Headline News

17, April 2020

Douala: Dozens arrested for disregarding COVID-19 guidelines ⁰

Dozens of people were arrested on Monday and Tuesday in Cameroon’s commercial capital Douala for disregarding guidelines on fighting COVID-19 in the country, according to the police.

Police said over 50 people including six policemen were arrested for not wearing face masks in public places and drinking in beer parlours after 6 p.m. local time (1700 GMT).

“If we must fight and win coronavirus, citizens have to be compelled to respect the guidelines put in place by the government. Some people are just too stubborn and that will not be tolerated,” Issa Daouda, sub-prefect of Douala 4 Municipality told reporters during an inspection tour on Monday.

All those arrested were granted bail to avoid crowding them in police cells, said Mathias Fombele Tayem, sub-prefect of Douala 5 Municipality.

The government has made mask-wearing compulsory, and banned gathering of more than 50 people and drinking in bars after 6 p.m. as part of the measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Cameroon has reported to date 855 confirmed cases, according to Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), making it one of the African countries worst hit by the pandemic.

Source: Xinhuanet

17, April 2020

Yaounde: Maurice Kamto denounces Biya’s silence on coronavirus ⁰

Cameroon’s main opposition leader said he wants a top court to declare a power vacuum because President Paul Biya hasn’t addressed the coronavirus crisis in the country.

Africa’s second-longest serving president has been criticized on social media for his silence amid the rapid spread of the disease. Cameroon diagnosed the first case of the coronavirus on March 6 and is now among the most affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with 855 patients. The 87-year-old was last seen on March 11 after receiving the U.S. ambassador.

“In the face of the unprecedented political situation in which our country finds itself, characterized by the prolonged and unexplained absence of the head of state, I have decided to act,” opposition leader Maurice Kamto said on his Facebook page Wednesday. Kamto called on the speaker of parliament to seize the Constitutional Court.

Known for his secretive leadership style and his frequent, months-long stays in Switzerland, Biya’s silence has also fueled widespread speculation about his health.

Source: Bloomberg

17, April 2020

Biya regime told transparency, accountability needed for Ngarbuh Killings ⁰

Cameroon’s government should publish the findings of an investigation into the massacre of 21 civilians, including 13 children and a pregnant woman, on February 14, 2020, Human Rights Watch said today.

The government has formally denied responsibility for the killings in Ngarbuh village, North-West region, but investigations by journalists and nongovernmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch, have documented compelling evidence that points to the Cameroonian military’s responsibility for the killings.

“It has been two months since the Ngarbuh massacre, which stands as a prime example of the impunity for the Cameroonian security forces,” said Lewis Mudge Central Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Cameroon’s government should immediately make the findings of its investigation public and ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.”

In a report issued on February 25, Human Rights Watch detailed how Cameroonian military and armed ethnic Fulani deliberately killed 21 civilians in Ngarbuh. Human Rights Watch research points to the attack being a reprisal against villagers accused of supporting and harboring armed separatists.

On March 1, following international pressure, President Paul Biya agreed to establish a commission of inquiry. However, the authorities have not made any public statement concerning the composition of the commission, its work, or its findings.

In a March 25 news release, the National Commission on Human Rights and Freedom revealed that its chairperson, Dr. Chemuta Divine Banda, was appointed to the commission of inquiry and that the investigation was led by the minister delegate of the presidency in charge of defense. Before the March 25 press release, the composition of the investigation team into the killings in Ngarbuh was not public. The human rights commission members expressed their hope that the findings would be made public.

While the participation of the head of the National Human Rights Commission is an encouraging sign, the appointment of the defense minister to lead the inquiry raises concerns about its independence, Human Rights Watch said.

The killings in Ngarbuh were widely condemned, including by the United Nations Secretary General, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and the Nobel Women’s Initiative. On February 22, referring to the killings, French President Emmanuel Macron promised to exert “maximum pressure” on Biya to end “Cameroon’s intolerable human rights violations.”

