By Lusy Lima
Armed groups operating in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon finance their activities through several means including kidnap and demand for ransom, forced taxation, extortion, voluntary contributions and sponsorship both from the diaspora and from within the country.
Because most armed groups operate in hiding and keep their hideouts secret, those who engage in kidnap and demand for ransom use mobile money as a means of receiving money from their victims. Relations of kidnapped people thus have to locate the nearest mobile money kiosk each time their loved one is kidnapped to pay the required ransom.
Since all huge financial transactions paid into bank accounts in Cameroon now are monitored and the expediters and receivers investigated before the funds are made available, sponsors of armed separatist groups in Cameroon have also found a way around transferring their funds and mobile money transfers from abroad is the solution.
A Risky Business for Unsuspecting Civilians
Mobile money kiosk operators often do not know whom they are sending a transfer to thus can send a ransom amount to armed groups without knowing. While many only cash out or withdraw amounts requested by mobile money account users; some of them being armed gang leaders withdrawing the ransoms paid by victims, some operators actually serve as a gateway for illicit financial flows into the country for the sponsorship of armed groups and terrorism while many are just innocent business operators.
There is no problem until armed group leaders are captured or killed by the military and their phones left in the hands of the military and investigations begin that their financial transactions are traced to some high paying numbers and regulars that accomplices or unsuspecting victims of circumstances are then arrested following the revelations of the armed group leaders’ mobile phones.
Our investigations show that some military deployments breach procedures to illegally arrest and detain suspects of terrorism sponsorship for the sole aim of intimidating and extorting money from them. Victims fear being charged to the military tribunal where the chances of being acquitted are slim. Thus when they are arrested by a group of military officers and taken to unknown locations, all they do is look for ways to pay huge bails to secure their release.
“The came to my business place in Ntarinkon and asked me to come with them. I asked them what was wrong and they said I will know when I get to their office. The took me to a place that looked like a temporary base and interviewed me in one dark room. The had killed a separatist fighter and gotten hold of his phone and in their findings, it showed that the separatist fighter had received FCFA 700,000 from my business account. I can bet that this was a ransom paid by a family member of some kidnapped victim to secure their release and I handled it as pure business not knowing.” Mildred as we chose to identify her for this story tells The SUN.
“They said I was going to bring the person who did the transaction or go down for it. Since I could not identify the sender, they said I was going to be transferred to their head quarters at Up Station Bamenda where I will be locked up and tried at the military tribunal for sponsorship of terrorism. Crying and begging with all energy in me, they said I had another option to pay a bail of FCFA 1 Million to secure my release or they will make sure I go to jail. This is what a lot of my colleagues have gone through but are afraid to speak out” She ended.
We spoke to a human rights activist in Bamenda who has received a couple of complaints from victims of military extortion. Chamago Blaise, the Bamenda coordinator of the human rights organization Human is Right shared with us some testimonies he has gotten from some people he works with including a very recent case involving a certain Rebecca P. Ngala a young lady in her early 20’s whom he says was operating a mobile money kiosk business until her sick mum was kidnapped in December 2023 and she paid a ransom for her release through her business account bearing her name.
“Unfortunately for her, the military raided the camp of her mother’s kidnappers and killed the leader about a week later and his phone was investigated and her name came up in the recent financial transactions. It is regrettable that the military tried extorting from her and since she had no money after paying her mother’s ransom, she did not pay and right now I can tell you she will be unfairly treated just like the many who have been in her situation and had no money. The mere reason that they tried extorting from her and failed can cause her to be harmed by unprofessional military officers just to stay safe” He told The SUN.
The 2015 law on anti terrorism are used in cases like this making anyone who pays a ransom for the release of a loved one liable to a prison term.
We spoke to the relation of a former mobile money operator who is now serving jail term in the kondengui Maximum security prison in Yaounde who said… “my brother is in jail for no reason. Just because we did not have money to pay for his release before he was taken to the military headquarters Up Station, his life was messed up by unfounded claims. Anyone can come to do a mobile money transfer even separatist fighters. You don’t see it on their faces and you can’t know what the money is going to be used for. They can’t continue to make innocent business people suffer for nothing” she said.
Sadly, military officials in the field are not cleared to give any statement to the media on such sensitive issues. We only depend on communication from the military headquarters in Yaounde to have the side of the military.