BY ERNESTINE NGUM
The trouble in the North West and South West Regions began in October 2016, when Lawyers and Teachers led protests calling for a two- state federation to preserve the Anglophone legal and education systems.
They felt these were being encroached upon by the francophone- led central government.
The military’s heavy- handed response to peaceful calls for greater autonomy prompted Anglophones to form militias popularly known as Ambazonia Defense Forces, leading to armed conflict the following year.
Since 2017, the fighting has claimed over 6,000 lives in the Anglophone regions and displaced nearly 800,000 people, majority of whom are refugees in neighbouring Nigeria.
Some have been left in constant tears either for the demise of their loved ones or because their homes have been razed. These attacks have been so alarming that human rights groups across the board have concluded that Cameroon is no longer safe.
For over the years now the government of Cameroon has been battling to resolve the situation but tensions continue to intensify with civilian populations in the two restive regions of the North West end South West in peril, panic and pandemonium.
Due to this confusion and fear of the unknown, many youth and businessmen, professionals of all walks of life continue to go underground.
The whereabouts of 19- year- old Fonjock Asonganyi Neri, for example, remains cloudy since mid August 2022, according to family sources.
Reports say following a police raid on October 3, 2021 at Mulango Street, Fiango, Kumba, Meme Division of the South West Region, Fonjock was arrested alongside other youth including his father, Forcha Peter, and immediately whisked to the police station. Fonjock was molested, tortured and placed under inhumane condition and was incommunicado for about 12 days while his father and others were released two days after detention.
When investigation on Fonjock’s case was opened, it was discovered that he was sharing separatist propaganda and was immediately accused of siding with separatists. He was thus charged with sponsoring secessionist movements, revolution, uprising, and terrorism even though he denied all the allegations but that he was fighting against the marginalisation of Anglophone Cameroon.
THE SUN gathered that Fonjock was finally granted bail after 15 days in detention thanks to the intervention of his attorney at law after he put pen on paper on an undertaking to constantly report to the State Counsel’s Chambers.
After some medical attention Fonjock left for Bonaberi in Douala Littoral Region, but unfortunately he and four others were picked up at a police checkpoint and whisked to police station to be later ferried to the dreaded New Bell Prison in Douala to stand trial at the military Tribunal where in he could have faced extra-judicial killing.
Thanks to the intervention of a senior police officer, the information got to Fonjock’s family and a huge amount of money was raised to oil the lips of the Police Commissioner, and Fonjock was smuggled out of detention to an unknown destination.
As we went to press, family sources hinted that his family is constantly under threats, and pressure from security operatives to disclose the whereabouts of Fonjock Asonganyi Neri or else they will be arrested and tortured. Reports say his family relatives have been assaulted, maimed and his mother raped just because they could not disclose the whereabouts of Fonjock.
As the crisis continues, to deepen, reports of a survey released by a group of Human Rights Organisations in Cameroon indicates that the government is sparing no effort in tracking down those it considers “agents of destruction”.
Even those abroad, considered as activists and preaching against the marginalisation of Southern Cameroons by the Yaounde, have equally been declared enemies of the State of Cameroon and have been tagged for persecution.