Cameroonian security forces are in search of Tanwani Effendi Tanwani, a Cameroonian who was arrested in the Wotutu area in Buea Subdivision by the government forces of law and order February 9, 2026 for allegedly sponsoring terrorism.

According to report he was later released on  February 13. However, government forces paid a visit to his resident for further investigation and found out that he is nowhere to be found.

Anyone with recent information about his whereabouts should contact any nearby police station.

 A broader pattern

Tanwani’s case is one among many who have fled Cameroon due to the ongoing conflict in the Northwest and Southwest regions. It highlights the dangers faced by those attempting to seek safety in neighbouring countries and elsewhere.

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Security authorities say they have stepped up operations targeting members of the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, amid a deepening Anglophone crisis in the North West and South West Regions.

Government officials have in recent statements described SCNC activities as illegal and say security forces are conducting a “fresh manhunt” to arrest activists accused of promoting secession and disrupting public order.

This move comes as the Anglophone crisis, which began in 2016 over grievances related to language, education and law, continues to affect the two English –speaking regions. The crisis has led to displacement, school disruptions and periodic security operations.

The Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, is an outlawed political movement that advocates self-determination for the former British Southern Cameroons. The government classifies SCNC activities as illegal under Cameroon law.

It is against this backdrop that the authorities have already tagged SCNC members as the brains behind the unrest rocking the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon. After releasing a list of Anglophone activists in the diaspora, who were targeted for arrest years back, sources say a fresh list of SCNC activists both home and abroad; clamouring for the restoration of the total independence of the former British Southern Cameroons, has been re-established for arrests.

More than a hundred names have reportedly been given to intelligence services. The list that includes the likes of Florence Sassa Diange, Odilia Anih Bechu, Ntuba Ejengue Emmanuel Arthur and Noel Fonge Esondege is already making rounds in the hands of the security officials as they have been placed under security searchlight. They have been declared wanted for organising several protests in major towns in the North West and South West Regions like, Bamenda, Kumba, Mamfe, Buea, Limbe, Wum, and Mbengwi against the worsening frustration, marginalization, unlawful detention and maltreatment of the people of Former British Southern Cameroons. Most of these SCNC activists and members have underground as they have been declared wanted by the Yaoundé regime.

Reports from Buea say Noel Fonge Esondege, an SCNC activist, is currently under security searchlight. His whereabouts was cloudy at press time, according to family sources.

Fonge, reports say, is reported to have miraculously escaped from the hospital in 2023 to an unknown destination after he went unconscious at the Buea Police Station due to severe torture and assault from the police and was rushed to the hospital for medical attention.

THE SUN gathered that, Noel Fonge was arrested on February 7, 2023 alongside others by the police on the sideline of an SCNC meeting in their residence to plan for a rally duped “independence rally”. Family sources say following that arrest, Noel Fonge was taken to the Mutengene Police Station and later transferred to Buea Police Station after discovering his previous records in connection with SCNC activism.

It should be recalled that Fonge, the son of the SCNC chairman in a local branch in Buea, joined the movement in 2021 as chief whip of his local branch. THE SUN gathered that as courageous as he was, he attended about seven meetings and participated in two demonstrations that landed him in trouble with security operatives, just like any other SCNC activists in Cameroon.

THE SUN learnt that Fonge, like any other SCNC activists, has been arrested by Cameroon’s security operatives, tortured and detained under inhumane, degrading and deplorable conditions.

As we went to press, the military, with firm instruction from government, had launched fresh pursuit of Fonge for his arrest alongside many others for them to be prosecuted at the Yaounde Military Tribunal on charges on secession, hostility and related offences and his support for the restoration of the independence of the former British Southern Cameroons.

The military keeps making impromptu checks at his residential area, just to arrest and prosecute him. Family sources hinted that they are constantly being harassed and molested for them to disclose his whereabouts, which remains unclear.

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The dust is yet to settle on the aftermath of the presidential elections in Cameroon that took place on Sunday October 12, 2025 with 12 candidates, with incumbent President Paul Biya who has been in power since 1982 re-elected against 12 other opposition figures eying the Unity Palace.

