MOLA NJOH LITUMBE: In him, Southern Cameroons arose to fall no more

28, May 2020

MOLA NJOH LITUMBE: In him, Southern Cameroons arose to fall no more 0

A few remarkable events in my high school and university education introduced me to some Southern Cameroons Politicians and committed advocates for the reactivation of an independent sovereign Southern Cameroons. During my brief sojourn in the Bilingual Grammar School Molyko, I opposed and disrupted a brainwashing session convened by one Hongla Moma, the Secretary-General in the Governor’s Office to educate us about the green revolution.  Sometime later, I wailked out on one Bidias a Ngon the Minister of education.  Mola Njoh Litumbe was among the elders who were invited to both occasions.

 In the University of Yaounde, the discriminatory humiliation and the cultural genocide we were subjected to, thrust me to the leadership of a protest movement that grounded the University to a halt. Our entreaties to politicians of Southern Cameroons nationality to support our cause were favourably received only by Dr EML Endeley. Mola Njoh Litumbe knew and took note of these developments in the life of a Southern Cameroons student victim of French Cameroun’s cultural genocide.

It was a pleasant surprise shortly after my call to the bar that Mola Njoh Litumbe approached me one day at the premises of the High Court in Buea and briefed me to represent him in a Chamber motion before the Hon Justice T.E Mbuagbaw, bypassing many senior lawyers whom he knew for many years.  From thence a longstanding relationship developed around the Southern Cameroons problem. We spent many hours discussing and developing strategies on how to sensitise lawyers and students to join the struggle.

An opportunity came during the so-called pro-democracy political agitation that led to the creation of the Social Democratic Front. Bate Besong and me were disappointed with the ideological drift of the SDF that did not fully articulate the Southern Cameroons problem. Professor Obenson, was living across the road from Bate Besong and me. We spent many evenings ruminating about the devastation of our mineral resources, the excruciating suffocation of civil liberties and the evisceration of our cultural identity. Professor Obenson listened attentively.  On one occasion, he told us that he was working with committed Southern Cameroons patriots to create a political party that was primarily intended to be used as a vehicle to fight for the Southern Cameroons cause. He invited us to one of such meetings.

In attendance were Mola Njoh Litumbe, Ray Koge, Sam Ekontang Elad, B.T.B Foretia, Charles Oben, Chief Alexander Taku and Chief Ngole. The discussions went on deep into the night about the objectives of the Liberal Democratic Party that fulling aligned with the reactivation of the Southern Cameroons identity.  Unfortunately, Professor Obenson died in a yet to be explained motor accident on his way to Yaounde shortly after the party was legalised. Mola Njoh Litumbe thence piloted  the party but the ideological orientation of the party remained intact until his transition.

Outside the structure of any political party, from the home of Mola Njoh Litumbe, sometime from my law firm or Professor Atang’s residence, we developed strategies on how to mobilise our people to reject the slave status that was imposed on us and rise to assert our liberation and freedom. Mola Njoh Litumbe was with us at the SCARM (formerly CAM) Batassof Hotel conference in Buea in which delegates from all the counties of the Southern Cameroons deliberated on mass mobilization, the signature referendum which overwhelmingly voted for independence and the Buea Peace Initiative to formalize the peaceful redeployment of La Republique du Cameroun and its criminal forces and administration from our territory. The idea to support the convening of the AAC1 which was first developed by George Ngwane, Bate Besong, Vincent Anu, Francis Wache and me was endorsed.

  Mola Njoh Litumbe, from thence prominently helped to established a strong and enduring Southern Cameroons governing authority in our capital of the Southern Cameroons.  His residence became the de facto Southern Cameroons Government House from which meetings were held and demonstrations throughout our national territory were organized and monitored.  The international and national press were on hand to report on our cause and the tensions that were mounted by the enemy to attempt to contain the lava of freedom flowing from the top of Mount Fako.  He became the respected voice of the Southern Cameroons at home and abroad.

