BY SANDRA LUM
Since the start of the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon, civilians are frequently accused by both armed separatist groups and state authorities of supporting opposing sides.
The case of Nkemjimoh Bate Asongfor, an Anglophone teacher from Bole, Kumba, Meme Division of the South West Region, illustrates how such accusations can expose individuals to sustained and nationwide risk. Bate Has been put in a perplexed situation described by many as being in between the devil and deep blue sea, with no option than to run for safety.
Reports say Nkemjimoh Bate Asongfor’s bitter ordeal with the separatist fighters, dates back in 2019 when he started his teaching career and in 2020 when he was supervising the written part of the General Certificate of Education, GCE, exams.
On the run, where about cloudy
In May 2024, family sources have hinted that Bate was kidnapped by separatist fighters, also known as Amba Boys, at the sidelines of the National Day celebration and while in Amba Boys’ captivity for three weeks he was coerced through social media videos posting, to put on their attire, announce his resignation as a civil servant, name and shame the activities of the military and stating how he kill soldiers. Bate’s videos on social media while in captivity went viral and the military is reported to have raided the Amba Boys’ camp, killed some of them while others ran away.
THE SUN gathered that Bate was picked up by the military after the cross-fire with the separatist fighters and whisked to a military base in Kumba. He was accused of being a separatist and was showed the footage that was posted on social media with him castigating the government while he was in Amba captivity for three weeks.
Reports say Nkemjimoh Bate Asongfor, detained incommunicado, went through hell in the hands of the military with cruel, degrading and inhumane treatment meted on him until he miraculously escaped from military custody after nine days and his whereabouts by press time remained cloudy.
This case is not isolated. Since the outbreak of the Anglophone crisis in late 2016, human rights organisations and independent monitors have documented thousands of arrests, detentions, and enforced disappearances in Cameroon’s North West and South West Regions. Many detainees have reportedly been accused of separatist links without formal charge, while civilians perceived as insufficiently supportive of separatist groups have faced abduction, killing, and forced displacement. Numerous individuals named on wanted lists are reported to have gone into hiding or fled into exile, with family homes are repeatedly raided by security forces.
The case of Nkemjimoh Bate Asongfor reflects this broader pattern, in which civilians perceived as non-aligned face serious harm from both state and non-state actors, and where effective state protection or safe internal relocation remains largely unavailable.
Anglophone crisis began in 2016 with the teachers and lawyers strikes, which later attracted the people of the two English-speaking regions of the country, as they said their accumulated grievances emanated from marginalisation by the majority French-speaking part of Cameroon, inequality in employment, adulterations of the judicial and educational systems.
Extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests of innocent Anglophones, burning down of houses, villages allegedly by the military and sporadic exchange of guns between the military and separatist fighters and the imposition of ghost towns, lockdowns on businessmen by separatist fighters are now the order of the day. This has left the population under crossfire with many fleeing for safe havens, causing untold suffering and pains on the population.
