Life

7, April 2022

Yaoundé: Two journalists, Equinox TV programme suspended in widening of media crackdown ⁰

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns a decision by Cameroon’s National Communication Council (CNC) to suspend the head of one of the country’s most outspoken and popular TV channels, one of its star presenters, and one of its leading current affairs programmes for a month. The suspensions are arbitrary and unjustified, and constitute a serious press freedom violation, RSF said.

The one-month suspensions of Equinoxe TV director Sévérin Tchounkeu, presenter Cédric Noufele and the programme “Droit de Réponse” (Right of Reply) were announced by the media regulator on 1 April.

Alluding to a teachers’ strike, the CNC accused Equinoxe TV of “failing to manage” a guest whose comments were “liable to amplify a potentially explosive social demand.” It also accused Tchounkeu of making offensive comments about state institutions, and Noufele of broadcasting an amateur video that was not related to the subject discussed – an error that the TV channel had nonetheless acknowledged and repeatedly corrected.

“We condemns these suspensions, which have no serious grounds and clearly aim to sanction a media for its coverage of a strike that embarrasses the authorities,” said Arnaud Froger, the head of RSF’s Africa desk. “This is nothing less than an attack on journalism and the right to news and information, which this regulator is supposed to protect. We call on the CNC, which is not in the habit of imposing arbitrary sanctions, to review this decision.”

Cameroonian journalists are often subjected to judicial harassment, arbitrary detention and sometimes very violent physical attacks, but politically motivated media suspensions are relatively rare. Equinoxe TV has been summoned before the CNC several times in the past but has not been suspended in recent years.

Cameroon is ranked 135th out of 180 countries in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index.

Culled from RSF

7, April 2022

Biya regime calls for more caution as cholera death toll surpasses 100 ⁰

Cameroon’s Minister of Public Health, Malachie Manaouda on Tuesday called for more caution as the cholera death toll in the Central African nation exceeded 100.

In a latest update on the cholera outbreak, Manaouda said in a tweet that 226 new cases and two death cases were reported in the Littoral and Southwest regions between March 23 and April 5.

According to the update, a total of 4,627 confirmed cases have been reported in six regions since October last year, among which were 105 deaths, representing a case fatality rate of 2.3 percent.

The outbreak of cholera in Cameroon has remained persistent, occurring annually but the latest outbreak has been severe, affecting mostly impoverished communities with poor sanitation and lack of clean water, according to health officials.

Cameroon plans to begin a mass vaccination campaign to curb the epidemic, according to officials.

Cholera is a highly virulent disease characterized in its most severe form by a sudden onset of acute watery diarrhea that can lead to death by severe dehydration.

Source: Xinhuanet

7, April 2022

Doctors Without Borders halts operations in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) announced Tuesday the suspension of its humanitarian activities in an English-speaking area of Cameroon due to the detention four local employees accused by local authorities of “complicity” with separatists.

“MSF has officially announces the suspension of its humanitarian activities in the South West region of Cameroon today”, the NGO wrote in a statement Tuesday. Three months after the arrest and detention of four members of its staff in connection with the organization’s “medical work”, the organisation decided to stop its work in one of the two English-speaking regions in the grip of a bloody separatist conflict.

MSF said it had ceased its activities “as of March 29, in order to focus on securing the safe release of its staff”. This is the first time MSF has publicly mentioned the arrests, said Scheherazade Bouabid, MSF’s head of communications for Central and West Africa.

At the end of 2020, the Cameroonian government suspended MSF operations in the northwest, the country’s second largest English-speaking region, accusing its medical teams of “collusion” with armed separatist groups.

4 year-long conflict

In these two regions, where most of the English-speaking minority lives in a predominantly French-speaking country ruled with an iron fist for nearly 40 years by 89-year-old Paul Biya, the army and separatist groups have been clashing almost daily for five years.

Civilians are caught in the middle and are victims of abuses committed by both sides, according to international NGOs and the UN. The conflict has left more than 6,000 people dead and forced more than a million to flee their homes.

