Monthly Archives: July 2022

8, July 2022

Angola: Former president Dos Santos dies at 79 ⁰

Angola’s former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled Africa’s second biggest oil producer for nearly four decades, has died aged 79, the Angolan presidency said Friday.

Dos Santos died at 11.10am Spanish time at the Barcelona Teknon clinic following a prolonged illness, the presidency said.

The announcement said dos Santos, who ruled Angola for almost 40 years from 1979, was “a statesman of great historical scale who governed … the Angolan nation through very difficult times.”

Dos Santos had mostly lived in Barcelona since stepping down in 2017 and he reportedly had been undergoing treatment there for health problems.

Angola’s current head of state, Joao Lourenco, announced five days of national mourning starting Friday, when the country’s flag will fly at half-staff and public events are canceled.

One of Africa’s longest serving leaders, dos Santos came to power four years after Angola gained independence from Portugal and became enmeshed in the Cold War as a proxy battlefield. His rule was marked by a brutal civil war lasting nearly three decades against US-backed UNITA rebels and a subsequent oil-fuelled boom.

Shy, but shrewd political operator

His political journey spanned single-party Marxist rule in post-colonial years and a democratic system of government adopted in 2008. He voluntarily stepped down when his health began failing.

In public, dos Santos was unassuming and even appeared shy at times. But he was a shrewd operator behind the scenes.

He kept a tight grip on the 17th-century presidential palace in Luanda, the southern African country’s Atlantic capital, by distributing Angola’s wealth between his army generals and political rivals to ensure their loyalty. He demoted anyone he perceived to be gaining a level of popularity that could threaten his command.

Dos Santos’ greatest foe for more than two decades was Jonas Savimbi, leader of the UNITA rebels whose post-independence guerrilla insurgency fought in the bush aimed to oust dos Santos’ Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA.

The Angolan strongman frequently described himself as an accidental president, taking the reins after Angola’s first leader, Agostinho Neto, died during cancer surgery in 1979.

With Neto having only served for four years and the 37-year-old dos Santos regarded as a relatively weak outside candidate, few could have imagined he would go on to rule for just shy of four decades.

But dos Santos proved an extremely astute politician.

In 2003, dos Santos banished his party’s secretary general to a junior position for appearing a little too eager to replace him. João Lourenço would have to wait 14 years to finally get his wish to become Angola’s next president.

Humble roots, grand ambitions

Born on August 28, 1942 to immigrant parents from the archipelago of Sao Tome, dos Santos was raised in the poor Luanda neighbourhood of Sambizanga. His father was a builder, his mother a maid.

But from a young age dos Santos had grander ambitions and joined the then-nascent MPLA.

Like many of his fellow liberation fighters, he spent his early 20s in exile in the Republic of Congo before moving to Baku in Azerbaijan, then part of the Soviet Union, to study petroleum engineering. There he met his first wife, Tatiana Kukanova, a Russian chess champion with whom he had his first and most famous daughter – Isabel dos Santos.

By 1977 and the death of Neto, dos Santos was among half a dozen senior MPLA members with a shot at the leadership. He won partly because he seemed the weakest candidate.

His opening speech as leader set the tone for future public appearances, lasting just one minute and 54 seconds. Over the next 38 years he would do just a handful of interviews.

Oil boom feeds family fortunes

Although he would increasingly be regarded by his critics as a dictator, it was his apparent willingness to compromise and stand by election results in 1992 as part of a UN negotiated peace process that would seal the popularity of his party.

Jonas Savimbi, the leader of UNITA that fought on the other side of the civil war, refused to accept the result of that election and took the tired country back to war. When the Angolan army eventually succeeded in killing Savimbi, Unita had lost much of its support.

Between 2002 and 2014, as oil production grew in tandem with booming prices, the size Angola’s economy multiplied by 10, from $12.4 billion to $126 billion.

While little of the money trickled down to the poor, those closest to dos Santos became billionaires.

His eldest daughter Isabel became, according to Forbes, Africa’s richest woman and youngest billionaire worth about $3 billion. Forbes has since dropped Isabel from its list of billionaires because of the asset freezes.

Isabel also became chairman of state oil company Sonangol, while son José Filomeno headed a $5 billion sovereign wealth fund.

Dos Santos, who said in a rare 2013 interview he would like to be remembered “as a good patriot”, never specifically responded to the allegations that he had allowed corruption to become rampant.

