Cameroon

Sala Aminata, a housewife from Logone and Shari Division in Cameroon’s Far North Region, looks at her six kids with apprehension as she tries to figure out how to feed them with her meagre salary. Rising food prices come after a drought late last year destroyed the majority of the harvest in the Sahel – the arid zone between the Sahara desert in North Africa and Sudan’s Savannas in the south. Rural populations throughout the region have started to run out of food since early February, six mon...read more

Ten women have been arrested in Cameroon on suspicion of being lesbians. They have been detained in Ambam, some 190 miles south of the capital of Yaounde, until they go on trial, Cameroon Radio Television reported. Consensual same-gender sex is considered criminal in the West African nation and punishable by a jail sentence from six months to five years and a fine.

Cameroonian women have called on the government to respect national and international conventions it signed by ensuring parity between men and women in appointments to top positions and elective offices. The call was made in Douala this week during a meeting of members and leaders of various women’s associations and civil society organisations in Cameroon. The women met under the auspices of a newly-formed women’s umbrella group — Ensemble Pour la Parité (Together For Parity).

Three women in Cameroon have been charged with practising homosexuality, in what is believed to be the first such case in the country, a local reporter tells the BBC. The case, allegedly involving a lesbian love triangle, came to court on Monday, but has only been reported nationally now due to the remoteness of the area. Homosexual acts are punishable by up to five years in prison.

More than 5,000 of the 25,000 young school leavers who were recently recruited into the public service have failed to show up to sign their employment contracts. 'I am a university graduate and they are offering me a monthly salary of $200 plus the equivalent of $40 as rents allowance. There is no way I can accept that kind of salary. Since graduating from the university, I have been farming in the village and what I earn from the farm is triple what they are offering me so I cannot accept th...read more

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