By MBWA LAURENCE NDIABA
The South-West and North-West Regions were among the most orderly, peaceful, hospitable and prosperous administrative regions in Cameroon. However, a sit-down strike initiated by Anglophone lawyers and teachers on October 6th 2016, subsequently escalated into a fully-blown armed conflict between government forces and Ambazonian armed separatists, who are intransigently pushing for the complete and unconditional constitutional detachment of Anglophone Cameroon from the majority Francophone or French-speaking part of the country. On the whole, the fierce bloody conflict has given rise to a horrific array of deplorable repercussions, including hundreds of civilian deaths, over 500.000 internally displaced persons, alongside far-reaching social, economic, political, cultural, psycho-social and emotional ramifications.
One of the most battered communities in the Anglophone Regions is Muyuka, a previously vibrant town situated along the Buea-Kumba road in Fako Division in the South-West Region. Muyuka, which was once an enviable bustling agricultural town, has been relegated to a semi-deserted settlement, as many businesses have permanently shut down their operations in the area, while thousands of people have relocated to other parts of Cameroon.
Abel Bella is one of the unfortunate individuals, who have fallen prey to a life-shattering ordeal, prompted by the Anglophone conflict, simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The car mechanic, who is based in the country’s economic capital Douala, also has a blazing passion for farming. Although he works in Douala, he also oversees the operation of an approximately half-an-acre farm in Muyuka, where he cultivates a variety of crops, including plantains, bananas, vegetables, maize, cassava and yams. Though Abel Bella resides and works in Douala, every planting season, he usually hires and commissions Muyuka-based farmers, to prepare his land for crop planting. Occasionally, Abel Bella travels from Douala to Muyuka, to inspect his farm and ensure that the crops under cultivation are thriving as expected.
According to our reliable sources, in the morning of Saturday, July 6, 2019, Abel Bella was walking to his farm, to commence harvesting his cassava tubers, which had already reached maturity. However, Abel Bella was apprehended by elements of the Cameroonian military, who were looking for suspected hideouts of Ambazonian separatist fighters, in the bushes near Abel Bella’s farm. The military appeared to have accused Abel Bella of maintaining affiliations with Ambazonian separatist fighters, solely on grounds of his farm’s proximity to the alleged hideouts of Ambazonian separatist combatants.
However, our reporter contacted a considerable number of individuals in Muyuka, who are quite familiar with Abel Bella. They all unanimously stated that Abel Bella is an enterprising young man, who is particularly disciplined and reliable. They all asserted that Abel Bella had been carrying out his agricultural operations in Muyuka for long, and had always keenly collaborated with those who usually assist him with his farming operations, while he is in Douala. Despite the unanimous propitious testimonies of Abel Bella’s downright innocence in view of any suspected links with Ambazonian separatist fighters, he was nevertheless taken away in a military truck. Our reporter had not been able to ascertain the exact location where Abel Bella was taken. However, according to statistics on similar incidents in the past, Abel Bella might have been taken to Buea, Douala or Yaoundé. At this moment in time, the whereabouts of Abel Bella remains unknown.
As a matter of fact, a substantial number of civilians are usually caught up on the murky grounds of this belligerent cauldron between government forces and Ambazonian separatists, with each side blaming the other for orchestrating civilian casualties. It is quite agonising that many people in Abel Bella’s situation, usually lack access to legal representation, making them more vulnerable to the iron fist of government forces. With this persistent Anglophone conflict recurrently inflicting undeserved suffering on the same people whose supposed liberation triggered the escalation in the first place, many cannot help but question as to whether this conflict should be qualified as benign or malign.