BY KUBU EVELYN
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 defence and security forces.
Security operatives have been indiscriminately arresting Anglophone activists and suspected activists while innocent youths are bearing the brunt of the unending armed struggle in the hands of both military and separatist fighters. These innocent youths are usually caught in the web of military officers and separatist fighters. They are either kidnapped for ransom by separatist fighters, taken to their respective camps, molested, tortured in an inhumane manner, while the military are involved in extrajudicial killings of innocent youths.
Lockdowns and ghost towns being the order of the day causing, there is untold hardship as places at times remain closed for several weeks, making it difficult for people to purchase food stuff for the family.
In the face of all these, the defence and security forces have established both search and arrest warrants for the apprehension against many youths and alleged Anglophone activists all over the national territory, suspected to be siding with separatist fighters as the armed conflict rages on.
These alleged activists are being considered dangerous and threats to the public and have been declared wanted. The population has equally been urged to be vigilant and report them to the closest gendarmerie or police stations.
It is against this backdrop that unanswered questions have been raised about the whereabouts of many Anglophones who have disappeared amidst the ongoing armed conflict.
One of such is Allen Enoh Bate, whose whereabouts since the month of June 2017 is unknown. He has been declared wanted and the arrest warrant against him is still enforceable.
As we went to press, military sources hinted that Allen Enoh Bata’s name, amongst other youths, has appeared in the list of those to be prosecuted if arrested as they have been declared wanted.
THE SUN gathered that due to the lockdowns and ghost towns calls by separatist fighters leading to scarcity of food stuff in Enoh Bata’s Bunduma–Buea neighbourhood, he decided to muster courage to go and purchase food from a grocery. Sources say upon his return from the grocery, he, along other,s were intercepted by military officers who tortured and whisked them to their station where they were detained incommunicado for a week. This was on grounds that they were Ambazonia fighters who have taken up arms against the state. Allen Enoh Bate miraculously escaped from detention and immediately went underground.
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 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.
The crisis has left thousands, both civilians and security and defence forces dead, others internally displaced with some living in bushes, while over 40,000 have fled to neighbouring Nigeria where they are living as refugees, houses as well as villages 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.