The Ndu municipality in the Donga Mantung Division of the conflict-plagued English speaking North West Region of Cameroon, has become the epicenter of reckless killings, looting and armed robbery, regrets Abdou Kanfon Borno, Mayor of the municipality.
Abdou was reacting to the attack by gunmen that left four people dead and “many others seriously wounded” in Ntumbaw, a village in the municipality on Sunday, February 8 – the latest in a series of killings within the municipality this year.
“We condemn such barbaric attack with every fibre of our being”, Mayor Abdou Borno said in a statement describing those who lost their lives in the attack as “Martyrs of peace and security”.
In an expression of enduring memory to the fallen martyrs who were defending one of theirs, the mayor said “terrorists and armed bandits” can only kill the body, but can never break the community spirit to and resolve to restore the values of human dignity.
While forensic investigations have been launched, the Mayor of Ndu explained in his Tuesday, February 10 statement that the gunmen who carried out the attack had targeted a particular family. The family then raised an alarm which alerted the entire neighborhood.
“The population reacted spontaneously and almost rounded up the assailants when they opened fire on the population to find an exit strategy,” Mayor Abdou Borno explained in his statement citing on-the-ground testimonies.
He saluted the courage, bravery and community solidarity of the people of Ntumbaw, urging all communities of the municipality to work with the administration to build a collective security mechanism.
Cameroon’s two English speaking Regions of the North West where Ndu is found, and the South West have been plagued by a deadly armed conflict since 2017, when separatists launched a rebellion with aim to create a breakaway English speaking country made up of the two Regions, which they want called Ambazonia.
More than 6,000 people including civilian and military personnel have been killed and over 600,000 others uprooted from their homes since the conflict erupted, according to humanitarian organisations.
There has been an upsurge in violence and killings within the Ndu municipality since the beginning of the year. According to the Mayor, some “misguided individuals” have taken advantage of the deteriorating security situation in the council area to “illegally enrich themselves”, an act the municipal authority has promised will be fought with “every iota of energy”.
The Ntumbaw attack happened exactly three weeks and four days after another attack that killed at least 14 people – including women and children in the Gidado neighborhood of Mbandfung Village, in Ndu municipality on January 14. Earlier on January 6, at least nine separatist fighters were killed in Mbawrong – another locality within the municipality.
