Headline News

18, April 2024

4th Cameroon Investment Forum opens in Douala ⁰

The 4th edition of the Cameroon Investment Forum, a flagship biennial event that brings together high-level government officials, development partners, and various business stakeholders from around the world, opened on Wednesday in the commercial hub of Douala.

Organized by the state-run Cameroon Investment Promotion Agency (CIPA), the forum aims to intensify the import substitution dynamic in Cameroon by mobilizing and directing investments into niche sectors such as rice, maize, fish, milk, and palm oil, said CIPA Acting General Manager Donatus Boma.

“It is a platform for high-level consultations and exchange of experiences. It is an excellent opportunity for investors to understand why Cameroon is an investment destination,” Boma said during the opening ceremony, which was attended by African, Chinese, Russian, and European investors.

“The main objective is to encourage local investors and attract foreign direct investment in products aimed at increasing local production and processing. This initiative should help reduce Cameroon’s deficit caused by the importation of staple foods in large quantities,” he added.

The forum, held after years of postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will end on Friday.

Source: Xinhuanet

18, April 2024

Cameroon doctors flee to Europe, North America for lucrative jobs ⁰

The state of health care in Cameroon is a source of growing concern, with thousands of doctors fleeing the central African country for lucrative jobs elsewhere, especially in Europe and North America, according to officials.

The number of people, including doctors, acquiring passports and applying for visas has increased by 70 percent, officials say. In addition, 75 percent of the 1,000 doctors that Cameroon’s government trains each year are leaving.

Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Health reports that several hundred doctors are enrolled in what members of the profession see as lucrative schemes to emigrate to Canada. Also, the number of health workers, including doctors, applying for the U.S. government’s Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, also known as the Green Card Lottery, is rising.

The Cameroon Medical Council, an association of doctors, says the doctor-patient ratio in Cameroon has sunk to one doctor per 50,000 people, instead of the World Health Organization’s recommended ratio of one doctor per 10,000 patients. The group reports that the doctors are fleeing to escape hardship, poor pay, difficult working conditions and unemployment.

Doctor Peter Louis Ndifor, the council’s vice president, said it is unfortunate that Cameroon trains but does not recruit thousands of its doctors. He spoke to VOA via telephone from Buea, an English-speaking town in southwestern Cameroon.

“The number of registered doctors on the roll[s] of the Cameroon Medical Council is about 13,000, but we have 5,000 to 6,000 doctors in Cameroon presently,” he said. “Doctors quitting Cameroon is an eloquent testimony that doctors are in discomfort, doctors are in distress.”

Cameroon says it currently needs at least 30,000 health workers, including doctors. The country is facing attacks from Boko Haram that have left more than 36,000 people dead, a separatist crisis that has killed more than 6,000 people and displaced about 750,000 others, and the spillover of sectarian violence from neighboring Central African Republic.

The Cameroon Medical Council says the central African country in 2013 launched a program to train about 1,000 doctors in order to improve the doctor-patient ratio, which was then one doctor per 17,000 patients.

However, the government recruits less than 100 doctors each year due to financial constraints, officials say. Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Health says it expected privately owned hospitals to recruit a majority of the doctors upon graduation from medical school, but hospitals owned by individuals, communities and churches also recruit less than 100 doctors each year.

Even when recruited, the doctors say they are paid about $100 per month in private hospitals and about $220 per month in government hospitals.

Jathor Godlove, 29, is an unemployed doctor. After seven years of study at the faculty of medicine of Cameroon’s University of Bamenda, he says hardship is forcing him to consider leaving the country.

“I find myself being very restrained and restricted in my capacity to help my family,” he said. “I even have some peers who venture out of medicine because they see that as a medic, when you get somewhere to offer your services, they will tell you they want to pay you 50,000 [Central African CFA] francs a month [around $80 U.S.], which is very funny. Some of them have families, when they find themselves in such situations, they see better opportunities abroad. I think you can’t blame them.”

He says poor working conditions — including the lack of hospital equipment and poor pay — are pushing nurses, midwives and laboratory technicians to join doctors in leaving Cameroon for Europe and North America.

However, some medical staff members who have not been able to travel out of Cameroon offer voluntary services in hospitals like in Bamenda, capital of Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest Region.

