National and International News Roundup: Monday 16 December 2019

Kumbo residents in restive North West Region of Cameroon are preparing to spend the night in violent gunshots. Several locals hinted Mimi Mefo info by 9:30 pm Monday that they were frightened by deafening shootings. “Hey…gunshots around Tobin, Kumbo now as I text you serious one please,” a source said without revealing the identity of the shooters. Some are either in hiding or indoors for fear of being targeted. The security situation in Kumbo has worsened in the past years as the Anglophone crisis which escalated in 2016 lingers on

The movement of vehicles from Kumbo to Ndop in the North West region of Cameroon remained paralysed for the fourth day today. Inhabitants say there have been unusually prolonged gunshots along the road.

There is uncertainty if Hon. Joseph Mbah Ndam of the Social Democratic Front SDF will continue with moves to run for the February 9, 2020 election following the burning of his house in Batibo Sunday night by suspected Separatist fighters. He has been tagged a traitor for accepting to run for elections when the crisis in the North West and South West Regions is far from over. Meantime, the Mayor of Batibo, Tanjoh Fridrick Tetuh today resigned as a candidate for municipal elections next year, even though his party’s list had been rejected by ELECAM.

The Littoral gendarmerie legion Commander has called on companies to be more professional in the process of transporting money from their companies to the bank. While presenting four presumed murderers of an accountant of Santa Lucia Business Centre today in Douala, gendarmerie elements warned that huge sums of money should not be transported by individuals. Meantime one suspected murderer is still on the run.

The Minister of Higher Education is to grant a press conference tomorrow in Yaoundé focusing on the process of recruiting Ph.D. holders to lecture in state universities. The media outing is a response to a sit-down strike in front of the ministry of higher education by over 65 doctorate degree holders. They are denouncing what they call obscured recruitment process by the ministry of higher education.

The Constitutional Laws committee at the National Assembly is examining the bill on decentralisation.  As the process continues, critics say the content of the special status does not give any meaningful autonomy to the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon.

The people of Lus village in Nwa subdivision in the North West region of Cameroon are accusing their Chief, HRH Jato Patrick of assisting the military in the process of maltreating the villagers. The chief has been calling on the villagers to return to the village despite the presence of the military.

A one-day colloquium was organised in Bamenda, this Monday, December 17, 2019, with the aim of promoting positive thinking, inclusion, tolerance and nonviolence within Cameroonians. This comes at a time when the impact of the on-going armed conflict is growing from bad to worse.

Cameroonian soldiers accused of killing two women and their children will not be tried in public, following a decision made on Monday at the Yaoundé Military Court. Shocking footage of the incident circulated on social media in 2018. The Cameroon government initially dismissed the video as “fake news” but later opened an inquiry into the killing after a BBC investigation established that the extra-judicial killings were committed by Cameroonian soldiers. Case hearings will begin in earnest on 20 January 2020.

Cameroonians have taken to social media to either criticise or appreciate the mascot of the African Football Championship, CHAN 2020. To critics, the mascot is not representative of the Cameroonian people. “It is frightful and poorly conceived,” some say. Meantime others say the artistic meaning of the mascot is appropriate.

Cameroon has been selected to host the next session of the Council of the International Bamboo and Rattan Organisation scheduled for 2021. The information was revealed by Cameron’s Minister of Forestry and Wildlife Jules Doret Ndongo.

The US has imposed sanctions on two ministers from South Sudan, accusing them of fomenting conflict for their own enrichment. The US Treasury accuses the minister of cabinet affairs, Martin Elia Lomuro, of recruiting militias to attack opposition forces.

In the latest twist in a diplomatic spat between Zambia and the US, the Southern African nation’s foreign minister has called the US ambassador to Lusaka “unprofessional” and accused him of threatening to withdraw aid. It follows President Edgar Lungu’s request for the US to withdraw its ambassador after the diplomat criticised the jailing of two men for being in a gay relationship. 

The estranged wife of Zimbabwe’s vice-president has been charged with attempting to murder him. Marry Mubaiwa – already facing corruption charges – has been denied bail in Harare.

A briefing on violent extremism in West Africa is being held by the UN Security Council, a week after Niger suffered its worst jihadist attack in which 71 soldiers were killed. Militants linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) group have staged attacks in the Sahel region this year despite the presence of thousands of regional and foreign troops. IS said it was behind the attack on the military base, which killed the 71 soldiers.

Mali’s former leader who was ousted in a coup in 2012 has returned to the country after living in exile in neighbouring Senegal. Amadou Toumani Touré was met by large crowds at the airport and outside his home on Sunday, RFI reports.

Liberia’s ministry of education has announced the closure of all government-run schools, as teachers and other civil servants started a nationwide strike on Monday to demand salary arrears. The ministry’s spokesperson J Maxime Bleetahn told the BBC that public schools will be reopened on 3 January. (Source Foreign News: BBC Africa)