At least three killed as riots sweep Cameroon
DOUALA, Cameroon (AFP) — Three people were killed when riots broke out Monday in Cameroon's economic capital Douala, the country's communications minister said, but witnesses put the body-count as high as six.
Police battled protesters from early morning and small demonstrations began at road junctions, while youths armed with clubs looted shops during a road haulage strike, witnesses and an AFP correspondent saw.
The city is a stronghold of opposition to President Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982 but last month made clear that he wanted to stand for office again in 2011.
This triggered protests in Douala and a ban on rallies, which Biya's government said was for fear of turmoil similar to the rioting and killing seen in Kenya since a disputed election there in December.
"There have been three deaths," Communications Minister Jean-Pierre Biyiti Bi Essam said in a television interview late Monday.
Nevertheless, a journalist from the independent daily La Nouvelle Expression told AFP he had seen four bodies -- a teenager, a woman and two men -- in the city's Bonaberi district.
Two other people were shot dead in another area, Bessengue, according to a witness and another Cameroonian journalist, who said these bodies were taken to the morgue at the city's Laquintinie hospital.
Bi Essam, reached by telephone earlier in the day, said he knew of one of the Bonaberi dead as well as the Bessengue victims.
"Service stations and shops have been looted on the road into the town," the minister added, giving no further details.
Witnesses said police battled protesters who set fires and burned cars on the main road to Yaounde, the political capital, while residents of a few other towns also spoke of disturbances and transport strikes.
Many of Douala's three million people stayed indoors and kept stores closed after a road haulage strike was announced for Monday, fearing that the protest called over the price of fuel and basic products could turn violent.
An AFP correspondent saw several injured people taken to the Laquentinie Hospital -- one, shot in the chest, in a wheelbarrow. A kiosk was in flames in front of the hospital, surrounded by a menacing crowd.
Gunfire could be heard in the Bonaberi district, where thick columns of smoke rose into the air. Violent clashes were reported in several other parts of town and vehicles and piled-up tyres were on fire.
State radio reported that in one city district, the town hall and several other public buildings had been ransacked and the news broadcast spoke of "a tense situation," but made no mention of any casualties.
The ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (RDPC) released a brief radio statement lashing out at "blind and unjustified violence, intolerable under the rule of law."
It also presented condolences to "grieving families", without details of casualties, and accused unnamed politicians of "manipulating" protesters.
"So that's democracy," one local man exclaimed on seeing an injured man trying to reach the hospital. "Look what Cameroon's come to."
"Biya must go," another said.
The head of state's intentions remained unclear until early January, when he said that a current constitutional limit on a third elected mandate "sits badly with the very idea of democratic choice."
With business disrupted, traffic at a standstill and taxi drivers also on strike, gangs of youths sought to profit from the disturbanceson Monday. In the Akwa district, they raided shops owned by Chinese traders.
A resident of Buea, 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Douala, described a "confused situation" with clashes between "people throwing stones at police who are trying to take down barricades."
At Dshang in the west, a student told AFP that "hooligans have smashed up everything, ransacked the university." Also in the west, clashes were reported from Foumban, Bafoussam and Kumba.
Apart from a transport strike, Yaounde itself was unaffected by the trouble and so was Bamende, the stronghold in partly English-speaking west Cameroon of the Social Democratic Front (SDF) led by opposition veteran John Fru Ndi.
But SDF supporters in Douala have defied the ban on political protests. One man in his 20s was shot dead on Saturday during clashes with police arising from a banned SDF rally.
