Felicita, a mother, and her son, Joel, face detention for the killing of their lastborn, Ariel Boukam. The incident, as MMI learnt, took place on Friday night, December 27, at Genie Militaire, also known as Vampire Quarter, in Douala.
A neighbour aware of the story told MMI that the woman always beats her children.
However, no one provided a reason for why her children became her punching bag.
So, on Friday night, the mother and Joel, who is the son, gang up and beat 16-year-old Ariel Boukam.
“The child was rushed to the hospital in the night, and it’s this morning that her death was announced.” A neighbour who spoke to MMI via telephone said.
Ariel was a lower sixth student.
MMI watched a video showing neighbours gathering in front of the house where the crime allegedly occurred.
Our source reports that someone has been killed in that quarter before.
The recurrent killings there led to the nickname Quartier vampire.
We learnt that some years ago, a woman killed and buried a military man still in the same quarter.
Minister Strongly Condemns Femicide
During the last semester conference of governors in Yaounde, Minister Paul Atanga Nji denounced rising cases of femicide.
The minister strongly advised the governors to take action against it.
The killing of girls and women in Cameroon is said to have been on the rise.
At the beginning of 2024, Cameroon recorded 67 cases of femicide.
In 2022, the UN reported that 20,000 women and girls were killed globally either by their intimate partners or family members.
Ariel Bukam, who would have been expecting to write her GCE next academic year, is the latest of such cases.