By Cynthia Bakoma
While the crisis that has been rocking the North West and South West regions, which has spiraled into an armed conflict, rages on, the government has stepped up its crackdown on those advocating federalism and those suspected to be activists or sympathisers to the Anglophone cause.
In this light, security operatives have been indiscriminately arresting Anglophone activists, suspected activists and separatist sympathisers. Sources say the arrested persons are being detained under deplorable and inhuman conditions. Some have reportedly died in detention.
This has caused many of them to flee into hiding and the whereabouts of many is not known.
One case is that of Christine Akumcha Tekum, whose parents’ compound in Bessi Fomukong, a village in the outskirts of Mbengwi Subdivision, Momo Division of the North West Region, was in August 2022 raided by the military. The military is reported to have stormed the compound in search of Tekum, who is said to be an advocate for the return to the federal system of government.
The soldiers are also said to have tortured his brother, aunt and cousin, who could not disclose the whereabouts of Tekum. They were later hospitalised because of injuries they sustained from the brutality meted on them by the military.
On leaving Tekum’s parents’ compound, the soldiers are said to have told his family members that they will be back and will not relent until they lay hands on Christine Akumcha Tekum. They are said to have indicated that for advocating a return to federalism, whereas the government is implementing decentralisation, Tekum and his cronies are enemies of the state and will be punished severely.
If arrested by the defence and security forces, Christine Akumcha Tekum will be tried in a military tribunal, under the anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment is death penalty. That is if he is not killed outright, like many others who have been victims of extra-judicial killings.
It should be recalled that Christine Akumcha Tekum, while still a student in the University of Buea, was a strong advocate of federalism. As university student in the late 2000s, Tekum and a group of other students, who advocated federalism, were arrested. The others included Ayuk Tabe John, Che Jonathan Ngwa, Mofor Elvis Anya, Peter Lyonga Muambo, Epie Elias Tabi and Roland Nnoko Ngalame.
The students had postulated that the Anglophone identity was being lost in a hyper-centralised system of government and so they were advocating a return to the federal system.
Because of their vocal stand for a return to federalism, the students were arrested by security and defence forces. They were tortured, detained but later released after pleas by the university authorities.
Origin Of Crisis
It is also worth recalling that the Anglophone crisis, something that pundits say had been brewing for several years, boiled over in 2016, when Common Law Lawyers in the North West and South West regions went on strike. They were demanding for the return of the federal system of government, redeployment of Civil Law Magistrates back to Civil Law Courts in French Cameroon, among other grievances. Not long after, teachers in the North West and South West regions also went on strike, demanding for the redress of several issues concerning the English sub-system of education.
Things, however, got worst when Anglophones in both regions, who had been fed up with the unfavourable political and economic situation of the country, the use of French as the dominant and official language, and the marginalisation of the Anglophones, joined the strike.
The crisis has left thousands, both civilians and security and defence forces dead, others internally displaced with some living in bushes, while over 30,000 have fled to neighbouring Nigeria where they are living as refugees.
Many houses, and even whole villages, have been burnt down in the crisis-hit regions.
The separatist leader of the self-declared Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, and eight other close associates of his, who were arrested in Nigeria and extradited to Cameroon, are currently serving life sentences at the Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaounde. Many other activists such as Mancho Bibixy, Penn Terrence, Tsi Conrad, among others, are also serving jail terms at the Kondengui prison.
While the Anglophone crisis continues to escalate, international organisations and other western powers have called on the government to address the root cause through genuine and inclusive dialouge.