2019 Afon hosting: CAF has no plan B-Ahmad Ahmad
https://www.journalducameroun.com/en – English – Breaking News, Cameroon, Africa and World News Sun, 14 Oct 2018 07:21:06 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/namibian-leader-congratulates-new-oif-secretary-general/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/namibian-leader-congratulates-new-oif-secretary-general/#respond Sun, 14 Oct 2018 07:21:06 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/namibian-leader-congratulates-new-oif-secretary-general/ 
Namibian President Hage Geingob has congratulated Rwandese foreign affairs minister Louise Mushikiwabo on her a confirmation as new secretary general of International Organisation of French-speaking Countries.Mushikiwabo was elected to the position by acclamation on Friday at the International Organisation of French-speaking Countries Summit currently underway in Erevan, Armenia.
Speaking in his capacity as chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Geingob said Namibia and the SADC region looked forward to working closely with Mushikiwabo “in advancing the common agenda of inclusive growth, poverty eradication and democracy”.
Commonly known by its French name, Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the organisation is an international body representing countries and regions where French is the main or customary language or where there is a notable affiliation with French culture.
Cet article Namibian leader congratulates new OIF secretary general est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> Namibian President Hage Geingob has congratulated Rwandese foreign affairs minister Louise Mushikiwabo on her a confirmation as new secretary general of International Organisation of French-speaking Countries.Mushikiwabo was elected to the position by acclamation on Friday at the International Organisation of French-speaking Countries Summit currently underway in Erevan, Armenia. Speaking in his capacity as chairperson of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Geingob said Namibia and the SADC region looked forward to working closely with Mushikiwabo “in advancing the common agenda of inclusive growth, poverty eradication and democracy”. Commonly known by its French name, Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the organisation is an international body representing countries and regions where French is the main or customary language or where there is a notable affiliation with French culture.
Cet article Namibian leader congratulates new OIF secretary general est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/namibian-leader-congratulates-new-oif-secretary-general/feed/ 0 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/sainthood-for-murdered-salvadoran-pope-paul-vi-2/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/sainthood-for-murdered-salvadoran-pope-paul-vi-2/#respond Sun, 14 Oct 2018 06:54:01 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/sainthood-for-murdered-salvadoran-pope-paul-vi-2/ Slain Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero and Pope Paul VI, Catholic giants who sparked controversy during their lifetimes, will join the church’s highest rank Sunday with an elevation to sainthood. Pope Francis will wear a blood-stained rope belt which belonged to Romero, who was murdered at the altar, as he leads the ceremony in front of […]
Cet article Sainthood for murdered Salvadoran, Pope Paul VI est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> Slain Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Romero and Pope Paul VI, Catholic giants who sparked controversy during their lifetimes, will join the church’s highest rank Sunday with an elevation to sainthood.
Pope Francis will wear a blood-stained rope belt which belonged to Romero, who was murdered at the altar, as he leads the ceremony in front of some 60,000 pilgrims and heads of state from across the world.
The pontiff will also use a chalice and pastoral staff belonging to Paul VI in a canonisation being seen as a reminder of Francis’s call for “a poor church for the poor”.
Both men have been hailed by Francis for their courage in turbulent times and their dedication to social justice and the downtrodden.
Their giant portraits were unfurled on Saint Peter’s Basilica along with those of five other new saints, including an orphaned youth and a German nun.
Romero stood up for peasant rights in the face of a right-wing backlash which painted him as a radical supporter of “liberation” theology in his small, impoverished central American nation.
His radio sermons condemning government repression came to be heard throughout the land.
On March 24, 1980, the man dubbed the “voice of those without voice” was shot in the heart, killed by a single bullet as he prepared communion at the start of a bloody civil war which claimed some 75,000 lives.
– ‘Gave his life’ –
Overnight hundreds of pilgrims from across Central America celebrated the impending canonization in El Salvador’s capital.
The visitors, many in clothes printed with Romero’s face, gathered in front of his tomb, in the crypt of San Salvador’s central cathedral, and at the Hospital of Divine Providence chapel, where he was assassinated.
“We are arriving here to honor the memory of Monsignor Romero, who took his faith to the point of giving his life for what he believed was right,” said Francisco Navarro, a 51-year-old Honduran, at the chapel along with some 30 of his compatriots.
“Since before he was killed, he defeated his killers by forgiving them. Because he knew they were going to kill him,” added university professor Julia Lainez.
For a long time, efforts to recognise Romero met with heavy opposition from conservative Catholics and the Salvadoran right, who saw veiled Marxism in his sermons.
Others said he had been killed for political rather than religious reasons and therefore should not be considered a Catholic martyr.
“It was like a dagger to the heart. I received threats,” Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the man tasked with guiding the canonisation process, told the Jesuit weekly America.
But Francis — the first Latin American pope — beatified him as a “martyr” in 2015 to popular acclaim after his predecessor, the retired Benedict XVI, championed his cause for canonisation.
It was Benedict who also extolled Paul VI, a man he once described as “almost superhuman”.
Paul VI — who encouraged Romero in his struggle — was the first head of the Roman Catholic Church to attempt to reform the Vatican’s powerful and unruly Curia, a challenge Francis also decided to take on.
He was also famously the first to reject the papal trappings of luxury, setting aside the traditional papal tiara — a jewel-encrusted, three-tiered, conical crown — shortly after his election in 1963 and donating its value to the poor. It was a gesture echoed by Francis, who renounced the papal apartment and gold cross.
– ‘Brave Christian’ –
The softly-spoken Giovanni Battista Montini was elected pope in 1963 in a difficult period for the church, which lost many believers as populist rebellions swept across the West.
He completed the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and was the first pilgrim pope, crossing continents on his trips to meet the faithful.
At his beatification mass, Francis had hailed him a “brave Christian”.
But he was also hampered by a reputation for being weak and overly cautious.
He is most famous for reaffirming the church’s ban on contraception — despite the fact that his own advisory commission voted overwhelming to lift the prohibition.
The decision enraged many Catholics at a time of sexual freedoms, with women demanding the right to use the birth control pill.
