As the crisis that has been rocking the North West and South West regions, which has spiraled into an armed conflict, rages on, the government has stepped up its crackdown on all those suspected to be activists or sympathisers to the Anglophone cause.
In this light, security operatives have been indiscriminately arresting Anglophone activists and suspected activists. This has caused many of them to flee into hiding and the whereabouts of many is not known.
Sources say the arrested activists are being tortured and detained under horrendous and inhumane conditions. Some have reportedly died in detention.
One of the activists, whose case is peculiar is Wankwelle Geofrey Ekole, an activist of the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC. Because of his activism, Wankwelle’s family has been persecuted and tortured by the defence and security forces. He is been monitored by the defence and security forces as he is considered an Anglophone separatist activist both in Cameroon and United Kingdom.
We gathered that on January 2022 the Rapid Intervention Battalion, BIR, of the military stormed a rally he organized in Isokolo, Limbe II Subdivision, Fako Division of the South West Region and held him and other activists at gunpoint.
According to an anonymous source, the main organizer, Mr. Wankwelle was blindfolded and taken away by the military to an unknown destination where it is alleged he was beaten until he passed out (unconscious) and abandoned in a nearby bush and only to be rescued by a good Samaritan.
We are told the good Samaritan took him to a health facility where he later regained consciousness after 24 hours.
But it appears he travelled out of the country and has continued his activism in the United Kingdom. This is corroborated with some photos he took with top SCNC members in the United Kingdom after a meeting which has gone viral.
It is for this reason that we gathered that the BIR again, on September, 2022 stormed his job site same day after the photos went viral and interrogated his colleagues of his whereabouts. The said colleague after the interrogation, is said to have placed a call to Wankwelle informing him of the situation back in the country.
Some Group Of Pro Ambazonia Separatist Protesters in London UK On October 1, 2018
The military next destination we gathered, was his home where they met his wife and demanded to know when her husband would return. His house we are told was ransacked and his wife and children unharmed.
Days later in January, we gathered that the military went back to Mr. Wankwelle house to find out if he had returned after previous discussion they had with his wife on his return date.
We are told they met his wife and kids at home and when they discovered that he had not returned, his wife was beaten, harassed and brutalized before her own children. In the course of all this, she sustained injuries and got hospitalized we are told.
Due to this inhumane treatment and abuse meted on her, we gathered Mr. Wankwelle wife had to abandon her husband’s house in Isokolo together with the kids to an unknown destination for fear of the unknown
For fear of his life, Wankwelle Geofrey Ekole, is said to be scared to come back after information on ground says he is being wanted by security operatives in connection with his involvement in SCNC activities.
It should be noted that if arrested, Wankwelle Geofrey Ekole will be tried in a military court under the 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.
Origin of the crisis
It is worth recalling that the Anglophone crisis, something that pundits say had been brewing for several years, boiled over in October 2016 when Common Law Lawyers in the North West and South West regions went on strike, paralyzing the courts. They were demanding for a return to the federal system of government, redeployment of Civil Law Magistrates back to Civil Law Courts among other grievances. Not long after, teachers in the North West and South West regions also went on strike, demanding the redress of several issues concerning the English sub-system of education.
Things got worse when concerned citizens in the North West and South West regions, who had been fed up with the unfavourable political and especially economic stagnation of Cameroon at large, but more importantly in these regions, joined the strike.
But after negotiations with the teachers and lawyers ended in deadlock, the government banned the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, and the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, CACSC. Some of the leaders of the Consortium such as Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho and Dr. Fontem Niba were immediately arrested while others such as Barrister Bobga Harmony and Tassang Wilfred fled into hiding.
Meanwhile, some leaders of the Anglophone separatist movements including Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and nine others, who were arrested in Abuja, Nigeria in February 2018 and later extradited to Yaounde, are currently at the Kondengui maximum security prison, where they are serving a life sentence.
It is also worth noting that many people, both civilians and security forces, have been killed in the crisis, many more internally displaced and over 50,000 have fled to neighbouring Nigeria where they are living as refugees.
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.
Source: Eden Newspaper