Life

23, October 2021

Biya regime to vaccinate civil servants against COVID-19 ⁰

Cameroon will inoculate all personnel on state payroll against COVID-19 next month as part of its nationwide vaccination program, a government minister has said.

The civil servants will be vaccinated from Nov. 6 to 30, Minister of Public Service and Administrative Reform Joseph Le said Thursday.

“The preservation of the health of personnel at the service of the state is both a major concern and a duty of public authorities,” he said. “We must ensure that the work environment is not a place where the virus spreads, but a framework for professional development and health promotion for all.”

Le said vaccination will not be compulsory but urged all civil servants to get vaccinated to protect themselves and their loved ones.

On Wednesday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Cameroon, quoting government statistics, said the central African nation reported 4,024 positive cases from Sept. 21 to 28, the highest weekly count since March, and raised an alert on the presence of the Delta variant.

Cameroon wants to vaccinate 60 percent of the target population by January 2023, but as of Sept. 22, only 0.9 percent had been vaccinated, according to figures from the Expanded Program on Immunization.

Source: Xinhuanet

22, October 2021

Prop gun fired by actor Alec Baldwin kills cinematographer on movie set ⁰

US actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop gun that killed a cinematographer and wounded the director on a film set in New Mexico, US law enforcement officers said on Thursday.

The incident happened on the set of ‘Rust’ in the southwestern US state, where Baldwin is playing the lead in a 19th-century western.

Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and director Joel Souza “were shot when a prop firearm was discharged by Alec Baldwin,” the sheriff in Santa Fe said in a statement.

Hutchins, 42, was transported to hospital by helicopter but died of her wounds, while Souza, 48, was taken by ambulance and is receiving treatment.

“Mr. Baldwin was interviewed by detectives,” Santa Fe sheriff spokesman Juan Rios told AFP.

“He provided statements and answered their questions. He came in voluntarily and he left the building after he finished his interviews. No charges have been filed and no arrests have been made.”

The Santa Fe New Mexican published pictures of a distraught-looking Baldwin which it said were taken in the parking lot of the set after the tragedy.

The paper said its reporter had seen the actor in tears after he had been quizzed by investigators.

One photograph shows a man, presumed to be Baldwin, doubled over.

A spokesperson from the production told The Hollywood Reporter the “accident” involved the misfire of a prop gun with blanks.

The incident took place at the Bonanza Creek Ranch, a production location near Santa Fe which is popular with Hollywood filmmakers.

Movie sets usually have stringent rules over the use of prop weapons, but accidents have happened.

Most famously, Brandon Lee, the son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, died during filming of “The Crow” after being shot by a gun that was supposed to fire blanks.

Baldwin co-produces the film and stars as Harland Rust, an outlaw whose grandson is convicted of murder, and who goes on the run with him when the boy is sentenced to hang for the crime.

The 63-year-old posted a photograph earlier Thursday on Instagram showing him apparently on set, dressed in a period costume and with fake blood on his shirt.

“Back to in-person at the office. Blimey… it’s exhausting,” he captioned the picture, which went online several hours before the incident.

A joint statement by John Lindley and Rebecca Rhine of the International Cinematographers Guild said news of Hutchins’ death was “devastating”.

“The details are unclear at this moment, but we are working to learn more, and we support a full investigation into this tragic event. This is a terrible loss, and we mourn the passing of a member of our Guild’s family,” the statement, reported by Variety, said.

Baldwin has been on television and in films since the 1980s.

He starred in a number of high profile movies, including in ‘The Hunt for Red October’ and two iterations of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, and has also voiced animated characters in hits like “The Boss Baby”.

He garnered new fans with his long-running portrayal of Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live”, a character that irritated the former president, but won Baldwin a Primetime Emmy.

“Rust” also stars Jensen Ackles (“Supernaturals”) and Travis Fimmel, best known for playing Ragnar Lothbrok in “Vikings”.

The Bonanza Creek Ranch where Thursday’s incident took place has hosted productions including ‘Hostiles,’ ‘Cowboys & Aliens,’ ‘3:10 to Yuma,’ ‘Appaloosa’ and ‘Longmire.’

Source: AFP

19, October 2021

Veteran CRTV news anchor Diana Egbe Enow-Mangha dies ⁰

Veteran Cameroon Radio and Television news presenter Diana Egbe Enow-Mangha is dead. The state radio said she passed on after a long illness with diabetes. The veteran Mrs News was working with the national broadcaster CRTV. She was a news anchor.

Diana Egbe Enow-Mangha started her career at a young age and did a number of interviews with prominent figures within the ruling CPDM party. Until her demise, She was on duty at the National station in Yaounde.

Journalists across the country and abroad as well as political leaders in Cameroon have eulogised her as a dedicated person who valued her job.

By Rita Akana

13, October 2021

Dr Bernice Ndofor: The woman at the helm of Camfomedics ⁰

The Cameroon Forum for Medical and Paramedical Sciences, Camfomedics founded on May 7, 1994 in Tübingen by Cameroonian students of medicine, pharmacy and dentistry in the Federal Republic of Germany have a new leader-she is Dr. Bernice Ndofor.

The iron lady who regularly invokes her story when explaining her commitment to better health for all, received the iMed Award 2019 for her professional handling of Camformedics Academy in Cameroon that was tasked to support health care facilities in rural and urban areas.

Dr. Bernice Ndofor has also received praise for her commitment to improving maternal and child health care, both during the tenures of Dr Ivo Azeh and Dr. Fonye Ki Nyui.

As many observers noted after she was elected on Saturday October 2, 2021, Dr Bernice Ndofor was able to secure the leadership position at Camformedics mainly thanks to the support of the all its members. On social media, people from all over Germany expressed their joy that a woman had become head of Camformedics for the first time.

Biography: Bernice N. NDOFOR – M. D, Specialist in Internist /Emergentologist

A graduate from Charité- Berlin, the renowned physician did her specialization in Carl-Thiem-Klinikum Cottbus, where she worked for eight years. She made a name for herself as the first black woman to head the Central Emergency (A.E) in Cottbus.

In 2016, she moved to Nordrhein-Westfalen and established her own private practice. Dr. Bernice Ndofor is an Ex Student of Queen of the Rosary High school Okoyong- Mamfe and CCAST- Bambili.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in Essen, Germany

10, October 2021

Countdown to the 2021 SOBA UK ANNUAL RESIDENTIAL CONVENTION – What to expect ⁰

It is indeed Countdown to the 2021 SOBA UK ANNUAL RESIDENTIAL CONVENTION billed to commence this Friday October 15, 2021 at The Hilton at St George’s Park, Burton Upon Trent.

The SOBA UK Annual Residential Convention is also an international event that regularly attracts high flying academics and business leaders in the UK and even beyond.

The Sasse Old Boys 2021 show will take place in St George’s Park, the Home of the England National football teams and the President of SOBA UK Hon. Egbe Franklin is reportedly keeping his pick for Master of Ceremony like a nuclear secret.

The event is billed to be one of the biggest ever with lots of activities on ground.

SOBA UK Annual Residential Convention is always filled with unforgettable moments. Guests who have confirmed their participation are already very excited about it! So it’s all fingers crossed.

By Isong Asu

10, October 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Nurses Seek Extra Care for the Terminally Ill ⁰

Nurses in Cameroon are marking this year’s World Hospice and Palliative Care Day (October 9) with visits to terminally ill patients in the country’s restive North-West and South-West regions. The regions’ ongoing separatist conflict has left hundreds of patients unable to receive regular in-home hospice care. Cameroon’s nurses are calling for that to change.

Mundih Noelar Njohjam a doctor treating patients with terminal diseases at Cameroon Baptist Conventions Health Services in Bamenda, capital of the English-speaking North-West region, says the separatist crisis is depriving many patients of palliative care.

“The high level of insecurity caused by the ongoing crisis has negatively affected access to palliative care for many patients, especially those living with cancers. Patients with terminal diseases are unable to get to health facilities where they can receive adequate palliative care. Consequently, they have to settle for suboptimal palliative care,” Njohjam said.

The Cameroon Association of Terminally Ill Patients reports that more than 900 patients are denied access to palliative care in the English-speaking western regions.

The association says hundreds of patients in need of help to relieve them of pain and suffering are dying in towns and villages. They say several hundred caregivers have fled hospitals in Cameroon’s troubled English-speaking regions since the separatist crisis escalated in 2017.

Hundreds of patients who have the means relocate to safer French-speaking towns to receive medical care for their terminal illnesses. The patients say they prefer to relocate to Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, and Douala, a coastal city where many of their family members have rushed to for safety.

Among others, the nurses visited the Yaounde residence of Christophe Esselebo, a 67-year-old retired teacher who has been living with HIV and liver disease for three years. He says he faces a great deal of stigma from family members and friends.

He says to prevent developing a mental health crisis, he avoids feelings of emotional attachments with family members who have abandoned him because of his condition. He says he avoids mental trauma during his remaining days by being positive about life and making friends on social media with people who think positively.

Esselebo says he regularly follows up treatment recommended by his doctor.

The visit to homes of people living with terminal diseases this year was organized by the Cameroon Association of Terminally Ill Patients and Santo Domingo Cameroon, a center that cares for people with terminal diseases.

Fulbert Kenfack Jiofack, coordinator of Santo Domingo Cameroon, says poverty pushes 70% of sick Cameroonians to seek assistance from African traditional healers. He says because of either illiteracy or lack of financial means, families abandon their members diagnosed with terminal diseases at home until they die.

Jiofack said fighters in the English-speaking western regions and government troops should avoid inflicting more pain on patients who are already suffering from diseases that cannot be cured. He said medical staff members should be allowed to give health care to people in need.

The nurses ask civilians to stop prejudging the terminally ill in Cameroon.

Cameron’s health ministry says the greatest prejudice is shown toward those suffering from infectious terminal diseases such as HIV.

The health ministry says stigma is driven by the thought that those receiving palliative care will die soon and that terminal illnesses are divine punishment for wrongdoing. Some families prohibit palliative caregivers from visiting their sick patients at home, the government reports.

Nurses said the role of palliative caregivers is to ease patients’ physical pain with medicines and provide psychological, emotional and spiritual counseling to people who have life-threatening and terminal illnesses.

Source: VOA

7, October 2021

Tanzanian writer Abdul Razak Gruna wins the Nobel Prize in Literature ⁰

Tanzanian writer Abdul Razak Gruna won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work exploring the heritage of uprooted individual imperialism.

Born in Zanzibar in 1948 and based in the United Kingdom, Gruna is the author of 10 novels, including Paradise, which was selected as the finalist for the Booker Prize in 1994.

Anders Olsson, chairman of the Nobel Prize in Literature, called him “one of the most prominent postcolonial writers in the world.”

According to the Swedish Academy, the award includes a gold medal and 10 million Swedish kronor (£ 837,000), “an uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the influence of colonialism and the fate of refugees in the Gulf between culture and continents.” Was recognized. “.

Native to Swahili, Gruna began writing English asylum seekers at the age of 21, and the theme of refugee turmoil is pervaded in his work.

In a statement, the organization said: “His novels recoil from stereotyped depictions and open our eyes to culturally diversified East Africa, unfamiliar to many in other parts of the world.”

The Nobel Prize, which has been awarded since 1901, recognizes achievements in literature, science, peace and economics.

Source: Eminetra

5, October 2021

The SOBA UK 2021 Residential Convention: hundreds of live feeds ⁰

The 2021 SOBA UK Convention is not only going to get a glorified Cameroon Concord News Group coverage but it is going to have a Camcordnews production with live shots and short clips from all across the venue.

The Sasse Old Boys big show “Appreciating Community Spirit” begins on Friday evening October 15, 2021 at The Hilton at St George’s Park, Burton Upon Trent. St George’s Park is the Home of the England National football teams.

Hundreds of live feeds

From Cameroon Concord News Isong ASU: “The 2021 SOBA UK ANNUAL RESIDENTIAL CONVENTION will feature hundreds of live feeds from across the venue according to a source that has seen recent SOBA UK plans.”

We understand that SOBA UK plans to structure the first night of the convention around its guests while maintaining strict Covid-19 rules. Chief Alfred Bate Bawak of Leicester likened the convention as “Most Important SOBA UK come together” ever.

Why the 2021 SOBA UK Convention matter

These recent comments in both Cameroon Intelligence Report and Cameroon Concord News hit the nail on the head:

— “With the issues Cameroon as a nation is facing right now and the coronavirus including the urgent need to start appreciating community spirit, the SOBA UK 2021 Convention will provide Sasse Old Boys with plans for a way forward,” Cameroon Intelligence Report’s senior Correspondent for special events Chi Prudence Asong said.

— Cameroon Concord News Desk Editor said the convention “will let Sobans to basically reintroduce themselves to Great Britain after the pandemic and bring the focus back to the pride of being an ex-Sasse.”

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai in London

28, September 2021

President Biden Nominates Cameroonian Virologist To Coordinate Global HIV/AIDS Response ⁰

Dr. John Nkengasong, a U.S. citizen born in Cameroon, would be the first person of African descent to hold the position to coordinate the U.S. response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic worldwide. But the US Senate must approve his eventual nomination.

Dr. John Nkengasong also served as the director for the African Union’s Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

24, September 2021

R. Kelly: Jury weighs singer’s fate after grim sex crimes testimony ⁰

Following 21 days of evidence including 50 witnesses and hours of searing testimony, jurors on Friday began considering whether internationally famous singer R. Kelly orchestrated a sex crimes ring for nearly three decades.

The case, delayed over a year by the pandemic, is seen as landmark for the #MeToo movement as it is the first major sex abuse trial where the majority of accusers are Black women.

The prosecution painstakingly wove the threads of alleged wrongdoing into an intricate pattern of crimes they say the artist born Robert Sylvester Kelly perpetrated with impunity, capitalizing on his fame to prey on young women and teenagers for his own sexual gratification.

The state was tasked with proving the 54-year-old singer is guilty of racketeering, a serious charge commonly associated with the mafia that casts Kelly as the boss of an enterprise of associates who facilitated his abuse.

He is also charged with eight counts under the Mann Act, a law prohibiting transportation of people across state lines for sex.

To convict Kelly on racketeering, jurors must find him guilty of at least two of 14 “predicate acts” — the crimes elemental to the wider pattern of illegal wrongdoing.

Disturbing testimony intended to prove those acts included accusations of rape, druggings, imprisonment and child pornography.

Accusers’ stories ran in parallel: many of the alleged victims described meeting the singer at concerts or mall performances, and being handed slips of paper with Kelly’s contact by his entourage.

Several said they were told he could bolster their music industry aspirations.

But all were instead “indoctrinated” into Kelly’s world, according to prosecutors, groomed for sex at hiss whim and kept in line by “coercive means of control” including isolation and cruel disciplinarily measures.

“He’s not a genius. He’s a criminal. He’s a predator,” said Nadia Shihata, the assistant US attorney told jurors.

“Writing hit songs and performing for audiences onstage doesn’t give you license to commit crimes.”

The defense painted a drastically different portrait of the superstar, arguing he was a “sex symbol” and “playboy” who was being attacked by scorned exes and money-hungry superfans.

“They’re all working on these paydays,” said attorney Deveraux Cannick.

Shihata attacked that argument in her rebuttal, telling jurors that witnesses — nine women and two men detailed devastating abuse on the stand — “relived some of the worst periods of their lives for you.”

– Criminal pattern? –

The indictment centers around six women: Jerhonda, Stephanie, Faith, Sonja and a woman who testified under a pseudonym, along with the R&B star Aaliyah, who died in a plane crash in 2001.

Several more victims alleging abuse were allowed to testify as part of the prosecution’s bid to detail a criminal pattern, though there testimony is not part of the charges.

Six of the alleged victims were underage when Kelly initiated sex with them. Many victims also said the singer routinely filmed the encounters, which in several of the cases would constitute child pornography.

Sonja traveled from Utah to Kelly’s Chicago studio believing he would give her an interview for the radio show she was interning for.

Instead, she said his associates trapped her in a windowless room for days, before giving her food and drink that caused her to quickly fall asleep. She awoke with her underwear mysteriously removed, and saw Kelly putting his pants back on.

Another woman said Kelly coerced her into getting an abortion because he had impregnated her while she was underage. Four said they contracted herpes after sexual contact with the singer, who did not disclose that he carried the incurable venereal disease.

Core to the government’s case has been Kelly’s relationship with Aaliyah.

Kelly wrote and produced her first album — “Age Ain’t Nothin’ But A Number” — before illegally marrying her when she was just 15 because he feared he had impregnated her.

His former manager admitted in court to bribing a worker to obtain fake identification allowing the union, which was later annulled.

Prosecutors also showed the jury video recordings that were not viewable to the public but which they described as containing chilling footage of Kelly threatening, hitting and humiliating women and children.

Kelly, a major R&B star of the 1990s and early 2000s known for hits including “I Believe I Can Fly,” denies all charges.

He remained largely stoic during the proceedings, though during the prosecution’s marathon closing arguments he appeared to grow agitated, shaking his head.

Abuse accusations have long trailed the wildly successful recording artist but he evaded them for decades. He faces prosecutions in three additional jurisdictions, including Illinois federal court.

Source: AFP