BY Emmy Lum
Cameroon’s defense forces and other security operatives have established both search and arrests warrants for the apprehension against many alleged Anglophone activists all over the national territory. The activists are suspected to be siding with separatist fighters as the ongoing armed conflict in the North West and South West regions, which started about three years rages on.
The alleged activists have been considered dangerous and threats to the public and declared wanted. The population has equally been urged to be vigilant and report to the closest gendarmerie or police stations if the sight any of the activists.
Amongst them is 28-year-old Ntangnyuy Yvonne Wiysanyuy. Reports say she is not having it easy with her family relations, separatist fighters and the military amidst the ongoing armed conflict in the restive North West and South West Regions of Cameroon.
According to family sources, Ntangnyuy, at her tender are, encounter bad experiences with her uncles. Apart from secretly having sex with her, they insisted that she is supposed to marry one of them, according to their family tradition and custom, a thing considered by her parents as a taboo.
Family sources hinted that while in the university, Ntangnyuy’s uncles still visited her and continued with their secret love-making in the name of marriage. Ntangnyuy complained to her lecturers, but they said they cannot intervene because it’s a purely family affair.
Matters became worst when news broke out that Ntangnyuy was pregnant. A manhunt was launched by her military uncles to crack down on her boyfriend, and her uncle’s equally connived with the separatists and burnt down the residence of her parents in the village.
Reports say for fear of the unknown Ntangnyuy Yvonne relocated to Douala, thinking that she will be safe from the hands of her uncle’s. Her uncle’s being military officers, reports say, taking advantage of the crisis and the fact that Ntangnyuy has decided not to marry any of them as their family tradition demands, decided to declare to their hierarchy that Ntangnyuy is one of the girls in the village siding with separatist fighters.
This caused the military to place Ntangnyuy on their security searchlight to arrest her within the national territory and prosecute her on trumped up charges of terrorism, hostility against the state, rebellion and secession. When this information reached Ntangnyuy, she contacted a Good Samaritan who facilitated her escape from Cameroon.
As we went to press, Ntangnyuy Yvonne Wiysanyuy neighbourhood remained under constant impromptu checks by security operatives. Family sources have confirmed that Ntangnyuy has been declared wanted.
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, others internally displaced with some living in bushes while over 30,000 have fled to neighbouring Nigeria where they are living as refugees.
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 serving life sentences at the Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaounde. Many other activists such as Mancho Bibixy, Penn Terrence, Tsi Conrad, among others, are also 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.