-Anglophone crisis with constant fear of the unknown
-Incessant blackout wasting away their meager resources
-Coronavirus scare
– How bad can it get?
By NOELA EBOB BISONG
Many are of the opinion that the hard times currently being experienced in the North West and South West regions are record breaking!
Words like hell, nightmare, torment, hardship, suffering, frustration etc, continue to be aired from lips across streets in the two regions, as its inhabitants battle daily to survive, in the midst of all that has befallen them!
Prior to 2016, they thought their situations were bad and needed urgent attention from government and the international community. They did not know that they were yet to see worse things!
Anglophone crisis since 2016
Since the later part of the year 2016, a new sorrowful song is being sung across the regions. If it is not tales of gun battles, then it is about bloodshed, death, kidnapping, arson, assault, poverty, suffering etc. Imposed lockdown calls by separatists have so far not made life any better for these inhabitants. Ghost towns are almost a normalcy now. Deprived of their freedom, choices and rights, those living in the two regions appear to be going back in time, in a nightmare whereby they can’t get out of sleep by their effort and no one is able to help get them up from this frightful dream of theirs.
Incessant blackout
Making the already bad situation worse, electricity, for the past two weeks has been whipping hard strokes across major towns in the South West regions especially. Limbe, Buea, Kumba, Mamfe etc are experiencing strange things when it comes to the supply of electricity. While the business person laments on his/her products going bad and no business at all, the ordinary city dweller is unable to engage in any electricity-related activity. Frustration everywhere!
Govt’s measures to curb spread of coronavirus adds salt to injury
While inhabitants continue battling to survive amidst the crisis and blackout, they had little idea on what was coming, until news spread like wild fire, Wednesday, March 18, on measures taken by government to combat the deadly coronavirus pandemic. Above all, it boils down to a shutdown! Schools are closed. Movement is restricted. Gatherings of more than 50 persons prohibited. People are worried, scared, confused. Just how bad can it get?