Cet article Sainthood for murdered Salvadoran, Pope Paul VI est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/sainthood-for-murdered-salvadoran-pope-paul-vi-2/feed/ 0 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/bodies-of-nine-climbers-killed-on-nepal-peak-found/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/bodies-of-nine-climbers-killed-on-nepal-peak-found/#respond Sun, 14 Oct 2018 04:54:04 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/bodies-of-nine-climbers-killed-on-nepal-peak-found/ A rescue team Sunday began retrieving the bodies of nine climbers killed in a violent storm on Nepal’s Mount Gurja, a freak accident that has left the mountaineering community reeling. A helicopter dropped four mountain guides at the camp where the South Korean climbing expedition was staying when powerful winds and snow swept through, killing […]
Cet article Bodies of nine climbers killed on Nepal peak found est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> A rescue team Sunday began retrieving the bodies of nine climbers killed in a violent storm on Nepal’s Mount Gurja, a freak accident that has left the mountaineering community reeling.
A helicopter dropped four mountain guides at the camp where the South Korean climbing expedition was staying when powerful winds and snow swept through, killing the entire team and scattering their bodies as far as 500 metre (1,640 foot) away.
“All nine bodies have been found and the team are in the process of bringing them down,” said Siddartha Gurung, a chopper pilot who is coordinating the retrieval mission.
Attempts to reach the remote site in the Dhaulagiri mountain range in Nepal’s Annapurna region on Saturday were hampered by strong winds.
Gurung did manage to reach the area and described a scene of total destruction.
“Base camp looks like a bomb went off,” said Dan Richards of Global Rescue, a US-based emergency assistance group that will be helping with the retrieval effort.
The expedition was led by experienced South Korean climber Kim Chang-ho, who has climbed the world’s 14 highest mountains without using supplemental oxygen.
Mountaineering experts are questioning how the experienced team was so badly hit while still at base camp at around 3,500 metres.
“At this point we don’t understand how this happened. You don’t usually get those sorts of extreme winds at that altitude and base camps are normally chosen because they are safe places,” said Richards.
The team — five South Koreans and four Nepali guides — had been on 7,193-metre (23,599-foot) Mount Gurja since early October, hoping to scale the rarely climbed mountain via a new route.
A sixth South Korean climber was staying at a village lower in the valley when the storm hit, after being forced to a lower altitude by health problems.
The freak storm is the deadliest incident to hit Nepal’s mountaineering industry since 18 people were killed at Mount Everest’s base camp in 2015 in an avalanche triggered by a powerful earthquake.
The previous year, 16 Sherpas were killed on Everest when an avalanche swept through the Khumbu Icefall during the busy spring climbing season.
Then in October that year, a blizzard killed more than 40 tourists and their guides in the Annapurna region, a disaster that was largely blamed on poor weather forecasting and lacklustre safety standards in Nepal’s poorly regulated trekking industry.
Cet article Bodies of nine climbers killed on Nepal peak found est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/bodies-of-nine-climbers-killed-on-nepal-peak-found/feed/ 0 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/putin-foe-navalny-freed-from-jail-after-back-to-back-sentences-2/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/putin-foe-navalny-freed-from-jail-after-back-to-back-sentences-2/#respond Sun, 14 Oct 2018 04:54:01 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/putin-foe-navalny-freed-from-jail-after-back-to-back-sentences-2/ Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was released from jail Sunday after three weeks behind bars for organising anti-Kremlin protests, his second spell in detention in as many months. The 42-year-old activist left a detention centre in the south of Moscow in the early hours of the morning and spoke briefly to journalists before leaving in […]
Cet article Putin foe Navalny freed from jail after back-to-back sentences est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was released from jail Sunday after three weeks behind bars for organising anti-Kremlin protests, his second spell in detention in as many months.
The 42-year-old activist left a detention centre in the south of Moscow in the early hours of the morning and spoke briefly to journalists before leaving in a waiting car.
“Over the 50 days I have been in jail we have seen yet more evidence that this regime is in complete decline,” he said, referencing recent embarrassments to Moscow’s intelligence services abroad and the launch failure of a manned Russian space rocket.
“If anyone thinks that with arrests… they can scare or stop us, that is clearly not the case,” he said after thanking those who supported him.
Authorities have turned up the heat on Vladimir Putin’s top foe since the Russian president’s approval ratings took a beating over deeply unpopular pension reforms.
The Kremlin critic finished a 30-day sentence in September for organising a rally at the start of the year, but was arrested as soon as he was released to face further charges over another protest.
The latter demonstration, against the raising of the retirement age, was time to coincide with regional elections last month.
The Kremlin suffered rare defeats in those polls, with voters rejecting candidates from the ruling United Russia party in at least two regions.
A run-off in the far eastern Primorsky Krai will be held again in two months after accusations of vote-rigging in favour of the Moscow-backed candidate led to protests.
Navalny ally Leonid Volkov said at the time of the latest arrest that the Kremlin had “to take it out on someone because of all their defeats and failures of the last weeks”.
Supporters fear that the two consecutive administrative cases mean the authorities may be getting ready to open a criminal probe against Navalny.
In that case he could face a lengthy prison term.
Amnesty International described Navalny as a prisoner of conscience and said he had committed no crime.
Navalny came to prominence as an organiser of huge anti-Putin rallies that shook Russia in 2011 and 2012 following accusations of vote-rigging in parliamentary polls.
His anti-corruption rhetoric is especially popular with younger people who follow his online channels and blogs.
Since his most recent jail term his 17-year-old daughter, Daria, has launched her own Youtube show called “Voice of My Generation”.
Navalny was barred from running against Putin in a presidential election in March.
He served a month in prison in the summer after organising demonstrations ahead of Putin’s swearing-in ceremony for a fourth Kremlin term.
The Yale-educated lawyer has faced a string of charges and attacks since he became the leading opposition figure in Russia.
Cet article Putin foe Navalny freed from jail after back-to-back sentences est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/putin-foe-navalny-freed-from-jail-after-back-to-back-sentences-2/feed/ 0 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/australia-to-stop-schools-expelling-gay-students/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/australia-to-stop-schools-expelling-gay-students/#respond Sun, 14 Oct 2018 03:54:17 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/australia-to-stop-schools-expelling-gay-students/ 
Australia’s conservative government will ban schools from expelling students over their sexuality, after a public outcry over the issue that threatened to sway the result of a crucial by-election and change the balance of power.
Laws allowing faith-based schools in some states to discriminate against gay students and teachers were highlighted in a review into religious protections that was leaked in the media last week.
The report — commissioned to placate the right wing of the governing coalition after Australia voted to approve gay marriage last year — called for the policy to be enshrined in federal laws.
The ensuing public outcry, with even Catholic organisations rejecting the prospect of discriminating against gay students, came ahead of an October 20 by-election that could cost the government its wafer-thin parliamentary majority.
The by-election — triggered when former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull resigned from parliament after being ousted as leader by Scott Morrison — fuelled fears of a voter backlash in the blue-ribbon seat.
