Monthly Archives: February 2022

19, February 2022

Top Northern Ireland politician Sir Jeffrey Donaldson under fire over trade mission to Yaoundé ⁰

The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) the joint-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fifth-largest party in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has been challenged to explain why he abandoned Northern Ireland amid a political crisis for a trade mission to Cameroon.

Sir Jeffrey made his first visit to Cameroon this week after being named as trade envoy last summer. The Northern Ireland politician visited a divided nation described by Transparency International as the most repressive and corrupt state in Africa.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson was seen posing for the camera with the controversial Chief Ekoko Mukete whose chieftaincy title is still being contested deep within the Bafaw Royal Family in Kumba and he is considered by many English speaking Cameroonians as a traitor.

Dolores Kelly of the Social-Democratic Irish Nationalist Political Party in Northern Ireland (SDLP) has been quoted as saying “it was unforgivable for DUP leader to make the trip during crisis” in his own country.

Founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who led the party for 37 years, the DUP currently led by Sir Jeffrey Donaldson is badly in need of decent man to run its affairs.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Belfast Telegraph

19, February 2022

Deadly fighting erupts between Biya regime forces and armed Amba fighters in Akwaya ⁰

Deadly clashes have erupted between military forces loyal to the Biya French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé and armed Ambazonia fighters at Tinta some few kilometers from Akwaya town in Manyu Division.

Cameroon Concord News sources in Manyu said on Thursday that an unknown number of Cameroon government army soldiers and civilians were injured.

The office of the Divisional Officer for Akwaya Sub Division, said Amba fighters attacked government troops on patrol heading towards the borders with Nigeria.

Witnesses told Cameroon Concord News that they had heard heavy gunfire on Thursday around the outskirts of Akwaya.

Akwaya Sub Division has seen increased fighting and displacement since 2016. Experts link the surge of violence in Akwaya to the huge equatorial forest that provides good hideouts for Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

By Kingsley Betek in Mamfe

18, February 2022

Francophones and their FECAFOOT: The unending war ⁰

The President of the Francophone dominated Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT), Samuel Eto’o travelled recently to Limbe in Southern Cameroons and staged the beautiful game’s support for the one and indivisible Cameroon policy. The Limbe meeting ended its deliberations with the appointment of new members in the executive committee of FECAFOOT. Not even a single English-speaking Cameroonian was appointed to the executive committee.

Federalists such as Barrister Agbor Balla and Dr Joachim Arrey of the Global Think Tank for Africa have already registered their utter disagreement and disappointment with the Eto’o decision. But the French Cameroun football legend is now focused on important Francophone FECAFOOT issues-the most urgent being who to replace the Portuguese António Conceição as head coach of the Indomitable Lions.

We gathered that the new FECAFOOT boss has already made public his intention of appointing Rigobert Song and the decision could be officially announced on Wednesday 23 February 2022. Will Rigobert Song Bahanag be the new coach of the Indomitable Lions?

There is one small thing. Small but great and it is the involvement of Sports Minister Hon. Narcisse Mouelle Kombi. Minister Narcisse extended the Portuguese António Conceição’s contract last September and on February 13, 2022 a week after the end of the Africa Cup of Nations, the Minister announced his intention to keep the Portuguese technician for the qualification to the FIFA World Cup, which will take place in Qatar in November and December.

Stupid Francophones

On February 14, Samuel Eto’o addressed a letter to the Minister of Sports. In the letter, the FECAFOOT President raised a finger against Minister Narcisse Kombi’s involvement in the affairs of the Cameroon Football Federation. Samuel Eto’o reminded the minister that according to the texts in force, the administrative, sporting and technical management of all national soccer teams is the responsibility of the Cameroon Football Federation. Eto’o cautioned the Biya acolyte to desist from commenting publicly on maintenance or termination of the contract of the Indomitable Lions head coach.

Interestingly, there was a president at the head of the Cameroon Football Federation before Samuel Eto’o took office! So, how come that it was Minister Narcisse who awarded the Portuguese technician a contract in 2019 at the Yaoundé Hilton Hotel?

Supported in his approach by the executive committee of the federation, which met on February 16 in Limbe, in Southern Cameroons, Eto’o is now planning to appoint Rigobert Song as head coach with the immediate objective of qualifying the Indomitable Lions for the 2022 World Cup.

Eto’o and Song: strange bed fellows?

