News

18, October 2023

Turkey to declare three days of mourning over Gaza hospital strike ⁰

Turkey will declare three days’ mourning over a deadly strike on a hospital in war-torn Gaza that killed hundreds, a Turkish official told AFP on Wednesday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a fervent supporter of the Palestinian cause, has accused Israel of “striking a hospital sheltering women, children and innocent civilians” and urged the world to stop the tragedy in Gaza.

“Turkey will declare three days national mourning,” the official, who wished to remain anonymous, told AFP.

Israel has said the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied blame.

Source: France 24

17, October 2023

Yaoundé: National Assembly Speaker heads to France to die ⁰

Cavaye Yegue Djibril, Cameroon’s Speaker of the National Assembly, heads to France for treatment for multiple organ failure.

The speaker’s health is failing very fast and there is no hospital in Cameroon which can help the man who has helped to reduce the country to a living hell for many in Cameroon.

The government he has served for almost 60 years has not built any world-class hospital in Cameroon in decades and their recklessness is now catching up with them.

Like the Senate President, the House Speaker’s health is a major issue and many attribute it to years of alcohol and cigarette abuse.

It has been reported that Cavaye drinks dry gin in his office and he drinks directly from the bottle as if he is drinking water.

Sources close to the Speaker say he has respiratory track problems, diabetes and his heart is also threatening to fail if the old and desperate speaker does not change his ways.

Family members who are already tired of Cavaye’s social chaos and chronic alcoholism say he is a colony of diseases which may yield to the cold and waiting hands of death if something is not done and fast too.

More will be yours as our correspondence in Paris monitors the situation.

By Rita Akana in Yaoundé

17, October 2023

Soon and very soon Biya will be gone as victory belongs to Ambazonians ⁰

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government (IG) has said that French Cameroun will be gone soon and very soon and the Federal Republic of Ambazonia will be victorious in the final battle to liberate the Southern Cameroons homeland.

“La Republique and its consortium of criminal gangs headed by Mr Paul Biya are collapsing day-by-day,” Vice President Dabney Yerima added in a Monday meeting with members of the IG amid Yaounde’s raids on Southern Cameroons villages.

Yerima hailed the recent ghost town operation that shutdown the entire Southern Cameroons territory, saying that the people of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia are moving ahead on the right path toward getting to Buea.

Dabney Yerima emphasized that the IG stands by the oppressed Ambazonia people in Ground Zero and would continue its support for all Amba fighters and restoration forces.

He also encouraged Southern Cameroons Self Defense Forces to resist with all their might, saying the Amba fighters who were deceived by the so-called disarmament commission are languishing in abject poverty and suffering in Francophone controlled detention centers.

More than 4000 Southern Cameroonians have been killed and thousands displaced as the Biya Francophone regime presses ahead with its military campaign against separatist forces.

By Isong Asu

17, October 2023

Russian leader Vladimir Putin arrives in China to meet Xi Jinping ⁰

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in China on Tuesday to meet his “dear friend” Xi Jinping, bolstering their relationship at a summit that will be overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas war.

China this week welcomes representatives of 130 countries for a forum of President Xi’s landmark project, the Belt and Road Initiative, that Beijing is using to extend its global influence.

Putin is at the top of the invitation list, with the Russian leader on his first trip to a major global power since the Ukraine invasion threw his regime into international isolation.

His plane landed in China just before 09:30 am, an AFP journalist on the tarmac saw.

He is due to meet Xi for talks on Wednesday, the Kremlin said.

Source: AFP

17, October 2023

President Biden to visit Israel on Wednesday ⁰

US President Joe Biden will pay a solidarity visit to Israel on Wednesday following the Hamas attacks, said Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who also announced that Israel had agreed to work on civilian aid for Gaza.

Blinken spoke after meeting for nearly eight hours at the defence ministry with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the top US diplomat’s second visit since the October 7 attacks by Hamas.

“The president will reaffirm United States solidarity with Israel and our ironclad commitment to its security,” Blinken said early Tuesday in Tel Aviv.

