Monthly Archives: October 2019

27, October 2019

French Cameroun Military Frees Hostages, Kills Captors ⁰

Camerooon’s military freed a group of people this week who had been taken hostage by rebels from the Central African Republic.

The rebels took 22 locals hostage two weeks ago and held them for ransom. But the military’s raid Thursday night on Garoua Boulai freed 13 Central Africans and Cameroonians.

Residents in the Cameroon villages of Mbaimbum, Tchabal and Bigao were still discussing the raid days later.

Cattle rancher Muhamady Issa was one of those abducted. He said the kidnappers had killed some of the hostages.

Issa said that while in captivity in the mountains on the border with CAR, he decided to escape to the surrounding bushes and hills instead of being slaughtered, as had happened to seven fellow captives within 10 days.

Issa fled and was found in the hills by the Cameroon military. At least two of the people kidnapped were still missing.

Five kidnappers killed

Cameroonian army Colonel Dominique Njonkan, commander of the troops who carried out the raid, said his men killed five of the abductors. He said that with the public’s help, the army was trying to determine which armed gang the men belonged to.

“The results are satisfactory and the population is collaborating more and more,” Njonkan said. “They must have confidence, make sure that they go ahead with their activities without fear, to make sure that economic activities are revamped to the maximum.”

Cameroon shares a boundary of over 1,000 kilometers with CAR. Since conflicts in the neighboring state erupted in 2013, many armed gangs have established bases in eastern Cameroon.

Members of the Cameroon military display weapons seized from hostage-takers, in Mbaimbum, Cameroon, Oct. 25, 2019. (Moki Edwin Kindzeka/VOA) — Members of the Cameroon military display weapons seized from hostage-takers

Cameroon deployed its elite corps, the Rapid Intervention Batallion, to fight the rebels.

George Kombo, spokesman for youths of Kadei district on the border, said that despite the heavy presence of troops, armed gangs continued to attack them regularly.

He said hardly a week goes by in the Kadei district without armed groups crossing over from CAR to steal, kill or capture people for ransom. He said the last incident occurred Thursday when an armed gang killed six people in the border village of Bombe, which is also home to hundreds of CAR refugees.

The government and local authorities have not confirmed the attacks, but they say the military presence has been increased in villages in the Kadei district.

1 million-plus displaced

Violence erupted in CAR in 2013 after longtime leader Francois Bozize was overthrown by a predominantly Muslim rebel alliance called the Seleka. The conflict has displaced more than 1 million people, according to the U.N.

This week, close to 400 CAR refugees in Cameroon agreed to voluntarily repatriate. But the vast majority of the 274,000 refugees are reluctant to go home because of continuing violence.

Source: VOA

27, October 2019

Nigeria committed to ensuring welfare of Southern Cameroons refugees’ ⁰

How has it been since the refugee camps started?
By October 2017 when this crisis between the Southern Cameroon people and the government of Cameroon started, they got to Nigeria and by our being part of the signatory to the African Union (AU) and European Union (EU) Convention on Refugees, we are not supposed to send any refugees back because of the non-referral policy. So, since that time, we have accommodated them.

We went to the host communities to interface with them; we spoke to the people that the refugees were vulnerable and that they came here out of need. We asked that they should be allowed to be there. SEMA, at the instance of the government of Cross River State, led by Senator Ben Ayade, provided settlements and camps for the refugees. And since then, they have been here.

In mass care of this nature, which we call camp coordination and camp management, we have nine sectors, but they have been fused into about six. These bother on WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) protection; health and education, which fundamentally are their rights, and issues of sustainable livelihood for the refugees.

Initially, when they started, they were given food and non-food items directly. At some point, however, it became necessary to convert the supplies to money. So, as we speak, each Cameroonian or each refugee earns about N7, 200 based on the standard in the food basket. So, if you are five in number, it means you are earning N7, 200 times five in each household (amounting to N36, 000). When you contrast this with what obtains in Nigeria where N18, 000 is what an average household of five takes as minimum wage, you should know the worth of our effort.

The government of Cross River State, by extension the Nigerian government, has taken the Cameroonians and given them refuge. In different ways, they have been united with the host communities. Presently, the refugees are paying almost nothing to have their wards in school up to secondary school, courtesy of the Cross River State government. A primary school pupil pays a stipend of about N1, 000, while a secondary school student pays about N2, 000 because of their vulnerable situation.

