Headline News

12, January 2023

Football: Messi and Mbappe among nominees for FIFA Best award ⁰

Fresh from their brilliant performances at the World Cup, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe are among the nominees for FIFA’s The Best award for last year, world football’s governing body announced on Thursday.

Messi, who has won the prize once before, captained Argentina to victory in Qatar, a career-defining triumph that has boosted his chances of winning an eighth Ballon d’Or but may also make him favourite for this prize.

As well as Mbappe, who netted a hat-trick in the World Cup final, another two Paris Saint-Germain players are nominated in Neymar and Achraf Hakimi.

Karim Benzema, who won last year’s Ballon d’Or for his performances with Real Madrid, is also nominated, as is Robert Lewandowski, winner of the FIFA prize in the last two years.

The list of nominees is completed by Manchester City’s Julian Alvarez, Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland; the Real Madrid pair of Luka Modric and Vinicius Junior; Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Jude Bellingham.

Alexia Putellas is nominated for the women’s award despite being out for the last six months due to injury.

The Barcelona and Spain midfielder won the award last year and retained the Ballon d’Or in October.

Arsenal striker Beth Mead, runner-up to Putellas for the Ballon d’Or, is also nominated, as are two other members of the England team that won the European Championship on home soil in Leah Williamson and Keira Walsh.

There are also prizes for the best male and female coach, the best goalkeeper, and the Puskas Award for the best goal of 2022.

A public vote, open until February 3, will decide the three finalists in each category.

The winner is then voted for by a jury made up of national team coaches and captains as well as journalists and fans.

Source: AFP

12, January 2023

Cameroon Burning: UN releases funds to help victims of floods, violence ⁰

The United Nations has released 6 million U.S. dollars in emergency funding to aid thousands of victims of floods and violence in Cameroon, a UN spokesman said on Wednesday.

Undersecretary-General Martin Griffiths, the world organization’s emergency relief coordinator, allocated the Central Emergency Response Fund’s aid to help people in Cameroon’s far north, northwest, and southwest regions, said Stephane Dujarric, the chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“Last year, hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee their homes and abandon their property because of violence or floods,” Dujarric said. “These forced displacements increased protection risks, loss of livelihoods and food insecurity in those impacted areas.”

He said the funds would help provide protection, shelter services, food and nutritional assistance.

“Despite the challenges faced by humanitarian organizations to access remote areas due to violence, impediments to movement and poor road conditions, we, along with our partners remain mobilized to provide aid to the most vulnerable,” the spokesman said.

Humanitarians will need more than 413 million dollars to help 2.4 million people in Cameroon this year, he said.

Source: Xinhaunet

12, January 2023

Chinese Foreign Minister says Africa should be stage for cooperation, not international competition ⁰

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang says Africa should not be a competition arena between world powers, as he opened a new headquarters for a pan-African health body.

Qin made the remark on Wednesday as he visited the Chinese-built headquarters of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

He emphasized China’s partnership with Africa in security areas and economic development.

“No country, no people have the right to force the African countries and people to take sides,” the Chinese foreign minister said at a joint news conference with African Union Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat.

“Africa should be a big stage for international cooperation, not an arena for major countries’ competition,” he said, adding, “China’s contribution is concrete in bettering the lives of African people.”

Qin, who had been ambassador to the United States until December last year, is on his first overseas visit as foreign minister and a weeklong trip to Africa that will also take him to Gabon, Angola, Benin, and Egypt.

His visit marks the 33rd consecutive year that Africa has been the destination of a Chinese foreign minister’s first overseas tour of the calendar year.

Faki Mahamat said in the news conference that Africa’s lack of permanent representation on the Security Council was a “burning issue” considering that most issues on the Council’s agenda were related to African countries.

“It is unacceptable that others decide in the place of others. It is not fair. We need a new order at the international level which will respect the interests of others,” he said.

The AUC chairperson said, “Africa refuses to be considered to be an arena of exchange of influence… We are open to cooperation and partnership with everybody, but our principles, our priorities and our interests have to be respected. The partnership we have with China is based on these principles.”

Qin also met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other government officials on Tuesday, announcing the cancellation of part of Ethiopia’s debt to China during the visit, although no party provided details.

Ethiopia has borrowed $13.7 billion from China since 2000 and has been seeking to restructure its debt to foreign lenders since 2021.

Qin also called for better relations between the US and China, the world’s two biggest economies, saying the nations should cooperate and co-exist peacefully rather than compete.

China has been Africa’s largest trading partner for over a decade. It competes for influence there with the United States — which hosted leaders from 49 African countries last month — as well as with former colonial powers Britain and France.

