Archive for the 'Main' Category
By Joe Dinga Pefok Leocadia Bongben & Elvis Tah
Bamenda: Northwest Governor, Achidi Achu, J. B Ndeh Tear-gassed
Northwest Governor, Abakar Ahamat, who had braved it to the Bamenda
Commercial Avenue grandstand to conclude his maiden tour of the seven Divisions on
Tuesday morning, was greeted by angry rioters.
As the surging crowd invaded the grandstand, anti-riot gendarmes and
soldiers fired teargas, which nearly suffocated the officials who went crashing on
their bellies. Apart from Abakar, former Prime Minister, Simon Achidi Achu, John B. Ndeh
and a host of others came short of taking to their heels.
Free Booze
There was a free for all self-service boozing at three brewery depots in
Bamenda. Youths were seen with crates of beer looted from Guinness S.A and Les
Brasseries du Cameroun all over major streets. Some who got drunk were
arrested and they only regained soberness in detention camps.
Yaounde:Transporters Warn Government Against Obsolete Methods
Transporters’ trade unions have warned government to do away with colonial
methods of solving problems. The transporters sounded this warning at a
meeting with the Director of the National Hydrocarbons Price Stabilisation Fund,
CSPH, Ibrahim Talba Malla, and government officials. They said government
instead of addressing a problem, turn around it.
They urged government to ensure that the promises made are redeemed. The
trade union leaders argued that if government had just reduced the price of fuel
even by FCFA 5, there wouldn’t have been a strike.
They accused government for being responsible for the strike. Though the
meeting was to inform them of the price fixing methods employed by the CSPH, the
trade unionists said they had learned such mathematics since 2005 and wanted
only cuts in the price of fuel.
Gendarmes Vandalise Magic FM
Gendarmes reportedly made their way into the studios of Magic FM on
Wednesday and ceased broadcast equipment. They snipped wires, ceased telephones and
took away computers. According to information from Kiyeck, Magic FM
Editor-in-Chief, the problem is that “Magic Attitude” a call-in programme is allegedly
critical of government. He said the gendarmes accused them of inciting the
people to make them revolt, the consequence being the strike. Kiyeck said that
it should have been the work of the Ministry of Communication that is silent
on the issue.
Drivers Say Their Leaders Were Bribed
Drivers have accused their leaders of being corrupted by the government for
them to call off the strike. They say this explains why they did not
negotiate well enough. To them, it is normal for the government to raise fuel price
by FCFA 16 only to take it down by a meagre FCFA 6. Following the accusations,
some of the syndicate offices are said to have been destroyed and the
leaders are in hiding.
Though there are threats for the strike to resume on Monday, the President
of the Taxi Drivers’ Trade Union has maintained that efforts are underway to
ensure that the arrested drivers are released before Monday.
Students Circulate Tracts
Students who joined the strike circulated tracts with a heading which read,
“Youths are Saying: No to Constitutional Amendment”. Following a meeting that
held in Douala on February 17, the youths represented by ADDEC, CECODEV,
UNECA, UBSU, FCJ, MOCPAT, Uone, SOS- Jeunesse Libre, Un Monde a Venir, SURCI,
and Masters of the Game, they declared that the constitutional revision can be
envisaged only after 2011. They announced the creation of the Youths’
Patriotic and Popular Council to independently organise and federate without any
external influence of youth political participation.
Buea: Brutality
The transporters’ strike plunged Buea on Monday, February 25 into a ‘ghost
town’ of sorts. This situation was made worst by death and several injured
youths after protestors clashed with anti-riot police. Troops fired live bullets
in the air and used teargas to disperse stone-throwing youths, while several
youths were arrested and detained.
Besides this, the troops went on the rampage breaking into private homes,
beating household members and looting property such as TV sets, cell phones,
money and other valuables.
Man Hides Under Bed
A father in Great Soppo reportedly hid under his bed leaving his wife and
two little children in the parlour when troops invaded his house. The troops
ordered one of his kids to go to the room and call his father, which he did.
The father reportedly chased the boy, who lied to the troops that his father
had escaped. The officers then asked for money from the man’s wife, who
received some strokes for not giving anything.
Police Stopped From Looting
Policemen got to a palm wine drinking spot belonging to a certain Romanus.
There were people drinking palm wine outside while others were inside his
parlour watching TV. When the police arrived, those who were outside alerted
those in the house and they all escaped, causing a stampede.
