BY TEGHA O. TEGHA
As an armed conflict digs in into the fabric of Cameroon’s North-West and South-West Regions, government appears to be at a loss for solution.
After the Major National Dialogue that took place in Yaounde from September 30 to October 2019 to resolve the Anglophone crisis that has been rocking the North West and South West regions for over five years and counting, things seem to have fallen on deaf ears. Arm conflicts between the separatist fighters and the defense forces still rage on with multiple deaths still recorded on both sides, houses razed to the ground, villages burnt down with impunity, and Internal Displaced Persons, IDPs, on the increase as the government is sparing no effort at tracking down those she considers agents of destruction. Despite repeated calls for all protagonists to embrace peace for a better and new Cameroon. Cameroon which was once internationally praised as one of the most peaceful countries in the world is now struggling to cope with untold causalities from what many qualify as an unrelenting and insidious conflict.
Reports say more and more businessmen within the crisis-stricken Anglophone regions of Cameroon have restored to going underground after surviving arrest, torture, and harsh detention conditions from the military for allegedly siding and collaborating with separatist fighters, commonly known as ‘Amba Boys’ who have picked up arms against the State of Cameroon in request for separation and the restoration of the Independence of the statehood of former British Southern Cameroon termed Ambazonia. Apart from businessmen other Anglophone activists including those of other professions like Teaching, Medical Personnel, Journalists, Drivers, and Technicians have equally gone underground for fear of military reprisals.
The case of Odette Feter Kongnyuy is a serious cause for concern. She has been under security searchlights ever since she went underground in 2022 and has been declared wanted by the regime, shortly after she was recruited by Integrated Circuit Co.LTD Tokyo. The Law graduate attached to Crown Law Chambers in Bamenda sources say had tough times with security operatives. As Executive Officer of Cameroon Relief Organisation a Kumba-based Non-Governmental organization, working in the domain of providing medical and financial assistance to Internally Displaced Persons for both those living in refugee camps in Nigeria and the bushes in Cameroon affected by the current Anglophone armed conflict, her situation was more complicated because this initiative didn’t go down well with government and consequently attracted frequent attacks on her and her institution by the military. In January 2022, THE SUN gathered that following the brutal killing of a military officer in Bamenda, by a separatist fighter, the military raided their Bamenda residential area, after a tip-off that the separatist fighter was hiding there. The military stormed their residence and accused her family of siding with separatists by providing them with financial and medical assistance. In the course of the military raid, Odette who fortunately had stepped out, but her mother-in-law and two cousins were severely beaten by the military until they went unconscious. As if this wasn’t enough following the brutal killing of a businessman whose name we got as Joe Esua at Market Street Bamenda on February 15, 2022, the military in retaliation stormed the entire neighborhood and arrested many innocent civilians. The military we gathered without a warrant but with instructions from above stormed the Law Office where Odette Feter Kongnyuy was undertaking her pupilage, that the office was sponsoring the Anglophone movement, instigating violence and separation thus she was seriously molested as she struggled to resist the activity of the military in their office. Despite a complaint she addressed to the Legal Department about the military atrocities in their office and on her person, the Legal Department gave a deaf ear to it. Family sources told THE SUN that Odette Kongnyuy was finally a victim of circumstance amidst the ongoing armed conflict in the two Anglophone restive regions. On March 8 2022 while returning with some friends from the celebration of International Women’s Day she was rough-handled by two plain cloth security operatives until she was rushed to the hospital. Recalling that sometime on August 20, 2018, Barrister Forkwang Norbert was attacked and wounded in front of his chambers by the military for respecting lockdowns declared by the separatist fighters Odette became so concerned about her safety and that of her family. At Press time, the family compound of Odette in Bamenda had been razed to the ground by the military for backing the struggle with accusing fingers pointing at Odette for financing from her hideouts abroad and her cousin Tardzenyuy had been shot to death by the military for being a spy for the Separatist fighters.
It should be recalled that Common Law Lawyers went on strike in October 2016 to protest government attempts to annihilate the common law practice in a constitutionally bilingual and bi-jural Cameroon. The strike lasted for over a year. Anglophone teachers in the Country joined the strike on November 21, 2016, to uphold Anglo-Saxon values under threat in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions.
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.
According to the International Crisis Group, Amnesty International, in 2019 about 3,000 people died, at least 500000 were declared Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, and about 40000 were refugees in neighboring Nigeria with close to 700000 children deprived of schooling. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported in July 2019 that about 1.3 million people in Anglophone Regions urgently needed humanitarian aid.