MEDIA ADVISORY FOR MARCH 21, 2017

Media Contacts:
Domenica Ghanem, domenica@ips-dc.org, 202-787-5205
Netfa Freeman, netfa@ips-dc.org, 202-787-5229

(Washington, DC) — The Institute for Policy Studies, Global Partnership for African Development (GPAD), and Pan-African Community Action (PACA) will host a briefing featuring Cameroon experts on March 21 at 12PM at the Institute for Policy Studies office. The panel will discuss how Cameroon telecommunications companies have cut off Internet communication to southern Cameroon — creating Internet refugees. If you cannot attend in person, please join our online live stream here.

Little media attention has been paid to the government policy in south Cameroon that is effectively stranding people from outside communications. In addition to the Internet cut-off, the government has also stopped transactions of companies like MoneyGram and Western Union from operating in the region, endangering the livelihoods of families who depend on remittances. These escalating actions are implicated within a series of massacres that Cameroonians view as the build-up to genocide.

WHO:  Dr. Denis Foretia MD, co-chair of Denis and Lenora Foretia Foundation and senior fellow at the Nkafu Policy Institute
             Harmony Bobga Mbuton, political exile and former president of the Lawyers Association
             Dr. Ikome Sako, founder/president emeritus of the Community Humanitarian Emergency Board
            Adryan Wallace, organizer with Pan-African Community Action
            Netfa Freeman, Institute for Policy Studies Pan-African issue expert will moderate

WHAT: Briefing and panel discussion on the conditions that have created Cameroon’s Internet refugees and other state-sponsored human rights abuses.

WHERE: 1301 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite 600 Washington, DC 20036
                  OR
                 Join us online

WHEN: March 21, 2017, 12:00-1:30 PM

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