BY SANDRA LUM
More and more youths caught in the web of the ongoing armed conflict in the North West and South West Regions are fleeing to safe havens and most especially where the respect of human rights is prime.
This is as political witch-hunting and scores-settling have taken centre stage.
They are either kidnapped by separatist fighters for ransom on one hand or are arrested by the military on grounds that they are siding, collaborating and sponsoring the activities of separatist fighters.
Majority have been forced to drop out of school for fear of their lives as the two restive regions remain the battle ground between separatist fighters and the defense and security forces. There are frequent gunfire exchanges separatist fighters the defense and security forces.
Meanwhile, extrajudicial killings have become the order of the day.
Security operatives have been indiscriminately arresting Anglophone youthsand suspected activists. Sources say the arrested persons are being detained under deplorable and inhumane conditions. Some have reportedly died in detention.
In the face of all these, youths and some civilians are the ones bearing the brunt of the unending crisis. Many have been declared wanted, the military has reportedly established both search and arrest warrants for the apprehension of many alleged Anglophone activists all over the national territory.
The population has equally been urged to be vigilant and report to the closest gendarmerie or police stations if they have information about the suspects. Those who have successfully escaped to countries where the respect of human rights is key for protections, still their names in the military database, pending arrest and prosecution while their names equally future in the blackleg list of the separatist fighters.
The inhabitants of Makobe village in Konye Subdivision, Meme Division of the South West Region are yet to come to terms with the fate of one of their illustrious daughters, 49-year-old Benedicta Okorie Wase, whose whereabouts remains cloudy. Reports say, like many other youths who have disappeared amidst the armed conflict raging on the restive North West and South West Regions, hers is more of political witch-hunting.
THE SUN gathered that sometimes in 2022 separatist fighters in Mekobe village seized Wase’s family compound and declared it the headquarters of their self-proclaimed ‘General’. Wase and her family members became Internal Displaced Persons, IDPs.
When defence and security forces got hints of this development in 2023, they raided the entire village, razed houses to the ground including the family compound of Okorie Wase. Eyewitnesses say the destruction by the military was enormous and the separatists self-proclaimed ‘General’ escaped.
THE SUN also learned that few months later after the military raid in their village, Okorie Wase, while at the funeral of her aunt in a neighbouring village, was kidnapped, tortured, sexually assaulted, her fingers cut off by the separatists who suspected her of being the brain behind the military raid in Mekobe village.
Family sources say that Okorie Wase gained her freedom from the hands of the dreaded separatist fighters only after a huge amount of ransom was paid to the separatists. With this worrisome traumatic situation on Benedicta Okorie Wase’s life, the military still came for her. She was arrested, blindfolded and whisked to the military barracks. She was accused of siding with and sponsoring separatist fighters.
Family sources disclosed that with the intervention of their lawyer, Okorie Wase was released after a huge amount of money reportedly exchanged hands with the military.
The witch-hunting against Benedicta Okorie Wase, reared its ugly head again when the military, few months later, came for her, saying they had gotten reliable information that she was actually sponsoring separatist activities. Thanks to one her colleagues who is said to have informed her about the allegations, she miraculously escaped.
As we went to press Benedicta Okorie Wase had been declared wanted by the military. A manhunt for her arrest had intensified. The military keeps making impromptu checks around the village in search of her.
According to the Cameroon Penal code if arrested she will face charge of acts of terrorism, insurrection, hostilities against the state, and failure to report.
Defence and security forces have reportedly engaged in extrajudicial killings, random looting, shooting, torture, molestation using disproportionate and discriminating force, abusing and arresting protesters, burning more than 200 villages, 500 houses, displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians, attacking hospitals, beating and raping women and girls.
The Anglophone crisis began 2016 with the Teachers and Lawyers strikes which later attracted the people of the two English-speaking regions of the country, as they said their accumulated grievances emanated from marginalisation by the majority French-speaking part of Cameroon, inequality in employment, adulterations of the judicial and sub educational systems.