Reports hold that the lives of many alleged Anglophone activists including their relatives both at home and abroad remains a misery ever since the Anglophone crisis, which later on escalated into an armed conflict started.

Many of them have been accused by the government of siding, aiding and abetting with separatist fighters who have picked up arms against the state, demanding for the restoration of the independence of former British Southern Cameroons or the creation of a new country which they have christened Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

Amongst the activists who are in government blacklist, and target for arrest anytime they step feet in Cameroon include the UK-based newly elected Chairman of the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, Robert Tamanji, alongside other members like: Ivo Kuka, Catherine Yambo, Omawah Elenor Charlotte Oyebog, Alain Bougan, Muella Kamgang Armand, 30-year-old Mbong Becky Nganji, amongst others.

Many youths in the English-speaking North West and South West regions are reported to be entangled due to the Anglophone crisis that has been raging on since 2016.  Cases abound and Cameroon is no longer a safe place for them.

Even though 30-year-old Mbong Becky Nganji’s whereabouts still remains cloudy since December 2022, a manhunt has been launched for her by the military. Reports say the holder of Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Buea, before going underground in December 2022 for fear of persecution and subsequent prosecution  by the Yaounde cruel regime, was a Psycho social worker with the HIV Free Project. The Sun Newspaper gathered that from November 2021 to April 2022 Mbong Becky had passed through hell in the hands of the military. Her baptism of fire, reports say, was on Saturday November 13, 2021 when the military stormed their office and immediately accused them of not only aiding and abetting separatist fighters’s activities but equally clamouring for the separation of former British Southern Cameroons from East Cameroon.

She was later be accused by the military of being a spy and the one providing sensitive information to the separatists to alert them from being captured. Sources disclosed that Mbong, while under cruel detention condition, was sexually assaulted and watched with dismay how an inmate died from military torture.

Their home was razed to the ground by the military, her father and cousin were brutally tortured on allegations that they were supplying arms to the separatist. This torture caused the death of her father.

Mbong Becky, whose family was accused of secession, masterminding and supporting the Anglophone movement from abroad, was only released on bail at the State Prosecutors Chambers thanks to the intervention of their family lawyer on condition that she will be present herself routinely at the State Prosecutors Chambers.

For fear of the unknown, Mbong relocated to Douala to live with her aunt,but received sad news few weeks later that one her closest cousins was shot dead by the military while on his way back home from bible studies. This was on allegations that he was a spy, siding with the separatists and supporting “ghost towns” called by the separatists.

Depressed by this situation, Mbong’s family had no other option than to negotiate her escape out of the country.

Ever since Mbong Becky Nganji disappeared from the country under cloudy circumstances, confrontations between the military and the separatists have intensified while she still remains a target of the military. Family sources say the military keeps making impromptu checks around their neighbourhood. By at press time Mbong Becky Nganji had been declared wanted.

It should be recalled that Common Law Lawyers went to strike in October 2016 to protest government attempts to annihilate the Common Law practice in a constitutionally bilingual and bi-jural Cameroon. The strike lasted for over a year. Anglophone teachers in the country joined the strike on November 21, 2016 to uphold Anglo-Saxon values under threat in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions.

The government crackdown on Anglophone activists has since intensified with arbitrary arrests, detention, torture and extra-judicial killings becoming the new normal, human rights groups have said.

The North West and South West regions of Cameroon have remained restive since the outbreak of the Anglophone crisis in 2016. Investigative findings and reports from many human rights groups and non-governmental organizations have condemned extrajudicial killings, by mostly the military, on innocent civilians including children and pregnant women, and the burning of houses

Reports say this situation has caused many to migrate to French Cameroon, while others have fled to neighbouring countries as refugees. According to statistics from human rights groups, over 7,000 persons have been killed, hundreds kidnapped, thousands of houses and over 400 villages razed with over 75,000 persons identified as Internally Displaced, with over 45,000 as refugees in Nigeria. Some have been left in constant fears either for the demise of their love ones or because their houses have been razed. These attacks have been so alarming that human rights groups across the board have concluded that Cameroon is no longer safe.

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As the crisis rocking the North West and South West regions, which has spiraled into an armed conflict, rages on, relatives of separatists, friends, wives and husbands and suspected sympertisers of the Anglophone cause have been feeling the brunt as government steps up its crackdown.

In this light, security operatives have been indiscriminately arresting family members, loved ones, punishing them for crimes committed by suspected separatists.

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

Killings, kidnappings, torture and scores-settling have become the order of the day.

Meanwhile, people have been killed or arrested simply because they have a relationship or are family members of either separatist fighters or soldiers. Many people have lost their lives or properties because they are related to either are separatist fighter or government soldier.

It should be recalled that this was the case in early 2019, when the mother of senior Ambazonia activist based in Belgium, Mark Bareta, was arrested and detained at the police station in Buea.

Meanwhile, in August 2019, 80-year-old Grace Mafuantem and Beza Berist, respectively mother and sister of Chris Anu, who is the Secretary of Communication of the Ambazonia Interim Government, IG, were arrested in Yaounde and detained at the Secretariat for Defence at the National Gendarmerie, SED.

Security forces arrested them after a search operation was carried out at their residence in Yaounde.

Grace Mafuantem and Beza Berist were later transferred to the Kondengui maximum security prison, from where they appeared at the Mfoundi High Court.

It should be noted that frontline separatist leader, Chris Anu, also has a brother, Lekeaka Oliver aka Field Marshall, who is one of the foremost rebel leaders in the Lebialem division of the South West region.

In October 2021, eight-month pregnant Antoinette Kongnso Gohla, former girlfriend of separatist fighters’ kingpin known as General No Pity, was arrested and detained at the Buea police station and later transferred to the Buea Central prison. After being taken to the Buea Regional Hospital to give birth, she was sent back to the prison. Kongnso and her baby continue to languish in prison despite the fact that a court in Buea had ruled, granting her bail.

Meanwhile, in early August 2021, security forces are reported to have arrested the mother and sister of general No Pity in Bambalang, Ngoketunjia division of the North West region. They were later transferred to Yaounde where they are currently being detained at Secretariat for Defence at the National Gendarmerie, SED.

Sometime ago, Dorish Mbong Amuh, a voluntary worker with the Cameroon Red Cross in the North West region, suspected by the military of helping wounded separatist fighters. The military, we gathered, is currently searching for her.

Another case is that of Minette Eyong Etta, who recently visited Cameroon from Sweden and was arrested, tortured and thrown behind bars because her husband, Humphry Bate, is wanted, allegedly for supporting and financing separatist movements. The allegations, nonetheless, have not been proven to be true.

We gathered that though Minette was finally released after bail was granted her, there are hundreds, if not thousands, in jails across the country under similar conditions.

Origin of the crisis

It is worth recalling that the Anglophone crisis, something that pundits say had been brewing for several years, boiled over in October 2016 when Common Law Lawyers in the North West and South West regions went on strike, paralyzing the courts. They were demanding for a return to the federal system of government, redeployment of Civil Law Magistrates back to Civil Law Courts among other grievances. Not long after, teachers in the North West and South West regions also went on strike, demanding the redress of several issues concerning the English sub-system of education.

Things got worse when concerned citizens in the North West and South West regions, who had been fed up with the unfavourable political and especially economic stagnation of Cameroon at large, but more importantly in these regions, joined the strike.

But after negotiations with the teachers and lawyers ended in deadlock, the government banned the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, and the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, CACSC. Some of the leaders of the Consortium such as Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho and Dr. Fontem Niba were immediately arrested while others such as Barrister Bobga Harmony and Tassang Wilfred fled into hiding.

Meanwhile, some leaders of the Anglophone separatist movements including Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and nine others, who were arrested in Abuja, Nigeria in February 2018 and later extradited to Yaounde, are currently at the Kondengui maximum security prison, where they are serving life sentences. Many other Anglophone activists including Mancho Bibixy, Penn Terence, Tsi Conrad, among others, are also serving lengthy prison sentences.

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 30,000 have fled to neighbouring Nigeria where they are living as refugees.

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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