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.

The post Can gov’t shed light on what really killed Buea-based journalist, Samuel Wazizi? appeared first on THE SUN NEWSPAPER CAMEROON.

The protracted crisis in the North West and South West regions, which escalated into an armedconflict since 2017 with the Ambazonian or separatist fighters on one side against the defence and security, has in recent years, taken a new turn.

Today, innocent civilians continue to be victims of atrocities perpetrated by the Ambazonia fighters on the one side, and bloody measures by Government forces against those they think have an affiliation with separatists or simply sympathise with the Anglophone cause.

Defence and security forces have been arresting, without due process, pro-independence Anglophone activists and anyone suspected of having any sympathy to the Anglophone cause. The Separatist groups have been agitating for an independent state made up of the two English-speaking regions, which they call Ambazonia.

Several human rights and news organisations believe that the majority of those arrested in connection to the Anglophone separatists’ cause have either died in detention as a result of torture or extreme inhuman conditions. Many are still in detention today; the likes of the Nera Ten separatist leaders, arrested in Nigeria and brought to Cameroon, amongst them, the Ambazonian leader, Sesseko Ayuk Tabe​, are currently serving life sentences at the Kondengui Maximum Security Prison in Yaounde.

For fear of the arrests and killings, many have fled to other relatively safe parts of the country while thousands have escaped Cameroon to neighbouring countries like Nigeria or to the USA and other Western countries where they are currently living as refugees.

The US President, Joe Biden had in April 2022, granted over 12,000 Cameroonian immigrants in the US Temporary Protected Status, TPS, because of the war in the two regions of Cameroon. This TPS was renewed in October 2023, providing thousands of Cameroonians another 18 months of relief since the war in the two English-speaking Regions of Cameroon is still ongoing. With many still killed, others taken hostage and the rest nursing either their wounds or trying to survive the hardships imposed by the crisis.

And while the conflict continues, the Government forces are committed to their campaign which is focused on locating and destroying with extreme prejudice the fighters to the last man. On the other hand, the separatist fighters have also not been showing any sign of withdrawal from their battle against the Government.

Civilians caught in-between!

And in the middle of this bloody war are the innocent civilians whom the Government, on one hand, blames for not assisting the state security forces with information on the whereabouts of the separatists. In contrast, the separatists, who have been abducting, murdering and abusing civilians themselves have been blaming them for not supporting their cause or for acting as an informants to the Government forces. So, due to this insecure environment, most civilians have fled Cameroon over the years to other countries, in order to be secure.

For women and girls, the story has been more alarming since a majority have been raped either by government forces or by Ambazonian separatist fighters.

Amongst those who unfortunately fell in-between the crossfire of the Ambazonia fighters and the military, as our investigations uncovered recently, is Nsocka Besong Comfort.

Comfort was once, herself, abducted and taken to the forest for several days by suspected separatists where she was allegedly sexually abused. Her father, Nsocka Dieudonne, unfortunately died during the crisis on November 28, 2019.

Comfort’s father, a worker with the National Railway Corporation (CAMRAIL) in Douala, was reportedly shot pointblank in his car by suspected separatist fighters.

As per the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), Human Rights Watch and other international agencies, the war has now claimed more than 6,000 lives in which many persons have lost their lives in a similarly gruesome manner.

Caught in-between the crossfire of the Ambazonia fighters and the military

The Nsocka family fell into distraught when Comfort’s father was killed, and threats from both the separatists and Government forces were now being directed towards Mr Nsocka’s wife, a police officer, and their children. Due to the hostile conditions of her day, Mrs Elisabeth Enow Nsocka, who was serving as a Complaints Reception Officer at the Tinto Police Station, Manyu Division of the South West Region, was forced to flee into hiding as well.

The conflict had forced many in the village areas where Mrs Elisabeth Nsocka was working to flee for safety. Comfort’smother, a police officer in war-torn Tinto, was being accused by the separatists of being state security officer for the Cameroon Government which they were fighting against as their enemy.

This, therefore, forced Mrs Elisabeth Nsocka, Comfort, and all to flee their war-torn village. Comfort’s mother reportedly ran off with her granddaughter, Fongwa Dieudonne, who is Confort’s daughter.

This reporter found out that Comfort abandoned the daughter with her mother and also had to leave Cameroon after she and one of the sisters could no longer bear the pains after having been kidnapped by the separatists and subjected to sexual abuse.

As this reporter gathered, Comfort, like thousands of other Cameroonians fled the country after a lucky escape for further studies in Europe.

Pleas for dialogue rebuffed

Various governments including Canada and Switzerland, and some local citizens in Cameroon, have continuously called for an inclusive dialogue by the Cameroon Government. But the Government maintains that it cannot negotiate with the separatists who it accuses of being terrorists.

The crisis began in November 2016 when teachers and lawyers protested the marginalisation of Anglophones and the need for reforms in the educational system. The government responded with a heavy hand that erupted into an outright civil war by 2017. Until date, the war is still raging.

So as for the two English-speaking regions, the situation is still very unsafe for Cameroonians who fled to return.

The US Government as well, in the same line of thought, renewed the Temporary Protected Status for well over 12,000 Cameroonians in 2023. The TPS was first granted to fleeing Cameroonians who got to the US back in April, 2022, owing to the continuing insecurity in the two Anglophone regions.

Human Rights Watch 2024 World Report titled: “Cameroon Events of 2023”  states clearly that: “Continued clashes between armed groups and Government forces across Cameroon’s Anglophone and Far North Regions had a devastating impact on civilians, with reports of unlawful killings, abductions, and raids on villages rising in the second half of the year.”

The Report went on to state: “Civilians in the Anglophone regions are still subjected to abuses by various parties to the ongoing crisis, including sexual and gender based violence”.

The North West and South West remain in crisis and unsafe for anyone to return home because the killings and abductions are still near-weekly or monthly occurrences.

The post Armed conflict in NW, SW: Civilians caught between Amba fighters’ atrocities, gov’t’s crackdown appeared first on THE SUN NEWSPAPER CAMEROON.

Since the outbreak of the Anglophone crisis in late 2016 in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon, many have been affected in diverse ways. From thousands that have been displaced to others that are now refugees in Nigeria, many families continue to lament in pain as they count the negative impact.

This is the case of Besong Ruth, a young lady from Ayukaba Village in Eyumojock Sub Division in Manyu Division of the South West Region, one of the restive areas of the crisis. Besong Ruth, was taken hostage by the Cameroon Defense and Security Forces on October 27, 2018. She was accused of working with the separatist fighters in her native Village of Ayukaba. By the stroke of luck, she escaped from the village because the separatists were also in search of her with a charge that she had connived with the military to kill one of the separatist fighters who was her boyfriend.

The government in place  in 2019 organized a Major National Dialogue that brought together over 700 Delegates to proffer solutions to the crisis. Though some major resolutions were arrived at, many are still of the opinion that it was not representative enough as most activists of the crisis who have taken up residence abroad were never invited.

The dialogue was also highly criticized because the ambazonian leader Ayuk Tabe, who was  arrested even before the Major National Dialogue was not solicited to participate while in detention at the Yaounde maximum security prison popularly referred to as Kondengui.

This missed opportunity on the part of the ruling government created  more tension on the ground which let to several splinter groups. Many of these groups now operate in rural areas and are specialized in kidnapping for ransom to sustain the struggle.

This has made the safety and security of suspected  individuals( black legs) very fragile and unpredictable. The only guarantee is seeking safety elsewhere.

Her ordeal is one in several inhumane conditions that many youths especially young girls go through to stay alive in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon since the onset of the Anglophone crisis.

The post Anglophone crisis: Nowhere to run for young girls appeared first on THE SUN NEWSPAPER CAMEROON.

Tension mounts within families of thousands as Government forces have engaged in extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrest, random looting, shooting, torture, molestation using disproportionate and discriminating force, abusing and arresting protesters, burning more than 300 villages, 600 houses, displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians, attacking hospitals beating and raping women and girls.

The traumatising situation is on the rise as the crisis in the North West and South West regions, rages on. Families are bearing the brunt of the unending crisis which morphed into an armed conflict since 2017.

The inhumane treatment meted on innocent civilians amidst the crisis is alarming and international bodies have been called upon to intervene and mount pressure on the government to solve the situation and assist all those who have been declared wanted and escaped due to the armed conflict.

At press time reports from Kumbo, Bui Division North West Region said the family of Lukong Bede Suiriliy, onetime Kumbo election observer under Elections Cameroon, ELECAM, is still perplexed about his whereabouts, which till date still remains cloudy. Lukong relocated to Buea from Kumbo for fear of Amba Boys’ persecution.

THE SUN gathered that following multiple attacks by separatist fighters on government forces in Buea, Lukong was unfortunately arrested by security operatives on September 27, 2018, a ghost town day when he stepped out to get some food. He was whisked to the Police Station, tortured and detained in a degrading inhumane condition for being a spy for the separatist fighters otherwise known as Amba Boy’s. Since then there has been no trace of him.

The family has expressed fears that if Lukong is arrested by government forces his situation will not be different from others who have been killed and buried in mass graves because of their suspected links with separatist fighters.

Lukong is reported to have relocated to Buea from Kumbo, in Bui Division, North West Region following instruction from his mother who expressed fears that he could be killed by separatist fighters if he monitored the announced 2018 presidential election since he had received a message from ELECAM as one of the Observers.

It should be recalled that it is not the first time Lukong Bede Suiriliy enduring arrest, torture molestation and detention in the hands of government forces amidst the Anglophone crisis. In late 2016 Lukong was arrested alongside other Anglophone protesters by officers of the National Gendarmerie and whisked to the gendarmerie brigade in Tobin, Kumbo, where they spend about three days in custody. Lukomg was released after money allegedly exchanged hands with the gendarmerie authorities while the others were transferred to prisons either in the Kumbo, Bamenda or Francophone Regions and till date noting has been heard about them.

Flashback of the crisis

It is also worth recalling that the Anglophone crisis, something that pundits say had been brewing for several years, boiled over in 2016, when Common Law Lawyers and Teachers in the North West and South West regions went on strike, demanding for the return of the federal system of government, redeployment of Civil Law Magistrates back to Civil Law Courts in French Cameroon, among other grievances and, for the redress of several issues concerning the English system of education respectively. In January 2018 when the Anglophone leaders in the likes of Sisisku Ayuk Tabi, Barrister Eyambe, Nfor Ngalla Nfor were arrested in Nigeria and extradited to Yaoundé Cameroons political capital the crisis morphed into an armed conflict.

The crisis has left thousands, both civilians and security and defense forces dead, others internally displaced with some are living in bushes, while over 30,000 have fled to neighbouring Nigeria where they are living as refugees. Houses as well as villages have been razed to the ground with extrajudicial killings being regular occurrences.

The post Armed conflict in NW, SW: Extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrest on the rise appeared first on THE SUN NEWSPAPER CAMEROON.

Wednesday, June 27th, 2018, went down into history, as just another dark day for the residents of the Muyuka Sub Division of Fako in the Southwest Region.

Since the Anglophone Crisis that started off in late 2016, quickly metamorphozed into an armed conflict between Government forces and the pro-independence Sepratists fighters, Muyuka has become one of the epicenters of the fighting and killings of innocent civilians.

On June 27th, one Mr Ache Paul Mandi, a resident of Muyuka, was shot and killed on his way to the farm,as Government forces have for well over a month been engaged in fierce fighting with the Separatists fighters.

Eye-witnesses told this reporter they firmly believe the military shot and killed Mandi.

They described him a peace loving person who was loved and admired by his neighbours, family members and friends alike.

But since the military launched their assault in the town in search of the Separatists fighters, they have been sparing no one they aim theur guns at.

The latest spate of violence began on May 10th, 2017, when Separatists fighters attacked and destroyed the Muyuka Police Post. Reports say some officers were killed in the attack and several guns and ammunition were carted away.

Following the attack, the Government forces, in retaliation, launched a no-remorse counter attack against perceived Separatists positions in the area.

But since the Separatists have been employing more of guerrilla warfare tactics, the military, thus, has been shooting at almost just anyone they come across.

That’s how eye-witnesses, who cannot be named for the sake of their safety told this reporter, during Mandi’s funeral, that it’s the military who shot and killed him as he was about leaving his home on that Wednesday, June 27th, 2018.

Many Human Rights NGO have condemned the killings of innocent civilians since the start of this crisis in 2018.

They have equally called on the Government to initiate dialogue as a means to find a quick solution to resolve the crisis. The war has now led to many people being killed arbitrarily and thousands, too, have fled their homes to seek shelter in other parts of the country.

Others directly opposed to the war have either fled the Country or been arrested and detained such as some lawyers, teachers and activists.

Even Journalists who have been trying to report on the crisis have suffered arrests or other forms of Government’s crack down.

As at press time, there were still reports of fighting ongoing in most parts of Muyuka.

The post Eye-witnesses Accuse Gov’t Soldiers for the Killing of Ache Paul in Muyuka appeared first on THE SUN NEWSPAPER CAMEROON.