Women’s Day Bomb Explosion In Bamenda: One Dead, Eight Wounded, Shops Razed.
By
Raymond Dingana
Before the Current socio political crisis in the two English
Speaking Regions of Cameroon degenerated in to a bloody war, women’s day
celebrations were done in pump and pageantry with women in the informal sector
added more color to the event. From 2017 till present date, women’s day
celebrated every March third has been a shadow of its former self and this has
been blamed on the current socio political crisis which has given birth to an unprecedented
level of insecurity.
On Sunday March 8th, 2020, a day that saw women
observing a minute of silence in honor of women who have died as a result of
the socio political crisis, women who answered present at the Bamenda Commercial
Avenue Grandstand to partake in the 35th edition of the International
Day of the Woman came under attack when an explosive device said to be a
locally made explosive went off few meters away from the grandstand from Santa
park causing panic as many could be seen running helter-skelter.
One uniform officer was killed; eight persons including seven
uniform officers and one civilian were wounded, according to unverified sources. The victims were rushed to a
hospital for medical aid. The locally made device exploded just when Adolph
Lele L’Afrique, North West Governor was addressing the women.
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| Exact Location Where The Locally Made Bomb Went Off |
The intensity of the explosion triggered wild flames that would later
razed close to nine shops despite efforts to arrest the situation by closed to twenty
fire fighters led by Senior Warrant Officer, Taku Paul Buifor, Chief of Center,
Army Rescue Bamenda. The fire was prevented from moving to other buildings
after closed to 2hours of battle.
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| Fire Fighters Battling To Arrest The Wild Flames |
While the officers of the Army Rescue Units were battling it out
with the flames, some soldiers were also preventing looting from taking place
while others were mocking at the victims saying horrible things to them and
also raising a lot of dust as to where the fire actually originated from.
Some soldiers also spent time destroying people’s tables and other
properties to the dissatisfaction of some of their colleagues. Journalists were
also bullied and all attempts to send them away and also prevent them from
doing their jobs did not yield any fruits.
Though the whole place was in total panic, it took the timely
intervention of security forces to bring the situation under control after calling
on those at the grandstand not to panic. North West Governor, Adolph Lele L’Afrique
would later continue with his address to the women where he called on them to
rally behind government and fight against all those disturbing the peace and
unity of the country.
"Women are those suffering the negative effects of the crisis
and to achieve the overall objective of women empowerment, we must also strengthen
the measures to fight against violence against women through the strict respect
of the penal code of the country by prosecuting all those fighting against the
rights of women and children. All those objectives cannot be achieved without
long lasting peace". Lele L'Afrique told the women.
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| Lele L'Afrique, NW Governor |
Celebrated with the theme: Promoting
Gender and Protecting Women's Rights by 2020, Taking Stock of Actions
Undertaken, Setting A New Course, the day also saw the awards of medals to
some women for their outstanding services to the country and the awarding of Attestations
to some NGOs that have been partnering with the Women Empowerment Centre for
the fight against Gender Based Violence.
The last but not the least activity at the Bamenda at the Commercial
Avenue Grandstand was march pass with was lead by Governor Adolph Lele
L'Afrique. Those who took part in the march pass were mostly civil servants,
wives of government officials and politicians. Those from the informal were conspicuously
absent.
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| North West Administration Leading March Pass In Bamenda |
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