Crisis in NW & SW Regions:

Over 1000 Anglophones in Detention Across Cameroon

The Vice President of the African Bar Association in charge of Central Africa, Barrister Nkongho Felix Agbor Balla, has told RFI that the government of Cameroon has arrested not less than 1000 Anglophone activists. He cells he activists are detained in various cells across the country. Agbor Balla says many Anglophones have fled the country as a result of the arbitrary arrests.

            Speaking in an exclusive interview with the French International Radio, RFI, last week, the fire-brand lawyer and human rights activists said about 1000 Anglophones have been identified in jails, with most of them kept in the two maximum security prisons in Kondengui, the political capital Yaounde.

            He said while some of the detainees including Penn Terence, a teacher, have been tried and sentenced to various prison terms (12 years for Penn Terrence), others like Mancho Bibixy and Tsi Conrad have been declared guilty of terrorism, secession, insurrection and group violence. They will be sentenced in the days ahead.

            Balla noted that with the clampdown on Anglophone activists by security forces and the violence that has ensued, many young men have been forced to flee the country to unknown destinations, while thousands of families have taken refuse in neighboring Nigeria.

            The UN refugee agency recently reported that over 22.000 Anglophones have registered as refugees in Eastern Cross River State, Nigeria. The World security body says the refugees are facing humanitarian crisis in their host nation.

Meanwhile other Anglophones who have also escaped the country are scattered in USA, Britain, Belgium and France. Most of them have sought asylum in these countries as they cannot return home, fearing to be arrested and jailed.

            One of such persons is 26-year-old Youssifou Mohammed Kabir, who escaped police arrest and disappeared after playing a leading role in the violent riots in Bamenda in 2016. Youssifou was said to have carried a giant ‘rubber gun’ and accompanied Mancho Bibixy as he led the ‘coffin revolution’ along the Commercial Avenue in Bamenda.

Sources say Youssifou succeeded to escape when police came in search for him. His whereabouts are not known since he took off alongside other young activists.

            We learned that security operatives are still looking for Youssifou, as he was one of the ring leaders of the Bamenda riots in 2016.

            Gun violence has escalated in the two Anglophone regions since the protests by lawyers and teachers in October and November 2016. Many civilians and government soldiers have lost their lives in the ‘war’ that only gets worse by the day. Reprisals by government forces have taken the garb of collective punishment, with whole villages burnt down and with villagers taking refuge in bushes.

            With the national day on 20 May approaching it is feared that fresh violence may ensue in the hotspots in NW and SW.