By SAH TERENCE ANIMBOM
The North West and South West regions of the country are recovering from a three weeks lockdown of severe hardship, murder, torture and starvation that began on August 26, 2019, declared by the ‘Ambazonia restoration activists’ with the main aim of foiling school resumption efforts in the English Speaking regions of the country.
In enforcing the lockdown, armed groups in the region blocked roads leading to most of the divisions like Momo, Menchum, Boyo, Ngoketunjia, Bui and Ndonga Mantung divisions. Movement of persons and cargo by any means of transportation along the roads in the region was strictly forbidden with the exception of Saturdays and Sundays that were singled out as breaks during the lockdown, to enable persons buy and stock food and water in their homes.
Unlike in other places like Belo, Njinikom, Bafut, Batibo, Wum, Kumbo and other sub divisions where people are allowed to move on foot within the sub division and to go to the farm and to church, armed groups in Fundong, divisional headquarters for Boyo division resorted to torturing anyone seen outside their house for some days during the lockdown. At Isaibal Fundong, some women and men were severely beaten with some sustaining fractured arms on Monday, August 26, 2019 after armed men met them drinking locally made corn beer known as ‘shaar’ in their neighbourhood. A woman who was on her way to the farm when the boys chanced on the drinking folk was severely and mercilessly beaten by the boys after she expressed shock at the fact that the boys were brutally beating a pregnant woman who was coming back from the hospital. Using hard and heavy pieces of planks, the boys fractured the pregnant woman’s arm and caused a tear on another man’s head that was later on stitched at the hospital. Women on their way to the farm too were mercilessly beaten in the same village while a young technician by name Clifford was harassed in his house for putting on the generator after electricity had been gone for over five days. He was well beaten and his generator seized.
“We are tired of being beaten everyday like this by small boys who claim they are fighting for us. The worst is that they just come and beat you and go away without even telling you what crime you have committed. They don’t want us to go to the market and they don’t also want us to go to the farm. They are killing us gradually with hunger. We cannot feed our families properly. How on earth do they want us to cope? Look at that poor pregnant lady that was beaten for going to the hospital. What is her crime? We are tired.” Nawain Nsum, a victim told The SUN. Fundong residents have decried the inhumane treatment as they now live in absolute fear of the Amba Boys and are beginning to feel more comfortable with the military though it never really lasts for long.
In Bamenda, a young man was killed by unknown gunmen at the Chuobu neighbourhood during the second week of the lockdown and his corpse was abandoned there for about four days with no one to take it off. It is alleged inhabitants of the area called the Bamenda II council authorities but they remained unmoved. Up Station Bamenda that has hardly known any threats since the start of the crisis had some armed men invade the Hot Spot neighbourhood shooting heavily in the air.
Major roads leading to the top hospitals of the region like the Banso Baptist Hospital and Shisong Hospital with the lone Cardiac center in the country all located in Kumbo were blocked. The road leading to Mbingo Baptist Hospital and Njinikom Catholic Hospitals in Boyo division too was blocked, leaving many patients stranded.
On Friday September 13, 2019, there was a serious gun battle along the Bamenda Santa highway between the military and armed men, after a truck transporting drinks for a brewery company was set ablaze by ‘Amba Fighters’, for daring to defy their lockdown calendar.
As the lockdown ended on Friday, September 13, 2019, many Bamenda and North West residents who had moved to French speaking regions in order to escape the lockdown started returning home on the morning of Saturday, September 14, but had a really tough time entering the region. For safety reasons, the military cautioned buses to wait at the borders between the West and North West region for hours to ascertain the safety of buses ahead. While they waited, there were gun battles around Akum Santa. Most cars destined for Bamenda only finally arrived at 10:00 am instead of 5:30 to 6:00 am.