The rate at which Africa is devouring its wildlife is entirely unsustainable, Cameroon's Environment Minister says. He is demanding international action to control the trade, which produces as much as five million tonnes of bushmeat from the Congo basin alone every year.

The much-touted New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) risks deepening African women's poverty, the Kampala, Uganda-based coordinator of the African Women's Economic Policy Network told more than 200 women last week in an All Africa Conference of Churches pre-Assembly. "It's a document at the macro level. It doesn't capture the micro realities. NEPAD favours putting raw materials into the market and keeping labour costs low. That labour has a woman's face," she said.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has condemned the government's shutdown of Radio Veritas, a station founded and run by Cardinal Christian Tumi, a leading critic of President Paul Biya. "We do not understand how, in the space of a few weeks, some stations have been allotted frequencies while this one has been closed down," said the organisation's secretary-general, Robert Ménard.

Reports show that the human rights situation in Cameroon is extremely poor which is especially detrimental to the most vulnerable groups of society, such as women. An analysis of the legal and socio-economic and political status of women in Cameroon shows the link between the high levels of violence against women in Cameroon and their low status in all aspects of life. This is according to The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), which has expressed its concern regarding violence against women in Cameroon at the 31st Session of the UN Committee against Torture.

Cameroon's prime minister has called on citizens to help President Paul Biya fight corruption by denouncing offenders in a nation rated as one of the world's most corrupt countries.

From October 13th to 16th the Africa Forest Law Enforcement and Governance ministerial meeting will take place in Yaoundé, Cameroon. Whether this initiative will result in any concrete actions to tackle the immense problem of illegal and unsustainable logging operations in Africa remains to be seen. In the meantime, illegal logging in Cameroon's forests continues to wreak havoc on the environment, economy and local peoples' livelihoods.

Cameroon is not known for the famine and drought that devastate much of Africa each year. Blessed with abundant rainfall, it is part of the equatorial forest where surplus food is always produced. The problem, as Jacques Boyer, coordinator of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Cameroon, recently found out has to do with the lack of balanced diet and poverty. ''Some 54.1 percent of Cameroon's children have stunted growth because of malnutrition,'' he said.

At 83 years old Emmanuel Kouang is the oldest person in Ebome. Even now he leans forward with his fists clenched and his rhumy eyes wide in remembered excitement. "They lived in the rocks out to sea. But they've gone now". The rocks have vanished too, and with them the villagers' main source of livelihood. The reef was a rich feeding ground for fish caught by the villagers. For generations villagers relied upon its natural abundance of marine life. But their way of life was disrupted four years ago by the construction of an oil pipeline. News of the project caused great excitement. The pipeline came, but the pipe dreams did not.

A 40-year-old man has become the first Cameroonian to be sentenced for trying to sell a female baby chimpanzee, nine years after a law prohibiting trade in endangered animals was passed. Opinion is varied on whether the sentence will have any impact on the sale and consumption of bush meat.

The increased AIDS awareness amongst Cameroonians is strong evidence that Cameroon's political commitment to combat the disease is yielding positive results, even though greater challenges still lie ahead to curb the epidemic, according to Dr Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). "The strong political will and social mobilization are realities which should lead to the scaling up of HIV care and prevention programmes and avoid a worsening epidemic in the country," said Dr Piot. He was on a two-day visit to Cameroon.

In a 27 May 2003 letter to Communications Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) and the World Editors Forum expressed serious concern at the government's banning of the launch of the Freedom FM radio station and the threats made against three journalists. According to reports, on 23 May a state official came to the offices of the private radio station Freedom FM, which was due to begin broadcasting on 24 May, with a photocopy of a document issued by the Information Ministry purporting to stop the launch of the station for "illegally exercising the profession" of broadcasting.

The offices of Freedom FM, a Douala-based private radio station, were surrounded by police officers on 23 May 2003 after Communications Minister Jacques Fame Ndongo ordered the station's closure, accusing it of operating illegally. Prior to the police action, the station had been expected to launch on 24 May.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has expressed great concern over the deteriorating press freedom climate in Cameroon following the detention of three journalists from Cameroon's only independent daily, "Mutations", and the closure of the private radio station Magic FM.

A new stock exchange, designed to open up Cameroon to the modern world, is finally open after long delays. The only problem for Central Africa's first stock exchange is that no companies are yet quoted, so no-one can actually trade any shares. For several years Transparency International - an organisation that monitors corruption - rated Cameroon as one of the world's worst offenders. Many commentators here recognise that as a potential stumbling block for the new mechanism.

Reporters sans frontières (RSF) has warned that press freedom in Cameroon has sharply deteriorated with the arrest of Haman Mana, editor of the country's only privately-owned daily newspaper, "Mutations", and the seizure of the paper's 14 April issue.

Gorilla, chimpanzee, and elephant will now be off the menu in Cameroon. Authorities in the central African country announced Monday that any restaurant caught serving meat from endangered animals could face up to three years in prison and a fine of more than $16,000.

After launching the ground invasion of Iraq, President Bush paused to have dinner Thursday with an unlikely guest, given the circumstances. Bush and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell met in the White House with the leader of Cameroon for a discussion of "common interests." Best known for poverty and corruption, Cameroon is among the nations being courted to support the war. But the country also figures prominently in a monumental new initiative to tap rich West African oil fields and reduce U.S. dependence on Middle Eastern oil, an aim that has taken on added urgency with the conflict in Iraq.

On 14 March 2003, Reporters sans frontières (RSF), expressed concern over the recent closure of two privately-owned television stations, RTA and Canal 2, which has threatened the development of diverse and independent broadcast media in Cameroon.

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has expressed alarm at the unprecedented wave of repression against Cameroon trade unionists in recent days, which culminated on 12 February in the arrest for the second time of Benoît Essiga, President of the ICFTU-affiliated Confederation syndicale des travailleurs du Cameroun (CSTC).

A number of Cameroonian as well as internationally based logging companies have been sanctioned or are involved in ongoing legal cases brought by the Cameroonian Ministry of Environment and Forests (MINEF). Some of these cases result from the documentation of illegal logging by Ministry staff supported by Global Witness, says Global Witness in its latest field investigation reports that detail cases of illegal logging.