Monthly Archives: December 2024

30, December 2024

Will Biya resign and allow Dion Ngute to be president? ⁰

There is no proof that Unity Palace and the Star Building have considered doing this, but according to our Cameroon Intelligence Report chief correspondent in Yaoundé, Biya is contemplating to resign the presidency after New Year celebrations to make Prime Minister Dion Ngute the president of the Republic.

Rita Akana explained this move and cited a well-placed source who met President Biya recently in Yaoundé.

President Biya was painted as having a divided mind on handing over before the elections in 2025 or running as a candidate and then step down, making the way for a Dion Ngute presidency.

“From what he told an aide late last week, he now fully understands that he no longer has the energy to run state affairs. I’m not saying that he intends to resign soonest, but that’s exactly what he is planning do,” the source said.

As 2025 approaches, many Cameroonians are concerned about the future of their country. Cameroon is at a standstill both politically and economically. The country is in dire need of an overhaul and many analysts have opined that the 2025 presidential election might reshape the country’s future.

However, though the presidential election is less than ten months away, Cameroonians are not yet aware of the candidates in the race for the Unity Palace as some political parties have not yet revealed their candidates to the public and this is indeed a cause for concern.

The 2025 presidential polls cannot be discussed without mentioning the incumbent’s name. Mr. Biya who has been in power for 42 years has the benefit of incumbency. His total control of the country’s treasury gives him certain financial advantages which other parties may not have.

However, his long stay in power might be a huge disadvantage as many Cameroonians are of the opinion that he has overstayed his welcome. His age and failing health could also be some of the annoying inconveniences which might mar Mr. Biya’s campaign.

However, some analysts say he might not run as his age has diminished his mental and physical ability. The analysts hold that he might manage the transition to ensure that his successor comes from his party to ensure that his family and collaborators get the protection they need when he leaves power.

Mr. Biya has been a fixture on Cameroon’s political landscape having been thrust into power by the country’s first president, Amadou Ahidjo, who resigned in 1982. Ahidjo saw the young Biya as an asset to the country and thought that Mr. Biya was capable of steering the country to better shores.

Unfortunately, things have not turned out as planned. The country’s economy has been in shambles for more than three decades, with unemployment reaching alarming levels. Many young Cameroonians are frustrated and thousands have left the country to try their luck somewhere else. Cameroon has not been the eldorado Ahidjo thought it would become under Mr. Biya.

Nepotism and corruption have become the country’s hallmarks. The massive, dysfunctional and corrupt civil service is full of Biya loyalists and tribesmen and this is a tough challenge the next president will have to deal with.

Currently, the government is bleeding money and in a bid to raise more money, the government is instituting more annoying taxes. The 2024 finance bill has just been passed and it is not good news to struggling Cameroonians. The new taxes will trigger a further escalation of living cost and most Cameroonians who are already in the throes of a severe crisis will have to look for creative ways to survive if they must not be rolled into an early grave by high prices.

The 2025 polls are an opportunity for Cameroonians to reshape their political destiny. The lineup of candidates is impressive. Will they vote for continuity or will they design a new path by walking away from the ruling party which has made corruption a way of life?

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

29, December 2024

Manyu Development: The Diaspora can help ⁰

Manyu is gradually emerging from the damage of the socio-political crisis which has been running for almost eight years, but the tell-tale signs of the adverse impacts of the conflict are still on the faces of our people.

Many of our people are slowly returning to their native Manyu but starting all over is a Herculean task. Many have lost almost everything. Some had to spend years in the jungle just to hide from Amba fighters and Cameroon government soldiers.

Many of our people are desperate. Though cocoa prices have brought some hope, it must be pointed out that many of those farms had been neglected when the fighting was at its apex. It takes years for a cocoa plantation to be productive and it takes lots of maintenance for a plantation to deliver the “golden seeds” and without money our people are not earning as much as they should.

Though some of the farmers are celebrating, it should be noted that not everyone in Manyu Division is a cocoa farmer. Despite increased cocoa production in the past two years, Manyu farmers are not making a kill as they should because their poor mastery of the global cocoa market is robbing them of lots of money.

There are no structured marketing channels which can guarantee our people long term money for their labour and since they have no control over the cocoa supply chain, most of our farmers are obliged to accept whatever prices are offered to them.

