The lack of response to widespread insecurity and criminality by the police has encouraged the spread of mob justice in Cameroon’s largest city, Douala.

Under the premise of making public areas safer, mobs have formed, often creating the same violence they claim to prevent, our six-month investigation has uncovered.

Cameroon Journal, Douala – Omnisport neighbourhood in Douala was crowded with an irate mob. A half-naked man in his early 20s laid in the middle of the congested road. The mob battered him with sticks, iron rods and pieces of metal. Blood was oozing from his nostrils and ears. It was June 5, 2015.

“Let me have petrol now,” a man who appeared to lead the mob commanded. Petrol was emptied from a motorcycle and poured on the young man. Death was inevitable.

“Please don’t kill. Take me to the police. I will never steal again,” the young man pleaded but the mob ‘leader’ ignored his pleas and struck a match and before setting him ablaze he politely reminded him of what awaited him.

“You are now going to hell and please remember not to steal when you are there,” the mob leader said and then put the lighted match on him and watched him burned. His death was slow and painful. I watched helplessly how he tried to die faster to avoid the pains to no avail.

His crime; “He stole a phone from the lady standing over there. He is a thief and deserves to die,” one of the mob members told me. It was just one of 25 incidents of mob justice I have witnessed in Douala in six months.

From June to November 2015, I spent time in the city investigating the barbaric practice. There are no official statistics on mob killings, but Rights groups estimate that mob violence has claimed the lives of at least 35 people in Douala since January 2015.

“Today, they can kill somebody for stealing a banana. Mob justice is a way of life in Douala in particular and Cameroon in general,” said Cardinal Christian TUMI, Archbishop Emeritus of Douala Archdiocese who has consistently condemned mob justice in the country. “It is a terrible and painful thing,” he added. Perhaps more painful is the trauma of the victims.

Agony of victims

On July 25, 2015, I arrived at the New Bell neighborhood in Douala and saw Jean Wakam, a 24-year-old man drenched in his own blood. He was surrounded by furious commercial motorcyclists. They flogged him with stones and pieces of metal. Jean pleaded for mercy, but the mob responded with lynching.

A policeman and three soldiers arrived at the scene and rescued him from the hands of the tormentors who cursed and insisted on killing him. Jean was quickly rushed to the Laquintinie hospital to receive medical treatment. One month after that incident, I met Jean bandaged, deformed and depressed lying in bed at the emergency unit of the hospital.

“They wanted to kill me that day because I was very hungry and stole bread from a store to eat,” he told me and quickly added that he is an orphan and has been trying to survive on his own.

“I am not a thief,” he said crying in pain. “Even after I pleaded several times for them to forgive me and spare my life, they kept on beating me as if I am an animal. Am I not a human being like them? I don’t want to live again,” Jean lamented and his wish was granted: two weeks after the interview he died and was quickly interred with no one to mourn him.

“He deserved what happened to him,” Blaise Kamdem whose family member had been a victim of bandits told me without remorse when I explained to him what happened to Jean. I could understand why – he is a vengeful man. In December 2014, suspected bandits attacked and literally butchered his lone brother.

He recounted the sad incident: “We came and collected his body in pieces at his workplace in the morning. He was butchered like an animal and everything was stolen. It was like the end of the world for me and the rest of the family. We were traumatized for weeks.”

Justice for sale

On August 1, 2015, I arrived at the Brazzaville locality in Douala and met an excited mob cheering with emotional relief as two suspected thieves struggled to escape mob justice. They were brutally beaten and then the mob began to soak them with gasoline to burn them alive. Innocent or guilty, they laid there dead, but the mob loitered around to make sure they are actually dead.

“We will be here till they die. Police may come and rescue them,” one of the mob members said. I asked him why they did not want the police to be involved. He paused, surprised and almost irritated by my question.

“Do you live in this country? Don’t you know that police collect bribe and release criminals?” He said. “If we catch a thief and hand over to the police, he will bribe them and return to the quarter and continue to harass us,” he concluded.

There are widespread condemnations of poor policing in Douala. U.S. Human Rights Report on Cameroon has repeatedly blamed mob justice on the absence of an effective judiciary and the police. According to Transparency International, Cameroon`s police and the judiciary are among the most corrupt institutions in the world.

He is well known as ‘Patrice Lumumba,’ a name he earned as a result of his notorious criminal activities. In Douala, ‘Lumumba’ tells any person who cares to listen that he started stealing at a very tender age and has now embraced a normal, God-fearing and law-abiding lifestyle. He has experienced police corruption firsthand.

“I was caught several times and I bribed police and left the prison. I often bribed with as little as 20,000 FCFA,” he said.

“In my experience, police sell justice to criminals. I know of many such cases,” Lumumba continued. Cameroonian media are awash with news and testimonies of police corruption.

In a bid to regain public confidence, police are now crusading against the phenomenon on state radio, CRTV. In one of the police programmes on radio called ‘Canal Police’, police persuade the population not to take laws into their own hands but always alert the police on time in the event of mob justice. But they said nothing about fighting corruption in the police.

Filling the gaps

In spite of the persistence of mob justice in Cameroon, there is a general feeling and understanding that the practice is barbaric and should be eliminated. The Cameroon law condemns mob justice, especially when it leads to the loss of life.

“Mob justice is intended murder and is punishable by the law. Sentences differ depending on the harm caused. Unfortunately, what is happening is that, hardly do we catch and try mob members in courts. The day we begin trying and sentencing mob members, perhaps things will change” said Barrister Emmanuel Ashu.

As one of the measures to get rid of mob justice, in 2007, the Cameroonian government introduced the Criminal Procedure Code. The new code was expected to speed up police investigations and court trials.

“The beauty of the new code is that you are innocent until proven guilty,” said Barrister Ashu. However, it’s been eight years now since the new code went into effect but things have not changed. “Some judges are still very reluctant to apply the code,” said barrister Ashu.

The National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms has been holding seminars in the country to educate the population on the need to avoid burning fellow human beings. In one of its workshops in Douala, the Commission emphasized that it was imperative to observe the principle of presumption of innocence and freedom from torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment in any mob justice incident.

“Mob Justice violates one’s right to a fair trial, and right to be held innocent until proven guilty. An effective way to breach the subject is: If this were your son or daughter, wouldn’t you want them to have a fair trial before being sentenced to death? Making the situation personal creates sensitivity to the plight of mob justice victims” said Tessa V.Levine of Global Conscience Initiative, an NGO working to combat mob justice.

“The judiciary and police need to win back the confidence of the people if not, it will be difficult to convince the population to stop killing people,” said Cardinal Tumi. A veritable message that is so far falling on deaf ears.