Monthly Archives: April 2022

6, April 2022

Ambazonia fighters kill 10 Cameroon gov’t soldiers in attack on three army checkpoints in Manyu ⁰

Ambazonia fighters in Manyu Division have killed at least 10 soldiers in three attacks on army checkpoints in Ebam, Bakwele and Ekok.

Cameroon government security officials in Mamfe said a further 15 servicemen were injured. They said other attacks on army checkpoints in Eyumojock Sub Division wounded several army soldiers.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that the Ambazonia fighters may have taken some soldiers hostage when they raided the checkpoint in Ebam.

Vice President Dabney Yerima of the Ambazonia Interim Government announced recently that Amba fighters all over Southern Cameroons will be launching a series of complex attacks and ambushes despite the large-scale military campaign to suppress the British Southern Cameroons uprising.

Sunday’s attack mirrored past Amba raids in Ekok bordering the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Dabney Yerima said the new Amba attacks will mainly target Francophone soldiers and administrative officers loyal to the Biya Francophone regime.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Kingsley Betek in Mamfe

5, April 2022

Revealed: CPDM agreed plan to get rid of Eto’o, Song after the match in Algeria ⁰

Senior CPDM barons reportedly held secret talks about how to viciously deal with Samuel Eto’o and Rigobert Song if the Indomitable Lions had failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Cameroon Intelligence Report has gathered from security sources in Yaoundé.

Biya and his corrupt regime designed the plan after the Lions lost their first leg encounter in Douala to the Algerians.

Presuming that the Indomitable Lions will not take part in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the CPDM plan was to have players including some prominent FECAFOOT officials stage a revolt against Song’s appointment and hold Eto’o responsible for misleading the president of the republic.

The Minister of Sports had been given directives to use administrative channels and get football clubs to all agree to boycott the new season launched by Eto’o whilst at the same time organizing their own tournament around the country.

They then invite some prominent Cameroon football veterans into it and when that’s organized as a final coup de grace they call for a vote of no-confidence against Samuel Eto’o, thus torpedoing the new Cameroon football agenda out of the water.

The CPDM backed football clubs will get sponsors from Dangote Cement, MTN and TV deals from Vision 4 and the whole Eto’o executive will be forced to resign.

By Rita Akana in Yaoundé

5, April 2022

US: Cardinal Seàn O’Malley of Boston appoints Fr Maurice Agbaw-Ebai to St. John’s Seminary, Boston MA ⁰

We come to you this day with good news of the promotion of Dr. Rev. Fr. Maurice Agbaw-Ebai to full professor.

As of Friday March 4 2022, Cardinal Seàn O’Malley of Boston appointed Fr. Maurice to St. John’s Seminary, Boston MA, as full time professor of philosophy and theology, while continuing in his teaching career in the other universities in the Boston area.

This brings to an end Fr. Maurice’s tenure as parish priest of Ste Anne’s Salem MA, as of March 19 2022. A new parish priest for Ste Anne’s will be announced, April 17 2022, Easter Sunday. We thank Fr. Maurice for his dedicated service at Ste Anne’s, and to the Cameroon Catholic Community of Boston in particular. We wish him the best in his assignment of forming priests for the dioceses in the New England area. We entrust his academic vocation, clearly so dear to his heart, to St Joseph, protector of the Universal Church.

In his time as Secretary / Chancellor of the Diocese of Mamfe, Rev. Fr. Maurice Agbaw-Ebai worked so hard with his Bishop – Emeritus Lysinge Teke to ascertain that a Priest of the Diocese of Mamfe be appointed to the Cameroon Catholic Community Mülheim- Germany. The dream became true.

His meritorious promotion makes us happy. He is a good and leading example of what Cameroonian Priest abroad should emulate. Giving a good name not only to his Diocese but to the generality of Cameroon. It brings not prestige but as well impacts how other Catholic Dioceses look at Priests from Cameroon. It motivates the acceptance of Cameroonian Priests in Catholic Dioceses abroad.

To address him Rev. Prof. Dr. Maurice Agaw-Ebai would be an acknowledgement of deserved recognition for a wonderful Priest. Go abroad, make a name for yourself, lead your community to success, let your Diocese and the entire Catholic Church be proud and happy of your endeavours.

Rev. Professor. Dr. Maurice Agbaw-Ebai, you make us happy and proud. May God continue to help you be the good shepherd. We say THANK YOU!

To God be the Glory.

