Post #152

🇨🇲Cameroonians Set on Fire Foreign Investments 🌐 Local reports and videos from Tignere mining site in Cameroon show a Chinese-operated gold site set on fire after it ignored the nationwide “stay at home” call. Footage shared on X and Facebook shows flames and crowds of Cameronian citizens (including local youth). ⏩Young people have figured out that the Cameroonian elites, including the 92-year old and 50-years-in-power President Biya, hardly care about public anger. If the cash spigot from natural resources is open, the regime will keep calm. ⏪ 🔸 After the Constitutional Council declared Paul Biya once again the winner of the presidential race on October 27, opposition led by Issa Tchiroma called three days of “ghost town” stay-home action from November 3 to 5 and many cities largely stopped. This is a non-violent tactic chosen after the first days of protest led to 48 people having been killed by police forces. 🔸 Traders and businesses understand that closures could be punished - for large-scale companies that means losing permits, costly facilities and future earnings in Cameroon. The Biya regime thus manages to protect its resource rents against popular discontent. 🔸The arson shows that some Cameroonians are ready to take more decisive action to pull the plug on the regime. However, so far, this is a single action, and it only concerned gold mining, while in Cameroon oil matters more. In 2023 the country exported about $2.43 billion in crude oil and $1.12 billion in petroleum gas, against $951 million in gold. Resource-rich dictatorships often dream of fencing off the wells and pits, selling the output, and forgetting the people. That is why citizens must keep reminding rulers they exist. Best do it peacefully, though there may be no other option but breaking the rules. Devils Below