In attempting to stop Mola Njoh in his crusading leadership to free his people, the lava of freedom burnt the enemy and catapulted our cause to the international arena.  Mola Njoh Litumbe took our cause to all corners of the globe. He dared the coloniser and its criminal network in our territory on his own terms and left them defeated and humiliated. Enemy attempts to barricade his residence, arrest him or deny him his freedom of speech were defeated because the international media such as the VOA and the BBC were on hand to provide him their platforms to talk to his people while armed soldiers, gendarmes and police were out of his gate to stop him from coming out to speak to his people.

On the 14 May 2014, I submitted a ninety page petition that was authored by Mola Njoh Litumbe, Denis Atemnkeng, Hon Barrister Paul Ayah and me to the President of the United Nations General Assembly and to the Trusteeship Council.  I remember coming all the way from Arusha Tanzania to come and work with Mola Njoh Litumbe on that petition. The time I spent with him in that endeavour was so enriching and rewarding in many ways. He was a very knowledgeable man of wisdom and a passionate god fearing advocate of the truth and justice.

He was a towering fountain of wisdom that inspired and directed our freedom quest. Mola Njoh Litumbe is dead, but he will remain green in our memories and that of posterity. In honour to this great leader and thousands of Southern Cameroons martyrs of the revolution, we must fight on until the lofty mission for which they lived and died is attained.  Njoh Litumbe by his life and times taught us how to be great in humility. He did not seek power for the sake of power of for himself. He dedicated his life for the cause of the freedom of the Southern Cameroons and the people followed him because the truth and justice that he defended are power. He is dead but alive because freedom, justice and love for our people never dies.  He is alive in our spirit and in our determination to secure a free and independent Southern Cameroons. In him Southern Cameroons arose to fall no more.

By Chief Charles A. Taku

Coronavirus Crisis: Boeing cutting more than 12,000 US jobs, thousands more planned

28, May 2020

Coronavirus Crisis: Boeing cutting more than 12,000 US jobs, thousands more planned 0

Boeing Co (BA.N) says it is eliminating more than 12,000 US jobs as the largest American planemaker restructures in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

Boeing also disclosed it plans “several thousand remaining layoffs” in coming months but did not say where those would take place.

Boeing is slashing costs as a sharp drop in airplane demand during the pandemic worsened a crisis for the company whose 737 MAX jet was grounded last year after a second fatal crash.

Boeing said it restarted 737 MAX production at a “low rate” at its Renton, Washington factory. Reuters reported in April that regulatory approval for the MAX was not expected until at least August.

Boeing shares closed up 3.3% at $149.52, then rose another 4.6% to $155.84 after hours on news of the MAX production restart.

The company announced in April it would cut 10% of its worldwide workforce of 160,000 by the end of 2020. Boeing said Wednesday 5,520 US employees will take voluntary layoffs, and also disclosed it was notifying 6,770 workers of involuntary layoffs.

Chief Executive Dave Calhoun told employees in an email the “pandemic’s devastating impact on the airline industry means a deep cut in the number of commercial jets and services our customers will need over the next few years, which in turn means fewer jobs on our lines and in our offices. … I wish there were some other way.”

CFRA analyst Colin Scarola upgraded Boeing to buy and raised his price target to $174 from $112 saying Boeing “can weather its current crises and grow over the long term.”

In April, Boeing recorded zero orders for the second time this year and customers canceled another 108 orders for the 737 MAX, compounding its worst start to a year since 1962.

Last month, Boeing raised $25 billion in a bond offering that allowed it to avoid taking government aid.

The job cuts include more than 9,800 employees in Washington State. Boeing said the “several thousand remaining layoffs will come in additional tranches over the next few months.”

Boeing said it expects to resume 737 MAX deliveries in the third quarter following regulatory approvals before gradually increasing to 31 per month during 2021.

The aerospace sector has been hard hit including many Boeing suppliers.

General Electric Co (GE.N) said this month it planned to cut its aviation unit’s global workforce this year by as much as 25%, or up to 13,000 jobs. SpiritAero Systems Holdings (SPR.N) announced it is cutting another 1,450 jobs in Kansas.

American Airlines to cut management, support staff by 30%

American Airlines Group Inc must reduce its management and support staff by about 30% and may have to cut frontline employees as it downsizes due to the coronavirus outbreak, showed a letter to employees made public on Wednesday.