By Tambe Tanyi

Cameroon Catholic Community

Mulheim an der Rhur, Germany

5, April 2022

Kim’s sister says North Korea nukes could ‘eliminate’ South ⁰

North Korea will use its nuclear weapons to “eliminate” South Korea’s army in the event they launch a pre-emptive strike, the powerful sister of leader Kim Jong Un said Tuesday.

Kim Yo Jong’s warning, carried in state media, was her second angry retort in three days to comments made by South Korea’s defence chief Suh Wook last week.

They come as North Korea has resumed its sanctions-breaking weapons tests with an unprecedented blitz this year, last month firing its first intercontinental ballistic missile at full range since 2017.

Suh had said Friday that South Korea’s military had missiles with “the ability to accurately and quickly hit any target in North Korea when there are clear signs of North’s missile launch”.

In response, Kim Yo Jong said it was a “very big mistake” for “lunatic” Suh to have discussed a pre-emptive strike against a nuclear power, according to the report in KCNA.

“In case South Korea opts for military confrontation with us, our nuclear combat force will have to inevitably carry out its duty,” said Kim Yo Jong, who is a key policy advisor in Pyongyang.

She said the “primary mission” for her country’s nuclear forces was to act as a deterrent, but if an armed conflict were to break out, such weapons will be used for “eliminating the enemy’s armed forces at a strike”.

As a result of this “dreadful attack”, South Korean forces will face a “miserable fate little short of total destruction and ruin”, she said.

“We do not regard (them) as (a) match for our armed forces,” she said, referring to South Korea’s military.

Her latest comments follow an initial attack on Suh’s “reckless remarks” Sunday, in which she warned the South should “discipline itself if it wants to stave off disaster”.

North Korea had paused its long-range and nuclear tests when Kim Jong Un and then US president Donald Trump engaged in a high-profile bout of diplomacy that subsequently collapsed in 2019. Talks have since stalled.

North Korea will this month mark the 110th anniversary of the birth of founder Kim Il Sung — the grandfather of current leader Kim.

Typically, Pyongyang likes to mark key domestic anniversaries with military parades, major weapons tests or satellite launches.

Source: AFP

5, April 2022

US: Biden Supreme Court nominee Jackson advances toward final Senate confirmation ⁰

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson secured the support of two more Senate Republicans on Monday, as she cleared a procedural hurdle toward becoming the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s top judicial body.

Republicans Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney joined Susan Collins in saying they would vote to confirm Jackson, 51, to a lifetime seat on the court later this week. They also supported a procedural 53-47 vote to bring her nomination to the Senate floor after the Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked 11-11 along party lines on whether to advance the nomination.

Murkowski and Romney, who do not serve on the Judiciary Committee, announced their backing of Jackson as the Senate began voting to “discharge” the nomination from the panel, propelling it to the full Senate.

Their endorsement came after Collins last week became the first Republican senator to announce her support for Jackson.

Jackson is expected to win the backing of all 48 Democrats and two independents, giving her a majority of support in the 100-member chamber.

Her confirmation would not change the court’s current 6-3 conservative majority, as she would fill the seat of liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, who is retiring.

“After multiple in-depth conversations with Judge Jackson and deliberative review of her record and recent hearings, I will support her historic nomination to be an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court,” Murkowski said in a statement.

The three Republicans voiced concern over the increasing partisanship of the Supreme Court confirmation process.

“While I do not expect to agree with every decision she may make on the Court, I believe that she more than meets the standard of excellence and integrity,” Romney said.

Earlier, top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said he will “set in motion” the process that will lead to a final Senate vote later this week to confirm Jackson, a federal appellate court judge, to the lifetime post.

The committee vote followed confirmation hearings last month that again exposed a stark partisan divide toward Supreme Court nominees. Democrats praised Jackson’s qualifications and record while hailing the history-making aspect of her nomination. Republicans often pursued hostile lines of questioning and tried to paint Jackson as a dangerous liberal activist.

Three prior confirmations

Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, the Judiciary Committee’s chairman, noted on Monday that the panel had voted to confirm Jackson to three previous posts, and he lamented what he called baseless attacks by some Republicans.

“They repeatedly interrupted and badgered Judge Jackson and accused her of vile things in front of her parents, her husband and her children. There was table-pounding – some literal – from a few of my colleagues. They repeated discredited claims about Judge Jackson’s character,” Durbin said.

Several Republican senators accused her of being lenient on child pornography offenders during her time as a federal trial court judge. Jackson defended her record, saying she did her “duty to hold the defendants accountable.” Sentencing experts called the penalties she imposed within the mainstream among federal judges, while American Bar Association witnesses rejected claims that Jackson was “soft on crime.”