The state has also given them settlement areas. There are five of such with two already working – that is Adagom and Okende. There are about 11, 000 inhabitants in Adagom and 4, 000 in Okende, making a total of about 15, 000 refugees that are in the settlements. Given that the settlements were made for less than the population we currently have, the state government, through the Director General, SEMA, have been able to secure a place in Adagom that is a bigger than the current settlement. This is in addition to new ones in Uyia and Oban that would also accommodate refugees.

Regarding the health situation in camp, the refugees have been integrated to state health facilities. Apart from that money paid to them, the health facility and education is free. They also have the right to interface with the communities in terms of livelihood. So, they can go to work and earn a living as Nigerians. There is a policy that ensures that the refugees will not be cheated or undermined. We have a mechanism that takes care of all the fundamental human right of settlers.

How many houses do you have?
We have up to 41 communities and each community has not less than 18 households or houses. In Okende, we have about 15 settlements (houses). We have about 15, 000 refugees here.

And how many refugees do you have in the state?
We have about 45, 000 in the country and Cross River state has more than 60 per cent of those refugees, about 28, 000 or more. Those are the ones that are biometrically registered. But those in the host communities who have not been registered are more. So, as we manage them here, we still go to the host communities where they are. They are in about eight or nine local government areas of Cross River State. They are in Boki, Obanliku, Etung, Akampka, Calabar South and Calabar Municipality, Ogoja and Odukpani.

Do you think their population could overwhelm the state and the Nigeria government in terms of resources?
Human wants are insatiable and in any economy, you have limited resources. The resources have been over-stretched, no doubt. But we have accommodation and we have a way of containing the people even though facilities are over-stretched.

Issues of poor health facilities, poor education standard and discrimination against the refugees have been raised. What is your take on this?
I wouldn’t agree with that. We signed the referral policy of being part of the AU and UN convention that allows for refugees to be part of us. We did that with the knowledge of the entirety of what it contains in terms of their rights and whatever is enshrined in the convention.

For instance, the schools in the host community are the same schools children of the Cameroonians attend. It is the same situation with health. A human being is a human being irrespective of where you come from. So, when you go to a doctor, he will not ask you whether you are a refugee or not. All the doctor knows is that somebody is sick and needs to be attended to.

It is said that since the camp started, over 80 persons have died because of alleged poor health issues and nutrition?
That is not exactly correct. However, they do have the attitude of not going to the hospital or health facility because of their belief in herbs. Some of them only surrender to the medics when their health situation has got to the critical stage. But we are doing a lot of sensitisations in conjunction with SEMA.

Prostitution is alleged to be very high in the camp due to lack of jobs?
Prostitution is not as a result of vulnerability. It is your act or your person. If you want to be promiscuous, you will be promiscuous. There are people in the settlements that are not promiscuous. We have some of them here who are heading organisations in three countries. There are two of them, for instance, that are here; they got jobs and are working and interacting in Ghana and Sierra Leone.

So, if you have come and you want to work, you will work. If you go through Ogoja, most of them are working in different areas. If you don’t have the attitude to work and you want everything to come to you, it is alright. But on the whole, in this intervention, one of the sectors is livelihood and professionals are the ones handling it. The ones willing, who are serious, are getting jobs. As we speak, we are trying to de-emphasis the issue of giving fish to them but to teach them how to fish, which is what they call durable and sustainable solution.

What are the major challenges that you face taking care of the refugees?
Resources are scarce generally. We need more resources, and more hands on deck. Multinational agencies and others should come to our aid and collaborate with UNCHR, the government of Cross River State and by extension, Nigeria. Again, when people come from another area with cultural differences, there would always be issues of variations. But we are trying to manage them to see how we can co-exist.

Source: The Guardian

27, October 2019

Southern Cameroon refugees: Displaced from home, despised abroad ⁰

Since the struggle for equality and justice by the people of Southern Cameroon against the Francophone north began, leading to an almost endless conflict between separatists from the Anglophone south and government forces, over 500, 000 Cameroonians fleeing from the crisis have been displaced.

