Anglophone Crisis; Man in Hiding as Separatists, Security Forces Target Him.

By Chi Mba,

Chia kingsley Taiyi, was living and doing business in Bamenda , capital of the crisis-stricken Northwest region of Cameroon.

 Chia was said to be a car dealer and animal breeder even when the Anglophone crisis erupted in late 2016.

 Although born in Buea in 1983 ,he preferred to continue his business in the  restive town of Bamenda in the midst of the crisis that  has resulted in the death of many  people dead and  loss of  property worth billions of Fcfa  even as Buea was enjoying relative peace  and much safer. For fear of the unknown, many Bamenda business people relocated to Buea as ghost towns, kidnappings, killings and bloody confrontations between armed separatists and Cameroon security forces were common in Bamenda, which is capital of the Northwest region of Cameroon.

 Reports say in the neighborhood of Chia, many young men had become separatist fighters and kidnappings were common there but Chia was not known to have been a victim of kidnapping, fuelling the suspicion of the state security forces that he could be supporting the separatists.

As the security forces reportedly questioned Chia and monitored his moves to ascertain if he was covert sponsor of the separatists, the young businessman  became terribly frightened and in 2020 decided to relocate to Douala fearing for his life and those of his family.

Because Chia had been spotted on several occasions discussing with Cameroon security forces and then finally relocated to Douala, separatist fighters accused him of being a (blackleg) traitor who had given information about them to state security and then disappeared. He was reportedly threatened with death.

According to reports, Chia’s house was reportedly burnt but the identity of the arsonist(s) was not known .Also, some of his family members were allegedly tortured in their village in Ndop, Ngoketunjia Division of the Northwest region, by Separatists, forcing them to seek refuge in another locality.

Thinking that he was safe in Douala, some men purporting to be separatists stormed Chia’s house in his absence looking for him.

To avoid living in fear and threats of his life and those of his family members, Chia now is said to have recently fled Cameroon with his family to Nigeria, for safety.

Based accusations leveled against them,many other families have undergone the tortuous moments  experienced by Chia’s family and have fled the country to neighboring countries , to the US, Europe and to other parts of the world.

It would be recalled  that in May 2018, the  US Ambassador to Cameroon, Peter Henry Barlerin,  in a press statement on the Anglophone crisis, accused the Government of ”targeted killings, detentions without access to legal support, family or the Red Cross and burning and looting of villages”

Ambassador Barlerin also blamed separatist fighters for “murders of gendarmes, kidnappings of government officials and burning of schools”

The UN and other rights organizations estimate that over 40 thousand Cameroonians fleeing the Anglophone Crisis  are seeking asylum in neighboring Nigeria; that  about over half a million people are internally displaced and that the crisis has left over four thousand people (both civilians and soldiers) dead. The Cameroon government labels Anglophone separatists as terrorists. The maximum punishment for terrorism in the country is the death penalty.