National And International News Roundup – 7th December 2020

Over 24 hours after the country’s first ever Regional Election, the Social Democratic Front, SDF party has maintained sealed lips over its Councillors who voted, disobeying hierarchy. They were seen in polling stations in Douala and Bamenda casting ballots during the process.

It appears there might be some difficulties in settling post electoral matters from the regional elections in Cameroon’s courts. Lawyers have started a partial strike today to run till December 11. During this period, the Bar Council has instructed lawyers not to defend cases of felony and electoral matters.

Some sympathisers of PCRN political party have been expressing disappointment following failure of the party to win regional elections in Nyong and Nkelle Division in the Centre Region of Cameroon. PCRN enjoys the highest number of councillors in the Division but surprisingly lost in favour of the CPDM party according to unofficial figures. The leader of PCRN Cabral Libii says the party’s first participation in a regional election was to learn.

The ruling CPDM party has been accused of buying votes in the country’s Far North Region. The party’s officials, opposition supporters say, asked their Councillors to return home with opposition ballots after voting, in exchange for a financial reward. The CPDM has made no comments regarding this allegation.

Lawyers are kicking against a new bill that will see them excluded from working with clients on upstream custom disputes and litigations. Adopted by the National Assembly already, there are fears the Senate may do same, presenting it for signing into law by the president.

Cameroon Intermediate Lions are to start a 10-days block training session at CAF Excellence Centre in Mbankomo- Yaoundé. The coach of the team, Martin Ntoungou Mpile says they will play three friendlies in the course of the training. The team is to represent Cameroon at the 2021 African Football Championship  (CHAN) coming up from the 17th of January.

PWD of Bamenda social club has been eliminated from African Football Champions League. The Abakwa boys played a zero/zero draw against Kaizer Chiefs of South Africa. Earlier, Kaizer chiefs defeated PWD of Bamemda in Limbe. Meanwhile, Cotton Sport of Garoua progresses to the next stage of CAF Cup after eliminating Unisport de Sokode of Togo.

Reports say former Indomitable Lion, Jean Manga Ongene has died. After serving with the Indomitable Lions, he had acted as a football coach and later as a FIFA consultant.

At least six people sustained minor injuries as a truck lost control at Carrefour Ndokotti in Douala. The truck transporting canopies, chairs and other utensils had a break failure damaging three vehicles and some commercial motorcycles.

The French President, Emmanuel Macron, has said he won’t make sales of weapons to Egypt conditional on its human rights record. He said he didn’t want to weaken Egypt’s capacity to fight terrorism in the Middle East. Mr Macron was speaking after talks with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who’s on a state visit to France.

Around 30,000 nurses and other healthcare workers in Kenya’s public hospitals have gone ahead with a strike, meanwhile doctors’ have delayed their own industrial action for a fortnight. Officials from the nurses and clinical officers’ unions say they will not go back to work until all their demands are met – which include more training, protective gear, and compensation for the families’ of healthcare workers who’ve died from Covid-19.

Zimbabwe has temporarily suspended rescue operations at a collapsed mine amidst safety concerns. Nine informal miners are still believed trapped underground, almost two weeks after a rockfall at a disused mine shaft north-east of the capital. The government has blamed indiscriminate blasting for the accident in Bindura. The remains of one miner were retrieved last Monday days after a rescuer was killed by rockfall.

Large numbers of police have been deployed across cities in Nigeria following a call from protest leaders for demonstrations to resume. Correspondents say people appear to have been scared off as very few have taken to the streets unlike the large protests police brutality that were held in October. Those demonstrations ended abruptly when the army was deployed in Lagos. Rights groups and eyewitnesses said at least 10 people were shot dead by soldiers – something the military has denied.

The first president of Namibia is “showing signs of improvement” during his treatment for coronavirus, the current President Hage Geingob has announced. Ex-leader Sam Nujoma was admitted to hospital on Sunday and is in a “stable condition”, President Geingob said in a statement.

A court in Algeria has convicted a prominent opposition activist, Karim Tabbou, of undermining national security for the second time in little more than a year. He was given a 12-month suspended sentence and a fine of about $750 (£563). Mr Tabbou was a key figure in the Hirak protest movement last year which toppled the Algerian president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Foreign news: BBC