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By Tata Mbunwe
Reports reaching MMI say a group of armed men believed to be Amba boys have abducted at least 12 civilians in Nkongho Mbeng community (Mbetta) in Nguti Subdivision, Kupe-Manenguba division of Cameroon’s South West region.
A source told MMI that the victims were abducted some five days ago. Some of the victims were reportedly forced from their homes while others were kidnapped on their way to the farm.
A Nkongho Mbeng resident detailed that, among those abducted is the wife of a notable, Sub Chief Fokazock of Lekwe village, a neighbouring community.
“Since five days today their whereabouts is not yet known,” the source told MMI Tuesday. We are told they are suspected Amba boys from Lebialem,” the source said. No relative of the victims has yet been contacted by the said abductors.
The population of Nkongho Mbeng has been asking for the release of their kinsmen but their appeals until now have been in vain.
“Please we are begging for those keeping these people to release them,” our source solicited.
Nkongho Mbeng or Mbetta village is a rural community of just over 500 inhabitants, located in the Lower Nkongho area in Nguti Subdivision.
The area has also felt the heat of crisis and insecurity in the North West and South West regions of Cameroon that once paralysed access of vehicles into the community.
The community is now the latest of several communities that have suffered group abductions and kidnapping of individuals in recent times.
Abductions and kidnappings for ransom have become a common phenomenon during the Anglophone crisis. Separatist fighters have often been accused of taking advantage of civilians to make huge sums of money.
Armed individuals are also believed to have also taken advantage of the insecurity and vulnerability of the population of the NorthWest and South West regions to launch attacks on individuals and government officials in exchange for money.
Among those who have suffered the kidnapping and abduction spree in the two English-speaking regions is the President of the North West House of Chiefs, who is still under separatists captivity for about two months now.
In the South West region, five divisional delegates serving in Ndian division have not also been release after they were kidnapped by alleged separatist fighters several months ago.
