Monthly Archives: April 2020

12, April 2020

Former OAU Chief Edem Kodjo dies aged 82 ⁰

The government and people of Togo are mourning the death of a former Prime Minister of the West African country, Edem Kodjo. The former diplomat died at the age of 82 in the French capital Paris on Saturday, April 11.

The current Togolese Foreign Minister in reacting to the news posted on Twitter: “A brilliant academic, and an ardent Pan-African, our beloved Edem Kodjo died in Paris after a long illness.

‘You will always remain a reference for us’. On the eve of Easter, you practicing Christian return to your creator. Condolences to his family,” Minister Robert Dussey added.

In Togo, Kodjo spent two stints as Prime Minister, the first period from 1994 to 1996 and again from 2005 to 2006 under former president Gnassingbe Eyadema. He also held a number of ministerial posts.

Kodjo served in Eyadéma’s government as Minister of Finance from 1973 to 1976 and as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1976 to 1978. He was elected as the Secretary-General of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) at its summit in Khartoum on July 18–22, 1978.

At the time he took over the OUA leadership from Etéki Mboumoua, a Cameroonian diplomat reputed as the man who dismantled the Portuguese colonial empire in Africa. Eteki died in October 2016 at the age of 83 in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde.

In his condolence message, the current African Union Commission chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat, described Kodjo as “a brilliant African intellectual,” and “a distinguished statesman and tireless knight of peace.”

The AU chief continued that death was “painful” before extending on behalf the staff of the AUC, his most sincere and deep condolences to his family, the Togolese people and all the African peoples. May his soul rest in peace and may his example continue to inspire the continent,” the statement concluded.

Namibian president Hage Geingob was one of the earliest African leaders to react to the death as well as Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita.

Geingob wrote: “With the passing of Edem Kodjo, Africa has lost an illustrious former SG of the OAU, a former Prime Minister of Togo and a refined intellectual. A towering Pan-Africanist who contributed immensely to a peaceful and better Africa is no more. Condolences to the people of Togo. RIP.”

Aside his work as OAU chief which ended in 1983 following which he returned to France to continue with academic pursuits at the prestigious University of Sorbonne; the AU named him envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo during the electoral crisis in the late years of Kabila’s mandate.

Source: Africa News

12, April 2020

Coronavirus: Africa is still doing well compared to other continents ⁰

According to www.worldometer.com, Africa has lost some 710 people to the Coronavirus.

Since the virus started, many people around the world have been worried about Africa, a continent many people say is bereft of world-class health infrastructure.

Egypt, Algeria, Morocco have registered the highest numbers of people killed by virus on the continent.

It should be pointed out that Africa is a continent and not a country. It is a continent of 54 countries and more than a billion people, many of whom are young and are blessed with very strong immune systems.

At the beginning of the viral pandemic, many westerners had predicted that there would be an apocalypse on the continent due to the lack of proper medical facilities and experts, but things are pointing in a different direction.

Much of the success is also due to the distancing and containment measures that most African countries have put in place. The wearing of face masks is now compulsory in many African countries and the use of hand sanitizers is mandatory in many shops and government offices.

The population is complying with most of measures in place and this is delivering some impressive outcomes.

Africans have to continue doing the right things. They must make social distancing a significant part of their lives, regardless of the challenges that come with it.

The virus is still alive and it is leaving a trail of death and destruction in other parts of the world. Africans must learn from the mistakes of other people and with their natural advantage, they will be able to keep the death rate at the barest minimum.

By Dr Joachim Arrey

12, April 2020

COVID-19: A stonewall against Africa’s ailing presidents and powerful elites seeking treatment abroad ⁰

Africa’s ailing presidents and powerful elites have been known to jet out to seek treatment abroad, instead of investing in healthcare in their own countries.

Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe died in a hospital in Singapore, and Cameroon’s Paul Biya regularly seeks treatment abroad.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari was out of the country for several months in 2017 for treatment in London for an undisclosed illness and has frequent checks abroad. Since he took office in 2015, he has embarked on at least four medical trips to the UK.

But with flights grounded and countries across the world on lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, these leaders are getting a wake-up call that they must fix their healthcare systems.

The President of the Commonwealth Medical Association, Osahon Enabulele, says while citizens have endured their leaders’ frequent recourse to overseas medical treatment in the past, they may not remain so tolerant if the coronavirus wreaks havoc as it has elsewhere in the world.

“There is no place for any leader to hide anymore,” Enabulele said. “This whole situation of public office holders in Africa, most times using taxpayers’ money to go on foreign medical trips at the slightest discomfort is one thing that will be reversed when this pandemic is over,” Enabulele told CNN.

A terrifying prospect

Infection numbers across the continent, while significantly lower than other parts of the world, are rising exponentially. The World Health Organization recently reported that the number of cases in Africa was now more than 11,000, with 600 deaths.

The pandemic has overwhelmed advanced health facilities, and experts predict it could devastate the continent’s fragile health systems, already plagued by inadequate funding and labor disputes.

Lifesaving machines like ventilators — critical to the management of Covid-19 cases — remain a luxury in some African countries.

