National and International News Roundup: Friday 29 November 2019
The activist group “Stand up For Cameroon” has called for a political transition in Cameroon without president Paul Biya and not through an election. In a press conference in Douala today, the leaders appreciated the withdrawal of some political parties from the electoral process. They condemned the call for elections when the security situation is unstable in some parts of the country, coupled with the unrevised electoral code.
Elections Cameroon (ELECAM) has rejected a request from the Cameroon National Reconciliation Party to add 15 more days for the party to effectively compile and deposit documents to run for elections. Meeting today in Yaoundé, ELECAM board members have begun examining candidatures. They have 10 days to complete the process.
Traders at Marche Congo in Douala have expressed discontent over the non-construction of shops months after a fire incident ravaged part of the market. They protested with placards as the minister of decentralisation laid the foundation stone for the construction of a new market. The contractor says the market will be constructed within 18 months.
The national press card commission has rejected 30 files of journalists wishing to establish press cards. The president of the commission says more than 1000 journalists applied for the cards. Members of the commission say soon journalists without press cards in Cameroon will find it difficult to work in the country.
All is set for an elective general assembly of the Cameroon Association of English-speaking journalists (CAMASEJ). The Elective General Assembly, (EGA) will take place in Douala tomorrow Saturday. Two candidates vying for the position of the president are Moki Charles Linonge and Viban Jude.
The government of Cameroon has deposited the finance bill at the national assembly. The bill stands at a little over four thousand nine hundred billion has witnessed a 203 billion decrease as compared to that of 2019.
Some Cameroonians have waved aside insecurity in the anglophone regions as one of the reasons the Cameroon Renaissance Movement political party is not going in for elections next year. According to those who think so, they accuse the CRM party of not assisting internally displaced persons or visiting the war-torn zone.
Some 19 allies of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement Political Party have been sentenced to six months in jail by the Douala Bonanjo Court of First Instance. They were arrested during the June 1st peaceful protests of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement Political Party in Douala. Their lawyers had initially challenged the competence of the presiding judge to handle the case.
Several persons are currently hospitalised in Bafoussam in the West Region of Cameroon after being crushed by a vehicle at Carrefour Dschang in Bamoungoum, West Region of Cameroon. The truck driver is said to have lost control of his vehicle after a brake failure. He escaped immediately after the incident.
About five persons are feared dead after an accident that happened this evening at the Kondengui neighbourhood in Yaoundé. The victims were crushed by a heavy-duty truck.
A war of words on social media has been launched between Paul Eric Kingue, national President of the Cameroon renaissance movement political Party and renowned Cameroon blogger and critic of the Yaoundé regime, Boris Bertholt. The blogger took to the social media, threatening Paul Eric Kingue for insulting Maurice Kamto. Paul Eric Kingue responded with insults and accusations targeted at Boris Bertolt
A municipal councillor accused of paedophilia has been arrested in the town of Mbouda, West Region of Cameroon. Kene Theophile is said to have been performing the evil act on a 15-year-old boy for about 3 years now.
Nigerian representatives met with reps from other West African neighbouring countries last Tuesday to discuss the issue of the land border closure. The Giant of Africa insisted on levying duties on goods transiting through its territory to neighbouring nations to curb smuggling. Nigerian Information Minister Lai Mohammed confirmed this to reporters in Abuja stating that “Tuesday, there was a meeting between … the comptrollers of customs of all the three countries involved. We have not reached any agreement … but our insistence is that we must all respect the ECOWAS protocol on transit goods.” Mr Mohammed said the protocol on duty payment for transit goods had hitherto not been followed to the detriment of local manufacturers.
A bronze cockerel taken by British colonial forces and donated to Jesus College Cambridge is to be returned to Nigeria in an unprecedented step that adds momentum to the growing repatriations movement. The ‘Okukor’, described by the college as a “royal ancestral heirloom”, will be one of the first Benin bronzes to be returned to Nigeria by a major British institution since the punitive expedition in 1897 when thousands of bronzes were stolen from Benin City by British forces.
Flash floods have hit Djibouti, where the government and United Nations said the equivalent of two years’ rain was witnessed in a single day, with several countries in East Africa, including Kenya, suffering from the impact of the heavy rainfall. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network reports that rainfall from October to mid-November has been up to 300 per cent above average in the greater Horn of Africa region.
Zimbabwe is on the verge of a manmade starvation with an estimated 60% of the population now suffering from food insecurity. A UN envoy Hilal Elver has said the situation was likely to escalate political instability in the southern African nation. After an 11-day visit by the UN special rapporteur on the right to food, to parts of the country worst hit by the El Niño-induced drought, Elver said widespread food insecurity was being aggravated by hyperinflation.
