Four crew members have been seized by pirates following an attack on the Contship Oak containership off the coast of Cameron in the Gulf of Guinea.

According to Maritime Bulletin, the vessel was at anchorage when pirates boarded it and kidnapped the crewmembers.

The 1,118 TEU vessel, owned by carrier Contship, then continued to the Port of Douala, Cameron, where as of April 2 it remains docked.

According to reports, the attack took place on March 30, 2019, just days after US-organised anti-piracy drills had taken place in the region.  

The Obangame Express 2019 took place on March 22, 2019, and saw 2500 naval service members, 95 vessels and 12 aircraft prepare for acts of piracy.

Several NATO members also participated, as did the US Coast Guard cutter Thetis. The exercises come after several attacks in the Gulf of Guinea, which has deteriorated into the world’s most dangerous area for commercial shipping.

According to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), the region suffered 201 attacks in 2018, an increase from the 180 that occurred in 2017.

The most high-profile act of piracy took place in January 2019, as the MSC Mandy was attacked 55 nautical miles off the coast of Benin, a story PTI reported on.

Source: Porttechnology.org

The investment accomplished by African Development Bank in Cameroon has reached XAF177 billion.

While speaking at a meeting with the economic operators on March 28 in Douala, African Development Bank’s (AfDB) executives opined that only 11 percent of this portfolio was directed to the private sector.

“This is a paradox given that the African Development Bank has mechanisms for private investments. Sadly, these fund vehicles are weakly deployed in Cameroon,” regretted Solomane Kone, AfDB representative in the central African country.

Due to the requirement to addressing the situation, the bank set up a strategy seeking to promote private investment in Cameroon, in order to make the sector more competitive, both nationally and regionally, as reported by Business in Cameroon.

Source: Devdiscourse

Cameroon’s airline Camair Co has been in big trouble since the beginning of this year. After the company announced in January that 4 aircrafts of its fleet of 6 got out of order, the remaining two also broke down.

On March 19, the aviation authority instructed Camair Co to stop operating its Chinese MA 60 due to a “Tail Strike” (when the plane’s tail hit the ground) that occurred March 10 at Bafoussam Airport, Western Region. A few days earlier, it was the company’s Bombardier Q400 that broke down, after hitting a stepladder in the parking following a violent storm, sources said.

However, in order to continue ensuring regional and domestic services (with a rate of 100 flights a week), Camair Co is now only using a small aircraft from Brazilian manufacturer Embraer. The aircraft was rented from Equatorial Guinea, we learnt. This situation, let’s recall, occurred when the airlines’ top management was aiming for a soon resumption of flights to Paris, France.

2019 is on the path to be a tough year for Camair Co with serious underperformances. Yet, the company performed well last year, after more than 6 years of difficulties. In January this year, it posted a turnover of XAF1.4 billion, compared to an average monthly revenue of XAF2.4 billion throughout 2018. Executives, who projected figures to further fall to XAF700 million in February due to the suspension of 4 aircrafts, now see a much wider gap for this month and the rest of the year.

Such a drastic underperformance cannot be cushioned unless the government backs Camair Co but the government itself has been facing treasury tensions for the past two years due to increasing security expenses (Boko Haram, Anglophone crisis, unrest in Adamaoua etc.). According to reliable sources, fixing the engines of its two Boeing 737 alone will cost Camair Co a minimum of XAF14 billion.

Source: Business in Cameroon

March salaries for majority of civil servants may not be paid, Ministry of Finance sources have revealed. Cameroon Concord News gathered that teachers, officers under military, police and the intelligence will all be affected.

The Biya Francophone regime has cited technical failure in an engine room serving the National Center for the Development of Informatics which hosts the computer system managing all public servants data.

Medics and other health workers including officers employed under the numerous ministries created by the Cameroonian dictator will also face one of the longest salary delays to hit the civil service in recent times in the CEMAC region.

Our senior business affairs correspondent in Yaoundé hinted that the ruling CPDM crime syndicate is confronting some difficulties in managing its Payroll Management and Establishment Control system.

Cameroon Intelligence Report sources however said the Beti Ewondo regime has failed to raise sufficient revenue to fund salaries mainly due to depressed economic activities in January and February and the crisis in Southern Cameroons.

As anticipated, the delay to settle civil servant salaries is already breeding ground for corruption. The situation is becoming desperate and civil servants are in the dark about what is happening to their salaries.

“Delays in paying salaries have often offer an incentive to Cameroonian civil servants to engage in corruption and if the current situation does not change, we will see a lot of corruption cases involving government workers” noted a baron of the Biya administration.

By Sama Ernest and Rita Akana in Yaounde

Cameroonian President Paul Biya inked March 19, 2019 a decree authorizing the finance minister to conclude with Ecoank Cameroon a XAF25 to 60 billion loan agreement.

Monies will partially fund the 3-year Growth Acceleration Emergency Plan (Planut), adopted by the government in December 2014. The plan requires a capital of XAF925 billion.

Focus sectors include agriculture (seed distribution and opening of agricultural roads), health (improving technical capacities of certain hospitals), real estate (construction of 1000 social housing units across the country) and road infrastructure. Overall, 35,000 jobs are expected to be created under the scheme.

Planut is co-financed by five banks including the Cameroonian subsidiaries of BGFI, Standard Chartered Bank, Banque Atlantique, Ecobank and Deutsche Bank of Madrid.

Source: Business in Cameroon

Cameroon will make efforts to enhance the skills of and opportunities for women in the digital business as part of the measures to draw more young girls to the sector, said its telecommunications minister on Thursday.

“The more women we have in digital business, the better for the emancipation and growth of women,” said Minister of Post and Telecommunications Minette Libom Li Likeng.

“Digital economy is the future for our country and Africa. It plays a very important role in economies in developing countries. We will look for efficient and effective ways to encourage young digital entrepreneurs,” Likeng said while meeting with young female digital entrepreneurs at the National Advanced School of Post and Telecommunications.

The event was part of the activities to mark the International Women’s Day on March 8. Over 2,900 female students have been trained by the school with government support, Likeng said, calling for efforts to enroll more girls to the school.

Xinhuanet