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posted by martyb on Friday April 07 2017, @03:29AM   Printer-friendly
from the +++ATH0 dept.

Independent Media (South Africa) reports:

The Internet ban on Cameroon's English-speaking population is cause for great concern in the language dispute, writes Azad Essa.

Millions of Cameroonians have been without the internet for 75 days after the government launched a ban on the service in English-speaking areas. The blackout, which is deliberately targeting the country's minority Anglophone population, started after lawyers began protesting against the overt use of French in English-speaking courts.

The protests spread rapidly across the country with English-speaking regions rallying against what they saw as the latest attempt by the government to "erase" their culture and heritage.

Inner City Press reports:

While Cameroon has cut off the Internet to the Anglophone regions for more than 70 days, the UN throughout the week of March 27-31 repeatedly refused to answer Inner City Press' questions about it [...] On March 31, Inner City Press put a question about the outrage of Cameroon saying it will accede to the UN "electronic communications" treaty while denying such communications to millions of people to UN Spokesman Farhan Haq, video here, UN transcript here:

Inner City Press: Given that the internet has been turned off to millions of people for 76 days, I noticed that the Government says that it's going to be depositing a ratification of something called a UN convention on the use of electronic communications in international contracts. And I wanted to know, will the Secretariat... do they have any role in... in... in reviewing the sort of legitimacy of ratifications or... or... what would you say about a country that's turned off the internet to its own population depositing a ratification to an electronic communications convention at that time?

Deputy Spokesman: Those are separate issues. Regarding treaties, all treaties are looked at to see whether the instruments... whether the treaties are properly filed as they're being deposited.

[...] Inner City Press: I'd sent you a number of questions about Cameroon. Now I have those and something else. First of all, I wanted to know, what's the... what is the status of having a resident coordinator in the country, given that the internet has been turned off to two regions in the country for 76 days?

Deputy Spokesman: Right now, there is an officer-in-charge. There's no new full-time resident coordinator, but there's an officer-in-charge there.

Question: Can you say who that is or which agency it is?

Deputy Spokesman: I believe it's the officer for UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) right now.

But when Inner City Press later on March 31 visited UNICEF's Cameroon website to follow up, the most recent report was from 2012, and the top two press releases were about Nigeria, here.


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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Saturday April 08 2017, @01:01AM (1 child)

    by bob_super (1357) on Saturday April 08 2017, @01:01AM (#490636)

    Ok, you use the sandpaper, I use the silk.
    You'll unquestionably be cleaner.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by tibman on Saturday April 08 2017, @01:52AM

    by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Saturday April 08 2017, @01:52AM (#490651)

    Though sandpaper is surely better at removing poo it is surprisingly expensive (more than silk?). Maybe we can compromise on some charmin or cottonelle?

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