Doctor Denis Nsame, director of the Regional Hospital in Bamenda, says unemployed health care workers outnumber health workers hired by the government.

“At the Regional Hospital in Bamenda, out of 600 staff, only 146 are state-employed staff, and we consult on average 45,000 patients per year, carry out about 1,900 surgeries per year, we have deliveries [of babies] close to 250 to 300 every month,” Nsame said.

The Cameroon Medical Council says that some health workers, including doctors, at times go several months without pay. Many of the health workers count on donations and consultation fees from well-wishers and patients to make a living.

In a message to Cameroonian youths last February 11, Cameroonian President Paul Biya said young people’s growing desire to emigrate is increasingly a cause for concern. He said Cameroonians should be patriotic and serve their homeland because the country is facing difficulties and leaving is not a solution.

Doctors and other health workers say the president, if he wants to curb emigration, should improve their living conditions and hospital equipment.

Source: VOA

16, April 2024

Dortmund sink Atletico to reach Champions League semi-finals ⁰

Borussia Dortmund fought back to beat Atletico Madrid 4-2 in their quarter-final second leg on Tuesday, securing a 5-4 aggregate victory and a first Champions League semi-final since 2013.

Trailing 2-1 from the first leg, goals from Julian Brandt and Ian Maatsen had Dortmund 2-0 up at half-time.

Visiting coach Diego Simeone made three changes at half-time including bringing on Angel Correa and his energy told immediately, Mats Hummels conceding a poor own goal before the Argentine netted to put Atletico back ahead in the tie.

But those goals brought a sluggish Dortmund back to life, with Niclas Fuellkrug and Marcel Sabitzer each scoring in a three-minute period to send the Bundesliga club through.

Former winners Dortmund, fifth in the German top flight and struggling to qualify for next season’s Champions League, will next face Paris Saint-Germain for a place in the final at Wembley on June 1.

The home side should have been level in the tie after three minutes but Sabitzer took an extra touch with the goal beckoning, allowing Atletico to cover.

Just moments later, Atletico had a major chance of their own, as Alvaro Morata raced through one-on-one with the goalkeeper but chipped the ball well wide of the post.

Buoyed by an 80,000-strong home crowd trying to one-up last week’s atmosphere in the Spanish capital, Dortmund pushed and prodded, with Karim Adeyemi blasting straight at Jan Oblak.

Dortmund broke through after 34 minutes, Brandt collecting a Hummels chip and shooting on the turn, the ball bouncing through Oblak’s hands.

The home side were ahead in the tie just five minutes later, Maatsen threading in from an acute angle after he was given space to run in the Atletico box.

With Simeone sensing his chances of qualifying for the semis for a fourth time as Atletico boss slipping away, he shuffled his deck at half-time, making three changes including hooking the ineffective Morata for Correa.

Dortmund’s wobbles suddenly returned, letting the visitors back into the tie.

Hummels turned Mario Hermoso’s header into his own net from an Atletico corner under little pressure and with goalkeeper Gregor Kobel waiting to save.

Atletico smelt blood and could have levelled when Correa dragged the ball just wide.

The World Cup winner made up for his miss on 64 minutes when he cut through a penalty area crowded with yellow shirts and smacked the ball in, sending Atletico in front on aggregate.

The goal jolted Dortmund back into action and Edin Terzic’s men scored twice in three minutes to retake the overall lead.

Fuellkrug headed in a Sabitzer cross and the Austrian midfielder then got a goal of his own, shooting through the Atletico defence and into the bottom corner from the edge of the box, grabbing Dortmund a famous victory.

Source: AFP

16, April 2024

US: Trump media group plans TV streaming platform ⁰

Donald Trump’s media group said Tuesday it will launch a streaming television platform, but its shares continued to tumble on Wall Street.

The announcement came as 77-year-old former US president Trump sat through a second day of jury selection in his historic criminal trial.

No other ex-president in US history has been hauled before a criminal court and the trial in a Manhattan courthouse comes as scandal-plagued Trump is fighting to make a shock return to the White House in November.

Trump is accused of falsifying business records in a scheme to cover up reports on the eve of his 2016 election victory that he had an extramarital affair with a porn star.

