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30, January 2025

Yaoundé: New MTN Cameroon CEO meets industry leaders ⁰

Wanda Matandela, MTN Cameroon’s new CEO, began his first visit to the West African country this week, joined by a delegation led by outgoing CEO Mitwa Kaemba Ng’ambi.

During this introductory tour, the MTN Cameroon delegation engaged with esteemed government officials including Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, technical advisor of Cameroon, Jean-Claude Ayem Mauger.

The group also met with the minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Minette LIBOM LI LIKENG, director general of the Telecommunications Regulatory Board, and Professor Philemeon Zoo Zame, director general of the National Agency for Information and Communication Technologies.

The meetings gave Ng’ambi the opportunity to formally introduce her successor to senior executives and say goodbye.

Ng’ambi will begin her new post as CEO of MTN Côte d’Ivoire on March 1, 2025, the same day Matandela takes over as CEO of MTN Cameroon.

Matandela was MTN SA’s Chief Commercial Operations Officer until his current appointment.

He is a seasoned business executive with extensive expertise in ICT, financial services, and entertainment industries.

The telco executive has a BCom Accounting degree, a Masters in Information Systems from Wits, an MBA from Stellenbosch, and a Certificate in Leadership from IMD, Switzerland.

Source: iTweb Africa

29, January 2025

UN General Assembly President Philemon Yang to visit India ⁰

The President of the United Nations General Assembly, H.E. Mr. Philemon Yang, will undertake an official visit to India from 4 January to 8 February 2025, at the invitation of the Indian Government. His visit will include stops in New Delhi, the capital, and Bengaluru, often referred to as the Silicon Valley of India.

During his visit, President Yang will aim to strengthen multilateral cooperation with India on key global issues, including international peace and security, as well as the Pact for the Future.

While in India, President Yang will hold bilateral meetings, including a courtesy call on the President of India, H.E. Ms. Droupadi Murmu, and discussions with the country’s External Affairs Minister, Dr. S. Jaishankar.

His itinerary will also include visits to a public health facility in Gautam Buddha Nagar and several key sites in Bengaluru, including the Infosys campus and the Indian Institute of Science. The President will also visit other important locations in both cities.

Additionally, President Yang will meet with the UN Country Team in India, led by UN Resident Coordinator, Mr. Shombi Sharp.

Before arriving in India, President Yang will conclude an official visit to Japan from 31 January to 4 February 2025. In Tokyo, he will meet with Prime Minister H.E. Mr. Shigeru Ishiba, Foreign Minister H.E. Mr. Takeshi Iwaya, and JICA President Mr. Akihiko Tanaka. The President will also visit Hiroshima, where he will pay his respects at the cenotaph for the atomic bomb victims and lay a wreath.

H.E. Mr. Philemon Yang was born in the Republic of Cameroon and served as Prime Minister, among other positions, of the Republic of Cameroon. In June 2024, he was elected as the President of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly. His term as President of the UN General Assembly runs from September 2024 until September 2025.

Culled from The UN

27, January 2025

Yaoundé: Etoudi throws in the towel for African Development Bank presidency ⁰

Biya and his gang have decided not to put forward a candidate for the presidency of the African Development Bank, despite two profiles emerging in recent months, Africa Intelligence reported today.

Africa Intelligence also stated that Biya made the dramatic u-turn to avoid finding himself at odds with the Chadian leader.

Unity Palace had worked to promote its own candidate for the top African Development Bank seat, despite having officially supported Chad’s contender.

The regime in Yaoundé reportedly ordered Cameroonian diplomats to push for economist Albert Zeufack to take over the presidency of the African Development Bank, instead of the former BEAC governor whom N’Djamena is supporting.

As more candidates apply to take on the African Development Bank leadership role, the presidents involved have been quietly calling round to get a picture of the situation.

