Security apparatus almost disappeared in Yaounde

Security measures taken in the month of July 2015 are almost nonexistent today. "Last Saturday, I was at Essos and I returned to Tsinga around 2am. We did not encounter any police road block," says Armand Abanda, a student at the University of Yaounde II in the columns of Mutations of Tuesday, October 27, 2015.

In recent weeks, the security apparatus established in Yaoundé in the aftermath of suicide bombings that struck the city of Maroua in the Far North region has virtually disappeared.

"In every district of the capital city, joint control of the police and gendarmerie in the day and night had multiplied. Women's handbags were searched. At the frontage of the police services, including the General Delegation for National Security and the Police Academy, pedestrians and vehicles were banned from moving along the surrounding wall. Once again, the latter measure was applied only for a week," says the newspaper.

At the University of Yaoundé I, to enter the institution, it was compulsory to submit to metal detectors and other searches. On "October 23, 2015, these measures were gone."

The situation is the same in "almost all schools of the city of Yaoundé, which was observed, in addition to metal detectors, police posted at the entrance of secondary schools. However, these measures have not last a month," reveals mutations.

This has not escaped some political leaders. "We realized as most of the Yaounde urban residents of visible security measures against terrorism. But I guess this relief is only apparent without doubt misleading, as nothing justifies it. We realize that these measures have been strengthened at different entrances to the city," says Théophile Yimgaing Moyo, president of the Citizen Movement.

Faced with the threat that still looms, Medard Lipot Sosthenes, the head of the MRC Communication, believes that "when security measures are permanent, they are more efficient and should be visible in crisis. But when stopped and people notice it, there is a problem. The Cameroonian authorities have made people believe that they will bring them to safety. It is necessary that all state institutions in charge of security take their responsibilities."