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12, July 2023

FECAFOOT in crisis: Eto’o urged to resign by group of amateur clubs ⁰

A group representing amateur clubs in Cameroon has called on legendary former player Samuel Eto’o to resign from his post as president of the country’s football federation, citing “grave irregularities” in the organisation.

Last week, Cameroon’s Amateur Clubs’ Association (ACFAC) voted 11-1 in favour of asking the four-time African Footballer of the Year to stand down.

It said the 42-year-old, who played for several of Europe’s top clubs, should resign “if he still loves Cameroonian football, as he has always claimed”.

ACFAC called for Cameroon’s sports minister to intervene, and mentioned the possibility of asking Fifa president Gianni Infantino to do the same.

Among its list of concerns, ACFAC said the decision to change the Fecafoot president’s mandate from four to seven years was both anti-statutory and illegal. It also highlighted the lack of publication of new statutes adopted last August.

There were also questions to answer, it said, about Eto’o’s decision to take an ambassadorial role with a sports betting company, which could be in violation of both Fifa and Fecafoot rules.

Fifa says people bound by its code “shall be forbidden from participating in, either directly or indirectly, betting, gambling, lotteries or similar events or transactions related to football matches or competitions and/or any related football activities”.

Football’s world governing body mentions a sanction of either a fine or ban from football for any violation of its ethics code regarding connections to betting and gambling, with any “direct or indirect financial interest” outlawed. It is unclear if Eto’o is personally profiting from his involvement with the company.

In late June, top-flight Cameroonian club UMS de Loum asked Fecafoot to investigate the matter, and also raised it with both Fifa and the Confederation of African Football (Caf).

Fecafoot has signed a deal with the same betting company to sponsor both the men’s and women’s international teams, as well as the top two divisions of the country’s football league.

In a statement issued at the time, the federation said the deal had been agreed in compliance with all ethical codes and was further proof of Eto’o’s drive to “modernise” Cameroonian football.

ACFAC also claimed in its statement that unnamed individuals in Fecafoot are manipulating matches in order to successfully bet on their outcomes.

The BBC invited Fecafoot to comment on the nature of ACFAC’s claims about the organisation and its president, but has received no response.

Questionable reign

Eto’o had a hugely successful playing career, winning the Champions League three times, the Africa Cup of Nations twice, as well as league titles in Spain and Italy and an Olympic gold medal. His administrative career has been less sparkling.

In 2019, the former Barcelona, Inter Milan and Chelsea striker chose to become a special adviser to then Caf president Ahmad, but the Malagasy administrator was later banned from football for two years after being adjudged to have breached various Fifa ethics codes.

Three months after taking charge of Fecafoot in December 2021, Eto’o chose to replace coach Toni Conceicao, who guided Cameroon to a third-place finish on home soil at last year’s Nations Cup, with former team-mate Rigobert Song.

The appointment was unusual in that it was said to have been made on “very high instructions” from Cameroon president Paul Biya, despite Fifa outlawing any political interference in the running of a federation.

At last year’s World Cup, which Cameroon exited in the group stage, regular goalkeeper Andre Onana was dropped following a heated row with Song, who was understood to have Eto’o’s backing.

In a statement, Fecafoot expressed “its full support” for Song, who the body said was keen on “preserving discipline, solidarity, complementarity and cohesion with the national team”, prompting Onana – a reported target for Manchester United – to leave the Indomitable Lions’ camp mid-tournament.

Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi and Samuel Eto'o — Samuel Eto’o played with some of the world’s best ever footballers during a trophy-laden spell with Barcelona

In June last year, the 42-year-old pleaded guilty to a $3.8m (£2.96m) tax fraud relating to his image rights while playing for Barcelona.

“I admit the facts and I am going to pay what I’m due, but let it be known that I was just a child then and that I always did what my former agent, who I considered like a father, asked me to do at that time,” Eto’o said after the ruling.

Handed a suspended 22-month prison sentence, he was issued with a fine of $1.8m (£1.4m) which is said to have taken a toll on his financial health – with reports stating he is living in a hotel in the Cameroonian capital Yaounde at Fecafoot’s expense.

‘Fecafoot on the verge of bankruptcy’

ACFAC said it had further concerns regarding the “arbitrary exclusion” of various high-ranking Fecafoot members who “criticised the opaque and very personal management” of Eto’o while also questioning an ongoing lack of transparency in Fecafoot’s financial dealings.

