WICUDA solicits aid for victims of Nkambe bomb attack

The Wimbum Cultural and Development Association (WICUDA) has appealed to the population in Donga Matung Division and beyond to help them cater for victims of the bomb blast that killed at least one person and injured over 50 in Nkambe yesterday.

The appeal was issued by WICUDA General President, Rogers Nforgwei, on Monday, February 12.

“The population of Nkambe needs urgent help of any kind: donations of blood, food, drinks, material, financial, or psychological,” he said in a release.

On Sunday, February 11, separatist fighters clamoring for a breakaway nation detonated a locally made explosive device as people, mostly nursery, primary, and secondary school students, came out to commemorate the 58th edition of the National Youth Day in Nkambe.

The explosion killed a high school student, identified as Nandji, and left more than 50 others injured. Some of the injured cases, according to WICUDA, are “life-threatening.”

According to information from local authorities, the IED went off just meters away from the grandstand, where children were scrambling to buy things.

Those who sustained injuries are receiving treatment at the Nkambe Regional Hospital Annex.

WICUDA alongside the Nkambe Cultural and Development Association (NKACUDA) and other stakeholders condemned the attack.

While WICUDA described it as “heinous,” the NKACUDA also “vehemently condemns” the attack, describing it as a “wicked and inhuman act,” which it said was “perpetrated by evil hands against the innocent and peace-loving people of Nkambe in particular and Donga/Mantung Division in general.”

Aside from condemning, they have equally reiterated their position of non-violence in this Anglophone conflict and have called on the population of Donga Matung Division in Cameroon’s North West Region to remain calm while security personnel carry out an investigation.

SURGING ATTACKS IN DONGA MANTUNG

Ambazonia separatist fighters have claimed responsibility for the 11 February tragedy in Nkambe, headquarters of the Donga Matung Division.

Via online platforms, they celebrated it and even propagated that the explosion killed Cameroonian soldiers as well.

Lucas Ayaba Cho, whose faction of the Ambazonia Interim Government controls the Ambazonia Defense Forces, said the Nkambe attack was “a message”.

“We sent a clear message to our stubborn civilians in #Nkambe. We are at WAR. If the international community wants it, let them sanction us. We are tired of begging them to come to our help,” he posted on his Facebook handle.

Since the start of this year, Nkambe, once a haven of peace, has been repeatedly hit by separatist attacks.

On January 24, separatist fighters attacked and burned some road construction machinery in Ndu Subdivision, a district in Donga Mantung Division.

The equipment belonging to a company called BUNS was being used to construct the Kumbo-Nkambe section of the Bamenda Ring Road, a vital road that links six out of seven Divisions in the North West Region.

On February 6, separatist fighters again kidnapped the Divisional Officer of Bamenda II and several others along the Ndu-Nkambe stretch of road.

They were heading to Nkambe for the installation of the Senior Divisional Officer of Donga Matung. The DO and others were freed, while Ambazonia fighters executed two hostages, including a policeman.

And now, the latest of such incidents in Donga Matung is the bomb bast that has left many battling for their lives.

Mimi Mefo Info