Day: July 15, 2022

Authorities in Cameroon say thousands of vehicles have been halted by a fresh scarcity of fuel caused, in part, by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Cameroon’s government says it’s been forced to spend nearly half-a-billion dollars in fuel subsidies since Russia’s February invasion, as western sanctions have hindered trade with Moscow.

More than 100 drivers pack a filling station in the Etoudi neighborhood of Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé, Friday, honking their horns to protest a fresh fuel shortage.

The drivers say their incomes have nosedived since Yaoundé ran short of fuel this month and the scarcity spread to other towns.

Yves Honore Minka is with the waste disposal company Hygiene and Sanitation of Cameroon (HYSACAM) in Ebolowa, on the border with Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

He says the town of Ebolowa and its surroundings are a mess because his company’s waste and refuse collection vehicles have been halted by a lack of fuel. Minka says his company will be able to resume refuse collection only after diesel fuel becomes available.

Cameroon’s government says several thousand public buses, taxis, and trucks are not in use because of the fuel shortage, the second one to hit the country since April.

Some of the vehicles were destined for the neighboring Central African Republic, Chad, and Gabon, slowing regional trade and transport.

Cameroon’s energy minister, in a press release Monday, again blamed Russia and its invasion of Ukraine.

Western sanctions for Russia’s assault have hampered its trade and led to volatile, higher prices for oil and gas.

Cameroon buys more than half its gasoline from Russia, one of the world’s top suppliers of petroleum products, wheat, and fertilizer.

Veronique Moampea Mbio is director general of Cameroon’s Petroleum Distribution Company (SCDP). Speaking Friday on Cameroon’s state broadcaster, CRTV, she said Cameroonians should be patient.

Mbio says the shortage of petroleum products is provoked by the inability of marketers to pay the surplus sums of money requested before delivery of fuel. She says banks are reluctant to exceed credit limits to marketers of petroleum products because regular loan repayments may be hindered by unpredictable market prices.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushed global oil prices above $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014, while those for natural gas and fertilizer have more than doubled. Cameroon’s government says it has already spent $485 million on fuel subsidies since Russia’s invasion in February and may need to spend more than $1 billion this year.

Mbio says Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, has ordered the government to immediately pay needed subsidies for petroleum products to be imported in coming weeks.

Source: Voice of America

Two tribes in South Africa, the Khoi and the San, have received their first payment for the sale of the indigenous rooibos plant, grown mainly for tea. The Rooibos Tea Council, representing businesses, paid the tribes more than $700,000 as part of a benefit-sharing agreement.

The director of the San Council, Leana Snyders, said it took nine years of negotiations before the Rooibos Traditional Knowledge Benefit-Sharing Agreement was signed in November 2019.

She said the Indigenous tribes still use rooibos when babies have teething problems. It is also used for skin conditions like eczema and to alleviate stomach cramps.

Snyders said paying for traditional knowledge should be applied globally.

“If, for instance, I am a company based on the people that lived in the area’s knowledge, then I made a product or I used the plant and I sell it and I make a profit as a company, so I would definitely recommend this type of collaborations with industry,” she said.

She also said Indigenous people must be taught about the legal process.

“You must stand up for your rights because, in our case, if we did not stand up nine years ago, going to the government and saying, ‘But we want our knowledge to be recognized,’ if we did not make the first step as the San people, we would not be here, where we are today,” Snyders said.

This first annual payment of $700,000 comes from a 1.5% levy on the sale of all rooibos that has been cut and dried. The money has been paid into two trust accounts for the San and the Khoi.

Snyders said the money will be reinvested in the people.

“We going to make sure that it is for upliftment of the San people. And upliftment comes through livelihood upliftment, and the main thing is education. For us it is education, education, education,” she said.

A director of the South African Rooibos Council, Dawie de Villiers, said he can’t give an accurate estimate of how much the industry is worth. However, he said, the caffeine-free product is exported to over 50 countries, and that number grows every year.

“In fact, it has some good medical studies that identify it as being a good product to use in stress alleviation, and we’re seeing it more and more being used in a wide range of applications,” de Villiers said. “Not only in herbal teas but also in nutritional supplement formulations, so it is certainly a product for today’s times.”

Officials say this period is being regarded as the pilot phase of the agreement, and further negotiations will take place to develop a nonmonetary benefit-sharing model.

Source: Voice of America