BY Evelyn Kubu
Reports across the North West and South West Regions say many youths, because of witch-hunting and fear of the unknown have gone underground for fear of reprisals. Government repression and manhunt for alleged activists has intensified as the Anglophone crisis that started in 2016 and later on metamorphosed to an armed conflict lingers.
It should be recalled that Common Law Lawyers went to 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.
The government crackdown on Anglophone activists has since intensified with arbitrary arrests, detention, torture and extra-judicial killings becoming the new normal, human rights groups have said.
According to Amnesty International, in 2019 about 3,000 people died, at least 500,000 were declared Internally Displaced Persons, IDP’s, and about 40,000 being refugees in neighbouring Nigeria with close to 700,000 children deprived of schooling. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported in July 2019 that about 1.3million people in Anglophone Regions urgently needed humanitarian aid.
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.
Following recent extrajudicial killings, burning of houses with the increase in the number of Internally Displaced Persons, IDP’s in the North West and South West Regions, the government has re-launched a manhunt of alleged Anglophone activists. Many civilians have equally been listed for arrest to be persecuted and face prosecution, thus forcing them to go underground. Some have since been left in constant tears either for the demise of their loved ones or because their houses have been razed and moreover as their whereabouts remains cloudy.
Families of such affected cases decry the fact that the military still continues to make impromptu checks around their neighbourhoods, in search of their loved ones whose whereabouts remains cloudy and have been declared wanted by the military.
Such is the case of the Ngala family in Mankon- Bamenda, Mezam Division of the North West region of Cameroon. One of theirs, Valerie Ngala Chuye, went underground since October 2019, his whereabouts remains unknown.
Family sources revealed that his ordeal started in September 2019 while on a courtesy visit to Bamenda. Unfortunately for him, his visit coincided with a lockdown imposed by separatist fighters, characterised by sporadic gun exchanges between the separatists and government forces as the military went from door to door, arresting people who were respecting the lockdown.
This is how Valerie Ngala was arrested in his aunt’s residence, molested, tortured and whisked to the police station where he was detained under inhumane and harsh conditions. The military accused him including his family of collaborating with separatists and Ambazonia activists abroad. Valerie Ngala, reports say, was released conditionally; to show up at any moment he is wanted by the police else an arrest warrant will be issued against him.
As we went to press, family sources hinted that Valerie Ngala’s two uncles, Nformi Elias Ngala and Ngala Nicolas Njini, were killed by the military and their houses razed, for siding with the separatists. More over there is a pending arrest warrant against him. Meanwhile, the rest of their household have relocated to the bush for safety. Their family compound in Bamenda was razed to the ground by the military and his two brothers, Alain Ngala Baike and Gweh Walters Ngala, are presently under security operatives’ custody.
A neighbour, who refused to be named, disclosed that last week the military instructed him that anytime he sees Valerie Ngala he shouldn’t hesitate to draw their attention for the government has launched a manhunt for any activists and separatist fighters who are struggling to destabilise the “one and indivisible Cameroon” in the name of creating a new state called Federal Republic of Amazonia.
Another pathetic case is that of Lih Rostent Kedju. According to sources, the holder of a degree in Agriculture and Rural Development from the University of Dschang happens to be a victim of circumstance amidst the ongoing armed conflict in the North West and South West Regions.
The Sun gathered that Lih Rostent Kedju, just like many Anglophone youths caught in the web of crisis, had no other choice than to go underground for safety for fear of the unknown.
Since October 2020 his whereabouts remains cloudy, according to family sources.
As we went to press the government, reports held, has launched a manhunt for many Anglophone youths including Lih Rostent.
It should be recalled that Lih Rostent Kedju’s bitter experience with the separatist fighters was in June 2020 along the Kumba – Mamfe road, while he was returning from Bamenda. Lih, alongside other passengers, were kidnapped by separatist fighters and taken to an unknown destination, accusing them of being spies of the military. They were manhandled for several days and later on released.
On their way to their various destinations, the military surprised them, took them for separatist fighters, molested and detained them at the Kumba central Prison for about nine months.
However, Lih Rostent Kedju is said to have escaped under circumstances that remain unclear.
As we went to press, family sources hinted that Lih Rostent has been declared wanted by the regime as there is an arrest warrant against him circulating while the military keeps on making impromptu checks around their neighbourhood to apprehend Lih Rostent.
This is the cause of many youths who may never be seen again as the conflict in the restive two Anglophone regions shows no sign of ending any time soon. The country is now considered unsafe by many Anglophones in the diaspora, who fear arrest or death if they return to the country.