Headline News

25, April 2021

Chad opposition calls for national dialogue, rebels willing for bilateral ‘ceasefire’ ⁰

Rebels in northern Chad are ready to observe a ceasefire and to discuss a political settlement after the battlefield death of President Idriss Deby last week, a rebel spokesman said on Sunday.

The rebels, known as the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), came over the northern border from Libya on April 11 calling for an end to Deby’s 30-year rule. They reached as close as 200-300 km (125-185 miles) from the capital N’Djamena, before the rebels were pushed back by the army.

Deby was killed on Monday while visiting troops at the front, just after he won an election. His death shocked the Central African country, which has long been a Western ally against Islamist militants.

The air force has since bombarded rebel positions, the military and rebels said. The military said on Saturday it had “annihilated” the rebels.

“FACT is ready to observe a ceasefire for a political settlement that respects the independence and sovereignty of Chad and does not endorse a coup d’etat,” FACT spokesman Kingabe Ogouzeimi de Tapol told Reuters.

A military council headed by Deby’s son, Mahamat Idriss Deby, seized power after Deby’s death, saying it intended to oversee an 18-month transition to elections. The rebels said it would not stand a “monarchy” and opposition politicians called it a coup.

Opposition politicians and civil society have called for peaceful protests and a national dialogue to end the crisis.

(REUTERS)

25, April 2021

Cameroon researcher invents groundbreaking pesticide to fight malaria ⁰

Progress against the mosquito-borne infection remains fragile and African countries suffering an unprecedented epidemic of coronavirus are particularly at risk of seeing a resurgence of malaria. But a researcher from Cameroon, a country that carries a high burden of malaria, claims she has invented “atypical larvicide” to fight the deadly disease in her country.

In 2020, UNESCO and the L’Oréal Foundation listed Antoinette Ntoumba among the 20 young female scientists in Africa in recognition of her efforts to combat malaria. There are an average of 4,000 deaths from the disease reported in Cameroon yearly.

Ntoumba has spent the last seven years inventing a groundbreaking larvicide made from a secret selection of plants. This pesticide is intended to kill the larvae of mosquitos that carry malaria. She collects material for her research in the bush outside Douala.

The scientist says that her work offers a unique solution to the problem of mosquitoes’ increasing resistance to chemical pesticides. Her natural insecticide is also cheaper than many alternatives.

“What we are proposing today is innovation, because we are using plants and we are not using just one plant,” says Ntoumba, speaking with FRANCE 24. “What we are proposing will increase mosquitoes’ resistance to pesticides and create a natural, cheap product.”

Source: France 24

23, April 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: New US ambassador set for baptism of fire ⁰

Joe Biden’s administration, which is keeping a close eye on the Anglophone crisis, has nominated human rights expert Christopher Lamora as ambassador to Yaoundé. The diplomat, who is plugged into Democratic networks, will have his work cut out mending fences with President Paul Biya.

The roasting of a baby on February 11, 2021 in Batibo in the North West region of Cameroon seems to be shocking to millions around the world, but very few people remember that the burning of homes during an insurrection or insurgency in Cameroon is a government policy which dates back to the days of the marquisard movement in East Cameroon.

The burning of a baby in Batibo on the country’s Youth Day by government army soldiers is a clear reminder that peace and stability are still illusory in Cameroon though the government is giving the impression that things are stabilizing in Southern Cameroons.

The roasting of vulnerable people is nothing new during this conflict that has already sent more than 7,000 Cameroonians to an early grave.

Kwakwa and Ngarbuh are still fresh in many minds. In Kwakwa, an old woman and a sick old man were roasted alive by army soldiers who are supposed to protect innocent civilians.

In Ngarbuh, government troops gunned down scores of people and set homes ablaze, leaving many calcinated in their homes. These were young children and pregnant women who had nothing to do with the insurgency that has been playing out in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon for over four years.

The government clearly holds that burning the homes of the poor and innocent people will cause the population to discontinue its support to the insurgents even when it has not been really proven that the population is supporting the fighters.

From every indication, it is also clear that the population has been caught between the devil and deep blue sea. The same population is being threatened by the Southern Cameroonian fighters when the fighters feel that they have been betrayed by somebody.