The police ate some bananas that were for sale, and were about going away
with the TV set, when Romanus and a group came out of their hideout and stopped
them. The policemen quietly gave back the TV set when Romanus and his group
and other people started jeering at them, calling them thieves. In Sandpit,
it was a combination of armed forces, gendarmes and policemen that raided hous
es and beat up the occupants.
One of the victims, Richard Tanto, a barber, who was badly wounded on the
head and arm, told The Post that he was sleeping in his saloon when the
soldiers smashed the door and started brutalising him. “The soldiers hit me with the
end of a gun, destroyed my shaving mirror and other items…” Tanto said.
4 Shot, I Killed In Muea
Troops deployed in Muea reportedly shot four youths killing one on
Wednesday, February 27. A boy of about 12 was shot in the chest and he died
immediately. Bullets caught three others in their legs and buttocks. A certain Roland
Moki was shot in his right buttock, while another, Yengong Abubakar, received
a bullet in his ankle.
The third, whose only name we got as Eric, received a bullet in his right
leg that was amputated. The Post learned from the Buea Provincial Hospital
Annex that five victims injured by police bullets were received on Tuesday,
February 26. The youths had reportedly blocked the entrance and exit of Muea. They
destroyed part of King David Square Hotel and the house of its owner, Chief
David Molinge, who allegedly told the protesters to go and strike in Bamenda.
Douala: Prostitutes Count Losses
All economic operators in Douala are counting their losses following the
closure of their businesses due to the recent strike including prostitutes,
especially those who service ‘Rue de la Joie’ at Deido. They registered their
complaint that February 25 to 29 was bad a business period for them.
They said their situation was aggravated by the fact that many men in Douala
were more preoccupied with survival and security than with sex. Things got
rougher when many people were forced to cut down on their daily food
consumption, due to the scarcity and the skyrocketing prices of food. However, in the
night of Saturday, March 1, Rue de la Joie was as busy a beehive as the
prostitutes tried to catch up on lost time.
Many of them were already complaining about lack of their weekly or monthly
“njangi” money. Most of them didn’t ask for drinks or accepted drinks. It was
straight to business, as they each tried to secure as many men as possible
for the night. But then some young armed soldiers almost spoiled the sport by
all pestering the prostitutes about their ID cards.
Mboua Massock -The “Nuisance”
Political activist Mboua Massock, “Combatant”, has been regular in the news
these days in Douala. To the local administration, especially the Littoral
Governor, Francis Fai Yengo and the Wouri SDO, Bernard Atebede, Mboua Massock
is a big nuisance. It is also widely believed that Mboua Massock was one of
those President Biya attacked in his violent address of February 27, of wanting
to use unorthodox means to unseat him.
It is worth noting that Massock had for some years been silent, until when
he was last November in Geneva, Switzerland, awarded the newly created Felix
Moumie Prize, by an association of Cameroonian political activists in the
Diaspora that calls itself “Collectif des Organisations Democratiques et
Patriotiques de la Diaspora”.
At a press conference in December 2007, Mboua Massock announced a series of
public demonstrations aimed at getting the Government to institute official
recognition of martyrs like Um Nyobe, Felix Moumie, and Ernest Ouandie. He had
also announced that he has to launch a campaign to get all colonial statutes
in the country, especially those of some former French Generals, destroyed.
On Saturday, February 12, Mboua Massock went to Ndokotti market area and
organised a march to call on the Government to get history text books in
colleges revised, so as to include chapters on those he considered as Cameroon’s
martyrs. But then when Mboua Massock arrived in Ndokotti, he realised that the
main interest of the youths who joined him for the march, was rather the issue
of the controversial plan to change Article 6 (2) of the 1996 Constitution.
Massock immediately added that issue as one of the reasons for the public
demonstration, which the police later disrupted. Seeing that the focus of many
people in Douala these days is rather on the issue of the planned
constitutional change, Mboua Massock, has since that February 12 shelved the issue of
martyrs and statutes of colonialists and has gone full time staging “illegal”
public demonstrations against the planned constitutional revision.
Illegal Image Distributors
There are said to be some 600 cable distributors in Cameroon involved in the
piracy of images supplied by Canal Satellite. A bulk of these illegal cable
distributors are in Douala. It would be recalled that on January 19, the
cable distributors went on strike, when the authorised sole representative of
Canal Satellite in Cameroon, Multi TV Afrique, seized the equipment of one of
the biggest cable distributors in the country.