After a winning debut on Wall Street last month, Trump Media and Technology Group shares have suffered a bruising retreat, denting the Republican candidate’s wealth.

The company has seen its market value plummet from around $11 billion to less than $3.2 billion based on its $22.97 share price during mid-day trading Tuesday on the Nasdaq.

Shares that trade under the symbol “DJT” slid more than 12 percent during the day despite an announcement that the operator of Truth Social will add streaming television to the platform.

DJT shares had taken a hit on Monday with a regulatory filing saying Trump’s money-losing media company could issue more than 21 million more shares.

Streamed television content is expected to focus on news, religion, and “family-friendly” films and documentaries, according to the company.

“We’re excited to move forward with the next big phase for Truth Social,” chief executive Devin Nunes said in the release.

“We aim to provide a permanent home for high-quality news and entertainment that face discrimination by other channels and content delivery services.”

The first phase of the roll-out will involve adding streaming television to the Truth Social app, with a stand-alone version released in a second phase, according to the company.

Trump drew criticism during the weekend for a video posted on Truth Social that featured an image of President Joe Biden hog-tied, as if he were being kidnapped.

Biden’s reelection campaign said the post by Republican candidate Trump could lead to violence.

The Trump campaign was unapologetic, accusing Democrats of “weaponizing the justice system” against Trump.

Trump holds 57.3 percent of the company, which was successfully merged into a shell company known as Digital World Acquisition last month; equity owners in such transactions are typically required to hold the stock for six months before cashing out.

The company’s principal asset is Truth Social, the social media platform launched for the ex-president after he was kicked off Twitter and Facebook in 2021 in the wake of the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Source: AFP

15, April 2024

Cameroon is broken: Who can fix it? ⁰

Cameroonians are sick and tired of seeing their country in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons and they are all blaming the country’s long-serving and sit-tight president, Paul Biya, who has run the country’s economy aground and made corruption the hallmark of his 42-year-long presidency.

Today, Cameroonians want to leave their country for greener pastures, including the old and sick who are not receiving any form of assistance from the state. The country’s pension plan is anything but effective and many retirees are dropping dead like flies just a few years after heading into retirement.

For the sick, they know they are on their way to a lonely and miserable grave as the country’s hospitals have been transformed into businesses where the sick must fund the luxurious lifestyles of the few medical doctors who have opted to live in Cameroon. There are more Cameroonian medical doctors out of the country than in Cameroon and many are not thinking of returning to their country anytime soon, except Mr. Biya dies and, from every indication, Paul Biya is not in a hurry to leave this planet. He is determined to die in power and the longer he stays in power, the more pain he inflicts on the people he is supposed to serve.

Mr. Biya’s incompetence is legendary and his management style has left the country in the throes of a long and painful economic disaster which has been around for 42 years. Biya is not in the mood to walk away from the Unity Palace, the presidential palace which he thinks belongs to him and his family although it was built by his predecessor.

Mr. Biya’s health has been failing for more than 15 years now, but he is not throwing in the towel and his Swiss doctors are doing their best to keep him alive given that he is their ATM. The Swiss medical experts spend most of their time praying for the corrupt and irresponsible Biya to be sick but stay alive so that they too can continue bilking the Cameroonian taxpayer.

Cameroonians are going through tough times. The economic disaster engineered by Biya and his collaborators is biting and this can be seen on many faces as many Cameroonians are aging prematurely. Mr. Biya seems to have put Cameroonians on a diet and many are losing weight at a disturbing pace. While the Swiss doctors are praying for Mr. Biya to be alive, Cameroonians are praying for him to die as his death might put them out of their economic sorrows and psychological torture.

Strangely, both parties are praying to the same God and, from every indication, God is listening more to the Swiss doctors and this has triggered a wave of prayers in Cameroon, with many Cameroonians praying aloud and crying as if God is deaf. Many Cameroonians hold that Biya has overstayed his welcome and should retire to his village, but his supporters are already calling for him to run again in the 2025 presidential election which he will win with a comfortable margin as the country’s constitution and electoral laws have been tailored to suit his intentions.

