Headline News

12, January 2024

5 Amba fighters killed in military offensive in Southern Cameroons ⁰

At least five separatist fighters have been killed in an offensive by Cameroon’s military against armed separatists in the restive English-speaking Northwest Region, local and army sources said Tuesday night.

The attack took place early Tuesday in the Ewai village of the region.

Cameroonian troops raided a separatist hideout, which was serving as the main base of one of the separatist groups in the region, killing the five separatist fighters, an army official in the region said.

“Our brave soldiers also captured so many of their weapons and rescued some people who were abducted by the separatist terrorists. Many of the terrorists escaped with bullet wounds,” the official who asked not to be named said.

Separatist leaders confirmed the attack on social media but claimed that only three fighters were killed.

A resident of the village, who asked not to be named, said that hundreds of people in the village fled to the bush as the offensive unfolded.

There was no word on casualties on the side of government forces during the raid.

The separatists, who have been in conflict with government forces since 2017, hope to establish an independent nation in the two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest.

Source: Xinhuanet

9, January 2024

Biya’s new fiscal measures leading to salary cuts ⁰

Effective January 1, 2024, with the implementation of Cameroon’s 2024 fiscal law, the government has introduced new tax measures expected to lead to an inevitable decrease in salaries for some workers. According to Célestin Tawamba, the leader of Cameroonian business leaders, these measures are projected to result in a salary reduction ranging from 5% to 25% in various companies.

One significant measure involves the expansion of the list of in-kind benefits subject to the income tax scale. The related circular signed on December 29, 2023, by Finance Minister Louis Paul Motazé specified that “personal income tax (IRPP) in the salaries and wages category has been rationalized by fully taxing all benefits in kind paid in cash. The list of benefits in kind subject to estimation for the determination of the taxable base of IRPP in the salaries and wages category has been extended to include: telephone 5%, fuel 10%, security 5%, and internet 5%”.

This means that along with existing benefits in kind, such as housing allowances (15%), electricity (4%), water (2%), domestic help (5% each), vehicles (10% each), and food (10%), previously subject to the income tax scale, the State is adding, as of January 1, 2024, phone allowances (5%), fuel allowances (10%), security allowances (5%), and internet allowances (5%). According to information from sources within the General Tax Directorate, under this new provision of the 2024 fiscal law, a worker receiving, for example, a phone allowance of 50,000 CFA per month will only see 5% of that amount (2,500 CFA) exempt from IRPP. The entire remaining allowance, i.e., 47,500 CFA, will be subject to IRPP.

Significant deductions for high incomes

Similarly, a worker receiving a fuel allowance of the same amount (50,000 CFA) will have IRPP deducted from 45,000 CFA, while 5,000 CFA will be exempt from paying this tax. Considering that the IRPP rate for salaries below 2 million CFA is 10% in Cameroon, the worker in this scenario (assuming their salary is less than 2 million CFA, ed) will lose 4,500 CFA from their fuel allowance due to the payment of IRPP to the tax authorities, corresponding to a decrease in their salary by 4,500 CFA. This reduction will be even more significant as the same operation is applied to the phone, security, and internet allowances.

It is worth noting that the in-kind benefits targeted by this new provision of the 2024 fiscal law related to IRPP concern higher-income workers who generally enjoy substantial salary packages. In other words, the 2024 fiscal law will allow for increased tax revenue collection from higher salaries. The larger the salary, the greater the deduction for IRPP on in-kind benefits, as the IRPP rate varies depending on income levels. It is 10% for incomes below 2 million CFA per month, 15% for incomes between 2 and 3 million CFA, 25% for incomes between 3 and 5 million CFA, and 35% for incomes exceeding 5 million CFA.

Moreover, the government, in the 2024 fiscal law, caps the flat-rate deduction at 4.8 million CFA per year (400,000 CFA per month) for the 30% deduction from the gross annual salary. “Only salaries exceeding 1,333,000 CFA per month are affected by this limitation,” the Minister’s note read.

A worker with an annual salary income totaling 100 million CFA will now only benefit from a maximum deduction of 4.8 million CFA (the rest being subject to IRPP payment), compared to the previous 30 million CFA. The nearly 25 million CFA that were previously exempt from IRPP before the new fiscal law came into effect will now be added to the taxable base, resulting in a significant loss of income to the tax authorities.

