Life

17, September 2019

World’s best teacher from Africa meets Trump ⁰

The world’s best teacher, who hails Kenya, Peter Tabichi, is set to address the 74th United Nations General Assembly, which brings together world leaders from the organisation’s 193 members.

Tabichi, who won the 2019 Global Teacher Prize in March this year, is a member of the St Franciscan Friars, a religious order founded by St Francis of Assisi in the 13th century.

Meeting Trump

On Tuesday, the White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, shared a picture on Twitter showing that Tabichi, had met with US president, Donald Trump.

Stephanie Grisham✔@PressSec

This morning, President @realDonaldTrump met with Peter Tabichi, the recipient of the 2019 Global Teacher Prize! Peter is a science teacher who gives away 80% of his monthly income to help the poor in his home country of Kenya.

‘‘Peter, you inspire us all! Thank you for your commitment to your students,’‘ Stephanie tweeted.

Tabichi, who won the $1m best teacher prize, teaches science at Keriko Mixed Day Secondary School at Pwani village in Njoro, Nakuru County.

Addressing the UN General Assembly

Brother Tabichi is set to recite the popular St Francis prayer before the start of the general assembly, according to Brother Tony Donald from Ireland.

“This is a big honour for St Franciscan brothers. It shows that the UN recognises our order as it plays a key role in the development of humanity,” he said.

Tabichi will also share his inspirational story with delegates at the assembly.

The Prayer of St. Francis

Lord make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, joy
O divine master grant that I may
not so much seek to be consoled as to console
to be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love
For it is in giving that we receive
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned
And it’s in dying that we are born to eternal life
Amen

About the United Nations General Assembly

Every year in September, all 193 members of the United Nations meet at the General Assembly at the organisation’s headquarters in New York.

The General Assembly is one of the six main organs of the UN, where several international issues covered by the Charter of the United Nations, such as development, peace and security, international law are discussed.

This year’s assembly which starts on September 17, has climate change, universal health coverage and the politics of sustainable development, on the agenda.

There will also be meetings on financing for development, elimination of nuclear weapons and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Ghana will occupy the first seat in the Hall for this year’s session, including in the main committees, followed by all the other countries, in English alphabetical order.

Source: Africa News

16, September 2019

Yaounde ponders new ways to cut mother-to-child HIV/AIDS transmission ⁰

Cameroon is devising new methods to eliminate mother-to-child HIV/AIDS transmissions, Minister of Public Health Malachie Manaouda said on Tuesday.

“With the increase of children affected by the virus, we are designing a new strategic vision and new priority actions to accelerate the elimination of mother-to-child HIV/AIDS transmission and treatment of HIV in children and adolescents.” the minister said.

Only 20 percent of infected under-18 are taken care of, Manaouda said.

Despite “important challenges”, Manaouda said, Cameroon is on the path of attaining the 90-90-90 goal, which requires countries to ensure 90 percent of people living with HIV know their HIV status, receive sustained antiretroviral therapy and have viral suppression by 2020.

Manaouda was addressing a national forum on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission and HIV care in children and adolescents, in the capital city, Yaounde, in collaboration with UNICEF.

According to Cameroon National AIDS Control Committee, 6,000 newborn babies from infected mothers were taken care of in 2018.

There are over 500,000 people infected with HIV/AIDS in Cameroon, and despite better access to treatment in adults, access to antiretroviral treatment for children remains very inadequate, according to the health ministry.

Source: Xinhuanet

10, September 2019

Cameroon sends 15 scholars to study in the UK ⁰

British High Commissioner to Cameroon, Rowan James Laxton called on the 15 scholars to be real ambassadors of Cameroon to the UK and ensure they make the best out of this lifetime opportunity.

Talking about UK education, the British diplomat said:

“UK education opens doors, wherever you go in the world and it has been the preferred choice for some of the most important minds in history”.

Education is not just to read and write, but to make use of the knowledge gained to improve self and community.

About the importance of Education to a community, Rowan Laxton quoted Malala Yousafzai who once said:

“With guns you can kill terrorists, with education you can kill terrorism”.

Chevening scholars will live and study in the UK for one year, during which they will develop professionally and academically, network extensively, experience UK culture and build lasting positive relationships with the UK.

Chevening scholarships are the UK government’s global scholarships programme funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and partner organisations. The programme enables outstanding emerging leaders from all over the world to pursue one-year master’s degrees in any subject at any UK university.

Applications for the 2020 to 2021 academic year are open till 5 November 2019. Applications must be sent via the Chevening website.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of British High Commission – Yaounde.

10, September 2019

Latest hearing for Cameroonian musician Valsero postponed ⁰

The military court hearing case for Cameroonian musician Valsero which was to commence on 6 April in Yaoundé has been postponed once again to 8 October.

Valsero was presented to the court on 6 September along with chief opposition leader Maurice Kamto and 87 of his followers to face eight charges. The charges include insurrection, incitement to insurrection, group rebellion, criminal association, complicity, riotous assembly, disturbance of public order and hostility to the homeland, which carries the death penalty.

AFP reported that the court was forced to postpone the case after one of the accused Christian Penda Ekoka who is the ex-economic adviser to President Paul Biya, got sick.

“When he was arrested on 28 January, he was already sick, and the first days (in the cell), he did not have his medication”, the defendants lead council Sylvain Souop told the local journalists.

The accused persons were arrested about eight months ago in relation to the 26 January protests in Douala, known as the White Marches. The demonstrations were organised by the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC) following widespread suspicion of fraud during the October 2018 presidential election.

President Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982, won those elections with 71% of the vote while MRC leader Maurice Kamto garnered 14%.

Valsero was arrested on 26 January and taken to Yaoundé Principal Prison. Kamto and his allies Penda Ekoka, Albert Dzongang and Paul Eric Kingue were detained on 28 January.

The defendant’s French lawyer Antoine Vey told Africa News on 5 September that “There is no justification for Kamto and his supporters to be incarcerated for eight months in these conditions. None of them took part in acts of violence, none called for acts of violence or rebellion; there is no reason for their arrest outside the political alibi.”

Before the court hearing postponement, the lawyers to the plaintiff had forwarded to the military court a list of 31 witnesses, including two ministers, the chief of the police and other high-ranking army and police officers.

Human rights groups and activists, including musicians, have denounced the jurisdiction of the military court to try these civilians. Amnesty International launched an online petition in April 2019 that calls on the Cameroonian authorities to free Valsero and the other detained protesters.

Culled from Musicinafrica.net

9, September 2019

French Cameroun: Internally displaced Ambazonia children struggle to continue schooling amid crisis ⁰

As early as 6:30 am on the day of school reopening, 10-year-old Cameroonian girl Kelsy Shinyuy was already on her way to meet her new teachers and classmates.

“I am very happy because I have not been to school for long. Very happy,” she said.

Shinyuy had to stay at home since 2017 due to a persistent crisis in the Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions of Northwest and Southwest, where separatists have been clashing with government forces in a bid to secede from the French-majority Cameroon and create an independent nation they call “Ambazonia”.

In late August this year, Shinyuy and her family left their home in Kumbo in the Northwest to take refuge in Foumban, chief-town of Noun division in the Francophone part of Cameroon, about 100 km away from Kumbo. She was finally able to restart school at Saint Joseph Bilingual School of Foumban.

Her mother Lidwina Limunyuy was very excited that she managed to resend her child back to school, although for lack of money, the other two younger brothers of Shinyuy have to keep staying at home.

“We went through hardship. In fact we are lucky to be alive,” Limunyuy said.

A UNICEF report released in August estimates that insecurity spreading across Cameroon’s Anglophone regions has left more than 4,400 schools forcibly closed, affecting more than 600,000 children. According to the government, many of these schools were found being used as bases of the armed separatists.

According to UN estimations in July, the conflicts have resulted in about 530,000 internally displaced persons (IDP). Among them, many are children and teenagers struggling to resume schooling with very limited ressources.

“The situation is sad and touching…We have asked all the school authorities to admit all the internally displaced children. We are very focused to make sure they go to school hitch-free,” said Amidou Mbouombouo, divisional delegate of the secondary education ministry in Noun.

Magdaline Abongmbuh, a teacher at Government Bilingual High School of Foumban, said 33 IDP students registered in her class.

“Some of the students came to school without uniforms and books and school fees. When I asked them to go home and dress properly before coming to school, they burst into tears and insisted that they are ready to study in any condition,” said Abongmbuh. “They cried, Madam, we have suffered a lot and we want to go to school.”

Humanitarian agencies like the Red Cross are also taking actions.

Last academic year, the Red Cross helped about 7,000 displaced children register in primary and secondary schools in Noun, where there are currently 38,940 IDPs, according to Ibrahim Pouamoun, divisional secretary of the Red Cross in Noun.

Local elites make their contribution too. Members of Bamoun Kingdom, a major chiefdom in Noun, visited displaced families before school resumption to donate learning equipments.

To provide IDPs with sustainable sources of income, the sultan king Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya has made available 600 hectares of farm land, according to Inoussa Ngoupayou, first deputy to the sultan king.

On this first day of school, Shinyuy was already making new friends. All children have been instructed to be kind to their mates coming from crisis-hit regions, school headmistress Caroline Yaah told Xinhua.

“I will study hard to become a doctor,” Shinyuy said.

Culled from Xinhuanet

9, September 2019

WHO says suicide kills one person every 40 seconds ⁰

Across the world, one person takes their own life every 40 seconds, and more people die by suicide every year than in war, the World Health Organization says.

Hanging, poisoning and shooting are the most common suicide methods, the WHO said as it urged governments to adopt suicide prevention plans to help people cope with stress and to reduce access to suicide means.

“Suicide is a global public health issue. All ages, sexes and regions of the world are affected (and) each loss is one too many,” the WHO’s report said.

Suicide was the second leading cause of death among young people aged between 15 and 29, after road injury, and among teenage girls aged 15 to 19 it was the second biggest killer after maternal conditions. In teenage boys, suicide ranked third behind road injury and interpersonal violence.

Overall, close to 800,000 people die by suicide every year – more than are killed by malaria or breast cancer, or by war or homicide, the WHO said.

Global rates have fallen in recent years – with a 9.8% decrease between 2010 and 2016 – but declines were patchy. In the WHO’s Americas region, for example, rates rose by 6% in between 2010 and 2016.

The report also found that nearly three times as many men as women die by suicide in wealthy countries, in contrast to low- and middle-income countries, where the rates are more equal.

“Suicides are preventable,” said the WHO’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.”We call on all countries to incorporate proven suicide prevention strategies into national health and education programs.”

World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus delivers a speech at the opening day of the World Health Assembly on May 20, 2019 at the United Nations Offices in Geneva. (Photo by AFP)

The WHO said restricting access to pesticides was one of the most effective ways of reducing suicide numbers swiftly.

Pesticides are commonly used and usually result in death because they are so toxic, have no antidotes, and are often used in remote areas where there is no nearby medical help.

The WHO pointed to studies in Sri Lanka, where bans on pesticides have led to a 70% drop in suicides and an estimated 93,000 lives saved between 1995 and 2015.

(Source: Reuters)

5, September 2019

Yaoundé: Rapper and activist to appear before court, could face death penalty ⁰

The arrest, ongoing detention, and charges against Cameroonian rapper Gaston Serval Abe, known as Valsero, are inexcusable violations of freedom artistic expression, PEN America said in a statement today. Arrested earlier this year in the vicinity of a pro-democracy demonstration, Valsero will appear before a military court Friday and could face the death penalty. He’s charged with rebellion against the state, terrorism, insurrection, inciting public disorder, and propagating false information.

“Valsero, along with his sound engineer, has been imprisoned for over six months for merely attending a peaceful march in protest of the last election results in Cameroon,” said Julie Trébault, director of the Artists at Risk Connection (ARC) at PEN America. “This is clearly a targeted attempt to silence an internationally known and beloved rapper who strives, both through his music and his activism, to critique the government and inspire social change. His ongoing detention in poor conditions and the exaggerated charges against him are an intolerable affront both to artistic freedom and human dignity. We urge the Cameroonian government to immediately drop the charges against Valsero and uphold its domestic and international commitments to protect freedom of expression and ensure that artists are free to create without fear”.

Critics say Valsero is being persecuted for his work, which often includes political themes. Songs like “Çe pays tue les jeunes” (“This country kills the youth”), “Ne me parlez plus de ce pays” (“Don’t talk about this country to me anymore”), and the well-known “Lettre au president” (“Letter to the President”) have earned both the ire of the government and admiration of fans across Cameroon. Many of his new songs reference current crises in Cameroon and the current government, in power for nearly four decades.

Although his work fell afoul of censorship laws, his 2008 debut album, “Poltiquement instable” (“Politically unstable”), became a runaway success, earning him the title “The General” from fans across the country. Beyond his rap career, he is also an engaged activist, starting initiatives such as “Jeune et Fort” (“Young and Strong”), which promotes education through citizenship, democracy, and electoral culture, and his new “Our Destiny” association, which aims to empower young people to take control of their existence for the benefit of the country.

Valsero was arrested on January 26 in Yaoundé on the margins of a peaceful demonstration protesting last year’s national elections, which many deemed to be rigged in support of the current president, Paul Biya. Maurice Kamto, the opposition leader, had organized marches all over the country on that day, but the protestors were met with widespread police suppression, and both Kamto and Valsero were detained. Valsero is not a member of the opposition party.

Source: Pen.org

5, September 2019

Ambazonia: Children stay away from school as separatists threaten attacks ⁰

Hundreds of thousands of children in Cameroon’s English language-speaking region are staying out of school this week, after separatists called for a boycott and threatened attacks on those who attend.

Insurgents have been fighting the West African country’s francophone government in a bid to carve out an independent state they hope will be named Ambazonia.

Though Cameroon’s school year officially began on Monday, Unicef says that 80 per cent of schools have been shut down in the anglophone region, in Cameroon’s northwest and southwest, many for the past three years. About 600,000 children have been affected, and at least 74 schools destroyed, the agency said.

This is “putting the future of an entire generation of children at risk, children who with the right support and opportunities can build a more stable and prosperous future”, said Unicef spokesman Toby Fricker.

Schools were originally closed in 2016, after anglophone teachers and lawyers began to protest an enforced increase in how much French had to be used in courts and schoolrooms. In the fighting that has escalated since, more than half a million people have been displaced and thousands killed.

Embedded

“Schools have been at the heart of the conflict since it began,” Emmanuel Freudenthal, one of the only journalists who has been embedded with Cameroon’s separatist forces, told The Irish Times.

“For both the state of Cameroon and separatists, the schools have become a symbol to demonstrate their control over the two anglophone regions.

“Nevertheless, the separatists are divided on this question, some arguing that schools should be allowed to function, while others say that the education offered is of low quality and that the yet non-existent country of Ambazonia will offer a schooling, which has not materialised.”

Parents who can afford to have sent their children abroad, Mr Freudenthal said.

On August 20th, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, one of the leaders of the separatist movement, was sentenced to life imprisonment in Cameroon, along with nine others.

This process has been plagued by pre-trial abuses and serious allegations of fair-trial breaches

On Monday, New York-headquartered Human Rights Watch announced that the 10 imprisoned men had lodged an appeal against the convictions.

“It appears that the military court handed down a hasty verdict and sentence without giving the accused any meaningful opportunity to defend themselves,” said Lewis Mudge, Human Rights Watch’s central Africa director. “This process has been plagued by pre-trial abuses and serious allegations of fair-trial breaches that warrant independent and impartial judicial review, which we hope will happen under appeal.”

Torture

The men were arrested in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, in January 2018. According to Human Rights Watch, they were then held without contact for six months, in a Cameroonian detention facility where torture and abuse is believed to be rampant.

The human rights organisation said the evidence used against the men was only shown to them during a 17-hour overnight hearing, which began on August 19th. Defence lawyers said they were not able to challenge it, or even discuss what was presented with their clients, and eventually withdrew from proceedings in protest.

The trial was also carried out in French, according to the organisation, and there was no proper translation for the defendants.

Source: Irish Times

4, September 2019

US: Catholic school priest bans ‘Harry Potter’ books ⁰

Exorcists advised a Nashville school priest to ban the Harry Potter books, over fears the popular children’s novels could be used to summon spirits.

Reverend Dan Reehil contacted exorcists in Rome and the US, who recommended removing the fantasy novels from St. Edward Catholic School’s library in Tennessee.

Launched in 1997, the series of books spins an epic tale of good and evil focused on the adventures of the eponymous bespectacled young wizard as he struggles against the dark wizard Lord Voldemort.

“The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells; which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text,” the reverend said in an email obtained by local media.

Rebecca Hammel, the superintendent of schools for the Catholic Diocese of Nashville, told the newspaper The Tennessean that Reehil had “canonical authority to make such decisions.”

Although the school used to stock the books, it will not offer them to pupils in its newly opened library, Hammel said.

A global success, the Potter series by British author J.K. Rowling has been repeatedly banned from schools in the US and Britain, mostly for allegedly promoting satanic values or black magic.

(Source: AFP)

3, September 2019

Ambazonia threats scuttle school reopening in Southern Cameroons ⁰

Empty schools in the English speaking region of Cameroon marked the opening of the academic year due to tensions in the region.

Residents have either fled or are hiding in their homes as the Anglophone separatists battle with government forces.

The rattle of gunshots in the north and southwest regions meant that whiles students in other parts of the country went to school, the situation was different in parts of the two regions.

The state-owned CRTV on the first day of reopening (September 2) admitted that classes had began in areas of the northwest but amid tight security. Separatists had warned they will disrupt any attempts to reopen schools.

As at today (September 3), CRTV reported that reopening of schools in the northwest had been timid but encouraging. Local newspapers are reporting a mixed reopening day.

Whiles one led with “Top départ” referring to the reopening day boom, another led with “Black to school” instead of “Back to school.”

Gustav Okuyu, resident of Bamenda told reporters why his kids had not gone to school: “My children have not gone to school, because… Look, one: my house has been burnt. Some of them are in the bush. Where will I take the other ones?

“I don’t even have money to send them to school. That’s why my children have not gone to school… I don’t even have a house and the others have run. I am an IDP (internally displaced person).”

After two years of conflict, a solution to the war between those calling for independence of the region and the government seem far from being found.

“The government has to bring eveybody to the table, so that everything can be OK. Many people have said it, France has said it, America has said it: to the dialogue table. What is the problem with dialogue? Everybody wants dialogue, who doesn’t want peace in his house?” Gustav quizzed.

Tensions have risen following the sentencing of the separatist leader Julius Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and others to life in prison by a military court sitting in Yaounde.

Naseri Paul Bea, a governor of the central region in an interview with CRTV said schools in his region were a little overwhelmed especially because of IDP students.

He added that upgrades on facilities and other plans by government will help ease the burden. He also said his outfit were yet to ascertain exactly how many IDPs had enrolled.

Source: Africa News