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13, August 2019

Diego Maradona’s 1986 World Cup winning teammate Jose Brown dead aged 62 ⁰

Argentina’s 1986 World Cup-winning defender Jose Luis Brown has died following a long battle with Alzheimer’s, his former club Estudiantes de La Plata said.

“Maximum day of sadness for the Albirroja (La Plata) family, our gladiator Jose Luis Brown has left. But his memory and love of the club will never depart,” the club tweeted.

Known to his friends as Tata, Brown made 36 appearances for Argentina and scored the first goal in their 3-2 World Cup final victory over West Germany in 1986.

“Without Jose Luis Brown, we would never have won the World Cup in 1986. Tou never complained about a thing, Tata” Argentina legend Diego Maradona said on Instagram.

After a playing career that included stints in Spain and France, Brown was coach, along with Sergio Batista, of the national Under-23 squad which won the 2008 Olympics and fielded Lionel Messi, Juan Roan Riquelme and Sergio Agüero.

Source: AFP

13, August 2019

Ambazonia will eventually prevail over French Cameroun ⁰

A senior commander of the Ambazonia Restoration Forces has said that the people of Southern Cameroons will finally emerge victorious over the war and punitive measures imposed on Southern Cameroonians by the French Cameroun government.

The leader of the Restoration Forces in Jakiri, Bui County said Southern Cameroons Self-Defense Forces will confront the French Cameroun military and prevent them from achieving their goals this September. In an audio message aired recently in pidgin English, the commander noted that Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces owes national and moral duties to defend and protect the Federal Republic of Ambazonia against the aggression of the French Cameroun military.

The Southern Cameroons commander also pointed out in the audio message that the decision to open Ambazonia schools can only be made by the leaders in French Cameroun jails and that President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Interim Government are responsible for safeguarding the rights and interests of the Ambazonia nation.

Elsewhere, the Manyu Warriors operating in Eyumojock sub constituency in the Manyu County have reminded all Southern Cameroonian parents of the need to respect any decision that will be made public by Vice President Dabney Yerima on the issue of back to school.

The Manyu Warriors through their spokesman observed that Restoration Forces all over Southern Cameroons are targeted by French Cameroun security apparatus because they continue to thwart the Biya Francophone plots in the territory.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the Yaounde regime has failed in its military confrontations with Southern Cameroons Self Defense groups. Biya and his Beti Ewondo gang have also fallen short in their psychological war to tarnish the image of Southern Cameroons Self-Defense Forces and the ailing leader has gained not much from designating Southern Cameroonians as terrorists and two cubes of sugar.

By Sama Ernest and Rita Akana

13, August 2019

Federal Republic of Ambazonia: Presidential Message on Eid al-Adha, 2019 ⁰

I send my warmest greetings to all Muslims celebrating Eid al-Adha.

Eid al-Adha honours Abraham’s obedience to God’s command in agreeing to sacrifice his only son. Seeing Abraham’s remarkable demonstration of faith, God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son and gave him a lamb to sacrifice instead. In like manner, an animal is sacrificed ritually, and the meat is shared with the poor, relatives, friends and neighbours during Eid al-Adha.

During these three days of Eid al-Adha, we join the community thanks in the spirit of shared thankfulness for the blessings we have been given, and reflect on our duties towards one another during these very challenging times for our country.

In the spirit of Eid al-Adha, may we all resolve to be more giving towards one another, especially towards those who have been hardest hit by the ongoing war.
Happy celebrations to Ambazonia’s Muslim community and goodwill to Muslims worldwide.

Respectfully,
Dabney Yerima

Vice President, Interim Government (IG) Federal Republic of Ambazonia

13, August 2019

US: Budget deficit widens; spending up on health, military ⁰

The US government’s deficit widened to $120 billion in July, fueled by increases in spending on health care and the military, according to data released on Monday by the Treasury Department.

The size of the deficit was in line with expectations in a Reuters poll of analysts.

The Treasury Department said federal spending in July was $371 billion, up 23 percent from the same month in 2018, while receipts were $251 billion, up 12 percent compared with July 2018.

The fiscal-year-to-date deficit was $867 billion, compared with $684 billion in the comparable year-earlier period.

The US government’s fiscal position has deteriorated since 2016, hit by an aging of the population that has led to more people drawing on Medicare, a federal health insurance program for the elderly.

Increased spending on the military has also fueled the deficit under President Donald Trump, who took office in January 2017 promising to strengthen the military.

