A commercial motorcycle rider has been killed and a passenger taken away by armed assailants, whom eyewitnesses identified as Ambazonia separatist fighters.
The incident occurred this Monday, June 10, at Mile 5 Nkwen, in Bamenda, capital town of the crisis-hit North West Region.
The identities of the slain motorcycle rider and the female passenger taken hostage remain unknown at the moment.
According to eyewitness reports, the bike rider died on the spot after the gunmen opened fire on him.
“He was targeted and shot for working on a Monday,” a resident of the neighborhood told MMI, preferring to remain anonymous.
The incident adds to several other grim occurrences that have characterized Mondays in the English-speaking Regions of Cameroon since 2017.
Monday is observed as a ghost town day in Bamenda and other towns in the North West and South West Regions, with schools and most economic activities grounded.
Since 2017, separatists have taken violent measures, including killings, burnings, and kidnappings, to enforce the ghost town.
The killing of this bike rider in Bamenda could be one of those tactics implored by the separatists to deter people from doing normal activities on Mondays.
The incident adds to a long list of violent incidents that the city of Bamenda has witnessed for the past weeks, with several lives lost and property destroyed.
Assailants who identify as members of the Ambazonia Defence Forces (ADF) attacked taxis over the last week, damaged and burnt some in an infamous project to coerce drivers to change their taxi colours from yellow to blue and white.
