National and International News Roundup: Thursday 12 December 2019

Two ex-separatist fighters have been killed in Buku Ako Subdivision in the North West Region of Cameroon. The fighters, witnesses say, were accused by the military of communicating with fighters in the bush. The situation has caused panic in the community.

Authorities in the Meme Division South West region of Cameroon say an Amba fighter presented himself at the SDO’s office. They say 23year old Ayong was a fighter in Manyemen along the Kumba Mamfe road before laying down his arms today. The SDO Charmberlin Ntou’ou Ndong and collaborators plan to take him to the DDR center in Buea, according to sources in Kumba.

One person has been killed and three others wounded in Ekok, Manyu Division in the South West Region.  The victims were caught in a gun battle between separatist fighters and the military. It is worthy of note that separatist fighters in Eyumojock subdivision had earlier imposed a two-day ghost town to denounce what they call atrocities committed by the military.

Officials of the Buea regional hospital have cancelled all corpse removal programs scheduled for Friday 13th December. The purpose is to ensure free space for the removal of the body of the former mayor of Buea Ekema Patrick Esunge. Meantime, there has been military reinforcement in the town. The body of Ekema Patrick will be laid to rest this Saturday.

The graduation ceremony of the 23rd batch of students at the University of Buea is set to take place tomorrow. Graduating students say their studies in Buea have been marked by insecurity off and on campus.  Some students scared by the level of insecurity opted to abandon their studies.

Journalists in Cameroon have been pointing accusing fingers at owners of media organs in Cameroon for being partly responsible for the maltreatment meted on journalists in Cameroon. They say logistics for professional duties are not provided to journalists.  Following statistics from the Committee to Protect Journalists, seven journalists in Cameroon have been imprisoned between 2016 and 2019 for carrying out their work.

A new building to host the Cameroon national assembly will be ready by 2023. The speaker of the national assembly laid the foundation stone today in Yaoundé. To be sponsored by the Chinese government, the building will cost 54.5 billion francs CFA.

The Douala Laquintinie hospital is determined to pursue legal proceedings against a certain Ngongang Andre who accused hospital staff of exchanging his new-born baby with a dead one. His wife was delivered of a dead baby through operation on December 9th, 2019 according to hospital officials, but the man who accompanied the wife said the baby was delivered alive before being exchanged with a dead baby from another woman.

The vice president of the of Cameroon’s national assembly has revealed that the extraordinary summit of tomorrow, Friday, December 13th, is essentially on the Anglophone crisis, and the resolutions of the major national dialogue.  According to Hon Mbah Ndam, the focus will be on the content of the special status and some recommendations directly linked to the anglophone crisis. The MP waved away any possibility of the postponement of the February 9th, 2020 polls.

Government delegates in Cameroon may just be serving their last hours in offices. Close sources from Cameroon’s national assembly hold that a bill on advanced decentralization, which demands the elimination of the post of government delegate, will be discussed and adopted by parliamentarians during the extraordinary parliamentary session.

The staff of the Yaoundé University teaching hospital will go on strike beginning Monday, December 23rd, 2019. They are protesting against unpaid salaries, poor working conditions among other reasons.  The strike action was announced in a document made public today.

An African regional court has ruled that a decision by the government of Sierra Leone to ban pregnant girls from school was unlawful and must be revoked immediately. The decision by a court for countries in the West African regional bloc ECOWAS has been welcomed by Amnesty International and other rights groups.

An aeroplane bought by state-owned Air Tanzania that had been impounded in Canada has now been released, Tanzanian President John Magufuli has said. The aircraft was being held over a land-compensation dispute between the Tanzanian government and a farmer, dating back to the 1980s.

Thousands of people have taken to the streets of the Algerian capital, Algiers, to protest against the holding of the presidential election. An attempt by police to disperse the crowd failed.

The Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has said he wants to meet the president of Eritrea soon, in what is likely to be an effort to kick-start the stalled reconciliation process. Mr Abiy was speaking on his return to Ethiopia where he was welcomed by large crowds after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron has sent the head of the army to Niger following a suspected Islamist militant attack that killed at least 71 Nigerien soldiers. Mr Macron, along with Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou, has also announced that a summit to discuss security issues in the Sahel area that was scheduled for Monday has been postponed to early next year.

(Foreign News Source: BBC Africa)