Immediately he took office as head of state, social welfare and the protection of women and children in Cameroon under President Biya became a thing of the past.

Many children in both French and Southern Cameroons have been seen in school campuses with horrific injuries after being battered by their stepdads or so-called boyfriends to their mums.

Many innocent kids have died but none has ever become a watershed moment for child safety in Cameroon. Even after our investigative report on the sex scandal in the University of Buea, there have been no major changes to how the Francophone dominated government tackle child abuse.

Teachers have not been paid for ten years and social services are only provided by senior government officials like Prime Minister Dion Ngute who marry young girls on a regular basis.

Despite the promises made by President Biya in his numerous end of year speeches, teachers, medical doctors and the police are still failing to notice the signs of abuse until it is sadly too late. The consequence is what the nation just witnessed in Yokaduma in the East region of French Cameroun where five innocent children were offered poisoned bread and chocolate by their mum’s ex boyfriend.

The late Simon Achidi Achu as prime minister had vowed to bring in a new process so child abusers and killers will die behind bars but failed due to the harem of women and young girls he acquired for himself as head of government.  

These horrific deaths of Cameroonian children like the five in Yokaduma are not rare but the circumstances under which they were killed are uniquely tragic and preventable.

The Yokaduma incident provides crucial learnings but its clear not for this present Biya regime with no mechanism to support child protection and prevent and respond to abuse.

Children safeguarding agencies are there to provide free sex for highly placed civil servants in a country where children’s safety is not top priority.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon has known so many challenges, such as meningitis and terrorist attacks in the north and a civil war that has sent many civilians and soldiers to an early grave in the two English-speaking regions of the country, but by some miracle, the country is still standing on one leg.  

Despite the massive and destructive corruption that has become a way of life in the country, many Cameroonians are still hopeful that there is light at the end of the tunnel, but many analysts hold that the light at the end of the tunnel may be that of an oncoming train that might kill many people. Dark clouds have been gathering over the country over the last ten years, but by some stroke of luck, a rainbow always appeared to instill hope in the people. 

Cameroonians are running on hope. The escalation of food prices and the fear of a popular revolt across the country are causing the Biya regime to lose sleep while many Cameroonians seek avenues of leaving the country. 

Hope alone will not enable them to meet their basic needs. Cameroonians believe that the country will not avoid a man-made disaster manufactured by a government that is deaf and dumb because one person must die in power.  

The government has been dealing with a lot, but 2022 may be bearing very bad news for the regime which is on its last leg. Teachers across the country have dropped their chalk and will not be returning to the classroom if their grievances are not met. 

Their students have been calling on the kleptocratic and gerontocratic government to pay their teachers so that they can return to school. Their place is in the classroom and not on the streets. 

But the plea seems to be falling on deaf ears. The government is cash-strapped, and its creditors are tired of bailing it out in unfortunate circumstances created by inefficiency and corruption.  

Many of the teachers have been working for more than a decade without a salary and some who have retired have gone for close to two decades without a pension. The old ones are all sick but cannot get the medical care they need due to poverty. 

The Cameroon public service is a maze that is replete with many processes and procedures that only those manning the systems understand them. Many Cameroonian retirees die shortly after retirement because of abject poverty and when they are sick, they never know who to turn to for care. 

The medical system itself is inefficient and it has become a marketplace wherein only the rich can be attended to. Many Cameroonians are dying in silence. Stress-related diabetes and hypertension are taking their toll on many people across the country. 

Kidney failure is now rampant among youths, and this has become a cause for concern. Stress is crippling their bodies, especially as many see no hope in the future. Unemployment has attained epidemic proportions and the aging government is at its wit’s end. A once effective healthcare system has been reduced to a graveyard for those who lack the financial resources to head out of the country.

The country’s healthcare system is replete with scandals which never get investigated. The government simply does not care. The country’s officials and their families seek healthcare abroad and are blissfully oblivious of what is happening the country’s hospitals. 

The scandals in Cameroon’s healthcare system have made it hard for Cameroonians to trust their own medical doctors. The doctors who took the Oath of Hippocrates to serve humanity have become self-serving, making it hard for patients to trust the people who are supposed to save them when they are facing health challenges. The country’s hospitals have become consultation clinics, with poorly trained doctors playing God.

