BY CYNTHIA BIH
More and more youths caught in the web of the ongoing armed conflict in the North-West and South-West Regions are fleeing to safe havens, especially to countries where respect for human rights is prioritised, as political witch-hunting and score-settling appear to have taken centre stage.
Security operatives have allegedly been indiscriminately arresting innocent Anglophone youths and suspected activists. Sources say those arrested are being detained under deplorable and inhumane conditions. Some have reportedly died in detention.
In the face of all this, youths and activists are bearing the brunt of the unending Anglophone Crisis and remain scapegoats. They are caught between the military and separatist fighters.
They have been considered a danger and a threat to the public, with some declared wanted. The population has equally been urged to remain vigilant and report suspicious persons to the nearest gendarmerie or police station.
Those who have successfully escaped to countries where respect for human rights is prioritised for their protection reportedly remain listed in military databases, pending possible arrest and prosecution.
At press time, reports from Buea, Fako Division, South-West Region of Cameroon, indicated that the family, colleagues, neighbours and friends of Ndasi Sheena Mbongoh, Administrator of “Her Strength Initiative,” a Buea-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) that assists women and girls affected by the Anglophone Crisis, were still perplexed about her whereabouts. Officers reportedly advised her to leave Cameroon permanently after she secured her freedom from detention on June 2, 2024, following the intervention of her lawyer. This was reportedly after an alleged FCFA 2,000,000 changed hands with the authorities.
Reports say officers arrested and tortured Ndasi for recording them while they were beating a civilian near her Buea office on May 20, 2024. She was allegedly beaten with batons, deprived of food, detained for 13 days and sexually assaulted by an officer. She was also accused of siding with separatist fighters for refusing to unlock her phone.
THE SUN gathered that Ndasi Sheena, a nurse by profession, joined the “Her Strength” NGO and was promoted to Administrator before being transferred to Bali, Mezam Division, North-West Region, in November 2023. While in Bali, she reportedly received threats, including three death threats in 2024, from separatist fighters for encouraging youths to participate in National Youth Day celebrations held every February 11—a day separatists traditionally boycott—and for working with an NGO viewed by separatists as pro-government. Following these threats, Ndasi returned to the NGO’s head office in Buea, where she alleged that she continued to receive anonymous threats.
It should be recalled that Ndasi Sheena’s ordeal with the military dates back to 2015, when the military raided her family’s residence in search of her elder brother, Baguket Francis Ndasi, who had escaped to the United States because he was reportedly a supporter and member of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC).
Her entire family reportedly suffered various forms of threats from military forces because they refused to disclose their brother’s whereabouts. Ndasi’s father, alongside other family members, was allegedly molested, tortured, and mistreated, while her elder sister, Ndasi Mispa Abong, was allegedly sexually harassed by the military.
The family reportedly had no other option than to sign an undertaking to denounce their brother and the SCNC movement, as well as anything relating to opposition to the government, in an effort to avert further threats, torture, and molestation from the military.
Flashback of the Crisis
It is also worth recalling that the Anglophone Crisis, which pundits say had been brewing for several years, boiled over in 2016, when Common Law lawyers and teachers in the North-West and South-West Regions went on strike. The lawyers were demanding, among other things, the return of the federal system of government and the redeployment of Civil Law magistrates from Common Law courts, while teachers were protesting several grievances concerning the English-language education system.
In January 2018, when Anglophone leaders such as Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Barrister Eyambe and Nfor Ngala Nfor were arrested in Nigeria and extradited to Yaoundé, Cameroon’s political capital, the crisis morphed into an armed conflict.
The crisis has left thousands of people—including civilians and members of the security and defence forces—dead, while others have been internally displaced, with some living in the bushes. More than 30,000 people have reportedly fled to neighbouring Nigeria, where they are living as refugees. Houses and entire villages have also been razed to the ground, while extrajudicial killings have become a regular occurrence.