Cameroon and the United Nations Children’s Fund on Wednesday launched a maiden program to promote positive parenting in the Central African nation.

The “Positive Parenting Program” was imperative after evidence showed that parents are failing in their duty to raise their children responsibly, said Marie-Therese Abena Ondoa, Cameroonian minister of Women’s Empowerment and the Family.

“Parents have lost track of their role and responsibility in bringing up children. Drug consumption, child labor, juvenile delinquency, proliferation of sex tape clearly shows the negligence of parents in guiding children. Instead, they have abandoned the upbringing of their children to housemaids and babysitters,” Ondoa said during the launch of the program in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, regretting that social media influencers who preach immorality and obscenity are negatively impacting children.

“There is (a) need for the effective presence of parents in the life of children. We want a Cameroon where children are raised the right way,” Ondoa said.

The program will guide parents on the best methods of raising their children and promote a range of behaviors that can help foster responsive and responsible parenting, officials said.

Source: Xinhuanet

Latvia’s Interior Ministry is planning to propose amendments to immigration rules to toughen checks on Cameroonian citizens entering the country.

In recent years, the Latvian Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, has been receiving an increasing number of long-term visa applications from citizens of Cameroon. The number of visa denials to Cameroonian citizens increased especially steeply in 2021 – from the 36 visa requests denied last year 33 requests were denied to citizens of Cameroon. Representatives of the embassy and the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also note that the Cameroonian applicants often submit documents with visible signs of forgery.

Considering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has underscored the necessity to step up checks on Russian citizens arriving in Latvia to assess potential risks to national security and public order.

In 2021, Latvian visas were issued to 11,087 citizens of Russia. Another 1,446 visas were issued to from January 1, 2022 to February 24, 2022, and 910 visas were issued from February 25 to June 17, 2022.

Because of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, Latvian diplomatic and consular missions in foreign countries have temporarily stopped accepting visa applications from Russian citizens. Latvia issues visas to Russian citizens only in exceptional cases on humanitarian considerations in cases involving threats to life or security. Such exceptions are mainly applied to family members of Latvian and EU citizens, as well as in cases of a grave illness or death of a relative. Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic have taken a similar approach.

The Interior Ministry indicates that Belarus has been supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, letting Russian armed forces to use Belarusian territory for preparing and launching attacks on Ukraine. Meanwhile, cooperation between Russian and Belarusian intelligence and security services has been close for a long time already as they have been collaborating on joint operations and involving Russian and Belarusian citizens in their espionage activities.

Considering the above, the Interior Ministry has drafted proposals to amend the Regulation Regarding States for the Citizens of which in Issuing a Visa or a Residence Permit an Additional Assessment shall be Performed by adding Belarus and Cameroon to the list of countries whose citizens are subject to additional checks.

The ministry also proposes additional assessment of any Russian citizens (regardless of their place of residence or birth) seeking Latvian visas or residence permits.

The draft amendments have been submitted to the Ministries of Finance, Justice and Foreign Affairs. After they are approved by the ministries, the draft amendments will be put before the government.

Source: The Baltic Times

Four people were killed on Tuesday in a road accident in Cameroon’s Centre region where the capital, Yaoundé is located, according to local police.

Police said in a statement that the tragedy happened along the Obala-Batchenga highway.

The accident occurred after a truck collided head-on with a bus carrying workers of a company, a police officer told Xinhua by phone.

Several others were injured and rushed to the hospital to receive medical treatment, the officer who preferred not to be named said.

According to the police, fatal accidents are common in Cameroon due to reckless driving, dangerous overtaking, drunk driving, and poor state of road.

The Ministry of Transport estimates that 1,500 people die in road accidents each year in the central African nation.

Source: Xinhuanet

The streets of the Batibo district in Southern Cameroons were deserted Tuesday following three days of clashes between government forces and Amba fighters. Both sides say they inflicted significant losses on the other, while witnesses report seeing the bodies of troops, rebel fighters and civilians.

Civilians said an uneasy calm reigned in the Batibo district, located in the Northwest region.

Primary school teacher Emmanuel Mbah said very few civilians could be seen walking the streets of Batibo on Tuesday morning.

“People cannot go to their farms, shops are sealed, markets are sealed and traders are running away for their safety. Houses are burnt down and the population suffers, so the fighting between the military and the separatists are causing much havoc to the population,” he said.

Speaking by the messaging app WhatsApp, Mbah said several dozen Cameroon government troops have been searching homes in Batibo and arresting people suspected of collaborating with separatist fighters.

The Cameroon military said Tuesday that 17 separatist fighters were killed in three days of fighting in Batibo.