Late last month, it was reported Cameroon would not be sending an under-20 side to a regional tournament in DR Congo because of a lack of funds.

“ACFAC’s executive members have reached the conclusion that Fecafoot is on the verge of bankruptcy on all levels and that it is imperative to act in a bid to save what still remains of Cameroonian football,” the statement said.

Source: BBC

12, July 2023

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Amba fighters torch trucks of cocoa as farmers protest ⁰

Cameroon’s anglophone rebels have torched truckloads of cocoa that were bound for French-speaking towns as farmers protest a ban of exports to Nigeria.

Cocoa farmers have blocked hundreds of tons of the beans from leaving their farms and are staging daily street action after the government cracked down on cocoa and other cash-crop smuggling by banning exports to neighboring Nigeria.

Cameroon’s farmers say they can get nearly double the price for cocoa in Nigeria, where they don’t face threats from separatists.

Joan Mary Becke, 27, is one of the cocoa farmers protesting the move this month in Mamfe, a town on Cameroon’s border with Nigeria.

Speaking via a messaging app, she said they can earn about $2 per kilogram selling to Nigeria, nearly double compared to Cameroon, where anglophone rebels threaten their shipments.

“We should be able to decide where and when to sell our cocoa,” she said. “The government of Cameroon has been unable to protect farmers from separatists who have prohibited the sale of cocoa in French-speaking regions. Should farmers and their families die of hunger when there is a ready Nigerian market for cocoa?”

Becke said the rebels this month torched several trucks transporting cocoa from Cameroon’s southwest region to the coastal business hub of Douala.

Farmers told VOA the rebels torched at least six truckloads of cocoa in the past 10 days.

Cameroon government and military officials confirmed that rebels torched trucks hauling cocoa but would not say how many were destroyed.

Cocoa farmers have been holding daily street protests aimed at the export ban in southwestern villages and towns and say they will continue until the government lifts the ban.

On June 13, Cameroon announced a temporary ban on cocoa, cotton, and other cash crop exports to Nigeria to save the country from losing $165 million each year to smuggling.

The government says it dispatched several hundred police and customs officers to the border to stop illegal cocoa exports.

Robert Ashu Tabechong, the mayor of Mamfe, said farmers are still able to sell cocoa to smugglers for export through the porous border to Nigeria.

“We cannot collect revenues. Without collecting revenues, we cannot develop our municipality,” Tabechong said. “We have support from the forces of law and order [military] to enable us [to] combat the middlemen and secessionists transporting cocoa to Nigeria because Nigeria, lately, they have many factories that are transforming cocoa into chocolates and other things.”

Tabechong said Cameroon should either lift the cocoa ban or at least allow farmers to sell some of the beans to Nigeria.

Cocoa farming is one of the main sources of livelihood in southwestern Cameroon. The Ministry of Trade says the region contributes about 60 percent of the 300,000 tons of cocoa grown in Cameroon each year.

Viang Mekala, the most senior government official in Manyu, the administrative unit where Mamfe is located, spoke to VOA while addressing protesting cocoa farmers Tuesday in Mamfe.

“When the hierarchy will see our report, they will know what to say, and the answer to give to the population,” Mekala said.

Cameroon’s government says illegal cocoa exports to Nigeria spiked after anglophone separatists launched a rebellion in 2017 to break away from the French-speaking majority. The rebels declared their own ban on the sale of cocoa to French-speaking towns.

Cameroon authorities say the military will protect farmers who sell their cocoa to the French-speaking regions. However, Cameroon’s cocoa farmers cite this month’s attacks on cocoa trucks and say they are not convinced.

Source: VOA

12, July 2023

“World hunger stops rising but remains elevated” UN ⁰

World hunger stopped rising in 2022 after growing for seven years but remains above pre-pandemic levels and far off track to be eradicated by 2030, UN agencies said Wednesday.

Between 691 million and 783 million people faced hunger last year, with a midrange of 735 million, the five agencies said in a report.

The proportion of people facing chronic hunger rose from 7.9 percent of the world population in 2019 — before the pandemic — to 9.2 percent in 2022.

The annual rise “has stalled”, however, with the total falling by about 3.8 million people between 2021 and 2022, according to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report.

