BY Sandra Lum
As the armed conflict in the North West and South West regions rages, families are bleeding over the fate of their relatives, while some are currently in search for missing members.
The list of families who have lost a member is inexhaustible. The case is the same for those whose whereabouts are not known, which is even more stressful to families.
Since the declaration of war by President Paul Biya on secessionists, members of the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, a movement clamouring for the independence of Former British Southern Cameroons, from the predominantly La Republique du Cameroun, attempting to break away from the union in 2017, many innocent civilians from the North West and South West Regions have died through sporadic gun shots from security operatives. Their houses have also been razed to the ground by the military and several others have escaped to neighbouring Nigeria as well as the United States and United Kingdom for safety. Others have simply gone missing,
The war, which started with striking teachers and lawyers demanding for some reforms in both sectors finally degenerated in to an armed conflict between the government forces and armed groups fighting for restoration of the statehood of Southern Cameroons.
Choufu Rostan, who is currently in the United Kingdom, UK, since April 2024, is feeling stressful and perplexed about the wellbeing of his six children who are hiding in the bush for their safety with little or no hopes of good feeding, talk less of going to school. Choufu Rostan is equally restless following the unknown whereabouts of his step mother and siblings who were arrested, tortured, molested and assaulted and taken to an undisclosed destination in April 22, 2024 by the police. The police had come looking for Choufu Rostan with an arrest warrant shortly after he left for the UK, after the burial of his father.
It should be recalled Choufu Rostan, before travelling to the UK in January 2024, was an ardent member of the SCNC and attended all meetings organised by the organization, which meetings were unfortunately frequently interrupted by security operatives.
Reports hold that because of his loyalty to the SCNC ideologies, Choufu Rostan saw his family tagged have been enemy to the government since the entire family supported the movement. Choufu’s brother was shot dead in June 2023 by the military on grounds that he resisted arrest.
Meanwhile, Choufu, alongside other SCNC members, were arrested in January 2023, tortured, molested, and maltreated by the police and were later on detained for 30 days with no access to family members and friends. THE SUN gathered that Choufu Rostan, alongside the other detained SCNC members, were secretly released by the Police Commissioner after huge sums of money exchanged hands. Few months after his arrest, Choufu Rostan and wife left the country and only came back for the funeral and burial rites of his father.
As we went to press reports said, Choufu Rostan has been declared wanted by the state, an arrest warrant issued for him and the Police Commissioner who secretly released them has been arrested alongside the other SCNC members who were released.
Security Ooperatives keep conducting impromptu checks around the neighbourhood of Choufu Rostan, the whereabouts of his stepmother and siblings remains cloudy and the future of his six children and wife who are now hiding in the bush for safety and fear of the unknown remains bleak.
This is the cause of many youths who may never be seen again as the conflict in the restive two Anglophone regions show no sign of ending any time soon.
The country is now considered unsafe by many Anglophones in the diaspora, who fear arrest or death if they return to the country. Terrorism charges hang on them if arrested as they have been declared wanted.
While the Anglophone crisis continues to escalate, international organisations and other western powers have called on the government to address the root cause of the crisis through dialogue. Also, prominent Anglophone lawyer and human rights activist, Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla, has called on the government to dialogue, and to release all Anglophones unlawfully detained and imprisoned.