Monthly Archives: April 2022

18, April 2022

African players in Europe: Red-letter day for two-goal Mane ⁰

Senegal talisman Sadio Mane scored two goals — one soft and one superb — at the weekend to take Liverpool into the FA Cup final with a 3-2 victory over Manchester City at Wembley.

The Reds will face Chelsea in the May 14 showpiece final — a repeat of the League Cup final won by Liverpool on penalties after a goalless final.

Apart from his Liverpool heroics, Mane helped Senegal win the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in February and qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar one month later.

Here, AFP Sport highlights Africans who starred in European leagues and cup competitions:

ENGLAND

SADIO MANE (Liverpool)

Mane was the difference between Liverpool and Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final as he struck twice in a thrilling win for the Reds. His persistence earned his first and Liverpool’s second goal of the day as he caught City stand-in goalkeeper Zack Steffen in possession to tackle the ball into the net. His second was as sweet as the first was scrappy as Mane volleyed in Thiago Alcantara’s pass to round off a stunning move from Jurgen Klopp’s men.

EMMANUEL DENNIS (Watford)

A 10th Premier League goal of the season for Dennis could not prevent Watford slipping closer to relegation after a 2-1 defeat by Brentford. The Nigerian’s fierce strike that flew in at the near post was controversially allowed to stand despite Senegal’s Ismaila Sarr appearing to be offside in the build-up. A 10th consecutive home defeat leaves the Hornets still six points adrift of safety with just six games to play.

GERMANY

KEVIN-PRINCE BOATENG (Hertha Berlin)

The 35-year-old made his first start since October and bossed midfield as Hertha climbed out of the relegation zone with a 1-0 win at Augsburg. “We needed a figure like Prince. He has shown how important he is for us,” said Hertha coach Felix Magath as the Ghana midfielder threw himself into tackles.

TAIWO AWONIYI (Union Berlin)

Awoniyi shrugged off his marker and banged in his 18th goal for Union this season to open the scoring in a 2-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt. The Nigeria striker is a fans’ favourite at Union and threw his playing shirt into the home crowd after being substituted with 10 minutes remaining.

FRANCE

KARL TOKO-EKAMBI (Lyon)

The Cameroon forward, who starred in his country’s run to the Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals on home soil this year, scored twice in Lyon’s 6-1 mauling of Bordeaux. His first goal was a gift after a farcical miskick by the Bordeaux goalkeeper, while his second goal was a delightful chipped finish. Toko-Ekambi has 16 goals this season, including 10 in Ligue 1. Lyon are eighth, four points outside the European qualifying spots.

JODEL DOSSOU (Clermont)

The Benin international equalised in a 1-1 draw at fellow strugglers Metz. It was his second goal in as many games, after Dossou netted in last week’s 6-1 home hammering by Paris Saint-Germain. Clermont are in the relegation play-off place, five points above bottom side Metz and one point from outright safety.

ITALY

M’BALA NZOLA (Spezia)

The Angolan international featured in probably the strangest moment in the weekend’s Serie A action. He was subbed on and then off again just 10 minutes later in Spezia’s 3-1 defeat to Inter Milan because he couldn’t take off his earring. Brought on in the 60th minute with his team a goal down, the 25-year-old was almost immediately stopped by match officials and ordered to remove the jewellery, a task which was beyond both Nzola and the Spezia coaching staff. Eventually he had to admit defeat and coach Thiago Motta was forced to bring on Janis Antiste in his place.

Source: AFP

18, April 2022

“Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards are role model for the Southern Cameroons resistance” ⁰

A senior front line Southern Cameroons figure Professor Carlson Anyangwe has lauded the recent achievements of self defense groups in Ground Zero, emphasizing diaspora support for the people of Ambazonia.

Professor Carlson Anyangwe made the comments in a Saturday phone conversation with Isong Asu who heads the Cameroon Concord News London Bureau.

“We in faraway lands are following the great victories and achievements of all Ambazonia self defense groups and what they do is a cause of honour for the struggle” Professor Anyangwe told Cameroon Concord News. Anyangwe added, “Amba fighters are a role model for the Southern Cameroons quest for independence.”