The Central African Republic (CAR) has only three ventilators to five million people, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said, warning that an outbreak could bring the tiny African nation to its knees.

“When rich nations are in panic mode stating that thousands of ventilators will not be enough, it just brings to light how poorer nations like CAR don’t stand a chance in the fight against Covid-19,” NRC Country Director in the CAR, David Manan said.

Poor conditions in hospitals is causing 'silent genocide', Zimbabwe medics on strike say

Poor conditions in hospitals is causing ‘silent genocide’, Zimbabwe medics on strike say

The situation is equally dire in Zimbabwe, where health workers in the nation’s hospitals say they lack basics such as bandages and gloves to take care of their patients.

Nurses and doctors abstained from work to protest a shortage of coronavirus protective gear after the country recorded its first fatality last month.

Ugandan popstar-turned-politician Bobi Wine told CNN the healthcare system in many African countries cannot handle a mass outbreak of Covid-19.

“I need to remind people that the coronavirus is more serious than they are already taking it. It is killing people in big numbers in Italy where there is a super health care system. So it scares me to even imagine what it can do in Africa if it comes in full effect,” Wine said.

Wine said health care funding has not been at the forefront of government spending in many African countries because their leaders often seek treatment in hospitals abroad.

“It’s clear that healthcare is not a priority for many African governments, and they put very little money into that sector. Anytime they are sick, or their children are having health conditions, they opt to go outside their countries,” Wine said.

“Now the coronavirus pandemic has set a different ground for many African leaders. It has shown that they should have invested in the healthcare system of their countries which would have benefited them and the people in this crisis.”

African countries are at severe risk if outbreaks aren't detected early and contained, says Africa CDC head

African countries are at severe risk if outbreaks aren’t detected early and contained, says Africa CDC head

The lawmaker says monies spent on medical trips abroad could have been used to equip local hospitals with modern medical equipment such as ventilators, which have proved critical in treating some patients who have developed respiratory illnesses because of Covid-19.

Wine said some public hospitals in Uganda had become “death traps” due to years of neglect, and some citizens, including himself, have had to pay prohibitive costs for overseas treatment that could have been cheaper in Uganda.

Between 2019 and 2020, Uganda spent 8.9 percent of its national budget on health down from 9.2 percent from the previous fiscal year, according to UNICEF.

“I have had to spend my funds to seek advance treatment abroad because the procedure could not be provided in this country. But a majority of leaders in Uganda travel abroad for minor care using taxpayers money,” Wine said.

But Uganda’s health minister Jane Aceng told CNN Wine’s assessment of the country’s health system was not accurate.

“Uganda is doing well and that shows with our response to the coronavirus situation. We’re doing well,” she said.

Aceng added that she had all the resources needed to do her job.

The East African nation was one of the first African countries to impose travel and strict quarantine policies to prevent the spread of coronavirus even before it reported a case. It has so far reported 53 cases

A failed pledge

African leaders have consistently neglected their country’s health sector despite several pledges to do improve it, analysts say.

In 2001, the heads of state of 52 African countries met in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja and committed to spending 15 percent of their yearly domestic budget on health.

Just a handful of countries have met this target on the continent. They include Tanzania, Rwanda, Botswana and Zambia, according to the WHO.

Rwanda doubled it’s health care spending over a period of 10 years, the WHO said in the 2017 report. The Central African nation has also received praised for its national health insurance coverage which is the highest on the continent

But a majority have fallen through the cracks in fulfilling this commitment.

Since it signed the declaration, Nigeria has allocated less than six percent of its budget to health, and most of the funds are spent on salaries, according to Nigeria-based budget monitoring organization Budgit.

In a paper published by the Brookings Institute, researchers said although Africa bore 23 percent of the world’s disease burden in 2015, it accounted for only one percent of the global health spending for the same year.

“In per capita terms, the rest of the world spends 10 times more on health care than Africa,” the researchers said.

The researchers predict it may be difficult for the countries on the continent to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals with a 2030 deadline with the “current spending environment.”

Wake-up call

Nigerian-British historian Ed Keazor agrees that the fallout from the outbreak is a “wake-up call” for governments to prioritize affordable health care.

Keazor, a cancer survivor said he made the difficult decision to move back to London where he has access to affordable care under the National Health Service even though he works in Nigeria.

The filmmaker said he came to Lagos for a research and film festival in March but got caught in the city after the Nigerian government banned all international flights to contain the spread of the outbreak.

Keazor says he’s missed an appointment with his doctor in the UK due to the travel restriction, and that would not have been a problem if he could get the same quality of care locally.

“If I could get the same quality of care here (Nigeria) as in the UK where I’m a taxpayer and getting good medical services, I would rather stay back here because this is where my work and my larger family is but unfortunately, its not there,” Keazor told CNN.

For now, he hopes the health crisis will change the Nigerian government’s focus to where he says it should be.

“I hope the enormity of this problem has brought home the urgency of investment in health care infrastructure to the government and whatever the country looks like after this crisis is over, our priorities will be focused on heath care and education,” he said.

Culled from CNN

12, April 2020

Racism is not synonymous with checking the Coronavirus ⁰

Some disturbing videos on how Africans are being treated in China because of fears of the Coronavirus have been making the rounds on social media. Some of the actions are outright racist and could be revolting.