“We are in an untenable position: on the one hand, we are providing needed medical assistance; on the other hand, the people providing that assistance are at risk of being prosecuted for their medical activities,” said Sylvain Groulx, MSF’s head of programs in Central Africa, quoted in the statement.

“We need the conditions in place to allow us to carry out our activities in a safe and secure environment, so that we can fulfill our obligations to patients,” he added, arguing that MSF remains open to dialogue with the Cameroonian authorities to resume its activities.

Contacted by AFP, the Cameroonian authorities had not reacted Tuesday afternoon. The four employees arrested are all Cameroonian, including a 33-year-old nurse and a 41-year-old driver.

“On December 27, 2021, two MSF staff members were arrested after referring a patient with a gunshot wound whose condition required urgent assistance,” the NGO reported, adding that two other MSF staff members were also arrested in the following weeks. They have since been detained in Buea, the capital of the southwest, as part of an “investigation into complicity in secessionism.”

Source: AFP

3, April 2022

6,000 people infected in cholera outbreak in Cameroon ⁰

At least 6,000 people have been infected with cholera and close to 100 others have died from the disease in Cameroon which is struggling to contain an outbreak of the water-borne disease.

According to the country’s public health ministry, the number of cholera patients received in hospitals was increasing daily. Officials have blamed a shortage of clean drinking water in towns and villages due to a long dry season for the outbreak.

An official with the ministry noted that cholera had spread to more than 40 percent of major towns, including the capital Yaoundé, the economic capital Douala, and western commercial towns such as Buea, Limbe and Bafoussam.

Linda Esso, director of epidemics and pandemics at the ministry, said several villages had reported cholera cases and the entire country was at risk from the outbreak.

The public health chief of Limbe in Cameroon’s Southwest region, Filbert Eko, said the area was the worst affected in the central African country recording more than 800 cases since February.

200 out of 300 patients reportedly had been treated and discharged from a government hospital in Limbe in just the last seven days.

Eko added that the outbreak prompted authorities to quarantine patients to prevent the disease from spreading further.

“The treatment center will be separated from the hospital and from the public. No outsider will be allowed to have access to the patients,” Eko said.

“We don’t want contact between families and the patients. We are taking [efforts] upon ourselves, searching for resources to feed these patients free of charge.”

President Paul Biya has deployed the ministers of water and health to assess the situation in affected regions.

The Public Health Minister, Manaouda Malachie, cautioned that Douala’s New Bell Prison had become an epicenter of the outbreak but did not give any details on whether any inmates had been infected or died from the disease.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Water Gaston Eloundou Essomba directed the Cameroon Water Distribution Company, the body in charge of water distribution in the country, to provide clean water to villages and towns affected by the outbreak.

Cameroon usually suffers from cholera outbreaks with one of the worst such incidents occurring in 2011 when more than 23,000 people were infected and 800 others died.

Source: Africa.cgtn

2, April 2022

Anambra Slap Virus: Will Smith resigns from US motion picture academy ⁰

Will Smith resigned Friday from the motion picture academy following his Oscars night slap of Chris Rock and said he would accept any further punishment the organization imposed. The slap virus which originated from Anambra State in Nigeria is taking a toll on major institutions around the globe.

Smith in a statement released Friday afternoon said he will “fully accept any and all consequences for my conduct. My actions at the 94th Academy Awards presentation were shocking, painful, and inexcusable.”

Film academy president David Rubin said Smith’s resignation was accepted. “We will continue to move forward with our disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Smith for violations of the Academy’s Standards of Conduct, in advance of our next scheduled board meeting on April 18.”

Smith loses voting privileges with his resignation. But there are other, less tangible benefits to being part of the academy, Hollywood’s most prestigious organization: It bestows industry credibility on its members. It’s invitation only, and with a once-a-year membership review.

