The protests followed on the heels of a strike by transport workers, who were opposing high fuel prices and poor working conditions.
Large groups of youths, whom the opposition Social Democratic Front (SDF) political party and the government blame one another for organising, took to the streets of Douala, Yaoundé, Bamenda, and other major cities, looting and vandalising property.
Human rights groups and defense attorneys, on the other hand, claimed that more than 2,000 people had been arrested in Douala alone and decried the trials as overly swift, secretive, and severe.
The union was angered over the rise in fuel prices and poor working conditions in Cameroon;[1][2] so they scheduled a strike for 25 February 2008.
[1][2] On 23 February, an unauthorised protest of several hundred Cameroonians in the Douala suburb of Newtown, opposing Biya's proposed constitutional reforms, was broken up by police who allegedly turned tear gas and water cannons on the demonstrators, killing at least one.
[3] According to Hamidou Yaya Marafa, Minister of State, Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation, the Cameroonian government learned in January that the Social Democratic Front (SDF), the main opposition to the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) political party, had formulated a plan they dubbed "Operation Kenya" to bring instability to Douala, Cameroon's biggest city and chief port.
Undeterred, SDF leaders met at the Bamenda home of party chairman John Fru Ndi in late January, government officials claim, with the aim of organising street demonstrations across the country.
[2][3] Heavy gunfire was reported that morning, and youths burnt cars, tyres, and vegetation to block off major roads and bridges; the city was filled with plumes of smoke.
[3] On 26 February, the government agreed to a reduction in petrol prices of 6 francs CFA (less than 1 US¢) per litre, and the transport union called off its strike that night.
The head of the taxi union, Jean Collins Ndefossokeng, told Radio France International that "it is no longer a good time for the strike with the current vandalism.
[8] Government figures show that the protests eventually spread to 31 municipal areas in five of Cameroon's ten provinces: the Centre, Littoral, Northwest, Southwest, and West.
[7] Marafa claims that the SDF collected and transported youths between hot points, including Bafoussam, Bamenda, Douala, and Yaoundé.
[9] In Kumba, demonstrators marched with posters demanding Biya's resignation and for the government to reduce the cost of fuel and petroleum products.
The protesters, reportedly armed with bottles of petrol, rocks, and sticks, threatened to burn the school down unless the students came with them, possibly for use as human shields against government forces.
He accused "certain politicians", whom he dubbed "apprentice sorcerers in the shadows" with fomenting unrest and attempting to orchestrate a coup d'état.
On 7 March, Biya declared a rise in pay of 15 percent for civil service employees to take effect 1 April and suspended duties paid on basic commodities such as cooking oil, fish, and rice.
[15] On 5 March, Jean-Michel Nintcheu, chairman of the SDF in the Littoral Province, was arrested in Douala on charges of violating the government ban on public demonstrations.
[15] International media watchdog groups have claimed that the government has heavy-handedly censored the press in Cameroon and intimidated journalists with methods that include beatings and confiscation of equipment.
[12] As of 10 March, troops were reportedly searching homes in Kumba for property stolen from Les Brasseries du Cameroun, a brewery, and Transformation Reef Cameroon, a logging company.
The Post newspaper, located in Buea, claims that the troops "torture and arrest" anyone in possession of allegedly stolen beverages or computer equipment.
One man reportedly committed suicide rather than face arrest after troops allegedly found 25 crates of stolen beverages in his home on 6 March.
[2] She also claimed that the government has ordered morgues not to release bodies of victims to keep the scale of the deaths caused in the protests a secret.