CI-NEWS

Anxiety over safety of fleeing families.

2020-06-08

No: 501

Anxiety over safety of fleeing families.

By Jones Nforchou

Since Cameroon government banned the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) in 2017, members of the separatist group, founded in the early 1990’s, to press for the independence of English-speakers in Cameroon, have maintained studied silence. Many of them, fearing arrest and prosecution, have fled the country to the USA and to Europe, for protection.

SCNC was banned in heat of the Anglophone crisis, which was fueled by protests of Common law advocates and teachers over corporate demands, in late 2016.

The January 17, 2017 banning order of Rene Sadi, then Minister of Territorial Administration, said: “These groups Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) and the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC) are declared null and void for their purpose and activities, which are contrary to the Constitution and liable to jeopardize the security of the state, territorial integrity, national unity and national integration”.

When a husband was reportedly detained in September 2017 and later released in connection with the Anglophone Independence protests in Buea little did the wife, Ngwa Marie Chi, a mother of four, know more trouble was in store for her family, which had been identified by security agents as pro-SCNC.

But as the crisis escalated, raids and arrests were made to fish out separatists, a situation which led to deadly confrontations between Cameroon’s regular forces and separatist fighters.

Over two thousand people have died and property worth billions of Fcfa vandalized since the crisis erupted.

More than 30 thousand Cameroonians are seeking asylum in Nigeria, and about half-million people are internally displaced, which has birthed a humanitarian crisis in the country, according to the UN and rights groups.

Although female activists are rarely involved in the gun battles, many of them are victims of the crisis. Ngwa Marie Chi, earlier mentioned, is one of many mothers negatively affected by the Anglophone crisis.

The mother of four parted ways with her husband early in February this year after the latter was receiving anonymous death threats while in their residence in Molyko-Buea. Suspicious of darker days ahead, she reportedly fled with two of her kids to Nigeria, leaving other members of her family worried about their safety.

“When we learned that she and her kids were now in Nigeria, we were happy. But we are also worried since we don’t know how they survive there”, her relative told us. “In such a situation we can only pray that God should protect them.”

There are many other mothers with children who both fled their homes and are hiding in bushes or who unwillingly relocated for safety as the crisis became more deadly.

In sympathy with female victims of the Anglophone crisis, hundreds of women of the Northwest and Southwest Regions recently staged peaceful protest marches in Buea and Bamenda calling for an end to the crisis.

They staged peaceful protests on the theme “The Right to Peace and Security” under the banner of Southwest and Northwest Task Force (SNWOT),coordinated by Mrs. Njomo Esther Omam, director of Buea-based NGO, Reach Out.

Cameroon government has insisted that the country is “one and indivisible” and urged separatist fighters to surrender or face the full force of the nation’s defense and security forces.

In his end-of-year Message to Cameroonians, on December 31, 2019 President Biya vowed to suppress separatist activities in Anglophone Cameroon.

Said President Biya: “The criminal activities of armed groups continue to disrupt public, economic, and social life in these regions, yet various measures have been taken in recent months to reason with these youths, most of who have been brainwashed. They have been called upon to lay down their weapons, and social reintegration prospects have been offered them.

“For those who persist in going down the wrong road and continue to use violence, we will have no other choice than to combat them.”

Even after last year’s Major National Dialogue, which held in Yaoundé to resolve the Anglophone crisis, clashes between regular forces and separatists are still reported here and there.

Dr. Sako Samuel Ikome, Interim President of the putative Republic of Ambazonia and other separatist leaders abroad are still pressing for the independence of Anglophones.

Julius AyukTabe, pioneer president of Ambazonia and his associates who were arrested in Nigeria and prosecuted in the Yaounde are already serving long jail sentences.

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Anxiety over safety of fleeing families.