By SAH TERENCE ANIMBOM, Elah Geofrey and WIFAH J. NDEH
Following recent attacks on security officers in the Northwest leaving at least 4 dead, the response from the military has been merciless and indiscriminate.
After the Tadu attacks in Bui division a week ago, came the turn of Mbingo in Boyo division with far reaching effects leaving civilians frustrated with a deaths recorded and young men transformed into Bushmen.
Belo, which was one of the scapegoat towns that suffered military brutality after some of their colleagues were reportedly butchered was visited by The SUN for a first hand feel of what the people of this entity had been through.
The experience was as good as sad following eyewitness accounts and exchanges with some victims of the military/gendarme brutality. Though many of them l pleaded for anonymity, their stories were consistent.
Marked by destruction of homes as they forcefully broke into some, in some homes The SUN visited, household items were pulled out and set ablaze, at least two motorbikes were set ablaze and a car in Belo.
In some homes the victims told The SUN in a quarter called Achah, they made away with some money worth FCFA 240,000 this, confirmed from three homes they broke into.
While energetic young men fled into bushes, some including women were arrested and flogged on their buttocks as one of the female victims revealed her scars to The SUN.
It was only thanks to Divisional Officer, Manchang Nicolas who ordered for their release that they were spared, a victim told The SUN.
At least a provision shop was burnt down in Ashing and some broken into where edible items were looted. The SUN equally found out that a pot of meat that was meant for sale was consumed from one of the shops they broke into.
In Tadu, Bui division, the picture was similar but with more aggravated destruction as rice got mixed with kerosene and fertilizers and abandoned. Plastic buckets and plates shattered, edibles including wine and whisky looted away.
Belo raids and torture
Following the brutal killing of two gendarme officers at the Mbingo check point in Belo Sub Division in Boyo Division by some unidentified attackers suspected to be members of Ambazonia Defense Forces on Thursday February 1st 2018, there have been many military raids in Belo central Town which is located some 15km away from the scene of the attack.
Prior to the raids, the local populations of the surrounding villages like Mbingo, Baingo, Njinikijem, Ashing and Sho, fearing military retaliation on the population, had abandoned their homes and gone into the bushes and up the hills around Belo for safety.
Most of those fleeing to distant places were young boys and girls. Talking with a young girl who resides in Belo but had taken refuge in Bobong which is found in Njinikom Sub Division, she said she ran away because she was afraid of being raped by the military officers who will be dispatched to the town like they did to the girls in Buea.
Traveling from Bamenda to Fundong Sub Division on the night of the attack, The SUN met deserted villages with not a single lamp lit in any house and not even a soul on the streets of Mbingo, Baingo, Njinikijem, Belo town, Ashing and right up to Njinikom Sub division where a few people were seen still strolling outside at 8:30 pm.
Things seemed to be calm despite some sporadic gunshots into the air after the attack on the gendarmes but went off the rails when passengers traveling from Fundong to Bamenda early Friday morning were mercilessly beaten and tortured.
Travelers pay the price
The windscreens of about three cars were completely shattered by gunshots after the passengers were asked to step out of the cars and asked to sit down with their buttocks on the dusty ground.
Their luggage was taken out of the cars and shattered on the ground and afterwards the passengers were all given serious beatings as they were made to lie with their stomachs on the ground.
They were beaten with pieces of planks and baton sticks and stepped upon with heavy military boots. While beating some teachers who were also travelling that morning to attend a seminar in Bamenda, they said teachers were the ones instigating students not to go to school and that they were receiving salaries for doing no work.
Victims recount ordeal
Among the teachers was Mr. Nubed Wilson Njitah a Vice Principal at Government Bilingual High School Fundong who was on his way to attend his son’s graduation ceremony in Kumba. His beating was much more severe as he sustained a fractured arm after he was beaten with a plank. He also lost his digital camera, some money and other valuables as was the case with many other passengers.
They were all locked up at the gendarmerie brigade in Belo and subjugated to more inhuman treatment as water was poured on the floor for them to roll on and caused to lie down there from about 6:00am to 2:00pm. They were released at about 2:00pm on orders of the SDO for Boyo.
Ndeh Gwendoline, Chindo Lilian and Abembom Patricia, all female teachers suffered the same ordeal while traveling to attend a seminar in Bamenda.
