BY SANDRA LUM
The defence 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.
The activists are suspected to be siding with separatist fighters as the ongoing armed conflict that started about six years rages on. The alleged activists, both home and abroad, have been considered dangerous and threat to the public. They have thus been declared wanted.
The Common Law Lawyers and later on Anglophone Teachers went to strike in October 2016 to protest government attempts to annihilate the Common Law and Anglophone teaching practice in a constitutionally bilingual and bi-jural Cameroon. The strike was to uphold Anglo-Saxon values under threat in Cameroon’s two English speaking regions of the North West and South West. Most of the lawyers and teachers and other professional corps have been tagged as enemies of the State of Cameroon.
Government repression, manhunt for these alleged activists and youths have intensified as the Anglophone crisis that started in 2016 and later on metamorphosed to an armed conflict lingers.
Many of the youths have been blacklisted for prosecution for instigating violence and inciting insurrection against the state of Cameroon after organising a peaceful protest on the streets of Buea, Bamenda and other major towns across the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon like Kumba, Mamfe, Kumbo, Tiko, Batibo and Fundong.
The population has equally been urged to be vigilant and report suspects to the closest gendarmerie or police stations.
As we went to press, reports said one of the renowned Buea University Student Union executive member, Anvisif Akem Nchitu, had been declared wanted and an arrest warrant endorsed against her and several others including her husband by the military. Their residential area is constantly under impromptu military patrol just in search of Anvisif Akem Nchitu.
Family sources say Anvisif is a victim of circumstances amidst the ongoing armed conflict raging the restive North West and South West region. THE SUN has it on good authority that, before her escape out the country in January 2024, she had between January 2017 and November 2019 been a victim of police brutalization, arrest and detention under cruel, inhumane and degrading conditions.
Reports say in November 2019 Anvisif was arrested alongside many protesters in Buea by the police officers for instigating violence and inciting insurrection against the state of Cameroon. This was after organizing a protest on the streets of Buea, calling for a stop to the recruitment of Francophone teachers to teach English Courses in Anglophone Universities of the North West and South West Regions.
Family sources say after serious intervention by her lawyer, she was released.
The killing of Anvisif Akem Nchitu’s father, Akem Fionse Ngong, a staunch supporter of the restoration of the independence of the former British Southern Cameroons, by the military on his way to his native Kom village in the North West Region of Cameroon in September 2022 and the military refusing to hand his corpse to the family, provoked Anvisif, with the support of her husband, Ndichia Clauvis Kuma, to start advocating publicly through local radio stations against the torture of Anglophone detainees in prison. They also started calling for the legitimate separation of Southern Cameroons from La Republique du Cameroun through peaceful means.
Reports say as a result of this twist by Anvisif with the support of her husband, their residence was raided by the military in July 2023. After a thorough search, printed leaflets and T-shirts carrying protest demonstration messages against La Republique du Cameroun were discovered and this caused their arrest and detention at the Buea Central prison, awaiting trial. Family sources have confirmed that after serious intervention from their lawyer, they were granted bail and after their release they fled out of the country in January 2024 for fear of the unknown.
Since then, the name of Anvisif and that of husbandremain the talk of the day within Cameroon Security Operatives. She has been declared wanted by the military and for fear of the unknown his whereabouts remains clouded. The military keeps making impromptu checks around their neighbourhood in search of them
The government crackdown on alleged Anglophone activists and politicians, more especially youths, have since intensified with arbitrary arrests, detention, and torture and extra-judicial killings becoming the new normal, human rights groups have said.
Government forces have 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 war still rages on and many more killings by the military are still being documented by rights organisations, the government has launched a manhunt for those alleged to be fanning the crisis both at home and abroad. Terrorism charges hang over them if arrested as they have been declared wanted.