The military said an additional 18 fighters were captured in Bambui, Batibo and Noni, all towns in the Northwest region. The military also said it destroyed or seized weapons, locally made explosive devices and several dozen motorcycles used by the separatists to attack government troops.

Culled from VOA

The Minister Delegate at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ananga Messina née Beyene Clémentine Antoinette is no more.

She died in Yaoundé today after a brief illness.

Cameroon Concord News sources say the cause of death was lung and heart –related.

She is the third member of the Dion Ngute led government in the space of two years to leave the corrupt political arena for the world beyond.

Her demise follows those of Adoum Gargoum and Alim Hayatou.

She was appointed Minister Delegate at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in June 2009.

The engineer had worked in the Ministry for 23 years before her appointment. She holds a Diploma in Economic Management.

By Rita Akana

The Francophone dominated army have killed two Ambazonian commanders and arrested seven other suspected Southern Cameroons fighters in Tubah subdivision, North West.

Cameroon Concord News gathered that “General Rasta” and “Colonel John” were killed when the pro Yaoundé army soldiers launched an offensive in the locality late on Sunday.

“General Rasta” was the leader of a Southern Cameroons Self Defense group in the locality that was responsible for the killing of several Francophone troops deployed to Southern Cameroons.

By Fon Lawrence

Franck Emmanuel Biya and Chantal Biya respectively the eldest son and wife of the President of the Republic of Cameroon, are among sixty dubious persons who have invested hundreds of millions of Euros in France to buy houses and luxury apartments- a phenomenon on which there are strong suspicion of money laundering.

Chantal Biya spent 2 million Euros to buy three apartments in the 16th district of Paris, Levallois-Perret and in Nice between 1997 and 2009 – two of which were paid in cash and the third financed by a loan from BNP.

The first lady acquired the houses through a Cameroonian Senator, Pierre François-Xavier Menye Ondo, who is also a notary and a business partner, with only 1% share in two of the three purchases.

Here are photos of the apartments

The Vice President of the Ambazonia Interim Government has warned President Paul Biya of French Cameroun not to play with fire at a petrol station urging the 89-year-old dictator to stop his continued deployment of Francophone army soldiers to Southern Cameroons.

Yerima made the comment late on Sunday during a phone conversation he held for more than three hours with some Ground Zero commanders, the Ambazonia Interim Government said in a statement.

Dabney Yerima pointed out that the killing of a senior Francophone military commander in Kumba was a very strong warning to Yaoundé adding that a string of similar warnings will be issued from Ground Zero in response to continued military operations in Southern Cameroons.

Cameroon government forces have been conducting operations all over Southern Cameroons targeting what the army says are separatists’ fighters.

Yerima further urged Biya to move away from his so-called one and indivisible Cameroon principle that recognizes the Federal Republic of Ambazonia as an integral part of La Republique du Cameroun.

By Isong Asu

The Ambazonian Interim Government has called on armed restoration forces to take practical measures in response to the Cameroon government military operations in Southern Cameroons that led to the killing of the leader of the Red Dragons of Lebialem.

French Cameroon government attacks carried out recently in Lebialem killed at least seven civilians including the prominent Amba fighter and head of the Red Dragons.

In a statement on Thursday, Vice President Dabney Yerima said repeated acts of aggression and continuous violation of the Ambazonian sovereignty, occupation of Southern Cameroons towns and villages and establishment of military bases in nearly all villages in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and shedding the blood of innocent civilians are far away from the principle of good neighbourliness.

Dabney Yerima called for a unified stance from all Southern Cameroons restoration groups..

Yerima also urged Amba fighters to work towards expulsion of all French Cameroun civil administrators and forces, and put an end to the presence of any military bases or garrisons in the Federal Republic of Ambazonia hosting Francophone soldiers.

By Chi Prudence Asong

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved a memo by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development for a standard operation procedure for maintaining the civilian and humanitarian character of asylum seekers from Cameroon.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, said this was to guard against the possibility of granting asylum to insurgents from Cameroon.

He said: “You all know that due to the insurgency in Cameroon, Nigeria has witnessed an influx of Cameroonian asylum seekers and there’s a basic standard procedure for you to be granted status as an asylum seeker.”

He said anybody from Cameroon seeking asylum in Nigeria must first convince the authorities that he/she has actually renounced armed struggle before he/she can be considered as an asylum seeker.

“Also there are cases of some of them who have come even when they claim to have surrendered their arms, go back at times, to join the separatist movement in Cameroon.”

 “So, all we’ve done today is to establish the standard procedure to ensure those claiming to be asylum seekers are actually not insurgents themselves that have come to destabilize Nigeria or people who will come and be launching attacks against their own country from the comfort of Nigeria.”

Source: Daily Trust