Scandal of 3.2 million children in extreme poverty in Cameroon

Cameroon government has been urged to draw up an emergency plan to help poverty-stricken children.

Figures revealing that 3.2 million youngsters live in severe poverty.

 In some areas 1 in 3 were described as a < national scandal> by one of the leading agency, Save the Children.

The charity found that the Far North and the North and some areas in the West region have the highest proportion with over 65%. One of the researcher said that children are going to sleep at night in home in rural areas with no proper bedding, without eating a simple proper meal and without even having a proper school uniforms to put on.

No child should be born without a chance. Sos enfants in Cameroon approved the same conclusion and is trying to push the government to adopt new strategies to alleviate poverty amount children.

And after 28 years of Biya regime there are still million of children in some suburban area in Yaounde and Douala, where they have no access to clean water and even free food to eat and take home while authorities live in luxury and waste taxpayers monies buying 4x4 vehicles and enjoying life without taking action to relieve that extreme poverty.

It is clear that Biya regime has completely lost the ability to fight back against its critics, especially when it comes to fight against corruption and poverty.

The current social policy is scandalously flawed and in desperate need of radical reform. There is a very strong case for tearing up the whole social policy system to make it fairer, more efficient, simpler and to ensure children are the priority.

Another journalist arrested in Cameroon

Raphael Nkamtchuen editor of La Boussole, a daily newspaper published in Cameroon has been arrested by the military police on the 17 February after a friendly visit to a former economics and finance minister Abah Abah who is in detention and accused of corruption and embezzlement.

 Raphael has a permission to visit the prisoner in jail and after his visit he was arrested according to his wife Mrs Etchong Nguinda Michelle.


 Speaking on the phone, she said that her husband has spent three days without having a shower and even has to spent the night sleeping on the ground floor and no familial visit is allowed since he was detained by the military police in Kondengui region in the capital city of Cameroon.

He has been facing tough interrogation about documents that have been given to him by the former government minister, mental torture and human rights abuses are been used against him.

Authorities want him to release documents that he was given by the former minister now prisoner and awaiting final decision from his trial that still pending.

In Cameroon in order to visit someone in prison you must have a visit permit delivered by the department of justice and the editor according to his wife has that permit.

 It said that Raphael has been giving confidential documents that could bring alight more details about corruption in the heart of Biya regime and it is why he is been held without charges in detention.

 This is another blow for the freedom of information in Cameroon and also for investigative journalism that still danger to practice under Biya 29`s year reign.

Many journalist associations around the world now are asking for his immediate release from unlawful arrest and arbitrary detention.

Biya`s 29 year reign under serious threat

President Paul Biya might have lost control of the streets and the agenda to determine Cameroon`s economic future. The social situation is tense at the moment. Tens of thousands have run out off their patience. People demands are not met and nothing in reality is done.

Ready to take their anger to the streets amid strong government`s presence of the repression and the police riot, people have been called to rise up again the oppression and take control of their future.

Could Chantal Biya open dialogue with anti-government protesters?

The country is under an explosive situation. There are unconfirmed news that the army is on a maximum alert and will be moving to stamp out any anti-government uprising inspired by events in Tunisia and Egypt.

The government in a state of emergency now will try to ban gatherings and will as usual deploy tanks if possible in some areas on the streets to crackdown on protesters.

 The British and the French government have been heavily criticised for allowing arms sales to Cameroon for over 35 years which have been always used to crack down on any pro-democracy protests.

There have been few pro-democracy protests in Cameroon in recent years. Many have been killed and some injured and others disappeared in demonstrations across the opposition regions, Douala, Bamenda, Bafoussam, Buea and Limbe.

 Pressure groups in the UK, France, US and Belgium accused ministers of propping up authoritarian regime in Cameroon. They wish to support open democratic society in Cameroon and at the same time are aiding authoritarian regime by providing tools for repression.

 The date of the 23 February has been confirmed by unofficial activists underground as a day of anger and a called  for a regime change in Cameroon. In the UK, the Foreign secretary William Hague yesterday said he will urge the government to begin a real and a proper dialogue with anti-government protesters and implement reforms needed in the country.



The political will to fight corruption still absent in cameroon

Corruption is  endemic in Paul Biya`s Cameroon  where 65%  of the country's 19 million people live on £1.50 or less a day, and critics most of them civil rights groups and campaigners, political party leaders not represented in the parliament and the medias accused officials of usurping the nation's wealth.

