Security operatives have been indiscriminately arresting Anglophone activists and suspected activists. This has caused many of them to flee into hiding and the whereabouts of many is not known.
Sources say the arrested activists are being tortured and detained under horrendous and inhuman conditions. Some have reportedly died in detention.
The government is also believed to be intensifying its scorched earth policy. In addition to pressing for the arrest of those believed to be bankrolling the separatist agenda, the armed forces are reported to be going after their families on the ground.
Human rights institutions have decried the move, citing that it goes against every strand of human rights principles. In June 2022 report, the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa, CHRDA, revealed that multiple rights violations had ensued in the Anglophone regions. Among them, it noted, were acts of arson, arbitrary arrests, attacks on citizens, and more.
“In the month of June, multiple attacks were recorded against civilians and civilian objects … including the massacre of at least nine unarmed civilians in Fungom by the Cameroonian Defense and Security Forces,” CHRDA stated.
Among the said victims cited by other sources, is 37 years old Njeunken Majoline Manyi a social Media inflencia and occasion business woman from Muyuka. Who held the post of distribution secretary in the outlawed SCNC movement tag by goverment as a rebellions organisation.
In a raid this time in her area at Muyuka in Fako division of the South West region where she owned an occasion shop and was a venue for several meetings, Njeunken Majoline family was again affected, with two of his relatives including her twin babies daddy and others reportedly taking to their heels.
Njeunken Majoline Manyi name had allegedly featured among those of many others believed to be sponsoring the separatist conflict, and his family was accessed as a portal to get her.
However, human rights groups say that Manyi, like many others cited, are not guilty. Multiple persons sending home money for the upkeep of their families are said to have fallen victim, and are accused of rather sponsoring terrorists.
Nevertheless, Njeunken babies daddy before his arrest, had been accused of using ICT to spread false news and propaganda about the percussionist ideology. Despite arguing the contrary, Majoline babies Daddy was arrested and later released after days in detention. Having gone into hiding, her babies daddy was later arrested again during one of the many raids carryout.
Meanwhile, we gathered from sources that a warrant of arrest has been issued for Njeunken Majoline Manyi. Her pictures also been posted on some public places by security forces, declaring her and the mother wanted. If arrested, they will be tried under the anti-terrorism law, whose maximum punishment is the death sentence. That is if they are not killed outright like many others who have been victims of extra-judicial killings.
Since May 20 (National Day) celebration and increased violence, authorities appear to have doubled down their crackdown on civilian communities. It is also reported that multiple persons on the said ‘wanted’ list have had their assets and bank accounts frozen, as the brutal crackdown ensues.
Njeunken Majorline should be noted hail from Njungo village in Nguti sub division is a single mother of four who has suffered coutless rape cases in detention before fleeing to Nigeria.
Born on November 5th 1985, she has been an active member of the outlawed SCNC since 2015 as secretary in charge of distribution of gagets for propaganda.
Origin of the crisis
It is worth recalling that the Anglophone crisis, something that pundits say had been brewing for several years, boiled over in October 2016 when Common Law Lawyers in the North West and South West regions went on strike, paralyzing the courts. They were demanding for a return to the federal system of government, redeployment of Civil Law Magistrates back to Civil Law Courts among other grievances. Not long after, teachers in the North West and South West regions also went on strike, demanding the redress of several issues concerning the English sub-system of education.
Things got worse when concerned citizens in the North West and South West regions, who had been fed up with the unfavourable political and especially economic stagnation of Cameroon at large, but more importantly in these regions, joined the strike.
But after negotiations with the teachers and lawyers ended in deadlock, the government, in January 2017, banned the Southern Cameroons National Council, SCNC, and the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, CACSC. Some of the leaders of the Consortium such as Barrister Felix Nkongho Agbor Balla and Dr. Fontem Niba were immediately arrested while others such as Barrister Bobga Harmony and Tassang Wilfred fled into hiding.
Meanwhile, some leaders of the Anglophone separatist movements including Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and nine others, who were arrested in Abuja, Nigeria in February 2018 and later extradited to Yaounde, are currently at the Kondengui maximum security prison, where they serving life sentences after having been tried in the military tribunal.
It is also worth nothing that many people, both civilians and security forces, have been killed in the crisis, many more internally displaced and over 50,000 have fled to neighbouring Nigeria where they are living as refugees.
While the Anglophone crisis continues to escalate, international organisatio ns and other Western powers have called on the government to address the root cause through genuine and inclusive dialogue.
By
Chi Gaston
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