BCN-03,04 Tourism and commerce bear brunt of Cameroon crisis

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CAMEROON-TOURISM-ECONOMY-FOCUS

Tourism and commerce bear brunt of Cameroon crisis

BUEA, Cameroon, Oct 6, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – “For the peak season I would have
about 280 persons climbing Mount Cameroon,” said John Ngomba, a tour guide in
the town of Buea, which has been at the forefront of Cameroon’s anglophone
separatist insurgency.

“But now there are no tourists coming. It’s really crazy. The reason
tourists are not coming is because of the crisis.”

Since an independence declaration a year ago, Buea — once a tourist
hotspot — has suffered near-daily clashes and visitors have all but
disappeared.

The violence has claimed the lives of at least 420 civilians, 175 members
of the security forces and an unknown number of separatists, according to the
International Crisis Group think-tank.

“Sometimes I would receive 600 Germans a year. They would come through the
cruise ships. I could have about 30 to 50 tourists a week who came to visit,”
said Ngomba in his hut in the town’s Bismarck Fountain gardens.

Cameroon was once a German colony but was divided between Britain and
France after World War I — a separation that lies at the heart of the
current conflict.

France’s colony won independence in 1960, becoming Cameroon, and in 1961
the British-ruled Southern Cameroons was merged into it, giving the new state
English-speaking majorities in the northwest and southwest.

“I am a father of five children. How am I living with them? It’s
impossible,” said Ngomba, who has appealed for help from the German embassy,
which assists with the upkeep of the garden containing a bust of Bismarck.

– Empty hotels –

“The fountain is not even working,” he said, looking out over the restive
town below and the former German governor’s residence, which is now an army
base.

But Ngomba insisted that the foothills above Buea remained safe.

“If the tourists arrive and get to this point, they are safe,” he said.

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CAMEROON-TOURISM-ECONOMY-FOCUS 2 BUEA

“I tell people: after the election, things will be OK,” he added of polls
due on Sunday at which President Paul Biya will seek a seventh term.

But several countries including Germany, Britain, Canada and the United
States have issued security advisories to their citizens about the anglophone
regions.

“We used to have customers coming from many countries — America, Europe,
Nigeria,” said Janet Nkowo, 30, a receptionist at the Eta Palace Hotel in
downtown Buea.

“I think it’s because of the crisis. The difference is really clear,” she
said.

“We have one-quarter of what we had, I don’t know how the director does
it. I think things will hopefully get better on Sunday.”

Most of Buea’s hotels are sitting empty, the majority of shops are
shuttered and only a handful of students queued up at the town’s university
to register for the new academic term.

A total of 246,000 people have fled their homes in the southwest region
that includes Buea — and 25,000 have left the country altogether for
Nigeria, according to UN figures.

At the town’s weekly market, one of the few retail outlets still
functioning, many stalls sat empty.

A man in a white vest shouted “French bastards” at passers-by, in French.

“Maybe if voting passes well, they will come back,” said Fidelis Kum, a
stallholder selling hair extensions, as customers haggled over live chickens
nearby and women sat shelling snails.

BSS/AFP/HR/0912