By
Jude Abanseka with inputs from Sr. Apollonia Budzee
The Kumbo Urban Council area in Bui
Division, is the second biggest town in the North West Region of Cameroon,
after Bamenda. This urban area that three years ago was bustling with life has unfortunately
been deserted, as more than half of the population has fled to safer areas due
to the gross human rights abuses perpetrated by the Cameroonian military and
the Ambazonian armed separatist fighters aka “Amba Boys”.
Just like is the case
with several settlements in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon,
the ongoing Anglophone crisis has brought untold suffering to the inhabitants
of this once cherished town. In effect it is a situation of two elephants
fighting yet it is the grass that suffers.
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| Thousands of peaceful protesters came face to face witht he military in Bamenda in September 2017 |
The socioeconomic statuses of the
indigenes have drastically dropped. They cannot sell their crops, which
constitute the major source of their meager income; there is no market any more
for corn, beans and potatoes. The situation is made worse because prices of
every commodity have skyrocketed.
Houses and shops have been burnt down and
almost all roads linking the town to neighbouring villages are blocked. These
have been compounded by frequent cases of kidnappings, arbitrary arrests and
other forms of torture. The inhabitants are traumatized and constantly on the
run from heavy gunshots. They are stressed out because of the frequent news of
someone either having been kidnapped or maimed or even shot
dead. Burial rites/ceremonies have lost their value and dignity as there is no
time to mourn one person before another is killed.
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| shops set on fire |
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| Home set on fire |
When sick, most people in Kumbo now resign
to fate as ghost towns, road blocks, and high transport fare prevent them from
going to any of the few health units which are still functional for the needed
medical attention. The greatest concern,
however, is for those who live on medication and periodically go to the
hospitals for regular checks and refills—HIV/AIDS cases, diabetes, hypertension,
etc.
With regards to education, schools have
not been operational for the past four years, so the children are lost in the
cracks. School campuses have grown into
wild bushes and the buildings in ruins. Most children of school age whose parents
can afford it have relocated their children to schools in Francophone Cameroon
where social life is generally regular. The only children found in the
villages, are those of the poor.
Most often, there is neither electricity
nor telephone network. So communication is a huge challenge and people who
solely rely on electricity for their daily activity have been rendered
redundant. Apart from some health services, most of the social services and
public offices have closed down. Reputable companies in the Region have either
closed down or relocated into Francophone Cameroon.
Transport fares too have quadrupled
because of the numerous control points by either the military or the Amba Boys. According to some of the regular commuters
of the Bamenda- Kumbo highway, at each check point of the Cameroonian military drivers
are expected to pay at least 2000 FCFA whether they have committed an infraction
or not; there is hardly any negotiation.
The Amba boys, on the other hand, beg for support, and the driver feels
obliged to give them a little token for bread, “because those Amba Boys” are
actually members of our family who have gone wild, and we have a responsibility
towards them”. If you have a National Identity Card, you are fine with the
military, at least at the check point, but if you have an identity card that
was made from 2017 till date, you have a serious problem with the Ambazonian
fighters. The belligerents have their different check points on the roads,
pretending to check papers and ensure security, but their objective is to
extort money from commuters. And this is the huge benefit they are tapping from
this war. Sometimes commercial motorbike riders, are obliged to take all kinds
of bush paths to evade the fierce encounters between the belligerents. As a
consequence they cover more kilometers than usual and so the transport fare
rises; of course the risk is immeasurable. If not of those commercial motorbike
riders, no movement would be possible within Bui and Donga Mantung Divisions;
same as Menchum, Mezam, Fundong, Meme, etc. Sometimes, the military, on their
bloody trips, forces the commercial motorbike riders into their convoy, to
serve as their shield.
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| Kumbo Commercial motorbikes transporting people across long distances |
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| Some Religious women braving the odds in rainfall |
Apart from military trucks, no car has
plied Kumbo—Nkambe road for more than one year because that road became the
battle ground for the fighters. The military, besides killing any living thing
on the road, collect any goods for sale that natives fleeing for safety might
have abandoned along the road; firewood, foodstuff, motorbikes and other
valuables. With the predominant tradition of linear settlement that is
characteristic of many areas in Cameroon, many beautiful house have been
constructed along major roads in the Anglophone Cameroon. The houses along the
Kumbo –Mkambe stretch were immediate targets for burning by the fierce military
while some that were partially or not ransacked or destroyed have just been
deserted.
In recent times however the military has changed strategy. Since all roadside houses have
been abandoned, the military parks their trucks along these former residential
areas and silently trek into the villages. When they come across anyone they
consider a suspect, they either butcher the scape goat with machetes or stab
with knives. They would shoot to kill if the suspect attempts running away.
They also loot as they move along.
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| civilians under military torture |
Caught in between all these atrocities,
those who have an alternative/opportunity to live in another part of the planet
have evacuated the war torn areas. The rest are condemned to face all this, day
by day and live or die. The oppressive hand of the war is on everyone who lives
in this Region. There is no poor, no
rich; no prince, no king; no cleric, no lay. All are caught in the same web
with no sign of dawn yet!
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