Douala City Mayor inspects rehabilitation works on cemeteries.

The team visited cemeteries in areas such as Deido, Bangeh, Ndogpati, Makepe, and Ngodi Akwa. Speaking in the course of the visit, Dr Mbassa Ndine said cemeteries in the city have for several decades been abandoned, lacking maintenance thus becoming places for illicit activities.

He said the Douala City Council undertook the rehabilitation works after discovering that cemeteries in the city have been transformed into unsafe zones.

Pressure on land, Dr Mbassa Ndine stated, has forced people to be encroaching on cemeteries. Ongoing works, he said will see the installation of protective fences, the regulation of access, and the reorganization of burial plots to ensure proper alignment and accessibility. He emphasized the importance of restoring respect and order in cemeteries as sacred spaces.

“It is painful to see people walking over graves to reach other burial sites,” the City Mayor lamented., remarking that: “That is not part of our culture. Cemeteries should be places of respect and solemnity, not areas where people behave as if they are walking through open fields. We must restore our tradition of reverence for our departed loved ones”.

According to the City Mayor, the project will be executed in phases. He explained that the first phase entails securing the cemeteries and ensuring only authorized persons have access to cemeteries.

He added that, the second phase will involve landscaping and reorganizing the burial sites to improve both functionality and aesthetics. Mbassa Ndine instructed those in charge of burial allocations to enforce stricter control over how plots are distributed and to ensure uniform alignment of graves.

He called for collective effort with the support of traditional authorities and the entire population to make the rehabilitation project a success. The municipal authority noted that the undertaking, “will bring peace, dignity, and beauty back to our cemeteries”.

Inspection of Feu Rouge Bessengue stretch of road

Besides reviewing works on cemeteries, the City Myaor and his team also visited the Feu Rouge Bessengue junction to review road works. He said the initiative is a part of a broader project to restructure the city.

"In 12 days, we've dared to put 3000 square meters of debris, and as you can see, traffic is now flowing smoothly,” he noted, adding that: “The emergency plan we've put in place is progressing slowly but surely…”.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3589 of Thursday October 09, 2025