BY LUSY LIMA
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 those arrested are being tortured and detained under horrendous and inhuman conditions. Some have reportedly died in detention.
One of those for whom the government has launched a manhunt and issued a warrant of arrest for is Njume Ngome Sylvester, a businessman who is believed to have fled for fear of his life.
We gathered that sometime in 2018, Njume became a member of the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, which is one of the movements fronting for the independence of the country which has been christened Ambazonia.
Because of his Anglophone activism, security and defence forces are reported to have been monitoring the activities of Njume for quite a while.
Njume is said to have taken part in a protest march in Kumba, Meme division of the South West region. Security and defence forces quelled down the protest with brute force, shooting and arresting many of the protesters who had hoisted an Ambazonia flag. The arrested persons, including Njume Ngome Sylvester, were tortured and detained in Kumba for months and later transferred to the Buea central prison. While in detention, they were constantly tortured and kept under life-threatening conditions.
Meanwhile, following pressure from his lawyer, Njume was released on bail on March 23, 2019. His hearing was scheduled for April 25, 2019.
While the case suffered several adjournments, Njume Ngome Sylvester disappeared and went underground for fear of his life.
We learned that a warrant of arrest has been issued for him. If rearrested, Njume will be tried in a military tribunal 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 extra-judicial killings.
Soldiers are said to have been storming Njume’s family home and that of his sister in Limbe, forcing family members to declare his whereabouts, indicating that they will be arrested if they do not do so. But his family members are said to have been insisting that they do not know his whereabouts.
Origin of Anglophone crisis
It is worth recalling 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 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, others internally 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 in January 2018, are currently detained 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 also detained at the Kondengui prison and attending trial.
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.