According to the Chinese General Administration of Customs, in the first three months of 2022, trade between China and Africa reached nearly $65 billion, registering a 23% increase over the same period in 2021.

Western nations have accused China of using the so-called “death trap” of offering massive loans for infrastructure projects to put African countries in debt to Beijing, both politically and economically. Beijing rejects those allegations.

Source: Presstv

Chinese Foreign Minister says Africa should be stage for cooperation, not international competition

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang says Africa should not be a competition arena between world powers, as he opened a new headquarters for a pan-African health body.

Qin made the remark on Wednesday as he visited the Chinese-built headquarters of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

He emphasized China’s partnership with Africa in security areas and economic development.

His visit marks the 33rd consecutive year that Africa has been the destination of a Chinese foreign minister’s first overseas tour of the calendar year.

“It is unacceptable that others decide in the place of others. It is not fair. We need a new order at the international level which will respect the interests of others,” he said.

Ethiopia has borrowed $13.7 billion from China since 2000 and has been seeking to restructure its debt to foreign lenders since 2021.

Qin also called for better relations between the US and China, the world’s two biggest economies, saying the nations should cooperate and co-exist peacefully rather than compete.

Source: Presstv

11, January 2023

Roman Catholic Bishops meet in Ebolowa ⁰

Members of the Cameroon Catholic Bishops’ Conference known also as the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (NECC) are gathering in-person in Ebolowa for their 2023 General Meeting.

Topics being discussed by the Bishops’ Conference include the difficulties of sharing the Gospel in the modern world within the framework of the apostolic constitution; the work of the Bishops’, praying for peace and making sure that the cry of the poor is heard.

The 2023 National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (NECC) an annual seminar of the Bishops of Cameroon started on Saturday 7, 2023 and will end on Saturday 14, 2023.

By Rita Akana

11, January 2023

World Bank: Sharp, Long-lasting Slowdown to Hit Developing Countries Hard ⁰

Global growth is slowing sharply in the face of elevated inflation, higher interest rates, reduced investment, and disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects report.

Given fragile economic conditions, any new adverse development—such as higher-than-expected inflation, abrupt rises in interest rates to contain it, a resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic, or escalating geopolitical tensions—could push the global economy into recession. This would mark the first time in more than 80 years that two global recessions have occurred within the same decade.

The global economy is projected to grow by 1.7% in 2023 and 2.7% in 2024. The sharp downturn in growth is expected to be widespread, with forecasts in 2023 revised down for 95% of advanced economies and nearly 70% of emerging market and developing economies.

Over the next two years, per-capita income growth in emerging market and developing economies is projected to average 2.8%—a full percentage point lower than the 2010-2019 average. In Sub-Saharan Africa—which accounts for about 60% of the world’s extreme poor—growth in per capita income over 2023-24 is expected to average just 1.2%, a rate that could cause poverty rates to rise, not fall.

“The crisis facing development is intensifying as the global growth outlook deteriorates,” said World Bank Group President David Malpass. “Emerging and developing countries are facing a multi-year period of slow growth driven by heavy debt burdens and weak investment as global capital is absorbed by advanced economies faced with extremely high government debt levels and rising interest rates. Weakness in growth and business investment will compound the already-devastating reversals in education, health, poverty, and infrastructure and the increasing demands from climate change.”

Growth in advanced economies is projected to slow from 2.5% in 2022 to 0.5% in 2023. Over the past two decades, slowdowns of this scale have foreshadowed a global recession. In the United States, growth is forecast to fall to 0.5% in 2023—1.9 percentage points below previous forecasts and the weakest performance outside of official recessions since 1970. In 2023, euro-area growth is expected at zero percent—a downward revision of 1.9 percentage points. In China, growth is projected at 4.3% in 2023—0.9 percentage point below previous forecasts.

Excluding China, growth in emerging market and developing economies is expected to decelerate from 3.8% in 2022 to 2.7% in 2023, reflecting significantly weaker external demand compounded by high inflation, currency depreciation, tighter financing conditions, and other domestic headwinds.

By the end of 2024, GDP levels in emerging and developing economies will be roughly 6% below levels expected before the pandemic. Although global inflation is expected to moderate, it will remain above pre-pandemic levels.

The report offers the first comprehensive assessment of the medium-term outlook for investment growth in emerging market and developing economies. Over the 2022-2024 period, gross investment in these economies is likely to grow by about 3.5% on average—less than half the rate that prevailed in the previous two decades. The report lays out a menu of options for policy makers to accelerate investment growth.

