The Government Delegate to the Bamenda Urban Council, Vincent NDUMU has announced that the company in charge of collection and recycling of refuse will be officially installed in the city in 2017. Ndumu who has come under fire recently in the way garbage is managed in town also said that the Council has signed over 5 billion Francs deal with HYSACAM for five years.

According to the government delegate, the coming of HYSACAM will reduce the heavy load and burden on Council’s resources. Before the arrival of HYSACAM next year, the Bamenda City Council has been using its own resources to collect and dispose waste in the city for a meager sum of about 350 000 000 frs for one year.

But Mr NDUMU said the coming of HYSACAM will mean dozens who were working in the Hygiene and Sanitation department will have to be sacked, hence it will cause massive unemployment. Even though he reassured that he could integrate them in other services, a majority of workers stand to lose their jobs. Garbage disposal in the North West regional capital Bamenda has been a thorn in the flesh of the Government Delegate who has been accused of not working to preserve the beauty of the town which is gradually fading into a jungle.

But he says that those who are accusing him are ignorant of the huge task the Council has. He cited case of markets where taxes are far below what they use to dispose garbage from the markets. Vincent NDUMU has challenged City Dwellers to tell him which Government Delegate out of the 14 has worked hard like him to embellish the town. He frowned at media reports which according to him always target his personality.

Cameroun Info.Net

Two months after the Eseka train tragedy which occurred on the 21^st of October 2016, some 128 km from Yaoundé the nation’s capital, mystery still persists on the official causes of the tragedy. The CPDM government is yet to establish the responsibilities and role played by prominent officials prior to and after the crash.

Four days after the accident which officially claimed the lives of 79 people and wounded over 600, President Paul Biya, on leave at the time of the events, and whose drama had precipitated his return to the country, announced that his government was determine to make public the causes of the railway accident and to propose measures to limit the risk of the occurrence of such a catastrophe in the future.

After a month’s work, the commission created by the Cameroonian dictator and headed by the Prime Minister handed over its findings to the Head of State. The presidency has not made any official declaration on the subject. Access to the site was highly secured and many journalists were prevented from visiting the crashed wagons of the Inter city service 152. Consequently, Cameroonians are still unaware of the real causes of the train accident which cost the lives of several of their compatriots.

The President of Bolloré Africa Railways was quoted as saying that the train was running at an “abnormally high” speed before the derailment. The various investigative commissions set up by the judicial police in Yaoundé and announced by the public prosecutor at the Mfoundi and Nyong-et-Ekelle High Court (Eseka), seem to have disappeared.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai

Dr Christopher Fomunyoh was honored on Tuesday December 20, 2016 by the Publisher of The Scoop newspaper. The much respected Cameroonian opinion leader who also moonlights with the US based National Democratic Institute was described during the award ceremony as the most Combatant politician in Cameroon in 2015.

The President of US based National Democratic Institute, NDI; Dr Christopher Fomunyoh used the forum to assure the people of Kumba that the time has come when all their wounds will be healed and their worries forgotten.

He described recent Police brutality on Kumba youths as unacceptable and urged them to hold on steadfast, “This is an opportune moment to send a strong message to fellow Cameroonians to say I have been very dismay by what is happening since the month of November,I have really been saddened by the loss of lives and the violence and my message is that this is the time for healing ,the healing needs to begin and it is going to happen”. He reassured them.

Kumba inhabitants say they now live in fear of the unknown after last week’s brutal acts on them where some youth lost their lives and others were arrested.

Culled from Cameroun Info.Net

Cameroon Concord News has learnt that 4 of the 71 British Southern Cameroonians arrested in Bamenda and taken to Yaoundé have died while being held prisoner by the Francophone army. Our informant hinted that the 4 were deliberately killed.

The Biya Francophone regime has blatantly refused to open up any investigation as recommended by many international human rights organizations including Amnesty International over the killings, rape and arrest of many Anglophone Cameroonians in Buea, Bamenda, Kumba and Kumbo.

A sister publication Cameroon Intelligence Report has identified Prime Minister Philemon Yang and nine senior military officers including the governors of the North West and South West regions in a report that accuses them of responsibility for the deaths of  many Anglophone Cameroonians recently.

The Francophone army had run amok during the unrest in Bamenda, Buea, Kumba and Kumbo killing dozens of innocent people in summary executions. There is a huge military buildup in Bamenda, the regional capital of the North West region and many Anglophone civilians are now subjected to arbitrary arrest and their mobile devices confiscated.

By Rita Akana

French ambassador to Cameroun Gilles Thibault has paid a working visit to the Mifi Division in the West Region. The visit reportedly enabled the French diplomat to assess projects realized within the framework of the French Debt Servicing Program C2D. It was one of the main issues examined during the meeting between the Mr. Gilles Thibault and the administrative officials at the Governor’s office. Ambassador Gilles was updated on the population’s concerns about delays on the Bafoussam Highway construction project.

The Ambassador later visited the Bafoussam Palace where he was ornamented with a west traditional regalia, a ritual performed when high level visitors are received. Some West Regional notables later met the August guest at the Bangante Town Hall in the presence of some development partners including the Mayor of Bangante. Development strategies and how best to execute projects in the West Region were discussed.

The working visit finally ended at the Universite de Montagne – an institution that recently received funding to the tune of 500 billion FCFA as part of the French Debt Servicing C2D package. Ambassador, Gilles Thibault finally appealed on state authorities to give priority to dialogue in resolving the problems in the country.

CRTV

The Minister of Public Works, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi has on the 19^th of December 2016 launched the 2017 Road Maintenance Program.

Minister Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi launched the program during a video conference with stake holders in charge of its implementation within the Central and Decentralized services of the ministry of Public Works.

According to the program revealed, priority in 2017 will be as follows:

–              Maintenance of classified earth roads

–              Maintenance of rural roads

–              The protection of road infrastructure

During the meeting, the Minister also introduced the “Management by level of service” approach to scale-up the level of execution of road maintenance in the country. Service-level management is the monitoring and management of the quality of service of an entity’s key performance indicators.

CRTV

While waiting for the effective work by the Inter-ministerial Ad hoc Committee to review and propose solutions to the concerns raised by Cameroon Anglophone Teachers Trade Unions, the North West Region has been strategizing to get their points through.

Ever since members of the committee were made public, the different stakeholders have been holding planning meetings to see into it that the committee comes up with lasting solutions. In Bamenda, the meetings have multiplied as members hold different reflections. The executive secretary of the of the Cameroon Teachers Trade union- CATTU, Tassang Wilfred said on Thursday 15 December that ever since the strike started, hardly does a day go by without them having to meet.

With the setting up of the committee by the Director of the Prime Minter’s Cabinet, Prof Ghogomu Paul Mingo he said they have intensified reflections. He added that; “the meetings are to ensure that we go through our papers so as to fine-tune our presentations. We want solutions to our problems. The committee is a good one and we hope that it will bring lasting solutions to the English sub system of education. We are ready to work and prepared to bring sensible proposals,” he explained.

On the sidelines, inhabitants in Bamenda are reacting positively towards the creation of the committee, they hold that including PTA presidents as well as denominational representatives is a clear indication that the government has listened to the peoples. From the look of things the people in Bamenda though moody have not forgotten the end of year feast as well as the feast of nativity. The various markets are full to capacity with queues in almost every shop in town.  Bamenda is busy again but not without the presence of the forces of law and order ready to intervene whenever need arises.

Culled from Cameroon Tribune

Philemon Yang, who has now been reduced to a South West Prime Minister, has underscored CPDM government reforms aiming to make professional training a real driving force for economic growth. He was addressing attendees as he inaugurated the Advanced Vocational Training Centre based at Bonadikombo-Limbe last Saturday (17 December, 2016) before proceeding to cut the symbolic ribbon in the presence of the titular Minister of Employment and Vocational Training, Zacharie Perevet. It was his first appearance in Southern Cameroons ever since the so-called head of government was chased out of Bamenda.

Also present was a high-level delegation of South Koreans led by their Ambassador to Cameroon, Lim Jae Hoon, and a host of Cameroonian Ministers from resource departments like Basic, Secondary, Youth and Civic Education. The PM echoed the Centre’s vocation to offer initial and continuing training as well as be a resource centre for companies and a centre for validation of acquired professional experience. In so doing the Limbe Vocational facility will train young Cameroonians in woodwork, plumbing, welding, electricity, mechanics, office automation; refrigeration and air condition; and hotel management and tourism.

Limbe was, however, the PM’s third lap of a commissioning expedition that had earlier taken him in successive days to Sagmelima and Douala where he commissioned similar structures constructed and equipped thanks to the hailed cooperation between Cameroon and South Korea. While calling for proper use and functioning of the Centre, Philemon Yang reiterated President Paul Biya’s commitment to foster the employment and vocational training sector. The PM singled out in praise the Republic of South Korea for remarkable cooperation in the sector to realise the Vocational Centres in Cameroon by constructing and equipping them, training trainers, as well as developing training programmes for trainees.

For his part, the South Korean Ambassador to Cameroon, Lim Jae Hoon, took the pulpit in Limbe to explain that vocational training was the core of industrialisation. He said the Centre was appropriately located in Limbe with the capacity to serve Countries of the Gulf of Guinea and especially the local giant companies and industries among which SONARA, CDC, Shipyard or (Chantier Naval) and the awaited Limbe Deep Sea Port. Ambassador Hoon expressed confidence that the Vocational Centres would boost technical training in Cameroon as trainees from there would envy no better from anywhere else.

Mrs. Ngu Fomede nee Nibameh Comfort, Technical Adviser Number One at the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training, gave a technical presentation of the Limbe Centre describing it as an architectural jewel on a land space of 59.491 square metres allocated to the project.

The Centre has 12 buildings including one Administrative Block hosting a Library and an Infirmary, two air-conditioned computer rooms, five buildings for workshops, each workshop having 30 individual spaces for trainees, two separate dormitories of 49 beds each for men and women, two residential equipped houses of three rooms each, and one restaurant of 150 seats. Worthy of note is that the Limbe project was one in a trio jointly executed with those of Sangmelima and Douala at CFA 24 billion and meant to develop 14 vocational trades.

Culled from Cameroon Tribune with partial editing from CAMCORD news desk

Leaders of Cameroon Youth Association have called on the government to release hundreds of Youths arrested in Kumba, Bamenda and Kumbo during last week’s strike action. The youths gathered at the Presbyterian Church Centre Ntamulung in Bamenda, North West Region on Wednesday December 14, 2016 in conference on the recent happenings and to propose a way forward.

In his opening speech, the coordinator of the Cameroon Youth Association, Marcel Amabo Mutanga said like the biblical Job, we have waited, we have waited, hoping that our fathers and leaders will solve these issues but we have instead watched with consternation, the massacre of our brothers, self justification, and the use of national issues for selfish political interest.”

The Cameroon Youth leaders condemned all forms of violence in the expression of grievances and the maintenance of law and order.  The Youths also condemned the massacre of Anglophones or Southern Cameroonians by forces recruited to protect them. Marcel Amabo declared, “We hereby demand the release of all those arrested in Bamenda, Kumbo and Kumba.” The Cameroon Youth Association has promised to investigate into the real number of youths arrested, missing, wounded and to descend to the streets to sensitize the youths on how to go about the strike in civility so as to stay away from soldiers killing them.

Culled from The Post

The African Bar Association, AFBA, has strongly condemned the use of force on striking Common Law Lawyers in the North West and South West regions and has called on France, the former colonial master of French Cameroon to use their leverage to bring the government of Cameroon to order.

In a release signed by its President Hannibal Uwaifo, the AFBA said, “The brutalization of lawyers in their legitimate demand for justice in their country and attempt to gag the press and curtail the right to freedom of expressions and peaceful assembly in Cameroon is an evil wind that will blow the Government of President Paul Biya no good, instead as history has taught us all, victory for the oppressed people of Anglophone Cameroon is certain.”

The African Bar Association described the regime of Paul Biya as recalcitrant and maintained that the bilingual and bi cultural nature of the country must be respected to the last letter.

Culled from Cameroun Info.Net