Fire destroys hundreds of shops at Bamenda Main Market

A fire broke out at Bamenda Main Market on the evening of Thursday 22 February 2024, at about 6:00pm, and spread quickly through the tightly packed lanes of the market. By morning at least 300 shops lay in ruins. Traders returned to the charred remains to search for anything that could be salvaged. Reports at the time attributed the outbreak to a short circuit in a cosmetics shop, and many traders lost goods worth millions of FCFA. Bamenda Main Market is the economic lifeline of the town and the wider North West Region, so the loss touched far more households than the shop owners alone: suppliers, transporters, tailors and daily labourers all felt the effect. Reported by Cameroon News Agency and Mimi Mefo Info, February 2024.

Source: Cameroon News Agency; Mimi Mefo Info