Anglophone Crisis: Internally Displaced Mothers Narrate Tear Provoking Ordeal

As days go by, the raging Anglophone crisis in the two English speaking regions of Cameroon continue to register new mishaps and pathetic ordeals.

From every indication, humanitarian crisis emanating from the crisis have continued to surge in rapid proportions and stands tall amongst the many sour fallouts of the burgeoning crisis.

While the humanitarian crisis continues erupting, victims of internal displacements have either migrated to Nigeria or neighbouring towns and villages that are relatively safer.

According to reports, Bamenda, the main city of the Northwest region, is one of the cities that have received and are hosting internally displaced persons. A Douala based television station, equinox TV, has reported that there are several homes in the city of Bamenda that are hosting several displaced persons especially from tensed Batibo, Belo, Mamfe etc…

Some of them that are currently seeking refuge in the main city of the Northwest region, narrated their emotional ordeals to reporters in the Northwest region.

According to a woman that escaped from Mamfe but who opted for anonymity, the situation in Mamfe in the Southwest region was seriously grievous and disheartening. She maintained that there was untold social unrest in Mamfe and that a cross section of inhabitants had sought refuge in thick forests and bushes which was not according to her, was not safe for them. She regretted that, “a lot of people in Mamfe have escaped into bushes and forests where they now live. It is particularly dangerous at this particular period of the year when the rains are intensive given that trees now fall frequently and destroys ‘bush houses’ as well as kill people.”

She also frowned heavily while saying that, “they tell us to leave the forests and go back to our houses but when we come out of the forests, they still attack and torture us.”

One of her biggest regrets was the fact that several homes including her home in Mamfe, had been burnt and that several families had been rendered destitute.

She told reporters that her own home was set ablaze while she was away in Yaoundé for a meeting and that she only discovered it when she returned, she said in between sobs.

Another woman from a village in Batibo who has also been displaced, also shared her own ordeal. According to her, troops stormed the village and asked everyone to vacate the area and that many of them rushed into bushes before finally finding access into a safer Bamenda.

A grandmother from Belo subdivision also lamented over the fact that Belo had of late been prone to sustained social unrests and that this had taken an adverse toll on the people, most of whom she said had escaped from their villages.

All three women joined their voices to call on the state to find a lasting solution to the crisis rocking the two English speaking regions as they regretted even much, the fact that some children were not going to school as a result of the crisis.

The pathetic revelations made by the three women have reportedly whipped up emotions in Cameroonians especially those in the troubled regions.

By Landzeh Verla