Reckless Destruction of Propriety as Anglophone Crisis Escalates

Partial view of burnt  Beauty Salon in Buea owned by  Mr.  Mboe Ekoko 

By Acha Smart

The Anglophone Crisis, which erupted in 2016, has  not only resulted in the deaths of over 2000 people, but  over 200 villages have reportedly  been burnt down and property worth hundreds of billions of Fcfa  destroyed in the two English-speaking regions of Cameroon, leaving their owners in desperation.

But who is actually burning public and private propriety?

It has become a blame game between the separatists and Cameroon regular forces whenever some propriety-whether state-owned or private   is burnt down, as both protagonists trade accusations and counter accusations.

 It would be recalled that, on 11 February 2019, the state-owned Kumba General Hospital was burnt down reportedly by the military that are said to have accused the health facility of treating wounded separatist fighters but the military blamed the separatists for the arson.

Cases of burnt propriety are more common during ghost towns called by separatists or during military raids on neighborhoods suspected to be hide-outs for separatists.

Separatists fighting for an independent state for Anglophones have reportedly burnt down enormous propriety in towns like Buea, Muea,Ekona,Kumbo Muyuka ,Kumba and Bamenda  as  crude method of enforcing the respect of  civil disobedience by citizens.

As the Anglophone crisis deepened, Cameroon government in 2017 outlawed Southern Cameroons National Council, (SCNC), which was created in 1994 to ensure the independence of Southern Cameroons, a former UN British trust territory, which gained independence on October 1, 1961 by joining La Republique of Cameroun, a former French colony.

 The former Minister of Territorial Administration, René Sadi, had noted in his January 17, 2017 banning order:

“Southern Cameroons National Council (SCNC) and the Cameroon Anglophone Civil Society Consortium (CACSC) are declared null and void for their purpose and activities, which are contrary to the Constitution and liable to jeopardize the security of the state, territorial integrity, national unity and national integration,”

The ban of the separatist movement and the arrest of Barrister Agbor Balla and co, who called for and coordinated wide-spread civil disobedience, rather radicalized activists across Anglophone Cameroon.

According to recent reports, on March 20, 2019, a young Bafaw businessman, William Mboe Ekoko,born on 10^th June  1990,in Kumba Town got his beauty salon burnt down in  Great Soppo Buea allegedly by separatists who had tagged him a blackleg for publicly condemning their activities. The saloon was burnt after three unidentified men, believed to be SCNC activists, had stormed the Buea family residence of   Ekoko looking for him in vain.

Mboe Ekoko was said to have gone into hiding after his car was burnt on February 18, 2019 where it was parked and he continued receiving anonymous death threats.

The crisis has forced Anglophone activists as well as the other victims of   crisis to flee the country

More than 40 thousand Cameroonians have fled the crisis, in search of   asylum in Nigeria.

Radical Anglophone activists, described by Cameroon Government as secessionists are based in the USA, South Africa and Europe where they  have been faulting  the Biya regime for failing to quickly resolve the Anglophone crisis, which is an urgent request  for the granting of Anglophone  minority rights.

Anglophones claimed their rights have been trampled upon by the majority French-speakers of Cameroon, who have produced the two presidents the country has had. The minority English-speaking regions were formerly UN-trust territory, called Southern Cameroons and administered by Britain.

 Southern Cameroons later gained independence on October 1, 1961 by joining La Republique du Cameroun, which had on January 1, 1960 been granted   independence by France.

Since both entities became one, Anglophones have been complaining of marginalization and discrimination against them by the majority French speakers.

The Crisis actually sparked off in 2016 when lawyers and Anglophone teachers protested against the imposition of French-speaking workers in schools and law courts in the two English-speaking Regions of Cameroon.

 Rights groups report that over half a million people are internally displaced, with many women and children hiding in bushes under deplorable conditions, as separatists  and Government forces continue to  engage in deadly clashes.

  Families not only complain of the disappearance of loved ones, but molestations, torture, kidnappings, arrests and detention have marked the crisis.

Cameroon accuses the Diaspora citizens   especially in the USA and Europe of bankrolling separatist fighters seeking the independence of minority-speaking Anglophones. It has also accused them of using the social media to mobilize protests against President Biya, 87, who assumed office in 1982.

The Biya government has maintained that Cameroon is one and indivisible, a stance that separatists challenge.