A man, whose identity is unknown, was beaten to death during the night of June 18, 2016 for stealing a drum meant to store water in a residence at the Ekounou neighbourhood in Yaounde.

The man, whom eyewitnesses say is a taxi driver, was caught directly by the owner of the drum, Stephan Lenga, who was returning home after an outing during the early hours of that fateful day.

The owner said on his way from a meeting at about 3:15 a.m, he saw a thief in front of his gate carrying away a drum and when he tried to ask him where the drum was from the thief started a fight. He immediately raised an alarm and his neighbours came to his rescue and beat the man to death.

At about 7:15 a.m. a passerby said she knew the man as a regular customer of her “puff-puff and beans” fast food business and that he was a customer who usually complains of having financial problems.

At about 8:30 a.m, a team from the Fire Fighters Brigade team came at the scene and carried the corpse away for identification.