Life

21, September 2021

COVID-19 makes its way to Mamfe ⁰

The Coronavirus, which for almost two years has been a virus of the cities and big towns, has begun spreading to smaller towns and is very likely to reach villages that, know nothing about the virus and how it can be prevented.

The virus, which is suspected of having killed many people in Cameroon’s major cities, has now found a new place in Mamfe where some ten people have been diagnosed with COVID-19-related health complications, with two actually dying.

For the past eighteen months, the people of Mamfe have been going about their business as if they are beyond the virus’ reach, but this indifference has simply varnished following the announcement of the virus’ presence in a town where people love shaking hands and do live a social life that many consider as dangerous.

The country’s military is highly suspected of bringing this virus to the shores of Mamfe as most of the soldiers posted to Mamfe are from Yaoundé and Douala where the virus has been decimating the population segment that is either too vulnerable due to age or co-morbidities.

The Cameroon Concord News Group’s correspondent in Mamfe has been talking to many people on the streets of Mamfe and most of them are really scared, with the majority assuming that the military is to blame for the importation of this virus into a town that has been COVID-19-free.

“We have not been wearing mask here and I doubt if many people will be adopting a new lifestyle which includes wearing masks and avoiding people. If this virus really decides to take up residence here, then we have a huge crisis on our hands,” the desperate Mamfe resident said.

He added that “with the socio-political chaos playing out here in most of Manyu Division, we do not know where we can go to stay out of this virus’ path. Many people are scared. Who will help us? Neither Amba fighters nor the government can help us in this regard. The government is ill-equipped to deal with this ugly situation and Amba fighters cannot use their guns to kill this insidious virus. We just have to continue praying, but I know that prayers alone will not roll back the virus from our Division,” the Mamfe resident said.

Meanwhile, many residents of the city informed the Cameroon Concord News Group’s correspondent in Mamfe that Doctors Without Borders have been in Mamfe for close to one gear where they set up an isolation center which closed sometime in August and once the health organization shut down this facility and left because there were no COVID-19 cases, the virus showed up, coming in through the back door.

However, residents of the town have confirmed that Doctors Without Borders are back and their presence in the town is reassuring.

By Julius Agbor Bate in Mamfe

16, September 2021

One million Nigerian children to miss school due to threat of violence ⁰

One million Nigerian children will likely stay away from school because of the threat of violence after a series of mass kidnappings and attacks targeting students this year, the UN said on Wednesday.

More than 1,000 pupils have been snatched in mass abductions for ransom by criminal gangs in Nigeria’s northwest and central states since December with dozens still in captivity.

The UN children’s agency UNICEF said there had been 20 attacks on schools in Nigeria this year and more than 1,400 pupils were taken and 16 had died.

Most have been released after ransom negotiations, but only after weeks or months in captivity, often in appalling conditions in rural camps.

“Families and communities remain fearful of sending children back to their classrooms due to the spate of school attacks and student abductions,” UNICEF said in a statement.

More than 37 million Nigerian children are due to start the new school year this month, the agency said, while an estimated one million would likely not return.

Some state governments have temporarily closed up schools after kidnappings.

Northwest and central states have long struggled with tit-for-tat violence between nomadic herder and farmer communities who battle over land and water.

Attacks escalated with the emergence of heavily armed criminal gangs, known locally as bandits, who raid villages, steal cattle and kidnap for ransom.

Bandit gangs this year have targeted schools and colleges in Nigeria’s northwest, snatching pupils and taking them into forest hideouts while they negotiate payments.

Around 70 students abducted nearly a fortnight ago were freed this week in northwest Zamfara State, where the army has started an offensive against bandit kidnap gangs.

Source: AFP

14, September 2021

Let us buy Covid jabs, pleads Africa ⁰

Africa wants to buy Covid-19 vaccines, rather than keep waiting for donor-funded doses to arrive, the African Union said Tuesday, imploring producers to give the continent a fair shot at market access.

The AU also urged manufacturing nations to lift export bans so the continent can begin to address for itself the glaring inequity in access to coronavirus jabs, as wealthy nations hog available doses.

“Vaccine sharing is good. But we shouldn’t have to be relying on vaccine sharing,” Strive Masiyiwa, the AU’s Covid-19 special envoy, told a press conference at the World Health Organization in Geneva.

“We want to buy from those same manufacturers.”

The major Covid-19 vaccine producers have a moral responsibility to ensure equitable access to end the pandemic, he said, but “those manufacturers know very well that they never gave us proper access”.

Just nine vaccine doses have been administered per 100 people in Africa, according to an AFP calculation.

That figure stands at 118 doses per 100 people in the United States and Canada; 104 in Europe; 85 in Asia; 84 in Latin America and the Caribbean; 69 in Oceania and 54 in the Middle East.

African nations “have been left behind by the rest of the world”, said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The UN health agency chief spelled out the danger of leaving Africa so poorly covered by vaccines.

“This doesn’t only hurt the people of Africa, it hurts all of us,” he said.

“The longer vaccine inequity persists, the more the virus will keep circulating and changing, the longer the social and economic disruption will continue, and the higher the chances that more variants will emerge that render vaccines less effective.”

– ‘Miracle’ –

John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, told the press conference that just under 3.5 percent of the eligible African population has been fully vaccinated.

The WHO wants 40 percent fully immunised in every country by the end of the year and 70 percent of the world’s population by mid-2022.

It has called for countries to hold off administering extra booster shots until the end of December to allow more people to get a first dose instead.

The AU has set up the African COVID-19 Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, or AVAT, to purchase jabs for member states in a scheme to run alongside the donor-funded global Covax facility.

Masiyiwa said Africa was also setting up its own manufacturing capabilities and called for a temporary waiver of intellectual property rights on the vaccines, as a common good.

He said: “It was a great miracle to have these vaccines. Now let this miracle be available to all mankind.”

Source: AFP

8, September 2021

Concord Group Chairman receives Special invitation to attend the 2021 SOBA UK Convention ⁰

The leadership of SOBA UK has invited high-profile Africans including the Chairman of the Cameroon Concord News Group to the 2021 Sasse Old Boys Annual Residential Convention on 15th to 17th October 2021 at The Hilton at St. George’s Park, Burton upon Trent,UK.

The invitation card, which was seen by Cameroon Concord News London Bureau Chief Isong Asu, showed that the venue Hilton at St. George’s Park is the home of the England National Football teams.

Concord Group Chairman, the Right Hon. Soter Agbaw-Ebai is set to make the trip from Dusseldorf to London.

The editorial boards of both Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report have given the approval, for the complete coverage of the SOBA UK event.

Below is the SOBA UK correspondence to the Cameroon Concord News Chairman

Special Invitation to Attend the 2021 SOBA UK Convention

Soter Agbaw-Ebai

6th September 2021

Dear Mr Soter Agbaw-Ebai,

I am writing to formally invite you to the 2021 SOBA UK Annual Residential Convention on 15th to 17th October 2021 at The Hilton at St. George’s Park, Burton upon Trent, United Kingdom. The Hilton at St. George’s Park is the home of England National Football teams and a venue we are happy to return to after the successful convention in 2018.

We would be most delighted if you can confirm your attendance to this event. The main event is on Saturday, 16th October, where we have a SOBA UK Gala Night and Fundraiser from 4:30pm to 2.30am.

Convention theme and Fundraiser

The theme of this year’s Convention is “Appreciating Community Spirit”, reflecting on the difficult year we have had as a community due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Our fundraising focus is equipping the Sasse College library, providing the students with study aids to help with their academics. We are looking to assist where possible and welcome your generous support. This year, SOBA UK had a successful elections resulting in a new mandate for the executives to 2023.

Covid-19 measures

SOBA UK will seek to provide reasonable safety measures and encourages all guests to take the necessary Covid-19 measures, in line with UK Government advice. We encourage our guests to take their double vaccine jabs and/or take a Covid test prior to the event. The capacity at the event will be limited to 250 places to allow for sufficient distancing and guests will have access to hand sanitizers and temperature checks at entry.

You have been allocated a free standard ticket but if you would like to be seated at a VIP table then please let me know, as there is a small fee to be upgraded.

We look forward to seeing you and please do not hesitate to contact me if you need any assistance.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Franklin Egbe

President, SOBA UK

Tel: +447429880730

soba@sobaintheuk.org

7, September 2021

Africa Covid death toll tops 200,000 ⁰

More than 200,000 people have died from Covid-19 in Africa since the start of the pandemic, according to an AFP tally compiled from official records as of 1700 GMT.

A total of 200,254 fatalities have been registered in Africa, home to more than 1.3 billion people, since the virus emerged in China in December 2019.

After several deadly months, including some 27,000 deaths in July and 26,000 in August, the pandemic appears to be easing on the continent, with current daily figures of 617 compared to up to 990 in late July, a record for the region.

