Southern Cameroonians thought a new independent state would rid them of the marginalization they had been victims of in Cameroon for six years, but most of them are gradually discovering that marginalization is a lesser evil to the terrorism which is being practiced on them by their so-called liberators. Their dream of a beautiful Southern Cameroons has turned into a never-ending nightmare.

For over two years, the Yaoundé government had modified its war plan, walking away from collective killings and punishment to silent diplomacy, with the country’s Prime Minister, Dion Ngute, working hard behind the scenes to involve the Canadian government in talks which were supposed to bring peace to Cameroon.

Though the Prime Minister’s plan was scuttled by members of his own government, Mr. Ngute and his supporters have not relented when it comes to engineering peace in Southern Cameroons.

While the government has changed its ways in a positive way, the separatists, for their part, have also changed their ways, unfortunately in a very bad way.

They have become the face of death and destruction. Fighters, who said they were fighting the government in protection of their people, have today become a real millstone around the people’s neck.

Kidnappings, summary executions, extortion and intimidation have become their stock in trade. Those who said they were protecting their people, prompting huge financial contributions from the Diaspora, are those who are killing their own people in cold blood.

Today, Mamfe is in blood and tears. Separatists’ fighters have once more proven that if they had had an independent state, Afghanistan and other rogue nations around the world would have been better than Southern Cameroons.

Separatists’ fighters have chopped off the hands of their people just because their people wanted to work. They have robbed children in rural areas of their right to education. They have impregnated young girls, some of whom are less than 12 years. And today, many people cannot bury their loved ones in peace in many parts of Southern Cameroons. The so-called fighters charge the bereaved huges amounts of money if they want to bury their loved ones in their villages.

But it seems they are not yet done. Their list of crimes and sins is very long and very early today, they demonstrated in Egbekaw New Lay-out in Mamfe that their version of Independence is predicated upon extreme violence and death.

More than 25 people have lost their lives today in Mamfe through senseless killings and more than 20 homes have been burned. The criminals left the crime scenes once they set fire to those homes, unfortunately for them, some of their members were identified and they have already been reported to the gendarmerie brigade in Egbekaw-Mamfe.

In the past, apologists of these separatists would be quick to point out that some of those atrocities were being committed by the Cameroon army. The Mamfe District Hospital, one of the finest in the country, was burned down by these “fake fighters of independence” and a thorough investigation by the Cameroon Concord News Group clearly exonerated the military.

From burning houses and slaughtering soldiers, these separatists are today slaughtering their own people and they seem to take pleasure in killing the people they said they wanted to protect. Which liberators kill their own people and refuse their own children from going to school? Where in the world has a country developed without educated minds? Even in the Dark Ages, those with enlightened minds were the pillars of social engineering and development but in Southern Cameroons, a drug- and alcohol-inflamed bunch is dictating things, prioritizing illiteracy over literacy.

For more than seven years, these members of a cloak-and-dagger organization who pass off as liberators have been suffocating the Southern Cameroonian economy through sterile and meaningless “ghost town” operations which have left many unemployed and economically desperate.

Southern Cameroonians who saw hope through their rebellion, are today asking themselves if it was even necessary to challenge the Yaoundé government.

A noble struggle, once led by the mild-minded Sisisku Julius Ayuk Tabe, has been hijacked by people of the underworld who are using violence and intimidation to keep the people in check and in extreme poverty.

Nobody can stop these violent elements from causing havoc in places like Mamfe, except the residents of the town. Those who have sent some 25 residents of Mamfe to an early grave are the sons of Manyu. It will be preposterous for the people of Mamfe to think that their enemies have come from somewhere else.

The so-called revolution had failed. The revolution is consuming its own people. If the people of Mamfe in particular and Manyu in general have to put an end to this endemic violence, then they must cooperate with government security operatives.

They must report those criminals living in their communities to the government for proper action to be taken.

The Cameroon Concord News Group clearly condemns what has happened in Mamfe and has already despatched its reporters to Mamfe for a comprehensive coverage of this unfortunate situation.

More will be yours as the Group’s reporters file in their reports.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai and Joachim Arrey