“There is no room for complacency though, as hunger is still on the rise throughout Africa, Western Asia and the Caribbean,” they warned.

The report is “a snapshot of the world still recovering from a global pandemic and now grappling with the consequences of the war in Ukraine, which has further rattled food and energy markets.”

Since 2019, those crises have plunged an additional 122 million people into hunger, according to the UN, with women and those living in rural areas hit particularly hard.

The post-pandemic economic recovery helped improve the situation, “but there is no doubt that the modest progress has been undermined by rising food and energy prices magnified by the war in Ukraine,” said the report.

The report was prepared by the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, UNICEF, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization.

The estimates indicate that hunger “is no longer on the rise at the global level” but it remains “far above pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels and far off track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2” of a world free of hunger, the report said.

The UN agencies warned that if the world fails to redouble and better target its efforts, the “goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030 will remain out of reach.”

‘New normal’

“There are rays of hope, some regions are on track to achieve some 2030 nutrition targets,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement.

“But overall, we need an intense and immediate global effort to rescue the Sustainable Development Goals.”

Formulated in 2015 by the UN General Assembly, the Sustainable Development Goals include 17 interlinked objectives including ending hunger and poverty.

If the pace of progress does not pick up, nearly 600 million people could still suffer from hunger in 2030, mostly in Africa.

The UN agencies warned that the major drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition — conflicts, economic shocks, natural catastrophes — as well as glaring inequality seem to become the “new normal”.

“What we are missing is the investments and political will to implement solutions at scale,” said Alvaro Lario, head of the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

The worst drought in four decades in the Horn of Africa region threatens to create a famine affecting more than 23 million people in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, the World Food Programme warned in May.

Some 2.4 billion people — three out of 10 people on the planet — suffered from moderate or severe food insecurity in 2022.

The pandemic hit the incomes of many people and the Ukraine war sent prices rising, leaving “billions without access to an affordable healthy diet,” the UN agencies said.

More than 3.1 billion people did not have enough money for a healthy, balanced diet last year, according to UN figures.

“Hunger is rising while the resources we urgently need to protect the most vulnerable are running dangerously low,” the WFP’s executive director Cindy McCain warned on Wednesday.

“As humanitarians, we are facing the greatest challenge we’ve ever seen.”

Source: AFP

12, July 2023

World leaders deliver closing press conference at NATO summit ⁰

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed new security commitments from the G7 powers on Wednesday, but warned that these could not be a substitute for eventual NATO membership.

Speaking after talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Zelensky said the G7 promises should be seen “not instead of NATO, but as security guarantees on our way to integration”.

“We can state that the results of this summit are good, but should we receive an invitation, then that would be the optimum,” he said at NATO’s summit in Vilnius.

The G7 announcement will provide a framework under which individual nations will later agree bilateral deals with Kyiv detailing the weapons they will give.

The West wants to send a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that he cannot keep the war grinding in the hope that international backing for Ukraine will eventually falter.

“This multilateral declaration will send a significant signal to Russia that time is not on its side,” White House advisor for European affairs Amanda Sloat said.

US President Joe Biden has previously suggested a model for Ukraine similar to one under which Washington has committed to giving Israel $3.8 billion in military aid per year over a decade.

Russia launched drone strikes on Kyiv for the second night in a row, the head of the city’s military administration said early Wednesday.

All of the Iran-made Shahed explosive drones launched at Kyiv were were “detected and destroyed”, Sergiy Popko said on Telegram, adding “there was no information about victims or destruction as of now”.

‘Absurd’

Western backers have already sent weapons worth tens of billions to Ukraine to help it fight back against Russia’s invasion.

Germany on Tuesday said it would provide more tanks, Patriot missile defences and armour vehicles worth another 700 million euros ($772 million).

France said it was sending long-range missiles and a coalition of 11 nations announced they will start training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 jets from next month.

But the pledges, while desperately needed by Ukraine’s troops, fall short of Zelensky’s aspirations of putting Kyiv under NATO’s collective defence umbrella.

NATO leaders vowed after the first day of their summit that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO” and shortened the eventual process Kyiv would have to go through to enter the alliance.

“We will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance when allies agree and conditions are met,” a statement said.

But that didn’t go much beyond a 2008 vow on future membership, and reflects the concerns of dominant power the United States about being dragged into a potentially nuclear conflict with Russia.

Zelensky had earlier fired a broadside saying that failure to issue Ukraine a timeframe for joining was “absurd”. “Uncertainty is weakness,” he thundered.

Frustration

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said she understood Ukraine’s “frustration” as it desperately seeks to get into NATO’s protective embrace.

She said she hoped written security commitments would show Ukraine that Western arms will keep flowing even if leaders are voted out in key countries supporting Kyiv.

As part of their attempt to convince Zelensky that Kyiv is moving closer to the alliance, NATO organised an inaugural meeting of a Ukraine-NATO council with him in Vilnius.

That gives him more of a seat around the table to set the agenda in talks with the alliance, but is still far from being in the club.

On the sidelines of the sit-down, Zelensky held meetings with key allies, including Biden, to press for more support.

Biden will later also give a keynote speech at Vilnius university laying out Washington’s commitment to defending every inch of NATO territory.

Source: AFP

11, July 2023

IMF says Cameroon is a fragile and conflict affected state ⁰

Cameroon’s recovery has continued, despite security concerns and external risks, including tight global financial conditions and increased oil price volatility.

Cameroon is a fragile and conflict affected state, with drivers of fragility ranging from insurgency and conflicts along its borders and in neighboring countries, to poor governance, social exclusion, and climate change.

Nevertheless, economic prospects remain positive in the medium term, provided reforms continue, and the external environment is supportive.

The three-year arrangements under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) approved in July 2021 amount to SDR (Special Drawing Rights) 483 million (about US$689.5 million, or 175 percent of quota). Completion of the fourth review will allow a disbursement of SDR 55.2 million (about US$73.3 million).

Culled from the IMF

11, July 2023

Baddest man on the planet contest: Tyson Fury to face Francis Ngannou ⁰

WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury will fight Mixed Martial Arts star Francis Ngannou in a boxing contest to decide “the baddest man on the planet” in Saudi Arabia on October 28.

Fury’s team said the fight in Riyadh will “take place under the official rules of professional boxing, with three judges ringside adopting the 10-point must system”.

The British boxer’s WBC title will not be on the line in the “exhibition” bout against former UFC heavyweight champion Ngannou.

Fury’s last fight was in December when he stopped compatriot Derek Chisora inside 10 rounds, but talks over an undisputed world title showdown against Oleksandr Usyk broke down earlier this year.

“As soon as that bell goes, it’ll be bombs away. This guy is supposed to be the hardest puncher in the world, but let’s see how he reacts when he gets hit by the Big GK,” Fury, nicknamed the Gypsy King, said.

“I can’t wait to get back out there under the lights. I’m looking forward to showing the world that the Gypsy King is the greatest fighter of his generation in an epic battle with another master of his craft.”

There will be three ringside judges and they will follow the scoring criteria used in all official boxing bouts, although it is unclear how many rounds are scheduled.

Ngannou has no professional record in boxing but the 36-year-old Cameroonian-French fighter insisted it was a dream to step into the ring with Fury.

“I’ve been waiting to meet Tyson in the ring for the past three years. My dream was always to box, and to box the best,” he said.

“After becoming the undisputed MMA Heavyweight Champion, this is my opportunity to make that dream come true and cement my position as the baddest man on the planet.”

While Usyk defends his WBA, IBF and WBO crowns against Fury’s promotional stablemate Daniel Dubois next month, his fellow world champion is embarking on a fascinating cross-code clash.

The WBC said it would not be involved in the fight, with Fury given “special permission” for a non-title bout as he has no mandatory challenger.

Ngannou built a reputation as a formidable puncher on his way to becoming UFC heavyweight champion, a title he held until leaving in January after an acrimonious relationship with the organisation’s president Dana White.

He has won 17 of his 20 professional UFC fights, with 12 knockouts.

MMA stars including Conor McGregor, Anderson Silva and Tyron Woodley have struggled to make the transition to the boxing ring in the past.

Source: AFP

11, July 2023

Summary execution on-going in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Cameroon government troops have been accused of killing civilians in Boyo Division in the North West region raising fresh concerns about the conduct of the Francophone dominated military in the battle against Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

In an operation in Mejang, a village some few kilometers from Mbingo in Belo Subdivision in the North West on Tuesday July 4, 2023, government soldiers reportedly killed several women including the Queen Mother.