The figures are based on tolls communicated daily day by health authorities in each country or by the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) and include the countries of North Africa.

The WHO has said that if excess deaths directly or indirectly linked to Covid are taken into account, the real toll could be double or triple.

The total number of infections is also likely to be an under-estimate, given insufficient testing capacity in Africa.

“It’s probably a lot higher than that,” said researcher Glenda Davidson of South Africa’s Cape Peninsula University of Technology. “Testing resources are very low on the continent.”

Death registration processes were often delayed and inaccurate, she added.

The current fall in the continent’s tally is a result of sharp drops in the hardest-hit countries.

South Africa has recorded 83,899 deaths so far. But last week’s daily average of 7,400 new cases and 234 deaths is significantly lower than in late July, when the daily average was up to 20,000 new cases and 420 deaths.

– Vaccination key –

The decrease has been even more striking in Tunisia, which has recorded a daily average of 1,680 cases and 64 deaths: 41 and 39 percent down on the previous week.

The figures are well below those of July, which were described by the government as “catastrophic”, with up to 7,900 cases and 207 deaths daily.

Tunisia’s summer was also marked by a sharp acceleration in its vaccination drive, with nearly 37 percent of the population having received at least one dose, compared to just 11 percent on July 1.

Africa has seen the lowest vaccination rate to date of all the continents, with only eight jabs administered per 100 inhabitants administered, according to an AFP count, compared with 102 in Europe and 116 in the United States and Canada.

According to the WHO, around three percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s population are fully vaccinated. By comparison, 52 percent of people are fully vaccinated in the United States of America and 57 percent in the European Union.

“The inequity is deeply disturbing. Just two percent of the over five billion doses given globally have been administered in Africa,” WHO Africa chief Dr Matshidiso Moeti said last week.

However, inoculation in South Africa has been picking up after a rocky start.

“The vaccine has been our weapon,” said South African public health practitioner Shakira Choonara.

“It is contributing to certain changes in trends we are beginning to see.”

Source: AFP

6, September 2021

Iconic French New Wave actor Jean-Paul Belmondo dies aged 88 ⁰

Jean-Paul Belmondo’s battered face, laconic style and roguish smile captured the imagination of French 1960s youth.

Belmondo, who has died at his Paris home aged 88, was the cool rebel of the new wave of French cinema typified in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 film classic, A Bout de Souffle.

His moody performance as a doomed thief and Humphrey Bogart fan struck a chord and saw him dubbed the Gallic James Dean.

Later, he forsook arts cinema to become a highly bankable commercial actor, as at home in comedy as in drama.

Jean-Paul Belmondo was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a suburb of Paris on 9 Apr 1933, the son of Paul Belmondo, a sculptor whose statues grace many a Parisian park.

The intensely Bohemian atmosphere of his upbringing had a formative effect on him.

He failed at school and became an amateur boxer. In his short-lived career, he won 15 of his 23 bouts before giving up to concentrate on acting.

Jean-Paul Belmondo in A Bout de Souffle — image captionA Bout de Souffle was his first starring role

His trademark bumpy nose, however, was a result of a fight in the school playground rather than the ring.

After performing on stage in provincial theatres, his movie break came with the role of Laszlo in Marcel Carné’s 1958 film Les Tricheurs.

On the strength of his forceful portrayal, he was given his first starring role in A Bout de Souffle.

One critic described him as “a bewitchingly ugly man.”

His cult image carried him through several action films such as Les Distractions and La Novice.

Flying grandpa

Determined not to be stereotyped, Belmondo also accepted more demanding roles such as the idealistic intellectual of Vittorio de Sica’s La Ciocara in 1961, and as the young country priest in Philippe de Broca’s swashbuckling Cartouche the following year.

He also enjoyed comic roles, in Godard’s Une Femme est une Femme, and, particularly, in De Broca’s L’Homme de Rio, in which he played a suave, unflappable secret agent.

By the mid-60s, he had switched completely to the commercial mainstream and formed his own production company, Cerito.

Jean-Paul Belmondo — image captionHe relished his role as an elder statesman of French cinema

He even performed his own stunts in such films as Les Tribulations d’Un Chinois en Chine in 1965, though he gave this practice up after an accident in the 1985 film Hold-up.

He brightened many an all-star cast in international productions such as Is Paris Burning? (1966), the James Bond spoof Casino Royale (1967) and with Alain Delon in the gangster movie Borsalino (1970),

He moved away from action movies claiming that “I don’t want to be a flying grandpa of the French cinema.”

