Monthly Archives: November 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Church in Bamenda grieving the killing of students and teachers

30, November 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Church in Bamenda grieving the killing of students and teachers 0

Cameroon’s Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda have denounced the heinous murder of four students and a teacher of Government Bilingual High School Ekondo Titi, South West Region of Cameroon.

In a statement signed by the Archbishop of Bamenda on behalf of other Bishops, Andrew Nkea, the Bamenda Provincial Episcopal Conference (BAPEC) expressed its deep distress at the cruel killings of students and a teacher on Wednesday, 24 November 2021.

The brutal killings of students and teachers

“Our hearts have been pierced again! In recent times, we have painfully witnessed an agonising drama involving, among other evils, the targeting and killing of pupils, students and teachers … We have hardly recovered from the cruel killing of Enondiale Tchuengia Carolaisse (a class one pupil) killed in Molyko-Buea on Thursday, 14 October 2021, and the brutal killing of another pupil, Brandy Tataw, on Friday, 1 November 2021, in Nkwen-Bamenda, than we are confronted again with the killing of four more innocent Cameroonians within the protected area of a school,” said Bishop Nkea.

Explaining the tragic attack on the school by gunmen, Archbishop Nkea said, “On Wednesday, 24 November 2021, some persons armed with guns and explosives, invaded the premises of Government Bilingual High School Ekondo Titi and shot and killed three students: Emmanuel Orome (12 years), Joyceline Ikem (16 years), and Emmanuel Kum (17 years); and a teacher, Celestine Song. These innocent victims are not the cause of the socio-political crisis, and their deaths cannot be the solution. Their murder is totally senseless and unacceptable,” said the Archbishop of Bamenda and President of the BAPEC.

A fourth student later died at a local hospital bringing the total number of victims to five. Seven students wounded in the attack are receiving treatment in hospitals around the city of Buea.

Dialogue and not violence is the solution

The Bishops of the Bamenda region have appealed for the respect of life and more state protection.

“We, the Bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda, condemn these barbaric acts, which violate all International Laws and Conventions safeguarding the inviolability of schools and the protection of learners (pupils and students), and teachers, offend against the fundamental right to education, and breaks the Fifth Commandment of God … We have been persistent in our call for the respect and defence of human rights, especially the right to life, openness to dialogue, an option for the truth and recourse to peaceful means as the best way to a durable solution. While calling on the Government to ensure the security of schools, we make a special appeal, once more, to all perpetrators of violence to allow the genuinely human feelings of love, pardon and benevolence to flow into their hearts so that the safety and security of all may be guaranteed, alongside the right of all young people to life and to an education and a future,” the prelate of Bamenda said.

Students and teachers abandon schools

According to Cameroonian authorities, the armed attacks on schools scare teachers and students from institutions thus dealing a devastating blow on learning. Local government officials have pleaded with the children’s parents and teachers in the region not to abandon the schools.

Ekondo Titi’s senior government official, Aboloa Timothe, promised heightened security to protect schools, teachers and students from further attacks. Given the many incidents in several parts of the region, it remains to be seen how this will be done, in practical terms. Observers say that there have been more than ten armed attacks on schools in the English-speaking regions in the last few month alone. The exact figure is unclear, but more than 10 children have been killed and several teachers and students wounded.

The Anglophone crisis: A neglected conflict

It is a brutal ‘low level’ armed conflict that has been happening for the last five years in Cameroon’s western Anglophone regions. Cameroon’s military has been engaged in an armed conflict with separatist rebels, the Amba boys, who want the Anglophone areas to break away from the Francophone country. Education has been weaponised as the separatists enforce a boycott of schools. UN rights agencies have accused both the rebels and Cameroon’s military of killing civilians and widespread human rights violations.

Source: Vatican News

Equatorial Guinea Deports Cameroonian Citizens Citing Security Concerns

30, November 2021

Equatorial Guinea Deports Cameroonian Citizens Citing Security Concerns 0

Equatorial Guinea has begun deporting thousands of Cameroonians who were residing in the country illegally, citing national security concerns. Authorities in the capital Malabo said the Cameroonians fled conflict in western Cameroon, where government troops have been fighting anglophone separatists. Hundreds of those already deported are trying to return to Equatorial Guinea to gather their belongings.

About 40 people in Kiossi, a Cameroonian southern commercial town, want to enter neighboring Equatorial Guinea this Tuesday morning. Among them is Philippe Oyono, a 33-year-old building material shop owner.

Owono said police in Equatorial Guinea forcefully removed him from his home in the town of Bata. He said he was sent back to Cameroon on November 5 alongside 65 other Cameroonians.

He said he is pleading that President Paul Biya of Cameroon raises their concerns with President Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea so that authorities can allow undocumented migrants who have been deported to Cameroon to return to Equatorial Guinea and gather their belongings. Oyono said it is not common for Equatorial Guinea to deport mothers and fathers without their children and merchants without their goods.

Government officials in Cameroon’s South region say at least 600 Cameroonians have been deported from neighboring Equatorial Guinea in the past month.

This week, Cameroon said it had negotiated with Equatorial Guinea to give undocumented migrants three months to get residency permits or to voluntarily return to Cameroon.

Cameroon’s ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, Desire Jean Claude Owono Menguele, said about a thousand Cameroonians have opted to voluntarily return.

Last week, Nguema Obiang Mangue, vice president and son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, said concerns about rising theft and banditry are behind Equatorial Guinea’s decisoin to ask undocumented migrants to leave.

He spoke on Radio Malabo, Equatorial Guinea’s state radio while addressing a crowd that supports deportation.

Mangue said he is surprised that the decision the government of Equatorial Guinea has taken to deport undocumented migrants is generating controversy and criticism. He said rising insecurity in Equatorial Guinea has pushed President Obiang Nguema to ask all undocumented migrants and those who have criminal records, including violence and theft, to leave. Mangue said Equatorial Guinea, like other countries, will not tolerate undocumented migrants.

Mangue added that legitimate refugees, including those fleeing separatist crisis in Cameroon, will not be affected by the deportations. However, he said some people displaced by the crisis in the Central African Republic and Cameroon prefer to hide within the community and work instead of registering as refugees.

In September, Equatorial Guinea announced that it was to deport all undocumented migrants from countries, including Nigerians, Cameroonians, Chadians, Central Africans, Ghanaians and Kenyans.

Source: VOA

China to provide 1 billion Covid vaccine doses to Africa

30, November 2021

China to provide 1 billion Covid vaccine doses to Africa 0

China will deliver another 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa and encourage Chinese companies to invest no less than $10 billion in the continent over the next three years, President Xi Jinping said on Monday.

The country has already supplied nearly 200 million doses to Africa, where vaccination rates have fallen behind amid growing concern over the spread of the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which was first identified in southern Africa.

Xi said 600 million doses would be donations and 400 million doses would be provided through other means such as joint production by Chinese companies and relevant African countries. China will also build 10 health projects in Africa and send 1,500 health experts, he said.

In a speech via video link at the opening of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Xi said a China-Africa cross-border yuan centre would be set up to provide African financial institutions with a credit line of $10 billion, without giving further details.

China will provide $10 billion of trade finance to support African exports, create a zone for trade and economic cooperation and build a China-Africa industrial park, he said.

The announcement comes amid criticism of China’s infrastructure-for-commodities deals that some experts say saddle countries with unsustainable debt. Democratic Republic of Congo is currently reviewing a $6 billion deal with Chinese investors over concerns that it is not sufficiently beneficial to Congo.

The Belt and Road Initiative, in which Chinese institutions finance major infrastructure in mainly developing nations, has slowed: Chinese bank financing for infrastructure projects in Africa fell from $11 billion in 2017 to $3.3 billion in 2020, according to a report by international law firm Baker McKenzie.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a four-nation tour of the region last week that Washington was pushing for cleaner deals without unsustainable debts.

Xi says imports from Africa to reach $300 billion

China’s imports from Africa, one of its key sources of crude oil and minerals, will reach $300 billion in the next three years, Xi said, adding that the two sides would cooperate in areas such as health, digital innovation, trade promotion and green development.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, also speaking via video link, thanked China for its support and said African economies should be able to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines.

Discussions at the World Trade Organization on a temporary TRIPS waiver to make COVID-19 vaccines and treatments available to all needed to be finalised, he said, while criticising the travel curbs imposed on South Africa.

Source: REUTERS

Football: Ronaldo hits back at claim he wants to beat Messi’s Ballon d’Or haul

30, November 2021

Football: Ronaldo hits back at claim he wants to beat Messi’s Ballon d’Or haul 0

Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo has hit back at a “disrespectful” claim that his only remaining ambition is to win the Ballon d’Or more times than Lionel Messi.

Paris Saint-Germain forward Messi won the prestigious award for a seventh time on Monday.

Ronaldo, who finished sixth in this year’s voting, has earned the Ballon d’Or five times.

The Ballon d’Or, given to the best male and female footballers of the year, is voted on by 180 journalists and presented by France Football.

Pascal Ferre, the editor in chief of France Football, was quoted in the New York Times recently saying Ronaldo told him his primary motivation was to retire having won the accolade more often than his old rival Messi.

Ronaldo, 36, took to Instagram to deny that suggestion.

“Today’s outcome explains Pascal Ferre’s statements last week, when he said that I confided in him that my only ambition was to finish my career with more Ballon d’Ors than Lionel Messi,” Ronaldo wrote.

“Pascal Ferre lied, he used my name to promote himself and to promote the publication he works for.

“It is unacceptable that the person responsible for awarding such a prestigious prize could lie in this way, in absolute disrespect for someone who has always respected France Football and the Ballon d’Or.

“The biggest ambition of my career is to win national and international titles for the clubs I represent and for the national team in my country.

“The biggest ambition of my career is to be a good example for all those who are or want to be professional footballers.

“The biggest ambition of my career is to leave my name written in golden letters in the history of world football.”

Ronaldo, who did not attend Monday’s prize-giving event in Paris, last won the Ballon d’Or in 2017.

This year marked the first time the former Juventus and Real Madrid striker finished outside the top five voting since 2010.

Messi’s seventh success extended his lead in the male category after he set the record with his sixth in 2019.

Barcelona and Spain midfielder Alexia Putellas won the 2021 women’s Ballon d’Or.

Source: AFP

Southern Cameroons Crisis: SDF says Ekondo Titi school attack is “act of blatant, shameless and senseless terrorism”

30, November 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: SDF says Ekondo Titi school attack is “act of blatant, shameless and senseless terrorism” 0

Hon. Joshua Nabangi Osih, 1st Vice National Chairman of the opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) has condoled with the families of those killed when militiamen attacked a school in Ekondo Titi.

Taking to social media Sunday, November 28, the onetime presidential candidate said he had just attended an ecumenical service in Ekondo Titi organized to mourn those who died in the November 24 school attack.

“On behalf of the SDF, I attended a heart-breaking ecumenical service in Ekondo Titi to mourn the victims of the barbaric onslaught on a school last Wednesday in that locality,” Osih said. “We later on condoled with the bereaved families and visited the severely injured in the Limbe [Regional] Hospital. Against terrorism, we will overcome!”

Hours after the Wednesday school attack, Osih had on behalf of his party said there is nothing worse than terror against education.

His words: “The SDF vehemently condemns the brutal killing of students and a teacher in various schools in Ekono Titi… Our hearts bleed from yet another act of blatant, shameless, and senseless terrorism. There is nothing worse than terror against education. Our prayers go to the injured fighting for their lives as well as the bereaved families. We will overcome.”

Cameroon-Info.Net recalls that On Wednesday, November 24, 2021, suspected armed separatist fighters killed four students and one teacher in an attack on Government Bilingual High School (GBHS) Ekondo Titi, Ndian Division, South-West Region.

Local authorities said the yet-to-be-identified militiamen used hand grenades to carry out the attack between 7:30 am and 8:00 am that fateful day.

According to state media, some of the gunmen were dressed in military fatigue.

The militiamen shot and killed Madam Song Celestine Fien, a French Language teacher who was delivering lessons to Form 2 students at the time of the attack. The mother of four is said to be a native of Ngwainkuma in Fundong Subdivision, Boyo Division.

Three students – one girl and two boys – were killed in the attack while many others sustained injuries.

One of the five students seriously injured died en route to the Limbe Regional Hospital through Idenau. Four others are now out of danger and are responding to treatment at the Limbe Regional Hospital.

Armed separatists are on record to have opposed the reopening of schools, using it as a weapon of war. Many teachers and schoolchildren have been maimed, killed, abducted, and tortured since 2016. schools have also been destroyed and others burnt.

By Enowtaku Ebanghatabi Christelle in Buea

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yaoundé says kidnapped Divisional Delegates may still be alive

30, November 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yaoundé says kidnapped Divisional Delegates may still be alive 0

Five months after the abduction of some divisional delegates in Ndian Division, Cameroon’s Ministry of Defence has rolled out a communique that suggests that they may still be alive.

In a communique on last Wednesday’s attack on a school in Ekondo Titi by militiamen, Navy Captain Atonfack Guemo Cyrille Serge, Head of Communication Division at Cameroon’s Ministry of Defence said the civil servants are being held incommunicado by a separatist group led by pseudo-General Ten Kobo.

Reacting to the killing of four students and a teacher of Government Bilingual High School (GBHS) Ekondo Titi by gunmen, Navy Captain Atonfack said inter alia: “…Combing operations are ongoing on the ground to track the  assailants who, according to initial findings, would belong to a terrorist group headed by the so-called general ‘ten kobo’, who is equally responsible for the kidnapping and incommunicado holding of some divisional delegates of Ndian on June 15, and the murder of the divisional delegate in the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development.”

Cameroon-Info.Net recalls that this is the first time the Ministry of Defence is making allusion to the abducted divisional delegates whose whereabouts remain uncertain.

The only time a senior state official came close to commenting on the issue was on November 3, 2021, during the installation of Gilbert Guibai Baldena as the new Senior Divisional Officer for Ndian Division.

In his address, South-West Governor, Okalia Bilai Bernard asked for the observance of a moment of silence in memory of Mabia Johnson, the Ndian Divisional Delegate for Economy, Planning and Regional Development who was abducted on June 15 and killed on June 18 by separatist fighters.

The Governor continued his speech without mentioning the fate of the remaining kidnapped delegates.

Cameroon-Info.Net remembers that at around 9 am on Tuesday, June 15, 2021, armed separatist fighters abducted six divisional delegates in Misore-Balue village in Ekondo-Titi Subdivision, near Mundemba.

On Friday, June 18, 2021, three days after he was kidnapped by armed separatist fighters along with five other Divisional Delegates, 42-year-old Mabia Johnson Mudika, Divisional Delegate of Economy, Planning, and Regional Development, was killed by his abductors.

Those held incommunicado by militiamen are:

Mambe Elvis Ebaku, Ndian Divisional Delegate of State Property, Surveys, and Land Tenure

Felicia Ndong, Ndian Divisional Delegate of Housing and Urban Development

Elad Emmanuel, Ndian Divisional Delegate of Water and Energy Resources

Mbida Armand Christian, Ndian Divisional Delegate of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Social Economy and Handicraft

Agbor Stephen Nyenty, Divisional Chief of Service for Surveys, Ndian Division.

Back in June, Cameroon Tribune reported that the officials had left Mundemba, headquarters of Ndian Division, traveling by land to Ekondo Titi (one of the nine subdivisions of Ndian) on an official assignment to demarcate land for the construction of an electricity plant to enhance power distribution in Ndian Division.

“Between 9 and 10 am at two kilometers to Ekondo Titi, precisely Misore Road Junction, armed men erupted and forced them into the bush. Early hints spoke of some ransom being asked by the assailants but later on, conflicting notes from the social media refused any such ransom. It is not clear yet which amounts were requested,” state-run newspaper, Cameroon Tribune reported on June 23.

Source: Cameroon Info.Net

30 South African white rhino relocated to Rwanda in a Boeing 747

29, November 2021

30 South African white rhino relocated to Rwanda in a Boeing 747 0

Thirty endangered white rhinos arrived in Rwanda on Monday after a long journey from South Africa in a Boeing 747, conservationists said, hailing it as the largest single transfer of the species ever undertaken.

The majestic animals, which can weigh up to two tonnes, travelled some 3,400 kilometres (2,100 miles) from South Africa’s Phinda Private Game Reserve as part of a programme to replenish the species’ population, decimated by poaching since the 1970s.

Once plentiful across sub-Saharan Africa, white rhino suffered first from hunting by European settlers, and later a poaching epidemic which largely wiped them out.

The rhinos began their 40-hour journey to the new home in Akagera National Park in eastern Rwanda following months of preparation, said African Parks, a charity headed by Britain’s Prince Harry which is involved in the exercise.

“We had to tranquillize them to reduce their stress, which is itself risky, and monitor them,” said African Parks’ CEO Peter Fearnhead, calling the project a success.

