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| Sebastine in Hospital |
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| Sebastine after leaving hospital |
The crisis ravaging the two
English speaking regions of Cameroon has seen the Cameroonian military
on a manhunt of people who collaborate with separatist fighters,
fighting for the breakaway creation of a new country known as
Ambazonia.
This clampdown on pro separatist fighters has grown over time with the burning of houses, villages and the arrest of civilians.
On
the 3rd of October 2019, President Paul Biya ordered for some 333 cases
pending before military courts to be discontinued. This however did not
stop the mass arrest of persons in the English speaking regions of
Cameroon.
Cameroon has national days which are celebrated. One of
which is the 11th February which is the National Youth Day. Since the
start of the Anglophone crisis in October 2016, national days have been
met with a lot of resistance in English Cameroon, marked by prolonged
ghost towns, known here as lockdowns.
With an alarming rate of
poverty, many people defy these lockdowns to try to survive. One of such
persons is Suzy Sebastine Forlung, a native of Lebialem in the South
West Region of Cameroon.
On the 11th February 2022, the driver by
profession transported passengers from Buea, Capital of the South West
Region to Limbe. On arriving half mile in Limbe, he saw people fleeing.
Passengers jumped out of his car and ran for their safety. Unable to run
away, Sebastine was intercepted by a mixed military control consisting
of soldiers, Gendarmes and police officers.
He was asked to
provide his identification which he did but from his names, it was clear
he hails from Lebialem which is an epicenter of the crisis. Security
officers in the Division had come under serious attacks from the Amba
fighters on numerous occasions under the command of Oliver Lekeaka known
as Filed Marshall.
He was immediately arrested and charged for
transporting terrorists. Sebastine was beaten, incarcerated and
detained. He was transported under very heinous conditions from the
Divisional Headquarters of Limbe to the Regional Headquarters of Buea.
The
false accusations according to investigations carried out by The
Observer, saw Sebastine maltreated, forced to sleep on the bare floor
with access to food and health care absent. This torture continued till
the 5th March 2022 where he was released on bail.
Upon granting him bail, Suzy Sebastine was asked to report to the national gendarmerie every two weeks.
Seen
with a shattered body, neighbours advised Sebastine to grant an
interview to press, expressing his ordeal. When the story was narrated
and published, Sebastine became a target. Without knowing what his fate
could be, he immediately fled Cameroon.
Scenes of people
arrested, released and rearrested are very common especially when they
paint the image of the Cameroonian military black. The case of Sebastian
would not have been different.
With a lot of young persons
detained in very poor prison facilities in Cameroon like the bunker at
the Secretariat for State Defense, SED, fleeing from Cameroon and was
the only way out.
Flashback on origin of crisis
It
should be recalled that the Anglophone crisis, something that pundits
say had been brewing for several years, boiled over in 2016, when Common
Law Lawyers in the North West and South West regions went on strike.
They were demanding for the return of the federal system of government,
redeployment of Civil Law Magistrates back to Civil Law Courts in French
Cameroon, among other grievances. Not long after, teachers in the North
West and South West regions also went on strike, demanding for the
redress of several issues concerning the English sub-system of
education.
Things, however, got worse when Anglophones in both
regions, who had been fed up with the unfavourable political and
economic situation of the country, the use of French as the dominant and
official language, and the marginalization of the Anglophones, joined
the strike.
The crisis has left thousands, both civilians and
security and defence forces dead, some 500,000 displaced with some
living in bushes while over 40,000 have fled to neighbouring Nigeria
where they are living as refugees.
Many houses, and even whole villages, have been burnt down in the crisis-hit regions.
The
separatist leader of the self-declared Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku
Ayuk Tabe, and eight other close associates of his, who were arrested in
Nigeria and extradited to Cameroon, are currently at the Kondengui
maximum security prison in Yaounde, serving life sentences.
They
were slammed life sentences in August 2019 by the Yaounde Military
Tribunal after having been “convicted of charges including terrorism and
secession”.
Many other activists such as Mancho Bibixy, Penn
Terrence, Tsi Conrad, among others, are serving jail terms at the
Kondengui prison.
While the Anglophone crisis continues to escalate,
international organisations and other western powers have called on the
government to address the root cause through genuine and inclusive
dialogue.
By
Ngwa Praise
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