When Median Bah Ekue heard villagers saying she was dead, she could not speak to tell them she was still alive.
Her face had been shattered by bullets. Her mouth was destroyed. Blood covered her body. She could not see. She could not talk. She could only hear voices around her, voices preparing to bury her.
“I realized I had to do something or I would die there, I could be buried alive” Median told MMI News in an exclusive interview. “So I just started moving to where I was hearing noise, using my hands to crawl like a baby, just so they could look for help,” she added.
It was April 7, 2018, in Batoh-Numba village, Upper Bayang Subdivision, Manyu Division, in Cameroon’s South-West Region. Median was only 15 years old.
Today, she is 23. She has survived, but survival has come with pain, stigma, broken dreams and a body still waiting for reconstruction.
Median’s jawbone is damaged. Her nose does not function normally. Part of her tongue is gone. Most of her teeth were destroyed. She struggles to eat, speak and breathe normally. She has undergone several surgeries, but doctors say she still needs seven major reconstructive procedures abroad to restore essential functions and help her regain a more independent life.
“My greatest wish is to be whole again,” Median told MMI News. “I know that I won’t be the Median I used to be before this tragedy hit me, but one thing I really want is to be fine again, to breathe normally, talk normally, eat normally, be normal like a normal human being.”
“Please, Don’t Kill Me. I Am Very Sick”
Median says she was at home on the day her life changed forever. “I was in our house in Batoh-Numba village… when heavily armed gunmen got into our house and started firing guns,” she recalled.
Her words barely came out clearly when she spoke to MMI News. But she told MMI News she was determined to tell her story despite health challenge. She narrated how on the day of the tragedy, she was ill and too weak to run.
“My brother rushed to me and said: ‘Median, Median, run, run.’ When he said so, he ran and jumped through the window. But I couldn’t run. I was very, very sick.”
Median said she then forced herself out of the room and walked into the parlour, where she came face to face with some of the armed men.
“I pleaded with them not to kill me, telling them, ‘Please, don’t kill me. I am very sick. I am a young girl,’ but my plea fell on deaf ears,” she said.
According to Median, she was first shot in the leg. “The bullet came out through the other side of my leg,” she said. “I still kept pleading with them, but they then shattered my face with bullets.”
MMI News has not independently established the identity of the armed men who attacked Median. Her account comes from her own testimony, supported by family members and the Ayah Foundation, which has been involved in her medical care since 2018.
Crawling Back to Life
After the shooting, Median lost consciousness. When she woke up, she could not see or speak. She told MMI News that she realised she was lying behind the house, in the grass. “I could only hear … One of our neighbours saw me and started screaming, saying, ‘Median is dead,’” she recalled. “As she was screaming, villagers started running, saying to my hearing that I was dead and that they should go and bury me.”
Median said those words terrified her, in her unconscious state.
“As I heard them say that, I was all the more terrified, fearing that my condition was worse than I felt it was. So I had to use my hands to make signs so that they would understand that I’m not dead and that they should take me to the hospital.”
Some neighbours eventually picked her up, placed her in a car and took her to Widikum Health Centre. But staff there, according to Median, said her injuries were too severe.
“They said they couldn’t take care of my case and that if I spent any more time there, I would die,” she said.
She was later transferred to Mbingo hospital, where she was rushed into emergency care. Median said she was later told she remained in a coma for weeks.
“When I gained consciousness, I saw the Ayah Foundation by my side,” she said. “I was told by my family that they had been there since I fell unconscious, taking care of me.”
A Crisis With Thousands of Civilian Stories
Median’s story is one of the countless civilian tragedies of Cameroon’s Anglophone Crisis, a bloody separatist conflict that has gripped the country’s English-speaking North-West and South-West Regions since late 2016.
What began as protests by Anglophone lawyers and teachers over marginalisation later escalated into an armed conflict between government forces and separatist fighters seeking independence for a self-declared state called Ambazonia.
In the years since, thousands of civilians have been killed, entire communities uprooted, schools attacked or shut down, and families forced to flee into other parts of Cameroon or across the border into Nigeria. Median survived, but many others caught in the same conflict did not live to tell their stories.
For nearly a decade, civilians in Cameroon’s North-West and South-West regions have lived through killings, displacement, school shutdowns, abductions, village attacks, military operations and separatist violence. International rights groups have accused both government forces and armed separatist groups of abuses against civilians.
Humanitarian agencies estimate that millions of people in Cameroon need assistance in 2026, with the North-West and South-West among the regions facing high needs.