The seizure was said to be an implementation of court judgement, which by
then was over two months old. Considering the period of the strike action, the
administration had to quickly intervene in the crisis, to get the cable
distributors end the strike and reinstate images to their thousands of clients.
The issue here however is that, the strike and the subsequent meetings,
which the Minister of Communications has held with Multi TV Afrique and the cable
distributors, are now making many people in Douala realise that they had for
years been dealing with illegal cable distributors.
French Schools Remain Close
In spite of the song being sang by the CPDM government all over the
State-owned CRTV that everything is now back to normal in Cameroon, the French
Embassy is not taking any chances. A copy of a communiqué from the French Embassy
dated February 29, states that French schools in Yaounde and Douala that were
temporarily closed due to the strike action, will only reopen on Thursday,
March 6. These schools include Savio, Fustel de la Coulanges and Flamboyant.
Cameroon Tribune (Yaoundé)
7 March 2008
By Nkendem Forbinake
Amadou Ali says every action being taken is within the framework of the law.
The Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Justice and Keeper of the Seals Amadou Ali yesterday stepped in a most salutary manner to stop the running rumours about generalized arrests in the country following last week’s social upheavals in Cameroon. In a press briefing held in the third floor conference room of the Ministry yesterday morning, a confident Amadou Ali announced that as at February 27, 2008, some 1671 arrests had been made across the country broken down as follows: Centre province, 400; Littoral, 671; North West, 220; South West, 100 and West, 280. These figures, the Vice Prime Minister said had been communicated to him by the Procureurs Generals of the various provinces concerned. He said the arrests had been made following instructions given out to judicial police officers by the Procureurs general by virtue of Article 103 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
Mr Amadou Ali said in matters of preliminary investigation, two types of procedure can be used: the simple procedure and the flagrante delicto. The simple procedure system can be initiated by any judicial police officer on the instructions of the State Counsel or by a complaint by an affected person.
The flagrante delicto system, under which the recent arrests were made, is activated when a crime is being committed or when it has just been committed or, after the commission of a crime, there is public clamour or when after such a crime, the suspect is found in possession of incriminating objects.
Under this system, 25 individuals were arraigned before the Yaounde-Ekounou Court of First Instance on February 28. Of this number 12 pleaded guilty and were sentenced to two years in prison while the 13 others asked for adjournements. At the Yaounde-Centre Administratif Court of First Instance there were 281 suspects. 18 persons pleaded guilty when hearing opened on February 29, 2008. They received prison sentences ranging from 15 months to three years.
In Douala, II people received sentences ranging from seven months to one year at the Douala-Bonanjo Court of First Instance. The same court acquitted 22 arrested suspects. In the Douala-Ndokoti Court in the same city 48 persons received prison sentences between six months two years while 17 were acquitted.
In Nkongsamba, of the nine persons brought before the court last March 4, 2008, two were acquitted, six sentenced to prison terms between four and 16 months while one case is pending. In neighbouring Mbanga, the six arrested persons brought before the court last Wednesday were each sentenced to 18 months in prison.
In Limbe in the South West Province, two of the six persons brought before the Court of First Instance were acquitted while four received sentences of six to eight months. In Tombel, three people appeared before the court on Wednesday, March 5. One was acquitted while two others were fined CFA 50 000 or an imprisonment term of six months.
The Vice Prime Minister said investigations were still underway in Buea, Tiko, Bamenda, Kumbo, Kumba, Dschang and Bafang. He said all proceedings were bing carried out in strict respect of the Criminal Procedure Code. In Yaounde specifically, Mr Amadou Ali said proceedings are being held in public, with defence counsels and are covered by journalists.
The Minister insisted on the legal character of what has happened so far, insisting that all sentenced people have a right to appeal.
Following the Vice Prime Minister’s introductory remarks, journalists sought to know why the judgements had been so expeditious and if the people pulling the strings had actually been identified. To this, Mr Amadou Ali said in such events, the immediate concern of the public authorities is to stop disorder first. He said in a state in which the rule of law reigns such as Cameroon, the responsibility of determining whoever were behind the upheavals devolves on the specialized security services. But he was quick to say that most of the arrested people are an important source of information for those investigating the matter. The Justice Minister said although no names were yet handy, there was no doubt that the behind-the-scene perpetrators of the disorder really exist. To buttress his point, he revealed that a number of youths had been arrested as they made their way up to the northern provinces to incite disorder.
