The mayor of Buea, Barrister David Mafany Namange has assured the women of Ekona that their relatives who were recently arrested in several raids carried out by the military in Ekona will be released immediately and unconditionally.
The promise was made on the hills of a sit down strike action embarked upon by some angry women from Ekona, a village in Muyuka subdivision South West Region of Cameroon.
The angry women besieged the offices of the mayor of Buea as well as that of the governor of the South West Region to denounce what they qualified as the high handedness of security and defense forces after they orchestrated several raids during which hundreds of young persons including old ones were arbitrarily arrested and whisked to an undisclosed location.
The women who rallied in their numbers early this morning carried peace plants as they trooped to the municipal and administrative heads’ offices to decry but equally plead with the authorities for the release of their husbands, brothers, sons and grand fathers.
Some who spoke to us under conditions of anonymity lamented that persistent military raids have been carried out in Ekona since the start of last weekend with the latest raid being that of yesterday February 14 2023 wherein a young man is said to have been killed.
They equally decried the fact that since the arrest of their loved ones, they have not been able to see them or give them food as they have been kept incommunicado.
While accepting the promise of the municipal authority, the women vowed to return to the strike action should the promise not be met within the latest delay.
According to them, unprecedented raids like this is partly responsible for the prolonged nature of the Anglophone Crisis which has grounded social and economic activities in the area for six years now.
As a reminder , Ekona has remained a redzone since the kick off of the Anglophone Crisis in 2016. Several persons including the military have died there as a result of deadly confrontations between state forces and non state armed actors. The women say, some of the boys have refused to leave the bush because of such moves on the part of the armed forces.
Rene Isah