The North West and South West Regions of Cameroon have been restive for about three years now.  What started as a Common Law Lawyers and Anglophone Teachers protest is now known as the Anglophone Crisis with the call for the creation of an Ambazonian State by secessionist and separatist fighters.

As tensions in the North West and South West Regions rage unabated, government has embarked on a mission to fish out sympathisers and activists backing what is now termed Anglophone Crisis. The government has already considered them terrorists and numerous  trump up  charges against them such as propagation of false information, rebellion, revolution, secession insurrection and non -possession of National Identity card.

A survey report disclosed by a group of Human Rights Organisations in Cameroon indicates that the lives of activists of Anglophone extraction are now in danger. Many of the activists have been arrested and placed under degrading human conditions while in detentions while others have relocated to unknown destinations as their family homes and neighbourhoods have been on constant check by security operatives to apprehend them due to their opinion which is anti-government according to the government. This is why these collectives of Human Rights Organisations are recommending that people of goodwill should accord maximum security to any Anglophone activists who is on the run for fear of government persecution

Residences of activists whose whereabouts remain a misery and are under police searchlights have been razed to the ground.

The tales of James Nkeze Awung, a teacher by profession and Mbeayi  Gregory Ngu   one  time   worker at the Azi Hospital,  Menji  in Lebialem  division of the South West region, are very pathetic.

The government has apparently open investigation   especially as their whereabouts, going by family sources, remain bleak and there is every indication that if found they will be persecuted and handed life jail terms.

Reports hold that James Nkeze Awung, who had suffered several arrests and molestation by the military, had no option than to escape on May 9, 2018 as him among others were being transferred from Mbanga to Douala by the police.

It should be recalled that James Nkeze Awung was apprehended in Fiango Kumba in the South West Region, while transporting his mother’s plantains to the market and whisked immediately to Mbanga in the Littoral Region. Few days later after serious torture and degrading treatment by the security, James Nkeze Awung and many others while in a truck en route  to the dreaded New Bell Prison in Douala, jumped out of the truck and dashed into the bush amidst gunshots from the military transporting them  to Douala.

Another victim of circumstance in the ongoing Anglophone crisis is Mbeayi Gregory Ngu. As a worker with the Azi Hospital in Menji South West Region, he joined colleagues to protest in September 2017, against the mass influx of Doctors of French-language expression posted by government in the area who couldn’t communicate in the purely dominant English-speaking area.

Reports from Menji say immediately after the protest, Mbeayi and other protesters were arrested and detained for several days under inhumane conditions. Though they were released after serious negotiations, Mbeayi Gregory Ngu and other colleagues went ahead to stage another protest. They were arrested and molested and due to the inhumane treated Mbeayi was admitted in a Buea-based clinic for two weeks. For the sake of his people Mbeayi relocated to Essoh Attah village and engaged his services as a volunteer in Essoh Attah Health Centre. Mbeayi will himself be a wanted man when the military came looking for him on allegations that he had administered treatment to an alleged separatist fighter whom the military had shot.

After about 15 days in hiding, Mbeayi was informed that soldiers have been constantly looking for him. Though he escaped to Yaounde, unfortunately following the October 2018 post-presidential elections protest in January 2019  by some sympathisers of  an opposition party who claimed their victory was stolen  there was mass arrest by the gendarmerie  which saw Mbeayi equally arrested. Mbeayi and others, this reporter learnt, managed to escape after struggling with the security on their way to the Yaounde central Prison, though two other arrested protesters were shot dead by the military during that scuffle. Ever since this incident Mbeayi Gregory Ngu has remained in the search books of the security all over the national Territory.

Recent statistics by civil society organisations 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 430,000 people remain internally displaced with thousands having fled to neighbouring Nigeria where they are living as refugees.

Cameroon which was once internationally praised as one of the most peaceful countries in the world is now struggling to cope with untold causalities from what many qualify as an unrelenting and insidious conflict.

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While thecrisis that has been rocking the North West and South West regions, which has spiraled 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.

The government has also been cracking down on those suspected of aiding the separatists in their fight for the independence of a country they have christened Ambazonia.

In this light, security operatives have been indiscriminately arresting Anglophone activists and suspected activists and their symperthisers. Sources say the arrested persons are being detained under deplorable and inhuman conditions. Some have reported died in detention.

This has caused many of them to flee into hiding and the whereabouts of many is not known. Meanwhile, as the gun battles between the military and separatist fighters increase, whole villagers have been burnt down, forcing villagers in some communities to escape into the forest, for fear of being caught the crossfire.

Many suspects have been going through hard times in the hands of the military. One case is that of a trader of fresh and canned food,Magdaline Ngu Esse, who was accused of feeding and making available food to separatist fighters. But Magdaline Ngu Esse refuted the accusation. Fearing for her life, she is said to have gone into hiding.

Magdaline Ngu’s ordeal worsen when it came to the knowledge of the military that her husband was a teacher. This is because the crisis in the North West and South West regions began with a strike of Common Law lawyers and teachers in the English-speaking regions.

Meanwhile, sometime in August 2018, the military is said to have stormed Magdaline Ngu’s family residence in Owe Road, Muyuka in Fako division of the South West region. The military is said to have fired shots randomly. However, her family members had been tipped of the imminent raid by the military and had escaped.

When Magdaline Ngu or her family members were not found in the residence, the soldiers then went ahead to burn down the house.

Since the macabre incident, Magdaline Ngu Esse’s whereabouts in not known. She is suspected to have escaped out of the country. If arrested, she will be tried in a military tribunal under the anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment is the death penalty. That is if she will not be killed outright like many others who have been victims of extra-judicial killings.

It should be noted that businessmen and women have been bearing the brunt of the armed conflict in the North West and South West regions. Not long ago a businessman in Belo Boyo division of the North West region, popularly known as Sam Sawyer, was killed and beheaded, allegedly by the military.

Meanwhile, we gathered that the government recently released a list of wanted persons in connection to the armed conflict. The list included names such as Enow Agbor Peter, James Che Ngwa, Jude Funui Achuo, Emile Fru Ambe and Stephen Lima Dingana among others.

Origin of 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 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 armed conflict has caused the deaths of thousands. Thousands more internally displaced with some living in bushes while several other thousands have fled to neighbouring Nigeria, where they are living as refugees.

Separatist leader, Sissiku Ayuk Tabe, and nine others who were arrested in Nigeria and later extradited to Cameroon are currently Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaounde, from where they have been attending trial at the military tribunal.

While the Anglophone crisis continues to escalate, international organisations and other western powers have called on the government to address the root cause through dialogue.

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