Mr Amadou Ali also took exception with some news organs which gave the impression that the social upheaval had gripped the whole country “I can assure you, he said, that only five of the ten country’s provinces were affected; and even in some of the affected provinces, some divisions were not involved, such as Nkam and the Sanaga Maritime in the Littoral; Lebialem, Kupe Muaneguba, Manyu and Ndian in the South West; Nde in the West etc.”
He said although the press had started identifying some of the hidden faces, it was the sole responsibility of the justice delivery system to do such a job. “In matters of justice, only facts count, not rumours”, the VPM counseled.
The press briefing was held in the presence of the Minister of Communication Jean Pierre Biyiti bi Essam, the Minister delegate in the Ministry of Justice, Maurice Kamto and the Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice in charge of Penitentiary Administration Emmanuel Ngafesson.
(from http://constitutioncamerounaise.skyrock.com/)
Cameroonians resident in the United States marched in Washington, D.C. on March 6th in concern for recent occurences in Cameroon. After a protest at the Cameroon Embassy, they marched several blocks to demonstrate in front of the White House.
YAOUNDÉ, 6 March 2008 (IRIN) - Traffic jams and urban bustle have returned to main towns and cities in the west and centre of Cameroon, belying the violence that just weeks earlier left many of people there dead and a general population so scared most did not leave their homes for several days.
Yet human rights groups remain concerned that the government is employing heavy-handed tactics in clamping down on the media and arresting and imprisoning hundreds, possibly thousands, of youth who they say are not receiving due process.
“The arrests [of those accused of taking part in the violence] continues,” human rights advocate Madeleine Afité, of House of Human Rights, told IRIN
The number of arrests is in dispute. A government spokesmen said the total is around 1,500 but Afité said the number is much higher. “Around 2000 people were arrested in Douala alone,” she said.
A lawyer in Yaoundé, Me Francis Djonko, told IRIN that those arrested are not receiving due process. “The accused should have at least three days to prepare their defence but that is not being respected in the cases I have had to defend,” he said, adding some of the accused have already receiving prison sentences of up to three years.
A source close to Cameroon’s President Paul Biya said that some members of the government are suspected of fermenting the violence and may soon by taken into custody. President Biya went on state media on 27 February during the rioting to say that “certain politicians” were seeking to overthrow his government in a coup d’état.
Figures on the number of dead also remain unclear. The government spokesperson Jean-Pierre Biyiti Bi Essam told the French Agency Press (AFP) on Wednesday that only 24 people had been killed but human rights groups say the number is far higher.
“We are still trying to cross-check information but we can already say that a hundred or so people must have died,” Afité said.
International media monitoring groups have accused government of censoring the media and beating and intimidating journalists as well as confiscating their equipment.
The government has also closed down at least three media houses but denies that it is part of a general effort to censor the press. “[The media houses] either carried out certain broadcasts which are insensitive, provocative, or controversial and obviously certain administrative decisions have been taken in order to ensure that these broadcasts do not endanger the stability or social order,” government minister Elvis Ngolle Ngolle told Voice of America.
The riots started in the economic centre Douala in the west of Cameroon on 25 February, and quickly spread to the political capital Yaoundé and other cities as youths protested against rising fuel and food prices and efforts by President Biya to change the constitution so that he could run again in the 2011 elections.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Cameroon activists say riots kill more than 100
Thu 6 Mar 2008, 6:53 GMT
By Tansa Musa
YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Human rights campaigners in Cameroon accused the government on Wednesday of covering up the true death toll from riots last week, in which one organisation said at least 100 people were killed.
Crowds of youths fought police and soldiers in several towns and cities when a strike by taxi drivers over fuel prices turned violent amid anger over President Paul Biya’s plan to change the constitution to extend his 25-year rule.
Communication Minister Jean-Pierre Biyiti bi Essam told Radio France International on Tuesday that 17 people had died, and accused human rights groups of exaggerating the death toll.
But Madeleine Affite, Littoral Province coordinator for Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT), said the true death toll was higher. Littoral Province includes the commercial capital Douala and several other towns hit by riots.
“The information we have received from our field workers in the various towns affected by last week’s violent incidents, as well as complainTs from families, indicate that at least 100 people died in clashes with security forces, over 10 others missing and several hundred others injured,” she said.
