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| The streets of Bamenda were abandoned to the police today |
Despite the heavy deployment of troops,
Bamenda capital of the Northwest has been plunged into a ghost state, with
shops, banks, inter-urban transport agencies, offices, restaurants,
Markets,
taxis, “benskin” and neigbourhood provision stores all shut down in strict
respect to the calls for a ghost town in solidarity with the Anglophones
(ManchoBibixy, Bar. Nkongho Bella and Dr. FontemNiba) standing trial today
March 23, at the Yaoundé Military Tribunal.
Since
the start of the ghost town last January, today’s ghost town could be described
as 99.9 % effective, largely due to the recent burning of the Bamenda Food
Market which send shivers down the pine of those reluctant to observe it. There
is a heavy police presence in all the major junctions of Hospital Round About,
City Chemist, Mobi-Nkwen, Custom Junction, Ntarikon with mobile units
patrolling, some in plain clothes.
Several
arrests have been made already, most of them young boys, picked up at various
parts of town. The reasons for their arrests are still not known, but it would
appear they may have been trying to enforce the respect of the ghost town. They
were transported under heavily guarded police pick up vehicles towards
Ntarikon.
Our
reporters on the field have been facing so many challenges getting pictures of
the state of the town, one, deployed at the Hospital Round About had his memory
card confiscated by a police officers for taking pictures of closed shops.
Reports
from Bali, Santa, Mbengwi and Bambui say these towns are also shut down
completely.
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