Source: Wed, 1 May 2013 12:00 PM

Author: Elias Ntungwe Ngalame

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When the people of Yaounde talk about the heavy rains that have been battering the country, one memory stands out: the day in June 2011 when President Paul Biya’s motorcade was stuck in floods in the heart of Cameroon's capital city.

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Every minute a child dies of malaria. In Cameroon, Plan’s work has helped to halve the number of people affected by the disease – but there is still so much to do, blogs Plan’s Dr Kwake Simon, ahead of World Malaria Day.

24 April 2013: My interest in public health and malaria dates back to the 1990s, when an economic crisis struck my country, Cameroon. People did not have enough money to buy medicines for their children, and I watched babies die in their parents’ arms from malaria, a disease so easy to prevent.

FOOD SECURITY SNAPSHOT

• Planting of the main season maize crop is well underway

• Stable inflation rates forecast for 2013

• Chronic food insecurity in northern parts of the country due to recurrent climatic shocks

DOUALA, CAMEROON — Mangroves play an important part in maintaining Africa’s coastlines and human livelihoods.

The tropical shrubs and trees thrive in warm humid climates and can reach 60m in height depending on the species. They and their abundant roots grow naturally around coastlines near the earth’s equator.

Hele Pierre is Cameroon’s Minister for the Environment and Nature Protection. He says they play a crucial role in sustaining the life of the planet and its occupants.

WASHINGTON, le 21 Mars 2013 – Le Conseil d'Administration de la Banque mondiale a approuvé aujourd'hui un crédit de 50 millions de dollars américains pour appuyer le Cameroun dans la conception et et la mise en place d’un système national de filets sociaux qui bénéficiera directement a 420,000 personnes vulnérables au cours du projet. Au travers de transferts monétaires et d’emplois de travaux publics, les filets sociaux aideront à réduire la pauvreté et à rendre les bénéfices de la croissance économique accessibles à tous.

By Monde Kingsley Nfor

DOUALA, Cameroon, Mar 14 2013 (IPS) - The fruit farmers in Njombe, a small town in the coastal Littoral Region of Cameroon, learned a life lesson about “making lemonade out of lemons” – or rather “dried fruit out of fruit” when their land was taken from them by the government and leased to an international farming company.

In 1998, 34 fruit farmers lost 70 hectares of their land to Plantation de Haut Penja (PHP), a subsidiary of French company Compagnie Fruitiere, to which the Cameroonian government leased 4,500 hectares of land to grow bananas.

Appeal target (current): CHF 1,552,349

Appeal coverage: 61%.

Appeal history:

• This Emergency Appeal was initially launched on 28 September 2012 for CHF 1,637,314 for 12 months to assist about 25,000 beneficiaries.

• Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF): CHF 299,707 was initially allocated from the Federation’s DREF to support the national society to respond.

• Operations Update No 1 was issued on 19 November 2012 to highlight the achievements since the beginning of the operation.

End impunity for grave human rights violations

People in Cameroon are being subjected to a raft of abuses including unlawful killings and torture as the authorities seek to use the criminal justice system to clamp down on political opponents, human rights defenders and journalists and as a weapon to attack lesbian, gay, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people, Amnesty International said in a new report.

Human Rights Council
Twenty-second session
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights,
including the right to development

Summary