The Human Rights Watch findings on Ngarbuh were corroborated by investigative journalists from the New York Times. The New Humanitarian, Cameroonian Civil Society Organizations, and the Catholic Church also issued reports accusing the army of responsibility for the massacre.

Despite the widespread condemnation of the crimes in Ngarbuh, the government has remained largely silent and instead engaged in a smear campaign against national and international organizations. In a March 9 statement, the territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, accused media, nongovernmental groups including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and UN agencies of – among other things – fueling terrorism, destabilizing Cameroon, and producing fake reports to tarnish the image of Cameroon’s security forces.

The attack in Ngarbuh was not an isolated case, but part of a larger pattern of serious human rights abuses by the Cameroonian security forces in the Anglophone regions, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch has documented multiple abusive counterinsurgency operations by the security forces in the North-West and South-West regions since 2017.

Research has found that government forces have killed civilians, burned dozens of villages, arbitrarily arrested, and tortured hundreds of alleged armed separatists. Armed separatists have also been responsible for serious abuses. They have targeted civilians, kidnapped hundreds of people, tortured and killed perceived opponents, and used intimidation and violence to keep children and their teachers out of school. In February, separatists prevented local elections from taking place.

Violence in the Anglophone regions over the last 3 years has claimed an estimated 3,000 lives and caused the displacement of over 730,000 civilians.

Cameroon, like elsewhere, is currently facing an unprecedented public health crisis due to the spread of Covid-19. It is the most heavily affected country in Central Africa, with over 840 cases recorded and 14 deaths as of April 14. The pandemic has not halted the violence in the Anglophone regions.

“The Covid-19 crisis, while paramount, should not displace the need to take action on key human rights concerns and ensure accountability for serious military abuse,” Mudge said. “In a time of national crisis, transparency is all the more valuable, and the government should demonstrate that it will hold abusive members of its military accountable for the deliberate killing of civilians.”

Culled from Human Rights Watch

17, April 2020

The mystery of Cameroon’s unusually absent president: ‘Sir, are you alive?’ ⁰

Maybe he was at home. Maybe he was at his favorite Swiss hotel.

It had been 35 days since anyone saw the president of Cameroon — or, at least, since anyone had revealed his whereabouts — and people in the central African country had questions.

“Sir, are you alive?” one man asked on Twitter.

The public absence of Paul Biya — who, at 87, is the oldest leader in Africa — during the coronavirus pandemic fueled outrage, concern and wild theories before the strongman turned up Thursday in a photo with the French ambassador to Cameroon.

“On the menu for our exchange this afternoon: managing the COVID-19 pandemic in Cameroon, France and around the world,” Biya tweeted.

“You have risen?” someone wrote in response.

“We don’t ask you to receive people,” another said. “We ask you to address the nation.”

The photo surfaced one day after Maurice Kamto, the president’s chief political rival, called on Cameroon’s legislature to declare a power vacancy and hold a new election.

The prominent politician, who challenged Biya in the 2018 race, cited the country’s constitution, which dictates that voting must begin within 40 days of a president’s death, resignation or “permanent incapacity.”

“Cameroonians are expecting him to address the nation, to tell them exactly what is going on, to share his vision,” Kamto told The Washington Post. “Whether that photo is real? Authentic? I don’t know.”

Christophe Guilhou, the French ambassador, retweeted the image, which showed the men sitting on separate cream couches.

Neither he nor Biya’s office responded to requests for comment.

Photoshop scandals involving the president have damaged trust in the past, said Doris Toyou, a Cameroonian lawyer in New York.

An obviously manipulated photo of Biya at a funeral for fallen soldiers appeared on the presidential website in 2015. (He was in Europe, not at the event.)

“The photo was illegally modified by someone who managed to hack into the site,” the communications minister told France 24 at the time.

People want more than evidence of a meeting with the French ambassador, Toyou said.

“The question remains the same,” she said. “Is he able and willing to perform presidential function?”

Citizens had been wondering: Is Biya’s hand really signing those presidential decrees? Who is actually behind his Facebook posts?