Support of gay rights is particularly high in Turnbull’s wealthy Sydney beachside seat of Wentworth, which voted 81 percent in favour of gay marriage in last year’s national postal poll.
Morrison, an evangelical Christian who opposed gay marriage, initially blamed the furore on “misreporting” and insisted the religious review was about more protections for students against discrimination.
As the debate grew louder, the prime minister finally said Saturday that he would introduce a bill to prevent sexuality-based discrimination, to end “confusion and anxiety for parents and students”.
“I will be taking action to ensure amendments are introduced as soon as practicable to make it clear that no student of a non-state school should be expelled on the basis of their sexuality,” he said.
The school bill is expected to sail through parliament with the support of the main opposition Labor Party.
The left-wing Greens party said it would also introduce amendments to end discrimination against school teachers based on their sexuality or gender identity.
“It’s 2018, not the 1950s, no matter what Scott Morrison thinks,” Greens leader Richard di Natale tweeted.
While the Wentworth seat is traditionally a Liberal safe haven, there have been fears within the ruling Liberal-National coalition of local anger over Turnbull’s ousting.
There is currently a three-way race for the seat between the Liberals, Labor and an independent candidate.
The coalition has a one-seat majority in the lower house of parliament, and Morrison warned Wentworth voters that if the Liberals lose the seat, it could lead to a hung parliament.
That would create “unnecessary uncertainty in our economy and the stability of our government”, he told reporters on Saturday.
Cet article Australia to stop schools expelling gay students est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> Australia’s conservative government will ban schools from expelling students over their sexuality, after a public outcry over the issue that threatened to sway the result of a crucial by-election and change the balance of power.
Laws allowing faith-based schools in some states to discriminate against gay students and teachers were highlighted in a review into religious protections that was leaked in the media last week.
The report — commissioned to placate the right wing of the governing coalition after Australia voted to approve gay marriage last year — called for the policy to be enshrined in federal laws.
The ensuing public outcry, with even Catholic organisations rejecting the prospect of discriminating against gay students, came ahead of an October 20 by-election that could cost the government its wafer-thin parliamentary majority.
The by-election — triggered when former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull resigned from parliament after being ousted as leader by Scott Morrison — fuelled fears of a voter backlash in the blue-ribbon seat.
Support of gay rights is particularly high in Turnbull’s wealthy Sydney beachside seat of Wentworth, which voted 81 percent in favour of gay marriage in last year’s national postal poll.
Morrison, an evangelical Christian who opposed gay marriage, initially blamed the furore on “misreporting” and insisted the religious review was about more protections for students against discrimination.
As the debate grew louder, the prime minister finally said Saturday that he would introduce a bill to prevent sexuality-based discrimination, to end “confusion and anxiety for parents and students”.
“I will be taking action to ensure amendments are introduced as soon as practicable to make it clear that no student of a non-state school should be expelled on the basis of their sexuality,” he said.
The school bill is expected to sail through parliament with the support of the main opposition Labor Party.
The left-wing Greens party said it would also introduce amendments to end discrimination against school teachers based on their sexuality or gender identity.
“It’s 2018, not the 1950s, no matter what Scott Morrison thinks,” Greens leader Richard di Natale tweeted.
While the Wentworth seat is traditionally a Liberal safe haven, there have been fears within the ruling Liberal-National coalition of local anger over Turnbull’s ousting.
There is currently a three-way race for the seat between the Liberals, Labor and an independent candidate.
The coalition has a one-seat majority in the lower house of parliament, and Morrison warned Wentworth voters that if the Liberals lose the seat, it could lead to a hung parliament.
That would create “unnecessary uncertainty in our economy and the stability of our government”, he told reporters on Saturday.
Cet article Australia to stop schools expelling gay students est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/australia-to-stop-schools-expelling-gay-students/feed/ 0 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/filipinos-deeply-conflicted-on-dutertes-drug-war/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/filipinos-deeply-conflicted-on-dutertes-drug-war/#respond Sun, 14 Oct 2018 03:54:15 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/filipinos-deeply-conflicted-on-dutertes-drug-war/ 
Jailed drug user Bitoy Paras perks up when describing his support for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on narcotics, an unlikely fan of a campaign that has left Filipinos deeply conflicted.
“Duterte talks tough, saying he will get rid of addicts… I am happy he’s doing that,” he told AFP at Manila’s main jail, which is packed with drug suspects.
“But I feel uneasy about the killings,” said the 22-year-old rickshaw driver, whose real name cannot be used due to prison policy.
Paras’s seemingly paradoxical backing echoes that of millions of Filipinos, who polls say support the crackdown but not the thousands of slayings that are central to it.
Duterte’s drug war — his signature initiative — helped bring him to power in mid-2016, promising to rid society of narcotics by any means necessary.
Since then, police say they have killed 4,854 alleged drug users or dealers in self-defence, while rights groups estimate the true toll is at least triple that.
According to the latest survey by pollster SWS, the campaign still has the backing of 78 percent of Filipinos, a figure undented in over a year.
Drug war proponents regularly point to these statistics as proof that the internationally-condemned crackdown is the will of the people.
But those same polls show near unanimous agreement — 96 percent — among the nation in opposition to the killing, saying the suspects should be taken alive.
– ‘Not human’ –
Experts say Duterte’s campaign has tapped into genuine popular outrage over disorder, crime and dysfunction in a developing nation with millions of poor people and a turbulent political past.
“It’s not like they’re turning a blind eye (to the killing) but they’re really worried about the drug problem,” said Steven Rood, a fellow-in-residence at pollster SWS.
“It has been a problem for a long time and finally the president of the Philippines is doing something about it,” he added, describing how many Filipinos view the narcotics issue.
But for the family of Duterte voter Katherine Bautista, that belief was suddenly turned on its head by tragedy last year.
Bautista supported the crackdown until her stepson John Jezreel David was shot dead in what police said was an anti-drug operation even as she insisted her son was not a drug user.
“I was even saying that the tears of families (of those killed) seemed fake. But when it happened to us, I felt the pain they were feeling,” Bautista told AFP.
“If it doesn’t happen to your family, you won’t wake up to the truth,” she added.
A significant strand in the opposition to the killings is the fear a loved could be slain just by being in the wrong place, not necessarily because of involvement in drugs.
“People feel very afraid that their families or their relatives might be placed in a situation where they could be the targets,” Randy David, a sociologist and newspaper columnist in Manila, told AFP.
“But how can you possibly disagree or not lend support for a campaign to rid this country of illegal drugs?”, David added, saying the lethal methods were what prompted questions.
