A friend of mine who is in the Peace Corps in Cameroon brought this story to my attention today. Apparently, there have been violent protests in the North province this week. The people have been angered by high fuel prices and their president, Paul Biya, who has declared that he wants to change the constitution to extend his 25 year rule. According to my friend, the protests are an urban phenomena so Peace Corps volunteers have been instructed to stay in their host villages until things calm down. "[These] riots in Cameroon [have been] the worst in the past 15 years. You can link to Al Jazeera's story here. Here is a photo taken by my friend of the train yards in Yaounde, one of the cities in the North Province where the protests have been the most intense.
According to AlJazeera.net,
At least eight people were killed in the last four days and rioters blocked all major streets in Cameroon with barricades of burning tyres and timber."
3.01.2008
Protests in Cameroon
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1 comment:
Yaounde is in the Central Province, but it does have a train yard. The other end of the train line is in Ngaoundere in the Adamoua Province. The Capital of the North Province is Garoua, but the train doesn't go that far north. I was in Peace Corps in Cameroon in 1989-91.
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