Latest news with #Douala
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
The world's oldest president is running again: can anyone stop him from winning?
Opposite Treasure Hunter, one of four casinos on the same street in Douala, Cameroon's commercial capital, money changers and motorcycle taxi drivers such as André Ouandji mill around, calling out to potential clients. Ouandji has worked in the area for three years but has not entered the casinos. He prefers to frequent the sports betting shop in his local neighbourhood of Bonabéri. Cameroon has the second-best performing economy in central Africa, but despite this a third of the population live on $2 or less daily and, according to a 2023 survey by the country's National Statistics Institute, eight in 10 of the workforce are informally employed. Against this backdrop, gambling and betting have become increasingly popular. 'We stopped relying on the government for anything years ago,' said Ouandji, who is 27. Like many young Cameroonians, he is undecided about whether to vote in October's presidential election. In a country where the median age is 18 and average life expectancy is 63, the overwhelming favourite is the 92-year-old incumbent, Paul Biya, president since 1982. He formally declared his candidacy for another seven-year term on 13 July, brushing aside calls from inside and outside the country to step aside. 'Together, there are no challenges we cannot meet,' he wrote on X. 'The best is still to come.' Biya's decades-long rule has been accompanied by a decline in voter turnout. The abstention rate in the 1992 election – widely believed to have been stolen from the late opposition leader John Fru Ndi – was 19.6%. By 2018 it had hit 46.7%. Eighteen-year-old Serge (not his real name), a first-year geography student at the University of Douala, said prioritising his economic future in a country of high unemployment and rampant nepotism was more important to him than voting. 'My dream was to be a lawyer but you need connections for jobs, your father needs to be placed somewhere, so I settled for being a teacher which is easier,' he said. Supporters of the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) point to the country's overall economic performance relative to its neighbours and say they prefer stability to the unknown. Some even believe Biya's mandate is divine. 'No authority can exist unless it comes from God,' said Antoine Nkoa, the author of the 51-page pamphlet 10 Good Reasons Why You Should Vote Paul Biya in 2025. Nkoa, who lives in the capital, Yaoundé, said he had never met the president but that he had an early morning vision of the world's oldest president winning again. Such a vision represents a nightmare scenario for Barthélemy Yaouda Hourgo, the Catholic bishop of Yagoua in the country's Far North region. 'Enough is enough,' he said in January while urging Biya, the son of a catechist, to call it quits. Christopher Nkong, the secretary general of the leading opposition party, Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC), said in an interview that Biya had 'outlived his usefulness'. 'We say, 'Papa you have done your best. Can you not leave for another Cameroonian to take over?'' Biya's critics say his supporters are out of touch with reality. Endemic corruption and a cost of living crisis have been exacerbated by concurrent conflicts with armed anglophone separatists in the west sending thousands into neighbouring Nigeria, jihadists in the Far North region and criminal kidnapping gangs in the so-called triangle of death near the borders with Chad and Central African Republic. Experts say the crises could make voting in some areas harder, which would favour Biya. The election takes place a few days after separatists mark the independence of the breakaway state of Ambazonia. At least seven people including a priest were killed by security officials during the 2018 election weekend in Buea and Bamenda, the main cities in anglophone Cameroon. In a twist to proceedings, two of Biya's longtime allies – the influential ministers Bello Bouba Maigari and Issa Tchiroma – resigned from the cabinet within days of each other in June and declared their intention to run against him. 'We are in misery,' Tchiroma said from his home town of Garoua in the north, a hunting ground for the jihadists of Boko Haram. The same month, Léon Onana, a municipal councillor, filed a lawsuit to compel CPDM to organise its first national congress since 2011 on the grounds that 'we cannot remain in a party where everything revolves around a single individual'. Sign up to The Long Wave Nesrine Malik and Jason Okundaye deliver your weekly dose of Black life and culture from around the world after newsletter promotion MRC hopes to rally the undecided and uninterested to vote in large numbers for its candidate, the former justice minister Maurice Kamto. 