News

Statement on Biya regime’s steps to ensure a full investigation of Bishop Balla’s death

2, June 2017

Statement on Biya regime’s steps to ensure a full investigation of Bishop Balla’s death 0

The Attorney General of the Court of Appeal in the Center region has reportedly instructed the Directorate of the Judicial Police and the Central Investigation Department of the gendarmerie to carry out an investigation into the death of Bishop Jean Benoit Balla.

The Biya Francophone regime in a statement issued on Friday said it was treating the death as “suspicious”. The CPDM investigation will be carried out jointly by the Directorate of the Judicial Police and the Central Judicial Research Service of the National Gendarmerie. Cameroon Concord News gathered that the two services have been placed under the authority of state prosecutors in the courts in Bafia and Monatélé and will be under the direct supervision of the Attorney General of the Court of Appeal in the Center region.

The government statement was published shortly after the discovery of the body of the prelate who has been missing for more than 48 hours.  Our senior political commentator said it is now evident that no one is safe in Cameroon. His Lordship Bishop Balla died at the age of 58.

By Rita Akana

Cameroon Concord News

Bakweri Politics in the US: Who will emerge victorious?

1, June 2017

Bakweri Politics in the US: Who will emerge victorious? 0

Bakweri 2

All roads will lead to Houston for the next Fako America Election Convention on Saturday June 24th 2017.  The event will bring together Fako elites based in the US in a traditional and cultural forum that started some three decades ago. Top on the agenda will be the election of a President and his executives to run the affairs of the well over 1000 Fako citizens resident in US.

According to one of the most talked about candidate for the post of President Mola Nathaniel Mosaso, contenders are allowed to campaign for their posts by telling the electorate their manifesto. He told Cameroon Concord News that, the post of President has to do with the concern of not only Fakos in America, but mostly developmental issues back home.

On why he is vying for such a prestigious and challenging post, Mosaso said it is because he believes he has the potentials and credibility to be the leader of Fako citizens in the US. He mentioned during our conversation with him that, he had been carrying out projects back in Cameroon precisely at Bwassa in Likombe in Buea Sub Division. More of such projects to alleviate poverty and uplift the living condition of the underprivileged Fako people are among his executives’ modus operandi, should he and his team be voted into office, Mosaso reiterated

Asked if he can be entrusted with his people’s hard earned money, Mosaso responded with confidence that his government would be as transparent as water in a glass.  Another contender for an executive post is the fire spitting Mme Agnes Nduma Mbwaye who revealed recently that, the campaign has two camps as there are two contenders vying for the post of President. She disclosed that Mola Billy Esele will be contesting the elections.

Attempts at getting Mola Billy Esele one of the prominent presidential challengers to talk to us proved abortive.  It is worthy to know that other contenders for various posts in the next executive include Mota Muenya, Senator Ajalah Allotey, Iya Dada Lyonga,  Iya Mamua Mbua, Iya Hannah Lemeh Likambi . The outgoing President Chief Esuka Endeley has called on his kindred to exercise caution and respect for all during this period of campaign. Meanwhile tension is mounting as the electorate are brazing up for the jamboree.

By Tina Nene Nganda

Bishop of Bafia commits suicide: We need to talk about Cameroonian Roman Catholic Bishops and priests

31, May 2017

Bishop of Bafia commits suicide: We need to talk about Cameroonian Roman Catholic Bishops and priests 0

Bishop 1

Bishop Jean-Marie Balla, has reportedly killed himself under a bridge at Ebebda some 78Km from the nation’s capital Yaoundé. The prelate’s car and a statement left by him saying “I am in the water” suggest that the Roman Catholic Bishop of Bafia would have committed suicide.  Bishop Jean Marie Benoît Bala was appointed Bishop of the Bafia diocese with a Christian population of over two hundred thousand in 2003.

Jean Marie Benoît Bala was born May 1959 in Oweng Mbalmayo. He is originally from Mbankomo in the Mefou-Akono Division (Central Province). In addition to studies in philosophy and theology at the Major Seminary at Nkolbisson, he holds a diploma in Social Sciences and Management from the Catholic Institute of Yaoundé. He was ordained priest in 1987 by the late Arch Bishop Jean Zoa.

The vehicle of the Bishop of Bafia was found on the 31st of May 2017 beside a bridge at Ebebda, a small locality in the department of Lekié, Central region. According to the Senior Divisional Officer for Mban and Inoubou, Maurice Tchoffo, it is difficult at the moment to know what really happened to the Man of God.  Indeed, the prelate’s personal documents were found in his vehicle, as well as a piece of paper containing the inscription “I am in the water” suggesting that he had indeed committed suicide. Bishop Benoît Balla, 58, to many around the world has committed sacrilege that will hunt the Roman Catholic Church in Cameroon forever.

