One person reported to be 30 years old has died in Mutengene, a town in Tiko Sub division, following attacks on state establishments by angry Southern Cameroonians. The attacks that have been strongly condemned by the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium saw  the buildings hosting Government Bilingual High School Mutengene set ablaze with some classrooms brought down to ashes. Cameroun Info.Net reported that the Mutengene Police Station was ransacked and four prisoners allegedly escaped.

Sources say four vehicles have also been burnt down. According information gotten from a senior security official Peter Nusta, Police Commissioner in Mutengene, the men of the underworld were close to 200. They barricaded the road leading to the slaughter house in Mutenegene. Reinforcement only came at about 3am when the men had disappeared. At the time of the incident only three Police officers were on duty.

Unconfirmed reports say the burning down of GBHS Mutenegene is to show their anger that some Francophone students have continued going to school despite the ongoing strike action. The incident comes 24 hours before the reception of the AFCON trophy in the region which will definitely passed via Mutengene to Buea, the chief city in the South West region.

CIN

Two people including the suicide bomber and an eight-year-old child were killed on Wednesday after a suicide bombing in the locality of Wouro Dole, near Amchide, Kolofata district, Mayo-Sava department in the Far North region.

According to our security source, the suicide bombing that is attributed to Boko Haram took place in the afternoon on Wednesday in Wouro Dole, a Cameroonian border town with Nigeria.

The suicide bomber whose identity was not revealed was reported to be about 13 years old. He died after having activated his device. The deflagration resulted in the death of a child of approximately 8 years.

The security forces deployed in the area announced earlier today that several people were wounded, including two girls of about 10 and 11 years. The injured were quickly taken over by the military medical staff, before being transported to Amchide hospital for first aid.

By Sama Ernest

The Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Louis Paul Motaze of La Republique du Cameroun has been accorded the green light by President Biya to sign loan agreements with some foreign banks for the construction of low cost houses, Cameroun Tribune reports. The Minister therefore has to sign a funding loan agreement amounting to about FCFA 14.104 billion with Banque Intesa Sanpaolo SPA. The money will serve to finance studies for the construction project of 10,000 low cost houses in Yaounde and its environs, construction of pioneer 1,000 houses as well as the construction of an industrial base. In another decree signed the same Friday, February 17, 2017, the 84 year old dictator empowered the Economy Planning and Regional Development Minister to sign a financing loan agreement with Banque  Intesa Sanpaolo SPA  amounting to about FCFA 101.024 billion.

The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Jean Claude Mbwentchou in a typical CPDM style said the decrees of the Head of State marked a decisive turning point in the housing sector. He said improvement in quality and quantity is envisaged in the housing sector considering that the decrees also spell out the construction of an industrial base where materials for the construction of the houses and other related equipment will be manufactured. The low cost houses, Minister Mbwentchou specified will be constructed by an Italian company, PIZZAROTTI.

As for the land where the houses and industrial base will be constructed, he said, the Minister of State Property, Survey and Land Tenure has already allocated some areas land and others are awaited. He said the two decrees of the Head of State concerns phase I of the project that comprises of all studies, construction of the industrial base and the pioneer 1,000 houses. Mr Mbwentchou disclosed that will Mbankomo at the outskirt of Yaounde will benefit.

Cameroon Tribune

Amnesty International has condemned the excessive use of military force in Southern Cameroons by soldiers loyal to the Biya Francophone regime. In its 2016/2017 annual report, the international human rights organization also denounced the numerous violations of freedom of expression in the two Anglophone Regions of Cameroon.

At the end of October, lawyers, pupils and teachers from Anglophone regions of Cameroon went on strike to protest against what they considered to be a marginalization of the Anglophone minority. Demonstrations took place in several towns in the South West and North West of the country, such as Bamenda, Kumba and Buea.

“Cameroon’s security forces arbitrarily arrested demonstrators and used excessive force to disperse them. For example, on 8 December, they killed four people by firing live ammunition at a demonstration in Bamenda, in the North West of the country, “Amnesty International said.

The organization also accused the Yaounde regime of orchestrating numerous abuses on militants of the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram detained in Cameroon including torture, deaths in detention and enforced disappearances, violation of freedom of expression, association and assembly , unfair trials, impunity, prison conditions, and the lack of respect for the rights of refugees and migrants.

Amnesty also observed that Boko Haram carried out at least 150 attacks, including 22 suicide attacks, which killed at least 260 civilians. The civilian population living around Lake Chad was targeted in a systematic way, the respectable body revealed.

By Sonne Peter