BY ERNESTINE NGUM
Following the arson on the Mamfe District Hospital in Manyu division of the South West region on June 8, 2022, an electrician, Tambe Paul Agbor, who was working at the hospital when the incident happened, is on the run after having being accused of being one of the Ambazonia fighters who committed the act.
There have been conflicting claims as to who burnt down the Mamfe District Hospital. While the military accuses separatist fighters of having burnt the hospital, separatist fighters say the act was carried out by the military.
However, eyewitness disclosed that the hospital in Mamfe was not burnt down by suspected separatist fighters, but the military.
In the early hours of June 8, 2022, Tambe Paul Agbor was installing some air conditioners in the hospital when there were gunshots within the hospital. It’s believed that the military had been reliably informed that separatist fighters had taken hold of the hospital. The military then stormed the hospital, and upon arrival, opened fire.
The gun exchanges led to the death of one Enow Lawrence, who was a colleague of Tambe Paul Agbor. In an attempt to entrap the separatist fighters, the military allegedly set part of the hospital on fire, which led to a more significant part of the hospital being brought down by flames.
After the incident at the hospital, Tambe is said to have ran for his life.
The defence as security forces have launched a manhunt for Tambe Paul Agbor as he has been termed one of the separatist fighters, all in an attempt to get him disclose the whereabouts of the other suspected secessionist fighters.
We gathered that Tambe’s workshop was later burnt down, allegedly by the military.
Tambe Paul Agbor has gone underground and his whereabouts is unknown even to his family members. If arrested, Tambe will be tried in a military tribunal under the anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment is the death sentence. That is if he is not killed outright, like many others who have suffered extra-judicial killings.
It should be recalled that since the Anglophone crisis sparked in 2016, several establishments including schools, hospital and whole villages have been burnt down by either the military or separatist fighters.
Origin of Anglophone crisis
It is also worth recalling that the Anglophone crisis, something that pundits say had been brewing for several years, boiled over in 2016, 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 while over 30,000 have fled to neighbouring Nigeria where they are living as refugees.
Many houses, and even whole villages, have been burnt down in the crisis-hit regions.
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.