19, April 2020

COVID-19: Douala traders facing an economic onslaught ⁰

An economic onslaught is staring at the face of traders in the Central African country of Cameroon, which is one of the most affected countries by the coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic in the continent.

The country, known for its varied terrain and wildlife has so far reported 1,017 positive cases, with 22 deaths, according to data compiled by the U.S.-based John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre.

“The virus has slowed down my work. I have to go out and sell few things, even though I do not earn much,” said Adams Patrice, who deals with secondhand goods. He used to have a roaring business on weekends when people on the outings throng to markets selling cheap goods.

“Everything has changed. The customers are afraid. They pass by wearing their protective masks and do not talk to us. They barely stop to look at the merchandise. There is a drought in the market,” he said.

Like Patrice, an electronic retailer Fabrice Fondjeu, has also lost most of his clientele.

“I receive less than five customers a day compared to more than 40 before the pandemic. It has dipped my savings,” he said. He is counting that the government may announce some sops to stabilize the situation.

Although governments worldwide are encouraging digital connectivity as an alternative to physical connectivity, Tamo Christian, a cyber cafe manager, has few customers. He is still relying on the government’s push for digital education, expecting that students who do not have computers and internet connection at home will use his services. He has also cut his daily expenses considerably.

The restrictions on travel have also led to a steep decline in the online sale of tickets, said Geraldine Nbebi, sales administrator of an online ticketing startup. He, however, appreciates the fact that because of social distancing, people are increasingly getting used to digital technology.

Food chain affected

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Ebouki Lea, a food vendor, said she has been going through difficult times since restrictions on movements. She used to bring goods from villages and then sell them in cities. Regular customers have even abandoned her. Even farmers have limited production in the villages.

The secondhand goods dealer Patrice had thought of going digital, opening an online store, where he would share pictures of goods and receive orders through social networking sites. But he laments that he is on the other side of the digital divide and also does not have funds to open an e-shop.

Even as the Cameroonian government has taken measures for businesses, the fear that economic slowdown will stay for a long time to come is palpable. President Paul Biya had asked the trade ministry to ensure stability in prices and availability of consumer goods. He had also asked officials to come out with plans to regulate the flow of people in markets.

Acknowledging that it was a difficult time for traders, Minister of Trade Luc-Magloire Mbarga Atangana told a local radio station that there was no possibility of a shortage of goods. “The country should be able to rely on its national production and food reserves and count on sea shipments. The country is prepared for any eventuality,“ he said.

Source: Anadolu Agency

19, April 2020

No trace of disappeared Cameroonians, five years on ⁰

Human rights groups fear the worst for 130 Cameroonian civilians that remain missing following their arrest five years ago by the army on suspicion of belonging to the Boko Haram .

The individuals were arrested in the Far North as the Nigerian terror group launched its first attack on Cameroonian soil.

The boys and men aged between 12 and 60 years old were arrested in the villages of Doublé and Magdémé, which were the epicentre of attacks by the Islamist sect.

Army personnel initially arrested 200 individuals. After some time denying the arrests, the government in 2016 acknowledged the crackdown.

It disclosed that at least 25 men died in custody on the evening of their arrest. Identities of the deceased or burial places were not revealed.

The government also acknowledged that 45 other men were taken to and registered at Maroua prison. Three of them died in detention.

“All the others remain unaccounted for,” said a spokesperson of the human rights group, Amnesty International.

The organisation maintained doubts on the whereabouts of those that have not been accounted for.

It demanded that the government of President Paul Biya ensured justice for the victims and their families.

In 2015, Biya dismissed Colonel Charles Zé Onguéné, who headed the anti-terror operation at the time of the arrests.

He was charged with “negligence and breach of custody law.”

Source: CAJ News

18, April 2020

Spain Covid-19 deaths surpass 20,000 ⁰

The death toll from the coronavirus in Spain, one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, moved past 20,000 on Saturday, the health ministry said.

A total of 20,043 people have now succumbed to the disease, which killed 565 people in Spain in the past 24 hours, slightly down on the 585 reported on Friday.

Spain is the second worst-hit country in Europe behind Italy but has tentatively begun to ease a strict lockdown imposed on March 14, opening up some sectors of the economy, including manufacturing, earlier this week.

Shops, bars, restaurants and other social gathering places remain shuttered.

Peak passed?

Health officials say Spain has passed the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak which killed up to 950 people on April 2, and the pressure has eased on hospitals.

But the toll, which covers only people who tested positive for the virus, is increasingly contested in some regions.

How long will lockdowns last?

Officials there say thousands more people have died after showing symptoms of the disease without having been tested because there are not enough tests.

For example, Catalonia has reported that more than 7,800 people have died while the national toll for the region referred Saturday to more than 3,800. Since March 14, Spain has been under one of the strickest lockdowns in Europe that has been extended until April 25 and could be prolonged even futher.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)

18, April 2020

Blood on his hands: Yang Philemon is French Cameroun’s new Grand Chancellor ⁰

President Biya on Friday the 17^th of April appointed former Prime Minister, Philemon Yang to the post of Grand Chancellor of National Orders.

The Southern Cameroons politician with too much blood on his hands reacted by saying that “I am very pleased, I would like to sincerely thank the Head of State. This gives me another opportunity to serve the President of the Republic and also serve the Cameroonian people.”

Yang who spent 20 years in Canada as Cameroon’s ambassador was recently the Head of the permanent delegation of the Central Committee of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate to the North West Region.

The former Prime Minister also observed that he knows nothing about his new mission.

“I guess these are the big challenges. I think that in the coming days I will be able to learn and know what it is all about and that way I can make my small contribution,” he said.

Thus, less than two years after his exit from government, Philemon Yang rebounded at the Grand Chancellery of National Orders. He replaces Peter Mafany Musonge who spent 13 years in this high office.

By Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap in Glasgow with files from CIN

18, April 2020

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 5 killed in Bambili Palace attack ⁰

Five bodies were discovered on Friday in Bambili, a locality in the Tubah district, Mezam County in the Northern Zone of Southern Cameroons.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the men found dead were royals and employees on duty at the Fon’s palace in Bambili.

Our correspondent in Bamenda confirmed that the Fon’s Palace of Bambili came under attack from heavily armed Ambazonia Restoration Forces. The attackers entered the Bambili Palace and killed five persons who were on royal duty on that fateful day.

The Southern Cameroons self defense commander controlling the area recently blamed the Fon and his notables for French Cameroun army atrocities in Mezam. The Fon reportedly started a pro Yaounde campaign last month calling on Ambazonian fighters to lay down their weapons.

A Cameroon government army spokesman in Bamenda confirmed the attack on the Bambili palace and added that dozens of secessionist training camps have been dismantled by the defense and security forces in Mezam.

The Southern Cameroons crisis that has been shaking the so-called one and indivisible Cameroon since late October 2016, has led to an armed conflict between Cameroon government army soldiers and Ambazonia Restoration Forces.

According to the UN, more than 700,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Southern Cameroons-Ambazonia as a result of the conflict. And more than 35,000 others have fled to neighbouring Nigeria.

The Southern Cameroons leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe told Jeune Afrique International magazine that some 30,000 Ambazonians have died as a result of the conflict.

By Fon Lawrence in Bamenda

18, April 2020

US coronavirus crisis takes sharp political turn as Trump slams Democratic governors ⁰

The US coronavirus crisis took a sharp political turn on Friday as President Donald Trump lashed out at four Democratic governors over their handling of the pandemic after having conceded that states bear ultimate control of restrictions to contain the outbreak.

The Republican president targeted three swing states critical to his re-election bid – Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia – where his conservative loyalists have mounted pressure campaigns challenging those governors’ stay-at-home orders.

Amplifying a theme that his supporters have trumpeted this week in street protests at the state capitals of Lansing, St. Paul, and Richmond, Trump issued a series of matching Twitter posts touting the slogans: “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” and “LIBERATE VIRGINIA!”

Michigan has become a particular focus of agitation to relax social-distancing rules that rank among the strictest in the nation after Governor Gretchen Whitmer, widely seen as a potential running mate for presumed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, extended them through the end of April.

Protesters defying the restrictions from the steps of the state Capitol on Wednesday shouted “lock her up,” a chant that was a staple of Trump’s campaign rallies and originally referred to his 2016 Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

‘When it’s safe’

Whitmer said on Friday she was hopeful her state, which suffered one of the country’s fastest-growing coronavirus infection rates, can begin to restart parts of its economy on May 1. But she urged doing so cautiously to avoid reigniting the outbreak just as it was being brought to heel.

Responding to Trump’s critique later in the day, Whitmer said Michigan will re-engage its economy when it’s safe, adding: “The last thing I want to do is to have a second wave here.”

Trump also took renewed aim at one of his favorite political foils, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, suggesting on Twitter that his state, the US epicenter of the outbreak, had asked for too much assistance that was never fully used.

At his daily news briefing, Cuomo shot back saying Trump should “maybe get up and go to work” instead of watching TV, and accused the president of favoring the airline industry and business cronies in a recent bailout package that left little for the states.

The flare-up in political sparring came as the number of known coronavirus infections in the United States surpassed 700,000, the most of any country. At the same time, the tally of lives lost from COVID-19, the highly contagious lung disease caused by the virus, has soared to more than 35,000. New York state accounts for nearly half those deaths.

