18, June 2020

Ambazonia Interim Gov’t reacts to the French Cameroun Appeal Adjournment decision ⁰

Interim Government Statement On Appeal Adjournment of Leaders in Detention

Fellow Ambazonians,

Today, our leaders in detention were scheduled to make an appearance at the court hall of the Appeal Court of the Centre Region at the administrative centre Yaoundé. It was billed as the first hearing of their substantive appeal.

Our legal representatives have now been informed that the court has adjourned the appeal hearing to Thursday the 16 July 2020.

I wish to use this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude to all Ambazonians for their unending prayers and support towards our leaders.

Despite the nonexistence of impartiality in the French Cameroun legal system, our leaders and legal representatives remain cheerful.

Our determination to attain our goal of freedom and independence would not be quenched no matter how long the regime in Yaoundé delays justice for our leaders. Our spirit over the last four years gives me hope. The strength and courage of our leaders in detention should inspire us all.

Despite the genocide and injustice we face, our message to the regime in Yaoundé is; it is Total Independence or Resistance Forever

Thanks

Dabney Yerima

Vice President

Federal Republic of Ambazonia

18, June 2020

US: Trump defends a white officer charged with the murder of a black man ⁰

Donald Trump said Wednesday that US police have “not been treated fairly” and appeared to defend a white officer charged with the murder of a black man.

Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe was charged with murder Wednesday for shooting African American Rayshard Brooks in the back, and aggravated the case by kicking the 27-year-old as he lay on the ground bleeding.

The death of Brooks came less than three weeks after George Floyd died while being pinned down by Minneapolis police officers, fuelling a national uproar and anti-police brutality protests across the country.

“I thought it was a terrible situation, but you can’t resist a police officer,” Trump said of Brooks’ death in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity.

“I hope he gets a fair shake because police have not been treated fairly in our country.

“But, again, you can’t resist a police officer like that. And they ended up in a very terrible disagreement and look at the way it ended. Very bad. Very bad.”

Trump also mentioned Floyd, saying he had been unable to watch the nearly nine-minute clip of Floyd’s death.

“Who could watch that?” he said.

On Tuesday Trump issued an order to improve policing — calling for a ban on dangerous chokeholds — but he has stopped well short of demands made at nationwide protests against racism and police brutality.

Critics, including the Democrat speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, have derided his efforts.

“The president’s weak executive order falls sadly and seriously short of what is required to combat the epidemic of racial injustice and police brutality,” she said in a statement this week.

Trump derided the Democrats during the Fox News interview, claiming: “They do nothing and they want to defund and they want to abolish, they want to abolish police departments.”

Source: AFP

18, June 2020

WHO halts hydroxychloroquine trial for Covid-19 over lack of proven benefit ⁰

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that testing of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in its large multi-country trial of treatments for COVID-19 patients had been halted after new data and studies showed no benefit.

WHO expert Ana Maria Henao-Restrepo said investigators leading the so-called Solidarity Trial testing the drug – which had been promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump – had reviewed recent evidence and decided to stop recruiting new patients.

“After deliberation, they have concluded that the hydroxychloroquine arm will be stopped from the Solidarity Trial,” Henao-Restrepo told a media briefing.

In a statement issued later on Wednesday, the WHO said the decision was based on evidence from the Solidarity Trial itself, as well as from a UK-led trial that had found the drug did not help COVID-19 patients, and from a review of other evidence on hydroxychloroquine.

Data from those studies “showed that hydroxychloroquine does not result in the reduction of mortality of hospitalised COVID-19 patients,” the WHO statement said.

It said Solidarity Trial investigators would not add any more patients to the hydroxychloroquine arm.

But it added: “Patients who had already started hydroxychloroquine but who have not yet finished their course in the trial may complete their course or stop at the discretion of the supervising physician.”

Data from a UK-led clinical trial known as the Recovery trial found last week that the anti-malaria drug showed no benefit for patients with COVID-19.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday revoked its emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, saying it was no longer reasonable to believe that hydroxychloroquine and the related drug chloroquine would be effective in treating the disease.

Source: REUTERS

18, June 2020

Biya regime implements new e-customs system ⁰

Cameroon has rolled out the Cameroon Customs Information System (CAMCIS), a fully-automated electronic customs clearance system to reduce face-to-face engagement amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

CAMCIS was built by Korean engineers and is the result of a 12-year-old public-private partnership said Edwin Fongod Nuvaga, Director General of Customs.

