Anglophone Conflict:

Pastor Killed in Batibo for Denouncing ‘Amba’

By Doh Bertrand Nua in Yaounde

Ambazonia fighters operating in Batibo, Momo Division in the North West Region have murdered a humanitarian aid worker for openly denouncing their excesses on the already suffering population.
    Tanjoh Christopher Fon, a field agent with the Community Initiative for Sustainable Development, COMINSUD was kidnapped Friday 7 August 2020. The 55-year-old aid worker who doubled as Pastor with New Apostolic Church was murdered on the eve of his birthday.
    He was serving as field agent for the World Food Program supported general food distribution project to the affected population and internally displaced persons in the Guzang cluster.
A release issued by Fon Nsoh, COMINSUD Coordinator, Saturday 8 August 2020, reveals that Tanjoh was kidnapped Friday at about 9 a.m., tortured and later dumped at the entrance to the St John of God Hospital Batibo where he bled to death.
    According to COMINSUD Coordinator, the worker’s ‘crime’ was that he denounced the excesses of the armed men on civilians.
    The release states that Tanjoh had recorded an audio in the Moghamo language and sent to an “Amba Captain” in which he condemned greed, extortion, kidnappings for ransom and terrorizing the same population they claim to protect.  
    “We think that as an older person and pastor, he did just what he was supposed to do. Civilians should not be the target and the object of the current armed conflict. If people are to fight for the population they should not also make the population to suffer,” partly read the COMINSUD release.
    The NGO condemned in very strong terms what they termed the “horrific execution of a humanitarian” and reiterated appeals for belligerents to protect civilians and aid workers.