The police raids Briqueterie neighborhood in Yaoundé

Residents of the Briqueterie neighborhood, with a large Muslim population, had an abrupt wakeup call when several patrols of police and gendarmerie raided homes and searched them thoroughly, as early as 5 o'clock on Tuesday morning.

Le Jour newspaper, in its Wednesday, July 29, 2015 edition, reported the raid where Mosques in the district were not spared. Upon their arrival, they surrounded the mosques and homes, wrote the newspaper. "At a place called 'white mosque', the faithful were praying when they saw the police. Witnesses told Le Jour that law enforcement forces remained outside the mosque until the end of the prayer.”

A Muslim cleric told the journal that "when we finished prayers, the police asked each of us to present his national identity card. Many of the faithful came to pray without it. They were loaded into a vehicle belonging to the police and taken to a police station in the city".

From the information gathered by Le Jour, these people were later released after interrogation.

A place called Tsinga Elobi was not spared either. Several homes were searched. "They entered the houses and searched everywhere in the rooms and kitchens. When they found no suspicious objects, they departed immediately. To my knowledge, they have found no suspicious objects in our neighborhood. But the police told us that authorities told them that Tsinga Elobi is considered an actual criminal area. People who were already getting to work were stopped by forces of order,” noted a resident.

After the attacks perpetrated in the Far North region and attributed to the Islamic Sect, Boko Haram, several security measures have been taken in almost all of the national territory.

"Round-ups such as those initiated in these two neighbourhoods of the city and recently in Avenue Kennedy town would continue," according to a security source.