The Anglophone crisis that started in October 2016 and metamorphosed into armed conflict in 2017 was greeted with euphoria in the English-speaking Regions of Cameroon
A new set of Liberators were born with a mission to carve out a new Territory to be known as Ambazonia in few months.
Civil disobedience, Ghost towns every Monday and sporadic gunshots soon took over. Every now and then, blood is spilled and locals left in pain and misery - yet the trip launched by separatist activists abroad known as My Trip To Buea(MTTB) has stalled. The movement seems to be on punctured tyres as nothing visible is on the ground, but for videos and photos of them enjoying their lives abroad while the masses wallow in grief.
No meaningful development is taking place in the English-speaking Regions of the country as the crisis is in its fourth year. Rather, the hitherto constructed bridges, schools, hospitals, and roads among others have been vandalised. Road blocks have become a recurrent practice with thousands of lives lost as boys under the influence of drug try to match up with Cameroon's national army.
Houses burnt
People have been shut for reasons as basic as not sympathising with the supposed liberators. The self-appointed liberators see any one with a sane opinion as a blackleg and/or traitor. That is how they have been killing community members day in, day out.
This has given rise to mass exodus of people from the English-speaking North West and South West Regions to the French speaking Regions in search of safety and to attend schools. Others closer to the borders with Nigeria are now refugees.
These liberators have rather brought untold hardship to the peoples of these regions with an imminent food crisis in the horizon. The North West Development Authority, MIDENO regrets that the Agricultural work force has reduced drastically and the effects could be disastrous.
The Education sector has been the greatest industry that employs people in these Regions. Today, it's a shadow of itself with teachers in mission and lay private schools receiving less than 50% of their salaries - others have been out of jobs since November 2016.
Funds for My Trip To Buea were embezzled with no support to anglophone refugees in Nigeria. Those leading the separatist movements from abroad live large while selling illusions to their brothers and sisters back home.
Face masks, hand sanitizers, soap and even buckets have not been provided to these refugees as the world experiences a global pandemic, COVID-19. Instead, videos have emerge of these misguided armed separatists destroying COVID-19 preventive kits offered by their own community members.
Here is a Presidential plan to reconstruct the North West and South West Regions and bring in development. A plan supported by the United Nations Development Agency(UNDP).
The first act from the separatist is to issue a three-day ghost town that will not in anyway deter the holding of the consultation meetings with the National Coordinator, Paul Tasong and his Deputy, Donatus Njong.
Instead it brings untold suffering to the local man who depends on daily sales and struggles to survive.
When separatist fighters deny the reconstruction of the villages and towns that have been destroyed, is it not a means to say they want Anglophones to continually live in misery and abject poverty in the other places that they can't call home?
The Presidential plan is on and communities together with cultural and Development Associations will determine if they want to see their people back home or on the streets of major cities wallowing in abject poverty.
Those who prefer to take guns, hide in the bushes and destroy their communities should not forget that their masters abroad will never even spare a minute for their grief. The time is now to abandon this insane fight and make room for our communities to be reconstructed so the people can return home.
By
Ndi Tsembom Elvis
Facebook: The Observer237
Twitter: @observer237
0 Comments