While the death toll continued to climb, the rate of hospitalizations and other indicators have been leveling off, a sign that drastic social-distancing restrictions imposed in 42 of the 50 US states were working to curtail the outbreak.

Stay-at-home orders and the closure of non-essential businesses have also strangled US commerce, triggering millions of layoffs and forecasts that America is headed for its deepest recession since the economic collapse of the 1930s.

The result has been mounting pressure to ease the shutdowns, leading to clashes between Trump, who had touted the strength of the US economy as the best case for his re-election in November, and governors in hard-hit states who warned against lifting restrictions too quickly.

Trump, who played down the coronavirus threat in its early stages, had been pressing to restart idled businesses as soon as May 1, at first declaring “total” authority to do so and branding governors who resisted his approach, many of them Democrats, as “mutineers.”

State control and testing

In the end Trump acknowledged it was up to the governors to decide when and how to relax the restrictions they themselves had imposed since last month, presenting new federal guidelines on Thursday as recommendations.

While the guidelines call for a phased-in, science-based strategy in keeping with the advice of leading health experts, the plan hinges on widespread testing to gauge the scope of infections and how many people might have developed immunity to the virus.

At a White House briefing on Friday, Trump’s coronavirus task force members, through statements and graphics, pushed back against criticism from some governors and lawmakers that limited testing ability is impeding the country’s return to normalcy.

“We believe today that we have the capacity in the United States to do a sufficient amount of testing for states to move into phase one in the time and manner that they deem appropriate,” Vice President Mike Pence told reporters.

Cuomo argued earlier that the Trump administration was foisting responsibility for a massive testing program on the states without providing necessary financial resources.

“Is there any funding so I can do these things that you want us to do? No. That is passing the buck without passing the bucks,” Cuomo said.

Even as Cuomo was addressing reporters, Trump immediately took to Twitter in Washington to fire back, saying he “should spend more time ‘doing’ and less time ‘complaining.’”

Trump struck a more conciliatory tone during the White House briefing. Asked about criticism leveled at him earlier in the day by Washington state Governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat who accused Trump of “fomenting domestic rebellion” with his “LIBERATE” tweets, the president demurred.

Trump denied he was suggesting that Michigan, Minnesota and Virginia lift their stay-at-home orders altogether, but added, “I think elements of what they’ve done are too much.”

Of the protesters, Trump said, “These are people expressing their views.” He added, “They seem to be very responsible to me. … But they’ve been treated a little bit rough.”

(Source: Reuters)

18, April 2020

Italy declares victory over Covid-19 in poorer south ⁰

Italian health officials declared victory Friday over the coronavirus in the poorer southern regions, where hospitals had been stretched to breaking point under the strain of the pandemic.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte had warned six weeks ago that Italy’s ability to conquer COVID-19 depended on whether cases can stay largely contained to the richer north.

The disease has now officially claimed 22,745 lives in the Mediterranean country of 60 million people — a toll second only to the United States.

But Italy has still counted itself relatively lucky because the outbreak erupted in provinces with the best equipped medical staff around the financial capital Milan.

Conte decided to gamble early by imposing the Western world’s first peacetime national lockdown, in the first half of March.

His team argued that the short-term economic pain would pay off by saving the health care system and allowing the country to gradually reopen in the weeks to come.

Italy’s top health officials said Friday that Conte’s big bet had paid off.

“We have prevented the spread of contagions in southern regions,” public health council chief Franco Locatelli told reporters.

“This is now a fact supported by figures.”

Levelling off

The latest data from Italy’s civil protection service offered new reasons for Conte not to extend some of the strictest restrictions when they expire on May 4.

They showed the number of people currently being treated for COVID-19 rising by only a few hundred for the first time since the outbreak began.

The current number of cases had been going up by at least 1,000 a day for over a month.

But they edged up by just 11 outside Milan’s Lombardy region on Friday.

“In absolute terms, we have had had the highest number of recoveries since the start of the crisis,” civil protection service chief Angelo Berrelli told reporters.

The generally improving picture prompted the civil protection service to announce that it was suspending daily briefings and moving to a twice-a-week format.

New tolls will still be issued daily.

Standoff

The leaders of Italy’s northern industrial heartland are pushing Conte to take another gamble and open as many businesses and industries as possible in early May.

The shutdown has devastated once-booming factory towns and left millions furloughed or temporarily unemployed.

Italy’s central bank said industrial production had declined by 15 percent in March and total economic output was set to contract by five percent in annual terms between January and March.

But a standoff is emerging between the northern leaders and those south of Rome.

Naples’s Campania governor Vincenzo De Luca warned Friday that he may have to “close our borders” to people from the north should those regions’ stay-at-home orders be lifted.

The scale of business reopening will be determined by the number of deaths and recoveries reported over the coming days.

Italy is still digging though data from individual regions to determine the true impact of its worst disaster since World War II.

Previously undisclosed figures from its public health institute revealed that nearly 17,000 medics have been infected with the virus since Italy’s first COVID-19 death was recorded on February 21.

Several Italian doctors have expressed fears that infected health care workers may have been unwittingly spreading the disease to their patients in the early weeks of the outbreak.

A study released Thursday by the FNOMCeO medical association said COVID-19 has killed 125 doctors in Italy.

(AFP)

18, April 2020

Biya’s DE-crowding of prisons to combat COVID-19: Southern Cameroonians excluded ⁰

French Cameroun President has announced steps that will lead to the release of thousands of prisoners due to concerns about the coronavirus spreading in overcrowded facilities.

However, citizens from the Federal Republic of Ambazonia fighting for an independent state of Southern Cameroons and French Cameroun government officials jailed for corruption are excluded. Rights groups also note that Biya’s political opponents and journalists critical of his rule will remain behind bars.

Camcordnews with files from VOA

18, April 2020

Covid-19 in Africa: WHO says Cameroon, South Africa and Algeria account for half the cases ⁰

South Africa is into the extension of the national lockdown. Questions remain on the minds of citizens across the continent whether stepped-up measures such as lockdowns have made a difference?

Experts from the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the World Economic Forum on Covid-19 in Africa held a briefing on 16 April.

Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization Regional Director for Africa confirmed that there are now 17 000 Covid-19 cases and 900 deaths in Africa to date. South Africa, Algeria and Cameroon account for half of the cases.

When a vaccination becomes available is there protocol set in place to ensure the vulnerable get it first?

“We build on lessons of the past, like Ebola,” said Elsie Kanza, Head of Africa, World Economic Forum. New partnerships were called upon to ensure the safe and effective distribution of vaccines, “It is all about solidarity” which was reiterated by Dr Simon Missiri, Regional Director for Africa, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). “Politicians’ first response is to protect their people but we need solidarity… which we know is difficult to practice.”

Dr Moeti said the WHO Africa is encouraging African countries to get involved in clinical vaccine trials to contribute to the global Covid-19 vaccine effort.

Lockdown and other measures: A balancing act of the health of citizens or the economy

South Africa’s swift methods such as social distancing, the closing of schools and lockdown seem to have slowed down the Covid-19 curve. “Lockdown measures are difficult but this needs to be supported with strong communication,” Dr Moeti added.

It is important that countries who implement measures such as lockdown, do them gradually. This is to minimize the frustrations put on communities.

Kanza expressed concern over the socio-economic impacts of communities in Africa. She said that it is likely that one-third of Africans are likely to lose their jobs. This is due to the many sectors of industry closing such as restaurants and non-essential services as well as those in the informal sector. Dr Moeti confirmed that the WHO Africa budget is $300 million which is worked out over six months.

It is difficult to balance the health or the economy of communities. Dr Missiri explained that non-standard solutions need to be implemented in ‘slum-like areas’ or highly densely populated communities.

“What is more important? Loss of life or economic downturn?” posed Dr Missiri.

Estimation or trajectory of Covid-19 in Africa:

Dr Michel Yao, WHO Emergency Operations Programme Manager, said it is difficult to make a long-time estimation. There are many factors to take into account such as geography or whether public health measures are working to flatten the spread.

Culled from Sandtonchronicle

18, April 2020

Virus Outbreak: Eto’o plans to help 100,000 in Cameroon ⁰

Former Barcelona and Cameroon striker Samuel Eto’o has said he will distribute supplies to 100,000 people to help support efforts to combat coronavirus in his home country.

Eto’o runs a foundation in the country and has promised that it will be used to “share soaps, sanitisers and several food items to fifty thousand households in four cities – Douala, Buea, Yaoundé and Bafoussam.”

An additional 50,000 protective face masks will also be supplied – specifically for taxi drivers in the country.

“This is a serious humanitarian crisis and only via proper sanitisation and the distribution of health kits can we curb the coronavirus,” read a statement from the Samuel Eto’o Foundation.

Cameroon’s government continues to take measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, including closing down the central African nation’s borders and suspending all sports activities.

On 5 April, Cameroon’s health minister Manaouda Malachie reported that 650 people had tested positive with the virus. A total of 165 have recovered while there have been 17 deaths.

With Cameroon’s top and second tier football championships suspended, several players have taken to social media to plead for help amidst growing financial concerns.

Around a thousand footballers from 44 clubs of the country’s men and women’s domestic championships are also expected to benefit from the move via food items and basic necessities.

Eto’o, four-time African Player of the Year, has previously taken to his social media to give fans advice on following World Health Organisation tips on fighting coronavirus.

Source: BBC