By Ernestine Ngum
In order to suppress all separatist movements from commemorating the October 1 “independence” celebration of Southern Cameroons Ambazonia, the North West governor Adolphe Lele L’Afrique issued last week a release prohibiting movement of persons into the regional Capital Bamenda as well as prohibiting all undeclared gatherings during the week leading to October 1.
Government has been on a frantic move to stop all armed separatists and separatists activities in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon since the Anglophone crisis became an armed conflict in mid 2018.
Separatists observe every October 1, as their independence day, an activity that is seen by the government of Cameroon as insurgence and threatens the integrity of the state.
The military received a tip on Thursday September 28 of an unusual meeting taking place in the Mile 90 neighborhood in Bamenda, an area reputed for hyper separatist attacks. There was a group of some members of the banned Southern Cameroons National Council SCNC members meeting in secret at one of their member’s residence in the outskirts of Bamenda.
“All undeclared gatherings for this week had been prohibited by the Governor of the North West region and we had asked our intelligence services all round the city of Bamenda to report any gathering of more than five persons to us. It was in this light that our intelligence in Mile 90 reported that more than 20 people were meeting at the residence of Mr. Chi Amos in Mile 90 that we immediately decided to descend there and surround them.” The commander of the military battalion told The SUN Newspaper.
When the military arrived, some persons escaped as the military opened fire on fleeing persons and killing some and injuring others. They arrested six people among them, Chi Amos, Amabo Linus and Nkontang Catherine Azangue. They were severely tortured before their arrest. They now risk facing the military tribunal on secession charges, an offence the government of Cameroon takes very seriously.
The SUN Newspaper spoke to the family members of Catherine Nkontang, Sunday morning after learning of the Mile 90 shootings. She was currently admitted at the hospital.
SCNC members have continued to press for a return to the former status of the former British Southern Cameroons and call for a return to normal life in the English speaking regions of Cameroon through dialogue and a peaceful resolution of the armed conflict. Many of their members have fled the country, so many sent to prison, while those who are still around and do not have the means to escape carry out their activities in hiding. The SCNC has always been a nonviolent political pressure group which had gained international recognition to a point that the government of Cameroon got threatened and banned it, sending many of its forefront members into exile.
Apart from the Bamenda Mile 90 military disruption of gatherings, a group of young football lovers after their morning sports gathered at the St. Paul neighborhood on Friday for a drink after their football match and were encircled and bundled to the military camp at Up Station Bamenda.