While some of the displaced have taken refuge in rural areas and the forests, majority have spilled into border communities along the West African coast, with Cross River and Taraba States in Nigeria becoming the big hosts.

For those who fled their cozy abodes and structured lives in the wake of the crisis and found shelter in different parts of Nigeria, life has been everything but sweet. In a case of being displaced from home yet being unsettled abroad, life, indeed, has been a parody. Aside living in totally poor and inhuman conditions in camps hurriedly put up without consideration for basic amenities required for living, survival has been by the day and for the fittest.

Before the influx of the displaced Cameroonians, Adagom and Okende villages in Ogoja Local Council of Cross River State were quiet and agrarian. But the arrival of thousands of registered refugees eroded that serenity, as the two host villages with a population of less than 3, 000 have now become busy, with a cluster of 72 new communities (41 in Adagom and 31 in Okende) built up by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and their partners. The development took vehicular and human traffic to a level never experienced before.

The population of refugees, according to the Director General, Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr. Princewill Ayim, keeps increasing daily, making it a challenge to put an accurate figure to the displaced persons being harboured. While a UNHCR report, stated that, “in Cross River alone, the 26, 000 figure as of March 2019, has grown to about 28,713,” Ayim confirmed that the number of unregistered refugees doubles the UNHCR figure.

In Taraba State, the displaced Cameroonians have taken refuge in five out of the 16 local government areas, namely; Takum, Ussa, Donga, Sardauna and Wukari.

Trauma, Hardship In Camps
As the refugee population continues to grow at the camps, the living condition and well being of the settlers are said to be everything but pleasant. Aside from the dehumanising conditions that they live in, majority of them have resorted to taking up menial jobs in the environs as a means of survival.

The Adagom settlement is just by the Ogoja-Katsina-Ala Highway. It has 41 small one-room structures, each mostly accommodating a household of five. It has no bath, toilet or kitchen facility. The cooking is done outside, while bath and toilets are provided outside by the UNHCR. The environment is moderately clean, with solar streetlights, and general pump boreholes provided in strategic corners across the massive settlement.

Asu Javis Owan, a 24-year-old, who runs a barbing salon outside the settlement, in company of his friends, was full of praise for the UNHCR and the Nigerian people for accommodating them, but he bemoaned the conditions at the camp.

He said: “The problems here are many. We do not have water and food. Occasionally, food would be there in the warehouse, but it would not be distributed. They will end up burning it when it goes bad and it pains us.

“They pay us monthly; each person gets N7, 200. But for three months now, they have not paid. The money is good, but before they pay us, we may have run into so much debt. They paid last in July. We survive with this money; we are just struggling.”

Owan arrived at the Adagom settlement with his parents last December after the army in Cameroon drove them away from Okwaya in Southern Cameroon over alleged claims by the Paul Biya-led government that they were terrorists.

Issues of poor access to education, feeding, health, prostitution, joblessness, discrimination and others were also raised when The Guardian sought other opinions in the camp. For instance, about 80 persons are said to have lost their lives in the past one year due to poor health facilities, hunger and trauma.

In the settlements in Taraba, some respondents told The Guardian that life has been pretty difficult as assistance expected from the authorities, especially from the Federal Government of Nigeria are not rendered when due.

The development, they added, has now resulted in the regular occurrence of avoidable vices in the camps as helpless parents, left with no alternative, succumb to trading their children for money.

The dire situation could, perhaps, have been the trigger for 20-year-old Claudia, a refugee at the Adagom camp, who recently sold her baby for N70, 000.

Claudia had arrived Nigeria from Cameroon in October 2018, pregnant, alongside over 40, 000 other refugees.

Charles Ojon, leader of the refugees in Adagom camp, recalled that Claudia was delivered of a baby shortly after she arrived at the camp, but had been struggling to survive the hellish conditions at the camp.

But for a dispute, which arose from the sharing formula of the proceeds from the baby sale, the act may have gone unnoticed.

According to Elvis Manget, one of the refugees on the security team of the camp, the deal was discovered when an argument ensued over the money. Some of the refugees who witnessed the incident said Claudia had been suffering since she arrived at the camp.

Claudia blamed her action on hunger and hardship.

