By Lusy Lima
As the local authorities in Buea, South West region of Cameroon battle with Southern Cameroons activists to stop Monday ghost towns declared by the activists two years ago, many suspects have gone into hiding while many have been arrested and sent to be tried in the military tribunal in Yaounde.
To stay safe, many persons who were suspected of sympathizing with separatist and southern Cameroonian activists have escaped from Buea to other locations. While some youths have been served warrants of arrest and others convocations by the police for questioning. Many have simply been arrested without any fore warning.
Among those arrested are four second year and final year students of the University of Buea. Mbaku Hans Nju is one of the four students arrested. His mates say the military broke into the student’s hostel on Saturday February 2, 2019, breaking his door and that of Kuma John and arrested all who were in their rooms at about 11:30 pm.
promotion in Buea.
Suspects of flyer distribution in Buea have equally been served convocations by the police. Nkem Prisco, a 28 year old student of the University of Buea is one of those who was served a convocation three months back inviting him for questioning. His hostel mates have since not set eyes on him and are worried that he might have been arrested and taken to Yaoundé without trace.
The SUN Newspaper spoke with the parents of Nkem Prisco via phone and they were heartbroken as they spoke. “We have not heard from our child now for several months and cannot reach him by phone. We do not know whether he is alive or dead. Even if the military arrested him, can they not allow him reach his family?” his father quizzed as his voice trembled from the other side of the phone.
Like Prisco’s parents, many parents do not know the whereabouts of their children. The Sun Newspaper also spoke to the parents of late Ngong Abel, a student who was arrested from his room in Buea two months back and the parents later received a call asking them to come identify and collect the mortal remains of their son from the Buea hospital mortuary.
In a bid to push the government of Cameroon to dialogue with Southern Cameroons activists and separatist groups that have now declared war on the Cameroonian military since the start of last year, in retaliation to the war declared on them by the president of the republic, some agents use flyers to inform the population on civil disobedience strategies.
They throw flyers in public spaces and markets at night to be picked up and read by the population. Their flyers tell them specific instructions on the days to stay at home, grounding all economic activities.
According to the activists, the call for ghost towns is in part to keep the population safe at home and free from stray bullets on the streets when the military engages with armed separatist fighters. They say grounding economic activities on certain days will push the government to dialogue with the activists and bring an end to the armed conflict and the Anglophone crisis as well as the marginalization of English speaking Cameroonians.
The government on its part says the activists are terrorizing the populations by imposing ghost towns on them. While activists who promote ghost towns say it is for the protection and safety of citizens, the government says it is an act of terrorism.
Frequent gun battles between the military and armed separatist groups on ghost town days across the North West and South West regions of Cameroon have led to the death of hundreds of unarmed civilians living many civilians scared of stepping out on ghost town days.
Though activists Buea no longer need to drop flyers calling for ghost towns like in 2017, the local administration thinks that arresting the few who still do will put an end to the ghost towns which many think shows government’s lack of full control over the territory.