Though all the odds are stacked up in favor of Mr. Biya, there are some politicians who hold that they can legally and legitimately take the ailing and mentally disoriented Biya out of power. The Cameroon Concord News which is Cameroon Anglophone’s best and most popular news platform has decided to profile some of those who think they can take the bull by the horn even when they know that the 900-pound bull can send them to an early grave. This month, the Cameroon Concord News will profile Barrister Akere Muna who has opted to engage in a fight against Biya and his intentions are bringing some hope to the confused and desperate people of Cameroon. Cameroonians hope he understands the risk associated with taking the bull by the balls.

Akere Muna has his eyes set on next year’s presidential election and his intention is clear – unseat President Paul Biya, who has led the country since 1982. A lawyer by training, Akere has been active in the global arena, serving as an elected Vice-Chair for Transparency International where his involvement in rights issues resulted in the formation of the Transparency International Working Group which helped draft the AU Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption.

He has also served as the President of Transparency International Cameroon; Cameroon Bar Association President; President of the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the African Union and the President of the Pan African Lawyers Union. In January 2010, he was elected to the Panel of Eminent Persons which oversees the African Peer Review process.

After having served the world, he has turned his eye to his country, Cameroon, where he has been calling out the country’s government for its corrupt practices, especially recently following the condemnation of Glencoe, a global firm charged with corruption in the UK and the USA for is acts of corruption in several African countries, including Cameroon where millions of dollars were alleged to have been given to officials of the country’s oil refinery, SONARA, and SNH.

On paper, Barrister Muna has all what it takes to beat Mr. Biya in a free and fair election. His career is what many around the world would dream to have. However, having a brilliant international career is not synonymous with beating Mr. Biya in an election whose results are already known. The odds may be stacked up against Barrister Akere Muna, especially as the political landscape is crowded with small parties, many of which have been created by the ruling party, the CPDM, just to ensure that genuine opposition parties do not coalesce around one candidate against Mr. Biya, but he holds that if the people go out to vote and protect their votes, things might turn out differently. Barrister Muna knows that the system is built for purpose – to favour Mr. Biya and it is “tailored to be tweaked to make sure he wins,” but he is not giving up without trying.

Barrister Muna has already been talking to other political leaders like Cabral Libii and Maurice Kamto who is clearly a more popular political leader in Cameroon. He has a tough job convincing other political leaders that he is the right person to wrestle Biya out of Etoudi though the rules give Mr. Biya a massive advantage. Besides the tailored laws and constitution, Barrister Muna has an uphill task to persuade Cameroonians that he will be the right person to challenge Biya as the population has doubts about him.

He is loved as a human rights advocate and a critic of the system, but beyond that role, many Cameroonians believe that he has an elitist mindset, having grown up in Yaoundé where his father, the late Solomon Tandeng Muna, was once a vice president of Cameroon and before that, he was a first prime minister of West Cameroon. Barrister Akere Muna seems to be totally disconnected from the suffering masses in Cameroon as he has never lived their lives and does not know how it feels to go to bed without a meal.

His father has been part of the mess that has transformed the country into the land of the rich and he himself has been working with the same government on some legal issues which many think are anything but transparent. His sister was once a minister in the same regime and it is hard for the Muna family to clearly and honestly dissociate itself from a government which has weaponized poverty just to keep the people of Cameroon in check.

But it is in the Southwest region of Cameroon where it will be most challenging for him to win hearts and minds. Taking his political agenda to that part of the country will be like taking his eggs to the wrong market. South Westerners still hold that Solomon Tandeng Muna and John Ngu Foncha, both from the Northwest Region of the country, actually betrayed them when they took Southern Cameroons to East Cameroon.

That decision has never gone down well with the people of the South West Region. Southwest politicians who openly called on Southern Cameroonians to join Nigeria in a referendum which reunited the two Cameroons were cut out of politics and many were made to languish for the rest of their lives. EML Endeley, the man who openly opposed the stance Solomon Tandeng Muna and John Ngu Foncha took was impoverished and made to pay for his political views. N.N Mbile, Chief Nyenty and Chief Ayamba all from the Southwest Region of Cameroon paid a huge price for their political stance against Amadou Ahidjo, Cameroon’s first president who took Foncha and Muna to Yaoundé after the massive betrayal of South Westerners.