Cameroonians have  long complained of an unspoken policy of sweetheart deals that allowed top officials and businessmen to enrich themselves.


Dr Shanda Tonme, one of those leading the fight against corruption and a meaningful way of doing it


In recent days, watchdog groups and private lawyers have demanded that the country's chief prosecutor launch criminal investigations against the president relatives  and some of their wealthy associates.

Scores of former government officials have already been banned from travel and several, among them many  former Cabinet ministers, have had their assets frozen and been prosecuted and put in jail. Some even members of Biya`s political party and potential leadership challengers.

Corruption in Cameroon has gained increased attention. In the early 1990s it wasdifficult for civil society to tackle the issue of corruption, as it was perceived that delving into this issue could lead to problems.

Additionally, the government wasn`t hardly talking openly about corruption at that time. However, since the mid-1990s and especially since the year 2000, when Transparency International launched his 5th annual report on Perception of corruption Index and where Cameroon was ranked the first corrupted country worldwide, corruption is being discussed extensively and openly by media, civil society and academic organisations.

On a parallel level, efforts undertaken to combat corruption by the government and anti-corruption agencies have increased and tax payers money been used for that purpose as well.

 As a result, corruption has become the focus of attention by many opposition leaders..and privatization program is the biggest corruption process in Cameroon for over all its history.

 There are areas where it will be difficult to tackle corruption because of the lack of strong legal and institution mechanism. For example  issuing certain decisions in favour of a certain group other than the public interest, the lack of transparency in public procurement, receipt of certain payments or bribes in return for facilitating access to governmental services, and misusing or wasting public funds and public property.

The  main areas that are most vulnerable to corruption in Cameroon today are  payments and bribes to facilitate public access to government services, customs and taxes, documenting and specifying fines, misuse of public property, government employment opportunities and public procurement.

There is no explicit article in Cameroon  law that obliges information on government officials’ assets to be publicly accessible.  The freedom of information in Cameroon doesn`t exist and journalists and others activists groups are just fighting for having that real in the country where the law gives power to authorities to abuse investigative journalists while trying to do their job.

On the contrary there are laws and decrees that prevent medias  from accessing government information and records.

Does anyone in France, UK and US know what to do about Cameroon?

This will be the problem in Cameroon. This is the problem and its has always been the problem in some parts of the world where a corrupt client rulers like President Paul Biya of Cameroon.

On the one hand, they want money. On the other hand, the more money they get away with, the more they feel they must demonstrate their independence from the donor state.

One of the reasons why they need money is to put on great shows of independence, ceremonial bitings of the hand that feeds them...

Dictator like Paul Biya today in Cameroon is of course, all about power, and the less secure he feels, the more vigorously he must assert his manhood. This is what it is happening now in Cameroon.

Biya and wife and the army


Biya has to demonstrate to his own satisfaction that he takes no dictation from anyone. Not from the divided opposition and from the rising youth unemployment and even from the foreign potentates such as the young President Obama.

Sarkozy,( France) and Cameron  (UK) for their part, have been having to deal with not one but 4 angry over sixty year old opposition leaders.

John Fru Ndi from the divided social democratic front and leader of the opposition in the parliament, Bello Bouba Maigari from the democracy progress for the national unity, Adamou Ndan Njoya for the Cameroon democracy union and the acting president of the southern Cameroon national council. Bello and Adamu worked as ministers with former first Cameroonian president and have Paul Biya as Prime Minister and now as president.

 They know the man in power. Most donors stated think that Biya must be allowed to stay and oversee the transition to real democracy.

The Sdf members rally in support to Biya


 Then he must leave with his dignity intact. The irony is that this British and French handling of Cameroon , unpromising thought it has been shown so far not to be a major piece of  Cameron and Sarkozy`s policy that seems to have attracted some measure of bipartisan support.


 It is true that  there have been voices of dissident. What donors states are expecting now from Cameroon it is a real transition of power and also fair and free elections.

 There have been anti-government demonstrations long time ago in Cameroon and the army has been called to intervene and to bring back peace and controlled the streets and there is no way going back to these dark days of the Cameroonian type of revolution or angry for change.

 There is a huge need of a peaceful and pacific demonstration of pro-government and not riots and bloodshed. Since 2008, the role of the army has became more and more pivotal in case of any imminent change in Cameroon.

 if Biya manages to keep the army`s allegiance and cling to power without sharing and even introducing real political reforms, there will surely be more violence in some parts of the country and the most heavily armed institution will have to use their force against their own people once more...

NUJ - National Union of Journalists

NUJ - National Union of Journalists

CFA 50BN fund to tackle rising youth unemployment is possible and realistic

The president issued the controversial appeal yesterday while addressing the Cameroonian youth and unveiled his long awaited speech and deal with the youth.

He acknowledged the total failure of its policy and its idea of a big society. Completely out off touch with the youth.

Paul Biya is completely out off touch with the youth. Mr Biya told the youth <..I am aware, please believe me, what are your concerns about your future. I can imagine the disappointment of those who, after long years of studies, struggle to find employment corresponding to qualifications. Discouragement of those who, without qualifications, have, at best, such as perspective, of precarious employment. Feelings of injustice to those who, deprived of any hope feel rejected by society...>.

After 28 years in power,  Paul Biya still want the youth to believe in him and to continue to trust him as he appeared to be the only one who can give them a better future. Nothing in that political speech yesterday showed that Mr Biya is ready to boost the economy and to give the youth a chance that they have been expecting for so long.

Gicam members awaiting Biya`s signal for
job creation

 Right as a politician he promised so many things and projects that are still on the way and many more that are still only on papers. To reduce the unemployment amount the youth, he ordered a recruitment of 25,000 more Young's graduates from the universities to join the public services and add to the over 125,000 public servants working for the government.

Those new recruits are just going to join Biya`s army of voters in public services and help grow the rank of voters.

In others countries where youth unemployment is rising, ideas of revolution and economy boosted are being discussed. Biya  for example could have ordered the creation of a national fund to help reduce or fight youth unemployment. At the moment there are 52 government spending`s budget and only 2 departments with less than CFA1billion.

So the national fund to boost job creation for the youth will have already CFA50 billion for this financial year with any single government department injecting CFA1billion in that special fund. Also government could after agreement encourage banks to lend money to struggling small businesses. They can create more jobs for the youth and just need government support.

CFA billions have been waisted by those former government ministers that have been arrested and put in jail and accused of embezzlment for more than CFA1000 billion. There is no way Paul Biya will say that there is no money available for that particular fund for job creation for the youth. The money is there. The money can be found in the government expenditures pocket for this financial year and before the election.

There is already a national employment fund that has been created by the government and whose activities are not well understood and even the World Bank has encouraged long time ago the government to privatise that fund in order to avoid any clash between the chief executive officer and the minister of labor who is the chairman of the national executive council. and to become more effective and also competitive as an agency with aims to create jobs and not just acting as job placement for his clients.

All are been appointed by the president and sometimes they have different point of view on how to create jobs and to encourage the youth. Biya deal with the youth is a head versus heart.

Your head tells you that Paul Biya is probably right to ask young people to put their trust in him for their future and you heart says we have heard this for so long and nothing has changed since.

The truth is Paul Biya is out of touch with the youth even still has the power to make things happen. The more longer he stays in power and more corrupted his regime became and there will be no chance and no future for the youth.

Biya plan causes rising youth unemployment and cracks in government

Rising unemployment  expectations amount the youth are adding pressure on the government to create more and more jobs.

 Youth unemployment has soared since the last decade and even more before that and the confederation of Cameroonian industry or the confederation of employers from the private sector has predicted as well.

The rising unemployment amount the youth today in Cameroon is the biggest political problem and the government is fully aware of this and it will be the most important causes of the crisis tomorrow in Cameroon.

Biya against the peace  

In Cameroon with a population of over 19 million and 64% under 25 years old and most of them graduated from universities and colleges and with no job available, the government has decided just to give CFA 8.136 billion as budget for the government department in charge of youth affairs.

 This represents only 0.31% of the entire financial budget for the year that is CFA 2571 billion. The real challenge here is to know how the government policy will help to create and even boost job creation for the youth.

 Since the beginning of the year the ministry of youth affairs has planned to inject less than CFA 2,6 billion in the market to create jobs for only less than 500 youngsters where there are hundred thousand off jobs and without any job perspective at the moment except some government promises.

In today address to the youth on the conservative government 45th celebration of the national Youth Day, Biya will again encourage the youth to take responsibilities where there are no real intention or will of jobs creation.

What future for this generation? 

According to Adoum Garoua, Minister for Youth Affairs,  Paul Biya, invites his young compatriots to discover or rediscover the rich and dense heritage policy of our country's history. 

