Monthly Archives: April 2022

8, April 2022

World food prices hit record high over Ukraine war ⁰

World food prices hit an all-time high in March as Russia’s military operation of Ukraine sent “shocks” through markets for staple grains and vegetable oils, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said on Friday.

The disruption in export flows resulting from the February 24 military operation and international sanctions against Russia has spurred fears of a global hunger crisis, especially across the Middle East and Africa, where the knock-on effects are already playing out.

Russia and Ukraine, whose vast grain-growing regions are among the world’s main breadbaskets, account for a huge share of the globe’s exports in several major commodities, including wheat, vegetable oil and corn.

“World food commodity prices made a significant leap in March to reach their highest levels ever, as war in the Black Sea region spread shocks through markets for staple grains and vegetable oils,” the FAO said in a statement.

The FAO’s food price index, which had already reported a record in February, surged by 12.6 percent last month, “making a giant leap to a new highest level since its inception in 1990”, the UN agency said.

The index, a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities, averaged 159.3 points in March.

The jump includes new all-time highs for vegetable oils, cereals and meats, the FAO said, adding that prices of sugar and dairy products “also rose significantly”.

– Famine fears –

Russia and Ukraine together accounted for around 30 percent and 20 percent of global wheat and maize exports respectively, over the past three years, the FAO said.

The war continues to rage as sowing season has started in Ukraine.

Wheat prices rose by almost 20 percent, with the problem exacerbated by concerns over crop conditions in the United States, the organization said.

The FAO’s vegetable oil price index surged by 23.2 percent, driven by higher quotations for sunflower seed oil, of which Ukraine is the world’s leading exporter.

Spanish supermarkets have rationed the sale of sunflower oil to stop customers stockpiling over shortage fears due to the war.

The United States has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of creating “this global food crisis”.

France has warned that the war has increased the risk of famine around the world.

The conflict has also sent oil and gas prices through the roof, causing inflation to rise further across the world and raising concerns that it could derail global economic growth.

(Source: AFP)

8, April 2022

Yaoundé Says Amba fighters Abduct Women Protesting Abuses ⁰

Separatist fighters have kidnapped 10 villagers in Cameroon’s restive Anglophone region of Northwest, accusing them of working with government forces to fight the rebels, according to local and security sources.

On Thursday, the fighters released a video on social media of the kidnapped civilians, including six elderly women, three middle-aged women, and one man in the Oku locality of the region.

The fighters said they “will be treated accordingly” for their “crime”.

Since Monday, civilians in some villages in Cameroon’s troubled English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest have been staging protest demonstrations to denounce atrocities by the separatist fighters on civilians.

On Tuesday, villagers in Mbalangi locality of Southwest killed three separatist fighters after they attempted to disrupt a football game.

Villagers are increasingly forming self-defense groups to protect homes and families from the separatist fighters in the regions, according to security reports.

Separatist fighters started clashing with government forces in 2017 in a bid to create an independent nation they called “Ambazonia” in the two Anglophone regions.

Source: Xinhuanet

7, April 2022

Football: Maradona’s daughter claims wrong jersey is up for auction ⁰

Diego Maradona’s eldest daughter claims that the Argentina shirt being auctioned is not the one her late father wore when he scored the infamous “Hand of God” goal against England.

Dalma Maradona said the shirt was actually worn by her father during the goalless first half of the 1986 World Cup quarter-final.

Steve Hodge, the former England player who says Maradona swapped shirts with him at the end of the game in Mexico City, is selling the shirt, which is set to fetch more than £4 million ($5.2 million).

Auctioneers Sotheby’s said they hired an external company that had provided a “conclusive photomatch” that proved it was authentic.

Dalma Maradona claimed the jersey her father wore in the second half, when he also scored one of the greatest goals in World Cup history, was in the hands of another owner, but she declined to name them.

“It’s not that one. I don’t want to say who has it because it’s crazy. He (Diego Maradona) said it. He said, ‘How am I going to give him the shirt of my life?'” she told reporters.

