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.
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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
March 2, 2008
After Week of Unrest, Cameroon Appears Calmer
By WILL CONNORS
The New York Times
LAGOS, Nigeria — Calm appeared to be returning to Cameroon after rare violent demonstrations inspired, in part, by frustrations over the president’s recent announcement that he wanted to amend the Constitution to allow him to run for another term.
President Paul Biya has been in office for 25 years and critics say he has allowed too few freedoms in his efforts to maintain stability.
Up to 20 people were killed last week after riots in the capital, Yaoundé, the main port city of Douala and several western towns, according to news reports, but it was unclear how they died. The reports said that government soldiers had fired bullets and tear gas at demonstrators.
The government has said that fewer than 20 people were killed and blamed “delinquents” bent on looting and opposition politicians trying to foment unrest for some of the violence.
The unrest began last weekend when a transport union went on strike in Douala to protest high fuel prices and angry youths took to the streets to protest fuel and food costs. The strike ended Wednesday, but the violent demonstrations continued and spread to Yaoundé, and quickly took on a political edge.
“It’s the expression of multiple frustrations among the Cameroonian people,” Joshua Osih, vice president of the main opposition group Social Democratic Front, told Agence France-Presse. “The trouble runs deep.”
By Friday, soldiers were patrolling the streets of the capital for the first time in years, shops were reopening and taxis were operating again.
In January, Mr. Biya, president since 1982 and prime minister for seven years before that, said he would amend the Constitution, which was written in the 1990s and dictates a two-term limit on presidents, so that he could run for another seven-year term in 2011 elections. He was last elected in 2004.
“For some people the objective is to obtain through violence what they were unable to obtain through the ballot box,” the president said in a speech last week.
The government closed a popular radio station Thursday after listeners called in to complain about the president’s handling of the protests, according to the media watch group Reporters Without Borders.
On Friday the United States Embassy in Cameroon issued a warning encouraging all Americans to evacuate. As violence eased, the statement was amended to urge Americans to exercise strong caution and to avoid unnecessary travel.
Cameroon govt accused of muzzling media over riots
Fri 29 Feb 2008, 12:12 GMT
Reuters
By Tansa Musa
YAOUNDE, Feb 29 (Reuters) - Cameroon’s main journalists’ union accused the government on Friday of trying to silence media coverage of anti-government riots after police shut down a popular radio station that aired criticism of the president.
Magic FM 94, a private radio station in the capital Yaounde, was closed down by armed gendarmes on Thursday after callers to the station criticised President Paul Biya for his handling of a wave of protests that have swept the central African country.
Officials estimate up to 20 people, possibly more, have been killed in violent riots this week that gripped the capital, the main port city of Douala and several western towns. They were the worst anti-government protests in Cameroon in over 15 years.
The protesters have been demanding cuts in fuel and food prices, but have also expressed anger over a bid by the reclusive, veteran president to prolong his 25-year rule.
In a broadcast to the nation late on Wednesday, Biya, who is 75, offered no concessions to the protesters but said the authorities would use “all legal means” to restore order.
Soldiers and police have been deployed in the streets of Yaounde and Douala — which were reported calm on Friday — as well as in other riot-hit towns in the west.
The closure of Magic FM 94 followed the shutting down of another private radio, Equinoxe, in Douala on Tuesday.
Equinoxe’s sister TV station was closed by authorities last week after its coverage of growing opposition to an announcement early this year by Biya that he might change the constitution to stay in power when his term ends in 2011.
The head of the National Cameroon Journalists’ Union, Jean Marc Sobboth, condemned the measures against private media.
“This is simply a case of transferred aggression, because I cannot understand why the authorities have decided to close these radios only at a time when the country is traversing a serious crisis,” he told Reuters.
OPPOSITION ANGER
Magic FM 94 journalist Martin Nzogo, who was conducting the call-in programme when police interrupted on Thursday, said “people were calling in from all parts of the town to denounce the president”. The gendarmes turned off the station’s power and carried off studio equipment and transmitters, he said.
Biya said in his New Year message last month that his government would “re-examine” the constitution after what he said were popular calls for him to stay on past 2011. The constitution requires Biya to step down that year.
Biya’s party won an overwhelming parliamentary majority last year in elections the opposition dismissed as a sham. This could allow it to change the constitution.
Earlier this month, Equinoxe TV broadcast an interview with John Fru Ndi, leader of the main opposition Social Democratic Front, in which he accused Biya of wanting to rule for life.
Like many other TV and radio stations in Cameroon, Magic FM 94 and Equinoxe were operating without broadcasting licences while media authorities considered their applications.
Stations are generally allowed to continue operating during the lengthy application process under what the authorities have termed ‘administrative tolerance’. (Additional reporting by Talla Ruben in Doula; Writing by Pascal Fletcher)