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24, July 2023

Douala: At least 12 killed in building collapse ⁰

A four-storey building collapsed in Cameroon’s commercial capital Douala, killing at least 12 people and injuring others, the regional governor said on Sunday.

The building, located in the city’s eastern Ange Raphael neighbourhood, caved in around midnight.

“Twelve died and the others are in hospital for medical attention,” the governor of the surrounding Littoral region told journalists at the site, saying 31 people in total were affected.

The situation was under control and rescue teams were making sure no one remained under the rubble, he said.

Though the cause of the collapse was unclear, local residents said it looked deteriorated with exposed and worn out rods.

Source: Reuters

22, July 2023

Biya’s continued stay in Geneva: A new president is in the making ⁰

President Biya’s end is very near and his fall will be sudden, swift and bloodless. It is more than a month ever since the 90-year-old travelled to France from where he reportedly fired General Ngambou Esaïe after the soldier man warned Minister Paul Atanga Nji that he was walking on broken bottles.

We of the Concord Group can now reveal that a new president is in the making. In the nation’s capital Yaoundé, Biya’s acolytes both within his ruling CPDM party and the military are claiming that he is still in charge and that it is business as usual.

But there is still much they in Yaoundé don’t know. And one of such is simply that, you cannot remain head of state forever!

There are under-the-table talks that the army may intervened due to the sacking of General Ngambou Esaïe which is widely seen as clearing the way for Franck Biya, President Biya’s eldest son to succeed the father.

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands Biya and his men are in Geneva planning a massive purge deep within the ruling CPDM party with prominent CPDM barons being targeted.

According to Cameroon Intelligence Report sources, plans are being made to arrest top figures both in government and in the military.

Where is Paul Biya?

Mr Biya has been conspicuously absent since he travelled to France a month ago. The 90-year-old president is now at the mercy of his young and foolish wife who is keeping him under guard at the InterContinental Hotel in Geneva. He only reads prepared statements and talk to cabinet ministers who speak his native tongue.

But he has not been seen by the Cameroonian people since his recent trip to France. So, who actually fired General Ngambou?

It is clear that Chantal Biya and her relations are now in charge of state affairs in a country that is disintegrating! The ruling CPDM party should disown Biya and if they do—- A new president is indeed in the making

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

21, July 2023

Camair-Co slated for review as per latest IMF bailout ⁰

Camair-Co is amongst four state-owned enterprises to be placed under a performance contract by November 2023 in line with Cameroon’s commitment to improve the viability of its public enterprises under the supervision of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

This is according to the IMF’s Fourth Review in July 2023 of its Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and Extended Fund Facility (EFF) to Cameroon, which allowed for an immediate disbursement of about USD73.6 million to the West African country. The latest allocation brings total IMF disbursements to Cameroon under the arrangements to about USD493.6 million.

While the medium-term outlook for the country remains positive, provided reforms continue, the IMF called for structural reforms to be accelerated. According to the IMF, the Cameroonian government has committed to strengthening public enterprise management and the performance of its SOEs to improve service delivery and limit fiscal risks.

To this end, diagnostic studies have been completed at four state enterprises – the technically-bankrupt national carrier Camair-Co; the Port Authority of Douala (PAD); Cameroon Telecommunications (CAMTEL); and Cameroon Water Utilities Corporation (CAMWATER). In the first phase, these companies will be placed under performance contracts by November 2023 which will specify their obligation to meet a public service mission, the evaluation of unit costs (as a basis for paying subsidies) and quality indicators to be published with evaluation reports.

During the second phase, the government will gradually reduce subsidies to underperforming public enterprises. Large industrial SOEs, notably PAD, will be listed on the Central African Stock Exchange (BVMAC). A planned listing of Camair-Co is not mentioned in the IMF report.

Still, as reported, the airline’s possible listing was alluded to in a report of a technical committee for the rehabilitation of SOEs (Commission Technique de Réhabilitation des Entreprises du Secteur Public – CTR). In 2020, Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, also told the government to urgently develop a plan that restructures and revives Camair-Co to facilitate selling off 51% to a strategic private investor.

According to the CTR, Camair-Co needs to clean up its balance sheet and consolidate its financial standing before any divestment. To settle part of its liabilities, it would transfer its overall debt as of December 31, 2020, to the Cameroonian state and undergo financial restructuring. The government would then set up a civil aviation fund to compensate the state-owned carrier for losses on domestic routes.

