In an historic agreement France and Cameroon have signed the first ever debt-for-nature swap. The agreement signed by France and Cameroon will see US$25 million spent on protecting the African state's tropical forests, part of the world's second largest rainforest, dwarfed only by the Amazon. It also requires Cameroon to earmark further funds for education, health and infrastructure.

Seven of the nine men in Cameroon whose "crime" was attending a gay-friendly nightclub last year have been found guilty of sodomy and sentenced to a 10-month jail term, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission learned Tuesday. Since the men have already been detained in prison for more than one year, they are expected to be released shortly for time served.

Catholic schools in Cameroon, a country known for widespread corruption, are piloting a program to teach students to identify and act against dishonesty in their schools and the rest of society. "The natural place for the fight against corruption is in the schools," said Sister Josephine Julie Ntsama, principal of the College de la Retraite, a Catholic secondary school in Yaounde, Cameroon's capital.

An information campaign is underway in Cameroon concerning a new Code of Penal Procedure that authorities say will strengthen the rule of law -- making the Central African country a standard for human rights. At present, Cameroon is regularly criticised by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for failing to respect human rights.

More than a quarter of Cameroon's national debt has been cancelled by creditors including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The reduction amounts to about 27% of Cameroon's total debt, worth $4.9bn (£2.6bn;3.8bn euros) in cash terms. The decision makes Cameroon the 19th state to complete the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. Cameroon was given the reduction after meeting poverty reduction targets and social services investments.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) received word this morning (April 21) that nine men detained for homosexuality in Cameroon have been acquitted of all charges. The men had been unfairly detained in Kondegui prison for nearly a year. Today’s verdict was seen by all involved as a major victory for human rights in Cameroon

Ndiva Kofele-Kale, Professor of Public International Law at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, is a leading scholar on the impact of corruption in developing countries. He is also at the forefront of the growing movement to make corruption a human rights violation punishable under international law. In this interview from The Post Online (Cameroon), Professor Kofele-Kale talks about the anti-corruption drive in Cameroon, and the need to establish international mechanisms for dealing with corruption by high-ranking government officials.

A Press Statement by Transparency International has lauded recent moves taken by President Biya to combat embezzlement. The global civil society organisation that is leading the fight against corruption, Transparency International (TI) has qualified recent moves to combat corruption in Cameroon as the steps that will "deter future cases of illicit enrichment in the country".

Transparency International (TI) has called on Cameroonian parliamentarians to assert their anti-corruption mandate and implement Article 66 of the Constitution of Cameroon on asset declaration for public officials. The application of this legal instrument is crucial as a series of precedent-setting corruption and embezzlement cases have recently been launched against a number of high-ranking Cameroon officials.

Cameroon's former water minister Alphonse Siyam Siwe was charged with corruption and remanded in jail on Saturday, a day after being sacked by President Paul Biya over the accusations, a prison source said. Siyam Siwe, 53, had been held in Cameroon's main prison of Kodengui in the capital overnight Friday, said the source who requested anonymity.

Cameroon has detained three former senior officials and 13 others on corruption charges, a week after the International Monetary Fund warned that graft remained an obstacle to debt relief. "Judicial cases have been opened against a number of officials accused of embezzlement, corruption, forgery and use of forgeries," Deputy Prime Minister Ahmadou Ali, in charge of Justice, said in a statement late on Tuesday. The communique did not name those detained but sources at the state prosecutor's office said the three senior officials included the former general managers of Cameroon's state real estate company (SIC) and the state land loan fund (CFC).

An exhibition of works of some 13 Cameroonian artists is underway in Cairo. On the sidelines of the 25th African Cup of Nations, an exhibition of Cameroonian contemporary plastic arts is underway in Cairo. Some 27 works by 13 artists are in display in the exhibition at Saad Zaghloul hall, Cairo. It is organized by the Cameroon cultural delegation in Egypt. Last Sunday (February 5) evening, the head of the delegation, Minister Philippe Mbarga Mboa, launched the exhibition in the presence of authorities of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture and a host of Egyptians. It was an occasion to inform the Egyptian press on the raison-d'etre of the exhibition - expose the rich cultural potential of Cameroon.

Cameroon's political and business elites have been rocked by a campaign by tabloid newspapers to "out" top personalities they say are homosexual. The newspaper editors say they are exposing people who engage in "deviant behaviour". Some 50 people have been named and the papers have sold out. Homosexual acts are banned in Cameroon, with up to five years in jail. But the campaign has been condemned by the state communication council for invading people's private lives. The council also challenged anyone who felt they had been libelled to take legal action. So far, none of those named has gone to the courts.

With just months to go before construction of a hydroelectric dam gets underway along Cameroon's Lom river, environmentalists are raising concerns about the initiative. "While laudable, the Lom project in its present form could accelerate the decline in living standards of local populations," Dieudonné Thang, executive secretary of Global Village Cameroon, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) based in the capital of Yaoundé, told the Inter Press Service.

The Cameroon government has launched a nationwide campaign to wipe out corruption, but citizens and diplomats are watching with a dubious eye this latest of several endeavours. President Paul Biya's government launched the anti-corruption drive on 18 January, two weeks after sacking two magistrates accused of graft – the first such move in Biya's 23 years in power. The wave of anti-corruption fervour began as the Cameroon leader rang in the New Year denouncing the scourge and vowing to do away with it.

Ever since she was a little girl, Martine had always dreamt of becoming a farmer. Yet these dreams were shattered when an unplanned pregnancy forced her to drop out of high school. Now 20, Martine is getting a second chance at learning. She is one of 120 girls participating in a pilot project for marginalized girls in rural areas of Cameroon. The project is run by UNESCO and the Rubisadt Foundation, an NGO promoting novel approaches to gender in science and technology education.

Tambe Tike, a Cameroon human rights advocate argues that the World Bank’s continued support of Cameroon is a tacit support of human rights abuses and rampant corruption. He argues that the WB should not provide financial support to an authoritarian and corrupt government and that it often leads to the further strengthening of the repressive apparatus of its regime, worsening the country's human rights situation. He says that the Bank has continued to raise the government’s hope for an eventual qualification under the HIPC initiative, but that it would be a big error for Cameroon to qualify under present circumstances.

Singapore company Nex-G Systems was initially contracted to provide "smart" solar powered lampposts to Cameroon which would be remote controlled from a central point. Moving forward from this, the company has decided to also install telecoms infrastructure so that the lampposts enable people to go online and make telephone calls. The company plans to install WiFi, a short-range wireless technology, on about 4,000 lamps in Douala, providing Internet access even to some of the city's remote areas.

Scientists, health workers and politicians met Sunday, November 13 in Cameroon to discuss new ways to battle malaria and increase awareness of the deadly disease, which kills thousands a day. Some 1,500 participants from 65 countries are expected to attend the six-day conference to discuss critical research on all aspects of malaria control, said Louis Da Gama, a spokesman for the UK-based group Massive Effort Campaign and co-organizer of the event.

The Secretary of State in the Ministry of Secondary Education, Madame Abena Catherine, paid an impromptu visit to secondary schools in the Nyong et Kelle Division in the Centre Province. The visit mainly aimed at evaluating the first sequence (six weeks) of the 2005/2006 academic year, with respect to infrastructure, curricular programming, students’ and teachers’ welfare, etc., according to the Cameroon Tribune.