Central Market: Vendors Illegally Occupy Parking lots, Access Roads

Parking lots for the Douala Central Market, access roads to the market, the entrance and exit way meant for fire extinguishers and other emergency exits, have all become places where vendors have set up makeshift sheds and counters.
The practice which was hitherto illegal has allowed authorities to dislodge vendors and dismantle their makeshift sheds on occasions since the history of the market. After several efforts to restore the appropriate uses of these spaces failed, sometimes due to the recalcitrant nature of some vendors, the illegal and anarchical occupation regained the market and its surroundings as local authorities instead squabbled over who owns the right to collect taxes from the area – widely reported by media. With the shift of attention to taxes or revenue emanating from the business activities that illegally established there, more vendors emigrated to the area giving vent to the practice. The market surrounding is highly particularised by clothes, footwear, handbags and foodstuffs.
The nature of such activities, however lucrative in the eyes of any, have played very little or nothing at all in terms of developing the market or its immediate surroundings. The illegally occupied areas have become a hotbed of pickpocketing which has greatly reduced the market sanity and security. In the past two decades or so, traders have to park their vehicles and m...