BY TALLA AGHAA CHRISTOPHER
As tensions in the North West and South West Regions rage unabated, government has embarked on a protracted mission to fish out sympathisers and activists supporting what is now term Anglophone crisis.
The government has already considered them terrorists and numerous trumped up charges against them such as propagation of false information, rebellion, revolution, secession, insurrection and non -possession of National Identity card have been brought against them. This hunt is in a bid to bring activists before the military tribunal for adjudication, as was the case with the likes of Mancho Bibixy, Tsi Conrad, and Penn Terence, who, upon their arrest in January 2017, subsequently stood trial before the military tribunal to bear the brunt of a failed system. They were each slammed jail terms to serve at the Kondengui maximum security prison, while others alleged to be Ambazonia activists in the likes of Sona Dibo Patience, Kala Gaston, Doran Ache Akas, Abel Nnane Ajang and Eveline Ngenche have been declared wanted by the regime and security operatives have launched a manhunt for them
It would be recalled that leaders of Ambazonia otherwise known as Southern Cameroons, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, Tassang Wilfred, Barrister Eyambe, Nfor Ngala Nfor and others, were arrested in Nigeria and extradited to Yaounde detained incommunicado for close to a year. They are presently faced with charges of terrorism, secession, and propagation of false news, in a trial going on at the military tribunal in Yaounde.
Many Anglophones have been apprehended in various military and security check points after their phones have been searched and messages videos, pictures and images of the killings of Cameroon Military by Ambazonian Defence Forces, ADF, discovered therein. Such persons have been detained incommunicado under what have been described inhumane conditions.
The story Sona Dibo Patience, Kala Gaston, Doran Ache Akas, Abel Nnane Ajang and Eveline Ngenche is pathetic.
According to reports, Sona Dibo Patience, spent some months from February 2018 in the bush and finally left to an unknown destination thanks to her cousin, a military officer. Family sources disclosed that the military came hunting for her in Banga Bakundu, Meme Division, where she was farming. She was accused of having been one of the women providing food to the Ambazonia fighters. Her mother and some neighbours told her to stay in the farm. In the course of searching for her, there was serious confrontation between the military and the separatist fighters. The resultant consequence was that part of the village and their residence of was razed to the ground, forcing the villagers to flee to the bushes especially as two gendarme officers were reported to have been killed.
Kala Gaston and Doran Ache Akas suffered a similar fate. They were apprehended at the Mabonji checkpoint en route to Douala from Kumba on the 31st January 2019 and their phones were searched and messages videos, pictures and images of the killings of Cameroon military by Ambazonia Defence Forces, ADF, advocating for secession of the Southern Cameroons, were discovered therein. They were detained under inhumane detention condition.
However, Kala Gaston and Doran Ache Akas later escaped to and unknown destination after having been placed under military custody at a hospital when they heard news that plans were underway to ferry them to Yaounde to answer charges of terrorism.
For Eveline Ngenche, a holder of a Bsc in Human Resource Management and Employment Relations in the School of Business, Catholic University Institute of Buea , CUIB, from 2010 to 2015, in January 2019 while returning from a business trip in Nigeria, was apprehended at a military checkpoint, after their vehicle went through a thorough search and unfortunately materials and gadgets bearing information on secession and restoration of the independence of Southern Cameroons were discovered there in.
The military immediately accused them of sponsoring the Anglophone crisis. Family sources hinted that, Eveline Ngenche’s conditions in detention weren’t the best reason why she was admitted at the Kumba District Hospital for medical attention, though under military surveillance. She, nonetheless, escaped from the hospital and went into hiding, when unidentified gunmen attacked the Kumba District Hospital and set it ablaze on the night of 10th February 2019.
Her grandparents’ residence in Nake village in Mbonge Sub Division was later burnt down by the military when it was alleged that she was hiding there.
The whereabouts of a popular businessman in Manyemen has since early May, 2019 been a mystery, Family sources have hinted. Abel Nnane Ajang, had beat military vigilance when he was suspected to be the person sending information to the pro-independence fighters about the military who used to eat in his restaurant. He finally disappeared, THE SUN learnt, after he was picked up at the checkpoint enroute to Kumba from Manyemen. In his phone were discovered images of military killings in many Anglophone villages. He was taken to the Buea Central Prison and charges of propagation of false information and terrorism proffered against him for being a pro-independence fighter. Thanks to the intervention of his uncle, a highly placed military officer, Abel Nnane Ajang was granted conditional bail. The military, however, started hunting for Abel Nnane and the resultant consequences was the killing of his father and burning of their residence in Manyemen.
Cameroon, which was once internationally praised as one of the most peaceful countries in the world, is now struggling to cope with untold causalities from what many qualify as an unrelenting and insidious conflict.
Recent statistics by civil society organisations reflect the extent of the damage with horrific numbers. The death toll is on the rise while there are claims that about 200 villages have been burnt down in the two regions, and some 430,000 people remain internally displaced while several thousands have fled to neighbouring Niagara where they are living as refugees.