While a great number of Cameroonians, particularly youths, are using the Internet in useful ways such as to carry out research, others have taken it as a forum to get rich over night by duping individuals they meet through different Internet networks such as “facebook” and “Hi5″. They operate under the cover of being big business magnets or true lovers. Recent information published over the Internet indicates that some 22 Cameroonians based in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Ussuriysk (Ukraine), London (United Kingdom), Berlin (Germany), Ivory Coast, and in the towns of Yaounde, Bamenda, Limbe (Cameroon) have been identified as scammers by the international anti-fraud unit.

There are indications that more Cameroon scammers are still to be confirmed by the International anti-fraud unit. Most of the scammers, who use nicknames, get into the profile of their victims either on Facebook, Skype and other chat forums on the Internet, lure them into love fantasy which ends up in huge monetary transactions that marks the disappearance of the so-called “lover boy” or business partner (scammer). A Bamenda-based scammer, who stood for a puppy business operation, duped a UK customer who wanted to buy puppies from him. The scammer never delivered the puppy by air as stipulated in the contract but received 85 per cent of the price of the puppy which was sent to him by his Internet customer.

An American girl created a Facebook profile to escape the loneliness created by the break-up of a relationship. Being of Cameroonian origin by her father, she began adding people from Cameroon to her profile, although she had not visited the country in over 15 years. Less than two months ago, she was contacted by one of the Cameroonians on her profile who is based in Kuala Lumpur. She was taken in by what quickly became a love scam. She fell head over heels for the scumbag, who knew just the right words to tell. Hard working and a brilliant student, she soon promised to sponsor his entry into the United States and to help him get into the same university where, of course, she would be paying the fees for him. After buying a plane ticket to spend vacation with her new lover in Malaysia, she gave access to her scammer lover to collect money from her account to book a hotel and rent a car for her stay in Malaysia. The girl later realised huge sums of money was taken from her account with the new lover no more in existence. Some foreign businessmen have been found wandering in some streets in Cameroon after arriving in the country to realise that their Cameroonian business partners are not real. While the Internet remains a useful tool in the society, users are urged to be conscious against con men.

“I promise to be back next year for the second edition of the tournament. I want you to have the same spirit. I’ll try to bring Lionel Messi with me, I’m sure he’ll accept my invitation.”

Gifted with a lethal left foot, outstanding vision, near-unstoppable dribbling skills and sublime technique, Messi is a sight to behold.

Add in his explosive changes of pace, timing and nose for goal – a trait particularly in evidence in La Liga 2010 – and you have an idea why fans from Laikipia can’t wait for 2011.

“I can’t wait to see that world class player. He’s the best in the world. Mimi hupenda vile yeye huchenga wasee jo, (I really admire how he dribbles past players),” said William Muhinja from Central Rhinos, who was voted the tournament’s best player.

Historic day

After a rather disastrous outing with the Indomitable Lions at the 2010 World Cup coming against a backdrop of high expectations from Africans to perform at the top notch level, Eto’o drew incredulous gasps upon his arrival in Nanyuki.

“We were told to expect him but no one believed he would really come,” marvelled 22-year-old John Bosco Murithi.

“The young people thought it was another deception. This is like a miracle. It is a historic day for football in this area and will give new confidence to this whole region because almost nothing ever makes it this far up-country.”

Eighteen-year-old form four student Sam Gitonga concured. “Now that I have seen him Live,” he declared. “This will inspire me forever.”

He watched as Central Rhinos edged out Northern Elephants 7-6 on post-match penalties in the finals of the month-long tournament, met several soccer academy kids, dined to the soothing sounds of Kenyan songbirds, but Eto’o will live to remember Kenya mainly for the heroic welcome he received.

Conservation efforts

“The first edition of the LUC has scored goals on and outside the field. By bringing communities together, promoting environmental wellbeing of people here, has truly made a difference,” said Jochen Zeitz, founder of the Zeitz Foundation.

“When I get back to Inter (Milan), I’ll make sure I pass your regards to McDonald Mariga,” said Eto’o, before he boarded a Police van from the Nanyuki Municipal Stadium.

