Security forces opened fire on demonstrators who were calling for independence at rallies on Sunday, killing at least eight people

A BBC reporter in Bamenda says the city is now in lockdown with no cars or people on the streets.

The authorities blocked the internet for three months earlier in the year amid similar unrest.

Main opposition leader John Fru Ndi told the BBC he believed that at least 30 people had died in clashes.

At least 50 people were wounded and about 200 arrested, reports say.

President Paul Biya, 84, has condemned the violence and called for dialogue.

The divisions in the central African state date back to the post-colonial settlement.

Cameroon was colonised by Germany, then split into British and French areas after World War One and was eventually reunified in 1961.

Since then the English-speaking minority has always complained that it has faced discrimination.

Protests over the last year were prompted by the imposition of French in schools and courts in the English-speaking North-West and South-West regions.

Sunday’s rallies were held on the 56th anniversary of reunification of the country, with activists calling for the release of prisoners arrested in earlier demonstrations.

The BBC’s Randy Joe Sa’ah in Bamenda says MTN, the country’s biggest mobile-phone operator, sent out text messages on Sunday evening, saying it had problems with its internet connections.

But many suspect the internet is again being deliberately blocked by the authorities embarrassed by the protests.

Our correspondent says anyone caught out on the streets in Bamenda is being arrested and security forces are reported to be breaking into homes in Bafute, 20km (12 miles) north of the city, making arrests.

A study last week found that government shutdowns of the internet have cost sub-Saharan Africa nearly $250m (£186m) since 2015, undermining economic growth and affecting the delivery of critical services.

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Source: BBC

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The Accra Metropolitan Assembly(AMA) ordered the closure of all shops within the metropolis for a massive clean-up exercise on Thursday.

The move, according to the Assembly, will help deal with the insanitary conditions in the capital.

But speaking to Citi News, some market women proposed that the AMA postpones its clean up exercise to the weekend to forestall any inconvenience.

“It will be better to have the clean up on the weekend. It will inconvenience me if it is carried out on Thursday because I am a single parent and if I do not come to the market, I’ll lose money,” a market woman stated.

Another market woman also opposed the AMA’s decision to carry out the exercise on Thursday saying, “when debtors come to pay and you are not there, it will take a longer time for them to settle the debt.”

By:Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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The Public Health Director at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Dr Simpson Boateng, says the city authorities are intensifying efforts to control the spread of Cholera in the region.

Authorities at the Korle Bu Teaching Polyclinic, on Wednesday, ordered health facilities in the Greater Accra region to stop referring cholera cases to the facility.

The hospital said it is over stretched and cannot admit any more cholera patients.

The Korle Bu Polytechnic has since asked for a 72-hour break to decongest the facility

In an interview with Citi News, Dr. Simpson said spaces were available at other health facilities, adding that, the AMA had the situation under control.

“If  Korle bu and La are saying they do not have the space it doesn’t mean the other health facilities do not have space,”he explained.

He also attributed the congestion at the various hospitals to the “improper distribution” of cholera patients to those hospitals.

“I think the distribution of the patients is also another thing. It is not proportionately distributed,” he added.

The number of cholera cases in the Greater Accra Region has increased from 3,600 to 5,000 with 45 deaths since July this year with cases also recorded in the Central and Ashanti Regions.

By: Benjamin Epton Owusu/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The exercise has become necessary as a result of the increasing number of cholera cases and deaths in the Accra metropolis.

Accra has been innundated with refuse, with refuse-collection companies refusing to clear them due to the government’s indebtedness to them.

On Monday night, about 40 tipper trucks and other heavy equipment were deployed to the sites to cart the refuse to a new dumping site, provided in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Vice President, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, along with the Minister of Health, Dr Kweku Agyeman Mensah, and other Ministers, visited the Agbogbloshie Market, Sodom and  Gomorrah, parts of the Korle Lagoon and Kokomlemle.