Source: Business in Cameroon

9, January 2024

Cleaning the sinful church: Bishop Bibi prohibits Bushu from celebrating Holy Mass ⁰

Bishop Emmanuel B. Bushu, who retired from the pastoral care of Cameroon’s Catholic Diocese of Buea in December 2019, has been prohibited from celebrating or concelebrating Holy Mass in public in the Cameroonian Episcopal See without the “explicit permission” of his successor.

In a letter circulated on Sunday, January 7, the Local Ordinary of Buea Diocese, Bishop Michael Miabesue Bibi, communicates to Bishop Bushu two prohibitions after highlighting reasons behind his decision.

“You shall no longer be allowed to concelebrate with me on any Diocesan Liturgical celebration until further notice,” Bishop Bibi tells his immediate predecessor.

In his second prohibition, the Cameroonian Bishop who has been at the helm of Buea Diocese since December 2019 as Apostolic Administrator, and later, from February 2021 as the Bishop of the Diocese, bars Bishop Bushu from celebrating or concelebrating “any public Mass in any Parish in the Diocese of Buea, without an explicit permission from me”.

In the one-page letter dated 22 November 2023, Bishop Bibi cites “deep opposition and interference” as some of the reasons behind his two decisions.

“From the very beginning of my mission in the Diocese of Buea … I have had to live through the unhappy reality of deep opposition and interference from you, that has even led you to the screen media to make this opposition public,” he states.

Bishop Bibi expresses his awareness of Bishop Bushu’s “opposition and interference in my administration for three years now, including, but not limited to your trips to the Nunciature and to Rome against my decisions over certain important sectors of the Diocese.”

“The present state of affairs indicates a total absence of communion between us, which makes you ready to align yourself with persons and groups that seek to bring down my administration,” he further writes.

The Cameroonian Catholic Bishop, who started his Episcopal Ministry in March 2017 as the Auxiliary Bishop of Cameroon’s Bamenda Archdiocese says that his two prohibitions are aimed to “protect” his administration of Buea Diocese.

In his letter, Bishop Bibi wishes his 79-year-old predecessor “grace and peace” from “God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in Communion with the Holy Spirit.”

A past decision that 52-year-old Bishop Bibi had to battle with involved the administrative changes he made at the Catholic University Institute of Buea (CUIB) in June 2020, when he appointed Professor Victor Julius Ngoh as Vice Chancellor, to succeed Fr. George Nkeze Jingwa. In his capacity as Apostolic Administrator of Buea, Bishop Bibi asked Fr. Nkeze to take a sabbatical leave.

The University Council disapproved of the 11 June 2020 administrative change, with Sobe Clive Ndikum who was serving as the legal representative of the University describing the change as “improper interference”.

He accused Bishop Bibi of causing “irreparable damage and mistrust amongst students, faculty members, the laity and other well-wishers of our Christian Community by making uninformed, ill-advised and rash decisions beyond the scope of his mandate and authority.”

However, in a 15 June 2020 clarification, the then Apostolic Nuncio in Cameroon, Archbishop Julio Murat, came to the defence of Bishop Bibi, and outlined his mandate of Apostolic Administrator as “having jurisdiction to act for and on behalf of the Diocese of Buea in all matters concerning the Diocese and all other Institutions belonging to the Diocese.”

“The Apostolic Administrator is the legitimate authority over all priests, Religious and other mission personnel within the Diocese of Buea and reserves the right to appoint, transfer, remove, or dismiss persons according to the prescriptions of the Code of Canon Law and the specific instructions given to him by the Holy See,” Archbishop Murat stated.

In March 2022, Bishop Bibi lamented the protracted controversies in the administration of CUIB and affiliate institutions, apportioning blame on the the administration that he had dismissed and that some disgruntled members “aimed at undermining (his) decisions”.

“Sadly still, up to this moment, some of the members of the then Administration of CUIB have resorted to diverse means aimed at undermining the decisions I made, and in the process, they have created confusion in the minds of God’s people and people of good will in the Diocese of Buea and beyond,” Bishop Bibi said in his 13 March 2022 statement in which he also narrated his being drugged to Cameroon’s labor court with “false or misguided” claims.

Earlier, in February 2022, Bishop Bibi weighed in on the online petition, a Facebook post and other attacks against him.

