reporters to the stadium makes two stops to pick up journalists, much to the dismay of the military escorts who see it as risky.

Limbé is relatively calm, a little more congested with fans waving as we pass. Traffic police officers clear the way as we descend to Ngueme, where the stadium is located.

Down right, another contingent of soldiers lines both sides of the road. Checkpoints, too. Security is tight at the entrance with others along the stadium’s perimeter. Unlike in Buea, there are fans walking, some running, some gesturing at us to help them catch up with the game.

Before kick off, Gabonese fan Manitou, who refers to himself only by his first name, says he was afraid to come to Limbé. “On my way here, I saw military people with firearms. They told me that the area had security issues. That’s why I decided to lodge in Douala. But personally, I think it’s good. It prevents those coming with bad intentions. Our government provided 10 buses to transport us and we were escorted by these soldiers. That’s needed for us to feel secure.”

Somehow, attendance at the 20 000-seater stadium is impressive. Ruling party politicians and pro-regime administrators desperately mobilised crowds to show up at the stadium to cheer. Spectators say they received free tickets and vaccination passes – even those who aren’t inoculated.

Abductions and torture

When the Afcon ends on 6 February and all the dignitaries are gone, a good number of soldiers will be taken off the streets. Problems will remain. Football will still be a tough sport to follow.

Shootings, killings, burnings, brutality and kidnappings have seen many amateur clubs withdraw from regional competitions. The few enduring ones play fewer games, with matches held in towns that offer better security, such as Kumba, Buea, Limbé and Bamenda. The peripheries are no-go zones.

Former footballer Obasse Romeo remembers the day that unknown gunmen attacked Mount Cameroon FC players at training. Players subsequently withdrew for their safety.

Amba Boys, as separatist fighters are commonly referred to, send death threats and disrupt games. They abducted Buea University’s football team from the campus training ground and tortured them. Unknown gunmen shot and killed Kombe Israel, the owner of Bau Manibok FC, in Kumba in June 2021.

The dark side of sport’s power

In the country’s Northwest Region, second and first-tier clubs have had their share of trouble too.

Emmanuel Ndoumbe Bosso, the former coach of Yong Sports Academy (Yosa), was kidnapped while driving to the club’s training ground. Augustine Choupo, the coach of 2020 Cameroon league one champions PWD Bamenda, was also kidnapped. The clubs didn’t say if ransoms were paid to secure their releases, and Bosso left after the incident. 

When the clubs host league games, gun-wielding officers serve as stewards. This is after armed groups attacked visiting Dragon de Yaoundé as they made their way to a match venue in Bamenda. Heavily armed security forces accompany visiting teams to and from the field, and sometimes out of town. When a game ends, the visiting team is quickly taken away, sometimes before they have even changed out of their match jerseys.

Club repercussions

Yosa press officer Wanchia Cynthia says the instability in the region has affected their club. “Initially, we had Francophone players ready to play for the team. But since 2021, it hasn’t been the case, reason being the insecurity. Those players are afraid of kidnappers and stray bullets. Yogo Sorel is the only Francophone who played for the team last year.”

This isn’t an issue for the team though, says Wanchia, because it has made room for players from the two English-speaking regions.

The Bamenda Olympic Stadium project remains unfinished. Constructors are said to blame the slow progress on insecurity in the area.

Kasa says the crisis isn’t helping in any way. He wants peace to return so “young people will express their talents and football will grow again”.

Culled from New Frame

Push to free Anglophone journalists jailed in Cameroon intensifies

5, February 2022

Push to free Anglophone journalists jailed in Cameroon intensifies 0

The Committee to Protect Journalists on Thursday, February 3, joined 26 other civil society organizations in calling on President Paul Biya to release all those arbitrarily detained in Cameroon for acts of free expression, including at least four journalists.

The open letter, published during the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, notes that the continent’s premier football tournament masks the reality that over 100 people have been detained, most for more than a year, and some for over five years, for simply “peacefully exercising their human rights.”

Journalists Thomas Awah Junior, Mancho Bibixy, Tsi Conrad, and Kingsley Fomunyuy Njoka are detained on anti-state charges in Yaounde’s overcrowded Kondengui Central Prison, as documented in CPJ’s annual census of jailed journalists around the world.

The organizations also urged Biya to reform the laws currently used to criminalize protest and public assembly, including the country’s controversial anti-terror law that is used to silence critics and suppress dissent, as documented in a 2017 special report by CPJ.

France-Afrique: EU sanctions five members of Mali’s government, including the prime minister

4, February 2022

France-Afrique: EU sanctions five members of Mali’s government, including the prime minister 0

The European Union on Friday imposed targeted sanctions on five members of Mali’s ruling junta, including Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga.

In a statement from EU member states the targets are accused of “actions that obstruct and undermine the successful completion of Mali’s political transition.”

In August 2020, Mali’s military ousted an elected government. The military regime has vowed a return to civilian rule but has been accused of dragging its feet.

