National and International News Roundup: Friday 31 January 2020

Fifteen teachers arrested in Yaounde during yesterday’s protest have been released. They were arrested at the funeral of their colleague, Boris Kevin Tchakounte killed by his student on January 14, 2020. The teachers were detained at the Secretary of State for Defense in charge of the Gendarmerie for asking for better treatment for teachers.

Health experts have called on the general public and youths in particular to adopt more responsible behaviour. According to the Ministry of Health, the peak of new HIV/AIDS infections in Cameroon is in the 15-24 age group and is higher in young girls. This report is based on the latest survey on HIV in Cameroon.

As part of their call for better teaching conditions, some teachers have resorted to a strike action to draw the government’s attention. Teachers in some institutions say they have decided to go to school but not teach. In some institutions, MMI gathered, the teachers were present but spent all day in the staff room.

The Senior Divisional Officer for Fako has suspended the Limbe Chiefs Conference. The decision comes following a series of internal fights that saw a supposed vote of no confidence passed on the Chiefs Conference President. Chief Ndiko Fonderson, President of the Limbe Chiefs Conference and 13 other chiefs had unearthed untold corrupt practices by the Government Delegate to the Limbe City Council, Motanga Andrew Monjimba. Motanga is expected at the Special Criminal Court February 5, 2020, to explain how FCFA 9.4. billion of council money went missing.

The Special Criminal Court in Yaounde, Cameroon has acquitted jailed former Rector of the University of Douala Bruno Bekolo Ebe. Accused of defrauding hundreds of millions of FCFA from the university coffers destined to pay social benefits of staff, the university head was arrested in 2013. Prof. Bekolo had denounced poor conditions under which he was being held in Yaounde.

The Minister of Public Health, Dr Manaouda Malachie, has held a press meeting in Yaounde on preventive measures being taken in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. To attend the session, he had to return from the North region where he was campaigning for the CPDM ahead of the February twin elections.

A commercial motorcycle rider has died and his passenger wounded at a place called “Carrefour Trio Mort” at Douala 1. This follows a road accident. The motorcycle collided against a truck on high speed as a result of brake failure.

The Director-General of Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, in charge of Elections has published the number of polling stations for the February 9 twin elections. ELECAM council branch offices are to publish the polling stations in their areas before midnight tomorrow February 1, 2020.

Marcel Niat Njifenji, President of Cameroon’s Senate has thanked the public for their prayers for him to regain his health. The second personality in Cameroon received New Year wishes today in Yaounde after returning to Cameroon this week. He had been abroad for months for medical attention.

Parents of Cameroonian students in the People’s Republic of China are worried about the government’s silence over the plea from the students for help. The students are calling on the government to ensure their evacuation back home for fear of contracting the coronavirus in China. Coronavirus has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organisation.

Campaigns have been launched in Donga Mantung Division, North West region of Cameroon. CPDM Divisional Head for the Campaigns, Dr Fuh Calistus says the party is ready to grab all parliamentary seats in the division. The division has been marked by rising insecurity with vigilante group members and the military accused of being agents of killings, looting and intimidation.

A four-storey building in the Logbessou neighbourhood of Douala collapsed Friday, January 31, 2020, after it caught fire about a week ago.
The building hosting a company, specialized in the production of paint, caught fire last Saturday. According to local sources, elements of the fire fighting unit of the Cameroonian army worked on it for one week and gave up.

SDF municipal election candidates in the Douala II say they have detected a “fraud machine” put in place by the CPDM party ahead of the municipal and legislative elections in the area. Mr Moses Ndifor says CPDM candidates in Douala II have gone around, secretly collecting details of persons with voters cards.

The CPDM party campaign delegation to the Donga Mantung division has announced its presence in the area. In a triumphant entry to Nkambe, the chief town of Donga Mantung, the Campaign team led by Dr Minister Fuh Calistus Gentry, and Ngala Gerard, said their objective is to grab the five council and four parliamentary seats in Donga Mantung for the CPDM.

Jean Jacques Ekindi says a vote for the Progressive Movement political party in Wouri Centre is a vote for meaningful development. The PM’s legislative elections candidate for Wouri centre was speaking during a campaign rally in New Bell.

Teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg has hosted a press conference to stress the importance of how climate change is affecting people in Africa. One of those taking part was Vanessa Nakate, a Ugandan at the centre of a race row at Davos last week. She was angered after she was cropped out of a photograph taken with her white peers, including Ms Thunberg. She said activists in Africa campaigned as much as their counterparts elsewhere but were often ignored by the media.

Operators of motorbike popularly known are ‘okada’ and tricycle taxis (keke napeps) in Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, are protesting against a state ban coming into effect on Saturday. The Lagos state government said the ban was needed because of deaths and disorderliness caused by motorbike taxis, and motorised tricycle taxis/ The ban on the city’s most common forms of transport will be enforced on all major highways and bridges. City official Gbenga Omotoso was quoted on Tuesday by local media as saying they motorbikes will not be allowed in these areas of the city: Ikeja, Lagos Mainland, Lagos Island, Apapa, Surulere and Eti Osa. A statement from Lagos state on Friday said the ban was also intended to push young people into finding better jobs because “Okada is not an enduring trade”:

A detained Ethiopian activist who had been breastfeeding her six-month-old baby in a police station in the western Shambu town has been freed. When Chaltu Takele, along with 75 supporters of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), was arrested in a weekend sweep, she left her baby in the care of her mother. Her mother had been taking her to prison for breastfeeding three times a day.