Anglophone Crisis turning bloody as activists go underground

By Cletus Mba                                                  
The Anglophone crisis, which started in October 2016 may plunge Cameroon in to a civil war, should Government continue to crack down on Independence activists, many pundits hold.

Cheerful crowd receiving Bar.Agbor Nkongho after his release from Prison

 The one-year old crisis has resulted in the deaths of many civilians in the Northwest and Southwest regions, formerly known as British Southern Cameroons.

The crisis actually started with protests against the “frenchification” of the Common Law system and the English Education subsystem in Cameroon, as irate lawyers and Anglophone teachers staged street demonstrations to press for a redress of their grievances.

At least 40 protesters were arrested when law enforcement agents in combat-ready gear confronted massive anti-government demonstrations last November 21, 2016 in Bamenda.Tens of others sustained. As protesters clashed with police, at least one person was shot dead

The lawyers’ and teachers ‘strikes almost completely paralyzed the functioning of courts and schools in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Cameroon for months.                                                                                                                        

After failing to appease the protesters with some measures, the Biya regime resorted to a crackdown on the activists -prompting the protesters to call for continuous civil disobedience and ghost towns

When on September 22, 2017 President Paul Biya was addressing  a UN General Assembly in the US, Anglophone activists were staging public  demonstrations across Anglophone Cameroon in order to draw the world’s  attention to their plight.Similar protests took place at the UN General Assembly to the embarrassment of the  Cameroon president   

 The September 22 protests in Buea left at least five civilians dead. They were reportedly shot by the military. Many protesters were arrested, forcing many others to go into hiding.

 A group of radical activists headed by one Lionel Nkwelle Ekere, born on May 25th, 1984, is reportedly one of the prime targets for police arrest. The group was identified as moving from one neighborhood to the other urging Anglophones especially the youth to rise up and fearlessly defend their right of self-determination.

  But Nkwelle Ekere and group members are said to have since disappeared when allegations made rounds that if caught they may be killed as police have intensified their search.
The Biya Regime,which has always insisted that Cameroon is “One and indivisible”, tags activists advocating the independence of Southern Cameroons as terrorists. And the maximum punishment for terrorism is the death penalty.

When the Biya government on January 17, 2017 arrested Barrister Felix Agbor Nkongho, president of the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium, CACSC in Buea and his secretary-General Dr.Fontem Neba and detained them in Yaoundé, the action instead radicalized more Anglophones. The CACSC generally coordinated Anglophone protests, with a strong backing from the Southern Cameron National Council, SCNC now also an outlawed organization.SCNC was created in 1994 to ensure the independence of Southern Cameroons.

President Biya, 84, who has ruled Cameroon since 1982