The socio-political crisis has hit Manyu Division like a ton of bricks. The situation has been compounded by escalating cost of living, leaving many young Manyu men and women in dire financial straits.

Even young Manyu businesspersons are struggling. The business environment is not enabling. Access to loans is almost non-existent and the entire Manyu Division has no bank to cater to the needs of our people.

Moreover, the mentality out there is hurting our people in a big and bad way. Anybody who starts making some baby steps forward has the obligation of taking care of an entire family, a situation which has caused many budding businesses to collapse even before they could send down their roots.

Furthermore, any businessperson who makes giant strides forward is always erroneously thought to be involved in a cult. Many Manyu people have never really known wealth and many do not understand that speculation, determination and persistence can deliver tons of money.

Once someone makes huge amounts of money, the entire village starts accusing them of things which only exist in fairytales. There is no witchcraft when it comes to making money. The people of Manyu Division need a mentality purge. A new mindset needs to be engineered to enable the people to accept that a neighbor could be wealthy in a short time due to their clear and long-term vision as well as their persistence and determination.

The Diaspora, indeed the open-minded, informed and selfless Diaspora, has a role to play, not only in the engineering of a new mindset for Manyu, but in the creation of self-help programs which will give the Division a shot in the arm.

A once booming economic hub, Mamfe, the Division’s capital, is spotting a miserable and helpless figure. The town’s infrastructure is crumbling, the environment is deteriorating at lightning speed, power failure remains a tough challenge to businesses and the Division’s best and brightest are leaving to seek little opportunities in other towns of the Southwest Region.

Mamfe has lost its attraction. Even the schools which used to attract people to the Division have become shadows of their former selves. Manyu and Mamfe need a massive injection of cash which can help small businesses to stabilize and grow. The absence of financial institutions in the Division has robbed struggling businesspeople of the access they need to where they can have investment resources.

The Diaspora has a great role to play in the revitalization of the once vibrant Division. The Diaspora has been supportive albeit on individual basis. Manyu needs more than individual efforts. Manyu’s development requires the collective efforts of its sons and daughters, both at home and abroad.

Manyu does not have its own microfinance institutions. Manyu does not have its own cooperatives. Manyu is bereft of basic financial and financing institutions which can give the Division’s population access to much-needed financing.

The Diaspora, in particular, can help restore Manyu’s past glory through collective efforts. Organizations such as EYUMEMA and MOHWA are making some strides but their efforts need to be shored up, especially with the creation of sound project implementation mechanisms which can ensure that they get real value for any dollar they invest in the Division.

Manyu sons and daughters abroad should know that they have a role to play in Manyu’s economic and cultural renaissance. The Diaspora can reverse certain things in Manyu through generous contributions and participation in development projects. Indifference will only lead to the Division heading down the abyss of depression and chaos. The Diaspora should mobilize itself to give Manyu a fighting chance.

By Dr. Joachim Arrey

29, December 2024

Chad votes in triple elections after three years of military rule ⁰

Chad voted Sunday in a general election the government says is a key step towards ending military rule, with turnout expected to be low after the opposition called for a boycott.

Midday figures suggested a turnout of just 38 percent to choose a new parliament, provincial assemblies and local councils, according to the elections management agency ANGE.

Election officials in the upmarket district where the president’s family and ruling dignitaries live put voter apathy down to the “cold weather”.

But opposition parties have urged Chad’s eight million voters to shun the election, the results of which they say had been decided in advance.

They “have all stayed at home following our call, that is, the overwhelming majority,” Succes Masra, leader of the opposition Transformers party, told AFP.

The boycott leaves the field open for candidates aligned with President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, who was brought to power by the military in 2021 and then legitimised in a presidential election in May that opposition candidates denounced as fraudulent.

“I urge all my compatriots on the electoral roll to come out and vote en masse,” Deby posted on Facebook, alongside photos of himself casting his ballot on what he called a “historic day”.

‘Nothing’s been done yet’

On Saturday, Masra had said: “The fabricated results are already in the computers.”

Herve Natouingan, 28, a construction worker turned motorbike taxi driver due to a lack of job prospects, said it was “pointless” to cast a ballot because “there’s no real voting in Chad”.

Patrice Lumumba Deoumoundou, an unemployed 39-year-old, told AFP he had voted Sunday morning in the hope of “change across the board” — more jobs, fewer price rises, “more justice” and “more equality”.