By Chi Prudence Asong with files from Africa Intelligence

26, January 2025

DR Congo rebels close in on key city as 13 peacekeepers killed ⁰

UN Secretary General António Guterres has called on Rwanda to withdraw its forces from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s territory and on the M23 rebel group to stop its advance on the eastern city of Goma amid intense fighting.

At a UN Security Council emergency meeting on Sunday, Congo’s foreign minister accused Rwanda of declaring war by sending its troops over the border to help the rebels.

Rwanda’s representative did not deny backing M23.

The calls come after 13 soldiers serving with peacekeeping forces in the DR Congo were killed in clashes with M23 rebels, UN and army officials have said.

South Africa said nine of its soldiers were killed while deterring an advance on Goma.

Three Malawian soldiers were killed, the UN said, while Uruguay’s army said one of its soldiers had died.

M23 rebels have taken control of vast parts of mineral-rich eastern DR Congo since 2021. Hundreds of thousands have fled their homes, the UN said.

In the past few weeks the group has been advancing swiftly on Goma, a city of more than one million residents, amid intense fighting.

Guterres, in a statement through his spokesman, called on Rwanda to “cease support to the M23 and withdraw from DRC territory”. He also called on the M23 to “immediately cease all hostile actions and withdraw from occupied areas”.

As Sunday’s UN Security Council got under way in New York City, reports of Rwandan drone strikes aimed at targets near Goma emerged.

Bintou Keita, from the UN peacekeeping force Monusco, told the council that despite ongoing UN efforts, M23 and Rwandan forces had captured the outskirts of Goma, “causing mass panic and fright across the population”.

“Roads are blocked and the airport can no longer be used for evacuation or humanitarian efforts. M23 has declared the airspace over Goma closed. In other words, we are cut,” Ms Keita added.

The UK called for an end to attacks on peacekeepers, while France’s UN representative, Nicolas de Rivière, reiterated Guterres’ call for Rwanda to withdraw its troops from the DR Congo.

Both DR Congo and the UN say the M23 is backed by Rwanda.

Instead, Rwanda blames the DR Congo for the current conflict.

Speaking at the Security Council meeting, Rwanda’s UN representative Ernest Rwamucyo said he regrets that the international community chooses to condemn the M23 group rather than the Congolese army, who he said violated the ceasefire.

“Rwanda also notes with disappointment the international community’s failure to condemn the use of foreign mercenaries in this conflict,” Mr Rwamucyo said, adding that the military escalation “represents an unprecedented security threat to Rwanda”.

It comes one day after the UN said it would be pulling all of its non-essential staff out of Goma. Essential operations are ongoing in the DR Congo.

Since the start of 2025 more than 400,000 people have been displaced in North and South Kivu, provinces near the border with Rwanda, according to the UN’s refugee agency.

One displaced woman, Alice Feza, said she is at a loss of what to do next, as she has fled from Kiwanja, Rutshuru, Kibumba and now, Goma.

“People are fleeing everywhere, and we don’t know where to go anymore, because we started fleeing a long time ago,” Ms Feza said, adding: “The war catches us here among the host families, now we have nowhere to go”.

In the past few days, several countries have urged their citizens to leave Goma, including the UK, France, Germany and the US.

The M23 group has called on Congolese troops in Goma to surrender in order to avoid bloodshed.

Meanwhile, DR Congo has severed diplomatic ties with neighbouring Rwanda, accusing the country of being behind the rebellion.

The move comes after M23 fighters killed a Congolese military governor who was visiting the frontline on Thursday.

Map showing the Democratic Republic of Congo

The M23 formed as an offshoot of another rebel group in 2012, ostensibly to protect the Tutsi population in the east of DR Congo, which had long complained of persecution and discrimination.

Rwanda has previously said the authorities in DR Congo were working with some of those responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide against ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

However, Rwanda’s critics accuse it of using the M23 to loot eastern DR Congo’s minerals such as gold, cobalt and tantalum.

Human Rights Watch has warned of escalating risks to civilians as DR Congo’s army battle the M23 rebels. The humanitarian group has accused both sides of committing grave abuses against civilians.

Getty Images Non essential civil personnel of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) are seen leaving ahead of their evacuation in Goma on January 25, 2025 — As many as 400,000 people in eastern DR Congo have been displaced since the start of the year, according to the UN

Last week, local leaders said more than 200 civilians had been killed in areas captured by the M23, with hospitals in Goma treating hundreds of patients.

Martin Gordon, an Anglican bishop in Goma, told the BBC fighting in the country had gone on “way too long” and people “will do anything for peace”.

Within reach of major mining towns supplying metals and minerals in high demand such as gold, tin and coltan, Goma has become a vital economic hub. Its road and air transport links, and the fact that it has a huge UN peacekeeping base, has attracted a host of businesses, international organisations and diplomatic consulates.

As such, Goma is a valuable strategic target. In February last year the town was the focus of a resurgence in fighting between the M23 group and the Congolese army.

Source: BBC

24, January 2025

A new unrealistic Biya mandate would constitute a mistake ⁰

Several Cameroonian bishops have taken sides against the possibility of a new candidacy by Paul Biya in the presidential election to be held in October 2025. After 42 years of unchallenged rule, part of the Church in Cameroon wants to turn the page in a country that appears fragmented.

At 91 years old, the “sphinx” is the oldest elected leader in office and the second head of state in the world still alive in terms of longevity in power.

This adds fuel to the fire for Africans who made the ironic statement that Africa is a “young continent led by old people.” To top it all off, add to that the autocratic management of Paul Biya, which has hardened after his last highly contested election in 2018, repressing any dissenting political opinion in the country.

The worrying state of health of the current head of state might have been a intimation that the latter would finally hand over the reins. Alas, during his New Year’s wishes for 2025, Paul Biya kept his political future vague. “I have heard your calls and your encouragement, and I remain devoted to serving our beloved nation,” he declared in response to the cleverly orchestrated messages from his fervent supporters who are asking him to run for office one last time in 2025.

A new “unrealistic” mandate would constitute a “mistake” according to the terms used by the Archbishop of Douala on RFI. “People are worried, we need a peaceful transition,” added Bishop Samuel Kleda. Words little appreciated by the government.

While one of the opposition representatives – Jean-Michel Nintcheu, president of the Front for Change – praised the archbishop and called on Paul Biya to take “a well-deserved retirement,” the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs accused the prelate of having “exceeded his clerical responsibilities.”

“He sometimes feels obliged to take political positions, without analyzing all the consequences. He has therefore taken his position as a citizen, and those among his flock who want to follow him will follow him,” deplored Grégoire Owona.

But Bishop Kleda’s episcopal remarks are far from being isolated within the Cameroonian Catholic Church: on January 1, Bishop Barthélemy Yaouda Hourgo, Bishop of Yagoua (North of the country) denounced, miter on head, the possible candidacy of Paul Biya. “We are not going to put up with any more, we have suffered enough as it is,” exploded the prelate in a message that quickly went viral on social networks.

“The most terrible suffering is that Cameroonians are forbidden to express their suffering. . . referring to threats by the Cameroon Minister of Territorial Administration who describes the state as a ‘blender’ that will crush anyone voicing contrary opinions to that of the government. Who are they going to govern when they have crushed all the Cameroonians? Cameroonians are asked to avoid hate speech, but from above we receive words of violence,” stated the Bishop of Yagoua.

With more restraint, Jean Mbarga, Archbishop of Yaoundé, the country’s capital, called on the State “to do everything to ensure that the voice of Cameroonians is heard,” discreetly alluding to the political transition for which a large part of the citizens are calling.

According to Thomas Atenga, professor of communication at the University of Douala interviewed by the BBC, the position of some members of the Cameroon Catholic clergy would reveal the fragmentation between “the real country and its daily sufferings, which the bishops claim to be close to, and the political class that seems disconnected from the reality experienced by Cameroonians.”