Africa Intelligence and Cameroon Intelligence Report

23, April 2021

CPDM Crime Syndicate told to ensure credible inquiry on Covid-19 funds ⁰

Paul Biya’s recent directives to improve oversight and investigate misappropriation of Covid-19 funding require additional safeguards, Human Rights Watch said today. The call for greater oversight was apparently spurred by the government’s ongoing negotiations for a new multiyear loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“The sudden desire to account for Covid-19 money is a positive sign that the IMF and Cameroonian government are paying greater attention to transparency and accountability as they negotiate a third loan since the start of the pandemic,” said Sarah Saadoun, senior business and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “But unless the audits and investigations are independent and credible, the IMF risks falling for check-the-box exercises.”

Between March 29 and April 8, 2021, the secretary general of the presidency, Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, writing on behalf of President Biya, sent a series of letters with directives related to Covid-19 funding. A March 29 letter instructed the state auditing agency, Contrôle supérieur de l’État du Cameroun (CONSUPE), to expedite its audit of Covid-19 spending, which would “facilitate concluding a new economic and financial program with the IMF.”

On April 6, Ngoh Ngoh sent the Justice Ministry a copy of a report on Covid-19 spending prepared by an investigative body within the Supreme Court and directed it to open a “judicial inquiry” into those responsible for and complicit in misappropriating Covid-19 funds.

Three days later, media reports republished an undated letter from Ngoh Ngoh to the prime minister asking for a detailed account of funds spent related to the pandemic, which amount to 180 billion CFA (around US$330 million). In a separate letter dated April 8, Ngoh Ngoh announced the establishment of a new task force to oversee future Covid-19 spending and that he would manage the “special fund of national solidarity” established at the start of the pandemic.

These instructions appear to be directly related to Cameroon’s ongoing negotiations for a multiyear loan program with the IMF. Since the start of the pandemic, the IMF has approved two emergency loans to the country totaling $382 million (around 208 billion CFA). The government promised the IMF to use the funds transparently, including by issuing semiannual reports on Covid-19 spending, commissioning an independent audit, and publishing the names of companies awarded procurement contracts and their beneficial (or real) owners. The beneficial ownership provision is new and groundbreaking, since obscuring the true ownership of companies has been a vehicle that aids corruption worldwide.

However, the government has not yet published any detailed information that would enable meaningful public oversight over its spending. The authorities also remain silent regarding the government’s use of a Health Solidarity Fund into which all healthcare centers have paid 10 percent of their revenues since 1993. The fund is meant to serve as a reserve for public health emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic.

In July, the Health Ministry, which reportedly received 45.6 billion CFA ($82 million) in additional government funds to respond to the pandemic, published a two-page statement with only a vague breakdown of how the funds were spent. Health Minister Manaouda Malachie has come under particular scrutiny, with a member of an opposition party accusing him of embezzlement. Malachie has denied any wrongdoing, saying, “My hands are clean, and my conscience is clear.”

On April 8, Malachie suspended two Health Ministry officials for alleged “acts of corruption and extorting those who use public services,” although it is unclear if these allegations are linked to Covid-19 funds. On April 12, the Health Ministry sent a letter to 10 senior employees telling them to pay an 11 percent tax that they failed to pay on bonuses they received.

In October 2020, the authorities listed the name and some beneficial ownership information of some companies awarded public contracts since it was a requirement for the second IMF loan. However, the information was not widely released and was only linked to an IMF loan document and not posted on any government website.

In July, the prime minister had instructed the Chambre des Comptes, an investigative body housed within the Supreme Court, to investigate pandemic-related spending. The April 6 letter asking the Justice Ministry to open a judicial inquiry refers to a copy of a report completed by the Chambre des Comptes, but that report appears not to have been made public.

While expediting the CONSUPE audit and opening a judicial inquiry are important steps toward accountability for Covid-19 funding, the lack of transparency and independence of government agencies in Cameroon poses a significant concern about ensuring that these processes are credible and respect due process.

