Breaking News

17, November 2016

William Aurélien Eteki Mboumoua will be buried at the Bois de Singes cemetery ⁰

The remains of the former Secretary General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and President of the Cameroon Red Cross (CRC) will leave the Yaoundé General Hospital mortuary on the 24^th of November 2016 for its final resting place.

According to a program published by the Cameroon Red Cross, the late William Aurélien Eteki Mboumoua, will embark on his last journey from Yaoundé to Douala on 24 November, where he will be buried on Saturday the 26th of November at the Bois de Singes cemetery. A ceremony will be held at the Yaoundé General Hospital in the presence of numerous political figures, members of the government, the great family of the International Committee of the Red Cross including administrative, traditional and religious authorities.

William Aurélien Eteki Mboumoua had a meteoric rise in the Cameroon political system. He was Minister of National Education, Minister of Youth and Sports, Minister of Culture, Chancellor of the University of Yaoundé, Special Advisor to the President of the Republic, Minister of Missions at the Presidency of the Republic, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Member of the Executive Council and Vice-President of UNESCO, Secretary General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), Member of the Advisory Committee of the United Nations for Disarmament Studies and National President of Cameroon Red Cross.

Born at the Bonadibong neighborhood in Douala, Aurélien Eteki Mboumoua died on Wednesday the 26^th of October at the age of 83.

By Chi Prudence Asong

17, November 2016

Women’s AFCON 2016: Cameroon deploys troops to Limbe and Yaounde ⁰

Cameroon has announced a massive deployment of troops to help strengthen police presence during the Africa Cup of Nations Women’s Football which runs from the 19^th of November to the 3^rd of December 2016. Yaoundé has already stationed nearly 3,000 police officers in the cities of Yaoundé and Limbe, where the matches of the 10th edition of the female AFCON football will take place.

Cameroon Concord News sources say the Cameroonian authorities have reinforced surveillance in order to ensure maximum security of the members of the different teams and delegations including officials of the Confederation of African Football. Many elements of the police force have been seen in recent days on the main streets of the nation’s capital. Plain cloth police officers have also been deployed in the hotels where teams are lodged.

By Chi Prudence Asong

17, November 2016

Several Turkish soldiers seeking asylum in Germany ⁰

Several Turkish soldiers at NATO’s central command in Ramstein has sought asylum in Germany in the wake of Turkey’s widespread crackdown against military personnel, journalists and political activists. According to a German official, quoted by the dpa news agency, family members of the soldiers stationed at the airbase insouthwestern Germany have also applied for asylum.

Paul Junker, a regional official in nearby Kaiserslautern, said the asylum requests had come from “more than one family,” but declined to say how many individuals were involved. German Interior Ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth said last month that 35 Turkish diplomatic passport holders had formally applied for asylum in Germany. The actual figure of the asylum seekers, he said, could be higher.

Relations between Turkey and Germany have strained following the July 15 botched coup, which Ankara claims to have been organized by US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier often clashed with Turkish officials during a visit to Ankara this week, reflecting tough times in their relations.

After 11 years of negotiations, Turkey’s prospects of joining the EU look more remote than ever, with Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu telling Steinmeier on Tuesday that Turkey was “fed up” with the European Union. “We are truly fed up of these statements degrading Turkey. The criteria are clear but there are double standards and a two-faced approach. This is what we don’t like,” Cavusoglu told a joint news conference. Over 240 people were killed and more than 2,100 others injured in the coup attempt, which Gulen has strongly condemned and denied any involvement in.

Tens of thousands of people, including military personnel, judges and teachers, have been suspended, dismissed or detained as part of the post-coup crackdown. International rights groups argue that Ankara’s crackdown has gone far beyond the so-called Gulenists and targeted Kurds as well as government critics.

Turkey detains, suspends mayors over PKK links

On Thursday, Turkish officials arrested and suspected three mayors in the Kurdish-majority southeastern part of the country over alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group.

Unnamed security sources said police detained the mayor of Van city, Bekir Kaya, and four other municipal officials early Thursday.

Bekir Kaya, mayor of the southeastern Turkish city of Van

The sources said the mayors of Mardin and Siirt citties, identified as Ahmet Turk and Tuncer Bakirhan respectively, had also been discharged and replaced with administrators appointed by the Interior Ministry. Earlier this month, 13 legislators from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) were arrested after being accused of links to Kurdish militants.

Party leaders Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ remain in custody along with eight others, waiting to stand trial on terrorism-related charges. A shaky ceasefire between the PKK, which has been calling for an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984, and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015. Ever since, attacks on Turkish security forces have soared.

Over the past few months, Turkish ground and air forces have been carrying out operations against PKK positions in the country’s troubled southeastern border region as well as Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region and northern Syria.

