National and international news roundup – 29th April 2020

Close to two months after the first COVID-19 case was recorded in Cameroon, the Far North region has recorded its first case. Calling for strict respect of health and safety measures, Minister Manaouda Malachie notes that the case in the Far North takes newly registered cases to 26 this Wednesday in Cameroon. A total of 934 persons have been treated and 61 deaths recorded.

Universities across the country are expected to resume on June 1st and the academic year to end on August 30th. In a bid to limit the spread of the coronavirus during the process, higher education minister, Jacques Fame Ndongo says classes will be divided into sub groups to decongest classes. The decision comes over a month since schools stopped from functioning nationwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Archbishop Samuel Kleda says his COVID-19 cure is effective. In a press briefing in Douala today, the prelate said the drug is administered to COVID-19 patients for free. He has treated some people from a medicine produced from natural herbs.

The World Health Organisation has provided 14 vehicles for the Regional Delegation of Public Health in Yaounde to facilitate response capacity towards COVID-19. The vehicles will be used especially in the Center region which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country.

The South West region has recorded 31 cases of Coronavirus. South West Regional Delegate of public health-Ebongo Zachaus Nanje, revealing the statistics at the Governor’s office in Buea said the population should continue to respect the measures against virus. This is because the infection rate is increasing faster than expected.

Minister Manaouda Malachie has called on all health facilities to systematically refer all confirmed COVID-19 cases to operating centers specialised for the management of the virus. This he says, “is in order to limit the lethality of this pandemic due to the insufficient specialisation of some hospitals that continue to endanger the health and safety of their staff and their patients.”

Cameroonians grappling with online business activities as the spread of coronavirus continue to urge enterprises to shutdown . Many people have taken the option of showcasing their products on social media platforms to attract customers.

Young people in Douala have been violating social distancing by playing football during the evening hours. Without face masks, boys are seen playing football in the quarters. Many think this attitude is contributing to the spread of coronavirus in the city.

Policemen brutalised people at “Carrefour Elf” at Douala 3 last evening. These people most of whom were beer parlour owners opened their businesses and kept selling after 6pm.

Cameroon’s Minister of Communication says report of the commission of Ngarbuh killings shows that Cameroon is a state of law. Rene Emmanuel Sadi in a press conference yesterday said the commission by pointing the wrong doing of a few military men is not a weakness on the part of the government.

Suspects in a murder incident last week have been arrested. They are accused on playing roles in the death of Gaetan Takam whose corpse was discovered in the New-Deido district, Douala. Gaetan Takam was found dead in a pool of blood in his room on Friday with his throat slit open.

An investigation has been opened to seek the cause of death of a 40 year old in the North region. His corpse was retrieved from the Benue river today.

Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto, the Prince and 80th Grand Master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, has died in Rome at the age of 76. He is reported to have died of an incurable disease diagnosed a few months ago. The Grand Master is remembered by most Cameroonians for his three days state visit to Cameroon in July 2018 where he met with a number of dignitaries including President Biya.

Right groups in Cameroon are mounting pressure on the government to release three students. They were arrested and sent to jail for joking about Boko Haram. Afuh, Azah and Fomusoh, all secondary school kids, were arrested in November 2016 and sentenced for 10 years for jokingly sharing a message that the terrorist group, Boko Haram was recruiting.

The FDC party has accused Minister Paul Atanga Nji of using the 2 billion frs state money reserved for civil protection to manipulate public opinion that it is a gift from President Paul Biya to fight COVID-19. According to the Party, the money is tax payers’ money. Cameroonians’ money which should not used as private money or gift from a private individual. FDC further calls for the creation of a civil protection unit to be headed by independent personalities

Some vulnerable internally displaced persons battered by the 4 years crisis in the North West region have benefited psycho-social support to help them bounce back. Organisers think IDPs no longer just need food, but psychosocial support as they have been traumatised by the war.

The Cameroon Association of English-Speaking Journalists (CAMASEJ) has postponed celebrations marking the 2020 World Press Freedom day observed in May to November as the International day to end lmpunity for Crimes against journalists. This was contained in a release signed by the National Prssident, Jude Viban on April 28th, 2020.

