National and International News Briefs – January 6th 2020

Eleven people have been confirmed dead and over 20 others wounded following Monday’s attack in Fotokol, Far North region of Cameroon by suspected Boko Haram militants. The bomb blast is the first of its kind in the region since the beginning of 2020.

Ecole publique Plateau in Garoua went into flames Sunday, on the eve of school resumption for the second term. School officials say the fire disaster was not an accident, adding that efforts are underway to fish-out the perpetrators.

Schools have reopened in Tabenken village in Nkambe sub division in the North West Region of Cameroon. Hit by the anglophone crisis, the back to school was a reality “thanks to the vigilante groups put in place by authorities to ensure peace,” local officials said. The group has equally been accused of rights abuses. Kids in some of the Nkambe villages were offered school uniforms by elites to facilitate their return to school. The uniforms were handed to school children in Binka and Tabenken Villages by elites like Shey Jones Yembe and Ngalla Gerald….

There was partial school resumption in Buea and Bamenda today. Few students and teachers braved the odds defying the traditional ghost town day to resume studies for the second term. There are expectations that more schools will resume Tuesday and in the coming days.

There have been opposing views nationwide and beyond after PM Dion Ngute clocked one year in office. Dion Ngute and his “new” government were appointed on the 4th of January 2019. To others, Dion Ngute has contributed positively to the situation in the North West and South West regions. On the other hand, critics say he does not have enough prerogatives to initiate and implement peace measures in a dictatorial setting like Cameroon. 

Some internally displaced persons in the North West say they need permanent peace to return to their communities. They say periodic provision of gifts by the government that does not provide lasting solutions to their plight.

The body of the president of the Nkambe Drivers Union, killed by suspected armed separatists fighters on January 2nd, 2020 was laid to rest. His corpse was removed from the Nkambe district hospital mortuary today, and burried at his residence at Queen’s Valley in Nkambe. Abanda Godlove Ndia aka Ndi Baba was Kidnapped in Ngie, killed and his body body dumped in Wat village according to family sources.

One person has died and two others are presently hospitalised in Yaoundé after consuming poisoned food. The food, reports say was poisoned by a 13-year old boy. The reason for his action remains unclear, but family members say a 6-year old who consumed a larger quantity of the food died earlier.

Several persons have sustained injuries in a Yaounde road accident. The accident occured at CNPS in the Essos. The victims were crushed by a truck after its driver lost control.

The governor of Nigeria’s northern Kaduna state has tweeted photos of the destruction caused by the gas explosion which killed six people – including the head of the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC). The incident took place Saturday.

A new CEO has started his first day in charge of South Africa’s struggling power utility, Eskom. Andre de Ruyter was meant to start in the middle of the month but a new round of power cuts over the weekend hastened his arrival. Eskom has had 10 CEOs over the last decade and is suffering from crumbling infrastructure as well as a shortage of generating capacity.

Kenyan police have detained three “terrorist suspects” who tried to force their way into a British military camp. AFP news agency which quoted an internal police report it has seen said the three were arrested on Sunday evening after attempting to break into the base in Nanyuki, a market town in the centre of the country.

A protest against Liberia’s President George Weah has started in the capital, Monrovia. Dozens of riot police have been deployed, but they have not interfered as government had given an assurance that it would provide security for protesters. Among other demands, the demonstrators want Mr Weah – a former football star who became president in January 2018 – to publish a list of his assets before and after he became president.

Police in Uganda have fired tear gas and prevented the musician and opposition MP, Bobi Wine, from holding a public meeting near the capital, Kampala. He was due to outline his manifesto for next year’s election in which he intends to run for president. The MP whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, was taken to a police station.

Ludacris has shared his excitement on Instagram after being granted citizenship in his wife’s native country Gabon. Ludacris was in Gabon after attending the Year of Return events in Ghana. (Source Foreign News: BBC Africa)

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