“Southern Cameroonians in Ground Zero and self defense groups are in good shape and they will continue to defend the Ambazonia homeland” Professor Anyangwe opined.

Anyangwe’s phone call came amid escalation of French Cameroun violent attacks against Amba self defense forces. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Southern Cameroons has witnessed an escalation of French Cameroun violence, with over dozen Amba fighters having been killed and many more injured at the hands of Biya regime’s army soldiers.

The uptick in the killings and repression of English speaking Cameroonians has been green-lit by the 89-year-old President Paul Biya, who granted full freedom of action to Cameroon government troops five years ago to intensify their brutal raids against Southern Cameroonians.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Professor Carlson Anyangwe said the French Cameroun violence against the people of Southern Cameroons will continue to destabilize the two Cameroons and beyond.

By Chi Prudence Asong

17, April 2022

WHO reports more than 3.5-fold increase in cholera cases in Cameroon ⁰

The cholera outbreak in Cameroon has escalated in recent weeks with a more than 3.5-fold increase between weeks 10 and 12 (ending 27 March 2022) and with further geographical spread to more regions, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Cameroon began experiencing increasing reports of cholera since 2021 and declared an outbreak in the last week of October 2021.

In the past five months, at total of 3,407 cases and 83 deaths (CFR 2.4%) have been reported. Currently, there are five regions with active outbreaks including Centre, Littoral, North, South, and South-West.

“Cholera has been moving from one district to the next, from maritime districts to the mainland districts,” says Dr Filbert Eko Eko, Public Health Delegate for South-West Region.

“The South West Region is one of the border regions to Nigeria and it’s also facing a humanitarian crises. Trans-border movement is so frequent, and it is difficult to control the movement of people between Nigeria and Cameroon. For this reason, it is also difficult to check their health status. If we could control the trans-border movement, it would be easier for us,” Dr Eko Eko says.

Poor healthcare seeking remains a challenge as many people prefer to get treatment from traditional healers due to the lack of transportation.

Dr Eko Eko says, “The cholera epidemic usually starts during the dry season, which is when there are problems with water. We need to provide potable water to the community. We also need to check their sanitary conditions, especially fecal disposal, while also ensuring that the water they drink is healthy enough.”

In 2021, only sporadic cases were reported for the majority of the year, but cases increased at the end of October (week 43 of 2021).

Source: Outbreaknewstoday

17, April 2022

Pope urges call of peace be heard in this ‘Easter of war’ ⁰

Pope Francis, marking an “Easter of war” on Sunday urged leaders to hear the people’s plea for peace in Ukraine and implicitly criticised Russia for dragging the country into a “cruel and senseless” conflict.

The 85-year-old pope made his comments in his twice-yearly “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) address to about 50,000 people in St. Peter’s Square after a long Mass. It was the first Easter since 2019 that the public was allowed to attend following two years of COVID-19 restrictions.

Francis dedicated much of the address, traditionally an overview of world conflicts, to Ukraine, comparing the shock of another war in Europe to the shock of the apostles who the gospel says saw the risen Jesus.

“Our eyes, too, are incredulous on this Easter of war. We have seen all too much blood, all too much violence. Our hearts, too, have been filled with fear and anguish, as so many of our brothers and sisters have had to lock themselves away in order to be safe from bombing,” he said.

Ukraine, he said, was “sorely tried by the violence and destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged”.

Moscow describes the action it launched on Feb. 24 a “special military operation”. Francis has already rejected that terminology, calling it a war and previously using terms such as unjustified aggression and invasion.

“Let there be a decision for peace. May there be an end to the flexing of muscles while people are suffering,” Francis said on Sunday, going on to thank those who had taken in refugees from Ukraine, most of whom have gone to Poland.

Earlier this month in Malta, Francis implicitly criticised Russian President Vladimir Putin over the invasion, saying a “potentate” was fomenting conflict for nationalist interests.

