Ngoketunjia Division : Villagers Vent Anger on Fighters, Seize Weapons

A massive clean-up involving removal of road blocks and barricades mounted by fighters in the bushes primarily against defence and security forces, that also cut off access into some villages has begun in Ngoketunjia Division. The local populations of Balikumbat and Bamessing, irked by persistent killings, kidnapping and the demand for ransom, hardship, burning of homes came out amass and in anger attacked and killed two of the fighters, set their camps on fire, dispossessed the fighters of weapons including guns, mystical materials they used for "Odeshie" and valuable properties plundered from homes and brought them to the forces of law and order in Balikumbat. According to the SDO of Ngoketunjia, Handerson Quetong Kongeh, the clean-up took place from January 2-4, 2020 in Balikumbat and January 1-4 in Bamessing followed by a sigh of relief and jubilation.

Balikumbat

In Balikumbat, where three "Amba" camps consisting of a fortified set up with a prison, an arbitration chamber, a section where "Amba" chieftains sit to draw up strategies against their enemies and treated with people individually, the structures were reduced to ashes, SDO Handerson Quetong Kongeh, told Cameroon Tribune on Saturday. "It was more of a boomerang on the fighters who thought the population was for them," he said.

The event was sparked after the torture of a motorcycle taxi rider by the fighters, after forcefully taking him to extract information from him in one of their camps. Their victim, he said, had stood by his colleague against the fighters opposing their asking of a ransom from the rider. Having endured the untold torture and released hours later, he returned lamenting and wailing, provoking a general shock that went wild in the village. 

"Irked by this and repeated extortion of money from the villagers as well as other illicit acts carried out in their communities, the villagers ( most women and girls) rose up against the fighters," according to the SDO. It is said, besides other hardships caused on the villagers, burial rites became a money-making exercise that only the rich could afford.

Bamessing

Following the killing of a Bamessing business man by fighters who suspected him of playing the guide to defence and security forces in the night of December 30-31, 2019, the population has since then taken upon itself to dislodge all that were set up by the fighters. By Saturday, January 4, 2020, the villagers brought back their market to the place where it was before the crisis began, carried out hygiene and sanitation of some places, at...