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Communities and the Prevention of Crime and Violence in Douala, Cameroon Christophe Sados Touonsi

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Communities and the Prevention of Crime and Violence in Douala, Cameroon Christophe Sados Touonsi Communities and the Prevention of Crime and Violence in Douala, Cameroon Christophe Sados Touonsi - - Since 1990, Douala has gained the reputation of being a dangerous city. 01.- U-Care: Urban Vi For example, in only two years from 2009 to 2011, an increase of rob olence in Sub Sa- beries and the reselling of stolen goods rise to about 156%. In the period hara Africa. It’s impacts, Cop from 2008 to 2011, the city of Douala accounted for 60% of the homicides ing Strategies and- in the coastal region and 86% of assaults implicating bodily harm. Peace Building. Technische Uni This paper, summarizes the Country related results1 of a joint research- versität Darmstadt program on violence prevention in Sub Sahara Africa and examines the and Global Urban Institute Berlin manifestations of urban violence and prevention strategies by the com (GLOBUS), funded munity in six neighbourhoods with different income levels in Douala. by the Volkswagen - Foundation. The inadequate capacity of government and the municipality to provide meaningful protection against crime and violence has led the communi ties to attempt defending their homes and neighbourhoods on their own.- In the residential zones visited as part of this study, 35% of households have been victims of robbery, 23% of physical aggression and 16% of bur- glaries within the previous 2 years. In this light, the study evaluates the ability of communities to imple ment local prevention strategies to reduce crime and violence in their- - immediate urban environment. Specific interest was directed towards 02. Cameroon is divid- Neighbourhood Watch Committees (NWC) as opposed to the conven ed in then regions.- tional efforts made by individual households and families. Douala is the cap- Criminality in the city of Douala ital of Littoral re gion and the big - gest town of the country. Douala is the2 largest city in Cameroon and the capital of Cameroon’s Lit 03.- toral region. With its large port it handles most of the country’s exports,3. According to the 4 Third Gener and is the commercial capital of the country. As of 2010 Douala and its al Population and surrounding area had an estimated population of 2,5 million inhabitants Housing Census in Cameroon According to police statistics violent crime is increasing in Douala. The inventories of burglaries and robberies shows a jump from 81 and COmmUNITIES AND THE PREVENTION OF CRimE AND VIOLENCE IN DOUALA, CAMEROON 79 - 04. - 102 points on then crime index from 1998 to a 1999 (Meutchehé Ngomsi, It is difficult to - 2009). In the same way as did damage to property (2008-2011) infrac have global da ta on the criminal- tions to bodily integrity (rapes, physical aggression). Certainly some ity in Cameroon - zones of the city are more affected than others, what the paper will also and particular - - ly in Douala. Nev- illustrate. ertheless the sci One deficit in the public discussion about crime, but also in the litera entific publica tions (M’packo, ture, is an imprecise differentiation between various expression of crime- 2000; Meutchehé, and violence – which become particularly problematic when it comes Sados & Tchoko, 2003; Issa, 2004; towards the design of prevention strategies. For example, domestic vio Loé, Meutchehé lence and rape cannot be compared with gang and drug violence and Ngomsi, 2010; Nga - Ndongo, 2008), - requires completely different prevention strategies. Therefore this text the daily press, the- starts with an attempt to clarify at least the terminology commonly asso results of the en - quiry of victimiza ciated with crime and violence. tion realized in Ya Concept Concept DimensionDimension VariablesVariables Indicators Indicators ounde (2001) and Douala (2003) in typology of present robbery the framework of qualitative evaluation of the robbery the project ‘’Safer simple robbery evaluation of financial costs of the robbery Cities” of the UN- localization of the robbery places Habitat, indicate- that the Cameroon- typology of present robbery violence and qualitative evaluation of the robbery is facing an aug- crime against armed robbery mentation of crim property evaluation of financial costs of the robbery Localization of the robbery places inality in the ur ban area from the typology of present damages and authors decade of 1990. vandalism approximate financial cost of the damages quantitative evaluation criminality ‐ typology of threat (verbal, gang, armed...) violence threats location motivation physical localization of agression type of harm caused agression number of cases by motivation violence and motivation of injuries crime against category of person involve (sex, age) injuries number of injuries the person localization of places of injuries typology (simple, gang rape, school rape...) rape number od incidents Figure 1: location of incidents catégorisation of criminality and quantitative evaluation per confession violent crime. homicide contribution to violence prevention & impact impact on own followers