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New Bauxite Mining Venture in Cameroon Promises Thousands of Jobs

Governments in Africa are taking steps to lure more investors to their mining sectors with friendly legislation and attractive tax breaks. One example is Cameroon, which has just wrapped up a deal with an American-led consortium to explore and exploit a bauxite deposit. The project will curb dependence on the country’s slumping oil reserves and create thousands of new jobs and infrastructure development.

CAMEROON: Food price hikes mean hungrier, angrier prisoners

DOUALA Thursday, November 27, 2008 (IRIN) - Food price hikes that sparked deadly riots in Cameroon earlier this year have severely cut meals for prisoners, and officials fear a revolt. “We fear an uprising if the prisoners’ food situation gets worse,” said Joseph Tsala Amougou, manager of the central prison in the commercial capital Douala. “We are having an increasingly difficult time providing two meals per day to the prisoners,” he said, pointing to high food prices. Prisoners have...

CAMEROON: Whose responsibility is HIV transmission?

YAOUNDÉ Wednesday, November 26, 2008 (IRIN) - When newspapers in Cameroon carried the story of a local businessman who allegedly had infected young girls with the HI virus, the calls to criminalise HIV transmission grew louder and the debate became more heated. The focus of discussions was a draft bill drawn up in 2002 that proposed life imprisonment for anyone having unprotected sex when they knew they were positive; if the sexual act did not transmit HIV, the punishment would be five...

CAMEROON: Rapid intervention military unit strays from its mission

DOUALA Friday, August 29, 2008 (IRIN) - In 2001 the Cameroonian government created a special rapid intervention battalion (BIR) to quell hostage-taking and looting by criminal gangs operating on its eastern and northern borders, but this force is now straying from its original mission, causing anger among human rights groups. The BIR was originally set up to fight criminal gangs known as ‘coupeurs de routes’  who operate on the borders with the Central African Republic in the east and Chad...

CAMEROON-NIGERIA: Bakassi returnees overwhelm authorities

ABUJA Thursday, September 11, 2008 (IRIN) - Up to 100,000 Nigerians displaced from Bakassi in southern Nigeria are sheltering in makeshift camps 10 kilometres away in the state of Akwa Ibom. More keep arriving according to the Nigerian Red Cross, leading local authorities to fear an impending humanitarian crisis. The influx has overwhelmed Akwa Ibom’s local authorities who are struggling to feed, shelter, clothe and medicate the returnees, most of whom have come empty-handed, according to...

CAMEROON: Desperately seeking third-line medication

YAOUNDÉ Wednesday, November 05, 2008 (IRIN) - Marie Gisèle Tientcheu, 30, an AIDS activist, has developed resistance to second-line antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, and has had to look outside Cameroon, her home country, for the medicines she needs. Her story has received a lot of media attention in Cameroon, and has thrown the spotlight on growing concerns that as countries scale up their treatment programmes, more and more people living with HIV are expected to develop resistance to their...

African countries to introduce new meningitis vaccine

Health ministers from countries of the African meningitis belt today committed themselves to introduce a highly promising candidate meningitis vaccine. The vaccine is designed to prevent periodic epidemics of the deadly disease in these countries. Meeting at the 58th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa, held in Yaoundé from 1 to 5 September, the ministers adopted the Yaoundé Declaration, committing themselves to several actions. They agreed to prepare comprehensive meningitis...

AFRICA: Homophobia fuelling the spread of HIV

The persistent and increasing outbreaks of violence against members of the gay community in Africa are jeopardising efforts undertaken to combat HIV, both within this group and across the population as a whole, AIDS activists warned at a recent meeting in Limbé, Cameroon. The extreme vulnerability of members of the gay community to HIV on the continent was highlighted during the meeting, initiated by the French non-governmental organisation, AIDES, and its partners, which took place at the...

CAMEROON: The aesthetics of water

Since the 1990s when the Cameroon government stopped providing free water in urban centres, most of the population of the commercial capital Douala have had to resort to digging their own wells, which are often contaminated. But four years ago, a shiny futurist-looking structure sprang up in Bessengué Akwa, one of the city's poorest neighbourhoods, and it is more than just a source of reliable water. "The structure is truly beautiful," Rose Edouka, a resident of Bessengué Akwa told...

CAMEROON: Movement of refugees to Maltam Camp ongoing, over 5,500 relocated

In response to the inflow of Chadian refugees into Cameroon’s northeastern town of Kousséri earlier this month, 5,523 persons have already been relocated to a newly equipped camp in the village of Maltam, while an estimated 10,000 more are expected to join them in the coming weeks. “At one point, we had at least 30,000 refugees in the country, but many have returned to Chad,” said Sophie de Caen, United Nations Resident Coordinator for Cameroon. “At present, along with the Cameroonian...