BY LUCY LIMA
Since the start of the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon, civilians are frequently accused by both armed separatist groups and state authorities of supporting opposing sides.
Extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests of innocent Anglophones, burning down of houses, villages by the military and sporadic exchange of guns between the military and separatist fighters, leaving the population under crossfire with many fleeing for safe havens, causing untold suffering and pains on the population have become the order of the day.
The case of Doris Nama Lefangha, an Anglophone civilian from Kumba, chief town of Meme Division, South West Region, illustrates how such accusations can expose individuals to sustain nationwide risk. This has put her in a fixed situation, described by many as being in between the devil and deep blue sea, with no option than to run for safety.
Doris Nama Lefangha is a holder of an HND and teacher by profession. Prior to the escalation of violence in 2017, she was operating a call box business where she lived openly and maintained her livelihood.
On February 11, 2019, Cameroon’s National Youth Day, separatist fighters called for a boycott of celebrations in the North West and South West Regions. Unfortunately for Doris Nama Lefangha, the military arrested her in her call box, whisked her to the police station, intimidated, tortured and detained her for using her call box to do monetary transaction with the separatists. Doris Nama Lefangha was released reportedly following the payment of a huge amount of money to authorities in charge, after she had signed an undertaking to stop the call box business.
On May 20, 2022, the National Day of Cameroon, the military arrested Doris Nama Lefangha at their Kumba residence while she was operating her call box business. She was bundled in the military truck and ferried to the detention camp, where she was severally tortured and interrogated, detained in a disgusting, degrading and inhumane condition.
Reports say that all efforts to cause her release by her mother and family lawyer were futile as she and others were already earmarked to be ferried to the Yaounde Kondengui maximum prison to be prosecuted at the military court as it is usually the case with Anglophone civilians arrested in connection with the armed conflict.
THE SUN gathered that while Doris Nama Lefangha and others were being ferried to Yaounde, their vehicle was ambushed by separatist fighters around Ekona, a locality along the Kumba-Buea highway leading to crossfire between the military and separatist fighters allegedly leaving two military officers killed.
Meanwhile, Doris Nama Lefangha miraculously escaped and fell in the hands of a Good Samaritans who linked her to her mother and she later made plans for Doris Nama Lefangha to leave the country for safety as advised by a family friend who is of the security corps.
This case is not isolated. Since the outbreak of the Anglophone crisis in late 2016, human rights organisations and independent monitors have documented thousands of arrests, detentions, and enforced disappearances in Cameroon’s North West and South West Regions.
Many detainees have reportedly been accused of separatist links without formal charge, while civilians perceived as insufficiently supportive of separatist groups have faced abduction, killing, and forced displacement. Numerous individuals named on wanted lists are reported to have gone into hiding or fled into exile, with family homes repeatedly raided by security forces.
The case Doris Nama Lefangha reflects this broader pattern, in which civilians perceived as non-aligned face serious harm from both state and non-state actors, and where effective state protection or safe internal relocation remains largely unavailable.