BY NJIE MADENGE
As the crisis in the North West and South West regions, which has morphed into an armed conflict, rages on, residents in some localities in the conflict-hit regions have been caught between atrocities committed by Ambazonia separatist fighters and the government’s clampdown on suspected separatists and sympathizers of the Anglophone cause with the use of defense and security forces.
Security operatives have been indiscriminately arresting Anglophone activists and suspected activists. Human Rights lawyers 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 are not known.
It is also worth recalling that the Anglophone crisis, something that pundits say had been brewing for several years, boiled over in October 2016 when Common Law Lawyers in the North West and South West regions went on strike. They were demanding the return of the federal system of government and, the redeployment of Civil Law Magistrates back to Civil Law Courts in French Cameroon, among other grievances. Not long after, in November 2016, teachers in the North West and South West regions also went on strike, demanding the redress of several issues concerning the English system of education.
In the face of all these, youths, and activists are bearing the brunt of the unending Anglophone Crisis and remain scapegoats. They are at the crossroads between the military and separatist fighters. It is against this backdrop that the military tribunal in Yaounde jailed those Anglophones consider their leaders popularly known as the Nera 10 including Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Nfor Ngala Nfor, Barrister Eyambe, Tassang Wilfred, and Professor Awasume who were extradited from Nigeria and jail for life.
The Cameroon military defense forces and other security operatives have established both search and arrest warrants for the apprehension of many alleged Anglophone activists all over the national territory suspected to be siding with separatist fighters as the ongoing armed conflict that started about five years rages on.
The alleged activists have been considered a danger and threat to the public and declared wanted. The population has equally been urged to be vigilant and report to the closest gendarmerie or police stations.
The situation of 22-year-old Egbe Spincy Egbe remains worrisome. For fear of the unknown, taking into consideration the molestation, torture arrest, and detention under cruel conditions by security operatives, his family arranged for him to go underground since he was under security searchlight.
It should be recalled that Egbe Spincy Egbe is accused by the military as one of the youths spearheading the escalation of the Anglophone crisis. Reports say Egbe, while in Ekona, one of the restive villages in the South West Region, the military stormed their residence and immediately pointed accusing fingers at their family for supporting separatist fighters and their course in the separation of Cameroon. He was manhandled, and his phone was confiscated. He will later be whisked to the police station where he was placed under inhumane and degrading treatment. At the police station, Egbe was faulted for fanning the crisis, collaborating with separatist fighters, and that his family was supplying weapons to separatist fighters to overthrow the government. After serious intervention, Egbe was granted bail. The shooting to death of Egbe’s classmate by the military on his way home for allegedly supporting the Anglophone movement caused more depression on Egbe taking into consideration that several youths were being killed daily. Egbe Spincy Egbe’s mother had no other option than to negotiate his escape from Cameroon to a country where respect for human rights is prime. As we went to Press, Egbe Spincy Egbe’s neighborhood remains under constant impromptu checks by security operatives. Family sources have confirmed that Egbe has been declared wanted.
Just like Egbe Spincy Egbe another youth Njemo Mathew Lokendo suffered a more pathetic situation. The teacher by profession is caught in the web between the separatists and the Cameroon Defense Forces.
Reports say Njemo, due to the restive nature of his Wone village in Konye Sub Division, Meme Division, South West Region, relocated to Kumba, Chief Town of Meme Division, and got a teaching job with Mother Francisca International Bilingual Academy College, one of the popular schools.
Njemo and other colleagues were unfortunately attacked on their campus in October 2020 by unknown gunmen and the attack resulted in the killing of dozens of students with several others injured on grounds that they don’t respect the school lockdown in the Anglophone regions declared by Ambazonian defense forces. Njemo Mathew Lokendo, THE SUN gathered, was later kidnapped at his Fiango residential area in Kumba II Sub Division by Separatist Fighters on grounds that he defied the Separatist Fighter School boycott call and went ahead teaching. Separatist fighters tagged him a “blackleg”, that he was the one who indicated their hideout to the military and finally detained him in their dreaded camp for over a month.
He was finally freed from captivity after relatives paid ransom with a warning to stop teaching else he would be killed. Matters became worse for Njemo Mathew as he was arrested by the Police for siding with separatist fighters to disrupt school reasons being that Njemo wasn’t attending a series of security meetings called by the administration to reinforce security in the school following the attack and killing of dozens students by suspected separatist fighters. Njemo was detained at both the Kumba Central Police Station and the Kumba production prison for several weeks under deplorable human rights conditions. All attempts from Human Rights Activists and Lawyers to secure his release failed.
Njemo Mathew Lokendo, THE SUN gathered, escaped from the hospital when he was taken for medical attention by authorities of the Kumba Prisons. As we went to Press family sources have hinted that Njemo Mathew Lokendo has been declared wanted by the regime and that he is due to appear in court to answer trumped-up charges of terrorism just like many Anglophone arrests amidst the ongoing armed conflict.
The military keeps making impromptu checks at the residential area of Njemo Mathew Lokendo both in Wone and Kumba just to arrest and prosecute him, family sources have hinted.
Reports say this situation has caused many to migrate to French-speaking towns and the cities in Cameroon, while others have fled to neighboring countries as refugees 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.