Des soldats camerounais en patrouille dans les rues de Buea, capitale de la région anglophone du Sud-Ouest, le 26 avril AFP/Archives/ALEXIS HUGUET
Businesses in Buea already suffering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Anglophone crisis are being victimized by ‘extortionist’ security officers.
In what appears to be a fundraising scheme, security officers in the restive North West and South West regions are said to be targeting local businesses like snacks to squeeze money out of their owners or from customers.
Concerns are escalating over businesses being targeted by extortion rackets led by the police and other segments of the country’s security service in a number of areas such as Buea and Bamenda.
On December 4, police reportedly descended on Las Vegas Snack Bar in Buea, indiscriminately beating up customers and forcing them into police vans.
“I have witnessed one of the most dehumanizing forms of police brutality. The police descended on Las Vegas snack Bar in Buea, on the night of Friday, December 4, 2020, and started beating up people indiscriminately,” journalist Joseph Mbang Weno said.
“They actually came with a truck, and for no reason, they began to arrest everybody who was inside or outside the recreational facility; even persons who presented their ID cards were not spared.”
Weno said, “people who presented their identification documents were deemed to be resisting and were beaten up to a pulp.”
His words: “I saw a UN worker who struggled to identify himself to the security forces. He was also manhandled before he was later spared.
“In the presence of many people, I heard the commissioner say ‘Las Vegas si veux nous montrer quoi?’ Then I realized the Commissioner was transferring aggression from a grudge with the proprietor of Las Vegas, to the innocent unsuspecting customers who were out for their relaxation.
“Some mothers and fathers going back home from a wedding reception they attended at the Molyko Catholic Church Hall were also bundled up and thrown into the truck. It was a terrible and pathetic sight to see gendarmes and police elements beating up people in front of their spouses and forcing them into the truck as though they were criminals.
“People who agreed to pay some money there and then were allowed to go. Even a magistrate who was called to the scene by one of the victims of police brutality was ridiculed by the police who refused to listen to him.
“When all of these things played out in front of me, I then asked myself the question ‘where is our country Cameroon headed?’ Who really does not want the crisis in the South West and North West regions to end? One day... just one day, this nonsense will stop.”
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