However, while those videos clearly demonstrate that Chinese are suspicious of Africans being responsible for the resurgence of the virus, it is still necessary for Africans to respect local laws.

They should accept that they must be tested against the virus as a way of checking this insidious enemy. Those mitigation measures will not only ensure that they are safe, but will also ensure that others don’t get infected.

As we all know, there are some carriers who will remain asymptomatic all through their lives and such persons are the super spreaders who may inadvertently kill many people who are immune compromised.

However, no African should just accept any kind of humiliation because of efforts to roll back the virus. There are internationally recognized protocols for the checking of this virus that has overwhelmed the planet. All countries are bound by treaties to respect those protocols without creating any racial or gender issues.

Africans have passed that stage where they have to feel inferior because of somebody’s skin color. If Chinese do not change their ways, then Africans should also start chasing them out of this beautiful continent. Africans should not always behave as if they do not have a homeland. If it does not work out there, come back home. Just change your mentality and you will make it big in Africa.

Maybe Africans do not know this. Africa may have issues of governance, but it has it all here. Let nobody decisive Africans that they can only become somebody if only they leave Africa. Times have change and that mentality must belong to the past.

Progress, no matter where you are, comes only through discipline, hard work, futuristic thinking and determination. Africans should not let anybody make them think that they cannot make it in Africa.

Just sitting in someone else’s country and be eating and putting on weight is no sign of financial success. The good thing with Africa is that you do not need huge seed capital to start a small business. All you need is an iron will, foresight and a genuinely business mentality.

There are more Chinese in Africa than there are Africans in China. If the Chinese do not stop the dehumanization they are subjecting Africans to, let them know that the youthful and energy-filled African population will chase them out of Africa.

No Chinese comes to Africa to help anybody. It is about business and Africans can do most of the things Chinese are doing. Africans need them just as they need Africans and let them not think that they are doing anybody a favor on this continent.

They better wake up and smell the coffee or they will trigger a bomb that will cost them their business and citizens. It is worthwhile commending efforts by the African Union to ensure that Chinese put an end to their molestation of Africans.

However, the population will not be waiting forever for diplomacy which is always slow to fix things. The people of Africa are angry and the Chinese must be prompt to end their harassment of Africans, failure of which a huge storm may come the way of their citizens in Africa.

The anger and frustration of Chinese misconduct can be felt in Africa. The Chinese must avoid any bloodshed. The ball is in their court.

Africans are hospitable, but they won’t let others to look down on them. Times have changed. The new generation of Africans may not accept what their parents have accepted for decades. It is time to use better ways to check the spread of the virus in China. A display of racism will not address the issue. It will only pit Chinese against Africans. This should be avoided.

By Dr Arrey Joachim

Cameroon Concord News Group

12, April 2020

Empty churches belie Trump’s Easter promise, highlight science’s role in keeping faithful safe ⁰

US President Donald Trump last month predicted “packed churches” on Easter Sunday despite a raging coronavirus death toll. His prediction has proved horribly wrong and highlights the inconsistencies populist leaders who have exploited religion now face.

Easter, Passover and the start of Ramadan all fall in April this year, a coincidence that, in normal times, would see millions of followers of the world’s major monotheist religions come together in congregational prayers or family gatherings.

But the coronavirus pandemic has physically atomised the faithful, with lockdown measures sparking unprecedented scenes of clergymen conducting Holy Week services in empty churches and cathedrals across the world.

Inside the fire-ravaged Notre Dame cathedral, Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit joined a small group of priests for a Good Friday service minus a congregation commemorating one of Christianity’s holiest days as well as the first anniversary of the inferno that ravaged the Gothic landmark. In a haunting sight inside the Old City in occupied East Jerusalem on Friday, a handful of Franciscan friars in dark robes and face masks walked through deserted streets under the pelting rain along the Via Dolorosa, believed to be the path Jesus took to his crucifixion.

Saudi Arabia has already suspended the year-round umrah pilgrimage and has asked Muslims to delay their travel bookings to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina for the annual Haj in July and August amid questions over whether the world’s largest religious gathering can go ahead on schedule.

There’s no doubt however that the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins around April 23, will be very different this year with the faithful unable to gather together for the iftar evening meal ending the day’s fasting.

Earlier this week, Jews across the world celebrated Passover with Zoom Seders instead of the traditional family gathering of generations around tables. Israeli authorities tightened the existing lockdown measures with a special nighttime curfew on Wednesday to dissuade visits and gatherings. Joining “grandma and grandpa” for a Seder, Israeli Defense Minister Naftali Bennett warned in a stark pre-Passover message, “could kill them”.

The deadly Covid-19 virus has killed more than 100,000 people across the world and it’s attacking what French sociologist Emile Durkheim identified as the fundamental purpose of religion: the social phenomenon of drawing communities together in rites and ritual observances. It is also exposing the fault lines between religious faith and science as well as tensions between spiritual and secular powers. The infectiousness of the disease has undermined the congregational nature of religious practices while the failures by some religious groups to follow social distancing has exacerbated the targeting and stereotyping of religious followers.

For populist leaders who have exploited religion to rise to power or maintain their political positions, the crisis “could threaten the foundations of their religious support base as well as their discriminatory policies towards religious or ethnic minorities”, noted James Dorsey, senior fellow at the Singapore-based S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. This could play out in countries with “segments of ultraconservative religious communities that have different concepts of medicine or a blind faith in God to solve the problem”, explained Dorsey in a phone interview with FRANCE 24.

The health minister who put his faith in the Messiah

Tensions between the temple and laboratory were on stark display in Israel, where Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, a member of the ultra orthodox Ger Hasidic community, told Israeli media last month that he was “sure the messiah would come and save us”.

Litzman and his wife later tested positive for coronavirus, forcing several senior Israeli officials – including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of the Mossad intelligence service – into quarantine since they had been in contact with the health minister who put his faith in the messiah.

Critics have called for Litzman’s resignation and dubbed him “Typhoid Miriam” after “Typhoid Mary”, the New York cook who infected dozens at the turn of the 20^th century. Despite his cabinet position, Litzman’s “primary loyalty” was to the rabbinical leaders of his religious sect, Yehoshua Pfeffer, an ultra-Orthodox expert, told AFP. The health minister, Pfeffer noted, had failed to prevent members of his ultra-orthodox sect from conducting religious gatherings while the country had already imposed travel restrictions and banned mass events.

Netanyahu, who relies on the ultra-orthodox support base which makes up about 10 percent of the population, has struggled to enforce the closure of synagogues and yeshivas in places such as Bnei Brak, one of the country’s poorest, most congested cities and centre of the ultra-orthodox community. Members who live in self-imposed segregation have been particularly affected by the pandemic, with health authorities estimating that at least 38 percent of Beni Brak residents may be carrying the coronavirus.

The crisis has threatened Netanyahu’s coalition and its impact could stretch even deeper. The ultra-orthodox community’s disproportionate political influence and exemption from the country’s mandatory military service is a longstanding source of tension, with critics calling for the integration of the Haredim, as the community is called, into modern Israeli life.

The coronavirus crisis, Dorsey suggests, could also threaten the community from within. “In Israel, the ultra-orthodox live in their own world, they don’t listen to the media, they listen to the rabbi’s advice. The pandemic could undermine rabbinical authority on a scale not seen since the Holocaust, when rabbis advised members not to leave Europe and people paid a heavy price for that advice,” noted Dorsey.

Cow urine and #CoronaJihad in India

Political leaders who “seek religious legitimacy, cater to a religious support base or initially discarded scientific advice for expedient political reasons may have met their match in the coronavirus. Science has knocked religion and traditional healing methods out of the ring in the battle between rival approaches towards getting the coronavirus pandemic under control”, Dorsey noted in an April 7 blog, “Stopping COVID-19 in its tracks: Science gets the upper hand”.

In the first two weeks of March, while Italy was already under a nationwide lockdown, supporters of India’s Hindu right-wing Prime Minister Narendra Modi were hosting “gaumutra parties” across the country, where crowds, urged by saffron-robed religious leaders, gulped cups of cow urine which, they were told, was a miracle cure against the coronavirus.

Although some of the events were held by senior members of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Indian prime minister — who relies on a vast vote base of Hindutva [or “Hinduness”] supporters to win elections — kept silent on the issue.

As the number of coronavirus cases in India mounted, Modi finally took to the airwaves towards the end of March to call on his countrymen to unite in the fight against coronavirus. In a widely hailed address devoid of Hindu supremacist bluster or anti-elitist or anti-Muslim rhetoric, Modi called for solidarity in the face of the deadly pandemic.

But weeks later, as the number of coronavirus cases in India mounted, national unity calls appeared to fall on deaf ears as hate crimes against Muslims spiked following a coronavirus contagion spread from a religious event organised by the Islamic missionary group, Tablighi Jamat.

As #CoronaJihad and #CoronaTerrorism trended on Twitter, with government spokesmen devoting more time to lambasting the Muslim religious gathering than measures to tackle the humanitarian fallout of a hastily-imposed nationwide lockdown, fake news reports began to swell on WhatsApp and other platforms. They, in turn, sparked anti-Muslim attacks across the country with at least one person killed in the eastern state of Jharkhand, according to Indian media reports.

Muslim missionary movement under scrutiny

The Tablighi Jamat movement has come under scrutiny in a number of countries for its role in spreading the coronavirus in Asia.

A missionary movement that originated in India in the 1920s, the Tablighi Jamat has branches across the world, including Asia, Africa, Europe and the US. Given the loose nature of participation and membership, follower estimates are hard to gauge, with the Pew Research Center noting they range from 12 to 80 million across roughly 150 countries.

An apolitical group focused on proselytizing and worship, the Tablighi Jamat is known for its khuruj – or proselytizing tours which see devotees, dressed in simple clothing, traveling for days, sometimes months, while sleeping in mosques and other religious sites. The group’s country branches also hold annual ijtema events, which can gather millions in countries such as Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.

