Monthly Archives: June 2020

30, June 2020

Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea military officials meet over border dispute ⁰

Cameroonian and Equatoguinean military officials and experts began meeting in Cameroon’s capital city Yaounde on Monday to discuss how to ease border tensions between both countries.

“This important bilateral meeting shall essentially delve into mutual collaboration modalities and security actions along the border between both countries,” Cameroon’s defence minister Joseph Beti Assomo said in a statement ahead of the meeting.

The experts will agree on the modalities which will be presented to the ministers of defence of both countries when they meet on Tuesday to finalize a “definite way out of the conflict,” according to officials

In early June, Cameroon’s south regional governor Felix Nguele Nguele said both countries had agreed to jointly map out the disputed border area after skirmishes between their troops left several wounded and property destroyed.

Officials have stressed on diplomatic channels as a way to peacefully resolve tensions along the 180-km border.

Source: Xinhuanet

30, June 2020

In Mamfe, Another French Cameroun Mayor is elected ⁰

The ills of one of Southern Cameroons desperate town deepened today with the election of 32-year old Tabenchong Robertson Ashu, as the new Mayor of Mamfe. All 20 councilors of the ruling CPDM crime syndicate with charges of corruption, taking bribes from Market women and okada riders and financing pro Yaoundé armed militias in Manyu took part in the voting process that was teleguided by Chief Tabetando and Minister Mengot.

Mayor Tabenchong Robertson Ashu has now replaced his late brother Mayor Ojong Priestly who was murdered recently via a combined action staged by the Cameroon government army and an armed militia group sponsored by Yaoundé CPDM barons. Both Tabenchong and the late Ojong Priestly hail from Eshobi Village and are from the same family.

The two Eshobi men were jointly involved in a rolling Cameroon Concord News Group investigation into illegal petrol dealing from Nigeria and official corruption and are noted for giving beer to underage girls in exchange for sex.

Cat calls have greeted the choice of Tabenchong Robertson as mayor following strong allegations from senior title holders that he was in the military vehicle that was transporting the late mayor at the time of the so-called Amba attack. But he reportedly came out unhurt.

A source deep within the ruling party hinted this reporter that Chief Tabetando gave standing instructions that Eshobi must finish their tenure at the head of the Mamfe council.

By Kingsley Betek in Mamfe

30, June 2020

Covid-19 Pandemic: African Cup of Nations postponed until 2022 ⁰

The Confederation of African Football has made the decision to move the African Cup of Nations to January 2022.

The tournament was supposed to take place in January 2021, but the coronavirus pandemic has caused the postponement of plans.

All African footballers including Liverpool stars such as Mo Salah, Sadio Mane, and Naby Keita will therefore not miss any part of the next season due to international duty.

This will come as good news for Liverpool fans – the African Cup of Nations has been officially postponed until January 2022.

In a meeting today, the Confederation of African Football made the decision to postpone AFCON by a year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The tournament was originally planned to take place in January 2021 but has now been pushed back a year.

Source: Tribuna.com

30, June 2020

US virus death toll passes 126,000 as Trump comes under fire ⁰

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported 2,545,250 cases of new coronavirus and said that the number of deaths had risen to 126,369 as of Monday night.

The United States recorded at least 42,000 coronavirus infections in the 24 hours to Monday as the country confronts a rapid surge in the respiratory disease known as COVID-19.

Several state governors have reimposed lockdowns on businesses such as restaurants and bars as the White House claimed the rise in cases is due to record levels on “expanded testing” and not community spread.

In California, Los Angeles, which has become a new epicenter in the pandemic as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations surge, reported an “alarming” one-day surge in America’s second-largest city that put it over 100,000 cases.

Los Angeles county closed all beaches for the Independence Day holiday weekend due to the startling rise in coronavirus rates in the county, while state of Arizona closes bars, gyms and movie theaters for at least 30 days.

Nearly 20 states paused or rolled back reopening of businesses due to rapid rise in coronavirus cases.

California counties are dialing back plans to reopen some businesses after observing an increase in hospitalizations and a decrease in compliance with social distancing guidelines.

