Donga Mantung Division: Njirong-Ntumbaw land dispute leaves many injured

The recent confrontations between some villages in Donga Mantung Division of the North West region of Cameroon due to a land dispute has led to injuries sustained and many houses destroyed.

The villages concerned are Ntumbaw and Njirong in Ndu subdivision where some youths got involved in confrontations along the borders of the conflict-ridden localities.

During a meeting over the weekend in Ndu, the Senior Divisional Officer for Donga Mantung Division, Simon Nkwenti Dooh called for calm and peaceful coexistence between the concerned villages.

The meeting was attended by some 17 traditional rulers of the Wimbum tribe, the biggest in the Donga Mantung division.

Simon Nkwenti Dooh underscored the need for members of the political class and elites of the area to refrain from engaging the youths in violent confrontations that characterised the land dispute.

Reports say after the meeting however, some farmers from Ntumbaw village still visited the said parcel of land, leading to exchanges.

Sources from Ndu indicate that the previous tensed atmosphere has however subsided at the moment.

The land dispute between Njirong village and Ntumbaw village in the Ndu Sub‑division of Donga Mantung Division in the Northwest Region of Cameroon started around 1973, when The Fon of Njirong invited Ntumbaw villagers
to join his village in cultivate rice at Mbawrong. The Fon of Ntumbaw hesitated,
but after several invitations, he agreed and sent his people down to Mbawrong.

The Fon of Njirong assigned them a place to cultivate rice and followed the traditions of the Njirong village, but since this plot was adjacent to the
boundary between Nso, Ntumbaw and Njirong, the Ntumbaw people annexed the
parcel of land they were given by the Fon of Njirong and from then argued that the land was Ntumbaw land.

By Timfuchi Aaron