The study, conducted in Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa and Zambia, found that only 51 percent of HIV-exposed infants had received a single dose of nevirapine before and after birth, the basic tool in prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT).

The major problem was non-adherence among expecting mothers – more than a quarter did not take the nevirapine tablet at the onset of labour, and health workers also sometimes failed to dispense the drug or check that mothers had taken it. According to UNAIDS, using nevirapine as part of PMTCT services can lower a baby’s chances of contracting HIV by more than 40 percent.

The study, partly based on data collected from umbilical cord blood samples, also found that many women did not make use of PMTCT services because they or health workers did not know their HIV status – either due to a failure to test or collect the results.

The rocky road to PMTCT access

Dr Elizabeth Stringer of Zambia’s Centre for Infectious Disease Research, lead author of the study, said the findings showed that pregnant women and infants missed the opportunity to use PMTCT services at many stages of antenatal care, from a woman’s first visit to the clinic to when the baby was born.

“Non-adherence was significant,” Stringer told IRIN/PlusNews. “What this study shows is that when these women, who had forgotten to take their nevirapine … came to the clinic, no one recognised that they had forgotten; no one recognized that they were HIV-positive and needed PMTCT.”

Stringer said these women could be missed because data collection was often difficult. In many areas, women carried their health records with them, while clinics often collected data in multiple, paper-based logs. The inefficiencies of such a system made it hard to keep track of any one woman, even during just nine months of pregnancy.

The lack of data also complicated this kind of research, said Stringer. Most studies charted PMTCT coverage by measuring provision of services, for example, by counting the number of HIV tests given, or PMTCT drugs dispensed.

Results from the new study were likely to be more reliable because of the use of umbilical cord blood samples, and directly observed dosing of the infants by clinic staff to determine whether mother and child had received nevirapine.

“One of the unique things about this study is that it shows where the problems are … and in different countries, these issues were different,” said Stringer. “With information like this, we are able to target the problem areas. I think it just shows us that there’s no ‘one size fits all’ solution when it comes to PMTCT.”

The study recommended better and more counselling for younger, HIV-positive pregnant women, who were less likely to access PMTCT, and for clinics to offer couples counselling to combat the fear of stigma, which prevented some HIV-positive pregnant women from using PMTCT services.

The authors also emphasised the need to change how PMTCT programmes are evaluated, arguing that many of the currently used indicators had led not only to incorrect data, but also to a lack of problem solving.

“We do need to shift the paradigm about how we monitor PMTCT,” Stringer told IRIN/PlusNews. “I believe it’s possible to eradicate peri-natal HIV but [not] until we take it seriously and target each problem.”

Njawe, who was the director of the independent Le Messager newspaper of Cameroon, died on 12 July 2010 in a car accident in the United States of America.

“Pius Njawe was a press freedom icon not only in Cameroon but all over Africa. His relentless determination and courage in the fight for press freedom and his lifelong struggle for journalists’ welfare in Cameroon were extraordinary. We are deeply saddened by this loss and we express our heartfelt sympathies and condolences to his family, the National Syndicate of Cameroonian Journalists, colleagues at Le Messager newspaper and friends,” said Omar Faruk Osman, Faj President.

Pius Njawe, 53, was victimized on several occasions mainly as a result of his legitimate journalistic activities and in his relentless protests against violation of the right to freedom of the press. “He is also known for standing up for the rights of working journalists and sitting at the table for negotiations to improve working and living conditions of journalists,” Omar Faruk added. “We have lost a brave and committed advocate of press freedom and professional journalism in Africa,” he added.

He founded Le Messager in 1979 and won several prestigious International Journalism awards. He has been known as one of the strongest voices for press freedom defense in Africa. National Syndicate of Cameroonian Journalists (SNJC) regard him as the first publisher that engaged in collective bargaining negotiations with the SNJC to improve the pay and other working conditions of journalists working at Le Messager.

Njawe “was an honest man,” said Njoya, who was interviewed in RFI’s studios in Paris on Thursday. “He wanted to know things and to inform and to change views and go deeply when we started a multi-party system [in Cameroon]… He wanted to make Cameroonians aware of democracy,” he says.

