Politics

A Cameroonian gendarmerie captain has been killed by a Boko Haram landmine in the Far North region. We gathered that Captain Ekoume was aboard a military vehicle when it hit a "landmine". Military sources say  he led an emergency mission to Gouzda- a town in the Mayo Moskota division. Captain Ekoume alongside other wounded comrades were rushed to the intensive care unit at the Koza Adventist Hospital where he died. 

Cameroon Concord was reliably informed at the time of filing this news brief that another senior gendarmerie officer, Captain Wadai was responding to treatment. The dead of Captain Ekoume brings the tally to three senior Cameroon servicemen killed by landmines in the Far North. 

Details

Chi Prudence Asong

06.Mar.2016

Hits: 3537

Hundreds of young people from the town of Maroua, the regional capital of the Far North have disassociated themselves from the current political trend aimed at addressing a motion of support to President Biya to seek another term in the next presidential election to be held in 2018.
 
The youth massively attended a national forum last February 26 at the council hall in Maroua and openly challenged the idea of Mr Biya running again for president. The young men and women chanted anti Biya slogans in the room at the time when a girl picked from the crowd was about reading a motion reportedly prepared by an acolyte of Minister Amadou Ali.  
 
Our Maroua correspondent hinted that the youth predominantly from the ruling CPDM party made it abundantly clear that the motion was not included in the official program and that it was an attempt by government officials to politicize the workshop on youth.
 
Asabe Issatou who spoke to the media immediately after the controversy started revealed that "In our country, we want to politicize everything. Why must we submit a motion of support to the president just because we attended a workshop? I think we have been misruled for three decades. This is how they will collect signatures from workshop participants to say they strongly support Paul Biya".
 

Details

Rita Akana

06.Mar.2016

Hits: 6141

There will not be new Bishops in the Bamenda and Buea Arch Diocese and Diocese respectively this Easter even though the frail Arch Bishop Cornelius Esua and Bishop Bushu (seen here on photo with a Marist priest) no longer have the physical strength to do justice to their offices.

It was reported to Cameroon Concord by a priest of the Buea Diocese that both Archbishop Cornelius Esua and Bishop Bushu have very serious health problems. Yet both men have blatantly refused to take the  brave and humble action from the former Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI to retire.The Bamenda and Buea Diocese are run like a CPDM section with ailing Bishops not willing to step aside and indulged their lives to study, prayer and reflection. 

Archbishop Cornelius Esua is not considering stepping down even though he reportedly spent more than six months in an Italian hospital and doctors had advised him not to take any more pastoral missions and trips. We learnt that,  ArchBishop Esua has increasing difficulty walking but resignation as part of a natural process is off the table.  Age is weighing on him but the Archbishop wants no rest.

The  strength in mind and body of Bishop Bushu of the Buea Diocese has deteriorated to the extent that he recognizes his incapacity to adequately fulfill the ministry entrusted to him by the Holy Father. We gathered from our recent visit to the Bomaka and Molyko parishes that the strengths, due to an advanced age and cancer are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry by Bishop Immanuel Bushu

We of this publication are well aware that this ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering. However, like Pope Benedict XVI noted: “In today's world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the bark of Saint Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind and body are necessary”.

For this reason, it is vital for both ArchBishop Cornelius Esua and Bishop Bushu to renounce the ministry of Bishop of the Bamenda ArchDiocese and Bishop of Buea entrusted to them by the Holy Father.If both ArchBishop Cornelius Esua and Bishop Bushu should step aside,many will recognise it to be a decision of great courage and characteristic clarity of mind and action.Many Roman Catholic christians in the Bamenda eccleciatic provimce  recognises the challenges facing the Church and that strength of mind and body are necessary for the tasks of governing the Church and proclaiming the Gospel which ArchBishop Esua and Bishop Bushu no longer have.

