9, May 2022
Amba and Military: two sides of the same coin 0
When the Southern Cameroons crisis started in 2016, nobody ever thought Amba fighters who proclaimed that they would protect the population against all odds would be the ones kidnapping and killing their own people.
When the crisis morphed into an armed conflict, many in Southern Cameroons knew the enemy and, indeed, the guilty party regarding the killing of civilians was the alcohol-inflamed, sex-starved and trigger-happy military.
The Cameroon army was desperate to demonstrate that it was winning the war and this pushed its desperate soldiers into firing at innocent and armless civilians even in the centers of the cities, resulting in thousands of senseless deaths.
The military had a point to prove and it resorted to all criminal and unconventional means to achieve its despicable goal.
Houses were burnt and, in many cases, whole villages were burn down. Sometimes, the elderly who could not seek refuge in the bushes were roasted in their own homes.
The atrocities committed by the military were indeed despicable. Many people will forever remember Kwa-Kwa in the Southwest region where an elderly lady was incinerated by the military in her home.
In the Northwest region, the military put its inhumanity on display when children and pregnant women were killed in Ngarbuh, a remote locality far from the Northwest regional capital of Bamenda.
Thanks to International pressure and investigations conducted by international human rights groups, the government yielded, admitting that its forces had operated in Ngarbuh and that those atrocities were the handiwork of a desperate military that was seeking to give Amba fighters a very bad name.
But over the last three years, Amba fighters who had been considered as saviors have been a millstone around the neck of the Southern Cameroonian population.
These reckless criminals who pass off as Amba fighters have been killing and maiming civilians for money, creating a state of general terror in the two English-speaking regions of the country.
Even responsible people who have helped the Amba course like Barrister Paddy Yong who has served as a lead lawyer for Sisiku Julius Ayuk Tabe and his entourage have been kidnapped and taken to the jungle.
The so-called fighters have now become a terror on their own people. Once you get kidnapped, they ask for huge sums of money as if millions are easy to come by in any part of the world.
In Barrister Paddy Yong’s case, the ruthless and criminal elements who took him to the jungle asked for CFAF 1.7 million, a sum he could not give. His crime was that he was not supporting the struggle but there is no rule which states that every Southern Cameroonian must openly display his support for the course and there is no database wherein it could be verified if someone had actually supported the course.
Thanks to pressure from the Diaspora, especially Southern Cameroonians living in America, Barrister Yong was released but not before he received days of inhuman torture in the hands of the Amba criminals. Today, he is suffering from all types of illnesses and nightmares.
These days, many people living out of Southern Cameroons do not venture into the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon because of the violence Amba fighters are wreaking on their own people.
Southern Cameroonians living in the Diaspora do not even think of going home now because they know they have two major enemies – the military and Amba fighters – who are equally dangerous.
Even those who lose their loved ones dare not go home. The military may accuse them of funding the struggle while reckless Amba fighters will kidnap them for a ransom.
The Diaspora has been caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. The irresponsible fighters have been created by the very Diaspora which feels threatened today and the military is still mad at the Diaspora for enabling the fighters to put up a good fight for five years.
The Diaspora cannot even go home to give its dead a decent burial. Amba fighters are a big issue. What used to be as luscious as locust is today as bitter as coloquintida.
Amba fighters are now criminals who must be tried in the same courts as the military. All their financiers must be identified and taken to court for legal action.
While it is unquestionable that Southern Cameroonians have suffered a lot of discrimination in a highly centralized and dictatorial Republic of Cameroon, there is just no justification for Amba fighters to make the fate of Southern Cameroonians worse by kidnapping them and spreading fear and death in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon.
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai and Asu Isong
10, May 2022
French Cameroun: Villagers Protest Renewed Boko Haram Violence 0
Villagers along Cameroon’s northern border with Chad and Nigeria have been holding daily protests in front of government offices demanding that the military intervene and deploy troops in areas where attacks by Boko Haram have increased. Protesters say in the past three weeks alone, at least 35 villagers were killed after an alleged attack by the Islamist militant group
Village leaders blame Islamist fighters with the terrorist group Boko Haram for killing at least 35 people in the past three weeks and stealing livestock and food. They raised money for villagers to travel to the regional capital, Maroua to seek help from authorities.
Pastor Joseph Bayoha of the Evangelical Church of Cameroon in Tourou, a village on the border with Nigeria, said villagers came to tell the governor that a day hardly goes by without reports of Boko Haram fighters abusing or killing civilians and stealing their food and cattle.
Bayoha said villagers in Cameroon’s north want the government to immediately deploy troops to protect them and their property and bring back peace, adding they feel abandoned by Cameroon’s military and government to face Boko Haram alone.
Village leaders said Boko Haram infiltrated the northern towns of Kolofata and Amchide and the villages of Tourou, Gambarou and Kumshe.
Midjiyawa Bakari, Governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, told state broadcaster Cameroon Radio Television villagers have not been abandoned by the military as they claim.
He said Cameroon President Paul Biya considers the pleas for more troop deployments legitimate, and should be ready to collaborate with troops that are already on their way to reinforce the military’s presence along the border.
Bakari added that Biya ordered financial and material assistance to village militias that collaborate with troops in fighting the terrorist group Boko Haram. He did not give details on the assistance or how much money the militias would receive.
Bakari said many young people who defected from Boko Haram after the death of its leader, Abubakar Shekau, last year may be rejoining the group for lack of jobs.
He pleaded with them to be patient and said the government intends to provide subsidies to militants who surrender so they could do farming instead.
Cameroon’s military on Saturday dismissed local media reports claiming troops meant for the Far North were sent instead to fight rebels in the western regions.
The military said troops were on standby to protect civilians wherever and whenever the need arises.
Source: VOA