Cameroon Echoes {Echos Camerounais}

CONFLICT DIAMONDS

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Migrants leave Italian town amid violence

Firemen on Monday pull down a factory where immigrant workers were living in Rosarno, Italy

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STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Hundreds of immigrant workers moved by bus from Italian town of Rosarno
• Speaker van drove round town warning black people to leave town or be killed
• Migrant protests over shooting of worker turned violent over weekend
• Police said man shot with pellet gun; Italian media speculates Mafia behind shooting

(CNN) -- The message blaring out of the speakers on the van was stark: "Any black person who is hiding in Rosarno should get out. If we catch you, we will kill you."

Abdul Rashid Muhammad Mahmoud Iddris got out.

He's one of hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of African migrants taken by bus out of the Italian town over the weekend after violent demonstrations shook southern Italy.

The unrest was among the worst of its kind in recent Italian history, said a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration.

"We have not witnessed such protests in a long time," said Flavio Di Giacomo. "There were several thousand, but I don't know exactly how many people were involved."

La Chine prête 22 milliards Cfa au Cameroun

Ce prêt accordé au gouvernement camerounais par Exim Banque de Chine, structure bancaire du gouvernement chinois, permettra la réalisation du Projet de la Centrale hydroélectrique de Mékin sur le fleuve Dja, dans la région du Sud Cameroun. Louis Paul Motaze indique que  l’infrastructure à construire à Mékin est un important ouvrage comprenant un barrage sur l’embouchure des rivières Mékin et Dja, avec une retenue d’eau en amont de 940 millions de mètres cube ; une centrale hydroélectrique de pied d’une puissance installée de 12 mégawatts et une ligne d’évacuation d’énergie haute tension de 63 kilowatts sur 40 kilomètres. Pour le Minepat, au-delà de la résorption du déficit énergétique, le barrage hydroélectrique de Mékin contribuera aussi et surtout à la valorisation du potentiel halieutique du fleuve Dja et, à la promotion de l’écotourisme et du développement de toutes les régions du Sud. « Il s’agit là, tel qu’annoncé par le chef de l’Etat son excellence Paul Biya dans son message du 31 décembre 2009, d’une infrastructure dont les effets d’entraînements multiples sont appelé à déclencher une dynamique certaine dans les autres secteurs de notre économie », a-t-il déclaré.

A Daughter Deficit in Africa?

An excellent special issue of the New York Times magazine on Women and Development  had an article on the “daughter deficit”—the phenomenon, observed in India and China, of many fewer girls than boys being born, and surviving to age 5.  Up to now, I had been thinking of this as an Asian phenomenon, associated with cultural values in India and China.  But the finding by my colleagues Jed Friedman and Norbert Schady,reported that in Africa the mortality rate from a drop in income is about twice as high for girls as for boys, makes me think that the daughter deficit (or “son preference”) may be coming to Africa. 

What AIDS Leaves Behind: A Heavy Burden on African Women

 by Kathleen Beegle

Unlike other diseases in Africa (malaria, tuberculosis, intestinal worms, etc.), which mainly affect the young and the old, HIV/AIDS takes its toll on prime-age adults during the most productive years of their lives. The death of an adult family member can have large consequences for the surviving family. Given prevailing social norms in many African societies, the burden may likely be heaviest for women.

Most studies focus on the consequences for orphaned children – their schooling and health. We know less about how older adults are impacted.  In our study, we track individuals and their households in northwest Tanzania, an area of high HIV prevalence in the 1990s, over a 13-year period.

We find that, when a family member dies, women (even old women) end up working more on the farm; men do too, but not as much.  Having an asset such as goats enables them to work less. 

But elderly individuals’ health is generally no worse off after the deaths of their prime-age relatives. Surprisingly, if an adult child living outside the home dies, his/her parents’ health or workload do not suffer . It appears then that support from adult children is either replaced by other family members or the support is much lower than is currently speculated.

 

Ngousso: Woman Arrested for Killing Baby

The inhabitants of Ngousso, in the outskirts of Yaounde, had their hearts in their hands last weekend. A young woman called Augustine Ngenuyimg was accused of killing her newborn baby last November 5. Reports say, Augustine gave birth to her baby boy and later killed him in her home. Augustine, a widow and mother of three hails from the North West Region. She told the police that after the death of her husband she came to Yaounde to look for greener pastures. She then took up prostitution as a means of earning a living. When she realised that she was pregnant she contacted one of her boyfriends who according to her, was responsible for the pregnancy. The boyfriend refused the responsibility saying that he was not the only person she had. She then kept the pregnancy till nine months and gave birth to the baby alone in her room last November 5. After giving birth safely, she dressed up the bay and then strangled him to death.

Egbe admits relabeling, selling medicine

A Maryland man admitted Monday in federal court that he stole medication intended for poor people in Africa and sold them for a profit. Joseph Egbe, 44, of Gwynn Oak is the owner of e-Meditech, a charitable group that had a contract with the Catholic Medical Mission Board to distribute the drugs. Egbe made more than $10,000 by selling some of them to a Baltimore pharmacist, who then repackaged and resold them, federal authorities said. Egbe pleaded guilty to misbranding of pharmaceuticals in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. His attorney, William E. Tabot, could not immediately be reached to comment. The drugs Egbe sold included those used to treat the common cough as well as medications used for patients with breast cancer, stomach ulcers and diabetes. The drugs had been donated to the Catholic charity and were supposed to be sent to Cameroon.Officials with the Catholic Medical Mission Board, which is headquartered in New York and has an office in the District, said they have been working with the Department of Justice and the Food and Drug Administration since May 2008 on the investigation.

The Reverend Raped Me

Ngala Killian Chimtom

 Echoing findings elsewhere in the world, the survey, carried out in all ten of Cameroon's regions by the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and Cameroon's National Association of Aunties - RENATA, as it's known, is an organisation of more than 10,000 teenaged mothers working against sexual violence - found most rapes were committed by people known to the victims.

"The rapists are family members, including fathers, or school teachers, pastors and priests, classmates, colleagues, friends and neighbours," Dr Flavien Tiokou Ndonko, one of the researchers, told IPS. Family members were reported to be the assailants in 18 percent of cases. Nearly a quarter of those raped became pregnant as a result.

Samuel Eto'o - Cameroon's Indomitable Lions Are Hungry For The World Cup

12-Nov-2009

Cameroon and Inter striker Samuel Eto'o has exclusively told Goal.com the pain of missing out on World Cup 2006 will help fire the Indomitable Lions to South Africa when they clash with Morocco this weekend.

Eto'o's nation will make an African record sixth appearance at the World Cup if they beat their opponents on Saturday. Having made a great recovery in Group 1, Eto'o & Co. are just one step away from glory. The Nerazzurri striker is hoping his side don't slip up like they did four years ago.

“Once Upon a Coup”- A Tale of Intrigue from Oil Rich E.Guinea Airs on PBS.ORG

A failed coup attempt…a British mercenary in a notorious African prison…a dictator suspicious of Western powers…and beneath it all, a spectacular underwater oil reserve that the world’s major powers would love to get their hands on. It may sound like the latest John LeCarré bestseller, but in fact it’s the real-life intrigue of Once upon a Coup, WIDE ANGLE’s penetrating look at the mysterious goings-on in Equatorial Guinea, a tiny West African nation newly rich with oil and infamous for corruption. The story begins in 2004, when a group of mercenaries, including a British ex-special forces officer named Simon Mann, is arrested in Zimbabwe.