Mothers in Upper Bonduma, Buea, took to the streets on Tuesday, August 11, 2026, in a peaceful protest over a prolonged power outage in the neighbourhood, demanding that electricity supply be restored.
The protesting women reportedly moved through the community before heading towards the Buea main road, where they threatened to block the major road linking Upper Bonduma to other parts of the city if their concerns were not addressed.
The protest reflects growing frustration among the population who say they have endured the power failure for too long without a satisfactory solution.
For households and small businesses in Upper Bonduma, prolonged electricity cuts can affect daily activities, including food preservation, water supply, phone charging, children's studies and the running of businesses that depend on power.
The situation has also put renewed attention on the Cameroon Electricity Corporation, SOCADEL, the state-owned company now responsible for electricity distribution following the transformation of ENEO.
SOCADEL is still relatively new in its present form, having been created by presidential decree in May 2026. The company took over electricity distribution responsibilities as part of the government's efforts to reform the sector and improve the quality and reliability of electricity services.
But for the people of Upper Bonduma, the change from ENEO to SOCADEL has not yet translated into the reliable electricity supply they expect.
The mothers' decision to take to the streets and block the road underlines the level of frustration within the people. While blocking a major road can disrupt traffic and affect thousands of other road users, such actions have increasingly become a way for communities to draw the attention of authorities to problems they believe have not received adequate attention through normal channels.
The immediate demand of the Upper Bonduma protesters is the restoration of electricity and better communication about the cause of the prolonged outage.
The incident also raises questions about how the new electricity company responds to complaints from consumers, particularly when outages persist for days and the population do not have clear information about when power will be restored.
Rather than allowing the situation to escalate into a full road blockade, the people are hoping that SOCADEL and the authorities will engage with the community, explain the cause of the outage and provide a clear timeline for restoring electricity.
For the mothers of Upper Bonduma, the protest is about more than electricity. It is also a demand to be heard.
And the unfolding situation leaves SOCADEL with a simple test: must citizens threaten to block roads before their complaints are taken seriously?
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