Bamenda: Separatist fighters kill man for helping people acquire identity cards

Separatist fighters in Bamenda, North West Region of Cameroon, have killed a man, whose name MMI got as Ali.

Ali was accused of working against their secessionist agenda by helping people to acquire Cameroonian identification documents.

In a viral video that was shot shortly before Ali was executed, voices of men believed to have been separatist fighters can be heard in the background telling Ali that his punishment was death.

All they told him was that he was guilty of “treason”, because he was facilitating people to acquire identification documents at the Old Town Police station in Bamenda.

Ali pleaded for his life and told his would-be executioners that he was sorry, but the apology was turned down.

In the video, Ali said he was the brother of detained Muslim scholar, Abdul Karim Ali, hoping he would be set free, but that did not happen.

He was executed and his corpse dumped at Nitop neighborhood in Bamenda.

The act has been condemned by many who said he was only struggling to put food on the table and that killing him will not stop Cameroonians from obtaining national Identity Cards.

Critics have highlighted the hypocrisy of the separatist movement given that they are using the same identification documents that they are killing others for acquiring.

This is because no person in Cameroon, particularly in the conflict-hit regions can go around in public without an ID card.

By Soulemanu Buba