Rigobert Song Bahanag, now 45 years old, has written some of the most memorable pages in the history of Cameroonian soccer. To be sure, Rigobert Song is the record holder of 137 caps for the national team and has played in four World Cups and eight Africa Cup of Nations. Twice, he was part of the team that brought the cup back to Yaoundé (2000 and 2002).

Song also played for Salernitana (Italy), Liverpool, West Ham (England), Cologne (Germany), Galatasaray and Trabzonspor (Turkey). He ended his career in 2010.

He then became a coach and a member of the executive body within FECAFOOT. A stroke in 2016 forced him to take a break off football matters, but he was able to resume his activities two years later.

During the time when both men wore the colors of Cameroon, Rigobert Song and Samuel Eto’o sometimes had a tense relationship. The former lost his captaincy to the latter in 2009.

Since then, the two former internationals have buried the hatchet. Last August, Rigobert Song publicly supported Samuel Eto’o in his campaign to win the presidency of the Cameroon Football Federation.

Minister Narcisse is reportedly holding meetings in Yaoundé and CPDM commentators are already painting Eto’o as a destructive element.

For his part, Eto’o is fighting the leadership of CAF, FIFA and now- a baron of the CPDM crime syndicate.

By Isong Asu

18, February 2022

Mali asks France to withdraw troops ‘without delay’ ⁰

Mali’s army-led government asked France on Friday to withdraw its troops from the Sahel state “without delay”, calling into question Paris’ plans to pull out over several months.

A government spokesman added in a statement announced on public television that the results of France’s nine-year military engagement in conflict-torn Mali were “not satisfactory”.

On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he was withdrawing troops from Mali after a breakdown in relations with the nation’s ruling military junta.

Relations between the two countries deteriorated sharply after Mali’s army seized power in a coup in 2020, and later defied calls to restore civilian rule swiftly.

The French pullout after nearly a decade is also set to see the smaller European Takuba force of special forces, created in 2020, leave Mali.

France currently has some 5,000 troops deployed across the Sahel as part of its anti-jihadist Barkhane force — the majority in Mali.

Macron said the withdrawal would take place over four to six months.

Spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga called the French withdrawal a “flagrant violation” of accords between the two countries.

“In view of these repeated breaches of defence agreements, the government invites the French authorities to withdraw, without delay,” he said.

Source: AFP

18, February 2022

Franck Biya to run for president ⁰

The ruling CPDM is planning to hold an extraordinary congress of the party that will nominate Franck Biya, the eldest son of the 89-year-old dictator as a presidential candidate, Cameroon Intelligence Report has learnt from a well-placed source in the nation’s capital Yaoundé.

Cameroon, the so-called giant in the Sub Saharan region littered with French backed dictators is one of Africa’s most repressive, corrupt states and little is known about how the Biya Francophone regime makes day-to-day decisions. The country has never held any free and fair vote, and Biya’s next-of-kin will almost certainly face no real opponents in the next presidential election.

The country has no free media, honours President Biya’s acolytes with lucrative political positions and is yet to make any major arrest ever since it was revealed coronavirus funds were siphoned by top government officials including the Prime Minister and Head of Government Joseph Dion Ngute.

Paul Biya who is the country’s president and commander-in-chief since 1982 hardly chairs cabinet meetings but has been Cameroon’s decision-maker for the last 40 years.

His pastimes –holidaying in rural areas in the South of France, long stays at the InterContinental Hotel in Geneva and encouraging internal divisions deep within his ruling party including returning to Cameroon to fill his pocket with tax payer’s money — have made him a curiosity across the globe.

At 89, his followers mainly from his Beti-Ewondo tribal extractions say he is still the right man for the nation’s powerful job.

Franck Biya is currently nothing in Cameroon government’s political chain of command but underneath that nothingness is a young man with a broad influence over the politics and economy that key Biya family allies think is now eligible to run for president.

It is expected that both the political bureau and the congress of the ruling CPDM party will unanimously support the candidacy of Franck Biya for the post of President of Cameroon in the next presidential election.

Recently, he has been boosting his national profile with bereavement visits to his dad’s loyalists in the North and West regions of the country.

Franck Biya’s exposure on media only began to grow after the Biya family invested on the television channel Groupe L’Anecdote headed by Amougou Belinga.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

17, February 2022

France to pull troops from Mali after 10 years of failure ⁰

France has announced that it will withdraw thousands of troops from Mali due to a breakdown in relations with the country, a decade after launching a war without the initial approval of the United Nations or even the French parliament.

