BY YVETTE SIRRI
The crisis in the North West and South West regions, which long morphed into an armed conflict, has been taking new twists with residents in some localities in the conflict-hit regions being caught between atrocities committed by Ambazonia separatist fighters and government’s clampdown on suspected separatists and sympathisers of the Anglophone cause, with the use of defence and security forces.
Security operatives have been indiscriminately arresting Anglophone activists and suspected activists. Sources say the arrested persons are being tortured and detained under deplorable and inhumane conditions. Some have reportedly died in detention.
This has caused many to flee into hiding and the whereabouts of some is unknown.
The separatist fighters have also been torturing and killing those whom they suspect are giving information about them to the military. Some of those who do not collaborate with the separatist fighters have been abducted and killed, with some beheaded.
One of those who have been entangled in this deadly web is Nokane Vestal Ekpeni, who was living with her brother and father in Nake Bakundu, Meme Division of the South West Region. Nokane and her brother are said to have been engaged in livestock farming and also operated a poultry farm.
She is said to have later discovered that her brother was a staunch member of the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, which stands against the marginalisation and discrimination against Anglophones.
Though with the disapproval of their father, Nokane’s brother caused her to get involved with the activities of the SCNC by distributing flyers, posters and other propaganda gadgets. He is also said to have forced her to attend meetings of the SCNC, which he hosted in his house.
However, on Tuesday February 27, 2024, while Nokane’s brother and other activists were holder a meeting in his house concerning the Anglophone liberation struggle, armed police and gendarmes stormed the house. While Nokane, who was also at the meeting, is said to have succeeded to escape through the back door, her brother and others who were present were arrested, tortured and whisked away to detention.
Meanwhile, on March 9, 2024, some members of the Anglophone liberation movement including separatist fighters, reportedly stormed Nokane’s family home, abducting her father. Her father was accused by the separatists of being a blackleg and that he was the one who had informed security operatives about the meeting that was being held at Nokane’s brother’s house.
The separatist are said to have told Nokane to inform family members that her father will only be released if they pay a ransom. Nonetheless, Nokane instead went to the Kumba police station to report the matter, thinking the police will help liberate her father.
Unfortunately for her, she was arrested by the police and accused of being involved in the separatist struggle. The premise of her arrest was that the police said her family was notorious for involvement with separatists.
She was tortured and detained under deplorable conditions. It was during her detention that she came into contact with some of the separatists who had been arrested together with her brother, who reportedly informed her that he had been killed by security officers.
Meanwhile, on March 19, 2024, while she was being transferred to the Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaounde, Nokane is reported to have escaped under conditions that remain unclear.
Since then, her whereabouts is unknown. A warrant of arrest is said to have been issued for her. If rearrested, Nokane Vestal Ekpeni will be tried in a military tribunal, under the 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 extrajudicial killings.
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, 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, 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.