By Mande Mambe
The people of Dikome Balue village have organized a cleanup campaign to encourage the villagers to return to their home town. The village has been abandoned for four years now. A handful of people go there once in a while, the only steady inhabitants being less than a dozen.
Since they fled, the people of Dikome Balue have been living in their farm huts while they continued their cocoa production. The farm huts which are no doubt comfortable and safe can however not replace the comfort of living in their hometown. Many children have been deprived of formal education and have resorted to farming and teenage pregnancy has become very rampant among minors, leaving parents very worried.
The chief of Dikome Balue, HRH Sakwe Cyril Asuh, has held several meetings with his people in various towns in Cameroon to discuss the way forward for his people and it was decided that the best option is to go back home. Many people are still in fear and are reluctant to go back to the village, but Dikome Balue sons and daughters at home and abroad are putting in their full support.
To this effect, contributions have been made to buy equipment and foodstuff for a three-day-cleanup campaign slated for April 7 to 10, 2021. The secret societies responsible for the cultural week have also announced that the ‘Dibunu’ will be celebrated this April on a date still to be announced.
A once lively and beautiful village has now been covered with thick bushes after thousands of denizens ran for their lives four years ago due to the separatist war.
Why They Left
The Anglophone crisis which started in 2016 spreading across the two English speaking regions hit Dikome Balue in April 2017. This was shortly after the people had celebrated their cultural week festival, ‘Dibunu’ in March 2017. They abandoned their houses, crops, businesses, clothes and even leftover food in their pots and fled after a serious gun battle between the military and separatist fighters. Fear and panic struck so not even the old people stayed behind. Some witnesses even claim that the old people ran faster than their grandchildren. During these dark days, some youths were arrested while a couple others were killed.
Dikome Balue being a sub divisional headquarters has a gendarmerie brigade, reason why the unrest was more severe compared to neighboring villages.
The people are eager to go back home and live a normal life after four years of hiding. The Lord Mayor of Dikome Balue sub division, Mr. Nebare Victor is also putting in a huge effort to ensure that electricity is available during the cultural week.
They are excited to celebrate the cultural week which is believed to bring protection, fruitfulness and blessings and also brings Dikome people from all over the world.
Dikome Balue stands a risk of losing a lot more than it already has if activities don’t go back to normal very soon as neighboring villages are threatening to overtake them in all domains.