Francophone Crisis: Cameroon faces more challenging times as BAS attack opens a new front in the instability rocking the nation

8, March 2020

Francophone Crisis: Cameroon faces more challenging times as BAS attack opens a new front in the instability rocking the nation 0

A BAS (BRIGADE ANTI-SADINARD) attack has killed 4 people in Galim, West Region of Cameroon.

BAS is an anti-government organization based in Europe. The movement has claimed responsibility for the attack and promises tough times to the Yaounde government.

This opens a new front in the instability rocking Cameroon. The country is faced with multiple conflicts and this spells danger for a sub-region that needs stability so as to stay on the path to economic growth.

Something needs to be done and done in a hurry to prevent Cameroon from sinking into chaos. This latest attack calls for prompt political actions to save a country that is fighting on many fronts.

Cameroon is Central Africa’s economic engine and a key political player in the sub-region. If Cameroon goes down, the entire sub-region might spiral out of control.

The Galim attack has highlighted how the country’s leadership is ineffective and inefficient. What is of importance to those at the helm is just the power. They don’t care about the country. Their goal is to make money while the rest of the country continues to head to the bottom of the abyss.

The country is in for rough times. The future is bleak. Until something natural happens, Cameroonians may not get out of the dark hole in which Biya and his men have put them.

President Biya has shown his limits. He is not up to the task, but the 87 year old and his criminal entourage do not want to admit it as that will reflect negatively on them. They are doing all they can to keep power, but things are quietly slipping through their fingers.

The military has been bought over. It is full of people from President Biya’s South region. Soldiers from other regions have been reduced to playing secondary roles. Non Betis are monitored very closely and any suspicion could put the suspect in a difficult situation.

The international community should take appropriate measures to help the country.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

French Cameroun Crisis: 4 soldiers killed by Brigade Anti Sardinards in Galim

8, March 2020

French Cameroun Crisis: 4 soldiers killed by Brigade Anti Sardinards in Galim 0

At least 4 Cameroon servicemen and women were killed in an attack on a military post in the West Region on Saturday.

The attack took place in Galim, where armed fighters linked to Brigade Anti Sardinards (BAS) are known to operate against security forces loyal to the Biya regime in Yaounde.

Cameroon Intelligence Report sources hinted that the provisional toll is 4 dead and several wounded.

A local businessman told the Cameroon Concord News Group that all those killed were police and gendarmerie officers, adding he saw 4 bodies being transported away by the military to Mbouda

Heavily armed French Cameroun fighters stormed the gendarmerie post at Galim and took away a lot of material,” he said, adding some Cameroon government officers were able to escape the attack.

BAS announced that the assault was its second military operation against troops serving the Biya regime.  A Cameroon government security source revealed that there were more than 75 attackers who came on motorbikes, adding the assailants left with all the weapons and vehicles at the post.

By Chi Prudence Asong with Intel files from Rita Akana

US: President Trump to keep holding rallies as coronavirus surges nationwide

8, March 2020

US: President Trump to keep holding rallies as coronavirus surges nationwide 0

US President Donald Trump has signaled that he does not plan to stop campaign rallies in spite of the increasing number of people diagnosed with the coronavirus.

Speaking on Saturday night at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump said his campaign events would continue even as a case was confirmed for the first time within miles of the White House.

“We will have tremendous rallies and we’re doing very well, and we’ve done a fantastic job with respect to that subject,” Trump said when asked whether there will be more “Keep America Great” campaign events.

Asked if he was worried about the first case of the coronavirus near the White House, the president said, “No, I’m not concerned at all.”

The remarks by Trump come as over half of all US states have reported cases of the coronavirus, with the number of Americans tested positive standing at around 425, according to a case count by Johns Hopkins.

So far, nineteen people have succumbed to the virus nationwide after two more died in Washington state.

A state of emergency was declared in New York on Saturday after the number of confirmed cases there rose to 89.

While visiting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta on Friday, Trump had warned about the quickly spreading coronavirus.

Hours later, however, Vice President Mike Pence walked back some of those comments, saying, “The president’s exactly right that for the state laboratories, for the communities that have been impacted, that have concerns about the coronavirus, we have been able to respond to requests for tests.”

