By EVELYN KUBU
As the crisis that has been rocking the North West and South West regions, which has spiraled into an armed conflict rages on, many persons have been fleeing as the military as well as separatist fighters continue to perpetrate atrocities.
The government, on its part, has stepped up its crackdown on all those suspected to be activists or sympathisers to the Anglophone cause.
In this light, security operatives have been indiscriminately arresting Anglophone activists and suspected activists. This has caused many of them to flee into hiding and the whereabouts of many is not known.
Sources say the arrested activists are being tortured and detained under horrendous and inhuman conditions. Some have reportedly died in detention.
The military has also been setting villages ablaze, causing many villagers to flee into the forest for safety.
One of those who is reported to have been caught in this dilemma is Tangwo Alvine Nemie, who is said to have been living in their village of Kwakwa, meme division of the South West when a macabre incident occurred, forcing her to flee.
We gathered that Tangwo and her husband were on April 14, 2021, returned from the farm to find their house on fire. The house which had been set ablazed by gunmen in military attire, was razed to ashes with their daughter and Tangwo’s two brothers inside.
In an attempt to put out the fire, Tangwo’s husdband was shot dead by the gunmen. For fear of her life, Tangwo is said to have fled into the forest as pandemonium set in with other people running helter skelter.
We gathered that since she escaped into the forest, without even knowing where her siblings had also fled to, the whereabouts of Tangwo Alvine Nemie is not known.
Meanwhile, accused by the military of sympathising with the separatist cause, a search and arrest warrant is said to have been issued for Tangwo Alvine Nemie. If arrested, she will be tried in a military tribunal under the anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment is the death penalty. That is if she is not killed outright, like many others who have been victims of extrajudicial killings.
Origin of the crisis
It is worth recalling that the Anglophone crisis, something that pundits say had been brewing for several years, boiled over in October 2016 when Common Law Lawyers in the North West and South West regions went on strike, paralyzing the courts. They were demanding for a return to the federal system of government, redeployment of Civil Law Magistrates back to Civil Law Courts among other grievances. Not long after, teachers in the North West and South West regions also went on strike, demanding the redress of several issues concerning the English sub-system of education.
Things got worse when concerned citizens in the North West and South West regions, who had been fed up with the unfavourable political and especially economic stagnation of Cameroon at large, but more importantly in these regions, joined the strike.
But after negotiations with the teachers and lawyers ended in deadlock, the government banned the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, and the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, CACSC. Some of the leaders of the Consortium such as Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho and Dr. Fontem Niba were immediately arrested while others such as Barrister Bobga Harmony and Tassang Wilfred fled into hiding.
Meanwhile, someleaders of the Anglophone separatist movements including Sisiku AyukTabe and nine others, who were arrested in Abuja, Nigeria in February 2018 and later extradited to Yaounde, are currently serving life sentences at the Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaounde. Other activists such as Mancho Bibixy, Penn Terence, Tsi Conrad among others are also serving lengthy sentences in the same prison.
It is also worth noting that many people, both civilians and security forces, have been killed in the crisis, many more internally displaced and over 30,000 have fled to neighbouring Nigeria where they are living as refugees.
While the Anglophone crisis continues to escalate, international organisations and other western powers have called on the government to address the root cause through dialogue.