YAOUNDE – A lawmaker was hurt by flying debris thrown by another MP as
legislators clashed
during a chaotic budget debate in Cameroon, sources
told AFP Saturday.
The session saw Hermine Patricia Ndam Njoya of the opposition
Democratic Union of Cameroon (UDC) “hurl into the air” parts of her desk
to protest the assembly speaker’s refusal to allow her party’s
legislators to speak, UDC communications officer Amadou Mongwat said.
Parts of the damaged desk landed on the head of a member of the
ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, causing light injury.
Mongwat said Njoya had apologised but the incident still saw the session suspended.
Meanwhile, footage quickly spread on social media of the bloodied victim being bandaged up.
Lawmakers from the main social democratic SDF opposition also
interrupted the session before and after the incident by chanting
slogans and even trying to drown out proceedings by blowing vuvuzela
horns.
Confusion was all the greater as the session finally limped to an end
as the speaker announced the adoption of the budget without further
discussion.
The chaos in the assembly came with Cameroon already in the throes of an escalating crisis in a restive English-speaking region.
The president of the senate meanwhile promised to have a commission investigate the anglophone issue.
Government spokesman Issa Tchiroma had Friday underlined President
Paul Biya’s firm commitment to use all available means to rid the
country of “separatists”.
Last month four Cameroonian soldiers were killed by suspected
separatists in the southwest of the country, while international
monitors say at least 20 people have been killed since late September.
Resentment among anglophones over perceived discrimination has fed a
spiral of political demands and also a government crackdown, leading to
calls for secession.
Tchiroma further explained that novelist Patrice Nganang’s arrest
last Wednesday in Douala came following the posting on Facebook of a
death threat against the head of state.
AFP
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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