“We will take action to close bars wineries and breweries that do not serve food beginning midnight Wednesday morning,” San Diego County’s Public Health Officer Wilma Wooten said Monday. “Now more than ever, it is vital that we all take precaution to guide our personal, as well as our collective health.”

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak paused the state’s reopening, with his office saying the governor “will sign an emergency directive extending the length of Phase 2 through the end of July, due to the trends in COVID-19 infection rates, the time needed for expanded contact tracing to identify trends, and to see the impacts of the Governor’s new face covering directive.”

Nearly half of US virus deaths recorded in care facilities

According to the latest count from the Kaiser Family Foundation, long-term care facilities and similar institutions account for 45% of coronavirus deaths in the United States.

The survey found more than 52,000 deaths occurred in nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, memory care facilities, adult care centers, or other long-term care facilities in 40 states, plus Washington, DC.

KFF’s survey finds more than 10,000 facilities in 43 states plus Washington, DC, have confirmed cases of Covid-19.

According to the data, the states with the highest number of deaths in nursing homes were New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.

Trump’s reopening plan ‘backfired’

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo criticized President Donald Trump’s administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying the White House has been “in denial” from the start of the public health crisis.

Cuomo said the Trump administration was not doing enough to tackle a surge of in COVID-19 cases in several US states that has emerged over the past few weeks.

The New York governor said that Trump’s focus on reopening the economy was misguided and that it had backfired.

“Yes, we have to get the economy going but reopening fast was not good for the economy. What has been happening is, when that virus spikes, the market goes down, not up,” Cuomo said.

Trump is facing mounting criticism from both Republicans and Democrats over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a rare break with mask-averse president, fellow Republican leaders are advocating for mask as COVID-19 cases surge in some Republican-leaning states, Reuters said.

US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Wearing simple face coverings is not about protecting ourselves, it is about protecting everyone we encounter.”

Source: Presstv

30, June 2020

WHO says Covid-19 pandemic is ‘not even close to being over’ ⁰

The coronavirus pandemic is “not even close to being over”, the WHO warned Monday, as the global death toll passed half a million and cases surged in Latin America and the United States.

In another grim milestone, the number of infections recorded worldwide topped 10 million, while some authorities reimposed lockdown measures that have crippled the economies worldwide.

“We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives,” World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

“But the hard reality is this is not even close to being over,” he said, adding that “although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up.”

The virus emerged at least six months ago in China, where the WHO will send a team next week in the search for its origin, Tedros said.

Covid-19 is still rampaging across the US, which has recorded more than 125,000 deaths and 2.5 million cases — both around a quarter of the global totals.

US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the April-June quarter was expected to see the largest decline in GDP on record, adding that recovery would depend on government efforts to contain the outbreak.

Many of the south and west US states where the virus is most rampant are where state leaders pushed for early reopenings.

But even in New York, deemed to be in good health comparatively, the iconic Broadway theatre district announced it would remain closed through the end of the year.

And with numerous US states forced to reimpose restrictions on restaurants, bars and beaches, President Donald Trump has come under growing pressure to set an example by wearing a mask.

Trump’s health secretary has warned the “window is closing” for the US to regain control, but the president has largely turned away from the crisis, holding indoor rallies with big, largely maskless crowds against the advice of his experts and refusing to cover his own face in public.

‘Profound shock’

And while opposition Democrats have urged Trump to reissue an emergency declaration on coronavirus, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president had “no interest” in doing so.

However, he may not be able to avoid masks forever — the Florida city of Jacksonville, where Trump’s Republicans are due to hold their national convention in August, declared face masks mandatory on Monday.

Underlining Trump’s increasing isolation on the issue, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is usually in lock step with the president, spoke out on the urgency of mask-wearing.

“We must have no stigma, none, about wearing masks when we leave our homes and come near other people,” he said.

“Wearing simple face coverings is not about protecting ourselves, it is about protecting everyone we encounter.”