In recent weeks tensions between Mali and former colonial power France have increased, and on Monday the junta ordered the French ambassador to leave.

France has some 4,000 troops deployed across West Africa’s Sahel region, half in Mali, and the crisis has called into question the future of its campaign against Islamist extremist militants.

“The five designated people are subject to a travel ban, which prevents them from entering or transiting through EU territories, and an asset freeze,” the statement said.

Aside from 63-year-old Maiga, the prime minister in the so-called transitional regime, four more top officials were targeted.

Also on the list is 42-year-old Malick Doaw, president of the National Transition Council and “one of the instigators and leaders of the August 18, 2020 coup”.

Colonel major Ismail Wague, 46-year-old minister for reconciliation, had announced the coup and is thus deemed to “threaten the peace, security and stability of Mali.”

Adama Ben Diarra, known as “Ben le Cerveau” or Ben the Brain, is a member of the transitional government accused of obstructing the holding of free elections.

And Ibrahim Ikassa Maiga, 50, is accused of playing a key role in the m5-REP movement that was involved in the overthrow of elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

All five figures are already subject to sanctions imposed by the West African regional bloc ECOWAS.

Source: AFP

Enfin: Senegal take on Egypt in hotly anticipated final

4, February 2022

Enfin: Senegal take on Egypt in hotly anticipated final 0

After coming into their own in the knockouts, Senegal are tipped to win their first ever Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday, as they take on Egypt, starring Liverpool’s Mo Salah, the greatest African player of the contemporary game.

It will be a clash of two Liverpool titans as Senegal’s talisman Sadio Mané takes on Egypt’s talisman Salah. Senegal are hungry to fulfil their longstanding promise and finally win the Africa Cup of Nations – while Salah is hungry to take a trophy with his national team after Premier League and Champions League triumphs with his club.

It is easy to see why the Teranga Lions went into the tournament as favourites. Mané provides lacerating pace, dazzling creativity and clinical finishing skills. They have arguably the best shot-stopper playing today in the shape of Chelsea goalkeeper Édouard Mendy. Napoli’s rock-solid defensive linchpin Kalidou Koulibaly and PSG box-to-box midfielder Idrissa Gueye – Senegal’s two world-class stars – have the field between the goalposts and upfront covered.

An Africa Cup of Nations victory for Senegal has seemed like a matter of time, ever since they enraptured football fans the world over in the 2002 World Cup, humiliating champions France – the magnificent Bleus of Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira – with a stunning victory.

The air of inevitability faded at this year’s tournament as Senegal won their group stage in desultory fashion. Their opening match was a drab affair against minnows Zimbabwe, which saw them prevail thanks to a penalty of doubtful merit in the seventh minute of extra time. Perhaps the low point was a flaccid 0-0 draw against Malawi, where the likes of Mané played like much less talented players, fluffing passes and moving sluggishly.

But rather like the victorious Bleus in the 2018 World Cup, Senegal burst into life in the knockouts. The Teranga Lions started to roar with a decisive quarterfinal victory, slaying the tournament’s giant-killers Equatorial Guinea. 

They stepped up a gear in the semifinals against a tenacious, well-disciplined Burkina Faso. The floodgates opened some 20 minutes into the second half. Abdou Diallo scored from close range after Koulibaly reached a corner with an amazing bicycle-kick pass. Six minutes later a majestic Mané run handed a goal to Bamba Dieng.

Burkina Faso rattled Senegal when Blati Touré knocked a cross into the back of the net. But they showed the pertinacity that makes champions, soon reimposing themselves when Mané surged to meet a penetrating pass, went one-on-one with the keeper and coolly lobbed it into the back of the net.

This sparkling form will make the Teranga Lions tough opponents for the Pharaohs. But Egypt, too, have shown the resoluteness required of champions – albeit in more prosaic form. They have prevailed in three consecutive matches that went into extra time, first defeating the formidable Ivory Coast team that had just humiliated title-holders Algeria.

Egypt were the underdogs in the semifinals against hosts Cameroon, whom many tipped to win the competition amid the rampant goalscoring form of strikers Vincent Aboubakar and Karl Toko-Ekambi. But they fought back after Cameroon dominated the first half – forcing the game into extra time and then penalties. Egypt were cool, calm and collected at the spot kick, and so was Gabaski between the goalposts. They kept their nerve when Cameroon faltered to send the hosts packing.

While their victory over Cameroon exemplified Egypt’s cool determination, the Pharaohs’ victory over Morocco exhibited another prime reason why they could take the trophy: Mo Salah. Despite the presence of some highly competent players – the likes of striker David Trezeguet and right-back Omar Kamal – Egypt frankly lack the star talent Senegal have scattered around their lineup. But so far they have more than made up for it with Salah’s presence.

In the Morocco match everything rested on Salah. First he bashed in a ruthlessly opportunistic goal from close range as the ball bounced towards the six-yard line. Then the Liverpool icon created the winner with a glittering dash down the right – the stuff of defenders’ nightmares – to tee up Trezeguet for an easy finish.