“Israel has the right and indeed the duty to defend its people from Hamas and other terrorists and to prevent future attacks,” Blinken said.

Biden “will hear from Israel what it needs to defend his people as we continue to work with Congress to meet those needs,” he said.

Biden will visit Tel Aviv, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in Washington. He also announced that Biden would travel to Jordan where he would meet Jordanian King Abdullah II, Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Blinken said that the United States also secured assurances from Israel on working to bring foreign assistance into the impoverished and blockaded Gaza Strip as Israel prepares a ground offensive against the Hamas-ruled territory.

US officials said that a new US coordinator on humanitarian aid, David Satterfield, would work with Israel to develop more concrete plans.

Biden hopes to “hear from Israel how it will conduct its operations in a way that minimises civilian casualties and enables humanitarian assistance to flow to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not benefit Hama,” Blinken said.

“At our request, the United States and Israel have agreed to develop a plan that will enable humanitarian aid from donor nations and multilateral organizations to reach civilians in Gaza,” Blinken said.

He said the two sides were discussing the “possibility of creating areas to help keep civilians out of harm’s way.”

“We welcome the government of Israel’s commitment to work on this plan. The president very much looks forward to discussing it further when he’s here on Wednesday,” he said.

Biden has vowed unwavering solidarity with Israel after suffering the worst attack in its 75-year history. But he also has voiced concern about more severe proposals that could impact civilians in Gaza and earlier pressed Israel to reverse a decision to shut off water supply.

“We share Israel’s concern that Hamas may seize or destroy aid going entering Gaza or otherwise preventing it from reaching the people who need it,” Blinken said.

“If Hamas in any way blocks humanitarian aid from reaching civilians, including by seizing the aid itself, we’ll be the first to condemn it and we will work to prevent it from happening again.”

Source: AFP

16, October 2023

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Over 875 persons forced to flee Akwaya ⁰

The situation is deteriorating in the North-West and South-West regions of Cameroon, where separatists are demanding independence.

Armed clashes, targeted attacks resulting in killings, armed extortion, and arbitrary arrests are frequently reported.

In Akwaya subdivision of the Manyu region, over 875 persons have been forced to flee due to targeted attacks by non-State armed groups (NSAGs).

During those attacks, NSAGs killed four people, injured 25 others, and burned 33 houses and seven motorbikes.

The population in local villages and in most of the villages in Akwaya subdivision have fled either to villages in neighbouring Nigeria, to Mamfe or to nearby bushes due to the attack and continuous threats.

Increasing security incidents and blockages of major roads in the North-West caused delays or prevented the delivery of life-saving assistance.

“This also limited the mobility of aid workers and deprived some vulnerable communities of humanitarian assistance,” said a humanitarian spokesperson.

A new wave of acts of violence against humanitarian workers negatively impacted the humanitarian response, especially in the North-West.

In the Donga-Mantung division, international NGO staff returning from a field mission were stopped at an NSAG checkpoint and requested to pay for their safe return.

They were released without payment after access negotiations.

In addition, in the South-West, several enumerators collecting data for a multi-sector needs assessment were held by NSAGs for several hours before being released.

The NSAGs claimed that they were not informed about the activity.

Attacks on education continued as the educational community prepared for school resumption in early September.

The previous month, some NSAGs factions announced a lockdown to disrupt the back-to-school preparations.

Attacks on education in the North-West and South-West regions continue to deprive hundreds of thousands of children of their right to education.

Besides the siege by pro-English separatists, Cameroon is beset by an insurgency by the Islamist Boko Haram from neighbouring Nigeria.

Source: CAJ News

13, October 2023

Yaoundé is accountable for sexual exploitation of Anglophone girls in Nigeria ⁰

Cameroon Concord News Group holds President Biya and his ruling Beti Ewondo political elites accountable for the unfolding sexual exploitation and harassment of Southern Cameroons girls in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Hundreds of young Southern Cameroons girls lured also to East Cameroun territory have been subjected to sexual abuse and they and many young teenage boys suffer a contemporary form of slavery.

