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 sympathizers of the Anglophone cause with the use of defense and security forces.

Government has equally launched a manhunt for alleged activists siding with separatists. The activists include members of the outlawed Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, a pressure group clamouring for the restoration of the independence of the former British Southern Cameroons. A list bearing the names of these alleged activists is already making rounds in the hands of the military. The activists have been placed under military searchlight and declared wanted since they organized several protests and organized fighters living in the bushes to pick up arms to fight against the military and state institutions.

After releasing a list of Anglophone activists in the Diaspora, who were targeted for arrest some time ago, sources say a fresh list of SCNC members and other activists both home and abroad has been re-established for arrest. More than a hundred names have reportedly been given to intelligence services.

It is against this backdrop, that unanswered questions have been raised about the whereabouts of many SCNC and Anglophones activists who have disappeared amidst the ongoing armed conflict rocking the restive North West and South West Regions.

One of such is Wilfred Tembe Ndum. Reports from Buea say his whereabouts remains cloudy since he fled the country in December 2016.

As we went to press, family sources hinted that Tembe’s name has featured in the list of those to be arrested and prosecuted anywhere he is found within the national territory. THE SUN gathered that his case is even more complicated due to his frontline role within the ranks of the SCNC.

The member of the Sam Soya Center for Democracy and Human, reports say, returned to Cameroon in October 2016 for a family visit, from South Africa where he was into business. On November 2016, due to the injustices he suffered in the hands of the Biya regime while seeking for employment in the public service, he decided to participate in a peaceful protest in Buea alongside thousands of others from the various English – speaking Regions.

The peaceful demonstration was led by lawyers and teachers, to condemn the gross discrimination of Anglophones by the regime of President Paul Biya. Reports say the protesters were faced with military reprisals as the police flooded the streets and opened fire on the unarmed civilians and targeted many individuals including Wilfred Tembe Ndum.

THE SUN gathered few days after the peaceful demonstration that turned bloody, that elements of the national gendarmerie raided the Great Soppo neighbourhood in Buea in the night of November 15, 2016, forcibly entered Wilfred Tembe Ndum’s residence and arrested him. Eyewitness accounts narrate that Wilfred Tembe Ndum was molested, tortured, assaulted and later whisked to the gendarmerie station where he was detained in a cruel, inhumane and degrading detention condition.

Family sources hinted that Wilfred Tembe Ndum was immediately accused of terrorism, vandalism, and secessionist activities. After serious legal negotiation, reports say Wilfred Tembe was released on December 5, 2016 but to subsequently appear before the Buea High Court on December 15, 2016.

Wilfred Tembe Ndum THE SUN gathered later disappeared from the hospital while on medical examination following the security brutality on him when he was arrested and detained

As we went to press, the military had launched fresh pursuit for his 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 his support for the restoration of the Independence of the former British Southern Cameroons.

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

Flashback of 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 occurrences.

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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The government of Cameroon has intensified the search for activists of the outlawed Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, a secessionist pressure group clamouring for the independence of Southern Cameroons.
Southern Cameroons, it should be noted, is the then West Cameroon today the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon otherwise known as Anglophone Cameroon.
Following the ongoing Anglophone crisis that started in 2016 with Teachers of the English Sub System of Education and Common Law Lawyers decrying the marginalisation of West Cameroonians, SCNC activists added their voices to what has been termed by many as the Anglophone struggle, thus causing the government to have sleepless nights with accusing fingers pointing at all Anglophone activists at home and abroad.
The government has gone a long way to reiterate on several instances that all Anglophone activists, as well as SCNC activists shall have no rest in Cameroon as long as the struggle continues. The cases of SCNC activists who have taken on their heels for fear of arrest and subsequent persecution have been revisited. Some of the activists include Edoa Mbomo Claude Wilfred, Ephraim Sama Billa and Agbor Peter.
Human Rights Organisations in Cameroon have equally indicated 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 in maximum security detention facilities across the country.
Many have relocated to unknown destinations as their family homes and neighbourhoods have been on constant check by security operatives seeking to apprehend them due to their perceived anti-government opinions.
As tensions in the North West and South West Regions rages unabated, government has embarked on a mission to fish out sympathisers and activists backing what is now termed “Anglophone Crisis”.
Residences of suspected activists whose whereabouts remain a mystery are under police searchlights while some have been razed to the ground.
The case of 36-year-old Edoa Mbomo Claude Wilfred, who joined the SCNC sometimes in 2014, is very pathetic.
Reports hold that the whereabouts of Edoa Mbomo Claude Wilfred, who is currently under security operatives’ searchlight, has remained cloudy since January 2017 after she was released after serious negotiations with forces of law and order. Edoa Mbomo Claude Wilfred had spent three days in detention under degrading and inhumane conditions following her arrest in Yaounde by security operatives on January 4, 2017, family sources hinted.
According to information gathered, shortly after Edoa Mbomo adhered to the SCNC, she became an ardent member and participated in all their activities, distributing of flyers, brochures and attending SCNC propaganda meetings throughout Southern Cameroons.

In one of their secret meetings in Bamenda June 30,2016, to plan for peaceful demonstration to protest the detention and subsequent release of fifteen SCNC activists apprehended in Buea, the regime immediately issued an arrest warrant for all of them. They were subsequently arrested and incarcerated for five days under horrible conditions. Thanks to the intervention of a human rights lawyer, they were released after having endorsed an undertaking to desist from SCNC activities in the country. But this didn’t deter Edoa and other activists as they still continued their activism. She, like other SCNC leaders, campaigned for the boycott of Youth Day celebration on February 11, 2017. That’s how Edoa Mbomo Claude Wilfred and other activists will be declared wanted by the regime.
News of her search by the military caused family members to advice her to leave the country for fear of being arrested and subsequent persecution by the Yaounde regime.
Plain clothes security operatives since her disappearance have been making impromptu visits to their residence in search of Edoa Mbomo, family relations and neighbours have testified. Though criminal responsibility is personal, the mother of Edoa Mbomo has been placed under police custody several times just for her to indicate the whereabouts of Edoa Mbomo Claude Wilfred.
It should be recalled that many Anglophones have been apprehended in various military police checkpoints after their phones had been search messages, videos, pictures and images of the killings of Cameroon of Military by Ambazonia Defence Forces, ADF, discovered therein. They have been detained under draconian and inhumane detention conditions.
Recent statistics by civil society organisations reflect the extent of the damage with horrific numbers. The death toll is on the rise while there are claims that about 300 villages have been burnt down in two regions and some 500,000 people remain internally displaced with hundreds of thousand having fled to neighbouring Nigeria where they are living as refugees.

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