Society

The official burial program for the late mother-in-law of President Biya starts today in Yaounde, the nation's capital. In a statement issued by the presidency of the republic, the remains of late Mama Mboutchouary nee Ndongo Mengolo Rosette Marie shall leave the mortuary at the Yaounde General Hospital to the Notre Dames cathedral and from there to President Biya's village at Mvomeka'a. A lot of tongues have ever since been wagging over the decision to block all major roads in Yaounde. Inhabitants of Etoudi, Emana, Messassi, Olembe, Ngousso, Mballa II, Bata and Rond-Point Nlongkak, Omnisport have all been advised to stay at home. All government offices are closed. All cabinet ministers, secretary generals and directors have traveled to Mvomeka'a. To many a civil servant, the week end has started but Yaounde is empty. Long Live the Republic of Cameroon.

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Ngwa Bertrand

16.Oct.2014

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Didier Drogba Foundation in partnership with Orange Telecom in the Ivory Coast announced on Saturday the 11^th of October 2014 that 5000 Ivorian kids will be granted free access to food, water, shelter, medicine and education. The Chelsea football club legend revealed that the program will concentrate on the less privileged children and those orphaned by the war now living at the Amigo Doume Center located at the Niangon Lokoa area in the Yopougon Division.

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Ngwa Bertrand

12.Oct.2014

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Paul Njumbe

Residence of Etoudi quarters in Yaounde, an area where the presidency of the republic is located have for the last couple of days been getting water from both public and private taps around the vicinity coming out in multiplicity of colors. It is the first time that this well secured area of the capital city is getting a taste of what the whole country have been experiencing for decades. The water that comes out in red, yellow or brown colors has frightened many people living around the area. Cameroon Concord is aware that an agent of the state owned company CAMWater recently assured the Etoudi community that the water poses no danger to the human system. CAMWater is responsible for many deaths in Cameroon via typhoid, Hepatitis B and many other diseases. It has been reported that many families in the cities of Yaounde and Douala are going for days within good drinking water.  

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Ngwa Bertrand

07.Oct.2014

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Soter Agbaw-Ebai

As Jesus was dying, the Gospel say that Mary, his mother, stood under the cross. What was she doing, while standing there? On the surface, it seems she wasn't doing anything at all. She wasn't saying anything, wasn't trying to stop the crucifixion and she wasn't even trying to protest its unfairness or plead Jesus innocence. She was silent, seemingly passive, overtly doing nothing. But at a deeper level, she was doing all that can be done in this kind of situation, she was standing inside of it, in strength, refusing to give back in kind, resisting in a much deeper way. Our nation saw it in Mama Rosette Mboutchouang who avoided the luxuries of Yaounde and stayed as Mayor of a small hamlet to contribute her own quota to a dying nation. Cameroon never forgets. Rest In Peace

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Ngwa Bertrand

05.Oct.2014

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BetockVoices have been at war with  Herakles farms (SGSOC) accusing Herakles for taken advantage of the naivety, corruption and desperate greed of some Cameroon politicians and highly placed civil servants to take possession of a huge area of land , promising jobs as well as a number of other poorly defined benefits. The shocking arrangements Herakles farms (SGSOC) have withgovernment and traditional authorities ranges from plain fiction to the most absurd. Some traditional leaders signed a temporal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Herakles farms (SGSOC) to enable them prove to the Government of Cameroon that the US Company was acceptable to the local inhabitants who are supposed to be the primary beneficiaries of the project.

The understanding was that after government authorization of the project, Herakles farms (SGSOC) had to come back for a concrete MOU with the local inhabitants. By some strange happenstance, Herakles farms (SGSOC) proceeded with the Establishment Convention that was signed and avoided negotiating further with the affected communities. Cameroon farmers were not consulted but simply found concrete boundary markers planted in their farms and forests overnight by Herakles farms (SGSOC). The Establishment Convention stipulates the conditions which apply to Herakles farms (SGSOC) activities in Cameroon and requires the Herakles farms (SGSOC) to respect the laws of Cameroon. But the same Establishment Convention also claims to take precedence over Cameroonian law as well as over certain international agreements. Herakles farms (SGSOC) did show non-respect of the law. In 2010, without a presidential decree authorizing the concession, Herakles farms (SGSOC) started the exploitation of forest to establish oil palm nurseries. Herakles demarcated numerous farmlands with fake oral promises and without consent.