Yet the IMF recommends that government subsidies to SOEs be better prioritised. “As part of the diagnostic studies of each public enterprise, the authorities will assess the subsidies with the aim of reducing those allocated to the weakest performance. In this context, the authorities have initiated a study to be finalised in November 2023 of all the approved or administered prices of the products of public enterprises with the aim of reviewing, if necessary, their formula for determining prices and/or their possible liberalisation,” it stated.

Camair-Co has been loss-making since its inception in 2011. It ended 2021 with negative equity of XAF115 billion Central African francs (USD190.4 million) against a share capital of XAF21.8 billion (USD36.1 million), meaning the airline is technically insolvent.

Camair-Co was the subject of a recovery plan proposed by Boeing Consulting in 2016, which included settling its debt at the time, injecting new capital, resizing its network, and modernising its fleet, but the plan was never implemented.

The airline has a fleet of nine aircraft, of which only five are in service. The fleet includes two B737-700s (of which only one is active); one parked B767-300ER; two DHC-8-Q400s, two parked MA-60s, one EMB-135LR and one EMB-145LR (both wet-leased), according to the ch-aviation fleets advanced module.

Source: ch-aviation

21, July 2023

Southern Cameroons: 18 per cent of health facilities have been forced to close ⁰

Cameroon’s North-West and South-West Regions are experiencing a severe humanitarian crisis: more than 630,000 people are internally displaced, and more than 86,000 people have taken refuge in neighbouring Nigeria. The ongoing sociopolitical crisis in both regions led to violence that is affecting the local economy and people’s access to essential social services. Essential services and infrastructure have now collapsed in the most severely affected areas.

Approximately 18 per cent of health facilities have been forced to close since April, and many that are operational are struggling to function.

Internally displaced persons, returnees, and some host populations, especially those in hard-to-reach areas without health facilities, are facing challenges accessing health care. Partners are mobilizing to provide humanitarian assistance to people in need.

Source: UN

20, July 2023

Yaoundé gets CFAF40bln EU funding to empower women, develop agriculture ⁰

Finance Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey signed on Tuesday (July 18) three financing agreements with the head of the European Union (EU) delegation to Cameroon, Philippe Van Damme. The CFAF40 billion support covered by the agreement will support the fight against food insecurity, the construction of certain infrastructure, and the resilience of women in the North-West, South-West, West, and Littoral regions.

The women resilience program notably covered by the agreements involves the promotion of women empowerment with the creation of income-generating activities and an improvement of access to vocational training, Philippe Van Damme says.

Food insecurity, which is also targeted by the EU funding, officially affects around 3 million people in Cameroon, or around 11% of the country’s population. Children under the age of 5 are the hardest hit, with 1/3 suffering from chronic malnutrition.

Source: Business in Cameroon

20, July 2023

Wheat prices soar after Russia threatens all ships traveling to Ukraine ⁰

Wheat prices have risen sharply on global markets after Russia said it would treat ships heading for Ukrainian ports as potential military targets.

Moscow pulled out of a deal this week that had guaranteed safe passage for grain shipments through the Black Sea.

A White House spokesperson accused Russia of planning to blame Ukraine for attacks on civilian ships.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said he would return to the grain agreement immediately if his demands were met.

They include reconnecting Russia’s agricultural bank to a global payment system.

A Russian air strike on the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv wounded 18 people on Wednesday night, according to a local official.

The region’s governor Vitaliy Kim said nine of the injured, including five children, were taken to hospital for treatment.

Other air strikes were reported on the port of Odesa.

Elsewhere, a drone strike in Russian-controlled Crimea killed a teenage girl, a Russian-backed official said.

Following previous air strikes around Odesa this week, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of deliberately targeting grain export infrastructure and putting vulnerable countries at risk.

Kyiv urged other countries in the Black Sea region to intervene to assure the safe passage of cargo ships.

“From 00:00 Moscow time on 20 July 2023 [21:00 GMT Wednesday], all vessels sailing on the Black Sea to Ukrainian ports will be regarded as potential carriers of military cargo,” the Russian defence ministry said.