However, Barrister Muna is not his father. The crimes and sins of his father should not be his. He has time to demonstrate that he is different and his integrity should be seen as an asset in a country where corruption is widespread.

Barrister Muna should start building a huge political platform which should be inclusive and national in character. The presidential election may be eighteen months away, but there is a lot to be done. Barrister Muna must get in touch with the country’s Diaspora and must clearly make his stance known. He has to condemn the mistakes of his father in public to win hearts and minds in the country’s South West Region and he has to shed his elitist mindset to convince Cameroonians that he understands the country’s economic realities. In eighteen months, a lot can be done to make Barrister Muna marketable even to his worst opponents. The ball is in his court.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord Group Chairman and Editor-in-Chief

15, April 2024

Cameroonian beer and soft drinks exports soar by 73% and 46.6% in 2022 ⁰

Cameroon’s brewing companies saw a significant boost in their beer exports in 2022. According to data from the National Statistics Agency (INS), exports surged by 73% over the period to 12,602 tons, bringing in a total of CFA5.7 billion. The previous year, beer exporters sold 7,285 tons of beer and collected CFA3 billion.

Soft drink shipments have followed a similar trend. INS reported that these beverages generated CFA3.5 billion in 2022, from exports totaling 7,124 tons. This represents increases of 46.6% in volume and nearly 61% in revenue compared to 2021, when the country exported 4,860 tons for CFA2 billion.

Although neighboring countries of Cameroon have brewing facilities that are often owned by the same multinationals operating in Cameroon, the beers and beverages from this CEMAC country are highly sought after, especially in countries like Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Source: Business in Cameroon

15, April 2024

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 2 teachers abducted in the North West ⁰

Two teachers were kidnapped early Monday in Cameroon’s restive Anglophone region of Northwest, according to local and security sources.

Schools in Southern Cameroons resumed classes Monday for the last term of the academic year after a two-week holiday. The teachers were on their way to school when gunmen, identified by locals as separatist fighters, ambushed and abducted them in the region’s Njap village.

“They (gunmen) took them (teachers) into the bush. They also torched about 13 commercial motorcycles that were carrying passengers,” a local official, who asked not to be named for security reasons, said.

The army said a search and rescue operation for the teachers was underway in the area.

Fighting between government forces and separatist fighters has persisted in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest since 2017 when separatists attempted to establish an independent nation in these regions.

Teachers and students are regularly abducted in the region, where separatists have warned government schools not to operate.

Source: Xinhuanet

15, April 2024

World Bank says despite high potential, 75 vulnerable economies face ‘Historic Reversal’ ⁰

Despite their high potential to advance global prosperity, one-half of the world’s 75 most vulnerable countries are facing a widening income gap with the wealthiest economies for the first time in this century, a new World Bank report has found. Taking full advantage of their younger populations, their rich natural resources, and their abundant solar-energy potential can help them overcome the setback.

The report, The Great Reversal: Prospects, Risks, and Policies in International Development Association Countries, offers the first comprehensive look at the opportunities and risks confronting the 75 countries eligible for grants and zero to low-interest loans from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA). These countries are home to a quarter of humanity—1.9 billion people. At a time when populations are aging nearly everywhere else, IDA countries will enjoy a growing share of young workers through 2070—a huge potential “demographic dividend.” These countries are also rich in natural resources, enjoy high potential for solar-energy generation, and boast a large reservoir of mineral deposits that could be crucial for the world’s transition to clean energy.

Yet a historic reversal is underway for them. Over 2020-24, average per capita incomes in half of IDA countries—the largest share since the start of this century—have been growing more slowly than those of wealthy economies. This is widening the income gap between these two groups of countries. One out of three IDA countries is poorer, on average, than it was on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic. The extreme-poverty rate is more than eight times the average in the rest of the world: one in four people in IDA countries struggles on less than $2.15 a day. These countries now account for 90 percent of all people facing hunger or malnutrition. Half of these countries are either in debt distress or at high risk of it. Still, except for the World Bank Group and other multilateral development donors, foreign lenders—private as well as government creditors—have been backing away from them.

