“Soldiers at the frontier between the Central African Republic (CAR) and Cameroon crossed from their side of the border Thursday and entered into Cameroonian territory at Garoua-Boulai shooting into the air and threatening people massing at the local market.

The soldiers eventually took away a Cameroonian flag from a flagpost and crossed back into the buffer zone between the two countries before setting it ablaze while chanting anti-Cameroonian songs.

According to an eyewitness account, the trouble started when a CAR soldier who had crossed into Cameroon to shop in the Garoua-Boulai market asked a taxi driver to drive him back to the border.

When he was told that would cost him about $3, he complained the price was too high and tried to intimidate the taxi man to accept a lower amount.

Reportedly he even tried to remove a grenade from his belt but the crowd that had started to gather during the altercation grabbed the grenade from the soldier.

He then started firing his AK47 into the air, which angered the crowd to the point where they nearly lynched him.

Gendarmes dispatched

Cameroon gendarmes finally arrived and took the soldier away. He is presently in custody.

It is upon hearing what had happened to their colleague that the CAR soldiers at the frontier crossed into Cameroonian territory and started the mayhem.”