By Sandra Lum
As the armed conflict in Cameroon’s North West and South West regions rages on, political witch-hunting and scores-settling has taken centre stage.
Many are families that now fear for the safety of their relatives as some politicians are using the separatist conflict as a cover to victimize their political rivals.
When Common Law Lawyers took to the streets in October 2016, it was to protest government attempts to annihilate the common law system in a constitutionally bilingual, bi-jural and bicultural Cameroon. On 21 November 2016, Anglophone teachers in the country joined the strike to uphold Anglo-Saxon values under threat in Cameroon’s two English speaking regions.
The protest has since morphed into a bloody armed conflict with state forces battling separatist militias. Today, many youths and members of some political parties because of their frank talk about the ongoing crisis have become victims of witch-hunting and they now fear for the unknown. Many vocal opposition members have gone underground for fear of being targeted by the arch rivals. . Government repression, manhunt for politicians with opposing views and alleged activists has intensified. Elements of Cameroon’s military are known to have raided the residence of Ndoh Joseph Ndoh, frontline member of the opposition Social Democratic Front, SDF. He is the Chairman of the Bamusso SDF Electoral District.
Sources say the military stormed the residence of this political activists and one time parliamentary candidate of the SDF for Ndian during the 2007 and 2013 legislative elections, in August 25, 2023 in Douala, Littoral region of Cameroon. THE SUN gathered that the military stormed the residence and terrorized every occupant of the house especially his wife in search for the SDF political icon. Neighbours testify that they could hear the military shouting and threatening to do away with his wife’s life if she can’t situate the whereabouts of her husband whom following instructions from the powers that be is wanted dead or alive. The military disclosed that they have reliable information that Ndoh Joseph Ndoh is hiding behind the SDF and sponsoring separatist fighters who have taken up arms against the state. Family sources say the military keeps making impromptu checks around their neighbourhood.
At press time, Ndoh Joseph Ndoh remained at-large. He has been declared wanted as an arrest warrant dangles over him. His wife and children have relocated to an unknown destination for fear of the unknown.
It should be recalled that this is not the first time the SDF militant and his family is found wanting by the military and the powers that be. Ndoh Joseph Ndoh has always been a public critic of on the human rights abuses meted on innocent civilians on the restive crisis Anglophone regions in Cameroon by the military and equally vocal on the manner in which the government is handling the crisis. All these have attracted military search lights on him.
The government crackdown on Anglophone activists and politicians have since intensified with arbitrary arrests, detention, torture and extra-judicial killings becoming the new normal, human rights groups have said.
According to the International crisis group, Amnesty International, in 2019 about 3000 people died, at least 500000 were declared Internally Displaced Persons, IDP’s, and about 40000 being refugees in neighbouring Nigeria with close to 700000 children deprived of schooling. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported in July 2019 that about 1.3million people in Anglophone Regions urgently needed humanitarian aid.
Government forces have engaged in extrajudicial killings, random looting, shooting, torture, molestation using disproportionate and discriminating force, abusing and arresting protesters, burning more than 200 villages, 500 houses , displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians, attacking hospitals beating and raping women and girls.