Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute on Thursday appealed for “more sustained” funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank to support African countries striken by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ngute made the appeal at the start of a video conference with the African governors of the World Bank Group and IMF. “It must be admitted that the crisis will have a significant impact on African economies.

This is why I call on the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to take more sustained and ambitious actions in favour of Africa in terms of access to funding,” he said.

He said African states need to develop strategies to be more resilient to future external shocks and crises by strengthening health infrastructure and putting human capital at the center of development policies.

Delegates, including ministers of finance and central bank governors from 54 African countries, have discussed issues related to the response to COVID-19 and the recovery strategies of various countries during the two-day conference hosted by Cameroon.

Source: Xinhuanet

An avalanche of condemnation from human rights advocates has followed new of the death of a Cameroonian detainee under shocking circumstances.

Tangem Thomas Nganyu, 57, a former monk and metal sheet engineer died at the Yaounde Central Hospital on Wednesday, chained to his hospital bed, his lawyer, Barrister Nicodemus Amungwa Tanyi said.

“Tangem died in chains to the satisfaction of the prison and justice administrators,” the lawyer said.

Tangem was one of hundreds of English speakers arrested in the wake of a bloody conflict in the country’s two English speaking regions of the Northwest and Southwest, where armed separatists have been fighting since 2017 to create an independent Anglophone state called Ambazonia.

NEGLECT CLAIM

Reports say he was arrested in Buea, in the Southwest region over three years ago and whisked to an overcrowded maximum security prison in the capital where he fell ill.

Tangem’s family said prison authorities neglected his illness until late last month when he was rushed to the hospital after his condition deteriorated.

Images of him cuffed to a hospital bed despite his poor health inundated social media platforms prior to his death.

The Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA) condemned the poor treatment of the detainee who it said was arbitrarily arrested and detained in very poor conditions, leading to worse state.

“CHRDA is concerned about the fact that he was unable to get proper medical attention, a right enshrined under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Cameroon Criminal Procedure Code,” the organisation said in a statement.

“We call on Cameroonian prison authorities to provide better medical services to inmates and not subject them to any form of inhumane and degrading treatment,” CHRDA said further.

Tsi Conrad, one of the detainees of the Anglophone crisis currently serving a 15-year jail sentence, said Tangem died from pain and misery.

“Without judgment, he prayed to go home. Three years behind bars in a dungeon of pain, hope made way for delusion. For nothing, Pa Tangem Thomas died in body but his soul now looks from above at his foe,” Tsi wrote from jail.

The government is yet to make an official statement about what observers describe as inhumane treatment.

JOURNALIST’S DEATH

Tangem’s death comes barely two months after the government confirmed that another detainee of the Anglophone crisis, Samuel Ajiekah Abuwe alias Samuel Wazizi, died in military custody in Yaounde.

Police arrested the journalist on August 3, 2019 in the South West region. He was transferred to military custody on August 7 then ferried to the nation’s capital Yaoundé six days later, according to the military.

Though he died on August 17, 2019, his death was only confirmed in June. The military also denied accusations that he was tortured to death, saying he died “as a result of severe sepsis.”

Commentators say the two deaths show the precarious conditions which some inmates arrested in connection to the socio-political crisis in the Anglophone regions are going through in detention facilities across the country.

The two English speaking regions of Cameroon have remained volatile since a peaceful demonstration by teachers and lawyers, over perceived marginalisation, morphed into an armed conflict in 2017.

Over 3,000 civilians and hundreds of security forces personnel have been killed in the Anglophone regions since the crisis started, according to Human Rights Watch.

The UN estimates that at least 700,000 others are internally displaced.

Source: Daily Nation

Vice President Dabney Yerima has called for the establishment of a Southern Cameroons committee composed of all Ambazonia groups and frontline leaders to avenge the murder of engineer Tangem Thomas in French Cameroun and map a collective strategy on how to get to Buea.

In a conversation with Cameroon Concord News London Bureau Chief, Vice President Dabney Yerima said the killing of Comrade Tangem Thomas is part of a French Cameroun regime’s move to silently eliminate all Southern Cameroons prisoners of conscience including President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his top aides.

The exiled Southern Cameroons leader, whose remarks were published by the Cameroon Intelligence Report, further said that French Cameroun’s persisting policy in arresting and killing senior Southern Cameroons figures should be countered with a strong response from Ambazonia Restoration Forces. 

Vice President Yerima also emphasized the need to target French Cameroun civil administrators be they of Southern Cameroons origin.

The Ambazonia Interim Government collected testimony regarding the late Tangem Thomas arbitrary arrest and torture last year and despite the intervention of a legal defense team, the French Cameroun government judiciary authorities refused to release him.

Thomas Tangem went through unimaginable torture and his medical conditions deteriorated considerably as a result of his incarceration. Yaoundé prison and hospital authorities denied him everything including physiotherapy and surgery.  He passed away in solitary confinement in a windowless room in Central Hospital in Yaounde.

By Isong Asu

ABDUCTION AND MURDER OF TANGEM THOMAS BY FRENCH CAMEROUN

Fellow Ambazonians,

I come to you today as our nation mourns the loss of another citizen as a result of the barbarism of the French Cameroon regime. On Monday 2 August 2020, our legal representatives briefed the Interim Government of Ambazonia with photographic evidence that a Southern Cameroons Prisoner of Conscience, Mr Tangem Thomas, was shackled to his bed at the Central hospital in Yaoundé. His physical condition was deteriorating and it presented a grave concern for the Interim Government.

I want to make public that earlier today, Mr Tangem sadly succumbed to his injuries at the Yaoundé Central Hospitaland passed on to glory. The Interim Government can confirm explicitly that he died from torture related injuries and trauma.

Mr Tangem Thomas was a holy man with sound mechanical engineering background and expertise. He was abducted by La Republique du Cameroun forces in 2017 and detained incommunicado at the torture chamber of SED Yaoundé until a few weeks ago when his wellbeing had deteriorated wretchedly. He was never charged for any crime and died for being an Ambazonian.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his immediate family at this very testing time.

The barbarism unleashed by La Republique du Cameroun upon our citizens is shocking and incontestable but our quest for justice and freedom will remain unquenchable. We must keep our eyes on the prize of freedom. No dosage of incivility and viciousness will stop us now. As a nation, our promise to Mr Tangem Thomas must be to never give up in our quest for freedom and justice.

As a nation, we would be presenting the facts of this tragedy to our international partners and organisations over the next few hours. 

Thank You

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Federal Republic of Ambazonia