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Thousands flee trouble-torn Cameroon regions

Tuesday September 18 2018
exodus

Residents of the trouble-hit Cameroon English-speaking Southwest gather at the Mile 17 bus park on September 15, 2018 to flee to the safer areas. NDI EUGENE NDI | NATON MEDIA GROUP

By NDI EUGENE NDI

Thousands of people continue fleeing war-torn English speaking Northwest and Southwest Cameroon, despite a government call for them not to move.

The scared families were fleeing for safety in the anglophone cities like Yaoundé and Douala

Southwest governor Bernard Okalia Bilai on Saturday, intercepted but failed to convince several people en-route to either Douala or Yaoundé to return home.

Family members

“Where are they going to? No, we don’t want them to go. We want them to stay at home. The army will protect them,” the governor said at the busy Mile 17 motor park where several people had loaded their luggage for travel.

In Bamenda in the Northwest where a dusk-to-dawn curfew was effective, luggage-bearing buses continued taking off every hour daily, with the transporters cashing in on the high demand to increase fares.

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Mr Ngayi Marcel who arrived in Yaoundé on Monday said he and other family members spent a night at a bus travel agency before leaving on Sunday evening.

“There is a scarcity of buses at travel agencies in Bamenda. Transporters have increased fares too because of the high exodus. Instead of the usual $10 (FCFA 5,000), we paid $16 (FCFA 9,000) and it was not even easy getting a ticket,” he said.

People started escaping from the restive regions in large numbers after separatists' threats to impose a ‘state of emergency’ on the former Southern Cameroon ahead of the October 7 presidential election.

camphys

Anglophone separatist activists who have been clamouring for secession and the creation of the Republic of Ambazonia, have warned that they would not allow any election organised by the Yaoundé regime to take place in “their country”.

They have also announced there would be no movement in and out of the territory from September 25 to October 10.

The Ambazonia Governing Council leader, Mr Lucas Cho Ayaba, said any car that would be seen on the road in the regions within the said dates, would be considered as transporting ballot papers and dealt with accordingly.

Yet the government has vowed that the vote would take place in a serene atmosphere nationwide.

"The October 7 presidential election will be held in a calm and serene environment throughout our country," Territorial Administration minister Paul Atanga Nji told reporters after a meeting with the country’s 10 regional governors.

Life president

"The head of state has instructed the governors to take the necessary measures to ensure that the election goes ahead in all of the 360 subdivisions of the country.”

Incumbent President Paul Biya is poised to win a seventh term of office, which will see him extend his 36-year rule and become Cameroon’s life president. He faces eight opposition candidates.

The two English speaking regions of Cameroon that have been gripped by an escalating violence make up about 20 per cent of the country's population.

Though the grievances of English speakers date back to the post-colonial period, the current wave of violence started in October 2016 when a lawyers’ and teachers’ strike snowballed into a general outcry against marginalisation by the predominantly French speaking Yaoundé regime.

The English speakers say they suffer economic inequality and discrimination at the hands of the Francophone majority, despite a post-independence reunification deal, where they expected to be equal partners.


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