Patience Ngu, 24 from Santa-Awing in the North West Region is one of the many Africans badly affected by the deadly explosions that happened in the Lebanese capital Beirut some few days ago.
She explained she went to Lebanon 6 months ago after being victimised on several occasions by the Separatist fighters and the military in her village. “…I had to run away from Santa as the crisis had become worse with people around me dying every day. After being sexually abused by the both the military and the separatist fighters on separate occasions, I was badly traumatised so I decided to move to Bamenda” she told Mimi Mefo Info.
“I moved in with my friend in Bamenda who helped me start up something to fend for myself but then I got introduced to a person who was taking girls to work in the Middle East so I decided to take it to make better money to fend for myself and family back home” she narrated.
Patience said she has been in Beirut-Lebanon for six months now working for a Lebanese lady but had never been paid for the duration of her time in the Lebanese capital.
“All she always told me is that the Value of Dollar had risen astronomically and it had to drop down to normal before she could pay me. She said that for the entire six months I was with her. I work for her for 14 hours daily. The situation has become worst over here because the explosions in Beirut destroyed our home and we were just very lucky to make it alive after the blast. My boss went to live with her husband’s family while she kept me with one of her friends promising to get back to me but since then I haven’t heard from her. I can neither reach her nor the agent who helped get me to the Middle East. I’ve ever since been really stranded as it has even become a major problem to get something to even eat” she complained.
“All I wish now is to go back home to Cameroon but on my own I really can’t”.
Patience has equally revealed that there are more Africans and Cameroonians like her in Beirut with the same plight but unfortunately like her are helpless as she says no foreign office is willing to even listen to their problems because they are all struggling to cope with the effects of the heavy blast at the Beirut sea port.
Mimi Mefo Info