The house of a man in Baba II village in the North West region of Cameroon was set ablaze yesterday evening.
Reports placing the forces of law and order at the scene have been confirmed. A local has testified to coming across the soldiers as they searched for separatist fighters.
The individual whose names are held for security reasons says he came across them at the primary school in the locality.
“I left quarter Mbendam this morning and took the footpath leading to the primary school. Little did I know that the primary school was militarized” he says.
“Immediately I approached the football field I badged in on them, about 50 or more with three military trucks. Luckily I was not surprised or scared when I saw them” he adds.
Describing the encounter as a bad experience, he says the soldiers asked him to strip as they searched his wallet and phone.
“Luckily, I hard no ‘bad’ photos, videos or message related to amba. It was only during our conversation and acting that I noticed that some of them were in the corn farms and had been monitoring me since I enter the schoolyard” he explains further.
While no one knows why soldiers set the house ablaze, such acts have been common practice for the last three years in the restive Anglophone regions of the country. Coupled with other human rights violations such as arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings lives have been lost in their thousands.
Political actors and rights groups continue to call for a free and fair dialogue as the only way out of the crisis.
Mimi Mefo Info