– ‘My only sin’ –
There has been broader condemnation of the crackdown, at home and abroad.
Rare protests were held in the Philippines last year following the deaths of teenagers, while outrage over alleged abuses has prompted Duterte to twice remove police from the frontlines of the campaign — only to reinstate them, and promise to pardon officers convicted of murder.
The International Criminal Court has launched a preliminary examination into the killings, while rights groups say Duterte may be overseeing a crime against humanity.
Meanwhile, Duterte hammers the menace posed by drugs in near daily speeches in which he has described addicts as “not human”.
Analysts say the president uses clear and repeated messaging in an effort to buttress backing for his campaign.
“The way (the message) is delivered is that there is a very big threat, so first there’s the production of massive fear,” said Ateneo de Manila University psychology professor Cristina Montiel.
“Then (comes) the salvific message that this programme or this leader is here to save you,” she added. “That’s how popular support is produced.”
As the campaign continues, the death toll is well over Amnesty International’s count of 3,240 people killed during the nine years of martial law rule under dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the country’s darkest chapter since World War II.
Duterte recently addressed the thorny issue of the killings, delivering what critics called a clear admission they are suspect.
“What are my sins? Did I steal money? Even just one peso? Did I prosecute somebody I sent to jail?” he asked in a September speech. “My only sin is extrajudicial killings.”
Cet article Filipinos deeply conflicted on Duterte’s drug war est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> Jailed drug user Bitoy Paras perks up when describing his support for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s deadly war on narcotics, an unlikely fan of a campaign that has left Filipinos deeply conflicted.
“Duterte talks tough, saying he will get rid of addicts… I am happy he’s doing that,” he told AFP at Manila’s main jail, which is packed with drug suspects.
“But I feel uneasy about the killings,” said the 22-year-old rickshaw driver, whose real name cannot be used due to prison policy.
Paras’s seemingly paradoxical backing echoes that of millions of Filipinos, who polls say support the crackdown but not the thousands of slayings that are central to it.
Duterte’s drug war — his signature initiative — helped bring him to power in mid-2016, promising to rid society of narcotics by any means necessary.
Since then, police say they have killed 4,854 alleged drug users or dealers in self-defence, while rights groups estimate the true toll is at least triple that.
According to the latest survey by pollster SWS, the campaign still has the backing of 78 percent of Filipinos, a figure undented in over a year.
Drug war proponents regularly point to these statistics as proof that the internationally-condemned crackdown is the will of the people.
But those same polls show near unanimous agreement — 96 percent — among the nation in opposition to the killing, saying the suspects should be taken alive.
– ‘Not human’ –
Experts say Duterte’s campaign has tapped into genuine popular outrage over disorder, crime and dysfunction in a developing nation with millions of poor people and a turbulent political past.
“It’s not like they’re turning a blind eye (to the killing) but they’re really worried about the drug problem,” said Steven Rood, a fellow-in-residence at pollster SWS.
“It has been a problem for a long time and finally the president of the Philippines is doing something about it,” he added, describing how many Filipinos view the narcotics issue.
But for the family of Duterte voter Katherine Bautista, that belief was suddenly turned on its head by tragedy last year.
Bautista supported the crackdown until her stepson John Jezreel David was shot dead in what police said was an anti-drug operation even as she insisted her son was not a drug user.
“I was even saying that the tears of families (of those killed) seemed fake. But when it happened to us, I felt the pain they were feeling,” Bautista told AFP.
“If it doesn’t happen to your family, you won’t wake up to the truth,” she added.
A significant strand in the opposition to the killings is the fear a loved could be slain just by being in the wrong place, not necessarily because of involvement in drugs.
“People feel very afraid that their families or their relatives might be placed in a situation where they could be the targets,” Randy David, a sociologist and newspaper columnist in Manila, told AFP.
“But how can you possibly disagree or not lend support for a campaign to rid this country of illegal drugs?”, David added, saying the lethal methods were what prompted questions.
– ‘My only sin’ –
There has been broader condemnation of the crackdown, at home and abroad.
Rare protests were held in the Philippines last year following the deaths of teenagers, while outrage over alleged abuses has prompted Duterte to twice remove police from the frontlines of the campaign — only to reinstate them, and promise to pardon officers convicted of murder.
The International Criminal Court has launched a preliminary examination into the killings, while rights groups say Duterte may be overseeing a crime against humanity.
Meanwhile, Duterte hammers the menace posed by drugs in near daily speeches in which he has described addicts as “not human”.
Analysts say the president uses clear and repeated messaging in an effort to buttress backing for his campaign.
“The way (the message) is delivered is that there is a very big threat, so first there’s the production of massive fear,” said Ateneo de Manila University psychology professor Cristina Montiel.
“Then (comes) the salvific message that this programme or this leader is here to save you,” she added. “That’s how popular support is produced.”
As the campaign continues, the death toll is well over Amnesty International’s count of 3,240 people killed during the nine years of martial law rule under dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the country’s darkest chapter since World War II.
Duterte recently addressed the thorny issue of the killings, delivering what critics called a clear admission they are suspect.
“What are my sins? Did I steal money? Even just one peso? Did I prosecute somebody I sent to jail?” he asked in a September speech. “My only sin is extrajudicial killings.”
Cet article Filipinos deeply conflicted on Duterte’s drug war est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/filipinos-deeply-conflicted-on-dutertes-drug-war/feed/ 0 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/german-business-losing-patience-with-limping-brexit-talks/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/german-business-losing-patience-with-limping-brexit-talks/#respond Sun, 14 Oct 2018 03:54:12 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/german-business-losing-patience-with-limping-brexit-talks/ 
With just under six months until Brexit day, German business is losing patience with negotiations ahead of a vital deadline, warning ever more stridently of the risks of a no-deal departure.
“Europe must stop a worst-case Brexit scenario,” Joachim Lang, director of the Federation of German Industry (BDI) said Tuesday, warning that “a separation of the UK from the EU without a departure or transitional agreement or clarification of the future relationship is still a possibility.”
At stake for Germany are some 50,000 jobs the BDI says depend directly on business with the UK.
In financial terms, Europe’s largest economy sold 84.4 billion euros ($97.4 billion) of exports to Britain in 2017, making the island nation its fifth-biggest customer, while importing 37.1 billion.
The scale means a no-deal Brexit would be “a disaster that would cause great difficulties for tens of thousands of firms and hundreds of thousands of workers on both sides of the English Channel,” Lang said.