A leading humanist group in the UK has called for the release of the man who heads the Humanist Association of Nigeria. Mubarak Bala was detained on account of his activism in Kaduna, Humanists UK says. “The arrest comes following a pattern of online and physical harassment, culminating in a legal petition to the police accusing him of being ‘provocative and annoying to Muslims’ on Facebook’,” the group said in a statement. Humanists UK, alongside Humanists International, says it fears that he may be handed over to the authorities in neighbouring Kano state, where, if charged with blasphemy, he could face the death penalty under the state’s Islamic laws.

Tunisia’s Health Minister Abdelatif el-Makki says his country has controlled the “first wave” of its coronavirus outbreak. The North African nation has had 40 deaths, and less than 1,000 confirmed cases. It now plans to ease its lockdown. Parts of its food and construction sectors will be allowed to re-open next week, and half of the government’s employees will go back to work.

A retired Kenyan Catholic Bishop has died in the Italian city of Turin from Covid-19 while undergoing treatment in hospital. Silas Njiru, who had served as bishop of Meru in central Kenya from 1976 until 2004, died at Rivoli Hospital on Tuesday. He was 92 years old. His successor in Meru, Bishop Salesius Mugambi, told the Daily Nation newspaper that the retired cleric had been living in a house where two other elderly priests had also contracted the virus.

The High Court in Uganda has ordered MPs to hand back a sum of $5,000 (about £4,000) given to each of them to fight coronavirus in their constituencies. The politicians had backed the scheme, which included handouts adding up to a total of around $2.6m. Their move was widely condemned, with President Yoweri Museveni saying it was “morally reprehensible”. On Tuesday evening he called for them to donate the money to district committees set up to fight the pandemic. The case was brought by independent MP Gerald Karuhanga. He, along with a small number of other MPs, had rejected the cash.

A Kenyan court has upheld the ban on an award-winning film about a lesbian love story. Rafiki, meaning “friend” in Swahili, was banned by the Kenya Film and Classification Board (KFCB) in 2018 for “promoting lesbianism”. It traces a coming-of-age love story between two young women who meet and fall in love against a background of homophobia. Gay sex is punishable in Kenya by up to 14 years in prison. The law is specific to men but activists say that lesbian, bi, trans and non-binary people are also affected, effectively outlawing homosexuality. The film’s director Wanuri Kahiu had been challenging the ban, arguing that Kenyans had a right to freedom of expression under the constitution. The head of the KFCB Ezekiel Mutua welcomed the outcome, saying it was a landmark ruling in favour of family values.

Tanzania’s Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa says the country now has 480 cases of coronavirus, following criticism on social media about the failure to give daily updates about the situation. When the government last released figures a week ago there were 306 cases. The lack of updates has led to speculation that the authorities were concealing the true number of cases. President John Magufuli has urged people to engage in mass worship as a way of preventing the spread of Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by coronavirus. He said the virus was satanic and therefore could not thrive in churches.

Domestic flights in Ghana are set to resume by the weekend, according to the aviation minister. Joseph Kofi Adda said Kotoka airport in the capital, Accra, had been disinfected and the other airports, including the one at Kumasi, were being cleaned in readiness. Mr Adda said social distancing among passengers, use of masks and sanitisers would be ensured when operations restarted. Health officials will also be present at airport to monitor all passengers. Domestic airlines have yet to receive instructions from the government about the exact date for operations to resume, reports the BBC’s Thomas Naadi from Accra. Ghana suspended domestic flights on 30 March, when a partial lockdown was imposed. Last week, the government lifted the lockdown, but the country’s borders remain closed.

Some 313 coronavirus cases have been reported in Moroccan jails following mass testing for Covid-19. The authorities say Ouarzazate prison in central Morocco recorded 303 cases, while 10 other cases were in Oudaya prison in Marrakesh and Ksar Kebir prison in the north-west. Most of the cases involved prisoners, but a small number of prison warders were also diagnosed. The mass testing started after one person in Ouarzazate prison tested positive last week. The authorities say they have isolated all positive cases and all warders have been issued with protective gear.
(Foreign news: BBC)