“This former player thinks he has my dad’s second-half jersey, but it’s a mix-up, he has the one from the first half.

“We wanted to clarify that so that people who want to buy it know the truth,” Dalma said in separate comments to Channel 13 television.

A Sotheby’s spokeswoman told AFP: “There was indeed a different shirt worn by Maradona in the first half, but there are clear differences between that and what was worn during the goals.

“And so, prior to putting this shirt for sale, we did extensive diligence and scientific research on the item to make sure it was the shirt worn by Maradona in the second half for the two goals.”

The photomatching process had involved matching the shirt “to both goals examining unique details on various elements of the item, including the patch, stripes, and numbering”.

It added that Maradona himself had acknowledged the provenance of the shirt himself, in his book “Touched by God”, and he recalls giving it to Hodge at the end of the match.

The online auction is scheduled for April 20 to May 4.

Source: AFP

7, April 2022

Yaoundé: Two journalists, Equinox TV programme suspended in widening of media crackdown ⁰

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns a decision by Cameroon’s National Communication Council (CNC) to suspend the head of one of the country’s most outspoken and popular TV channels, one of its star presenters, and one of its leading current affairs programmes for a month. The suspensions are arbitrary and unjustified, and constitute a serious press freedom violation, RSF said.

The one-month suspensions of Equinoxe TV director Sévérin Tchounkeu, presenter Cédric Noufele and the programme “Droit de Réponse” (Right of Reply) were announced by the media regulator on 1 April.

Alluding to a teachers’ strike, the CNC accused Equinoxe TV of “failing to manage” a guest whose comments were “liable to amplify a potentially explosive social demand.” It also accused Tchounkeu of making offensive comments about state institutions, and Noufele of broadcasting an amateur video that was not related to the subject discussed – an error that the TV channel had nonetheless acknowledged and repeatedly corrected.

“We condemns these suspensions, which have no serious grounds and clearly aim to sanction a media for its coverage of a strike that embarrasses the authorities,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa desk. “This is nothing less than an attack on journalism and the right to news and information, which this regulator is supposed to protect. We call on the CNC, which is not in the habit of imposing arbitrary sanctions, to review this decision.”

Cameroonian journalists are often subjected to judicial harassment, arbitrary detention and sometimes very violent physical attacks, but politically motivated media suspensions are relatively rare. Equinoxe TV has been summoned before the CNC several times in the past but has not been suspended in recent years.

Cameroon is ranked 135th out of 180 countries in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index.

Culled from RSF

7, April 2022

Biya regime calls for more caution as cholera death toll surpasses 100 ⁰

Cameroon’s Minister of Public Health, Malachie Manaouda on Tuesday called for more caution as the cholera death toll in the Central African nation exceeded 100.

In a latest update on the cholera outbreak, Manaouda said in a tweet that 226 new cases and two death cases were reported in the Littoral and Southwest regions between March 23 and April 5.

According to the update, a total of 4,627 confirmed cases have been reported in six regions since October last year, among which were 105 deaths, representing a case fatality rate of 2.3 percent.

The outbreak of cholera in Cameroon has remained persistent, occurring annually but the latest outbreak has been severe, affecting mostly impoverished communities with poor sanitation and lack of clean water, according to health officials.

Cameroon plans to begin a mass vaccination campaign to curb the epidemic, according to officials.

Cholera is a highly virulent disease characterized in its most severe form by a sudden onset of acute watery diarrhea that can lead to death by severe dehydration.

Source: Xinhuanet

7, April 2022

Doctors Without Borders halts operations in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced Tuesday the suspension of its humanitarian activities in an English-speaking area of Cameroon due to the detention four local employees accused by local authorities of “complicity” with separatists.

“MSF has officially announces the suspension of its humanitarian activities in the South West region of Cameroon today”, the NGO wrote in a statement Tuesday. Three months after the arrest and detention of four members of its staff in connection with the organization’s “medical work”, the organisation decided to stop its work in one of the two English-speaking regions in the grip of a bloody separatist conflict.

