By Lucy Lima
Teachers and other civilians of various walks of life such as nurses, business persons and lawyers are bearing the brunt as the Anglophone crisis, which has escalated into an armed conflict in the North West and South West regions, rages on.
Many teachers, who have been accused of being among those organising strike actions carried out by teachers, are being arrested. The separatists have also imposed a school boycott all over the North West and South West regions. Teachers who violate this ban and go to school to teacher, are being abducted by separatist fighters, and are either killed or are only set free after the payment of huge amounts of money as ransom.
Meanwhile, teachers who respect the school boycott and do not go to school to teach, are being accused by the government of being terrorists and siding with the separatists or are sympathisers of the separatists’ cause and struggle for the independence of a country they have christened Ambazonia.
Sources say the arrested persons are being tortured and detained under inhumane conditions. Some are reported to have died in detention.
For fear of their lives, many have fled and their whereabouts is not known.
One case is that of Njofie George Zoatsa, a teacher in Government Technical College, GTC, Mmockmbie in Alou Subdivision, Lebialem Division of the South West Region.
Njofie is said to have started his teaching career in 2021 when the armed conflict was already raging. Because he was not respecting the school boycott, but continued going to school to teach, separatist fighters threatened his life. Sometime in October 2021 when Njofie was on his way to school to teach, the separatist fighters stopped him on the way and mercilessly beat him up.
The fighters later dumped him on the roadside, thinking he was dead. But a Good Samaritan found him and rushed him to the hospital.
While he was in the hospital receiving treatment, the separatist fighters reportedly continued threatening Njofie’s family members. But when he reported the matter to the police, they did nothing to redress the situation, instead instructing Njofie to go back to work.
The separatist fighters are also repprted to have later raped Njofie’s sister.
Meanwhile, on November 15, 2021, the separatist fighters are said to have stormed Njofie’s family house, killed his parents and completely destroyed the house.
For fear of his life, Njofie is reported to have stopped going to school to teach. But this instead caused the security and defence forces to accuse him of having started siding with and collaborating with the separatist fighters. The security and defence forces are said to have begun searching for Njofie.
On May 4, 2022, Njofie was arrested, tortured and detained in a police cell under deplorable conditions. However, not long after, there was a fire incident in the cell and many detainees including Njofie are reported to have escaped.
Nonetheless, Njofie was later rearrested and detained. But he is said to have escaped sometime after, under circumstances that remain unclear. Since then, his whereabouts is not known. He has been declared wanted by security and defence forces.
If rearrested by the defence and security forces, Njofie George Zoatsa will be tried in a military tribunal, under the 2014 anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment isthe death sentence. That is if he 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 him, Njofie George will certainly be killed, like many others who have suffered from 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 in 2016, 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 in Yaounde, where they are serving life sentences. They were sentenced by Yaounde military tribunal in August 2018, on charges including secession and terrorism.
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.