Current talks aim to settle Britain’s divorce issues and agree a “transition phase” to ease its departure by keeping it under EU law through 2020.
But while much is already agreed, negotiations have snagged on thorny issues like the Irish border that allow for little compromise and divide British PM Theresa May’s majority.
An EU leaders’ summit this week has been dubbed a “moment of truth”, as two sets of lawmakers — in Westminster and the European Parliament — must both green-light any deal and will need time to debate it before Brexit day on March 29.
Adding to the pressure, the European Commission said last week it was making plans to cope with a no-deal scenario.
– ‘Will Brits be reasonable?’ –
Businesses on the front line of potential Brexit disruption mostly strike a less alarmist tone than the BDI chief.
“If Britain becomes a ‘third country’ (losing membership of the EU’s single market) it’s not a problem, we already work with 50 third countries,” said Samia Zimmerling, head of export administration at Delta Pronatura — a cleaning products maker with operations in both Germany and the UK.
But she lamented the drawn-out talks, which are delaying concrete adjustments companies must make to any new trade arrangements, like updating complex IT systems.
“We’re waiting every day,” she said. “We don’t have any faith in the British (government), they’re just indecisive.”
Zimmerling and around 200 other businesspeople attended a Wednesday conference organised by Frankfurt’s Chambers of Commerce and Industry (IHK), one of a string of events in economic centres around Germany.
Britain’s departure has special significance for Frankfurt, which is both the centre of the powerhouse “Rhine-Main” region and a financial hub.
Bankers and local politicians hope to attract banking business from London following Brexit, with lobby group Frankfurt Main Finance last week tallying 26 financial firms that will transplant some operations.
But at Wednesday’s meeting, experts from the finance ministry in Berlin and the customs service focused on explaining more prosaic issues to the gathered businesspeople.
Attempting to strike a bright tone and coax the odd laugh from the audience along the way, they delved into how to register for customs software or claim back taxes on goods exported outside the EU.
Higher barriers to trade “wouldn’t be anything new to us as a company, although for me personally, yes,” said Thorsten Neubecker, a 30-year veteran of Germany-UK trucking at transport firm MOL Logistics.
“We’re assuming that there will be this temporary two-year transition period, to give us time” to adapt, he added.
“Whether the Brits will be reasonable, whether Brussels will be, I don’t know, we just have to hope.”
Alexander Schroeer of Cuta Solutions, a firm that advises other companies about international trade, was more pessimistic.
“There’s a political discussion in England that has nothing to do with the agreement itself,” he complained.
“For me it’s clear that there will be a hard Brexit.”
Cet article German business losing patience with limping Brexit talks est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> With just under six months until Brexit day, German business is losing patience with negotiations ahead of a vital deadline, warning ever more stridently of the risks of a no-deal departure.
“Europe must stop a worst-case Brexit scenario,” Joachim Lang, director of the Federation of German Industry (BDI) said Tuesday, warning that “a separation of the UK from the EU without a departure or transitional agreement or clarification of the future relationship is still a possibility.”
At stake for Germany are some 50,000 jobs the BDI says depend directly on business with the UK.
In financial terms, Europe’s largest economy sold 84.4 billion euros ($97.4 billion) of exports to Britain in 2017, making the island nation its fifth-biggest customer, while importing 37.1 billion.
The scale means a no-deal Brexit would be “a disaster that would cause great difficulties for tens of thousands of firms and hundreds of thousands of workers on both sides of the English Channel,” Lang said.
Current talks aim to settle Britain’s divorce issues and agree a “transition phase” to ease its departure by keeping it under EU law through 2020.
But while much is already agreed, negotiations have snagged on thorny issues like the Irish border that allow for little compromise and divide British PM Theresa May’s majority.
An EU leaders’ summit this week has been dubbed a “moment of truth”, as two sets of lawmakers — in Westminster and the European Parliament — must both green-light any deal and will need time to debate it before Brexit day on March 29.
Adding to the pressure, the European Commission said last week it was making plans to cope with a no-deal scenario.
– ‘Will Brits be reasonable?’ –
Businesses on the front line of potential Brexit disruption mostly strike a less alarmist tone than the BDI chief.
“If Britain becomes a ‘third country’ (losing membership of the EU’s single market) it’s not a problem, we already work with 50 third countries,” said Samia Zimmerling, head of export administration at Delta Pronatura — a cleaning products maker with operations in both Germany and the UK.
But she lamented the drawn-out talks, which are delaying concrete adjustments companies must make to any new trade arrangements, like updating complex IT systems.
“We’re waiting every day,” she said. “We don’t have any faith in the British (government), they’re just indecisive.”
Zimmerling and around 200 other businesspeople attended a Wednesday conference organised by Frankfurt’s Chambers of Commerce and Industry (IHK), one of a string of events in economic centres around Germany.
Britain’s departure has special significance for Frankfurt, which is both the centre of the powerhouse “Rhine-Main” region and a financial hub.
Bankers and local politicians hope to attract banking business from London following Brexit, with lobby group Frankfurt Main Finance last week tallying 26 financial firms that will transplant some operations.
But at Wednesday’s meeting, experts from the finance ministry in Berlin and the customs service focused on explaining more prosaic issues to the gathered businesspeople.
Attempting to strike a bright tone and coax the odd laugh from the audience along the way, they delved into how to register for customs software or claim back taxes on goods exported outside the EU.
Higher barriers to trade “wouldn’t be anything new to us as a company, although for me personally, yes,” said Thorsten Neubecker, a 30-year veteran of Germany-UK trucking at transport firm MOL Logistics.
“We’re assuming that there will be this temporary two-year transition period, to give us time” to adapt, he added.
“Whether the Brits will be reasonable, whether Brussels will be, I don’t know, we just have to hope.”
Alexander Schroeer of Cuta Solutions, a firm that advises other companies about international trade, was more pessimistic.
“There’s a political discussion in England that has nothing to do with the agreement itself,” he complained.
“For me it’s clear that there will be a hard Brexit.”
Cet article German business losing patience with limping Brexit talks est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/german-business-losing-patience-with-limping-brexit-talks/feed/ 0 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/search-begins-for-nine-climbers-killed-on-nepal-peak/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/search-begins-for-nine-climbers-killed-on-nepal-peak/#respond Sun, 14 Oct 2018 03:54:10 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/search-begins-for-nine-climbers-killed-on-nepal-peak/ 
A rescue team was Sunday attempting to retrieve the bodies of nine climbers killed in a violent storm on Nepal’s Mount Gurja, a freak accident that has left the mountaineering community reeling.
