National and International News Roundup – 26 July, 2019

• Government denies inmates were killed in Buea
• AGC, CRM decry right abuses
• Chaos in Banga-Bakundu

1 The number of casualties in Banga Bakundu village remains unknown after a gun battle between the military and Ambazonian fighters this July 25, 2019. Witnesses say the number victims may be high given the long period of fighting. Banga Bakundu is situated in Meme Division in the South West region of Cameroon.

2 Three persons kidnapped in Goudouboul village last night remain in the hands of kidnappers. Suspected Boko Haram insurgents invaded the village in Kolofata sub division in the Far North region of Cameroon. Motorcycles and cattle were equally taken away.

3 Cameroon association of English language Newspaper publishers-CENPA has declared intension to assist children in the thirteen divisions that make up the North West and South West regions to facilitate back to school 2019/2020. In a press conference today, Ngah Christian, President of the association says it’s their modest contribution for a safe return to school after three years of school boycott.

4 Anglophone General Conference conveners have blamed the Cameroon government for the riots in the prisons in Yaounde and Buea this week.Meeting in Buea, AGC says prisons are overcrowded. AGC laments sexual violence that is gaining ground in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon stressing that the Anglophone crisis can only be resolve by Cmaeroon with the international community just to play a surpervisory role.

5 The Cameroon Renaissance Movement party has condemned the shabby treatment of the party’s first vice president by security forces at the kondengui prison. In the release, CRM indicates that Mamadou Mota was bundled into a military van and taken to an unknown destination.

6 The centre regional branch of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) has stated that the tension at the Yaounde central prison is as a result of the attitude of government official that have transformed justice system as a business. The chairman Emmanuel Ntonga says the vice president of the party for the centre visited the prison to get first hand information of what happened.

7 Government Technical Schools Nsam, Nkolbisong (Yaounde) and Akwa in Douala have been transformed to bilingual technical schools.
Pundits think the decision of the ministry of secondary education is to ensure the accomodation of thousands of anglophone students fleeing the armed conflict in the north west and south west regions of Cameroon.

8 Government has stated that no detainee died in the course of the riot at Buea central prison,forty three detainees sustained injuries with some over twenty serious cases receiving medical attention,two security men were wounded,the detainees burnt the library,a wharehouse of foodstuff and an office.

9 Cameroonians of English expressing have been expressing worries if an English biweekly newspaper launched today will meet up with the aspirations of people in terms of content. Cameroon Insider Newspaper according to the government is to compensate for the predominantly French Cameroon Tribune Newspaper.

10 World leaders have been paying homage to the Tunisian President remembering him as someone who fought hard to bring democracy in his country. Beji Caid Essebsi died today at the age of 92. He was the world’s oldest sitting president and the first democratically elected president of Tunisia.He came to power in 2014 after the Arab spring that ousted former president Zine el Abedine Ben Ali.

11 The US federal government is to resume executing death-row inmates after 16 years. Attorney General William Barr said in a statement he had directed the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to schedule the executions of five inmates. Mr Barr said the five had been convicted of murders or rapes of children or the elderly. The executions have been scheduled for December 2019 and January 2020.

12 Up to 150 people may have drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of Libya, the UN refugee agency says. A further 150 people were rescued by fishermen and returned to Libya by coastguards, the UNHCR said.