Both CONSUPE and the Justice Ministry are housed within the presidency and are headed by presidential appointees who may be terminated at any time. Speaking to Human Rights Watch, Akere Muna, a Cameroonian lawyer, and former vice chair of Transparency International, expressed concern about political interference in their work. “You cannot expect the fish to buy the hooks,” he said.

Politically motivated anti-corruption investigations or prosecutions that violate due process rights and are perceived as targeting the political opposition has been another problem in Cameroon. In 2006, the government created “Operation Epérvier” (Operation Sparrowhawk), which led to the arrest of numerous high-level officials, including ministers and managers of state-owned companies. Anti-corruption activists have criticized the operation, saying that it had selected targets and that it was intended to sideline political contenders and settle scores by imposing corruption charges.

The government promised the IMF that it would conduct an independent audit of funds, and CONSUPE’s audit does not satisfy that pledge, Human Rights Watch said. In February, the government issued a call for tenders for an independent audit, but it is not clear whether the IMF program is contingent on its progress.

Similarly, the new task force and appointment of Ngoh Ngoh to manage the Covid-19 special fund of national solidarity does not address the fundamental lack of transparency over spending. Moreover, Ngoh Ngoh’s past management of funds has come under scrutiny after he headed the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) project, which ended with the country being stripped of its rights to host the football games due to incomplete construction projects that were beset by corruption allegations.

Moreover, the recent flurry of anti-corruption directives coincides with alarming signs that Cameroon’s backtracking on its transparency commitments: on April 1, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an international group that works to end corruption and mismanagement linked to natural resources, suspended Cameroon for failing to publish a report of its extractive revenues from 2018. These reports, which governments are expected to publish regularly, are at the heart of EITI’s effort to improve accountability for resource revenues.

Cameroon is the largest economy in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), yet over one-third of Cameroonians – 8 million people – live under the poverty line, according to a household survey from 2014, the most recent data available. The Cameroonian economy has been hit hard by the pandemic, compounding pressures stemming from an earlier slump in oil prices and violence in its Far North and Anglophone regions.

IMF assistance is crucial to support people whose livelihoods have been affected, especially the almost 90 percent of workers who are employed in the informal sector. But transparent and accountable governance is key to the success of the program. Toward that end, prior to approving a third loan, the IMF should insist that the Cameroonian government:

Publish the Chambre de Comptes’ report investigation into Covid-19 spending;

Take concrete steps to ensure the independence of the judicial inquiry;

Engage an independent auditor and make publication of its report a later benchmark in the program;

Commit to specific corruption prevention measures, including improving accessibility and quality of public procurement information and making management of the Health Solidarity Fund transparent and rule-based.

“At the same time the government is rushing to satisfy the IMF’s anti-corruption requirements, it has been suspended by EITI for a lack of transparency,” Saadoun said. “The IMF should take seriously the opportunity a new multiyear loan program presents to press for deep-seated governance reforms that will improve Cameroon’s transparency and accountability during this pandemic and beyond.”

Culled from Human Rights Watch

23, April 2021

Football: South Africa set to name former Real Madrid boss Queiroz as coach ⁰

South Africa will name a new national coach Saturday, with former Real Madrid manager and Manchester United assistant manager Carlos Queiroz favourite to return for a second spell in charge.

Now 68, the Portuguese was in charge of Bafana Bafana for two years from 2000, taking the team to the 2002 Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals and qualifying them for the 2002 World Cup.

He was axed before the World Cup in South Korea and went on to lead Portugal (2010) and Iran (2014, 2018) in subsequent editions.

Queiroz guided Real Madrid for one year from 2003, either side of spells as senior assistant to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.

His most recent post was coach of Colombia, who sacked him last December with the nation lying seventh in the 10-team South American 2022 World Cup qualifying group.

The South African media have installed him as favourite to succeed Molefi Ntseki, who was fired after South Africa lost in Sudan and failed to qualify for the 2021 Cup of Nations in Cameroon.

Ntseki had been a controversial choice as he had no senior-level coaching experience before succeeding England-born Stuart Baxter in the top post.

South Africa launch their 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign in June with Group G matches against Zimbabwe (away) and Ghana (home).