Even if the Catholic hierarchy is not unanimous in its rejection of the “sphinx,” according to the professor, the Church – an institution of importance in this African country – “has no other choice but to aspire to greater freedom. Because after 42 years in power, it is high time that Cameroonians experienced other forms of hope, of government, which allow them to think that, the world is different from the one they have known for these years.”

Source: RFI

22, January 2025

Douala: Gov’t targets customs corruption in new crackdown ⁰

To mark International Customs Day, Cameroon’s Ministry of Finance launched a campaign on January 14 in Douala to tackle corruption in the country’s customs service. The campaign, which will run until January 22, focuses on educating customs officers in Douala, Kribi, Limbe, and Yaoundé about the harm corruption causes to the nation’s growth.

The effort is backed by Africa Global Logistics (AGL), a key partner in the initiative. Speaking at the launch, Mama Nsounchiat, Deputy Managing Director of AGL Cameroon, underlined the need for accountability. “Corruption has no place in a system that aims for excellence. AGL is dedicated to supporting this fight by providing modern tools and innovative solutions to improve governance,” he said.

Corruption in customs has been a major issue in Cameroon for years. A 2016 report by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Conac) detailed widespread fraud and misconduct within the sector. The report estimated that between 2010 and 2015, corruption cost the public treasury CFA1,246 billion in lost revenue.

Investigators also uncovered extravagant lifestyles among customs officers. Some were found to own luxurious properties in Douala and other cities, as well as significant bank balances. One case involved a customs officer in Maroua, in the Far North region, who reportedly owned 13 villas, a five-story building, 10 plots of land, trucks, buses, and several luxury cars.

The diaspora has also expressed frustration. In December 2024, Cameroon’s liaison officer to Interpol, Richard Evina Engolo, relayed complaints from Cameroonians abroad to the country’s ambassador in France. These grievances pointed to corruption and other unethical practices by customs officers at the ports of Kribi and Douala.

Source: Business in Cameroon

20, January 2025

Brenda Biya competing with poor saloon girls as the country burns ⁰

Her dad President Paul Biya is fast exceeding his quota of killing. Roads in the country are so bad that potholes are swallowing cars, okadas and bicycles the way his ministers Paul Atanga Nji, Laurent Esso and Ngoh Ngoh are swallowing opponents of the regime.

The Delegate General for National Security, Martin Mbarga Nguele observed recently that driving from the nation’s capital Yaoundé to Mutengene in the South West region, the only way to continue the journey is over the rooftop of the vehicle which the road has already eaten.

So, the best way to survive in Cameroon is by relocating to Bastos in Yaoundé with all your belongings including small shops, hair dressing saloons, beer parlours and cosmetic shops. This is what Brenda Biya, daughter of President Biya the so called Father of the Nation has just done.

Bastos is supposed to be a kind of Stamford Bridge hosting foreign diplomats, billionaires and those who matter deep within the Cameroonian society. But Brenda Biya and her dad President Paul Biya have made it a free for all with every Tom, Dick or Harry steaming up and down eating roast corn and plums like in Metta Quarter in Kumba.

Recently, a small shop Bree Cosmetics opened its doors in Bastos under the direct supervision of the Minister-Secretary General at the presidency of the republic Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh. Bastos is the place no one can be killed in Cameroon.

The decision by Brenda Biya to open her cosmetic shop in Bastos is essentially to keep her father’s failed and empty legacy alive. Brenda Biya is now competing with poor Cameroonian girls who are shuttling between Dubai and Douala to make ends meet!! And Cameroon is burning.

Brenda reportedly studied in one of the best universities in the USA when thousands of English speaking Cameroonians were being killed by the Francophone dominated military in a war that her dad declared against English speaking Cameroonians.