On social media, Cameroonians demanded to hear him speak about the growing outbreak on their soil. The nation has recorded 848 cases and 14 deaths. The airports are closed. Schools and places of worship have shuttered.

Biya’s ministers have done the talking since the first case emerged on March 6. The top health official tweets daily updates in English and French.

The silence is a stark contrast to other presidential approaches to covid-19.

The Senegalese leader has released a video of himself washing his hands. The Ugandan president posted footage of his indoor workout. The Guinean ruler gave a speech with face masks shielding his microphones.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who spent a week in intensive care with a severe case of the virus, allowed cameras to film him this month in a hospital bed.

“During this pandemic, every single country in the world needs to hear from their head of state,” said Kamto, the Cameroonian opposition leader.

The chances of Cameroon declaring a power vacancy are slim to none. The National Assembly and the Constitutional Council, which handle such matters, are crowded with members of Biya’s party.

They’ve defended him over the decades — Biya took office in 1982 — through allegations of military brutality, rigged elections and an extraordinary amount of time spent on private trips abroad — even as a separatist uprising and Boko Haram attacks have rocked the country.

Biya spent a third of his time overseas in 2006 and 2009, according to one widely shared report from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, an international group of investigative journalists.

During some of his stays in Switzerland, Cameroonians in the country protested outside his preferred hotel: the InterContinental Geneva.

Has he been there lately?

“I do not have any information,” a receptionist told The Washington Post before hanging up.

Biya is known for taking long breaks away from the public eye, said Jeff Smith, the founding director of Vanguard Africa, a pro-democracy nonprofit organization.

“It’s not an uncommon refrain to hear Cameroonians lament the fact that they have a ‘ghost president,’ ” he said.

However, Smith added, “his absence is really quite shocking during a time in which Cameroon has experienced the most cases and deaths due to the coronavirus in all of Central Africa.”

Culled from The Washington Post

16, April 2020

Federal Republic of Ambazonia: Leader, top aides back in Kondengui ⁰

The leader of the people of Southern Cameroons, President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and two of his top aides Barristers Eyambe and Shufai have expressed gratitude to Ambazonians both at home and in the diaspora for their unflinching support.

President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and his senior advisers were taken to the office of a French Cameroun court administrator from their detention cell at the Kondengui High Security prison late on Thursday in a move that sparked outrage throughout Ground Zero, Europe and the United States.

In a statement released by the Ambazonian chief executive, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe observed that “It is well. We, Barr Eyambe, Shufai and myself are back to the prison. We were taken to the office of a court administrator who explained why our appeal had not been called today. Obviously, he said it was because of the spread of the Coronavirus. Thanks for your show of concern and love. Regards. Sisiku AyukTabe.”

Despite being held illegally by French Cameroun security apparatus, the Southern Cameroons leader has remained defiant ever since the declaration of Ambazonia independence that plunged both British Southern Cameroons and French Cameroun into their biggest political crisis in decades.

By Rita Akana in Kondengui, Yaounde

16, April 2020

Ambazonia leader Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe, 2 of his top aides taken to an unknown destination ⁰

Ambazonia leader Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and two of his top aides Barrister Shufai and Barrister Eyambe have been taken out of the Kondengui Prison by Francophone Gendarmes to an unknown destination in Yaounde.

16, April 2020

More than 20 million Americans out of work due to Covid-19 ⁰

The ranks of Americans thrown out of work by the coronavirus ballooned Thursday to more than 20 million in just four weeks, an unprecedented collapse fueling widening protests and propelling President Donald Trump’s push to relax the nation’s social distancing guidelines.

Trump planned to announce new recommendations later in the day, despite warnings from business leaders and governors that more testing and protective gear are needed first.

The government said 5.2 million more people applied for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the running total to about 22 million out of a U.S. work force of roughly 159 million — easily the worst stretch of U.S. job losses on record.

Some economists say the unemployment rate could reach 20% in April, the highest since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

While some leaders and citizens have called on government to reopen stores, factories and schools, health authorities and many politicians warned that returning to normal is a distant goal and that easing up on restrictions too soon could allow the virus to come storming back.

