By Sah Terence Animbom
After the burning down of over 47 houses of Fulanis in Ukpwa village in Wum sub division, the divisional headquarters for Menchum Division in the North West Region of Cameroon on the night of Thursday May 30, 2019 that left over 300 hundred Mbororo persons in the Lake Nyos resettlement camp at Ukpwa, homeless, an inter religious war was provoked in the sub division and has so far led to many violent twists on a daily basis for the past one week. 13 persons have again been slain by Muslim youths in Ketcha village, between Saturday June 8, and Sunday June 9, 2019.
Houses in Ukpwa village, a resettlement Camp area on the night of Thursday May 30, were burnt by gunmen who portrayed themselves as Ambazonia Restoration Fighters, accusing the Mbororo community of reporting them to the military every day. The SUN spoke to some inhabitants of Upkwa who told the tears provoking tale of how they found themselves homeless and under the rains that night after the raid. “I was taken at gunpoint from my house and the people who were all armed told me we are the ones always reporting them to the government and that we have been kept at the camp by the government, meaning that the government and us are the same, so they don’t want us there anymore. They told me my people and I must leave their land. They pulled me to the mosque, taking along my mattress and promising to burn me with it. When they got to the Mosque, they set the mosque on fire and had me well beaten with their leader smashing me from head to toe. After kicking and smashing and beating me so mercilessly, they now wanted to throw me into the burning mosque but started arguing among themselves. Some said I should be burnt while others said I shouldn’t be burnt. It’s thanks to God that the ones who said I should not be burnt outnumbered those who wanted me to be burnt, and they allowed me there and left. It remains a miracle to me that the mosque did not burn and fall on me, because I was dumped just in front of the mosque, unable to move because of the severe torture they had given me”, the Community leader, Alhadji Bira Kurmajo narrated to The SUN.
Their goats were slain and about five cows killed, he equally said.
The murder of a Muslim notable on Sunday June 2, 2019 by unknown men raised the adrenaline of Muslim youths in Wum, as they vowed to revenge the burning of their houses and death of one of theirs.
As if all were calm after the North West Governor’s communiqué of Friday May 31, Monday June 3, 2019 turned out to be a Black Monday for inhabitants of Naikom, Waindu and Ketcha villages in Wum, as over 50 houses, including their palaces and the Baptist Church at Ndekwi were burnt by a group of Muslim youths in retaliation to the burning of their fellow Muslims’ houses at Ukpwa.
Made up of Mbororos, Hausas, Akus and Fulanis, the Muslim youths mobilized themselves and went out with machetes, daggers, bows and arrows and moved from Hausa quarters to Naikom, burning houses around the GTHS Wum Junction and moving further into Ketcha village, located some four kilometers from the post office Roundabout in Wum. Two people are reported to have died that Monday and another old man probably in his late 80s was trapped in his house when the Muslim youths set fire on his house under the watchful eyes of the Gendarmes, it is alleged. Unable to walk out alone, he sustained severe burns and was later rushed to the Wum District Hospital where he died on Saturday June 3, 2019.
Reports circulated on social media claiming the real culprits involved in the brutal murder of the Muslim notable were his son and friends, who murdered him to collect money. The reports further said the death came as an error and was thus falsely blamed on the Amba boys as the Restoration Fighters are called. They concluded by claiming that Amba Boys had found out that the man was killed by his own son and friends and had arrested the son. However, a fresh Video circulated on social media on Saturday supposedly made by the same guy who was accused of killing his father and was reported to have been arrested. In the video he says he is free and that he could not have killed his father and that all the claims are false.
With Wum becoming more tense every day, the Senior Divisional Officer for Menchum organized a crisis meeting with some stakeholders of both communities, to preach reconciliation and living together on Saturday and while the meeting was on, fresh violence re-erupted at Ketcha, with the Muslim youths again attacking and killing as many as five people and others sustaining grave injuries. One of the persons injured was Wally, a popular photographer in Wum who was brutally pierced with daggers several times and is presently hospitalized. The killing spree continued on Sunday morning, leading to eight more deaths including a popular Wum council worker known as Charles Taylor.
There have been wild condemnations of the complacent attitude of the military, who instead of restraining the Muslim youths from burning, killing and fighting the Christians in Wum, were rather making videos of the youths on the streets promising hell to Non-Muslims in Wum and actually going on to execute without any restrain for the whole day. Bapa, an Hausa quarter inhabitant is one of the ring leaders of the radical Muslim youths and says he is in control of the Hausa Quarter, promising hell to the Amba Boys and their families.
It is worth mentioning that the cultural differences and especially cultural intolerance that once reigned among the Mbororo community and the Aghem community in Wum at some time had been reduced to the minimal thanks to the intervention of MBOSCUDA, which instituted dialogue platforms to take care of farmer grazer problems in Menchum. Many say it is very regrettable that the Anglophone crisis seems to have reawakened the once buried spirit of suspicion and intolerance, leading to an outright war under the watchful eyes of the forces of law and order, who seem to be acting as security to the now radical Muslim youths, who too have become as radical as the Amba Boys.