By Lucy Lima
Teachers and other civilians of various walks of life such as nurses, business persons and lawyers are bearing the brunt as the Anglophone crisis, which has escalated into an armed conflict in the North West and South West regions, rages on.
Many teachers, who have been accused of being among those organising strike actions carried out by teachers, are being arrested. The separatists have also imposed a school boycott all over the North West and South West regions. Teachers who violate this ban and go to school to teacher, are being abducted by separatist fighters, and are either killed or are only set free after the payment of huge amounts of money as ransom.
Meanwhile, teachers who respect the school boycott and do not go to school to teach, are being accused by the government of being terrorists and siding with the separatists or are sympathizers of the separatists’ cause and struggle for the independence of a country they have christened Ambazonia.
Sources say the arrested persons are being tortured and detained under inhumane conditions. Some are reported to have died in detention.
For fear of their lives, many have fled and their whereabouts is not known. One case is that of Martin Neba Ngwator, who was a teacher in Cameroon College of Commerce (CCC) Kumba, Meme Division of the South West Region. Neba is said to have, in January 2017, been involved in the nationwide teachers strike.
However, his ordeal became worse when he respected the school boycott imposed by separatists. Nonetheless, after about six months, the principal of his school is said to have threatened him, forcing Neba to return to school in May 2017 to teach.
But Neba’s decision to go to school and teach did not auger will with separatist fighters, who tagged him a “blackleg” and marked him for death.
Nonetheless, due to mounting insecurity and frequent crossfires between the military and separatist fighters, Neba later abandoned teaching.
It is believed that the principal of the school where Neba taught, after mounting pressure on him to return to teaching to no avail, forwarded Neba’s name to the authorities as one of the teachers siding with the separatists by respecting school boycott.
Neba is said to have fled from Kumba, after which his family’s house was burnt down in August 2018, and a neighbour burnt to death. His brothers, sisters and other relatives are said to have also fled into the bush and their whereabouts is not known till date.
But sometime in early September 2018 when Neba paid a visit to Kumba, he was arrested by a group of gendarmes and soldiers of the Rapid Intervention Battalion, BIR, of the military. He was tortured severely and detained at the gendarmerie brigade. Neba was later released under conditions which remain unclear.
After mass protests in North West and South West Regions for a boycott of the October 7, 2018 presidential election, in November 2018, news is said to have circulated that a warrant of arrest had been issued for Neba. He is said to have, for fear of his life, fled. Since then, his whereabouts is not known.
If the separatist fighters lay hands on him, Martin Neba will certainly be killed, like many others who have suffered from atrocities committed by separatist fighters.
Meanwhile, if arrested by the defence and security forces, Martin Neba Ngwator will be tried in a military tribunal, under the anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment if the death penalty. That is if he is not killed outright, like many others who have been victims of extra-judicial killings.
Origin of 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.
Things, however, got worst when Anglophones in both regions, who had been fed up with the unfavourable political and economic situation of the country, the use of French as the dominant and official language, and the marginalisation of the Anglophones, joined the strike.
The crisis has left thousands, both civilians and security and defence forces dead, some 400,000 displaced with some living in bushes while over 30,000 have fled to neighbouring Nigeria where they are living as refugees.
Many houses, and even whole villages, have been burnt down in the crisis-hit regions.
The separatist leader of the self-declared Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, and eight other close associates of his, who were arrested in Nigeria and extradited to Cameroon, are currently at the Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaounde, from where they have been attending trial at the Yaounde military tribunal.
Many other activists such as Mancho Bibixy, Penn Terrence, Tsi Conrad, among others, are serving jail terms at the Kondengui prison.
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.