BY LUCY LIMA
The Anglophone crisis that started with the common law lawyers and Anglophone teachers strike on the marginalisation of Anglophones in 2016, has metamorphosed into an armed conflict, with the Cameroon Government sparing no efforts at tracking down those they consider sponsors of separatist fighters for prosecution.
The armed conflicts between the separatist fighters and the defense forces, has culminated in multiple deaths on both sides, burning of houses and villages, with the number of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, increasing every day. As tension mounts in the restive regions of the North West and South West, several calls have been made for all protagonists to embrace peace for a better and new Cameroon, to no avail.
Instead, the Cameroon Government and her military are bent on fishing out and slamming those they consider agents of destruction with trumped up charges. These charges often include, but not limited to, propagation of false information, rebellion, revolution, secession, insurrection and non-possession of national identity card.This repressive mechanism is aimed quailing activists from achieving their dream of an independent Southern Cameroons dubbed ‘Ambazonia’. More and more Anglophones are being tagged for persecution on an almost daily basis, for allegedly sponsoring separatist fighters commonly called “Amba Boys”.
An Etam-based humanitarian worker in the Tombel Sub Division-South West Cameroon, Dallia Nkenyi, is one of the latest victims of this Government crackdown. Reports hold that on March 15, 2019, Dallia was assisting IDPs in the bush with food items and clothes, when the military stormed the village to arrest her and others on claims that she is sponsoring separatist fighters. Not able to find the humanitarian worker at home on that fateful day, the military burnt down houses, brutalized Dallia’s mother and carted away with her father, Joseph Chinda Nkenyi, and younger brother, Chinda Clive Nkenyi, The SUN gathered.
At press time, family sources hinted that the where about of Dallia’s father and younger brother was still cloudy. Meanwhile,government forces have intensified search for Dallia Nkenyi and many others, with Dallia’s mother under serious pressure to disclose the where about of her daughter.
Recent statistics by civil society organizations indicate that death toll from the Anglophone crisis is on the rise, meanwhile while over 200 villages have been burnt down in the two regions and over 430,000 people internally displaced, while thousands of others have fled to neighbouring Nigeria as refugees.