Inside Cameroon

CAIRO An EgyptAir jet carrying 66 passengers and crew on a flight from Paris to Cairo disappeared from radar over the Mediterranean sea, Egypt's national airline said. French President Francois Hollande confirmed the aircraft "came down and is lost".  

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Rita Akana

18.May.2016

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Nigerian police say they have arrested members of a militant group which has claimed responsibility for attacks on oil pipelines in the Delta region. The 'Niger Delta Avengers' had issued a warning to oil companies.

The group calling itself the "Niger Delta Avengers" (NDA) claimed responsibility for a recent attack on a facility operated by US energy group Chevron and the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell. Via social media the group issued a "Warning to Chevron" on May 12.

Nigerian army spokesman Rabe Abubakar said on Monday: "This is to confirm the arrest of some suspected members of Niger Delta Avengers," in connection with attacks on Chevron oil facilities.

"We made some arrests over the weekend. They were picked up around scenes of recent attacks in the Niger delta," according to a member of the joint task force involved in security in the region. "It will be pre-emptive at this stage to conclude that the suspects are the militants that bombed the oil pipelines and installations until after investigation," the official told the AFP news agency.

The attacks claimed by the group have contributed to a slump in Nigerian oil production, reportedly down to its lowest level in more than two decades, from about 1.9 million barrels per day (bpd) to under 1.7 million bpd. Crude sales from the Delta region account for 70 percent of national income in what is Africa's biggest economy.

revenues for locals in the oil-rich southern delta.

'Niger Delta Avengers'

The NDA issued an ultimatum to oil companies in the region via its website:

"To owners and operators of these oil blocs in our region the Niger Delta Avengers is giving you two weeks ultimatum to shut down your operations and evacuate your staff. If at the end of the ultimatum and you still operating, we will blow up all the locations. It will be bloody. So just shut down your operations and leave."

In the same statement, the group also made an appeal to the UN: "To the United Nations, we are not asking for much but to free the people of the Niger Delta from environmental pollution, slavery, and oppression."

Long-standing problems

A number of groups in the 2000s carried out attacks on oil pipelines and kidnapped workers until a government amnesty was declared in 2009.

DW

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Elangwe Pauline

17.May.2016

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A body pulled from Lake Michigan on Saturday morning in the South Side Hyde Park neighborhood has been identified as missing medical student Ambrose Monye.

"My heart is obviously broken, because I don't know where my sibling is. He clearly disappeared into thin air," Monye's sister said.

Monye was last seen walking toward the university's John Crerar medical library in the 5700-block of South Ellis Avenue.

He was a University of Guadalajara student in Chicago for a two-year clinical rotation at Jackson Park Hospital. He was expected to graduate this month.

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Elangwe Pauline

12.May.2016

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When the woman’s stop was coming up, she moved to the exit, and was told by the driver to “take your monkey with you.” The man was also told the bus was not going to Erding train station - his final destination point. Rather than endure further embarrassment, the man exited with the woman and had to walk the rest of the way to the train station. 

It was there that he met the bus driver again, and asked him how come the bus went that way. In response The driver responded by verbally attacking the man again. The incident has been kept under wraps since February by German authorities as usual. According to Gerhard Karl from the Commissariat for State Protection, who spoke to the Suddeutsche Zeitung, disciplinary action was taken against the driver. His salary was docked for 30 days.

However, the bus driver wasn’t fired, and he insists he insulted no one. Nevertheless he accepted his punishment. He likewise denies ever telling the Gambian to sit in the back of the bus. When approached by a Sueddeutsche Zeitung journalist, who asked him to comment on his racist "monkey” statement, the driver cut him short, saying: “I’ve paid my punishment, for me the matter is done.”

The German constitution forbids racial discrimination, but a legal framework remains missing to actively prevent it.

"As a black person in Germany, you encounter racism on every level of society. At work, looking for an apartment, or in political matters. And in private life, of course," said Tahir Della, a Munich-based photographer and board member of the Association of People of African Origin in Germany (ISD). The group, founded in the 1980s, aims to bring African-Germans and their projects together and opposes racism.

In Germany"People ask me on the street if I have any drugs," says an African immigrant in Frankfurt. "Or - and this is even with the authorities - it's expected that I'd be better able to respond to poorly spoken German rather than proper German. This may seem harmless at first glance, but it gives black people a negative reputation and contributes to the lack of understanding about the status of people with dark skin in Germany.

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Elangwe Pauline

11.May.2016

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A petition has been started calling for the removal of High Court Judge Mabel Jansen over comments on Facebook regarding black people and rape.

However, the judge says her comments were taken out of context, and that she was referring specifically to the rape cases she has heard.

Well-known activist Gillian Schutte posted excerpts of written exchanges with Jansen on Saturday and Sunday, in which Jansen said, among other comments: “In their culture a woman is there to pleasure them. Period. It is seen as an absolute right and a woman’s consent is not required.”

As excerpts of the conversation were shared on social media, comments flooded back reflecting shock that a judge could hold such opinions, and calls for her removal gathered pace.

Some also asked whether her previous cases should be reviewed for potential racist bias.

The petition on Amandla.mobi called on the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) and the Department of Justice to remove her and by Monday morning, stood at just over 1400 electronic signatures.

But Jansen said she was not generalising, but was referring specifically to the case files that cross her desk. When contacted on Sunday evening she said her husband had just died in the UK and the controversy had shaken her because the accusations are opposite to who she is.

She said the excerpts doing the rounds on the internet formed part of a private Facebook inbox exchange with Schutte last May. It started when she was trying to find help for the victims of the rape and assault cases that she hears.

It worried her that victims were often alone with no help – especially children and women who had been raped by a relative or family member.

Somebody suggested she get in touch with Schutte who would be able to give her advice on how to help them, and they started communicating via Facebook inbox.

Jansen said that she came under attack and was accused of saying that all black men are rapists. She blocked Schutte and, she said, she thought that was the end of it.

CCTV

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Elangwe Pauline

09.May.2016

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The people of Nanga-Eboko of the Centre Region are yet to come to terms with the gruesome act that occurred on 4th May 2016 where three family members died after a serious family disagreement.

According to information from the ‘Adjudant Chef Major’ Raphael Djietcheu, Commander of the Nanga-Eboko Gendarmerie Post, Charles Ngankou , 59, a  driver with the Guinness Depot in Nanga-Eboko, shot his wife to death- Estelle Sylvie Metente, 24, about 11 am, following a quarrel.

Charles Ngakou who had retired home shortly after a Labour Day feast on the 3rd of May 2016, was caught up in a serious quarrel with his wife Estelle Mentente who accused him of his promiscuous behavior with women during the party.

The quarreling came to a point where Charles Ngankou could no longer bear but decided to send her away to her parents with a transport fare of 10,0000FCF. Shortly then, Charles asked her to return the money but she refused and thereafter he pulled off his pistol and shot her to death including her 24 year old brother Bisso Jathan, who had tried to save his sister’s life.

After the bloody scene Charles who was under a serious man hunt by the Gendarmerie decided to kill himself with the gun.

While the three dead bodies were taken to the Nanga-Eboko District Hospital Mortuary, the Gendarmerie team has opened up investigations as to why a civilian such as Charles Ngakou should own a pistol which is even more deadly than pistols commonly used by Cameroon security forces.

CRTV

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Elangwe Pauline

08.May.2016

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