We of Cameroon Concord are asking people of faith to keep both ArchBishop Cornelius Esua and Bishop Bushu in their prayers with great affection and the highest esteem for their ministries. Both Esua and Bushu have  worked tirelessly to strengthen the Bamenda ecclesiastic province with great respect and affection. Like Bishop Emeritus Francis Lysinge, they now need rest.  This editorial has been written most carefully and after much prayer and reflection. If both ArchBishop Esua and Bishop Bushu should resign, it will be seen as a profound act of humility. The Lord Jesus now wants ArchBishop Esua and Bishop Bushu to use their remaining physical and spiritual energies to serve the church in prayer.

Details

Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

06.Mar.2016

Hits: 6719

Boko Haram terrorists are currently engaged in a heavy gun fight with Cameroonian armed forces at Karawa in the far north region, a report is saying.

Local newspaper, L’Oeil du Sahel, said the confrontations are currently taking place in Kerawa along the border with Nigeria in Cameroon’s far north.

On Thursday, a civilian was kidnapped by suspected Boko Haram members at Idoua locality in the same region.

Details

Rita Akana

04.Mar.2016

Hits: 3748

Benin goes to the polls Sunday to choose a new president, and the ballot is long – a record 33 candidates. Incumbent Thomas Boni Yayi is stepping down after serving his maximum of two terms.

One front-runner among Benin’s nearly three dozen presidential candidates is current prime minister Lionel Zinsou, who helms a coalition of three political parties.

It’s a distinct advantage, says regional political analyst and director of the Wathi think tank Gilles Yabi.

He says Zinsou has the support of political parties that were considered to be in the opposition and he also has the support of the ruling party so that gives him a certain political weight.

But Yabi thinks it’s still anyone’s race.

He says it is a very open election and there are other candidates who could gather a large number of votes.

Zinsou has faced criticism over his ties to France. The investment banker was born and raised there and has only recently returned to Benin. He was named prime minister last June.
 
His top challengers include food industry magnate Sébastien Ajavon and cotton tycoon Patrice Talon. Talon broke with President Boni Yayi after he accused Talon of trying to poison him. Talon only returned to Benin last year following a presidential pardon.

Analysts say the candidates have, for the most part, been raising the same top campaign issues like corruption, jobs and agricultural reform.

If no candidate wins a clear majority Sunday, Benin will hold a run-off election two weeks later.

Details

Rita Akana

04.Mar.2016

Hits: 2118

The Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Supreme State Audit, Mbah Acha Rose Fomundam, has told representatives of State Audit institutions in Africa that the protection of public funds cannot be efficiently ensured if an organised prevention mechanism is not put in place.

While opening a three-day international forum in Yaounde on March 2, 2016 on the theme, “Preventing Embezzlement of Public Funds: A New Challenge for Supreme Audit Institutions in Africa”, Mbah Acha Rose beckoned the participants to make concrete proposals to enable the identification of activities likely to contribute to greater prevention of misuse of public funds.

In a ceremony that was massively attended by over two dozen cabinet ministers and members of the diplomatic corps, Mbah Acha Rose regretted that State Audit Institutions in Africa had not measured the contribution of prevention to the fight against embezzlement of public funds.

To her, decades of administrative and penal sanctions had not curbed cases of misappropriation of public funds at a pace compatible with the population’s expectations. “Prevention is better than cure. For many years, we focused on curing a disease against which we had not developed prophylactic measures of any significance,” she admitted. In effect, verification must henceforth be preceded by prevention, she suggested.

For three days, several themes will be tackled during the brainstorming forum organised by the Supreme State Audit Office in partnership with the Morocco-based African Training and Research Centre in Administration for Development (CAFRAD) and the Embassy of the United States of America in Cameroon. Speaking earlier, the US Ambassador to Cameroon, Michael Stephen Hoza promised that his country will always stand by Cameroon in preventing and fighting fraud as well as the misappropriation of public funds.

On his turn, CAFRAD’s Cameroonian-born Director General, Stephane Monney Mouandjo, addressed the need to sensitise managers on the real meaning of public funds, while insisting on a strong dose of ethics in management.

At the end of the forum tomorrow, participants will be expected to propose, if necessary, institutional reforms to be undertaken, best practices to be promoted, procedures to be formalised or new legislative or regulatory texts to be passed, to improve the efficiency of Supreme State Audit institutions.

Details

Rita Akana

04.Mar.2016

Hits: 5589