The second hardest-hit country Brazil registered 259,105 infections in the seven days through Sunday — the country’s highest of any week during the pandemic.

Ireland’s pubs began pouring pints for the first time in 15 weeks, as Europe — still the hardest-hit continent — continues to open up after seeing numbers of new cases fall.

“Guinness is good for you,” quipped Mark O’Mahony — the first to order a pint with his breakfast at a Dublin pub. “Without it, it hasn’t been much good really for 15 weeks.”

In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his country had gone through a “profound shock” as he prepared to unveil a large stimulus programme.

Constant threat

His government plans to reopen pubs, restaurants and hairdressers across England on July 4, but on Monday ordered schools and non-essential shops in Leicester, central England, to close after a localised outbreak.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron called for a “strong” and “efficient” recovery fund for the European Union.

In Merkel’s Germany, which has been praised for how it has tackled its Covid-19 outbreak, the North Rhine-Westphalia state extended a lockdown on a district hit hard by a slaughterhouse outbreak.

In neighbouring Switzerland, organisers said that 2021’s Geneva International Motor Show was cancelled, after already scrapping this year’s event.

China has imposed a strict lockdown on nearly half a million people in a province surrounding Beijing to contain a fresh cluster.

In a reminder of the constant threat of newly-emerged pathogens, researchers in Chinese universities and the country’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced they had discovered a novel swine flu that was capable of triggering another pandemic.

Named G4, it is genetically descended from the H1N1 strain that caused a pandemic in 2009.

It possesses “all the essential hallmarks of being highly adapted to infect humans,” said the authors of a study published Monday in the US science journal PNAS.

The Middle East’s most affected country Iran reported 162 more deaths on Monday, its highest single-day toll yet, a day after it also made mask-wearing mandatory for inside gatherings.

India, which is gradually easing a nationwide lockdown, registered a daily record of 18,500 new cases and 385 new deaths on Saturday.

Alka, one of the country’s million accredited social health activists, said it was difficult for the unprotected and poorly paid all-women workers to get people to heed their advice.

“People are struggling to feed their families,” she said. “What can we do?”

(AFP)

30, June 2020

Southern Cameroons War: Vice President Yerima’s agenda setting ⁰

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government has reportedly sounded a note of caution to the Ambazonia diaspora in Europe, South Africa and the United States that the shortage of financial support and assistance amid the coronavirus pandemic is weakening Self Defense Forces in Ground Zero.

Vice President Dabney Yerima noted on Monday that the Ambazonia Defense Department had ordered a tactical withdrawal of some Restoration Forces defending the homeland to enable the Interim Government prepare them for the last and most decisive phase of the resistance.

Yerima also addressed a letter to the Communist Party of Swaziland, thanking its leadership for highlighting the sufferings of the people of Southern Cameroons to the international community and added that Southern Cameroons devastated hospitals and health centers are pushing hundreds of Ambazonians to struggle to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

The exiled Southern Cameroons Vice President observed that urgent funding was needed by the Interim Government to handle the humanitarian situation created by French Cameroun army soldiers on Southern Cameroons women and children.

West Cameroon was turned into the scene of Africa’s worst humanitarian crisis after the 87 year old President Paul Biya declared war against the English speaking people of Southern Cameroons four years ago.

The ongoing war was meant to subdue a popular Southern Cameroons uprising led by jailed leader President Sisiku Ayuk Tabe that announced to the world the independence of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. While the Biya regime in Yaounde backed by the current French government of President Emmanuel Macron has failed to achieve that objective, it has been continuing often blind operations that kill and maim civilians, including women and children.

The UN and the European Union estimates that the war has claimed more than 3000 lives over the past four years.

By Chi Prudence Asong in London and Oke Akombi Ayukepi Akap in Glasgow

29, June 2020

Cry over spilled milk: Anglofools sidelined from influential posts in new appointments at CRTV ⁰

Instead of going back to Southern Cameroons, some Anglophones are crying foul following Friday’s appointments at the Cameroon Radio Television, CRTV.

