The town of Ekona in the South West region has been without electricity for a whole month now. Inhabitants in the town say just about 20 percent of the people living there, have the luxury of using electricity.
The cause of the outage according to denizens was after separatist fighters randomly fired shots in the air, hitting the transformer that distributed electricity in the area. Since then, citizens have had to deal with the blackout. Reports say, technicians at the energy supply company have no access to the area to carry out repair works – due to the heavy presence of separatist fighters.
The damage occurred on May 19, 2020, as the separatist fighters came into the markets firing bullets in the air to disperse the crowd, urging them to respect the ghost town that had been placed on the town, MMI was told.
One of the bullets, unfortunately, hit the transformer and then all went dark till date. Before the transformer was taken down, Ekona dwellers say all the transformers in the town were down and only the one-shot by the fighters was left standing.
With it taken out, the whole town has been cut off from the electricity grid.
The town of Ekona is one of the hardest-hit towns by the Anglophone crisis, with very frequent confrontations between the separatist fighters and the Cameroon Defence forces. Most of the casualties often turn out to be innocent civilians who get caught up in the crossfire.
People in the town because of the constant friction between separatists and military have been plunged into a lack of the most basic of other amenities such as water.
The indigenes of Ekona are deeply saddened by their unfortunate situation and are calling on the authorities to come to their aid for the provision of the necessary.
Above all, they wish the conflict in their town will end and a return to normalcy come as soon as it can.
Mimi Mefo Info
