CI-NEWS

Anglophone crisis: SCNC activists continually pursued.

2019-11-05

No: 454

Anglophone crisis: SCNC activists continually pursued.

By Nchinda Edwin in Bamenda

Although the ongoing crisis in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon is not directly the brainchild of the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), most of the demands made by the lawyers and teachers who masterminded the October 2016 strike that brought about the crisis, The Horizon newspaper has gathered, were shared by the latter pressure group. In addition, those who are now calling for the separation of the former Southern Cameroons from what used to be known as La Republique du Cameroun are speaking the same language as SCNC activists. For this reason, we have further been informed, many of the latter have been fuelling the flames of the crisis through the dissemination of separatist information as well as the holding of activities hostile to and capable of destabilizing the state.

However, this newspaper has also learned that SCNC activists are not having a field day in the country as their actions and activities are met with strict opposition from the forces of law and order. Field reports say with the collaboration of some members of the population the latter forces, especially those in the Anglophone regions of the North West and South West, are able to identify and arrest both old and new adherents of the pressure group, most of whom are brutalized and detained.

“I can’t count the number of SCNC detainees I saw in the Bamenda central prison alone”, an inmate of the said prison who was recently released told this reporter on condition of anonymity. “Since the beginning of the Anglophone crisis, they are arrested almost on a weekly basis and taken to jail. Some even died in jail in my presence due to brutalization and abandonment. Not even the recent Grand National Dialogue has helped the situation.”

On account of the crackdown on them, we have also been informed, many of the activists have fled the towns and villages for the forests bordering Nigeria where a large number of Anglophones in the two regions now take refuge because of the fighting going on there. Some have reportedly escaped to other countries where they have simply continued with their “separatist” activities. This, they say, is in a bid to sensitize the international community on the situation on the ground.

A list of some notorious SCNC activists who recently went into hiding was brought to our newsroom last week. The names on it are: Julius Ndi, Benjamin Ashua, Ayuk Franklin, Ngangmbateh Mepha Eugene, Ernest Tabi, George Ashu Tabi, Tosah Achile Kanjam, Florence Atanga, Stephanie Mah and Thomas Tumi Kongyuy. We were told that security forces would not go to sleep until they lay hands on these persons who are now referred to as “terrorists.”

Nevertheless, despite the crackdown and rampant arrests, we have also been informed on good authority that some of these SCNC activists have defiantly remained in the towns and villages where they continue to hold secret meetings and spread separatist ideas.

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Anglophone crisis: SCNC activists continually pursued.