Ojon said: “When the police came, she said she sold the child because of hardship; that there is no food or anything to feed the child with. That was just before they paid our July allowance. Then, everywhere was dry. A lot of us have been selling our things and using them to settle debts.”

Another refugee, who said he first met the woman when she had a case with a resident of Ogoja, whom she had an affair with, corroborated Ojon’s claim.

The refugee said: “A Nigerian had earlier been here to take her to his house; they slept together but he did not pay her after their business. So she came to report the matter to us; that was when I first saw her and the kid. We were sent to go and bring the man and the matter was later settled.”

In Taraba, some parents have also been compelled to give their children away as domestic helps. And some have lost contact with the children, who have since been taken to far-flung locations across the country.

Bubs Ali, a 13-year-old boy, who escaped from Cameroon along with his parents and came to Ussa, now goes round the villages helping people on their farms and often times washing plates in restaurants.

Worried that his dreams of getting educated may have been shattered, he called on the international community to urgently wade into the upheaval in his country.

Unlike Ali, many unlucky children in camps in Taraba State are currently miles away from their siblings and parents, as they have followed agents acting as middlemen for households in need of house helps.

A 46-year-old woman, who preferred to be anonymous, said many of those in the camps have fallen victims to agents, who, according to her, “always come here promising to help us train our children.”

The Guardian gathered that while some of the agents put on the garments of faith-based organisations to exploit the parents, some went as far as donning the emblems of Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) to be able wean the children off their parents or guardians.

Most of the camps visited were populated by women and children, and were in dire need of health facilities and sanitary systems. Outbreak of diseases seem imminent, as The Guardian observed in one instance that the refugees drank water from the same ponds with animals, just as they defecated indiscriminately around their surroundings due to lack of latrines.

The ugly situation of the refugees is made worse by the prevailing security situation in the Southern part of Taraba State, which has continually led to killings between the Tiv and Jukun, kidnappings and banditry.

According to some of the displaced persons, the ongoing killings in the zone have made life more difficult for them, in that they are always afraid to go out in search of work, or food and get mistaken as Tiv or Jukun in the process.

Refugees As Strain On Host Communities
Since their arrival and continuous inflow into their host communities in both Cross River and Taraba states, there have been muffled complaints by locals and their representatives that the massive presence of the Cameroonians was hitting hard on health facilities.

In a chat with The Guardian, a local council chairman, currently playing host to some of the refugees in Taraba, narrated how the massive influx of the refugees into his council in Ussa was fast crippling facilities.

The council boss, Rimansikwe Tanko Musa, stressed the need for governments at both the state and federal levels to establish a hospital in Ussa, stating that, “what we have here is a clinic. So, we need a hospital to address these challenges.”

The chairman said that the medical facility available, including drugs, have been over-stretched by the displaced persons. He lamented that the council was now in dire need of a well-equipped hospital.

The chairman, who spoke through his supervisory counselor on Primary Health Care, Sechap Giwa Rikuye, said: “While two of the wards in the council are presently being occupied by the refugees, one of the wards in the neighbouring Special Development Area of Yangtu, which also depends solely on the health clinic located in Ussa, have also been overtaken by the refugees.”

Apart from the state governments and the Taraba State Primary Health Care Development Agency (TSPHCDA) that have been giving some helping hand to the refugees, Musa added that the government at the centre has not deemed it fit to give any form of assistance to the camps.

Just as Ussa seeks the immediate establishment of an equipped hospital, it is the same story across other affected councils as their chairmen also called on the federal government to complement the state government’s effort in order to make life comfortable for the refuges as well as their host communities.

The agency that claimed to be aware of the presence of displaced persons from Cameroon in the state, said a lot of plans are in the pipelines to ensure that their health situations is adequately addressed

The Executive Secretary of the agency, Alhaji Aminu Hassan Jauro, who made this known through the State Health Education, Mrs. Mercy Maigoge, said the agency would not go to bed pending when 100 percent routine immunity coverage is actualised, stressing that the state government” is fully in support of what the agency is doing.”

The agency in collaboration with “our development partners” he said “are going to work collectively round the clock to ensure quality service delivery in the health facilities scattered across the affected councils.