The decision of when and how to ease up rests with state and local leaders, who imposed the mandatory lockdowns and other restrictions put in place over the past month.

The outbreak has infected more than 2 million people worldwide and killed more than 137,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, though the true numbers are believed to be much higher. The death toll in the U.S. reached about 31,000, with over 600,000 confirmed infections.

Fallout from the virus spread in ways both predictable and devastating, from police torching an illicit food market in Zimbabwe, to emergency flights carrying foreign farm workers to Britain and Germany, and protests at U.S. state capitols against job losses.

In France, Amazon suspended operations after a court ruled it wasn’t doing enough to protect its workers in the country. The online retailer has six warehouses in France.

In Britain, a government survey found that a quarter of companies had suspended business. Cargo traffic at Europe’s massive port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands sank 9.3% in the first quarter from the same period a year ago, and its CEO warned of worse to come.

The World Health Organization’s European chief said optimism that the spread of the virus is declining in Italy, Spain and France has been tempered by the knowledge that it is rising or remaining at a high level in Britain, Russia and Turkey.

“The storm clouds of this pandemic still hang heavily over the European region,” Dr. Hans Kluge said.

On Wednesday, the U.S. reported that American industrial output shriveled in March, registering its biggest decline since the nation demobilized in 1946 at the end of World War II. Retail sales fell by an unprecedented 8.7%, with April expected to be far worse.

The International Monetary Fund said fallout from what it calls the “Great Lockdown” will be the most devastating since the Depression.

That has made leaders all the more anxious to send people back to work and school and to rebuild devastated economies.

Italy’s hardest-hit region of Lombardy is pushing to relaunch manufacturing on May 4, the day that the national lockdown is set to lift. Regional officials are considering ordering companies to stagger opening hours to avoid cramming public transportation.

But Italy’s deputy economic development minister, Stefan Buffagni, called the plan premature: “Going in a random order risks fueling confusion among citizens and businesses.”

In the U.S., thousands came out in Michigan and Oklahoma to protest the lockdowns they say have destroyed livelihoods.

In Michigan, some were masked and armed with rifles, but many unmasked people defied stay-at-home orders and jammed nearly shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the Capitol building in Lansing. In Oklahoma, cars plastered with protest signs drove past the Statehouse in Oklahoma City: “All jobs are essential,” read one sign on the back of a pickup truck.

“This arbitrary blanket spread of shutting down businesses, about putting all of these workers out of business, is just a disaster. It’s an economic disaster for Michigan,” said protester Meshawn Maddock.

In Michigan’s northern Leelanau County, Sheriff Mike Borkovich said enforcing the restrictions is taking a toll.

“People are frantic to get back to work. They have been very edgy,” he said.

Troubling data indicate the worst may still be to come in many parts of the world.

Japan’s prime minister announced he would expand a state of emergency to the entire country, rather than just urban areas, as the virus continued to spread. Japan has the world’s oldest population, and the elderly are especially vulnerable to the coronavirus.

The British government was set Thursday to extend a nationwide lockdown for several more weeks, as health officials say the coronavirus outbreak in the country is peaking. Britain awaited its first flight of Romanian farm workers, and more than 30,000 other workers registered for flights to Germany to help plant and harvest.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged stepped-up efforts to prepare Africa for the virus, warning that the continent “could end up suffering the greatest impacts.”

In Zimbabwe, where food was scarce even before the outbreak, police raided a market, torching 3 tons of fresh fruit and vegetables and scattering farmers who had broken travel restrictions to try to sell their crops.

(AP)

16, April 2020

Is President Biya Slowly Dying? ⁰

French Cameroun head of state, Paul Biya, is only 87 years old, but his recent disappearance from the British Southern Cameroons and French Cameroun political scenes following the outbreak of COVID-19 has pushed many political commentators to be concerned about his bill of health.