'Everybody is feeling the pinch of mismanagement, embezzlement, non-development, low standards of living, and poverty brought by the regime [which] knows that it is unpopular,' said Nkong. But, he added, 'to uproot a dictator is not a day's job'. Despite efforts by civil society groups to mobilise people to register to vote, and moves by multiple opposition parties to coalesce into a coalition, some say the field has already been rigged in favour of Biya. The country's electoral commission, Elections Cameroon, for example, comprises several former ruling party members and is not seen as impartial. The commission is supervised by the all-powerful minister of territorial administration, Paul Atanga Nji, a self-described 'Biyaiste' nicknamed Moulinex National after the French kitchen blender for his threats to Biya's opponents. Among his critics, Biya is seen as a master of divide and rule. For years, CPDM has been accused of sponsoring political parties to cause confusion within opposition ranks and armed separatist factions to stir chaos. A law forbidding parties from campaigning until a month before the election often does not seem to apply to CPDM. The government was approached for comment. Shortly after Kamto held a mass rally with the diaspora in Paris at the end of May, he was put under house arrest. Some of his supporters were also locked up in police cells for two days. 'The police, gendarme and military came,' a witness who wished to remain anonymous said. Kah Walla, the leader of the left-leaning Cameroon People's party, has similar stories of harassment. 'In the last year, my office here has been surrounded by police tanks and water cannons,' she said. 'If I cannot hold a normal political meeting, then for sure I cannot be a candidate in the election … it's an aberration to even call these things elections.' Her party is boycotting the elections, as it did in 2018, demanding serious reforms instead. 'I always tell Cameroonians, if we are asked to go to a football tournament, say in Nigeria, and the referees are Nigerian, the people allowing people into the stadium are Nigerian, and the stadium is on a hill with Nigeria at the top and the other teams are at the bottom, Cameroonians will say bring the team back home.' In some circles there is hopeful talk on social media of a 'post-Biya era'. MRC has urged young people to copy its Senegalese counterparts, who stayed at polling stations during vote-tallying last year to 'protect their votes' and helped unseat the ruling party. Some experts say another post-election scenario may be a repeat of events in Gabon, where the re-election of Ali Bongo in August 2023 triggered unrest and a coup. There is the sense that many Cameroonians will be comfortable with either scenario. 'There will be no error in 2025,' Nkong said. 'CPDM's time has ended.'
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
The world's oldest president is running again: can anyone stop him from winning?
Opposite Treasure Hunter, one of four casinos on the same street in Douala, Cameroon's commercial capital, money changers and motorcycle taxi drivers such as André Ouandji mill around, calling out to potential clients. Ouandji has worked in the area for three years but has not entered the casinos. He prefers to frequent the sports betting shop in his local neighbourhood of Bonabéri. Cameroon has the second-best performing economy in central Africa, but despite this a third of the population live on $2 or less daily and, according to a 2023 survey by the country's National Statistics Institute, eight in 10 of the workforce are informally employed. Against this backdrop, gambling and betting have become increasingly popular. 'We stopped relying on the government for anything years ago,' said Ouandji, who is 27. Like many young Cameroonians, he is undecided about whether to vote in October's presidential election. In a country where the median age is 18 and average life expectancy is 63, the overwhelming favourite is the 92-year-old incumbent, Paul Biya, president since 1982. He formally declared his candidacy for another seven-year term on 13 July, brushing aside calls from inside and outside the country to step aside. 'Together, there are no challenges we cannot meet,' he wrote on X. 'The best is still to come.' Biya's decades-long rule has been accompanied by a decline in voter turnout. The abstention rate in the 1992 election – widely believed to have been stolen from the late opposition leader John Fru Ndi – was 19.6%. By 2018 it had hit 46.7%. Eighteen-year-old Serge (not his real name), a first-year geography student at the University of Douala, said prioritising his economic future in a country of high unemployment and rampant nepotism was more important to him than voting. 'My dream was to be a lawyer but you need connections for jobs, your father needs to be placed somewhere, so I settled for being a teacher which is easier,' he said. Supporters of the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) point to the country's overall economic performance relative to its neighbours and say they prefer stability to the unknown. Some even believe Biya's mandate is divine. 'No authority can exist unless it comes from God,' said Antoine Nkoa, the author of the 51-page pamphlet 10 Good Reasons Why You Should Vote Paul Biya in 2025. Nkoa, who lives in the capital, Yaoundé, said he had never met the president but that he had an early morning vision of the world's oldest president winning again. Such a vision represents a nightmare scenario for Barthélemy Yaouda Hourgo, the Catholic bishop of Yagoua in the country's Far North region. 'Enough is enough,' he said in January while urging Biya, the son of a catechist, to call it quits. Christopher Nkong, the secretary general of the leading opposition party, Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC), said in an interview that Biya had 'outlived his usefulness'. 'We say, 'Papa you have done your best. Can you not leave for another Cameroonian to take over?'' Biya's critics say his supporters are out of touch with reality. Endemic corruption and a cost of living crisis have been exacerbated by concurrent conflicts with armed anglophone separatists in the west sending thousands into neighbouring Nigeria, jihadists in the Far North region and criminal kidnapping gangs in the so-called triangle of death near the borders with Chad and Central African Republic. Experts say the crises could make voting in some areas harder, which would favour Biya. The election takes place a few days after separatists mark the independence of the breakaway state of Ambazonia. At least seven people including a priest were killed by security officials during the 2018 election weekend in Buea and Bamenda, the main cities in anglophone Cameroon. In a twist to proceedings, two of Biya's longtime allies – the influential ministers Bello Bouba Maigari and Issa Tchiroma – resigned from the cabinet within days of each other in June and declared their intention to run against him. 'We are in misery,' Tchiroma said from his home town of Garoua in the north, a hunting ground for the jihadists of Boko Haram. The same month, Léon Onana, a municipal councillor, filed a lawsuit to compel CPDM to organise its first national congress since 2011 on the grounds that 'we cannot remain in a party where everything revolves around a single individual'. Sign up to The Long Wave Nesrine Malik and Jason Okundaye deliver your weekly dose of Black life and culture from around the world after newsletter promotion MRC hopes to rally the undecided and uninterested to vote in large numbers for its candidate, the former justice minister Maurice Kamto. 'Everybody is feeling the pinch of mismanagement, embezzlement, non-development, low standards of living, and poverty brought by the regime [which] knows that it is unpopular,' said Nkong. But, he added, 'to uproot a dictator is not a day's job'. Despite efforts by civil society groups to mobilise people to register to vote, and moves by multiple opposition parties to coalesce into a coalition, some say the field has already been rigged in favour of Biya. The country's electoral commission, Elections Cameroon, for example, comprises several former ruling party members and is not seen as impartial. The commission is supervised by the all-powerful minister of territorial administration, Paul Atanga Nji, a self-described 'Biyaiste' nicknamed Moulinex National after the French kitchen blender for his threats to Biya's opponents. Among his critics, Biya is seen as a master of divide and rule. For years, CPDM has been accused of sponsoring political parties to cause confusion within opposition ranks and armed separatist factions to stir chaos. A law forbidding parties from campaigning until a month before the election often does not seem to apply to CPDM. The government was approached for comment. Shortly after Kamto held a mass rally with the diaspora in Paris at the end of May, he was put under house arrest. Some of his supporters were also locked up in police cells for two days. 'The police, gendarme and military came,' a witness who wished to remain anonymous said. Kah Walla, the leader of the left-leaning Cameroon People's party, has similar stories of harassment. 'In the last year, my office here has been surrounded by police tanks and water cannons,' she said. 'If I cannot hold a normal political meeting, then for sure I cannot be a candidate in the election … it's an aberration to even call these things elections.' Her party is boycotting the elections, as it did in 2018, demanding serious reforms instead. 'I always tell Cameroonians, if we are asked to go to a football tournament, say in Nigeria, and the referees are Nigerian, the people allowing people into the stadium are Nigerian, and the stadium is on a hill with Nigeria at the top and the other teams are at the bottom, Cameroonians will say bring the team back home.' In some circles there is hopeful talk on social media of a 'post-Biya era'. MRC has urged young people to copy its Senegalese counterparts, who stayed at polling stations during vote-tallying last year to 'protect their votes' and helped unseat the ruling party. Some experts say another post-election scenario may be a repeat of events in Gabon, where the re-election of Ali Bongo in August 2023 triggered unrest and a coup. There is the sense that many Cameroonians will be comfortable with either scenario. 'There will be no error in 2025,' Nkong said. 'CPDM's time has ended.'
