Tue Feb 26, 4:39 PM ET
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National radio reported a fresh death Tuesday in Bafoussam in the country's west as demonstrators clashed with police after a strike by road haulage workers led to violence and rioting.
A journalist from the independent Mutations daily told AFP that a second person had died in Bonamoussadi, a district of the economic capital and opposition stronghold of Douala.
Six people had died in violence on Monday.
"Groups of youths armed with clubs erected barriers, went looting and attacked public buildings (...) taking on police," the radio report said Tuesday, citing one "killing" in provincial Bafoussam.
"The town is at a standstill," the report added.
In Bonamoussadi, the witness reported seeing the body of a young man shot in the head after clashes between security forces and demonstrators in a Douala suburb.
Further clashes were reported in Bamenda, in the west of Cameroon, and in Kumba, in an English-speaking south-western province, although scuffles in Douala seemed largely restricted to outlying areas.
A city of three million people, Douala took on the appearance of a ghost town Tuesday with traffic virtually non-existent in the city centre and most businesses staying closed.
Riot police were out in force, although workers and school children mostly stayed home leaving just a few residents stocking up on essentials at the small number of stores that remained open.
Security service vehicles were firmly in evidence, as taxis, buses and private cars joined the strike by road haulage workers against rising fuel prices.
On Monday, police battled protesters from early morning as youths armed with clubs looted shops, according to an AFP correspondent and other witnesses.
The strike was called in the wake of the fuel price rises and President Paul Biya's announcement last month that he planned to amend the constitution to run for office again in 2011. He has been in power since 1982.
Minister of Communication Jean-Pierre Biyiti Bi Essam on Monday said three people had died in Monday's clashes, but accounts collated by AFP put the number as high as six people, including a woman and a teenager.
There was also looting overnight Monday in parts of Douala, witnesses told AFP.
In the capital Yaounde, meanwhile, taxi drivers entered the second day of a strike.
Biya's government last month banned all rallies in the Douala region in the wake of his announcement that he wanted to extend his time in office.
Officials said then they did not want to experience a Kenya effect.
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