Society

Meme: Population begs CAMRAIL to re-launch Mbanga-Kumba train line.

Kumba railway station in its hey days before the armed conflict in NW, SW

The population of Meme Division of the South West Region and Kumba in particular have urged authorities of the Cameroon Railway Corporation, CAMRAIL, to re-launch the rail line which links Mbanga in the Moungo Division of the Littoral Region to Kumba.

The calls come after a train was last seen at the Fiango Railway Station in 2017. The company long abandoned the route owing to security threats associated with the armed conflict in the North West and South West Region.

Most residents of Meme who spoke to The Guardian Post said with the relative return to normalcy and the spike in road transport fare, opening the Kumba-Mbanga rail line will be a great relief.

They are recalling with nostalgia the cost of travelling from Kumba to Mbanga at the cost of just 500 FCFA by train. This, they said, eases the movement of business persons to the economic capital Douala and back.

According a Kumba city dweller, Njuafac Cecelia, train also eased journeys to the village in other parts of the country. She indicated that when the railway line was functional, hundreds of families could just travel to Mbanga and get a vehicle to the West Region.

Njuafac expressed hope that sooner than later, the CAMRAIL authorities will revamp the line. He said the facility returning to functional ways will also bring economic benefits for the population.

On his part, the Head of the Kumba Train Station, Mbah Timoh, said before the ongoing crisis, the facility had become an integral part of the daily lives of the population.

“It was thanks to the train that people were able to know the time thanks to a giant clock that was fixed at the tower of the Kumba Train Station,” Mbah said.

He disclosed that several persons across Meme Division, especially residents of Kumba, have been asking when CAMRAIL will re-launch activities in Kumba.

He noted that despite challenges, the infrastructure is still intact, in need of just renovation and maintenance whenever authorities of CAMRAIL will decide. He also regretted that people have been encroaching into CAMRAIL land. To recall that the Kumba Train Station was opened in the 1970s by the former President of the Republic, Amadou Ahidjio.

It had for years before the Anglophone crisis been a strong symbol of reunification as it linked Kumba in the English-speaking South West Region to Mbanga in the French-speaking Littoral Region.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3179 of Thursday July 25, 2024