In 1987 Belmondo returned to the stage for the first time for nearly 30 years and divided his work between theatre and film for the rest of his career.

Two years later he won a Cesar, the French equivalent of an Oscar, for his performance in Itineraire d’un Enfant Gate.

He branched out creatively as part of the ensemble in Varda’s homage to international cinema Les Cent et une Nuits de Samon Cinema in 1995 and as the Jean Valjean figure in Claude Lelouche’s re-working of Les Miserables in the same year.

Jean-Paul Belmondo was divorced from his first wife Elodie in 1965. His second marriage to Constantin also failed. He later had long relationships with actresses Ursula Andress and Laura Antonelli.

Cinema audiences at home and abroad were drawn to his charm and seeming disregard for whatever absurdities were taking place on screen. He was chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history.

Culled from BBC

4, September 2021

SOBA UK Exco says “Thank You Electorate” ⁰

SOBA UK exco have said a big thank you to the Sasse Old Boys electorate for the second term given them to serve. Below are the warm words made public by SOBA UK secretariat.

Dear Members,

Thank You – An Acceptance Statement

We are greatly humbled by the resounding endorsement from you the electorate for this second mandate you have given us to continue to serve SOBA UK. We remark that these voting results represent a record achievement for SOBA UK as never before has any candidate in the history of the association received up to 75 votes for any given position. We recognise this as how far our association has come.

Two years ago, when we took over the reigns of SOBA UK, you put your trust in us to steer the ship onwards. We in turn as a team discovered and accentuated each of our strengths to deliver on the promises made in 2019. That resulted in the change that our association has experienced in the last two years. We have been able to transform the engagement of our membership and our community to greater heights in that time. We truly took significant strides to build a SOBA UK that became Bigger, Brighter and Best-in-Class.

This time, we ran our campaign under the banner of delivering a Stronger, Smarter, Prouder SOBA UK. We plan to improve on the bond within our brotherhood and introduce initiatives like a mentorship scheme; to make our association smarter in its use of technology and to bring the association’s information closer to its members; and we plan to play a bigger role in our community here in the UK as well contribute towards the betterment of the students of Sasse College. The task ahead won’t be easy but we know with your support we will meet the challenges with increased confidence.

Our association, SOBA UK, has had challenges in recent years and we have taken steps towards building bridges. Whilst we recognise the process of reconciliation is a long one, we remain hopeful for a future for SOBA UK where our brand is associated with harmony and where we reclaim our place as the beacon for all within our community to follow. We will face up to the opportunity of maintaining the standards we are known for whilst remaining accommodating of our divergent views and adapting to reflect our combined aspirations. This association has turned crisis in the past into massive growth.

We are confident that we have in our DNA to do the same with every bump in the road ahead and we will. The future is pregnant with possibilities for this esteemed association. We are about to commence a new membership registration period and thereafter, we look forward to the return of our annual residential convention in October. It will be a chance to reconnect again as brothers after the challenging 18-months with the pandemic. We look forward to welcoming you, your families and your guests to the Hilton at St Georges Park. Conventions are a good opportunity to further our brand and raise money for causes that this association cares about. We are going to be re-targeting our fundraising efforts towards helping students back at Sasse College in various aspects such as the School Library. We look forward to the community’s support in realising this objective.

The elections season has come to a close and we wouldn’t have gotten to this point without the meticulous management of the process by our Patrons and the added confidence given by the work of our Elections Observers. We remain greatly indebted for their service to this association. Their combined efforts have shown that SOBA UK has attained the model for suffrage for any similar group to emulate; a model that reflects and embodies the true meaning of One Man, One Vote. We should be proud.

May St Joseph ever near to guide us!

Kind regards,

Franklin Egbe President, Atem Akoh-Arrey Vice President, Asmara Eban Secretary General

On behalf of Benedict Tchantcheu, Executive Treasurer Bah Kobi Jones, Financial Secretary Fritz Esambi Publicity Officer Ralph Mbua Deputy Secretary Genera

4, September 2021

Buea University Sex Scandal: The Augean Stable is messy! ⁰

Ever since the University of Buea came under fire because of a sex scandal that is hurting the institution’s reputation, the university’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Ngomo Horace Manga, has been tight-lipped despite attempts by the Cameroon Concord News Group to obtain his reaction to the mess that might see him out of that institution.

His indifference to the allegations has caused many people in the English-speaking community to think that he might be complicit in the commission of those sex crimes or he could as well be guilty of the same crime. What is Professor Ngomo Horace Manga hiding? Is he trying to protect his accomplices or his protégés?