All major US airlines have said they will need to shrink in the fall, once US government payroll aid that bans involuntary job cuts expires on Sept. 30.

Competitor United Airlines Holdings Inc has also said it will need to reduce its management and administrative staff by about 30%.

Despite the bailout and other liquidity raises, American must “plan for operating a smaller airline for the foreseeable future,” Executive Vice President of People and Global Engagement Elise Eberwein said in the letter.

American, with over 100,000 employees, will offer voluntary options before implementing involuntary reductions if there is not enough take-up, she said.

Once it has reduced its management ranks, the company will turn to frontline employees including flight attendants and pilots, who will receive fresh voluntary leave and early retirement options in June with the aim of avoiding involuntary furloughs.

“This is a goal, though, not a commitment, and a stretch goal at that,” Eberwein said, adding the company will be working with unions in coming weeks and months.

American has said it is accelerating fleet retirement and expects to fly roughly 100 fewer aircraft in the summer of 2021. Nearly 40,000 employees have already opted for temporary voluntary leave or early retirement.

Earlier, American Chief Executive Doug Parker said the airline hoped to avoid furloughs and rejected speculation that it or another major US carrier will have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection due to the coronavirus crisis.

(Source: Reuters)

Bill Gates conspiracy theories echo through Africa

28, May 2020

Bill Gates conspiracy theories echo through Africa 0

As the novel coronavirus wreaks global havoc, Bill Gates is the new bete noire for conspiracy theorists worldwide including in Africa where a Kenyan politician’s false online post has added major fuel to the spread of misinformation.

While Gates’s vaccine programmes on the continent have long provided ample fodder for speculation, the bogus claims have gained new traction amid the pandemic.

On March 15, Nairobi governor Mike Sonko published an old video of Gates warning about the consequences of a future pandemic, with the caption “Bill Gates told us about the corona virus 2015 (sic)”.

While the clip shows the philanthropist telling an audience that the world was unprepared for global outbreaks in his TED talk five years ago, he made no mention of the coronavirus.

Sonko’s post generated so many interactions among his two-million plus Facebook followers that it remains the most prolific global post about Gates in the COVID-19 era, according to social media analysis tool CrowdTangle.

So far, it has been shared more than one million times and has garnered 38 million views on social media.

The post highlights the role played by local public figures in spreading false or misleading claims in different parts of the world, according to the Washington-based Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), which studies disinformation globally.

“They typically travel beyond… niche communities when an influencer, such as a prominent celebrity, or even mainstream media source, amplifies them,” DFRLab’s Zarine Kharazian told AFP.

“Once they’ve achieved this level of spread, they migrate across languages.”

– ‘All-powerful elites’ –

Rumours about links between Gates and the current pandemic have enjoyed particularly broad appeal among different conspiracy communities worldwide since the virus erupted in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019.

Since January, more than 683,000 posts globally from public Facebook pages and groups mentioned Gates, producing nearly 53 million likes, shares and views.

“One commonality of conspiracy theories that seems to span borders, languages, and cultures is a mistrust in ‘all-powerful elites’ and institutions,” Kharazian said.

“Gates’s prominent profile, outspokenness and active engagement in international public health work has made him a prime target for this particular strain of conspiracy.”

Among the most popular claims in Africa is the idea that Gates wants to control mankind with the use of microchip implants or digital tattoos.

Conspiracy theorists have also alleged that Gates stands to profit handsomely from an eventual vaccine and that his foundation patented a treatment years ago before unleashing the novel coronavirus.

Others again believe he created the virus for population control — a sensitive point in Africa where much of the visible push-back online has focused on the issue of a COVID-19 vaccine and experimental trials on local test subjects.

– Past controversies fuel suspicion –

A history of Western medical abuses in Africa explains some of the backlash, said Sara Cooper, senior scientist at the South African Medical Research Council’s Cochrane Centre.

“Over the last few decades, there have been various incidents of medical research conducted in Africa which have involved gross human rights abuses,” she told AFP.

They range from forced sterilisation experiments carried out in Namibia when it was part of Germany’s colonies in the late 1800s, to controversial drug trials conducted by Western pharmaceutical giants in various African nations in the 1990s.

The distrust of Western vaccines was evidenced by a recent viral post, which claimed that French maverick scientist Didier Raoult had warned Africans against using “the Bill Gates vaccine” because it contained “poison”.

AFP Fact Check debunked the claim — Raoult never made the comments and a vaccine does not yet exist.

But it struck a chord: the French version of the post was shared more than 47,000 times before it was taken down.

Politicians in Nigeria have also pushed similar narratives including Femi Fani-Kayode, a former aviation minister notorious for sharing misinformation along political and religious lines.

Fani-Kayode, who has a strong following among Christians from southern Nigeria, has shared multiple posts claiming Gates was part of a secretive power elite, which wanted to achieve world domination using the coronavirus and 5G technology among other things.

– WHO fights back –

As the virus numbers and rumours spiralled, agencies like the World Health Organization (WHO) raced to stem the spread of misinformation by running online campaigns and helping governments to set up dedicated web portals.

The WHO also held a workshop with more than 50 journalists in Nigeria in February. “Journalists and media are critical to getting the right messages to the community,” emergency officer Dhamari Naidoo said.

“We want you to transmit the right information to the people, and to contribute in stopping the spread of rumours.”

Source:  AFP

Exit of a Sasse Old Boys Association icon: Mola Njoh Litumbe’s spirit of the age

27, May 2020

Exit of a Sasse Old Boys Association icon: Mola Njoh Litumbe’s spirit of the age 0

The names of my classmates in the photograph, from left to right, are:  John Nsoyenika Obanus Vega, who later became a Surveyor; Thomas Mbua Ndoko, who later became a Civil Administrator;  Stephen Mokosso Ndeley, who later became Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly; Daniel Agbor Tiku, who later became an Agriculturist;  My humble self, who later became a Chartered Accountant, but now a Politician; Godfrey Layu, who later became a Barrister-at-Law; Jacob Achidi Kisob who later became Cameroon’s  Ambassador to the United Kingdom; Michael Njamfa, who later became an Agriculturist;  Stephen Nyenti, who later became Chief Nyenti, a Traditional Ruler and Politician.

 I must inform you that my classmates have all ascended into Heaven, and I am the only slow survivor, repeating a class because of unfinished homework which, when completed, I too will get promoted to Paradise!     Oma nanu  Mola

Four US police officers fired after death of unarmed black man

27, May 2020

Four US police officers fired after death of unarmed black man 0

A video of a handcuffed black man dying while a Minneapolis officer knelt on his neck for more than five minutes sparked a fresh furor in the US over police treatment of African Americans Tuesday.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey fired four police officers following the death in custody of George Floyd on Monday as the suspect was pressed shirtless onto a Minneapolis street, one officer’s knee on his neck.

“Your knee in my neck. I can’t breathe… Mama. Mama,” Floyd pleaded.

Bystanders filmed the scene as Floyd, thought to be in his 40s, slowly grew silent and motionless, unable to move even as the officers taunted him to “get up and get in the car.”

Witness describes how a white Minneapolis police officer pinned George Floyd to the ground.

Floyd was taken to hospital where he was later declared dead. Frey expressed outrage as calls rose for the officers to be prosecuted for murder.

“What I saw was wrong at every level,” he said of the video.

“For five minutes, we watched as a white officer pressed his knee into the neck of a black man,” Frey said.

“Being black in America should not be a death sentence.”

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said he had been retained by Floyd’s family.

Crump said in a statement that Floyd had been stopped by police over a forgery accusation, a charge often used for writing bad checks or using fake banknotes for purchases.

“This abusive, excessive and inhumane use of force cost the life of a man who was being detained by the police for questioning on a non-violent charge,” he said.

Floyd’s death recalled the 2014 choking death of New Yorker Eric Garner by police, who was being detained for illegally selling cigarettes.

‘Pure evil’

His death helped spark the nationwide Black Lives Matter movement.

Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo said he had passed the case to the FBI for investigation, which could turn it into a federal rights violation case.