Source: Reuters

8, July 2022

Football: Pogba heading to Turin before Juventus return ⁰

Paul Pogba is travelling to Turin on Friday ahead of the France midfielder’s return as a free agent to Juventus, the Serie A club where he made his name.

The 29-year-old all-but announced his comeback on Friday when he posted on social media a video filmed on the airplane taking him to Italy from Miami, in which he said “see you soon” in Italian while wearing clothes in Juve’s colours of black and white.

Italian media report that he is expected to arrive in Turin at 1600 local time (1400 GMT).

World Cup winner Pogba is set to sign a deal which will earn him a reported eight million euros ($8.12 million) a season plus a potential further two million in bonuses.

He will rejoin Juve after his contract with Manchester United expired at the end of last month, marking the end of a largely disappointing six years in England.

Dysfunctional United are further away from the top of English football than they were when he joined, having not won a Premier League title in nine years.

The 2017 Europa League and the same season’s League Cup is a poor haul for Pogba at one of the world’s biggest clubs, especially as they both came under Jose Mourinho when he said he suffered from depression.

Pogba is expected to inherit the number 10 jersey left vacant by Paulo Dybala, who could join Juve’s fiercest rivals Inter Milan after the Argentina forward was let go by the Turin giants.

Pogba had worn that jersey in his final season at Juve before joining United in 2016 for a then-world record fee of £89 million, joining a list of iconic playmakers like Roberto Baggio, Alessandro del Piero, Michele Platini and Liam Brady to wear the shirt.

He had moved to Juve from United four years previously while still a teenager and made a huge impression in a slick midfield featuring the likes of Andrea Pirlo and Arturo Vidal.

Pogba blossomed under coach Massimiliano Allegri when he replaced Antonio Conte in 2014, and drove a powerful team to the following year’s Champions league final, losing to Barcelona.

He won the Serie A title in each of his four seasons at the Old Lady of Italian football and retained affection for Juve, being linked with a return to the club on several occasions during his time at United.

Allegri will be hoping that Pogba can help Juve return to their former glories after a tricky campaign left them fourth, some 16 points behind champions AC Milan.

Juve are also set to complete the signing of Argentina winger Angel Di Maria after he was released by Paris Saint-Germain.

Source: AFP

8, July 2022

Swiss court acquits Blatter, Platini in FIFA corruption trial ⁰

Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and France footballing legend Michel Platini were both cleared of corruption charges by a Swiss court on Friday.

Blatter, who led FIFA for 17 years, was cleared of fraud by the Federal Criminal Court in the southern city of Bellinzona.

Platini, a former France national team captain and manager, was also acquitted of fraud.

The two, once among the most powerful figures in global soccer, had denied the charges against them.

Prosecutors had accused Blatter, a Swiss who led global soccer body FIFA for 17 years, and Platini, of unlawfully arranging for FIFA to pay the Frenchman two million Swiss francs ($2.06 million) in 2011.

The case meant Blatter ended his reign as FIFA president in disgrace and it wrecked Platini’s hopes of succeeding him after he was banned from football when the affair came to light.

Blatter, 86, had said the two-million franc payment followed a “gentlemen’s agreement” between the pair when he asked Platini to be his technical adviser in 1998.

Platini, 67, worked as a consultant between 1998 and 2002 with an annual salary of 300,000 Swiss francs – the most FIFA could afford because of money troubles the organisation had at the time, Blatter has told the court.

The rest of Platini’s one million per year salary was to be settled at a later date, Blatter said.

Motives for the payment were unclear, although the two men met in 2010 and discussed the upcoming elections for the FIFA presidency in 2011.

When Blatter approved the payment, he was campaigning for re-election against Mohamed bin Hammam of Qatar. Platini, then president of European soccer association UEFA, was seen as having sway with European members who could influence the vote.

The payment emerged following a huge investigation launched by the U.S. Department of Justice into bribery, fraud and money-laundering at FIFA in 2015, which triggered Blatter’s resignation.

Both officials were banned in 2015 from soccer for eight years over the payment, although their bans were later reduced.

Platini, who also lost his job as UEFA president following the ban, said the affair was a deliberate attempt to thwart his attempt to become FIFA president in 2015.

Platini’s former general secretary at UEFA, Gianni Infantino, entered the FIFA race and won the election in 2016.

