Day: July 21, 2023

Fru Ndi’s burial will take place in Baba II as planned, the organizing committee assured the public Thursday.

Baba II is a village in Santa Subdivision, North West region.

The reassurance was given on July 20 at his Ntarinkon residence in Bamenda during a press conference. It was also confirmed that the dates scheduled for the burial program, that is July 27-29, 2023 will be maintained despite the rising insecurity.

This reassurance comes after part of the SDF Chairman’s house in Baba II was set ablaze by suspected separatist fighters on July 14. They were acting against the burial of Fru Ndi’s remains in their land.

CNA learned that several separatist groups fighting in the North West’s Mezam division, have declared a lockdown between July 27-29, the dates of the burial activities.

The organizing committee however reassured the public, mourners, and well-wishers, that that security measures have been taken to ensure that the burial of the historic politician is done smoothly.

The SDF Chairman died on Monday, June 12, 2023, from a prolonged illness.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

Victoria United alias Opopo has qualified as fake, the voice message circulating on social media, alleged to be a conversation between Club president, Valentine Nkwain and football FA president Samuel Eto’o.

In a release on Thursday July 20, it is revealed that the team’s lawyers are working on launching a complaint against persons responsible for the circulation of the audio message in which the supposedly Club president and FECAFOOT president can be heard arranging the Victoria United’s ascension to the MTN elite One Championship. The Club says the persons responsible will have to prove the authenticity and source of the voice message and other information circulating on social media.

The Club says its ascension to the Elite One was well deserved given that they invested about FCFA 1 billion as capital and that last season the team had FCFA 275 million as total budget.

“Two buses for players and supporters were also acquired and the players and staff quarters is under reconstruction ” reads the release.

While insisting that the sole interest of the Club is to develop football, give value to players and staff and to create standard in the South West and all over the national territory, the management says they cannot accept the manipulation, lies telling and forgery circulating on social media.

CNA sources have corroborated foreign press that FIFA is investigating the claims of match fixing.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

Vulnerable women and girls especially Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Babadjou Subdivision will during the next six months be assisted through sustainable life activities to ease their economic integration into society by the United Youths Organization. The aim of this is to prevent them especially IDPs from being beggars in their host communities.

To this effect, the United Youths Organization launched a project on July 20 at the premises of the Babadjou municipal council in presence of the Divisional officer of Babadjou, municipal authorities, the Head of the Babadjou Social welfare and economic operators who will facilitate the economic integration of these vulnerable persons.

The project owned by the UN Women and titled ” Building protection capacities of women and girls, IDPs hosted in the West Region, Cameroon” will be implemented by the Non Governmental Organization during the next 6 months in the localities of Dschang and Babadjou in the West.

“This project will run till December and will contain activities that will be geared towards assisting IDPs and the host population in revenue generating activities” declared Mme Talikong Loveline, CEO of United Youths Organization

“We shall start by identifying IDPs especially the vulnerable ones through door to door. They will during this period be sent to the social welfare for follow up by our psychosocial workers.” Added Mme Talikong Loveline.

Mr Sapi Micheal is an IDP from Bafut in the Mezam, he says he hesitated on this project, but will just give it a try because in his five years spent in Babadjou, many NGOs have been using them to make money. He says he is however happy with the project and tells us what he expects from it.

” I am a gardener and lack many farming tools. If they can just help me with that, I will be very happy because that will help me feed my family.” Michael told us.

This project funded by the People of Japan through the UN Women, is aimed at improving the quality of life for all women, youths and IDPs towards a sustainable lifestyle.

Source: Cameroon News Agency

The Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Ethiopia, Demeke Mekonnen, together with Minister of Justice, Gedion Timotheos, briefed Ambassadors and Heads of Regional and international organizations based in Addis Ababa this afternoon on current affairs.

Demeke and Gedion, most importantly briefed the participants on the implementation of the Pretoria Peace Agreement, in particular the Transitional Justice Policy process.

The Justice Minister presented updates on the nation-wide public consultations on the Transitional Justice Policy Options (TJPO), according to Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In his opening remarks, Demeke reaffirmed the commitment of the Government of Ethiopia to the full implementation of the Pretoria Peace Agreement, which so far has been successful and has made significant strides.

He said, the nation-wide consultations on the TJPO have also gained wide participation from the public.

In this regard, he added that the TJPO will further consolidate the peace process by facilitating truth-telling, healing and reconciliation.

This process aims at ensuring justice is done and victims are redressed in all-conflict affected areas of the country, the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister noted.

During a presser to local and international media correspondents on the major takeaways of the briefing, Spokesperson of the Ministry, Ambassador Meles Alem said, the TJPO is instrumental for the consolidation of the Pretoria Peace Agreement.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

The UN Secretary-General launched a new policy brief outlining his vision of a more robust multilateral framework to boost peace and security, for a world in flux.