“Nothing’s been done yet,” he said.

As in previous elections, soldiers, police officers and nomads voted on Saturday for logistical reasons.

Chad’s election management agency said there had been “record” turnout, with more than 72 percent in the army and 54 percent among nomads.

“There is a lot at stake locally in these elections,” it said.

“The nomads came to ask the people who will be elected tomorrow to improve their living conditions,” said sheikh Djibrine Hassabakarim, one of the community’s representatives.

He said climate change had made life hard for his community, killing livestock, triggering clashes with sedentary farmers and making it hard for them to feed their families.

Transition to democracy

Polling stations, which will remain open until 6:00 pm (1700 GMT), are being monitored by around 100 foreign election observers and representatives of political parties.

On Saturday evening, the opposition Democratic Party of the Chadian People (PDPT) said more than a thousand ballots intended for the sub-prefecture of Bongor had disappeared.

It called for “vigilance” to “thwart the fraud networks” it said had been set up by the ruling MPS party.

Voting is taking place against a backdrop of recurring attacks by the jihadist group Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region, the ending of a military accord with former colonial master France and accusations that Chad is interfering in the conflict ravaging neighbouring Sudan.

The government has presented the elections as the final stage in the transition to democracy.

Deby took power in 2021 after the death of his father, who had ruled the Sahel country for three decades.

Source: AFP

29, December 2024

Former US president Jimmy Carter dies at 100 ⁰

James Earl Carter, Jr. was the first US president to be popularly elected after Watergate forced the resignation of former president Richard Nixon. As the 1976 election season got under way, a US electorate wearied by political scandal and the ceaseless grind of the Vietnam War decided to take a chance on a virtually unknown peanut farmer from Georgia running as a folksy, centrist Democrat who was untainted by insider Washington politics.

But Carter’s one-term presidency was destined to preside over a challenging period both at home and abroad, from the US energy crisis and the runaway inflation of the 1970s to the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the start of the Iranian hostage crisis as well as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan late that same year.

Carter’s commitment to public service did not end when he left the White House, however; he and his wife remained active in humanitarian causes, global health issues and international election-monitoring in the decades that followed. They founded the non-partisan Carter Center in Atlanta based on a “commitment to human rights and the alleviation of human suffering” in 1982.

The Nobel Committee recognised Carter’s lifetime of service by awarding him the 2002 Peace Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development”.

Early life

Carter was born in the farming town of Plains, Georgia, on October 1, 1924, the first US president to be born in a hospital rather than at home. He grew up in the nearby town of Archery, where his father was a peanut and cotton farmer who owned a local store while his mother, born Bessie Lillian Gordy, was a registered nurse who crossed racial lines in the segregated South to counsel Black women on healthcare matters.

Carter attended Georgia Southwestern College and the Georgia Institute of Technology before earning a Bachelor of Science degree from the US Naval Academy in 1946.

He was stationed on submarines in both the Atlantic and Pacific US fleets while serving in the Navy, eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant. He was subsequently stationed at Schenectady, New York, where he took graduate classes at Union College in reactor technology and nuclear physics before serving as the senior officer for the pre-commissioning crew of the Seawolf nuclear submarine.

Carter married Eleanor Rosalynn Smith on July 7, 1946. “She’s the girl I want to marry,” he reportedly told his mother after their first date. Smith had been a Carter family friend and neighbour in Plains when the two were growing up.

When his father died in 1953, the younger Carter faced the difficult choice of whether to pursue his Naval career or return to his hometown to run the family business. He chose to resign his naval commission and took over the family farm, eventually opening Carter’s Warehouse, a seed and farm supply company. He soon became a community leader, serving on county boards that oversaw the administration of schools and hospitals as well as the local library.

US President Jimmy Carter is sworn in as the 39th President of the United States by Chief Justice Warren Burger on January 20, 1977, as First Lady Rosalynn Carter looks on. © © AFP

Entry into politics

Carter soon set his sights on bigger ambitions, and in 1962 he was elected to the Georgia state Senate. He lost his first gubernatorial campaign in 1966 but tried again a few years later, becoming Georgia’s 76th governor in 1971.

In a first foray into national politics, in 1972 he became chairman of the Democratic Governor’s Campaign Committee and then chairman of the Democratic National Committee’s campaigns for the congressional and gubernatorial elections of 1974. These positions gave him access to influential Democrats nationwide but he still remained a relative unknown. On December 12, 1974, Carter announced his candidacy for the US presidency, which seemed a rather lofty ambition for a former farmer and one-term governor.