A February 27 to March 1 ijtema in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, which was attented by more than 16,000 people, including 1,500 foreigners, triggered the epidemic in Malaysia as well as in Brunei, with cases traced to Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. It was followed by a mid-March ijtema near the Pakistani city of Lahore, which resulted in the spread of coronavirus as far afield as Gaza. It was cut short by Pakistani authorities last month.

In India, a gathering at the groups global spiritual centre, or markaz, in the Nizamuddin area of the Indian capital, New Delhi, was shut down on March 22, days before a nationwide lockdown went into effect at midnight, March 25.

While the religious group’s irresponsibility has been widely slammed, experts have noted that in India, a number of mass religious gatherings took place in the same period. These include a Sikh gathering in Punjab — where a single “super spreader” preacher who died of the virus sparked a quarantine of 40,000 people — and a Hindu temple festival in the southern state of Kerala. None of them sparked the level of public anger faced by the Tablighi Jamat.

Meanwhile, a more controversial breach of Modi’s strict nationwide lockdown occurred in Uttar Pradesh. Yogi Adityanand, the Hindu firebrand chief minister of India’s most populous state, led a ceremony to install a religious icon on a disputed religious site the morning after the lockdown was called. While the Uttar Pradesh police allowed the ceremony to go ahead, a criminal complaint was filed by the state’s police against the editor of the news site, The Wire, for covering the event, sparking condemnations from international press freedom groups.

Adityanath was allowed to perform the ritual with a select gathering of officials and religious supporters, sparking criticisms of elitism and hypocrisy that have also dogged Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan’s VIP prayers and Trump’s Easter prediction

On March 27, as Turkish Muslims were being urged to pray at home, Erdogan held a select Friday prayer service on the presidential palace grounds that has since been dubbed, “the VIP prayer”.

Photographs of the event was posted on Twitter by Diyanet, the country’s Religious Affairs Directorate that coordinates Turkey’s religious activities and has increasingly turned into a tool of Erdogan’s bid for leadership of the Sunni Muslim world.

Over the past few weeks, Turkey’s Diyanet has come under intense criticism for its failure to stem the spread of the epidemic. Some opposition politicians claim pilgrims returning home were given medication to conceal rising fever readings and allowed to return to their villages, spreading the epidemic to Turkey’s rural areas.

Religion and politics have a long, complicated history with each needing the other at different times in different ways in different places to survive. Blasting the role of the Evangelical movement in US politics in a New York Times column, author Katherine Stewart noted that “Donald Trump rose to power with the determined assistance of a movement that denies science, bashes government and prioritized loyalty over professional expertise.

“In the current crisis,” Stewart wrote, “we are all reaping what that movement has sown.”

Not all religious groups or leaders have been in opposition to science or public health directives. The vast majority of priests, imams and clergymen and women of different faiths across the world have seen no inconsistency in emphasising the importance of saving human life over the need for ritual gatherings.

But that depends on their acceptance of scientific principles and the primacy of the world of facts over issues of faith. The coronavirus pandemic is exposing the dangers of rejecting science for a blind acceptance of faith.

Last month, Trump was optimistic that the US would be “opened up and just raring to go by Easter”. The prospect of “packed churches all over our country”, Trump said, would make it “a beautiful time”. But as residents in his home city, New York, wake up to headlines of mass graves in the heart of the metropolis, Trump’s brash forecast of a beautiful Easter with packed churches is unlikely to be forgotten in some quarters, or forgiven in the spirit of the teachings of the risen Christ.

Culled from France 24

12, April 2020

Overtime for French coffin industry as COVID-19 deaths surge ⁰

It’s a grim truth that times are good for the coffin business when they’re bad for people, and the coronavirus pandemic is no exception.

At a factory belonging to Europe’s largest coffin maker, OGF, in eastern France, workers are doing overtime to meet demand from families parting with their loved ones.

“Due to the epidemic, we decided to manufacture just four models of coffins that are top sellers with families” compared to the 15 types usually on offer, said factory director Emmanuel Garret.

The change “allowed us to optimise production”, he added.

Output has risen to 410 coffins per day, compared to 370 normally.

Workers are putting in nearly an extra hour per day.

“People have been forewarned and are ready to come in and work on Saturdays,” said Didier Pidancet, who heads up the team that selects the wood for the coffins.

France has been one of the countries worst hit by the coronavirus.

“We’re proud to be participating in this national effort, we’re doing our best to ensure that victims can have their final overcoat, as we say,” added Pidancet.

– No shortages –

Founded in 1910, the factory in the town of Jussey originally produced wood charcoal and flooring. At the outset of World War II it began to specialise in making coffins.

It is now part of the OGF Group, which has two factories including the one at Jussey, and makes one in four coffins used in France.

The 10 hectare (25 acre) site is responsible for the entire process of producing coffins. It strips the logs, cuts then dries the wood, which is eventually crafted and assembled into coffins.

The wood, mostly oak, comes from local forests.

While temporarily cutting back on the number of models, the factory has made another adjustment: it has been making more larger coffins.

“Orders for larger sizes are up a bit,” said Garret, although he declined to draw a link to reports that COVID-19 mortality rates are higher for overweight people.