The butcher of Yaoundé is known for spending millions of Cameroonian tax payer’s money to sustain his lavish lifestyle in a five-star hotel in Geneva, Switzerland. There are several other elements that have Cameroonians questioning if the 87-year-old is still alive.

Biya has a horrible drinking habit and despite his age, he has continued to poison himself in the hope that alcohol will help shield himself from the furious attacks from his compatriots.

President Biya’s inclination to red wine and champagne is no secret. He consumed so much wine during the OAU summit in Yaoundé and forgot that he had to welcome the Great Nelson Mandela at the Nsimalen International airport.

Mandela arrived on time and Biya’s acolytes rushed the then Prime Minister Simon Achidi Achu to meet him. It needed the intervention of French President, Jacque Chirac, to get Mandela back in Yaoundé for Biya to make up for his shameful costly mistake.

Alcohol is one of Biya’s vices as observed by his late wife Jeanne-Irène Biya. Like every other Beti, Bulu and Eton citizen, Biya loves his liquor.

The presidency spends millions of US dollars each year on alcohol, and Biya prefers expensive brands. He mixes it with champagne and this gives him the false impression that he is a chemist.

It is not only alcohol that is Biya’s Achilles heels. He also loves good food and has been eating himself to death. BBC Focus on Africa reported more than two decades ago that Biya was limping, likely due to a strain in his legs.

The BBC article stated that Biya had pain and inflammation from too much uric acid in the joints. His love of red meat has caught up with him and when he gets flares, he cries like a baby.

It became evident in Paris during Biya’s recent meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron that Biya was far more concerned with feeding himself than helping his people get out of poverty. Biya has been hiding for 37 years as head of state.

And while that could be a way to guarantee his continued stay in power, it could also just be a bad political habit.

Biya like Shakespeare’s Macbeth does not sleep

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands that President Biya has difficulty sleeping. After carrying out high-level killings and purges in his own regime and jailing prominent ruling CPDM barons, including Prime Minister Inoni, Biya now fears for his own life even he is by the side of his grave.

Allegedly, this fear keeps him up at night, and he is not getting enough sleep. Indeed, his current Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji noted that Biya knew when a cabinet minister went to downtown Yaoundé to purchase a bottle of wine.

His much published meeting with the French ambassador, Christophe Guilhou today in Yaounde as a response to declarations made by Prof. Maurice Kamto has been dismissed as a French political game to keep the CPDM regime alive and active.

Biya with French Ambassador Guilhou

Biya is actually suffering from insomnia and other age-related ailments

Biya’s family is paranoid. His late elder brother never got a tumor removed from his body because he was afraid boarding a plane to France and was too worried about being killed by doctors in Yaoundé.

Whether he sleeps or not, he has no control over death. Living long in pain may only be nature’s way of getting back to a man who has had more than his fair share of life by crook.

He has never won an election. He runs away from everybody, thinking that everybody is his enemy. But his real enemies are Ahidjo’s ghost that constantly visits him and the liquor that has ruined his health.

He still has time to repent before leaving this world. If he keeps on holding back his thoughts, he will keep on suffering in silence and dying gradually.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

16, April 2020

Son of former Cameroon army chief of staff General Pierre Semengue dies in Yaounde ⁰

Stéphane Semengue , son of retired General Pierre Semengue has passed away today April 16, 2020 in Yaoundé, following an undisclosed illness.

The son of the controversial Cameroon top army brass General Pierre Semengue recently took ill and spent a month in a Yaoundé hospital. His condition stabilized but suddenly worsened three days ago.

Family sources say he died this morning in the French Cameroun capital of Yaounde.

Stéphane Semengue was not only known as the son of the former Cameroon army chief of staff. He was also the director of a company known as TKC SOS, a company which in recent years had problems with the associative branch of the mythical Tonnere Kalala Football club of Mvog-Ada where his dad had been chief executive.

By Rita Akana

16, April 2020

Germany set to be European pioneer in partially lifting Covid-19 restrictions ⁰

Germany has drawn up a list of steps, including mandatory mask-wearing in public, limits on gatherings and the rapid tracing of infection chains, to help enable a phased return to normal life after its coronavirus lockdown is set to end on April 19.

