5, June 2025
2,500 containers choke Douala Port; Biya’s men are threatening mass auctions 0
Approximately 2,500 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) are currently in “prolonged stay” at the Port of Douala’s container terminal, according to internal sources at the Container Terminal Authority (RTC SA). This term refers to containers that were offloaded over 90 days ago but have yet to be cleared by their owners.
To address the issue, which is contributing to port congestion, Lin Dieudonné Onana Ndoh, the Director General of RTC, issued a memo on May 7, 2025. The memo urged owners of these containers to “carry out all necessary procedures for immediate removal.” Ndoh’s note emphasized that the Douala port container terminal “is not a container storage area, but solely a transit zone for containers,” adding that “the allowable stay in the container yard is eleven working days, in accordance with current port regulations.”
Under current regulations, importers offloading goods at Cameroon’s ports receive an 11-day grace period during which no storage fees apply while awaiting customs clearance. After this period, storage charges are incurred. However, a port operator in Douala pointed out that “under the customs code, importers are required to clear and remove their containers within a maximum period of three months — that is, 90 days — otherwise, they are considered abandoned and transferred to the customs administration for auction.”
Currently, the presence of about 2,500 such containers at the Port of Douala is hindering the terminal’s optimal operations. Members of the port community suggest that the phenomenon is driven by the relatively low storage fees charged at the terminal compared to those at off-site warehouse facilities.
“Importers are tempted to leave their containers in the yard because it’s secure and the storage costs are much lower than outside the port,” explained a seasoned observer of Douala’s port logistics. “This behavior is not consumer-friendly, as the additional charges incurred by this practice are generally passed on to the product once it reaches the market, thereby fueling inflation.“
This is not the first instance of a large quantity of containers being abandoned at the Douala terminal. The practice appears to be entrenched among importers for the reasons mentioned. In 2014, for example, due to congestion caused by containers exceeding the 90-day limit, the Cameroonian government ordered their removal from the port. Nearly 1,000 containers were transferred from the terminal within the port to a three-hectare area known as the “Udeac-Cotco zone,” which was established to hold up to 2,900 TEUs.
Source: Business in Cameroon
5, June 2025
Over 3000 Southern Cameroonians trapped in Nigeria after being trafficked 0
Amid the escalating violence in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions, a less visible but devastating crisis is taking hold: Human trafficking.
The ongoing conflict, primarily concentrated in the North West and South West regions – often referred to collectively as the Anglophone regions – has created a climate of fear, displacement, and desperation, which traffickers are exploiting.
The Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Kumbo has highlighted this alarming trend. According to Lukong Isidore Njodzeven, the deputy diocesan coordinator for the Justice and Peace Commission of the Kumbo Diocese, at least 3,000 Cameroonians, predominantly coming from the conflict-affected areas of the Anglophone regions, have been trafficked across the border into neighboring Nigeria.
“We worked closely with a Pastor in Nigeria and can confirm that some 3000 Cameroonians from the two regions are now trapped in Nigeria’s human trafficking ring,” he told Crux, explaining such trafficking seems to be a direct function of the ongoing separatist war in the region.
“Among its devastating consequences, the crisis has led to widespread displacement, destroyed homes, and torn families apart. UNICEF reports approximately 800,000 children are missing out on education, leaving them particularly susceptible to exploitation. The crisis has also worsened poverty, making both individuals and families more vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation,” Njodzeven said.
Economic vulnerability in the two regions fuels the trade in humans-a reality that tangos with the 2023 International Organization for Migration [IOM], Economic Vulnerability Report, which reveals that a 1 percent rise in unemployment leads to a 0.5 percent increase in human trafficking cases.
Njodzeven said the initial destination is not always Nigeria. Traffickers present countries like Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso and Niger as perfect destinations “where people can make wealth.”
“With so much poverty-a situation made worse by the ongoing separatist crisis, many young people usually fall prey to the trafficking networks,” he said.
Tragically, these individuals eventually find out that they have been deceived and transported instead to Nigeria, where they frequently endure severe hardships, including forced labor, exploitation, and abuse, far from their homes and support networks.
“Ghana for instance enjoys a gold mining boom and the agents are very good at convincing young people who sometimes feel they have little to live for anymore in Cameroon, that a job in a gold mine would guarantee the kind of wealth that would lift their entire household out of poverty. The family sometime would sell everything they have just to get their children across the border to those supposed goldmines. The agent in Cameroon then takes the victim to the Nigerian border, and there, the story turns sour,” he told Crux.
He said once in captivity, the trafficked youths have their passports confiscated, their phones seized.
“From time to time, the traffickers would allow their captives to call their family back in Cameroon, but it’s only one message: tell your parents that you are okay, but that you need more money,” Njodzeven continued.
“Trafficking in human beings is a whole industry,” he said.
According to a 2024 report by the International Labor Organization, the illegal industry now generates $172.6 billion from forced commercial sexual exploitation annually. The same report which is corroborated by the UN estimates that traffickers hold 49.6 million people in modern slavery worldwide, including 12 million children.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)’s 2023 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons further breakdown the numbers, stating that “private sector entities exploit approximately 17.3 million victims, traffickers force 6.3 million into commercial sexual exploitation, and state actors subject 3.9 million to forced labor.”
“These aren’t just statistics. These are human beings caught in networks of exploitation,” said Yvonne Fonka, GBV Focal Point at the Justice and Peace Commission of the Kumbo Diocese.
She said it is increasingly hard fighting off the traffickers, because many involve highly placed individuals in society.
In addition, victims find it hard coming forward, fearing not only retribution from their traffickers who might be very powerful, but also wary of the stigmatization by society and sometimes rejection by their own families.
“When a woman for instance has suffered rape, abuse and all sorts of horrible treatment, sometimes they are too ashamed to speak out,” she explained.
“If your parents have emptied their bank account or sold the family land to enable you to travel, the expectation is that you will come back to alleviate poverty in the family. It becomes frustrating when you come back with absolutely nothing. Under such circumstances, many victims are too ashamed to speak openly about their ordeal,” she said.
Source: Crux