The serenity of Sunday evening in Bakweri town, a neighbourhood of Buea, a region of southwest region of Cameroon, was broken when a man suspected of theft was burned to death.
This action, known as “jungle justice” and sometimes called “crowd justice”, is a type of public extrajudicial murder practised mainly in Nigeria and Cameroon in which an alleged criminal is publicly humiliated, assaulted and brutally executed by vigilantes or an angry crowd.
Four people attacked a beer depot in Bakweri town in order to extort money. Unfortunately for them, an alarm was triggered, alerting the population who were participating in a traditional wrestling ceremony called “Pala Pala”.
“We had the pala pala today in Bakweri town. The population was therefore able to act quickly and apprehend the thieves, “said a resident.
Two of the thieves escaped and two of them were arrested by the population who immediately set fire to one while the other was rescued by the police:
“He was able to cheat death thanks to the intervention of the police, but his friend was not so lucky,” added our source.
According to the latest reports, a good number of boys in the neighbourhood had to put themselves under house arrest for fear of the possibility of a police raid.
