By Elvis Bichuh
Many English-speaking
Cameroonians are now scared of returning home because of what is now known as
the Anglophone crisis, which started in November 2016 with lawyers’ and
teachers’ protests against perceived marginalization of minority Anglophones by
the Majority Francophone-led Government.
Late last year many
Anglophones abroad staged peaceful protests across several countries especially
in USA, Britain, South Africa and Belgium to draw attention to the plight of
English-speaking minority, who have, for decades, complained of their
marginalization in development and appointments in the public service of
Cameroon.
So angry were Anglophones
to the extent that those abroad formed an Interim Government (IG) of Ambazonia,
a putative country.
The IG led by Sisiku Julius Ayuk,a computer engineer, had
on September 22,2017 mobilized mass protests of English-speaking Cameroonians
across the globe to embarrass President Paul Biya who was addressing the UN General Assembly same day President
Biya was actually giving his speech at the UN,the protest marches were going on
simultaneously.
Undaunted, the IG pushed
further by declaring on October1, 2017, the symbolic independence of Southern
Cameroons, what today are the Northwest and Southwest Regions(the two
English-speaking communities) of Cameroon.
The declaration of independence was followed
by what was supposed to be peaceful demonstrations in the Northwest and
Southwest Regions, but the protests rather turned violent, as there were bloody
and deadly confrontations between government forces and the civilian populations.
Several civilians were shot dead
Then on January 5, 2018 came the news of the
abduction of Southern Cameroons leading separatists among whom, Sisiku Julius Ayuk
Tabe, President of the Interim Government of of Ambazonia.
Their abduction reportedly
by Nigerian state Security and detention in Nigeria instead provoked more
protests by pro- Anglophone activists, and attracted condemnation from
international rights protection organizations.
At the moment in Cameroon,
there are clashes between Government forces and ‘Ambazonian militia in several
communities in Anglophone Cameroon, further fueled by the controversial
deportation last January 29 of the arrested Ambazonia ministers to Cameroon.
The Cameroon government confirmed the activists were now in judicial custody
and considers many Anglophones abroad are discreetly or publicly backing the
call for a divided Cameroon.
The
continued fighting between the Ambazonia fighters and government forces has caused
not only the deaths of both civilians and soldiers in their numbers, but has
forced many civilians to flee to safer localities and to neighboring Nigeria.
According to the UNHCR, thousands of English-speaking
Cameroonians are now in Nigeria for asylum; many others have been internally
displaced.
Stories
abound of Anglophone Cameroonians in the Diaspora who have visited Cameroon during
this crisis passing through difficulty and torturing moments.
 |
| Franklin Forbinake Aroke |
Consider
the case of Franklin Forbinake Aroke, now a fleeing SCNC activist, who had
suffered in the hands of security agents in Buea, capital of Southwest Region
of Cameroon, which town is also claimed by Anglophone activists to be the
headquarters of Ambazonia.
The
activist told this reporter in a telephone chat, how he has gone through hell
but vowed: “We shall continue fighting for the independence of Southern Cameroons
aka Ambazonia no matter the torture inflicted on us and no matter where we find
ourselves until self-determination is ours”
Now
an ex-student of NASPW Buea, Forbinake Aroke is said to have encouraged
minority rights activism while as a student, thus having problems with the local
administration.
He
travelled abroad in 2017 ,but returned
to Cameroon early January this year and on January 13 he was confronted by police in Fako over videos
of Ambazonia’ protests discovered in
his android phone.
“I
must thank God that I was smuggled out of detention. I see this as a miracle
especially as many others are languishing in jail” he said. “Now that I am out
of danger, I can only keep thanking God. My family does not yet know my
whereabouts”
The SCNC, together with the Cameroon Anglophone
Civil Society consortium(CACSC), was outlawed in Cameroon by the Minister of
Territorial Administration on January 17,2017,on grounds that it was
instigating calls for the independence of Southern Cameroons even when
President Paul Biya has been insisting that Cameroon is “one and indivisible”
With the ban on SCNC and similar groups
their supporters are at risk of being
molested, tortured and prosecuted in Cameroon, especially as the Anglophone
crisis persists.
