By Jonas Lima
The crisis in Cameroon’s North West and South West Regions that started in October 2016 has clocked two without any escape route in sight.
The Cameroon government admits it is facing a rolling security crisis in the Anglophone regions. A fact emphasized by incumbent Paul Biya’s admission that it was only he that could solve the deadly crisis.
A crisis that has claimed lives of state actors and separatists alike, in between ordinary citizens have been killed, villages reportedly burnt down and thousands internally displaced or seeking asylum in neighbouring Nigeria.
The majority of Cameroon’s 22 million plus people are French-speaking, while about a fifth is English-speaking. The Anglophone minority has long complained about marginalization which led to protests by teachers and lawyers over a period of time. The lawyers declared a strike in October 2016 and would later be joined by teachers on November 21, 2016, which coincided with a coffin revolution launched by journalist Mancho Bibixy in Bamenda.
Then came October 1, 2017; when separatists decided to make a symbolic proclamation of independence for the so-called Ambazonia, the name of the state they want to create. A heavy army deployment and subsequent clampdown was the whistle blow that kicked off an armed insurgency.
Since then, it has been from violence to violence. Human rights groups have been documenting the atrocities committed by both parties and have since called for restrain.
Medical facility attacked
In what has shocked many, soldiers are said to have burnt a clinic in Kembong village in Manyu Division. According to impeccable sources, the clinic run by Nurse Fotabong Agendia Nicashu was burnt by angry soldiers following bloody confrontations with separatists.
On October 27, 2018, separatists are said to have ambushed soldiers on patrol in Ajah village. A bloody gun battle ensued lasting over four hours, we learnt. When hostilities had subsided, we are told that the wounded were taken to the clinic in Kembong for medical attention.
“Shortly after, elements of the BIR (Rapid Intervention Battalion) stormed the clinic, and killed all the six injured people. And then that is how we started running and the military was now just shooting at random,” a local said on grounds of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
Two nurses on duty, Atah Glory and Divine Enow, died in the military raid on the clinic. Soldiers later ransacked the clinic and set it alight. We are told that Other nurses on duty narrowly escaped including Leke Manus, Fotabong Agendia Nicashu and Etah Peter.
Security sources say the nurses were treating the wounds of separatists and as such are enemies of the state. The separatists on their part accuse the manager of the hospital, Fotabong Agendia Nicashu for calling in security forces to kill their wounded peers.
We learnt that most of the relatives of Fotabong Agendia Nicashu have long escaped for fear of their lives. With the whereabouts of the said Agendia in doubts, we have been unable to get her own version of the story.
Meantime, Human rights lawyers, Agbor Felix Nkongho has called on soldiers to restrain from committing atrocities that may amount to war crimes.