Cameroon-Canada cooperation:Canada’s High Commissioner Visits North West Regional Assembly

The Canadian High  commissioner to Cameroon, His Excellency Richard Bale, on Friday, April 22, 2022 was at  the North West Regional Assembly, for a working visit.

The visiting ambassador, upon arrival, listened to a presentation on the North West Regional Development Plan (NWRDP), and the feasiblity studies for the the construction of the permanent headquarters of the North West Regional Assembly. The  two presentations were done by partner consultants of the Regional Assembly.

In his welcome note, the President of the North West Regional Assembly, Prof. Fru Angwafo III, thanked the diplomat for coming and acknowledged the long standing cooperation Canada has has with Cameroon over the years.

"The North-West Region has benefitted in large measure from the multifaceted bilateral Canada-Cameroon relations. Particularly, in the creation of community radios, technical schools and educational grants/scholarships, the Kumbo water project and in the human and physical development realm." Prof. Angwafor stated.

"The people of the North-West will forever be grateful for the overtures and actions towards a return to peace and normalcy in our restive region. We sincerely hope this visit will be a turning point in our lives, in our quest for sustained peaceful development". he added.

While appreciating Canada for the healthy bilateral relation  with Cameroon, Prof Fru Angwafo highlighted that  the North West Region in particular will be pleased to twin with Canadian Provinces to initiate partnerships and joint ventures between private concerns and or NGOs.

In his key note remark, H.E Richard Bale, Speaking to the press, expressed satisfaction for the quality of plan projected by the two presentations and promised to  study them indepth with his team upon his return to Yaounde. He congratulated the North West Regional Assembly on its great job in assessing needs and identifying opportunities for bilateral cooperations.

The ambassador equally added that, for foreign partners and investors like Canada, after receiving a plan as such, the next step is for them to go digest the plan and identify  areas of complementarity to hitching on.

Speaking on the resolution of the crisis, the High Commissioner called on Cameroonian stakeholders to device or develop solutions and implement them. However, Canada is always there to assist in such a process if called upon. He added that the security situation really need to be  addressed so that the Region can pursue its developmental plan and objectives. 

Before parting ways,  H.E Richard Bale expressed complete satisfaction to have been in the midst of the North West Regional Assembly community. “It was a great visit, I learned a lot about the North West Region of Cameroon and it was a pleasure to meet all the team.” he said.

The two personalities, Professor Fru Angwafor and H.E Richard Bale equally praised the joint progress resulting from the Cameroon-Canada bilateral cooperation. They have together expressed the wish to see it become more dense.

It should be noted that the  Cameroon-Canada bilateral cooperation share a  rich cooperation which dates back to 1962 and which has diversified into various sectors of human investment, rural development, communication and telecommunications infrastructure, microfinance, support to the private sector, and more recently, support to the fight against Covid-19 pandemic, etc.

World Malaria Day: Free Intermittent Treatment For Infants Launched

The Secretary General at the Ministry of Public Health, Professor Louis Richard Njock has launched a chemoprevention nationwide strategy to curb malaria in children under five years. The launching ceremony  took  place today Monday 25th April 2022, at the Soa Health District in the Mefou and Afamba Division of the Centre Region. 

The Intermittent Preventive Treatment of malaria in Infants (IPTi) is being administered through the Enlarged Programme on Immunization Services. Each child, as from the age of 10 weeks to 5 years will henceforth  receive a tablet of Sulfadoxine Pyriméthamine (SP), the pediatric formula will be repeated during each vaccination contact until the child is 23 months.

The Intermittent Preventive Treatment of malaria in Infants (IPTi) will be piloted in six districts of the centre region; Bafia, Nkolbisson, Ngoumou, Soa, Obala and Ntui for four years.

It should be noted that Malaria is a life-threatening, acute febrile illness transmitted through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. And World Malaria Day is celebrated on April 25th every year. And this year, it is celebrated under the theme “Harness Innovation to Reduce the Malaria Disease Burden and Save Lives.”  The global campaign emboldens everyone to draw efforts and encourages worldwide campaigns to reduce the burden, suffering and death from malaria. 

Malaria is a devastating illness that has affected almost 241 million people in 2020 with estimated death being 627,000 in 85 countries. Despite its high burden, it is a completely preventable and curable disease, if proper measures are adopted. There are almost five Plasmodium parasites that cause malaria in humans among which the two most threatful species are P. falciparum and P. vivax. Others include P. malariae, P. ovale, and P. knowlesi.

To achieve the WHO's Global Technical Strategy for Malaria targets by 2030, WHO has broadened the use of the RTS,S malaria vaccine (first vaccine against P. falciparum) in October 2021 for young children in moderate and high transmission areas.

North West: 5th Joint Military Region Graduates Forty IED Detectives.

          Brigadier General Nka Valère

The Commander of the 5th Joint Military Region, Brigadier General Nka Valère presided over the graduation ceremony of some 40 combined Defense and Security Forces (Army, Gendarme and Police) who completed a three-week indepth training on Improvised Explosive Devices' (IEDs) detection.

          Cross Section of Graduates

The graduation ceremony took place on Friday,  April 08,  2022 at the Up station, Bamenda Headquarters of the 5th Joint Military Region.

Speaking during the event,  Gen. Nka divulged that a spiral of targeted attacks on the defense and security forces as well as on civilians in 2021 necessitated the first training in June 2021 which saw an earlier graduation of 30 trainees whose results have been palpable on the field. "For the past 06 months, they have been capable of detecting and detonating over 90% of IEDs laid in ambush for the defense and security forces as well as the population in North West Region." This he stated, on April 08, 2022 while graduating a second batch of IED detectives.

General Nka in the presence of his counterpart,  Brigadier General Ekongwese Divine Nnoko and other top-notch military officers ended his discourse by urging the graduates to exhibit the theoretical and practical security knowledge acquired within the past three weeks during field patrols. "You are now the detective eyes of your collegues during military patrols", he advised. 

Colonel TETCHA Felix, Commander of the 51st Military Engineering Regiment

On his part, Colonel TETCHA Felix, Commander of the 51st Military Engineering Regiment, the Commander under whose tutelage the training was done, intimated that the 87 hours training course, was a perfect blend of theory and practicum. He furthered that the training was hinged on the following, inter alia: generalities on explosives, components of IEDs, how they function, measures on protecting and safeguarding against IEDs, potential points in the field for the planting of IEDs and above all, practical field exercises on detection and detonation of IEDs.

Colonel Tetcha thanked Brigadier General Nka Valère for seeing the need and providing for such a training. He did not forget to equally laud senior commanding officers who saw the importance and enrolled their collaborators into the course for the security of the region in particular and the nation in general.

It is worth noting that the theoretical part of the course took place  at the 5th Joint Military Region while most of the practical part was done in the field through simulation exercises. The graduation ceremony was crowned with some simulation exercises by the trainees at the   ceremonial ground. The graduating officers started the training course on March 21, 2022.

The graduation ceremony  witnessed 40 graduates comprising  24 elements from the Army, 06 from the Gendarmerie and 10 from the Police corps.

By VictoryMarshal Ayafor Basang