Presstv

17, November 2016

Draws for the 2016 Inter-Pool competition to be stage today in Yaounde ⁰

The Cameroon Football Federation, FECAFOOT has announced that the draw for the 2016 Inter-Pool tournament will take place at its headquarters in the Tsinga district in Yaoundé today Thursday the 17^th of November 2016 at 3 pm.

Cameroon Concord News learnt that the competition has been scheduled for December 2016 after the final phase of the women’s Africa Cup of Nations. FECAFOOT also said in a statement that the city of Bafoussam, capital of the West Region will host the 2016 inter-pool jamboree.

The 10 qualified teams are the ones that finished at the top of the second division championships organized separately in the ten regions of Cameroon. The inter-pool tournament is the only highway that links clubs from the second division to join the elite division known as League 1.

The list of ten candidates this year does not include the mythical clubs such as Union Abong-Mbang, Leopard of Douala and Dihep Ndi Kam of Yabassi.

Here is the complete list of the ten regional champions expected in Yaoundé for the draw:

Far North: Santos FC of Koza

North: Scorpions FC of Be

Adamawa: Watre Polo of Meiganga

East: As Bethel of Bertoua

Centre: FC Yaoundé II

South: Reste of Monde d’Ebolowa

West: As Menoua of Dschang

South West: Victoria United of Limbe aka OPOPO

North West: Bamboulet of Nkambe

Littoral: Avion FC of Nkam

By Sonne Peter

17, November 2016

Yaounde: Striking SOCATUR workers molested and detained in Kondengui ⁰

The employees of the Cameroon Society of Urban Transport (SOCATUR) paralyzed traffic for more than three hours by blocking the road to the Nlongkak district in Yaoundé on Wednesday the 16^th of November. The nearly 125 people claimed they have not been paid for over 12 months. Cameroon Concord News gathered they are actually being owed 842 million CFA francs.

President Biya had reportedly given standing instructions that the workers be paid long ago. However, on November the 15th at a meeting held with the representative of the Ministry of Finance, the striking workers were told they could not be paid. According to their spokesman Hubert Mani, the strike action was to send signals to the Head of State.

The Senior Divisional Officer for Mfoundi, Jean Claude Nsila, went down to the scene in an emergency, followed by dozens of riot police officers to try to contain the strike. The SOCATUR workers were forced to sit on the ground against their will and many were forcibly taken away and molested before being shipped to an unspecified destination.

A reporter with the Cameroon Intelligence Report hinted that some of the striking workers were detained at the Kondengui high security prison. The Prefect of Mfoundi was quoted by a local newspaper as saying “You will spend some few weeks in Kondengui”. Jean Claude Tsila has convened a crisis meeting in his office to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.

By Rita Akana in Yaounde

16, November 2016

Boko Haram has dramatically scaled back attacks in Cameroon ⁰

Boko Haram has dramatically scaled back attacks in Cameroon in recent months, analysts said on Wednesday, suggesting a regional security force is gaining ground against the militants. The Islamist movement – which controlled an area the size of Belgium in northeast Nigeria last year and raided Cameroon and other neighbours to expand its “caliphate” – had since suffered a string of defeats, International Crisis Group (ICG) said.

The report came days after security and U.N. sources said hundreds of Boko Haram fighters and their families had surrendered on another frontline in Chad. There was no comment from any of the factions of Boko Haram which is still seen as one of the main security threats in West Africa. “We’ve seen a dizzying downwards spiral in the number of attacks and suicide bombings,” said Hans De Marie Heungoup, one of the report’s authors.

Two years ago, attacks were happening on an almost daily basis, he said. But the number had fallen to between six and eight a month since September. “[Boko Haram] has suffered heavy losses and seen its conventional capacities reduced,” the study said, partly thanks to last year’s formation of a 10,000-strong regional force with troops from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin.

Up to 1,000 fighters with heavy weaponry and armoured vehicles joined strikes in Cameroon’s Far North Region in 2014-15, the report said. But attacks were now focused on the northernmost tip of the region where fighters continued to control part of the fishing industry of Lake Chad amid a labyrinth of waterways.

Recruitment is also faltering in Cameroon although forced enlistment remains a risk, ICG said. Up to 4,000 Cameroonians are thought to have joined the group and some were given sign-on bonuses of up to $2000 and a motorbike, according to the study, citing interviews with locals.

Those who proved their loyalty by killing their parents often enjoyed quick promotion, it added. Analysts say the faction around the Lake Chad Basin represents the stronger branch of the group, loyal to Islamic State (IS) and led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi. Another faction led by Abubaker Shekau is based further south in Nigeria’s Sambisa forest.

