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Cameroon: Unrest Spreads to Yaoundé Even After Taxi Strike Ends
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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
27 February 2008
Posted to the web 27 February 2008
Douala
The violence that started in Cameroon's main city Douala on 24 February with a taxi strike to protest fuel prices has continued and spread to other cities including the political capital Yaoundé, even after strike organisers declared the strike over.
IRIN spoke to people in Yaoundé who said they were hearing heavy gunfire all around.
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Elizabeth Dickinson/IRIN Rioters burning vehicles and tires in Douala. |
"I tried to go to work this morning but I quickly turned back when I saw the situation," said an office worker in Yaoundé who did not want to be named.
"I saw a market being looted and burned. Now I am home and I am not going out again," the worker said.
Other people have been unable to reach their homes. "I am stuck in a health clinic," Lucien Mby a patient IRIN spoke to by telephone in Douala. "I cannot leave as I will not take the risk of starting my car," he said. "The youth gangs will destroy it"
For three days, marauding gangs have looted shops and blocked traffic with burning tires. In Douala corpses were lying in streets in various parts of the city with gunshot wounds, according to eyewitnesses.
Local radio is reporting a total of eight deaths but several people IRIN spoke to put the tally higher.
Beyond the strike
The taxi strike officially ended late on 26 February with the head of the taxi union, Jean Collins Ndefossokeng, announcing on Radio France International: "it is no longer a good time for the strike with the current vandalism."
He also said the government had conceded to the taxi drivers' demand of reducing the price of fuel, though the reduction will only be 6 FCFA (less than one US cent) a litre.
The taxi strike was only a catalyst for the population to vent growing frustrations at their deteriorating living standards and a government that they see as ineffectual, say many observers.
"The political class has been very complacent for many years," Cameroon researcher from the University College of London Ben Page told IRIN in an email, "it is completely out of touch with the urban poor."
The population has faced difficult living conditions in the past with little civil unrest compared to neighbouring countries. Many of Cameroon's elite have said that their country could never become as violent as others in Africa because it doesn't have any ethnic groups that dominate.
But Page disagrees. "[People say that] because there are so many ethnic groups in Cameroon, no one group can dominate," he said. "They have assumed that ethnic diversity will provide them with a buffer against violence [but that] assumes there is limited solidarity among the urban poor [to] unite if only to express frustration and self-defeating violence."
Dead cities
Roads in and out of Douala reportedly remain blocked. In the centre of the city IRIN only found one shop open with a long line of people outside waiting to buy bread.
There has been some informal trade in fresh produce but prices of some goods had more than doubled.
Shops in Yaoundé were also mostly closed on 27 February and in both cities few civilian vehicles were circulating, not even taxis.
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In the northwest towns of Bamenda and Kumba demonstrations were also reported. "I saw hundreds of people marching in the street with posters," a resident of Kumba told IRIN by telephone on 27 February.
He said some demonstrators were holding posters calling on President Paul Biya to step down while others were demanding that the government brings a halt to the rising cost of living.
[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]
The Cameroonian people are sick and tired of the high handleness of the Biya's regime.This regime has drained the wealth of this country and as a result,the entire country is miserable.People are merely managing to survive.This strike action is a catalyst that will spill into something greater in the near future.This is a momemt for those good will Cameroonians who really have the interest of this long time blessed peaceful loving country to muster enough political will and force this corrupt regime out.Nothing worthwhile will ever happen if somebody somewhere is not willing to stand up for change.All Cameroonians should... [Read Full Text]
How can a man who call himself a President in the event of a strike does not a apace the nation but instead is using Force to solved a problem which requires Dialogue
All the Cameroonians in Europe are weeping about what is going on in the country.We feel for our country and our family back home. We cannot have a peace of mind because we only get calls about how they are killing people all over the country.I think its not because of the increase of fuel and basic commodities that is causing this havoc. I just read over BBC news that the president has changed the constition protesting to rule for Years.Why? I think this is now the main reason behind all this. Cameroon has been believed all over the world... [Read Full Text]
It is time for MR Paul Biya to go. He either leave peacefully or be forced out. This man no done a single thing for Cameroon. Has not build a thing Has sold out all Cameroonian national assets to his friends etc...
The man and all his entourage must be forced out by all means.
At this point, Paul Biya is destroying our country; he must go. President for over 25 years, the man has done nothing to advance the country. No infrastructures, no tourism, no national pride. I don't live in Cameroun but I feel the pain of my brothers and sisters. The people are simply tired of being lied to and violence is the only thing they have left to express their anger. Although I don't agree with the destruction of lives and public property, who am I to challenge the frustration our people are feeling over a... [Read Full Text]
it is high time the government of cameroon realise that the situation we have at hand is not going to end at what we see and hear of now. it will likely degenerate into something very unpleasant. just like the strike action by the students of the university of Buea, which started like a joke and in no time spread like wildfire, what we have today is more likely to get worse if the biya regime insists on pushing ahead with the constitutional ammendments. cameronians have more grievances than the issue of price hikes. the price hikes is just an... [Read Full Text]
I support
this is for joel ngambe. i weep within my soul when i read your ignorant comments on what goes on in cameroon. you my friend are a shameful image to cameroonians. you speak as a man with no sense of discretion. you are very unwise and your words reflect truly how empty headed you are. i do not wish to insult you but, i must say, your idea of addressing the president and his hard working officials as devils and demons only serves to express how demonic you may be. you express no point in your words. you rather just... [Read Full Text]
Actually visiting home these days in itself is out of the question. Some of us are tired of living in Europe but how can we return to a land of no future. Our President has made things ever so difficult for us. The Government doesn't believe in dialogue at any level and the only thing is force. Worst of all, the Gendarmes shotting and killing people are not better themselves, but they have been so blindfolding they can even recognize their own very brothers. THERE WILL COME A TIME WHEN WE WILL STAND UP AND HUNT CHILDREN AND... [Read Full Text]
fFuel in Cameroon cost 600 cfa. abt (1 euro)whilst fuel in Belgium cost 900 cfa abt (1 euro 30cents). In Cameroon given our poor standard of living we are paying close to european prices for fuel. where the hell is all that money going to and why is fuel so expensive in a country which producers about 100.000 barrels a day?. The extra cash i suppose is being whistled away under a clever mafia scheme .The government claims that they subsizies feul up to a hundred francs cfa but how can u subsizies a product and at the same... [Read Full Text]
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