 Herakles farms (SGSOC) now fell trees without authorization. The regional delegates of Forestry and Wildlife, Environment and Nature Protection, Agriculture and Land Tenure and State Property have jointly  declared that they are powerless. The Regional Delegate of Planning recently opined that he was not aware of any establishment convention between SGSOC and his minister in Yaounde. The actions of some of the traditional rulers have been shameful, disgusting and disgraceful. Chief Lordson Asek of Ayong recruited in the accounting unit of Herakles farms (SGSOC) in the Talangaye site to convince the local communities was removed by Herakles farms (SGSOC) like an ordinary man. Chief Dr. Atem Ebako of Talangaye is claiming he personally invited Herakles farms (SGSOC) to come and do its nursery and plantations in his village. Chief Eben Nkongho of Manyemen is also in support of the project.   “The problem with this project is that they wanted the wood on the surface removed theirs. It is at this point that the Minister of Forests and Wildlife told them'' No''. The wood removed on the surface is not theirs. They just want to create a plantation. Apart from the Chiefs, cabinet ministers such as Philip Ngole Ngwese is also implicated. Some of Minister’s Ngole Ngwese correspondence on this issue are very disturbing. For instance, the Minister wrote: "I have the honour to know that such suspension of the authorization of logging on the site your agro-industrial project based in Talangaye, Nguti district, the South-West, as enacted by my correspondence referred to above, is lifted from the date of signature of this dispatch. I remind you here that the logging operations must be conducted in accordance with the laws and regulations under the supervision of the Regional Delegate of Forestry and Wildlife of the Southwest.”  The minister failed to expressly authorized Herakles Farms to continue its work. In addition, the regulation stipulates that before any such slaughter should obtain, an authorization for removal of timber felled (AEB) must be gotten from the Minister. However, the Minister has not yet issued any authorizations to Herakles Farms (SGSOC). Thus, according to this letter, the regional delegate before giving the OK for logging will ask Herakles Farms (SGSOC) to indicate whether it has complied with all procedures. So Herakles Farms could not resume work if it does not comply with the regulations but they did.

 As part of a later deal, Herakles farms (SGSOC) were to surrender all the timber in its concession to the government. Apparently, the Herakles farms (SGSOC) did not take this kindly and so looked for another way of taking possession of the timber. It’s evident from reports today the sale of timber from Herakles farms’ concession is an integral part of its business following its purchase of Uniprovince. To date the local communities does not have direct benefits from the company in terms of royalties. Another CPDM Minister involved in this scandal is the Minister of Agriculture, Essimi Menye.  "I do not know everything that was signed before, everything will now be renegotiated in the rules of the land” Both officials of  the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, under anonymity agreed that the first agreement signed with Herakles Farms was signed by people who did not know the agriculture and forestry laws in Cameroon. Yet, nothing has change. This US Company did cut corners with our national laws and international norms and along with these mishaps, side-lined the rightful owners of the land. The Government of Cameroon and others have fallen for the well-oiled corporate trickery and agreed to give Herakles complete legal impunity in their business plans. Herakles farms (SGSOC) has been made stand above  national law – giving them the power to destroy protected nature reserves, force people from their land, and "search, apprehend, detain, exclude, and evict" anyone trespassing on their leased land. To date the Cameroon government has failed to investigate the practices of Herakles farms (SGSOC), or compel them to amend their 2009 Establishment Convention raising concerns such as the rights granted to the Herakles farms (SGSOC) to local resources and inconsistency of certain provisions with Cameroon's international legal obligations.   A report by the Cameroonian Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife and a program of the German Technical Cooperation called the “Program for the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources” observed that negotiation for land was done with lot of intimidation and bribery, targeting the chiefs and some few influential decision - making members of the communities.

With lack of transparency, human rights abuses, allegations of illegal logging, corruption and intimidation, Herakles Farms (SGSOC) was sinking as investors fled, no revenue and employees absences, with the few remaining devotees a new management was set-up in late 2012. The new management obtained a Presidential Decree in late 2013 to finally officialise Herakles Farms (SGSOC) presence in Cameroon. The comeback was so impressive Herakles Farms (SGSOC) was even named to Global Exchange’s prestigious top 10 corporate criminals list.  Herakles Farms’ cow meat for land strategy was to win control of our rain forest and existing farms worth hundreds of millions of dollars, while paying almost nothing has moved from bad to worse. To contribute to Cameroon’s sustainable development goals for 2035, Government should invest more in rural populations and support small farmers to ensure that they get enough credit and enough inputs and enough labour for their work and to also ensure that their crops are well marketed.

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Ngwa Bertrand

25.Sep.2014

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Rita Akana

Cameroon Minister for Post and Telecommunications has said that telephone numbers in the country will move from 8 to 9 digits on the 21st of November 2014 at mid night. Jean Pierre Biyiti Bi Essam, one of the numerous Francophone Beti-Ewondo cabinet ministers in the Biya regime revealed during a press conference in Yaoundé last night that the change involves all four mobile telephone operators in the country namely: Camtel, Orange, MTN and Nexttel. It vital for this reporter to observe that the change is the third in Cameroon within the last 13 years. The first digital modification was in 2001 when it moved from 6 to 7 digits. The year 2007 recorded the second as the digits again were raised from 7 to 8.

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Ngwa Bertrand

25.Sep.2014

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