Nkambe – Nso road blockade lifted after five years: who is in charge?

By Timfuchi Aaron

Traffic has resumed on the stretch of the road linking Kumbo in Bui Division and Nkambe, chief town of Ndonga-Mantung division after half a decade.

Passenger cars arrived kumbo late Saturday triggering lots of celebration of those settled along the road.

Residents especially in Kumbo rolled out drums and dance groups to celebrate the resumption of traffic on the said road. Separatists fighters in Kumbo imposed a no-circulation order on the road to isolate residents of Donga Mantung.

This they said, was because the Donga Mantung residents had vomited them and sided with the government since the onset of the Anglophone crisis.

According to Nji Jeffry, one of the first drivers to use the road, Friday, the stretch is now open and free to use.

“We left Ndu in Donga-Mantung at 7:30am in the morning and reached here [Kumbo] at 4pm. The road is free and I can advise passers and road users to use the road now” he said.

According to Cedrick, a passenger on board the first car, the road reopening has been backed by separatist fighters active in Bui division who now want circulation to resume.

Five years of exploitation

Drivers who used to ply the road hitherto the ban on circulation on the said road, immediately exploited the situation for business.

Access to and from Nkambe was possible only through the West region.

Passengers leaving Nkambe to Bamenda were charged FCFA 50.000. At one time, it was even alleged that a group of drivers had agreed not to ply the road again so that they can keep benefiting from the excess profit made when passing through the West region.


Who is in charge?

The fact that separatist fighters successfully restricted traffic from flowing between the two divisions for five years is to many, a pointer that government is yet to have a grip of the situation.


Despite claiming to have it all under control, the ongoing Anglophone crisis has continued to eat deep, leaving civilians and even the government helpless.