A statement signed by France and its African and European allies said on Thursday that “multiple obstructions” meant the conditions were no longer in place to operate in Mali.

The decision applies to both the 2,400 French troops in Mali, where France first deployed in 2013, and a European force of several hundred soldiers that was created in 2020.

Relations between Paris and Bamako have deteriorated since the ruling military took power in August 2020.

French President Emmanuel Macron confirmed at a news conference that France’s bases in Gossi, Menaka and Gao in Mali would be closed within the next four to six months.

“We cannot remain militarily engaged alongside de facto authorities whose strategy and hidden aims we do not share,” Macron said. The withdrawal would be carried out in an “orderly” manner, he said.

Macron also “completely” rejected the idea that France had failed its mission in the country.

Mali’s armed forces spokesperson Souleymane Dembele shrugged off France’s announcement, saying European troops had failed to curb militancy.

“I think that there has been no military solution, because terrorism has engulfed the entire territory of Mali,” he said.

Tensions have been mounting after Mali expelled its French envoy over what the country described as “hostile and outrageous” comments by the former colonial power.

Mali’s prime minister earlier this month blasted France for attempting to divide his country during a foreign military mission against terrorist groups.

Choguel Kokalla Maiga, head of the government that came to power in June 2021, said the French intervention “later turned into a de facto partition of the country.”

The Mali deployment has been fraught with problems for France. Of the country’s 53 soldiers killed in West Africa, 48 of them died in Mali.

The announcement comes at a critical time for Macron, just days before he is expected to make a long-awaited declaration that he will stand for a second term in April elections.

Macron’s priority will now be to ensure that the withdrawal does not invite comparisons with the chaotic US departure from Afghanistan last year.

A French mission began in Mali in 2013 to allegedly counter militants that Paris claims are linked to the al-Qaeda and Daesh terrorist groups. France, a former colonizer of Africa, also deployed thousands of soldiers to presumably prevent separatist forces from reaching Mali’s capital, Bamako.

The war caused several thousand deaths and more than a million people to flee their homes. There have been two military coups in little over a year, amid growing demonstrations against France’s military presence.

France has been one of the world’s colonizing countries that after many years of slavery still controls countries spread over more than 12 territories and treats their people as second-class citizens.

It has had more than 50 military interventions in Africa since 1960, when many of its former colonies gained nominal independence. Mali remains among the poorest countries in the world, but that’s not due to a lack of resources.

France currently has 5,100 troops in the arid and volatile Sahel region. Under a new plan, they will be reduced to 2,500-3,000 troops. Analysts say it is premature to call it the end of the war, but that France is entering into a new phase of the war.

France is also worried about the alleged deployment of Russian contractors in the country.

Although France remains the only Western country with a significant military presence in the Sahel, its relationship with its former African colonies has grown increasingly tense in recent months. This has led to an evident increase in anti-French sentiment.

Source: Presstv

17, February 2022

US judge rules Trump must testify in New York civil investigation ⁰

A judge ruled Thursday that former US president Donald Trump must testify under oath in New York’s civil probe into alleged fraudulent practices at his family business.

The ruling is the latest legal blow to Trump as he fights numerous cases that threaten to complicate any bid for another run at the White House in 2024.

State Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump and his two eldest children, Donald Jr and Ivanka, to comply with subpoenas issued by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

He said the three must sit for depositions within 21 days. The Trumps are expected to appeal.

Earlier during oral arguments, the Trumps’ lawyers said that the subpoenas should be quashed because having them give evidence in the civil case would prejudice their rights in a parallel criminal investigation.

Engoron said their argument “completely misses the mark,” noting that neither the Manhattan District Attorney, which is running the criminal investigation, nor James’s office have ordered the Trumps to appear before a grand jury.

In his ruling, Engoron added that the Trumps could invoke their Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate themselves during questioning in the civil case.

He noted that Trump’s other son, Eric, had pleaded the fifth “more than 500 times” during a deposition for James’s investigation in October 2020.

James, a Democrat, announced in January that her investigation into the Trump Organization had uncovered “significant evidence” of fraudulent or misleading practices.

She said that the civil inquiry had found that the Trump Organization fraudulently overvalued multiple assets to secure loans and then undervalued them to minimize taxes.

The Trumps have claimed the investigation is politically motivated and has urged the court to quash subpoenas against the three.