Urging the health workers not to discriminate against the refugees and the people of the communities, the collaborating partners and the agency, as stated by him, have designed out plans to bring succour to persons assessing the health facilities and to put an end to child killer diseases in those camps “

Also, aware of the massive presence of Cameroon refugees in the state, governor Darius Dickson Ishaku, who recently played host to the Chief of Field Office, UNICEF, Nigeria, Bauchi Field Office, Mr. Bhanu Parhak said, “we are host to Cameroon refugees; we will continue to try our best to assist them.”

The governor who said he has directed all council chairmen playing host to the refugees “to take adequate care of them” said the state will continue to do that until the situations in Cameroon is addressed.”

Source: The Guardian

27, October 2019

Mimi Mefo says prejudice against Africans may have had role in Australian visa refusal ⁰

A Cameroonian journalist who was denied a visa for Australia because the government believed she might not leave has questioned if they made assumptions about her because she is African.

Mimi Mefo, an award-winning journalist who is currently based in Berlin and working for Deutsche Welle, was booked to appear at the Integrity 20 conference in Brisbane on Friday.

Mefo was due to speak about press freedom and her experiences reporting on the Cameroon conflict, in a speech entitled “Without fear or favour”.

However, applications for a visa were refused because Australian immigration authorities “were not satisfied that the applicant’s employment and financial situation provide an incentive to return following [her] stay in Australia or to abide by the conditions to which the visa would be subject”.

Mefo dismissed suggestions she would seek asylum in Australia, noting she had a two-year contract and a home in Berlin, and was booked to fly on from Brisbane to speak at another conference in South Africa, alongside Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph E Stiglitz.

“I’ve been to so many countries in the world where I could seek asylum,” told Guardian Australia. “There is no way I would come and be in Australia when I have a job in Germany.

“I think they took that position based on stereotyped assumptions on Africans and that is totally wrong.”

Mefo’s case has prompted widespread criticism of the Australian government, which has made international headlines over its encroachments on the press, including raids on journalists’ homes and offices.

The visa refusal occurred in the same week that Australian media launched a coordinated campaign for press freedom.

“Australia seems to be a country struggling in that direction and they might have thought we would bring some of these issues into the limelight,” Mefo said. “They possibly saw the invitation [to Integrity 20] and saw that it was on press freedom and was organised by a prestigious university in Australia.”

Mefo was rejected twice for her visa to Australia. Not long after her first application was rejected – for the same reason – her contract at Deutsche Welle and her visa for Germany were extended.

“So we appealed with the help of an immigration expert in Australia,” she said. “We knew we had everything right this time. But it was denied again with the same words [and] very strong terms: we are not considering this visa application anymore.

“I knew this time around it was way beyond my visa status, because there is no way I’d disappoint hundreds of people in South Africa to stay in Australia, and give up my job, after Deutsche Welle has gone out of its way… to make sure I’m really comfortable in Germany.

“I don’t know what they think I would do in Australia.”

Last year Mefo was briefly jailed in Cameroon for her reporting but she said Australian authorities did not question her about that.

“I was arrested not because I committed a crime but because I reported that soldiers in Cameroon killed an American missionary,” she said. “After four days, when the government couldn’t bear the international pressure, I was released and the charges were dropped.

“I don’t have a problem with the Cameroon government. That’s not even why I left Cameroon. I left because I was given the fellowship program with Pen in London.”

The Australian government said it did not comment on individual cases.

Source: The Guardian

26, October 2019

Middle East: Syria army reaches border area, deploys around Turkish zone ⁰

Syrian troops reached a key area near Turkey’s border Saturday after sending further reinforcements to the region, in what a war monitor said was its largest deployment there in years.

Syrian regime forces entered the provincial borders of the town of Ras al-Ain, state news agency SANA said.

The regime forces entered the area, which was taken by Turkish forces following a weeks-long offensive against Syria’s Kurds.

Troops also deployed along a road stretching some 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of the frontier, SANA added.

Turkey and its Syrian proxies on October 9 launched a cross-border attack against Kurdish-held areas, grabbing a 120-kilometre-long (70-mile) swathe of Syrian land along the frontier.

The incursion left hundreds dead and caused 300,000 people to flee their homes, in the latest humanitarian crisis in Syria’s brutal eight-year war.

This week, Turkey and Russia struck a deal in Sochi for more Kurdish forces to withdraw from the frontier on both sides of that Turkish-held area under the supervision of Russian and Syrian forces.

On Saturday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said some 2,000 Syrian troops and hundreds of military vehicles were deploying around what Turkey calls its “safe zone”.

In the army’s “largest deployment” in the area in years, regime forces were being accompanied by Russia military police, the Observatory said.

Moscow has said 300 Russian military police had arrived in Syria to help ensure Kurdish forces withdraw to a line 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the border in keeping with Tuesday’s agreement.

Despite Saturday’s deployment, the Observatory said that Kurdish fighters and Ankara’s Syrian proxies traded artillery fire in the region.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Under the Sochi deal, Kurdish forces have until late Tuesday to withdraw from border areas at either end of the Turkish-held area, before joint Turkish-Russian start patrols in a 10-kilometre (six-mile) strip there.

Ankara eventually wants to set up a buffer zone on Syrian soil along the entire length of its 440-kilometre-long border, including to resettle some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees currently in Turkey.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces has objected to some provisions of the Sochi agreement and it has so far maintained several border posts.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Saturday that Ankara would “clear terrorists” on its border if the Kurdish forces, which his country view as an offshoot of its own banned insurgency, did not withdraw by the deadline.

Source: AFP

26, October 2019

Italy: Protesters in Rome call for mayor to resign ⁰

Hundreds of people marched along the Tiber River on Saturday to demand Rome mayor Virginia Raggi resign over the state of the Italian capital.

“Raggi is turning the city into somewhere to run away from, instead of a city where people can live with dignity, work and build their future,” the Tutti per Rome (Everyone for Rome) organisation said ahead of the rally.

“The whole world pities us,” it said.

The march came a day after trade unions in Rome staged a general strike, with workers including bus drivers and garbage collectors taking a stand against the mayor and her ruling Five Star Movement administration.

The Eternal City’s streets are riddled with potholes, buses regularly catch fire and officials have warned the perennial garbage crisis constitutes a health risk, with rat control services working overtime as bins overflow near tourist sites, homes and schools.

Raggi became the capital’s first female mayor in 2016 by tapping into anger over corruption scandals — in particular the infiltration of crime families in the city’s waste management system.

In April this year she defended herself against accusations she had failed to turn the situation around, saying Rome was “under attack” from mobsters determined not to release their grip on a lucrative sector.

Source: AFP

26, October 2019

Zimbabweans stage rally calling end to ‘evil’ US, EU sanctions ⁰

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in Zimbabwe’s capital, calling on the United States and European Union to lift the “evil” sanctions they have imposed on the country’s president and several other top officials for almost two decades.

The demonstrators rallied at Harare’s Robert Mugabe Square on Friday before proceeding towards the National Sports Stadium, where President Emmerson Mnangagwa delivered an address.

They were chanting slogans like, “Down with sanctions” while carrying placards reading “Sanctions must go now” and “Anti-sanctions solidarity march.”

The president’s supporters, in white t-shirts, were also carrying placards describing the sanctions as “evil” and “weapon of mass destruction to mankind.”

The US imposed financial and travel restrictions against 85 individuals, including Mnangagwa and late former President Robert Mugabe and other members of the ruling ZANU-PF party back in 2001.

The sanctions have expanded to include 56 companies or organizations ever since.

Washington also imposed a ban on weapons exports to the African country.

In March, the US administration added to its list some military officials involved in last year’s crackdown on protesters.

The European bloc also targeted specific individuals both within the government and associated with it.

Western sanctions are ‘cancer’: Mnangagwa

During his speech on Friday, Mnangagwa described the measures as “cancer,” eating at the country’s economy.

“We know very well that the sanctions are neither smart nor targeted,” he told a large crowd.

“Their impact on our daily lives is immeasurable and the consequences are dire,” the president added.

PressTV-Zimbabweans stage mass demo against West sanctions

Zimbabweans are experiencing severe economic hardship, which is characterized by the highest inflation rate in the world.

According to figures released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), annual inflation in Zimbabwe was 300 percent in August.

Source: Presstv

26, October 2019

Biya regime rules out new dialogue to end Southern Cameroons crisis ⁰

The Biya regime has said it will not organize another dialogue to end separatist crisis in the English-speaking regions of the country.

