South West : Ex-Fighters Await New Home

The number of separatists’ fighters unwilling to continue combats in the bush is growing by the day in the South West Region. As at August 5, 2023, 466 persons were the occupants of the Buea Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration Centre (DDRC) according to the Regional Chief of the Centre for the South West, Ndone Ndodemesape Bernard. Of this number, there are 432 males, 23 females and 11 children.
As explained by the Regional Chief of the DDR Centre for the Southwest, the NDDR Centre in Buea functions at a momentary site since its creation in November 2018. The premises of the Borstal Institute of Buea, a State institution that had been carrying out similar reintegration duties on behalf of the government through the Ministry of Social Affairs presently shelters the 466 persons. “We are still to transfer to our new site in Missele in Tiko Sub-Division, which can accommodate close to 3,000 persons”, he noted.
With the number of ex-fighters growing by the day and with works still in progress at the new site in Missele, the government is currently putting all in place measures to ensure its completion within the shortest time frame. It is within this framework that the National Coordinator of the National Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration Committee, Fai Yengo Francis, on March 20, 2021 led a delegation of officials of the South West Region to Misselele, Tiko Sub-Division, to lay the foundation stone for the construction of the multipurpose DDR Centre for the region. On August 14, 2021, Fai Yengo Francis and his team toured the structure while on an evaluation visit to assess the progress of work done since March 2021. There, he was assured by contractors of the project that ex...