By ROSALINE NGWA
Anglophone neighborhoods of Biyem Assi, Jouvence and Mendong in Yaoundé have continued to have military raids in operations The Sun Newspaper has gathered are carried out to fish out possible separatists and sympathizers of the Anglophone crisis. Government is convinced that many IDPs who have relocated from the North West and South West regions to other major cities in Cameroon can be potential threats in some neighborhoods.
Recent explosions recorded in Yaoundé have been linked to separatist activities though without any tangible proof. In a bid to fish out any possible sympathizers and activists, the military has continued to carry out strategic raids and performed arrests of tens of Anglophones residing in Yaoundé.
The most recent of such raids is the raid of Wednesday April 12, 2023 in the Mendong neighborhood where thousands of English Speaking Cameroonians reside. The home of Chi Damstel, former SCNC activists from the University of Buea who has been missing from public eyes for a long time since her arrest and detention in Buea in 2016 was searched and some of her relatives arrested. She was arrested along side several students of the University of Buea during the student protest in 2016 and released after about two weeks.
Our sources in Mendong reveal that about five of her relations who fled the conflict in the North West and South West region to Yaounde and were living in her home were arrested by the military after searching their home and finding some old public manifestation paraphernalia relating to the Anglophone crisis.
Our sources within the military head quarters in Yaoundé say Chi Damstel relatives may be charged at the military tribunal for colluding with separatists in the diaspora to destabilize the Capital Yaounde. Our source says the paraphernalia ranging from pictures and posters found in a hidden cupboard in the former activist’s house are incriminating.
Chi Damstel is sadly not the only Cameroonian in hiding whose past involvements with Anglophone protests movements have landed them in perpetual government suspicion and hit lists. The former girlfriend of dreaded separatists self-acclaimed general No Pity, Kongnso Antoinete served sixteen months in incarceration at the Buea Prison. She was pregnant and denied bail despite all pleas by human rights organizations.
Government and the military insisted that she knew about the separatist war lord’s activities and did not want to give out his whereabouts despite the fact that the girl had long separated with the war lord and relocated and even found new love.
The relations of popular separatist activist Chris Anu who is based in the United States have remained under close surveillance in Yaounde. His sister was arrested years back and later released after long series of questionings.