He invites young people to be responsible for heirs of this rich heritage. He urges youth to consolidate the gains that make Cameroon a large Nation to know peace, national integration, bilingualism, solidarity, unity in diversity and democracy among others.

 To consolidate these achievements, it is essential for young people to acquire them, grow, share and transmit to future generations. It will enable our country to attain the objectives set by the Document's strategy for growth and employment aims to make Cameroon on the horizon 2035 a country emerging, democratic and united in its diversity.

Minister for Youth Affairs with no means

 But young people have already acquired what it takes to share and to transmit to the future generations. What it needed today its is money, fundings, opportunities, jobs and real democracy and not just words and promises without action.

The rising unemployment amount the youth is a real cause of the crisis that will affect Cameroon in the nearest future. Gicam internal watchdog has criticised the government for failing to spot the growing social crisis about the rising of youth unemployment.

 After 27 years in control, Biya is failing miserably and the opposition has not got yet the right solution about it.

Air France-KLM is hit by Africa crisis while camair-co is still uncertain

According to Harry Banks from City AM newspaper, political instability in Africa is beginning to affect revenues at Air France-KLM

 Political unrest in holiday destinations like Egypt and Tunisia would dent second-quarter profits. The airline group warned yesterday despite reporting a 4.8%  rise in overall January passenger traffic.

Air France-KLM which is the Europe`s largest airline group by sales said the proportion of seats sold, or passenger load factor, rose 1.1% point to 79.2% in January.

The growth was boosted by a favourable comparison with January last year when operations were hit by snow and a two day air traffic control strike.

January cargo traffic rose 3.4% on a 3.3% increase in capacity and the load factor for freight was stable at 64.3%.

While in Cameroon authorities still delaying the launch of the first flight to Europe to camair-co, the newly created national airline company even though  those appointed by the government to carry out their duties are still promising that they will launch the first ever flight next month. Europe will be the first destination and then others will follow.

For the moment Cameroon business confidence still stable while the French one spiked to a three year high in January. The good news is that the Index for Cameroon industry morale, gathered  for the Central Bank in Yaounde in on the rise and jumped. Paul Biya`s conservative government has based its 2011 budget on a growth rate of 3,2% and the deficit will hit CFA 425 billion this financial year.

Biya bids to challenge fears over reforms and youth massive unemployment

After 29 unbroken years as President of Cameroon with 27 unchallenged  years as national president of the Cameroon People Democratic Movement CPDM, Paul Biya who has just back in Yaounde from a respite in Switzerland according to sources, will launch ahead of the national youth day on February 11 a major charm offensive aimed at corporate Cameroon and youth, which are yet to be persuaded by the president`s plan to stimulate growth.

Every significant decision affecting Cameroon`s over 19 million people is first discussed and approved by a handful of men who sit on the party's political bureau (politburo), the nexus of all power in Cameroon and Biya has been chairing that for over 27 years.

How the politburo operates is secret and unclear. But its meetings are thought to be regular and frequent, often characterised by blunt speaking and disagreement and there are no places for the youth inside that special think-tank for the moment.

 It will be a huge political challenge for Paul Biya, who is preparing to give his own political vision and perception of the future of Cameroon  with the youth leading reforms and development with  the irreversible transition of power amid fears within the government that it is failing to sell its reforms and promises to the youth specially and the public in general.

Paul Biya today is concerned that some of its keys ideas such allowing the youth to take control of many keys areas in politic and in government are becoming confused in the minds of Young's voters with the rise of unemployment amount Young's graduates from state universities and colleges..

Some government ministers who are afraid to publicly express themselves think that decisions they have made are not always acted upon, and also feel that some initiatives are being quietly dropped when the youth think that ministers have forgotten them

 Mr Biya is thought to be planning to express some of these frustrations in his speech on the national youth day eve on February the 10th. He is likely to argue reforms are vital for the growth and the development of the Cameroon economy.

But there is anger and frustration amount the youth and in the government.

Biya in Switzerland for a health check-up and why keep it secret?

Death may be inevitable, but Paul Biya today and more than ever before wish for longer tranquility life and his wife, the first lady Chantal Pulcherie Biya cares for him to feel and look better. There is a price and a huge price for that.

Biya has agreed that ageing shouldn't`t become or even be a troubling process for him while he is still alive and in power.