If James finds evidence of financial misconduct she can sue the Trump Organization for damages but cannot file criminal charges.

The probe, however, is running alongside a very similar criminal investigation by the Manhattan district attorney for possible financial crimes and insurance fraud.

In July last year, the Trump Organization and its long-serving finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded not guilty in a New York court to 15 felony fraud and tax evasion charges.

His trial is due to begin in the middle of this year.

Trump, 75, has so far kept the electorate and commentators guessing about whether he intends to seek the Republican nomination again.

Source: AFP

17, February 2022

Letter to the FECAFOOT President, Samuel Eto’o ⁰

Dear Mr. President,

Congratulations to you and your team for the just-ended meeting in Limbe, the Southwest region’s beautiful and friendly port city!

It was also a pleasure to know that the deliberations ended in the appointment of new members of your institution’s executive committee.

However, like many people of the English-speaking minority, I was very disappointed to know that not even a single English-speaking Cameroonian was appointed to your executive committee.

Other English-speaking Cameroonians have already registered their utter disagreement and disappointment with this decision, but I would still like to add my voice to theirs to ensure that the language issue which is part of the many issues which have caused the conflict in the country is taken care of anytime a major decision is taken in your institution.

Many towns and villages in the two English-speaking regions remain inaccessible to many patriotic and hardworking Cameroonians because of the war that is playing out there, and like many Cameroonians, I thought as a younger person, you would always make decisions taking into consideration such a serious matter.

I know it is not too late for this decision to be corrected, but if it does not get corrected, know the enormous support you enjoy in those two regions will take a nosedive. If we want peace, then we must always practice justice!

Also, another issue is that even before your election, your communication team did not incorporate English-speaking Cameroonians into whatever communication plan it had. This has caused many English-speaking Cameroonians around the world not to receive important communication products in time in the language they understand better.

I know language services cost a fortune anywhere in the world, but if we, as a nation, have opted to run a bilingual system in Cameroon, we must accept it with all its inconveniences. I would like to underscore that Cameroon has a huge pool of experienced and effective English-speaking translators in Yaounde who will be very willing to join your team if called upon.

In this regard, I am offering to help your communication team with any translation and writing services it may need. I would, however, be prompt to add that my services will entirely honorary. It is a personal decision not to receive any payment from any Cameroon government department.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Joachim Arrey

arreyjoachim@hotmail.com

17, February 2022

Cardinal slams abuse cover-ups at Vatican priest forum ⁰

An influential cardinal opened a Vatican symposium on the priesthood Thursday apologising for “unworthy ministers” and the cover-up of child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, before an audience that included Pope Francis.

Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet acknowledged that “we are all torn and humbled by these crucial questions that every day question us as members of the Church”, with Francis at his side in the Vatican’s vast Paul VI Hall.

“Should we not rather refrain from talking about the priesthood when the sins and crimes of unworthy ministers are on the front pages of the international press for betraying their commitment or for shamefully covering up?”

A string of recent investigations exposing paedophile priests have been front page news in recent months, exposing the scale of the problem and the decades-long Church cover-up.

Ouellet is a prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, one of the most important functions within the Curia, the government of the Vatican.

He said the symposium was an opportunity to express regret and ask victims for forgiveness after their lives were “destroyed by abusive and criminal behaviour” hidden or treated lightly to protect the institution and perpetrators.

The symposium would be a “painful and yet necessary exercise” of conscience to analyse the historical, cultural and theological causes of what Francis has referred to as “clericalism”, he added.

Ouellet, the main organiser of the three-day symposium, defined it as “abuses of power, spiritual abuses, abuses of conscience, of which sexual abuses are but the tip of the iceberg”.

“This symposium takes note of the clamour and anger of the people of God, so we are here to unite our voices with those who are calling for truth and justice,” he added.

Francis did not mention the subject of abuse, instead sharing what he considered four “pillars” of the priesthood, drawn from his personal experience.

The symposium — which is expected to attract 500 people — comes two days after victims groups in Italy launched an unprecedented campaign to demand an independent investigation into priest abuse, in the wake of similar inquiries in Germany and France.

A report published last month criticised former pope Benedict XVI for turning a blind eye to abusive priests while he was the Archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Since becoming pope in 2013, Francis has striven to tackle the decades-long sexual abuse scandals, although many activists against paedophilia insist much more needs to be done.

