BY ASHU TIDINGS
Despite the successful Major National Dialogue that took place in Yaounde from 30 September to 4 October 2019, to resolve the Anglophone crisis that has been rocking the North West and South West regions for over four years and counting, things seem to have fallen on deaf ears. The armed conflict between the separatist fighters and the defense forces still rages on. Daily, multiple deaths are recorded on both sides, houses are razed to the ground, villages are burnt down with impunity, and Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, are on the increase.
As the situation worsens, the government of 90-year-old President Paul Biya who has been in power since 1982 is sparing no effort at tracking down those she considers agents of destruction. Despite repeated calls for all protagonists to embrace peace for a better and new Cameroon, the government is determined to show its might.
Cameroon which was once internationally praised as one of the most peaceful countries in the world is now struggling to cope with untold causalities from what many qualify as an unrelenting and insidious conflict.
Since the crisis worsened, lawyers and those in professions like Teaching, Medicine, Journalists, Drivers, farmers, and Technicians have been forced to go underground for fear of military reprisals.
The crisis, which started in 2016 with strike action by Common Law Lawyers and Anglophone teachers against marginalization, has been transformed into an armed- conflict. Anglophones from all walks of life, including sympathizers of the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, Businessmen, youths, and clergy are being killed in crossfires between security forces and separatist fighters, while others are either termed blacklegs by militiamen and molested, kidnapped for ransom or arrested tortured and tried at the military tribunal with life jail terms for allegedly taking sides with the separatists.
Reports say this situation has caused many to migrate to French-speaking towns and the cities in Cameroon, while others have fled to neighboring countries as refugees. 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.
Despite all these, the government has established a fresh list of alleged activists targeted for arrest. This list is reported to have been given to intelligence services for action. Amongst the alleged activists who are on the government blacklist and are targets for arrest anytime they set feet in Cameroon include Norwegian-based self-proclaimed Ambazonia leader, Lucas Ayaba Cho, Capo Daniel alongside other alleged activists like Epizitone Kale, Sylvie Keafo-on, Mark Bareta, Nyugha Melvis Nahbum and Tapang Ivo Tamku.
Reports hold that amongst the alleged Anglophone activists declared wanted by the military is 27-year-old Tabe Besong Etong. Family sources say the whereabouts of the Kumba-based poultry farmer remains cloudy ever since the military launched a manhunt for his arrest in August 2019. Sources say Tabe Besong Etong just like many Anglophone youths and innocent civilians in the restive Anglophone Regions of the North West and South West is accused of siding with separatist fighters. He is being cited for being a middleman between activists abroad and the separatists in the country. Arrested, molested, tortured detained in very inhumane detention conditions several times by the military, for receiving huge finances from abroad for onward transmission to the separatist fighters for them to enhance the armed struggle for the liberation of former British Southern Cameroons from the hands of the La Republique du Cameroun and create the independent state of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Tabe Besong Etong with the numerous accusations on his links with the separatists had no other option than to leave the country following advice from his friends and relatives who have witnessed how those linked with separatist fighters activities have been molested and finally jailed in the likes of Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Barrister Eyambe, Tasssang Wilfred, Nfon Ngala Nfon and many others including Journalists, Lawyers, Businessmen, Medical Personnel and Students.
The country is now considered unsafe by many Anglophones in the diaspora who fear arrest or death if they return to the country. While the Anglophone crisis continues to escalate, International Organisations and other Western powers have called on the Government to address the root cause of the crisis through dialogue, also, prominent Anglophone lawyer and human rights activist, Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla, has called on the Government to dialogue, and to release all Anglophones unlawfully detained and imprisoned. The war still rages on and many more killings by the military are still being documented by Rights Organisations, the government has launched a manhunt for those alleged to be fanning the crisis both at home and abroad.