Anglophone Crisis: Separatists Claim to have Abducted 4 Government officials

• One Sub Divisional officer 
• One Regional Delegate 
• 2 Security officers

The leader of one of Anglophone Separatists movement has claimed that his group has already abducted 5 government officials since violence broke out in the 2 English speaking regions.

The separatist leader of the so-called Ambazonia Governing Council AGC, Mr Cho Ayaba, who also doubles as the commander in chief of the Ambazonia defence force, said his group has abducted up 2 Administrative officers and 3 security officers but did not say if the abducted officers were still alive or dead.

Cho Ayaba was reacting after his group claimed to have abducted the Regional Delegate of social affairs for the Northwest Region Mr Nimbom Aaron Yong.

The Regional Delegate was abducted last Friday in Nyen Village as he left from a burial in Ashong, a village in Batibo.

TCR learnt that armed men intercepted the Car of the regional Delegate and asked him and his driver to step down from the Car. The driver stepped down and some of the armed men forced the regional delegate into the car and drove it several kilometers into the village before stopping and setting the car ablaze.

The driver was allowed to go while the regional delegate was whisked off to an unknown destination, reports have said.

The Senior Divisional Officer for Momo Division Absalom Monono Woloa, together with a security search team visited the site where the car was burnt and searched for the delegate to no avail.

Intensive security operatives and apparatuses have been deployed to the village but all efforts to locate the whereabouts of the regional delegate have failed.

Family sources said their brother was a well known humanitarian officer whose job was to take care of the blind, the needy and disadvantaged people. They added that he had nothing against the people or the Anglophone struggle.

The abduction of the regional delegate has brought the number of administrators abducted by separatist fighters to 2 within 20 days, although the separatists claim to have abducted 5 including 2 security officers.

Since the DO for Batibo was abducted on February 11, 2018, his whereabouts have remained unknown and a search for him has yielded no positive fruit.

The Senior Divisional Officer for Momo, organized a crisis meeting in Batibo Council hall involving political, security and administrative officials of Batibo to deliberate on the continuous abduction of government officials in the subdivision. 

There is widespread opinion that the Anglophone crisis is getting out of hand as several other attacks took place over the weekend with a several reports of lost of lives.

TCR learnt that there was huge fighting in Muyenge in Muyuka subdivision where some civilians were killed and several security forces injured.

Also, there was military invasion of Bao Bakundu in Meme division and several houses as well as another old woman was burnt inside and several youths killed also.

In Konye, trucks of a company exploiting the forest therein was set ablaze by unknown individuals and the workers of the forest taken hostage for several hours. A truck, a loader and a pickup truck were set on fire.

In Njinikom, an unidentified man was burnt alive in a car by unknown persons; the total filling station in Njinikom was also set on fire.

There are also reports of other attacks in several villages across the English speaking regions but TCR had yet to authenticate them at press time.

At a time that the crisis is growing rapidly to an uncontrollable armed conflict, the so-called acting president of Ambazonia has announced a fundraiser with the sum of 2 million Dollars, approximately 1Billion FCFA, needed to finance their struggle.

According to reports, the fundraiser has been codenamed “My trip to Buea”. According to him, the money is expected to take the Anglophone crisis to the expected end which he claims will be the independence of the hypothetical state of Ambazonia.

He has also said they are working in creating a defense group that will protect the entire territory of Ambazonia and not only relying on self defence groups on the ground.

According to the Diaspora based Ambazonia leader, diplomatic efforts by secessionists are yielding fruits and that the international community has started paying attention to them.

Pundits that have tried to read meaning into his utterances have deduced that the crisis could be far from over if government does not adopt appropriate measures in dealing with the crisis.

By FHM