Source: Reuters

8, July 2022

Japan’s longest-serving Prime Minister Abe pronounced dead after shooting ⁰

Shinzo Abe smashed records as Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, championing ambitious economic reform and forging key diplomatic relationships while weathering scandals.

Nearly two years after poor health forced him to leave office, the 67-year-old has died after being shot during a campaign event on Friday.

Abe was a sprightly 52 when he first became prime minister in 2006, the youngest person to occupy the job in the postwar era.

He was seen as a symbol of change and youth, but also brought the pedigree of a third-generation politician groomed from birth by an elite, conservative family.

Abe’s first term was turbulent, plagued by scandals and discord, and capped by an abrupt resignation.

After initially suggesting he was stepping down for political reasons, he acknowledged he was suffering an ailment later diagnosed as ulcerative colitis.

They called it ‘Abenomics’

The debilitating bowel condition necessitated months of treatment but was, Abe said, eventually overcome with the help of new medication.

He ran again, and Japan’s revolving prime ministerial door brought him back to office in 2012.

It ended a turbulent period in which prime ministers changed sometimes at the rate of one a year.

With Japan still staggering from the effects of the 2011 tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster at Fukushima – and a brief opposition government lashed for flip-flopping and incompetence – Abe offered a seemingly safe pair of hands.

And he had a plan: Abenomics.

The scheme to revive Japan’s economy – the world’s third-biggest, but more than two decades into stagnation – involved vast government spending, massive monetary easing, and cutting red tape.

Abe also sought to boost the country’s flagging birth rate by making workplaces more friendly to parents, particularly mothers.

He pushed through controversial consumption tax hikes to help finance nurseries and plug gaps in Japan’s overstretched social security system.

While there was some progress with reform, the economy’s bigger structural problems remained.

Deflation proved stubborn and the economy was in recession even before the coronavirus struck in 2020.

Abe’s star waned further during the pandemic, with his approach criticised as confused and slow, driving his approval ratings down to some of the lowest of his tenure.

Political storms

On the international stage, Abe took a hard line on North Korea, but sought a peacemaker role between the United States and Iran.

He prioritised a close personal relationship with Donald Trump in a bid to protect Japan’s key alliance from the then-US president’s “America First” mantra, and tried to mend ties with Russia and China.

But the results were mixed: Trump remained eager to force Japan to pay more for US troops stationed in the country, a deal with Russia on disputed northern islands stayed elusive, and a plan to invite Xi Jinping for a state visit fell by the wayside.

Abe also pursued a hard line with South Korea over unresolved wartime disputes and continued to float plans to revise Japan’s pacifist constitution.

Throughout his tenure, he weathered political storms including cronyism allegations that dented approval ratings but did little to affect his power, in part thanks to the weakness of the opposition.

Abe had been due to stay on until late 2021, giving him an opportunity to see out one final event in his historic tenure – the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games.

But in a shock announcement, he stepped down in August 2020, with a recurrence of ulcerative colitis ending his second term too.

Source: AFP

8, July 2022

French Cameroun: Bafoussam mushroom growers looking beyond the kitchen ⁰

Grilled on skewers, dried or used in hair oil: farmers at Bafoussam in western Cameroon are seeking to take the lowly mushroom, grown on agricultural waste, beyond the kitchen.

Fungiculture, or the cultivation of edible mushrooms, is long-developed in the West, while China has become by far the world’s largest producer.

But it remains very rare in Africa, despite the advantages of being almost free and supplying “clean” food by recycling waste.

Cameroonians are particularly fond of mushrooms but have to wait for the rainy season to identify and gather the edible fungi in the wilds of the west-central African country.

In Bafoussam, capital of the Western region and fifth largest city, Jean-Claude Youbi saw an opportunity to exploit, like other small farmers around the nation of 28 million inhabitants.

Youbi grows thousands of oyster mushrooms in a darkened room of the Common Initiatives Group — GIC Champignon — which he launched with associates in Maetur, a district of Bafoussam, four years ago.

“We are in the mushroom house of our GIC,” Youbi announces proudly amid the rows on rows of fungi growing on shelves on agricultural waste packaged in plastic bags.

“Some, like these, have passed the harvest period,” says one of his associates, Patrick Yaptieu, pushing aside a pile of mushrooms which have turned from the desired white colour to a yellowish hue. He then puts the good harvest of the day in bags headed for the GIC shop, near the city centre.

