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8, April 2024

Champions League: Madrid ‘lacked courage’ against City, says Ancelotti before rematch ⁰

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said Monday his team played without courage or personality when Manchester City knocked them out of the Champions League last season, ahead of another showdown with the English champions.

Pep Guardiola’s side thrashed Madrid 5-1 on aggregate in last season’s semi-finals and Ancelotti called on his players to show more mental strength this time around.

Record 14-time winners Madrid host reigning champions City at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday in a mouthwatering quarter-final first leg clash.

“We played without courage, without personality — courage and personality are fundamental in this type of game, we lacked them in the second leg,” Ancelotti told a news conference.

After a 1-1 draw in the Spanish capital Madrid crumbled to a bruising 4-0 defeat at the Etihad Stadium.

Ancelotti said his players have to be mentally strong against City but admitted he was nervous before the game.

“The important thing is to be at our best, the mental aspect is very important,” continued Ancelotti.

“In terms of courage and personality, we’ve had time to prepare for the game, we’ve prepared very well, and I am confident that we will give our best and we’ve got the quality to compete.”

Despite having won the competition four times, twice with AC Milan and twice with Madrid, more than any other manager, Ancelotti admitted his own tension before the clash.

“(I’m) very nervous, before a game on a personal level it’s all suffering,” said the coach.

“Defeat is suffering and victory is relief, not happiness… suffering and stress keep you alive, it’s gasoline for me.”

Last season Madrid defender Antonio Rudiger kept Erling Haaland and his team-mates relatively quiet in the first leg but Ancelotti did not start the German in the Etihad thrashing.

“(The first leg) was a good game and we stopped Haaland getting passes,” Rudiger told reporters.

“The coach didn’t apologise (for dropping me) and doesn’t need to, I accept it, even though it was hard to accept.

“Now for this game the plan is to try and control dangerous players like Phil Foden, (Kevin) De Bruyne and, of course, Haaland.”

Rudiger said he would treat the battle against the Norwegian hitman as if it was personal.

“It’s about the team, but I will take that duel as if it’s personal, as a defensive player against a super striker like Haaland,” he added.

Source: AFP

7, April 2024

Yaoundé: Cardinal Sarah urges 12 newly ordained Catholic Priests in Obala Diocese to “be attentive to the flock” ⁰

Robert Cardinal Sarah has called upon the 12 newly ordained Priests for the Catholic Diocese of Obala in Cameroon to be attentive to the needs of the people of God under their pastoral care.

In his homily during the Friday, April 5 Priestly ordination, Cardinal Sarah hailed the vocation to the Priesthood and called upon the 12 Deacons to put prayer at the center of the Priestly ministry.

Credit: ACI Africa

“Priesthood is the most wonderful and greatest gift that God has given to our humanity. To be a Priest is therefore to be attentive to the flock, which the Holy Spirit has appointed us to shepherd in the Church of God, in profound communion with your Bishop,” he said during the event that was held at the Playground of Obala Council.

To be a Priest, the Guinean-born Cardinal who, until his retirement in February 2021, was serving as Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments said, “is an immense privilege that makes and helps us to continue the work of evangelization initiated by Jesus.”

Credit: ACI Africa

“To be a Priest is to become Jesus Christ himself. It means extending his saving presence among mankind. It means striving every day to bring Jesus’ suffering and death to our lives, and to radiate his presence,” Cardinal Sarah said during the April 5 Priestly Ordination event.

Priests have the role of facilitating the recognition of God as critical to the world in general and to the human person in person, the Cardinal said.

Credit: ACI Africa

To be a Priest, he explained, “means restoring God’s central place in the world, for a world without God is a world without hope. The Priest makes God visible; the Priest is the sign that reminds us of God’s primacy in a world that is increasingly frivolous, indifferent and even hostile to Jesus Christ, his Gospel and his Church.”

The Cardinal, who arrived in Cameroon on Tuesday, April 2 for a weeklong visit further said, “The priesthood was instituted to preach the Gospel and restore communion between God and man through the Eucharistic sacrifice and prayer. The Priesthood has its deepest source in the supreme and exclusive love of Christ.”

Credit: ACI Africa

“Shepherding my sheep is indeed an act of love. Only if we love Jesus Christ exclusively do we have the authority and responsibility to shepherd God’s people,” Cardinal Sarah said.

