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The South West/North West Women Task Force, SNWOT has expressed concerns over the frequent killing of women and girls in the most brutal manner in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon.
The group of women whose main mission to bring about peace in the embattled Anglophone regions says four years of verbal condemnation of atrocities committed is not helping the situation.
Sally Maforchi Mboumien, general coordinator of South West/North West Women Task Force said “…we rubbish all the so call decry speeches that have been made for that is too much and not beneficial to anybody”.
Speaking to Mimi Mefo Info at the wake of the killing of Treasure Mbah in Bamenda and Comfort Tamasong in Muyuka by separatist fighters, the advocate for gender equality and respect of human rights calls on authorities in Cameroon to take concrete actions to stop the war.
“We at the task force say and repeat in loud voices that whoever claims that he is a leader and cares about us should make an open statement of goodwill and tell us that enough of the guns an go to the table for negotiation. Then we will know that that leader is worth it”.
Sally Mboumien regrets that the conflict has now become a problem of women and girls because of their vulnerability and the fact that authorities in Cameroon do not take into consideration proposals tabled by women on how to resolve the conflict.
“Comfort was humiliated, questioned, butchered, videotaped, and send to the community to show the degree to which women and girls are the main victims. Deadly attacks are on women and girls as the terrain has become a man’s affair,” she recalled.
SNWOT believes that the conflict today sterns from gender inequality in society. Noting that two women killed in Bamenda and Muyuka were accused by separatists for being betrayals just because they had a romantic relationship with the military shows the extent to which the rights of women are violated in the course of the conflict.
“Stay off women and their love affairs. It is not the conflict you set out to fight,” Sally Mboumien added.
To the general coordinator of SNWOT, in the hierarchy of needs, love and sex are the basic human needs and therefore sees no reason why women and girls in the Anglophone regions be deprived of these because they find themselves in a conflict situation.
“The conflict is fought on bearers of breast and vagina. Why not target the military men that are dating your sisters and mothers if you really want to defend them? If a woman dates a fighter she is equally targeted by the military. So what narrative are we pushing?” she questioned
To the gender advocate, women have the right to their sexuality issue, and that needs to be respected even in a period of conflict.
She has reminded everyone holding the gun or any other object fighting in the North West and South West regions that women are feeling the greater pinch of the conflict and for the sake of humanity and the respect of the 52% population of women in Cameroon, they should drop their weapons.
Mimi Mefo Info