MSF said it had ceased its activities “as of March 29, in order to focus on securing the safe release of its staff”. This is the first time MSF has publicly mentioned the arrests, said Scheherazade Bouabid, MSF’s head of communications for Central and West Africa.

At the end of 2020, the Cameroonian government suspended MSF operations in the northwest, the country’s second largest English-speaking region, accusing its medical teams of “collusion” with armed separatist groups.

4 year-long conflict

In these two regions, where most of the English-speaking minority lives in a predominantly French-speaking country ruled with an iron fist for nearly 40 years by 89-year-old Paul Biya, the army and separatist groups have been clashing almost daily for five years.

Civilians are caught in the middle and are victims of abuses committed by both sides, according to international NGOs and the UN. The conflict has left more than 6,000 people dead and forced more than a million to flee their homes.

“We are in an untenable position: on the one hand, we are providing needed medical assistance; on the other hand, the people providing that assistance are at risk of being prosecuted for their medical activities,” said Sylvain Groulx, MSF’s head of programs in Central Africa, quoted in the statement.

“We need the conditions in place to allow us to carry out our activities in a safe and secure environment, so that we can fulfill our obligations to patients,” he added, arguing that MSF remains open to dialogue with the Cameroonian authorities to resume its activities.

Contacted by AFP, the Cameroonian authorities had not reacted Tuesday afternoon. The four employees arrested are all Cameroonian, including a 33-year-old nurse and a 41-year-old driver.

“On December 27, 2021, two MSF staff members were arrested after referring a patient with a gunshot wound whose condition required urgent assistance,” the NGO reported, adding that two other MSF staff members were also arrested in the following weeks. They have since been detained in Buea, the capital of the southwest, as part of an “investigation into complicity in secessionism.”

Source: AFP

7, April 2022

Two Cameroon gov’t soldiers killed in Bamenda ⁰

Two Cameroon government special forces were killed and another seriously injured late on Wednesday in an hour-long gunfight after being ambushed on the main road linking Bamenda to Wum.

The area is a notorious Amba fighter’s sanctuary in Mezam Division, North West Region.

The attack was one of four major gun battles that erupted across the North West, underscoring the dangers facing the Francophone army soldiers and other Southern Cameroons troops still loyal to the Biya regime in Yaoundé as they aim to curb the Ambazonia resurgence.

The soldiers from the Special Service Unit in Bamenda were returning from a patrol when Ambazonia fighters hit their vehicle. Some of the soldiers left the vehicle and two died in the ensuing battle. The injuries to the third were described last night as serious and life-threatening.

The troops reportedly called in a quick reaction force from Bamenda which also came under Amba fire.

By Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

6, April 2022

Francophone Meme SDO making a mockery of sacrifices Southern Cameroonians have made (Video) ⁰

The last five years have been really tough for English speaking Cameroonians. The Biya Francophone war, the daunting Covid-19 pandemic and the Ambazonia Interim Government “kontry Sunday” lockdowns-all these means living under unbearable conditions and restrictions and far away from family and friends.

This is for good reason. It is five years since the Biya regime made a huge and costly mistake by thinking that all political issues must only be addressed through repression and oppression. After close to five years of fighting, Paul Biya and his Beti Ewondo gang have transformed Southern Cameroons into a massive killing field.

The Southern Cameroons communities in Meme Division in the South West Region were disproportionately affected by the Biya war, the Kontry Sundays and the Covid-19 pandemic. So keeping safe is at the forefront of all in the city of Kumba.

But a recent outing by the Senior Divisional Officer for Meme has once again demonstrated how Biya and his French Cameroun immoral political elites see the people of British Southern Cameroons.

6, April 2022

Maradona’s 1986 World Cup ‘hand of God’ jersey to be auctioned ⁰

The jersey worn by Diego Maradona when he scored twice against England in the 1986 World Cup, including the infamous “hand of God” goal, is to be auctioned off later this month, Sotheby’s announced Wednesday.

