Story, Louvier Kindo Tombe
It was easy to notice her absence in class. She was one of those who usually crack jokes during free hours. 14-year-old Blanche (given name) was among the students who were injured in the school stampede of Monday January 22, 2024. While others have resumed classes, her classmates are still waiting for her.
“Her seat remained empty until Monday, January 29, when another student occupied it,” her best friend, whose name we got only as Princess, told News Upfront. None of her classmates have seen nor heard from her ever since she was rushed to the hospital after the stampede. Princess could only recall how her friends mother wept in school when she came to check on her. “She was shouting and rolling on the floor that her child is dead”.
The Senior Divisional Officer for Mfoundi, Emmanuel Mariel Djikdent, who immediately visited the school however declared that no one died as a result of the stampede.
The black Monday
Princess still recalls how they were locked inside the school canteen waiting to be ushered into the school campus through the students’ entrance. That was the last time she saw Blanche. The two had managed to find their way closer to the gate just minutes before it burst open provoking the stampede.
“I tried to drag my friend up but other students pushed me aside forcing their way in the school campus walking over her,” she recounts as tears dropped again from her eyes.
Hundreds of students were forcing their way into the school campus, with the ‘big boys’ pulling down the junior students. The situation caused comotion inside the campus bringing activities to a standstill. When the students noticed that their mates were in difficulty, they immediately initiated a rescue operation, and with the intervention of school authorities, victims were placed in a classroom from where they were rushed to the hospital for medical attention.
Public Health Minister, Dr. Manauda Malachie, later on confirmed that 106 students were rushed to different hospitals in the city of Yaounde and very few cases were severe.
The students who were held out of campus were those who came late for the morning assembly that day. “We were surprised to discover the gate shut earlier than normal,” one of the late comers that day told this reporter.
News Upfront gathered that it was a new decision from the principal of the school, Catherine Batcha Epse Foju, who argues that students cannot be rushing around the campus when the assembly has started. “That is why their gate gate was shut.” The teachers’ gate however remained opened.
From stampede to assaults
Most often, late comers of GBHS Etoug Ebe used to stay outside the school canteen which is closer to the student’s gate, but that day, they were asked to wait inside the canteen. The size of the canteen could not contain the hundreds of number who came late. Tension started mounting when one of the students blocked inside the canteen and who was an asthmatic patient collapsed. The other students shouted over the gate to inform the school authorities to help transport her to the hospital to no avail.
“We were all angry when a discipline master replied us that the principal’s car packed inside the campus was not a public vehicle,” one of the late comers said.
Talking with some of them, we were told that the situation degenerated when news reached the students that the principal has asked the various discipline masters to mark all the students 8 hours absence each. “That is what pushed us to force our way to class.”
At GBHS Etoug Ebe, 6 hours of absence equals a warning, and a student who accumulates 2 warnings during the same academic year would be dismissed from the school.
In the mad rush, the students saw some of their colleagues being transported to the hospital following the stampede, an accusing finger immediately pointed at the principal for provoking and allowing the situation to degenerate. That is how the principal’s car was assaulted, the office of the discipline masters attacked and school materials destroyed by the angry students.
“We had to call in security forces to arrest the situation,” News Upfront gathered from the principal’s declaration after the incident.
The presence of security forces were timely, given that some ‘rough guys’ from the neighbourhood had profited from the mix-up to force their way into the school campus.
“After the stampede, most of our materials were looted by unidentified individuals,” the principal said.
Fixing ‘the wrong’
When the incident just happened, every one was eager to pass on the information, but as days passed by, even those who witnessed the scene became more and more reticent.
“One of the discipline masters came to our class and asked us not to engage in conversations about the stampede,” Princess told News Upfront. The reason for the decision is best known by the school authorities, but given that investigations have been opened on the incident, it is seen as strategic.
As part of the investigations, shop owners and some inhabitants around the school were summoned to meet with the Divisional Officer for Yaounde VI on January 25, 2024. “As we went, the DO asked us to relocate to a different site latest February 5, 2024,” a shop keeper confided in News Upfront promising to resist the order. “I don’t know how my shop contributed in the stampede.”
It is believed that shops, bars, snacks, and other recreational facilities around school premises are centers for juvenile delinquency.
Some of the inhabitants who were summoned refused to respect it, and are still waiting on what will happen next.
Worth noting is the fact that the school authorities has reviewed the latest time for students to arrive school. From a notice on the school gate, it is clearly written that students are now encouraged to be in school on or before 8:00 am, every day till the end of the academic year.
