By SANDRA LUM
As the crisis that has been rocking the North West and South West regions, which has spiraled into an armed conflict, rages on, the government has stepped up its crackdown on all those suspected to be activists or sympathisers to the Anglophone cause.
In this light, security operatives have been indiscriminately arresting Anglophone activists and suspected activists. This has caused many of them to flee into hiding and the whereabouts of many is not known.
Sources say the arrested activists are being tortured and detained under horrendous and inhuman conditions. Some have reportedly died in detention.
As the crackdown on the activists escalates, several cases have been reported. One of such cases is that of Nelly Amuh, for whom security operatives have launched a manhunt for allegedly being a symparthiser and activist of the Anglophone separatist cause.
We gathered that Nelly Amuh got married to a soldier of the Cameroon army who was working in the South West region, one of the bastions of the separatist fighters.
Nelly Amuh’s ordeal is said to have begun when on April 1, 2019 separatist fighters stormed their residence and kidnapped her and her husband and whisked them to an unknown destination.
The separatist fighters are said to have accused Amuh’s husband for spying for the government to target and kill the fighters. Her husband was also accused of having been killing separatist fighters. We gathered that the separatist fighters later shot Amuh’s husband and continued keeping her in the bush against her wish. The separatist fighters are also alleged to have raped her severally, leaving her in a state of psychological trauma.
However, sometime in June 2019, Amuh is said to have escaped from the captivity of the separatist fighters under unclear circumstances. Nonetheless, She is said to had joined the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, one of the movements fighting for the independence of what has been christened Republic of Ambazonia.
Because of her membership in the SCNC and activism in the separatist independence cause, the military began searching for Nelly Amuh, claiming that she had been an accomplice in the death of her husband, a soldier.
For fear of her life, Nelly Amuh is said to have gone underground and her whereabouts is not known. The military is said to have stormed her residence in Buea, threating her family members to disclose her whereabouts or else they will all be arrested.
Meanwhile, we gathered that a warrant of arrest has been issued for Nelly Amuh. If arrested, she will be tried in a military tribunal under the anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment is the death sentence. This is if she will not be killed outright, like many others who have been victims of extra-judicial killings.
Another case is that of Rashidou Ndzekasaah, who in, February 2018, was working at a warehouse in the border town of Ekok, Manyu division of the South West region.
On February 11, 2018, which is Youth Day, Rashidou Ndzekasaah and10 others were working in the warehouse, when there was a gun battle between separatist fighters and the military. Caught in the crossfire, with bullets raining on the warehouse, one of the workers is said to have been hit by a bullet.
Rashidou Ndzekasaah and his colleagues attempted to ferry the wounded across to a hospital across the border to Nigeria, but unfortunately for them, they were caught by the military.
Accusing Rashidou and his colleagues of being separatist fighters because one of them had a bullet wound, the military tortured them. Attempts by the warehouse workers to explain to the military what really happened fell on deaf ears. After being tortured for hours without food, Rashidou Ndzekasaah and his colleagues are said to have been forced, under duress, to sign declarations stating that they were separatist fighters.
They were later transferred to the Buea central prison where he spent four months awaiting trial. While awaiting trial under horrible detention conditions, they continued to suffer from severe torture.
However, sometime in July 2018, Rashidou Ndzekasaah is said to have escaped from prison under circumstances that remain unclear and suspicious. Since then his whereabouts is known, while a warrant of arrest has been issued for him. If arrested, he will also be tried in a military tribunal under the anti-terrorism law.
The military is said to have launched for Rashidou and has been storming the neighbourhood where his family residence is located in Baba 1, Ngoketunjah division of the North West Region, looking for him; also reports suggest that family members associated to him have been threatened to reveal his whereabout.
Origin of 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 armed conflict has caused the deaths of thousands. Thousands more internally displaced with some living in bushes while several other thousands have fled to neighbouring Nigeria, where they are living as refugees.
Separatist leader, Sissiku Ayuk Tabe, and nine others who were arrested in Nigeria and later extradited to Cameroon are currently Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaounde, after they were last month slammed life sentences.
While the Anglophone crisis continues to escalate, international organisations and other western powers have called on the government to address the root cause through dialogue.