Mr. Nubed Wilson has been hospitalized at the Njinikom hospital where he is currently receiving treatment. One of the cars stopped were burnt to ashes including some food items it was transporting. It is worth noting that movement was halted along the Bamenda-Fundong corridor until 2pm on Friday and halted again at 7pm till Saturday morning.
Ngam Cleopas, another victim who was with his family on a motorbike to attend a burial reports that he was beaten and sustained wounds on his head and bike set ablaze. Ngam Cleopas says the bike was not his and that he only borrowed it that morning to use for his trip with his family. He was also locked up and separated from his family and was only released on the orders of the SDO at about 2pm.
Reports of military looting
There were many reports of looting allegedly by military offices. Many shops were broken into on the night of Thursday February 1st and lots of goods stolen. In Kenndo Electronics shop in Belo, phones worth 2.2 million were stolen with many electrical gadgets as well as TV screens. A huge amount of money was also stolen from another shop opposite the Belo Park.
While The SUN was still in Belo on of February 2, 2018 at about 6:35pm, another military patrol team came into town and started shooting indiscriminately, chasing away the few who had summoned the courage to come back to town that evening.
Suspected gendarmes killers arrested, Killed
Reports say a civilian was shot dead at Ashing while some four youths including a famous dreadlock king whose only name The SUN got as Sam Soya and others, suspected to be behind the gendarme killings were also arrested the same night and later shot dead.
Sam Soya is suspected to be involved with the killing of the two gendarmes in Belo as a social media video released by military officers while torturing and interrogating Sam Soya and some other individual, whom The SUN couldn’t identify, indicates.
The other individual in the social media video admits that he knew of Sam Soya’s plans that evening and that they were planning to shoot any military officer passing through Belo to Fundong that night.
In the video Sam Soya denied all allegations by the yet to be identified accomplice even as he was visible tortured. His corpse and those of four others were later dumped in front of the Bamenda regional hospital mortuary.
Bamenda night horror
Sporadic gunshots were heard across the city of Bamenda from 10pm Saturday night till about 5am Sunday, February 4, 2017 morning. The shooting, many claimed was an exchange between the military and separatist fighters was characterized by sounds of heavy gun artillery.
A taxi driver in his mid thirties was shot dead around Bonanjo a very popular spot at T-Junction.The said driver was on his way home accompanied by three others. He was shot dead on the spot as testified by the lone person that escaped from the car while the other two were arrested and taken to the Bamenda judicial police post.
The driver was shot on the neck and on the legs and he died on the spot. His corpse was later transported and dumped at the veranda of the mortuary of the Bamenda Regional hospital by the Police.
It should be recalled that there are about eight unidentified corpses at the Bamenda Regional Hospital Mortuary allegedly dumped by the military.
The Sun met with a young bike rider who narrated his ordeal of how he escaped being killed the night of the shooting. He took the street that stretches from Hospital Roundabout through Food market to City chemist roundabout and just around the small bridge in front of Ambit Hotel in Bamenda had a series of gunshots fired at him. He said he could feel the bullets flying pass him and that at one point he thought that running on will only attract more bullets so he decided to fall from the bike and fake his own death. He went on that they two officers who were firing at him ran towards him and one stayed at a distance from him while the other came to verify if he was dead. He said his arm was lifted and he allowed it to fall in a lifeless manner which gave them the impression that he was dead as he could here the other asking in French ” Est il mort deja?” and the one over him replied “Oui il est mort” and the other responded “Vien ons part alors”
Bangem, Bole enter the fray
The spiral of violence extended to Bangem, headquarters of Kupe Muanenguba, a division that has hitherto witnessed relative calm.
Several people were shot dead after government forces clashed with gunmen believed to be members of the Ambazonia Defense Force.
It all boiled over last Monday when the armed group attacked GBHS Bangem to put an end to classes. The SDO and other security officers who came to the scene were reportedly taken hostage until the military was brought in.
A gun battle ensued after a previously negotiated truce was purportedly breached by the military.
The population has since fled Bengem to the surrounding forests and bushes.
In Bole, a village a few kilometers after Kwa Kwa, sporadic gun exchange between government forces and assailants reportedly left scores dead over the weekend.