But there were mounting calls for the officers’ arrest on homicide charges.

“This is pure evil,” tweeted Nekima Levy Armstrong, an African American Minneapolis civil rights attorney.

“Those same officers need to be charged and convicted of murder,” she said.

Floyd’s death comes on the heels of two other deaths of African-Americans that involved police wrongdoing.

On March 13 in Louisville, three white Kentucky policemen forced their way into the home of a black woman, Breonna Taylor, and shot her in a drug investigation.

And police and prosecutors in Brunswick, Georgia allegedly covered up the killing of a young black jogger by the son of a retired investigator for local law enforcement.

The police allegedly withheld for two months a video showing Ahmaud Arbery, 25, being followed and then shot with a shotgun in broad daylight.

The families of Arbery and Taylor are also being represented by Crump.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the Minneapolis case showed that US police continue to use harsh treatment on African Americans accused of minor charges.

“This tragic video shows how little meaningful change has emerged to prevent police from taking the lives of black people,” said ACLU policing specialist Paige Fernandez.

“Even in places like Minneapolis, where chokeholds are technically banned, black people are targeted by the police for low-level offenses and are subjected to unreasonable, unnecessary violence,” she said in a statement.

Source: AFP

Football: Chelsea’s Rudiger leads tributes to Cameroonian player Bouasse who has died aged 21

27, May 2020

Football: Chelsea’s Rudiger leads tributes to Cameroonian player Bouasse who has died aged 21 0

Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger led the tributes to Cameroonian midfielder Joseph Bouasse Perfection who died from a heart attack aged 21 on Sunday.

Rudiger, who played at Serie A club Roma during Bouasse’s time there as a youth-team player, expressed his sorrow at the “horrible news”.

“I’m so sad about it. Rest in peace, my brother,” Rudiger tweeted.

“A young talent gone too soon from us. Condolences to the entire family.”

Roma also paid their respects.

“The club is desperately saddened to learn of the untimely death of former Primavera player, Joseph Bouasse Perfection.”

“The thoughts of everyone at #ASRoma are with all those closest to him,” Roma tweeted.

Cameroon’s football federation (Fecafoot) paid tribute to the midfielder, saying Cameroonian football had “lost a player of rising distinction.”

Bouasse also spent some time at Vicenza before moving to Romanian side Universitatea Cluj.

Source: BBC

French Cameroun: Kribi-Ebolowa road construction project commencing

27, May 2020

French Cameroun: Kribi-Ebolowa road construction project commencing 0

Work is starting on an important road link in Cameroon. An Italian contractor, ICM-Construction, is handling the project.

The plan is to improve the 179km route connecting Kribi, on the coast in South Cameroon, with Ebolowa, which lies inland. This road project is costing an estimated US$225.6 million.

Funding is being provided by the Standard Chartered Bank as well as the UK export credit agency, UKEF. Improving this road link is expected to take three years to complete.

The town of Ebolowa is the capital of Cameroon’s South Region. Meanwhile Kribi is a busy resort town in the south of the country. Improving the road link will help develop the country’s tourist trade.

Source: World Highways

Agbor Balla’s dismissal over exam question raises concerns

27, May 2020

Agbor Balla’s dismissal over exam question raises concerns 0

The dismissal of a university law lecturer and human rights defender who set an examination question considered by the Cameroon government to be ‘seditious’ has been widely criticised by a number of the country’s academics.

Dr Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla, formerly a lecturer in the faculty of law at the University of Buea, an English-speaking university in a predominantly French-speaking region, was suspended by his university following a complaint by the Minister of Higher Education Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo to the university’s vice-chancellor, Professor Ngomo Horace Manga, about a question he set in a law paper.

The examination question causing the offence was: “The Anglophone Crisis since 2016 was caused by the lawyers’ and teachers’ strike. Assess the validity of this statement.”

Agbor Balla, who is also head of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, was given 24 hours to appear before a university panel on 5 May to explain why disciplinary action should not be taken against him for including such a question in the paper and breaching the university’s code of ethics.

