BY ALICE NJI
As the crisis in the North West and South West regions, which has morphed into an armed conflict, rages on, residents in some localities in the conflict-hit regions have been caught between atrocities committed by Ambazonia separatist fighters and government’s clampdown on suspected separatists and sympathisers of the Anglophone cause, with the use of defense and security forces.
The government has tagged members of the outlawed Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, as the brains behind this unrest rocking the North West and South West Regions. After releasing a list of Anglophone activists in the diaspora, who were targeted for arrest years back, sources say a fresh list of SCNC members and other activists both home and abroad; clamouring for the restoration of the total independence of the former British Southern Cameroons has been re-established for arrest. More than a hundred names have reportedly been given to intelligence services.
On the run , declared wanted
The list has alleged SCNC activists in the likes of Florence Sassa Diange, Eyisab Enow Kenneth and Victor Eyong Memgot Ndip. It is said to be already making rounds in the hands of the military, as they have been placed under military searchlight and declared wanted since they organised several protests in major towns in the North West and South West Regions like, Bamenda, Kumba, Mamfe, Buea, Limbe, Wum, and Mbengwi against the worsening frustration and marginalisation, coupled with the arbitrary detention and maltreatment of the people of Former British Southern Cameroons.
Most of these SCNC activists and members have gone underground as they have been declared wanted by the regime.
Reports from Etoko in Manyu Division, one of the restive zones amidst the Anglophone crisis in the South West Region, say Victor Eyong Mengot Ndip, the son the head of a local Drivers Union, and frontline member of the SCNC is under security operative’s searchlight. Reports say Victor Eyong Mengot Ndip used to accompany his father to SCNC meetings, distributing flyers and mobilising youths in their Etoko village and protesting against the marginalisation of Southern Cameroons.
The Sun gathered that after the failed Major National Dialogue to address the concerns of Southern Cameroons, especially those raised by Common Law lawyers and Anglophone teachers, government, through security operatives, launched manhunt for SCNC members and other activists and this resulted to the arrest of many SCNC activists including Mengot and his father.
They were tortured, molested, and detained in very cruel and inhumane detention conditions for two weeks and released thanks to the intervention of some human rights groups.
Family sources hinted The Sun that with the increasing holding of SCNC meetings clamouring for restoration of the independence of former British Southern Cameroons, security operatives further arrested many SCNC activities in 2018 and unfortunately Mengot’s father and sister were killed, their house razed to the ground by the military.
Mengot, The Sun learned, had no other option than to go underground for fear of the unknown.
As we went to press we gathered that the military, with firm instructions from government, had launched fresh pursuit for Mengot’s arrest alongside many others for them to be prosecuted at the Yaounde Military Tribunal on charges of secession, hostility against the state and related offences and support for the restoration of the independence of the former British Southern Cameroons.
The military keeps making impromptu checks at their Etoko residential area just to arrest and prosecute him. Family sources have hinted that they are constantly harassed and molested for them to disclose Mengot’s whereabouts, which unfortunately remains cloudy.
The government has not stopped arresting persons who show sympathy for the SCNC and who take part in activities it organises. Reports say some of these persons have died in detention or died after detention from torture-related complications or simply just gone missing.
Flashback on the crisis
It is also worth recalling that the Anglophone crisis, something that pundits say had been brewing for several years, boiled over recently, 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.
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.
Houses as well as villages have been razed to the ground with extrajudicial killings being a regular occurrence.
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.