Njawe did not do what the government wanted him to do, because he was truly an independent journalist, says Njoya. “At that time, being independent seemed to be with the opposition… it was not easy,” he adds.

You can relate that in a country like ours, it was not so easy to be independent, to develop his own opinions, says Njoya.

The media has described Njawe as a “legend”, and Njoya agrees. There was a fight for information to be put out for the public, he says, and Njawe was at the forefront.

After living in a one-party system, in a one-party state for so long, new traditions had to be created, says Njoya. We had to “create a new tradition of democracy, a tradition of free expression. He was one of those who worked for it.”

Njawé, 53, was president of the Free Media Group, a company that publishes Cameroon’s leading independent daily Le Messager, and a 1991 recipient of CPJ’s International Press Freedom Award.

On Monday afternoon, in Bowers Hills in southeastern Virginia, a tractor-trailer truck struck the rear of a Lexus sedan in which Njawé was a front-seat passenger, according to news reports. Njawé was in the United States to participate in a pro-democracy forum organized by the Washington-based Cameroon Diaspora For Change, according to news reports.

“We extend our heartfelt sympathy to the family and friends of our colleague Pius Njawé whose tragic death is a great loss to Cameroon’s independent press,” said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. “Pius Njawé has left his mark with Le Messager, which endures as a leading independent newspaper in Cameroon.”

Njawé began his career in the press in 1972 as an errand boy with the Semences Africaines newspaper, according to Le Messager, a paper he would found in 1979 at the age of 22. He was imprisoned dozens of times during his career, according to the paper. Following the September 2002 death of his wife, Jane, in a car accident in Cameroon, Njawé launched the Jane and Justice Foundation for Human Development dedicated to improving traffic safety. The next month, he applied for a license to launch a radio station, Freedom FM, but his efforts were thwarted by state censorship. He is survived by a wife and several children.

Simultaneous explosions ripped through crowds watching the World Cup final at Kyadondo rugby club and the Ethiopian restaurant in Kabalagala.

Police fear Al Shabab, an Al Qaeda-linked Somali militant group was behind the attacks.

Blood and pieces of flesh littered the floor among overturned chairs at the scenes of the blasts, which went off as people watched Sunday night’s game between Spain and the Netherlands.

The attack on the rugby club left 49 dead, police said.

Several Americans from a Pennsylvania church group were wounded in the restaurant attack.

The US Embassy in Kampala confirmed one American was killed.

Several of the injured and the dead were taken to Mulago Hospital mortuary and the City Mortuary.

The scenes of the blasts are cordoned off as police comb the crime scenes for clues.

The governor also told the new SDO that his primordial task should be to ensure that the Mont Mbappit rural development project (PDRM) sponsored by the Islamic Development Bank and government of Cameroon is effectively and efficiently managed to bring a both economic and social benefits to the rural and Urban populations who are the main target. “You must help the population towards more efficient production and management” the Governor stress, and called on the SDO to start preparing the Division for Ebolowa Agric show.

Mr Ivaha Diboua, called on the new SDO to wage a war against highway robbers who are a threat to the inhabitants of Noun and neighbouring regions. The Governor called on the new SDO to ensure that there is respect of general interest, security of persons and property, the enforcement of law and make sure recalcitrant citizens are proposed to the hierarchy for sanction.

He called on the new SDO to respect the culture and tradition of the people, reiterating that administrative decisions must take into consideration the tradition and culture of the Bamoun, adding that, chieftaincy problems must be handled with care for development can only come when there is peace among the elite.

In a humorous welcome speech, the Mayor of Foumban Dr Adamou Ndam Njoya for the first time appreciated an outgoing SDO who served in that Division for rendering good services to the population. Adamou Ndam Njoya said Mr Ndidi Fritz Alain administered his functions with examples “without granting any special privilege to any militants of CDU or CPDM to the detriment of others” and called on the new SDO to copy the example. Mr Mbozo’o Nnomengon is married and father of seven.

In Cameroon the problems can be broken down into three categories: governance, legality and the army.

On the governance front, Cameroon is one of the most centralised states in the world. All state resources, whether cash or jobs, flow from the centre, and mostly from President Paul Biya’s office.

