BY SANDRA LUM
The Cameroon Government has intensified crackdown on activists and alleged activists with arbitrary arrests, detention, torture and extra-judicial killings as Anglophone crisis persists. Many suspected activists are on the run, with no sign of the crisis ending anytime soon.
The Anglophone crisis started in 2016 following the strike action of Common Law Lawyers to protest against government attempts to annihilate the common law practice in a constitutionally bilingual and bi-jural Cameroon. Anglophone teachers in the Country joined the strike on November 21, 2016 to uphold Anglo-Saxon values under threat in Cameroon’s two English speaking regions.
The United States Department of States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour published a 45 page report on Cameroon 2018 Human Rights Report wherein they highlighted the worsening Human Rights Situation in Cameroon as a result of the crisis. According to the report, about 3000 civilians lives have been claimed by the arm conflict, with 730000 displaced, many of whom are living horrible lives in neigbouring Nigeria. Amnesty International Published her 2021 Human Rights Report on Cameroon indicting the military, for the atrocities meted on innocent Civilians forcing them to flee the Country due to the arm-conflict in the North West and South West Regions. More and more families within the crisis-stricken Anglophone regions in Cameroon have resorted to going underground after surviving arrest and torture from the military for allegedly collaborating and offering financial assistance to separatist fighters commonly known as ‘Amba Boys’, who are fighting for the restoration of the independence of the statehood of former British Southern Cameroons, termed Ambazonia
The case of Cameroonian born, 26-year-old Nsame Levis Sighan is very pathetic. The father of one has been noted for his role in protests aimed at denouncing the marginalisation of Anglophone Cameroonians by the Cameroon government. As a front line protester, the government took note of all his activities and has arrested, molested, interrogated and detained him under hash and inhumane detention conditions on several occasions. The aim of this repressive act has always been deter Nsame from advocating for social justice. The Sun gathered that the young activist was released on bail in his most recent arrest thanks to the intervention of his father, Nsame Patrick, a presidential security officer.
With the outbreak of the crisis that metamorphosed into an arm-conflict, the government immediately blamed it on advocates for change, and earmarked them for arrest, persecution and prosecution. The Sun gathered from trusted family sources that it thank s to this continuous repression of activists that Nsame Levis decided to flee abroad for studies. While abroad for further studies, reports say the family members of Nsame Levis encountered more military and separatists’
accusations and attacks. The father was tagged as a traitor by both the separatist fighters and the Cameroon military because he worked as presidential security for over 25years.
Nsame’s father, Nsame Patrick Lofe, had to go underground after many summonses and an arrest warrant was served to him. The military raided their residential area in Bamenda, in a bid to arrest Nsame’s father he was not around, a closed relative disclosed. Out of frustration, the military is said to have razed their residence to the ground leaving Nsame’s mother homeless, arrested his uncle whose corpse was later seen in a decomposed state in the forest three months later.
In July 2021, Nsame Levis alongside his wife and child decided visited Cameroon but was arrested, tortured and detained upon his arrival at the airport for insurrections. Nsame Levis was subjected to inhumane treatment while in detention for six weeks. As plans were underway for Nsame to stand trial at the military court for framed up charges, a military officer smuggled him out of detention, thanks to the connection of Nsame’s father, which was also used to acilitate their exit from the country back to Europe. Ever since Nsame and family escaped from Cameroon in September 2021, they have been a man hunt for him. According to family sources, his mother Ngah Confidence Nyeh epse Nsame, has been brutalized several times to disclose information about Nsame Levis’ where about. Meanwhile his father, Pa Nsame Patrick, is under persecution for facilitating his escape from custody.
The government of Cameroon has already declared Nsame Levis a fugitive and the Separatists consider him as a traitor for running away to study abroad while others stayed back to fight the army for the independence of former British Southern Cameroon. Just like the separatists leaders like Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, and nine other members of his cabinet including Tassang Wilfred, Nfor Ngala Nfor, and Barrister Eyambe EbaiIt’s, it is very clear that Nsame Levis Sighan has been placed on security searchlight, and will be persecuted, prosecuted and subsequently jailed if found any where in Cameroon.