15, October 2020

Cameroonians Neglect Covid-19 Safety Precautions ⁰

Residents of major cities in Cameroon have not been serious with social distancing measures and wearing of face masks.

Despite efforts by the government to prevent Covid-19 hugging, handshaking and the belief that the disease has not yet arrived Cameroon is the main talk on the streets.

The non respect of social distancing can be observed in markets; streets and parks.

“There are a bunch of Cameroonians from the start of this who thought that corona was a hoax. And many of them have never won a mask even for once. And till date they say that naturally an African is built to kill viruses. So they believe that their systems can even kill the viruses if it exists”, Wain George Muam, a concerned Cameroonian, told Africanews.

The Cameroon government has been conducting mobile Covid-19 screening in various cities across the country. The virus keeps circulating despite the high rate of healing in Cameroon.

Track, Test and Treat

Mobile screening is part of the governments’ (Track, Test and Treat) strategy. Few months back rapid test kits were made available making it possible to carry out more tests.

Cameroon’s Public Health Emergency Research Centre is aware of the negligence among the population.

“The community has realized that we have a high rate of healing as you mentioned. We have a very small number of people dying. And therefore they are relaxed because they no longer fear as it was the case when we were in early March” alerts Prof Yap Boum, the deputy head of the centre.

Daily Press briefings are organised by the Covid-19 coordination centre to keep Cameroonians updated on the evolution of the disease and the need to respect barrier measures.

“But what we are doing is actually trying to understand what is happening, and to achieve that we do what we call a cap survey. So we go to the field, we talk to the community and we try to understand what is their real understanding of the disease and where they are getting their information. And then that helps us now to go back and to reinforce the sensitization”, Prof Yap Boum added.

With a recovery rate of 94.9% and a fatality rate of around 2% public health officials in Cameroon satisfied with the results so far, keep calling for extra vigilance.

It is not yet clear why the healing rate remains high among those suffering from the Covid-19 in Cameroon. Scientists are investigating if this is linked to a boosted immunity, numerous tropical diseases or the youthful nature of the population.

Source: Africa News

15, October 2020

Deportation of Cameroonian Asylum Seekers: US makes a dramatic regression in the protection of human rights ⁰

On the 14th of October 2020, an airplane carrying onboard over 100 asylum seekers from the United States landed in the Douala International Airport in Cameroon into the waiting hands of the Cameroonian authorities stationed at the airport. Their fate is now a mystery.

Leaving one’s home country as a migrant to settle in and start living in another country has always been a challenging venture. It becomes not only challenging but difficult, daunting, and risky when you must flee from your country without prior notice due to persecution or war. Danger or menace to one’s life or that of your family members is a major reason for fleeing these days. One, therefore, flees from danger from their home country to become a refugee by seeking asylum.

The word ‘Asylum’ is a Latin form of the Greek word ‘asylon’ which in English means ‘freedom from…’ It is true that in International Law, states are not bound by any obligation to grant asylum to a refugee. However, nations are bound by the principle of non- refoulement as defined in article 33 of the 1951 convention relating to the status of refugees which prohibits the expulsion or return of refugees to areas they have fled from.

The case in hand is, therefore, a flagrant violation of the above-named convention. The United States should know better. It is rewarding that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Germany, and many EU nations, still hold close to their hearts the protection of human rights and freedoms especially those of refugees and asylum seekers.

It has been before now, common knowledge that the United States, Britain, and France as allies, are among the best in the world when it comes to the protection of human rights and freedoms as well as the protection of refugees and asylum seekers. This writer is confident that if this were in the United Kingdom, the outcome would have been different at least not until all due processes followed and with strict respect for the rule of law.

With the recent deportation of vulnerable asylum seekers by the United States government to Cameroon, the United States has moved one step away from this prestigious circle of rights defenders. It is no news anywhere in the world that what is going on in the former British Southern Cameroons in particular, and Cameroon in general does not only constitute human rights abuses but genocide in gestation.