The system is modelled on UNI-PASS, used by the Korea Customs Service, and designed to handle large volumes of data, fully automate processes and procedures as part of a paperless system.

According to customs officials CAMCIS replaces the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA ++) which has been in use in Cameroon since 2007.

Speaking at the recent launch of CAMCIS, Louis Paul Motaze, Cameroon’s Minister of Finance said the new system will significantly improve the business environment and spur profitability in the private sector by saving time and money.

The Minister highlighted the system’s operational speed, and said it will simplify import and export procedures and offer more security in the collection of customs revenue.

Customs duties and taxes are a key source of income for the government and in 2019 accounted for 14.3%.

“It is estimated that with CAMCIS, we would save a maximum number of days for our operations. Also, it will be possible to carry out customs clearance operations within one day after the validation of papers,” reads a statement issued by Cameroon Customs.

Séraphin Deffo Deffo, Chief Information Officer of CAMCIS, said the new system will guarantee traceability of all transaction, prevent fraud and corruption, enhance proper control of goods on transit, fasten procurement of customs duties and taxes, amongst others.

CAMCIS can be accessed and operated remotely using any digital device with a browser and an internet connection. It has three portals accessible to customs administration, economic operators and the general public.

Source: itweb.Africa

18, June 2020

Ambazonia: Cameroon general says troops kill 24 separatists ⁰

Troops carrying out raids in a western region of Cameroon have killed 24 people described as separatists, a general who heads operations in the English-speaking zones has said.

General Valere Nka told state radio Wednesday the army had carried out two major operations in recent days to fight separatists in the Northwest region, where a conflict erupted nearly three years ago, as well as in the Southwest region.

Nka had told CRTV television late Tuesday that 13 “terrorists” were killed in a first raid in the towns of Bali, Batibo and Widikum where separatists had barricaded a road leading to neighbouring Nigeria.

Another 11 were killed at a separatist camp in the town of Mbokam, and soldiers seized about a dozen weapons, Nka said.

He gave no dates for the two incidents.

Rights monitors regularly condemn abuses committed against civilians by both sides in the conflict, which has claimed more than 3,000 lives and forced at least 700,000 from their homes.

Decades of grievances at perceived discrimination by the francophone majority grew into a declaration of independence in October 2017, which was followed by a government crackdown.

Source: AFP

17, June 2020

Kenya: 4,000 school girls impregnated during Covid-19 lockdown ⁰

Kenya has reported a sudden surge in teen pregnancies in one single county over a period of five months thus threatening to cut short the pursuit for education among school-going girls.

Machakos county, located in the north eastern province in Kenya is leading several other counties in terms of teenage pregnancies in Kenya according to Kenya Health Information System survey

The data shows that a total of 3,964 girls aged 19 years and below were reported pregnant within that period.

Machakos County Children Officer Salome Muthama said the reported pregnancy cases among school girls are a much less than the actual numbers.

“During this coronavirus pandemic we do have 4000 impregnated girls. These are so many innocent girls,” she said.

She further reiterated that most of the cases were as a result of defilement by close family members

She adds that about 200 of these girls are aged 14 years and below.

“How can a 12 year old girl become a mother?” she posed.

“All the people who have impregnated these children needs be arraigned but it is becoming a challenge. We need special court sittings to address and deal with these cases,” Salome appealed.

She further blamed both the parents and the ineffective justice system for the prevailing crisis.

“Most of these cases you will find involve children who were taken from urban centres in the wake of Covid-19 and left in the hands of their grandmothers in the countryside as the parents returned to the towns,” Ms Muthama told reporters in Machakos Town.

Source: Africa News

17, June 2020

Cavaye Djibril-Captain Simala Affair: General Ivo Yenwo to appear before the Yaounde Military Tribunal ⁰

The case between the ailing President of the National Assembly, Cavaye Yeguié Djibril, and his nephew who moonlighted as his aide-de-camp, Captain Bouba Simala, had another dramatic hearing yesterday the 16^th of June 2020 at the Yaoundé Military Court.

The matter which is beginning to attract media attention was again postponed until the 21^st of July at the request of the state prosecutor’s office to enable General Ivo Desancio Yenwo, Director of Presidential Security to testify in front of the presiding judge.

General Ivo whose disappearance from the Yaoundé political and military scenes last year created so much under-the-table talk is expected before the judge to be heard and certainly bring new elements in this thorny case which is far from being over.