Culled from Reuters

16, November 2016

CPDM miracle: CNPS signs medical evacuation convention for its staffs, patients to be treated in Tunisia ⁰

The National Social Insurance Fund known in French as the Caisse Nationale de Prévoyance Sociale (CNPS) has signed a convention for medical evacuations of its staffs and other patients to Tunisia, while the institution owns and runs many hospitals in the country.

On October 26, 2016, CNPS signed an agreement with Tunisia’s Mediacal Services (TMS) for medical evacuations. The National Social Insurance Fund was represented during the signing ceremony by Alain Noël Mekulu Mvondo, the general manager of the fund and Slim Maraoui who stood for the TMS.

According to the agreement, patients proposed by CNPS will now be evacuated to Tunisia and no longer in France. The management of CNPS justified the decision to sign the agreement saying it was pushed by the desire to reduce the costs of evacuations to France and Tunisia’s modern technical platforms and the very good quality of its medical practitioners.

Cameroon Concord News health correspondent, who contributed to this report, opined that the convention has betrayed the lack of confidence by CNPS with regard to its own hospitals. The main CNPS hospital in Yaoundé created in 1978 is still struggling to meet international standards. CNPS had been evacuating patients to France and Great Britain. Mekulu Mvondo now thinks Tunisia and Europe have identical technical plates.

By Sonne Peter

16, November 2016

Russia to withdraw from the International Criminal Court ⁰

Russia has decided to withdraw its signature from the founding statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying the tribunal has failed to live up to the hopes of the international community. In a statement issued on Wednesday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it would pull out from the ICC following a decree by President Vladimir Putin, who decided for Moscow not to be “a participant in the ICC statute.”

The statement said the main reason for the withdrawal was the ICC’s way of treating Russia’s brief war with neighboring Georgia in 2008, adding that the international tribunal had ignored Georgia’s aggression against pro-Moscow civilians in the separatist region of South Ossetia. “In these conditions one cannot speak of trust in the International Criminal Court,” the ministry said, calling the ICC’s work as “one-sided and inefficient.”

The statement also slammed the ICC’s lack of independence in dealing with war cases, saying “The court did not live up to the hopes associated with it.” Russia has yet to ratify the Rome Statute that set up the ICC, the world’s first permanent war crimes court. The government has only been a signatory to the treaty since 2000.

The decision by Moscow to pull out from the ICC could further complicate the situation surrounding the court as several African members, such as South Africa and Burundi, have already decided to withdraw from the tribunal, saying it is biased and lacks justice. Gambia has also notified the United Nations that it would leave the ICC next week.

Presstv

16, November 2016

UN says thousands of Nigerian children will be at risk of dying in “a few months” ⁰

The United Nations has warned that thousands of children will be at risk of dying in “a few months” across the militancy-riddled areas of northeastern Nigeria. Peter Lundberg, the UN humanitarian coordinator, said in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Tuesday that thousands of children could die from famine in the troubled region, adding that 400,000 children were in critical need of assistance, while 75,000 could die “in (the) few months ahead of us.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, the UN official said, “Currently our assessment is that 14 million people are identified as in need of humanitarian assistance.” Lundberg added that crisis was unfolding at “high speed” in Nigeria’s troubled northeast. The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, warned in July that some 49,000 children would die of malnutrition in northeastern Nigeria if they did not get treatment.

Most of the children are in areas that had been inaccessible before a multinational force liberated them from the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist group earlier this year. Doctors Without Borders, also known by its French acronym as the MSF, had earlier warned of a “catastrophic humanitarian emergency” in the city of Bama, where, it said, 200 people died in June.

Despite the government’s fight against Boko Haram, the security situation remains volatile in Borno and specifically Maiduguri, because Boko Haram terrorists still carry out attacks. Boko Haram started its campaign of militancy in 2009 with the aim of toppling the central government in Nigeria. It has so far taken the lives of more than 20,000 people and forced over 2.7 million others from their homes. The group has pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorists operating mainly in Syria and Iraq.

Presstv

16, November 2016

East region: 20 die after consuming “Odontol” ⁰

Twenty people from several villages in the east region of the country died between Monday and Tuesday, after consuming an adulterated whiskey. Cameroon Concord News learnt that the 20 came from seven 7 different villages in the Mindourou Sub Division and perished after consuming a local drink known as “Odontol” a product containing a high dose of methanol.

Health officials in the East region say some people who consumed the adulterated whiskey have started to lose their sight due to poisoning caused by the consumption and others have begun to develop hallucinations. Our chief correspondent in Bertoua reported that several other victims were rushed to hospitals. Local authorities have begun to raise awareness in communities about the consumption of this adulterated whiskey, sold cheaper and much appreciated by low-income populations.

By Sama Ernest