Meanwhile, a leaked document published in media revealed US hospitals were preparing for a major coronavirus outbreak with unprecedented scale. The document estimates a death toll of 480,000 from 96 million coronavirus infections in the US.

According to media reports, hospitals and healthcare workers were already starting to feel the impact of the outbreak as it hits the cities across the US.

Source: Presstv

Coronavirus outbreak: Italy locks down regions in north, quarantines 16mn

8, March 2020

Coronavirus outbreak: Italy locks down regions in north, quarantines 16mn 0

Italy has placed entire areas — including the financial capital, Milan — under forced quarantine in an attempt to contain an already widespread outbreak of the new coronavirus.

The new measures, announced by Italian Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte early on Sunday and taking immediate effect, imposed a lockdown on Lombardy, Italy’s northern rich region, as well as 14 provinces in four other of the country’s 19 regions. Some of the major cities included are Milan, Venice, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia and Rimini.

“We are facing an emergency, a national emergency. We have been applying precautionary measures from the beginning and we are facing the situation with awareness and without underestimating it,” Conte said in a televised speech as he announced the draconian measures.

The measures included the closure of all museums, cultural centers, cinemas, theaters, and other public venues and events in the affected areas, impacting a total of 16 million people in the country of 60 million.

“We want to guarantee the health of our citizens. We understand that all these measures will create inconveniences… But this is a time when we must take responsibility for ourselves. We need to understand that all of us need to adhere to the measures. We need to protect our own health, the health of our dear ones,” the Italian prime minister added.

The decree also banned city commute within the designated areas other than for emergencies or “essential work reasons.”

“There will be no movement in or out of these areas, or within them, unless for proven, work-related reasons, emergencies or health reasons,” Conte said.

Italy’s Civil Protection Agency announced in a statement that the number of coronavirus cases in the country reached 5,883 on Saturday, the biggest daily rise since the epidemic began just over two weeks ago.

Angelo Borrelli, the head of the agency, also told a news conference that the number of fatalities had risen to 233 people, up by 36.

Italy is now the country with the highest deaths after China, where the virus first emerged.

WHO: World not taking coronavirus seriously enough

The measures taken by the Italian government on Sunday are similar to those adopted in China’s central Hubei Province, whose nearly 60-million-strong population has been kept under quarantine since late January.

The total number of the people diagnosed with the coronavirus, known as COVID-19, has passed 100,000 worldwide, while 3,500 people have lost their lives across 95 countries and territories.

China quarantine hotel collapse claims six lives

Meanwhile, six people were confirmed dead on Sunday following the collapse of a hotel used as a coronavirus quarantine facility in the eastern Chinese city of Quanzhou.

The Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management said rescuers had also retrieved 38 survivors from the rubble — with five in critical or serious condition — out of the 71 people initially trapped in the building.

The hotel’s first floor had been under renovation before the collapse of the building in the coastal city on Saturday evening.

Over 3,600 released from quarantine in North Korea: Reports

Also on Sunday, media reports said North Korea had released some 3,650 people quarantined over the new coronavirus after imposing strict restrictions and closing its borders in order to prevent the outbreak.

The individuals had been kept under quarantine in Kangwon and Chagang provinces, North Korea’s state radio reported, according to Yonhap news agency.

North Korea’s official KCNA news agency also announced on Friday that 221 out of the 380 foreigners who were under “strict medical monitoring” had been discharged from isolation.

Pyongyang has banned tourists and suspended international trains and flights to and from the country.

Maldives reports first coronavirus cases

In a related development, the Maldives reported its first two cases of the coronavirus infection on Sunday.

Local authorities said the two infected individuals — both of them staffers at a Kuredu Island resort facility — had tested positive late on Saturday and were suspected to have contracted the disease from an Italian tourist who had also tested positive after returning to his home country.

The Maldives restricted movement on Kuredu and several other resort islands.

Ali Waheed, the tourism minister of the country, said the two individuals had been quarantined.

“The period for the temporary restrictions will be decided by the medical teams. Right now, we have identified people who were in contact with the patients and they are in self-isolation along with secondary contacts. At this time we can say that these individuals will be monitored for 14 days,” he added.

The Maldives had already suspended direct air links with China, the epicenter of the virus.

Source: Presstv

Cameroon’s language war

7, March 2020

Cameroon’s language war 0

President Paul Biya of Cameroon is, in many ways, your bog-standard African “authoritarian ruler”, or, as diplomats don’t say, “dictator”. He has held on to power for almost forty years and is now in his seventh term as head of state, the oldest and longest-standing ruler in Africa. In 1983, as sole candidate, he won 99.98 per cent of the votes. He followed the example of other one-party states in the 1990s, allowing opposition parties to emerge and simply rigging subsequent elections.

At present, his troops are committing atrocities against an embattled English-speaking minority. They are rampaging through English-speaking villages in a French-speaking country whose economy is de facto controlled by French companies (over a hundred in almost all sectors including off-shore oil).

Cameroon has a civil war on its hands. Anglophone grievances came to a head in 2016, when the Francophone-dominated regime imposed French-speaking judges on Anglophone courts and Francophone teachers in Anglophone schools. Swiss and Commonwealth representatives have tried to mediate but President Biya thinks he can solve his problem militarily and has told both, in no uncertain terms, to go away.

Until 1960, there were two Cameroons. The larger territory was governed by France using the French legal and education systems and language. But in the smaller south and west territories, English common law took precedence, with English judges and English school exams. The present conflict dates back to decolonisation in 1961, when a UN-backed independence referendum offered the Anglophones the choice between joining Nigeria or joining French Cameroon. Thus 20 per cent of the population were not even offered the option of self-determination.

Under President Biya, the Francophone-dominated government, based in the capital of Yaoundé, has marginalised the mainly Anglophone northwest and southwest regions. Only one of 36 cabinet posts is held by an Anglophone. Since 2017, despite the constitution guaranteeing human rights, reputable human rights organisations have recorded the repeated use of force against Anglophone demonstrations. Journalists are arrested and tortured. Government troops, notably the Rapid Intervention Force, have been burning down English-speaking villages, with the result that 656,000 people have fled, between 35,000-50,000 of them into Nigerian refugee camps. Meanwhile, secessionist militias have become increasingly violent. Banditry is rampant. Civilians — including Catholic priests — have been kidnapped, some tortured. Catholic-run schools and clinics have closed, with 800,000 children deprived of schooling. Casualties on both sides have mounted: some 2,000-5,000 have been killed in the violence.

By October 2019, Biya was talking about a “major national dialogue”, but the Anglophone leadership was by now flying under the flag of a “Government Council of Ambazonia’, its name for the two secessionist regions. A paper promise of “special status” on the Quebec model for the two Anglophone regions was refused; few Anglophone leaders were willing to attend the talks while the repression continued, and “special status” left real power centred on the largely Francophone capital, Yaoundé. Biya is France’s man. He is housing 350,000 refugees from the Central African Republic and Nigeria, while deploying Cameroonian troops to fight Boko Haram. He is useful.

But what is France’s role? France never really left Cameroon. It has never shed a certain chauvinistic pride in the merits of its language, so Cameroon with a majority speaking French is an asset. The French Foreign Legion is dotted around the region.

I remember a high-level exercise in “entente cordiale” on Africa in the early 1990s when John Major was Prime Minister. It was held in one of the grand reception rooms of the Quai d’Orsay, resplendent with the decorative arts of the Second Empire, the ornate home of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The British delegation comprised the FCO, Dfid and international developmental NGOs. We were duly impressed. The French fielded staff from quite different government directorates, notably their intelligence services and military plus a lonely anthropologist. That also spoke reams.

An international group of Catholic bishops, brought together by the Toronto-based — non-partisan — Global Campaign for Peace and Justice in Cameroon, has recently signed an open letter to President Biya. They call on the president to join Swiss-led negotiations to address Anglophone concerns and claims. Increased international pressure is necessary if this is ever to happen. But Biya rejects what he claims is foreign interference in a domestic issue, insisting on a “home-grown peace initiative only”.

As the bishops wrote: “When the international community ignores escalating atrocities of the kind happening in Cameroon, it often ends up paying a massive bill. Sooner or later, we must fund refugee camps and peacekeepers, host negotiations, accommodate thousands of migrants seeking asylum, and then help rebuild shattered nations. It makes more sense to use diplomacy to stop the violence at an early stage, finding a political solution to a political problem through inclusive peace negotiations”.

Europe, including Britain, remains distracted by Brexit, but the US has begun to apply pressure, distancing itself from the Biya regime by reducing military aid and removing favourable trade status. It is time for another visit to the Quai d’Orsay and for a little more entente cordiale.

Source: The article.com

Ambazonia Crisis: 150 Cameroonian Women Transferred After Protesting ICE Custody in the US

7, March 2020

Ambazonia Crisis: 150 Cameroonian Women Transferred After Protesting ICE Custody in the US 0

150 women from Cameroon who have been imprisoned for months in a for-profit ICE detention center in Texas have been transferred to other remote immigration jails, in apparent retaliation for their protests over indefinite detention and dangerous conditions.

In a letter sent to the advocacy group Grassroots Leadership last month headlined “A Cry for Help,” the Cameroonian women complained of medical neglect at the T. Don Hutto immigration jail, writing, “Some of our sisters are sick and not being well treated. Others are running mad due to trauma and stress. … The medical department is very rude to us, they tell us we’re pretending to be sick even when someone is in serious pain.”

The Cameroonian asylum seekers also say they’re being discriminated against, writing, “Almost all the white women we came in with and even others who came after us have been released on parole and bond but we’ve been denied both parole and bond.” Advocates fear the women now face possible deportation in retaliation for speaking out against the conditions in T. Don Hutto. The facility has for years been plagued by allegations of abuse.

Source: Democracynow.org

Yaounde Calls for Increased Hygiene Measures After First Coronavirus Case

7, March 2020

Yaounde Calls for Increased Hygiene Measures After First Coronavirus Case 0

Cameroon confirmed the central African state’s first case of COVID-19 on its territory Friday. Officials say it was discovered in a French citizen who arrived in Cameroon on Feb. 24. 

Cameroon Health Minister Manaouda Malachie says the 58-year-old man was immediately placed in solitary confinement in a special hospital in. Malachie credited surveillance measures put in place by Cameroon after COVID-19 appeared in China with detecting the case and called on Cameroon’s population to be calm.

He said shortly after it was suspected the man was a carrier of the virus, he was immediately confined to avoid contact with others. Malachie said health officials started tracing the people the infected man contacted from the airport of departure through the plane’s arrival in Cameroon, as well as taxis or cars he used.  They also disinfected places he visited. 

Malachie said this wasn’t the first case in which COVID-19 was suspected, but previous cases were found to be negative after thorough investigations.

Malachie called on citizens to be calm and vigilant, saying that medical staff in the country has been advised on how to handle coronavirus cases. 

But news of the first coronavirus in Cameroon has scared people. Some rushed to hospitals and pharmacies to ask for advice or buy medical facemasks. 

Forty-three-year-old Isaac Dufe, who bought three masks for his wife and two-year-old baby, said he doesn’t have confidence that the Cameroon government will be able to control the virus’s spread should many more people be found with it. 

“Cases of diseases have been recorded in this country, for instance, a case like cholera,” he said. “When there is an outbreak of cholera, in many situations in claims a lot of lives. But now we are talking about a very complicated disease like Coronavirus, so I am so scared that if adequate health measures are not taken, then the situation might be very difficult in Cameroon.”

Phanuel Habimana, a World Health Organization representative for Cameroon, said it is following up on the case. He says Cameroonians should not panic, but must make sure they respect basic hygiene norms.

“Cameroonians should remain calm,” Habimana said. “Cameroonians should not rush to pharmacies to try to get masks. Cameroonians should abide to the measures that the minister [of health] has been repeatedly mentioning. Personal hygiene, washing hands several times a day, when someone is coughing, cover the mouth and nose with handkerchiefs and also make sure that people do not get in contact closely with people who are suspected to be sick.”

Last January, Cameroon health officials announced they had improved checkpoints around airports as they feared the virus could be brought into the country by travelers from China and other countries.

Health Minister Malachie said as part of epidemiological surveillance, measures had been put in place to prevent any possible importation of the deadly virus, which he said was an epidemic that causes diseases in mammals and birds and that in humans, the virus causes respiratory infections, which are typically mild but, in rare cases, can be lethal. 

Symptoms include running nose, headache, cough, sore throat, fever and the feeling of being unwell. B There is no vaccine for this virus and the only way to protect oneself is through prevention, health officials in Cameroon say.

Source: VOA

Biya regime to hold postponed vote in Southern Cameroons on March 22

7, March 2020

Biya regime to hold postponed vote in Southern Cameroons on March 22 0

Cameroon will hold a legislative election in parts of the country’s conflict-ravaged English-speaking regions on March 22 after the first attempt last month was annulled, the presidency said Friday.

Voting in 11 electoral districts in the anglophone North-West and South-West would be “convened on Sunday, March 22 in order to continue the election of MPs to the National Assembly,” a decree signed by President Paul Biya said.

The two anglophone regions have been rocked by deadly violence as armed separatists campaign for independence from the rest of Cameroon, which is majority French-speaking.

Separatist fighters had called on people in the two regions not to take part in nationwide municipal and legislative elections on February 9, issuing threats to anyone who planned to vote.

Clashes between the separatists and the army multiplied, according to several NGOs, though only one incident — in the North-West region — was reported on election day.

Cameroon’s constitutional council said on February 25 that the vote would have to be rerun in several parts of the two anglophone regions.

Results from the election released late last month showed Biya’s party retaining an absolute majority, winning 139 out of 167 seats on a turnout of almost 46 percent. Opposition candidates won only 16 seats, with the remainder going to allies of the ruling party.

The March 22 vote will determine who holds 13 outstanding seats.

The conflict in the Central African country’s English-speaking regions has killed more than 3,000 people and displaced nearly 700,000 in less than three years.

Source: AFP

French Cameroun political icon Adamou Ndam Njoya dies aged 77

7, March 2020

French Cameroun political icon Adamou Ndam Njoya dies aged 77 0

Dr Adamou Ndam Njoya one of French Cameroun’s refined academics is no more. The onetime Minister of National Education and president of the International Organization for Islamic Studies who also moonlighted as leader of the Cameroon Democratic Union, CDU passed away in Yaounde.

Local media recently revealed that he was diagnosed with cancer in 2018 and reportedly spent several months receiving treatment in the Republic of South Africa.

The pro Anglophone politician and lawyer was born on the 8th of May 1942. He served as Minister of National Education from 1977 to 1980. He founded the Cameroon Democratic Union Party in 1991 and successfully won the mayor ship of Foumban.  He was also elected MP for the Noun Division.

Dr Adamou Ndam Njoya had a strong and productive relation with Ni John Fru Ndi of the Social Democratic Front and both men unsuccessfully ran as presidential candidates in the 1992 historic presidential elections.

Like many common French Cameroun politician, he recently handed over the Foumban council to his wife, Patricia Ndam Njoya, who won the mayoral and legislative elections on February 9th 2020.

By Rita Akana with additional reporting from Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap in Glasgow

Yaounde records first case of Coronavirus

6, March 2020

Yaounde records first case of Coronavirus 0

The first case of Coronavirus has  been recorded in Cameroon. The Minister of Public Health confirmed the information earlier today.

According to the minister, a case of Coronavirus was confirmed at the Centre Pasteur laboratory in Yaoundé after a sampling carried out Thursday at the Cathedral Clinic on a French citizen who arrived in Cameroon since February 24.

“The Minister of Public Health, announced the confirmation of a case of Corvid-19, on Cameroonian territory. It is a 58-year-old French citizen who arrived in Yaounde on February 24, 2020″, says the press release of Dr. Manaouda Malachie.

“He has been placed in isolation in the care centre of the Yaounde Central Hospital for appropriate care,” the statement said.

Contacted by telephone, a doctor from the central hospital who requested anonymity confirmed that the patient had been placed in isolation.

By Rita Akana

«< 731 732 733 734 735 >»
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.