Njoka Kingsley has been found at SED. The Anglophone journalist who was arrested 24 days ago was held incommunicado and was only given access to family and lawyers after pressure that followed the death of another journalist, Wazizi in jail. Kingsley is accused of funding separatist fighters and having content on his phone that sympathises with separatist fighters.
The court case against detained Cameroonian journalist Paul Chouta has been programed
for Wednesday June 10th 2020 at the Yaounde Court of first instance. According to the notice pasted at the court in Yaounde, Paul Chouta’s file number 50.
Note that the hearing of the court case of George Gilbert BAONGLA is due for the same day. The programmed court case is coming after popular condemnation of the death in detention of journalist Samuel Wazizi.
Samuel Wazizi’s lawyer says his life is being threatened. A report by Bar. Edward Lyonga’s lawyer, he said President Biya and PM Dion Ngute have been put on high alert. Government, he added should ensure the press and civil society organisations are protected as they search for the truth behind Wazizi’s story.
A team of lawyers defending the case of Samuel Wazizi says the fight is not yet over. They will be at the Buea High Court tomorrow. Barrister Nkea Emmanuel says they are going there to ask for the corpse of their client. The campaign has also intensified online, with many asking for justice for Wazizi and other jailed journalists.
Cameroon has diagnosed a total of 8312 persons with COVID-19 as of June 8th 2020. According to the ministry of public health, 1627 persons were tested under 24 hours this day, with 252 confirmed cases. 2 deaths, 64 recoveries were also recorded this day. The country now has a total of 4794 recoveries and 208 deaths. Health experts argue that a massive testing campaign will produce more positive cases than registered.
The Cameroon bar association and the Social Democratic Front (SDF) are bereaved. This follows the death of Bar. Sama Francis today. According to the state radio, Bar. Sama Francis died of coronavirus . The former bar council president will be remembered for playing a vital role in the legal department.
With over 8300 confirmed cases, a training of trainers on COVID-19 prevention is underway in Yaounde. According to the ministry of public health, the trainers have been brought from the ten regions to be drilled on how to drill health workers in different regions, on means and ways to curb the spread of COVID-19.
The preliminary inquiry on the Ngarbuh massacre has started at the military tribunal in Yaounde. Unfortunately, lawyers defending the victims say most of the victims were not invited by the examining Magistrates.
Four members of the Boko Haram sect have been killed in the Far North Region. Government says one of its soldiers was injured in the operation that took place over the weekend. Despite being defeated in Cameroon, the group keeps making incursions and wrecking havoc in border villages with Nigeria.
Early this morning, the main road in Mile 90, Bamenda in the North West Region was blocked. The act was carried out by separatist fighters that had engaged a gun battle with the forces of law and order.
There is fear on who will take over the post of the Mayor of Mamfe Council in the South West after the burial of late Mayor Prisley Ojong Ashu assassinated by Amba boys last month. Some Ambazonia leaders in the diaspora continue to issue threats to attack locally elected officials.
The entourage of administrative officials in Momo Division in the North West was targeted by separatist fighters. The Secretary of the DO for Mbengwi Central Sub Division was later discovered dead in Bamenda while the driver of the same DO has been kidnapped.
Hundreds of disgruntled trained Primary school teachers are staging a sit-in strike action in front of the Ministry of basic education in Yaounde. The group representing thousands in their category nationwide, say they were sidelined from the recent recruitment of 3200 teachers into the public sector in Cameroon. While at the ministerial building in Yaounde, they argue that they were qualified following the criteria demanded. Some of them have been teaching for over 10 years without matricule numbers
A prominent critic of the Tanzanian government has confirmed that he would seek his party’s presidential nomination to oppose President John Magufuli in October’s election. Tundu Lissu, from the main opposition party Chadema, made the announcement on social media. He said that for the past five years under the government of President Magufuli and the CCM party Tanzania had endured economic, political and diplomatic difficulties.
The speaker at Ethiopia’s parliament says she is resigning after accusing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration of unconstitutional attempts to stay in power. Keria Ibrahim, who is the speaker of Ethiopia’s upper house of parliament, called the House of Federations, says she doesn’t want to be part of a process in which “the constitution is being violated and an authoritarian government is being formed”. Ethiopia has postponed parliamentary elections, due in August, over the coronavirus pandemic.
Ghanaian police have charged an activist with failure to notify the police and violating the ban on public gatherings following a Black Lives Matter protest on Saturday in the capital, Accra. The leader of the pressure group Economic Fighters League, Ernesto Yeboah, was arrested at the demonstration on Saturday night. Police then fired warning shots at the crowd who were demanding his release. A joint police and military team then forcibly dispersed the vigil.
Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has declared the country “coronavirus-free” thanks to prayers by citizens. “The corona disease has been eliminated thanks to God,” Mr Magufuli told worshippers in a church in the capital, Dodoma. He also praised them for not wearing masks and gloves. The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern about the government’s strategy over the Covid-19 crisis.
Russia has given its backing to an Egyptian peace initiative aimed at ending the fighting in Libya. Both Russia and Egypt are allied with the Libyan renegade general Khalifa Haftar. In recent days his hopes of capturing the capital, Tripoli, and taking over the whole country have been shattered. The general has suffered a string of defeats at the hands of Libya’s UN-backed government, which has had significant military help from Turkey.
A Rwandan opposition activist, Venant Abayisenga, has been missing for two days. Mr Abayisenga is a member of Dalfa-Umurinzi, a new political party formed by Victoire Ingabire who is a renowned opposition figure in Rwanda. He was released from prison in January after a court cleared him of attempting to overthrow the government. After his release, Mr Abayisenga went to stay at Mrs Ingabire’s house. He was last seen on Saturday afternoon just before he left the house to buy mobile phone credit at a nearby shop.
(Foreign news; BBC)
