Petit traders occupying the now former Etoudi bus station in the Yaounde I subdivision have until July 10 to quit the vicinity. This, is in a bid to make way for the construction of a commercial complex previewed by the Yaounde City Council.
In a June 30 communique, Mayor Luc Messi Atangana noted that the works initially slated for June 23, will rather set off on July 12. The three-week extension is consequence of a mea culpa submitted by the traders.
In a June 27 exchange with the City Mayor, accompanied by the Senior Divisional officer for Mfoundi, Emmanuel Mariel Djikdent, the petit traders said they would have loved to have more time to relocate.
“Some are asking for postponements for a period of one year or 6 months. In this logic, it means that Yaounde will never change and we cannot hold a city hostage. We are in the process of creating a relocation site next to the Etoudi market,” the City Mayor explained.
The Etoudi Commercial complex will comprise of 400 shops, replacing the wooden structures that exist at the moment. The city, he remarked, “… must have a change of appearance. I will change its look before June 2024. We know that in the days to come, we must each present our records and I will present mine through visible achievements” he promised.
To achieve this, Mayor Luc Messi Atangana noted that the petit traders’ worries had all been taken into consideration, and would be granted in strict accordance with the regulations in force: “We have already sensitized the petit traders operating at this bus station in makeshift containers and we registered 151 of them. This means that the majority of people who find themselves there are people who are actually looking for a place, but who were not even exercising their activity in this bus station.”
Lending his voice to the City Mayor’s, the SDO for Mfoundi said “those who are there should leave in order to permit the city mayor to build…”
“The mayor,” he added, “has prepared a space to host them but the problem now is the time. Some of them are asking for more time but the mayor has to work. What the City Mayor is doing is for their own good.”
Meanwhile, travel agencies operating from the bus station had long been asked to relocate at a permanent site – the Olembe multimodal platform constructed for them by the City Council.