Ethnic Twist to Clashes between Youths and Motorbike taximen in Cameroon City?

*Article updated from the original to include quotes from the chief of Deido and Kah Walla.

There have been clashes between motor-bike taxi riders and residents of Deido neighbourhood for five days leaving at least two people dead in Douala, Cameroon's largest city, media reports said.

 This spate of violence erupted on New Year's Eve when Deido residents accused motor-bike taxi riders (known as Benskinneur) of stabbing a Deido native to death. The residents retaliated by attacking benskinneurs and setting their motorcycles on fire.

The violence escalated on Tuesday 3 January, as shown in the report below by Douala-based Equinoxe Television channel, after a woman's home was burnt down in Deido on Monday night. Some Deido residents blamed the benskinneurs for the action leading to further clashes on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

ETHNIC ISSUES

While local media have suggested that the situation is increasingly developing into a tribal conflict between mainly ethnic Bamileke benskinneurs and largely ethnic Duala (Sawa) Deido youth groups, Sawa community leaders refuted such allegations on Equinoxe TV on Wednesday.

"Why do you want to suggest that there is a problem between Deidos (Dualas) and Bamileke or benskinneurs?" Essaka Ekwalla the paramount chief of the Deido asked on Equinoxe TV news on Wednesday night. "Are all benskinneur in Douala Bamileke?" he asked. "Do you know that there are natives of Deido who lost property because they are also benskinneurs?"

   

Government officials and politicians have not directly said the violence is turning to an ethnic issue but they have called for calm and insisted on unity.

"The head of state has repeatedly said that we have only one ethnicity which is the Cameroon nation," Issa Tchiroma, the Minister of Communication said on TV. "Douala has to remain that melting pot that it has always been where all ethnic groups be they Bakoko, Bassa, Bamileke, Duala, Hausa, live in harmony," he said.

A statement by the Provincial Bureau of the country's leading opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF), touched on the issue.

"It should be noted that Douala is a cosmopolitan city. No one has the right to create a state of lawlessness in any of its neighbourhoods or areas. Douala is the common property of all who live there," said the statement signed by Gervais Nintcheu, SDF district chairman for the Littoral Region.

"If it is clear that we have to respect Douala traditions and values (culture) and those who represent such (traditions and culture), all who live in the city, without exception, must recognise and integrate the notions of a Republic," the SDF added. 

"That a particular profession should be stigmatised on the basis of ethnic or regional origins is unacceptable and inadmissible in a Republic," the statement said.  

Douala-based politicians (who ran for President last October) have made separate attempts to calm the irate youths on both sides. Albert Dzongang (La Dynamique party) and Jean Djeunga met with motorcyclists and Fritz Ngo (Parti Ecologiste) and (the Member of Parliament) Jean-Jacques Ekindi (Mouvement Progressiste) and Edith Kah Walla spoke to the Deido youths.

"What we have here are deeper problems of insecurity, unemployment and problems of public transport in the city of Douala which need to be tackled but for that to happen we need a return to calm," Kah Walla said on Equinoxe TV. 

   

ETO'O SITUATION

In addition to managing growing ethnic tensions, government officials in Douala are concerned that the clashes could spiral out of control if fans of Cameroon's national football team captain, Samuel Eto'o, were to use the opportunity to stage protests against a 15-match ban handed to him by the national football federation (Fecafoot).

Eto'o grew up in the run-down neighbourhood of New-Bell, has a huge, fierce and loyal fan-base in Douala which has been itching to protest against what they perceieve as injustice, according to intelligence reports filed to authorities in Yaounde, papers said.

Officials are also aware that recent national political protests have often started in Douala, including the February 2008 riots that left at least 40 dead according to authorities (more than 100 according human rights groups).

Security reinforcements poured in from the South West and Centre Regions of Cameroon leading to an uncertain calm late on Tuesday. But on wednesday skirmishes re-started after a restaurant was set ablaze. 

"What we've witnessed what could be the dress-rehearsal of far worse to come," a newspaper reporter said about the situation brewing in the country.  

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