Pandemonium in Bamenda as heavy gunfiring sends residents into hiding

The city of Bamenda has been partially Shutdown in areas like Nkwen and other busy joints.

Gunshots were heard in some parts of the city today, locals have confirmed .

Frightened residents who had left their homes and were going about their normal activities of the day, had to return home for safefty, sources have said .

”Report of gun shoots have been head around the Ntarikon neighbourhood in Bamenda meanwhile food market is equally shut down but some part of nkwen like mile 4 and beyond are functioning. there is so much uncertainty about the situation of Bamenda as for now,” a local testified.

The Bamenda main market is not functioning and populated as usual though vendors are selling outside the market, our reporters have observed.

The gate of the market is open but shops were still closed early today.

Travel agencies have more passengers on the cue waiting to buy tickets.

“We just realised many people are leaving the city. After the verdict, we fear for our safety, we had Hope’s things were getting better and that schools will resume until yesterday when the leaders called for ghost town,” a source told Mimi Mefo Info.

Mimi Mefo Info could immediately confirm reports that the government delegate and the mayor of Bamenda I and other some other government officials in the city have fled for safety due the fact that the Ambazonia fighters have taken some parts of the town hostage.

Early Tuesday August 20, 2019, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and nine other Ambazonian leaders who were arrested in Nigeria and transferred to Cameroon were given life sentences each, by the Yaounde military court.

They were convicted for secession, financing terrorism, rebellion against the state amongst other charges.

To some Bamenda city dwellers, they are forced by the decision of the military court in yaounde to join the pro independent fighters. One of them whose name we withheld for security reasons said “it better to join the abazonia defence force to fight and die fighting than to be killed innocently by the forces of oppression described as security forces from French Cameroon”.

Another whose name we wouldn’t mention for security told us in tears that: “I was hoping to get a good result from the court but what came out was just like adding more pains to an already existing one. I am the only one left in my family all my brothers and sisters were killed by the Cameroon military and with this kind of judgment I think I should joined the restoration forces for enough is enough.”

Local newspapers and media houses in Bamenda have described this as a break down in the dialogue process which government said was ongoing.

Even the campaign for school resumption has equally been tampered with following the decision of the military court in Yaounde.

As for now, Bamenda is said to be calm but locals are panicky.

Mimi Mefo Info