Shout “peace” from the streets

Francis, who suffers from leg pain, held up well during the long Mass and then toured the crowd in the square and a nearby street while sitting in an open white popemobile.

Later, he read most of the “Urbi et Orbi” address from the balcony sitting down, standing only at the start and for the final blessing.

On Saturday night he attended but did not preside at an Easter vigil service, apparently to rest up for Sunday, the most important day in the Christian liturgical calendar.

“Please, let us not get used to war!” Francis said, looking down on the square bedecked by tens of thousands of flowers donated by the Netherlands. “Let us all commit ourselves to imploring peace, from our balconies and in our streets! May the leaders of nations hear people’s plea for peace.”

“I hold in my heart all the many Ukrainian victims, the millions of refugees and internally displaced persons, the divided families, the elderly left to themselves, the lives broken and the cities razed to the ground,” he said.

He called for reconciliation among Israelis and Palestinians ad among the people of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Myanmar, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which he is due to visit in July.

Source: REUTERS

17, April 2022

Benedict XVI at 95: Searching for the Face of the Lord ⁰

Towards the end of the Book of Signs in the Gospel of John, the Evangelist narrates an intriguing request from a somewhat unexpected source: “Among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. These approached Philip, who came from Bethsaida in Galilee, and put this request to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip went to tell Andrew, and Andrew and Philip together went to tell Jesus.” (John 12:20 – 22). Much has been said about this request by the Greeks, for, in the grand scheme of things, Athens embodies an unmatchable talent of what unaided reason could have achieved. The land of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, bequeathed to the Kingdom of Thought (to use a Hegelian phrase), an enduring intellectual legacy to questions that remain pressing today, at least for some: What is the meaning of human life? Why am Ihere? Do I have a purpose and a destiny? How must I live with my neighbor? And in a twenty-first century that increasingly finds the postulate of the self-sufficiency and autonomy of the human being in the world attractive, the philosophical tradition dating to the Greeks continue to keep on the radar, other essential questions: What is the source of everything? What is the possibility and meaning of change in my life? (Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Empedocles, Parmenides, Zeno, etc.).

Retrospectively, therefore, the desire of the Greeks to see Jesus could very well be a manifestation of the human realization of our insufficiency regarding the ultimate questions, some of which we have just highlighted above. The quest to see Jesus by the Greeks could be indicative of the limits of human autonomy and self-sufficiency. We have exhausted all our human capacities, and as the French philosopher Maurice Blondel points out, the wedge between the willing will and the willed continues to leave us unfulfilled and yearning for more. Human reason and all of human effort can only go so far! We need help from outside. And that explains the desire to see Jesus, for we are hoping that in Jesus, the absence of satiety that characterizes the human quest for meaning would be resolved.

Reflecting on the long and beautiful life of Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger/Benedict XVI who turns 95 today (April 16 1927 – April 16 2022), this quest by the Greeks appears to me a fitting metaphor for this shy and deeply pious Bavarian scholar. The desire to see Jesus, the search for Jesus in order to follow him, and to allow the self to be drawn into an intimate friendship with the living Christ – what Ignatius of Loyola variously characterizes in the Spiritual Exercises as sequela Christi, imitatio Christi, conformatio Christi and transformatio in Christum – is the defining leitmotif of the life and legacy of Ratzinger. To the gentle theologian from Bavaria, his date and day of birth is very providential, especially from a Christological perspective. In his Memoirs, Ratzinger writes:

I was born on Holy Saturday, April 16 1927, in Marktl am Inn. The fact that my day of birth was the last day of Holy Week and the eve of Easter has always been noted in our family history. This was connected with the fact that I was baptized immediately on the morning of the day I was born with the water that had just been blessed. (At that time the solemn Easter Vigil was celebrated on the morning of Holy Saturday). To be the first person baptized with the new water was seen as a significant act of Providence. I have always been filled with thanksgiving for having had my life immersed in this way in the Easter mystery, since this could only be a sign of blessing. To be sure, it was not Easter Sunday but Holy Saturday, but, the more I reflect on it, the more this seems to be fitting for the nature of our human life: we are still awaiting Easter; we are not yet standing in the full light but walking toward it full of trust. (Ratzinger, Milestones: Memoirs 1972 – 1977, San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1998, 8).

What is this “nature of our human life” that Ratzinger is alluding to? In a word, it is the sense or experience of the aid to fulfillment that comes from the outside, from the Lord, a fulfillment that left to ourselves we cannot completely bring about. It implies a learning to live with the reality of little daily hopes and contentment that point to the bigger hope that is ushered by the Risen Christ, a new beginning of a different kind of life. Conscious of our inability to attain the purpose and destiny of our lives unaided, we seek help from outside, while living in the here and now. Rooted in the earth, our gaze transcends the mere empirical and looks beyond the One that lies buried in the silence of a tomb. We await the help that is much needed to liberate us from exhaustion, diversion and indifference (Blaise Pascal). Holy Saturday, therefore, becomes a program for Ratzinger’s life, and hopefully, ours as well (Last Testament, New York: Bloomsbury, 2016, 43). “In a sense, the silence of Holy Saturday is filled with the mystery of hope. But this light is not without challenges, not without forces that are bent on blowing it out. Life is thus a drama between these two poles, these two forces seeking dominance over the human soul” (Agbaw-Ebai, Light of Reason, South Bend, IN: Ignatius Press, 2021, 28).

From a Ratzingerian perspective, these two forces that are present in the reality of Holy Saturday, what Augustine of Hippo characterizes as self-love (the absence of love) versus the love for God (the presence of love), can help us reflect on some pertinent questions today (Agbaw-Ebai, Light of Reason, 29 – 34):

Firstly, Ratzinger sees Holy Saturday, the day of his birth, as relevant to the question about the absence or “death” of God (especially in the context of the increasingly secularized Western world). God increasingly has less and less significance and signification. God appears powerless in the face of human concerns and other practical and urgent needs.

Secondly, Ratzinger sees Holy Saturday, the day of his birth, as relevant to the question about the hiddenness of God, God’s obscurity: “It is the day of that frightful paradox that we express in the Creed with the words ‘descended into hell,’ descended into the mystery of death. On Good Friday we could at least look at the Pierced One. But Holy Saturday is empty, the heavy stone of the new tomb covers the deceased, everything is over, faith seems definitively unmasked as fanaticism. No God has saved this Jesus who called himself his son. One can rest assured. Those sober ones, who may at times have secretly vacillated in their conviction that there is nothing else, they were right all along.” (Ratzinger, Sabbath of History, New Haven, CT, 2012, 147). Hence, Holy Saturday brings into sharper focus the question of spiritual darkness in our world.

Thirdly, Ratzinger sees Holy Saturday, the day of his birth, as pertinent from the perspective of the burial of God: “Holy Saturday, day of the burial of God – is that not in an uncanny way our day? Is our century not beginning to become one large Holy Saturday, a day of God’s absence, a day when an icy emptiness grows even in the hearts of the disciples so that they prepare for the way home with shame and fear and on their Emmaus journey, gloomy and disturbed, sink into hopelessness, failing to notice that the one thought to be dead is in their midst (…) God is dead and we have killed him (Nietzsche). We have killed him through the ambiguity of our lives that obscured him.” (Ratzinger, Sabbath of History, 147 – 148). Holy Saturday, therefore, is emblematical of a world that increasingly makes choices without God, a world that, presuming God is dead and buried, excludes God in decision-making. Holy Saturday captures those who see God as sleeping, a deistic conception of divinity, while the world moves on.

Finally, Ratzinger sees Holy Saturday, the day of his birth, as expressive of God’s solidarity with the human race in the experience of the crushing reality of death. The darkness of this day has something consoling about it, for God’s dying in Jesus Christ is a simultaneous expression of God’s radical solidarity with the human race” “The darkest mystery of faith is simultaneously the brightest sign of hope that is without limits.” (Ratzinger, Sabbath of History, 148). From a Ratzingerian perspective, therefore, Holy Saturday embodies the twin realities of pain and hope. In Christ, God has entered fully into the reality of human pain and suffering, descending into Hades. We can no longer make the case that God is ignorant of the human condition. God is able to save us precisely because God has a first-hand experience of what is means to be human, of what it means to suffer, to be betrayed, abandoned, defamed and crucified. A God ignorant of the human lot cannot save humans, cannot help us. Holy Saturday is a testimony that God knows what it means to be human, even to the experience of the tomb.

In all, from the Ratzingerian perspective, Holy Saturday captures the death of God, the burial of God, the absence of God, which, taken together, embody, in the final analysis, God’s solidarity with the human race. But this picture is not bleak and nihilistic, precisely because of the light that comes from the empty tomb. With Christ, there appears a significance difference and newness that offers a new lease of life, saving human beings from the temptation to despair, from the feeling of alienation and brokenness. To Ratzinger, the kinetic energy needed to effect the change emanates from friendship with Jesus Christ. This explains why seeking the face of the Lord, why wishing to see Jesus, is the overarching guiding thread for Ratzinger’s life, which he seeks to communicate to all.

From the experience of his life that has largely matched the drama of the twentieth century and the first decades of the twenty-first, Ratzinger is convinced that only in this friendship with the Living Christ can human beings find the energy, motivation and hope to live in joy in the present, a joy that prepares the present and opens it to a future, for with God, there is a future. In the Foreword to Volume I of his trilogy Jesus of Nazareth, Benedict writes that “this book is in no way an exercise of the magisterium, but is solely an expression of my personal search for the face of the Lord” (cf. Ps 27:8) (Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth, Vol. I, New York, Doubleday, 2007, xxiii). With Ratzinger, a master of theology (as Pope St. Paul VI described him in the papal bull appointing him Archbishop of Munich und Freising in 1977), the world continues to find a sure and steady guide and teacher in the school of friendship with the living Christ, the way, the truth and the life (Jn 14:6). With Ratzinger as teacher, the quest of the Greeks to see Jesus is made contemporary, as reason and all of the human lot recognizes its limits and potentials in the encounter with the Risen Christ, that Ratzinger continuous to point at.

As we celebrate Ratzinger’s 95th Birthday today, Holy Saturday, April 16 2022 – while reflecting on the significance of this day that the living Doctor of the Church from Bavaria calls our attention to as underscored above – today gives us the opportunity of the expression of double-gratitude: firstly, to God, for the inestimablegift of Ratzinger; and secondly, to Ratzinger, for cooperating so uniquely and dazzlingly with the grace of God, placing his fine intellect and profound faith, hidden behind a shy and unassuming demeanor, in the service of Christ and Christ’s Church, as a co-worker of the Truth. AllesGutezumGeburtstag, GeliebterHeiligerVater, und Vergelt’s Gott.

By Maurice Ashley Agbaw-Ebai

16, April 2022

CAF Confederation Cup quarter-finals: Five things to know ⁰

Ghanaians Bernard Morrison and Richard Ofori could play pivotal roles when Simba of Tanzania host Orlando Pirates of South Africa on Sunday in a CAF Confederation Cup quarter-final first leg.

A former Pirate, speedy Morrison is the leading Simba scorer this season in the African equivalent of the UEFA Europa League with three goals.

Pirates goalkeeper Ofori boasts three consecutive Confederation Cup clean sheets after replacing off-form Siyabonga Mpontshane and hopes to prevent his compatriot adding to his goal tally.

Here, AFP Sport highlights five things to know ahead of the first legs on Sunday, with the return matches to be played seven days later.

Opposing Simba

A 60,000 crowd will fill the Benjamin Mkapa national stadium in commercial capital Dar es Salaam to see Simba confront Pirates, but not all the Tanzanians there will be backing the home team.

Supporters of arch domestic rivals Young Africans plan to continue a tradition of cheering for the visiting club because they do not want Simba to succeed.