Members of the Rapid Intervention Battalion, Cameroon’s elite force also killed two Southern Cameroonians in Kombone Bakundu, a locality in Mbonge Subdivision, South West Region.

The incidents have undermined repeated claims in Yaoundé of calm in English speaking Cameroon.

In Weh, in Menchum Division, 5 young men who were detained by the local gendarmerie deployed to the area from Wum were found dead with bullet wounds, a source inside the SDO’s Office in Wum told Cameroon Intelligence Report.

Locals in Wum area are of the opinion that the young men were killed because all of them were from a group resisting Fulani herdsmen backed by corrupt CPDM business tycoon Baba Danpullo.

Our source in Wum who sued for anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, revealed that all the bodies had gunshot wounds on them.

The latest Southern Cameroons deaths have been described by the Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government Dabney Yerima as cold-blooded murder.

Neither the military in Bamenda, the chief city in the North West region or Kumba in the South West, responded to Cameroon Intelligence Report when asked for comment.

By Asu Isong with files from Fon Lawrence and Rita Akana

10, July 2023

“Biya regime in worst situation ever” ⁰

The Chairman and Editor-In-Chief of the Cameroon Concord News Group has affirmed that the Biya Francophone regime in Yaoundé is living in its worst situation ever, enumerating the reasons for the unprecedented decline deep within the ruling CPDM party.

Soter Agbaw-Ebai made the remarks during a talk in Dublin over the weekend in which he also presented a fair and balance state of the Anglophone uprising.

He referred to the recent sacking of General Ngambou Esaïe over comments the general made aimed at Minister Paul Atanga Nji as a very disturbing development in Yaoundé.

The Right Hon. Soter Agbaw-Ebai went on to cite three indications of the uniquely dire situation that was being experienced by the 90-year-old President Biya and his ruling Beti clique.

Firstly, Agbaw-Ebai pointed to the unhealthy rivalry and division that is presently manifesting itself within the government and warned that there were signs of a domestic war in the nation’s capital Yaoundé.

“Army generals were untouchable until Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh and Atanga Nji came to the lime light. We didn’t use to hear such things as firing of an army general or sending an army general on retirement,”

Secondly, Cameroon as a nation had come to be surrounded by hydra headed armed conflicts, ranging from the never ending Boko Haram incursions to the war in Southern Cameroons.

“The third one, there are concerns from the native populations in the cities of Douala and Yaoundé about crime and the massive wave of movement from the Far North region and Southern Cameroons to Douala and Yaoundé.

Soter Agbaw-Ebai said support had waned for the 90-year-old President Biya across all Cameroon state institutions including the military and that the West now considers Biya as an X-Factor.

“Europeans and American politicians have actually become tired of the CPDM crimes and practices.”

By Chi Prudence Asong in Dublin

9, July 2023

Yaoundé: Mbappe discusses youth empowerment with Dion Ngute ⁰

French football star Kylian Mbappe held talks with Cameroonian Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute on his intention to empower young people in the Central African nation.

“We have many projects…for Cameroon, for the children. We are pushing hard for a bright future in Cameroon,” Mbappe told reporters after the meeting, here on Friday.

“I came with my family to let you know how we are ready to help young people. I became Kylian because I was given the opportunity, I want to give others,” he was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

Mbappe arrived in his father’s native Cameroon for the first time to an exciting welcome on Thursday.

“It is a great honor for me. I have always wanted to come back to my country of origin,” said the Paris Saint-Germain forward, who is on a three-day tour of the country.

Source: Xinhuanet

9, July 2023

Francis Ngannou shares photos of himself and Kylian Mpabbe eating ndole ⁰

Cameroonian and French professional mixed martial artist, Francis Zavier Ngannou has left Cameroonians, football fans and social media users buzzing after sharing some photos of himself and France national team captain, Kylian Mbappe eating Cameroonian meal together.

Sharing photos of Kylian Mbappe and himself eating the famous Cameroonian meal, Ndole, Francis Ngannou tweeted: “Enjoying the most famous Cameroonian dish Ndole with @KMbappe”

This tweet from Francis Ngannou sharing photos of himself and the France international enjoying Cameroonian dish together in Cameroon has attracted reactions from Cameroonian, football fans and social media users, as some have said this is the best pictures they have seen in a long time, while some have said the Cameroonian meal looks delicious.

Source: Opera News