In his 25 February 2022 homily during Holy Mass to mark a year since he took canonical possession of Buea Diocese, the Catholic Church leader bemoaned the “many attacks … over social media, over some newspapers, over some TV stations by clerics, all the staged interviews that were brought out and sent out to the public” as what he termed “signs of total interference in the governance of the Diocese of Buea.”

This was days after members of the Bamenda Provincial Episcopal Conference (BAPEC) Province expressed their “solidarity and communion” with him.

In their 11 February 2022 statement, BAPEC members said that their “hearts were deeply saddened by the unfortunate turn of events in the Diocese of Buea, characterized by gross disrespect of the hierarchy of the Church, casting of aspersions on Bishop Michael Bibi.”

Last November, members of the Clergy of Buea Diocese expressed their support for Bishop Bibi, weighing in on social media posts against their Local Ordinary, including those from Nchumbonga George Lekelefac such as an ongoing apostolic visitation, Seeking Transparency and Accountability: An Examination of Bishop Michael Miabesue Bibi’s Leadership, Bishop Michael Bibi, The Father, The Bishop, The Rock On Which Buea Diocese Is Built, The Truth and nothing but the truth about Buea Diocese under Bishop Michael Bibi, and Ex-cardination of suspended priests of Buea Diocese: a solution?

“We, the Priests of the Presbyterium of Buea, have watched with dismay at the smear campaign orchestrated by some individuals and even some members of the presbyterium and groups on social media against the person of the Bishop and the work he is doing in the Diocese of Buea which is already yielding fruits in abundance,” they said in their statement issued on 22 November 2023.

Despite the controversies, last September, Bishop Bibi was honored by Cameroon’s NewsWatch Newspaper for his “exceptional skills” in leading the people of God and managing the property of his Episcopal See.

Culled from aciAfrica

9, January 2024

Biya regime faces inflation challenges as rates persist above CEMAC threshold ⁰

Cameroon’s inflation rate over the past year averaged 7.5% in November 2023, according to information released by the national statistics agency INS.

Although this indicator is down by 0.2% compared to October 2023’s 7.7%, it still represents more than double the 3% threshold tolerated in the Cemac. According to the document, inflation rates remain above 7% in 9 out of 10 regions in the country, with the highest recorded in Bertoua (East) at 8.9%. Bamenda, the regional capital of the Northwest, has the lowest rate at 6.1%, but it still surpasses the community norm.

INS explains that this inflation mainly stems from “an 11.6% increase in food product prices, a 13.8% rise in transportation costs, and a 7.7% increase in the prices of furniture, household items, and everyday maintenance products.” However, the stats agency notes that food inflation has decreased by 0.4% during the period under review, following the decline in the prices of bread and cereals (-1.1%), fish and seafood (-1.1%), oils and fats (-1.1%), as well as vegetables (-0.4%). On the other hand, meat and fruit prices increased during the same period, by 0.6% and 1.9%, respectively. For non-food products, the decrease only concerns alcoholic beverages, tobacco, and narcotics (-0.1%).

In the 2024 budget, the Cameroonian government anticipates that inflation will decrease to 4% next year, compared to 6.7% at the end of December 2023, although this rate remains above the community threshold. In response to the inflationary situation, the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) tightens liquidity in banks through repeated increases in its main policy rates, suspension of liquidity injection operations into the CEMAC banking system, and intensification of liquidity absorption operations from banks. However, BEAC acknowledges that only 20% of inflation is of monetary origin.

Source: Business in Cameroon

9, January 2024

Yaoundé to introduce malaria vaccine ⁰

Cameroon will introduce the malaria vaccine on Jan. 22, according to Manaouda Malachie, the country’s minister of public health.

The move is part of concerted efforts to enhance the fight against malaria and reduce morbidity and mortality associated with the disease, the minister said in a statement released Monday night.

“The selected vaccine, Mosquirix RTS, has been chosen by the country based on its pre-qualification, ensuring guaranteed quality, efficacy, and safety for its inclusion in the vaccination programs,” he said. “The vaccine will be offered in both public and private health facilities across 42 health districts. The vaccines provided for children are safe, free, and effective.”

Cameroon took delivery in November last year of 331,200 doses of malaria vaccine, the first consignment to arrive in the central African country.

Malaria is responsible for 70 percent of deaths among children in Cameroon, according to the Ministry of Public Health.

