Politics

Boluda Corporación Marítima, through its filial in Cameroon and inside its programe of Social Corporative Responsibility inaugurated the Maritime Museum of the City of Douala in combination with the National Council of Stevedorers of Cameroon (CNCC) some years ago. With the creation of the museum, Boluda Corporacion Maritima made public its compromise with the countries in which it operates and the promotion of its economic and cultural development

The museum provided an insight into the relations from ancient times that the African continent had maintained with the maritime world. In it, tourists were provided with the different works related with the sea and the ports activity. With a clear educational vocation, the museum encouraged cultural activities inside the city of Douala. The center was a reference for port life and acted like an economic showcase of the professionals of maritime world.

The center is now a thing of the past as a mysterious fire ravaged the building down early on Sunday the 3^rd of May 2015. Our intelligence officers in the economic capital of Douala are yet to establish the real cause of the fire. A report by CRTV’s Ngomba Endeley sent to our Essen bureau in Germany, at the time of writing this report did not provide any further details. However, our informant in the Littoral region hinted that a political war is currently going on involving the various investors in the ports of Douala and Kribi. Our source also suggested that the fire is manmade and not accidental. Cameroon Concord's editorial desk has opened a major investigation.  

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Ngwa Bertrand

03.May.2015

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Three people, including two police officers, have been killed in Burundi amid political unrest in the African country over President Pierre Nkurunziza’s bid for a continued stay in power. Police chief General Andre Ndayambaje told AFP that two officers were killed and another was wounded in a grenade attack in Kamenge district of the capital, Bujumbura, on Friday. Ndayambaje added that a civilian lost his life and two others were wounded in the attack. Meanwhile, the Burundian Red Cross has announced that at least seven people have been killed and 66 others wounded in a week of clashes between police and protesters in the capital.

Police crackdown

Police spokesman Pierre Nkurikiye said earlier that 577 people were arrested for causing unrest. Some 250 of those arrested face court trials and 150 of the detainees are still undergoing questioning. The rest have been set free. A spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office, Agnes Bangiricenge, said those who are facing trial would be charged with “taking part in an uprising,” and could be sentenced to five years and more or life in prison. Social media have been blocked in the country and radio stations have been shut down as part of the crackdown. The UN has criticized Burundian authorities for engaging in a brutal crackdown against the opposition. A spokesman for the UN human rights office, Rupert Colville, told reporters in Geneva, “According to one credible report, over 400 individuals are being held in extremely overcrowded conditions, with detainees having to sleep standing up.”

Two-day truce

A civil society leader has called on protesters to calm down and observe a two-day truce, while urging the president to rethink the “consequences” of his fresh bid for reelection. “If not, we will return to the streets on Monday with much more vigor and we will not leave until he gives up his project,” warned Pacifique Nininahazwe, who heads one of Burundi’s main civil society groups. The political unrest erupted in the African country after the ruling CNDD-FDD Party last weekend designated incumbent President Nkurunziza as its candidate for the next presidential election. Opposition forces say Nkurunziza’s bid for a third consecutive term in office is against the country’s constitution, as well as a peace deal that ended a civil war in the country in 2006. Nkurunziza is a former rebel leader from the majority Hutu tribe. He has been in power for two terms since 2005. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the 13-year civil war, which split the country along ethnic lines between the Hutu majority and minority Tutsis. The next presidential election is due to be held on June 26.

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Ngwa Bertrand

03.May.2015

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Cameroonians have contributed more than 1 billion CFA francs to support the army in its war against the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram, Cameroon Concord has gathered from government sources in Yaounde. According to René Emmanuel Sadi, Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation (MINATD), who also moonlights as Chairman of the management committee of the gifts offered to support the Cameroon army, 1 billion, 29 million five hundred thousand CFA francs, have so far been collected from the Cameroonian people to support troops engaged at the front against Boko Haram. Contributions are continuing throughout the national territory.

The amount contributed by Cameroonians is in a special bank account under the direct supervision of Alamine Ousmane Mey, Minister of Finance, revealed Minister Rene Sadi after a meeting on Thursday night. Cameroon Concord’s Chairman and Editor-in-Chief was reliably informed at the time of writing this report that “in-kind donations” such as (pasta, preserves, meat, vegetables, rice, soap, fruits ...) sent by the presidential couple have been distributed to members of the security and defense forces.

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Ngwa Bertrand

02.May.2015

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  Demonstrators have staged a massive rally in Tunis to voice their anger against the death of two Tunisian journalists who were allegedly killed by the ISIL    terrorist group in      neighboring Libya. On Friday, hundreds of demonstrators poured into the streets in the capital city to express their outrage over the brutal  killing of investigative journalist  Sofiene Chourabi and photographer Nadhir Ktari.

