Cameroon: a gendarme lynched by the crowd after killing a 4-year-old girl

Published on : 10/18/2021 – 17:54Modified : 10/18/2021 – 17:57

Crowds of people marched through the streets of Buea waving branches. In the front line, a man holds the body of young Caro Louise Ndialle, who was shot in the head by a gendarme who was at a checkpoint along the road. Videos of the angry crowd were shared on social media.

According to the uncle of the young girl, joined by the editorial staff of the Observers of France 24, Caro Louise Ndialle was with two other children in a car, on the way to school, with her mother and a driver. When ordered to stop at the checkpoint and provide documents, the driver got out of the car and attempted to negotiate with officers, claiming the children were late for school. But when he got back into the car, one of the officers opened fire. The gendarme was then lynched to death by the angry mob. Videos showing the gendarme, the crowd and the girl killed are circulating online.

“When people heard that a child had been killed, they came from everywhere”

Matthew (not his real name) is a journalist living in Buea who went to the scene of the tragedy after learning of the child’s death. He spoke to us on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals from the police.

When I arrived at the scene, I saw the vehicle in which the little girl was shot. I saw the gendarme. He was already dead. His body was lying in the gutter with stones all around it. A mob had come to kill him immediately because the place where the scene occurred is very busy – there are a lot of buildings and a football field – in the morning it is always very crowded. When they heard that a child had been killed, people came from all over to the officer. They beat him with stones and took his gun.

The crowd that killed the gendarme had taken the girl’s body and marched with it through the streets. People were so angry that they wanted to take the corpse to the governor’s office. They began to block the streets and disrupt traffic. Everyone was holding green branches, or something green, because green here means peace.

Protesters arrived with the child’s body at the governor’s office, who tried to calm them down by promising that his death will not go unpunished.

Witty Mistrel, the girl’s uncle, traveled to Buea after learning of her death. He encountered a crowd on the street in an attempt to bring his body home.

I went to talk to [la foule] but no one listened to me. Everyone was singing and protesting. I followed them until they stopped and then went to talk to the person carrying the child. I asked to take the child. We wanted to take his body before they continued their riot. But everyone said “No, we can’t let the child go.” We followed them all day, begging to take the child, but there was no way to get it. Finally, we told them we had to take the body to church and they agreed.

People were angry and they felt it was an opportunity for them to show their anger to the world. That’s why everyone was in the street. We are lucky that there was no fighting, no destruction. Everyone was just there to protest and cry for our baby.

“The anger has been built up for so long”

The city of Buea is one of the theaters of tension in the “Anglophone crisis” in Cameroon. For nearly five years, English-speaking separatists who feel marginalized by the country’s French-speaking majority, have been fighting to create a separatist state called Ambazonia.

Anglophones represent about a fifth of the Cameroonian population, estimated at 25 million people in 2019 according to World Bank data. Over 3,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which has displaced a million people. The separatists and the Cameroonian state are accused of having committed numerous abuses.

According to Matthew, the death of the girl is an incident that has taken on a major proportion due to this ongoing crisis in Cameroon.

It is, in every sense, linked to the Anglophone crisis. Gendarmerie, police and army checkpoints are everywhere in this region because of the crisis. Since the start of the crisis, their number has increased. Security forces can decide where to stop cars and check documents. You can go out and be checked within a mile of your home. They check your papers and try to get money as a bribe, 500 or 1000 francs [environ 0,75 à 1,50 euros]. Corruption is a major challenge.

A few steps later, they can stop you again on the road to check the same documents. It’s frustrating. And if you don’t comply, they can impound your car or follow you with their bikes or vans. But they usually don’t open fire. People’s anger and frustration are due to the crisis. When they walked, they were angry, they said that we had to withdraw the police. The police are used to harassing people. The population therefore took the opportunity to express their frustration, this anger accumulated for so long.

In a statement, the Defense Ministry estimated that the officer had had an “inappropriate reaction, inappropriate to the circumstances and clearly disproportionate to the irreverent behavior of the driver”. An investigation was opened into the death of the young girl and the gendarme.