This writer has reason to believe that by this singular act, the US has shown the world that it partners the dictatorial regime in Yaoundé. What other reason can be given to justify sending asylum seekers back to a country they have fled from in the middle of a war?

It is equally worth noting that this group of mostly Former British Southern Cameroons asylum seekers was deliberately transferred months ago by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the T. Don Hutto Residential Centre in Taylor, Texas. A detention facility that has been noted and stands out for its several allegations of human rights abuses and other degrading treatments of refugees and asylum seekers.

Based on recent figures from the UN High Commissioner for refugees, there has been a 56% increase in the number of people seeking political asylum from the Cameroons. And that number has increased since November 2016 due to the ongoing war in Former British Southern Cameroons.

It remains really strange and inexplicable how with all the statistics and evidence available on the ongoing crisis in Cameroon, and despite letters from some congressmen and women asking for the process to be delayed for more evidence, the Texas officials succeeded in deporting helpless asylum seekers to Cameroon, a country where the abuse of human rights has become a norm and a daily occurrence.

This process of deportation has smeared the dreadful image of the United States’ already injured human rights image. The country has missed an opportunity to demonstrate to the world that it does not side with the regime Yaoundé regime.

Nelson Agbor is an International Human Rights Law Scholar. He holds a Master of Laws (LLM), from Hertfordshire Law School, UK. He is currently a Doctoral Research Student, International Human Rights Law at Plymouth University, UK.

15, October 2020

French Cameroun: Maurice Kamto still ‘sequestered’ after UN mission ⁰

Cameroonian opposition leader Maurice Kamto said Tuesday he remained “sequestered” at his home despite a call by UN rights experts for his release from house arrest for calling for peaceful protests against longtime ruler Paul Biya.

The rights experts issued a statement on Monday calling for Kamto’s release and that of dozens of others reportedly arrested during demonstrations on September 22.

Kamto is the chief opponent of President Biya, who has ruled the Central African country for 38 years.

“The (police) unit outside my house is still in place, and I have received no notification whatsoever,” Kamto told AFP, adding that a police car was blocking his driveway.

“Kamto’s house arrest could amount to a deprivation of liberty, in violation of his rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, as well as liberty and security of person,” the UN statement said.

A team of around a dozen independent experts conducted a mission under the Special Procedures system on behalf of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Cameroonian authorities declined several requests for comment by AFP.

Kamto’s lawyers said in a statement they were suing the state over his house arrest and that the trial would begin on Thursday.

“We are extremely worried about mass arrests of peaceful protesters and political activists who express dissent,” the UN experts’ statement said, calling on the authorities to “stop intimidating political activists”.

They added that they were concerned over the “excessive use of force against peaceful demonstrators”.

Kamto officially lost to Biya in 2018’s presidential election, and was arrested in January last year following a march protesting the vote. Biya ordered him freed nine months later under international pressure.

On September 18 of this year he called for mass protests to demand electoral reforms as well as a ceasefire in the country’s insurgency-hit English-speaking areas.

Four days later, police crushed a demonstration in the country’s economic capital Douala, detaining 93 protesters of whom 58 were still in custody as of Tuesday, according to their lawyers. They were among more than 500 people arrested across the country.

Source: AFP

15, October 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Coalition for dialogue announces advisory board formation ⁰

The Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations today announced the launch of its newly formed strategic committee of trusted advisors. This Advisory Board includes well renowned leaders whose focus will be to shape and guide the strategy of the Coalition, working closely with the Steering Committee.

The new Board includes Former Liberian President H.E Amos Sawyer, Former United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Ambassador Herman J. Cohen; Former Resident Representative for Sierra Leone & Liberia of the African Development Bank Dr. Margaret Kilo; Former U.S. Ambassador to Liberia and Uganda Ambassador Deborah Malac; Senior Associate and Regional Director National Democratic Institute Dr. Christopher Fomunyoh; and Founders of Pave The Way Foundation Gary and Meredith Krupp.

“We are very honored to have such a distinguished team join us in actively seeking an end to the escalating armed conflict in the Southern Cameroons that addresses the root causes of the conflict” said Dr. Denis Foretia, Co-Chair of the Coalition for Dialogue and Negotiations. “We will continue to do all we can to stop the humanitarian disaster unfolding in the country.”

15, October 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 10 Teachers Abducted in Mezam County ⁰

10 teachers were abducted in the Northern zone of Ambazonia on the same day that classes reportedly resumed in both French and Southern Cameroons.

A report released by the teachers association said Seydou Mbangyah, headmaster of Baba1 Bilingual High School in Ngoketunjia, Chayi Sungha of GBHS Baba1, Ntam Yuh,a teacher at the Bambui high school in the Mezam were among the ten forcefully removed from the respective schools and taken to an unknown destination.

The French Cameroun civil administrators in the area have maintained a kind of deliberate silence on the subject as Ambazonia Restoration Forces continue to impose a boycott of schools in Southern Cameroons.

For their part, Cameroon government army soldiers have burned down school buildings, assaulted and rape students and teachers.

The attacks on schools, students and teachers have had a devastating impact on education. According to figures from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), up to the last school year, 4,400 schools were closed in Southern Cameroons and more than 600,000 children are being deprived of education because of the security climate.

By Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

15, October 2020

US: Trump, Biden to hold competing town halls after second debate cancelled ⁰

Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden will participate in duelling town halls Thursday instead of clashing face-to-face in their second debate, as the US president seeks to jolt his struggling campaign 19 days before the election.

The split screen spectacle follows Trump’s three-day campaign tour of battleground states once doctors gave him the medical all-clear less than two weeks after he announced he contracted the coronavirus.

But even as Trump sought to mount a closing argument against Biden at a boisterous rally Wednesday in Iowa, promising an “incredible” third quarter for the struggling economy, the pandemic remained front and center.

Trump’s teenage son Barron contracted the coronavirus, First Lady Melania Trump revealed Wednesday in news that startled in part because it had been kept from the public for so long.

She said the 14-year-old, who goes to a private school near Washington, did not experience symptoms and has since tested negative.

“Barron Trump, you know, he had the Corona 19,” the president said in Des Moines. “He had it such a short period of time I don’t even think he knew he had it.”

The news, which had been kept under wraps despite global attention on Trump’s own health, thrust public attention firmly back on the pandemic and in particular on an outbreak within the supposedly highly secure White House over the last two weeks.

The issue plays a prominent part in Thursday’s simultaneous town hall events on major TV networks, as cases spike in several states and the US toll surpasses 216,000 dead.

The competing primetime appearances were organized after a head-to-head debate between Trump and Biden due to be held Thursday was scrapped in the aftermath of Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis.

Reality show experience

But while team Trump might be relieved that the president regains an opportunity to draw a contrast with his opponent, NBC faced criticism for letting the president bigfoot Biden in the same 8:00 time slot.

“Having dueling town halls is bad for democracy,” tweeted Katie Couric, a longtime host of NBC’s “Today” morning show.

“Voters should be able to watch both and I don’t think many will,” she said, adding the matchup will benefit Trump “because people like to watch his unpredictability.”

David Canon, chair of the political science department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, agreed.

But he said Trump may have committed a “tactical error” by backing out of a virtual debate with Biden.

“He needed the debates more than Biden did,” Canon told AFP. “He’s the one that needs to change the momentum in the election.”

Trump negotiated to go on NBC at an outdoor setting in Miami after Biden had arranged his own event on ABC in Philadelphia.

Previously Trump has appeared uncomfortable in town hall settings where ordinary voters ask questions. But as a former reality TV star and a keen follower of viewing figures, the president will at least be eager to attract a bigger audience than Biden.

The rivals were meant to have met on stage for their second debate, also in a town hall format.

However, in an unprecedented decision, organizers said they wanted to switch to a virtual format for safety reasons after Trump contracted the coronavirus. Trump rejected the new conditions, and the debate was scrapped.

NBC said it received a statement from the clinical director at the National Institutes of Health, Anthony Fauci, saying there was “a high degree of confidence” that Trump is now “not shedding infectious virus.”

Trump and the NBC host will be socially distanced at the outdoor venue and audience members will wear masks, NBC added.

Biden has reported multiple negative coronavirus tests since Trump’s Covid-19 diagnosis on October 1.

Shouting match

The first of three scheduled presidential debates was widely criticized for descending into an angry shouting match as Trump attempted to inflict a late wound to Biden’s campaign.

In Iowa Trump renewed the fierce attacks.

“Joe is shot, OK?… Joe has lost it,” Trump said to laughter and cheers.

“If he wins, the radical left will be running the country. They’re addicted to power, and God help us if they get it.”

Furthering his long-running narrative that 77-year-old Biden is too frail for the presidency, Trump, 74, tweeted a crudely faked picture purporting to show Biden in a wheelchair.

Biden has stepped up his own courting of the important elderly vote, telling retirees in Florida on Tuesday that Trump has “never been focused on you.”

A RealClearPolitics average of national polls has Biden up by 9.2 points, with the Democrat leading in several key battleground states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

(AFP)

14, October 2020

Southern Cameroons asylum-seekers accuse US of forcing deportation ⁰

A group of asylum-seekers from Cameroon facing deportation back to their conflict-ridden country say they were pressured with force by U.S. immigration officers to sign their deportation paperwork, and that they and a slew of others facing an imminent return flight are at risk of persecution and death.

The eight men recounted their experiences in a complaint filed by a number of immigrant advocate groups including the Southern Poverty Law Center with the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

“Officers grabbed me, forced me on the ground, and pepper sprayed my eyes. They handcuffed me,” said a man identified in the complaint as C.A., who went on to add that an officer broke his finger.

“I was crying, ‘I need to talk to my attorney,’ and I said, ‘They are going to kill me.'”

The man said his fingerprint was forced onto the paperwork needed for his deportation back to Cameroon. The other men’s stories followed similar lines.

The SPLC provided the man’s full name and identification number, as well as another man’s in the complaint to The Associated Press so that specific queries could be made to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Bryan Cox, a spokesman for ICE, said the agency “does not comment on specific matters presented to the Office of the Inspector General, which provides independent oversight and accountability within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. That said, in general, sensationalist unsubstantiated allegations are irresponsible, and should be treated with the greatest of skepticism.”

The men had been in detention in Mississippi, but they have all since been transferred to Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, said Luz Lopez, senior supervising attorney at the SPLC’s Immigration Justice Project.

There, they have joined at least 100 other asylum seekers and potentially up to 200 people for what Lopez said is believed to be a chartered flight, the first in months, that would head to the African nation.

The idea of returning has the asylum seekers, many of whom are saying they face torture or worse in their homeland, very frightened, Lopez said.

“Folks are terrified to go back, they know they’ll either disappear or be murdered,” she said.

It was unclear when the flight would depart, but advocates said the flight may have already left by Tuesday evening, the same day the process of moving people from the detention center to the plane appeared to have started. ICE has not confirmed whether the flight has taken off.

Katie Shepherd of the American Immigration Council said authorities told her that two men, including C.A., had been pulled from the flight on Tuesday afternoon.

ICE does not confirm removals until after they’ve taken place.

Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, and Rep. Karen Bass of California, both Democrats, sent a letter to ICE on Tuesday.

They urged ICE to investigate the allegations of abuse and other concerns before any action is taken regarding the detained asylum seekers.

Asylum-seeking Cameroonians, who are escaping bloodshed that has killed tens of thousands, are mostly English speakers fleeing torture inflicted by a French-speaking government as well as English-speaking separatists. Many share personal accounts of Cameroonian soldiers burning their villages, shooting indiscriminately and torturing any perceived opponents.

Cameroonians began arriving at the U.S. border with Mexico in large numbers last year. They typically flew to Ecuador and traveled by foot and on bus through eight countries. Many died, were assaulted or got robbed in the Panamanian jungle.

Cameroonians have fared extremely well in U.S. immigration courts, with 80% winning asylum claims in the U.S. government’s 2019 fiscal year, compared to a 29% success rate for all nationalities, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Their success rate fell to 53% for the 11-month period that ended Aug. 31, compared to 26% for all nationalities.

It is unclear why the Cameroonians described in the complaint are being flown home by the U.S. government but many from the African nation have been denied permission to stay in the United States under new policies that have put asylum virtually out of reach.

In June, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., knocked down a cornerstone policy of the Trump administration that denied asylum to people who travel through other countries to reach the U.S. border with Mexico without first seeking protection in those countries. The Justice Department is appealing.

The ruling’s impact was diminished by a pandemic-related measure introduced in March — also being challenged in court — to quickly expel people who cross the border illegally and block asylum-seekers at official crossings. The administration has relied on a little-known public health law designed to prevent the spread of disease.

Source: ABC News

14, October 2020

Of UN double standards, hundreds of French Camerounians jailed in Biya regime crackdown and Ambazonian leaders ⁰

The international human rights community has demanded that Cameroon releases some 200 opposition activists held in custody since protests held more than three weeks ago.

They could face terrorism and national security charges and trial in a military court for their demands for national dialogue, electoral system reforms and the return of peace to English-speaking regions of the country.

Demonstrators turned out in response to an appeal by opposition party Movement for the Renaissance of Cameroon (MRC).

More than 500 people reportedly were initially arrested.

The government’s response is the latest crackdown by the administration of President Paul Biya on opposition activists.

“We are extremely worried about mass arrests of peaceful protesters and political activists who express dissent,” United Nations experts jointly stated.

They expressed concern at excessive use of force against peaceful demonstrators by the Cameroonian security forces.

“The violence against protesters was indiscriminate, with tear gas and water cannon used to violently disperse them,” the experts stated.

The experts also expressed alarm at reports of torture of protesters and journalists in detention. “This is truly unacceptable.”

Maurice Kamto, the MRC president, is the most high profile figure detained.

Security forces have reportedly prevented him from communicating with party members and lawyers.

Cameroon has been in crisis in recent years following opposition to alleged misrule by Biya’s government.

Militants in English-speaking regions are also agitating for independence citing alleged marginalization by government.

Ambazoniagate

The UN double-standards was in full display in La Republique du Cameroun. Prof Kamto is the French Cameroun opposition leader who competed with Mr Paul Biya in the last presidential election in 2018. At the end of which he claimed that he won.

He called for a massive demonstration against the French Cameroun political system in January 2019. He and many of his supporters were arrested and detained for nine months.

Prof Maurice Kamto including senior officials were detained at the Yaoundé Principal prison where President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and the Nera10 are currently being held.

After the so-called Major National Dialogue (MND) on the Ambazonian crisis, Prof Kamto and his team were released in October 2019. There was no mention of the release of the Ambazonian leader President Sisiku AyukTabe and his top aides, in spite of the fact that the MND was meant to address the crisis in the British Southern Cameroons.

Prof Kamto’s party, the CRM, boycotted the elections in 2020. He called for another demonstration on the 22nd Sep 2020. He has even since been placed into a kind of house arrest at his residence in Yaoundé. The UN is now calling for his immediate release while the same world body is maintaining a deliberate silence on the plight of the Ambazonian leaders in French Cameroun detention centers.

Reporter by CAJ News and Camcordnews

14, October 2020

US: Biden goes after senior vote in Florida as support for Trump fades ⁰

Joe Biden heads for Florida on Tuesday to court elderly Americans who helped elect Donald Trump four years ago but appear to be swinging to the Democratic candidate for the White House this time around amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden, at 77 the oldest Democratic nominee ever, is to “deliver his vision for older Americans” at an event in the city of Pembroke Pines, north of Miami, his campaign said.

