Residents of Street 3 in Mulang, Bamenda, are still reeling from the killing of a young man, whom they say was brought in by men in military uniform and shot dead.
Passersby found his body in a pool of blood on the morning of November 5, 2024.
The man, reportedly in his late 20s, was a native of Ngie in Momo Division of the North West Region.
Residents claim they heard gunshots late on the night of November 4, sparking fears in the community.
They woke up in the morning to find an injured body in a pool of blood.
“We heard gunshots outside,” a local resident recounted. “When we went out, we discovered that a man had been shot by armed men in uniform.”
Residents of Mulang Street 3 allege that the deceased had been forcibly taken by soldiers following a recent neighborhood raid.
“He was among those taken away by soldiers after their sweep (Calé Calé) in the area last week,” another resident disclosed.
The young man reportedly joined the separatist movement but later abandoned the cause and was living a normal life when he was picked up.
However, he had not gone through the official Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) program, which the government created in 2018 to rehabilitate repentant fighters.
Residents believe military officers targeted him because they thought he still posed a threat to the community.
Hundreds of separatist fighters have given up arms since the government created DDR centers in the North West and South Regions, to re-orientate independence-seeking fighters who downed their weapons.
But fighters who abandon the separatist struggle have often been targeted by their former colleagues who see them as traitors.
The Cameroon military, too, has been accused of repeatedly executing repentant fighters who fail to join the government DDR centers.
