By Jonas Lima
A vocal and committed member of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), Georgina Akuandou Njenwei has not been seen in public for quite some time now. The third year PhD student at the University of Buea’s Department of Educational Psychology was also working with a private school in Douala.
Due to her activism in the outlawed SCNC, where she is an ardent member and supporter, she was always in trouble with the government forces. In the past years, she has suffered many arrests, imprisonment and torture for daring to fight for the restoration of the statehood of Southern Cameroons – a geographical representation of Cameroon’s North West and South West Regions. She had always been spotted enlightening Southern Cameroonians of their birth rights and distributing tracts or flyers to promote the struggle.
Her safety became an issue of great concern particularly during the government crackdown on peaceful demonstrators in the wake of the current crisis in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon which started late 2016 and has since morphed into an armed confrontation between the government forces and some armed Southern Cameroonian independence fighters.
Akuandou Njenwei is reported to have been arrested in December 2017 by government security men while on her way back from work in Douala, tortured and detained at the Buea prison. She was released under unexplained circumstances without charge two weeks later, we learnt.
According to family sources, things appeared to be normal for her until she travelled to the United States of America for work in April 2018. On her return, the Cameroon government suspected her of having gone to the United States to champion the SCNC course for the independence of Southern Cameroons.
In May 2018, armed government soldiers stormed her residence in Muyuka and arrested her and her brother – suspecting him of being a separatist fighter otherwise known as “Amba boys”. They were detained at the Buea prison. She has not been seen in public since then. Family sources allege that Akuandou Njenwei was tortured and raped in detention by the government soldiers to near death, an allegation which the SUN has not independently verified. Sensing her fast deteriorating health condition, she was stealthily released. The family rushed her to the hospital where she recovered and has since been on the run for fear of being targeted.
The government crackdown on Anglophone activists has since intensified with arbitrary arrests, detention, torture and extra-judicial killings becoming the new normal.
The fate of many remains precarious as security forces battle separatists. President Paul Biya has since taken a tough position on the crisis in the two-English speaking regions. Guns have since taken the place of dialogue and peace.