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Equatorial Guinea has closed its border with Cameroon following clashes between traders and soldiers at the border village of Kye-Ossi.An eye-witness, who gave his name as Lambert Abega, told the media that trouble started when a Cameroonian trader ferrying goods to Equatorial Guinea was stopped by the latter's soldiers and asked to produce his official travel papers.“When the Equato-Guinean soldiers discovered that the trader had all his documents and so they could not get him to bribe them before entering their country, one of the soldiers poured urine he had in a plastic bottle on the cargo of the Cameroonian trader,” Mr Abega said.The soldier's act enraged Cameroonians at the border post, leading to heated verbal exchanges.A gun that one soldier was pointing at the Cameroonians went off accidentally, injuring the owner and prompting his colleagues to vent their anger on the Cameroonians, Mr Abega said.Cameroon's South Regional security boss Simon Célestin Bakongo confirmed that Equatorial Guinea had unilaterally closed the border and corroborated the incident at Kye-Ossi as narrated by Mr Abega. Equatorial Guinea heavily depends on Cameroon for its supplies of goods and services. A policeman, who did not want to be identified, told the Africa Review by phone from Kye-Ossi Thursday morning that the ensuing chaos led to several people from either side being injured.Cameroonian police eventually intervened and helped restore ...

A black woman resident in Salford in Manchester who was originally from Cameroon had acid thrown at her in a racist attack as she pushed her baby in a pram.The 29-year-old was in an underpass on Broad Street, Pendleton, on Thursday when a man in his 40s approached her.He made a sexual and racist comment to her before throwing a container of corrosive liquid over her, said police.The victim was treated in hospital for burns to her chest and back. Her baby was not injured.A police spokesman said it was believed to have been a random attack on the woman and it was being treated as a hate crime.'Nasty injury' Detective Constable Jim Harris, of Greater Manchester Police, said it was "an appalling attack on a lady who was walking with her very young baby"."Thankfully none of the corrosive liquid hit the baby or went on the victim's face as the incident could have been a lot worse than it already is," he said."The offender needs to be caught and held responsible for his actions which have caused a nasty injury to the lady and much distress."...

resident Abdoulaye Wade conceded defeat to his former protege Macky Sall late Sunday, congratulating him several hours after polls closed when preliminary results showed the opposition candidate had trounced the 85-year-old incumbent. Wade called Sall around 9:30 p.m. (2130 GMT) Sunday to congratulate him on his victory, state television reported. The move alleviated fears that Wade would attempt to stay in office after 12 years or would challenge the runoff results. Even before Wade conceded, Sall's supporters began celebrating in the streets of the capital, singing and marching through downtown Dakar. Some even danced on the roofs of moving vehicles, and one man did a cartwheel amid the traffic near the Place de l'Independance. Sociologist Hadiya Tandian said that Wade's concession washes away the wounds of a violent election season, which left at least six people dead and tarnished the country's reputation. "This is a great victory for Senegal — it shows the maturity of our democracy," Tandian said. "It shows that the Senegalese believe in their voter IDs, that a voter card can change something, can make a difference. It shows that our long democratic heritage continues to live in us day by day." Wade, who first took office in 2000, has seen his popularity suffer amid soaring costs of living and unemployment in this country on Africa's western coast. He spent 25 years in the opposition fighting to loosen the grip of the former socialist party, which ruled this former French colony for 40 years since independence in 1960. His image began to suffer after he began giving an increasing share of power to his son Karim, who was derisively called "the Minister of the Sky and the Earth" after he was handed control of multiple ministries including infrastructure and energy. Wade's reputation took a nosedive when he announced last year that he planned to run for a third term. For weeks leading up to last month's election, protesters calling for Wade to step down hurled rocks at police in demonstrations that paralyzed the capital's economic heart. Marieme Ousmane Wele, 55, said she had voted for Sall because the rising prices of basic goods have made her life increasingly difficult. "I sell cereal made from corn but the price of corn has really gone up. Now, I don't have many customers and it's becoming difficult to feed my own family," she said, as men sat nearby on plastic lawn chairs in the sand listening to news about the election on portable radios. On the streets of Senegal's capital, images of Wade on campaign posters had their eyes scratched out. And his convoy was hit by rocks in the final days of the runoff campaign. Sall, 50, is a geologist by training who worked for years under Wade. The two, though, had a subsequent falling out and Wade referred to Sall as an apprentice who had not yet taken in "the lessons of his mentor." Earlier Sunday, Sall expressed confidence that Senegal would avoid a protracted electoral dispute. "Our country is a strong democracy ... That's what should be praised, that the vote ...

