Calm has
reportedly returned to Kumbo in Bui Division, North West region after gendarmes
shot and killed a 19 year old boy whose names we got as Sevidzem Cyprian in
Kifem and another 35 year old father of four whose name we got as Abdul Aziz in
Tobin on Monday September 4, 2017.
In an official statement, the
Minister of Defense Joseph BetiAssomo, said the boy in Kifem was shot
accidentally after villagers attacked gendarmes with locally made guns,
wounding one of the gendarmes. The defense minister said the gendarmes were in
Kifem on an anti-drug operation and that they opened fired in self-defense. A
claim greatly debunked by eyewitness’ account in Kumbo.
Gendarmes reportedly had a
tip-off that the nicotine-containing plant was being grown in the area and went
to apprehend the suspect. When they got to the scene and could not immediately
find the drug-containing plant, they are reported to have proceeded to rounding
up the man’s goats.
Cyprian, angered by what he saw,
raised an alarm, alerting other villagers who descended on the scene and got
into a scuffle with the red-capped officers. In the heated struggle with
tempers flaring, shots were fired and one hit Cyprian.
Cyprian’s body was being brought
to Kumbo a few hours after his murder by an irate mob of youths who went through
the town chanting songs but the mean company commander and his men used teargas
and gun shots in attempts to disperse the swelling crowds and “seized”
Cyprian’s body and took it to the
hospital.
The hospital authorities
reportedly refused keeping the body, saying tensions were high and that the
hospital could be burned down by the population. With the hospital having
refused to keep the corpse of the murdered teenager in their mortuary, the
gendarmes took the body out of Kumbo. It is currently unclear where the body is
but speculations are that it could be in Jakiri or Bamenda.
Things again took another
dramatic turn in Kumbo when the population stood their ground, demanding for
the body of Cyprian in front of the Senior Divisional Officer’s office at
Tobin. The SDO’s office is reported to have been pelted with stones by the
irate mob.
With the anger, some of them
went to a nearby government school and set it ablaze. Images on social media
showed the school littered with white sheets of paper while smoke and flames
billowed from windows in one of the buildings.
In response, the security forces
again responded with brute force, firing shots that hit and killed one Abdul
Aziz, a mechanic who was going to refund a client’s car he had been repairing.
These other shootings further inflamed the mob but military back up from
Bamenda helped quelled the situation.
The defense ministry says the
commander of the gendarmes in Kumbo has been dismissed over the unrest.
Fon of Nso blasts Military
excesses and calls on Population to avoid confrontations
HRH SehemMbinglo I on September
5, 2017 at the palace courtyard while addressing Nso sons and daughters as well
as notables condemned the managerial acumen and notorious attitude of the
Company Commander and appreciated the prompt response from the Head of State by
replacing him.
The Fon regretted that from time
immemorial, aNso man has always been a sacrificial lamb, be it in a political
or any social unrest adding that they always end up being the best losers.
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