A teenage boy has been killed by gun bullets from armed attackers at their residence in SIC Cacaos neighbourhood in Douala. The boy, whose names family members warned not to be mentioned, was shot recently on the belly by armed alleged bandits who made way into the fenced compound behind an occupant of the house who was ignorant of being followed in by the armed hoodlums. Once in the fence, the hoodlums began taking positions from one corner of the fence to the other, then towards the building in a bid to launch a calculated break-in. It is reported here that the armed alleged thieves clamped on him at one of the verandas, gagged, and hauled him closer to the fence. According to a neighbour’s account, the thieves removed the piece of cloth they gagged the boy with and temporarily quizzed him as to who was at home and where his father, a business tycoon, keeps money. Against a popular canard, family members say the boy, who was “unable” to comply rather than “unwilling” under the pressure and intimidation as reported by some media organs, was shot twice on the belly when he began to sob aloud.

Before the alarmed residents who relaxed in the sitting room that 9.30 p.m. could recover from the cowardice induced by the gunshots – said to be strange in the neighbourhood – and summon the courage to investigate the current atmosphere in the compound, it was one of theirs lying motionless in a flow of blood. His assailants had disappeared off the scene within the blink of an eye. Douala, it is widely believed, to be home to a number of weapons locally fabricated or imported. A crime analyser attributed the rising gun attacks in the city to the growing infiltration to the country of illegal immigrants.