Teachers, business persons and other civilians of various walks of life such as nurses and lawyers are bearing the brunt as the Anglophone crisis, which has escalated into an armed conflict in the North West and South West regions, rages on.

Many teachers, who have been accused of being among those who took part in strike actions carried out by teachers, are being arrested.

The separatists have also imposed a school boycott all over the North West and South West regions. Teachers who violate this ban and go to school to teach, are being abducted by separatist fighters, and are either killed or are only set free after the payment of huge amounts of money as ransom.

Meanwhile, business persons who provides services or sell goods to separatist fighters are being accused by the military of collaborating with and supporting the separatist fighters’ cause and struggle for the independence of the English-speaking regions into a country they have named Ambazonia.

Sources say the arrested persons are being tortured and detained under inhumane conditions. Some are reported to have died in detention.

For fear of their lives, many have fled and their whereabouts is not known. One case is that of Doris Chika Mbah, who was a teacher and later became a petit trader.

In November 2016 when Anglophone teachers staged protests across the North West and South West Regions, Doris Chika Mbah, who was a teacher in a private school in Bamenda, joined the protests. But the defence and security forces clamped down on the protest with brute force. Chika and other protesting teachers were arrested, tortured and detained under deplorable conditions without food.

Chika was later released weeks after. Because of the inhumane detention conditions, Chika is said to have contracted Tuberculosis. She is reported to have relocated to Buea in the South West Region, where she was treated.

After graduating from the university years after, Chika, in 2022, is said to have taken up residence in Muyuka, Fako Division of the South West Region, where she opened a petit trading business, selling food in small shop in the market.

Soldiers are said to have been frequenting Chika’s restaurant to eat. Because of this, separatist fighters labeled her as a blackleg and accused her of being an informant of the military.

Meanwhile, in September 2022, some separatist fighters are said to have forced her to cook food and serve them at her restaurant. Chika was forced to do so for several days.

However, some days later, the military is said to have stormed Chika’s restaurant, accusing her of sponsoring and supporting the separatist fighters, whose activities have been tagged as terrorism by the government. She was mercilessly tortured and later taken to the Buea central prison where she was detained under inhumane conditions.

Nonetheless, on Monday September 26, 2022 when Chika and other detainees were being transferred to the Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaounde, she is said to have escaped when the vehicle in which they were being transferred had an accident at Mile 14 in Buea.

Since then, the whereabouts of Chika is not known. If rearrested, Doris Chika Mbah 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 the North West and South West regions.

Flashback on rigin of crisis

It is also worth recalling that the Anglophone crisis, something that pundits say had been brewing for several years, boiled over recently, when Common Law Lawyers in the North West and South West regions went on strike. They were 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. Not long after, teachers in the North West and South West regions also went on strike, demanding for the redress of several issues concerning the English system of education.

Things, however, got worst when Anglophones in both regions, who had been fed up with the unfavourable political and economic situation of the country, the use of French as the dominant and official language, and the marginalisation of the Anglophones, joined the strike.

The crisis has left thousands, both civilians and security and defence forces dead, some 400,000 displaced with some living in bushes while over 30,000 have fled to neighbouring Nigeria where they are living as refugees.

Many houses, and even whole villages, have been burnt down in the crisis-hit regions.

The separatist leader of the self-declared Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, and eight other close associates of his, who were arrested in Nigeria and extradited to Cameroon, are currently at the Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaounde, where they are serving life sentences.

Many other activists such as Mancho Bibixy, Penn Terrence, Tsi Conrad, among others, are serving jail terms at the Kondengui prison.

While the Anglophone crisis continues to escalate, 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.

Extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests of innocent Anglophones, burning down of houses, villages by the military and sporadic exchange of guns between the military and separatist fighters, leaving the population under crossfire with many fleeing for safe havens, causing untold suffering and pains on the population have become the order of the day.

The case of Doris Nama Lefangha, an Anglophone civilian from Kumba, chief town of Meme Division, South West Region, illustrates how such accusations can expose individuals to sustain nationwide risk. This has put her in a fixed situation, described by many as being in between the devil and deep blue sea, with no option than to run for safety.

Doris Nama Lefangha is a holder of an HND and teacher by profession. Prior to the escalation of violence in 2017, she was operating a call box business where she lived openly and maintained her livelihood.

On February 11, 2019, Cameroon’s National Youth Day, separatist fighters called for a boycott of celebrations in the North West and South West Regions. Unfortunately for Doris Nama Lefangha, the military arrested her in her call box, whisked her to the police station, intimidated, tortured and detained her for using her call box to do monetary transaction with the separatists. Doris Nama Lefangha was released reportedly following the payment of a huge amount of money to authorities in charge, after she had signed an undertaking to stop the call box business.

On May 20, 2022, the National Day of Cameroon, the military arrested Doris Nama Lefangha at their Kumba residence while she was operating her call box business. She was bundled in the military truck and ferried to the detention camp, where she was severally tortured and interrogated, detained in a disgusting, degrading and inhumane condition.

Reports say that all efforts to cause her release by her mother and family lawyer were futile as she and others were already earmarked to be ferried to the Yaounde Kondengui maximum prison to be prosecuted at the military court as it is usually the case with Anglophone civilians arrested in connection with the armed conflict.

THE SUN gathered that while Doris Nama Lefangha and others were being ferried to Yaounde, their vehicle was ambushed by separatist fighters around Ekona, a locality along the Kumba-Buea highway leading to crossfire between the military and separatist fighters allegedly leaving two military officers killed.

Meanwhile, Doris Nama Lefangha miraculously escaped and fell in the hands of a Good Samaritans who linked her to her mother and she later made plans for Doris Nama Lefangha to leave the country for safety as advised by a family friend who is of the security corps.

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 repeatedly raided by security forces.

The case Doris Nama Lefangha 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.

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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 backing what has become known as the Anglophone Crisis. The government has already considered them terrorists and numerous  trumped up  charges have been leveled against them such as propagation of false information, rebellion, revolution, secession insurrection and the non-possession of National Identity card.

For fear of the unknown and considering the heavy jail terms awaiting suspected activists, many have relocated to unknown destinations after having been declared wanted by the regime.

Confronted with flaring tempers, a total breakdown of law and order, and worsening socio-political conditions, government has now taken to trail those considered as masterminds of the unrest including their families.

This move represents one in a series of measures that have been employed by the administration to calm the troubled waters amid deteriorating security conditions and other concerns.

This hunt is in a bid to bring activists before the military tribunal for adjudication, as was the case with the likes of ManchoBibixy, 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 maximum jail sentence to serve at the Kondengui maximum security prison, while others in the likes  of   the family of  Mama  Langsi Doris Mankasoh  whose Son Gandhi   is  a frontline  activist , Franklin  Vegah Law, and Menyele Charles Mosima live in fear.

Leaders of the virtual state of Ambazonia(otherwise known as Southern Cameroons),SisikuAyukTabe, Tassang Wilfred, Barrister Eyambe ,NforNgalaNfor and others, were arrested in Nigeria on January 5, 2018 and extradited to Cameroon where they were placed incommunicado for close to a year. They are presently faced with charges of terrorism, secession, propagation of false news, insurrection, non-possession of National IdentityCard and rebellion against the state in an on-going trial before the military tribunal in Yaounde.

The war in the two Anglophone Regions of Cameroon referred to by activists as Southern Cameroons or “Ambazonian” is in its third year with no end in sight. The number of shootings, abductions and arrests keep soaring.

Youths dying, fleeing as blood flows unabated

With the military finding it difficult to differentiate between innocent civilians and separatist fighters, many young people have been caught in the web. They have either been taken by stray bullets or mistaken for members of the gun-carrying-militia and killed in cold blood.

Life for many living in the restive regions is a miracle given that each new day comes with its own. Today, many homes in the two restive regions have been broken with women left to drown in their tears. The have been looking for their husbands and sons and other family member who are either missing or dead. The outskirts of towns like Buea, Kumba, Bamenda, Kumbo, and Mamfe have been the hardest hit by the crisis. Many have fled in order to provide a level field for the smoking guns to rattle. Extra judicial killings, burning of homes and villages, raping in these regions have been the order of the day as many have been declared as Internal Displaced Persons, IDP’s.

Recent statistics by civil society organizations reflect the extent of the damage with horrific numbers. The death toll is on a perpetual rise while there are claims that about 200 villages have been burnt down in the two regions, and some 17.000 people remain internally displaced. A majority of who are taking refuge in the bushes and forests. This is in addition to the more than 45.000 English speaking Cameroonians that have assumed the status of refugees in Nigeria.

Several activists both home and abroad have been earmarked for arrest with regional, national and international warrants issued against them. Photos declaring them ‘Wanted’ have been placed with security forces.

The tale of the family of Mama Langsi Doris Mankasoh whose Son Gandhi   Fuh is frontline activist caught our attention as we seek to document the ordeals of youth caught in a war for no fault of theirs. For issues relating to the Anglophone crisis with the Cameroon Defence Forces and the Separatist Fighters constantly involved in hostilities, thefamily of Mama Langsi Doris Mankasoh is all in hiding after they were attacked by the military two weeks ago in Wum anoutskirts ofBamenda in the North West Region.  Mama Doris as she is fondly called lost her job as a banker and was currently a teacher in Wum.

She was the publicity secretary of the teachers union and one of the strong voices in the current Anglophone crisis. According to information gathered in Bamenda, it was found that her house was burnt down and several family relations wounded on allegations that she was instigating what is currently known as “ghost town” in Anglophone Cameroon.

It should be recalled that “ghost town” calls are respected   throughout Anglophone Cameroon every Mondays and the days the Ambazonian Leaders are to appear in Court.  Other sources claim that the family residence of Mama Langsi Doris Mankasoh was attacked because his son Gandhi Fuh who is a Canada-based Anglophone activistwho was in Cameroon for a hidden agenda. All attempts to reach the family of Mama Doris Langsi to corroborate the fact that his son was in the country and to get further information regarding the arson ended up in futility.

In the meantime, there are conflicting stories regarding the incident while the whereabouts of the family remains unknown. It is apparent that Gandhi Fuh has been declared wanted by the authorities.

With government tightening the noose on separatists and their sympathisers, the future promises to be pregnant.

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