Police fired tear gas outside a polling station in Senegal's capital Sunday but elsewhere the mood was calm as voters cast their ballots in the presidential run-off election. President Abdoulaye Wade is facing former prime minister Macky Sall. Police fired tear gas at boisterous crowds outside a polling station in Senegal’s capital Sunday as voters decided whether to give their 85-year-old president another term in office or instead back his one-time protege. President Abdoulaye Wade’s decision to seek a third term has infuriated many voters in this country on Africa’s western coast, and when the incumbent cast his ballot last month in the first round, some voters even booed him at the poll shouting “Old man, get lost.”This time around, thousands turned up outside Wade’s polling station. Dozens of young men stood on their cars, holding their voting cards in the air, alongside pictures of an influencial religious figure who has lent his support to Wade. “Wade isn’t leaving, he is staying,” they chanted in the Wolof language. After casting his ballot, Wade rode in an open-air vehicle, pumping his fists in the air as throngs of supporters ran alongside his vehicle. Still, Wade fell short of the 50 percent needed last month to avoid a runoff, receiving only 34.82 percent - a poor showing after easily winning outright in 2007. He faced off Sunday against the very man who ran his last campaign five years ago - former Prime Minister Macky Sall, who received 26.58 percent in the first round and now has the support of the dozen other opposition candidates. While police fired tear gas at some Wade supporters who were chanting too close to the polling station, voting inside the station was orderly. Voters held prayer beads and queued in the shade of a mango tree waiting to cast a ballot and have their finger marked in indelible red ink. Jean Diouf, a young accountant waiting in line to vote at another school in the capital, said he believes the country needs a change in direction. The 2007 election was his first chance to vote, and at the time he backed Wade. Since then, the 23-year-old says the cost of living has skyrocketed. “Things have to change," he said. "If the vote is transparent, Wade has no chance.” On the streets of Senegal’s capital, images of Wade on campaign posters have their eyes scratched out. His convoy was hit by rocks in the final days of the runoff campaign.ennifer Cooke, the director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said in the short term a Wade victory "won fairly or foully" would be tremendously controversial. “I think he’s kind of pushed Senegalese patience to the limit. And I think it would be understood as a fraudulent election by many Senegalese,” she said. “His victory would be a bridge too far ... Even if he wins legally, it will be assumed that he won fraudulently.” Wade has overseen unprecedented economic growth ...

The streets of Bamako were deserted Sunday in the wake of the coup d’etat. The coup leader said on state TV that the putschists were in control, but some soldiers were still looting and firing off volleys in the capital, terrifying residents. Bamako's main market was a shadow of its normal bustling self, shops were shuttered and people preferred to stay home days after Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure was ousted in a coup. "People are scared to go out," said schoolgirl Kady Kante, admitting with a nervous laugh that she too was a bit scared to leave her home but did not want to miss out on a shopping trip with a friend.Kady, trying out necklaces at one of the few open stalls to the sound of the local Mandingo music, was wearing a shirt printed in 2010 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the west African country's independence. But on Thursday, troops angry with the government's handling of the fight against Tuareg rebels in the north seized government buildings and forced Toure to flee. Coup leader Captain Amadou Sanogo insisted on state television that the putschists were in control of the situation, but some soldiers were still looting and firing off volleys in the capital, terrifying residents. Bamako's streets were largely deserted, thanks in part to dwindling petrol supplies. Becaye Soukoule, a trader in his late 20s, chatted with friends at the market but was not ready to open his spare parts shop. "We're scared that they will come and steal things," he said. The coup leaders also issued a statement Saturday calling on soldiers to return to barracks and reminding unit commanders they were responsible for their men. With petrol running short, soldiers urged filling station owners to open up for business. But many local people were still too shaken by the breakdown in law and order that followed the coup as soldiers -- and other opportunists -- took advantage of the confusion. Dramane Drago decided to open his hardware store Saturday only to find that the customers were not coming. Summing up the atmosphere, the 50-year-old trader said: "It's calm and it's precarious." That precariousness was most keenly felt at sites where soldiers were still controlling access: the state television station ORTM and the main roads in and out of the capital. The banks were closed, and any business to be done in the city would have to be completed before 6:00 pm because of a dusk-to-dawn curfew announced by the army. "Yesterday (Friday) there was shooting," said Ibrahima Diallo, who had come to visit relatives in the working-class district of Bagadadji, in the centre of Bamako near the market and the city's main mosque. But Diallo's main concern was how to get petrol for his moped. With most stations still closed, black market sellers were making a killing, selling the petrol for more than double its normal price, he said. For Diallo, a young man looking for work, that was too steep for him. Some stations were beginning to reopen Saturday under ...

After a string of defeats against better armed Tuareg rebels, Mali's army staged a mutiny and overthrew the government.Angered by the government’s inability to provide the food and weaponry needed to fight an armed rebellion in the north, Mali’s army launched a rebellion of its own yesterday. By Wednesday evening, they claimed to have overthrown the government in a coup d’etat.The first shots rang out at an army barracks near Bamako, the nation’s capital, in what has become a familiar sign of mutiny and unrest. But rebellious soldiers eventually moved toward the presidential palace, and after overpowering the presidential guard and arresting President Amadou Toumani Toure, they took to the airwaves and announced that the constitution was suspended and that the parliament and other democratic institutions would be dissolved until elections are held, reports CNN."Considering the incapacity of the regime in effectively fighting against terrorism and restoring dignity to the Malian people, using its constitutional rights, the armed forces of Mali along with other security forces have decided to take on their responsibilities to put an end to this incompetent regime of President Amadou Toumani Toure," said the soldiers’ spokesman, Amadou Konare.Mali has been considered one of the more stable democratic nations in West Africa, although Mr. Toure, the current president, came to power in an armed insurrection in 1991 before submitting to elections in 2002. The US and France also view Mali as a key frontline state fighting against Islamist militants calling themselves Al Qaeda of the Islamic lands of the Maghreb (AQIM).But for Mali itself, the main security threat has always been less about the relatively small AQIM and more about the country’s restive Tuareg population in the north. Funded and armed by Libyan strongman Muammar Qaddafi – who trained an entire battalion of Tuaregs in his own Libyan national army – Tuareg rebels have launched two major rebellions in recent years, first in the early 1990s and later in 2007-2009. When Mr. Qaddafi’s government was toppled late last year, an estimated 2,000 well-armed pro-Qaddafi Tuaregs returned to northern Mali and began attacking and taking ...

Police in Cameroon arrested former prime minister Inoni Ephraim on Monday as part of an investigation into corruption, one of his lawyers said. “He has been placed in detention...,” after having been questioned by an investigating magistrate, the lawyer, who asked not to be identified, told AFP. A source at the court said Ephraim, who served as prime minister between 2004 and 2009, was suspected of having embezzled funds related to the bank account of Cameroon airline Camair. Yves Michel Fotso and Paul Gamo Hamani, two former bosses of the airline, have already been detained and placed under formal investigation for embezzlement of public funds: Fotso in 2010 and Hamani in 2009. The company ceased trading in 2008. Ephraim's arrest comes as part of Operation Epervier (Sparrowhawk), an anti-corruption campaign launched in 2004. That operation has already resulted in the arrest of several senior figures in Cameroon including former ministers and the heads of state-owned companies. But Monday's arrest is the first time a former premier of the country has been detained. In a part of a separate investigation Monday, former minister Marafa Amidou Yaya was also taking into custody as part of an investigation into the misuse of public funds that had been meant for the presidential airplane. A report last November by Cameroon's National Anti-Corruption Commission (CONAC) said that 45 million euros ($62 million) in public funds had been lost or embezzled. Those figures came from a investigation CONAC conducted in ...

The Cameroon Defence Forces will receive military training in French military academies. There will also be an exchange views and information on risks and threats to national and regional security between the Republics of France and Cameroon. This is the substance of a new bill deliberated at the National Assembly. The bill was defended by the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defence, Edgard Alain Mebe Ngo'o. In the presence of the Secretary of State in-charge of the Gendarmerie, Minister Mebe Ngo’o told members of the Foreign Affairs Committee that the current defence partnership shall replace that of 1974 which is obsolete. The assembly also validated the mandate of the Alternate Candidate for Benoue West, Zacharie Mohaman who replaces Honourable Ahidjo Badjika who was appointed Minister in-charge of Special Duties at the Presidency....

Beginning January 2012, government will embark on the third generation of the effective transfer of powers and accompanying resources to local governments which for now are the city, sub-divisional and local councils. Over 17 ministries are expected to be involved in the devolution of powers and resources for effective local and balanced development. The transfer of resources as provided for by the various decrees and laws is yet to be fully implemented. The Prime Minister, Head of Government, Philemon Yang who is also the Chairman of the National Decentralisation Council, a body created to oversee the implementation of the decentralisation process, on November 10, 2011, instructed the Minister of State for Territorial Administration and Decentralisation (MINATD) to “safeguard the budgetary provision set aside for the payment of salaries of council officials by transferring it to the financing of the running cost of councils, resulting from the transfer of powers for the 2011 financial year,” a communiqué from the Decentralisation Council stated. He also instructed that MINATD in collaboration with the Ministers of Finance and Economy to forward to him the draft joint orders on the distribution to concerned councils of the Common Decentralisation Fund after the promulgation of the 2012 finance law. These instructions indicate the manifest determination of government to propel local development by furnishing councils with the necessary resources for functioning and execution of projects. The different ministries that have devolved powers to councils are obliged to devolve corresponding financial resources and on time to enable the councils to carry out projects contained in the powers. Council revenue is also expected to come from the Common Decentralisation Fund. The finance law each year has to fix the amount to be transferred to each council on the proposal of government. The central government also has to refund to councils, collected local taxes to boost their functioning. The transfer of financial resources also has to be accompanied by that of competent personnel to help manage them. Two years after the effective start of devolution of powers and accompanying resources, Government Delegates and Mayors who are the local managers and other stakeholders, are yet to find full satisfaction. They complain that resources from ministries that have devolved powers are most of the time not disbursed on time, and resources from the Common Decentralisation Fund and local taxes are not really dependable. There have also been complaints of lack of competent staff in many local councils. The major preoccupation here is to find out the hurdles to the effective transfer of resources and the way forward. The decentralisation process has however, made giant strides. President Paul Biya’s major accomplishments’ vision in the just begun seven-year tenure has decentralisation as one of the key ...

Olivia Mukam, President and Founder of Harambe-Cameroon, is one of 8 world-wide pioneer members of the Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance. Ms. Mukam established Cameroon’s first Social Entrepreneurship Program: an opportunity zone for Cameroonian university students to propose project-solutions to solve local problems. In 2011, Olivia’s objective/project to inspire and engage 2011 young Problem-Solvers across the nation received a grant from the U.S. Embassy.  In 2007, she started a potable water and sanitation project in the village of Bamendjou-West Cameroon in collaboration with the Engineers without Borders (EWB) of the University of Delaware. After 3 years of implementation, the project has provided access to clean water to about 3,000 people in the village. As spokesperson for Les Amies Colombes, in 2008, Ms Mukam rallied the Johns Hopkins University’s (JHU) African Student Association (ASA) to collaborate with this Cameroonian youth-empowerment NGO. During the annual African Student Association Festival, the JHU/ASA raised funds to sponsor 20 Cameroonian girls’ training in a vocational school in Douala, Cameroon.  Ms Mukam was born in 1987. She graduated from The Johns Hopkins University in January 2009 with a degree in International Relations and a concentration on African ...

The 2012 legislative year gets into day two this 7th of March 2012. The session, though ordinary, is considered very crucial because of the number of bills which many suspect shall be tabled for scrutiny. That notwithstanding, the session shall also focus on the election of a new bureau. This explains why at the opening ceremony, the Honourable Cavayé Yéguié Djibril was an ordinary parliamentarian at the opening of the session, while waiting to be re-elected. The oldest member of the House, as it is the tradition, welcomed all top government officials and members of the diplomatic corps who were taking part in the plenary. Honourable Peter Cho Fonso, SDF MP for Momo reminded the assembly especially government Ministers that the interest of the population is primordial. He said great achievements should become great successes. Peter Cho Fonso pinpointed development projects and the new agricultural policy in Cameroon as positive actions that should place Cameroon as an emerging economy by 2035. The SDF member of parliament  identified the 100 billion francs emergency package for road construction works, the recompilation of voters registers including the introduction of biometrics and only recently, the award of bonuses to teachers in primary and secondary schools as very positive actions that have sanctioned the beginning of the 9th December government in Cameroon. Honourable Peter Cho Fonso expressed gratitude to the President of the Republic for his decision to organize the 50th anniversary of Cameroon’s reunification in Buea. Apart from cabinet members, the opening session was witnessed by the Prosecutor General of the Supreme Court, Martin Rissouk a Moulong and close collaborators of President Paul Biya including Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, Minister of State Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic. The election of bureau members of the National Assembly is expected to be the next item on the agenda before real business begins....

A probe by Cameroon's anti-graft body found that 45 million euros ($62 million) in public funds had been lost or embezzled, according to a report, a copy of which was obtained by AFP Friday.The National Anti-Corruption Commission (Conac) said in its first report since its creation by President Paul Biya in 2006 that the money had gone missing from the public works ministry, the general treasury and the maize industry."The budgetary resources the state invests in road building would be enough to build three times as many roads" if corruption were eradicated, the report said.The report is based on investigations conducted by Conac in 2009.Biya in 2006 launched an anti-graft campaign named Operation Sparrowhawk.But foreign watchdogs say Cameroon remains one of the world's most corrupt states and that billions have been siphoned away under the 30-year-old ...