However, some people hold that the vice chancellor may just be overwhelmed. The Augean Stable is messy. He does not know where to start. When you have people like Prof. Agborbechem and Prof. Ernest Molua to investigate, know that you have a handful. They have had their fair share of the free sex for a very long time in the university and their DNA is all over the hotels in Buea.

For Agborbechem, his crimes are too many. He has been all over the country, and he has been good at sowing his wild oats. Even if you are given the Federal Reserve (American Central Bank) to investigate the learned professor, you will still run out of financially resources. His field of operation is large, and the damage is massive. It is even alleged that even in Nigeria where he studied, he was advised never to return because of his unacceptable sexual escapades.

Speaking to the Cameroon Concord News Group’s Bureau Chief in London, a colleague of Prof. Agborbechem in Fontem, Lebialem Division, was quick to point out that he had never met anybody with such unusually high libido. The professor’s former colleague had little kind words for a man who has projected himself in very bad light because of his out-of-control libido.

“Agborbechem is a polished gentleman when women are not involved. Once he sees a beautiful woman, his brain takes French leave of him. He was very energic when we were in Fontem. The female students in that school should regret having known him. Anything in skirt was good enough for Agborbechem. Make no mistake, he is a very bright person, but when you give him a little alcohol and you throw women in the mix, Agborbechem loses his mind. It is unfortunate that such a learned person could be without self-control,” the professor’s former colleague regretted.

“Many people in Fontem thought he had lost his mind. If he is not mentally messed up, then he has been cursed. How can a man love sex to such ridiculous extents? When he looks at a woman, it is as he should just take her to his bedroom. We used to see him in a strange way, and we thought he had something that was really bothering him,” his former colleague said.

Meanwhile in Buea, many people are still looking forward to a thorough investigation into this sex scandal. Prof. Agborbechem and Prof. Molua have set brand new records when it comes to their sex trade. It is being alleged that sometimes they even tell the girls they want to sleep with to go and rent hotel rooms and only advise them of the transaction for them to come over and accomplish their mission. They not even want to spend a dime in the entire process. This is meanness in its superlative degree.

University of Buea lecturers are really staging a show. Instead of imparting knowledge to those students, they are spending their entire time on women. Some students even argue that some of their lecturers have lost their intellectual edge because they have been discharging their intellectualism into women’s thighs. Rather than spend time conducting research, they spend useful time conducting non-intellectual research in women’s thighs. They love playing the beast with two backs as if that is part of their benefits package.

The University of Buea is an Augean Stable that needs to be cleansed. But it cannot be cleansed by those who are responsible for the mess. Some of the lecturers need to be fired if the mess must be retired. It is time to take the bull by the horn and the vice chancellor must act swiftly and decisively if he really wants to save the university’s reputation or whatever is left of it.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

1, September 2021

University of Buea Sex Scandal: More gory details are emerging ⁰

When the University of Buea was created in 1992 by a presidential decree, the country’s English-speaking minority saw only the good side of things. With their usual rose-colored spectacles, English-speaking Cameroonians saw only the bright side and nobody ever thought their beloved university would one day become a place where sex and marks trafficking would take place in plain sight.

But once the university’s doors were opened in 1993, the lecturers, indeed, those who are supposed to guarantee that the sanity and sanctity of the university are intact started demonstrating their ugly side. Those who are supposed to be the custodians of the citadel of learning are clearly failing their students and the entire country’s English-speaking community. The shepherds are all yielding to the temptations of the flesh and the “place to be” has become anything but the ideal place of learning.

The lecturers have transformed the girls into their sex slaves. Sex has been weaponized to dominate the young and vulnerable girls who should be empowered so that they can face the future with confidence and dignity. Almost all University of Buea male staff are involved in the sex scandal. They grant marks to the students and receive free sex in exchange. Many of the students graduate without the requisite knowledge and skills that can make them job-ready.

Many Buea University students and graduates are desperate and for different reasons. The students are desperate because their own lecturers have morphed into a “living terror”. The fear of dealing with a lecherous lecturer has left many students with tons of butterflies in their stomachs. For the graduates, they hold their degrees, but many of those degrees are not even worth the paper on which they have been printed. They are devoid of the knowledge that is supposed to guide them in life. They are bereft of the skills they should have acquired while in the university. They sold sex and got marks but cannot sell the same product to get the job of their dream. Their own lecturers have not only ruined their self-esteem, they have also ruined their chances in life.

