The mourning that filled one house in Cameroon’s coastal city of Douala, for a man witnesses said was shot by a soldier, underscored the fear gripping the country since the contested re-election of President Paul Biya.Achille Simo, a 45-year-old father of five, was killed Wednesday amid the chaos following the vote that maintained Biya, 92, in power.Witnesses said he was shot while visiting a local shop.”The soldier told him to get off the road. Achille told him, ‘You do your job, we’re not in your way.’ The captain then shot him point-blank when he had his back turned,” said Basile Njeumeni Nana, a neighbour who had known Simo for 40 years.Simo “wasn’t even protesting”, said his brother Christian Fokam. “How can one shoot down a civilian who posed no threat?”Simo’s widow, Elodie Fougue, 39, received condolences from friends and family in their home silence.Following the re-election for an eighth mandate for Biya, who has been in power since 1982, protests encouraged by opposition figure and self-proclaimed election winner Issa Tchiroma Bakary have rattled Cameroonian cities and been met with bloody repression.Bloodstains marked the ground close to where Simo’s shooting occurred. Soldiers patrolled nearby, not saying a word.”Since then, the neighbourhood has been living in fear,” according to a local resident.The regional governor said four people had died in Douala during a demonstration on Sunday — the day before the results were announced.On Tuesday, the Cameroonian government acknowledged “deaths” in the post-election unrest without specifying the toll.Tchiroma said Friday that “hundreds” had been killed and injured. The former minister turned opposition figure’s success in rallying his young supporters to support his proclaimed victory has surprised many.- ‘Ghost towns’ -A few streets away from Simo’s grieving family, another family mourned another loss: Mohamed Pouamou, a 22-year-old driver, was a collateral victim of Sunday’s protests, his family said.”He was sitting, watching a game in a screening room. A bullet came out of nowhere and hit him right in the head,” said Idriss Fifen, a 29-year-old mechanic, who claimed to have witnessed the scene.Sporadic protests attended by at most a few hundred young people have shaken Cameroonian cities since the Biya’s re-election was announced.Clashes have erupted between protestors and security forces in Douala and in the northern city Garoua — Tchiroma’s stronghold. According to witnesses, live ammunition was fired in some neighbourhoods.Territorial Administration Minister Paul Atanga Nji has acknowledged “losses of human lives” in the clashes and lamented the destruction of property across the country.In Douala, an economic hub, there has been “looting and vandalism”, he added.The city has been attempting to regain a semblance of normalcy in the fallout, with some shops reopening. But the tension remains palpable.Tchiroma, stowed away in his residence since Monday, said Friday that part of the army was protecting him and called for public support through a “ghost towns” strategy from Monday to Wednesday.”Let us keep our businesses closed, suspend our activities, stay at home in silence to show our solidarity and remind this regime that the strength of an economy lies in its people — and these people no longer recognise it as their leader,” he said.Residents in several Douala neighbourhoods said they were stocking up in preparation for those days. The European Union and the African Union have deplored the regime’s violent crackdown on protesters, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has called for an investigation.