The recovery of our nation from the ruling CPDM crime syndicate, if it is to happen, will require confident and reasonably clean religious leaders not priests who can’t keep their hands off teenage girls or other men’s wives, or whose bishops are unable or unwilling to deal with them. The sudden disappearance of Bishop Balla is an indication that our secular leaders have abandoned the outer defenses of our nation and civilization. Bishop Benoit Balla is among those Cameroonian priests who likely failed in the last stand at the inner defenses and was tolerated by the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy for too long.

It is hard to say at this point but the death by suicide of His Lordship Bishop Balla has stunned many people around the world. He is the first Cameroonian Roman Catholic Bishop to take his own life.  Cameroonians are understandably shocked by the particular circumstances of the tragedy. But when the dust settles around the death of Bishop Balla, and his brother- Francophone Cameroun bishops and parishioners begin to pick up the pieces, it’s vital that some good can be brought out of this tragedy. We of Cameroon Intelligence Report believe and fervently too that there is a danger that when the shock dies down, we all get back to business as usual and there is no discussion about the wider questions.

We need to talk about the Cameroonian Roman Catholic Bishops and priests be they Anglophones or Francophones.  This is not the suicide of one Christian whose wife dumped him for a pastor which would be statistically irrelevant. It is not even the suicide of two or three Anglophone priests which may find more correlation with the seven months old Southern Cameroon crisis. We are talking here about the suicide of a Roman Catholic Bishop in Cameroon in very shameful and disgusting circumstances.

A core Roman Catholic teaching which often emphasizes the rewards that come with good works or the punishment that comes with sin has been rubbished by Bishop Balla of the Bafia Diocese. So, God’s grace cannot be earned through good deeds if a Bishop who understands the Roman Catholic strictness of the teachings on suicide and how those teachings become internalized among Catholics could afford to end this way.

The end of Bishop Balla has also called into question the act of regularly confessing sins to a Catholic priest. It was generally thought that since suicide is the only sin that could never be confessed to a priest, a Catholic who finds confession important to avoiding Hell may be less inclined to commit suicide. (We will come back to this aspect later).

Roman Catholic teaching on suicide is clear. As set out in Blessed John Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae (#66): Suicide is always as morally objectionable as murder. The Church’s tradition has always rejected it as a gravely evil choice. Even though a certain psychological, cultural and social conditioning may induce a person to carry out an action which so radically contradicts the innate inclination to life, thus lessening or removing subjective responsibility, suicide, when viewed objectively, is a gravely immoral act. In fact, it involves the rejection of love of self and the renunciation of the obligation of justice and charity towards one’s neighbour, towards the communities to which one belongs, and towards society as a whole. In its deepest reality, suicide represents a rejection of God’s absolute sovereignty over life and death, as proclaimed in the prayer of the ancient sage of Israel: “You have power over life and death; you lead men down to the gates of Hades and back again” (Wis 16:13; cf. Tob 13:2).

Suicide is indeed a mortal sin. If it be not only ‘as morally objectionable as murder’, but ‘always’ so, it is difficult to understand how it might be forgiven before the Throne of Judgment. It is right to say that Bishop Balla of the Bafia Diocese who committed suicide may not possess an informed intellect (ie know that suicide is wrong); and he may not have given full consent of the will (ie intended to commit the action). If he killed himself out of fear or psychological imbalance or emotional stress, there cannot be full consent since these impede the exercise of the will and mitigate responsibility. The Catechism states: ‘Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide’ (#2282).

But in this Bishop Balla suicide there is something which ought to alarm the Roman Catholic Church at the very highest level-the strong ties between the Francophone Roman Catholic Bishops and the barons of the ruling CPDM government.

All suicide is tragedy.  So, yes, we need to talk about Bishop Balla. But let us not do so apart from institutional systems, outdated dogma and overbearing hierarchy. The suicide may as well be an act staged by hired security agents from the state or from abroad.

Bishop2

By Besong Esther Agbor

UN chief urges world to combat climate change

31, May 2017

UN chief urges world to combat climate change 0

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has made an impassioned appeal for the world to intensify action to combat climate change and implement the Paris Agreement to limit carbon emissions as President Donald Trump debates whether the US will withdraw from the accord.