“I’m afraid this number could even be higher when a final count is made in the coming days,” she told Reuters.
Fellow human rights activist Alice Nkom, who is a lawyer in Douala, agreed the official toll was too low.
“There are many more than they are saying, and they were killed by bullets,” she said. “They don’t want people to know.”
BODIES IN RIVER
Affite said 20 bodies had been recovered from Douala’s Wouri river where security forces confronted demonstrators a week ago.
“They were trapped by security forces on both ends of the bridge who started throwing tear gas at them. In the confusion that followed many of them were forced to jump into the river in a bid to save their lives, but died,” she said.
Affite said the authorities had instructed hospital morgues not to release the bodies of those killed in order to hush up the scale of the violence and the security forces’ response.
“We’ve met aggrieved families, we’ve met with hospital authorities who have told us that mortuaries are filled with corpses from last week,” Affite said.
Members of the Cameroon Bar Council criticised summary trials of hundreds of people detained in last week’s violence.
Many are being charged with looting of private and public property, destruction of property and erecting barricades, said Francis Ndjonko, one of six lawyers who have offered to represent defendants in court for free in the capital Yaounde.
“Once they appear in court, they are hurriedly tried without any defence counsel, with trials lasting sometimes just about five minutes, and sentenced to heavy terms in prison ranging from 14 months to two years and payment of fines,” he said.
Alice Nkom, a lawyer and human rights activist in Douala, said the city’s courts were working through some 450 defendants, many of whom she said had been beaten in custody.
“They have been tortured … They are naked from the waist up in court, and you can see the marks,” she said.
(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com)
The Financial Times
By Matthew Green in Douala, Cameroon
Published: March 4 2008
Only a few crumbs were left on the counter at the Boulangerie du Rail delicatessen in Douala after looters swept the shelves of cake, croissants and champagne.
But anger with Paul Biya, Cameroon’s president, is still boiling after the worst unrest in 16 years failed to thwart plans to change the constitution to prolong his quarter-century rule.
“People are hungry, they have nothing to eat,” said Felix Djoyo, the manager, who had locked himself behind a metal door while shanty dwellers ransacked his bottles of Bordeaux.
The crisis in Cameroon might have generated few headlines abroad, but the violence shows how soaring oil and food prices on global markets are threatening the patronage systems propping up some of Africa’s longest-serving leaders.
Protests linked to surging inflation have broken out in Guinea and Burkina Faso in recent months, where presidents have ruled for more than two decades. Niger, Ghana and Senegal have also seen demonstrations.
In Cameroon, a government increase in petrol prices last month triggered a taxi drivers’ strike that quickly developed into a week-long outpouring of rage at the prospect of Mr Biya extending his stay in office beyond elections in 2011. The convulsion revived memories of months of protests in the early 1990s when the opposition came close to toppling Mr Biya, before splintering.
While Cameroon is perhaps best known abroad for the exploits of its Indomitable Lions football team, last week’s unrest will resonate in Beijing, the Pentagon and the Texas headquarters of ExxonMobil.
Tucked between oil-producing Nigeria, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, the country of 18m has acquired a new strategic value in recent years as the global race for energy security has reached west Africa. Both China and the US are seeking closer ties.
ExxonMobil opened a pipeline through Cameroon in 2003 – as part of a project with Chevron and Petronas of Malaysia – that exports about 170,000 barrels a day of oil from southern Chad. Costing about $4bn (€3bn, £2bn), the scheme is among the biggest investments in sub-Saharan Africa.
As discord flared and expatriates trapped in a hotel in the coastal resort of Limbe wondered who might rescue them, the grey hull of the USS Fort McHenry floated offshore. The navy transport vessel visited Cameroon as part of a plan to train west African forces to boost security in the Gulf of Guinea. The region is expected to supply a quarter of US oil imports within a decade.
The question now is whether unrest will erupt again despite Mr Biya ordering one of the biggest military deployments for a generation. At least 20 people were reported to have been killed during the rioting, although on Monday Cameroon was calm.
Much of the anger comes from a younger generation who see few career options beyond driving motorcycle taxis, known as “Bendskins” after a dance approximating the hip-swaying motion of swerving round potholes.
“If you see people throwing stones, it means if they had guns, they would have been shooting,” said Frederick, an economics graduate who survives by driving a Bendskin.
The government has agreed to a small reduction in fuel prices to placate protesters, saying it cannot afford the kinds of subsidies needed to shield the economy from global market forces. But many residents blame Mr Biya for the hardship, saying years of venal rule have skewed the economy to favour a tiny elite.
Despite some recent arrests of senior officials on corruption charges, campaigners wonder whether Mr Biya’s 60-odd ministers are too compromised to undertake reforms needed to ward off the risk of future unrest.
“It’s unprecedented, people are actually being investigated,” said Akere Muna, founder of Transparency International in Cameroon. “But it’s like asking the fish to buy the hooks.”
The Post (Buea)
3 March 2008
By Francis Wache & Azore Opio With Field Reports
Calm has now returned to Cameroon after a week of demonstrations that crippled the nation.It all started on Monday, February 25, when taxi drivers called a strike to protest against the hike in fuel prices.
Nobody on that Monday, February 25, could have predicted that the nationwide transporters’ strike action would take such a dramatic and bloody clash.Though the strike action by the Syndicate of Transporters had been announced, the State owned CRTV, said on Sunday, February 24, that the strike action had been called off by the leaders of the Syndicate of Transporters after clinching a deal with the Minister of Labour and Social Security, Prof. Robert Nkili.
And, so, both the government of Cameroon and the population were surprised when, on Monday, February 25, not only were the streets without taxis, but the inter-urban and intra-urban buses were grounded paralysing all movements.
The situation soon degenerated when disgruntled and mostly unemployed youths seized the opportunity and took to the streets expressing their discontent. They complained that those in power had not created enough avenues for employment and economic opportunities.
The strike action, peaceful at first, quickly turned violent with the rampaging and sometime marauding youths engaged in running battles with the forces of law and order. While the troops fired gunshots into the air, the mob responded with volleys of stones. Then the troops riposted, tossing teargas canisters.
Worse, bandits and petty criminals soon joined the fray and then began an orgy of violence, savagery, brutality and the looting of private property and the destruction of public buildings. Lives, too, were lost and trigger-happy forces of law and fired live bullets at fleeing demonstrators.
The situation was not improving faster as expected. Cameroon was progressively plunging herself into the abyss of endless destruction. Calls for peace and calm began to surface from all nooks and crannies from the country. But the angry youths and Cameroonians in general felt that the most soothing words must come from the Head of State.
Biya’s ‘Declaration Of War’ Speech
President Paul Biya, on Wednesday, February 27, made a declaration on the situation. He castigated the opposition that had failed to win power by the ballot for turning to the bullet to destabilise the country.
In a vitriolic tone, and in less than five minutes, he defiantly told the “demons” instigating the demonstrators that their efforts were doomed.Immediately after President Paul Biya’s address, the protesters, in Bamenda, for example, infiltrated by bandits, went amok, destroying and looting anything on their way.
Targets: PMUC, Breweries, Taxation Offices…
In most towns, demonstrators targeted PMUC offices. When they could not torch them, they turned to the ubiquitous PMUC kiosks planted along the streets and set them ablaze. In Bamenda, they ransacked all the offices of PMUC building owned by the SDF National Chairman, John Fru Ndi, on Commercial Avenue.
The angry crowd evacuated computers, electronic gadgets, money and other valuable property and burned them outside the building. They tried to make away with the safe in vain.
The same scenario was enacted at the Cow Street Taxation Office, Nkwen, where the rioters could not remove the safe. They, however, carted away laptops and valuable documents and set them ablaze outside the office.
The protesters also ransacked and burnt down the Nkwen Post Office immediately after Biya’s speech on Wednesday night. The angry youths proceeded to the Bamenda Urban Council, where Abel Ndeh’s three cars were all razed.
An inventory conducted by The Post indicated that two seven-ton loaders were burned, one trailer damaged, three vans “Keep Bamenda Clean” vandalised, windscreen of European Union service car shattered, two salon cars and a motorcycle parked on the Council premises were burned; and six tippers had their windscreens shattered. Several private vehicles impounded at the Council premises were also destroyed.
The rioters left the Council premises at Ntarikon and stormed a primary school known as County Primary and Nursery School, owned by Abel Ndeh’s wife. They inflicted some damage on the structure.
In Nkambe, Donga Mantung, the Police Post at the Nkambe Main Market was razed. In Kumbo, the protestors vented their anger on some government institutions and private establishments. Despite pleas from Bui Senior Divisional Officer, SDO, Daniel Panjouono, they stormed the Transport Delegation at Bam-bui Quarters; a building that also housed the Public Works Service and Radio Meteo and set fire to it.