Not only does a consequent absence of meaningful oversight encourage corruption, but it also makes grabbing power at the top overwhelmingly attractive. Those who miss out can feed only on crumbs.

For years Cameroon has worked on the basis of re-distributing those crumbs. But if the current president died or was incapacitated, then there could be a desperate fight for the top job. In short, there is too much at stake.

Authoritarian leaders tend to leave chaos in their wake. This frequently includes legal and constitutional uncertainty. When Guinea’s former President Lansana Conté, died in December 2008, the lack of popular faith in the constitution meant that there was no support for the constitutional successor: the head of the National Assembly. He could not take over, the argument went, because the National Assembly should have stood for re-election one year previously.

In Cameroon, the head of the National Assembly is also the constitutional successor to the president, unless you are reading the new constitution, which came into force in 1996. According to this, the head of the Senate is the constitutional successor. But the Senate doesn’t exist.

In the meantime the country is run according to a provision in the 1996 constitution, which determines that the old constitution can still be applied while the country waits for the new constitution to be enacted. Confused? So are Cameroonians, which is exactly as President Biya clearly wants them.

But with democratic politics at an impasse due to his own manipulations, and the chances of a change of power through the ballot box very low, the question of what happens if the president dies while in power is of vital national and even regional importance.

Diplomatic sensitivities, which are not shared by Cameroonians, who are aware of the looming problems, should not prevent Cameroon’s international allies raising this vital question.

Constitutional uncertainty is evidently an invitation for the army to step in. In Guinea, the authority of the army hierarchy had all but disappeared on Conte’s death, leaving an opening for a junior officer coup.

Military intervention is not inevitable in Cameroon, where a consensus among the elites could hold things together. But it is certainly a risk.

Although in better shape than Guinea’s army, Cameroon’s military does have its problems. Alongside the customary bloated presidential guard, specialised units have been set up to deal with cross-border problems and criminality. They appear relatively competent, but their relations with the rest of the army, who don’t enjoy their levels of training and of compensation, are tense.

Respect for army command is complicated by an underlying problem of generations. As generals never retire, talented younger officers see their promotion blocked. The last time there was a change of president in Cameroon, in the mid 1980s, there was one general, and he was highly respected. He was therefore able to keep the army together, despite at least one coup attempt. There are now 21 generals, several well into their 70s. Their authority over the troops, as well as their own ability to pull together, could be found wanting.

At its root, this is a slow burn crisis of expectations. In the early 1990s, Cameroonians invested considerable hope in their emerging democracy. This hope has been all but extinguished by two decades of democratic pushback by the regime.

This restoration of authoritarianism is closely associated in the Cameroonian mind with continued poverty and rising inequality. If a Cameroonian version of Guinea’s coup leader, Dadis Camara, came with a promise to sweep the house clean, would it be any surprise if he were welcomed?

The only way to avoid this is to allow Cameroonians to hope again, and that means creating a more democratic climate, in which people’s voices are heard, and their choices are respected. With presidential elections coming up next year, the challenge, and the stakes, are clear.

In effect, it was on the strength of Ministerial decision of January 27, 2010 that Foo Ngang nee Injoh Prudencia was commissioned in the presence of His Majesty, Melone Loe Claude who sat for the Minister of Employment and Vocational Training and triples as the Director of ONEFOP, National Coordinator of PIAASI and Director of Employment. The Regional Delegate of Employment and Vocational Training, Nlend Theodore Jules Roger set the tone for the event when he told participants that unemployment is a cancer warm and it was against this backdrop that ONEFOP was created following a Prime Ministerial decision No. 007/PM of February 13, 2002 to put in place a data base in collecting, treating and getting regular information on the employment market and Vocational Training in efforts to help the government take useful decisions.

The pioneer Representative of ONEFOP, North West is a product of the University of Yaounde and the Higher Teacher’s College, ENS with a 24 year experience in guidance and counseling. The 44-year-old mother of four was challenged to identify needs and competences in view of satisfying training and employment demands. The gate-way to success for Mrs Foo Ngang according to governor Abakar Ahamat hangs on good relations with customers who are desperately in need of jobs.