Gutteres never mentioned the American leader by name in his speech at New York University’s Stern School of Business, his first major address on climate change since taking the reins of the United Nations on Jan. 1. But he said in response to a question afterward that the United Nations believes “it would be important for the US not to leave the Paris agreement.”

Even if Trump withdraws, Guterres said, “it’s very important for US society as a whole – the cities, the states, the companies, the businesses – to remain engaged.”

Trump, who was critical of the deal during his campaign for the presidency, is expected to make an announcement this week on whether the United States will remain a party to the climate accord that his predecessor, Barack Obama, strongly supported and signed. Nearly 200 nations agreed in 2015 to voluntarily reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As of Tuesday, 147 nations had ratified the Paris Agreement, representing more than 82 percent of global emissions, the UN chief said.

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni (L) welcomes Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres as he arrives at the Hotel San Domenico on the second day of the G7 summit of Heads of State and of Government, in Taormina, Sicily, on May 27, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

Guterres said their pledges to limit the global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius and as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius “are historic – but still do not go nearly far enough to limit temperature rise.” First, Guterres said he will immediately press for ratification of the Kigali Amendment agreed to in October by nearly 200 nations on limiting the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – greenhouse gases far more powerful than carbon dioxide that are depleting the ozone layer.

Unlike the Paris Agreement, the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is legally binding. It caps and reduces the use of HFCs in a gradual process starting with action by developed countries in 2019, including the United States, the world’s second-worst polluter, and then by over 100 developing countries starting in 2024, including China, the world’s top carbon emitter.

Guterres said he will also rally countries to raise the bar on efforts to limit temperature rise and the United Nations system to promote climate action. Guterres also pledged to work with developing countries to mobilize resources to tackle the impact of climate change and strengthen efforts by small island states against “the existential threat” that global warming poses. He said he will strengthen North-South, South-South and other partnerships to implement the Paris Agreement. The secretary general announced that he intends to hold a climate summit in 2019 to review implementation of the Paris Agreement.

“The journey from Paris is well underway,” Guterres said. “The support across all sectors of society is profound. The transition in the real economy is a fact. There will be bumps along the path … but with everyone’s participation, the world can bring the Paris Agreement fully to life.”

(Source: AP)

Two men in court for having sex with a 10-year-old-boy in Yaounde

31, May 2017

Two men in court for having sex with a 10-year-old-boy in Yaounde 0

A Yaoundé High Court has heard that a 78 year old man indecently assaulted a 10 year-old boy and had sexual intercourse and conducted acts of homosexuality.  The Mfoundi High Court that held on Wednesday the 24th of May was fed with evidence of this horrendous act by the young victim and dozens of eye witnesses who all revealed that with the help of a 28-year-old accomplice, two men currently incarcerated at the Kondengui prison reportedly sodomized a 10-year-old boy.

 Ruben, 28, and Judas, 78, took seats in the box of the accused at the Mfoundi High Court and were named and shamed as the court was told that on the night of February 8-9, 2016, the 10-year-old victim left the family home to empty a trash with a wheelbarrow that he lost. For fear of reprisals, he found refuge in a hangar of a travel agency located in the Biyem assi neighborhood in Yaoundé. Having seen him at about 11.30 pm, the accused arrested him and charged him with the theft of several gas cylinders and a large sum of money in the agency’s shop.

After going to the residence of the guardian of the victim, they asked the latter to pay the sum of 150 000 FCFA. They succeeded in collecting 70,000 FCFA.  By some strange happenstance, the two men after receiving the money turned back and force the child to have anal sexual intercourse with them. At around 5 am, the child’s constant screaming alerted residents and passers-by who drew the attention of the police.

According to the version of the victim gathered in a gendarmerie report, it was the old man who took off the young boy’s underpants and asked him to kneel down. They brutalized and sodomized him. Ruben and Judas meanwhile have pleaded not guilty and each in turn refuted these accusations. For his part, the public prosecutor said he was convinced of the guilt of the two men because of the clarity of the narrative of the alleged victim. The verdict of this case is expected on the 13th of June.

By Rita Akana

Cameroon Concord News

UN says atrocities in the Central African Republic may constitute crime against humanity

30, May 2017

UN says atrocities in the Central African Republic may constitute crime against humanity 0

The UN has warned that the tremendous level of killing, mutilation, torture, rape and pillage committed by successive governments and armed groups in the Central African Republic (CAR) may constitute crime against humanity. On Tuesday, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) issued a 368-page report based on over 1,200 confidential and open sources in an attempt to help authorities identify cases as they establish a Special Criminal Court.

