By Abendon Pascal Heitz
Authorities in Bamenda in the restive Northwest region are searching for suspected activists who are believed to have escaped in their custody during a violent separatist attack in Bambui near Bamenda in the Tubah sub division. Going by reports, the said incident in Bambui occurred earlier on the 10th of April, 2021, when detainees were being transferred to the Bamenda central prison by security forces following a raid that took place earlier in Belo.
According to sources familiar with the incident, the convoy came under attack, after an Improvised Explosive Devices IED from unidentified assailants was detonated killing atleast three soldiers and some of the suspects also sucum to bullets wounds at the regional hospital in Bamenda. Amid the chaos, some of the suspects are believed to have fled the scene to nearby forest to evade detection before reaching a safe zone and escaping the restive region.
Security forces have launched a manhunt across the Northwest and Southwest regions, These escaped suspects are considered a key witness in an ongoing investigation and are wanted for questioning regarding the daily attack which claim several lives including that of three security forces.
Meanwhile, it should be noted that activities of separatist fighters remain banned in Cameroon and its followers if cought are tried under the dreaded anti-terrorism law. Nearly a hundred thousand Anglophones have been arrested in the wake of the crisis that began in December 2016.
It followers say the body is a non-violent organization with the motto "The force of argument, not the argument of force."
The Crisis that began as a peaceful protest and later escalated into an armed conflict has let to the arrest of over a hundred thousand, six thousand civilians killed since the crisis began in October 2016, and going by the United Nations reports, close to a hundred and sixty thousand[160.000] families are seeking refuge in Nigeria southern city of Ekom where close to five members of one family have been reported death under mysterious circumstances.
The arm separatist group loyal to the secessionist movement called Ambazonia, is a self determination organization seeking the independence of the Southern Cameroons from the predominantly French speaking part of the country. Whose leader and cabinet are still under detention for seven months in Yaounde.
The Anglophone crisis shifted from peaceful protests to armed conflict because the government’s harsh response—mass arrests, beatings, internet shutdowns, and the deployment of security forces—convinced many English‑speaking Cameroonians that peaceful dialogue was impossible. Lawyers’ and teachers’ strikes in 2016 were initially non‑violent, but the state’s repression deepened long‑standing grievances about political exclusion, cultural suppression, and the erosion of common‑law and Anglo‑Saxon education systems. As trust collapsed, some activists turned to self‑defense groups, commonly known as Ambazonia Fighters which later evolved into organized separatist militias demanding independence for the Northwest and Southwest regions.
The Armed militia “Ambazonia” claim French Cameroon violated the terms of union that brought British Southern Cameroon and French Cameroon together in 1961
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