Source: Xinhuanet

9, January 2024

Yaoundé: Kamto calls for single candidate to face Biya in next election ⁰

Leaders of Cameroon’s main opposition party say they are negotiating with more than 30 opposition leaders to present a single candidate in the next election, should 91-year-old President Paul Biya be incapacitated by ill health.

The opposition reacted after Biya, who has ruled for more than four decades, made no mention of running for re-election in a New Year’s message.

Maurice Kamto, president of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement Party, said scores of civil society and political opposition members have set up a platform called the Political Alliance for Change, also known as the PAC, to press for Biya to relinquish power.

The 91-year-old has been president since 1982 and is the world’s oldest political head of state.

Elections to take place by late 2025

Presidential elections are to take place in Cameroon by October 2025, but civil society groups and opposition parties expected Biya to announce, during his New Year’s message, early elections in 2024. That didn’t happen.

Kamto said he has been chosen by the PAC as a single opposition candidate, should Biya resign or is incapacitated. He said supporters of Biya’s CPDM party, who are fed up with Biya’s autocratic rule, should join the PAC.

“The PAC remains open to all those who believe that the current regime is now Cameroon’s problem and therefore can no longer contribute anything to its recovery,” said Kamto. “Our compatriots in the ruling CPDM party who demonstrate a patriotic reawakening are also welcome in the PAC. Let them come and take their place in the train of national renaissance.”

Kamto said he would revive all state institutions he said Biya has ruined, organize an inclusive national dialogue to end the separatist crisis that has claimed more than 6,000 lives in Cameroon’s western regions, and improve living conditions for those stuck in hunger and poverty.

According to Cameroon’s constitution, if Biya dies, resigns or becomes incapacitated, Marcel Niat Njifenji, the 89-year-old president of the Senate, the upper house of parliament, would take power, and organize elections for a new president within 120 days.

In his message, Biya did not say anything about plans to leave power or not, but blamed the country’s current hardships and armed conflict on high levels of corruption and external factors.

Biya said Cameroon, like other African countries, is dealing with an economic crisis caused by the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Biya said when the world expected an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the resurgence last October of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict worsened rifts in the international community and further sunk the world’s economy. Biya said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is leading to price hikes in consumer products and, consequently, the cost of living. He said the conflict is also causing shortages of petroleum products.

Despite the challenges, Biya said Cameroon had a 3.7% economic growth rate in 2023 and inflation was contained at less than 7%.

Cameron’s opposition disputed that, saying the economic growth rate is less than 2% and inflation is running above 20%. They say Biya is responsible for what they say is an economic disaster in Cameroon, a country blessed with a variety of minerals that could be exploited to develop the central African state but were misused by the Biya government.

Biya hard to beat, say experts

The Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa said that Cameroon’s fragmented opposition, which is made up of about 400 political parties, will find it difficult to beat Biya or any CPDM candidate in an election.

Kamto said all the opposition and civil society groups should, for once, rally behind a single candidate, should early elections be called or when presidential elections come up by October 2025.

Source: VOA

8, January 2024

Football: Thierry Henry reveals battle with depression throughout his career ⁰

Arsenal and France legend Thierry Henry has revealed he suffered with depression during his stellar playing career.

The 46-year-old, who won the World Cup with France and is Arsenal’s all-time top goalscorer, told the Diary of a CEO podcast that the coronavirus pandemic made him appreciate his mental health struggles as he cried “almost every day.”

Henry has linked that to his past and a search for approval from his father, who was often critical of his performances as a young player.

“Throughout my career, and since I was born, I must have been in depression,” said Henry.

“Did I know it? No. Did I do something about it? No. But I adapted to a certain way. That doesn’t mean I’m walking straight, but I’m walking. You’ve got to put one foot (forward) and another one, and walk. That’s what I’ve been told since I’m young.

“I never stopped walking, then maybe I would have realised. (But during) Covid – I stopped walking. I couldn’t. Then you start to realise.”

Henry was in charge of Canadian side Montral Impact when the pandemic hit, leaving him isolated and on the other side of the world from his family.

“I was in isolation in Montreal, and not being able to see my kids for a year was tough,” he added.

“Tears were coming alone. Why I don’t know, but maybe they were there for a very long time.

“Technically, it wasn’t me, it was the young me. (Crying for) everything he didn’t get, approval.”