While many manufacturers have encountered problems as lockdown restrictions complicate deliveries, the Jussey factory is well stocked.

“We’re OK, we have three months of stocks of wood, glue, nails and varnish,” said Garret.

– ‘Play our part’ –

Some of the factory’s workers are no strangers to previous surges in deaths.

“During the 2003 heatwave we increased production to 500 caskets a day,” said David Theurez, a 30-year veteran at the site.

The heatwave, which claimed nearly 15,000 lives in France, was in some ways more difficult for the factory as they had no warning and had to call workers back from vacation.

“But today, it’s a bit different, you have to protect yourself as well with masks and gloves,” said Theurez.

“It’s a collective crisis, we all have to make an effort and play our part,” he added.

The factory’s workers themselves haven’t gone unscathed: three have come down with COVID-19.

Fifteen others are at home, forced into isolation by existing serious health issues, or because they have to mind their children as school has been cancelled.

Like many other French companies, the factory has had difficulty obtaining protective gear for all of its employees.

It had a local seamstress make masks for employees and work stations are disinfected regularly.

The factory’s director thinks that the rapid adoption of social distancing measures and protective gear has helped them avoid more cases as eastern France has been hard hit with coronavirus infections.

“Fingers crossed,” said Garret.

Source: AFP

11, April 2020

Coronavirus testing rate increasing in Cameroon ⁰

Hundreds of cases have been confirmed in Cameroon but health officials fear there may be many more that are still unreported.

Now, it has launched nationwide testing. As healthcare workers in Cameroon race to contain the spread of COVID-19 infections, door-to-door testing is under way in several regions of the country.

Cameroon has deployed 1,200 medical workers in the commercial hub of Douala, the start of a nationwide door-to-door screening program

Al Jazeera

11, April 2020

Ambazonia Humanitarian Crisis: French Cameroun Regime Told To Allow Aid Access Amid Pandemic ⁰

Cameroon’s government should ensure that its response to the COVID-19 pandemic respects rights and prioritizes support for those who need it most, including in violence-affected areas. The authorities should allow unhindered access to aid organizations in conflict zones to deliver life-saving assistance.

Health officials have confirmed over 800 cases of COVID-19 and 10 deaths as of April 10, 2020, the majority in the cities of Yaoundé and Douala. The actual number of cases is most likely higher since testing is limited. The country has only four testing laboratories, three of them in Yaoundé, the capital.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is unfolding at a time of crisis across Cameroon, particularly in the Anglophone regions and in the country’s Far North region,” said Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “More needs to be done to ensure that those at greatest risk and those who are fleeing fighting are protected from infection and able to get care if they become sick.”

In addition to crucial steps to prevent COVID-19, a broader humanitarian response is critical to saving lives in the Far North region, the heart of the Boko Haram insurgency, and in the two Anglophone regions, where armed separatist groups are fighting for independence. Ongoing attacks by Boko Haram and separatists and military operations in these areas have already severely restricted access for aid agencies and their capacity to assess needs and deliver assistance to the people most in need.

On April 5, Boko Haram fighters stormed Amchide, Far North region. Three witnesses told Human Rights Watch that two teenage suicide bombers detonated their explosives in the center of the town, killing six men on the spot and injuring 13 others, three of whom later died. Another man was shot in a confrontation between Boko Haram fighters and the military, a resident said.

Since late 2013, the Boko Haram conflict in the Far North has caused about 300,000 people to flee their homes and has left 1.9 million in need of assistance.

In the English-speaking regions, violence is also ongoing despite the call for a COVID-19 ceasefire by a separatist group, Southern Cameroons Defence Forces (SOCADEF), on March 26. The UN secretary-general’s spokesperson welcomed the move, urging other groups “to do the same thing.” So far, the group, which operates in Fako and parts of the Lebialem divisions in the South-West region, is the only separatist group to have stopped fighting because of the pandemic.

At least 15 separatist groups operate in the North-West and South-West regions. In areas of the South-West region and across the North-West region, violence is continuing and military operations are being carried out. On March 31, gendarmes killed four civilian men in the village of Okoyong, Manyu division, South-West region. Four witnesses told Human Rights Watch that gendarmes shot them in front a shop. One witness said: “The gendarmes were looking for Amba boys [armed separatists] but it has been over one year that Amba boys left our village [and] these men were construction workers.”

To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the government has suspended flights by aid groups, jeopardizing their operations. The head of an international humanitarian organization based in Cameroon told Human Rights Watch: “Since over three weeks, humanitarian flights have been grounded. UN agencies and non-governmental organizations continue to ask the government to resume them. These flights are key to reach the most vulnerable people living in remote areas. With the virus rapidly spreading, this is exactly the time when the Cameroon’s government needs to facilitate our work.”

In an April 8 news release, the United States Embassy said that Cameroon’s government should allow the UN Humanitarian Air Service to resume its flights and allow aid workers and medical supplies “to assist people in need and fight COVID-19.”

In the North-West and South-West regions, health facilities have been badly affected by the violence, exacerbating a situation in which the hospitals, like many across the country, lack capacity and equipment. According to the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, only 34 percent of health facilities are functional in the Anglophone regions. Since late 2016, many health facilities have been shut down, attacked, or burned. Medical staff has been assaulted, threatened, or forced to flee, depriving people of access to medical care.

