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66 new cases have recovered from the COVID-19 in Cameroon, Wednesday April 2nd 2020 according to the Ministry of Public Health. In its daily press briefing in Yaounde, the Ministry of Public Health said it has put in place a special program to avoid an eventual mother-child contamination of Coronavirus. Though experts say Coronavirus cannot be transmitted from mother to child, the government wants to minimise any chances of COVID-19 spread.
The South West region now counts 13 confirmed cases of Coronavirus, according to Dr Ebongo Zachaus Nanje- South West Regional Delegate of Public Health. The delegate gave the statistics while briefing the South West Governor, Bernard Okalia Bilai and Regional stakeholders in Kumba. Of the 13 cases, 3 are in Limbe, 3 in Kumba and 7 in Buea. The Delegate also announced that the middle farm’s stadium in Limbe will be transformed into a Coronavirus treatment centre.
While the news of the Ngarbuh massacre settlement has been received with joy by many, residents of Muambong village in Kupe Muanenguba are not so lucky. Six persons (three ex separatist fighters and three civilians) were killed in a military raid today. The SDO for the Division has promised that the crackdown will continue in the days ahead.
A former Cameroon soldier has made startling revelations regarding military activities in the Anglophone regions. In addition to the Ngarbuh massacre, he says there have been similar killings in Muyenge and other areas covered up by soldiers. The government he says should also open up investigations.
After Douala 5 suffered two coronavirus deaths, the quarter head of Mbengue City in Douala has provided sanitary kits for residents. He urged his subjects to strictly adhere to hygienic measures to prevent the spread of the disease. “I do not want to hear of a 3rd death case again in Mbengue city due to COVID-19, follow the measures put in place by the state. Do not visit anybody now even me your chief, trust nobody now because you don’t know where he is from” he warned after a second person in the locality passed away from the virus.
UN High Commission for Human Rights boss, Michelle Bachelet has called for fair and transparent trial for perpetrators of the Ngarbuh massacre. The diplomat who visited Cameroon last year also called on the government to join the UN Human rights body to work for the good of citizens. She also warned separatist fighters against carrying our human rights abuses.
President Paul Biya bans 1st and 20th May 2020 festivities across Cameroon. According to a communique from the Secretary-General at the Presidency of the Republic,
Cameroonians will not celebrate the 2020 edition of the International Labour Day 1st May, and the National Day on May 20th, 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic. The President says the ban on public festivities is in line with strict respect of the social distancing measure
Edith Kah Walla of the Cameroon Peoples Party (CPP) says the revelation and identification of actors responsible for the Ngarbuh-Ntumbaw massacre is just a small victory to human rights defenders and advocates of justice in Cameroon. In her opinion, the pressures for justice and accountability must be maintained for Biya and his regime barons to take full responsibility for heinous crimes committed in many villages in the Anglophone North West and South West regions. She equally says soldiers identified as perpetrators of the massacre are just scapegoats, that those who gave them instructions have not been held responsible. She wants President Paul Biya, Commander of the armed forces to take responsibility.
After the released findings of the Ngarbuh-Ntumbaw massacre, Dr Ngwanyam says time is ripe for the MPs of Donga Mantung centre constituency, Nkambe-Ndu to speak out. According to him, there is time to take from the population and time to give to them, hence the MPs who got the vote of the people should rise up for the same people today
Muslim faithfuls in Cameroon are patiently waiting to see the moon in the sky to begin a period of fasting ahead of the feast of Ramadan. Faithfuls will not undergo the traditional pilgrimage to Mecca this year as a result of the global health crisis caused by coronavirus pandemic.
The government of Cameroon has not sufficiently apportioned punishment following the intensional killing of innocent civilians by the military in Ngarbuh, Donga Mantung Division. Bar. Tamfuh Richard has pointed out that members of government and top administrators who sit in Yaounde and give orders to the military to kill should equally be prosecuted.
The intellectual class in Cameroon is divided on either the killings in Ngarbuh was intensional or collateral damage. According to Prof. Mathias Eric Owona Nguini, the intention of the military was not to kill civilians but separatists. This has been contradicted by Hillaire Kamga, a politician saying the aim of the military was to crack down on the locals for seemingly hosting separatists.
A baby of less than a week old has been handed over to a social centre in Douala. The baby was found abandoned behind Saint Bruno Catholic school at Nylon Brazzaville in Douala.
General Eba Eba Benoit, Commander of the second joint military legion has handed financial assistance to military men injured while fighting against separatists and are receiving treatment in Douala.
Six Chinese nationals have been convicted by a Ugandan court for escaping from a hotel in the capital, Kampala, where they were quarantined, the Daily Monitor newspaper reports. The group was arrested last month together with their Ugandan driver and his wife on their way to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, according to local reports. They had not completed 14 days of mandatory quarantine at the hotel.
Djibouti has recorded another sharp rise in coronavirus cases. On Tuesday, it reported 99 new cases, bringing the total number of confirmed infections to 945. Mass testing has been greatly hampered by heavy rains and floods, which have killed eight people in the capital. The country, which has a population of under one million, has reported more than 200 new infections in the past two days.
Prosecutors in
Ethiopia have charged a journalist under a newly enacted anti-hate speech and disinformation law over reports about coronavirus. Yayesew Shimeles, who has used his shows on opposition-leaning Tigray TV and social media platforms to criticise Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration, has become the first to be charged under the measures. Human rights groups have said that they could threaten freedom of expression. Yayesew has apologised for an incorrect report about the potential death toll from Covid-19 which landed him in trouble.
Somalia’s finance minister has told the BBC that Covid-19 is having a devastating effect on the economy. Abdirahman Duale Beyle said remittance flows have dried up because so many Somalis abroad have lost their jobs due to the virus. He added that government revenue has shrunk by 40% because it is unable to collect taxes. Mr Beyle said he believed some people would starve as a result of the crash in remittance flows.
Police in Morocco have arrested more than 3,000 people in the past 24 hours for breaking restrictions imposed to combat coronavirus. The Moroccan state news agency says half have been placed in custody while their cases are investigated. More than 50,000 people have been arrested in the country since a nationwide lockdown was introduced in mid-March and wearing a mask outside the home became compulsory.
South Africa’s Communication Minister Stella Ndabeni has admitted to failing to follow the lockdown rules and has paid a 1,000 rand ($53;£42) fine as ordered by the senior magistrate in the Tshwane district court. The National Prosecuting Authority’s Phindi Mjonondwane said the minister’s court case proves that all citizens are equal and no-one should break the law. The minister was pictured at a former colleague’s house having lunch during an ongoing lockdown aimed at reducing the spread of coronavirus.
Governors of 19 northern Nigerian states have shut down all traditional koranic schools in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The estimated nine million children attending the schools will be sent home. Many Muslim parents in Nigeria send their children, often as young as six, to other towns and villages to learn the Koran. They frequently live in crowded accommodation, begging on the streets when they are not in class. The governors called for virus testing centres to be set up in the north, which has yet to establish a single facility despite a recent increase in cases.
More than 70,000 extra troops will be deployed in South Africa to help enforce a lockdown intended to stop the spread of coronavirus, national broadcaster SABC says. Opposition leader John Steenhusien has tweeted a letter that President Cyril Ramaphosa wrote to parliament saying that he had decided to deploy an extra 73,180 soldiers because of an increase in reported cases across the country. Initially, the president had approved the deployment of just under 3,000 soldiers to assist in the implementation of a strict lockdown. Jogging, dog walking and alcohol sales have all been banned. But security officers have found it hard in some places to enforce the measures.
(Foreign news: BBC)
