National and International News Roundup. September 6th, 2019.

1 Lawyers defending professor Maurice Kamto and his collaborators have promised not to relent in defending the detainees. The trial has been adjourned to October 8th, 2019. The Yaoundé military court says the time is to get a new hall that will accommodate the close to ninety people standing trial on charges of insurrection, attempt to destabilise the state, rebellion amongst others. In the course of the trial today, one of the accused Christian Penda Ekako collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.

2 The spokesperson of lawyers defending professor Maurice Kamto and other militants of the party has mentioned that the collapse of one of the detainees Christian Penda Ekoka in court today shows how prisoners are not well taken care of medically.  Barrister Sylvain Souop condemns poor medical attention given to detainees.

3 Fabrice Lena Secretary-General in charge of communication of the People’s Action Party (PAP) was arrested today in Yaoundé. He was heading to the military court to witness the trial of militants of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement when he was arrested by military men. The PAP party has condemned the arrest of Fabrice Lena and is calling for his release.

4 There has been widespread condemnation of the decision by the Senior Divisional Officer of Meme Division imposing a two-day lockdown in the Division.  Chamberlain Ntou Ndong in a decision has suspended all civilian activities from Saturday 7th to Sunday 8th September 2019. The decision does not include pharmacies, private vehicles and administrative and security vehicles.

5 The governor of the South West Region of Cameroon has visited Tiko Subdivision with words of encouragement for the population, asking them to violate a lockdown imposed by separatist fighters. In Tiko, activities are running normally with shops and other commercial activities on course.

6 Some traditional rulers drawn from the 10 regions of Cameroon have paid a visit to the governor of the South West Region. They talked about the possibilities of restoring peace. They have equally called on separatist fighters to surrender and join rehabilitation centres put in place by the government.

7 Governor Adolph Lele L’Afrique of the North West Region of Cameroon has distributed some items to internally displaced persons taking refuge in the town of Bamenda. The IDPs have been expressing the need for government to reconstruct their homes burnt either by the military or Separatist fighters (Amba boys) to enable them to return home.

8 The Nigerian community in Yaoundé has offered a Holy Mass for the peaceful repose of souls of people who perished when a boat capsized off the coast of the Bakassi peninsular.  The Nigerians equally prayed for their compatriots undergoing xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

9 World leaders and other personalities have been sending condolence messages to the government of Zimbabwe following the death of former president Robert Gabriel Mugabe. The emblematic Zimbabwean leader died at the age of 95 in Singapore.  He ruled Zimbabwe from 1980 to 2017.

10 Kenya has been granted an extension by the United Nations International Court of Justice for the date of the hearing of a territorial dispute with Somalia. The request for a postponement was granted with less than a week left before the hearing was scheduled to begin. the Kenyan attorney general’s office has confirmed that the hearing is now scheduled to begin on November 4th 2019 instead of the original date of September 9th 2019. Kenya requested a change to the date to give itself some time to recruit a new defence team.

11 Women in South Africa have called for the death penalty to be reinstated for perpetrators of gender-based violence against women and children and for the declaration of a state of emergency. These demands came after protesters took to the streets for the third consecutive day. Responding to this, South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, admitted that the country is facing a national crisis of violence against women. President Ramaphosa, when addressing the nation on Thursday evening, presented a plan of action aimed at curbing the scourge of gender-based violence. The plan includes a proposal to make public a register of offenders.