The presidential race had opposition figures like Issa Tchiroma Bakari of   Cameroon National Salvation Front, CNSF; Hon Osih Joshua of the Social Democratic Front, SDF, former Bar President, Barrister Akere Muna of Univers; Hon Carbral Libih of Cameroonian Party for National Reconciliation, PCRN; Bello Bouba Maigari of National Union for Democracy and Progress, NUDP, and Serge Espoir Matomba of PURS, amongst others.

The Constitutional Council declared results in favour of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM’s candidate, President Paul Biya, on Monday October 27, 2025.

The outcome of the results triggered an outburst as supporters of Issa Tchiroma Bakari, the frontline opposition candidate in the race, claimed their candidate was the most popular and favourite and had won going by results from the return sheets presented by their polling agents from the various polling stations across the national territory. They decried electoral fraud and rigging and immediately took to the streets throughout the national territory following calls from their presidential candidate who came second with close to 37.7% of the votes.

The protest saw looting of business places, road blocks, lockdown and ghost towns.  This action from supporters of “President-elect” Issa Tchroma Bakari as he is called by his supporters and sympathizers, didn’t go down well with the government. Following strict instructions from the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, who described the protesters as terrorists and accused them for insurrection, propagation of false information, revolution and rebellion against state institutions, the military and security operatives descended on the protesters with teargas, water cannons. The protesters were tortured, arrested and detained.  Over 2,000 persons were detained in the Kondengui prison in Yaounde New Bell Prison in Douala as documented by human rights groups, while the whereabouts of others still remains cloudy.

The main challenger of incumbent President Paul Biya, Issa Tchorima, was placed under ‘house arrest” in Garoua by the population, for fear that the military could arrest and whisk him to the dreaded Kondengui Maximum Security Prison Yaounde.

Meanwhile, many CNSF frontline supporters in the likes of Georges Anicet Ekane, Professor Aba’a Oyono and Djeukam Tchameni were arrested in Douala, ferried to Yaounde and detained at the Secretariat of Defense, SED.

CNSF presidential candidate, Issa Tchiroma Bakari, who claimed to have won the polls, later fled out of the country into self-exile.

Georges Anicet Ekane later died at SED.

At press time the Prison Superintendent of the  Douala Central Prison, Alexandre Charles Philip Nguaimbahad made public a Search Warrant Press Release on Friday December 12, 2025 that went viral on social media announcing the escape of Fabrice Lena, Campaign Manager of one of the presidential candidates, Ateki Caxton, while returning under security escort from  the Douala Court of First Instance in Bonajo where he was standing trial for having published what the government described as falsified results of the polls.

THE SUN gathered that the situation of others in the likes Ngwa Elvis Niba is even more complicated. Sources say Ngwa Elvis Niba’s whereabouts is unclear after he miraculously escaped from detention. Family sources hinted that they are having sleepless nights as to his fate

Ngwa, before his disappearance, was a popular event planner and owner of a Snack Bar in Simbock, Yaounde. He is reported to have turned down a proposal of local authority cum bigwig of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM, party to be his co-campaign manager and for his snack bar to operate like rally ground for the campaigns since the area played host to many Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, fleeing the armed conflict in the North West and South West Regions. This was as due to the fact that Ngwa was an influential Anglophone elite at his Simbock community.

The local government authority is said to have cooked up allegations against Ngwa Elvis Niba as being a supporter of the Ambazonia secessionist movement.

Sources in the Simbock neighbourhood also indicated that the family of Ngwa Elvis Niba had vacated their home in Simbock Yaounde, fleeing away from Cameroonian government authorities after the arrest and escape of Ngwa.

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A Cameroonian family has fled the country and is reportedly seeking asylum abroad after years of threats, intimidation, and near-fatal encounters linked to the ongoing armed conflict in Cameroon’s North-West Region.

Nyuyfoni Sidney Fonyuy, a senior staff of the Mobile Telephone Network (MTN) in Bamenda fled the country last year as his life and that of his family became uncertain.

The family’s ordeal, traces a steady descent into fear and displacement as violence between armed separatist fighters and government forces intensified in the English-speaking regions.