But his timing proved right on target. The US electorate approached the 1976 election season wearied by a decade of division over the Vietnam War and still angered by the Watergate scandal that had engulfed former president Richard Nixon. Running as a centre-right Democrat, Carter’s simple message was one of honesty and integrity.

“The fact that he was unknown was part of his appeal,” Carter’s former speechwriter, Hendrik Hertzberg, told PBS.

Carter was elected by a razor-thin margin on November 2, 1976, beating out incumbent Gerald Ford, who had taken office in the wake of Nixon’s resignation.

Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat, US President Jimmy Carter and Israeli Premier Menachem Begin shake hands after the signing of the historic Mideast peace treaty between Israel and Egypt on March 26, 1979 on the north lawn of the White House. © AFP

Mideast peace, energy reform

Among the most significant foreign policy successes of the Carter administration was the 1978 signing of the Framework for Peace in the Middle East by Israeli premier Menachem Begin and Egyptian president Anwar el-Sadat, known as the Camp David Accords, which paved the way for a peace treaty between the two countries the following year.

On January 1, 1979, Carter reversed longstanding US policy by granting China full diplomatic recognition. He also concluded the Panama Canal treaties, which agreed to return authority over the canal to Panama after 1999, thus ending 96 years of US control.

At the height of the Cold War, Carter also signed an arms-reduction treaty with the Kremlin. On June 17, 1979, Carter and former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the SALT II (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) agreement, which banned new missile programmes and placed other restrictions on both nations’ deployed nuclear capabilities. The deal was short-lived, however, as the Soviets invaded Afghanistan on Christmas Day; a little more than a week later, Carter asked the Senate not to review SALT II and it was never ratified. Nevertheless, both Washington and Moscow pledged to adhere to the terms of the agreement.

Domestically, the energy crises of the 1970s had highlighted the need for a centralised national energy authority, which Carter established in 1977 with the creation of the Department of Energy. He pushed through deregulation of the transportation, communications and finance industries, and launched comprehensive education programmes under the newly created Department of Education.

Carter also introduced significant environmental protection legislation, including an expansion of the protected national parks system and passing the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which designated 27.5 million acres as protected wilderness areas. He put solar panels on the roof of the White House to encourage the then nascent industry and to serve as an example to other Americans. His Republican successor subsequently had the panels removed.

Iran hostage crisis

Carter’s political star began to dim on November 4, 1979, when a group of Iranian students stormed the US embassy in Tehran and took 66 people, mainly diplomats and embassy staff, as hostages. The stated motive for the attack was Carter’s decision to allow the deposed pro-Western Shah – who had gone into exile following the Iranian revolution months before – to receive cancer treatment in the United States. But tensions with Iran had long been simmering.

Thirteen of the hostages, mostly women, were soon released and a 14th was subsequently freed for health reasons. An ill-fated April 1980 mission to free the hostages resulted in the deaths of eight US military personnel but no freed hostages, overshadowing Carter’s administration just as he was seeking re-election that November against a challenge from Republican Ronald Reagan.

The release of the 52 remaining hostages on January 20, 1981 – after 444 days in captivity and just hours after Reagan delivered his inaugural address – has prompted much media speculation in subsequent years that Reagan’s backers had a hand in the timing and that it was the hostage crisis that cost Carter a second term.

In his farewell address, Carter warned against some of the looming threats he saw facing humanity: nuclear war and environmental degradation.

“There are real and growing dangers to our simple and our most precious possessions: the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the land which sustains us,” Carter said. But he went on to add that there was “no reason for despair”.

“Acknowledging the physical realities of our planet does not mean a dismal future of endless sacrifice. In fact, acknowledging these realities is the first step in dealing with them. We can meet the resource problems of the world – water, food, minerals, farmlands, forests, overpopulation, pollution – if we tackle them with courage and foresight.”

Nobel Peace Prize

Carter remained active in humanitarian causes and global election-monitoring even after leaving office. He and Rosalynn founded the non-partisan Carter Center in Atlanta in 1982 with a mission to “prevent and resolve conflicts, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health”. The center has spearheaded international efforts to eradicate Guinea worm disease, which is set to become only the second human disease in history to be eradicated (after Smallpox).