The Vice President expressed concern about the level of filth that has engulfed the capital.

He said, the exercise is to immediately clear all the heaps of refuse in the metropolis to safeguard the health of Ghanaians, as the government works to find a lasting solution to waste disposal problem in the country.

According to Mr. Amissah-Arthur, the government “has been concerned about the cholera cases and the filth that is engulfing” the capital.

He stated that the government had “observed the accumulation of waste in the area” and had initiated “an  immediate crash program to remove all the refuse heaps in Accra and allow the city manage, on a daily basis, the filth that is collected.”

The Vice-President expressed  “concern about the lives of people” in the light of the recent cholera outbreak in the metropolis.

Over 500 cases of cholera have so far been recorded in Accra alone since June leading to about 15 deaths,  with the Public Health Directorate of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) warning  that the outbreak in the metropolis was gradually reaching an epidemic status.

The Vice President called for an attitudinal change towards sanitation, saying ensuring hygiene is both personal and a shared responsibility.

“We have to try to manage ourselves. There are some responsibilities for individuals that would not lead to the situation in the capital,” he said.

“We have to make it a sustainable effort on the part of the individuals themselves to manage this.”

Vice President Amissah-Arthur, however, admitted that the country faces a huge challenge in “achieving the millennium goals with regards to sanitation.”

Meanwhile the AMA boss says they are in the process of acquiring two landfill sites which will greatly help in managing waste in the national capital.

The newly-commissioned Nsumia Waste Disposal facility began operations last Wednesday and has been engineered to contain refuse for the next two years and replace the closed Pantang landfill site.

It is expected that the new landfill sites would reduce the pressure on the Kpone landfill site which, up until now, was the only site receiving garbage from Accra.

The Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) Chief Executive, Alfred Vanderpuiye, says the acquisition of the new landfill sites would “create an opportunity to clear the refuse in town.”

By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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This follows the partial collapse of another building at Bubuashie in Accra on Thursday, raising concerns about the AMA’s inablity to check the integrity of buildings in the capital.

This is about the fourth time a building has collapsed in Accra in the last two years.

Speaking to Citi News, the Director of Works at the AMA, Victor Mensah said: “Within the next one and a half hour, I’m sure we will get a final report from a professional structural engineer to tell us exactly what the issue was with the building.”

Commenting on the Melcom disaster, Mr. Mensah stated that a structural assessment report on the building has been forwarded to the Police for further investigations.

“They have copies so when they are ready, that they can  read this report,” he said.

According to him, the Police will later determine the form of punishment to be meted out to those found culpable after investigations.

By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to the Metropolitan Public Health Director of the AMA, Dr. Simpson Boateng, who spoke to Citi News,  11 cases  have been reported cases so far, including one confirmed case at the Agbogbloshie clinic and two at the Odawna clinic, while the eight other cases are yet to be confirmed.

This announcement follows the AMA’s earlier warning about the imminent outbreak last week.

Dr. Simpson Boateng has called on the general public to abstain from practices that will expose them to the outbreak.

“Wash your hands with running water and soap before eating and after a visiting the toilet, avoid buying food from unhygienic and exposed vendors,”

Meanwhile, the AMA says they have sent vans to the various communities to educate people on the symptoms of cholera.

The symptoms include serious diarrhea, vomiting and general weakness.

“If you experience any of these symptoms, report immediately,” Dr. Boateng advised.

“An untreated person with cholera may produce 10-20 liters of diarrhea a day with fatal results.”

“If the severe diarrhea and vomiting are not aggressively treated it can, within hours, result in life-threatening dehydration.”

In January 2013, the Ghana Health Service declared a cholera outbreak in the Ashanti Region.

Eighteen people died and in all, 310 cases were registered in the region. Most of the infected persons were women and children.

By: Afiba Anyanzua Anyanzu/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The AMA revealed that it has so far recorded some suspected cases in the metropolis, hence the caution.

