The reconstitution of the Cameroonian government on March 2, many not be enough to calm tensions in some English-speaking regions of the country.

In Bamenda, the northwestern part of the country, for example, some residents have protested against the retention and appointment of certain English-speaking personalities.

Civil society groups say this realignment is not a solution to the crisis. ‘‘This subject is of no importance to me because I realized that the most important and urgent thing to do was not a reshuffle, nor a change of ministers. It is very important to see how this situation can be resolved by all means “, a member of the Anti-corruption and human rights council , Mambo Gabi told Africanews.

For Dr. Nick NGWANYAM, a Director of the Research Institute more is needed.

‘‘It’s as if we wanted 100% to solve a problem but we’re still in the 10% range. So there is 90% left, not only for English-speaking problems but also those affecting other citizens’‘.

Director at the Research Institute, Dr Nick Ngwanyam said the solution begins with solving social problems, particularly the education system.

‘‘Since 1960, the educational system in Cameroon has been wrong.It is not good at all . Education is supposed to enable young people to have problem-solving skills. But in our universities and educational system, we teach children just the theory. Some people don’t even know how to write their names, let alone make a bamboo chair. If you ask me, I will say that a new government will be on its way where more people with the bad spirit will be taken out and the right spirit will come on board. People who will add value to their system, those who will prevent us from eating Chinese rice, those who know how to help young people create jobs, things like that’‘, said Dr. Ngwanyam.

Dr. Ngwanyam is advocating for the establishment of a new leadership and a return to the negotiating table for an amicable solution to the unrest.

Culled from Africa News

More than two million children suffer from severe malnutrition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). They are at risk of dying if they do not get the needed assistance. That is what the United Nations has warned.

In Geneva, Jens Laerke, a UN spokesman, said during a briefing on Friday that the UN’s humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock would meet donors next week in the violence-torn country.

“We have a great responsibility in the DRC… now is the time to stay the course,” he said.

Some 300,000 children of the two million children at risk of starvation are in Kasai, one of the country’s most troubled regions, said Bettina Luescher of the UN’s World Food Programme.

The United Nations said earlier this year it would seek more than $1.5 billion to respond to the worsening humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, warning the country was at a “breaking point.”

The DRC is suffering from growing insecurity. New conflicts are erupting as President Joseph Kabila struggles to maintain his grip on power after his constitutional term in office expired in December 2016.

Armed groups are active in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu, which border Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania.

Violence has also erupted in the central region of Kasai. There a tribal chieftain known as the Kamwina Nsapu, who rebelled against Kabila’s regime, was murdered in September 2016. Another conflict is flaring up in the country’s Ituri province between the Hema and Lendu communities.

Source: Presstv

U.S. forces deployed to Niger, Mali and Cameroon will now receive “imminent danger pay,” which will be awarded retroactively to some troops who operated in those countries, according to a Defense Department memorandum.

The decision to grant danger pay comes five months after an Oct. 4 ambush in Niger that killed four U.S. soldiers.

For troops, it means up to $225 more each month in pay, according to the memo dated March 5.

There are about 800 military personnel deployed to Niger, which hosts the largest number of U.S. forces in western Africa. Cameroon has about 49 military personnel deployed there and Mali has about 16, according to data released in late 2017 by the Defense Department.

The lack of danger pay emerged earlier this week during a congressional hearing on U.S. Africa Command’s mission. Marine Corps Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, who leads AFRICOM, told lawmakers Tuesday that his troops were not getting the extra pay because his command was awaiting a decision from the Pentagon on their request for the stipend.

Separate from danger pay, servicemembers involved in a hostile fire incident will receive hostile fire pay for the month in which the incident occurred, said Maj. Carla Gleason, a Defense Department spokesman. “The Army posthumously authorized hostile fire pay for the four soldiers killed in October 2017,” she said in a statement.

Hostile fire pay or imminent danger pay owed a servicemember at his or her death will be included in the final settlement paid to survivors, the military said.   “This would apply to payments of the survivors of the four soldiers killed in Niger,” Gleason said.

Killed in the October ambush in Niger were Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black, Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright, Staff Sgt. Jeremiah W. Johnson and Sgt. La David T. Johnson. AFRICOM recently completed an investigation into the ambush, which is now being reviewed by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis.

Culled from www.stripes.com

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismisses as “propaganda” accusations that Moscow was behind a nerve agent attack on a former double agent residing in Britain.

British media and politicians have said the attack on Sergei Skripal, who came to Britain in a spy swap in 2010, bears the hallmarks of a Russian operation.

“They’re leveling accusations against us for everything that goes wrong — according to our Western partners — on this very planet,” Lavrov said on Friday during a visit to the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. “This is propaganda fair and square and it is trying to raise tension,” he added.

While Britain has not formally blamed Russia for the attack, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said it “echoes” the 2006 poisoning in London of former Russian spy and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko.

London blamed Moscow for that attack. Some 21 people were injured in the incident, which took place in the sleepy southwestern English city of Salisbury where Skripal was found on Sunday, slumped on a bench with his daughter Yulia.

“If action needs to be taken, then the government will do that,” British Prime Minister Theresa May has pledged.

National counter-terrorism police have taken over the investigation, which they are treating as attempted murder.

Skripal was a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who was jailed for betraying agents to Britain’s MI6 secret service.

In 2010, he was pardoned and then flown to Britain as part of a high-profile spy swap involving Russia and the United States.

(Source: AFP)