For his part, Salah is determined to go back to his club with an Africa Cup of Nations winners’ medal. Ahead of the tournament he told journalists: “I can assure you that it is the trophy that I want to win most. I work to win it and that is the story with all the Egyptian players present here.”

But Salah will have to battle it out with his Liverpool strike partner Mané. As their club manager Jurgen Klopp pointed out in a press conference: “Now it’s obviously not so easy because one will definitely be really happy after and the other one much less so, but both have a good chance to achieve something really big.”

Culled from France 24

Beijing Winter Olympics kick off

4, February 2022

Beijing Winter Olympics kick off 0

A Winter Olympics overshadowed by human rights concerns and taking place inside a strict Covid-secure bubble kicked off in Beijing on Friday with a glittering opening ceremony at the “Bird’s Nest” stadium.

The distinctive lattice-shaped arena took centre stage, just as it did at the 2008 Games – seen as China’s coming-out party to the world – as Beijing becomes the first city to host both a Summer and Winter Olympics.

Chinese President Xi Jinping declared the Games open, triggering a burst of fireworks and wrapping up a ceremony filled with imagery of ice and snow. Xi’s declaration was followed by red-suited “skaters” sliding across virtual ice.

Held on the first day of Spring by the Chinese calendar,the ceremony began with a performance by dancers waving glowing green stalks to convey the vitality of the season, followed by an explosion of white and green fireworks that spelled the word “Spring”.

On a three-dimensional cube resembling a block of ice, lasers carved figures from each of the previous 23 Winter Games. The block was then “broken” by ice hockey players, enabling the Olympic rings to emerge, all in white.

That was followed by the traditional “parade of nations”, with each of the 91 delegations preceded by a women carrying a placard in the shape of a snowflake resembling a Chinese knot.

In keeping with Olympic tradition, the parade was led into the stadium by Greece with the rest ordered by stroke number in the first character of their Chinese name, which meant Turkey was second, followed by Malta, with host China going last and drawing roars from the stadium crowd.

The entrances for “Hong Kong, China”, as well as for Russia, also generated applause.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, the highest profile foreign leader present for the Games, could be seen in the stadium without a mask. However, the athletes from his country were unable to carry its flag due to doping violations, marching instead under the standard of the Russian Olympic Committee.

Source: Reuters

President Putin unveils new gas deal with China’s Xi as Moscow locks horns with the West

4, February 2022

President Putin unveils new gas deal with China’s Xi as Moscow locks horns with the West 0

President Vladimir Putin unveiled a new Russian gas deal with China at a meeting with President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday, promising to increase Moscow’s far east exports at a time when Putin is at odds with European customers over Ukraine.

Russia, already Beijing’s No. 3 gas supplier, has been strengthening ties with China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, reducing its dependence on its traditional European energy customers.

“Our oilmen have prepared very good new solutions on hydrocarbon supplies to the People’s Republic of China,” Putin said in a meeting with Xi to discuss closer cooperation. “And a step forward was made in the gas industry, I mean a new contract on supplying 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) per year to China from Russia’s Far East,” said Putin, who was in Beijing to attend the Winter Olympics.

Putin has accused the United States of stoking tensions over Russia’s neighbour Ukraine, which seeks NATO membership. More than 100,000 Russian troops have amassed near the border with Ukraine. Western countries accuse Moscow of planning an invasion, which it denies.

Russia is Europe’s biggest provider of natural gas, and Western countries are worried that already strained supplies could be interrupted in the event of a conflict. However, the new deal with Beijing would not let Moscow divert gas otherwise bound for Europe, as it involved gas from the Pacific island of Sakhalin, unconnected to Russia’s European pipeline network.

Russian gas giant Gazprom said in a statement that it plans to increase gas exports to China to 48 billion cubic metres a year, including via the newly agreed pipeline which will deliver 10 bcm annually from Russia’s Far East.

Under previous plans, Russia aimed to supply China with 38 bcm by 2025. The announcement did not specify when it would reach the new 48 bcm target.

An industry source told Reuters earlier on Friday that Gazprom, which has a monopoly on Russian gas exports by pipeline, had agreed a 30-year contract with China’s CNPC, with the first gas to flow through the new pipeline in two or three years.

Power of Siberia

Russia now sends gas to China via its Power of Siberia pipeline, which began pumping supplies in 2019, and by shipping liquefied natural gas (LNG). It exported 16.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas to China in 2021, including 10.5 bcm via the Power of Siberia pipeline, a network that is also separate from the pipelines that send gas to Europe.

Putin is accompanied by several Russian officials and business executives, including Igor Sechin, head of oil giant Rosneft. Alexei Miller, the head of Gazprom is not in the delegation. Rosneft and CNPC signed a deal on supplying 100 million tonnes of oil to China through Kazakhstan for 10 years, the Russian company said, effectively prolonging the existing deal.

Source: REUTERS

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