Urban Land Grabbing Mayhem in Douala Metropolitan Local Council Areas, Cameroon

Anarchical land conquest in developing world cities is virally infecting Cameroonian cities epitome by its largest metropolis. This is what this paper sought to portray of the successive augmentation of the Douala V Local Council urban space distinct by a weird anarchy-driven population growth. It posits that it is not just available unoccupied space but institutional indolence has of recent hemmed in urban infrastructural disorder that has led slums grow beyond bounds. Multi-temporal Landsat images for 1975 and 2015 and a Spot image of 1995 were used to determine the spatial colonization and expansion land use/land cover analyses. Results were corroborated with field information through field surveys using structured questionnaires. Findings permitted us note that space colonisation in Douala V experienced a 60.18% upward trend of built-up areas just in four decades (1975-2015), with a 1.5% annual population growth rate. Implications on the urbanscape have been an accelerated and severely degraded forest and natural vegetation form the 1403% growth urban human surge in 42 years (from 57,00

Cameroon, with the case of Douala being very preoccupying. Uncoordinated expansion has affected the development of the Douala urban area as the continuous occupancy of space in the midst of increasing economic hardship has resulted in an uncontrollable spatial layout of urban settlements. The urban planning policy of Cameroon and the execution lapses in Douala have led to wide spread anarchy in the city, especially in the Douala V municipality. Most towns in Cameroon suffer from serious urban planning problems due either to the lack, or non-implementation, of urban planning norms (Priso Olivier, 2014). These difficulties are recurrent in the expansion process of the towns.
Space colonisation by settlement area remains an unescapable process in urbanization. The consumption of space, nevertheless, leaves much to be desired as its occupation at a given point in time is done in a disorderly manner. The population remains the principal actor behind this disorder as the forest reduces due to the continuous advancement of man (Priso Dickens, 2016). This, in other words, reveals that the human pressure on the available space from population growth is on a perpetual rise, thereby encroaching into and reducing vegetation.
Since urbanisation and industrialization have accelerated the growth in the population that moves into Douala in search of employment and better standards of living, those who can not afford decent housing are left with no choice than to settle for the squatters and slums (Ngoran & Xue, 2015).
The process of urban sprawl in Cameroon in general and that of Douala in particular does not only occur in an uncoordinated manner, but is also unplanned despite prohibitions by the State. The general trend of space colonisation in Douala is outwards from the city centres of Akwa, Bonanjo, Bali as well as Deido towards the peripheries of the north, west, east and south directions of the town (Mbaha & Ndock, 2013). Settlement space in the city centre has become saturated. As a result, the population is now rushing into the suburbs. This mass movement to the peripheries has brought about the invasion and occupation of space in the Douala V municipality.
Located in the inter-tropical zone in the Gulf of Guinea in the Wouri estuary between latitude 4˚3' and 4˚7' North and longitude 9˚42' and 9˚48' East, Douala V has a tropical humid climate. The annual rainfall is more than 4000 mm with temperatures ranging between 24˚C and 27˚C hence, characterised by wet and The total population of this municipality stood at 538,449 inhabitants (BUCREP, 2005). The Douala V Local Council has a youthful population with the youths making-up about 70% of the total population. The successive growth in the urban space of the Douala V local council is compounded by anarchy from rapid population growth. The objective of this article is to map-out the

Methodology
In order to determine the land use/land cover change to reveal space colonisation and progression in the Douala V municipality, satellite images were used. Two periods of Landsat images were used to determine the land use/land cover of 1975 (Landsat MSS) and 2015 (Landsat OLI8). An additional spot image of 1995 was used to analyse land use/land cover of the area. The treatment was done in three phases: the pre-treatment phase which was done to correct the atmospheric implications on the different periods of the images, which were later regrouped to form an image of several bands to confirm the geo-referencing. The classification and post-classification phase followed before the images were validated. These images were treated with the use of the ArcGIS software. Data from the treated images were used to generate tables, to analyse and determine the rate of urban space colonisation and progression in Douala V. Data collected through field survey from questionnaires and interviews were treated and interpreted through the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet so as to generate tables and diagrams for analyses. Interviews were used to gather data that could not be gathered by way of direct observation and or questionnaires. Using the household as a unit of observation, the questionnaire were administered to the respondents of the various quarters of the Douala V municipality at home and in their business places not far from home, depending on their preferences. A 0.5% household sample (122,188 households) of the 538,449 inhabitants of the Douala V municipality (BUCREP, 2005) was done. This was done by dividing the total number of households by 100, and multiplying it by 0.5, to arrive at 610.94 intended respondents (122,188/100) × (0.5) = (610.94). However, some 565 effective responses were gotten from the administration of questionnaires which were then used to determine the causes and manifestations of urban anarchy in Douala V. Field research was both qualitative and quantitative, and were analysed to generate results.

Results and Discussion
Findings propound that space colonisation and urban anarchy in the Douala V local council are triggered by the availability of unoccupied space and population growth which have caused spontaneous and unplanned development.

The Douala V Space Occupation and Progression Trend
Space occupation through the invasion and colonisation of the land by the built-up area has increased overtime in the Douala V local council. The encroachment was triggered by rapid population growth and urban sprawl leading to an increase in the built-up space. The rate of progression in the Douala V  (1975 to 2015). The built-up annual encroachment rate by the area is 1.50%, considered to be rapid. This rapid rate of increase is as a result of high population movement into Douala V from neighbouring areas due to availability of cheap and unoccupied space, as well as low government control. The Douala V local council is therefore in-filled with a cosmopolitan population that has colonised the space and is rapidly changing ( Table 1). The unoccupied urban space has regressed by −20.44% in forty years at an annual rate of −0.51%. The regression of the unoccupied urban space is due to the colonisation of the space by the built-up area. The degraded forest has also regressed by a minus 23.98% in the past four decades, reducing at −0.59% annually ( Table 1).
The natural forest as well has regressed by −44.54% in forty years at an annual

Human Growth Weight and Incidence on Urban Anarchy in the Douala V Local Council
Just like the urban space, the human growth weight in the Douala V local council, is constantly increasing over time. Changes in population are on a steady increase from 1975 to 2017. The Douala V municipality, with its significant population of 28% of the total population of Douala, is predominantly poor. It has a population growth rate of 7.5% (CUD, 2015) which is also highly diversified in its ethnic composition. The growth was triggered by the creation of the Douala Autonomous Sea Port which pulled a large number of people into the city and eventually to the municipality for settlement. Added to the possibility of gaining  employment, was the availability of unoccupied and uncontrolled but cheap space which made for an easy access to land for settlement by the in-migrants (Nsegbe, 2012). As a result of this, many migrants who moved into Douala rushed there because of the available space in the municipality, thereby causing the population of the area to experience constant growth. The population of Douala V has experienced changes for the past 40 years. Within the period from 1987 to 1997, the marginal increase was at 205,097 people even though they was a general drop in the population of the entire city of Douala. This was due to the economic crisis of 1987 which reduce the number of people who moved into the city of Douala (Table 2). The period from 1997 to 2005 also experienced a decrease from 165,203 to 162,449 people. Unlike the marginal increase in the population of Douala V which was high in 1987 and low in 1997 and 2005 with a projected increase in 2017, that of the percentage increase dropped and was only projected to increase in 2017. The drop in the percentage increase in the population from 1987 to 2005 is explained by the fact that after the economic crisis, the population of Douala experienced a slow growth rate. The few people who could withstand the difficulties of the economic crisis colonised the cheap and available land and settled for low class housing. With the economic growth of the country after her debt cancellation in Cameroon in 2008, the population began to increase and by 2017, the percentage increase in the Douala V local council rose to 32.69%.
Natural increase is not the only factor that has caused the growth of the population; in-migration is also another cause. Out of the 56.70% in-migration rate into the city of Douala, 20% moved to and settled in Douala V (BUCREP, 2005), ranking as the first migrant recipients amongst the six municipalities of the city. According to the 2005 population and housing census, Douala had a population of 1,931,977 inhabitants with 538,449 of them found in the Douala V local council, representing 27.87% of the total population (1,931,977). This is responsible for the high population density in the area, which has led to the creation of squatters and slums, resulting in urban anarchy. The Douala V municipality is made up of a cosmopolitan population that is involved in various trades ranging from traders, farmers, administrators, to civil servants, accountants, medical doctors as well as military officers. Contrary to the population of other parts of Douala which is made up of the Doualas and the Bassa, that of Douala V harbours mainly the Bamileke ethnic group (Meva'a Abomo & Fogwe, 2015). This ethnic dominance led to the development of low quality infrastructure which is an indication of anarchy in the area. The migration trend in Douala V like that of the city as a whole has evolved overtime ( Table 3).
The rate of migration into the Douala V municipality has been increasing for the past 40 years. Of the 52% migrants into Douala in 1987, 14% settled in Douala V and the rest (38%) settled in the remaining five municipalities, indicating that the impact is greatest on Douala V. The rate of migration into Douala V was 27% of the total 62.20% for the city. This reveals that more migrants moved into the area than to other municipalities.

Urban Anarchy and Institutional Responses in the Douala V Local Council
Urban anarchy in the Douala V municipality has influenced settlement. The   BUCREP, 1976BUCREP, , 1987BUCREP, , 2005BUCREP, , 2010 Projections and CUD projections 2017.  , 1976, 1987, 2005, 2010Projections and CUD, 2015 pattern is more or less a non-organised or unplanned built-up surface rather than an organised or a planned one. The organised built-up constitutes 13.9% of the total urban surface, while the non-organised constitutes 56.1% (CUD, 2015).
This is an indication that a greater part of the area is unplanned. This disorgan- Consequently, other people came and the neighbourhoods became totally occupied. Since the anarchy persisted, the authorities proceeded by other means such as the earmarking of houses for demolition as a move to redress the situation in Douala V (Plate 2).
Plate 2 shows buildings identified for demolition in the Makepe Missoke neighbourhood of the Douala V municipality. The buildings carry the sign (AXD) which signifies "à démolir", meaning "to be demolished", serving as an injunction stipulating destruction. It is marked on a business or residential structure by the authorities of the DUC or the Douala V Council. The sign is placed on buildings that do not conform to the legal norms required by planning laws regarding authorisation to build on prohibited sites or on legalized construction using unacceptable material. Before the sign is placed on a building, the owner receives a written document from the DUC or local council authorities that explains the violation of the law. This owner is granted a period of 90 days for re-adjustments or evacuation. Immediately after the three month period elapses without any reaction from the defaulter, the council authorities then proceed with the marking of the structures for demolition. After earmarking a house for demolition, a period of 72 hours is granted for the occupants to evacuate the area prior to the demolition as stipulated by law.
The five demolition avoidance strategies in the Others fence their compounds during the building process so as to conceal them   Governance and institutional responses to anarchy in Douala V have met with stiff resistance from the population. This has led to an irrational management of the urban land use in the area (Tchounga, 2015). It has also given room for anarchy which has distorted the entire morphology of the urban space.

Conclusion
Space colonisation and settlement in the Douala V local council is unplanned and compounded by anarchy. This is due to the availability of unoccupied space and population growth which has led to the settlement of people with no respect for town planning norms. Settlement has therefore preceded planning, leading to unplanned development. Despite some State interventions, anarchy can still be identified in the Douala V local council and remains a problem to its development. It is in the light of the foregoing analyses that this paper suggests that the State, local council and civil society work in synergy to address anarchy in the Douala V local council in particular and the entire city in general. In this way, decisions concerning the population will take into account grassroots participation and will salvage the already drowning Douala V local council from urban disorder. Some possible suggestions to curb anarchy at best in the Douala V local council and other urban spaces are proposed in the policy implication.
Space colonisation and urban anarchy in the Douala V local council have led

Some Possible Solutions to Curb Urban Mayhem in the Douala V Local Council
The The population is another significant actor in the governance of the urban anarchy in Douala V as it constitutes the main non-State actor that is supposed to be included in urban space management to curb anarchy in the municipality.
Unfortunately, the decisions that affect their management are most often taken without any consultation of the population or the association of those concerned. It is advisable to adopt a participatory governance approach by involving the population in the decision making exercise. Instead of using force, it is preferable to institute a spirit of dialogue since the population concerned is striving for a better standard of living. This is because the participation of ordinary people in decisions that affect their lives would be a better way of solving the problem of anarchy. Legislation concerning urban planning and management should, therefore, make room for grass roots participation. The State legislature should ensure that the aspect of institutionalisation of local government through grass roots participation is enshrined in urban planning laws. What is required, therefore, is the improvement of competence at the level of the local authority.
The strategies for this type of reformation include capacity building, institutional development and the encouragement of local participation. The more localized the urban laws, the greater the chances of their effectiveness with respect to solving problems of anarchy. It is interesting to note that, curbing anarchy in the Douala V local council seems to be a herculean task since settlement has preceded planning. Decision makers are finding it difficult to redress the situation because the inhabitants have teamed up to raise a social problem of inadequate means to relocate. The authorities can therefore only succeed to curb anarchy at best if the State decides to sponsor the relocation.