2, May 2020
COVID-19: Cameroon’s absentee and alcohol-inflamed president ends fake lockdown 0
Cameroonians have been celebrating ever since the country’s absentee president, Paul Biya, terminated a fake lockdown he imposed some four weeks ago.
As per the false lockdown, Cameroonians could go about their daily businesses in the afternoon as if the virus was not around or could not attack anybody during the day, but must return home before 6pm.
They were not allowed to sit in their bars to share a drink, but could soak themselves in alcohol at home with their families.
For Mr. Biya, a disciple of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, all life is predicated upon alcohol. He himself has been drinking for decades, passing off as a chemist to the point of ruining his health.
Cameroonians are currently committing suicide in their bars, with Mr. Biya and his corrupt and incompetent government officials watching from a distance the heartrending human tragedy that will reach its apogee in a fortnight.
Social distancing has been a huge part of the global health strategy aimed at overwhelming the Coronavirus that has left a trail of death and destruction across world.
Ending the lockdown is simply synonymous with making mincemeat of social distancing that has postponed death for many people across the globe.
With Mr. Biya declaring that Cameroonians can converge on many places and in large numbers, many health experts are already worried, with the World Health Organization (WHO) warning that a hasty termination of the ill-thought-out lockdown might trigger a storm of death and pain in many African countries, especially in Cameroon which is bereft of state-of-the-art health facilities that can cope with a tsunami of sick and desperate people.
Opening up an economy in the era of COVID-19 requires a risk adjustment approach to ensure that many people do not end up getting infected at the same time. This is unfortunately not the concern of the Yaounde government that is already staring down the barrel of an economic disaster.
Mr. Biya’s decision seems to be predicated upon fears that the country’s ailing economy could end up on a ventilator like most Coronavirus victims.
Many health experts have opined that the decision to urge Cameroonians to engage in their most favorite sport – drinking- is not based upon any known science.
Politics, the say, seems to be dictating things and this does not augur well for the elderly and other immune compromised individuals who might be killed by their own family members due to a government decree that cannot stand the test of sound scientific analysis.
A few days ago, Mr. Biya, the 87-year-old president, who has been hiding under his bed at the Unity Palace, signed another decree cancelling Labor Day and May 20 celebrations for fear of the Coronavirus which seems to have a bone to pick with old people, including Mr. Biya himself.
Many analysts are arguing that if it is too dangerous to celebrate May 20, which is the country’s national day, what therefore makes it safe to send millions of Cameroonians to bars and markets at a time when the virus is still illusive and very destructive.
If it is safe to send Cameroonians to bars, how come Cameroonian students are still being told to stay away from school? Students can sit in their classes with their masks, but revelers cannot wear masks while drinking.
Did the government take a look at all these details before sending its citizens to a place that could lead to mass infections?
With the lockdown over, sexual activities that have been on the decline, will now start rising again and the exchange of body fluids during bouts of sex could result in a resurgence of this virus that was still wreaking havoc in Cameroon before the decree to terminate the lockdown was issued.
Cameroon currently has a case count of more than 1,500, with more than 100 deaths. The country has not yet reached its peak, but the absentee and alcohol-inflammed president thinks that it is time to end the lockdown.
While Cameroonians have been celebrating their new found freedom to drink and even share the same bottles and glasses, they must understand that their destiny is in their hands as the government which is already cash-strapped is just seeking to guarantee that the breweries keep on paying taxes that will help sustain the corrupt and irresponsible government.
This is not the time to take our eyes off the ball. The virus is omnipresent and it has a huge appetite for recklessness people, especially those with underlying health issues.
Cameroonians must continue to comply with WHO guidelines to ensure that they do not transform their country into another USA that is currently grappling with huge case counts and large and scary numbers of death.
Cameroon lacks the health facilities and if the virus wants to punish the country for its recklessness, the toll will be unbearable.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
2, May 2020
Southern Cameroons War: Does shame have a place in the UN hierarchy? 0
As more and more civilians have been killed by the Cameroon government of Paul Biya, absentee president for 37 years, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has been silent. He had made a deal with Biya’s UN Ambassador Tommo Monthe as chair of the UN Budget Committee for administrative favors in exchange for silence on the slaughter or “subduing” of the Anglophone minority.
Now on May 1 amid the Coronavirus pandemic, the US State Department as part of a larger statement bragged of “Cameroon: Nearly $8 million for health and humanitarian assistance will help provide infection-control in key health facilities, strengthen laboratories and surveillance, prepare communities, and bolster local messaging. This includes $6.1 million for health and IDA humanitarian assistance from USAID, in addition to nearly $1.9 million in MRA humanitarian assistance to support refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and their host communities. This assistance builds upon more than $960 million in total U.S. investment in the country over the past 20 years, $390 million of which was for health.”
But where did all this money go? Correspondingly, the World Health Organization recently gave Biya’s government 14 luxury vehicles to Biya’s cronies and this was followed by a UN endorsement of Biya’s genocidal campaign in Southern Cameroons “we acknowledge the commitment of the President of Cameroon to resolve the conflict in the North‑West and South‑West regions through peaceful means.”
In the UN’s call to release Southern Cameroons political prisoners, Guterres and his Nigerian Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed have ignored or been complicity in imprisoning: “Most of the Anglophones who are currently in detention were sentenced on terrorism charges, among which is President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe Julius, and Nine others who were sentenced to life imprisonment. Other inmates have not been convicted yet, and about 75 percent are currently held in pre-trial detention. These people could not be released under Article 8 of the constitution because that falls under the prerogative of the judiciary, whereas those to be freed under the COVID-19 response fall under a presidential decree. The Cameroonian judiciary can release Anglophone prisoners using ‘nolle prosequi’ meaning ‘will no longer prosecute.'”
Now after Guterres ghoulishly took credit for a voluntary ceasefire declared by one opposition group in the Southern Cameroon without making any comment about Paul Biya’s army ceasing fire, the absurdity has become clear. A list of nation states tipping their hat to a ceasefire does NOT include the Cameroon of Paul Biya.
With support from the UN, Biya tried to jam through a vote even amid the Coronavirus crisis. Cameroon is the genocide of Guterres. We’ll have more on this. Guterres has been denouncing some few attacks in Cameroon NOT by Paul Biya’s forces, in Bamenda on Women’s Day.
Meanwhile Guterres and Dujarric have had no comment on, and have refused to answer on, Biya’s expulsion and now public trashing of their own UN OCHA officials in Bamenda, Andrew Jack Pendleton. Biya’s minister Atanga Nji has publicly denounced this UN official for his mild comments on the government’s slaughter of civilians at Ngarbuh. But Guterres has said nothing. The most basic thing a UN Secretary General is expected to do is speak for UN officials being chased out. But no – Guterres is too corrupt.
On February we reported on the killing of more than two dozen civilians including children in Ngarbuh in Southern Cameroons. Since then Guterres, Dujarric and Melissa Fleming have refused to answer daily questions on what has become their genocide in Cameroon.
Now there’s widely circulated video of a toddler whose mother was killed in Babanki (Kedjom Ketinguh) in Mezam, in the North West region of Cameroon. Soldiers are responsible, and 10 other civilians have been killed. One of the witnesses who exposed the Biya government’s mass killing at Ngarbuh, Mallam Danjuma has been killed and dumped in Bui by government forces in Kikaikelaki. And from the UN of Guterres? Nothing. This is Guterres’ genocide.
Reported by Inner City Press