Taxi drivers bury colleague killed in Muea attack

Taxi drivers in Buea, on Monday, laid to rest their colleague, Akuma Solivan, who was shot dead during a separatist attack in Muea early this month.

Akuma was buried in Tole, in Buea Subdivision, where he was living, on Monday, September 25. He was among three people who were killed on Thursday, September 7, during a separatist attack in Muea to reinforce a two-week lockdown.

Mourners at the burial ceremony wondered why politicians and elites from the English-speaking Regions were doing nothing to help resolve the armed facing the two Regions.

“Young persons keep dying every day, yet Anglophone politicians are doing nothing. If not of the crisis, Solivan and thousands of others killed would still be alive today. Lives and property continue to be destroyed, and it means nothing to some people,” said a driver who only wanted to be identified as Theo.

He said the killings would only end when Anglophone politicians came to their senses, put the people first, and kept their personal interests aside.

The killing of Akuma Solivan, another taxi driver, and a trader in Muea was widely condemned. 

A Muea local told MMI separatist fighters who came on board motorbikes opened fire on him and burnt his vehicle for working during a lockdown. Another taxi driver and a trader who also went about their normal business that morning were burnt inside the taxi.

The killings in Muea came after a female student was killed by a stray bullet in her home in Kumba.

A recent report published by the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy for Africa said 116 people died in the English-speaking Regions of Cameroon between January and June this year. 

The armed conflict displaced at least 3,655 people in the two regions in July alone, according to the UN, with hundreds of thousands of people needing urgent humanitarian aid.

The international community, and religious and civil society groups have amplified calls for a frank dialogue between the Cameroon Government and Anglophone separatists to address the roots of the conflict, but the calls have not been heeded since 2016.