It is in following the example of Jesus Christ, who gave “His whole life for the care of His sheep that we confirm that Priests love God with all their heart, soul and strength,” the 78-year-old Cardinal, who started his Episcopal Ministry in December 1979 as Archbishop of Guinea’s Conakry Archdiocese said.

Credit: ACI Africa

7, April 2024

Fabio Cannavaro, Peseiro shortlisted by FECAFOOT to lead Indomitable Lions ⁰

Former Super Eagles coach Jose Peseiro is one of three coaches, who have been shortlisted to take over the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon.

The other coaches are Herve Renard and Fabio Cannavaro.

This was contained in a memo sent by FECAFOOT to the Cameroonian sports ministry dated March 12, 2024.

It has been reported that Peseiro has demanded for a salary of about 1.5 Million Euros a year (more than 100,000 Euros a month).

Peseiro led the Super Eagles past Cameroon 2-0 in the knockout rounds of the recent AFCON in Cote d’Ivoire.

Cameroon have been embroiled in a controversy over the appointment of a new coach after the Sports Ministry appointed the Belgian Marc Brys to replace Rigobert Song as he is more affordable.

However, the FECAFOOT headed by Samuel Eto’o Fils have since countered this announcement.

The FECAFOOT emergency committee has now ordered Eto’o to name a new coach within 72 hours.

Source: Score Nigeria

7, April 2024

Yaoundé: Eto’o given 72 hours to appoint coach amidst crisis ⁰

The Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT) said on Saturday it has given its president Samuel Eto’o 72 hours to appoint a new coaching staff for the country’s national men’s football team.

In a statement, FECAFOOT said the decision was taken following a meeting of the body’s Emergency Committee held in the capital Yaoundé.

The meeting came barely two days after FECAFOOT expressed “great surprise” at the appointment of Belgian Marc Brys as head coach of the national men’s football team, calling it regrettable.

On Tuesday, the country’s Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Narcisse Mouelle Kombi said that the new head coach was appointed following “high instructions” of President Paul Biya.

Saturday’s statement said FECAFOOT “was not involved in the procedure leading to the appointment … in disregard of texts”.

Should Eto’o appoint a new coaching staff it will set in a “serious” football management crisis, said football analyst Joseph Mbah.

“It will mean that the country has one team with two different coaching staffs. This will surely deepen crisis in the football management body which is already facing criticisms,” Mbah said.

Brys was appointed to replace Rigobert Song, who had guided Cameroon to the 2022 FIFA World Cup and was dismissed in February following Cameroon’s poor performance in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

Source: Xinhuanet

6, April 2024

BEAC withdraws CFA63bn in a week to curb CEMAC inflation ⁰

The Bank of Central African States (BEAC) has successfully withdrawn a total of CFA63 billion from the banking system in two operations. This move is part of the central bank’s efforts to combat monetary inflation, which accounts for 20% of the inflation in the region.

The first withdrawal operation took place on March 28, when the central bank targeted CFA50 billion through the issuance of 14-day BEAC bonds at a 2.5% interest rate. However, it only managed to attract an offer of CFA15 billion, resulting in a relatively low demand coverage rate of just over 30%.

On April 2, BEAC launched another operation for CFA230 billion but only one bank participated, allowing the central bank to withdraw CFA48 billion at an interest rate of 1.25%. In total, the central bank managed to collect CFA63 billion from commercial banks in a week.

Let’s note that the escalation of liquidity withdrawals, including increasing the amounts sought by the BEAC and issuing BEAC bonds, are among the strategies employed by the CEMAC central bank to fight soaring inflation within the region. In addition to these measures, the BEAC has recently increased its key interest rates multiple times to slow down the refinancing pace of commercial banks and has suspended its liquidity injection operations into the banking system.

The central bank’s goal is to drain the banks and thus restrict economic agents’ access to credit. According to the BEAC, injecting significant financing into economic circuits contributes to inflation, especially in countries like those in the CEMAC region, where most goods and services are imported.

Source: Business in Cameroon

6, April 2024

2 Cameroonians killed in a truck accident in southern Mexico ⁰

Three migrants died in a highway accident in the southern Mexico state of Oaxaca, authorities said Thursday.

At least two of the dead — a man and a woman — are from the African nation of Cameroon, and the identity of the third is being checked. Five more migrants were injured and are being treated at local hospitals.

The country’s National Immigration Institute did not immediately identify the cause of the crash, or provide information on the condition of those injured.

Oaxaca is a key route for migrants seeking to cross Mexico to reach the U.S. border, and accidents involving migrants there are common.

In March, the bodies of eight Asian migrants were found after a boat accident along Oaxaca’s Pacific coast.

One survivor, an Asian man, was located. The bodies were found near a beach in the town of Playa Vicente, which is about 250 miles (400 kilometers) east of Mexico’s border with Guatemala.

In 2023, at least 16 migrants from Venezuela and Haiti died in a bus crash in Oaxaca.

There has been a series of migrant deaths in Mexico amid a surge in migrants traveling toward the U.S. border. Because migration agents often raid regular buses, migrants and smugglers often seek out risky forms of transportation, like unregulated buses, trains or freight trucks.

Last year, 10 Cuban migrants died and 17 others were seriously injured after a freight truck they were riding in crashed on a highway in the neighboring state of Chiapas, near the border with Guatemala.

The National Immigration Institute said all of the dead Cuban migrants were women, and one of them was under 18.

The Institute said the driver of the vehicle had apparently been speeding and lost control of the truck, which was carrying 27 migrants at the time. The driver fled the scene.

Mexican authorities generally prohibit migrants without proper documents from buying tickets for regular buses, so those without the money to hire smugglers often hire poorly-driven, poorly-maintained buses that speed to avoid being stopped. Or they walk along the side of highways, hitching rides aboard passing trucks.

Last week, a truck flipped over on a highway in Chiapas, killing two Central American migrants and injuring another 27. And two Central American migrants died last week after trying to board a moving train in the state of Coahuila near the Texas border.

Source: WRALnews

4, April 2024

Cameroon and Chad government troops free scores of hostages ⁰

Troops from Chad and Cameroon have freed scores of civilians who were kidnapped for ransom or to fight with jihadist groups on both sides of the two central African states’ border.

Military officials from both countries say the number of civilian kidnappings has increased along the border, with several hundred people still in captivity.

Cameroon’s military said Tuesday it received five civilians — a 54-year-old man and four people between 17 and 24 years old — from Chadian government troops.

The five men, who were escorted to the office of the governor of Cameroon’s Far North region on Wednesday, were abducted this year from villages around Kousseri and Logone Birni, towns on the border with Chad, Cameroon government officials said.

Victor Boukar, one of the former hostages, said heavily armed men chained their legs every night and tied their hands with ropes during the day. He said they were tortured regularly and were given only one meal per day during their 70 days in captivity.

Boukar said captors regularly forced 35 captives, including seven women, to move to different localities on both sides of the Cameroon-Chad border to avoid government troops trying to rescue them.

Hostages whose families paid a ransom were abandoned in the bush, he said, adding that armed men have representatives who collect the ransom money in border towns and villages.

Last week, Chad said its troops launched attacks on border villages in Mayo Kebbi East and Mayo Kebbi West provinces where several hundred people were held hostage by armed gangs and jihadists. It said soldiers freed scores of civilians. Cameroonian nationals were returned to their home country, while Chadians were reunited with their families after receiving medical care.

Midjiyawa Bakari, governor of the Far North region, said Chad and Cameroon are reuniting to fight rebels and bring peace along their porous, 1,100-plus kilometer (680-mile) land border.

He said Cameroonian border troops will arrest or kill armed men and jihadists hiding in local towns and villages, and Cameroon is allowing Chadian troops to cross the border in hot pursuit of Boko Haram militants and armed gangs.

General Ahmat Kogri, a military adviser to Chad’s transitional president Mahamat Idriss Deby, told Chad’s state TV on Wednesday that Boko Haram militants have renewed attacks and abductions to acquire supplies, after their fire power was drastically reduced in battles with the Multinational Joint Task Force.

Kogri said forces fighting to restore peace have taken note that Boko Haram and its splinter jihadist groups are again attacking people and seizing goods. He said civilians should report all strangers in border towns and villages to government troops.

Boko Haram attacks began in Nigeria’s Borno state in 2009 and spread to Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

The United Nations says the Islamist insurgency has left more than 37,000 people dead, mainly in Nigeria, and displaced more than 3 million.