“Subdued investment is a serious concern because it is associated with weak productivity and trade and dampens overall economic prospects. Without strong and sustained investment growth, it is simply impossible to make meaningful progress in achieving broader development and climate-related goals,” said Ayhan Kose, Director of the World Bank’s Prospects Group. “National policies to boost investment growth need to be tailored to country circumstances but they always start with establishing sound fiscal and monetary policy frameworks and undertaking comprehensive reforms in the investment climate.”

The report also sheds light on the dilemma of 37 small states—countries with a population of 1.5 million or less. These states suffered a sharper COVID-19 recession and a much weaker rebound than other economies, partly because of prolonged disruptions to tourism. In 2020, economic output in small states fell by more than 11%— seven times the decline in other emerging and developing economies. The report finds that small states often experience disaster-related losses that average roughly 5% of GDP per year. This creates severe obstacles to economic development.

Policymakers in small states can improve long-term growth prospects by bolstering resilience to climate change, fostering effective economic diversification, and improving government efficiency. The report calls upon the global community to assist small states by maintaining the flow of official assistance to support climate-change adaptation and help restore debt sustainability.

10, January 2023

CDC calls on plantation workers to return to Southern Cameroons ⁰

Cameroon’s second largest employer, the state-run Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), is calling for thousands of plantation workers who fled the country’s separatist conflict to return to work. About half the company’s 20,000 workers left more than four years ago over unpaid wages and after deadly and brutal attacks. The company last week said it was safe to return, but workers are skeptical and say it should first rebuild homes destroyed or damaged in the conflict.

The CDC said it wants thousands of workers back at banana, palm oil, and rubber plantations in the restive Southwest region. Managers of the state-run giant on Monday visited towns and villages in the region to meet with workers who fled unrest in 2018 and ask them to return.

Cameroon Agricultural and Allied Workers Trade Union President Gabriel Mbene Vefonge, who was part of the delegation, said the corporation has promised to pay back wages to those workers who return.

“Most of them are doing mean (menial) jobs in many areas of this country, so we are calling them to come back,” he said. “Their security is being guaranteed by the state and we have seen in the last six months there is relative calm. For those who had wounds, we think that their wounds are healed, and the CDC management is taking care of them. Our members should come back to work.”

Cameroon’s military says it has chased the rebels from the plantations, which armed groups used for training camps.

In 2018, the rebels ordered workers to leave the plantations and warned that those who refused would be attacked.

Authorities say the armed groups chopped off fingers of scores of workers suspected of collaborating with the government and torched hundreds of homes, schools, and factories.

William Lekunja, a worker at a plantation in Meanja, said he escaped in 2018. He said he will only return if the company improves work and living conditions in villages damaged in the conflict.

“They cannot eat well because what they have is too meager,” he said. “Others who have gone there came back with testimonies. Their hospitals bills are paid by themselves, there is no good housing for them, no good water for them.”

Cameroon’s government says some of the company’s former workers are owed more than two years’ back pay. The company has vowed to pay back wages but says the conflict and exodus of workers led to a massive drop in production and sales.

The government says sales and revenue increased after about 2,000 workers returned in 2021 and 2022.

CDC general manager Franklin Ngoni Njie said if the remaining 8,000 workers return, the company’s sales will return to previous levels.

He said they would then be able to afford paying back salaries and reconstructing destroyed buildings.

“The solution is getting back to work,” he said. “Working and making money, money to help pay wages. To pay those who are working, just salaries alone, costs the corporation about 900 million francs. It is difficult to get that amount of money, but that notwithstanding, we will try to do what must be done to continue to operate.”

Cameroon’s separatist conflict was sparked in 2016 when predominantly English-speaking western regions protested discrimination by the country’s French-speaking majority.

Cameroon’s military responded with a crackdown and rebels took up arms claiming to defend the English-speaking minority.

The U.N. says the conflict has since left 3,500 people dead and 750,000 displaced.

Source: VOA

10, January 2023

French Cameroun: Three kidnappers killed in North region ⁰

At least three kidnappers have been killed in North region, according to local and security sources.

The kidnappers were killed on Sunday in raids carried out by Cameroon’s elite force, the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR), in the Mayo-Rey division of the region, the army said in a brief statement on Monday.

“They were heavily armed. The BIR seized their weapons. The kidnappers are well-known deserters of the army of a neighboring country,” a senior army official who asked not to be named told Xinhua by phone.

The army has stepped up security in the region where ransom kidnapping is said to be gaining ground.