BBC News
28-06-2025
- Health
- BBC News
'My five-year-old daughter die after she chop biscuit from a local vendor'
Di father of one of di two girls wey die afta dem allegedly chop one popular locally made biscuit for Cameroon dey call for thorough investigation and autopsy to reveal wetin really kill im daughter. Oga Belmond wey be trader dey deeply confused as several children wey chop di same biscuit no die, but im five-year-old daughter Makeda, die afta she chop am. "I no dey dia, but pipo say she chop di biscuits. Dem no be di only ones wey chop am. So why na say only two children die? Only thorough and well-conducted autopsy go reveal wetin di children actually chop." Oga Belmond tok. On Tuesday, 24 June, two children bin die, and more dan one hundred and five odas land for hospital for Douala, di economy capital of Cameroon, afta dem allegedly chop one popular locally made biscuit. Authorities for di city say di children wey dey between di ages of one and 16, begin sick afta dem chop galette cakes wey one popular local pastry vendor sell give dem. "Di children wey chop dis galettes bin complain of serious stomach pains. We don record two deaths for di New-Bell district hospital," di govnor of Littoral Region tok. E add say dem rush more dan one hundred and five children go Laquintinie Hospital, wia dem currently dey receive care. Hospital officials say one child dey for critical condition, e dey on respiratory support, and dem dey treat about ten odas for abdominal pain. Di head of Paediatric department for Laquintinie Hospital bin reassure di public say dem take proper care of di children and medical staff full ground. She confam say dem neo report any deaths for di hospital. According to her, dem dey carry out tests to sabi di causes of di poisoning. "For Laquintinie Hospital, we receive 105 pipo. Nobody die. Everybody we treat don go house. we don conduct biological tests to know exactly wetin cause di sickness," she explain. "Di medical and paramedical teams work hard to care for di children. We also get team of psychologists to reassure both di children plus di parents," Marie Solange Ndom Ebongue, Director of Laquintinie Hospital tok. Di pastry seller don hand imself ova give di police and e currently dey under investigation. Authorities say e claim say im no know wetin cause di poisoning. Dem don seal off im shop as part of di investigation.
BBC News
09-06-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Maurice Kamto: Police surround home of opposition firebrand in Cameroon
Cameroon's main opposition leader Maurice Kamto says police have surrounded his home for the past two days since he returned from France, where he had held a political rally that inflamed the ruling CPDM Sunday law enforcement officers blocked the 71-year-old from leaving his lodgings in the main city of Douala for a meeting with members of his Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) later called off plans to hold the meeting on Monday because of the strong police plans to contest Cameroon's presidential election later this year, hoping to end 92-year-old Paul Biya's four-decade grip on power. Biya has not yet declared whether he will stand for re-election. Kamto spent nine months in detention after contesting the 2018 poll, when the authorities accused the former law professor of insurrection following protests by his supporters who claimed that the poll had been rigged in favour of Biya. The government denied the in Paris last month, Kamto promised to protect Biya and his family if he wins October's election. "When you do me the great of honour of entrusting me with the reins, you can be sure that nothing will happen to Mr Biya and his family. Nothing. I guarantee it, I have no time for hatred. I [only] have time to build Cameroon with you," he told thousands of Cameroonians living in the diaspora who had turned up to his rally on 31 did not go down well with ruling party officials, with one calling his comments "pathetic"."What protection do they need? Which family are we talking about?," asked Labour Minister Grégoire Owona in a Facebook post, adding, "Cameroon is not in danger."Following Kamto's return, security has been tightened in parts of officers on the ground told the BBC on Monday that they had been instructed to watch the neighbourhood where Kamto was staying, and the media was not allowed to film. Footage filmed in the city on Sunday evening showed Kamto telling supporters "as I speak, I'm still sequestered". "Go home in calm and dignity," he told chanting supporters who had gathered at the and gendarme officers had also restricted access to the CRM party building that Kamto was trying to reach, saying the meeting was not Kamto denies this, saying local authorities and law enforcement officials were informed that he was coming to the city for a the election approaches, rights groups have condemned the government's crackdown on dissent in the Central African elections that were also supposed to take place earlier this year have been delayed until 2026. Biya has been in power for 42 years and is one of the world's oldest heads of state. Last year the country banned reports on the president's health, following rumours that he had died. Kamto's eligibility to run for the presidency is in question, because Cameroonian law demands that any political party must already have elected representatives in place if its leader wishes to run for the last presidential election Kamto's CRM party had one senator, but going into this election it has no elected Kamto could run as an independent candidate, for which he would need 300 signatures from designated personalities from across the Kamto insists there is "no legal obstacle" stopping his bid for the presidency, and CRM representative Guy Tassé told the AFP news agency that there was "a political manoeuvre by the regime to try to block the candidate they fear because he embodies real change".The country is also in the throes of a separatist insurgency - with rebels demanding independence for Cameroon's two English-speaking provinces, which are home to 20% of the the near-decade since the conflict began, at least 6,000 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes. You may also be interested in: 'Nowhere is safe' - Cameroonians trapped between separatists and soldiersArt curator Koyo Kouoh dies at height of careerThe lawyer risking everything to defend LGBT rightsPaul Biya: Cameroon's 'absentee president' Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Art curator Koyo Kouoh dies at height of career
Koyo Kouoh, one of the art world's leading figures and a fierce advocate of African creatives, has died aged 57. A Cameroon-born curator, Kouoh had been at the height of her career. She was due to become the first African woman to lead next year's Venice Biennale, one of the world's most prestigious contemporary art events, and led one of Africa's largest contemporary art museums. The cause of Kouoh's unexpected death has not yet been made public. The curator passed away in Switzerland, according to reports. South African artist Candice Breitz described Kouoh as "magnificently intelligent, endlessly energetic and formidably elegant". Otobong Nkanga, a Nigerian visual artist, called the late curator a source of warmth, generosity and brilliance". Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni also spoke of Kouoh's impact, saying her passing "leaves a void in the world of contemporary art". Kouoh's colourful life began in 1967, when she was born in Cameroon, a Central African country with a rich artistic heritage. She grew up in the country's largest city, Douala, before moving to Switzerland aged 13. There, she studied business administration and banking but, in a pivotal moment, chose not to pursue finance as a career. "I am fundamentally uninterested in profit," she explained in a 2023 interview with the New York Times. Rather than building on her degree, Kouoh assisted migrant women as a social worker and began to immerse herself in the world of art. She gave birth to her son in Switzerland during the 90s, an experience she described as "profoundly transformative". She would go on to adopt three other children. Fed up with life in the Swiss city of Zurich, Kouoh returned to Africa in 1996. She worked as a curator in Senegalese capital city Dakar, before founding Raw Material Company, an expansive, independent art hub. Just last week, and six years into her role as the director of South Africa's Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Kouoh reflected on her love for Dakar. "Dakar made me who I am today," she told the Financial Times. "It's the place I came of age professionally, where I really became a curator and an exhibition-maker... I'm in Cape Town now but, mentally, I live in Dakar. It's the one and only place for me." When Kouoh took the top job at Zeitz, Africa's biggest contemporary art museum, the institution was in crisis. Founding director Mark Coetzee had been suspended in 2018 following allegations of staff harrasment and later resigned. Kouoh has been widely credited with turning Zeitz's fortunes around, leading it through the scandal, as well as the Covid pandemic. "For me, it became a duty to salvage this institution," she told The Art World: What If…?! podcast. "I was convinced that the failure of Zeitz, if it had failed would've been the failure of all of us African art professionals in the field, somehow indirectly." As Zeitz's director and curator, Kouoh oversaw a number of acclaimed exhibitions, including When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting. The show, which brings together works by black artists from the last century, is currently on display in Brussels. In a statement announcing Kouoh's "sudden" death, Zeitz expressed its "profound sorrow" and said that, out of respect, the museum would be closed "until further notice". In her Financial Times interview last week, Kouoh challenged the idea that death would bring an end to her endeavours. "I do believe in life after death, because I come from an ancestral black education where we believe in parallel lives and realities," she said. "There is no 'after death', 'before death' or 'during life'. It doesn't matter that much. I believe in energies - living or dead - and in cosmic strength." The Ivorian artist 'not surprised' to be a best-seller Mother's joy as son named world's youngest male artist Ethiopian artist Julie Mehretu breaks African art-world record again Go to for more news from the African continent. Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica Africa Daily Focus on Africa
