Yaoundé: Unannounced shop demolition affects traders

The Urban Community has destroyed several businesses in the Etoa-Meki and Elig-East districts.

Small merchants settled along the crossroads in Etoa-Meki, Yaoundé did not see this coming. Around 11: 00am on Wednesday, two buses filled with police officers followed by two excavators visited this popular area and immediately started the destruction.

Phones or medicine kiosks, clothing, grocery and hairdresser’s shops were destroyed in a few minutes. The excavators left nothing untouched; not even the counter of the small sellers of donuts. With tears in eyes, one Casimir witnessed with a stiffened heart, his 10 years of savings gone in vein.

"The reason for these destructions is not known. They arrived without saying anything. Usually, it is the Urban Community that leads this type of operation. But in this case, we are dealing with the police only," recounted a resident very touched by the scene he saw.

Anger rose among the population who denounced the abuse of power on the part of the police. At Elig-Edzoa, a district located just a few kilometres from Etoa-Meki, populations were also forced to release road borders. Here, according to witnesses on the scene, the operation was carried out by elements of the urban Commune of Yaoundé dispatched to rid the edge of the road of everything under the unhappy gaze of traders.

After the raid by the CUY, everyone tried to recover what they could. "It is my wood. Rather than leaving it here, I still prefer go give it to my wife for her to use in the kitchen". Aware of illegally occupying the carriageway, they justified this attitude with several reasons: "I have no means to get a place in a market and it is necessary that I send six children to school so I tried my luck here,” said a trader.