Cameroon has hit 2265 officially confirmed Coronavirus Cases as of May 6th 2020. Regarding Wednesday March 6th 2020, 2 new positive cases have been registered, while 2 other cases recovered. According to statistics from the Yaounde emergency health unit, 101 deads have been recorded since the outbreak in March.
Britain has donated the sum of 1 Billion FCFA to assist Cameroon in its fight against the coronavirus. The announcement was made on Wednesday by the British High Commissioner in Cameroon, Roman James Laxton after an audience with Cameroon’s Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute. The country’s coronavirus cases remain above 2,000 making it one of the most affected nations in West and Central Africa.
Cameroon’s Communication Minister, Rene Emmanuel Sadi has encouraged Mayors and City Councillors to ensure that their municipalities firmly respect government’s measures against COVID-19. He also said the relief and support measures to combat COVID-19 should not be mistaken for a declaration of victory over the pandemic.
The Government of Cameroon has made public a schedule for the second repatriation phase of over six hundred (600) citizens stranded abroad due to the deadly Coronavirus pandemic. According to the schedule, these citizens will be repatriated from different parts of the world in five sets, to run from Friday May 8th to Monday 11th of May.
Journalists in Cameroon are mobilising to attend the trial of Samuel Wazizi at Buea High court tomorrow. The pidgin news broadcaster has been held incommunicado for nine months. He was arrested last August on accusations of collaborating with Separatist fighters.
There are conflicting reports following the death of a US based Cameroonian. Some reports say the individual who referred to himself as Dr Coronavirus has reportedly passed away after a large dose of a ginger/garlic concoction intake that caused complications in his stomach and intestinal organs. Others, however hold that he died from a brain tumor.
The corpse of 48 year old Henri Fasse was retrieved from the Moungo river in Cameroon’s Littoral region. The dead body was discovered in Palamanja village near Mbanga. Residents say he went missing almost a week ago and is suspected to have committed suicide.
Ayah Ayah, head of the Ayah Foundation was questioned at the Judicial Police headquarters in Yaounde today for about four hours. Summoned three months after questioning at the National Gendarmerie headquarters, Ayah was questioned today on the grounds of financing terrorism.
From May 8th, Cameroonians stranded abroad will be repatriated by the government. They will be brought home from different parts of the world in five sets, all arriving at the Nsimalen airport. Over 600 Cameroonians were repatriated during the first phase some weeks back.
Critics of the regime say the Sea port constructed in Kribi was supposed to be in Limbe. Despite this, the people of Limbe have celebrated President Biya’s announcement creating the Limbe deep sea port. The people marched in support of the announcement.
Some 40.000 hemodialysis machines to be distributed to hospitals in Cameroon treating people suffering from kidney failure. The machines were received today in Yaounde by the Minister of Public Health. Kidney patients have often go on protest against insufficient dialysis machines.
Six days after government lifted some restrictions on the prevention of coronavirus, it is now evident that many Cameroonians unfortunately think the pandemic is not longer a threat. Most people move around public places without face masks, soaps are not longer available in most places for people to wash their hands.
An accident on the Douala – Bafoussam highway (national road number 5) today has left seven people dead and others wounded. Reports say the incident occurred when a public transport bus and a dump truck collided at a place called Kome City in Bomono. The injured are receiving medical attention in Douala.
Teachers of PETOU Bilingual College in Yaounde have staged a protest against the school management for what they qualify as refusal to pay their salaries. To the teachers, the management announced that they will not have salaries for the months of April and May 2020. This is because of school lockdown to fight COVID 19 in the country. However, to PETOU college management, they have a 9-month annual salary contract with their teachers, hence decided to shift the two months salaries to June and July when effective classes are expected
Teachers of Atlantic Bilingual college in Bonaberi Douala IV Sub Division say they will stage a public protest demonstration infront of the school building, and the Littoral Regional Delegation of labour and social security if management fails to pay their salaries. The workers say the management has maintained sealed lips since the month ended, despite multiple efforts from them to know their fate.
A driver has died in a hospital after being crushed by a heavy duty truck in Bonaberi, Douala IV Sub Division. The truck also crushed and killed a commercial bike rider on the spot. Reports say the truck was in an attempt to escape from road control agents when it crushed the bike coming from the opposite direction.
The government of Cameroon has released the sum of 8.9 billion for the reconstruction of destroyed houses and infrastructures in the course of the current Anglophone crisis. The money will be managed by the reconstruction Committee headed by Minister Paul Tasong.
A ban on all flights in and out of Nigeria has been extended by four weeks from Friday. The initial ban was brought in at the end of March in order to halt the spread of coronavirus. Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation, told a press briefing that the decision was made “based on the advice of experts”.
The High Court in Uganda has granted bail to a German national accused of child sexual abuse and trafficking. Bernhard Bery Glaser has also been given leave to travel, and is expected to report back to the court in July. Mr Glaser, who was arrested in February 2019, is charged with 28 counts of aggravated child trafficking and rape against a number of girls, at a shelter he and his wife run in the island district of Kalangala, near the capital, Kampala. They said the centre took care of girls who were survivors of sexual violence.
Kenya’s government has identified two areas – one in the capital, Nairobi, and one in the coastal city of Mombasa – that will be shut off for 15 days to try and contain the spread of coronavirus. It believes the two areas, Eastleigh, a Somali-dominated suburb of Nairobi and Mombasa’s Old Town, have become centres for infection. In Eastleigh, there are 68 cases of the virus and in Old Town there are 64 out of a national total of 582, AFP news agency reports.
Nigerian court hearings that take place over the internet must be “fair, transparent and effective”, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has told the BBC. The comments from the rights watchdog come after a man was sentenced to death during a court ruling in Lagos state that was held using Zoom. In a bid to stop the spread of coronavirus, all but urgent court sittings in the country have been suspended. Presiding over the internet court hearing, Judge Mojisola Dada sentenced Olalekan Hameed to death by hanging for murdering his employer’s mother.
Reports from Mozambique suggest the army has retaken control of an important town captured earlier this year by militant Islamist rebels. They have conducted a series of unusually bold attacks in recent months, seizing the towns of Quissanga and Mocimboa da Praia in the north of the country. It’s six weeks since the shadowy insurgency burst into the open in northern Mozambique, seizing the two important provincial towns. The move prompted concerns that a low-level conflict was becoming much more serious.
African Union official and former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga is the latest politician to deploy the language of war when it comes to talking about coronavirus. Mr Odinga, who is the AU’s high representative on infrastructure, said the pandemic was like “a third world war without the bombs”. “Even in the Second World War we did not have the extent of casualties that we have witnessed within a short period of time,” he told South Africa’s public broadcaster SABC. “The effects are going to be far reaching for the continent.” He warned that the continent will likely be left on its own in the post-coronavirus era.
Some 84 Kenyans have arrived in the country’s main airport from the United Kingdom and more are expected from China and India, the Daily Nation newspaper reports. The UK now has the highest number of recorded deaths from coronavirus in Europe. The returnees were screened on arrival at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in the capital, Nairobi, on Monday night before being taken to quarantine centres where they will stay for two weeks, the newspaper reports. One of the passengers is quoted as saying that each passenger occupied three seats and they wore face masks throughout the journey. They each paid 54,000 Kenyan shillings ($509; £411) for the Kenya Airways flight.
(Foreign news: BBC)
