The authoritative UK international news magazine “THE ECONOMIST” has published a report ranking the city of Douala, the 9th most dangerous city in the world. The study was carried out by the Intelligence Unit (EIU) of the newspaper specialized in business reporting and analysis.

Eight places separate the Cameroonian economic capital and Damascus in Syria. The ranking was based on criteria such as security; terrorism, hostage-taking, easy access to administrative services, existence of modern health and education infrastructure and the level of corruption. The report painted Douala as a no man’s land and noted that the informal sector was growing at an exponential rate.  The EIU revealed that people live in Douala in precarious sanitary conditions unworthy of modern metropolises.

It added that residents are assaulted in full view of the forces of law and order without them raising a finger. The city has been transformed into a giant trash where courtesy and civility no longer exist in the daily lives of the people who have turned their gutters into garbage dumps.

We learned from the report that Douala is also a city where victims are afraid to complain against their tormentors, often accomplices of corrupt police officers, who share, drugs and loot the flight. Of more importance is the fact that Douala is the dumping ground of European and Chinese antiques. All that is useless in Europe and China is found in Douala. The city symbolizes the failure of the Biya 34 years old regime.

By Chi Prudence Asong