During her confirmation hearings, Jackson pledged independence if confirmed and embraced a limited role for jurists. She also reflected on opportunities she has had that her parents, who grew up in an era of racial segregation in the South, did not.

Senator Lindsay Graham, the committee’s sole Republican to vote to confirm Jackson last June for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, helped seal the committee’s deadlock by deciding to vote no this time.

A final confirmation vote on Jackson was expected for Thursday or Friday.

Source: REUTERS

4, April 2022

Premier League: Arsenal’s top four bid rocked in Palace defeat ⁰

Arsenal’s bid to finish in the Premier League’s top four suffered a significant setback as Crystal Palace swept to an impressive 3-0 win on Monday.

Mikel Arteta’s side were blown away by first half goals from Jean-Philippe Mateta and Jordan Ayew at Selhurst Park.

Unable to muster a revival after the break, Arsenal’s second defeat in their last three league games was sealed by Wilfried Zaha’s late penalty.

Arsenal had gone into the weekend in fourth place, but Tottenham’s 5-1 win against Newcastle on Sunday piled pressure on the Gunners and their response could not have been any less convincing.

The battle to qualify for next season’s Champions League via a top four finish is heating up and Arsenal are in danger of wilting.

They sit in fifth place, behind Tottenham on goal difference having played a game less than their north London rivals.

West Ham and Manchester United, both three points behind Arsenal, will also fancy their chances after a result that blew the top four battle wide open.

It was an especially painful result for Arsenal fans given the presence in the Palace dug-out of Eagles boss Patrick Vieira, a Gunners legend after his trophy-filled playing career with the club.

How they could have done with the kind of tenacious performance that was Vieira’s hallmark in midfield during Arsenal’s glory days.

Vieira comfortably out-witted Arteta, who was voted the Premier League’s manager of the month for March after masterminding his side’s climb into contention for a top four berth.

Those Champions League ambitions don’t look so believable now.

Arsenal in disarray

Palace took the lead in the 16th minute after Ben White needlessly fouled Zaha.

Conor Gallagher swung his free-kick towards the far post, where Joachim Andersen headed it back across for Mateta to nod home from six yards for his sixth goal this term.

If that was a sloppy goal to concede, there was worse to come for Arteta eight minutes later.

Andersen’s long pass should have been easy for the Arsenal rearguard, but Gabriel made a hash of his attempt to intercept, completely missing the ball as Ayew eluded the dozing Nuno Tavares to score with a composed finish from the edge of the area.

The Ghana forward’s second goal this season left Arteta scratching his head in disbelief.Without Scotland left-back Kieran Tierney due to a knee injury, Arsenal’s defence was in disarray and Zaha swept through to tee up Mateta for a chance that Aaron Ramsdale saved at full stretch.

Arsenal didn’t manage an effort on target into the final seconds of the half and even the Gabriel’s tame header was straight at Vicente Guaita.

Out-fought and out-played in the first half, Arsenal needed an immediate response after the break but Bukayo Saka’s penalty appeal was waved away after he was bundled over by Cheikhou Kouyate.

Although there was more urgency about Arsenal in the second half, they still lacked a cutting edge.

Emile Smith Rowe shot straight at Guaita with the goal at his mercy before Martin Odegaard fired wastefully wide from Saka’s cross.

Arsenal were punished for their profligacy in the 74th minute as Zaha’s raid prompted Odegaard to concede a penalty as he clipped the forward’s ankle.

Zaha dusted himself down and converted the spot-kick with ease, sending Ramsdale the wrong way to leave Arsenal’s top four bid in the balance.

Source: AFP

3, April 2022

Brazil storm death toll rises to 16 ⁰

The death toll from torrential downpours that triggered flash floods and landslides in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro state rose to 16 Sunday, with three people still missing, authorities said.

Three days of heavy rain have battered a broad swathe of the southeastern state’s Atlantic coast, the latest in a series of deadly storms in Brazil that experts say are being made worse by climate change.

Emergency workers pulled two more bodies early Sunday from the mud and wreckage left by a landslide in the Monsuaba neighborhood of Angra dos Reis, a seaside town 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Rio de Janeiro city, officials said.

In all, four children and four adults were killed there, the city government said. Emergency workers are still searching for three people reported missing in Monsuaba.

Another landslide in the picturesque colonial town of Paraty killed a mother and six of her children, aged two to 17.