Earlier this month, the US Congress passed a two-year budget deal backed by Trump that would increase federal spending on defense and other domestic programs, which could significantly add to the government’s growing debt.

PressTV-US manufacturing activity slows further in July

In July, Washington spent $53 billion on defense programs, up from $43 billion in the same month of 2018. Spending on Medicare rose to $66 billion from $34 billion, though some of that increase was because of calendar adjustments, a Treasury official said.

When adjusted for calendar effects, the US government’s deficit last month was $129 billion compared with an adjusted deficit of $122 billion in July 2018, the Treasury official said.

Even accounting for the calendar adjustments, spending on Medicare rose 11 percent in July compared to the same month a year earlier.

(Source: Reuters)

13, August 2019

Two new drugs offer hope against Ebola in DR Congo ⁰

Two experimental Ebola drugs being tested in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a yearlong outbreak has killed more than 1,800 people, have succeeded in raising the survival rate to around 90%, health authorities said Monday.

Scientists are a step closer to finding the first effective treatments for the deadly Ebola haemorrhagic fever after two potential drugs showed survival rate of as much as 90% in a clinical trial in Congo.

Two experimental drugs – Regeneron’s REGN-EB3 and a monoclonal antibody called mAb114 – were both developed using antibodies harvested from survivors of Ebola infection.

The treatments are now going to be offered to all patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

They showed “clearly better” results in patients in a trial of four potential treatments being conducted during the world’s second largest Ebola outbreak in history, now entering its second year in DRC.

The drugs improved survival rates from the disease more than two other treatments being tested – ZMapp, made by Mapp Biopharmaceutical, and Remdesivir, made by Gilead Sciences – and those products will be now dropped, said Anthony Fauci, one of the researchers co-leading the trial.

The agency said 49% of the patients on ZMapp and 53% on remdesivir died in the study. In comparison, 29% of the patients on REGN-EB3 and 34% on mAb-114 died.

Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters in a telebriefing the results were “very good news” for the fight against Ebola.

“What this means is that we do now have what look like (two) treatments for a disease for which not long ago we really had no approach at all,” he said.

The agency said of the patients who were brought into treatment centres with low levels of virus detected in their blood, 94% who got REGN-EB3 and 89% on mAb114 survived.

In comparison, two-third of the patients who got remdesivir and nearly three-fourth on ZMapp survived.

Ebola has been spreading in eastern Congo since August 2018 in an outbreak that has now become the second largest, killing at least 1,800 people. Efforts to control it have been hampered by militia violence and some local resistance to outside help.

A vast Ebola outbreak in West Africa become the world’s largest ever when it spread through Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from 2013 to 2016 and killed more than 11,300 people.

The Congo treatment trial, which began in November last year, is being carried out by an international research group coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s emergencies program, said the trial’s positive findings were encouraging but would not be enough on their own to bring the epidemic to an end.

“The news today is fantastic. It gives us a new tool in our toolbox against Ebola, but it will not in itself stop Ebola,” he told reporters.

Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust global health charity, also hailed the success of the trial’s findings, saying they would “undoubtedly save lives”.

“The more we learn about these two treatments, …the closer we can get to turning Ebola from a terrifying disease to one that is preventable and treatable,” he said in a statement.

“We won’t ever get rid of Ebola but we should be able to stop these outbreaks from turning into major national and regional epidemics.”

Some 681 patients at four separate treatment centres in Congo have already been enrolled in the Congo treatment clinical trial, Fauci said. The study aims to enrol a total of 725.

The decision to drop two of the trial drugs was based on data from almost 500 patients, he said, which showed that those who got REGN-EB3 or mAb114 “had a greater chance of survival compared to those participants in the other two arms”.

(REUTERS)

12, August 2019

Nigeria: Militants attack army base, village, 8 killed ⁰

Eight people, including three soldiers, were killed in attacks on an army base and village in northeast Nigeria ahead of Monday’s Eid al-Adha festival, military sources said.

Three troops and three civilians died on Saturday when fighters from the Daesh-aligned ISWAP group attacked a base in Gubio, a town 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the regional capital Maiduguri, two sources said Sunday.

Three soldiers were killed “defending the base from ISWAP terrorists who wanted to overrun it”, the first source said.

“Three civilians were hit and killed in crossfire,” said the source, an officer who asked not to be identified for fear of punishment.

Two soldiers and six civilians were injured, he said.

The militants attacked the base in eight pickup trucks fitted with machine guns, leading to a two-hour long battle, said the second source, who gave the same toll.

The attack was repelled with the aid of a fighter jet which deployed two hours into the clashes, said the officer.

“The terrorists were pulverised and forced to withdraw. Eleven of them were killed and three of their vehicles were seized,” he said.

ISWAP ransacked the same base in May, killing three soldiers.

In a separate assault on Sunday, rival Takfiri Boko Haram terrorists killed two residents and burnt homes in an attack on the village of Ngwom, 14 kilometers (eight miles) from Maiduguri.

Gunmen in pickup trucks stormed the village in a pre-dawn attack, shooting dead two male residents before robbing women of jewelry and torching four houses, anti-Boko Haram militia leader Babakura Kolo said.

“A woman had one of her ears chopped off by the insurgents as punishment for resisting being robbed,” Kolo said.

The militants attempted to seize a nearby military base after the raid, but were rebuffed following a one-hour gunfight, Kolo and a military source said.

The decade-long insurgency in northeast Nigeria has killed over 27,000 people, displaced some two million and spilled over into neighboring countries.

The militants are notorious for stepping up attacks during the Eid season, prompting heightened security across the region.

ISWAP split from the Boko Haram faction headed by long-time leader Abubakar Shekau in 2016.

Since mid-2018 ISWAP has ramped up attacks on the military, while Shekau’s group tends to hit softer civilian targets.

On Saturday, several soldiers were also wounded when their vehicle hit a mine planted by ISWAP near the border with Niger, the military sources said.

(Source: AFP)

12, August 2019

Amba War Casualty: 2 Soldiers, 3 S. Cameroons civilians killed in Bamendakwe ⁰

French Cameroun military officers raided the village of Bamendakwe in Up Station Bamenda, the chief city in the Northern Zone of Southern Cameroons over the weekend killing three Ambazonian civilians. The troops loyal to the regime in Yaoundé were ordered by the Francophone governor Lele L’Afrique to destroy an Ambazonian security check point located in Bamendakwe.

Cameroon Concord News sources hinted that the French Cameroun soldiers entered Bamendakwe on board a taxi owned by a relative of Minister Paul Atanga Nji and opened fire on innocent civilians.

Yaoundé announced late on Sunday that 2 separatist fighters were killed during the operation. However, we gathered that Ambazonia Self Defense Forces retaliated immediately after the Francophone soldiers stormed the village killing two of them.

It should be noted that the French Cameroun military has carried out numerous raids on Bamendakwe killing women and children. Our chief correspondent in Bamenda reported that some 18 young men and women have so far been in Bamendakwe among them two persons with mental disorder.

By Sama Ernest with files

12, August 2019

Premier League: Aubameyang strike earns Arsenal full points ⁰

Arsenal got to a winning start in the English Premier league thanks to a goal by Gabonese international Pierre Emerick Aubameyang. He was also voted Man of The Match.

The forward’s 58th minute strike was the difference between visiting Arsenal and their hosts Newcastle United. The game was Aubameyang’s 50th league appearance.

It effectively means, the league’s reigning top scorer has started the season and his defense of the golden boot on a good note.

In the 2018/2019 season, he emerged joint top scorer with 22 goals along with two other African compatriots: Senegal’s Sadio Mane and Egypt’s Mohamed Salah – both with Liverpool.

Arsenal✔@Arsenal

ICE. COLD. #YoPierre

Another African involved for Arsenal on the day with new Ivorian signing Nicolas Pepe. Pepe whose transfer from Lille to Arsenal made him Africa’s most expensive signing was officially Arsenal’s 200th player in the league.

Arsenal placed fifth last season and lost the Europa League final to Chelsea. This season, Unai Emery’s side will still play in the Europa League with sights on Champions League football – i.e. a top four finish.

Source: Africa News

12, August 2019

Infection Prevention and Control Guide for Health Care Professionals Released ⁰

Health care providers have a legal and ethical duty for the care of their patients and are required, therefore, to provide care in a safe way and a harm-free environment. Routine clinical practice is expected to be based on knowledge, skills, judgment, and attitudes needed for safe patient care.The field of infection prevention and control for, example, isan area where the expectations are high as the field is characterized by guidelines and standards, and failure to comply with recommended guidelines will mean a failure to meet the appropriate standard of care.

Infection prevention and control practice has evolved significantly over the years and health care professionals need to stay abreast with the new scientific literature to adapt to changing guidelines. This is particularly important as the threat of emerging infectious diseases like Ebola, SARS, avian influenza and multidrug-resistance are on the rise.

The skill sets required for the effective application of infection prevention and control is therefore indispensable for safe and quality patient care amidst enormous clinical challenges. For example, environmental surfaces and equipment frequently become contaminated with germs and can serve as an indirect source of transmission to patients and staff. Surgical procedures may result in secondary infections from contaminated devices with either endogenous or exogenous microorganisms. Needle stick injuries may result in blood borne infections such as HIV, hepatitis B, and Hepatitis C. Gaps in vaccination coverage for vaccine-preventable diseases may result in an outbreak. Natural or man-made disasters may also increase the burden of communicable diseases. Also, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central line-associated bloodstream infection, ventilator-associated pneumonia, and surgical site infections together referred to as healthcare-associated infections (HAIs)are increasingly prevalent inpatient care environments. These HAIs often result from gaps in the application of aseptic techniques and standard precautions.

Besides the problem of HAIs, the prevalence of infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms is also on the rise. The problem of antimicrobial-resistant infection is further compounded by the following: the continuous reluctance of pharmaceutical companies to invest in the search for new antimicrobials because of fear of the potential development of resistance; regulatory difficulties faced by public health bodies to effectively control access and proper use of antimicrobials and fundamental challenges in antimicrobial stewardship programs. Consequently, considering that every infection prevented is one that needs no treatment, infection prevention and control is undoubtedly an attractive way to mitigate the spread of infections and reduce the global burden of infectious diseases.

Despite the need and relevance of infection prevention and control in quality patient care, the day-to-day application is sometime overlooked or missed by health care professionals,partly because of knowledge gaps, negligence, or busy shifts. Continuous education and training is necessary to reawaken awareness and improve compliance.

The purpose of this guide is to provide health care professionals and their organizations with a practical resource for infection prevention and control.Contained within the guide is an introduction to infections including HAIs and infections caused by multi drug-resistant organisms, how they are transmitted, methods to control the spread, antimicrobial stewardship, standard precautions, transmission precautions, emergency response, the environment of care, and equipment reprocessing.

Without proper training on how infections are transmitted, including infection prevention and control standards, health care professionals may unconsciously fail to adhere to standard precautions and guidelines and this may enhance the transmission of pathogens. Therefore, health care workers need adequate knowledge of the infectious process and the application of both standard and transmission-based precautions along with an optimum environment of care. To maintain quality in practice, health care professionals must seek to continuously improve their knowledge in infection prevention and control, as well as remain constantly vigilant to emerging microbial threats.

I encourage all health care professionals to take advantage of this professional development opportunity to enhance their competency and improve patient care.

The book is available on Amazon in both paperback and kindle eBook format .(https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W81LM1B?pf_rd_p=2d1ab404-3b11-4c97-b3db-48081e145e35&pf_rd_r=GRA6XJ4YENM757J22ZCP)

About the author

Dr. Ayukekbong holds a Ph.D in medical science and is a board-certified infection preventionist (CIC). He is the founder and chief infection preventionist at EpiTech Public Health, Canada and also an instructor at Algonquin College, University of Ottawa. Through his organization, he has led the training of hundreds of health care professionals on infection prevention and control. His primary research interest is infectious disease surveillance and has published several papers within this field. He is a member of Infection prevention and control (IPAC) Canada and the Infection Control Africa Network (ICAN). He is a guest editor to the Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology, a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Virology and AIDS, and also serves as an expert reviewer to several international scientific and public health journals.

12, August 2019

Southern Cameroons War: Justifying the Ambazonia Right and Duty to Resist ⁰

Think of it that you are a Southern Cameroonian resident in either the Northern or the Southern Zone. Fifty-eight difficult years of marginalization, torture, rape, extra judicial killings, and exploitation are behind you; a huge, depressing darkness lies ahead with the French Cameroun army burning and destroying more than 200 of your villages and towns killing more than 3000 women and children and then the French Cameroun tyrant that dooms your fate declares arrogantly that everything will stay like this and that your children should be sent back to school.

Your territory will remain under French Cameroun military occupation forever and ever. The French Cameroun defense minister, Joseph Beti Assomo who hails from the same tribe as the 86 year old head of state Paul Biya and who is actually the second in importance in the crime syndicate regime in Yaoundé that subjugates your leaders, reechoes the two cubes of sugar rhetoric that a Southern Cameroons state will never be established.

Come to think of it that you are a Southern Cameroonian and your women and children are in danger including those who are living in the bushes and those who have managed to escape into neighboring Nigeria. Everywhere you turn, a Francophone gendarme or a Francophone soldier or a French Cameroun Police officer may open fire at you. Every night, your homes are invaded brutally by elements of the French Cameroun military known popularly as the Rapid Intervention Battalion, BIR. You will never be treated like human beings in a country where your older generation voted peacefully in a plebiscite to create. They destroy, humiliate, intimidate, perhaps even arrest traditional and religious leaders, possibly without trial.

There are close to 2500 Southern Cameroons detainees. Many have simply disappeared in detention. If one of your family members is arrested, you will have difficulty visiting him. If you succeed, you will have to pay hundreds of thousands of Franc CFA just to maybe get half an hour’s conversation.

Many Ambazonians have even become accustomed to the French Cameroun land theft policy. At every moment a, French Cameroun civil administrator or members of his family can invade your land, burn your crops or torch your fields and brandish a land certificate issued in French language stating that your ancestral land was handed to him by the government. The French Camerounian will not be brought to justice for this; the gendarmerie officers who are supposed to protect you will stand idly by. French Camerounians own and run the courts so there’s nothing you can do.

You are indeed a Southern Cameroonian you can’t travel from Akwaya to Mamfe without going through Nigeria!! It’s not easy to move from Kumbo to Jakiri either or Weh to Wum. A French Camerounian can go to Europe and all over Africa from all the nooks and crannies of French Cameroun name them, Garoua, Maroua, Douala and Yaounde, much more easily than you a Southern Cameroonians can go from Mamfe to Calabar.

Let this be known to Ministers Mengot, Paul Elong, Paul Tasong, Dion Ngute and Barrister Agbor Balla that there are no dreams, no wishes in this Southern Cameroons revolution. Children who are confronted with this kind of situation have a slim chance of accomplishing anything in life, even if they go “Back To School”. All they can look forward to is a life of humiliation and unemployment.

There’s no chance that this situation is about to change anytime soon. French Cameroun is not strong as the leadership claims but has French government backing, the United States is slow in acting, Ikome Sako and Chris Anu have weakened the Ambazonian Interim Government, Boh Herbert, Cho Ayaba, Mbah Akuro and Akwanga are all running out of cash and isolated, and the world is losing interest in the Southern Cameroons fate. What should Ambazonians do?

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group think that there are two possibilities. The first is to accept, give in, give up and tell Papa Paul Biya that it was a costly mistake to even have tested his political will. The second is to resist. Whom have we respected more in history? Those who passed their days under the oppression and collaborated with it like Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, or those who struggled for their freedom like Thomas Sankara?

This explains why we of this publication are behind President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides who were arrested in Abuja, Nigeria and the Southern Cameroons young men and women who are involved in the armed struggle against invading French Cameroun soldiers. You have every right to resist. In fact, the great Hon. Wirba has made it clear to you all that it is your civil duty to resist. No argument there. Your right to resist occupation is secured in natural justice, in the morals of history and in international law.

The only limitation that the Southern Cameroons Interim Government now faces is on the means of resistance. Ambazonians should be moving from den guns to bombs if not all our demonstrations in capital cities in the West and the lives of our fallen heroes will be all in vain. Are we to despair and give up? This has almost never happened in history, so we’ll continue. It is our right to resist.

Why should a Southern Cameroons lawyer and leader of the much respected Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium be clamouring for Southern Cameroons parents to again put their children in the hands of people who set live children on fire in Buea and Bamenda universities?

Southern Cameroonians don’t want armed settlers from French Cameroun who invade university campuses and raped students infecting hundreds with HIV. Southern Cameroonians do not want to be in a country where judges sentence children for making a Boko Haram joke because of their origin. Southern Cameroonians don’t want French Cameroun supported by France to continue tyrannizing them, so they will resist. The Ambazonia Diaspora should start making available their money to Vice President Dabney Yerima. That’s what it means to be part of the Southern Cameroons resistance. We agree that sometimes our Amba Boys have acted with heinous murderousness, but even that is not as bad when compared to the crimes committed by French Cameroun soldiers in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Ambazonians, it’s your right; it’s your duty

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai