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Intense fighting continues in Sudan for third day as civilian death toll nears 100

17, April 2023

Intense fighting continues in Sudan for third day as civilian death toll nears 100 0

For a third consecutive day, people in Sudan woke up to the ear-splitting sounds of heavy artillery and bombardment by warplanes on Monday as the death toll neared 100 following violent unrest.

According to reports, explosions rocked the Sudanese capital Khartoum Monday amid fierce fighting between the country’s military and the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

“The death toll among civilians… has reached 97,” the doctors’ union said, adding later that “dozens” of fighters had been killed and injured.

According to media reports, the figure does not include all casualties as many could not reach hospitals due to difficulties in movement amid the fighting.

The Central Committee of Sudan Doctors, a pro-democracy organization, also reported dozens of deaths among security forces, and some 942 wounded.

The intense conflict, which has seen air strikes, tanks on the streets, artillery fire and heavy gunfire in crowded neighborhoods both in Khartoum and other cities across Sudan, has triggered international demands for an immediate ceasefire.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that “several” of Khartoum’s nine hospitals receiving injured civilians “have run out of blood, transfusion equipment, intravenous fluids and other vital supplies”.

Katharina von Schroeder, a charity worker with Save The Children, who has been sheltering at a school with her son, told BBC they had hoped things would calm down when they arrived in search of shelter, but decided to stay put after clashes in the city escalated and spread to outside the capital.

She noted that several hundred children at least are trapped in similarly dangerous circumstances around Khartoum.

Meanwhile, the UN representative in Sudan on Monday slammed the failure by both the army and rival paramilitary forces to stop fighting during an agreed humanitarian pause to evacuate the wounded.

Volker Perthes said he was “extremely disappointed that humanitarian cessation of hostilities, that both the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces had committed to, was only partially honored yesterday”.

Violence erupted in Sudan on Saturday between Sudanese armed forces loyal to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, a paramilitary force led by Sudan’s deputy leader, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti.

Hemedti, belonging to a family of camel herders, rose from lowly beginnings to head a widely feared Arab militia that crushed a revolt in Darfur, winning him influence and eventually a role as the country’s second most powerful man, and one of its richest.

He has played a prominent role in his country’s turbulent politics for 10 years, helping topple his one-time benefactor President Omar al-Bashir in 2019 and later quashing protests by Sudanese seeking democracy.

As deputy head of state, Hemedti, with little formal education, has taken on some of Sudan’s most important portfolios in the post-Bashir era, including the crumbling economy and peace negotiations with rebel groups.

Source: Presstv

“French Cameroonians living in unprecedented fear in Yaoundé”

17, April 2023

“French Cameroonians living in unprecedented fear in Yaoundé” 0

The Chairman and Editor-In-Chief of the Cameroon Concord News Group has said that an uneasy calm  now prevails in Southern Cameroons but French speaking Cameroonians are living in an unprecedented fear as Biya regime approaches its end.

The Right Hon. Soter Agbaw-Ebai, a Cameroonian Journalist told Cameroon Concord News London Bureau that for the time being, things are quiet in Southern Cameroons.

This calm, according to Agbaw-Ebai, comes as a result of the fact that there is a disconnect between the diaspora and Southern Cameroonians in Ground Zero.  

“There is so much fear among French speaking Cameroonians today! The Biya regime is now a thing of the past,” Agbaw-Ebai told Cameroon Concord News London Bureau.

Agbaw-Ebai said that Southern Cameroonians are still steadfast in face of Yaounde’s aggression with ghost town operations.

He added that with the killing of some 3000 Cameroon government army soldiers, the Francophone dominated army seems to have retreated in its violence against the people of Southern Cameroons.        

According to Soter Agbaw-Ebai, Cameroon as a nation is living a different reality today.

By Chi Prudence Asong

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yaoundé Government Engages in Wrong Negotiation

17, April 2023

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Yaoundé Government Engages in Wrong Negotiation 0

As the killings and maiming of innocent civilians in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions continue to play out, the Yaoundé government has instead decided to send a delegation to Washington D.C. to address the issue of the country’s eligibility for the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), an American program which aims at granting duty-free treatment to goods of designated Sub-Saharan African countries. This access granted to African countries is contingent upon the human rights records of these African countries.

Cameroon once had access to the American market under AGOA, but when the Yaoundé government decided to use weapons designed to fight Boko Haram terrorists in the country’s northern regions on innocent civilians in the country’s two English-speaking regions where the English-speaking minority was indicting the Yaoundé government of marginalization and injustice, the American Administration of Donald Trump promptly cut off the Central African country from the attractive perks offered by the program.

Losing its privileges under AGOA also meant Cameroon could no longer have access to American sophisticated weapons, especially the night vision goggles, which made it possible for the poor Central African country to keep the terrorists at bay.

Since 2018, the Biya regime has been struggling to roll back Boko Haram terrorists and the absence of the right weapons has made their effort real hard labor, especially as the country’s army has lost and continues to lose many if its soldiers in a battle many experts say will be drawn out.

Cameroon’s numerous loses in its northern region against Boko Haram and its inability to bring about peace in its two English-speaking regions have resulted in massive frustrations, with the Yaoundé government clearly staring down the barrel of defeat.

The country’s Minister of Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Alamine Ousmane Mey, is currently leading a delegation to the American capital to plead for a forgiveness of the sins and crimes of the Yaoundé government.

When the Trump Administration pulled the plug on its deal with the Biya regime, the Yaoundé government’s surrogates and spin doctors were on many news channels to prove that the American decision would not hurt the Yaoundé government.

The Yaoundé government has been in the business of creating troll farms which will help it fight its fights in the media. Strangely, the government’s trolls are usually young and hungry people who hardly see beyond the next meal. They were blissfully oblivious of the consequences of their actions and those consequences have shown up today and they are biting the desperate government where it hurts the most.

At the time the American Administration rolled back its military help to Cameroon, the North American country had clearly pointed to Cameroon’s dismal human rights record. The Trump Administration did not mince its words but left a little window for the Central African country to return with a view to enjoying AGOA-related benefits if and when it addresses those human rights issues.

But the Yaoundé government is wont to placing the cart before the horses. The human rights abuses in the country’s two English-speaking regions have not been improved, with civilians still being killed like game by the country’s army soldiers.

In the North, Boko Haram remains a real threat and even the government’s worst enemies acknowledge that without external support, Boko Haram terrorists will, without a doubt, make that part of the country ungovernable.

Despite this unanimity, many rights groups have demonstrated that the Yaoundé government and its soldiers are not conducting the war against Boko Haram according to universally- accepted norms. Desperation sometimes pushes the soldiers into committing massive and despicable abuses on the civilian population and this is diminishing the country’s image on the global stage.

It is clear that it is impossible to wean the government from its old and bad ways. The Yaoundé government has only one major tool in its huge arsenal – violence – and this is usually employed to intimidate civilians suspected of aiding and abetting the terrorists and, in many cases, the soldiers get it terribly wrong as lost civilian lives cannot be restored.

Regarding the two English-speaking regions of the country, the international community, led by the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, has been calling on the Yaoundé government to adopt a more humane and diplomatic approach in its efforts to find a permanent solution to a crisis which has already  claimed close to ten thousand lives.

The international community has been backing any peaceful efforts which could result in lasting peace in the two English-speaking regions of the country, although not much has been achieved given that the Yaoundé government only believes in war as the only and ideal method which can restore peace in the two English-speaking regions.

The world was optimistic when the Swiss Talks were launched and the Vatican’s full support of the talks gave Cameroonians a real moment of hope. But in its characteristic manner, the Yaoundé government walked away from the talks, hoping that time would deliver the results it was looking forward to. Unfortunately, that is not happening.

The Yaoundé government holds that only time will address the Southern Cameroons crisis which has brought untold hardship to Cameroonians.

A war which started as a protest by lawyers and teachers has already lasted seven years and it has brought out the worst in humans as unnecessary killings and atrocities have become the order of the day. Schools in rural parts of the regions remain closed, with more than a million children being denied access to education which could help them unlock their potential and opportunities in the future.

The Southwest region, in particular, was, before the war, considered as the country’s bread basket, but following the war, food production has taken a nosedive, with food-related inflation hitting many Cameroonians like a ton of bricks.

The Southwest region alone accounted, before the war, for about 50% of the country’s cocoa production, but for more than five years, cocoa production has witnessed a huge decline as many farmers have escaped to the cities and towns where they can find some relative peace and many of them will not be returning to those farms anytime soon, especially after having had a taste of city life.

Despite the Yaoundé government’s withdrawal from the Swiss Talks, the international community has continued to find ways to bring the protagonists to the negotiating table.

The international community understands that without a full discussion on the core issues which caused Southern Cameroonians to pick up arms against the Yaoundé government, genuine peace would continue to be elusive in a country many hold, is responsible for the Central African region’s stability.

It was on these grounds that the international community designated Canada, a country noted for its diplomacy and experience in negotiating with linguistic minorities and leading intergovernmental negotiations, to lead talks between Cameroon’s separatists and the Yaoundé government.

The Yaoundé government accepted to come to the negotiating table and its Prime Minister, Joseph Dion Ngute, stood firmly behind the talks hoping that Canada’s experience and honesty would help to bring back peace to the country.

Three pre-talks had taken place in Canada. One in Toronto, Canada’s economic nerve centre and home to many rich Southern Cameroonians who have overtly and solidly stood behind the separatists, while two had taken place in Québec, Canada’s purely French-speaking province.

But when the Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister, Melanie Joly, announced early this year that Canada had been designated by the separatists and Yaoundé government to lead the talks, the Yaoundé government promptly issued a press release advising that it had not authorized anybody or any country to seek solutions to the crisis in the country’s two English-speaking regions.

Once again, the Yaoundé government had thrown a massive monkey-wrench into the works and this immediately destroyed the enthusiasm and hope the Canadian press release had generated across the globe.

The Yaoundé government took a lot of flax for its recklessness and constant refusal to be part of global efforts at finding lasting peace in the country after its unpopular press release.

But that did not dampen the enthusiasm and determination of the international community in general and that of Canada in particular. The U.S. and the UK promptly congratulated Canada on accepting to play such a key and positive role in a conflict which was destroying the country’s economy and offered their support when and if it would be needed.

The separatists, for their part, immediately formed a common front, proving that the Yaoundé government was the problem and not Southern Cameroonians who have been calling for peace. They accepted to attend any talks and urged the international community to support Canada in its efforts to engineer peace in Cameroon, though they have since failed to call for a resumption of schooling in the rural parts of the two English-speaking regions of the country.

Today, a delegation of the Yaoundé government is in Washington D.C. for reasons mentioned above, but before the delegation left the country to the U.S, the Yaoundé government on April 7, 2023 cancelled a planned visit by the Canadian deputy foreign affairs minister, Peter Macdougall, to Cameroon, once more underscoring that it had no appetite for peace.

However, if it has no appetite for peace, it has a huge appetite for money and this will bring it to the negotiating table as it has to deal with those who have been calling for peace talks with the separatists.

Now that the Yaoundé government needs American financial support, will Americans yield to Cameroon’s plea for readmission into AGOA when its human rights record still leaves much to be desired? Will Americans just open the doors to Cameroon when the Yaoundé government has no plan to sit with Southern Cameroonian separatists for those issues which triggered the war to be discussed? Cameroon needs America more than America needs Cameroon.

If America truly believes in human rights, then it should oblige the Yaoundé government to immediately start talks with Southern Cameroonians with Canada moderating the talks. Cameroon should engage, first, in the right talks before going to Washington D.C. to ask for a forgiveness of its sins.

By Dr. Joachim Arrey

More children die after taking fake cough syrup in Cameroon

16, April 2023

More children die after taking fake cough syrup in Cameroon 0

More children have died in Cameroon after consuming a fake cough syrup, health authorities have revealed.

The deadly fake medicine is branded “Naturcold”, purportedly made by a company named “Fraken Group”, the regional delegate for public health in Northwest Province, Dr Kingsley Che Soh said.

The drug caused fatal kidney failure in six children in the Northwest region, all were under the age of five.

In March, health officials in Southwest Cameroon said three children died from consuming the same fake medicine.

The Directorate of Pharmacy, Drugs and Laboratories at the Ministry of Public Health, Dr Eko Eko warned the drug contained two dangerous ingredients that caused the death of the children.

Their families are said to have bought the drugs along the roadside from unauthorised dealers. These unlicensed dealers often move around selling the medication door-to-door, or out of boxes in markets.

Street dealers

Dr Kingsley Che Soh has warned the population to avoid consuming the product and stay away from drugs sold along the roadside as it may be dangerous to health.

At markets, and other public places, many unlicensed medicine stores operate under the watchful eyes of the government, yet they lack basic documents authorising them to do so.

Drugs displayed  in Cameroon’s national capital Yaoundé

Alex Efiti, who lives in Douala, says it is easy for him to buy drugs along the roadside because it is cheap and accessible.

“Drugs are very expensive in pharmacies. It is not my level. I prefer buying from the guys who move around with it because I trust them and they are cheap”, he said.

Asked about the dangers of consuming these fake drugs, Alex said he has been consuming street medication for years and it has not affected him negatively.

Many believe in these medicine dealers, despite the news of the children’s deaths.

“My aunt got so mad at me for buying her drug at the pharmacy. She wanted me to get it from her usual drug dealer,” said another customer called Samira. “When I tried to tell her it was dangerous, she kept asking me why has it not killed her.”

Deaths

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warns that fake medical products kill almost half a million sub-Saharan Africans every year.

Its new threat assessment report says as many as 267,000 deaths per year are recorded in Sub-Saharan Africa, all linked to falsified and substandard antimalarial medicines.

“In addition, up to 169,271 are linked to falsified and substandard antibiotics used to treat severe pneumonia in children”, it added.

The government of Cameroon has made some strides in stopping the circulation of fake drugs, yet the population is still exposed to them.

Sources say the majority of fake drugs  are smuggled into the country from neighbouring countries through porous border control. Cameroon made a series of arrests last year related to illicit drug circulation.

Punished

Running an unlicensed pharmacy in Cameroon is illegal.

The same law prohibits the display and distribution of drugs on the public road, in fairs or markets. It further forbids even those with a degree in pharmacy to sell drugs by the roadside.

Anyone  selling fake or expired drugs, or intends to sell a fake drug, altered or harmful to human health, can be punished with a jail sentence of up to three years and a fine of up to 3,000,000 CFA francs.

Despite all these laws, the fake drug stores continue to operate in complicity with health agents, forces of law and order and the population. People even sometimes refuse to point out these dealers when health operators carry out controls.

Government Health Minister Manaouda Malachie announced last year his ministry was working on the creation of a national agency for medicines, that will regulate the drug market and strengthen the fight against street drugs.

Source: Humangle

Russian strike kills six, including toddler, in eastern Ukraine

14, April 2023

Russian strike kills six, including toddler, in eastern Ukraine 0

Russia shelled a block of flats in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk on Friday, killing six people including a toddler who was pulled out of the rubble but died in an ambulance on the way to hospital, police said.

Sloviansk lies in a part of the Donetsk region that is under Ukrainian control. It is close to territory controlled by Russia.

AFP journalists saw rescue workers digging for survivors on the top floor of a residential building and black smoke billowing from homes on fire across the street.

Authorities earlier said five people were killed but that there was possibly a child under the rubble of the building, a typical Soviet-era housing estate.

“The death toll in Sloviansk has risen to six,” Ukrainian police said on Twitter.

“A child died in an ambulance after being pulled out from the rubble.”

Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska said the child was a two-year-old boy and sent her condolences to the family during this “indescribable grief.”

The street below — including a playground — was covered in a layer of concrete dust and debris, including torn pages from school books and children’s drawings.

Shocked residents

“I live on the opposite side of the street and I was sleeping a little when I heard this huge boom and I ran out from my flat,” 59-year-old resident Larisa told AFP.

“I was really scared and in a state of shock,” she said, adding the impact of the shelling had broken her windows and sent shards of glass flying throughout her home.

“I heard a woman screaming, ‘there’s a child here, there’s a child here.’ She was screaming so much.”

At another impact site in a residential neighbourhood, an elderly woman in a purple cardigan — dazed from the blasts — was gathering blown-off shards of metal from the ground outside a shop.

A resident nearby, who declined to give her name, told AFP journalists the strikes had blown out her windows and dislodged her front door from its frame.

“Usually when this happens we immediately take cover in the bathroom,” she said.

“No one from our side of the building was injured but maybe someone here was,” she added, pointing to a pool of blood next to another entrance of her building.

Sloviansk is 45 kilometres (27 miles) north-west of Bakhmut — the current epicentre of fighting.

Source: AFP

African journalists are dying. They need the world’s help to hold power to account

14, April 2023

African journalists are dying. They need the world’s help to hold power to account 0

On Friday 14 April, a team of west Africa-based journalists will arrive in Cameroon, one of the most oppressive countries on the continent. Our three colleagues will be there to conduct an “Arizona Project”, named after the events in 1976 when journalists in the US state came together to finish the story that a murdered colleague had been working on. Their motto – “You can kill a journalist, but you cannot kill the story” – applies now more than ever, especially in Cameroon.

What was the story that killed Martinez Zogo, the 50-year-old radio journalist, whose mutilated body was found on 22 January in a suburb of the capital Yaoundé, days after he had been abducted by masked men outside a police station in the city?

What little is known is that Zogo’s story concerned an alleged embezzlement case involving the regime-friendly media tycoon Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga. Belinga was arrested in connection with the murder on 6 February, and on 4 March was officially charged with complicity in torture. Belinga has denied guilt.

This already points to a big difference between events in the US in 1976 and Cameroon in 2023. First, the Arizona journalists would have been able to conduct their investigation with some protection from law enforcement.

The organised crime figures who murdered journalist Don Bolles might have killed once, but police came out in full force to prevent any repeat. In Cameroon, Zogo touched on state corruption, which might imply state-connected forces in his torture and murder. Also, unlike in Arizona, journalists have been murdered in Cameroon before; each had been investigating – or denouncing – embezzlement of state funds enriching a kleptocratic elite.

Crucially, and in contrast to Arizona, a blanket of silence has now descended on Cameroon, terrifying and muzzling citizens and journalists. “We are all afraid to report and our sources are all afraid to talk,” said one Cameroonian member of Naire, the Network of African Investigative Reporters and Editors, which is running this Arizona Project in partnership with Zam magazine. This is why an international team will now pick up the threads of the story Zogo left unfinished.

Sadly, Cameroon is not the only African country experiencing increasing oppression of media and civil society. In the same week that Zogo’s body was found, another journalist was killed in Rwanda, and a human rights lawyer was gunned down in Eswatini. In 2022, close to 60 journalists in Africa were assaulted, imprisoned, abducted or forced into exile.

In practically all these cases, even when arrests are made – which are often temporary – impunity reigns.

No one was ever arrested for the murder of my colleague, Ahmed Hussein-Suale. He was shot dead in my country, Ghana, in 2019, during an investigation of – among others – a politician, Kennedy Agyapong, for corruption. Just before Ahmed was killed, Agyapong exposed him and called for violent action against him on television. He later said he will “never regret showing the pictures” of the undercover journalist.

Agyapong is also behind several actions against me and my media house, Tiger Eye PI, for which Ahmed worked. Having already called for me to be hanged, Agyapong went on national radio and to call me a murderer, a blackmailer and a thief (among other things). His behaviour attracted international condemnation but, more worryingly for me, in the defamation case I brought against Agyapong in the high court, the judge, Justice Baah, was sympathetic to Agyapong in his verdict, finding none of the politician’s insults defamatory and even repeating allegations of criminal conduct against me, as if I were the one on trial.

Agyapong is now a presidential candidate in Ghana. It is in this culture of impunity that I have recently set up the Whistleblowers and Journalist Safety International Centre (WAJSIC) as a shelter organisation. It is already oversubscribed.

The persistent action against me and my colleagues in many African countries is illustrative of the climate we work in. In Senegal, Pape Alé Niang has recently been arrested, detained and harassed for corruption reporting. Theophilus Abbah in Nigeria has been the target of a frivolous lawsuit – a so-called Slapp suit of the type increasingly used against journalists by the rich and powerful. The list goes on.

We as Naire, in partnership with Zam, are conducting the Cameroon Arizona Project in the hope that the world will take note of what individuals such as Agyapong and kleptocratic and oppressive politicians are doing in our countries. They should be investigated, held to account and subject to sanctions. Just limiting their travel, shopping trips to London and New York and their use of stolen money to buy Mediterranean villas will help hearten us as journalists and citizens who yearn for democracy, transparency and good governance in our countries.

We hope that this article, along with the Arizona Project, will focus the attention of international media and civil society on our need for action and support. We hope to publish the results of the Arizona investigation on the Zam website and in partner media worldwide and that members of the media, civil society organisations, NGOs, academic institutions and researchers who want to follow up on the team’s findings, will help to alert global players to our plight and our requests for support.

Culled from The Guardian

French Cameroun: Journalists Call for Protection After Mayor Issues Death Threats

14, April 2023

French Cameroun: Journalists Call for Protection After Mayor Issues Death Threats 0

Two journalists in northern Cameroon are calling for government protection after witnesses say a mayor publicly threatened to kill them for investigating corruption in road construction contracts. The Cameroon Journalists Trade Union has condemned the threat, which came after the killings in January of two reporters who were outspoken on corruption.

The journalists say Sali Babani, the mayor of Maroua, a city near the northern border with Chad and Nigeria publicly threatened several times this month to kill reporters there.

The Cameroon Journalists Trade Union in a statement April 8 said the mayor threatened freelance reporter Ousman Alh Boubakari for asking about accountability on development projects.

Boubakari had accused the mayor on Facebook of abandoning some road construction projects in Maroua.

Mahamat Hamidou said that during a public ceremony at Kakatare last week, he heard Babani threatened to punish or kill journalists for reporting that some public projects have been abandoned. Hamidou said Cameroon’s government should investigate why the mayor threatened to kill journalists instead of explaining why the road projects have not been completed as the Maroua Council promised.

The journalists’ union said the mayor also threatened to kill Douala-based Channel 2 International’s correspondent, Aminou Alioum.

Alioum and Boubakari said they received several anonymous calls threatening violence if they do not stop critical reports against the mayor.

Alioum told VOA that Boubakari received death threats from Babani for reporting that some roads in Maroua and construction work on the Kakatare junction in the same city have been abandoned. Alioum also said the mayor threatened him for taking pictures of the abandoned projects. He said the death threats from Babani add to other threats and intimidation reporters along Cameroon’s northern border with Chad and Nigeria regularly get from Boko Haram militants.

Babani refused to respond to VOA’s questions on the threats, which journalists also took to the police.

The spokesperson for Cameroon’s police would not comment on the threats, but told VOA it was their duty to protect all citizens.