— ‘Corn cobs … and ox blood’ —

The lack of official national data on the production and consumption of mushrooms makes it hard to gain an idea of the market value and extent of the sector.

Activity in the GIC Champignon premises is punctuated by constant comings and goings, while two young trainees in a little side room are shovelling a pile of agricultural residue.

To obtain the soil-free culture, “we mixed corn cobs with nutrients such as bran flour, wheat and ox blood,” explains production manager Brice Nono Djomo.

“We added a fungicide to it to avoid the bad mushrooms,” he says, adding that the effects of this precautionary treatment fade away after two weeks, well before the good crop grows.

Once the substrate mixture is ready, it is sterilised, placed in barrels and heated over a wood fire, then cooled down and placed in the plastic bags. Once the spores are introduced, the bags are placed in the mushroom house, where it takes 30 days to see the first stems appear.

“I was amazed to discover this way of cultivating mushrooms,” says Junior Leogip, a boy of 12 who is devoting his school holidays to do an internship at GIC Champignon.

“I learned to prepare the substrate… I want to know everything,” Leogip adds, his heart set on winning a place in an agricultural college after his baccalaureate.

“My ambition is to launch my own production and be independent,” says Lea Tona, another trainee who comes from Yaounde.

‘Mushroom whisky’

Every three months, the time it takes for a full growth cycle, the business in Bafoussam produces from 300 to 400 kilos (660 to 880 pounds) of mushrooms, 80 percent of which are sold directly to customers to be eaten.

The remainder is transformed into body and hair oils, soap, juice and even a liqueur that Youbi presents as “mushroom whisky”.

In a small laboratory at the GIC, Youbi grinds part of the harvest in a blender to obtain a juice which will be combined with other elements for the range of by-products.

“For beauty oils, we can add snail slime and a perfume to give a pleasant smell,” he says, guarding his secrets close his chest.

“We’re in a promotional phase. For the hair oil, we give boxes to some hairstylists to experiment with.”

“It softens the hair and makes it grow back, it treats dandruff, breakage,” says Josiane Sogo in her hairdressing salon.

Some people prefer simply to taste the fungi.

“I am a very big consumer of mushrooms, especially for their virtues. It is a vegetable meat that helps me steer clear of several risks,” affirms Barthelemy Tchoumtchoua, noting that his skewer is rich in protein and vitamins B2, B3, B5 and D.

Thanks to fungiculture, “we can eat them all year round”, he adds enthusiastically.

Source: AFP

8, July 2022

PCC-Rev Fonki Affair: If it’s true, Moderator should go and go now ⁰

In the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 31 vs 29, Moses, the servant of the Lord, said, “I know that after my death, you will become utterly corrupt and will turn from the way I have commanded you to follow. In the days to come, disaster will come down on you, for you will do what is evil in the Lord’s sight, making him very angry with your actions.” And it has come to pass that the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC) is living up to this prophecy.

Recent embarrassing protests by its congregants at the churches in Kumba Town and Nsimeyong, Yaoundé, prompted Cameroon Concord News Group to investigate the PCC’s activities. Over the last few weeks, we interviewed clerics, congregants and members of various committees in churches across the PCC communion.

Our detailed inquiry found that the Moderator (spiritual leader of the PCC), Rt Rev Forki Samuel Forba, is responsible for the PCC’s current chaos. We found a damning indictment of Rev Fonki’s character and leadership style. It is hard to find a reputable man or woman in the PCC who holds their Moderator with regard. We uncovered that his name conjures up worry and disgust, not adoration and holiness.

To begin, Rev Fonki Samuel Forba was an irrational choice as the PCC Moderator. During his campaign to lead the church and subsequent re-election in 2019, he ran a crusade of bribery, corruption and intimidation. Upon re-election, he organized parties where he celebrated lavishly with CPDM tendencies and danced like a seasoned Congolese band member.

Many who knew him after he was ordained as the PCC Moderator almost eight years ago muttered that he was a disaster waiting to happen, and he has confirmed those fears. A church member in Ekona opined that “I have known him for over 30 years, and many who have worked with him knew from the moment he was elected as the PCC moderator that his tenure would be a disaster, and we can all see it”. Many within the PCC say Rev Fonki is pompous, spiritually empty, possesses no integrity and doesn’t command the respect of the majority in the PCC he claims to lead.