The blue number 10 shirt has been owned since the end of the controversial World Cup encounter by opposing midfielder Steve Hodge, who swapped his jersey with Maradona after England lost 2-1.

The quarter-final showdown, one of the most memorable in World Cup history, held particular significance for Argentina as it was played only four years after they lost the Falklands war.

The match became etched in football folklore for Maradona’s two goals — one notorious and one sublime — in Mexico City’s seething Aztec Stadium.

The first came shortly after half-time when Hodge, on the edge of the England penalty area, intercepted a pass and flicked the ball back towards goal.

England were incensed and complained to officials who, believing Maradona had headed the ball, allowed the goal to stand.

Maradona then stirred the controversy afterward by saying the goal had been scored “a little with the head of Maradona, a little with the hand of God.”

Four minutes later, Maradona struck again and this time there was no doubt.

Receiving the ball and turning inside his own half, Maradona left five English defenders in his wake before gliding past Shilton and slotting home for a strike that was voted “Goal of the Century” in a 2002 FIFA poll.

National hero

Argentina won the final to lift the World Cup for the second time in eight years and Maradona, already a superstar, became worshipped in his home country.

After his death from a heart attack in 2020, Argentina held three days of national mourning.

Hodge, whose autobiography is titled “The man with Maradona’s shirt,” has for the past 20 years loaned the jersey to be on public display at the National Football Museum in Manchester.

Sotheby’s said in a statement to AFP that it will hold its own public display for the jersey in London, during the online auction scheduled for April 20 to May 4.

The decision of whether to keep it accessible to the public will be up to the winning bidder.

Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of streetwear and modern collectibles, said “the list is long for the type of people or organisations that might want to own the item.”

“It could be an individual, it could be a museum, it could be just somebody who wants to own the best of the best, a football lover or a club.”

Bidding for the Maradona memorabilia will start at £4 million ($5.2 million), below the $5.6 million record for game-worn shirts, set in 2019 for a jersey Babe Ruth wore while on the New York Yankees.

Last year, a jersey worn in the 1950s by Brooklyn Dodgers star Jackie Robinson — the first Black player in Major League Baseball — sold for $4.2 million.

Source: AFP

6, April 2022

Burkina Faso’s ex-president Compaoré gets life sentence over murder of Thomas Sankara ⁰

Burkina Faso’s former president Blaise Compaoré was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment over his role in the 1987 murder of his predecessor Thomas Sankara, a military court ruled on Wednesday, wrapping up a six-month trial that was disrupted by a coup.

An iconic figure sometimes dubbed the “African Che Guevara”, Sankara was just 33 when he came to power in a coup in 1983, setting in motion a revolution that pledged to “decolonise African minds” and continues to inspire followers across the continent.

The short-lived experiment came to a brutal end on October 15, 1987, when he and 12 colleagues were gunned down by a hit squad during a meeting at the presidential palace in Ouagadougou. The massacre coincided with a coup that took Sankara’s erstwhile comrade Compaoré to power.

On Wednesday, the special court in Ouagadougou ruled that Compaoré was guilty of complicity in Sankara’s murder, sentencing him and his former head of security, Hyacinthe Kafando, to life in jail.

Prosecutors had demanded a 30-year jail term for Compaoré, who was deposed in a 2014 popular uprising and now lives in exile in neighbouring Ivory Coast since his ouster. The former president, who denounced a “political trial”, was tried in absentia on counts of attacking state security, concealing a corpse and complicity in a murder.

Throughout his 27-year reign, Compaoré clamped a tight lid on the circumstances of Sankara’s demise, fuelling speculation that he was the mastermind. It was only after his ouster in a popular uprising in 2014 that Sankara’s remains were exhumed, paving the way for the long-waited trial.

International ‘conspiracy’

One of the world’s poorest countries, Burkina Faso has a long history of political turmoil and is battling a jihadist insurgency that has claimed some 2,000 lives and displaced up to 1.8 million people.

