BY SANDRA LUM
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 separatist fighters and the military clampdown on suspected activists and sympathisers of the Anglophone cause with the use of defence and security forces.
Security operatives have been indiscriminately arresting Anglophone youths and family members. Many in the hard hit crisis zones have been brutally shot to death by both military men in uniform and unidentified gunmen.
As we went to press we gathered that the entire population of Tali 1, a village in Upper Bayang Subdivision, Manyu Division, South West Region is still to come to terms with an incident that happened in the village, leading to the brutal killing of two brothers, Orock Mbu Jones and Orock Eyong Clyde, by unknown gunmen on April 17, 2025.
According to reports, the unidentified gunmen raided the family residence of activists in the village, brutalising, torturing and coercing them to furnish them with information concerning the whereabouts of their activist brother, Orock Acruba Randy, a Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, activist who had long gone underground and his whereabouts remains cloudy since 2018.
Out of frustration because Orock Randy family members’ resisted to disclose any information that could lead to his whereabouts being disclosed, eyewitnesses narrated under conditions that the unidentified gunmen, suspected to be military men, took Orock Mbu Jones and Orock Eyong Clyde to a nearby bush and shot them dead.
The entire population of Tali I village remains restless as the same gunmen still continue to make impromptu visits to the locality, with threats and harassments being the order of the day. They have vowed that they will keep up ransacking the residences of family members of SCNC activist, Orock Acruba Randy, until they produce him or disclose his whereabouts.
The population of Tali I village have already concluded that it is now crystal clear that the life of Orock Acruba Randy is perpetually in danger and he risks being killed anytime he is found anywhere in the national territory.
It should be recalled that Orock Acruba Randy’s whereabouts remains cloudy since 2018 due to his activism with the SCNC, a movement known for articulating against the marginalisation of the Anglophones minority by the Francophones majority and above all clamouring for the restoration of the independence of the former British Southern Cameroons. Despite Orock Acruba Randy’s rich educational background and a promising marketing career, he, just like many of his peers joined the SCNC.
Orock Acruba’s activism with the SCNC saw him being arrested by the military in Buea alongside others in October 2017 for taking part in a demonstration organised by the SCNC that was banned by the government in January 2017 at the wake of the teachers and lawyers strike with some of its leaders arrested. Orock Acruba Randy, alongside those arrested, were tortured, molested, brutalised and whisked to detention cells and accused of destabilising the country.
Family sources say that despite the fact that Orock Acruba Randy was released after three months of detention in inhumane and degrading conditions, he still remained undeterred by the threats to stop his SCNC activism.
A family member, on condition of anonymity, recounted that in March 2018, about seven masked men raided their residence in Kumba and demanded sensitive SCNC documents simply because he was a secretary. As he resisted to hand over the documents, he was subjected to all forms of violence that left him unconscious thereby forcing Orock Acruba Randy to probably leave Kumba for good due to trauma.
Reports say this situation in the North West and South West Regions has caused many to migrate to French -speaking towns and the cities in Cameroon, while others have fled to neighbouring countries as refugees.
Defence and security forces have reportedly engaged in extrajudicial killings, random looting, shooting, torture, molestation using disproportionate and discriminating force, abusing and arresting protesters, burning more than 400 villages, 800 houses displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians, attacking hospitals beating and raping women and girls.