CAR has been the scene of a deadly violence due to political instability since March 2003 when General Francois Bozize overthrew former president Ange-Felix Patasse in a coup. The bloodshed deteriorated in March 2013 when the mainly Muslim coalition of ex-Seleka rebels overthrew Bozize from power.  Since 2003, anti-Balaka militias have killed and tortured civilians, mutilated victims and pillaged UN and other diplomatic facilities, in so-called “cleansing operations” against Muslims in retaliation for similar abuses by mostly Muslim rebels, the report said.

The report warned that despite a successful presidential election in 2016, retaliatory violence between the ex-Seleka militia and mainly Christian anti-Balaka rebels loyal to Bozize continues to take its toll on the civilians. Over the past two weeks alone, the clashes have killed about 300 people and displaced 100,000. The figure brings the number of internally displaced people in CAR to over 500,000.

On May 13, at least 108 people were massacred and 76 injured during an attack by several hundred fighters on Bangassou, a town near the DRC border.  Due to the constant insecurity and inefficient justice system, the perpetrators of the crimes from all sides have enjoyed near total impunity throughout the period, the report noted.

“Critical preconditions for an effective judicial process which functions in accordance with international human rights standards, are not yet in place… the rushed or ill-timed introduction of transitional justice measures … may prove counter-productive,” the UN said.

The UN called on CAR’s Special Criminal Court to maximize the use of foreign judicial personnel and cooperate with the International Criminal Court, which has been investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity since 2012. The report suggested that a fact-finding committee document cases of violence, allow victims to tell their stories and help find underlying causes of the crisis.

UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch told reporters in Geneva that more funds are urgently needed to help the displaced, noting that the UN has just received six percent of the $209 million it needs to provide aid in CAR in 2017. He also said that humanitarian access is excessively limited in many areas due to security concerns.

Source: Presstv

Senate committees engaged in information fight amid probe into Trump-Russia ties

30, May 2017

Senate committees engaged in information fight amid probe into Trump-Russia ties 0

US Senators engaged in investigating President Donald Trump’s possible collusion with Russia during the 2016 campaign and transition are locked in a battle for more information.

US Senate’s Judiciary and Intelligence committees are conducting separate probes to also investigate Russia’s alleged interference in the November vote as well as Trump’s dismissal of James Comey as he was heading a probe into the matter at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

With more revelations and leaks coming out on a daily basis, the senators are fighting for the same information.

So far, they have even failed to bring Comey (pictured below) in for a hearing.

“We’re trying to get [Comey] before the Senate Judiciary Committee but we haven’t had any luck,” the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley, told reporters during a conference call. “Of course we could subpoena him but we don’t want to make that move until we have to.”

The committee, which oversees the FBI investigation, has called on the bureau to hand over Comey’s memos regarding the matter but to no avail this far.

“I think we perhaps need to do more than just invite [Comey]. I think it’s important that he come before the oversight committee … and at least do us the courtesy of appearing and that we should be able to look at his material and ask questions about them,” said the committee’s ranking member, California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein (pictured below).

According to Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz, the chairman of the US House Oversight Committee, “the FBI is withholding those documents, citing to the appointment of Robert Mueller as special prosecutor.”

After dismissing Comey, Trump assigned the former head of the FBI as special prosecutor earlier this month. Both the president and the Kremlin have denied allegations of collusion and interference.

Source: Presstv

Southern Cameroons Crisis: SDF announces the creation of a Special Committee to investigate abuses and extra judicial killings

29, May 2017

Southern Cameroons Crisis: SDF announces the creation of a Special Committee to investigate abuses and extra judicial killings 0

The Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Front, SDF decided over the weekend to set up a special committee to investigate the abuses and extra judicial killings in Southern Cameroons. Following the SDF National Executive Committee meeting of Saturday the 28th in Bamenda, the SDF announced its decision to set up a special committee to investigate the rapes, arbitrary arrests and detention of Southern Cameroonians in Francophone jails attributed to the forces of law and order.

Southern Cameroon has recorded several cases of rape, disappearances, kidnappings and deaths, attributed to the police and the Francophone dominated elite force known as BIR. A video highlighting abuses against students was widely circulated on social media.  The said exactions are attributed to the forces of law and order from La Republique du Cameroun.

Several leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium banned by the Biya Francophone government were arrested and detained at the Kondengui central prison in Yaoundé. The English-speaking leaders are currently being prosecuted by the Yaounde military court.