“I betrayed the trust of the Academy. I deprived other nominees and winners of their opportunity to celebrate and be celebrated for their extraordinary work,” his statement said. “I am heartbroken. I want to put the focus back on those who deserve attention for their achievements and allow the Academy to get back to the incredible work it does to support creativity and artistry in film.

“Change takes time and I am committed to doing the work to ensure that I never again allow violence to overtake reason,” Smith concluded in the statement.

The resignation came two days after the academy’s leadership board met to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Smith for violations against the group’s standards of conduct. Those proceedings could have resulted in suspension or expulsion, and it was not immediately clear what additional punishment he could face.

Had he been expelled, Smith would have joined a small group of men removed from the academy: Harvey Weinstein, Roman Polanski, Bill Cosby and the actor Carmine Caridi, who was kicked out for sharing awards screeners.

On Sunday, Smith strode from his front-row Dolby Theatre seat on to the stage and smacked Rock, who had made a joke at the expense of Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Moments later, he went on to win the best actor award for his role in “King Richard.”

Rock, who was about to present Oscar for best documentary, declined to file charges when asked by police. He has only briefly addressed the attack publicly, saying at one comedy concert in Boston this week that he was still “kind of processing what happened.”

Smith stunned Rock, the theater crowd and viewers at home when he took the stage after Rock joked: “Jada, I love you. ‘G.I. Jane 2,’ can’t wait to see it.”

Pinkett Smith, who has spoken publicly about her hair loss condition, alopecia, had a closely shaved head similar to that of Demi Moore in the original movie.

After Smith’s attack, he returned to his seat and angrily twice shouted at Rock to “get my wife’s name out your (expletive) mouth.” When Smith took the stage again less than an hour later to accept his Oscar, he tearfully apologized to the academy but notably omitted any mention of Rock.

The fallout was immediate and intense. Smith had supporters for coming to his wife’s defense, but he was widely condemned for responding with violence and for marring both his long-sought Oscar victory and overshadowing the night’s other winners.

Source: AFP with additional editing

26, March 2022

Biya regime starts cholera vaccinations as outbreak kills 62 since October ⁰

An outbreak of cholera in Cameroon has claimed 62 lives since October, prompting the central African nation to vaccinate people against the water-borne disease.

A donation of 800,000 vaccines from the World Health Organization allowed the country to start a campaign on March 16, Health Minister Manouada Malachie said in a tweet Friday.

More than 2,000 cases have been reported since the epidemic started, with 29 deaths in the week leading up to March 22 alone, he said. The new cases were in South West, Littoral and Center regions, the country’s main cocoa-growing regions. The capital, Yaounde, has also recorded cases, reporting two deaths in recent days.

Source: Bloomberg

25, March 2022

Southern Cameroons Cholera Update: 44 deaths reported ⁰

Hospitals in Cameroon’s Southwest region have been swamped with hundreds of patients as cholera deaths have increased to 44, a health official said.

“It is a very serious situation,” Filbert Eko Eko, public health chief of the region, told Xinhua news agency.

Over 1,700 cases have been reported in the region from March 11 to 23, according to figures released by the Southwest Regional Delegation of Public Health.

At least 14 people died of the disease between Wednesday and Thursday, raising the death toll to 44 in the last two weeks, Eko said.

“We have cases practically all over our region. Our three major treatment centres are completely overpowered,” Eko told Xinhua.

He said hospitals do not have enough beds for patients, some of whom are staying in tents or along corridors in the facility premises.

The situation is dire in the seaside resort town of Limbe, where at least 400 infections were detected on Wednesday, according to officials.

Eko blamed the outbreak mainly on the lack of clean water and public latrines in the region.

On Wednesday, the region’s governor, Bernard Okalia Bilai, urged local officials to build toilets in the affected areas within 30 days.

Source: Xinhuanet

24, March 2022

12 cholera-related deaths reported in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Health authorities in the Southwest region said on Wednesday, at least 12 people have died within 72 hours and over 400 cases were reported in a cholera epidemic that is sweeping across the region.