Agbor Balla told the university he was ready to appear before the panel despite the short notice on condition he first appeared before a preliminary sub-committee – in accordance with the laws of the university. However, that request was rejected and he was summarily dismissed the following day for ‘insubordination’.

According to Human Rights Watch, Agbor Balla was arrested in January 2017 for leading peaceful protests in Buea along with other Anglophone activists. Charged by a military court under the anti-terrorism law, he was released in August 2017 and the charges were dropped.

Double standards?

In an exclusive interview with University World News, Agbor Balla said he was determined to make use of legal options to obtain redress for what he called the illegal termination of his appointment.

University World News can report that a question similar to that posed by Agbor Balla was set by a professor of law at the University of Yaoundé II – a Francophone university – in an examination conducted by the faculty of laws and political science in January. A copy of the paper has been seen by University World News. The question was: “The Anglophone problem in its new development since 2016: Is it nationalism or ethnicity? Discuss.”

Despite the similarity of the questions, no action was taken against the Yaoundé II lecturer, leading many university teachers and observers of university affairs to claim a case of double standards on the part of the minister of higher education who was himself once a lecturer in a Cameroonian university.

According to commentator John Menkefor, based in Bamenda, the incident has “all the hallmarks of the Anglophone-Francophone divide in Cameroon”.

In an interview on Zenger, Menkefor said the minister’s failure to take action in similar cases suggests that “the two parts are held to two different standards, defined by unspecified political considerations. These considerations can be partly conceived and used as instruments of political control of Anglophones.”

According to a Human Rights Watch report, a Ministry of Higher Education representative told Radio France Internationale that Agbor Balla had “turned a classroom into a political space”.

Interviewed by Zenger, Registrar of the University of Buea Professor Ernest Lytia Molua is reported to have said that Agbor Balla’s “invitation” to a disciplinary panel “was a privilege Buea University accorded him on humanitarian grounds, since he had run out of contract”.

“The University of Buea extended to him a verbal gentlemanly collaboration, which he has finally abused by intoxicating 17- and 18-year-old students on his political showmanship,” Molua is reported to have said.

Marginalisation

In an exclusive interview with University World News, Willy Nze Ngwa, a professor in the Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution at the University of Yaoundé I, said the incident exposed the “hidden hand of political intimidation, another manifestation of Anglophone marginalisation in Cameroon”.

He said there was nothing offensive in the set question. “The topic set by Agbor Balla is topical and should be encouraged to open debates aimed at rolling back the conflict. If the question is offensive, then all those other lecturers should be sanctioned,” he said.

On the prospects for a peaceful resolution of the current conflict in Anglophone Cameroon, he said: “Peace is an empty slogan if not weaved around social justice. Peace is the consequence of concrete actions aimed at rolling back conflict. The Anglophone Crisis could be resolved by publicly acknowledging the existence of marginalisation and by tackling the root causes of the crisis, engaging in frank dialogue, free from emotions and obsessions… [It requires the country] to genuinely correct future marginalisation through legislative dispositions and, of course, conduct a referendum to determine what the people really want.”

The dismissal of Agbor Balla has drawn widespread criticism. By 15 May, 65 national, regional and international civil society organisations had reportedly added their names to a petition to have him reinstated.

Criticisms

And even Francophone intellectuals have come out to openly condemn the actions of the minister and the university.

In a widely circulated open letter titled “Affaire Agbor Balla”, addressed to the minister, Professor Ambroise Kom, internationally renowned post-independence literary critic and former teacher of African literature at the University of Yaoundé I, accused the minister, once a university colleague, of not doing enough to protect the country’s university system from external interference in the domestic affairs of tertiary institutions.

Kom, also a co-founder of a private Francophone university, Universite des Montagnes, reminded the minister of what he described as his unjustified harassment by security agencies when his examination questions were sent by university authorities for scrutiny to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

He recalled that Dr Issidor Noumba, a member of the economics department at the University of Yaoundé I, had also been dismissed from the university because one of the examination questions he set was interpreted as a question which could threaten the peace and security of Cameroon.

“Thus the dismissal of Dr Agbor Balla is an integral part of a tradition of academic repression undertaken by the government via university authorities,” he wrote.