Henry, who is now coach of France’s under-21 team, said his father’s desire was for him to be “an amazing football player” from the moment he first held his son.

“As a little boy it was always ‘you didn’t do that well’. So obviously when you hear that more often than not, that’s what’s going to stay,” said Henry.

“(It) did to a degree help the athlete….(it) didn’t help so much the human being”.

Source: AFP

8, January 2024

German football legend Franz Beckenbauer dies aged 78 ⁰

Franz Beckenbauer, one of German soccer’s greatest players, who captained the team to World Cup victory in 1974 then won the tournament again as manager in 1990, has died at the age of 78, German news agency DPA reported on Monday.

Beckenbauer was a classy, dominant presence on the pitch for West Germany and Bayern Munich, with whom he won three successive European Cups, and had the nickname Der Kaiser, or “The Emperor”.

Source: Reuters

8, January 2024

TB Joshua raped and tortured worshippers ⁰

Evidence of widespread abuse and torture by the founder of one of the world’s biggest Christian evangelical churches has been uncovered by the BBC.

Dozens of ex-Synagogue Church of all Nations members – five British – allege atrocities, including rape and forced abortions, by Nigeria’s late TB Joshua.

The allegations of abuse in a secretive Lagos compound span almost 20 years.

The Synagogue Church of All Nations did not respond to the allegations but said previous claims have been unfounded.

TB Joshua, who died in 2021, was a charismatic and hugely successful preacher and televangelist who had an immense global following.

The BBC’s findings over a two-year investigation include:

Dozens of eyewitness accounts of physical violence or torture carried out by Joshua, including instances of child abuse and people being whipped and chained

Numerous women who say they were sexually assaulted by Joshua, with a number claiming they were repeatedly raped for years inside the compound

Multiple allegations of forced abortions inside the church following the alleged rapes by Joshua, including one woman who says she had five terminations

Multiple first-hand accounts detailing how Joshua faked his “miracle healings”, which were broadcast to millions of people around the world

One of the victims, a British woman, called Rae, was 21 years old when she abandoned her degree at Brighton University in 2002 and was recruited into the church. She spent the next 12 years as one of Joshua’s so-called “disciples” inside his maze-like concrete compound in Lagos.

“We all thought we were in heaven, but we were in hell, and in hell terrible things happen,” she told the BBC.

Rae says she was sexually assaulted by Joshua and subjected to a form of solitary confinement for two years. The abuse was so severe, she says she attempted suicide multiple times inside the compound.

The Synagogue Church of All Nations [Scoan] has a global following, operating a Christian TV channel called Emmanuel TV and social media networks with millions of viewers. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, tens of thousands of pilgrims from Europe, the Americas, South East Asia and Africa travelled to the church in Nigeria to witness Joshua performing “healing miracles”. At least 150 visitors lived with him as disciples inside his compound in Lagos, sometimes for decades.

Culled from the BBC

6, January 2024

Joseph Owona, former Biya acolyte dies aged 78 ⁰

Professor Joseph Owona, a cabinet minister under President Biya and a successful academic, has died aged 78.

A Cameroon government embassy official in Paris, France confirmed the death of the peer, who became Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and was later appointed Secretary General at the Presidency.

Owona served as right-hand man to the 91-year-old President Biya during the early days of multi-party politics.

He would later serve as Minister of Health, Minister of Youth and Sports and President of FIFA’s Normalization Committee of the Cameroon Football Federation and retained a keen interest in the International Relations Institute (IRIC) in Yaoundé.

In the early 90s, he made a mockery of Cameroon researchers accusing them of not producing any results.

Sometimes referred to as a Biya favourite, Professor Joseph Owona began his rise through politics deep inside the secretariat of the ruling CPDM Central Committee.

He was a controversial figure described by many as the minister who brought problems to Biya while others brought solutions.

Owona was a law professor at the heart of the Biya’s government promoting tribalism and nepotism. As Secretary General at the presidency, he was widely criticised for suggesting that no Bamileke could be head of state. He never withdrew his remarks after a firm rebuke from Etoudi but was removed from his role.

Born on 25 January 1945 in Akom, the polygamist served as a minister several times and was a member of the Constitutional Council from April 2020 to January 2024. He did his higher education at the University of Yaoundé and Panthéon-Sorbonne in France.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai