BY CYNTHIA AKUM
The Anglophone crisis, which started in 2016 with a strike action by Common Law Lawyers and Anglophone Teachers against marginalisation and attempt by the Cameroon Government to assimilate Anglophone education and judiciary systems, has now turned bloody with innocent youths, women, children, drivers, business persons and others bearing the greatest brunt.
Separatist fighters popularly known as “Amba Boys, who took up arms when the Head of State, President Paul Biya, declared war on them in November 30, 2017, have been engaged in deadly confrontations with government forces. This has kept the death toll on the increase with several innocent civilian population, drivers, medical professionals, politicians, students and a cross section of individuals in different walks of life incriminated.
Houses and villages have been burnt and suspected individuals linked to separatist fighters and activists of the Anglophone course arrested, molested, tortured and detained by government forces in very horrible inhumane detention conditions. Others have gone underground to unknown destination and are currently placed under security searchlight.
The government is said to have launched a fresh hunt to bring to book all those suspected to be linked or facilitating the activities of separatist fighters both at home and abroad. Amongst those in the list is a popular businessman, Tabe Boris Eyembe, from Kumba, and a renowned driver, Ebwekwene Adille Joel, from Bangem, who plies the Kumba-Buea road.
The SUN gathered that, just like many other civilians in the two restive regions who are suspected to have a link with the separatist fighters, Joel who is said to have smuggled himself out of the country, has gone through a bitter experience with the military. The SUN has it on good record that Joel fell sick while in detention due to continuous torture and inhumane treatment, and almost dropped death but for the timely intervention of his family.
The Kumba-Buea driver was transporting passengers from Kumba to Buea, April 3, 2021 when he was stopped at a mixed military control checkpoint during one of his trips, with some passengers identified as separatist fighters, family sources confirmed. The SUN gathered that all attempt by Ebwekwene Adille Joel to vindicate himself was futile as the military accused him of collaborating with separatist fighters, and ferried alongside five others and placed incommunicado in draconian inhumane detention conditions for 10 days.
Trusted sources disclosed that the 23-year-old driver was about being transported with several others to the Yaounde maximum security prison when his family intervened. Given Joel’s depleting health condition, the military permitted his family to take him for medical attention on the condition that he will be produced for prosecution as soon as he recovers.
Reports later emerged that Adille Joel’s family smuggled him out of the country. This caused security operatives to issue an arrest warrant against him. As we went to press, Joel’s close friends and neighbours disclosed that the search for him by the military has intensified, with his parents still on the run as government forces mount pressure for him to be produced.
As tension rages the government is sparing no effort at tracking down those they consider agents of the destruction of Cameroon with secessionist tendencies. They still consider the fighters and activists as terrorists and any one caught is usually tagged with numerous trumped up charges like rebellion, revolution, secession, and insurrection amongst others. Even those abroad considered as activists and preaching against the marginalisation of Southern Cameroons by the Yaoundé regime have equally been declared enemies of the State of Cameroon, and have been tagged for persecution.
Recent statistics by civil society organizations shows that about 300 villages have been burnt down in the two regions and some 500,000 people internally displaced. A good number of English speaking Cameroonians have also assumed refugees status in Nigeria. Meanwhile a good number of those on the run have been declared wanted with warrants of arrest issued against their names.