Arsonists Torch Kumbo City Community Radio

The City Community Radio in Kumbo has not aired for several hours after the media house was visited by arsonists last night.

Management and workers of the radio only got up this morning and discovered the rate of damage as a result of what they described as an “arson attack”.

The entire content of the radio house was emptied and set on fire in front of its host storey building.

“Everything was destroyed…the city community radio has not been on air…,” a Kumbo local told Mimi Mefo info.

Sources say Ambazonian fighters masterminded the attack after a failed attempt on October 2 to kidnap the Station Manager, Ntagwa Johdzeven Laurence, whom they qualify as a “traitor”.

He was being accused of collaborating with the Military, as an informant.

This is not the first attack on community radio stations in the North West Region since the anglophone crisis escalated.

Sky FM in Ndu also came under similar attack early August 2018.
Reacting to the incident, the Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemned attacks on journalists and media houses.

“All parties to the conflict in Cameroon, whether government forces or Ambazonians, should stop targeting journalists and media organizations and allow them to operate safely and without fear of reprisal…The media is not the enemy. Journalists are simply trying to do their jobs by ensuring that citizens are armed with useful information in what has become an increasingly bloody phase in Cameroon’s history,” said Angela Quintal, CPJ Africa Program Coordinator.

The City Community Radio in Mbveh Market has been off air since last night after its transmitters were damaged due the Tuesday night inferno.
No worker of the radio station was harmed.

Journalists are constantly caught between Security forces and pro-independence fighters engaged in crossfire in the anglophone regions for closed to 2 years now.

Some journalists are issued open threats for allegedly supporting one party or the other.