The military of Cameroon claims to have sent a large number of troops to the English-speaking Northwest area of the country, to the districts 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—who identify as Ambazonian or Amba—started pointing guns at him and ordered him to return home.
“The situation in Kumbo has been very, very precarious for the past two days,” he said. Since it is Monday, the ghost town has been strengthened and the streets are dry. There has been intense gunfire between the Amba and the state forces. There is no movement of people or vehicles. Everyone is inside.
According to Lukong, after President Paul Biya’s speech on New Year’s Eve, fighting between the military and rebels grew more intense.
According to Biya, numerous rebel organisations have been destroyed, and the threat posed by separatists has been greatly diminished.
He praised the troops of the central African state for keeping people and property safe during the six-year war, and he said that the region could only be rebuilt with peace.
The rebels claim they seek to split Cameroon, with its predominately French-speaking population, into an English-speaking entity they call Ambazaonia.
Capo Daniel is the self-declared deputy defence chief of the rebel organisation known as the Ambazonian Defense Forces. He denied the claim that their forces have been drastically scaled back.
“It’s ridiculous that Paul Biya said that peace is returning. Areas under Ambazonian authority have significantly expanded. In Bui, 19 military personnel from Cameroon were attacked, and several of them needed to be flown for medical attention. The military of Cameroon has carried out a few arson attacks in Oku and Bui. Daniel declared that Ambazaonia would continue to struggle until it achieved independence.
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individual citizens
The military of Cameroon acknowledges that troops have engaged in gunfights with rebels in a number of western towns and villages, but claims that no one was hurt.
The military says that at least 11 separatists were killed in battles in Kumbo and Oku. VOA was not able to independently confirm this claim.
The governor of the English-speaking Southwest region, Bernard Okalia Bilai, advised citizens to report armed gang members and hoodlums wreaking havoc in their neighbourhoods to the military and government officials. According to Bilai, armed gangs are intimidating individuals, robbing businesses, and kidnapping ordinary citizens in the name of freedom and emancipation.
The separatists contest that their soldiers are kidnapping and intimidating citizens.
Social media posts by rebels To refute Biya’s assertion that fighters were being defeated, Monday claimed that their fighters were enforcing the curfew.
Separatists in the English-speaking west of the country started their uprising in 2017 because they said that the French-speaking majority had been unfair to them for years.
According to Biya, anyone attempting to divide Cameroon will be destroyed.
More than 3,500 people have died and more than 750,000 have been displaced, according to the U.N.
