Publishers of English-language newspapers in Cameroon are calling on President Paul Biya to establish a special fund to help them recover from the devastating effects of the Anglophone crisis, which has been felt in the country’s North West and South West regions since 2016.

The separatist war in the two English-speaking regions – which make up 20 percent of Cameroon’s population – has killed at least 6,000 people and forced over one million from their homes over the past seven years.

It has also crippled businesses, including the English-speaking newspaper sector.

“Prior to the crisis in the North West and South West Regions, English-language newspapers used to have advertising jobs from companies like the Cameroon Development Corporation … and other well established private companies,” said Ngah Kristian Mbipgo, CENPA president and publisher of the country’s only English-language daily newspaper, The Guardian Post.

“English language newspapers have, because of the crisis, lost more than 80 percent of their readership in the North West and South West Regions.”

Readership ‘fizzled out of existence’

Yerima Kini Nsom, Yaoundé bureau chief at The Guardian Post said the bulk of the paper’s readers were in the separatist flashpoints of Kumbo and Nkambe, all in Cameroon’s North West region.

The result of all this is that only the very resilient news organisations have been able to stay afloat.

Source: RFI

A French diplomat was found dead at his residence in Nkongmondo located in the Douala first district.

Christian Hue’s body was discovered hanging on a rope by police but it is still unclear and authorities would not give further details.

Police in Douala have not publicly commented on the death, which was reported on Friday18 August 2023.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the French citizen was 66 years old and was listed as Deputy Consul at the Consulate General of France in Douala.

CIR sources in Douala have hinted that he was recently named in a scandal involving the sale of French visas to Nigerian businessmen in Cameroon.

By Ewang Miriam Metchane with files

At least four militants of Boko Haram were killed when they launched a coordinated attack on a military outpost in Cameroon’s Far North region, military sources said on Friday.

Some of the weapons used by the terror group were also seized during the attack that took place overnight into Friday in Hile Alifa, a locality in Logone and Chari division of the region.

“There were more than 50 of the terrorists. They ambushed and attacked the outpost. Our brave soldiers repelled the attack killing four on the spot and several others escaped with bullet wounds,” a senior military officer who asked not to be named said.

There have been no reports on casualties on the side of government forces.

More than 2,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram launched attacks in the Far North since 2014, according to security reports.

Source: Xinhuanet

Officials in Cameroon suspended the work contracts of several thousand foreign workers, including Africans, Chinese and Europeans, and ordered them to obtain work permits and pay taxes within a month or leave the country.

The Cameroon government said that only about 100 of more than 2,000 foreign workers from China, Nigeria, the Central African Republic and Chad are authorized to work in gold mines and export timber near Cameroon’s eastern border with the Central African Republic.

More than 10,500 of an estimated 11,000 foreign workers in the central African nation do not have work permits, government officials said.

Issa Tchiroma Bakary, Cameroon’s employment minister, said a majority of foreign workers are acting in bad faith. By not paying taxes, foreign workers have deprived Cameroon of more than $25 million since January, he said.

Bakary said that this week government officials in Cameroon’s 360 districts were ordered to make sure foreign workers obtain work permits and pay taxes or leave within 30 days.

Cameroon’s employment ministry said that a relaunch of construction, mining and exploration for gas and oil has caused an influx of Chinese and European engineers.

The government said several thousand foreign workers in northern and eastern gold mines and forests deceived Cameroon consular officers to receive tourist visas.

The government said it cannot afford to allow more than 10,000 illegal foreign workers in Cameroon when more than 70% of its 27 million citizens either lack jobs or are underemployed.

Florent Djounou, who owns a wood company that employs 30 Chinese and eight Europeans, spoke on behalf of foreign workers at a meeting with Cameroon’s employment minister in Batouri, near Cameroon’s border with the Central African Republic.

He said that foreign workers understand they should respect Cameroon’s laws before carrying out economic activity, but that they were surprised when at least 1,000 contracts were suspended even before the Cameroon government publicly asked foreign workers to obtain permits.

European and Chinese workers often are able to obtain work permits, Djounou said, but Africans, especially those displaced by conflicts in their own countries, may not have the financial means to pay for their permits.

Prices of timber and wood have risen 15% because huge quantities of wood cannot leave eastern forests where the government has put a stop to activities of foreign workers, he said.

Bakary said foreign laborers will be allowed to work freely when they obtain their permits.

The employment of foreign workers is subject to special procedures in Cameroon. Potential workers are obliged to declare their wages and allowances, including transportation and accommodation, which are used to determine how much is paid to obtain a visa.

A 2022 law institutes a fee equivalent of two months’ wages for non-African workers and one month’s wages for African workers before work permits are issued. The law went into effect this year.

Source: VOA