In another open letter to the minister, Dr Ludovic Lado, a former senior lecturer in the faculty of social sciences and management at the Catholic University of Central Africa, Yaoundé, criticised the method used to terminate the appointment of Agbor Balla.

“You did not allow due process to follow its full course before forcing the hands of the vice-chancellor to get rid of him,” he wrote.

Ludovic Lado took issue with the reasons given by the vice-chancellor in an interview with a local tabloid, The Sun, in which he accused Agbor Balla of setting an examination question which was biased and partisan in nature.

Reminding the minister and the vice-chancellor to allow for the full implementation of academic freedom, Ludovic Lado urged the university authorities to reinstate Agbor Balla to his post.

Culled from University World News

Coronavirus Outbreak: Unions oppose Biya regime’s plan to reopen schools

27, May 2020

Coronavirus Outbreak: Unions oppose Biya regime’s plan to reopen schools 0

A group of trade unions in Cameroon’s education sector has opposed the government’s plan to reopen schools on June 1 for students of examination classes.

The unions said opening schools exposes students and teachers to the Covid-19 coronavirus.

According to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the Central African country had recorded 4,890 positive cases, 165 deaths and 1,865 recoveries by Monday.

The country reported its first case of the coronavirus on March 6.

In a petition to the Prime Minister and head of government, Mr Joseph Dion Ngute, some 19 trade unions, including the Cameroon Teachers Trade Union (CATTU) and Teachers’ Association of Cameroon (TAC), urged the government to suspend the opening of schools and only evaluate students on work already covered.

Should the government want to still reopen schools, it should provide protective equipment for stakeholders for their safety.

“The distribution of [free] face masks and alcohol-based hand sanitisers is the only means to ensure equal protection of all actors in the face of the coronavirus pandemic,” the petition written in French reads.

The petitioners said students unable to acquire face masks might not be accepted on school campuses because of the directive to wear face masks, hence the government should provide them.

They added that the government should then limit the number of students to 24 per class.

Cameroon closed schools and suspended international passenger flights in mid-March as part of the measures to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Authorities also ordered the compulsory wearing of face masks in public, prohibited gatherings of more than 50 people, and closed bars, restaurants and leisure spots from 6pm. The government also placed restrictions on urban and inter-urban travel and regulated the flow of consumers in markets and shopping centres.

However, last month, the government relaxed the restrictive measures.

Prime Minister Ngute said the restrictions had helped mitigate the spread of the virus, but had also created economic and social hardship.

He said President Paul Biya had also decided to reopen schools, universities, vocational training centres and professional schools from June 1.

Source: The East African

Renowned Southern Cameroons leader Njoh Litumbe dies at 94

26, May 2020

Renowned Southern Cameroons leader Njoh Litumbe dies at 94 0

Mola Njoh Litumbe the Southern Cameroons leader who passionately sought a free Ambazonia homeland for the people of British Southern Cameroons has died.

The last days were not very painful said a senior aide to jailed Ambazonia leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe who confirmed Litumbe’s death to the Cameroon Concord News Group.

In a statement to the people of Southern Cameroons, Vice President Dabney Yerima observed that

“Our nation is in mourning. Mola Njoh Litumbe, a great Ambazonian to whom we all are indebted has sadly left us this afternoon Tuesday 26th of May 2020. He passed on to glory at Muna’s clinic in Douala, French Cameroun. He departed peacefully in his sleep at the age of 94. As a nation, our thoughts and prayers are with his immediate family at this hour of tribulation.

Mola Njoh Litumbe will be engraved in the consciousness of our nation as one of its true intellectual and revolutionary giants. On this solemn day, his courage and purpose will be celebrated with all Ambazonian flags at home and abroad flying at half-mast today and tomorrow. Our national broadcaster, SCBC TV will be running a programme later today to honour this monumental Ambazonian patriot.

We are calling on all Ambazonians to observe a minute of silence, embark on prayers and reflection over the next few days to celebrate his great life and sacrifice to our nation.

The Interim Government of Ambazonia will keep the nation updated over the next few days on this matter of significant national importance.”

By Asu Isong in London

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