The lives of humanitarian and health workers in the North West and South West regions are continuously in danger as armed conflict persists in the crisis-hit areas.

The humanitarian and health workers have been caught between the Ambazonia separatist fighters and government defence and security forces. While the secessionist fighters have sometimes kidnapped and also killed some humanitarian and health workers, defence and security forces have, on their part, been arresting any humanitarian and health worker accused of having links with separatists or treating wounded separatist fighters, providing healthcare and humanitarian assistance to persons internally displaced by the armed conflict.

The arrested humanitarian and health workers 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.

One such humanitarian worker who has borne the brunt of the armed conflict is Emerencia Ngwo Endoh, who was working with St. Jude Apostolate Cameroon League, providing support and care to underprivileged persons in her community. Saint Jude Apostolate Cameroon League is a Roman Catholic movement with key activities being prayers and helping homeless people, especially giving care and support to less privileged people who have been victims of the armed conflict in the English-speaking regions.

On October 3, 2021, while undergoing her charitable activities, visiting and supporting the less privileged and victims of the armed conflict, the military accused Ngwo of helping Ambazonia separatist fighters with supplies. She was arrested and whisked away to the military camp, where she was tortured, allegedly raped and detained under inhumane conditions.

Days later, Ngwo was discovered abandoned on the road and taken to the hospital, where she was hospitalized to be treated for the injuries she incurred and the trauma she suffered.

But her ordeal with the military was far from over. On June 4, 2022, her brother, whose name we got as Valentine Endoh, was found dead in the bush after fleeing military torture and severe beatings.

For fear of her life, Emerencia Ngwo vamoosed, and since then, her whereabouts have not been known.

However, sometime in September 2023, the military stormed their residence in search of her. Not finding her, they took her brother, George Endoh, and tortured him, and he later died because of the injuries he incurred from the torture.

Suspicious of Ngwo’s humanitarian activities, the military has launched a manhunt for her. If rearrested by the military, Emerencia Ngwo Endoh will be tried in a military tribunal under the anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment is the death penalty. 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.

 Other victims galore

It should be recalled that in August 2018, Nancy Azah and her husband, Njong Paddisco, nurses who ran separate clinics in Mbengwi, Momo Division of the North West Region, were reported to have been shot by the military while on their way to attend to people wounded in the armed conflict.

The couple’s deaths provoked outrage among medical staff who said both sides of the conflict were threatening them: 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.

Elvis Ndansi of the Cameroon Trade Union of Nurses had said: “The military comes, chase them out of the hospital, brutalize them, beat them. As medical personnel, we all stand to condemn these acts and say they are very wrong”.

“Medical personnel are supposed to be protected in times of war. They are there to take care of all casualties, be they from the military, be they Ambazonia fighters or secessionists. Their role is to save lives,” Ndansi had added.

Meanwhile, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders had it rough with the government and separatist fighters before ending its operations in the North West and South West regions.

In the early hours of February 4, 2021, a Doctors Without Borders ambulance was fired on by armed men while responding to a call in Muyuka, Fako Division of the South West Region. The ambulance was hit, and the accompanying nurse was injured.

Doctors Without Borders was forced, in August 2021, to withdraw its teams from the North West Region after its programmes were suspended by government authorities almost eight months earlier. The suspension came after a series of allegations accusing Doctors Without Borders of supporting local armed groups, which the organization consistently denied.

In May 2022, Doctors Without Borders also suspended its activities in the South West Region.

Meanwhile, in December 2022, five of the organization’s staff, who had been detained for a year on charges of helping separatists, were released. The staff, four of them Cameroonians and one Indian, were tried in a military tribunal in Buea but acquitted.

The military arrested two of the staff in December 2021 in Nguti, Kupe-Muanenguba Division of the South West Region, while they were transporting a patient with a gunshot wound to a hospital. The military said the patient was a separatist, and the next month arrested two more Doctors Without Borders staff members, accusing them of collaboration.

Despite the dropped charges, Doctors Without Borders’ Operations Manager for Central Africa, Sylvain Groulx, said they cannot yet resume the needed aid work.

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A group of soldiers are reported to have recently swooped on Wotutu village in Buea subdivision, Fako division of the South West region, whisking away the family of one Endoh Norbert Enko to an unknown destination.

The storming of Wotutu came following an inter-quarters competition organised by Mr. Etumbo Eselem Edwin, which ended in pomp and fanfare.

The inhabitants of the Wotutu locality had all been happy that things were gradually returning to normalcy. They were thus taken aback when the defence and security forces stormed the area to pick up the family members of Endoh Norbert.

It should be recalled that Wotutu had at one point been a hotbed of secessionist activities as a fallout of the armed conflict raging in the North West and South West regions. Several Ambazonia separatist fighters had been operating in the area. The forces of law and order had often engaged in gun battles with the separatist fighters, sometimes leading to many deaths and others injured.

But for a while Wotutu had been peaceful, with many residents hoping that normalcy had finally returned to the area. However, barely a few days after the end of the football competition dubbed Ewongo-Wotutu Summer Football Tournament, the forces of law and order stormed the residence of Endoh Norbert Enko. The soldiers are said to have surrounded the whole house, brandished a search warrant and later took the entire family into their truck and ferried them away.

Neighbours asserted that the forces of law and order came in search of Endoh Norbert who had been declared wanted for years now. Not finding Endoh Norbert, they decided to take his family members away.

It is not clear what Endoh Norbert has been accused of. But if he is implicated with the activities of separatists and arrested, he will be tried in a military tribunal under the anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment is the death penalty. That is if he is not killed outright like many others who have been victims of extra-judicial killings.

By press time we could not ascertain if the family members of Endoh Norbert had been released or not.

Meanwhile, as the crisis in the North West and South West regions, which has escalated into an armed conflict, rages on, the government has stepped up its crackdown on all those suspected to be activists or sympathisers to the Anglophone cause.

In this light, security operatives have been indiscriminately arresting Anglophone activists and suspected activists. This has caused many of them to flee into hiding and the whereabouts of many is not known.

Sources say the arrested activists are being tortured and detained under horrendous and inhuman conditions. Some have reportedly died in detention.

It is also worth noting that many people, both civilians and security forces, have been killed in the crisis, many more internally displaced and over 60,000 have fled to neighbouring Nigeria where they are living as refugees.

The government, in 2019, organised what it christened Major National Dialogue to seek solution to the Anglophone crisis. But with the development in Wotutu, analysts are wondering of what essence was the much heralded Major National Dialogue. Many observers say they thought this process should start with reconciliation and a peace truce before proper dialogue can take place.

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