Source: VOA

4, April 2024

Battle for the Unity Palace: ANNOUNCEMENT! ⁰

THIS IS TO ADVISE THAT A COALITION OF THE BRAVE IS LOOKING FOR YOUNG CAMEROONIANS IN THEIR 40s AND EARLY 50s WHO ARE POLITICS-SAVVY AND WOULD BE INTERESTED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE 2025 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN CAMEROON.

THE CHOSEN CANDIDATE WILL BE ARMED WITH THE FINANCIAL RESOURCES NECESSARY TO ENABLE HIM OR HER PUT UP A GREAT FIGHT DURING THE CAMPAIGN.

THE COALITION WILL SOON COMMENCE CAMPAIGNING USING SOCIAL MEDIA AND PERSON-TO-PERSON CONTACTS TO RUN AN EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGN IN LINE WITH THE LAWS OF THE LAND.

PLEASE INDICATE YOUR INTEREST BY CONTACTING THE CHAIRMAN, CAMEROON CONCORD NEWS GROUP.

FOR

THE CHAIRMAN, THE COALITION OF THE BRAVE

3, April 2024

Biya regime risks FIFA sanctions after bypassing FECAFOOT to appoint coach ⁰

The Cameroonian Government has appointed Marc Brys as the new head coach of the national men’s football team without consulting the country’s football federation (FECAFOOT).

The surprise announcement, made by Sports Minister, Narcisse Mouelle Kombi, on Tuesday, has left FECAFOOT blindsided and threatens to spark a conflict that could potentially lead to Cameroon facing sanctions from FIFA.

FECAFOOT released a statement expressing its “great surprise” at the unilateral decision, stating they had learned about Brys’ appointment at the same time as the general public. The Federation emphasised that this act came despite their agreement to cooperate frankly to find a beneficial solution for the Indomitable Lions following Rigobert Song’s dismissal in February.

The development underscores the delicate balance FECAFOOT President and former African Footballer of the Year, Samuel Eto’o, must strike. While striving to assert the Federation’s independence, he will be required to also tread carefully in a nation where matters concerning the national team are of high priority to the government, often overseen by long-standing President Paul Biya himself.

However, interference from governments in the affairs of football Federations has remained a sensitive issue for FIFA, with the world governing body frequently imposing bans on countries where such meddling occurs. Kenya and Zimbabwe are recent examples of countries in Africa that have faced suspensions, only recently being readmitted after resolving their respective crises.

Source: The Will

3, April 2024

Daughters of Manyu Ireland: Some takeaways from a great celebration in Dublin ⁰

Thousands of eyes all over the world were on Dublin, but what message did Daughters of Manyu Ireland send out about their home constituency in Cameroon-The Manyu Division?

We of the Cameroon Concord News Group knew this would be a real spectacle, but from an ekpe front row seat at Anus Kitchen Glen Abbey, I watched Daughters of Manyu with all their pomp on show- Moningkim, flamboyant Manyu robes and ekpe regalia.

There were so many old Manyu traditions that were displayed. But who knew, until March 30^th that Manyu Seseskous and traditional leaders could interpret sound messages? The Daughters of Manyu Ireland event is what distinguishes Manyu Division in Cameroon from the rest of Africa.

We witnessed in Glen Abbey in County Dublin the inclusion of many other African communities and representatives of the Irish society and Mgbe Manyu UK were involved in a ceremony out of their jurisdiction for the first time ever. Daughters of Manyu Ireland sent out a message of diversity and inclusion never known in the history of the Great Manyu Division.

Another first were the Moningkim ladies. Their dancing thrilled the sell-out crowd. Afterwards, Chief Ebot Agbor of MECA Ireland told this reporter that “you will never see Moningkim that well performed ever again in Europe.”

For hours on that Saturday, DJ Takeaway from Great Britain kept Anus Kitchen filled with simply wonderful music.

Thousands of Manyus saw the live broadcast on Face book; live streaming online, clips turned around on social media and Smartphones made those who answered present photographers.

Daughters of Manyu Ireland is the oldest Manyu women association in Western Europe that has held the hopes of the Manyu people in quite the way that the late Mami Arreyngang did with Glee Club some three decades ago in Mamfe the chief town in Manyu.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in Dublin