Problems in Cameroon (or: A Guide's Worst Fear Realized)

I just got off the phone with my good friend and Tropical Birding colleague Benji Schwartz, who is currently in a (well-secured) hotel in Kumba, Cameroon, watching buildings burn and listening to the pop pop pop of gunfire. It appears that the problems that have been rocking Cameroon since the weekend have not made the international press, being just more of the same out of Africa. What appears to have spurred the protests and violence was a simultaneous rise in petrol prices and the country's long time president deciding that he wants to change the constitution to allow himself to run for another term in 2011, by which time he will have been president of one of the world's poorest (and most corrupt) countries for 28 years.

When I talked to Benji yesterday, he had bribed his way through a roadblock in order to make it to Kumba from Korup National Park. He arrived in town on foot after another roadblock wouldn't let his vehicle through. Violence broke out maybe yesterday afternoon (I'm not sure exactly when) in Kumba, and from reports online it seems like there has been violence in Douala, the country's economic center and opposition stronghold, since the weekend. Transportation has been shut down around the country, including the in the administrative capital, Yaounde. Police have violently broken up protests in Douala, ostensibly because holding demonstrations is banned.

Here is an interesting link with information and photos about the last couple of days in Cameroon:

http://www.postnewsline.com/2008/02/cameroonians-go.html#more