Ambazonia separatist fighters killed a businesswoman in Belo, in the restive North West Region of Cameroon, on Wednesday for selling drinks to Cameroonian military officers, a local source told MMI.
Nawain Marceline Bih was found dead hours after Amba Boys pulled her out of her home in Baingo, Belo, to an unknown location.
The separatists, our source said, had repeatedly warned and threatened her against selling drinks to military men who are maintaining security in the area, but she defied the warnings.
“While we were in our houses observing the lockdown. Amba fighters went to their house and took her away. She was only found dead afterward,” the local source said. “Before coming for her they had issued several warnings to the lady.”
Belo, like many areas in the English-speaking Regions, has been observing a two-week lockdown the separatists imposed on the two Regions last week. Before the lockdown, military officers who have been deployed to Belo, frequented the B roadside bar,
“What we know is that this woman was running a small shop here and military people used to come and drink there,” our source said.
The killing of Marceline Bih is one amongst many cases of summary killings Ambazonia separatists have perpetrated on civilians in Anglophone Regions of Cameroon during the last weeks.
Human rights groups have also faulted the both the military and separatists in the past for repeatedly targeting civilians during the past six years of armed conflict in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions.
This week, a coalition of Cameroonian rights groups and civil society organisations condemned the recent killings and reiterated the call for government to dialogue with the separatists.
Across the two Regions, people say they are weary of watching their loved ones die recklessly everyday and their children’s future being jeopardized by school boycotts.
“Our people have become a target in a war they did not call for. How do you kill a woman struggling to survive for selling to A or B? Business has no coloration and the earlier they know that and spare our lives the better,” a disgruntled Belo resident regretted.
