Untold Suffering in NW Region:

Þ Government Imposed Curfew during the Night

Þ Ambazonia Imposed Ghost Town during the day

Þ Ordinary Population Suffers  

The suffering the populations of the North West region has been subjected to since the outbreak of the Anglophone crisis can now be described as “unbearable”.

Small businesses that operate on shoestring capital, have either been threatened with shutdown or have shutdown already. Meanwhile, those that before now operated on huge capital, have seen returns from their investments experience a free fall.

Banks and microfinance institutions have cried foul over the fact that in recent times, withdrawal rate has surpassed the rate of saving.

Also, some credit unions in the region have even suspended the issuing out of loans by extension and have lamed the situation on the fact that most loans now proof delinquent.

According to some locals, the phenomenon of ghost town operations which sometimes run for three days back to back, has been an adverse dent to their businesses. According to them, ghost town operations have compelled Bamenda denizens to tighten their belt as expenditure has almost surpassed income.

According to Divine, a shop owner in Bamenda whose shop has run dry more than before, he has decided not to stock his shop because the number of days for business activities has been truncated as a result of persistent tensions in the region as well as ghost town operations.

He added that he prefers to hoard the money he would have used to invest in his business as he plans to even flee Bamenda if the bad situation turns worse.

Just like Divine, many other persons TCR spoke to said they don’t even want to save money in banks because they fear that the process to withdraw may become complicated with the dicey state of affairs in the region.

Even some government officials testified that the number of people that pursue documents now has significantly reduced meaning that the state treasury could also have been hard hit by the crisis.

The situation has further been worsened by the night curfews imposed by the Governor of the North West region Adolf Lele L’Afrique.

This has further crippled businesses especially off-licenses and nightclubs that operate mostly at night.

Vehicles of travel agencies have also been compelled to leave the city of Bamenda earlier than usual thereby impacting negatively on businesses that usually operate in motor parks in the night to wind up.

“We can no longer feel free because in the day is ghost town and at night, you are not allowed to move and even when you sleep, gunshots are heard everywhere. We now live as if we are in a jungle; the situation has gone worst,” a resident named Julius told TCR.

Since the extradition of the Ambazonia leaders to Cameroon, life has not been the same again for the people of the North West and South west regions. It is either a military officer is attacked or killed in broad daylight or a civilian is found dead.

The recent abduction of the Divisional Officer for Batibo whom till date has not been seen, has equally caused insecurity to surge in the region.

“If you are stopped at night by security forces and you dare hesitate, you would be shot dead,” a commercial bike rider whose bike was seized and the tyre destroyed told TCR.

He added that he was stopped at about 8:20pm around T junction and that security forces used a knife to destroy all his tyres.