The Cameroon government has taken steps to contain the spread of COVID-19, including shutting schools and universities, closing borders, banning mass gatherings, encouraging people to follow hygiene rules, and creating a help line. Medical staff, however, have told Human Rights Watch of their concerns that the pandemic is straining the resources of an already fragile health care system.

A doctor working in Bamenda, North-West region, told Human Rights Watch: “I worry the spread of the virus in the North-West region might have catastrophic consequences. Hospitals lack basic equipment. There are only three ventilators in the whole region and nearly no isolation-designated spaces in hospitals.”

Even in major urban centers like Yaoundé and Douala, hospitals are ill-prepared to respond to the pandemic. A doctor in Douala told Human Rights Watch: “There are less than 10 ventilators in the whole city. We are having challenges in treating patients with acute respiratory distress.”

Instead of improving its pandemic response, the government seems more concerned with silencing free speech, Human Rights Watch said. On April 3, an opposition party leader, Maurice Kamto, called on Cameroonians to work together in response to government inaction. The police stormed the premises of Equinoxe TV in Douala late that day, threatening to arrest journalists if they aired Kamto’s declaration. Efforts should be focused on critical measures, such as health care and protecting health care workers, not threatening those who question the government’s response, Human Rights Watch said. “Cameroon’s government should accelerate its response to COVID-19, expand access to testing, and make sure those affected by violence, including the displaced, are protected and have access to care,” Allegrozzi said. “If the government doesn’t take preventive steps, shortages of goods, including food and non-food items, water, shelter, and health care could have a devastating impact on people who are already vulnerable.”

Source: Human Rights Watch

11, April 2020

Coronavirus pandemic hits aid work, funding across sub-Saharan Africa ⁰

Desperately needed aid for millions of people across sub-Saharan Africa is under threat as the deadly coronavirus pandemic sweeps a continent already facing a volley of crises.

In some cases social distancing measures and border closures are preventing workers from distributing aid.

In others, funding is under threat as agencies scramble to pool resources to fight the fast-ballooning COVID-19 outbreak on the continent.

Cameroon’s polio vaccination campaign has been suspended, while in Chad a measles vaccination programme has been postponed.

In Niger and Burkina Faso, where hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by jihadist violence, flights bringing in humanitarian aid have been put on hold.

In the Central African Republic, where most of the territory is under the sway of armed groups, supplies of chlorine, needed to provide safe drinking water, are running low.

“Some programmes have slowed down or been temporarily suspended, but most humanitarian operations are continuing,” said Julie Belanger, head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for West and Central Africa.

“We are focusing on activities that are vital for survival, but we are also adapting our way of working,” Belanger told AFP.

The United Nations says about 76 million people in sub-Saharan Africa need aid to survive and protect their health.

The coronavirus pandemic could further threaten populations on the continent, which so far has at least 12,700 recorded cases and more than 650 deaths, according to an AFP tally Friday.

Organisations are quickly learning to change how they work to prevent the virus from spreading further.

In Niger, for instance, food handouts are being distributed in small groups in order to keep social distancing, said Jean-Noel Gentile with the UN’s World Food Programme.

“To reduce the frequency of food distribution, we are handing out two or three months of rations each time,” he said.

‘Humanitarian corridors’

One fear that NGOs and governments have is that aid workers travelling to isolated areas could bring the coronavirus with them.

In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the first case of the virus registered in Goma was that of a Nigerian aid worker.

Masks, gloves and protective clothing are required by some organisations — but the crucial gear is hard to find in many countries.

“This is already difficult enough in France — you can imagine how it is in the furthest reaches of the Central African Republic,” said Isabelle Robin of the French charity Action Against Hunger (ACF).

The closure of borders and restrictions on movement inside countries are additional obstacles to delivering aid.

As a result, NGOs everywhere are attempting to negotiate with authorities in Africa to allow “humanitarian corridors” or exemptions for their personnel.

Money worry

But of all the problems for humanitarian work right now, “the biggest is financial”, said a UNICEF official in the DRC, pointing to the fact that donor attention lies elsewhere at the moment.

The United Nations has launched a $2 billion (1.83 billion euro) “global humanitarian response plan” on coronavirus, much of it earmarked for Africa.

Though Africa has not been hit as badly as most of the rest of the world, the pandemic is a growing threat, given the continent’s weak healthcare systems, entrenched poverty, poor sanitation and crowded slums.

There are concerns that funds received to deal with problems existing before the outset of the pandemic may now have to be rerouted.

That could be a harmful approach.

“It’s important that we don’t forget other needs,” said Maaike Hersevoort, head of the Doctors Without Borders mission in the Central African Republic, pointing to an outbreak of measles there.

‘Extreme distress’

In western and central Africa, the number of people needing aid has increased — even before the coronavirus hit the continent.

There are 44 million people in need this year, six million more than in 2019, according to UN projections.

In the Sahel region, food insecurity levels are rising and there are fears for the next harvest following a poor rainy season.