They later ransacked the Divisional Delegation of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Delegation of Commerce, where they emptied offices and burnt documents, furniture and damaged computers and photocopiers. Brasseries Du Cameroun depot at Ta Mbve, the Guinness Depot and a police van did not escape the wrath of the protestors.
The Taxation Office and Finance Control Service at Mbve received the same treatment, while some taxation officials were equally visited and their property destroyed. Indeed, the youths went out of hand as they extended their ire to billboards at the Tobin Roundabout mobile phone kiosks.
In Mbengwi and Babito and other parts of Momo, protestors set administrative installations on fire. Meanwhile in Santa, rioters burned the DO’s office and a vehicle. In Kumbo, Bui Division, Divisional Delegation of Transport, Public Works were burned as well. At Taxation Office and that of Education and Youth Affairs, the protesters brought out all the office equipment and set it on fire. Guinness and Brassieres were depots were looted.
Meanwhile, in Kumba in the Southwest, the Delegations of Taxation, Education, Social Affairs, Town Planning and Treasury were burnt. The most affected was PMUC, which had all its properties and kiosks burnt. Les Brasseries du Cameroun had its Kumba Regional office completely burnt. Demonstrators also burnt down and destroyed Kumba I (Kumba Town) and Kumba II (Mbonge Road) and Kumba Central Police Posts.
Also, two Total Filling stations were destroyed. Demonstrators equally looted treated palm oil from a timber company near the train station. The looters have reportedly sold the ‘poisonous’ palm oil, which was meant for the treatment of timber. The timber company has put up a notice cautioning the population against consuming the oil, since it might be harmful. This has caused general panic, as the local population are unsure of palm oil.
Muea in the Southwest Province witnessed part of its police post burned down.
Arrests, Torture, Rape
Over 150 youths arrested in Bamenda are now undergoing severe torture in various detention camps. Rumour holds it that in the days ahead they would be transferred to Yaounde.
When over 200 Koutaba special troops landed in Bamenda in the wee hours of Thursday, they treated nearly every home at Mile Two, Foncha Street Junction, Ntarikon, Commercial Avenue and Hospital Roundabout to a good dose of torture.
They even raped a soldier’s wife whose names we are withholding. Several cases of rape were reported in Mile Three, Ntarikon, and Hospital Roundabout, where the soldiers broke into private houses, forcing boys out to clear off the debris and road blocks.
On Ghana and Cow Streets, most of the houses broken into were owned by free women. Most women were deprived of their cell phones and money. One woman who spoke to The Post regretted, “when they broke open my door, they pulled out my brothers and beat them to near death.
The reason was that two of the soldiers pulled down their trousers and were about to rape me in front of my brothers, but my brothers protested and the soldiers thrashed them severely.”
Also, two students from Progressive Comprehensive High School, PCHS Bamenda, were reportedly raped at Ayaba Hotel.
In Kumbo, no death was reported, but over 30 persons were arrested. Meanwhile, in Nkambe, the Senior Divisional Officer for Donga-Mantung, Godlive Mboke Ntua, declared that over 20 youths were arrested and would be prosecuted.
In Kumba troops moved into quarters, beating and arresting those suspected of being involved in looting and destruction of properties. They visited places like Fiango and Hausa Quarters were most of the demonstrators were suspected to have come from.
Buea, like other towns, was also paralysed with troops and the youths occasioning destruction, theft and torture. In all, about ten youths sustained wounds from gunshots, while one died of a bullet wound at the Buea Hospital Mortuary. Others are still nursing their wounds in various hospitals after being severely tortured by troops.
Those arrested were about fifty, most of them teenagers picked at random. They are now incarcerated at the Mobile Intervention Unit, GMI, waiting for the Governor to seal their fate.
On their part, troops went amok breaking into private homes, beating its occupants and looting whatever they could. They looted cell phones, money etc, and destroyed TV sets, electronic gadgets and other valuables.
Hordes Of Looters To Serve Jail Terms
In Yaounde, about 400 alleged looters, who were judged and convicted at the Legal Department, have been transferred to the Kondengui Maximum Prisson where they are to serve a two-year jail terms each.
Most of the arrests were arbitrary as the troops swooped on passers-by and took them away. They even ransacked homes arresting those they found there. The convicts were transferred in four trucks on Friday, February 29, under the mournful eyes of parents and relations who were helpless at such convictions without ample evidence.