Behind those figures are people like Median — children, students, families and villagers whose lives have been permanently altered by a war many outside Cameroon barely hear about.
Her shattered face is therefore not only the story of one young woman; it is one of the most painful human symbols of a war that has left deep scars on Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.
“Everything Changed”
Before the attack, Median had dreams like many girls her age. She wanted to finish school. She wanted to become a doctor.
“As a young girl, this incident has cost me a lot,” she said. “Just imagine me as a young girl, growing up with a lot of dreams, saying to myself I’ll finish my education and become a doctor or this or that. But immediately this happened to me, all that changed. Everything changed.”
The hardest part, she said, is not only the memory of the shooting. It is the daily struggle to live in a body that no longer functions as it once did.
“I ask myself if it’s the same me that could eat normally, speak normally,” she said. “But now I feel a lot of difficulty to speak and feed, as you can hear me speak. This has caused me a lot physically, emotionally, spiritually — everything.”
She said looking at herself is still painful. “I look at my deformed self every day and ask if this is me, Median. It is so, so traumatising,” she said.
Eating is one of her most difficult daily battles. “My mouth is literally shut and one-sided, and I’ve lost almost all my teeth,” she said. “I eat with my fingers. So people generally don’t want to share a table with me when I’m eating because it isn’t nice to see.”
She said she cannot use a spoon, knife or fork properly because they do not fit into her mouth.
“When people feel uncomfortable seeing me around, it hurts so, so badly,” she said. “It makes me feel like I’m in this world but out of this world. It makes me feel I’m not human.”
“I Am Human. I Have Feelings.”
Median says one of the most painful parts of her recovery has been the way some people treat her. “I feel rejected on a daily basis. I often feel like nobody cares.”
She even recalled being mocked in public, and how returning to work has been difficult. “There was a time I was walking on the road and saw someone literally mocking me for long periods,” she said, adding that “people avoided me, saying to my face and behind my back that I’m ugly, asking others to mock me,” she said. “People refused to associate with me everywhere I go.”
Then she added words that should not need to be said, but which her experience has forced her to say.
“I am human. I have feelings. Often, I ask God, why this happened to me, what I did wrong. I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t wrong anybody.”
“She Was Beautiful, Intelligent, and Loved Dancing”
Median’s elder sister, Bah Noela Manuela, remembers who Median was before the attack. She feels sad today that the dreams and aspirations Median had as a little girl seem to have been taken away.
“She was tall, fair, beautiful, intelligent. She loved dancing, storytelling, and she was very intelligent at the age of 15.”
The family first learned of the attack through a phone call.
“One man from Batoh called and said Median was shot,” Manuela recalled. “He said Median was shot on her face. We were doubting if she was still alive or dead. My mother was emotionally terrified. My father was the worst because he fainted and cried, cried, cried. He refused to even eat that evening.”
When Manuela later saw Median in hospital, she said the image traumatised her. She said it was hard to reconcile the girl on the hospital bed with the sister she had known.
“I saw my sister lying on the bed. Her face was totally empty. She was not having a nose. She was not having a mouth. She was living with half a tongue. I could not imagine that the sister that I knew — Median that was beautiful, jovial, friendly, storytelling, somebody that loved fun — was the same person on that bed,” Noela said.
For the family, the years since then have been marked by pain, hospital visits, financial pressure and emotional trauma. Still, Manuela says parts of Median’s personality have survived, a testimony of her courage.
“To sit and watch her suffering is really painful,” Manuela said. “She cannot even eat well. She cannot even talk well. She is struggling to talk. She is still friendly. She loves singing. She loves dancing,” she said. “She can dance for two hours. She loves entertaining people. She is a very nice person. That still remains her,” she noted.
Ayah Foundation’s Role
Ayah Ayah Abine, President of the Ayah Foundation, said he first learned of Median’s case in April 2018 while travelling to Nigeria for a humanitarian relief mission.
He told MMI News that he received several calls about an urgent case, but it was one final call from a highly placed contact that made him turn back.
“I let the team continue to the border and wait for me, So I came back… and I saw the case,” Ayah told MMI News.
What he saw, he said, was almost impossible to describe. Median was in coma when he arrived, he told MMI News. “Her face was… there was no face,” he said. “Even those who had been calling me before… told me they were not sure she could recover.” “I’m not sure she could hear me. And during that moment, I made a promise to God, to the divine. I told Him that if they gave her a second chance, I would dedicate my entire life to making her get well and whole again and operate independently.”
