Ekounou market traders experience another round of destruction

Traders at the Ekounou market traders witnessed their shops and goods being destroyed again by elements of the urban police earlier this week.

With their unexpected arrival few minutes after 12 noon, officials of the CUY first of all trampled on products of vendors on the ground (tomatoes, peppers and many others), before tipping over those who were in wheelbarrows. After this step, they entered shops which had goods displayed outside, stating that they must be placed five to six metres from the road.

Alerted by the screams of the unfortunate ones, some roadside sellers had the time to rush into the market to hide and some managers of shops were able to send their products back inside.

Everyone tried to be in order before "Awara", as they are popularly known, arrived. Those who were not fast enough had their goods destroyed under their watch or simply carried away in a truck. This confusion ended an hour later. Frightened sellers simply closed their shops, after the raid by CUY.

They said they had paid their taxes, yet witnessed their goods being taken just as those who had not paid. "I made some temporal payments to display my goods outside my shop. Therefore this tax is supposed to protect me and allow me to exhibit my merchandise outside. But to my surprise, they came to pick up my products and have even broken the shed I had installed outside. I don't understand this anymore!" exclaimed a seller in anger.

However, some sellers who had no faults congratulated the work of the community: "I say bravo to the urban community. A far as I know, the law denounces selling along the road and they [Cuy officials] often give a warning before coming. It's just that people are too stubborn, that's the consequences," noted a trader.

Others, on the other hand, sympathized with their colleagues who had suffered the horrors of the 'campaign against incivility' launched by the CUY. "I think the Town Hall is doing its work. The problem is that they should at least notify them before coming because it is very touching to see one’s merchandise destroyed like that", said Nicolas Mvondo, an employee at a library in the area.