Skip to main content

MATAZEM BORDER CROSSINGS AND MONDAY GHOST TOWNS COMPARED.

Nji Ignatius is Bamenda-based journalist working for one of Cameroon's leading weeklies, Eden newspaper. He just returned from Douala after a business trip. He complains they arrived the Matazem border at 4a.m and only succeeded in filing past the two security cordons after a four hours delay. Hyperbolically, that's almost the amount of time Africans trying to cross the Mexican border into the United States, take.

 

Since the outbreak of the conflict in the two English Speaking Regions, Defense Ministry Officials erected stiff security belts on both sides of the Matazem crossing. Vehicles arriving from East Cameroon are obliged to wait until 6.30a.m before security officials who are usually not in a hurry, begin screening from one passenger to the other and from one bus to another.

 


Come to think of the fact that of the six accredited travel agencies plying the Bamenda-Yaoundé, Bamenda-Douala, and Bamenda-Buea/Limbe roads, each of them loads at least three full-to-the-brim 70-seater buses each night en route to Bamenda. Then, you would be talking of an astronomical figure of at least 1260 passengers that congregate each morning and at the same time at the Matazem border crossing, and who have to be manually controlled on each of the sides by less than four outstretched security officers.

 

 Acting as if they are border control soldiers of two different countries, the same operation is repeated just twenty metres away, on the West Cameroon side of Matazem.


Just one mile away from Bamenda Up-Station, that is at Akum; the same robust military operation is undertaken and with the same minute detail.


Same holds for passengers obliged by the deteriorating security situation to take off from Bamenda for other Regions before 5pm everyday. Only that they are on the vantage position as they gain four hours moving eastward by arriving at their destinations in the neighborhood of 1-2a.m. Those traveling westward, that is to Bamenda, loss four hours between Matazem and Akum checkpoints.

 

In all, and in one year, people traveling from other cities to Bamenda by night loss at total of 1440 hours per year, being an average of four hours per day. What this means is that Cameroonians living and working in the North West Region have lost 7200 hours just at the Matazem border crossing in the last five years of the conflict.

 

At the same time, Monday Ghost Towns that were imposed since Monday January 9, 2017, by activists fighting for greater autonomy for the minority English Speaking Regions of Cameroon, have seen eight hours of work lost to it every Monday week. This amounts to 384 hours a year, equaling 1920 hours lost to Monday Ghost Towns in five years of its existence.

 

One can conclude without any fear of contradiction therefore, that more hours are being lost per day, per week, per month, and importantly per year, to the Matazem security belt crossings than to the Monday Ghost Towns operations.

 

And since Regional and Central authorities usually generally give to understanding that the situation is under control, there is therefore need to readjust the security controls. If the three can't be reduced to two, they could at least, be assigned different functions instead of repeating the same of sameness.

 

The Matazem security check bordering the West Region could be assigned the duty of checking only passengers, while the one on the Santa side manually checks vehicles and luggage. The last check point at Akum could be equipped with technology to both scan the vehicles and luggage, not simply manually repeating what has been done, with thoroughness, and for hours, at Matazem.

By Colbert Gwain.

Picture credit: Hilltop Voices, GP Media

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

LES BRASSERIES DU CAMEROUN: Poised to revamp dying North West Economy.

As the crisis persists in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon, economic sabotage has been part of the modus operandi of the Separatists. One of the companies that have suffered from such sabotage is the Brewery company, Les Brasseries Du Cameroun. However in it’s new program as announced by the company Earlier this year, it seeks to revamp it’s commercial Centre in Bamenda and the 4 Depots of Kumbo, Nkambe, Wum and Fundong. This with a workforce of 400 workers, over 200 in Bamenda and about 50 in each of the 4 Depots, with a majority of the workers hailing from the North West Region. It is calculated that, over 30 Suppliers, two of whom supply the majority of the drinks sold in the Bamenda Commercial Centre, about 3000 regular retailers and over 2000 in the informal sector will get employed. They will be able to develop their families and improve on their livelihood by educating their children, building decent homes, and investing in diverse fields,...

FRENCH PRESIDENT, EMMANUEL MACRON, DISAVOWS DECENTRALIZATION AS SOLUTION TO ANGLOPHONE CONFLICT; OPTS FOR REGIONALISM.

  Image an elephant walked into the room. It's definitely something you would notice. It's also something people would describe in many different ways. Some might see it as a monster or a threat, while others (like The Colbert Factor) might think it's the greatest thing ever. It would ultimately mean something different to everyone, and that would influence the way each person understood it. The visit of the French President was the elephant walking into the Cameroon room.   Emmanuel Macron and Paul Biya in Yaoundé. July 25-27 2022 Last week's visit by recently re-elected French President, Emmanuel Macron, was too substantial to ignore. To most ordinary Cameroonians, his remarks after the close to two hours high-level talks with long-serving President Paul Biya, were great. To others, (especially those in government), they were a threat to what government had given a pat on its back for a fast-track of the decentralization process with a Special Status for the North Wes...

WUM COUNCIL: SDO VISITS HOLIDAY WORKERS.

For the past two months, the Wum Municipality has been a bee hive as many youths on holidays have been engaged by the Wum Council, to dig, clean and decorate the municipality with ornamental trees and flowers, this to the satisfaction of the population who always come out in their numbers to encourage these children.  The recruitment of these children, though a corporate social responsibility of the Wum Council, has been made possible thanks to the workaholic Mayor and his team. In one of such busy day of work, the Senior Divisional Officer of Menchum Division, Mr. Abdoullahi Aliou, paid a surprised visit to the children and encouraged them in their endeavour. You have been the lucky few to have been chosen to work and earn some money to help your parents send you back to school. Make sure that dream comes true. Do not in anyway disappoint the Council and the entire population who trusted you to have this job. Be good citizens and true patriots. Thank you for assisting the council ...