Gov’t looks away as frightening insecurity envelopes Yaounde!.

What has left citizens more nervous is the gumption of robbers to operate in daylight without fear of being apprehended.

The disturbing trend of the happenstances has caused many Yaounde denizens to come hard on government. They say authorities are looking away while thieves continue to make their lives unbearable.

Yaounde, some are now positing, has graduated from being the dirtiest city in Cameroon given the heaps of dirt spotted at many road junctions to becoming one of the most uncertain cities to live in. 

A local told The Guardian Post that news of either killings, burglaries, assaults and kidnappings has become so recurrent that the populace seems abandoned.

Citing other instances of surprise happenings that have seen top bras of the nation’s security apparatus swing to action without delay, the  current situation in Yaounde, others have been saying, gives one the impression that those charged with securing persons and property have either gone on holidays. 

At worst, they have not taken measures commensurate to the heightened threat to life and social engagements across Yaounde.

Between January and now, if one is not being told of a missing family member who was kidnapped and later found dead, the story would be that of either a taxi driver dispossessed of his cab or a biker stabbed to death and his motorcycle stolen by his killers.

Neighbourhoods where anything can happen at anytime

A majority of the at least three million Cameroonians living in Yaounde now have an idea of neighourhoods which they consider places where ‘people go to, to either get killed or be denied ownership of their belongings’.

In some of these vicinities, a resident, Nicole Ndzana, told The Guardian Post, the painful part of the insecurity is that sometimes, the thieves operate and go scot-free in the presence of security officers. 

Ndzana said there are always no immediate security reprisals. Most people and families, our respondent said, oftentimes have only their eyes to cry and their dead to bury owing to the heinous activities of nighttime and daylight robbers.

There are even accounts from some victims which indicate that the gangs are increasingly becoming well-armed. Some victims have narrated that these days in Yaounde, the gangs are either operating through unsuspicious moves with modern bladed weapons or pistols that can sniff life in case a target resists.  

But what has left the conscience of the national capital troubled with most citizens grumbling and cursing security operatives in the private is the seeming ease with which people are gunned or gored to death.

Of recent, Yaounde has witnessed rampant incidents of killings, break-ins and looting in specific neighbourhoods where the thieves have no regard even for the sanctity of human life.

Among these deadly neighbourhoods are; Avenue Kennedy, Camair, Mvan, Carrefour Nsam, Mokolo Market, Yaounde-Nsimalen Motorway, Messa, Briquiterie, Post Centrale, Carrefour Maima, Calafatas, Leboudi, Mboudoumou, Nkolbisson, Mvog-Betsi and several others. 

The men of the underworld have become the lords here. They operate on a 24-hour basis. This, among their new maneuvers is among the many reasons, the citizenry of Yaounde is becoming afraid of its safety.

Cataloguing recent killings

The burden of insecurity has further weighed on Yaounde inhabitants given that those snuggling across neighbourhoods and strategic road junctions for nefarious reasons, now kill without mercy.

Going by accounts of victims, if one is kidnapped and taken to the unknown, he or she must pray not to hear the words: “fini avec lui” or “finish with him”. 

If that happens, your abductors are certainly set for your forceful exit to the world beyond. That is the new normal in Yaounde, and no one is saying anything yet!

Among those whom thieves have killed, sometimes even raped before butchering, is Diengou Louisse. She was a 23-year-old University of Buea, UB, student who came to Yaounde for a private venture on February 2, 2023.

Diengou arrived the Mvan Bus Station, got directives from relatives on how to reach home. Yet, the men of the gangland took her to the unknown, reportedly forced her family to cough out one million FCFA before killing her. 

Diengou’s corpse was abandoned in the wild. Police were later notified after the corpse was found. The remains were transported to a mortuary in Yaounde. Her relatives were left with the shock of their lives on March 14 when they confirmed the corpse in the mortuary to be Diengou’s.

On February 20, 2023, France-based Cameroonian nurse, Marie Florence Kwadith, 40, was discovered killed along the Yaounde-Nsimalen Motorway.

Reports hold that Kwadith was spotted lifeless around the Complex Mundi near Ntoun in Bikok, Mefou and Afamba Division. She was discovered in the pool of her blood. Her killers are said to have stabbed her severally to death before escaping with her car.

Meanwhile, the corpse of a young girl, whose name The Guardian Post got only as Ange, was discovered Saturday March 25, at the Sapeur Pompe Field in the Mimboman neighbourhood in Yaounde. Ange left her family home for school on Friday March 24, but never returned home alive.

Last week, the corpse of a cab driver, whose identity The Guardian Post could not immediately get, was discovered in the Leboudi vicinity. Days ago, a biker whose identity we could not also establish, was stabbed to death in the Nkolbisson neigbourhood.

There is also the discovery of the corpse of Orthodox priest and radio presenter, Jean-Jacquea Ola Bebe, on February 2, 2023.

These killings were recorded after the discovery, on February 23, 2023, of the corpse of radio journalist, Arsene Solomon Mbani Zogo, popularly known as Martinez Zogo, in the Soa neighbourhood.

How do they operate?

How the authors of the killings, break-ins and pickpocketing operate, has proven to be work in progress. Their tactics continue to advance with the changing times. 

For bikers, hundreds of whom are dispossessed of their source of livelihood daily, it suffices for one of the gang members to just pretend to be a passenger.

Upon reaching his/her supposed destination, other gang members usually swoop on the target, get him tide and then escape with the bike. Sometimes, they are shot to death.

For cabs, the gangsters usually tiptoe into them once a driver makes a stop to drop off a passenger.

In other instances, the gang members seat dispersed, leaving space for an unsuspecting target whom they usually ferry to an unknown destination.

In such a situation, passengers are often forced with a gun on their head to transfer any money in their mobile money accounts before surrendering the phones.

Pockets of arrest with no results

The only thing that has been known (overtly) of a security measure since the frightful happenings, are pockets of mass arrests in some neigbourhoods.

On Thursday March 23, a mixed team of gendarmes, police and soldiers stormed some neighbourhoods like Tam-Tam and Damas.

Some of those picked up said they were over 500 persons who were mostly citizens going about their daily engagements.

They were whisked off to the Yaounde III Council which shares boundary with the Police Station in the Subdivision. Those who identified themselves, The Guardian Post gathered on good authority, were left to go home.

Bad signals from East & West entrances into Yaounde

Analysts have been expressing fears that if nothing is done, the attackers may do worst things. Some have been citing the recent attacks on public transport buses around Bafia (on the Bafoussam-Yaounde axis) in the Mbam and Inoubou Division of the Centre Region and Pouma (on the Yaounde-Douala road) in the Sanaga-Maritime Division of the Littoral Region.

That gangs used projectiles to attack buses around Pouma along the Yaounde-Douala road which is the East entrance into Yaounde, many say, calls for more vigilance.

The same fear has been expressed over similar moves from Bafia found on the West entrance into Yaounde. Government, many have said and rightly so, must act urgently to guarantee the security of persons and property in Yaounde.

For some, if Yaounde is not breathing, it is simply a message that the entire country is covered by insecurity.