The former vice president’s visit to Florida comes a day after Trump held a campaign rally in the Sunshine State, his first since his hospitalization for Covid-19.

Unlike Biden’s small, socially distanced gatherings, thousands of supporters packed an airport tarmac for the president’s return to the campaign trail.

Trump, 74, is to host another rally Tuesday night in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, followed by visits to Iowa and North Carolina this week as part of a push to make up ground on Biden, who has a double-digit lead in the national polls ahead of the November 3 vote.

Florida and its 29 votes in the Electoral College went to Trump in 2016, helping propel his upset victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Americans over the age of 65 favored Trump over Clinton by a margin of 53 percent to 45 percent, according to the Pew Research Center and exit polls.

But the latest polls show a dramatic shift away from Trump among seniors this time around, driven in large part by his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic which has taken a disproportionate toll among the elderly.

A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll had Biden leading Trump among seniors by 27 points — 62 percent to 35 percent — while a CNN/SSRS poll had him up by 21 points among Americans 65 and older — 60 percent to 39 percent.

A poll of likely Florida voters released on Tuesday by Florida Atlantic University (FAU) gave Biden a 51 percent to 47 percent lead in the state.

“Joe Biden continues to be competing better for senior voters than Hillary Clinton did in 2016, and that could be the difference in Florida,” said Kevin Wagner, a political science professor at FAU.

Forty-four percent of those polled said Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis was good or excellent while 50 percent said it was poor or terrible.

‘Lower the heat’

Trump, who called seniors his “favorite people in the world” after his release from hospital and promised them “the same care I got,” brushed aside the polls at his Monday night rally.

“Twenty-two days from now, we are going to win this state, we are going to win four more years in the White House!” he said.

Trump also continued to try to depict Biden as being too old and unfit for office, pointing to a moment on Monday when he appeared unable to remember the name of Mitt Romney, the Republican senator from Utah, and mistakenly said he was running for Senate.

“Sleepy Joe Biden had a particularly bad day today,” Trump tweeted. “He couldn’t remember the name of Mitt Romney, said again he was running for the U.S. Senate, and forgot what State he was in.

“If I did any of this, it would be disqualifying. With him, he’s just Sleepy Joe!”

Romney, meanwhile, issued an appeal to both campaigns and the country at large to “lower the heat,” saying the “consequence of the crescendo of anger leads to a very bad place.”

Romney, the only Republican senator to vote to convict Trump during his impeachment trial earlier this year, said he was “troubled by our politics.”

“It has moved away from spirited debate to a vile, vituperative, hate-filled morass that is unbecoming of any free nation — let alone the birthplace of modern democracy,” he said in a statement.

Romney condemned Trump for calling Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris a “monster” and for urging the “Justice Department to put the prior president in jail.”

“Democrats launch blistering attacks of their own — though their presidential nominee refuses to stoop as low as others,” he said.

“The world is watching America with abject horror,” Romney added. “It’s time to lower the heat. Leaders must tone it down.”

(AFP)

14, October 2020

French Cameroun Crisis: UN rights experts calls for Kamto’s release ⁰

A group of UN human rights experts has called on the Cameroon government to release detained opposition leader, Maurice Kamto, as well as hundreds of his supporters who were arrested following nationwide protests on 22 September.

Mr Kamto has been held under house arrest for three weeks now.

The military surrounded his home after he called for countrywide protests to force President Paul Biya, in power now for 38 years, to resign.

About 500 of Mr Kamto’s supporters were also arrested, and more than 200 of them are still in custody.

The 14 independent UN experts have also called for an impartial investigation into alleged human rights violations by the Cameroon government.

The police declined the BBC’s request for comment.

The government’s spokesman, Emmanuel Sadi, and his colleague of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, had earlier threatened to ban Mr Kamto’s party, Cameroon Renaissance Movement, as well as take up legal action against the opposition leader.

Source: BBC