The creation of a special commission of inquiry comes after the SDF’s criticism against the 84 year old dictator Paul Biya and his government, for their silence on the demands made by the Cameroon Common Law Layers and teachers trade unions which plunged the country into a deep crisis.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Cameroon Concord News

Congo Kinshasa: Frenchman, 3 Congolese hostages freed

28, May 2017

Congo Kinshasa: Frenchman, 3 Congolese hostages freed 0

Militiamen have freed a French national and three Congolese who were kidnapped in March in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the Interior Ministry says. They were among five workers, including a Tanzanian, who had been kidnapped from Banro, a Canadian gold mining corporation that runs two mines in DR Congo and is exploring for the mineral elsewhere in the vast, resource-rich country.

The Tanzanian had already been freed. The remaining four hostages were all freed on Saturday, the Congolese Interior Ministry said in a statement. French President Emmanuel Macron congratulated those involved in the release, “in particular Congo authorities for their mobilization and the effectiveness of their action,” according to a brief statement from his office. The French foreign ministry said it had no information on the identity of the attackers.

New York and Toronto-listed Banro’s four gold mines in eastern Congo have faced hazards both from illegal miners squatting on site and by armed groups that are a legacy of a regional conflict which officially ended in 2003. Armed robbers attacked Banro’s Twangiza gold mine in neighboring South Kivu province in February, killing three police officers.

Kidnappings are frequent in DR Congo’s east, which has suffered nearly two decades of brutal conflict, with neighboring states backing rebel groups in a civil war against Kinshasa’s authority, and roaming armed militia triggering the mass flight of terrorized civilians. The United Nations has 19,000 soldiers, police and military observers deployed in the DR Congo, its biggest and costliest peacekeeping mission, with an annual budget of $1.2 billion.

Special Criminal Court: 3 facing trial on corruption charges

28, May 2017

Special Criminal Court: 3 facing trial on corruption charges 0

Three civil servants in the Ministry of Public Service and Administrative Reform (MINFOPRA) will stand trial on June the 1st 2017 at the Special Criminal Court in Yaoundé. The Court recently revealed that it now has evidence of corruption and embezzlement of public funds against the trio.

Elisabeth Abogda, deputy director of the budget, as well as her two collaborators, Serge Mbang Zogo and Mvogo Mvogo have been sued before the Special Criminal Court for an alleged misappropriation of 100 million CFA francs relating to an operation launched in 2011 for the recruitment of 25,000 contractors in the civil service.

Prosecutors at the court hinted that the amount indicated represents the damage suffered by the State of Cameroon following the mysterious disappearance of 1213 cash vouchers during the operation of recruitment. The said vouchers were kept inside Room 607 of MINFOPRA where the three officials involved were working during that period.

To substantiate the accusation, the Ministry has reportedly produced 26 exhibits that were admitted into the procedural file and the testimony of the witnesses of the accusation received in court during the proceedings. Cameroon Concord News understands the exhibits include inter alia, the various notes appointing the members of the various teams responsible for the distribution of cash certificates, the coordinator, the persons in charge of distribution, requests for explanations addressed to certain agents.

Depicting the Special Criminal Court established to prosecute alleged corrupt government officials and the several Alibabas responsible for pilfering from the public treasury as the President’s court is no misnomer.  We call it the President’s court because it is one instrument of power through which the President is reining in on perceived opponents from within his CPDM power conduit. An attribute of a genuine court is the fairness of the trial proceedings in cases which are brought before the court for trial. It is not the number of convictions entered against accused.  A court is legitimate and recognized as such because of its exercise of judicial, executive, legislative and administrative independence.  A court that is independent must be accessible to all citizens after all, is equality before the law, not a constitutionally protected value? The Special Criminal Court is lacking in these attributes of impartiality, judicial independence and accessibility.  It is perceived more as the President’s Court than a Court of Justice.

Establishing this court was President Biya’s way of saving himself the embarrassment of being humiliated during his perennial trips abroad as the President of the most corrupt countries in the world.  This ranking of the country as the most corrupt or one of the most corrupt countries had a potential to hamper President Biya’s personal pecuniary interests far from the borders of Cameroon.  There was therefore a personal interest need to establish the court.  Another personal interest need was to avail himself of a legal tool under his direct control to consolidate absolute power, blackmail potential rebels and competitors within the system and to stifle any form of institutional opposition. He perceived the court as a tool with which to whitewash his more than thirty years of corrupt governance and the rape of the economy.

By Rita Akana and Soter Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon Concord News Group

 

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