The animals were transported in a chartered Boeing 747 and were placed in two grassy enclosures — each the size of a football stadium — after arriving in the park.

Later they will be allowed to roam the expansive park, authorities said.

“This will provide an opportunity for them to grow in a safe environment from South Africa where three are killed per day by poachers,” said the park’s regional manager Jes Gruner.

Wildlife transfers are not without risks. In 2018, four out of six relocated black rhinos died a few months after arriving in Chad.

The southern white rhino, one of two subspecies of white rhino, is now considered endangered with about 20,000 individuals remaining, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

It is classified as near-threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Breeding programme

The northern white rhino has all but vanished, with only two females left alive.

Scientists are attempting to save the species from extinction by harvesting eggs from the younger of the two animals, Fatu, and using sperm from two deceased males to create embryos in an unprecedented breeding programme, which is their last chance at survival.

Rwanda, which is positioning itself as a top Big Five safari destination, received five eastern black rhinos in 2019 from the Czech Republic and 17 from South Africa in 2017.

Not a single eastern black rhino has been poached at the Akagera park since their re-introduction in 2017, according to its regional manager Gruner.

Rhinos have few predators in the wild due to their size but have been devastated by poaching for their horns — used in traditional Chinese medicine.

According to the IUCN, there are around 5,000 black rhinos left in the wild, compared to more than a million in the mid-19th century.

Source: AFP

Yerima to Amba Fighters: Listen to your legitimate Interim Gov’t or surrender to the enemy

29, November 2021

Yerima to Amba Fighters: Listen to your legitimate Interim Gov’t or surrender to the enemy 0

The Vice President of the Southern Cameroons Interim Government (IG) Dabney Yerima sent a strong message late on Sunday to Ambazonia fighters in Ground Zero: Listen to your legitimate Ambazonia Interim Government or surrender to the French Cameroun enemy.

“I say to you all Ground Zero commanders and brave fighters: Listen to your Interim Government or surrender to the enemy. It is the hard choice you have to make now if we as a people must get to Buea,” Vice President Dabney Yerima said during a hard-hitting address to the Southern Cameroons exiled war cabinet meeting that held late on Sunday.

Dabney Yerima said the Department of Foreign Affairs has tried to establish unity to the divisive crisis that has rocked the Southern Cameroons front line leaders in the diaspora but blamed many of the groups for failing to respond to the overtures.

“As your Vice President, I have no other option but to turn to you fighters in Ground Zero and to inform you that our job in the diaspora now is to help in providing you with the support needed as our struggle is a war with only one outcome: Our victory and the recognition of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia,” Yerima said.

The war in Southern Cameroons has created a business empire for top military officers in Yaounde. About forty thousand Southern Cameroons civilians have lost their lives in this war. More than a million persons have fled to Nigeria and other countries as refugees, and millions have been made IDPs. More than 600 towns and villages and countless homes have been burnt down by French Cameroun troops. Hundreds of females have been raped (a good number deliberately infected with HIV and other STDs), scores of children killed in targeted killings, food and food crops and livestock destroyed to impose conditions of famine, water sources defiled and polluted to provoke a pestilence, and mass graves punctuate the landscape.

Genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed in the Southern Cameroons by French Cameroun military which systematically continues to kill women, teenagers, and even babies, the elderly, the infirm. Presidents Emmanuel Macron, Paul Biya and Buhari bears direct responsibility for these heinous crimes.

The UN Security Council has so far failed to assume its responsibility under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations to deal with French Cameroun’s colonial war in the Southern Cameroons. In the circumstances, it is not inconceivable that the Southern Cameroons abandons the self-defence posture to which it has so far restrained itself, in accordance with Article 51 of the UN Charter. It may eventually go on the offensive and broaden its offensive posture by targeting economic and social infrastructure in French Cameroun that support that country’s war effort, in the same way social and economic infrastructure in the Southern Cameroons continues to be targeted by the French Cameroun army. The objective of this new offensive would be to bring it home to Macron and Biya that their fanciful claim that “l’Ambazonieestcamerounaise” (Ambazonia belongs to Cameroun) is a pipe dream and that pursuing it will be very painful for French Cameroun in 2022 in the same way as the French claim that “l’Algerieestfranaise” (Algeria belongs to France) was for France in 1962.  The people of the Southern Cameroons strongly reject any idea or suggestion, explicit or implicit, that the Southern Cameroons is an area under French influence given that the Southern Cameroons does not have and has never had any ties, colonial or otherwise, with France. 

