Seven civilians, including two infants aged two and three months, have reportedly been detained in Ndop by the Senior Divisional Officer (SDO) of Ngoketunjia, Handerson Quetong Kongeh, in connection with the kidnapping of a gendarme officer by Ambazonia separatist fighters.
The information was revealed by the human rights organisation Conscience Africaine, which has strongly condemned the arrests and detentions as unlawful and inhumane.
Conscience Africaine identified the detainees as: Madam Seraph Woh, 68; Julius Weyang, 39; Joycelyn Ndum, 22, mother of the 3-month-old baby; Blanche Yocnteh, 22, mother of the 2-month-old baby; and Justine Bechu, 24.
In a statement released last week, the NGO said they were arrested on June 24 after a separatist leader known as “General A Nova Die” kidnapped 14 people, including a gendarme officer.
While the other hostages were released after ransom payments, the gendarme remains in captivity.
Amadu Tanteh, a human rights defender familiar with the story, told Equinoxe TV:
“More than 14 unarmed civilians… were kidnapped on that same 24th of June 2025 around Sabga Hill in the Mezam Division of the North West Region of Cameroon by members of the armed separatist group.
“Upon arrival in the bush, these separatists discovered that among those they kidnapped was one member of the gendarme forces working at the company Gendarmerie in Ndop.
“So the separatists decided to allow the other civilians to go upon payment of ransom, meanwhile the one gendarme was continuously detained. It was as a result of this incident that when the SDO of Ngoketunjia learned of this issue, he ordered for the arrest of the family members of this separatist.”
Among those arrested, Tanteh added, were “seven unarmed civilians, including two newly born children of two months and three months.”
The civilians were arrested in Bamessing, Ndop. Conscience Africaine further alleged that the SDO has threatened to execute them if the gendarme is not released by the separatists.
While the SDO, Handerson Quetong Kongeh, has made no official statement about the seven civilians reportedly detained, he acknowledged the arrest of one man in a separate communiqué.
Identified as Justine Bechangu, the SDO’s June 27 statement alleged that Bechangu was involved in highway robbery, kidnappings, torture, and the illegal taxation of civilians in Bamessing.
He has since been placed under a renewable 15-day administrative detention at the Bamenda Central Prison.
Pattern of Civilian Victimization
Civilians in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon, where armed conflict has raged since 2017, have continually been caught in the crossfire between separatist fighters and government forces.
Both camps have been accused of human rights violations.
Security forces and administrators, including DOs and SDOs, have repeatedly targeted relatives and associates of suspected separatists, often accusing them of aiding terrorism or failing to report separatist activities.
MMI extensively covered the arrest, detention and trial of Antoinette Kongnso, a pregnant woman who was imprisoned in Buea for over 16 months (October 2021 to February 2023).
Authorities accused her of failing to report the activities of her former lover, “General No Pity,” a notorious separatist commander who was reportedly killed two years ago.
She gave birth while in detention and was only released after months of pressure from the media and human rights defenders. A court in Buea had convicted her of “failure to report terrorism” but freed her for already serving her sentence.
Similar cases include the arrest of relatives of Oliver Lekeaka, the late separatist warlord from Lebialem, who were later released without charge.
Meanwhile, separatist fighters themselves have kidnapped, tortured, and executed civilians believed to have ties with government officials, police, or the military—acts that have been condemned by international rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch and the Cameroon-based Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa.
These cases are just snippets of the ongoing human rights crisis facing civilians in the Anglophone regions, as they continue to suffer abuse at the hands of both separatists and state authorities.
Amadu Tanteh called for the release of the seven relatives the SDO of Ngoketunjia has detained.
“Criminal responsibility is personal, not collective. This is why we call for the immediate release of the detainees,” he told Equinoxe TV.