A helicopter reached a village just below the area where the South Korean climbing expedition was camped when powerful winds and snow swept through, killing the entire team and scattering their bodies as far as 500 metre (1,640 foot) away.
“The helicopter will drop the four guides at the site and they will collect the bodies,” said Siddartha Gurung, a chopper pilot who is coordinating the retrieval mission.
Attempts to reach the remote site in the Dhaulagiri mountain range in Nepal’s Annapurna region on Saturday were hampered by strong winds.
Gurung did manage to reach the area and described a scene of total destruction.
“Base camp looks like a bomb went off,” said Dan Richards of Global Rescue, a US-based emergency assistance group that will be helping with the retrieval effort.
The expedition was led by experienced South Korean climber Kim Chang-ho, who has climbed the world’s 14 highest mountains without using supplemental oxygen.
Mountaineering experts are questioning how the experienced team was so badly hit while still at base camp at around 3,500 metres.
“At this point we don’t understand how this happened. You don’t usually get those sorts of extreme winds at that altitude and base camps are normally chosen because they are safe places,” said Richards.
The team — five South Koreans and four Nepali guides — had been on 7,193-metre (23,599-foot) Mount Gurja since early October, hoping to scale the rarely climbed mountain via a new route.
A sixth South Korean climber was staying at a village lower in the valley when the storm hit, after being forced to a lower altitude by health problems.
The freak storm is the deadliest incident to hit Nepal’s mountaineering industry since 18 people were killed at Mount Everest’s base camp in 2015 in an avalanche triggered by a powerful earthquake.
The previous year, 16 Sherpas were killed on Everest when an avalanche swept through the Khumbu Icefall during the busy spring climbing season.
Then in October that year, a blizzard killed more than 40 tourists and their guides in the Annapurna region, a disaster that was largely blamed on poor weather forecasting and lacklustre safety standards in Nepal’s poorly regulated trekking industry.
Cet article Search begins for nine climbers killed on Nepal peak est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> A rescue team was Sunday attempting to retrieve the bodies of nine climbers killed in a violent storm on Nepal’s Mount Gurja, a freak accident that has left the mountaineering community reeling.
A helicopter reached a village just below the area where the South Korean climbing expedition was camped when powerful winds and snow swept through, killing the entire team and scattering their bodies as far as 500 metre (1,640 foot) away.
“The helicopter will drop the four guides at the site and they will collect the bodies,” said Siddartha Gurung, a chopper pilot who is coordinating the retrieval mission.
Attempts to reach the remote site in the Dhaulagiri mountain range in Nepal’s Annapurna region on Saturday were hampered by strong winds.
Gurung did manage to reach the area and described a scene of total destruction.
“Base camp looks like a bomb went off,” said Dan Richards of Global Rescue, a US-based emergency assistance group that will be helping with the retrieval effort.
The expedition was led by experienced South Korean climber Kim Chang-ho, who has climbed the world’s 14 highest mountains without using supplemental oxygen.
Mountaineering experts are questioning how the experienced team was so badly hit while still at base camp at around 3,500 metres.
“At this point we don’t understand how this happened. You don’t usually get those sorts of extreme winds at that altitude and base camps are normally chosen because they are safe places,” said Richards.
The team — five South Koreans and four Nepali guides — had been on 7,193-metre (23,599-foot) Mount Gurja since early October, hoping to scale the rarely climbed mountain via a new route.
A sixth South Korean climber was staying at a village lower in the valley when the storm hit, after being forced to a lower altitude by health problems.
The freak storm is the deadliest incident to hit Nepal’s mountaineering industry since 18 people were killed at Mount Everest’s base camp in 2015 in an avalanche triggered by a powerful earthquake.
The previous year, 16 Sherpas were killed on Everest when an avalanche swept through the Khumbu Icefall during the busy spring climbing season.
Then in October that year, a blizzard killed more than 40 tourists and their guides in the Annapurna region, a disaster that was largely blamed on poor weather forecasting and lacklustre safety standards in Nepal’s poorly regulated trekking industry.
Cet article Search begins for nine climbers killed on Nepal peak est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/search-begins-for-nine-climbers-killed-on-nepal-peak/feed/ 0 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/tunisia-fishermen-turn-tide-to-cash-in-on-blue-crab-menace/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/tunisia-fishermen-turn-tide-to-cash-in-on-blue-crab-menace/#respond Sun, 14 Oct 2018 03:54:07 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/tunisia-fishermen-turn-tide-to-cash-in-on-blue-crab-menace/ 
Tunisian fishermen saw the blue crab wreak such havoc on their catches when it first appeared that they nicknamed it after the terrifying jihadists of the Islamic State group.
But now — four years after these scourges of the sea invaded their waters — the predators have turned into prey as fishermen in the North African country cash in on the crustaceans.
Jamel Ben Joma Zayoud pulls his nets out of the water off the Mediterranean island of Djerba to find them full of blue crabs with their fearsome-looking spikes.
“Look, there are only Daesh, they’ve destroyed everything,” he says, using the Arabic term for IS that has become the crabs’ nickname.
The blue crab, once a native of the Red Sea, first showed up in the Gulf of Gabes off Tunisia’s coast in 2014 and immediately set about snapping up the rich pickings it found.
“It quickly became a curse,” Zayoud, 47, tells AFP. “It eats all the best fish.”
– Feeling the pinch –
There are two explanations for how the blue crab, or Portunus Pelagicus, made it all the way to the shores of Tunisia, says researcher Marouene Bedioui, at the National Institute for Marine Sciences and Technologies.
Either their eggs were transported on boats to the region or they arrived as part of a lengthy migration that started when the Suez Canal opened in 1869.
However the crabs turned up, their impact has been damaging.
The hard-up fishermen along the coast, already struggling to make ends meet, felt the pinch as the crabs attacked their nets and the local fish.
“One thousand, one hundred fishermen have been hit by this plague in Gabes,” said Sassi Alaya, a member of the local labour union.
“Nowadays we change our nets three times a year, while before it was once every two years.”
In 2015 and 2016, fishermen demonstrated over the issue — and eventually the government took notice.
The authorities last year launched a plan aimed at helping fishermen to turn the pest into profit.
They were taught how to trap the crabs and the government began subsidising the cost of purchasing what was caught.
Plants popped up to freeze the crabs and ship them to markets in the Gulf and Asia where customers are willing to shell out for their meat.
– Crab lunch –
One of them is managed by a Turkish company — putting to use the experience it gained dealing with an influx of the crabs back home.
Each afternoon a line of refrigerated vans forms outside the facility delivering the crabs caught that morning from nearby harbours.
“When the crab appeared we didn’t know how to make money from it,” said Karim Hammami, co-director of the firm Tucrab.
“Tunisians didn’t consume it so the fishermen avoided catching it — but when investors came in and the authorities began moving we started targeting foreign markets.”
In the first seven months of this year, Tunisia produced 1,450 tonnes of blue crab worth around three million euros ($3.5 million), the ministry of agriculture says.
For those making their livelihoods from the sea, the transformation has been stark.
“The situation has completely changed,” said fisherman Zayoud.
He has now started going after fish with his nets, and crabs with cages.
So succesful have the fishermen been that they are now even planning to limit themselves in order not to deplete crab stocks too much.
And even they have got a taste for their former foe.
For their lunch, Zayoud and his crew select, cook and tuck into a healthy male crab.
“Daesh eat all the best fish,” explains the fisherman.
“So their meat has to be delicious.”
Cet article Tunisia fishermen turn tide to cash in on blue crab menace est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> Tunisian fishermen saw the blue crab wreak such havoc on their catches when it first appeared that they nicknamed it after the terrifying jihadists of the Islamic State group.
But now — four years after these scourges of the sea invaded their waters — the predators have turned into prey as fishermen in the North African country cash in on the crustaceans.
Jamel Ben Joma Zayoud pulls his nets out of the water off the Mediterranean island of Djerba to find them full of blue crabs with their fearsome-looking spikes.
“Look, there are only Daesh, they’ve destroyed everything,” he says, using the Arabic term for IS that has become the crabs’ nickname.
The blue crab, once a native of the Red Sea, first showed up in the Gulf of Gabes off Tunisia’s coast in 2014 and immediately set about snapping up the rich pickings it found.
“It quickly became a curse,” Zayoud, 47, tells AFP. “It eats all the best fish.”
– Feeling the pinch –
There are two explanations for how the blue crab, or Portunus Pelagicus, made it all the way to the shores of Tunisia, says researcher Marouene Bedioui, at the National Institute for Marine Sciences and Technologies.
Either their eggs were transported on boats to the region or they arrived as part of a lengthy migration that started when the Suez Canal opened in 1869.
However the crabs turned up, their impact has been damaging.
The hard-up fishermen along the coast, already struggling to make ends meet, felt the pinch as the crabs attacked their nets and the local fish.
“One thousand, one hundred fishermen have been hit by this plague in Gabes,” said Sassi Alaya, a member of the local labour union.
“Nowadays we change our nets three times a year, while before it was once every two years.”
In 2015 and 2016, fishermen demonstrated over the issue — and eventually the government took notice.
The authorities last year launched a plan aimed at helping fishermen to turn the pest into profit.
They were taught how to trap the crabs and the government began subsidising the cost of purchasing what was caught.
Plants popped up to freeze the crabs and ship them to markets in the Gulf and Asia where customers are willing to shell out for their meat.
– Crab lunch –
One of them is managed by a Turkish company — putting to use the experience it gained dealing with an influx of the crabs back home.
Each afternoon a line of refrigerated vans forms outside the facility delivering the crabs caught that morning from nearby harbours.
“When the crab appeared we didn’t know how to make money from it,” said Karim Hammami, co-director of the firm Tucrab.
“Tunisians didn’t consume it so the fishermen avoided catching it — but when investors came in and the authorities began moving we started targeting foreign markets.”
In the first seven months of this year, Tunisia produced 1,450 tonnes of blue crab worth around three million euros ($3.5 million), the ministry of agriculture says.
For those making their livelihoods from the sea, the transformation has been stark.
“The situation has completely changed,” said fisherman Zayoud.
He has now started going after fish with his nets, and crabs with cages.
So succesful have the fishermen been that they are now even planning to limit themselves in order not to deplete crab stocks too much.
And even they have got a taste for their former foe.
For their lunch, Zayoud and his crew select, cook and tuck into a healthy male crab.
“Daesh eat all the best fish,” explains the fisherman.
“So their meat has to be delicious.”
Cet article Tunisia fishermen turn tide to cash in on blue crab menace est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/tunisia-fishermen-turn-tide-to-cash-in-on-blue-crab-menace/feed/ 0 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/egypt-seeks-to-weave-cotton-renaissance/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/egypt-seeks-to-weave-cotton-renaissance/#respond Sun, 14 Oct 2018 03:54:05 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/egypt-seeks-to-weave-cotton-renaissance/ 
Treading carefully among his sprawling green plants in the Nile Delta, Egyptian farmer Fatuh Khalifa fills his arms with fluffy white cotton picked by his workers.
Durable, fine and luxuriously soft, cotton sourced from Egypt has long been seen as the best on the market.
But recent years have been far from smooth for the North African country’s farmers.
“I cultivate 42 hectares (104 acres) and it’s expensive … while the price (of cotton) is very low”, said Khalifa, who has been growing the premium long-fibre variety for over 30 years.
Profits are “meagre”, he lamented, his head shaded by his cap from the unforgiving sun on his farm in Kafr El Sheikh.
Cotton was once Egypt’s main source of wealth in the 19th century, as the Nile Delta provided fertile grounds for the crop used to make the towels, sheets and robes coveted by Europe’s burgeoning bourgeoisie.
But decades of fierce international competition has diminished returns.
Well-marketed short-fibre cotton — while lower quality than the long-fibre variety — looks good and has increasingly been used by textile giants, dealing a heavy blow to Egyptian players.
The United States and Brazil are now the world’s top cotton exporters, according to this month’s report by the US Department of Agriculture, followed by India and Australia, leaving Egypt trailing far behind.
Back in 1975, Egypt exported $540 million of cotton. By 2016, the sector’s export receipts had fallen to $90.4 million, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
– Major challenges –
The popular uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak in 2011 dealt a fresh blow to the cotton sector, as political and economic chaos hit production and export chains.
Egypt’s output of cotton fibres fell as low as 94,000 tonnes in 2013, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, down from 510,000 tonnes in 1971.
Last year brought producers some respite, thanks to rising prices and higher export volumes.
But a trade spat between the US and voracious importer China has seen benchmark global cotton prices fall afresh, as traders take fright over Beijing imposing tariffs.
The commodity was trading at a shade under $0.77 per pound (0.45 kilos) in early October, after reaching $0.95 — the highest level in more than six years — in early June.
In Egypt, the price has dropped back to the minimum guaranteed by the state of some 2,700 Egyptian pounds ($150, 130 euros) per 100 kilos.
Egypt’s cotton union says buyers are even demanding lower prices, without triggering any intervention by the government.
– Productivity, modernisation –
Others offer a different diagnosis of the sector’s ills.
“The drop in prices is not in itself a bad thing”, said Ahmed El-Bosaty, CEO of Modern Nile Cotton, one of the biggest companies in the sector.
Bosaty said the major challenge is boosting productivity.
“A rise in productivity rather than prices would ensure better incomes for workers”, he said.
A cotton expert at the agriculture ministry acknowledged that modernisation is key.
“Productivity is rising”, said Hisham Mosaad. But cotton enterprises must invest in mechanisation, as the industry is still entirely manual, he added.
Another challenge is that few Egyptian firms make finished products.
“We produce raw cotton for direct export”, said Mohammed Sheta, director of research at the Kafr El Sheikh cotton institute.
Egypt does not have “the factories or the means allowing us to transform it into fabric”, he lamented.
– State reforms –
The state has tried to spur activity, boosting areas under cultivation over the last four years by around 50,000 hectares, to more than 140,000 hectares.
In an experimental move, the government in September even allowed the cultivation of short-fibre cotton, but only outside the Delta region.
Experts and farmers remain sceptical, believing Egypt will struggle against foreign heavyweights in the short-fibre market segment.
But many companies see the situation as urgent.
Even though official exports of Egyptian cotton rose 6.9 percent by volume in the three months to the end of May compared to the same quarter of 2017, there was a 57.9-percent fall in consumption of Egyptian cotton at home, due to the domestic market turning to imported products.
At the high end of the value chain, designer Marie Louis Bishara runs one of the few Egyptian firms that produces high quality finished products locally for the international market.
Young men and women work side by side in her modern factory in northern Cairo, in roles ranging from overseeing looms to packing finished shirts.
Promising Egyptian quality, she has dedicated one of her lines to local long-fibre cotton.
“We try to show the world that if you want to make luxury products, you have to use extra long cotton from the Delta”, she said.
Shirts, trousers and jackets stamped “Made in Egypt” have gone from the design stage on her factory floor to grace shop shelves in France, Italy and her home country.
Cet article Egypt seeks to weave cotton renaissance est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> Treading carefully among his sprawling green plants in the Nile Delta, Egyptian farmer Fatuh Khalifa fills his arms with fluffy white cotton picked by his workers.
Durable, fine and luxuriously soft, cotton sourced from Egypt has long been seen as the best on the market.
But recent years have been far from smooth for the North African country’s farmers.
“I cultivate 42 hectares (104 acres) and it’s expensive … while the price (of cotton) is very low”, said Khalifa, who has been growing the premium long-fibre variety for over 30 years.
Profits are “meagre”, he lamented, his head shaded by his cap from the unforgiving sun on his farm in Kafr El Sheikh.
Cotton was once Egypt’s main source of wealth in the 19th century, as the Nile Delta provided fertile grounds for the crop used to make the towels, sheets and robes coveted by Europe’s burgeoning bourgeoisie.
But decades of fierce international competition has diminished returns.
Well-marketed short-fibre cotton — while lower quality than the long-fibre variety — looks good and has increasingly been used by textile giants, dealing a heavy blow to Egyptian players.
The United States and Brazil are now the world’s top cotton exporters, according to this month’s report by the US Department of Agriculture, followed by India and Australia, leaving Egypt trailing far behind.
Back in 1975, Egypt exported $540 million of cotton. By 2016, the sector’s export receipts had fallen to $90.4 million, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
– Major challenges –
The popular uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak in 2011 dealt a fresh blow to the cotton sector, as political and economic chaos hit production and export chains.
Egypt’s output of cotton fibres fell as low as 94,000 tonnes in 2013, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, down from 510,000 tonnes in 1971.
Last year brought producers some respite, thanks to rising prices and higher export volumes.
But a trade spat between the US and voracious importer China has seen benchmark global cotton prices fall afresh, as traders take fright over Beijing imposing tariffs.
The commodity was trading at a shade under $0.77 per pound (0.45 kilos) in early October, after reaching $0.95 — the highest level in more than six years — in early June.
In Egypt, the price has dropped back to the minimum guaranteed by the state of some 2,700 Egyptian pounds ($150, 130 euros) per 100 kilos.
Egypt’s cotton union says buyers are even demanding lower prices, without triggering any intervention by the government.
– Productivity, modernisation –
Others offer a different diagnosis of the sector’s ills.
“The drop in prices is not in itself a bad thing”, said Ahmed El-Bosaty, CEO of Modern Nile Cotton, one of the biggest companies in the sector.
Bosaty said the major challenge is boosting productivity.
“A rise in productivity rather than prices would ensure better incomes for workers”, he said.
A cotton expert at the agriculture ministry acknowledged that modernisation is key.
“Productivity is rising”, said Hisham Mosaad. But cotton enterprises must invest in mechanisation, as the industry is still entirely manual, he added.
Another challenge is that few Egyptian firms make finished products.
“We produce raw cotton for direct export”, said Mohammed Sheta, director of research at the Kafr El Sheikh cotton institute.
Egypt does not have “the factories or the means allowing us to transform it into fabric”, he lamented.
– State reforms –
The state has tried to spur activity, boosting areas under cultivation over the last four years by around 50,000 hectares, to more than 140,000 hectares.
In an experimental move, the government in September even allowed the cultivation of short-fibre cotton, but only outside the Delta region.
Experts and farmers remain sceptical, believing Egypt will struggle against foreign heavyweights in the short-fibre market segment.
But many companies see the situation as urgent.
Even though official exports of Egyptian cotton rose 6.9 percent by volume in the three months to the end of May compared to the same quarter of 2017, there was a 57.9-percent fall in consumption of Egyptian cotton at home, due to the domestic market turning to imported products.
At the high end of the value chain, designer Marie Louis Bishara runs one of the few Egyptian firms that produces high quality finished products locally for the international market.
Young men and women work side by side in her modern factory in northern Cairo, in roles ranging from overseeing looms to packing finished shirts.
Promising Egyptian quality, she has dedicated one of her lines to local long-fibre cotton.
“We try to show the world that if you want to make luxury products, you have to use extra long cotton from the Delta”, she said.
Shirts, trousers and jackets stamped “Made in Egypt” have gone from the design stage on her factory floor to grace shop shelves in France, Italy and her home country.
Cet article Egypt seeks to weave cotton renaissance est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.
]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/egypt-seeks-to-weave-cotton-renaissance/feed/ 0
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