Reflecting the turmoil, the trial was briefly suspended after a coup on January 24 that deposed the elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré. It resumed after a new military strongman, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, restored the constitution and swore an oath.

Tensions between Sankara and his erstwhile ally Compaoré were described in detail during the six-month proceedings, with several witnesses pointing to an “international conspiracy” to remove a troublesome leader who was not afraid to challenge the world order and rebuke France, the former colonial power.

“The tragedy of October 15, 1987 was a result of pressure exerted by a number of heads of state, including Félix Houphouët Boigny,” said Abdoul Salam Kaboré, a sports minister under Sankara, referring to Ivory Coast’s former ruler and a key French ally.

Speaking via video-link from France, Sankara’s former close aide Moussa Diallo said there was no doubt the assassination “was premeditated” and that Houphouët Boigny “was at the heart of the plot”.

The longtime Ivorian leader once told Sankara, “[y]ou have to change, and if you don’t, we will change you,” Serge Théophile Balima, a former head of Burkina Faso’ state TV, testified in court.

In its closing statement, the prosecution recounted in grim detail the day Sankara was murdered by a hit squad that burst into a meeting of his National Revolutionary Council meeting, killing his guards.

“The squad then ordered president Sankara and his colleagues to leave the room,” the prosecution said. “They would then be killed one by one.”

Ballistics experts told the trial Sankara had been shot in the chest at least seven times by assassins using tracer rounds. At least one bullet was fired in his back.

The defendants had claimed the victims died in a botched attempt to arrest Sankara after he and Compaore fell out over the direction the country’s revolution was taking.

During the trial, “none of the accused confessed or repented – not a single one!” said Prosper Farama, a lawyer representing the Sankara family, adding that the family wanted “justice, not revenge”.

‘Pride of Africa’

While Sankara’s death put an end to his revolution, the premature and brutal manner of his demise would help cement the legend of a progressive leader who sought to empower the people in a continent blighted by colonial plunder and mismanagement.

Sankara followed in the footsteps of previous pan-African icons, including the likes of Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah and Patrice Lumumba of the Democratic Republic of Congo, historian Amzat Boukari-Yabara told FRANCE 24 at the start of the trial.

“His originality was to defend the principle of people’s emancipation, rather than the emancipation of states. He called on the people of Africa to join forces around regional struggles, such as fighting desertification, and around continental challenges, like ending debt bondage,” Boukari-Yabara explained.

“On matters of governance, women’s rights, fighting forced marriage and female gential mutilation, climate and culture, he was a pioneer,” he added. “His assassination clearly marked the end of revolutionary pan-Africanism.”

The man who renamed the former French colony of Haute-Volta as Burkina Faso – meaning the “Land of the Honest”, or “Upright” – was ahead of his time in recognising climate change and desertification as the single biggest threat to the wellbeing of its people.

“The desert is at our gates, it’s already upon us, ready to engulf us,” he warned as he launched a massive tree-planting drive to “regreen” the country, halt soil erosion and foster sustainable agriculture. More than three decades after his death, his vision of a “wall of trees” holding back the encroaching desert has taken root in a pan-African project of breathtaking scale, a cross-continental barrier stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.

None of this was possible without the liberation of women, Sankara would stress in his fiery speeches up and down the country, pointing out that women “carry the other half of the sky” – on top of the wood that fuels stoves and cookers and the water that feeds their families, their crops and their livestock.

“May my eyes never see and my feet never take me to a society where half the people are held in silence,” he once said. “I hear the roar of women’s silence. I sense the rumble of their storm and feel the fury of their revolt.”

That spirit has outlived Burkina Faso’s revolutionary captain, said Serge Ouédraogo, a high-school teacher in the capital, Ouagadougou – outshining the darker aspects of Sankara’s legacy, including his efforts to silence dissenters.

“Sankara is a whole philosophy, a way of thinking and living. He’s the pride of Africa,” Ouédraogo told AFP. “Today we can say that Sankara is a compass for the people of Burkina Faso. He’s a guide, the one who charts a path of hope for the people.”

Source: France 24