  The crowd of demonstrators chanted anti-government slogans as they held pictures of Chourabi and Ktari. "Down with any president, as long as Tunisian blood    means  nothing," the participants at the rally shouted. The angry protesters also accused Tunisian government authorities of failing to secure the release of the    journalists, and of  inaction after their slaughter. During the rally, the family and relatives of the journalists said they want the truth about the circumstances  surrounding their death. "We want the  truth. We are fed up with rumors,” Chourabi's mother said.

 

"We need something tangible. You (the authorities) have lied to us for too long," a cousin of Ktari told reporters at the demonstration.The latest rally came days after five detainees in Libya admitted to killing five crew members of a local television network and the Tunisian journalists. Libya’s internationally-  recognized government said in a statement on Wednesday that the detainees, two Libyans and three Egyptians, had admitted their responsibility in the  murders of Chourabi  and Ktari, who had gone missing in September last year. The ISIL Takfiri militants had previously claimed responsibility for the death of the journalists. In October 2014,  Tunisia urged Libya to locate the two journalists, who had gone missing in the eastern Ajdabiya region. Back then, Chourabi and Ktari were said to have been  seized by an  armed group in Libya. According to Human Rights Watch, journalists and reporters are constantly being targeted by armed groups in Libya. Insecurity remains high in Libya,  four years after the 2011 uprising against the dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi. The ouster of Gaddafi gave rise to a patchwork of heavily-  armed militias and deep political  divisions.

 

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Ngwa Bertrand

02.May.2015

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Employees and employers in Cameroon and beyond will today May 1^st, 2015 commemorate the 129th edition of the International Labour Day on the theme “Construct the Future of Cameroon in Peace, Solidarity and Decent Work”. Week-long activities to commemorate the event were launched last Friday in Njombe Penja in the Mungo Division of the Littoral Region by the Minister of Labour and Social Security, Gregoire Owona.  Activities will end with a march-past and merry making on Friday May 1^st in all administrative units and business structures in the country.

For over a week, workers and employers have organised different activities to mark the day which seeks to raise awareness on working conditions and labour productivity amongst other things. Besides sporting activities to commemorate the day, enterprises together with workers’ trade unions also organised round-table discussions on several issues affecting staff members at their different work places. The National Trade Union for Communicators and Media Personnel in Cameroon dubbed (SYNATRACOMEC) last Tuesday, April 28, 2015 at studio I of the CRTV broadcasting house in Yaounde organised a conference on the theme “The Place of Collective Convention and Social Dialogue in an Enterprise”. For close to an hour, CRTV journalist, François Dina Valdez, moderated discussions between the National President of SYNATRACOMEC, Thomas Mbiakeu and the Secretary General of the General Union of Cameroon workers, Pierre Dimala Ndenga. This was on the theme of discussion which aimed at bringing out the importance of a collective convention within an enterprise and the positive fallouts of social dialogue between employers and employees. With the distribution of T-shirts, caps and loin cloth that carry the logos of different companies, workers are all set to celebrate their day in different parts of the country.

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Ngwa Bertrand

01.May.2015

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(Reuters) - Six Baltimore police officers will face criminal charges, including second-degree murder and manslaughter, in the death of a black man who was arrested and suffered a fatal neck injury while riding in a moving police van, the city's chief prosecutor said on Friday.

Prosecutor Marilyn Mosby said Freddie Gray, who died a week after his April 12 arrest, was in handcuffs but otherwise was not restrained inside the van. The officers failed to provide medical attention to Gray even though he asked for help on at least two occasions.

Gray's death has become the latest flashpoint in a national outcry over the treatment of African-Americans and other minority groups by U.S. law enforcement.

After a night of rioting in Baltimore on Monday, protests spread to other major cities in a reprise of demonstrations last year set off by police killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, New York and elsewhere.

Warrants have been issued for the arrest of the officers charged, Mosby said at a dramatic news conference in front of a city office building across from Baltimore City Hall. In addition to murder and manslaughter, charges include assault, misconduct and false imprisonment.

Representatives for the police union and Gray's family were not immediately available for comment.

"We put all our resources to make sure we were pursuing and leading where the facts took us in this case, which was to pursue justice," Mosby said, a day after the Baltimore Police Department turned over findings from its internal investigation.

Mosby said the Maryland chief medical examiner ruled Gray's death a homicide. The 25-year-old Gray was no longer breathing when he was finally removed from the van, Mosby said.

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Ngwa Bertrand

01.May.2015

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