A seventh child was rescued alive and taken to the hospital, where he was in stable condition, the mayor’s office said.

In the Rio suburb of Mesquita, a 38-year-old man was electrocuted trying to help another person escape the flooding, officials and media reports said.

President Jair Bolsonaro said on Facebook the federal government had sent military aircraft to help the rescue effort and dispatched national disaster response secretary Alexandre Lucas to the state of 17.5 million people.

The new storms come six weeks after flash floods and landslides killed 233 people in the scenic city of Petropolis, the Brazilian empire’s 19th-century summer capital, also in Rio state.

Source: AFP

3, April 2022

6,000 people infected in cholera outbreak in Cameroon ⁰

At least 6,000 people have been infected with cholera and close to 100 others have died from the disease in Cameroon which is struggling to contain an outbreak of the water-borne disease.

According to the country’s public health ministry, the number of cholera patients received in hospitals was increasing daily. Officials have blamed a shortage of clean drinking water in towns and villages due to a long dry season for the outbreak.

An official with the ministry noted that cholera had spread to more than 40 percent of major towns, including the capital Yaoundé, the economic capital Douala, and western commercial towns such as Buea, Limbe and Bafoussam.

Linda Esso, director of epidemics and pandemics at the ministry, said several villages had reported cholera cases and the entire country was at risk from the outbreak.

The public health chief of Limbe in Cameroon’s Southwest region, Filbert Eko, said the area was the worst affected in the central African country recording more than 800 cases since February.

200 out of 300 patients reportedly had been treated and discharged from a government hospital in Limbe in just the last seven days.

Eko added that the outbreak prompted authorities to quarantine patients to prevent the disease from spreading further.

“The treatment center will be separated from the hospital and from the public. No outsider will be allowed to have access to the patients,” Eko said.

“We don’t want contact between families and the patients. We are taking [efforts] upon ourselves, searching for resources to feed these patients free of charge.”

President Paul Biya has deployed the ministers of water and health to assess the situation in affected regions.

The Public Health Minister, Manaouda Malachie, cautioned that Douala’s New Bell Prison had become an epicenter of the outbreak but did not give any details on whether any inmates had been infected or died from the disease.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Water Gaston Eloundou Essomba directed the Cameroon Water Distribution Company, the body in charge of water distribution in the country, to provide clean water to villages and towns affected by the outbreak.

Cameroon usually suffers from cholera outbreaks with one of the worst such incidents occurring in 2011 when more than 23,000 people were infected and 800 others died.

Source: Africa.cgtn

2, April 2022

Anambra Slap Virus: Will Smith resigns from US motion picture academy ⁰

Will Smith resigned Friday from the motion picture academy following his Oscars night slap of Chris Rock and said he would accept any further punishment the organization imposed. The slap virus which originated from Anambra State in Nigeria is taking a toll on major institutions around the globe.

Smith in a statement released Friday afternoon said he will “fully accept any and all consequences for my conduct. My actions at the 94th Academy Awards presentation were shocking, painful, and inexcusable.”

Film academy president David Rubin said Smith’s resignation was accepted. “We will continue to move forward with our disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Smith for violations of the Academy’s Standards of Conduct, in advance of our next scheduled board meeting on April 18.”

Smith loses voting privileges with his resignation. But there are other, less tangible benefits to being part of the academy, Hollywood’s most prestigious organization: It bestows industry credibility on its members. It’s invitation only, and with a once-a-year membership review.

“I betrayed the trust of the Academy. I deprived other nominees and winners of their opportunity to celebrate and be celebrated for their extraordinary work,” his statement said. “I am heartbroken. I want to put the focus back on those who deserve attention for their achievements and allow the Academy to get back to the incredible work it does to support creativity and artistry in film.

“Change takes time and I am committed to doing the work to ensure that I never again allow violence to overtake reason,” Smith concluded in the statement.

The resignation came two days after the academy’s leadership board met to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Smith for violations against the group’s standards of conduct. Those proceedings could have resulted in suspension or expulsion, and it was not immediately clear what additional punishment he could face.

Had he been expelled, Smith would have joined a small group of men removed from the academy: Harvey Weinstein, Roman Polanski, Bill Cosby and the actor Carmine Caridi, who was kicked out for sharing awards screeners.

On Sunday, Smith strode from his front-row Dolby Theatre seat on to the stage and smacked Rock, who had made a joke at the expense of Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Moments later, he went on to win the best actor award for his role in “King Richard.”

Rock, who was about to present Oscar for best documentary, declined to file charges when asked by police. He has only briefly addressed the attack publicly, saying at one comedy concert in Boston this week that he was still “kind of processing what happened.”

Smith stunned Rock, the theater crowd and viewers at home when he took the stage after Rock joked: “Jada, I love you. ‘G.I. Jane 2,’ can’t wait to see it.”

Pinkett Smith, who has spoken publicly about her hair loss condition, alopecia, had a closely shaved head similar to that of Demi Moore in the original movie.

After Smith’s attack, he returned to his seat and angrily twice shouted at Rock to “get my wife’s name out your (expletive) mouth.” When Smith took the stage again less than an hour later to accept his Oscar, he tearfully apologized to the academy but notably omitted any mention of Rock.

The fallout was immediate and intense. Smith had supporters for coming to his wife’s defense, but he was widely condemned for responding with violence and for marring both his long-sought Oscar victory and overshadowing the night’s other winners.

Source: AFP with additional editing

2, April 2022

The Holy Father arrives in Malta ⁰

Pope Francis began his first trip to Malta Saturday, where he is expected to ask the heavily Catholic country to do more to help migrants who have risked their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe.

The pontiff’s plane touched down around 9:50 local time (0750 GMT) at Malta’s airport south of the capital, ahead of a welcome ceremony with Prime Minister Robert Abela and dignitaries at the Grandmaster’s Palace, the former seat of the Knights Hospitaller who ruled for centuries over the Mediterranean archipelago.

Aboard the papal plane, Francis — who had boarded using a lift for reduced mobility passengers instead of stairs — told journalists accompanying him the visit to the tiny island nation would be “quick, but will be beautiful”.

The visit to Malta was scheduled two years ago but was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, and now comes as war in Ukraine has unleashed Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II, with more than four million fleeing the country.

Francis said on Twitter Friday that his “journey in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul” would be an “opportunity to know at first hand a Christian community with a millennia-old history”.

Francis, who will visit a migrant centre during his two-day trip, is likely to renew calls for an end to the war while reminding the world not to overlook those who continue to risk their lives at sea trying to reach Europe from North Africa.

“The pope comes to our island as a herald and messenger of reconciliation and mercy not only in the Mediterranean basin, but throughout the world,” the Archbishop of Malta Charles Scicluna said in Italy’s Christian Family magazine published Friday.

– Steeped in Catholicism –

Francis’s visit to Malta follows those of his predecessors Benedict XVI in 2010 and two visits by John Paul II, in 1990 and 2001.

The country’s history is steeped in Catholicism going back to St. Paul, who is believed to have been shipwrecked on Malta en route to his execution in Rome.

About 85 percent of Malta’s 516,000 inhabitants say they are Catholic believers. Catholicism is part of the constitution and Malta is the only European Union country that completely bans abortion.

The pontiff will conduct mass Sunday before an estimated crowd of 10,000 people in Floriana, next to the capital Valletta, following a visit to the Grotto of St. Paul, where the apostle is believed to have sought shelter.

Also on Sunday, he will visit migrants living at the Hal Far peace lab, a migrant centre founded by a Franciscan friar in 1971 in honour of former pope John XXIII.

The centre currently houses 55 young male migrants from across Africa but is preparing for the arrival of refugees from Ukraine.

– Seeking refuge –

During his weekly audience Wednesday at the Vatican, Francis praised Malta for welcoming “so many brothers and sisters seeking refuge”.

But non-governmental rescue groups who patrol the Mediterranean repeatedly accuse Malta of ignoring calls for help from migrants in its waters, refusing to let them land, or alerting Libyan authorities to intercept them and bring them to overcrowded, unsanitary detention camps in Libya where they risk torture and abuse.

Maltese authorities argue the country takes a disproportionate share of migrants to Europe given its small size.

Ahead of Francis’ visit, German charity organisation Sea-Eye called on him to ask Maltese authorities to allow over 100 people pulled to safety by one of its migrant rescue ships to dock.

Following the pope’s visit with Abela, whose Labour Party won a third term in government following general elections last weekend, he will take a catamaran from Valletta’s Grand Harbour to the island of Gozo, where he will preside over a prayer meeting at the national shrine of Ta’ Pinu.

Francis, who suffers from a painful sciatica that has occasionally caused him to cancel official events, did not take the stairs in boarding the plane from Rome’s Fiumicino Airport Saturday morning, instead using a lift for reduced mobility passengers.

Source: AFP