The Argentine pontiff convened an unprecedented summit on clerical sex abuse in 2019, lifted secrecy rules that hindered investigations of abusing priests, and hardened the punishment of abusers under Vatican law, among other measures.

Source: AFP

17, February 2022

Football: Africa may finally be trusting its own coaches ⁰

This year’s Africa Cup of Nations featured 15 African-born coaches, leading some to conclude that local coaches had broken through racial and ethnic barriers to a level long reserved for Europeans.

But do the success stories in a few nations mean that the coaching pathway has truly opened up for local coaches in Africa?

While impossible to say definitively, the success of Aliou Cisse, coach of Senegal’s Lions of Teranga in this year’s African Cup of Nations (AFCON), appeared to erase all doubts in the minds of thousands of Senegalese fans celebrating jubilantly across the country’s capital.

“He allowed us to get the cup we had been waiting for for years. We’ve none better than him,” said one of Cisse’s ecstatic fans.

Until recently, European coaches were preferred by African teams despite their spotty achievements on the continent. In the book “Feet of the Chameleon: The Story of African Soccer,” author Ian Hawkey confirmed what many knew to be true.

“It’s tough for an African coach or manager to get a good job in soccer and even tougher for him to keep it,” he wrote. “But it can appear very easy to get a good coaching job in African soccer if you are from Europe or South America.”

One such European coach was Claude Le Roy, nicknamed “the White Wizard,” who arrived in Cameroon and took charge of the Indomitable Lions in 1986. After a narrow defeat in that year, they trounced Nigeria 1-0 with a lone goal in

the 55th minute.

The 73-year-old Le Roy took over Togo’s team in 2016. He managed to lead them to the 2017 finals in Gabon but he was sacked after they failed to reach the 2021 AFCON finals in Cameroon.

“To say Togo’s journey in the AFCON qualifiers was underwhelming would be an understatement,” wrote Ali Ismail, sports analyst. The team would now miss on their second consecutive Africa Cup of Nations, with their last appearance coming in 2017 one year after Le Roy’s appointment.

Despite several defeats, Le Roy managed to win the Cameroonian Order of Merit, the second highest honorary decoration in 2021. He returned the honor with a signed copy of his book “Claude Le Roy, Blond Magician,” which he gifted to President Biya.

Winfried Schäfer of Germany also coached the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon from 2001 to 2004. Schafer claimed credit for getting Samuel Eto’o Fils, arguably the best African player of all time, to “train full throttle.” Herve Renard, another Frenchman, was recently recruited from Saudi Arabia at a salary of $100,000 monthly to coach Ghana’s Black Stars.

Meanwhile, African coaches were forced to settle for interim positions, often being replaced before the major competitions came around.

“We felt powerless and hurt by these choices,” Mali’s national coach Mohamed Magassouba told DW, the German news service. “To those above, we were not good enough to manage our national teams. No matter what we did, we were not supported.”

“Native coaches in general are not respected,” he told DW, “even when we have the required skills and the same qualifications as Europeans.”

Sadly, Africans recruited to play in European teams have found themselves locked into contracts that deny their right to play at home for major games.

Just before the recent African Cup games, European clubs initially refused to release their African players to their national teams for the tournament last month. The association body of European clubs, ECA, linked the decision to the pandemic.

European clubs and nations use their powerful economic position to dictate the contract terms for soccer players from African nations.

The loss of Africa’s most talented soccer players to European leagues has been viewed as ongoing post-colonial exploitation. Ydnekatchew Tessema, former president of the Confederation of African Football, a vociferous critic of the export of African players, once argued: “When the rich countries take away from us our best elements, we should not expect any chivalrous behavior on their part to help African soccer.”

Analysis of the 2018 World Cup in Russia revealed a high presence of African (Black and Arabic) players in top European teams. Of the four semi-finalist teams, only Croatia was 100% white, while France (63% white), Belgium (31% white) and England (37% white) had a high number of children of immigrants.

This increasing prominence of African players has both positive and negative consequences. In the words of Inter Milan star, born to Congolese parents, Romelu Lukaku: “When things were going well…they were calling me Romelu Lukaku, the Belgian striker. When things weren’t going well, they were calling me Romelu Lukaku, the Belgian striker of Congolese descent.”

After their historic victory in last month’s competition, the Senegalese national team was rewarded with a cash prize of $87,100 and a plot of land in the capital Dakar. The team was crowned champions of Africa for the first time in their history.

Source: Amsterdam News