1. Posted on Wednesday 7 November 2007 - 10:00

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   Solomon Tembang, AfricaNews reporter in Limbe, Cameroon, Olivier Nyirubugara, Peter Vlam

   "Fair and normal", some say. "Uncivilized and barbarous", others argue. At least 43 alleged criminals were lynched last year in Cameroon and this is common in many countries. The so-called mob justice is rapidly gaining ground in many African countries.

   

   ‘This is our justice' , a guy said in Nairobi, Kenya, where a lynching scene was taking place. Obviously the mob decides to render justice because of a malfunctioning, dangerous police force on the one hand, and a corrupt judicial system. It has become self-evident that the lynch-law is rampant in those nations where the general public does not trust police and courts.
   
   What does a furious crowd do when they can get their hands on a known thief or criminal? They avenge the victims by killing or molesting  him or her.  It happens everywhere.  In the Nairobi city centre, but  also in the small town of Bukoba in Tanzania. It happens in Bangui, in the Central African Republic and in many other places.
   
   AfricaNews wants your opinion on mob justice, which is rarely reported in world news. Is it also happening in your place? What do local people think or do about it?  Read Solomon Mforgham’s heart-breaking article and give your opinion.
   
   Cameroon: Killing to fight crime
   Solomon Mforgham, AfricaNews reporter in Limbe, Cameroon, tells and illustrate a horrible story of a band of ‘criminals’ which was lynched and burned in public.
   
   With increasing cases of mob killings in a bid to fight crime in Cameroon, Solomon Tembang looks at the situation. It is 11:00 am on a sunny Monday afternoon in March this year. In Kumba in south western Cameroon, some 104 Kilometres from the economic capital, Douala, motorcycle taxi riders are rallying at a junction. Anger could be read on their faces.
   
   The previous day one of theirs had been butchered to death by bandits and robbed of his bike, his day’s earning and cell phone. The bike riders had been informed that the act was committed by a notorious gang of bandits who had been terrorising the town.
   
   The bike riders had been tipped that the thieves who killed their colleague were hiding not far from the junction. Angry they begin a house-to-house search. As the search goes on, the gang is tipped off and as they try to escape, one of them, Alilou Abdou, is napped.
   
   The bike riders pound Abdou with sticks, stones, iron rods and what not, as he wriggles in pain and agony. Striped naked, bleeding profusely, the motorcycle taxi riders wear car tires around his neck like necklaces and wood piled on him. Petrol is emptied from a motorcycle and poured on him. One of them strikes a match and he goes ablaze.
   As Abdou burns to death, his parents who had arrived the scene watch helplessly. The crowd curses and cheers with emotional relief.  When the burning Abdou stops moving, indicating that he is dead, his mother faints and is rushed to the hospital.
   
   A few months earlier in Bamenda, in the North West province of Cameroon, three young men of ages between 18 and 24 were also roasted to death after they were caught trying to still a chicken.
   
   Less than a week after, a boy of 25 was only rescued by the police from an angry crowd which was about to lynch him to death after he was caught with a stolen goat.
   
   On 19 January 2006, former subjects of Fon Vugah Simon II, the former traditional ruler of Kedjom Keku, a village of Mezam Division in the North West Province, beat him to death and then burned his body upon his return to the village after having been deposed two years earlier. They accused him of immorality and destroying their tradition.
   
   Meanwhile, weeks later, on 4 March 2006, a mob burned to death Jean-Pierre Onguene, Serge Toussaint Awa Amougou, and Joseph Cyrille Meba'a, whom they caught stealing in the Yaounde neighborhood of Nsimeyong-Damase. The police had initially caught and held the suspects, until a large mob broke into the police station, pulled out the three, and killed them.
   
   On 2 June 2006, an angry crowd burned to death Jean Bape, Daniel Fotie, and Clovis Koagne on allegations of theft in various houses of Tchokaong, a village of Mifi Division in the West Province.
   
   The previous year a mob had also burned to death Papi Gosse, Jonas Benang, and an unknown individual in Douala.
   Sometime in 2006, an angry crowd broke in to the gendarmerie brigade in Bali in the North West province, took out three thieves and beat them to dead.
   
   These are just a few cases of mob justice in Cameroon. Mob violence and summary justice against persons suspected of theft and the practice of witchcraft have continued to result in deaths and serious injuries. Last year the press reported 43 deaths from beatings and burning, the most ever reported.
   
