The ongoing Anglophone crisis plaguing the South West and North West regions of Cameroon continues to take more violent twists and turn.

Recently, our The SUN uncovered a disturbing scenario where innocent citizens were arbitrarily arrested, detained, tortured and some sexually  molested by the military  in their bid to eliminate purported sympathizers of separatist fighters.

A case in point is that of Solexia Ebai Bessem,  who was whisked away by the military  sometime in October 2024 in Mamfe, Manyu Division of the South West Region, tortured, sexually assaulted and illegally detained for days.

By some stroke of luck, Solexia Ebai stealthily escaped from the wrath of prosecution, though searches  are  still in progress for her  arrest and eventual  prosecution.

It goes without saying that many youths have escaped the country for fear of being arrested and prosecuted as a result of the ugly face of the political crisis. In all these, the church, civil society organisations at home and abroad continue to call for dialogue as the only magic wand, strong enough to inspire hope and unity in the nation.

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More youths caught in the web of the ongoing armed conflict in the North West and South West are fleeing to safe havens and most especially where the respect of human rights is prime as political witch-hunting and scores- settling has taken centre stage.

The Cameroon Government has, for close to seven years now, been battling to arrest the situation, but tensions continue to intensify with civilian population in the North West and South West Regions living in peril, panic and pandemonium.

Due to this confusion and fear of the unknown, many citizens in these regions continue to go underground. Government has equally launched a manhunt for alleged activists and citizens suspected of siding with separatists. The activists abound and lists bearing the names of those listed for arrest are already making rounds in the hands of military men. The suspects have been placed under military searchlight and declared wanted.

The residents of Munyenge, one of the restive villages amid the armed conflict in Muyuka Subdivision, Fako Division of the South West Region of Cameroon, is restless following the disappearance of one of theirs, Edwin Akumsi Fuh, since November 2024. His situation has been described as witch-hunting.

The farmer and businessman, who operated an off license (bar) in this neighbourhood, is even feared dead like many others who, because of military reprisal, went into hiding and nothing has been heard about their whereabouts.

THE SUN gathered that customers of Akumsi’s bar were surprised by the sudden appearance of unidentified gunmen, who later introduced themselves as the dreaded separatist fighters group under the banner of the “Mountain Lions of Fako”. They opened fire and killed two of the customers in the bar, who, after investigation, turned out to be military men in civilian clothing.

Edwin Akumsi Fuh, despite his efforts at alerting security at a nearby checkpoint about the incidence at his bar, was rather molested, tortured, arrested and whisked to the military camp in Muyuka. Akumsi Fuh’s efforts to prove his innocence fell into deaf ears of the military. They accused him of not only knowing the hideout of the separatists, but equally siding with them, and that he was the one who called the separatists to come and kill the soldiers in his bar.

Reports say Edwin Akumsi Fuh was molested, tortured endlessly by the military and detained in cruel, harsh, degrading and inhumane detention conditions for four days and was denied access to a Lawyer.

Akumsi Fuh is reported to have later escaped from the detention under circumstances that remain unclear, and went into hiding. He has been declared wanted by the military and his whereabouts remains cloudy.

The military keeps making impromptu checks around the neighbourhood in search of him and it is alleged that in desperation, the military razed his business premises, which doubled as his residence, to the ground.

Meanwhile the crisis situation in the North West and South West Regions, has caused many to migrate to French-speaking towns and villages in Cameroon, while others have fled to neighbouring countries where they are living as refugees.

Government forces have reportedly engaged in extrajudicial killings, random looting, shooting, torture, molestation using disproportionate and discriminating force, abusing and arresting protesters, burning more than 200 villages, 500 houses, displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians, attacking hospitals beating and raping women and girls.

According to the Cameroon Penal code if Edwin Akumsi Fuh is arrested, he will face charges of acts of terrorism, insurrection, hostilities against the state, and failure to report.

The Anglophone crisis began in 2016 with the teachers’ and lawyers’ strikes which later attracted the people of the two English-speaking regions of the country who had accumulated grievances emanating from marginalisation by the majority French-speaking part of Cameroon, inequality in employment, adulterations of the judicial and sub-system of education.

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Until date, November 18, 2024, the real cause of the death of a Buea-based journalist, Samuel Wazizi, is still very much unknown to the Cameroonian public as well as his journalism colleagues across Cameroon and beyond. To say the least, the truth about what happened to him is still a mystery.

Wazizi, a Buea-based journalist, who worked as a news anchor for Chillen Media Television, CMTV, Buea, was arrested on August 2, by military operatives. He was taken into custody and that was it.

He was accused by the Government forces of having links with the Anglophone separatist fighters; an accusation that many other innocent Anglophones, before him, had equally suffered from.

His accusation was tied to the fact that, following the socio-political crisis that broke out between Cameroon’s government forces and Anglophone separatist fighters, most journalists reporting objectively on the crisis were being tagged as separatist sympathisers or associates.

Thus, after the accusations against Wazizi which were as a result of his objective reports on the crisis, he was arrested and, initially, detained in Buea.

He was, some days later, surreptitiously transferred to Yaounde where he was jailed and later died.

But until date as I write, his corpse has never been seen nor returned to his family for burial.

Following his arrest, Buea-based human rights lawyers filed a court case where they demanded for the Government to free the journalist, Wazizi.

After several court sessions with the Government being unable to produce him in court or free him, Cameroonian journalists joined their voices to ask the Government to free their colleague.

It was only some months after, that’s early in June 2020, when journalists marched to the Southwest’s Governor’s office in Buea to demand for the release of their colleague, that the Military Communication Officer, Col. Cyrille Serge Atonfack, came out with a communique to explain away Wazizi’s death.

According to Atonfack, Wazizi died of “severe sepsis” at a Yaounde military hospital on August 17th, 2019.

Also, Col. Atonfack said that, after his death, his remains were preserved at a morgue in Yaounde.

But, four years after, that’s today, November, 2024, the corpse or remains of the late journalist, Wazizi, have never been released to the family nor has he been given a decent burial.

Thus we, as journalists, are by this article demanding that Government should shed more light on what happened to Samuel Wazizi following his arrest and disappearance since August 5th, 2019.

It’s a sad situation that since the onset of the Anglophone crisis that has been raging in the two English-speaking Regions of the Northwest and Southwest, journalists have, unfortunately, been the target for arrests, detentions and even killings, like the case of Wazizi by Government forces.

In 2017, three journalists, Tim Finian of the Life Times Newspaper in Bamenda, Atia Tilarious of The Sun Newspaper in Limbe and one other were among a number of Anglophone journalists who were arrested and locked up at the Kondengui Maximum Security prison in Yaounde.

They spent eight gruesome months before they were released.

Since, then several others have either suffered arrests, been banned from reporting on the crisis or fled the country for fear of their lives.

The Government, therefore, must put a stop to this, give a veritable account of what happened to Wazizi and let the journalists be allowed to continue doing their work without fear or favour as ascribed in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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As the crisis rocking the North West and South West regions, which long spiraled into armed conflict, continues to rage on, businesspersons have particularly been feeling the pinch.

They find themselves trapped between accusations from the defence and security forces on one side, and the Ambazonia separatist fighters on the other.

Some businesspersons accused by the military of sympathising with separatists have been arrested, tortured, and detained under deplorable conditions. Some have reportedly died in detention under unclear circumstances.

Meanwhile, those accused by the separatist fighters have seen their business places destroyed, some have been kidnapped and only released after paying huge ransoms. In some cases, businesspersons accused by the fighters have been killed.

Those who defy the Monday “Ghost Town” restrictions imposed by separatists by opening their shops or doing business have seen their shops burned down. In response, the government has intensified its crackdown on all individuals suspected of siding with, or sympathising with the separatists and their struggle for the independence of a country they have christened Ambazonia

On the other hand, business persons who respect the separatist-imposed ghost towns and don’t open their shops on Mondays are being accused of siding and collaborating with separatist fighters.

A case of a businessperson who has borne the brunt of the armed conflict is Natalie Ugitoh Abong, who operated a fashion shop in Limbe Fako Division of the South West Region.

Sometime in April 2024, soldiers of the elite Rapid Intervention Battalion of the military, known by the French acronym, BIR, are said to have stormed her shop, accusing her of not opening her shop on Mondays, but respecting the Monday ghost towns imposed by separatists. The BIR soldiers reportedly also accused her of supporting the separatist fighters in their bid to split the country.

She was tortured by the soldiers and ferried to their camp where she was detained. While detained at the military camp, Natalie Ugitoh Abong was continuously tortured, molested and interrogated.

After having been tortured for days, Ugitoh is said to have fallen seriously ill with bruises all over her body and swollen head. The soldiers, on April 5, 2024 are said to have taken her out of the detention cell to the hospital where it is alleged she managed to escape and since then her whereabouts is not known

Following days in the hospital, it emerged that some gunmen had burnt down Ugitoh’s shop on April 8, 2024.

The defence and security forces have declared her wanted. If arrested, Natalie Ugitoh Abong will face trial before a military tribunal under the 2014 anti-terrorism law, which carries the death penalty as its maximum punishment. That is if she is not killed outright like many other victims of extrajudicial killings within the context of the armed conflict in North West and South West Regions.

Growing abuses on businesspersons

It should be recalled that in September 2017 a businessman in Belo Subdivision, Boyo Division of the North West Region, popularly known as Sam Sawyer, who was crippled and, on a wheelchair, was killed after the military stormed his premises. He had been accused of having separatist fighters at his shop.

The lifeless body of Sam Sawyer was later seen, beheaded, in videos and pictures that went viral on social media.

On May 25, 2020, a trader in Mulang, Bamenda, whose only name was reported as Lambert, was killed by separatist fighters. He was accused of collaborating with security forces in the area and disrespecting ghost towns.

Meanwhile, on February 22, 2022, a soldier shot and killed Ibrahim Yinju Talla, a businessman and proprietor of Mawa Hotel in Bamenda and another person, Che Henry, an electric engineer. The incident occurred at Ayaba Hotel in Bamenda.

As the armed conflict continues, the populations of the two crisis-hit regions have been decrying atrocities reportedly committed by both the military and separatist fighters.

International organisations and other western powers have called on the government to address the root cause through genuine and inclusive dialogue.

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Since the start of the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon, civilians are frequently accused by both armed separatist groups and state authorities of supporting opposing sides.

The case of Nkemjimoh Bate Asongfor, an Anglophone teacher from Bole, Kumba, Meme Division of the South West Region, illustrates how such accusations can expose individuals to sustained and nationwide risk. Bate Has been put in a perplexed situation described by many as being in between the devil and deep blue sea, with no option than to run for safety.

Reports say Nkemjimoh Bate Asongfor’s bitter ordeal with the separatist fighters, dates back in 2019 when he started his teaching career and in 2020 when he was supervising the written part of the General Certificate of Education, GCE, exams.

In May 2024, family sources have hinted that Bate was kidnapped by separatist fighters, also known as Amba Boys, at the sidelines of the National Day celebration and while in Amba Boys’ captivity for three weeks he was coerced through social media videos posting,  to put on their attire, announce his resignation as a civil servant, name and shame the activities of the military and stating how he kill soldiers. Bate’s videos on social media while in captivity went viral and the military is reported to have raided the Amba Boys’ camp, killed some of them while others ran away.

THE SUN gathered that Bate was picked up by the military after the cross-fire with the separatist fighters and whisked to a military base in Kumba. He was accused of being a separatist and was showed the footage that was posted on social media with him castigating the government while he was in Amba captivity for three weeks.

Reports say Nkemjimoh Bate Asongfor, detained incommunicado, went through hell in the hands of the military with cruel, degrading and inhumane treatment meted on him until he miraculously escaped from military custody after nine days and his whereabouts by press time remained cloudy.

This case is not isolated. Since the outbreak of the Anglophone crisis in late 2016, human rights organisations and independent monitors have documented thousands of arrests, detentions, and enforced disappearances in Cameroon’s North West and South West Regions. Many detainees have reportedly been accused of separatist links without formal charge, while civilians perceived as insufficiently supportive of separatist groups have faced abduction, killing, and forced displacement. Numerous individuals named on wanted lists are reported to have gone into hiding or fled into exile, with family homes are repeatedly raided by security forces.

The case of Nkemjimoh Bate Asongfor reflects this broader pattern, in which civilians perceived as non-aligned face serious harm from both state and non-state actors, and where effective state protection or safe internal relocation remains largely unavailable.

Anglophone crisis began in 2016 with the teachers and lawyers strikes, which later attracted the people of the two English-speaking regions of the country, as they said their accumulated grievances emanated from marginalisation by the majority French-speaking part of Cameroon, inequality in employment, adulterations of the judicial and educational systems.

Extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests of innocent Anglophones, burning down of houses, villages allegedly by the military and sporadic exchange of guns between the military and separatist fighters and the imposition of ghost towns, lockdowns on businessmen by separatist fighters are now the order of the day.  This has left the population under crossfire with many fleeing for safe havens, causing untold suffering and pains on the population.

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Authorities in the South West Region have issued a warrant of arrest against Noche Talom Boris, a young activist known for his public participation in an event condemning the barbaric acts of separatist fighters commonly known as “Amba Boys”.

According to sources, on October 24, 2024, Noche Talom Boris joined community leaders, civil society members and other residents who gathered at Clerks Quarter, Buea to condemn the violent acts of armed separatist fighters in commemoration of the six children killed at Mother Francisca Bilingual Primary School Kumba in October 2020. At the event, participants called for dialogue and denounced attacks targeting schools and civilians.

Eyewitnesses say Noche Talom Boris spoke passionately and served as translator between the local authorities and the participants.

However, barely six months after the gathering, security forces now accuse him of being connected to the attack on April 13, 2024 at the police/military checkpoint at Mile 16, Buea, branding him as a suspect.

A warrant of arrest has reportedly been signed against him, raising fears among his family and colleagues that he is being unfairly targeted. His whereabouts are currently unknown.

Human rights observers note that such accusations are not uncommon in Cameroon’s ongoing Anglophone crisis, where activists who openly denounce violence often face suspicion from both the state and separatist fighters.

Noche Talom Boris has denied any involvement in armed activity. Supporters insist that his role has always been limited to peaceful advocacy and humanitarian work, and they view the arrest warrant as an attempt to silence dissenting voices.

As the situation unfolds, many in the community express concern that anyone who speaks out whether against the separatist or the government risks being trapped in the middle of the conflict.

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While the crisis in the North West and South West Regions, which long escalated into an armed conflict, continues to take new twists, healthcare personnel and professionals of other walks of life are suffering as gun battles between Ambazonia separatist fighters and the military rage on.

The healthcare and other humanitarian workers have been caught between the Ambazonia separatist fighters and government defence and security forces. While the separatist fighters have sometimes kidnapped and also killed some health and humanitarian workers, defence and security forces have, on their part, been arresting any health and humanitarian worker accused of having links with separatists or providing healthcare and humanitarian assistance to separatists. The military is also accused of having killed some health workers.

The arrested healthcare personnel, we gathered, are being detained under horrible conditions. Some have reportedly died in detention. It is in this light that many of them have fled into hiding.

Medical professionals concerned for their lives

It should be recalled that attacks on hospitals by both the military and armed separatists have left medical professionals in the English-speaking regions concerned for their lives.

Many of them have lost their lives. This was the case in August 2018 when Nancy Azah and her husband, Njong Paddisco, who were nurses who ran separate clinics in the small town of Mbengwi in the North West Region were shot dead by the military while on their way to attend to people wounded in the armed conflict.

The nurses’ deaths had sparked outrage among medical staff who said they were being threatened by both sides of the conflict: government security forces accuse them of treating armed fighters and hiding some in hospitals while the armed separatists accuse medical staff of disclosing their identities to the military.

Another case is that of a young medical doctor who had just left school and was working in the North West Region. She was shot by military men – she did not die.

In another instance, an ambulance was taking a patient from one hospital to another and somewhere in the bush, the military shot at it and damaged the ambulance, hurting the nurse who was accompanying the patient.

Meanwhile, in February 2022, Shey Janet, a nurse, was killed and a medical doctor wounded as a 16-man team of medics came under bullet attacks in Mile 90 Nsongwa, Bamenda. Bullets were rained on their vehicle, snatching the life of the health worker who, before her demise, served at the Women’s Health Programme of the Cameroon Baptist Convention, CBC.

Medical student declared wanted

Another case of somebody linked to healthcare who has been entangled in the web between separatist fighters and the military is Anchi Abia Sharon, who was a nursing student at Biaka University Institute of Buea (BUIB).

Her ordeal reportedly began sometime at the end of September 2023 when she was posted to do internship at Diligent Care Clinic in Buea.

However, in the night of October 1, 2023, a group of separatist fighters are said to have stormed the hospital with one of their wounded comrades. Anchi is said to have been abducted by the fighters and taken to one of their camps where is reported to have been forced to administer treatment on the wounded fighter.

Nonetheless, three days later, she was released by the fighters. But her tribulations were far from over. On October 17, 2023, she was summoned by State Counsel of the Legal Department in Buea.

When Anchi appeared before the State Counsel, she was charged for supporting separatist fighters, and failure to report after she was kidnapped by the fighters. She was whisked to the army camp, where she was interrogated for hours to disclose the location of the fighters’ hideout. Failing to extract this information from her, the soldiers are alleged to have repeatedly raped Anchi.

She was later released after intervention by a lawyer. But her torments took another twist in December 2023 when the military attacked a separatist hideout near Buea. A crossfire led to the killing of several separatist fighters. After the military attack on the separatist hideout, the fighters are said to have accused Anchi of having been the one who disclosed the location of their camp to the military.

The fighters are said to have vowed that they will kill her if they lay hands on her.

But unfortunately for Anchi, a warrant of arrest was issued for her by the State Counsel. When she got to know about this through channels that remain uncertain, Anchi is said to have vamoosed and her whereabouts remain unclear.

The military is said to have been frequenting her family residence in Buea in search of her. Separatist fighters are also reported to have been storming the same residence looking for her.

If arrested, Anchi Abia Sharon will be tried in a military tribunal, under the 2014 anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment is the death sentence. That is if she is not killed outright like many others who have been victims of extrajudicial killings within the context of the armed conflict in North West and South West regions.

Meanwhile, if the separatist fighters lay hands on her, Anchi will definitely be killed, like many others who have been victims of atrocities committed by the fighters.

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A long and arduous search for activists backing the Anglophone crisis is underway as the ongoing unrest in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon rages on.

Faced with this deteriorating socio-political condition and other security concerns, the Government has, in a desperate attempt to calm the trouble waters, multiplied efforts at apprehending those considered the brains behind the crisis. This has caused many, especially Southern Cameroon National Council, SCNC, activists clamouring for the restoration of the total independence of the former British Southern Cameroons, to go underground as they have been declared wanted by the Yaounde regime.

A list bearing the names of these alleged activists such as Dengoue Monthe Lumiere, Tabi M-Eyere Nakungu, Eyisab Enow Kenneth and Willma Lemongu Patcha are already making rounds in the hands of the military. The suspected activists have been placed under military searchlight and declared wanted. This was after they organised several protests in major towns in the North West and South West Regions, like Bamenda, Kumba, Mamfe, Buea, Limbe, Wum, Kumbo, against the worsening frustration and marginalization, coupled with the unlawful detention and maltreatment of the people of Former British Southern Cameroons.

Reports say activist, Willma Lemongu Patcha, from Buea, Fako Division of the South West Region, is amongst the many to be arrested wherever spotted within the national territory. She is on the run as she has been declared wanted by the Yaounde regime since 2023. This was after she was served a warrant to appear at the police station to answer questions about her relation with separatist fighters, also known as Amba Boys, and her SCNC membership. Family sources say since she went underground her whereabouts remains very cloudy.

Reports say like many other youths who have disappeared amidst the armed conflict, hers is more of political witch-hunting.

THE SUN gathered that Willma Lemongu Patcha, alongside other SCNC activists, is reported to have been arrested by the military and security operatives, tortured, mistreated and detained in degrading, inhumane and harsh conditions several times. This was for either siding with lawyers and teachers, during their peaceful street demonstration across Anglophone Cameroon against marginalisation and assimilation of Southern Cameroonians, or for coordinating student strike actions in the university of Buea.

Family sources hinted that security operatives arrested, tortured, molested and detained Willma Lemongu Patcha, accused her of siding with separatist fights amidst the armed conflict and coerced her to show them the hideout of separatist fighters.

As a victim of circumstances amidst that armed conflict, Patcha, according to family sources, was kidnapped by separatist fighters on grounds that during her detention at the police station, she shared information about them to the police. She, however, regained freedom with a warning from the separatist fighters to avoid any relationship with the police else she will be treated as a “blackleg”.

As we went to press, the military, allegedly with with firm instruction from government, had launched fresh pursuit for her arrest alongside many others for them to be prosecuted at the Yaounde Military Tribunal on charges of secession, hostility to the state and related offences and her support for the restoration of the independence of the former British Southern Cameroons and for siding with separatist fighters. The military keeps making impromptu checks at Patcha’s Buea residential area, just to arrest and prosecute her. Family sources have hinted that they are constantly being harassed, molested for them to disclose her whereabouts which unfortunately, remains cloudy.

The government has not stopped arresting persons who show sympathy for the SCNC and who take part in activities it organises. Reports say some of these persons have died in detention, or simply disappeared.

Government forces have engaged in extrajudicial killings, random looting, shooting, torture, molestation using disproportionate and discriminating force, abusing and arresting protesters, burning more than 200 villages, 500 houses, displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians, attacking hospitals beating and raping women and girls.

The Anglophone crisis began 2016 with the teachers and lawyers strikes which later attracted the people of the two English-speaking regions of the Country, as they said their accumulated grievances emanated from marginalisation by the majority French-speaking part of Cameroon, inequality in employment, adulterations of the judicial and sub educational system.

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