“The post-Cold War period is over, and we are moving towards a new global order and a multipolar world,” António Guterres said launching the policy brief on Thursday.

He highlighted geopolitical tensions, grave human rights violations, distrust in public institutions, new conflicts, terrorism, and the weaponization of emerging technologies. Insecurity is being stoked by a rising threat of nuclear war and growing scepticism towards multilateralism, he added.

The brief, known as The New Agenda for Peace “outlines an extensive and ambitious set of recommendations that recognize the inter-linked nature of many of these challenges,” Guterres said.

The policy brief is framed around the core principles of trust, solidarity, and universality that provide the foundation of the UN Charter and of a stable world, the UN chief added.

The New Agenda for Peace presents twelve concrete sets of proposals for action, in five priority areas.

The Secretary-General called for strong measures to prevent conflicts at the global level and address geopolitical divisions, prioritizing diplomacy, and investments in regional security architectures.

He highlighted a “paradigm for prevention that addresses all forms of violence”, focusing on mediation and social cohesion; ensuring respect for human rights and meaningful participation of women in decision-making; and prioritizing links between sustainable development, climate action, and peace.

“We must accelerate the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, recognizing that prevention and sustainable development are interdependent and mutually reinforcing,” Guterres said.

The brief also calls for updating peacekeeping operations to adapt to today’s conflicts, many of which remain unresolved for decades, driven by complex domestic, geopolitical and transnational factors.

“Peacekeeping operations cannot succeed when there is no peace to keep, nor can they achieve their goals without clear, prioritized and realistic mandates from the Security Council, centred on political solutions,” Guterres said.

Preventing weaponization of emerging domains and technologies and promoting responsible innovation, is the other key area highlighted in the brief, noting the need for global governance to address threats posed by new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous weapons systems.

It further calls for urgent reforms to the Security Council, General Assembly, the UN’s disarmament machinery, and the Peacebuilding Commission, to enhance collective security.

“The Security Council in particular should more systematically seek the advice of the Commission on the peacebuilding dimensions of the mandates of peace operations,” Guterres pointed out.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Ethiopia's disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation (DDR) program requires mobilization of adequate resources for the reintegration of the large number of ex-combatants in the country, National Rehabilitation Commissioner Teshome Toga told ENA.

The commissioner noted that Ethiopia’s size of ex-combatants is one of the largest by its own standard or the standard of other countries.

The National Rehabilitation Commission has so far identified 371,971 ex-combatants which need to be engaged in development, peace and democracy.

According to Teshome, 75,000 ex-combatants will be rehabilitated by the end of this year.

The commission has embarked on engagements and consultations with numerous partners from the national and United Nations (UN) systems and regions that have concern with the DDR program in the past six months.

The engagements have been pretty good and all the regions have expressed their commitment to fully support and implement the DDR program as part of the cessation of hostilities agreement signed in Pretoria, South Africa, he elaborated.

“We have had engagements and consultations with regions which have concerns with the DDR program. That has also been progressing well. All the regions have expressed their commitment to fully support and implement the DDR program because the DDR program is part of the cessation of hostilities agreements.”

However, the commissioner stressed that the program needs resources mobilization urgently to reintegrate the ex-combatants.

Despite very extensive consultations and engagement with our partners as well as different sectors of the society, there is still huge gap in resources as “leaving the ex-combatants unattended is risky.”

He pointed out that the size of the ex-combatants requires adequate resources. “The project cost is not small one. Of course, we have other priorities in the country that have made resource mobilization a bit of a challenge. But now this is something that we have to do and implement because if you disarm ex-combatants and leave them unattended, there is risk involved.”

The National Rehabilitation Commission has developed a program framework and a project document that will enable it to mobilize resources, it was learned.

“In that regard, we had very extensive engagements with our partners and different sectors of the society. We did this with international major donors, continental organizations, sub-regional organizations, IGAD and others. So, our assessment is that we want to do it as fast as we can. But given the circumstances here and there, we have a very long way to go and achieve it,” Teshome said.

The commissioner underlined that as the government is working by providing institutional support, donors which have keen interest in peace and stability in Ethiopia as well as the private sector should maximize their assistance.

He disclosed that there are other partners who have shown willingness in the United Nations system, bilateral and multilateral organizations, including World Bank, the European Union, and African Union. “This combination of contributions would make the program a successful one.”

But so far the engagement needs immediate mobilization of resources, Teshome stressed.

Most of the diplomatic communities have expressed support, he stated, adding that they are working with their capitals.

Particularly, the United Nations system is supporting Ethiopia's DDR program, the commissioner revealed.

Teshome hopes that by the end of the year, the commission will be getting the necessary resources.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency