News

4, September 2017

August the most dangerous month on Cameroon roads ⁰

The Francophone dominated force known as the National Gendarmerie has revealed that a total of 116 people were killed in the month of August 2017 on the main roads in Cameroon. A spokesperson for the French Cameroun security apparatus, Colonel Tchinda Henri noted on Sunday via Canal Press program on Canal 2 International tv that 90% of these accidents were due to a human causes and 10% is related to environmental issues.

Cameroon Concord News gathered from the televised presentation that human causes were mainly the imprudence of the road users with recklessness manifested by speeding, dangerous overtaking, poor parking of vehicles and driver fatigue.

Colonel Tchinda Henri did not blame the poor state of the roads including the complete absence of traffic police and proper driving schools in the country but in a typical ruling CPDM pattern, presented a plan adopted by the Gendarmerie Nationale to limit road traffic accidents during this back-to-school period. This is what the policing services do every year and expect different results.

By Eyong Johnson with files from CIN

3, September 2017

Yaounde-Douala: 15 dead and 4 hospitalised in road carnage ⁰

At least fifteen people were reported killed last night in a serious traffic accident on the Yaoundé- Douala highway. Police sources also revealed that the accident caused 4 serious injuries and the wounded were all taken to the Edéa Regional Hospital.

Cameroon Concord News learned that the accident occurred at around 10 pm (2100 GMT) some 20 km from Edéa, the chief locality in the Sanaga Maritime Division from a head-on collision between an inter-urban bus and a freight truck.

For more than a month, there has been almost no day without traffic accidents, resulting in loss of life in Cameroon.

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Concord News

2, September 2017

Nigeria: Boko Haram terrorists kill 18 people in northeast ⁰

Suspected Takfiri Boko Haram militants have killed at least 18 people in northeastern Nigeria near the border with Cameroon in the latest surge of lethal assaults by the terror outfit in the restive region, local sources say.
The deadly incident took place on Friday, when a group of knife-wielding terrorists launched a stabbing attack against people in Banki, a border town some 130 kilometers southeast of Maiduguri, the capital city of the northeastern state of Borno, said Modu Perobe, a member of the Civilian Joint Task Force, a regional vigilante group.

The death toll was also confirmed by Abor Ali, the leader of a local community. Boko Haram terrorists often launch deadly assaults against military convoys, unleash members with explosive vests and litter the surrounding roads with mines in the ravaged corner of the country’s northeast.

Last month, the Boko Haram militants killed at least 27 people in a number of rural areas in Borno, the epicenter of the eight-year-long conflict with the terror group. In the past few months, a number of bomb attacks by suspected members of Boko Haram have taken place in the capital of Borno state and its environs. Mosques, markets, camps for those displaced by the conflict in Nigeria and civilians have been targeted across the region.

The terror group has reportedly killed 190 people since June. In December 2016, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power the year before with a pledge to eradicate Boko Haram, announced that the army had “crushed” the terror group by retaking its last key bastion, deep inside the thick Sambisa Forest in Borno.

The group has, however, resorted to sporadic shooting and bombing attacks in the northeast of the African country, spreading panic among local residents. Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for numerous deadly terrorist attacks in Nigeria since the beginning of its militancy in 2009, which has so far claimed the lives of at least 20,000 people and made more than 2.7 million others displaced.

The United Nations has warned that around 8.5 million people in the worst affected areas of northeastern Nigeria are now in need of humanitarian assistance. Back in February 2016, the Lake Chad Basin countries of Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria, together with a contingent from Benin, launched a campaign to confront the threat from Boko Haram in the region.

1, September 2017

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Leader and 54 others released ⁰

55 Southern Cameroonians arrested and tried in connection with the violence linked to the Anglophone crisis have regained their freedom after a decree signed by President Biya halting all legal proceedings. 24 others whose proceedings are still pending before the military court in Yaoundé including BBC Mancho are still in detention. Their fate will be known at the next hearings.

Cameroon Concord News understands the decree excluded from the list of beneficiaries, defendants prosecuted for murder, destruction of national emblems including the flag and the authors calling for secession. The so-called Cameroon government spokesman, Issa Tchiroma hinted that the decision taken by President Paul Biya is “in conformity with the provisions of article 13 paragraph 4 of law n ° 2017/012 of July 12, 2017 establishing a code of military justice.”

According to this law, the President of the Republic may at any time before a judgement is pronounced, prescribe a criminal prosecution before the military court. Issa Tchiroma also said it is not a question of “interference by the executive, nor of an interference with the independence of the judiciary, but of a mere application of the law in Cameroon. The President Paul Biya decree which sounded the return to social cohesion, was greeted by António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General.

By Sama Ernest
Cameroon Concord News

31, August 2017

Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism: Bidoung Mkpatt helping Musonge ⁰

The Minister of Sports and Physical Education, Pierre Ismaël Bidoung Mkpatt has signed a ministerial order setting up a day of bilingualism in his ministry. The new innovation in the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo government is unprecedented and comes just some few hours after the 85 year old dictator ordered the release of the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium including Lord Justice Ayah Paul Abine.

The Minister Bidoun Mkpatt’s order stipulates that all personnel in the Ministry of Sports and Physical Education are required to speak “English” to French-speaking employees or to speak “French” to English-speaking staff on the last Thursday of each month .

The Minister who is reportedly an in-law to President Biya stated that the initiative takes effect as from today Thursday the 31st of August 2017. Minister Bidoung set an example yesterday Wednesday the 30th of August 2017 in the morning at the Multipurpose Sports Palace in Yaounde during a ceremony to launch the so-called bilingual day whose objective is the promotion of the bilingualism in Cameroon. During his speech on the occasion, Pierre Ismaël Bidoung Mkpatt alternated French and English.

However, there is still no news of the Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism created by the Head of State Paul Biya for eight months in a context marked by the Southern Cameroons crisis. We understand the commission’s chairman, former Prime Minister Peter Mafany Musonge recently got married and maybe enjoying his honeymoon.

By Rita Akana
Cameroon Concord News

30, August 2017

Release of Consortium leaders: CAMCORDNEWS Chairman says Atanga Nji, Tabetando, Musonge et al, licking their wounds ⁰

The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Cameroon Concord News Group has reacted to the decision by President Paul Biya releasing the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium including Lord Justice Ayah Paul Abine and the hundreds of other Southern Cameroons activists detained in Yaounde ever since the Southern Cameroons revolution started.

The Right Honourable Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai told CAMCORDNEWS Chi Prudence Asong that “You must have noticed that Biya in his press release did not for the first time talk about Cameroun being one and indivisible. People like Chief TabeTando, Minister Atanga Nji, Mafany Musonge, Laurent Esso, Fame Ndongo and my great friend, Ngole Ngole Elvis are licking their wounds now. The Revolution will sweep away traitors like them as it will sweep Paul Biya himself.

His decision will not resuscitate hundreds of Southern Cameroons lives that have been exterminated in the genocide against them these 56 years. It will not resuscitate the economy plundered or the cultural values bastardised.

Without a total pull out of it’s army of occupation and it’s administration out of the Southern Cameroons to the International boundaries inherited at independence, nothing will change in our opposition and resistance.

Liberating those captives his army did not massacre without redressing the fundamental question of annexation and Colonial occupation will not dampen our resistance. He has ordered the captives released but the system that imprisoned them is still in place. We will resist until we attain our liberation.

The Southern Cameroons liberation revolution for which thousands have lost their lives to the brutality and bestiality of colonial rule over 56 years was never about abducting and holding some of our people hostage only. That is only part of our grievances. It was and is about a Criminal policy and Criminal institutions imposed on our territory which holds all of us hostages. Freeing the captives without scraping the Criminal system and vacating our territory will only strengthen our resolve to free ourselves and our territory which renewed intensity.”

We will bring you details of this interview soonest

30, August 2017

Biya orders end of legal proceedings against all Southern Cameroons leaders, activists ⁰

President Biya has ordered the Military Tribunal in Yaounde to end all legal proceedings against the leaders of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium including Lord Justice Ayah Paul Abine of the Supreme Court of Cameroon.

This item is developing

30, August 2017

Harvey kills 30 people in US ⁰

Hurricane Harvey has so far claimed the lives of at least 30 people in the United States with reports showing the storm will make another landfall in hours.

Local officials announced Tuesday that the death toll did not include the number of unconfirmed flood-related deaths as water was still rising in most of the affected areas.

Forecasters predicted that the tropical storm will make another landfall near the Texas-Louisiana state line sometime shortly after midnight central time.

Texas officials said an estimated 30,000 people could be evacuated due to flooding and over 725,000 people were already under a mandatory evacuation order.

Rescuers go house-to-house checking for anyone that may need rescue in the Bear Creek neighborhood after it was flooded by heavy rains from Hurricane Harvey August 29, 2017 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by AFP)

Harvey has set a new rainfall record for the US, dumping 51.88 inches (132 centimeters) of rain in Cedar Bayou, which a salt water channel on the Texas coast, officials said.

“This reading is higher than the previous record of 48 inches set during tropical cyclone Amelia of 1978 at Medina, Texas,” the National Weather Service said.

Jeffrey Lindner, a meteorologist for the Harris County Flood Control District, said water flooded 25 to 30 percent of Harris County’s 1,800 square miles of land.

US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump return to the White House in Washington, DC, from Texas after viewing the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey on August 29, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump visited the disaster zone in Texas, four days after Harvey slammed onshore as a Category Four hurricane, turning roads into rivers and neighborhoods into lakes.

Trump, who sought to project an image of leadership in America’s first big natural disaster since he took office in January, toured the coastal city of Corpus Christi, where he praised the work of state and federal officials.

“We want to be looked at in five years, in 10 years from now as, this is the way to do it,” he said.

“We love you, you are special, we are here to take care of you,” the president said. “It’s historic, its epic, but I tell you, it happened in Texas — and Texas can handle anything.”

The Tellez family is evacuated from their home after severe flooding following Hurricane Harvey in north Houston August 29, 2017 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by AFP)

In Houston, Mayor Sylvester Turner ordered a curfew late Tuesday from midnight to 5 am local time in to help prevent crime and keep the roads clear for first responders.

“We have thousands of people who are out of their homes, in shelters, waiting for water to subside,” Turner told a press conference earlier.

Culled from Presstv

30, August 2017

Oh lucky man: CNPS General Manager has cumulative advantages worth over 2 billion FCFA ⁰

Alain Noël Mekulu Mvondo, the general manager of the National Social Insurance Fund (CNPS) is facing serious accusations of financial malpractice and embezzlement. For some weeks now, journalists have been presenting evidence of embezzlement on television and on the Internet, which has overwhelmed the all powerful Francophone social security boss.

According to the documents recently made public, the GM of the National Social Insurance Fund is living a princely lifestyle and has cumulative advantages worth over 2 billion CFA francs (over 3 million euros) in his 8 years at the head of the fund, while in Cameroon, according to figures published by the National Institute of Statistics ) in its Ecam 2014 survey, 37.5% of the population live on less than 1 dollar a day with some civil servants earning 36 270 FCFA (55 euros) a month.

The docile Francophone public opinion was mostly shocked by the princely advantages of this new generation Beti Ewondo leader who perfectly illustrates the gap between the ruling elite and the ordinary citizen. He denies that he has filed a lawsuit against journalists who are responsible for the denunciations but explained on Tuesday evening, during a an interview with Canal 2, that his salary is not what some passionate spirits evoke.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai
Cameroon Concord News

28, August 2017

Death toll from Sierra Leone mudslides tops 1,000 ⁰

More than 1,000 people have died from the mudslide and flood that hit Sierra Leone’s capital nearly two weeks ago, a local leader and a minister said Sunday during services honoring the disaster’s victims.

The government had earlier put the death toll for the Aug. 14 mudslide at 450 dead, while rescuers and aid groups warned that many of the more than 600 people missing would likely not survive.

“Over 1,000 perished in the mudslide and flood disaster, and we will never know the exact number now,” Elenoroh Jokomie Metzger, the head of the women of Regent, said. Regent is an area on the outskirts of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, where the mudslide hit.

Hundreds of burials have taken place, while rescue and recovery efforts have continued through rain that could bring fresh tragedy due to unsafe housing conditions.

Reverend Bishop Emeritus Arnold Temple, Sierra Leone’s Methodist minister, who delivered the Sunday sermon at a Methodist church near Regent, said an accurate count was important for accountability.

Men wait beside empty graves for the coffins of mudslide victims on August 17, 2017 at Waterloo cemetery near Freetown, Sierra Leone. (Photo by AFP)

“It may well be over 1,000 Sierra Leoneans we are mourning now. But why should about 1,000 of our compatriots’ lives end tragically like this?” Temple said. “Who should we really blame? We are bound at a point in the blame game to attribute the blame so that corrective measures can be put in place so that never again should we allow this to happen.”

Thousands of people living in areas at risk during heavy rains have been evacuated. Aid groups are delivering supplies and helping provide clean water to prevent a health crisis.

Some critics accuse Sierra Leone’s government of failing to learn from past disasters in Freetown, where many poor areas are near sea level and lack good drainage. The capital is also plagued by unregulated construction on its hillsides.

(Source: AP)