The disgraced Prof. Agborbechem and Prof. Ernest Molua are simply the tip of a massive iceberg that might drown the entire university when it melts. The Cameroon Concord News Group has been calling the office of the Vice Chancellor of the University to get his opinion on this issue, but nobody is picking up the calls. Some of the numbers on the university’s letter head simply do not work and nobody has bothered to return our calls. Could the mess flowing all over the university be taking place with the blessing of those who are supposed to check it? Some of the numbers we have used to call the vice-chancellor’s office are: +237233322760, +2372333322134 and 237233322690.

This matter will not be pushed under the rug. The University of Buea cannot be a place where young girls get destroyed by their own lecturers. The Cameroon Concord News Group’s Permanent Correspondent in Buea has been talking with some university students and the outcome of that discussion is a clear indictment of the institution’s lecturers.

Prof. Agborbechem is a champion in this regard and his sins go beyond sex. According to a young student who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity, Agborbechem needs to be fired from that institution. He is a terror that needs to be checked and he should leave with all his accomplices. They are many and if they don’t get checked, they will pull down the entire university. Their usually high and out-of-control libido is a reputational risk to a university that is supposed to be a beacon of hope to the country’s English-speaking minority.

According to a source in the university, “Agborbechem sleeps with female post-graduate students and makes promises to facilitate the defense of their theses. He particularly made such a promise to one post-graduate female student, but when her thesis was taken to the jury, it had so many errors. He had not told the student about those errors. Out of anger, the student promised to expose him for sleeping with her and deceiving her. Agborbechem had to negotiate hard and long for his misconduct and corruption not to be exposed,” the young lady told the Cameroon Concord News Group correspondent.

“As if enough was not enough, he also scheduled a PhD defense when he was not supposed to. He even asks his students to give him money for their defense to take place. For male students, he asks for CFAF 300,000 for them to be scheduled for defense and for the female students who are beautiful, he requests for sex. Those who are not appealing to him must pay the sum of CFAF 200,000,” the student said.

For some time now, the learned but crooked professor has been avoiding motels and hotels for fear that they could be bugged. He has been in this trade for a long time, and he knows the tricks of the trade. His office is now very busy. He is avoiding the watchful eyes of the authorities and those who know him. He has therefore transformed his office into a comfortable motel where he humiliates his victims. He lacks the moral stuff that makes a university don. The university must take appropriate measures to check this satyr who is ruining many lives.

While it is being alleged that the University of Buea is secretly conducting its investigations, the Cameroon Concord News Group is also pleased to inform the public that it has hired some undercover agents to carry out an in-depth investigation into a scandal that is slinging mud at the university’s reputation. The outcome of the Cameroon Concord News Group’s investigation will be published piecemeal.

The Cameroon Concord News Group has nothing against Prof. Agborbechem and Prof. Molua. Its objective is to help the beleaguered university clean up its act. Degrees cannot be obtained on the basis of sex and money. A university is a citadel of learning and the University of Buea was created for that purpose and not for sex.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Chairman/Editor-In-Chief

Cameroon Concord News and Cameroon Intelligence Report

1, September 2021

New coronavirus variant ‘Mu’ under close scrutiny by WHO ⁰

The World Health Organization has said it is monitoring a new coronavirus variant known as “Mu”, which was first identified in Colombia in January 2021.

Mu, known scientifically as B.1.621, has been classified as a “variant of interest”, the global health body said Tuesday in its weekly pandemic bulletin.

The WHO said the variant has mutations that indicate a risk of resistance to vaccines and stressed that further studies were needed to better understand it.

“The Mu variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape,” the bulletin said.

There is widespread concern over the emergence of new virus mutations as infection rates are ticking up globally again, with the highly transmissible Delta variant taking hold – especially among the unvaccinated – and in regions where anti-virus measures have been relaxed.

All viruses, including SARS-CoV-2 that causes Covid-19, mutate over time and most mutations have little or no effect on the properties of the virus.

But certain mutations can impact the properties of a virus and influence how easily it spreads, the severity of the disease it causes, and its resistance to vaccines, drugs and other countermeasures.

The WHO currently identifies four Covid-19 variants of concern, including Alpha, which is present in 193 countries, and Delta, present in 170 countries.

Five variants, including Mu, are to be monitored.

After being detected in Colombia, Mu has since been reported in other South American countries and in Europe.

The WHO said its global prevalence has declined to below 0.1 percent among sequenced cases. In Colombia, however, it is at 39 percent.

(AFP)