By CYNTHIA BIH
The crisis in the North West and South West regions, which long morphed into an armed conflict has been taking new twists with civilians being caught between atrocities committed by Ambazonia separatist fighters and government’s clampdown on suspected separatists and sympathisers of the Anglophone cause with the use of defence and security forces.
Security operatives have been indiscriminately arresting Anglophone activists and suspected activists. Sources say the arrested persons are being detained under deplorable and inhuman conditions. Some have reportedly died in detention.
This has caused many of them to flee into hiding and the whereabouts of many is not known.
Meanwhile, as the gun battles between the military and separatist fighters increase, some villagers in some communities have been forced to escape into the forest, for fear of being caught in the crossfire.
The separatist fighters have also been torturing and killing those whom they suspect are giving information about them to the military. Some of those who do not collaborate with the separatist fighters have been abducted and killed, with some beheaded.
One of those who have been caught between the Ambazonia fighters and the military is Wilson Angono Ofon, who was working at a micro-finance institution in Bafoussam in the West Region.
His ordeal started when on September 21, 2022 he and family members were travelling to his village, Oshie, in Momo Division of the North West Region, for the burial of his cousin. When the funeral convoy was stopped on the way by Ambazonia separatist fighters, Angono was kidnapped by the fighters who whisked him away to their camp.
The fighters accused him of being a spy sent by the government to spy on them and disclose their hideouts.
Angono’s family was asked to pay a ransom of 10 million FCFA for his release. But when the family could not raise the amount of money, he is said to have, on October 1, 2022, escaped from the fighters’ camp under circumstances that remain unclear.
However, the separatist fighters are said to have started threatening his family members, saying that whenever they lay hands on Angono, they will kill him. On October 3, 2022, the separatist fighters are said to have stormed Angono’s family house in Oshie. Not finding his mother, who had escaped for fear of her life, the fighters burnt down the house.
Angono’s torments were far from over. After returning to Bafoussam, he continued receiving messages from the separatist fighters, threatening his life. We gathered that at one point the separatists even informed Angono that they knew exactly where he was living in Bafoussam and that they can send somebody there to kill him.
To guarantee his safety, Angono later reported the matter to the police. But the police instead decided that they will take Angono back to the North West region for him to lead them to the hideout(s) of the separatist fighters. But afraid that this will be risky for his own life as there could be a crossfire between the defence and security forces and separatist fighters which may lead to him being killed in the crossfire, Angono vamoosed.
Since then, his whereabouts is not known. But the defence and security forces have instead turned around to accuse Angono of having been collaborating and working with separatists, reason he refused to take them to the separatists’ hideouts in the North West Region.
On October 10, 2022 the police is said to have gone to his house in Bafoussam looking for him. Finding just his niece at home, the police left behind a summons for him.
If arrested by the defence and security forces, Wilson Angono Ofon will be tried in a military tribunal, under the 2014 anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment is the death sentence. That is if he is not killed outright, like many others who have been victims of extrajudicial killings within the context of the armed conflict in the North West and South West regions.
Meanwhile, if the Ambazonia separatist fighters lay hands on Wilson Angono Ofon, he will definitely be killed, like many others who have been victims of atrocities committed by separatist fighters.
Flashback on origin of crisis
It should be recalled that the Anglophone crisis, something that pundits say had been brewing for several years, boiled over in 2016, 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 sub-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 50,000 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, where they are serving life sentences.
They were jailed in August 2019 by Yaounde military tribunal on charges including terrorism and secession.
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.