Germany on Wednesday unveiled plans to lift some restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic, becoming the first major European nation to take on the delicate task of reopening without triggering a new wave of infections.

As US President Donald Trump came under increasing fire for ordering a freeze on American funding for the World Health Organization, the Group of 20 (G20) announced a one-year debt moratorium for the world’s poorest nations.

The number of COVID-19 cases around the globe soared past two million, meanwhile, according to an AFP tally, and the death toll topped 131,000.

Germany was the largest of several European countries announcing tentative steps on Wednesday to reopen their economies and societies.

Denmark began reopening schools for younger children after a month-long closure and Finland lifted a two-week rail and road blockade on the Helsinki region.

Lithuania said it would allow smaller shops to reopen from Thursday.

Other countries are also tweaking confinement rules, with Iran set to let some small businesses reopen and India allowing millions of rural people to return to work.

In South Korea, people went to the polls on Wednesday and delivered a strong show of support for President Moon Jae-in, commending his handling of the epidemic.

Once home to the world’s second-largest outbreak, South Korea has largely brought the virus under control through widespread testing, contact-tracing and social distancing.

Yet a full-scale return to normality still appears a long way off in most other countries.

Harvard scientists have warned that repeated periods of social distancing could be needed as far ahead as 2022 to avoid overwhelming hospitals.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has allowed work to restart in some factories and building sites, warned that “nothing will be the same until a vaccine is found.”

Belgium extended its stay-at-home order until at least May 3 and banned mass gatherings until the end of August.

‘Extreme caution’

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced first steps in undoing coronavirus restrictions that have plunged the economy into a recession.

Most shops will be allowed to open once they have “plans to maintain hygiene” although schools must stay closed until May 4 and a ban on large public events will remain in place until August 31.

“We have to proceed with extreme caution,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin.

Schools will gradually be reopened with priority given to pupils about to take leaving examinations.

And the government urged people to wear face masks when out shopping or on public transport, but stopped short of making it a requirement like in neighbouring Austria.

Offering a lifeline for the world’s poorest countries, the G20 — a group of the world’s leading economies — said it would temporarily suspend debt repayments from the most impoverished nations.

The reprieve will free up more than $20 billion for those countries to focus on the pandemic and will last at least a year, according to Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan.

But the global economic outlook remains gloomy, with Germany already in recession and US industrial output declining by 6.3 percent — its biggest fall in seven decades.

More than a third of French workers are on temporary unemployment, the government said.

The virus death toll topped 17,000 in France but in a hopeful sign hospitalizations went down for the first time.

On the horizon looms the worst economic downturn in a century, which the IMF has said could see $9 trillion wiped from the global economy.

‘Lessons’

As the world tries to chart a way out of the crisis, Trump came in for criticism for his freeze on payments to the WHO, the UN’s health agency.

“No doubt, areas for improvement will be identified and there will be lessons for all of us to learn,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned Trump’s move while billionaire Bill Gates, a major WHO contributor, tweeted that cutting funding was “as dangerous as it sounds.”

European allies were similarly disapproving and Washington’s rivals also took aim — Russia condemning the “selfish approach” of the US, and China and Iran blasting the decision.

Trump accused the WHO on Tuesday of “severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus” and said it could have been contained if the organisation had accurately assessed the situation in China late last year.

As European nations made tentative moves to open up, in poorer and more densely populated countries, governments are still struggling to enforce restrictions on movement that are piling misery on the needy.

Fears over hunger and possible social unrest are especially acute in parts of Africa and Latin America.

In Cape Town, clashes erupted Tuesday as police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at residents protesting access to food aid.

A similar crisis is taking hold in Ecuador, where hunger trumps fear of the virus for residents in rundown areas of the badly affected city of Guayaquil.

“The police come with a whip to send people running, but how do you say to a poor person ‘Stay home’ if you don’t have enough to eat?” said Carlos Valencia, a 35-year-old teacher.

(AFP)