According to the account, the head of the family, Nyuyfoni Sidney Fonyuy was employed in a managerial role that required frequent movement across rural communities in the North-West. These journeys, once routine, became increasingly dangerous as armed groups imposed “ghost town” days, roadblocks, and violent reprisals against perceived defiance.

At one point, he was reportedly forced to travel nearly 15 miles on foot to avoid ambushes and was repeatedly warned that he was being monitored by armed fighters. Despite transfers to safer urban locations, including Bamenda, insecurity followed him as the conflict expanded into cities, targeting civilians, businesses, and public servants.

The situation worsened after his wife Micheline Timea Scott , a teacher, continued to work in a conflict-affected area where many schools had been abandoned. In April 2022, she narrowly escaped what the family describes as a deadly incident when a vehicle transporting teachers went missing amid clashes between separatists and security forces. Several passengers were reportedly feared dead.

The trauma left her severely shaken, with the family stating that only chance prevented her from becoming another casualty of the crisis.

Our investigation further reveals a series of violent episodes in Bamenda, including shootings of civilians, abductions, and extrajudicial killings that deepened the family’s fear. By 2025, with violence intensifying in the North-West, the family decided they could no longer remain in Cameroon.

With assistance from friends, they reportedly fled the region under cover of darkness, avoiding major checkpoints and hospitals out of fear of arrest or mistaken identity. The family eventually secured temporary refuge and later obtained visas that allowed them to travel to Canada.

The couple is known never to have supported separatist movements or engaged in any criminal activity. Instead, they ordinary citizens trapped between warring sides in a conflict that has displaced hundreds of thousands of Cameroonians since 2016.

Human rights organizations have repeatedly warned that civilians in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions face heightened risks, including targeted killings, kidnappings, and collective punishment, with professionals such as teachers, administrators, and business managers often singled out.

It is hoped that immigration authorities will consider the totality of their experience and grant them protection, allowing them to rebuild their lives in safety.

“We abandoned our jobs, our home, and everything familiar—not because we wanted to leave Cameroon,” they say, “but because staying meant risking death.”

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As the crisis in the North West and South West Regions, which long escalated into an armed conflict, continues to take new twists, the government, through the defence and security forces, has intensified its pursuit for those suspected to be separatist activists, others accused of supporting and collaborating with the Ambazonia separatist fighters and those who are sympathetic to the separatist cause.

The military has also intensified its crackdown on members of the now outlawed Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC.

In this light, security and defence forces have been indiscriminately arresting all those suspected to be Ambazonia activists, collaborators and sympathisers and also persons suspected to have been taking part in activities organised by the SCNC.

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 of such is Ngah Dickson Yufonyuy, who is said to have joined the SCNC sometime in 2014. He is reported to have taken part in SCNC activities and also distributed gadgets such as posters, flyers, brochures, among others, carrying SCNC propaganda.

However, when the crisis took an ugly twist, sometime in 2018, Ambazonia separatist fighters threatened Ngah, who was a school administrative staff then. He was warned on the phone by separatist fighters that his hands will be chopped off  if he doesn’t stop working with the school since there was an imposed schools boycott by separatist fighters in the entire North West and South West regions.

For fear of his life, Ngah decided to abandon his teaching job and fled.

Meanwhile, in early 2019 when Ngah was visiting Ngendzen in Nkum Subdivision, Bui Division of the North West Region, where his mother lived, the military is said to have raided the village, burning down houses including that of Ngah’s mother. Some villagers were killed and others fled into the bushes for safety.

Ngah was seriously tortured by the soldiers and was later hospitalised.

But when he left the hospital, his ordeal was far from over. It later emerged that Ngah’s name was on a list produced by the military of wanted persons in Ngendzen village, especially supporters of the SCNC.

For fear of his life, Ngah is reported to have vamoosed and since then his whereabouts is not known.

However, we gathered that in May 2022, a warrant of arrest was issued for Ngah. If arrested, Ngah Dickson Yufonyuy will be tried in a military tribunal, under the 2014 anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment is the death sentence. That is if he 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.

On the other hand, if separatist fighters lay hands on him, Ngah will definitely be killed, like many others who have been victims of atrocities committed by separatist fighters.