The chief town of the region, Buea and the touristic seaside resort town of Limbe have been particularly affected, according to officials.

“Hospitals are overwhelmed with patients. Some are lying in the corridors of the hospital and we are trying to set up makeshift structures to host more patients. The situation is critical,” Samuel Rinyu, medical personnel working in one of the hospitals hosting patients in the region said.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Francophone governor Bernard Okalia Balai held a crisis meeting in Limbe as residents panicked after the news of the cholera outbreak went viral.

Bilai in a typical CPDM style urged residents to stay calm and observe basic hygienic rules and announced that authorities in the region have opened a solidarity fund to help victims.

Cases of the disease which is spread by ingesting fecal matter and causes acute watery diarrhea were first reported in the region in November last year.

By Xinhuanet with additional editing by Camcordnews

22, March 2022

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Global Think Tank for Africa Reaches Out to IDPs ⁰

The Global Think Tank for Africa, a not-for-profit organization, has reached out to internally displaced children in the town of Mamfe where there are thousands of IDPs who fled the fighting triggered by protest by teachers and lawyers in 2016.

The event took place on March 22, 2022, in Mamfe and it brought together kids from many schools in the town. The Global Think Tank has made the donation of school supplies to pupils in Mamfe a continuous event and yesterday’s event is the third organized by the not-for-profit organization.

Many of the kids from the rural areas lack basic school supplies and The Global Think Tank for Africa has been donating school materials to primary schools in Mamfe town and this has been made possible by donations and resources from people of good will.

Speaking on the occasion, the Executive Director of the Global Think Tank for Africa, Dr. Joachim Arrey, used the occasion to urge other organizations and individuals to help the children who have been displaced by war. He thanked donors like Mr. Donald Besong of the United Kingdom, who reached out to the Global Think Tank for Africa so that the not-for-profit organization could deliver on its mandate.

“We will continue to bring much-needed assistance to those children who have been sent away from their homes by a war they know nothing about. I am urging other people to come to the help of these children. They deserve a fair chance at life. They know nothing about this war and without education, their future will be compromised. Education is a key that can open many doors and granting these children an opportunity to acquire education is like preparing them for a bright future,” Dr. Joachim Arrey said.

Also speaking during the occasion, the Inspector of Basic education for Mamfe Central, Mr. Harman Taku Arreyngang, expressed his appreciation for the gesture, urging other donors to help children affected by war to have access to education.

“I am calling on the elites of the Manyu Division to come to the help of these children who desperately need their support. Education is important in a child’s life and anybody who reaches out to a child, especially when he or she is in need, is giving that child a fighting chance at life,” he said.

The Global Think Tank for Africa has promised more assistance in the coming months and its commitment to the education of children can be seen through its donations.

By Philip Nkongho in Mamfe town

20, March 2022

Manchester: Sasse Old Boys Celebrate St. Joseph’s Feast Day ⁰

Members of the Sasse Old Boys Association in the United Kingdom joined their counterparts throughout the globe to celebrate Saint Joseph’s Feast Day, the day established to honour St. Joseph as the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the step-father of Jesus Christ with church services and convention.

Preaching the sermon at Our Lady and Lancashire Martyrs Diocese of Salford, Fr Emmanuel Nuh in his homily gave a justification on why the Feast of Saint Joseph is now a popular custom deep within the Holy Roman Catholic Church.

Fr Peter Watson and Fr Bill Tollah both former lecturers at Saint Joseph College Sasse were full of praise for SOBA UK. The two retired clerics expressed their joy and satisfaction meeting with the new generation of Sasse Old Boys.

The Sasse Old Boys were reminded that anyone who comes to Sasse College begins a life-long academic journey that makes you a part of God’s plan.

The Alumni life simply focuses on multiplying and consolidating individual and collective gains deep within SOBA UK and it is available to all ex-students of Sasse College residing in the United Kingdom and all should avail themselves of the opportunity by accepting to be members of SOBA UK.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai