How Yaounde copes with insecurity at Mokolo market

The attacks are now history. Much has to be done by both the forces of law and order and civilians in order that unfortunate incidents of this nature do not repeat themselves

Life has returned to normal at the Mokolo market in Yaounde after brigands stormed it on Friday 8 January 2019, wounding people and making away with traders’ merchandise. The thieves, The Median learnt, came to the market at about 10:20 am. to avenge the death of one of theirs who had been shot and killed by a policeman the previous day after stealing a woman’s handbag.

Police sources told this newspaper that the miscreants, numbering about 150, came that fateful morning, armed with daggers, machetes, white arms, etc. and headed straight to the second police district situated in the heart of the Mokolo market. They had come to avenge their fallen colleague and also set free some others detained there. But they were dispersed by the police.

As they ran helter skelter in the market, they brutalized everybody they found on their way and looted traders’ shops in an annoying degree. The attacks went on for well over four and a half hours before they were quelled by the forces of law and order.

What happened at Mokolo is now history; what is of special interest to The Median is what can be done to preempt another such explosive fit of anger and the eventual looting of property.

It is a great thing that a police station is lodged in the Mokolo market. However, given the size of the market and a large number of people who visit it every day, it would be imperative for another security unit – perhaps the gendarmerie or the Rapid Intervention Batallion – to set up shop out there. Besides, these forces of law and order should not always remain static, they should be making patrols every so often to check or avert crime at the market.

Secondly, visitors who come to the market to shop should not fail to provide their own personal security. It is in their best interest to hold or carry their paraphernalia in such a way that they can hardly be pulled away from them. Such visitors are also advised to leave most of their valuable items at home before going to the market.

Other market users and shopkeepers are equally called upon to corporate with one another and with security officials in case of any attack or attempt to rob a person of his belonging. They should not enjoy –as they usually do – seeing, for instance, a young man running helter-skelter with a handbag he has snatched from a woman’s arms or a telephone he has just seized from a passenger in a taxi.