For Disrespecting Ghost Towns:

Amba Fighters Beat-up Bike Riders in Kumba

-Speeding Gendarmerie vehicle kills two in Kumba

-Amba forces storm Kumba clinic in search of military officers’ wife

By Doh Bertrand Nua in Kumba

Kumba, chief town of Meme Division in the SW region, on Monday 25 June 2018 witnessed one of the deadliest ghost towns ever. All businesses in Kumba were shutdown, thousands of motor bikers stayed off the road, council and government offices located in certain parts of the town were all shut down. The situation caused hundreds of inhabitants who came out for one reason or the other to have to trek to get to their respective destinations.

            Courageous motor bike riders who dared the threats from the ‘Amba’ boys were caught and given a snake’s beating in areas like Three Corners Fiango. The situation erupted into tension as even traders at the Three Corners market were all chased home. We gathered that unknown gunmen storm the area and ordered everybody to go home. The separatists then mounted a barricade at the Three Corners junction disrupting further movements in and out of Kumba.

            In the heat of the situation, a serious crossfire lasting several hours ensued between the military and the Amba boys. The soldiers came in Toyota Hilux vehicles. The ear-piercing sounds of gunshots left the populations in the hotspots in panic and confusion. Many were forced to lock up themselves indoors.

‘Amba’ forces storm clinic

            In the course of the fighting, the Amba boys stormed a local clinic (name withheld) at the Three Corners neighbourhood demanding for the wife of a military officer who was said to have put to birth at the clinic. Taking orders from their assailants at gun point, we gathered the nurses on duty outsmarted the gunmen, saying the wife of the military officer had since been discharged.

Speeding Gendarmerie vehicle kills two

            In the early hours of same Monday June 25, a speeding Toyota Hilux vehicle belonging to the Gendarmerie knocked down a bike at the hilltop neighbourhood in Fiango. The rider and one passenger, a lady, both died in hospital. Onlookers said the bike had a head-on collision with the security vehicle as it tried to over-take a taxi.

The Gendarmerie vehicle was speeding ostensibly to get more reinforcement for the battle with the Ambazonia fighters at Three Corners.