Our cream of reporters both in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Cameroon have hinted of deeply upsetting testimonies. Our correspondent in Abuja, Engelis Okesack Besong who contributed to this report said several Southern Cameroons girls’ have been accosted and raped in Nigeria.

Engelis Okesack Besong went on to point to the high number of Southern Cameroons women raped in Nigeria, stating that the Biya Francophone regime should be held accountable for the adverse consequences and deterioration of conditions in Southern Cameroons.

By Chi Prudence Asong

13, October 2023

Burkina Faso signs agreement with Russia for nuclear power plant ⁰

Burkina Faso’s government said Friday that it had signed an agreement with Russia for the construction of a nuclear power plant to “cover the energy needs of the population,” less than a quarter of which has access to electricity.

“The government of Burkina Faso has signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of a nuclear power plant,” it said in a statement.

“The construction of this nuclear power plant in Burkina Faso is intended to cover the energy needs of the population,” it added.

The agreement was signed at the Russian Energy Week in Moscow which was attended by Burkina Faso’s energy minister Simon-Pierre Boussim.

The document “fulfils the wish of the president of (Burkina) Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traore, expressed last July at the Russia-Africa summit during a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin,” the statement said.

Russia’s state atomic energy agency Rosatom said in a statement that “the memorandum is the first document in the field of the peaceful use of atomic energy between Russia and Burkina Faso.”

It said the agreement laid the foundations for cooperation in areas including the use of nuclear energy in industry, agriculture and medicine.

Just under 23 percent of Burkina Faso’s population had access to electricity at the end of 2020, according to the African Development Bank.

Source: AFP

12, October 2023

Biya regime warns of heavy rains, high winds ⁰

Transport Minister Jean Ernest Massena Ngalle Bibehe warned on Wednesday that Cameroon will experience heavy rains, sometimes followed by violent winds, throughout October and November.

Six regions, including the Far North, North, Adamawa, Northwest, West, and East, will be affected.

The rains will be in excess relative to the climatology of the regions, Bibehe said in a statement Wednesday night.

“This could lead to erosion, pollution of drinkable water, flooding in low-lying areas, landslides in accident-prone areas,” Bibehe said, urging residents to remain vigilant and “vacate risk areas.”

Heavy rains have caused devastating consequences in the country since the rainy season began in March.

On Sunday, landslides triggered by heavy downpours killed 30 people in the capital of Yaoundé, according to officials.

Source: Xinhuanet

12, October 2023

Gabon: Wife of deposed president Ali Bongo jailed ⁰

The wife of Gabon’s deposed president Ali Bongo Ondimba, under house arrest since a coup in the central African country in late August, has been jailed, her lawyer said on Thursday.

Sylvia Bongo Ondimba Valentin, suspected of allegedly embezzling public funds, was jailed late on Wednesday, her lawyer Francois Zimeray told AFP, condemning the “arbitrary… illegal procedure”.

Bongo’s wife was charged on September 28 with money laundering, forgery and falsification of records.

Sylvia Bongo has been under house arrest in the capital, Libreville, since the August 30 coup brought the curtain down on 55 years of Bongo dynasty rule.

The putschists allege the former head of state and his entourage falsified the election results.

They accuse Sylvia Bongo and her son, Nourredin Bongo Valentin, of manipulating the former president, who has not fully recovered from a serious stroke in 2018.

They say the two have effectively run the oil-rich country for the past five years and have misused public money.

Nourredin Bongo Valentin has been placed in detention since the coup, charged with corruption.

“We condemned this illegal procedure,” lawyer Zimeray said.

“There is a difference between justice and arbitrary actions, between the law and revenge.”

The public prosecutor in Libreville has not yet responded to an AFP request for comment.

Bongo, 64, who had ruled the central African country since 2009, was overthrown by military leaders moments after being proclaimed the winner in a presidential election.

Many saw it as an act of liberation rather than a military coup.

Ali Bongo was elected after his father Omar died in 2009 after nearly 42 years in power.

Gabon is Africa’s third-richest nation in terms of per-capita GDP but one in three people lives below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.

Source: AFP