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1, January 2024

Lions: Rigobert Song dismisses accusations of theft against Martin Hongla ⁰

Martin Hongla will not be travelling with Cameroon for the AFCON 2023 (January 13-February 11, 2024). The defensive midfielder has not been called up by Rigobert Song.

Some in the country argued that this was a sanction, as the player would be guilty of stealing goods belonging to his teammates during the March 2023 gathering. The Indomitable Lions coach denied this.

“He never stole, there’s no problem. He’s a player I’ve known since the U23s, he’s like my son. Martin Hongla has never stolen, it’s simply a choice on my part not to call him up,” Rigobert Song insisted in comments relayed by So Foot.

Source: Sportsnewsafrica

1, January 2024

Biya regime says Cameroon to become net iron ore exporter in 2024 ⁰

Cameroon will become a net exporter of iron ore in 2024, Interim Minister of Mines, Industries and Technological Development Fuh Calistus Gentry has said.

“We have negotiated a huge project, which will involve 100 million tons of iron ore,” Gentry told reporters Sunday night in the capital, Yaounde. “We are from 2024 a mining nation… we are going to see regional explosion of the industry.”

He said Cameroon is particularly keen to working with China to tap its mineral resources.

Gentry spoke shortly after President Paul Biya said in a televised address to the nation that Cameroon is richly endowed with mineral resources that could be “excellent niche for financial resources.”

Source: Xinhuanet

1, January 2024

Biya says security situation in Southern Cameroons has improved ⁰

The security situation in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest has improved, said Cameroonian President Paul Biya.

“Thanks to the people’s active cooperation with our defense and security forces, the situation in the Northwest and Southwest has improved significantly. It is now possible to calmly implement the reconstruction and development plans for the said regions,” Biya said in a televised address to the nation Sunday night.

The president said “an increasing number” of fighters have laid down their arms and joined government-run disarmament centers, urging residents in the troubled regions to continue to cooperate with government forces.

“For those who persist in criminal activity, they must know that our firm determination to ensure the security of our fellow citizens will never falter,” he added

The armed separatist conflict has been going on in the two Anglophone regions since 2017. The separatists want to break away from the majority of French-speaking Cameroon and create an independent nation.

Source: Xinhuanet

31, December 2023

Burundi’s president says homosexuality ‘imported from the West’, calls for stoning gays ⁰

Burundi’s President Evariste Ndayishimiye has called on citizens to stone gay people, escalating a crackdown on sexual minorities in a country where LGBT people already face social ostracism and jail terms of up to two years if convicted of same-sex offences.

“If you want to attract a curse to the country, accept homosexuality,” Ndayishimiye said in a question and answer session with journalists and the public held in Burundi’s east on Friday.

“I even think that these people, if we find them in Burundi, it is better to lead them to a stadium and stone them. And that cannot be a sin,” he said, describing homosexuality as imported from the West.

His comments were the latest show of widening intolerance of LGBT people in the region.

Uganda passed a law in May that carries the death sentence for certain categories of same-sex offences and lengthy jail sentences for others – a move that was widely condemned by Western governments and human rights activists.

The United States has imposed a range of sanctions including travel restrictions and removing Uganda from a tariff-free trade deal. The World Bank also suspended all future loans to the east African country in protest.

Some lawmakers in Kenya, South Sudan and Tanzania are pushing for similarly tough anti-gay laws in their countries.

The politicians in these countries see their efforts as buttressing African values and sovereignty against what they view as Western pressure on the issue.

Source: Reuters

31, December 2023

Ugandan athlete Benjamin Kiplagat found dead in Kenya ⁰

Ugandan athlete Benjamin Kiplagat has been found dead in Kenya, police said Sunday, with local media reports saying he had been murdered.

The Kenyan-born Kiplagat, 34, had represented Uganda internationally in the 3,000m steeplechase, including several Olympic Games and World Championships.

His body was found in a car on Saturday night on the outskirts of the Rift Valley town of Eldoret, home to many athletes.

“An investigation has been launched and officers are on the ground pursuing leads,” local police commander Stephen Okal told reporters in Eldoret.

He said Kiplagat’s body had a deep knife wound to his neck, suggesting he was stabbed.

Source: AFP

31, December 2023

UN peacekeeping mission in Mali ends ⁰

UN peacekeepers are due to finish their withdrawal from Mali on Sunday, after a long-running mission lasting a decade.

Minusma – the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission – began in 2013 after an armed rebellion, but has been asked to leave by the country’s ruling military government.

The UN mission’s head said it did a lot but fell below expectations.

With some 310 peacekeepers killed, Minusma was the UN’s second deadliest mission worldwide, after Lebanon.

In the summer, Mali told the UN that its 12,000 peacemakers needed to leave, and the UN Security Council voted to withdraw the mission.

UN staff have been leaving in stages for months, with a deadline of 31 December for full withdrawal.

On Friday, local media reported that Minusma had handed over control of one of its last major camps in the northern Timbuktu region ahead of the deadline, for security reasons.

Timbuktu was one of three sites which were supposed to remain open to manage the end of the mission after 31 December, but the UN was worried about the presence of militants, reports said.

Source: BBC

30, December 2023

French embassy in Yaoundé is a base conspiring against the Cameroonian nation ⁰

Cameroon Intelligence Report Yaoundé bureau chief has hinted that ever since the coup in Gabon, the French government has turned its embassy building in the nation’s capital into a military command center conspiring against the Cameroonian people.

Rita Akana, made the revelation in a report on Friday, emphasizing that the French embassy compound in Yaoundé is now serving as a major base where French military and security operations against the people of Cameroon and some CEMAC countries are being planned.

Our Yaoundé bureau chief stated in the report that the French embassy started acting as a den of espionage immediately after the 91-year President Biya declared war against English speaking Cameroonians but some Cameroon politicians including members of the Francophone dominated secret service prefer to overlook the matter for the sake of their positions.

Cameroon Intelligence Report reportedly raised the issue with the disgraced spy chief Maxime Eko Eko who simply opined that the French embassy building in Yaoundé is a diplomatic installation and must be protected under international law.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that these Biya acolytes tend to condone the French spying machine which is seriously detrimental to the country in order to maintain their posts.

By Toto Roland Motuba with Intel files

29, December 2023

Genocide of Southern Cameroonians spelling end of Biya regime ⁰

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government says Yaounde’s killing of innocent Southern Cameroons women and children is slowly but surely spelling the end of the occupying French Cameroun regime.

Dabney Yerima made the remarks during a meeting with his aides on the situation in Ground Zero on Boxing Day as the brutal La Republique war intensifies in the rural areas of Southern Cameroons.

“We of the Ambazonia Interim Government believe that the martyrdom of Southern Cameroons women and children will end the brutal regime in Yaoundé and that in 2024 we will witness the victory of Ambazonia Restoration Forces as well as the elimination of all French Cameroun colonial administrators” Vice President Yerima stated.

Comrade Dabney Yerima also expressed dismay at the support provided by the Southern Cameroons diaspora in Europe and North America, saying the Ambazonians in the West need to step up their game to win the independence battle.

Yerima furthered that the people of Southern Cameroons will continue to stand up for the implementation of justice and the complete independence of their homeland.

91-year old President Biya started the bloody war on Southern Cameroonians seven years ago following a strike by English speaking teachers and lawyers.

Since the start of the war, the Biya regime has killed at least 10,000 Southern Cameroonians and injured several hundred others, and left vast swathes of the North West and South West in ruins.

Yaoundé continue to impose a siege on Southern Cameroons territory by cutting off electricity and the internet.

By Haggai Fung Achuo

29, December 2023

Football: Ancelotti extends Real Madrid contract until 2026 ⁰

Carlo Ancelotti extended his contract with Real Madrid to June 2026 on Friday which would rule him out of becoming Brazil national coach.

“Real Madrid and Carlo Ancelotti have reached agreement on the extension of his contract till June 30, 2026,” Real said in a statement.

It had been reported in July this year that 64-year-old Ancelotti would become the first foreigner to coach Brazil in almost 60 years once he saw out his present Real contract next year.

The Brazil Football Confederation had named Fernando Diniz as the temporary manager before they anticipated Ancelotti taking control for the 2024 Copa America.

Ednaldo Rodriguez, the then president of the CBF, held months of negotiations with Ancelotti, who had previously stated the Real job would be his last in football.

However, it appeared one of the most glamorous and challenging jobs in football had brought a change of mind.

“We went after him not only due to his record, but also because he is a decent person,” Rodrigues told beIN Sports earlier this year.

“Those who have worked with him say that he is open, cultured, and he appreciates Brazilian football.”

However, under Diniz Brazil’s woes on the pitch have continued and the presently occupy the sixth and final regional qualifying spot for the 2026 World Cup.

Ancelotti is regarded as one of the greatest coaches of all time.

He has won the Champions League four times — twice with AC Milan and also on two occasions with Real Madrid.

He has won domestic league titles with Real and Milan, in England with Chelsea, in Germany with Bayern Munich and in France with Paris Saint-Germain.

Source: AFP

28, December 2023

Russia reopens Burkina Faso embassy after 32 years ⁰

Russia has reopened its diplomatic mission in Burkina Faso after a gap of nearly 32 years.

The West African country has been distancing itself from its historical partner France over the past year.

The Russian Embassy in Ouagadougou was reopened on Thursday. It was closed in 1992.

This was all announced by the government of Burkina Faso and separately confirmed by the Russian Ambassador to Ivory Coast Alexei Saltykov.

“Russia formally reopened its embassy this Thursday in Ouagadougou,” the Burkinabe Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

While announcing the news, Saltykov also said Russia’s President Vladimir Putin would name the new ambassador to Burkina Faso. Saltykov is to head the mission in the meantime.

“Despite our physical absence here, bilateral cooperation in the political and economic fields has never ceased,” he went on to say, describing Burkina Faso as “an old partner with whom we have solid and friendly ties.”

Burkina Faso, once under French rule, is currently ruled by a military junta led by Captain Ibrahim Traore which seized power in September, the second coup in eight months against pro-France governments.

After the coup, France recalled its ambassador from Ouagadougou and has not replaced the envoy.

Burkina Faso’s military leaders have suspended the French TV outlets LCI and France24 as well as Radio France Internationale (RFI) and expelled the correspondents of the French newspapers Liberation and Le Monde over their “subversive activities.”

In September, Burkina Faso’s Foreign Ministry ordered France’s military attaché Emmanuel Pasquier and his team to leave over “subversive activities.”

In October, the country signed a deal with Russia for the construction of a nuclear power plant to boost the energy supply to the Sahel nation.

Less than a quarter of the population in Burkina Faso has access to electricity.

Being one of the poorest countries in the world, Burkina Faso has been under the influence of terrorist groups linked to al-Qaeda and Daesh that have killed thousands of its citizens, creating one of the fastest-growing humanitarian crises in Africa.

Source: Presstv