Douala: Imminent AU Stand-by Force Logistics Base Triggers Unease

Douala: Imminent AU Stand-by Force Logistics Base Triggers Unease

By Ntaryike Divine Jr. in Douala

Plans to set up a logistics base of the African Union’s [AU] Stand-by Force in Cameroon's economic hub Douala have kindled contrasting reactions within military and political circles as well as among civil society organizations and investors.

The diverse assessments were voiced Wednesday 16 March, as the contours of the would-be base were presented a blend of personalities from local administrative, municipal, traditional authorities to civil society actors and businessmen. The Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defense in charge of the National Gendarmerie, Jean Baptiste Bokam, reiterated that the imminent implantation of the AU arms warehouse in the city would spawn several benefits including jobs, plus additional demand for goods and services.

Last January, authorities announced that Cameroon's economic capital, Douala had outclassed Algiers [Algeria] in a hotly-contested two-year bid to host the base. The decision was reached by the continent’s defense ministers gathered at the fourth session of the Specialized Technical Committee of the AU for Defense, Safety and Security held in Addis Ababa in December 2010.

The base will serve as an arsenal, as well as a maintenance and deployment station.  

According to Bokam, the diplomatic triumph was bolstered by the country’s geostrategic placement; which renders the task of rapid deployment of military equipment to conflict zones across the continent relatively easier. Also, Douala lies on the edges of the Atlantic Ocean, is an air traffic hub in Central Africa and is fitted with grade-A telecommunications facilities.

Apart from being linked by rail to other parts of the country, it also lies on the planned Lagos – Mombassa Transafrican Highway as well as links up by road to Bangui in Central Africa and N’Djamena in Chad,

But transport trade unionists taking part at the public presentation ceremony Wednesday, raised fears the base would entail increased traffic congestion in the city grappling with maintenance and extension of its rugged urban road network. They also called for the speedy construction of an expressway to connect Douala and the capital Yaounde as well as other parts of the country to prevent road accidents, currently killing some 1600 people yearly.

However, Member of Parliament and leader of the opposition Progressive Movement party, Jean Jacques Ekindi scared many by unveiling a worst-case scenario. “People are going to react either by destroying the equipment before it leaves Cameroon with attacks on the base, or just to ‘punish’ Cameroon for accepting to serve as a base like in Uganda where there have been attacks because Uganda sent troops to the Au peacekeeping mission in Somalia. There are risks that cannot be neglected because Cameroon is not used to such reactions and now that it has accepted to accommodate the base, it may not necessarily be a target, but will stay in the danger zone and so dispositions must be put in place to ensure protection for the population and the installations,” he warned.

Other skeptics pointed to increasing pirate activity in the Gulf of Guinea as a source of potential threat to the base. They cited the ease with which sea raiders stormed the presidential palace in Malabo [Equatorial Guinea] in 2008 and also recalled how assailants presumably from Nigeria’s turbulent Niger Delta enacted a six-hour hold-up in Limbe; a seaside resort in southwestern Cameroon in 2009, shooting their way into several banks and carting off huge amounts of cash.

But Bokam argued that Cameroon, which has already offered parcels of land as well as electricity, water and manpower for the AU Stand-by Force Logistics Base, is also putting in place rigid security to ward off possibilities of sabotage and attacks.