Poverty activists arrested over protest plot

Activists in the fight against poverty have been arrested by officers of the 2nd district police station in Yaoundé for provoking rebellion and disturbing public order.

Since mid-day Tuesday, Moussa Yimga the president of the Association of Operators in the Informal Sector to Fight Against Poverty in Cameroon (ANOSILP), chief spokesperson of Victims of International Supervision and Support to Development Actors (PID) and four of its advocates, can be found in the cells of the ICTY prosecutor at the Yaounde Administrative Centre.

They were forcibly arrested at around 10:45am and taken to the ground after plotting a protest march starting from the Mokolo market to the base unit of the Palace.

In 2010 more than 12,000 artisans, vendors, farmers, ranchers and other low-income people and members of the international coaching and support to development actors program (PID) were jettisoned over four billion francs.

In the process, a series of arrests took place in the ranks of PID officials, but sometime later the bigwigs of this scam, like Martin BIWOLE and many others, had simply been released.

Already, at the launch of the activities of PID in April 2010, its main leaders indicated that the program was the result of a partnership between the Chamber of Commerce of Bordeaux, PACBO, Camblanche and SIAD association.