The Carters also volunteered one week a year for Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit organisation that helps homeless people in the United States and abroad build homes.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Carter the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development”.

In conjunction with the Carter Center, the former president has shown “outstanding commitment to human rights”, the Nobel Committee said in announcing the award.

Latter-day diplomacy

Since its founding in July 2007, Carter has been a member of The Elders, an independent organisation that unites retired world leaders and other influential people seeking to advance the cause of peace and human rights. The brainchild of billionaire Virgin founder Richard Branson and musician Peter Gabriel, The Elders was formally inaugurated by Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg.

In 2010 Carter successfully negotiated the release of Aijalon Gomes, a US citizen who was held for seven months in North Korea. Gomes had been sentenced to eight years of hard labour for illegally crossing into the country from China.

Carter and the Carter Center have continued to take part in conflict mediation and election monitoring around the world, including in Sudan (2010), Tunisia (2011), Egypt (2011-2012) and Myanmar (2020).

As a lifelong Baptist and church deacon, for decades Carter volunteered to teach Sunday school at the Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia.

He was the author of 32 books including his 2015 memoir, “A Full Life: Reflections at 90,” and a 1995 children’s book about a boy being raised by a single mother “in a small house near the sea”. He won Grammy Awards (best non-musical albums) for his memoir and two other books: “Faith – a Journey for All” and “Our Endangered Values: America’s Moral Crisis.”

Carter was diagnosed in 2015 with melanoma, which eventually spread to his liver and brain, and began receiving end-of-life care in February 2023.

A tried-and-true Democrat, it was reported in August that he had told his family he was holding out to vote for Kamala Harris for president. He did so in mid-October after early voting opened in Georgia.

Rosalynn Carter predeceased him on November 19 at the age of 96. They had been married for 77 years.

“Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished,” Carter said after his wife’s passing. “She gave me wise guidance and encouragement when I needed it. As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me.”

The Carters are survived by four children: John William, James Earl, Donnel Jeffrey and Amy Lynn, who as the youngest spent part of her childhood in the White House.

They are also survived by more than 20 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Source: France 24

29, December 2024

Tributes pour in for Justice Ayah Paul following his passing ⁰

Tributes from public figures have poured in following the announcement of the death of Paul Ayah Abine, a magistrate and politician, on December 24, 2024. He passed away after a prolonged illness at the regional hospital in Buea.

“The African Peoples Union (UPA), a party dedicated to authentic Pan-Africanism, pays a vibrant tribute to a patriot resolutely committed to an unrelenting quest for social justice, freedom, and dignity for the Cameroonian people,” wrote barrister Jean Guy Zogo, the party’s president.

In a statement on his Facebook account, Maurice Kamto, leader of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC), hailed Ayah Abine as a “fearless fighter for freedom and human rights, a man of deep convictions firmly attached to democracy, which he believed in to the very end.” Kamto described him as a direct victim of the civil conflict that has engulfed Cameroon’s Anglophone regions for the past eight years. He added that the late Ayah Abine “was a moderate voice advocating for an inclusive national dialogue to resolve the civil war imposed on our country.”

Professor Edouard Bokagne, Historian and head of the history department at the University of Yaoundé 1, remarked: “The death of Justice Paul Ayah Abine prompts reflection on the untapped potential of a man who could have significantly contributed to Cameroon had his talents been fully utilized.” Bokagne noted that Ayah Abine had a deep understanding of the crisis affecting the Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest Cameroon, with “a profound insight into these societies and a clear vision for addressing their challenges.”

Born in 1950 in Akwaya (Southwest region), Ayah Abine led a dynamic professional and political life. A graduate of the National School of Administration and Magistracy (Enam), he rose to the position of Advocate General at the Supreme Court. Alongside his judicial career, he pursued politics as a member of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM). He resigned from the CPDM in 2008 after opposing a constitutional amendment that removed presidential term limits, enabling President Paul Biya to seek re-election in 2011. That same year, he ran for president under his newly formed People’s Action Party (PAP), securing 1.26% of the vote.

Portrayed by authorities as a significant figure in the Anglophone crisis that has affected the Northwest and Southwest regions since 2016, Ayah Abine was a strong advocate for federalism. He was arrested in 2017 and spent eight months in Yaoundé Central Prison. Although he stepped back from active politics in 2019, he continued to engage in humanitarian work through his NGO. However, his efforts were met with challenges, as his accounts were frozen for 29 months and his pension benefits were suspended for over 69 months, according to his associates.