and community in general Source: author 2011 A first and very simple distinction is achieved according to the object of criminal aggression: if it is directed against goods the adjective ‘violent’ is rarely used whereas in the case that the object is a person violence is almost always part of it, even if in some cases legislation fails to declare it- to be a criminal act (as in the case of state violence). Crimes against goods are subdivided in three variables (burglary, pick- pocket and destruction of goods). The perpetrators can be local residents or aliens to the neighbourhood. Crimes against persons can be distin guished by five variables (rape, homicide, physical aggressions, threats and injuries) Another important characteristic is territoriality with a first and simple distinction between indoors (private) and open space (public). In public 80 CHRISTOPHE SADOS TOUONSI 05. The open fields- space markets and crossroads are the main public spaces considered- space surrounding dangerous by the populations. According to the victimization survey of Mbappé Leppe sta dium in the Akwa 2003, the Central Market of Douala is the public space felt to be most dan neighbourhood, gerous in town (more than 28% of the respondents). It is followed by the the stadium of Camp TSF in New Ndokoti-Tunnel and crossroads (these two sites were5 indicated by 13,8% Bell, the stadium and 13,1% of responses). Some areas have a bad reputation because they of Cité CICAM in Bassa and around Caseare frequented studies onby dealersurban andviolence users ofin marijuana. different neighbourhoods the Reunification- Stadium, along the fence of the Inter- national airport of BOLANGANG DENVER Douala, the cross roads of the Cité- des Palmiers and- the Congo Mar ket are place fre SANTA BARBARA quented by dealer and users of marijuana. DOUALA, Cameroon Figure 2: DIBOM Neighbourhoods of Douala having Quarters operating a neigbourhood watch a vigilante BILONGUE committee and selected neighbourhoods for the field studies Conception: Sados Touonsi, realisation : Abel Tsolocto, December 2009 In order to collect information on violence prevention strategies in a large variety of different neighbourhood situation, six neighbourhoods with different economic and social status were selected for the field work: three with poor status (Dibom II, Dibom III and Bilongué II), two middle income areas (Bonangang, Mobil Guinness) and one rich neighbourhood Denver(Denver-Bonamoussadi). (high income) Denver is a neighbourhood of high standard developed to accommodate the wealthy individuals. In this neighbourhood, we see are comfortable villas with raised concrete fences. The owners are looking for privacy and more security. The average size of plots varies between 400 and 500m2. The height of the surrounding walls, the size and decoration of houses symbolize ‘architecture of fear’. Population densities are less than in the other study areas. Most houses have decorative gardens, some- have swimming pools, video surveillance and watch dogs. Each home is secured by at least one guard. At various entrances and exits of the neigh- bourhood are checkpoints and controlled by guards every night from 9o’clock. The streets of these neighbourhoods are well designed, suffi ciently broad, and paved and distinguished by the cleanliness of their COmmUNITIES AND THE PREVENTION OF CRimE AND VIOLENCE IN DOUALA, CAMEROON 81 Left: Entry gates around the Denver streets. The garbage collection company HYSACAM regularly collects estate the wastes. The nature of houses, cleanliness of streets, the presence of Right: guards and abundant lighting indicate high incomes of the residents Inside Denver Middle income areas Bonangang, Mobil Guinness estate - Bonangang is located north of Douala and is close to Denver-Bonamous sadi. Bonangang is divided into two areas: the first is on a plateau and well structured with some comfortable villas and the second is on the valley part and unstructured with slum. The two parts are separated by an escarpment of 100 meters. On the plateau the streets are large but are generally in poor condition due to the passage of trucks which go to carried sand from Wouri River. In the slum area, the houses are built of temporary materials; population density is very high like in Bilongué II and Dibom II. The high density housing and spontaneous vegetation imply low visibility, which restricts surveillance on the slum part of Bonangang and is believed to increase the risk of crime. As the name suggests, the neighourhood Mobil Guinness is located between the Mobil petroleum company and the Guinness beer factory. It is located about 500 meters from the crossroad Ndokoti. The houses are modern and luxurious but more modest than in Denver-Bonamoussadi. Many houses have fence, gardens, guards and guard dogs. Houses and population are less dense than the one of Bilongué II, Dibom II and III. A portion of the streets is unpaved and poorly maintained. Public lighting covers almost the whole neighbourhood, but remains insufficient as in Low-incomeDibom and Bilongué. Dibom and Bilongué neighbourhoods Located south of the town, ten miles from Denver, the Bilongué II and Dibom II and III neighbourhoods are unstructured areas and slums.
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