Inside Cameroon

Military authorities in Gambia arrested two of ex-strongman Yahya Jammeh’s generals after they returned unexpectedly from exile over the weekend, the army said in a statement on Monday.

Gambia’s current President Adama Barrow was sworn in a year ago as a West African regional intervention force closed in on the capital Banjul forcing Jammeh, who had refused to accept his defeat in elections, to flee to Equatorial Guinea.  

Umpa Mendy, Jammeh’s principal protection officer, and the former head of the State Guards Battalion Ansumana Tamba had both accompanied the former leader into exile. But the army statement said they flew back into Gambia on Sunday.

“They were arrested at their respective homes ... and are currently detained at the Yundum Military Barracks, where they are helping the military police with their investigations,” the statement said.

It did not say why the two men returned to Gambia or on what charges they had been arrested.

Barrow is still seeking to assert control following the end of 22 years of Jammeh’s authoritarian rule under which the military served as a key pillar of a regime notorious for jailing and torturing political opponents.

The new government has replaced or dismissed a number of senior military officers, some of them suspected of being members of a group called the Jungulars, which many Gambians say carried out killings on behalf of the government.

However, the army still contains many former supporters of Jammeh. Barrow’s allies have repeatedly warned of the possibility that exiled officers were working to undermine the new government from abroad.

Reuters

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Rita Akana

23.Jan.2018

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Inside Nigerian territory and holding a very charged press conference deep inside Abuja could have been very daring and courageous of him.

The press conference was chaired by Chris Anu and flanked by the cream of lawyers handling the case. 

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Ismail Belo

22.Jan.2018

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Liberia is ready for kickoff, take off if you like. The West African nation today, January 22, swears in one history maker as the other bows out.

George Manneh Weah will become its president – the first African footballer to achieve that feat while Ellen Johnson Sirleaf – Africa’s first democratically female president will leave office after over a decade in charge. 

Weah won presidential elections last year to emerge the successor to Sirleaf beating then vice president Joseph Boakai twice in a space of three months.

In the first round of voting in October 2017, Weah came top but failed to garner the necessary votes. He went into a runoff with Boakai in December and emerged winner with over 60% of votes cast. This will be Liberia’s first democratic handover of executive power in decades.

Africannews

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Rita Akana

22.Jan.2018

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Chinese technicians are expected to start offering after sale services to beneficiaries of President Biya's controversial laptops later this month. The two state universities in Yaoundé have received 80,000 of the 500,000 laptops promised by Mr Biya in 2016.

The manager of the Chinese firm behind the fabrication is expected in Cameroon on Monday, reports have said. 

The technicians will have to handle eventual problems with the computers as well as drill some students on how to be exploit them.

In the meantime several problems have been observed by some users of the laptops. Most people complain of bad chargers. Some students have sold theirs for as less as FCFA 15,000, which is far below the cost price, estimated at over FCFA 150,000. 

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Rita Akana

22.Jan.2018

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Cameroon's upper house of parliament is to be lodged at the premises of the Social and Economic Council in Yaoundé as early as the next ordinary session in March, Mutations newspaper has reported. 

The Senate went operational in 2013. Previously the prestigious chamber of parliament was lodged at the Conference Centre. Later when renovation works began at the Conference Centre, the elitist institution was moved to the premises of the market regulation agency.

Cameroon's senate has been described by critics as a centre for old people, with the oldest member in his 90s. There are 100 senators, with 30 appointed by the head of state and the 70 others chosen by voters. 

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Rita Akana

22.Jan.2018

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According to the Ministry of Public Works, the elected Mayor of the localities shall be responsible for planning, programming and execution of the road construction projects. This is done to minimize the risk of having failed projects as well as reducing the cost of follow up. The communal road project for the year 2018 have been stopped. 

The Mayors shall be the project supervisors as indicated by the minister of Public works, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, the Mayors shall subsequently be responsible for the conception, programming, supervision and execution of the said projects.

Those projects to be executed shall be done with the technical assistance of Council engineers, who are charged with their construction and maintenance of such roads.

In other words it's the Mayors who shall give instructions as per priority of the project. They therefore shall need a project roadmap for their respective Council areas and shall take responsibility for all the decisions that they shall take.

Engineers from the ministry of Public Works shall give succour to the Mayors wherever there shall be technical challenges on the technical domain. These engineers shall be at the service of Mayors so as to help them in the designing of the structural plan if the project. Whenever a Mayor desires or wishes to maintain a trench of road, the chief of service for Technical maintenance or the Divisional Delegate for Public Works shall intervene to arrest the degradation as well as say what should be done.

These workers are at the disposal of the Mayor. Contract supervisor is charged with having a project book as requested by the Minister of Public Works. The transfer of competence to councils that was announced since 2012. The competence of Mayors is limited to secondary and feeder roads. The construction and maintenance of mayor roads is the responsibility of the Minister of Public Works.

In the quarters,the issue of road maintenance is in the hands of the Mayor. These are the fruits of the request of the population. Once more the needs of expressed by the people,the Mayor should solicit the assistance of the Divisional Delegate for Public Works, who shall carry out the studies on the field. After these field studies, he shall transmit to the hierarchy.

At the end of the procedure, the minister of Public works might release funds for each Council worth twenty seven million. 

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Rita Akana

19.Jan.2018

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