BY ASHU TIDINGS
For the past six years following the outbreak of the Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon’s North West and South West regions, findings from many human rights groups, and non-governmental organizations have in one voice condemned the extrajudicial killings carried out by State Forces.
State forces are known to have killed innocent civilians including children and pregnant women, and burned houses as was the case in Ngarbuh, a small locality in the country’s restive North-West Region.
Reports indicate that about 4000 civilian lives have been claimed by the armed conflict and about 750,000 people have been displaced with many living horrible lives in neighbouring Nigeria.
The recent killings of civilians by the military in villages across the North West and South West Region of Cameroon have received widespread condemnation across the board including from the UN Secretary-General, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the European Union, the USA, the UK, France, and the Nobel Women’s Initiative and Human Rights Watch. Many youths in the English-speaking North West and South West regions are reported to be entangled due to the Anglophone crisis that has been raging on since 2016.
It is also 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. They were demanding the return of the federal system of government, and the redeployment of Civil Law Magistrates back to Civil Law Courts in French Cameroon, among other grievances. In November 2016, teachers in the North West and South West regions also went on strike, demanding the redress of several issues concerning the English education system. This caused the Yaoundé regime to launch a mass arrest, detention, and jailing of many activists including members of the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, an Anglophone pressure group clamouring for the restoration of the independence of former British Cameroon.
It’s against this backdrop the military tribunal in Yaoundé jailed those Anglophones consider their leaders popularly known as the Nera 10 including Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Nfor Ngala Nfor, Barrister Eyambe, Tassang Wilfred, and Professor Awasume who were extradited from Nigeria and jail for life.
Cameroon’s defense forces and other security operatives have established both search and arrest warrants for the apprehension of many alleged Anglophone activists all over the national territory suspected to be siding with separatist fighters as the armed conflict rages on.
The alleged activists have been considered as a danger and threat to the public and declared wanted. The population has equally been urged to be vigilant and report to the closest gendarmerie or police stations.
As we went to press, reports say one of the alleged activists, Simon Ude Chukwn who escaped from the Kumba Central Prison sometime in 2019 had been jailed. Family sources say Simon Ude Chukwn’s whereabouts had been cloudy after he escaped from the Kumba Central Prison.
It should be recalled that Simon Ude Chukwn was picked up by security operatives at a mixed checkpoint in Mabonji, outskirts of Kumba while on a business trip to Douala, after his phone was searched and found with videos of Cameroon military being murdered as well as messages speaking about the restoration of the Federal State of Ambazonia. He was immediately accused of siding with separatist fighters and even after he escaped the military continued to carry out impromptu checks around their neighbourhood to arrest and prosecute him.
This is the fate of many youths who may never be seen again as the conflict in the restive two Anglophone regions shows no sign of ending any time soon. Cameroon is now considered unsafe for many Anglophones in the diaspora, who fear arrest or death if they return to the country. Terrorism charges hang on them if arrested as they have been declared wanted.