Today, the monstrous liability of a head of state and the all powerful Fon of Fons is watching his children either committing the same shameful errors or falling into spectacular new ones.

The fire burning up the Biya family is the result of him thinking that he is a god. His refusal to bow to demands for change in Cameroon and hand over power to the new generation and his corrupt policy in which the funds of Cameroon as a country are confused with his own, have led to a complete breakdown of law and order.

The Biya family is now opening a small cosmetic shop for Brenda Biya, after more than 42 years of watching the economic and political corruption that has reduced Cameroon to wretched and grinding poverty.

Roman Catholic Bishops have appealed to Mr Biya to step down, but he is not showing any sign of leaving. Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that he is now struggling to pay his destitute army.

Although French speaking Roman Catholic Bishops are trying to chip away Mr Biya’s authority, the 92-year-old dictator is still firmly entrenched. The most powerful elements of the army, the gendarmerie, the police force and the media are all under his control.

Ultimately Biya’s survival depends on the loyalty of the secret service dominated by elements from his Beti-Bulu tribal extraction, the Francophone military including the National Gendarmerie and to this end, the privileged service men and women will be allocated funds to go and shop at the Bree Cosmetics Shop in Bastos. That will give them a special kind of divinity.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

20, January 2025

Biya’s continued stay in power: Bishop of Yagoua comes under attack ⁰

The President of the National Assembly Cavaye Yeguie Djibril has launched a scathing attack on the Bishop of Yagoua, who in a homily on 1 January 2025 denounced the inertia of the corrupt CPDM government in Yaoundé.

‘Even a devil should first take power in Cameroon and then we’ll see’, Bishop Barthelemy Yaouda of the Diocese of Yagoua said.

His Lordship the Bishop of Yagoua used the figure of speech to indicate that it was time for President Paul Biya to make way for someone else.

‘We’re not going to suffer any more than this. We’ve already suffered. The worst is not going to come. Even the Devil should first take power in Cameroon and then we’ll see.”

Cavaye Yeguie Djibril was visibly ‘touched’ by these remarks and has gone on the offensive against the Holy Roman Catholic Church lecturing a pro Biya audience on the notion of the devil and stating that it is imperative to summon Bishop Barthelemy Yaouda to Rome.

‘Catholics should summon that bishop to Rome to show us the devil. Otherwise, it means that all Catholics are saying the same thing. No one has yet seen the devil. Even pagans have never seen the devil. Nobody has ever seen the devil, only this bishop knows where the devil is’, said Hon. Cavaye Yeguie Djibril.

Cavaye’s childish outburst shows that the prelate’s homily is making waves inside the Unity Palace this election year.

By Rita Akana in Yaoundé

18, January 2025

There are reasons why Anglophones believe Biya is a loud sounding nothing ⁰

A huge influx of French speaking Cameroonians coming back every December into the country from Germany, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, UK and the USA and a swelling desire for infrastructural development as seen in English speaking countries such as Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya is now spelling the end for the 42 year-old Biya regime.

While Mr Paul Biya may have no intention of stepping down before this year’s presidential election as demanded by prominent Roman Catholic Bishops or giving up the chairmanship of his ruling CPDM party, change in Cameroon is now inevitable.

It has long been a French Cameroun’s policy to make English speaking Cameroonians feel inferior and marginalized in a union they voted to join via a UN sponsored plebiscite in 1961 and the French government in Paris has been helping them! France is happy when Francophones control everything in Cameroon and they also do not want Anglophones to have authority over their own internal affairs.

English speaking Cameroon political leaders have all along pursued a strategy of cozying up to hostile French Cameroun leaders including the late President Ahmadou Ahidjo and Paul Biya, in the hope that a united and prosperous bilingual Cameroon will emerge in Africa.

But while Francophone Cameroun political elites have never taken any significant measures towards building a united, strong and democratic nation fully integrated in the African Union, Biya and his backers in Paris have actually strengthened his legitimacy and absolute rule over the Republic of Cameroon and for forty-two years, the President of Cameroon has virtually been living in the French speaking part of Switzerland.

