Road corruption: Transporters strike, troops called in!.

According to the reports, "more than 11,000 vehicles and buses were stranded between Meiganga and Garoua-Boulaï".

The congestion affected the entire transport logistics from Douala to the northern Regions, thus creating a domino effect on the transport of perishable goods, pharmaceutical distribution, and transit flows to Chad and the Central African Republic.

The blockade quickly took on a popular dimension at a time the government is grappling to control post-election protests.

Public transport bus drivers and residents, fed up with the traffic situation, joined the strike. 

Young people erected a total blockade, immobilising refrigerated trucks, passenger vehicles, and convoys transporting medicines destined for hospitals in Ngaoundere.

Apart from the devastating economic costs, there was also a humanitarian dimension. Reports indicated that Meiganga Mayor, Aboubakar Kombo, had to mobilise municipal services to distribute more than a thousand food kits to travelers stranded for three days.

The local Red Cross was deployed to identify urgent medical needs and provide first aid while residents of the nearby Nandéké village also brought food and blankets to travelers stuck on the road.

The root cause of the problem is reported to be the fact that a group of gendarme officers landed on a driver at a checkpoint at the entrance to Meiganga, because a bribe was not paid.

Spontaneously, it ignited the fury of transporters who have been complaining for years about pervasive corruption in numerous checkpoints, not only on the Douala-Chad Road, but all over the country.

A 2022 government report on the Douala-N'Djamena corridor identified 66 checkpoints, 39 of which were deemed irregular.   

Transporters' organisations estimate that a truck pays an average of 140,000 FCFA per trip.

Local authorities attempted mediation with the Lamido of Meiganga, who is also a senator, calling for restraint, but was unable to lift the blockade.

The Senior Divisional Officer of Mbéré and the Governor of Adamawa Region, Kildadi Taguiéké Boukar, took turns trying to stabilise the situation to no avail.

Regional union leaders of the National Union of Truck Drivers of Cameroon, SNCRC, expressed their support for the demands to limit the controls, while calling for calm.

However, the transport operators, citing a series of extortions, violence, and abuses, refused to resume operations without direct intervention from the Minister of Transport.

With the authority of force, the local Divisional Officer, escorted by the army, reportedly confronted the protesters with an unequivocal warning: “I’ve been here for four years, I know all of you! You troublemakers will see, so watch out! Let the travelers through!”

Faced with the intimidation rather than dialogue, the truckers remained undeterred. Some retorted with a laconic: “We won’t let it happen!”

Security forces were then dispatched to the scene and ordered the truck drivers to clear the road. 

However, the truckers' response was unexpected and illustrated the complexity of the situation: they claimed that their truck keys had been “stolen,” making it impossible to move the vehicles.

Military engineers were then deployed with heavy-duty bulldozers to push the parked trucks aside, allowing traffic to resume.

A tragic consequence of the operation was the reported death of a truck driver who was sleeping in his vehicle when it was overturned during the clearance to free the road.

It should be pointed out that to curb such road corruption and pre-empt truckers from respecting ghost towns declared twice by Issa Tchiroma, self-proclaimed winner of the last presidential election, the Minister of Transport on November 12, in a memo addressed to Regional and Divisional delegates, instructed the temporary suspension of road safety and prevention operations on roads until further notice.

However, the ministry specified that awareness campaigns and compliance monitoring activities must continue in bus stations, travel agencies, driver training centres, and schools.

These actions must be maintained "through all available awareness channels," the statement instructed.

The protesting drivers had indicated that they needed only the mediation of the transport minister. They were, however, hapless in the face of an argument of force.

But they have drawn attention to their plight which is exacerbated by harassment practices on the roads and reinforces the systemic risk to the national economy by highway corruption, which the government should tackle with the force of the law.

What the government should learn is that an angry population can spontaneously stand up against injustice, as the drivers did.

Has the accused gendarme been brought to justice so as to deter others in his corrupt mould? Why are there so many checkpoints on the road when there are hardly any cases of criminals being brought to court by those at such controls? Do vehicles without the required documents still not flood our roads despite the numerous checks at each turn? What's the justification that there should be numerous controls on the highway while crime rate continues to escalate in the cities and towns?

The incident in Meiganga, which has reportedly led to the death of a truck driver, created a humanitarian situation, and inflicted a huge loss on the economy, encapsulates popular frustration by drivers and motorists nationwide.

It could have been avoided with limited checkpoints and dialogue. 

Force was used but the problems remain unresolved - road corruption on numerous checkpoints that do not only affect motorists and travelers but an economy floating on debts.

The only solution is to limit the controls and publicly sanction corrupt personnel at checkpoints who collect bribes with impunity as if it's a right.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3650 of Tuesday December 09, 2025