“Flag states of such vessels will be considered to be involved in the Ukrainian conflict on the side of the Kyiv regime,” it added.

Wheat prices on the European stock exchange soared by 8.2% on Wednesday from the previous day, to €253.75 (£219.78) per tonne, while corn prices were up 5.4%.

US wheat futures jumped 8.5% on Wednesday, their highest daily rise since just after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi said strikes had destroyed 60,000 tonnes of grain and damaged considerable parts of grain export infrastructure.

Russia began targeting Ukraine’s ports in the early hours of Tuesday within hours of its withdrawal from the grain deal.

Source: BBC

19, July 2023

Biya regime heads back to the money market to raise CFAF10bln with 13-week securities ⁰

Cameroon opened, Monday (July 17), subscriptions to its 13-week treasury bills (T-bill) on the central bank BEAC’s money market. The subscriptions, which will close today (July 19), aim to fetch the country a CFAF10 billion envelope to pay off a CFAF8 billion debt contracted 26 weeks earlier.

This new fund-raising follows Cameroon’s first major success in that market since January 2023. Indeed, after several unsuccessful operations, on July 10, at the end of a 26-week T-bill issue, the country attracted CFAF54.5 billion in subscriptions, higher than its CFAF50 billion target.

To keep the weighted average interest rate at 5%, the country retained just CFAF49 billion. It is worth noting nevertheless that to attract investors, Cameroon agreed to a 5% interest rate on its short-term securities, which is the same rate it was offering for 4-year bonds ten days earlier. The rate is higher than the 3% it used to offer investors for the same type of security in the same market.

To succeed in its fundraising operations, Cameroon is adapting to the generalized rise in interest rates in that market following the tightened monetary policy adopted by the BEAC. It will surely do the same for the ongoing issue.

Source: Business in Cameroon

19, July 2023

UN official lauds Yaoundé’s strides in HIV/AIDS prevention and control ⁰

Cameroon has made “remarkable” strides in the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS, a United Nations official said on Tuesday.

Winnie Byanyima, executive director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), made the remarks after meeting Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute in Yaoundé.

“Cameroon has been succeeding in fighting against HIV/AIDS in the last 10 to 12 years, bringing down infections by more than 60 percent,” Byanyima said.

Despite the encouraging strides, there are still challenges, and efforts, especially in stopping mother to child infection and keeping children on treatment, need to be stepped up to keep the infection rate lower, she said.

There is an “ambitious plan to roll out universal secondary education so that girls are safe at school and not infected,” she added.

The HIV prevalence rate in Cameroon dropped from 3.3 percent in 2020 to 2.7 percent last year, according to the Ministry of Public Health.

Source: Xinhuanet

18, July 2023

Bamenda Killings: Archbishop Andrew Nkea expresses ‘pain and sadness’ ⁰

Archbishop Andrew Fuanya Nkea of Bamenda Archdiocese in Cameroon has described the Sunday, July 16 murder of civilians in his Metropolitan See as a “very painful moment”.

On July 16, unidentified gunmen reportedly killed 10 people and injured another two at Nacho junction in the city of Bamenda in Cameroon’s troubled Northwestern region, Reuters reported.

The assailants arrived in two unmarked vehicles and immediately ordered people to lie down with accusations of failing to back local separatists, and opened fire as some obeyed while others ran.

Speaking to journalists Monday, July 17 after a visit to the scene of the incident, Archbishop Nkea decried the loss of life in the Cameroonian Archdiocese and called for the respect of human life.

“Within this past week, we lost six children in this neighborhood and now again we have lost 10 people within this same neighborhood,” the Cameroonian Catholic Archbishop said.

He added, “That is why I came out of my house to come here to this place where it happened a couple of hours ago so that we pay our last respect to the people who died here.”

“It is a very painful moment for all of us and when the moment is hard and hot like this, we come out to bring consolation to the people, we come out to pray for the dead and to show that good will always triumph over evil,” Archbishop Nkea said.

The Archbishop of Bamenda who doubles as the President of the National Episcopal Conference of Cameroon (NECC) further said, “Evil can never defeat good no matter how long it takes.”

The Catholic Archbishop who previously served as Apostolic Administrator of Mamfe Diocese in Cameroon’s Southwestern region continued, “Human life is sacred and we call on everyone, whoever they are, to respect human life.”