Cameroon Concord News Group now understands that the shocking protests captured on video in PC Kumba Town are a consequence of Rev Fonki’s dubious direct actions. The pastor of PC Kumba Town is a certain Rev Mary Wose Nduma, who is notorious for being devoid of honesty and transcendence. PC Kumba Town congregants confided to this publication that the Chairwoman of their church had repeatedly impeded Rev Mary Wose’s attempts to loot church funds. This had led to both being on each others’ throats for months until things boiled over some weeks ago when church members carried out a mass demonstration calling for Rev Mary Wose to leave their church.

Speaking about Rev Mary Wose, one of her congregants said, “Everyone here knows that she has a less than holy relationship with the Moderator. It is shameful that they are involved in shady financial dealings. The Moderator brought her here because we are a big church, so she can abuse our funds, but that will not work. She has to go now.”

The situation in PC Kumba Town is now thorny. Members of this Church want Pastor Mary Wose gone, but she and her Moderator are not heeding the people’s requests and anger. Last week, the church members led a protest during a live sermon by Pastor Mary Wose. A pastor with godliness, ability and stature might have shrugged the protest off, but Rev Mary Wose is not that pastor. Her stubbornness and sense of entitlement have led her to this place of shame. She believes that her personal but unholy relationship with the Moderator will ultimately triumph, but she is about to discover that PC Kumba Town members mean business.

The incidents in Kumba Town seem to be playing out in PC Nsimeyong, Yaoundé also, where Rev Fonki has appointed a fellow sinful offender, Rev Emmanuel Masok. Rev Masok’s congregants say he is vulgar, violent, and a channel for fraudulent and unholy activities. Rev Masok’s case is a holy emergency that must be dealt with without delay as his congregants have prayed and fasted with no noticeable results. A member of PC Nsimeyong noted that “Rev Masok is an embarrassment. To say Masok is a pastor is an insult to that noble profession, and he is a shameless crook and womaniser.”

Talking to many within the PCC, the game is simple. Rev Fonki Samuel Forba appoints key allies to big churches, so he gets financial kickbacks from them. This is shameful and distasteful. Rev Fonki is a man ruled by the quest for primitive material consumption, and he owns many properties acquired from his proceeds of theft of Church funds. For a man of God, this is dishonorable, sinful and criminal.

Rev Fonki has appointed countless mediocrities to many top positions in the church. His appointees, like him, have no fear of God in them and thrive on deception and theft of Church money. The Presbyterian Church in Cameroon is now at the mercy of Rev Fonki’s reckless quest for indulgence.

The many mediocrities that Rev Fonki has airlifted to senior positions in the Presbyterian Synod and several presbyteries are not there for their creative talents and godly powers but for their talent to aid and abet his criminal and satanic endeavours. These co-criminals will not tell him to go or persuade him to discontinue his disgraceful proclivities because they only have their positions for as long as he hangs on to his.

The primary reason his continued stay in office as Moderator is because of corrupt, lazy and intellectually questionable PCC Synod. Rev Fonki has installed his close lieutenants in the Synod; they are nothing more than hand clappers and are too cowardly to move against a disgraced and outrageous Moderator.

Time is the most precious commodity if the Presbyterian Church is to survive in its current format and structure. Members of the Presbyterian Communion can mobilize supporters, sympathizers and genuine Christians that may end Rev Fonki’s reign of terror, theft, and criminality. But they need to be bold.

Everyday Rev Fonki remains in power; a long, sharp, sturdy nail is driven into the coffin of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon. He has presided over eight turbulent years, during which the number of active Christians in the PCC is declining alarmingly. And this doesn’t seem to bother him.

PCC members must know that Rev Fonki has no interest in spirituality, honesty and the growth of their church, and he is only interested in growing his wealth and that of his friends within the church. And protests should be a new norm in all churches to force him and his co-criminals out of their church.

By Isong Asu

Cameroon Concord News Group Senior Political Researcher

In part 2 of this series, Cameroon Concord will look at Rev Fonki’s choice of PCC Communication Secretary and his plans to ensure his legacy of harm and criminality continues after he leaves office in 2024.

8, July 2022

Amnesty International says Yaoundé should end threats against activists who exposed violations and abuses in Southern Cameroons ⁰

The Cameroonian authorities must ensure that human rights defenders are able to work free of intimidation and reprisals, Amnesty International said today after receiving reports that activists are being targeted with death threats for exposing human rights violations and abuses in Anglophone regions.

The individuals targeted include seven human rights defenders and a cyber-activist, all of whom had been documenting human rights violations and abuses in the English-speaking regions of North-West and South-West Cameroon, which are facing clashes between army forces and armed separatist groups.

“The authorities must urgently launch a thorough, independent and effective investigation into these threats and other abuses committed against human rights defenders”.

Unrelenting death threats

Akem Kelvin Nkwain, a human rights officer at the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA), an organization that has documented human rights violations and abuses by all parties to the conflict, told Amnesty International he received several death threats from alleged armed separatists.

The first threat came on 24 May 2022, shortly after Nkwain wrote on Twitter about a child killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) allegedly planted by separatist fighters in Kumbo in North-West Cameroon.

On 16 June 2022, he received calls and messages featuring photos of a captured policeman, dead civilians, bullets, guns, armed group members, and an image of himself being marked for killing.

One of the messages said: “We declare you and your whole entire family as traitors and enemies to the Ambazonian fighters. Until we reach your house, let that money bring you back to life when you get shot and kill.”

Felix Agbor Nkongho, a human rights lawyer and founder of the CHRDA, also received multiple death threats from alleged armed separatists by phone and on social media in reaction to his participation in a conference in Toronto organized by the Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations, a US-based NGO focusing on the conflict in Cameroon, between 29 October and 1 November 2021.

Abductions

On 22 April 2022, four UN Special Rapporteurs focusing on human rights defenders, extrajudicial executions, the right to freedom of expression and the right to association, wrote to President Paul Biya raising concern over repeated death threats sent since 2015 to the president and the lawyer of the Organic Farming for Gorillas (OFFGO). OFFGO has exposed abuses by businesses in the North-West regions of Cameroon.

In May 2021, the lawyer received death threats by phone, and on 6 November 2021, he escaped an abduction attempt at his home in Bamenda. He was also reportedly abducted from his home and released two hours later on 19 February 2019. In a report released in January 2021, Final warning: death threats and killings of human rights defenders,the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders detailed the threats against him.

In addition, his brother was also abducted and tortured on 16 May 2019 and on 27 March 2020 as a way to intimidate him. His brother-in-law was also shot twice in the leg by unknow individuals in his presence. Several complaints have been filed in previous years by OFFGO lawyer, but according to OFFGO officials, the authorities have failed to launch an investigation.

In May 2022, N’Zui Manto,a cyber-activist working from outside Cameroon was forced to leave the African country where he was living after the Cameroonian authorities identified him following information shared by the local police that raised fears of repatriation.

N’Zui MantotoldAmnesty International he started receiving death threats on social media at the beginning of 2019 since he publishes information about the Cameroonian army’s losses in Anglophone regions. On 28 May 2022, he received a message from a fake Facebook profile saying: “One day you will come across me. I will kill you like nothing.”

Tarnteh Amadu Ngangpanweh,a human rights defender for Conscience Africaine, a Cameroon-based NGO, told Amnesty International he began receiving death threats after attending a press conference in Yaoundé on 18 May 2020. The event, which was organized by a coalition of civil society organizations, shared findings from a report on the Ngarbuh massacre, in which more than 20 civilians were killed during a military operation on 13 and 14 February 2020.

Two days later, after Tarnteh published the report on Facebook, an unknown person messaged him on Facebook saying he “better stop such activities, because this is obviously the first and last time, I am warning you on conspiring to publish false information, the next time you will be sorry for yourself.”

Tarnteh received several other threatening calls in late 2020, July 2021 and December 2021 after he documented alleged detentions for ransom by security forces in North-West region, and after he published a report on abductions allegedly committed by armed separatists.

Culled from Amnesty International

7, July 2022

UK Politics: Prime Minister Boris Johnson has agreed to resign ⁰

Boris Johnson is expected to resign his position as Conservative party leader today but stay on as Prime Minister until the fall, British media sources report. He is slated to make a statement in the early afternoon on Thursday.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has spoken to Queen Elizabeth as a courtesy ahead of an impending announcement about his resignation plan, ITV Deputy Political Editor Anushka Asthana said on Thursday.

Opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer called it “good news for the country” that Johnson was going to quit.

“But it should have happened long ago. He was always unfit for office. He has been responsible for lies, scandal and fraud on an industrial scale.”

“We don’t need to change the Tory at the top – we need a proper change of government,” Starmer said. “We need a fresh start for Britain.”

Weighing in from the Conservative party, Deputy Chairman Justin Tomlinson said “I was Team Boris, as the GE (general election) showed he was our star player who connected across traditional political divides. Yes there were ups and downs, but he turbo-charged social mobility and opportunity.

“His resignation was inevitable. As a Party we must quickly unite and focus on what matters. These are serious times on many fronts.”

First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon also weighed in via Twitter, questioning his continued presence as Prime Minister for the next three months. “There will be a widespread sense of relief that the chaos of the last few days (indeed months) will come to an end, though notion of Boris Johnson staying on as PM until autumn seems far from ideal, and surely not sustainable?”

Source: France 24

7, July 2022

UN Security Council to vote on extending Syria cross-border aid ⁰

The United Nations Security Council votes Thursday on extending its authorization of aid transfers across Syria’s border without approval from Damascus, with Russia seeking a six-month prolongation while Western nations want a full year.

The UN resolution permitting aid deliveries across the Syrian-Turkish border at Bab al-Hawa has been in effect since 2014, but is set to expire on Sunday.

Norway and Ireland, two non-permanent members of the 15-country Security Council, have drafted a resolution that would extend the authorization until July 10, 2023.

Nearly 10,000 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid passed through Bab al-Hawa last year, bound for the rebel-held Idlib region in northwestern Syria. It is the only crossing through which aid can be brought into Idlib without navigating areas controlled by Syrian government forces.

The resolution, which was obtained by AFP, calls on “all parties to ensure full, safe and unhindered access by all modalities, including cross-line, for deliveries of humanitarian assistance to all parts of Syria.”

Russia, a veto-holding Security Council member and ally of Damascus, has hinted in recent months that it would oppose an extension, having already forced a reduction in the number of allowed border crossings on the grounds that it violates Syria’s sovereignty.

According to diplomats, Russia ultimately put its own draft resolution on the table, which includes an extension of six months.

In an attempt to persuade Moscow, Norway and Ireland have inserted several amendments touching on the transparency of humanitarian shipments, possible contributions to Syria’s reconstruction, and on the need to develop aid deliveries via government-controlled territory.

Russia has long called for the West to participate in Syria’s reconstruction, but some council members, most vocally France, have refused until political reforms have been enacted.

However, during a Security Council meeting in June, a majority of countries — including the United States — offered support for financing so-called “early recovery projects” in Syria.

In this vein, the resolution by Norway and Ireland calls for “further international initiatives to broaden the humanitarian activities in Syria, including water, sanitation, health, education, and shelter early recovery projects.”

By Wednesday evening, few diplomats dared to predict whether the additions would be enough to convince Russia to agree to a full-year extension.

But some told AFP that a last-minute compromise was possible, by making the six-month extension renewable for an additional six months practically by default.

Source: AFP

7, July 2022

Who could succeed Paul Biya in Etoudi? ⁰

In some African countries that are striving to move forward, their constitutions are very strong and their leaders weak. In Francophone Africa, Cameroon included, leaders are very strong and constitutions are very weak.

It is common knowledge that the one important job of a constitution is to limit the power of the leader. However, this is not the case with all the countries in Africa where French is the official language.

President Paul Biya’s days as head of state now looks numbered after a sea of health issues. But while several possible successors including his eldest son Franck Biya have been suggested, there is no clear favourite.

Once Biya goes, the whole CPDM regime will fall, up to and including those in the so-called Senate and National Assembly and for genuine leadership to emerge, the politically docile French speaking Cameroonians would require a revolution that can lead people to the sunlight uplands.

Frankly speaking, nothing will change after Biya if French Cameroonians particularly those in the military and the gendarmerie turn a blind eye and do nothing in Yaoundé. What those currently in Etoudi are planning is simply one yellow cake replacing another yellow cake. They all are criminals with blood on their hands.

Biya should never have gotten in and as we wait in joyful hope for his departure, his acolytes, his Beti Ewondo kinsmen and women who are only there to continue collecting bribes and putting one tribe against the other while destroying the economy will surely face the long arm of the law.

Unfortunately, anyone from the ruling CPDM consortium of criminal syndicates who replaces Biya will be no different. The agenda as teleguided in Paris is to destroy the Anglophones and guarantee France complete and total access to Cameroon’s mineral wealth. This agenda will not change. So, in the one and indivisible Cameroon, Southern Cameroonians and French Camerounians are just “allies”, not family.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai