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| Governor Okalia Bilai(left) discouraging exodus |
The carnage that the
Northwest and Southwest regions have witnessed since the eruption of the deadly
Anglophone crisis in 2016 has put citizens of the said regions in a state of fear.
In spite of persistent assurances
by the Government that adequate security measures have been taken to protect lives
and property, panic-stricken residents of the Southwest are fleeing in search
of safety, leaving the region’s governor,Bernard Okalia Bilai,worried.
Frightened families,in
their thousands and carrying heavy luggages such as bed, kitchen equipment and
even live domestic animals-are now abandoning the two English-speaking regions,
hitherto their comfort zones but now battle grounds for armed separatists and government
forces, to towns in French-speaking regions, an indication that there is a real
or perceived security threat.
The mass exodus has been
provoked by threats from separatists, who have been fighting for the
independence of Anglophones. The separatists have vowed that they will not allow
any movement of people and vehicles in Anglophone Cameroon, several days before
the October 7,2018 presidential election,
which they plan to disrupt.
Also, the beeped up
security measures by Government to counter any separatist attacks is increasing
citizens’ fear, conscious that many innocent people have reportedly been killed
by stray bullets.
The separatist leaders,
who have a huge following back home, claim the two English-speaking regions
have become a separate country called Ambazonia.
Faced with this predicament,
a disturbed Southwest Governor, Bernard
Okalia Bilai, has been pleading with the population of his region not to relocate,
a call that many have decided to ignore.
The Governor, last Saturday,
visited the Buea Mile 17 Motor Park, to personally discourage huge luggage-carrying
citizens from fleeing their homes in the region to towns in French-speaking
regions.
The governor’s visit to
the motor park came after he had issued a communiqué dated 14 September 2018(broadcast
repeatedly over CRTV Buea),urging people not to be scared of any threat from
separatists.
“Since the beginning of
the week especially a few days back, we have observed the mass exodus of the
population out of the towns of Buea Kumba,Limbe and Mamfe etc to areas and
localities out of the region on grounds that terrorists and other specialists
of intoxication and manipulation are claiming that public authorities intend to
prohibit all movements and circulation as from September 15,2018”,said Okalia
Bilai, in the communiqué, insisting that “these are unfounded rumors being
spread in order to terrorize and provoke panic among the populations”.
He called on the
population to rather continue carrying out their daily activities as usual, and
to send children to school,in a region where school resumption has
remained scandalously timid.
The governor appealed to
the population to trust the administration, security and defense forces who, he
noted,“for the past two years have guaranteed their security and protection
against these same terrorists and secessionists”
Okalia Bilai assured: “Indeed,
adequate measures have been taken to ensure the security and protection of persons
and their property”.
Mass exodus from towns in
the Northwest region has also been reported.
The Anglophone crisis has
resulted in the deaths of hundreds-both soldiers and civilians.
Tens of thousands of
Anglophones fleeing because of the crisis are seeking refuge in neighboring
Nigeria.
The UN estimates that
about two hundred thousand people are internally displaced and badly in need of
support. Thousands of others are said to be seeking protection in bushes.
President Paul Biya, who
has ruled Cameroon since November 1982, is among the nine candidates for the
next presidential poll, come October 7, 2018
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