Businesses losing millions as Bamenda-Ndop road cuts off.

A situation that has left business persons using the stretch of road in total frustration. The Bamenda-Ndop stretch links three Divisions: Ngoketunjia, Bui and Donga Mantung. The destruction of the deviation by overflow of rain water has led to users of the road being stranded.

Business persons, particularly those dealing with perishable items destined for the regional capital, Bamenda and other parts of the country are in tears as their goods are abandoned to rot. A deviation linking Bamessing to Ndop had been created after suspected Amba fighters reportedly blew off the main bridge on the road around Bamessing.

Government had allocated funds to construct a durable bridge on that road stretch two years back but works dragged on till date without any signs of progress. Since the deviation was destroyed, users of this stretch have been managing a temporary plank-made bridge that was erected over the eroded road.

Travelers crossing temporary plank-made bridge on destroyed deviation 

Travelers leaving from Bamenda to Ndop, Kumbo, and other towns are forced to alight where the bridge collapsed, and cross on the temporary bridge on foot, before boarding another vehicle to complete their journey. For those carrying goods, they have had to pay loaders to carry the goods across the temporary bridge to the other side.

Businesspersons in tears

The situation has become even worst for those trucks transporting tons of perishable goods to the market. 

Ismaila Issa, a truck driver, transporting bags of beans and Irish potatoes to Cameroon’s economic capital, said over 20 bags of beans offloaded to be moved across the temporary plank bridge were swept away by heavy rains while the rest the other bags of getting rotten on the side.

“Behind me is more than 20 bags of decomposing Irish potatoes,” Issa pointed in total frustration.

Hassan, another businessman based in Ndop, said since the bridge collapsed, he has incurred enormous financial losses.

“The little profit I made from my business had been used to pay for the transportation of my goods across this wooden bridge,” he said. 

With the present situation of the road, traders now pay to have their goods offloaded when they arrive the area of the collapse bridge and have them reloaded on the other side of the road before they are being transported to their final destinations.

Traders say paying loaders to transport huge quantities of goods across is quite slow and costly, and they cannot sustain it for a long time.

“They charge according to the size and weight of your goods, and they have been making good money. I paid 1,000 francs for a bag containing 10 buckets of Irish potatoes,” said a truck driver.

For traders who have to get porters to transport 30 of such bags across the bridge, this will cost them an extra FCFA 30,000.

SDO blames contractors, separatists

The Senior Divisional Officer for Ngoketunjia, Quetong Handerson, who was at the scene where the deviation was swept away, said if a permanent bridge linking Bamessing to Ndop has not been realised till date, it is due to the actions of Amba fighters and the bad faith of the contractor who was handed the project over two years ago.

“It is more of a man-made disaster because I’ve never seen the entrepreneur up till today. The situation has been aggravated by the backdrop of political maneuvers. On two occasions, they [Amba fighters] came here and planted explosives. We want to say here that this road doesn’t belong to them. It belongs to everybody,”. 

It should be noted that deviation has been in use rather than the main road because separatist fighters reportedly blew off the bridge on the main road. It is reported that in 2020, a road construction company called International Earth Link, was awarded the contract to rebuild the bridge and the work was expected to be finalised in 2021. 

However, the bridge has never been rebuilt to date. The SDO in a phone chat with The Guardian Post yesterday said the Minister of Public Works requested for an estimate for rehabilitation works on the deviation, which they already forwarded to Yaounde.

This is to ensure that something is done quickly so that circulation can resume normally. As of Sunday, September 10, an excavator was at the site of the incident, creating yet another passage for vehicles, with the population expressing the wish to see fluid circulation on that stretch once again.