   An observer may easily brand these bloodletting crowds as savages, but years of torture from brigands has hardened hearts towards the plight of miscreants when they are about to be lynched.
   
   The rise in mob violence has been attributed in part to public frustration over police ineffectiveness and the release without charge of many individuals arrested for serious crimes.
   
   Many believe that when thieves are caught and handed over to the police, they simply bribe their way out within a few days. Some thieves caught and handed over to the police have been seen on the street the very next day. Sometimes these thieves come back to revenge on those who caught and handed them over to the police. It is for this reason that the population in most towns in Cameroon have resolved to summarily beat to death or burn thieves they catch.
   
   Douala, the economic capital, has so far had the highest number of mob "justice" incidents.
   
   Kum Godlove Wallang, a pupil lawyer in Douala, attributes this to the ever increasing crime rate, the town, which has the highest population in the country and a lot of hardship suffered by unemployed youths.
   
   Human rights activist, Emmanuel Chongsi, of the Centre For Human Rights and Peace Advocacy, CHRAPA, a local human rights NGO, describes the public killing of thieves or suspected thieves by mobs as total violation of their human rights.
   
   Journalist, Innocent Timbong admits that the most gory beats in his career have been scenes of mob justice, scenes reminiscent of the lynching of Negroes in colonial America.
   
   “The nagging question is why with laws regulating conduct and punishment, a people will relegate itself to sheer barbarism, bloodletting and arson, most often because of petty thievery,” Timbong wondered. “Mob justice is sheer insanity and can easily be wiped out of the Cameroonian society and the world at large. However, the society must have the zeal and will to ensure equity and justice”, he added. Nonetheless he thinks mob justice can be curbed within the Cameroonian society only when laws are not hijacked and abused. “As long as injustice and corruption persist, mob justice is bound to continue”, he added.
   
   Timbong said state pleas for the arrest of mob justice have fallen on deaf ears. Most often, he said, the national media publicises the arrest of bandits, “but ironically when the heat is off, the same brigands are set free to continue to wreck havoc in society”.
   
   Police commissioner Mbida Nkili Joachim, Provincial Delegate of Public Security of Cameroon’s Littoral province thinks to curb jungle justice the police needs to cooperate with the population. Mbida throws the blame on the population by accusing them of sometimes hiding criminals from the police. “Suspected criminals should be reported to the police.  Bandits caught must be handed in”, he said.
   
   To Barrister Jerome Mbaku of Liberty and Rights Law Firm in Bamenda, North West, only the court of law has the right to condemn any person to dead and this must only be when such a person must have been found guilty of a crime which the law stipulates capital punishment for. “In the haste with which sentence and execution of jungle justice is carried out, many innocent persons are given unjustified capital punishment”, he held. Mbaku believes jungle justice gives room for people to frame up charges against their enemies. “In this case the person is denied a fair trial and there is no room for appeal”, he posited.
   
   Rev. Pastor Wanki of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon expressed disapproval of the continuous mob killings in the country. “God gives life and only He has the right to take it”, he said.
   
   Keywords:  cameroon human_rights society
   
   

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Reactions

1. Posted on Wednesday 07 November 2007 13:06

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   Ayo

   

   Ayo Ajayi
   38 berichten
   Lid sinds August 2007
   Lagos, Nigeria

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   Truely an interesting article. Such is the case in Nigeria, they call it "Jungle Justice".
   Although, by law, it is not right for anyone to take the life another, but as the writer rightly put it, years of torture in the hands of bandits and inefficiency of the law enforcement agencies have contributed to people taking laws into thier own habds.
   
   The bandits you arrest and handed over to the police is seen on the street the next day boasting of having godfather among the power that be. Then how can anyone blame the mob for thier actions? This happens everywhere, a "Pastor" was recently sentence to death by a court for jungle justice. He roated some members of his church, accusing them of "immorality". If jungle justice can take place in the "house of God", then where else is safe?
   
   In Nigeria, another dimensions to this is "Acid Bath". It is no more common to report any injustice to the police, angry individuals now bath thier "offender" with acid to settle score. Boyfriends bathing girlfriends with acid or vice versa accusing each other of double dealings.
   
   Like the police officer in the report rightly said, jungle justice gives opportunity to frame up innocent people. Also, perceived enemies are given unjustified capital punishment. But "as long as injustice and corruption persits, in the law enforcement agencies, mob or jungle justice is bound to continue".

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2. Posted on Wednesday 07 November 2007 15:16

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   Lekan

   

   Lekan Otufodunrin
   16 berichten
   Lid sinds August 2007
   Lagos

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   African countries seem to have somethings in common, jungle justice is apparently one of them. Like Ayo rightly noted, incidents of robbers being given instant justice on the streets is not uncommon in Nigeria, especially in Lagos but I must say its a long time I read of any.
   This kind of mob action is a fall out of the inability of the Police to prosecute robbers handed over to them in the past.
   Instead of allowing robbers bribing their way out of police custody and return to torment the public, they are instantly killed and set on fire.
   The Police have always warned against jungle justice but people dont hesitate to take the law into thier hands whenever robbers are caught.
   What is unfortunate is that there have been some cases of innocent persons being killed based on false accusations.
   The Police is really to blame. If people are sure that criminals will not escape prosecution they will not resort to engaging in what some describe as "an eye for eye".

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3. Posted on Wednesday 07 November 2007 15:41

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   John M

   

   John Mahoro
   54 berichten
   Lid sinds July 2007

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   I have to honestly admit that this kind of practice is tarnishing the image of the continent. I am astonished to see that it is considered to be a common thing tolerated by both authorities and the general public. The image of Africa in the West has long been the one of a place where people eat other people, where the jungle law (including lynching) dominates, where ‘the civilizing mission’ has not been conducted to the end.
   
   I was really shocked by the picture of the burning guy. What if he were innocent? Was he given time to explain himself? While reading the story, I remembered one case of which I was myself witness in Congo Brazzaville. In a period of 2 weeks, more than seven people died in the same village, and the village’s sorcerers called in an ‘international’ sorcerer from the other Congo (DR) to detect what was going wrong. The renowned sorcerer designated one of the village’s sorcerer as being responsible for the deaths, as ‘he had taken away their souls’. The unfortunate sorcerer pleaded guilty. I assume he was afraid of contradicting the redoubtable, infallible sorcerer. He was lynched on the spot, and he didn’t resist.

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   Et in terra pax hominubus...

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4. Posted on Thursday 08 November 2007 08:21

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   Evans Wafula

   

   Evans Wafula
   158 berichten
   Lid sinds July 2007

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   These acts of senseless killings in disregard to the rule of Law are a common phenomenon in Africa. Reminiscent of the mass killings of innocent youths in Kenya and criminals suspects is evident of an inept judicial system characterized by corruption and selective application of the due process.
   
   Citizens have been left to take the law into their own hands where government has failed to guarantee protection.
   
   Reports of this killings in Cameroon, barely comes to light and no much remedial action as been done to punish the perpetrators.
   
   Perhaps what is sickening is the fact that in other parts of Africa including in Kenya, police engaged in acts of extra-judicial execution.
   
   Just last week, human rights organizations in Kenya discovered mass graves and abandoned remains of people believed to have been executed by the police and dumped in forests. At least over 200 people were reported have been killed by police and their remains dumped in different parts of the country.
   
   If this kid of barbaric and primitive acts of lawless are left to continue unchecked, its likely to bring down a nation and tear through the very social fabrics of a democracy. We must resist these acts of torture, executions and mob violence.

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5. Posted on Friday 09 November 2007 19:53

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   prince sampong owusu

   

   
   1 berichten
   Lid sinds October 2007

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   It is actually pathetic to see alleged criminals being lyched,because some of these alleged criminals are innocent and of course this makes it unacceptable and must not be encourage in the society.
   
   But the BIG question is what do we do to criminals who attack their victims or criminals who resist arrest and pull out harmful weapons like guys and knives to harm those who try to arrest them to the police station as that is the acceptable way to handle a criminal?
   
   I think if criminals learn how to surrender themselves when they are caught this lychin or instant justice will stop.
   
   I think as we take this opportunity to share views and advise the society,our security agencies and the law makers and our human right activists should also advice these criminals to desist from these criminal acts and also surrender thems when they are caught .
   
   Also the judicially should lean to give fair judgement and desist from being corrupt. The also goes to our security personel or agencies. LYNCHING AND INSTANCE JUSTICE IS UNLAWFUL AND IS NOT ACCEPTABLE IN SOCIETY TAKE NOTE.IF YOU ARE CAUGHT YOU WILL FACE THE FULL RAGOUS OF THE LAW.
   
   thank you
   
   Nana Sampong,GHANA

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