There are a lot of signs that French Cameroun under Biya is continuing its failed policy of assimilation of English speaking Cameroonians and, even with the present armed conflict in Southern Cameroons, the regime in Yaoundé is only following directives from Paris.

During a televised conversation with business tycoon Mo Ibrahim in France, Biya made it public that the French policy of assimilation has failed woefully in Southern Cameroons. But the French puppet is still not interested in abandoning the cuvee-type policy. Consequently, Southern Cameroonians over the last seven years have taken very resolute actions by increasing additional economic pain on the French backed Francophone regime in Yaoundé.

Biya and his Francophone political elites think that the only way to achieve victory over Southern Cameroonians is to buy time like what Nigerians did with Biafra. But this is not working!

Nigeria justified their continued acquisition of Biafra as a tribe within the federation. But British Southern Cameroons was already a nation before reunification with La Republique du Cameroun.

Recent developments in Yaoundé are very alarming. The reality is that no French Cameroun political leader is really serious about solving the Anglophone problem. And this denial is slowly but surely giving birth to a new state-the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

If you follow the propaganda in Yaoundé, it seems that everything is working for the 92-year-old President Biya and his men and that Cameroon is prosperous. But looking at the reality, the Biya regime is indeed a Francophone crime syndicate. The bones have a French structure, but the flesh has already turned English.

The number of French speaking Cameroonians sending their children to Anglophone schools in Southern Cameroons and to English speaking countries such Ireland, Nigeria, the UK, South Africa, Canada and the United States is increasing every year. In the next decade, Cameroon will be an English speaking country. Biya and his men are all aware but are simply deceiving their French supporters in Paris.

Take a look at the French speaking millennial generation of the so-called CEMAC region grouping Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Congo-Brazzaville, Central African Republic and Chad, they are the only ones deep within the African continent who have grown up with computers and there is a boom of English learning. And they are no longer interested in watching Bel Mondo, Bernard Tapie content or even the French Ligue 1 football competition. They are only interested in Nigeria movies, music and comedies. To be sure, the eyes of the new generation of French speaking Africans whether in Burkina Faso, Mali or Niger are not on this nonsense French ideological machine, but on material things. And even though Macron wants to stop it with a pro Nigeria stance, the French can’t stop this future in black Africa.

Change is coming to Francophone Africa and their militaries or security forces cannot halt this process because the new young forces are demanding it. Biya is a finished man and the people around him except his wife Chantal Biya and the Minister-Secretary General at the presidency Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh are all in their 80s! So power is no longer in the hands of the ruthless and merciless generation. Today, the young generation knows that if they stand up, there will be no crackdown! But they are waiting patiently for the demise of the butcher of Yaoundé which is coming soon and very soon and they will be brave enough to go to the streets and celebrate.

From every indication, Cameroon is Biya’s family business and there are some people in the military, the National gendarmerie and the police force who are thinking wrongfully that the Biya dynasty should go on and on. But Southern Cameroonians have come to the conclusion that the final change in the Republic of Cameroon will be the collapse of the Biya’s nonsense machine this 2025 presidential election.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

14, January 2025

Football: Rigobert Song meets President Faustin Archange Touadéra ⁰

Cameroon’s legendary footballer Rigobert Song has held talks at the Palais de la Renaissance in Bangui on Monday 13 January with Central African Republic President Faustin Archange Touadéra.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that discussions between the two men focused on the role of sport in youth development in CAR.

The visit is part of a CAR project aimed at strengthening relations with Cameroon.

Rigobert Song shared his expertise and experiences, emphasizing the transformative potential of sport in African societies.

CAR’s Minister Héritier Doneng who is in charge of youth and sport accompanied Song and presented the Central African government’s initiatives to promote sporting disciplines and mobilise young people around constructive projects.

By Rita Akana