Headline News

14, April 2017

22 killed in fire at Senegal religious retreat ⁰

Nearly two dozen people have been killed in a fire that tore through a religious ceremony southeast of Senegal. Government spokesman Seydou Gueye said Thursday that the fire had engulfed a Muslim spiritual retreat in Medina Gounass village a day earlier, killing 22 and wounding several others. Local media reported that makeshift shelters and strong winds helped the fire spread, but there was no report on the cause of the incident.

A senior official with the firefighting service said the fire broke out around noon local time as worshippers gathered for the retreat, adding that some were hurt in a crush triggered by the blaze. Others said 20 of the injured were in critical conditions and were receiving treatment at the regional hospital in Tambacounda city, about 80 kilometers away.

Witnesses said all straw shelters constructed for the religious event were completely burnt in the fire and only modern tents were relatively spared from the fury of the flames. “The fire burned through everything in its path,” said a resident. Images circulated online showed billowing smoke, charred corpses of animals and burnt-out cars.

President Macky Sall held a press conference and offered condolences to the victims’ families. Reports said he was due to visit the site of the blaze later on Thursday. Senegal’s interior minister had already paid a visit to the site. Thousands of men from Senegal, Guinea and other West African countries attend the annual spiritual gathering in Medina Gounass.

A similar incident in the area in 2010 killed six people. Nine children were also killed in a blaze in 2013 in a religious school, prompting an outcry in the Muslim-majority Senegal.

Source Presstv

14, April 2017

Cameroon lives and bath in alcohol ⁰

Cameroon has been ranked first in the consumption of alcoholic beverage in Central and West Africa. The listing was made public following research carried out by LVnextCentury, a firm based in Paris. The ranking was obtained on the basis of the figures provided by the main brewing companies in the various countries of the continent. The biggest consumer for the entire continent is South Africa.

According to figures released by SABC, the country’s largest beer company, overall beer sales in Cameroon in 2015 was estimated at about 6,600,000 hl (660 million liters), including imports. On average, a Cameroonian consumes 36 liters of alcoholic beverage per year.

The middle and the poor, who largely constitute the Cameroonian society, are most affected by the phenomenon of alcoholism. Young people in school are not spared by the drinking phenomenon. Three quarters of the Cameroonian population devote nearly half of their income to alcohol consumption in a country where the GDP per capita is US $ 1,328.64 (2013) and in which more than 48% of the population, lives below the UN poverty line.

By Chi Prudence Asong

14, April 2017

Minister Belinga Eboutou meets Biya amid ill health rumours ⁰

Minister Martin Belinga Eboutou, the Director of the Civil Cabinet at the Presidency of the Republic has reportedly resumed service after a few weeks of unavailability due to poor health. The Biya acolyte re-emerged in public at the Yaounde-Nsimalen International Airport to welcome the Head of State home after the visit to Italy and a vacation in Swiss on Wednesday 12 April 2017.

Recently, official communiqués issued by the Civil Cabinet of the Presidency of the Republic did not carry his name and signature. Martin Belinga Eboutou has been present for almost ten years on all the foreign trips made by the Cameroonian dictator. However, he was conspicuously absent from the last official presidential trip to Italy and the Vatican from 20 to 23 March 2017.

A well-placed source hinted Cameroon Concord News that Belinga Eboutou was very ill when President Biya and wife left country and that all is indeed not well for the demagogue. The 77-year-old was evacuated to Europe in the middle of last year. He returned safely in July 2016 and ended a rumor that had said he had traveled to the land of his ancestors.

By Rita Akana

13, April 2017

Nigeria: Four dead in army, police clashes ⁰

A bloody clash between the army and police in Nigeria’s restive northeastern Yobe State on Wednesday left one soldier and three police dead, a security source told AFP. The police confirmed the fracas in the state capital of Damaturu, but did not say if there were casualties. “The Nigeria police force is abreast of the unfortunate incident that occurred in the early hours of today 12th April, 2017 in Damaturu between the personnel of the force and that of the Nigerian army,” police spokesman Jimoh Moshood said in a statement.

