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13, April 2019

Cameroon unrest intensifies as civil liberties crackdown sparks protests ⁰

Anti-government protests are expected across Cameroon today, where protestors will call for the release of 150 jailed opposition supporters, including leader Maurice Kanto. Mr Kanto of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement claims to have defeated President Paul Biya in elections last October.

Cameroon’s government has banned protests until April 13, citing threats from Boko Haram along the northern border, violence along the border with the Central African Republic and a separatist movement occurring in English-speaking regions as reasons for the repressive measures. Although Cameroon is indeed facing serious security risks, the decision to ban opposition protests will likely exasperate these security risks and the opposition’s discontent.

Last week, the government increased the presence of security personnel nationwide. This has heightened the risk of confrontation with protestors, which could spark small to medium-scale violence. Demonstrators are also demanding the resignation of President Biya—and are threatening to remove him themselves if he does not willingly resign.

While Mr Biya is unlikely to resign, the government may provide some concessions to the protestors by way of prison releases, possibly including Mr Kanto. While this could potentially mollify protestors and motivate them to turn to political solutions, such concessions are unlikely to completely stifle opposition to the regime.

Source: Foreign Brief

12, April 2019

Berlin: Acting President Sako, Hundreds of Ambazonians bring traffic to a standstill as they protest outside Nigerian embassy ⁰

Hundreds of Southern Cameroons demonstrators brought traffic to a standstill in Berlin today after turning out in their droves to call for an end to cooperation between Abuja and Yaounde and the immediate implementation of the Nigerian High Court decision that ordered the return of President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides back to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The Ambazonians led by Acting President Ikome Sako crowded the streets outside the Nigerian Embassy in Berlin and some took it even further by blocking the entrance to the main building. Waving the Southern Cameroons flag with placards which read ‘Freedom for Southern Cameroons”, demonstrators chanted the Ambazonia National anthem as they protested against the ongoing genocide in Southern Cameroons.

Several of the Southern Cameroons protesters held banners which read: ‘Human Rights rejects the French Cameroun regime and condemns its criminal siege and occupation of Southern Cameroons. However, despite the large crowds, Bundes Polizei said the protest was largely peaceful as a whole.

In a statement delivered in front of the Nigerian embassy, Southern Cameroons Acting President Dr Ikome Sako said: ‘This isn’t about Southern Cameroons Self-Defense and Restoration Forces. It’s about the French Cameroun government and army fighting to maintain its control over Ambazonian lives, and Ambazonian land.

Prominent among the Southern Cameroons delegation that attended the rally in Berlin were Ambazonia Communications Secretary, Hon. Chris Anu, Dr Elad K. Logan Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Ambroise Etenjeh, Secretary for Home Affairs. It is vital to include in this report that Acting President Sako handed over a copy of the Abuja verdict to the Nigerian ambassador to Germany.

By Sessekou Asu Isong in Berlin on Special Assignment

12, April 2019

Women lead the charge, and chants, in Sudan protests ⁰

Sudan was a repressive place for women under Omar al-Bashir’s Islamist 30-year reign. But women have reclaimed their voice during the latest anti-regime protests and are determined to secure their place in the future.

Dalia El Roubi was 10 years old when Omar al-Bashir seized power in a bloodless coup. She vividly recalls the drastic changes in her life when public order and civiclaws changed in Sudan shortly after the takeover.

“I clearly remember my childhood was taken away. We were young, but we dressed freely as teenagers and pre-teens,” Roubi explained. “Suddenly, everything changed: The way we dress changed, our school uniforms changed. For my generation, it was a strange experience, we had a taste of freedom and then it suddenly transformed. We became sexualised objects and our bodies became a battleground for those in power.”

Exactly three decades after the 1989 coup, the 41-year-old activist and member of the opposition Sudanese Congress Party said she was exhilarated by the leading roles women played on the front lines of the latest anti-government protests.

Speaking to FRANCE 24 in a phone interview from Khartoum – where she briefly tore herself away from demonstrations in the heart of the Sudanese capital to access her phone service – Roubi described incredible scenes. “Women are at the forefront, the leaders, here. It’s not the stereotype of women in the background cheering the men. Women start chanting and we also regulate the chanting. If the chants include sexist statements or are discriminatory, we regulate it, we just explain, there’s no aggression. It’s a harassment-free zone, it’s exceptional.”

When the latest round of anti-regime demonstrations broke out in December, one of the protest chants described Bashir as weak and compared him to a woman. But demonstrators changed that tune after women began calling it out on social media.

The international community got a crash course in female power this week when a video of a young woman in a white toub, or traditional Sudanese robe, leading a lively protest song went viral.

Standing on top of a car in sneakers, matched with toub and traditional bridal jewellery, Alaa Salah, a 22-year-old architecture student, epitomised not just girl power, but also the cultural diversity that was suppressed during Bashir’s reign.

Following the 1989 coup, Bashir’s alliance with hardline Islamist politician Hassan al-Turabi saw an austere brand of Islamism imposed on an ancient land at the crossroads of African trade routes, where merchants from as far as India and Anatolia settled, bringing with them a cultural heterogeneity that was an integral part of Sudanese identity.

Salah’s garment quickly turned into a symbol of cultural reassertion, a shout out to the Kandakas, or Nubian queens who ruled the Kush kingdom in what is now Sudan more than 3,000 years ago.

On Thursday, Sudanese Defense Minister Awad Mohamed Ahmed Ibn Auf announced the army had toppled and arrested Bashir and a transitional military council would rule the country for two years.

But demonstrators promptly rejected the military takeover, with the Sudanese Professionals Association, one of the main protest organisers, calling instead for a civilian transitional government to be put in place.

“We are definitely committed and focused on ensuring this is not a military coup and we’re determined to make that clear. It’s not a case of, ‘The military is going to save us.’ We don’t want another Islamist with a different face,” said Roubi.

A byword for human rights abuses

Sudan’s future is being shaped in the days and months to come, and few protesters are likely to accept a two-year transition period led by Defense Minister Auf, a longtime Bashir loyalist who was blacklisted by the US in 2010 for his role in the Darfur conflict.

“The man who for the moment holds power, Awad Mohammed Ibn Auf, is himself associated with many of the atrocities that Bashir was responsible for in Darfur. He is alleged to have coordinated many of the attacks by the Janjaweed, the brutal militia that was so active and caused so many of the casualties in Darfur,” explained FRANCE 24’s chief foreign editor, Rob Parsons.

Sudan protests: ‘The leaders of the demonstration wanted more’

Under Bashir, Sudan turned into a byword for brutal human rights violations, including allegations of a genocide against Darfuri men, women and children during the conflict in western Sudan, which led to an indictment by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the Sudanese strongman.

South of Darfur, in the Bahr al Jabal region, decades of brutal wars between the regime and the primarily Nilotic Christian populace finally led to the breakaway and independence of South Sudan, depriving Khartoum of the third-largest oil reserves in sub-Saharan Africa.

Women bear brunt of Bashir’s brutality

But combatants who took up arms against Khartoum were not the only ones who suffered violations by Bashir’s regime.

Sudanese women bore the brunt of the regime’s violations, ranging from vaguely defined public morality laws that limited their movement without male guardians to corporal punishment such as lashings to severe abuses –including rape – by security forces while in detention.

Women’s rights defenders were particularly targeted, in a systematic attempt by Sudanese authorities to silence female activists, lawyers and journalists, New York-based Human Rights Watch noted in a 2016 report.

Roubi herself was detained in 2013 during the “Sudan Change Movement,” which broke out after the 2011 Arab uprisings. Activists say more than 200 people were killed in a crackdown by Bashir’s security forces while Sudanese authorities reported around 70 deaths.

The arrest of a prominent, British-educated activist and former World Bank employee made headlines on pan-African websites. Upon her release, Roubi detailed the conditions of her detention in an interview with AFP.

Six years later, and on a milestone day in Sudan’s history, Roubi was dismissive about her detention experience.

“More than 200 people were shot down in Khartoum in broad daylight. I was detained for eight days. My arrest was nothing compared to what others had to endure. It’s a big problem – the lashings, interrogations, intimidation, beatings, families not knowing where their loved ones have disappeared. My case was different because it had high visibility, I was a World Bank employee and there was a different dynamic,” she said.

‘Strong-willed’ women

During the latest protests, the fear of arrest was hardly an issue, Roubi said.

“There were thousands arrested since the demonstrations broke out in December. On March 8 (International Women’s Day), they released some women prisoners and the government made a big deal about it. But we were ready to fill the jails. If we’re all ready to go to jail, it stops being intimidating,” she explained.Women protesters take to the streets in Khartoum

Bashir’s ouster does not mean that freedom in Sudan is guaranteed, but Roubi is optimistic. “It makes me so hopeful when I see young women and men, who do not know what it was like before the repression, campaigning for change,” she said.

Roubi is quick to clarify that Sudan had repressive regimes before Bashir. But, she explains, they concentrated on political and security issues and did not target women’s rights.

Despite the Bashir regime’s assault on women’s rights, Roubi proudly notes that, “at a social level, we have always had strong female characters”.

“It’s very rare to find mothers, grandmothers, sisters, students who are not strong-willed. We Sudanese women are breadwinners, we work, we demand respect – that’s our tradition.”

Reclaiming a more tolerant past

While Sudan today is a Sunni Muslim-majority nation, most Sudanese Muslims adhere to the Maliki school of jurisprudence and are deeply influenced by Sufism, a more mystical branch of Islam. The form of Islam imported by the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Turabi and Bashir was alien to the syncretic nature of worship traditionally practiced in Sudan.

Bashir and the late Turabi had a political falling out and a rocky relationship after 1996, but that did not ease the pressure on women. In recent years, economic hardships – compounded by international sanctions and the loss of oil revenues from South Sudan – saw Bashir move closer to Saudi Arabia, with its brand of conservative Wahabbi Islam making inroads into the African nation.

Many activists of Roubi’s generation could see the impact that decades of sustained hardline Islamism had on young women. “I was always frustrated discussing gender issues with younger women because the regime had changed their way of thinking,” she said.

But that bleak assessment appears to have changed since the latest protests broke out last year.

“There’s no generational divide now. Young women have shown so much resilience and courage, mobilising and campaigning. There are obviously discussions still to be had – some want more public participation but are socially conservative while others are not. But we all agree on women’s participation in public life, in work and in leadership positions. Our voices now are louder and we’re being heard.”

France 24

12, April 2019

6 remaining long-serving African dictators following Bashir ouster ⁰

African countries have had their fair share of long-serving leaders but, if the past decade is anything to go by, this trend is about to come to a crashing halt.

In what has now come to be referred to as ‘Africa Rising,’ the continent is slowly awakening and realizing that they can do – and deserve – better.

It all started in January 2012 with the ouster of former Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade following a 12-year rule.

Wade, now 93 years of age, had been president since 2000. His rule, however, drew criticism from the opposition who accused him of breaching rules for candidacy in an election.

Then came former Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore whose 27-year-rule came to an end in 2014 following violent protests.

Afterwards, one of Africa’s most controversial and longest serving leaders — Robert Mugabe — on November 21, 2017, bowed to the pressure of a military takeover and the humiliation of impeachment.A

It was the culmination of an extraordinary week in the history of Zimbabwe that began when the country’s military leaders staged an unprecedented intervention to prevent the ascent to power of Mugabe’s 52-year-old wife, Grace.

Only recently – on April 2, 2019 — Algeria’s ailing former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned, succumbing to six weeks of largely peaceful mass protests driven by youth and pressure from the powerful army against his 20-year rule.

Then on Thursday April 11, 2019, President Omar al-Bashir’s grip on Sudan came tumbling after he was visited by the heads of his four main security apparatuses who told him “there was no alternative” but for him to step down.

Bashir’s exit brings the ouster of long-serving African presidents to 5.

Here are the remaining ones whom, if this trend continues, should be scared out of their wits:

Cameroon President Paul Biya

Biya,86, is widely considered the longest serving leader in Africa and has been President of Cameroon since November 6, 1982.

He rose rapidly as under former President Ahmadou Ahidjo, serving as Secretary-General of the Presidency from 1968 to 1975 and then as Prime Minister of Cameroon from 1975 to 1982.

He succeeded Ahidjo as president upon the latter’s surprise resignation in 1982 and consolidated power in a 1983–1984 staged attempted coup during which he, according to Wikipedia, “eliminated all his rivals.”

Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo

Obiang ousted his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, in an August 1979 military coup and has led Equatorial Guinea ever since.

His rule was at first considered more humane than that of his uncle but he has since been accused of becoming increasingly brutal.

Congo-Brazzaville President Denis Sassou Nguesso

President Nguesso has spent 34 years in office, having first served from 1979 to 1992 before returning in 1997 at the end of a civil war. He was then re-elected in March 2016.

Congo Republic President Denis Sassou Nguesso speaks during a news conference after his meeting with Tunisia's President Beji Caid Essebsi at Carthage Palace in Tunis January 22, 2015. REUTERS/Anis Mili

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni

Museveni was involved in rebellions that toppled notorious Ugandan leaders Idi Amin (1971–79) and Milton Obote (1980–85) before capturing power in the 1986.

His rule has, over the past recent years, come under heavy scrutiny with Ugandan musician-turned-politician Bobi Wine saying he will challenge Museveni for the top seat in the 2021 elections.

Chadian President Idriss Deby

President Deby took over the mantle of power in in 1990. He continues to rule to date after winning a disputed fifth term in April 2016, giving him nearly 29 years in power.

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki

Afwerki is the first President of Eritrea, a position he has held since its independence in 1993. He has, as of date, ruled for 26 years.

Culled from Citizentv

12, April 2019

Currency shortage worries the Cameroon Inter-Employer Group ⁰

Cameroon Inter-Employer Group (Gicam) met the Association of credit institutions’ professionals (Apeccam) on April 4 in Douala, the Cameroonian economic capital, to discuss the new exchange regulation within the Cemac region.

Celestin Tawamba, President of Gicam, took this opportunity to express his concern about the difficulties faced by economic operators in accessing foreign exchange, in Cameroonian banks.

“For 71% of employers who are members of Gicam, access to foreign exchange is a major concern,” he said, denouncing banks that make “indecent proposals” to economic operators at usury rates.

The meeting was also attended by representatives of the Central Bank of CEMAC States Beac which some commercial banks say is the cause of this currency shortage. In response, Beac reassures about the availability of foreign currency and says the situation is the result of a strict enforcement of rules on foreign exchange transactions; rules that some banks did not fully follow.

Source: Business in Cameroon

12, April 2019

Women of Cameroon Rise Above the Killing and Havoc ⁰

A widespread notion persists: that women, when compared with their male counterparts, are more naturally inclined towards peace. A woman is a full circle and within her is the power to create, nurture and transform. Over the years, there has been an increasing need for recognition of women’s efforts in conflict resolution by the international community, which resulted to a call for the incorporation of women in peace processes and fostering of equality, empowerment, democracy, poverty eradication and development. U N Security Council Resolution 1325 was the first formal and legal document to prevent violation of women’s rights and support women’s participation in peace processes.

African nations have been ravaged by conflict, resulting in destabilization, displacement and infrastructural destruction, all of which have gender-specific consequence. Recently, a wave of violence broke out in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon.

The United Nations as of January 2019 estimates that over 430,000 people have been internally displaced, over 30,000 live in refugee camps and settlements in Nigeria and over 2,000 people have been killed.

The impact of the anglophone crisis on Anglophone women has been severe. While conflicts inflict suffering on everyone, women are particularly affected by its short- and long- term effects. Sexual assault and exploitation are frequently employed as tools of war; victimization leads to isolation, alienation, prolonged emotional trauma and unwanted pregnancies that often result in abandoned children. Women can play active roles in the events that lead to fighting and instability, and even in combat itself- yet they have also served as the forerunners of peace movements that have ended conflicts.

Although conflicts affect every member of the society in varying degrees, women are naturally more prone to negotiate for peace than men, and in achieving this, women devise all available strategies and resources within their reach to mediate and resolve conflicts for peace to reign.

For instance, in order to achieve peace processes women, go as far as holding prayer meetings, marches, night vigils and in some cases withhold sexual services from their partners or shamed authorities into negotiating by appearing naked in public demonstrations, which has cultural implications in some African cultures.

Aristophanes in his play Lysistrata and Bole Butake, in Lake God, paint a similar scenario where women go on a sex-strike to draw the men’s attention to their plight. The extent to which women devise both formal and informal initiatives to bring about peace shows that women are a formidable force to reckon with in mediation and conflict resolution and must be well integrated in these processes.

Women are not the problem. They are the solution. With the security situation fast deteriorating in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon, a group of courageous women has emerged. Under the banner of Southwest and Northwest Women’s Task Force, individual women and their counterparts in the civil society are mobilizing and campaigning for the end of the Anglophone crisis. The women have decided to give a helping hand to State authorities in the search for long lasting peace in the Anglophone regions. They are demanding a ceasefire and meaningful participation to finding sustainable peace to the violent conflict.

In a patriarchal society like Cameroon’s, their task is not easy. Besides holding press conferences and marches, recently, they have successfully mobilized thousands of women to participate in two lamentation exercises in Buea and Bamenda. This is a cultural practice to show extreme displeasure by publicly wailing to draw the attention of elders, particularly men, forcing them to take appropriate action. The women appeal to talks and dialogue because according to them, these are the main points that will help reunite the two warring parties.

“There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish”, says Michelle Obama, reason why various religious groups like the Christian Women Fellowship of the Presbyterian Church, Christian Women Association of the Catholic Church and Baptist Women and traditional women groups like ‘Ma Awu” in the Manyu division, “takumbeng” in the North West region, Special Neighbors in Mile 16, Buea and other women groups, have all employed several strategies to resolve the conflict and bring peace. These women have used love, tenderness, care, concern, soberness, understanding, tolerance, politeness, patience and truthfulness. There’s also been sensitization through organization of seminars and workshops to educate the population on peace, peaceful protests/march pass with peace plants, reach out, advocacy and preaching, prayers and night vigil, traditional measures such as willful exposure of their nudity, dialogue and advice.

Within the context of the Cameroon anglophone crisis, women play important roles in the process of conflict resolution. Firstly, as activists and advocates for peace, women wage conflict non-violently by pursuing democracy and human rights. Secondly, as peacekeepers and relief aid workers, women contribute to reducing direct violence. Thirdly, as mediators, trauma healing counsellors and policy makers, women work to “transform relationships” and address the root of violence. Lastly, as educators and participants in the development process, women contribute to building the capacity of their communities and nations to prevent violent conflict. Emily Taft once wrote that if women understood and exercised their power, they could remake the world.

If a lasting peace must be achieved in Cameroon, then it won’t be without the participation of women and the inclusion of gender perspectives and participation in peace processes. Women must play a most significant and substantive role in making the transition from the culture of violence to the culture of peace.

Historical chronicles and modern international law theories have documented the role of women in wartime only by identifying women as victims of rape and other sexual atrocities.

This has somewhat changed recently, with resolution 1325 having both a meaningful and symbolic impact on women around the world; this has transformed the image of women from being exclusively victims of war to being active participants as peacemakers, peacebuilders and negotiators. This change recognizes the value women can bring to conflict resolution. While women need to be present at the negotiation table and their voices need to be heard and considered in conflict resolution process, we must also remember that when it comes to curing society’s ills and working towards the elimination of war and violence. Women are not alone. Like the Chinese proverb suggests:

“Women hold up half the sky, but we must work with those who hold up the other half.”

Written by:
Felix Agbor Nkongho
Executive Director
Committee for the Defence of Human Rights in Cameroon

11, April 2019

WikiLeaks founder Assange arrested by UK police at Ecuadorian embassy ⁰

British police say they have arrested WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where the whistleblower has been living since 2012.

“Julian Assange, 47, has today, Thursday 11 April, been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) at the Embassy of Ecuador,” police said.

Police said they arrested Assange after being “invited into the embassy by the Ambassador, following the Ecuadorean government’s withdrawal of asylum.”

WikiLeaks had warned in the past days that Assange was likely to be expelled from the embassy soon.

British interior minister Sajid Javid was due to make a statement to parliament later in the day on the arrest of Assange, the opposition Labour Party said on Twitter.

Assange took refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London in 2012 after facing a warrant for arrest following allegations of sexual assault and rape from the Swedish government. He has denied the allegations, and the investigation was closed last year.

However, the Australian computer programmer had stayed in the embassy out of concern that he would be extradited to the US to be prosecuted for publishing classified documents that were leaked by American whistleblower Chelsea Manning.

Ecuador’s president, Lenin Moreno, said in July that he was planning to withdraw asylum protection for Assange and evict him from its UK embassy.

He said Thursday that London guaranteed Assange would not be extradited to a country that has the death penalty.

“In line with our strong commitment to human rights and international law, I requested Great Britain to guarantee that Mr Assange would not be extradited to a country where he could face torture or the death penalty,” Moreno said in a video posted on Twitter. “The British government has confirmed it in writing, in accordance with its own rules.”

Source: Presstv

11, April 2019

Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir steps down ⁰

A Sudanese government source says President Omar al-Bashir has stepped down and that consultations are underway to form a transitional council.

Adel Mahjoub Hussein, the Sudanese minister of production and economic resources in North Darfur, told the Dubai-based al-Hadath TV on Thursday that, “There are consultations to form a military council to take over power after President Bashir stepped down.”

The announcement brought thousands of Sudanese to the center of the capital, Khartoum, cheering in jubilation and chanting anti-Bashir slogans.

Organizers had also arranged for protesters to gather outside the Defense Ministry, where people chanted, “It has fallen, we won,” in an apparent reference to Bashir’s government.

Reports said that Bashir was at the presidential residence and under “heavy guard.”

Sudan protesters attacked during sit-in

Military to make ‘important’ statement soon

Sudan’s military has said it will make an “important” statement soon. Troops are deployed to key roads and bridges in Khartoum, amid speculation that a coup attempt could be underway against the embattled president after months of anti-government protests across the Northeast African country.

“The armed forces will present an important statement shortly. Be ready for it,” a short notice on state television read, without giving further details.

Soldiers raid offices of Bashir-linked group

In a separate development on Thursday, a team of Sudanese soldiers purportedly raided the offices of a group linked to Bashir’s ruling National Congress Party (NCP) in Khartoum. The soldiers raided the offices of the Islamic Movement, the ideological wing of the NCP, on Thursday morning, according to witnesses speaking to AFP.

This picture, taken on April 10, 2019 during a rally by Sudanese protesters in front of the military headquarters in the capital, Khartoum, shows the word “Freedom” in Arabic spelled out using stones in the middle of a street. (By AFP)

Sudan has been struggling with protests since December 17 last year, when an anti-government campaign erupted over price hikes and shortages of food and fuel. That initial public display of anger quickly spiraled into calls for the 75-year-old Bashir to resign.

The embattled president declared a state of emergency, dissolved the central government, and replaced state governors with security officials. But the protests did not stop.

Opposition figures have urged the military to help negotiate an end to Bashir’s nearly 30-year rule and a transition to democracy.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over his alleged role in genocide in the Darfur region. He denies having had a role.

Source: Presstv

11, April 2019

Manchester United own goal hands victory to Barcelona ⁰

Barcelona will take a 1-0 lead over Manchester United into next week’s second leg of their Champions League quarter-final after a 12th-minute Luke Shaw own goal gave them victory at Old Trafford on Wednesday.

Sergio Busquets found Lionel Messi with a clever ball into the area and the Argentine carved out space on the left to deliver a lofted cross to Luis Suarez at the back post.

The Uruguayan’s header deflected off the shoulder of a scrambling Shaw and beat David De Gea to give the visitors the lead and although the linesman initially flagged for offside, the goal was given after a VAR video review.

United’s best chance of the first half fell to Diogo Dalot but the Portuguese made a mess of a fine Marcus Rashford cross, heading harmlessly across the goal from close-range.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team had struggled to get a foothold in the game during the opening 45 minutes but they were much improved after the break, applying plenty of pressure without creating any clear chances.

Barcelona could have added a second had Suarez not fired into the side-netting from a promising position after a clever through ball from Nelson Semedo.

Barcelona have not lost at home in the Champions League since 2013.

Ronaldo’s 125th Champions League goal

In the other big Champions League match from Wednesday night, Cristiano Ronaldo produced yet another quality goal to add to his collection and help Juventus to a 1-1 draw at Ajax Amsterdam in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie on Wednesday.

Juventus took the lead on the stroke of halftime as Portuguese forward Ronaldo began an attacking move inside his own half before sprinting down field and diving to head in a clever chip from Joao Cancelo.

Ajax equalised 30 seconds into the second half after Cancelo lost control of the ball to allow David Neres to run down the left wing, cut inside and curl the ball past Juve goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

The result leaves the Serie A side in a strong position to advance to the semi-finals in next week’s return leg in Turin. However, they will be mindful of Ajax’s 4-1 away win over Real Madrid in the last round that eliminated the holders 5-3 on aggregate.

Hakim Ziyech had several efforts at goal in a lively start for the youthful Dutch team, who have come through the pre-group phase qualifying round to reach the last eight.

Donny van de Beek scraped the outside of the upright with a 25th minute effort from close range after opening up space for himself in the penalty area in Ajax’s best chance of the first half.

But Juventus, with the 34-year-old Ronaldo central to their attacks, worked their way into the contest and came close themselves when the forward set up Federico Bernardeschi to turn and shoot in the 37th minute. But he was just off target.

Ronaldo, who scored a hat-trick in the previous round against Atletico Madrid, then scored a 125th Champions League goal with the last move of the first half before Ajax opened the second period with the same intensity.

After equalising, Ajax then dominated possession but were guilty of over-elaborate passing and were also fortunate not to have given away a penalty when defender Nicolas Tagliafico was tugging on the jersey of Juventus captain Mario Mandzukic.

Spanish referee Carlos del Cerro Grande paused briefly in the 53rd minute to presumably hear from the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) but resumed play before TV replays showed that Juventus had been denied a decent claim.

However, influential left back Tagliafico will miss the second leg next Tuesday after being booked late in the first half.

Juve hit the upright in the closing stages through substitute Douglas Costa although Ajax could have had the last say as Dusan Tadic missed a good chance in stoppage time.

More than 100 Juventus supporters were detained by Dutch police before the match while home fans were also arrested as a water cannon was used outside the ground.

(REUTERS)

11, April 2019

Coup d’état seems to be underway in Sudan ⁰

The Sudanese military says it will be making “an important announcement” soon, as a coup d’état seems to be underway against President Omar al-Bashir.