“Life is given to us by God; let us leave God alone to be able to take it back. That is why I came to encourage the people of this neighborhood and extend to them my solidarity. We are together with them in prayers and in spirit,” he said.

A manhunt has been launched for the “terrorists” behind the massacre, North West region governor, Adolphe Lele Lafrique, has been quoted as saying in the Reuters report.

“Investigations are on, and we will issue a statement on this later today,” the Cameroonian Governor added.

Cameroon’s English-speaking regions plunged into conflict in 2016 after a protest by lawyers and teachers turned violent. An armed movement of separatists claiming independence for the so-called republic of Ambazonia emerged following the government’s crackdown on protesters.

School boycotts have become common in these areas, as have enforced moratoriums on public life known as “ghost towns”.

In his July 17 address to journalists, Archbishop Nkea reiterated the need for peace, saying, “I have always said that love is better than hatred. I have always said that life is better than death. I have always said that living and loving one another is better than killing one another.”

“It is not right to take the lives of other people. It could have been any of us and there are people who were sitting here who were taken by bullets,” the 57-year-old Catholic Archbishop who started his Episcopal Ministry in August 2013 as the Coadjutor Bishop of Mamfe Diocese said.

He added, “I think it is high time that all this should stop. We want this violence to stop. Let people be able to go on with their normal lives again.”

“We condemn hate speech. We want our people to be able to live their normal lives. And that is why we say it is enough. Let this come to an end. We should stop killing one another,” the Cameroonian Archbishop emphasized.

Source: aciafrica

18, July 2023

Bamenda Killings: Military, Amba fighters trade accusations ⁰

Cameroon’s military says it has arrested scores of rebels suspected in the shooting deaths of 10 civilians Sunday in the northwest town of Bamenda. The military says separatists disguised themselves as government troops to try to frame them for the killings, which a rebel spokesperson denies.

Bamenda city mayor Achombong Paul, who visited Bamenda Regional Hospital on Tuesday morning, said residents of the city are living in fear after Sunday’s brutal killings.

“Every human life has value. Every human being has a right to live and nobody for whatever reason has a right to take away the life of an individual,” he said. “We cannot live in a town where there is chaos, fear and all the kinds of atrocities going on at the same time. We will never move forward with this attitude. No, we won’t. People can’t go to work, nothing works in this town because people are scared to be killed.”

Hospital director Nsame Denis said at least 600 people have visited the hospital since Sunday’s killings to find out if their family or friends are among the victims.

“We received in total 12 victims of firearm injuries. Out of this 12, one is in the intensive care, one took treatment and went home, and at the level of the mortuary, we have 10 corpses amongst whom three are female and seven are males ranging from 24 to 56 years,” Nsame said.

Cameroon’s military, in a July 17 statement, said about 12 heavily armed fighters dressed in military gear similar to that of the central African state’s military shot indiscriminately at civilians at Nacho Junction in Bamenda.

The military said scores of suspects have been arrested in a crackdown operation less than 48 hours after the killings.

Deben Tchoffo, governor of the Northwest region, said fighters want to create panic among civilians who collaborate with the military by reporting suspected separatists.

“I would like, on behalf of the head of state, to assure the population that measures are being taken by the security services to locate the authors of that barbaric act and sanction them. I would like to strongly condemn those attacks by a terrorist group,” he said.

Separatists on social media, including Facebook and WhatsApp, denied responsibility for the killings. They said government troops were responsible, asserting that the military wants to give separatists a bad image to the international community.

The Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Central Africa reports that Sunday’s killing comes two days after Cameroon’s military was said to have raided Awing Quarter, another neighborhood in Bamenda, and killed at least five people.

Northwest Region Governor Tchoffo acknowledges that civilians were killed in Awing Quarter but blames fighters for the killings.

The Cameroon government said people wounded in both attacks are being treated free of charge in hospitals in Bamenda.

Rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and the Center for Human Rights and Democracy, accuse both the military and rebels of abuses, including rape, torture and killings.

Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest regions have seen years of deadly battles between government troops and separatists fighting to carve out an English-speaking state from French-speaking majority Cameroon.

The conflict has killed more than 6,000 people and displaced more than 760,000 others, according to the International Crisis Group.

Source: VOA