Flashback On Origin Of Crisis

It should be recalled 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 sub system of education.

Things, however, got worse 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 situation later escalated into an armed conflict when some Anglophones piked up arms, fighting for the independence of country they have named. Ambazonia.

The crisis has left thousands, both civilians and security and defence forces dead, some 700,000 displaced with some living in bushes while over 50,000 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 where they are serving life sentences. They were sentenced by the Yaounde military tribunal in August 2019 on charges including terrorism and secession.

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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Reports from Bamenda, chief town of the North West Region of Cameroon say an Anglophone lecturer, Teke Johnson Takwa, noted for his criticising the Yaounde regime for the poor mistreatment of Anglophones in Cameroon especially Anglophone teachers and lecturers, has been arrested security and defense forces.

Teke Johnson Takwa is currently in custody at the military detention facility in Bamenda Up Station.

The arrest of Teke Johnson Takwa has complicated the lives and future of his wife and children, especially Teke Grateful Anwi a former vice publicity secretary of the University of Buea Students Union, UBSU, who is abroad for further studies.

Teke Johnson Takwa was arrested on Saturday August 2, 2025 at a mixed control checkpoint around Commercial Avenue in Bamenda. THE SUN gathered that the officers went through his phone and discovered messages confirming that his daughter, Teke Grateful Anwi, now abroad onetime worker in a bank at the  a Mobile Money department received money from abroad and sent to his father for onward transmission to separatist fighters and other groups to reinforce their objectives in clamouring for the restoration of the independence of Former British Southern Cameroons or the creation of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia.

It should be recalled that Teke Johnson Takwa had, at the dawn of the Anglophone crisis, been warned about his activism by joining other lecturers and teachers to protest against the transfer of French-speaking teachers to Anglophone colleges and Universities to teach Anglophone students.

His daughter played a frontline role in frequently organising student unrests as the vice publicity secretary of the University of Buea Student Union, UBSU, to manifest their grievances following government’s failure to keep to its promises since 2016. This caused her being arrested and later released by security officers sometimes in May 2021.

Sources say it is against this backdrop that the military initiated criminal proceedings against Teke Johnson Takwa before the Bamenda military court, and endorsed an arrest warrant against Teke Grateful Anwi, declaring her wanted.

As we went to press reports said while Teke Johnson Takwa is still in custody awaiting prosecution before the Bamenda Military Court, his wife, Timbu Caroline Acha, a teacher by profession, had gone underground, while Teke Grateful Anwi’s three siblings now live in trauma and fear and facing possible arrest by the military.

According to the Cameroon Penal code if arrested, they will face charged for acts of insurrection, hostilities against the state, and failure to report.

The Anglophone crisis began in 2016 with strikes by teachers and lawyers, which later attracted the people of the two English-speaking regions of the country, as they expressed their accumulated grievances emanated from marginalisation by the majority French-speaking part of Cameroon, inequality in employment, adulterations of the Common Law judicial system and English subsystem of education.

The crisis has left thousands, both civilians and security and defense forces, dead, others internally displaced with some 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.

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As the Anglophone crisis, which has metamorphosed into an armed conflict rages on, the government of the Republic of Cameroon, through its military is currently targeting innocent Anglophones, and activists.

The government has consequently launched a manhunt for them for siding with Separatists.

As a consequence, more and more Anglophone activists are going underground as they have been declared wanted by the military. Search and arrest warrants for their apprehension all over the national territory have been established.

The alleged activists both home and abroad have been considered as dangerous and threats to the public. The population has equally been urged to be vigilant and report to the closest gendarmerie or police stations. Those who have successfully escaped to countries where the respect of human rights is prime for protection, their names are still in the military database pending arrest and prosecution.

The innocent alleged activists include Nji Alfred Ndifor, Eko Olivechance Liyengu, Mbone Akanji Martin, Mbanwei John, and Charlette Nkwa Mbiaya.