By Isong Asu and Chi Prudence Asong

French Cameroun: Boko Haram kills three Cameroon gov’t army soldiers in the Far North

29, November 2021

French Cameroun: Boko Haram kills three Cameroon gov’t army soldiers in the Far North 0

Three  Cameroon government army soldiers were killed and several others wounded in separate attacks staged by the Islamic sect Boko Haram in the Far North region bordering the Federal Republic of Nigeria on Sunday.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered from security sources that the Nigerian militants ambushed the Cameroon military convoy in Zelevet locality in the Mayo-Moskota district in Mayo-Tsanaga Division late on Sunday.

A well-placed source deep within the Cameroon army revealed that  Lieutenant Djika Koulagna was one of the two soldiers killed following the attack  by the terrorist sect.

At press time, we learnt that another Cameroon soldier was killed in an attack on a military camp in Fotokol in the Logone-et-Chari Division.

For more than six years, several localities in the Far North region have been under attack by the Nigerian Islamist sect with support from anti President Biya groups in the Far North region.

According to United Nations, nearly 40,000 people have been killed in 7 years in the Lake Chad Basin and 3 million have fled their homes.

By Rita Akana

S.African president wants ‘urgent’ lifting of travel bans

28, November 2021

S.African president wants ‘urgent’ lifting of travel bans 0

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday called on countries to “immediately and urgently” reverse scientifically “unjustified” travel bans linked to the discovery of the new coronavirus variant Omicron.

Dozens of nations from Europe to Asia have blacklisted South Africa and its neighbours since South African scientists flagged Omicron on November 25.

The flight bans have angered several African leaders.

“We call upon all those countries that have imposed travel bans on our country and our southern African sister countries to immediately and urgently reverse their decisions,” Ramaphosa said in his first address to the nation following last week’s detection of the new variant.

The World Health Organization has labelled Omicron a variant of concern, while scientists are still assessing its virulence.

A “deeply disappointed” Ramaphosa argued that the ban was “not informed by science”.

The countries that have already imposed travel restrictions on southern Africa include key travel hub Qatar, the United States, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Netherlands.

‘Afrophobia’

Earlier Sunday, Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera accused Western countries of “Afrophobia” for shutting their borders.

And in Botswana, the other southern African country to detect the strain — among a group of foreign diplomatic visitors in the first instance — two ministers cautioned against “geo-politicising this virus”.

“We are concerned that there seem to have been attempts to stigmatise the country where it was detected,” Health Minister Edwin Dikoloti, said on Sunday.

The head of the WHO in Africa was equally worried.

“With the Omicron variant now detected in several regions of the world, putting in place travel bans that target Africa attacks global solidarity,” said WHO regional director general Matshidiso Moeti in a statement.

Ramaphosa warned that the travel ban would “further damage the economies (and) undermine their ability to respond to and recover from the pandemic”.

South Africa, the continent’s most industrialised country, is struggling with slow economic growth and a more than 34 percent unemployment rate.

The travel curbs are another major blow to its key tourism industry, which had set high hopes on the upcoming southern hemisphere summer.

‘Unjustified restrictions’

Ramaphosa blasted the G20 countries for abandoning commitments made at a meeting in Rome last month to support the recovery of the tourism sector in developing countries.

On Sunday, he added: “Instead of prohibiting travel, the rich countries of the world need to support the efforts of developing economies to access and to manufacture enough vaccine doses for their people without delay.

“These restrictions are unjustified.”

Ramaphosa called on rich countries to stop fuelling vaccine inequality, describing jabs as the “most powerful tool” to limit Omicron’s transmission.

He once again appealed to South Africans to get their shots, and said the government was considering making vaccines mandatory for certain activities and locations in a bid to increase uptake.

“Vaccines do work,” he said. “Vaccines are saving lives.”

The country is Africa’s worst hit by Covid, with around 2.9 million cases and 89,797 deaths reported to date.

Omicron is believed to be fuelling a rise in infections, with 1,600 new cases recorded on average in the past seven days compared to 500 the previous week.

Source: AFP

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