Two students at the University of Buea in Cameroon were killed last week and dozens were injured when paramilitary police units fired live bullets to put down a student protest.
The two male students, Embwam Aloysius and Gilbert Folem, were killed on Wednesday as students at Buea protested in support of their striking counterparts at the University of Yaoundé I. After the shootings, classes were suspended at the two universities, and police forces intensified their presence to monitor unrest. Students were ordered to go home or stay in their residence halls.
Unlike the strike at Yaoundé I, the Buea protest became violent when students marched on the office of the regional governor to deliver their complaints. The police tried to disperse them with tear gas and water cannons, and then bullets. Several cars were set ablaze, and other property was destroyed.
The protesters at the two universities were demanding that the government scrap annual fees of about $100 per student at the six public universities in the West African country. They also want student grants restored, dormitory living conditions improved, and the practice of grades for bribes ended.
According to the Association for the Defense of the Rights of Cameroon University Students, the national student union, the students will continue their protests despite the government’s show of force. “The unrest, which is spreading to public universities, is a signal of the unbearable situation of abject poverty and misery in which we live in the universities,” Eric Koidzeka, an official of the union, told reporters in the capital, Yaoundé.
The rector of the University of Yaoundé I, Sammy Beban Chumbo, said the strike was illegitimate because authorities were examining the student union’s complaints.
However, in a bid to stop the spread of unrest to other colleges, Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, ordered on Friday the immediate disbursement of $4.7-million to resolve the situation at Yaoundé I. He also ordered the minister for higher education, Jacques Fame Ndongo, to hold a judicial inquiry into the deaths of the two students.
The minister, however, said the government could not scrap university fees, because the country’s financial situation is so dire.
Education officials on Friday opened negotiations with student leaders at Yaoundé I over demands for an end to tuition fees, while Mr. Ndongo is also scheduled to meet with leaders of the national student union this week.