18, April 2020
Spain Covid-19 deaths surpass 20,000 0
The death toll from the coronavirus in Spain, one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, moved past 20,000 on Saturday, the health ministry said.
A total of 20,043 people have now succumbed to the disease, which killed 565 people in Spain in the past 24 hours, slightly down on the 585 reported on Friday.
Spain is the second worst-hit country in Europe behind Italy but has tentatively begun to ease a strict lockdown imposed on March 14, opening up some sectors of the economy, including manufacturing, earlier this week.
Shops, bars, restaurants and other social gathering places remain shuttered.
Peak passed?
Health officials say Spain has passed the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak which killed up to 950 people on April 2, and the pressure has eased on hospitals.
But the toll, which covers only people who tested positive for the virus, is increasingly contested in some regions.
How long will lockdowns last?
Officials there say thousands more people have died after showing symptoms of the disease without having been tested because there are not enough tests.
For example, Catalonia has reported that more than 7,800 people have died while the national toll for the region referred Saturday to more than 3,800. Since March 14, Spain has been under one of the strickest lockdowns in Europe that has been extended until April 25 and could be prolonged even futher.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)
19, April 2020
No trace of disappeared Cameroonians, five years on 0
Human rights groups fear the worst for 130 Cameroonian civilians that remain missing following their arrest five years ago by the army on suspicion of belonging to the Boko Haram .
The individuals were arrested in the Far North as the Nigerian terror group launched its first attack on Cameroonian soil.
The boys and men aged between 12 and 60 years old were arrested in the villages of Doublé and Magdémé, which were the epicentre of attacks by the Islamist sect.
Army personnel initially arrested 200 individuals. After some time denying the arrests, the government in 2016 acknowledged the crackdown.
It disclosed that at least 25 men died in custody on the evening of their arrest. Identities of the deceased or burial places were not revealed.
The government also acknowledged that 45 other men were taken to and registered at Maroua prison. Three of them died in detention.
“All the others remain unaccounted for,” said a spokesperson of the human rights group, Amnesty International.
The organisation maintained doubts on the whereabouts of those that have not been accounted for.
It demanded that the government of President Paul Biya ensured justice for the victims and their families.
In 2015, Biya dismissed Colonel Charles Zé Onguéné, who headed the anti-terror operation at the time of the arrests.
He was charged with “negligence and breach of custody law.”
Source: CAJ News