Alioum and Boubakari said the threats will not stop them from carrying out their work as reporters but joined the journalists’ union in calling for the government to ensure their safety.

Cameroon’s government has not yet commented on the journalists’ plea for protection.

Babani’s threats of violence against the media come less than two months after two journalists were killed in Cameroon.

The mutilated remains of Martinez Zogo, a popular radio announcer and journalist, were found January 22 in Yaoundé.

Police arrested 20 people in connection with the killing, including senior police intelligence officers and a well-known media mogul, Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga.

On his radio program, Zogo had accused Belinga and several government ministers of planning to kill him for his reporting on their alleged corrupt deals.

Radio presenter Jean-Jacques Ola Bebe was also found shot dead on February 2 outside his home in the capital.

Like Zogo, Bebe was an outspoken critic of government corruption.

Source: VOA

French Cameroun: Villagers Say Elephants Devastate Farmlands, Plead for Help

13, April 2023

French Cameroun: Villagers Say Elephants Devastate Farmlands, Plead for Help 0

Villagers in southern Cameroon are complaining about the destruction of farmland by wild elephants in areas bordering Gabon and Equatorial Guinea and are calling on authorities to help.

Villagers say elephants have chased people away and made it impossible for farmers on both sides of the border to plant this season’s crops. Officials blame farmers for occupying the elephants’ habitat, provoking human-wildlife conflict.

Officials on Cameroon’s southern border with Gabon and Equatorial Guinea say scores of villagers came out in market squares at Vema and Nkol-Efoulan on Thursday, protesting the destruction of several hundred hectares of their farmland by elephants.

The villagers say the stray elephants chase civilians and make it impossible for farmers to plant on either side of the border with Gabon and Equatorial Guinea since the planting season started six weeks ago.

Speaking to VOA via a messaging app, Justin Enam Ntem, the traditional ruler of Nkol-Efoulan village, said locals are angry and hungry because they can no longer go to their farms since the elephants positioned themselves about 500 meters south of the village from the border with Gabon this week. He said seven of the several hundred hectares of plantain, banana and cassava plantations belonging to his family have been destroyed by the stray elephants.

Ntem said it was difficult for villagers, who are scared and escaping from their homes and farms, to know the number of elephants that are destroying their crops.

The villagers say no civilian has died in an elephant attack but warn that hunger will loom if the government does not step in to force the animals back to their natural habitats.

The Cameroonian government says there are more than 220 forest elephants in the nearly 700,000-hectare Campo Ma’an National Park located near the border area with the other two countries.

The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society and the National Parks of Gabon report that Gabon harbors about 95,000 forest elephants. Equatorial Guinea says it has about 900 elephants.

The three countries say elephants have been destroying plantations on both sides of their common border within the past six months. Cameroon says at least eight of its border villages and several hundred plantations, especially in Vema and Nkol-Efoulan villages, have reported regular attacks.

The elephants are leaving their habitat because of a lack of food and water due to climate change and the occupation of their living environment by civilians, according to Cameroon’s Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife.

Cameroon, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea say many plantations opened by the governments and civilians reduce the elephant habitat.

Kenneth Angu Angu, a forest program coordinator with the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said central African nations should work together to stop conflicts between humans and elephants.

“We need the governments of the countries to sit together and reinforce cross-border projects so that they can contain these elephants not to encroach in communities and in agricultural land,” said Angu, who spoke to VOA by phone from Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. “But if it is the communities that are encroaching, we start asking the questions: why are they doing so? Is it that their lands are no more fertile? Is it because there is poverty? So, this is where you would have livelihood activities to enable the communities to remain in their respective lands,” he added.

He said human-wildlife conflict remains a major conservation concern in elephant range countries.

Despite the attacks, Cameroonian wildlife groups have been urging civilians not to kill the animals, which are classified as endangered.

Source: VOA

Cameroon: Give the elderly a new lease on life!

13, April 2023

Cameroon: Give the elderly a new lease on life! 0

There is no challenge greater than living as a desperate old person in any part of the world. This is all the more true in Cameroon where there are no social safety nets for the elderly and the country’s government is not in any haste to change things for the elderly, most of whom live in poverty from the cradle to the grave.

This unfortunate situation can be reversed through government policy which makes the elderly a key component of our society and a population segment which can be given a new lease on life.

Many elderly people in Cameroon have never earned an income. Most have either been farmers in their villages or the hustling poor in the country’s burgeoning slums.

Working on your own farm may be a guarantee of food for personal consumption while the energy levels are still good, but when nature’s rules kick in as time continues its onward march, these farmers and the hustlers start losing their energy and this makes it hard for them to continue producing food for personal consumption or for sale just to earn extra income which can help them address some of their multiple financial needs.

But when they start running out of energy, things usually take a turn for the worse. Things only become more desperate if their own children do not secure jobs which can enable them to reach out to their own parents.

The elderly constitute a key segment in our African societies. They are considered as human libraries whose role is to help transmit knowledge and our rich cultures to the young. However, how can they conveniently play their roles on an empty stomach or when they are sick and cannot access the care they need?

There is no gainsaying that age comes with a slew of  health issues. Diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases and even kidney-related problems are some of the diseases which bring fear and uncertainty into the lives of the elderly, especially when they are cash-strapped.

However, their condition is not fatalism. It can be reverse where there is a political will. The government of Cameroon can help alleviate the apprehensions of our elderly by ensuring that the medication they need is available and highly subsidized.

Diabetics need a lot of money and discipline for them to live long. Those who are hypertensive need much support either through sensitization or financial support for them to be hopeful in the future.

Elderly victims of kidney problems, especially those who are on dialysis need more than family moral support to stay strong and hopeful! They need to be reassured that they can have their dialysis sessions on time and that they can eat properly in order to avoid creating new health issues for themselves.

While family support might be necessary, it might not go a long way in instilling confidence in the elderly who are being assailed by multiple ailments which require lots of financial support and much medical attention.

The government can put these elderly on a monthly allowance for them to face the future with confidence. CFAF 40,000 a month will inspire hope in many of these desperate Cameroonians. This financial support will be a breath of fresh air for our elderly who, for want of proper financial support, are always willing to die in order not to bleed their already impoverished families dry.

The problem in Cameroon cannot be that of a resource paucity. Cameroon’s problem is lack of planning and a political will which can transform the lives of the country’s citizens, especially those living in our forgotten rural areas.

There is money in Cameroon but it is in the hands of a select and corrupt few. Early this week, the salary of Adolphe Moudiki, the Managing Director of SNH, a state-owned corporation, was published online and this created a scandal.

The SNH boss is earning well over CFAF 50 million every month in a country wherein the average salary is CFAF 100,000 and the most disheartening thing is that there are SNH staff who earn less than CFAF 100,000 a month.

This type of salary disparity only points to the fact that the government prefers a system wherein a few call the shorts while the majority languishes in the slums, with the elderly left to their own devices.

A little largesse towards the elderly can go a long way in granting these people who are suffering from all types of ailments a new lease on life.

To ensure that such a safety net is functional, there should be a clear definition of the word Elderly. This could be someone who is 65 years old and more, and those who are receiving a pension should not qualify for this social support.

The modalities for the earning of such money can be defined by experts and all measures should be in place to ensure that there is no abuse.

By Dr. Joachim Arrey

Francis Ngannou Meets Legendary Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger

12, April 2023

Francis Ngannou Meets Legendary Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger 0

Cameroonian-French Mixed Martial Art fighter, Francis Ngannou has shared his time with popular American actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The UFC star was spotted together with the seven-time Olympia weightlifting champion during a workout session in a gym.

Ngannou, who has been inactive for sometime now, took to social media to share his excitement after meeting the legend.

Meanwhile, Ngannou is working his way back to getting a new deal and a fight in the coming months.

Source: Sportsbrief

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