Cameroon: Biya Regime Bows Down To Consortium, Releases All Protesters From Kondengui After Shocking Ghost Town Blackout

Reports say government has released all youths who were arrested in connection to the deadly riots of December 8, 2016. They were arrested for supposedly supporting teachers and lawyers long-drawn-out strike which turned deadly after security officers opened fire on protesters, killing four and injuring several others.Their release is being touted as a fulfillment of one of the conditions demanded by the Teachers and Lawyers for any dialogue to hold.

Early last week,government modified the list of gov’t’s ad-hoc committee members put in placeto find solutions to the problems raised by teachers of the Anglo-Saxon sub system of education in Cameroon.

This was also one of the prerequisites set by the teachers.At the same time that gov’t is pretending to resolve the impasse, it is trying to by pass leaders of teacher’s trade unions by dealing directly with teachers and asking that they resume work this Monday January 9.

While Ernest Behene, Minister of Secondary Education was holding a meeting with leaders of the on-going sit-down strike in Bamenda, Philip Ngole Ngwesse, Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, Paul Elung Che, Minister Delegate at the Ministry of Finance and other government officials were in their divisions of origin to convince and in some cases coerce teachers to go back toschool on Monday despite the fact that government is yet to find solutions to their problems.

Reports abound of cases where these officials have given out huge sums of money to proprietors of private schools and principals of government schools in abid to have them go back to class.Secondary Education Minister is also on asix-day tour in the North West region to ensure effective resumption of classes. He was booed and jeered in Ndop when he started reading his speech in French.

Cameroontoday