They were kidnapped on their way to the fields and taken to an unknown destination.
The daily Le Jour of this Monday, January 17, 2022 reveals on its front page that eight employees of the company Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), were kidnapped last Thursday on the Tiko-Douala road in the South West region, by armed men as they went about their business in the plantations of this company.
An employee of the company, interviewed by EquinoxeRadio , and whose remarks were relayed by Le Jour, returned to the circumstances of this kidnapping: “They are workers and a tractor driver. They were going to work. These guys (the kidnappers) took them into the bush and stole the tractor. It was on the Tiko-Douala road. There are soldiers everywhere. We don’t know how these people (the kidnappers) do it, because there are soldiers everywhere. We don’t know where they went, to the point of succeeding in taking the workers, ”he says.
In fact, it is difficult to know in which direction the employees were led, even less where they are held captive, if indeed they are still alive. And on the identity of the kidnappers, it is also difficult to know. But in all likelihood, it would be alleged separatist militiamen, who have often been used to this type of package.
The kidnapping of the eight workers sowed a climate of panic within the agro-industrial company. “Everyone is afraid, especially people who go to the bush. We, the employees who work in the offices, it bothers us because if the work stops now, it means that even us, who are in the offices, we have to stop the work, ”continued the office worker. , under anonymity. The kidnapping of eight workers comes as this company reputed to be Cameroon’s second largest employer, after the state, with its 18,239 employees in 2019, is facing the worst crisis ever experienced. The financial losses due to the bloody conflicts that have ravaged the two English-speaking regions since 2016 amount to billions of CFA francs. The employees, for their part, total nearly a year of salary arrears.
