National And International News Roundup – 20th October 2020

Catholic Christians of the Diocese of Kumbo, in the North West Region, have called for peace in the Anglophone regions. They undertook a peaceful pilgrimage march in Kumbo today, under the auspices of Bishop George Nkuo. The Bishop called on those holding arms to drop them and seek the path of peace.

A commercial bike rider has been killed in Bangourain, in the West Region. Young Abdou Adamou was killed from bullet wounds he sustained from an attack, by separatist fighters in the neighbouring North West Region!

The hearing pitting the Minister of Sports, Narcisse Mouelle Kombi and his cook, opened yesterday October 18, 2020. The hearing has been adjourned to November 18, 2020. For now the Minister’s cook and his allies, remain under temporary detention.

Illicit fuel has flooded Cameroon. More than 60,000 litres of illicit fuel have been confiscated from unscrupulous traders in Melong, Moungo Division in the Littoral Region. A mixed operation of police and gendarmes unveiled where tanks of the fuel are kept, thanks to a tip-off from locals.

The mortal remains of late Bar Council President, Batonnier Charles Tchakoute Patie, will be removed from the Funerarium du Havre Nord in France on October 21st, in the presence of some comrades. The corpse will be sent to Cameroon’s Douala International Airport on October 23rd. Other proceedings shall follow.

“Fighters cannot lay their arms when there is no concrete plan of resolving what pushed them in the first place to pick up arms,”declared Father Innocent Akum. He made this comment on Equinoxe TV this evening. To the Catholic priest, real dialogue is needed for real peace to take place in Cameroon.

There is controversy if this Saturday’s election of the executive members of Category B artists in Cameroon (SONACAM) is legal. To some artists, the election is illegal because it has been called by the Minister of Arts and Culture. They advance that the law states artists should organise their elections, with the Minister seating as an observer.

ELECAM board members meeting in Yaounde today, have discussed ways of a hitch-free regional election on the 6th December 2020. ELECAM is equally calling on parties vying for the election, to present their official party colours and logo, to ease the printing of voting and campaign posters.

Inhabitants of Toumaka Babadjou Sub-Division in the West Region, say sub-standard building materials are responsible for the collapse of a building under construction in the community today. Though not engineers, the locals say the process of building the house had been doubtful from the onset. The collapse caused the death of two people.

Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) officials observing the US Presidential elections are set to leave the country soon. They met with the Chargé d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Yaoundé, after receiving their visas yesterday.

The Central African Republic has requested Cameroon to play host to their AFCON 2022 qualification match. The Central African Republic was expected to face the Atlas Lions of Morroco on November 17, 2020 in Bangui but CAF informed them that they did not meet all the conditions to host the game. The match will therefore be played at the Reunification Stadium in Douala.

Guinea’s government has condemned the spread of “fake news” online following the first round of Guinea’s presidential elections on Sunday. Minister of Foreign Affairs Mamadi Touré denounced as “completely false” a video circulating online claiming to be a recording of a phone call made by President Alpha Condé conceding defeat to his rival Cellou Dalein Diallo. He dismissed another viral post claiming that diplomats were putting pressure on President Condé “to accept defeat and that he was trying to “negotiate a second round to avoid humiliation in the first round”.

Protesters in the Lekki and Alausa areas of Lagos have not dispersed, more than 20 minutes after a curfew kicked in. They are singing the national anthem at the Lekki toll gate. No security officers have been spotted at either site yet, the BBC’s Nduka Orjinmo reports.

Nigeria’s police chief Mohammed Adamu has ordered the immediate nationwide deployment of the anti-riot police unit – the Police Mobile Force (PMF) – “to protect lives and property of all Nigerians and secure critical national infrastructure across the country”. The Inspector-General has also ordered massive deployment of police officers to strengthen security around prisons nationwide. In a statement, the police said the orders are coming on the “heels of increasing attacks including acts of arson and malicious damage to public and private facilities.”

A Ugandan entrepreneur who’s now in the running for a “business hero” award has told the BBC her struggle with malaria as a child sparked her business idea. Joan Nalubega, who grew up in an orphanage, has developed an organic soap that repels mosquitoes. “In 2016 I realised that the interventions that people use locally are the same interventions that had been in use for decades,” she told BBC Focus on Africa.

Burundi’s Supreme Court has handed a life sentence to former president Pierre Buyoya for having a hand in the assassination of his successor Melchior Ndadaye. Mr Buyoya, now 70, is currently an African Union envoy to the Sahel. He has not attended the trial, which he last year dismissed as “politically motivated”. A copy of the judgment seen by the BBC also gave life sentences to 15 other people – many of them former senior army officials – and a 20-year sentence to former vice-president Bernard Busokoza.

Armed fighters released at least 900 prisoners in Beni, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, in the early hours of Tuesday, according to the local mayor. Among the inmates who have escaped from Kangbayi central prison are convicted militia members. Some 110 inmates remained at the prison. The attackers were equipped with welding equipment.

Five presidential candidates have been disqualified from taking part in December’s election because their nomination papers included “defective signatures and fake endorsements”, the electoral commission has announced. The candidates have been recommended to the police for further investigation, according to an official statement.

Foreign news: BBC