BY ERNESTINE NGUM
As the crisis in the North West and South West Regions, which long escalated into an armed conflict, persists, many lives are in danger as civilians in the crisis-hit areas have been caught between atrocities committed by Ambazonia separatist fighters and government crackdown on those suspected to be supporting and collaborating with the separatist fighters and others who are sympathetic to the Anglophone separatist cause.
Some who are accused by separatist fighters of siding with the military are often abducted by the fighters, and are either killed or are only set free after the payment of huge amounts of money as ransom. Meanwhile, those accused by the military of collaborating with the fighters are also either killed by the military, or are arrested, tortured and detained under very inhumane conditions. Some have reportedly died in detention.
Because of the rising insecurity in the crisis-affected regions, many have been fleeing for safety. A case in point is that of Mary Ambo. Sometime in January 2019, Ambo was kidnapped by separatist fighters, while she was said to have been on her way to her village of Mundum in Mezam Division of the North West Region.
The separatist fighters are said to have accused her of being a spy of the military and whisked her away to one of their camps, where she was tortured and allegedly raped. While in the camp of the fighters, Ambo’s father is said to have been contacted by the separatist fighters, who demanded a ransom of 20 million FCFA.
However, days later, she was freed by the separatists under circumstances that remain unclear.
While on her way out of the forest where the fighters’ camp was located, Ambo is said to have come across the military, who instead accused her of being an informant of separatist fighters. Nonetheless, she was later released by the military.
However, after she went back to her parents’ home and was nursing the injuries she incurred from the torture by the separatist fighters, the police stormed the house, accusing Mary Ambo of being a separatist sympathizer.
She was forced to flee from Bamenda to Limbe. But in June 2020, she is said to been called by the military, indicating that they needed information about the separatists.
Meanwhile, separatist fighters are also said to have stormed the house of her grandmother in Limbe, with whom she was living, apparently in search of Ambo.
For fear of her life, she is said to have vamoosed and her whereabouts is not known.
If arrested by the military, Mary Ambo will be tried in a military tribunal, under the 2014 anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment is the death sentence. That is if she is not killed outright, like many others who have been victims of extra-judicial killings within the context of the armed conflict in the North West and South West Regions.
Meanwhile, if the separatist fighters lay hands on her, they will definitely kill Ambo, like many others who have been victims of atrocities committed by separatist fighters.
Flashback on origin of crisis
It is also worth recalling that the Anglophone crisis, something that pundits say had been brewing for several years, boiled over recently, 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, some 400,000 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, are currently at the Kondengui maximum security prison where they are serving life sentences. They were sentenced by the Yaounde military tribunal in August 2019 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.