Najat Rochdi, Cameroon’s outgoing United Nations resident coordinator, has blocked Mather Russell Lee, Inner City Press Journalist on twitter for asking questions on the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon

Rochdi blocked the Inner city press reporter on March 8 after the reporter criticised the UN for maintaining a vexing silence over the ongoing crisis affecting Cameroon’s two English speaking regions.

Russell had asked what the UN has done to contain the situation so far. It should be noted that the UN Cameroon website has no information on its website on the crisis. After updating the site for the first time since 2013 on March 8 with news on the International women’s day celebration, Russel immediately took to twitter asking the world peace body what it has been doing since 2013 in Cameroon.

He equally question why a body which claims to be open to the press and public should block a journalist. The inner city press reporter equally raised concerns on how UN resident coordinators are picked. In this regard, Russell claims nominations are fishy given that former UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon’s son in law Siddharth Chatterjee got multiple promotion under Ban, including being named UN Resident Coordinator in Kenya by Ban himself. He asked why member countries don’t have a say in choosing their UN Resident Coordinator.

The no-nonsense Inner city press reporter said he had repeatedly asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman, for updates on the situation in Cameroon but the spokesman kept saying it has no answer on Cameroon yet.

With the internet being off for 51 days today in Anglophone Cameroon, many English speaking Cameroonians have taken to twitter and other social media paltforms denouncing the world peace body for being mute on the crisis. Many said the UN Cameroon resident coordinator had equally blocked them for raising their concerns. Some opine that there is something about Anglophone problem which makes Najat Rochdi uncomfortable. Political analysts however hold the UN position on the crisis is not strange. They stated that the UN is known for always sending its 2peacekeepers” to act when it is already a full crisis situation.

With, Najat Rochdi already on her way out of Cameroon, many are hoping the Cameroon’s next UN rep will be more open to receiving questions and managing the people’s concerns.