He said an investigation had been launched to determine “the causes of the incident and deal with the situation appropriately to prevent such occurrence in the future.” The army authorities were not immediately available for comment. A security officer, who did not want to be named, told AFP trouble began on Tuesday when an army officer in a mufti (civilian dress) ran into a convoy of the head of the police mobile unit in Damaturu.

“The army officer was beaten up by the police for his action. This morning, soldiers stormed the police station and took away the head of the mobile unit to their military base,” he said. He said the soldiers’ action angered some police officers who invaded the army base to free their boss. “There was a shootout in which a soldier and a policeman were killed on the spot while two policemen who were injured later died of their wounds,” he said. Yobe and two other states — Borno and Adamawa — in the northeast are the worst-hit in the eight-year Boko Haram militancy in Nigeria.

Source Presstv

13, April 2017

La Republique: Government spokesman lied about decentralization ⁰

The Minister of Communication and governments spokesman, Issa Tchiroma Bakary says the 2015 deadline set aside for the effective transfer of competence and resources to councils has been met successfully. In a statement to the press, Tchiroma revealed that 97% of the competences listed in the law applicable to councils were honored as planned. However, Cameroon Concord News understands nothing seems to be happening deep within the councils.

The Minister said, “The process of decentralization has not been static in the last 20 years. Much effort has been made so far, I would even say that most of the path has already been covered and this process will continue and be accelerated. It is not only a constitutional prescription but also a permanent and irreversible willingness of the President of the Republic, Paul Biya. It is an essential component of his political project for the people of Cameroon of which it embodies sovereignty.”

Tchiroma blatantly refused to take questions from journalists who wondered aloud that the decentralization process has been plain fiction and the so-called success of the decentralization process as painted by the Minister was absurd.

By Sama Ernest

13, April 2017

UN flays Biya regime over arrest of Consortium leaders and internet shutdown ⁵

The Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations has revealed that the world body wants a rapid resolution of the socio-political crisis that has shaken the Anglophone regions of Cameroon for nearly six months. This is the message François Louncény Fall gave to officials of La Republique du Cameroun.

During his visit to Yaoundé on the 12^th of April 2017, François Louncény Fall, also Head of the United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa, met with the Secretary General at the Presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, Justice Minister Laurent Esso, Minister of External Relations, Lejeune Mbella Mbella and Martin Mbarga Nguelé, Delegate General for National Security.

The UN Secretary General’s Special Representative said the UN has welcomed the measures announced by the Minister for Justice but added that the Secretary General, Antonio Guterres is hoping for a rapid implementation of these promises.

The UN Special envoy further pointed out that an appeasement policy should be initiated with Southern Cameroonians and should involve the release of the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium arrested in connection with the crisis. Louncény Fall was at the Kondengui Prison where he met Barrister Agbor Balla and the radio host, Mancho Bibixy, who are among the 27 people who face the death penalty.

François Louncény Fall condemned the decision to shut down the internet and the arrest of the leaders of the Consortium. The cutting off of the internet is a measure taken by the Francophone government on the 17^th of January and which has already cost the Cameroonian economy more than 2 billion FCFA.

By Rita Akana

12, April 2017

Manyu Bridge Collapse: Major set back for South West CPDM elites ¹

South West CPDM elites have suffered another major setback as the only bridge linking the Kingdom of Ossing in Eyumojock Sub constituency in Manyu headed by General Tataw James via Akak village to Nguti Sub Division has collapsed. The Intersubdivisional highway bridge in Akak village loaded with regular timber trucks dropped more than 60 feet into the Akak river, sending at least an overloaded timber vehicle and its two Francophone passengers into the water.

