City Thieves Pose As Bike Riders

Handbags of several students and women have been snatched by such robbers in Yaounde.

Most commercial bike riders in Yaounde and elsewhere are not what they claim to be. There is an increasing number of theft cases with several victims, mostly women, whose handbags are dragged from their possession by men on motorbikes who ride off at very high speed to unknown destinations.

Such is the recurrent situation particularly at the Biyem-Assi and Tam-Tam weekend neighbourhoods in Yaounde where many people, mostly students have been seen frustrated and confused along the road as they yell and helplessly run behind guys on motorbikes after the latter seized their belongings as they stood along the road waiting for a cab.

A Master level student at the Advanced School of Mass Communication (ASMAC) in Yaounde, Hervé Tiwa Lontsi, is still in disbelief after he was attacked by three men on a motorbike one bright afternoon at about 2:00 pm. After a long day of hard work at school, Hervé Tiwa decided to return to his residence located at the Rond Point Express neighbourhood in Yaounde. While walking along the road, a motorbike rider carrying two passengers suddenly stopped in front of him as if they wanted to find out something from him.

Before Hervé could realise what the motorbike's occupants wanted, one of the passengers punched him on the face. Plunged into a state of confusion, Hervé fell on the ground while the criminals collected his bag, containing his laptop, and drove off speedily. Hervé Tiwa says he is still in a state of dismay because his laptop contained most of his academic documents that were in a digital format. Ghislain Amougou, a student at the University of Yaounde I is another victim of motorbike robbers.

After boarding a motorbike at 8:00 pm one Thursday night from the Central Post Office Junction for the Biyem-Assi neighbourhood, he was assaulted by the bike rider and another passenger who happened to be his accomplice. The victim says while on the bike, the rider decided to pass along a road behind the Lycée General Leclerc, where he picked up another passenger. Amougou explained that few seconds after the second passenger mounted the bike, he felt how the passenger began to stab him on the back.

He immediately gripped the motorbike rider who could no longer control the motor cycle and they all fell to the ground. To his greatest surprise, it was the motorbike rider who pulled off his bag and speedily rode off with the second passenger. Abandoned in a pool of blood, Ghislain Amougou was safe thanks to the intervention of a passer-by. These stories are just tips of the ordeal of those who have survive assaults from robbers in the name of motorbike riders.