By Kubu Evelyn
As the crisis in the North West and South West regions, which has morphed into an armed conflict, rages on, residents in some localities in the conflict-hit regions have been 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 while family members, youths and children of military officers are bearing the brunt of the unending armed struggle in the hands of separatist fighters. These children of military officers are usually kidnapped for ransom by separatist fighters, taken to their respective camps, molested, tortured in an inhumane manner and the separatist fighters go as far sexually abusing them.
Sources say the arrested persons are being detained under deplorable and inhuman conditions. Some have reportedly died in detention.
This has caused many of them to flee into hiding and the whereabouts of many is not known.
The separatist fighters have also been torturing and killing those whom they suspect are giving information to the military. They have also been forcefully recruiting young men and women to join in their fight for independence of what they have named Republic of Ambazonia.
In the face all these, the defence forces and other security operatives have established both search and arrest warrants for the apprehension against many alleged Anglophone activists all over the national territory, suspected to be siding with separatist fighters as the armed conflict that has been raging on for close to six years persists. The alleged activists have been considered as dangerous and threats to the public and declared wanted. The population has equally been urged to be vigilant and report them to the closest gendarmerie or police stations
It is against this backdrop that unanswered questions have been raised about the whereabouts of many Anglophones who have disappeared amidst the ongoing armed conflict rocking the restive North West and South West Regions. One of such is Wiyfengla Raisa Beri, whose whereabouts is unknown. She is alleged to have fled the country since 2019. She has been declared wanted and an arrest warrant against her is still enforceable.
As we went to press, military sources hinted that Raisa Beri’s name has featured on the list of those to be persecuted for she has declared wanted. THE SUN gathered that Wiyfengla, daughter of a military officer in Bamenda, capital of the North West Region, has suffered several kidnappings from the separatist fighters. She was abducted sometimes in September 2017 on grounds that her father was a military officer and that she was the one leaking their activities to the military. She was tortured in captivity and was later released after three days when her family paid ransom to her abductors.
Sources have it that sometimes in March 2018, separatist fighters stormed the residence of Wiyfengla in search of her father’s gun, and out of frustration since her father was not at home, they decided to abduct her on condition that her father should surrender himself to them before she is released or they will kill her.
A neighbour, whose name we are concealing for security reasons, narrated that, the father of Raisa, for the sake of her daughter’s life, surrendered himself to the separatist fighters and her daughter, Raisa, gained her freedom from the hands of the separatist fighters. Four days later, they woke up only to discover the helpless body of Raisa’s father at the entrance of his residence. He was rushed to the hospital and unfortunately he died.
THE SUN later on learnt that in April 2019 the separatist fighters raided the residence of Wiyfengla, ransacked it in search of her late father’s gun and other military gadgets and since Raisa was hesitant to hand them, they abducted her and while in their camp they threatened to rape her to death. She immediately took them to their residence and handed the guns to them.
The military is reported to have gotten information that she handed her father’s gun and other military gadgets to the separatist fighters. The military immediately launched a manhunt for her, and for fear of the unknown she immediately left the country to where the respect for human rights is prime.
According to the Cameroon Penal Code if arrested, she will face charges of acts of terrorism, insurrection, hostilities against the state, and failure to report.
The Ambazonia crisis began in 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 marginalization by the majority French-speaking part of Cameroon, inequality in employment, adulterations of the judicial and sub educational systems.