National And International News Roundup – 10th July 2020

The government of Cameroon has presented two men accused of murdering Florence Ayafor. They are Niba Innocent and Nguh Rogers. Presenting the men today, the ministry of defense said the purpose is to show Cameroonians and the international community that no crime committed will go unpunished.

Anglophone separatist leaders have laid down conditions for a return of peace in the North West and the South West Regions. The Sisiku led group set conditions which include a call for a ceasefire in the two regions, withdrawal of Cameroonian soldiers from the streets, grant amnesty to the entire English speaking diaspora in order to allow it nationals to return to the country without being worried.

Human Rights Watch has raised an alarm over the action of Cameroon soldiers. The rights group says soldiers are forcing civilians to fight on front lines against Boko Haram. The civilians, HRW adds, were not trained, were unarmed, and were told to run back to town to alert the army if they saw Boko Haram fighters approaching.

Torrential rains in the Far North Region have drowned some 148 livestock and destroyed over 17 houses. According to the daily newspaper Le Jour, Thursday July 9, 2020 saw the village of Kouyape experience one of the most damaging rains for a long time.

“Coronavirus is still a threat in Cameroon”. This is a declaration made by the Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute today. He also called on council officials to enforce sanctions on people who refuse to wear face masks while in public.

Administrative officials in Buea Sub Division are charting ways to broker peace between taxi drivers and police officers. After Wednesday’s protest by the drivers to denounce police harassment, the DO of Buea and other officials held a meeting to resolve the problem today.

Over 1,656 billion francs cfa has been seized from corrupt officials in Cameroon in the last decade. The declaration was made by Rev. Dieudonne Massi Gams, President of national anti corruption body CONAC. The figures were given today in a press conference in Yaounde during activities to mark the African day against corruption.

Cameroon’s national anti corruption body, CONAC commemorates the 4th African Day for the fight against corruption. This year’s edition had as theme “Fighting Corruption through Effective and Efficient Judicial Systems”.

With the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Central Africa, Cameroon is again faced with a disturbing Cholera outbreak. Officials from the ministry of public health say 980 cholera cases have been recorded in four, out of the 10 regions in the country; the Littoral, the South, the Center, and the Southwest region. The Littoral and the South region are hardest-hit regions.

The governor of the Littoral region, Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua has asked administrators in the Wouri Division to relaunch crackdown on people in public places without face masks. The governor was speaking during a visit to some Covid-19 treatment centers in Douala.

About a hundred families have been rendered homeless after a demolition exercise in camp Yabassi, Douala. The demolition exercise initiated by the Douala II council and supervised by elements of the National gendarmerie comes after the visit of Housing and Urban Development minister, Celestine Ketcha Courtes.

Koubinom Louise popularly known as Mama Nguea will be laid to rest tomorrow. The body of the makossa musician was removed from the mortuary today in Douala. A night vigil will take place at her residence in Makepe Douala. She died after a protracted illness.

A cargo truck has crashed into a building housing staff of the Cameroon News and Publishing Corporation, SOPECAM today in Yaounde. The accident occurred today morning near 11:15 a.m. when a lorry transporting a container of newsprint crashed into a portion of the roof of the building. The driver said the brakes of the vehicle failed when he was reversing into the compound to unload.

The Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) – an organisation of French-speaking countries – has lifted sanctions imposed on Burundi four years ago “in light of recent political developments”, the organisation said in a statement on its website. The announcement was also made on Twitter by OIF secretary general Louise Mushikiwabo: “A very good session of the permanent council of the Francophonie. At the heart of the debate: a strengthened and humane multilateralism, attentive to the needs of our populations, plus the lifting of the 2016 sanctions against Burundi, in accordance with procedures,” she said.

Libya’s national oil company says it has resumed its vitally important exports after a halt of nearly six months, caused by conflict and political upheaval. The first tanker has begun loading in the eastern port of Es-Sider. The company’s production facilities in the region had been blockaded by forces loyal to the renegade Gen Khalifa Haftar.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has suspended the head of the country’s anti-corruption body, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, who is himself being investigated for alleged corruption. A statement from Nigeria’s Justice Minister says the suspension of Ibrahim Magu is to allow for “unhindered inquiry” into his conduct.

Twenty-one health workers in Zimbabwe’s second city of Bulawayo tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday, according to the latest Ministry of Health update. The workers had come into contact with confirmed coronavirus cases and had been in isolation. It comes days after nurses unions called a strike over poor pay and a shortage of personal protective gear.

Rwandan police have arrested four people who escaped from a Covid-19 treatment centre at a school in the eastern region. The four escaped at about 19:30 local time on Wednesday and were arrested the following day. “Following information that four detainees had escaped, security organs and local leaders worked together to locate their whereabouts,” a police spokesperson for the eastern region said.

South Africa has recorded its highest-ever single-day increase in Covid-19 cases. The health ministry said there were 13,674 infections in the past 24 hours from the highest number of tests done in a single day in the country. Nearly half of the new Covid-19 cases in South Africa, 6,531, were recorded in the economic hub Gauteng, which has become the epicentre of the virus.

In Kenya, doctors are mourning a colleague who died after contracting coronavirus, the country’s main medics’ union is saying. A colleague described the medic as a “young doctor with so much to offer”. She was a gynaecologist who was hailed by many of her patients for her professionalism.