“We are especially concerned for the children, who become more vulnerable to illness when they are malnourished,” said Robin from ACF.

More generally, wellbeing in Africa could be hit by tough measures to stem the spread of COVID-19 — lockdowns mean that millions of people are unable to work, and thus likelier to sink further into poverty.

“We must not lose sight of the mid- and long-term impact of this crisis,” said Bruce Biber of the International Committee of the Red Cross in the Central African Republic.

“People have already been under great pressure for years, so it takes very little to push them into a state of extreme distress.”

Source: AFP

11, April 2020

Why Dr Fontem Neba is a symbol of the Ambazonia Resistance ⁰

The Wedge in our Struggle

My people, there are a number of things the enemy has done to us through these fellows to systematically disrupt our struggle or restoration quest.

1. They killed trust in leadership by propping up dishonest guys in our midst. The act of smearing honest people and making them look untrustworthy is by far the deepest cut. Crooks have become our reference point. No wonder, we no longer trust anyone. Those who can drive this struggle have crumbled under the bullets of unverified calumny. So, when a good idea comes from them, we pull up the smear and use the stench to disqualify its proponent, then the bad guy continues to shout “Feeloo ambazoonians”. No plan on how to move forward except bannings and sowing division. Simple tactic!

2. Disunity among the leadership, so that no constructive action can be taken against LRC. They only agree when the action will not favour us. See the Swiss initiative. They were already exposing our fighters to the Swiss and pushing everyone into their luggage when the plan leaked and the trip by the LGA chairmen to Switzerland was aborted. That was a massive brainwashing scheme that would have brought our liberation struggle crashing. And they were just happy to go and see Switzerland, not knowing that it was a satanic plot.

4. Egotism and the love for money have driven a wedge between us and our goal. Why would someone remind anyone offering to mediate about money owed him by LRC at this time? Why would someone even place a financial precondition for holding talks? Why would someone lie that he has the largest force on the ground and use that to position himself as a power broker before the Swiss? Why would a group of people decide, against expert advice, to sign away to the Swiss their right to a multilateral mediation format? Why would SCian politicians accept Swiss money to go from UK, Canada to the US advertising the Swiss initiative to the exclusion of the European institute for peace (an EU funded organisation)? These questions beg for answers.

4. Disrupting fund raising projects is a major scheme to render the struggle bankrupt, apart from embezzlement. Every time a seemingly viable fundraising initiative is laid out, they too will do theirs and distract the public that is already weary of bickering. They cause the public to transfer their stigma on it, and when the momentum dies down, they abandon theirs. See the bonds, the pins and other financial ideas.

5. Disinformation and Misinformation of the masses. Using their very loud megaphone, they distort every notion of good. Points 1-4 above have been achieved through the alphabet TV and paid social media activists. Some of them puts out their write-ups using the name of some of these activists in exchange for a fee. They deceive the people at home about non-existent diplomatic moves and breakthroughs and distort international relations concepts. It’s like a veil of darkness cast over our people’s heads.

5. The lure of power and the desire to exercise corrupt influence . Even some of the IG converts in the diaspora are easily brainwashed because of the temptation of corruption. Many of them see themselves as an emerging Bulu/Beti clan when we restore our independence. So, they use that to make their communities and families believe that as future ministers and LG chairmen in SC, they will have more benefits and influence than others – greed! Let them show us the blue print or the strategy that will take us to Buea.

6. Killing or disarming our own fighters cannot be excused on any grounds. Is it surprising that we have lost more of our elite soldiers to our own bullets than to LRC? After commissioning Nambere to eliminate some of his peers, it was time to do away with him so that all traces could be wiped. But he preferred to surrender to the enemy than to succumb to the bullets of his own people. He confided his ordeal to those who were ready to listen. This is a familiar scenario which the RFs do not yet understand. Many who sensed danger have fled the resistance because they don’t know when the order for their execution will come. Others have been captured because their position was deliberately leaked to the enemy. Who does that? Does the mass execution of the Bui 23 tell us anything?

In all

I have travelled round this country and have met different people who have complained about the manner in which they were robbed in broad day light and lamented the general state of things. They told me how they were harangued into donating thousands of dollars for diplomatic trips which never happened. In others, Ngwa Irene personally went there and collected $12000 cash and when the community asked for a receipt it became a brawl. Some communities have not recovered from the financially induced coma caused by these buccaneers.

I challenge all those hiding in WhatsApp groups or FB, wearing aliases to come to a public debate to explain their plan for the restoration, if there is any, and stop using subterfuge to deceive our people. If you cannot diagnose a disease, then you cannot treat it.

Denying these facts is denying, like LRC, that our people don’t have any problem. “Any man who does not know, and knows that he does not know is willing to learn; teach him. Any man who does not know, and knows not that he does not know is a fool; shun him”. We should now understand why for two years we have been spinning in the same spot and claiming that we are on course. Having run out if arguments, they claim that it is because some people don’t use the name “Ambazonia” and so it affects the struggle. 😫 Lame excuse! With all what is going on, ask yourselves again, are these people truly taking us to Buea or to Golgotha?

Yours in the struggle

Fontem Neba

Scholar & Freedom Fighter