Two dreaded Amba ‘Generals’, 16 fighters surrender in Ndian!.

The repentant separatist kingpins dropped their weapons in Mundemba, Ndian Division, yesterday. 

The fighters were presented to the Senior Divisional Officer, SDO of Ndian, Gilbert Guibai Baldena.

State media, CRTV, reported that the exercise to get the notorious separatists from the bush was coordinated by the Commander of the 21st Marine Battalion in Mundemba, Aurilien Betang Ngema.

Two self-styled separatist Generals, David Dibo alias Baron and Ekpe Jerome alias JB, were the most recognised of the former separatist fighters. 

The fighters are reported to have been operating in Iloh, Ikassa and Irah villages in the Division. 

‘General’ Baron is reported to have operated within Mundemba Subdivision while ‘General’ JB is believed to have mounted his camp in the Bakassi area. 

The repentant fighters were presented to the SDO, who  enjoined them to embrace the peace call of the Head of State, Paul Biya. 

Reports we gathered from the field indicate that the dreaded Amba ‘Generals’ were convinced by the First Deputy Mayor for Mundemba Council, Sake Esono Louis Besinga, to drop their weapons.

Ex-fighters pledge to work for peace 

Speaking during their presentation to the SDO, ‘General’ JB, said he had been fighting for years but in the recent months, the Deputy Mayor of Mundemba convinced him into believing that he would not be killed if he surrendered his weapons.

“That is why I decided to drop my arms and come over to Mundemba. Mayor Sake has come and checked on me and like he promised me, nothing has been done to me,” the ‘General’ said in a video that went viral.

He pledged to work with defence and security officers for the return of lasting peace in Ndian Division.

The repentant separatist kingpin also called on his peers still carrying arms in the bushes to disarm and work for development.

"I call on my colleagues to come and free themselves because freedom is the only decision,” he said, adding that "since we have fought for years without achieving what we wanted, let us come back to the way we were before the crisis”.

For his part, ‘General’ Baron, said he was submitting his weapons and that of his boys to the state as a sign of surrender and appeal for amnesty. 

He admitted that not all his fighters had weapons, reason those handed over to security officers were without guns. Some of the boys, he disclosed, were serving as cooks and hunters. Baron thanked authorities for remaining open to them.

All-Ndian confab paying off

Keen observers are unanimous that the surrendering of weapons by the two dreaded Amba ‘Generals’ and their fighters are fruits of the “All-Ndian Peace and Development Conference” which held April 21-23, 2022, in Mundemba.

It held under the patronage of the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute, who is also traditional ruler and son of Ndian.

Sons and daughters of the Division had used the gathering to brainstorm on common solutions to challenges facing the administrative unit within the context of the worsening armed conflict in the two Anglophone Regions.

They had then also mapped strategies to put a permanent end to the destruction, continuous killings and untold sufferings that have befallen Ndian since the crisis erupted in 2016. 

Since the staging of the confab, a new lease of life has been sweeping across Ndian Division.