“This is a catastrophe of historic proportions for both the Manyu and the South West CPDM elites,” Enoh Njock, an operations manager for the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium said about three hours after the collapse. The old and outdated German bridge has not been repaired for ages. The bridge, which was built after the 1884 Berlin Conference, collapsed in three sections. One section of the bridge lay flat in the river, with the part of overloaded timber truck parked on the rolling pavement.

The truck driver and his companion were seen floundering in the river, calling for help. Cameroon Concord News reporter had just crossed the bridge and was heading to Ossing when it collapsed behind him.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Eyong Johnson in Nguti

12, April 2017

Joseph Antoine Bell and the Anglophone Crisis: The AGBAW-EBAI Debate ⁹

Joseph Antoine BELL, the former Francophone footballer maintains that Southern Cameroonians are not marginalized in Cameroon. He recently opined that people from the North West and South West are not under-represented in everything that is done in Cameroon.

Bell said in French that “Quand on dit que les Anglophones sont marginalisés il faudrait qu’on nous dise en quoi” When we say that Anglophones are marginalized, we should be told in what way.

In this April edition of the AGBAW-EBAI DEBATE, we are asking our readers to react to what the legendary footballer made of the Southern Cameroon crisis.

12, April 2017

“Nobody in the world will believe that Barrister Agbor Balla and Dr. Fontem are terrorists” ¹

The renowned Barrister Alice Nkom has appealed to the Biya regime to release the detained leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium including all Southern Cameroonians being held at the Kondengui High security prison in Yaoundé and elsewhere in Francophone Cameroun. The human rights lawyer told STV news channel that the accusations of terrorism against the arrested Anglophone leaders were cynical.

Nkom said the Anglophone crisis is causing the nation great pain and erecting a stone wall between families and relations in the French and English speaking regions of the country. She argued that nobody in the world will believe Barrister Agbor Felix Nkongho and Dr Fontem Neba are terrorists. For her, the arrests of Southern Cameroonians are not helping to foster the business climate that President Paul Biya spoke during his recent visit to Italy. She pointed out that no right thinking investor can take Cameroon seriously and swore that Cameroon as a nation will pay dearly for the mess going on in Southern Cameroons.

Alice Nkom also said the Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, Laurent Esso acted unwisely and has failed woefully in his handling of the Southern Cameroons situation. For this experienced lawyer, the measures taken by the government to resolve the crisis in the Anglophone regions have been revolutionary and controversial.

“When you cut off communications to someone first you are violating a fundamental right. This is forbidden by the conventions you have signed. And secondly, it is an act of pure secession. And it is you Francophone who come to say that the others are secessionists?

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

12, April 2017

La Republique: National Assembly ends session amid confusing declarations by House Speaker ⁰

The March session of the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament in La Republique du Cameroun have officially ended. The closing ritual at the Lower House took place on Tuesday the 11^th of April 2017 in Yaoundé amid confusing declarations from National Assembly Speaker, Cavaye Djibril.

Speaking during the closing ceremony at the National Assembly, the Speaker of the House, Cavaye Yegieu Djibril appealed to the Biya government to be proactive in handling the socio- political issues in the country. Hon. Cavaye stressed on the need to avoid situations that can push the country into an endless cycle of professional demands that cannot be handled. The Speaker then made a u-turn at the tail-end of his speech and saluted what he described as the different measures taken by President Biya to improve on the working conditions of Cameroonians.

A beaming Cavaye emphasized the need for dialogue and a climate of peace to be maintained hoping the situations in the North West and South West Regions returns to normal. Present during the closing ceremony were Members of the Supreme Court, the Diplomatic Corps, Members of Government led by the Prime Minister Philemon Yang and the Senate President Marcel Niat Njifenji.

It is vital to include in this report that the March session did not deliberate on the current Southern Cameroons crisis which has culminated to numerous rapes, extra judicial killings and massive arrests including many abductions in West Cameroon.

By Rita Akana