Barrister Humfred Takum Teghen
A lawyer and member of the Cameroon Bar Association, Humfred Takum Teghen, has been kidnapped by separatist fighters in Momo Division of the North West Region. Takum, who is also the traditional ruler of Barakwe Clan in Mbengwi and a steadfast member Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM, was abducted recently. He is reported to have been abducted from his palace by the suspected separatist fighters in front of his family. Reports say the separatist fighters had accused Humfred Takum Teghen of refusing to financially support their cause and struggle for the independence of a country which they have christened Ambazonia.
The fighters are also said to have accused Takum of not collaborating with them in their independence because of his staunch loyalty to the ruling party, Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM. It is reported that before being taken away to the camp of the Amba fighters, Humfred Takum Teghen was molested in front of his family. This scenario is said to have seriously traumatised his family.
While the crisis rocking the the North West and South West regions, which has escalated into an armed conflict, continues, the separatist fighters have been kidnapping and sometimes killing people whom they have dubbed as “blacklegs”. The fighters have accused such persons of not supporting their cause either financially, materially or morally. Some of the victims of Ambazonia fighters’ atrocities have been killed. Human rights investigators from Amnesty International warn that civilians in Cameroon are suffering sexual, physical and psychological violence as they're targeted by all the main players in the separatist crisis that has gripped the country since 2016.
The Anglophone crisis has caused mass devastation. What began in 2016 as peaceful protestsby Anglophone lawyers and teachers against the central government’s placement of French-speaking judges and teachers in English-speaking courts and schools, including a systematic erosion of Anglophone Common Law procedures, has deteriorated into a violent conflict and humanitarian disaster after the government used disproportionate force.
The military is now battling armed separatists, including opportunistic fighters, while civilians are helplessly caught in the crossfire. According to human rights activists, the lawlessness includes a multitude of war crimes: indiscriminate shooting, burning, mutilating, torturing, kidnapping for ransom, and raping unarmed civilians. Hospitals, schools, humanitarian aid, humanitarian workers, among others have all been targeted
By
Ashu Tidings
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