Free Cameroon Now

Shared from GreenPeace Africa:  Click here to see the original article on GreanPeace's website. YAOUNDE, Cameroon, May 26, 2016/APO (African Press Organization)/ -- A Greenpeace Africa (Greenpeace.org)  investigation into illegal logging operations in Cameroon has uncovered a trail of stolen timber leading to Cameroon’s main log exporter Compagnie de Commerce et de Transport (CCT), and has reportedly prompted a government audit into the activities of CCT and its suppliers. That audit should include the supplier La Socamba, subject of a Greenpeace briefing released today. The evidence presented in the briefing, La Socamba: How Cameroon’s Stolen Wood Reaches International Markets, demonstrates how CCT, which supplies timber companies worldwide, including in China and Europe, sources timber from La Socamba, a company engaged in illegal and destructive practices,  including logging several kilometers outside their legal logging title. This new case complements evidence alr...

T he strike action organised by Bamenda traders last July 12 has come and gone. It is now time for those affected to draw lessons. The following paper goes beyond the arguments and counter arguments for and against the strike to demonstrate that both striking traders and the BCC authorities actually have convergent interests. Last July 12, an estimated 3,000-man crowd of traders protesting increased market stall rents by the Bamenda City Council, stormed the North West Governor’s office, prompting a crisis meeting of the administration, the Bamenda City Council authorities, the Mayors of Bamenda I, II and III Councils and representatives of the striking traders; a meeting which resulted in the Secretary General of Bamenda City Council announcing a suspension of the price increase. The trader’s ire had been provoked when, in attempting to renew their rents as due from July 1, they were informed that as per instructions from the Government Delegate, rents were henceforth only rece...

How to steal from Africa, all perfectly legally : When UK PM David Cameron opens the Anti-Corruption Summit on 12 May, we should be aware that the greatest fraud perpetrated on the majority of the world’s citizens is all perfectly legal. by Alex de Waal* Africa loses at least $50 billion a year — and probably much, much more than …