BY SANDRA LUM
The Cameroon military 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. The activists are suspected to be siding with separatist fighters as the ongoing armed conflict that started about six years rages on.
The alleged activists have been considered as dangerous and threats to the public and have been declared wanted. The population has equally been urged to be vigilant and report to the closest gendarmerie or police stations if they have information about the wanted persons.
As we went to press, reports said a renowned teacher in Kumba, Meme Division of the South West Region, Ageh Mavine Ashu, had been declared wanted and an arrest warrant endorsed against him by the military. Ageh’s residential area is constantly under impromptu military patrol just in search of him.
Reports say Ageh Mavine was among teachers in Anglophone Cameroon who joined in a peaceful demonstration with placards in 2017, decrying marginalisation.
Like other teachers, Ageh was arrested, tortured and detained under cruel and inhumane conditions for two weeks. After he was granted bail, his family and some friends are said to have helped to secure him a visa to travel out of the country for fear of the unknown.
About five years after, Ageh Mavine decided to return home with the hope that the situation is under control. But unfortunately, he was arrested at the airport as his name featured amongst those declared wanted in country.
Sources say after serious interventions and negotiations, Ageh was released and he left the country for the fear of the unknown.
Another alleged activist who is under the military searchlight is Ndip Melvin Tambe of Mamfe Road, South West Region. Family sources say he is a victim of circumstances and is caught in the web of both the separatist fighters and the defence and security forces, amidst the ongoing armed conflict raging the restive North West and South West region.
THE SUN gathered that the military stormed his residence in Mamfe Road in November 2018 when they got information that Ndip Tambe is siding with separatist fighters. After serious interrogation he was arrested and whisked to the military barracks and forced to show the hideout of the separatists.
Reports say Ndip Melvin Tambe had earlier spent days with the separatist fights who stormed his residence, kidnapped all in a bid to force him join them pick up arms in their fight for the restoration of former British Southern Cameroons. Ndip is said to have refused joining due to family responsibilities.
He was molested by the separatists for several days under cruel and inhumane conditions, but was finally freed from captivity after he took an oath. Sources say while the military was about whisking Tambe and others to Yaounde, they had to bribe the soldiers with 200,000 FCFA and escaped from the military van to an unknown destination.
As we went to press the search for Ageh Mavine Ashu, Ndip Melvin Tambe and others has intensified and their family members and friends are restless as their whereabouts remains cloudy.
The military is bent on prosecuting them anytime they are arrested anywhere with the national territory.
Flashback on the crisis
It is also worth recalling that the Anglophone crisis, something that pundits say had been brewing for several years, boiled over recently, 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 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. According to statistics from human rights groups, over 7,000 persons have been killed, hundreds kidnapped, thousands of houses and over 400 villages razed with over 75,000 persons identified as Internally Displaced, with over 65,000 as refugees in Nigeria.
Some have been left in constant fear either due to the demise of their love ones or because their houses have been razed. These attacks have been so alarming that human rights groups across the board have concluded that Cameroon is no longer safe.
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 dialogue.