By SAH TERENCE ANIMBOM
Many who have keenly followed the Cameroon Anglophone crisis from its beginning in November 2016 till date; three years after would have expected some high level of neutral behaviour from and sincerity from government at attempts to solve the ongoing armed conflict that has turned into a full scale civil war. However, many efforts especially made by government have often been tied to very suspicious motives that have simply eroded the trust Cameroonians especially those from the English speaking regions and those clamouring for an independent state of Ambazonia have for the government.
It beats the imagination of many that after government issued invitation letters to Ambazonian activists in the Diaspora for the just ended Major National Dialogue, it went ahead to schedule a court hearing for Mark Bareta and Tapang Ivo Tanku at the Yaounde Military Tribunal that is responsible for the jailing of hundreds of Ambazonian activists. It was thus questioned by the common man if the whole dialogue process was a scam and ploy to lure the key actors into the lion’s den for super.
While the Major National Dialogue was ongoing, and “Ambazonians” and their fighters in the war stricken North West and South West regions of Cameroon were celebrating their independence, Military was on a crackdown spree against separatists in Batibo Sub Division, one of the hottest areas of the crisis that has claimed uncountable lives of civilians, armed fighters and military officers. Here, the family compound and residence of Mr. Mbah Vitalis Nwati, Secretary General of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) U.K was set ablaze in the morning hours of Wednesday, October 2, 2019.
Reports say it is the only compound that was targeted on that day in the area after the military had earlier made their way into Kurube, a village in Batibo. According to the junior brother of Mbah Vitalis Nwati, the move might have been provoked by Vitalis’s serious activism in the SCNC activities given that he is the secretary general of the said movement in the UK and has been quite vocal on some issues. “He has been posting pictures of their meetings in the Diaspora and just yesterday he posted something calling on Paul Biya to stop intervening in Ambazonia affairs. I am sure that is what caused our compound to be targeted. Thank God we had earlier ran away from the compound when we saw the military in the village. My father is even very sick and needs special medical attention” He told The SUN Newspaper.
Part of the message Vitalis posted on his facebook handle read… “AILING PAUL BIYA NEEDS TO STOP INTERVENING IN AMBAZONIA. Against the backdrop of bomb blasts, sporadic violence and repressive state measures, Cameroon’s Anglophone crisis has entered a new and exaggerated stage. Concerned about said appalling situation: such as razing of houses, maiming, adductions, detentions and murders, I do hereby via this media, urge the ailing President, Paul Biya to release all Anglophone Activists incarcerated at Kondengui, in the nation’s capital Yaoundé and in other detention facilities within the country…” he went on to state six points necessary for the return of normalcy in the English speaking regions of Cameroon.
Still within the dialogue period of last week, some four boys were arrested at the Travelers Neighborhood in Bamenda at about 3:00 Pm on Friday October 4, 2019 and on Saturday morning, Two of their corpses were found at the Below Foncha neighborhood, shattered by bullet wounds. Among them was Eric, a petty trader who hails from Batibo. One of those who was freed, whose identity The SUN is withholding for obvious reasons narrated a chilling ordeal of what they went through and how the others were executed seconds as they were set free.
Separatist fighters too have not been soft on government forces as some in Bali used some sort of sophisticated war machine to destroy military amoured cars on Friday that led to a military raid of the area whose fallout has been catastrophic. Unconfirmed reports say over ten civilians have lost their lives as a result of the military raid.
Earlier within the week, a very gory video of alleged Ambazonian fighters beheading a female prison attendant, Mrs Florence Ayafor emerged on social media. The said video has sparked worldwide condemnations. Even Ambazonian activists outside Cameroon deny the responsibility of the gruesome act though much investigation points it to their boys.