BY EVELYN KUBU
The Cameroon Government has launched fresh hunt for Anglophone activists at home and abroad following the gruesome killing of students and pupils by armed men suspected to be separatist fighters at the Mother Francisca Memorial Bilingual International Academy Fiango, Kumba, Meme Division South West Region, of Cameroon in October 2020. The Government and its security forces belief that the Anglophone crisis that has culminated in the macabre incident in Kumba which took away the lives of about seven students and pupils, is being fanned by activists at home and abroad.
They are thus, bent on tracking these activists both within and out of the country and their families. Recent reports hold that the military has started raiding homes of alleged activists for the arrest, persecution and prosecution of the activists. The Government forces believe the prosecution of these activists will quail the crisis.
Some of these alleged activists who are in the military dragnet and are reportedly on the run include Tiko-based Angu Kevin Ambe, Kumba-based Lawyer Okole Dyana, Bafut-based Ngew Che Peter, Mbengwi-based Aliba Monga Voilet and Buea-based Mukete Iya Diwo amongst other.
Ngew Che Peter, for example is an automobile motor mechanic turned activist who escaped from the military truck in April 2018 somewhere in Between Bafut and Bambui in the North West Region of the Country, abandoning his Cameroon national identity card including Bahrain resident card after he was captured . He is believed to be one of the key persons sponsoring the crisis from abroad currently on the run. This is because he has always stood for the independence of Southern Cameroon. The Sun gathered that, before Anglophone crisis he was already involved in sensitising Kumba population about pre and post-independence of Southern Cameroon, where he escaped an arrest. It is now clear that Ngew Che Peter has always been in Bahrain since he escaped in 2016 and has possibly sneaked back there after escaping the April 2018 arrest.
At press time, the search for these alleged activists and many others had increased. Report of a survey released by a group of Human Rights Organisations in Cameroon indicates that the lives of activists of Anglophone extraction are now in danger.
Anyone caught in line with any of these demonstrations, is immediately considered a terrorist by the Cameroon Government and numerous trump up charges, including but not limited to propagation of false information, rebellion, revolution, secession insurrection and non -possession of National Identity card, levelled against him.
The Anglophone crisis is now characterised by civil disobedience, violence, intimidation, kidnappings and complete breakdown of law and order with the military allegedly burning down homes and villages considered as enemies of the State.
As the crisis rages on, many have become internally displayed persons. Recent statistics by Civil society Organisations who have declared Cameroon as unsafe for youths. The death toll is on the rise. There are claims that about 300 villages have been razed to the ground in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon, 5000 lives claimed by the arm conflict while about 850000 people remain internally displaced. A majority of those displaced, are taking refuge in the forest. This is in addition to the more than 50000 Anglophones Cameroonians that have assumed the status of refugees in Nigeria.
Meantime, the government has launched a manhunt for those alleged to be fanning the crisis at home and abroad with terrorism charges to be preferred against them if arrested as they have declared wanted. Recently, French President Emmanuel Marcon, promised to exert maximum pressure on President Paul Biya of Cameroon to end the Cameroon’s intolerable Human Rights violation