Source: Sbbc

29, December 2024

President Putin apologises to Azerbaijani president for ‘tragic’ plane crash ⁰

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday apologized to his Azerbaijani counterpart for what he called a “tragic incident” following the crash of an Azerbaijani airliner in Kazakhstan that killed 38 people, but stopped short of acknowledging that Moscow was responsible.

Putin’s apology came as allegations mounted that the plane had been shot down by Russian air defenses attempting to deflect a Ukrainian drone strike near Grozny, the regional capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya.

An official Kremlin statement issued Saturday said that air defense systems were firing near Grozny airport as the airliner “repeatedly” attempted to land there on Wednesday. It did not explicitly say one of these hit the plane.

The statement said Putin apologized to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev “for the fact that the tragic incident occurred in Russian airspace.”

The readout said Russia has launched a criminal probe into the incident, and Azerbaijani state prosecutors have arrived in Grozny to participate. The Kremlin also said that “relevant services” from Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan are jointly investigating the crash site near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan.

The plane was flying from Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, to Grozny when it turned toward Kazakhstan, hundreds of kilometers (miles) across the Caspian Sea from its intended destination, and crashed while making an attempt to land. There were 29 survivors.

According to a readout of the call provided by Aliyev’s press office, the Azerbaijani president told Putin that the plane was subject to “external physical and technical interference,” although he also stopped short of blaming Russian air defenses.

Aliyev noted that the plane had multiple holes in its fuselage and that the occupants had sustained injuries “due to foreign particles penetrating the cabin mid-flight.”

He said that a team of international experts had begun probing the incident at Azerbaijan’s initiative, but provided no details. Earlier this week, the Azerbaijani Prosecutor General’s office confirmed that investigators from Azerbaijan are working in Grozny.

On Friday, a U.S. official and an Azerbaijani minister made separate statements blaming the crash on an external weapon, echoing those made by aviation experts who blamed the crash on Russian air defense systems responding to a Ukrainian attack.

Passengers and crew who survived the crash told Azerbaijani media that they heard loud noises on the aircraft as it was circling over Grozny.

Dmitry Yadrov, head of Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia, said Friday that as the plane was preparing to land in Grozny in deep fog, Ukrainian drones were targeting the city, prompting authorities to close the area to air traffic.

Yadrov said that after the captain made two unsuccessful attempts to land, he was offered other airports but decided to fly to Aktau.

Earlier in the week, Rosaviatsia had cited unspecified early evidence as showing that a bird strike led to an emergency on board.

In the days following the crash, Azerbaijan Airlines blamed “physical and technical interference” and announced the suspension of flights to several Russian airports. It didn’t say where the interference came from or provide any further details.

If proven that the plane crashed after being hit by Russian fire, it would be the second deadly civil aviation accident linked to fighting in Ukraine. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed with a Russian surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people aboard, as it flew over the area in eastern Ukraine controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in 2014.

Russia has denied responsibility, but a Dutch court in 2022 convicted two Russians and a pro-Russia Ukrainian man for their role in downing the plane with an air defense system brought into Ukraine from a Russian military base.

Following Wednesday’s suspension of flights from Baku to Grozny and nearby Makhachkala, Azerbaijan Airlines announced Friday that it would also halt service to eight more Russian cities.

Several other airlines have made similar announcements since the crash. Kazakhstan’s Qazaq Air on Friday said it would stop flying from Astana to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains for a month.

Turkmenistan Airlines, the Central Asian country’s flagship carrier, on Saturday halted flights to Moscow for at least a month, citing safety concerns. Earlier this week, Israel’s El Al carrier suspended service from Tel Aviv to the Russian capital, citing “developments in Russia’s airspace.”

Source: AP

25, December 2024

Francis urges ‘all people of all nations’ to silence sound of arms this Christmas ⁰

Pope Francis in his traditional Christmas message on Wednesday urged “all people of all nations” to find courage during this Holy Year “to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions” plaguing the world, from the Middle East to Ukraine, Africa to Asia.

The pontiff’s “Urbi et Orbi” – “To the City and the World” – address serves as a summary of the woes facing the world this year. As Christmas coincided with the start of the 2025 Holy Year celebration that he dedicated to hope, Francis called for broad reconciliation, “even (with) our enemies.”

