Worsening Insecurity:

Another Police Constable Killed in Kumba

By Doh Bertrand Nua in Kumba

Moumi Said Bapa

Less than two days after few women and youths mostly suspected to be disguised security persons took to the streets of Kumba, Chief Town of Meme Division in the crisis hit South West Region to condemn activities of separatist fighters, the population of Kumba wake up with the sad news of the brutal murder of a police constable by unknown gunmen. 

                News of the death of constable Moumi Said Bapa spread across the town of Kumba like bush fire in the early hours of Monday February 18, 2019 when the attack is suspected to have occurred. Moumi Said was serving at the Special Branch Police Station in Kumba before his untimely death.

                Unknown gunmen are feared to have killed him early Monday. The young officer we gathered has spent less than a year in Kumba. Sources close to the deceased revealed that, the officer owns a private motorbike with which he rides around town in the dispatch of his duty.

World Pangolin Day:

Over Seven Tons of Pangolin Scales Seized in Years

The 8th annual World Pangolin Day was celebrated throughout the country on February 16, 2019. Activities to mark the day included sensitization to draw public awareness to the plight of the pangolins that is facing existential threats.

                According statistics from wildlife law enforcement body LAGA, the organization has assisted wildlife officials in the seizure of 7.5 tons of pangolin scales during the past five years. 55 people were arrested during operations leading to the seizures.              While some are facing trial at the moment, the majority have received varying prison sentences and fines.

                Last year, an international network comprising four countries; Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR and DRC, was dismantled in Douala with over 700kg of scales seized and six traffickers arrested. In January 2017, an illegal shipment of 5 tons of pangolin scales that was on the verge of being exported was seized from a two Chinese nationals who were arrested, tried and sent to prison.

                Faced with increasing illegal trade, pangolin enthusiasts, conservationists and the entire world shall next Saturday celebrate the World Pangolin Day. The alarming and sudden spikes in the illegal trade in pangolin scales is unsettling many conservationists who fully understand the devastation this is causing pangolin populations. According to Francis NchembiTarla, a wildlife specialist and coordinator of a bushmeat network called CABAG: “three years after the CITES meeting in Johannesburg, there are still large seizures in Asia of African scales”. After the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting that held in Johannesburg in 2016 and upgraded the animal to a class of totally protected species, the government of Cameroon followed suit immediately and reclassified all three species of pangolins in the country to totally protected status. But the butchering is ongoing and Tarla agreed: “In most local restaurants, pangolin meat is openly offered on the menu. At road points on the major highways, live pangolins are openly sold”.

                In recent years, governments, institutions and organisations have been frantically initiating measures and structures for pangolin conservation following the realization that not much had been done to save the species. On the occasion of the World Pangolin Day and to face the ever-growing conservation challenges, pangolin lovers and conservationists shall be meeting, under the auspices of TRAFFIC – a global wildlife trade monitoring network, to create a pangolin working group that shall specifically target measures aimed at the protecting the animal in the country. This is just one of the ways experts in the sector are trying to come to terms with the problem and Tarla declared: “Our task is still immense and we need to build a lot more capacity and triple our sensitization campaigns to reduce demand”.

Bafang, West Region:

Forces Clash with Population as PiereKwemo is Freed

Piere Kwemo Mayor of Bafang

Clashes erupted  inBafang, Upper Nkam Division, West Region of Cameroon, Sunday February 24 as security forces attempted to disperse crowds of people who streamed to the streets to welcome home  mayor PiereKwemo.

                Troops used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the hundreds of Bafang inhabitants who thronged to the roads celebrating the return of the municipal authority. Kwemo had been in detention at the  Kondengui Maximum  Security Prison in Yaounde.

                Though reports of casualties remain unclear, the atmosphere across Bafang Sunday was tensed. Troops from Bafoussam were reportedly drafted into Bafang as fears heightened that, the clashes with the population could go out of hand.

                Despite the tensed atmosphere, the municipal authority entered the city of Bafang to a joyous crowd of women, youths and bikers who flooded the major streets in celebration.

After attack in West Region:

Another Gun Attack Rocks Littoral Region

-Two killed in Mombo as panic stricken inhabitants beg for protection from gov’t

By Doh Bertrand Nua in Kumba

Gunmen whose identify still remain confusing to local administrative authorities of Littoral Region have wreaked havoc in the locality of Mombo in the Moungo Division, leaving inhabitants of the area in total panic.

                The attack in the village of Mombo occurred in the night of Sunday breaking Monday February 18, 2019. The attack left two Mombo villagers dead as well as stormed the chief’s palace, the Gendarmerie brigade and the car of the Gendarmerie commander packed outside was partially destroyed in the course of the sustained gun firing.

                The incident created an atmosphere of uncertainty and panic in the entire village which completely grounded activities as schools and businesses remained closed on Monday while security forces rushed to carryout out investigations.

We Are Tired Of Burying Our Children

Women protesting similar woes of armed conflict in 2018 across

North West and South West Regions demanding for an end to hostilities

-Women Tell Biya

A group of women in the civil Society have launched a renewed appeal for  dialogue  to  end the armed conflict in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon stating that, they are tired of burying the dead.

                The appeal is the substance of a meeting which the women staged in Douala,  over the weekend in partnership with the Stand Up for Cameroon Movement of Edith Kah Walla. It coincided with the black Fridays which the Stand Up for Cameroon has been observing demanding for an end to the hostilities in Cameroon.

                According to one of the women of the Civil Society Elizabeth Nkwa, since the leader of the Separatists’ Movement SisikuAyukTabe and the president of the republic Paul Biya are all in Cameroon, it is good for them to dialogue to end the suffering of the population.

                Nkwa told journalists that, it is time for both the powers that be and the separatists to dialogue and asks their camps to drop their guns for peace to return. Nkwa believes that, through dialogue, president Biya can order soldiers to retreat while Sisiku will ask the armed fighters in the troubled regions to drop their arms.

                In a statement read to the media on behalf of the women, Nkwa questioned if the suffering masses of the two English-speaking Regions means nothing to the people of Cameroon and the world at large.

                Other women who made declarations at the Douala gathering lamented that, the crisis has forced them to learn how to bury the dead. They cried that, they are tired of burying their loved ones owing to the crisis.

WHO Africa Director Ends Cameroon Visit

Dr Matshidiso Moeti , Africa Regional Director of the World Health Organisation (WHO

Dr Matshidiso Moeti, Africa Regional Director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) ended her three days visit to Cameroon on Saturday February 23rd without making a strong public pronouncement on the recent attacks and killings of health personnel  and others at risk  in the conflict-hit North West and South West Regions of the country.

                Controversial narratives and condemnation from stakeholders have trailed arson on health facilities and killing of personnel in many trouble spots in the English-speaking Regions. The case of the Kumba District Hospital razed on February11 remains fresh.

                Most health facilities in the affected regions have been razed and others cutoff from the national grid leaving thousands without access to basic health care mostly affecting women and children.

                During her stay in Cameroon, the WHO official discussed with state authorities on a new government drive to make universal health coverage a reality.

                DrMatshidiso  was received in audience at the presidency of the Republic by the Minister of State, Secretary General at the Presidency FerdiandNgohNgoh, the Minister of external Relations, the Prime Minister and the minister of public health.

                Besides, she equally visited the BiyemAssi District Hospital in Yaounde, The Mother and Child Center of the Chantal Biya Foundation and the Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in the University of Yaounde I. At the University, the WHO Africa boss did a presentation on Universal Health Coverage.

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