When Median later regained consciousness, Ayah said he felt bound by that promise. “Since then, I’ve been taking her case extremely personally, seeing her as my daughter,” he said.
Median herself described Ayah as a source of strength. “When I remember the support and very kind words of encouragement given to me by my God-sent daddy, Mr. Ayah Ayah Abine, it keeps me going,” she said.
Surgeries Done, But More Still Needed
Since 2018, Median has undergone major medical treatment in Cameroon and abroad. She said she had two major surgeries at Mbingo, with a doctor coming from the United States, and another major surgery in Ghana in 2022. She said these procedures were sponsored by the Ayah Foundation.
Manuela, her sister, said the surgeries have made a difference, even though Median still needs more treatment.
“At least she is 30 percent better now,” Manuela said, adding that “At first, she was not using any mouth. We were feeding her through a pipe in her stomach. But now she can use the mouth to chew and swallow, even drink water.”
Ayah said Median still requires seven major reconstructive surgeries. He is now making plans to fly her to a prominent hospital in the United States. “Her nose is not operational. She breathes through her throat. She lost half of her tongue. She has lost her dentition almost completely. She has just about seven teeth in her mouth. She cannot chew. If you see her eating, it is a sad story. Her jawbones have to be reconstructed completely.”
According to Ayah, Median has also lost sight in her right eye, though doctors have found signs that some nerves may still be alive. “We are hoping that we could recover that sight, even if it is just maybe 50 or 60 percent,” he said.
The remaining procedures are expected to focus on facial reconstruction, jaw repair, breathing, speech, feeding, dentition and the eventual closure of the hole in her throat if her breathing can be restored through her nose.
The current online fundraising campaign lists a target of $65,000 for the surgeries, initially planned for the United States. Ayah said the United States remains the preferred option because the medical team there has followed Median’s case for years, but the foundation is also considering other countries where the procedures may be cheaper.
“If we can’t get that sum of money, we will just have to bend towards other options,” Ayah said. “The cheapest that can do the job perfectly — the cheapest available — we will go to that.”
“No Authority Has Offered Assistance”
Ayah said no Cameroonian authority has offered assistance to Median. But cameroon has two major ministries: the Ministry of Social Affaires, and that of Women’s Empowerment and the Family. But none of them have come to Median’s aid. “No authority, nothing at all. It is total blackout,” Ayah told MMI News.
He said the foundation once submitted an official request through the Ministry of Social Affairs but received no response. “We deposited an official courier at the Ministry of Social Affairs… and even then, no response,” he said.
Ayah also said that authorities have made the foundation’s work difficult over the years. “The Cameroon authorities have done everything to make things extremely difficult for the Ayah Foundation,” he said.
MMI News has reported extensively on some of the challenges faced by the Ayah Foundation at the hands of some pro-government activists.
“I Never Give Up”
Despite the pain, Median says she still finds reasons to live. “What actually gives me strength is the fact that when I remember what I’ve survived after having badly been shot on my face, which very few humans can survive, it keeps me going,” she said.
She also credits her faith. “The grace of God has been with me,” she said.
If the surgeries are successful, Median says she wants to return to school and pursue the dream she had before the attack.
“I would love to complete my education and become the doctor I’ve always wished to become,” she said. “And also live a simple and normal life, helping the underprivileged in my own little way.”
Beyond the scars, the surgeries and the fundraising campaign, Median wants people to see her as a full person. “I would like people to know that I’m a very strong, focused and determined person,” she said. “I never give up. I never give up until God says it’s over.”
How to Help
The Ayah Foundation is appealing for support to help Median undergo the remaining reconstructive surgeries.
For donors in Cameroon, the campaign also lists the following channels:
Mobile Money: 671177111
Orange Money N°1: 693212573
Orange Money N°2: Dial #150461629002#
Account names: Ayah Ayah Abine or Ayah Foundation
Median says every act of support means more than money. It is a chance to breathe normally, eat without struggle, speak more clearly, return to school, and live without being reduced to what war did to her face.
To those willing to help, she has one message:
“God will continue to bless them and replenish their source of income, and bless them abundantly,” she said. “I will be so grateful to receive their help.”
For her sister, the prayer is that Median can regain even part of the life she lost.
“With this surgery, it will really help her,” Manuela said. “She will no longer be using her throat to speak. She will become the Median that we once knew before.”
And for Median, the wish remains simple.
“To be whole again,” she said.
