The Anglophone Crisis: Tale of a Victim

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By Martial Gnoukapasi

Let's just call her a victim for now, name withheld on request. She however hails from one of the 7 divisions of the North West region.

Call her a survivor of war, now at the Bamenda disarmament demobilization and reintegration centre.

One often wonder, even some guests who've had the luxury of visiting the Bamenda disarmament demobilization and reintegration centre, unconciously will occasionally, think aloud -This one too was a fighter?.

Thing is, sometimes you look at the faces and you asked yourself if truly this or that person has fired a gun before or not.

By penning down this story , MNews237 is merely struggling to expose some of the circumstances under which some people get caught in this web called anglophone crisis and in these camps

Talking to us Tuesday August 24th, our lady victim said she had no choice back then but to join "the boys" against her wish." It was either I join or they come for my family".

she has a flexible schedule that permits her to go out on one or two business errands like others. Of course we all have needs and must work to satisfy them.

Showing up for the interview looking composed an calmed she sat down and said:

"Before I came to the centre I was in the bush. It wasn't my desire to go there but I was forced to. As a lady, you live in the quarter, the "boys" always want to torment you. They ask you to support them in cooking or in one way or the other. The more you run away, the more they come after your family, so I just had to go there to protect my family"

On how she left the place and got to Bamenda she said.

"So one day when the military attacked the camp, thank God they were not really brutal. They had to rescue some of us who were there and those who surrendered"

She told us that she had once nursed dreams of becoming a voice to the voiceless, but at some point changed her mind for reason she didn't made known to us.

She hopes to become something else now. To the ladies out there, she is asking them to "..get up and work for their future. " this whole call struggle is going nowhere and it's not going to help them"


MNews editors note to security forces.

With the understanding that it is not easy to do the work you do - being a guarantor to the peace and Security of Cameroonians and their properties, there's need to also understand that not everyone you find in a camp is an a fighter or has separatist ties. Some are victims of war, taken against their will to these camps with ransoms on their head.

Donate to our course of creative story telling of issues concerning our community by dialing 674845281.

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