“The world cannot afford to turn its back on IDA countries,” said Indermit Gill, the World Bank Group’s Chief Economist and Senior Vice President. “The welfare of these countries has always been crucial to the long-term outlook for global prosperity. Three of the world’s economic powerhouses today—China, India, and South Korea—were all once IDA borrowers. All three prospered in ways that whittled down extreme poverty and raised living standards. With help from abroad, today’s batch of IDA countries has the potential to do the same.”

More than half of all IDA countries—39 in all—are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Fourteen of them—mainly small island states—are in East Asia, and eight are in Latin America and the Caribbean. In South Asia, all countries except for India are IDA countries. Thirty-one IDA countries have per capita incomes of less than $1,315 a year. Thirty-three are fragile and conflict-affected states.

IDA countries share similar opportunities. The “demographic dividend”—a deep and growing reserve of young workers—is one of them. Abundant natural resources is another. These countries account for about 20 percent of global production of tin, copper, and gold. In addition, some IDA countries possess critical mineral deposits essential for the global energy transition. Because of their abundant sunshine, most IDA countries are well situated to take advantage of solar energy. On average, their long-term daily solar-electricity generation potential is among the highest in the world.

This potential, however, comes with risks that must be managed. To reap the demographic dividend, IDA governments will need to undertake policies to improve education and health outcomes and make sure that jobs are available for the rising number of young people who will enter the workforce in the coming decades. To seize the full potential of their natural-resource wealth, IDA countries will need to improve policy frameworks and build stronger institutions capable of better economic management. All of this will require ambitious domestic policy reforms—and significant financial support from the international community.

“IDA countries have incredible potential to deliver strong, sustainable, and inclusive growth. Realizing this potential will require them to implement an ambitious set of policies centered on boosting investment,” said Ayhan Kose, the World Bank’s Deputy Chief Economist and Director of the Prospects Group. “This means improving fiscal, monetary, and financial policy frameworks and advancing an array of structural reforms to strengthen institutions and enhance human capital.”

IDA countries today have large investment needs. In the poorest of them, closing existing development and infrastructure gaps and building resilience to climate change will require investment that amounts to nearly 10 percent of GDP. The costs of climate disasters have doubled in IDA countries over the past decade: Economic losses from natural disasters average 1.3% of GDP a year—four times the average of other emerging market and developing economies. Such needs will require IDA countries to generate sustained investment booms—the type that boosts productivity and incomes and reduces poverty. Historically, such investment booms have often been sparked by a comprehensive package of policy measures—to bolster fiscal and monetary frameworks, ramp up cross-border trade and financial flows, and improve the quality of institutions. Such reforms are never easy, the report notes. They need careful sequencing and implementation. But previous IDA countries have shown they are possible.

IDA countries will need significant international financial support to make progress and lower the risk of “protracted stagnation,” the report notes. Stronger cooperation on global policy issues—including fighting climate change, facilitating more timely and effective debt restructurings, and supporting cross-border trade and investment—will also be crucial to help IDA countries avert a lost decade in development.

15, April 2024

Cardinal Robert Sarah says Western prelates have lost their nerve ⁰

An African cardinal widely seen as a conservative critic of Pope Francis, and styled by some as possible candidate for the papacy himself, has warned of what he described as a “practical atheism” taking hold within the Catholic Church.

Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea also repeated his criticism of Fiducia Supplicans, the recent Vatican document authorizing blessings of couples involved in same-sex unions, insisting that it’s not just traditional African culture but Catholic teaching itself which makes the document unacceptable.

Speaking to the episcopal conference of Cameroon, Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, the Vatican’s former top official for liturgy, criticized Western bishops for their reluctance to oppose secular worldly values, accusing them of a failure of nerve.

“Many Western prelates are tetanized by the idea of opposing the world. They dream of being loved by the world; they’ve lost the desire to be a sign of contradiction,” said the 78-year-old Sarah.

Sarah told the Cameroonian bishops he believes “the Church of our time is experiencing the temptation of atheism. Not intellectual atheism, but that subtle and dangerous state of mind [of] fluid and practical atheism.”

“The latter is a dangerous disease, even if its initial symptoms seem benign,” he said.

According to Sarah, practical atheism is more insidious than its intellectual counterpart, as it does not declare itself openly but seeps into every aspect of contemporary culture, including ecclesiastical discourse.

He asserted that the Church and its leadership has been guilty of “accommodating, of complicity with this major lie that is fluid and practical atheism.”

“We pretend to be Christian believers and men of faith. We celebrate religious rites, but in fact we live as pagans and unbelievers,” Sarah said.

Sarah described “fluid and practical atheism” as a treacherous and elusive force. He compared it to being caught in a spider’s web, where efforts to escape only tighten its grip. This brand of atheism, he argues, is a masterful trap set by Satan himself.

The Church leader emphasized that this form of atheism preys on human frailties and on man’s tendencies to give in to its deceptions. He urged that within the Church, there should be no factions or self-proclaimed saviors, as such divisions play into the adversary’s hands.

“We don’t have to create parties in the Church; we don’t have to proclaim ourselves the saviors of this or that institution,” he said.

“But each of us can decide today: the lie of atheism will no longer pass through me; I no longer wish to renounce the light of faith; I no longer wish, out of convenience, laziness or conformism, to allow light and darkness to cohabit within me,” Sarah said.

“To maintain the spirit of faith,” he said, “is to reject anything that undermines it and to view the world solely through the lens of faith, holding steadfastly to God’s hand,” calling that the only path to true peace and kindness.

Sarah condemned the “bitterness and partisanship” that have plagued the Church, suggesting that these issues are symptomatic of a deeper spiritual crisis. He stressed that only a spirit of faith can foster genuine brotherly love and bring peace to a world ravaged by deceit and conflict.

The cleric also exhorted the episcopate in Africa to defend what he called the “unity of faith” in the face of Western distortions.

Referring to the October 2024 session of the ongoing Synod of Bishops on Synodality, Sarah praised the spirited defense African Church leaders have mounted of traditional doctrine and values.

“At the last Synod, the Church in Africa forcefully defended the dignity of the man and woman created by God. Her voice was ignored and scorned by those whose sole obsession is to please Western lobbies,” Sarah said.

“The Church in Africa will soon have to defend the truth of the priesthood and the unity of the faith. The Church in Africa is the voice of the poor, the simple and the small,” he said.

The cleric noted that while the African Church today plays a critical role in upholding the word of God, Western Christians seem to be misled by their wealth into a false sense of enlightenment and modernity.

Sarah highlighted the unique position of African bishops as guardians of the faith’s universality, standing against those, he said, who fragment the truth and promote a culture of relativism. He praised their role as messengers of divine truth, suggesting that God often chooses the seemingly weak and unpopular to confound the strong and well-regarded.

Sarah also commended the bishops of Cameroon for their opposition to Fiducia Supplicans, the recent Vatican document permitting blessings for same-sex couples and others in non-traditional relationships. Sarah called the Cameroonians’ decision not to implement it as a “bold and prophetic move” that upholds the unity of the Church and the truth of its teachings.

He criticized the notion that African bishops’ resistance to Fiducia Supplicans is rooted in traditional African culture, dismissing such claims as a form of intellectual neo-colonialism.

Instead, Sarah pointed to the Symposium of Episcopal Conference of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM)’s statement, which outlined theological and doctrinal reasons for not adopting such blessings in Africa, including previous declarations on homosexuality, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Sacred Scriptures, and concerns about the language used in the Vatican document.

The President of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon, Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya, told Crux that Sarah “is a great man of God, an icon of the Catholic Church in Africa and it’s a great opportunity that he is amongst us.”

“He has taught us to go into intimacy with God in silence, because there is so much noise in this world,” Nkea said.

Source: Crux

13, April 2024

Iran launches drones at Israel in retaliatory attack ⁰

Iran has launched drones at Israel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, appearing to mark a widely anticipated reprisal attack.

The IDF said the wave could take hours to reach Israel, a distance of 1,100 miles (1,800km).

It said Israeli forces were on high alert and “monitoring all targets”.

Iran had vowed to retaliate after an attack on its consulate in Syria on 1 April – for which it blamed Israel – killed several Iranian commanders.

Shortly before news of Iran’s drone launch, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s “defensive systems” were deployed.

“We are ready for any scenario, both defensively and offensively. The State of Israel is strong. The IDF is strong. The public is strong.”We appreciate the US standing alongside Israel, as well as the support of Britain, France and many other countries.”

Source: BBC