By Noela EBOB BISONG
Gendarmerie commander, Oudou and four of his elements, including A/C Effa, MDL Mahamadou, G/M Toumpinguime and G/M Enow lost their lives on Friday, May 10, 2024, following an ambush mounted by separatist fighters in Manyu Division.
Reports say the officers were on patrol in Eyumojock subdivision in Manyu, Southwest region of Cameroon, when they met doom, as they were brutally killed and burned alongside the vehicle transporting them.
Reacting to the incident, Cameroon’s Prime Minister PM Dion Ngute, in a tweet a day after said “I would like to express my outrage at the unfortunate incident that occurred yesterday morning on the Mamfe-Ekok road, between the villages of Ayukaba and Eyangchang. The incident occurred when the Commander of the Eyumojock Brigade and four of his men, who were out on patrol, were ambushed by about thirty armed men from the secessionist group. I extend my sincere condolences to our valiant soldiers and to the families of the victims who fell in the defence of Fatherland. I invite the population to cooperate more with our defence and Security forces.”
Observers say the attack is a heavy blow to the state of Cameroon, as it prepares to celebrate its 52nd national day, on Monday May 20.
Also, the recent outing by hitherto separatist commander, Ngong Emmanuel also known as Capo Daniel, on May 4, dumping the struggle for an independent state called Ambazonia from Cameroon, had spread a wind of hope to an imminent end to the fight.
According to the release issued by Ngong, it is time to lay down weapons and seek lasting solutions to the conflict through diplomacy. He thus called for an end to all forms of hostilities from the separatist end, a call which certainly has not been adhered to, following the Eyumojock outing six days later.
The recent Eyumojock attack is also in defiance to the May 7 Human Rights report released by the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA), where observation was made to a drop in the number of human rights violations and abuses for the 1st quarter of 2024 in relation to the last quarter of 2023. According to the findings, on the part of non-state armed groups, the report believed the drop was partly due to their “weakened capabilities” among other things. However, the May 10 attack which harvested cool success for separatists posits that their capabilities should not be under-estimated at anytime.
The attack followed a one-month curfew enforced by separatists along the Bamenda-Mamfe-Ekok highway from March 4 to April 4, 2024. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), a Situation Report released on May 6 said the situation in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon since the start of 2024 has remained a cause for concern, with continued hostilities, targeted attacks, destruction of property, kidnappings for ransom, arbitrary arrests and extortions.
“Non-State Armed Groups (NSAGs) continued to use improvised explosive devices (IEDs) to target State Security Forces (SSFs) convoys, including on roads used by civilians.” The report detailed that at least nine IEDs incidents were reported in the first quarter of 2024 (seven in the Northwest and two in the Southwest).
Information from the International Crisis Group notes that the conflict in the two restive regions which broke out in late 2016, has now claimed more than 6,000 lives. Reports hold that the immediate cause of the conflict was the state’s violent suppression of the peaceful protests unveiled by lawyers and teachers of the English sub system eight years ago.