The withdrawal of the elements of the rapid intervention battalion, BIR from Balikumbat has supposedly given the separatist fighters in the area the upper hand in the control of the town.
Less militarily secured than the other parts of the Northwest region, separatist attacks have significantly increased, one of which came on Wednesday.
During the attack, 6 persons from the town lost their lives.
It is widely reported that on the night of Wednesday, July 24 to July 25th, the Ambazonia fighters came out of the bushes and attacked the populations of Balikumbat in the Ngoh-ketunjia division, Northwest region, and slaughtered the 6 victims from their throats in the attack.
Le Messager newspaper reports that 6 persons were killed by the fighters with several others being terribly wounded.
The attack on Balilumbat follows the withdrawal of the BIR from the area, a situation that worries the D.O for Balikumbat, Forbi Enoh Fritz who has implied that “Multiple administrative letters to request the return of the BIR have been without success… I wrote to the SDO for Ndop, he even called the governor of the Northwest region but we have had no response. It is necessary to bring back the BIR otherwise it will be a disaster” he told le messager newspaper. “The government is making a very big mistake. It was not necessary to make the BIR leave suddenly like this. We now have just a few men from the gendarmerie and the police but Ambazonians are a heavily armed militia, they are not afraid of the police. In addition to this the police are really understaffed in Balikumbat” the DO lamented.
The constant attacks by the separatist and the inefficacy of the government forces to counter has suddenly waged the control of the area to the separatist fighters, an idea that government loath to the very core.
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