Taxis are undoubtedly the main means of public transport in major cities and towns in Cameroon. Generally painted in yellow, taxis ferry city dwellers to and fro their various destinations at fares generally fixed at FCFA 200; but often varying according to the client's means and the distance to be covered.

Today, rising insecurity in taxis is driving away clients, especially at late hours or on certain roads. It is now common to hear horrible testimonies of people assaulted by thieves or duped by con men in taxis. It is no longer shocking to hear a woman say she was raped by thieves in a taxi and abandoned in the middle of nowhere after her belongings were seized.

Matilda C, a Biyem-Assi resident in Yaounde, was luckier. After boarding a cab with four occupants at the Chapelle Obili neighbourhood one Friday night at 8:00 pm, she was literally taken hostage for the next thirty minutes. The occupants whom she later found out were armed bandits prowling the city, collected her hand set and emptied her purse of FCFA 25,000. Disappointed at the fact that Matilda was seeing her monthly menstrual flow, they just drove around the city for 30 minutes before abandoning her on a road in the Mvolye neighbourhood.

Similar accounts say such cases now happen even during the day, with passengers finding it difficult to identify drivers as their badges are either turned round or just non-existent. The precaution many take is to glance into every taxi before leaping in. "This is no guarantee for safety as women now feature among armed bandits in taxis. A woman sits unsuspectingly until the client gets in and minutes later, the woman plays the gang leader," says Charles F., a Yaounde resident who once received several blows in a taxi as he tried to resist thieves.

Security operatives in patrols and at checkpoints now ask passengers to show ID cards and also check car boots for weapons. Consequently, thieves are changing their tactics. Some have adopted tricks to lure passengers with fabulous stories of sums of money awaiting collection somewhere. They play on the material and financial lust of their victims to deceitfully collect huge sums of money often using "prayers" or "abracadabra" incantations.

In this special focus, Cameroon Tribune analyses the phenomenon of rising insecurity in taxis in Cameroon's towns and cities.