As we went to press, we gathered that the entire population of Limbe, is still to come to terms with the fate of one of their illustrious daughters, 30-year-old Eko Olivechance Liyengu, whose whereabouts remains cloudy since June 2025. Reports say like many other youths who have disappeared amidst the armed conflict raging on the restive North West and South West Regions, hers is more of political witch-hunting.

Family sources say Liyengu, a Human Rights activist with particular interest on Child Protection Rights, was arrested by the military on May 17, 2025 while returning from sharing with children of some communities in Limbe considered as separatist zones, her knowledge she gathered from the 5^th Global Conference on Children and Youth which took place from the 27-29 of March 2025 in Oxford UK where she presented a paper on “The Impact of Parent-Child Relationship on the psychosocial well-being of Adolescents in Limbe, Cameroon”.

THE SUN gathered that Eko Olivechance Liyengu, a regular participant on radio debate programmes, critic of the regime and Columnist, was arrested on grounds that she is siding with separatists. She was accused of returning from separatist zones where she must have exchanged information with them, thus concluding that she is aiding and abetting terrorism in Cameroon.

Despite the fact the Eko struggled to explain, eyewitnesses disclosed that she was bundled into the military truck and whisked to their camp in Man O’ Bay and later to Buea. In Buea, she was further accused of going to the UK to collect aids for separatist and tarnishing the image of the Cameroon government through her presentation, judging from her published abstracts with Proud Pen.

Family sources hinted that Eko Olivechance Liyengu was released on the fifth day and reminded that her case file will be sent to the military prosecutor for prosecution, and to report at the military prosecutor office once a week. Despite battling with health issues following the injuries sustained while in military detention, Eko Olivechance went underground and later escape for safety when she received a distress call from her husband while at a pharmacy to purchase drugs that the military came looking for her in the house.

It should be recalled that this is not the first time Eko Olivechance Liyengu has been arrested, tortured, molested, and detained in very cruel, harsh and degrading inhumane detention conditions by the military. In 2016, as one of the youth coordinators of the Cameroon People’s Party, CPP, of Edith Kahbang Walla for the North West and South West Region, she was arrested alongside other members of the party at the sidelines of a planning meeting at Buitingui Community Hall. They are said to have been planning to go and join their party leader’s peaceful protest in Yaoundé against the marginalisation of Anglophones. The outspoken critic of the Yaoundé regime was later on arrested, molested, tortured and detained in very degrading conditions on April 15, 2019 during a military raid in Buea. She was arrested for instigating violence in Cameroon through her newspaper articles, radio talk shows and for siding with separatists.

Despite the fact that her whereabouts remains cloudy, the military still keeps making impromptu patrol to their neighbourhood just to apprehend her after locking up her husband to produce her without which he won’t be released.

Government forces have engaged in extrajudicial killings, random looting, shooting, torture, molestation using disproportionate and indiscriminate force, abusing and arresting protesters, burning more than 200 villages, 500 houses, displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians, attacking hospitals, beating and raping women and girls.

The Anglophone crisis began 2016 with Common Law lawyers and teachers strikes, which later attracted the people of the two English-speaking regions of the country, as they said their accumulated grievances emanated from marginalisation by the majority French-speaking part of Cameroon, inequality in employment, adulterations of the judicial and sub educational systems.

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As the crisis in the North West and South West regions, which has morphed into an armed conflict, rages on, residents in some localities in the conflict-hit regions have been caught between atrocities committed by Ambazonia separatist fighters and government’s clampdown on suspected separatists and sympathisers of the Anglophone cause, with the use of defense and security forces.

The government has tagged members of the outlawed Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, as the brains behind this unrest rocking the North West and South West Regions. After releasing a list of Anglophone activists in the diaspora, who were targeted for arrest years back, sources say a fresh list of SCNC members and other activists both home and abroad; clamouring for the restoration of the total independence of the former British Southern Cameroons has been re-established for arrest. More than a hundred names have reportedly been given to intelligence services.

The list has alleged SCNC activists in the likes of Florence Sassa Diange, Eyisab Enow Kenneth and Victor Eyong Memgot Ndip. It is said to be already making rounds in the hands of the military, as they have been placed under military searchlight and declared wanted since they organised several protests in major towns in the North West and South West Regions like, Bamenda, Kumba, Mamfe, Buea, Limbe, Wum, and Mbengwi against the worsening frustration and marginalisation, coupled with the arbitrary detention and maltreatment of the people of  Former British Southern Cameroons.

Most of these SCNC activists and members have gone underground as they have been declared wanted by the regime.

Reports from Etoko in Manyu Division, one of the restive zones amidst the Anglophone crisis in the South West Region, say Victor Eyong Mengot Ndip, the son the head of a local Drivers Union, and frontline member of the SCNC is under security operative’s searchlight. Reports say Victor Eyong Mengot Ndip used to accompany his father to SCNC meetings, distributing flyers and mobilising youths in their Etoko village and protesting against the marginalisation of Southern Cameroons.

The Sun gathered that after the failed Major National Dialogue to address the concerns of Southern Cameroons, especially those raised by Common Law lawyers and Anglophone teachers, government, through security operatives, launched manhunt for SCNC members and other activists and this resulted to the arrest of many SCNC activists including Mengot and his father.

They were tortured, molested, and detained in very cruel and inhumane detention conditions for two weeks and released thanks to the intervention of some human rights groups.

Family sources hinted The Sun that with the increasing holding of SCNC meetings clamouring for restoration of the independence of former British Southern Cameroons, security operatives further arrested many SCNC activities in 2018 and unfortunately Mengot’s father and sister were killed, their house razed to the ground by the military.

Mengot, The Sun learned, had no other option than to go underground for fear of the unknown.

As we went to press we gathered that the military, with firm instructions from government, had launched fresh pursuit for Mengot’s arrest alongside many others for them to be prosecuted at the Yaounde Military Tribunal on charges of secession, hostility against the state and related offences and support for the restoration of the independence of the former British Southern Cameroons.

The military keeps making impromptu checks at their Etoko residential area just to arrest and prosecute him. Family sources have hinted that they are constantly harassed and molested for them to disclose Mengot’s   whereabouts, which unfortunately remains cloudy.

The government has not stopped arresting persons who show sympathy for the SCNC and who take part in activities it organises. Reports say some of these persons have died in detention or died after detention from torture-related complications or simply just gone missing.

Flashback on the 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.

The crisis has left thousands, both civilians and security and defence forces dead, others internally displaced with some 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 a regular occurrence.

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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As the crisis in the North West and South West regions, which has morphed into an armed conflict, rages on, residents in some localities in the conflict-hit regions have been caught between atrocities committed by separatist fighters and the military clampdown on suspected activists and sympathisers of the Anglophone cause with the use of defence and security forces.

Security operatives have been indiscriminately arresting Anglophone youths and family members. Many in the hard hit crisis zones have been brutally shot to death by both military men in uniform and unidentified gunmen.

As we went to press we gathered that the entire population of Tali 1, a village in Upper Bayang Subdivision, Manyu Division, South West Region is still to come to terms with an incident that happened in the village, leading to the brutal killing of two brothers, Orock Mbu Jones and Orock Eyong Clyde, by unknown gunmen on April 17, 2025.

According to reports, the unidentified gunmen raided the family residence of activists in the village, brutalising, torturing and coercing them to furnish them with information concerning the whereabouts of their activist brother, Orock Acruba Randy, a Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, activist who had long gone underground and his whereabouts remains cloudy since 2018.

Out of frustration because Orock Randy family members’ resisted to disclose any information that could lead to his whereabouts being disclosed, eyewitnesses narrated under conditions that the unidentified gunmen, suspected to be military men, took Orock Mbu Jones and Orock Eyong Clyde to a nearby bush and shot them dead.

The entire population of Tali I village remains restless as the same gunmen still continue to make impromptu visits to the locality, with threats and harassments being the order of the day. They have vowed that they will keep up ransacking the residences of family members of SCNC activist, Orock Acruba Randy, until they produce him or disclose his whereabouts.

The population of Tali I village have already concluded that it is now crystal clear that the life of Orock Acruba Randy is perpetually in danger and he risks being killed anytime he is found anywhere in the national territory.

It should be recalled that Orock Acruba Randy’s whereabouts remains cloudy since 2018 due to his activism with the SCNC, a movement known for articulating against the marginalisation of the Anglophones minority by the Francophones majority and above all clamouring for the restoration of the independence of the former British Southern Cameroons. Despite Orock Acruba Randy’s rich educational background and a promising marketing career, he, just like many of his peers joined the SCNC.

Orock Acruba’s activism with the SCNC saw him being arrested by the military in Buea alongside others in October 2017 for taking part in a demonstration organised by the SCNC that was banned by the government in January 2017 at the wake of the teachers and lawyers strike with some of its leaders arrested. Orock Acruba Randy, alongside those arrested, were tortured, molested, brutalised and whisked to detention cells and accused of destabilising the country.

Family sources say that despite the fact that Orock Acruba Randy was released after three months of detention in inhumane and degrading conditions, he still remained undeterred by the threats to stop his SCNC activism.

A family member, on condition of anonymity, recounted that in March 2018, about seven masked men raided their residence in Kumba and demanded sensitive SCNC documents simply because he was a secretary. As he resisted to hand over the documents, he was subjected to all forms of violence that left him unconscious thereby forcing Orock Acruba Randy to probably leave Kumba for good due to trauma.

Reports say this situation in the North West and South West Regions has caused many to migrate to French -speaking towns and the cities in Cameroon, while others have fled to neighbouring countries as refugees.

Defence and security forces have reportedly engaged in extrajudicial killings, random looting, shooting, torture, molestation using disproportionate and discriminating force, abusing and arresting protesters, burning more than 400 villages, 800 houses displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians, attacking hospitals beating and raping women and girls.

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The government, through the defence and security forces, has launched a manhunt for a welder who was accused of supplying iron rods to separatist fighters to fabricate weapons.

As the crisis in the North West and South West Regions, which long escalated into an armed conflict, rages on, defence and security forces have been indiscriminately arresting Anglophone activists and other persons suspected or accused of collaborating with separatist fighters or sympathetic to the separatist cause.

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

One of those defence and security forces have launched a manhunt for is Elvis Babila Fonda, a welder who was practicing his trade in Bali Nyonga, Mezam Division of the North West Region.

Babila’s ordeal began sometime in early January 2023 when some soldiers visited his shop and accused him of having been supplying iron rods to Ambazonia separatist fighters to use in producing weapons. While Babila declared his innocence, the soldiers instructed him to close his shop and stop practicing his trade.

However, days after, the military stormed the residence in Bali, where Babila was living with his mother, sister and his two children. Babila was not at home when the soldiers came looking for him. His sister was beaten and shot on the leg. When Babila finally arrived home, the soldiers laid hands on him, beat him and were about to take him away. But after pleas from his mother and neighbours they left, warning him not to ever open his workshop.

Nonetheless, about a week later, Babila is said to have opened his shop to deliver the job of a client he had done. Unfortunately for him, the defence and security raided the shop, arrested and whisked him away to the police station. Here, he is said to have been tortured and detained under very poor conditions.

Babila was later released on condition that he should report at the police station one month after. He is reported to have instead escaped to Yaounde.

But Babila’s torments were far from over. One day a mixed control of policemen and gendarmes stopped a taxi in which he was. Upon looking at his identity card, the policemen and gendarmes began beating him and accusing him of being an Ambazonia supporter, who had failed to present himself to the police station in Bali as he was to do. Babila sustained injuries on his leg.

He is said to have been presented a list with his name among wanted suspected Ambazonia separatist accused of using and fabricating explosives and traditional weapons.

Miraculously, the defence and security forces later let Babila go. But for fear of his life, he is said to have gone underground and his whereabouts is not currently known.

If arrested, Elvis Babila Fonda will be tried in a military tribunal, under the 2014 anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment is the death sentence. That is if he 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 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 crisis has left thousands, both civilians and security and defence forces dead, others internally displaced with some living in bushes while over 70,000 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 serving life sentences at the Kondengui maximum security prison in Yaounde. They were sentenced by the Yaounde military tribunal on charges of secession, among others.

Many other activists such as Mancho Bibixy, Penn Terrence, Tsi Conrad, among others, are also 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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