Cameroon’s Military and Police in Clando Transport Business in the South West Province
By Casimir Ngome in Buea

It is a common phenomenon today in the towns of the South West province of Cameroon to see uniformed officers shouting at prospective passengers: “ Na for wusai, Miss?” etc. Take a stroll at Mutengene main spot and you will see a military man with his epaulettes exposed, urging passengers to enter his car, for as he will put it, no one can disturb him on the way. And true to this claim, the fellows will not stop at police checkpoints even when they are overloaded. The lure of passengers to this “military transport agents” is that they are spared the delay that extortion by the armed security forces encountered during regular public transport. The results however, are frequent fatal accidents.

Last June and July accidents were registered on the Tiko-Douala highway, with uniformed officers at the steering wheel. This case of a certain army officer of the Limbe Infantry Service was on one of his routine trips from Victoria to Douala. His car was overloaded and he refused to stop at a police check point at the Ombe Brasseries du Cameroun Depot. A few Kilometres away he ended in a ditch with great casualties. Four died on the spot, two of whom were soldiers just returning from the Bakassi area. Their names were gotten as Akebe Anyangwa and Corporal-Chief Moussa Danon.

In a chat with one police inspector, our source gathered that without the heavy per diem payments that came at the height of opposition politics, military men have resorted to subsidize their income by engaging in the clandestine transportation or “clando” business. He further added that putting on of the uniform facilitates their clandestine activities, as nobody stops them when they are driving in military uniforms.