By Ndechu James
 |
| Shu Aghanifor :accused of links with SCNC |
When Shu Aghanifor Ishmael, started an organization in
Cameroon which he named Europe-Africa Development Initiative (EADI), little did
he know that he unknowingly inviting trouble for himself and the family. EADI, was supposed to be a humanitarian organization,
intended to empower youth, but it was reportedly identified as having links
with the Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC), a pressure group
advocating the independence of English-Speaking Cameroonians, who before 1961
were known and called British Southern Cameroonians.
Southern Cameroons, a former United Nations Trust Territory
under the administration of Britain, gained its independence on October 1.1961
by joining French-speaking La Republique du Cameroun, to form a single country.
But being the minority these English-speakers have, since
their union with the majority French speakers, complained of being grossly
marginalized in administrative appointments and development by the latter, who
dominate the leadership of the country.
The creation of the SCNC as a pressure group was therefore to
campaign for the statehood of the disgruntled English-speakers; but the
Cameroon Government described the SCNC as an illegal and secessionist group,
and banned it in January 2017, paving the way for the molestation, torture,
arrest, and prosecution of the group’s members and supporters.
And so when EADI, whose founder is a rights activist, was
accused of being an auxiliary of the SCNC, the organization’s members started
running into hiding, to avoid persecution and prosecution. Even relations of
workers of the EADI became targets for police investigations, as some of them
were allegedly subjected to molestation to push them show the whereabouts of
EADI workers.
Even when Shu Aghanifor Ishmael left the country, he is said to have
joined radical Anglophone rights activists in the Diaspora such as Mark
Barata,Cho Ayaba,Tapang Ivo,Akwanga Ebenezar,Chris Anu, Akoson Pauline, John
Mbah Akuroh and Akoson Raymond, whom the Cameroon Government accusing of sponsoring
protests in Cameroon, calling for the independence of Anglophones and
wants them arrested.
The ongoing crisis in Anglophone Cameroon(Northwest and
Southwest Regions),known as the Anglophone Crisis erupted in 2016 when common law lawyers and Anglophone teachers’ trade unions staged protests in the two pressing for solutions to their professional grievances but the Cameroon government did not sufficiently address the issues
at stake
 |
| Cameroon Military raid neighborhoods in search of Anglophone Separatists, demanding their own state |
At least hundreds of people have died as government forces
engage Anglohone separatist fighters in
deadly clashes .Enormous property have been vandalized destroyed,
More than 30 thousand Cameroonians are seeking asylum in
Nigeria, while more reports talk some 200 thousand people being are internally
displaced.
The deadly clashes have given rise to a serious humanitarian
crisis in Cameroon begging for huge global support, according to the UNO and
rights groups.
As the crisis worsens, Anglophones in the Diaspora have been
protesting at Cameroon
embassies, mounting pressure on the decades-old Biya regime to resolve the
crisis by way of genuine dialogue, and not oppression (the option which the
Government seems to have chosen against expert advice).
As the deadly clashes between separatists and State security
forces continue, the international UNO and rights groups have called for inclusive
and meaningful dialogue.
