By Tata Mbunwe
Women in Ndian Division, Southwest region, have called on the Cameroon government to conduct impartial and transparent investigations into the killing of seven people in Ekondo-Titi last Wednesday.
Rallying under the banner of the Ndian Women Network, NWONE, the women said in a release on March 5, that the perpetrators of the explosive attack that killed the Divisional Officer, Mayor and others must be held accountable.
“We call on the Government of Cameroon to conduct impartial and transparent investigation into the attack at Bekora Barombi to ensure that responsible are held accountable,” part of the release reads.
It furthers: “The ongoing violence and atrocities have created pain and great hardship for the whole civilian population including but not limited to our women, children, physically-challenged and the vulnerable in the communities”.
Terming the killings senseless, cowardly and brutal, the women also demanded that government and separatists should cease hostilities in the Anglophone regions and give peace a chance.
Ndian Division has been faced with several armed attacks in recent times. The latest, which happened on March 2, was a separatists’ explosive attack on the Ekondo-Titi DO’s vehicle that killed seven people, including the DO, Timothee Aboloa.
The Mayor of Ekondo-Titi, Kenneth Nanji was also killed alongside CPDM Section President, Willian Ebeku; DO’s Driver, Stanley Meh; a staff at the DO’s office, Alliance Itoe and a warrant officer.
Several persons were injured, including a traditional ruler who is said to be in a critical condition.
Before the latest explosive attack, another attack on a school in Ekondo-Titi, on November 24, 2021, left four students and a teacher dead. Until now, no official statement has been released regarding the outcome of investigations government had promised to conduct on the incident.
NWONE also flashbacked into the abduction of six divisional delegates serving in Ndian, whose whereabouts remain unaccounted for several months since they were taken.
One of them had died in the hands of separatist fighters, who claimed responsibility for the act.
“We demand that those holding the divisional delegates release them so that they reunite with their families,” they wrote.
The attack on Ekondo-Titi on Wednesday is the latest of numerous attacks on civilians during the Anglophone crisis that has stretched for over four years now.
No one has been spared in separatist and military attacks.
Over four thousand people have been killed and the UN says 573,000 are internally displaced with 72,000 seeking refuge in neighbouring Nigeria.