This is why Paul Biya has registered as an out-patient with the Gene Predicts Clinic in Switzerland. He is there to prevent any heart attack or even any cardio-vascular disease, before they strike as a surprise to him and his entire family.

For that purpose, the head of state has to attend regular check up there and there is no point to miss an appointment with his personal VIP advisor.

The ageing process on Biya is on the way and visible

This has been kept secret for so long to Cameroonians and it has been found by an investigative journalism and it is time for people to be informed of the whereabouts of their head of state and the state of his health.

Gene Switzerland Clinic is a Swiss genetics’ excellence and diagnostics center according to their advertisement.

Our work is dedicated to predictive and personalized medicine. We provide state of the art genetic profiling service that specifically analysis a group of selected genes that have been shown by medical research to have an effect on your ageing, your ultimate well being and your susceptibility to disease.

We invite you to obtain your genetic passport – a profile – that will lead to tailor made treatments, effective medications (without side-effects) and slowed aging process in one of the safest and discrete countries in the world – Switzerland.The genetic profiling studies a number of genes and specifically examines variations called polymorphisms.

These variations exist in all of us. As well as determining our unique features, they also determine how our body functions internally.

A gene profile can predict your predisposition to: veins thrombosis, cardio-vascular disease, osteoporosis, different cancers; determine whether you have sensitivity to certain drugs, putting weight; identify genetic backgrounds for burn-out, infertility and much more. . You only have to ever take one genetic profiling; as the results will not change over your lifetime.

By knowing your profile, you take control of your life and health. People might ask why Paul Biya has decided to be an out-patient with this clinic in Switzerland and for what purpose. Right, at the moment, the head of state could still have to power to have another child from his younger wife and also have some eggs kept somewhere in the fridge for the future.

He might have experienced some of these diseases listed above and just want to be more preventive than anyone around him. Biya wants also to keep fit in order to rule and continue his dictatorship in Cameroon. but for how long?

1 in 4 cameroonian doesn`t have enough to eat after 28 years of Biya`s rule

Paul Biya has decided to bring back alive an old policy idea in order to attract more and more voters for the next presidential election. He wants Cameroon to become an agricultural bounty for the Central African countries and for the whole Africa and even for the rest of the world.

Last week in Ebolowa, Southern capital city of Cameroon, in front of some happy farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs and most of them members of his political party,

he said that a food secure and prosperous Cameroon will not only provide new opportunities for its people, but for the rest of the region, the Central Africa region..He met with with selected farmers and their product.

He took his courage to look back over the past double decade. He saw what has worked for the farmers and his own agricultural policy and also the failure of that policy and what has not worked and has decided with his entire government to work on a plan of action for the coming 5 years. One thing is clear, the government budget bill has allocated more billion francs cfa to the ministry of defence rather than to the agricultural one...

For this year bill, CFA 2571 billion  adopted by the Parliament, the government has allocated  CFA 230.378 billion for the defense and policing and only CFA 71.424 billion  for the development of the agriculture.

That is less than 2.72% for the entire budget and and the army has 8.96% of the budget. The agriculture budget represent only 32% of the defense budget. This is a sign that in Cameroon, Biya is doing everything to keep grip on the power and hand more financial power to the army.

The good news is that he can still make the real change and bring back the agriculture in the heart of his political reforms and agenda.

The bad news is, that there is no money available for that at the moment and even for the next coming 5 years as he will have to find that money to inject in the agricultural sector and improve the quality of his own agricultural reforms.

As every ambitious politician, he said and recognised that there are tools to make things work in that sector, because he came to power under the agricultural reform and benefits but all that benefit has been used for other purpose other than the agricultural and farmers are still suffering for that policy failure of the government.

Biya forgot about the fast spread of new agricultural technologies by giving away machetes to young farmers and advising and encouraging them to go back to the farm while in the other world it is a modernism and fast growing technology,

 with mechanism and industrialization of the agriculture.  Farmers in Cameroon have the know- how and just lack of resources to tackle the real and big problem.

To accelerate progress in the agricultural sector, the government need to redirect, funding and subventions and even create a global strategy for the agriculture.

Now the global picture on numbers of those who are hungry in Cameroon it is unknown and statistically speaking, it could be around 1 in 4 people in Cameroon who don`t have enough to eat according to the latest United Nations Development Programme report on Cameroon, about population undernourished, and that number is on the rise and nothing in reality is being done to alleviate that..