“We do not foresee an inclusive dialogue than the historic one which has just taken place,” communication minister and government spokesman Emmanuel Rene Sadi told state media on Friday night.

His reaction came after the European Union (EU) and Cameroon opposition leader Maurice Kamto suggested that the government need to organize fresh “inclusive dialogue” with separatist leaders to end the conflict.

Sadi stressed that a national dialogue held by the country in early October was of “great success” and the government was looking forward to implementing recommendations made during the dialogue.

The EU and Cameroon opposition have criticized the dialogue for failing to include separatist leaders but Sadi said “they were invited and they did not come.”

“From what could be seen and heard here and there, it is clear that they (participants) came out satisfied and nobody to the best of our knowledge has so far dissociated himself from the conclusions of this dialogue,” Sadi said.

The national dialogue that ended on October 4 recommended that Cameroon’s English-speaking regions that have been ravaged by armed separatism since 2017 should be granted a special status with greater autonomy.

Hundreds have been killed and over 530,000 displaced internally by the conflict as separatists seek to create an independent nation in the Anglophone regions.

Source: Xinhuanet

26, October 2019

Douala: Over 200 rescued on sinking vessel ⁰

The Cameroon marine authority said Friday it has rescued over 200 passengers from their capsizing vessel in the Atlantic Ocean.

The rescued passengers mainly of African nationalities were rescued and brought at Cameroon air force base in Douala, Cameroon’s commercial capital.

Cameroon marine was still investigating what caused the vessel to capsize but passengers told reporters it likely ran out of fuel at sea in Cameroon territorial waters and was rescued after several hours by the marine and fishermen.

Witnesses said some passengers dove into the sea in an attempt to swim to safety and were rescued by local fishermen.

No deaths were reported but marine officials said they were still searching for “any missing passengers”.

Women and babies were among the rescued passengers on board the vessel that was heading to neighbouring Gabon according to Marine officials.

Source: Xinhuanet

26, October 2019

Indomitable Lions: Tagueu playing again after heart ailment ⁰

The 25-year-old returned to the field on Sunday after battling a heart condition that ruled him out of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations

Cameroon forward Joel Tagueu has described his return to football as a victory after recovering from a heart ailment.

The Cruzeiro attacker made his first appearance in over five months as a 77th-minute substitute in his side’s 2-1 victory over Corinthians in the Brazilian top-flight on Sunday.

Tagueu was dropped from Cameroon’s squad for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, a day before their campaign opener against Guinea-Bissau due to an “anomaly of an implantation of a coronary artery”.

His exclusion reduced the Indomitable Lions squad to 22 players as the country crashed out in the Round of 16 stage of the continental showpiece in Egypt.

Following his recovery from the battle against the heart problem, Tagueu described his return as a dream come true after various medical consultations.

“It’s been a very difficult moment for me. I’ve had to wait for a month to get a final decision on my situation,” Tagueu in his first public comments, per BBC Sport.

“I’ve had to consult several cardiologists across Brazil to get different opinions and I’ve been working with the best cardiologists in the country and I’m glad that everything went on well.

“Being able to play again is a victory and being able to suit up for my team is just like a dream come true.”

The 25-year-old spent last season on loan with Maritimo where he returned eight goals after 30 matches in Brazil’s Serie A.

Tagueu recalled his reaction to his omission from Cameroon’s 2019 Afcon squad and revealed how Nigeria’s Nwankwo Kanu and France’s Eric Abidal inspired his fight against the heart condition.

“I was shocked when I was dropped from the Cameroon squad for the Afcon in Egypt. But I was less anxious because the doctors were calm and said it was curable,” he added.

“But other players in the past like Kanu or Abidal have undergone surgery for other health issues and have continued playing so I’m not worried.”

Meanwhile, Cruzeiro team doctor Sergio Campolina said the club recalled the Nkongsamba-born forward because he is back in top shape after approval from two of Brazil’s most renowned cardiology institutions.

“The medical protocol with the Cameroon team is different and because recently they lost a player due to heart related complications, they decided to drop Joel,” Campolina said.

“We have assurances about Joel’s health so we’ve decided to recall him to the team and we’re happy with this decision.”

Source: Goal.com