Anglophone crisis: Military imminent pounding of Northwest Region, when war tanks mean peace!

For those who are used to hunting mosquitoes, especially at night, you can rightly tell how frustrating it can be hunting single mosquito at night each time it takes an oat not to allow one sleep.

When you try to crush it with two hands each time to n avail, only then will you know how disappointing it can be. You can then use a broom and at times just any stick or even pestle to hit it. Same thing with rats and cockroaches. Who has lived without all this?

According to the government and the regime apologists, separatist fighters are just like the mosquitoes, cockroaches and house rats that have refused to allow the master sleep well after enjoying a bowl of fufu. Now, even the box hammer and the pestle should be deployed to bury the domestics.

The exploits of self acclaimed ‘General’ No Pity days back in Ngoketunjia division in the northwest region seems to have triggered the reading of an unscripted message, exchange of body bags.

In a week, separatists fighters in the Northwest region were able to have exported 15 body bags of Cameroonian soldiers back to their families in a situation they could have been prevented.

The episode was enough to have taken Yaoundé and Cameroon at large by storm. Many now have started questioning if the war in the Northwest and the Southwest regions of Cameron is even necessary.

Panic-stricken, the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of defense, Joseph Beti Assomo touched down in Bamenda September 22 onboard a military helicopter. The helicopter sound at up station Bamenda was enough to scare denizens were quietly sitting in the confines of their homes for yet another look down.

The message was confusing; had the minister come to say ‘we go see pepper?’ or had he come to say ‘enough is enough?’.

By evening, images of war tanks entering Bamenda in their numbers confirmed to many Northwest inhabitants that the message of the minister to the troops was a hot one – war. Though frightened, many city dwellers were quick to brush away their fear with the belief they have seen all that needs to be seen already.

……pockets of resistance left?

The minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji once said in Bamenda the head of state had won the war against the separatists and that only a “few pockets of resistance” were left. Day by day we keep seeing the military changing tools. From military combat pickups to fortified pickups with iron metals, they keep falling short.

Then came the arrival of armored cars. Yet, we recently saw two emptied and burnt down like house hold garbage in Ndop, without counting the several others that have been destroyed by improvised explosives in the divisions.

We have also seen separatist fighters who started their resistance against the government with catapults at small Mankon and commercial avenue in December 2016 grow to dane guns, automatic riffles, AK47s, IEDs, and now rocked-propelled grenades

Frantic efforts to ward off a military mutiny?

Every year, one watches on TV as thousands of troops deployed t the central Africa and to the northern regions of Cameroon to battle. We see motivated troops determined to fight and defend the interest of Cameroon.

Troops that have been fighting in the Northwest and Southwest regions however seem to have realized there is no reason why they should fight.

The visit of the defense minister followed by the arrival of the Sahara camouflaged armored vehicles after 15 soldiers were killed in a week might just be a way to see the boys, ‘we got you covered’.

Another wasted effort?

Separatist fighters in the Northwest region have been launching attacks in almost all the 7 divisions of the region. The sudden arrival of few war tanks have left many wondering how many of these thanks can be deployed to the divisions.

Even at that, these war tanks use tires. How will they operate with the bad roads that have now come to be the picture of the Northwest region?

Do not be surprised to see separatists celebrate one day in front of one of these tanks.