According to the family of Baba Abdoulaye, one of the supposed looters, in the ‘Derriere Combatant’ neighbourhood, their son, was sleeping in the house when a group of children who ran into their house for safety, woke him up.
When the police invaded the house, they whisked him away with others and no amount of pleas could make the police release him.For Fabrice Kamdem, who resides at Polytechnic, when violence started on Tuesday, he decided to park the CD plates he was selling in the usual place before heading home.
He said his friend decided to eat before going home. As the friend was leaving the restaurant, the police asked him to identify himself. Although the friend produced his ID card, the policeman yelled, “c’est vous” (you are the ones). Then he was bundled him into the truck.
Children who flocked to the streets out of curiosity were also arrested. Some of the kids sent on errands by parents were whisked to detention cells. Civil rights and other observers describe the arrest, trial and incarceration of the putative looters as a violation of human rights and a blatant disrespect for the new Criminal Procedure Code.
Those who were lucky to escape the detention cells had to buy their freedom after being beaten and bruised. They were subsequently released after paying sums ranging from FCFA 10,000 - FCFA 80,000. Those whose mobile phones were seized never got them back.
In Limbe, soldiers arrested a human rights activist, Djibril Ngeve Nyeke, at the Mile I neighbourhood and accused him of encouraging mob action. But The Post learned that Ngeve had been trying to dissuade some of the boys from perpetrating violence. A 16-year-old welder, Clinton Ngwa, was also brutalised by soldiers as he went to pick his younger brother from school.
Meanwhile, in Kumba, over 30 youths have been arrested and detained at the Gendarmerie and police cells. Although they were arrested indiscriminately, they were accused of orchestrating looting, violence and destruction of properties.
Death Toll
When reinforcement arrived from Koutaba Military Base in the West Province, a bloody confrontation ensued in Bamenda. At the end of it, six youths were shot to death. These included; Emmanuel Che, 24, of Ndamukong Street who was shot at Mile Two Junction, Ashley Fontoh, 14, student of GTC Bamenda, shot at Ntarikon Junction, Devoline Awah was shot in the head at Brassieres Junction, and Bernard Ngwa was shot on Che Street, Ntarikon.
Among the several youths shot with live bullets and currently receiving treatment at the Bamenda General Hospital are; Gerald Nichia and Janet Nimbong.
Kumba recorded one of the highest death tolls in the Southwest Province, with seven youths shot to deaths. Crates of beer killed three others as they looted beer from Les Brasseries regional office.
In Limbe, soldiers deployed to quell demonstrations shot dead a petty trader, Richard Tangie Nwonfor, 32, about three hours after President Biya’s address.Tangie had sallied out to observe youths, irked by the President Biya’s declarations, battle with the police and the military. The troops shot him around the hips and ran before collapsing on the campus of UNICS Secondary School, where he died.
The long and short of the transporters’ strike is that it ignited a heap of smouldering grievances among the youths and other Cameroonians; those who see Brasseries du Cameroun as a ‘drug’ industry, PMUC as drain on the economy as well as fuelling corruption amongst the armed forces, vacillating politicians who tell youths blatant lies and voracious tax collectors who feed fat from both the government and taxpayers.
Some of the grievances, however, were not addressed during the protests - the medical corps, the judiciary, businessmen, teachers and just the ordinary Cameroonian looked on as the youths attempted to send their messages home.
The damages, human, material and financial losses caused by the strike have left painful gaping wounds in the economy and the society. In nearly all the places where the strike reached, there was a recurring refrain; trigger-happy troops, with the police to bear most of the blame, toyed with tear gas and live ammunition, dropping unfortunate youths to their untimely deaths. The government did its best to stifle any sort of protest with batons, tear gas and water canons.
By press time, the prices of essential commodities that had started creeping upwards even before the idea of the strike had formed in the minds of the transporters, had at the weekend doubled up - a cup of garri in most scantily attended markets sold at FCFA 100, rice went at FCFA 100 a cup, a fresh tomato FCFA 50, a loaf of bread (blockade) FCFA 350 and so on and so forth.
*With Field Reports By Chris Mbunwe, Peterkins Manyong, Kini Nsom, Walter Wilson Nana, Leocadia Bongben, Willibroad Nformi, Francis Tim Mbom & Ernest Sumelong