Ethiopia are also in the section and only the winners of the six-round mini-league advance to the final qualifying stage where two-leg playoffs will determine which five African nations go to Qatar.

Source: AFP

23, April 2021

More than 100 asylum seekers feared dead off Libyan coast ⁰

More than 100 Europe-bound migrants are feared dead in a shipwreck off Libya, independent rescue groups said. SOS Mediterranee, which operates the rescue vessel Ocean Viking, said late Thursday that the wreck of a rubber boat, which was initially carrying around 130 people, was spotted in the Mediterranean Sea northeast of the Libyan capital, Tripoli.

The aid vessel did not find any survivors, but could see at least ten bodies near the wreck, the group added in a statement.

“We are heartbroken. We think of the lives that have been lost and of the families who might never have certainty as to what happened to their loved ones,” read the statement.

In the years since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, war-torn Libya has emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. Smugglers often pack desperate families into ill-equipped rubber boats that stall and founder along the perilous Central Mediterranean route.

The European humanitarian organization added that more than 350 people have drown in the sea so far this year, not counting the victims of this latest shipwreck.

“States abandon their responsibility to coordinate Search and Rescue operations, leaving private actors and civil society to fill the deadly void they leave behind,” added the statement.

Alarm Phone, a crisis hotline for migrants in distress in the Mediterranean, said in another statement that it had been in contact with the boat in distress for nearly ten hours before it capsized. Alarm Phone added that it had notified European and Libyan authorities of the GPS position of the boat but only non-state rescue groups actively searched for it.

“The people could have been rescued but all authorities knowingly left them to die at sea,” they said in the statement, describing the incident as “a maritime disaster”.

Alarm Phone accused European authorities of refusing to coordinate a search operation, and instead laid full responsibility on the Libyan coastguard, who also declined to launch a rescue operation.

In recent years, the European Union has partnered with Libya’s coast guard and other local groups to stem such dangerous sea crossings. Rights groups, however, say those policies leave migrants at the mercy of armed groups or confined in squalid detention centers rife with abuses.

“These are the human consequences of policies which fail to uphold international law and the most basic of humanitarian imperatives,” tweeted Eugenio Ambrosi, Chief of Staff for the International Organization for Migration.

Source: AP

23, April 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yerima warns pro Yaounde agents crossing Ambazonia Interim Government red lines ⁰

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government has warned political elites loyal to the French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé against threatening Southern Cameroonians respecting the Monday Ghost Town Interim Government directive, vowing a tough response to any pro Yaoundé figure that crosses Ambazonia’s red lines.

In a statement on Tuesday, Dabney Yerima told an audience of Southern Cameroonians that he hoped with the events in Chad, La Republique du Cameroun will be rushing to the negotiating table very soon and that the pro Biya comedians such as Paul Atanga Nji and Paul Tasong would not attempt to cross the “Kontry Sunday” red lines.

Vice President Yerima also stated that apart from the ghost town, the Southern Cameroons Interim Government would decide where it’s other red lines lies on a case-by-case basis.

Yerima pointed out that the Southern Cameroons political elites working with Yaoundé are already regretting.

Elsewhere in the speech, Yerima praised Ambazonia Restoration Forces and promised to speed up the Big Rubbergun project. But Southern Cameroonians wants peace he stressed.

Dabney Yerima devoted most of the 60-minute speech to the sufferings of Southern Cameroonians in Nigeria and in Ground Zero.

By Chi Prudence Asong

23, April 2021

US House passes bill to make Washington, DC, the 51st state ⁰

The US House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly voted, for the second time in less than a year, to make the District of Columbia the 51st state, sending it to the Senate where it faces stiff Republican opposition.

By a vote of 216-208, the Democratic-controlled House approved the initiative with no Republican support.

The population of Washington, DC, is heavily Democratic. As a state, it likely would elect two Democratic senators, potentially altering the balance of power in the Senate, which now has 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans.

Democrats, who have been advocating statehood for the capital of the United States for decades, hope to take advantage of last November’s election of President Joe Biden as well as control of the Senate and House to admit a new state for the first time since 1959, the year Alaska and Hawaii joined the union.

Democrats argued statehood would fix a centuries-old wrong of “more than 700,000 Americans citizens who pay federal taxes, who fight and die in wars, who serve on our juries and yet have no vote in the Senate or the House of Representatives,” said Democratic Representative Jan Schakowsky. “That is the definition of taxation without representation.”

The new state would be named “Washington, Douglass Commonwealth” after George Washington, the first US president, and Frederick Douglass, a former enslaved person who became a famous abolitionist.

Republicans, accusing Democrats of a “power grab” to advance a “far-left” agenda, are expected to block the bill in the Senate, where 60 of 100 members need to agree to advance most legislation.

“This is about government-run healthcare, a $93 trillion Green New Deal, packing the Supreme Court, higher taxes and a bigger, less efficient form of government,” said Republican Representative Nancy Mace during a spirited House debate.

The House first passed this bill last June by a vote of 232-180. Republicans, who controlled the Senate then, refused to act on it.

Statehood would also give Washington at least one House member. Its population of around 700,000 is more than that of the states of Wyoming and Vermont. About half of its residents are Black.

Currently, Washington, DC, has only one member of Congress – a House “delegate” who is not allowed to vote on legislation.

If the city became a state it would maintain its three electoral votes, which are used in the presidential election process. States’ electoral votes are based on population.

(Source: Reuters)

23, April 2021

Three of seven kidnapped clergy freed in Haiti, French nationals remain captive ⁰

Three of seven Catholic clergy who were kidnapped in Haiti earlier this month have been released, a Church spokesman told AFP on Thursday, as the island nation grapples with a rise in violence and ongoing political crisis.

A total of 10 people were abducted in Croix-des-Bouquets, a town northeast of the capital Port-au-Prince, in mid-April, including the seven clergy—five of them Haitian, as well as two French citizens, a priest and a nun.

Father Loudger Mazile, spokesman for the Bishop’s Conference for the island nation, said “the French were not released. There were no lay people among those released.”

“Three of the seven clergy kidnapped on April 11 were released,” he told AFP.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas, is plagued by insecurity and natural disaster.

Kidnappings for ransom have surged in recent months in Port-au-Prince and other provinces, reflecting the growing influence of armed gangs in the Caribbean nation.

Haiti’s government resigned and a new prime minister was appointed in the wake of the clergy kidnappings, a move President Jovenel Moise said “will make it possible to address the glaring problem of insecurity and continue discussions with a view to reaching the consensus necessary for the political and institutional stability of our country.”

The kidnapped victims were “on their way to the installation of a new parish priest” when they were abducted, Mazile had previously told AFP, with the kidnappers demanding a $1 million ransom for the group.

Authorities suspect an armed gang called “400 Mawozo”—which is active in kidnappings—is behind the abduction, according to a police source.

(AFP)

22, April 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: UN says 4,000 new refugee arrivals in Nigeria ⁰

Over 65,000 Cameroonian refugee men, women and children are registered in Akwa-Ibom, Benue, Cross River and Taraba States in Nigeria.

Over 4,000 new refugee arrivals were reported in Taraba State, forced to flee violence in Cameroon.

Urgent needs included food, sleeping mats, blankets, and health care.

Some 27,000 refugees received cash for food of their choice in Ikyogen, Adagom and Ukende Refugee Settlements in Benue and Cross River States this month.

Operational Highlights

Over 4,000 new refugees, mostly women and children arrived in Taraba State, following violent conflict in Nwa subdivision, North-West Region of Cameroon. UNHCR and the Nigerian government are registering them and providing proof of registration to facilitate ID card issuance, freedom of movement and access to basic social services. Critical needs include food, blankets, sleeping mats, health care and shelter. The new arrivals continued to trickle in as the affected areas in Cameroon remain insecure.

The UNHCR Representative to Nigeria handed over the newly built and equipped COVID-19 isolation center at the General Hospital in Adikpo to the Government of Benue State on 24 March.

The 10-bed center is expected to improve COVID-19 care for refugees and the local population.

UNHCR through the First Bank of Nigeria processed ATM cards for some Cameroonian refugee families in Benue and Cross River States. 500 refugee families received their cards to promote financial inclusion and facilitate transfer of cash assistance.

Source: UN