Even the corrupt police officers are threatening to join the teachers’ strike if the government does not find appropriate solutions to their sorry plight. Many are sick and tired of harassing ordinary citizens for little bribes. They have lost their dignity and they hope a good salary can help them regain their lost dignity and respect. 

The government is trying to ensure that the police does not throw itself into the mix, as this may spell the end of a corrupt regime that is living on borrowed time. 

The military is also grumbling and if it becomes part of the equation, then things will unravel very fast. Corruption has overwhelmed even those who designed the system. The government must tread very carefully if it does not want to deal with a nation-wide uprising. 

Things are really falling apart. Cameroonians are looking forward to the day things will be different. They have been hopeful for decades, but that hope is fast dwindling, especially as the country is in the grip of a cholera epidemic. The epidemic is spreading like wildfire, hitting the entire Southwest region and parts of the Littoral region like a ton of bricks. 

Limbe, Buea, Tiko, Njombe and Penja have all been caught up in the battle and some deaths have already been reported. Not even Yaoundé, the country’s capital, has been spared. Many neighborhoods in the capital have gone without water for years and this is responsible for the numerous water-borne diseases which have killed many residents of Yaoundé.

The end seems to be near. Things are falling apart and if care is not taken, Cameroon could be caught up in a pretty mess, especially as the level of political and economic frustration is very high.

If the government must preempt chaos in the country, it must adopt new ways. The current governance methods have failed Cameroonians. They have inflicted a lot of pain on many citizens and the greatest expectation for most Cameroonians is a change of government, especially as the current president, Paul Biya, who is 90 years old, is physically and mentally declining.  

 He is now more than a museum piece. His health is fast failing. His last outing during the African Nations Cup clearly tells the world that he is gradually expiring. But will his expiration imply a change of direction in Cameroon?  Only his successor will answer that question.  

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Cameroon’s government says Russia’s war on Ukraine is responsible for a wheat shortage that has led to a 40 percent increase in the price of bread. The central African state is encouraging local substitutes like cassava and yams to replace the wheat usually imported from Russia and Ukraine.

More than 40 consumers are waiting for bread Monday morning at the La Mama bakery in Mokolo, a neighborhood in Cameroon’s capital.

Youssoufa Daouda, who sells bread at the bakery, said in the past two weeks the bakery has served less than 200 of its usual 500 daily customers.

He said importers informed bakers in the first week of March of a potential shortage of wheat in Cameroonian markets because countries that supply wheat to Cameroon were at war. Daouda said the price of a 50-kilogram bag of wheat increased from $35 to between $50 and $60, and the supply is not regular.

Cameroon says 13 million of its 26 million citizens who consume bread daily no longer have a regular supply.

Cameroon’s Minister of Trade Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana presided over a meeting with bakery owners and wheat importers on Monday meant to educate consumers associations that the shortage of wheat is a result of the war in Ukraine.

Atangana said anyone who is informed and is honest will not disagree that the war between Russia and Ukraine is having disastrous consequences on economies all over the world. He said the war has deprived Cameroon of about 60 percent of wheat imported from both Ukraine and Russia, and the government is very worried because the absence of wheat can cause a social crisis in Cameroon.

Atangana said Cameroon’s Prime Minister, Joseph Dion Ngute, asked the ministers in charge of agriculture and trade to find alternatives to wheat imports.

Cameroon produces less than one-fourth of the 1.6 million tons of wheat it needs each year. Last year, it imported more than 850,000 tons from Russia and Ukraine.

Delor Magellan Kamseu Kamgaing, president of Cameroon’s Consumers League, said Cameroonians should learn to consume bread made without wheat imported from Ukraine and Russia. He said local substitutes, including tubers like cassava, yams and potato, can replace imported wheat. He added that it’s imperative the government provide funding and tractors to farmers to increase tuber production to spare Cameroon from a looming social crisis.

Other countries in Africa and the Middle East are also facing wheat shortages due to the war in Ukraine. On Monday, the head U.N. International Fund for Agricultural Development, Gilbert Houngbo, warned the situation “could cause an escalation of hunger and poverty, with dire implications for global stability.”

Source: VOA