“I invite every individual, and all people of all nations … to become pilgrims of hope, to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions,” the pope said from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica to throngs of people below.

The pope invoked the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, which he opened on Christmas Eve to launch the 2025 Jubilee, as representing God’s mercy, which “unties every knot; it tears down every wall of division; it dispels hatred and the spirit of revenge.”

He called for arms to be silenced in war-torn Ukraine and in the Middle East, singling out Christian communities in Israel and the Palestinian territories, “particularly in Gaza where the humanitarian situation is extremely grave,” as well as Lebanon and Syria “at this most delicate time.”

He cited a deadly outbreak of measles in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the suffering of the people of Myanmar, forced to flee their homes by “the ongoing clash of arms.” The pope likewise remembered children suffering from war and hunger, the elderly living in solitude, those fleeing their homelands, who have lost their jobs, and are persecuted for their faith.

Pilgrims were lined up on Christmas Day to walk through the great Holy Door at the entrance of St. Peter’s Basilica, as the Jubilee is expected to bring some 32 million Catholic faithful to Rome.

Traversing the Holy Door is one way that the faithful can obtain indulgences, or forgiveness for sins during a Jubilee, a once-every-quarter-century tradition that dates from 1300.

Pilgrims submitted to security controls before entering the Holy Door, amid new security fears following a deadly Christmas market attack in Germany. Many paused to touch the door as they passed and made the sign of the cross upon entering the basilica dedicated to St. Peter, the founder of the Roman Catholic Church.

“You feel so humble when you go through the door that once you go through is almost like a release, a release of emotions,” said Blanca Martin, a pilgrim from San Diego. “… It’s almost like a release of emotions, you feel like now you are able to let go and put everything in the hands of God. See I am getting emotional. It’s just a beautiful experience.”

Source: AP

25, December 2024

More than 30 people survive Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in Kazakhstan ⁰

An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet with 67 people on board crashed on Wednesday in western Kazakhstan after veering from its scheduled route, officials said.

Azerbaijani authorities said 32 people had survived the crash of the Embraer 190 near the city of Aktau, an oil and gas hub on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.

The plane was flying from the Azerbaijani capital Baku on the western shore of the Caspian to the city of Grozny in Chechnya in southern Russia.

“A plane doing the Baku-Grozny route crashed near the city of Aktau. It belongs to Azerbaijan Airlines,” the Kazakh transport ministry said on Telegram.

Azerbaijan Airlines, the country’s flag carrier, said the plane had 62 passengers and five crew on board.

It said the plane “made an emergency landing” around three kilometres (1.9 miles) from Aktau.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev cancelled a planned visit to Russia for an informal summit of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a grouping of former Soviet nations.

The Kazakh transport ministry said the plane was carrying 37 nationals from Azerbaijan, six from Kazakhstan, three from Kyrgyzstan and 16 from Russia.

The office of Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general said: “According to available data, 32 people survived the crash.”

“We cannot disclose any investigation results at this time. All possible scenarios are being examined, and the necessary expert analyses are underway,” it said in a statement.

“An investigative team, led by the deputy prosecutor general of Azerbaijan, has been dispatched to Kazakhstan and is working at the crash site.”

Source: France 24

25, December 2024

Public Works Minister’s pledge under pressure after MBARGA NGUELE attack ⁰

The Minister of Public Works, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, recently announced in the National Assembly that CFA7 billion has been allocated for the rehabilitation of the Edéa-Kribi road. He highlighted that two companies are already working on this route, which has suffered significant deterioration. The funds for the project come from the Public Investment Budget (BIP) and the African Development Bank (ADB).

Nearly CFA4 billion of the total amount comes from the BIP and the Road Fund, while CFA3 billion from the ADB are part of the Ring Road project in the Northwest. Specifically, part of the funding from the Ndu-Nkambe-Misaje section of the Ring Road project will be used to rehabilitate the Edéa-Kribi road. The Minister assured that “the work is progressing, and progress is visible despite heavy rainfall.”

The road, which stretches for about 110 km, connects Edéa in the Littoral region to the port city of Kribi. Its poor condition has made it difficult for people and goods to travel. The companies handling the work are Mag Sarl and Somaf.

Source: Business in Cameroon

25, December 2024

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