Mr. Germanus Gyeh Tembom, a native of Mbengwi, in the North West Region of Cameroon has now been in captivity for over three weeks on accusations of dealing with separatists.
Germanus is said to have been kidnapped early in December 2021, by unidentified men and taken to an unidentified location.
“Residents say they initially feared he had been taken by the separatists given that he had received multiple threats from them,” a source told Mimi Mefo Info.
But they were wrong, the source went on. It was, later on, realized that he had been whisked off by the BIR after a protest by the population in Mbengwi.
“The BIR owned up and told us he was in their keeping. They said he was going to be released that same day of the protest on December 22, 2021,” recounted a native of Mbengwi.
Since then, Mr. Germanus Gyeh’s whereabouts remains unknown. It has also been rumored that the victim may have been taken out of Mbengwi by the military.
The people of Mbengwi believe that Mr. Germanus Gyeh is innocent of the accusations leveled against him by the government forces.
“The military says he was arrested on grounds that he deals with Amba fighters, on the other hand, this same guy has received threats from Ambazonian fighters who accuse him of dealing with the military,” our source in Mbengwi pointed out.
The case of Mr. Germanus Gyeh is just one amongst hundreds of such similar ones within the context of the Anglophone crisis in the North West and South West Regions of Cameroon.
One of the most notorious cases is of a man arrested in the South West Region over 2 years ago for bearing a name similar to the appellation attributed to Separatists fighters, “Amba Denis”.
He too like Mr. Germanus, has been convicted of no crime but is nevertheless behind bars for simply bearing a name given to him at birth.
Mimi Mefo Info