This strange practice is not confined to Tanzania — when V Club play at home in the Democratic Republic of Congo, fans of fierce Kinshasa rivals Daring Club Motema Pembe always back the visiting side.

Home perils

Losing a first leg at home potentially spells elimination in the last-eight phase of Confederation Cup with none of the six sides who have done so escaping overall defeat.

Only Zanaco of Zambia among the sextet won the return match, but the 1-0 victory over Pyramids in Egypt in 2020 was hollow following a 3-0 drubbing in Lusaka.

Al Nasr of Libya suffered the most humiliating home loss — 5-0 to Hassania Agadir of Morocco two seasons ago — in a match staged in Egypt because of violence in the oil-rich north African nation.

Wary Pirates

Pirates hope a second successive appearance in the Confederation Cup quarter-finals will turn out much better than the first last season.

After taking the lead through Vincent Pule at home to eventual title winners Raja Casablanca of Morocco, they were held 1-1 in Soweto.

If the first-leg outcome was disappointing, the return match proved disastrous for the Buccaneers, who crumbled 4-0 with all the goals coming within 36 minutes of the kick-off.

Libyan showdown

Two Libyan clubs have reached the Confederation Cup quarter-finals for the first time and the luck of the draw saw Al Ittihad and Al Ahly Tripoli paired, sparing both potentially long, costly flights.

Although both teams are based in the capital, Tripoli, no stadium there meets international standards so the matches will be played in the second largest city, Benghazi, 650 kilometres (405 miles) to the east.

Libya is the only north African country not to have won a CAF club competition. Ahly reached the 1984 Cup Winners Cup final against their Egyptian namesakes, but strained political relations between the nations forced the Tripoli outfit to withdraw.

Resurgent Mazembe

TP Mazembe of DR Congo, who face Pyramids with the first leg in Cairo, are chasing trophies again after several barren seasons as some stars grew old while others moved abroad to bolster monthly salaries.

The Ravens from southern mining city Lubumbashi, who won eight CAF titles between 2009 and 2017, are guided by French coach Franck Dumas and topped Group C after a 2-0 win over Egyptian visitors Al Masry.

If Dumas has a major concern it is the lack of a consistent scorer — Adam Nazli scored both goals against Masry and is the only squad member to net more than once in the eight matches of this campaign.

Source: AFP

16, April 2022

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yerima thanks President Biden for US Temporal Status ⁰

US Temporal Protection Status: A message of thank you to President Biden

Fellow Ambazonians,

In December 2017, President Paul Biya of La Republique du Cameroun declared war on the people of Southern Cameroons. Because of this war, his invading and raiding forces have created a humanitarian crisis in our nation. Today the Interim Government of Ambazonia wants to record its gratitude to the US Department of Homeland Security for granting Temporal Protection Status to Ambazonians seeking refuge in the United States of America.

Today is a great day for justice, but we must remain grounded as a people. The Interim Government of Ambazonia is calling on other governments worldwide to follow this decisive ruling by the US government by granting protection to Ambazonians within their territories.

The Interim Government of Ambazonia wants to extend the gratitude of the Ambazonian people to; Comrades Efi Tembong and Silvie Bello.

I want to put on record that APOCSNET, American Council, TAWPAC, One Voice Africa, Cameroon TPS Coalition, Grass Root Law Project, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch have been immense in leading this campaign.

To all Southern Cameroons individuals, leaders and groups who worked tirelessly to achieve this great victory, I salute your vigour for our people.

Our goal must remain freedom and justice, and together, we shall overcome.

God bless the Federal Republic of Ambazonian.

Sign:

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Ambazonia Interim Government

15, April 2022

Biden administration protects Southern Cameroonians in the U.S. from deportation, offers work permits ⁰

The Biden administration will grant temporary deportation relief and work permits to Cameroonians living in the United States due to the ongoing conflict between government forces and armed separatists in that country, according to an announcement by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday.

The decision will apply to Cameroonians residing in the United States by April 14 and last a period of 18 months, DHS said. The status could aid about 39,000 Cameroonians, according to an estimate by the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC).

President Joe Biden has championed the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program, which grants immigrants who cannot return to their countries safely due to extraordinary circumstances such as violent conflict or natural disasters the ability to stay and work in the United States.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas cited the conflict and a rise in attacks in Cameroon by the Islamist group Boko Haram in a statement announcing the move.

Violence against the armed forces in the western regions of Cameroon has intensified over the past year as Anglophone separatists fighting the French-speaking government increase their use of explosive devices.

In late 2020 and early 2021, Reuters spoke to more than a half dozen Cameroonian asylum seekers when they had been deported back to their country after losing U.S. immigration court cases. While all declined to be named, they told similar stories of having their identity documents confiscated by the government after returning to Cameroon and several were in hiding, fearing retaliation from local authorities.

A February Human Rights Watch report documented dozens of cases of Cameroonian authorities subjecting asylum seekers deported by the United States to human rights violations such as arbitrary arrest and torture between 2019 and 2021.

Biden, a Democrat, has greatly expanded TPS enrollment, which his predecessor, former Republican President Donald Trump, largely sought to wind down.

Source: Reuters

15, April 2022

Biya has this foolish Francophone mentality of believing that even the economy would do what the head of state wants ⁰

Cameroon under the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo was a nation that offered good employment opportunities and social security to its well-educated population. When President Paul Biya took over, the country became a place of so little hope that people left in droves.

From widely acclaimed man of rigour and moralization to a despotic dictator, Paul Biya’s 40-year rule of Cameroon has been one of Africa’s most prominent and successful failures.

Skilled at gaining an advantage, especially deceitfully over his opponents, the 89-year-old Paul Biya has outmaneuvered his political opponents for decades. He sidelines everyone within his ruling CPDM party and government except his right-hand men in the army, the gendarmerie and the police force. It is extremely difficult to depose him.

For more than three decades, Biya has inspired other leaders in the Sub Saharan region to emulate his tactics and extend their rule by manipulating the constitution and suppressing opposition through violence and intimidation.

Biya’s current violent war in Southern Cameroons is typical of his signature action — and it has devastated Cameroon’s agricultural production, transforming what had been known as Cameroon’s breadbasket into a battle field and creating thousands of refugees.

Biya declared war against the English speaking peoples of Southern Cameroons in ringing rhetoric and stated that Cameroon remains one and indivisible. Today and as I write, it does not matter that the war in Southern Cameroons is claiming the lives of thousands of innocent civilians including army soldiers. What is more important is that billions of FCFA including Covid-19 funds injected into the war is simply going to Biya’s army generals, Cabinet ministers, cronies and blood relations to his wife, Chantal Biya.

Millions of both French and English speaking Cameroonians have migrated to the West and in neighbouring African countries, and it is routine to find a former High Schoolteacher working as a carer or security agent in Europe or North America. Thousands of Cameroonians are in Germany, France, UK, Holland and Belgium including the USA. And those who have stayed behind have coped with an unprecedented unemployment rate and tourism has dried up to a trickle.

Biya has this foolish Francophone mentality of believing that even the economy would do what the head of state wants. His ruling CPDM regime is struggling to manage a dilapidated education and health services while Biya, his family and his closest allies are amassing world-class fortunes.

His Beti Ewondo gangs both in the army and in government have made Cameroon to become one of fear as a result of Biya’s far-reaching domestic spy network, the CENER. Hundreds of opposition supporters have been killed or disappeared in Douala and Yaoundé. Many more including Southern Cameroons detainees are being tortured.

It is very hard to remember that Biya once enjoyed praise for instituting rigour and moralization into Cameroonian politics. He is now known as a leader who marginalizes critics and restricts freedoms. Human rights groups and the Holy Roman Catholic Church have documented and condemned several killings including the murder of Bishop Balla of the Diocese of Bafia which now remains the darkest stain on Biya’s record and a scar that plagues the country.

Tarnished by the killings currently going on in Southern Cameroons, Biya still has strong backing from the French and he has constantly been using the army, the police and the security network to keep the people subservient.

Biya family’s lavish ways has become outlandish, even to the French Cameroun’s jaded public. The growing outrage among Cameroonians at the excesses is finally spilling over to the military. He is going to fall in a very quick and sad way.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

14, April 2022

UK announces controversial plan to fly migrants and asylum-seekers to Rwanda ⁰

Britain will send migrants and asylum-seekers who cross the Channel thousands of miles away to Rwanda under a controversial deal announced Thursday as the government tries to clamp down on record numbers of people making the perilous journey.

“From today… anyone entering the UK illegally as well as those who have arrived illegally since January 1 may now be relocated to Rwanda,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a speech near Dover in southeastern England.

“Rwanda will have the capacity to resettle tens of thousands of people in the years ahead,” Johnson said.

He called the East African nation with a sketchy human rights record “one of the safest countries in the world, globally recognised for its record of welcoming and integrating migrants.”

Johnson was elected partly on promises to curb illegal immigration but has instead seen record numbers making the risky Channel crossing.

He also announced that Britain’s border agency would hand responsibility for patrolling the Channel for migrant boats to the navy.

“The Royal Navy will take over operational command from Border Force in the Channel with the aim that no boat makes it to the UK undetected,” Johnson said, announcing extra funds for boats, aircraft and surveillance equipment to help detain people-smugglers at sea.

“This will send a clear message to those piloting the boats. If you risk other people’s lives in the Channel, you risk spending your own life in prison,” he said.

More than 28,000 people arrived in Britain having crossed the Channel from France in small boats in 2021.

Around 90 percent of those were male and three-quarters were men aged between 18 and 39.

The Rwanda plan swiftly drew the ire of opposition politicians who accused Johnson of trying to distract from his being fined for breaking coronavirus lockdown rules, while rights groups slammed the project as “inhumane”.

Ghana and Rwanda had previously been mentioned as possible locations for the UK to outsource the processing of migrants, but Ghana in January denied involvement.

Instead, Kigali on Thursday announcing that it had signed a multi-million-dollar deal to do the job, during a visit by British Home Secretary Priti Patel.

“Rwanda welcomes this partnership with the United Kingdom to host asylum seekers and migrants, and offer them legal pathways to residence” in the East African nation, Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta said in a statement.

“This is about ensuring that people are protected, respected, and empowered to further their own ambitions and settle permanently in Rwanda if they choose,” said Biruta.

The deal with Rwanda will be funded by the UK to the tune of up to 120 million pounds ($157 million, 144 million euros), with migrants “integrated into communities across the country,” it said.

Backlash

Refugee Action’s Tim Naor Hilton accused the government of “offshoring its responsibilities onto Europe’s former colonies instead of doing our fair share to help some of the most vulnerable people on the planet”.

“This grubby cash-for-people plan would be a cowardly, barbaric and inhumane way to treat people fleeing persecution and war,” he said.

Detention Action said that those sent there would “likely face indefinite detention under a government notorious for violent persecution of dissent.”

“At the same time, the UK currently gives asylum to Rwandan refugees fleeing political persecution,” the advocacy group said in a statement.

Scotland’s Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said the plan showed that the Conservative government was “institutionally racist”.

The government “rightly provides asylum and refuge to Ukrainians fleeing war, but wants to send others seeking asylum thousands of miles away to Rwanda for ‘processing’,” Yousaf tweeted.

Australia has a policy of sending asylum seekers arriving by boat to detention camps on the Pacific island nation of Nauru, with Canberra vowing no asylum seeker arriving by boat would ever be allowed to permanently settle in Australia.

Since 2015 the UK has “offered a place to over 185,000 men, women and children seeking refuge (…) more than any other similar resettlement schemes in Europe,” Johnson said.

According to the UN refugee agency, Germany received the highest number of asylum applicants (127,730) in Europe in 2021, followed by France (96,510), while the UK received the fourth largest number of applicants (44,190).

Source: AFP