Many are of the informed opinion that the decisions signed by CRTV’s Board Chair, Rene Emmanuel Sadi at the end of the June 26, 2020Ordinary Session of the Board of Directors kept Anglophones away from influential positions at the corporation.

“CRTV is a crazy house. Everyone is shocked by the appointments. Some people who never come to work, like those who hardly go on air, were catapulted to higher portfolios. Anglophones who have been burning the midnight oil were rather sidelined,” said a CRTV staff told Cameroon-Info.Net, but did not want to be named for fear of reprisals.

Although those contacted denied commenting on record for fear of the unknown, Cameroon-Info.Net understands that Anglophones were carefully sidelined from the positions that matter at the corporation.

Going by the appointments read over CRTV Friday night, Dr. George Ewane was named Central Director for Radio while Chia Theophilus is new Central Technical Director.

“These are more of ceremonial positions, just like the position of Deputy General Manager. It is true that Dr. Ewane is Central Director for Radio but his role is only to oversee work. It is ceremonial because the General Manager can decide to work directly with any operational director without consulting him,” said someone familiar with the goings-on at the national broadcaster.

Cameroon-Info.Net understands that operational directors at CRTV are those who head departments with staff answerable to them and with direct bearing on content. Such departments include news, programmes, technical affairs, finance, human resources and CRTV Marketing and Communication Agency (CMCA).

“None of these juicy portfolios are occupied by an Anglophone. If you are not an operational director, and you do not have personal relations with the General Manager, then you are a ceremonial director,” a disgruntled CRTV member of staff said.

Anglophones at CRTV bemoan the fact that two of theirs who occupied operational portfolios were removed and sent to peripheral positions – offices that do not even exist on the organizational chart of the corporation.

“We had two Anglophones who were operational directors. Wain Paul Ngam as Director of Programmes Radio was removed and rather appointed Technical Adviser No. 3 to the General Manager – a post that does not even exist on the organigramme. Valery Dikos Oumarou is now Director of Programmes Radio,” our source at CRTV said. “Tehwui Lambiv was Director of Productions which covers Radio and TV. He was replaced with Josephine Ndagnou.”

According to the appointments, Tehwui Lambiv is new Mediator at CRTV. It is said that the Mediator at CRTV is a peripheral position – someone who serves as liaison between the corporation and the public. The Mediator also manages the social climate within the establishment.

Quizzed if the ceremonial positions reserved for Anglophones is because there is only one Anglophone in the CRTV Board of Directors, some journalists at the state-run broadcaster responded in the negative.

“They see us as a tribe. They will tell you that they appointed one Bassa, one Beti, One Bamileke and one Anglophone,” a staffer quipped.

With the uneasy social climate created by Friday’s appointments, Tehwui Lambiv also has a lot to handle when he assumes the office of Mediator.

It is an open secret that an Anglophone has never been General Manager of the CRTV, 57 years since 1963 when the first English language broadcasters were recruited into Radio Cameroon Yaoundé, following the Reunification in 1961.

Source: CIN with additional reporting from Camcordnews

29, June 2020

Germany investigates 30,000 suspects as online paedophilia probe widens ⁰

Germany is investigating 30,000 suspects as part of a probe into an online paedophile network, the latest in a series of child sex abuse scandals that prompted authorities to promise a crackdown.

The probe began last October with the arrest of a suspected perpetrator in Bergisch Gladbach, near Cologne.

But investigators digging into the case have turned up a far bigger paedophile network than expected.

“I did not expect, not even remotely, the extent of child abuse on the internet,” North Rhine-Westphalia’s justice minister Peter Beisenbach told reporters on Monday.

What the investigation team had uncovered was “deeply disturbing”, he said.

“We must recognise that child abuse on the internet is more widespread than we had previously thought.”

The cyber crime office in North Rhine-Westphalia is now “investigating 30,000 unknown suspects” in the case linked to the city of Bergisch Gladbach, said Beisenbach.

“We want to drag perpetrators and supporters of child abuse out of the anonymity of the internet,” he added.

Those being investigated are suspected of sharing “child and youth pornographic content” including “fictitious and/or real acts of abuse” in anonymous online discussion forums and chat groups, the cyber crime office ZAC NRW said in a statement.

To date, just over 70 suspects have been identified throughout Germany.

In May, the first offender — a 27-year-old soldier — was sentenced to 10 years in prison and placed in a psychiatric hospital for an indefinite period.

‘Emotional murder’

Germany has been shocked at the discovery of several serious cases of child sex abuse over the past 18 months.

In early June, 11 people were arrested on suspicion of sexually abusing children and filming their actions after videos and photos were seized from the cellar of a 27-year-old man from the city of Muenster, also in North Rhine-Westphalia state.

Investigators said they had identified at least three victims, aged five, 10 and 12 years old.

Officials said then that investigative capacities on child abuse had been increased, which would likely lead to the discovery of more cases.

The case triggered calls from politicians to crack down on those using and sharing child pornography, with calls for it to be classed as a crime rather than just an offence.

“Child abuse cannot be punished like shoplifting. It is murder. Not physically but emotionally. Anyone who molests children must be punished as a criminal, fullstop,” said North Rhine Westphalia interior minister Herbert Reul.

Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht in mid-June conceded offenders would in future receive a sentence of at least one year. “Anyone who commits such disgusting crimes must feel the full force of the law,” she said.

Campsite abuse

In an earlier scandal in Luegde, 125 kilometres (80 miles) from Muenster, several men abused children several hundred times at a campsite over a period of several years.

Prosecutors said more than 40 children fell victim to the men at the “Eichwald” campsite between 1998 and 2018, most of them between three and 14 years old at the time.

Some 33 witnesses, including 16 victims and 12 relatives, testified before the court in the trial, many of them behind closed doors.

Child sex abuse was also placed in the spotlight when police announced in May they suspected a German man of having murdered missing British girl Madeleine McCann.

The 43-year-old suspect, named as Christian B. by German media, has a long criminal past and a history of child sex abuse.

(AFP)

29, June 2020

VOA Correspondent, several Southern Cameroonians arrested and ordered to speak French ⁰

A Cameroonian journalist who freelances for the Voice of America says he was harassed by police who seized his equipment Saturday in Yaoundé, the capital. Moki Edwin Kindzeka said he was also ordered to speak only in French.

In a social media post, Kindzeka said, “These guys should not molest people just because they speak the English language.”

The Cameroon Association of English-Speaking Journalists on Twitter condemned “this act in the strongest terms.” The group demanded an apology.

Kindzeka is also a journalist with the state broadcaster CRTV.

Timescape Magazine reports that the attack on Kindzeka came during military raids Saturday on Anglophone Cameroonians in the capital, many of whom were arrested and ordered to speak French.

Cameroon has had an ongoing separatist conflict that the U.N. says has cost more than 3,200 lives and displaced more than half-a-million people.

The conflict started in 2016 when protests by English-speaking teachers and lawyers against the dominance of French-speaking Cameroonians led some to take up arms.

Cameroon’s military declared war on the rebels, who have been fighting since 2017 to create an independent, English-speaking state.

Source: VOA

29, June 2020

Yaounde to boost local production to deal with COVID-19 economic impact ⁰

Cameroon will boost production of locally made goods as part of new measures to handle the economic hardships resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak, the country’s Minister of Trade, Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana said on Friday.

He said the Made in Cameroon initiative holds the key to the successful economic growth and recovery in the country, which is hit by the pandemic.

“We need to consume what we produce and produce what we consume,” Atangana told reporters in the capital Yaounde a day after the country’s Cabinet Meeting recommended the promotion of local production.

Cameroon needs more investments in food and local manufacturing sectors in a bid to promote domestic production and stimulate local consumption habits, he said.

Government intends to support local companies, accelerate the supply of large irrigated areas, supply improved seeds to smallholder farmers and subsidize fertilizer, Atangana said.

Containment measures against COVID-19 pandemic in Cameroon have seen the overall volume of trade in the first half of 2020 dropped by 16 percent, according to the country’s trade ministry.

Source: Xinhuanet