A statement signed by the Public Relations Officer of the Assembly  noted that it has equipped health facilities in the Accra Metropolis to treat all suspected cases of Cholera.

It further noted that all health facilities have activated their epidemic management committee to handle the epidemic on the ground.

“Identified cases will be followed up to the communities by Disease Control Officers, Environmental Health Officers and Community Health Nurses to provide the necessary services at the community levels”the statement clarified.

The Authority is therefore advising Ghanaians to observe proper hygienic conditions.

Cholera is an infectious disease caused by cholera vibrio.

It is characterized by profuse watery stools, vomiting and dehydration.

The predisposing factors to the disease are eating or drinking contaminated food or water, eating without washing hands with soap or water after visiting the toilet and indiscrimate defecation into open spaces, drains and water bodies.

By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Accra is currently inundated  with tonnes of uncollected refuse generated by residents due to the closure of the Accra Compost and Recycling Plant.

Also refuse collection companies in Accra have stopped collecting refuse to demand payment for work done for two years.

But Mr.  Vanderpuije at a press briefing in Accra on Wednesday said an engineered land fill site at Denkyira in the Greater Accra Region will be ready for use by January 2015.

‘’The long time arrangement that we hope to flash out fully in January next year is the full operation of an engineered landfills site with a recycling programme to generate waste to diesel,’’ he noted.

He said construction work will begin soon and end in December 2014.

On plans to deal with the immediate crisis following the closure of the Accra Compost and Recycling plant, Mr. Vanderpuije said an agreement has been reached with the operators of Kpone landfill site to increase their working hours.

‘’The deputy ministers have met with the management of the waste landfills companies and an appropriate arrangement have been put in place since yesterday [Tuesday] to have the landfills site operation time extended,’’ he said.

He said members of the Environmental Service Providers Association (ESPA) – the waste management companies will have enough time to work.

By: Evans Effah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Refuse collection companies in Accra have stopped collecting refuse generated by residents for the last month.

The companies say they are currently struggling because government has not paid them for work done for two years.

However, the Ministry of Local Government has denied owing these companies saying their contracts were signed with various local assemblies, thus they should demand their monies from them.

But Mr. Kyei Baffour in an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show said, even though the Ministry is right about the contracts, it is government’s inability to release funds allocated to assemblies that is hindering payment to service providers.

He described this as ‘’major challenge to decentralisation.’’

‘’As we speak the fourth quarter for the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) in 2013 is still pending; first and second quarters for 2014 are also pending,’’ he said.

He revealed that parliament has however, approved the formula for the distribution of the fund in 2014. Mr. Kyei Baffour explained on the Citi Breakfast Show that for an assembly to be in arrears for three quarters means development is stalled.

He also revealed that since 2011 the assemblies have not received any payment for the district development (which is fund from donor partners).

‘’…not a pesewa of the district development fund has been released to assemblies; meanwhile these are donor generated resources,’’ he said.

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and other Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies have complained of the lack of resources to pay contractors and other persons they owe.

The AMA is currently unable to pay private land fills site operators.

Mr Kyei Baffour said the AMA and other assemblies cannot meet their obligations when government is not releasing monies meant to support them.

He said the constitution mandates that ‘’not less than five percent of the total revenues of Ghana shall be set aside for distribution to MMDAs for development’’.

He noted that government does not have an option than to honour it.

He also stated that government has also made deductions from the amounts paid to the assemblies for fumigations. ‘’Government deducted money for fumigation; I can assure you no fumigations was done and huge sums of money have been deducted for more than three years.’’

Mr Kyei Baffour also accused government for making all sorts of deductions from the funds of the district assemblies. ‘’A lot of things are happening and nobody is talking and it is affecting the totality of development across the country.’’

He bemoaned the situation where the ministry of local government has failed to let the public know that the central government is not fulfilling its obligations to the assemblies.

By: Evans Effah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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