Akwaya: Land dispute turns deadly as two communities resort to arms ⁰

Contrary to a video circulating on social media that Amba fighters had slaughtered some 30 people in a small locality in Akwaya Sub-Division in Manyu Division, it is gradually emerging that the deaths have been caused by an ignored long-standing land dispute between two communities which have been at each other’s throat for decades.

A Cameroon Concord News source in the Division’s capital has informed the Cameroon Concord News Group’s Editor-in-Chief that the incident which started as a land dispute between the Oliti people and the Messaga Ekol people of Akwaya turned deadly when elements of the Oliti community attacked and killed some Messaga Ekol people on their farms on April 29, 2022.

The current incident caused by the Messaga Ekol community is retaliation, our source has said.

The Olitis have been mobilizing for months, the source pointed out, adding that with the help of some armed men whom they hired, most of whom are suspected of being Nigerians, launched a vicious attack which resulted in the deaths of some 30 Messaga  people.

Their homes were also burned and some people were burned while asleep as the attack took place at night, our source added.The attacks led to the burning down of houses during which some people were burnt in their houses, including children and women, an idea corroborated by a Presbyterian Church press release issued on Monday.

With chaos playing out in many parts of the country, especially in the  two English-speaking regions of the country where the government has lost control of things, many people are using the crisis to settle old scores.

There is no government presence in those communities and with the police and army scared of venturing into such areas, it clear that the violence resulting from land disputes will continue to escalate, our source said.

The Cameroon Concord News Group has asked its correspondents in Mamfe to gather more information in the days ahead with a view to shading more light on an issue which has nothing to do with the Southern Cameroons crisis.

It should be underscored that due to false intelligence following the death of four gendarme officers in Agborkem German in Manyu Division located on the Cameroon side of the Cross River, the Yaoundé government hastily rushed soldiers to the locality, causing the Southern Cameroons crisis to take a violent turn which will take years to check.

The four gendarme officers who were killed were not killed by Southern Cameroonians because of the crisis which was triggered by the torturing of lawyers and teachers by government police officers in Buea and Bamenda.

The gendarme officers were killed by Nigerian smugglers whose goods had been seized by those gendarme officers as it is a practice among Cameroonian police and gendarme officers.

To cover the matter up, the gendarme officers in Eyumojock misled the government in Yaounde and since the government only believes in violence, it immediately rushed soldiers to Agborkem German where the locals were tortured and young men forced to have sex with their mothers and grandmothers.

That was what caused the crisis to escalate. Biya was misled to declare a war at the airport in Yaounde upon his arrival from a summit in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

The government must investigate the issues in Akwaya. It must not let these issues to fester. Government indifference is responsible for most crises in the country and because of the crisis in the two English-speaking regions of the country, government incompetence is now blamed on Amba boys who have nothing to do with the land dispute or the killing of 30 people in Akwaya.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai