Following separatists disruptions over the weekend, Cameroon‘s military reports that troops have been sent to the English-speaking Northwest regions of Oku, Kumbo, and Kakiri on Monday.
Armed gangs, according to the military, sealed marketplaces over the weekend, drove people and vehicles off the streets, and kidnapped a large number of residents who disobeyed them.
54-year-old Lukong Genesis, a motorbike taxi driver, claimed that armed guys took his motorcycle. He claimed that the separatists, whom he identified as Ambazonian separatists, started pointing guns at him and ordered him to return home.
“The situation in Kumbo for the past two days has been very, very precarious,” he said. There has been serious gun firing between the Amba and the state forces and today being Monday, the ghost town has been reinforced and the streets are dry. No movement of vehicles and people. Everybody is indoors.”
According to Lukong, after President Paul Biya‘s speech on New Year’s Eve, fighting between the military and rebels grew more intense.
Biya said numerous rebel organisations have been destroyed and the threat posed by separatists has been much diminished.
He commended the troops of the central African state for keeping people and property safe during the six-year conflict and declared that only peace will allow for the region’s reconstruction.
The rebels claim they seek to split Cameroon, with its predominantly French-speaking population, into an English-speaking entity they call Ambazonia.
Capo Daniel is self-declared deputy defence chief of the Ambazonia Defense Forces, one of the rebel groups. He dismissed the allegation that their forces have been significantly reduced.
“That Paul Biya mentioned that peace is returning is laughable. Ambazonia-controlled areas have largely increased. Nineteen Cameroon military men were targeted in Bui and some of them were airlifted for treatment. There have been some arson attacks by the Cameroon military in Bui as well as in Oku. Ambazonia will not give up their fight until we have achieved our goal of independence,” said Daniel.
Cameroon’s military admits that troops have been in running bottles with rebels in several western towns and villages but says their forces did not suffer any casualties.