Judging from the high and delicate position he occupies among the ranks of President Biya’s closest aides in the Francophone dominated Beti Ewondo structure, it is highly likely that the soldier man will be represented by his counsel rather than responding personally to the Yaoundé Military Tribunal’s call.

It is vital to include in this report that the Cavaye Djibril- Bouba Simala case has been going on for 5 years. To be accurate since June 2015. The Speaker of the so-called French Cameroun lower house of parliament accuses his nephew, who was his bodyguard for more than 15 years, of having tried to kidnap him in complicity with senior army officers serving with the presidential guard.

By Rita Akana with files from Cameroon Info.Net

17, June 2020

Yaounde: Doctors Begin Home  Consultations  for  COVID-wary Patients ⁰

The U.N. Population Fund says many women are reluctant to seek medical care at health facilities for fear they may be exposed to the coronavirus. In Cameroon, a nonprofit group of doctors has started to make home visits, the first program of its kind in the country. 

25-year-old Jeanne Ngono said  she has a health condition that requires regular monitoring.

But she’s hasn’t been to the hospital for four months because she’s afraid of being exposed to the coronavirus.

Instead, a doctor from nonprofit group SOS Doctors Cameroon is visiting her at home.

She said she feels safe at home compared to the hospital. When you go to the hospital, said Ngono, you don’t know who you’re going to meet on the way; the taxis you’ll take; who is sick or not.

Like Ngono, many people around the world are afraid to go to hospitals, according to the U.N. Population Fund.

Medical experts say they understand this but urge patients to continue to stay in touch with doctors and hospitals.

Doctor Jean-Berthelot Zambo is with Cameroon’s National College of Doctors.

He said if there are initiatives that can add value, they should not be rejected. But in his humble opinion, said Zambo, the hospital remains the best place where diagnosis can be made and the patients well oriented.

The group SOS Doctors Cameroon includes 30 doctors in five cities. Patients can ask for a consultation on the group’s website or Facebook page. A visit costs about $34, twice the price of a hospital consultation.

Despite the cost, SOS Doctors Cameroon said requests for home visits have jumped from about 20 in March to about 100 per month.

And the medical aid group is continuing to find new ways to provide service, said SOS Doctors Cameroon President Dr. Fernand Ombolo.

He said they realized that it was mostly routine consultations. So, it gave them the idea to set up a remote assistance service, which is done by WhatsApp, says Ombolo. It allows patients to chat 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with a doctor, he said, and to ask any type of medical question.

The demand is expected to only grow. Cameroon has confirmed nearly 10,000 COVID-19 cases, one the highest number of known infections in Africa.

Source: VOA

17, June 2020

Ex-Cameroon defender Bedimo quits football ⁰

Former Cameroon defender Henri Bedimo, a French champion with Montpellier, on Tuesday announced that he was retiring two years after playing his last professional match.

“I’m ending my chapter as a professional footballer,” Bedimo said on Instagram.

Bedimo played 52 times for Cameroon, taking part in the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations and the World Cup in Brazil four years later.

The 36-year-old began his career at Toulouse in 2003 and after four years in Ligue 2 established himself in the French top flight with Lens in 2010.

He joined Montpellier the following year, just in time to win the only major honour of his career – the 2012 Ligue 1 title which was also his team’s first and only French championship crown.

He then spent three seasons at Lyon before finishing his career at Marseille, where he last took the field as a professional player in 2018.

Bedimo, who played close to 400 club matches in his 15-year career, had been without a club since his contract at Marseille expired two years ago.

Source: Supersports.com

17, June 2020

Cameroon’s reported COVID-19 cases top 10,000 ⁰

The total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Cameroon has reached 10,140, according to Africa CDC’s real time statistics updated Tuesday morning, making it the sixth African nation that passed the 10,000 mark.

The death toll stands at 277, while number of recovered cases rose to 5,601, according to data from the Africa CDC.

Last week, the Cameroonian government said it will scale up testing capacity for COVID-19 to limit transmission. As of Monday, some 50,000 samples have been analyzed since the start of the pandemic in Cameroon in March, health minister Malachine Manaouda tweeted Monday evening.

“We will therefore strengthen our three-T (tracking-testing-treat) strategy and set a new testing target”, tweeted Manaouda.

Cameroon reported its first coronavirus infection on March 6, an imported case from Europe, and has closed national borders and applied social distancing since March 18.

Despite the increase of COVID-19 cases in the country, Cameroon eased some restrictions in May, and reopened schools for students in examination classes on June 1 to allow partial restoration of activities.

Source: Xinhuanet