On Monday, the National Gendarmerie said its forces have also arrested three suspected kidnappers in the Demsa locality of the region.

Source: Xinhuanet

10, January 2023

Wagner Group chief says Ukrainian forces fighting hard to defend Soledar ⁰

The Russian mercenary Wagner Group said on Tuesday it was fighting “heavy, bloody battles” for control of the town of Soledar as part of Russia’s months-long offensive to capture Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

“On the western outskirts of Soledar there are heavy bloody battles. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are honourably defending the territory of Soledar,” Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on social media.

The Kremlin-linked businessman, who has been hit with Western sanctions, also dismissed allegations that Ukrainian forces were deserting front lines en masse in Soledar.

“Let’s be honest with ourselves. The Ukrainian army is bravely fighting for Bakhmut and Soledar. Reports of their mass desertion are not true,” Prigozhin said, cited by his press office on Telegram.

Soledar is around 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the war-battered city of Bakhmut, which has become the focus of fighting in recent months.

The capture of Bakhmut – a city with a pre-war population of 70,000 – is now one of Moscow’s main military objectives almost a year into its Ukraine mission.

A Russian proxy official in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, said on Tuesday on Russian state television that Soledar was “very close to liberation” by Moscow’s forces.

He admitted that this came “at a very high price” and said Ukrainian forces were “still resisting”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his late night address on Monday that his troops were withstanding “new and even tougher assaults” on Soledar.

He said the town had been flattened by the fighting. “Everything is completely destroyed,” he said.

Source: France 24

10, January 2023

Football: Messi set for first PSG appearance since World Cup ⁰

Lionel Messi is expected to make his first appearance for Paris Saint-Germain since his World Cup triumph in a Ligue 1 clash at home against Angers on Wednesday, as the Qatar-owned club look to tie the Argentine down to a new contract.

The 35-year-old took part in training with his teammates on Tuesday, a little over three weeks after inspiring Argentina to victory over France on penalties in an epic World Cup final in Qatar.

He was granted a two-week holiday back in his home country following the tournament, before returning to Paris and being given a guard of honour at PSG’s training ground last Wednesday.

The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner, who scored 12 goals in 19 games this season for his club prior to the World Cup, did not take part in PSG’s win at third-tier side Chateauroux in the French Cup at the weekend.

But he could start as the Ligue 1 leaders play host to an Angers side who are bottom of the table and have lost their last nine league outings.

How Messi approaches the second half of the campaign in France after a career-defining World Cup will be closely observed, with his initial two-year deal in Paris coming to an end.

However, the Qatar-owned club are in talks to extend his contract with coach Christophe Galtier insisting the former Barcelona star is settled in the French capital.

“I know there are talks and that the club has spoken to Leo but I don’t know where they are at,” Galtier told reporters on Tuesday.

“Leo seems to me to be happy in Paris and I think there is a real desire on behalf of the club to extend Leo’s contract,” added Galtier, who said that Luis Campos, PSG’s football advisor, was in discussions with Messi’s representatives along with president Nasser al-Khelaifi.

Kylian Mbappe, scorer of a hat-trick for France in the World Cup final, may again be rested for PSG’s midweek game after missing their French Cup victory as he took a holiday in New York along with teammate Achraf Hakimi.

Neymar has been getting treatment on the ankle injury he suffered playing for Brazil at the World Cup, while Italy midfielder Marco Verratti is out for a PSG side who suffered their first defeat of the season in their last league outing at Lens on New Year’s Day.

Source: AFP

10, January 2023

Ambazonia martyrs’ blood strengthens resistance fighters’ determination ⁰

The Ambazonia Interim Government has reacted to the death of three Southern Cameroons youths who succumbed to their wounds after they were shot by Francophone army soldiers in Tinta, a locality in the outskirts of Akwaya town in Manyu.

In a statement issued to influence international public opinion, the Southern Cameroons Department of Foreign Affairs stated that the blood of Ambazonian martyrs further cements restoration fighter’s resolve to liberate the Ambazonian homeland.

The Southern Cameroons Department of Foreign Affairs stated that blood shed in defense of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia is ensuring the final victory that is worthy of the sacrifices and fortifies the determination of Amba fighters to continue the revolution until liberation.

The statement added that Ambazonia Restoration Forces will not allow the crimes of the French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé to go unanswered.

“Southern Cameroons young men and women will continue to make sacrifices and Amba fighters will continue to deal blows to the French Cameroun enemy and undermine its security apparatus deployed to the Ambazonia homeland until the French Cameroun occupation comes to an end” the Interim Government statement furthered.

By Chi Prudence Asong