There is mourning in Achangnacho, a quarter in Mambu, Bafut – North West region.
Ngwa Pius, the victim, was killed on Sunday, his head chopped off and attached to a pole.
Blaming soldiers that invaded the village on Sunday for carrying out the act, a source close to the victim says Pius had no dealings with separatist fighters. “The military is responsible” he cries out.
Pius he says was a commercial bike rider in Limbe, South West region but returned to the village after an accident. “They took him to the hospital and did an operation to straighten the bone that had a dislocation. Since then he’s been in the village” says the source.
Sunday’s incident, however, was not the first time Pius encountered the forces of law and order since returning home. “Last year during another raid they took him to up-station (Bamenda), and he stayed there for almost two months”. He was only released when the Head of State granted clemency to some persons jailed about the Anglophone crisis. Pius, the close source says has since been the only one in the village taking care of his old mother.
“With the accident he had, he couldn’t have had anything to do with the separatists … having a bad leg joining them, how would he do if the military was coming and he had to run it just happened. Unfortunately, he was a victim” the source says.
To him, what attracted soldiers to the locality in the first place was the action of separatist fighters. “Separatists came and blocked the road. The house is by the road leading to the airport that comes out at mile 11. Separatists blocked the road close to the house with stones, so the military came” he explains.
He continues, “Pius was not the only one killed in the assault. A grandfather was also killed on his way back from the farm”.
Like has been the case in other incidents that have led to the death of civilians in the North West and South West regions, some say separatist fighters were responsible for the event, but close family members maintain that soldiers were responsible for the death and beheading of their son.
Though such military raids on villages persist, coupled with the coronavirus pandemic, the government says it has a plan to begin reconstructing the war-torn regions, starting with the areas witnessing little or no fighting at the moment.
Cameroon’s close partner, France had earlier pledged to assist in the reconstruction process, on condition that peace returns to the regions.
Mimi Mefo Info
